001So that's all right. We're streaming, recording, and mics are live. We going to do two at once. Well, no. I could have You're right. You're right. You're right. Thank you. I'm just doing what you don't. You are awesome. Thank you. I got to go down. All right, it is 6 o'clock. I will call the Monday, May 12th regular board meeting to order. Roll call, please. Lori Zarbach here. Don Kusky here. Andrew Coupe here. Phil Henlle here. Kevin Jensen here. Miriam Barbara here. Bert Richard here. Nelly Shy here. And Doug Kuchko here. And Randy, was a proper notice given for this meeting? Yes. Please be advised that public notice of this meeting as required by sections 19.84 and 65.90 of the Wisconsin statutes has been properly given. Such notice consisted of a notice and agenda to
002the official newspaper the rice lake chroner type to the Oaklair leader and a radio stations WJMC and WAQE indicating the date, time and place of the meeting. Such notice was given more than 24 hours prior to the meeting. Thank you. A proper notice was given for this meeting. We will now stand for the pledge. [Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We had no one sign up for appearances, so we will move on to the approval of our regular session and close session meeting minutes from Monday, April 28th. So moved. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none,
003all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. And the minutes have been approved. Uh I would entertain a motion to table the OPED trust officer action item. Um I would so move. Committee has asked to have that tabled for now. Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I opposed. That has been tabled. Next, we have our consent agenda. We have our monthly budget, our board bills. We have four employment resignations and seven employment recommendations. I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Move to approve the consent agenda as presented. 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.
004I. I. Opposed. Consent agenda has been approved. Now we get to hear uh from our students. We'll start off with the Rice Lake High School peer mentorship program. Hello. Hey, good evening everyone. My name is Tyler Moore. Uh with me I have Sydney Shreddle and Avery Bale Key. Uh two members of our mentorship program this year. Just wanted to give you a little insight on what we've done this year in our pilot year of mentorship. Um if you want I actually have control. Look at that. Um I first want to just start off with everyone in the room here. Go ahead close your eyes. I want you to think of three people that are the most influential in your life. And keep your eyes closed. How old are these people? Are they older than you?
005Are they the same age? maybe a spouse or a close friend. Why were they influential to you? Was it because of money? Was it because of what they drive or what they wear? Did they believe and encourage you? Did they listen to you? Did they see the strengths that you have? And do you share some of the common interest? Go ahead and open your eyes. Most of you probably just pictured three people, whether it was a grandparent, a relative, maybe a coach, a teacher, and I'm going to guess a lot of it is from those last few that I said. You share the same interest. They believed in you. They encouraged you. Sometimes that's all it really takes is someone to talk to, someone that you share the same interest with, someone that can encourage
006you along the way. Not necessarily an adult that might be a high figure in this community, but someone that is a peer, someone that they can relate with, that they can share maybe a sporting event with, they can grab a hot dog with. That's all it takes for a lot of these kids. Now, how do you carry on their influence? Do you snowball? Is that some things that really drive deep into you? Is that what you show out to other people? And that's what we're going to talk a little bit about. The whole purpose of the mentorship program is to give kids that don't necessarily show up, give them a chance to show up. Give them a reason to show up. It's nothing fancy. It's not sit down every single day and talk about our
007feelings. It's just giving them the opportunity at first to show that someone out there, a peer, actually cares for them. So on the student side, on the mentee side, what we're looking for them to do is just attend athletic events, maybe theater or concerts, dances, gatherings, something that the school puts on. We had our bonfire the other day. Maybe it's uh one of our goofy lunchtime activities. That's all we're looking at. Just just for them to kind of get involved in something instead of hanging out in the back, sitting on their laptop, sitting on their phone during lunchtime. the peer connection. We're looking at them just to gain from that peer influence. We know teenagers at this age are very peer influenced. You may have been so as well in high school, looking to build
008on the school culture, little bit of improvement in the understanding and belonging, trying to figure themselves out. But it's not only for the mentees, it's also for our mentors. They also understand a little bit better. They get a little bit more relatable. They build on these skills, skills that a lot of us adults are still working on today. They get better at relationship building, better at encouraging, trying to trying to figure out what another person is trying to improve on themselves, but also how can I help encourage that person to be a better person, but overall also reflecting on themselves. I'm not a perfect person. You are not perfect people. The audience isn't perfect. So reflecting on ourselves. Hey, how can I encourage better? How can I be a better leader? How can I get
009more people involved? Also helps with connecting their strengths and interests. So, we talked about a lot of you connect with the same interest. That's where your most influential people come from. So, just connecting the dots. I I remember back in my sophomore year playing sports here, some of the seniors that were on the team then, those were some of my more influential people in my life. Just connecting the dots. I I didn't really know them outside of just playing sports, but then progressing on those interests as well. So, this is what we've done first semester. This is very LZ fair, very relaxed. It's a it's not like we're setting everything up. It's just simply we have interested kids that want to help out the disinterested kids. So, in the first semester, we gathered six interested
010mentors. Uh these two being two of them. Gathered freshman extracurricular involvement. I know Mr. Bulock. He's been here talking about getting kids more involved in the science behind and the studies behind your success as a person and your involvement in high school. We had 23 original freshman. We narrowed that down with our home room teacher check-in. So, checking in every couple weeks, especially at the start of the year, and we got that down to 13. Results might not look too spectacular, but we had seven that join a club and are consistently attending. That's over half. three are attending a different school. So now even 75% and then we have still three that we're helping try to find something to join. Moving that on to second semester time to address the sophomore. Sophomore year is a
011little bit trickier. People start working more. People start having uh a little bit more involvement in their own life that's outside of school. They gain a little more confidence. They have a license. They're able to drive more responsibilities. So, we had we've now grown to 26 interested mentors. We're down to or we had uh 17 uninvolved sophomores. Results, we have six sophomores now that have joined clubs. That's even in second semester when most clubs are already done for the most part. We're looking at February, March. So now in the last couple months here, we still had six more sophomores that joined, two that plan to join next year. So again about half just simply through conversation just through hey I see see this person in the hallway just having a conversation it's not a set
012meeting it's not a set place it's not set lunch date or anything it's just through conversation uh we also plan on planned on having two mentors going down to the W building so trying to tie our WOW building in with what's going on up at the high school getting regular communication that kind of goes back and forth between those two buildings not only from teacher wise but also student wise as well. And this is what we have to come next. Uh mentors continue to work with their mentees. We had a couple seniors, but intentionally I chose a lot of juniors. So then this can carry on to next year. So it's not just a one year and done thing. It's can carry on to next year. We're in the same club together, carry it on
013through further years. Uh keeping up to date on GoFan attendance for dances, bonfire, other extracurricular events. So being more diligent with how we're taking attendance and extracurriculars on my end. I want to delegate more check-ins by the mentors just kind of keeping more up to date on them. I also have a busy life so it's not it was not the uh most common that I wanted to do. Um but mentor mentee some green meets we did it once in February. It was pretty good. I just brought some food in during a home room and got them to meet each other a little bit more. And then monthly reflections from our mentors, getting them to really dive in more on reflecting on their experience. So that's all I have. If you all have any questions for
014to my mentors that have been here since the beginning. Yeah. So how do you deal with a hardcore? Now when I identify highcore hardcore I think of two things. A bullies or two extremely shy people. Mhm. How do I handle that? Cindy, whoever. Um, I would say just having open conversations and just trying to find those things that connect you. Um, there's so many opportunities at the school between sports and like events and gatherings we put on. So, just continuing to try and find that connection and having open conversations with them. My first mentee didn't really show up to school a lot. So, the way I reached out to her first is by adding her on Snapchat. And through that, she felt more comfortable communicating with me first that way. And then we grew closer
015and just little check-ins being like, "Hello, I know you don't have a license and I do. So, if you ever need a ride to a game or anything like that, I'm here. And I'll follow that up too. Um, at the beginning of the year with the six original, sat them down, kind of went over the expectations. You're not meant to be a therapist. You're not a counselor. So, if you hear something or something is told to you that you don't feel comfortable with, tell me, tell a counselor, tell someone else. And thankfully, none of nothing like that happened. Um, but the the ground rule the ground rules were set like you are meant to be more of a friend and more of an acquaintance than you are to be of a superior because we all
016also know high schoolers that the ones that reject any sort of structure they are going to go even further away. So keeping it as lz fair as possible. Do the mentors all get together and chat about what they're hearing or doing or Yeah, we try to keep meetings, check-in meetings, and this is something I want to improve on. We met maybe once every couple months, two months, so around there. So, okay. Have something a little bit more regular than that for next year. But what are your goals for the program in terms of growing it? How many mentors are you trying to get to and mentees and what is your It's a good question. I don't think there should be a limit really. I mean, we have seven or 680 kids at the high school.
017Why should there be a limit really? As long as it's also manageable at the same time. Uh so if there might need to be more of me, then that's fine. But awesome. You know, we all need someone that's influencing ourselves. So, it's great. Great program. Yeah. Any other questions? [Music] All right. Okay. Thank you guys. Thank you. Mr. Stokovich. All right. Next, we have the Rice Lake Middle School Council leadership event. We're going to let them do the talking. We are so they can Hi, I'm Mary Kervosa, school counselor and um advisor to our student council at the middle school with Angela Storyovich and um we're going to let our students talk. Go ahead and introduce yourself. Hi, my name is Audrey Brunswick. I am a seventh grader at Grace Lake Middle School. I have
018been in um student council for 2 years now. And my favorite part of the packer empowerment day was when we got to hear a speech about how to fear a little less and we all wrote down some of our fears and then everybody shared and it was just so sweet to hear that some people had the same fears as us and it was just really empowering. Hi, my name is Emily Paps. I'm in sixth grade and I have been in middle school success or student council for one year. Hello, my name is McKenzie Mumson and I'm in sixth grade and I've been in student council for one year. My name is Max Dogitch. Um, I'm in seventh grade and I've been in student council for two years. My name is Henry Westfall and I have
019been in student council for one year and I am in sixth grade. My name is Bronzreen and I've been in student council for two years and I'm in seventh grade. What is student council? The mission of Rice Lake Middle School student council is to provide and plan leadership learning opportunities, schoolwide activities, and fundraisers as we strive to strengthen and motivate leaders to become positive voices for our school and community. How do students join student council? Student council is open to all sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. In September, application forms are available for anyone who wants to apply. Students complete application form which consists of answering all the questions, getting a teacher and parent signature, agreeing to be a positive role model, and following the warrior way. Um the 2024 through 2025 um middle school student
020council currently has 60 members. The committees or each um committee member got to choose two committees to be part of. We had the veterans day um Christmas week of fun playground elementary connection school spirit teacher appreciation week community service and power packer empowerment day. More on the veterans day. We the Rice Lakeake Middle School hosted the community veterans day program. Over 250 community members attended. Student council members serve served as greeters, assist with directions, hand out felt poppies programs, and serve cookies and coffee. The school spirit committee plans homecoming dress up days and home room activities. They also assist with math and literacy night and made new PBIS school expectation videos. The middle school spring dance which over 200 students attended. We also had the community service committee which rang bells for the Salvation Army
021and assisted at the multicultural event. We are Rice Lake. The playground committee is just starting to get together and brainstorm some ideas for uh new playground equipment. We're looking at purchasing um some looking at purchasing new balls uh and new basketball hoop netting and some equipment. Um, another one is elementary connection. We assist with elementary students in their with their various activities including track and field day, school carnival and other reward activities. We also have teacher appreciation week and we the entire school makes thank you cards. There's room service cart with treats. There's mailbox treats and there's typically a breakfast or lunch. We also have the Christmas week of fun which we have dress up days, the coloring contest and a daily trivia. We had an amazing opportunity to go to the Packer Empowerment Leadership
022Conference. It is a day workshop hosted by the Packer Foundation in Green Bay. Um, we had a feeler presentation by Daryl Bellamy Jr. and we got a tour of Lambeau Field. We got to speak to former Packer players Scott Wells and Earl Dodson. We also got to package um care packages for Ronald McDonald House. Do you have any questions? Just a comment. I've been to two Veterans Day events and you guys do a great job on that. Thank you. Any other questions? I have a lot of Packer questions, but I'll save them. I also want to compliment the organization and the opportunity to to at the school dance. Um, I was there. Um, the kids were amazing. You guys had a lot of fun activity going on and and uh good job. I think we
023should have more presentations by the kids. Yeah, very entertaining. It's fun to watch. They did great. Very good. [Applause] All right. Next, we've got the follow-up conversations with the Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin. Yeah. And there I just I Hang on one second. Yeah. I just I just need my clicker. Hey, put it in there first. Uh this is just a followup. Um so we've had some conversations uh with Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin and had a meeting a couple of weeks ago and just u they were available and and have a strong interest in in CTE. So invited Bert and Phil uh to this meeting as well. Um but the associated general contractors uh work to help school districts um you know promote that construction and engineering pathway and u looking to develop anou
024between um AGC uh between us as a school district and then also between uh hopefully Northwood Technical College. And the purpose there is just to to promote uh partnership and and developing uh student interest and skills in in the skilled trades. Um and with that working with them to uh provide more opportunities for students. Um there may be some financial help that they can secure to help us either with potential future uh facilities or equipment and just an opportunity to to sit down and and talk. And the gentleman from AGC is Bob Barker. Not Price is Right Bob Barker, but uh different Bob Barker. And uh uh with that, we've met a couple of times over the last couple of years um just to continue to further those conversations and and provide opportunities uh for
025students. And uh with that, you know, this was more focused on, like I said, construction and engineering pathway. And we have other pathways as well. And so I I think with this it'll be something that um I know Bert will be bringing to the curriculum committee as he sits on curriculum committee now. But just wanted to have a little bit of follow-up discussion with that. And I don't know Bert and Phil if there's anything else you would like to add uh just about that meeting or anything or CTE pieces in general. Um, but I just wanted to get it in front of you, have a little bit of of conversation, and just know that curriculum can the curriculum committee is going to be talking more about this. So, I think like a lot of businesses
026in industry, they're hurting for employees, skilled employees. I think in some cases any employees, but that was their emphasis to get some emphasis on uh technology as it relates to the building construction trades. Mhm. It was very very well presented. Yeah. And uh down at WASBY, I I met someone that had already sold equipment to the tech program up here and was familiar with Kurt and the program. And he's he was perfectly willing to come up and review the program and suggest what we could do to update things and and uh possibly even we could find someone that could give us an idea of what space expansion might require. Um the idea is that there is a demand for for people that know the trades as Bert said and we could possibly turn ourselves into
027the north northwest Wisconsin mecca and attract more students to come here for that. Any any questions, thoughts, comments? All right, thank you for that update. Then we have our second reading for the 2526 Rice Lake High School student informationational booklet. Mark, we have any changes from the first reading? Not really. I just got to say I'm glad that Randy buffered with that update instead of me coming up right after those great presentations to talk about student handbook and rules. I'm already the no fun guy, right, because of my role my role. But, uh, no, the the only thing that I did from the last time we met a couple weeks ago is I did add the, uh, Rice Lake School District mission and vision statement to the front page and kind of pulled that out.
028And then, um, Andy had showed me a couple little typos that I fixed up. So, basically, if you guys uh, think we're all set, it's ready to go uh, from that standpoint. So, any questions? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve the Rice Lake High School student informationational booklet. I move that we approve the Rice Lakeake High School student informationational booklet as described by Mr. Bise. 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 the handbook has been approved. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have the first reading for the 2526 elementary handbook. Hello. I guess we do not have a whole lot of changes um for you today. Um, one
029change that we did modify a little bit was on uh, page 12 with the cell phones. Cell phones, smartwatches, and tracking devices is what we added. We have a few more kids some years coming to school with tracking devices on them so that parents can track where they are at. And some of the devices have audio and that's attached to them. So if that's not turned to school mode, they could actually hear what's going on in the classroom. So that's something that we just wanted to make sure we included in our handbook. Page six, we just rewarded um the paragraph regarding parents or guardians on field trips. Uh last year we had added a little piece in there about not being able to bring their uh other students with and we really t and we
030kind of had it at the end of that paragraph. We moved it up to tie it in with the insurance piece where we don't have insurance to cover those student and saying that this is really a a legitimate reason why we don't want younger students to attend as well. So, and then as Mark mentioned, we also just updated our um mission and vision statements to the handbook. Um, one thing we have to go through because I noticed it. I actually used the handbook today because we had a second grader that brought a smartwatch to school. So, I had to reference that today and I noticed our page number was off. So, we're going to go back and just make sure we have our correct page number. So, we'll do that for the second reading. So,
031any questions? Comments? I have one comment. I think it's on page five under PB PBIS the one two three fourth paragraph uh about removing a student from a room. It says the goal will always be to have the student return to class as soon as possible. And I'm I'm kind of aware I think of what you mean by that. But I think it's also a teacher's fear that they come back to class right away before they're ready. So, I'm wondering if would be good um to add something like as soon as possible uh as a more responsible student or something like that as because right now it just it just kind of sounds like they're out and got to get them back into that room as soon as possible. It's got to be the appropriate
032time. See what I mean? Maybe and I guess with our new student code of conduct with the revision that was done to that, I would probably say to refer back to what that states because that's what we want to make sure that we're following. Okay, that's what I was going to suggest. Yes. Was I know we do have a link in there to that. We just have to make sure that that's pointing to the updated policy. Mhm. But it's hard when you say responsible because then everybody has their own definition as to what responsible looks like or feels like. But you're right. We want to make sure that teachers feel supported that a student is not coming back too soon. Right. That that's my point, I guess. Yeah. And and sometimes it's a just as
033a general rule of thumb, we always have that conversation. sometimes will push in with that student back into the classroom, but it's always a conversation with the staff member um to make sure. Sometimes students have to fix things with the teacher, sometimes students need to fix things with other students. So, it really is a case byase situation, honestly, depending on what it is, what's happened. So, okay. But certainly we can look at that. Yeah. Because quite frequently you'll have a student that may be sent to us. We'll work through things. They've been out for a time period. They appear like they're ready to go back to class and like Joanne said, we'll typically push in just to make sure. And sometimes the second you walk out the door, they escalate again. And so it I
034don't think there's a great way to say this is when they're ready because they may seem like it and they maybe weren't as much as we thought. But, you know, showing that support to the teachers and always trying to communicate. Yeah. So, all of that is behind that that simple statement. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And actually, you bring up a good point with PBIS. I don't even know if any like my school doesn't refer to it as PBIS. Remember, we always talk about the warrior way, which really we should add that to that statement because parents now would look at that and not even know what that means. I mean, we have it down below in that little box, but you're absolutely right. That's good suggestion. Any other questions or comments? All right, this is a
035first reading. We will be bringing this back to a second reading at our next meeting. If you have any thoughts, comments, or things, suggestions for change, please let Randy know and we can get those added in before the second reading and have further discussion. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, second reading for the board of education meeting schedule. Does anybody have any questions on what was presented? There was no changes to that. At this point, I would move to accept the 2526 board of education schedule. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. And the meeting schedule for 2526 has been approved. Next, we have our warrior connection committee update. Okay. So, we
036met on Tuesday, May 6, and um we got an update from Belinda and Adam Beaver who are collecting data. Uh they did ask the staff there, well, there was a little bit of confusion, but um basically, how can we reach these kids or what kids do you think we should be reaching out to? And so, they've been successful in talking to the staff. And then also there's been feedback saw from about 40 to 50 students and Susan Franco has also been interviewing people as well and I believe Pete Peterson too. Um I heard there was a climate study today but I don't did anyone was were they able to access it because some people are saying what how was that? We had a freshman copy but the rest of the we did that in the
037fall and we do in the spring. Okay. So it's not connected with this. Okay. Okay. And maybe we weren't sure if we should do it because we had data collected in the fall. Right. For sure. Yeah. So um and now so that's basically from data collection, but I was hoping that Phil and um Mark or could talk about what's going on with areas of action. Yeah. Well, um I talked with uh um Mr. Bisy, Mark, and if you differ at all, just jump in, Randy, will you? Because seems like my note takingaking abilities have degraded a little bit in the last 50 years. Um, we had uh a discussion about what we could submit to the board uh for action on the basis of not costing a lot of money and being low risk as
038far as being controversial or causing any negative effects. Um, and then some other things. Um, one of the things that was brought up that we spent a lot of time talking about was whether uh we might be able to run a late bus after school so that kids without transportation, without means might be able to participate in more activities. And um I think uh we're going to talk with the bus company about that and then uh see if that's feasible, how much it would cost and then uh depending on that come to the board for some discussion about that. Um, another thing that that we spoke of that I think makes a lot of sense is to consider a couple of real big deal awards at the end of the year for exceptional warrior leaders.
039Um, you know, even more prestigious than recognizing someone every month. uh maybe limit it to a couple, make it extremely special, make it something that would look really good on their resume later on too. It would be quite an accomplishment. Um something else we talked about is expanding career in tech ed as Randy just mentioned. um that is linked with a sense of accomplishment, linked with student mental health, can be a way for students to reconnect with school. And for a few students, it could uh really turn their lives around. And it's really vital for a community and all the other things we just talked about. And we could start looking at that for really no cost. So why not do it? It's needed and there's value. Um, another thing that was brought up and
040I don't think we really took any action on it, um, and referring it was the idea of perhaps creating more free time at school for the students so they don't have to wolf down their lunch and not have any time to do anything. Um cuz the American Academy of Pediatrics, for instance, has a position paper where um recess at school, particularly at the middle school level, is is really important for kids to relate to one another and to be able to figure out how to figure things out when there's conflict on their own. um that could perhaps be for instance a few more minutes before school or or during lunch probably would involve lengthening a school day by just a few minutes. Another thing that that needs to be discussed no matter what's decided because
041of the amount of evidence that's accumulating about cell phones and social media at school is um beginning of a discussion on whether there should be a total cell phone ban during the school day here. Um further we discussed a future and continued partnership with the Boys and Girls Club and how uh we could partner with them a little bit more and how do we provide more resources for the Warrior leadership team. Um, say more uh money or business sponsors for for Zach to do things like shoot objects into the stands, t-shirts, etc. And also, these teachers are really stressed for time. So, how we could somehow free up a little more time for teachers that really want to be mentors for the wire leadership team. So, I think that's all I have. Do you folks
042have any more? If I I probably threw a couple of things in there from memory that Yeah, we didn't discuss quite as seriously, but none of them are very controversial. I think you hit it pretty well. I know that one thing I mentioned going with the Boys and Girls Club that pre-COVID Boys and Girls Club had an employee that would be uh in LMC from about after school to about 5 5:30. that was kind of there's a lot of wasted time there. What I mean by that is we have some students that will sit in our lobby till 4:00 4:30 waiting on a ride and then also um especially during the winter months we have different practice schedules late practice early practice having a place for those kids to go where like a quick snack
043might be somebody for some home homework help. We also talked about is there the ability to maybe offer that get like boys and girls because I know they have a lot of things too. Can we get some of our staff to kind of man that for almost like a homework resource after school? Um, and then kind of like what we heard a lot about tonight, maybe it's just even a way to build uh some relationships. Maybe it's a place to bring that mentor mentee program into because right now, like I said, from about 3:15 to 4:30 and then depending on the time, there's a lot of kids just before not know where to go because they're a little older and they might not go up to the boys book club like that. So might be
044something that we look at again was there precoid and cos [Music] and I can go back to the late bus piece. Um you know back when several of us are from here were were younger there was a a late bus or late buses that ran. Um and I did talk with Kevin Fry from the bus garage. He said it's it's something we could do. We didn't talk numbers or cost, but said, you know, theoretically you could send one, you know, north, south, you know, west and east. Um, and it's not that they would necessarily uh drop kids off at their house, but there would be a spot. Like I remember when I was a kid, you know, one went up Highway M and would stop every couple miles or whatever and uh kind of at
045a bus stop. And so um with that, that's that's one piece. And then yeah, as Phil mentioned too, just one other piece, the the cell phone topic. uh continues to resurface and I just I think some point we'll have to have a longer discussion about that. Um and and schools are in different places. I think you know there's a bill um I don't know where it's at in the legislature u banning them during instructional time. I'm going to say I'm going to guess most schools do that now. Um but it'd be looking if you um you know wanted to expand that on those bags. There's there's yonder pouches. I think it's y if somebody listening wants to look them up. I know Mark, I know you had looked at those I think at one time.
046Um or what's that? Sponsor them. Or sponsor them. Mark gonna sponsor them. Yeah. No, somebody watching. Um, yeah, they're not cheap. I want to say I thought you had said maybe like for a high school our size it was like $10,000 a year or something like that. I I could be wrong, but yeah, it was in that ballpark. Couple students in here, but again, that's right now the ones that aren't active. So, you're always kind of fighting that battle, too. Yeah. So I think that's yonder pouches are one giant step but it's not a saw. Yeah. Okay. Put a dummy phone in there. Sorry. 30 bucks a piece. The under poaches. Yeah. Okay. All right. So just things to think about. Any questions? policy continues to have some discussion about some of those things. So
047yeah, and I I think we need to start a discussion. You know, we don't want to come down with a hammer, but if we are serious about kids mental health and kids connection, at the very least, it's something that has to be discussed. This is not Race Lake issue, a Wisconsin issue, liberal issue, conservative issue. It's all across the country and districts are almost always happier and the kids are almost always happier after a while when it happens. So, can we ask the student um reps? So, we're reading this book about it, right? And it's saying that if there's not phones during passing time or some schools are that don't have phones during passing time that the kids are talking more and interacting more, that there's a more positive atmosphere. What do you guys think
048about it now versus with the idea of not having phones? I think I would definitely create like almost by force because if you don't have your phone, you've got to talk or people are going to go crazy. But it'll take probably a month or two, maybe three for that to really take into effect. Um, and then I know the the big counterargument is, well, what if a school shooting? Yeah, you always hear that. That's the big if. Um, between that and then I know for a lot of clubs and sports, um, I was a captain this year for the soccer team and I would get texts pretty frequently throughout the day from my coach about changes to practice plans, changes to games, questions about players if they were at school and stuff like that. So
049then that kind of adds like a layer really like I you're in a void for eight hours and you I guess get your phone back. Um, I know students that have work that can also be an issue. So, I think there definitely be a lot of social and like emotional benefits, but for a lot of like logistic and planning um or if you need to have an appointment or something like that, that could be a real issue. It's very perceptive that it would take a while to have an effect because it's true. You have to do it for a number of weeks so everyone gets used to it until you see the benefits. Especially with high schoolers because we're pretty resistant. We'll we'll fight. You fight it for a while. I love the honesty. Good.
050That's right. It's good. And there's a senior. Do you have anything to add? I feel like it would definitely have a positive impact in some ways because I even what came comes to my mind is at lunch you'll look around and you'll see a table of five people and every single one of them is sitting on their phone and some people don't even talk to each other during lunch. But also there's also the part where I I'll forget something at home and I'll communicate with my parents throughout the day and that's very important because if I have like an important homework piece to do and my mom's able to bring that to me. And for sports also, we communicate with our captains and with our coaches through our phones. And even we're leadership team uses
051the Remind system on our phones to remind for meetings and stuff. So there's definitely the part where it would be hard because a lot of our communication is on our phone, but also it would have a positive social aspect. Thank you. One more question. Are there kids that are only interacting like we heard tonight from one of the students that they use Snapchat and that was the only way that they could communicate with some kids. Is that true where there's a lot of kids that are only willing to communicate through devices? I think there's a lot of kids that would much prefer it um for whatever reason. I know co kind of messed up a lot of people in their social abilities um or made them more um I guess lazy in their eagerness to
052seek out personal connection and so it's a lot easier to just text um and so I know a few kids who'd rather much rather text and have like in person chat but once you kind of develop that connection with that person and then they're more open to talking face to face and then they open But definitely there are some people where you can't reach them if it's not by phone and there are others where it's really that's nearly impossible to reach them by phone. So it's Yeah. Yeah. We used to have to pass notes. I'm just saying that was a long time ago. Thank you you guys. That was you gave some really well thought out answers. Impressive. It was. Thank you. Just just uh a comment about the uh having phone in a school
053emergency is actually kind of a a straw man argument because um if there is an emergency, the last thing you want is the cell phone lines clogged up with all sorts of panic calls from students going to parents, from parents going to students. might make the parents feel better, but kids need to be listening to instructions about what to do and concentrating on what their leaders tell them. And that's kind of that's not just a, you know, pull out of the hat counterargument. That's that's something that people more in the know have concluded as well. I'd add to it because it causes panic because some parents are getting a hold of their children and some parents aren't getting a hold of their children. Uh and it causes a lot of panic and parents are coming
054in when they're not supposed to be coming in to the school area and so that it is difficult and rumors get out that shouldn't be getting out. So that that is one of the frequent arguments but it shouldn't be. And to add to that, um, when there was the swatting incident up at the middle school a couple years ago, um, I happened to be home at the time and I know I had text Randy right away and said, "What is going on?" Because there was parents already at the middle school. I mean, before the police were even showing up. So, I mean, that can really complicate things if it was a true emergency. Yep. We might have to go back to doing more emails for communication versus if we were. But I think they made
055some really good points. Interesting. Very interesting. I mean, what he said about, you know, coming out of COVID and and kids are just they've gotten lazy. I mean, PE adults have gotten lazy. Yeah. Yes. So, well, that's one of that's a lot of reasons there why it should be discussed. Exactly. I'd agree. All right. Anything else before we move on? Just to add to that, there are I don't have anything to quantify this with, but all I can speak with is like my son's a freshman at lacrosse and within his friend group um like a lot of them are deleting Snapchat. They still text and they, you know, call and stuff, but um there's a growing sentiment. Again, I don't know how large it is, but at least with a few of them, like they're
056sick of these things. They they truly are and um they view them as more of a hindrance most of the time than help. So So I waited long enough to be in again. No, I don't have Snapchat. All right, we will move on to our finance committee meeting update. Okay, Doug. Yep. All right. Uh we met Thursday morning at 8:30 on April 10th. All members were present. I was uh selected to be the chair of the committee again. Uh we had a discussion about the designation for the OPAB trust officers which uh we have tabled this evening uh because we're trying to figure out if we do in fact need to actually move forward with having designated trustees um and looking into that. Uh we approved in the recommendation to change our stop-loss carrier to
057save some money. Uh in terms of uh the from our insurance perspective, uh child care program building architect. Uh the committee uh recommend approval of LBH as the architect for the child care project uh because of their experience with the district and uh their experience also with child care construction uh experience as well. I believe that's an action item action on my item. So, if we can take just a moment from his report and I would entertain a motion to approve that uh architect. I'll move to approve the architect. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. And that has been approved. Thanks, Doug. All right. And then our next item uh on our
058agenda was we reviewed our health uh insurance rates for 2526 and the committee is recommending uh approval of the premium rates for $900 for a single and $2,100 for family. Uh employee contributions would remain the same as they were in 2425 year school year in lie of the an employee contribution increase. uh the medical travel stipen is being eliminated from the health insurance plan and this is also an action item. I want the records to show that I am abstaining from the vote and with that I would entertain a motion to approve the health insurance rates. I would so move. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Just for information. Was it a $100 increase for each? Wasn't I think Wasn't that it? Yes.
059Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. And that uh has been approved. All right. And then with that, we reviewed and approved the the bills and then set our next meeting for June 5th at 8:00 instead of 8:30 to uh give us a better opportunity for our committee members to attend without cutting into their business days. Any questions? All right. Thank you for that report. Next, we have our public relations committee meeting update. Mark. Yeah, we met Monday, May 5th. Uh, call to order. At 5:30, all members present. Statement of notice was given, approved minutes. And first part of our agenda was on focus. And uh, we had to let our new member know what our focus, which we're glad
060she brought up. Uh we gave her some information and discuss on making sure the community knows what a fantastic school district we have as far as students, teachers, and of course administration. And one of the examples I brought up is that Randy had spoke that late that week to the Rice Lake Area Men's Club and did an outstanding job and and uh some of the posts that Aaron Johnston has on Facebook is is really nice. So, we brought those examples and then we talked about signature lines. I don't know if you want to talk anything about Yeah, with that I can talk and we've talked about that at the last couple of meetings uh but it's come up over uh time and just uh we don't have a standard signature line in the district and
061with that just to promote uh more professionalism more unity uh within that we have a a template now and with us using Google it's not something that um you know say Marty Helguson and IT can just say you know here's a signature line and attach that to everybody's everyone's going to have to go in and do their own uh create their own, but there are guidelines there. There's a little bit of of freedom in terms of maybe colors of things um and whatnot and and which Warrior logo you use. Um but we want some commonality in that um across the district. So, it just it presents more professionalism and a and a more coherent uh look from our staff. So, our goal is to have that implemented by the over the course of the summer
062and by the beginning of next school year. So, good. Uh, next we had an update from Aaron Johnson and uh what she's going to do is add a camera icon to the different events that are going to be streamed and and I like that especially when it comes to sports that I can't make it. and uh she's also been promoting programs from Rice Lake on the community media uh interviews also on radio been conducted with Amber Gansky and a few others and she's now working with Ruth Ruth Ericson on different articles. Um some suggestions on publications in the future. Uh develop a monthly yearly can calendar specifically for the board of education committee. Uh work to get people in the buildings, you know, up to snuff on on PR. Promote district tours for class reunions
063was something that we discussed. Uh I suggested and got uh looks like approval that maybe we add a staff member to or two to our uh meetings, you know, asking them if they've got any suggestions for public relations or something that we can do better. and uh reorganize the public relations committee agendas to include areas that have been achieved and that have uh done a real good job with communication. There are no other issues and we adjourned and our next meeting will be determined. We meet about quarterly. Bert, you um was it you that mentioned we once had a realtor's breakfast here because that's something that came up from a district that was we want to do that this summer for the first time. Okay. That's we stole that idea from I don't know the
064one presentation presentation they they offered it. We didn't really have to steal it. Yeah. Yep. There's good PR. Any other questions or comments? Right. Thanks for that update. Next, we got our uh policy and legislative advocacy committee second reading for policies 210, which is administration goals. 221, recruiting and hiring administrative staff with the rule. Policy 223, administrator development opportunities. Policy 225, which is administrator evaluation with the rule. Policy 231, district administrator. Policy 383.3, professional therapy dogs. Policy 411, student non-discrimination and equal uh educational opportunities with the rule one and two and exhibits one and two. And then uh oh, one, two, and three, I'm sorry. And those are all in front of you for a second reading. No changes were made from the first reading. Anyone have any questions? If not, I would entertain a
065motion to approve. So moved. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. And those policies, rules, and exhibits have been approved. Now we move into the information section of our agenda where we have our school drill evaluation from Tainter. Yeah. just with that uh part of those drills we have at all the buildings uh throughout the course of the year and and that get reported to the Department of Justice uh Office of School Safety uh every calendar year. So we just uh every time we have those uh you get a chance to see those. All right, any questions? If not, Phil, what do we have from WSB public policy correspondent update? Uh there were
066uh a couple of capital chats that I reviewed and um moderately interesting I would guess. Um May 2nd a chat. Um I think I already I think I already discussed this in policy committee but the uh Trump administration department of education asked the state department of education to certify that uh DEI was not being pushed uh in the state and the state and the um uh Dr. Underly and the attorney I think maybe the attorney general have pushed back on that but re um information came through that each school district can certify that um uh they are not uh pursuing discrimination basically and hiring and other things and and I think we decided to to do that at the last we did we talked about that I signed it and yep time passes okay good
067deal um joint finance committee hearings. Number one issue was uh the need for increased funding for special education. And when I'm done with this, maybe I could ask you to give a quick update since you were update. I meant to go, but there was another conflict. 60% uh funding level of special education would amount to $1.1 billion. That would be a significant expenditure. There was a mention by one of the people on the joint finance committee of some possibility of a budget repair bill depending on what happens with funding from the feds. So there is some possibility of um the state stepping in with funding if federal funding does decrease. the uh new legislative fiscal bureau projection comes out as to what the effect of the uh Iver's budget or other proposals might be that
068comes out this week. Um it's just a just a best guess I guess. So I'll wait on that'll just keep you on the edge of your chairs if I don't tell you what they say. Now, as far as uh other things in the legislature, um bills that continue to uh attract a little bit of interest is establishing someformational criteria to attach to school district referenda such as what will the referendum actually end up costing considering uh acred interest and things like that. Um and also a good faith of estimate of what it might mean for a property tax change. Uh there are um there's a proposal to eliminate recurring referendum uh for uh after four years. So you could pass a recurring referendum and it would have an effect for four years, but then you
069couldn't do it again for a while. and also some consideration of restricting aid to very large districts because apparently if aid is increased proportionally to large districts, it's enough that it can affect funding for a lot of other districts in the state. A bill that would permit rehiring of retired teachers without delaying the starting of their retirement annuity beyond 75 days. they'd have to wait 75 days and it would uh put more retired teachers back into the the workforce uh which could be a valuable thing. That would be it for that chat. And then uh last week, last Friday, they said the joint finance committee had their first vote on last Thursday. They removed 600 items from the uh Iver's budget or $4 billion. So, can't imagine how fast they voted. Uh, they're going to
070build a budget off base levels. Uh, it seems like that they would like to come up with a budget, but it's going to be later than July 1st. And the governor would like to discuss the Republican desire for tax cuts and combine it with the budget. And the Republicans want to pass it independently because they're scared of whatevers will do to it if they pass it separately. They have to pass a budget without any digits in it. So that can't be manipulated. So maybe AI will come in handy there. Um the PI already said the primary issue and the joint finance. No, I didn't. The joint finance committee session is a primary issue was school funding, but it's also probably the last thing that will be addressed in their budget proposal because it's a very
071large budgetary item and they want to get some of the smaller things out of the way first and then address the larger issue to the at the end. Then they briefly discussed some federal items. They reviewed what title one, two, three, and four are. I wish they would have just said why they call them titles. It must be the heading of part of the uh federal regulations or something. Title one, the education act is funding for money for uh low achievement and lowincome and disadvantaged students. Title two is for recruiting and training educators. Title three is for English language learners. Title four helps families and engagement modernization and things that so we occasionally hear about those titles. So it's nice to actually know a little bit about what they mean. There are rumors and basically
072there there's basically rumors and unofficial suggestions about cuts to K12 funding, but a lot of them involve moving money to other departments to issue some involve perhaps combining dollars to give to states for block grants. Um, again, there there are rumors floating around, concerns about Medicaid cuts, but I don't think there are any proposals for real cuts to Medicaid meat. They're m basically looking for fraud and things, but again, that's rumors right now. It is a large stream of funding for K12. Um, and that's pretty much it. I guess we just have to sit tight, not get too nervous, see what happens. Any questions? All right. Thank you for that. Uh, next we have our upcoming meeting schedule. We have uh some webinars, some WSB videos, uh capital chat webinar, and then it is that
073time of year to uh sign up for the WASB summer learning symposium. It's Friday and Saturday, July 11th and 12th. This this year it'll be held at the Holiday Inn in Stevens Point. that does require registration. So, if you uh can attend that, I have the description right here if anybody wants to see it. Yeah, I just pulled it up, too. I was going to just run through. There's um some of the sessions that are on there, the legislative update, which Phil keeps us pretty good there. But, um another one is the power of the community advocacy. It's working with the community to keep the school strong. um strategic succession planning, building sustainable leadership for the future. Another one that I think is going to be interesting is leading leading together for student success and
074uh then rural schools panel where they uh talk about u declining enrollment, limited resources, faculty retention, those types of issues and then bridging the gap communication that connects. So, sounds like they've got some good uh good stuff going. So, if you can attend that. Didn't catch do they have who the uh um keynote speaker is for that Friday night? Friday night is uh Phil Gore. Um Dr. Phil Gore, I guess. How school boards can build trust. And then in the special dinner, there's Charles Franklin. I don't know. National recognized scholar. really got two good speaker. Perfect. I'm considering going. If you can attend that, please let Colleen know so she can get us registered. And uh that is it for upcoming meeting schedule. Next, we get to hear from our students. Thanks for giving us
075one more time, Sam. We appreciate it. There's a slight mistype on the presentation. I don't have Marin Donsi with me. I have Elise Johnson and I'm a freshman class rep. So, it's our first meeting. So, make sure to not ask any questions. You sound great so far. All right. So, we've continued to celebrate our unsung heroes. Um we've done the office ladies, um the crosswalk guards, and uh the teachers this last week, but we also did the admin team. So, we uh brought them coffee and uh some cookies, a boomer as well. Uh the ninth and tth graders had their preac a few weeks ago. So, that got done around noon and for the rest of the school day, we had some act fun activities that we did. Uh the ninth graders played this one
076night game through it was uh animated through our cell phones and it was kind of like a mafia game. If you've ever played mafia, it was kind of like that but it was a little different. And then the 10th graders played gestures on the computer. So that was also really fun. I think a lot of students enjoyed it. uh prom weekend we had a bonfire. Um we had about we had a really good turnout there. It was the same night as a girls soccer game. Um and I think baseball might have had a game. Um and then softball managed to come back in time for it as well. So we had games, food, drinks, music. Um there was bags, spikeball. Um just a lot of socializing. It was very good. Um thank you to all
077the local businesses for donating to our prom events. Um, I know at Postpron there was a lot of um rewards and gifts people could uh could win. Um, had the pleasure of teaching our foreign students how to grow hot dogs. So, I think their time here in America has been well spent. They they they loved it. They were big fans of it. Uh, last week was teacher appreciation week and so we had some small fun little things we did to say thank you to our teachers. Uh it included teachers dressed up as students on Wednesday and on Friday uh students dressed up as teachers which was really fun. There's some pictures there. Um Anna Key dress up as Mr. Stradle and had another Miss Miller copy. Um in the morning the war leadership team put
078on a breakfast for the teachers and theu and the teachers lounge. Um, thank you to Hardies and Caribou Coffee and Kids Corner Pizza for donating um the food for our breakfast. Um, the teachers really enjoyed it. Um the FFA plant sale was last week. Um our students in horiculture and I think there might be one other class um as part of in our agriculture department um as a turnong project to grow plants and do research on it and then um prep it just in time for Mother's Day. So there's a good variety. Um I bought plants in the past. I did not this year. Um, but there's always a good selection of uh not just flowers, but also um for vegetables, other things to grow and maybe start your own garden. So, we're finishing off
079the year strong. Uh, still to come is a senior class trip this Friday. We're going to valley fair. Um, and that same night there will be a movie night on the on the uh turf. We've figured out how to run a movie on the new display billboard on the field. So, we're going to do that. I think we're watching Moana. Yeah. And so, we poporn and other things like that. An opportunity for students to spend some time outside uh outside of school. Um but still in a positive environment. Um seniors are working on senior letters to staff as a way of um thanking and uh one last thank you and recognition to our teachers who do so much for us. um kind of a letter expressing their gratitude for the the impact that that teacher
080had on their life. Um and then class representative elections uh were underway this uh today um with voting happening across the school during home room. Um I've enjoyed the election process a lot more this year. Um there was campaigning uh students made videos and posters um and so it's been a lot more I think student body involved which has been good. So with that, any questions? Where are you going to school, Sam? I'm serving a two-year church mission for the Church of Jesus Christ saints in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. So I'll be learning Portuguese and going there for two years. Um, and then when I get back, I'll be going to Bring Young University to study mathematics. Good luck. Very cool. Congratulations. Good. Thank you for being here this evening again, humoring me. Thank you
081for your first night here. We'll look forward to seeing you next year, coming back and reporting to us. And as always, thank you for your insight and and uh thoughts on different things that come forward. So, thank you for being here. Thanks. You all right? [Applause] District administrator comments. Yeah, just a few things. So, Mr. Pokei uh sent me this picture today from Dallas, Texas. Uh we have the VEX Robotics uh World Championships going on there. Um and he and Mr. Peterson and others and students are there and and I just need a second. Um as he said, he said uh please be sure to give a shout out and thank the board uh for their initial and continued support uh for robotics, the curriculum, the club, the adviserss. Um he said you know this
082started with I think back at the charter school with Pete Peterson and Mark Bicey and it has continued to grow uh with that uh right now just this week there's over 500 teams there representing 50 countries uh at the elementary and middle school level. Uh over the course of the couple of weeks there's 109 countries represented. Uh so wanted to share that with you. Um few other things going on. District retirement gathering is this Thursday evening already. Uh RiverDoc nature conservancy open house is Friday afternoon. Uh May is mental health uh awareness month. So I know uh they alluded to that earlier. Um and you'll see posts speaking of Aaron Johnson, you know, you'll see some posts there uh throughout. You have seen some you'll continue to see more. I think Friday if you think
083of it is is wear green in support of mental health month. And again, that calendar piece that Bert mentioned on the website uh before, if I've still got it pulled up. Um there it is. Uh so things there that they try to include, like for instance, if it's live streamed, uh including a little camera icon, if it's uh Goofan ticket information, there's that ticket information there. So just trying to add things to our calendar to make it a little more user friendly. Um, and with that, uh, I was speaking of Sam, uh, a week from this Friday will be graduation. Uh, weather's going to cooperate and we're we're going to be out on Puglund Field on the Freeze family community campus. But, uh, it's going to be great and and so that'll be here before
084we know it. All right. Thank you for that update. Any questions? If not, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So, motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Motion has been made and seconded. We are adjourned. Thank you. Coming in at an hour 15 minutes with which make this