8.25.25 Board of Education Meeting

001and I'll turn and the mics are on. [Music] You see, we got our picture in Facebook. >> Yes, [Music] >> it is 6 o'clock. We will call the Monday, August 25th, regular board meeting to order. Roll call, please. >> Kevin Jensen, >> here. >> Miriam Barbara. Bert Richard >> here. >> Nelly Shy >> here. Doug Kuchko >> here. >> Lori Zarbach >> here. >> Don Kusky >> here. Andrew Coupe >> here. And Phil Henkle >> 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 Chronoype, to the Oaklair leader, and to radio stations

002WJMC 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. A proper notice was given for this meeting. We will now stand for the pledge. [Music] >> 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. All right, we have one appearance this evening. Patty, if you want to come up to the podium. Just want to remind you as you're on your way up that you have three minutes at the podium to speak to us. And remember that uh we um >> you can't answer. I know. >> Yep. You can't rebut. Okay. Um Patty Anderson, 1789 29 and

003a quarter Avenue, Bear Lake Township in Hogan. Um I just I'm here because I haven't been here for a while and I just didn't want you all to forget Hogan School. And so um we've done a little research and um like over the years I know that people when we first moved to town, it was the school to go to for little children and for learning and it was just a great school. I did write everything down because sometimes I ramble. um um you can't grow the school without growing the town. And there was a problem in town with the village board. They didn't accept a a sixunit um 12 duplex project. That could have been maybe six maybe seven or eight families that could would have children in the school. So, you have to

004move ahead because the board didn't want the town to grow. So, um, there's several families in town, and I know there's more, um, that homeschool. And I got to thinking about, is it a possibility maybe to start a focus group just to find out if homeschoolers could be enrolled in the school system and could they have some classes at home and some classes in the school? And the reason, and I know this for a fact, because um and not this school system, but you know, public schools haven't been famous for the teaching of what parents want their kids to learn. And that's I think why homeschooling started. And I just thought this would be something to look forward or look into. Um I would be happy to to to work with the parents and maybe

005like have parents and the teachers and and Nate from the school and see if that's a possibility. I don't know if that's a possibility. Um, and so that was just a suggestion. I came to that at 2:00 in the morning one time. Um, a unique you the school the rural schools are unique and I think having a a neighborhood school is is a good thing. Um, this was like thinking outside the box and sometimes we have to do that in order to make things move. So this is a little postcript. I went on your website and looked up what your beliefs and goals were and uh the first public school was founded in 1880 establishing a school in the frontier. And I think Hogan is like the frontier, the new frontier. And also also there

006was a little um subtitle of small classes and strong emphasis on teaching reading during the primary primary years give students a strong start. Small classes are a plus in Hogan. So, I just don't want you to forget that. And I know there's rambling, grumbling, and all that about closing the school. And I understand how much you can save, 700,000 or something like that if the school was closed. Um, but I just think it would be not a good idea. So, that's all I have to do. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> And just under the three minute mark. Perfect. >> All right. All right. Moving on, then we get to the approval of our regular session meeting minutes from August 11th. I would entertain a motion to approve. >> So move. >> Motion

007has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. The minutes have been approved. Next, we have our consent agenda where we have six employment resignations and 12 employment recommendations. So, with that, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Can I ask a question? >> Yes. >> On a couple of the approvals, maybe I should know this because I've been in education, but I don't know what a wraparound care is. background here is after school care that we're um offering for families of four students. >> So from before school and after school care after the end of >> put the wrap around >> that's thank you. >> Yep. So morning before and then during school they're in school and

008then after school. >> Yeah. >> Well, we're not doing before but wrap round with >> wrapping. Yes. >> Okay. I got it now. because four 4K students uh once they're in kindergarten they can go to Boys and Girls Club and so uh 4K kiddos don't necessarily have a if parents needed a place to go after school and sometimes finding uh child care for you know just a situation like that is incredibly difficult. So um yeah we're offering we had it on a just a few kids in it last year um but yeah we're offering that this year. So, um, basically for about 2 hours after the end of the school day offering that glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. >> All right. So, I have a motion in a second. >> Any further discussion?

009>> Do we have a motion? >> No. >> I don't think a question. Yes. >> I will move to accept the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Got a motion and a second now. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. And the consent agenda has been approved. Next, we get to hear the review on our 25 summer school program. >> All right. Feel like we just wrapped up our summer academy this year and here we are back to school. Um, so you're used to hearing from our longtime summer school coordinator, summer academy coordinator who has retired, Jenny Jensen retired. So, um, Natalie and I have been working hard to try to fill those shoes. >> We work together, um, this year along with lots of other people

010to to to run our summer academy. So with that, just some background why we offer it. It helps prevent that summer learning loss, provides a lot of really great fun enrichment opportunities for students and helps students be ready for the upcoming school year and just promotes that engagement and connection that that we want to see with our students. Take a look at some of the cute pictures as we go through. The great thing about being there for summer academy is just the smiles. Every day the kids come in, they're so happy and so proud of the projects that they do. It's a great time. Teachers enjoy it too because they get to do something a little different. So this year we did some things a little bit differently. We in the for the past several

011years we've had two sessions, but they were backtoback. So it was essentially four weeks in a row. This year we did session one in June and then session two the end of July and the first week of August. So there was a little break in between. Um, another change was moving it back up to the Hilltop Middle School campus where it had been many years ago. >> Many years ago >> and we've we had really good feedback on that. I think it worked really well. Was a a really good facility there close to the pool. Talk a little more about all those things too later. We offer classes for 4K through 8th grade and this year during session one there were 552 students plus um the middle school summer skills course happened um at the

012same time they started a week ahead and but then continue through so 60 students there and then during session two 673 students. So we had 55 teaching staff, 20 aids and sports staff and a wonderful high school volunteer as well. She was great. >> See the mountain biking class up there with Tim Panisuk and Officer Andy led that >> and I think a student at the conservancy. >> So cute. >> Fired. >> Um different courses that we offered during session one. There were 30 different options for students and 32 different courses during session two. Tennis camp was also offered. That was at a different time of day and different days. They actually rained got rained out and had to reschedule. That was a challenge. Band camp happens during summer academy and robotics camp during summer

013academy. The safety classes are always popular. We have hunter safety, snowmobile safety, ATV safety, and motor safety. >> Yeah. And I if I can just say too, I don't know if you hear it as board members, but those are probably the classes. I mean, I hear a lot about all the great classes, but just parents are super appreciative of being able to offer those safety classes, uh, just because it saves them a lot of time and running and inconvenience um, you know, at different times of the year. So, >> they're stressful classes for the kids because if they have if they're doing three of those and they have to test out of them, that last day is very stressful for trying to get all that done. High stakes. Yeah. I'll just let you take a

014minute to read some of the courses that we offered. Some new, some repeats that are favorites over the years. Just lots of different options. [Music] >> So, Marca, >> yes. are like adventures in reading and the math is is are some of these structured to help kids catch up in math. >> Are the adventures in reading is actually a reading intervention course um with our reading interventionists who who take those small groups of kids >> and math. Yep. Yep. Catching up. I thought our meds club went down and helped them with a fishing course. >> Um there's the campers um go fishing. >> I just wonder >> I'm trying to remember if we there wasn't a fishing course, was there in the past? I don't think so. I think it's just part of camp. >>

015Yeah. >> Happy campers. >> Teach him the alternate scale for measuring fish. >> Definitely. The Kelvin scale, >> also known as Bert scale. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? Wondering what those are about. >> All right. >> Yeah, this one. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, what went well? So, first of all, uh we did a survey with our families as well as with our staff. So families, many families indicated how they appreciated the breakfast and the lunch. This was the first year that we've done the lunch before. So we worked with Cali Hackle to make that happen. Um, also having the Boys and Girls Club at Hilltop reduce the amount of students having to ride the bus during the summer academy. And we had it very planned out. So after lunch those students came to

016the gym and the uh staff at Boys and Girls Club then they took them for their afternoon. >> Great organization. Yes, >> Lori. And Lori, not just because you're there, but I know Natalie spoke incredibly positively, if that made sense, very positively all summer. Um, just about that relationship and and how it went there and and how she appreciated learning more about it as well. >> It was good for us, too. And I think next year will be even better because we're going to have a whole building to ourselves. I was going to say just think of it's right there too. >> Pretty cool. Yeah. So >> good advantage for us as well. So >> yeah. No, that was a great partnership and I didn't have to answer the doorbell all summer because the staff

017did. That was great. >> Um and another thing we tried was students schedules were mailed to them in advance so that when they came on the first day, they could bring their schedule with them. And then we put on there where did they report when they first get there and so that they had all of that information and parents said they were very much prepared. So that was something new that we tried. And then also we had our Boys and Girls Club staff assisting with the lunch with that supervision because we knew that would take extra adults, less busing in between classes. We weren't having to grab the vans and run kids to different places. I think the van maybe left like two or three times all four weeks for students who may have missed

018the bus going out to the conservancy. Um, also we had with Littlest Learners being in the same building, they could attend when it was intro to 4K. So then they would just walk down the hall and then go back to Littlest Learners when they were done. great having the nature center building at the river dock completed so when we had rainy days they had a place that they could go and then as Marcia said with our reading interventionists we were able to meet some of those act 20 requirements that we were required to do >> actually ahead of the game on that we're not officially required to do that till next summer >> yeah good to have that in place ready to go And then staff feedback that we received. So 96% approved of changing

019the structure to four days instead of the five days. Um 80% liked that we switched back to having two weeks in June and not having everything at the end of the summer. Um 89% felt the communication was good or excellent. So, that's always something we're trying to improve upon is how do we make sure everybody knows what's going on and they feel like they are um really well informed. Um, and I guess I repeated there that the staff enjoyed those four days, but then when we surveyed staff after session one, it was nice to have their input so that we had we knew where we had to make a few changes going into session two and then also changes that we can make for next year to make everything go a little smoother. uh one

020of the items from the staff just to modify our ordering process for next year to make sure we have all of our materials on the first day of the class because this year we were waiting a few days. So that wasn't ideal. And then a few changes to our supervision to accommodate our new spaces. Things we just realized that we didn't have enough people in certain areas. So all things that we can fix with this one. Okay. Then then feedback from our families. So this year we had them give us a rating. We thought let's do the same thing that Google does with business. And our average rating was 4.6 out of five. So that was a pretty strong rating. Um just asking them about their child's experience and their communication. and 14% felt we

021could improve our pickup process. So, um I think for the most part they appreciated having the two separate areas. So, u we just know we have a little bit more work to do with that to make that even higher. Also, they appreciated having boys and girls club in the same location. Um, and the middle school transition classes were very much appreciated and those are always well attended and we're always monitoring those numbers because we sometimes will have to add sections to that class, but it's a class that all incoming fifth graders should take. Uh, one of the comments was that from somebody was that, I really love this district and thank you for everything you offer to our kids. So, it's always nice to hear that feedback and um people who just appreciate everything that

022we do and then just continue improving our transportation processes. This year there was a new program that the bus garage implemented. So, we had a few hiccups, but they were happy that they could test it out on our summer classes before we had to start with today. So that helped them to iron out anything that wasn't going so smoothly and make today go a little bit better. >> You want that one? >> Sure. We're always looking to improve. That's as Natalie said, we take the feedback from the surveys and from the input from families. Um so we want to try to bring back some courses. So, we've talked about trying to do some computer courses that have been done in the past, the tech that's been done in the past, see if we can offer

023those again and um and look for some new ideas as well, some things that haven't been offered at all in the past. We want to continue with the community partnerships um and our focus on that academic growth. Um we talked about aligning with the middle school summer skills um dates so that we run at the same time. Um, and then continuing to work with Boys and Girls Club and with their new location and and see if we can um maybe work with their staff again if they can help us with that end of the day supervision, >> bringing kids over. I'm looking at someone that I think that's going to work very well having that location next door. The pool location worked great this year. In the past, as Natalie said, we'd have to bust

024kids over to swimming lessons. There was always a kid or two or three who missed the bus and we'd have to get there. And it took so much of their day. They were able to extend um their swimming lessons and do a lot more um even just in the four days a week because of that the location with the pool right there. So, lots of positives and lots of lots of things we can look at to to work on and start planning. We were just talking. We need to schedule a meeting to start planning for next year. >> Any questions? >> We have to say thank you first before we let you go. Of course, to all the teachers and support staff who came and spent time um with the students during the summer. Lots

025of great administrative support. Katie Wick behind the scenes doing lots of organization and setup and communication. Lynette was the summer academy secretary. Her time Chris Panisuk helped out um at the beginning of each session. It's always there's always a lot going on. So, it was very helpful to have her extra help too. And of course, the custodial staff cleaning and assisting with the lunch, food service, preparing the food, um and the whole administrative team. We always ask them all to come and show up on the first couple of days for drop off and pick up. We really appreciate that. And the middle school team, too. Being on campus up there um and having Josh and Lori and Jess Miller there to just kind of be the hands-on day-to-day um people, it just felt really calm,

026organized, did all the work of all the people who helped. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Any other questions? Cool. >> Well, I will put on my Boys and Girls Club hat and say thank you because we did have a really great experience and working with all of your administration, all of the teachers, everyone we worked with was so great with my staff and I think it was a great partnership and I think we're excited about next year just expanding that and having that many more kids be able to take advantage of it. So, thank you guys for working with us. >> You got a strong team behind you. >> Give us a spot that was nice and cool, too, cuz it's a little warm in the building today. >> Spread out, >> right? Yes.

027>> This is what blocks my face. >> All right. Thank you. Oh, >> was uh it overall well accepted by parents and uh staff to have the divided schedule this year? Was that a good thing? >> Yes, the survey results showed that that was positive. >> Good. And for the Spanish immersion, did you utilize any uh uh Hispanic kids that are ready? >> Some of our high school students co-eing. >> Oh, that work out. That work out well. >> It was Yeah, it was really well received. Good. >> Yeah. In fact, one day when the teacher had to be gone for a reason, it was nice to have that other student there. So, when we had a sub who didn't speak Spanish, it was nice to have that high school student there. >> She just

028really took over and the class >> ear up. You're teaching. >> Hey, we're going to learn. >> All right. Great job. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Next, we get to hear about the exciting news at our advanced placement exam results. Good evening. I have the pleasure just to share a little bit of details about our uh summer. We get the AP course results back. I just put a slide up here. Uh just an opportunity to recognize um some of the instructors that put a lot of time and effort to make that happen. Uh there's 13 courses that we currently offer as AP, some of them alternating years. And uh that does this takes a lot of work and they take pride in their results. So they're always looking for what how they

029did. Um it's one of those things where they have an exam at the end that they want to see their kids um successful. With me tonight I have Alexis Doctor. She's going to talk a little bit about her training that went into it. She's uh new to Rice Lake District not too long ago and she took on the the language and and comp course um that we had. So I'm going to have her speak in just a second. This is just a snapshot of the results. This comes off the AP College Board, so lifted right off the website. Um, and this is a 5-year um, snapshot that they put for us. You'll find that the state average is a 71.2% pass rate. The national average is a 73%. So, when you look at ours last

030year was 82%. Which is amazing. Um, you'll find some some tests on national average have a 50% pass rate as a subject. Some might have a higher, but when you look at the composite of all the students that took an exam last year of passing the three, four, or five, we we crushed it. Um, and that goes to everyone that's involved in middle school, elementary, all the way up. That's a scope and sequence obviously to get them prepared for that league. So, it's not just the high school, and I want to recognize that for everyone. Um, so that's that's a huge huge big piece of it. This is just another slide and I can explain what it looks like. the far right column, the 2025, we had 60 students attempt an exam. That when you

031look at our population last year was also the highest number of students that attempted an exam in our history at Rice Lakeake High School. So, not only did we score very high, we had the largest percentage of students that ex uh took exam. What we have is 113 students last year enrolled into an AP course. So we have around 50% of our students just on estimate about 50% attempt any exam if they took an AP course. So there's a room that we can actually continue to build confidence in our students in some of those disciplines if they're taking AP. Hey, let's take the test. Many reasons for students not to, but once again, we we're hitting our stride and uh I'm I'm very proud to celebrate the staff that had that. So, at this point,

032I just want to have Alexis come forward and just talk a little bit about uh her journey because she shouldered a lot of that um stress of being an AP teacher and I want her to have her chance to share. >> Great. Hi, I'm Alexis. Um I taught AP Lang and Comp last year or AP language and composition. Um it's full name. Um I as a high school student took AP language and composition and I always say it was like the class that got me to be a teacher. It was so special to me. So, I had a real passion going into it and I was so excited when I was offered the opportunity. Um, I went to not last summer but the summer before I went to Minneapolis in a Augsburg University to take

033an AP um, summer institute class and that was a week long. Um, and it was with a head grader who um, he is in charge of one section of the exam um, making sure that everything runs smoothly. um he had been in like the industry for so long and working with AP for a really long time. So he was incredibly experienced and he really gave me a positive experience with AP Lang and got me set up to start teaching on my own the following year. Um I had 19 students take the exam. Um and of those 19, 15 pass the exam with a three or higher. Um this was good. It was a good average especially for my first year teaching an AP course. Um, and they had an higher average score in the US

034and Wisconsin. Um, so the average score in my class was higher and they also had a higher percent of perfect scores than the US and Wisconsin. So a perfect five. Um, I was incredibly proud of them. Um, there is nothing more special than working with those students who are so goal oriented um and know exactly what they want and just go out and take it. Uh, I found it really important to provide them really unique experiences. So I had guest speakers in often. Um, I had Michelle Jereo come in and talk about libraries and how they find books. Um, I had one of our AP art students come in and talk about her artistic process. Um, because AP language and composition is really about understanding decisions and analyzing why we make the decisions we make.

035Um, I taught two sections in total and like I said, I had 19 kids take the exam. So, it was great and I really appreciate the opportunity opportunity. >> Thank you. Yeah. [Applause] Thank you again, Alexis. Those are amazing results. Obviously, we had other other great results, but I think over percentage of pass or how many students took her class, she was the highest. That's why one of the reasons why you're here tonight. Thank you. Uh just a couple more quick slides as we look at some of the success in the last 5 years. Um right now, currently last year, we had the highest percentage of students graduate on time with their class. When you look at the averages, there's only one student in that population of last year that didn't hit the four-year grad

036mark. Um, I will also share that at Rice Lake School District, we have all students in one pool. Those are all students 9 to excuse me, grade 12 that are enrolled in the district. Somebody moved out and didn't enter another school, they're still with us. If a student is in an altered program, they are counted in this pool. Some school districts have an entity where they're not on track to match the four-year cohort. they put them in a charter school and they're reported separately. So they might show high percentage but that doesn't mean that nine all 12th graders are actually meeting that benchmark. They kind of hide that data and that's not what we do at Rice Lake. That's all students in our district which is something to to be commended for for the district

037um for all the hard work that they do. Um it's not just the high school. Uh attendance rates I was snapshot last week. I know there's a last board meeting uh obviously zeroing in on that. We have lots of data to show what percentage of students passing classes, how many absence is the threshold there. Um that could be another another opportunity at a different time. But obviously there was a low part in our attendance. And that also matches something else I want to show you on this. U this is percentages of FS given by school year in the past four years. I will share on the left column 5.9%. You feel it. That hurts when it you doesn't seem like a lot of lot of lot of percentage but that is a big shift. Uh

038we give out over 10,000 grades on an annual basis in high school uh based on our population and four classes graded per term per student. So 2.9% is the lowest percentage of failure we've seen in the history as well of Rice Lake School District matched with the highest grad rates, highest APs. um a lot of good trend data going the right direction obviously um from an area we were this just gives you a great distribution. I always share this with staff. Our goal is not to highlight this and and give less A's. If kids earn an A, they deserve an A. Um it just that shows what what grades percentage uh over the 10,000 grades that we give out at Rice Lakeake High School. What what has been earned? that did break that out by

039gender and other things, but we obviously males um typically we Mark has overlaid data with with our grades and um we have a lot of lot of things we can do with that and we do with departments. Departments break down by their sections, by their subject and look at if they're matching that 3.9% failure by course. So then they can determine if they're trending higher or lower by subject or by course to determine if there's things they need to do differently with their instruction. But just wanted to take a couple couple minutes to highlight that. I know the staff were excited and I wanted to showcase that for the the school district as well. So, thank you. Any questions? >> Have a question, Kurt. Why would a student want to take an AP test and

040pass it? >> Yeah, great question, Don. U any score of three or higher earns them college credit. Uh it depends on the college they're going to. Um, but all in the nation that's recognized as as college transfer. A four or five typically gives them equal credit to that course. Like a statistics um or language comp, they'll get that credit as a a four or five. Um, some of those credits are four or five college credits for a language course at a college. For example, WC RIT 114 or 16 is a four credit English class. If you pass Miss Doctor's test with a three, four, or five, you can get that course crossed off your list. Um, test score. Right now, a test cost is around $90 per test. Um, if a student is in hardship,

041we will compensate that, pay for that as a school district. The only downfall is the AP College Board changed when you have to sign up for tests. So, now they require you to sign up for the test in the fall and the tests aren't till the spring. So, we encourage all students to sign up, but it's it's the it's that sign up process that's now way before a student might even experience the class. We don't some of these classes we don't offer till second semester. So, >> so you pay that fee in advance at that time, too. So, you don't even >> you get the fee back though if that's a great question, Lori. And we will reimburse the student. If they don't take the exam, they will get their fee back. And Mr. Ost

042helps us just with all the accounting. But encourage all kids to try. Like I said, we'd have 113 students in a course. Around 60 students attempt the test. Some students took multiple tests, but those are per per belly button. So, >> I've noticed as a parent, you know, and talking to kids from when I went through college, there's a lot more kids that don't go on the four and a half, fiveyear plan. I think a lot of it is because of the credits they're accumulating before they actually get there, which is a big savings to a parent obviously to pay for an extra semester or year of college. >> Absolutely. And this is on top of ECCP and start college. Now, that that's not part of this data. We've had a trend upwards and students

043taking the ECCP, which is the college credit directly through Wclair or Northwoods. And that is through the two programs that the state um has. We we obviously get partial reimbursement of that, but that's coming out and we have a large number of students doing that on top of our AP. So when I sent that little summary out to staff, a number of kids taking rigor and going beyond is amazing when you look at the percentage not only in AP but in the college courses, which is partly because they're seeing the dollar savings. Um so it's it's exciting. Is there a certain time window that you have to take the test as a school district? >> Yeah, so we did a couple I I commend Miss Nearing for this. Um, she came from Baron and she

044worked with our AP she's our AP test coordinator. We might be looking to add some some support persons for that. There's every AP test has a certain date and test window. So, she looked at the calendar and there were several students that had a double up or some opportunity for a school activity and she um submitted for an alternative test date and got some more students that were able to take a test that maybe weren't able to take the test. I know we had some students have to come back after graduation because she did an alternative test for those students to do it. So there is a specific date and window because it's um there was some scrutiny about the security of the test that happened in China when it came back across because the

045time change. So there were some really changes in the windows that we experienced because it is obviously equate to equal credit. So it has to be proctored highly and uh and they were worried about the the sensitivity of the data getting out for the test. Do we have any correlation between let's say you take a test or you take the class it ends in January and then you're taking the test in May. Do we see correlations where we have lower failure rates with that longer duration between end of class and >> fair question. I don't have today I couldn't give you per pupil but I do know every staff member that's teaching AP does multiple study sessions leading up to the exam. So if it's a third three-term course and the test is in fourth

046term lagging or if it's a two-term course uh first semester and second they'll run study sessions during resource. I know a lot of the AP teachers before or after school giving them practice exam path success. So that's something that I think is why we have such good successes. There's a lot of support happening. So trying to remember practice that and teachers like Alexis and other ones going uh we compensate for the PD but them really truly um understanding the test and making sure that our content and the curriculum matches. Most AP content you're covering as much as you can and you're probably only covering this much of what the the curriculum might be. So it's really a every time. My question is related to that, Kurt. When you get the results back, um can can

047you see the ones that kids are missing so that you know if it's um content that they're they're missing or is it just that kid that's missing? >> Yeah, it's a pretty comprehensive report on the AP College board. Um each teacher can print their own roster, but also teacher subject score report. And I can see that as well. So I can print a subject score report to see which subject, but also which category on the AP test they were they were doing lower in. Yeah, it's it's a really it's a good tool. The college board has to approve the syllabus and the syllabus has to be taught. Um it's way more rigorous than a college entering uh course. When I say her course versus a a college intro, I would say it's two to three

048times more rigorous. um two to three times more time taught curriculum than in a college three credit or four credit course because uh 90 days over in 80 minutes you can do the math versus a three credit course or four might be meeting three or four times a day for around an hour and that's only in a college semester. So you start in September and end in December it's R. So rigor's there. kids that take that and don't take an exam, I know they're going to do just great in a college course because they're prepared for the research and the practice in the class. Great question. >> Any other questions? >> Our graduation rate is far far above the statewide graduation rate, isn't it? >> We were struggling there for a while. I mean that

049the state graduation rate is around 88 um 88% there for a while. back five six years ago through the pandemic there was some when we take all of our seniors and there's like I said no all type they're all included but we're well above yes >> okay >> well above >> and have grading just just to um assertain that we're comparing apples to apples over the last five years of that data have grading standards remained the same here >> grading standards consistency has improved I think the one thing I would shout out to say why graduates are continue to go in the right direction is Mr. Bice in the audience and he works tirelessly with Northwoods on alternative pathway like HSED or GED and where we've had some students that need that route and that

050was something that partnership with Northwoods to make that happen and that was that was right fit for those kids and uh and that obviously counts as a grad as well. So those those programs are important and they need to be utilized for certain certain students and um Mr. Bisey has done a great job of doing that. Thank you. >> Yeah. Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'd just like to thank all of our teachers and staff from the youngest of our kids all the way up through high school. Seeing those numbers, that takes everybody to get there. And so, thank you all for the hard work that you guys put into our kids. All right. Next we have the second reading of the WOW program student informationational book. >>

051Yes. Good evening. I definitely don't have anything as exciting as the first two presentations, but um it's it's awesome to see what our kiddos are doing at all levels and and we know that we have a great district. Um I did do getting back to the purpose I'm up here the wow information book. I took a couple um um advice some advice from you and I changed I did have a mistake with the parent teacher conference and then I did switch around some of the things found into in the statue that Mr. Hankle had brought up. So with that being said that's the only things that I made from our last discussion and it's it's kind of ready to go if you guys feel it is and uh we'll go from there. >> Any questions

052or comments? >> Thanks for making the edits. I would move to >> accept. >> Motion has been made. Is there a second? >> Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? >> Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed. >> Hang on one minute. >> And that has been approved. >> You might just for Ry's objection. >> Know what his objection is? >> If you're okay, just because Mark is there and and Kirk gave him some kudos. if you're okay with it just because I know there have been some changes in the HSED >> programs that frankly have been more common sense >> uh help been able to take a more common sense approach with some kiddos if you're okay with kind of going back an agenda. Could you take

053a minute and talk? >> Absolutely. You know, we're doing 8 to 12 kids a year um in all different backgrounds. For example, uh had a student move in the district this year, four credits as a senior. It's not going to happen mathematically in our building. So, we have to look at other routes because, you know, it's it's kind of this balancing act. We want that student when they leave us, especially that when they turn 18, they can go, right? So, you know, I think the great philosophy we have is let's let's do what we can to make sure that student has a diploma. we're not handing them them off and I'll get in that into a minute, but we know that we can maybe perhaps move that student out of a cycle of poverty or

054whatever it might might be, getting them um a diploma. So, the the high school equivalency diploma carries a little more weight than the GED. So, that's one reason we do it. Um the one that we focus on through Northwoods, and I'm still learning a lot on it's called the 509. So, what it does is it takes into account all the credits that a student has accumulated through us. So if we have them from a freshman or whatnot or I get a transcript from another district they move in, we look at that transcript and we see if it what I like to say is if it checks a box. There's about seven boxes to the HSC. So maybe a student has all their science or has their math and then the HSED program can just focus

055on those missing areas. So once they go to Northwoods, it really becomes moving from a credit world to a competency world. So they'll take the adult learner readiness test and see where they score. And then at Northwoods, they will focus on the things the student doesn't know, the the competencies they don't have, and they'll focus on those. So, it might be sitting down and working one-on-one with instructor on the ELA, the English, and those kind of pieces. So, it it's not, and we call them, we say they're dual enrolled with us. They're still our student, and and I'm still I get a weekly update on attendance and and what the student has accomplished that week. So, I might get an email saying that, you know, so and so made it here every day this week,

056and this is what we got done and what we're heading to next. Uh, by law, a student has to attend uh 15 hours there per week. If they are employed, then it's just 10. So, a student, if you know, they're they're also looking at at being employed to to cover some bills and some things, then it's less. Um, we set the contract up for whenever the start date is to the entire to the end of the school year and then we prorrate that back when they finish. Um, and again, some kids are done in a handful of weeks, some day some kids a few months. It depends on on what they're doing. So, that's all over the board. I think um last year we were averaging about $1,200 a student when we put them down

057there. So it wasn't a high cost or anything like that for the for the movement we get from not just Rice Lake High School or Rice Lake Area School District but probably for our society. So that's kind of the long and short of it um of the HSC program. But it does take into account what the student has done with us whether it be for three or four years or again like my example student moves into our district that's highly credit deficient uh and those kind of things. >> Do you know what the pass rate is for that? I mean the majority of students pass >> students that we've sent there were 100%. >> Really? >> Y so the >> but a part of that is you're doing screening on the front end of that.

058It's not just Yep. >> anyone who maybe wants to automatically does that. >> Yeah. There's there's a lot of things and and a lot of students >> you're not just sending any student. >> Yeah. A lot of students have to do some things like at our high school before like I say, okay, we got to close this box before you go and things like that. >> Um attendance, they'll let me know on attendance. I've only had one student where I had to, you know, call a couple team meetings and said, you know, you're not going, you're not showing up. We got to get this done. And luckily, that student turned it around. So, if they're willing to go there and and put their time in, um, they'll do well. And again, it's one of those

059things, too, that it breaks down some of the barriers. I mean, we have like the WOW program and stuff and that helps, but we still get some of these older kids, too, that by being in that more of like I'm going to call it a college or a young adult setting, they thrive >> where they just in our building with 700 kids and the bells and whistles and all the movement, they don't do well. So, when they get there, they do get, you know, a lot of kind of one-on-one instruction, they start to find themselves. They see the light at the end of the tunnel and that kind of gets them motivated. And then Northwoods does a great job of, you know, if they're interested in a technical program or something, they can help them

060shadow students and sometimes that's a motivator because a kid sees, wow, I can be doing that in a few months. I've had kids that finish up in the fall and by January they're starting a college, you know, a two-year college degree there. So, um, that works out well, too. It kind of starts to have kids see that, oh my god, I got to take, you know, eight credits this year. I'll never make it, you know. And again, it's not because we just hand them off. But if that's if I got a senior that needs 10 credits, that's going to be difficult when they can only do eight. I got to find up find a way for them to do some credits outside of the school day and that can be challenging if it's a add-on

061online course or something like that. So, this has been a great avenue for us. >> But yeah, it's a great option and I know Mark obviously knows a lot about it. So, thank you as long as he was there was able to share. >> All right. Next we have a update from our district administrator observation committee. >> Um yes uh we met uh last Tuesday uh August 19th uh called the meeting to order at 5 and uh all members were present. We had a couple new members Lori and Andrew. Um we approved the minutes from the following year actually October 30th um from 24 and uh I thought it would since we had two noon members we uh reelected a chair. I was fortunate enough to be reelected as the committee chair. Um we reviewed

062and discussed uh the timeline. Uh they had a couple questions on it. um you know because they're brand new, why do we have to kind of do the evaluation so quickly and you know because of the contract renewal uh coming in January with uh the district administrator, it kind of has to f flow that way. So, um, we went on to discuss the actual matrix and a couple of the changes. Basically, we kind of thought we're going to leave the matrix unchanged, but they thought um we maybe should add a couple of, you know, not observed uh options on a few of the uh questions just because they didn't feel like it was fair to guess or go off of maybe one observation that they had on the district administrator and therefore skew the results.

063So, you'll notice when we fill them out, there's going to be a few that have not applicable and there's a couple that have not observed. And that's what those are for. If you don't feel like you've seen Randy in that situation, you can just put not observed. Um, we uh so you'll be getting uh we'll be giving that out in October. I encourage all the board members to please complete that uh so we can go forward uh with uh Ry's evaluation. We then uh just discussed uh future ideas uh for improving you know the evaluation process which we had a couple I think good ideas that we'd like to bring to the board when this year is done and uh see if we can even make it better. Um, and we also then I thought

064talked about maybe we'll re-evaluate the timeline and kind of go over that, but for now we're kind of in the timeline and we're going to we're going to flow through this year and then we adjourned. So once again, I'd like to encourage everyone to fill out their uh evaluation uh in October when they get it. So then not observed replaced not applicable or >> there were some so there were some we felt uh and I think it'll become obvious when you read some of the questions that some were just not applicable because we didn't know if for instance uh did we do a survey and if we really if you really don't feel like we completed a survey it's more not applicable. Uh there were some things where I think I'm going to just say

065off the top of the head uh Randy knows the names of children of every student or whatever. That's part of his in >> declining enrollment. >> Yeah. Some some of them are like, "Hey, we just got on the board. We haven't even really spent that much time around Randy. How can we evaluate that?" >> And some of us have been around way too darn long. And so, um, I did agree. So, rather than just say, you know, give them a bad grade because they haven't seen them do it yet, >> um, they thought it would be more fair if we put not observed. And I kind of agree with that. So, >> that's why my point was going because some of the stuff that we get is really not applicable. Correct. See it. So, >>

066so in my mind, not observed could actually replace not applicable because >> Right. And some things we actually deleted just because we really felt like it was things that we really shouldn't be part of, you know, we shouldn't be observing. >> So, we did delete a few more things. It's still maybe just a hair too long, but it's getting shorter every year. So, that's my report. >> Any other questions? I just want to say that going to the convention every year and sitting in on some of the superintendent evaluation programs that have been put out there and the different schools that are doing it. What we do here is about as thorough a job as anybody in the state. And so thank you to the committee for the hard work of determining what we need

067to do and and giving us the guidance to move forward. And maybe after we make the changes next year, we can put on a program and and >> I think it's it's an important thing to a you know let Randy know things that he's doing right and then you know some things that maybe need some improvement. Um I will mention because no one actually attended our meeting from the public but we were in open session because obviously we're just discussing the matrix. The next couple of meetings will be in close session because we'll actually be discussing individual employee uh performance. So, we cannot, you know, meet in open session and do that. So, if you're all excited to come to the meeting, please don't because you'll be asked to leave right away. >> As will

068I the first time. >> Yes. Exactly. >> Yes. All right. Thank you for that update. Next, we have the curriculum committee meeting update. We met tonight at 5:00. All board members were present. We approved the minutes and then we got a uh brief update on the Department of Instruction and Learning as far as professional development focus for 2526. Uh some of the things they've already done. They had of course the new teacher in services. some of the things they did there. And then the back to school this last week, the back to school for all staff members and doing inservice days there. We also have uh some new things that are growing and being developed as as we go along. And that's with the uh family and consumer education area with our early childhood courses.

069We're working right now to get them aligned with Northwood so that um when they complete that class they will be uh certified or certifiable certified >> both um and then also a little bit about the financial literacy course that uh will be required going forward. Um but that new course is being developed and and aligned with act 10 requirements. So making sure that everything is there in place and ready to go. Um with that um we also were informed that all K through three teachers are letters volume one and two trained. So that is of course one of the requirements from DPI. Um, and to have all of them trained and ready to go is is amazing. Thank you to our staff on that. Um, >> can someone again repeat what letters stands for? I

070can never remember that. >> Marsha, letters, >> language essentials for teachers of reading and spelling. >> Yes. >> Passed your dementia test today. >> All right. >> Passed your acronym test, man. >> Thank you. Um we also uh got a little bit of background at the middle school where they do some pre-teaching and then reteing um because all all of our students get the basic universal curriculum and then from there the ones that are missing pieces here and there then get some extra help. And one of the things that they can do is for some students, they'll pre-teach it ahead of time so they know what's coming and then as they hear it with the rest of the students, they get more out of that and then they can do a retach and that that

071helps some of those students um stay current with their with their peers. Um also uh found that um there'll be no new standards in the science area. Nothing is going to be changing there since 2017 when they were last adjusted. And so that'll probably last for another 7 years or so from now uh before that gets looked at again. Um and that was kind of it for that. And then the other topic was co-curricular positions and competitions. And so um one thing um Bert brought forward was the co-curricular um how what that actually means and that it's kind of it's a class and a club during class time and then they take that knowledge that they learn in the class and go on and do competitions. And so we uh as a committee asked um

072we'll be asking finance to look at that co-curricular piece and allow >> compensation >> some compensation or yeah I'm sorry what did I say >> finance yeah no compensation to look at that and look at ways we can um enhance maybe some payments to get more staff interested in doing those competitions and getting our students out there kind of goes along with our we felt it would kind of go along with our um goals for the district as far as getting more kids involved in things. And so by doing that and by offering more maybe some more uh opportunities in co-curricular um it's it's a win-win in that area. So, um, we, uh, we're excited to to pass that off to compensation and see what they can can do for us. And that, um, and

073then our next meeting will be at 5:30 on Tuesday, September 16th, and we adjourned. Any questions? Okay. Next on the agenda, uh, buildings and grounds committee. we haven't met since our last meeting. But one of the topics that we've been working through on buildings and grounds is the new facility down at the college where we'll have uh child care, the playground in that area. And uh Randy was at the county who operates owns the facility there um on last Friday was at their uh buildings and grounds committee meeting because they're concerned about where we were looking to put the playground on the back side of the building versus where they'd like to put it. Um and the co we've we have found that the cost to put it where they want it uh would increase

074um upwards of $20,000 and we didn't feel that that would be um something that the taxpayers of the Rice Lake Area School District um really should have to uh fund just because they want it in a different place than where it would make sense to us. So, with that, Ry's got a nice little drawing and I'll let him uh talk a little bit about what he's got on the map. >> So, I included for you in your board packet uh the exact same packet that I submitted for the property committee meeting um recently um on Friday the 22nd, I think it was. Um so, there's the the student center building that um we plan to convert to a child care center. Um some things that have already been done to the building, the lead paint,

075there was a little bit of lead paint in there that has been abated. They came in, sand blasted that out um or removed and then any asbestous in there was also abated. So some things are taking place. Uh but we were there to talk uh talk about the playground. And so with that, um I know a couple of property committee meetings ago uh earlier this summer, I know Jeff French and Abby Fischer were there. uh just to talk through the playground piece. And so when they came away from that meeting um you know there was some concern about its closeness um proximity to that trail um the walking trail back there and um so with that then um Craig Fowler myself Brad Kissling and Victor uh met shortly after that uh to talk more about

076it and came up with some additional options and that's uh where Kevin discussed the increase in cost. So, um, here's an overview, just a little bit of a different angle. Um, and we had measured, I just kind of Google mapped it. So, uh, from this corner to anywhere on the trail, the closest point was about 93 ft and this was about 99. So, pretty similar there. Uh, the space in between the buildings is about 115 ft. And um this building is uh the student center itself is about 83 feet uh wide that way. And so um this was the probably the most expansive option um the largest option. And so um uh with that um this was an option where from the closest point on the trail to the playground was about about 60 ft

077uh give or take a little bit and it doesn't expand. You're probably familiar with that patio that goes out the back which will remain there. We need that for a fire escape. Um but it it doesn't go, you know, beyond that. And then the next option uh developed was just a little bit smaller. You see on this one the the playground for the two years and older uh students goes um from the student center all the way to the corner of the the library. And in the next option, it's just a little bit smaller. So, it uh doesn't go quite as far. And then um and again, I'll just go back up to the other one. Um and then it kind of basically stays a little bit closer to the building. So, you have a

078sidewalk that comes right out, wraps around. There would have to be a gate here. Um and there would be a gate. Uh that's that little set of steps there that would be blocked off. Um and so it would look like that. And I think there yeah you're about 80 ft uh from the trail uh there. And so um you know talked a little bit about the total cost for the entire project. It's going to be probably land in that 1 to one and a half. Um original estimate was less but we found out we needed to add fire suppression uh sprinkler system to the building and the playground's going to be a little more than expected. Um, so, uh, and the other piece I I don't know if um, and we've experienced this, we've put

079in some playgrounds recently. So, like behind Hilltop and the middle school, you can have at most a 1% slope on the whole playground. And so, as an example, and Natalie knows this, they came to install the playground at the middle school and they looked at the one corner and said, "That's more than a 1% slope." And they left. They said, "Call us when it's within a 1% slope." Okay. So, we know they mean business on that. And so, uh, can have at most a 1% slope. And, um, going back, um, >> why is that, Randy? That kids roll downhill, they stop eventually. >> Yeah. Child childc care reg playground regulations. Yeah. That's, uh, >> you can't play on a slope. >> Well, if you're going to install equip, they can play on a slope, but

080if you're going to install equipment where the equipment is installed, has to be pretty flat. So, um, with this, and it doesn't look like it quite as much here in the picture, there's the student center on the left. There's the library over there. There's that stairway there that would be blocked off. Uh, this drops between 6 and 7 ft from that wall to the corner of the u to the corner of the student center to the I guess I'd call it the southwest corner. Here's a you see a little bit more of the slope in in this picture as that goes. Um, >> yeah, that's it's it's pretty significant. Um, and that's just looking out behind the the library. There is a a storm drain. Um, we'd be able to stay off of that, but

081there is one there. Um, this is kind of standing in the same spot, just looking basically to the north. Uh, there's that patio and and walk out there. um we'd be staying well that way of it um with those options. And again, here's just on the other side of that looking south along the trail there. Um yeah, and there's the front of the building. We were asked to investigate. So, I'm up on top in front of the student center. There's the the library down there. Investigate. Well, what if we put the playground up there? It's nice and flat. There's some room. Uh but we know with the power lines that are going to have to go in, we know there's fiber buried under there, there is a a hydrant right there as well. Uh it's

082just not a realistic option. We were also asked to look to the east of the gymnasium. Um I don't ever remember this, but some of you may. There were tennis courts there at one time. Um and so we were asked to consider that, but that's a it's a considerable distance away from the building. Um and just doesn't doesn't make a lot of sense for us. So, um, with that, the property committee, um, approved either of those plans. And then in terms of the the cost, um, without going to the rest of the county board, which Patty would Patty would understand. Uh, oh, and I did put in there, too, just, you know, we could use the black fence, um, you know, insert some trees around it to break up the line of sight and and

083just had some examples there. So, the property committee can authorize um spending of up to $10,000 without going to the county board for approval. And so, with that, um they made a motion and and pass that motion that um they would support, excuse me, they sorry, they would support either of the playground plans um alternate plans. >> Alternate plans. >> The alternate plans. Yes, the alternate plans. and um contribute $10,000 towards it. The the original plan was there. >> That is that the original plan where that one was >> that was the original plan. >> The distance from the trail in that corner, is it 17 ft? >> Yeah. Is it 16 or 17 ft? Something like that. >> Up on the distance. What's the reasoning for distance? Um, I think there was a concern

084about that coming too close to the trail and and u I think some felt it was going to be aesthetically u not as pleasing to the eye to have that sitting there. >> Well, I know I've never walked down a trail and seen a playground and went kids playing ground kids. It's going to and and too this playground um it'll be you know when it's not occupied for child care purposes it's going to be open to the public. So nights we it just it'll have gates on it but they'll be open um it'll be open to the public. So um >> is there a square footage that you have to have because the way that you have it designed is it required? >> Yes, there's there is a a minimum square footage. We're a little

085larger here, but the other piece is we wanted and Victor was working uh with the child care folks and there's definitely pieces you want and and there are, you know, like in the corner here. Um those are swings and and there is a port in place, a handicap accessible portion of the playground, not the whole thing. Uh but there is where there's some port in place. Um you know, like out at you're familiar with that makes sense. Uh some of it is poured in place. Majority is wood chips. Um but yeah, wanted to wanted to have it be a a nice playground um you know that not only the child care can use but the the public can use as well. >> So I know we're compromising. Are we compromising in size or not? >>

086We're not compromising. >> If if we compromise are we compromising in size? >> If if we compromise No. this uh this one that's a little bit bigger um is even actually this chunk here where we went to the edge is actually just this darker gray portion is actually just a little is a little larger uh than that one. So we're not compromising in size. Um, and talking a little more about the excavation, um, we thought we would have to, uh, maybe insulate the foundations of those two buildings. Uh, but the architect felt pretty good. It's about 115 ft. This original playground is basically 60 by 100. Um, he said we could slope the ground enough where you'd still have sufficient soil covering. And then he said you would just, um, cover it with wood chips.

087So you're not trying to take a lawn mower in there and do a little steep chunk um on each side, you know, next to the buildings. But yeah, >> I think one of the main or the main consideration should be what's what's bed was what is best for the kids >> and what works best for the caregivers. I mean, I went there where that little white piece of concrete is there at the edge of the original plant. That's a disg around noon and I talked to eight people that walked by and asked them. I said, you know, >> these are the plans and this some people are objecting to the children's playground because they might it might spoil the aesthetics of the trail. What do you think about that? Not one of them thought that

088was a no, I don't notice that. Not a big deal at all. So, I I I don't know why they're coming up with this concern, but I think they're probably the only people in the whole area that have that concern. >> And another thing I noticed, you know, there are windows. >> Yes. >> From the building out there, so it'd be easily observable, be easy to get the kids out there. If you put it in between, there's no visual there at all on the other side, that alternative plan there. Um, and I don't I also don't know why you'd have to go all the way up to the wall if you did that. But I think that was that was the main concern. It wasn't the a concern of the people using the trail at

089all. You walk walk along the trail. I mean, that patio is not exactly a real aesthetic place. >> Frankly, the playground softens that concrete monstrosity. So, >> and you go a little farther down the trail, the worst thing on the whole trail is that amphathy. there is totally overgrown with weeds. You know, it looks like uh it should be in Rome someplace basically. And they're going to be extra cost for that. The side of that building there, which would be to the right of the picture, once you ex excavate the ground, >> that's going to expose bare concrete. >> What are you going to do about that? That's not going to be aesthetically pleasing. >> Um >> agreed. And I I >> And you know, you walk farther, there's industry on the trail for pizza.

090I mean, this is a ridiculous concern. It really is. I'm I'm totally >> That's the only reason >> compromising camp. >> No, I >> So I I want to add to Phil's that was the the first thing I noticed when I went over there was there's not, like he said, not a single window going to the south off of that. Yeah. >> So, the other staff that might be in their rooms aren't going to be out and say, "Oh, we got to got to get out there and help with the situation." Um, there's none of that. It's going to be the people that are out there are on their own in an island basically. >> Extra sets of eyes basically. And one concern a couple people did voice walking by the trail, he said, "Well,

091their terminology said there's some weirdos around here, you know, is is safety of the kids going to be uh provided, >> but they won't be out there by themselves." >> And the other thing I talked to some disc golfers that were out there, there a couple of disc golf stations and they weren't concerned about at all. They just said, "Maybe you're going to have to put up a higher net so that a disc doesn't go in there. You have to change location or provide a net so that a disc doesn't go in there and bop one of the kids or something. >> Yeah, Randy, >> that wasn't major either. >> You've met with this group. This is a committee level from the board, right? The county board. Not not the whole county board. >> No.

092So, their property committee, which is Kevin said the same as our B&G committee. >> So, four of them. >> How dug in are they? A deal breaker. >> Maybe five. Five or six maybe. I mean, Patty might know. say they want us to say yes to what they're proposing. >> No, I know. But if we say no, is it a deal breaker is what I'm saying. I mean, does that slow the whole project? >> I'm not certain. I mean, it may slow the process down. I don't know if it'll be a deal breaker. >> Is it cause blood though, too, or is this you playing? I mean, there's something to be said for scratching each other's back a little bit, >> right? Well, in this case, I don't understand why we need to spend $20,000

093extra on a playground from a taxpayer perspective, and I would prefer to have it go to the full county board for discussion. If the full county board decides that they want to have the playground where it's located, I don't think it should be on the >> on the school district to pick up the extra 10. I think that should be on the county board. But in the scheme grand scheme of things, I think I would support going back with the original plan and not spending the extra money on excavation because that does nobody any good as far as I'm concerned. >> The part I I still don't understand is the playground is still back there. It's still going to be seen from the trail. So whether you tuck it up between the two buildings or

094have it back where it's more useful for our purposes, >> those darn kids are going to be there. >> They're they're still going to be there. They're still gonna, you know, >> I don't know what aesthetically changes that with kids out there. Actually, that's probably the most beautiful thing is hearing a bunch of kids laughing. >> Exactly. And one person I talked to said exactly that. >> Yeah. >> You know, >> well, and in $20,000, well, whether it's 10,000 from us and 10 from them or 20 from us, it's it's still coming out of our pocket. >> The big chunk >> one way or another. So, >> yep. It's still money that's being wasted. Really? Yeah, >> I feel like I've got solid >> consensus. This isn't an action item. It's just giving more guidance

095to Randy, but I think anybody have anything they want to say otherwise. Otherwise, >> if there was a legitimate reason, you know, you know, we really wanted to put a I don't know, a pavilion there at some point or I I don't know. I don't know what their reason would be. I would maybe Okay, well, we can give a little bit here. But the fact that there is no reason, they just don't want it there because it's ugly. I I don't that's that's not a reason to me. The other question I did have in terms of location, why couldn't you consider a location where it's just in the middle of that green space? Why? Why does it have to be all the way to that back retaining wall? Then you could retain more visibility. It

096would be farther from the trail. It would just be in the middle of that lawn. >> You're saying, um, sorry, one second. Something I mean, maybe like this, but it's more out to the west toward the river. >> Picture of the over the overview. >> Just just out there. >> Oh, sure. Yep. Kind of almost more like an only concern I' have because Even even with this, we still need this is for the two on up. We still need a small space for the little bikers. Um and and uh um that's what this was intend to do. So we can but our thought was before like we can just have a little space for them. >> Scroll down just a little bit more, Randy. See that >> kind of p the pen circle over there,

097which is that manhole cover. >> Mhm. >> Right there. Okay, >> that would be my concern is what what is underneath that cover and what are we you know because then if you slide it that way a little bit do we get into that and the excavation is now we can't do that either >> so >> but that like I said it appears that the location as drawn there is a concern of >> nobody >> I don't know >> yeah all right is that did vote on that or was that just the the feeling you had? >> Property committee voted on that. Okay. >> To accept either one and and give the 10 grand because that they can do that without going to the county board. >> so we can keep going forward >> uh

098and negotiate this hopefully. >> I I think so. the equipment. Where's the the equipment's ordered, but um we we have to give Yeah, because if we want to ideally open at some point this winter, you know, the playground's got to be >> open the winter. I guess we could call the state to say we get an exception. We got to have playground in place to have the child care. >> It's got to be in place before winter comes. We're not going to do it. So, we're we are on a time crunch on that way. The playground equipment is coming like in two days. Um, >> the other thing is we ran into at the middle school kind of a time crunch because they'll only install until I'm going to say maybe November 10th. >> Yeah.

099If if even that. Yeah. We we've been pushing them to get this thing installed by the end of the year. So, >> um, >> but I don't think that should be any thing based on our decision. I think >> maybe contact me able to get You could well have gymnastics can maybe say we have the the gym there, >> right? >> Can we get an exception till spring or something like that? >> Problem is if you get to spring now, you can't do it until when? Because of frost. I mean, right now you're out till >> Yeah. Well, >> one thing we looked at is cutting the top off of that and kind of >> swinging it. >> So, it's only out. Do you remember how far it was? >> If we do what? I'm

100sorry. >> Break part of it to the south there. So, it was, you know, I mean, kind L they could redesign it and put part of it over here. >> So kind of like an L shape, but it was another >> and that's basically kind of what Phil just >> 30 ft off of the trail. More is what we were trying to >> You could Yeah, this is about 100 ft long. So if you took about, you know, and it was roughly right in here, maybe a little more. Took 30 feet and stuck it over here. >> Can you go the other direction or No, it can't go the other direction. >> To the kind of to the north almost slope. >> Yes. Now you're back. >> You're okay. Right back up right there. But

101from that point, >> um, one second. >> Yeah. >> Uh, that's looking that way. There. So, you're okay for a little bit there because Yeah, we even looked at putting it over here while you're dealing with >> actually could stay out of you could stay away from those trees, but it's a that's a 10-ft slope >> um when you get over there. So, >> and why does it have to go to the property committee? And that's that's their B&G. >> It's their process. >> That's their process. >> It's their property. And so that's who gets to >> I understand the concern with regards to what it would do to put us behind. But I not necessarily in favor of just >> Yeah. I I don't know bending a knee so to speak to acquies the

102property committee when I think it should brought be should be brought to the full board for consideration for all the taxpayers to understand what we're asking for which I don't think is unreasonable. >> Yeah. >> Any other thoughts before we move on? >> You good with our discussion Randy? You got a good point to move forward. All right. Then we will move on to policy and legislative advocacy. Our second reading for policy 665. Policy 672. Um that's the first 665 is fraud prevention and reporting. 672 is for purchasing with the rule. Policy 731.2 electronic surveillance. Policy 760 food service management along with the rule. and policy 8:30 use of school facilities along with the rule. This is a second reading. So, um I would entertain a motion to approve. >> Some move. >> Motion has

103been made and seconded. Do we have any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? And those policies and rules have been approved. Next, we have our 2526 student enrollment update. >> Yeah, there was a a form in your packet and we put that together. I don't know about the 14th or something like that, whatever it says on it. Um, and I just reached out to Katie Wick this morning and said, "Hey, by chance, do you have u an updated u enrollment?" And she was able to pull some things for me. I'll accept open enrollment. that that we won't know for a little bit yet. But um so I she had that for me and just pulled off uh the third Friday counts from our last uh few

104years. Obviously this is not our third Friday count and we're day one but uh third Friday in September that after that next board meeting you'll you'll get an update as a board as well. Um so for 21 22 22 23 23 24 and 24 25 those were our third Friday counts and then that's just as of day one today. Um with that compared to last year uh we're basically the same about two students less. Um you notice the high school has been trending down but actually they're going to start trending up uh for the next few years in terms of they're at 661 which will be a low for right now. um they'll trend up and as you can see the middle school um has been each of the last five years uh steadily increasing

105with a significant jump from last year to this year. So they're at 649 kids right now. So I know there was there have been a lot of I know Katy Wick has been incredibly busy uh the last couple of weeks enrolling students. Uh elementary is in in five years has trended down a bit from 875 to 775. And I put that in in black there because we used to have Head Start 4K and Hilltop Daycare and Preschool. We don't have those anymore, but they they were in there as well. And so, um, yeah, that's what our enrollment is looking like now. And after third Friday, you'll you'll get another, uh, you'll get another report. >> So, Randy, how do you make sense of the fact that elementary is decreasing, but middle school is increasing? How

106does that increase? >> We've had a ton of moveins. I last year I remember too uh just those last couple of weeks we last few weeks before school uh just a ton of moveins and and it happened again happened again this year and we had some larger classes coming through. Middle school is going to going to start to see a a trend down um you know as you look at some of our um and we'll have a full report for you once uh after that third Friday. Um, you know, there's one class in there. Uh, maybe it's current third graders is about 160 or something like that. That might be in your packet. The other ones are around 130 right now. But, uh, yeah, middle school's been trending upward. And that's why the high school

107for the next few years is going to going to see an increase as well. So, >> any questions? All right. Thank you for that update. WSB public policy correspondent information, Phil. Okay. I reviewed the video that uh was put on live last week and uh just whipped through main points most of the main points pretty quickly. First part was uh just on uh some technical issues. Rules for determining residency for students which we don't have to go through. Rules for defining homeless students. Rules for schoolboard member compensation. Uh WSB has title 9 training available and they'll have advanced Title 9 training available online even beyond what's absolutely required. And there was one seventh circuit court ruling that uh might apply to us. Uh just to summarize, it involved an employee that um had her social

108media speech removed because um well, she sued. She was a an animal activist basically and the UW removed her free speech and the court ruled against the UW because restrictions on social media speech which would be the application I think for our district must be reasonable not directed against the specific viewpoint and distinguish speech that reflects the organizations reflects that differentiates the organization from personal viewpoints and they ruled in that case that it it didn't and therefore they ruled for the person uh putting the posts on a legislative update um just point of information current legislative session for this bianium ends in March of 2026 basically just a couple pieces of new legislation in the Senate. Uh basically a showcase bill to campaign on has been introduced to resin the 400-year veto that gives an

109automatic $325 increase per year per student for 400 years. That's going nowhere. Um there's a a bill that's uh being batted around that hasn't been given any official markup yet concerning allowing parents to opt out of immunizations uh if if they wish to. Um, and then the legislative review board is proposing something that in the future might affect Kevin and Doug because once you turn 70 then if you want to be a school bus driver. >> You won't have you won't have to under frequent test. >> I'm not retired yet. >> Could apply to those too. They've been on for almost 20 years now. They're just going to keep going >> wisely. >> They're they're just a ball rolling downhill here. So, you're going to make it to 7,2. And you'll only have to get

110tested less frequently then if you do that. Okay. >> Thanks for that information. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thanks for not including me. >> Oh, okay. Um, previous legislation that's still alive is the uh Senate assembly bills that propose allowing public sector employees to uh after a short delay after a short retirement resume work while still drawing a pension while the employer continues to pay into the retirement fund. That is bipartisan support and WASBY support. So, that's probably going to pass at some point, which will help with uh any labor shortage. Then there are a couple of bills that have been batted around to add information to referenda, giving taxpayers more information about what the costs will be uh with interest rates on referenda and to restrict recurring referendum to every four years and

111to uh remove dollars raised by uh a referendum from a state aid formula because apparently when really large districts like MPS pass referendum like that that authorizes millions of dollars and in further taxation somehow it affects our smaller districts negatively. I don't know if it takes more out of the whole pie with less or what the deal is. I >> put can put more on local taxpayers doesn't necessarily change your revenue but it's put >> reduces your state aid maybe. >> Anyway, who knows what'll happen with that. Uh, another bill that I mentioned several times already will equalize our aid payments across the four quarters, which would make sense rather than giving us uh the most at the end of the year, and WASBY supports that. There are a bunch of miscellaneous mandates um that

112may or may not go anywhere. future meetings. Uh if you want to go to Washington DC now that it's really safe in December in September, WASBY is having a meeting there September 7th to 9th. Deadline for resolution submission from the school board is September 15th. There's a legislative conference in Stevens Point on November 8th. There's a regional meeting here in Rice Lake at Layman's on October 15th, >> which was kind of good the last time I went to it. A >> couple of board members may or may not be receiving awards that night. >> Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Um, the next legal and legislative update is September 17th at noon. If you would like to spend an enjoyable hour, which can be reduced to about 40 minutes if you go to the little gear button and

113increase the play speed to 1.25 or >> so that's it. Any questions? Is it okay if I make one question? >> Probably after we're going to think about this whole thing. >> Is it okay if I make a comment? I know just this free speech case you mentioned. So this afternoon I had to talk to Bob Butler from WSB on a few different things and I just take the opportunity to say hey what else there any what's out there any hot topics and free speech was the one he mentioned in terms of uh in all forms whether social media clothing different pieces so that's was ironic you talked about that. >> Well it's important I mentioned this a couple of times and I talked to um um the forensics coaches a little bit about it

114too. I I think we would really diffuse a lot of issues if we get used to discussing the different sides of issues here. Like you go back to the controversy three or four years ago. You know, everybody, you know, people were afraid to discuss that. Well, a lot of things would get resolved before they get to the boiling point if if we do that a little bit more. And we could maybe start that officially with the forensics program, have a debate program, have some faculty that are interested set an example. All right, any other comments or questions? All right, thank you for that report. Next, we've got our upcoming meeting schedule. We've got a webinar on October 15th, as Phil mentioned, and then October 15th also at starting at 4:30, there's a premeating where there's

115a workshop. And then at 6:00 the regular regional meeting uh will take place at and that is at layman's. Registration is required. So if you can attend that evening, please let Colleen know so she can get you registered. And then um WSB is also putting on students can't learn if they're not there. That's uh online workshop. Registration is required for that one. and that is on Tuesday, November 4th at noon. And then if you can't make the in person regional meeting, they do have a online option on Thursday, November 6th at noon. Registration is required for that. And then uh November 8th, it's a Saturday down in Stevens Point at the convention center there, there is a fall legislative conference. Uh, and registration is required for that. So, if you can attend any of those

116that need registration, please let Colleen know so she can get you signed up for those. Next, we have our district administrator comments. >> Yeah, just a couple of things. It's it's not an upcoming event, but uh it's been a solid start. It's been a great start to the school year and everything from uh heard some staff members say our buildings have never been this clean before. Just super impressed with custodial and maintenance. uh changes we made to PD uh just in terms of how we handled the couple of days last week. Um very impressed and thought it was more meaningful and and relevant to them. Um and just u parents and students as well. Um I think today was a solid day and you know the the little things we get excited about. Uh Josh

117and Lori were excited. The bell to release middle school and Hilltop kiddos today rang at 3:21 which is probably a record for day one. meaning our buses were up there and ready to go. They were out of the lot at what 3:35 or so. They were the last bus was gone on on day one. That's pretty good. Didn't even need to send that email today that but Marca said careful tomorrow. All the four as a reminder all the 4Kers all the 4K students start tomorrow. So that might make the end of the day a little little more interesting. >> I'm predicting a wrong bus. >> So we're going to work hard to make sure that happens. But uh just uh thanks to everyone, administrators, board, our staff, our students, our parents. It's it's knock on

118wood. Uh it's been a great start to the year. So, and as always, check out our calendar of events. Lots of stuff going on. Too much to to mention here. >> Hey, congratulate the Warrior football team on a big win on Yeah, great win. Definitely. >> That was a great win. One of the best games I've seen was >> Oh, the quarterback. Wow. All right, with that I would entertain a motion to convene into close session pursuant to Wisconsin statutes 19.851F and that is for the approval of close session meeting minutes from August 11th. Move >> to go to closed. >> Motion has been made. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion has been made and seconded. Roll call, please. >> Bert Richard, >> yes. >> Millie Shy, >> yes. >> Doug Kuchko, yes.

119>> Lorie Zarbach, >> yes. >> Don Kusky, yes. >> Andrew Coop, >> yes. >> Phil HL, >> yes. Kevin Jensen. >> All right, >> Patty. I should have brought the horses cuz I went to the state fair and got rained out there anyways. So, should have stayed and went to Hogw Patty. I don't know if they know that. So,