6.9.25- Board of Education Meeting

001We are streaming and recording and the mics are live. We need to know. All right. It is 6:00. I will call the Monday, June 9th, regular board meeting to order. Roll call, please. Uh, Phil Hankle, here. Kevin Jensen, yes. Miriam Barbara, yes. Bert Richard, here. Nelly Shy here. Doug Kuchko here. Lori Zarbach here. Don Kusky. And And Andrew Coupe here. And Randy, was a proper notice given for this meeting? Yes. Plead be 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, the Rice Lakeite Chronoype, to the Oaklair Leader and radio stations WJMC and WAQE indicating the date, time, and place of the meeting. Such notice was given more than

00224 hours prior to the meeting. Please let the record show that Don Kusky came in as 6:01. [Laughter] [Music] Proper notice was given for this meeting. We'll stand for the pledge. I was just here 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. All right, I did not see anyone sign up for appearances. So, we will move on to our approval of our regular session and close session meeting minutes from Tuesday, May 27th. So, moved. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed? And the minutes have

003been approved. Next, we have our consent agenda where we have our monthly budget and cash reconciliation report, our board bills, we have uh nine employment uh resignations, and five employment recommendations. I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll move to approve the consent agenda. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Second. Motion has made and seconded. Any further discussion? Um I I just have a question. I when I was looking over the bills just under uh fund 10 general administration and then 21 spe special revenue there were quite a bit in the negative in a couple of categories and then purchase services. It's a negative minus 2.9 millionus 2.35 million. Is that related to the pool? Pretty much all that stuff. I don't know. I'm not sure off the top

004of my head. I actually not a concern just a question. What I actually noticed that too. Was that on monthly cash balances? No, it it was in reconciliation of the funds at the start, I think. Um B the two T state report bottom of the first page. No, no, that that was it. That was uh some other doodling I did. Where was it? Um on the middle of the second page, right hand column, uh the 250,000 category, business administration minus 700 37,000 and then I know purchase services minus 900. I just curious. So that's one of the budget amendments you're doing tonight is for the hail damage. Okay. Basically you can spend out hail damage money. So yeah. So one of the budget amendments tonight is the like 1.3 million. I believe we got the

005hail dam the the money from the insurance company for hail damage and that's um where we spent the money at. So you'll be increasing that budget line tonight. So So that will cover that. Yes. So increase the budget so the negative will go away. Yes. Okay. Gotcha. And then pretty much the same with the special revenue fund down there at the bottom minus a quarter of a million at the bottom. What page? Uh what's special the next page you're saying fund 21? Yeah. So we don't we don't budget special revenue fund. Special revenue funds is basically your activity funds, some scholarship funds. We don't actually create a budget for it because we don't know what you're going to spend on activity funds. There's basically there's no budget. Basically there must be an allowance and fun.

006I mean they have their re they have their the revenues and their the money in their account. We track that every week. But we don't actually create a budget because we don't know what they're gonna I mean it'd be impossible to create a budget. Put it that way. Okay. And 80 I presume that's related to the construction. We'll see. So which which one are you referencing? Uh purchase services and business administration. They were both Pick a page. Yeah. Pick a page. Yeah. So it's between the lines. You can see that the debt retirement has money left over. It's it's we're spending it differently than where we put the budget in, but it's okay. One's plus and one's minus, so it offsets. So, all right. Thank you. All right. And just back to the hail damage

007piece, that was, you know, a couple of years ago, but it was over $2 million in total damage in the district when that happened. So, any other questions? If not, I have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. And the consent agenda has been approved. Next, we get to draw for the Chromebooks. You're so excited, Don. You better do it. No, I figured you do it, Marion. You're more impartial. Okay. How many we going to do? Two. Three. Three. Excellent. Drawing for three. Make sure they all get split out. So, I'd love if we could get one, two, or all three recipients here to receive. That's the plan. Is that a plan? That would be awesome. All right. Amy Coroff Coroff, I think. Is that how you say

008it? The high school. Grade 12. High school. Okay. It's like such a long thing. It feels weird. Maya Davis, grade 11, so soon to be 12. and Briella Campbell at Hilltop grade four. Oh, okay. Great. All right. Congratulations to those three that won and hope to see you uh at our next meeting. With that, we will move on to our report section. We'll start off with the uh wire connections committee update. Do you guys want me to report from here or since we have committee members joining us up there? Yes, you can have them come to the podium. All right. So, whoever's going to speak, if you want to come up to the podium to the camera can hear you. Okay. Oops. I got to turn this thing on. All right. So, um, we created

009the Warrior Connections Committee last November. There's a series or a collection of topics we're going to talk about, but basically we were we are a subcommittee created by the school board, and it includes um, school principles, teachers from the middle and high school, schoolboard members, and parents. And we meet once a month to talk about how we can make our school a better place. And then we have two subgroups, which we'll talk about later. Our goal is to support and grow programs that help students find ways to remove barriers that make it hard for students to get involved and make sure all students feel supported socially, emotionally, and academically. And so, like I said, we started in November 2024 and we were given until June 2025 to form and take initial steps in this space.

010And so, I did ask Mr. Beaver to come and speak. He was one of the teachers who interviewed the students and is trusted by the students. So, he went out and talked to staff and students and I felt like he had a really good overview of our committee and so on. Thank you. That's my cue. Well, this is kind of strange for me because usually I just improvise all everything, but uh there's so many facts that we learned. I I thought I should write things down so that I sound like I know what I'm talking about. So So anyway, uh thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you this evening. I'd like to start by saying that the Rice Lake School District is an excellent school with great kids. It has been

011an honor to work for the district and realize my passion for helping children achieve their goals and providing opportunities for them to succeed. When I was asked to join the warrior connections committee, I was aligned with the reasoning for the committee. While we have a great staff and opportunities here for students, many students I felt did not feel a part of what was happening. Um, some students were sad and not connecting with the things that we have to offer. Uh I have a passion for helping children find their voices and creating space for every child to connect with their school and programming. So I volunteered to be on the committee. After our first meeting, it became clear that others shared my feeling and there were were students who are not connecting with the school. This

012sparked a conversation about the reasons behind that happening and a Pandora's box, if you will. I kind of refer to that because we're kind of opening up this what are we going to find when we do this? Um, we started wondering why students weren't connecting and what some of the barriers to connection were. We decided to examine the data to understand what these barriers looked like within our school community. Quantitative data is available both locally, at the state, and at national levels about the barriers our youths face. However, this doesn't give us a proper understanding about what is happening in Rice Lake. We needed to hear from our community, our stakeholders. We wanted to learn about experiences about the experiences of our students, families, and staff. We needed to identify the obstacles to connection within

013our school and within our community. Through the committee, we developed some questions to ask and collect our data. The questions were simple and hopefully provoked some thought. We wanted to allow students to share their thoughts and feelings upon entering the building. What might they want to change if there were no barriers to their ideas? What does belonging mean to them? The responses they gave proved to open Pandora's box even further. Many of the things they discussed pushed the boundaries of our system and opened our eyes to the struggles that our students face every day. We have included the data for you here both in its raw and summarized versions so that you guys can get an idea of what we collected. Some of the things that repeated over and over again, students are tired. This

014was a common one. They're they're experiencing some bullying. They have connections to their friends, but not to the school. When we ask questions of school staff, they had some responses that also kind of let us know where their brains were at. What is expected of me? What is my role as a teacher in the district? How do I affect change at our school? and the problems the students are facing are so overwhelming that it's daunting and where do we even start? That was kind of some general feedback that we got. Rice Lake isn't alone in this. Many of the statements that our students are identifying are issues in other school districts and and reality in our society at large. But that raises the question, what action do we need to take effect? What action do

015we need to take to affect change in our school? Rice Lake has never backed down from a challenge. In Rice Lake, we could do hard things. Where does this all lead us? Based on the data, there are several areas that we could improve within our district. These these are ideas that we could implement to keep pace with the rapidly changing times. Some minor changes can have a significant impact. Staff can be encouraged to try these ideas. some systematic changes could be adapted. It is a complicated process and one we believe will require considerable analysis and action to undertake. Here are some suggestions that I have. The committee strongly believes that the data collection should be conducted yearly. Listening to stakeholders is essential to help us shape our approach to programming and systems. Additionally, it helps

016us stay current with the rapidly changing world in which we live. And I will say that when I was collecting data from our students, that's the one feedback that I got over and over again is, "Wow, thank you for listening to me." And I thought how impactful that statement is was just fantastic. Number two, systematic change is necessary to help students in our school establish meaningful connections. That could look like many things. It is vital to have a shared vision about what we want for our students and families in our district. It would be a valuable discussion for the board on how we can achieve this using the tools we already have in place. And then my last point is it's essential to remember that we are in the business of people. No two students

017will ever be the same and many students have entirely different needs. While that can be a significant task, we can celebrate the things we do well. There are lots of them, while continuing seeking ways to help more kids connect with the school and provide resources to meet the diverse needs of our students. In closing, I would like to reiterate that Rice Lake is a great place to be. After spending a year in conversations with this committee, we have some observations to share. Every day, our school board, administration, teachers, and other school staff work diligently to provide a quality education. This is admirable and I am proud to work here. However, we also observe that there is room for growth, allowing our district to focus its efforts and support our staff and students in feeling connected

018and supported much like a community. Ultimately, this shift will help us achieve our underlying goal, creating great human beings who will positive positively impact our larger community. Thank you. Thank you, Adam. And one and Miriam, I'm sorry, I don't remember if it comes up later if it does some how Adam collected and Belinda I know helped at the middle school as well. Talk about that. All right. I just wanted to make sure that's going to be opening statement. No, that's perfect. Got it. And I know you're on a timeline, so thank you. Thank you so much. No, thank you. If you have questions, just email me. Okay. And so I did ask some of the committee members to be here if we have, you know, questions for them and so on. And they've put a

019lot of work into this as well. Um, just kind of going over how we started national data, individual student, parent, and teacher feedback all points toward this need to bring additional focused attention in the area of student connectedness and belonging. So when we first met in November, we just started, you know, it's kind of a sensitive subject. Um so we just kind of learned about each other and what our role is in this space. Um and then really in January, we started planning um how we were going to go about this. And we had asked the team or we asked the administrators in our buildings to give us some views or data that they had. We use the wire BS data which is a youth risk behavior survey. Is that right? Um to to look

020at and that was our initial data point. And so I'm going to show you some information from there. Um and that is given I believe every two years. So here this is um for the high school and um green is the high school and it's students who agree or strongly agree that they belong in the school you using the youth risk behavior student survey data. Tongue twister. Um, so in 2019 it starts out at 65% at the high school and then at 2023 it goes down to 57%. Which is not that big. It kind of looks dramatic there. And then the high school we only have 2019 to 2021 of the survey but it shows that it's actually gotten better. I'm sorry at the middle school. So that's our first one that we looked at.

021Um, and that's just kind of a general how connected do kids feel? And I think it's good, but then it also concerns us. Okay, why 40 to 30 to 40% of kids, why do they not feel connected? And so again, this is the YRBS data. So then we broke it down by students. So overall, all high school students of all high school students, 57% selected that they agree or disagree. Then you go down to kids that have a disability or health condition, females, which was significantly lower than males, students that are food insecure or um previously used special education services, and then LGBT students. So, it was useful information to start out with. It was very interesting. Again, at the middle school, we have the all students at 65% feel connected to the school. um

02259% of students that are food insecure and 54% um female students. So, one thing that really drove us was students who feel more connected in school are less likely to engage in risky behavior, have lower instances of emotional distress and thoughts of suicide, more likely to engage in positive health behaviors, more likely to have higher grades and test scores, and more likely to have better school attendance and graduate high school. And so I feel like in these meetings we talk so much about test scores and we talk about um referrals, we talk about um attendance and it's like all of these things having students connected make a difference in those. So one of the reasons why our committee feels this is important. Um as a committee we broke into two groups. After talking for a

023while, we kind of just we each picked groups that were a area that interested us or we felt passionate about. So we had the data collection subcommittee and then the areas of action subcommittee and so they would meet once a month and then our whole committee would also meet once a month. Do you have any comments on that, Phil? Um Bill did the areas of action committee. Yeah, I mean just general comments, but maybe it'd be better to wait until you're all done with your presentation. Sure. Okay. So, as Adam said, we um after discussing as a group, the data collection committee decided it would be best to reach out to the kids and ask the kids and staff questions. And this actually took a while to come up with, but what we learned with

024the YRBS survey is that a lot of kids don't seem to take it serious or not all kids take it. And um behind, you know, when I first looked at it, I'm like, "Oh, this is so interesting." But then as I learned in talking, I suppose mainly to staff, I learned that it really doesn't cover the majority of students. So we asked um Belinda and Tanya as well too, right? And Adam to talk to the staff members and ask them who do you think we should reach out to and then also to students. And so over time, and again, I feel like we got started on this so late, but there was so much that led up to this. Uh I think it was necessary, but over time, these staff members reached out to the

025kids and asked them these questions. And they're pretty broad questions. Um because we didn't want to sound like we were leading at all. And and like Adam said, they liked being asked. They appreciated having input and were surprised that we wanted to know. So again, it's how do you feel when you walk into school in the morning? What does belonging at school mean to you? Envision the best change or reality at school. If you could do anything, what could the school do to help students feel like they belong at school? And what else do you think I should know and help bring back to the Warrior Connections Committee? And do you guys um have any comments on how you felt that went or I thought it went really well actually and it was a learning

026experience with the teachers for sure because people are asking well why are we asking the teachers to help kids? Well it is all of us are here for the kids but we also need to know how they felt and it all connects together like what are you here for? What are we here for kids? And so we just wanted to know what how do you feel about that answer? Yeah. Things they've observed with kids, things that how they felt about things. And the number one thing that came up is they wish they didn't have recess TV for the teachers. They said that 15 minutes just I don't know. It was kind of funny that came up a lot which was kind of surprising. But overall the teachers were feeling good about their jobs but so

027they were feeling good about their kids. They weren't feeling good about how all the kids felt and how to connect to the kids that they were having a tough time. And we're not just talking about the kids that are really have terrible home lives or it's it's in general. It was kids from all walks of life. And so we were really getting honest answers from the kids. So I thought that was, you know, we didn't just pick a little thing. And would you say that you interviewed about a hundred kids at the middle school? About 100 kids and and um I don't know, they didn't get a lot of chance at high school. So over 20ome. Okay. We also had the teachers do the interviewing with the students because who connects best with the students

028and they really did a nice job of just sitting with them and just making it real comfortable. It wasn't just throwing questions out and hope that they answer or write anything down. We got the answers from them verbally. So I felt that was a good we felt that was a good way to do it because who do we connect with most? We see that same person often. So thank you. Um so basically as the interviews were done, the data was brought to us and I did email all the board members and the administrators the um the collection of data and this is really just combined data through AI and also um I looked at you Andy thought you'd be happy with that. But then we also sent you the raw data because I thought this

029was interesting, but it was also super interesting to read the raw data because you could hear exactly what the students said. Um, but this is kind of what a lot of them said and that, you know, more than just programs, they want friendships, staff, student connection and spaces where students feel safe and accepted, being allowed to be myself, having friends here. Um and then again the fatigue came up and um and then also that the system feels rigid. I mean and you guys can read through this stuff but I just thought it was really interesting to hear the results. And then um this page is really um just kind of a collection of the data what stood out the most. So again we have tired demotivated students in the morning. Um, what came out a

030lot was that their mood changes depending on the first class, which I thought was interesting. Um, again, middle schoolers echo fatigue. Um, some kids are excited to see their friends. Again, a lot about belonging means social safety and acceptance. Having friends, feeling safe, feeling included, um, wanting to be themsel. So, it's just really interesting. We got a lot of common answers, but then some, you know, knowing I'm not alone mentally. Um, so you know, it there's a whole variety of answers. I thought high school was that some of them regretted not getting involved earlier. Um, wanting to know more about the clubs and stuff, not just their freshman year. Um, middle school students said they felt left or ignored. Um, desire for adult presence and encouragement, not just discipline. That's a tough one because the

031teachers are already so busy. But so it's just really interesting to get these answers, you know, and talk about them as as with together with our group. Um, and then what would help improve belonging? And this is again from the students. So ongoing promotion of clubs and activities, not just at the start of 9th grade, facility upgrades, air conditioning, larger bathrooms, better seating. That's not an easy one, but flexible choice based learning, class movement, fewer rigid systems like smart pass. And that actually came up a lot um in the high school is that I think I wish Mr. Peterson could explain it better, but basically right now we have the um block system or scheduling. Block schedule. Yep. Yeah. And so they're 90-minute classes and the kids are moved every seven weeks, right? Nine. Nine.

032every quarter. Yep. For the most like you might some classes like math are half a year or some but for the most part. Okay. So, um that came up a lot in our talk because in elementary school the kids are connected, right? It's easier for them to be connected. Then they get to middle school and there's a little bit more especially, you know, when they're in the same classes and then in the high school they're bouncing from class to class so it's harder to form connections. And that was something that was discussed quite a bit at the high school level. would you say to Belinda? Yeah. Um, so that was really interesting to talk about that. And again, it's not just a little thing. It's a big systematic change that we're needing. It's not just

033something that the administrators could do. And Josh also offered to talk about this, too. Um, you know, that we just need a district-wide change. How do we make these kids feel connected? um address social changes um or challenges, kindness campaigns, real consequences for bullying, options for anxious students to feel safe and not pressured. Um what was the one that you or I think that might be in the next one, no, Phil, that you wanted to talk about? Um um yeah, I'm not sure where it fits in. We'll we'll get to it. Okay. Um so anyway, so this kind of with the survey, it gives us potential areas to focus our conversation on. So belonging, foster peer connection, school um social safety, um communication, improve transparency and follow through from administration and staff, show students they're

034seen by listening actively and showing up in their spaces. And we're not saying that this isn't being done at all because I completely believe it is. But it's just what the students are saying um that they would like to see more of. Um involvement provide ongoing visible entry points into clubs, activities, and leadership environment. Address physical space and comfort. Um voice and choice. Empower students with more choice and schedules. Um learning engagement and classroom movement. Reduce rigid rigidity. And then mental health. Support both staff and students well-being with visible resources. Trusted relationships and safe ways. So those are just areas that this committee came out with ideas and then also um continue with data collection. That's key. We we got a lot done but we have so much more to do. There's ideas of ex

035exit interviews with seniors um formal short surveys um and also ensure stakeholders are informed. And I think with continuing this committee, we'd like to bring in more people, more stakeholders and get them informed and involved in the next steps. Um, which you know it shows areas of that. Um, one thing that Adam talked about is creating a team of students to work specifically on the issues surfacing. Um, and that was really interesting. He talked about a youth um, leadership committee similar to the warrior leadership team but different. Do you wanna you guys want to describe that what he was talking about? [Music] Um so and then again scheduling like we talked about there was talk of a late bus looking at a late bus um so that we could have more student participation um pursue

036high school after school dropin programming um investigating tech CT expansion which when that first came up I'm like uh how does that correlate but what do you want to explain that Phil well it it there's some data and thought from people that have the same concerns that we have that for some kids it reconnects them to school. And we've seen that a couple instances of that here. And just the idea that kids can develop the ability to to make something tangible should give them confidence and to be able to earn a living when they get out of school and have that confidence. Well, to break it down a little bit further, there was there was several comments um in the raw data that said uh that students said um they wish they had the choice

037of uh hands-on learning. Yeah, that came up. Yeah. A lot. Um yeah, because not all kids are the same as we know and so what's going to reach those kids? There was um conversation about the board taking up the discussion on um removing cell phone use at the high school and other high schools are doing this and they've had really positive results. So when that first came up I thought, "Oh, that's crazy." But the more I learn about the cell phones and how it limits kids on actually connecting at, you know, at lunch and so on. I've Do you want to talk about that, Phil? You've really researched that. Um, you know, there I think there's there's two levels of concerns and two levels that we can work at. One, this is a national problem

038just like Adam said. I mean, this this is not something unique unique to Rice Lake and we're not going to be able to fix it in a global fashion. But nationally, people are doing some things about it. One of the things they're doing is restricting cell phone use during the day because they found that social media disconnects kids. They miss opportunities to connect with other kids. Um, a lot of bullying goes on via social media. And uh, one of the things that was brought up in our last joint meeting was that a very frequent complaint is that everybody's tired. Well, why are they tired? They need more sleep. And why do they need more sleep? They admitted to the interviewers that it was because they're up late on their phones. So when you see a

039suggestion like let's start the day later and provide time for naps and stuff like that, we can't cure that. But one of the things we can do that doesn't cost a lot of money is a community service program for parents to restrict access to their kids um social media after a certain time at night and just have a little more control. Now what success that has I don't know but that's what the solution should be. So that's what we should work for. So out of the 120 kids that were interviewed, I went back through the Rajat data and just um kind of compiled a two kids wanted a later start to school. Three wanted naps, which I don't blame them. Uh 23 said they were tired. So that just kept coming up again and again

040and again in the data. I remember the in the committee, one of I don't you were there, right? One of the teachers who did the interviews said that they admitted a lot of them admitted that was because they're just up late at night in social media. Now, there are other things we do, you know, with all the constant extracurricular activities plus the homework um that adds in there, but some of it's more necessary and constructive than others. and many districts across the nation, you know, with no particular philosophy, all different places, different states, the re the results from restricting cell phone use are really good. So, one of the things that I hope we ask the board to do is start a discussion. I mean, not everybody does a discussion. I guess Cumberland just banned

041cell phones or whatever. I suppose we could do that, but I think would be better for us to have a discussion about the pros and cons and open people up to what the data shows and what the results are. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. I mean, a couple of people have said here they were skeptical at first, but after reading the work of people that have looked into this, they understand where we're coming from on this. So, thank you. I think one of the things again that we can do is a a community um campaign, public service, uh school website, wherever. We can probably do it for practically free, informing parents that this is a problem and encouraging them to take more control of their kids sleep time and social media use at

042home and investigate how we allow the kids to use cell phones and social media in the school. Um, and then with the the free time, it's interesting that Blinda said one of the stressors for teachers is having a supervised recess, but recess is important. That's where kids get to actually socialize with each other if they don't have their phones and learn to sort out problems uh and deal with relationships. Um, even the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is all over the place on things, they have position paper out about the value of recess. Um, so perhaps one thing to consider is if we'd lengthen the school day by 15 minutes so that kids could have a little more time to eat lunch, a little more time to interact with each other, assuming it's not artificial

043interactions in the middle of the day. Some of the things we talked about was even like, you know, I think the campaign for parents to like understand, you know, the need for less cell phone uses. And I feel like that's out there, but one of the things we talk about maybe for the older kids is even developing some sort of challenge. All the high school kids like a challenge, right? Or and a reward, you know? So maybe they check in at their home room and they show how much screen time they have at night and, you know, gets marked off and maybe they get put in a drawing for a Chromebook or something like that or a different sort of prize. Um, but I think that's where you're going to get kids who, you know,

044if there's there's, you know, carrots hanging there, they're probably going to be more likely. But I also think we we I think as a group, we need to come up with some ideas of how they interact with each other when they don't have their phone because kids don't know how to interact. So, we have to retach that skill on some level as well. Well, they have to have the opportunity first of all, and most kids learn this on their own if they get outside and play together. Jenny, could I just have you introduce yourself? I don't know if everyone knows you. I was a me I'm a member of the parent of two graduates and one who's going to be a sophomore. Thanks Jenny. So if you go back one screen Miriam I think this

045is really um interesting all this stuff but this is a lot right? This is a lot. Um I I think this committee is great but I think we it needs to be honed in on certain things. So, right now I'm helping with the um community health improvement plan for Baron County. And we sat down, we had tons and tons of things we wanted to work on. We went down to three things, right? We have mental health, um I think child care, and there's one other one I forget what they are because I helped with the mental health. Even the mental health, we had this long list and we had to turn into three goals. Oh, yeah. This I think this is great, but this is really overwhelming for me to even process. And so, we

046can talk about cell phones, but that's maybe that's not the goal right now. We need to make sure that we're focusing and refocus and then it can continue, right? So to me, this can continue because there's a lot to to cover. Absolutely. And you know, we just wanted to throw out a bunch of brainstorming, but no, we know that we're we need to shrink this significantly because yeah, reading this, I'm like, oh my goodness, it's so much, but it's all so important. But yeah, no, we need to, you know, really find areas to focus on. But when Sarah made these slides, you know, she wanted to make sure to put everything out there that we've discussed. And um but no I 100% agree and um you know but basically what we want to do is

047we want to continue a board supported warrior connections committee we want to further identify areas of support and identify approaches to reset and hardwire connectiveness and belonging and then we want to share our results with this group. Um, and I feel like I mean there's been so many different things said about this like well are you guys overstepping with the administrators and it's like no we want to bring the administrators in and like Mark Weissy was part of this committee and he was so helpful because he works with kids that don't feel that they belong and he really told us you know their side and what they're going through and why they don't belong. So, as easy as it is to, you know, just focus on the shiny apples of the school, we need to

048focus on all the kids. And the admin, I mean, listening to him, it's like, oh my gosh, everything that the administrators have to do, it's got to be so hard. So, if we're able to help with this committee and help them, why not? And I feel like Josh was really helpful, too. He was at the last meeting and talking about the struggles they have and he said he would answer any questions from an administrative view too because I want you guys to ask questions because there's so much information that we're throwing at you guys and I want you to ask questions and fully understand. I think what Lori Lori said I I completely agree with that. Absolutely. We can't get into too many details. We can't reinvent the wheel too much. We know there are

049certain approaches as I said that other schools, districts, even states are using and I I don't know what you meant about cell phones, but that's the cell phone thing drives a lot of my questions and concerns are. I think realistically the cell phone policy that's policy. I mean yes it does have an impact here but that issue should be brought forth from the policy committee, right? Um, I'm supportive of the initiative, but I think it shouldn't be board driven. I think that it needs to be student, staff, and administratively driven because they're there, everybody is there every day, and we are not. And so we can come in, make recommendations, and we can have all these grandiose plans and it's all over the place because we're brainstorming, but realistically, if they're going to get buy

050in, the buyin's got to come from staff, kids, and administration, not us. And I and so I don't support extending and moving on and renewing this for another year because it's done on June 30th. I think this needs to be a staff driven and student driven opportunity. Well, one of the things that came up in the data though is the staff is saying we're we're overwhelmed. We I mean, we've got they're trying to juggle, you know, 14 balls and and they're buried already. And the other thing that I I was looking at in the raw data is how many times they said, "We want more board support. We want more board members at the schools. We want more." There's a difference between board support and being out of what our role is as a board.

051And so what I have heard as well is there are certain staff members that have feel alienated and don't want to participate because they don't think that uh they were welcome to participate. So I have a problem with that. Well, I don't know what to say about that, but um we invited, you know, staff that we thought had good connections with the invited every all staff or just certain staff. How did we pick our who picked the committees and who picked the people that were going to participate? I mean, like I said, this in my opinion needs to be staff driven along with the students and the administration, not driven by the board because we're not as effective We're all over the place. We are. I just don't I mean, it's great that there's I

052think that the the foundation that you've laid for ideas and whatnot are great and I think it should be driven by them to move it forward from there based on our recommendations, not us driving the recommendations down. I just don't I don't think it hurts to have, you know, people from all of these areas involved. I I don't think you're using the right words. uh the word you know board driven I think the word board supportive but if you mean board driven that all of us should be involved or go to the schools I don't think that's correct however if we want to be that'd be okay too but I think it's very important the word supported because I like the committee and what they're doing especially the fact that they got teachers administrators and

053maybe one or two board that's okay there's nothing wrong with that it doesn't mean at least to me that we all have to be involved in that but I think we have to be supportive I am supportive I'm supportive of all of it I I am don't don't get me wrong it's not that I don't support it I just don't think that it is being it can be the committee can be run as efficiently if we're waiting on us to be doing the meetings and to to you know kind of I mean from that standpoint I think you can move faster and change directions quicker if it's bought in by staff and students and from that perspective forward I think you get better buy in because they're in it every day we are not in

054the schools every day we're not in the day-to-day operations of it and I'm afraid that we're sticking from my perspective the board is too involved olved in what we're trying to do on a day-to-day basis rather than just allow the schools to function as they need to from within. And I think that did come up actually and what surprised me how much the staff interviewed wanted the board involved and felt that this was not going to go anywhere unless we weren't behind it and supporting it. I mean, did you feel like you heard that, Belinda? It wasn't so much that we just need your support. like this is what we're asking for. We're not asking you to run it. We're not asking you to really say yes or no. We're really saying would you support

055our initiative? It's huge. And that's one of the things we found out it's it's it's to a point right now we just had to figure out what do we who do we ask? What do we do? We've learned a lot of things. We've made mistakes already. But that's any initiative that you start. But having your support like Doug, if I could talk sit talk to you about it and you're like, "Yep, yep." you know, it's not necessarily it's just your support is just super super important. That's nice. I think what I've heard so far tonight is that the board is very supportive of the process of getting kids more involved. I mean, that was actually um one of our initiatives that we sent out on our July retreat to the administrative team is to figure

056out ways to get our kids more involved in activities, not just sports or things, but all activities. And we wanted to we raised the bar to one activity per student for the year. Um, and I think as a board that's still where we want to be, maybe even raise the bar just a little bit. Maybe try to get two to most students and the students that haven't been involved yet, get them involved in at least one. Um, and I think there would also be, you know, budgets are tight, but I think there's also support financially. You know, the late bus. I think to me that makes a lot of sense. Um cuz there are limitations to kids being able to stay after for activities or for a club or something because mom and dad can't

057get them picked up. Um how about if we don't sanction it like via the board? It's not a board committee, right? We have this committee that's happening and someone besides a board member now going forward or Phil can make our report from the podium and it doesn't come from up here like we're setting some kind of policy. I think more members can be involved. I think that's yeah that's what I'm hearing and we're still involved. We're you know we have members that are very interested. I support them being on it. Let's just not have it be kind of a board sanctioned or it's our our committee. It's their committee and they can report at it from the podium. If we can structure it more like what we do with the safety committee or I think

058I would be all for other committees. We can have a board member representative on serve on the committee. But I like I said, I I just feel like it should be I just my opinion is it should be from the ground up rather than us. Well, Doug, if you have a bad taste in your mouth because somebody said something like they weren't invited, that is not the case at all because if anybody anybody who was passionate about this w was really welcome. I mean, we wouldn't have said no to anybody, but um you can't invite everyone. There's no way. And in fact, we had to divide into two different groups because we had so many people. It just it was chaos honestly. So um that's why we broke it into two different groups but we

059we never excluded anybody and said you can't come sorry and no matter what there's going to be hurt feelings and it's like okay we you know we tried to have people invite people that were connected to kids in different ways and I think when we talked to our committee there was discussion of having different ways of running this but there wasn't the confidence if the board members were not on the committee that anything would actually get done. I mean, is that right? I mean that they ask how that would work like how would how would that group influence change going forward? Like that's why I think the recommendation that committee would would operate as a at a building level. So, you'd have your high school staff, administrators, um, and then you'd also have middle school

060staff and administrators. I like the idea of some students, throw some students in there off the leadership teams from the different buildings. Um, we would like kind of we could develop initiatives and then the staff would take it back to the and the committees would get together, would meet regularly, however regular that needs to be. It could be weekly, it could be monthly. you guys would get to to decide that of what that is. It's no longer us deciding when you're going to meet. You don't have to worry about posting the agendas because it's not a board committee anymore at that point. So, you can split second, oh, we've got time this afternoon, let's all meet, talk for 15 minutes. You know, that type of thing could happen. Or it doesn't or they don't meet,

061you know, about that structure. Well, they still can have structure, but they could have that opportunity because something came up and they can quickly respond to it versus, "Oh, we got to have a got to have it posted. We have to have everything come into play." You guys can just meet. So, you've got a a meeting coming up next Tuesday after school and something happened and it's a Friday noon and well, let's quick get together quick and have some discussion because that might change what Tuesday's meeting is actually going to be about. Um, that gives you a lot more flexibility than if the board is actually involved to the extent that this was. Um, well, this wouldn't have happened without board initiative. No, no, I think I think getting started and that's what I think

062we all want. We want we want a process that's official enough so that the whatever the findings are are respected by the board. And if having a couple board members there gives it more legitimacy, I think that's great. I mean, then, you know, you guys can continue on. I just think the have reports and committee reports from here maybe isn't, you know, the thing. Maybe it should come from there. Uh otherwise, it's kind of our committee. It's like the finance committee. It's like the curriculum committee. It's our committee and we're driving it. And I do agree with Doug. I don't know, you know, we want to be part of it. We don't want to drive it. We want to be very supportive because it's I think it's very important for our district. supportive. So let's

063say that we the committee comes up with some idea and we've talked to all the stakeholders. Let's say we wanted to change something at I don't feel comfortable ever making that suggestion was anybody from the high school wants to be involved like Kurt and and Mark and whoever else. So then how do we make that change? Do we come to you then? Are you saying you're not saying that? No. No. because the day-to-day things can be done. Our administrators have that ability as long as it's within our policies that are already in place. And our policies are are for day-to-day operations are fairly general and they're in built built that way. So, our administrative team can make those changes as they as they see a need. And if there by chance is a change that

064has to make be made that doesn't fall under a policy that gives the guidance the correct way then yes you'd have to come that committee would have to come to the committee um policy committee and ask some questions say hey this is what we're thinking understand policy says this um this is what we'd like to see and then we would go through those discussions and then have to readress the policy But the day-to-day stuff, most of everything can be done by our administrative team, which again is why it would be a much faster way to to move forward. What was the thing that kept coming up that it's not about that it's it can't come from the administrators because it's they don't want it to be top down and that we need a systematic change.

065Can you explain that? I did talk that came up in some of the interviews. Yes. But I think people are just misunderstanding. I think a lot of this can be misunderstood. I just fact there's been times I'm like I'm done. Then I'm like no I'm not. And then I'm back like in my mind because I'm struck. It's huge. We've only had seven months, right? And you know we have a lot of work left to do. We don't mean to. We just don't know what we're doing. We're trying to figure it out. I just I don't know Miriam. I don't They did say that. But I feel like if we as a team, like let's say high school, let's say self, and I I want all high school that wants to be involved, you ask teachers,

066do you want to have a conversation? Do you want to be a part of this? If they choose not to, then there's nothing they can say about it. But I'd certainly want the administration involved because they're the ones they have to have thick skin. Yes, I know the things that Josh and you know got when we did that at the middle school. It's not easy, right? But it's a follow through that you choose to do it then it works. But well, and I think along those lines, as a board, we could certainly uh highly recommend that our administrative team from both buildings are involved in their appropriate um buildings so that at least one if not multiple administrators would be at each meeting. You know, obviously scheduling and things can't always be at everyone, but

067at least have a representative from the administrative team and also ask Randy to be again, he's got a really busy schedule, but when he can get to those and and hear what's being said, what's being talked about, he can also help guide the administrative team on a way to make it happen. Well, and one layer as well, this was primarily focused on middle school and high school. we got to talk elementary and and what that means and that's not just we need to include everyone, right? Absolutely. And I I think with elementary we um in talking to some of you know the principles and such there was that there wasn't as much of a need and this was so big that we couldn't focus on everything but that the kids are feeling more connected at

068elementary level not so much at middle school even more not so much at the high school and um I think the fear was that this is just putting a lot more on the administrators when they have so much to do as is and so it's like okay if we can do the research if we could talk about this and then come to them and you know work with them on it. Um that was the plan behind it. But um but yeah, I mean, well, I think one of the benefits that hopefully would come from this would be that our kids, our students would become more engaged and with that a more positive behavior, better class participation, better class attendance. taking a lot of those disciplinary issues away from our administrators so they can focus on

069getting more kids involved. You know, that would be the the ultimate goal to know that what we're doing is is working. And they don't all have to be these great big grandiose decisions. I mean, we we've heard about where teachers take 10 kids. Yeah. And they make sure that they talk to those kids every day. Yeah. 10 kids like every teacher gets a kid's name 10 or 15 and they make a point to talk to those kids whether it's hi how are you today they don't have to be the cell phones we can we can start as small as we need to we're just trying to figure out how to connect children and that's why we're all here right I don't think it has to be um you know like you said Belinda I mean

070because one of the the statements that stood out to me is 80 5% of kids don't respond to a good morning. I mean, it can be as simple as just smiling and saying good morning when that was one of the things that was suggested as a just say hi campaign to teach the kids to actually look at each other and say hello. You know, I think that's key. I just I guess my my worry is that there was definitely the opinion that if this is not continued that it nothing will come of it and that just scares me because I mean for some maybe 40% doesn't matter but to me 40% of kids not feeling connected in our schools is very concerning and I think it's easy to get up here and be like well

071we're doing this and we're doing that but it's like wait 40% of kids are not being reached how can we reach them and um and we did we brought in all kinds of different people. Not everyone could make it, but we still had someone from where um leadership team talking to us and um I felt like we had really good communication in the group. But um I just I know there's that fear out there and um I don't know but I mean I still think we can have accountability. One slide. Go back one slide. I still think there can be accountability in the fact that if we have the committee and it's structured and they have to report back to the board periodically to us that that's the accountability that's necessary to keep moving the

072initiatives forward that that you've developed and and towards implementation and those kinds of things. Uh we require reports from you know administration a lot of different things. think we should, like you said, we should require a periodic report from the organization that that meets to discuss this stuff too and all the different schools. I would be I I would like to see, no offense to our administrators, but other staff members be the ones reporting to us, the staff members, and and hear from them on this and where it's at. I mean, they can sort that out because they can certainly, you know, our our administrators can add to their reports when they're reporting about their schools about what they're seeing in general, but as far as the committee, it'd be nice to hear from others

073as well. I guess my question is from this list, there's a lot of action items that would go to other committees like the cell phone would go to policy, the teched program expansion would go to curriculum. How do we keep focused on this at the teacher staff level? How do we drive that into those committees? Now, being on the committees I'm on, I know you have to address several of these items and bring them up. How do we keep that feedback coming so that we're making the best policy possible um with the best intentions that logistically that's kind of my concern right now. All the information gathering, we want that to keep coming. We want to keep seeing it. It's extremely valuable and it's everybody on the ground doing the work. We have as a

074board need to make policy based off of that. So, how do we keep that connection? I mean, that's one thing I've been kind of thinking is, you know, if it ends up going that direction, it's like how do we structure this? But back to Lor's point, there's so much here that it would be nice for you guys to be able to say, here's three priority areas if that's a direction you decide to go or or something like that because I mean, as we create building goals, you know, we start with lists like this, but then we narrow it down because the reality is you can't do anything well if you're going to try and attack 20 things, right? Is that something you would continue without the board being actively involved? Is that something that can

075sustain where you would continue to meet? You would select those three items and then you would drive into our committees again. So, like this says up here, it's just our brainstorming. Um, so I didn't mean to overwhelm you guys with all of it when she put it together, but we didn't want to just say, "Nope, that one's out, that one's out." So, these are just brainstorming because we were so pushed for time on this because we had such limited time. So, we threw some ideas out there. No, I mean, no, we don't expect to do all of it. these are simply ideas and um and then you know over time we are going to um but I mean focus on more I get what you're saying that we'd need to go through but there's different

076committees like there's three or four different committees each take one of these you could actually oh yeah which we aren't there's no way I mean with our with our small group but it's also a lot to put on the administrators the board committees yes like you oh it's saying that the different committes Sorry. The finance committee would be the bus. The curriculum meeting would be the tech ad expansion. The policy would be the cell phone. Like there's three of them off the list. I see what you're saying. Each with different people now taking the ownership from them, getting the feedback from the community, the teachers, the staff, right? That makes sense. Yeah, that's a good point. I do feel it sounds like you have a really good committee right now, a pretty strong committee from

077I mean obviously having some several of them show up. Um, so I guess what is the fear of giving that action to the committee and the board as has been stated is participating but is not driving it. Um, I do think if there's a need for us to be in charge, that's one thing, but I'm not sure if that's the way that we should go because I feel like we have a committee that is really strong and just needs board participation to help make sure that it continues and can give that feedback when needed, right? like that's not going to work, you know, or whatever it is that needs to come up. Um, so I think we still have engagement and involvement for sure. I do think that this is important for us to be

078a part of should it be us um solely in charge of it when you have a really strong committee or is there a fear that you don't have a strong enough committee? I guess that would be my question and I don't know enough about the committee. So that's why I'm Do you want to address that Belinda? Committee is wonderful. I mean, we have parents, we have administrative, we have word, we have I mean, I feel like it's a nice, you know, eclectic group that brings a lot to the to the team. I will say if a board member is not running it like has been, but just to get us started, we're going to have to have, you know, like a chairman or something to going, right? That's just a given. um you know and

079then if we feel like we need other people to be involved then we will but I would agree I think it'd be awesome if like if I were on the cell phone committee and that's a policy that that Andrew is running that keeping that communication open and you know as well just a short email and just say talk about this today we don't have to necessarily do anything but that communication's huge absolutely you know just so you're we don't all of a sudden come and say we're doing you know, you don't know anything about it. So, communication always is huge with so so important. And I think too the trust, you know, that everybody on the committee trusts each other and as you because that took a long time to to happen, you know, for

080people to be open and honest with each other and with their concerns and their fears and um it's like we don't I don't know. So to move this forward from what I've been hearing, um kind of a couple different things, but would the board it's not an action item. It doesn't need to be an action item. Um, if we're just going to show support for the to move forward as a committee, um, would the board be all right moving forward with um, potentially three committees? There'd be one at the high school, one at the middle school, and one at the elementary level. Um and then we would have uh like we do with the safety committee have a board member on representative on each one of those levels or two. I think you could have

081two, can't you? I'd have to double check to see about the ad hoc piece and what determines if we have to operate as a board committee and post meetings versus I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm not sure. There would have to be a unified structure, some sort of unified structure for all those committees as well. Is there a reason why we would divide them like that? Because I think everything flows into each other and I think that communication between the different I think that was brought up a lot was that there's not a lot of communication happening amongst um different staff too and I think this is a huge opportunity to have your elementary engaged with your high school because this is where things are are leading, right? I mean I I think we would miss

082that opportunity if we divide it into three but is it right now divided it's one large committee right but we don't have any states shareholders in the elementary right the problem it gets to be such a large committee where if you have it broke down into three they could they could still get together once a month every other month as a full committee and and talk about some of the things that they're seeing or look to do and maybe as a subcommittee of the larger committee. Yeah, that's fair. You know, I think you're going but to be more focused on their age level and what because what you're going to do at the high school is going to look different than what you're going to do at the elementary. And that's why the separation would

083would make sense. But they certainly could come together and have communication about well at the middle school we're doing this well at the elementary we're doing it this way and oh that makes sense. We can bring it all together. And so we did invite several people from the elementary and there was just they just were too much fear of retaliation and just did not feel they could do it. So we finally just gave up on elementary because we'd invited several people and it's like okay well I don't want to get it bogged down. I at least do the middle school and high school and let's get going with that because we're already got that established and let's let's not bog it down with adding elementary if it's going to bog it all down. Well, we

084all I mean, we certainly want to get there, but I think let's for the sake of like keeping this thing going. If the board is supportive of that idea, I will bring like I do at the start of the year um recommendations to be on the committee for the one or two I'll look and see um what we can do on the numbers. Um, and then make those recommendations. We'll approve the board members to be on the on the committee for the I think it'd be interesting to see if you do that. Check in in six months and see where we're at. What have we gotten done? You know, for those continue with it, give a report and I hopefully they've narrowed this down to two or three items and away we go. But see

085if it's still as effective as what you're saying because you're Yeah. No, I I agree with that. I think that's a fair assessment. Yeah. Can I just ask how are the three of you feeling about that proposal? I think we can do it. Like we have another meeting yet, I assume. And I think we don't have anything schedule. It's not. I just think we could meet and figure out how we want to do it. I know for sure we want to have everybody come together sometimes. Great. We are community. There's a lot to be learned from the high school is with the middle school and and parents too. I mean, we're learning from each other. I learn things I've been here. Growing experience for sure. I didn't even know, you know, or from a parent

086like, oh, I never thought of it through that, right? So, I love meeting with the whole gamut of people because I've learned a lot. Let's as I'm looking at the list there, the the second one down I think is kind of an interesting one that we probably should really kind of try to focus on because that goes back to that communication piece and and really getting people informed of what's available and the benefits of being having your son or daughter involved in their schools, why that's important versus just hurrying home after school so they can get on the video games and and uh Snapchat like they need to take a nap. That's what they do during the day. I know, but they want a class for napping. So, all right. So, M Mr. Chairman, I'd

087like to clarify what the steps that produce action are going to look like because I think one of the reasons we established this committee was that certain recommendations could come out of it to the board and say we think that this will help the mental health situation in the school and therefore we recommend that the board would deal with this in some way. And my vision of that is like Doug said, something gets sent to the curriculum committee, something gets sent to the policy committee, something gets sent to another committee. What do we have to do to get that on the agenda of the committees? Because otherwise, it's just someone like me or someone else bringing a suggestion up. Hey, we should talk about this at the committee. How do we get it on the

088agenda and officially at least consider it? So, you would chair you would talk to the chair of the of the committee. Yep. Of the warrior connection. We have a of the chair of the so for polic representative at each we're just making the warrior connection from the board's perspective. If we're going to have a board member and that's participating in each of the committees they can bring those recommendations forward to or the administrators that are I can look at that and ask that this be put on the agenda for our next policy meeting. for instance, Andy can look at it and say, "I want this on the agenda for the curriculum." And that's how it's got to work. Yes. That's how I would. And that's really how our policy or our uh committee structure is

089designed as as as long as it works. As long as some those recommendations and they come in, if they're strong, they're directed to something that's going to consider taking action. Not that they have to do it, but at least serious discussion, take action. because without this committee that wouldn't happen, right? So, one of the things that'll be coming up later tonight is to talk about date, time, and agenda items for our retreat coming up in July. Um, one of the suggestions for opportunities to have a discussion would be to continue this discussion at that level for the retreat as far as what does that look like? getting kids involved and what do we as a board expect from the committee? What are we looking to see happen? How much, you know, change or how do

090we recognize if if we're headed if the committee is headed in the direction that makes sense to get, you know, I I might object to that just because I want to, but we'll get to that when we talk about it. So, cuz I think I'm I'm going to leave it up to committee for that information that you just got done saying for knowing for them to approach us those topics that you just got done saying, not for us to discuss the topics without them. You, you know, just I think you misunderstood what I was going for. So, and is this and it was warrior connections. Is it more becoming like a district-wide almost like continuous improvement team or is it I don't know and other people will feel free to chime in. I'm just um

091trying to mle this over a bit and maybe maybe just still call it connections, but I I don't any thoughts. Personally, I think the the committee name is is fine as a connections. Yep. Because that's really what we're trying to do is build connections with our students and our staff. Sure. Yeah. Student staff connections. Studentto student connections. So, so we don't need a motion, but we're in agreement on a board supported wire connections committee. Correct. In that next in our next meeting, I will bring to the committee. Another another question from a little bit different direction. You know, I've suggested to Randy and I've talked to some of the others. you probably in policy committee about just starting a district-wide discussion say on cell phones um systematically just starting the discussion I know Ry's mentioned

092well I'm not going to do that without you know approval you all have to at least so then who's it got to be is it our policy that'll come from policy it would be my opinion but you have a newsletter you can discuss I mean you can discuss your horses and chickens in the newsletter if you want Um, so who who drives that? Can a can one committee say we want to talk to them or kids are having trouble staying up too late at night? They're not getting enough sleep. Well, that's something that can be on the website. It could be a community service thing that we could promote that probably be free and things like that. Well, things like that with the discipline policy. Uh, so it's in policy that I think it's every

093July. Um, you know, I'm in charge of making sure those things are reported to you. So, I'm going to be tasking administration with, you know, putting their data together. And for instance, the sleeping in class thing. You know, I know Mark and Kurt are going to say that's the, you know, number two or three u um most most occurring, you know, write up at the high school during the year. And so, then you can take it from there as well. But, well, I have a question. We did away with cell phones in the middle school and and Josh talks about how helpful that was and how you know why do we need right why do we need a policy why don't we just do it how did they do it on Cumberland we will bring

094that up we will continue to have that discussion at policy we have been having that discussion we want to the committee felt that we needed to help also educate our parents and our staff about the benefits of doing that so it's understood versus um just a heavy-handed this is the way it is and if you don't like it tough we wanted to explain it so but we'll continue to have that discussion and there are materials out there you know Phil has shared them with me Phil I forget where you got them at this point doesn't matter but um yeah there's an approach to start sharing information and and um you know there's there's lots of resources out there to be able to do that school is in year two of this process which I'm sorry

095schools that I started communication a lot of surveys from parents students and staff that has started last year they're not implementing a full cell phone ban this year they're continuing with instructional minutes banned similar to what we've adopted the last two years at the Rice Lake High School there's one school outside the big rivers that has done this and they've done some some studies the data is still skewed the 6% 7% of habitual school followers that were struggling with the high school are still habitual rule issues with those kids. So the kids that follow rules will follow rules. The high school schedule with car access with four periods and lunch and coming and going to college schedules. They don't have a locker they're putting their phone in like the middle school. They don't stay in

096a classroom the day with the teacher. They move about the day to five different five different staff and they have access to things. So it's not as clear-cut as you want it to be. The supervision is is one thing you'd have to increase and kids are going to have their phones. Just a matter of where are they? That makes sense. So global is bigger. Sounds like a lot of talk. We will have tonight considering my kid has her phone does come from parents for entertainment and and it's but we have to recognize this is extremely important to have the conversation because that is a driver of our kids bad mental health. We will continue to have those discussions at the policy level. Uh, anything else for your update? No. Did we give you enough direction?

097No, I'm done. I mean, I just want to take a moment to say thank you to the Thank you. Thanks, guys. Can you read the minutes back? You did coming in. Um, for early morning, you're in charge, Belinda. You get to plan that. We uh not 7 a.m. anymore. We really appreciate all the hard work and the effort that was started. I think you got a great start to uh to build off of and and also the great things that were already going on in our building. So um excited to continue to hear updates from you guys and um at our next meeting we will have a board member appointed to each committee at least one. So thank you. All right. All right. And I want to thank Miriam. I mean, Miriam's put a lot

098of work in this. Yeah, it was fun. It was very enlightening for sure. Sounds like it. It's an interesting group. All right. So, next on the agenda, our athletic code of conduct. This is the second reading. Do we even have a first reading? Yes. In our last, they were going to look into the NI there was no changes. No, you had a question. And I've got it pulled up there on the screen. I'm on page No, you're fine. Like page 50 of the packet or so. Um, you had a question about some of the pieces and in talking with Tim all uh because I think the main question was uh it was down here a little bit. It's D the amateur. Yep. Okay. Uh all of the all of this information comes directly from the

099WIAA. Um so he said this part uh that is their eligibility uh rules and guidelines. So he said that comes directly from them. So he said that's not something we would change or or um my confusion was just the wording of it. If you scroll down to D, it was it's worded weird. Instead of saying that um you know they're able to participate in an NIL endorsement, it says a student athlete is not restricted from participating. And then it goes on to list all the things that are prohibited. So it's just worded terribly. Yeah. Any other questions? All right. Is I would move to accept the athletic code of conduct. Second. Motion has made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. and the athletic code has

100been approved. Next, we have our first reading for the Rice Lake Middle School student handbook. Hi, I'm Lori Leaf, the assistant principal and athletic director at the middle school. Um, not many changes for the um handbook. Um, I emailed what that was. Um, just updated all the policy links. Um, Miss Neer before she left updated the immunizations for sixth grade and then um took out sixth grade, added the seventh grade. Reduced a little of the bus policy wording. it was just a little too much. Updated um the swim season dates where the wrestling practices was held. Added the board game club, tennis, and esports. Um and then updated the dress code. Not a ton. It was really more just after the discussion the other night with like the big sleeves um and the undergarments. Added

101that in there. Um and then added our middle school retake requirements. And then um that was it. I have a question. I'm pretty new at this one. I did read through the whole thing. It's very exciting. Yeah. Um, where is vaping addressed? Is that not at this level or is Oh, no, it is. Where? I was looking for. Well, I mean like there's no specific Yeah. Um there's no specific discipline in here about it, but we do like it's not tolerated obviously, but I'm just saying does it need I I just work with you guys on this and does it need to be it's a major if you No, I know, but in the um I just didn't see the actual wording and I didn't know if I mean it's just so prevalent and so

102it's just so especially at the middle school for you guys. I mean it's ridiculous. I mean, it just it is insane how many kids are getting a hold of that and I don't know if it needs to be more specific in there or not. I just I don't know. I mean, you guys deal with the disciplinary stuff, but it would fall under illegal drugs. I can put it in the I just didn't I mean, I just Yeah. Is there something that it says illegal drugs are lookalike drugs, right? That's a little bit more towards the vaping. I just feel like kids are like, "It's not a big deal." But it is like it's a it's a big deal. And I having it listed separately probably is I don't know. I mean, the parents that we

103deal with, it's like here, right here. I just think it'd be easier for you guys maybe. I just um it's obviously a concern that we all see. So, just a suggestion. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Any other suggestions, comments? Good suggestion. I uh I had I had a thought and and I think uh I have the answer to my question, but when I was reading the part of the policy about bullying and harassment, I was struck that it omitted the online part of it. Uh since that's where a lot of it occurs, especially for girls, but maybe that's because cell phones are banned and it's not part of the problem at school. Um, so if it's um if it's on a device and it's outside of school hours, it gets turned over to our school

104resource officer. If it's occurring during school, then we address it like on computers because even without cell phones, I mean, I can open up a Google doc with Nelly right now and we can type in real time and basically like texting and so those things can happen. Does that need to be included as part of the examples then or doesn't it matter? I mean, I can put one in there if you want. I mean, there's there's all these exams of striking, kicking, hitting, throwing, all kinds of stuff. I don't know if it makes any difference as long as you address it, but it's a thought I had. Okay. Just chat GPT, you'll be fine. Yeah. You're thinking like electronic. Yeah. Cyber. It does say though. Y well the lawyer that wrote this document forgot to

105include you know one thing out of 15 things in the list. So I can look at it and add something for it. All right. Anything else? I don't know if it's meaningful. All right. This will be considered our first reading. There'll be a couple changes coming back to us uh for the second reading. Um thank you. Thank you. Next, we have a CISA 11 annual convention update. Uh, so last Monday night, June 2nd, I attended uh the CISA annual convention meeting in Turtle Lake. Um, and I thought uh with a couple new members, I would just give a little CISA like review because I needed one, too. Um so CISA for BERT stands for uh cooperative educational service agency. Thank you. We are CISA part of CISA number 11. There are 12 CISAs throughout the

106state. There are 39 school districts in CISA 11 and it's a cooperative with a $20 million budget. Um their budget uh they have no state funding. Uh so all their money comes from grants or through selling services to member districts. The mission of the CISA is to serve as a link between school districts and the state DPI. So services they uh help districts with special ed staffing um when a district can't employ a full-time position. So that would fall under like aiology, deaf and heart heart of hearing, visually impaired, speech and language pathology, school psych, OT and PT. Uh they have business services. Uh they help with business administration, HR, payroll, accounting, and they help with grants and other transitional services. They also provide professional network consulting in 35 different areas. A few would be

107curriculum, mental health, mental health navigation. They support 10 Head Start centers uh in our area. Um they meet with the superintendent monthly to talk about needs, state initiatives and offer professional development for the superintendent. So why did I attend the meeting? Um it was to elect uh open seats. They have a board of control like we have a a board uh that oversees uh our superintendent. They have a a board that oversees uh Brandon Robinson who is their director administrator. Um our pod which is consists of about seven schools uh gets two seats on the um board of control. Um, one had already been filled or is currently filled by uh Vince Coburn from Turtle Lake. He's already serving. Um, we did elect Jonel Jio from Cumberland uh that night. Um, fun fact, uh, they

108have a eight member steering committee made up of superintendent, uh, throughout the CISA 11 and our own Randy Dross is the chair of the committee this year. So, uh, not next year. So, that's what happened. My last fun fact, uh, I thought as a treat for making the trip to Turtle Lake, I would stop at the Dairy Queen on my way home. But you're going to say casino. I was uh in line behind three young gentlemen from the Turtle Lake baseball team, and they ordered $15 worth of stuff. And one gentleman had his parents' debit card and was struggling to get that to work and they could only come up with about $3.50 cash amongst the three of them and so I purchased their Yeah. treats for the guy. So peanut butter parfets. It's all

109really good. So and I still got my cone so I was good. That's it. Good stuff. Any questions? Nope. All right. Thank you for that. Next, we have our finance committee meeting update. We do have one action item on that, but Doug, go ahead. Uh, yes, we met uh Thursday, June 5th at 8 a.m. All board members were present. Uh, approved the minutes. Uh, we reviewed the 2425 budget. Uh it's expected to be slightly better than what we thought it would due to some one-time unexpected revenues that came in, but that still doesn't mean that it's we're in the black. So, so we still are had some deficit uh spending for 2425 and all good news moves forward into the 2526 year where we are still facing a an operating deficit for next uh year

110as well. And then uh from there we had some of those discussions and I would assume maybe some of that will be addressed at where we're looking at things uh from that perspective come our board retreat. But uh and then on the next thing, our action item, we needed to have an amendment to the 2425 amendment uh to our budget uh that we need to be approved for for the damages from the hail. So it's it's more of a what would you call it, Victor? More of an accounting uh requirement to to amend to approve that amendment. Correct. like a state law. Was that all just a state law? So, with that, we would entertain a motion. I know. Didn't you say, Randy, in one of the emails that it wasn't quite as dire as

111Victor presented originally? We're hoping uh we projected to be 850,000 in the hole for this year. Frankly, hoping it'll be closer to half a million, but we'll we'll see. getting Victor's getting ramped up for audit season right now. So, if he's uh gets a little gets a little crabby toward the end of the month, he'll that's why he uh likes to have everything ready to go. So, there's no question about uh about that. So, but yes, hoping it's in that neighborhood. Any other questions? So, the budget amendment that we're needing is for the hail damage insurance payments as well as some additional interest income and some one-time revenues that we need to approve that amendment. So, I'd entertain a motion to approve the amendment budget amendment. So, moved. Motion has been made. Is there a

112second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. And that amendment has been approved. And then we just reviewed and approved the bills and then scheduled our next meeting for uh Thursday, July 10th at 8:00. And we journed. Thank you. Any questions? All right. Next, uh we've got an action item for the approval of the teacher contracts for the 25 26 school year. Yes. And we had talked about this before. uh compensation committee uh met back in April and I had given a an update on this um when we hadn't officially approved those. So looking for your approval for that tonight. Um with that also implementing a new process instead of and I put this in a staff update late last week.

113Um an electronic process for contracts. So uh Kevin, Miriam, Doug won't have to physically sign uh those anymore as long as they're approved. uh there will be an electronic process. Uh staff will get them electronically, sign electronically uh and go right into the system. So uh and that's something Victor has worked to streamline. So um nothing different than what we shared um back in late April I think early May but just need your formal approval for that. So I would entertain a motion to approve those contracts. So moved. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Want the record to show that I will not be voting on this. And with that, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. And the contracts teacher

114contracts have been approved. Next, we have our policy and legislative committee meeting second reading for the policies and rules and exhibits that are on our packet. And I would entertain a motion to approve those policies, rules, and exhibits. I have one question. Um, have to make a motion first. No. Okay. Um, I need to apologize. Sorry, Kevin. I was taking notes. I didn't talk to you about this before the meeting. 34443. I still need to do a little work on that. So, that's that's on me. I was going to talk to you. Yep. That's still there. And we may have to add a rule as well. So, I'll have that ready to go for the next meeting. So, all right. So, then I would entertain a motion to table motion to table 344.43. Made and

115seconded. Uh, any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. opposed. And we have that one tabled. So then it'll be policy 521.1 and policy 533 with the rule and two exhibits. Policy 537, policy 537.3, 620, and 662.4. Those would be the ones I would entertain. Motion to approve at the second reading. 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. I. Opposed. And those policies, rules, and exhibits have been approved. Next, we get into our information section where we have our board of education inservice date and time. Our regular board meeting that night would be July or the that month would be July 28th would be the normal night. Um,

116does that work or we want to do a different night? I am on vacation and will not be available via internet or anything. Okay, that sounds exciting. Well, I'm on a plane. Can you Can you talk about that more? Can you expound on that, Lori? Are you going to be in the jungle? Do we want to move it up a week to the 21st instead of the 21st? Would Monday night the 21st work? Not for this cat, but it's all right. Yeah, me either. But that's okay. Okay. Is there another day during that week that works for everybody? I get better then. Yes. 21st. I know Bert would be pushing for Wednesday the 23rd because those are his favorite night to have meetings. [Laughter] It's my I'm okay for the 21st. Is that what you're

117What's the What's the 24th look like? Other people could make the 21st. I I could do the 24th. What does the 24th look like? Fine. Here. I I'd be good with the 24th. Are you good with the 24th? Mirror? No. No, that doesn't work either. She doesn't like those meetings anyway. She's going to Are you going to be gone for every suggested date? I figure most of July she's going to be gone. She said, "Can we not move it to August? Does it have to be done in July?" No, there's no real set. It's just if we do want to implement some things for the school year, gives them a little more time. Yeah. Next Monday, the 4th of August. The 4th of August. That's just one week. Yeah, we could. Are you Are you

118back? Are you back from the jungle? Yes, I'm back from the jungle. Does the fourth work? Miam won't be able to be here, but we'll go for it anyways. Everybody else, the fourth work. Yeah. Do we want to start a little early? I would 5:00. 5:00. Okay. Start at 5. We'll uh see what we can find for a location. Um topics. Could we do the uh what's the place that the the conservy? Conservancy. I think that would be nice. Yep. Yep. I you don't have far to go. Yep. I would suggest that as a that works venue. We'll uh get that set up. And then topics. So B, what I was referring to is I think the board needs to have something established so we know so the committee knows what we expect as far

119as reporting and and know what's happening at their level. You know that when they report to us, what are what are what are we looking for in those reports? Is it going to be just random data, random information, or is there specific things that we want to see? And I think that's what I'd like to have part of our conversation be that night concerning which committee, the connections committee going forward. So when when the staff are reporting back to us, what are we looking for? What do we expect that committee, you know, what are we what are our expectations? And I would rely on input from Miriam and Phil and right now just to tell okay we got this whole list of things. What are three items because like like I said it is there's

120so much. What are the three items that could make the most difference that would be easy to tackle and get down that path to move on to the other issues that may not necessarily take as much precedence and priority over? And and I would lean on your guidance as to what that would look like. I I think I would agree if we're sticking to the what, like you said. Yes. How to Right. No, it's it's the what and what what we're looking for exactly and back. You know what we're looking for? And uh so all right, I'll work on that. Any other ideas, suggestions? Um guessing budget is probably going to have to be on the conversation. Budget and long-term planning. Planning again. Yes. Okay. Makes sense. All right. If you have any other suggestions,

121let me know. But we're that's those two are going to take some time. I think if we Miriam, does August 4th work for you? I No, don't plan it on me. I've got so much to We were just curious. Don't tell her which date. All right. So we will move on then to uh public policy correspondent update. Okay. Well um is 740 Phil there there is one Lori I said it's 740 just encouraging Phil to be I will turn it down to 75% speed. You know you can do that in tech too. legislative update blog, uh, capital chat. They they kind of over overlapped. Um, you probably have heard that negotiations broke down between the governor and, uh, the representatives of the uh, uh, Senate Assembly on the Republican side. But, however, it was encouraging

122that both sides thanked each other and were polite to each other. though that it's not completely ruled out that they uh might get together and the joint finance committee has gone into um the voting process. So what they're doing is they're addressing the smaller issues first. they a couple of times a week they have on the agenda addressing a certain segment of the budget and they want to choose their the smaller issues first then work up to the uh bigger ones which includes the K through2 education and the university funding and things like that. So they're they're approaching that point. Um, one of the uh bills that's that's interesting that that that's getting some hearings and looks like it may generate a little momentum in the legislature is to equalize uh the distribution of equalization

123aid over all four payments because right now we get uh about 15% of our state money in September, 25% December, 25% in March, 35% in June at the end of the The proposal is that they will increase how much we get each September by 2%, decrease how much we get in June by 2% over the course of the next four or five years so that it will all be equalized, which supposedly is going to simplify the budget process. And WASBY supports that as fiscally responsible and educationally supportive. So, um, that's that's positive. A couple of bills that got a public hearing in the state senate was one that I've mentioned before where in schools with smaller class sizes, less than 80 pupils, they're able to designate the recipient of a a scholarship rather than referring

124a candidate to the higher educational aids board where they arbitrarily choose arbitrarily choose from a group of candidates. Um, there's a bill that's going to create a competitive grant program through the Office of School Safety for any schools seeking safety proposals without any new funding. Uh, the joint finance committee uh has been is going to be working um off some position papers from the legislative fiscal bureau. That was the other interesting thing I learned that legislative fiscal bureau fiscal bureau has dropped papers on certain aspects of the budget and they are heavily relied on by the joint finance committee to vote and make recommendations. One is um um for special education both the general special education which is currently funded at about 31% governor proposed 60%. Another scenario offered by the legislative fiscal bureau is

125to increase it from 31 to 35%. high cost bed. Uh it costs a lot per student, but overall it takes a lot less money. The amount of money in the state budget for the high cost sped, which is sped that spends, I believe, over $30,000 per student. Um to get to 90% of funding, it would take $35 million, whereas to get to 35% funding in general sped would take a hundred million. So, we're hoping for some increase, but not probably 60%. Uh, general school aids, legislative fiscal bureau provided a a couple of scenarios. Uh, we're going to get the $3225 increase, but uh the question is whether they will provide enough aid to keep the property taxes flat or whether that has to be funded through the property taxes. Uh there are position papers on

126the low revenue ceiling which doesn't really uh affect us and uh equalization aid which nobody understands. Um so they're up to their at least a third vote. Um and they're going to be approaching the next couple of weeks voting on K through 12 education. So actually I got an email today that said that June 12th they will be voting at 1:00 on K12 find funding. Okay. Yep. So, there tomorrow they're voting on funding for some of the larger agencies. So, all right. Any questions? If not, I have one thing on upcoming meetings, just to clarify. So, we're going to have one board meeting in July and three in August. Correct. Okay. Got it. And speaking of upcoming meetings, there are four different webinars that are available for us to uh partake in if uh you

127can get on to those. Um just report back to us and let us know what you found out. And with that, upcoming uh district events from our superintendent. Just a couple of things. Uh soft open for the new pool started today and uh with that, there were a lot of people there this morning and had a chance to pop up there for just a couple of minutes. Um Courtney was doing additional lifeguard training and u it's been positive so far. Uh just a reminder to everyone Saturday we have a grand opening uh from 9 to 1 at the pool. We'll have just a short program at 9:00. It's it's not going to be long. Uh but from 9 to 1 the pool will be open for tours, not swimming because we want people people to

128be able to you know explore all the areas. Uh but then from 1 to four uh have open swim. And then also today uh we kicked off with a child care for three to five year olds um using one of those rooms at Hilltop Elementary. Um we're full. We're our max capacity is 20 and we're at 20. Um but with one of our local childc care centers closing um it filled quickly. I did get a minute to pop in there. Lori, I'm looking at you because there was about eight of them taking a nap and I wanted to grab a mat and try that out with them. But, um, they were happy and my understanding is parents seemed happy with the new facility. Okay. Thank you. With that, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn.

129So, moved. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. We