001We are streaming. >> Um, all right. I'll call this meeting to order. Uh, we'll start with the committee portion of the meeting. Uh, first we'll have the strategic plan update. >> Okie dokie. So, we have the strategic plan as well as some intel on this relatively recent staff survey. Uh that information was linked in board book and I of course shared the links with you in the board update. Um in the plan if you go all the way to page seven is where the actual action steps start. Um we have the approach for communication and community engagement and working through that. You can see that there's been um progress items that have been I should have started with the overarching statement would be the majority of the items on the strategic plan as a whole
002are either completed and or in significant progress. So, as I alluded to in the board update, we're getting close to a time in which um convening another conversation around the next iteration of this strategic plan would be a good idea. I would also point out that if something is quote unquote completed, that doesn't mean it's done and we forget about it. So the vast majority of this stuff is ongoing and would be um remain implemented over time. Um so action uh pardon me action plan one of three in community engagement uh you see listed there. What I ask board members to do is if you have questions just stop me um knowing that you had opportunities to to review this information. um two uh action plan two of three with respect to community engagement uh
003and communication was mostly um tied up in the creation and posting of the position that Kirk Anderson uh now holds through the through the interview process and and approval of the job description and all those things we worked through last year. Um and so of course much of that is in place and or in progress. >> Back to the first one. >> Absolutely. >> Uh page eight >> talks about the survey that they did at the community. Is that what were their results or that? Is there anything earthshattering of the classes and stuff that they wanted or >> um the the survey did not the survey was put out on Facebook um for getting new teachers. Uh the the larger survey is something that I'm working on developing um to put out and um distribute
004widely. So right now the the the one that I put out to get new teachers and ideas for classes um was out on social media and that didn't get a huge result. So, we're looking to um use more avenues within the school's email system to to get together that. And then beyond the school, it's the community and how do you reach the community that's the tough work. >> That's that's ongoing. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sorry to interrupt you. >> Oh, no, you're good. That's that's the point. Yes. >> Um action plan three of three, same topic which is community engagement and communication. Uh you see that items on that are either in process and or completed uh with more respect to building and grade communication. Um the one piece of that is a reinvigoration
005of the website. Um, one of the things that I think we had talked about at a prior board meeting, nothing formal was that a combination of Kirk and Brian Gray are in the process of evaluating different possibilities in terms of a web website because there's now there's multiple options that include apps that you know school district- based apps that have like social it's like social media feeds where you can select I want to know about the elementary uh second grade and district and that'll feed you, you know, stuff like that. So, there's the the idea that we have a a content management systembased website like we currently have, I think we're past that. So, this next iteration will be something that offers a bit more um comprehensiveness uh and I think analytics and other things
006that'll be beneficial for us to be able to determine what is what's working via the website and then how do people want to receive communication. So, that's in process and at some point the board will likely see um a recommendation and a contract to to work through a new company for website hosting and and so forth and so on. Uh but there's a ton of different options out there now that have a just an incredible variety of opportunities for doing things a little different. Um, so that also is in process. Although, um, I think the didn't Brian Craig mention something along the lines of making those sorts of decisions next school year, >> correct? >> Give or take. >> So, that'll be coming up 2627. Well, there it says new design 2026. >> Um, then
007moving on into uh the mental health aspect, there's three of those action plans there, too. Uh you can see that a variety of those items have either been completed or ongoing. That of course is being undertaken a combination of the admin team um being with Shelley Schmidtz as special ed director as well as uh some other um staff members that are specifically focused on mental health. Um, we are intending to provide the board an update with respect to district occurrence or district uh mental health activities for lack of a better term at some point in the uh foreseeable future as well this school year. So, you'll see some additional details in that regard. Um, ironically enough, you are going to be uh asked to approve this very evening aou with Calier Clinic that is, I
008think, technically out of Oaklair, but they have offices in Hudson and other areas in western Wisconsin to provide additional mental health support services for our students because one of our current therapists uh had to move on for whatever reason. So that will fill that void but also open up a handful of seats. Um and that was wonderfully serendipitous that to have happen in almost a simultaneous fashion as we heard word that um that the therapist that was serving our kids was no longer able to. Uh so that's again ongoing and and continued. Um seal curriculum and other things you can see have been uh implemented and completed. Uh let's see here. Where am I at next? On page 20, we are talking about uh the staffing aspect. That is the piece of the survey which
009is also linked there for you and I will jump to um and give you some details. But let's work through the strategic plan first and then we'll jump to the survey so that you can see what that uh pertain to. If you recall, I shared the draft of the survey with you um a few weeks ago and then sent it out. Well, actually that' be over a month ago now because I did send it out like the beginning of November and it was closed by Thanksgiving break kind of time. So, we'll cover that. Um, as well as things with onboarding and mentoring of employees. Um, monetary circumstances. I think we've done some things uh of course recently and the board has saw fit to ensure that our school district is positioned quite well uh both
010geographically speaking and for our size. Uh we're very competitive in in Case 11, which encompass 36 districts in northwest Wisconsin. Um for most of our staff, we'll have ongoing conversations about some other areas uh as we've done in the past with respect to bus uh drivers, modifications there, child care modifications there. We're going to uh likely recommend some modifications for aid positions this year that are a bit differentiated from other positions just to to um ensure that we're keeping pace or eclipsing again what competitive employers now can offer your quick trips, your Walmarts, that kind of thing. Um so I do believe that there's been a concerted effort and there's evidence that there's been a concerted effort in that regard. Um, communicating that is interesting because arguably if you have a job here and you
011like what you're doing, you're probably not on the hunt and you don't know what the compensation structure looks like elsewhere. Um, so all you are relegated to is the ability then to compare based on uh what information the district may share about how we're positioned and that information is shared um I wouldn't say every year but with relative regular frequency because it's a basis of conversation with respect to a wage adjustment when you're meeting with stat members groups right so if the there's not any formal union any longer but if you're meeting with a group of teachers that are interested in uh compensation and benefits and so forth and so on, then very clearly pull data and have access to data from other districts throughout Northwest Wisconsin that you can provide that information. But if
012you're just a, you know, a normal Joe and you're doing your job, you're teaching, you're making your money, I there's not really, well, aside from it's all public information, you have to go find it on your own. But there really isn't a mechanism by which you can just compare yourself at a moment's notice to, you know, somebody at Oyola or somebody at Unity. Um but those details are shared when when relevant and uh when we are able. Um I would also say that and I don't know how much credit the district can directly take for it but I will also say that it's exciting to know that we interviewed five five people for a teched position. It wasn't too long ago I wouldn't be shocked if you got zero applicants regardless of what you put
013as a starting salary. um other positions special ed we were were successful in filling uh which is super hard to fill. So that's a combination of factors I believe people that explicitly want to come and work here in coordination in conjunction with the fact that I think the um uh market for uh school employees teaching staff in particular is getting better than it was. We had a pretty lean I'd say fiveyear period where we struggled to get applications even like a FIA job. Um where back in not too long ago you had 20, 30 or even 100 applicants for jobs like that. You're down to five to 10 if you're lucky. So those things are also moving in the right direction. With that being said, any questions, commentary, clarifications? I know that was quick. It's
014a lot as you can see. It's a multi-page document as you well know. Uh but I want to both give it the time it deserves but not too much time if you know what I'm saying. Do we have any internal um committees within not that would have the discussion of the board but within the schools that get share input on like benefits compensation information anything like that like an internal committee that reviews that >> um we not well yes so there's a group of teachers I wouldn't call it review what it is is back in the old days in the union days there was a circumstance events where you would have meet and confer and all of that was done um in posted board meetings, special board meetings, and there'd be back and forth and
015exchanging of that sort of thing. And um although we don't have any specific union, there's still open lines of communication and representatives uh on staff that are will are consulted. We have conversations with respect to uh here's what our intentions are, what we can afford for compensation. Um here's what's happening in other school districts just as a basis of comparison. Um there is some commentary with respect to like health insurance and that sort of thing. But frankly, when you have a um uh like we had this year for example, one of the questions I had from the staff member was well where are we going to meet to discuss that? And I said, "Well, honestly, if you have a 5% uh increase in premium from the company that we're currently with and we intend to
016stay with them, there there's really not much to discuss." You know, the alternative would be we're changing plans again and we're not going to get a competitive bid in the market because we just went to bid last year. You know what I'm saying? So, in that result, it was more like, hey, they're giving us a 5% increase. I emailed the information to staff and then fielded some questions as a result of that. So there is still that structure. Yes. Although it's less formal than it used to be in the old days. That makes sense. And also we don't uh here nor any place I've been before do like you know individual conversations with staff members there and people are kept in the loop. So if we're anticipating we're going to talk about a 3% wage
017increase for example for teaching staff, teaching staff are not going to be surprised when that's approved by the board. See what I'm saying? So there's some knowledge at least of that as we as we move forward through that process. >> Thanks. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> So we I know you hit on this right away, but it'll be what three years since we started this last year. You think in a year from now we would start again or let this run one more year and then start two years old for the next iteration. >> I I I would think that we could begin planning and identifying at least what the the pillars are or the the broad topics are during the course of the 2627 school year with an implementation for like 2728
018in the next threeear cycle there. >> Okay. >> Or four whatever the the cycle is. >> That would make sense to me. I mean, you wouldn't start a midstream and having the conversations now since it's January might be a moot point, but I think we do build it next year and then get action steps put in place and then implement 2728 >> which seems like fake year, doesn't it? >> 2728 doesn't even seem real, doesn't it? >> And pretty soon it'll be 2030. >> Anyway, >> all right. Any other questions if we want to go to the survey? >> Yep. I'd direct your attention to the staff survey. What I did for board members is um shared with you the actual survey itself. So you have an opportunity to see individual comments on this document
019that's attached to the board update. I did not include individual comments only because there may be a comment or two or three uh that is I mean I wouldn't call it personal but that someone might be able to identify oh that's probably so and so at the elementary that stated that I don't believe any of our staff members would necessarily have an issue with that. I'm just not going to take it upon myself to share their opinion on their behalf without their permission if that makes sense. >> So that's why those are not included. um what you what I have created are all the the the graph or tabular formatted things. So it's basically just a click a button click um response rather than short or long answer. Uh so the primary work assignments there
020primary work location I will mention and throw myself under the bus here. I had neglected to put in substitute. I should have done that. I totally spaced it so substitute wasn't included. that would have been a decent category to gather from. Um because then you can the goal here is to to tease apart the data based on work uh location and uh job assignment and these other pieces to identify if there's any sort of trends which is what our administrative team is in the process of doing. I would also point out that we had 93 responses and we have 200 employees in some way, shape or form because that includes coaches on a coaching contract or you know a bus driver, everybody. Um, so of course it's not 200 full-time employees, but the point is
021is that this went out all staff. So anybody with an all with an email uh substitutes included would have gotten the survey and could have responded. Um, so the response rate frankly was pretty darn good to have 93 responses. Uh, so just general demographic information, how long you've worked in the district. That's an interesting pie chart to look at recognizing that this isn't 100% of the staff, but you can see and I was a bit surprised to see that uh, you know, over 50% 53.8% of our staff members are one to five or six to 10 years. So that is a a trend arguably that you're going to see uh you know change over time and I wouldn't be surprised if just five years ago that pie would have been built quite differently as you
022see this you know uh current retire retirements uh taking shape over the last few years just again because of the structure of the workforce. This is generally what's what's going on in the private sector as well. And then you have the easily uh rated statements that was on a likered scale. One being uh I strongly disagree and five being uh strongly agree and then everywhere in between. One caveat I will point to is that there's at least one respondent who I can guarantee thought that one was good based on the comments that that one respondent made in the in the long answer sections. And you can look at these as individual responses. Um, and when you see that, then it's like, okay, you wouldn't put all ones and then make the comment you made. You'd
023put all ones and then say everybody's stupid. You know, you know what I'm saying? You wouldn't say something positive. So, it was very, it was clear to me that somebody just didn't think it through and and clicked once. So, that would be for one. Aside from that, the the argument that I always make as a science guy, Reed is not a fan, but I'll keep on saying it. You take the bottom 5% and throw it out. You take the top 5% and throw it out. You focus on the the 90% in between there. Um, and frankly, to have it be statistically significant, that number should be more like 10 and 10. But I won't get into that. Point is is that generally the data does indicate the trend towards heavy towards fours and fives in
024just about every category you're going to see. Which is why the most important aspect of evaluating the information in my opinion is to disagregate the information and do your best to identify uh commentary that staff made. Create kind of buckets or trends or topics that are common and then facilitate conversations with staff members. um you know throughout the rest of this year and into the future. This uh too is not something that you're just done with. You're like, "Oh, thanks for your feedback." And then you just move on, you know. So there will be some some circling around with this. I will also share that this document that I've linked here to the board uh agenda that Lar did was also sent to all staff minus the commentary for the same reasons I shared why
025the commentary is not listed here. So uh you I mean I'm not going to read them to you but you can see that generally uh the overall uh lion share of responses 65 plus percent in each case are in the four or five category um responding to all those questions which is which is absolutely outstanding to see. 72% of the people that responded said my principal/supervisor is approachable in sport. Fantastic. I mean, that's absolutely fantastic. And it might actually be 73% the one the one person picked the five instead of the one, but you never know. You never know. Uh constructive feedback, professionalism, and so forth and so on. Um, another thing that I think is uh is informative is how likely are you to continue working the district for the next three years? Almost
02673% 72.8% indicated very likely. 10.9% or almost 11% clearly indicated somewhat like it. So what you're talking about is is almost 85% of your staff saying I intend to work here uh for the next three years for sure. >> Also pretty awesome. >> One thing it doesn't capture is the reason why you would leave. You know like you mentioned before they're going to start seeing some probably retirement next few years. >> Yes. And um I've looked at the individual responses as they've come in. That's cited more than one time. So if somebody clicked um you know what's the likelihood and they put very unlikely, it would be my age or my retirement. There's at least two or three or four of those that are encapsulated in that. Yes. >> There's about like 10% or 11ish
027maybe by the size. They're unsure. >> Correct. >> Does that surprise you? It's not not to me. So now the the reason being is that school districts in particular and maybe it's private sector too. I don't know because I haven't been responsible for a private sector organization in a particular community. But it is not atypical that what you the line share of your employees are uh St. Croy Falls grads P county residents who may have been somewhere else for a while and now they're back. You see what I'm saying? So, and and and I know that there's a certain percentage of staff that we employ that live elsewhere or are from elsewhere and based on circumstance, if a similar position opens up in their hometown or home community, that's likely where they're going to head
028back. Uh that happens with regular frequency in in public in particular. Um like I said, I don't know if it's a private sector thing, too. But I mean, if I'm I don't know, if I'm working at a bank and there can be a bank in just about any town that I'm in and I'm in, you know, Hudson and I really want to be into Richmond, maybe I'm not really that motivated to move the bank's bank in my opinion, but if I want to work in a school district, which is this intense sort of community vibe, not that banks are community or anything, not saying that, but you know what I'm saying. It's a like it's a f a school district is much more family sort of community vibe than a lot of the private sector
029things. and it's well I want to do it here in particular this location you know what I mean >> also it does include all employees so if you think about pair of professionals and bus drivers there is less longevity and you know people aren't as I I just don't think it's 10% is really low >> I just looked at like the it's about 11ish% and then the somewhat unlikely is in there and the very unlikely So that that section seems a little bit larger than I guess I would expected, but maybe it's hard to >> Yeah, if you lump all three of those together. >> Yep. The other piece that I would mention is that um newer staff in particular, this idea that I'm going to take a job and stay there for 30 years
030is not really a thing much anymore. >> It isn't. And like Rita said, I'll point back to this. We do have an awful lot of positions that typically people aren't like, I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. aid bus driver child care. You got it. >> Yeah. >> So there is that. >> I mean that would be interesting to pull that data and look and see who is saying that. >> Is it coming from those jobs? I think it is. I think when I looked at it, it wasn't coming from teachers. >> Sure. >> Then what I would find interesting is that there's a reason why you know there is such like turnover or not longevity and what can we do about it? like is there you know as I think
031about the last couple years of bus driver shortage if it was bus drivers like how do we make a difference so we don't have that problem >> in the future and Craig address that we did I think it's got me so yeah >> I just trying to like look at it to see if we can be proactive so that we don't have a problem >> it's a perfect segue because on the very next page which are the following attention it says will be most meaningful to you can see them in order there 93.4% 4% you can select up to three by the way >> 93.4% 4% re that selected salary >> additional personal or vacation time 79% tuition reimbursement or I can't remember what that was um or oh more professional development development opportunity >>
032uh is 27.5% those are the top three so very clearly we recognize what that means you know what I'm saying >> um and there's also elements where there there are I'll point to an earlier question which I skimmed over but that was I have opportunities at career advancement here. Again, there are circumstances in with what we can offer for employment that the answer to that question is there really isn't unless you choose to, for example, if I'm an aid, I'm going to get my special ed license and so I'm going to go to school and then so could that be considered, you know, professional advancement? Well, very clearly it is. But is it sponsored by the district or is it just the fact that you're taking your own initiative to do so? arguably a teacher
033classroom teacher could say, "Well, I don't really have leadership opportunities." You know what I'm saying? So those things are also inherent in public ed and what our structure is as there are limited leadership opportunities. Now, arguably, you can create opportunities where any staff member can lead a group and initiative and those things do happen, but I would also say it's not likely readily apparent to some staff members. like, you know, if I'm doing the survey and I'm an aid, I'm going to go, well, I mean, what different can I do? Well, really nothing. I might not have a a bachelor's degree or a teaching license, so I'm pretty much limited. You know what I'm saying? So, that's plays into that, too. But like I said, generally the responses are positive as administrators work through the
034disagregated data, uh, identify trends. You may find it uh interesting to note that um Brian Cray had paid for at test some Google Analytic tools that are AI based that will actually take those comments and create buckets for you which is fantastic because anytime you do a survey a a lion share of your time is disagregating the data and trying to to create these themes and so having AI do on your behalf is pretty sweet, which means that it'll be a little bit quicker of a process, which of course will be double checked. But we're in the we just talked about our admin team meeting Tuesday and um we'll continue working through it with like I said through the remainder of this year as well as in the next. the salary kind of I mean
035it's surprising but not and I say not because or surprising because a lot of times when you go to these seminars and stuff they talk about it's not paid that keeps people there it's you know how your boss treats you how you know all that kind of stuff too >> 100% but I would say too if you have um and now I I clicked off it so I apologize but if you have 70% or 80% of your staff saying either very likely or somewhat likely that I'm going to stay here for the next 3 years meaning and and like here again you graduated from here you live in the community you're wholly and entirely invested your kids attend here or they have attend and you're like I'm not going anywhere else you're still going to
036say I would like salary increases >> exactly >> so those aspects are never accounted for in these more global reports on uh employment and workplace satisfaction. I would also point to the fact that you can discern based on some of the other questions where someone could conceivably, particularly in a school district, respond, I'm very likely to stay here for the next three years or even if you said 15. Very likely, I'm staying here. I'm going to retire from here. You're going to hear that from people here. But they respond, my principal's unsupportive or my supervisor's unsupportive and it's a, you know, it's a terrible place to work, but they're still going to stay here. You see what I'm saying? So, some of that data with respect to to school districts in particular doesn't necessarily follow
037the trends of transients or reasoning as it would in the private sector because I'll cite again and I'm going to use banks because I cited it once already, but there it's nothing against banks and it's not meant to offend anybody. It's just like or you know it could be gas stations. It's like well I'll just go work at another gas station. >> There's only one picture. >> That's true. Well, that depends on the town you live in. You know what I'm saying? In Wisconsin Rapids, there was four quick trips. It was a four quick trip town. But anyway, it's that's a different vibe than the school district. Like, you don't just go I'm going to uproot my entire cuz keep in mind, it's not only your job, but it's it's like your entire life, you
038know? It's it's what I do outside of school. It's what where my kids are. It's different than when I'm just going to work at Quick Drip or Walmart or NEI or whatever. It's it is it just flatly is. So, you can't always have those coral areas that you would like in the in the private sector where you have multiple opportunities within a relatively small geographic area and in some cases of course like I don't know if you're I'm not sure what the sector would be that probably that data will align more similarly to a deschool district when you're limited. So, >> so then we'll take this data. You guys are breaking it down, making it into buckets. Um, will we do this again in a year? >> Um, yeah, I mean, we will talk as
039an admin team. I get apprehensive about, uh, survey fatigue. >> And so, what I would say is, uh, you know, we keep our ears open, uh, continue to have conversations. It may not be annually or maybe it's just a brief sort of hey because I I I'm a strong supporter of surveys. I've recommended to all of our principles to do surveys of their staff because you get decent feedback. Um and that's that's great for your professional growth uh and your conduct, but also you you get to a point where staff members uh fail to respond or they put answers like stop sending out surveys. So it's about finding that balance something like this like an all staff kind of job satisfaction survey and admittedly this wasn't huge uh you know a massive undertaking but probably
040every other year just shoot from the hip but there might be something that comes up and we're talking it's like okay well let's just send out a quick you know Q&A to staff and see where people stand on the issue and there's no reason you can't do that for healing now because here again the work entailed in doing this is minimal it's analyzing the backside that takes most of the time and energy. So would you guys as admin team take these results like you can break it down a little bit more and just say open forum if anybody's willing to share what we can do to you know move from a two to a three or whatever that yeah I mean that's one way to get people might not type it but they if they
041feel comfortable you know they may start talking about it and stuff too >> correct >> I guess if they see like sorry to interrupt you action on it you know then may feel like, "Oh, I I had a voice. I said something and somebody did something about it." Versus if you send out a survey, you review the information, you do nothing. People are not going to respond in your survey the next time they do it. >> 100%. And that was the exact conversation that we had with the admin team yesterday, which was if you ask people questions, you have to follow up and they need to know you're following up about the questions you ask or it's completely useless. Um, and frankly, I'll as part of what probably increased the response rate because I was
042surprised to get 93 responses to be honest with you. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 30. You know, because people, if you had been around the block a long time, people were like whatever, it's not going to matter anyway. They just don't do it. You know what I'm saying? If that's the the circumstance, >> how many employees? So we had 93 responses but how many employees we have that would that would have if we had 100%. So again because of the multiple categories and the way the list serve is that'd be 200 but that includes >> coaching contracts you know very part-time people substitutes kids care >> and we do surveys for I mean almost all of us do surveys for all of our individual groups too. So kids care employees get their own
043surveys, so they're less likely maybe to do this one. It just doesn't apply as well as the specific ones. And we do just what you said, Don. We really use it as a PR point, too, to say to folks, we really are listening and we do value what you're suggesting. Any other comments, questions? All right, we'll move on. Chris, Mr. Wallace with the behavior systems. >> All right. Well, thank you for letting me present tonight. Um going to update you with u what we're doing in the middle school and how we've uh modified our behavior system and um from maybe more traditional uh focused on the punitive and more focusing on addressing root causes of behaviors. So um yeah and in turn hopefully transforming our school culture. So um so why the change uh some
044of our current realities here as I look back uh over office based referrals incidents over the last several years there was a significant spike uh in in behaviors uh starting in 2122 school year resulting in detentions in school suspensions out of school suspensions um considerably higher from previous years. Um while there's been some steady improvements, um the the the number of disciplinary incidents still remained pretty high, um the traditional punishment model wasn't necessarily addressing our root behavioral causes. Um so uh we're looking at an approach that's proactive, supportive, um and um it it was a needed shift in our approach to behaviors. Uh so how we developed this process during the 2425 school year before I got here uh our PLC leaders uh met and identified um areas where we'd like to see improvement in
045the middle school and behavior was one of the top of the things at the list um as well as other areas of improvement. Um so over the summer when I met with my leadership team uh we met with a representative from CISA to kind of discuss um Wisconsin's multi-level systems of support. Um formerly RTI um it's kind of evolved from that. Uh I did a number uh a lot of work with this at my previous district in G grantsburg. Um spent two years developing our own kind of tiered system um to fit our needs there. Um so we identified our current reality and areas of focus behaviorally and academically for our school year this year. Um through the process we decided a leveled approach uh was something that was uh with clearly defined roles as
046well as responsibilities and processes was necessary uh to clear things up um but not also have have it be a one-sizefits-all approach um you know detention for everything under the sun that kind of thing. So um so the new system was introduced to the entire staff uh at our in service at the start of the school year in the summer. Um, we're still having ongoing discussions as a leadership team, uh, making tweaks and revisions as we need to as the year goes on, uh, with what we document and how much we document. Um, and then additional support services are scheduled here for an upcoming inservice with CES. So, we're going to circle back with that CISA representative to look at what we've got so far and how we've implemented and areas for improvement um, as
047a team. So, uh, the shift from that punitive model to more of a supportive model, um, you know, consequences are still there. It's not just throw the consequences out the window. Um, we're shifting more to a supportive model, then focusing on like building relationships, impairing relationships that are broken by, uh, behavioral issues, um, building skills within the students, um, to help themselves recognize behaviors as as they're, uh, coming up. Um, we emphasize understanding of the consequences of actions. Um, and growing and learning from those things, not just, hey, here's your attention, see you later. Um, there's, uh, more more detailed conversations with students uh, to to come up with solutions to prevent those behaviors in the future. Um, uh, another positive here, and I don't had it on the next slide here at all. I
048hope that is actually. Um so um with within this system some key components um we kind of have a leveled system of um both responses as well as um resources that teachers can utilize and it's not a one-sizefits-all approach. Uh we have identified clearly you know whose role is it to uh manage the discipline in a certain situation. You know what's handled by teaching staff um what's handled by support staff what's handled by administration. Um, one of the emphasises of this current system is clear parent communication. Um, from the very smallest of things up to the the very big things. Um, getting parents on the same page with with classroom teachers, whether that's a quick email of, you know, behavioral incident or a quick phone call. Um, getting ahead of small things before they become
049big things, uh, has been an area of focus with our staff. Um, >> clear expectations. Um, yeah. When you say identify roles, are you talking strictly the staff like you know this principal, this is my job, teacher? >> Yeah. So like what when's an appropriate time for you know this to be handled in a classroom situation? When would you call in for administrative support? There's there's some signs in there where it's could be either way. Um and there's definitely some room for professional judgment, but there's there's instances where it's like no, this is this is a administrative, you know, display issue that we need to handle there. know um depending on the level and severity of the behavior or frequency of the behavior I guess too. So, uh, and then one of the other positives
050here is it's the data consistency. Um, and being able to review that data and identify problem areas, whether it's, hey, we've got consistently a problem with supervision at this point in time in the school day because we're seeing a spike in behaviors at this time of the day or, you know, hey, on Friday afternoons, we see a ramp up in behavior because, you know, we, you know, whatever the case may be, we we can um clearly identify trends of like the who, what, where, when, why, uh, and then drill down to solutions to help get out ahead of those behaviors. Um, so how did I introduce this to the students? Um, at the start of the school year, as we do with every year, uh, we reviewed our overall just behavioral expectations and what does
051it look like? What how do you meet expectations in the middle school? Um, our three Rs are still kind of the pillar of our middle school. Similar to the Saints Cares in the elementary school, our middle school runs um, you know, through the three Rs. Respect for self, respect for others, and respect for property. uh and what that looks like in different locations, whether that's the classroom, the hallway, the restrooms, you name it. Um teachers kind of worked with all their students in those first few days of the school year um to clearly outline what our expectations are. Um within the first few weeks of school, actually uh the first full week of school we had uh past the jump start week, um I met with each of the classes uh in in small groups.
052So I believe in fifth grade I met with all the science classes. uh sixth grade I met with all the uh social studies classes, seventh grade uh social studies and science combination. And then eighth grade it was all the science classes. So um had a chance to sit down and um introduce myself um lay out my expectations for the school year and then at the same time introduce our new behavioral system to the students because it's it's different from what they're used to. Um so with that being said, what does our new system look like? Um on the next slide here, um we kind of have a couple of different um these are linked in the document too if you want to look more detailed at it. Um an overall flowchart and and teachers have
053these things posted in their classrooms too so students can see okay what does this look like? Um for a quick reference for a teacher as well. Uh that flowchart document outlines our tier one um just prevention things that we can do. So you know ways to get ahead of behavior to build school culture. uh things like welcoming your students to classes every day. Uh having clear and consistent expectations that students are are taught and retaught and retaught again. Um you know whether that's classroom agreements, establishing routines and procedures in the classroom. Um being present and active in supervision. Um just kind of all those preventative things that work for 90% of kids. Um and then if a problem behavior arises, well, how do we attack it? Um so things that are generally managed by the
054classroom teacher are level one and level two behaviors. Uh things that are uh admin managed are level three and four. In general, how to differentiate between the levels. Uh level one behaviors are generally things that are just disruptive to the the learning environment. um aren't necessarily targeted at anybody, but just, you know, whether it be talking on a turn, um it could be um could be anything from, you know, uh missing homework, um inappropriate use of a cell phone, um kind of just those things that aren't necessarily targeting somebody else, but are are derailing a learning environment. Um often times those level one behaviors are handled right there in the moment um with support from the teacher. Uh maybe it's a reteaching of expectations, maybe it's a reassigning of a seat, maybe it is a,
055you know, a quick, you know, restorative conversation with the student. Um any any it's it's not a one-sizefits-all approach. It's it's kind of a targeted um response to the specific behavior. Um the document on the lefth hand side of the screen there has you know different interventions there and each of those are active links there that provides piles of resources for teachers with I'm not sure how to address this particular behavior. Well here's a a a catalog of things that you could do to try to fix a behavior. Um with that being said, you know all this stuff gets documented in Edge Clammer. So we have the data. Uh it also gives us an opportunity to look back and see what have we tried at this point in time. Uh, it gives us the opportunity
056to share with other classroom teachers like, "Hey, little Johnny's struggling in science class here. Heads up to the other classroom teachers who might have little Johnny the rest of the day." Um, it gives us an opportunity to get our arms around the kid and kind of just support them throughout the course of the day, not just, oh, he had a rough time and he's having a rough time the rest of the day. Um, level two behaviors are disrupt or disregulated behaviors that are directed at somebody. Maybe it's a disrespectful interaction with a student in class, a peer. Maybe it's a disrespectful interaction with an adult. Um those are kind of behaviors that may be handled with a within the classroom. However, um if it's an a depending on the severity or um how frequent it's
057been happening, it may involve admin intervention. This is the time where maybe a detention would be a respon an appropriate response. Um, level three and four behaviors, those are admin only kind of responses. A teacher can initiate that process. Um, but in general, as a rule of thumb, level three behaviors um those are simply behaviors that involve safety. Uh whether that's safety of yourself, safety of others, safety of um you know, school property. Um those are things that might involve more intensive intervention. Uh in this case, maybe it does involve time out of the classroom. maybe it does involve an in school suspension, things like that. So, there is still the punitive aspect of it, but we're still looking to coach up and teach skills to get back in the classroom. And then the level
058four, those are like the things that might impact like the school community as a whole, safety of the school community. Those are like the ones that may involve law enforcement. So, um that's just a general overview of kind of the the different tiers that we have here. Um and then um I guess looking ahead here um I mentioned these already that just our universal supports like what we do every day with all students to help build positive school culture um and attack behaviors head on. Um the tier two, those are kind of our um responses to individual um behavioral incidences. Uh whether that's reteing, whether it's a um additional supports, um those are more targeted to each specific skills. And then our other three might involve extra whe that's individual counseling, outside agencies, um specific
059behavioral contracts, return to classes. Um those are kind of the the bigger things once we've track attempted or um made efforts to attack it at a small level before and just add more. Uh so just getting a look at you know early returns here um just compared to last year month overmonth data um our detentions are down incredibly and just in the first few months of the school year here. Um, if we're looking back two years, the 23 24 school year versus this year, uh, on average, our detentions are down between 73 and 77% by month. Um, even over last year, um, our detentions are down between 20 and 43% by month. So, we're we're trending in the right direction. Um, it's not to say that they're not discipline problems here. Um however um this
060severity has been greatly diminished um over previous years um as we're addressing things when they're small um before they boil over and get big. Um our suspension rates are projected to be down over the course of the year. You know, there's not a lot of them in general from year to year. Um but our trend is that it's going to be below the previous years as well as um the the past two. um consistently seeking staff input and feedback um and um ongoing support and training with with our new system is has been kind of been going on throughout the course of this school year too. So um and then lastly just just general inspec expected outcomes here. Um goal of any of these systems is just to create a safer learning environment for all
061of our students. Uh improve that relationship between teachers and students. um enhance our our social emotional skills, helping kids build skills to to to manage behaviors in the classroom. Um hopefully get ahead of those long-term long challenging behavior um students who maybe have have had a history and then um increase that academic engagement because they're not dealing with behaviors minute after minute. >> Questions for me? >> I'll just point out that as he was talking I shared that Y >> I think it's really great. Thank you. >> Yeah, I like it too. >> You mentioned you did it at Gransburg. Were you there to see results? >> Um my last two years at Gransburg. Uh we use a similar system to this. Um and when I when we met with the the CISA folks and
062and I mentioned where I from like oh yeah, we we use the example you guys came up with as our example. We we show people. So, it's it's it worked really well from what I you know, evolving from the grounds up. So, um you know, obviously not it's not a one size fits all. Don't copy and paste it from previous stop, but um I've seen good results with this proactive approach. >> I think your detentions alone, I mean, that's significant. I mean, that's really great. >> Yeah, this is really cool. when I was student teaching. I wish I would have had this resource because have all the tools in the toolbox yet and uh things come up and you know an experienced teacher will say move her to a new spot >> and you'll see
063or or ask them what's going on or talk to them directly and gosh why are they doing this? >> You were in middle school too, weren't you? >> Yeah, both. Yeah. How about um the role of a sub? Do you find when you have a sub, are they connected to like the system information ahead of time or do you find that when you have quite a few subs during the day? Do you take on a more active role? >> I usually take on a pretty active role when we have subs in the building. >> It's has helped that, you know, we've had kind of the in-house sub with Carly Nelson, so she knows our systems and knows them well. Um, but I tend to take an active role when we have lots of subs. >>
064You also can expect subs to develop relationships with kids. >> They can and do, >> but I'm saying that can't be the baseline expectation because it's conceivable that you could have somebody sub in a classroom and then the kids never see them again. >> You know what I mean? That can happen. We're pretty lucky here because we do have a good core of subs and not many of them take a lot of crap. No, >> it's really about supporting new >> subs >> or unique circumstances because of unique kids, >> but generally our subs are outstanding. >> But sub still, which means I could sub in Rita's building one time this year and then the high school 50 times and you know what I'm saying? So, you don't necessarily have this capability to establish relationships
065and like get to know the kids' parents and be like, you know, I'll just call your mom and then all of a sudden they shape up. You know what I'm saying? So there is a little bit of that Rob subst. Any other questions? >> All right, we'll move on. WB resource or resolutions, I'm sorry. Um the delegate packet. So I asked Carrick to put this on. You get an email as a convention's coming closer saying that the the uh proposed resolutions are ready. Um And then we're supposed to talk about them at the board level and uh just see if there's anybody has a strong opinion on which way ahead or not because I will I am assigned to be the delegate for this year at the convention. Um and again as Craig pointed out
066in the email these are we're not voting on the laws right we're voting on the proposed proposal for WSP to go lobby to the lawmakers um type of thing. So, it is an interesting uh concept when you if you ever get down there and want to be the delegate. I would uh >> you want to give that up? >> Well, I mean it's I mean if you're into that kind of stuff, I mean it's I mean the Robert's rules and all that kind of stuff, you don't we don't have it as strict here. We don't we're not required to, but they do definitely uh have to adhere to it with resolutions and changes and all that kind of stuff and uh point of orders and all that good stuff. But um but yeah, so I
067would recommend if you go down there to do it at least once. >> Oh, for sure. >> Um >> they can get lengthy though. >> Yes. And if the technology isn't working, they forgot how we did it 10 years ago. >> But it's the old things. It's like shouldn't be that hard. >> Um so I don't know. So the intent to we're going to have this back in January was just to kind of introduce it. Um, you know, if you read Craig's email, he talked a little bit about a couple resolutions that probably want to pay attention to um, as far as that goes. I don't know if you want to hit on that now. >> Yeah, this is the first time in my career, I'm pretty confident. So, in 16 years of seeing resolutions
068come from the WASB that they have a resolution that supports uh, one topic and then opposes one topic and they're going to debate and vote on both, right? Uh otherwise most of the time it's similar to the other resolutions where there might be some disagreement uh around whether or not that should be the WSB's position. There's some amendments that are referred to but generally when you review them it's kind of like well I mean yeah that's beneficial for public schools and so I think the WSB should pursue that right. Um and in this case it's the the two specific to voucher funding decoupling. One is to support voucher funding decoupling and one is to oppose voucher funding decoupling. And um presumably what they'll do is take whichever one passes if either do and that will
069become their support statement. But this is the first time I'm very confident in 16 years that we have an oppose and a support of the same topic to be at the delegate assembly. So being there this year will be super interesting to see how it goes because ultimately it's put to a vote just like things are here. If it passes, it passes and that's the position. If it fails, then it's not. What if they both pass, you know? So some of these things are are kind of interesting. I don't know how you would take a position of both supporting and opposing the country at the same time, but that'll be a problem for another day, I suppose. Um, I did provide that commentary. I did a little tirade. Uh, I can't remember. It was I
070think last year maybe at the front end of this year with respect to decoupling and this push for decoupling is being sought by those that uh are proponents of voucher school funding. And so there's a reason they're supporting decoupling if you're a proponent of paying for voucher schools and it's suspect, right? It would mean that again I'll go into personal opinion territory in my opinion if it were decoupled and all of this is is not privy to public school districts because we know on our revenue cap sheet how much our aid is reduced on an annual basis and given to fund the voucher school program in the state of Wisconsin statewide. So that's not just a private school down the road. That's Milwaukee. We're seeing, okay, statewide, our district, I pulled the number I looked,
071is pretty near $400,000 um on an annual basis. It's drawn down from our equalized aid. We fill that up uh under the revenue cap. So it's not a loss of revenue, but you're passing that cost on to local taxpayers. That's how the voucher system is funded. Well, there are individuals that don't want people, I would just say people, even public schools, anybody to know how much property taxes are actually being used to fund private vouchers. They just don't want people to know that. So basically we're funding two uh separate school systems in the state of Wisconsin. One being public, one being private. All based on local property taxes generally all based on local property taxes and and in some equal estate a which is another of course state tax bill. Um, but the ability to
072at least for us as a local district to say, "Well, we're losing almost 400 grand this year in equalized aid," which means our taxpayers are paying $400,000 of their own property taxes to cover school choice and vouchers payments throughout the state of Wisconsin. We can at least say that if it's if it's um not decoupled, we would continue to see that information. If it was then arguably we would not I don't know and I'm not aware of any reporting mechanism for how the public would be made aware of how the voucher schools are being funded. See what I'm saying? That's not part of the conversation that I've heard. I'm not saying it's not happening. I'm just saying it's it's not what I've heard. And the last thing that I pointed to is the idea that
073there has been bills that are that have circulated that haven't gone anywhere that are for property tax transparency where you get your property tax bill and it'll show you as it does now. Here's what's going to your school district. Here's what's going to your local municipality. Here's what's going to the tech school. Blah blah blah the county. And by the way, here's what's going to fund private voucher schools. Lo and behold, hasn't passed and it's not a law for obvious reasons in my opinion. So that's the piece where if you oppose decoupling, it hopefully would stay the same. That's basically the message that you're sending. If you support it, now ironically, this support of decoupling also has some very overt statements about fully funding public schools and not doing this draw down to fund. So,
074it's supporting decoupling it and saying you guys figure out how to fund it and make that, you know, known to people. Don't take our aid and make our local taxpayers pay for it. Do it a different way is basically what that's saying. So, I'm not anti and again, it's not just all about me, but on a personal level, it's not like I'm against supporting decoupling with that other information there. The reason being is that I think it's going to create some confusion when you actually get into the room and have these conversations. So that's one of the pieces, the insight that the board should collectively kind of say, here's what we think you should do, Brett. You know what I'm saying? On those two. Again, that's kind of an outlier. It's like one of This
075might be the second I've never seen two opposing two, let's call it conflicting resolutions. Uh, but I've also only had a protracted board conversation probably three or four times in a 16-year period about a WASB resolution because most of the time it's like, "Yeah, it makes sense. We should support that." So, I'm sorry if I got longwinded, but that's the whole story. >> All right. So, again, the intent tonight is just to kind of introduce it and we'll come back in January before the convention and talk about it some more. Any questions? If you have questions on the other resolutions, you can reach out to Craig or myself. Probably better to go to him. >> Carve out a bunch of time. I got a lot of things to say. >> All right. >> of the
076the Calier Clinic. >> All right. Touch on that. >> Absolutely. So, I gave you the whole diet tribe early. I'm not going to repeat myself. This you will see appear uh a second time at the board level too so we can get it inked and get this person in and started with our kids. This came as a change that was beyond our control um from family therapy services is what it's called I believe. >> Associates. Thank you. Um who had a um one of their staff members has moved on or had a change. So uh couldn't feel that. We'll bring these folks on. There is no cost to the school district. There is no marketing. Uh they don't come in and like say oh you need therapy, you know, come here. It's it's very controlled.
077Uh basically what they're doing is providing mental health services that you would get uh in a clinic or in an outpatient uh setting, but they're utilizing school district property to provide those services. Um they worry about insurance and and Badger Care and all of these other pieces. We're just really a facilitator and a bit of a conduit. And theou is explicit in so far as they do not get to market themselves. This is not about, you know, ensuring that Calier Clinic becomes richer with all of these kids uh services. It's about providing services to kids. >> Does that include telealth? Do they do tell >> the bigger kids do? >> The older kids do >> virtual, right? Like on a >> Yep. Sometimes cell phone, sometimes FaceTime, sometimes on a computer with the camera. >>
078Any other questions? All right, move on to the building. Okay, perfect. So, because you weren't sick of it from conversations um last year, I'm going to bring it up again. I don't know why that's pass those B just a blank page random blank page in there. Um we talked last year about the potential lease of a space. One of the spaces we had discussed was 520 Blanding Woods Road. That's the place where Trap Rock Brewing is in the bottom half. The underlying supposition here is that it is very clear to me and arguably other people too that what we have for wrestling space is not adequate for the number of kids we have. I will provide the caveat that I don't believe it's adequate if we had 20 kids. It's basically not even a full
079mat of resting space. That is the only room that we've ever had. It's bigger than it was because the way it room was constructed um over here freeing up some of that space, but a quarter more maybe a third more um space than what it was in the old old days. So the underlying issue is that we have uh in the numbers for this year are 50 kids. Um we have >> that's high school kids >> just high school 37 boys and 13 girls this year. Again, I shared those preliminary numbers with you or projected numbers. Pardon me, I'm saying the wrong thing. Projected numbers and you can see that we're we're appear to to maintain significant numbers in wrestling. I will also throw a caveat out there. I have not nor have I ever
080been a wrestler. My kids are not wrestlers. I have no vested interest in doing this. What I have is a brain and I understand kids. It's not adequate space for our wrestling program that we have. It also makes no sense to put them on the stage in the fine arts center or on the stage in the elementary school or you know what I'm saying in in every nook and cranny that you can find. It also doesn't make sense that they have to practice here, there, everywhere or after school or before school. You see what I'm saying? When we can facilitate that in some way, shape or form. Now, I'll share that clearly things have worked out to this point, right? Like we still have a very successful outstanding wrestling program for both boys and thankfully
081girls, which is growing. But even if they weren't successful, even if we had 25 or 20 or maybe even 14 or 18 kids, what we have for wrestling space is currently and has been for a long time not adequate. Period. Again, personal opinion and I'd invite anybody to go up there and observe. There was a voluntary practice just this afternoon because of of being a snow day. I don't know. I didn't count the kids, but I asked Coach Ryder and like how many kids are up here? He's like, "Yeah, this is what you get when you do a voluntary, you know, uh, practice and clearly it wasn't anywhere near 50 kids." Um, I venture to guess I'd say maybe 20, maybe 22 and it's busy. It's a lot of bodies in a small space. And
082then wrestle. Okay, so I beat that. We as a result of that had some conversations last year about potentially leasing space at Blanding Woods or anywhere else. We looked around. We got some quotes on leases just to see how we can rectify this because it's a real colossal pain in the butt to figure out what to do with with the wrestling program where kids are going to be and it being safe and um we ended up not making any moves in that regard. Uh but at that time the conversation with the owners of the of Lanningwood space had said well there's a possibility we might be looking at selling the building in the future. Would you be interested? And I said absolutely. You should let us know if that's going to happen because we can
083have a conversation uh with the school board. Although I don't know what position we'll be in or that will be something we intend to pursue, but we would love to be made aware. So, lo and behold, not too long ago, I got a an email contact from the owners of that property who said, "Hey, we're looking at selling the property. Um, would you potentially be interested?" Which is what prompted the conversation to begin uh again this evening. So, this isn't just because I can't let something go, although that's true, too. Um, this is because it's the they contacted me. I will cite why I think this is a great property, but then we'll go into a whole bunch of other details. And ultimately, my point tonight is to have you folks provide direction to me
084so that we can finally put this to bed and you have a litany of options, which of course I don't need an answer tonight, but we do need to know some things relatively soon because things like buildings aren't going to just sit there vacant for months and months and months. So anyway, um the asking price for that building is what they had thrown out because I said, "Well, I need to know like generally what you're looking to get." And what was shared was 500,000. Now, clearly, if we were going to go purchase anything, we would have a a an inspection done. We would understand market comparables. We wouldn't just pay a number that the person says we should pay just like we do with anything else. But I'm using that as a placeholder. Okay? 500,000.
085Um the facility is about 8,000 square ft. 4,000 up, 4,000 down. And of course, it would need renovations because we work with Krauss Anderson uh relatively recently in the past. I said to them, hey, can you give me an idea ballpark for no cost to the district? what it might cost to to, you know, demolish what we've got in here and then renovated so that it's a usable space. Coach Ragger and and I met Krauss Anderson over there at the building. Took a little tour. Coach Ragger shared some ideas. They went to work and got me these details. What day is it today? Wednesday? I think Monday or Tuesday. I was not super stoked to find that. What they're anticipating as far as a renovation cost would be on the high end almost $600,000 573888
086which is on the green columns or on the lower end almost 400,388,655 making the grand total if we were to go in that direction uh right around 8 900 to a million plus dollars to purchase that building and then renovate it so that it's usable with That being said for wrestling among other things, with that being said, I think it's clear that we wouldn't, you know, we could look at um a more novel way of approaching this and saying, you know, hey, we know a local plumber. We we could piece it together on our own and maybe not have a number that's nearly four or 500,000 in renovations. But I simply wanted I wanted something to bring to you guys cuz the first question that I would ask is well what's it going to cost
087us to get it up to speed right and so let's pretend that number on the low end is even 200,000 but still a lot of money 700 to 800,000 out the door one of the reasons that I'll emphasize again that I think landing woods road is a great option is only because of its proximity because kids could walk there without any issue. It's basically kitty corner from the school. There's a little even path through to to cut over there that you're not you don't have to be on the road. You know what I'm saying? So that part would work really great. Parking wise, you could even say look part of the school walk over if it was a big thing that was being hosted there, right? Limited mobility. You're parking here and right there at
088the property. So proximity in my personal opinion is huge. The district doesn't have property anywhere else that I'm aware of, nor a big open space that we could throw up a pole shed because that's another option, which is, hey, let's build our own pole shed, put heating and air conditioning in it. Well, I don't know if you need air, well, I don't know if you need air conditioning, but you need heating for sure, insulation and showers and toilets and, you know, let's do it ourselves. What's that going to cost us? And I asked Krauss Anderson that same question. and their response was probably a million bucks, 1.1. So you got that. Then you have the the the other option that we had discussed briefly in the past too which Krauss put some numbers to uh
089last year which would be adding on to existing facilities that we currently have either on top of the wait room which would is in some to some people is a possibility and to others I've spoken to not. So we'd have to get a definitive answer on that. uh adding out the backside between where we are now in the weight room and going out that way and excavating out of the hill and and extending the um service road back here. That would be costly. Or adding on knocking out the back wall of the elementary stage area and turning that into a large open space for a resting room slash whatever else you wanted to use it for. So there's a number of possibilities that you could employ here locally all of which which range from 1.5
090at the very low end to two to even three. Right? So I personally think we need to solve the problem of wrestling. We need to figure out space for wrestling. I'm not certain what that approach would be. If the board's like we're not doing anything then we're not doing anything. we'll keep doing what we're doing. Totally. That's I mean I I get it. Um the other piece that I'd throw out is if we move down the path of you know identifying that look we we agree we want to rectify the wrestling space then the broader question is do we think about it in terms of rather than purchasing a pole shed and renovating it do we want it on site? Do we want to uh engage in in in um an evaluative process to identify
091uh a potential referendum question for the future? This wouldn't be, you know, you couldn't get it on the ballot this year. I wouldn't recommend doing it next, but at some point in the near future, if we get a referendum question on the ballot that would not only address that, but then the million plus dollar roof on the elementary, multiple paving projects we have to do, other things that we could also get ahead of uh and and identify or at least conduct a a study to determine what the potential tax impact would be, if any, and go down that path. These are two drastically different things in my opinion if you're looking for voter, you know, feedback and opinion on doing a referendum question than just saying let's rectify wrestling space and purchase a building. But
092when you're seeing numbers that I'll approach a million bucks and admittedly, we could the district could take out a loan. We could take a loan to do a project like this without voter approval um and then pay it back over time. Uh so it's or spend a portion out of fund balance and then take a loan for another portion. There's multiple ways that we could fund this, but frankly when you're approaching a million bucks, it gets a little bit in the in the in the iffy context. Um but if we had the opportunity to do a short term shorter term loan, so it wouldn't be like a 20 or 30 year bond. it would be uh you know a loan through a reputable bank and pay it off over whatever the recommendation is 15 years
093or something like that. It provide us the flexibility to say well this year we can only make the minimum payment but next year we have extra dollars we can you know pay down more. So similar to what we do with our existing debt. So that is a possibility. But if we're going to do something that's of that magnitude anyway, it doesn't make sense to to incorporate it into a broader question that we, you know, then address and rectify other things in addition to that security enhancements and updates and, you know, you name it. So that's kind of the direction that I'm looking for, which is agreement that what we have for wrestling, and again, I'm not being coerced or manhandled by anybody associated with wrestling for doing this. It's just inadequate space period. There's you
094can't cannot convince me otherwise. But how do we do that? Do we pursue and if we agree we're going to do something, how do we do it? So those are the two questions I have for you. Do we pursue something? And then what is that angle we take? Again, I don't need an answer here tonight, but we do need to figure out, in my opinion, something sooner than later so that we can then focus our attention and direct it to where it needs to be because none of this is going to be done, you know, within a month or two. >> Think one of the contention contentious things would be, you know, we'd be buying a building. I mean, I guess we have a football stadium just for football. Um, but what are the uses?
095So, let's say we buy the building, right? We renovate what the lower half, higher, whoever's got the biggest square footage, but what do we do with the rest of the building? >> Well, so like during wrestling season and talking to coach Rigger, it'd be all wrestling. And I think in other times there's going to be used stuff in there. It's going to be used quite frequently just for wrestling, which would be the intention. It's a large open space. Um, one thing that was tossed around is a location for the alternative school. Is it possible that you could have a, you know, a space in there, move back a few mats, put a couple of desks out, you know what I'm saying? And use it in that capacity. Um, if it's on site, you have a
096much different capability, I would argue, because we were just talking today. In fact, >> sorry. >> Um, you have a large open space and, you know, a small, say, three row bleachers that come out just a little bit. So, I'm going to do a class meeting. This is the senior class. We're going to be in there. and do some activities. It doesn't interrupt FIAD. It's not on the front of the fine arts stage. You see what I'm saying? So, it can be very multi-use space. Um, GE geographic location is going to make a lot of difference in in how it's utilized. Uh, but for the bulk of like the wrestling season and some of the youth times, it's it's a wrestling space. And fortunately or unfortunately, what they are is just an open space with
097an animal, a large space. You see what I'm saying? And so the functionality of that is not like, well, we can do this, this, this, this, this, and this. You see what I mean? And I think one somebody could make an argument too, like for the gym, you know, if we had an auxiliary gym, another gym where it was like, hey, look, we can play ball in here or we can have three wrestling mats out. Great. That would just that would solve the problem because it would be wrestling during wrestling season and then the gym during other times. But what would that be used for? Well, here again, it's a big open space. So, you are limited with what you can what you can do. The alternative school piece was tossed around. Coach Raider is
098not a fan. It's not coach's decision because we would have to figure out ways to to utilize it more than just have it sit there. But one could make that argument for any, you know, facility that we would have. >> So, the intent is not like a eitheror. I mean, it could be, right? But it really was both floors and >> my apologies. So then the upper floor, which isn't shown here, is basically just an open space. You get up to the top and it's basically wide open up there. I think there'd be like a water fountain and and maybe a a a toilet or two that are already up there and that's it. So just wrestling mats um basically upstairs. The bulk of the renovations would be on that first floor. And the additions
099are all about the reason that plumbing and some of this stuff is the cost it is is because of course it has to be code congruent for occupancy. So that's really the rub. If you're going to have 50 kids in there for practice, it has to you have to meet code for the number of toilets and sinks and all this stuff too. And then Coach Rder, uh, which I agree with, you would want to have like showers and and things there because you're not going to say to wrestlers, "All right, you're done. Go back to school and shelter." Because they're not going back to school and shelter, you know, the kids. So, you want that on site. >> So, the cost of the renovation is just for primarily like >> just for what? I'm sorry.
100>> Just for the first floor. Well, so there's this would be this would be building wide, but that includes demolition. And what you're seeing there is the ground level blue floor plan. Yes. >> What's the difference between 120 and the 90? >> So that's just a range of estimates on the high side of what it would cost to the low side of that will cost. >> Oh, number of demolition. >> You got it. And so some of the easy things, like for example, they they put these notes in here. Instead of doing uh masonry for restrooms and locker rooms, you're going to switch to drywall with cleanable surface FRP panel. I'd be fine if I, you know, plastic paneling on there. So you go from 60 to 30,000. So it's modifications like that. And admittedly,
101you can I'm sure we can say to Krauss, look, I know we can. It's our deal. Hey, we're going to go with some local contract. I mean, they work with local contractors, but we got a line on so and so that'll come and do the plumbing for a third of the cost. Good. But we still are going to need architectural uh to design the bathroom uh to code is what they have uh a light there uh or uh uh denoted there engineering and architectural fees. Um because one of the things too is that we're a public school district. So it's not like your buddy Fred bought the building and we can just kind of piece it together like you know what I'm saying us us guys get together and demo it and I know I
102know Bill who does plumbing and I know you know what I'm saying it's got to be that kind of thing. So I have a question um you know showers and all that stuff. So all programs including um use the same lockers. >> Yep. And why couldn't they just use the same >> if it was on site? They could and they but I mean that could be a route. But >> what I mean is why can't they why can't those kids come back here? >> They could. The issue with wrestling is that there's multiple skin infections. >> Yes. >> And if you're not locked down in that regard, you're going to jeopardize the entire season. So what'll end up happening, what can end up happening is, let's say you're on your team trip to state and
103two or three of your wrestlers have a skin infection. You might be so I mean that's not the position you want to be in. So the idea of having it on site, part of that recommendation is because it's it's offsite. Could they walk over here and use the locker rooms? Yes. You have less control. You're just decreasing the likelihood that because they're high school kids and middle school kids, you know what I'm saying? um that they would be like, "Nah, whatever." And jump in their car and take off and now all of a sudden you have an outbreak of whatever flavor of the day skin infection. >> Oh, you're saying Okay. So, because of that, >> you got all the sweat and all this stuff. You're saying that >> wrestling is unique that. >> Yes.
104>> And so, we >> It's a very It's very niche. So >> depending on kids to leave a building without taking a shower, going home and showering right away, they're not they're just not going to do it. They're going to go home, they're going to eat dinner, they're going to and then you're going to see >> what the coach says, >> I'm sorry, you're going back to the high school. Every one of you and showering. >> The but the problem is in that regard, when it's offsite in particular, it is that most uh practice conclusions aren't done as a group. There's all kinds of stuff happening. And so that whole mass moving of 50 kids, like if it's a high school practice, boys and girls, and we have staff members, but it's not like you're
105kindergarten. All right, hold the rope and now let's walk over, everybody take a shower. You know what I'm saying? So it's just it's less it's more diffuse. Whereas if you're on site, it's a different ball of wax because you've got somebody uh up top finishing practice, kids are trickling down, somebody you see what I'm saying. >> Um so it's it's only based on location. Arguably, if this was on site and to code it would work to use our locker rooms, we wouldn't be adding locker rooms. So, it's really about the location and having access to that there. Okay. Well, that was advocate for a moment. Okay. Humor me. So, we have kids in this gym. We have kids in the wrestling room. We have kids on a stage. They all end at different times and
106they all end up back at the locker room. presently, right? So, how how is this different? Because they would finish at different times and all that stuff. I'm not sure. >> So, you're going to have a kid wrestle. There's no locker room. Just as an example, there's no locker rooms over there for showering, nothing. So, you're going to have a kid wrestle. All of them wrestle. Then, they're going to put on their coat. They're going to get in their car. Yeah. >> They're going to So by then they've had how many contact points of spreading? >> Yeah. And then they take a shower, put the coat back on. >> That's what that's kind of the concept. >> So you're saying you wrestle shower you got immediate with with wrestling. >> Correct. >> And so here
107I guess presently they finish up wherever they are. The coach ensures compliance because Okay. So, the coach was already be ensuring compliance just like they do now have even if they had to come back here. Say it wasn't in the budget. It is what it is. But you're saying one kid has a skin infection. He wrestles another kid or several kids. They put on their coat. The coat is not clean. And then they put that coat back on even though they showered and all this stuff. Touch their steering wheel. Okay. >> What they have them do is basically walk to the locker room in their singlet, take their singlet off, take a shower. The singlets get washed here on site, do they not? >> I think so. >> They wear Sorry. Can I I know.
108>> I know enough about So Joe has them. They practice in shorts and t-shirt that the that the club provides them and that laundry nightly by somebody, coaches, janer, whoever. So they have you have 30 minutes pretty much a maximum of 30 minutes once you're done sweating and rolling around on the mat with somebody to get washed off before that infection can start and it happens literally overnight if if you're not doing that. >> You don't want to be putting on other clothes over that. >> Yeah. I mean you don't want to take off your sweaty, greasy clothes, put them in a basket, put on your street clothes and your coat. Drive over here. Go in, undress, shower, put street clothes back on. because then you've already got all your funk back in your streets,
109you know. And and Joe fights with those guys. I mean, he preaches every night, shower, in the practice, shower, and you could sit out here at 6:00 at night and still watch a dozen of them walk out in their clothes all sweaty. You can you can only do so much. Like I said, they're kids, but he preaches that shower pretty hard. I mean, even my own boy, freshman this year, you could tell the eyes were this big. He showered after a couple weeks. care who's showering, >> but that 30 minute threshold is kind of a big thing. >> And the reason being with wrestling, it can jeopardize your season, >> right? >> You can be done if it's in the inopportune time. What could have been the state championship is now everybody's staying home because
110there was a skin infection that got out of control or you could have been a state champion, but instead you're sitting at home because you didn't follow the protocols. >> You mean you're quarantined or prevented from >> if you have Yes. >> Yep. evaluate >> those skin checks at weighins. >> Y >> for example, it can be so easy. Our son when he was two, I brought him up to the wrestling room. We went home. It was one of the nights when he didn't shower and by two days later he had green worm on his stomach. So, it's just the nature and the niche of the sport. >> Maybe we should just bam us. for a basketball player. >> Yeah, it would solve all of our problems for me. >> Great for the minutes. >>
111I redstone. >> Okay, thank you for everybody explaining. I appreciate it. Um, uh, you had said before when we were thinking about leasing that 4,000 square ft and this is 8,000 ft. 4,000 square ft wasn't going to cover it, right? >> So, this now solves it. Depends on what we're talking about. So, like if we had if we had um a space so well I stopped up at wrestling practice tonight. if we had the space we have and built like a second story above the weight room if that was conceivable. And so we have one a bit less than a mat at our current location and two more mats at this location. That would be okay. Square footage wise, that's probably not going to be 4,000 square ft total. It's probably going to be slightly
112less than that. It's about three full wrestling mats is the sweet spot according to Joe. Clearly, if there was four, it probably be even better. But you know what I'm saying. So, and here, because it's split, this first floor would only probably have one mat on the bottom and two up, not full, two, pretty close to full up. Is that making sense? >> Mhm. >> So, that's really what that what the rub is. And if it was all one level, like it's just a a large 8,000 foot facility, you would have a portion of that carved out for locker rooms, toilets, cubbies, you know, entrance area, and then the rest would just be back. Yeah. And there's no just spitballing, right? There's no like take half of the first floor or something and uh >>
113they will Oh well then we would probably be close to the same boat we were in prior. You know what I'm saying? >> Yeah. Gotcha. >> Yeah. And then with this plan we abandon the current wrestling space. What does it get used for? So yeah, that there would still be we probably wouldn't have kids like on the elementary stage. We would there'd be modifications where >> middle school >> that wouldn't sit there. >> Middle school. >> Um >> the minions, >> you never know. Clubs, they're all going to be fun. >> Oh. Oh, okay. So wrestling would still have that space, you're saying? Or no, they wouldn't have it >> in some form. Potentially on occasion. on occasion because like in the during the season if middle school wrestling, high school wrestling is going on
114at the same time and they're over there. It might not fit middle school, too. So, there could still be a group over here. Yes. >> Yes. Ironically, if that space was cleared out and sat there for storage, that'd be the best solution in my personal opinion. >> Yeah. >> It's not a functional >> address some problems. >> Correct. >> Around here. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Is there a way to have like some kind of I realize intent space, but like a multifunctional athletic facility that encompasses maybe like an indoor track. Um, you know, we use our track soccer plays in the middle of it. You know, some facilities have like a track on their upstairs or something like is there any consideration for something like that? I mean, >> sure. When I hear like the
115cost of like a buying a building and renovating it, I'd rather have like a brand new building that costs the same amount of money than paying for a building that's old that has all these renovations because you're always going to have things. >> Yeah. So, what you're talking about is like an indoor practice facility or a fieldhouse for lack of a better encompassed by like other like almost like the Saints athletic facility. They can be used for multi. >> Yeah. And clearly we haven't pulled numbers in that scenario. Knowing that just an open space wrestling room like we talked about, I think it's 3,800 or 4,000 square ft that would accommodate three mats contiguous with one of our facilities is nearly $2 million. You're talking about quite a bit of money for a giant open
116building. You know what I'm saying? But and that's again that's why in my opinion having this conversation at this time is important because it's clear to me it's okay like we can make it work but I don't think it makes sense. It's shortsighted to say it's fine and we shouldn't go back at it again because I'm going to go back to 2001 or three or maybe Clark can come and kill me, but if there's 24 kids at the time on the roster, maybe 28, I don't remember. It wasn't 50. That space was too small then. Do you see what I'm saying? So we and we don't have another space to put it. And so how we rectify that, that's really what it is. how we do it. The most cost effective by perhaps a couple
117hundred thousand is to purchase a building and renovate it. The next most cost effective would be to find a spot and build our own bullshed. The the next would be some kind of addition here that we could identify, okay, that's what we're going to do. How are we going to do it? And then we have those conversations about should we do it right? Maybe that's a community feedback session. You know what I'm saying? Here's what we're trying to rectify. Do we want to? You know what I mean? >> Well, one of the things I think about is if you have a newer facility, you can look at, you know, maybe you can't control the expenses of it, but you can maybe look at reducing other expenses like having renewable energy sources. So, put solar panels
118on it that can maybe reduce energy costs to, you know, our electric throughout, you know, our buildings or something like that. So maybe there's opportunities to look you know think about it differently. >> Yeah. So in general it's cost and time right. So like we're looking at even if we go local and don't go with our contractor. We're looking at like 800 grand to like you said 1.1 1.2 million for a whole building. um to 2 million for placing it here as part of our current building. And then time like the last two scenarios, the last scenario was probably a couple years from now. Wrestling gets it solved. >> This one six months maybe. Don't even own it. Don't even own it. >> It could be ready by next season. >> And the whole building
119too possibly. >> Correct. >> But there too, we don't really have a space for it. >> You know what I'm saying? So some vast lands. >> Correct. >> This listing though of items like on the higher side versus the lower side. On the higher side, is this the exact like laundry list of making this space absolutely perfect or is it still a lacking list where if you did go with what Don was suggesting that obviously would be the most perfect and the cost difference might not be all that different if you're looking at like a million versus like a million two or half. So now are you talking about what like long on the more expensive side the um >> well what we would do if if that's the route the board chose to go
120we would set a limit and we would get through that conversation finalized information from a contractor to say because it would go to bid we do all of those pieces and you would clearly have a contingency you know what I'm So all of that would be built into the budget. So like if the board said look we're spending a million bucks period that's the number which means if we purchased the building for 450 now I got 550 in plank. See what I'm saying? >> So that's really that would ultimately be this the sort of direction that the board would get some feedback in. And then as those things and I'm sure the same thing happened here with the fine arts center when you had your budget and you're like okay we want to do this
121this and this. No, we got to do not do that and we got to change this to this. You know, if we do this floor versus this floor, it's going to save 10 grand or it's going to increase 10 grand. So, it's that kind of so it's that kind of violence. >> And for perspective, what was the ticket price for the fine art center again? >> Well, the referendum was what 12 just for the fine art center. How much did it cost to approximate builder center? >> I would say it would be the line share that. >> So 10 and then here we're looking at >> 1.2 >> or less. Just first perspective. >> Yeah. Right. Yeah, that's a good point. And let's see. Do the other two scenarios require referendum like a successful referendum
122vote? So if personal opinion we can do whatever the board the board's the the body that decides but personal opinion would be if we're looking at making modifications to our facilities and because if we're talking 1.52 2.53 million it's going to be a bond issue question or or a levy override question. You could fund it in either scenario but you would have to go to referendum. Would it not make sense if that's what you're going to do to evaluate tax impact and the total amount that you could do and then also say, "Well, we're going to do the roof. We're going to do the parking lots and put together a package." In my opinion, you wouldn't go to referendum just to say, "We're building a wrestling room." You go to referendum to say, "We're going
123to do these 10 things. Here's the total. Here's the total of the wrestling room. Here's the total of the roofs. Here's the total." You see what I'm saying? And here's the tax impact. And that number might be 6 million. I You know what I'm saying? I don't know. we'd have to put that together. And and so when you're if if if you're going to purchase a building and renovate it and you know do a loan or use fund balance or combination of those things, much different conversation than if you're going to put together a referendum campaign and run scenarios and identify tax impact if there is any and when debt falls off for other things and payments. You see what I'm saying? So, it's it's longer because of that and it's longer because the board
124has to vote uh approve a resolution in January so that it's on an April ballot and there's protocols and and statutory procedures we have to follow to do those things and timing wise we would identify well here's when we should do it so that we can begin in 28 29 to build you know what I'm saying and we haven't done any of that stuff because again that's ultimately what I'm looking for what direction do we go with this? Do we want to solve the wrestling problem? Do we want to do nothing? Do we want to solve the wrestling problem? Or do we want to put together a a potential broader proposal that may encumber other things and do a levy override or a a bond issue question at some point in the future? Another interesting
125part of this is that building would be a commodity. Say the program were to decline in 20 years or something. So if you have something to sell, it would likely have appreciated by then. Um I would think um there is a benefit to having it not attached to the school. >> What do you need tonight? Tonight, what I'd ask you to do is put on your thinking caps and let's hit this again in January. I do know there's a possibility that the landing woods and again this is not a pressure tactic. I'm a lot of things but I'm not a salesman but it's I want open transparency. It's completely conceivable that somebody makes an offer on the Bingwoods property and it's sold before we even can even make a decision. >> Have they listed it?
126I don't know that it's officially listed, but they said to me that they've had a couple different people look at it. >> So, they're not willing to say, >> but they're not willing to say, "We'll give you a couple months to >> Well, I don't know, less. I don't know. Well, I I'll just tell you if I owned a property and somebody came to me and said, "I'll take it from you for what you're asking." And I'd be like, hold. I mean, I don't because I don't I wouldn't hang on to it thinking that cuz again, this is the timing. This is what I anticipated. I found out about this a couple weeks ago. The board meeting is is in December. We talked about it in December. Clearly, I knew there wouldn't be a decision.
127Yep. Let's buy the building. That wasn't going to happen tonight. You know what I'm saying? So between now and January I and I can I'll email them back and say look they're going to you know provide a final decision on whether what direction we're going to go by January but you may not I mean there may be still some conversations we have to have the one piece of this is that again why it's appealing to me personally is the proximity >> because you can't can't really get much closer without being on our property you know um but I'm not saying we need to hurry cuz I didn't bring it here thinking I want you to approve otherwise it would have been approval of purchase of the building and that would be it's it's a little
128too quick. I don't know. We haven't had that conversation. So when they ask me I mean well what's the likelihood I'm going to say you know what I don't know you got to do what you got to do is ultimately what it comes down to. So it might be a moot point, you know, in a few weeks or by January, February, God knows. But I do know, I do think the board should collectively say, "Here's generally the approach we want to use because if it is about purchasing the building, then we should kick it in gear and do the things we need to do so that we can actually make a legitimate offer because we do want to have it appraised and we do want to have it inspect." You see what I'm saying? You
129want to do these things before you venture into that. And clearly that's not going to happen in a day or two. That's going to take a little bit of time too. >> Is there is there because you had said like with with this route being renovation and buying a building you could possibly take out a loan. >> Yeah. Is there any scenario where we could still take out a loan but then create something that Don suggested and pay back the loan if we had made it more than a wrestling room but the main focus would be it's it's a it's a wrestling space but then more of utilizing the space for profit in other ways. >> Yeah. So, we would have to I don't >> Can you do that or do you always have to
130go to a referendum if you're going to build a new building like that? >> No. Districts can take out a loan based on their total revenue uh and fund balance figures that and we would have to communicate with DPI uh with our auditors and um probably Bayard and PMA and just have the conversation of where our threshold would be. um that so to answer your question, I don't know what the number is, but each every district has a number that's developed based off of ratio of their annual revenue uh and fund balance over time. You see what I'm saying? >> And so for us, I I wouldn't be shocked if it's a million. Um I I I do question if it's more than that. I don't know to what degree, but we can ask what
131that number might be and what what the allowable loan under statute. I do think it would make sense because >> yeah because I mean if you're making payments and you have you know additional revenues then make more payments just like we do on our bond issues. So >> that's what I'm thinking is that there's different there's not just the we renovate the space and buy it and there you go or we wait three years and go to referendum with u other items that we would need to incorporate. I think there is like a possible third option and maybe >> after we what we just talked about where could you >> create that space make it kind of revenue generating >> and take out a loan as well. I'm not say I'm not suggesting that. I'm
132just saying I think there are three options that you consider. >> But you're looking at $5 million to do what she was looking at. >> Exactly. >> Or or more. And could we instead think perhaps just for ideas um most of our other facilities not all are shared like the gym is not volleyballs gym is not basketball necessarily have to share baseball is in there in the early spring it's mushy >> technically the wrestling uses the gym too for duals Y and tournaments. >> Yep. So like the wrestling facility is the wrestling wrestling facility. However at times even just even if the coaches don't like it, it'll be used by other programs like is that >> I think potentially but again the likelihood of in what you would do is is reduced because it's offsite.
133So if you're going to have like I don't know. I'm just thinking of regular dayto-day sort of things. Um where you would bring a group of people together and you need an open space. Why would you do it there versus like the gym? I mean there might be who who I you part of what you you don't know is you don't know. So there could be a scenario in which I don't know Wilson has to do something and and all the gyms are full and he's like well you know what shoot let's run over there. Um, but also with wrestling when you're in season, it's not easily, you know, all the mats away, all the mats out. It's not going to be a facility in that regard. >> Is that making sense? >> Yeah, I
134see. So, uh, literally like the top floor, there'll just be mats everywhere. >> Correct. and all if uh if if our if our kids for form or organize a frisbee >> club or whatever um >> they're going to be on mats using frisbee during the day >> during the season there would be times out of season they get pulled up and put in a corner arguably but yeah >> I would imagine like during the season it would strictly be used for wrestling just because of the skin issues like I know that they clean the mats but we wouldn't want to obviously have others exposed >> schools that have like dedicated wrestling rooms. It's wrestling during the wrestling season and whatever you can think of outside of that season because the mats get put away >>
135but that's when it's like attached to your building or you know >> and wrestling it's year round now or are there is there like >> year the high school season >> but then there's the youth kids and then >> yes it's year like everything else >> it's a lot >> um the other thing and it's too bad Frank get it duck out but I I do believe that there would be support from the rest of booster club in some way, shape or form. >> Guy with the checkbook is love. >> Yeah. But to what degree, to what extent the fundraiser, you know, God knows we again, I don't know what to put together until I know what to put together. So that's really the point of the conversation. >> I mean, there's really high demand
136for it. I mean, there are places like, you know, that are just like school of wrestling like Pinnacle or Victory. They're driving from all these places to go like be able to practice wrestling. So maybe there's some opportunity to recoup funds in some way like that. They're doing it, you know, all summer long. They're people are paying memberships to go and do this. So >> I don't I mean, but it's just it's >> there's such a huge >> following for it. But I mean, we're seeing that with a lot of sports. I mean there's the same thing for you know I say in baseball or blizzard or what I mean it's just becoming the thing you know it's like everywhere it's all yeah red whatever you know it's everywhere >> and that's one I would
137argue a a limitation of this twotory sort of facility if it was 8,000 square ft just an open space it would be you know on one level >> probably much higher ceilings would be you could conceivably >> excuse me use it for a broader array of things like even an indoor or softball or baseball. You know what I'm saying? >> On the front end of spring, >> with the split, >> you know, two level as it is, I think it's less usable for things along those lines. It's not like a fieldhouse. I mean, the ceilings aren't super we not super low, but they're also not super high. >> Just that most of us have been there you and bringing in victory. That's a great idea for >> revenue >> if needed. if if need. >>
138I'm just saying there's options. I think you know in the offse there's just a I mean I think we have to look at ways to kind of offset expenses. I mean I'm all for solving it because there is clearly a problem that kids have to wrestle on stage seems crazy or whatever and kids are running in their sweat shorts from the elementary school stage quickly over here to get their showers in and 50 kids train to shower and their showers are not. So and that's just one sport. I mean, basketball's getting done and for both boys and girls, I mean, I don't know that we have enough showers back there. It sounds like for everybody. >> Yeah. >> And because of circumstance and as we can tell from this conversation, regardless of what we do,
139it's never quick. It can be, >> right? >> Because again, we want to do it the right way. And that's why >> legitimately I'm working in the direction because we can put all of these things together, get these questions answered. And there's also things that I I don't even know. We don't know. And then at some point some be like, "Oh, what about good point, let's figure that out." So, taking that into account, too. >> Are there any other districts that have had like a similar issue um that we could see like what have they done to try to solve for or like how are they maybe offsetting expenses for standalone facilities to increase space options? Like, you know what I'm saying? >> You know, has anybody had these same issues? >> Would you say
140like a couple years ago didn't have a wrestling program or wrestling space in their referendum. I don't know if the pastor knows that. Who was somebody amongst other things in the referendum? I can't remember who I don't want to say because I don't think it was >> I don't know. >> I mean I can it be because their space is so small. I mean like their tournaments you're standing in there and you can't even fit your barely anyone in the extra room. And I want to be clear, >> we would likely have duels and tournaments in the gym like we do now. The wrestling room would be just a wrestling room, >> right? >> Yeah. >> All right. I'm going to ask that we jot down questions when we bring this back. We're almost 2
141hours into it. We're still in the committee meeting. >> We still have to talk about the player. >> Let's move on to that. >> All right. Um, so we have a quote uh right around $40,000 for that kindergarten playground equipment uh to be installed at the elementary. Star Foundation had a lovely conversation this morning and had indicated that they would approve it as a give big. >> Yes. um uh to help offset that cost. And we need to have action on this item because we need to pay for roughly half the invoice for them to begin the manufacturing process of the materials as well as ensure that we'll get it installed this summer. So, as a placeholder >> and hold the price, >> what's that? >> And hold the price. I will say uh just
142like I shared with the Star Foundation this morning um clearly we have the capability of covering that cost. Anything that would come in and there's other grants that have been written to but anything that would come in in terms of a revenue as a result of grants or from the Star Foundation would simply offset the district's cost. And um if that's $5,000, great. If it's $25,000, even better. uh but I do know that we have the capacity and the wherewithal to cover that cost. The question was asked, well, if the school can pay for it, why would we fund raise for it? And I said the response would be on a broad budget with, you know, $19 million budget or whatever that number is. A $40,000 swing is is a small fraction of a percentage
143of a modification. And so if we pay for the playground and we get to the end of the fiscal year and we have a $100,000 deficit, you can say, "Well, we should have never bought that playground." Okay, is it that or is it these other 15 things that also transpired? So, it's a bit of a shell game. Uh or would we might we say no, we can't afford it and let's forego it and then have a $100,000 surplus at the end of the school year. You know what I'm saying? So, it's not a number. I wouldn't want to purchase four $40,000 playgrounds. Uh but one, I think we're going to be okay. And I do know that some assistance from the Star Foundation as well as other grants would be hugely beneficial, which simply frees
144up dollars for us to spend elsewhere to educate kids and operate the programs around. The >> star thought they're going to shoot for 20. We're >> setting a goal to raise $20,000. is the um intention to leave the like the school swap. That's what the need for this playground is, right? Is because we swapped fork and kindergarten and so the intention is to leave that like permanently or will that still flex from year to year? >> No, we're kindergarten is going to stay at the big school now. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. >> Any other questions? We are voting on this later, right? >> Yes, sir. Please. >> All right. That's it. Uh, anybody need a break before we start the meeting? Hearing none, I'll call this meeting to order. We'll start with the pledge of
145allegiance. 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. >> May Tasha Rager >> here. Don Noki >> here. Ronnie Scheler. >> Brett Mccertie >> here. >> All right, we'll start with the reading of the mission statement by Mr. Right. Yes. The mission of the school district of St. Cray Falls is to provide a supportive student centered learning environment that cultivates character. Fauler fosters. >> Oh yeah. >> It's like I was watching that movie with the Faulers. Fosters academic excellence and embraces diversity. Uh, board meeting rules, focus on the missions. >> My apologies. I didn't mean to make it worse. >> You're right, though. That's vision statements of the district. Come
146prepared. Be respectful of others and open, accepting of ideas. Actively participate. Avoid side conversations. Remember, board meetings are open forum. >> All right. Thank you, Matt. We'll start with the principal's comments. We'll start with you, Mr. Wilson. >> All right. Uh, winter sports seasons have begun as we are well aware. Um, we had quarter 2 parent teacher conferences last Thursday with a decent attendance. Um, pretty typical of our quarter 2 conference attendance. I would say the uh holiday band concert was uh Monday night and uh our our bands from fifth grade all the way up to the big seniors did they did a pretty darn good job. Um, >> it was outstanding. >> Yeah, it it really was. I was sitting up in the the booth, whatever it's called up top, booth. Um, and when
147the high school band played, it just filled that whole space. The fine arts center was just exploding in noise. I mean, they were, >> it was impressive. Absolutely impressive. And the choir concerts this coming Monday night, so hopefully people can show up for that. Um, let's see. Miss Lqui is working with Family Therapy Associates and tomorrow they will be doing our annual mental health uh uh screening with our freshman. Um it's an optional obviously an optional mental health screening that she's worked with to get permission from parents. So we've got one of our one of the therapists coming in to spend the day um and they'll be doing the screening. That's that. And then uh we had our middle/ high school teched teacher interviews on uh Thursday. We interviewed as Mr. Boran mentioned we interviewed
148uh five candidates um and we were able to offer the job and the job has been accepted by a fresh W Stout graduate in the technical education program uh Gus Larson. I actually just talked with him again today and he was working on talking with a landlord right when I tried calling him uh moving over and setting up roots here in Syri Falls. So I think we've we've uh done well in this area. Looking forward to him. He's just a go-getter from all of his background check and references and such. He's uh he's ready to go. He's he's fired up and ready to go. So, looking forward to bringing a new guy on board, a new kid on board, >> so to speak. >> See that as a January 14th? >> Yeah, he'll start January
14919th, that Monday the 19th for second semester. So, Mr. Sandell has offered to meet with him on multiple uh dates between now and then to kind of mentor him and get him brought up to speed on all things in that program. So, that'll work out really well, too. Um, and then last but not least, as uh I wanted to show off the esports team, as you can remember. Oh, wait. Hold up. Read it. >> Come on. >> Oh, it's not working. >> Oh, man. >> Okay. Poor batteries. I charged it earlier, too. It's supposed to light up and do cool stuff. >> Is there a button on the bottom you have to like switch over or anything? >> No. >> Oh, there's one up top. It's >> got a remote. I shouldn't have to touch
150a button on it. >> So, our esports team can uh participated at the state uh competition and they were the division three runners up in Super Smash Brothers. >> Yeah, that's right. >> And those guys played a lot of Super Smash Brothers. >> So, we'll find a place for this bad boy to go. Um, I like the uh Okay, >> suspect. All right, that's all I got next. >> Yeah. Um, Mike already touched on the the techad interviews. Um, STAR testing is underway in the middle school for math and ELA. Um, excited to see the growth of our middle school students and ready to dig into data to figure out um which supports are needed for students, you know, transferring students into RTI and not RTI. So, our PLC teams are going to be reviewing
151get in, making some new recommendations. Um, excited for the break coming up here. Definitely some exciting time at Middle School. Uh, looking forward to um our annual ski day. Uh, kids are working hard to meet their academic and behavioral expectations in order to participate in that day. Uh, so kids are buckling down and they're they're pushing hard to the finish line here before our break. So, um, looking into the 2025 calendar year on a positive note. So, career, Miss Blat. >> Okay, we're having mouse house this week and I just want to give a special shout out to Kelly Briggs who has not had a kid in elementary school in a very long time, but still comes every year to help me set up on her weekend on her own time. And um I really
152I just want to sing her praises for that. It's amazing. The kids are happy and we are helping them choose some really sweet gifts for their parents. Third grade concert was supposed to be today, but it wasn't, so it's tomorrow. Um, kids are excited and singing. Well, thanks again to Mrs. Egan who does puts on a great concert and to Mrs. Clemens who helps with all the art. Art up there is fabulous. If you guys haven't seen it, if you haven't looked in there, it's amazing museum quality. Um, teachers are working together to complete a mural that was started with students and families at last month's family art night. It's been a great way for staff to come together and connect and celebrate the school. Um, it's paint my numbers, so we're all able to
153participate. The three-year-old room at Dresser Elementary School is ready to go after Christmas break. I think the start date is the 16th of January. It's rated in about there. It allows for 10 new students to be enrolled at Science Alto together with more likely at the end of January. We should be able to bump enrollment one more time. Um, >> we have the space. >> We do and the this we we do because of opening up that new room at the dresser building. >> Yeah, it's the staff, but we've been really doing well with staffing. So, it's quite possible we'll be able to add another after the initial 10, another five or six. >> And and you had the space already, but just no staffing for it. No, we so for whatever reason it didn't
154we we always thought pie in the sky we'd like to use a room at dresser but our understanding was that the licensing daycare licensing is so it's a beast. So we thought it would take a lot of money to get the room up. But then on a whim Jess and I were like let's let's just call a licenser out there and she's like no it's good to go. So there we go. So now we can move those three-year-olds in and they're with the four-year-olds which is great. We're going to have an open house. It hits that whole issue we talked about capturing open enrollments. That's a great way to do it because now parents are in the building in Dresser Elementary where their kids would go if they were four when they're four next year.
155So, we'll see. Um, we have uh David Brickley is coming on board as a full-time route driver while Scott Smith is out. Um, and last, I just want to share my sincere gratitude to all of the teams that I work with, including my amazing admin colleagues and boss, my child care people, transportation and school. I was out for a solid week and it turns out no one even needs me. Things went so smoothly. And that is the blessing of all blessings to know you can count on your people to keep things running smoothly. It's because you've done your job prepping. That's a big part. >> I'm I am pretty sure it's mostly Jeffy. >> I got a I got a thank you letter from Association of School Administrators, Wisconsin school administrators that said, "Dear Mr.
156Benoy, congratulations on your blue ribbon award." It's the gift that keeps on giving people. >> Hilarious. I love Jeff. Jeff started the whole thing. So it's not that Jeff deserves his props. >> All right. Anything else? >> So quick question. So you're this was all the first part was the daycare. You said >> we're No. >> What? >> 3K and >> three. So three or it's the four dresser is all 4K now. >> So all 4K students. And we also have our ECE room which is special needs kids who are three 3 to five. Now what we're doing is we had one empty classroom space in there. So, we said, "Well, let's make it a three-year-old room." So, it's still little. >> This is in dresser elementary. >> Uhhuh. It's still little saints. >> We
157have three year olds in >> Well, it's not it's still it's still child care. It's just we thought Why wouldn't we set up a room for three-year-olds so they could collaborate with 4K, get to know the teachers. >> Oh my gosh. And the parents are I mean, we only have space for 10 kids initially to go there and the demand is much greater than that. the idea of having kids kind of be ready. It's just another easier transition for them. >> Okay, I see. So, you've got kids in the church, kids in the daycare facility, and now kids at first. >> Yep. We have Little Saints, Little Saints one, >> Little Saints 2, and Little Saints three. >> Okay. >> Mhm. >> And as a parent, even though kids are all over the place, it's
158run so smoothly. >> Yeah. >> You guys do a great job. >> Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. Anything else? >> Nope. >> All right, superintendent. >> I'll be uncharacteristically brief. >> Do you want a couple things? >> All right. >> We come here to hear your >> Now you're just lying. Uh special ed reimbursement rate. It was estimated member with the new budget was going to be 42% in this year. The current estimate was 35%. Again, this was not some sufficient. So we thank the state for infinite wisdom and all of the support for special education. That is sarcastic. The other item is that the department of education is being uh dismantled. Uh so that's in process. Um I will say that what was shared is that uh the department it's being deline roles of the department
159of ad are being farmed out to other departments within the federal government. So, Department of Labor is going to take over elementary and secondary education. Department of Labor is also going to take over postsecary education. Department of the Interior is Indian education and health and human services is foreign medical accreditation partnership. Health and Human Services is going to be childcare access means parents and school partnership and the department of state is going to do international education and foreign language studies partnership. So primarily it sounds as though uh school districts and the state will be working with more the department of labor and uh HHS rather than the department of ed. The other caveat that was shared was that states will continue receiving all title funds including those that support low-income students, teachers, academic enrichment, blah
160blah blah blah blah. They'll just now receive them from the Department of Labor. It's silent on whether or not there's a reduction in what that would be in the upcoming year. We're anticipating there will be, but there still hasn't been any action on what would be. >> That's it. >> All right. Very good. Look like we lost our public. So, we do have a presentation of award tonight. We haven't had that in a while. Rita, if you would stand. >> I didn't even brush my hair for the meeting. Well, >> we when you won the blue ribbon award and then they took it away. >> That was really mean, wasn't it? >> Well, we we want to present you with our own award. >> Oh my god, that's so perfect. Oh, you guys. >> Best
161elementary school in the universe. >> Y >> IN THE UNIVERSE. >> AND WE got you a boo. >> Oh my gosh. Oh. You guys are the best. Thank you. So good. >> Can we keep tomorrow? >> Oh, yeah. We're going to do a crown, too. >> We forgot the crown. >> Oh, I have so many crowns. I can I just got a brand new pink tiara. Hu beautiful. So, >> yeah. You wear it tomorrow. >> I got the crown covered. I'm going to wash my hair tonight. Brush it. Be good tomorrow. >> For tomorrow, too. >> And this is amazing, you guys. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So much better than a than a federal award. >> You're right. That was made by your high school students. >> They did that. They did so
162good. >> And we kept it a secret. >> That's amazing. >> Yeah. And somebody forgot to bring it like that to the last meeting. >> Oh, I wonder who that somebody was. >> Uh I don't know. I'm not sure. >> Oh, this is awesome, you guys. Thank you. >> All right. Very good. I'll move on to the consent agenda. Looking for a motion to approve that. >> I'll make that motion. >> We have a motion by Matt. >> I'll second. >> Second by Don. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. We'll go down to curriculum and policy and uh we are going to vote on the the following the the Sunday practices for high school girls on January 4th and 18th and February 15th. Um and the boys
163for December 28th and January 25th. This was something we discussed at the last board meeting. Uh so I'll take a motion to approve that. I'll make that motion to approve the Sunday practice dates for the high school girls basketball for January 4th and 18th, February 15th. And for high school boys basketball, December 28th and January 25. >> 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. Uh next is the policy 413 the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness. Again we looked at that we have to do both of these separately. >> Yeah. And I'll throw out too I put it in your board update but just for posterity sake there was conversation around there was recollection
164by Ronnie uh conversation around that policy having been approved in the past. Further research after the meeting subsequently did identify that it was around in the past. it never found its way to our actual catalog online of policies. And so for because we're had reviewed it and we're updating it now anyway as a result of the um uh what do you call it the uh well the title uh evaluation process evaluative process we're currently engaged in. We would like 413. There's a minor modification with the opening paragraph. That's really the the lion share the difference. But 413 and 413 rule one will replace what the board had approved previously, which is 411.2, but it technically never made it into our book. Does that make sense? >> And so when this is approved, 411.2 will not
165be in the book as it wasn't 413 and 413 will be there. So you mean these as separate motions? >> Yes. >> So I'll make a motion to approve the changes to policy 413 for education of children and youth experiencing homelessness. >> We have a motion by Don. >> I'll second. >> Second by Tasha. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. The motion is carried. So now we'll look for a motion to approve 413 rule one. >> I'll make that motion to approve policy 413 rule one education of children and experiencing a >> motion by Tasha. >> Second by Matt. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. That motion is carried. We'll move on to the financial section and vote on theou with kayer collier
166>> something like that >> clinic and for schoolbased mental health and behavioral health services. >> I'll make that motion to approve the employee clinic for schoolbased mental health behavioral health services. A >> motion by Tasha >> Second by Don. Any further discussion? this we don't need a roll call right all those in favor say I >> I opposed motion carries um and then we'll go back uh vote on the assigning of 202425 fund balance to fund 46 which we talked about last time uh what was the amount 30 >> about 350 >> 300 $350,000 I'll take a motion for that >> I'll make a motion to approve the final fund balance to fund 46. A >> motion by Don. >> Second by Matt. Roll call vote. >> Matt Bryce. >> Yes. >> Tasha Rager. >>
167Yes. >> Don Milky. >> Yes. >> Brent Mccertie. >> Yes. >> Thank you. today. Um, next is building and grounds. We'll uh vote on the purchase of the kindergart playground equipment that we discussed in the committee meeting and that was just under 40,000. Do >> we have to make any distinction about the fundraising approval? >> I don't think so at this point because we're paying for >> any correct. >> Okay, gotcha. Um, I'll make that motion to approve the purchase of the kindergarten playground equipment as presented. >> We have a motion by Tasha. >> Second by Matt. Any further discussion? All those in favor? We got a new roll call on that one. >> Um, we don't have to, but you can if you want. >> Let's do it. >> Okay. Matt Rice. >> Yes.
168>> Tasha Rager. >> Yes. Dan Milky, >> yes. >> Ronnie Schuler, Brett McCertie, >> yes. Motion carried. Uh, next is the vote of elementary school roof repair which we talked about last time and that amount was >> I want to say it was like 26,000 if I recall correctly. You remember Lorray? >> I don't off the top of my head, but >> 21 or 26 something like that. >> I'm going to go back and look. Okay, let's take a look. So, that would have been a November board update. We talked about that in a number. >> Yeah. >> Do you have a board book open? >> Yeah. >> You go back to the November meeting. That should be an attachment. Was it last month? All right. >> Yeah, I got it right here. work. >>
169Okay. >> 19. >> Oh, okay. >> 19,272, right? It's 19,272 for again. Just a reminder that was just a small section right corner specifically. >> We'll take a motion to approve that. >> I'll make that motion. >> Motion by Matt. >> Second by Tasha. All those in favor say I. >> I carries. Next is the bus middle school high school drive bus garage dresser crack project for the road parking lot stuff 5,000 That was multiple um locations. So that's more than that total. >> Yep. There's two separate attachments. >> Yep. >> That's the correct one. >> Yeah. It's not five total though. It's multiple locations. And I know I put that in the board update, too. I thought I did. >> 62,56 $62,85. >> Oh, no, no, no. Not that kind of money. >> There's
170two separate attachments. It says like high school crack. That's >> Yeah, because there's multiple things that are on there and we only did we're only doing the crack fill, but there's also um for whatever reason I'm looking at the wrong thing. So, that's what's creating issues here for me. Why am I not finding the committee? >> I know. >> Okay. Elementary roof repair. Oh, but the the links are not here. The documents are not linked on this one. I had to click a button. Now I got it. All right. Crack fill on the first one is 2155 because it's just the crack fill. And then on the second one, it's 2155 plus plus 9,250 >> and 2275 >> for the bus garage. Right. >> And 2275 for the bus garage. Thank you. the for people
171listening at home if you are the confusion is that there's both and we talked about this at the committee meeting there's multiple things bid and so we have to find the crack portions which is what we're intending to do $16 No, I'm making my notes. I know what I'm >> You want a total? >> Yeah. I know we did this in today's uh what was the other one I take a motion motion. Motion by Matt. >> Second by any further discussion. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos. Motion is carried. Uh, next is a school board election of the and incumbents. That would simply be the announcement that Ronnie Scheler is intending to not seek re-election. And we do have one individual that has submitted paperwork to be found on the ballot. Uh, Jessica
172Milky, former grad at the time. She was It's not Milky like you're spelling, Don. M I L K Y. >> Strange. I don't know. >> Different spelling. Uh Jessica Larkham was her maiden name. >> I know that she was an outstanding science student. >> Great mother. >> Yeah. >> Very civically. >> And she has a great mother. >> Absolutely. >> That's all right, too. >> Good family. But of course there could be other individuals uh that are equally awesome uh also fill out paperwork to be found on the ballot. That's just the one we have so far. >> The deadline >> that deadline is >> January 6th. >> 6th. I was going to say that but I thought I was wrong. So that >> it's like Tuesday. Isn't that a Tuesday? I think >> 5:00
173on the first Tuesday. So January 6th. >> There you go. >> They have to pick up the packet in the district office. >> Uh they can pick up paperwork in the district office. We also have links posted online underneath the board of ed tab, >> but it has to be notorized, right? >> Yeah, they have to come in and give it to us. >> I charge $100 per notary, but they welcome to see me. >> Kidding. It's totally free. >> Don't quote. >> I'm also a notary with a pink stamp, so you just let her choose. >> Good to know. >> All right. upcoming events. We've got uh we not looking like we'll have a meeting on December Tuesday, December 23rd. >> No. >> Uh we have a deadline of December 26th. Again, that's for
174Bronnie to fill out her thing. So, we won't remind her of that. Um January 6th, that's right there. the deadline on January 14th, we'll have our regular board meeting uh when a convention on the 21st through the 23rd and geted um our regular meeting on the 28th. Matt, would you like to review the rules? >> Yes. I hope I have plenty other words to stumble over. Focus on the mission visit statements of the district. Come prepared. We came prepared. We we were respectful of others and open accepting of ideas actively participated. We avoided side conversations and remember board meetings are open forum. >> All right. Thank you Matt. I will take now take a motion to adjourn to executive close session pursuant to section 19.851cf of Wisconsin stat. I'll make that motion to executive session.
175Motion by Dece. >> Second by Don. Roll call vote. >> Matt brace. >> Yes. >> Tasha. >> Yes. Milky. >> Yes. Donnie. Breie. >> Yes. We are in full session. Thank you. >> Thanks so much you guys. This is the best ever. >> You're good. I didn't tell you. >> You are welcome. Rita. >> Literally the best award in the universe. >> In the universe. You know you're going to make it. >> See, I have a good name. You do. >> All right. This the three amigos again. >> And you're not doing beard, right? You're going to the uh >> water basket. >> Yeah. >> I was telling Craig earlier cuz I don't have to work Monday. >> Oh, >> and then the Marquez playing Monday night. >> Nice. >> We'll see. We could always
176stay home and go fishing, too. Wouldn't want to do that. They have a shack on a cabin on the lake. >> Exactly. >> 100 100 yards to walk out to where this unit is. >> Nice. Yeah. >> Won't be pleasant to do that this weekend. But better make it nice. Um, >> did he turn not turn that up?