001making it 6 o'clock. We're streaming and recording and the mics are >> live for you. >> He's ready for the landing. >> All right, it is 6 o'clock. We will call the Monday, February 9th, regular board meeting to order. Roll call, please. >> Doug Kuchko, >> here. >> Lorie Zarbach, >> here. >> Don Kusky, >> here. >> Andrew Coupe, >> here. Phil HL >> here. >> Kevin Jensen >> here. >> Miriam Barbara >> here. >> Bert Richard and Nelly Shier >> 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 the Wisconsin statutes has been properly given. Such notice consisted of a notice and agenda to the official newspaper Rice Lake Chronype to to the
002Oaklair leader and to radio stations WJMC and WAQE indicating the date, time and place of the meeting. Such notice was given more than 24 hours prior to the meeting. >> Thank you. It does appear that a proper notice was given for this meeting. We will now stand for the pledge. >> I pledge algiance 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. and no appearances for sign up tonight. So, we will move on. I would entertain a motion to approve our regular session meeting minutes from January 12th and our special session meeting minutes from January 26th. >> So, move have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion has been made and seconded. Any
003further discussion? >> Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. >> I 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 we have uh three employment recommendations. And with that, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> So much. >> 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 I. >> I. >> Opposed and the consent agenda has been approved. Next, we have an opportunity to recognize our second term outstanding students from the high school, Mr. Pokei. >> Good evening. I have the pleasure to recognize our second term
004uh outstanding student achievement awards. The criterion used for the process include students cooperation, effort, attitude and dedication to individual discipline. For art, Ella Cotish, student of Nathan and Rebecca Cotish, Satia Rusen Usovva, student of Micah and Kimberly Zimmerman. Health, Mariah Horman, student of Bridget Stoclan. And Isa Zimmerman, student of Micah and Kimberly Zimmerman. Business education, Tacoma Randall Heft, student of Kelly Heft, and Christopher Randall, and Isabella Hoyen, student of Dan and Shana Hoyen. For family consumer science, Leah Dietrich, student of Darren and Karen Dietrich, and Lucy Exin, student of Rick and Sarah Exin. For language arts, Josephine Garcia Rodriguez, student of Gabriel Garcia, and Hilda Rodriguez Hernandez. in mathematics. Saiwa Lima Asera, student of Jamie Lima Guam and Maria Asera Loa. And Lizzie Penscover, student of Derek and Emily Penscover. For music, Elizabeth Galindo, student
005of Cassandra Frank and Jose Galindo. For physical education, Abigail Britain, student of Roger and Marne Britain, and Garrett Stefan Jr., student of Garrett Nah and Heidi Stefan. In science, Abby Dong, student of Rangdong and Mingdong. Social studies, Cecilia Nelson, student of Daniel and Pam Nelson. In world language, Mariah Miller, student of Rick and Tracy Miller. Maurice Mucil, student of Camel and Jeremy Mucil. In agriculture, Lucas Rue, student of Steve and Jill Rue and technology education. Adeline Shepley, student of Corey and Emily Shepley. Finn Girer, student of Carla and Tim Grineer. And for the WOW program, Shauna Nelson, student of Sigford Nelson. Congratulations to these students and their outstanding achievements. >> Congratulations to all of our students that were just uh recognized. Next, we get into the report section. We'll start off with the adult crossing
006guard recognition week. And [clears throat] I would like to uh proclaim that the uh week of February 16th through the 20th is adult school crossing guard recognition week. And we appreciate everything that those uh people do. They're out there in the early mornings and cold weather, rainy weather, snowy weather, windy. They're out there protecting our our kids, making sure they get to school safely. And uh a lot of times it's that first smile of the day that they get to see and the last at the end of the day. So thank them for all they do. Uh our regular crossing guards, we have Eddie, Valerie, Wilford, Larry, and Howard. And we have two substitutes which are Marsha and Judy. So thank you uh to our crossing guards. And with that, I would entertain a motion
007to >> I would move to proclaim the week of February 16th to the 20th uh adult school crossing guard recognition week. >> Have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion has been made and seconded. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. And it has been proclaimed. All right. Next. Hours of instruction. School calendar for the 2526 school year. Yes. So, um, with the the inclement weather days we've had this year, uh, we've had three so far. So, December 10th was a snow day. Uh, January 6th was an ice day and January 23rd uh, was a too cold day uh, with um, and just um, for board members or those that may be listening, I've had a few questions this year on u when we cancel school for
008uh, cold days. And you know, I always get asked if there's a hard and fast number, and we really don't have one. Typically, it's when the National Weather Service issues that when we get into that warning, uh, that windchill warning, because we've had some advisory pieces, and yep, might be 25, 30 below on those mornings. But, uh, when we get into that warning phase, that's when we seriously look at cancelling school. And so, um, just may help you explain that to someone else as well. Um, >> I tell people, do you go out and throw water in the air [laughter] and it turns to snow? That's bad. Just cancel school. >> I think that Friday we would have. Yes. [laughter] I think that would have worked. If you'd have done the the boiling water in
009the air, it would have Yes. No doubt. Um, but with that, uh, at this point then, um, we are at the middle school and and high school level, uh, short a little bit of time and so we we need to make up a day. And so one proposal and I'm going to ask Mr. Pokei to to come and talk a little bit about this and this would go the same for the middle school. Uh we're looking at we have an inservice day coming up this next Monday which would not be enough notice. Uh but we have an inservice day on Friday March 27th and looking to turn that to u a virtual day of inservice for middle school and high school students. And Mr. Pokei is going to talk a little bit more about that.
010>> Yeah, thank you Mr. Ross, I think we brainstormed in collaboration knowing we were coming up with some time needed. Um, in looking at our calendar, uh, we do have May 8th as a potential hold day in our original approval, which was a snow optional. It's an inservice day still laying out there. Um, we talked through it as a staff. Uh, we looked at the calendar and the one day that popped up was the the last day u of our term happens to be Thursday, March 26th of term three. So Friday currently is the the day after the last day of term. Uh it's been used um obviously in their calendar to prepare for the next transition, but we felt if we would make that a virtual day, not necessarily have the students come in,
011but we'd use it and call it the quarter wrap-up. Um some things at the high school we would proactively plan would be a course reflection. We would create a template for each class. So each student would require to do a course reflection as as that day. They would also have teacher directed tasks that are finished in the gradebook. Um, some students might need it for specific assignments or missing work um to capture that last day of finishing the term strong. Uh, we also have a success skills rubric that we've implemented in most classes. We would have them fill out their successfuls rubric based on that course specifically. And then some things that we found from other school districts, but also kind of elementary middle school idea, but we would come up with a multid-disciplinary bingo
012activity that the kids could do. Um, and there would be awards given if they'd complete u five of the activities and they would once they brought it back with a evidence that they did that, they would put their name in a drawing for some prizes. Some of those uh some of those potential Bengal activities was reading for 30 minutes, writing a thank you or uh um a letter to um somebody that did something special for you, planning or making a meal and evidence of that. Doing chores around the house, physical activity, maybe 30 minutes of exercise, uh and researching a topic of interest, playing a board game or card game with a family member or uh maybe a grandparent or learning a new skill or hack. So doing something creative to you absorb some more
013of that time. Um but also each class um teacher would be posting a reflection and have expectations for each class. When I look at comparables to other virtual options, it definitely would qualify for us to count that day. Uh students would be expected to log into their Google classroom. Stu staff would be uh posting the assignment. We would uh have the staff in the house. They'd be at the at the high school. we'd be able to conduct some of the normal business on inservice and they'd be monitoring um and reviewing the assignments being committed or posted back into Google classroom like they typically do. So, we have a couple student reps here I know um having them either come back for the day or be virtual obviously if they this is the first time them
014hearing that too, but um this is a a creative solution to absorb get caught up um and then Randy can share if we had another one. Obviously, we still have the May 8th as an option as well. >> Yes, we have the May 8th uh day as an optional day as well um labeled as a potential snow makeup day. Uh if we have more than that, uh then we're going to need to tack days on at the end of the year. Um and right now the last day for students is Tuesday, uh June 2nd. Unless you're a senior, then it's that Friday of Memorial Day weekend. um Tuesday, June 2nd, um with staff coming back for half a day on the 3, but um potentially adding days that week as well. >> Yes. >> Question.
015Um I know that we dealt with this during the co time, but are we sure that all kids have access to be able to get on to Google Classroom? Is that the case right now? And making sure that all kids have the opportunity to to do this. >> It's a great question and we talked about it. The nice thing about this one, we know it's coming. So, we can ask that accommodation for any student. if they don't have Wi-Fi, we can hand out the reflection ahead of time and they can take it and complete it and bring it back that following Monday without a problem. Okay. >> Um kind of with that that prevent we can be really proactive on this one. >> So it'll be kind of nice that way. If they know it's
016coming, we'll talk about it. Um students might even have a voice on what they would like to have for that final assessment or what that might look like. >> Perfect. >> Any other questions? [clears throat] >> Yes. Could we have some sort of followup to to see what sort of compliance real compliance there is with kids? >> Absolutely. Some of the staff already if we give if you give us the blessing to move forward with this approach uh we have inservice on Monday. So we would work on our templates that we'd be expected for staff to have reflection and then start working on other things that we'd have. So some staff are already working on a Google form. If there's a assignment they want to do, there'd be assignment that would be posted. The students
017would have uh answers to reflect it to post back into the Google classroom. That's another tool. So, we would be able to collect that and see how many uh turned it in on time or vice versa. Compliance on that. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> I would move that we >> one one more question. The middle school will be doing the same concept then. >> Same concept. Yes. um checking in with email but it would be more hard copies just so that they have at home but >> yeah Mr. Chish sent similar communication to his staff just working through it. These are possibilities and uh I think it was pretty well received overall as a as a a give and take. >> Yeah, I had a couple teachers that contacted me and said that they
018would support this. So I think that's important to know too. >> Now I would move to use the virtual option to make up our snow cold rain days. >> Motion has made. Is there a second? >> Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. >> Opposed. [clears throat] And that carries. Thank you. Next, we have our district safety committee meeting update. >> All right. We met on Tuesday, January 27th at 1:00. Uh we reviewed the [clears throat] from October 21st. Uh we had some reports for our business items including uh drills that were conducted this year and any feedback from them. Uh the Rice Lake Middle School fire drills and lockdown drills have gone well. The high school conducted a hole drill in December
019and fire drills have gone well. um looking to plan for the state held tornado drill in April and actually the Hilltop fire uh tornado drill uh was being held uh the day of the meeting. Uh Randy provided some updates as to potential legislative bills uh to make school districts consistent in response protocols. Um, and officer Andy suggested that we having the I love you guys posters and handouts placed throughout the school that would be easy to grab in the event of an emergency. Um, there's discussion about holding a stop the bleed training for staff. Uh, if a date [clears throat] if a date for the training is determined, Stephanie would reach out to the fire department and help schedule that training. Um we had a report on December 22nd safety drill at the the middle
020school uh and review the training and emergency services that were uh training that were provided at staff. Uh the training helped to find areas that may need improvement. Uh we had a discussion uh with the school nurses as to where things are at in terms of illnesses and so forth. Uh following the winter break, uh the district hadn't had uh exceeded the 10% absentee rate, which was good. Um we've ordered additional EpiPens and Narcan boxes were ordered for the aquatic center. Um measel cases are being tracked throughout the state and everybody's encouraged to check in on their vaccinations prior to traveling. and the nurses continue to stay on top of checking the AEDs in the buildings and replacing supplies as needed. Uh some new topics that were discussed is February 27th will be safety and
021maintenance building assessments and a checklist of items will be sent to principles prior to those assessments and safety protocols and signs will need to be posted at the uh college drive gymnasium and the littlest learners child care center as well. Uh with that, uh let's see here. We got uh Lori Johnson shared that there was an email sent out to administrators for upcoming safety training on threat assessment and management in Cameron on April 22nd. Uh Randy shared the policies and procedures if ICE were to show up at our schools. Uh the group discussed the development of a policy on the use of wands and scanners to search students. And then uh Randy also shared that the new background check program is now up and running and we scheduled our next meeting for April 21st at
0221:00. Any questions? Thank you for that update. Next, we have the buildings and grounds committee meeting update. Uh we met on Tuesday, February 3rd, and we approved the minutes. Then we got into our remodeling and construction projects. Our child care facility is progress is being made. The the walls are uh starting to get formed in and and uh water lines and power line electrical is all being run and and uh it's coming along. Then the uh community center uh boys and girls club facility. [clears throat] They were uh we also got updated on that. Saw some pictures they were going to be pouring um the track concrete floor um this week. And uh also going to be starting to put some of those bigger windows in the corners in. So hopefully they can get that
023done when the weather's a little nicer this week and and uh continue to make progress there as well. Um we have started doing tuck pointing. Um you may have noticed along uh Wisconsin that ticket uh building there that they sell tickets for. Um that was covered around and all enclosed so they could keep that heated. Um they did that building. They come up did the dugouts and and press boxes on the ball fields and then uh worked up. They're up by the high school now uh doing the entrance pillars there getting that done and then as the weather gets nicer they'll move and start doing the buildings where takes more to try to heat those. So, they're doing the small stuff first and then and then they'll be doing the the school buildings and we'll
024get that all caught back up. We were took us a while to find someone to to that would do it. Um, so we got behind a little bit, but we are going to be getting caught up this year. Then, uh, we talked about the wood boiler at the energy plant. [snorts] We had we did make the decision this year to burn just natural gas. um and not use the wood this year because it was causing a lot of uh overtime and and people having to come in in the middle of the night and on weekends and and stuff to get the plant back up and going because they would have issues with it. And so at this time the committee has decided to hold off. it's due for an inspection, but we said let's hold
025off till we see the final numbers at the end of the heating season. Um, and then we'll look at that and and plan going forward. Um, we talked about a possible uh storage shed at the middle school. At this time, the committee said, "Let's pull back. Let's hold off and uh look at a a larger facility um on the middle school property, but just in a different location." Um, so we're going to continue to look at that. We got some preliminary numbers from the architects on chilled air at the at the high school and the numbers that came back um were quite expensive. We uh all were shocked. They were between 21 and $33 million just to put in chilled air like we did at the middle school. That cost us a few years ago.
026uh ballpark of about 5 million, just under five million, and now they're saying it would cost us at the high school uh up to 33 million. So, we said, "Nope, no thanks." But we did ask uh Randy and [clears throat] Victor to tie those numbers down and and really see if we're on the same page with what they were pl what they were pricing and what we were expecting. >> We're going to buy a lot of fans. >> [laughter] >> putting a lot of crank open windows >> or even there the committee if you don't mind discuss like could we do you know um at the high school it's the upstairs rooms for the most part are are the most you know the warmest and and some you know a few of the computer labs
027and some and some of those areas are currently airond conditioned with those mini split units that are mounted on the wall. So just you are there options could we could we do a partial piece or something like that? So, we'll see what's available there. >> All right. And then, uh, we talked about districtwide HVAC units, talked about the ones down at Tainter. They're original from when that building was built as far as the original part of the building. And, uh, that's, uh, 30 30 years, so 30 plus years. Um, so it's time to to start looking and making plans for what that uh HVACs around our uh at our other buildings as well. And then just talked about some of the district facility needs. Um, and we're going to continue to uh have further discussion
028along those lines as far as what our uh needs are and then how do we pay for them. So, we uh as a committee have over the years, we've continued to keep our buildings up um new roofs when needed and have not had to go to a referendum just to maintain our buildings. Um, and we don't uh anticipate having to do that anytime soon with the basic maintenance, but um for major major uh changes, we may need to uh to look at something along those lines, but we'll continue to look at it. Um so that was the buildings and grounds committee update. Any questions or anything other committee members want to add? Okay, next we have the finance committee meeting update. >> Yes, we met on Thursday, February 5th at 3:30. All members were present.
029Uh we approved the minutes from our January 7th meeting. Uh we also recommended approval of fifth grade leadership advisors. uh as getting a sip on our co-curricular schedule uh as it's laid out uh for all the work and effort that they put in to uh leading the fifth grade team. Uh we also uh recommend approval of the activity fund for the raise your voice uh funding. You want to hand >> that is an action item. We'll take that right now, Doug. Um, >> Randy, do you want to just kind of give a summary of what the raise your voice activity is and what that's all about? the raise your voice u group. It's a partnership with the county and then Randall uh therapeutic as well and they will um it's a intended to be a
030studentled group uh to raise awareness uh about mental health issues um just in any community and it's not about you know diagnosing or sharing things like that. It's about what can we do to be positive and and just raise awareness about you know what's going on in in any community. And so with that um a couple of individuals from Randall Therapeutic Randall Therapeutic would be the advisors for that and there's zero cost to the district. Um and again the county is involved as well and the members of the finance committee asked that um you know they had recommended moving forward with uh the group and approving the activity account for it but then also wanting uh and maybe Doug maybe you were going to say this but um you know maybe at the end of
031the school year just hearing back about you know maybe what took place and and how things are progressing there. So, >> any questions? >> If not, I would entertain a motion to approve the raise your voice student group for the Warriors on Wisconsin corresponding activity account. >> 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 I. >> I. >> Opposed. And that has been approved. All right, thank you. And then uh we moved on and discussed the childc care facility and kind of reviewed where things were at within the construction budget. Of course, like any other projects that you run into when you're doing major remodeling. Uh there were some unplanned costs uh
032added for the sprinkler system and a separate electrical service, but it's expected to be completed by the end of March is what our goal is there. And then we had an update on the community center. uh project as well. Uh the project is on budget and expected to be completed by the hopefully by the first week in May. So we're progressing well on both of those projects. Uh we have an additional uh addition to our networks for the healthcare health insurance plan for 2627. We approved adding the alliance network uh to the district's health insurance and adding a new tier uh 2B is what the tier name is uh for the alliance providers. The deductibles and co-ay co-ayments for tier 2b will be double uh the current tier 2 amounts. Uh we talked about the
033health insurance rates for 2627. uh the premiums. The committee we approved an increase in uh health insurance premiums uh for 2627 for 5% uh increase over the 2526 amounts. Uh the district has experienced a 13% annual increase in plan expenses since uh the 2021-22 school year and current 2526 expenses are $919,000 over the same period during 24-25. Uh the 2627 premium amounts will be uh $945 for a single plan and $2,25 for a family plan. Um, and with that as well, we looked at the employee contributions, which haven't been changed in several years. Uh, the committee approved increasing employee health insurance contributions to $30 for a single plan, which is currently at $20 and then also going to $90 a month for a family plan. and we're at 60 60 for the family plan currently.
034Um employees less than full-time will be adjusted accordingly. Uh we had a discussion on on uh potential changes that may occur or for consideration for the OPED benefits. And then uh we looked at the 2627 budget to discuss uh proposed raises for uh staff and budget reductions that we need to give consideration to. And then we reviewed and approved the bills and scheduled our next meeting for Thursday, March 12th at 3:30. Any questions? Thank you for that report. Next, we will move into the communications and public relations committee meeting update minutes. >> Yeah, we met on Tuesday, January 27th at 3:30. The meeting was called to order. We had uh first the leadership team highlights priorities. Uh the middle school discussed uh the grading system shift from three to four points and then added a
035letter grade back in. They talked about virtual learning that we already talked about on snow days review of the February inservice. They had NE testing taking place for eighth graders. They run that NA by me too fast before I could spell it out. National Assessment of Educational Progress. That's what I figured it. And it's and one and it's not all eighth graders. Uh some are randomly selected. I forget I don't know how many, but like our fourth graders are part of that as well. And 50 I know 54th graders are randomly selected. I'm guessing about 50 eighth graders as well. >> Thank you. >> Uh high school, they talked about uh kind of reorganizing the parent teacher uh conferences a little bit. still having the two-hour time slot, but maybe having the teachers uh during
036their time uh that can maybe reach out to some parents. And also they thought that they would probably add maybe some showcase uh type things during the conferences and and then they uh high school also talked about virtual learning. Uh the elementary school discussed the following items. NA testing again for fourth graders and PBIS feedback from staff and using boosters of positive recognition throughout the building. Hogan looking at data and state assessments uh to measure more success evaluating PBIS to help students struggle with behavior. Uh we did not hear from Hilltop in district communication. uh uh she went through different uh things that uh um Aaron did is regarding some of the uh ways that we get our messages across radio. uh Rice Lake TV and uh certainly the FBLA will be uh taking uh
037the or will be sponsoring the fee my starving children this weekend. Correct. >> Mhm. >> Beginning Friday. >> Friday, Saturday. and then different things that appear on social media. And uh um you know what can go in newspaper and uh I did tell Erin that if I see something that she misses because she really does a good job but you know she can't cover everything and I'm I will leave her messages and things like that. Um she's going to continue research on new host and updates for the district website. other uh Lori mentioned maybe when we go to the Wisconsin State School Board, we could uh maybe have a uh some things worth discussing maybe at a breakfast or uh things like a tagline for district and all schools because there are several ones out
038there. uh an idea of regular communication from district administrator like coffee talk at the senior center uh or roundts with business owners and then maybe a future meeting discussing all the ways we communicate with staff community staff families and and what maybe what we're doing right what we're doing wrong and I got to personally thank Lori for taking excellent notes >> and uh journed at 4:45 five meeting to be determined the next time. I know in fact next time we're going to talk a little bit about maybe expanding or changing the purpose of public relations because we feel it's going to really becoming important. That's it. Any questions? >> Any questions? >> Think you should invite Randy to JB's. There are quite a few community citizens at JB's in the morning for breakfast. Yeah, they
039got >> where and when >> they got the world. [laughter] >> Yeah, >> maybe I'll buy. >> Exactly. >> All right, thank you for that update. Next, we have the Warrior Connection Committee meeting minutes. >> Yeah, those are in your packet. Uh we met last Thursday, February 5th. Uh had an update. Uh just Mark Bicey was there from the high school, gave an update on some of the pieces the Warrior leadership team has been working on. Um, and I think one of the one of the pieces they've been, and this wasn't necessarily warrior leadership team, this was just the high school. Um, and looking at behavior and professional development related to behavior. That's something to uh policy. And and you as a board talked a little bit about [gasps] um and they were looking at
040kind of boosting a freshman program involving other students and making videos. And you know, one of the PE pieces people talked about was, hey, when those videos are done, could we share those with the community? you know, parents and community members would like to know um you know, the ex the expectations as well. Um Mr. Tomish, Mr. Beaver, and or someone else are from the middle school too. Uh talked about uh oh, and Tanya Jensen. So, I knew there was one more uh gave an update from uh the middle school just talking about their uh fifth grade leadership team and student council. Um and you know one middle school task force too something new for them just working on academic recognition. You know we used to do honor roll and things like that and just
041looking at bringing that back and you know Bert talked a little bit about it on the the standards grace ping standards graced bait standardsbased grading piece there um as well. um in community education. Um Sarah Shai was there to talk a little bit about um Bethany Luther. And I know many of you were probably familiar with the middle school for a lot of years. Has done the Carnation sale uh on Valentine's Day. Um but I bet you didn't know this. Bethany Lutheran uh sponsors a carnation for every middle school staff member and student on that day. Um and so just uh you know kind of sharing the the joy there. Um, a piece we talked about is just needing more parent and community education in our district. And, you know, could we offer classes? You
042know, we used to offer things like love and logic classes. Uh, Chris Fitzgerald was at a recent meeting to talk about uh internet safety classes. Um, they're still u I believe they're still doing classes, the strengthening families piece through the county. Um, could we do short videos and podcasts? I don't know. maybe someone could help us uh that does podcasts that he knows a little bit about it. Um and and two, just you know, what can we do? Um you know, we have a lot of students that that come and do their job every day. Um they're coming to school, they're they're working hard, but maybe they're not in a lot of activities or um not getting a lot of recognition. Uh what can we do for them? And you know, even that community piece,
043um, we talked about that too in a previous meeting, like over break, spring break, holiday break, things like that. What are some activities we can we can provide for students? Maybe it's, you know, as simple as open gyms or art activities in the cafeteria or just some different pieces there. What um, so everyone was encouraged to think more about that. Um and so yeah, just uh how can we partner and and reach out to our community and our businesses? So we will meet again on Thursday, April 2nd. >> Any questions? >> Say Randy, I know that uh we as a board and that you were copied on the email today. Can you give some clarification as to uh the connections committee and whatnot versus our committee that we had as a board that we did
044we did discontinue that but there there appears to be some confusion. >> Yeah. As as you you're right it initially was a a board subcommittee. Um, and with that, you know, you took action last summer to it's obviously a committee, um, but a not a board level committee and and Phil and Nelly are are the board representatives on that. And I would say, and Phil and Nelly, you can chime in as well. Um, I would say at this point it's, you know, really the work is taking place in the buildings already. I mean, that's where the work is place taking place. um you know when we get together once every couple of months it's I would say just really touching base and maybe asking some questions and giving some food for thought um but I
045would say the the work is really it's taken place in the buildings for the most part now there are you know like I said Sarah Shai has been there Jenny Hashrider um to provide some you know community um you know parent community thoughts and input as well um but that would be that would be my response the work is taking place at the building level. >> All right. Thank you. Next, second Friday, student enrollment from January 9th. Those numbers in our packet. >> Yeah. Yep. And I would say just a reminder the the second Friday in uh January that code is important because that helps determine the following September uh the chunk of the pie um in terms of how much uh comes from state in terms of state aid and how much comes from
046local taxpayers. So that's the importance of that number. >> It looks like the numbers uh went up slightly. >> Yeah. Yeah. Some schools were uh up some, you know, middle school is the same. Uh some down a tick, but uh yeah, it's it's it is what it is. >> All right, Phil. WB public policy. >> Okay. Um [clears throat] just summarize what's been going on. There are just a few main points. Um, one on the condition of the state budget in general, there's um [clears throat] quite a bit larger of a budget surplus than had been predicted by the legislative fiscal bureau. Um, as I recall, I think it's about a billion dollars more or whatever. Um, there's possibility of a compromise between Voss and Ivers. They were both separately interviewed and the language that
047they used suggested there that there might be um Governor Ivers spoke for property tax relief and uh Speaker Voss um indicated he might be interested in working with Ivers if uh the governor would be interested in uh having a discussion on his 400 years of a $325 $5 per pupil increase per year. Um the federal education bill really is not earthshattering. It provided a small increase for a number of different uh title one education programs. um impact aid idea title one part A. Uh more interesting uh was the the WASBY blog recorded the uh Democratic state proposals for for what their education agenda is. And um so I thought I'd just read some of those. Um, one uh point is to legislate that all student teachers be paid at least $15 an hour. Um, that
048a teacher representative be added to every school board, not as a voting member, but uh would attend every meeting. Um, grants to encourage a career in teaching. and that there are bill a bill has been floating around concerning that. Uh to pay a $7,000 bonus for each five years of teaching and to um have a paid daily prep time of at least 45 minutes to uh have every base annual salary at least that of a legislator. After 10 years of uh continuous teaching, give a $15,000 bonus. And after 20 years, the salary must be at least $100,000. And all non-classroom services would need to be compensated. >> Phil, are these mandates or are these going to be proposals? Each party throws out their proposals. Nothing's going to happen with anything right now, but that the
049um there were no Republican proposals listed right now. And this was the uh Democratic basically their um sort of their education um why am I blanking on the word >> proposal? >> Well, yeah, proposal is good enough. I'm thinking platform. Platform. That's the word I'm thinking of. Then as far as um bills that are floating around go, again, they're rather meaningless. These are just posing for the future campaign. Um there are a number of them, but I thought the most interesting ones uh were the Senate bill and assembly bill or companion bills 611 and 614 about teacher authority. And pretty much what they would do is a little bit of a light version of what we've tried to do with our discipline policy where they would try to um give teachers more of their own
050authority to remove kids that are disruptive from the classroom and ask administration to be more accountable to that. Um those bills were both passed in the Assembly and Senate, but they're probably again going nowhere. Uh it's interesting that individual teachers, I think, are very interested in this because it's one of the challenges that they face. Um, but it's also interesting to look at who's against this bill. And the, um, the people that are fighting this bill are the are the groups that, um, are advocates for disabilities, uh, administration groups. Um, and I spoke to Chris Kulo about this today personally because I was interested. So, some of this comes from a personal conversation with him where he told me this. Uh, some parents are um against it because they might be concerned about um uh
051parental notification requirements. part of the bill is that if a child is removed from the classroom after uh I don't think it's necessarily the first time might be uh every every child's parents who's in that classroom get notified and some parents are concerned that that would stigmatize the child that was removed from the classroom. So, that's a little bit different from [clears throat] uh how we re how we rewrote our discipline policy, but I told Chris about that and I think he found it rather interesting. Um, >> one second, Phil. Just for our public and board members that aren't aware, Chris is works for the WASB, the schoolboard association, and he is the individual that leads the um party or the group from WSB that goes and lobbies for the school district. So, >> right.
052And he's also involved in in I think um keeping track obviously of what the legislative proposals are as well. So, thanks for that clarification. Yeah. So, that's pretty much my update. Thank you. [clears throat] >> All right. Thank you. Upcoming meeting, we've got a couple legis legal and legislative videos. Wednesday, February 18th and March 18th. Those are at noon. No registration is required. if you can uh get in on those. Yeah, that'd be great. And then uh the 2026 summer learning symposium is uh coming up in July. The uh will be held at Stevens Point over at the convention center there with more information to come. That will require a registration. So, if you're thinking about going, please let Colleen know as soon as you can so she can get you registered and set up
053for that. Next, we get to hear from our students. Welcome. We'll let us know who uh who we've got and then uh >> the slide. >> I'm uh Dan Broker. I'm a senior class representative. >> And I'm Sophia Winfield and I'm a junior class representative. Do you want me to? >> Um, so not much has been going on these past couple weeks because I feel like this third term, beginning third term really just is sort of a dead period for our school. But this weekend, like you mentioned earlier, we do have Feed My Starving Children coming up that the FBA is putting on and they're going to be packing over 80,000 meals um with 500 volunteers over the two days. So yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. And so a lot of the events that kind of
054more specifically uh warrior leadership team is looking at doing, we're kind of more in the the mental conception stages of those and we're just starting to kind of hue out some of these logistics. Uh the FFA is looking to do something vaguely similar in coordination with uh Warrior Leadership Team to what they did last year. Last year they had kind of this burn dance. This year, what we're going to do is we're going to try and have a tailgate before the uh expected girls game on uh the 28th, February 28th. There's expected to be a girls basketball game at home. We'd have a tailgate before that. And then after that, we'd go ahead uh go ahead and have a bonfire. So, we're figuring out kind of how to advertise for that. And then additionally the
055week after that, so the first week of March, that week right before spring break, we're looking to do what we're going to call summer in March, which is kind of like uh it's a more kind of a tropical summeresque themed homecoming. A little bit dialed down, but it it just to kind of help so we don't have necessarily a lot of problem with uh with kind of this lack of engagement. uh you know again being between spring break and then being past homecoming not quite the prom stuff like that to make sure that we can maintain that energy from the student body. So that's something we're working on on planning right now. So >> okay any questions? I have one. You heard Mr. Pokei talk about the virtual uh piece for the snow day. What
056do you guys What do you guys think? Putting you on the spot here. think that uh >> I mean uh it doesn't doesn't sound that hard. I don't have a problem with it, but [laughter] >> All right, >> good answer. >> Thank you for that update. Next, we have our district administrator comments. >> Yeah, just a few reminders. So, there's no school uh Monday, February 16th, week from today due to teacher inservice. Um and then the feed my starving children mobile packing events been mentioned a couple of times. Um, and then next Thursday, February 19th, is parent teacher conferences at Rice Lakeake High School. That means we're at midterm already for term three. So, uh, the year is flying by. Um, and then the following Monday, February 23rd at 6:30 p.m. is the Rice Lake
057High School band and choir concert in the high school auditorium. And then just always encourage people to continue to check uh our calendar page and our social media pages for a number of great things happening in the district. All right, thank you for that update. Next, I would entertain a motion to convene into close session pursuant to Wisconsin statutes 19.851C and that is for the approval of our close session meeting minutes from Monday, January 12th and the district administrator evaluation and then 19.851E and that is to uh discuss an individual employee contract. Move to [clears throat] go to closed. >> Motion has been made. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion has been made and seconded. Roll call, please. >> Lori Zarbach, >> yes. >> Don Kusky, >> yes. >> Andrew Coupe, >> yes.
058>> Phil Hankle, >> yes. >> Kevin Jensen, >> yes. >> Marian Vabra, >> yes. >> Bert Richard, >> yes. >> Nelly Sher, >> yes. >> And Doug Cuchko? >> Yes. >> All right. >> I got a question. Randy, do you just randomly put those out like the names? Like I'm always waiting and I'm Lory's first is never the case. >> Always it rotates the order. [clears throat] Okay, fair. rotates the order all the time.