Monthly School Board Meeting, 3/23/2026

001of education. This meeting has been properly notified and we will begin with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I don't believe we have any visitors or delegations who would like to address the board. So, we will move right intoformational items. And the first one is fun. We have a Wildcat Pride Award. >> All right. This one's going to Nate Johnston. >> Yeah. >> Nate, nice to meet you. Both respect. >> So, the school board um school board commends you for your incredible dedication as a volunteer at Greenwood over the past three years. Each Wednesday, you have generously given your time to support a student, and

002that commitment has made a meaningful difference. Your kindness, helpfulness, and selfishness shine through in everything you do. You took the initiative to offer your time and support, demonstrating remarkable character. Your consistent dedication and positive relationship you have built are truly commendable. We are proud to recognize and honor your generous time and care you have given to support a student in our school community. Nate, you are a true master of wildcat pride. Thank you very much. >> A picture, >> Nate. Thank you very much. >> Did you get one? >> Did you get a good picture? >> What? That's what I do as a photographer. Yeah, >> in addition to all of the things that Bo read on your award, it also strikes me of how important it is for our young children to see a

003big kid taking an interest in them and being a a role model and just somebody who cares. So, thank you very very much. And Terry, you must be really proud of yourself. I know. So, we didn't quite realize that when we got you that we also had had a wonderful volunteer. So, thank you. Thank you for all that you do. All right, and we'll move on to a spotlight on education and the peace initiative that you have at Montasauri. >> Hi everybody. I'm Claire Rogers. I'm the principal at RFP. Um this will be really short. It's a very long presentation and I'm going to just highlight a few things for you. Um this is just our way of doing character education um at at Monasuri. It's just a little bit different. Um peace education was

004embedded in the beginnings of Monasuri back in 1907 and has continued throughout um Monasur's work um and actually was very very important in central. So we've kind of taken a different twist a little bit and I just wanted to kind of highlight a few things that we do. Show you the comprehensive. That's very comprehensive, very broad. Um, but I promise you I won't keep you for an hour to do all of that. I know you're busy tonight. So, >> is it turned on? >> On the side. Is >> other side. There we go. Awesome. Um, so Monasuri, her career really, um, in Monasuri education happened during World War I and World War II. So really she saw the effects um the adverse effects of flora on children. So even though she started her her method

005of education based on scientific observation of children, it quickly um became broader and more whole child- centered just because of what she was seeing. and um not only the effects of you know family situations but also the effects of um not having right not having food not having um resources. Um World War II won one world war II she spoke about this um at the national congress of Monasuri in 1937 she was in Paris um she wrote a book education and peace she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four times in her lifetime. So this was central. Um so our story we've been kind of finding our identity when it comes to peace education and character education. Um there's lots of prongs of this. So the first one really is peace within one oneself.

006And we have lots of ways that we do that. Um not going to go through all the the um nitty-gritty details here, but really spending a lot of time really helping children center and and relax and be at peace with themselves and feel comfortable in their own skin is paramount to learning. Um connecting with nature in the classroom. Um these are some of our um murals in the hallways that we've um had awards for. can't remember the names at this moment but um also piece within our classroom communities and this is where I want to highlight a few things. We have a peace path that is actually a beautiful huge quilt where it has footprints of children and if two children have a conflict they can roll out their peace path and they actually have

007prompts on the path to um conflict resolution and they do it independently. Of course, the teacher kind of walks them through that the first couple of times, but then if there's a conflict before between children, they can just grab that piece path and walk out into the hallway and have their moment to hear each other's side of the story of what happened and how to find resolution. >> Um, it's really cool. >> I could use one of those next Christmas. >> Um, they also all have a class compact that they work with our counselor. Um, but more importantly, I want to talk about our class council because this is another way that we just really build community. If a child has a problem with anything, like somebody left the pencil sharpener sharpenings on the ground

008instead of cleaning them up or someone's not playing fair at kickball or somebody's making a mess and not hanging up their coats in the hallway and I trip over them or somebody's not emptying their water, whatever it is, right? they can write it in their class council book and once a week the leader of the class it's completely student led will read out whatever the beef was and the children get a chance to decide and they have a talking piece whether this is just a friendly reminder to the group or whether this is going to be um a discussion and if it becomes a discussion they're going to come up with a solution that the teacher may or may not think is great I mean of course she's going to keep children safe but at

009the end of the day then the children run with that and that's part of their class constitution and and their class compact. And so it really um gives children a way of feeling accountable to one another that doesn't involve adults. Um so that's a huge piece of what we do which goes into restorative circles and all the rest of it. Another part is that we embed our guidance lessons. Um Karen Swanson is fantastic at this where she actually will spend um two hours in in a classroom and have a mini lesson to explain a topic based on what that classroom needs at a at that time and then do mini lessons um with small groups and pull out and so that which is kind of more of the monatory way. So she knows every student.

010She she knew every student and felt like she had a check-in within the first two weeks of school, you know. So she really has that temperature on all of the children and children feel a lot more comfortable sharing with her um in a small group setting than they would in the full class. Um there's our classroom con there's a couple of um examples of our classroom contracts. And here's the example of one of our books that they use for their um class council meetings. Also, we do a lot of things within our school. Um the books are really funny if you ever need a good, you know, some levity. Um a lot of things within our school. We have our homeschool compact. We um do a lot of assemblies and things that, you know, gather

011the group together. Our sixth graders spend a lot of time together doing a whole bunch of things. and it also includes an overnight trip to the environmental learning center in Greensboro. Um we have a no place for hate team which is um a a part of the um if I can find it. There it is. from the Anti-Defamation League. We're one of three schools in Wisconsin to have a team and they're kind of student directed and they kind of lead um our students through um you know peacemakers at assemblies. They research different things about how to create peace. One of the biggest things that they did is they raised money to get ourselves a peace pole. So we are one of 250,000 peace poles around the the um the world and we're actually on the

012map. So um they they and it represents the eight languages spoken at our school. So and there they are. Um also just peace within our community. So really getting outside of our doors and um and having people in. So having guest speakers um present on all sorts of different topics. um parent education so that they understand Monasuri, partnering with local businesses and the university, all of those great things. But the one I want to highlight was our child as a guide night which um allows our children to be the teacher and parents come in and it happens right before conferences and it is almost 100% attended. It's quite remarkable. And children go around their classrooms and teach their their parents and their parents become the children and they give the lessons of the things that

013they've been learning. So that parents have a real like real beautiful window in to understanding what they're doing um at school which is a great kind of springboard for conferences the next week. Um yeah, so there's our sixth graders. They uh have been glass blowing this year. They went to Minnie's and um that was really fun because they actually baked cookies for the assisted living facility as part of that um that grant that came. >> Um and they also went to Lost Creek Ranch and took care of the rescue horses and learned how to ride. Um this is the child of the as a guide knight. You can see children actually teaching their parents how to do things. Um, also that's one of um our parents of one of our teachers who is a vet

014who always comes in on Veterans Day. Um, and yeah, then we kind of end with peace in our world and you know, we do a lot with um, our curriculum is very very integrated into culture and history. Um our in the past our kids have gone to the MMUN which is the um it's mock United Nations in New York City. They have pen pals in Asia. Um so there's just been a lot to help them understand that the world is actually a small place and that there's a lot of ties that bind us. So there's the peace pole installation a few years ago and the team that um made that happen. Um, any questions? It's really fast and I will I'm not going to go into the systems and staffing and all the things that

015we do because that would be like a whole other 20 minutes. So, um, but just know we're we're we're working hard to um really give children those foundations of character and just accountability and strength um that they need as they leave our I have a question. So, is this um is this what's happening at Monastery for character education and what's happening at Westside is different? It's around more of the characters or the >> Yes. So, ours we our piece problem solvers engaged, accountable, cooperative, empathetic. We also have um the um virtues project that um that we also use and kind of tie in. um our counselor also uses character strong which is kind of um embedded in our and we also do have like the character posters and things as well. So it's all kind

016of cross referenced and kind of webbby. >> Um we just kind of try to make it so that it it relates better to the the way that we kind of run things, the curriculum that we use, the language that we use. Um and we've found kind of that blend >> works pretty well for us if that helps. Yeah, thanks. >> But the children are learning the character traits. So then when they get to myer middle school, they're familiar. >> They're not right. >> It's not foreign. >> That's great. >> And is there any I mean this is Monasuri. Is there any thought on weaving this into the other elementary schools about you focusing on peace or >> It's a good question. I kind of feel like everybody has their things that they're strong at, right?

017that they're doing. And so I feel like this is just what we're good at and it's just a little bit different. >> Um they have things that are very very parallel with councils and and a lot of assemblies and that sort of thing as well. So it's really not that different. It just looks >> different. Sounds a little different. >> Yeah. Well, it's kind of like we use our language and we have all of our things and then we kind of bridge that into kind of character traits and the rest of it so that by the time they go to middle school, they got it all. >> Nice. That's good stuff. >> Thank you very much for being here and for your >> Thanks. >> All right, we are going to move into reports. We

018have administrative reports first and we have wig updates and Mr. Chapman. >> All right, everyone. Maybe just to add to your question about character education in the monastery. I think one of the things that's pretty unique about how we do character education in our district is we use what's called the principles framework which it's not a can curriculum. And so if you look at what Westside does, we have our character traits, they have their character traits and they also have their call they have their different values as well. virtues. >> Yeah. >> And so we have, you know, they're doing what's what works for them doesn't work for them with with their framework. We love principles. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Here you go. Uh just a refresher for of our

019goal. Um 100% of my middle school students will be achieving the target standard. And I put a three in parenthesis because with our standard based scoring and grading, a three is achieving the target standard on 90% of the standard measured um by their unit assessment. So we're giving common summit of assessments from their core core teachers and that's what they're basing that that score. This is a lofty goal. Uh this is a high bar and I'll share some perspective on this when we look at I'll just share a slide about the Ford exam uh results. And not only that, but we we're actually measuring every standard and how every student is doing against that standard in our core classes. So we're tracking every kid in our building for all of our core classes. So we

020have a goal of 100% of our students achieving the target standard as I mentioned on 90% of the standards. This is just what it looks like a little bit comparing apples to oranges. But on the Ford exam, this is for mathematics and it goes all the way back to 2015 and comparing how we did compared to schools in our area versus the state. So this is for mathematics and it ranges anywhere from 67.3% up to 73% in the pass forward exam. Um so you know for kids if you're in a 70% range you're doing you're doing pretty pretty solid. uh ELA just kind of again some context here um how kids do in my middle school compared to other schools in our area and at the state level and again this is student scoring proficient

021advanced and this one's for ELA. Uh on this slide I want to focus on on the data protocol. So if I can have Amanda open that up and I have to ask them to scroll a little bit. Um, so what each of our core teachers are doing after a summit of assessment, if you click on the sun, earth, and moon. Um, so you can see the standard at the top there. Science in particular, we have other standards for other subject areas. They're very in-depth. There's multiple learning targets that go with those. And so first thing we do is go visual. So taking it from a spreadsheet and we're tracking, okay, how many kids got a one versus a four and everything in between. Um, and you know, it's not about comparing one teacher against the

022other teacher. It's learning from each other. That's really part of the PLC process. If you scroll down a little bit more, Amanda, then they take the time to observe and analyze. And then the last part that that we ask them to do, if you scroll just a little bit further, is to infer an act. So what do you want to keep doing based on the results? What are we going to start doing? And then what do you want to stop doing? So this is a typical our our teachers meet every Thursday through our PLC process. And this takes place after a common summit assessment. >> And are this is are the scores objective or subjective? is the teacher. >> It's based on it's based on standards. It's based on then proficiency scale. I'll show you

023proficiency scale. It's pretty objective that I'll show you the scale here in a minute. That's a good question. You can go ahead and go back to the slide presentation. All right. So, our commitments to our lead measures include our belief that all students can learn at high levels. It's those weekly PLC meetings that I mentioned. It's following a common data protocol. It's following a common assessment calendar. And this will be even more important as we go on to next year, like a common form of assessments because we need to tighten that window up and how we respond to that that data. And then it's the use of response days as well. Sure. this last fall. Um, not every assessment you need to do best certain response, but based on how our kids are scoring, the

024teacher will determine, do I need to do full group, I need to do small group, or can I just simply move on. All right, so we take a look at our our results. uh we had six out of the 70 standards um up to this point in the school year where 100% of students achieved the standard score. I also took the time to break this down. We do have half steps and the half steps are important and I'll show you why they're important in just a second, but we had 45 out of the 70 standards where 90% or greater of our students nearly achieved the target standard. For us, it's a 2.5. Our scale, unless it's tough to read, hopefully have it up in front of you. Um our goal is for every kid to

025hit a three. All right, that's the target content. We purposely put half steps in because I I believe the half steps um give kids a little bit of hope that they're almost there. And I'll I'll I'll show you what that looks like here in a second because there are so many learning targets for one standard. Um we do offer opportunities for students to extend as well. This is just one. This is a proficiency scale. Uh this is for sixth grade ELA. If you really want to dive deep, um, that sixth grade ELA guarantee level curriculum is an impressive document. Our teachers have worked really hard over the last three to five years putting that together. There's resources and assessments and it's it's pretty pretty cool to look at. Um, you'll notice that for one, this

026is just for one standard, um, there's three parts to the writing and then there's multiple learning targets. So, what do we do when a kid is demonstrating three out of those five learning targets? Well, they have an opportunity to earn a 2.5, right? If they hit all of those and they're consistently doing that, they're probably going to hit a three. So, those half steps are important. Science, this one, again, science is another a subject area where the the content, the standards are really quite indepth. Um, and so again, this is actually breaking down the moon phases, ellipses, and seasons. And there's multiple learning targets for each of those. and the kid has to be able to demonstrate all of those in order to get a three. So, it's very detailed. This is what it looks

027like by subject area. >> So, Mark, could you just talk about the the one out of 13? Zero out of nine when I >> So, out of the 13 standards, out of 13 standards, or is only one of those standards, 100% of the students hit a three. So again, you look at the state state when you look at the fort exam, if you had 72%. You're doing pretty darn good. So out of the 13 standards, 10 of those standards, there's 90% greater students hit a 2.5. >> And is that calibrated for this time in the year of meeting those standards or would this be for by the end of the year? This is for where we're supposed to be now. So some standards are year round, some are standalone standards that are are one and

028done. >> Okay. >> Yep. It kind of depends on the subject. Writing typically has more >> standards that go throughout. Math is typically more standalone. Science typically more standalone. Um social studies are some cause and effect that goes into it. So >> So you'll do a report at the end of the year where we'll see the progress that's made towards the standards here and the goal. The idea would be a lot of the 2.5s hopefully would move to three. >> Yep. >> And and if we didn't achieve our lofty goal uh where all of our threes were at 90%, we would be able to hopefully look at the combined and see that we're approaching in the areas that were not there. Is that a a safe assumption? >> Yep. Yep. I mean, we can break

029this down a bunch of different ways. For to get 100% of your kids meeting proficiency on a standard is very difficult. Yeah, this is hard, >> not easy. >> Yeah, like I said, I think this is a very lofty goal. I think that is high. I think the way that we're looking at student learning versus a letter grade >> Mhm. >> is a lot more rigorous than than we had done in the past. >> That's good. >> Um adjustments, uh those PLC notebooks, we're going to continue with those. Uh common formative assessments are being created this year will be implemented next year. That's why those testing windows need to be pretty close so they can have timely conversations on how to respond to that information. That's already happening, but to do common formatives gets a

030little bit more detailed. Um, and then the other thing that's been really interesting is discussions around what we call interrator reliability. How you score it versus how I score um can sometimes look different. So sitting down and scoring each other's work, we're seeing that take place and trying to get more consistency on our on how we're scoring. Um Cass Swanson, our instructional coach, was not able to make it, but she did put a couple notes on here. So talk about measuring growth in systems. Um so the the shift is that the data protocol cycle has guided our data conversations and is informing our decision- making. Um we talked about the visualize, the obser observe and analyze the infer and act. Um I mentioned the calibration, how important that is that teams discovered that proficient room

031101 doesn't necessarily mean the same thing 105. So calibrating is really important. Um and the teams are adjusting instructional strategies for the following year based on where the students are actually struggling this year. So making those notes in those PLC notebooks and the last part here the summary the W goal provider of the destination the process has been the most beneficial for more data informed more consistent more collaborative and uh we talked about next year making sure that we continue to look at protocols for more common formative assessments um and how that's going to impact our instruction. >> It's a lot of work. >> It's been a lot of work. >> Yeah. Yeah, I' I've shared this with people. I've been through a lot of change processes. Going from just um traditional grading to standard

032based grading has probably been one of the hardest shifts. We've all grew up. >> Yeah. >> UBC that has been around for 100 years. >> And so to make that shift and then do it well and we took us three years to get to this point. >> And if you back not perfect yet by any means, but we're we're getting pretty dialed in I think. >> Yeah. If you back up to what's the number one reason we're doing this and are other districts across the state doing it? >> Number one reason for doing this is accuracy and grading. >> And I think the other one is to give kids hope. >> Y >> um that you know I I love there's a there's a poster in one of our teachers rooms is not yet >>

033right. We're not quite yet there. >> Yeah. >> But accuracy grade inflation if you do look at the research grade inflation. Yeah. >> High school grade inflation compared to ACT um is an interesting study. Uh when we first introduced this before you got on the board, we found out that this is just one example. We have two teachers. This teacher gave 90% A's and B's, but only 43% of their kids were proficient and advanced on the four exam. This person has 60% A's and B's and they're 63% proficient advanced on the four exam. So there's a there's a disconnect that we're trying to to get it as accurately as possibly can. >> Yeah. And is it becoming the norm across the state or >> um I it kind of depends like OIO has been the

034model. Osteo has been one of the top schools. Amy's been one of the top schools in the area. They have been a model for us to follow the standard based grading. >> Um depends. I know some people just it's a lot of work just and think about big Oclair's um just had conversations this fall with the middle school principal and they're just starting to go to standard based grading now. But I think it's There's a trend that's been happening. >> Yeah. >> Good. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Great work. >> All right. River Falls High School. >> Good evening, Kitley Key Building Principal. Thanks for having us. Uh Mark, that's just awesome to be very transparent with your data. I appreciate that. We're going to try to do the same. Uh we too have our

035literacy goal uh in place that we're trying to again have all of our students sustain mastery of reading comprehension or at least achieve 10% growth each year. Um this is again year two for us. We are learning definitely by doing. Um I think you'll see with our data points itself uh we take some two steps forward and maybe a step back at times. Uh we're going to be very transparent with our data and then we're going to talk about what our next steps are and what we're learning from that data itself. So I'm just going to turn it over to Heidi and Lisa. Mike Berbomb, our ninth grade English teacher is also here to kind of share some clear examples, but I think Lisa will start first. >> So if you remember, um, we started

036a year and a half ago with the building SLO, which is our wig, that by 2027, all students that Wall High School will achieve and sustain mastery of reading comprehension or will achieve at least 10% growth each year. um reading mastery being defined by scoring 24 to 27 on the preac or the ACT assessments. What we did last year, last school year, the 2425 school year, we focused on providing professional development in literacy strategies to our teachers so that they really understood how to utilize those strategies in their classrooms and help students be better readers for their content. Um they each each um content area also created wig assessments last year to be able to gauge how students were doing in literacy in their courses. This year it u moved into a focus on content

037literacy specific for each content they researched in their PLC's. What kind of um literacy were they going to focus on in English in social studies etc. And how would they put the embed that into their um content areas? um still doing assessments so they can kind of gauge how students are doing in their classes. But then this year we also added buildingwide assessments. We did one in the fall um so all 9th graders took the same assessment. All 10th graders took the same assessment and all 11th graders. We did one in winter and then our third one will be the preac and the ACT um for that data. And so we'll be able to have um some really solid um data points to compare where we're comparing an assessment that everybody took all the same

038assessment taken by each grade. Um and so what do we do with that data is we utilize that for administrative decisions and teacher instruction. Um in the past few years we've had two literacy elective sections, one offered term one and one for term four filled by different sets of data recommendations from teachers, grades, etc. Um we are going to move um this coming year coming up we will have four literacy elective courses that focuses on building skills for those students that are struggling in literacy. We'll be able to offer one per term instead of one um at the beginning and end of the year. Um and so those are the areas that um but that's kind of the data that brings us to where we are move over to. >> Okay. So last year Mr.

039Haskins came with us and he showed you an example of a building team and the kind of comments that they had created for their department teams to use in biology. So I don't know if you guys remember that but it was just a brief article that they had and then the 10 questions. And so then that common formative piece, they're able to use that. That has continued into this year. Teams have adapted that. They've again focused on those foundational literacy strategies. But this year, um, now we have the common summitive assessment or we have the buildingwide assessment. And so Amanda's passing around an example of the science test that we now have this year where each one of you should have a copy of that. And so then you're able to see on that what

040the level of reading is. So, kind of for the refresher of how um what the rigor was last year. Now, you'll see in the one for this year, it actually has charts and graphs that are incorporated because for content literacy, the science team had said that was one area that the science team needed to kind of bolster um for content literacy. And so, when you're able to look at that specific example there, looking at the level of vocabulary that's there, right? And so understanding and thinking back to those specific universal literacy strategies that we talked about, but now this is an example of the one that was just given this winter for our 11th graders. Okay, so 11th graders throughout the whole building leading up to the ACT. This was one of the two articles

041because every student on the building wide wig gets two separate articles and a total of 10 questions that are at that ACT um caliber for the questions that are there. So just wanted to give that as a point of reference for you for the types of articles now that are being given across the whole building and then knowing that at each grade level within the content they're kind of building and scaffolding to try to get up to that. But we know that science is one of the most difficult ones across the entire nation and state. Um and so there are some decisions that have been made at that level um in terms of how scores are going to be done. But we know it's still a really important skill for students to have. And so

042when we look at those essential standards, something that we wanted to kind of highlight and so you can see the questions that are there again mimicking what students will see on the ACT as they go through. That one has the five questions. I did not have it in the copies here for you guys with all the answers that go with them. But the beautiful thing for the teachers is it goes in, it gives the answers and then it gives the rationale why each one of those are there and the specific standard um that it hits at for each of them. Now, the data that's included in the presentation for you guys today is based on our winter um wig that was given. we're going to say we were very disappointed by our results um as

043a staff, but there were there were benefits that came from it for us that we were able to take. So, we own it not only in terms of like timing and when it was given um but we also look at just how we can use that data to better ourselves in terms of our content literacy. So when you look at this, the light blue are the ones where students didn't meet mastery of that specific standard that was listed. The dark blue being those that met the level of mastery that's being set. Now also recognizing for the 0.1 2 and8 those are the ones where multiple questions would have been asked for that specific question. the 04 or 6 um those only had a single question because there's only 10 questions total that are asked and

044so those of course have a heavy sway in terms of how students perform. But the things that we were most looking at for this is because we had identified those specific standards primarily across all staff. they had said the um 10.1 or 9 to 10.1. So R1 was being most important, R2 and then R8 um as those key ones. So when we look at our ninth graders, we can see the one that they struggled with the most was the R.2. And so that one is talking about the summarization of texts, um which our ninth grade team, Mr. Beerbomb's going to delve into in a little bit here when he gives his example of how then we're addressing that within our course content knowing that on our nth grade assessment. This was an area that was

045heavily lagging for students to be able to identify the key terms or identify um the key information which is 0.1 for the state standards. And then for the point two, being able to accurately summarize and kind of come up with those big key ideas, which when we're looking at the scaffolding of our students, we would expect our ninth graders to struggle with that a little bit more um because they haven't gone through the guaranteed and viable curriculum at the same level. >> When we look at our Oh, >> before you go on, >> yeah, while I'm thinking of this, how do you determine if you're in light blue or dark blue? Because we're not talking about standard space greeny. So is it I get it right or wrong or I get it a be or

046better? How do you decide that? >> It's within each question, the number of questions and do they get it right or wrong and then we've kind of set the threshold similar with each one of those for how proficient they are in that specific standard. So in um Renaissance then we said a student needs to be getting 60% or above on that standard to hit that level of proficiency. Renaissance is the program, >> not Renaissance. >> Yes, Renaissance. Yes. The program that we're using, sorry. Um, to be able to do the assessment that's in there. And so for the students not meeting mastery, that means their scoring is below 60%. On that specific standard that >> So does that mean on your example that you which is this is helpful. I'd have to there are I

047said you said total of 10 questions. Yes. >> But in this one, I've got five. So, how many do I have to get right in order to >> So, for R for R.1 on any of the given assessments, there's between two to three questions on R1 depending on their grade level. So, if they are getting two of the questions wrong on that, they're not two out of three questions wrong, they're not proficient. If that makes sense. Now um when we also for a few of the questions like we talked about in the fall some of the questions had kind of two parts for it. So then there were half point values that were given for each part that they would get right. And so just noting or looking at that for a few of the

048questions too specifically when we're looking at the point four question um because that that one oftent times is related to key vocabulary and so they would have to identify it and then be able to apply for some of those as well. Um when we look at 10th grade then the standard that they uh you see improvement for them on point 1 and point 2 which we would hope and expect for our 10th graders that have gone through the nth grade curriculum. But then for the point 8 we see that being the greatest area of struggle and that one's focusing on evaluating arguments um and information within texts as the standard. And so it's getting a whole another level where you're not just looking for the key information and details, but now you're actually evaluating the

049level of the argument um that's in there. And so this one had two questions that were on there. So again, uh and that one had two parts for one of them for 11th grade. And this was the one that was dumbfounding for us a little bit where we like had our moment of pause. Um but this is with the 11th grade assessment. We had 0.1 our 0.1. Now 11th and 12th grade the level of rigor for the standards does bump in 11 11th and 12th grade. Um but really all three of our core ones that we had identified that students need to work on and that we found most paramount when we started this process were the three that we're seeing the 11th grade currently struggling more so with. specifically just being able to summarize

050and find the key information and details within the readings that they're doing. So with this in mind, we took kind of the the middle school approach of standards and being able to look at it and every one of our teachers at our last inservice day was given a spreadsheet with every student, how they had performed in the fall, how they had performed in the winter and specific on each standard where they could look student by student for who they're serving and how they had scored on each one of those as well to try to kind of problem solve it a little bit more. Um, and so that is where we currently were at with the standards. Um, and our 11th grade teachers were able to dig into that then at our last inservice to try

051and say why, right? And how do we try to address that now between now and April 7th um, when they'll be taking the ACT which is right around the corner. And so that's been kind of the heavy lift that our staff have been focusing on since they took this in January. So now I'm going to hand it over for an example of how our teams have been addressing and looking at that wig um and how they've been serving our students. This is specific for our English nine team because they're really building the foundation for all of this. So Mr. Fair and Bomb's going to talk about English 9 and how they've been implementing and doing the wigs for their teams and kind of showing you guys an example there. >> Right. So the ones um

052you guys were talking about the building. >> Yes, we were talking about the building >> in was it October? >> Yep. And then >> January. Okay. Um but at each grade level we started these tests um the weight assessments last year and we uh focused on for for English we focused on just a couple of reading standards these two. So these actually came from last year but we have some uh tactics that we've been using all all the English teachers at every level. Um and one of those is is it in that packet? Is there a handout that says okay so the um the essay that we shared was from a it's from a book of essays called American like me a bunch of famous people who wrote essays about what being an American meant

053to them and this was Michelle Quan the figure skater I remembered really well from when I was a kid they didn't know what she was so one of the one of the things that we >> um but so what I what I did was dig found for some videos to show just, you know, some of the things that she did, the amazing work she did on the ice. Um, and so that was kind of one of the pre-learning things that I did. Um, and, uh, we talked a little bit about, you know, how she ended up in the Olympics and the world championships and things. Um, but then when they read the text, we used that hugs. Uh, I didn't come up with that, at least other English teachers, but I adopted it and I

054really like that. So, the H is for highlight, the U is for underline. So highlighting um you have the bigger ideas, underlining key words and the glossing is that took me a little while to get used to. The glossing is like making it pretty by putting notes on or even drawing pictures and things whatever helps them understand um the reading a little bit better. And um after they read and highlight and underline and gloss and then summarize too, then they would take some reading comprehension questions which are also attached there. And we used chat GPT last year. Was it last year we started these? Yeah, last year. Um, and that was a nice nice way to come up with a batch of questions we could choose from. And we just chose what we thought were

055the best ones. We chose them. Was it ACT level 24 to 27 department or uh D? Okay. Depth of knowledge one, two, three, four, I think. Anyway, that gave us some good questions to start with and um you know picking apart the key ideas and so this assessment now we've been given for two years. Um was it first semester last year or second semester? >> Second semester. So this like right now the third time through this this test and they've been doing really well. In fact last year they did better than we you know we we wanted to make it more difficult. So, um, Sarah Wong actually picked through and, um, wrote some of the questions a little bit more diff little more difficult level. Um, and the scores did dip a little bit, which

056I thought was good because it's good to give them some struggle on these things. Um, and we give in English, we give a total of four of these. Um, read a little bit and and take some questions. The next one coming up is about marriage customs in Elizabeth in England. Um and we have two other ones in the next quarter. So um we kind of give them practice with these questions which I think is is nice and it's a good idea. >> So the increased level of rigor and then having accommodation in every department kids are getting the reading instruction both at you know the universal level as well as within the content literacy. And then for them to be able to see the level of rigor of what's actually expected with ACT level questions

057with the buildingwide assessment. We've had our students have some jaw-dropping moments when the science article came their way. This last time a few of them were like oh this is this is really difficult. We're like yes this is what we need to be prepared for. So that's been that's been positive. In summary, um, we took a few steps back with increasing our rigor specifically with the science example that you see in front of us. I think there's also a bit of a a disconnect. We're doing great academic practice in each of our classrooms. Like we talked about last semester, we talked about earlier this year, the disconnect now that we have, and I'll use both, sorry, I'm using you as an example. October when I give you the assessment as a junior in 16 or

05817 in the middle of the football season and you get that science reading assessment with little to no accountability, grading, etc. in your home room. How serious are you going to take it? So, we're struggling with that piece because right now we don't have the full intervention models in place from an accountability standpoint. So, if you do really did struggle on that, we're we're trying to get that level of accountability there. So again, we're working with high school students. So they like the the academic practice that Mike's sharing and all of our colleagues are sharing is fantastic because it's embedded into the curriculum. It's embedded into that. We needed to pull out a standalone assessment tied to our ACT. This is a redacted ACT essay. But getting our students quote unquote to buy in on

059the October and the January assessment is now challenging for us. So, we're curious really with our preac coming up on the 7th, which is in 10 plus days, right? How they really do because I we believe our kids will take that assessment way more seriously than the one we delivered to them on their Chromebook in January. Our hope is that we still see the good efforts of the academic practice that's going on in our classroom, but also seeing benchmark data that we have both in October and January and having a clearer picture coming up in the spring for you. Um, one of the things that we're looking into a little bit too and we're talking about it. Uh if you look at some of the other sides of it, we are as as um Lisa

060stated expanding our literacy interventions from two blocks to four which will give a literacy option for students each and every term of the year. So if we if and when we do identify students in October, we now have a vehicle to work with those particular students and we will be able to do that throughout the year. Um our data collection has gotten better. Our staff is using that data just as Mr. Chapman had said and again I think we're going to get better with that. One of the two of the things that we're going to talk through with our building leadership team um and our PLC leadership teams is tying this back to educator effectiveness. Taking that data, the data that they're doing within the classrooms, making sure again we're tying it specifically to their

061SLO and PPG and continuing to provide those added supports for our teachers who then in turn are in the trenches working with kids to practice literacy. The last thing we think and again we're one of the last to adopts it would to adopt it would be the practice ACT. We really want to get on board with having a practice ACT for our students in fall. Not just our redacted exam, but to really be transparent with where the students are at um in that practice ACT so we have goals set with each individual student within their wins to work on the work that they need to improve on. We know again that reading across all of those content areas in the ACT makes a difference. That's why we picked that goal. Um, but we have plenty

062of more work to do. Any questions? I just have a comment. Before Michelle Quan was skating, I went off to college and the very first test I took and I studied harder than I'd ever studied in my life was a psychology. I thought I was ready and I wasn't. I failed it. I went and talked to that professor and I was horrified. I'm like, there's no way I'm going to get through college. He went through and said, "Here's what you do when you're studying or trying to comprehend." I was not a great reading comprehension. Take your highlighter, highlight the big things. Take a take a pencil, underline things, go back and write, take notes on what you've read. So, I still have notebooks of college courses that I took. And he used it in the

063psychology. He said, "The more sense that you put it into," he said, he said, "the better off you're going to be. Read your notes back to yourself. Go study in the room you're going to take. If you're studying for a test, go back into and I I I tell you what, I took I went back and studied in that room and I looked at a clock and it got the answer." And I you just your surroundings. So, this is this was >> it's good practice. >> That's huge. >> Yeah. Yeah, the I want to take the credit because Manny KC is the one who formatted it that way with the the note column and all that, but the kids are doing great. They're highlighting, drawing arrows and writing words. >> It's a life skill that

064they will they will use forever. >> You mentioned practice. Is the is there a timed aspect on this uh on the reading assessments throughout the year? because that's a big part of the ACTs uh is the timing. As so many students who are really good with the reading comprehension >> all of a sudden see the little clock in the top and they just panic and they shut down and that's >> it's a big uh limiting factor for a lot of students who are generally really good readers and good at comprehending and uh interpreting that. So is that an aspect in all of that? >> That's why we chose two excerpts and 30 minutes for our students to practice in that. you know that that's a time portion of that and with students answering and reading

065two and 30 minutes is getting close to that threshold that you're talking about. Um again our staff at our last in service presented on how to uh improve in terms of the reading and summarization on the ACT. So all of our juniors should have received that lesson just shortly two weeks ago right before >> the stress of the countdown clock on the screen that is not there but they know the parameters of how long win is. So >> yeah. Yeah. >> I have a question about the test. I think this is you know this is good and I'm glad that you've added the charts because I think that's a really important part of this. So I understand the value of this for me as a student. I'm getting practice doing this, learning skills, developing that.

066I understand it from the standpoint of a teacher. This is giving me feedback about how my students are doing. But what happens if I've done these five questions and I got two of them wrong? Is anybody following up with me? >> This is how you can think about that, right? To figure out where I went off. >> Yeah. >> Not as of right now. That's the piece that we're talking about. >> That's the next step, huh? >> We have the data. We know where things are at. the vehicles of either accountability or talking individually with our students are occurring subtly at our win levels with our WIN teachers, right? They're looking at that data that they have with those particular pockets of students. We're beginning to identify those students that really do need literacy interventions.

067But again, creating the vehicles and knowledge of communication and really intervening at that level was not quite there yet. >> Well, that takes a lot of time. It does. I I mean I that would be a lot of time for a student >> trying to uh it's really hard to look at an assessment that doesn't carry a lot of weight if I'm being honest when we put it in front of kids as regular reliable data to automatically walk a kid into an intervention at that point. We want to make sure we have multiple points of data. These are just two points of that. So we're going to have to be looking at other modalities in that and other forms of that as we get into our data protocols. That's why it's important um for teachers

068to be able to see like what generally for my students what do they struggle with so they can at least address that in the classroom for the higher areas of struggle because that's kind of a kind of a midpoint between what you're talking about and where we are right now >> and that can also be really helpful sometimes practice act from the fall because some of those depending on how it would be administered the students can still get more of those individualized kind of reports or pieces where they can then log in to be able to see that. So how we would do that that can also give some individual ones even for a high achieving kid that might not fall into a threshold get scooped into an intervention where they might get that feedback.

069They still might be able to see their individual ones to know target areas. >> Well because every kid a a student who doesn't do web but a student who does really well also needs >> the support to figure out how can they grow on the ones they got wrong. So >> and I think in closing the last when we first got the data we were all slumped in our chairs in our office like what did we do you know what it's on us right but we then thought about the opportunities and the things that it's provided for us like we are so much better as a building system with our teachers and data protocols with our students having exposure to literacy at these levels if we didn't create this leverage goal um we wouldn't be

070we wouldn't be driving this bus as hard as we are and so we looked back at it and go Okay, it's two steps back in this, but we still need to charge forward. But the good that is coming from this is tremendous. And so we appreciate the opportunity. >> Well, I appreciate that you brought these examples because it makes it come to life. So, thank you. >> Question and a comment maybe or or two questions. How are the students processing these texts? Are they reading them online? Are they reading them in handheld? They're in they're they're online because again the act is online and the way we deliver it and collect that data is through their Chromebooks in >> for the building ones you know the individual ones integrated differs by >> teacher content and

071subject matter >> because you know when when Mike talked about that I mean immediately when I saw this sort of thing I was I was immediately going to take my pen and start underlineing you know on the east every one of our do have highlight options >> and they do and they do in renaissance. So that was that was one of the biggest kind of requests from staff from last year was to have something where students could begin familiarizing themselves and practicing in an online system. And so really that's the gift or the benefit that Renaissance has brought because it also has the highlighting tools and all the features in there that students kind of get to have that free practice with because many of our teachers were saying when I'm in class I'm teaching

072them on the paper and all of a sudden they switch to the online >> and they freeze for a moment. So that was that was our reason and our rationale for wanting to have a building one and have practice tools that would be similar to what they would be doing like kind of like Mike talked about with those psych That's true. >> So you you you've got the software, you've got the goal, um you've got the teachers on board, and you work on it. What's what are the biggest things you face that are difficult? I mean, we've talked before, and the board is well aware of the fact that once they get into elementary, upper elementary grades, the longer they go and haven't mastered reading, the harder it gets. And this has been a puzzle

073forever. But when they get to university and they haven't mastered it, it's almost it seems like it's almost impossible. What what are those hurdles that you face that you're up against? >> Can I >> you you talk first. >> Well, >> with with Mary death um the English department had a a meeting a month ago or so or is it not that long ago where the elementary coaches came in and um so now they're attacking like phonics type things at a lower level in and that's going to make a huge difference because we can't sound out words even. So vocabulary is really tough. So, um, it kind of looks like we're going at it the right way, starting early, um, and and being able to to read better that way. Some of the kids now

074who are in high school didn't have that. I had that when I was growing up, the the sounding out words. And, um, so I think that's one way that we're going to really, really advance coming up here. Um, >> I think sustained attention too for students is one that we're just always trying to build. um for students, especially when it comes to online platforms and reading and really teaching for close reading, which is the skim and scroll that a lot of our students currently have because they'll try to just quickly go back and forth versus using the hug strategy and first looking for that key information and then going back for that. So really instilling and giving those practice opportunities for the close reading and then building the sustained attention to tasks um in today's

075digital age. So for students that's a big one. And then for us administratively and for teachers, we kind of put it on there in white, but it's the student by student graph or growth tracking for all of our staff to be able to then see and know the specific needs, specific standards per kid so that we can kind of do like Stacy said, giving the individualized feedback to students and targeting what they need versus here's what my class currently needs right now because right now we're really at that tier one piece versus being able to some of the more targeted pieces. >> Are there things that hold them back? And by this I mean because you're talking about the specific things that you can do and the handle on them and the the narrative that

076we're we're hearing all the time out there is that kids don't read as much because of uh of their phones or there's a reluctance to read or it's COVID or there's all these kinds of things that people say this is why kids aren't reading today. Is it those kinds of things or are there more technical things? Those are hard for you to to address. Um, you're telling us what you can address here. >> I I I do think it's part of the technological age we live in. Our kids live in an age of instant gratification. And a book doesn't give you instant gratification like it used to, right? You have to read a whole book. You have to see and get through parts of a book to get delayed gratification in that, right? And so

077they have things at their fingertips or anywhere else where it's instant dopamine and instant gratification. Even with my own sixth grade daughter at home who hopefully is reading tonight her 30 minutes like we practice reading each night 30 minutes. It's one of our us that are doing that because again the level of resiliency that we are seeing in our 14 to 18 year old students is less um for silent sustained reading like this. We had a little bit of a tech issue and I'm not blaming the data for that and as Mr. Jay Ka talked about a little bit and Ben said uh in one of our groups we couldn't log in and so we had several teams trying to help our students log in and then 30 minutes turned into 20 minutes or 15

078minutes and that pace picked up and those kids you know again if it's me kid as a sophomore in there I just I want to get I want to get that assessment done. So I'm not making the the poor excuse of that but we have tech issues related to that too. It's a it's a combination of a lot of things. That's a very deep question. I think the big thing that we are working on is again having our tiered systems of support and structuring that framework really hard this year and working through that. Talking about that with our leadership teams. That's one of the main reasons we did our site visits so that we can have level supports for students coming into next academic year with the data protocols that we have in place. That's

079our goal is to actually respond to the data with our students and get drill down into it student by student. That's the only way we'll create that level change uh that we're looking at and looking for. >> Thank you for your work. Thank you for being here and um answering our questions. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. Ben, could you give us a report, please? And maybe you could also tell us about your adventure that you had when you weren't here last time. The music. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. I can do that. Um uh well, I'll start with the school stuff. um a while a little bit before break the girls hockey team uh went to state and made it to the final round and they unfortunately didn't win but

080they were still the state runnerups which is a pretty big title I'd say um for that and then the week before break I know it was FFA week and there were some things going on with that and everyone who was involved that seemed very uh hyped up about that and then we had spring break which I think was uh a very uh positive thing around the district um lots of kids are coming back sunburnt and uh other kids are coming back refreshed hopefully. Uh and now we're just into this uh time of the year where the juniors are preparing the juniors at the high school are preparing for the ACT. Um and the other uh nth and tth graders are preparing for the preac and then the seniors are uh starting to finalize their postsecary

081plans. Um many figuring out where they're going to college and getting those results back and others are figuring out what they're going to do after high school. um which is exciting to see and be a part of. Um I don't know a whole lot about the elementary and middle school right now, but um I know at the high school things are moving along pretty well and I think as we get closer to the end of the uh third quarter here, uh kids are excited for um some new things coming along. So that'll be fun. >> That's great. Thanks. >> Oh no, sorry. I'll share a little bit about my uh I don't know two weeks ago I had the opportunity to go and uh premiere one of my um musical works um at a school

082down south uh Sun Prairie uh West High School um their concert band performed it uh and the piece was written about a girl named River who has a limb loss disorder. Um, and the piece is just talking about how uh every her life is isn't that much different than ours. Um, she's had to adapt to a lot of things and had to overcome some adversity. However, uh, her she plays on the playground like your average kid would. And so I just kind of really tried to and interpret that the best I could and uh, got to meet a lot of cool people. Um, got to do a lot of great experiences and work with a really cool foundation called Limitless Wisconsin. um that turns out there's kids all over the state that are part of

083this uh foundation that are really trying to make a difference for kids that uh work through limb loss and limb differences. And so it's a really cool and really uh fun experience to be a part of. So >> and and who conducted your piece that >> um it was their band director um Matt McVey and so close friend of mine actually. So yeah, so it was very cool. >> And so how did you get to do this? >> Um was it through that friendship? >> Yeah. Well, so my parents are friends with the director down there. And they go through a program called Insignia Story, which is based out of Woodbury, but they do stuff all across the nation. And they basically find usually a collegiate level composer or um someone that the band director

084uh knows, and they reach out to them and ask them to commission this piece. and they work with a school, a composer, and then they find a kid in the area, usually of the district, who um suffers with some sort of uh whether that's a disease or uh some sort of uh hindering effect on their life. Um and so I was selected um by this uh organization, Signia Story, and then I worked with them through this process for a while, and then I got to do that. So, it was a really cool experience and uh a really I'm really feel really fortunate to be able to be a part of it. >> And did River get to hear it? >> Yes, River was there. I got a photo with River and was able to um

085give her some stuff about that, too. So, that was awesome. >> Well, thank you for sharing. Congratulations on that. All right. Superintendent report. >> All right. Well, I'm feeling like my report after two really awesome wig reports, a great piece report and then and then Ben's summary, this this is gonna kind of, you know, slide in here, but yes, that's right. But that's right. But, uh, tons of tons of awesome things to hear about and it was great to to listen to that. So, um, what I wanted to report on is over the last six weeks, Stacy and I have uh been visiting monthly township board meetings. So, we've got N Clifton, Martell, Kenny Connect, uh, Pleasant Valley, and Troy. Uh, we haven't been able to connect with the town of River Falls, but we're

086going to work on that, but they meet. They're meeting right now. Um, and that's the tricky piece is they meet basically at the exact times that we meet. So, we're going to try to work out or somei find an alternative way to give them the update as well. Um, but the goal of the visit was really twofold. To share a brief update from the from the school district and then also just to extend our gratitude of support. And really it's one of our priorities obviously to maintain communication and um those meetings and those leaders within that community uh is a way that we can achieve and do that. And so we provided an update and the updates there. We we talked about our facilities update. Um, we brought uh uh the most recent community ed

087uh um >> everyone's um that was nice for us to to left those so if they are interested in signing up they could do that. >> And you've done this before especially when we're talking about the um passing referendum. >> Correct. And the key thing that we wanted to stress this time was we're not trying to pass anything. Um we're not going for a referendum. There's no campaign that we were looking for them to endorse. Uh this was truly just an update >> specific. I bet they liked it. >> We talked about our district uh and school report cards and then we did talk a lot about um enrollment and financial forecasting. We wanted to make sure that these partners understand uh the elements and components that contribute to uh why we had a referendum

088in the first place where we're forecasting our enrollment, how that impacts uh property taxes, which is obviously something that that comes up quite a bit in their world and their sphere. and we wanted to have names and faces for them to either a be able to respond to or also b just to say, "Hey, why don't you give the superintendent a call?" Um, he might be interested in hearing that information. So, um, and then we also talked about the strategic plan. Um, and and we know that our current strategic plan ends in 2027 and, um, we're starting that process of looking in into a vision of what, uh, our our next five-year strategic plan will look like and they're there are partners that we want to make sure that they're aware of. So that was

089that was what we had been doing and uh it was it's nice to get out to those different spaces >> and I think it's fair to say that people appreciated it. >> Yeah. Yeah. No one threw anything at us. No obviously it was wonderful. Yeah. >> Sliced your tires while you were >> No. No. And and and all kids aside super welcoming and um it's fun to get to different pieces of the community. >> Dedicated public servants in those places too. You know, when I read that you guys have done this again because I I know we've done it with referential stuff as an uptake. This is a big undertaking to do this. I mean, it's such a night commitment and and all of that and you've done the presentations before. So, I really appreciate

090the fact that you two are taking the time to do this and I can imagine that the townships are boards are appreciating it too because they often don't get included in stuff that's going on around it, >> but they do hear an awful lot about property taxes. So, I think that this is a good connection to have. So, really appreciate the fact that you guys have been doing this. >> All right, we're going to move on to action items. Would any board member like to remove anything from the consent agenda? >> All right, then we have minutes from the February 23rd regular schoolboard meeting. We have bills that have been submitted for payment. We have employment recommendations. And then we have a long list in item four of second reading of our new NEOLA policies.

091And then item five will be the first reading of many more Neola policies. Is there a motion to approve all of those items? >> So second Lindsay Allison. All those in favor I post. The motion is carried 6. All right. Um the ad hoc committee met on March 2nd. We have five policies ahead of in front of us for approval for the first reading. Dave is going to go through them. But before we do that, I wanted just to make sure everybody understands how carefully the ad hoc committee goes through every one of these items. So we have good conversation. We try to understand what's going on. we compare it to what our recollection is of previous policies. Sometimes we make adjustments or and um expect to have some some changes. So with that, could

092you go through these? >> Absolutely. >> Just one thing and then after that I'll take one motion for all five of them. >> Yeah. The the first thing that I wanted to to mention is when you look at the new format, the new NEOLA policies, one thing that we didn't have in the new format that we liked in the old format was a cross reference section. So, we had a conversation with Neiola and that's something when we do that final approval, which will come once we've done all of the individual series approvals, you'll see those cross references added. So, that's some work that will be taking place, but um based on some of the conversations that took place at the ad hoc committee, you'll start to you'll see those in the final draft of it.

093That's one thing. And then, uh within uh 511, which is the eligibility, I have a couple of updates. um in letter G, the feedback from the ad hoc committee was um it would make more sense. They had a general like uh resident district and non-resident district and we just we inserted the words riverfalls to make people be able to track what was actually going on in that in that sentence uh in those sentences in letter G. So the only adjustment there is um using the words riverfalls uh to note the resident district. Um and then at the end uh what we did is same thing we adjusted some wording in letter P which was related to a situation that almost never happens and that's um a situation in which a student attempted to enroll that

094had been expelled from another district and basically in almost every situation when that happens that student is denied to be able to be enrolled. However, uh New's recommendation and the one we took is that you would leave yourself the ability to uh make an adjustment, but that adjustment would have to be approved by the school board at the recommendation of the superintendent. So, that's what number one says in a more concise way than what was discussed before. Um, and the only other piece that we did is we cut uh another section that had been part of the prior uh recommendation around conditional enrollment. That's not something that we would do in an expulsion situation. So that's the update to 5111 and I'll just keep moving on if that's okay. So 5310 was health services uh

095the the nola recommendation didn't have sort of an introductory paragraph. So we picked some language that we had from our prior policy and that's that first paragraph that just introduces the per the intent and purpose of why we have school health services but the actual content there didn't change besides that introductory paragraph which was some language from our old policy. Then moving on to immunization. Um so initially the last paragraph uh second to last paragraph and last paragraph uh were not included in what we talked about at the ad hoc committee, but the the committee recommended that we add that language back, which basically just says what happens if uh a student is not immunized or they failed to submit a a written waiver. And basically at that point um the student can be withheld

096from being able to be enrolled if they don't have one of those two things. So either they have the immunization record or they've completed the waiver process. And the waiver process is granted for medical, religious or personal convictions. Um so that that basically outlines that piece. And then the last paragraph basically says you can't exclude somebody for 10 or more days without sort of having a hearing and a notice with with the child. So you can't just like let them hang out there forever. there there has to be outreach as well. So th that was the piece that was added in there. Uh moving on to 5514. This was really just a very brief adjustment in paragraph 2 um to be very clear in the when students can use personal transportation devices. So um in

097my time that was a bike and now there's lots of cool different personal transportation devices out there for kids to use. Um, and so basically, um, use of those devices on campus is prohibited except for the purpose of tra traveling to and from school. So if they're getting to school and setting that thing in the bike rack or leaving, grabbing it from the bike rack and leaving, that's fine. Otherwise, they shouldn't be using it. And we the way that it was worded was a little confusing. We just wanted to be as clear as possible with that one. And then in 56103 which is the next policy we uh adopted the language obeyance which is a common vocabulary term that we use here and obeyance means uh keeping the expulsion at bay or delaying that and

098it outlines in here what that is. We really didn't change anything except that language um around the the term obeyance as opposed to pre-expulsion because that's that's the vocabulary that we use in this district even though that what what it means is the same thing. So those are my updates for that. >> Is there a motion to approve um items 1 through five the first readings of these miola policies? >> So move. >> Thank you both. >> I'll second. >> Thank you Mike. Any questions or comments? All those in favor? >> I motion is carried. Mike, I'll turn to you for an update on finance and facilities. >> All right. We had our meeting on Monday, March 9th. Uh the first thing, as we usually do, we reviewed our budget and kind of where we

099are. Uh some highlights. Uh we talked in uh fund 10, our general our general fund. um source 971, which would be uh a uh workman's comp dividend that we got back about 228,000 over $228,000 work dividend or work comp dividend. We talked about our special ed funding which is coming in at about 35% reimbursement which is which is below the state of 43% I think it was right >> 42%. Uh we've gotten three out of our six payments total so far and we're running at that 35%. The hope is the last payment they'll play catchup uh once they know what the final numbers would be uh for the districts in the state. Uh in fund 39 we talked about interest earnings. Uh we have uh one of the benefits of our timing on our referendum

100is we pulled a lot of uh revenue in and we put it into interest bearing accounts. So we were able to earn some interest on those. So, we're having discussions about what to do with some of those interest earnings. One of the alternatives would be to keep uh in that fund so we can use it for future debt payments which would help reduce the levy on our taxpayers. Uh on the expense side, um we talked a little bit about food service. As with everything else, uh the cost of feeding our kids is going up and so uh we might end the year with a deficit in our in our food service funds. So we will be having to address that at some point. So that was our uh discussion on our budget. We also talked

101about high uh cost special education aid update. Uh we were working at that time on a uh on a potential um grant uh that we had submitted for for a $200,000 grant uh for that. And maybe you can talk a little bit about >> Yeah, it's it's actually an um actually a categorical aid reimbursement. Mhm. Gotcha. >> Yeah. And Mark's in the room and he he did most of the heavy lifting um for all of that. Uh what he submitted would uh was a total of $231,000 in costs. And the way that works is it's um it's costs um per student that are above $30,000 after categorical reimbursement is already taken into consideration. So these are students with you know significant needs and costs for the district. And so there is a um uh that

102categorical aid available the districts. Um one of the other things that was touted in the state budget was an increase in reimbursement for high-cost aid. uh they're were they were saying 90% um which uh we know based on other things that were said in the state budget for reimbursement it will likely not reach 90% um >> 90% of what >> of our total costs. So we submitted $231,000 in costs. If it reaches 91 90% we're going to get $28,000 back. We don't think it will come in at that. Okay. Um so we're we're just hopeful. >> But which fun? >> High cost special need. >> This will be for fund 27. >> 27. Okay. >> Yeah. So, a total of 28 students um that were submitted at that cost reimbur or that cost level above

103the 30,000 >> and a high and a high cost would be $30,000 >> after taking out whatever we're getting back already getting back in um reimbursement, special ed reimbursement. Correct. >> So, that's the what's happening. Are they even back in session? >> They're not. I don't believe so. Are they >> They wouldn't have to be back in session for this. This was part of the original budget, >> right? This is just kind of like now that we've had a chance in for this year to go through it, we've um through March been able to do a calculation to determine what what their adjustment when they said we're moving high cost >> uh reimbursement to 90%. What was that? What's that actual impact for us? We had to go through and identify all the children who

104would qualify, figure out what that total cost is, take 90% of that and say this is what we're hoping to get. >> Yeah. >> And the good news is it's probably um higher than we expected. >> Um >> Yeah. >> But we don't know if that's actually what we'll see in the percentage reimbursement just like our regular special ed aid which uh which they projected at 42 but right now is at 35. >> Right. In order to see an increase in the regular special ed funding, they would have to go back in session and allocate some of the excess funds we have at the state level to add funding to that, which we haven't heard they're doing. Right. >> Right. >> Yeah. In fact, I I haven't heard anything that the assembly is coming back

105in session before next January. >> I haven't heard anything. >> If if they have a deal, they'll come in into a special they'll do a special session. Have you ever heard anything today? I didn't see anything today. >> No, I didn't see anything today. there. There's there's lots of talk that um >> the Senate uh majority leader and the House Speaker and the governor are all interested in doing something on this, but they got to kind of keep circling each other for a long time and positioning themselves, but I keep hearing that there's possibility of some kind of a deal out here yet um in the next couple of months. So, fingers crossed. >> Stay tuned. >> And all three of them are retiring from their position. So maybe that's what way you get things

106done is people are in their last you're not coming back. >> I think they all have an opportunity to do a legacy here and so it's it's just a matter of >> get past the rhetoric each of the three and that's something that so I don't know we could hear anything but at that point then they would call a >> special session very clearly defined come in vote on it and >> okay Mike. >> All right so next on our agenda was a summer capital maintenance project list update. So every year we update our 10-year maintenance projects, capital projects. And so we went through some of the things that we would like to see done over the next 10 years with our capital uh budget. Uh we've set aside about $650,000 per year for these

107bigger projects that we do generally during the summer when school is closed um or shut down. So, we are looking to take the 260 650,000 that we have budgeted for this year and push it off into future years. We're going to be pretty busy this summer with finishing up our referendum projects. And so, we would use those funds in in future years for uh some of those larger projects. We went through a potential change to our parking lot, added parking at the high school. One of the things uh we've identified is uh we're kind of short on parking for big events and for um uh those kinds of things at school. We have kids parking out in the street and so we're looking at adding some parking. One of the benefits of having that turf

108field we have which gets a heck of a lot of use is we don't have as many needs for the grass fields in the back. So we're thinking of potentially taking a grass field and and turning it into a parking lot. uh potentially. So, we're just looking at those options. The other issue is with some of our our bus parking and the interaction between buses and cars and students walking. So, changing maybe the way we do our uh our morning pickup and drop off with the buses. So, that's all part of a plan that we're just kind of discussing at this time. It can get real dangerous out in like the parking lots right now at the high school, especially in the mornings and especially the neighborhood area with all the cars parked there on

109both sides and then cars coming through. Got to feel bad for the people who live there who have to like commute in the morning, >> right? >> So, you can never get out. So, >> we're working on it. >> Working on it. Probably not before you graduate, but we're working on it. Mhm. >> Uh then we also then uh annually we uh generally it's annually we purchase a bus. Uh it's generally one bus or two buses or sometimes we throw in a Suburban or whatever needs to be uh be replaced. So we go on about 13ear cycles with our buses. Is that right? 13 14 years. >> Sounds about right. >> Right. So we cycle through. So uh we went through and uh looks like we are going to be getting a bus. Uh the

110cost of buses have gone up over the last 10 years. So, we are making a purchase from Nelson Bus Service uh for $149,623 for uh 72 passengers. >> two buses, sorry, two buses. Um and uh they would be 72 passengers. It includes the cameras and some of the things that uh we spec out on our buses. So, um we will buy two of those buses for 149,623 each uh with budgeted funds. These are funds that we had in the budget uh for 2627th fiscal year and then that was it. >> Thank you. So is there a motion to approve the updated summer capital maintenance projects list? >> So moved. Thank you. Is there a second? Thank you, Mike. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I posted. The motion is carried. And then

111is there a motion to approve the purchase of two route buses from Nelson's bus service in the amount of 1,149,623 each? >> So move. >> Thank you, Lindsay. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mike. Or no, >> any discussion? >> And just because we're moving fast on this, but anybody who's watching this or whatnot, this was a competitive >> bidding process and the memo's attached and all that. So this was just saw. >> Yeah, we had two we had two we had two bids. >> And this is a Nelson is a is a bus service that we have had very good luck with and good customer service. So that we've been very pleased with them over the years. Anything else? >> Well, maybe just to point out that the bid for the Nelson bus was slightly

112higher than the bill for the Ascendants truck or excuse me, >> not when you added not when you added in the extra things. So on the surface it might look like it was more, but it isn't really. >> It isn't more. Yep. Okay. All those in favor? >> I opposed. The motion is carried. All right. The personnel committee met on March 9th and during that meeting we heard a staffing update for the 2026 27 school year. We also reviewed several job descriptions and then we recommend that the board adopt those adjustments which has come before the board tonight. Um the committee spent a considerable time receiving um an update regarding the administration's recommendation regarding an insurance plan for 2627 and then we went into close session to discuss preliminary and final notices of non-renewal for

113certified staff. So we're going to get into the action item, but as we do, I want to provide some background about the insurance um recommendation that we have tonight. So, as a reminder for folks, the board delegates the responsibility to research um insurance options to the administration. When we do that, the board requests that the administration provides a very reasoned recommendation to the board for our consideration and then potential action. As part of that research process, administration has employed um an insurance broker, people who are experts in the area of in the insurance field and are able to advocate for the district's best interests and we have seen over time that they have done well for us. Um and then I think in my estimation has a wise move. The administration has established an insurance

114study committee which is includes users, people, teachers, staff who will be using this insurance to help sort through the options and then provide feedback to the administration. After all of that is done, then the administration provides a recommendation to the board. At the last personnel committee, we had an extensive uh presentation and conversation about the options and about the administration's recommendation. Um, and so Nate's going to with that background give some give an update and then make the recommendation for the board's consideration. >> Sounds good. I will give a a seemingly brief summary here on our insurance process. A process that started almost a year ago with our with our broker Gallagher and a strategy team which consists of Lynette, Dave, myself and Amanda Hooper meeting regularly with our with our brokers and then the

115strategy team also meeting with our insurance study committee. The insurance study committee is a voluntary committee made up of staff members throughout the district in lots of different capacities, not unlike our calendar committee or our wellness committee or our council for student experience committee. So when we have big decisions to make that are going to influence our stakeholders, we want to give them as much voice and opportunity to be participants and provide input in processes that that impact them. So, uh, we knew that we were running towards the end of our 2-year plan with Health Partners in a fully funded insurance, uh, plan that was coming to a close at the end of this year. And for us, that marks June 30th. So, we needed to have another option. And to start that process, you

116you go out to bid just like you do for buses. you go out to bid with insurance providers to see who's going to give us a a good price and continue to provide a good benefit for our staff. And this year we we uh went out to five different providers to to receive bids. We went out to Medicica, Alina Health, Anthem Blue Cross Health Partners, and United Health. and three of the five uh declined to engage in the bidding process with us. So, three were out off the top. United Health and Health Partners did provide bids and the bid bids came back uh very very high. So when that happens, then you engage in a negotiation process and there's some back and forth to try and get those bids down to a number that fits

117within our budget while also maintaining a high uh high performing benefit for for our stakeholders. I should also add that generally we engage in two-year commitments with providers and three didn't provide any bid and the two that did said we'll we'll do it for one year. One group United said we won't bid for a self-funded plan. Health partners said we'll give you a fully funded option and a self-funded option. So, uh, through this back and forth, we also examined, uh, a number of different options, knowing that we probably wouldn't be able to negotiate a cost down to a reasonable increase, that we would have to make some plan design changes. And we considered everything and looked at all of the data and the impact of making those changes on the financial expense, but also against

118the cost of the benefit in terms of what it provides our our stakeholders. So, we looked at the max out of pocket. We looked at uh how much the deductible is currently and if we needed to increase that. We looked at premium contributions, HSA contributions, network changes, different options, uh and deductible options, and then different combinations of all of those to try and come to something that we felt was was going to be the best. In the end, the strategy committee through the help of Gallagher found that the best insurance at the most reasonable cost was to stick with Health Partners through a self-funded insurance plan, which came to us at about a 10% increase, which is reasonable and comparable to what we've experienced in the last couple of years when we've engaged in two-year

119bidding processes with with these providers. um deductibles were staying the same. The max out of pocket would change. The contributions to the premiums would stay the same. The HSA contributions would stay the same. And of course, there's an increase to the overall cost. We knew that was coming. So, by going to self-funded and negotiating the way we did, we really only had to make one change that was viewed or would be viewed somewhat negatively because of the cost associated with it, which is the increase in the max out of pocket. So, that was a that was a win. Um, we also added a teaalth and inhome health option that can be free to our users in a lot of different ways even with certain meds and that program is called CARA. So that's an added

120benefit that we are investing as in as a district to try and support our our users and uh keep things as financially reasonable as possible. So then the strategy group presented to uh our insurance study committee. They were able to ask questions, provide input and generally they were very very pleased with the outcome because they understand the landscape of health and and dental insurance um these days. So that's where we're at. Um we're also sticking with our self-funded dental plan which we've had for the last couple of years. there will be a a 4% increase for that. The impact of the 4% is negligible when compared to the 10% increase for health because it's a much uh smaller cost overall. And then we continue to provide voluntary insurance options for our staff to engage in.

121So they can have um I the IMED benefit or supplemental health in terms of things like accident critical illness or hospital indemnity and those come through the standard a different provider and there's no increase in cost through that. We have a a partnership agreement for I think through 28. So overall a very thorough process, a lot of back and forth between the broker, the strategy group, the broker, the strategy group and the insurance study committee and then the presentation to the personnel now coming to you tonight. Uh feeling pretty good about where we ended up >> and we are confident that even moving to self insurance that this will not put a burden on our staff. >> Right. As part of the process, we will have health partners as our thirdparty administrator. So there will

122be some work uh for our own staff, but it's going to be minimal. Uh and as terms in terms of how it impacts the user, it's really not going to change things for them. They'll have their insurance card. They can uh they'll still have choice if they want to have an open access or a more narrow network and therefore have a a smaller premium cost. They can go to the same doctors, the same clinics, the same hospitals that they've been. um they won't they won't really recognize any difference. >> Thank you, Nate. Any questions for Nate? >> Good job. >> Thank you. >> One thing I just when we talk about estimates, we're we're doing kind of that cast forward approach where we are looking at if everybody in our district stayed and everybody in

123our district stayed with exactly the same plan. And so we're that's an estimate right now because uh at the time that the board makes the decision to approve whatever plan that we have then Nate and and Amanda mainly and then with support from Gallagher will go through the process of open enrollment and that's opportunity for employees who are staying with us to make decisions on if if they're going to make adjustments and uh whatever those adjustments are will impact what our estimated costs were. Um, if more people choose to move to a family plan, that estimate will be below. Uh, if more people choose to say, "Well, now this is getting kind of expensive. I can go to a different option and go uh off of insurance that it'll actually be less expensive." Plus, we

124know that not all of our employees are going to stay. So, some leave and if they leave, depending on uh the choices that the people newly hired will make. Um, I just want to stress that we do our best to put estimates on there right down to, you know, a pretty exact amount, but just understand that behind that number is this a theory that cast forward that we know uh it gives us our best chance to make that estimate, but it's not it's never going to happen exactly like that. >> And that's not particular to being selfinsured. That's correct. That's all the that's always how we manage things. >> That's right. Yep. And then as we talked about at length at the personnel committee, we talked about the the the the mechanisms that we have

125within self- insurance to ensure that we're not putting ourselves at risk for something that's unforeseen. And that's why we can with a great deal of certainty have a pretty good idea of what our percentage increase is and then year-over-year make those adjustments as needed. And Dave, since you mentioned open enrollment, which is always the first 15 days in May, preceding that in the middle to end of April, we'll hold uh insurance listening sessions orformational sessions at a lot of the buildings because we want to get this information out to anybody that wants to hear it. We'll also have a virtual session which will happen in the evening that will be recorded. So there'll be no shortage of opportunities for our stakeholders to understand and ask questions about how insurance is going to look next year

126compared to this year uh and what their options are. So we're going to give them plenty of opportunities to become educated. >> Thank you for that. >> Okay. I have one question, just a quick question. When you click on the link and you go to the more detailed data >> Yep. on um on the right hand column where you're looking at the bundle number one self-funded. >> Can you just remind me down below that the 2000-80% what is the percentage there? >> I'm just trying to find where you are. >> It's what it's what point. >> Oh yes. Yeah, that's one of the that's one of the changes when we u make an adjustment to our max out of pocket which used to be equivalent to the deductible. Now it's going to be different than

127that. Once a person goes beyond the deductible, there will be a a co- insurance which means the user will pay 20% of the cost insurance will pay >> up to the max out of pocket. And the max out of pocket is what for >> twice the deductible. >> Yep. >> Okay. So the deductible is 2,000. >> Well, for an individual >> for an individual. >> Yep. >> 4,000. >> But there's options. 4,000 for a family or there's a 4,000 8,000 option. >> 8,000. The two different options. So the 2,000. So, uh, the co- insurance would pay 80%, I would pay 20% up to up to >> up to whatever your max out of pocket is. >> Max out of pocket is. >> Okay. Yeah. That'll be important for people to know cuz that's a big

128change. >> It is a big change. But one of the reasons we chose that as a lever to pull to keep our cost down is that we in researching found that there were only about 35% of our users who met their deductible. >> Yeah. >> So again, things can change from year to year. We all know that as people who have to go to the doctor or go to hospitals from time to time, but uh if that stays true, then that means 65% of our people will never get to the point where they're exceeding their deductible and get into co insurance, which is a pretty good number to to land on. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Thanks. >> Is there a motion to approve uh Health Partners to serve as the district's health insurance provider

129for the 2627 school year? >> And we're moving to self-unding. That's >> Mhm. Yes. So moved. >> Thank you, Ellison. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Alan. Any further discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. The motion is carried. Thank you, Nate. That was that's a a lot of work and we appreciate it. All right. Now, Nate, could you please walk us through these job descriptions? And I think I'll take two through six as one motion. So, you could go through all of them and then we'll >> Yep. I I will be brief with these. Uh first of all, the transportation program assistant job description. We're making a a switch in this position. Uh from a supervisory position to one that aligns with the program assistant. We think that the responsibilities

130and duties fit the program assistant criteria, generally speaking, better than they do fit the supervisor. This is a new job description that Lynette and um Todd at the bus garage worked on and we're putting that in front of you. The other job descriptions are either new job descriptions or uh replacing ones that are quite dated. So, we used to have a secretary job description that was all-encompassing. But over the course of time, we have more specific or precise responsibilities for different types of secretaries. Secretary of the activities office might be different than the attendant secretary might be different than the principal secretary. Parrofessionals sometimes are engaging in roles similar or different to those two, which is why these job descriptions are before you tonight. So, would there be anything specific that a board member would

131like to ask about? >> I'll move that we take all those together and move that we approve them. >> Thank you, Ellen. Is there a second? >> Thank you, Lindsay. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I >> opposed. The motion is carried and now we have shared services contract with CISO 11 and I'll turn to you Dave. >> Yep. So that is page 227 in your packet if you're following along. Uh the recommendation for next year would be that we would be renewing each of the services that we had in this year except um for district level consulting. So in years prior we had purchased a specific number of days for district level consulting to support us with uh our mentorship initiative or or other uh initiatives. This year when we looked for when

132we looked forward we didn't see a specific reason why we would need to do that. So uh we dropped that. If at some point between now and the any time during the next school year if we uh found a need for for that consulting we could reach out to CISA and they could they would give us that at this specific daily rate. The only drawback is um you know it's whatever staff would be available. So the the thing we're missing is we wouldn't be able to maybe be very specific on which staff would be supporting us. But given what our plan is for the year, we don't see that as a need. Otherwise, it's uh very similar to last year >> especially consultation on the back is also >> uh same same concept. Okay. Same

133concept. Yeah. That was another thing where we did a day a specific daily rate piece and the same idea. We could uh if if we found a specific need, we can hire that out but we don't have to. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the season 11 shared services contract for the 202627 school year? >> Thank you, Alan. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Allison. Any further discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. The motion is carried. All right. As far as letter F, you know, Dave and I create these agendas quite in advance. they have to be posted, but at this point we are not as ready as we thought we would be early or in the month to um look at the

134parking lot improvements. So we I would like to have a motion to table uh letter F until a time when the administration is ready to bring it to the board. Is there a motion, please? >> Thank you, Lindsay. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Allison. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I post. The motion is carried. All right. Um, do we have any proposed items for future agendas? Then we are going to schedule the next meetings. The policy ad hoc committee will meet Monday um, April 6th at 6:00. Educational program committee will meet Monday, April 13th at 6. The personnel committee will meet Monday, April 13th at 7 or immediately following educational program. The next regular board meeting will be Monday, April 20th at 6:00. The board reorganizational meeting will be

135Monday, April 27th at 6 o'clock. And there will be a schoolboard retreat on Monday, June 22nd at 5:00. All of those meetings are going to be here in the district office. And now, as you know, I have to read this, but we are going to adjourn into close session. Um, and we will do that in pursuant to Wisconsin statute section 198. 851C which permits convenient into close session for the purpose of considering the employment promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. Specifically, we are going to discuss the preliminary notice of non-renewal uh for certified staff. And I need a motion. Somebody needs to move that. Thank you, Allison. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Alan. And I'll need a

136roll call. Allison. >> Uh, yes. Oh, Lindsay. Mike, yes. I'm saying yes. Alan, >> yes. >> Thank you everybody for being with us. Education program will not come off quite as easily next month is my understanding, >> but thank you for sticking it up with us anyway.