001G call to order the Monday June 24th 19 2024 um meeting regular board meeting um assuming Dave this has been properly notified okay let's begin the meeting with Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al 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 okay um just uh before we get started here Stacy is gone tonight and we have two other board members gone tonight so there's just four board board members here so we're tight on a quorum as Vice chair I get to I get to chair so anyway uh couple of us are wearing masks tonight out of abundance of caution because we've been ill don't want to infect anybody so that's the reason for the masks
002um any visitors or delegations wish to address the board before we begin yes um please state your name and um your connection with the district and we typically do about two minutes or so okay to the microphone yes thank you so much for the opportunity to speak tonight my name is Wendy flurry and I'm here on behalf of my daughter who is currently at Meer Middle School my daughter is 13 years old and for the past two years she has been dealt a very rough hand she has uh numerous medical issues as well as mental health issues I can count on both hands and still run out of fingers the amount of times in the past two years that she has been hospitalized uh most recently over this winter we spent four months in Colorado
003where my family stayed at the Ronald McDonald House praying for my daughter to get better she's been un feeding tubes and most recently last week rapid response was called at the hospital as she started to crash it again I would like to hand out to you if I could [Music] as you can tell this is a little bit hard for me to talk about and to uh address you all about uh tonight as you're looking over my daughter's transcript you will see that well you won't see the the attendance on her transcript but she missed over 25% of sixth grade and she missed approximately 90% of seventh grade that is critical classroom content and academic standards set forth by DPI that my daughter has missed as you can see from her transcript most of the
004periods for grading are all Mark no grade my daughter wasn't in school interestingly for the first quarter I believe it is for this year sorry term two of this year grade seven my daughter received a 3 point4 grade point average hooray she was in school one week she got covid and after covid her body started shutting down we found ourselves back in the hospital back on the feeding tube then we were flown out to Denver Colorado well we prayed for my daughter to get better no grade no grade no grade my daughter started seventh grade again in March she started part-time she went back to school with her friends full-time in March by mid-march she was in school full-time still in and out doctor appointments therapy appointments no grade no grade but check it out
005check out her GPA for the end of the school year seventh grade guys 3.52 no grade no grade tonight you're going to have a chance to look at the elementary school extra year program and to pass it through with its new adjustments on the policy I'm going to read you the new the old policy before you vote on the new one the extra year of a student should be viewed as a positive and helpful step in furthering the developmental education of the student in most cases an extra year provides the student with an additional opportunity to mature physically emotionally socially and academically a student can grow in self-confidence and self-concept and gain academically during the extra year that's that's provided sounds wonderful doesn't it I further go on to the middle school student policy for
006retention and I want you to see what you do you all know this policy you're on the board you stand for the policy what does the policy state if a student fails two subjects they have to retake the school year students who fail sorry more than two courses shall not be promoted to the next grade no grade no grade no grade 25% missing of sixth grade 90% missing of seventh grade no grade no grade no grade I went to the administration I begged for my daughter not to pass to eighth grade she is not ready for eighth grade emotionally physically socially my daughter is not ready no grade no grade no grade guess what I was told never in my years as an administrator have I ever held back a student my daughter's going on
007to 8th grade is she ready absolutely not I am begging you tonight to look at your policy stand firm on your policy do not let my child go on to eth grade do you want my daughter to represent River Falls do you want her to walk down that graduation aisle with pride or do you want her to just socially pass through do you want one of our school resource officers to go and get your Tru and students and P them through what's the point what's the point of bringing these truan officers and our school resource officers to do what pass our kids through why should a student come to school no grade no grade no grade I thank you for your time and I hope that you will stand up for the policy that you
008have sworn to stand up for thank you thank you Wendy um by the way my contact information is there with my phone number my phone is on 247 as you can well imagine thank you thank you anyone else wish to address the board before we start tonight yes Jackie nickam city of River Falls there have been a few policy disappointments over the last several months number one when parents complained about the pornographic language in reading assignments the school board punted to say that procedure had been followed in reviewing the policy and not one of the individual board members had to State their personal stance on the policy number two the transgender policy adopted in October of 2015 was re recently revised entitled gender diverse students which then became more inclusive part of that new policy
009stated District staff will honor a transgender students request to be addressed by a chosen name and or pronoun corresponding to the students's gender identity regardless of whether the student has obtained a court-ordered name or gender change but there is good news on the horizon the American College of Pediatrics is calling on medical organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association among others to immediately stop the promotion of social affirmation puberty blockers cross- sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over the biological sex on April 19th 2024 the national dep Department of Education expanded Title 9 rules to include sexual orientation and gender identity but state legislators are rejecting the enactment of these changes and have proposed legislation that would protect women's rights for example the K the
010Kentucky attorney general stated that the department of education's attempt to redefine sex to include gender identity is unlawful and Beyond the agency's regulatory Authority a district court judge ordered a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement in Six States that's Kentucky Indiana Ohio Tennessee Virginia and West Virginia when President Trump is reelected he has pledged to pull Federal funding from any school that promotes CRT Dei transgender policies mask or vaccination mandates I would also include social emotional learning on that list and I thank you for your time anyone else wish to address the board before we begin tonight okay thank you one more I'm sorry yeah Pam hi I'm Pam saer Community member um since you are going to address um the library plan that also goes along with um 871 policy 871 um I just wanted to
011um bring up a couple of things for you guys to consider please um so on your web page it says the school district of River Falls is led by a seven member school board that represents the Community Values and serves the district so I don't know what this was about but I heard somewhere that there was another book review recently is that true that there was some sort of book review recently in the district okay um I just heard that I don't know anything about it but I know but when um on this Library plan the um the policies were listed and so I was looking at it and when that statement I just read I I had some questions I thought what are the community's values and how do you know you're representing wide
012spectrum of the population um and this is in regard to this Library plan and first of all I want to say thank you to all the Librarians and Nate I know you did and other people worked on the plan and thank you also for changing the um the verbage from maturity level to age appropriate because that is a big deal a lot of people whether they are you know whatever group they're in a lot of them are concerned about age appropriateness and they don't feel like and no no offense to you because I know you're a public librarian but they do feel like there should be a difference between the schools available uh the books of curriculum available in the schools versus the public library and so um I just wanted to reinforce that with
013you so that you know that um I I know you know that but just to reinforce it and that um so last time there was a review that I um had heard about a lot of parents came up and they were concerned about ninth grade books and um one of the concerns was um was that in the review it is primarily made up of school staff and a couple years a couple summers ago I asked you guys if you know if there could be addition to um parental and Community input on that because I think that's how you represent a wide spectrum in the community and so there was one parent added and the students were taken off and the um the par or the parent that was added was um like the complaintant I
014think is what you call it could add you know a parent but what I'm going to ask you is to reconsider this because in a school district the school district is not that large but if you have an nobody wants to ban books they just want them to be appropriate for the age they want them to promote you know the right um values of the community and so if you have um if you have a committee over at this Elementary a committee over at that Elementary committee at the junior high or whatever um I'm proposing that you consider having one kind of committee that goes over all of the books so they can retain consistency in um their decision making and that you involve like you did with human growth and development involve more um
015Community input so that you could adhere to your statement that says it represents the Community Values so thank you for listening to me I do I I type this out real quickly just before I came so I'll send it around if you guys want a copy thank you okay you start them there and we can pass them around thank you ma'am anyone else like to address the board tonight thank you I apologize for letting a that took a little bit longer than we normally allow people but that was good conversation thank you all right so the first thing we will do is we have a wildcat Pride award tonight and Lindsay gets to be our designated awarder hi Lee nice to meet you nice you the Board of Education would like to commend you for
016demonstrating compassion selflessness and genuine kindness without expecting anything in return you assumed the role of Mentor for a younger student and were giving of your time to ensure that he felt connected valued and appreciated while modeling positive character traits your presence has a profound positive impact on those around you and you set an example for others on how to put character into action Lee you are a true ambassador of wild cat Pride congratulations thank you you and I know that Andrea and Emily are here believe they were the two that nominated you Lee so I'll give the microphone over to them and let them share a little bit more I'm Emily Huber I'm the school counselor over at Greenwood this is Andrea gansky school psychologist um we had a student that came to us this
017year that just needed a little bit more Connection in the school and so Lee was one of the first names that came to mind and when we reached out he was all on board and we were just impressed by the commitment that he had coming once a week to to connect with the student but also the commitment on making that connection a solid connection we just saw the the student really Thrive after making that connection so we really appreciate all of the time and effort you put into it Lee we it was awesome it was really awesome on days that Lee was coming the kid knew exactly what time would watch the clock and I've never seen him move so quickly down the hallway so so Lee thank you for your time and kudos to
018you Mom Terry for raising such a wonderful child thank you that's great thank you Lee and it's it's not just the work that you did it's the example that you set and the model that you set for younger kids so that's really great you are more than welcome to stay for the whole rest of the meeting however if you um feel you have something else to do you don't have to stay for the whole meeting but thank you very much um you that's great um okay we've got um some acknowledgements and updates here tonight that we're going to do um super this this would have been should have been is I guess officially our superintendent Jamie Benson's last meeting however Jamie both Jamie and his wife have a medical issue tonight and neither one of
019them can be here um but we still have some things to say and do um there was a reception public reception for him a few weeks ago and there were lots of good things said and shared and um Jamie did not want us to be labor this tonight but there are some things that we do want to say and comment about and um Stacy left something on behalf of the board and Lynette is going to read that so yeah I told Stacy that I would try to be as prepared and eloquent speaking as she is and based on my voice um and everything probably not um anyway uh good evening since I am unable to attend to this evening Lynette will read my my Reflections on the occasion of Jim's last school board meeting Jamie
020over the years we have spent a lot of time planning for meetings and Schoolboard work while you have specific rules like rule number one truth is good which we agree on might my guiding principle for board leadership is process matters together we carefully attended to board processes thank you for your partnership under your leadership the riverfalls school district has a achieved considerable success and a wide range of accomplishments through your guidance we have assembled a strong cohesive administrative team nurtured a supportive culture for all staff that includes familyfriendly policies LED strategic planning and implemented systems and structures for change established our school Forest as an enduring Outdoor Learning space navigated covid and polariz polarized in political issues that impact education gathered voter support for financial investment in our schools demonstrated fiscal responsibility and transparency upheld
021and furthered Community Pride in the school district expanded social and emotional learning for students and brought social workers into the schools and most especially we kept students's best interest at the center of the district's work Jamie you have demonstrated honesty Integrity wisdom patience and true leadership whereas some people lead by expecting the spotlight to be on them you recognize that authentic leadership is service you've had the courage to make difficult decisions and the grace to recognize the contributions of other people while the district faced a few challenges and frustrations during your tenure you have made a lasting positive difference in the lives of thousands of students through the strong relationships that you have forged with the board administrators teachers staff students families and the community you have ensured that public education in the riverfall school
022district is strong and true able to achieve Horus man's vision of universal public education with an emphasis on building character an necessity for a vital and Lasting democracy thank you for being our superintendent thank you for your vision and tremendous work if you get lonely for us you know right where to find us at least on Monday evenings best wishes for your next Adventures Stacy thank you Lynette and we'll include that statement in the minutes of the meeting for tonight Alan I'm gonna it's okay yeah so so my job job then is to speak for Jamie so I I know Jamie and Stacy would have much rather have been the ones to speak um but uh sometimes things happen and so uh Jamie apologizes for his absence um but he did want to say thank
023you to the board and the community for trusting me with this honor and responsibility of serving as your superintendent I thank many people the board faculty and staff members uh students and their families and the community I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve the riverfalls community alongside so many talented people I will always respect and appreciate the amazing faculty and staff as well as the community that puts children's first puts children's children first continuously showing unwavering support to our schools and students thank you it has been a great privilege and honor it's um I think this is so the historian in me would say this is the end of the Benson era and the beginning of the Bell era right um one of the things that we know from um our involvement with the WB
024is that the most important job of a school board is to hire and support a superintendent and if the super you get the superintendent decision right other things will come much easier um Jamie uh Jamie was hired When Stacy Mike and I were on the board so the three of us are still on the board and to have a superintendent for 11 years is unique to have a superintendent of the quality and experience that Jamie brought to us was even more unique um he's mentored a whole bunch of people in this school district including us board members he's he's he's made help us with transition to new board members I continually learned things from Jamie um he's open and transparent and been um a very good conduit and Council for all of us as board
025members as we have fielded issues related to the curriculum the school the rning of the school the budgets and especially as we work with the community and has been our face to the community so much we're a public school and there are many many faces in this District that need to be communicated with and understood so I appreciate Jamie and and wish him well um he's got some really cool grandkids we met the other night and um hope he gets to spend a lot of time with them so um sorry you can't be here but um we'll miss him but it's um so we all the pressure is on Dave now so speaking of which um so anyway any anybody else um say anything otherwise uh we'll have some additional reports here the next step
026is to have our annual reports from our school resource officers so officer G you first Yes mine looks a little different this year uh let's see if I can uh I noticed that what's that I noticed your report looked a little different this year so I um usually put you know all the things being done in the schools uh talk about the position generally the philosophy of it and go into a little more details as far as things done um many of you have heard that for several years some of you have not um but I do plan on retiring later this summer from from law enforcement so this would be my last school year this last school year so um very humbled uh when I took the position I put 16 years in uh
027with the school and when I took the position I was a little nervous to do so I didn't know I knew police work I didn't know the schools I was apprehensive anxious and it didn't take me long before I realized it was the best career decision that I've made coming in the schools so I'm just humbled all the people around me all the support um students their families principles you know I can name several people that have been here the whole time I've been here like like Mr Sherman and and they all help me look good I got a lot of attaboys over 16 years and that's not because of me it's because everybody around me um superb working in this District as an SRO spending years going to conferences speaking with other officers different
028cities different school districts this one is excellent I think it's because of the philosophy uh that the school district has that the police department has I think they mesh uh they have a similar philosophy I have no doubt that it's going to continue uh and be an excellent program and probably benefit with a little new blood and new ideas and things like that but I just want to say how much I appreciate everyone and all the support over the years thank you Chris it's it's um been a pleasure for me as a board member because I've been here most of that most of that time you've been doing that and I've said a number of times that we have a model program um there's been lots of discussion the last four or five years about
029school resource officers and should school districts have them shouldn't we have them and I'm just like this is a no-brainer the way it works here this has been one of the best things we've ever done and we so appreciate this partnership with the city we're blessed with an excellent law enforcement operation in this city and the fact that you and Ryan have been part of this has has been good often when I think about issues in school especially school shootings Etc I always think of you to and know that you're our connection and that that's been so important and the fact that you answered the call and that you you took this position and um did it for so long it's sad for us to see you lost and I hope that you won't um
030keep that experience and skill under a bushel going forward and that you'll continue to shear and find ways of using this kind of experience so we will miss you thank you very much I appreciate it so thanks thanks youall turn it over to Brian [Applause] uh yeah I'm going to miss him a lot because uh when I first uh started in law enforcement it was 20 plus years ago he was my fto and so then when I got in this position guess what he was the guy showing me the ropes in this position as well so uh he'll be definitely uh greatly missed uh in that perspective I'm sure we'll catch a lot of Packer games down the road but uh in the setting of this setting here is uh uh you know was a
031pleasure to have you him around and and uh and sucking some of the knowledge that he has so I appreciate that very much so thank you Chris um yeah I just completed my sixth year uh as a school resource officer and and at the high school and um for since uh Chris is stepping down from the middle school I'm going to do some transitioning into the middle school and elementary school so I do look forward to that um I was looking through officer G's notes uh a couple days ago and boy do I have some big shoes to fill that's for sure um so uh just uh looking forward to the new opportunity uh new experiences uh generate with a you know uh meet a whole different uh uh student population um and kind of
032go from there too so I'm really excited about that also little apprehensions is because I like I said he's big shoes to fill so um but um throughout the year I I sure appreciate uh everybody's support with our program itself um it was uh I felt it was another successful year at the high school um we did a lot of great things worked with D program uh helped out with the lifeguarding class uh was able to get in some health classes for speeches and and and talks regarding uh uh drugs and uh Vapes and everything else like that especially with fentanyl being such a more popular drug we talked a lot about that as well so um but I just really appreciate the opportunity and continue to work with you with the school district as
033well and everybody here so thank you so much good thanks ran introduce you High School school resource officer Adam Amaro Boston I'm not as tall so I got a l the mic here so so I apologize so I'm officer Adam Amaro uh I hail from the great state of Massachusetts um I've been a cop for some time I came to River Falls probably about three years ago so I'm just going to give you a little background of myself so came to River Falls three years ago had a job opportunity after meeting someone on a deployment who was actually River Falls cop already so he was the one that brought me in this direction um married I have two little girls uh hopefully they'll be getting into the rivol school district here soon that'd be great
034um but yeah uh the school resource officer position when I applied for it you know it's it's a position where it's not just we're not just always the hammer right we're not always just going to hand out try tickets or do all this stuff and we're here to to obviously Mentor the kids too right we're here to have open minds with them talk with them not every everything has to be a bad conversation uh just last Thursday I just did a uh ride along with a high school student just on Thursday he came out for a shift and hung out and we talked and kind of gave me the little insight on the high school too on top of it which was kind of a good thing too right so I kind of use it
035to to my advantage um but like Brian said too uh I've only known officer G for going on three years so he obviously is a wealth of knowledge I wish he can stay a little bit longer so that way I can kind of dig into his mind when it comes to doing this SRO thing um but I'm open I'm an open person I love to talk so I can probably stand up here the whole rest of the meeting if you guys want me to full of stories and all that stuff too so um but yeah I I you know thank you for the opportunity to be an SRO in the school district I've only heard good things about the school district so I hope that my experiences can you know just I guess help the
036school district grow and you know build a stronger bond with the kids and you know if you guys need anything I'm on shifts for the rest of the summer so I'll be out on the street and then in August I'll be back doing SRO things but yeah I'll be around and like I said if you guys have any questions comments concerns whatever it is or you just want to get to know me better by all means my email thank you Adam absolutely good really good to meet you you know I I one of the things that Chris you you you taught me early on and I I think Ryan has carried this out is the the bulk of your work the bulk of your Effectiveness is preventative that it's preventative right not enforcement um what
037you do when you communicate the relationships all those kinds of things is to prevent the bigger things from happening later and most of your work we don't get to see as board members you know you're in the schools all the time but where we do see it is in a really critical times the times we hate the most is when we're sitting here in an expulsion hearing and often you guys are involved in that and we look at the paperwork and realize what the role these guys have played in all the steps and things that happened prior to it getting to that sort of thing and so we recognize the importance of that work and how critical that is um to prevent that and how few of those exposion hearings we end up having to
038have as a result of that work so anyway this is important and we're so glad you three were here tonight are there any questions or anything else for these guys thanks a million for being here thanks again Chris thank you very much thank you administrative reports um Mark and piggy I guess you're going to give us some information I'll let you introduce the topic and then show us what you're going to show us tonight I really didn't need to raise that up I don't know why I did not very much taller than that I'm um we are here um here with Peggy I'm I'm working with the director of student services to just give you a little update on the gido 2 program this is a program that I think we came and talked to
039you about in I believe it was October or November um and gave you quite a bit of information about the why about kind of the importance of the program and so I just wanted to give you a little bit of an update um this isn't a program that you just get to sign up and just do without going through some some leg work um and so there was an application process um I worked with with Peggy worked with Mr Silver Chris um at the at the Renaissance as well as as well as the student services team uh we filled the application out we submitted to DPI and recently we were approved um to um host our our program oh thank you Peggy um so yeah so recently uh Sherry Holly provided us approval for the
040program which is really really exciting um it's a program that we're planning on um opening and doing in the fall um we additionally have been working really hard on identifying students who will be a really good fits for the program um I mentioned the other um when I we talked in in the fall about some of the requirements um for the program and I'll go into that in just a bit um but we've been really working through the list as far as kind of the students that would be important um for this program and then finally um part of the program in in many of districts they send their students to Northwoods Tech um to do the testing um we are in the process um and this is some great work on pegging Chris's part
041um to apply to be our own testing site um and so there's a lot of leg work that goes into that as well and and being approved testing site will eliminate a lot of uh Logistics as far as getting them to and from Northwoods Tech and New Richmond um and so that's also really really exciting so lots of really good things that are happening as far as um getting the program up and running um just by way of quick review why this is so important is we have a number of students a small number of students but a number of students who really at this point in time during their senior year have no viable Pathway to graduation by traditional means of credits um and that has happened for a variety of different things it
042could be students who have had medical issues that haven't been able to attend school students with mental health concerns that have gone to day treatment a residential placement uh we have a group home in town so students that might come into the group home so for a variety of different scenarios and situations we have students that really have not been able to get the credits to be able to participate in traditional Gra graduation and so rather than just saying you know good luck we really wanted to create a program that would allow them to access that diploma and this is not about lowering the bar this is really about creating systems that are Equitable and allowing those students to be able to to achieve that that high school diploma there are some uh qualifications for
043for g 2 as well um you have to be able to um read at a 9th grade level you have to be 17 years old 17 years of age and you have to be certain number of credits behind so this can't be just a student senior year that says Ah I just want to take the easy path I want to get uh you know go down this way to to to get uh traditional graduation so really this is a really designed for a very specific group of students um with some specific criteria there's some meetings and some um Logistics as far as kind of the application for the process um working with parents and getting kind of some expectations in place um and we're working through all of that and Peg will we'll talk about
044that in a second so we'll talk a little bit about logistics and I'll turn it over to Peggy to to discuss that I'm Peggy Webb I'm the Renaissance Charter Academy coordinator for the 2024 2025 school year so thank you for that opportunity um I don't have my cheaters on so I might have to turn to the left here um we're going to be hosting the program right in our building in room 170 we have a place that's designated that will be um where students will have their own separate entrance they'll come in at 9:00 and they will have classes from 9 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Monday Tuesday um Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday will be academic instruction and then on Wednesdays we'll have acpd uh financial literacy and other health requirements that um the board has
045set forth for for graduation we they will be focusing primarily on math science and English and and then Wednesdays I like I had mentioned the Dual life skills employability skills and postsecondary work and CTE cour work on Wednesday miss meller our school counselor will be addressing that content area on the on the academic days we hired some we hired a um Mitchell Colin Bach he'll be joining us on staff this year who will do that academic prep work for the students um so while our students are present they will have access to our regular um staff which will be Mr Colin boach for the academic instruction Miss Jenna Hansen Hansen will be doing the work-based learning and CTE School counsel uh the school guidance counselor will be doing will be Miss Mueller and she will
046be working with students who want to pursue postsecondary education options as well and then program compliance and Reporting will fall on myself um and we're just really excited to have this opportunity we already have um to date we have 22 potential students that have the opport that could meet this um opportunity 10 have admitted to that they are willing to move forward with the program um five of them have been assessed for their reading ability um so that they already qualify for the programming and the really wonderful thing about this GED program is that if they've already done some C coursework and have met the state requirements towards graduation they don't have to take that GED prep work so we have um three we have um some students that six of them have already met
047the health requirement one has met the math one has met social studies and seven have met the Civics requirement already so they've already put in a lot of the leg work already so that they can move through the program um at an accelerated place um Pace the students will be using a software program called ad menum and that is GED um appropriated software that will prep them for their test we currently have on the books for August a orientation for students to come in um and meet with the um staff so that they are well aware of the program expectations but prior to that the um the week of August no sorry the week of July 8th we will be sending out follow-up letters to the remaining um 12 students that haven't committed to the
048program at this time anything else okay thank you this is good and I remember our we had that that was a really good committee meeting last fall um Monica you weren't there but we actually met at the new building and um they gave us a nice tour and as part of that then we ended up hearing about this this was the first time we kind of heard about it and let me summarize this in as I understand into my real layman's terms real oversimplified but as I understand it we have a group of students that because they are required to stay in school till a certain age but they aren't accumulating enough credits they're almost like spinning their wheels in a certain point at which they're just there and they don't have enough credits to
049graduate but they still have to be in school this addresses that group of students that gives them a path then who for whatever reason and we you could give us a list of why what those reasons are and I'll bet you we'd find a whole bunch more new ones next year there's all kinds of reasons why students reach this that then they can actually get on a path to get the high school credential the thing I liked about this though is this is more about just a credential because as I've often said you know a credential might get you your first job but if you don't have the education and background you won't get your second or third job so this really ensures that they have the academic content in our standards before they get
050that credential and puts them on that path to do that so that they don't have to do it on their own or it's not they're not just hanging out or those kinds of things is that is that kind of what what this is am I understanding this correctly yeah absolutely and think the uh Peg talked a little bit about Wednesdays and and the the focus of Wednesdays being around ACP stuff and so yeah we we could have just said yeah you just need to take the the academic testing and and you're good we wanted to layer on top of that to provide that exact same reason that we need them to kind of not only just be academically ready but also to have that transition piece in place um be career ready or or ready
051for kind of the next step in their educational career so we were very excited to incorporate that into the program formal way academic and career planning and Mark you may want to touch on the the difference between uh our graduate and and what their transcript looks like versus someone who earns this option what's the same but then also what's different about them yeah so the same would would be that that both students who are graduating from the g 2 program and you know a traditional High School graduate will have a a high school diploma um so that will be the same either way the students will end up with a a high school diploma when it comes to their transcript that might look a little different because they won't have the traditional list of classes
052on the transcript um so but when you look at like some some like technical school options and those kind of things those students would definitely be able to kind of enter into that um when we're looking at fouryear schools there might need to be a starting place with with a four with a two-year school first um but that would still be a viable option for them down the road if they they chose to do so but they'll still have a riverfalls high school transcript correct and then and then just one other point of clarification you mentioned Mitchell um that's not a staff ad um that's reorganization of our Ren staff so our our staffing at the ren is the same as it was in 23 24 into 2425 so in other words we're adding this
053program but we're not adding staff yeah claric I have a couple questions I'm sorry I wasn't a part of the of the um committee meeting where this was discussed so maybe these things came up as a part of that but I'm curious if I'm understanding it's right these are probably kids who would not have graduated and we're just going we're going Upstream to try to if they hadn't graduated they would go out into the world and then put hopefully at some point they would get their GED later this is helping them get their GED upfront recognizing that they're not going to graduate this isn't going to happen Let's help you get your GED while you're still here if we can support you is that the idea yeah yeah that is correct and not only that
054but again we're giving those students hope you know their senior year rather than they're spending their senior year with like G mentioned without being able to drop out sure and now you know what are they going to do during that year A lot of times there's some different things that that happen you know behaviorally or with attendant um and so this provides them hope that they can make that and then I'm curious to um again if this was discussed I apologize uh have other school districts done this uh in Wisconsin or across the country and is there demonstration of success with this that these kids actually do get into work and and become productive more rapidly yeah well I can't speak to necessarily the last part of that but part of the program requirements are
055that you are 80% effective over a three-year span um so in order to get reapproved you have to over a three-year kind of rolling average make 80% of the students going into the program have to achieve the end goal okay um so that is very important many of our neighbors have this similar program um my former District Prescott they have it there um I believe Ellsworth has it um there's a couple other ones that are local as well I think New Richmond a few a few others so um yeah oh good to know thanks yeah I had uh one maybe two questions um sounds like these students will be coming in 15 hours a week leaving at noon will they be released at noon they're done with their school work so I'm curious to know
056what you anticipate or what you imagine those particular students doing with the rest of their day is there some guidance or some support that you're doing to help them use that time wisely or to to continue to prepare themselves for Life After yeah so part of that that Wednesday ACP work we be all around kind of working on jobs skills job placements um so in an Ideal World you know after the 15 hours because it's only a portion of the day these students are able to go out and get a job but practice some of those kind of soft skills some those employment skills um so that again at the end of the day they are they are ready for that next step and and one of the staff members that you mentioned that will
057be part of this is Jenna Hansen and she's the school to work coordinator so she would be assisting in the role of helping them obtain employment awesome and then you mentioned us becoming a testing site which sounds like a positive thing would that open us up to having other surrounding schools come and test here or will that be ex exclusively for riverfall students okay for our students okay okay great thank you we're we're so fortunate to have the the Renaissance Academy that we can do this through and your willingness to take this on as an additional project I think it fits well with what we do and that mission of of what we're thinking about there and appreciate your leadership in this Peggy so any other questions or comments thank you American Peggy appreciate it
058um okay uh additional things from the superintendent report Dave yeah the the first item is a school forest update uh we're excited that the local River Falls Rotary will be paying for the construction of a new Pavilion style facility at the school Forest prairie location rotary is currently going through the process of gathering bids for the excavation and ground prep um and and preparing as well as the building itself and plans are to have the facility built before the snow flies so we're very excited for that partnership with rotary and the the work that they've done to coordinate that and I would want to call out uh Jamie Benson for his work to both as a rotary member and as as leading the work here for the school Force to to get that work done
059um the the rotary is excited to lead this obviously there's a lot of different components that come together to make it work but we're real excited for that if and if you remember in our community survey that we did last fall we asked a whole variety of topics to the public would you be willing to support this this this this facility was ranked fairly low I mean low not anywhere close to us being able to put it on the ballot so this was an opportunity for us as a district to try and find a private part partner in the rotary is really interested in doing this so yeah one thing just that when I say Pavilion style um it's going to be a structure that I mean one thing they didn't want was a building
060that's enclosed structure I mean it's a school Forest it's a prairie area they want they want it to be outside and so it still will be um that also assists in how how expensive it would be so yeah I'd say I'm a rotary member so I'd say that uh building would be stretching the definition of building it's like a pavilion uh is what they have in mind that could be enhanced uh at a later date but it'll be very functional to protect students who are out there from the elements yep and it's built and like you said it's built where walls could be added could be added but they would be they wouldn't be again bu indoors yeah it'll be it'll be a great addition to the area great and referendum upate so uh referendum
061update real quickly uh I think there'll be an action item on this later we're transitioning uh with to a new architect Bray and we're finalizing the contract details um uh once we work through all of the final documents with our former architect architect lhb so much of the initial schematic design details are done and we'll be handed off to Bray and the next steps will include uh specific design details to include specifics with the interior and extra exterior facility improvements once those specs are complete we'll work with our construction management firm Ka to obtain bids in late December late November early December and so our construction timeline will include starting in late spring of 25 into the summer of 25 with a final completion of all projects um in 2026 so one of the larger
062projects is at the middle school um and that will take place over two summers the rest of the projects should be done by fall of 25 thanks Dave um so work is underway on on that project um number six we'll move on to number six action items so these will be um take action on the May 20th 2024 regular board meeting minutes the May 22nd 2024 special education special Board of Education meeting minutes the June 3rd 2024 Board of Education Retreat minutes bills uh submitted for payment and um let's see so the number five item is all employees who are required by state shall be recommended to the superintendent of the board of education for approval all recommendations presented at this time are pursuant to approval by board policies and accompany administrative procedures so any
063questions about those five items is there a motion to approve those so moved been moved second seconded moved and seconded is there any further discussion about those five items if not all in favor say I I oppose no motion carries we'll move on to Item B consideration or action to approve the June 10 2024 education program committee recommendations so we have four items here um I chaired that committee and um it was a very good meeting very good meeting we had a lot lot of discussion on this there's four different items there let's take them separately let's not take them as a group um we had um we've had a lot of discussion throughout the year about books the library media plan lots of conversation back and forth input all along the way including at
064our last meeting that we've um taken seriously uh the Librarians were here the last meeting we had a that was a really good conversation with them um so I don't know Nate do you want to give us just a brief summary of what this media plan is about yep excuse me I would I'd love to do that so um required by the state is that a district has a a comprehensive library media plan and it's something that we learned about at the beginning of this school year so the Librarians across the district have spent uh much of the year working on putting this plan together following a format that was recommended to them by the DPI so we brought that to you last week and or excuse me a couple weeks ago and since the
065time of that meeting uh We've made a couple of adjustments that I think were shared in the attachments and I highlighted those for you to review the the first one that I wanted to point out was on slide six and it's a goal related to our policies and something we talked about or was mentioned already tonight was 361 point2 which is the selection of Library instructional media uh materials and our librarians have worked very carefully together over the years in trying to ensure that the processes used to select materials was consistent across the district but yet we've got people in multiple buildings and uh with different levels of responsibility so a goal that was added from the time that we presented was to create a rule that would uh connect with that were not only
066age appropriate but also the right kinds of materials for the library so we'd be talking about like um things in this rule could be talking with classroom teachers about content area specific materials that are in short supply in our library so we could support in the classroom learning um growing certain Series where there's been new additions to series of books that kids are really enthralled with when uh coming across a book that has multiple um ratings for age appropriateness like we talked about at that last meeting that we have certain organizations that we check with and organization a might say yeah this is age appropriate for grades 3 through six and the next one might say four through eight and the next one might say 5 through n that there are certain steps that those
067people would follow to vet that resource before making the purchase um all of these things are pretty Clos aligned with what they currently do but we thought having it in writing would be good for consistency and also transparency for the community these people want the exact same things that the parents want they want books in kids hands that the kids will enjoy and be engaged with engaged with and that are age appropriate the trouble is there are sometimes differences in opinion about what is age appropriate which is why we have a policy that does have three um parents involved the complaintant a person that they recommend an apparent that's put on the committee by the principal so there's actually actually three parents on that committee not just two um and sometimes we sometimes we get
068to that point um sometimes we are made aware of a book that is in our library that may be a librarian who was newish to the district might not have been made aware of and sometimes they take a look at and go oh my gosh this isn't align with what we believe in and they just make that uh move on their own but so there are lots of ways that we try and partner with parents in addition to that this year there was a concerted effort in sharing information with parents to be partners and to review and look at the materials that are being brought home and not to be afraid to reach out and let us know if there are certain types of books like for instance scary books is one we hear of
069a lot at the elementary because my kid is going to have nightmares and then that means I'm awake and that means I'm tired and now everybody's cranky at home so there are ways that we can accomplish that too so that was the first thing I wanted to point out was the rule and then there are three different Parts in this plan on page I believe it's 8 10 and 16 and I don't know if you remember there were multiple wedges that make up the plan that kind of encircle the um learner centered literacy so this is mentioned in the overview of learner centered literacy also in the wedge of curriculum instruction and assessment and also in the uh budget and allocation of resources so uh we had some good feedback the media Specialists were actually
070having you know the meeting after the meeting in the parking lot which so often happens and I reached out to them the following day oh yeah we're already thinking about that how can we do that and I said well let's talk about what those changes could be and I think we can submit them to the board prior to making this approval tonight so that's U probably a longer update than what you needed but I wanted to be thorough on how that came together so that's the reason there's some I what the committee saw there's a little bit of addition to it we see it outlined I think that's what we were looking for on that I did appreciate in that conversation first off I appreciate the fact that they were all here and we could
071have this conversation because like in a number of other situations when they can sit and have the conversation not just among themselves or with their administrators but with us as the board who represent the community and they sort of understand and we can sort of walk through some of the questions we're having I think I was really very comfortable with their responses and answers so when we talked about the thing about age appropriate age appro there is not a single definition like it's just reading level okay age appropriate isn't just reading level it's age appropriate is broader it's a little more more nebulous because one person's age appropriate might be a little bit different but to have that have that conversation have that consideration and I think I was comfortable understanding that it was more
072than just reading level on it the other was though and I think they were all very clear that they are more than willing and eager to have conversations one-on-one with parents to talk through this and I think they heard from us and we heard from them sort of our feelings about this we don't want parents to feel intimidated however we know that just because someone doesn't agree on either side doesn't necessarily mean that this needs to be an intimidating process the conversation needs to be there whether it goes your your way or not on either side um but how open and willing our expectation is that they be and that they certainly seem to be willing to be and I thought that coming out of that conversation I was really pleased to hear that too
073yeah one thing I should mention you know is that um even reading level Allan is is not black and white nor is there a perfect definition you know sometimes people rely heavily on the Lexi level and and might assume that that is an accurate depiction of the reading level of a story and that certainly is is part of it but when that boils down to word frequency and average sentence length now we're missing some things about the the quality of the of the book and the tone and the structure and the way that the book is written in terms of Pros or content within it so even that is a little bit nebulous maybe not so much you could make the argument maybe not as much as age appropriateness but certainly isn't a clear black
074and white issue other comments questions about the policy as presented Alan stole most of the comments that I was wanting to share so I'll just add a general statement I expressed at the committee meeting and I'll just repeat it here um for the good of the group there was a tremendous amount of work that went in this this plan and it's an important plan to have in place and the piece that I appreciated most about it is there was a real intention to align the goals in this plan with our strategic plan and the goals are outlined in our strategic plan so I think that's important to note that we do have that alignment and I appreciate the additions that were made too I think it was a great conversation to have and and an
075important thing to include here yeah I don't I don't want to belabor the point but I do want to add that you know I feel badly that the plan came to the board without having some of that language in there and and really it was my responsibility to review that and identify it and I and I didn't prior to the meeting but sometimes we miss things as um What's the phrase when you're so close to can't see the can't see the forest through the trees and um it was just overlooked it wasn't intended to be uh we spend so much time talking about thinking about worrying about those kinds of things believe me um that was just an oversight on our part we're a team here thank you so I will move the that we
076approve the School District library media plan as revised in the revision that was presented to us tonight there a second was there a motion did you move I just moved I moved it I moved it yeah moved in second any other conversation yes no second you need a second oh okay got I thought you said you need a second I'm sorry any other conversation questions if not all in favor say I I I oppos no motion carries thank you Nate and thank the Librarians again for all their work on that you bet um can you give us a brief update on what we talked about for the title three plan and what we need to act on today y the title three plan is another uh element similar to the library plan that the Department
077of Public Instruction in Wisconsin uses to make sure that we have the proper systems and structures in place to support our multilingual Learners and that's what the title 3 plan outlines um Natalie Gomez is our title 3 Program assistant she's phenomenal she did almost all of the work to put that title 3 plan in place and a lot of those structures are embedded and there are some things that we'll have to grow in to make sure that we're living out that plan our multilingual population continues to grow in River Falls and part of the reason for that I think is because we have a good program in place and um word travels fast among the community of English learner families and people want to be here because we know that we they know that we
078will work very hard to support them um we are reallocating some resources within the district to create some more eel teaching time again not an ad just some different use of time because our numbers keep going up and that should help our program for now but we'll have to pay close attention down the line so that we can support those students as well as we support any other student in the district okay really appreciated Natalie giving that presentation to us that was really informative that was very good um all right so is there a motion to approve the title three plan as submitted mov is there a second seconded moved and seconded is there any further conversation on that plan if not all in favor say I I I oppose no motion carries thanks again
079Nate for that y um and then the elementary school extra year policy 34544 yeah so this is part of our ongoing um policy review and we're starting to dig into the 300 sections this policy was last written in 2005 so it's 19 years old and it reminds me of the Maya Angelou quote that says something like do the best you can until you know better and then when you know better do better and I think the philosophy under which this plan was written was based on what we knew 19 years ago 19 years ago holding kids back was uh a much more accepted practice and now through almost two decades worth of research we've learned that at the U that retention often times comes at the negative impact on on students so this policy is
080an update that aligns more closely with our current philosophy and the current research among the field of educational Academia which is let's figure out ways to support kids while they're in school rather than rely on just having them redo another year there can be some benefits but there are often many challenges um shame of having to redo another year graduating or maybe not because a child might turn 18 early in their senior year and choose not to finish school um and the fact that really there isn't any evidence educational research evidence of academic growth related to retention so that is a key factor now if you look in this update a couple of things that I want to point out is that this doesn't rule out retention as an option in fact it calls out
081that a student who might be extremely young have very poor attendance or experience trauma which sounds like an situation that we just were briefed on tonight at the board might be a good reason to consider an extra year for a student now this is the elementary plan because we're doing all of these policies it's really hard to do them in the perfect sequence and you can't do them all at once so we do have a fourth and eighth grade retention policy we also have a retention policy for middle school students other than 8th grade so we're working on those to or will be working on those to bring to you but this was the starting point because it worked with the lowest lowest age students so that's um an update on that should also say
082that the final decision for this policy which isn't a change lies with the building principle but it does say should be in favor by the parents so there's a partnership where I can speak to at the elementary level having had a lot of experience when this is a consideration there is no shortage of collaboration partnership meetings to discuss the pros and cons meetings to discuss certain interventions that the schools are engaged in to try and get that child at the level that they need to be at why is there an what's that last sentence about fourth grade why was there is there a different policy for fourth grade yep there's a fourth and eighth grade retention policy yep okay and that is one that we will be reviewing that is one that we we will
083be doing yep so 345.8 one is the um I think the fourth and eth grade retention policy fourth and eighth grade so 3 34544 only pertains to kindergarten through through third fifth grade fifth y there's a state statute that talks about you need a specific policy for fourth and E gr four okay y for them to move forward okay gotcha yep a process question is this considered the first reading at the board and will come back as a second reading want to make sure correct because the way it's listed it's under um it's under your report for Ed Pro which is fine I just want to make sure that we all understand this is the first board correct reading and it will come back as a second reading in July yep the very first exposure
084was at the last Ed Pro this is the first board approval and then the final one will come in July yeah and it'll be important because we have a few board members missing to make sure they have a chance thank you for that Dave we didn't act on that one yet no we have not okay is there a motion to accept that first reading so moved is there a second a second okay moved and seconded is there any further conversation or questions about that if none all in favor say I I iOS no this will come back to us next board meeting for a second reading and then um approve the new school board policy 342 programs for children with disabilities uh yeah I think Mark can speak to this but again to Echo what
085Dave said from a process standpoint this is the first approval for the full board with the second one coming next month okay yeah and related to this policy as I shared um kind of at the Ed Pro meeting um essentially we are updating this policy which also is relatively old um and combining it with another policy that was kind of focused on inclusion um kind of mashing them together um really no changes from what we talked about at edpro other than just kind of renaming I think we referenced the policies and procedures manual we reference the official um DPI policies and procedures manual and kind of that official name within that policy um we also updated a couple of the references or cross references on the bottom so um no major changes from before again
086we incorporated all the kind of the things from the last policy as far as child find and the importance of parent participation in in involvement um and different things like that so okay um is there a motion to approve policy 342 programs for children with disabilities first reading as presented so I'll second is there any further discussion questions about it CNN all in favor say I I oppose no okay we'll see this back at our next meeting for a second reading thank you Nate consideration and approval for the January 17th finance and Facilities committee recommendations we have three items here that I think we should probably take separately Mike isn't here to present but maybe um onette you can just walk us through each of those and we'll act on each one individually sure Ken
087so um 2324 budget revisions uh this is a yearly or annual item um that districts are by Statute allowed to do um DPI policy so um what we do is we track we track revenues and expenditures throughout the year and we make those reports to the finance committee talk about where things are um Landing a little bit differently than where we started so when the budget is officially adopted in October and then we're tracking those those how how actuals are matching or not matching um with our budgets so as we get closer to the end of the year um what we like to do is make any adjustments that we uh know of um this is something that districts do uh around the state um hopefully I say that in justest um sorry we still
088have a balanced budget so uh we're still Landing um well at the end of the year one of the things that this is used for not only for the districts to be able to track where they're going to finish out their year but it's also something that we report to DPI and DPI uses this information to set the July 1 Equalization Aid estimate and so it's it's really important that we provide the most accurate information of our budget we don't know where the actuals are going to land yet so they use their budget data to set the july8 estimate we talked a little bit about how in the news there's a lot of discussion about MPS our largest District in the state who has not only not reported last year's annual data to the state
089but also hasn't provided their budget data for this year um and there's a lot of reasons for that one of them is that their software doesn't talk to what DPI is now using for collecting that data anyway so um we talked about how that Aid estimate could be affected then so once MPS does report all of that data and all of the districts report their actual data that estimate changes but we like to get as close as we can um again Aid is only a piece of our Revenue whether our Aid goes up or down does not change how much revenue we have in the district that's the revenue limit so really what it does is it's this push and pull of tax levy versus Aid so the less Aid we get the higher our
090tax levy and vice versa so we we do want to keep an eye on that because that is an important piece of how we report um and how we communicate with the community uh as far as our tax levy goes so keeping an eye on that so um those were the revisions we went through um I'm not going to belabor all of those items again tonight it was it was a good example of how one District in the state can kind of WG the dog on the rest of the state and the districts I was really surprised that what's happening in Milwaukee can affect us oh sure yeah I'd make a motion that we approve the 232 for budget revisions okay there a second second been moved in second and is we had a really
091good conversation that was a very good presentation you made on that that thank you any other questions if not all in favor say I I I oos no motion carries um summer capital projects list uh yes so um with our fund 46 or our Capital Improvement fund which was open about 6 years ago I believe six or seven years ago um with that there's a requirement for a 10-year Capital plan uh and so we've updated that some of the um most of the reason is because those projects on that previous plan have either been completed or are now on our list to be completed with our referendum so we needed to review that look at what items um we think are coming up in the next 10 years that's a far Lookout and and it
092will continue to change it's a living breathing document um but Joe and I met with Dave and Jamie went through all of that so we've we have a pretty good handle on this Summer's projects uh next summer and and some Beyond although like I said those will change um but we've updated that list and um I believe it's in the packet I think Monica said page 59 page if anybody's following along at home uh they can find it there Lynette you said this is reviewed every year right did you say that yes we do review that annually yep okay is there a motion to approve the 10year summer capital projects list so moved been moved is there second seconded been moved and seconded any further conversation or questions about that again that list is in
093the minutes or if somebody wants it they can contact Lynette to get that list you all in favor say I I I oppose no motion carries um and then um we need to authorize our architect so as Dave said we're um changing architectural services here we need board action to do that so I will move that we enter into that we authorize the administration to enter into the architectural services contracted by Bray Architects so moved second uh any other further conversation questions if not all in favor say I I I oppose no Personnel committee U before you move on Alan I just one more item that was part of the finance and Facilities committee was the preliminary 2425 budget and um I just wanted to point out that uh we do have a balanced budget
094uh estimated for next year so our projection for next year we have also included of course since the last time we were really projecting our budget we have both of the referendums in our projections so those are those are put into our budgets for next year and the impact on those uh we're still using the same property value growth so we're still comparing Apples to Apples as far as mill rate impact for next year compared to what we were communicating with the referendum communication campaigns um and right now uh what um compared to what we were communicating with both referendums passing the mill rate increase we had estimated to be uh 63 cents the first year and right now we're estimating a 48 C increase for next year so we're we're pleased to say that
095um things are looking uh better than what we had estimated to begin with so uh I just wanted to make that projecting a lower mill rate than we had originally thought correct good good news anything else okay let's move on to Personnel commit committee recommendations and there we had uh two actions I guess um again updating our ongoing updating uh job descriptions and I think we can probably do those together we have an updated and slightly revised director of community edit and Community Education Program assistant job descriptions and we had some updates to the employee handbook revisions are we okay taking both of those unless I think we had good conv I would move to approve both of those items Monica is um is there a second second it's been moved and seconded is there
096any further conversation or discussion about those I I just note real quickly we also did a certified Staffing update and a couple of administrator positions um that we will be interviewing for this week uh Westside principal Dr camra got a district administrator job in Plum City and so we've posted that position and we're in the interview process as well as the Director of academic Services uh most know that Dr Sherman is going to move into the Director of Human Resources and leadership development position on July 1st and so we've uh that's the other set of interviews that we'll be doing this week and and we've got a a process in which we have a first round of interviews and a second round of interviews and a and a screening committee that helps select the interview
097uh the people that we choose to interview and that allows us to have lots of different uh stakeholders have have the opportunity to participate in that process we're very excited to have those positions uh filled and anticip at once we know who that candidate is working with them to to find a start date that helps us prepare for the start of the year and then the other piece that I just want to touch on from Personnel is that we approved our Advanced learning Grant Award winners we have 12 different uh employees who earned an advanced learning Grant which is basically helps offset or reimburse some of the costs that they are spending out of their own pocket to increase their uh capacity to do their jobs the vast majority of them are going to uh
098complete a master's um and others are doing other uh certifications that help them achieve their job so just just an exciting um piece for our staff to go through so okay thanks Steve y before we leave this we need to vote on that motion all in favor say I I I oppose no motion carries good there was a really good discussion and I think Dave got some good background information in our conversations at that meeting too okay so under C we have again um continuing to address changes and policies and update our policies this is quite an undertaking and it's kind of an ongoing thing but um what we've got here are this this is um second readings on all of these so we have seen these before the 100 level policies that we've got
099listed here we saw in a previous board meeting and we talked about the 345 and 372 actually came through committee then first board meeting now the second board meeting so I'm wondering if we just can't take all of these together since this is at least the second if not third time we've seen these and if that's okay I would move that we adopt um and approve those seven um revised Schoolboard policies as presented second okay moved in second is there any discussion about those if not all in favor say I I oppos no excuse me proposed or suggested items for next regular future board meetings big changes just kidding I couldn't resist snacks snacks awesome excuse me um all right so next board meeting scheduled meetings note that there's only two weeks of meetings next
100month because the fourth way the fourth July Falls so we'll have a trifecta on July 15th Ed programs finance and Personnel um should probably meet between about 600 and 6:30 we should be able to do all three of [Laughter] those be an interesting night but we've done it before we've done three committee meetings in one night before and I think it's it's very workable when we do it occasionally that way then our regular board meeting will be July 22nd um anything else about upcoming meetings okay we do not need to go into a closed session tonight so um that's it anything else my God 724 bucket I told you I was going to use a Gamble