SCF School District Board Meeting - 2/11/2026

001We should be going when you're ready to begin. >> All right, we'll call this meeting to order. I'll call the committee portion of the meeting together. We'll start with the mental health update. Right. >> When did you want to run up and >> Well, I didn't know if we wanted her to, so she's going to stick around. >> So, we the the board would like to do a quick run up to where the wrestling room is. They're at the tail end of practice. And I think it honestly is only going to take five or or 10 minutes at the most. So I would say if we do that now, that's probably the best scenario and then just come back here. If those that are in the audience want to walk up there with us, you're

002certainly welcome. Otherwise, you can wait here. >> Does that sound like a plan? >> Yep. >> All right, head on up. I don't know. >> But she said um >> she'd be better to teach her second quarter because she's going to be moving to watch her kids play some sports. >> So then Grant's kind of out. >> Yeah. Angie would be somebody we could you know but she doesn't have help >> right that's why I wasn't that's why I sent that back if she needs help we can't do it but if they don't >> we never give it to supervisory they probably wouldn't even let it happen but I don't know they probably would but we yeah we would really five years is the minimum to meet before you you even have enough professional experience

003here >> okay so we'll just see if she what she says about both. >> I would love her to have the double bow special. >> Would >> that would be >> amazing. Then we could find out for once and for all which was the best. >> True. >> I know. I know in my heart which one it is. But I need some outside confirmation. >> It might be a miked up right now. Careful. >> Both bills are so great. >> I agree. >> They're so both bills. I don't know. >> You guys know they don't. And here's the deal. I always with the >> I rely on you and you don't. So, we're all in trouble. >> So, she said we only do what we have. have a second of the month once a year.

004>> Yeah, I feel like we go all the time. I don't think >> So, if we don't have a second, maybe then we're forced to do it on the first >> cuz we did it the last month, which was the first. It was on the 14th. >> I don't know when when the updates are due. >> Me neither. That's why I said, "Can you either make it every week >> or you got to put it in your calendar?" I cannot. You know, I usually get the reminder like, "Hey, don't freaking >> Oh, yeah. The friendly email reminder at 9:00 a.m. >> I hate >> from him, too." Like, >> yeah, that's what I hate getting. >> It's on my calendar and I see it and it'll happen today at some point. >> I do. Look,

005I'm going to show you a tr a trick. See if it'll work for you. >> You keep them going. You always have them going. And then what you do is the week before, see, I just keep them going. week before you you email them, schedule send them to yourself the day before. >> Then it comes up in your email, then you edit them and then you never leave. >> Fair enough. >> Not always the day of. I just need the reminder. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's usually midnight. >> Sometimes we had a week of school. >> Not sure what the update is. You did school again. >> Yeah, we did. >> Did you guys see the pictures of the big family night we had last night? >> The giant whale. >> Yeah. Was a lifesized. >>

006Yeah. What's the story there? >> Some guy. So, usually >> when >> Yeah, maybe later. Well, the guy cold called he sent an email and said, "Hey, I have a cub forest whales and I can come and do this program." And usually I don't even open those emails because it said whale open it up and he brings a life-siz whale and he he brings out these fossils and the kids get to touch the fossils. He does a little program on whales and then you get to go inside whale. Pretty sweet. That >> was pretty sweet. Okay, good. I saw that. So sneaky. I think >> I'll go to that. Look at this. >> Wait, is that conclude? Look at that's the best picture for my world. >> All right, >> smells a lot better. >>

007Here you go. Quick field trip. How long did it take? Six minutes. Perfect. All right, Shelly, I guess you're up. You got to wait for >> I'm sorry. >> Oh, it's good. It's getting on you right away. >> I know. >> So, I just kind of put everything together quick and just a little presentation of just a little synopse of everything that we've been doing and kind of things that we've got already in the works for next year. So, um Next slide. So, some of the professional development that our team has done this year, we had a team of us that went to Cecil 11 in August for the mental health summit that they put on there. So, there's different breakout rooms and stuff that that we attend and different um materials that we can

008bring back and outreach and resources. And then through the WISH Foundation, um we received a one-year grant. So Frankie and I have been doing um resilience training through that and right now we're finishing up the facilitator training. Uh we'll be done with that at the end of March. And then through the mental health task force, we're working on a grant that we received. So in February in service next Monday, we have a speaker, two speakers that are coming in to talk to staff about secondary trauma in the classroom and then staff resiliency. and the pass passageway program. That was um an initiative that we started last year uh through collaboration with Journeys. We piloted a program that they were looking to kind of expand and do with schools. So, it's a 8-week program. You will

009get a group of students um and they do like group therapy with those students, but it's more nature-based. It follows kind of passages their their goals and their what what they do when students are there for their residential treatment. It kind of follows that same. So they wanted to bring it into schools. So we did the pilot program last year and we received a lot of good feedback from the students and the parents of the students that were enrolled in it. So this year we received a grant to do two additional groups. Um the first group completed in the fall. There were eight students that were enrolled in that group. We have the second group. We'll run another eight students and that will start up in May. >> What age is that? Or what grades?

010>> So, we can do right now we're just doing middle school grades. So, it's fifth grade through 8th grade. If they expand their service, our hope is next year that we can either go down to fourth grade or up into high school. Question. Uh the next two slides, this slide, the next one is just to give you an idea of some of the things that we've been putting out uh to align with the strategic plan for the social media piece of it. So every month our team is trying to highlight a different aspect of mental health and then these are just kind of ideas of the things that we did. So for example, September we we focused on promoting the national suicide prevention month. So some of the things that we did under that was

011we recognized this national suicide prevention day. Um we had a team that did the Poke County suicide walk. So we promoted them through our social media platform as well. We shared out some events that again passage had one of them was hike to heal event that they had that was free to particip to uh the communities. In October we focused on world mental health day. So we promoted that through the district with the um hello yellow campaign. So anybody was able to wear yellow on mental health day. We also shared some resources that came from different um platforms for doing free mental health screening and then if they wanted to follow up with any recommendations through those screenings and the families could do that on their own. We launched an anti-bullying campaign at the middle

012school and high school level. In November, we promote promoted the World Be kind day and staff on the World Be Kind Day wore matching Be Kind T-shirts that we were able to purchase through donations from the mental health task force from our suicide block team. So, we used some of that money then to put back into promoting some of those mental health pieces. We did weekly be kind calendar of different events that um families could practice those things at home or students could practice them while in school. In December, we promoted gratitude. So each building did different gratitude stations. We did receive again through from the Pulk County Mental Health Task Force. We received gratitude cards and kits. Um some of those cards were at the gratitude stations. middle school, they also did like a

013be kind wall. So, um Frankie had post-it notes that kids could write little be kind statements and then they went up on those walls. Um at the elementary and the middle school they did the cards at or at the high school they did the cards as well. And then we did put out like weekly gratitude sayings out on social media. In January, we did the celebration for the National Counselors Week and then the high school did the white bandana day where they were promoting youth mental health through the school schoolwide and some of the partnerships that we have. Um I was nominated and approved to be a board member for the Pulk County Cares team. So we meet monthly. there's um a large group of us anywhere from the district attorney's office to some of

014the CCTS workers and we just discuss resources that are available um any events that are coming up and anything that we can do for any families that we know are in our immediate need or crisis of additional supports beyond what they may be currently receiving. And a big a big partner of ours this year has been the mental health task force. So for next year, we're also working with them on two grants. One is to bring a speaker back in as well as we're looking at um we've started a planning process for our mental health day event that we're going to try and host here at the school. Our goal is to just pilot it probably at the middle school level the first year. see how that goes and then look at what we can

015do bringing that years forward into the elementary and the high school as well. Again, we did receive a donation from the task force for our suicide walk team. We'll continue to do that again next year. They also did drop off a bin full of youth mental health toolkits that was distributed at all three buildings and those um have received um pretty high recommendations from the students that have already used them. So they are working on putting another um box or bin of tool kits together that she'll be dropping off here in the next week for more of our students to have access to. So, that's kind of just a quick overview of some of the things mental health that we've been doing this year. >> Very good. Any questions, comments? >> You've done a lot.

016>> That's one of our goals. We appreciate that. Make us look good. >> Thanks, Shelly. >> Thank you. >> Uh, next we'll move on to Miss Platt and her AGR updates. So, I'm sure you remember AGER stands for achievement gap reduction, and it's a grant that comes from the state to help close gaps um in reading and math for kids in grades K through three. And part of the obligation when you receive that grant is that you give board updates twice a year. So, this is our midyear update and then at the end of the year, we will do a end of the year update. Um this you can just scroll past all that. Right. We'll just get to the nuts and bolts which are the numbers you can see that we have falls and

017midyear because those are the only that's the only data available to us. Um on the left side it lists the tests that we use. Many of those are new from midyear last year because the state changed what tests they want us to use and mandated um a series of tests. And you can see that if there any of them that are percentile based on percentiles, they just that just shows the percent proficient or advanced. If it has the yellow bar, that's the cut score that kids need to get to be proficient or advanced. And you the kindergarten everything looks good. You can ask any questions about the data if you want, but it looks about how it should. >> Um, >> so that yellow number is that >> which one? >> The well any of

018them the here we got the 5 10 16 is that they're supposed to be all the right. >> That's the cut score. So let's say that one I have to look at it here because I can't see that far away. So that one is Oh, thanks. That one for math number identification. That means at kindergarten the first test kids should be able to identify five numbers from a list from a mixed up list of different numbers. In mid year they should be able to identify 10 which really is a low low benchmark. And then end of the year 16. Okay. So those are the cut scores and that's how you so it shows what percentage of kids hit the cut scores. The other the ones that don't have the yellow bar, it's because the cut

019score is who's at the 25th percentile or not. The the only one you notice sometimes they go down a little bit mid year. That's always the case because the bar jumps so high from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year that sometimes that midyear assessment is the one that kids do the worst on because they they just need more time to get all the learning in. But by the end of the year, we've never not once have we had a problem where kids weren't making expected growth. So it goes through reading and math for kindergarten. Then we have first grade. And I'll just let you look at the data. See if you see anything wonky. >> In first grade, what's the midyear reading aims or fluency? There's a just a percentage

020of that. >> Oh yeah, that's something's wrong with that. Let me look at my copy here. That's it. Shouldn't say eight. It's like 89%. Let me see here. >> The percentage key is the number five on the keyboard. So maybe >> Yeah, probably. Let me just look it up real quick. Okay, that is reading Ames Web first grade. No, you have to give me a minute to find that again. I think it's probably around 85. You're right. It's It was not a huge jump there. Now, of course, I'm have 14 different AGR reports in my file, so I can't find it quickly enough. Okay. And then, so Ronnie, I can get you that number. It's linked correctly. This is just the PDF, so I probably hit that button before, but you probably also notice there's

021an an addition facts midyear. We went from 17% of first graders proficient to 0%. Well, when I looked at that, that was a I was like, what? So, um, I met with all the first grade teachers and all the first grade students and we talked about the importance of the test. We took the test again and it was we had we were up to like 70 some odd percent. on the screen it says 65 but in the board packet it says >> so that this is the real time one that's what it is there now now I don't even have to look anything up that's the real time one so it's done in a Google doc so I can update it the one in your board book is the one that was done right at

022the at the midyear and so that's the 0% was concerning to me um but really what it turned out is the kids just needed a good plat chat to remind them that doing their best on the test matters and when they retook the test they did great you remember those chats. >> Glad. >> Then second grade, same thing. All the numbers look good. We're right where we need to be. We're higher than where we need to be. And uh same with third grade. I don't have any concerns with any of the data. Any I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. >> Looks good. Any other questions? Comments? All right, we'll move on to the corrected enrollment projection update. Yeah, I hope the board had an opportunity to look at it and for the

023benefit of those that are either watching at home, listening later, or sitting in the audience, um the enrollment uh report, the projection report that we evaluated last month, uh has been updated as a result of some minor miscalculations that were brought to light by Hazel Reinhardt and she submitted an updated report. Um what that updated report shows is slightly higher numbers than were projected in that initial report. So, it's better news than it than it was, per se. Um, and I'm not going to take the time to go through the specifics unless the board would like to because it covers the same information that we cover slightly up. Uh, and instead of say 800 was which is where we thought we'd settle at, it's more towards 850 840. So, uh, again, a little bit of

024a a little bit of a positive, but still a downward trend over time. >> Any questions on that? How did the error get discovered? >> That's not clear to me. So, it was honestly the the it was either the same night as the board meeting that I presented it or it was the following morning that she had emailed and said, "I noticed a an incorrect calculation which translated to basically every table that she had created and made that uh change and then resubmitted the report." So, um, she explained to me what the calculation was, but frankly, as a non-statistician, I couldn't, you know, I I could read what she said, but I don't know. It didn't make any sense to me. I just said, "Oh, okay." And so, got the updated updated intel. >> Moving

025on, we'll go to the policy 458, rule one, school wellness. >> Yeah. So, as the board probably realizes, we're required under statute to have um a school wellness policy and by virtue of that, a school wellness committee. Um and this policy was recently reviewed by the wellness committee, health and wellness committee that met um a couple weeks ago now and uh it's updated with the the information in red uh showing the things that are happening currently. So, those are items that would be added to the policy, recommended to be added, and then of course things that are recommended to be removed are are struck. Um, I I wouldn't necessarily indicate that there's any specific point uh of this entire policy where you would really want to feast your eyes or or notice that there's some

026significant differences, but you'll notice that there's quite a bit more information included. This is as a result of some of the feedback that um Amy Douser, our food service director, is getting as a result of an evaluation process that we're currently undergoing with food service and the DPI. Um the other piece which is relevant to this policy and the others is that we have a an updated discrimination statement that has to be included in policy as a result of some changes at the federal level. So you'll see that towards the end of the policy as well um where the existing information is is struck for the USDA non-discrimination statement and it's updated with what the current guidance would be. With all that being said, what I would mention uh to the board is that it

027would not be a shock to me if we see these policies change again in the relatively near future as a result of what's transpiring at the in the Trump administration. Um uh with the FDA and and other entities that are undergoing some changes. We had a revamp of the you know food pyramid for example was recently unveiled and whole milk is now allowed to be sold in schools. And frankly, the whole milk piece is the only thing that I've heard that was directly relevant to school aside from curriculum related things with my plate, that kind of thing. Um, in terms of something that you could implement and we have intentions of doing that uh next year once we get ourselves through this year and at that time other changes may or may not be available.

028So, there was a part of me that was like, well, maybe we just hold off on this policy rewrite because I anticipate changes. But then after some conversation and followup, the thought process was well uh we need to be compliant currently uh with what we're doing and this provides that update as well as the fact that we're going through this evaluation process currently with the DPI. Um but you will see this policy and potentially others come forward with changes if those changes do occur with the FDA and other uh federal regulations as they change. In reviewing the updates to the policy, um funding is clear where it's related to education and food service. I understand how the funding would work for that, but it also indicated evaluating the campus and making it more walkable and

029bikable and cooperating in any changes that need to be made to make that happen. Where would the funding come from that and who would participate in it? >> Yeah, so there used to be in the old days and there still is a process that's called safe routes to school. Um, and that used to come with it grant funds that were fairly significant, like up to $50,000 in some cases and potentially even more of matching funds to do things like crosswalks and walk paths and, you know, making safe routes to school. Uh, that iteration, they still do the evaluation and provide recommendations and would do that in coordination, excuse me, with the school district and the city or, you know, the township, that kind of thing. the the rub now is that the the last conversation

030I had on this topic is that there are not grant funds attached to that. And typically when you go through that evaluative process and you identify, you know, things that you want to do, these these grants didn't cover the entire cost. So, it's not as though uh you you had the ability to really revamp your your campus um initially, but now in particular without those grant dollars available, it's really not typically an item that's going to get addressed. Now, if we have an area where there's a significant concern, then clearly we'd bring that forward to make some modifications. But, um, what used to happen is really not >> I believe that we had a community member lead a charge in my time on the board to try to get safe routes to school grant here

031and we were denied. >> That's correct. And I think that happened, Ronnie, in 2013. Does that sound familiar to you? Yeah. >> Yes. Because I pulled that information too as a result of some conversations at the um city with park arts and trails. Um, so we have uh gathered that information. I think I can't remember, but I did pull get it from um the state. I think it was 2013. Yeah. And it's a good point. This policy covers health and wellness. So it's it's a food service based policy, but it also covers uh physical activity and athletics and things that we offer and the district does for overall health and wellness, not just in terms of food service. Do we have any concerns with the like the vending machines or any advertising that we've got

032going on? >> Uh, no. All of the all of the vending machines that we have encouraged kids have access to during the school day are considered smart snack compliant currently. Um, and I know that school food service gets a bad rap because there's militant expectations around what kids can and can't have, which I could go on a 4-hour diet tribe about how ridiculous that is, but I won't. Uh, but it's fact of the matter is is that there's explicit expectations around what kids can have access to during the school day in terms of fat content and carbs and protein and blah blah blah blah blah calories. And they fit into a category called smart snacks. And if they fit into a smart snack category, then we could technically sell them or allow kids to have

033them during the school day. And that's kind of how the guidelines are developed. And you'll note that they're not they're recommendations, not strict, you know, cuz some school districts, and not recently, but some school districts when these guidelines were initially unveiled several years ago became quite militant about, you know, oh well, your kid has a birthday, so you're not allowed to send cupcakes. It's got to be one of these two. and that we're not going to go that route. You can operate within that context, but if you have the things for sale, they have to fit the Smart Snack sugar quantities of, you know, zero or no sugar, low sugar and that sort of thing. So, our stuff is compliant. The Sip and Saints coffee shop is compliant as well, although the only students that

034access that are high school kids. >> Any other questions? All right, we'll move on to the policy 760, food services guidelines. >> Perfect. 760, you'll notice, is simply the update update of the uh non-discrimination statement for the USDA. >> Any questions on that? That we'll move on to 760 rule. >> Yep. in 760 rule one. Um Amy had placed in there the information some of the requirements about what um specifically constitutes a meal for breakfast and lunch. Again, these are not what we've developed. These are what the federal and state guidelines indicate. Um so that's made clear on the policy and then the current non-discrimination statement of course is added to. You'll recall that we had this policy brought forward last year um I think it was in the fall with respect to negative lunch

035balance and how that's being handled. Those those that approach hasn't changed although some clarifying language is inserted in there. >> Any questions on this one? >> All right. Um what's next? Football uniforms. >> That's correct. Uh for the benefit of the board, I talked with Tara just to verify that what I heard was was absolutely correct. And that is that our football uniforms are six plus years old. Most of our uniforms are on a four or fiveyear rotation. Sports that get a fiveyear rotation are typically have less wear and tear. So things like track and cross country, whereas more wear and tear would be probably closer to four. The question would be why football is six plus years. And the rationale behind that is you can see the price tag at $30,000 for football uniforms.

036And I would also point out to the board that these are not the most expensive high dollar football uniforms we can get. Um they can be as high as 40 40 or even $50,000. So these are about a mid mid-range sort of option that were uh proposed with coach Vickerman. And I'm not certain if he solicited student feedback. I assume that he did but I didn't ask that question so I don't want to speak for him. Um, so the recommendation is that we approve the quote from game one. >> This is just the jerseys. What do they do about helmets and shoulder pads and all that kind of stuff? >> Yeah. So that that material have to they have to be reertified on an annual basis. So the the helmets get um annual updates and

037um the shoulder pads follow a certain uh up u similar protocol in terms of ensuring that they're safe and and are replaced and as needed um over time. So yeah, these are just jerseys and pants is basically what we're talking about. >> Um excuse me, I have a question. Um, so I I've never seen this before and I've been on the board for like I don't know, seven years. Um, is this in front of us because it's over 25,000? >> Correct. Over 20,000? >> Over 20. >> Yes. >> So, do you think it was just automatic in the past or have prices increased so much? I would have seen this once. Well, it's conceivable that, you know, not too terribly long ago, five or six years ago, you might have a bid at 199 or

038198. I don't know. We could pull the information and provide it to you guys. >> Any other questions? >> Are these for um both the varsity and for the JV? >> No, varsity only and then the varsity current varsity stuff down at JV is what I believe. which is pretty standard. >> Any others? >> Hearing none, we'll move on to the -ay program. >> And that is Brian Grey's problem. Not a problem opportunity. >> No, it's um item B and C are being brought before the board because of the dollar figures associated with both pro uh proposals. Um both exceed $20,000. Um both proposals are part of long range planning by the technology department. These are usually forecast out six and seven years in advance knowing replacement cycle for devices and the cost associated associated

039with them. The first item the 2627 program. Uh we are in the first year of a 5year cycle of new monies that are being made available to our district. Um and the proposal outlines how much $220,000 I believe off the top of my head um that we can is eligible for discounting the cost of these items. So, while the proposal is nearing $200,000 uh for -ate, the district is only going to have to fund I believe I put in there um 70 this 785 uh for um switch replacement, firewall replacement, and some internal infrastructure upgrades to continue future future proof our environment. Um if you were to buy this in the private sector, the money would be astronomically much higher. Um we get very fortunate uh for education discount pricing and then also the rate

040drops our costs significantly more. So it's very budget friendly but while still expensive it's nowhere comparison to our private sector. Do >> we have to pay it first and then they reimburse us? >> We do bare format where we do pay it first then we get reimbured. Yes. How long does it take to get that? Is it a guarantee? I guess is >> Yeah, it's we're going to we're going to liquidate all our rate dollars in the first year of the 5year cycle knowing that there is potential of this funding to there's some concern it will not last five years. Um so we're going to grab it falls within our planned cycle anyways which has been very convenient but we're not going to hesitate to use it all. I got some questions. Being through some

041of these upgrades before, um, you mentioned, you know, last night that the ones are the 3850s and these are the what, you know, 9000 switches. Um, branded issues with both power and closets and size because they're bigger. >> We we made sure that like the racks are far enough from the wall and all that good stuff. The racks are big enough. >> Yeah. This is about I started this conversation um as far as specking out the proposed equipment I think nine months ago already um with engineers from Artland to kind of look at knowing they know very well what we currently are at. Um the 9350s in size are pretty much the same size as a 3850 switch. So we'll be able to put them in existing locations. Um we did an audit as far

042as power which surprisingly is becoming much more um in need because everything we have now just runs like a phone doesn't plug into the outlet as well just runs off the network switch that's plugged into. So that's what's providing the power and all these items are using that power up. Um so we did make sure as we look forward to uh the proposal of the switch covers that overhead that we need to count for not only network bandwidth but also power consumption usage. That was probably the hardest part of the project. >> Then what what do we have running the PoE? Is that the phones or is there you got cameras or something? >> Phones, cameras running PoE. Um got display um items that are running PoE. Yeah, it's a very more and more things

043seem to be pulling on that now than even five years ago. >> Um, >> and the amount of power it's pulling is becoming more increased. >> Well, your access points typically require UPOE now versus just regular POE. Um, so yeah, so it looks like you've got, you know, one of those switches in the closet and then you're >> Yeah. uh stacking was >> initial proposal was all this top top line gear like timeout we need to make sure we're being budget friendly as well because while we would be nice to have everything work with you know with that level it's not necessary >> so we prioritize you know APs and cameras on the first switch and just desktops and others on the other switches in the stack >> um this is a little different than

044previous years in that of splint splitting out the hardware. Um, Hartland gets a prioritized cost discount from Cisco. Um, you'll notice in the proposal I have Midwest routing, um, which is a gentleman out of Oaklair who actually installed the last refresh for H Heartland. He now has his own business, so I'm able to bring him in at a reduced cost and I trust the work he does. Looks like he almost had the same references as the parkland did, but >> just maybe. >> Um, then there must be some Is there some fiber work? Yeah, there's some fiber work that's got to get done, too. >> Yeah, the only run between what I consider to be more core or centralized switches between the wrestling room closet and the high school closet is not single mode, which

045is just allowing in the future eventually. It looks to be that switches are no longer support higher bandwidth over multi mode fiber. >> No, but you got M gig switches too. So that you're still running a copper to those then. >> Um everything between switches is fiber network and then switch to the wall is all copper. >> Yeah, I mean looks good to me. I wish I could get that pricing. Anybody else? >> You covered it. >> Those were all the questions I had. >> No idea what half of what you just talked about that. But the second item on the agenda is just our yearly refresh of devices. I try to make sure we're not buying everything all in the same year. So quarter of our fleet of Chromebooks, one um building level full

046of laptops and any labs. labs around about 7 to 8 years of rotation. Um laptops and primary use will be four years, Chromebooks for four years and then um we stretch additional use um staff laptops get for teachers get handed down to aids. Um Chromebooks sometimes find different secondary uses in um elementary level classrooms. We tend to stretch things as long as possible till they're pretty much need recycled. It does add up pretty quickly when you when these purchases come through. It's definitely um part of my capital planning. I said got a six-year forecast out of capital planning for each year would be >> what's the the education upgrade for the Chromebooks. >> Um it allows us to centrally manage them. >> Yes. >> Makes it very nice. >> Just a techn or a internet

047access question. Um, I heard through the grapevine that there was a family that was saying that they they don't have internet and I understand the school has devices that they can these kids can use so that they have internet service at home and they're in an area apparently with poor coverage. Are there options or um is the family just not advocating or asking the right people and communicating that still my child can't access the internet for school. Um when families reach out um where it gets a little muddy muddled is back five years ago during COVID we did worked through um at that time ESSER funding to help provide for low need families additional access point and access to internet. That funding has since um dissolved and um the district has um is no longer

048providing those access points to families. Uh what I do share with families that are in those situations is um businesses like um Midco and um they're now called Brightspeed um have programs for low-income families where they can get reduced um rate um internet access to be more federal programs that actually provide free internet access almost. Those have also gone dried up and are no longer available. But I did look recently as of I think two months ago Bright Speed and um and chart um Mid Code do not mid Mid Coast Airside River Spectrum Chart Spectrum has um a reduced rate >> but you'd have to be in their service area most likely at that point. >> Is there any Verizon or cell phones that have that you're doing? Um I haven't looked specifically as far

049as for um self- service vendors. >> Is this something that we can do or is it too expensive like identify and get the access points again for people to use? I think the certainly I mean we can do anything. I think the the rub is the you know what is the school's responsibility? is the the parents responsibility and I think we would explore offering uh different solutions to the problem because we don't necessarily want to put ourselves and clearly one of the reasons I do this job is because we as school districts do absolutely everything we can to help benefit our kids and our and our families. But on the same hand, there has to be some limitations in terms of what's the the expectation of the school, what's the expectation of individuals. Um, but

050I would argue we we would likely be able to figure out a solution to the problem that that doesn't um necessarily put us into a situation where that can become what an expectation is. Like, hey, I'm not paying for internet. You want my kid to learn online, pay for my internet. That's not that's not an appropriate approach. Much like, you want my kid to learn, you buy him all the pencils and pens and notebooks, which some people have that opinion. I I understand that. But it does put us into a position that I think could potentially long term cause some some issues. That doesn't mean we shouldn't help. So what I would advocate is for families to reach out to their building to the principal or counselor and have those conversations and I can almost

051guarantee we'll be able to figure out ways to solve the problem or help them solve the problem. >> Good questions. Anything else? So, it sounds like now when we hit those questions, we should say we we can't help you with that. It would be instead um let's figure something out. >> Exactly. Yep. And I I I think I shouldn't I wouldn't say we can't help you with that. >> We're not going to just flatly pay for your internet. Um and the the funds to to help offset the cost or cover the cost of things like sending access points home with kids was was has been cleaned up via esser postco. So there's again there's some things we can figure out rather than just the barn on approach of saying look if you need internet call

052the school we'll help you out. That's not really a position we want to be in. >> Anybody else? All right, we'll move on to the wrestling space and school facilities. >> Okay, so um the last conversation that we had was with respect to what a potential referendum uh might be in terms of costs. Uh had those numbers put together for you from Bay. Um, and one of the questions that I'm seeking to answer from the board is to the direction on how we proceed because if we end up talking about and potentially moving forward with a referendum uh a bond issue referendum for renovations and or construction. Um, I would argue that that's a two-year process where the majority of next year would be investigating uh specifically what we intend to do, creating kind of

053a priority list, identifying what um the top dollar figure might be, and then, you know, engaging community um and staff in terms of here's what here's the things that we're intending to do for a referendum. Here's the things that we need the the dollars for. Um what are your thoughts and opinions on these topics? with knowing that there's going to be a handful of things that are part of that list that if are from the board's perspective or from administration's perspective, if we're going to do this, these are the things we're going to do. Period. But what is the the rest of that um look like? As I mentioned, um school districts and municipalities have no shortage of things that they need to accomplish that are high dollar cost but are low glitz and glamour.

054So, a couple of easy things to point to. I mentioned on more than one occasion, the roof at the elementary is a million plus dollar um change or cost that we need to uh take care of in the next, I'd say, five or six years. If we don't do it via referendum, what we would do is piece it up over several years and we would do a quarter of the roof at a time or a certain portion, which of course would technically drive the cost up because you're going to increase costs on an annual basis if you don't take care of it, but it's still achievable. Uh paving, for example, the middle school needs some paving work as as does the elementary. Some areas in this high school parking lot as well uh need to

055be redone. Um, I didn't look at those numbers explicitly, but I do know we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars to do some of the paving that's required, which here again can be accomplished over time as we piece mill things together and start with the worst of the worst and work our way through on some kind of a scenario. Um, among other things and the piece that we've been talking about that's driven this conversation is with respect to the wrestling space. Um, you had an opportunity to go up there and look, I would mention that um, what the students that were up there were varsity wrestlers. there might have been a JV kid or two as they have um optional practice as a result of sectionals coming up here for the squad where varsity competes

056and JB does not necessarily. So um you can see that that's a space constraint. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I would argue it was a space constraint since 1982. Um if you had a full wrestling roster of 14 kids and they're all wrestling up there, it's still not enough space for a full wrestling roster of just 14 kids. it just isn't. And the the idea that we need to do something about it is to me a solid idea. However, there's an underlying piece that that's been the rest of the room since 1982. And technically, it's bigger than it was because of the weight room that's been added and the the stuff that's been moved out, but you know, the configuration so so forth and so on. Um, so if we agree

057that we want to do something in that regard, that explicitly would be one of the pieces that we want to uh address with a potential bond issue referendum or the purchase of a facility. That that's ultimately the the really the only two options if we're going to do something about it. Um, there are other elements of updates or modifications to the school district properties that we can also engage in via bond issue referendum such as locker room updates, middle school, high school locker rooms that are again circa 1982 that are not up to uh standards of today. Not that they're terrible, but they're um there's things that need to be redone and updated on those lack of rooms. Anyhow, the showers are a perfect example. um some of those hats and and uh controls aren't

058able to well while well while we're bandating it together and so we're going to end up spending money in that regard and frankly a revamp of that area of the gym would be fantastic. We've talked about potential security upgrades with secure entrances and and other infrastructure in terms of security. Um, and that's where once we if we the board decides let's let's do something referendum wise or let's start making a plan referendum wise because one of the things we do too is solicit feedback from community not only like on hey we want to go to referendum what do you think about that but also here's the things we're thinking any other feedback from you folks recognizing that when you ask the staff the community broad groups of people it's tough to potentially um pair things

059down to where what direction you want to go. But we can bring information forward about what we intend to do, have folks rank order, those sorts of things, seek feedback. There might be some things that people have thought of that myself or our, you know, staff or the board might not know. Uh, but in a comprehensive fashion, bring that back together, figure out what our total dollar amount would be, whether or not that meets our threshold of expectation or pair the list down to what we think the number should be and then proceed from there. So that ultimately what I would hope is that we know so that we can plan accordingly moving forward to begin that process of identifying all of the major projects and then identifying how we would rank order them as

060an admin team staff how you guys would rank order them. Do some community feedback or engagement sessions to to get solicit some feedback from community members around what the potential improvements are and then when we come up with a solid dollar amount we can have those numbers legitimately run. And I say legitimately because anytime you're doing a projection, we asked for 5 million and 8 million. That's the number that I pulled out of a hat knowing that um we're going to do a bond issue. Um the wrestling space we already know is like 1.5 to two to maybe 2.5. The elementary roofs a million. Paving another several hundred,000. So we're already talking four or five million with only naming a handful of things. So that's why I said five and just give us eight as

061a placeholder. Uh what does that tax impact look like? Um and that's what these sheets that I handed out for you are. Um I also asked a question about a potential levy override in the bond uh in the uh uh tax impact. And so that's the last page. But first off on there, what we have is a $5 million bond issue. This is projected as though it would have been approved this spring. So very clearly we're not doing that. We didn't take action in January to have a referendum question on the ballot. And like I said, I envision this as a two-year process. So if we do say yes, we want to do this, we would not be having this on a ballot until, excuse me, likely April of 28. So 2627 would be planning

062and putting it together year. 2728 would be the year we would look to actually bring it before voters. Um, could you do a more aggressive time frame? Can we answer that question? Sure you could. Uh but clearly the earliest now that we could do would be next April would be the absolute earliest. They ran these scenarios though with 2627 being as though was approved this year. And what you can see is the tax impact. What they this includes is restructuring of our current debt. um which by the way the board has saw fit for multiple years to already defeze and pay down a pretty significant portion of that which is what allows this to be um feasible. And you can see the combined tax impact which is on the gray uh bottom right hand corner.

063It's the gray box. It says impact is 15 cents. That's 15 cents per 100,000. So when we uh implement these projected numbers of a of a a bond issue payment, the max bond issue payment that we have here is 1,584,7 no 58530. So, what Laorray and I did in messing around with the revenue cap sheet is a couple of different things, which should tell us what we think the highest mill rate would be if we passed a $5 million bond issue because it's not a 1 to1 equation. When it says it's a 15% 15 cent per 100,000 impact in the in the mill, that's on our fund 39 levy, not our overall total levy, which is also fund 10 and fund 80. Okay. Um, plus it takes into account an equalized property value increase of

0642% per year. If equalized property values increase, that drives down the mill rate if our overall levy authority decreases, which it likely will over time as a result of declining enrollment. Give you a quick refresher on school finance in Wisconsin. There's largely three factors that identify um how much dollars this district will have access to. do the pupil count that's done every third Friday of September on an annual basis and then there's a second one in January with the September counts the one that counts towards your revenue cap your equalized property values which I just mentioned and then your equalized state aid from the state you don't know those numbers they're all projections so even the projection for student enrollment for next year is a projection the equalized aid for next year is a projection

065and the equalized property value is a projection but what you can do is hold those flat. For example, if you hold equalized property value flat, you know that you're going to have an artificially high estimated mill rate because anytime the property value goes up, mill rate goes down if you're levying for the same amount because you have more property value that you're levying to get the same amount of money. Is that making sense? You know that if pupil count goes down, you have less levy authority, but there's also declining enrollment aid. And so that throws a little bit of a wrench into the mix, but we know our declining enrollment aid based off of this year's numbers and can cast forward that cost as well. Um, if pupil numbers go up, you get more revenue

066limit authority, but arguably we don't see that that's really going to happen anytime in the near future. So what we've done is maintained the enrollment and maintain the property value. So we kept those flat. Property value will not stay flat. That's almost a guarantee. and our pupil enrollment will not stay flat either. It'll probably slightly decrease. So, utilizing those two pieces of information and taking our equalized aid and leaving it flat because keep in mind if your equalized aid goes up, your local property tax burden goes down and vice versa. Right? So, if we simply cast forward the equalized property value that we got this year, under the current budget, it should increase by 325 per pupil, our revenue cap authority. But they did not incorporate more state a equalized aid. I I gave you

067my belly ache about that when we talked about this year's budget. So that burden will be borne by local taxpayers uh which it was in this year's budget too but we didn't defeat some debt which is what did some uh tax relief as far as the district's concerned but for local taxpayers. But anyway, when we know those items and then you say we're going to project out long term, there's not a human being walking the earth that can tell you this is exactly what your mill rate's going to be 5 years from now or 10 years from now. But we do know what we think the high limit would be. Keeping in mind that any one of those factors could change because each money on budget you get in numbers and that might you know

068change everything. We don't see wild swings, however, in no range of property tax levy. So, when we did the $5 million uh in the revenue cap sheet, we're currently at a um 5.96, I think, Larry, is that accurate mill rate. And when we ran these numbers with the $5 million bond issue, it actually dropped slightly to 5.7, I think, or 5.8. So, virtually no change is what I'm going to call that. So then we said, okay, let's go ahead and look at the 8 million. And that's at on the second sheet. And again, keep in mind this is also a restructuring of our existing debt. So there's some um other things that are happening here. But when we would levy for the $8 million, the the maximum the maximum um levy payment that we make

069is 1,735,000 or 1736,000 give or take. We utilize that number as the bond issue payment. did all of the same things that I mentioned before for the $5 million and from 596 it went up to 61 6.12 something like that. So again, still fairly negligible in terms of mill rate. One of the pieces that I'll always throw out as a caveat if we do go to referendum and for the benefit of people listening at home, just because the mill rate stays the same doesn't mean your taxes stay the same. And the reason that is is because those uh uh factors are somewhat independent of one another. So the equalized property value that we have access to that we levy against is not necessarily equating to the value of your home as is shown on you

070know your uh interest statement or your um tax statement. it's equalized value which is spread across the state and run through their programs and formulas to give us that total. And then when you're talking about well uh my home had 300,000 last year I paid 3500 bucks and this year I'm paying 3600 but the school district mill rate went down well why is that? Well we would have to look at your specific circumstance and identify a number of factors that might have caused that to transpire and the opposite can also be true. But when we're talking generally throughout the entire demographic, if we know that the mill rate is only going to jump by 0.2, three, four, or five, you know that there's going to be a tax impact, but it's going to be minimal

071across the board, right? So, in my opinion, we have the ability with the debt restructure and a potential referendum to to run some numbers uh if we want to do this with taxpayers up to 8 million, maybe even 10 million with having almost no impact on the local mill rate. And so through that process, if that's what we identify we want to do and we identify the list of items that we want to accomplish after soliciting feedback and so forth and so on and we find that it's 7 million, then fine, 7 million. We find that it's eight or nine or 10. But we can get those numbers, then ultimately have the board settle on where we would like to go based on not only the work that we want done, but the amount of

072money it's going to cost us and the potential impact. Then we can run further projections about what that specific number would be. So, I chose five and eight just as a starting point just to say here's what I think five would be probably the low. Um, I'm not saying eight's the high. I'm just saying give us a number that's a little bit higher than five, but not 15. You know what I mean? Um, and then kind of go from there. So, generally the moral of the story is to put a bow on this conversation is that I do think if we went to a referendum for a bond issue um and it was successful, we would not have a massive tax impact. We would stay within um actually within a low range that we've enjoyed

073uh in recent years being around 61 62 which is positive news if we're at a 596 currently. One argument you could also make and then I'll finally shut up and allow you to ask questions would be wouldn't be less if we didn't pass the referendum and the answer to that question is of course. So if you don't pass a referendum you don't get tax for a referendum and therefore it would be less right. To what degree less? Well we can run those numbers too but that's not really an accurate or fair portrayal of the impact because in my opinion the impact starts from where we're at today and cast forward not where we might be 10 years from now and then add to that. see what I'm saying. So that's why projections are done in

074the manner they are. >> Um, one question I have, it sounds like um, leading that charge typically falls to the superintendent. That's a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of attention, a lot of relationship building and and sustaining. Is that something you think that your job description can take on right now? >> 100%. I've done seven times before in 16 years. >> All right. Can you walk through this the sheet like the well column three is that that what we have right now >> the existing 139 service that we're already paying >> yes correct so on the left hand side of that form and I apologize I should have done this levy year and year due those are of course make sense they're they're just the year existing fund 39 services that's

075our current uh debt payment okay and then you've If we have an $8 million bond or file, I'll look at the five since it's a front page. You have principal that you're making payments on and you have interest that you're making payments on, they amortize that so that you have just like they do on your mortgage or other, you know, auto loans or whatever so that you have a consistent relatively consistent monthly payment as you can see the actual levy on the left hand side. Um because uh uh you're you're technically buying down both interest and principal in a simultaneous fashion. Okay. Um the fund 39 debt service is existing plus new. So that gives you the new total of what it would be if $5 million were added. So instead of 1.38 318, pardon

076me, it goes to 1.577 in year 1 2728 school year. If that's making sense. So, it's a couple hundred,000 difference, but it's based on the debt restructure and a slight change in the in the schedule, uh, casting it out to 20 3940. Um, so that's on a 20ish year bond. Um, the state aid impact over base. So, what that is is that's a modification to state aid as a result of having to make debt payments. And then that translates to what this combined cost is factoring the aid and then that's the impact to your mill rate which is on fund 39 debt only. So that's why when we run the numbers through the revenue cap sheet to ultimately identify what our fund 10 fund 80 and fund 39 debt levy would be. How you translate

077a 15 cent per 100,000 impact in fund 39 to your overall mill is based on the same projections just plunked in to where it should have been 1,ion318775 for example. We took the highest number 1,585300 and put that in there to show our highest debt payment which would be again like a worst case scenario. Does that help clear it up? Okay. Um, so the odds of us making it till we get this current debt paid off without having to do anything is something that you mean whether it's out deferred maintenance or right. I mean, we're talking 10. >> Yeah, we're out to 36 37 regardless. >> Uh, that's when those promisory notes would be paid in full. But um yeah, so correct. I mean, you're talking about a 10-year 10-year cycle before it's zero or

078potentially less if you're aggressive with the buy down, but again, that would be based on what the what your uh revenue limit authority is and what your capability would be in terms of the community. >> You want to talk about the last page? >> Absolutely. So the last page I said, "So tell me what would happen if we just did a instead of doing a capital referendum or a bond issue referendum, we we would do a levy override. So a levy override dollars are approved locally via referendum just like a a debt issue is or a capital project. Uh but they're simply new revenue that's been voter approved. So if it was $500,000 on an annual basis for five years, that's what they ran here. What's the tax impact of that? You can use levy

079override dollars for anything that you use your regular budget for. Um so as an example, back when I first started doing this, we passed a levy override in Prairie Farm that had to do with simply having a full-time principal and some minor modifications to the building. and that passed and we made the modifications to the building and we kept the principal hired all with levy override dollars. So, it's just additional revenue, tax revenue that comes in locally. That's 100% local property taxpayers bear that cost. Um, and $500,000 a year, as you can see, is not really going to get you a ton. I mean, it's better than zero, but the impact of that is more direct in in 39 39 cents per 100,000 impact because it's 100% locally levied via property tax is the primary

080reason and secondarily there's no aid on that additional amount and you're getting aid on your debt payment and your overall uh 139 payment as a result of of the equalized aid formula. So there isn't any net return from the state as a result of having approved a levy override referendum when there is on the campo referendum. So arguably to accomplish what we would like to accomplish because if you're talking about a let's just say it's a $2 million wrestling facility and that's all you're going to do via levy override, you're going to levy $500,000 for four years and have one thing accomplished to show for it. And I would argue that that's probably a reasonable approach because typically what happens with levy override is that these are operational dollars. So you're like here's what we

081intend to do. But by the way, if we can't make ends meet, we're not doing these things. We're going to do this. We're going to operate the school. We're going to pay teachers and staff. You see what I'm saying? We're not in that boat currently. We're not in that boat currently, but there are a number of districts that are having to go to levy override just to make ends meet. Um, and you guys know that from being on the board for a handful of years that it's pretty status quo, but we're in a decent situation currently. Um, three years from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now, God only knows, but I wouldn't be shocked if as a district, Sroy has to go to a levy override at some point in the future.

082So, with that said, I wouldn't advocate for doing a levy override to accomplish what we're talking about in terms of facilities renovations. I don't think you're going to get the bang for your buck. Um, and then of course it's slightly more costly to taxpayers if we choose that approach. But you have ultimate flexibility. >> Then you would have to wait. If we needed 2 million, we wouldn't be able to take that right away. >> Well, you can you can do it in one of two ways. But you do levy it is. So you indicate in your referendum question how much you're going to levy per year for what total over what number of years. So generally if we set 500,000 a year for 5 years, so we're going to we're going to get $2.5 million

083over a 5year period. You can pay down, you know, uh you can utilize an approach such that we're using uh the dollars we're levying plus fund balance to cover the upfront cost and then make another payment the next year and then make yourself whole as you go through that fiveyear period. So yes, it's conceivable you could make that happen. Although I'll tell you it'll make Lorraine nervous, >> but it's possible. And I do argue I would argue we do have the fund balance to make that happen. I mean, it wouldn't be we'd run what you do is run deficit budgets for a couple years simultaneously to actually so the bills paid, but then you collect the taxes after the fact, which is technically how school districts are funded anyway. So, >> any other questions? >>

084Any downside to starting to gather the information to determine? >> I don't think so. The reason being is that the the only downside would be is that if you do because it's going to be like you said, it's a lot of work, but I think it's work that's worthy of undertaking. Um, but the the worst case scenario is that you identify these things that you want to accomplish. That would be step one in my opinion what the board feels um we should do because the next step for me would be to get our tenure facility plan and some of these you know uh wrestling space numbers taken care of and put actual numbers to paper so we can really talk in reality about okay are we talking 5 million 8 million 10 million 50 million

085you know what I mean it's not clearly not going to be that but we just need a number and from there then have conversations and engagement with the community around what do you think of this because ultimately I think it does make sense that we would send out a survey to district residents saying here are the plans of the district after we've listened to community feedback too. Here are the plans. What are your opinions and attitudes about this and how would you vote? Um school perceptions does a great job of doing and you probably use school perceptions when you did uh the the fine arts center renovation and wait room and so forth. I would argue we'd do a similar approach and based on that data. So I say that because you're going to put

086a lot of work in 6 months, nine months, a year and get that data back if the community is like eh well then to me it's not it's a no. I wouldn't have an omni agenda uh for a potential approval. So that's conceivable where what we're talking and what the community is thinking are two different things and they tell us the no then I would say we would not bring anything forward. One of the pieces that we would always ask though is what would you be, you know, would there be anything that you'd be willing to approve? And in some cases, unfortunately, the answer is no. And then I argue we would have to just maintain. Um, so anyway, that that I you you would we would have a definitive answer in my opinion from

087a variety of sources before the board would ever act on saying put this on the ballot for April of 28, for example. Can I ask a question from history? Just having had a referendum not that long ago, was there any conversation at that time about some of the space constraints that our school has or some of these additional expenses that were not decided to be in the referendum for some reason? >> I don't know. Then >> you want to answer? >> Go ahead. We did talk about some of this other stuff, but it just got to be too much money when you were because we talked about adding more gym space or, you know, different things uh with with the wrestling room and then the performing arts center, but it just got to be, you

088know, you're talking 20 million instead of 15 or whatever. >> But they never went to like question, right? We never had it go out to the public like that. That was more decided on the board. >> Yeah. I was just curious because obviously we've had space issues for a while and there's all these list of things the locker rooms and whatever you know we've heard about them. So I was just curious. >> Yeah. And that's typically so in having done this before particularly when you're talking about building renovations you're going to have um I'm going to bucket people into two groups but I know it's not quite this simple. But generally it's either no absolutely not. I don't think we should do any of that. Or yeah, we should do all that plus this, this,

089this, this, and then the numbers like, holy mackerel, we're we're clearly not going to go to referendum for $40 million. You know what I'm saying? We're not building a brand new high school or whatever the case is. So part of that is tempering that conversation and bringing it to the things that absolutely need to get done and ensuring that the folks that are engaged know here's why we need to do these things, right? Um, but through that process, you can identify what are areas that people are supportive of, right? What are areas that people too would like to see? Well, I think that's great for my kid, so I'm I'm I'm in with that, you know, regardless of what the cost may be sometimes. Um, so yeah, you'll get a you'll get a wide range

090of of engagement on the topic, but I think you'll know we'll know in relatively short order whether people think it's a horrible idea or whether people think it's a a good idea, and then ultimately whether or not it would float. I >> will also mention that I heard community is talking about issue refer so >> okay I just thought of my question um I think you asked this before I promise I'll remember it next time last time we did obviously we did the buildings and then we also had the deferred maintenance you know, years ago too. Um, are we able to combine them for something like this? >> Yes. So, that's another piece that I've talked about with um Bayard and Laray was in that conversation. I talked about it with the admin team today.

091What makes a ton of sense to me is if we identify that we want to do, let's just say $7 million in projects that we would ask for 8 million in terms of a bond issue. The reason being is that or 7.5 or some number. I'm just tossing numbers out right now. And of course, this would be parameters would be established to know, just not me throwing things out there. But the reason being is that you have um up to seven years to spend dollars from a bond issue that's been approved by taxpayers and you can draw on that periodically over time. Uh what it also does, of course, is going to decrease what your initial payments are going to be because you haven't accessed that bond yet. So portions of that bond yet. So

092monkeying with that over time makes a lot of sense in my mind that we would have some dollars in reserve that are explicit for long-term uh projects and renovations and arguably potentially even things we're not even aware of currently. Now if it's on the 10-year plan, it's probably going to be encumbered by that and we have a pretty comprehensive and decent plan. That would be part of what we'd want to do is make sure that absolutely everything is is in that regard. But we would have some flexibility with a certain portion that we could access say five years from when it's approved or or six years or even seven. And I would advocate yes for doing that. That absolutely that's a smart thing to do. Even if it only covers a portion of a cost

093of something, at least it's it's not coming from our fun. And that I think is a very important piece. Keep in mind, anytime we do anything within the school district, it's going to cost dollars that are we're operating and running the school, paying people, supporting programs, like anytime we do anything. They need to purchase a new lawn mower, that's part of our fun 10 budget, you know what I mean? Uh we need to purchase a bus, that's part of our fun 10 budget. So all of these things to operate the school are encumbered within our general u budget and funds. And so in order to do anything of substance, particularly multi-million dollar projects, that's really your only option is to do a bond issue or that be ever. >> So are you looking for guidance

094tonight or >> Well, um probably not tonight, but by next meeting just to say, "Yep, we think this is a good idea. let's pursue that option or no. Well, I mean, if you know tonight, great. Um, because we can get the ball rolling on some of these things. But admittedly, there won't be a ton here on the front end. It'll be me and meeting with, you know, other individual people to put some things together of some substance and then getting some feedback from you folks. But, um, so it would probably be a repetitive board item, but not immediately in two weeks. Um, but in two weeks, at at very least, it'd be beneficial if we know like, yeah, let's go ahead and explore this because what's the worst case scenario? the community is like, "No,

095we're not going to do it." We figure out how to solve the problem in some other way. Um, or the board's like, "No, we don't want to do that. We just did a referendum in 2020 or 21 or whatever it was. So, no, it's too quick. We're not doing it." Well, fine. We need to figure out what we're going to do. So, really, it's just answering that question so that we can move forward as an admin team and so forth. I have one last question because obviously the wrestling space has been the big topic that we've you know space so it's not going to make a difference for this season but obviously any of these conversations aren't going to yield the space available for next season. So what is the what are our options for

096them for next year? >> Doing the same thing we're doing this year. I mean, you could look at buying the building and then sell it. I don't know how that would look, you know, on the face of people either, but that I mean, that's an option. >> It is. And I, again, I'm making a personal comment here. I'd have concerns about purchasing a building and going to referendum both. I I just don't think that that's a wise move. Um, I'm very confident that if you purchased a building that we can walk to or or purchased property and erected a building that might be a different way that kids can walk to or that's very close to the school property that if you went to resell that, there's no way you're going to get what you

097have into it based on what we've already seen. So the building is 400,000 or 500,000 and then we put 400,000 into it. You're 800 or 900,000 into a building and I just bought it for 400 and in 10 years I don't think we're going to sell it for 900. I don't know that it'll be maybe 600, maybe 700. God only knows what it would be, but I don't think you would get and most people that are looking for a full ship sort of open structure aren't looking for it to be covered with mass and have a couple of locker rooms restrooms in it. You know what I mean? So, it's not really functional in that regard. Do I want the space issue resolved sooner than later? Absolutely. But that's also part of why we're having

098the conversation because this just keeps kicking down the road. Um, and that's another argument. Well, how do you know in 10 years you don't have five kids in wrestling? Well, we don't. Nobody can tell you that. I'd be shocked if we did, but I think the underlying supposition on my part is that even if we did have seven or eight kids, that wrestling room is maybe adequate for half a team. I just it's not it just isn't feasible. So, and I'm not even a wrestling guy. So I guess I what we should do as a board uh between now and the next meeting is you know try to take a look at this stuff and think about you know the space that's still I'm assuming still available the fed >> as far as I know

099yes I communicated with them since the last meeting. Um, I heard today from a community member that there's somebody that's very interested in purchasing it, which here again I I explained uh very clearly to the owners of the building as as I did to you folks. A school board and organization like ours, city or whatever, we can't just buy something in a month. That's just not how it works. So, they understand that. I told them flat out if somebody wants to buy your building, you sell your building, sell your building. I mean, you got to do what you got to do. But we could explore an option of a parcel of land that's very close and build our own which was you know roughly dollar amount about the same amount of money. So to to

100rectify the problem um with all of the scenarios we discussed we're still talking about a millionish dollars to do it. >> Yeah. So think about uh you know this option the referendum type thing and future projects and all that kind of stuff and then you know what are we thinking more short term try to get that done purchaser erecting something so fair enough >> I'm good >> all right that ends our committee meeting anybody need a break all right we'll call this meeting to order and start with the pledge of allegiance I aliance 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. >> Roll call. >> Matt Brace >> here. >> Tasha Rager >> here. >>

101Don Mily >> here. >> Ronnie Scheler >> here. >> Brett Mccertie >> here. All right, we'll start with the reading of the mission statement and the rules of the meeting by Don. >> The mission of the school district of SR Falls is to provide a supportive student centered learning environment that cultivates character, fosters academic excellence, and embraces diversity. The rules of the meeting focus on the mission, the vision statements of the district, come prepared, be respectful of others, and open and accepting of ideas. actively participate, avoid side conversations, and remember that board meetings are open forum. >> Thank you, Don. Uh, next would be public comments on agenda items. >> I did have comments, but it's on the social event regulations, which hasn't been talked about yet, so I don't know if that >> it's

102on the agenda. >> It is. >> Okay. >> Did you fill out the >> I'll take it. Yeah. Thank you. >> Can I just sit back down? Well, you might want to be where the microphone can pick you up. Those things hanging down. >> Okay. All right. So, I'm Tammy Wandra. I have a daughter in the middle school. She's in eighth grade. And then I have a nephew in who is a sophomore and I'm alumni of a few years ago. But, um, I just want to thank Craig and the school board for allowing this policy to be brought back up. And I want to thank Mike Wilson for allowing all the students to have a voice instead of just the student council. And I also want to acknowledge Jake for being the student representative and

103being the voice of the students because it takes some strong bravery to do that. So I was at the LA boarding meeting last month and I know what was discussed. I'm not going to repeat anything, but I did want to mention just a couple things that hasn't been talked about yet. Um there was some discussion on whether or not the seniors were emailed this survey or not because I talked to a few seniors who said that they did not receive it. Um, and these are seniors who did have a strong opinion and did want their voices heard. Um, I understand why they didn't have a vote because they're going to be leaving soon. But that taking into account that information, I just wanted to say there are 247 students in the 9th through the 11th

104grade. Um, which means with 130 participating in the survey, that was 53% over half of the student body. And while of course we want it to be higher, these are kids. So um even so, the survey speaks for itself. Um 57% would like a change to the old version while only 6% wanted it to stay the same. Um three years ago it was acknowledged that the reason for the change was because it was what the students wanted. At that time I don't think it was well known that in fact only the student council of 28 students had voted. and this year 130 voted. Um, taking into the same logic used before, it is clear what the student body wants this time. Um, also in the last three years, not one neighboring school has followed SCF's

105way with the representatives. If you see the newspapers, there are numerous pictures of school prom and homecoming courts with kings and queens and then one picture of SCF with their representatives. Even after seeing SCF's change, neighboring schools have not chosen to follow suit, and I think this speaks volumes for what our community and our schools favor. And lastly, I just want to thank board members for all you do. I know all you want is what's best for our kids, and I appreciate that. I thank you for your service, and I ask that you think about what our students want and vote accordingly. Thank you. >> Thanks, Tammy. Anybody else? All right, we'll move on uh the circum policy. We'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> No consent agenda.

106>> Not bad. >> Might have to start wearing my cheaters. >> Next meeting. >> All right. I'll take a motion to review and vote on the new course proposals at the high school which was presented to us at the last meeting. January. >> I'll make a motion to approve the new course proposals for the high school. >> We have a motion by Ronnie. >> Second by Tasha. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Motion is carried. Next, we move on to review or vote on the policy 372 rule for student social event uh regulations. >> Yeah. And I'll clarify, we didn't talk about it in terms of policy uh 372 rule one last at the last meeting. We talked about in terms of what is the wording in the handbook

107uh and how we were doing business as has been discussed uh which pertains to 372 rule one. So that's why you're seeing the policy change. If the policy change is approved as recommended, then the handbook will be updated and communicated to students that this change has taken place. We also discussed when the change would take place, whether it is if uh effective immediately upon approval or next year. Um in conversation with Mike, we both feel that there's no reason we wouldn't implement it ASAP as we have uh prom uh coming up in the spring and then these rules would apply. In terms of the modification to the uh policy itself, you can see that there's one bullet point that is stricken which discusses our current approach. And then in red, we've included two different bullet

108points, one for homecoming and one for prom, which align not perfectly but align with generally how uh the process was undertaken in the past with some minor updates that uh are about our the current approach. And curiosity, Mike, I'm wondering too. Did you survey seniors? >> I completely forgot about that. No, because Yeah, I thank you for correcting that. I completely forgot that we I I had done it that way. So, I know we had talked about a while back because there wasn't was not a direct impact on them. So, yeah, my numbers were a little off. I apologize on that. >> Got you. >> I didn't remember that piece either. >> All right. We'll take a motion to approve the rule one student to social events regulations. >> We'll make that motion. >> A

109motion by ma'am. >> I'll second. >> Second by Don. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carried. Uh, next is the vote on the hiring of the candidate for the head varsity baseball coach. >> Uh, yeah. So, there was an interview team. Oh, I forgot my microphone. Although I'm sure people at home can probably hear me out with this guy. Um, there was an interview team. Mike, Tara, and, uh, Mr. Wallace did some interviews of two different candidates for head coaching position. Three, pardon me, and have settled on offering the position of Dan Campbell, who served in a JV and other coaching capacity for multiple years here with the district. Um, this is as a result of Nick's uh, resignation that was tied to family related circumstances

110and time in that regard, which um, having been a new parent at one point in my life, I completely sympathize with. So, >> I'll take a motion to approve the hiring of Dan Campbell as the head varsity baseball coach. >> I'll make that motion to approve the hiring of Dan Campbell as the head varsity baseball coach. >> We have a motion by Tasha. I'll second. >> Second by Don. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Next is the uh vote on the purchase of the football uniforms. >> I will make a motion to approve the purchase of the football uniforms as presented. >> Motion by Don. >> Second by Matt. Any further discussion? All roll call vote. >> Matt Bryce, >> yes. >> Tasha Rager, >> yes.

111>> Don Milky, >> yes. >> Ronnie Scheler, >> yes. >> Brent Mccertie, >> yes. >> All right. Next is the vote on the 2026 2027 rate program. >> I'll make a motion to approve the 2026 27 program purchases as presented. Motion by Ronnie. >> A second. >> Second by Tasha. Any further discussion? >> Uh, we have to do a roll call on that one, too. Roll call vote. >> Matt Bryce, >> yes. >> Tasha Rager, >> yes. >> Don Milky, >> yes. >> Ronnie Scheler, >> yes. >> Brent McCertie, >> yes. Right. Next, we'll move on to the vote of the purchase of the electronic devices. I'll make the motion to approve the electronic device purchase as presented. >> Have a motion by Don. >> Second by Matt. Any further discussion? >> We'll do a

112roll call vote. >> Matt Rice, >> yes. >> Tasha Rager, >> yes. >> Don Milky, >> yes. >> Ronnie Scheler, >> yes. >> Brett Mccertie, >> yes. >> All right. Thank you. Any announcements? >> I do have an announcement. I have a letter from Midwest One Bank addressed to Craig. Says, "The Midwest One Bank Foundation is pleased to provide St. Croy Falls School District with $10,000 toward playground equipment. A check is enclosed for the full amount. The Midwest One Bank Foundation is appreciative of your efforts and your dedication to the community. We wish you well as you move forward with this endeavor. Sincerely, sign Jenny Olsen from the Midwest One Bank Foundation." Very good. Thank you. That's great news. >> Awesome. >> Um, that's it. One. All right. Upcoming events. We'll have our regularly scheduled

113February 25th committee regular meeting. Uh, then we'll again back two meetings again in March on the 11th and the 25th. All right. We'll move on discuss the rules of the meeting. Don. >> All right. We focused on the mission of the meeting. We were prepared. We had respectful conversations of others and were open to accepting ideas. We actively participated. We avoided side conversations and we had open. >> All right. Thank you, Bob. With that, I'll take a motion to exe adjourn to executive close session. >> I'll make that motion to adjourn to executive close session. >> I'll second a motion by Dash, a second by roll call vote. >> Matt Rice, >> yes. Tasha Raer, >> yes. >> Dan Milky, >> yes. Jeeler, >> yes. >> Brett Mccertie, >> yes. >> Thank you everybody.