001regular meeting of the River Falls Board of Education. The 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. Do we have any visitors or delegations who would like to address the board this evening? Does not look like it. So, it's our good fortune to move intoformational items. And the first one is an exciting Wildcat Pride Award. So, Bo. >> All right. Come on up. >> So, this is our Wildcat Pride certificate proudly presented to Audrey Johnson. I'm going to put these on so I don't mess up too badly. The school district of River Falls School Board would like
002to commend you for your exceptional efforts in the classroom. You create an environment where students can express themselves and guide them towards success as young artists while fostering trust in the learning process. Students and families from Rocky Branch Elementary are fortunate to have you. You are a true ambassador of Wildcat pride. Congratulations. [Applause] Mention one thing really quick. The person who nominated Audrey uh had a had a statement that I think would be good to read. So Audrey uh facilitates absolutely wonderful projects for students. She offers students room to express themselves creativity while uh staying within a very intentional and desired theme of her lesson. Student artwork adorns the hallways and it's impossible ignore to ignore. Bright pink flamingos with long stare at you with wild eyes. Three-dimensional masks painted and ordained with trinkets, ribbon
003and wire. Uh, they run the spectrum from wholesome to fantastic. Various species of black fish prints. Um, the the nominator doesn't really know if she uses real fish, but they look real. And contrasting and explosive tie-dye backgrounds. She doesn't do anything less than 110%. And she makes space for kids to express themselves, leading them towards success as young artists while fostering a trust in the process. We're lucky to have her. So, thank you very much. >> That's great. So, so as schoolboard members, we are reluctant to just show up at schools. So, we like people to invite us. So, would you invite me sometime to come over to your classroom and see? I would love to see you. >> She lives across the street. >> She could be there in three minutes. >> That's right.
004That's right. If you need another set of hands, I am right there for you. So, well, and Henry and Andrew, I hope that you're really proud of your mom because this is a pretty great thing. It's a big deal. >> Yeah, it is a very big deal. So, thank you for being here this evening. >> Thank you. >> All right. We now have a superintendent. >> Welcome to But is that her husband? >> Yeah. >> Is this your husband? >> Yes. [Laughter] >> Well, you will stay. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. >> All right. On to on to the superintendent report. So, we are uh I think the theme pretty clearly for July is planning. And so, what I thought I is I would give you just a broad update on uh some
005of the planning items that that we're preparing for uh for the upcoming school year really focused on uh the connections to board work and connections to to the strategic plan. So obviously there's a whole bunch of other planning that I'm not going to reference in in today's uh update. Uh so I was just trying to zero in on things that I think the board would find interesting that are continuations of work that we're doing already. So uh touch a little bit on uh our focus on student success. Uh touch a little bit on governance and touch a little bit on uh organizational alignment and where we're looking at district-wide systems that address critical areas for that connect back to student success. Uh so when we're we're talking about student success this year, we're really still
006zeroed in on that strategic plan and the theme is next steps, not new steps. And so we've done a lot of great planning in the first three years of the strategic plan and we and we want to continue those steps uh and and moving forward towards that goal without diverting from what we know is the key priorities. And so our goals remain the same and those are listed uh there. And the way that we address those goals is in a discipline manner. And so we've kept these kind of principles of discipline uh at the forefront as we engage in this planning. We really are focusing on what's the most important uh work. And and recognizing that if we have two priorities, that means we have no priorities. And I'll tell you what, that's an easy
007thing to say and it's a very very hard thing to execute because there are a lot of things that can be very important in a school district to plan for. And if you spread out those priorities too much, uh, you can find yourself in a in in a challenging situation. So, we've been really intentional at the admin level and I know at the building levels when they plan, uh, around that topic. And that that also means being specific and measurable, not just in our wildly important goals, but in the other planning efforts that we have. Um, we f focus on what what's in our circle of influence. And that's when we talk about lead measures, uh, things that are predictive and actionable towards towards our goals. And then we keep track and we share how
008we're keeping track widely. And we're doing that not for uh blame or for shame or to to call out uh areas where we haven't made progress or to pat ourselves on the back too much when things are going well, but it's it's it's a part of our process to make sure that we're staying focused on the most important things. And then that and that breeds that cadence of accountability. And I'll talk a little bit about how the board fits into that. So, next week at the admin uh at the schoolboard retreat, we will take some time to to review the completed district scorecard. Remember, the district scorecard is not the school report card. The school report card is uh put forth by the DPI and focused on a very small set of tests. Our district
009scorecard uh is a reflection of the strategic plan and it's it's focused on the three big areas within the strategic plan. ensuring that students are learning at high levels. Making sure that we're connecting and having an engaging and learning environment for students and that our our workplace for our employees is supportive and collaborative. And as you recall, we have a number of key performance indicators that that we'll give an update on next week. We've used that scorecard. our admin team has looked at that scorecard um results and and that's been a key element uh along with other data in in planning uh for the upcoming school year. The other thing I wanted to highlight is just like last year we'll have a monthly monitoring calendar where updates related to the scorecard will be an element
010of the schoolboard meeting. That's a key way that we keep our cadence of accountability. So this month we're giving a planning update over August and September through committee processes. Uh our central office administrators will provide their goals and how that links to to the strategic plan. By September, we'll have that final scorecard update um with all of the the spaces filled and and and finalized the monitoring calendar and then we begin our wildly important goal updates as well as other key reports. Any questions on that? Okay, another thing that I wanted to highlight is our transition to Niola. So, we took some steps over uh a few months in the spring to move towards Niola as our policy services uh uh guidance do uh resource and so uh we now have to go through the
011process of transitioning to Neola. So, I wanted to highlight a couple of components that go with this. So, we are moving from one set of policies to a to a new set of policies. Um, but it's not like we're changing every single policy and the wording on every single policy. Um, in addition, as we go through this process, uh, we are going to be talking I I know you're excited to hear this, Mike. We're going to be talking about policies pretty much every single month. Um but when you transition from where we are now to Neiola um that process um uh you do all of the talking and approval in advance and then you make the full transition to the Neola policies. Our goal is to do that basically a year from now. So although
012we'll be engaged in in discussing uh the updated Neola policies throughout the school year, um the current schoolboard policies guide the district until all policies are approved. And a big component of that is we're going to see some policies being reumbered. Um but current policies that were recently updated or added will will be used uh where there is alignment or when there is alignment. Um so that piece is important to note. And an obvious question might be well Dave what if Dave you've got attendance as a policy that we're going to talk about today and there might be another policy that comes up. Um and and that is fine. uh the work that we do for those what I'll call one-off policies will those policies if approved will go into effect immediately after that second
013approval and then when we catch them on the Niola work they will be one of those aligned policies that just immediately without change will be renumbered and put in the right place. So we feel that way we can do the discussion about the transition in a time and space that allows us to have that discussion uh but address the immediate needs of any policies that need to be addressed. I'm going to go into greater detail next week at the retreat but I just was going to highlight uh the steps that we will use for each policy series uh prior to having them approved. So the first thing that will happen is that the admin team will review it and that admin team will consist potentially of Amanda and myself and any other administrator that's impacted.
014So obviously when we're looking at personnel policy series there's two different personnel policy series in then Nate will be involved finance facilities Lynette um anything instructional related our our co-directors of academic services will be involved and obviously our principles will be involved uh at a lot of those steps as well. um in addition to any other stakeholders that that we would want to collect feedback from. That's the first piece. And then the next piece after we've done our review per series, then we'll go to a drafting meeting with the Neola representative. If you remember, that's a key kind of foundational component to uh why we transition to Neiola. And that allows us to have an expert who's a a retired superintendent in Wisconsin review them as well as Niola's uh legal counsel to review those
015policies. We feel like after those two steps, we're we're hopefully in a what we'll call kind of a nearly final stage. Um, a lot of the questions around alignment to state statute and and correct language around that should should be clarified at that point. And then the next two steps uh are kind of the recommend recommendation of how we'll move forward. And my recommendation, we'll provide more detail at a later date on this at the retreat and then final approval in August, is to call an ad hoc policy committee for this year, for this school year. And that ad hoc policy committee would be responsible for going through each month a series. And I'll explain in detail how we'll kind of manage that because that's a lot of information. Um but but but uh essentially
016that policy committee will have that initial view of it and allow us to kind of identify the policies that are highest priority to review and have conversations about and be ready for that full first and second reading recommendation. Couple things to clarify. Just like our other committee meetings, um even if you're not a a member of the of the policy committee, you would you would have notice and be able to attend and if you have questions, >> you can come anyway, Mike. >> Yes. Yeah. All kidding aside, Mike there might be certain series where Mike would have have a strong interest and and we would rely on his feedback and this would be an opportunity for him to see it. In addition, um you'll there's a lot of lot of policies, right? So, we'll give
017you ample time to to review them. So that the first two draft the admin team review and the drafting meeting with Nola means that they'll be in a really good place so we can have give you a couple weeks to look at them to review and have questions. So that's kind of the general outline. I'm going to give a more detailed description uh next next week, but I just wanted to give I know there's been some questions throughout so I wanted to make sure are there are there any general broad >> Yeah, Dave, just in case there's anybody um in the audience who's trying to figure out what what's this Nola thing because they're new to it. Yeah. >> Um, so my my simple understanding of this, and correct me if I'm wrong, but um,
018we're not adopting Niola's board policies. In other words, we're not adopting a new set of policies. These are our policies. We're updating our policies. Niola is a resource, a process of support materials for us and a place to house and access all of our policies in a in a better way. So, it's it's where we're going to move our our policies to, but they will also they're also a resource to help us do this. So, it's going to be much more efficient, better for the community and parents and teachers and everybody, I think, to understand and do this. So, just I didn't want anybody to think that we're we're dumping our policies and picking up a whole new set. >> And they'll still reflect the values of the board and reflecting the values of the
019school district. >> Yep. and and moving forward once we do this big transition, one of the really positive elements of Niola is uh a really efficient ongoing policy update process. In other words, it they they'll through a a very specific process twice a year help us identify the policies that need to be reviewed. And sometimes sometimes a policy might need to be updated after only one year based on uh federal changes, state changes or uh because Nola is a policy services uh company uh they also have the the knowledge of what are other districts doing. And again to your point, it doesn't mean we have to adopt every single policy that they recommend us looking at, but it gives us a chance to to be engaged in that conversation on a very uh systematic way.
020Um and then the last piece I I touched on was organizational alignment and and and I think the the piece here is uh we're always looking at how we can develop systems uh and how we can create a common vision around these systems in which the school leaders uh educators and all staff understand how these systems connect and their role within the system uh and and set a vision so that when we communicate to students and when we communicate to families amilies. Um there's there's alignment in the the messaging and the vision. And so a few things that we've talked about this summer that we want to make sure that we're really strongly aligned and that when I say aligned, I mean every stakeholder understands uh how these things connect to their work and then
021we can consistently communicate to students and families. Um some examples of the things that we'll be looking at is our overall attendance policy. Everybody understands that attendance is a critical element to student success. So, we want to make sure that we're very clear and tight on uh how how we value attendance, the ways the ways that we communicate with families about the importance of attendance, and then how we handle all the nitty-gritty ins and outs of of absences and excused absences and all those fun things. Um, in addition, the center uh uh graphic represents uh MLSS, multi-level systems of support, and this represents how we respond uh when data is telling us a student is struggling. maybe they're struggling academically or maybe they're struggling with some behavioral needs and how how we respond, how we
022systemically respond or how we intervene to support that student. We want to be consistent with that. So, we're having a lot of conversations about um how at every level the framework is similar. It doesn't mean that the MLSS for a kindergarten student is going to look the same as the MLSS for an 11th grader, but systemically and and broad strokes the framework is is is similar enough for all of us to kind of understand how we fit into that. So, that's another thing that another theme you'll see throughout the year. The the the graphic on the right uh represents uh shows a framework of or or a set of policy recommendations from DPI around cell phone usage. um and how to navigate that within school districts. And I I represent that because that's some conversation
023that's happened at the board and we want to have organizational alignment around that. Uh specifically at the high school, there's been lots of conversation. So that's more to come, but that's another example of organizational alignment. So there's clarity um from classroom to classroom, from building administrator to teacher, from school board uh all through that we kind of understand what is our vision for this and how are we executing that vision. The last graphic there is educator effectiveness. That's the statewide system for how we evaluate teachers. And we want to be clear for our teachers on what we value within that system and how we're going to use it to support their growth. Um and and and make sure that we're not we're not having some level of a moving target and it's consistent from building
024to building. So those are some things that you're going to see. Hopefully you see the connections to student success and governance. So it doesn't feel like it's more um but this is this is uh the direction and some highlights of what's happening for the for the planning and so more to come as the year starts. >> Thank you very much. All right, we are going to move into action items and the first thing would be minutes, bills and employment recommendations. So we have before us tonight the meeting minutes from the June 16th regular board of education meeting. We have bills that have been submitted for payment as well as recommendations regarding employment. So, is there a motion to approve minutes, bills, and employment as presented? >> So moved. >> And thank you, Lindsay. Is there
025a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Monica. Questions or comments? All those in favor? >> I opposed. The motion is carried. All right. We have um a report from the educational program committee as well as recommendations regarding action and I'll turn to you Alan. >> Okay. Um the education programs committee met on Monday July 14th and um we had a number of presentations uh and that we had to act on and and um that came in front of the board here. Um and Mary Beth Elliott helped guide us through this um very well but we took it in three sections. So we had um a presentation about behavior management at each level, elementary, middle school and high school. three different presentations and then we had presentations about changes and suggested changes for the student handbooks
026at both the ele at at the elementary, middle school and high school level as well as the athletic um activities handbooks at the middle school and high school. Um we had our principles here um Brian Buck and Mark Chapen from the middle school. Um we had um Kate Scapple from principal from Greenwood representing the Greenwood, excuse me, the elementary principles and um we had Lisa Goyle from assistant principal from the high school representing the high school and doing that presentation for us. The actions that we took on these and and there's we had lots of conversation, lots of discussion about the proposed changes. Um the one uh handbook that was separate and we'll take up separately tonight is the um Renaissance Charter Academy. Um and that one um we'll talk about tonight. We we talked
027about a little bit on Tuesday, but we did not take action on it and that's coming right directly to the board tonight. So I think that um what I'd like to do is take action items one through five, which is the approval of the student handbooks at each level. and then the athletic activities handbooks at the uh middle school and high school all as one motion if we can. Do I have a motion to approve those? >> Are you making that motion? >> I'll make that motion to approve. >> Perfect. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Allison. Questions or comments? Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I opposed. The motion is carried. >> Okay. And then um this is an annual thing but we have to act on
028our um the academic standards that our curriculum addresses during the year and these are these have to be very specific. Um they're available on our website for anyone who wants to see them. Uh we had a good presentation discussion about it. Mary Mary Beth talked led us through this talked about it um with us. And these are the standards used by as a guide for our classroom instructions. um they're adopted and used by teachers to use to do their curriculum mapping, instructional units, and classroom assessments. This is a required notice. In other words, annually the state requires us to take action to review this and take action on it based on act 55. And um so I'm going to move that we approve the academic standards as presented and discussed at the committee meeting for
029um 2526. >> Thank you. Is there a second? Second. >> Thank you, Monica. >> Questions or comments? Any clarifications? >> One. Um, this is a fascinating document, the one with all the hyperlinks in it that you can go to all these different standards at the state level. I mean, you could spend all day looking. I looked through a few of them. >> You could spend a couple days. >> You could. And so, I'm just curious. So, these apply to all public schools in the state of Wisconsin. And I would imagine that one of the nice things about it is that if you move if you move there's you know your child learned this in these grade levels. So how do these do they align with other states? That's one question and we don't have to
030answer these questions. I'm just curious. Do they align with other states? And are these kind of consistent nationally the standards? And then how about um students who attend private schools? Do they have very similar standards? I know homeschooling we don't we can't really ask them even but but private schools do they comply with kind of similar standards or don't we know >> they don't have to comply with the standards because they don't receive state funding and as a school board you adopted them and said this is what we're using for our standards. So it's local controlled. So Wisconsin Department of Education Department of Public Instruction says here are the standards that we recommend for grade levels based on subject. They go through a review cycle. Um, and then they are updated and out for public
031review at specific cycles and then we adopt them as a local Riverfall School District, but every district doesn't have to adopt them. >> Okay. >> I would be I think most districts do adopt them. Yeah. >> I don't know any that go off. I talked a little bit last week about the health standards specifically haven't been revised for many, many years. So some districts will adopt the national standards. So they're not the same stateto state. >> Okay. >> If you want to have more discussion, I'm really happy to talk about that doesn't want to hear. >> But super interesting >> the history of standards, but I can fill you in on >> Great. Thank you. Thank you. I know in some of the things I'm familiar with, it's um you have a standard and you
032may add to it, you may make it more, you know, um what would you say? progress, but you may not subtract from it, >> right? >> And I was just wondering if there was anything like that in Wisconsin, >> but whatever. It's just a question. >> The the the big takeaways from this this because this has been forever a big topic. Um there was a movement in the early 2000s for common core standards, which was really part of the vocabulary. >> Those become became very politically charged. um and local control, local districts and states really pushed back and there was lots of argument about them. But Wisconsin has set these standards. They aren't uniform between states. Generally, I think there's, you know, there's some things about math and other things that state to state agree
033on. You know, what 10 plus 10 is, but um but beyond that, the there's a lot of latitude among the states on this. But more specifically in Wisconsin, you asked the question about do private schools have to adopt these? No. >> Um, and nor do independent charter schools, nor is there the accountability that follows, right? I'm looking at Mary Beth. >> Well, charter schools in the state of Wisconsin, it's different than other schools. It depends on who is um >> authorizing them. And this the law in the state of Wisconsin is you have to be authorized by a school district or a university, >> right? I don't know a lot of universities or school districts that would not recommend that they follow. I mean, here we have two charter schools, our alternative education at the
034high school RCA. It's a little bit different. Um, but they do still use standards. They do all of our state testing as well as Monasuri does too. I'm sorry. So, >> but voucher schools, which you ask about private schools, not all private schools are voucher schools. Voucher schools do not have to adopt these standards. >> They're No. even though they're receiving state funds. >> Uh the vouch the private schools like in Milwaukee Lynette, you're shaking your head on and even if they're accepting state funds through the voucher program, >> even if they're accepting voucher students, they don't. Yeah, >> correct. >> Okay, >> good to know. >> So, it's one of the challenges we run into in Wisconsin about publicly funded schools that don't have to standards. But um I think to to your point
035um this is about local control which is why our board gets to look at these, review these and vote on them. >> Yeah, >> good questions. Anything else? >> All right, we have a motion that's been moved and seconded. All those in favor? I >> opposed. >> The motion is carried. Thank you everyone. Finance and Facilities. I'll turn to you, Mike. >> All right. We had our meeting as part of our triple header last week. Mhm. >> Um the first uh item that we discussed was our facility project update. If you have visited any of our schools in the recent past, a lot of activity, it's amazing what they can get done over a 3mon 3 to four month time frame. And uh it's going well. We're on schedule. We're on budget. Um, at the
036high school, we've got our first big completion was our gymnasium has been has been uh the the floor has been redone and it's got new graphics on it. The um bleachers, the new bleachers are coming in this week. Uh we've moved the equipment, the weight room equipment back into the weight room. I think the kids took care of that last week. >> They helped. They do all >> they did not do it all there to help with. >> We had a lot of support, >> right? So, we got the the wait room back in order and and so that that project, that new addition is is coming along uh very well. We've had some nice pictures in our uh pan uh packet from last week. So, um we discussed uh some new security doors. One
037of the big changes uh in the main high school area would be security doors that we're going to have that's going to separate um the classroom wings from kind of the commons area uh for security purposes and and and and also we can shut those doors when we have events at the high school, the gym, and in the commons area. We can shut those and and keep people out of our our classroom areas. So, um everything's going on schedule there. Uh at the at the um bus garage, same thing. We're kind of in that same that same time frame where we're we're um kind of got the the the shell done and we're working on the inside completing all the the interior of it and at the other schools we're doing our mechanicals and and
038I know they're torn up pretty good and and trying to get those done before the school starts. So that was the first item that we discussed. Uh we also then uh went into our budget update. Uh it's a kind of an interesting time u of year because it's our year end. June, end of June is our fiscal year end. So there's a lot of gymnastics that takes place between uh the school between the two fiscal years. So there's sometimes we book money, for example, we book money um as being paid for our for our last year's um fiscal budget, but we haven't got the money yet. So we we have to book money coming in from our tax receipts that we actually don't get until August would be an example. There's other things that uh
039while we had it on our our budget for last year expenses, we don't have the work completed and the bills paid until this next fiscal year. So, we have to kind of move some money around and just and make it uh uh so they all add up at the end. So, um but everything other than that was on the from the from the budget standpoint, it's going as according to plan and we're doing well. Uh we then discussed a a capital improvement fund 46 which is something we started uh probably six eight years ago where we put money in to a fund that you can use then for capital improvements. So sometimes when we have extra funds at the end of the school year we can move um that we've budgeted for capital improvements we
040can put it into a kind of a savings account that we can use in future years. So there was a fiveyear window that we had to start the fund but couldn't use the funds until that 5 years was up but we have now reached that 5 years. So um we're looking at transferring some funds from this last year's budget that was uh for capital improvements and we're going to be adding that. It looks like 850,000 is where we landed last week was 750 but it was kind of a question mark. >> That's correct. >> So um did you did you want to discuss that at all? >> I mean I'll just give a little um background on 146. Um, so fund 46 is available for districts to use. Um, as it's stated in the the
041title of the fund, it's a long-term capital improvement and they use trust fund even though it's not a traditional trust fund. Um, really what it means is we have to hold those funds separately. They can't be in the same bank account as any of our other funds. Um, totally separate. And then uh they are actually um once they're transferred or in fund 46 they can't be used for any other purpose other than aligned with an already approved capital projects plan and that goes to the board and um and can be updated um but it has to be uh approved um by the board. Um so uh sorry I lost my train of thought. Um, so one of the things that we've been doing uh in our budget every year is we do budget for maintenance
042projects. And this past year we budgeted about $650,000 for maintenance projects. Summer capital projects. Sometimes we use those terms interchangeably. Um, and those projects are still going. So as Mike mentioned, um, we haven't been able to pay those projects out. And so that is that makes up the large chunk of the recommended transfer of the 850,000. The other is really um a a very what I would consider a very small surplus in our budget. Um which was uh I could attribute to uh additional interest earnings. Um we hadn't really anticipated that interest rates would stay continue to kind of stay up there. Um so we have some additional interest earnings and then just other little areas where we were under spent in budget. So, um we're we're really glad to be able to recommend the
043transfer and continue that funding um in fund 46. Uh and I have the history here of the transfers that have been made over the course of when the district um brought on fund 46. And so um again, once those funds are transferred there, they account uh they are considered an expenditure uh for our general fund. when we make the transfer and then when those are spent out of fund 46, obviously that's not part of our shared cost. It's not part of our expenses for aid or anything like that for the following year. Um and I did uh also we have the um a copy of what was approved last year for our capital improvement plan and we will be bringing that again for review and updating uh to the finance and facilities committee and then
044to the board for approval of an updated plan. So, any questions? Anything I missed with 146? >> The extra $100,000 was just like you had mentioned. It was it was extra interest that we weren't really planning on and like that. Correct. >> Yeah. So, last week um I gave you an estimate of 750. Uh we were still um we made a def we made a final check run today um and have we those are expenses we had to post back to 2425. So I really needed to wait until that final check run to see where we were landing um with the final budget. So >> thank you. >> That's why the the change. >> So these are funds that are not part of the referendum funds but still projects that need to get done. Example
045would be the pool, right? Aren't we doing a a pretty big project to the pool this summer? We're doing some >> no pool work um that's coming from the pool. No. >> Um so, uh let's see. We've got um the work at Greenwood, the sopet work that's going to be happening this summer at Greenwood, >> the gym floor that you mentioned, the bleachers. Those are all the things or a couple of the things that were on that are on that list. >> And then and then this this fund, this this capital improvement fund 46 allows us then to pay for those projects >> in future years for money that we're putting Every district has a fund 46. It's optional. It was made available to districts, I would say, >> in the last 10 years, I
046think, when it first came up became available. Um, and so not every district >> and it allows us to be more consistent with our purchases and with our expenditures. >> It does. And it's it's different than if you were to leave it in in the general fund. If you have a surplus and you leave it in general fund and you assign or commit. >> Yeah. >> Those require board action based on our policy. Um but those can also be unassigned and uncommitted with a with subsequent board um action. Whereas fund 46 once it's there, it's there. >> As long as it's being used for what it was for purposes or anything like that, it's >> maintenance items on our on our buildings and our facilities. >> Correct. >> Fantastic. So, um, we have, uh, I'll
047make a motion to approve the 2425 transfer of $850,000 to fund 46 for capital improvement. >> Thank you. Did before I take this? Okay. All right. Okay. >> No, Mike. Okay. Uh, Lynette, did you want to say anything about the 202527 budget um update? >> Oh, absolutely. >> That's coming later. >> Oh, we have. >> Right. That's it's after the >> it's he will in his summary he will address it but there was no action taken. >> Oh, I know that. >> Okay. >> It's coming up. >> Great. >> Okay. All right. Sorry about that. >> Okay. So, we have a motion that's been moved and seconded. Um any further discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. >> The motion is carried. All right. Now, is there a motion to Do you want to
048talk about the bus? >> Right. >> Okay. All right. So yeah, the next thing on our agenda item was uh u uh every year we look at our our fac our vehicles and our buses and we generally make a purchase or two of of buses or suburbans or whatever we kind of whatever we need in the fleet. And so this year we're uh adding a bus a route bus um that we have uh identified uh for $145,784. Uh, so I will make a motion to approve the purchase of one route bus from Nelson's bus service in the amount of $145,784. >> Second. >> Thank you both. >> Um, just you said we're adding a bus. To be clear, we're replacing a bus, right? Or is this going to be an additional bus? >> Yeah. So,
049um, it really depends. And I I I I'm sorry I don't have that info from Todd. Oftentimes, we will use another bus or hang on to another bus. they'll what they call cannibalize it or part it out. Um or sometimes they'll trade it in or sell it. So I I'll find out from Todd what the plan is. Um if they're going to >> this this is part of our replacement >> replacement, right? So it's not like we're growing our bus fleet. It's it's over time and we're only buying one. A lot of times we'll buy, you know, two >> and sometimes they're kept for spares until they just we would want to keep in service necessarily full-time and so then people sometimes keep those as spares, >> right? And they'll use them to to get
050parts out of them. So we do a good job trying to keep the cost of running those buses down. So >> Okay. So we have a motion that's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I I opposed. The motion is carried. 70. >> Okay. So, the last thing on our item where we're going to go to Lynette is we talked about the the state budget that was approved within the last month. Um and so how that impacts us and our budgeting um going forward. So, they passed the 25 to 27 bianium state budget in Madison. And so, Lynette's going to kind of walk us through the impacts on our district. Um yeah, and there was a uh document as part of the finance and facilities committee meeting. So that's available if
051anybody wants to see that. Um we have that out on our website or I'm sorry as part of the the finance and facilities packet from last week. Um and it just sort of highlights some of the key pieces that impact public schools or K12 schools uh with the new bianium budget. So one of them is the per pupil adjustment. So under the revenue limit uh they did maintain the 325 per pupil for both this year 2526 and 2627. So they will there will be an increase um in under the revenue limit of 325 per pupil in each of those years. The low revenue ceiling state is 11,000. the um I I think that the thing that we uh talked about that we need to pay attention to and that a lot of districts are going
052to be paying attention to is that the revenue limit is made up of tax levy and state aid. And when your revenue limit increases, the idea is that both the state aid and the tax levy increase as well to make up that increase. Um only this year in the bienium the um state aid was not increased. So there is zero additional dollars put into state aid. So that means as districts including Riverfalls as our revenue limit increases that becomes all tax levy. Okay. So that's important for us. And we have the little visual on the board here um that kind of shows that um as that as that increases. >> Lynette, is this is this the how frequently has it happened that the state has not increased state aid at all? I don't recall >>
0532011 they froze and did not decreased aid. Okay. >> Okay. >> I know they decreased the revenue limit then >> and the only time in my career. >> So it's it's been a minute since they've done that. >> So um >> yeah go ahead. What? And this I I said this at the committee, but I think it it be bears repeating because this is what every school district in the state is realizing right now. And the buzz is out there. Um so the state said we can get an extra $325 per pupil and as you say that typically comes part from property tax, part from state aid. This year the state decided not to take any state funds. Okay. However, they are doing a $1 almost5 billion income tax cut. So, what's going on in
054an awful lot of people's minds, myself included, is that personal income tax cuts at the state level, which are really popular, and the governor and the legislature agreed to this, are translating increasingly into property tax increases all across the state. So, as people see their property taxes going up, I just want to remind everybody, but you got an income tax cut from the governor and the legislature. Um, it's not a good way to fund schools, but it seems to be a popular way to run state budgets because it's been a trend. This isn't the first year that we've seen um state aid not be what we thought it was going to be, but still income tax cuts coming from Madison. So, I think it's it's important and it bears repeating. I'll probably say it some
055more times. This is being repeated. School districts all across the state as school boards and administrations are realizing this is the reality. When you get a income tax cut at the state level, watch out because probably that's going to be made up somewhere else. And in this case, it's coming from property taxes, which are tough taxes. >> So, it's transitioning from a more progressive taxation methodology to a more regressive trans taxation. >> I think most people would see it that way probably. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we're we're glad that the 325 per pupil, there was a pure per pupil increase. We're we're glad that's what we were sort of planning on because in the last bienium, it was written into the law for 400 years. So, we we've kind of kept that
056in our planning. Um, so we're glad that that was kept and not reduced. Um, >> I wonder if there are districts that are choosing not to increase the revenue limit by 325. >> Yeah. if they're choosing not to because it's going to add to property taxes. But then of course then that just drives them further in the hole more to the bottom of the list I suppose. >> So we're already >> under levying. >> Yeah. >> Um I guess we'll find out but you know levies are set in October. So districts have several months to sort of >> figure all that out. Um I it I don't historically there have been very few districts that underlevy very it's usually very extenduating circumstances. >> I I haven't having having said that because I'm I'm concerned about
057but but this was a budget deal and I >> I do want to say I appreciate the fact that the governor and the legislature came together and cut a deal and got us a budget almost on time just within just a few days being on time which I I think a whole bunch of people didn't expect. So, I appreciate that. Um, and the fact that I think in the end we got more than I thought we were going to get about 3 or 4 weeks ago. And, um, both of our local our our state senator and our state representative both are on the joint committee on finance, which originally were not going to um, um, we're not we're not agreeing to as much money as eventually came through. And I think it was a lot
058of people locally here, especially across the state, who followed up with those legislators and made the case for public schools. We did better than I had feared we were going to get three weeks ago. So that's the good news. Um and I appreciate that um support from our legislators. >> What was your fear that the that the special ed funding would not be as good as it was? And the special ed funding is great, >> right? The the the special ed funding was it was 10% more than I thought than the recommendation was in early June. You know, 10 percentage points higher. So um that's good news. Um the tough news is just the fact that it's coming out the increase that we're getting right now is coming out of property taxes and that's tough
059but >> but it's it's better than what it was a year a month ago. So >> those are I just wanted to clarify those are two separate buckets >> buckets of money >> of money. So >> the the other thing that's happened the >> special revenue limit increase of 325 >> and the special ed reimbursement >> and that thank you for that. Yep. Uh tea up for transition. So the revenue limit isn't money. It just says we can increase our levy by >> Correct. >> Well, I mean, as it increases, that means districts have more money to spend. >> Oh, it just gives us the opportunity to increase our levy by 325. We could turn that opportunity down. Correct. So, it's not real money. It's money we get to. We could we could turn >>
060No, the the the problem with that is that's how the districts that I mean when this thing started in '93, those districts that had been running conservatively >> like us >> and the baseline and the baseline was set, they're the ones that have been struggling for the last 30 years. Um, the other thing that's happening in this in town that people I think are a little miffed at or confused is they're getting their assessments and the assessments are going through the roof and people are kind of saying, "Hey, that's going to increase my taxes by the, you know, sort of they see us inre potentially increasing our taxes or take 325 going to local property taxes." But it's important for them to understand that it's all relative to everybody else, right? So if yours went
061up a significant amount, 20 whatever the average is 36% or something, >> but everybody else is going up too. So the am the total amount of money we're collecting is no different than it would have been if the assessment hadn't happened. It's just >> so you know, people are seeing their taxes, their assessment going up 36%, they're equating that to their taxes going up 36%. >> If your if your house evaluation went up a greater percentage than the entire equalized value of all the property in the district, then you will pay more. Yes, you will. >> But if yours was the same or less, >> Then you would have. Yeah. >> Right. >> So that's a good way to, you know, I don't know if it says on there we know what the total equalized
062value is yet. >> The the challenging piece to all of this is there's still so many variables to predict. Um we won't know until a lot more variables are are decided uh how how all these things are impact. We need to understand what our exact equalization is. We need to understand what our exact membership is. Yeah, >> we need to understand what the total equalized value is. So all these all these things are hypotheticals right now >> that um >> that stress us in our planning because we've already started uh spending in this fiscal year. >> But that's just the nature of of the work and the cycle of the work that we have. Um and I think in the next few months some of these uh some of these impacts will become more clear
063and right we'll have those recommendation whether it's the month before the annual meeting or at the annual meeting uh what our recommendations will be on these items. >> Yeah. So then if if we move to what we've kind of been hinting at with um special education aid. So we we did see an increase and this is not I haven't seen anything like this in um in my time. uh such a a high percentage increase. So um right now or or in the past for for example last year uh the percentage the goal was to reimburse at a percentage of 33%. What we saw was 30.6%. So because it's a sum certain allocation that means that they set aside a pot of money that they think will reach a 33 I'm talking about last year 33%
064reimbursement when all when we're all said and done and everyone's reporting their expenses they actually that pot of money only reimbured at 30.6%. >> 30.6% 6% of what total cost of educating that special ed child? >> Their special educ they're qualifying special education services or expenses >> for our school district. We're expecting >> any district expecting we're expecting to get about 30% of our cost >> reimburseable cost for special ed reimbured to us. So now what the in the bianium the new bianium budget they've set a new goal of 42% for this year and 45% of next year. They've never me met the goal because it's still some certain certain >> and so what we're expecting is it will be closer to 40% when we're all said and done. So that's what we're using and
065we're glad for that because um what it means it doesn't mean that the district has additional money in general fund. What it means is we can retain those funds in the general fund instead of transferring them to fund 27. >> Um the board made uh you know passed the priorities of uh staffing and compensation. And so those were our priorities and that's what we were budgeting for and and we were prepared to make reductions in other parts of our budget had the special ed funding not been increased. What this means for us is we can reinstate those reductions that we were prepared to make. So it it's not that we now have six $700,000 more um to do something else with. It's really just replacing what we can cut to reduce. Correct. >> And is
066there any federal funding that comes into the state for special ed that is >> maybe maybe not coming? >> Uh we have not heard cuts department federal funding. Um but what we've heard is are the title funds. So title 2A, title 3A, and title 4A um pertain to River Falls. Yeah. >> And in total, that's about $80,000. Um that is on hold. >> Right. It's not necessarily cut. It just the funds have not been released. But I wonder yeah I wonder about >> So normally this is the time where where we would get a notification of what our allocation would be for 25 26 and so right now we're um we're budgeting that we will not see those funds. If they end up coming in great but um and and and we're not reducing the
067programs that those funds have been um supporting. Uh but we will we we will be using other funds to to to support those programs. So, um you know, the I think the last thing on here that sort of um impacts or a couple things that impact um our district are the open enrollment increases. So, we've been seeing sort of this um reverse uh of open enrollment in versus out. For a while, River Falls had additional um open enrollment in versus out. We're seeing that shift a little bit. And so as the reimbursement rates or the the open enrollment rates increase, you know, and our numbers are increasing out now, our um loss, if you will, for unopen enrollment students um is is going to be increasing is is what we're seeing. And those are again
068using our estimated numbers um for enrollment and open enrollment and all of that. Um, and if you recall, open enrollment essentially has a cuto off date, but then there's the alternative open enrollment uh throughout the entire year. So, that's fluctuating all year long. And then the last piece is the voucher, the increases in in voucher reimbursements, and we talked a little bit about how this works, right? because we saw our first state aid reduction this past year for voucher students and there were three students. Um so we saw a state aid reduction of about $30,000. And what you what you don't see when we get the um the state equalization aid certified to us, we don't see that on there. So when when we re when districts receive their their aid um statement, it will
069say the full aid amount, but then on the revenue limit worksheet, it will show that at the end of this happens at the end of the year. There's a reduction for those voucher students. And so what happens is um we don't actually get the full amount of aid that was certified at the beginning of the year. There's a reduction, but what we are allowed to do is then make ourselves whole. by taxing for that >> real estate tax. >> So, so essentially the tax levy increased by that $30,000 last year in order to make our revenues in the pole because we were losing that on on state aid. So that's that's really how the voucher >> for private charter school students. >> Correct. And when do we find out how many vouchers? >> Voucher. Yeah.
070We want to make sure that >> Okay. So that's the way the state is funding students who are private voucher school students, >> correct? >> Is coming right off the top of the money that would go into education, right? At the state level and then we're allowed to make up for that by taxing more on the levy. >> Correct. >> Yeah. Just as a reference point too on special education in 1973 it was 70% support from state aid for special education. >> That pot of money went a lot further, right? >> It did. It's increased. I mean the numbers of kids. So um with that and then uh the other document that was part of the finance meeting financial facilities meeting last week was um just another estimate. So now that we are using the
071um numbers in the bianium budget the new bianium budget gave a new estimate of budget projections. Um just a quick summary that's all I had. >> Great. That was the last on our >> agenda. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for helping us make sense of complicated information. Um, all right. We are going to move on to the personnel committee. I'm going to give a summary and a report of what we did and then we will take the action. So, the personnel committee met on July 14th. During that meeting, um, Nate provided a certified staffing update. Things are looking very promising from that standpoint. It would not be a complete surprise to have some last minute adjustments, but at this point we're holding steady, right? >> Okay. Um, we also reviewed changes to the substitute
072employee handbook for the school year 202526 and the committee recommends that the full board adopt those adjustments. >> Just to be clear, it's a handbook for substitutes. It's not a substitute for the employee handbook. It's a subsid. >> So all >> people who come in who are filling sub are our short-term sub roles in the district find information in this handbook. Do you want to add anything to that summary? All right. Okay. Uh we also reviewed um and made some adjust the reviewed the changed the recommend recommendations to the appendices to the employee handbook for 202526 and again the committee recommends that the board approve them. Um these are changes that reflect what needs to be done for the next school year. And then the committee also discussed revisions to an existing job description to
073really better meet the district's needs. So the position is now going to be called a health services paraprofessional float position, not an aid position. Nate, do you want to say anything more about the need for that change? That minor change was meant to ensure that people understood the float position, which is a position that isn't centered at anyone's school like the other health parrofessional positions. This person works one day at Greenwood, maybe the next day at the Montasauri. part of that day could be at the high school and really goes where it's needed based on the needs of the students and also acts as a substitute if one of our existing health care professionals happens to be out that day. >> And since we have a number of students who have some significant medical needs,
074we need to have a person who is in this position and trained to be able to go where we need them. >> Right. mainly because our health aid would have to vacate the office at their school, >> leaving those all of the rest of the students without support during that time. >> What are the requirements when we hire a health? Do they have to have any sort of medical background? >> They don't. Um Karen, our registered nurse for the district is able to provide them the level of training that's required for them to do that job. >> All right. because it's the season of handbook at this point. Is there a motion to I'm going to take numbers one and two together. A motion to approve revisions to the substitute employee handbook as presented as
075well as revisions to the employment the employee handbook appendices as presented. >> So moved second >> was that you me and then Allison. >> Okay. >> Or Alan take your pick. I didn't hear him. >> I've got you Allison. All right. Any questions or comments on that? They they were modest adjustments. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion is carried. And now is there a motion to approve the health services paraprofessional float job description as presented? >> Thank you, Alan. >> Second. >> Okay, Monica, questions or comments on this? I think this is a really good revision for the district that's going to serve the needs of our students well. >> All those in favor? I >> I oppose. The motion is carried. All right. Um we have one last handbook that we need
076to consider tonight and that will be the 202526 Renaissance Charter Academy student handbook. Um the everything is right in the in our board packet. I'll take a motion to approve that handbook and then we can have discussion. >> So move. >> Thank you, Allison. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Monica. Questions or comments about any of the recommendations? >> A lot of work that went into this. Really appreciate the amount of work that went in. I asked I I just asked a question of Dave earlier about the changes that were made since um Peggy's not here, but I was curious to know whether or not these are changes that reflect current practices or if these changes that will be implemented for the first time this year and it sounds as though
077these changes um reflect current practice. And my general sense in reading through this handbook is that there um the expectations are being elevated. And so I was really pleased to see that and I think these are really positive changes that um are being made and trust that Peggy and her staff will be able to help students, you know, >> and will impact culture. >> Yeah. What one thing I'd highlight is uh they earned a grant for that vape sensor and so she has language in there for how that will be managed and we're going to carve out some time within EDP pro just so the board can understand how that device can help us with uh enforcing policies that we have in place. >> We're doing some important work >> the Renaissance and it's nice
078to be able to try these things out in a smaller school. All right, we have a motion that's been moved and seconded. Anything else? All those in favor? I >> opposed. The motion is carried. All right, we have the first reading of revised schoolboard policy 431 related to student attendance and I'm going to turn to Dave to ask him to walk us through the um proposed revisions and then I will take a motion. >> You thought we would get out of the policy game for a little bit. Wrong. Uh this is something this policy has been uh chatted about as at at the admin level. Um and and we recognize that this is this is an important update. Uh one because we see it as a priority and two because we saw um the current
079pri the the current policy maybe didn't um fully consistently be organizationally aligned which is what we talked about a little bit later. So what we wanted to do is keep the integrity and uh all of the the language around state statute uh correct but also maybe offer some more clarity. So across our district uh we had some consistent attendance policies. And what I would highlight is once uh we approve this as a school board wheels are turning to make sure that um uh at every level at every school uh communication uh processes are in place. So, it's not just like we're going to flop the eight-page uh attendance policy in front of of families and and everyone impacted. Um we're going to uh have that available, of course, but we're also going to have through
080a website and through one-page documents and through communication through newsletters and all of those different systems to do try to do a really good job of making sure that everybody understands what our attendance policy is so there's clarity. So, that's the first piece. So you won't see any yellows on here because we just kind of identify this as a full full rewrite of the current policy. Even though there's probably some language that's exactly the same, we just wanted to make sure that people aware that this was this is a pretty massive overhaul. So um starting with the first three paragraphs before we get to the parts. Um the first three paragraphs to summarize what's there is it it it calls out specific state statute language around attendance and then it identifies the broad responsibilities that
081the school has and parents have related to school attendance. Is there any questions on those? >> I had a question. third paragraph, it calls specifically out 5-year-old kindergarten. And I was curious to know >> um due to state statute, we basically have different expectations. >> Yep. >> For 5year-olds versus six-year-olds, even though they're all in kindergarten. >> Um Okay. So, it's called out as 5-year-old kindergarten to compare it to 4K. >> That's 4K. Okay. >> Yeah. That's why >> that was another question I had. Okay. Great. >> And and the statute, there's probably some outdatedness to the statute versus when 4K came into to place. We have the same sort of attendance expectations around how we identify what is excused and unexcused and how we identify truency and those things that's called out uh when
082we talk about 4K that's called out in either the contract that we have with the with the provider or if it's one of our spots then we're then we're going to apply this. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> All right. So the next section is the the definition. So part one we we just said let's start with clearly identifying uh these these topics and when I say we I just wanted to clarify that lots of conversations with administrators with feedback to those who are are really charged with doing this work. So a lot of it is our attendance secretaries as well. Um so the first piece is an excused absence. Um and basically a student is excused uh when they have an acceptable excuse. And part four, which I'll get to, identifies all the ways that
083you can be excused. And one thing that we really wanted to define was um the the length of the day that we would count as an excused absence. And so basically, if you have a legitimate excuse and you're um 15 minutes to 50% of the school day gone, we're counting that as a half day towards your absence limits. And if it's greater than 50%, then we're counting that as a full day towards your absence limits. And so that allows the the attendance officer and the people that support the attendance officer to to consistently across buildings identify an how long an excused absence is. Prior to this, each school used a different method to calculate allowable absences. So at some schools if it was greater than 50% that was one full day. At other schools they
084were using um a method similar to this. And so we wanted to make sure that we were consistent across buildings. Is there questions about that? >> So if a kid's 20 minutes late for school >> with an excused absence, right? >> Then that would be whatever that excused absence would be that would be counted as a half a day. What if what if a a student left to go to a dentist appointment or some sort of a doctor's appointment during the day and it's more than 20 minutes? Is that a half day? >> So, if they come with a verified doctor's note, that's an exempt absence that doesn't count towards any of these. >> Good questions. >> And just again, as you're discussing these, you said it's not yellow. So, this it's it's not as
085if we didn't have an attendance policy before and this is all new. This is a rewrite of what we rewrite. Yep. This is big. >> It's all yellow. >> Yep. >> So, then we talk about a non-excused absence, which pretty straightforward. That means they don't have an acceptable excuse. I'll talk a little bit later about what that does. Um, by state statute, uh, if you're if you're unexcused for greater than 15 minutes, when we start to talk about truency and habitual truency, um, anything greater than 15 minutes is count counted towards one of your unexcused absences. So that's why that's defined in that way. So there's a little bit of difference between an excused absence versus an unexcused absence. So we want to be clear with that >> habit. >> I'm confused. Um on the
086excused absence, Mike, you asked the question if I go to a doctor's appointment and >> that's in part four. That's a different part four. >> Okay. >> Give me till part four and that will be confused. I promise. >> Okay. >> I shouldn't say I promise but I >> um so unexcused absence. Uh we talked about habitually truent. That is if you are unexcused for all or part of 5 days within a school semester. Why habitually true is something that we want to define is because at that point um the district if it follows some other steps that I'll talk about um could move towards a citation whether that's through county uh through the county or through the city. And I'll talk about the other steps that we do and all the things that we
087do to try to defend uh to prevent that from happening because that's our end goal is to prevent that from happening. Um but we define habitually truent is if you are unexcused absence for all a part of five days within a semester. >> How does that translate like at the elementary level where they're on trimesters? You just mark the halfway point. Okay, >> good question. >> Tardy late arrival that covers that period of 1 to 15 minutes. So that might be excused or that might be unexcused. You have an excused absence with less than 15 minutes or an unexcused absence with less than 15 minutes. That's that's kind of the the I'll use the word grace period. Those are my words. Any questions on on the definitions? Okay, we can circle back when we get
088to some of the other parts. Um the next part two and part three uh are very straightforward and again uh pretty much cut uh right from state statute. Um, one identifies who the school attendance officer is and what their role is. Um, and and at every building we have an identified school attendance officer. It's normally the principal or assistant principal. Um, and then they normally have a design that supports that work for them. And then in part three, uh, it just identifies the fact that a parent or guardian uh, is required to provide notification of an absence. If they don't do that, then we assume it's unexcused. And we we have a whole bunch of systems to verify that the child is safe and all those steps. Any questions on part two or part three?
089Awesome. All right, here we go. Part four. Um this is probably the part where we had a lot lot of discussion on and just clarification on and and we did a lot of research around different school districts and and a lot of different work. So, state statute does does do some nice things to identify uh what's a excused absence, but then they also have a lot a lot of local control uh that to clarify how you're going to define if if that is covered under that uh excused absence or covered under a different excused absence. So, the way our policy reads now is the first reason that you can be excused from school is that you're not in a proper physical or mental condition to attend school. I'll just use the word ill from now
090on when I'm describing that so everybody understands what I'm talking about. So if your student if a child is ill from school they can be excused from school. So how do we know that the child is ill right? So 41A says that a parent or guardian uh for all or part of four school days per year can excuse their child from being ill from school. Okay. So when we talk about that proration this is where it comes in. If it's a parent excused, hey, David is sick today and it was greater than 50% of the day, then that is one of the parents four opportunities to identify their child as ill. Okay. Um, that is what I would say is a unique component to our attendance policy that is not in lots of school district
091policies. And so in other school district policies, they wouldn't have any carveout for a parent to be able to excuse their child as ill. They would have the expectation that a there was a doctor's note that identified that the child was ill or b the absence would be coded as uh reason number uh three in in this part which is uh a parent or guardian can excuse their person their child for any reason for up to 10 days. it's can get confusing. Um, and we try to recognize that there's lots of different situations and we also understand that sometimes a child is ill and it may not require that person to to go to a doctor. And so in past practice, this district has allowed some level of parent ill. We've had a long conversation
092about what is the appropriate amount, how do we calculate them with the prorations? And what we've landed on in this new policy is that it's four per year. That's different. It used to be four per semester. Okay. But we did we we had we were all over the board on how we prorrate. So now we're going to be consistent with how we prorrate and do it four per year. So I got a lot of parent feedback on this piece of the puzzle. And a a big piece of the puzzle is um it's challenging because sometimes not all illnesses require a doctor visit and everybody's all over the board with how accessible they are to having a doctor visit. And so we did uh three or four things within the policy to to kind of recognize
093that. The first thing is we purposely use the word may uh so the student attendance officer has the discretion uh around requirement of doctor's notes. So in section B, the district may request the dis the parent or guardian obtain a written statement. Um that gives the attendance offers sort of the discretion to understand if there's a unique circumstance that we wouldn't require a doctor's note in that situation. >> It may create a financial burden for a family. >> Yes. Uh I'm going to speak to that in a second that that potentially could be the case. But but I also wanted to recognize that in addition to these four illness excuse days, parents can also lean on their 10 parent excuse absence days if they feel obtaining a doctor's note is not necessary or not feasible.
094So now we have four illness excused days and 10 uh parent excused days which means essentially from a parent alone a student could be gone 14 full days uh out of 175 which is about 8% which is getting close to what we kind of are identified as chronically absent. So, we just want to recognize that while it is the four excuse, they also have 10 optional days, too, that they could also use. And in a lot of districts, this four isn't even there. It's just all the 10. So, that's that's the second piece. Um, there's two other pieces that I wanted to highlight around absences. The next one is that if your student if your child has a chronic condition, you can obtain a doctor's verification that could excuse the student for a period of
095time of 30 days and that would cover all absences for that illness reason for that 30-day period. And our school nurse has the discretion to extend that. So, if you're dealing with uh uh something like I'll just use an example, influenza. Okay? So, you could get a doctor's note and that would say David is recovering from from influenza and he over the next 30 days may be ill. And now that's the certified doctor's note that the parent could say, "Hey, he's still recovering." That's one of these days. So, that's a 30-day period. Zack Campbell, who is uh at the high school as well as our district nurse Caren reached out to our district physician um and had conversations about what that form could look like. and we wanted some consistency around that form. So, building
096to building, if you have kids at multiple levels, you would know what that absence verification form, but that's another way that we could encounter that issue of maybe something that's ongoing and chronic that doesn't really fit under, hey, you don't have to always go to the doctor for this, but we would want to have some recognition of a chronic condition. So, that that's another way that we're recognizing there's, you know, it can be confusing. It seems a your kid's sick, your kid's sick, but there there's some layers to this. The last piece is um if your student becomes if your child I always say child if your child becomes ill while at school office staff and the parent or guardian would work together. They would speak prior to the student leaving and if it the
097if both parties agree the child uh the office staff agrees and the parent agree that the child is is ill then the parent would uh then that would be an excused absence. And we have some pretty clear guidelines on if if you're throwing up um or if you have a fever, there's some pretty clear guidelines that your child can't be in school. And so what we're saying with that is if that's the case, then that wouldn't be counted towards one of your four parent illness absences because that was something that the dis the the school is basically saying, "Hey, your child's got to go home." Um but one thing that's clear there is that um sometimes more most often at the high school level um a parent might call in and say, "Hey, I I
098heard my I heard David is sick. Uh I'm going to send him home." Well, if if to to have this be the case, David's got to go to the office and David has to be recognized as being too sick to be at school for that to be an excused absence. You could still parent could still call them out. It's just going to be used on one of those excused absences. So, that's kind of the way that we encountered that. Um, and and how that's outlined. Um, there's a lot of nuance to it, but we felt like it was important to kind of spell that out. Are there any questions on illness, excused absences? Okay. So, number two there is I already touched on this. That's uh if your student is experiencing a chronic condition, uh
099you could be absent from school and the process on how you would obtain that illness verification form. and the big positive step forward that this chronic uh form this chronic or extended illness those are two different things verification form would be consistent districtwide. So the next thing is number three in part four and this one is again very aligned to state statute which says students can be excused in writing by their parents or guardians before the absence for any reason. So they don't and they it can be for anything. We give some examples of what that could be there. What it's most often what it most often is um and one thing I would clarify there is proration is the same. So 15 minutes to 50% is half of your 10 greater than 50% is
100is one of your 10. Are there questions on that? Number four is the is the the poperri of all the other options that wouldn't count against your 10 parent excused or your four illness days >> that are not. >> Yep. >> And again this is maybe something that's different than other districts. Some other districts might for example if it was a death in the family that would just be in the general bucket of 10. We're calling that out as something different. >> Okay. It's interesting here taps. >> Yeah. That that must be statute right out of statute. >> If a student is is tasked to play taps during a military honors funeral or deceased or for a deceased veteran, that's >> 100%. >> That's interesting. I know >> a special interest thing by someone that
101put it in there. Of course, we would do that either way, but it's a statute, so we're for sure going to do it. Now, >> do you have to define immediate family or is that defined somewhere? >> Um, immediate family. We have allowed uh >> kind of broad definition step siblings steparents uncle >> if you if you would like we can put that in policy we've tried to allow that to be the discretion >> flexible the attendance officer but we can definitely >> sure no I think it's fine I was just curious whether it was identified in the state law >> it's not >> okay part five um is just said okay so what does it mean to be unexcused I think the most obvious unexcus is you you're not here your parents without without
102your parents. I don't think you are. >> Right. So that's that's the most one that we traditionally think of. But there there are other ways that you can be unexcused. You could be with the consent of your parent, but the absence doesn't fall under any of the reasons that we have in part four. Or you are with the consent of your parents, but you've exceeded the allowable limits of the absences that you have per year. So you're you're above your 10 or or whatnot. So those are the things that would would be considered unexcused. My kids skipped school. My My brother skipped school once cuz my mom said he couldn't buy one of those airplanes that you you know one of those foam ones that you throw. >> So I'm riding the bus home and
103my kid my brother's on his bike riding home with an airplane on Skip school. Skip school is that where does that fall? >> That would be an unexprit. Oh my god. That's >> Well, my dad was on the school board at the time. >> Good thing they had to go. >> It's still a family. We still have family laughs about that. >> The next piece there without excuse is is the are we we support our admin in in taking attempts to deter it like writing apology letters and whatnot. Uh tarniness and late arrival is defined there. Um are there any questions on part five or part six? >> Okay. Um part seven uh makeup work and examinations. The thing I would highlight with part seven is that students who are absent from school whether the
104absence was excused or unexcused are permitted to make up coursework and examinations uh during the miss time period. >> They are excused or unexcused. >> Yep. Um, it is the students responsibility to contact their teachers, determine what that coursework is, and there's specific school pol procedures that are outlined in the handbook on on how to do that and how much time you have to complete the makeup work and all of that fun stuff. Any questions on part seven? Okay, part eight is promotion, monitoring, and intervention. Um the these are the proactive steps that the district is committed to to ensure that uh uh the high levels of attendance for for all kids. So um one piece is that we strive to have a welcoming and engaging school environment. We want kids to want to be
105here. We want to have activities that uh have are interest to them so they attend um as well as an engaging curriculum. So that's there. The next piece is um if we would have school-based disciplinary actions to to deter truency. So in those initial steps if you accumulate too many tardies or if you have unexcused absences, there are detentions. There are other interventions at that level uh that we would take uh to to make truency not feel like a fun thing. Um and then obviously this is probably one of the things that uh is a huge piece of of a a school administration and and and a school office is constant monitoring and targeted assistance. So student attendance is monitored continuously prior to any referral to municipal or county uh to municipal or county for
106habitual truency. the attendance officer designate is going to provide targeted assistance uh for students who are needing additional support and some of the examples of what that could look like are there. So the idea here is that we want to do everything proactively to avoid kids being gone from school because we know the impact of kids being gone from school on their overall student success. Um and so so those things are in place and we clarified that so that we had some good admin level conversations about making sure that all these things at some level unique to each building are happening and they are but this is a good way to clarify and have good conversations about what is working at some buildings and what could work at at other buildings. Um part nine talks
107about communication just the different ways that we communicate with our families about absences. So, you're going to get an absent report on your report card report cards. Um, that's a nice thing to keep track of. You're going to get a notice of unexcused absence and and the methods, the potential methods are identified there. You're also going to get notice when you're reaching you're getting close to your maximum allowable excused absences or you've reached your maximum allowable absences. So, hey, heads up. You've had your 10. Anything beyond this is going to be an unexcused absence. That's the way that we partner with parents to make sure they're aware where they sit and obviously through infinite campus a parent can check their child's attendance whenever they want. Um part 10 is referral to municipal or county court
108for habitual truency. Um so part 10 just identifies if the student is at risk for becoming habitually truent and which means they're almost at five or at five. this thing has to take place before we would make any final referral to to municipal or county court. This was another good conversation at every level, making sure that we're consistently um communicating what is taking place at these meetings um and how how we make sure that these meetings are we make every effort to have them. It doesn't mean that every meeting takes place. The district's responsible for providing a notice and doing everything they can to meet, but sometimes it doesn't happen. But we have to demonstrate and document that we've done that these questions. >> We're required to notify the county. >> Yep. Yep. >> Because
109then that can lead to um issues with the county intervening with child, you know, should this child be in this home if the parents can't make sure the child gets to school and things like that. >> Yep. And then the final uh the final intervention, we would just make sure that we have the notice was provided. We've also met all those things have taken place. We really want to uh be tight with that. So when we get to that uh final unfortunate uh level um we've done everything we can. Part 11 is specific to middle and high school and just talks about extracurricular participation and identifies uh the link to attendance. And then part 12 um and I will put the caveat in the next month we might make some adjustments to part 12. Uh
110we hemmed and hot if this was even necessary to be in the policy. Um, but we think it's important that if somebody looks at that, they can understand uh kind of how to read the the attendance policies because things that are exempt and this now I'm going to circle all the way back to we talked about doctor's note, right? If you have a doctor's note that's exempt. So, uh, it doesn't count towards those allowable absences. If it's excused, it does, right? Um, and then unexcused is noted as well. Are there questions on any of those last steps? Sorry, that was long. >> It is a thorough thorough policy. >> Wow, >> that's great. >> Well, I would make a motion that we approve it for first reading. >> Thank you, Ellison. Is there a second?
111>> Second. >> Thank you, Ellen. Questions or comments about the first reading? I appreciate the consistency and that you really have gone through everything is is well outlined. It's comprehensive. >> Comprehensive. >> Will be well. I like your Do you want to mention that you're going to make a one-page summary for >> I think that's important. Um um it's interesting because there's a fair amount of our families that don't encounter this and and if they do encounter might just be on a one-off weird year where everything comes together at once. >> Um but then there are other families that we would want to have consistent ways to communicate them so they understand how how we keep track of these things. >> So there will be a one-page summary, right? That's where you're going with >>
112Exactly. >> And that onepage summary will be shared widely with parents and >> Yeah. And it won't just be a onepage summary that's shared widely. Sure. Develop in a whole website. Yep. >> Um that would be would provide greater detail and then we would you would leverage other communication methods, newsletters, um social media, those types of things to share that >> with the increased consistency across all of our school sites. Do you anticipate hopefully just this first year if it even happens, but do you anticipate more families being notified that they have reached their allotted? >> It's I I wouldn't even predict. And the reason why I say wouldn't even predict is because we reduce the number of parent 10's always been 10. So I I don't know if if that will be impacted. maybe
113districts schools are paying closer attention and I'm not quite sure but pretty sure 10's 10. So where there's that's the difference but then the to the flip side of that we've kind of clearly defined how we prorrate them and that might that might change how certain >> buildings were coming in. It's hard to predict. >> Sure. But but at the end of the day, we want a policy that >> helps partners with parents, but also helps everybody understand, hey, best case scenario, >> David is in school. >> It seems to me this policy does that. I appreciate your ability to recognize that all families are in different circumstances and and things come up and you've, you know, provided some layers there. Um, but also emphasizing that it's important that we have kids, you know, in
114our buildings learning as often as possible. So, I think this is great. >> I appreciate the flexibility that I, as a parent, I can tell my child has a fever and needs to be home without taking them and I you're allowing me to make that. >> It's because in the end, you don't want them at school if they're not feeling well. >> Exactly. None of us. Then it just spreads. >> Kids get sick and teachers get sick and and that and that mindset makes a whole ton of sense. However, there are >> right people that push the limit on that and there >> right >> but you've allowed it within bounds and I appreciate that. >> Anything else? >> Can I ask just a general question? Um this policy is broken out into part one,
115part two, part three. Is that a feature of policies moving forward? Can we anticipate that kind of a structure broken up? >> Okay. I just it stood out to me as being a little bit different than some of our other policies. >> And that'll get cleaned up in NOLA probably transition a lot of >> Sure. >> Well, like next policy we're going to look at. >> I don't I don't I don't >> What I will say is Neiola there's a lot of things that will be really good about Nola, but >> policy is messy. Like not every policy can have like a clear like there's just and I've already noticed that with Neiola. It's not everything's not exactly the same. the part piece did come from the the uh Neiola a Neiola sample policy. So
116that that might be parts of some of it, but it's not in every policy >> for such a lengthy policy. It sure made it easier to refer back to and >> it's nicely laid out. >> Was helpful to have that >> with the with the titles matching the parts. >> There's there's there's two lines in the second introductory paragraph that I really appreciate. The primary responsibility for regular school attendance of a child rests upon the child's parents or guardian. Okay, I'm glad that's there. It's right up front. Um, in addition, school officials have the legal responsibility to enforce student attendance. This is law. I mean, that they've got to be at school. That's why we've got a attendance policy. It's not just we have a lot of local control in a lot of areas, but
117parents, it's your responsibility to get them to school and it's our responsibility to enforce the state law. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. The motion carries. >> All right. Now, we have the second reading of the new schoolboard policy 342.11 related to independent educational evaluation. So, is there a motion now to approve the second reading of the new schoolboard policy 342.11 independent educational evaluation? >> So, moved. >> Thank you, Allison. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Lindsay. We had a lengthy discussion and presentation on this u by Mark Inu. This is the second time it's come before the board. There have been no changes since the first reading. Any discussion? All those in favor? I >> I opposed. The motion is carried. Are there any proposed or suggested
118items for future board meeting agendas? >> All right. Then we are going to set the next meetings. The educational program committee will meet Monday, August 11th at 6:00. Finance and facility will facilities will meet Monday, August 11th at 7:00 or immediately following educational program. Personnel will meet Monday, August 11th at 8 o'clock or immediately following finance and facilities. We're getting into this pattern of these triple headers. The next regular schoolboard meeting will be Monday, August 18th at 6 to the 25th. >> I would have a suggestion if the board is okay with it to move that to the 20 >> I thought. Yes, we did >> the 25th. >> Yeah, we had talked about it, but this will kind of approve that. That's the regular board meeting because the week of the 18th you have
119all those first day things, >> correct? Nope. The week of the 18th is the tools for schools event and we didn't want to have crossover because >> some of the people at this table will be working. >> And remember that next Monday is our board retreat. We are starting at 4 o'clock. Lynette >> tour >> made this tour possible. So that should be fun. Um and with that the