001Mhm. >> Oh, you're five. We're streaming and recording and the mics are live. I'll take one. In your spare time. Shh. >> All right, it is 6:00. We will call the Monday, March 23rd regular board meeting to order. Roll call, please. Phil Henkel. Here. Kevin Jensen. Here. Mary Balderama. Here. Bert Richard. Here. Nelly Shier. Here. Doug Kuschko. Lori Zarback. Here. Don Kutsky. >> Here. And Andrew Koo. Here. And Randy, was a proper notice given for this meeting? Yes, please be advised that public notice of this meeting as required by sections 19.84 and 65.90 of the Wisconsin Statutes has been properly given. Such notice consisted of a notice and agenda to the official newspaper, the Rice Lake Chronotype, to the Eau Claire Leader, and to radio stations WJMC and WQEE indicating the date, time, and place
002of the meeting. Such notice was given more than 24 hours prior to the meeting. It does appear that a proper notice was given for this meeting, so we will now stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Now we will get into one of our most exciting events of our board meetings, and that's to recognize some of our students. So we will start with the Rice Lake High School. And over here by Mr. Drost and Mr. Richard, there's a nice little spot for any family that wants to get pictures or video. That's a good place to hang out. Good evening, everybody. It's my absolute pleasure tonight
003to introduce you to Miss Emma Driggs. She is a 17-year-old senior with us right now, daughter of Jessica and Donald Garske along with Michael and Katie Driggs. Tonight's nomination is kind of a combination from myself as assistant principal and a couple of our teachers that's worked with Emma during her journey at Rice Lake High School, Mrs. Nerenz and Mrs. Wright. And tonight we're recognizing Emma for academic excellence and also perseverance and resilience. I kind of want to from my end talk about this is kind of a full circle moment for me cuz I've been working with Emma since ninth grade. She probably tried my patience a little bit back then, but through the maturation process um she's doing some amazing things that I'm going to talk about here and and tonight on our agenda, I
004know we've got some discussions about the littlest learners academy and whatnot, and I'm happy and proud to say that Emma's pursuing a degree in early childhood, and she's already started that. So I'll talk about that a little bit here as we go, but Emma Driggs is a senior. She has shown remarkable growth during her time at our school. Through hard work and determination, she has taken advantage of many opportunities, include participating in school support and work experience, and also working with elementary students. She's also held a job at the Boys and Girls Club for multiple years, where she continued to build meaningful skills working with children. This year, Emma has challenged herself even further by enrolling in college courses while still in high school. She plans to continue working with children after graduation, and her
005dedication, kindness, and commitment to growth make her truly deserving of this recognition. And and furthermore, like what it says there, I I don't see him anymore because she's mostly working off campus now. She has got two or three different classes down at the technical college, both in child development, and I know you said you have the oral and interpersonal communication, but we're not going to make you do a speech tonight, okay? >> [laughter] >> Where you could practice those skills. So yeah, she's a senior really taking advantage of all those things that if you get some things done in the classroom early on, it opens up some doors where she's already starting to experience life as a college person and preparing for her next steps. So congratulations, Emma. This way first. Don't run away, please.
006>> [laughter] [applause] >> Hilltop or I'm sorry, Rice Lake Middle School. Okay, the seventh grade teachers at Rice Lake Middle School would like to recognize Sawyer Welger for his leadership, perseverance, and consistent demonstration of the Warrior Way. Sawyer is a dependable student who can always be counted on to do the right thing. He approaches his learning with dedication and a strong work ethic, consistently putting forth his best effort. He asks thoughtful questions during class discussions and is all and is willing to take academic risks, which helps deepen both his own understanding and that of his peers. Sawyer also elevates the learning environment by encouraging others and leading by example. Beyond his academic strengths, he is a considerate classmate who treats everyone with respect and truly embodies the values of our school through the Warrior Way,
007being safe, respectful, and responsible. We are lucky to have Sawyer as a part of our Rice Lake Middle School community. Hilltop Elementary. He knows right where to go. >> [laughter] >> I am here in um in place of Mrs. Val Woods, who is Luke's teacher. This is Luke Bergman. Um he is a second grader at Hilltop, and he is the son of Tony and Casey Bergman. So Mrs. Woods had lots of nice things to say about you. I am pleased to nominate Luke Bergman, a second grade student at Hilltop Elementary, for recognition due to his outstanding leadership, perseverance, creativity, and academic achievements. Throughout the school year, Luke has consistently demonstrated qualities that set him apart as a role model among his peers. In the classroom, he shows natural leadership by encouraging classmates, volunteering to help
008others, and setting a positive example through respectful behavior and a strong work ethic. His willingness to include and support others helps create a welcoming and collaborative classroom environment. Luke also exemplifies perseverance. When faced with challenging tasks, he approaches problems with determination and a growth mindset. Rather than becoming discouraged, he continues trying different strategies until he succeeds. This persistence not only helps him grow academically, but [clears throat] also inspires classmates to keep trying when learning feels difficult. Creativity is another area where Luke truly shines. Whether working on writing assignments, math projects, or problem-solving activities, he consistently brings imaginative ideas and thoughtful perspectives to his work. Luke's enthusiasm for learning often sparks engaging discussions and encourages others to think creatively as well. Luke Berg There were lots of big words in there. >> [laughter] >> Hogan Elementary.
009I am Barb Kinnick, second grade teacher at Hogan Elementary. Um which Hogan Elementary is an important elementary school as part of the Rice Lake Area School District. This is Sadie Jenkins. She is the daughter of Derek and Kelsey Jenkins. It is a pleasure to recognize Sadie Jenkins for consistently showing the warrior way. Sadie sets an example for her peers to follow by listening to others, being kind, and making positive choices. She is kind and helpful, and cooperative, and always willing to help anyone in need. Sadie approaches her academic responsibilities with positive attitude and is determined to find answers to concepts that she doesn't understand. She takes pride in her work and does her very best. Sadie comes to Hagen Elementary with a positive attitude each day. Her enthusiasm, cheerfulness, and personality make her a delight
010to work with. These qualities contribute positively to the learning environment of Hagen Elementary, which makes it a great school to be at. Keep up the good work, Sadie. >> [applause] [laughter] >> Congratulations. >> [clears throat] >> Sadie >> Wait. Take a look. Stay right there. Get a picture. I'm going to let her look at her. >> [laughter] >> Get it away. You need a sucking crack pipe? NO, I'M GOOD. AND TAINTER ELEMENTARY. GOOD EVENING. HI, I'm Sam Genero. I'm second grade teacher at Tainter, and this is Clara Thomas. And so we're here today to chat about her. It's a privilege to have Clara in the class. She many In many ways, she positively impacts our classroom community, and she consistently shows kindness, respect, and a willingness to help others, often without even being asked to
011help support her classmates. Her love for learning shines through in her curiosity, participation, and strong work ethic, and she's a wonderful example to her peers. So, Clara you make our classroom a happy place every single day. You make learning fun for everyone around you, including me. And we're so lucky to have you, and I'm so proud of you. >> [applause] [snorts] >> I would like to congratulate all of our winners this evening, and to let you know that your names will be added to a drawing, and at the end of the school year a couple few of our lucky students will win a Chromebook. So, good luck in the drawing, and we'll take a brief moment if anybody wants to stick around, you're welcome to, but we'll take a brief moment and let you guys
012exit out the side door. Dr. Phil just gets up. Oh, yeah, I know. I understand. Phil's doing damage control. ice cream >> [laughter] >> All right, we will [clears throat] on There was no appearances signed up for this evening, so we'll move on to our approval of our regular session meeting minutes from Monday, February 23rd. We I have a motion to approve. So moved. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by Saying aye. >> Aye. Aye. Opposed? And the minutes have been approved. Next, we have our consent agenda, where we have our monthly budget and cash reconciliation report. Our monthly board bills. We have three employment resignations and seven employment recommendations. I would entertain a motion to approve
013our consent agenda. So moved. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? And the consent agenda has been approved. Next, we have our report section of the agenda, and we'll start off with our 26-27 CESA 11 shared service contract. Yes, so in there the So, in your packet is is the proposed contract for next year for 26-27 for our CESA contract, proposing the exact same options as last year. So, at the top there is the CESA administration and cooperative bidding and purchasing and delivery services that every district is is automatically a part of. And then there's a comprehensive consulting and networking services that provides automatic attendance at a lot of different meetings for
014a lot of our staff and opportunities throughout the year. The healthy, safe, and respectful schools that all our people services people would be a part of. Our school nurses, school counselors, school psychologists, others as well. The Title III English Learners Consortium that we're a part of. They help administer that for a part of the fee. Audiology and deaf and hard of hearing services. Four days of special education consultation and professional development. And then the supporting students with disabilities network and the vision and prayer their orientation and mobility program. So, those were the same options as we had last year. Any questions? Did we use utilize all these services on a pretty regular basis then? Yeah, we do. Yep. And if yeah, and we take a look at those I take a look at those with
015Marsha and Lori and Victor every year. And yeah, if there's something we're not using, and we've trimmed some things out from compared to past years. So. Yeah, these are the pieces we utilize. Any other questions? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve the contract with CESA 11. So moved. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? And the contract has been approved. Next, we have our first reading for our preliminary staffing report. Yes, and so with that you've got some some links in your board packet and the and the page you have there is is you know, in your packet for you to pull up as well. And with this, so
016just going to briefly have each level come up and talk about their staffing recommendations. Again, if you want, you can select the link for the full staffing FTE, but as as Kevin said, this is just this is the first reading and won't be formally approved until the next meeting, which is three weeks from tonight. And so with that, we'll just start in order, and so I'm going to ask our elementary principals to come on up and talk a little bit about the elementary staffing they are proposing for next year. >> [clears throat] >> And all of this is in your packet as well. So, I will So, I don't know if you've had a chance to read through this a whole lot. The biggest change that you're going to notice on here is that we're
017proposing a change in the boundary for Hagen, dropping it down to 24th Avenue, running straight across the the district on 24th, with students north of 24th attending Hagen. Those south then would be split between Tainter and Hilltop. >> [snorts] >> That boosts the numbers enough at Hagen, and we're looking at doing this for 4K and K. So, that you can have sections out there, and then it boosts the numbers a little bit up in the other sections as well. If students were to choose to attend or if the older siblings for those 4K and K students are out there, we're anticipating that the older siblings then would also attend Hagen as well. There's potential that other students that are in that boundary that would say, "Yeah, we'd like to come there as well." But right
018now, we're not putting those in the numbers. Do these families know this yet? Not yet. They do now. >> [laughter] >> They do now, yeah. Yeah. So, and like I said, this is for 4K and K for next year. Those families, we've always basically just told them, "This is your home school. This is where you're going." In all of our years past. And so at the 4K and K, we felt that it isn't really that big a change for those families, cuz we've always just designated, "This is your home school, this is where you're going. So, to start with them doesn't make as big of a change as it would if we were to say everybody that's north of that now has to attend. When when was this decided? Uh Randy and I have been
019talking through this for quite a while. We've been trying to have lots of different conversations and so this was the proposal that we came up with to try and balance numbers across the district with all the other schools and to try and work through that. And and nothing's decided at this point. It's you know, preliminary for the board to take a peek to take a look at and consider and then you know, final decisions are made in 3 weeks. So. And again, it's only 4K and K. Other people that are already within the boundaries that you had before would stay in their schools. Correct. And then one of the next things on the agenda item is that configuration. >> Yeah, to talk. Yeah. >> then the discussion will come up for the board. Right. We've
020had some discussions about this at finance committee too. No decisions, but just discussions and we're hoping that we'll have a more extensive community discussion about the whole thing. Cuz I agree with um Mrs. Kinnick that the school has value. So, the way you're getting the extra students for K is by redrawing that boundary line. Is that correct? For which ones? For >> Yes, K guard. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah, is with that reconfiguration. >> This year we're projecting 12 if we move that boundary. So, those students that were originally tending other schools will now be switched to Hogan. Yeah. Yeah. For 4K only. >> Yeah. And some of those would have been Hogan students if we would have had 4K out there this year. Um and in the past when prior to this year, the way that
0214K ran is parents basically selected which school they were wanted. And then we would assign them either morning afternoon section or even a Hogan section sometimes. Families that were in town would go out to Hogan because it was an all day. This was the first year where we didn't do that. And so then a lot of times we had a reshuffling in kindergarten anyway. And so we felt that 4K K it isn't too big of a shift for them at that point. Yeah. Did that help or hurt our class sizes? You know, through for the other schools. Not It really helps all of them balance out the numbers. >> help or and not a hurter as much? Okay. Any other questions on that piece? But I know there's more coming up in the discussion. And
022then our other part [clears throat] for our staffing is just the annual shifts that we have depending [clears throat] on the size of a certain grade level based you know, mainly change during that can talk to that. But like at Hilltop, mainly my biggest shift right now is I have three sections of 4K and right now it's proposed to go to two sections because we don't have enough students to fill up that third section. And then I'll be going to three kindergarten again. And then it'll have my first and second grade as a two track, only two sections and then the rest will be the three track. In regard to Tanner in 25 26 to 26 27, we're going from kindergarteners with three sections excuse me, first graders with having four sections of first grade
023right now. When they go into second grade, there'll be five sections proposed at this point. Just to decrease the numbers a bit. They're about 20 a piece right now. That's the proposal. Only significant proposal at Tanner. Most of the classes are 20 and under. Right now other than fourth grade. Okay. Sorry, one more question on the Hogan. The anticipated 12 at 4K, do we have numbers for 2026? That doesn't come out yet, does it? We have rough numbers, ballpark figures for 4K, but we're still waiting for quite a few families to actually register to show that they are attending. I think if all of them register that are potentially on the list district wide, we'll have about 115. 115, 115 for the class. Okay. Total. Yeah, total across the district. And is that is that
024higher, lower, all of the same? That's kind of par for what we've been seeing, but I mean if you you know, look at you look at yeah. Slowly going down. I know. So hard to read the charts though. I just it's ask questions. [laughter] I agree. >> You're okay. I can tell you this year like right now this year currently, we have 140 fourth graders, 130 third graders, 162 second graders, 134 first graders, 98 kindergarteners and 114 in 4K. If I had to guess realistically, we'll probably be around that 110 number which is you know, you talk those numbers and got 165 seniors this year. I think we graduated 180 last year. So, those we're losing ground that way, but realistically, that's four out of five districts at least or more in the state of
025Wisconsin. Just birth rates aren't what they once were and it's an issue all over the entire country. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Josh talking about the middle school level. Good evening. So, we typically at the middle school kind of say our class average is about 150. With that number, our class sizes are in that 24 to 25 range. Over the last few years, we've had what I typically describe as a bubble at um the various levels at two of the levels. So, this year those bubbles are in seventh and eighth grade. So, obviously one of those will head to the high school next year. And so, we typically staff with basically six sections if we have that average number. And so we've had over the last couple years, we've had an
026extra section in those bubble classes. One of those bubbles is leaving as I just mentioned. So, in the staffing report, you'll see that we are recommending that we would reduce one FTE in core class FTE. We are able to kind of shift that into a retirement situation. So, in effect, not necessarily um getting rid of staff per se, but just kind of shifting where they're at. Um we have a number this year. Our enrollment right now it it fluctuates almost daily it seems like sometimes, but around that 640 mark right now which is actually one of the bigger numbers we've had in the 13 years I've been here. But then we have a class of 140 coming in. So, we'll be around that 610 number next year. Um and so as a result of of
027kind of enrollment decreasing slightly, we are also recommending one FTE decrease in special ed as well. So, effectively two FTE decline because of that enrollment kind of shifting. So. Any questions about any of that? That's kind of the short summary. You made the chart easy to read. Thanks. For Don. Yes. >> [laughter] >> I think she's saying I'm an idiot. Thank you. I I have a question. Yeah, go ahead. Um those depending on how many special education children there might be in a class, those class sizes are a little bit on the challenging side, right? Size. Um do you take into account those numbers when you divide up the classes or how does that >> Absolutely. Do you? Yeah. And are there >> The teachers spend a lot of time between now and the end
028of the year really trying and we've we've looked at different ways to do that between co-teaching models where we push another special ed teacher in there and different you know, ways of spreading those students out. But we are constantly looking at you know, how do we best meet the needs of not only those special ed kids, but also the entire student population. So. And there are enough assistants, paras and Yeah, we'll we'll actually have an extra one just because of a a unique need coming in. You know, I think if you talk to teachers, they would always ask for for more assistants, but I I do think we are you know, if you look at us compared to some of the other area schools, we're definitely in that neighborhood. You know, and I I think
029we're doing the best job we can while also being fiscally responsible. Thank you. Thanks. Good evening. Here for Rice Lake High School. Here is a link to the full narrative there. I'm just going to do some bulleted points as I reference some of the details there. Uh for next year, we'll be taking a bubble class as Mr. Thomas explained. So, our outgoing seniors and incoming eighth grade to be Neff freshman will bring us up 20 students. So, our enrollment for next year goes from 651 of this year up to 671 for next year. The current staffing proposal will be a zero increase. We're going to be able to absorb the 20 student increase at the high school without adding any staffing. So, we'll be reposting for retirements and hiring the same FTE that we had.
030The scheduling at the high school as most of us have been a part of this is driven by student requests. So, each student has 16 slots or 16 terms and they sign up for classes and we start building the schedule. Teachers teach 12 sections. Out of 671 students that gives you around 10,000 course requests that we start to manage at this point. So, this proposal is really justifying our sections and averages as we start to do the master schedule. We have 152 courses at Rice Lake High School that we offer in our course description booklet. Next year we'll be running 134 of them. 134 courses. Some of those are alternative courses on opposite years and some we had a few that didn't have justification for the numbers. At this stage out of the 134 it
031gets complicated quickly cuz out of 134 classes 27 of them we call them singletons. We offer 27 of those one time. So, you can start to understand the grid of 16 slots. You have to put 27 courses that are only offered one time. If you look at the narrative I have and you can look at each department you can see singletons. There's one section. In that you'll also add up you'll have 32 doubletons. So, that means there's 32 of the 134 courses that are only offered twice. We start to put this together in a matrix. Out of those 16 slots obviously that it gets complicated just like when you said you schedule. >> [snorts] >> I am happy to say that on our narrative though we start with the 20 most difficult classes. On that
032first page of my narrative you'll see those most difficult and when I say most difficult they're AP classes that are run two and three terms in sequence in addition to other singletons that advanced placement students want. Mr. Rademaker has partnered with me on this for many years and he works diligently to work through this matrix with me. I'm pleased to say that out of 200 and uh 206 students requesting those 20 toughest to schedule classes we have a load right now of 203 of them to take all of those classes in the sequence that they want. At this point once we get that load we start putting in the tripletons and the quads and we work down from seniors on down to freshman. Obviously there will be conflicts. Students will make choices. Um they have
033two alternatives but we'll work with our seniors trying to get their meet needs met with their advanced placement with long as music and we go from there. On page 16 you would see the summary and you can look at that yourself but that looks at the schedule where courses will land per term. Staff are imported in that. Right now I'm gathering their feedback to when they would like to teach courses if we can and what what hours they would like prep. If they're coaches we try to give them a prep time during their term that they coach. If they're a coach that typically leaves early like in the spring we try to give them their fourth period as prep. So, we least impact on students instruction. Overall my observations for next year a couple things
034we've done intentionally. We moved sophomore health down to freshman health and that's opposite phy ed. That gives us an A day B day schedule for our music students so they have phy ed or health or music or choir without having to take a study hall. Our sophomores through seniors we run a option for them to take a virtual social studies course. They could take US 10, world history 11 or economics without taking a study hall. When we do the 9 10 health swap this year we ran both the ninth grade health and 10th grade health because the 10th graders are no longer needing it and we don't have the replacement class in place. We have an increase of 10th grade elective. Every 10th grader basically got an extra elective this next year. That's a placeholder.
035We got rid of freshman success, put in freshman health and we're making room for personal finance for our graduation requirement of 2028. So, we have this little window and right now that window everybody had an extra section. So, we're stretching a little bit at the high school to complement that and you'll see that in the section averages specifically in the CTE areas where some of those averages are rather high. But for one year we'll work through it and we'll stretch and we have a couple of overloads predicted to do that. The other point of piece it's just 2028 that financial literacy that course will be offered and personal finance or teachers currently the financial literacy will be around four to five sections. So, that four to five section bubble will be shifting over to seniors.
036So, kids will just shift down their scope and sequence a little bit and that can be taught by family consumer science, social studies and or business. So, I'll gain a little flexibility there. In my summary I'll also point out you will find a two-term overload for tech ed to accomplish those that bubble. I have two terms of literacy coaching support similar to what Ms. Pelley did. Ms. Streem will be doing that and I'm proud to say we're able to squeeze two terms of warrior leadership advisory team time for Mr. Stradel. So, two of the terms he's recommending if we could do this would be first and third term giving him one less teaching responsibility first term to help with homecoming in the front of the year kickoffs to make sure we get the the time
037and organization going and then for term three is the next best one with with Christmas and Thanksgiving in term two there's a lot of breaks and things. Felt that one be if we could do it during term three that's the doldrum keeping things going that'd be the nice boost that he would appreciate and that's where we're at. So, that's my narrative. Lots of details there. I'm happy to take any questions tonight or next time as well. Kurt, at no time do we I mean do we give seniors deference to like scheduling so they have no problems meeting the requirements to graduate? Yeah, they're definitely preference. You know, counselors work closely with us and the benefit of our schedule is requests we run. So, if they have a section average that's high and they want it
038we usually start give seniors preference first and then if there's an overload that's freshman or sophomore will be asked to take a different course that they have. >> They're usually not competing anyways are they for much >> not. No. Okay. Correct cuz the upper classes freshman sophomore with our CTE departments they have the pathways and they're usually they're working in maybe welding four they might be looking at culinary arts three, early childhood they're on the other end of the spectrum. Yesper. Yeah, since you hired a new business ed teacher will that allow for maybe some expansion and or maybe expansion of some advisorship? Yeah, there's two right now that we haven't hired yet. We have interviews. Hope to hope to work through that. Obviously so, that position does have two sections that we didn't have.
039Math picked up the two technical math. Mr. Adams was teaching 10 sections of business ed and two sections of math technical math because he was articulated with Northwoods. So, it does give us two more sections within the business ed marketing teaching load and you will see that reflected on my business ed summary that we were able to add those two sections. So, there's 24 business ed marketing courses offered rather before we had ran 22 plus two math. So, that did give us a little more capacity for sure. Are you and Mr. Rademaker like Right. Or what happens if we don't have you guys? the whole matrix thing scares me. There's tools. There's tools out there. I would say that I'm proud to have Mr. Rademaker's experience because principals and others counselors do this. The 4
040by 4 block that we have with A day B day complicates things. We've I've looked at a tool. There's tools out there to do scheduling. It cannot take the input that we want to give it. Now, I'm sure AI if we find an AI tool I'd happy to grab it and see if it would help us. But right now we add so many restrictions and variables to the puzzle that we have looked at tools that are quite expensive annually to do and they get us about midpoint and it's still massaging and working through the process to make sure we're taking advantage of everything we can so our kids get their choices that they want. But he he is a huge resource to us. He is an analytical guy. We're both pretty concrete sequential so he
041doesn't give up very easily. So, I'd say most principals are running this four to five times. I'm sure we ran it 60 70 by now. Well, thank you for doing it. >> Yeah, it's not my Mr. Rademaker gets a ton of credit. Thank him. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. I can't figure out how to rotate the document. He had me at triple 10 and quad. >> [laughter] >> I'm not sure I know what a triple 10 is. >> his skills for some additional income for the district. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. All right. Do we have anything with Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Marsha. Yep. Instruction and learning. All right. >> [clears throat] >> The proposed staffing that you see for instruction and learning is at the same staffing levels that it
042was last year. No changes in the positions. A few changes in the people in those positions based on some other shifting that wasn't same staffing that we had this year. Any questions? That was pretty short and sweet. >> [laughter] >> There we go. Lori, I'll try the same thing. >> [laughter] >> Where is the tripletons? Yeah, we need tripletons and quads and all other stuff, I think. >> Tripletons. So, in special education, um Josh mentioned we're going to we're actually going to take a special education and move them to Tainter. With that bubble in eighth grade, we also had a bubble of special education students. Um And so, that that bubble can be attritioned in with the high school partly because of how they do things at the high school also. When you get to
043high school, you can have a little bit of higher case loads. Kids that are a little bit more independent. And so, those case loads are still within well within the average range. Um but Tainter this year got pretty high. We actually had about at our beginning of the school year, we were we were pulling our hair out. We had about 35 special education kids move into our district. We had about 10 move out at that same time and we've probably had another 10 of those 35 that moved in. Those 30 to about 10 of them moved back out. So, um we did have a little bit of increase that we weren't expecting, which happens in special education. And so, um Kellen Caple is going to move from the middle school to Tainter Elementary to increase
044their um special education staff to help because Tainter kind of got hit the most with the number of students. Um special education students. So, to get their case loads back to where they should be. Um The other change we made is Josh said we have a para that will move with a student from She has some specific skills skills due to that student's needs. So, she will move with that student to the middle school. And that's really the only change in special education. Um speech and language, um psych, all of uh that will all remain the same. OT, PT, we contract all those services with CESSA for our students with vision needs, hearing needs. Um So, then the only And then with pupil services, there were no changes um with counselors. Um >> [laughter] >>
045Or any other other staffing purposes, all of that is going to remain the same. Any questions? For for the uh middle school special ed teacher that's moving to Tainter, does is her total responsibility that one student or does she have more students than that? >> No, she has more students than that. Yeah. Yeah, no, it was a para that's moving from Tainter to and and it's probably primarily one student. It's a real specific need. She has some specific training around that student. I don't want to go into too much because it'll identify the student. So. The reason I ask is I've been up at the middle school I think at the middle school there you've had students running where they require at least one to one all day long, right? >> Mhm. Yeah, there every
046building has that. Do you have any any challenges like that for next year? We always have challenges like that. That's part of special education. There's students that need paras. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's in every single building I would tell you um there are students that need someone with them all day long. Okay. Any other questions? >> Thank you. All right, thanks. Anything else you want to add, Randy? No, I think as as far as the district level and those pieces and as far as this building, every everything else is the same. It's all it's what we have now. We do have an action item for the elementary section configuration, Randy. Yes. Um >> Yeah. Do And that's not something you'd have to take action on, but I don't know if you >> going
047to be more discussion coming later, so I Yeah. Yes, I would uh entertain a motion to table that action item until either later this evening or at a future meeting. I would move to table it. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? And that has been tabled. So, now we get to hear about the parent handbook from our littlest learner child care center. This is a first reading, so this will be brought back for a second reading. Welcome. Hi. Hi there. I'm Bren Schiefer. I'm the center director um for the littlest learners. Thank you for approving my employment. And so, yeah, in your packet tonight uh and again, these would be for
048first reading. Um uh we have the littlest learners uh the employee handbook. And and there is uh you know, yes, the the littlest learners child care center is a part of the Rice Lake Area School District, but does have a separate handbook. So, I I know you as board members maybe have fielded some questions about that. >> Randy, just a technicality, but can we pull up the parent handbook first? >> That's on the agenda first, so. Sorry, sorry. There we go. Thank you. There's the family handbook. And so, >> link be available online? Um I'm assuming as soon as we approve >> Once we have to approve it and so, we it'll be after our next meeting. >> Yep. So, as a as a board member, you should have received this link. Um It said
049to be Oh, okay. All right. Oh, you mean >> added to our access. Yeah. We got it. We can take care of that shortly. This is the first time I've seen it. Got it. So, this this is only our first reading. We won't be making any action on it, so we'll have 3 weeks before our next meeting. We'll have a chance to everybody to see it. Mhm. And if there is as any first reading, if there is anything that you have questions or concerns about, let in this case Bren or Randy know. Um And we will discuss it at our next meeting. Yeah, it it contains a lot of policy um that is very specific from the Department of Children and Families. Uh so, it might look different from district policy. Um but it's just
050things that we have to cover based on what the DCF tells us. Yeah. And a lot of it does cover just our basic operations, how many children that we're licensed for, um which we're looking at uh around 150. And we [snorts] will have 11 classrooms that with the potential for 11 classrooms to be open. Um our hours will be 5:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. So, we're hoping to broaden the offerings for the community um to cover more of the manufacturing um and um medical. Did you pull a lot of this from the state? We have the ability to make our own policy. They give us the guidelines what has to be covered in it. Okay. Thank you. So, we'll be spending Yeah, we'll make sure you have those links and then >> like a lot
051of good reading. Yeah. There's just policy things. Yes. off the board now. Can we just Can we just have it read orally now? >> [laughter] >> Just cut my learning curve in Yeah. So, yeah, if anybody has any questions, um just let them know and we can address those at our next meeting. All right. If everybody's okay, we'll move on then to our uh employee handbook first reading. Yes, and and again, with that, um I did just because I know there was just a second. I'm going to point out and obviously, you'll get a chance to see this. Um we had some questions uh just being proactive about compensation level. Uh just a minute. As I keep going, a little closer. There it is, right there. Um So, with that, the littlest learners wage schedule.
052So, there are there are uh lead teachers and this Wisconsin registry level um I want to go depending on experience um and the different qualifications to get to a different level. Uh so, the lead teachers will start out at $18 an hour uh if they're in levels 4 to 11. And then up through 14 through 17, they'd be uh $20 an hour. Uh then there are assistant teachers as well. Uh they didn't go anywhere from 15 to $16.50 to $16.50 16.50 an hour. Trouble talking. And then there will be one uh food service person as well. And if they've got the serve safe certification, um they would be at $18 an hour total. >> [snorts] >> Um so that's what uh would be. That's different than the rest of the school district, um but at
053the same time when we ventured down this road to begin with a couple of years ago um you know, the finance committee at that point was, you know, we need to run as close to even as we can with this business and you know, I know I've learned in child care over the years. Years ago I used to think, oh they make money hand over fist. No, they don't and so um with that we need to uh keep that in mind as well. These wages are very competitive as far as child care workers go and um we'll continue to um evaluate that. With that quick question, the hours like you're starting at 5:30 going till 6:00. Is there two teachers rotating in and out for classroom or >> Yes. So you'll have every classroom will
054have an assigned lead teacher um and then there will be assistants that you sprinkle in around them to cover the entirety of the day. >> Okay. So they go till 5:00 or 6:00? 6:00. >> 6:00. 6:00. That's a long day. And the most um there is a restriction cuz I know one of my questions was could someone bring a child at 5:30 a.m. and and the child be there till 6:00 p.m. and your response was? No. Thank you. [laughter] Yes, we try to we cap um their day at 10 hours and sometimes you have some individuals that may be in a salaried position and they have to work a full 10 hours. We do work people if that's the case um but we do try to get them you know, somewhere around that 50-hour mark.
055Have you started posting the jobs? Yes. Are you getting interest? Yes, actually we um we're at six leads right now, lead teachers um which is we're right there uh with registrations uh ready for a sixth classroom. So there there's definitely a lot of interest in um in the community. So it's really good thing to start off running and have the qualified leads to staff the rooms. How about for kids? So currently we're at 52 um registrations. And you said a max of 150. >> 150. And only full-time, no no part-time. So we've been in um that is in here in the parent or the family handbook, too. We're looking at no part-time under the age of three uh just because it it's so hard to staff that um under the age of well, six weeks
056to two years, one child is a quarter of a teacher. Um so they they have a numerical way to assign to them by age. They're 0.25. So you get that one to four ratio and when you try to put part-time children in under there, it it's it's so hard to staff it. It's it's really impossible actually in a center of this size um and to have your the finances come even close to breaking even. So with the three and the four-year-old we'll have more flexibility uh because you can have that's more of a one to 10 ratio, one to 12. So there's flexibility with those part-time spots. Any other questions? All right, again this is a first reading. We'll bring that back at our next meeting. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very
057much. >> thank you. It's exciting. Next, we have our finance committee meeting update. Don. I am filling in for Doug tonight. So we had our finance meeting on March 12th, Thursday. All members were present. Gave statement of notice. Approved the minutes. We had a discussion on FMLA and we decided to not make any changes to the district's current procedures on FMLA. Um we talked about our facility needs and considerations uh throughout the district and we approved the administration getting cost estimates to see what we you know, it would cost to fix up some of our facilities um and bring them up to snuff. We've been trying to do that uh just on our own, but we think now maybe we might need uh more help. >> Yeah. And and you mind if I just speak
058for just a second and and just with that, you know, we we do a lot of that on our own. For instance, and Victor feel free to chime in on any of this, but for instance, all of the roofs on all of our buildings uh throughout the district are we've never, you know, gone to referendum for anything like that. Uh we've taken that out of the maintenance budget and you know, all of our roofs are where they need to be. Uh tuck pointing, you know, you'll see that um you know, the the grout so to speak between bricks um taking care of a lot of that right now. That's a huge need, significant need throughout the district uh for a long time and we talked about this in buildings and grounds. We couldn't find someone
059to do that. And so we're a bit behind on that, but we are taking uh money out of the maintenance budget and some out of savings or just we've got to get that done and it it needs to be taken care of. So a lot of those things, you know, we're taking care of um as they need to be done, but yeah, as Don said, looking at some potentially bigger projects. As far as the FMLA leave, I mean we've gotten a couple different emails about it and stuff, but >> Mhm. um and I feel like if I'm not in finance, there's so much that happens that I don't know. Like obviously building grounds, we know, but >> Sure. >> Um so you're saying there aren't any changes then? Right. We're not recommending Not recommending any
060changes to the FMLA. Okay. So when you're presenting to staff, what are those changes then? Yeah, so what we do now for FMLA um and I ran it by Bob Butler, attorney with WASB and just to make sure it's okay and legal. He said, yep, you're fine. So what we've done uh for quite a while. So if you get a certain amount of defined leave for the year, um in the case of a teacher, that's going to be sick leave and PTO and that it's a total of 14 days, but that's a sliding scale depending on how long you've been here, how much is sick or how much is PTO, but the key is 14 days. Uh for instance, if you're paraprofessional, it's 13 days. There's 10 sick and three personal. And so with that,
061if you need um say you're end of the into a year and a school year and you have not used any leave, uh but then for some reason you need FMLA leave um whether that be care for yourself or care for a spouse or a child, whatever. Um so if if that takes place, um we uh um subtract from your current year's leave first except we leave two days. We don't take it all, so we leave two days there and then if you need more than that um and if you have an FMLA bank, uh which means you're able to to be paid for your leave, then we go into that FMLA bank. And so um that's how we've operated and and um and we talked with finance committee about that um and unless there's
062different direction at some point, that's how we're going to continue to operate. Thank you. You bet. Good. All right. Um so we then discussed uh the pickleball had proposed uh the use of the community center and we declined the pickleball's proposal. Um I won't get into that anymore. Um we discussed OPEB and the language in OPEB and we approved the transportation proposal from the bus company. Um felt that that was reasonable, their increases. Um Before you go any further, that is an action item. It was in your packet. Um So as far as the proposal there is a an increase that we would need to approve and with that I would entertain a motion to approve that uh bus proposal. So moved. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made
063and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? And the the bus service proposal has been approved. And that brought us to the budget and we had an extensive discussion on the budget. Obviously we've hoped for a while that the state would come through and give us some kind of an increase in the formula. That has not happened. Clap, please. >> Uh we hoped to that the sped uh reimbursement formula that has changed would make us wealthier and that is not happening. Um so that >> [clears throat] >> then you know, when you're $800,000 or 700 and some short for this year and 350 from the previous year, uh we have to start figuring out a way to uh make up the difference. So um we had
064discussion on uh you know, insurance cuts. We had discussion on staffing. We had discussion on uh buildings, I guess, and uh throughout the course of that then I think it's kind of become a theme and nobody said it, but we have discussed uh whether what we're Should we, you know, keep it open? Should we try to get more kids there via redistricting? And so, that has kind of come up tonight. And so, I I our committee felt like it's something that this whole board needs to kind of uh flush out and decide what we want to do um going forward because we are going to have a little bit of a shortfall or a lot of bit of a shortfall. And uh we're going to have to balance it somehow. So, I don't know if
065that leads anyone to any And And do you mind if I just give you some numbers quickly? So, in in just reductions that we have made, and I think I'm going to put these out in just a a parent and our community communication. Um but for the 24 25 school year, and these numbers do not include, you know, the increased revenue uh we received from the state of Wisconsin. And most of this was due to staff attrition. Uh but for the 24 25 school year, we trimmed about uh 1 million 435,000 uh out of the budget. And 25 26, um just a little over 1.1 million. Um you know, at this point, um for next year, um you know, like Mr. Tolmich had said, you know, reduction of a of a position, well, technically two
066at middle school, but then one was going to Tainter. Um and a few other things, Victor's got the supply budget trimmed down about as tight as they can be right about now. Depending on what we do with some substitute positions, uh 4 to 500,000 uh trimmed out of the budget for next year, but that's just wanted to give you a little bit of a little bit of background there as you talk about some things. When I think Don, when you you talk about Hogan, I mean, I think we've talked about so many different options and never came to a conclusion. And it's a tough decision, so I'm not saying I would agree and I I'm leaving, but my opinion I can still give. I have a couple meetings left. Um would be that it's getting
067tight to like and not fair uh to the staff and to the kids to all of a sudden maybe this year say, "Hey, we're going to pull the plug." So, my opinion would be, you know, at least look at it and come up with some kind of a plan going forward, but I mean, I I'm just one person here, and I'm not going to be here for long. Um you know, we've looked at the savings of closing it, keeping it open, and, you know, obviously there's more savings closing it, but you know, how real are those numbers? Phil and I have talked about that. So, um I I you know, I I don't have a all-encompassing answer for you from the finance committee. We I don't know if we came to uh an agreement. So,
068I think it's something we all need to discuss or this board needs to discuss going forward. So, what I was saying was that yeah, I mean, I guess that's why I was surprised by the boundaries cuz I'm like, "Oh, wow, we made a decision." Just because it's it's been such a difficult decision to make, but it sounds like yeah, there's still room for discussion. And I mean, I I agree, Hogan's a great school. My kids all went there. But yeah, we eventually we do have to make a decision, [clears throat] you know, just for communication and to be fair to everyone. So, um but no, I agree. Yeah, it's getting really close. But that's yeah, I just wanted to explain why. Okay. >> Yeah, where I'm at and why I think we were surprised by
069that. There should be a a community discussion about it so people can offer their input and so they realize what the situation is because that school has value and [clears throat] just the way the world works, I'm convinced that we're not going to see the savings that everyone thinks are going to be so easy to achieve just by closing the school. It offers us an alternative for elementary school environment. It divides our resources in the risk categories. If there's a risk at one school, it doesn't involve the other schools. Doesn't involve as many students. If there's a problem with uh say heating or water pipe breaking or something, it affects one school and if it affects less students. You have a different group of teachers up there, maybe a different principal, maybe a little little
070different philosophy. That's valuable, I think, to have in a district, too, rather than the same philosophy for a much larger group of kids. There's health issues, you know, something goes around students. It affects one out of three schools, not one out of two schools. Um it gives us a rural environment up there, which a lot of people value. Um and this isn't totally education-related, but it is very valuable to the community. And we exist also to improve our communities, not necessarily by how we build or where we build a school. But that that does have value for that community. And for for those and probably other reasons, um we need to have that discussion. I I think there's no reason and others might differ, but there's just no reason to not have a discussion about
071this. We have time to do it. I totally agree with Don. It's too late to do it this year. Um but we should have that discussion now. Soon as possible. So, do you think we're going to um have much backlash about the boundaries changing? Or do you think people won't care too much? Uh there will be some. Um you know, we have dealt with it last year. We've had uh a parent reach out this year. Um I just be because of where you know, maybe family dynamics, might be a split family, or where parents work. Um you know, they've said, "If you make me go there, I'm going to open enroll to to a town I that I work in. Uh that's not Rice Lake." And so, we deal with some of that as well.
072So, um So, I think that's one of the questions is it, you know, if we do something with the lines, is it hard and fast or do we still give people the option? >> So, and I can tell you if if someone says, "Either let me go to a school in town or open enroll," I'm going to say, "You're going to a school in town." You know, I'm not I lost one last year like that. I'm not doing that again. You know, there there's always going to be a back and forth like that. Just in my own family, you know, they're the boundary at 25th, and they they kind of asked to be in Hogan. I'm sure there are people that would rather be at one school than another, but we do set some rules.
073This shouldn't be a major thing, I don't think. It's not like we're sending them to a tenement if they can't go to Tainter or Hilltop. They're probably going to the nicest one of the three, in my opinion. Just in terms of environment. I'm prejudiced. Randy, I know we've had discussion on cost per pupil and Mhm. and we have to balance that somehow. Um I mean, are we Are we doing that or are we The state hasn't made us balance it at this point, but yeah, it is significantly different at Hogan versus Hilltop or Tainter, but they haven't made us balance that at this point. I What's the ramification if they make us? I mean, Right now, I don't Yeah, right now, I don't think there's one, but we have to report it on an annual
074basis. So, Well, with that number of kids, if if there were say a couple of extra special education students up there, that would probably go a long way toward equalizing [clears throat] it just with that, right? Uh not necessarily. Depends on the needs. Yeah. Could could significantly increase the cost if it was a student >> The one thing that I think we all need to make sure we're keeping in the back of our mind is we are roughly Victor, tell me if I'm wrong, but roughly 1.2 million dollars in the red from the past couple years. And so, we need to figure out ways to cut our budget without affecting the overall education of every one of our students. We've got to keep our students in mind. I agree with Phil. The Hogan school is
075is been a a great asset to the district. Unfortunately, the number of students in that area are not showing anymore. They They're just like any any other community, that the number of kids per family are dropping. You don't have the families that are having nine, 10, 12 kids. You know, if you one or two. I'm looking at Mr. Drost. >> [laughter] >> But uh no, it unfortunately, that's that's the reality. And and whether we are going to be able to save 5 600,000 by closing that school, or realistically, maybe it's half that. But it's still a savings that we can look at. So, I think we got to keep that part of the conversation in in the forefront. It's not that we're closing the school because it's a bad school and it needs a lot
076of repairs or anything like that. It's just the number of students aren't there and moving kids from the Rice Lake schools, pulling them out of those schools to put them in the Hogan school doesn't help our budget. It does help the numbers up there, but it doesn't help the budget. And I know one of our principals made the comment that it would um help with the numbers in our Rice Lake schools. But it really it really wouldn't um help a lot. It would help some, probably, but it's still very doable. It's not like we've got 22 to 25 kids in every elementary grade. We're running in that 18 to 20 in the Rice Lake in Hilltop and Tainter. Um So uh Have we ever thought about combining classes? Uh We have talked about that potentially.
077>> yeah, second and third graders. And it's called a multi-age. Um so, like right now, I think send Nate help me out. Second grade is nine students right now. And third grade is nine students. So, you know, as they move to third and fourth grade that's 18 students. You could look at a multi-age um I mean, just to save on staff or whatever. I mean, I I know that's not making up 800,000 or 1.2 million or whatever number we're going to go with. But yeah, you you could you would be a Yes, that's called a It's called a multi-age. >> I'm not I think it's just buying you some time to look at it, you know, for 2027. I I just 2026, I Yeah. I got I'm not positive. Don't take this to the bank,
078but I think like Baron Area School District has Ridgeland Elementary. I think they maybe do some multi-age grouping there as well. But I just have some concerns. I feel like this is just really messy the way the But we don't have really a process for this. And I think we should at least set something up if this were to happen again. Hopefully, it doesn't, but I feel like we're just kind of like, oh, I'll assume we're having a discussion, but maybe we need to have that that end date and that timeline working backwards of we have this little bit of discussion, we need to bring it back to those parents or that back to the school and then we come back for whatever it is, however we want to create this, because I feel like
079we're really we're all throwing in opinions, but we really don't have that end game and in all fairness and transparency parency to our to our constituents, to the families, we need to have something out there. At least as a family, I would want to know what is where is this going at what point. And so to your point, Don, do we say that by June 30th we have to make a decision or whatever it might be based on 2026. If we don't, then it stays you know, I mean, I think we just have to make sure we have I would love to give Randy >> For sure, love to give Randy some kind of guidance so he could come up with before some kind of a proposal uh for us. I mean, uh rather than
080him just make the decision himself. I mean, we got to give him some guidance. >> I think it's hard though, because it's like if we're moving more kids to Hogan and then if they're closing in two years, that was kind of unnecessary. I mean, it maybe it it fixes a problem for next year, but I just think we need to really think that through. Otherwise, it's just creating more of a long-term problem. And that's what makes me nervous. And the 12 kids that were in kindergarten this year in a different school district, now you're going to boot them up to Hogan for a year. Those kids have friends now, right? So, you're kind of creating another problem by trying to fix it in that manner. And yeah, there might be another 12 kids in 4K
081that come up, but we don't know that yet, either. So, and would they rather come down? So, I think those 24 students that we're projecting, the 12 that we moved, can we see if they want to switch. If they do, that creates a different scenario. But if they don't want to move, why are we forcing them to go back and and creating a hardship on their family when we don't need to? I'd like to hear from the families too that are impacted by this. Um you know, I live in an near a neighborhood school myself and I'd be really upset if my neighborhood school was closed. Also, I don't have kids in that school anymore. So, um I I don't know that I as much as I'd like to keep it open, I don't know
082whether I really get a say in it. It's mostly the um the uh parents that have kids in those schools. So, I'd I'd like to hear more from them. Yeah, I do too. I think you're right. Well, that that that that's why it's important to get a discussion going because Hogan has to be aware that ultimately, much as I'd like it, if the numbers aren't there like Kevin said, and if the community can't support it with children, the writing's probably going to be on the wall. But they they have to know that. And they they just have to get behind it and help make this decision. I think Randy has said in the past he he would like sort of some authority, I think, to go forward and call a discussion. And I think one
083thing we can do as a board is say, yeah, let's send a letter out or whatever I think was proposed before to these parents informing them of this issue that are affected that could be affected by this and arrange a discussion up at the blanking on the name of their community center up there. Get everybody there and and let's get it hashed out. It doesn't have to take a long time. Plus, we're making a few changes. Maybe it will work out. You know, by when? You know, we don't have to make a decision by June 30th, either. I don't know when No, Laura, I think you're just throwing you're just throwing out a date. I I'm just saying that's not a realistic >> think a timeline would be helpful for us and for them. Randy,
084when do you need to have the the staffing situated? Uh within three weeks. So, at the next board meeting three weeks from tonight, um we um ask you to approve the staffing report. And just part of that's on a timeline. If there ever were going to be layoffs or anything like that, we have to give um someone preliminary notice by the end of April. So. So, I think that's that would be our timeline. It's tight. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. And it's not that >> Not that not that we would or wouldn't, but we have to give ourselves that ability if we were going to choose that route of cutting staff, we have to be ready to able be able to do that at that time. Randy, do you think you can get data from those
085or contact those families in between now and then get their feedback? They're watching, hopefully. >> That'd be a stretch. >> In three weeks? I think that's a lot to ask. I think that's a lot to ask of Randy. I would That's a lot to put on I agree with that. I think we should be on a timeline to have a decision go into effect not for this coming year, but for a year from this summer. Yeah, it But we should have a date in mind by when we make a decision. Yeah, probably fall sometime. But that doesn't help us with our staffing situation. >> No. No. That's the That's what it is, I think. That's the the struggle there because if if we meet with the families and they say, yeah, I'd just I'm fine
086with Rice Lake or I'd actually prefer that or whatever, and we don't have the numbers that we think we're going to have, now we're back to the same thing where we've got five, six, seven 4Kers and maybe that in in kindergarten. Well, that's not enough to justify a staff member when you only have five four or five kids. So, Almost like you have to I mean, go forth with the redistricting the 24th But but I'm saying But I'm saying, Don, if if the parents say no, >> No, if they say no, I see what you're saying. >> If they come back and say no, then we're in a we're our hands are tied a little bit. That's >> Yeah, you know, if if a parent can from the middle of Rice Lake can't say they
087want their kid to go to any school they want, right? I mean, it's somewhat set. And part of the purpose for this transfer is they're a young age when it's not like they're they're in a social group. But super so >> Randy just said earlier we lost one last year to a 4K because he said, no, you have to go to to Hogan. And he's not willing to do that anymore. We don't want to lose any more students to other schools. So, if those parents say no, I'm going to send my kid to Rice Lake or I'm going to send them to the town I work in, Yeah, but it it's also possible that that we might lose some the other way. If they can't go to Hogan, they'll go elsewhere, too. So, how many
088people would we need to contact? Um you mentioned um the families of 24 kiddos. Let's talk about that. Yes, I don't know how many exact exactly how many family families that is. I'm guessing it's 24. Um just based on not too often do people have kiddos back to back, but >> Or we We with the 12 4Ks and we don't even Cuz if you don't have the 12 four K'ers in there that if they're they want to stay in Haugen, well, there's your answer. You have 12 there. But if they're willing to come to Rice Lake, you already have the other 12 in Rice Lake. So, Yeah, me it seems like you would bring those 12 here. Yeah, and it wouldn't be hard to We can reach out to all of them. That's fine. It's
089and I totally understand what you're saying, but just to have the data, we can reach out to the We can reach out to all of those. >> [clears throat] >> Does that give you enough direction? Yeah, it does. >> [laughter] >> I don't know if we did we get direction or >> Do we have to formalize it at all? We probably should. Okay, I make a motion that if I may Yes, please. I think I would like to hear this. give Randy direction to reach out to the families that may be on the boundary between Rice Lake and Haugen and that may be able to send their children to Haugen, notify them of the situation that we're considering whether or not we can maintain Haugen's viability and that um depending on the results of that,
090that we look at also calling a community meeting up there. Have a community discussion to make sure people are thoroughly informed and are able to give their opinions. That it's done in a timely fashion. Perhaps by a date that you think's reasonable. Yeah, I think that's fine. And I agree with the community meeting if we come with clear financial facts. You know, so it's more than just feelings cuz it is going to be a hard decision either way. So, I think that's really important that we come with the clear finances. Yeah, unfortunately it just can't be a a feelings Right, right. Because yeah, then it's then people are going to express their feelings, which are very valid, but then we come back I mean, I just think that's really careful. Yeah. And I just want
091to reiterate then with this tack, we're not talking about closing Haugen in 2026. Correct. Maybe a reduced staff, but not closing. Okay. But just so that's kind of on the table for everyone is I kind of have a question on Phil's motion. You said if depending on what information we get back from those 12, then maybe we'll have a community meeting. Because I feel like we have to have a community meeting regardless. I believe you asked for a community meeting >> Yeah, I I kind of did say that, but yeah, I I think it'd be good to have a Clarify that. We're for sure having a community meeting regardless. >> that and then just say a community meeting also. Yeah. That was my understanding. That was Yeah, that was my understanding. We have a second.
092I would second that motion. I We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, that motion carries. I want to go on record as that was one of the best discussions this group's had in a while. Yeah, excellent. Okay. So, that brings me to We're not done with the finance committee. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We've had a really long meeting. We spent some time with WASB. The committee had a discussion about the agreement for use of the our facilities with the city and we just directed the administration to continue those discussions about that agreement. Um we have reviewed all the bills, which you already approved tonight. We set our next meeting and now I can say we adjourn with
093that. Any questions from finance? >> No, budgets are tight, but can finance approve turning up the heat in this room? >> [laughter] >> Uh we'll look at it. I don't know. >> [laughter] >> We can walk over to the wall. All right. I'm surprised Colleen doesn't have it 90° in here already, so >> [snorts] >> All right. >> Thank you, Lori. Move on to our district administrator observation committee meeting update. Okay. Not Lori, this is Don. >> Yeah, not Lori. This is Don uh still. Sorry. All of a sudden I get to talk a lot. Yes, we met March 16th. Um notice was given. All members were present. We approved our minutes from the last meeting and we did elect a new chair because I will be going off the board here in April and
094Lori Sarback was nominated and voted in as the chair of the district administration committee. We reviewed the timeline and we had a good discussion and I think we're going to edit it a little bit and edit some of the dates on it and then we'll try to get it to the Lori will try to bring it to the full board and kind of just let you know that we are going to move some of the dates around in there and particularly we wanted to start looking maybe at the the tool that we use. I think they maybe are going to make some modifications to that that they're going to um bring to the board and try to streamline it a little bit better if I may say. Um we did uh then talk about the
095district administrator um and how we could maybe support and value him a little bit uh more than we do now. And uh the committee I thought you don't. >> [laughter] >> No, I mean, you know, help you It's fine. um more than I think we are. I mean, just with your time. Sure. Um and so they're going to make some recommendations of how we're going to go about that. Um what type of flowers do you like? >> [laughter] >> We didn't know if he liked candy. We didn't know if he liked coffee. Okay. We did have a little discussion on goals and at our uh board retreat in January, generally we asked the district administrator to uh give us his goals for the district for the coming year and there was some confusion, Randy, about
096you know, I know the meeting got kind of long and everybody was talking about their experience at the state convention and then we got into the um the budget and so you may have given your goals, but I did not. we either didn't get that or we need to have have that gone over again. >> to you. I actually had discussed that with Randy before tonight and he has agreed to bring some goals in for us and go over those and we respectfully adjourn. So, that was it. >> 59 minutes, too. In exactly 59 minutes. I feel like that was the time of his whole finance report. >> [laughter] >> All right, with that any questions? No. Okay, moving on. Policy and Legislative Advocacy Committee meeting. We uh have policy 351 with the four rules
097and the five exhibits to come forward. This is just a review for the field trips and some of the documents that go along with that. This is a first reading, so if anybody has any questions, let us know. Otherwise, we'll bring it back for a second reading at our next meeting. All right, we will then move on to information and we'll get into the handbook committee meeting update. Anything you want to bring out on that, Randy? Yeah, I just spent most of our time talking about for the 26-27 school year, we will have a brand new employee handbook. Our old one needed serious revision, so we've worked with a version from WASB and we'll have another meeting or two with the handbook committee to talk about that. All right, any questions? Thank you. So, Phil,
098WASB public policy correspondent, but Don took up half of your time, so uh you're on a on a time I took up 75%. I'll I'll just um maybe make up for it next time. >> [laughter] >> I I can't remember. I think I I These this report's getting a little repetitive because things are getting dragged out so much in the legislature, so I'll I'll just try to hit a few high points. Um there is an interesting um development in the courts. Um there was a case in California where the class a class of teachers and parents filed an action against the DPI with regard to California having a policy where they would allow children to transition their gender in the school without informing parents. And some parents sued and they were joined by some staff
099because the parents said that their right to upbring their child was being infringed and staff said their right to their belief was being infringed and did not serve the public interest and um as usual happens the first court ruled in favor of the parents and the staff and the second court, the District 9 court, overruled them so it went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court um ruled that the parents were likely to succeed uh because of the 14th Amendment and previous precedent which has been pretty clear in the Supreme Court. They specifically cited case from Wisconsin from years ago called Wisconsin versus Yoder uh where parents have the right to control their religious upbringing and uh case from New Jersey Mahmoud versus Taylor from 2025 where uh a very um diverse group of
100parents, Muslim, Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox sued uh saying that it it violated their first amendment uh by forcing their children to be uh exposed to beliefs that they didn't agree with. So that went in favor of them. But the Supreme Court uh did not rule in favor of the teachers so that's being played out yet. So we'll see what happens there. um On the state front there is some discussion in the background about what to do with the budget surplus. um Apparently it's amicable but apparently it's also ineffective. um So something probably will happen eventually. I get the feeling. If something does happen the legislature will come back for a special session because the regular legislative session is not is now done. um The legislators will be around home and I know Ezra Mayan
101got all of you. He's He replied back. He's indicated that he should be available to come to some of our meetings. We like him and I think again with regard especially to Hawkin I think it'd be valuable to have our legislators come to the uh finance and the board meetings so they can see that things that they do in Madison do not always accomplish what they think they're accomplishing in their local district. um And then we could engage them in a discussion as well. um Some bills were signed by the governor. I am not going to repeat them all cuz I might have said them before. I know I said them in the policy reported in policy. There was a an act that was signed by the governor that creates a crime of grooming a
102child and we kind of wondered, well, it's kind of funny that that wasn't a crime already but apparently that came from law enforcement because they didn't have a way of enforcing it. So um that's why that was introduced. um What else would keep you guys awake? The automatic date that bills that were passed by both houses go to the governor is April 2nd. He'll sign some if there were some Democrats involved and if it was a totally Republican thing he probably won't. um That's the prediction of Wasby. Uh one good thing was that uh that the grants uh that grants some grants available for CTE were liberalized in that they don't have to be matched as much by the by um I believe by private funds and they can include construction now which is an
103expansion. So that might be of interest to us in the future. um Well, I'm I'm I'm going to mention this because the way Wasby put it it was it was funny. There's there's a bill uh that was passed by the legislature to uh make it less possible for districts to soft pedal misconduct uh with regard to students by employees and just um allow them to to get jobs in other districts. And they say colloquially it's called the pass the trash bill. >> [laughter] >> And it sounds like that might be uh signed by the governor. Cell phone bill uh they said the bell to bell ban is very close to passing but the last one they they passed which bans it during class time hasn't even gone into effect yet. So we'll see what happens
104with that. So that's all I'm going to say. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Next we have our upcoming meeting schedule. We have a legal and legislative video update on April 15th. No registrations required for that. I am signed up since Don is retiring. We will have a new board member um coming on board. So I am signed up to go with that individual over to the CESA uh 11 facility where Wasby will be putting on a a new school board member gathering. What day is that again? That is Wednesday, April 22nd. And then WASB >> Calls food, right? There is food there. Yes. Yes. Good meal. What's a good meal? And what's what's the first meeting for the the new That'll be >> elected person >> the April 20 The second meeting in April.
105Okay, got you. >> that's is when they take official. So Don is even committee meetings up until that day. He'll be still I wondered about that. I said should he be elected? I think it [laughter] would be the second meeting. Yes, that is correct. That is correct. And then the uh WASB 2026 Summer Learning Symposium over in Stevens Point is July 10th and 11th and registration is required. So if you can attend that please let Colleen know and she can get you registered. So that is the upcoming meeting schedule. We do not have any uh students this evening because of uh all of the things with the snow day and and other things um they were not able to uh get themselves a slideshow presentation ready to go. So um District Administrator comments. Yeah, there's
106a lot going on uh right now in the district. So tomorrow and the public is invited to the Rice Lake High School Career and Tech Ed Project Showcase from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. It's going to be in the high school gym lobby uh the cafeteria downstairs and the WTC building. So anyone uh is invited to attend. It's going to be a great evening. Uh Thursday is the elementary family and literacy night at Hilltop Elementary from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Also Thursday you can hit both of these uh from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Rice Lake Middle School new gym in the back uh the We Are Rice Lake event. So no cost to attend, celebration of many of the cultures and traditions represented by our community with food, music, art and more. Uh Thursday
107is also the last day of the term for Rice Lake High School and Rice Lake Middle School students and which also means Friday, March 27th there is no school uh for the elementary level as it is a teacher in-service day uh but it's a virtual day for high school and middle school students. Uh Saturday solo and ensemble at Rice Lake High School and then moving in neck into next week uh Monday and Tuesday will be the Hilltop Entertainers spring concerts. Uh Hilltop Elementary on Monday the 30th and Entertainer on Tuesday the 31st. Uh Friday Friday Friday, April 3rd uh is a vacation day, no school in the district. Uh then we move into Wednesday, April 8th is a community open house at the Littlest Learners Child Care Center from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. And uh
108just as a note Victor and Bryn uh mentioned we might have some furniture yet to put together but uh it'll be there but um uh the delivery people will be out of there by 3:00 p.m. but uh yeah, it's not going to be totally put together but it'll it'll be just fine. It'll be ready to go by the 20th. And just always continue or urge people to continue to check our social media uh page for uh lots of great things happening. And then also the Climb for Kids is happening this week. >> Oh, yes. That's Yep, Miriam. Talk about that, please. Thank you. Well, it's just it's a Climb for Kids at Forever Fit. So when you're doing you go in and you do the stair stepper and for every flight we recommend that you
109donate uh a dollar for the Feed Our Kids program. So and I think we have quite a few administrators signed up which is super exciting. And they if you want to go watch them they will give you the times to watch. I think Mr. Boholke is doing >> [laughter] >> 100 flights. 100 flights? >> There you go. You can do You can do 50 for me too then. That's So that's 150 flights. >> Yeah. >> [laughter] >> But all the money goes to our Feed Our Kids program and it's this week um till Friday. So we need more slots filled. >> at that's on West Avenue? Uh yes. At Forever Fit. It's funny before I got my eyes fixed I thought that sign always said never fit. >> [laughter] >> All right. Anything else? Oh,
110eighth grade band is playing in the capital down in Madison on Thursday. >> That's going to be pretty cool. Very nice. See some pictures on social media for that as well. Okay, with that I would entertain a motion to convene in a closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Statutes 19.851C and that is uh for approval of closed session meeting minutes and then 19.851E and that's to deliberate or negotiate uh for an individual employee contract. >> go to closed. Motion made and seconded. Roll call, please. Kevin Jensen? Yes. Miriam Barber? Yes. Bert Richard? Yes. Nelly Shyre? Yes. Lori Sarabau? Yes. Don Kusky? Yes. Andrew Koop? Yes. Phil Hinkle? Yes. I just I just the eighth down but maybe What is our little learner? We're going to start filling these with hot chocolate. Okay. The we had to
111have that discussion. It would should have been about 2 months ago. So maybe ours is Okay, that's