Prescott School District October Board Meeting

Welcome everyone. It's the School District of Prescott Board of Education regular meeting. I will call the meeting to order. Subject: Section 1983 Wisconsin Statutes.

Our first item here is the pledge. Vicki, would you care to lead us, please?

I pledge allegiance 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.

Thank you. Next up is the recognition of visitors, public comment. The rules are as follows. Please approach the podium one at a time, stating your name, municipality, and topic you'd like to address. Allowed time is 3 minutes per individual or six if you are representing a group that is present at the meeting. All comments should be directed to the board and not to staff or other participants. The board will not act on any comments that are made during a meeting. The presiding officer may direct the district administrator to follow up with that individual at a later date. The public comment section will be limited to 30 minutes unless board action is taken to extend. And please refer to our public comment policy listed on the agenda for a full description of this section of the meeting. Anybody care to be recognized at this time?

All right. Fantastic. We're going to move on to item four is good news. Who's up?

Kayen Hildebrand. [laughter]

Good evening, everybody. My name is Kayen Hillbrand. I'm the student council school board representative, and today I'm here to talk a little bit about some good news from around the district from the students' perspective. So, the PHS school store, The Nest, has launched coffee deliveries to teachers and staff in all four buildings on Fridays. It has been a huge success. Every order helps fund student-led projects to help support the school store program at the high school. On another note, many high school students are looking forward to being partnered with an elementary school carving buddy during the community education pumpkin carving event tomorrow. This annual event is a favorite for high school students and elementary students alike.

At this time, I'd like to invite the middle school members representing the cast of Shrek Jr., the musical, to talk about their upcoming performances.

[applause]

No. Are these new?

I'm a teacher. [laughter]

So exciting. Are they new? Thank you.

Listen, it's a real fear. Okay.

Teach elementary school. See, now I'm talking about it.

All right. You're invited to Prescott Middle School's production of Shrek Jr. Get ready for a hilarious, heartwarming adventure as our talented middle school students bring the magical world of Shrek Jr. to life on stage. Follow Shrek, the lovable ogre, his loyal, his loyal and stallion sidekick Donkey, the fierce yet fabulous Fiona, the powerful and soulful dragon, and the delightful, dramatic villain Lord Farquad. As they journey through the swamp to rescue Princess, face off against a tiny tyrant, and discover the true meaning of friendship and acceptance. Based on the hit DreamWorks film and Broadway musical, Shrek Jr. is filled with fun characters, catchy songs, lots of laughs, and a message that reminds us that being different is what makes us special. The fairy tale of a family-friendly performance runs approximately 60 to 75 minutes and is perfect for all ages. Tickets are already live and available to the public. Get yours today. The show dates are November 14th, 15th, and 16th. Come support our incredible cast and crew. You won't want to miss this oversized musical event. [laughter] [applause]

Hi, Sarah Dusk, Malone Elementary Principal. Um, for good news at the elementary building, we just got done, um, in the middle of October with parent-teacher conferences. Um, they were well attended, and then the Malone Parent Committee also had a book fair, um, that was a success that week as well. Um, they mentioned, she mentioned the pumpkin carving tomorrow. I think we have 84 students signed up for pumpkin carving. Wow. 92.

120. Oh my gosh. That number went up since I last [laughter] there's a lot of kids signed up for pumpkin carving tomorrow. Um, in the high school, kids will come and help walk the littles down to the intermediate building. Um, and then I have from Matt Smith. Um, good news from the athletic department is junior golfer Leila Sole. Um, qualified as an individual for the WIAA Division 1 State Meet and represented the Cards well. As a team, they advanced to the sectionals and won for run our eighth straight Middle Border Conference title. Playing cross country, junior Kira Dixs is qualifi qualified for the state meet [clears throat] and will run this Saturday in Wisconsin Rapids. Best of luck to her. And our one-act play has sectionals next Wednesday, and they'll perform Lost Girl in Oaklair. Nissa has to break a leg to the casting crew.

Uh, couple things from the superintendent's office. Uh, first off, uh, school board appreciation week was earlier this month. Uh, we pushed our meeting back, but uh, we do want to take a moment to thank all of our hardworking school board members, uh, for everything that they do. Uh, the constant emails, reaching out to the community, and all their hard thoughts and work for the students and staff of Prescott School District. It's also principal appreciation month. Um, we have a great group of administrators who take care of our buildings. Um, earlier this month, I was able to present at the Prescott Community Club. Um, talked a lot about a lot of the things you just heard, uh, from our students and staff, a lot of the great things going on in the start of the year. We also talked, uh, somewhat about enrollment, um, and how that's going, and, um, Michael's going to talk a little bit later about some of our test results. I was able to share that with the Prescott Community Club. We also recently had vaccinations. Um, our nursing staff did a great job working with, uh, the county to have 115 students and 44 employees, uh, receive the flu vaccination. And, uh, from our food service staff, um, with the not to end on a political note, but, uh, with the shutdown right now and SNAP benefits disappearing, um, our food service staff is reminding everybody that, uh, we do have free and reduced lunch available, um, and make sure that people are signing up for that. We have a backpack program, um, where students basically get a backpack full of food to take home on Friday to help them get through the weekend. And also, there is the Prescott Food Bank. Um, on a quick note on the Prescott Food Bank, uh, during the brownout, they lost a lot of the food that was in their cooler and freezer. So, they are in need of any type of cold food or frozen food, but you can reach out to the Prescott Food Bank, uh, if you want to help them out.

All right, thanks, Jim. Let's move on to school business, and we're going to roll this all together. So, we're going to, for the consent agenda, we have the September 10th, 2025 regular meeting minutes, finance reports, personnel report for non-licensed staff, approve ECC and Start College Now for fall of 2026. That should be, is that '25 or '26? '25 should be spring of '26. That's a bad spring of '26. That's a wonderful typo by me.

Okay. Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay. So, spring of 2026, Dorian Honors Choir trip, dance night, overnight trips for 2025 and '26. And that's the consent agenda. Anything in the consent agenda that the board would like to have pulled out for further discussion?

Okay. So, we can have somebody make a motion to adopt the agenda and approve the consent.

I move to adopt the agenda and approve the consent agenda.

No second.

All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Opposed? Agenda is approved. Move on to item B. Consider hiring, uh, Director of Buildings and Grounds. As we've talked about in the past, uh, Mike Qua announced his retirement, effective June 30th of 2026. Um, we did a search, uh, reached out through every means we possibly could. Got about 30 candidates, or 20, probably about 25 candidates. Um, we interviewed the top candidates, looking a lot at those with, uh, school district experience. We interviewed four. Um, the overwhelming recommendation of the interview committee is Adam Ro. Adam has worked with us for many years, uh, partially in maintenance and partially as custodial duty, and anytime Mike has been out of the district, Adam has been in charge of the district and has done a great job. So, uh, we enthusiastically recommend Adam Ro to take over July 1st, 2026, and then Mike and Adam and I will work out, um, training purposes and how to replace Adam and when to replace Adam. Um, we originally proposed January 1st. We might be able to push that back a little bit now to make the transition, but, uh, that's still a work in progress. Um, but just given that Adam has that experience.

All right. Uh, any questions, board? Ricky, Helen?

Pat, any questions or comments?

No questions. It's great to have somebody that's already within the district. So, yeah.

Yeah. I, I, I was, I'm sure the rest of the board would agree this is, we're probably all rooted for Adam. So, I'm really glad that he got it. And, um, Mike got a good, good replacement, at least. So, thank you for for helping facilitate that and and helping us make the decision or helping approve the, our proposed Adam. So, appreciate it. This is a great, great call. I completely support it. Um, and you just, you just hit my question, Jim, but like, for Adam's backfill, we're going to probably look at sometime when, when will that interview process start, you think?

We'll probably start doing that, no, early December. Let's be honest, Thanksgiving's coming up here pretty quick. Uh, probably early December. We'll post it internally first, cuz we probably have quite, we have quite a few qualified candidates internally. If we don't find any internally, we'll post it externally and we'll keep rolling that process forward, um, until we end up with an external candidate. So.

Yeah, glad to see we're able to promote it from within. So, great. All right, we can take a motion here.

I move to approve Adam Ro as our Director of Buildings and Grounds starting the '26-'27 school year.

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

I, I. Opposed? That carries. Item C is to consider addendum of the '25-'26 staff handbook. So, we talked about this a little bit last month in, um, the information and discussion, and if I can get it up on the screen here. Um, this is a change to basically again, to promote from within. Um, we are looking at, uh, how to support, given that it's getting harder to hire candidates, sometimes with certifications, um, to, and I know this has been done in the past over the years, but we want to put this in the handbook so everybody gets the same treatment, but basically 100% of a new license, uh, if we get a teacher who we can't hire who's fully licensed in the area we need to, for example, we're looking for a really, uh, a special education teacher and we can't find one and it's getting towards July, August, just, um, we hire a strong English teacher and then ask them to get their sped license, or take one of our own English teachers and ask them to get a different license, you know, a science teacher to get their math license. Um, the district will pay up to 100% of the cost of a new license if we get to pick the program or agree to the program. If they want to go to a private college, um, we'll pay up to 50% of the cost up to $7,500. Um, and then, uh, basically we're making them, we're asking them to sign a 4-year agreement, and if they break it earlier, um, then they pay back the district part of the cost because we want to promote from within. We want to, uh, build our own, but we don't want to build them and then have them leave to another district. And I will say most of the districts in CESA 11 use something similar to this.

Helen, did you have any questions on this?

No, I think it's a good idea to get the qualified staff that we need.

Thank you.

No questions.

Um, no, I think this is great. We've been talking about this for a while. There's, um, there's license areas right now that are really hard to to find good candidates in. So, sometimes we do have to promote within or we hire someone that's not quite there yet. So, that's great. Um, my question would just be around, uh, if this was run through lawyers or anything like that, just to make sure since it's has to do with reimbursement and all that kind of stuff and contract type language in the handbook.

We, we did reach out to the CESA lawyers, um, and they, the CESA looked at it. We didn't reach out to our own council, though. No.

And the, the lawyers were fine. Yeah.

Like I said, if you, we also reached out to, um, like I said, CESA 11, and at least half of the districts have something very similar.

Yeah. Great. That was my only question.

Yep. No questions. Yeah, this is, uh, a good, good addendum. So, we'll, we'll consider a motion here.

I move to approve an addendum to the staff handbook for the 2025-26 [snorts] school year.

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

I. Opposed? That carries. Item D, consider adopting resolution authorizing a taxable tax and revenue anticipation promissory note for cash flow purposes in an amount not to exceed $1 million. So, we have done this, uh, for many, many years with First National Bank. Um, we've never tapped into this million-dollar line of credit. Uh, basically, what this is, is our fund 10 balance kind of goes up and down throughout the year. We had a large payment, uh, property taxes in January and again in the summer. Um, so if something were to happen and those payments were to be delayed, um, by at the state or local level for some reason, this would basically allow us to, um, have a $1 million line of credit we can draw to make sure we can make payroll. Again, it's never happened. We've never had to use it, but it costs us nothing. And it sure is nice to let our staff know that if some type of hiccup happens, um, we can cover one payroll. Talking to First National, if that ever happens, we'll probably be having an emergency board meeting and changing the $1 million to a $2 million to get through two payrolls. But again, it's just in case there's some type of strange delay. I want to note for anybody listening that, uh, the federal government being shut down right now has no impact on this. Um, but this is for that once-in-a-lifetime situation.

Hey, Pat, any questions?

No questions. In this for years.

Yeah, no question. We've done this for years. I, it's been a very long time since we've had to tap into it, just because of good fiscal responsibility. So, um, it's good to have just in case, though.

No questions.

No questions.

I probably can, uh, take a motion.

I move to adopt the resolution authorizing opening of line of credit with First National Bank of Falls, not to exceed a million dollars.

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

I. Opposed. That one carries. Lastly, board adoption of the fiscal year 2026 levy and finalization of the annual budget. Um, this is the big one, so we saved it for last. Um, the budget is, uh, been set on October 15th. We got the final, uh, amounts from the school district or from the state of Wisconsin and all of our final numbers. Things changed. Um, it's going to seem like not a lot, but, uh, probably $40, $50,000 here and there in a couple different categories. Is when you think about an $18 million budget, that really isn't that much. Um, do they have, they should have budget sheets. Uh, couple things to note about the budget sheets. Uh, first off, our general fund balance, we did, uh, we were able to put, the board had a goal last year of putting $600,000 back into fund 10. We're able to put in $640,000 back into fund 10 [snorts] to rebuild that balance. Um, if you look at the source for state aids, our state aids are down by $1.1 million. That's going to be a theme throughout my presentation. Um, our overall budget is going to increase from, um, expenditures and other financial uses, is going to increase from $17.7 million to $18.4 million. That is mostly due to inflation. That's about a 3.7% increase, uh, on that. Our fund 21 and 27 are special projects funds. This is mostly special education flow-through. Fund 21 is how we run all of our clubs and activities on those private accounts. So when you see an ending balance of a $100,000, um, it's not that we're not spending that money, but that is funding money that, uh, a lot of our clubs and organizations keep in that fund 21 to spend through to the next year. Um, you see $3 million, um, coming in and, uh, about $3.5 million going out. It's federal funds, state funds that come into the district and then get spent. Our debt service funds, um, are a combination of, um, referendum, the construction referendums, but also, um, our energy efficiency upgrade money. Um, so that is where our debt service funds come in. And then our capital projects funds. Um, this is fund 46 balance. Um, you're going to see our expenditures go way down from $5.4 million. Um, they [snorts] go down quite a bit. Well, that's why is that? That's because we have finalized the 2022 referendum. So, um, most of that work is done. There are some things that are still on this year's budget, including the bleachers in, um, the, uh, middle school and some of the other items that happened after July. Food service fund. Um, ideally, we take in what we spend. Um, we increase the cost of the meals to project to do that. Um, we don't know what's going to happen to food prices with all of our tariffs. Um, so this one is one we'll keep an eye on. Um, but it is one that, uh, we're hoping to balance, balance out this year. Um, and then same thing with community funds. Ideally, we take in what we spend. Um, traditionally, this is the PCR, the, uh, sports, the, uh, little kids sports, and also the community education fund that Penny does a great job running. They do a very good job of balancing their budget, and most of what we spend through fund 80 is just covering their expenses and some of the coach's expenses. [clears throat] So, our local levy is going to go up this year, and I'll talk about that in a minute, um, $1.1 million, and we are proposing an increase of $40,000 to the community service funds. Um, in the past, we've been covering middle school athletics and activities, um, were through fund 10. So, a combination of the increased costs for some of our community service stuff, like, like I just talked about, the PCR and the community club, the community education, we are looking at between that and the middle school funds, increasing that one by $40,000. Our total budget is down 13.45%. Again, that's mostly due to, uh, less construction this year. Um, [snorts] just like last year, went down 15.6%. The big construction year was '23-'24. Our levy is going to go up 9.72% if the board adopts it, and that is what we're proposing, uh, we, we adopt. So, our revenue limit is $8,524,269. Our community service fund, which is fund 80, we're proposing raising that to $265 from $225. And our voter-approved debt is $3.8 million. That is mostly, uh, the high school, and then the 2022 referendum to improve the other buildings. You add all those numbers together, you get $12,65,947 for a total local tax levy. And I want to talk a little bit about where that comes from. Um, it's based on an outdated formula set in 1995. And each district has a different revenue limit. They're not all the same. It's always a combination of state aid and property taxes. Um, the state sets that amount based on a per-pupil fund, and that per-pupil fund has been set since 1993. If you happen to be a student in Gibraltar Area School District, your number is set at $25,089. Gibraltar Area is over by Green Bay, by the way. South Shore, up by Bayfield and Ashland, you're worth about $19,000. A Prescott student is only worth $12,962. If we were funded like Oaklair students, we're at $13,800. Uh, the Prescott School District would have an extra $1.1 million available. The $12,970 roughly that we get for a Prescott student right now has the $1.2 million referendum money calculated into it. This is the first year it gets added to basically our revenue limit at about $960 per student. So, as our enrollment continues to decline, the taxing ability, the levying ability of the board is going to decrease for every student by $960 more dollars. Um, so we don't, that $1.2, $2 million that was approved by the voters last year now is built into the cycle, and it does not stay at $1.2. It's based on students. So, some funding facts. Our state aid this year was cut by $1,58,000. Uh, $1,58,777. Basically, for the first time in over 20 years, the state of Wisconsin said, "We are giving zero dollars extra to all of our local, uh, school districts," and they divided up the pot, and the pot gets divided up by the entire state. So, as school districts like Milwaukee and Madison passed giant referendums that took money away from 71% of the school districts in Wisconsin, they also, uh, had the $325 per-pupil increase. And again, for the first time in over 20 years, they said, "We're giving no money towards that. Pass that on to your local taxpayers," which leads a total decrease of $1,450,42. So, if you take a look at it, um, our tax levy is going up by [snorts] $1,117,236. At least that's what I'm recommending. That's $333,000 less than our decrease in state aid. A lot of that is due to decrease in students. Yes.

I have a quick, just a quick clarification, just so you are on the same page. The $325 per-pupil increase that was kind of factored in when we built out what we were going to referendum for, that we would get that money from the state.

That money, the state basically said, "We're not going to give you any money. You can raise your cap $325 per pupil, but we're not going to give you any extra money for it."

Exactly. So, if we jump back to the, to the little pitcher thing, that's actually what I'm coming up to here in a second. If [snorts] we look at the pitcher's thing, the amount of state aid decreases. So, the only way to keep the pitcher full is to increase the local taxes. So, they said, "You got to pass that $325 on to your local taxpayers." And that's true for all 421 school districts in Wisconsin.

Cuz that, the reason I bring that up now is because when we went to referendum, that was factored in as money coming from the state. It is no longer coming from the state. It has to be pulled from local taxpayers.

Yes. For at least for the next few years, cuz it was passed as part of the '25 to '27 biennium budget.

Okay. Anybody else want to pause? Jump in when you need me. I got a question slide at the end, but feel free to stop me anytime. Um, but yeah, like I was saying, um, that per-pupil increase and the, uh, cut in state aid, all of that gets dropped on local taxpayers. Um, again, that's over a million dollars, uh, $1.4 million decrease. So, the only way to keep doing all the great things we're doing here in Prescott and to keep what the programs going that, frankly, a lot of them that were restarted after the $1.2, $2 million referendum passed is to pass a lot of this burden on to local taxpayers. We're also not keeping up with inflation. That hasn't been going on since 2008. That is part of the state funding formula as well. In 2008, they decoupled us from inflation. Uh, we'd have about $3.9 million more to invest in our students if, again, they had tied their contributions to inflation like they had pre-2008. The $325 that Ivers passed for 400 years, um, to combat inflation hasn't even kept up with inflation. It's not going to keep up with inflation. On the bottom of the slide, you heard a lot, you'll hear a lot about special education funding going up to 35 from up to 40%. We've been told to calculate it at about 35% because that's based on total spending. Another factor that's draining us is, um, well, not draining us, but passed on to local taxpayers in the Prescott School District. Um, we pay $53,000 from fund 10 for private school vouchers. Um, that money comes off the top before the state, any of the public schools get money. Um, and statewide, it's quite a bit. Appleton itself is paying over $7 million for people going to vouchers, private voucher schools. Last, our special ed. This year, we are planning on transferring $1,973,974 from fund 27 into into into fund 27, our special education fund, from our general education. Again, the state says this is supposed to be 42%, but that 42% is based on last year's statewide total, so it doesn't factor in inflation. And it's one giant pot statewide. So, as every district around the state draws it down, if the districts go up in some of the big school districts, the amount of money we get, uh, goes down. Um, WASBO, the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officers, recommends that we budget actually getting 35% reimbursement. Um, so that's what we use. We use 35% uh as planning on it. And that means we would need to supplement our fund 27, our special education students, by about $2 million out of the general education funds. Um, but we're going to continue to serve our highest need students, um, without enough assistance from the state, and we keep taking care of all of our Cardinals every day. All of this is going on while the state of Wisconsin has a $4.6 billion checking account, which is, uh, very high, and a record high $2 billion savings account. So, the state of Wisconsin is doing fine and has a lot of money, but they're still telling us to tax locally. So, where does this end up with us? We end up with a mill rate projected to be of $8.19. That's an increase of 42 cents per thousand on equalized aid. And I'm going to tell you right now, equalized aid does not work. And, uh, Beth Lancing over at the city of Prescott has been great. And I got a slide coming up that'll show you that. But we are required by law to calculate it on equalized aid, which basically is looking at a statewide average. Um, I can give you a half-hour explanation on it, but essentially, that's what it is. So, our increase on a $300,000 home in Prescott should be about $126, but I'm telling you right now that's going to be low because property values in Prescott are high. Um, that would be if your house was the average house in the middle of Wisconsin, and we all know Prescott's a wonderful city to live in. So, part of that impacts us. So, again, that equalized value is the state-adjusted value minus the tax apportionment amounts. It ensures fairness across the state, and it's used by counties, schools, community colleges, situations like that. Our assessed local, our assessed value, which is what your taxes are actually going to say in December, are set by the local assessor, vary by the municipality, and that's the one that's actually going to contract your or, uh, construct your December bill. So, you will not see this amount. And I'm telling you, I know this amount's wrong, but it's how I'm required by law to calculate it. So, I reached out to Beth Lancing, who's been wonderful and did a great job, and gave her our exact levy amount and an equalized mill rate of 8.19%. Uh, Beth gave me a lot more information than this, but I didn't want to try to get into every different house and stuff like that, but essentially in Prescott, your mill rate's really going to be 8.0. Oak Grove 10.14, Diamond Bluff 11.19. If you live in the township of Clifton, it's 13.21, and Trimble is 8.12. If you look at the chart down on the bottom, that's an increase or decrease per $100,000 in value. So, in Prescott, it's going up about $518. I told you my calculation shows you $42. So, it is higher. Oak Grove is higher, um, etc. Trimble Township did a re-evaluation in 2025, which caused their assessed value to increase, which in turn drops their mill rate. Most home values have seen a significant increase in value. So, a house valued at $300,000 in 2024 is now valued at about $500,000. They would see an increase in taxes of $135 per $100,000. Um, so, yeah, we know it's, we know that what we show you isn't exactly right, but it's required, what we're required to do by law. Those are your per-district ones. And again, Prescott is a beautiful city to live in. Um, my example I always use is Bo. The mill rate in Bo right now is 1.08 for last year, but your $350,000 house in Bo is worth about $120,000, and you don't get the excellent school system and the excellent city services that you get in Prescott. So, the state's school funding system has been unfair since 1993. The lack of inflation has limited our funding ability since 2008 by $3.9 million, which leads us to a lot of local referendums. We passed one last, uh, year ago. Um, the '25-'27 state biennium budget led to no additional state funding for all local or for education and put it all on our local tax base. It doesn't keep up with inflation for the $325 per student, and it must be passed on, paid for by local taxpayers. So, that's an extra almost $400,000. In addition, we kind of get the, the challenge of having our state aid decreased by $1,58,777. I am recommending to the board that we increase local taxes by $1.1 million to offset this $1.4 million loss in state aid, all while the state sits on a $6 billion surplus. There is information here for people to contact. Um, there's a lot of questions that can be asked politically. If you would like to talk to me and have a one-on-one conversation about why I'm recommending this, I encourage you to send me an email or give me a call, and we'll set up a meeting. Um, but you can also reach out to your state senator, your state representative, or Governor Iver's office. My final recommendation, uh, from me and, uh, Cara, our finance director, is to, uh, protect the great work that we've been doing in the in the Prescott School District by passing the budget laid out in the budget publication. This is going to protect our students and staff and programs that we were able to reestablish in the last couple years. It's going to protect the value of our community, including our property value. And given the system that Madam Madison has set up, we are essentially $1.4 million decrease. And, uh, it's my strong recommendation that we increase our levy and set a total levy amount of $12,65,947 with an equalized mill rate of $8.19 per thousand.

Stay down here. Tanya, do you want to ask any questions or you got?

Um, I don't have so many questions. I know that this was a conversation that was had at our, um, annual meeting when we looked at, um, the budget and stuff like that. I just continue to advocate that people within our community reach out. You have, I don't know if the, that last slide is maybe something worth putting up on our district site someplace, just to make sure people know who they can reach out to, ask questions, advocate for school districts. Um, you did mention that there [snorts] we are levying about $333,000 less than, and, um, than we could potentially do.

Well, we're, the $333,000 mostly comes due through, through our decreased population.

That's where we're losing.

That's where we lose that $333. Okay. Um, so, you know, I guess I don't really have any questions. We continue to work hard and and do what we've got to do for our kids. We did decrease, that you mentioned the decrease. We decreased, um, our overall budget and all that stuff the past handful of years when we, when we needed to with referendums not passing. We added some things back, but we stayed responsible and added, added everything back. So, um, we're continuing to look at that throughout this year. Um, we're having conversations, I believe, um, you know, probably every meeting we're having conversations about what we're going to do with all our properties, should we keep them, should we not keep them? We're talking about doing, um, some more studies on enrollment and all that kind of stuff. So, we're, we're continuing to try to, um, lessen that burden onto taxpayers as much as we possibly can. But when we, um, get decreases in funding, or I shouldn't say decrease in funding, although kind of is, I know it's related to enrollment and state funding and stuff like that, but we, we, uh, we have to continue to service our kids while trying to find ways that we can, um, tighten up what we do, which we'll continue to spend, I think, a lot of this year doing. So, yeah, no real questions. I think we have to, you know, that's what we have to do.

Yeah, no questions. I mean, we've been talking about it for a while. I think this is the second or third month we've seen a similar presentation. Um, it's unfortunate. I'm not going to repeat everything that [clears throat] Tanya said. I think that, uh, Jimmy, you did a nice job with the transparency on the equalized value versus assessed value and what that's going to mean for people. So, I think it's a great opportunity for people to reach out if, if, uh, it's not making sense. So, I do appreciate that. Thank you for doing that. Uh, thank you to Beth and the city too for their partnership as well. So, um, I really don't have any comments. Uh, I think Tanya both said.

Yeah, I don't, I don't have any comments that are any different, really, than anyone else. Um, this is, this is where we're at. So, uh, yeah, you got to reach out. You got to let your state representatives and state senator know what, uh, what's going on locally. I think a lot of times, again, this part of the state tends to get forgotten. Um, we're a little too far away from Madison and even, you know, from our representatives who live a little more towards the middle part. So, um, yeah, just reach out and I guess that's about all I got.

Yeah, I guess, pay back a lot of the same. We're asked to do more with less. Um, Prescott has supported the school and their students, and so now it's time for Wisconsin to do the same. So, um, reach out. Um, be loud.

Jim, I don't know if you have the, the actual fund. I just want to have something to look at that was the first slide or whatever it was there.

Yeah, maybe. Yeah.

That one right there. So, I, I, I, I'm, I'm going at it from a perspective of what a taxpayer is going to think of Prescott and the surrounding neighborhood, the neighboring, uh, townships. Why is my taxes going up? Why is my state, why is my, why is my school district portion of my taxes going up? And I really want to just like point out again for the third straight meeting that we've had, state aid went down $1.1 million right there. Right. $1.1 million. But the, and the local, the local taxpayers have to pick that up, which is under local sources, source 200, I believe, right? That's the, the one three cells above that, that that shaded one. So if you look at those, it's, it's almost identical. $1.1 million. That's basically saying the state took away $1.1 million of funding and passed it on to the local taxpayers to fund. If we choose not to use, if we choose not to increase local taxpayers by $1.1 million, then we're cutting programs and and basically decreasing, um, educational opportunities for kids and and so on. Basically, [clears throat] where we were last year with a referendum. So when people ask the question, why is my local school district portion of taxes increased on my tax state? Cuz we know we're going to get it. That's why right there, mainly. There's, there's other, there's a few other factors, but that's the, that's the, that's the message I think we need to make sure people understand is that state aid went down, local taxpayers had to pick it up, right?

And Mike, can I pause that quick?

Yeah, real quick. So, you know, when, when we say the state aid went down, and I know part of that is some of, uh, enrollment, too. But, um, we had to make, we had to make forecasting decisions back then based on guidance that we had been given and trending that we were seeing, right? And is it fair to say, Jim, if I, I think there was a slide on this, that that guidance and/or the trending that we were seeing did not come to fruition, and this is, and that is a part of the $1.1 deficit state funding. Is that correct?

Yeah, that's part of, that's a big part of it because there's a company called Bear that advises about 80% of the school districts in the state of Wisconsin. So, they are the experts. But also talking to the superintendents and the financial people up at CESA 11, it's been over 20 years since $0 was added to everything to any of any of the funds, both out of the $325 per student, but then also to the, the giant pot that there is state aid. And personally, what frustrates me, not as a Prescott superintendent, but as a, as a taxpayer, is there's a big promotion, $1.5 billion for education. What they didn't put in parentheses was funded by local taxpayers, cuz that's where it all goes. None of that extra $1.5 billion, not a penny, came from the state of Wisconsin. They're saying you can spend $1.5 billion statewide. So, every school district is in this place. Um, but you don't get any more money from the state for the first time in over 20 years.

Sorry, Mike.

No, and I appreciate that. Anybody else want to jump in at any time? Just please do. If you have any questions on, but I, from my pers, from our perspective, that's got to be something we need to be able to defend as a district and as school board members when the question comes, "Look at my mill rate. It jumped up a lot compared to last year when we voted to approve a referendum." And, and that's that's something I think we need to be able to explain. And this is, unless there's a better, unless there's more to it or a better way to do it. That's the only, this is the best way I can think of is state aid went down roughly what the local tax levy went up in close to it. There was a few other things in there. Um, but, and, and the other thing that was forecasted was the $325 that we were going to get additional money from the state, which we used when we forecasted to go to referendum, right? That, that, that money was going to come from the state. It's not coming from the state. They're basically saying you can increase it $325 per pupil, but we're not going to give it to you. And that, that was forecasted in when we, when we built out our projections. So, um, the state is basically passing down the bill to local to to the local communities. We've known that for years. This is, it's just worse than ever in my opinion. Um, I, I, I just want to make one more comment on the mill rate, and I think you got a slide on this one somewhere here. Yeah. So, yeah, probably this, cuz we, we have to go by equalized value. I need to double check this, but we did this last year. Equalized value on somebody's property tax statement is the same as fair market value. There's assessed value and fair market value. And Matt probably will speak to this too, but I'm not going to put him on the spot. Just [laughter] the, the, the fair market value. If you look at the fair market value and use our mill rate, that, that 8.19 mill rate that Jim was talking about, that, that is where that number is used against the fair market value. It's equalized value is, is the same as fair market value. I don't want to, I want to make sure I can follow up and confirm that, but that's what we did last year when we calculated.

I think we use your tax, uh, statement, actually, Mike, your exact tax statement to show everyone. And there's two, there's, there's assessed value and there's fair market value. Those are the two values that show up on your property tax statement. They have two different meanings. City uses assessed. We use fair market or equalized value.

Yeah.

And that's, that's, you can use that to calculate how you get to that number as well.

Yeah.

So, but either way, you're still paying the same amount of money. It doesn't matter. It's the same amount of money either, either way you look at it. Well, in the, so back to the state not putting any more money into what's available for the 421 districts. Correct.

Correct.

Um, part of what did, okay. Did that money that's available, you said it shrunk because larger districts, the big, big districts passed referendums. So then that changes some numbers there. But the voucher program has vouchers being paid out increased this year compared to last year?

The, yeah, the amount of per pupil, uh, has increased quite a bit. I don't have those numbers at the top of my head. I do know, for example, that, uh, in the Appleton School District, it's over $7 million just for the school district of Apple.

And, and then what goes to vouchers comes off of that big pot that the other 420 districts are supposed to share?

Not directly, but it influences it, but it, yeah, as they add, yeah, they add money to the voucher accounts separately, but that does influence how much money is left in the state. But the biggest impact on the state aid is the fact that no dollars went up and like Madison and Milwaukee, like we passed a $1.1 million referendum. Um, I think Milwaukee's was $8 million or something like that. So, it's, it's, it's a bigger piece, and the bigger school districts take more of the pot, and that leaves a lot less for the rest of us.

Yeah, that's, I just want to make those two points, Jim.

It is what it is. This is what we're dealt with, and if we want change, it's going to have to happen at the state level. I mean, that's the bottom line. We want state funding to change. It's been like that for 30 years.

So, um,

we're just looking at your tax to [laughter] kind of verify the language.

Yeah. Not, none of these are allowed to include the school levy tax credit yet. That doesn't come out until December. So, we can't put that in there. So, it'll be a little bit less than, than this, but, uh, yeah. Again, the big impact is from that, uh, lack of increase to the total pot and state aid, um, in any way, all while they're sitting on $6 billion in surplus.

And we didn't, we could kind of project what the number was going to be. We had an idea of what it might be from the state, but we didn't get those actual final numbers until just recently. Correct.

You got, you get those, you get the final numbers October 15th. And I apologize if I've been a little repetitive over the last couple months. You know, this is, some of our numbers have changed by, you know, a bit. Um, but yeah, we've kind of known this is coming. Jumping back to, I think it was, uh, Pat's comment. Um, there, I wasn't here last when we were doing the one, when the district was doing the $1.2 million referendum and all those projections, but everybody I talked to had Bear, and every superintendent was stunned that $0 was added in. So that really does affect our projections or what projections were made last year by every school district, not just Prescott.

Yeah. Well, and that's kind of where I was going. Like, we, we did the absolute best that we could with what we had at the time. And we [snorts] weren't the only district. Everyone [clears throat] across the state was,

this is how it's usually been. This is how it usually goes. And then

on October 15th, he found out that's not the number we're getting. So, yeah. And a lot of it is their politics does play.

A part of it too with the 400-year extension of the 325. That was a lot of the lack of discussion, uh, at the state level. And if anybody wants to give me a call or shoot me an email, I'm glad to talk more about that.

Mike, one one last thing, Jim, you had a you had a slide that I think explained a little bit about the uh special education. I had maybe one clarification if you don't >> if I can find it. Yeah, there you go. I think um uh bullet point number three. Can you can you >> can well the whole whole slide. Can you try to explain okay a little bit more about about what that means in terms of it's one pot?

So it's one pot, it's allocated. So basically what the state of Wisconsin does is it looks at all the money that every school district in the state of Wisconsin spent on special education last year and they multiply that by 42% and they say this is how much we're going to pay.

They're making a prediction. A prediction and um it's getting into finance. The the you know, the difference is the good point for the state on that is they know a dollar amount. It's 42% of that number and they put all that money in a pot. What we would love to see as a school district is 42% of our actual costs. But they don't do that. So what they do then is throughout the school year, Cara works with Sandy Strand and we submit all of our costs throughout the entire year and we say this is how much they did and the state of Wisconsin figures out proportionally how much every school district spent and divides up that pot. A good example is we were supposed to get, and I'm doing this from memory, um with the um early college credit that we just approved, we were supposed to get about $1,600 per credit back from the state of Wisconsin last year, we got 1350 because as more kids take every college credits, which we love and is great, but as they do it statewide, we never hit the amount they project. So that's why WBO is project saying go with about 35%. Because when you take that entire pot and you divide it up, you're going to get between they're saying 35 to 38% instead of the 42 they're predicting. Part of it is just inflation too, you know, [clears throat] cuz it's 42% of last year's money. But that one big pot divides up. If all of a sudden just to pick a school, Green Bay School District decides to give every special education teacher a $40,000 raise, they're going to take more money out of that pot and that's going to impact us. Green Bay is not going to do that, but that's just an example. So, but as private uh you know, physical therapy, occupational therapy, deaf and blind services, all as all of those continue to increase, it doesn't really end up getting to 42% ever.

Makes sense. That thanks for the >> Mhm. >> additional color.

All right. I think that's good good discussion. So, somebody wants to make a motion here to approve or adopt the budget. Can we move on? I move to approve the adoption of the fiscal year 2025-2026 annual budget as presented with an overall local levy of 12,65,947.

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I opposed. That carries. Thank you. And we're going to move on to information discussion. First one is a presentation by the city. feel like I'm addressing you Courtney so much. [laughter]

Thank you uh Chair Matik and thank you school board members for having me again um present this. So, our recent planning, one of the things that we've been looking at is uh what our long-term plans are for our public safety buildings. Uh both our fire and em well both fire police and EMS buildings are slav structure buildings. So, we've been trying to look at there's a number of repairs that need to be done, a number of issues that we're seeing. So, we're trying to come up with a plan of what that looks like in the next 5 years. Do we invest in those full structure buildings? But there's not great long-term viability there. Do we look at something longer term where we combine them all together? Um two times. So what we ended up doing was hiring Cedar Corporation, who was our city engineer, um and looked at two different options. Option A was design a building layout that had police, fire, and city hall combined and then the library would take over all of what the current building is. And option B, uh, look at just hiring or having a combined police and fire and it should also EMS would be in there as well. EMS is contracted through a line. Uh, based on community feedback, and I'll get that in a second. Ultimately, what we decided to do was move forward with option B. Um, so what Cedar Corporation did did was produce a design that we looked at for not only today but also look into the future. Um, and just a little bit of note, one of the things that we would be looking at for the current fire hall will be turning into a public works annex building. We do have some funds set aside that we're proposing or to save for 2026 to make some repairs and modifications to that.

So I touched upon uh the community feedback. We did a comprehensive plan survey to um residents back earlier this year. About 177 people responded. Overall comments were not in favor of seeing all within the building. Uh a good percentage of public needed more information. So that's something that if this continues from the board will be working on as well. But those that did comment were more in favor of supporting the police and fire buildings. Uh comments supported the library but ultimately felt that vacating the whole building just for their use was a little too much.

So, I won't go over all the history, but I guess just to give you a little bit of the fire building was built in 1967, then we added on in 1987. Um, both again, we're still having great full structures and then in 2004, we built the police station uh with this first uh location on Pine Street just down the road here. Uh again the slab on great pole structure which that's going to be a highlight of my presentation of why you should not build slab on great pole structures.

Uh fire hall that is located at 264 for square again about6 acres built in 1969 with addition in 1987 is adjacent to the fire baseball field. Uh currently five fire apparatus that we keep there with 35 to 40 volunteers. So if you look at our current statistics with our fire departments back in 2014 we had only 51 calls um up to 2024 now we're at 117 uh as we continue to grow not only in Prescott but Oak and Clifton which is our service area we're seeing larger and larger uh numbers in call one 2023 we topped out at 135 so we take that we projected over the next uh 10 years using those numbers for forecasting uh right now 51 in uh 19 or in 2014 you project that out it'll be about 204 in 2013. So using that this is just the square the suggested square foot that we would need uh currently not in advance not looking out what we would need currently we have currently 2 94 9455 we need about just over quickly what we're seeing in terms of efficiencies lack of storage space uh kitchen updated flow traffic management in terms of emergency response uh we have really no ingress or egress the whole thing is pretty that you can access the building.

And obviously this is an ideal special across the street of the current basement.

Additionally, since it is a slam on grade full structure, we're continuing to see moisture damage in the newer edition. Um, it's an area that we struggle with constantly is dealing with the the flooding that occurs and also since uh also as a result of that we don't have any frost or flooding protection. Our infrastructure inside the building is also aging. Um, who's our emergency generator, bathrooms, kitchen, flooring, and double side signing is now starting to wear through.

So the police building uh this was built in 2004. It's about 2.1 acres adjacent to city hall. Uh was constructed back in the time when we had a dedicated EMS. So if you look at the building layout kind of there in the lower right hand corner, you can see about half the building was really meant to be EMS. Half of it was meant to be police. Um, now as we transition, we still have EMS there. Uh, but they have a small area. Um, 2004 police department also had only eight full-time department um staff. Now we have 12. So the problem that we're seeing is as the department's grown. Ultimately we have to do is uh transition a lot of those members of the department into the bar side. So it's just a really poor layout for efficiency matters for the department itself. Um, not to mention some of the other building we'll go over. Uh, so police in 2014 we had 1,513 calls that police 911 traffic stops police assistance. Um, in 2024 now we're seeing 3,997. Again project that out over the next 10 years. Um, in 2024 we're expected to be right right now 5,792. So again we continue to to grow in terms of our needs for both these departments. Um, some of the deficiencies we're seeing in the building right now we have four bays. Um, the vehicles are double parked. Modern police stations have one ingress door that you go in and one egress door you go out but one large uh one large p or parking area that uh allows you to freely come and go. Um, ideally that's what we would set up in a potentially new building. We lack many of the security amenities uh with this current structure we're in. Um, we have a roof that's leaking especially during heavy rains that needs to be replaced. Um, since it is a wood pole structure, it does not it retains moisture better than other materials. Um, resulting moisture build up a hard time with the full HVAC system controlling that and that's what you see in that right hand pictures in the summer will result. And then finally, you can see on since it's a slon grade, um, our police department officers often have to deal with uh rodents climbing the wall and unfortunately unable to leave. They die there and have to deal with that smoke. Um, so this is again looking at what the police department currently needs not on future growth 12,965 ft and they currently have 10,16.

In conclusion, why we're looking at this is all kind of why we're looking at this. Uh, a new and updated building will improve accessibility, security, focus on emergency resiliency, no pole sheds, adapt new energy efficiency standards, create new create enough storage for departments, implement new technology improvements, and provide for future expansion and flexibility.

Ultimately, council on August 12th decided to move forward with some building design scenarios. Um, I won't go through this, but basically the the process that we kind of went through in terms of working with um the departments to look at what those scenarios are, how we got to where we are, what are some possible tax implications. Um, and then we did get some fire department feedback, which I'll get to that in a second here as well.

So on July 28th of this year, we had a workshop.

We presented a couple site locations and layouts at the meeting. Uh the building design, consistency, site development, contract administration, and construction. Factoring all those in plus inflation for a potential building 2029, 2030, we get estimated million.

So, city council review the site location options and one of the things as a result of fire department staff. So, one of that that staff did ask that we try to keep the fire hall as close to the location as it currently is. So as a result uh we included a third option that we're going to be going over here a second as well to be considered by this point.

There we go option. All right. So just to include all the options. Option one is within our president business park. This was about 150 acres that we purchased back in 2022 for expansion. Um, this, as I mentioned, since the fire department wants to be as close as possible, this is their least favorite option and what they're looking at. This option would be at the very edge of town. Um, the city does own the land, but we don't have any current infrastructure. So, just the road and utilities itself is estimated about $2.2 million. Um, this road extension that you see in this layout would be riding road. So just off to the left would be where SV Labs currently exists. Um, so ideally one of the benefits hopefully would be as this infrastructure building we could start infilling with other industrial businesses around it.

So option two this is within the school district plan. This is directly across the street from where the current city hall uh library are. Um, this would be the 5 acres. You can see that dash line there is what's being proposed. Um, if we move forward with this land, this is something that city hall or school district was willing to consider. The city will be placing all recreational facilities as part of the development agreement will be signed establishing that use with the school district. Um, so you can see within the the map basically what's being proposed there be one softball field that would be removed and then also additionally to the north I believe the school district currently uses that for uh soccer and football.

So some of the options as we're looking at um this concept plan has already been approved. This is in Fairy Wonderland Park which used to be St. C plus Park. Um, so this is a lot of the work that's been done by the Fairy Wonderland group or healing play their nonprofit. They've been doing a lot of fundraising a lot of great work. So the city as part of this plan in 2027 will be putting in a parking uh lot to stalls uh installing restrooms um upgrading or painting line striping on Pearl Street and then also the addition uh ideally uh if we move forward with replacement of that softball/ football field as well in the lower leftand corner.

Additionally, um, within Great Rivers, right now we have 10 acres that has been dedicated for future park development. Um, so if we move forward with this option, we want to work to develop a constant plan, not only to replace the softball field, but also develop uh the park in a way that has a long-term future use and what uh the needs are for the community.

So then that third option that was asked to be included would be if the city move forward and purchased the firehall field. Obviously, um this is the scenario that the fire department likes the most cuz it would be directly across the street from their uh where they're located. Um, in this scenario, probably be more hands-off at least from the city. We'd be more so working with the school district to come up with a price for replacement um and purchase that that field and then u work through the school district figuring out how where they want to put the new build itself.

So what we're looking then for in next steps is really this is just an intro level discussion to see if the school board and the school district is even willing to consider either any or or none of these options. Obviously, we completely understand if we want to stay pat and stay with what you have. That will then allow us to take what feedback we do get from the school board and the school district uh to determine what our next steps are. Really at this stage it is possible that the city may not afford it at all based on the projected costs and the funding. One of the things though we are finding out quickly is that if we are going for grants or discretionary spending they want a dedicated second place. They want full building plans. So a lot of uh funds have to be uh really put in place and to move forward. So that's what we're working through now. Um, if the project doesn't move forward the construction of the facility will not be scheduled until 2029. So any and all park replacements would need to be finished prior to the end of 2028.

So with that, I'll turn it over to the school board for questions.

Um, anybody want anybody have any questions about the presentation here?

I feel like this is so much uh to think about >> Yeah. >> right now, but >> if you have any questions about any of the things on the slides, maybe that's a good place to start. I don't know pad if you or >> Well, so I think our discussion today is not to debate the need for um or or what kind of building it is or the maintenance problems, right? This is a schoolboard discussion on potential property.

Um, I guess initially what comes to head um I I think that um as a resident I would be interested in looking at all the options that both help the school and the city um and all of our all of our people. I would be you guys at some point in time the council is going to need you guys are going to need feedback from us that meets a certain timeline.

So again just random thoughts coming ahead you know I think I think that would help that would help me personally is to understand what you guys need and by when um so that we can as a board determine is is there a potential path right for for one of these options >> because we'll probably have to have some workshops around this to have a a discussion around it. Yeah. I mean, if I just just just thinking all out loud, right, like the fire the current baseball field comes to mind, right? I mean, there's there's a there's a lot of people um that that that needs to be discussed [clears throat] with before this board can make a decision >> potentially different than one of the other site options, right? So, >> I think like we need to understand a timeline of how we can best help.

Yeah. I would say in the next I mean so we're not asking you to make any firm decisions in terms of I would say though in the next 2 to 3 months if you're willing to entertain these options with the idea then that we can start engaging some of these people in terms of cuz the thought process is we need to start from the top and work our way down. So if we're so for the baseball field scenario, get the board's input if that's even something that wants to be considered. So then we can start talking with crazy about baseball and then things like that in terms what are the next steps and what are the options. I think though the end goal is by the at least the end of 2026 we have a kind of a final decision on if these are sites and hopefully then as we work through that we'll have a better understanding.

And as you know that sounds like a long way out, right? But as you know that can get beaten up. Mhm. >> tremendously quickly. So, okay, enough said. Uh, one other question maybe that I had um is um for example, uh across the across from the current library, right? If if a softball field is eaten up, you gave a couple of other options that that that green space would be replaced. And then you talked about another park. Would the plan be to to replace in kind one for one or was that green space um at Fairy Wonderland and at the Great Rivers if those were already planned, right? I mean, we're not really replacing on a onetoone basis.

Well, in the Fairy Wonderland, it won't be a softball field, right? I mean, [snorts] >> yeah, this the fairy wonderland, I included that because this is more of the youth >> soccer or football. Um, this one is would be more of the soft water replacement, but I think the if I'm understanding correctly, this would be more of a we have 10 acres. So, ideally one softball field or two softball fields or if there's a full larger facilities for five football or soccer.

And I got and I guess my question Oh, sorry, Mike. I guess my question is if if it's already part of a development agreement that this 10 acres already has to go in.

Yeah. >> I I I guess my question would be is if if it it should be 10 acres then plus a softball field.

Yeah. It's 10 acres for the land. But for instance, there's no funds availing right now. That's >> for a softball field actually developing any of that infrastructure.

Got it. All right. The parking lot if there's restrooms the actual softball field all that's the all that >> where where is this located at? I know where the fairy wonderland is on >> 570 >> is where >> is it outside of town on Hollister on 57?

That's kind of what I was wondering.

Okay. Yeah. Good. So it's not So right now we use like the fields whether it's baseball, softball, whatever we use them for our the school district, right? So, it's not in walkable distance for our students or anything, right? It's fur It's the further out of town one. Okay. Okay. Okay. And this is just kind of a question cuz I just don't know and it's probably super obvious to everybody else, but who pays for the rebuilding of all the fields?

What we're proposing right now would be the city.

The city would. Okay. Okay.

And then who would do the maintenance on the fields? Well, the city would be the one that would be doing the capital in terms of planning, but the one thing that we don't have that like if there's line striping. So, part of the agreement would be city would like for instance cut the grass uh do the capital planning in terms of long-term funding for that. But if there's actual line striping or maybe you know if there's a soft field that needs to be we don't have that Uh, I want to open it up over here to Helen or Vicki. either of you have any questions or >> so many but um okay so option three right so if I'm getting this right just so I so this is the field and then our storage units right that would go around okay >> hold on so say we sold that or whatever that went this baseball field just cuz I'm so I'm not wrong would be replaced like could be replaced on our prop like by the high school right on our property is that what we're thinking >> yeah if we needed to this. We do have rough plans to um there's property next to the high school to add a where we would have room to add a baseball field. We haven't done [clears throat] any indepth looking into it or not, but Michael could correct me if I'm wrong. We there is space out there, physical space to put out a baseball field.

Yeah. He offers you cross country course.

Mhm. >> And it's the by the first national bank field. Yeah.

Yeah. >> So, did you want to stay on longer? Is that what you're thinking? [laughter]

Any other questions, Helen? Or >> no. No, I don't I don't think I have question I the only question one of the questions I did have which you answered is there is the city does have property out in the business park.

Yes.

Correct. Okay. Okay. Have you is there any I guess any other potential property in town that could be other than the school? Is there not that you want to annex anything, but like some commercial properties that maybe aren't being used or would be more of a like a benefit especially to someone who owns them if they're not being used currently? Would is there like a commercial property or something in town that you could purchase? I mean, I'm just thinking access wise, is there somewhere else in >> Well, the biggest challenge we have is we need 5 acres. So, there's limited 5 acre sites that are available >> and you want it closed >> ultimately. Okay. >> And the other challenge is as a public safety services, we're trying to also immedately not put [clears throat] them on the edge of town and then we're putting some place for the community. they're not having to either cross Highway 10 or, you know, go all the way to one end of town and then come back >> to the other end. Okay.

So, you're hearing a lot of questions from us and it's not necessarily a bad thing. We I would I can speak for myself that, you know, I saw this in here but didn't totally understand like, okay, what are we really talking about? Um, until you presented. So, I I think it can be super exciting, too. I I mean, we don't have any fields, softball, baseball fields that the city actually owns in this town. So I mean, there is some kind of uh that's the that's a cool opportunity maybe, right? Um, it's just something that I think takes a lot of planning and thinking for us. Um, it's you know, we also take pride in owning all of our fields too and not having to borrow and go through city schedules and all that kind of stuff. So it's just something for us to wrap our heads around. Um, I I'm thinking we probably will need some sort of more workshopppy stuff on this so we can talk through this more and think about really viably what this would mean for us. I'm I'm worried about our ability to put the investment in planning and thinking that you guys may need from us in in a in a time frame that works for you. That's that's that's honestly what I think a big risk is right now. there's some there's there's frankly some cool opportunities to think big >> or or or even think efficiently and but and I'm worried about our ability to invest that time. Doesn't mean we shouldn't or can't or won't, but >> that's just a big what's >> I mean, I think from our earlier presentation on the budget and all of that, we're pretty aware that we're going to be needing to make some changes here in just the district next year, the coming years, whatever that we're going to have to work on too on our end. So we may be doing a little more planning on our how we're going to handle our stuff. So yeah, kind of with Pat, I don't know how much time. I mean, it's great to have at least kind of a timeline that you would like to know something by January. So that gives us a little bit more time to at least have conversations.

So let's just let's just do this. We're going to take it offline, have Jim kind of >> run with it, and we'll work with them. I know we have to get board input, but I just want to summarize here, Matt, because there's three options. And just to dumb it down, option one really doesn't have any impact on the district. That's where it's just the business park. So, it's really the the two options that impact the school district are is option two, which is across from Borer. And to replace the the soccer field and the softball field, there's two different locations that combine to to supplement those two fields, right? That's that's option two. And then option three would be to figure out how if if we replace far off field, where does that how does that look and how much would that cost? So, I think those are the two options you're asking us to kind of investigate or entertain, right?

Yeah.

So, we can we can take it back and work with [clears throat] Jim and and try to get back to the city within a reasonable amount of time here in the next couple 2 3 months. Is that fair?

Yeah. And the only thing I would add is obviously this is a project we as a city are trying to push. So I would just say to to Pat's point is we want to be if there's if there's opportunities where you say we were willing to consider this we are going to be a huge we want to be a huge partner in trying to >> plan this and we don't want to just say okay school we're going to dump it up and we'll figure it out. Yeah, I think that's what questions that we can't get answers to right now. And I think we're going to have to just dig in and maybe that's something, >> you know, Jim will live with that.

So, and and I heard you say within the next two or 3 months, you just want us to come back and say, "Yeah, we're going to entertain this at least and then we'll work together the next year on what it might look like and make a final decision at some point there."

We don't want to move forward. Understand? We'll understand that. Then that will give us at least the direction start.

Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Before you go, Matt, one quick question on the Jewel Street property. Um, we're going to we have that listed as close session because that's a negotiation item. Do you want to comment at all on what the you and I have talked about with the city on the Jewel Street option.

I think they're they're playing me off. telling me [laughter] uh I guess the only thing that has been discussed is that from the last time was that you know the certified survey map is obviously something if we move forward with it the city would take on as a cost and pay for that. The other thought was that um in lie of the land to the north being sold possibly we don't know for sure was that the the idea was that we would offer 10% of whatever that land sale is if or when it happens.

So, is that the 13 plus acres or which which landing?

That's the one at the end.

Just they just want the 100 foot right away.

Yeah, the 100 foot at the end of the >> It's that dead end cut, >> but but it's chopping. It's cutting 100 ft off the end of that 13 acres right where the road is.

Okay.

Okay. Thank you.

Thanks, Matt.

Thanks, Matt. We're going to move on to teaching learning update item B. Michael Klesmowski. Evening board Dr. Mr. Marie gets that pulled up. Um, I always like this time of year uh because it's a time to reflect back on the hard work that we've done over the last previous school year and now that it's getting more public I can I can shed it with the board. So, this is typically the month I'll come in and do it. Um, we'll talk about the state assessment results and the importance of those results and then what do those results mean to us as a district.

So, there we go. So, like we say Prescott, we're small in size but big in achievement. Um, so the first thing I'm going to talk about are the state assessment results. This is the Wisconsin forward results in ELA and those are in grades 3 through 8. And then at the high school we have preac in grades 9 and 10 and then the full ACT in grade 11. That's a heat map. So it's really meant for you can look at the numbers. What it's really meant for is just catch your eye with the colors.

Um, so you can see I've broken up the elementary, the middle school, and the high school. And then there's just a straight average of of each of those at the end. If you see a blue color, that means that they are higher than the Prescott School District. We are that green line that goes straight across u because it's alphabetical order. And then if they are lower than the Prescott School District, they are in yellow. And this is based on the spring of 2025, so last spring's results. These are the percentile of kids in ELA that are considered to be meeting the expectation or advanced um in their grade level. You can see that we have some unique districts on the side. One of the things that we talk about as a school district is not only comparing ourselves to the middleboard conference and then also comparing ourselves to others that are like us. Bloomer and uh get school district are very uh demographically like us. Then also what are our what are our neighbors doing? So, Hudson, New Richmond, River Falls. Um, you can see it's hard to see on the board right now, but different colors for them. And then the statewide average is at the bottom um as well.

So, as you look at this, you can see that there is a lot of yellow, more yellow than last year. 94% of these boxes are lower than the Prescott School District.

Ever since you went to the colors, it's just so easy to read now.

Yeah. Right. It's very easy to [laughter] see where we're excelling and then where areas have some improvement >> um classroom and where they land in here as well. Um, so those are our ELA results. Um, couldn't be really more happy than than where we are right now right now as a district and again continuing to grow. Like I said last year there were more blue on here than what there are this year. So again, showing us that we're growing as well.

And then exact same thing for mathematics. So again, baby, excuse me, is higher, yellow is lower. You see there are a few more baby blue on here. Um, but even with the calculation, there's still 88% of the time of all of these boxes, Prescott is still higher.

Um, and then also we always do look at growth because achievement is one part of the lake. How good are our schools? The other thing that people want to know is are we getting any better? Um, so the example I'll use here and there's a couple different examples, but if you look at the fourth grade, you can see that only Hudson is the only um grade level that is higher in mathematics. If we were to rewind the tape and go back to last year when I was talking to you, that fourth grade cohort that we have, um, it's now our fifth grade cohort, but when they're in fourth grade, if we went back to when they were in third grade, there was seven blue boxes.

So, we have outscored, we have raised some of ours. Some of those did drop their scores. So, there's two ways to make growth. One is to stay where you are and have others drop. The other one is to grow yourself. And we're doing both. We're growing and some are falling. So that gap is getting um even bigger.

So um as as you know, we talk a lot about what what's changed in education over the years. We talk about um our curriculum and the way that we've changed that where it's more of a problem based curriculum where students are working their way through problems. One of the resources we use is illustrative of math. Uh, we use Desmos math at the middle school level. But then also what our teaching sort of what's in our toolkit and building thinking classrooms is definitely having an impact on what we're seeing in the classroom. The level of conversations that we're seeing from students as well. Um, I know in your packet you'll see the science and social studies. Um, I'm not going to present those here, but we're we're pretty high in both of those. Um, one a little bit higher than the other. Um, I'll show you the to the general public the ELA and the math because those that's what's going to be used to calculate our scores for our report card. Those are the biggest indicators of future success are in those areas. We do have a lot to celebrate in the in the math and excuse me in the science and social studies as well. Um, science just color-wise 66% are lower than us and in social studies it's 72%. So we're still very high.

If we go to our next slide though now is this comparison. So we just look at the middle word conference again very similar districts to us um because we are in the conference have pulled out those neighboring districts and for the first time ever I'm proud to say that we have a clean sweep where at the district level elementary middle high and both ELA and mathematics we are the top.

Awesome. Congratulations not only to ourselves.

Yes. >> So kudos not only to our students, to our staff, to our school board that supports us in [clears throat] that. Um, but and I think some of the unsung heroes that you don't hear about are that support staff.

So our aids, our counselors, our school psychologists. Um, students can't perform well if the whole child is not taken care of. So the fact that we get the performance that we get is because of all of those other things and supports that we have in place for our students beyond the academics. So thank you to our our staff for their committed dedication to that. Again to our school board for supporting us and those initiatives that we uh go through. And again I get phone calls every year. I was just talking just someone in the preliminary numbers came out from another neighboring school district and again they want to know what's the silver bullet and the silver bullet I always tell them is a dedicated staff with dedicated time for their craft. So what's been the biggest difference for Prescott school districts collaboration Monday hands down bar none that is why we're seeing what we're seeing we know it's a burden on our community um, but it's definitely a burden that is also paying off for our community as well.

How many years are we into collaboration Monday?

Um 2021 >> we piloted during co that was 2021.

Um, we piloted a little bit then then we repiloted the next year at a grander scale and we also cut the hours down. Remember originally it was like two or 2 and 1/2 hour. Now we're down to a 90 minutes. Some people still refer to it as a half a day but a day is not 3 hours long. It's a 90-minute early out. Um, so this is year three of us having that as a regular thing on our schedule. Um, >> and this is where we're at.

And this is where we're at.

Yeah.

Awesome. All right. Any questions or comments before I shift to now the report?

Is this sharable data at this point?

100% sharable. This became sharable end of September. Um, you can fact check any of this on the wise-B website is where you can find all of these values from.

Thanks.

Just one quick question. I hesitate to even ask it because this should just be celebrated. I'm going to leave it as as such. There was a point in time in the past though um you know when you talk about um cohort to cover where we do we do see some dips and then what we do at some point in time that data still will be shared out though, right?

Yep. We'll talk a lot more about that on the report card. I can tell you just by looking at these numbers, if you were to go back, um, our now juniors when they were 10th grade, >> that cohort has been a cohort we've been tracking since third grade. >> They were the below the below state average reading right at state average mathematics group. By the end of 8th grade, between seventh and eighth grade, we weren't sure what happened. A miracle happened. Um, they somehow became the highest scoring in mathematics that we had ever had.

Right? Right. And that just shows you the long dedication, the long haul of even if you were you start low, many years of long dedicated work, you can get to high areas.

I think that was the year that we put math intervention.

We hired.

I just remember cuz my daughter was we have our kids that same age and it was going into that high school year that we got an interventionist.

We had an interventionist um again one year. What was the impact? What would have been the impact had we started that sooner? All those questions that we have. They held serve ninth grade they actually grew a little bit um from eighth to nth grade and then from 9th to 10th they they dropped they dropped quite a bit.

Sure.

Um, so we've been talking to our staff hypothesizing looking at you know where are the root causes of that? What are the things that were in place that aren't in place now? Um, also talking to students, um, talking to my own child who did not score nearly as well as a sophomore as he did as a freshman, what happened? And part of it is, um, and you hear this every year and, uh, Mildrank can can vouch for it. Part of it is the test itself, the test day itself, the length of it, the burnout of it. There it is burnout. It is part of it. Um, to that end, I can share with you that both the ACT and preACT are changing this year. For that reason exactly, they are actually decreasing, don't quote me on my numbers. I got a lot in my head. I think 44 less questions on the ACT. Um, also about an hour less of testing. So that's going to have an impact. The other part that's going to change with the ACT because this is changing on the national stage also is right now in your composite score for your ACT you have English which is really conventions and spelling and all those things. So you have English, mathematics, reading and science. That's what the traditional ACT is. State of Wisconsin we also do a writing so we get an ELA score. Um, they are now going to drop the science out of the composite score. So this year's junior class when they get their composite score, it will be English, math, reading only. They will get a score for science because that's a requirement in the state of Wisconsin. They will get a score for writing. So they'll still get a STEM score and they'll still get a ELA score, but no longer will the science uh be part of that proposal.

I'm just looking at Kaden over there going, "Dang, one year off."

[laughter]

DOWN AND THERE'S GOING TO be kids that came there cheering and saying, "Man, that science really is what brought me down." And then there's going to be kids like me that said, "Man, that science really brought me up."

Yeah.

Right. So, >> um it goes both ways.

Sorry. Thank you. I I remember you.

But yes, we definitely look at the growth and we and we look at, you know, when we do our data dig in August, that two-day data dig, we are looking cohort to court. We are looking student student year one to student year two. We're down to the student level on those days.

I remember how excited we were to to have started, you know, starting collect the data and now you guys have years worth of data and to see the trending and then being able to identify this might have happened here and this might have happened here and here's what we did, here's what worked, here's what didn't. I think I I mean, I'm just speaking for myself would be uh I would love to see that and you know, great job. Um, cool stuff. Mike, what year did you start as our curriculum director?

2016-17 school year.

Okay. Yeah. And I I know because you're the one up here presenting, but a lot of this really goes to you, too. And everywhere I go, I say, "Well, you don't have a Michael Cosmoski." So, and I think like just keeping your laser focus and um you're very intentional about teaching us. You're very intentional about staff. I think it's having that consistent person in your position for all these years helps us with our priorities and moving forward. So, we we owe you a great deal of thanks, too. So, thank you.

I enjoyed. All right, shifting gears just slightly. Now, all of this data and information is going to go on to the report card. So, our 2025 report card, just a general overview for the general public. There's four areas. Achievement, student growth, target group outcomes, and on track to graduation. Achievement really is just that. It's looking at both your math and ELA. Um, depending on when a kid enters a school district, they have to be there for a full year. So, some some kids are only there from one year to the next. Some kids are only there one year. Some kids um this report card actually is going to have only two years worth of data. A lot of times they have three. Talk about why in a minute. Um, but you have to be there

For a full year. Same thing for growth. If a kid comes, they have to be here two years in a row in order for them to count towards our growth. The growth, um, is value added. And all that that means is that they take all the kids in, let's say, sixth grade math that had this score when they were in sixth grade and then they track them to seventh grade. And then they say, "Okay, those kids that started at that score, where's the average kid?" So there's average growth. And then did you beat the average or did you not beat the average?

The lowest group outcomes. That is our bottom quartile of academic students. Um, so the achievement of those academic students, they track them from year to year. That cohort changes. They basically get a mini report card. They look at their achievement, they look at their growth, they look at, um, the other indicators: absenteeism, um, reading scores, those things. So, they kind of get a mini report card, but that kind of tells you the health of your, um, special ed department because a lot of those kids are special ed. It also tells you your, um, multi-level system of support. What are you doing for your tier three, tier 2 kiddos? Um, so, that that really gives us an indication of our of our low-achieving kids and are we closing gaps for them or not?

And then the on-track to graduation. Again, they use the the indicators of third grade reading, eighth grade math, and then your absenteeism graduation. One thing that's unique is when they, when you get a report card for the district, they basically treat the district as one big school. So the kids that are in the lowest growth outcomes for the district report card might not be the same kids that are in the high schools or in the middle schools or in the elementary report card. So it just changes things a little bit. So that's why you have to use a little caution and understand how they calculate things before you start making judgments. Um, but that's how the report card typically, it is calculated.

It also is calculated based on your free and reduced lunch numbers. And Mr. Reef was talking about earlier now, um, you know, encouraging people, if you need the assistance, apply for the assistance. Um, we dropped by three over 3% of free and reduced lunch from the over the last two years. So what that means on our report card is because we have less students that are, um, from socioeconomic, is our achievement counts for more than our growth because that's an indicator. If you are a free reduced, uh, lunch student, typically you're going to be lower achieving, which means you should be able to grow those students higher. So therefore, our neighbors down the road, I believe Ellsworth, a couple years ago, I looked at them, they were over 40% free reduced lunch. So their report card is calculated drastically different than ours because their achievement does not count as much as what their growth counts for. So again, that's why it's important that we always look at both where are we in terms of overall achievement then, but then the growth as well. So that's one of the areas for us that's going to change slightly for us, uh, more for others.

The report card itself truly is, it's based on the old calculations, but it truly is sort of a new starting point for a report card. And the reason why is because they reformed the Forward exam 2 years ago. Forward exam used to be normed based on the NATE, which is the national, um, assessment test for achievement. Um, that really was a growth model. Here's the example. In order to be considered proficient in fifth grade, or excuse me, in third grade math, you had to be in the 51st percentile. So, typical bell curve. However, by 8th grade, you had to be in the 72nd percentile. So, you had to have more than a year's growth every year in order to reach it. Well, now we've reformed it to align with our neighboring states, align with most of the country, and it's closer to that 50th percentile in every grade level.

Right. Well, by them doing that, all of a sudden, you had more kids that were meeting and advanced. Not really the advanced, more of the meeting kids. Well, then that looks like huge amounts of growth for a district. All because they just shifted the scale. So, when they got to the report card, they said, "We can't calculate the same way anymore. We can't base it on overall achievement as our norming because everyone's achievement went up." So, now they're basing it on growth this year. Well, that led to other changes. So one of the changes is just the category that you fall into. Are we significantly exceeding, exceeding, meeting? They, they all grew between one and two points in order to be to be in that category. Um, if you remember last year, our middle school was 83, 0, 83.1, something like that. They finally met significantly exceeding expectations. This year, with that same score, they would not be there. They would just be exceeding. So, that's changed a little bit.

Other things that have changed. These are all new changes. Again, I just talked about the two years worth of data because that scale adjustment. Um, a couple of informational things that were added. Third grade reading reporting at the bottom of the report cards. Now, you will now see the percent of students reading at grade level. They are defining reading by grade level at meeting or exceeding is defined as, um, at grade level. However, when you read the technical of the Wisconsin Board Exam, the way it's set up, that's not necessarily true. You could be approaching meeting expectations. That means you're doing some things at grade level. You're just not doing them with the same accuracy. So, when people say, "Oh, a kid who's not, um, meeting expectations, they're not at grade level with an asterisk." Right? That's not quite true. But for this, this purposes, they said we're just going to define it. It's meeting and and and, um, achieve and exceeding. That's it. So that will be listed at the bottom of, of the report card. Um, the norming again, it's going to be based on growth rather than achievement, which then means now we have to do a slight calculation difference of what does your achievement score count. So in Prescott, based on our free reduced lunch numbers, our achievement overall points are going to be less because of this new calculation. So, just know that this new report card is sort of like a new first report card. We can't really compare to other years. However, we also know the general public will try to compare to other years. So, it's that's why I'm walking you through some of this.

Um, other things that are going to be reported in this, um, they added last year in a state statute that we are now going to put state and local law violations that happen on our school property. And it could or could not be one of our students depending on the violation. And there's certain violations that need to get reported. And depending on how you report it, depending on how your municipality hands out tickets, how they communicate with your school district, it might look totally different. I was in a meeting two weeks ago up at CESA 11 and there was an individual in the in the meeting that said, "We have told our local police department, do not tell us if you give out tickets because if you tell us, we have to report it. If you don't, you don't have to report it." So, just realize this is going to be drastically different from district to district depending on your business rules and even those rules that your local municipality has of what do they consider, let's say, um, a disorderly conduct versus what does another municipality consider a disorderly conduct. So, just know that's going to be on there. People are going to see it. Every district's going to have it. Um, it's going to give you a state average and it's going to give you your your local average, right? So, some of it is just what your data integrity to and your data quality is going to have a big impact on what actually goes on that report card.

So, Michael, there we have to report just like listed out on the report card. Now all the. So all it's going to do, it's not going to list, it's just going to give you a number. Number of incidences. Number per 100 students at your high school and it's only high school related. So it's only high school numbers that we're collecting are being required to report. Actually, Mr. Fig is who filled out the report last year and it walks them through specific questions and then gives them examples and scenarios of would you report this or not.

And those sort of violations related or I mean, it doesn't necessarily have to be our students or our staff related. It could just be on school district property. Yeah. So somebody gets pulled over at 1:00 a.m. and they happen to pull them over in the high school parking lot, it gets reported. If they pull them over in the middle school parking lot, it doesn't get reported. Um, they are looking at hopefully updating the law by because I think the intention was what happens during school hours, but it that is not the way it's written. Right. Yep. Okay. So those will be on there just for information. Um, um, just a trip down memory, uh, lane. Again, we're not supposed to compare to last year, but we're going to talk about last year also. We were, um, on the report card, we were number one in achievement and in student growth, uh, based on percentile ranks last year. If we look at the percentile rank in academics in the state of Wisconsin, we were a top 10 school district in the state of Wisconsin. And also in terms of growth, we were in the top 8% in the state of Wisconsin for growth.

So that's our little trip down memory lane. We are a high-achieving, high-growing district. Um, this year's report card is going to look different because of those calculations. But as we can see the raw data that goes into these calculations, we're number one in the Middle Border Conference clean sweep. Um, again, 94% even considering our larger neighbors around us in ELA and 88% in FMEX.

Anybody have any questions still? This is 2024, so the year before. Yeah. Yeah. There's always a year left. Yep. And by year lagged, I mean some things are a year lag, some things are up to 6 years. So like our graduation data, that's a six-year data point that they're gathering. So that factors in as well.

Make sure we're celebrating this, Michael, and we're getting marketing. I'm serious. Like we need this needs to be splattered all over the schools and website and everything else. It's great information. You always, always outdo yourself. It's fantastic. Um, next month on the 11th is supposedly when we're going to get our final report cards. So, I've seen our report card. Um, principles have seen it, our PLC leaders have seen them. We've done some preliminary activities with them. Um, and then the state has a time if there's a correction that needs to be made. One year they had to correct everyone. This achievement, I think in ELA, impacted us by 2%. So,

You're not going to give us a teaser? I can't because it's embargoed, including for the. Based on what you saw of our achievement data, that's the data that gets used. Yeah. So I don't think we have much to worry about.

All right. Yeah. Thank you. Well done. Last item, potential building consolidation update.

So, um, I'm going to keep giving this to you every month. Um, this one will be kind of quick though. Um, we have contracted with, um, the Applied Population Lab out of the UW Madison to do a population study to determine what, uh, ideally forecast for 20 to 25 years what our population will be as best as accurate as they can. Obviously, the farther they go out, the more challenging it is. Um, Courtney and, uh, Madison, I always get her new, I always forget which name is her married name now, Madison Skinner, are working with with her. Um, I've engaged two, uh, commercial realtors to take a look at the value of the Prescott Intermediate School. Um, I've reached out to a third, but haven't heard back. Uh, the admin team has been talking about this at our bi-weekly meetings every single time. Um, we're meeting again next Tuesday and then having a special session the Tuesday after that. We're looking at what our must-haves and must-have knots. For example, one of our no limits is we're not going to put breakouts or specials, um, in non-classroom spaces. Nobody's going to end up in a closet or anything like that. Um, and then start looking at some potential moves, uh, for grades to different buildings. We're also going to talk a lot about the educational value of keeping, uh, the Prescott Intermediate School. We know our population is going down a little bit, but by the same token, Michael just spent a great deal and did a great job presenting all of our numbers. How much of that do we want to give up at what savings? Um, so, and then hopefully get a fairly solid number on cost savings of closing the intermediate school and then do we use it. Um, speaking personally, when I was hired in the spring and came on in July, everybody pretty much told me, "Yep, close it down by the end of the year." But I got to tell you, the more we dig into this, it is by no means a clear-cut, um, recommendation. Couple things we're looking at is, um, should we do a site study? That would cost us $4,600 if we had CISA 10, uh, come in and do that. Um, I'm open to suggestions from the board, but I believe our principles and staff have a good understanding of the needs of our students. All of our principles have maps of what would happen if we had to move, uh, if we did close down, uh, the intermediate school. Um, and I think our principles have a much better understanding some of those special needs, especially things like Cardinal Time and stuff like that. Where are we going to put kids for that? If you're, uh, CISA 10, which does a great job and works with the majority of the school districts in the state from Manitowoc to Wausau to the Dells, to everything in northwestern Wisconsin, um, they don't really understand what Cardinal Time is. They're doing more square foot studies and stuff like that, where our principles can say, "Okay, no, this is what we need for this room and this is what we need for that room." Our hope is to maybe in November, but more likely in December, to come to you with two or three plans. But I still think one of the big issues is what do we get for a hard cost savings and then hearing what the building is worth. So,

You hired me to make decisions, but right now in October, I'm telling you we're not, we're not there yet.

Any questions down here? I'll take input too. I just need questions. I have been here for 3 months.

No questions. I mean, we, this, this is a good process. We need to follow. So,

Jim, one of the things I just had a quick question on was, so when you talk about closing down a building, are we shuttering a building or is are you guys looking at moving the district office down there? What is, is that one of the options you're looking at? Like, what options are you looking at?

So, we, we, on everything's on the table right now. Um, but we've, we've looked at whether we move the district offices and maybe some buildings and grounds down there, whether we expand, uh, Northwest Journey, open it up to other people. Um, do we mothball just the third floor? Um, yeah. Or do we sell it outright? But shuttering it and using it for nothing hasn't really gotten much traction. It would either be, do we sell it or do we keep it? If we keep it in the portfolio, how do we best use it? Yeah.

Yeah, like the same thing, gathering space, right? Yeah.

Because that's one of the, one of the areas that we had said that we would make available is to the gathering space. So,

Gathering space, gym space are all, are all on our discussion list, um, every time. And yeah. Yeah. I haven't heard any traction and I have no personal belief in shuttering it and keeping it in the district. It would either be sell it outright or how do we best make use of it?

And Jim, what is, um, is the, is the plan to kind of come back to us with a couple different options so we can kind of weigh it out some?

That's the hope. Yeah. And hopefully, you know, we have those two meetings in November before the November board meeting. If everything goes well, um, you know, I've always been taught to underpromise and overdeliver. Um, but if all goes well, maybe at November we can say, "Hey, here's our four closest options. Are we to the point where we want to start a small study group and then try to get you something by January, February to vote on?"

We could also do a workshop, Jim. I think that would probably. I think that'd be great. Like what we would want to do to go through the options in more detail and not be a regular board meeting. Okay. Yep. Because I think one of the other things that I've, you know, that there's a number of thoughts that have kind of popped into my head as far as like revenue for that building, what we could use that building possibly for. So, um, yeah, I think closing up not the way to go. Things get run down and then we have to pay to have a building torn down, which makes no sense. So,

We know it's, we know it's okay. We know it works. It just there might be some things instruction-wise that it's just easier to move students out of that building, but let's hold on to it and use it to its best potential, I think.

Mhm. So, yeah, revenue-wise, I, I think I'd for sure like to explore some of those options with that building. But I do think Jim, um, with the approach you guys are taking of student first, learning first, achievement first, that that's, you know, at least my priority, uh, looking at all those different things and then weighing those options. So, awesome. Sounds like more to come. Workshop in our near future.

All right, we're going to move on. Uh, that ends information and discussion. We're on to recognition of visitors, public comment. Anybody here? Nice. I don't think he's gone. So,

Yeah, he's back there. He could just come up.

All right, we're going to move on. The board will consider a motion to convene in closed session under exemption 1985 1 CD in room A117, uh, for statutes. Yeah. 1985 1C, uh, and 1985 1E. So, we will, let's see here. We want to make a motion to convene in closed session first and then we'll roll call when we get there. Uh, I move to convene into closed session in room A17 at Prescott High School at 8:00.

I'll second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor?

I oppose. That carries. Um, coming out of closed session, there may be motions or actions that could be taken. We are going to open out of closed in A17 and we will make any, we'll take any action items in A17 with with an open door. So, we're not going to come back here, but we will, we could potentially have, uh, uh, motions done in open session after the closed. So, thank you.