001Are [Music] The class some more targeted pieces for each of the departments. So, that's where we're currently at with our work. Any questions? I'm really impressed with this. I've read through all of that before the meeting tonight and it's it's really exciting. Um it I think it's wonderful. I think my guess is once we really dig down into this and have some experience, it is not only going to increase our literacy scores with our students, but also maybe the their knowledge in those specific content areas because it feels as if it's really focusing how it is that we are navigating ideas and concepts, right? So, yeah, I was wondering where did we get this strategy? Did we make it up or did we learn this somewhere as a the str which strategy strategy to is
002there someone had um embed in the classes the the reading is this a well-known embedding content literacy is a well-known approach right to be able to look at that um the strategies that we compiled for like those foundational nine was a combination of different research based ones as well different programs and things that that are out there but we're really excited to see what the departments will do because we're hoping it'll build teacher autonomy right um and and just their efficacy right in themselves um because right now at the secondary level so often teachers will be like I am not a reading teacher but in reality they are right it's just building their confidence in their specific content area so and helping them recognize what they're already doing that really is teaching reading that is
003just not labeled that way so that's really helpful I just want to give kudos to to Max we have great teachers taking leaps forward and content literacy and learning that. Max is a clear example of that. He collaborates with his teammates. We have two assistant principles who are former instructional coaches and do an excellent job with our staff. And then again, I want to thank you and David as well. The wig concept of us being able to stay hyperfocused on something not just for one year, but a multitude of years is giving us the time needed to really implement at a at a better level or a better fidelity than we have in years past. So, thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you for your work. Thanks for being here tonight, and I look forward
004to hearing more about this. I I was so intrigued by this, I thought, gosh, I'd like to be over there when they're doing these meetings. All right, Mark, you have a team up here coming, right? All right. A pair. Those of you not have not met, this is Cat Swanson. Um, we got her from Hudson, so it's always a good thing when we take some Hudson step forward. She's done a fantastic job as our instructional coach. Um, and and uh, it's been just a real pleasure working with her and um, getting getting into teams on Thursday. We have our PLC time every Thursday and um, she's had a lot to do with our our work around our our goal here at Meer Middle School. So, our goal, um, again, keep in mind this is a
005three-year goal is that 90% of Myer Middle School students will be proficient on 80% of the standards u measured on their end of the year assessment. So, up to this point, just a little context, as you know, we transitioned to standardsbased grading. That's been a three-year process. We identified what our priority standards are. We created proficiency scales for each of those priority standards. Um, so our goal is to get every kid out a three, which is proficient. Um, so part of the work that Cat's been doing is is helping develop those mid-year assessments, pulling questions from unit assessments. And then another big part is the data collection. So I'll have her maybe talk a little bit about the the spreadsheet that she created. We've been tracking the data um using that and helping just providing
006a little more support for our teachers. So um that's our goal. Um jump ahead here. So really the bulk of this work up to this point was creating the midyear assessment administering the assessment and then and then looking at the data and so um Amanda can you click on that first link there. So tracking the data if you can expand that or not. Yeah. Sorry I have this broken down by subject area as well. Um and I didn't break it out that I have that in a separate document, but this is a breakdown of of of the data. Um, so 90 to 100% of our students score proficient on nine out of the 62 standards that were were assessed. Um, 80 to 90 80 to 89% of our students proficient on 18 of those 62
007standards. You just you can go on down the line. And if you go to the bottom, some things to celebrate for us. I thought this was interesting because last year a different cohort of students, but 80% of our students were proficient or advanced on the social studies on the Ford exam. I thought that was kind of interesting, but um so that was on 13 of the 16 social studies standards. Um greater than or equal to 70% of our students were proficient on 10 of the 15 standards in science. And those are if you looked at the science standards, they're they're meaty. There's a lot to them. They're there's there's a lot to unpack there. And then um the greater than or equal to 60% of our students proficient on 46 of our 62 standards, which
008is 74%. So we're not obviously didn't reach our goal. Um we're continuing to work towards that goal. And the I guess the one data piece that gave us a little bit of pause and if you I'm going to talk about the context behind this but our ELA scores um I'd say traditionally with our Ford exam our scores have been solid from fifth to sixth grade. We've actually grown, which a lot of middle schools don't grow from fifth to sixth grade for ELA. Uh, but our scores were the lowest on this midyear assessment in ELA and and a lot of the reason for the and that's mostly on the those writing standards. And I think one of the reasons is that writing process gets extended. It's an entire year. Some standards are one and done on
009a unit. Some of those standards get stretched out for the entire year. And then my next question that I had, well, how many kids are at a 2.5? So we have half steps in between. So if you look at a standard, you break it down, there's maybe six learning targets, and some kids may be getting four out of the six, but they're not quite proficient. They may be at a 2.5. So, um, we did have around 25 to 30% of our students that were in that 2.5 range. Um, so that's that's our data. And then if you can go back, Amanda, and then how we track it. I don't know if you want to talk about the data tracking, but if you want to click on that first, this was the template that Cat created.
010And these are just arbitrary numbers that I put in here to make sure that the calculations were working. But this is a a heavy lift for the teachers because if you are looking at um any of the content areas, they could have 12 to 16 standards that they're assessing. And then if you have 130 students that you are assessing for every standard, that's a lot. um the work of collecting that data and putting it into the spreadsheet is very timeconuming. So I was able to help the teachers and kind of take some of that on. Um and from that from doing that I do know I mean we need to put some more systems in place to make that a little bit more efficient because there were times where I was counting you know how
011many kids were proficient by each standard. So some of that we do need to clean up to make it more efficient for everyone across the board. Um but the way that we have this broken down is you can see um the standards that are listed. They have it organized by class, how many students are proficient in each class, and then it does a calculation at the far right to do the um how many are proficient. So, that's where we are keeping track. Um and then as you go down the spreadsheet, you can see it's getting larger. There's, you know, by the end of the year, they're not they're they're going to assess all of the standards, not just the midyear one. So, um as we start the process to prepare for the end of the
012year, our teachers are building those assessments. um looking at it, refining those and then um also at the same time responding to the mid-year data which is a lot happening at once. So once so they have the midyear data but now we had to do data protocols, take looks at it like what did we do well, what do we need to work on, what standards did we do really well at, which ones did we not? Um and what does that look like now moving forward? So while they're responding to that data, they're also getting prepared for the next as well. So that's really the next step then for our teachers as we respond to the midyear data. How do we weave those questions in on practice problems, warm-up problems, and on future assessments as as
013they continue to add standards as as the year goes on. So and then with the ELA standards, the 2.5 when um I go into PLC teams with the with the language arts teachers, one thing that I've noticed because I I'll grade with them. So we'll do we'll take some writing samples and grade it together. They have very high standards and we don't want that to change to make the data look a specific way. They have incredibly high standards and they I think that's really great and they're all on the same page with that. So that I think also explains that the ELA being a little lower. We're finally to a point, I mean, this has been obviously a lot of work leading up to this point, but this is the type of work that that
014we're finally to a point where we're tracking by student by standard and it, you know, it's a lot of work. It's a heavy lift for our teachers, but um I think we have a really good handle on where our kids are at in terms of relationship to their learning and by specific standard. So, that's it. Thank you. Any questions? I have a question for you. So, as you're tracking your wig data, is it making a difference that you're doing standardsbased grading, is that impacting how you're managing all of this? Yeah, I mean, obviously the the assessments um I feel like in the I think at the end of the day, are the kids retaining the information? Right. So, if you look at a report card alone, an A doesn't tell us anything, but hearing conversations
015about, hey, I got a 3.0 on this particular standard. the conversations, what I'm hearing from from teachers and from students. I had a kid walking down the hallway at the end of the day. She was I had her phone looking at her. I got my first 3.5 and I was on a specific standard in a class that she absolutely loved. She had never gotten a three point like 3.5 is above extending the standard. Um so it's changing the conversation. Um you know in terms of of results um if you look at again if you look at the report card I think that reports out much different than what an A or B does. and and for us then to respond to that data gives us specific things that we need to work on as teachers
016and then specific things that our students need to work on as well. And it's rebuilding assessments. So if you're going to give a science quiz, the kids are not getting 10 of 12. They could potentially have three different scores on one quiz because there could be three standards on that quiz. So the yeah the feedback is we like I'll give you a quick example of a sixth grade science teacher. She showed me passback um had as Cat just mentioned there was three different standards that they measured and there's two to three questions for each one. Each one had an individual score. So they're not getting an 80% they're getting a specific score for specific questions that align to specific standards. So it's pretty dialed in. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you both for your
017work and for being here tonight. We look forward to hearing more about it. All right. Now we are going to move on to a superintendent report please for March. So my report uh tonight is about uh student attendance. So the the the theme here is is really zeroing in or focusing on strengthening student attendance. And the the first part of this is to identify that it's aligned to our strategic plan. We have goals to hold high expectations for student learning. Obviously attendance plays a role in that. We also have goals around providing a safe and welcoming and healthy school environment. And obviously we have attendance issues I if uh we don't have those things in place. So we see it as a really critical foundational element. We just saw two important presentations that were academic
018heavy and if we have uh sporadic attendance or if we have kids who are chronically missing school, it's very hard for them to show growth in the goal areas that our middle and high school tonight in our elementary school in prior uh months have explained. Uh we think it's important enough uh to to be something that we we monitor on a regular basis and and what we really zero it in on is chronically absent students. We see that as a really important trigger point. So, um, people are going to be gone. You get sick, uh, you have a special occasion where you miss something. Um, and and that's here and there, that's probably not going to cause a huge issue, but when we become chronically absent, which for us we define as being absent for
019more than 10% of school days, um, we see that as a big issue. So, in 2324, we had a little over 8% of our students who were designated as chronically absent. We have a goal to reduce that. Doesn't mean that we don't focus on the attendance for everyone, but we really see that as the as the big piece to it. Does the county get involved in that at all? We'll get to that. Okay. Good question. Not um I'll I'll kind of explain when they would become involved. Yep. So, uh we really see this as kind of a school and family partnership, right? And so on the school end, we do things like uh we aspire to do things like creating a self uh safe and engaging learning environment. Uh building trusting relationships with students because
020realistically um not every aspect of learning is super flashy and exciting. So uh that that's when you rely on those trusting relationships. So, in other words, if we're grinding through uh a challenging assessment on macro uh carbohydrates and monomers, um which might not be the most engaging piece, um we we know what's really important is that our our students have uh trusting relationships uh with the adults in the building. Um so, I think I think that's a big thing that we focus on on the school side of it. Um we also want to have clear and consistent policies and procedures. I'll touch on that uh a little bit more specifically later. and we want to have proactive communication with parents, especially if we're seeing concerns. And I'll kind of zero in on some things that
021we're doing around that. And then I also think simple things like sharing calendars and schedules in advance. Uh getting the school calendar out and and Dr. Sherman's done a really good job this year of getting that information out in public as soon as possible so families can schedule important events or do the best they can to schedule important events. And then when we get to somebody who is chronically absent, then then we have intensive supports. We also know uh it's a there's a family component to this too. So parents and guardians have a huge role in this. So uh we hope that our our families are prioritizing attendance uh by u scheduling events and appointments to the best of their ability outside of the school hours. We know that can't always happen. We know there
022are things that get in the way of that. But um I think that's a big piece. Also then just proactive on that side, proactive communication with schools prior to, during, and after absences. Understanding if there's a long-term health uh situation that's going on. uh if there's something that's going to impact on a periodic basic uh basis or a sporadic basis that we're communicating that so so the important and the right people are in the know of that uh reinforcing the importance of attendance uh parents influence is unmatched right so um if a parent uh prioritizes that attendance that that that becomes something that's important within that family and I think we can't diminish that and and we can understand that that's that's part of that partnership and then just that focus on establishing consistent routines
023if it's just the expectation that you come to school, you come to school. Um, uh, it's interesting how how that can become such a key thing. So, just wanted to talk a little bit about, uh, some things, uh, that the high school specifically is working on around targeted attendance support. So, why the high school? Well, not surprisingly, that's where we see the most chronically absent students. And so, uh, we've looked at some some important ways that we can do that. And so, um, three important members of that team, and I think they would all say that this is a collective effort that involves more than them are Zach Campbell, who's a student success coach, and then our two assistant principles, whose one of their key responsibilities is obviously attendance. And so, uh, recently they they
024presented at a statewide conference and they and they kind of zeroed in on what what are the things that we do around attendance within, uh, River Falls High School. And and these things permeate to the other buildings as well. a focus on school culture. If you have that culture piece in place, it's much easier to have attendance. If you don't, then we know that there are struggles, right? And so, no one is saying here up here that we are perfect. We always are working on things, but that what we're saying here is that that's a focus for us. We want it to be a place to be. Um we we have a a position that that's Zach's position around coordination and that's really um looking at those students who are at risk or already chronically
025absent. Um really providing intensive support around how we monitor uh their absences, how we coach them and families around some of the issues that are sort of the core issues of why students are absent. Um and then a leadership class to help students kind of organize um and and create and develop the skills that they need to consistently come to school. Uh in coordination with families, there's home visits. Sometimes uh that can be a thing that families uh see as supportive and and when we see that as a supportive thing, then then we will work with that. Um who would do that? Who would go visit a family? Uh Zach or the assistant principles. And then uh Allison, you asked about um when do the courts get involved? Um we see that as the last
026resort, right? That's not something that we're real excited about is in engaging uh the municipal or county truency court. Um but sometimes that's that's the the layer that has to be in place. And aren't we required? We are to report. Yep. Yep. Uh our goal is to to intervene before we have to get to it. So, okay, give me the data, Dave. Well, here's the current data this year. Uh, overall attendance rates, we're at about a little over 95 uh% attendance rate at the district level. Um, highest at the elementary, um, but pretty consistent between elementary, middle school, and high school. Talked a little bit about those that re have kind of been receiving that targeted support. Um, 73% of them have seen an improvement in attendance. I wanted to be clear with that because
027you could read that a couple of different ways, right? So 73% of the students about three out of four students who are getting those supports are seeing an improvement in their attendance and 79% of those students are seeing an improvement in their in their grades and the average increase is about a half of a GPA. So if you were at a 3.0 or 3.5 so clearly we know that attendance impacts grades. We're also seeing increases in co-curricular uh participation and then self-reporting a sense of belonging at school. So we're seeing success with that. um and we want to uh expand it. So um looking at the transition, so the transition from 8th to 9th grade or fifth to sixth grade, those are big transition times. So how are we supporting students when they move into
028that new environment and what attendance can look like in those areas? um mental health interventions obviously that that can be a core issue and and so finding ways to help families access that uh support that they need and maybe without having to leave school uh to get it is a way that we can hopefully help with attendance. Right? So if you're working through some of those things and it requires you to miss big chunks of the day, that's tough, right? You got to prioritize that. That's the most important, but then you're missing other pieces. So how can we through colllocated services or other things um provide the supports that are needed and then PD for teachers and support staff identifying students at risk for truency um uh having a consistent universal set of supports that
029we use for students who were we're worried about so it's consistent from class to class or grade level to grade level so families understand if there's concerns how we're going to respond and then just increasing awareness of that. Um, a lot of time there's a core issue why students are gone and and if we can dig into that and find that core issue uh uh we can can make improvements. So, okay, nuts and bolts. What's the policy? Well, policy 431 uh is is really just a um in a court aligned to a state statute and and that that identifies who we have to monitor to be in school and um what our exceptions are around that. and and obviously the link there if you're really super interested goes through the entire policy. Um so excused
030and unexcused abs absences right so the families like I said before there are times when a student has to be absent and any absent has to be excused by the a parent guardian or legal custodian and that has to be either written or verbal and so that works up to a point but even after that even if a parent or guardian says yep they're gone um there's a max of how many times that can happen and so right now for us that is for illness this days. That's four per semester where a parent can call in. After that, it it has to come from a written statement from a physician or a licensed practitioner. Um, same thing with professional appointments. You have to verify that you actually kept the appointment. So, you can't say, "Yep,
031I was at the ortho and then go to McDonald's." Can't do that, right? You have to have the little note that says, "Yep, tighten those braces up." Um, so so that's another piece that's there. Um, and then pre-arranged absences. uh families have the ability to in advance um provide 10 days per school year uh for the student to be absent for any reason. Right. Uh family situation, whatever it happens to be, just as long as it's pre-arranged. That's the big piece there. So, in addition to the four That's right. That's right. I've always been curious how how requiring students to bring proof that they were at a professional appointment, how that doesn't violate HIT that if I'm at You know, I I've just been always curious being in the healthcare field and having a lot
032of children. Yeah. And then my husband I don't think it says anything other than yes, they were at an appointment. Yeah. But if it's signed by, you know, Dr. Smith and Dr. Smith is an OBGYn, you know, then, you know what I mean? Well, I Yeah, I would say that it's not something where they're they're having to show everyone. They're having to show the person who's responsible, the attendance officer within the the Yeah. the district. So, it's not I mean, all schools do this. I know they do it. So, I'm just curious. Yep. So, we get to unexcused, right? So, uh unexcused means you were absent. You're absent without an excuse, I guess, is the easiest way to say that. Or you were out of excusable absences, right? And so you become a habitual truent
033if that happens for all or more or all or part of part or all that sounds better part or all of five days and that's when we get to the part where uh we're refu we're refer referred to municipal court. So we we define we have our own definition for chronically absent that might grab a few kids that aren't technically in the court system yet. Um, but we see it as a a trigger, an indicator of of other important things. So, we want to catch that in advance. So, just to kind of to close, again, it's a partnership, try to outline the big pieces of the puzzle that the school can do and then really working with uh families uh to on on their end to have that partnership so we can have success. And
034I will say, you know, against state averages and those types of things, we do pretty well. Uh but that doesn't mean especially zero in on those chronically absence kid absent kids. We see that as something that's really important. Any questions? Dave to what age does are students required by law to be in school? Is it 18? 18. 18. Okay. Um unless they graduate. I think it's seven in here. Yeah. Yeah. Become house 18 years age unless they have a legal excuse. Yeah. till the end of the term semester that they become 18. Right? So if you turned 18 your senior year, you're still expected to come. Turn 18 February. Could have graduated as a sophomore if that was. All right. Yep. Thank you very much. That's that's that's a good comprehensive description of what we're
035doing. All right, folks. We're going to move on to action items. And this evening before the school board we have the minutes of the regular schoolboard meeting on February 17th. We have bills that have been submit sub submitted for payment. We also have employment recommendations. So at this mo moment, is there a motion to approve minutes, bills, and employment as presented? So moved. Is that Lindsay? Thank you. Is there a second? Seconded. Thank you, Monica. Any questions or comments? All those in favor? I opposed. The motion is carried. All right, we are going to move on to a report um and then some recommended action from the finance and facility committee. Mike. All right, so on March 3rd, the finance and facility committee had our meeting. Uh the first um item on our agenda was
036our uh annual audit review uh with our auditing firm. um a school district's financial year, fiscal year is uh July 1st through the end of June. And so we were auditing or we were reviewing the audit that was done on July 1st of 23 to June 30th of 24. Um we hire an outside auditing firm to do that. Uh to make sure we're um living within the Wisconsin Uniform financial accounting requirements or woofer rules. Uh we had hired Clifton Al Larson Allen as our auditor, outside auditor and they had a representative at our meeting. Uh we were provided a copy of the financial statements from uh at that meeting of the audit. We reviewed the audit in depth with the auditor. Um the auditor as uh in the summary of the audit the uh financial
037uh gave us a an unmodified opinion which is the highest level that a school district can have. Um, we passed I had my note here where he said we uh we had a very clean audit. Uh, it was the highest level that a district can have. So, um, Lynette, do you want to go into some detail? Um, yeah, I sure can. So, uh, as part of the agenda, we have a copy of the financial statements and we also have the summary that was provided by Dan Carlson from CLA. So when I talk about section three or whatever, I'm referring to the section in the summary. Um if you're following along at home, um so our auditor did review with the committee. Uh there were two material weaknesses that were noted in the report and so
038I just want to um kind of reate those and what the um auditor mentioned about those. So the first one is very commonly noted for Wisconsin school districts and it really just uh refers to proposed adjustments uh from the auditor that the district then makes in their financial software. So um a lot of that's essentially much of why it's one of the reasons we have an audit to make sure that throughout the entire year revenues and expenditures are being coded the way they need to be in accordance with um general practices, rules, uh principles and then also as Mike mentioned our roofer or the Wisconsin requirements. So, um, as they go through those, they, um, have conversation with us and make those recommendations for us to make those adjustments. So, that was one of them.
039Um, and the second one was actually a bit more unusual, uh, because it goes back to what Dan stated as a glitch in their software from the previous year. So, what happened was um, they had to do with the uh, asset depreciation. So when we provide the auditors with um the list of our assets, they put it into their software and it does a calculation for depreciation and um what they found out. So they gave us those adjustments to make stated them in the financial statements for 2223. Then when they came back to audit 2324 and they were relooking at those, they realized that their software had um used a uh an the wrong depreciation amount. Um and so what they wanted to do was actually restate those in our 2324 um as a beginning
040uh net position pre-statement. And Dan kind of explained a little bit of that um when he was here. So that's unusual. Um, and we talked a little bit about how we might be able to see that or or um notice that as they're giving us those um uh adjustments moving forward. So, we'll be working on that. We reviewed the general fund which in the financial statements or especially in the summary uh auditors like to combine funds 10 and 27. So, we refer to fund 10 as our general fund and fund 27 as our special education fund. when they talk about general fund, they often combine those 10 and 27 because essentially it it is the operations of the district um even though we code those to separate funds. Um so we talked a little bit
041about that. The due from other governments uh was noted by Dan um and that had to do mainly with that does have to do mainly with year-end grant claims. So we do those at the end of the year and then we're waiting the reimbursement from DPI mostly for our federal grants. So, so as I my notes from that, so ESRE funds that were required to be spent by the end of the 22 23 cycle 23 24 cycle, right? Correct. So, we got an IOU. We spent those funds and then we had an IOU from the government. They required us to spend the funds by the end of the year and we had an IOU coming after of 3,61,000 dollars. Yeah, that um the previous year was very unique because of the large amount of federal
042grants that we received. Um as you can see that in the 2324 we kind of So that would be an explanation as to why it looked like we spent over $3 million before we had it and then we got the ESSER funds after the fact because we were required to spend them and then we got the funds to replenish that. That would explain the due from other governments, right? Yeah. That's $3,61,000. Yeah. Mo much of that had to do with ESRE funds that we did at year end which were COVID funds that were the federal government. Correct. Yep. Um we all we often have those for our flow through or special ed grants as well. We do those claims at the end of the year. They're it's timing issues as to when we get it.
043We have to spend the money but we get the money after the July 1 fiscal year. So you have to report it on the financial statement. Correct. Okay. Yes. Have we have to state that um in the previous year. Um and then we have due from other funds for the last two years. Um those are both from funds 49 and 73. So prior to my arrival and you'll notice on there um those due from funds were zero prior to um my arrival in the district. So uh districts are allowed to make those transfers after they have to be done in July. um but they have to been then be posted back to June. And so prior to my arrival, my predecessor was doing those in June because I was still learning the um you know
044how what are we doing for transfers in fund 73. I was getting um acquainted with that. Um and DPI allows for that to make those transfers in July and then we have to book those back to June. So and then so that's for fund 73. Um and then fund 49 that was new for us last year because of the new uh the referendum and the projects. So we were spending some of those project funds at the end of the year and then we have to pay ourselves back. So that's what those due from other funds were for the last couple years. Lynette, when you when you say like fund 49, could you just for the benefit of the audience say um 79? That's our building construction. Yes. So that people if they're paying half attention
045in the audience maybe can follow. Let's go back. So form 73 is our other postemployment benefits or our district retirement benefit. And that's where we quote any of those funds for district uh retirement benefit. not WRS that's completely that's different. Um and then fund 49 is where we are spending out uh the project for our capital project. Um in reviewing the unassigned fund balance at the bottom of page one of that summary, we discussed the shift in percentage. So you'll notice we went a pre couple previous years. I really like the report that they provided because it provides that fouryear look. city. I love comparables and you see that on my monthly reports. We're always looking at previous year and where is this year running compared to last year. So, I really liked that they
046had um the four years. So, we what we noticed and what we had some discussion about was the unassigned fund balance percentage was like at 19 something% those first two years and then we went with 30%. And really that had to do with shifting the unassigned dollars uh or I'm sorry the committed dollars into unassigned and that's what that percentage is. It's saying what do you have in unassigned fund balance? Um the total fund balance wasn't a significant um shift. You we've seen some increases over um the last couple of years but that really had to do with that. And so then we had some discussion um you know we I would say we're within policy the policy is 25 to 30%. Um we're I think it was 30.4%. Um and so we talked you
047know as a team or as a committee um about that and then the auditor did mention that the average that they're seeing is about 33% in unsigned fund balance. So and where again Lynette where did that money come from? the 19% shifting to 30%. So if you look in 2122, I believe it was on the summary, you'll see a line item for committed at 3.9 or 3.6 million. 3.9 um and so committed. Yeah. and and committed can funds can only be committed according to the district's policy can only be committed or assigned by board action. They can also only be uncommitted or unassigned by board action. And so we took that action at the end of 2023 um at the end of the fiscal year to move those committed funds back or to unassigned. Gotcha.
048Okay. Thank you. Um on page two of the summary under section three, we noted that the food service year end balance is showing a decline for the last couple of years. Districts uh similarly around the state have been re we had been receiving a larger meal reimbursement rate during the pandemic and most districts saw an increase in their fund balance. So this is starting to stabilize a little bit more. Under section four for debt service, there was a larger fund balance and that was due to additional levy dollars that is being used to make a debt payment actually in the next this week. We'll be making those debt payments for this year. Uh and then section five, capital projects that shows an increase and that is due to the bond issue or the note issue
049from last spring and that's shown like I said in 449 then. So that's where we're spending those dollars for those capital projects. In the final section of seven, the long-term obligations under general obligation debt, we see the addition of the $28 million referendum and that's under the column for 63024. In the other long-term debt, we see the ren R renaissance school and you'll see that in both the 63023 and the 63024. So um so that's the um entry in the financial statements that the that the auditors make based on the value of the lease um on the Renaissance school. It's not something that hits our financial statements as it's not something that hits our expenses or revenues, but it has to be stated on the financial statements um as part of the lease and Gazsby
050rules. Something else the auditor noticed or noted uh was the WRS pension plan and that you'll see varies from year to year and that's just how that that functions um has nothing to do with how the district is um you know any of their their books. Um uh let's see. And finally, the district's general obligation debt at the bottom of that page. The limit is actually $359 million. So that is the the statutory limit that our district could take out debt for. Uh we are well below that at 24 20.4% of the limit. As Mike mentioned, um financial statements, maybe you didn't state this, I'll state this. Uh financial statements were submitted DPI. We also published them on the MSRB, which is the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. as part of the continuing disclosure requirements for
051our bonds. So that is where anybody that has um one of our bonds has bought one of our bonds, they would be able to go out and just make sure that and see our financial statements. So that's um a transparency type of uh submission. We send a copy to S&P which is standard and pores. They are our uh bond rating firm. And then we also have them posted on our finance and business web page. All right. Thank you. All right. On the third, our next um item was the facilities project update. We've broken ground at both the uh bus garage and at the high school. We have our contracts in place and it's moving ahead with our projects. So, exciting stuff happening at the in the district. Uh we went through a budget update. So
052we went through a projections for um the next fiscal the next bianium. Um the state legislature is going to be voting on a on a a new budget but bianium budget 25 to 27. So um some projections are made and we make guesses and and um it's all kind of guessing game until we actually get the the real numbers. But um you know we're projecting we have an extra million coming in from our operating referendum. So year one was a million, year two will add an additional million and then year three will be the final year of adding a million. So um we're projecting our mill rate to um stay fairly flat um and we will live within our means as as we always have. So um next on the um agenda was a review
053of different policies. So we reviewed um our our u purchasing policy. Um so we made very few changes to that just um kind of cleaning up some of the language. We did add uh increase the amount of for approvals that are required for expenditures. Um we increased that um at a couple different levels, kind of keeping with the times um and um increasing those um and um just kind of cleaned up wills shall became wills and just kind of some some um just some English stuff that we fixed. So Mike, let's just let's approve that one and then we'll do two through four in one motion. So do you want to make that motion? I will. I'll make a a motion to approve the first reading of revised school board policy 672 purchasing. Thank you.
054Is there a second? Second. Thank you both. We had extensive conversation about this at the committee meeting. But would there be any other questions or comments? All those in favor? I the motion is carried. Next we reviewed policy 823 access to public records. Uh the only changes were we uh changed shallows to wills. So um that was all that we had on that. So I would make a motion to approve the first reading of revised schoolboard policy 823 access. You could take three and four. You could those are all similar. So why don't we just why don't you make a motion that includes all of those. All right. So I will make a motion to approve the uh policy and the rule and the exhibit. Exhibit. Perfect. policy 823. Is there a second? Please second.
055Thank you, Monica. Questions or comments on this? These these changes were really very minor, very modest. The only substantial changes to noted is that we align the price per page a little bit more with what the costs are, the price per page for copying if somebody requests a record and it actually went down. There aren't very many things that go down in terms of cost, is it? All right. So, anything any questions or comments? All those in favor? I opposed. The motion is carried. Ellen, I'll turn to you for educational program. Thank you, Stacy. The education program committee met on March 10th. Um, committee members me, Lindsay, Curtis, and Monica Levold, although almost all of us were present at that meeting um to take part in discussion. Um, we dealt with several things. Um it
056was not a packed agenda but there were some significant things we dealt with. Um one of the first things I'm looking at um this in terms of the order was the CISA 11 shared contract. CISA 11 is our um consortial um organization of schools in this area that provides services for us that um saves all the schools in this in this part of the state a significant amount of money. We contract with them for services so we don't always have to hire individual staff members. This was an update and revision of that contract and what we're contracting for for the coming year. We had good conversation about that at the meeting. Um and I would move that we approve that contract. Second. Thank you. Lindsay. Yes. Any questions or comments on that? Were just slight
057adjustments from last year in keeping with the district's needs. All those in favor I opposed. The motion is carried. And then we reviewed and talked about the application for sanction of school sponsored trips. This is the application that staff have to complete when they're going to do um some field trip um and it was updating it and making it a little more streamlined what has to become in front of the board and not come in front of the board. Um this is policy 352. Um, and I will move the adoption of that as well. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ellison. Was there any further question about that? We had a good conversation about that. Comments. All those in favor? I I opposed. The motion is carried. All right. Uh the personnel
058committee met on March 10th and during that meeting we heard an update regarding insurance for the 2526 school year which has increased by 12%. Um Dr. Sherman also provided us with an update regarding staffing for the upcoming school year. We received a report on the district's recruitment plans that included some some promotional videos created by some of our River Falls alum alumni students, which was pretty fun. If you haven't seen them, make sure you check them out. They're um they're nice and share them. Um the committee then went into close session in order to discuss preliminary notices of non-renewal for certified staff as well as to consider a request for an alternative certification process. Um and while the board didn't take any action during the open meeting portion um of that meeting so we don't
059have any now but we will take some action in our close session this evening. Do you have anything you want to add? Just wanted to give a very quick update on the the staffing report. So at the time of the personnel meeting we had 11 physicians posted. We now have 15. Okay. At the time of the personnel report of the 11 we had posted, we had only 28 applicants. We're up to 77. So wonderful. Things are things are moving quickly, which we're really excited about. I think um must have been the video. The recruitment video for sure, but also possibly just the timing of it. We we were early. We wanted to be early. So some people maybe weren't even looking when we first got things posted, but they're coming in quickly now. And the
060best part about it is that we're starting our interviews this week, more interviews the week after. We'll have we'll have people hired before we get through the bulk of April. So that's that's on us that we're getting our first kick. Amazing. Anything else? Good. Well, I know that this is getting into a busy time for for you and your your folks. All right, Lynette, could you talk us through um item E, please, regarding audit services? I will. So, similar to other professional services uh that the district has, we issued an RFP or request for proposals for our auditing services. It's good practice to ensure that we're getting the best value and still uh working with partners that are meeting and or exceeding our goals and our expectations. So um we are recommending a partnership with
061Baker Tilly for audit services. So that would be a shift from our uh previous audit firm. Um and this would be beginning with auditing the 2425 fiscal year. So the fiscal year that we are still in um now uh they would do our financial audit and then if the district were to be selected for a membership audit which is a pupil count audit. it's not done every year. Uh they would also perform that as well for us. Um they've had great references with two local school districts. Um one client has been a very longstanding client of theirs and one just recently made with the transition to Baker Tilly and both of them had really great things to say about their professionalism and the confidence that they had in their services. uh the timeliness and the
062responsiveness of their team. And we were able to meet with um uh on a video chat with two of the key team members that would be assigned our um our audit or they're one of the larger ones in the state. They are. So what um what we did was looked at DPI releases a list of sort of pre-approved firms across the state and so we we chose to send uh the RFP to obviously to those on the list. Um the firm is out of Oaklair which is actually where our team from our our previous auditor is also out of. So not that it would be any farther away if that matters. Um uh yeah. So um that's our recommendation and our request for the board. All right. I will make a motion to improve the
063engagement of for audit services with Baker Tilding US LLP as of the year ending June 30th, 2025. Thank you, Mike. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ellison. I have a question. So, um, just so we're all we're all clear and anybody um tuned in is clear, what does it take to make that list? I mean, you um and what does it take for us other than service for us to want to select an audit firm in terms of what do they have to be what do they have to what do they have to do to qualify in terms of their professional expertise, license, and um that sort of thing certification? That's a really good question. Um I would well number one DPI releases a manual for auditors every year. So you know they would
064I they would need to have understood and and gone through um that manual with DPI. I think um that's a great question. Probably before I say something I don't really know I will um I'll get more info on that. Well, look, I think I'd appreciate I think just think it would be worthwhile to know that um a local accounting firm couldn't just say we'd like to get on the audit list next year, right? I mean, there's a certain level of expertise um track record um knowledge of school finance, Captain Hagen Auditing LLP. Is that where you're going? I mean, I just I I can't jump. I point being in this, they they would screen and we would certainly screen for the fact that you just it's it's not that you're going to be nice and
065send us the reports on time. You actually know what it is you're talking about and legally you're going to stand behind us and have the expertise and um legal background and those kinds of things that allow you to be a school auditor. Right. Correct. Okay. which gives us the confidence to put as a school board to put our trust in those experts who really understand the intricacies of the law and accounting practices. Yeah. And I think it's super helpful that DPI has that list for for districts to to go to because somebody could just, you know, cold call you, walk in the front, you know, district office and say, "Hey, I'm I'm a I'm an auditor looking for some business." And without knowing that, you know, there's a there's a check from DPI first to
066for them to be qualified to do that to even be considered. Yes. Yep. And how long have we had our third auditor? Well, um at least be prior to the 1718 school year. There there was a time when we did an RFP. Yep. since 1718. Okay. They just elected at that time that board elected to stay with the recommendation was to stay with them. But I I think a consistent process for all of our purchase services is to run and it's good to change auditors every now and then because they kind of get in a groove of things. It's good to have fresh eyes, right? So it's a good thing. I mean I think that's the other relationship too is there's accountability component for a school district towards the auditor. Um, and while we want
067to have a professional relationship, it isn't it isn't a very that's that's where the relationship is. They have expectations of us through the audit process that that we have to follow through on. We have expectations of them that they have to follow through on. Yep. And in the end, that's a critical way that we're accountable to the board and then ultimately to the public as well as to the department of instruction. We are a portion of our funds are federally funded. So there's a lot of layers to uh and obligations because we receive federal funds. The audit is is a way that we make sure that we're following all those processes too. So it's really complicated and we need an expert. Anything else on this? Thank you, Lynette, for guiding that process in terms of
068doing the vetting for us and helping us with this recommendation. All those in favor? I opposed. The motion is carried. Um the board has recently considered the issue of the name image and likeness as it relates to high school athletes. And at that time the board directed David and me to put this issue on the agenda so that the board would then empower David Crayle to vote in the district's best interest when this comes before the WIAA. So it's coming to the board at the board's request. Um Stacy, I would make a motion to authorize activities director David Crayle to act on behalf of the school district of River Falls when considering the WIAA proposal for name, image, and likeness. Thank you, Mike. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Lindsay. Any questions or comments?
069No, I would just say just again to clarify for people who might be watching this on TV, we're talking about students, name, image, image, and likeness for student athletes. students. It exactly students in general and how those how the name likeness and image may be used in the public for student athletes. Yep. Exactly. Anything else? All those in favor? Opposed? The motion is carried. All right. We do have some second readings tonight and that means we have already gone through these committee um or these these issues at the committee level and Exactly. Exactly. We've already gone through these at the committee level. We've had a first reading with the school board and now we are going to look at them for a second reading. There have been no changes made between the first board approval
070and now when it's coming before the board for a second approval. So right now I'm going to take a motion for all of these together. And that would be a motion to approve the second reading of schoolboard policy 133. The second reading of schoolboard policy 133 rule and procedures related to the procedures for filling schoolboard vacancies. The schoolboard policy 347 related to student records. The rule for policy 347 guidelines for confidentiality and maintenance of student records as well as uh schoolboard policy 830 the rule. So is there a motion to approve those second readings? So move. Thank you Monica. Okay. All right. Questions or comments? All those in favor? Opposed? The motion is carried. Okay. Um, so one of the things that we did, I remember very clearly, we when we passed this policy during
071COVID, we are all very far from each other in the middle school library. We passed an emergency policy number 188E that was allowing um our administration to propose that we suspended some of our board procedures in order to allow administrators to make immediate decisions on our behalf. But that is no longer needed at this point. So the motion now is to approve that we are suspending that policy. So, is there a motion to approve the suspension of emergency schoolboard policy 188E remote uh board member participation in meetings? So, moved. Thank you, Lindsay. Is there a second? Seconded. Thanks, Monica. Questions or comments? I hope we never need it again. All those in favor? I opposed. The motion is carried. All right. Now, um an annual responsibility for the board is to conduct a a self-evaluation.
072And so as part of that process, we each individually as schoolboard members completed a survey. We rated ourselves. We gave ourselves um we made some comments. We also asked our administrative team to rate the school board as well. So we have this information, this feedback. And now our our task tonight is to discuss it and to see if there are any implications from it. So what did people notice? anything in particular? Lot of red and blue. A lot of red and blue. And you know, I I think I'll pick up on that, Mike, because when we red and blue means that we had the majority of our well, I think all of ours um were either in the the blue, which means fully achieved, or the red, which is mostly achieved. And you know, being
073a bit competitive myself, I was thinking, I really want to see all of these blue and what what is going on? So David and I um explored this and one of the things that we thought about is actually when we were looking at these these issues are not things that can ever be fully achieved. They are always by nature going to be in process. And so um I think when we look at it from that standpoint, I'm really proud of the fact that we have so many that are red and blue. So that's one of the observations that I noticed. Um I also noticed we have a really strong culture. It's one of our strengths. We see it in ourselves and our administrative team sees it in us as well. So, I'm proud of that.
074I think one of the comments that came out of that section, if I'm remembering, was a recognition of um the culture that is uh shared between administrators and the school board. And so I just want to take a minute to recognize the outstanding administrative team that we get to work with and rely on. Um because you are exceptional at your job and are highly collaborative and transparent. It allows us to work closely with you and uphold strong culture on the school board. So I just want to point that out. Very good. Very fortunate. I noticed um consistency here. I think consistency is another. We tend to I think as a board we see what we're doing in very similar way and that allows us to have more trust and more confidence and comfort level in
075how we talk and make decisions here. And it seems like maybe um we always speak a little too much with one voice, but it's the fact that in our conversations and our discussions here, there's enough trust to where we can have frank conversations before we actually have to um insert conflict or those kinds of things. we sort of work through things and that trust in the administrative team and back and forth as as you mentioned Lindsay that trust in the culture of the board allows us to avoid the drama and um those kinds of things that often take over boards and and keep us from getting this stuff done. So, um I think there's a lack of overreaction here. There's a there's a lack of um there there's a consistency of trust. um and um
076we're willing to wait, listen, and hear and um trust that we're going to get the right information and if we're uncomfortable with what we're getting to press again. So, I think all of us are comfortable picking up the phone and talking to Dave. I think we're all comfortable picking up the phone and talking to any of the rest of the administrators here. Um in fact, the only person that it's hard to pick up the phone and talk to is each other because we've got to be careful of blocking quorums and those kinds of things, right? But we can do it with our administrators. So we what would our conversations have to happen here? Mhm. So there were seven responses. So that was us. That was the full board. The full board you said also the
077administrators gave separate tool separate tool. Okay. All of those. Okay. What else did people notice? Yeah. just sent you sent separately. Not in the It's not in the agenda. Separately, right? Yeah, I've seen it, but it's not here. Okay. It's not. Thank you. It was nice to read the positive comments from here. Just a couple of um maybe process comments because this is the first time that we've done it this way, at least since I've been on the board. We've done a couple different surveys, but um two things I I really liked about the way we did our assessment this year. Um I like the Google uh form that we were required to um put comments in. I think it encouraged a deeper level of thought and consideration. Um and it was also a benefit
078for me to be able to read through fellow board member comments. So I was a huge fan of that. And I also really like reaching out to the administrative team to get feedback. And as we can see in our our um responses, we have a very high functioning team between the board and administration. But moving forward, we don't know what future boards are going to look like and how they're going to function. So, I like the idea of just having the expectation that we're going to ask administrators to provide us feedback um every year so that we can constantly be looking to improve and have that collaborative partnership. I think to add to your comment about the format, I think that these questions did a good job of matching the work that we do. Mhm.
079Mhm. It's interesting to look at the board's perception of itself and the administrative team's perception of the board and where are their where are their um differences. I mean, a lot of them align pretty closely. A lot of them align. Well, and the questions aren't exactly the same questions. Oh, yeah. They won't they won't be exactly the same, but it's just interesting because and like you said, Stacy, there's some of these are never ending journeys. I think all of them almost. you're going to you can always have better relationships with your legislators, things like that. We can always continue to increase our communication with the community. Never an end to the number of ways that we could do that. One of the challenges is because we've got a there's a lot of people in this
080district and they have lots of different points of view and actually here on the board we have that too, but we have a an ability to work together and talk together where sometimes it's not as obvious um that we're not all the same. But be because of that, I think that then creates an environment where administrators can talk to us because we're a reflection of the community. We have to stand for election. Um, you know, we have to be responsive to the community. You know, when we're asking our questions of Lynette and those kinds of things, it's the taxpayers's money and we're their stewards. More importantly, we're also the stewards of the kids of the district and those kinds of things. So, we have to reflect that to the administrators. If we don't have a
081good relationship with the administrative team, then they have a little it's more a challenge for them to have a pulse on the community because that's what that's our job is to be a reflection of the community here. Great. Right. We need to take action. No, this is just a conversation. Anything else that we want to add? All right. Um then we are going to move on to the next item which is are there any proposed or suggested items for future agendas? Go ahead. Go ahead. I it would probably come up in a committee but I think um given some of the things that have occurred at the middle school and the high school recently on bullying of students that it would be interesting for probably falling at program committee to review our policies around bullying
082and response to bullying. Um and maybe we can ask administrators also to give us a broader a broad perspective of what they're seeing in terms of this issue with yeah I'm curious um what our policies are how we respond and how do we engage when there are issues do I don't know what exactly what we're doing my kids have been out of school for a while um uh how we're handling those kinds of things for example do we engage in restorative justice practices to make things right between children families schools I'm curious what our approach and policy is on that. I've gotten some calls from parents myself on things. It would be might be good to have that discussion um to ensure that we are doing our best. I think um we talked briefly about
083um maybe at an at finance and facilities meeting um Lynette could sort of talk to us about criteria for selecting things like auditors and how we do benchmarking and just what what that what what is um I think for our benefit as as board members um what constitutes expertise and and that we have confidence in them going forward. So let's have a conversation about that. So one of those issues would be yours would be for finance and facilities likely and then the issue of our practices around addressing bullying would be something for ed program. All right. Anything else? All right. Then we're going to set um upcoming meetings. So the next educational program committee meeting will be Monday, April 7th at 6 o'clock. Finance and facilities will meet Monday, April 14th at 6 o'clock. The
084personnel committee will meet Monday, April 14th at 7 o'clock or immediately following FNF. The next regular schoolboard meeting will be Monday, April 21st at 6. The schoolboard reorganizational meeting will be Monday, April 28th at 6:00. And there will be, and please make note of this, um there will be a schoolboard retreat on Monday, June 23rd. So that's a bit of a ways out, but get it on your calendars. Okay, so I need to read this statute. Um, so I would before we do that, um, do we want to I I wanted to touch base with Can we Can we before we go to close session or do you want first? Um, should we take a five minute recess? Just a couple. Well, we can go to a I just wanted to touch base with them
085before. Okay. Well, we can go in and you can join us when you're ready. All right. So, is there a So, hold on for a minute. All right. Here. Um, could could I have a motion, please, pursuant to Wisconsin statute section 19851 and C, which permits convening into close session for the purpose of considering the employment, promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility to discuss the superintendent's formative evaluation, the preliminary non-renewal of certified staff, and an alternative certification path. pathway for a teacher. Um, I need a motion, please. So, moved. Thank you, Monica. I need a second. Second. Thank you, Allison. And I need roll call. Monica. Yes. Yes. Yes. Alison, Mike, I'm saying yes. Alan, we're in close session, but we're
086going to scooch a little slowly. My my David manages. Our guy has a picture. Yeah. And then do you need a picture for your class to prove you were Why don't you come on over?