001meeting of the River Falls board of 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 have signed up and so we are going to move right intoformational items and our Wildcat Pride Award. Bo. >> All right. I get distinct pleasure to present the Wildcat Pride Award tonight to Riverfall Sports Broadcasting. Would one or all of you like to come up? >> I'll come up. >> Going up, Mikey. I just say we have a big squad but many are working tonight doing right there. >> At the gym
002right now get yourselves up here. Let's go. >> So these awards are proudly presented to There's a bunch of people I will name you here in just a second. But the school board proudly presents this Wildcat Pride Award to recognize the professional excellence and invaluable service provided to our district. Through dedication of broadcasting, our athletic contest and special events, you have consistently ensured that the spirit and achievements of our students are shared with clarity, passion, and true enthusiasm throughout the community. Thank you for being an outstanding ambassador of Wildcat Pride. And I'd like to just quickly go through all the names. Um, there's a few of them here, Kevin. >> There's a lot. We added one more tonight because they had to fill in at the camera basketball. >> Got to fill it in. Yeah.
003Yeah. >> So, add Todd Roamp to the >> Oh, all right. Well, there you go. I think he's done some before. So, Todd Ro. Yeah. There you go. Paul Ederman, Ariel Avestus, Debbie Avestus, Kevin Black, Russ Blacius, Corby Bodenberg, Tim Burns, Aaron Cud, Rob Derry, Braden Angstrom, Jason Horniki, Eric Jallowitz, Dan Jenkins, Bill Jensen, Jeff Johnson, Mike Kaye, Chris Larson, Tim Lavold, John Longorf, Kit Litkkey, Sophie Audi, Marty Pollson, Greg Peters, Jenna Peters, Steve Pel, Er, Nate Sherman, Scott Simpson, Sean Tim, Kevin West, Justin Wilson, and Melissa Wilson. >> Yeah. >> So, congratulate you guys. I I was just going to say, can you kind of just give us a one minute? Sure. What is how it started? So, these are these are all volunteers. This is a Riverfall Sports Broadcasting. I I made them
004into a 501c3 organization. This is all nonprofit, all volunteers. So, I kind of uh manage the volunteers, you might say. So, I know Nate has helped out in the past and Bo I always call Bo on sixman on the bench. He's always ready to go just in case. Um I think Mike Miller's helped out in the past. So, uh many many people >> helped out on the past. >> Yes, I have. >> Ki's done some soccer. So, anyway, so people have interest on this. So, I'm just managing the volunteers. We do a little real quick training about keeping this high level, celebrating all athletes. We're 70% homer, but we celebrate both teams. Uh we never were critical of coaches or players. It's celebratory. We're glad the kids are participating in athletics because we know what
005kind of jump started life that will give them. So that's what we're all about. And we found a bunch of people who are as passionate as I am. Mike Keely was one of the originals. Remember the very first time he did girls volleyball. And Mike says, "What do I do?" And I said, "Just describe what you see." And he says, "Okay." So that's it. So there's a game going on right now, the Prescott game, and there'll be a girls game going on right after this, which Melissa's going to go help out with that. So there you go. >> What What year did you did you start? >> Um, so when I moved to town in 2013, um, we started doing this. I saw Russ Blacius and Fred Bar. They were filming to put the game
006on channel 16, local cable access. I was doing some live broadcasting in Fort Collins, Colorado, where I came from, and I said, "Hey, you guys want to do this live?" And they're like, "No way. We don't want to do this live." So, talked them into it. We did it in the spring of 2013. We were streaming on a thing called High School Cube for about five or six years. They were bought out by NFHS Sports. And then I went to the YouTube, which was the best thing ever because grandma and grandpa can find every game real easily. So, we've been on YouTube for about six and a half years. We're coming up on our two millionth viewer on on YouTube. So, >> I remember you and I had a conversation and you said you had
007just moved to town and you said, "What do you think?" And I remember as a athlete, we had channel 12, I think, at that time or channel 16. And how fun it was to be able to watch kind of they had it, you know, kind of re recording back in the old days. And I just remember thinking it would be cool, but I didn't get it right. I didn't get it exactly what you had envisioned. and it's turned into unbelievable >> what you've done for this uh for this school and these kids. >> It's just right place, right time. Um and it can't be done without the volunteers. So, and the support of the district, David's been great. And uh so we'll just continue to do what we're doing. Um again, keep it high level,
008celebratory, celebrate the kids, the district, your school, and that's what it's all about. If you keep your mind there, this thing's going to be good. So, thank you to all the great volunteers who have given up countless hours. >> Yeah. I will say two things. As um as somebody in the district who's had parents watching this stuff who can't get to games, it's invaluable. I mean, my dad would never been able to get to some of the games and he got to watch all his grandkids do stuff. >> Second thing is >> this football season, um my son Gavin was down in Whitewater watching with some of his wrestling teammates and they said they cannot believe that's our high school broadcast. This looks professional. There's replays, there's commercials, there's the graphics are unbelievable. This is
009it's something that's really high level. >> So we know >> people appreciate it. >> We're in quite competition. >> Thank you for all you do. God, >> you want to start covering schoolboard meetings? >> You could use the audience. color. >> I know all of the volunteers like Yeah. >> I know all of the volunteers want to make sure that you feel proud of what we're doing. So that's really where we're at. So really one stat one stat Kevin, you mentioned a couple of them, but you you sent this to me. So since >> that you have had 1.9 million views on just coming up on two million. >> What happened to the first six years? >> Yeah. Right. I don't know about that because we really didn't keep track of that. So, it took
010us like five years to get to a million and in the last year and a half, we got almost another million. >> Oh, wow. Starting to pick up about 7,000 subscribers on the channel. >> So, we really we really appreciate that the the ability for people to see what's going on in River Falls, not just in and around River Falls, but all over is pretty amazing and it's one of the things that makes uh this community really special and we we thank everybody for that. >> Well, thank you so much for the recognition. Thank you to the volunteers because this doesn't get done without the people stepping up, coming early, staying late for for your district. So, thank you for the recognition. >> Thank you very much. >> You are all to stay, but you
011might need to go for a game. So, we understand that. >> All right. Now, we are going to move on to a spotlight on education. And we have with us tonight early childhood special education folks. No, please come to the table and share with us what you have >> to the table. >> Well, we're not used to this kind of like we're used to sitting on the floor. >> But do that if you want. >> Watching on TV. Can you introduce yourself? >> For the people who are watching on TV, can you introduce yourself? >> If you could introduce yourselves. Yes. So, um, we're part of the EC team. EC is early childhood special education. So all the children we service have special needs of some some sort to become part of our program. So
012I'm Mara Shepard. I'm one of the early childhood teachers. >> And I'm Amber Sherman. I'm the occupational therapist. >> And I'm Ann Nelson, the speech language pathologist. >> So we also have um two other early childhood teachers like myself. Um they both physical as well. And then um we have a let's see who else. >> Physical therapist. Yes. So, oh yeah, and this is our team. This is our team. Um, the one not listed on there is Nicole, who is part-time special ed in the morning. She's the one that's at the university preschool. Um, and she supports children there. And then in the afternoon, she's our district 4K site at uh Rocky Branch. So, and she's Janed and then Emma supports 4K in the afternoon there. So, um, three of us are here tonight. So,
013we'll just give you a little bit of an overview of what we do and because a lot of people don't really know what we do. Even in our own school, they don't always know. So, it's good just to get the word out there and what we're doing. So, we service children at starting at their third birthday. Um, we get referrals from the counties either Pierce or St. Croy because we service both. Um, and then we go through the referral process with the the county children. Um, depending on what their needs are, they may have speech OT, PT, educational services. For them to qualify for programming with us, like within my program to be in a classroom based setting, they need to have at least two areas of a delay. Um, they could be just service
014by an in a speech only kind of group as well. Um, so with the young ones that are three, four that are not of 4K age yet at this point mostly they come into either myself or Emma our classrooms in the mornings. We have four classes. So we have one Emma has a class that's Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning. Those are all children that are not quite old enough for 4K yet. However, they um need a bit more support to be ready for that 4K setting. And then I have a Monday, Wednesday morning group that is young three-year-olds that are working on social communication, some academic kind of skills. So they're um a little less needy or less involved than some of the other students. Tuesday, Thursday morning classes are are high needs classes. Emma has
015a class that's all non-verbal autism. And then I have a class that's um high needs or health issues and things going on that we need um extra support in that classroom. And then I also have another classroom Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday afternoons. And those are all children that are three and a half youngs that are again kind of like Emma's morning that are not old enough for 4K yet. So it's another year to practice, but we put more expectations on them so that they are getting ready for what 4K is where it's uh a lot different for a lot of them to be in that environment. Um so at this point I think we're servicing 24 children. We also do uh um a district screening every fall. We're required to do that as child fine and
016so we do that in early October usually and then we do tend to get a few referrals from that as well. So our numbers start small and end large depending every year we almost double our numbers. I mean pretty close. So from where we are at this start. >> Um >> so we're at 24 now. We won't end at 24. No, we will not because we have >> actually 25 as of today. >> Maybe 26 tomorrow. Okay. >> So, you never know. >> Yes, it just keeps going up and we get them whenever they turn three. So, our classes are constantly shifting. So, you get adjusted and then you throw a whole new one in there and it you're restarting. So, all the year it's you never know what you're going to get and it's
017you can have the greatest plans laid out and they may not happen at all. Depends on the day. Everything's an adventure, I would say. >> Yes. >> All right. So, this is kind of what our typical days, both morning and afternoon classes look like. Um, we use lots of visuals as you see right on the top of there. Uh, visuals are a great way for our students to be able to kind of start gaining some independence. Uh, also then we're not constantly talking because bombarding them with too much language, sometimes they can't process what we're saying. So, that's a pretty typical schedule there where we come in and we're working on independence. So, they're hanging up their things and getting their folders out, signing in, um, writing. So, they're practicing fine motor. My afternoon is
018actually starting to trace their names. Yay. Amber's working with us with that so that they're ready for 4K when they have to write their names. But the morning kids, it's more just strengthening those fine motor skills, but we call it writing time. Then we go into a circle, which is like our group time. Uh, then play, bathroom, snack, cleaning up, playground or movement kind of time. That's kind of the typical structure of our days that can change depending on weather or special events, things like that. But we try to keep it very consistent because it's uh better for them when they know what to expect and how to predict things. So if there is a change, they're a little more flexible with it. But we are very much a play-based um program because they learn
019best through play, especially when they're three and four years old. And through play we learn on we learn ac uh I call it incidental learning through academics when they're color you know talking about colors shapes just as they're playing. So it they're more engaged in their learning when we do it through play. So we foster independence we work on following directions and turn taking and sharing those are big things learning social skills how to advocate for yourself. Um, and social emotional regulation is a big thing with our conscious. How we recognize our own feelings or how we might impact someone else and things we can do to be more aware of that within ourselves. >> And then all right, >> the therapies I'll just say they're they come right within our program and kind of
020work on different things or might pull out once in a while depending on what they're working on. But we'll let them kind of they're the experts on therapy so I'll let them talk about that. Do you want me to go to the pictures? >> Uh, sure. >> Okay. >> Um, so yeah, I work with every child who's in early childhood right now. Once in a while, we have somebody who's identified with needs that don't include communication, but it's rare. So, um, I work with a wide range of abilities. Some of the children are identified just with articulation delays. So, they're just practicing producing speech sounds clearly and communicating in that way. Some of them have mild to moderate language delays. So, I'm working on vocabulary building, story comprehension, following directions, um social communication like Mara
021was talking about, standing up for themselves, learning those powerful phrases like my turn, you know, or it's mine, um please stop. That's a big one. Um so, a lot of the three-year-olds that come to us might be speaking in one word utterances or maybe stringing two words together while typically a three-year-old would be using short complete sentences. So, helping them build those skills. Um, and then we also have children like in the Tuesday Thursday groups that Mara talked about that are completely non-verbal. So, we're working on communication strategies for them that can range from visuals like the visual schedule or picture exchange system. If you look in the bottom left there, that little guy is using pictures to request snack items. So, he would hand me a picture of what he wants for snack and
022then we start pairing that with spoken language, too. And the little girl in the top right there is using what's called an AEC device, which is a voice output computer device. So, I don't know if you can see it there, but I programmed that page to be the vocabulary from Brown Bear. Brown Bear, what do you see? So, she can press a button that says the word that she would want to say talking about that book, and then it speaks for her in a little girl's voice. Um, we use sign language. Um, really any modality that works for a child in any given situation. Some of the children are communicating in five different ways in snack time. Just whatever gets the job done. >> Okay. Um, and then OT, it looks a little bit different
023with each class that I go into. So, with Mara's uh, Tuesday, Thursday morning class with the kiddos that have more of the medical needs, we're working a lot on those early developmental skills. So, it might just be core strengthening while we're sitting at group time. It might be um, helping them reach to um, do some of the the manipulatives that Mara's doing with group time. So, I do a lot of um body awareness in there. So, we do a lot of joint compression. So, it helps them know where their body is in space and it helps them learn how to do some of that grasp and release. Um, and then I kind of um piggyback off of PT and I help with putting kids in gate trainers and then in we're just started a little
024guy in a standard which is not his favorite. Um, but just because some of those kids are still working on some of those crawling, walking, all of those skills. So that looks a little bit different than um you can kind of see the top picture that is Emma's morning class and those kids are a little bit higher functioning. So when I go in there, we're working a lot on fine motor skills that are helping them develop the hand arches and things that they need for prewriting. Um the Emma's other morning class are the kiddos that all have autism and are non-verbal and they are big sensory seekers. So that class I'm usually taking all of them down to our motor room. So you can see the one little guy here is jumping up and down
025because he's excited about our fine motor task. And then every kid in that class loves the ball pit. And the ball pit just helps again with a lot of deep pressure and it helps them understand where their body is in space. So we go down there a lot because we do a lot of vestibular input which is swinging, jumping, crashing, rolling, and so they're doing all of that input. And then in the afternoon class, um those are the kids that are getting ready for 4K. So they're the ones that I'm really supporting with those hand development of scissor skills, writing. We do a lot of we start with the first letter in their name and then we move into their whole name. So we're just really working on 4K skills. Um so a lot more
026of that fine motor, but I go into the classroom or sometimes I pull out. So we kind of do a variety. And then physical therapy, she's working a lot on the gross motor skills. She also works a lot on core strengthening, um, a lot of lower body strengthening. She also does a lot of, um, functional mobility within the hallway, so safety with gate trainers, safety with, uh, wheelchairs. And then we get to go down to the motor room and a lot of times we'll do obstacle courses where they're working on balance and stairs and jumping and all of those gross motor skills. Um, and then she also does a lot of playground safety. So, she will go out and they'll learn how to do the stairs and the slides and all those things that um
027they need to be able to do, but not be too impulsive and jump off the top and that kind of thing. So, um so a lot of times we're working really close together on that. >> Um in case anybody does not know, a gate trainer is what that little boy is in. So, it helps them to be able to stand and start to support their legs. So, a good example, um, wheelchair accessible playground. In my Tuesday, Thursday morning class, three of my four students cannot get on the playground. So, I mean, that's just an example. We have to modify things. So, we can move them in that way just because they can't it we, you know, wood chips, things like that make it a little bit challenging um for them. So, if we bring them,
028we have to physically pick them up to get them out there. So that's something just to work together to kind of figure out how can we make it a little bit more accessible for those students because we get more and more like that. They're not always walking around and able to do that but need a way to be able to access a playground that's appropriate for them. Um because that you know it's been it's a safe developmentally appropriate playground for three, four, and 5year-olds. And then I mean a wonderful thing that we would love at some point is the inclusion model with our younger the 4K kids get it already because that's where the kids are supported but our little three and four that are not old enough yet. You know the only way we
029can do inclusion is if they happen to be in a child care center where they have general ed peers and we can get there but as you can see we already have 24 kids that we're servicing within the school. It makes it really hard to have time to get to kids that are in daycarees that are three and four. So just figuring out some of those are kind of our wish list for someday of trying to figure out how to best service these kids so that they are getting the model. Some children do need this small classroom with you know whether it's because they're fragile health syndrome you know different things or non-verbal and they just need a really small quiet environment. but other ones just children really would thrive if they did have access
030to some models in some way. Um so just that would be something we'd be working on trying to figure out at some point how to access that for them >> for the family >> Christmas card. >> This is my job at the meetings. >> Does anybody Yeah. Does anybody have any questions about any curiosities even? I guess >> um um so I think I saw in one of your slides that you're that these students come to you typically as they age out of county services. Okay. Talk a little bit about the process of how do you identify these kids and and do you think we're you're finding all of them? >> Yeah. >> That are eligible. >> That was my question too. >> Um no we're not finding all of them because some kids do
031come to kindergarten and have not had any services. Um there's you know and so then there's a surprise at kindergarten. Um >> but that's pretty rare these days. It is our 4K program catches. >> Yes, it does. >> Um I think most of them are probably service. I think one thing that we find is as the first face of the schools for these families, many of them are very nervous about this the labels like they really get worried. they don't want their kid to be labeled for the rest of their life. And so it's like this um kind of gentle handholding kind of really work I work I'm typically the one that does the um earliest intervention, the early initial assessments with these little three-year-olds. And I really really work hard on trying to have
032that team mentality because if I don't have the trust of them, we're not going to get anywhere. how are they going to get to kindergarten, fifth grade, 10th grade if they don't trust us from the start. So we really work on the team mentality of it and um they I think we have how many total areas can they we we they have to get in categories. So, you've heard about autism. You've heard about um OI is other health impairments. We have speech and language only. We have something for the little ones that's called SDDD, significant developmental delay. And that is where a lot of kids that are kind of those kids that don't necessarily they don't necessarily have um autism or uh you know, Down syndrome or something that's very obvious, but like they have
033needs that need some support and that label only goes till 9. So by that point, if they still have needs, then they're looking at learning disabilities or emotional dis, you know, depending on whatever it is they're looking at. >> But the the actual like process of that too starts so if they're in birth to three, >> then our school psych will go and meet and they have it um >> 2 years, 9 months. >> Yeah. Two years, 9 months. When they reach a certain age, she goes and meets with the birth of three team, meets the child, meets the parents, and then from there we start the evaluation process. And then she determines, you know, does this kiddo maybe need just speech? Does the kiddo need OTP involved? And then we go through an evaluation,
034which we all have certain tests we give, and then those evaluations are presented to the parents, and then we decide does that child would they benefit from our services. So, so first the county has figured out a way to identify these >> screens. They're in birth to three at that point. >> A lot of doctor referrals, but we don't get everybody from birth to three. We also have a developmental screening in the fall. >> Um, we will screen children at any point during the year. If we get contacted by a parent, sometimes it's a doctor referral at like a, you know, three-year-old while child checkup or something and then they come to us in that way. >> Or daycare centers to contact us and >> um we get a number that way too. You're working
035with both counties. >> Yeah. >> Awesome. >> So, one of the things that we hear is the increase in special education for students and the um what are you seeing? You've all been with us for a while. What are you noticing? >> We've had a huge increase. >> Yes, you have. >> Well, and I think that it's not only increase in numbers, it's increase in need. Yeah. So out of the 24 kids that are in our program, I service 14 and PT services nine. So like even four years ago, it might have been like I service seven and PT services one or two. >> So I think the kids are coming to us with more needs than just social and speech. So we're noticing that they're more involved needing more services. >> Yeah. No, no,
036no, no. that that covered it well. I think yeah, >> it strikes me the tremendous challenge that you have and I can understand why you said every day is an adventure. You're working with really challenging little ones. >> We actually all love it though. >> That's what I was going to say. I can tell that. I I hope you realize what a gift that is for those children and for those families because you are helping them to have a foundation for learning, for being ready just to live and to play, but also when you were talking about this the trust that you establish with these families that will last for the entire time that we are serving them. So, thank you for the really important work you do individually and collectively for our littlest ones
037and thank you for being here tonight. >> Very much. >> Thank you very much. >> And if you want to come in, if you ever want to stop in, you'll run out, but you >> Mark has stopped in a few times. He's experienced the >> question. Where is your classroom? >> Well, oh, where's the class? >> Yeah, at Rock. Okay. >> Well, I'll take you up on that invitation. Thank you for being here tonight and it's not rude to leave. >> Thank you. >> We now have some additional reports and we will turn to our students over here on this side. >> Yep. Students first. >> Um well, >> so Ben and Jada. Yep. >> I'll just talk a little bit about like the what the school is like right now and then also the
038cell phone use at the high school. Um, obviously as we come closer to the break, I think kids are getting a little fatigued, but um, that's expected. Um, but activities are going great so far. Uh, basketball is doing well. Uh, we have our spirit week this week and I've seen uh, some participation so far. So, um, that's very good. Um but in terms of the cell phone use um it's been inconsistent across the students I would say some students spec specifically the uh underassman and more the freshman are adhering to that policy the current one quite quite strictly I would say um and I'm in some classes right now that are uh that have freshman sophomores juniors and seniors so I can see all the grades um but I see the freshman following it very
039um consistently and then I see the juniors and the seniors finding those loopholes around it where they're pulling it out and they're looking at the notification they got or um they're sitting with it behind their Chromebook scrolling on it and and sometimes you know things like that happen and it's just >> um those those loopholes are there. I've also seen the phone boxes that we have at the high school aren't being utilized very much if at all in some classes. Um it started out the year pretty strong with most of the class using it and then within the first couple weeks we saw that diminish and now we have some classes only one or two people are putting them in them out of a class that has 30. Um, so I think things are just
040inconsistent so far across that. And it's a new policy, especially with the with the phone box policy is a newer policy. So I think there's that. And also kids just feel for some reason like it's a breach of their privacy. And that's high schoolers being high schoolers, but I think trying to find a way around that is what is truly needed. So those are my observations of things. Thanks. >> Thank you, Jada. What do you do you have something to add? >> Uh, yeah. I think the policy definitely has a lot of mixed reactions as one would think it does. I think most students do tend to follow it, but there is that group that doesn't follow it and I think it's just important that the policy is being enforced consistently across all classes and
041so students could build that routine instead of adjusting based off every different class. And I think um the passing time allowing us to use it during passing time is a big part of utilizing your time wisely. But I know a lot of students run into the issue where um the Wi-Fi is disabled for us. So the school does tend to be a dead zone where students can't use their phone, especially in the locker bays. You don't have any you have SOS. And I know like people tend to pull their phone up during class time because they have that uh Wi-Fi or the cell service in different classrooms. So I feel like that is an increasing issue because they are not really able to check it during passing time with no cell service. So, you can't
042speak for all the students, but if you were, what what would you imagine people would think of why there this policy is in place? I imagine it's a range of perspectives, but what would people think of why you can't use your phone? >> I've heard people say, oh, they just think the school is trying to be like a prison, you know, just trying to lock the lock the fun out of it. I've also heard people understand the reasons why. Um I I I truly think the overall reaction is a lot of kids don't know why. Um I don't think they understand the policy even though it's been explained to us. I think it's easy for us to just think over that and think about ourselves a lot and that. Um but I don't think a
043majority of people really know why this policy is in place. And I think that's why maybe there's a little bit of this feeling like why why do we need this, right? And so I think a lot of kids don't understand the fact that the law states you need a a policy. And I also think that kids are just confused on why this happened because our senior class started freshman year with almost no restrictions on it. It was up to the teachers teachers discretion on whether or not they would allow it. Um, and then as we've gone through high school, it seems like every year there's a new barrier um in the way from us using it. So for the senior class in specific, I think it's been hard because we got used to uh finding
044ways around it or freshman year not having any at all. But all of a sudden this year when it seems like there's more consequences and there's uh these phone boxes that are just like black boxes that like lock shut, right? That's like that that can come across as like a scary thought to some kids, I think. So to put there something so personal to them in that box, it feels if it feels wrong to them even though it's not. And so I just think there's an I don't think there's any understanding across a lot of kids why this is happening, why this policy is in place. >> I'm curious what you guys think would be a good policy >> if you ran the zoo. >> Um I think Lid Key is going to cover it
045on his I didn't want to steal from >> asking you. >> Okay. Well, I know L key is going to come and talk about a phone box policy where you have to put your phone in the box for attendance. So, it's kind of like required and he has that list of students who like don't have a phone or they need a phone for health uh things. So, I feel like that would be definitely a good system because it it makes students put their phone in the box versus I know some students just say, "Oh, it's in my locker." But really, it's on them. >> Not exactly. H. Okay. So, >> and I mean you would if you if you were in Mr. Lekey's position, would you support that policy? >> Yeah, I think that is
046definitely like the >> either one wants my position future administrator. >> I think that's what it's going to come down to because it's enforcing that box policy where they're not going to be tempted to look at it. >> Yeah. >> So, >> I think there's you have to find ways um if if you were to not go with that policy. I do think that policy is the right policy, but if you were to not go with that policy, I think you have to find a way for kids to be more engaged across the board because it's not just certain classes that it's happening in. I know almost every single class in the school, there's kids that are trying to sneak their phone out. And some teachers, I would say, uh, catch it easier than others,
047but I don't know that across the board you can like label certain classes as ones that fall in. I think it's just happening across the board. So I think part of that would maybe be engagement in the classroom is how can we find a way for students across every single grade to stay engaged because freshmen are going to stay engaged a lot more with your activities in class and your seniors that are going to start to have that question of wait why are we doing this like puzzle matching game with our flash cards right because that's not as engaging to a as it is to a freshman that's like I get a sucker because I did this right but the seniors are like I'm not going to get a sucker in college or my postsecary
048life so why should I do this, right? And so that's when the temptation of, oh, I can just sneak my phone right now because I have 10 notifications that went off in the past 30 minutes. Um, so I think trying to find something that's more engaging across those classes, especially those classes that include all the grades, is something that's um going to be more needed, especially in the elective classes. >> Interesting. I'm going to imagine if I were a teacher, I would say it's pretty hard to compete with a little phone that can let you do so many things. >> And I'm Yeah, that's a big challenge. >> That's where I think the policy of just like making sure that in order to get marked for attendance that day, you should >> put it in
049there is probably the most like surefire way to make sure that it's consistent across the board because I think right now that's the issue is it's it's inconsistent or as Mr. you put it the other day it was it consistently inconsistent. >> Correct. >> Yeah. So, >> so it sounds like you're saying if you have a rule, make sure you enforce the rule. >> Yeah. And I think the hard thing about the rule is that it's just >> no matter how many times you put it set in stone, there's going to be different interpretations of it. >> And so, I mean, it just depends on the it depends on the day. I think is some in the beginning of the year it's easier to uh put it in at the beginning of the year but
050as students and teachers get tired throughout the year it gets a little bit more lax or >> they don't see it as often because kids are finding different ways around it and the cop's not going to pull over someone who breaks the law without the cop seeing them. So >> it's hard to monitor something that the teachers don't see happening. Yeah, >> cell phones are clearly addicting. And don't you think a lot of the adults too, it's hard. It's a challenge for the adults to model the excellent phone etiquette as well. >> It's it's hard. >> Agree. >> You know, one of the things um at school that you're experiencing is um and you're learning is a lot more than just what your classes are teaching you, etc. And one of the my takeaways from
051this conversation, but just watching how this has unfolded the last couple years is what you're seeing and what you're observing is how organizations handle significant change. And you're going through it right now and you just listed out a whole bunch of things. Change in as dramatic and this is dramatic. Even though these are little phones, it's pretty dramatic. It's not life-ending or some of those kinds of things, but it's a it's a very significant cultural change in the culture of of the high school. And these things don't happen because we pass a rule and click, we throw a switch and now everybody's on board. Okay? We have to get the teachers and administrators, the school board has to be on board. And every individual student, the hundreds of students in the high school, all have
052to learn this, adapt to it, and change. Five years from now, this will be a very different environment. You just explained it. the seniors are handling this very different than the freshman are handling. I mean, always, whether you're in college or you're in high school, make the freshman do it because the freshman will comply. Okay? By the time they're seniors have, they figured out ways around it. All right? That's this is this is age old. This has always been around for a long time. But so this is in my mind, this is should be one of your takeaways is understanding how organizations change. I'm old enough to remember when seat belts were mandated, right? Okay. Pretty old. No, I'm not I'm looking at the wrong people when I say that. You remember I remember how
053long it took and how hard it was to require people to put their seat belts on. Okay, this is just another example years ago how this happens. This happens all of the time. You're learning how this happens. And I think observe it and and and pay attention to it because I think this is very valuable for you policy aside just on the fact that you just can't decree stuff and expect everything to happen. We've all got to get on board. We've all got to refine, talk about it, and process it. So, >> well, I think something like that could be what you just said could be very beneficial to like tell especially the senior class, but I think every grade is just like how how this change is being implemented and why it seems like
054for some of us it's happening so instantly, but really it's over a large 5-year plan, right? Or a 10-year plan or just an evolving plan, right? And I think that's the issue is because every year it just seems like a new rule is set in place. But explaining the the overarching picture I think would help kids to understand why this is happening. And I think that's truly one of the main reasons why kids don't comply with it is because they just don't understand it. And >> they don't understand it or they don't accept it. >> They don't they don't want they don't want to understand. >> And there's part both of that and there's a lot of gray area between them. But accepting um accepting and understanding it is one because I don't really want
055to understand it until I can accept it and own it and that takes time. Takes times for the teachers takes time for everybody. So this is going to evolve for a while but >> thank you. Oh >> I can give you just some numbers so that you have it from our side of things. So we have 230 infractions right now for the year. So we're nearly halfway through the year. >> So that's 230 individual students. So that is 21% of our student body has been found to have one time where they've had their phone out and has been referred to our office. Students who have two infractions, it drops dramatically. It's less than 20. It's about 18 students. Students who have three or more, we have four students. Okay. So we do have these initial
056first referrals. Uh in that referral itself, it's a phone call home. It is a talk in terms of why we believe it's important. So we don't see as much repetit repetitive behavior once we have that initial intervention. Uh we did compare our numbers to the neighbors to the north as well with Hudson. They have 1,700 students because we always talk and we share, right? We have the same policy in place that says students can ha uh not have them during instructional time which is what this DPI is asking for you to adopt as a board. Um they have roughly 10 and a half% of their student body with one referral. So we are twice as high in terms of the likelihood. The difference that we found is the consequence. So the consequence for us is
057the student who has it in the first infraction with the teacher. Teacher is holding the phone for the block calling parents and notifying that we have an infraction. Second offense then is where the student comes to us. We have a parent meeting with the student and move in that direction. Third offense then is it's down with us for a week. In Hudson's model, it is down in the office on the first time and parents are picking it up. So the the Hudson's model in essence in talking with their administrative team, more often than not, parents are purchasing the phones. Parents are paying for the phone plans. Therefore, we're going to talk with the parent initially right out of the gate, specifically inconveniencing the parent to come in to pick it up and keeping it as
058a more of a parent student situation. So they have uh about the same second and third offenses that we do. So we're not seeing any major change there. Um but we're as an admin team um Jada and Ben have offered their input. They've been fantastic in uh the conversations that Mr. Bell, myself and I have with both Jada and Ben. They understand the predicament we're in. Um but we continually get progressive with what we I would say tightening the vice of that. Um, and so again, they know that we really only have one to two levers to pull before we're a seven to three school that's banning phones, right? The first lever would be to increase the uh consequence that we would have on the initial infraction with the hopes that it would determine or
059less kids would want that consequence to occur. The the second then is the attendance policy with the black box itself. And then really after that, there's not much else we can do other than do a 7 to three ban, right? which is a no phone for the entire day. The student I think know um that we are continually advocating to teach responsibility but we haven't found where that line of responsibility is yet. And so we're really really trying hard to work with our student body in that. And again I think uh overall I think the students would say when I walk around in classrooms there are fewer kids way fewer kids that are on phones just out in the open because they know they're going to get it taken away. We have uh teachers saying
060there is more increased conversations that we have better connectedness in our wins side of things even though the kids are like I have to talk but we're seeing kids playing games interacting again. Uh so we are seeing the benefits of it. Uh it is it is a challenge though for our admin team if you think of just those writeups alone the phone calls the talking and documenting. Um but we're not giving up on it and we're going to keep moving forward. >> Good. Thank you. Do do you think you're actually with that 21%ish um are you actually catching most of the people who have or do you think >> you think of us catching it's not us our first line of defense is 70 staff in our classrooms right >> so when we talk about
061consistently inconsistent we were really great I would say the first three to four weeks >> but then it turned into a don't ask don't help don't tell policy right so if the phone's in my pocket they're not asking me to put it in the box >> the first day I do that I have to put my phone in the box anymore because they didn't ask me. So, um, we're going to have to either revisit that and shift that back. We talk about that with our building leadership team. Um, and again, three administrators cannot be in 75 to 80 classrooms. It is as only strong as our first line of defense, which is where our teachers classroom environment is. Um, we did everything every staff meeting. We're putting the brave heart blue face on and hold
062the line. If you remember that, right, we're trying to hold the line, but um there are there are pockets, as the kids would say, for sure, where they know where they can and where they can't. >> Thank you. >> Well, from a board point of view, we don't like to pass policy that we aren't going to have implemented. So, good luck. >> Thank you on that. I'm going back to the >> Thank you for being here. And and Jada and Ben, thanks. >> You got to go, Ben. Yeah, Ben has been >> All right. Good. All right. So, let's move on to our next batch of reports, and that is we have a wig update from Mark. >> Y >> and you've got to be pretty uh proud of your staff today who did a
063very nice job. >> Yes, 100%. I was going to give a shout out to them. >> Um it is, as one who's lucky enough to observe them from from time to time, it is a beautiful symphony when I walk in there. >> Um a beautiful ger symphony, I would say. um they have uh immune systems of iron somehow. Um just the amount of times I watch someone just randomly sneeze in someone's direction, it's just it's amazing. But truly um just watching through play all of the the therapists and the teachers just deliver that really really important early intervention is just amazing to see. So honestly, if you ever had a have a moment to come just kind of check it out, it's definitely worth it. Um, and you'll see lots of very, very cool stuff.
064So, um, again, shout out to them. Um, this is just going to be a quick, uh, uh, kind of initial wig update. And I, I realize we are in December, so we're we're we're getting at this a little bit late, and you'll probably hear from me again in a month or two, uh, with more of a midyear update. Um, um, so just a little review of kind of what our special education wig is. Um, this is slightly different from last year. We made a slight adjustment to it. essentially 80% of special education students will show above average growth or demonstrate average proficiency on universal reading screeners based on fall to spring. Um what we just adjusted there is we added the or demonstrate average proficiency um because we thought it was important for if students
065were already proficient that that would would be a factor and we did change the u kind of the growth percentile from 65 which I think we realized was maybe a really aggressive target um to 50. Um, so we want to see a growth above that 50th percentile when it comes from fall to spring. So we a slight adjustment to what our wig was. Um, but not nothing, you know, major when it comes to that. Um, some of the things that we're doing this year as far as kind of committing to our lead measure, and I think the first and most important one is that we want to make sure that our special education wig isn't an add-on or an addition to the plate for our staff. So our wig really I think is supports or
066is supported by all of the building level wigs and so that is something that's really uh important. So you heard from the elementary school for example about their work to try to make sure that all students are proficient. Obviously our work in special education is supporting that as well. Um things like the high school working on kind of reading proficiency and reading strategies again all things that are very much working together um toward um the special education wig. um continuing the ongoing work as far as kind of the job alike PLC model. Um adopted kind of a a PLC notebook that uh Mary Beth had kind of put together for the high school um at our elementary level. So we're kind of following that model, making sure we're keeping notes. We have some guiding questions
067for our elementary folks um to meet on and address every single month. So they meet every month on the first Thursday unless it's kind of already taken and then we kind of bump it to another another date. We're committed to meeting every single month um for those teams because we believe that's really important work. We are coming up on kind of the finishing up of kind of the last the winter round of kind of screeners and so our kind of our some of our next meetings will be reviewing that data and looking at kind of how our growth numbers look from fall um to winter. Um basically we kind of break that down into ac behavioral focus, an academic focus andor a functional focus when it comes to those uh those folks. Uh we're doing
068something similar at the middle school. So we're having the middle school doing some meetings. Um the SLD uh team spent some time at one of our last inservice meetings or days really just talking as a group of four um for academic focused teachers on what they're doing in each of their classrooms and for us to try to identify some core foundational things that we're all doing. Um and then as well as some some add-ons that we're doing in each of those classes. And then when we look at our screening data, the idea will be to kind of do some comparing to from teacher to teacher to see, okay, what is it that you might be doing that is working really well and how can I learn from you. Uh we're also doing a couple different
069pilots um at the uh elementary and the middle school as far as kind of experimenting with some different um instructional strategies and models um to see kind of again what what is going to work best. Um, at the high school, we've done some different work on kind of looking at kind of our special education service delivery model. Uh, we're looking at some other districts who also kind of operate on a block system with a little intervention time to see like what we can learn from them as far as some different things that we can do um with that time. Um, so some different things are are going on there as well. And then coming up here, uh, once we have kind of all of our screening data collected, I think, uh, the middle school is
070the last one to kind of collect that, uh, we're going to have some, uh, data retreats and we'll look at, uh, some of those growth data from from fall to the winter. Um, a lot of our data really that I've just pulled for this time is really just based on proficiency. So, I went through and I just did pull kind of what our our baseline proficient numbers look like for our students in special education. um across the board from K through five and then also middle school and high school. Um so this is just kind of a starting point. Our goal is really based around growth and proficiency. So this kind of gives you kind of an idea of where we are right now. Um and when you kind of reference back to maybe some
071of the the data that the elementary folks had shared, you can kind of see where that is compared to that. um you'll notice that kind of proficiency starts a little bit higher at the the earlier levels and then kind of slowly kind of drops off. I think a lot of that is due to the kind of the gap um increasing between kind of what students and what the expectations are for a kindergartenner um versus you know a fifth grader. Um so that's fairly common I think when you look at most data sets as far as that that drop there. You can see the the proficiency data there. And then here it is for the high school and the middle school. You'll notice we have a few lower numbers at the high school. And that's mainly
072because the high school really only middle school tests all of their kids and that's all kids special education or not. Um 6 through eight. The high school really focuses on the kids who are receiving intervention. Um, and so they if a student is either on monitor or they're working on something else and we have data to show that they're already proficient, we don't usually screen those kids with STAR. Um, but the ones that do get academic intervention are screened and you can see the data there. This is just a reference document. This was the end of the year data from last year. Just wanted to include that. And then finally, just kind of different things as far as monitoring our wig. Um again um we don't have our growth data quite available quite yet. That
073will be available I would say within the next month. Uh we're fortunately this year last year if you remember we were using three different screening tools because we had as web we had fast bridge and star. This year we've really made I think a good decision to really kind of streamline that. And we have as web kind of across the board K5 and then STAR 6 through 12. Uh we continue to work hard to try to make sure that students are taking testing seriously um by sometimes incentivizing them a little bit um and and working hard to you know make sure that they're giving us their best effort because we're using that data to kind of evaluate programming. And then finally next path Mary Beth kind of found this great tool that we can can
074use um for kind of review of our data and uh it really has allowed some much more efficient reporting um and data collection compared to some of our last tool. And so that has been kind of a gamecher for for kind of looking at our data. Um special ed teachers also have their case load now and they can click one button and see attendance, academic and behavioral data all in one spot. And so it's really been a nice way to for teachers to see everything um for their kids. So that I think is the wig in a nutshell and you'll hear from me again in a month or two. >> Any questions? Thank you. Thank you very much for your work and for being here tonight. >> Yeah. >> All right. Our next report is
075a an update about special education reimbursement and Lynette. >> Yeah. So, um let's think back. Sorry about voice. Let's think back um when the 2027 bienium budget was passed. Uh a lot of us in the room and organizations that we are affiliated with uh were really promoting um and encouraging the legislature to increase special education funding. And although it was not passed at a percentage that some of us may have thought it should be, we were still celebrating what the expectation was. So um what was communicated out when the budget was passed was that special education reimbursement would be 42% in the first year. So in this year 2526 and then go to 45% in the second year 2627. So, I'm here to give you an update on where that is and and re remember
076special education reimbursement is reimbursing expenses from the prior year. So, we're getting the reimbursement this year for expenses last year. And I we'll go through a little bit of that. Okay. So, what is special education categorical aid? Um, it's really the main categorical aid program that supports uh special education in Wisconsin. And as I said, it's costs um it's reimbursement for costs that are from the previous year. and those have to be qualifying costs. Uh how does it work? So special education aid is some certain and we've talked about this in the past but just to recap. So when they say 42% um it's not a guaranteed percentage. It's they're putting in a some certain appropriation. So it's a specific dollar amount of money that they hope and I'll use air quotes. they hope provides
07742% reimbursement to districts. If it doesn't, then it's prorated down from there or up if if it's a good year. Uh some sufficient means that whatever those costs and reimbursements would be, they will put that much money in to meet that. Okay. So, we're talking about some certain >> question on that. Yes. So, some certain but on previous years. So, don't they know what those are? Hm. That's a great question. So, um, districts report, we provide an annual report of prior year expenses and those reports are due in September. >> Okay. >> Um, >> and when is those those um financial reports submitted on time? No. Um and in fact the largest district in the state of Wisconsin is they are still DPI is still collecting >> 2425 financial data from them and so that's
078that's great. You you have um all you've teed this up nicely. >> Perfect. >> Okay. So, here's a little bit of history. And I borrowed this this visual from WSBO, who then also borrowed it from, and I'm sorry, I can't read it from here with my glasses on. >> Uh, budget. Yeah. Okay. So, um, and Allison has brought this up every time we talk about special ed. years ago it was a 70% reimbursement and it was guaranteed 70% no matter what that costs uh districts were reimbursed that. So you can see the decline over the years and of course expenses have increased but the pot of money has not increased at the same rate. So here we are sitting with the estimate of 20 of for 25 26 of 42%. last year where it came
079at in at um all all in all done was 30.64. Okay. So, we were really celebrating the idea that we might get 42%. Now, veteran finance directors and business managers were not expecting 42%. And here's why. This is a little bit of history um of the fiscal year. So, what were the state budget estimates and then where did things land? 2122 wasn't so bad, right? They were saying 28.2% and it came in at 29.6. So, let's move down to 2526. This year was estimated at 42% and we received our first payment in November and DPI is using an estimate of 35%. And we believe that they always use a conservative estimate because districts are still reporting their data and they don't want to claw back money from districts, right? So they want to be able
080to true up everything then at the end of the year and and maybe and oftentimes it increases the the actual percentage increases. Um, but I haven't talked to any other business manager or finance director who was using that conservative of a number of 35%. So, um, we do think that it will end up a slightly higher than that. Um, but this this is something we need to keep our eyes on um and plan for because if it does come in at 35% uh the way that that impacts the budget that we were using and planning on is about $250,000. So it those are real numbers for for River Falls. Um you know one of the other things related to the state budget uh and why we were you know we were celebrating um the 42%
081as you know there was also no increase in the pot of state aid money and that that was the this is the first time since 200910 that the state has not increased the pot of just regular state equalization aid. And that year happened to be a year that um they were in a deficit. We're our state is sitting on billions of dollars in surplus and yet chose not to increase that pot of equalization need. So this this feels um I I guess when you couple that um is sort of doubly concerning. So >> and is the reason that the estimate currently is not keeping up with I mean the 42% estimate was probably based on um spending from the prior year what we estimated as the spending for the prior year is spending up and
082therefore this percentage estimate is >> very much so. >> Yeah. So, increased needs for services. Every district is seeing that. And so, the state could say, "Hey, well, we shot for this." >> But here's the reality, you know. >> Um, yeah. >> Here we are. >> Um, so, so we will see reimbursements November through March. We'll be at that 35%. And then we won't actually know what the true up number is until we receive our payment in June. Um, so until then, uh, you know, we're we're going to dial back and plan on a 35% increase and see what happens at the end of the year. >> What were you what were we planning on? What did you have kind of as a budget? >> Like 40. >> I had 40. >> 40. Okay. >>
083Which makes a lot of sense when you look at the history of what was estimated and what the actual was. It was a good number to start with. >> It was conservative. Y currently um there's a bill in the legislature legislature to um basically change it to um make it be >> some sufficient and um so that >> to what Allison said we we understand the complexities of the dynamic of those thing of of it the realisticness of this bill passing but we feel like it as a district who was um you know provided with this information and uh use that information in in in our budgeting. It would be nice if there was uh one or two things. one, the ideal is that they would make it um make an appropriate allocation or um
084maybe not take uh such a a large stance and plaster the historic 42% increase out and communicate that out if if there was not uh certainty that it was actually going to be there. So, um, as you can make sure we communicate that to our legislators and, um, again, we're hoping the news ends up being a little bit better, but, um, this is part of the budget planning process. >> Well, it was, yeah, it was put out there. Well, we're not giving you the per student increase or we're not increasing that, but but look what we're doing for special ed. We're really raising special ed. Well, are you? No. I mean, it's not really happening. So, is our transfer from our general fund really going to be so much less this year? It's certainly not
085going to be adequate to make up for what we're not getting on the first student, right? So, >> yeah, something's got to change. >> We will adjust. >> We heard a really good example of how this is coming at us, right? >> I mean, they're they're talking about how many more students they've got. Yeah. >> Two and threey old and exc three and foury old category >> with greater need with greater need. >> And this is going to move through for the next dozen years or so. So, um, it's just coming at us and we can see that increase even at the lowest level. We had a great example of it tonight. So, >> thank you, Lynette. It's important for people to understand this information inside and outside the district. All right, we are going
086to move on to the superintendent report. And I'm just drawing your attention to the fact that this update is going to be about the cell phone legislation though. So there will be other times when board members are able to provide input about what we'd like to see in a policy. Today we're looking at what the legislature expects. >> Yeah. So so it was nice to hear from Ben and Jada. I really appreciate it. It's always really tricky to represent the entire student body. You guys did a good job. Um and I and I also appreciate the board u kind of carving that time in to to give our students a chance to to give feedback. It's one thing if the principal or a superintendent represents what's happening in schools, it's another thing to have the
087uh students actually speak to it. So, I appreciate that. So, my job tonight is to talk a little bit about the new cell phone uh law that was passed and give some kind of FAQs and clarification on where we sit as a school district in response to that new law. So, uh, act 42 requires all school boards to adopt a local policy that subject to limited expectations prohibit students from using certain wireless communication devices during instructional time. We have to adopt that policy by July 1 of 26. So, do we have a policy now? No, we don't. Uh, we do have handbook expectations. Uh, we do have general school expectations that uh communicate to our students and families what our uh expectations for use of wireless communication devices are. But we don't it's not specifically
088addressed in a policy. So we will have to adopt a policy by July 1 of uh 26. So the process between now and then is to look at our current practices at every building. Obviously, the focus is on the high school, but at every building, uh identify uh if our current practices are working for us and uh or if there's other expectations or appropriate details that we want to include and bring to the board, uh a cell phone policy that reflects that. And so, we we'll do that work. Um now, we're doing a lot of Neola policy work as well. Um my recommendation for this is that we would take time at a committee meeting to have some conversations around that first and then do a normal first and second read. So that timing won't
089look exactly like an ad hoc policy committee because I think we need a little time just to make sure we dig into that. So we'll give you specific details on that, but that's my recommendation for how we would do it. So I thought tonight we just do a quick fly over of uh the new law. Okay. And so the first thing is okay. Well, does the law define what a wireless communication device is? And it does. It says it's a portable wireless device that has the capability to provide voice messaging or other data communication between two or more parties. Sounds nice, right? It does list some things like cell phones, tablets, laptops, and gaming devices. It doesn't list everything though that would meet that u like certain smartwatches. So we will have to make sure
090that we're very clear as our students said with what would be a wireless communication device in our policy uh based on that criteria. One thing that about the policy is it it doesn't uh restrict or even really address student use of districtisssued devices. So that's a little interesting piece of this. >> And does our policy I don't want to get to this but if I have a an Apple Watch do I have to put that in the black box too? >> Uh you're No, I don't believe so. That that you're not expected to, >> right? >> Just the phones. >> Just turn the ringer off or whatever when you're >> Yeah. There's nothing really enforcing the uh watches yet. More so the headphones and the phones. >> And the buds. Yeah. The earbuds are the
091big one. And those they're not supposed to have on. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Um >> I think I think too because you know you want you want that but then also these devices are a form of security when something happens. >> We'll get to that. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Um Okay. So, how does the new law distinguish between instructional and non-instructional time? So, it says that it prohibits it prohibits student use during instructional time, but it doesn't define that term. Okay. So, as a school district, we will need to either A develop and include an operational de definition of instructional time in our policy or B adopt a policy that broadly restricts student use of covered devices during a full period that would include anything that could be defined as instructional time. So you
092heard uh Kit and the and students talk a little bit about th the two different things there. So our current practices define instructional time at the high school as opposed to K8 where we broadly say you can't have your cell phone out at any time or can't use it at any time. And so that's the decision and the recommendations that we'll bring we will bring forth. The law doesn't require one or the other. Uh we can do either. The law just says you can't you have to prohibit student use during instructional time. Um, so that's something that we will have to do. And so practically speaking, we're going to have to communicate rules and expectations uh that would apply also to non-instructional time, especially at the high school car votes. So the law uh from
093a statutory standpoint has some exceptions to this prohibition. So basically, we couldn't create a policy that would prohibit the use of these things because these are exceptions within the statute. The first exception is uh if it is in the students IEP or a plan that's developed under section 504, we couldn't we couldn't restrict their use. If it's if the cell phone or personal communication device is uh used to manage the pupil's health care, we can't prohibit that. In the event of an emergency or perceived threat, we can't prevent that. And use of authorized use authorized by a teacher for educational purposes, we can't prohibit that. So, I'm not going to get into the details. It'll be our job uh to create recommendations around how we create this policy that's not out of step with the
094law. Um and we will do that. Um but as you what I'm what I'm communicating to you clearly is there's some complexities around some of these. Some of these are pretty cut and dried. Um but others are more gray for interpretation. And so it points to uh what a teacher deals with even now or even when we have a tighter policy on how they're supposed to navigate uh this situation. Um it is on the surface fairly straightforward. No cell phones during instructional time. In actuality, there's a lot of complexities that our students have to work through and understand. Our teachers have to work through and uh uh work on how they're going to commit to it and our and our admin team and how it's going to roll out. So, um, more to come on
095that, but if if you're asked about that the carveouts, those are the carveouts. Um, and then, um, can local policies be more restrictive? Sure, they can be more restrictive than than what's out there, but you can't, um, you still have to observe those statutory exceptions. So, you couldn't create a policy that says absolutely no cell phones, even if you have an IEP. Clearly, we're not going to do that, and you couldn't. And then, um, there's some reporting commun uh, uh, expectations. So we will provide a copy of the local device policy to all enrolled students so they can review it very carefully and understand it. It's easy. Uh and and no later but then the first of October we will have to submit that to DPI and then it's not addressed. Obviously the the devil
096is in the details. We've talked about that. So we'll have to dedicate time and resources and planning to have a consistent approach to enforcement. I think Ben and Jada did a really nice job explaining uh the consistency piece is important. So questions. >> Well, so when you say you you get to it in the event of an emergency or a perceived threat, they can use their cell phone, but if it's in the black box, they can't use it. >> Yeah. So there's there's some complexities to the law. Uhhuh. Right. >> So, I think what it means is if there if if a student is found to be using their cell phone, which they can't if it's in that black box, but if they did if they were found to be using their cell phone and
097it was proven that there was an actual or perceived threat, then the school couldn't give them a cell phone violation or something of that nature. >> Yeah. Okay. I wonder too, are there school districts I don't have a problem with this policy, but are there school districts that are saying, um, hey, we need to all use our cell phones appropriately. put your cell phones away, you know, in your pocket and don't use them during during class time. >> So, so many school districts had that policy >> before >> up through Ben was mentioning um you know, how how his reality was when he became a freshman. I think what became abundantly clear is it wasn't working >> right. >> It was it was a a huge stressor on teachers to navigate. Uh it was confusing
098for students because there was different expectations from first block to second block to third block. So there's been an evolution on uh how schools and school districts should respond to use of personal devices. So do are there still school district school districts out there that do that? Uh I'm not that I'm aware of. Most school districts have moved to to more restrictive >> like the boxes and whatever because it's a challenge everywhere. I mean it's a challenge in the workplace. >> It's a challenge in my dining room. >> Mine too. >> And not just by my kids. >> Yeah. >> I mean we all are. I think we we're all susceptible to it, right? So, um this isn't um this isn't anything that >> um we're taking lightly, but I I also think uh if
099you point it back to our mission and our vision and our and the goals that we have set, we're really a lot we're focused on academic growth, academic achievement for students. We're focused on creating engaging environments that help kids think about their futures. And the question would be ready ready access to your cell phone anytime you want versus restricted access to certain times of the day. Which one can help us achieve our goals more? >> Yeah. >> And and we see it as as the latter. >> Yep. Can always change it to in the future as things evolve. >> Yep. >> Well, thank you for that update and I know that we will be deliberate and careful and establishing our policy in accordance with this legislation. All right, we're going to move on to action
100items. Before the board this evening, we have meeting minutes from the November 17th regular board of education meeting. We have bills that have been submitted for payment as well as recommendations regarding employment. Um, on this consent agenda, we also have all of the items that will be a second reading that are listed under item four and then the first readings under item five. Is there anybody who would like to have something removed from the consent agenda? All right. Then is there a motion to approve minutes, bills, employment, and the Neola policies as presented? >> So moved. >> Thank you. That was Monica. Okay. >> And okay. All those in favor? >> I post. The motion is carried 6. All right. The policy ad hoc committee met on December 1st and we went through a number
101of policies. The items that you see in numbers 1 through nine are the ones that we had some measure of conversation about. So I'm going to take a motion to approve the first reading of all of them and a second and then David is going to go through them and highlight the specific individual issues that we looked at when we were discussing it so everybody's on the same page. So, is there a motion to approve um all of the policies listed in 1 through nine under letter B? This will be a first reading. >> So, moved. >> Thank you, Allison. Is there a second? >> You get that one. All right. Dave, can you go through all of them, please? >> Yep. So, I'm starting on page 136 2271. Early College Credit Program. This is
102the simplest change of all. The only change that we made is uh we went with a consistent use of the word student instead of child. That was a that was a intentional thing there. And then we also are committed this represents the current practice but the board is uh okay with a year from now uh revisiting some of the requirements for entry specifically the GPA requirements and the concept of undue hardship. So that's more to come and that's kind of why that was here. But the only practical change there was the the change from child to student. So that covers 136 and 137. Moving to 138, which is policy 2370, educational options provided by the district. Two changes there. We added at the the last sentence of the first paragraph making sure we know that
103it's not intended to be an exhausted list. So we're clear that like there's more than this. This is just a um a sampling. And then we uh on the we moved some things around and to the last paragraph we put notification of educational options and that highlights the posting requirement that is associated with this that our ed pro team will talk about in January. Um so we just moved that around and highlighted uh word for word not just naming the policy there. So that's what we did there. Moving on to page 140 that's uh health education. the last sentence uh we adjusted um we were clear that the health teacher is the person who is is the leader of the development of that curriculum. Um but we so the the the sentence was changed to
104in implementing the program the health teacher may use district and outside resources including DPI guidelines and consultants and then we added the with administrative appro approval piece that sentence was not worded that way in the first version of it. Moving on to 141, human growth and development. Uh we clarified kind of how we described uh in the first sentence there Wisconsin state statutes. We wanted to read so people understand and it wasn't maybe readable in a nice way. And then we clarified letter A just below that medically accurate and when age appropriate address the following topics. Again making sure that both of those elements are covered within that medically accurate and age appropriate. And then on the on page 142 the third to the bottom paragraph um which addresses the citizen advisory committee we included
105as part of the regular curriculum review cycle. So that that provides the clarity on the inter interval at which uh minimum that advisory committee would be called. Moving on to 143 public complaints. Um this is a uh this is policies that we had recently adopted. So there wasn't a lot of changes. Um but because it was smooshing together three policies, we had to remove some language that was duplicated in there and we did that. Fix the headings. Um and then there were two items specifically that we addressed on page 144. In the third paragraph under public complaints about instructional library media, um we had made this change in a prior policy where we remove the word student from the protected group there. So it's the basis of sex, not the basis of students sex. So
106that's what that one is. Um that's a change. And then the the last one is we added a hyperlink um right in the policy to the uh in step two uh which is how somebody who would want to move to step two could make that request. We we figured out how to get that link right in there. So that's in there on page 144. >> Okay. Moving on to 146. Uh use of cameras and other recording uh devices in locker rooms. We just clarified the language on the third paragraph up that that is pretty clear that no no person may use a cell phone to capture or record any individual locker room. That was a maybe worded a little awkwardly and we we just wanted to be very clear that's the policy. So that's 146.
107Uh 147 public attendance at school events. We added that first paragraph um that uh you know identify that we're glad you're here and welcomes attendance uh of members of the community to to these types of things. However, uh we have some expectations for your for your conduct. >> I like that. >> And then it kind of goes through the the pieces there. And the only other things that we adjusted here um were reorganizing so the flow made more sense. We put all the prohibitive activities in one spot. all the access uh in another spot and all the what happens if you're not following the rules in another spot. >> Nice. >> 149 district support organizations. Um on the second to last paragraph, the second to last sentence, we uh wanted to make sure that we
108had in policy that use of these things is consistent with branding guidelines. We don't want to see any like, you know, weird colors with our wildcat or blue and gold. That's us, right? That's what that's about. And so we just wanted to be clear if we give permission that they that they follow those things. And then the last one on 150. Maybe not last. Yeah. No, it is last. Good. >> Uh all right. Under private education or tribal educ uh school education students. This is kind of that part-time. If you're in those buckets, you can still enroll up to in up to two courses. And the last two sentence clarify last two sentences clarify how we judge if uh a student who is in that situation a private uh a student attending a private school
109or student attending a tribal school um would meet the criteria to so we place them in the correct spot. So in the high school um we're going to treat them like we would if it was a transfer in from a public school. we're going to look at their their record, look at the prerequisites that they've taken and decide if they're qualified to take the course that they're requesting to take or if there's a more appropriate placement. And then K8, uh this is the part where we added the area around um K8 students will be placed at the grade level with age groups or in a subject area they are best adjusted to academically, socially and psychologically and where their probability of success is the highest. So it won't be just their academic readiness. It will
110be there will be other factors and vice versa. So >> thank you. >> Any questions on any of those? >> Yes. Any questions? >> All right then. All those in favor? >> I opposed. The motion is carried. >> All right. Educational program Allen and >> team. Um on Monday, December 8th, the education program committee met and um had some re really our focus was on the report card and the kinds of ways we're responding to the district report card. This is it's called a report card, but the department of public instruction in the state of Wisconsin does an u measures uh what they think is our um where we're at academically with all districts. And uh one of the challenges we've got, this happens annually, it's always happened, is that the DPI keeps making some
111changes in the way in which these reports are presented to us. So, it's hard to make year-to-year comparisons. And Mary Beth will probably get into this just a little bit. So, it's been a real challenge and it's and the DPI has heard about it from a lot of districts that it's very hard for us to make full use of this data when they keep changing the criteria in the assessments. However, there's a lot of good information in this um that we can still use even if we can't do use longitudinal data um on it quite yet. Um and it part of the presentation was going into in depth on where we're where uh we can see what's going on in our district, how we can compare ourselves with other districts like us to sort of
112see where we are with this perspective and really have a discussion about what we're doing within our district to address all the things that this report card helps to inform us with. So with that introduction, I guess I'll turn it over to Mary Beth and you can talk to us about this. Sorry. >> I do want to acknowledge all the work that Mary Beth and and Amy put into going through and parsing out this data and trying to make it useful for us. Thank you. >> Thanks. Trying to would be the key. Um, so as Alan mentioned, there were a lot of changes made. There were several changes made that made it difficult to compare year-over-year. So one of the things that we went through during the ED pro committee was what was what we
113could compare and what we couldn't compare. And so one of the first pieces is the they changed the updated the thresholds uh which are the cut scores of how they rank um from fails to meet expectation to significantly exceed. So you can see on this uh slide you can see the ones from 23 24 to 2425 and they convened a uh they had a a panel of educators that came together in the summer and they have all of that information available about how they made these changes. Uh and part of the reason these changes were made to was to adapt for the cut scores that they changed last year. So it's just kind of this uh uh rolling effect that we continue to get of when a change is made, another change needs to be
114made to accommodate the other change that was made. So um they continue to focus on four priority area scores, achievement, growth, target group outcomes, and ontrack graduation. That has not changed uh since they started the report card names have slightly changed. Um target group outcome and on track to graduation always remains at 25%. Achievement and growth varies based on uh our economic uh Nate >> soconomic >> socioeconomic >> status of students. I always forget what that word is. Um I did use Gemini artificial intelligence to help me create this but it's accurate portrayal of our district. uh we have 36.1% of the points that we get are from achievement calculate for our overall score and 13.9% come from growth and then again the target group outcomes and the ontrack graduation stay at 25%. So we
115see the achievement and the growth score changes. And the reason why the state did this is to try to create a comparison between districts allowing if you have a higher socioeconomic growth your growth score weight will be higher than your achievement score. Uh our district continues to uh exceed expectation which is four stars and that takes into account all four of these areas. So it's not just that one area, it's not just achievement. They take all four of those areas that come to the final points. Um and we uh exceed expectation. So here is our four areas from 23 24 to 2425. Um we decreased slightly in achievement. Our growth score increased nicely. Our target group also increased as well as our ontrack graduation. However, those numbers are awesome. We were super excited when we
116saw them until we saw the chart. Shoot. I don't know if I can do that. If you click it, Amanda, will it? >> Um, which one? >> If you just click the slide, will it? No. So, we can't compare all of them, though. Um, if you go back to here, the achievement, target group outcomes, and target graduation score, we can't compare is what they said. The only thing we can compare is the growth. So we'll be looking forward to next year when we can. Part of that reason is because uh a lot of these scores uh achievement falls into target group outcome and ontrack graduation and achievement has is a three-year rolling average or three-year um >> rolling weighted average. >> Rolling average. >> And because achievement is used in target group outcomes and on
117track to graduation, we only have two years. So next year will be the first year of having the three years in a row >> and and and again the reason that we can't use that is the DPI made some changes in the assessment and as long as they keep making the change it's like comparing apples and oranges. So if they could be hopefully the assessment will be consistent over three years and we can actually put this in perspective and see that but this is what's going on and this is it's not our doing. every school district in the state's been dealing with this frustration. So anyway, >> I'm looking forward to it being consistent. >> Yes, we need it to be consistent. >> Um we continue uh this is comparable districts that we compare ourselves
118to in other uh and at other times we're third against our comparable districts for the overall accountability score. Here is uh other ach the achievement score we're third for the achievement score only. So for that category, we're the same or higher than 81.6% of districts in the state. When we pull out ELA achievement and math achievement, you can also see we're third in those. >> One thing I just want to interrupt because we talked about comparing what we com can compare and what we can't compare. So what we can compare is how we fit to our comparables within this within this report card because uh the those elements are exactly the same for our comparable districts. What we can't do is we can't look at Riverfall School District's individual scores in 2324 and compare our
119growth or lack of growth into 2425 because of the changes to the test. So it is appropriate for us to uh in our scorecard in a strategic plan to to measure ourselves uh and look at this data um and feel good about where we stand. But what we can't do is look at the the actual score from 2324 and compare it to the actual score from 2425. Sorry, I just want to make sure we're clear. >> Right. And so it makes it challenging to use it for our own internal uses. >> Yes. >> But we can compare to neighboring districts. So this is these are our comparable districts. Uh this is where we are in the Big Rivers Conference. Um we're second uh overall account that's the overall accountability score. And then when we move
120into achievement we when we move into achievement we're placed third and our achievement is the same or higher than 81.6% of the dis of districts. The reason that is is because our growth score, remember that is one thing we can compare. Our growth score put us in second for uh in the Big Rivers Conference, our growth score was so much higher than other areas. When they weight that priority, when they wait the achievement versus growth, the growth is what pushed us forward. um comparing big rivers. Um we talk about post-secondary off um offerings and the amount of students participating in post-secondary offerings. Um we have seen a increase year-over-year with the exception of the years we lose staff that teach those courses that are specific to that um AP course or dual enrollment course. the
121AP courses there's less variance uh var variety in those becau because of another person with the same degree like a social studies teacher could teach the AP course a dual enrollment course and industry recognized credential course we we have to have c different certification for that and we can't just have a teacher step in a different teacher step in and do those however the postsecary preparation scores and the next screen that has art scores are actually from 23 324. So, they're like a two-year delay always on those scores, >> which I did not point out when we talked last week. Uh, and then here's the art scores from uh 23 24 U versus the state, Riverfalls versus the state. And I think it was just an interesting piece to point out. They, you know, keep
122track of how many students. So 53.9% of our students successfully completed at least one of those art courses, which is something that I think we should be really proud of because it's not just that snapshot snapshot of the day that we take the test or get the assessment and how the we achieve, but it's all of the pieces that come together. Um, and one of the things that I want to point out is last year when we talked about this, we talked about the growth score and how that was something we really needed to hit on. And I think, you know, Mark kind of hit on the special ed piece and talked about that they've done a ton of work and as have all of our regular ed staff to make sure that all of
123our students are growing, not just the average and expecting average growth. They want growth from every single student that comes to the comes to their buildings. New this year, um, on the report cards, they're also keeping track of the third grade reading. It's just information. it does not contribute to the report card. Similar to the post-secary options in the arts percentages that that doesn't give us any points or takeaway points. And then the other piece that they're they've added is incident rates and that's how many um charges were filed or cited um to students district versus state. Our response continues to be from academic services. three areas that we trying to be annoyingly consistent when we talk about guaranteed and viable curriculum, authentic teacher collaboration, and high quality teaching and learning. And Amy and I
124talked to teachers about this and we've talked to you about it. We really feel strongly the curriculum review cycle is kind of that place where it all starts. And when we can get through our first cycle of curriculum review, um, and when people are coming around to it a second time, we know that it's just going to continue to strengthen. um all of these areas. Our key takeaways, we had a slight increase in ELA achievement. We had a notable math achievement gain. Our we we did have an increase in our overall gross growth score. Um and we continue to maintain create and maintain systems that promote academic growth for all. And I kind of talked about that. Uh we've we're working a lot in academic services on our MT our multi-tiered level systems of support
125through the state of Wisconsin. Amy and Mark have put together a big committee um and we're continuing to refine that. And bottom line is the district comparisons are interesting, but they're not exact comparisons. And so remembering there's a lot of really wonderful things that happened here and that the district scorecard, this scorecard doesn't tell the whole story. Any questions? But the things that it does tell, those are some pretty important key takeaways for us. Anything else? >> Again, thank you for your work on this. Overall, this is a good report card for us. Um, it's good news for us. However, we've always got lots of work to do and it's going to help inform some of our work going forward and um those plans are pretty detailed. So, thank you. >> Do you want to
126talk about the curriculum review cycle? >> We we discussed that at the meeting as well and we know how important it is. So at the meeting we also discussed the stage one curriculum review cycle the pieces that all the that all that every curriculum team does and we shared all the vision and belief statements and instructional visions that they've done and how that's changed. Um we showed a little bit how they prioritize standards showed a heat map and then talked about how they also deconstruct standards so that all the teachers in that curriculum team understand have the same understanding of the standards they're teaching. It was overall it was a really good meeting, but we spent a lot of time waiting around in the weeds and you really helped us guide us through that. But
127so I think we all learned a lot about how uh where we are and and and how we measure that and those kinds of things. So appreciate that. >> Thank you. All right. Finance and facilities. >> All right. >> We also met on Monday, December uh 8th and went through our agenda. The first thing that we discussed was the facility projects update. Uh we had recently at that time new boilers had gone online at Westside. So that was uh part of last summer's uh projects and we're and getting those going uh to do. One of the things we're working on this winter and short term is balancing several of the buildings. The mechanicals when you put in these new systems, these mechanical systems, you need to go make sure that they're working properly and that
128they're correctly balanced. So that's something that's being done at all the buildings. Uh we're also in the process of identifying the 2026 projects. We got some good news. We have a a $900,000 credit uh from uh Krauss Anderson. And Lynette, maybe you can explain kind of the bid process and how how that we got that credit. Um, so it's Excuse me. Sorry. >> You were in that early childhood class. It's >> going It does the wheels. >> Um, so we have the GMP's uh guaranteed maximum prices for each of the projects um through KA when they do issue the bids or receive the bids back and accept the bids from all the subcontractors. Um Carl Anderson also builds in allowances and contingencies and and uh general conditions and other things that um with some estimates.
129So anyway, as those projects are finished, um we have change orders. Some of those change orders increase costs, some of them decrease costs. And so when that all shakes out um and we start wrapping up the projects, then we look at what were the actual expenditures or where we expected to land compared to all of those GMPS and estimates of cost. And so when they're doing that, that full $28 million, um, they gave us the good news that bids came in under or projects came in under the GMPS and and some of the estimates for those alternate costs as well. So >> So that was 900,000 that we'll uh we will look to uh spend this next summer on a list of items. The other uh nice thing that we kind of hit was the
130interest rate earnings that we have with the money that we took in from the referendum. We put it in interest bearing accounts and we'll have about $1.3 million uh in interest earnings that we'll be able to put towards projects for the next summer. So in in total about $2 to $2.2 million will be available to us for those projects >> that are in the scope of the referendum. >> That are in the scope obviously of the referendum. Yes. Of course. We also had some additional contingency that the district held on to as well that uh for change orders, right? >> And so we have that credit as well. >> Right. When you when you do a referendum, you come up with a big list of things that need to get done and you and you
131do the top items and then whatever's left, you know, we can add tick off some more more of those items that uh uh that we're going to be able to do because of those additional funds. So, uh, the next thing on the item was, uh, we discussed our 10-year, uh, plan. We have we we do periodically do a 10-year summer maintenance capital project plan, and it's required by the state. So, we have a 10-year plan that we update and we're in the process of going to be updating the plan. The last one we did was for the 2324. And basically, what you do is you look at your facilities for the next 10 years and identify those kinds of things that need to be done. uh we set aside about $650,000 a year uh in
132our budget to help fund those those projects. Uh and so we'll be working through that plan and coming up with our new 10-year summer maintenance capital project plan. Uh we went through a budget update and Lynette did a great job tonight going through we talked a lot about the uh the special ed funding and kind of that process. She gave us pretty much the presentation she gave earlier tonight. So, I won't rehash that, but uh it's coming in quite a bit less than what we kind of thought. They said 42%. It's actually our first payment from DPI was 35%. We're hoping that's a little conservative and that'll be more in the 38 to 39% when it's all said and done. Uh with that, the last thing on our agenda was we tal we discussed uh
133the community service fund levy as part of our August uh our annual meeting. We identify uh fund 80 uh levy that that we um um tax for and those are things kids club I uh food service and community ed >> not food service sorry >> just community ed and kids club sorry so we talked about uh the we've kind of kept it at a a flat dollar amount and that dollar amount hasn't changed over the uh last five years I think it is so we have a plan in place to try to increase that by about $40,000 a year over the next three years to help increase our fund balance. Um that we can use our our uh help our fund balance is running at about 9.9% of revenues right now and we want to
134get that up. Uh so after 3 years it'll be up to just under 17%. Anything else you want to say on that? >> Yeah, so basically um we ran a few scenarios. Um it's not something that's going to happen overnight, but we talked about set kind of setting goal ranges like we do with our general fund balance in a policy that says, you know, we should maintain a fund balance between um 25 and 30% in general fund. So, uh we talked about setting something uh in place similar for fund. Um, and so that was the recommendation to set that to eventually get to or the goal to get to between a 15 and 20% fund balance in fund 80 and also look at how much of the levy what percentage of the levy is funding
135the total expenses in fund 80 at a 20 to 25% um range. So it in the scenarios that I provided, you can see it takes a few years and and things will change. Um the budget will change, where we land at the end of the year will change. Um but we wanted to provide some scenarios to just kind of see how we could work our way to those ranges. >> And a fund balance is really a savings account for those programs uh that the the revenues and the expenses are kind of a moving target. And so it just gives us some flexibility and allows us the years that we're short on revenues over expenses that it's what we use to to make up that gap. So and that was the finance facility committee. >> Would
136you like to make the motion? Okay. >> I will make the motion to approve a plan for future community fund balance levies. >> Is there a second? >> Thank you. So everybody should remember that we are um approving a plan and that we will actually set the levy in October. Okay, any questions or comments on this? Thank you for your careful work planning to help guide us. All those in favor? >> I opposed. The motion is carried. All right. Um also on December 8th, the personnel committee met. We had a short agenda, but we had good discussion. So um first of all we heard an update from the calendar committee which would be about the special dates um for the next year 2627. We just to make sure everybody remembers that we rely on a
137committee led by Nate to establish what this um calendar is going to look like. People who are using it need to be the ones to make that decision. And then we also went into close session to discuss our bargaining goals for 2627. You have anything else to add? All right. So we had no action even though we had a lot of discussion. Um now on letter F, one of the things that we need to do is get prepared to go to the WASY um delegate assembly. Allison is going to be our uh representative this year. >> Filling in for Lindsay. >> Yes. Yes. Thank you very much for doing that. um we have two choices and the first thing is that we could specifically direct Allison to vote on issue by issue by issue. The
138challenge with that is there could be some adjustments that are made on the floor of the delegate assembly that and we wouldn't want to lock you in to having to do exactly what we've said if there's a reasonable adjustment to make. So the other option is that we empower Allison to vote in the best interest of the school district on these issues. That's my recommendation. That's what we have done before. That's what Dave is recommending. But we also do want to make sure that Allison is prepared with the issues. And so you have the resolutions in your packet. we have plenty of time for you to be able to review them and then to say I think that we should have conversation about this so that Allison is clear about a specific issue. We can
139choose to do that. Today Dave is going to give us some background on the decoupling issue which is a really interesting one here >> because we have resolutions one for and one against. >> So um I think that we should take a motion and have a second and then we'll turn to Dave. So, is there a motion that we actually I will make that motion um that the school board empower redirect our delegate to vote in the best interest of the school district of River Falls at the delegate assembly? Is there a second? >> I'll second that. >> Okay, Monica. All right. Now, before we vote, can you lead us through the conversation about decoupling? >> It's complicated, so we're going to just listen to everything he has to say and then we'll ask question.
140>> Yeah. But let him get through the whole thing and then we'll talk. >> It's number 10 on the list that you got from us. >> Number 11. >> Yeah. One thing I wanted to mention too is these are resolutions that are created by the Wisconsin School Board Association um based on recommendations from their policy and resolution committee. These may impact how WASB advocates, but it doesn't change laws or statutes just merely by this discussion. It's really it's a policy setting agenda. And I just wanted to make that clear. and the action tonight gives Allison the authority to cast a vote on the district's behalf um for how we land on those policies or those resolutions. So that that's the big piece too. As Stacy mentioned, um feel free to uh read through those resolutions
141carefully. um if you feel that it's necessary uh for the district to to to have a conversation if we should or shouldn't be in favor of any other of the resolutions besides 10 and 11 which I'm going to spend the most time on just reach out to Stacy or me and then we will just have that as an agenda item for January because that will be prior to when we actually go to the state convention. Okay. So the most unique element of this year's resolution pertains to resolution 10 and 11. All right. So this year the delegate assembly is in the situation where they have two conflicting proposed resolutions on the exact same topic. So resolution 10 calls for WSB to support the policy of decoupling. I'll talk about what that is in a second.
142Uh and resolution 11 calls for WB to oppose the policy of decoupling or in other words um resolution 11 is basically saying we support the current law. All right. So you might be wondering how can that h how can you do that? How can you have two opposing stances on the same issues? Uh what if both resolutions were path passed? That seems crazy. Uh and it is not going to happen because according to Robert's rules of order, uh a main motion cannot be brought up again during the same meeting if it is in direct conflict with a motion that has already been adopted. So if resolution 10 is approved by the delegates, then 11 is rendered moot. we could all go home a little bit earlier. Okay. So, um, now what could happen is 10
143doesn't pass and then they consider 11 and 11 also doesn't pass. And if that happens, what that means is that WAB just doesn't have a a position on coupling or decoupling at all. Okay. So, that's that's the Robert's rules of order of how they arrived at having two policies that are exact opposite of one. >> Indeed, to this point, WB has not had a position on this. Uh that's how that's how I understand it. >> Yeah. >> Yep. So okay background context. So decoupling uh in this in this realm is talking about how we fund parental choice and independent charter programs. Okay. So parental choice sometimes called voucher programs or private schools that uh get public funds. Okay. So Wisconsin has a bunch of different voucher programs. We have the Milwaukee parental choice program. We
144have the Racine pres uh parental choice program, statewide Wisconsin parental choice program and the special needs scholarship program. So collectively those four programs have been implemented over time and their funding mechanisms mechanisms are a little bit different. We also have independent charter schools um that that are funded. That's not like our charter schools which are authorized by a school district. Lots of school districts authorize their own charter schools and we're not talking about those. We're talking about independent charters and independent charters that were formed prior to 2015 are called legacy independent charters and anything after 2015 are called new. Okay. Um that will come into context here as we talk about it. So how are the programs funded? The Milwaukee parental choice program which is the oldest of the voucher programs and the legacy independent
145charters are statef funded. Uh, in other words, they're uncoupled from the way that public schools are funded, the aids that come to public schools. >> They are right now. >> That's correct. Right. And uh that this is not really speaking to those programs. This resolution is speaking to the other programs. Okay. So, there's no connection between public school state aid um and those programs. There's a separate line item in the state budget that identifies those. Okay. Now, the other ones, Racine Statewide Program, special needs program and the and new independent charters are funded via state aid reductions to public school districts. And so, Lynette has taken time to share with you the last couple of years within our revenue limit, how much of our state aid has been cut because of people living within our
146school district uh who participate in one of those programs and that's impact on our overall aid. So, those programs, the ones I just described, are coupled, okay? They're coupled with our state aid. So, um, if a if a student participates in one of these programs from our school district, our aid goes down. Okay? And it goes to to that other program. Okay? So, that's that's what being coupled means. All right? So, what does decoupling propose? Well, decoupling proposes that all choice programs and independent charter payments would be exclusively state funded. Okay? It would be its own line item within the budget uh their budget. Okay? Um and that is different than uh when they're coupled, which the way they're funded is through a reduction to the school district's state aid. Does anybody have any questions
147on that? All right. So, how should we land? How do we feel about it? Okay. Well, um I I'm going to give uh some information about each of them. Um and then we can have some discussion. So, uh here's here's some pros and cons when we consider them. If you look at resolution 10, which is the one that says decouple them, get have it all be its own line item in the budget. So I think my interpretation is when they say that they're implying that the state wouldn't decrease the state aid that uh that they are applying to public schools decouple and and put more money or cut program the voucher programs. Okay. So de if if that's the case, if decoupling implies that the state wouldn't decrease the state aid, but instead just just
148distribute it as though uh if if we were getting this amount of money, we would get all of it. Um then I could see decoupling as a good thing. Great. That would essentially result in more money coming to Riverfall School District, the exact money that is identified as our state aid. Um and we would be in favor of that. Okay. Um, one thing that it decoupling doesn't do is if if we voted in favor of decoupling is it doesn't help us understand how much aid is going uh or siphoned uh from supporting public schools into this other program because there isn't a direct line of sight to them. Okay. Um, and it would be a separate line item which would require approval that's different than approval for R. So there could be a different application
149of aid to these different programs because it's a whole separate decision that they're making. So decoupling has its pros and its cons. Same thing goes for keeping the status quo. Um I this is David Bell's opinion keeping the status quo uh takes a more pragmatic look at the issue uh there that thought is it might not be realistic to assume that decoupling means all state aid uh is going to stay with public schools and at least with the current process there is clarity for the taxpayers to know how much their local levy supports private voucher programs because when our aid is decreased, the way that we are allowed to make that up is by increasing or uh capturing that money back through the local tax levy. So there's a communication component to that uh that
150some might feel valuable feel as being valuable. So that is kind of why there's two uh thought processes around uh coupling and decoupling. Um, so, uh, what we can do is we can have some conversation about it now, uh, or we can, uh, consider it and have deeper conversation next month. Lynette, uh, Nate, anybody else have anything to add? Lynette? >> Yeah. >> Yes. So just to um just to build on your comment about the transparency, we already have a lack of you know there is a lack of transparency with the voucher program. Um so the little bit of transparency we do have will be lost would be lost if we decoupled. But wouldn't the line item in the state budget be pretty clear transparency because it would be here's money going >> you believe
151that it would be >> well >> transparent. >> Well, where else would it be? I mean, it would have to be a line item in the budget, the state budget. >> They're not just going to turn money over. >> Yeah. I >> So, so total dollar amount. Yes. >> Yeah. >> Where those students are, >> right? >> Um >> when >> which programs have which like how it would be impacting our riverfalls taxpayers would be lost in that. >> I I can't say that for sure. >> But that's what your concern is. >> Yes. >> That there would actually be less transparency than we currently have. >> Yeah. I don't know a lot about I mean I don't know everything about this but my understanding is that the the whole voucher thing went up to
152the state supreme court and they didn't have u they didn't feel like they had a strong argument and basically the money going to the voucher schools is being funneled through the public school system which kind of sort of keeps it constitutional because it is going to a public school system and then being sent you know or being whereas if it was decoupled that money would be a separate line item then it would be much more clearly unconstitutional andor not in keeping with state statutes. And so what's the fastest way to get to the end point of voucher schools? Vouchers are not good for public education. They're not in the long run, right? They haven't been. And it's going to get worse when the caps come off. The caps come off and they can go now
153it's at 10%, right? 10% of your students. Um they're going to take the caps off and then it can be as many students as whatever. Then what? Then what? So if you if you think of I I like what you're saying of you know it's nice to know know how much money is coming but your average Joe taxpayer isn't going to understand this and we haven't seen school districts or communities want to put a line item in and I don't where where does the responsibility for that exists like can we do that >> right um >> or does the county have to make that decision >> there's been some conversations around certain school districts advocating to their municipalities to put it out there >> municipality would have to Yes. Correct. >> So, I just got
154my tax statement and I noticed there's like three lines on there for the schools. >> That's the law, >> right? So, they don't we we didn't have to go to the municipalities to ask them to do that. They knew they just had to do that because it was >> But we could go to the municipality and say, you know what, we would like to list this amount of money >> potentially. Yes. Districts that are that have high participation. >> Yeah. And what's ours? 30 40,000 right now. >> Yes. Right. >> Just over 40,000. >> So, it's four kids are going to voucher schools. Correct. and we would lose that total visibility of it would just be a big number at the state level would be River Falls has lost >> right >> I just don't
155know what kind of information we'd be given >> the the coupling versus decoupling is an interesting conversation to have right >> um in my in my opinion it's the the broader context of >> how how much is the state going to prioritize supporting public education versus moving towards uh greater support, increased support of of the host of voucher programs. And that that that broader conversation to me is is much is much more interesting than if it's coupled or uncoupled. >> Um and so uh but that's not a resolution. This is a resolution. So I want to prepare you for >> really interesting to hear what arguments come up on the floor. It could very well be that if there's another step in changing this, it might not be either of these or a combination of
156these or whatever. I think there's probably more than just two choices here. >> Um, and of course, one of the choices is they don't change anything. Period. Um, >> they don't have a position, >> right? And the fact that there's two competing resolutions here means that there's >> there's going to be a lot of dialogue. Well, there's Yeah, there's going to be Yeah, it's a good way of saying it because there's there's not we're not of one mind yet as to how we should instruct our lobbyists and maybe there's something different too in this. >> Yeah. And and realistically, WSB represents every school district in the state and in some issues. It's pretty complex to say, hey, we uh united 421 proud are in agreement on this. I mean, there's just different viewpoints on it.
157So, >> well, does are there school districts of the 421 school districts who support vouchers that think this is great? >> I meant coupling or uncoupling, >> right? Which is no, but I I just mean if you backed it up to are there school districts that support vouchers? And if 40 421 school districts in the state of Wisconsin don't think vouchers are a good thing for the future of the state of Wisconsin, then it's how do we get rid of vouchers is the question. Decoupling is a little minor mechanism to try to get at how do we get rid of vouchers? And you get rid of vouchers in one of two ways. Electing different people to the state legislature and the governors and you know support a governor to get rid of the vouchers or
158having them declared unconstitutional. And I think the decoupling is a faster way to get to declaring unconstitutional. But I don't know, you know, there's things I don't know. >> No. Yeah. and and there's lots of different elements to it. >> But it'll be interesting dialogue and I'm certainly willing to take any direction this group wants to wants to provide. >> I would be interested what the what the viewpoint is. It'll be interesting to see because these districts are within half an hour of each other. One's more of a suburban and one's >> is more out in the suburbs. But it'd be interesting to see what the and how do they determine who goes first? I mean, how does it how is it where the one the one if the one passes then the second one
159is null and void and can't be acted on? How do you decide who >> what which one gets on the agenda first? >> The policy and resolutions committee would have put those two on. I mean, I was I was there at the beginning of the meeting, but I didn't sit through the whole meeting. So, I wasn't privy to the conversations on it. >> I don't have an answer. >> Yeah, they would have decided that they're the screening group before it gets to the whole delegate assembly. take a position on that for >> change versus status. >> Well, bloss I don't know um we actually talked about this at the um workshop I went to for with Baird and to complicate it we David mentioned it's an aid reduction. Mhm. >> Yes. But we book it
160in as an expense. And so for districts that are have a very large expense or aid reduction. >> Oh, >> that cost that counts towards their shared costs >> and they get aid on shared costs. So there is there are going to be districts who if they have a if that's taken off the books as an expense >> that affects >> may be promoting >> they're getting more state aid because of that. >> Correct. >> Yeah. And vice versa. >> But but the thing with like us being able to make up the loss by by taxing more locally that's not forever. That's kind of isn't that kind of a stop gap right now? we're going to let you for now do that, but you know, down the road doesn't it's not in stone that we're
161going to be able to go. >> Well, and and that's just shifting to the local taxpayer. >> Yes. >> I think initially when some of those programs were started, >> they weren't funded in this way, but they evolved to being funded this way. Yeah. >> So, who to your point, who knows how they'll continue or not continue to evolve, >> right? >> So, >> it's going to be a complicated one, but >> Sure. There you go. Just um in in general on this. So, I think there's there's this and also number two on this, if you look at it, it it's it's um a couple school districts advocating that we change the DPI report card >> to make it more consistent, which I I love that, right? >> To make it more consistent. So, I
162I that would be worth your read on it. And um >> and just just so you know, there'll be two people from this board in that delegate assembly with votes because I as a board member, as a WASBY board member, I'll be there, too. you vote >> and can vote. Um, however, um, Allison represents this board. I will be representing all of region 4, which makes it that there might be some that I won't take a position on because there's so many different schools in the in the area here, but I'll be up there and we'll be part of the conversation on on any of this, but that's one I I I gave a heads up tonight that we'll need some >> Sure. Glad Allison's going to >> I think it's very interesting, but it's
163also confusing. So, yeah, I don't uh >> So, how about we have a motion that's been moved and seconded that would be to um grant Ellison the ability to vote in the best district of the school district. If we pass that, then she has that authority. But then also, as you're reading through this, if there's something that you think we really need to bring up, let one of us know. We'll get it on the agenda. We'll talk about it before we go. This does seem like an issue that we're going to need to trust each other on this because whatever conversation develops on the floor could really influence what you're thinking would be in our best interest. >> And it'll be interesting to see if Wasow does provide any more background or any direction on
164that. >> Um if they do send it >> Yeah. >> Well, and the position I mean like you said earlier, it's okay. What are lobbyists going to try to get done in Madison, Wisconsin? And what's the record? I mean what's the record like when we vote on these how successful are >> yeah I mean >> there could be some amendments that would be made to this in ter that would definitely shape the lobbying agenda >> and generally what it is is if the legislators are discussing this and somebody goes well what do the school boards think about this they'll go to our they'll look at our lobbyists our lobbyists have direction from us to take a stand then they'll express that >> um if if not depends on >> we probably won't weigh down >>
165but I can I mean clearly the the majority that's running our legislature is not taking their direction from the 421 school district public schools district >> but they do take >> support the privatization of schools >> they they do take input from and they've got to attune to us because if there's a lot of resistance to it especially coming from local elected officials like they are um they'll sometimes listen so >> and our voices can be heard more when we are working together as the district so all right those in favor I >> opposed the motion is carried All right. Okay. Everybody, do we have any proposed items for future board meeting agendas? All right. Then we are going to set the upcoming meeting schedule. The policy ad hoc committee will meet Monday, January 5th
166at 6:00. Educational program committee will meet Monday, January 12th at 6:00. Finance and facilities will meet Monday, January 12th at 7 or immediately following educational program. Then bringing up the end of the evening will be personnel committee at 8:00 or immediately following finance and facilities. And the next regular board meeting will be Monday, January 19th, 2026 at 6:00 here in the district office. and