001I am calling to order the April meeting of the River Falls Board of Education. This meeting has been properly notified and we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. 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 do not have any visitors or delegations who wish to address the board this evening, so we will move right into informational items, and we have two Wildcat Pride Awards to go. All right. As I've said before, I'll say again, this is the best part of the meeting in my opinion. >> [laughter] >> Cuz I get to talk, I get to stand up here and give out some awards, it's pretty cool for me. So, Mr.
002Neighbor, if you would step up, please. Andy. Andy. >> Mr. makes me sound pretty old. >> I'm sorry, Andy. >> [laughter] >> Nice to meet you. Thank you. Yep. Um, the school board wishes to commend you for your exceptional leadership and unwavering dedication to the Greenwood Chess Club. Through this club, students of all academic abilities are given the opportunity to lead and excuse me, to learn and play uh the game of chess with their peers. Chess allows students to develop important skills such as strategic thinking, honesty, cooperation, and perseverance. >> [snorts] >> Your commitment to the students at Greenwood shows in your weekly chess leadership or club leadership, also in your volunteerism at Greenwood events. Whether it be popping popcorn, selling concessions at the carnival, or helping clean up after the event. You are a
003true ambas- ambassador of Wildcat Pride. Thank you very much for all you do. >> [applause] >> Absolutely. >> [laughter] >> Absolutely, please. >> You guys have a real gem in Greenwood. You really do. I've had four grandkids We've had four grandkids go through, and they've all had exceptional teachers, administration, even Mr. Sherman. >> [laughter] >> Even him. But, you know, it just 99% of the kids are very polite, you know, really hard work hard and so on. And that's pretty unusual. We've had We raised three kids in the Twin Cities and we've been with Greenwood for four of our grandkids. And they're just outstanding. They really are good kids. You know, there's a few yawhoos. But I mean, I was a yawhoo when I was in elementary school, so I know the kids. >> [laughter]
004>> But you know, for the most part, and I think that's a lot of it is the parents and how they raise them, but also the staff at Greenwood. I mean, the teachers and Mrs. Scapple and kind of Mr. Sherman. But no, I just I just want you to know that it's an exceptional school and I really enjoy doing what I'm doing, even though I got beat by a fourth grader today. >> [laughter] >> That was pretty embarrassing. Wow. Wow. He didn't [laughter] even check my back. He didn't even see it coming. But anyway, thank you for the recognition and I really appreciate it. And I I'm making one request for next year, and that is Mrs. Scapple asked me if I'd come back, and you know, all of our grandkids are gone now to
005middle school. I said there's only one condition. Two to three jelly donuts from Kwik Trip. >> [laughter] >> Done. Done. Deal. All right, thank you for the recognition. Thank you. Thank you so much. You know, that that fourth grader had a really good teacher. Yeah. I wish I could credit but yeah. [laughter] Thank you. I was plotting away and all of a sudden, checkmate. >> [laughter] >> And Mr. Neighbor is there every Monday for chess club, um unless he's off traveling to fabulous places, which he should be doing as a retired human. Um but when he is not traveling, he is at Greenwood every Monday. So, that's wonderful. Thank you very much. Well, you're exactly right. Greenwood is a really special place. And one of the things that makes it special is when people like
006you give just that extra thing that makes a difference in the culture and to all of the students. So, thank you very much for for caring about our kids. You're very welcome. So. And three jelly donuts will make me come back. That's already covered. Yeah, we got it. We'll take care of that one. Thank you. >> as a Greenwood alumni, I can I can attest there was yeah, it was >> [laughter] >> A few years ago. Now, I mean, I won't say my date, but it was, you know, like 10 years ago or so when I was >> [laughter] >> Well, we've got [snorts] one more Wildcat Pride Certificate we're presenting to Coach Cranston and the St. Croix Valley Fusion Girls Hockey team. So, if you guys could COME UP, PLEASE. >> [applause] >> I
007DON'T KNOW WHERE IS THE BEST WAY TO STAND. >> MY KIDS WENT TO GREENWOOD, TOO. The St. Croix Valley Fusion brings together athletes from the River Falls, Baldwin-Woodville, and St. Croix Central School Districts under the leadership of Coach Cranston and his staff. The program has built an environment that produces highly competitive teams while emphasizing the development of strong character. The 2025-2026 season was no exception. The Fusion captured their seventh consecutive Big Rivers Conference title and advanced the state tournament finishing as state runner-up. On the ice, the Fusion didn't just That's worth a clap. It really is. On the ice, the Fusion didn't just compete, they also did with high character that has become a hallmark of the program. In recognition of their sportsmanship, the team was honored by the WIAA with the winter tournaments team
008sportsmanship award, an honor that considers all state tournament participants across every winter sport. Wow. You are a true ambassador of Wildcat pride. Congratulations on a fantastic season and thank [applause] YOU FOR THAT. >> [applause] >> CAN I INTRODUCE HER? CAN I HAVE MY TWO TWO GIRLS introduce themselves? Uh, I had 33 kids this year and uh these these are probably these are my two favorite, but >> [laughter] >> they uh are great sportsmanship and they are wonderful kids and you can introduce yourself and tell them what your plans are. Okay. Um I'm Audrey. Um I'm planning on going to Madison to study neurobiology. Oh, okay. Um and I'm Ella and I'm going to University of North Dakota for biomedical engineering. Nice. Wow. Um No easy rides there. >> [laughter] >> I mean the one thing
009with that is it was really nice going down there and having the whole state basically cheering for us. All the people there. Even though they're probably not supposed to say this, they were all kind of they told us they wanted us to win. >> [laughter] >> They were like the other team, they just are kind of snobbish cuz well, I mean when you come back and you have are basically undefeated in Wisconsin for how many consecutive games, you kind of just forget what it's kind of about to be a team player, so. Which school are you from? Here? From here, yeah. Both seniors from here. Um so yeah, it was nice to know that. Even though we didn't win, we still were recognized for being good people. I would say you did win. >> [laughter]
010>> That's what matters. Either of you plan to continue playing hockey? Um [clears throat] for fun even? I was offered a spot on the club team up there to try out, but I don't think I'm going to just cuz I think it's going to be a lot of a lot going on. >> [laughter] >> But you know the skills that you learned in terms of perseverance and >> [snorts] >> being a cooperative team members. Yeah. It's going to serve you well in your in school. So you will take that part of hockey with you. The one element that's unique to Fusion is a co-op. As was mentioned the different schools and the opportunity for kids to come together from different schools and different backgrounds and things like that. It could be it could create some
011some issues, but this team has navigated that since its inception and that reflects leadership both from the coaching staff, but also from the senior leaders all the way through. It's it's really an awesome group and I'm excited for them to get the recognition and we had like maybe two more minutes in that third period I think we would have gotten them, but it was it was awesome. So congratulations. I'm excited that the board gets to see the recognition. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. We're not going to be hurt if you don't stay for the whole meeting. Okay. >> [laughter] >> If we had jelly donuts, would you stay? If we had two jelly donuts, would you Two jelly donuts. [laughter] Where are they? I I just wish we had them. I wish
012we had them, too. Thank you for being here. All right, spotlight on education in It's Lenox tonight. So I'm going to turn it over uh right away to Joe Hazelman, our building and grounds director. Um he is the glue that holds that entire department together. So he's got some some cool updates to provide uh to the board tonight. Yes, thank you. Thank you everyone for allowing me to uh present the building and grounds spotlight tonight. Um our team of dedicated professionals works every day, weekends, doesn't matter, um to keep our schools safe, comfortable, and ready for learning. Uh while it takes a village to support all the district schools, we directly support the two as indicated on the slide here of providing a safe, welcoming, and healthy school environment, as well as held upholding operational
013excellence. Uh a little FTEs kind of spotlight here. You'll see the various roles that make up the department, ranging from custodial, logistics, grounds team. We even have some uh my right-hand person, Nikki, helping me with the departmental management. And then some roving maintenance technicians as well. Uh there's a great job done by everyone, but as you can see on the on the slide as indicated there, there's a slight FTE uh deficiency, which not a not a biggie cuz we've had a lot of board support, so thank you for the the recent additions that have helped us greatly in that area. Uh but there's we struggle a little bit in the sub custodian and the grounds seasonal stuff, so no no big shocker to anyone there, but it does result in some overtime, mainly weekend use
014of our facilities, which we'll get to in a second, which is quite heavy. And then snow removal efforts, which will also highlight in just a second here. So as we look at the size of the facilities, to include the recent expansions, thank you for for the community support. Um as we look to the district as a whole though, we're quite spread out. I don't think that's a shock to anyone throughout the whole community. I don't know of a of an area that we're not uh in or or sharing with with our generous community. Uh [snorts] that includes over 800,000 square feet of buildings. And as I mentioned, just shy of 48,000 square feet have been added to the district since 2018. So pretty pretty substantial in the last 8 years or so. Um and we
015just I'm sure no shock to any of you, we just wrapped up a very successful construction season. Um and that was done with our partner Spray Architects and Kraus-Anderson. Um couple of those names you'll recognize from the past. And I'm happy to report that all that construction work was done on time and within budget. So, very minimal disruption to any kind of education spaces at all. Um and all comes like this directly support the district's goals for equity, safety, and fiscally being fiscally responsible. And we'll look to the outside now, kind of on the grounds and exterior side of things. Uh our scale doesn't get much smaller. We're We're spread out again, like I said, over most of the community. We have 85 acres of green space. So, that's like 415 yd of average home.
016It's pretty substantial. >> [snorts] >> We have over a half a million square feet of roofing. I know Alan loves to hear about roofs, so I had to sneak that in for you, Alan. >> [laughter] >> That's like 268 homes. That's That's a lot of roofs. >> [laughter] >> I got you a smile. That's what I was going for. And then there's 3/4 of a million square feet of parking lots. That's like 1,000 driveways. I mean, that's I was doing these numbers with Nikki helping me out, and it was like, holy buckets. You never really stopped to compute all this stuff. So, kind of crazy. So, that means when you guys see snow in the forecast, we have the luxury of cleaning over 1,000 homes worth of snow and ice before school starts up. >>
017[clears throat and cough] >> So, as we look to the slide here about sharing our facilities, so obviously, there's a very large educational component. Um over 8,500 hours of instructional use cumulatively across all of our buildings, including our four K programs. Um but there's a lot of extracurricular use and community use that goes into that as well. So, we have That can range anything from our sanctioned school sports, community ed, our nonprofit partners within the community, private community groups that lease it out. Could be churches. I mean, we have we have I don't know that we say no, David, much, right? So, there's obviously um a huge significance to the community in using our spaces. And so, with the very high community use, we're proud to partner with our friends and neighbors and encourage the
018shared use of our vital hubs of engagement. Kind of bridging that gap and it's what makes River Falls special, I think. Moving on to the work order system, this is how we hear about and track all of the things that need improvement or are broken. So, as you can see, we're processing a pretty high volume, 1,500 work orders on average. That's spread across about 40 staff members, but a large majority of that falls to our four roving maintenance technicians. So, that's a lot of work and that's not including all of the preventive maintenance and everything else that they do. So, this system's pretty cool. It's a couple years old. It's totally integrated, so it's tied directly to your email, if you work here. Um, it allows cost and labor tracking across across assets and work
019order history, so we know if there's a piece of equipment that's costing us a lot of money, we're putting a lot of parts into it. Maybe replacement is better than keeping on fixing it. Or maybe there's a leak and all we can look back through the system and go, "Oh, that's every every spring. What the heck's going on there?" That's really weird. Helps diagnose a little more in depth, so I thought that was cool. Provides staff an easy way and a thorough way to communicate problems and issues. So, there's a two-way communication piece of this, so people aren't wondering, "Hey, I put this in last week. Where are you guys at?" They can see that there's parts ordered and kind of track through, so that helped get some buy-in and kind of put people at
020ease. Um, and just in summary, just that's kind of the department in in whole. Um, the grounds and buildings and grounds team's very proud of the hard work we do behind the scenes to keep our schools strong. Uh, whether [snorts] it's preventive maintenance, energy efficiency upgrades, uh, or responding to unexpected needs, our department stays ahead of issues, so classrooms stay open and run smoothly. And we're very grateful for the boards, the communities, and the executive leadership team's support. Couldn't do it without you guys as well. So, thank you. I'm happy to answer any questions or provide more depth. Mhm. I have a question. Does the Does the 85 acres of green space include the Man Valley land? >> It does not. It does not. So, that's an addition. Yep. Or the Or the school forest
021is not also not. That is just the I call it the like the seven educational grounds. >> Educational is 85 acres and the the Man Valley land is about 40 and the school forest is Do you know how big that is? School forest that that I don't know how big that forest is. Yeah. [laughter] I'm sorry. I don't know what that is. I'll have to get back to you. It's It's fairly substantial. >> Yeah, the community forest I think is about 40. Yeah, and I won't I won't take credit. We dabble in supporting the school forest, but I won't take credit from the team that manages that. Those folks do a great job. >> It's probably more like you know, it's probably double this land. Yeah, I could say yeah, you could say that quite
022easily. Yep. Any other questions or More of a comment. >> [laughter] >> When you When you talked about the number the the foot square footage that was added for referendum, that wasn't added easily. And part of the reason that we were able to do that is that we had you overseeing Mhm. and being the connecting point between with Cross Anderson and all of our building folks. I know that you watched over it very carefully. So, when it when when you say it's it was all done on time and within the budget, a lot of that credit goes to you. So, >> I appreciate that. It's a team effort. >> I know it is, but we have to always have somebody [clears throat] leading the car leading the charge. And I know that on this specific
023thing that you were a very key person in all of that. >> Well, thank you. >> you. Um and I want to my The next thing I want to say to you two Todd is that we all know that everything that we do in in this district is dedicated to kids learning. And so, it's not just keeping track of the buildings. It's making sure and that kids get to school on time. It's about that your educators to make sure that these kids are learning. So, thank you for both of you for your roles in that. You bet. So, any other questions? I I just like to echo that and for you to share with all of your staff is appreciation of the board and what they do. We couldn't our teachers couldn't teach without what
024your staff does. Our students couldn't learn without what your staff and this community couldn't have the strong school educational system that we have without the work that you and your staff do. So, I would really encourage you to share with your staff how much we appreciate I will. I know that'll that'll be appreciated greatly. Thank you all. Thank you. Well, Todd, you get the next slide. I won't take as much time as you all did. >> [laughter] >> Sorry, I'll speed it up. You can tell us how many miles you do. >> [laughter] >> All right. So, I'm Todd Pernell. I'm the director of transportation here at the school district. Um on this first slide you'll see here, most of you I believe toured the old building before we got the new building built. So,
025thank you very much for that. As as you can see in this picture it's greatly a much greater space than what we had in the past. Um So, our shop now we have the mobile lifts where the my two mechanics that we have now at the shop are able to to lift the buses, work on them, even the support vehicles, the lawn mowers, anything that we have we can lift with those four lifts and they can work on it. It saves on their bodies. So, they don't have to climb down on the ground and crawl underneath the vehicles all the time to work on them. Um it directly supports the reliability, safety, and longevity of our fleet. We're able to get underneath the buses more often, check them more often sporadically, even just do quick
026little checks on them to make sure that everything is still kosher. We do have our annual bus inspection with the DOT coming up the Wednesday and Thursday after school is done. So, hopefully, fingers crossed that we don't have any more weather days or anything like that to where we run into any issues there, but I think we're okay. As long as Dave doesn't want to call one. Um The next slide here. So, we have 47 drivers that are on our roster. Um they range anywhere from a substitute driver to a everyday road driver or trip drivers driving activities. We do activities for all of our school. We also do We have a kind of a little thing with the university that where we transport them around, take them on their field trips, you know, to
027to farms and food plots or like up to Gertens for like their agriculture or horticulture classes, stuff like that. Um We drive um 3,502 miles um daily on our vehicles. Um And you might think, well, that's kind of a lot. Well, we we take kids to and from Eau Claire to school. We take some kids up to like a hospitality class up in New Richmond daily. Um on top of all of our our buses, our 28 road buses that run run daily to bring us kids to and from school. Um We put about 6,000 miles a month on um for the school trips and after school weekend trips and the kids club in the summer school or summer's program. Um So, then we put about 613,000 miles on a year um on our vehicles. So,
028again, when you guys say yes to buying buses, we we really appreciate that. Um we do a very good job of making our buses look good on the outside, but there's the other things underneath the buses and the wear and tear that that people don't see, but our vehicles look good on the exterior. Um so, it's very much needed that we get those vehicles and when you guys approve those we're very appreciative of that. Now on to our driver break room, our meeting room. Um, it is a great space. Um, if you haven't been in our old building, um, that space was about the I would say from Monica over to Nate to that back wall. That's about how big it was and now it's a space probably from me to to Dave. Um, if
029not a little bit bigger than that. Um, so it's a great warming um, location. We've noticed that more drivers have tended to stick around a little bit more [clears throat] now. Visit. Um, it's a little more welcoming. It's It's what we needed for for us as a school district. Um, we'll hold our back to school meeting there now start starting this upcoming school year. As we normally had to bounce around to other schools or to the auditorium to do that just cuz we didn't have the space to adequately adequately have those meetings. Um, we do very good job of trying to recognize our drivers as much as we can possibly, you know, with the driver appreciation week. Um, get snacks for them and and do things like that. Um, we've had one wellness activity done
030so far. We had our chili cook-off. Unfortunately, I didn't get any votes. So apparently I'm not a very good chili maker. Um, [laughter] but the drivers don't need to know that. So I'm still working on getting our bowling night together for our drivers. Um, obviously as the end of the year is getting tight here it's we'll we'll figure out a time to do that. We might not be able to get the puzzle competition done this year, but it's something that we'll we'll work on doing. Um, and then every year at the end of the year one of my mechanics who's actually I believe is going to retire at some point here um, always brings his big wagon um, that he has a cooker or a charcoal grill and he we cook chicken and have like
031a potluck for the drivers to show our appreciation to them at the end of the school year. I love that. Uh so, that's something that everybody looks forward to. >> the city as well? Yeah, we work so well with the city and um they they kind of get us out of a pinch here and there if if need be. If Joel's running behind or something with his guys with the snow removal, they'll help us out in a pinch. Um so, we work pretty close with the city on on things. So, we invite the city, we bring Lynette down, and my Gail helps with the payroll, Katie in the office, and then we invite Dave Don, so maybe look in your email, maybe you guys will all get invited this year since you guys got us
032a new building. So, again, [laughter] that's really much appreciated. So, experience and dedication down at the bus garage, I I've been here eight going on nine years. It'll be start I'll start my ninth year May 8th um in this role. Um so, I can't take all the credit for all these drivers, obviously, but we have um six drivers that have put a lot of years in here, and um thankfully, they they keep coming back, and they appreciate what we do for them down there. Um as you can see, Chris Carlile's been with the with the school district for 28 years. Um Kim Alton Olson, she was a regular bus route driver, and now she's one of our 4K drivers. She's been doing it for 22 years. Kathy Lamoth is again, she started out as a
033regular route driver. She When we started our 4K program, she jumped to that. Um she really enjoys working with the little kids, so she does our 3-year-olds and our 4-year-olds. She's been here for 16 years. Nell Henry, um I believe she really loves her job. She's been here for 30 years. >> [laughter] >> Um she's a wonderful, wonderful driver as they all are. Doug Steiner has been with us for 21 years. Um he's got a very good rapport with with the kids that ride his bus and and the families. I've had families ask when Doug's going to retire, and they're going to be sad the day that he does retire. Um and then Mary Waters, um she's one of our special needs drivers. She's been with the the company or the school district for 34
034years in some capacity. Um, I think she took a break in there for a little bit and then came back. Um, but she is a wonderful wonderful person and with a lot of knowledge and I think knows every family in this town, so. Um, yeah, from from us, myself and Karen included, um, I don't really want to speak for Joe too much, but I know Joe appreciates it, too. Um, and and our drivers, thank you guys very much for for getting this building built for us and it's it's a place that you enjoy to go to work now. Not that I didn't enjoy to go to work at the old place, but it you feel like you're coming to a a nice place to come to work and you take pride in that, so. And
035I know our drivers take a lot of pride in coming into the new building, so. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you. Um, I've been to graduation parties with those bus drivers coming to the parties because they have been the drivers for students for so long. And that contributes to the fabric of our community and our district. The relationships that that families have, the trust that families have to transport their kids to school. It's really really important. Yeah, it's a it's a it's a big task. I mean, and we say it to them all the time, you know, they're the first ones that see them and they're the last ones that see them, but it's more than that. A lot of these drivers work to build a relationship with these kids
036and and they they feel they don't want to quit because they started with them as kindergarteners and they want to see them graduate or, you know, and then they're then they fall into that trap that now there's another group behind them that they had, you know, so. Yeah, they're they're they're wonderful employees and I I wouldn't be here without them, honestly. They're they're the ones that make make it go. I mean, I I do my part, but but they're the ones that are out there driving every day, so. You know, and and I think that it's lost on a lot of people that this is a real unique skill set. There's um it seems like well you just drive the bus around all day but there's not anybody who can um not just drive a
037big vehicle around like that full of kids. >> [laughter] >> Um which is the kind of the second part. So it's one is being able to drive that, the other is being able to handle those kids, manage those kids, those kinds of things. So um as as I said before, I I just hope you'll convey to the bus drivers uh and the rest of the staff there just how critical and important their job is from our standpoint and it's it we appreciate your appreciation of the new facilities but it was really this community that stepped forward and and agreed that yes indeed we needed that new facility and I think this community community is to be commended for their support for these building projects we've had and their support of the people who work in
038those buildings. So thank thank you. The other reason this program or this department is so special is because it's an in-house program. These are folks that live and work in the community and have connections to the community and and that's not the case in all districts that are contracting these services out so um really makes um our our center and our services special. I think there's a lot of districts who contract out who wish they had in-house services because you really are the bus driver is really a part of the educational team and And we do a lot of unique things, you know, like we'll bring kids from St. Bridget's over for band or and we'll take middle schoolers that are advanced in math up to the high school for math and I mean our
039vehicles are always continuously moving. I mean it may not be all 28 of them at one time but there's I think at any time of the day you could drive around this town you'll see a yellow school bus driving around somewhere with kids in it. Right. Or a support vehicle, you know, so Now we just got to get them all electric. >> [laughter] >> What that does is that creates opportunities for our students to be able to go from the middle school to the high school. So, that contributes to their education and that's we really appreciate that. Um I'm also going to be eager to hear at some point how about the the bus bus driver mentorship program and how that's been received because that was definitely a goal for helping um Yeah, Nate Nate
040just let me know this week Friday maybe Nate told me that it was approved or maybe it was Monday. Yeah, this morning. So, yeah, it'll be good. I think it'll be a wonderful thing for especially for our new drivers that that come on board. >> they can learn from the people that were on that other slide. Absolutely. Well, thank you very much for being here. Thanks, Tom. Thank you, Tom. Thank you. Yes. You are up next. Oh, here we are. That's us. The buses are still there. I was just saying that we are I know that you're working on it. >> I am working on it. >> I appreciate that. I'm Peggy Webb and I have Jerry Muller here with me tonight. We're going to go over our our goals for the for our program.
041We're just very excited to share um some of the gains that we've had in math and in in reading and in our attendance and a variety of other things that we've set forth and I guess the thing that I would really like to move forward with is that we we've talked about our academic goals being reading and math and behavior with phone usage and fee production and our pro program presence and we're making solid gains in all three of those areas. But, before I turn it over to Miss Muller who is very good at WIG data in regards to math and reading, I just want to say we're very excited that this year we had zero students opt out for ACT pre-ACT in the fall winter test. In years past, we've had up to 60%
042opting out and so we are continually to see continuing to see our students um seeing the value of taking these tests. We're excited to see the test results this year. Last year, if I remember correctly, how big of a point did we have? A seven-point jump in our ACT scores. So, our students are coming to school and they're recognizing that there is value in the ACT because it kind of puts them on the mark that they are capable of being successful in school. And our staff is continuing to coach our students in the importance of test-taking skills because even if they opt not to go on to school, we all know that our students are going to get jobs, so they'll be testing out during the onboarding process, state certifications if you're going to be
043a licensed insurance agent, real estate agent, CNA, Series 7, Series 66, and any other type of state-sanctioned licensure. So, what we will continue to focus on is the test-taking skills because those are transferable to our students once they leave our program. I'll let you go from there. I'm proud of our slides, but your guys's slides were beautiful. >> Yeah. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> They're a team. We are a team. >> [laughter] >> So, before when I'm Jerry I'm the school counselor. Thanks to see you all again. So, by the end of term two, our goal was to have 80% of our students increase their scaled score in reading and math. So, you'll see that it's similar when I go over both the reading and the math. We're going to start with reading here. So, was
044the goal met? No. Point blank, that's it. But, we're going to read a little bit more into it. So, we did find 64% of our students increase their scaled score in reading. So, we didn't quite make that 80%, and when Peg and I talked, we're going to maintain that 80% for the end of the year because we think our students can do that. We think when we continue utilizing STAR to test reading and math, they will get to that 80% increase. Some findings when I was digging through the data with another staff member was that that 64% of students who did increase their scale score in reading, they actually took more time on the test than they did previously. So, a really cool feature in STAR, I think it's really cool, is it tells you
045how long the students took. So, we were seeing students that took 5 minutes for the reading test prior. This time, they took 19 minutes instead. Or, they took 10 minutes last time, this time they took 22 minutes. So, seeing that growth, it might not seem like that big of a deal, but that's a huge thing for us, especially that Peg just alluded to, teaching students it's more than just a reading test that we're giving them, that is just a drop in the bucket and then we go on with our regular day. What's the why behind it? What kind of skill building is there in sitting down and taking a test and taking it seriously? And knowing that their teachers aren't going to judge them, no one's going to assign a grade attached to this. It's
046just for us to gather data and for students to learn that there is a little bit of value in being able to sit down, take a test, take it seriously, and then move on with their next task. The other finding that we found is that the 36% of students who didn't grow were less than five scaled score points below their previous score. So, that leads into Uh-huh. There we go. Okay. The next slide, you can see there is a lot of good growth happening. These are all the averages from scaled score, grade equivalency, and percentile rank. For our students at the Renaissance, we have some really high-level readers. Basically is what this slide is showing you. So, when I said that only that 36% of students had the five scaled score points away from what
047they had previously, that means they were so close to just breaking even to where they were. But, well like if you look at our ninth and tenth graders, they're reading at 11th, 12th grade level. So, for them to grow, that's a lot more of an effort than if they were reading a little bit lower than that. So, that's just kind of illustrating that out as well. So, again, did we meet the goal? No. Do we believe our students can? Yes, that's why we're going to keep it the same for the end of the school year here coming up because we're still quarterly testing our students with STAR. Um and we we think we can get to that 80% growth for scaled scores. But, we're also noticing a lot of really great test-taking skills that are
048being developed. So, another nice thing that STAR does for us is that it suggests skills for each grade level band based off of how the student scores are coming through. So, I have this broken down, each slide is a different grade, and then it suggests the different masteries that students have achieved. So, for example, for our ninth and tenth graders, there's nine mastery levels for integration of knowledge and ideas. They've mastered six of them as a class on average. The three bullet points underneath, and this is the same for each row here, the three bullet points underneath are the skills that students are suggested to work on based off of their scores through STAR. So, this is data, so I'm going to just going to cruise through these. So, there's 11th grade. So, you'll see
049that a lot of mastery is happening, and there is some growth to continue to happen. This is 12th grade. So, this is data that then we share with our instructors, so they can see what are things that they can incorporate into their lessons already that help support this. So, a big one that we notice is a lot of our ninth through 12th grade, that vocabulary acquisition was the one that was kind of lagging a little bit behind the other ones. So, that's something we shared with our two English instructors who take the bulk of the English classes that we teach. Shared that with them so they can try to find some more creative ways to incorporate vocabulary into their lessons. So, that's what that is all about. And those would be in the aggregate, correct?
050>> Yes. >> Those skills that overall that's what each one of your grades would be. >> Overall, yeah. There's no breakdown like there's individual breakdowns that like if we really if there was a student that came to us and was like, "How can I do better on my star score?" You know, or something like that, we could give them an individual breakdown, but this is on average per class, yeah. So, then we go to our math. Same uh goal that we had for reading just for the math. And then we had a sub goal under that. So, again, might seem like low-hanging fruit, but for us developing curriculum at the Renaissance, which is something that Peg and I especially together have been working really hard to have kind of a scope and sequence moving forward
051for all of our curriculum, that 80% of our students will take one math class per year. So, that just started this year, 25-26. Was the first goal met? No, again, 73% of students have increased their scale score, and the findings were very similar to what we found with the reading scores. So, students were taking it more seriously as in they were taking more time. There was a kid that had taken their math test in 30 seconds. Oh. >> [laughter] >> And then this time around they took it in 24 minutes. So, I don't know. And again, we all know a test is a day in the life, right? Like they could have been having a really bad day, they could have been having a really good day the next time they took it. But we
052were seeing that across the board that on average many of our students were taking the test a little bit more seriously, actually wanting to see their scores and discuss their scores, and talk about what they can improve on. And then the sub goal, yes, and we're actually really excited that 100% of our students are taking a math class this year. So, the way I've scheduled it is that we are offering math if you've been to the Ren, you know how small it is. We're offering math at least one to two times each term, so students can take math classes all throughout. What we were finding years prior, we had a lot of students that were doing a lot of math aversion, so they would put off taking math their freshman and sophomore, and then their
053junior and senior years, they'd have to load up on all of their math, which was very um give them a lot of anxiety, and they weren't they weren't successful in it. So, by putting the goal of having one um everybody had to take in one class per per year, that really helps hopefully eliminate that that that that big load at the end of having to take so many classes their junior and senior year. Yeah. So, and that aligns with students who are college bound as well, wanting to take a sequence of math classes. So, again, breaking down our growth data here, we did find, I think last year our big wig was reading. Now, we're going to be focusing more on math, because overall, we don't want to lose that our kids are great readers,
054and we want to continue that moving forward, but we're finding that there is a lot lower uh scores and averages going on with math. And that's okay, we can handle that, and now we've got our scope and sequence figured out for math. Getting kids in a math class every single year is the expectation, no exceptions, and we're hoping that because we are going to be focusing on math being an integral part of the curriculum for every student, whether they've gotten all their math done or not, which is what I hear from students a lot. Um so, we have that, and then we also have that we're doing these STAR tests, whether they're in a math class or not. It's just a part of our school culture now, that they know that these are skills that
055we're going to be asking them to do throughout the year, just so that they can feel like they're staying on top of it. Cuz like Peg said, there was a ton of math aversion. I've been at the Renaissance for 4 years, and the amount of seniors I had my first and second year who hadn't taken math since freshman year, it was rough. And And course, they're going to be anxious about taking math, right? they haven't touched it in a while. So we're just trying to keep it fresh so that students don't feel like they're set up for failure. And the percentile ranks, percentile rank compared to whom? 40th 45th percentile compared to everyone who takes this test? >> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So that would be with all of the high school kids. >> National standards.
056Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for clarifying. Yeah. So same thing as reading. Here are the mastery skills. We share this again with our math instructors just because they are very uh specific for math skills in general. I don't know if I could do some of these now, but we share those with the math instructors where the reading skills we share with all of our instructors just because they can be a lot more universal. And that's the wig data for that. You're going to be doing behavioral ones, right? All right. So thank you for that. Um that's a lot of information and we also utilize this information to help set our students up that are part of the GED program so that they're successful in the math as well. So um it's ongoing and it's um threaded through
057all components [clears throat] so that we can have a lot of success. So moving on to uh just a secondary thing for our secondary um goal of ours is the phone use data. As you can see um we we we do good and then all of a sudden we have a little hiccup, but in term two uh we had uh 50 we had my gosh, I should have brought my cheaters. Um we had term two we had uh five and then we had term three we had 18. Now before you say what are you doing with term three, what we have 18 violations. We had three serial violators. So like they're and they and two of them came from the high school. So we brought their data >> [laughter] >> I'm not throwing anybody under
058the bus, but I am saying that that was a lot. It was like, are you kidding me? And then I just >> [laughter] >> saw my little cherubs and I'm like, come on. So, but we love them and they're they're still doing really, really good. So, and you can see and for term three we had um five three we had we have had five five-day surrenders and that that's sting a little bit. And so, we haven't had anybody have to surrender till the end of the term, but that's coming. So, we had students who have had So, when they get the first one it's a to the office for one day, the second time it's a five-day surrender, the third time it is till the end of the term, which is my friend June 6th.
059So, they are very aware >> [laughter] >> that so. Our uh vapes uh violations, as you can see um for 2025-2026 term three, um the data is is indicated as one. Uh that data was brought in from from the high school, so that was that that's student transfers from the high school mid-term, so that was um not that wasn't originally part of our um part of our our data point. So, as you can see we are continually to do much better with the overall health and wellness for vape education and um substance issues. Keeping that at bay. We're going to in regards to program presence, we're continuing to get the messaging out about our program, how we are and our our goal is to get more students from um that could find more success um
060in a smaller environment. And we are doing that through transferring from the high school to RCA. We are also receiving more and more inquiries in regards to open enrollment. We are attending lots of community events, we're still hosting a lot of community events, and this year we have partnered with Meijer Middle School and have gotten in front of their um their entire staff and we were also part of the eighth grade registration presentation that the high school presented at as well. We are also going to be doing a when the high school does the eighth graders do their orientation up at the high school, we are also going to be hosting an orientation for our students. So, it'll be the same but different. As you this is some data from So, this is our enrollment.
061Our enrollment's been kind of kind of um Well, it's been a little bit of a challenge. As you can see, we've we've seen our numbers start at 36 at the beginning of the year and then in term two up to 49 and then and in term three, we gathered we had 13 students come in but then we had 11 students transfer out of the program and and a number of them were due to mental health, which means we have a great facility there with a great staff but sometimes the programming that we have available for our students just can't the our we can't meet the needs of those students and so those students have to find services that can best suit them for where they're at with their mental health. We also had a number
062of students that opted to go through homeschooling and that was some students were facing truancy sanctions and so when they are facing truancy, I would say if I see you getting truancy again, I'm going to recommend to the court that you basically you have to surrender your license and they don't care for that so very much. So, they had some other options for their educational opportunities and that's their choice and then given our quota full situation, we've had a couple of we had students opt to do homeschooling as well. We've also had students who have realized that there are other avenues to attain a high school diploma by going to another school district that doesn't require as high of a credit requirement for graduation. So, and then moving back to home district and expulsion. [snorts]
063So, that's kind of where we are at for our term three enrollment. Term four we gained we gained again how many? Nine? We gained eight. Eight students for So, we had 11 we gained 11 we gained 13 for term three, but then we lost 11 and then we gained eight for term four. So, and we are sitting right at 45 [snorts and clears throat] which is right at in the crux of that. Our students are going for upcoming information we have four students that have already successfully completed the the Gedo two programming and so that's very exciting. So, they are eligible for that high school [clears throat] diploma offered through the River Falls school district. We had seven seniors that uh qualified for early graduation of which they had to apply, be interviewed, and then
064had to be granted privilege by the Renaissance Charter Academy board. And then we have six seniors that are still currently enrolled and on track to graduate in June. And then for the 20 for the next fall we are looking at having nine students in our Gedo program already. And that number is subject to change based on the needs of students in their current academic programming. Uh in regards to these are some of the things that were we've been doing. The number of prospective students that we have been given to tours to we're getting a lot of families from outside of the district that are having expressed interest. And again, you know, working with Meyer Meyer Middle School. I presented the Tuesday Club presented at the the National the National At Risk Education Network that was
065a conference I presented to down in uh Wisconsin Dells. And then we I was part of the River Falls public picnic when they had that this summer. Um and then we are still offering the we're still hosting when we have when our building is available is always available. When when people need a place to land we we always say yes, we can host and we're excited for for that as well and our continued collaboration with the high school. As we continue to move it forward with the programming and the um attendance and and enrollment. These are the things that we're going to continually to work on. Teacher consistency, they're going to have um our support and we're going to continue to really push the educational component for the academy [snorts] and then continuing to utilize
066the star um testing capabilities so that we can continue to show growth in math and reading and then continue to build bridges with um the different clubs in the Meyer Middle School and counselors and families within the area. Uh in regards to program marketing, we've done group presentations uh with the home school consortiums on April 27th. I've got um families coming in. I think up to six families that are excited to tour the the facility and so that will be kind of a a big morning for us. And then again, we did a Face Facebook push and then we did family letters as well. And we're just going to continue to have get our presence out there when we take students out on field trips, do our volunteers, um and then [clears throat] our civic
067responsibilities in regards to what they should be doing as a good citizen here in River Falls and throughout Pierce and St. Croix County. And what we're really excited about is Mr. Josh Weiss is our science teacher. He just was approved for the uh our school was approved for uh a charter to create prosthetic limbs limbs for uh students that don't have access to um prosthetics. So, we will receive the blueprints for them or the plans for them. We'll be able to print them and tweak them as needed for the people that are in need of them. And we are one of two charters in Wisconsin. One up by us and the one down by Milwaukee. So, the closest one is 250 miles close to us. So, we're really excited that we were selected to be
068partnering with Enable, which I think is going to be featured in the newsletter soon. And then, you know, we're going to continue to collaborate with the things that our our students can manufacture and design with local businesses in West Side Elementary. And that's what we have. So, I just want to say thank you to the board. We are excited to bring you the growth and opportunities that our students have. We we love our students. I know you guys love our students and every day is is just an opportunity to know that we share in their excitements when they're successful at school. So, you want to add anything else? I'd be glad to. No. Okay. >> [laughter] >> I yield the floor for questions. Got it. Thank you for the presentation. It was very clear. It
069was very direct. You were really honest about it, but you helped us to be able to interpret the data. I really appreciate it. It was very good. It's an inspiring program. It really is. And I'm hoping maybe next year you'd be willing to have your students come and give us a spotlight about the prosthetic hands and so forth. That would be a terrific spotlight. So, I'll put it on the calendar. We can do that. All right. The other thing is I think one of the slides had a student giving a presentation when the state superintendent came. And that was another thing for getting the word out. It was a very impressive presentation. Your students just positively shined. Thank you. We appreciate that. All right. Thanks for being here. Okay. So, we've had a number of
070reports here. And we have the activities director updates. So, David, you're next. >> [laughter] >> I've got my steps in for the day. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Uh, thanks thanks for having me. Um, I'm glad that these um, that these two are are here. Just vacation. >> [laughter] >> Um, so I get I get the uh, opportunity to just highlight some of the stuff from the fall and the and the winter winter activities. Uh, as they were talking and I've I've certainly expressed it this to them, but I want to do it publicly as well. There's a 0% chance that we have uh, one the capability to do what we do at the at the high school with our activities and our athletics. Uh, and two have the success that that we've had um, without
071the efforts of of those [snorts] two um, and their and their staff. Um, many situations daily uh, where we just have needs where we just have to get things done in order to be able to to host the events that we that we get done and and uh, Joe's staff is is phenomenal. Like there's there hasn't been a a moment where I can't make a call and get something taken care of. And Todd and his staff, it's the it's the same way. I have the opportunity to talk to a lot of people from a lot of different districts and as was mentioned, some are contracting their transportation out. I've heard of situations where they just can't get bus drivers and so we can't we can't play because we don't have transportation or we don't have
072a bus. We're going to send kids and they're going to drive themselves to locations. There's all sorts of different scenarios that exist out there. Um, that's not the case um, for us. We're very fortunate. In 5 years we have not had a single a single time where we've had to say we can't make the trip because we don't have we don't have transportation we can't get can't get there. So that's a testament to the work of a lot of different different people but just so you know you guys you guys are rockstars. Dave I think we even went to a contract and just flew and picked up their athletes and brought them back to play us. We did do that once yes. >> [laughter] >> Yeah that is uh They didn't have a bus? We'll
073drive you. Yeah they did not have transportation so Yeah so we just Wow. figure out ways to get it done so they do a they do a great job so I'm I'm I'm glad they're here and and this opportunity came up so uh on to the to the winter activities athletics Look at that. All right. uh Five conference titles over the course of of the fall and the and the winter our our programs and our coaches our athletes um continue to to be be very competitive. Obviously there there's a lot of things that are encompassed within athletics a lot of a lot of goals that we want to achieve some of them uh are are pertaining to off the court lessons like you talked a little bit about with our with our our hockey our
074hockey team but some of them also remain competitive right and so we want to do that. So football volleyball girls hockey boys basketball and boys wrestling all won conference titles. We had three individual conference titles within our swim and dive program our girls swim and dive program five regional regional champions uh girls golf jumped in with a regional a regional championship as did boys hockey uh jumped in with a regional championship with volleyball football as well as girls hockey. Two team state qualifiers which is which is always fun Uh you heard about the girls hockey program that got to go down to uh down to state and and play there. Our gymnastics team also uh qualified for um for state uh getting second in the in the sectional. And then we had some individual state
075qualifiers as well uh within our wrestling program and then some of the gymnasts also qual- qualified from an individual um standpoint. So, uh a lot of a lot of great things throughout the the fall uh and the winter there. In terms of their recognition, 27 of our student athletes received um first team all-conference aw- awards. So, uh each each sport has a meeting at the end of of the season. Coaches go and they get to talk uh about their about their athletes, um some of the accolades that they um that they had throughout the course of the season. And then that's a vote um from all of the coaches at the um in the in the conference. So, when you receive an award like this, it's you're you're being recognized by the conference as a
076as a whole um for for your success on the the field of of competition. So, we had 27 first team all-conference award winners, 27 second team all-conference award winners, and then 15 um honorable honorable mentions. Uh the state recognitions are handled a little bit differently depending upon um upon the the the sports, and I won't go into the specifics about how those how those all vary. Um but we had 11 of our student athletes from the fall uh and the winter uh move on to all-region and get all-region and or um all-state um for for their um uh for their seasons, which is which is great. Uh students also went to school uh and >> [laughter] >> and and did and did well uh there. Uh that that's our senior uh cumulative G- GPA, so
077a 3.53 um for for our seniors. A lot of those kids are are taking some difficult courses. You heard from two of two of them today that are going on in some some pretty for some pretty great careers. So, the fact that that you have you have you got to balance things and our our student athletes do a pretty good job of balancing that. At this point in time, we have 20 of our our student athletes and this is false fall, winter, and spring all combined that have signed or committed to to play a sports at the collegiate level as well. So, we have ranking from the top top schools in in D1 to to NAIA and I have the opportunity to get in front of of these these students and their families when we
078have these signing these signing days and the reality of it is is I don't care what level you're you're going to. If you're making the commitment to to play collegiate athletics, you know, it it is a job, right? And they are going to have significant expectations for you not only within the classroom but what they ask of you to do outside of the classroom, practices, and early morning weights, and just all of it. So, to have 20 athletes that are that are committing themselves to to that process, I I think is is significant and it speaks about their experience that they that they had within within our programs cuz if they didn't like it, they wouldn't continue to do what they do. And for most of them Do most of them have scholarships attached to
079them? A lot of them do. Yeah, not not all of them but a lot of them do. Yep. From an activities standpoint, we've had seven different programs compete at the at the state level from the early fall with and and late fall with marching band all the way down to robotics. Actually, they finished up this this last weekend so they qualified for a state competition over in in Green Bay. They were seated 33rd, I I believe, and then ended up in the 20s when they when they finished up. So, I know that that group is pretty excited about it. They're they're in there every day building and tinkering with with those things, and their robot was pretty cool. So, um >> [snorts] >> seven different programs, one team state champ, and then we had an
080individual state champ within forensics as well. So, those programs uh so sometimes athletics, you know, over overshadows some of those things from a you know, from the newspaper standpoint, from the community standpoint. They commit hours hours and hours and hours. >> [clears throat] >> And and if if you want to see it in action, you can come to the the the week that band puts on in the in in the summer where they're out there 8 hours a day, and the commitment from from these from these people uh what what would was fun is over the course of the state tournament for girls hockey, we had mock trial down in Madison at the at the same time. And so, there was a gap in between times, and it worked out so I got to go
081and see mock trial in Madison at the courthouse as as well. And to sit there in the in the courtroom where you have real judges, real attorneys doing all of the all of the scoring, and to watch our kids compete and be able to articulate and argue their case in front of in front of these people, it they they were great. They it was awesome. My 11-year-old went went with me. Um He thought it was like an episode of Matlock. >> [laughter] >> We do watch Matlock in our in our home. Sometimes we like we like the old school TV. [laughter] Yeah, so this is the network. We do we watch old network in our in our house. But he was just he was he was impressed. He he he liked it. So they put
082they put a tremendous amount of work in. [clears throat] It's it's it's great. >> From a numbers standpoint, we have 528 individual athletes that that participate in a sport and we have [clears throat] 503 individual participants within our different clubs and activities. 203 of those individuals participate in in both. All right, so we're at that 70 78%. Of our students within our building participate in some sports or or activity. So that remains a high high percentage. There's certainly conversations that we have on a regular basis about different opportunities for new athletics potentially coming in, new clubs and organizations that that want to start up and have some ideas for things that they that they want to do. So we're in constant communication with people in regards for what some of those things could be. How
083sustainable will those things be if we do bring them on? So I I like the the fact that we're at 78%. The goal is we want we want kids to participate, right? 100% would be fantastic, right? Because we we know that if people are invested in other things that they're more likely to show up at at school on a regular basis, have less issues with with with absenteeism, academically they improve, behaviorally they they improve. So we've got a good group of people over there that are giving their time and efforts to to our student athletes, to our students in other in other clubs. So we'll continue to try to push to increase those those numbers. Do we do anything like reaching out to the the kids who aren't doing anything saying A, I don't know
084whether it's legally required it, and B, do we do anything to reach out to them to say, "Hey, let's sit down and look at your options here. How could we get you into something?" Yeah, that's a good idea. Uh beyond beyond really trying to advertise what we what we do have, um you know, that's probably an area where where we could where we could improve and and try to >> Inviting them to Yeah, try to figure if there's if there's you know, some something that can garner some interest, you know. I agree with you 100% would be great. It would be. Yeah. Any questions? No, thank you. We know that you have a complicated job. There's a lot of groups and a lot of people, a lot of to keep track of and to organize.
085Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for doing Appreciate it. Thanks. All right, so now we're back to you and that's You're okay. Um so we did not have a finance and facilities committee meeting this month, so the items that are normally on uh [snorts] that agenda, um you're getting tonight. So, the first item is our uh budget update, so 25-26 budget. Um I don't have a whole lot of comments to make on that. Uh the first page is our revenue. Um just uh key into that top line, our property tax. So, that now includes both our January and our February tax payments. Um we get an April lottery credit payment as well, which is uh you know, helpful for cash flow, and then uh we actually don't get our final payment until August after
086we close the year. So, that that final payment is actually a a receivable amount on our books. So, um that's really all I have to note for uh revenues. Um expenses, I've reviewed um and in the process of just looking over where we're sitting with salaries and benefits at this point in the year to make sure that we're on track if we need to make any adjustments to those budgets and we always do a budget adjustment at the end of the year and so you'll you'll see some of those things come through probably next month or in June but just letting you know we're we're reviewing all of that as well. Otherwise everything looks like we're on track as usual. So that's all I have for a budget update. Okay. Do you have any questions
087anybody? Referendum project planning. Okay. Next item referendum budget planning and Joe is here tonight as well. Since last spring Joe and I have been looking at this list and reviewing this list like what what when we finish the projects from last summer you know what if any what are some other projects that we can complete using those funds. So we are we've been constantly just looking at this list. So as you know tonight on the agenda as well are some of those projects that we are asking approval for for using the referendum funds and those are some of our parking lot projects. So we've got the Rocky Branch parking [clears throat] lot Myer Middle School parking lot and then the high school student lot for just a resurface or mill and overlay it's called at
088the high school. In addition to that and we've had some conversation at finance and facilities would be adding parking at the high school. So tonight's agenda item is not adding any parking. It's really just redoing some of our current lots. However, we are still in the process of planning that additional parking at the high school and you saw sort of a rough sketch of you know, where we're looking at. So, that's another big project that we are looking at and planning for for uh the use of those remaining referendum funds. Um we've got some high school water heaters that [snorts] need replacement and Joe's gotten some initial pricing on that. So, we kind of know where those might come in. One of the items that we didn't get to at the bus garage last summer
089as part of that is actually doing some ventilation in the bus barns. So, the the buildings where we the buses sleep at night. Um one of them needs some ventilation, some upgrades in ventilation. Won't be a real costly project, um but we're looking at that as well. Um and potentially, um and we've started a little bit of the planning for this is um looking at our uh playgrounds and making those more accessible for um all children of all abilities. So, kind of see where uh the additional parking lot for the high school comes in at. Um that's kind of the the next big um item we sort of need numbers for before we can consider what else we might be able to tackle. We're also looking back at the capital summer capital list. So, you
090saw that and approved updates to that. If there's some things, even though that list is really meant for fund 46, if there's some things that sort of rise to the level of uh we could peel this off, um finish using those referendum funds. As you know, we have a deadline for using those funds, um which is the 3 years. So, we're looking at June of '27. When when it's challenging to do projects within a summer slam time frame, you know, that can be hard to to fit in. So, um just kind of balancing all of that. And our partners are helping with that. We're still working with Bray Architects. Um we're still finishing some projects with Kraus Anderson as well. So, um, having all of those parties involved in helping us with planning and managing
091and, um, getting estimates for things. Each of the projects that would be done with referendum dollars has to fit under that that broad question that was asked. So, we review that question to make sure that, um, the infrastructure updates that Lynette's described fit under that question. Great. Make sure that we're following that. That's correct. Yeah. Anything to add, Joe? Anything to add? No. Um, I guess the one thing that's kind of I think it's kind of neat. We got over $160,000 from Focus on Energy back to the district for all of all the work we did. So, that was kind of neat. Mhm. You'll hear more about Focus on Energy in the in the coming, uh, coming month. >> [laughter] >> You will. Oh. It's exciting. Yes. Yes. But, no. Thank you. I have nothing
092to add. >> [clears throat] >> Any other questions? Mhm. That's great. Super. >> So, how do we how do we determine for sure if they're allowable underneath the broader question? So, um, we have reached out to our bond council. So, they are the ones that help us write the question based on the list of projects. And so, making sure that those fit under there. So, any other items we would reach out and say, you know, you just verify that these are within that scope. Yeah. Mhm. It's a good position to be in. It is. It is. Now you have [clears throat] one more. Okay, moving on. Um, federal and state award report review. Okay. So, um, this is also, uh, referred to as the single audit. And usually when we provide, um, and present the
093financial audit, this is a part of that. Um, however, because there was a delay from the feds in uh, releasing the guidance for the single audit, that timeline but those timelines didn't line up anymore. This still was completed and submitted within the deadline timeline, so I don't want anyone to think we were late on this, but the auditors wanted to wait until that guidance was released and therefore they released the financial statements first and then the single audit. So >> weren't alone in that in our fault. >> No, that was that was basically everybody, right? Yep. Um okay, so we have this report. What exactly is this? So school districts that receive more than $1 million in and expend more than $1 million in federal awards or federal grants are required to have a single
094audit. Um and it really just evaluates our financial statements and compliance with those grant guidelines and requirements. Um some of the major programs that are audited are our IDEA or flow-through. We Those are there's so many different terms that are used for that. IDEA, flow-through, special ed grant, those are all one in the same, okay? So it's that, and then we have our title grants. So we have title one, two, three, and four. Uh so that's included in there and then also our national school lunch program. So that is a federally funded program, so that's included in there as well. So when the guidance comes out that really gives the auditors the um what to what to focus on. So not only that, but then also if there are if there were issues with the
095single audits the previous year in a district, an auditor will re-look at that program as well. So they go by the guidance and then you know the the history. So you have the report in front of you. Um I'm certainly not going to go over all of this, but I I'll draw your attention to page three, which really just goes over that this is the opinion. Um Uh you know, what does the report include? What is what is required? And they're required to provide an opinion. Um they also talk about the basis for their opinion. They talk about the responsibilities of management, which means the school district's management um responsibilities, and then also the auditor's responsibilities. So, all of that is in there. Um and then if we turn to page six, this is where
096the numbers are. Um and it probably turns sideways on you, Amanda. Oh, great. Okay. So, this this first page, these are all of the federal awards. And um I'm I'll just kind of draw your attention to the bottom right. So, when I say um a million dollars in awards is is the sort of the threshold, School District of River Falls receives over two million. So, we're not on any or you know, there there's probably no chance we will ever not have a single audit of our federal funds. So, um So, and you can see the the programs there that they look at. So, because we are required for um this because of federal funds required for a single audit, they also look at our state grants. And so, that's the next page, and you can
097see what's included in there. So, um including our pupil transportation aid, we get a lot of aid from from the state um through those different buckets. And if you um go down to the bottom right of that, you can see the total amount. So, the $27 million of state aid. Okay, so they look at all of these programs. Um they take samples of certain things. Um and let's get right to the results. Um and that is the uh the findings then. On page we start on page 10. So the first finding is what's considered a material weakness over internal controls in financial reporting. This is the exact same finding you saw in our financial statements and it is the majority of our auditors their clients have this on their municipalities that they audit have this
098finding on and really what it means is we just don't have the staffing to prepare our own financial statements and so that's why we hire an independent auditor to do those for us. So this finding would be very consistent with other school districts organizations of our size. Yes and larger districts as well they just so it's they don't hire the staffing. Yeah to be able to do that so so that's what that one is the second one though little more specific to River Falls so this is this was a significant deficiency in internal controls over allowable allowed and allowable costs and it was a special test on the pulse a sampling of students that we [clears throat] submit for Medicaid reimbursement. And there was one student who we could not locate their signed parental consent
099form and this is a student that had been received had been receiving Medicaid eligible services from the time they were just little people a little person and they were senior this year and so just to find that documentation we were unable to do that so that automatically gets put as a finding and then our we have to make a response to that and our response to that is that we went through all of the other files every every file to make sure that we had a form like that and so we've got the correction in place it's like I said when there was a finding they would likely look that at this again next year and so we're aware of that, and we'll be ready. So. So, is it Would it be accurate to say
100that it's less of a a structural problem and more of an isolated mistake? Yes. Yeah. So, out of the 700 >> is still sound. Correct. Yeah. Our procedures are still sound. >> with, you know, turnover in Yep. um staffing and all of that, so. And you've gone through and now Yeah. That's correct. So. So, when something like that happens, then do we go back and make sure that we have that paperwork for all the other kids? Yes. That's what we did. Yep. Yep. Um so, that's really all I have uh for presenting the single audit. Any questions? All right. Thank you very much. And Dave, you're up. Okay. Oh, no, no. Sorry. Jada. Um so, at the high school, it's been going well as we move into the busiest and my personal favorite part of
101the year. Uh academically, students and teachers are working through the final stretch of the year. We just started term four, I believe April 4th, so 3 weeks in now. And there's definitely a noticeable push from students to stay on track and finish the year up strong. This week is also prom week, so on Saturday, we have prom at Kilkarney, which is exciting and something new this year because it's been held at the high school, I believe, since at least I was a freshman. And the theme is "City of the Stars", so that's exciting. Uh athletic side, spring sports are off to a strong start. I believe baseball is second in conference, as well as soccer is first, which is also exciting. Um as we begin to I can see the soccer on there. >> [laughter]
102>> Overall, the school has very positive atmosphere right now. Students are really involved academically, as well as sports and upcoming events. And as we head towards the end of the year, there's a lot of excitement building along with focusing on finishing strong and making the most of the remaining weeks. Good report. A question, you said that that prom is going to be at Kilkarney. Yeah. Correct. And there's there's no issues with prom? No. >> [laughter] >> I'm asking about private stuff like uh liability insurance So there's a couple things where the grand march is at is still at the high school. And then students who are attending the prom will take a bus from the high school grand march to Kilkarney and then they will take a bus home after once you commit to be
103there you're committed to be there for the entire time. Okay, good. I So I assumed you would you get all the answers. >> to your question now. Will there be no problems at prom? I will defer to >> [laughter] >> Never a problem? Prom committee that organizes it strictly is What's the purpose What's the purpose of train of going someplace like that? Uh I think I could let Jada speak. >> Yeah, I think people just wanted to like switch it up than just like the high school. It's definitely more exciting. Yeah, it's hard to get super excited. It's like the same place where you have the same corn dogs and dance. It's nice to be at a place that's [laughter] a little bit different than your Do they have dinner at Kilkarney and stuff or
104Yeah, we have concessions and stuff. Very nice. We had a a group of individuals who presented this this idea to the high school administration. They walked through all of our questions specific to transportation, venue, contacted the people at the different venues and and worked it all out and presented the information and Sorry. That's awesome. Nice. Fun. It's very exciting one. Yeah, go prom. All right, now I'm up. Thank [clears throat] you, Jared. Mhm. Now you're up. All right, so I get to report on the school board school board election from April 7th. And so, the first thing I want to do is congratulate uh two board members who were reelected, Stacy Johnson Myers and Allison H. Page, as it So, we're super excited uh that they will be serving three-year terms. There's a couple of
105documents that you'll see in the official packet. The first one is shows the official results, and that's uh as well as the certification. I wanted to carve out some time to thank Amanda Taylor as well as the board of canvassers, Elaine Bowman, Rebecca Ferguson, and Jennifer Karris. Their job is to review uh and determine uh and certify the results of the election, and then they take those steps uh seriously. And so, those documents are there. Congratulations. Thank you. Yes. All right, now we are going to move on to action items. So, before us tonight, we have the meeting minutes from the March 23rd regular Board of Education meeting. We have uh minutes from the March 26th special board meeting. We also have bills that have been submitted for payment as well as employment recommendations. Additionally,
106we have a list of first readings of Neola policies that you will see in item five, as well as second readings of Neola policies that you see in item six. Would any board member like to remove anything from the consent agenda? Okay, then is there a motion to approve minutes, bills, employment, and Neola policies as presented? So moved. Thank you, Ellen. Is there a second? Second. [clears throat] Thank you, Allison. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The motion is carried five to zero. We should tell you guys we're not going to be offended if you don't steal them. It is super important. Still has to stay. >> Still has to stay. We need them still. All right. >> [laughter] >> Yanked from the consent agenda. Well, the the policy ad hoc committee is continuing to
107take its work really seriously. We are going through all of these policies very carefully. We did select three that had some more substantive conversation and some more adjustments after the the policy meeting. And Dave is going to go through these three. After he is done, I will take a motion for all three of them. Okay, on page 174 of your packet, there's uh policy 5112 entrance age. The part that we zeroed in on is section B, which relates to entrance into first grade. And so, generally, most kids come to first grade with experience uh with with have completed the kindergarten program. But, there's some uh times when that isn't the case. And so, what we did is we just identified in item two uh the the reasons why uh students may not have completed kindergarten,
108depending on where they moved in from and the expectations from the places that they moved in from, or at the request of a parent or guardian. So, those are kind of those three reasons why someone would want to request a waiver to bypass kindergarten. Rare thing that happens, but we wanted to outline those things. And then, in number three, outlines uh how the process we would use to uh grant that waiver. And it includes the principal, in consultation with the first grade teacher, performing specific uh screeners to establish the student's aptitude and making the decision if kindergarten can be waived or if it is uh required. And then, below that, there's no change to the process by which a parent could appeal that decision. So, that's the adjustment for 5112. Then, moving on to uh
1095505, academic integrity. The only thing that was substantive that we added is there wasn't a section that describes study tool creation, which is on which is letter F of the use of artificial intelligence. So, big picture and I know that Mary Beth will do a good job of kind of summarizing some of the work we we talked about at Head Pro around AI, but big picture um the expectation is that our students would not use AI or natural language processing tools without the express written consent of their teacher uh and then we did the next steps there is we kind of define what would be some reasons why a teacher would allow the use of AI within the program and the A through E we talked about, but F wasn't clearly described. That's the study
110tool creation and so that that is outlined there. So, that is uh 5505 and then the last one is search and seizure, which is 5771. Um and that's on page 179 and I'm going to alert you to actually uh page 180, which is which uh about halfway down on page 180 is parking on school grounds and I know there's some even still some um formatting things that will get cleaned up uh for the second read on this, but um the parking on school grounds, we just wanted to to be clear on what it means when a student parks on school grounds. They are allowed to do so in designated areas with an understanding that an administrator uh with reasonable suspicion to believe a search will produce evidence of a violation of of a particular law,
111school rule, or condition that endangers the health and safety of the student driver or others, um they'll request uh consent to search and if there is a refusal of the consent, then law enforcement would be involved. So, the expectation for students is they know, "Hey, when you bring your student onto one of our nice parking lot areas, uh there's an expectation that you're following all applicable laws and school rules and if there's reasonable suspicion around that, then uh we would make sure that the student would be aware of that and and and that search can take place. So, in the prior one there was a little bit of kind of dual language so this just cleaned that up. Those are the three that I wanted to highlight. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve
112the new policy 5120, 5505, 5771? So This would be the first reading. Thank you Bo. Is there a second? I'll second that. Thank you Monica. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Opposed? The motion is carried 5 to 0. Educational program, Alan. The education program committee met on Monday, April 13th. Covered a number of things. Um One of the first was we had a presentation and um request for preliminary approval on um science trip for the summer of 2027. And um we had a very good presentation. It looks like a excellent program. It'll encompass around 25 students I think. Is that I think that was about what it is. And um this will be publicized and and all that and it can they can handle a few more than 25 but um anyway we we
113needed to know about it well in advance and it seems to be well planned out. So, I would move approval of that um preliminary approval of that. Um Second. And this is next summer, right? Summer of 27. Summer of 27, yeah. >> [snorts] >> It's got a lot of this island. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I. I. Opposed? The motion is carried. The next item we discussed uh we had a nice presentation by some uh of our physical education faculty about our standards and the fact that there are really some more flexible and robust standards put out by their professional association called shape. Can't remember what shape stands for, but anyway, we had a presentation of what the shape standards are as opposed to the Wisconsin standards, which typically lag behind the shape
114standards and why we're building our our curriculum [snorts] in our high school around our our K through 12 system around the shape standards rather than the Wisconsin standards. We think it'll be more effective for our students and um we agreed with that. So, it's a very good presentation and good discussion along with that. Um we also had a review and and discussion of policy 353.51 personal communication devices and um Neola policy 5136 personal communication devices. Um we took action on that, but I don't know Dave, you want to It's coming up. >> It's coming up. in the agenda later. >> All right. So, we'll we'll get to that later. Okay. All right. And then we had a really really um robust conversation around the whole AI issue. And this isn't the last time we'll talk
115about this. In fact, we're on the very very front end of this and I think probably what we're talking about and and um Mary Beth will give a brief overview on this this little bit. It's absolutely the tip of the iceberg on what's going on with AI in the world generally as well as in education. And so, expect to hear a lot more. I know I was at a uh the WASB meeting over the weekend. It was a huge issue all across the state and um school districts are looking toward this and trying to figure out how it affects them, how they can leverage it, how um they might work with it and that. So, um anyway, that's kind of a summary of that. Mary Beth, you want to run through the presentation today? I
116shortened our slides up a little bit from what we had last week. Um when we talked when we talked about this last week, we went over the fundamental of AI, where we've been, where we now, where we headed and how we know when we've made it. Amy and I showed kind of we were told to dip our toes in the water and what it really felt more of was like we were trying to traverse a really fast-flowing stream and holding on and blindly leading each other through this. [snorts] But the core of where we're where all of our work is coming out of is we're really trying to stay focused on the strategic plan of the of the district. So, the mission of the district, the vision, the values that we hold in the district
117and that I think we like I just am so proud of all the all the kids in the district and I could give you examples of when I've been in building, things that I've seen kids do. A middle schooler opening the door for his little sister and making sure it stayed open till I got through the door. At the high school, you know, random kids walking through the hallway and asking me how my day is. You know, I was starting to you know, "Hi, how are you?" You know, and they right away, "Good. How are you? Are you having a good day?" And I just think it's super impressive that's how our students are and I think that speaks to our values as a district that as leaders we all try to uphold when we're
118dealing with our students. But specifically for us looking at it was that goal four, providing life readiness, and zeroing in on the curriculum instruction. That our goal as a district is to embed curriculum instruction of critical thinking, problem-solving, perseverance, adaptability, social-emotional awareness, financial literacy and desire for lifelong learning. And AI is presenting a challenge, but remembering our core has been provided for us by the district and that's where we're holding tight to. And AI is this layer that's going to lay over top of what we do. Um, I talked about every we worked with 13 curriculum teams so far and they write their beliefs. Why why is it important that we have reading, writing, math, science, career technology education. Why are those things that are important in the instructors create that and then their instructional
119vision and they say, "How do they want that to live in their classroom?" And I started with a tally mark of each one of these things every time they they had one of these words. And then it was like, "Oh, but this word kind of goes with that." And so I created this list of here are all the different words that show up over and over again in our staff's beliefs of their curriculum department's area as well as their instructional vision. And none of those are directly related to technology. So, how are day-to-day of how we do business isn't changing and really focused this focus is remaining the same, but how can we use AI, generative AI to enhance all of these? We have a technology committee for and it's um comprised currently of secondary
120staff. The creation of it came about when we were reviewing and looking at a new learning management system for the high school and middle school. But uh part of the reason why I wanted to share this is to show the depth of knowledge that we have. We have experience from 4 years to 30 years as well as just all the different subject areas that we're covering. Um as I said, we restarted the technology committee in the 2024-2025 year to review our learning management system. At that time was Schoology for our secondary. We moved to the adoption of Google Classroom and we implemented that. We worked through last year last summer how we would um implement that for the next school year. Uh we implemented it this year and facilitated the implementation of that and that
121technology committee was very vital in the implementation um in the professional learning that we started the the with and that we have ongoing. Um, to this year we kept that team in place for the implementation of Google Classroom as well as to start the investigation of AI. So, Amy and I have taken um, part in some learning opportunities within our CESA, within our state, um, and within the nation. We attended a national conference for superintendents that was specifically uh, for AI as well as we attended the state level um, Slate conference and we were able to take several of our uh, technology committee members there, too, and it was a strong focus also in AI. Um, so, kind of where are we and how are we supporting staff after we've done that learning? We've put
122together um, back best practices for data privacy when you're using AI in teaching and learning, defining it, saying what it is, what AI is not, as well as like what can we safely share with AI and what should we not share with AI? So, that idea here some guardrails or guidelines that if teachers are using it, how to what they should not be sharing with AI, um, and really focusing on that data and safety uh, and security. We also uh, shared with the staff, here are AI approved tools, um, and it it's more than just this one page, uh, but we also have ensured that any of our AI approved tools have data privacy agreements, which means they're following these bigger policies that are mandated uh, at the central level. Um, in addition to that,
123we shared virtual options to expand AI understanding uh, for the staff and the providers are no well-known technology providers in education. Um, Google, ISTE is a national, uh, Code is a private industry nonprofit uh, industry uh, provider of several education pieces. And then we wanted high-quality educational experts that were providing AI training for staff, as well as a multitude of access points, because spending the amount of time as much as every staff member would love to spend 40 hours on this, nobody has the time for that during the school year. So, we offered 20 minutes up to 15 hours of training that different sites are providing for free. We did a staff survey of I'm going to say there was 11 or 12 questions on it. It had a lot of meat to it though,
124because then we separated it into elementary staff findings, middle school, and high school. We talked about the different themes that we found throughout that staff survey. The majority of our staff have played with AI, and and we had they had to rate what kind of user they were in AI, and most of them said they just kind of have played around it before text generation, presentation generation, quiz, or image generation. At the elementary level, the primary use have been for administrative tasks like writing emails, newsletters, or letters of recommendation. The primary use of the middle school and high school our survey showed was for generating ideas for lessons or activities within their classroom for instructional learning. 72% of people that responded said that they were concerned that AI will negatively impact students' critical thinking skills.
125And this was a piece that really drove us to our values and what are what's our current purpose in education, and we need to remind our staff that that's and our community that our purpose in education is not changing. Another piece was 85% of secondary, while 100% of elementary respondents said they don't feel confident managing classroom where students are using AI. And I think that's you know, that's something I'm going to talk to you about more, but that was a big finding that people aren't comfortable with managing what AI is, what does it look like? Um and then the at all levels, the biggest hesitation was a concern that it would be a decrease in students' critical thinking and productive struggle. So, um what we're working with the technology committee right now is identifying next
126steps in professional learning. Um and actually in our leadership team tomorrow we're going to talk more about that. So, really important, we want first and foremost that we're keeping our [clears throat] students safe. We have a platform that we have you that we had currently in place called Securly and that identifies if students are using technology for um it's it's an oversight for technology that we have on all of our systems in the districts. And they put a filter for AI specifically in place a month ago. So, it will um it doesn't allow students to get answers from AI. And it will prompt they it's trying to prompt them to do more guided learning, but it's fully compliant even for students under 13. We are not using AI for any student under 13. If we
127did though, Securly would keep that. Um they're fully compliant that it could be used. We are not using it. Uh and they're trying to make sure we have equitable access. So, this is one example of what it looks like. The human, being the student, provided um in a in a I'm going to make this long story short. I'm not going to read the whole prompt. A student put in essentially their quiz and said, you know, tell me the answers. They're looking for I mean they even I'm pretty sure they copy and pasted cuz it shows the point value for each of the questions. And AI said, "I'm sorry, it's against school policy for me to help you in that way. Please seek out an adult you trust." Anytime a student puts in anything related to
128schoolwork, that's what they're going to get. Which is awesome. Uh here's another example of a math class. So, this example is just like, "Nope, not helping. Go find an adult." This is an example of a guided response from an AI uh site. Uh we have three currently open AI sites, ChatGPT, um Sorry, I'm blanking. Gemini, and then Magic School. Magic School is used by teachers. Um as far as I know, there aren't any students using it. Securely has their own AI. So, AI new AI sites are popping up all the time. Securely AI keeps track of that, and we have it so any new AI site that is blocked is open, Securely's automatically blocking that for us. We decide which AI sites we're allowing in this district. So, this example, we're not sure because when
129we see these prompts, it doesn't tell us what AI site the student was on. But this is an example of the student asked for some help, put in the rubric of what they were supposed to do, and AI came back and said, "Oh, that looks really like an interesting poetry assignment. I can't write the poem for you, but I can help you better understand them." So, it's kind of trying to guide them without giving them the specific answers. So, those are two examples of what Securely are providing us. In addition to that, Securely allows us to monitor. This is a one-week example of how many prompts, the blue um the blue blue line being how many prompts a students the students cumulatively are asking AI, and then how many are deflected. So, what we're able
130to see So, this was uh the first week of April. I can tell you the first week we we enabled it, the bar on the left, which shows how many prompts, it's like at tops out of a thousand. That first week, it topped out at seven thousand. There was over 6,500 AI prompts put into AI. And deflections were much higher. But, you know, kids are kind of starting to see that they can't use AI, so there's more deflections. I'm not going to put Jade on the spot, but I'd love to hear what she says. >> [laughter] >> As well as our deflected users. So, the other thing that we're able to do with Securely is how kids are using AI. We're able to see their specific prompts and specific students how much they're using it.
131So, this top student had 247 deflections to games and three other categories. Um and [snorts] I can go in and click on the little eyeball on the right and I can see that student and then I can go to that student's prompt specifically to see what they've been asking AI to do for it. >> So, you go back and share that Big Brother is watching. >> [laughter] >> So, our next steps, we have some policies. >> [laughter] >> We have some policies, academic our academic integrity policy integrity policy that you did just approve. That policy has some AI language in it specifically, as well as we have a AI specific policy that's coming up. We'll be doing some professional learning on it um uh before the start of next school year. What that looks like
132a little bit is still in the works. Um my goal in our goal as a technology committee is to get um the student AI survey out to find out where kids are at in AI and what they think of it, as well as to create some pathway for student AI literacy. Thank you. To have students that are good users of this technology. One of the things that I shared on last Monday was a flow chart of when do we use AI because of um listening to an interesting podcast and when technology first came out and you got a cookie, people were like, "Oh, that's cool. I love a cookie. I'll take a cookie in my computer." Not realizing a cookie is really spyware. You know, there's something that's being collected and you know, one of
133[snorts] the things with AI is hallucinations and it sounds like, "Oh, AI hallucinate." You know, what is that? It's kind of dreaming. You know, maybe it's going to stop. We don't really know. It's really giving incorrect information. It's telling you a line of garbage. And so, helping helping ensure that students understand that AI is is not Google where it was saying, "Here's all your top things that you should look up and you can do more research on." It's taking all the things and giving it back in its own synthesis and it's not always correct. As well as we want to make sure we help students understand the environmental impact and overall making sure anything that we're doing we're transparent and communicating with families and that families are clear on what we're allowing or what students
134are doing in schools as well as staff. Okay. Thank you, Mary Beth. This is This is as I mentioned earlier, this is an interesting topic. Couple times it's come up this how AI can enhance our students' education, but I think as she moved through the presentation, you can see it's really we're trying to make sure that we're in a place that we know how to engage our students, faculty and staff with AI. It's a moving target. It's changing all the time. It's not just another software program that we're going to be dealing with. And one of the things that I think we're dealing with generally with our students is helping to prepare them for a world of AI the rest of their career cuz we're just we're at the very front end of this. This
135is huge. And um we'll see more products probably coming our way and a year from now we'll be having a very different conversation about AI, but we will be having a conversation about it. But I think just generally we're on [snorts] top of it. We're watching it. We're monitoring it and we're working in a way that um helps us to most constructively engage with AI and its changes going forward. So appreciate all the work that's gone into this and all the discussion we've had so far about it. Um let's see. So then we had uh the last thing we talked about was a summer school update. Um one of you want to tell us what summarize what our summer school update was? Uh we just talked about uh some of the enhancements that we are
136looking forward to this year including expanding some of our uh enrichment opportunities not just at the elementary level but at the middle and high school level where typically it had been credit recovery or um uh health and personal finance but some some genuine enrichment cooking and ACT >> ACT prep type courses. Um we're looking at expanding our bus routes so that we can perhaps grab some more students to attend. Um so we're looking forward to seeing how those registration numbers look which close May 1st. So we'll have more information after May 1st. Great. Well and thank you for just yeah shuffling it up a little bit. Those are good things in response to student need and interest and district goals. Very >> So thank you. We sent out a family survey earlier this winter to
137find out like what were some of the barriers to summer school and transportation and new courses were tops and and some of the things they were looking for changes, so that's what we tried to do. And thank you um for the second go around on the AI presentation. It was good to hear it again. It was good to hear it again. We didn't have this as something if you would ask us in the fall if we would be doing this now in April, I don't think that we would have really recognized what was coming. Okay. The personnel committee met on April 13th and during that meeting we heard a staffing update. This is the busy time of the year where we are trying to fill the the needed spots for the fall. Nate's doing a
138a good job on that. We also talked about the bus driver and mentor handbook that is going to support the the mentorship program. We're excited about that. I think it's going to be good for our bus drivers. Um annually we as a board need to send um letters of intent to certified and support staff, so we took care of getting that done. Um we also then went into closed session and during that time we discussed um a separation agreement, we took action, and we also discussed the plans and the goals that we have for negotiations for this type of year. We had a very full meeting that day. Two meetings actually, and so what we decided to do was to um table the district scorecard update until another meeting. It'll still be there for us
139to discuss later on. We also remembered on the 13th that we had we met on April 6th and during that time we um had another closed session meeting to talk about our collective bargaining goals um with the teachers and with the bus drivers. Is there anything else that we should bring back? Okay. Then at this point, is there a motion to approve the bus driver mentor handbook? So moved. Thank you, Alan. Is there a second? Second. Was that you, Allison? Okay. Thank you. Any discussion? This looks like a really good effort. So, we're looking forward to how this plays out. So, Yeah, and we talked about that it would be nice um if for any bus driver who would like to have the chance if it if it's something that that Todd thinks would be
140valuable to do a shadow. Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? The motion is carried, and I will move that we send letters of intent for um the upcoming academic year to certified and support staff. Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you, Alan. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? The motion is carried. Dave, I'm going to talk turn to you for a description about why we are doing these two policies now. Yeah, so item E talks about a consideration or action to approve what looks to be potentially two separate policies, but what I'm here to clarify is it's actually the same policy in which we're going to approve a potentially approve a first reading of it to take effect by at least by July 1st, and that's why we need to have
141this two numbering systems. Okay, so the numbering system prior to us fully adopting NEOLA will require it to be called 363.51, non-school issued personnel communication devices. And then once it's adopted by NEOLA once all of our NEOLA policies are fully adopted, it will be policy 5136. But, the guts of the policy, the intent of the policy is exactly the same. So, that is there any questions on the two why there's two numbers up there? >> And we need to do it because of the law. >> Yep, that's right. So, our process um you bring a book a key piece here. So, we've provided prior presentations about kind of what our personal communication device policies within the district are and how we need to make some updates to be aligned with the current state law and
142how that comes into effect on July 1st. And so, through the process of developing this policy, we met with academic services. We also met with each of our school leaders to to gain an understanding of their impact and their opinions on what what should be part of this policy. And so, one thing that is important to recognize is that there is an impact of personal communication device on our educational environment. And and so, these policies are designed to stay focused on making sure that we can achieve our goals of a safe environment for students that's focused on academic growth. That's the first piece. And the second piece is we need to partner with parents in the enforcement of this policy. And so, you'll see those things highlighted in this as well. what you're seeing presented
143tonight meets the current law expectation that goes into place on July 1 of this year and it also reflects our current practices. And we will continue to analyze this policy specifically to see if adjustments are needed. Specifically, if there's more strict enforcement or restriction policies at the high school, but right now this is what's being recommended. So, in kind of diving into the policy, I wanted to highlight a couple of elements within that first paragraph. And the first thing is we recognize that PCDs have an impact on student conduct, mental health, and academic achievement. And that's why we need to have some limitations on their use. The second thing is we know that to fully uh meet the expectations and foster a supportive environment, we need partnership with parents and students in the enforcement of
144this. Uh, the next thing is the second paragraph uh distinguish between distinguishes between how we manage school-issued uh school-issued devices. And that's policy 7540 and policy 750.03 versus this policy, which is really non-school issued devices. The next section's definitions. Uh, the two definitions that I would highlight uh that I think are important that are not were that were not part of the state definition uh when they established the law was what What does it mean What does instructional time mean? So, we define what War Falls School District instructional time means. And then 10 is personal communication devices. What What kind of falls under that umbrella? We all think cell phone. Yep, it's the cell phone policy. I agree with That's the big dog in in this thing. But, there's other elements there that uh fall
145under that and those are outlined as well. And then uh the next definition that's important is school hours. So, the big distinguishing here is uh instructional time versus school hours. And the expectations for PCD are a little bit different PK through eighth grade in which essentially the students are allowed to have them, but they can't uh use them and they can't be on their person or uh out during the entire school day. And that's what's outlined in the expectations for PK through eighth grade students. As opposed to our ninth through 12th grade students in which they can possess PCDs and they uh but they cannot use them during instructional time. Uh, and uh when they are not in use, they should either be in what is called phone lockers, which are in each classroom, or
146in their um uh regular uh district-issued hallway locker. Um, so are there any questions on either of the definitions or are broad expectations for our students, whether it's our PK through eighth grade students or ninth through 12th grade students? No, but I think we're going to get a lot of input a lot of feedback from this from parents probably as this comes out. Well, it's interesting you that because I don't think we we will because there's no actual change in the in the What we're doing. in the in the process of what we're doing. So, if a parent is engaged in their child's education, they should know PK through 8 they can't have them. And I and I would say almost all of our parents know that, right? And in 9th through 12th grade they
147understand that if the student is using them during instructional time they're going to be taken away. So, So, they're already doing that. It's an opinion that maybe true that we might get information because it's now become a policy. And if people have a lot of opinions on cell phones and and those types of things, we'd be definitely comfortable with getting getting that feedback. But as far as a parent of a current student in our schools, they should be aware of it because we we worked really hard at every level to communicate what those policies are whether it's in the handbook or whether it's through other outgoing going communication. Jada, our students I'm not saying if they follow the policy. I'm just asking are they aware of the expectations of when they can have their cell
148phone on or when they can't have their cell phone. >> Yeah. I I figure that's the case. Now, just like anything that doesn't necessarily mean that every child follows every policy that we have and that's why we have some ways that we follow up if that's [snorts] not the case. So, the next thing that I had to alert you to is policy violations. And and as a policy, we're we're going to basically say, "Look, if you don't follow this, if you violate the policy, there's going to be disciplinary action taking place and that's going to be outlined in the student handbook which everyone has an opportunity to look at including parents and and and students sign off that they've they've understood that." Broadly, obviously this this can be a more crucial conversation at the high
149school because we have some times when students can use it during the school day and sometimes when they can't. And that can be the trickiest transition piece. Over this year, they've really uh very clear that if a student is found in violation of the policy, which they call locally a tech violation, uh the the cell phone is taken, um it's stored in the height at in the high school office, and it's picked up by a parent. And so, that's at the first violation. And that [clears throat] really highlights the partnership piece that we we need to have with parents to understand Well, there is some reasonable reasons why you would uh have a child have a cell phone at the high school level, and and even times when they would have to use it during
150the pieces of the time of day that they could. However, that partnership goes then to say, "If there is a violation, um then the understanding is that um the way that we can really help crystallize for that young person the importance of of when to appropriately use it is to have that parent intervene at that point and come in and grab that cell phone uh for them." And so, if there's a refusal by a student to give the cell phone to the employee, um now we treat that as a different thing. It's not just a tech violation, which is an oopsie that we don't feel great about. Now we're talking about insubordination. And so, uh just like any other insubordination policy, we we take progressive steps to make sure that uh the student follows the
151directions. So, that's policy violations. Um the state statute carves out some specific ways uh or specific um times when the student use of PCDs would not be considered a tech violation. So, emergency or threat, health care management, which is authorized by a student's individual health plan that's on file with the school, an IEP if it's outlined specifically within that IEP or 504 plan, um or if there's a legitimate purpose uh that's approved or authorized by the principal. Those uh I I I I can't think of an example right now given the school-issued tech opportunities that could happen during the school day, but there's that carve out just in case. And then, student responsibility for their PCDs, they're solely responsible for their care and security of them. And overall, the expectation is if a parent would
152need to get a hold of their child, they can funnel that through the school office. Are there questions on that policy? Is there a motion to approve the first reading of the new school board policy 363.51 non-school issued personal communication devices and the Neola policy 5136, which also has the same the name non-school issued personal communication devices? So moved. Thank you, Monica. Second a second. Thank you, Allison. Any discussion? I I just one comment. I'm really glad that we have pinpointed um parent expectations in this. We expect parents to be partners in this, so um it is going to go a lot easier and if parents understand this, it's going to be a lot easier to get students to comply, so. Anything else? All is in favor? I. I. Opposed? The motion is carried. All
153[clears throat] right. Lynette and Joe, looks like you've got some bids to bring to us. We've got some bids. All righty. Uh so, as mentioned earlier, uh these are some of the projects that we are going to be um completing with with approval, be completing with our our our referendum funding. So, these are some parking lot updates. Um Uh we've worked with Bray Architects. Uh Joe, I should when I say we, I mean Joe. He has [laughter] worked with Bray Architects to um really look at these these three parking lots and um sort of determine what our best options are. At first, we were thinking um probably for uh financial reasons, a mill and overlay might be our best options. However, in meeting with some of these vendors, um they were really pushing hard for
154replacement. And And as you can see, not necessarily because of cost, you know, they were going to get a bigger dollars. Um No, it was performance-based. >> it was Yeah, it was really just the need of these lots. So, um you know, we've had uh I think all of these vendors come on site for a walk-through with Joe. Um I'm going to just turn it over to you if you want to talk Yeah, no, that's great. Yeah, as you said, I didn't accept any bids for anyone who didn't walk with cuz it's physically impossible for you to accurately bid it. So, we always kind of throw that in there. Um as Lynette alluded to, a lot of the concerns were if we don't do this right, in other words, taking it down 10 in, grinding
155everything up, and just completely replacing, you'd see cracking, telescoping through in 2 or 3 years, and we'd be throwing good money after bad. So, with all that said, I can't really see the numbers, but I know at um >> [laughter] [laughter] >> So, of the seven vendors, um we got two bids. Um and uh we are recommending the bids uh from Monarch Paving Company, >> [clears throat] >> Rocky Branch, uh full replacement. Uh you can see the highlighted amount there at 187,688.78. And then also Myer Middle School. That is the North Parking Lot, so that is the parking lot between Greenwood and Myer. Um that would be again full replacement. Um and then uh the high school at the high school is a mill and overlay uh of the student lot, the student lot only.
156Yep. One of the cool things about that Myhre Middle School proposal, uh we are going to be fencing the entire perimeter, so our our middle school north lot will be enclosed, so that students There's a lot of transfer buses and stuff that go through there, and we're linking Greenwood and Myhre now with a hard surface. So, it'll be all ADA compliant between those two campuses. And so, there's some fencing that's going in along there just to make sure Just like you see on Greenwood, where all the kiddos sit to get picked up. >> Mhm. That way, if they're like me when I was a kid and you're monkeying around out there, you don't Somebody doesn't get pushed into traffic on accident, so. There'll be some rather large gates there, so snow removal won't be impacted,
157cuz I know that's a big big push that way, but Uh and Rocky Branch will still be the circle. Um there'll be some eliminating of some of those um kind of bump outs that's that stick out on Myhre, and we damage the curbs with um curbing up there, but otherwise, we've been asked that, "Was it still going to be a circle?" Yep, still going to be a circle. >> [laughter] >> And the four trees that we just planted in those areas that are getting eliminated are going to be uh responsibly removed and replanted on that same campus. Oh, that's good. That's good. I was just going to ask you about that. Good. >> So, again, um we are asking for approval of these bids from Monarch, full replacement at Rocky Branch, uh full replacement for
158the north lot at Myhre, and mill and overlay for the student high school lot, high school student lot. So, with this um total cost, what is that using for remaining referendum funds? And where where does that leave us in referendum So, um again, we still have uh plans working through plans for the additional parking lots at the high school. >> Right. Um The where uh How do I want to say this? At the estimates that we're using for that and these projects, um we we're still looking to use about $800,000 in referendum funds. So, we're not done yet um even even if the bids for and the projects for the additional parking come back um where we think they might. Okay. So, our community has really good shape. Gotten a lot for that investment. Yeah.
159Oh, yeah. Yeah, a lot. >> And not not to get lost in this, but this isn't just, you know, you picked up on the what you were saying about what's going on between um Greenwood and Myer. Um that's as much as safety and security issue as it is just repaving the parking lot. It gives us an opportunity to do some more safety and security issues for our students. That's really, really important for us. Yeah. What what's the safety and security element of it? Or Between Greenwood and Myer, there's kids transitioning a lot of times, and right now they currently have to walk through an active parking lot with Todd's drivers do a great job of kind of corralling and and blocking areas off, but there's always the occasional And this is going to help with
160that. 100% yep. Yeah, they'll have a hard surface to go from one campus to the next without ever entering the traffic. >> Okay. That's great. Well, one of the things I hope our community sees is that we've been really responsible with this investment. And the the dollars have gone far. >> stretched >> Yeah. >> far. Yeah. Yeah, I was very pleased with where bids came in at. Monarch, as you all probably know, is a very, very large Yeah. company, and they're actually the producer for this entire geographic area of the product, so pricing was excellent for this. Well, all you know you have to do is take a walk over to Rocky Branch and realize >> [laughter] >> It's pretty Yeah. needs it. >> It's pretty neat. >> Yep. All right. Is there a motion
161to approve the bids for the parking lot improvement projects at Meyer Middle School, Rocky Branch, and River Falls High School? So moved. Thank you, Bo. Is there a second? I'll second that. >> Thank you, Monica. Any further discussion? I will just say we're still waiting on schedules for those. We know that the high school lot will probably be the the most inconvenient for summer programs over there. But as soon as we know sort of timing of all of that, we'll communicate. >> that'll be this summer? Yes. Definitely. Yes. Has to be after Good to fit in left time. Right now, this is just the middle part of the student lot. Yep. Yep. That's good. All right, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The motion is carried. Do we have any proposed items for future agendas?
162Okay, then we're going to schedule the upcoming meetings. The Policy Ad Hoc Committee will meet Monday, May 4th at 6:00. Educational Program Committee will meet Monday, May 4th at 7:00 or immediately following the Ad Hoc Policy Committee. Finance and Facilities Committee will meet Monday, May 11th at 6:00. The Personnel Committee will meet Monday, May 11th at 7:00 or immediately following Finance and Facilities. The next regular board meeting will be Monday, May 18th at 6:00. And everybody, please take note, the school board retreat will be held on Monday, June 22nd at 5:00. All of those meetings are here in the district office. And now, we need to have a motion to adjourn into closed session pursuant to two different statutes. The first one will be Wisconsin Statute Section 1985.1E, which permits convening into closed session for
163the purpose of deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session. Specifically tonight, we are going to strategize about the upcoming collective bargaining session with uh WEAC Region 1 for Falls teachers and WEAC Region 1 bus drivers. The second statute for going into closed session is 1985 1 C for the purpose of considering employment, promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. And Wisconsin Section 1985 1 F for the purpose of considering financial, medical, social, or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons which if discussed in public would likely have a substantial adverse effect on the reputation of any person referred to
164in such histories or data. Specifically tonight, we are going to discuss and take action regarding a resignation and or separation agreement. Is there a motion, please? So moved. Thank you, Allison. Thank you, Ellen, and I will need a roll call. Allison? >> Yes. Monica? Yes. >> Ellen, Allison, and I are saying yes, too. We are in closed session, everyone. Thanks for sticking with us for the Thanks for the evening. Thanks, Shada. Thank you. Thank you.