Good evening.
It is 6 o'clock.
I am calling to order the special board meeting of Tuesday, May 12th.
This is Shope.
May we get a roll call, please?
Yes.
Carol Fox.
Here.
Tom Hankins.
Here.
Bill Johnson.
Here.
Meghan Miller.
Present.
Joanne Ruhl.
Present.
Dan Schuth.
Here.
And Tia Johnson.
Here.
All members are present.
Thank you.
May I get approval of the agenda?
So moved.
Second.
Motion by Tom Hankins, seconded by Carol Fox.
Any discussion?
Hearing and seeing none, all in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Motion carries unanimously.
Mrs. Schope, is there any public comment?
Yes, I have some both in the room and e-mails to read.
Okay.
Members of the public are welcome to attend all open meetings of the Board of Education.
Individuals attending board meetings are expected to conduct themselves in a respectful and
courteous manner that models appropriate behavior for our students.
Individuals wishing to comment are expected to comply with the norms found on the back
of your comment cards and in board policy 187, public participation at board meetings.
We ask that each of you contribute to maintaining a respectful and orderly meeting and prevent
discussing confidential matters in a public forum by following these norms for public
comments during board meetings.
Thank you for your participation and courtesy.
Mrs. Schope.
I first have Jessica with Rocio and Sarah yielding their three minutes each.
Keeping things exciting.
All right.
Dear Dr. Anderson and the school board, my name is Jessica weed and here today to voice what
is going on in this district behind the scenes in regards to dual language, to have it be
in the public record and allow the parents to know what is going on as well.
In addition, I am here and what comes on the heels of teachers appreciation week to express
that I have never in my 26 years of working in this district felt so disrespected, unappreciated
and devalued for my hard work as I have this past month in the school district.
I've been committed to teaching in the school district to belite at Hackett for 26 years.
In fact, I interned at Hackett in the fall semester of 2000 and have worked there ever
since.
I drive from the very far part of Milwaukee to come to this district and serve our students
every day.
I have implemented many after school reading clubs over the years with no stipend, including
during some of the dual language years.
I have a minor in Spanish and use that Spanish language in the classroom daily to help my
dual language learners.
I was rotary teacher of the month in 2013 and teacher appreciation honoree a few years
back.
A couple of years ago, when we started the split, which I'll talk about, I agreed to
do kindergarten in addition to first grade as an out-of-the-box solution with our given
DLI numbers.
I needed to get certified for kindergarten, so I paid $400 to do months of studying online
to take a task, asking me questions about DNA, RNA, what would the trade wins be, what
will the climate be in this part of the world, all to get certified to teach kindergarten,
and all to help the dual language program in addition to paying for the cost of the test
plus the license cost to help out the DLI for kindergarten and as a whole.
ROCO is my work wife, our co-teacher, and we are good at what we do.
We are good teachers.
ROCO and I both serve on the leadership team at Hackett, working on the SIP goals to get
Hackett off the state list of schools in need of improvement.
It is disheartening that a few decision makers in the district have decided to ignore continuous
feedback from our strong dual language K3 team, as well as the recommendations of the board
from the March 17 meeting that our Hackett configuration is strong and should stay intact.
A couple of weeks ago, our K3 DLI team gave a 19 page presentation and document to a
few decision makers after school in the district discussing our reading data and dual language,
both at our school and the other DLI schools, and demonstrated why our split grade level
model of dual language, though unconventional, is working at Hackett.
We even sent follow-up data last week on Thursday to show the extreme growth this year
with the K3 model at our school, versus the lack of as much growth with only one Spanish
teacher teaching, all English, Spanish, math, science, social studies, all of it.
In addition, at this meeting a few weeks ago, we were tasked with homework to try and find
an article discussing another school in a state or nation that is doing the same configuration
as Hackett to prove it can work.
Shouldn't our data and feedback be proof enough?
Be that as it may.
I went searching for articles online trying to find this particular configuration that
we're doing at Hackett and even called and spoke with them bilingual schools in Florida
to try and get the proof that was needed.
But then I got to thinking, when a scientist thinks of a new way to initiate an idea, they
don't get discouraged because they didn't find an article telling them that their idea
could work.
They try their idea and if it works, great.
There always has to be a ground zero, a place in which to start from.
Our DOI configuration is working at Hackett in the K3 classrooms.
If necessary, I can submit an article to an educational journal as the ground zero group
at Hackett and it may be the K1 and 2, 3 split work, but why is that necessary?
In coming from a place on the leadership team and working to develop a plan for our
school for the next three years to improve our scores, why would the decision makers
in the district be so stunned on tearing apart a program at Hackett that is in fact strong
in favor of replacing it with people shuffling all over the district, middle school teachers
potentially getting placed in the kindergarten and first grade classrooms?
It is vastly into me.
It makes no sense.
This shows that it takes about three years to develop teacher efficacy as a new teacher.
Even still, it typically takes one to two years for a teacher to reach their previous
level of effectiveness after switching grade levels.
When teachers change grades, their rate of improvement can drop by as much as 20% the
first year.
Data suggests it takes roughly two years in the new grade to reach full effectiveness,
with student learning potentially suffering for about 42 to 50 days, less instruction
than the first year in 22 days in the second year.
This drop in effectiveness applies to both new and veteran teachers, even experienced
teachers, need time to learn new curriculum standards and age appropriate pedagogy.
Furthermore, the district decision makers were stunned additional data last week showing
just how strong our K3 model was at Hackett with a split class.
However, it was just the feeling by a couple district decision makers at the meeting that
this configuration was worrisome.
There was no article on their end that provided explanation that our way does not work.
We should rely on data, not feelings.
We are veteran teachers in the dual language program at Hackett.
The other two teachers in 2-3 have been working for years together as well.
We are organized.
We are devoted to our school.
There's not an article out there that I have found that states that the way Hackett
is configuring DLI does not work.
Think about schools that have to put two classes together embedded into one class.
What is infuriating is that we were supposed to have the follow-up meeting this past last Thursday.
We received notice about an hour or so before the meeting that it was canceled for a situation
that needed to be addressed.
However, no meeting was rescheduled, but rather our principal was told that the district
team apparently made a decision without holding the meeting.
So it makes you wonder if the second meeting that was originally scheduled was just put
in place to make it appear that they were considering our feedback.
It was stated if we wanted to schedule another meeting at a later date, we could seek that
out, but that it would have to be virtual.
What is even more interesting, but even more baffling, is now the narrative is changing
for why the decision makers are choosing to have one Spanish teacher teaching all and
break apart Heart Hackett's program.
The first meeting was all about the data and thinking it would be too heavy a teaching
mode, which it is not.
We would argue that the other way is more of a teaching mode for a variety of reasons
that were addressed at the March 17th Board meeting, and I can send that again.
Plus, apparently, some decision makers had spoken to other teachers from other schools
that they did not like the model we are doing at Hackett, but they never spoke to us.
I've created data charts, and the latest one with the yearly growth.
I also have created data charts and the latest one with yearly growth at Hackett using the
current configuration at Hackett with K-3 versus a single teacher in the 4-5, and it
makes a very compelling argument in favor of our two-teacher, two-grade split model.
Plus, it saves the district two Spanish teachers.
Why can't Hackett do what works for them?
These individuals have never had anything to do with dual language until now, yet they
are making the decisions and ignoring our feedback.
It is really disheartening.
Now the narrative is that they need a place to shuffle all the displaced dual language
staff.
How about open back up grade five?
What about the current staff that are going to be displaced?
I, along with my work wife, Rocio, we feel very disrespected, unappreciated, and devalued
for the hard work and accomplishments and data that we have worked hard to achieve,
and we do have good data.
This complete upheaval is clearly not about the data and student achievement, although
it should be.
I am not sure what or why this decision was made that we found out about after a canceled
meeting.
This district is struggling.
The veteran staff are one of the main pieces holding this district together.
I am losing faith that what is stated in this district is actually going to be followed.
The portrait of a graduate, I looked online, and says there's a commitment to our students.
A portrait of a graduate will ensure that we provide strategic, engaging, collaborative,
experiential learning opportunities, successful academic learning environments for each and
every student in our district.
We are doing that right now in the K-3 model.
It also states, the school district of Hawaii by creating welcoming environments, nurturing
open, trusting relationships, practicing mutual respect and engaging in proactive communication.
Please involve the teachers in the discussions.
It states, create a welcoming and inclusive environment for students, staff, families
and the community, where all people are seen, heard and valued.
Please make sure that we are seen, heard and our strengths are valued.
Excuse me, Ms. Reed, just for a point of order, the policy is for up to one person yielding
time.
I'm going to let you finish because you started, but when you were introduced, I only heard
Rosie Alberto being the, there was so much noise, I didn't hear, I only heard that there
were two people, but if anybody else is planning on having three people or two people yield
time to one, it's a six minute limit, which again, is a believe it or not, for government
time, it's very generous.
So, Mrs. Shope, if you could help us keep track of actually who's, okay, go on.
Thanks.
Our system, portrait of a graduate, our systems will value and appreciate and support our
staff and professional growth needs.
We are here today to try and ensure the success of students at Hackett School.
As stated, there are many areas that need to be fixed at Hackett.
The K3 model isn't one of them, but potentially could be in the future with this proposed
Apple card upset of our school.
The school district of Beloit will move our state report card from sales to mean expectations
to meeting expectations.
We already have two strong teams at Hackett for K3 working towards the school, and it
states strategies, design systems that make high quality instruction materials, instruction
including engagement and professional learning, the foundation of the district's teaching
and learning experiences.
We have a system right now in K3 at Hackett with high quality instruction, wide break
apart the system in favor of another system that shows it is not working at Hackett.
So, my question to Dr. Anderson, the board and the people that made this decision, Hackett
is a school that needs to develop a three-year plan to improve their scores.
Why are you upsetting something that isn't broken?
That could potentially be broken by your upsetting the Apple card.
We say we want to keep people here in the district.
The DLI staff at Hackett and elsewhere will be shifting.
We are committed to the district.
When you make big shifts in grade levels, subjects, it's a real risk that we are going
to be losing people just like we did last year when Liz was in 4K.
She was a veteran staff member committed to DLI at Hackett, and because they ended
4K, they said she was going to first grade at Todd, she got there, and then they're like,
oh no, wait, it's third grade, and she just decided to leave.
How is this any different?
How is that any different than what we are doing now by putting middle school teachers
potentially in kindergarten or first grade teaching both languages?
Are we setting people up for success?
People can and will go elsewhere.
If I choose to stay, it will be to support the kids at Hackett, my principal, leadership
team, and staff who will be putting in the hard work to provide the best experience for
our students and support the growth of students.
I have been here long enough to remember what the district used to be, and it's sad.
Please reconsider for the sake of keeping continuity at Hackett and improving data if
that is indeed what all this was originally about.
Thank you.
Thanks.
And I have other information that is for the documents.
If you want to leave a copy with Mrs. Shope, she'll make certain we get that.
Thank you.
Mrs. Shope, our next speaker, the next person I have is Emily with Gretchen yielding time.
I'm sorry, it's been about a year since we've shifted it down to two.
Okay.
So, good evening, everybody.
My name is Emily Ray.
I'm one of the school nurses at the district.
I am a nurse and I'm also an educator.
I am here to speak on the proposed elimination of the director of school health position
and two registered nurse positions in the school district.
I want to say, by saying clearly, this is not just a staffing decision, this is a student
safety decision.
Right now across our district, school nurses are already managing an extremely high level
of need.
Based on our data, we are seeing over 4,600 to 4,800 student health encounters every month.
We administer more than 5,600 medications, respond to over 12,500 health office visits
and calls and manage more than 2,200 diabetic related visits alone.
On a daily basis, that's about 18 to 24 students per day in the health office.
Even with current staffing, one nurse may already be responsible for around 1,100 to 1,300 students.
This is an already heavy and high risk workload.
If these cuts move forward and we are reduced to just three RNs for 10 schools, that number
will rise even higher.
There is no safe or realistic way to meet student needs under those conditions.
I need to say this very clearly.
If there are only three nurses for 10 schools, there will be times when a school does not
have a nurse available during an emergency.
That is not just a possibility, it's a guarantee.
Our district serves a large population of students with complex medical needs, many
of whom have IEPs that include required healthcare services.
These are not optional supports.
They are legally required and medically necessary.
A non-licensed person cannot do the job of a nurse, only a registered nurse has a training
licensure and clinical judgment to provide this level of care.
A non-licensed person cannot interpret physician orders, develop or adjust care plans, manage
diabetes safely, monitor for medication side effects, recognize seizure activity or perform
procedures like catheterization or managing a G2.
So I need to ask, is a secretary going to catheterize a student, is a secretary going
to manage dislodged feeding tube, is an unlicensed staff going to make a medical decision in
an emergency because that is exactly what this decision would force.
When nurses are not available, students will be sent home unnecessarily because staff cannot
safely assess them.
Teachers, secretaries and administrators will be pulled away from their roles to try and
fill the gap they are not trained to fill.
Classroom time will be lost and students will either receive delayed care or wrong
care.
This impacts not only safety, but also learning and stability in our schools.
Nurses are first responders in our buildings.
We are the ones who respond to medical emergencies, guide staff, step-by-step in crisis situations,
administer life-saving medications like EpiPen and Narcan and determine when emergency services
are needed.
Without adequate staffing and leadership, response times increase, confusion increases
and risk to students increases.
The director of school health role is not extra, it is essential.
That position oversees medical safety across the district, ensures compliance with IEPs
and state regulation, monitors medication errors, coordinates care across schools, trained
staff and CPR, emergency response and overseas Medicaid building, which brings funding back
into the district.
If that role is eliminated, who will train staff and CPR?
Who ensures we remain compliant with laws?
Who oversees safety and accountability?
The district will likely have to spend more money bringing in outside services while losing
the expertise that currently protects students every day.
This is not truly a cost-saving decision.
School nurses help keep students in school instead of sending them home unnecessarily.
We reduce emergency calls and hospital visits and bring in funding through Medicaid billing.
Removing positions does not remove the need, it shifts costs and increase risk.
I also want to paint a picture of what this looks like in real life.
A nurse may be monitoring a student who is at risk of having a seizure while working with
a health room assistant to contact a guardian.
At the same time managing a diabetic student's care, administering scheduled daily meds, responding
to an asthma attack and being called to another classroom for a student in distress.
This is not hypothetical, this is a normal part of the day.
This is skilled, licensed critical care happening in real time.
I also want to be honest, nurses in the district could leave and earn significantly
more money elsewhere.
We stay because we care about the students and we believe in what we do.
But if staffing is reduced to this level and leadership is removed, the remaining nurses
are probably not going to stay.
And then the district will face a much larger problem.
The reality is simple, we are not overstaffed, we are already operating at maximum capacity.
Cutting positions does not remove the need, it removes the safety.
Again, we stay because we love these kids and we choose to be here because we believe in taking care of them.
Please don't put us in a position where we can't keep them safe.
Because you will not see the consequences of the decision in a spreadsheet.
You will see them in real emergencies and real children when the help is not there in time.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Schop.
Next, I have Lauren.
Karen's going to give me some time, if I can, because I don't know how fast I'm going to read the library in, you know.
Okay, my name is Lauren Burner and I've probably served the school district specifically at Gassner for the last 10 years.
I'm here to speak today about the proposed cuts to the library staff in positions in our school.
The school library is much more than a room filled with books.
It's the heart of the learning in the school.
It's a place where students go together to read, to research, to study, to create, to grow.
Today alone an estimated 1600 students crossed the district used our libraries in some way.
Research from the American Association of School Libraries consistently shows that schools with strong library programs achieve higher test scores in reading and in math.
Students who regularly borrow and read books perform better on literacy assessments than those who do not.
This school year alone, I personally have helped students and staff check out more than 9,000 books in my building across the district school libraries.
Have circulated 57,000 books since September.
That's 57,000 opportunities for learning, imagination, literacy, and academic growth placed directly in the hands of our children.
The librarians do far more than just check out books.
Today I taught 200 students, I simply did not read them a story.
I taught dozens aligned to state standards that build literacy, responsibility, collaboration, and teamwork.
I also helped students regulate emotions in my room.
I provided a quite quiet testing place.
I fixed 15 Chromebook issues.
I supervised a lunch duty.
I continued to build meaningful relationships with our students.
This is not unique to me.
Every one of our dedicated library staff does this work and much more every single day.
School libraries also provide equity and opportunity.
Not every student has access to books, technology, and quiet study spaces at their home.
My house isn't one of those quiet study places.
For many students, the school library is one of those safe and welcoming places where they can receive those resources and support.
Our staff and students rely on librarians daily.
From, I forgot my laptop, can I borrow one?
To, I don't know why my smart board won't turn on, can you fix it?
The library staff works collaboratively with our teachers and support staff to keep the learning willingness over every day.
The impact of school libraries is clearly not only in the research, but in the daily reality.
Libraries are essential services that students and staff have come to depend on.
Cutting library staff positions may save money in the short term, but long-term costs to student learning, literacy, and opportunities, and support will be far greater.
In conclusion, the school libraries are a critical part of student success.
We strengthen academic equality, support emotional well-being, and help school functions every single day.
We are the tech support, we are the problem solvers, we are the literacy leaders, and yes, we are the ladies with the books.
But more than anything, we are the beating heart of our schools.
I urge you considering the lasting impacts that the cuts to our staff will impact on our students, staff, and communities.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lorraine.
Michelle?
Next, I have James.
Hello.
My name is James.
I am co-president of the Boy Education Association, and I am here tonight to reiterate what Melissa and I talked to you about last week.
We definitely understand the tough position you are in, having cut four and a half, five plus million dollars this year and many more next year.
As you can hear from the people in the room, there are many tough decisions that you are going to have to make.
But we are in this budget situation for a variety of reasons.
We have a broken public education funding system, the previous mismanagement or poor decisions in this district.
But I think we can all agree that teachers and staff are not the cause of this budget problem.
So the BEA respectfully asks that you make the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible.
We have many, many dedicated teachers to this district.
Please use attrition for any of the positions that you need to cut as much as possible.
We ask that the board honors and respects staff by paying them a living wage.
We ask that the board recognize staff that have stayed.
They have chosen to stay in the community and teach them a very difficult place to teach and reward them and recognize them with longevity pay.
Tonight you are going to hear a couple of different plans being proposed.
I hope people at home have read through those plans.
They are very drastic plans, especially one of them is a very drastic plan.
And this is regardless of a referendum.
I hope the community and I hope the school board realizes that without a past referendum in November, the plans are going to be ten times more drastic.
We have to focus on getting a referendum passed in November.
So we ask that you get through this budget and get moving on a referendum question that has to be approved within two months or three months, whatever that is.
We need a referendum question that is very focused on very specific things that we need to tell the district that we need.
We need to tell them why we need that. We need to tell them what it's going to cost, where the money is going to go.
And we also need to explain what's going to happen if that referendum does not pass.
Because if a referendum does not pass in November, this district is going to look drastically different.
We need to rally support in this community around passing a referendum.
Thank you.
Thank you, James.
Mrs. Schull.
Next, I have Stephanie.
Good evening.
My name is Stephanie Stevens. I'm a proud product of the School District of Beloit.
It has been a privilege and honor to be a school teacher here in Beloit for twenty-five years.
My husband and I have both graduates of Beloit Memorial, eight class of eighty-five and eighty-seven, so I'm dating myself.
Our children are the class of twenty-eleven, thirteen, and nineteen.
We're all better people because of our educational experiences here.
I spent twenty-two years at McNeil, teaching Spanish, ELA, career, financial literacy, and whatever else was asked me.
Because I wanted to do what was right for children.
After the huddle, as we called it, the home of the Lancers, closed.
I was relocated to Merrill, which I learned a lot more.
I have a new, huge, newfound admiration and respect for elementary teachers and staff.
And we're spending two years at that level.
I had the chance, though, to return to the middle school at Frusen, and this year, and I truly, that's my jam.
And I'm so happy to be back because I love that.
Throughout my career, though, and my children's education here in Beloit, I have always did what was best for my kids,
meaning my children and my students.
Because once you're one of my babies, you're always one of my babies.
A bag and plead with you to come up with different solutions.
Cutting educators, parents, student service staff is not the way to go.
You will be directly impacting children and families, many of which can't afford to be impacted anymore
because they're already caring so much.
Could we please take a second, third, maybe a fourth look at what ways to cut that cost
that do not directly harm our children and our families?
I'm afraid that if we cut teachers, parents, student services, and also sports,
we will have even more families and staff leave the school district polite.
Our students do not deserve less.
They deserve more.
Our students and families, we need the teachers.
We need the parent educators.
We need student services.
We need the sports.
Please, I beg you to look at things differently.
Thank you.
Thank you, Stephanie.
Mrs. Shope.
That's all I have for in the room.
So next, I just have emails.
The first one is from Skylee.
She's a speech language pathologist at Hackett Elementary School.
I want to begin by acknowledging the difficult position our district faces across Wisconsin.
School districts are being forced to make impossible choices because the current funding formula
does not reflect the realities of educating children today.
Costs continue to rise while resources fail to keep pace.
And districts like ours are left trying to protect opportunities for students with fewer and fewer options.
At the same time, we cannot remain in survival mode forever.
While we address immediate financial pressures, we also need to think about how we move forward together as a community.
There are no painless cuts in public education.
Every program, service, and staff position affects real children and families.
Behind every decision is a student who depends on stability, opportunity, and support.
That is why these conversations matter so deeply.
In moments like this, trust becomes essential.
Our district must continue working to prioritize transparency and communication with families and community members.
When people do not understand why decisions are being made, misinformation fills the gap.
Unfortunately, negative stories often spread faster than the many positive things happening in our schools every day.
And there are positive things happening.
Our teachers continue to innovate.
Our students continue to make measurable growth and personal gains.
Staff members continue showing up for children despite uncertainty and increasing demands.
We need to tell those stories more consistently and more visibly.
As a district, we should focus on proactive communication and community engagement.
We should create more opportunities for dialogue, respond to misinformation factually,
and when it occurs and continue highlighting student achievements and district successes,
people are more likely to support public schools when they feel informed, respected and connected to them.
This moment requires honesty about the challenges we face, but it also requires vision.
Survival cannot be our only strategy.
We must continue asking what kind of district we want to be in the future
and how we preserve opportunities for students even in difficult times.
My final message is to urge the community to band together in this moment of uncertainty,
continue to spread positive messages and provide support to our district.
Our teachers need you.
Your children need you.
Thank you.
Next, I have one from Heather.
I believe teacher and paracuts should be the last on the list.
These children deserve the best and the teachers and paris are the only ones that make it happen.
We are here for them every single day.
We are the ones they trust and come to for whatever reason need be.
If you take this away, it will make classroom sizes larger than they already are.
These kids need us and they count on us.
We all need to keep these babies in our thoughts and prayers during this
and they should be able to come to school without worrying about if their teacher will be there or not.
So I really hope everything that is talked about today, these two positions are the most talked about.
Next, I have one from Brittany.
Good evening board members and SDB staff.
My name is Dr. Brittany Keys, physical therapist, former city of Deloitte,
council vice president, taxpayer and Deloitte, mom of two kiddos at Todd,
and frequent school district volunteer.
Depending on the day, I could be on field trips or referred to as Ms. Frizzle celebrating our favorite planet Earth.
With my sidekick Liz or Ms. Butterfly as we embrace the wonders of the monarch as it goes through metamorphosis.
How its third generation flies to Mexico, learning about milkweed and native plants,
supporting it along the way and watching milkweed seeds dance like fairies.
We could be supporting and appreciating our teachers with treats, running beside our strong third grade girls at Girls on the Run,
mowing and weeding the school garden or helping my young friends with math.
Needless to say our educators, staff and students are amazing and they work extra in off hours so I can spend more time on a weekly basis supporting them.
My daughter is third grade at above grade level in two languages when her parents are English speaking and very beginning Spanish learners at home.
She writes fantastic stories and she's mastering math concepts.
I was introduced to you in ninth grade geometry and we need more support at Todd and across the district.
Our children have a lot of needs right now that are not being met.
We have libraries without librarians.
We have special ed teachers with unrealistic caseloads stepping in with zero experience.
We have buildings without enough paraprofessionals and behavior supports.
We have fantastic educators with classrooms that are already too full and some classrooms with too many kiddos that have more needs than are not being met.
And our babies, our students, our teachers need support.
These children are the future of our community.
The City of Beloit continues to have high numbers of lead laterals and historically slow rates of addressing them.
The City of Beloit has 95 to 100% of industry reported, not monitored hazardous air pollutants.
The City of Beloit also has concerning levels of PM 2.5 which is reported, not monitored.
PM 2.5 is a zero threshold pollutant that increases risk of heart disease, lung disease, cancer, diabetes as well as neurological conditions such as ADHD and autism.
These are all environmental exposures that shouldn't be that are setting our children up for more difficult difficulties and needs even before they step through the door of our schools.
Then we sum up the highest ACE adverse childhood event scores in the state along with one of our highest per capita rates of homelessness for any school district in Wisconsin.
Our children and families have needs and they need support, not cuts, and certainly no cuts of staff that has become family, a constant and critical person in their lives.
I appreciate the state and political actors focused on destroying public education, have stripped and attacked public education and funding in Wisconsin for more than 15 years.
The position you are in is unfair. It is nearly impossible.
Okay.
You can email that to the board members.
Okay.
Next, I have one from Leah to the Beloit school district board members, administrators and community leaders.
I'm writing today with deep concern regarding the proposal to eliminate two nursing positions in the director position within the school district of Beloit.
This decision will not simply be budget adjustment.
It would be a direct reduction in student safety, health equity, crisis response, capability, and educational support for some of the people.
In our community, at a time when student health needs are higher than they've ever been, reducing health care staffing in schools is not only irresponsible but dangerously short sighted.
Our schools are no longer just places of education.
They are frontline centers for physical health, mental health support, crisis intervention, chronic disease management, medication administration, trauma response, and family stabilization.
School nurses are often the very first health care professionals to identify signs of serious illness, abuse, neglect, suicidal ideation, anxiety disorders, asthma attacks, diabetic emergencies, allergic reactions, infections, and behavioral health crises.
To remove two nurses from a district already carrying enormous health care responsibilities would dramatically increase risk for students and staff alike.
Every single day, school nurses manage students with diabetes requiring blood sugar monitoring and insulin administration.
Severe allergies requiring emergency intervention with epinephrine, asthma attacks that can become fatal within minutes, seizure disorders, mental health emergencies, medication administration for hundreds of students, communicable disease monitoring, injury response, emergency preparedness, health documentation, and compliance requirements, coordination for families, hospitals, physicians, and social services.
Students experiencing homelessness, trauma, hunger, or neglect.
These are not optional services.
These are life-preserving responsibilities.
When nurses are spread too thin, the response time increases.
Mistakes become more likely.
Students fall through the cracks.
Emergencies become harder to manage.
Staff members who are not medically trained are forced into situations they should never be expected to handle alone.
One nurse trying to cover multiple buildings or overwhelming student caseloads is not efficiency.
It's a setup for burnout, delayed care, and preventable tragedy.
And eliminating the director position would only worsen the problem.
A district health director provides essential leadership, coordination, compliance oversight, emergency planning, policy implementation, training, public health communication, and strategic health care management.
Without centralized leadership, nurses become fragmented, unsupported, and overwhelmed by administrative burdens that pull them away from students.
This position is especially critical now because schools are dealing with rising student anxiety and depression, increased behavioral crisis, higher rates of chronic absenteeism tied to health issues, ongoing communicable disease concerns, increased special education medical needs.
More medically fragile students remaining in traditional school settings, staffing shortages across health care professions nationwide.
The reality is this.
The health care needs in schools have increased dramatically over the last decade, cutting health care staff in response to growing needs defies logic.
The district must ask itself what message does this send a family?
You can pour that to the board members too.
Okay.
The next one is from Stephanie.
Good evening members of the Board of Education.
I am writing to you about the fact that longevity pay for educators is still under consideration as one of the budget cuts for the 2627 school year.
While I understand the need to reduce our budgets in many areas, I urge you to reconsider this option.
Our dedicated and hardworking educators are the backbone of the Blight School District, and every year we hear the school district staff, board members and public talk about how important it is to attract and retain quality educators for our schools.
And longevity pay is a shining example of how to do just that.
Experience matters in the classroom, and as an educator in my 41st year of teaching, I can tell you that my experience is worth that little bit of extra pay
that the longevity bonus gives me when surrounding districts are giving their staff higher than cost of living raises each year.
While we barely get that, longevity pay is an incentive for educators to stay in our district and can be an incentive to someone considering employment in our district in the future.
Please keep longevity pay for educators in the budget and show us that we are valuable to the Blight students in the school district to Blight.
Thank you.
Next one is from Shanae.
Good evening.
My name is Shanae, and I'm the school counselor at Hackett.
I'm writing tonight about my concerns about some of the proposed reductions for the 26-27 school year.
I wholeheartedly believe any staff person who deals directly with student behavior should not be cut.
The reduction of the Dean of Students position would create an avalanche of problems at the elementary level.
As someone who works in the trenches with student behaviors every day, I see daily what our Dean of Students,
Mitchell Crisman does throughout his day.
He provides heavy support with all students from EC3 to 5th grade, Special Ed, General Ed, and DLI.
He's always stepping up and stepping in to cover for people since we are so severely short staffed every day.
I cannot even imagine how the rest of the admin and student services team would be able to manage the building without our Dean of Students.
These academic goals that the district has set for our students seem so out of reach already due to the behavioral management and lack of social emotional skills
from our students.
The solution to our budget crisis is not reducing staff that help manage these issues so students can learn and achieve their academic goals.
The elimination of the assistant principal position last year had a huge impact on our school, and I am sure many others.
But Mr. Crisman stepped in as Dean of Students and provided the behavioral support that we are missing.
He is, and I cannot stress this enough, and I don't even feel like my words adequately describe a significant asset to our team.
Again, it feels like these reduction thoughts are coming from individuals that are simply detached from the inner workings of the schools here in Beloit.
Student behaviors are at an all-time high to an almost unmanageable level, and they will only increase over time and quickly.
Cutting the Dean of Students position will only lead to more behavioral problems than academic problems for our students,
and it's highly possible that with increased behavioral issues, more loyal and competent staff will leave the school district to Beloit.
The problems will just continue and never get better.
I strongly suggest that the district and board agree to keep on the Dean of Students positions in both budget reduction options.
Thank you for your time.
The next one is from Sarah.
My name is Sarah. I teach 4th grade at Hackett. This is my 12th year in the district.
Although I do not live in Beloit, I choose to commute here every day because I care deeply about the students and families in this community.
I'm passionate about educating these children despite the daily challenges we face, and I am deeply concerned about the budget shortfall and the proposed cuts being discussed.
I ask the board district leaders, colleagues, families, and stakeholders to carefully consider the impact these decisions will have on students and staff.
First, I question the benefits of eliminating or reducing social worker positions.
Social workers do far more than many people realize. They support student check-in checkout systems, help create behavior intervention plans,
manage McKinney-Vento cases, and respond during behavior crises.
Much of their work happens behind the scenes, but their presence is essential to keeping schools functioning safely and effectively.
I would also like clarification on what the board considers to be reasonable class sizes, especially if the district expects improved test scores, closing achievement gaps, and stronger behavior management.
I have taught classes of both 21 and 29 students at the elementary level, and neither was easy.
Next year, I may have close to 32 students, while our school remains under increased DPI scrutiny for academic performance.
Managing students with varying academic levels, behavioral needs, and special education services, while also meeting benchmark expectations becomes increasingly difficult as class sizes rise.
If arts and sports programs are reduced or eliminated across schools and grade levels, one incentives will remain to attract and retain families in this district.
These programs are often what keeps students engaged and connected to school.
Hackett currently has one of the highest elementary enrollments in the district.
How is the principal is expected to effectively manage 400 to 450 students, supervised staff, address behavior concerns, and improve academic outcomes without a dean of students?
From the perspective of those to us working directly with students every day, these decisions are difficult to understand.
Finally, if elementary teachers lose prep time due to reduced library staffing, if the district prepared to compensate teachers for that lost time,
libraries are not optional resources.
If the district's goal is to move students toward success, then providing access to books, literacy support, and library services should remain a priority.
Final words, student needs supports, not cuts.
This next one is from Mitchell.
He's currently the dean of students at Hackett.
I've been working with the district for five years and decided to step out of the classroom and into a leadership role beginning with the school year when the dean position was created.
Every year has come with challenges, but this has given me ample reason to leave the district.
I have stuck with the district because I have a deep level of care, compassion, and dedication to our families, our students, and our staff.
I work extra long hours, put forth more than 100% effort, and push our students to be the best it can be.
I'm the type of staff member that would work in the district for my entire career if I was treated with fairness and respect.
As the dean, my position is vital to the success and safety of students and staff in our buildings.
The office constantly hears from teachers how grateful they are that the dean is able to go around and visit classrooms and deal with behavior issues that stop the rest of the classroom learning.
We are told over and over again how important it is that students feel safe and welcome in our schools.
If they are constantly fearful and worried about behaviors in their classrooms, then they will struggle to learn.
Not only does having a dean help facilitate this learning, but it ensures that the principal is able to continue to run the building.
It takes our entire office team of social workers, school site, counselor, principal, and dean to be able to handle all the behavior issues that pop up throughout the school day.
Even with the full team, we are on the border of collapsing every single day because of how many behaviors occur on a daily basis.
In the past, the district has used lead teachers to fill in the absence of a second administrator.
In our current climate, we barely have enough teachers to staff our buildings fully.
Let alone have a sub to be able to cover a class should a person be pulled to be the lead teacher and be in charge of a building.
Pulling someone to do that job would critically hinder the ability of our staff to function in a way that would allow our students and staff to feel safe.
In addition to being in charge of student behavior, helping with attendance and facilitating MLSS meetings and procedures,
the dean is also the one responsible for stepping in to lead the building in the principal's absence, whatever the reason.
Should the dean position be eliminated, not only would our behavioral issues cause further problems with student achievement and success,
but we would lose numerous staff members who rely on a dean to be able to have smooth and success day of teaching.
Staff at Hackett feel more supported this year than they have in years past, and should there no longer be a dean position,
than many people would consider leaving the district due to erupting their behavior issues and severity.
Not only do the classroom teachers rely on the dean position, but the principal relies on the dean for assistance in ensuring the building runs smoothly and safely.
The school could simply not function without a second person to help deal with behaviors and other issues that pop up throughout the day.
I have missed two days the entire school year due to being extremely sick,
and even while out of the building, I was assisting with behaviors in the ways that I could from home
in order to maintain the potential for students to have a successful day.
When I arrived back in the building the next day, I was met with sighs of relief and comments about never being gone again,
because of how hard it is to not have a full office team available to deal with our outpouring of interventions that happen every day.
Thank you for taking the time to consider not eliminating such a crucial position to our district.
And the last one I have is from Mitchell.
To whom it may concern, I'm writing this letter about the concern of possible reduction of nurses and HRA's in the school district of Beloit.
The health room assistant and nurses play a vital daily role in maintaining a safe learning environment.
The removal of these positions is a matter of critical concern for student safety and well-being.
My concerns are based on the following.
Reduction or elimination of these roles will only reduce instructional time for teachers as they will be trying to manage medical health issues
that they are not comfortable with and or may not be trained on.
This could possibly delay treating several allergies, daily scheduled feedings, daily scheduled meds, seizures, and daily insulin management.
The elementary school IAMAT has 18 scheduled medications a daily, including two feedings that are done twice daily
and can be time consuming at times depending on the student behavior and or the equipment not working properly.
This is not counting students that may encounter an injury emergency while at school, not feeling well or a staff member that is experiencing an emergency medical as well.
Who will make the decision on how to prioritize students' medical needs?
Who will be available for student IEPs?
The amount of health conditions on students is on the rise daily.
The Director of School Health is such a critical role as nurses do at times also reach out to her for further guidance.
If nurses are absent for the day, the HREs reach out to the Director of School Health for further guidance if needed.
As other nurses are so busy with their schools that they are not able to take our calls at times,
the nurse director makes sure that all staff are in compliance with nursing standards.
The nurse director takes care of the back-end work that is required, making sure all policies and procedures are being applied.
She also steps in to cover schools when staff calls off or staff have to leave for an urgent matter.
Her list goes on and on.
I strongly urge the Board to reconsider these cuts and prioritize student and staff safety.
The physical safety of our children should be non-negotiable.
Thank you for your time.
And that's all I have.
Thank you.
I don't have another email to read.
I have one giving time to somebody, but that person didn't submit one to read.
Also, if the emails are not received before 12 noon.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
It's not here.
Okay.
Thank you, Mrs. Show.
Our next agenda item is the budget proposals.
And to follow up with what Mr. Holyhead said, we need to focus on getting a referendum to pass because our district does deserve more money financially.
I don't think there is any board member up here that would disagree with that statement.
Many people have a hard time understanding Wisconsin public school funding.
It's an ever moving target and it's never an exact science.
It's very, very confusing to many people because our 26, 27 school year budget starts July 1st.
However, the budget is not finalized until the end of October when we know how many students we're going to have and how much money we are able to receive from the state.
Between now and then there are a lot of moving variables.
How many students are we going to have?
How much money are we going to have?
And what is the appetite of the public for us to be able to tax to the maximum allowable leverage?
We know that everything that we do in the district is important.
If it wasn't, it already would have been cut.
And that's because we have been trying to get a referendum to pass, but we've been also having to deal with the reality of the budget shortfalls that we've had every year.
This year is the easy year.
And we were recently informed that our short shortfall went from 4 million to closer to 6 million.
There are, again, it's an ever moving target.
What plays into that?
Cost of transportation, cost of fuel, cost of healthcare, all kinds of things.
Now, we all learned that, or maybe not all, but yesterday we were informed that Governor Evers and Senator Voth are working on or have come up with a budget amendment for the
biennial budget that may help benefit school districts.
That's great.
It has the approval of those senators, but we and the governor, but we need for it to get all the way through.
Can we sit and wait?
Well, we could, but then we are also holding everybody else up who may be wondering whether or not they're going to have a job going into next school year.
The reason we have tonight's meeting is because we still need to make reductions.
I am very hopeful that the budget will, amendment will pass, but I'm not going to risk the mental state of our employees worrying until that passes.
And it sounds like there's already pushback from both sides of the aisle on that amendment, but we want to give you guys the most information we can up front.
And that's really, ultimately, what we need to all be about.
All of us sharing information, sharing information in a timely manner, and above all else, keeping our focus on what's in the best interest of life.
The best interest of the students.
And if you look at our DPI report cards, we're not doing real great, folks.
I know we are all doing great things, and there are great things happening in every single classroom in every single building.
I know because I visit the buildings, and when I go there, I see great things and things to be excited and to celebrate.
But overall, compared to all of the other 419 districts in the state, we're not doing very good.
And I know we can be doing better.
I know change is hard, but I'm going to ask that we all try to chip in and make these changes together.
And with understanding and compassion and care, and knowing that we are all doing what we need to do in the best interest of our students.
There are a lot of difficult choices ahead.
And I really thank all of you for being here tonight, and I thank you all for your concern and commitment to our students and to one another.
And Mrs. Alberto, it's good to see you again.
A couple of weeks ago, the board passed the board guidance for the 2627 budget.
This is a document presented to the administration laying out some of the board's primary focuses that we want in this budget priorities.
How do we place students in instructional spaces that best meet their needs with a priority of being student focused?
One, maintain existing district to pupil ratio guidelines.
Our guidelines, if anybody wants to know, are in policy 43.2.
Preserve and focus on staff retention and recruitment by providing a 2.63 CPI increase for the professional staff for the upcoming budget.
Prioritize district programs and initiatives that drive student enrollment to minimize enrollment reduced enrollment patterns for the district.
I think that might be a typo.
Also at our last regular board meeting, the issue of longevity paid did come up, and it was the consensus, a unanimous consensus of this board that if we need to dip into the OPEB funds that we will do that,
it's important that we retain the talent of our long-term employees, including those that I went to 2nd grade Waterman School with.
Dr. Anderson, I'll turn it over to you now.
All right, thank you. First, I'm posting myself this way so I can talk to both sides.
Before I start, first, welcome Bill and Dan.
Thank you.
Start smiling. You have good work in front of you.
And then before I start, I want to give a hearty thanks to the executive cabinet for those who don't know.
When I was hired, I told the board, I'll be happy to come, but you have to realize I have some vacations planned.
And one was to go to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji for a little over a month.
So I got back on, I left on April 6th, and I got back Saturday afternoon.
So in my absence, the executive cabinet has done an outstanding job and I couldn't be happier.
So I want to make sure I give a call out to Dr. Malott, Ms. Elwood, Ms. Almondaris, and Mrs. Beavers, because they did,
when I wasn't here, it didn't stop.
They had to continue on, and of course the budget doesn't stop.
We talked about the budget one before I left.
Budget discussions had to continue, so they have been doing just an outstanding job and I just can't thank them enough for everything.
They did, and each of the principals for all that they did because they were involved in the meetings also.
Now let's get down to the realities.
One is, when I left on vacation, we had $4.5 million to cut from a budget.
When I got back from vacation, the number had changed to $5.7 million.
Why the difference?
The difference because of the health increase of 18%, we budgeted about 10.
Increased transportation costs of about $500,000.
So we have a larger deficit than we originally projected.
There is no way out of the deficit without personnel cuts.
There is no magic.
There is nothing that I can say.
I'm not going to create new dollars.
I'm not expecting a lot of new dollars to come.
There are no ways to balance the budget without personnel cuts.
Does that mean the personnel aren't valued?
No.
What it simply means is when you have less students, you get less resources.
When you have less resources and you have cut almost everything else to the bone, the only thing left is to look at staffing, which usually is about 80% of your budget is salary and fringe benefits.
But this is an discussion about just tonight's budget.
This is an interwoven discussion because it's tonight's budget, or next year's, which we have to balance for 5.7, and it's the 2728 budget, which is a larger fiscal cliff.
We all know the realities that the Learning Center, the Lincoln Academy, I should say, is expanding.
We can watch the construction from our windows.
When that finishes for the 2728 school year, I'm led to believe that it can at that time double its size, which means it could take up to another 700 plus students from us.
That is a reality.
How many will take the first year?
I don't know.
One of the first discussions that we'll have to have is with the Lincoln Academy for how they're going to go about filling their slots.
Are they going to fill all of their slots in the first year?
Are they going to do it over a period of years?
In the end, it's still going to have 700 and some student capacity that it doesn't have now.
That is a reality.
Another reality is that where the vast amount of those students are going to come from.
They're going to come from Beloit because it is close.
It is in the same town.
That is a reality.
What is the other reality?
There is no person who can create a budget for you that is sustainable until we solve the problem of declining enrollment.
We have to come up with the solution.
Why do students leave?
We have to fix that issue.
If we can come to a stable population, let's say 4,000 students.
One time we're 8,000 or about 8,000.
Now you're about 4,500.
My guess is 4,000.
If you could stabilize at 4,000 and we knew that that was going to be consistent, could somebody create you a three, four, five year plan about what to do?
The answer is yes.
If you continue to lose 200 students a year or more, there is no budgetary solution because you're going to cut and you're going to cut and you're going to cut.
You can't cut your way to success.
We also have to have a referendum.
The last referendums have not proved successful in the district.
We have to look at what is it going to take to have a successful referendum?
These are all interwoven.
There is not one separate from the other.
How do we do this?
The first thing is we look at what is it that we need to do to construct a budget to balance it for the 26, 27 school year?
It's going to have staff cuts.
There's nothing I'm going to tell you that's going to take that away.
What I can tell you is that I don't like to stay into one spot.
I'm kind of a wanderer, but for the mic I'll do my best.
When the referendum, and we have to have that question done by the end of August, we're going to need to state specific needs.
I'm going to get my water.
I'll be right back to the station break.
You should all know that originally I was not going into education.
I was going to be a pastor, so hopefully this is not a sermon.
That was my original calling.
We have to look at a referendum.
We have to be detailed on what it is.
If a referendum is going to pass in this community, I believe we need to say a little bit like James said.
We need to lay out what it is exactly, what we need, what is that going to cost, and what is the impact if it fails?
How do we start?
I used to teach finance for a university in Wisconsin Madison, taught for about 17 years.
I taught those classes.
The first thing I would tell all my students would be when you construct a budget, see a human face in every dollar, because every dollar that you allocate or that you cut is going to have an impact on an individual.
Take a look at what the impact is going to be and try to make decisions that have the least amount of negative impact possible.
That's what we have to do for at least the upcoming.
All right.
What are some potential solutions?
One is, since we're going to have to cut staff, my first take is that let's look at the positions that we have in the district that are currently either vacant or that we're going to be vacant because through attrition
or that we have through contracted staff.
In other words, the staff members who have dedicated their lives to this district and have done the things that we've asked them to do, what can we do to preserve those spots?
Because I believe in protecting people, I do not believe in protecting positions.
If we go in, we eliminate what I would call, I'll call them vacant positions for next year, we could cut 37 positions from the budget.
37 positions from the budget are basically going to be $3,874,616.
All right.
It's an amount.
Is it the 5.7 that we need?
No.
So then you can take a look at.
All right.
When we cut staff, one of the things we can take a look at in a referendum is, what can we put back in?
In other words, if I have to cut something, I can put that back into the referendum to say, if the public values this position, then here's what the position costs.
If you're willing to support it, then here's what's going to do to your tax bill to put it back in.
People are going to have to see and make decisions of what it is that they truly value in the district or not.
So in some of those positions that are vacant, where they mentioned tonight, the answer is yes.
They were because they would be either, you know, either someone's not currently have it or someone retired or left the district, but it created a vacancy.
We can take a look at.
I know that the board in their goals said.
We want to make sure we give all the staff a raise.
All right.
I know this part of their goals.
However, my job is to try to create options to take a look at.
Even options that are unpopular.
If you were to look at a salary freeze across the board in all areas, you'd save another $1.1,253,000.
Now, what I would leave as a caveat to that is that one of the things I think is important about selling a referendum is that people want to know that the money that they give is going to directly impact staff.
You could put that in a referendum in November.
If it passes, you can make the pay increase retroactive to the beginning of the year.
But that remembers, that means it has to pass.
All right.
If it doesn't pass, there is no money to give a wage increase.
But if our next referendum doesn't pass, we have a lot of other issues we have to deal with.
Governor Eveners did have a working on some type of a compromise or a deal with the legislature.
I am confident that something will be passed.
We took a look on what the information that we've been provided that I think that if what is currently being discussed and voted on comes to fruition,
which we'll know by the end of the week, I think that would bring in a minimum of $1 million to our district.
Those are some things right away.
So if you take those amounts of things, so if you take away our vacant staff, if you take away, if you free salaries for a year,
if you add the additional million dollars, now you're coming close to a balanced budget.
But that way that goes on the backs of all staff, because there is no guarantee that I can give anyone in this room that a referendum is going to pass.
All I can tell you is that whatever the referendum is, we need to explain in detail what we're asking for.
We need to explain in detail what they're going to get for their dollars.
They're going to want to see what it is that they're going to get for their money that they got their money's worth.
Most of the time I'd ask for recurring, which means a year after year, I don't think that would pass.
I think what you're going to have to do is you're going to have to go for a non-recurring of two years at the max three.
So if the public realizes they have the opportunity to evaluate what we're doing, and if it's a value, then we have to come back in two or three more years to ask for more money again.
If they don't see it's a value, they're going to vote no.
If they did see it's a value, then hopefully they'll continue to vote yes.
That is one option to get us there.
Now, that is not the only option.
That is an option.
The other option is to give the salary and fringe benefit increase, which we know that every one of the staff deserve.
There is no doubt in my mind that that is.
That is going to require, you know, I didn't have a call.
I'd say I'd be allergic to stress, but then I'd be, you know, I'd be incapacitated most days.
And I actually don't mind talking with you about this because it is important.
So if we give all the raises, then I have to cut more positions.
I have to cut positions that are more than what is vacant.
We'd have to take a look at, and as I said, my executive cabinet did a tremendous job of taking a look at positions meeting with all of the building principles to look at.
What it is that we could cut.
So if we don't do that, we have to go back and determine what additional staffing cuts do we need to make.
Whatever staffing cuts we make, we can then put back into a referendum to explain the cost of these programs and what it is that we believe the benefit.
And obviously, if it fails, that means that we would not be able to put that back in.
That's really where we're at.
Both of the proposals lay out things for this year.
Basically, they have two proposals.
One is much more aggressive than the other.
The proposals A and B evolve.
Seeing them, we can put them up if that becomes necessary.
Proposal A basically keeps all programs where they are now in buildings, but it reduces staff.
Proposal B is more aggressive.
It starts saying let's start shifting programs to different buildings.
So in effect, you know, buildings would not, all buildings would not be used in the current fashion that they're being used.
It is much more aggressive, it would save more money.
But again, it causes more changes.
I am not in favor of Proposal B to act on for next year because I don't think that we have sufficient time to really do a good job of moving programs and positions around.
However, I think it is extremely important that we start having these discussions now because there is going to be a fiscal cliff in a year.
I cannot repeat that enough.
And I think we need to start having the discussions with everyone in the schools with all the staff, with all the residents that are around.
Irregardless of whether or not they like decisions or not, I want people to know that before we make the decisions, they're going to have every opportunity to listen to why they're being made and to give their input.
Because in a year, somebody is going to have to make some tough decisions.
Now, announcement, announcement.
I really want to retire.
But the bottom line is, it's not fair to the staff or the board or the community to try to saddle this to somebody else to come in.
So, if the board wants me, I will stay on a little longer to help you through this process so that when the big issues happen, they can fall on my shoulders rather than the shoulders of the new superintendent.
Whoever that is, and that is going to be a big decision for the board to make and a big decision for the community.
But it wouldn't be right or fair to try to put somebody brand new in the position to walk into this.
So, I haven't told my wife yet.
Fortunately, I was a lot lighter when this ring went on. I don't think it comes off very easy.
But I just want to know that I'm not going to leave you in this alone.
That's the bottom line. I'm not going to leave you in this alone.
But I'm not a magician. I don't have any magic answers to how this is going to happen.
There's no, I don't have any secret juice or smells or knowledge.
All I can say is that we need to have a lot of discussions.
We've talked about what committees we should form as a board.
I think one of the first committees that really we need to take a look at, in regards to what we call it, is the committee to stop the bleeding.
What is it? Because that is the core issue.
We can't continue to have students leave our district.
We need to have a stable population.
We try to bring back some of the students that we've left, that have left us.
If we can do that, we can set a roadmap for success.
But that's what we have to tackle.
We have lots of reasons why we believe that's going to happen, but I think those are the discussions.
If we have any group, I think the group is, what are we going to do to stabilize and possibly bring back students into our district?
When you solve that problem, the budgetary problems won't be nearly as significant.
Now, I was talking to James today.
James said, you know when I didn't get wrong, James, you can correct me.
He said, you know, I was talking to my wife, and I said, what are we going to have just like a normal school year?
You know, like just a normal year.
You know, we just work worry about like curriculum and what we're teaching that we're not always thinking about budget cuts and program cuts and cuts and cuts.
I think I added the cuts and cuts part.
But the bottom line is, those days aren't going to come until we stabilize our student enrollment.
Now let's figure out how we're going to get there.
So, what are the decisions that the board is going to have to make?
The big ones are, how much of a cut do we do this year for staffing?
I am not a proponent of going into, in this case, OPEB or Fund Equity.
I really am not.
But the bottom line is if we go into that for a one year time period, this next year, to give us a time to put a referendum together to tell people what it is that we need and give them the opportunity to vote, that that might be beneficial for a year.
But, you know, there are no guarantees.
Now, there are other areas that we can take a look at making cuts.
Or I should say, one is we talk about middle school athletics.
Middle school athletics, if we put into Fund 80, Fund 80 is a community fund.
If we open up our middle school athletic programs to everybody in the district, so that means the Lincoln Academy, it means Rock County Christian.
If we open them up, then we can put that in Fund 80.
Fund 80 means everybody's tax on it, but you don't have to go to referendum.
That could be $80,000.
Our district spends a great deal on legal fees.
All right.
I think that there's the possibility we could take a look at either hiring our own attorney.
That would be on site, like other districts.
Could be a potential cost savings.
I was told that maybe we could renegotiate with our current legal provider, and there might be some savings there.
There are other means we can start saving money.
But I think this night was not a night that anybody had to make a decision.
All right.
We have another board meeting coming up.
Now, I truly would love to have a draft budget done for the board so that they could review it and vote on it before the end of June.
So that we could start the school year with an idea of what it's going to look like.
The final budget's not until October, but at least it's a budget we all start with.
So where do we go from here?
Part of it goes, how severely do we want to make the cuts for this year?
As we said, if we do the vacant positions and all that, and we start with that, and we do that, I think, and we do a wage freeze.
I know that that's not part of it.
The original discussion, I think we can get through without having to cut additional staffing positions for the next year, and we build those into a referendum.
If we want to go with providing the salary and benefit increase, then I think we take a look at what other positions do we need to cut that are going to end up filling that void so that we can do that.
And then we're going to have to take a look.
Now, when I talk about attrition and vacancies, that isn't every building across the district.
That includes COLAC.
So if so many things that we're not, it means no way of the positions in COLAC 2 that would not be filled.
So I guess now I'm going to open it up to questions.
Like I said, there are two fine proposals that were worked out.
But I think I wanted tonight to start to at least express what my thoughts and ideas are to answer questions so that I can come back with something specific to the board and to the community.
So I guess I'm opening myself up to the swings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
I was an English teacher.
Thank you, Dr. Anderson.
And you'll be pleased to know this is not being live streamed.
So you have a few hours to let Mrs. Anderson know.
Dan, do you have a question or comment?
Yes.
Thank you, President.
So Dr. Anderson, thank you for your comments.
And I'm certainly as one board member, very supportive of you staying as long as you'll stay.
So we do need that continuity.
So thank you to that.
So I'm going to make some general comments and then get to a question at the tail end and I'll try to limit my comments throughout the evening.
So if you bear with me here.
So I've been thinking a lot about our friends that have rejoined our community at the Hochunk Nation.
They have this belief that you should make decisions that span seven generations.
And what's interesting about that is seven generations ago, we, this town was started.
And this town already had a public school when they started the city.
It already had a street named College Street.
They didn't have a college yet.
So it's, it feels in places like the school board, which I'm brand new to like Bill and places I've been in the past in public service and at the college.
We're always making decisions for tomorrow for next month.
And, you know, I really want to try to get out of that cycle if possible.
Since January, I've been talking to a lot of community members across Beloit.
And the thing that we keep coming back to is this question.
And we may be asking the wrong question tonight instead of how much money do we have and how can we cut to get there.
I think the question really is really, I'm going to use the title of our district slightly different.
We call it the Beloit Public Schools.
I think sometimes when we call it the School District of Beloit, it's this administrative thing.
But the Beloit Public Schools, what do we want for our schools to be?
What are the people out here want, not just the people in here?
What do they want for our public schools?
What should our public schools be?
And then we have to answer the question, what will it take to do that?
So instead of, you know, instead of being in a cutting mindset, which we've had to be, it's not a criticism for anywhere at sitting at this table in this building
or the decisions they've made, we've had to be in that mode, right?
We've had 16 years through two different governors, two different parties, have not been able to deliver funding.
We've fallen way behind as a state. It's not just Beloit.
But where do we want to be for that?
I would like us to have a stability goal and then move towards growth.
So how do we make that shift from cutting, cutting, cutting to stability?
What James must have said to him about just a normal year, normal order of business.
You know, we should be thinking about is it going to rain on graduation or is it going to be too sunny or somewhere in between?
That's what we should be thinking about right now, right?
So how do we move toward the stability model and move towards growth?
Now, we have a lot of tools at our disposal this year.
We have this OPEB money that's been returned to us, collected to pay for benefits, returned to us from the state.
We have the new funding that is likely to pass.
I'm the legislative liaison for this board, and I talk to Senator Spritzer today since it's likely to pass.
He would like it to be better, but it's likely to pass.
He sent us during this meeting, sent us some estimates, so I sent that to you and Michelle and Stephanie, so they're a little bit more.
I know you're being conservative. They're a little bit better than that, so that's good, right?
So we have OPEB. We have new school funding formula.
We have the possibility of a referendum.
Remember, part of this funding package that's passed is school aids that we can't spend.
It just buys down taxes.
But if we pass a referendum, we get a little more breathing room for the taxpayers, and we put in a referendum.
We have those options.
And we, of course, have the things Dr. Anderson talked about for next year, the cliff.
But, again, as I've been out talking to people, I think people are ready to have a district that they want.
When I talk to people, sometimes they talk about the James Fitzpatrick days at Floyd Memorial.
Sometimes they talk about Carlton Jenkins, sometimes they talk about Rosa, Betty Lang, Mike Walls, Bill Decker.
There's a lot of places people go to on when they have this district, but what's the today version of that?
Today's version of that is six award-winning elementary schools, two incredible intermediate schools,
the best high school in the state, an incredible learning academy that's doing that.
That's the stability that people want and made up of the people and the culture.
So, I guess my question for you, Dr. Anderson, is what would you recommend?
You have a ton of experience in a number of different districts.
How do we start a conversation about that gets a stability and growth?
How do we do that?
I think the discussions that need to be held next year because of the fiscal cliff, I think they're interwoven.
I think you tell people, and what I have always believed is you need to be very...
People use transparency all the time, that becomes the word that doesn't have any meaning.
But, you have to be truly upfront and honest with people and tell them, look, here are the things that are coming.
But what is it that you want because there are ways to turn around?
Physically, a referendum is something that can turn around.
Now, I happen to come in in November after the 500% increase, so, of course, I got those calls right away.
You know, right now when we're taking a look, if we have a balanced budget and things turn out the way that we think,
our mill rate is going to go slightly down, which means at least when people look at their property tax bill,
they should see at least a negative number.
Now, it won't be a huge negative number, but it will be something that shows its decrease or an increase.
But I think you have the discussions at the same time.
What is it that you want this district to look like?
Because if we know what it is that you want, we can tell you what it's going to take to get there,
or what we're going to need for resources in order for that to happen.
And that comes with a cost, but then at least you can lay out exactly what the needs are,
and you do that by laying out specific what type of staff you need,
what type of equipment or materials, et cetera.
And you tell people that, and you listen to what they have to say,
so that when they say, here's what we would like to see, then we can have an answer.
We can provide what you'd like to see, but here's what it's going to take for us to get there.
So you have those discussions.
And I think we need to have a lot of discussions this year.
I mean, I think right away, I'm not talking about like later on,
I'm like talking like right away, start meeting with staff and with all of the, you know,
and with the students, and with the parents and community members,
right off the mat that I'm about, here's where we're at,
here's where we're likely going to be, here are going to be the impacts.
What is it that we can do to change?
Now, even if a referendum passes, a referendum doesn't give you more students,
and that is the thing we have to talk about the most.
What is it that we need to do to bring students back into the district?
Thank you.
Tom Hankins?
Yes, thank you, Board President.
Yes, I applaud what you're, everything you said, Wayne, or Dr. Wayne, just standing up there.
I also went to Dr. Garrison, not to, and we talked about stopping the bleeding and, you know,
knowing that's where the problem is that we are bleeding our students out.
How do we get them back?
And it's a huge, huge issue that needs to be dealt with.
And why people, why we got to get to the parents and why they are enrolling out?
Just a couple of pointed questions on referendum dollars, and you suggested that we,
or a possibility of holding off on a wage freeze.
But if a referendum passes, if, a huge if, then rectoactively,
if a referendum passes, I'm just talking about monetarily,
that money becomes available in January, and then are you talking about rectoactively paying back
to the beginning of the school year forward?
Yes.
And also, okay, that's a good answer.
And then also, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or by the end of the week with the legislature,
but we kind of, hopefully, we know it's going to be a positive impact.
And those dollars will be available in, like, a June payment,
or does it get stretched into 27?
Well, there's part of the proposal that would actually give some additional dollars
during this current school year.
So my, and Stephanie will correct me.
But the dollars, if that passes and we get dollars for this school year,
I guess it would probably come in our next payment from the state.
That would be my guess.
The monies that are allocated for the 2627 school year will get in the, you know,
we'll get it in the standard way.
We currently get our funds.
It'll just be the amounts will be larger.
So just for clarifying, and I think I've learned, just for the audience,
we get our payments, three payments a year.
Is that correct from the state in this payment?
Our next payment would be in June, Stephanie.
And then if this passes this week,
we could see an increase of bump in our payment for June of 26.
Thank you.
So there were a couple of different funding options
that the state is looking to pass.
The special education aid is aid payments throughout the year.
And the other aid, the state aid payments are equalization aid payments.
That payment would not be this year.
That would be in fiscal year 2627.
But that additional aid would not affect our total revenue.
That would just be that balance between taxpayers' payments and the equalization aid.
So if the legislation passes that Governor Evers and the top aides or top people are proposing
would not affect any monies into the district until when?
We would get some money for 25-26 and some, again, in 26-27 for special education aid.
Okay.
And I think Dan's forwarded a document and 500,000 for this year,
and about 1.7 was the estimate, but those are estimates.
But some would be available in both years, yes.
This year?
Yes, I'm this year.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Director Ellwood.
Megan Miller?
Thank you so much.
Okay.
A couple of things.
So let me just switch to...
Am I, like, echoing?
Here, let me...
No?
Are we good?
Okay, sorry about that.
Okay, sorry, technology.
Okay, a couple of things I'd written down and then a comment on the last piece there.
Okay, so I loved all of the comments.
Dan, I appreciate your thoughts about, you know, like, how do we set vision, right?
Because the budget is the mechanism by which we enact our vision.
So I'm wondering about, like, the specifics of that.
I think we heard last week that there was a discussion that was going to be had about establishing some kind of, like, a committee that I'm hoping includes staff, teaching staff, you know, kind of represented across the district, you know, as well as community members.
So one question that I'll have is, what is the status of that?
And Dr. Anderson, what is your vision for how to, I guess, like, uplift and, you know, coordinate and collaborate voices of different stakeholder groups.
So we can really specifically, like, when we talk about, like, discussions that feel sort of vague unless there's a plan for, like, what is the mechanism by which we will have those discussions and how will we hear, you know, deeply from a variety of stakeholders.
And I like to what you said, and so I'm going to repeat it, not only to address sort of our upcoming fiscal cliff, but also to be proactive and plan forward and, like, you know, not only stop the bleed, but, like, let's thrive and not survive.
I think it's something that we need to come back to.
So that is one question.
I'm going to say two more things, and then we'll be good.
The second comment that I have is, Dr. Anderson, in your discussion earlier, you were saying something about.
Sorry.
So I would like the strategy to be cut less now if possible, because as we've seen this week, there are a lot of things that can change.
And these are real students, real children and families lives in real time.
And on the one hand, yes, we need to be proactive and, you know, conscious of this sort of fiscal flip piece.
We also have to make sure that we're not excessively harming children.
So my preference there would be if we could please go in a direction that mitigates the amount of harm.
It cuts to classrooms, to students, to services right now.
And, you know, we don't know what the future is going to bring.
We can prepare for the worst hope for the best, but I'm really concerned about like the multiple crises that we have in our community now.
There's mental health crises. There's, of course, I don't need to elaborate because I think our public comments and not just tonight, but in previous weeks have done a really good job of that as well.
So I guess in addition to asking about like what specifically the plan is in your vision, Dr. Anderson, for how to kind of bring collaborators together to do some problem solving.
So it's not just not as, I guess, my second preference would be like, let's cut the least we can now so that we can hopefully plan for something better in the future.
And I guess the third thing I just want to comment on since it was brought up by Mr. Hinkins and Ms. Elwood.
For President Johnson, you did a really nice job in your opening comments addressing just like the complexities and kind of like the frustrating complexities of school funding.
And I think something that people need to remember is that this is twofold.
Yes, it would be absolutely a godsend to have additional aid right now for the reasons that I just said, we have to stop harm as much as we can from coming to our kids and certainly to our staff and families.
When the state comes out with this equalized aid stuff, it's property tax relief, which is a good thing, but that's not spendable dollars.
So we need both.
We need both property tax relief.
We need to stop relying on referendums, not just and believe it across the state.
And like we are unable to do that until the state makes a significant change and this thing that's been proposed is not that change, but also I'm very grateful for hopefully some short term relief.
And I just want to iterate again, Ms. Elwood was talking about special education dollars, what this has been proposed unless it's changed.
Dan, please don't been cracking if I'm wrong, but what's been proposed is some, some certain funding and not some sufficient.
And what is going to most been, is that correct?
Yes, it's just a some certain amount.
Because yeah, like below it needs it to be and not just below it.
Every school district needs it to be some sufficient, which means that it's responsive to the needs of the specific students in the district and not just like kind of a rate across the state.
So I guess to conclude my thoughts, this wasn't posted until like eight o'clock last night, I need more time to digest.
I have super appreciated everybody's comments.
Folks who are here, administrators, colleagues, I'm excited to hear more from you.
I want to get some kind of a group going.
I would like to please reduce the amount of cuts to children and services that are critical as we can for this upcoming school year.
And just want us to be conscious of the continued need for advocacy.
So thank you so much.
Thank you, Megan.
And I will direct the board members back to the board guidance for the 2627 school district employee budget that we all passed at the last regular board meeting.
I'm sorry, the one before that, one of these.
But in the final paragraph says, a district finance committee should be formed to assist in developing and reviewing the above information.
The committee should include stakeholders from all buildings, levels, and positions.
The committee should remain active through the 2627 school year to maintain a focus on the 2728 school year and predict future issues for the district.
And this is a well thought out plan.
And we are not planning on taking any actions tonight.
We need to have lots of discussions to make certain everybody has the opportunity to express their concerns and give suggestions because I still think that there are probably some teachers out there that have some really good ideas that perhaps just are a little bit hesitant in sharing them.
Dr. Anderson.
One, to go back to when should we start the discussions, discussions should start right away.
How would I plan to have those discussions?
One is, I think, for the larger discussion, which is what do we want the district to look like?
Knowledge of the fiscal cliff that's coming in referendum because really you can have all the discussions at any time.
I think we start having those discussions at the buildings.
And then we make for every school building, we have a community event in the evening so the people can come so that for every school that we have, we meet with the staff.
But we also then meet with the community in the evening to go through and to hear their concerns and to listen to their thoughts so that at least if people want to be informed,
they have the opportunity to be informed and to ask as many questions and for us to provide information.
So I'm not going any more vacations anyway, so I might as well be at night meetings.
Thank you.
Joanne Ruh.
Yes, thank you.
All right, so Dr. Anderson and Dan, you both talked about what makes a great district, great kids, which, yep, got that, and great teachers.
And when you talk to people in our community about their education in Bloitte schools, they list their teachers.
I started writing down the teachers that made a difference for me and like the list got really long, super duper fast.
Ms. Alden, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Franz, Mr. Rooker, Mr. Shicker, Mrs. Gilbertson.
And what did we have back in the time when we were great?
We had collective efficacy.
We had teachers that met together, that worked together, we collaborated across the river together.
I knew every third grade teacher in Bloitte, not just the ones in my building.
You get your biggest bang for your buck by investing in our teaching staff.
Cutting, teaching stuff like the longevity pay, not giving us a cost of living raise for teachers, that's not how we're going to keep these amazing people that we have in our buildings.
We need more of them.
We need people that stay.
We need support staff that allow teachers to spend their energy actually teaching the children.
That's why they're leaving.
If we want to know why we're bleeding and how to stop the bleed, we need to read our exit surveys of families and of teachers because that's where the information is right there.
We need to stabilize our staff.
We need to respect them.
We need to collaborate with them.
We need to build into them.
And I 100% believe in our town.
We used to pass referendums.
We used to be excited about what we were going to do next.
And we can do that again.
And I think showing that we respect our teachers is first step.
And so I say OPAB money to take care of our staff and make sure that we have what we need because if we keep cutting all of this, you can't cut all of these supports and keep having classrooms where people are able to learn.
So if we use OPAB money as a band aid for right now and then pass the referendum, I think we can be what you're talking about Dan.
And I believe in our kids.
I believe in our staff.
I believe in our community.
We just got to make this right for our community and for the kids and staff that are here.
Thank you, Joanne.
Carol Fox.
Okay.
So I'm actually kind of a little confused about where we are and where we're going.
I thought we had sort of a direction and now I feel like we don't.
I do agree with Dan.
We need to sit down and we want to talk about what we want for our public schools.
We have to include Lincoln Academy in that discussion.
They are a public school and they're there and they're going to be.
We have to figure out how we are going to coexist with them and because and the money flows between.
So they have to be included in this discussion.
I see two fiscal cliffs.
I see one this year, five, some million dollars on top of all the other cuts that we've made is a fiscal cliff.
And then we're going to hit another one when we lose another 600 students to the Lincoln Academy.
That's going to be huge.
So I do wonder about where we are in terms of these plans and where you're going to take us with these.
Yes, option B is more aggressive but we've got to start talking about some of that kind of stuff.
Are we seriously going to run a building with 150 or less students?
And we have cutting ham school that doesn't have a lot of stuff going on over there that would fit into the high school.
And we're not going to be responsible about starting to really look at some of those kinds of things.
I know that that might be a hard go for next year but we also have to be physically responsible about those things.
So even in option A, there's a lot of things in there that people are very concerned about that we aren't having the conversations about like the nurses, for instance, that's a big one.
That's still in there.
The deans are in the option A.
And then you bring out not doing the salary increase.
That's not what we started to discuss.
So I'm confused about really where we are in this process.
I thought we were sort of making progress to a plan and I feel like we've taken a couple of steps backwards.
So, you know, one of the things that I wanted to talk about tonight was some of these things in the plan.
Well, two things.
How does that relate to some of the things like our grants and some of those kinds of things?
And are there unintended consequences in some of these things that we're talking about that we haven't looked at?
You know, one of the ones that was the conversation that came to me was about the CTE position.
And the fact that those are a lot of grants that are written and bringing in money and if we don't have that position who's going to do that, who's going to bring that money in.
So there's a lot of pieces at play and I thought we were trying to bring some of these pieces together.
And frankly tonight I feel like some of us come apart.
And that, you know, and that might be.
Like I said, I have nothing but praise for the administrative team who are diligently while I was gone.
All right.
What I think my next steps are is we have a meeting on Tuesday to take the things that I've heard from the board members.
To take the work that's already been done and basically.
I mean, I know that we'd like to have a lot of conversation for this budget with people.
The bottom line is we're in the mid-May, so there's not that time.
So I think what is feasible for this first budget is to take what we've heard tonight, both from citizens' comments and the boards.
Take the two plans that we have and for me to construct, when I say me, it is a collective.
But to construct, here are several options that you can take a look at that, you know, have varying levels of how much pain they're going to cause.
Now, I will be clear.
If you have less pain one year, that just means more pain than next year.
And what I mean by that is if I use OPEB dollars to balance the budget, I can only use those once.
That means that next year there are no OPEB dollars to use.
If I use fund equity to balance some of them this year, you do not have that in the future.
So it's to take a look and provide you with three or four options to talk about.
I have no problem sitting to go into the buildings and talking with them about the various options.
My guess is I'd like to have some options for you by Tuesday, so you could have nothing else.
I'm going to give hypothetical, but say I bring four options to you on Tuesday.
And you take a look and you say, all right, Wayne, we got A, B, C, and D.
We literally hate C. There is no feasible in the world that we're going to pass that one, so throw that out.
A, E, maybe if you tweak it, we'll look at it again.
B and whatever the letter I didn't use, they got possibilities.
Could you tweak this?
And then I would come back with something because we have a variety of opinions on how to do it.
My job as a superintendent is to bring you what I think are some decent recommendations.
And then we start massaging it until we get something we can agree on for next year.
But as soon as we do next year, the next day we start the discussion on the year after that.
And I said the referendum discussion is a part of all those.
And I truly believe my heart, and I said this since the first day that I've got here,
is that if you're going to pass a referendum, we have to be very specific with our requests.
We have to tell people, we need this and it costs this.
So when they look down, they can simply add it up.
This is a total, so they know what it is they're getting.
And depending on what we put on that is what we need the input from, you know, not only board, the staff,
the principals in the community, because what is the community going to support?
So, you know, those discussions I think, I mean, parts that we're already putting in.
I mean, parts are things I think I already know that have one of the referendum,
but it's having those discussions so that we can have those right away.
But I would say for the short term between now and next Tuesday,
it's to come up with different recommendation scenarios as you can get to a balanced budget,
but here are different ways to do it.
I am concerned about the referendum and the referendum question,
partly because it's November, and it's before we hit the fiscal cliff.
So, I mean, I don't know how we tie in and make a referendum question that helps sustain us
and when we go through the fiscal cliff, because we are going to have to be closing buildings.
I mean, we're not going to be doing it, you know, next year.
We certainly will be looking at how we're going to do that next year, because we have to.
And so, how do we, when we deal with a referendum question about what we want for the community
and we don't even know what that fiscal cliff is going to look like?
Well, I think one, I mean, one is we already know historically, and this year is no exception,
that we're losing a minimum of 200 students.
We already know that we're doing have 200 students less unless something drastic happens over the summer.
We meet with the Lincoln Academy, we say, when you open this, can you tell us, you know,
because I'm sure they're willing to tell us, are you going to take all 700 students the first year?
Are you going to phase in over two or three years so we can at least then plan for whatever they're going to do,
we can make a guesstimate to say this is what we're looking at to happen for next year
for the size of the fiscal cliff.
And we are going to have closed buildings.
Yeah, and how do we work that into a referendum question, and how do we get all that done by August?
Because we have to have a referendum question by August.
So, I'm just very concerned about even, you know, how we're going to come up with a referendum question.
It's going to be very difficult to figure all those pieces out.
There's, I'm not denying that in one bit, you know, because, you know, because like I said,
I don't believe in asking for buckets of money, I don't think that will pass.
So, it's trying to create the list of what we need so we can have a total so we can put that in.
Now, the question itself doesn't list every position.
The question itself looks a little bit different, but we still need to know what the dollar amount is
and that part of it will depend on what we do with this budget.
If there are certain things we cut in this budget that we think are necessary around the district,
those are things you have to put in that referendum.
So, I mean, our timeline is short, but there's no way I can give you more time.
I mean, the bottom line is the deadline for a referendum is set by state law.
I can't change it.
So, it means we have now till the end of August to get that done.
I truly want to get a budget done as close to July 1st as possible so that when we're starting the year,
people know what we're starting with.
So, like I said, what I think that is feasible to do is to work as a group to come up with what I think
are some different options for how we can balance a budget that we could take a look at on Tuesday night,
realizing that, you know, there's going to be different degrees of support for each one.
All of them are going to have a reduction in staff.
There is no feasible way that I can bring you anything that doesn't do that.
But depending on how much money we use from like OPEB or other forces, I mean, that's what we'll take a look at.
And then it's just we need to sit down and start having meetings.
And we need to have the meetings where people are going to come.
No offense.
This is a great crowd.
I mean, I am glad and I know when we post this that we'll probably get a lot more people.
But the bottom line is some people just don't want to come into a school building.
So, we're going to have to find out what other buildings are accessible that we can go to to talk to people.
I don't mind talking to people.
I don't mind listening to the hard questions because if I don't have an answer, I simply tell people I don't have an answer.
But it's not that I can't get an answer.
When I came to this district, I said, if you're looking for someone that has all the answers, I am not the person.
If you're looking for someone that's willing to work with people to come up with a collective answer, I'm better at that.
So?
Yeah, I just had a question about have we any idea when the casino comes that there will be many families coming with kids?
Do we know anything about that?
My belief is that it probably won't bring a lot of families.
It's bringing the casino just by the nature of it work.
The vast majority of people are being with the service industry.
My guess is there will be people that are all my guests.
And that doesn't make it accurate in any way, shape, or form.
But my guess is there will be people around here already that live here that will look to get that as an opportunity.
There may be from other communities that they'll just drive in.
There will be, of course, an upper echelon, so it may bring in some.
But I'm not counting on the casino to bring in a lot of students.
And I'd also like to say, as far as longevity pay, I don't see us giving the teachers anything.
They were already here in that.
Thank you, Bill.
Mrs. Schop, can you project the presentation title,
proposed budget reductions 2026, 2027, specifically slide 13?
And well, you guys are getting that up.
I will open it up to Megan Miller.
Thank you so much.
Dr. Anderson, thank you so much for all of that.
You asked for some specific feedback.
I'm excited to go through an email and go through like columns, AB and all the things for the purposes of right now.
Vision is important.
And so I have a suggestion that you don't need to take.
But what I would, I think, might be helpful for Tuesday is if we could frame our different proposals around like this is one in which like these are like this is what it will cost like a classroom or a building because like I think that it's difficult sometimes.
Like these are really big numbers.
It's a lot of stuff.
The way I'm trying to conceptualize all this in my notes is like here's like the option with like fewest cuts to staff options with like, you know, fewest cuts to services and things like that.
So I just, I think like that additional language.
I think you've done an excellent job.
I think we want to continue to bring people into the conversation and build community around that.
So I'm, you know, putting things into that terms would be great.
And in the spirit of that, I would like for Tuesday, if it's possible.
First to clarify is so we, because we heard last week that they were going to maybe make cuts just through attrition.
What I'm hearing you say is that's impossible.
Like there are going to be people and jobs cut or or is there a scenario possible where it's just through attrition is my first question.
It is possible to do it just through attrition.
But then we're going to use other sources in order to like open.
So it is possible to do it to attrition vacant positions, but it will, it will cause us that we have one other one time sources of revenue.
Perfect.
Okay. And again, like my budgety brain like realizes that what I'm about to say is, is a little like, you know, unwise, I think in generally in situations.
But I think I think it was Ms. Horvath who sent us an email earlier and she said it really beautifully.
Like, you know, you don't throw the kids by the wayside to fit it, like, you know, do your family budget.
And I know that we're not a family.
But I mean, I think that that logic is stands for me.
And so if it's at all possible, which it sounds like it is one of seven, I would be in favor of an option that is makes use of opub to prevent any cuts to people who are currently in positions.
A second piece of feedback that I have based on your comments that you just made is I would love to see just at a high level because I know it's unreasonable to ask like, Hey, for next week.
But at a high level, I would love to see a referendum proposal that accounts for, and it might seem a bit for a fetch, but I would love to see what a referendum proposal proposal would look like that does not include closing any elementary schools.
We've heard for years and it's not new knowledge, but we've heard resoundingly how critical our elementary schools are to in our community elementary schools are to our to our kids to our families.
I live in the neighborhood by taught elementary. It is the literal heart of that neighborhood, and it provides so much more than just elementary school services to our entire neighborhood and into our families and communities.
So my request again, then would be if possible Tuesday or as soon as possible, like to see a high level.
Look at what a referendum proposal would look like that maintains are just at least our elementary schools and our neighborhood schools.
And something that accounts for like probably like that would get us through, I think, to Miss Carroll or to Miss Fox's point through 20, maybe to 2829.
I'm not necessarily saying you have to build like that many years of the question, but I'd like to see that projection because it's kind of more of that like thrive and not survive mindset.
So just based on what you're saying, you were going to listen to board members and like bring something back Tuesday that's more refined and I'll certainly respond to more as well.
Those are two things. And then my last thing is going back to Miss Fox's document.
One of the first priorities on there, I think it might be the first one is to maintain the services to students that are not only critical, but also maintain that enrollment.
And Dr. Anderson, you've done an outstanding job tonight, like really driving home that point, we have to stabilize enrollment.
And so I just reacting to some of the public comment we heard tonight.
I think we need to like highly prioritize what we are doing with DLI and making sure that we are treating staff members and the services that they provide, whether it's through a program or whatever with the utmost respect because DLI are CTE we heard about earlier as well.
These are critical, critical services, not like a program that we pay for it.
Like services that we provide that add value, not just to our kids, but to our entire community.
So those are my three pieces. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you, Megan. Dr. Anderson, before you respond, it is 805.
Is there a motion to extend the meeting so much?
Second motion by Carol Fox, seconded by Tom Hankins.
I know, but you know what?
I'm a stickler for procedures and policies.
It saves us money to follow the policies. All in favor?
Aye.
Dr. Anderson.
Now, the one response to Megan is that to keep all six buildings open.
You have to remember, part of that is not a dollar question. Part of that is a pupil question.
If we don't have the bodies, you can't have the schools.
I mean, that's not so much a referendum question is that if we don't have the bodies to put in the seats, it doesn't make any common sense to keep that.
So that's why I talked about we need a stabilization.
If we know if we can stabilize our enrollment, then we can lay out a plan for how we can use buildings and how many buildings we need.
But a referendum, I shouldn't say that.
I was going to say a referendum does bring in students. That's not entirely true.
Depending on what we include in the referendum, it could include things that would bring students back.
Tom Hinkins.
Thank you. I'll be brief, kind of.
Ms. Fox brought up a good point that I wanted to bring back during our business operation of finance committee meeting.
And Carol said unintended consequences with some of these cuts.
And we talked about school nursing and Medicaid billing and how much dollars that revenue does bring in to the district.
And to not provide that, you know, if we start cutting nursing and what they do to bring in revenue for the district would be cutting your nose off despite your face.
And it also leads to CTE and Mr. Stenros, who brings in a ton of money to a seller program at the high school and the district.
And to do anything to jeopardize, we should be enhancing our CTE product and not trying to minimize it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Tom.
I agree with you. We shouldn't be cutting programs or positions that bring dollars in.
But with that, show me the receipts.
You know who I am. You know, I'm always going to say show me the receipts. Show me the data.
I need to see it. Okay. I want to trust everyone here.
But we need to trust, but verify this district for too long has been put in the board, put in positions where we are just supposed to take things on face value that's gotten us into a lot of trouble.
And I think these changes are hard. It's not comfortable, but it's accountability.
And this is what we need, especially if we are going to go to our public and tell them we want and need more money.
It's very difficult to convince people out there when we're doing so poor relative to the other districts in the state that we need more money so that we can keep doing a great job.
I know we're doing a great job, but we also need to have evidence that what we're doing and how we're spending the money is all on the up and up.
Dan Shuf.
Thank you.
Yeah. So as we put together the options both for Tuesday and as we get towards passing a budget by the 1st of July, as Dr. Anderson set out the goal.
You know, I think that if we're going to move towards a growth mode, we would love to see on these projections in modeling we do for the district.
We have this unique problem where our city is growing. The city is on a growth mode.
And the district has not been for lots of important reasons that are varied and deep.
But we haven't prioritized recruiting.
You know, I came from an institution I spent 14 years at Blue College and each year you don't have any students for next year.
You know, for freshmen, you don't have any. You start from zero and you have a funnel and you literally start talking to thousands of people until you get to the, hopefully, 300 students in your class.
Well, we, you know, 30 years ago, students showed up at the Beloit Public Schools and that's, they went to it and occasionally you went to, you know, OLA or Brother Dutton or something, but that was about it.
And that's, you know, that world's been gone for a long time.
And this district has had to make tough, tough decisions, but we've also not moved to the modern world of actually recruiting students.
I mean, we have a neighbor that just, there's, there's a child, I'll just more gender them, so I don't give them away.
Their child is thriving at Beloit Memorial. They went to their elementary school at Turner. They needed a bigger, you know, a bigger pond, so to speak, and they're doing great.
But we didn't, as a district, we just don't have any, we haven't prioritized reaching out to those parents.
I get Delavandarian mailings. I get Parkview mailings. I get Instagram ads from other districts. Lincoln Academy will have a robust recruitment plan.
Part of my growth mode is a switch in mindset that we are going to, you know, in some ways, it's not a criticism of anything we've done.
It's just that this may be the moment to say, you know, Megan has a lot of experience on the board.
Tia, you had a previous stint on the board, but it's a young board, right? We're new. You guys have, there's been change over.
This may be the moment to flip the switch and say, this is the moment to go ask our neighbors and friends to put a thing together.
But we're going to have to have the information from the great staff in the back and, and Wayne and others to make those decisions over the next, next weeks with these, with the input of the community.
So I would say that I agree with what people are saying that we have to make tough decisions, but the numbers that are up on the board right now, you know, there are tools to have the students that live in the city of Beloit attend these schools if we tell the story.
So just something I want to keep as an option.
Thank you. Any other board members?
So as I was going through this PowerPoint and thank you for putting this together, this was one of the requests out of the board guidance.
This is kind of a summary of a loose staffing plan.
I was surprised to look at some of these capacity numbers.
And on May 7th, Director Elwood had shared some of the energy costs in the district with the board.
And this was because I had a question about one of the payments for the frozen middle school.
And it seemed high compared to the other ones.
But then looking at the spreadsheet that she sent to us on the 7th and looking at these numbers and explaining why we're in the position we're in and wondering how some of these decisions were made.
If you look at the cost for the 24-25 fiscal year at the different operating costs of the buildings, Cunningham had over $110,000.
Blue Memorial was almost $380,000.
Robinson was $60,000.
And I have to say, Robinson, when I calculated the energy cost per student at each building, Robinson, nice job.
You guys came in at the lowest at $127 energy cost per student per year.
I was really perplexed and I hope that we can do some investigation as to what's going on there because their cost was $393 a year per student.
Now I know the building's not year-round and we still have to, but this is just across the board.
Blue Memorial was $336,000.
So Blue Memorial cost per student is still less than frozen.
When we are looking at buildings to close, we're going to have to look at all kinds of questions and take into consideration all kinds of things.
If there are buildings that are really high in the cost per student for energy or for whatever services, those are things we need to consider.
This one, Cunningham is over $900 a year per energy cost per student.
We are underutilizing some buildings and then other buildings are beyond what their functional capacity is.
For example, Converse.
We have 441 students at Converse and their functional capacity is 412.
So these are things that we have to take into consideration and perhaps moving some of our programs this year might help save us money next year and in the future.
Is it going to be fun?
No, but these are questions we have to come up with answers to.
If there are any other board questions, I will entertain a motion for adjournment.
So moved.
Second.
Motion by Tom Hank is seconded by Carol Fox.
No discussion.
Hearing none.
All in favor?
Aye.
Motion carries unanimously.
We are adjourned at 815.
Aye.