SCF School District Board Meeting - 4/21/2025

001We wasn't the night before. No, this person's not on camera. Why did you move me? I should be live. All right. Um, we're going to start the committee meeting portion of the meeting. We are going to move item one, the swearing in of board member Don Mily and Matt Bryce uh to the regular board meeting. Um, so we'll get started with Kirkland and policy and start with the school board leaison policy. Yeah. So, um, early on during my time here, one of the things that I was, uh, have been doing and was doing at that time was reviewing board policy with respect to just orienting myself, um, for certain things. I'd love to tell you that I've committed them all to memory, but that wouldn't be truthful. Um, however, I recall going through this and

002thinking to myself, I wonder what the situation is or story is with the student board liaison. And then what prompted my memory again was a recent conversation with a um, a parent last week um early last week and uh mentioning you know that that there's a student liaison to the school board. So I circle back with Mike and I just said hey you know what what do you know or what do you are you aware of this? Do you know any uh circumstances around it? Like what happened? How come we don't have one? That kind of thing. And he wasn't 100% certain. So, I thought I'd bring it here to you folks to see whether or not this is something that we want to continue doing. I know that in Baron we had a school

003board uh student rep and in Rapids we had a rep student rep to the school board as well and um it is valuable. they serve as a non- voting member but of course have can and and and do provide feedback um a lot of the time just a brief student update with respect to what's going on in the high school um or in the district or things that they're associated with. So it's kind of a nice way to stay in touch with the student. Now, um, we have to, uh, if we want to move forward with it, we'll have to kind of refine and communicate the process such that we can get somebody locked down because we're looking for a junior as the policy outline so they can hold the seat for um, a couple

004of years and then have a replacement come in as well. Um, but we'll we're I'll work with Mike and we'll identify and develop a kind of a plan approach, committed to the communicate to the student body and and get somebody um seated. Now, typically they don't serve in the summer months. They only serve, you know, September through May and um I want to ensure that we're following what you folks want to see happen. Yeah, we had one and I thought it was pretty interesting, but I don't think we've had one since co have I thought that we had somebody last year. Once in a while. Yeah, coming to meetings as she so you know like when you're junior sophomore freshman or senior year you're kind of building your college application all these things down um

005instead of two years one year where more kids can add it to their college application is an idea I don't know. Well, we say junior. I would be open to moving it down to sophomore level. As a freshman coming in, you might not be quite ready, but but I'm open as long as we can, you know, get a couple candidates. One of the things we hit, well, the first couple years we had one, we had pretty good attendance. Uh but the person that was doing it wasn't a three sport athlete and you know was involved in different things but just was had more time. Yep. And the policy outlines that a junior is the alternate and the senior is the person that's actively serving. Okay. So arguably you could have those um flip-flop. And I

006think the goal would be if the senior can show then the junior's there. Yeah. Right. They probably don't even have to flip-flop. You can even say open it, but that that's cool. Okay. So, and we can kick it around and and I mean there's no reason we can't modify the policy because if we would want to see changes now would be we can't necessarily do it this evening, but I can based on your directions, we'll mark it up and make some modifications and bring it back forward. I just want to ensure that we're doing what you guys want to be done. Um, like I said, I was aware of it like in October, November, I would say. And I just kind of thought, well, we'll kind of see what pans out there. I'm sure with

007the transition to the principal, it just was, you know, let go. Well, I would like to see it come back and um, you know, for next school. Do we want to see modifications to the policy or as is? I Well, if you would might want to take a look at it. You obviously have worked with it in the past. There may be some things you want to change with it a little bit. As far as I'm concerned, I didn't, you know, really see anything. If Mike feels that it's all right to open it up to, you know, like a sophomores or something, we want to change that. By all means, I be open to that, too. What if we had a couple alternates? Cuz I do remember like our most recent rep was um you

008know, when she was busy or whatever, then nobody would show up. So, what if uh you know, the primary says to the kids, you know, I can't be there. Can you be there? And that one says no. And then maybe the third one cannot brainstorm. Yeah, I thought it was valuable and I remember, you know, getting updates from them, too, as far as I mean, might take away some of Mike's reports, but, you know, but it was good to hear, you know, from the student side of things what uh what they were doing and things. So, I will uh connect with Mike and if we're talking about changes, we'll bring something forward. If we're going to go as is, I'll have an update for you with respect to what the process looks like and that

009sort of thing. Perfect. Anybody else? We want to Well, we certainly could. It wouldn't hurt. Totally up to you. Let's do it now since it's posted as a committee meeting thing. Sounds like a plan. You ready to do the swearing in doc? So, we'll have Dawn come on up front and we typically swear them in together. Yeah. Perfect. Keep it as simple for the sa as possible. Do you want a photo? Yes. Okay. Kurt's got it going. Oh, there's somebody's job now. Sorry. Whatever. I don't do whatever you instead of you having to stand. Now, stand here like all official. Yep. And just raise your right hand and repeat after me. Uh I I having been duly elected. Yep. Having been duly elected or appointed to the office of school board member? Have been duly

010elected to the office of school board member. Oh, I'm sorry. Should we do one at a time? I'm sorry. Or should I just repeat what you said? Just at the same time. Okay. Say again. Okay. Sorry. I I have been duly elected have been duly elected dy elected or appointed to the office or appointed to the office a schoolboard member school a school board member I swear or affirm I swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin and and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin. I will faithfully discharge the duties I will faithfully discharge the duties of the set office to the best of my ability of the set office to

011the best of my ability. So help me God. So help me God. You got one. Y thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Do you want to just in case following just talk about the transition when that'll happen? Absolutely. So um there was a minor miscalculation in terms of um board meetings because typically this meeting in the second meeting in April it lands on the fourth Monday of April and the board meetings were set last year and I think what transpired is that uh um it was thought that the fourth Monday was today the 21st but the 31st of March was the Monday. So that pushes the fourth Monday all the way to April 28th. So, if the schoolboard calendar was being set based on comparable dates, I'm sure it was looked at was like,

012"Yeah, that's it's about the same." Cuz last year, I'm guessing it was right about the 20th, 21st, 22nd, something like that. Under Wisconsin statute, um, board members can be sworn in any time or elected officials can be sworn in any time after the results are certified, but prior to officially taking office. and they cannot take office officially until on or after the fourth Monday in April. So, Doc is still a board member um finishing his term, which will conclude on the 27th at 11:59 p.m. at which time Don Milky will take over at 12:00 a.m. on April 28th, and then she'll serve. So, in the interim here, if for example, we were uh in need of a special board meeting for some reason, there's nothing planned that I'm aware of currently. Um between now and

013April 28th, it would be Docs that would be serving as a board member. After April 28th, it's dawn. So, that would mean that in all likelihood, the first meeting that DOM will officially serve on will be our May 13th meeting, unless there's a need for a special board meeting on or after April 28th. So, there you go. All right. Thank you. You are welcome. Makes sense. All right, moving on. Uh to review the 2425 board goals. Uh in the packet, there was a copy of the board goals. Um so I'll just start Whoops. Start with number one. Uh let's basically I'm not going to read the whole thing, but it revolves around mental health initiatives for both students and staff uh by increasing mental health literacy and mindfulness. Um, and again, this has been a

014goal. Uh, we've changed the verbiage up a little bit over the years, but just want the people to know, everybody to know that this is at the top of our one of the things that we are concerned about and um um want to make progress towards. So, I did um I'm hoping that you know, Rita and Daryl uh can talk about maybe what you guys did at your building levels to help with that. You want to go first, Rita? Sure. Um, well, some things we've been doing for a while and I've shared here in curriculum spotlights. For example, we have schoolwide cell instruction, which is social emotional learning, which basically has to do with learning how to self-regulate and um, use your voice to stand up for what you want or need. Um, to use

015breathing techniques to calm down, those kinds of things. And then we also have our homegrown cares curriculum which is our character education. We have our counselor who is not a therapist. A school counselor is different than a therapist. However, she does meet one-on-one with kids who are having acute um mental health needs or with small groups of kids who have similar social emotional needs. for example, maybe they have difficulty making friendships or we've had several groups this year on sportsmanship on the playground, those kinds of things. Um, we also have a therapy we can we got a grant some years back and converted one of the old dressing room bathrooms. Doesn't sound nice, but it is. It's a beautiful therapy room and the family therapy associate um therapist comes down to meet with kids once

016a week and we have another therapist that meets with kids in the conference room. Um it's a great start. We still have a huge waiting list for kids who need therapists. How often does that happen? once a week for family therapy associates and then the other ones are county driven and those happen as needed or as the county can provide to specific students who for legal reasons have to get that therapy. We'd love to have more but we we can't still we're having the difficulty of finding therapists. That same grant that we got some years back where we changed the counsel the made the therapy space. We made a reset room which is a beautiful calm space for kids when they are overwhelmed with their emotions or teachers and sometimes principles to go and have

017um quiet calming space where there's little sensory input. We have all been trained on CPI all except the most recent hire who hasn't even officially started yet. CPI is I always forget what it stands for, but it's essentially nonviolent crisis intervention training, how to deescalate um without anger, violence um and it's just an amazing training. Shelley trained is a trainer on that. She's trained all of our staff. uh through that same grant I think 10 of us got trained in advanced traumainformed schooling techniques and we have continued to share those techniques with staff at various inservices uh that we did a climate survey for kids this this year to see what they wanted us to focus on. They were by and large very very happy with what's going on with school according to our survey

018results. So, it didn't do that as much. But I I want to point out too, this is on the kids side. We have lots of recess. And I think it's important to point that out because that matters. Being outside in fresh air is huge for mental health. And having unstructured time is huge for kids in mental health. And having just had a survey sent out from other area principles, I know that we give more recess than the vast majority of schools in the surrounding areas. And I would give more if we could if teachers wanted to move their schedule. It's critical for kids and I want to point out we do really well academically and still have more recess than most schools. So those are things for kids for staff. I would say one thing

019is we we conscientiously value laughter, mutual support, joy and caring. And that is so I mean we make that a priority that we talk about it all the time. It's in our memos daily. There's always challenges and things to do to support each other. And that has made a huge difference. We've had two teachers with mental health, you know, need acute needs this year that have felt completely surrounded and supported by us. And we just did a survey. I just did a survey for teachers asking what are the things that they like most about being a saint. And the number one thing is they like that we come together and support each other, care about each other, and show up for each other. And the number two thing is chip Thursday. And let me tell

020you that is very important to mental health at my building because on Thursday everybody brings a dish to share and we eat eat eat amazing for mental health. Um we did a parenting class and parenting support group for families this year to help with some mental health and we have a committee at the school called the fun committee for teachers. So, we did escape rooms, bowling, out to dinner together, just all kinds of fun team building stuff. And aside from chip Thursday, the number one most important thing is a massage chair in the teachers lounge. All right. Thank you. Any questions for Rita on those? Very good, Darl. Okay. At the middle school, we started off the year um last day of inservice, we spent the whole day the middle school did with youth mental

021health first aid training um to get that was teachers and par professionals to help our kiddos. Um we have monthly guidance lessons at all the grade levels. We have weekly bar lessons which focuses on seal. Uh we started that saints for change group through Pulk County piloting that this year for mental health issues. Uh we just completed the YRBS survey to help us identify some. And then um Rita probably doesn't get these as much as I do, but we get Bark alerts which is a computer computer monitoring system. And I literally at the start of the meeting here was dealing with what some child texts to another child like, hey, contact the parent, see what's going on. Uh just that immediate response. We have tiered or tiered support meetings with the counselor or with a

022person that a student trusts to to help them with social emotional learning and mental health issues. um working with families. I in I've gotten pretty good at helping families find these resources for help, but not only finding the resources, finding ways to help pay for the resources for help. Um that can get really tricky. Um a lot of accommodations for therapy. Um, Miss Schmidz used to be right next to my office down in the middle school, but now that room's empty. Uh, we use that for speech and language. We also use it for virtual therapy appointments, and that's getting more and more filled up with our kiddos that need that during the day. Um, those are just some quick ones I I wrote. Oh, and every week we have uh PLC's the grade levels do.

023And there's a whole section in there just talking about concerns for kids. I And I know it's just not academics, it's also emotional needs area or what what what do kids need? You talk a little bit about the what was it? Saints for change, the county thing. Yep. We we've been partnering up with the county this year. Uh they got a grant and they asked us to bring some kids together where they teach this group of about 15 kids uh strategies on like coping uh tobacco and alcohol. It has to hit some tobacco and alcohol. Um and then they like we had that no bullying week where we had all the dress up days. They went into the classrooms during the wind tie and did a bowling lesson. The kids did. And what we're looking

024to do with that is it's a pilot program. We're learning as they're learning. Hoping to expand that out. Um it started with seven kids in the beginning. So it's almost double number. Um and next year we're hoping to not start it in October, start it right away and then build from there. Are the kids um ones that potentially have problems or are you trying to get leader type kids? No, leader type kids. Well, we have both. I probably shouldn't say that, but we we have both. And it's it's kids leading kids, which I think is they we're all adults. We all have children. You know, our kids don't listen to us sometimes, but if another peer tells them, they seem to listen more. So that's what we're going for there is kind of that ground

025swell of the kids taking care of each other. Very good. Thank you. I forgot something that's new this year. Can I share that because it it came out of that whatever that thing the training we did with SUSO. I forget what that was the Well, yeah, sure. But the what was the training? Threat assessment. The threat assessment training. So that we had a a full day threat assessment training this year and that provided us with a whole toolbox and three times this year I've had children in the elementary school um threatened self harm and three times I've been able to call our threat assessment team together and use the materials from that workshop in addition to a um a commitment to not self harm. My brain never works like it used to when I was

026young. It's weird. um contract that we fill out and that has been incredible. I mean that's been a real game changer for me this year because those ones are really hard to deal with and this lays it out exactly what to do and exactly what to tell parents and exactly you get the officer Tyler in there, the counselor in there, the teacher and me and it's been really really helpful with acute serious mental health issues. Thanks for bringing that up. Mhm. Is the FTA stuff is that only at your building or does any any other buildings have? I I don't know. Do you guys have FTA coming into your building? I can't imagine they do cuz there's no counselors, right? So, we're still struggling, you know, and the problem is family. Yeah. Yes. You have

027a therapist, too. The problem is that the insurance will only take you. So, like there's a certain type of counselor most of the state insurance will only take and that's not the kind they ever have there. So you know it has to do with amount of training. So there's a disconnect. The need remains great. Yeah, for sure. We have quite a bit of virtual. That's why we have that that separate space. Is that through FTA too? That I don't know. Um the parents set that up and they just let us know that on Tuesdays at 9:00 this will happen. So we make sure we get the child out of the classroom. Yep. into a quiet spot. Probably could be any any um therapy provider. Well, it sounds like that one's more apparent. We got an

028appointment here. They can use that space. Very good. Thank you. Any other questions from you guys? Any idea what Mike did? Yep. So, Mike shared a couple of things. Darl already mentioned the YBS survey. Um high school staff will analyze that data too. Think about that more in a group application. It's not individual. I was going to mention the um SUSO too. Anonymous reporting can be for things that are um not school safe. Well, I mean it might be a safety concern but not like a school safety concern like a school shooting threat or anything or bullying. it can be you know reporting a crisis of any kind of circumstance where the person reporting wants to remain anonymous. So I think that um tool is is critical. Uh there's students offering support group has been

029active all year and continues to be active. Uh the I the high school and and um I think the middle school had a mental health awareness week. Didn't you Darl? Yeah. Um so that was um really about you know again talking about it. I think we're talking about it. adults anyway are talking about mental health way more than say five or 10 years ago. Um and I think that our our students have a different level of understanding when it comes to mental health struggles and things simpler things too like anxiety and um you know some milder mental health issues if that's if that's an appropriate term. Um, and we also have partnered with the county uh to get someformational materials out there uh in and mostly that's middle school and high school just flyers in

030the bathroom and hey uh awareness about 988 the um 247 mental health uh support line as well as just you know uh local and county resources with respect to who you can contact for assistance. And um I would al also mention that with the the new insurance our intentions and it hasn't taken a ton of shape yet here at the tail end of this year but our intentions are to uh do a better job with implementation of the EAP the employee assistance program that comes along is usually part of your u health insurance package slash can be worked through your insurance broker and so forth too. um but communicating that out better with staff and and cultivating understanding so that uh that resource is is used a bit more frequently. Yeah, that's huge too. I

031know uh some people that um you know parents are going through divorce and the entire family was able to go to an EAP, you know, counselor through that program. No comments. Yep. So I don't know the extent of it if they get x number of visits or whatever, but that's that's good. Y Craig, I I have a question since um Mike's not here. One thing I used to notice when my kids were in school in high school is there would be times when I would see would be um sports related like you know for example uh this is a basketball town you know um there would be bullying related to the kids that didn't basketball and at times it was just kind of shrugged off like no big deal from coaches or staff or whatever.

032Um, is there some of the things that we do see at high school that will address that or is it just hope that something sunk in in the earlier years or um I I can't I don't know enough um Matt like on a day-to-day operational basis the nature of concerns that are brought like to Mike or to the counselor, you know what I'm saying? Um I I do know that one of the things that Tara works with with the athletes as well is just collectively um among staff. I I don't get the vibe in the time that I've spent here that much is shrugged off. Now, I I do have to throw out a quick caveat, which is as a former classroom teacher myself and as a person that spends a lot of time standing

033around looking at students and listening to exchanges, you may not know what is, you know, um and I mean that sounds odd to say because two kids, right? And if bullying was a bar in my home with the way my boys talk to one another, they would be bullying all the time. But this is a this is a a relationship that the two of them have. You know, some name calling and that kind of thing. And of course, it's not I I don't downplay that. It's not acceptable here. But on the same hand, there's circumstances where comments are made and your ears will peek up, you know, like what's going on there? And then the other kid with a big smile on their face will say something right back. You know what I'm saying? You're

034like, okay, well, I'm guessing that's okay. Now, in some cases, it may not be. And that's where the the the rub is in terms of truly getting your arms around these sorts of things. But what I can say is that there is definitely a vibe um in in all of our buildings uh but in the high school in particular where I think there's an understanding generally that um our our athletes and and leaders in other co-curriculars and extracurriculars are held to a higher standard. There's no question in my mind. And I also have no question that the majority of our coaches and staff members, if not all of them, would be like, "Enough. Stop it." Um, most of that kind of thing though happens when people aren't around or when there's not awareness. And arguably

035there's commentary that's made too that someone might in the moment shrug off, but that does have an impact. And it's tough to identify or to say, you know, how do you legitimately rectify that? because it also just like when correcting employee behavior as a perfect example um if you have uh an employee or two that are chronically late and the only thing you do is send an email to your staff saying remember beyond time you're not going to rectify the chronically late behavior. So sometimes you have to be made aware because of the circumstance rises to the level that we are now informed fully of what's transpiring and it can be rectified. But do kids hear about being, you know, inclusive and accepting and and belonging and and friendly and absolutely absolutely it's it's preached

036daily, you know. Um, so I don't know if I've answered your question, but yeah. Can I add something to that? Terrace does have a salt committee, which is a student athletic leadership team. they she they come to the elementary school and work with the kids starting in first grade on good sportsmanship and ex and loving a a a wide variety of sports and things. So I do think she does work on that quite a bit. Yeah. So really it sounds like if okay if it bothered a kid enough or a group of kids they would have to communicate it formally. But if they don't, it's just rumors or hearsay or they maybe never even hear anything. But if they do, is it just typically kind of kind of like your usual like, you know, this

037kid, this kid, this kid, you know, report to the office and you just have conversation like, okay, you hearing some things. What's going on? Knock it off. Is that kind of how it's It depends on context. So if it's the first time I mean if it's the first time you've heard of a circumstance involving that specific kid or group of kids absolutely I mean just like as an adult right if there's something that I have an issue with somebody with and I'm like hey you know don't do that again and then they do that's now it's a it's a bigger problem than just having been told. Um, but there are circumstances where it's brought to administration or staff attention and then it's not just a conversation. It is a it's always a conversation, but that's

038not the end of it. Then there's additional followup whether there's um other consequences, parent contact, um, you know, or litany of things. And what's interesting is that I know as as the school authority, there's always an expectation that the school has all of this power um um that they can, you know, administer to strongly modify behavior. And frankly, our power is limited in so far as parent engagement. And if that doesn't work, exclusion from the school environment. That's the the depth of the of the power of the of the school district. Administration can suspend. Why don't we like to suspend? Because you're sending a kid home for a day or two or three days vacation. Might it be vacation? Well, in some people's homes, not so much. You probably have to, I don't know, cut

039and stack wood for the old man. And in other places, you're probably going to play white uh, you know, 2K basketball all day long. So, that's not really a school issue, number one. Number two, doesn't accomplish what we wanted to accomplish. And lastly, expulsion, which is for the worst of the worst. No one wants to do that. And also, is it really going to rectify the behavior and get the kid what they need? No. Because we're excluding them from the environment that can hopefully provide those kinds of supports. But um it is about this team effort and about engagement. And the response I haven't had it here and it's been honestly a breth a breath of fresh air. But in my prior experience, I have been flatly told by a parent, they're a problem. Don't

040call me again. Click. That's 100% true. That is not a madeup story. that and I can tell you that that's never going to change a kid's behavior because parents have the most power to change their own kids' behavior. There's no question in my mind. Um, but what I see here in particular is relationships. And I'm very confident that I could pull any high school staff member, middle school staff member, elementary staff member in here and they could probably tell you the the name of the kid I'm pointing at in their building and probably tell you who their parents are. It's not like that everywhere. And all of our teachers say hi to kids and talk to kids and use their names and tease them a little bit and hey, how was your weekend? Oh, I

041saw you, you know, at the whatever the basketball. It's it's not what it can be in other places. That I can guarantee. However, there are times when it's not perfect. Adults are mean to each other on occasion. Kids are mean. You know what I'm saying? Things happen. But we can't rectify things we're not aware of. So if there are things that are uh consistent and that are bothering people, that's my biggest piece of advice is to say something. Well, I don't want to say anything because then it'll just get worse. But that's not necessarily true because if it gets worse, then there's other things we can do, right? But you can't do anything if you don't know with Suso. Now, I think that has made a difference, too. You can report and be 100% anonymous.

042So, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Any other I'm not trying to If you have more questions, feel free. You're good. Anybody else? All right. Moving on to goal number two and that was the uh communication and overall branding of our district. Um coordinating communication both internal and external. I think we have done a lot by hiring Kirk. Um, but he's only been here a couple months, 3 months at this point. So, I think we're on the right track. The goal is to kind of, well, you can correct me, but kind of get him his feet wet here this school year and come up with more of a plan for future years. That's 100% accurate because I mean I know that um most people went to a school um in growing up but that doesn't necessarily uh create

043the kind of understanding you need to be you know the voice of the organization and I don't mean to say that to be you know um I don't know elitist or something like that. I just mean you don't most people don't really have an understanding of how schools operate and what the whole story is. And I think in order to tell the story you got to know the whole story. And so that's one of the pieces that Kurt is actively engaged in. It's one of the reasons he's spending his tonight. It's a Monday night, but our normal Tuesday night meeting. Um simply attending the board meeting so that he has an understanding of what we do on a daily basis is translated here to the to the boardroom and for decisions for you folks to

044make and then ultimately how that's communicated to the community. And you're exactly right, Brent. What we'll do um is develop a a fairly comprehensive um communication and marketing or communication and engagement plan that um you know we can point to incremental steps of changes over time and things that we can do to enhance communication and marketing just like the goal indicates and branding. Any other questions about that one? All right. Goal number three was the staff attracting and recruiting uh retaining uh retaining current employees. Uh just you know with the it's not just school districts but uh schools are having a rough time getting teachers and other staff. Uh we're starting to see a little bit with the counselor. What did we just We have an open one, right? School. Schools. Oh, school site. School

045site. Yeah. Um sorry about that. Um and you know so whatever we can do right to make sure that our the staff that we have we want to retain things um and then be able to recruit I think you know well we'll talk about that later increases and that's only part of the equation but other things that we can do to help make sure staff are happy. Uh Rita, you gave some good examples uh in your building, the things that are going on uh to help, you know, maintain that positivity, uh things like that. So that's important. It's good to hear that. I don't know if you have any other pieces to that one. I have some awesome pieces for you. So this is one of those goals that's hard to articulate, but I think

046that we're um turning the corner to in at least some degree. So I think we also have to recognize and and deal with the fact that there's a structural deficit in terms of our population demographic. This is true in the state of Wisconsin in particular. It's true throughout the country, but Wisconsin trends older. And when when you have that circumstance and you have fewer people to enter the workforce, you're going to have less people for the the same number of jobs that are available, right? Um there's also less people collectively. Population generally is is on the decrease. So there's going to be structural um deficiencies or deficits that you have to work through and that's true for any any employer in the state. Um school psychologist is a perfect example. Although we did get two

047applicants, one ended up taking a different job and and um one we didn't feel would be a fit for the organization and frankly we're not going to hire someone because they have the lensure because that's not how uh we think that our schools should operate. I think you're on dangerous territory. A heartbeat and and can fog a mirror is not what we're looking for um for the positions that we fill. And so it will be unfilled or we'll find a person that we you know contract through with CISA. But there's other indicators that give me all kinds of hope. For example, um 14 applications for middle school principal after Mr. Imos retirement. seven of which we interviewed and frankly six of them were none of them were terrible interviews which I'm shocked to tell you

048out of seven. Um and it's not as though the that one of the seven was just had no shot at it. They were all really good. But I think our committee of 15 or so people would agree we probably could have brought any name of those six forward and I don't think anybody would have been upset. Um Daryl's interviewing for a middle school language arts position. You're interviewing how many people, Darl? We have 12 applications for middle school and I just posted the uh social studies. We already have five. One of the questions we ask is why do you want to work in St. Craig Falls and they're like basically you you have a good solid school and that's attracting people here. And I've heard that from multiple individuals that have applied here both formally

049and informally that they specifically want to work here. And I think that's something that saying it here and that even if whatever 50 people watch the stream and it won't be 50, it'll be 10 or 12 or whatever our average viewership happens to be. But those are aspects that it's hard to measure that or to show um that. But I've heard that more in the short time I've been here heard it in my career. So I think that should tell you something. Um, and the reason that people want to work here is because of the things that Rita and Daryl and Mike instantia have mentioned, but it's also primarily because the kids we have here are unbelievable. It's incredible. And that also lays into, and I promise I'll shut up, but this is super important

050to me. One of the things that I constantly think about is what I'm not a um I'm not an individual that develops a you know a phrase or whatever to to rally the troops around but I do think about from in in terms of my role as an educator myself and uh what I've settled on I just had a conversation with Mr. Wilson about this a week or so ago and that is messaging for next year is going to be centered around perspective, right? Because arguably you don't really know until you do it, right? When you're um a kid that went to school and you think about teachers and so forth, you think, "Yeah, I know what it's like to be a teacher." You don't. When you're a teacher, you think about principles and you

051think, "I know what it's like to be a principal." No, you don't. You don't know until you hold a position and you're and you're engaged with the organization. You don't and you have no way of knowing. That's kind of like life, right? I think I know what it likes what it's like to be a doctor or an attorney, but of course I don't I don't know that, right? Until you experience it. You also don't know what it's like in other places um throughout the state or in other school districts because although a lot of the things that we're talking about are the same because again we're educating kids, there are a number of things that are vastly and dramatically different based on student behavior, based on family support, based on colleiality, based on collaboration. I

052mean you name it. And so I think that idea of offering perspective or at least having a conversation isn't going to be to say,"Well, I've been different places, so I know you guys should go different places." That's counterintuitive to what the goal is. But it is an opportunity to reflect on what we do have here because what we do have here is pretty stinking phenomenal. Um, and as you mentioned, how we compensate people, the fact that we care about you, um, and so forth is is paramount. But if we were the lowest paid school district in the area, it wouldn't be the same. I'm telling you, even if the kids didn't change and what we do for kids didn't change, it wouldn't be the same. So the total package are both the emotional supports that

053people need to be an employee and do the job because these jobs are not easy. from custodian to cook to recess duty to aid to you name it. They are they are not easy jobs and no one is paid to the degree in a school district the public school district and I don't think they should be. That's why it's public dollars. We're good stewards of public dollars but no one is paid to the level of kind of work they do. I'm telling you it's just not the way it is. But they didn't go into it because well I'm going to go into public and become a multi-millionaire. You know that's it's never going to happen. Um so it's that balance. And then I'll I'll end by simply saying and it's stuff like just today uh

054the high school did a cookout. So people brought stuff and they did a you know kind of a potluck cookout on a Monday when we have inservice and they pulled um some of the cafeteria tables up here towards the front entrance and I walked out of my office. I in fact kind of forgot it was going on. Walked out. I'm like, oh, it was kind of like, you know, I was walking on stage or something. But they were all enjoying their um hot dogs and sausages and hamburgers and I hope beans. I didn't see any, but I certainly hope so cuz beans are delicious. Um and it's was just fun, you know, and those are the kinds of thing that go on not daily, but uh as often as possible, and it's it's an awesome

055place as a result of it. Well, I appreciate all the feedback. Uh board members, do you have any more comments, questions about the goals? Uh just for FYI, we wanted to we talked about this last year at a goal setting to move that up a little bit this year. So as so we'll probably be doing that next month, looking for probably another ex maybe an extra meeting. Maybe we do it after or during a you know regular board meeting, but we'll start talking about that. I'll start talking about that with Craig. Um, so the as the admin team goes off for the summer, they have an idea of what we want to do for goals next year. So, um, so be thinking about that as we start looking at that. And kudos to you guys,

056uh, Mike for not being here, uh, for making us look good. Thank you. It makes makes this job a lot easier. So, I appreciate that. Um, all right. So, moving on, we'll talk about the manage print services contract removal. Yeah. Well, I the only thing I will say is that we are at the tail end of um a five-year contract, which is pretty status quo for managed print services. That'd be copiers and printers. And then Brian, who I'll turn it over to um went into a fairly comprehensive um Why can't I think of the terminology, Brian? RFP process. Thank you. so he can go into what we found as in the board packet kind of outlines uh worked through an RP process utilizing kind of what we need sent it out to various vendors soliciting

057responses. I was able to get four responses of which three were met the criteria by which I thought I could evaluate them. Um put them against a matrix some new and a you know a response from our current vendor. Um the vendor making the recommendation towards is not the cheapest. Um however the one that came in lower you know there were some definite pitfalls. One of them being a copy machine. You know I had a warranty of three years versus five. That concerns me. I'm doing a 5year contract. I don't want to get in on a device that you know is guaranteed only for three years. Um the other part is is making sure we are this year in year five of our current contracts been challenging. Um the devices I would say did not

058meet that fifth year very well and we've had a lot of service as a result of that. Um but I give kudos to the guy that comes every day or multiple times a week um to repair it. he's been doing a phenomenal job and that I think to me has sold me on that they will continue to support what they provide us with. Um and also in learning through this year's process, our renewal contract does state clauses that were required per law because they're telling us based on the Minnesota contract that if we have an issue four times over four weeks, they got to bring us new devices. It's right in there. I'm not going to have it's non non-negotiable. It's right up front. That's my expectation. This is what I expect and want and

059need. Um, as I outlined in the little information provided, the renewal actually looks to be coming in at a lower rate than we currently are at uh for Canon devices, which in my research are supposedly what's the best out there as far as for device uh reputation. So, with the renewal, are they going to are we leasing the equipment? Yep. We've leased all of our equipment for nine years now with Laughler. This renewal will replace all the existing cotton machines and a majority of our printer fleet. Some of the printer fleet they've asked if we can maintain and continue on and have it provide us a lower cost as a result of it. So, we'll provide service and maintaining it. And some of the HP printers are they'll last a decade easy. But those the

060smaller devices we probably purchase bigger lease. It's leased at a dollar at the end of the lease. So in essence, we're basically purchasing the printers. All right. Um I work through happy guys. Any questions or comments? All right. Thank you, Brian. All right, moving on to the OTPT 2526 school year contract St. Croy Hill. Yeah, and talking with Shelley, what you're um seeing here is very comparable to prior year uh or to this year, pardon me. So, this would be for next school year um with a slight increase in um overall cost. And I apologize, I should have jotted it down, but I think it was like two and a half to three and a half% increase. It wasn't significant. something. Yeah. All right. Any uh other discussion on that? The same services that we've

061had in the past. Correct. It's need based. So, I mean, arguably you could see more of the need for more services next year, but that's the way it's structured this year. Well, yeah. So they just charge us the hourly rate when they're when we need it. All right. Hearing none. Um we have the athletic training uh contract. We saw that last uh the last meeting. Um it's back on here again. Well, just as an update, I had communicated with um the CEO at the hospital and indicated or filled them in on our conversation about the 20 hours a week. Um in my own defense, it wasn't portrayed to me as 20 hours a week only because I would have said we need more than that. And so, um, I have no other mechanism to prove

062that to you aside from saying that's what was discussed and that was not what was in the contract. And upon followup, the response was, I don't think we're going to be able to do more than 20%. Even with us paying $44,000 a year. So, um, 20% or 20 hours a week. 20 hours a week. Did I say 20%? I apologize. 20 hours a week at $44,000 a year. So, um, Mike and and Terry and I had a conversation just to follow up to say that arguably we should develop a plan to figure out a mechanism by which we can cover athletic training services on our own valition and not partner with the local hospital because it's not cost effective and it's not going to get us the the time that we need and we'll end

063up putting something together so that we have something in place and you'll see what kind of approval will come forward based on uh what options we have. I think worst case scenario, which frankly isn't terrible. It's working just fine, would be to, you know, limp along like we've been doing. The problem again is ensuring that we have um specific coverages during specific times. So, we'll see. I do know from conversation with other superintendents that there are districts that um do like a um there's like an athletic training recruiting website out there and you can do a posting for your own organization where you're not technically hiring them but you're paying them as an independent contractor. I don't know if it's 50 bucks an hour or something like that. But I've got to do some more

064research as we start to put this together and then you'll see what we have uh coming forward at some point in the relatively near future because we want to have it implemented to start this summer. So late August for the update. Yep. Uh the facility plan was kind of hard to look at in the board. It's kind of hard to look at because what it is is um I if you um download it I think then you can see it in an Excel spreadsheet. Um because what it is it's an Excel spreadsheet that has multiple tabs down along the down along the bottom for each of our facilities. Bus garage, elementary, dresser, child care, high school, middle school, uh you name it. And keep in mind that the 10-year facility plan is basically um a

065documentation that's required by the state allowing us to uh spend money from fund 46 which are dollars set aside explicitly with the intent of utilizing them on uh facilities in terms of renovations, improvements and set of technology is also included in that like security cameras and radio systems and uh bell systems PA that kind of So, it's kind of a throw everything in there that you possibly can. It is not meant to be these are all the things we're going to do in the next 10 years. That's not the approach. The development of it is not to say we're spending all of this money in 24, 25, 26. That's not really the approach. It is to develop a rank ordering of uh and prioritization of projects that we have throughout the district. And it's meant

066to be as inclusive as possible such that if we find ourselves in a circumstance where something needs to transpire, a roof repair replacement for example, um because whatever it fails, it's not covered by warranty, it fails. We didn't have intentions of replacing it this year. We're going to have to overspend our budget and dip into fund 46. we can do that without having to amend or rectify the plan because the roof for whatever building happens to be on here. Um it's also conceivable that some items might come up that we've didn't think of putting on or weren't aware of as as the 10ear facility plan was developed. So, I'm also going to say I throw the caveat out there that it's conceivable that say two years from now, three years from now, there's an item

067that we have to modify the facility plan so that it's on there such that we can spend fund 46. And you might say like, what are you talking about? And I don't know right now because it hasn't been identified, but in past experience, that's kind of what happens. Um, I talked with Brian and and the administrative team too about like everything anything and everything that you can think of that we uh might need to do with respect to facilities, put it on the list. And then what ends up happening is um circumstances transpire. So a perfect example would be when the district passed the um bond issue referendum to build the space we're sitting in now, the fire and center in the wait room. It's completely conceivable that during that process it might have come

068up like oh um you know if we're tearing into the high school to this degree to do this add-on wouldn't it make sense to you know insert thing renovate this at the same time and and have a a net reduction in cost because once you tore into it you know you don't put the walls back up and then two years later tear it down to to redo it right it would be eligible then for fun 46 potentially, but it would have to be on the facilities list. So that's an example of something that may be unforeseen. We don't have any plans to do a bond issue referendum in the in the relatively near future, but something like that could arise and then you could be adding um things to the plan. That being said, you'll

069also notice that based on the prioritization, there are items on this plan that will come forward that we may pay for out of fund 10, we may pay for out of fund 46, we may pay for out of both. depending upon where the availability is and what the relative need happens to be. So under statute with fund 46, you have to have a board approved 10-year facility plan, but it also makes a lot of common sense to ensure that we have a generalized road map of where we want to go. But we are not lock step into this is absolutely going to happen each year as outlined on the plan. I'm not sure if I'm making sense, but that's kind of the generalization. So, you're not approving that we're going to absolutely do all these

070things. You're approving the plan. Does this include, like I said, it was hard for me to look through this, but like track re uh getting redone, athletic facilities, baseball field, uh football field. Yeah. Everything. Can we get it in a in the Excel spreadsheet original format after? Absolutely. Just have it. Yep. No problem at all. So again, you mentioned we're not looking to go to a referendum for any of these things at this point, but based on the numbers and different things, um, do we foresee needing to do that, you know, 5 years down the road, or is it too hard to tell at this point, 10 years down the road in terms of a bond issue? Yeah, it's kind of hard to tell. I mean, um, I'm just getting this attached to the email

071so you guys can have it in your inbox right now, then I don't forget. Um, no. I I there's nothing that I that that I'm aware of that is, you know, a dire need that you're talking a multi-million dollar sort of thing. But with that being said, you can have circumstances that arise that make, you know, where you need critical infrastructure and you're just not going to have the funding to do it based on fund 46 and or fund 10. I'm whatever. You have the perfect storm. Uh, you know, a couple boilers go down and you're talking half million dollars there. And then by the way, we got to replace the road. So I wouldn't say it's like completely implausible that we wouldn't go to a bond issue, but I in the next uh five

072to 10, I would be pretty surprised if we had to. Yeah. And I guess part of that I'm thinking, you know, we when was that referendum 178? 17. So I mean we did a lot of big things at that point. things that have the long lifespan things hopefully were good for a little while. Like I said, anything can happen. Yeah. Well, and what you see too, like it's it's things that add up over time. The middle school um driveway loop that's fit towards the front doors of the middle school. That is probably cir whenever was built, 99 or whatever, 98, whenever it was built in middle school, 96. Um, it's it's stuff like that. Roof sections, we have to do a repair on the elementary roof. It's not covered by warranty, but that's like 30

073grand, you know. So, you're talking about non-glamorous items, but as you see, when you peruse the list, and some of them are listed there, it's if we have a quote or a bid for it, we put it down because it gives you at least a placeholder. And then you can figure every year that passes. And frankly, with the tariffs and the circumstances that we're into now, I'm not sure what the escalator is going to be. But you can basically add 10 to 15% on an annual basis, which is why, you know, if you're going to do a construction project, you probably don't want to sit on it too long because the cost is going to continue to increase. But there's no not nothing uh in the future where it's like, yeah, we need 5 million

074bucks or something like that. Um, so we approve this. Do we have to approve a 10-year plan every year? Nope. Okay. No. So, what'll end up happening is that if if you approve this plan, then um if we're going to spend dollars out of fund 46, for example, in this year, we will refer to where it's been laid out on the plan or that it's on the plan, you'll be made aware that if it's fund 46 eligible, um if it's not fund 46 eligible or let's just say we do it out of fund 10, but whatever. We have $20 in fund 46. It's different than that, but let's pretend we do and we do an item on this list, the the list will be updated. So the next time you see it, which may not

075be for, you know, a year, two years, three years, it'll be crossed off or or updated. So if it's spent out of fund 46, it's got to be on the list. If we do it, but not through fund 46, we're just going to track and update this list periodically. And it's not as though there's no annual update requirement, but you probably will um see it with relatively regular frequency as we start to build fun as well as tick some of these things off the list as time progresses with respect to, you know, hey, this year we're doing whatever uh the parking lot, you know, so you're going to see that and here's how we're going to pay for it. Does it stuff get in here like Wi-Fi upgrades? No, I can maintain that that's separate

076out of fund 10. That's a little more frequent. Reoccurring things you see here that are it based are clocks and PA systems, security cameras, um security entrance, door access, those type things are included in the 10ear plan. That's all that stuff. But yes, the stuff I have a separate IT plan that's on more more of like a 10 a six year every six year plan for frequency of some of the regression. All right. Any other questions from you guys, other board members? So, you have a copy of the plan. What I would do is just point you to the tabs on the bottom. So, there's bus garage, dresser, elementary, middle high, FAC, athletic fields, daycare, and it goes through all the listing of when these things, roofs, asphalt, cement, hback. Thanks for doing that. All

077right, last spot here. Can we not upload like an Excel spreadsheet to board docs or what? Converts it to PDF. It always does. Yeah. Oh, I guess I wasn't aware of that. So, in the future if we have something complicated like a 1510 spreadsheet, I'll email it to you as well. That would be my apologies. I haven't used board before. That's right. Live and Martin, right? All right. Um, does anybody need a break? All right. Well, then I'll call this meeting to order. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh, roll call. Matt Bryce here. Tasha Raer here. Steve Bond here. Ronnie Scheler. Brett Mccertie

078here. Matt, would you mind reading the mission statement and the rules of the meeting? No problem. Um mission statement. The mission of the school district of St. Croy Falls is to provide a supportive student centered learning environment that cultivates character, fosters academic excellence, and embraces diversity. Board meeting rules. Focus on the mission. Vision statements of the district. Come prepared. Be respectful of others and open, accepting of ideas. Actively participate. Avoid side conversations. Remember, board meetings are open forum. Thank you, Matt. All right, we'll move on to principal comments. We'll start with you, Mr. Im. Uh, we had our first of interviews today for the seventh grade ELA position. We interviewed two people. We'll continue to interview tomorrow and Wednesday, and we hope to get a person, Mr. born by the end of the week. Uh

079the posting for the eighth grade social studies went out last week and closes this Friday. As of this morning, we had six applicants for the position. Uh we'll be doing interviews for that the week of May 5th. This Friday, the seventh and eighth graders will be going to the fairgrounds to participate in Feed My Starving Children. I love when they go to that event. It is. I don't know if you've ever been there, but it is so high energy and they're just doing good and the kids know that and they come back and they're excited and it's it's a good event. Uh and then today's inservice, we did lots of planning for the end of the year and for next year. Uh elementary teachers came over to the middle school. Thank you, Rita. To talk

080about our incoming fifth graders for next year. Uh we also had the special education teachers. Our eighth grade teachers went up to the high school to talk to them about the students they'll be getting. And the fourth and the elementary ones came over here and we developed class list and lots of projecting through the end of the year and into next year. All right. Uh when's 8th grade recognition? I don't know that that was on May. Hold on. Let me look at my calendar, please. May 28th, 2 o'clock. And if one of you could come, uh Mike and I last year, uh the eighth graders wrote me a little like note on what they learned in middle school, which then I posted in the middle school at the beginning of the year. uh they got

081a their it's not a diploma like their little P recognition from you and then they Mike gave them a note welcoming them welcoming them to high school. So we want to have that bridge there again and it went really well last year and we want to do it again this year. And you said 2 o'clock May 20th 2 o'clock. All right. Thank you for getting that. Um, so we'll talk about that stuff a little bit later, but I want to make sure it was added to the list. Miss Plat, we had a great service today, too. I know I say this a lot, but today truly was the best day ever. We got so much done and it was so much fun and we got all our class list done, our master schedule done. Um,

082just a a beautiful day. I interviewed for a new 4K teacher and have an amazing candidate to bring forth to you guys at the next meeting. State testing, we're done. We just have a handful of kids to do makeup tests and they worked really hard and did their very best. I truly believe that summer school information has gone out to families and the registrations are coming in really fast. We already have 60 kids registered in the elementary school. Um, one of the branches of the strategic plan for commu for the community engagement or you communication that kind of thing was to try and there's a to try and balance keeping schools very very safe which I firmly believe is our number one job for me to make sure that anyone who comes into my building

083is safe to be there with the kids but also helping the community feel welcome. This week we had two events. One was um it was like a reading review variety show in second grade. Every single kid had a parent attend and we had a first grade poetry tea. Every single kid had a parent attend and we had Sundays and stories in 4K which was fabulous and every single kid had a parent attend. So parents were in the building and happy and it was really nice. Um, last week I think I sent in an email and attachment of Little Saints and Kids Care update. I just want to offer you the opportunity to ask questions about that if you have them. Everything's going well. Before I do that though, I do also want to share what

084I think is the best news ever. We have two new Cole Fellowship winners, uh, Stacy Hoff and Melissa Sag Slacky. Welldeserved recognition and they join it. We have a really I was trying to count how many people we have in St. Cray Falls that have coal scholarships. It's or fellowships. It's an amazing number of people. Congratulations to them. It is to get some new staff in here and start They can't get it twice, can they? No, you can't get it twice. So, they're done. But they I mean, it's really an amazing the the co foundation gives each recipient $6,000 to use however they'd like at school. and we've had some amazing projects come out of that and $6,000 to use however they want at home. Yeah. Now, congratulations to them. Thank you. Um, superintendent comments.

085Do you want to hear high school comments first? Oh, yes. We should do that. Okay. So, on behalf of Mike, um, the high school will be conducting Vantage interviews on Friday 4:25. He is pleased that they have received nine applicants and are doing seven. I think it's up to 12. It's up to 12 now. I thought, my god, it wasn't that long ago, I'm not kidding you, that you struggled to get one music applicant. One or two. It's unreal. We conducted the annual tornado awareness drill on Thursday. Only four students were absent last Wednesday during the preac session. Makeup testing was taken care of right away. They ran credit recovery school last Saturday morning and several students attended, improving their failing Q3 grades to passing on Monday. Myself, Kirk, and Tara, and Mike met with

086the Rocket Alumni Solutions and are looking into a large touchscreen digital display for our high school building. This display could be mounted outside the gym. The display board is a digital option to showcase things such as, but not limited to trophies, team photos, athletic team records, alumni spotlights, old yearbooks, highlight videos, etc. It's a very cool way to enhance our trophy cases in a digital fashion. On Monday, our AI action team met for the third time to continue our work pulling together a district AI plan, which we will have in place by August of 2025 for the start of the next school year. And prom is set for Saturday the 26th. Junior prom committee and Mrs. Zidro are working fervently to put together an awesome experience. Over 150 tickets have been sold. That is the

087high school update. All right, board members, any comments or questions for the principles? All right. Thank you. Now, Mr. Brewer, I um jumped the gun and made the majority of my comments were going to be centered around the the recent interviews and the the quality of applicants that we've had and the fact that this is an outstanding place, but I won't say it anymore. It's a really nice place. It's awesome to be here. Everybody that I know loves it here, including myself. And um so there you go. That's what it was. Honestly, that was is what's going to be the center of the comments, so I won't waste any more time. All right. Thank you. Um, board members that went to training, Kasha, do you want to talk about the CISA event we went to?

088Yes. [Music] Joseph, my brain. Um, yes. So, I was thrilled that we had uh myself, Fred, Craig, Ronnie, we went to that pres what was it like an hour that you presented? Yep. Um just a phenomenal speaker. Talked about telling and sharing your story, relationships, very energetic. Um Matt, did you have you seen him at all? Okay. If you get a chance, I highly recommend it. um they served us a a meal and it seemed like it was very well attended too. Um lots of people from different school districts attended. So he actually presented at this year's um state convention at the WSB state convention. Yeah, it was pretty much the same presentation. Nothing I liked it so much I want him just because I thought he did a very good job. Um very positive

089talk. I mean, Fall Creek, he's from Fall Creek and all. He uh, you know, weathered some storms with COVID and, you know, PR and, you know, all that kind of actually. Very good. So, he's a principal. No, he was. He was the superintendent. Okay. So, he's a motivational person. Yeah. And that must be what he does now. Super. That's correct. He um resigned I think two years ago. Yeah. one or two years ago to pursue this whole speaking engagement game. What was that? That's why these are I can't remember. Was that two weeks ago now? It was at least two weeks ago. I can tell you. I was gonna say I I think that night I started following him on Instagram because he really kind of showcased a lot of how he helped brand the

090school district. So Kirk, if you're interested, go follow him on Instagram and anyone else because I think he's got some really cool ideas on how he shaped the branding. Or day it was. Was it Wednesday? Tuesday or Wednesday. It was April. Thursday. It was a Thursday. It was your birthday. It was April birthday. Oh my god. Yes, it was April 3rd. Said happy birthday. Oh god. Yeah, let's forget it. All right. We won't talk about how old I am apparently. Um. All right. Well, thank you. Yes, I thought that was uh well worthwhile. I mean, those are usually pretty good. They're that spring one that you go to for season. The meal was I thought was very good and then the presentation was it was worth it. Yeah, they had ribs. I don't think I've

091ever had ribs. Not much. All off the bone. We're all foodies. We're good. Um, all right. No presentations or awards. We'll move on to the consent agenda. So, I'll take a motion to approve public comment. I mean, I'm guessing we're not going to get any, but just in case. Do you have anything to say? No. All right. We wait for two weeks. Yeah. All right. All right. Thanks, Greg. Didn't mean to skip over um the consent agenda. I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll make that motion. Motion by Matt. I'll second it. Second by Doc. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Motion carries. Uh next we'll move on to curriculum and policy and we'll look at the review and vote on policy 8:30 uh that we looked

092at this last last meeting, the guidelines for public use of school facilities. Make a motion to approve that. I'll make a motion to approve the policy 830 rule guidelines for public use of school facilities. All right, we have a motion by Steve. A second. Second by Tasha. Question. Yes. Wasn't there some checking that was going to be done and like meet with the athletic director and all that stuff on this and who charge and who not to right? Yes, there was. Yeah, there was some discussion. Yeah, and the language I I apologize the language should be updated. So, we should have um linked it on there again. That completely slipped my mind. I will tell you exactly what is now inserted. That's 100% on me. So I I apologize. If you want to wait and

093approve it next month, there's or yeah, it'll be next month. It'll be no harm, no follow. Um because we can wait. So the the conversation that we had around 8:30 and I went ahead and uh I updated the policy and shared it with the admin team and we should have linked it again because it doesn't look the same as it did. So there's another bullet point inserted in. Thank you, Matt. Um the first bullet point inserted, if you remember the one red change at the top was just to say facilities and equipment use form because that's the actual so equipment was inserted. That's the actual title of the form. That's not substantive. Um then custodial services will be build at a rate of $50 per hour per custodian needed. That's what we were doing, but

094for whatever reason it had been dropped off in this latest iteration. And now I've added, we've added um another bullet point right into that that says associated fees may be waved and or reduced for organization based in the school district that are nonprofit with a sole focus on children. Can we say that again? Associated fees may be waved and or reduced for organizations based in the school district that are nonprofit with a sole focus on children. So the booster basketball, wrestling, whatever that they wouldn't have to pay the fees because they're nonprofit children. Correct. And then what would happen is um Kirk is we talked about the need for the like a form development. I don't know that we're there yet because we're not 100% sure all the kind of questions that might be asked,

095but it would be to reach out and say, "What is this going to look like? Here's what we need." Because arguably there are going to be circumstances if it's out of the ordinary where it's like look we can't underwrite this this whole thing but we can meet you halfway or whatever the case may be and there's going to be other circumstances where as you indicate Brett it's like yeah no you're good because for example if you have a couple of ball practices on a Saturday and you need somebody to open the the gym or open the building and an employee happens to be one of your coaches that has access no harm. will follow. We can clean up after ourselves. You don't have to worry about it. Totally fine. We're hosting a a weekend long

096Friday night, Saturday, all day Saturday, all day Sunday ball tournament. There's going to be custodial coverage needed for that. I'm not going to say it's going to be 50 bucks an hour, but we're going to have to talk about whether this is 100% um free or whether there's going to be some kind of uh you know, delineation around assisting the in offsetting the cost to the district as well. that would be developed based on well I mean we're not charging entry fees because it all it is is like Unity and Oyola that are coming here and it's good you know it would probably be a three-day multi a big tournament but just to toss it out there or we're not even selling concessions or yeah we're going to do that but we usually raise about

097800 bucks you know so we're going to do it kind of on a case by case basis and then identify what uh and encapsulate what um specific questions we can ask to fair it out and make it more processoriented but on the front end. We didn't really know what we didn't know. So, we went with the open relatively open-ended language allowing some conversation to take place um with the eye of being fair and responsible and respectful to our community- based you based organizations and having deference pay to them when they're using the facilities because ultimately we want them to use the facilities. But if we have, you know, custodial needs or like there's, I don't know, somebody needs to be here for safety reasons or things like that, then it may not be just free.

098It's kind of how we thought what we talked about. So like a for profit, say we've got a former Olympian or something in women's basketball and as a business and could charge high rates and get participate, etc. That's for profit. You're saying that's they would have to pay those facilities fees and that's not atypical. Yeah. So like even if a coach that's not an Olympian but builds a following and they have their own business which is Matt Bryce basketball camp, uh yeah, you would absolutely be charged. You have to raise facility. You have to pay for custodians. Yeah. But if you're talking about Matt Bryce, booster ball coach. No. That's one question I thought of after the game or not game at the meeting when uh when I was more involved with this stuff when

099my kids were younger as custodians, they had somebody working here on Saturdays. Is that not the case anymore? Um not all of the time. No. I don't think it's consistent that it's every Saturday. And I think that made a difference because back then he was here anyway. We would if he had overtime or whatever we the girls program that I was involved with, we throw the school some money just to help, you know, makes help pay for that overtime or extra hours or whatever that is here. But yeah, it definitely makes a difference if nobody's here. Correct. Yeah, I think we should take back the motion and bring it back next week. Next meeting. Next meeting. How do we do that? Was there a motion made and a second? Yeah. And a second. So, um

100the individual that made the motion can uh resend the motion and then we can and and we can bring it back uh next month. I'll resend the motion. We need a second on that. No. Okay. Um no. I think we're fine. The thing is too is that we're not obligated to militantly follow Robert's rules. The intent is not to hide anything from the public. The intent is to ensure that you see the clean copy of the updated policy. And that's 100% on me. Yeah, we just resend the motion. We don't we're not going to vote on it. Just let it sit and we'll bring it back in in the first meeting in May. All right. Unless you want to see other changes. Otherwise, what I got is what we'll see. Well, do you think the

101form would be ready or is that still something you're going to kind of kick around? I would prefer to have the form develop based on circumstances. So, once we better identify what we're talking, it might be next year this time before we have a form developed. Yeah. All right. That's fine. All right. Right there. All right. So everybody's okay with that bringing back next meeting. We'll do that. We send the motion. Moving on to personnel. Uh we got uh vote on the resignation of Tammy Hasselquist, elementary teacher. Her letter was in the packet. I'll take a motion for that. I'll make that motion to accept the resation of Ty Castle Elementary teacher. We have a motion by Tasha. Thanks. Second by Matt. Second. We got Matt over here. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those

102in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Uh we'll take a motion to vote on the resignation of Gina Aer. Ter title one teacher and reading specialist. I'll make that motion to accept the resignation of Gina Adder with thanks for years of service to the district. Motion by Steve. Second by Dasha. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Moving on to number three. The dis vote on the resignation of Molly Becker, middle school social studies teacher. I'll make that motion. Have a motion by Matt. Second by Tasha. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. We'll vote on the resignation of um Katie Jacobson, business education teacher. I have a question. Are we able to do both together? one one person or do they

103have to be separate? It should be separate because they're two separate. The teaching contract and the coaching contract are two separate things. Would it matter if you did them together? Technically, no. But that's why they're listed separately. It's because it's two separate commitments. I'll make a motion to accept the resation teachers. We have a motion by Steve. Second. Second by Tasha. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Make a motion to vote on the resignation of Katie Jacobson, head girls golf coach. I'll make that motion to accept the resignation of Katie Jacobson, head girls golf coach. A motion by Tasha. Second, second by Matt. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I opposed. Motion carries. The next on the list is a financial discussion uh vote and

104discuss or vote discuss and vote on the wage adjustment proposals. Yep. So, we discussed Thank you. I'm sorry to jump on it. We discussed this at length um at LA uh our last meeting and what's included there for you is the the financial difference in uh 2425 to 2526. So that'd be the the net increase. You can see that total 272 272,400. Um we also took the liberty of ensuring that we double checked in terms of the budget to give the board an idea. Those documents aren't aren't linked here. Uh but LA created reports and compared to this time last year. So as it stands right now, our current um expenditures are at 53.4 or 53.6% 6% of the budget compared to this time last year which was 54. So you can see where that

105we're in the ballpark. You can see, of course, when you do a wage increase, you're going to spend more money. I'm going to circle back to one of the points that I made last time when we talked, which is there's no human being walking the earth that knows what the next baludget will bring. Will we see an increase? Will we not? I don't know the answer to that question. Why then would you say that we should pass on a p a wage increase to our staff members? The reason being is that we know that in most other sectors and venues, you get some kind of a wage adjustment on an annual basis. Now, is that true 100% of the time? No. There's always going to be a case that you can site where that doesn't

106happen. However, I would also mention that if we continue, well, not continue because we've stayed on on track with providing increases, but if you would continue to say, you know, we we're not sure, so let's not do anything, and you do that, god forbid, a couple of times, now you have one heck of a gap to make up when you're lamenting the fact of why aren't people applying and working here, but they are in Oyola, Unity, and and Frederick, for example. And frankly, I'll cite what I talked about before. It's because of money. Um, and again, we're not wildly on the high end. We're also not wildly on the low end. We're very solidly in the upper middle, if that's even a thing. We're not the highest paid people on the block. We're not the

107lowest paid people on the block. And I'm going to say we're we're just above average, which frankly is a pretty decent sweet spot in terms of our um base wage compensation for brand new employees. We're doing outstanding, which makes a huge difference to people because I don't know any human being that can make a living uh with student loans and so forth and so on at $40,000 a year with a bachelor's degree. That's insane. We're at now like 52. Um, also on the on the top end, we are not we're we're um we have a lot of experienced um staff members that we really want to hang around more so than we ever have in the past for the reasons that we've talked about. Not that we ever wanted them to go. I don't mean

108to say that, but um we don't encourage retirement at 57 or 58 like we did in the old days um with big incentives of of um health care packages and that kind of thing because we want them to stick around and we want to keep the positions um filled with competent people and because health benefits are wildly expensive. You know, it used to be three grand a year for a family insurance policy. Now you're talking 23 grand a year and that's not even that long ago. Um, so it's that rationale. It's about remaining uh a competitive employer. And arguably what'll happen for the majority of these districts, the average right now for districts that have settled or have passed on a wage adjustment is around the the 3% 2.95, which is what the CPI was.

109Um, and you're going to see that average, mark my word, stay basically the same, even if it's a bad budget. Why? because every district wants to continue to employ the people they have because we can't afford to lose the people we have when it's all said and done. And so we could certainly wait. I just don't understand the logic in doing so in this hiring climate. And that is 180° different than what I would have told you 10 years ago. No question in my mind. You get 50, 60, 25 applicants for every job that you post. I mean, maybe you're going to hedge your bets and cross your fingers and hope that that person that's making a lot of money does retire because then we'll save money when we hire a new person. We're past

110that kind of logic and arguably most private employers are of the same logic which is what can we do to keep you around because I can't find people to do the job you're doing. So, that's really the thought process and as you can see um could could arguably adjusting the wages of our staff cause financial issue issues for us in the future? Yes. That's true anytime you do it. Um, might we be smarter to wait and see what the budget looks like? I don't think so because it's not going to change what the recommendation on the percentage increase would be regardless of the budget. To put it into a little bit of perspective, that increase of 272,000 is 1% of the budget, less than that. Um, yeah, about well just shy of just just over

1111%. So we have about a 24ish million dollar budget depending upon circumstance. There's some eb and flow. So yeah, 272 is not a significant portion of the budget. About what 1.3% maybe I'd say 1.4. But keep in mind the lump sum of our budget overall 70% to to 75% of our budget is people. It's wages and benefit packages. We're a school. That's what it should be. Any questions, comments, feedback on that? Um, it's up to us, I guess, if we want to make the motion to move forward with this. At this point, um, we just need a motion and approval. Do we, um, because I'll have to abstain because there's a teacher line item. So, that's correct. Are we going to do them all separate approval or do you want to approve the whole proposal

112and then I'll just abstain? Whatever works the best. We have a quorum so it's not consequential. I'm going to abstain since there is a teacher salary increase. If you want to handle them separately as a board so Tasha can, you know, levy her opinion or her vote. That's up to you guys. Um Why don't we do it one at a time? Okay. So, what I'll do then is just give you a synopsis of what we're talking about. So, generally support staff is a 3% wage adjustment. Correct. Lay. So, you'd look for a motion in a second on a 3% wage adjustment for support staff. All right. So, you want to make that? Sure. I'll make the motion to increase sport staff wages by 3%. 256. All right, we have a motion by Matt. I'll second.

113Second by Dashino. Any further discussion? I can't remember. Roll call on these or no? I think we should. Okay, roll call vote. Matt Bryce, yes. Tasha Rager, yes. Steve Bond, yes. Ronnie Scheler, Brett Mccertie, yes. All right, next we move on to transportation. Transportation's a little bit wonkier, but you're talking 6% on the majority. So, everything except for what I'm going to say next. 6% but $25 for hourly um trip. Hourly trip. Thank you. That's what it's called. Up to $25. There's not the gradients anymore. If you drive a trip, it's 25 bucks an hour. And then a dresser shuttle paid at $85 per day. [Applause] And that all that equals that. You got it. So is it easier just to say as presented? Sure. To say what? As presented. That'd be beautiful. Unless you

114want it broke out so people can see it. It's your decision. I just want to make sure everybody knows what we're talking about because the conversation was all at our last meeting. Yep. Sure. All right. Do we have a motion for the transportation increase of $8,19740? I'll make that motion. Oh, sorry. I'll make that motion to um the salary increase for transportation as presented. Motion by Dasha. I'll second it. Second by Steve. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll do roll call vote. Matt Bryce, yes. Tisha Rager, yes. Steve Bont, yes. Ronnie Scheler, Brent McCertie, yes. Moving on to child care. That one's easy. 6% wage increase. We have a 6% increase equaling $45,537.96. I'll take a motion to approve that. I'll make a motion to approve the teleare contracts by 6%. We have a motion

115by Steve. Second. Second by Tasha. Any further discussion? All those in Oh, sorry. Roll call vote. Matt Brace. Yes. Tasha Ragger. Yes. Steve Bond. Yes. Ronnie Schuler. Brett Mccertie. Yes. Moving on to the teachers. It says no lane movement. That's so lame movement is hard to calculate because um the staff members have to submit paperwork and that has to be approved uh by administration and ultimately by the board when you see lane movements. So that's bachelor's back plus 15 masters master plus 15 that kind of thing plus 30. So that's not incorporated into this unless we knew what it was already. Um but the teacher adjustment is basically 3%. Uh it's $1,500 per cell. And so we're allowing for steps to take place, which means an annual advancement and lane changes to take place, but

116really the motion is for 1500%. Well, the best way we don't want to advertise that we're not paying lane movements, you know, exactly. So, we just want to say the teacher increase it 1500 per cell and then everything else will take care of itself because unless we're freezing steps and lanes we're not then they're going to move because that's just status quo. So, frankly the motion can be for 1500% for teaching staff and that's yearly. I just want to be clear if anybody's listening that's not that's that's an annual $1,500 increase. All right. Somebody want to make that motion? Make that motion as presented. We have a motion by Matt. I'll second. Second by Steve. Roll call vote. Oh, I'm sorry. Any further discussion? Roll call vote. Matt Bryce, yes. Tasha Rager, Steve Bont, yes.

117Ronnie Scheler, Brett Mccertie. Yes. And last but not least, the directors and supervisors. Yeah. So, um that is a mixture of 3%s and 6%s. And in order to uh describe what that is, we're going to identify individual human beings, which frankly after the fact is legit, but I don't know how super comfortable I am enumerating that list, but we talked about it at the last meeting. Once again, when it's done, it's publicly available in terms of somebody can say, "What do you pay your childare director?" And we have documentation to support that. So, I mean, you just say the 30,4 31 cents as presented. Yeah. And distributed as directed by administration or something like that. And I think that would because you've taken into account the 6%s that we talked about, right? And then the

118other is at 3%. Okay, I have it if you guys want to see it. We don't want to identify individuals at this point, so we can just say as presented. Okay. Take that motion. Make that motion as presented. We have a motion by Matt, second by Tasha. Any further discussion? Roll call vote. Matt Bryce, yes. Tasha Raer, yes. Steve Bond, yes. Scheler from Mccertie. Yes. All right. You'll hear about administration in December, just as a reminder. All right. Uh so we will move on to do we have any announcements? Um so we'll talk about the upcoming events which there's a lot at this time of year. We got and uh let's see prom this weekend. We don't typically have a board representative there. Um what time march is? Um I was just told the time

119was 7 o' but I don't know what time march is. It's been at five in the past. Oh, I have three o'clock on my calendar for some reason. That seems awfully early for a grand march. There's a concert that evening. Oh, is that why? Yeah. So, it is at 3. Well, what it's listed on my calendar as is prom grand march 300 p.m. to to 6:30 p.m. So, I wouldn't say it's at 3. I don't know that. I'll ask Mike and I'll send you an email. All right. Um, then we have the SC senior scholarship night is April 30th. That is before the next board meeting. So, we should probably get somebody to attend that. Anybody able to do that? That would be what? Next Tuesday, Wednesday. April 30th is Wednesday. Next week Wednesday. Yes.

120I'm taking myself off the event, but I don't know. Is this do pick and choose over email. Oh yeah, we don't have that. We can do that. No, we probably shouldn't do that. You can have conversations via No, I mean signing up for attending. Yeah, but it's hard to Okay, it's a walking form. Well, Don is here and she's available for one of these things. We could certainly have her attend at this point. Um, let me see here. She'll be official by then. Yeah, she will be official, but not on the 30th or she will be 30 after the 28th. 11:59. [Music] [Laughter] Kirk just sent me that the grand march, as is indicated on the flyer, is at 5:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center for Prom. Prom Grand March 5:30 p.m. Thank you,

121Kurt. All right. So, we got April 30th. I can do that. And then May 7th is the academic awards banquet. That's at 6:30. And typically when I've done that in the past, the board member helps hand out. All right. 6:30. Matt, when is our next meeting? Well, that's on the 13th. May 13th. Yep. All right. Thanks, Matt. The rest of these, take a look. uh you know I can at least communicate with um one individually brother Ronnie to see if there's anything she's interested in. Uh but the baloria is or next board meeting is Tuesday May 13th baloria is May 14th at 7 p.m. Peace Lutheran. Uh graduation is 7:00. Typically we have two board members at that one. Um, unless Doc wants to BFF that for one last time. Yeah, if somebody doesn't if

122we don't have two people a lot of the seniors this year, but it does I don't want to go against wants to do it. All right. Um and then our uh second board meeting is May 27th. Last day of school is the 29th. 8th grade recognition is 28th. Rita, do you have any big events at night coming up? No. Fact track and field day. We'll do that next. I mean, we have all that. Yeah. There's nothing where we would require board presence yet. We've got some good fun stuff going on, but you don't have to hand anything out at any of them. All right. You're welcome at all of them. Of course. Uh and then June we have the two scheduled meetings at this point and like I said we'll probably be looking for some

123dates for a board goal session to at some point to get through that. So um anything else? Do you want more than one board member at some the 30th or the 7th? We certainly can. I'm free so I can do either one. We we should know so we can post it. Two or more than one. Well, um I mean we don't have any subcommittees that are smaller than the committee of the whole five, but you you could. So if you had two, you don't have to post it based on the configuration currently, but if we do have three, we have to post it. So, I think to be safe, we may just post those if we know at least two people are coming just in case another board member chooses to show up. You know

124what I'm saying? Matt, do you have a problem? If you want to do the 30th, there's nothing really to hand out. He's just kind of there to be present. Does your uh place of business um do scholarships? Yes, but it's in the general, so they don't present. Oh, okay. That's what I used to do to present and then be here as a board member, too. But, um, all right. So, if you want to do that one, um, that would be great. Thank you. Um, all right. Anything else? Hearing none, we'll have Matt discuss the rules of the meeting. All right. focused on the mission vision statements of the district came prepared respectful of others and open accepting of ideas actively participated avoided side conversations and remembered board meetings are open forum thank you Matt with

125that I'll take a motion to adjourn the executive close session pursuant to section 19.851 851 C and F. I'll make a motion. Motion by Christina. I'll second it. Second by Steve. [Music] Matt Price. Yes. Toshina Rger. Yes. Steve Bond. Yes. Ronnie Schuler. Brett Mccertie. Yes. Thank you everybody.