[0:00] Good evening. I'd like to call the February 10th, 2025, Monommony Falls Board of Education meeting to order. Will you please rise for the pledge of allegiance?

[0:12] Through 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.

[0:31] Ms. Mochelle, was the meeting properly posted? Yes it was. Thank you.

[0:35] This is a school district of Menominee Falls Board of Education meeting.

[0:40] It is being held at the Village Hall Boardroom at W-156-N-848-0.

[0:46] Program Room Menominee Falls 530-51.

[0:49] A live broadcast will be televised on the Time Warner Spectrum cable channel 25.

[0:54] To watch the recorded meeting, please visit our website at www.fallschools.org

[1:01] Backslashboard and click on View Archived meetings.

[1:04] This is a regular meeting of the Board of Education.

[1:07] Ms. Mosho, could you please do roll call attendance and Board Member Stoulin, Wapert, and

[1:13] Holzman are excused tonight.

[1:17] Board Member Grange.

[1:18] Here.

[1:19] President Christensen.

[1:20] Thank you.

[1:21] Here.

[1:22] Board Member Ren.

[1:24] Here.

[1:25] Board Member Linger.

[1:26] Here.

[1:27] Also.

[1:29] Thank you.

[1:30] I'll need a motion to approve today's meeting agenda.

[1:34] Thank you. Do we have a second all those in favor say aye

[1:41] those opposed and are there any public comment forms

[1:51] I believe there's some

[1:52] handouts there as well I think I believe related to the public comment all

[2:02] right

[2:02] first off Board of Education member reports yeah I do have one quick thing I was

[2:14] this weekend and across and I know Emma is going to talk about that later so I just want

[2:18] to mention how proud I am of the team and the girls and the coaches. They work very, very

[2:23] hard on and off the court or off the dance floor so just very, very proud of you guys and

[2:30] the rest of the team so yeah and they took a second and I'm sure Emma is going to let

[2:34] you all know but yeah, very proud. All right, thank you. Can student board members

[2:41] next.

[2:46] Okay so today I did activities and clubs so to start off tomorrow we have

[2:50] our excellence breakfast which will be put on by the business academy. We have

[2:54] these quarterly and this is when students before school have like snacks, drinks

[2:59] and stuff when they like excel in school so students are able to come have

[3:04] notherencies, minimal absences, no phone violations and they all passing all classes.

[3:10] Also recently we had our annual candy grant fundraiser where students from

[3:14] National Honor Society put on, they could buy candy bars for their friends, crushes

[3:21] and teachers, and then also this year for an extra dollar you could buy a heart

[3:24] key chain that helps support American Heart Association. Hosa coming up has

[3:30] their state competitions and we have nearly 30 students who are going forward and

[3:37] And then our FPLA also had their regionals on February 1st.

[3:46] Okay.

[3:46] And then yes, I will be doing the athletic support.

[3:49] I just did the varsity athletic support today.

[3:52] So for boys, varsity basketball, they traveled to Nathan Hill High School last Friday.

[3:57] They won their game on the final score of 89-62, so that was a really fun game to watch.

[4:02] The girls varsity basketball team, they also played against Nathan Hill, but they played

[4:06] at home.

[4:06] and their final score was 71 to 29.

[4:09] They won that game.

[4:11] Boys, varsity, Isocki, they have won their past two games.

[4:14] They played Marquette last Thursday or Friday

[4:16] and then UW or USM, University Schools of Milwaukee

[4:20] just this past weekend and they won both of those games.

[4:23] And so they are now ranked number two

[4:25] in the state going into playoff.

[4:27] So that's really cool.

[4:28] The varsity dance team, like Mr. Langer was talking about,

[4:31] we did travel to the cross for state last weekend.

[4:33] It was really fun.

[4:34] We placed in all three of our routines, which I don't think has ever happened before.

[4:39] We were the runner up for D2 Palm, so second place in D2 Palm, third place in D1 Jazz,

[4:45] and then fifth place in D1 Cake.

[4:47] For boys varsity wrestling, Mike Deladen and Beckham-Stallis became a greater mutual conference

[4:53] champions at the conference in West Dallas.

[4:57] And then the varsity cheer team, they are currently in Florida competing for their nationals.

[5:02] And that's all I have for today.

[5:03] Well, thank you so much.

[5:06] Thank you.

[5:08] And Superintendent Munoz.

[5:13] I have several different names.

[5:15] First of all, congratulations to one of our teachers, Lana Schickert.

[5:20] She was awarded recently.

[5:22] The presentation is public now, but the presentation is going to be March 9th.

[5:27] It's the Educator Award for a Music Teacher of the Year through the Civic Music Association of Milwaukee.

[5:36] So a little bit more to come with Lana, outstanding music teacher

[5:41] verse at the middle school, and actually I was just talking to her a couple

[5:47] days before I went down with illness, but we had some great conversation about

[5:52] some of the other things coming up in my presentation. I met with State Assemblyman

[5:57] Connordal today for a good period of time, myself and Mr. Halverson. We had a good

[6:02] It is such an about a lot of upcoming legislation, but also school safety.

[6:07] So he had some interesting, he has some good points about school safety.

[6:10] We made sure to reiterate the importance of the office of school safety under what's called speak up, speak out.

[6:19] So most substantial amount of data online.

[6:23] We use this program and it was a good meeting with the State Assembly today.

[6:29] I spent most of last Thursday working with a lot of district leaders preparing for the

[6:34] strategic plan update at the next school board meeting, which we're excited about.

[6:38] We looked at mid-year data and compared things to our strategic plan goals and measures so

[6:42] that we could start to get a good handle on the nature of our pending board report.

[6:48] Lots of thanks to Ms. Reable for the organization of that meeting, but also Dr. Madarazo, who

[6:54] was also a strategic plan facilitator was part of that meeting to help transition to a little

[7:01] bit more data, a little bit more data fill back from the stage of plan.

[7:06] So based on when we receive data that informs the strategic plan updates to the board, it's

[7:11] likely, it'll be wise to move to three reports instead of four reports a year, just based

[7:17] on when that information is coming in.

[7:19] So in other words, new information about reading and math.

[7:24] It's not always reported on a quarterly basis, but three reports a year, and then linking

[7:29] that to the strategic plan, I think it's a good adjustment going forward.

[7:34] A couple of other things, Leon, I met informally with the new union leadership last week.

[7:38] We had a good meeting.

[7:39] We look forward to continuing our very positive relationship with the teachers union.

[7:44] I met with the area of Boyscal Council leadership at their request so that they could explore

[7:48] increasing usage of our facilities, which I encouraged outside of the school day, of course.

[7:54] They already do in a limited way, but this is a larger group that's looking to bring weekend

[7:59] events. They already do it. The boys call council is quite large. They do it in the far western

[8:06] portion of their council, if you will. And we're on the other side of that. So it was a good meeting

[8:13] with their leadership, one of whom is in our district with students in our district. So

[8:18] That was a good collaboration.

[8:21] Amy Rebel and I worked together, collaborated on a Model Act 20 promotion policy.

[8:26] This policy, those are on the curriculum committee know that it's going to be required under this Act 20 promotion or

[8:34] this Act 20 to be in place by July 1st, 2025.

[8:39] So we'll have this ready for a first reading for a policy committee meeting in the near future.

[8:44] I think you must rebuild again for a leadership in this critical work, all right?

[8:50] The high school held a Pepp rally, which was a really cool event, right ladies?

[8:56] So it was a really cool event last Friday, whether they celebrated winter sports, clubs,

[9:01] and activities.

[9:02] They had a lot of games.

[9:03] I hear the seniors won.

[9:06] Doesn't it always work that way?

[9:08] Okay.

[9:11] So these sorts of events are really great.

[9:13] You're a little bit away from homecoming usually.

[9:15] That sort of thing happens around homecoming.

[9:17] When you're right in the middle of the school year,

[9:19] the school year can get a little long, especially January and February.

[9:22] Not that there's going to be any snow this week.

[9:24] I'd have only been asked that 20 times in one day today.

[9:27] But that's okay, probably a little bit.

[9:30] So that was a great event.

[9:32] Also on the same day, actually coordinated by Lana Schickert,

[9:36] who was in award-winner, so last Friday, the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra

[9:43] through the Philharmonic Orchestra actually presented a concert for the middle school during the day.

[9:50] So it was actually one o'clock, it was cool that I wasn't able to attend.

[9:54] I was scheduled to just didn't work it out with my personal illness, but I was invited and I've

[10:01] heard it was a wonderful event. So it was really great to have those outstanding musicians come in

[10:06] and play for the school, and play for a lot of the musicians there that were interested.

[10:11] So that was really great.

[10:13] Other things going on at the rest of this week, Friday is the athletic hall of fame presentation.

[10:18] So those that are interested, there's a game that evening, we'll have an event that I think

[10:24] Mr. Halverson and I are scheduled to attend on Friday evening, Valentine's Day.

[10:32] So there'll be a presentation at the Hot House, and then we'll also come to the game and

[10:36] have a presentation at halftime with Mr. Gabauer and others that do the regular Hall of Fame

[10:43] presentations.

[10:44] So, that will be exciting as well.

[10:47] A couple of other things, big news on the school's safety front.

[10:51] We've kind of moved into tabletop exercises.

[10:54] And tabletop exercises was one of the recommendations from that joint safety drill last year that

[11:00] we did with a lot of different community partners,

[11:02] including Waukeshaw Emergency Management.

[11:06] And we've started table tops now.

[11:08] I believe this one was at Ben Franklin, right, Mr. Halverson?

[11:11] Yeah, we started with Ben Franklin,

[11:12] they'll be rolling through all the buildings.

[11:15] And essentially, in setting doing whole scale drills with safety,

[11:18] like making sure that we're sitting in a room,

[11:20] looking through scenarios internally,

[11:22] not with students but with staff,

[11:24] to make sure that we're working a little bit,

[11:26] But even more deeply about what we want to improve with our approach to school safety.

[11:32] So it's called a table top exercise.

[11:35] So we're excited about that, Mr. Halverson, is leading that with the principles.

[11:41] I'll do it.

[11:42] I just had a question on the end.

[11:43] That's not every building then.

[11:46] One more time.

[11:47] The table top exercise is more of a, it's more of a scenario-based exercise.

[11:53] is more of a drill at each building at each building.

[11:59] So we've started them and we're rolling them.

[12:02] They're scheduled in all the buildings,

[12:03] but they'll be completed probably by spring break,

[12:06] maybe a little bit after.

[12:08] Yeah.

[12:08] So we're excited about moving forward

[12:11] with that aspect of drill.

[12:13] It's deeper, it's more difficult.

[12:16] You have to plan the scenarios.

[12:18] It takes quite a bit more work,

[12:20] but it does take us a step further

[12:22] in terms of making the district even that much more safe

[12:26] for students and for staff.

[12:27] So we're excited about that.

[12:29] Also, we added an AED for athletics.

[12:32] So we were short of an AED for athletics.

[12:36] So we made sure to purchase that,

[12:38] get that into that department.

[12:41] And we're looking forward to some grants and a few more

[12:44] to make sure to expand the availability

[12:46] of those life-saving devices.

[12:49] Couple other exciting news on the school's safety front.

[12:51] we now have four C-P-R-E-D trainers within the district, which is big news because it's a train,

[12:57] a trainer piece that any more training that we can have for our staff internally is training

[13:04] that we don't have to pay for externally, but also we can ramp up and speed up that type of

[13:11] life-saving training as well with all of our staff. And that is the intention rolling forward.

[13:16] So we are excited about that.

[13:19] So it's been a very active couple of weeks and on the weather note, there is a good deal of weather moving in.

[13:27] I am taking a look at things just in case anybody has any question.

[13:30] I am taking a look at all of that.

[13:34] Thank you.

[13:35] Mr. Munoz, both of my kids had this sugar and she's a fantastic teacher.

[13:40] Do you have any information on where this ceremony would take place?

[13:44] I'm sorry about that. I'm looking at it right now that it's Sunday March 9th at the Bradley

[13:51] Symphony Center. And I just pulled this right off the website. So, that's the actual

[13:59] award presentation and reception. Sunday March 9th at the Bradley Symphony Center.

[14:05] Oh, okay. So, it's probably not open to the public. I am not sure of that, but I will look

[14:10] And okay, I can solve each other separately and just yeah, congratulate her then I appreciate it.

[14:16] Thank you. Yeah, it is a prestigious award. It's outstanding. Yeah.

[14:20] Well, thank you so much. I'm going to give the three important members opportunity to dismiss it they like.

[14:31] All

[14:35] right, it's moving on discussion item. Owners representative reports on the community

[14:41] the REC and Riverside Building Project presented by Mr. Oh, I'm just opening it.

[14:47] Oh, okay.

[14:49] Mr. Kurt, we will host this year as well.

[14:51] But I just wanted to start out with a shout out really to Kurt and his team at Building Solutions.

[14:55] They are owners rep for the CE and REC project and have done an awesome job.

[15:00] Great job of creating this communication between all three parties. Our VJS, our construction manager company, EUA, our architects, and our district folks as well. So really an awesome hire. I would absolutely do this again in the future. And Kurt's here to talk a little bit about reporting on what from his side of things, how the project has been going so far. So take it away, Kurt, thank you.

[15:25] Yeah, and has he comes up seem recommendation from myself in Caitlin that we may speak for all of us that

[15:32] Do appreciate his professionalism and a lot of little things that happen across the way that aren't necessarily public

[15:40] But they're important for us to be sitting in this very positive situation going into a build

[15:45] Well, thanks for that introduction. I appreciate that. I've been enjoying working with the district as well

[15:51] So last month when I was here and giving a report, I really, I mentioned I really feel positive with where the districts act as we enter into the construction phase of the wreck and Riverside project, so exciting for that.

[16:07] When the district interviewed me and we presented to the committee, we explained our services, we broke it into two different buckets of why building solutions or why owners were up.

[16:20] The first was the journey, and the second was the results.

[16:25] So the results is a tangible item, and the journey is items like hopefully the board through this process,

[16:34] knowing that you have an advocate, an expert that's in, that knows construction contracts,

[16:39] knows construction finance, and construction methods, that the board feels confident that good decisions are made.

[16:46] right? So that's an example of the journey side. Likewise with the administration team as we're

[16:50] working day in and day out as challenges come up that they can feel confident that we will help resolve

[16:58] those issues or challenges or move it forward as they are continuing to work on their normal day-to-day

[17:04] jobs, right? So that's part of the journey as well. So the results side then is a very specific

[17:13] of because we're involved in the project

[17:16] in using that expertise on behalf of the district,

[17:20] there's certain things along the way

[17:21] that we can quantify as we had input on this,

[17:25] we adjusted this or asked the right question here,

[17:28] and there was a financial result,

[17:31] and so we try capturing that,

[17:32] and not everything that we can capture

[17:36] and put it in tangible dollars,

[17:38] but the stuff that we can,

[17:39] we feel is important to communicate that back

[17:42] out to the client, really the idea is, at the end of a project, if the journey and the

[17:48] project, everyone feels that it was a better journey because we were involved, and then

[17:53] on the tangible side, if we can show that we've more than paid for our services, so another

[18:00] way of saying it is because we're involved, more dollars got put into the project, actually

[18:07] brick and mortar into the project, even though you paid in the winners rep for our services.

[18:11] And historically, it's been from two times to 14 times, we've been able to show those

[18:19] tangible results.

[18:20] So, I just want to walk through a few examples in total where we're at today.

[18:25] We've been able to log over a half million dollars worth of results for this project.

[18:31] And obviously, we haven't started construction yet, right?

[18:33] So, there's more to come.

[18:34] But a couple of the other, a couple of items I went on just to highlight.

[18:38] The first is actually, like the first week you guys said, goal.

[18:43] We met with the city administrator, and the week prior to design meeting, it was, we

[18:52] have the $150,000 rough screens that we weren't anticipating in the budget, and when that

[18:59] issue came up, I researched what the code was, kind of researched, is there an exception

[19:04] that we can ask for with with the city as far as putting these rough screens on and met with the city administrator and I will say this item it doesn't happen without the school district having a great relationship with with the municipality with the city occasionally work with school districts that don't does not have those relationships but we had a great meeting and you have a great administrator and it was just talking through and and pointing out you know with where the zoning is at what the

[19:34] the adjacent uses are, and he agreed that to waive that requirement, so that was $150,000.

[19:40] Rough screens that we didn't need to put on the project.

[19:45] Similar to that is, this is a common request that I'll ask municipalities when we're working with them.

[19:52] Again, the value of a question is amazing what the value of a question can be.

[19:58] But school districts, tax exempt entity, city tax exempt entity, a common question I'll ask along the process is can we waive permits, or can we waive impact fees and the city agreed to waive impact fees, right?

[20:17] So that was another another value item.

[20:21] We work through the construction manager, we work through the contract negotiations with the construction manager.

[20:32] And you know, one thing as we work with many different school districts and construction managers, we find that the contracts, there's over 14 different ways that's on our alerts of how a construction manager can make a profit.

[20:49] So, our strategy as we work through those processes is we say, okay, you can make a profit in this area and you can't make a profit in that area.

[20:58] It's really a transparency thing. So, as we're comparing different firms, it's easy to compare and you know where the dollars are and aren't specific.

[21:07] If you don't know where they're at, how do you manage them?

[21:09] right so as we as we work through that there was a couple items that that we

[21:15] just negotiated out of the contract because they weren't in line with what we

[21:18] felt was in the best interest of the district and so one of those one of

[21:23] those items was on the the construction manager offered to kind of act as the

[21:30] bonding company for the subcontractors so rather than buying a bond from a

[21:35] bonding agency, the construction manager said, we will take the premium and if the subcontractor

[21:43] is in default or is having issues, we'll stand in that place.

[21:49] And so instead of that, what we negotiated with on behalf of the school district, which

[21:54] is more typical, is the contingency that we allow the construction manager for various different

[22:03] items, one of those could be if a subcontractor isn't standing up to the end of the deal,

[22:08] you can use that.

[22:09] But if it goes beyond that, it's your risk as a construction manager.

[22:13] So that's ultimately how I got written.

[22:15] But more importantly, it was the proactive things that we asked the construction manager

[22:19] to do.

[22:20] In our construction manager, that's a matter of practice already.

[22:23] So proactive things are pre-qualification, make sure the subcontractor is that are bidding

[22:29] on the projects and awarded the contracts that they are pre-qualified, that they're financials

[22:34] are solid, right?

[22:35] So when we be proactive, we talked about the scoping last month, the scope review process

[22:39] that the construction manager uses, make sure there's no surprises that we find out after

[22:45] we'd rather talk about the before contracts awarded.

[22:47] So some of those proactive items, and also as the project goes, making sure that construction

[22:53] The production manager is looking at the invoices coming from the subcontractors to make sure they aren't over-billing, right?

[23:00] So if there's a challenge along the way, we don't want to be having paid out more than what they should have been paid, what they actually put in work.

[23:08] So we emphasized the proactive things, took the in negotiated that bond item, so the dollars that the subcontractors put in their bid,

[23:20] that stayed with the district, so you didn't spend any of those dollars but there's still some

[23:26] top-side risk as well, so that was an item. And the last item I'll mention, and I mentioned it

[23:33] at the last meeting of the value of competition, right? I commended the construction manager doing an

[23:39] excellent job with bringing good competition in the subcontractor side. One thing we negotiated out of

[23:46] of the construction manager's contract was we hire the construction manager and manage

[23:52] the project, but they also have a separate division within the company to actually perform

[23:58] carpentry, concrete, demolition, acoustical ceilings, and drywall.

[24:04] So the construction manager was really eager to have all that awarded to them on a negotiated

[24:09] basis, so not bid out, and we said no, we need to put that and bid it out.

[24:14] But so it's competitive, and so the market can tell us where those dollars are.

[24:19] So when we compare what their budgets were at design development point, and

[24:25] compare it to what the low bid was, it was a substantial dollar amount difference, right?

[24:30] So competition is good for the district.

[24:34] So I guess that's just summary of the items that we've tracked so far.

[24:38] As we go forward in the construction, I'm sure we'll be capturing more

[24:43] along the way. Pay application reviews. I've never done a project that I haven't found an error

[24:50] on a pay application because they're complex. They're not just one page documents, they're usually

[24:55] 100 pages plus of invoices and supporting information behind that. So we'll review those as they come

[25:02] in, change orders, those type of things reviewing those things just to make sure that they're all

[25:06] appropriate and that the district is getting what they're paid for. So any questions at all in that?

[25:14] Thank you so much. Anybody have questions? The last presentation was very thorough and this is just the cherry on top so we do appreciate that.

[25:23] Any board members have any?

[25:25] Absolutely.

[25:25] Thank you very much.

[25:26] All right. Thank you.

[25:27] You appreciate your total going up and up each and every time.

[25:30] Thank you so much.

[25:31] We do appreciate that.

[25:32] Thank you.

[25:41] The next item is the 2025-26 board meeting schedule.

[25:47] Does everybody have a chance to take a look at it?

[25:50] Yep.

[25:51] This document is upper view and action, actually, so we've looked at this.

[25:59] And this is pretty much walking things forward.

[26:02] the only change is based on where we have an extended Christmas break next year that

[26:09] actually runs, you know, the full gamut and that's the 22nd. So that's actually several

[26:18] days in to the start of winter break. So, which was different this year, we came back I think

[26:30] on a Thursday just based on the way the calendar fell I mean so that's it

[26:37] actually falls in a way that is two full weeks next year so it makes it makes

[26:44] most sense to do the board meetings this way given that calendar change and I

[26:50] think majority of the districts surrounding us also follow that schedule to

[26:55] So yes, the vast majority of the districts in Waksha County are following the the similar

[27:01] Canellators got right and I do know July we usually I

[27:07] Think take a break there

[27:09] Yes, we do

[27:11] Any other permits anything all right

[27:21] Next is the season one service catalog

[27:26] I'm going to, instead of run through every page of the CESA-1

[27:30] services catalog, I'm going to reference page 3 and page 10.

[27:35] So page 3 and page 10, this is a wonderful reference.

[27:41] CESAs are educational organizations.

[27:43] They're public organizations all around the state.

[27:48] There's CESA-1, I mean, they're all over the state.

[27:51] And the whole intent of ceases is to service school districts.

[27:56] And in this case, CESA 1, which is our CESA,

[28:00] covers from Kenosha, all the way up to Menamuni Falls,

[28:06] all the way out to generally the Okonomouak area,

[28:09] and most things in between, right, with some exceptions, of course.

[28:13] So the CESA is very large, and it covers a great many.

[28:17] So I'm going to jump to page three.

[28:19] So the reason I'm jumping to page 3 and page 10 is that we have what's called a basic

[28:26] limited services contract.

[28:29] So sometimes when I arrive the contract was much larger.

[28:33] The only reason we're not accessing more services is many of the services that are mentioned

[28:37] here, we handle in house ourselves.

[28:41] But in the case of things we do access, like for example, professional advisory committee,

[28:47] which is all the superintendents get together occasionally and just like we did this last week

[28:53] and in some cases like this last week is a good example. It wasn't just all the superintendents

[28:58] but HR directors and business managers getting together and trying to help each other.

[29:05] In this case, we were talking about health insurance quite honestly as a very large group of 60 to 70 of us in this entire area.

[29:14] Because some of them, we have a lot of very similar challenges and sometimes other districts

[29:19] learning and doing things can help us as a district as well.

[29:23] So that's what the professional advisory committee is, which we're a part of.

[29:28] And if you move over to the right, the Teaching and Learning Services Network is part of that

[29:32] as well, which is curriculum-based curriculum and instruction and assessment.

[29:36] that would be Ms. Rebel, right below that is one seat, the network includes district special education leaders.

[29:46] So that would, that's a lot of work with Mr. Just.

[29:50] And then parents united, bottom right of that page.

[29:53] We have several parents in the community, they're also special education liaisons to the community.

[29:58] and

[30:00] Many parents kind of get together in this cease area to talk about common challenges and Mr. Joss works with them in order to, you know, bring changes in that specifically related to special education. If you zip the page 10, there's one thing that I know will be coming up in the next couple of months for sure is gifted and talented services. The only other thing in our basic contract or beyond the basic contract services that we use is

[30:30] gifted and talented services, so we are utilizing this, it's a way to work with CSA and our own internal staff to evaluate the program and that is actually going on right now under Miss Rebel this entire year.

[30:48] That's also part of our strategic plan, but also a step so there'll be more coming from that in the next few months in terms of reporting out probably through curriculum committee.

[30:58] But just as a, I think it's very good information when people hear about ceases.

[31:04] They're like, oh, this and that, and they're not part of our district.

[31:09] They're really service organizations, they're public.

[31:12] They're public entities just like we are.

[31:15] And their sole purpose is to help us or provide services that we could access if we need it.

[31:22] So these are other things that we occasionally look at,

[31:25] meaning directors, principals, and others that if there's not a, if we have a challenge locally

[31:31] that we're not able to solve, this would be one of the first calls about, you know, seeing that

[31:37] there's any sort of shared assistance that could be provided. Obviously for a fee. But any questions

[31:47] at all.

[31:51] Yeah, ceases are one of those public school anomalies that are off misunderstood, but

[31:59] they're critical parts of everything that we do.

[32:02] They're critical parts of what we do.

[32:05] In my estimation, just as important as any other support we get from the state, we're

[32:23] much

[32:23] Thank you so much.

[32:24] New board members have any questions?

[32:29] All right.

[32:29] Next is infotations for statements and comments from the audience.

[32:33] Speakers are requested to complete the speaker identification form found at the board information

[32:38] table.

[32:39] Comments will typically be limited to three minutes depending on the number of speakers.

[32:44] They matter time may be less or the board may decide to suspend public comments to a future

[32:48] date.

[32:49] I just want to remind everyone to adhere to the rules noted on the speaker identification

[32:53] form.

[32:54] If it is not followed, public speaking may be suspended.

[32:59] And I think we do have one.

[33:02] John Dean, are

[33:13] these to be handed out?

[33:15] Yeah, those are all for you guys to have and keep and cherish and read and whatever.

[33:25] Tonight I'm here to address the board and talk to all of you.

[33:29] And I didn't know there was going to be absentees.

[33:32] But I want to discuss policy 360.

[33:37] For everybody in the audience who doesn't know what policy 360 is, it's about the viewing of audio visual material in our classrooms.

[33:45] I am 100% for it as it is written when it comes to our younger students in our elementary school and in the middle school.

[33:56] I would like to keep it the way it is.

[33:58] I don't want it to be touched.

[33:59] I want it left. It should be remain in effect to protect those children the way it is.

[34:07] What I'm looking to do and as I have written in front of you is I wanted amended for

[34:14] our high school students.

[34:17] Last year and this year as it pertains to my now sophomore son,

[34:23] But my wife and I both have received an email from one of his teachers.

[34:29] This semester and last semester and even last year, regarding movies that wanted to

[34:34] be shown.

[34:36] Last year, my son was 15, he's now 16.

[34:39] There's no reason why a 15, now 16-year-old should have a teacher send home permission

[34:48] asking to see a G-rated PG or PG-13 movie.

[34:52] I can give him money, drop him off in Marcus, he can go see it by himself.

[34:58] I don't think the permission is warranted.

[35:00] There are other students at the high school.

[35:05] They don't need the permission either.

[35:06] We need to give these kids the opportunity to spread their wings and make these decisions on their own.

[35:11] The email states that if the parents don't want to sign the permission slips, then they can see the movie.

[35:18] or they can opt them out and they can do alternative assignments.

[35:23] Well, why can't those children make the decisions on their own?

[35:27] They're old enough.

[35:29] It's time we cut these emotional and bill co-courses with our high school children

[35:34] and allow them to make these decisions.

[35:37] Mom and dad don't need to make these decisions.

[35:39] They can make them for themselves.

[35:42] Especially when it comes to ratings such as G-rated movies, come on.

[35:46] PG-rated movies, PG-13. These kids are all 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18-year-old kids.

[35:54] We're not showing the movies that we wouldn't let them watch at home.

[35:59] So why are we holding their hands and saying,

[36:03] well, you can't watch this movie until I sign this permission slip.

[36:08] I mean, seriously, they're Disney movies.

[36:10] They're Pixar movies. They're cartoons.

[36:14] There's nothing bad about any of these movies.

[36:19] I'm just asking that we take a look at this policy and we amend it for our high school students.

[36:26] Now I understand that there is a provision in there that no R-rated movies be shown to any child at any level.

[36:33] I would like that re-look that too.

[36:35] The reason why I would like that look that too is because you have juniors and seniors that are 17 or 18 years old.

[36:42] If you can have an 18-year-old student walk into his guidance counselor's office and say,

[36:46] hey, I want to withdraw from school because I just don't want to go no more.

[36:51] Who are we to tell him you can't watch an R-rated movie?

[36:54] When he can go to an AMC movie theater, he can go to a Marcus movie theater.

[36:58] Pay money out of his pocket and see that R-rated movie at 17-18 years old.

[37:04] It's the same thing.

[37:06] Okay. There are movies that are being that are based on history that they're being taught.

[37:15] There are movies being geared around what they're being taught in their subjects.

[37:20] Yes, sure.

[37:21] And the reason why they're rated that way they're rated is because of certain language.

[37:25] Mr. Dean, I think you've passed the three minutes.

[37:28] Okay.

[37:29] Well, what's written in front of you is what I'm asking to be amended.

[37:34] And I ask that you consider that to be looked at and considered, and I don't think it's asking a lot, but I think it would give our children at the high school that sense that, you know what, mom and dad don't need to hold their hands anymore.

[37:51] And I think that it gives them that sense that they can be young adults.

[37:55] Thank you, Mr. Dean.

[37:56] Thank you.

[37:57] Yeah, I think just with President Christiansen's permission, I would answer to Mr. Dean, that I think it's probably reasonable we put this on a policy committee meeting to review and look at 360 at some point, but we can talk about that.

[38:11] We'll probably have to, because I think this manifested in curriculum.

[38:15] So I think that would be the first place to have that conversation.

[38:19] And so what I'll do is I'll, I think the extra copy here, I'll give it to board member students and she's the chair of curriculum, and I think that's where the first place should be the curriculum, Germany.

[38:30] All right, I don't have the policy in front of me, but I do want to correct one thing, and I don't believe G rated needs to be approved at high school.

[38:42] I don't think that is at all written in the policy.

[38:45] Yeah, I think it's just the PG-13 and I think so it is just PG-13. There is no requirement for G or PG movies then

[38:53] Policy 360. We can we can take a look at that in the curriculum committee start there

[39:06] On to our action items

[39:10] So the first item is a 2025-26 board meeting schedule. So I'll need a motion to approve the 25-26 board meeting schedule as presented

[39:22] Well, second.

[39:25] All right

[39:27] Any comments?

[39:30] Just write forward.

[39:31] Please write forward.

[39:32] All those in favor say aye.

[39:33] Aye.

[39:34] Those opposed?

[39:36] Okay.

[39:52] So on to the vouchers payable.

[39:57] I'll make a motion to approve vouchers payable through February 6th in the amount of $419,168.46.

[40:10] Any comments?

[40:14] Questions at all.

[40:16] All those in favor say aye.

[40:18] Aye.

[40:19] All right, those opposed, which has been approved.

[40:24] Next is Consent Agenda Items.

[40:26] Has everybody had a chance to view them?

[40:30] Any discussions, comments at all?

[40:35] All right, I'll need a motion to approve the Consent Agenda Items.

[40:39] Oh, motion.

[40:41] Do I have a second?

[40:42] No, second.

[40:44] All right, all those in favor say aye.

[40:47] Aye.

[40:48] Opposed?

[40:50] and on to future agenda items.

[40:56] Anything?

[40:57] Okay, please come in up. Yeah.

[40:59] Yeah, the biggest items coming up are the Strategic Plan update at the very next board meeting.

[41:04] So we're excited about that. So we'll have a bit of a presentation, maybe 20 minutes, a half hour.

[41:08] But we update each of the different pillars of the Strategic Plan and we give you updates in terms of measures of how things are going.

[41:15] Then we'll schedule another one for April May toward the end of the year.

[41:20] Once we get our final data sets in and then continue that going through the entire course of the strategic plan, so that's there's several other items pending for what's looking like a busy February meeting from what we can tell. So that's very good.

[41:36] All right. Anything else?

[41:41] All right. This concludes our meeting. I'll need a motion to adjourn the Board of Education meeting.

[41:46] I'm going to start motion.

[41:48] I'll start again.

[41:50] All of this in favor say aye.

[41:53] Meeting adjourned.

Feb 10, 2025 Board of Education Regular Meeting

Transcript