January 11, 2021 Regular School Board Meeting

001going it's working now meg thank you perfect i think i got it it's work yep barb said it's working then okay i think i got it thank you barb thanks bob we're good for now anyway okay all good okay so we are moving into item five which is general information interaction and that is interviews of candidates for the school board i want to note to people that we are subject to the governor's order with respect to the wearing of masks however the governor's order does allow us during a meeting if we are speaking remove the mask during the time that we're speaking just to ensure that people can understand what we are what we are saying so that's why i've taken the mask down i'd like to welcome everyone on behalf of the board um

002i think we all are greatly appreciative of the wonderful opportunity to have 15 members of our community want to be a part of this appointment process and who are showing this interest in in reaching out to be a part of our district moving forward so again we thank all of the applicants for their interest in being a part of the stevens point area public school district in this special potential board position i'd like to get just a little housekeeping out of the order because of the fact we have so many of us it's important that if you aren't speaking that you mute and that you're on mute otherwise we're going to wind up with feedback it looks like right now everyone recognizes that but we appreciate you doing that throughout the meeting the candidates that

003we have to fill the school board vacancy tonight are uh ronald s blaha jennifer bushman miguel gabriel c campos cash cook john j c kosh jack elzinger elizabeth heimlich robert manske ed morgan roth jr alex nelson kerry prokop lisa richter carolyn scottia christina smith and jacqueline p stroik and again we welcome all of you tonight i'd like to lay out just for you how we're going to move forward with this um i want to note um that that just as we saw at the beginning of this meeting we may need to show some patients throughout the meeting because again we've never done this remote and things with technology happen and we're going to work through whatever if any glitches occur in make people aware throughout of um any glitches that we're seeing at our end

004and just as barb did if you're seeing a glitch at your end please feel free to let us know that [Music] what we have done prior to the meeting as we have done in the past with respect to appointments is um carlin uh did a random draw of names earlier today to set the order of answering questions and so um she uh pulled out 1 through 15 and we will uh be having uh you answer in that order um we will be doing what the if any of you are familiar with the league of women voters forums um we will for example elizabeth heimlich was uh selected as number one so elizabeth will be answering the first question first and then we will work through the other 14 candidates the second question will be answered

005by the candidate who was selected number two so she will answer the second question first and that's uh carolyn scottia so as we progress you'll all be following the same person that you followed from the beginning you'll just be in a in a different order unfortunately because we have for fortunately we have 15 but because of that there will be some of you that will be answering later in the order but again it's based on the random draw i want to just provide you with some upfront information with respect to how we will pursu and i guess craig gerlach i want to know craig gerlock once i stopped with these preliminary stuff craig gerlock will be doing all of the questioning so craig will be the moderator um throughout the forum with respect to ensuring

006who's answering the question and we'll work through again that order i want to give you a heads up at the beginning and we will also talk through this at the end as well so people are comfortable with respect to what's going to happen with respect to the voting at the end so the first thing for everyone to be aware is that um an individual will have to receive fi at the end at the end of this one individual will have to receive five votes in order to be appointed to the board that is a majority vote of the board and so ultimately we will continue to take votes so long as we have not had a candidate received by five votes in getting to that situation how we will be advancing is the top two

007vote getters will advance at all times now the top two vote getters may be two people it could be up to eight people depending on the vote of the board so for example if we have eight people receive one vote all eight people will advance if we have one person receive five votes and someone else received three votes that person would be appointed to the board if we have someone receive we have a 4-3-1 then the person the two people the one who had four and the one who had three would advance and we will talk through this as these votes occur but if we have for example a 3-3-2 the two people who received three votes would advance if we have a three two two one the person with three votes and the two

008people with two votes will advance so in the event of of a tie there is the potential that we would have um more people advance but again as each vote is tabulated we will be sharing that out with everyone so everyone is aware of it um it's a little clearly becomes a bit more complicated with 15 people um but carlynn will be doing all of the tabulations board members who are physically present we will be filling out a boat tabulation which will be we need to put our initials on it as well as the candidate we're voting for those will be handed to carlin board members who are remote part of this meeting will be emailing carlin their vote selection and she will be filling out a tabulation form here for each of them she

009will then be tabulating those votes and reading the votes out to us so again we'll go through that at the end of the interviews but we just wanted to give you a sense of how that voting was going to occur um at the end of our interviews um so with that i'm going to turn it over to craig and he will begin the interview process thank you meg um and welcome and again as meg said thanks to all of you for showing interest in running for school board or in this case being appointed to the school board this is a little bit different for all of us having 15 candidates of interest and of course with the issue of the technology uh this is uh certainly going to be a challenge so um i'm anticipating

010however that will go fine corey hirschbrunner is our assistant superintendent director of elementary education she is going to be timing you you've got two minutes per question and uh without so we're not rude and having to interrupt by by creating a voice when she hits a minute 45 she's gonna put up a yellow a card that's that's your warning that you've got 15 seconds and then at two minutes the red's going to go up and please be don't offend it don't be offended when i see the wet red and i say time's up um because we've got a lot to get done tonight that said we're going to begin the order of the lot that was pulled today as meg talked about starting uh number one is elizabeth heimlich and then caroline scotchia carrie prokop

011jack ellingser robert manske ed morgenroth lisa richter ronald blaha jacqueline stroick alex nelson jennifer bushman cash cook john cecosh christina smith and miguel gabrielle campos um and that will be the first question and that goes to no i didn't know do you want to repeat that one more time for the board just to get things in order yeah it's going to go fast we can just grab one we were going to print it but then those up up on the board members not here don't have that just give us just a name before you start sure i will all right you want me to run through the lot one more time i certainly can that would be helpful okay get your pens ready okay the first lot draw was elizabeth heimlich the second caroline scotchia

012the third gary prokop the fourth jack ellingser l zinger excuse me jack the fifth robert manske the sixth edward morgan roth seventh lisa richter eight ronald blaha nine jacqueline stroik 10 alex nelson 11 jennifer bushman 12 cash cooked 13 john cecas 14 christina smith and 15 miguel gabrielle campos and for the board um i'll be reading the name ahead of time i'll give you a few seconds to get your ducks in a row with your paperwork okay thank you the first question elizabeth and again it'll be followed up then by all 15. please tell us about yourself your educational background work experience and any previous board experience hello can you hear me yes okay i wasn't sure that that was working um i was educated on the stevens point school district i attended uwsp did

013not graduate because while i was attending school i substituted in the school district here and found that i enjoyed it so much that i just continued on doing that so i was a special ed assistant for over 30 years 20 over 20 years in stevens point before that i worked at cholita so i've had a lot of extensive experience with special needs people my son attended all the schools now my granddaughters are attending stevens point school so i really i really am have vested interest in it um i was on the board for niacc i was a union representative and then in janesville i was working in janesville and i was on the rock prairie performing arts council i was a treasurer on that committee um what else did i do i volunteer in the

014classroom what i was before the pandemic kid and i also was volunteering with the united way learn for life reading program which is awesome when i was working at jackson school i was on the planning and implementing committee to when they started the charter school there which was really a great school and unfortunately then it was right before they closed so that's pretty much my background a lot a lot of uh stevens point education and a lot invested in it thank you next will be caroline scotchia and am i pronouncing that right you are pronouncing it correctly so thank you for that you bet caroline hi everyone my name is caroline scotia i have two children in the district so i have a vested interest as well um i'm currently from chicago and i moved

015here about nine years ago so i've enjoyed the stevens point community immensely since then um my career i've had two two careers in my past so one um being an educator for the chicago public schools but before that i was a project manager in environmental and engineering company so i switched careers because i come from a family of educators and i've always been selected to whenever we had a new employee to train the new employee even though that wasn't under my description of work and i found myself just enjoying it so i changed careers and became an educator and i worked for chicago public schools for about six years until we moved here and i had my son and then i had my daughter so right now i'm a mom and i enjoy being home

016with them so i have a lot of time but in addition to that i also work as a student teaching supervisor at the university here so i love aspiring new teachers and that love engaging with them on a daily basis and i also like to volunteer in the classroom and i sup occasionally in the district so i'm i'm consistently with children and i love it and i'm always within the schools and i get to see aspiring teachers on a daily basis and talk to them so that is um pretty much what i do on a daily basis monthly basis and then i also have served on many boards so as a chicago public school teacher i served on the science fair committee which houses 200 participants so that was my largest committee i ever see

017have done as far as that just like elizabeth i served time is up caroline okay thank you next kerry prokop trying to figure out how to unmute so my name is harry hello um i have been married to my husband for 31 years we have four times uh we've lived in this evening with 22 years um let's see you're one of those kids was still in the distance that status last year um that's our american college college i went to abusive pacific university in southern california i have a bachelor's degree um communication is not mass media it is public speaking and other people after college like so many people i still didn't know what i wanted to do so i went to a trade school animal training expenses and i became an animal behaviorist and

018so for 15 years i trained people how to find a dog a great job let's see here some other jobs i have done i managed the bookstore in town i worked at a crisis pregnancy center the last four years i have worked online with chinese children here in china i'm in my house and i help them speak windows um i do not speak mandarin by the way it's an immersion platform let me speak english i do have board experience um later on one of the questions i'll talk a little bit more about um nicholas's small business i see that 15 seconds um in the news district i have been part of that school to work for six years and for the last three years i hope it's going to be that way uh it's a

019governance council of the glottal school board we're under the school board thank you kerry next we have jack elsinger thank you for the opportunity i'm coming to you from the town of hall where we've lived for the last 39 years married two grown children three grandchildren five four and almost two the five-year-old is in school right now four-year-old is getting ready for it i graduated from uwsp in 1975 with majors in english political science broadfield social studies i then taught for 35 years down in the plainfield school district i taught at the middle school level high school level and did tutoring in elementary school as far as board experience uh four years on the town of hull as a supervisor 32 years on the town hall fire department as a firefighter ems i've been on

020the board of directors at for the isaac walton league a number of different times committee chairman that sort of thing now that's about it thank you thank you jack robert manske hey good evening everyone my name is rob nancy i am uh currently the chief of staff and legislative liaison for chancellor gibson at uw stevens point uh originally came to stevens point from seymour if anyone knows where seymour is for home of the hamburger i came did my undergrad at uwst communication major psychology minor and uh graduated went to uw la crosse to get my master's in higher ed administration moved back to stevens point in 2000 i worked in the student involvement and employment office where i was originally hired to work with student employment leadership volunteerism and i worked with a work study

021program called america reads where we had students college students going into the elementary schools and helping students to read i have four kids uh three of them are currently in the district and one is currently attending uwsp at uwsp i am uh the chief of staff i'm the uh one of the members of the chancellor's senior leadership team i work as the primary administrator and advisor for the chancellor i work with student success and recruitment and retention i have budget authority and review and i work at legislative liaison i work with our state and federal legislators to help advocate for the university i'm also the community representative of the chancellor on many boards and everything as far as board experience i've not been on the stevens point public school board but i have served as

022nine years as a community foundation of central wisconsin board past president i was the founder and charter member of the rotary club of greater portage county past president for 16 years i was part of that group still am i was part of the uwsp common council which is the shared governance group for uw student point i've been there for 14 years and then on a number of various other boards porch county business council synergy and uh united way that's me in less than a few minutes thank you next we have ed morgenroth uh good evening everybody um my name is ed morganroth we've uh i've lived in plover here with my family for uh for 25 years i'm married uh we've got two kids who went through the stephens point district i think we think

023successfully uh you know we're we're biased but went through k-12 as far as my career uh i have been for the last 25 years i've been with nationwide which is an insurance and financial services company educationally i got my bachelor's degree in finance from northern illinois uh university in dekala and then i went on for my mba at the university of illinois in urbana uh far sport experience i have uh had the privilege of serving on this board uh two different times once from 2007 to and then again uh for about i don't know i'll say eight months uh last year the end of let's say september 2019 to maybe april 2020. that's uh i've also got uh in terms of uh board experience uh i was on a on the board of a very

024small subsidiary subsidiary of our nationwide company and a long time ago when i first got here i served for a year on the portage county historical society board that's me thank you ed thank you next we have lisa richter hello everyone good evening i'm lisa richter i am originally from the milwaukee area but i moved to stevens point when i came to college at uwsp and i got my bachelor's degree in my master's degree there in communication sciences and disorders so i am a speech and language pathologist and i work in education i've been in education for 14 years i currently am employed with the school district of wapaka but i previously have worked for the stevens point school district i worked for stevens point school district for i think six years and i have

025lived collectively in stevens point for 18 years so almost two decades uh i am a city girl at heart i never thought i would move north but i've enjoyed it i met my husband here we've been married for 11 years we have two beautiful girls they're eight and ten my daughters attend uh bannock elementary so uh go bulldogs and i previously worked at mckinley center so i'm a bobcat kind of in nature too i enjoy volunteering in the community i am a member of the stevens point junior women's club here in town i am the chair for tinsel trail it's a very large vendor event held at the holiday inn every year and i am the chair to organize that i very much enjoy being a part of this community and being a community stakeholder

026i have a very uh invested interest in the stevens point school district and the education of our youth and i um as far as previous board experience when i was in college i was a member of the gamma phi delta sorority and i have a leadership position with that organization and uh just want to say thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight thank you lisa next is ronald blaha okay i will discuss my educational background and work experience in question two with previous board experience i've been involved with nine boards seven local one state one national with 59 years of service that averages 6.6 years per board i was also a very active member with the association i've had with the nine boards i never joined the board for the benefit of my

027resume i always had great support and encouragement for my boss to be involved with community and business action groups for three years i worked with the board of the humane society of portage county as their executive director twelve years as president treasurer of baja resources which was did businesses play and learn it was an educational resource center for teachers parents and homeschoolers six years involved with the stevens point association of downtown businesses five years as their president we became a wisconsin main street community with our first attempt four years on the board of the local red cross six years associated with the united way of portage county's board seven years with the junior achievement board i was president for one year 13 years as a member of the stevens point youth baseball association as president

028for five years six years of board membership with a national group called gatf continuous improvement network which was involved with continuous improvement efforts in the printing industry i was president with that group for two years and then i was two years with the wisconsin small business development center advisory board that's my board experience thank you ron next jacqueline stroik hi thank you i'm jackie i grew up in stevens point this is the only place i've lived i am married and i have three children two that are grown and moved away they went through the stevens point school district in the 1990s and early 2000s and i have a son who is 16 and goes to spanish my son is on the autism spectrum so i have gone through the process from early childhood on as

029a parent um going through the special education process or system i worked at century insurance for 35 years um the last about 21 of those years in it as a programmer and database administrator data engineer and i retired from century um it's it'll be two years on april 1st about six years ago i decided that i wanted to change careers so i started taking classes at the university and i graduated in december with a bachelor's degree in social work i've never been on the board i haven't really been too involved with community organizations um i would like to change that now i've recently joined the citizens climate lobby group and i joined the league of women voters and trying to to get more involved thank you jackie and next alec now alex nelson hi everyone

030i'm alex uh i grew up in the chicago area i went to school at iowa state i graduated with a bachelor's of science in engineering and i currently hold project management professional certification uh career-wise i worked for pearson education for about nine years as a digital producer so that essentially boiled down to a lot of project management and vendor management i moved to stevens point with my family in about 2016 and i've been a part of skyward's project management group since that time i'm currently a team manager there as for prior board experience fairly limited but on 2018 i was part of the elementary instructional day increased task force for the stevens point school district and then i also participated in a few early meetings related to the 2019 referendum thank you thank you alex

031and next jennifer bushman hi everyone i'm honored to be with all of you tonight my name is jennifer bushman i am a mother of three elementary school children in the district and one that keeps reminding me that she's a soon to be middle schooler i reside in stevens point i moved here from southern california approximately 10 years ago the decision that many close to me questioned but i must say i absolutely love living here i am a first generation college graduate i'm proudly born from an immigrant mother i have a bachelor of arts in communication that i received from san diego state university and a master of arts and speech communication from california state university fullerton i am currently employed at anthem health insurance i work as a global talent strategy director so i'm aligned

032to support talent strategy for business units across the enterprise with a primary focus on end-to-end talent management so learning and leadership development organizational development and leading inclusion and diversity efforts my prior work experience includes being employed at two california universities one public and one private as an adjunct instructor where i worked for five years teaching upper and lower division communication courses and coaching the speech and debate team additionally i've worked in the learning and leadership development space across many sectors so financial services insurance and health my community involvement includes serving a third term as president of the stevens point junior women's club that lisa referenced earlier my role as president ends in two months and for anyone unfamiliar with the junior women's club it's a volunteer organization that's dedicated to community improvement through service i

033appreciate your time today and i look forward to learning more about everyone else thank you thank you jennifer next cash cook good evening my name is cash cook i'm originally from west central wisconsin in 2000 i needed a reset so i moved out to wyoming where i eventually met my wife and my two step kids uh we moved back here in 2005 to start employment with lowe's seeing that that's who we were working with at the time out in wyoming um in 2006 while still working for lowe's i was working i started working for fedex freight and pretty much since that time i continuously worked two jobs day in and day out um in 2010 my wife told me i should go back to schools i finished up my degree at uwsp in broadfield social

034sciences and then started working two jobs again um and the only reason i've done that is i've always told myself it's beneficial to make sure there's a roof over our head close on our back and food on the table um i don't have any board experience if this was just an opportunity that presented itself i have a new granddaughter and i felt this might be a way to get my foot in the door to help better her life as she moves forward through the stephens point school district thank you thank you cash next john good cecas everyone i am a lifelong resident of the stephen support area i'm a fourth generation on the property my great grandfather settled outside of stevens point as an immigrant i attended stevens point district local schools and i am

035a graduate of pacelli high school i have two degrees bachelor of science degrees from uwsb i'm also a graduate of mm leadership institute of mnessa bahamas i'm married with three children i started my business career as a partner in our family-owned business and have since owned several businesses including a business consulting firm i'm currently a co-owner of a land management company in central wisconsin in addition i work as a strategic planner for the wisconsin potato and vegetable growers association and for heartland farms i've been by vocational all my adult life working in business and in education simultaneously i served as the founding school administrator and principal for parochial k-12 school for 15 years as well as being the curriculum director i also had teaching responsibility as well in a different education and back at business

036background my other experiences what may be relevant are i was a domestic abuse program director a director for a non-profit volunteer program with 12 departments a leadership training facilitator and a member of a local toastmasters speaking club i've served on several boards both business and non-profit organizations presently i do not hold any positions on the board thank you john next is christina smith hello my name is christina smith i grew up in green bay wisconsin and came to uwsp to pursue my bachelor's degree in mathematics and a minor in computer information systems i work for aig i've had a variety of roles over the course of being there i've been in actuarial field i did business intelligence product management and i'm currently the business analytics manager i have a team that reports under me and

037we do a lot of data mining data cleaning we use data to make decisions we create metrics basically anything that has to do with bringing information together organizing it presenting it and making recommendations based on what we see going on with our books of business i handle both the travel insurance and our accident and health portfolios in addition to working at aig i am also a mother of two beautiful daughters one is a fifth grader at roosevelt elementary school and the other will be entering 4k next year so being a parent has definitely changed our outlook on things and it's become so important to us to be able to make sure that every child gets success additionally my husband is a teacher at spash so education is extremely important to us in our household as

038well as as an employer having strong workforce to be able to bring in new ideas and new information as far as previous board experience i've served on several boards at work several community boards fundraising committees as well as being the president of our erg it's called employee relations group for the young professionals thank you very much thank you christina and the last person for this first question is miguel gabriel campos well thank you all for uh entertaining us all tonight i'm miguel gabriel campos uh since this is a time sensitive uh with all the questions and candidates you can call me miguel if you prefer i'll cut off a second each one of those introductions but i am a uwsb honors graduate i studied sociology and international studies with uh emphasis in social entrepreneurship and

039foreign economics i currently met an insurance salesman through berkshire hathaway i handle over about 1600 customers uh all who now have my personal cell phone due to covid and the work from home model that we're all going through and i'm also a small business owner here with a couple of different partners in the real estate um local real estate and rental market here um i have not served on any boards per se i tend to be the guy that a lot of poor people come to and ask for advice in my experience and i do a lot of local volunteering originally from texas but lived most of my life in the wausau area so i was heavily involved with my dad in the lion's club and the shriners the salvation army the ymca and here

040in stevens point i spent a lot of time with the ymca i have two two younger children uh both five five and nine years old going on 10 and 20 it seems i spent a lot of time with their sports helping out at the ymca volunteering volunteering through the local salvation army and i do also i am a grants committee member with the uh the local community foundation if you are familiar with that so that's been a pleasure to be a part of that board to help local local businesses get access to funds especially during the school bid crisis um so that's me in a nutshell i won't take any more of your time thank you miguel uh say miguel when you were speaking there was uh i could hear you but there was some

041back uh ground uh noise as it relates to crackling some crackling so i don't know if there if there's a wire is there still crackling as i'm talking not now no now there is okay i'll see if i can get a different okay thank you for that okay we're going to move on to uh the second question and we are going to begin with uh caroline scottia and the question is what unique value will you bring as a member of the school board make value i will bring as a school board member is that i will be committed and dedicated i have the time to commit and dedicate to this placement and i feel that my educational background having a master's in education and being a former chicago public school teacher in an urban area

042on the southwest side of chicago also benefits me at being in the trenches of the educational system i'm familiar with how schools function i'm familiar with teachers i relate to them i think as a stakeholder in the community that benefits knowing and being um part of the making these decisions being able to know what teachers go through on a daily basis so i think that adds value in addition my past experience as a project manager helps me with understanding budgeting problem solving which i have a very creative mind i've been told and when you're creative you're a good problem solver so i think that will also add value as a member and a contributing member to the board and that's it i'm going to cut it short because i felt like i went a little

043long last time it's all good thank you carrie excuse me next is scary broke off ahead of myself there i was like did you just call me character i was just i was excited i got c cash right okay next uh carrie prokoff um i believe that i have some unique qualities because with my four kids um i hope worked with the special education department uh i have worked with addicted department and i have a regular ed students as well and so i'm not saying that i'm an expert in anything as i have done basic understanding of those communities of people but i've gotten to work with lots of different people in industry my fifth which i have also had done public schools distance charter school home school and of course pandemic school i have

044ties to each of those communities of people and to assume the degree understand those mindsets and so i think that i mean these values that i would bring was that um i would be able to be a good communicator with some of those communities and work well with them and hopefully communicate also with the board [Music] can you say something about our connection your connection um on half of it your connection tends to go in and out a little bit again i can hear you but it's it's a little challenging at times it goes louder and then softer to some degree okay thank you carrie next is jack elsinger thanks again my primary emphasis if i got onto the board is that i would use my time because i'm retired to get throughout the school

045district and really familiarize myself with the with the district as i pointed out i have 35 years of teaching experience elementary middle school and high school so i have a good grasp of how a school should run and i'm a good listener and as i said with the time that i have my intention would be to get out there and talk to as many people as i can from the custodians to the cooks all the way up to the superintendent and everything in between because i think it's extremely important to form your decisions by what you actually see rather sometimes than just what you think you've heard thank you thank you jack next is robert manske for me i think my uniqueness is a combination of three primary components of my experience of being an

046engaged parent of four children in the district my experience with the management and understanding of a complex educational system and then some personal attributes and values with the district being engaged parents i have engaged with the teachers staff administrators to identify strategies to help my kids be successful i understand the learning environment from a parent's perspective and then i understand the underlying resources in school and communities regarding the complex educational system as a chief of staff i my job encompasses every aspect of the university and many aspects of the community teaching administration budget facilities enrollment and marketing those are things that come through my desk every day i interact with individuals of all backgrounds both on and off campus i participate in shared governance activities my legislative work takes me to madison and i think

047those skills are transferable to the k-12 environment i'm not saying that they are directly transferable but i feel like they they are a good connection personally i'm collaborative i'm ethical i'm approachable i consider myself a bridge builder i'm a lifelong learner i earned my phd in educational leadership while working full-time i'm open-minded i'm a good resource i pride myself on being a good resource i'm a bridge builder and i'm hard working overall i think those combined that makes me an individual who's passionate for education i have experience with educational administration and leadership and a personal connection to the district as a parent thank you rob next ed morgan roth thanks i guess some of the things i would say i don't make me unique but uh i would serve me well is my i've got

048five years of experience on the stevens point board school board over over two different time periods as i mentioned and working with uh different boards some some high functioning high performing some some not much some not so much uh and different superintendents um in addition to that i've got five years of on the board committees as a citizen member where i've learned some of the ropes and again had exposure to district issues and board members and superintendents and principals etc i also have a significant work experience in the financial area budgeting forecasting financial analysis etc which which always is important in these tight times uh lastly i have a i think a pretty good understanding and an appreciation of uh the fact that the district deals with with uh five or six major constituencies and

049they all need to be listened to and they all have valid uh valid concerns and valid priorities and i think that's important thank you thank you ed next is lisa richter ed could you mute please thank you i feel that a unique value that i will bring to the school board is that well of course being an educator for 14 years i'm passionate about education i feel very strongly that the academic social and emotional and vocational development of our youth is incredibly important to consider when we look at them today being youngsters and then into tomorrow in the future that they'll be the adults i am an invested member of this community having been living here for almost two decades uh and i feel the experience that i have working for the stevens point area

050school district in the past kind of gives me a look into the inner workings of the district i'm very familiar with many of my former you know former colleagues and i still communicate with them often i hear a lot about the benefits and the great things about our education system here in stevens point i still am very familiar with the inner workings of the district and i feel very strongly that being a member of the school board is an important way to continue to make a difference for the youth in our community thank you lisa next is ronald blaha my unique value i'm a very organized individual who puts his heart and soul into the necessary work to fulfill an organization's needs and activities with the ability to analyze and research the ways and means

051of an issue to a problem my educational background i graduated from st norfolk college with a business administration degree majoring in marketing i took two master degree courses in engineering management at pittsburg state university and three communication graduate courses at uw stevens point i've taken quality control courses at the milwaukee school of engineering which helped me to become a certified quality engineer with the american society for quality i've attended over 100 classes and conferences include involving quality statistics graphic arts safety manufacturing supervision training labor relations customer service leadership development and accounting to name a few i've initiated career development sessions at plants in st louis missouri independence kansas poughkeepsie new york stevens play wisconsin which helped plant employees that called associates develop and improve their skills and provide opportunities for their advancement far as work

052experience i have had 38 years involved with quality control and continuous improvement activities as a manager and project project leader helping companies to improve their products and processes company executives asked me to address and fix problems and issue in issues that occurred at company and corporate levels improvements have significant success in plant productivity process and product improvements increased sales and profitability i finished my career with the humane society of portage county as the executive director which i believe was godsent having the opportunity to be associated with such a fine group of animal lovers and those who cared for the animals a little bit about personal background i've been married 48 years to janet she was also a teacher for 29 years and then we opened up the shop play and learn which was the educational

053resource center for teachers parents and your time is up ron okay thank you next jacqueline strike i i think one of the strengths that i bring to this role is that i approach problem solving you know with my many years of programming background i offer problem solving with a very logical and fact oriented basis but i think my my real strength coming into this would be that i'm representative of a typical parent so not from an administrative or a teacher standpoint but from a parent standpoint having had children come through the system i had a child who was a really high achiever one who has really struggled through school on one who's gone through the special education processes and is also a very an exceptional um achiever academically but through all of this i've sometimes

054been more engaged than others i understand the pressures that parents face that keep them from being engaged at times which i think is an issue um for students and uh the district and um i think that i can bring that just that typical parent who has struggled and you know had successes and struggles with my children through school system thank you jackie next is alex nelson thanks um i have worked in education adjacent fields for the past 14 years i've worked with a lot of educators a lot of administrators in that time even though i myself am not an educator i place a tremendous value in public education i have three elementary age children who attend the district and even though i'm relatively new to the area i really value the community that's here i

055think that part of having a strong community is having strong schools i recognize that the school board supports the district at large um and that that needs to be a strong partnership if we're going to continue to achieve positive outcomes um you know being on some of those committees kind of helped me start to see some of the uh the things that the district is concerned with and and you know looking at towards the future and um you know and i appreciate kind of that that vision and you know want to make sure that we continue to move in those directions so thank you thank you alex next is jennifer bushman so i am very passionate about education i'm very passionate about service i i have a vested interest in the success of our school

056and the success in the district given that i have three young children enrolled in the district my unique value includes experience working across diverse groups with varied interests and experience most notable in my day-to-day professional life i work in a highly matrix a very fast-paced environment often with competing priorities and people with differences in opinions and so i'm able to work really well in that environment moreover i'm a quick study so it doesn't take me long to get up to speed in addition i i feel like i'm able to offer a diverse lens as it relates to my experience raising ethnically diverse children in this district my teaching experience in the private and public university space at the largest university system in the country i feel like offers a deep lens and my tenure working

057across multiple industries in the corporate arena mostly centered on learning and leadership development and account management i've also served as chief of staff in a previous role managing a multi-million dollar budget for a staff of over 120 so i have budgetary experience too my skill set i believe is really having a strong strategic experience i'm very passionate around work centered on this i have an inclusive leadership style where i'm always seeking input from others and collaborative skills that i feel i can use to enable the ongoing success and meaningful work of the school board thank you jennifer next is cash cook i think the unique value i have is i'm a quiet hard-working individual it's amazing how in that role everybody seems to come to me to get answers or just want to share ideas

058with me i've never really went out of my way to i don't know associated times but i have this vibe about me that makes it comfortable for everybody to come to me and discuss everything from you know life to whatever is on their mind at that moment um i'm just committed to the task that's at hand and that's how i feel about like the opportunity with this position that's open is that it's a new task where i could learn and work to better the district as i see it thank you cash next is john ceca i want to commend you for getting my name right uh i assume maybe you had some uh coaching because i've heard all kinds of pronunciation of that i did get some coaching i did get some coaching yes yeah

059it's one you don't want to drop off on in response to uh question number two here i believe the value that i bring as a board member would be my joint experience in both business and education that gives me a unique perspective to appreciate and understand both disciplines this includes the business experience to understand administrative issues and the educational experience to appreciate students parents and the teaching staff as a school minister i was involved in policy formation and implementation this involved working with parents teaching staff community business leaders my curriculum development experience will help me understand this administrator's role and decisions in that regard my teaching background will allow me to appreciate the perspective of the teacher and student alike i'm known as a problem solver a good mediator in addition i do well in

060multitasking and public speaking thank you again thank you john next is christina smith hi the value that i think i bring to the board has to do with my balanced and information based decision making as being a manager in a very large organization we have pretty complex budgets so my ability to not only help establish the budget but also to create goals and metrics along the way so that we can track our progress towards whatever goals we're trying to set whether they be profitability based or production based or even being able to take in a whole lot of different information the way i tend to learn is i will take on whatever information somebody gives me just glob it on throw more at me and i just i'll work through it synthesize it and then

061be able to organize it come up with a good rationale and decision making process and then be able to utilize that information to make recommendations and move forward and i just think that maybe it's how i approach things or having a background in mathematics just having a bunch of ability to to put together the information i think is very helpful and then also with being a parent you generally have to take these this information and explain it in a way that's understandable to a lot of different types of people and i have done meetings for large companies i've done meetings for clients i've done meetings for lots and lots of different skill sets and to be able to take that information and explain it in a way that makes sense i think is really valuable

062to um to not not just a company but just anything a school board education just a lot of different avenues thank you thank you christina next is miguel campos all right i switched out my earphones are you able to hear me clearly this time all right excellent uh my my unique value that i think i bring uh i would bring to the school board is is my connectivity to the community um given my diverse background being a person of color and having two ethnic children it is it has put me in a position where i've always and being not from the local area originally i've always had to find different outlets to connect myself to to the community and give it to my age i'm kind of in the middle of the older generation and

063the younger generation so i've found myself going to multiple areas for multiple different um scenarios um which to learn about the community of which which i'm in when i came to uwsp i didn't have any friends here at any acquaintances anything like that so i i found my place in the uwsp through different clubs and everything like that when i graduated um i only had have had one career for the past 11 years when graduating so i go i did a lot of volunteering and i worked with a lot of local businesses a lot of local community members and it put me in charge with like through create portage county i got to lead a lot of young entrepreneurs connected to me a lot of uh developers in the it world both young and old

064and i met a lot of different people that way and the same thing with volunteerism i got to meet a lot of different people and a lot of different um but from a lot of different cultural backgrounds a lot of different diversity and a lot of the people i met and i think it gives me a unique perspective when i'm if i on a board situation i'm able to better understand maybe a lot of different perspectives that maybe some people don't have access to where i do have access to and i've done that ever since i was a little kid coming from texas if i was always in a situation where i needed to find different outlets and i when i look at uh you know what on a friday night i have friends coming

065together here and i lost sure he can't hear you but how much time did he have left 10 seconds 10 seconds oh okay and we are going to move on um the last person is elizabeth heimlich elizabeth i'm sorry i was talking and i hadn't unmuted myself um i i just have to say that i really don't envy you at all your your decision will be tough there's some really good candidates here tonight um i think that money excuse me i thought someone said something um my main unique value that drives some people crazy but it's something that i can't really control is that i have a positive outlook and a lot of optimism it's just it's like sometimes people really really call me a pollyanna or whatever but i truly believe that there that

066people are good and working together we can accomplish a lot and i think that kids really benefit from that and i've been an advocate for kids my whole career and i really enjoy working with the children and i really think that they need the positivity of a good role model and they just need they just need positive influences so that's it for me and good luck thank you elizabeth miguel are you back with us i am okay if i can actually just drop sorry about that that's okay your time was just about up anyway oh okay perfect thank you okay let's move on to the third question how has your background and experience prepared you to be effective in an environment that holds diversity equity and inclusion as core to our mission and values and

067we're going to begin this round with kerry prokop right as i've said i have been on a governance council for a school for the last six years i believe that the primary purpose of a school and a school district is to educate children and i also know that all children have basic needs that need to be met before they can even start that learning process i think that that perspective lends itself to supporting every individual and their unique needs thank you carrie next is jack elsinger okay as i put it out i have 35 years of experience in all three different levels of education and i guess maybe the most important thing for you to hear from me is my philosophy about about diversity and that sort of thing and what i've learned in all

068those years is that you have to accept people as they come to you as human beings if you're genuine if the students know that you take them as they are then they're willing to help let you help them succeed in what they want to do but really the key is accepting them first and if that's genuine then you will do very well thank you thank you jack next is rob manske for me first and foremost it's recognition personally that as a white heterosexual male i come from a privileged background i understand that my perspective and experiences are shaped by my privilege as a professional i work at an institution that has similar message to stevens point public school district to support equity and inclusion we place that as the value of the core of our

069mission and we implement programs that i'm a part of to educate our faculty staff and students about equity and inclusion for example i've participated in the safe safe zone training for lgbtq students i've worked directly with committees that support our equity goals like the gender sexuality alliance the differing abilities council and the diversity council uh most recently i've worked with the native american burial ground uh committee campus and community partnership that's helped to recognize set up a temporary memorial uh learning about uh the burial ground that's on our campus expanding that to working with outreach to the tribal leaders of our tribal nations to help partner and recruit our native students and help them become successful at uws peak i would translate that over to to work at the board members to point school district

070my role my primary role when it comes to diversity and equity is to listen and learn and provide resources to help people be successful thank you rob next is ed morgan roth uh hi um i uh like i think uh everyone else there uh i i do support theory and practice uh diversity and inclusion and the issue of equity in employment and in learning opportunities etc and nationwide my my former company actually headquartered in columbus ohio but with offices all over the country and uh they have a very diverse workforce and over my uh my time there uh i i worked with the uh uh work with a diverse group of people and then that's the way it uh that's the way it should be and i think i think it's important to realize in

071this district that we do have a diverse population and we do have a significant portion of of the community and the students are people of club of color including a large number of uh among community members and that when the district school district makes makes a policy or implements uh something a program that it needs to work for everybody and specific efforts need to be looked at to to see that it does work for for uh all the community uh and not just the not just the majority thank you thank you adam next is lisa richter i'm an inclusive person by nature and i enjoy collaborating with others a large part of my professional role as a speech and language pathologist is helping others communicate effectively and in all environments whether it's educational home or

072community and on a daily basis i'm collaborating with my teaching colleagues and i'm a large part of my role is also having patience and being an active listener taking in information and helping to problem solve for all my students i believe that it's important to provide uh equitable opportunities for all of my students it's important that i recognize that there are differences in each and every one of them and i agree like previous candidates have said that you need to take students and people where they are at i believe that um everyone deserves a voice and to be heard and in order to achieve collective efficacy as a group groups working together must believe through united efforts that they can produce uh intended efforts or produce intended results and overcome challenges a big part of

073what i do for my students is helping them overcome difficulties communicating and i feel like my previous experience working for many years and helping those to better their communication i feel i can bring some of those qualities to to this board thank you lisa next is ron blaha well i'm a team player who has worked with a diverse group of individuals i have been associated with manufacturing employees who i like to call associates volunteers boisterous coaches animal lovers student athletes coaching a lot of girls and boys teams business professionals ceos managers workers etc athletes military personnel all ranks government civic individuals teachers vendors suppliers retail entrepreneurs and rental apartment tenants to name a few i recommended and lobbied for a woman to become a manufacturing supervisor and she became the first woman in our company

074to supervise a manufacturing department she then selected another woman to be her assistant supervisor this was in a very male dominated company my wife and i have been invited to and attended a 40th anniversary party for a male couple we were also invited to and attended an african-american formal dinner dance with a group called the king's club i'm an avid reader especially during my retirement years having a special interest in biographies autobiographies and history i have read books like roots by alex haley and am i not a man the dred scott story by mark shercliff along with many others to help him better understand the issues with race relations also i've just completed reading population one by tyler tyler mcnamer who wrote about his autism and his will to succeed i associate with people based

075on their individuality not on not on their ethnicity thank you thank you ron next is jackie strike actually this was my favorite question on the sheet as i stated earlier i just graduated in december from uwsp with a bachelor's degree in social work and threaded throughout the whole curricula were the concepts of diversity and cultural humility and inclusion that's part of the social work profession and as part of my capstone i did a six-month internship at inclusa which is an organization in stevens point that supports people who are medicaid eligible so they are you know either are lower income or have a physical or developmental or emotional disability and i helped to support individuals in those demographics and with those challenges throughout my internship i really believe that we need to understand and value the

076differences that different people from different demographic groups bring and how that informs their worldview and their perspective and their experience we have to to note that their experience and and um is valid and it is valuable and we should actually invite it we should invite diversity into our organizations and into our institutions that will help us to shape better policies and better organizations that will serve everybody thank you thank you jackie uh next is alex nelson uh i've been fortunate in my career that i've been able to work with a lot of people both across the country and internationally um people with different backgrounds and very different personalities uh as a project manager a key part of my role is bringing people together in order to achieve common goals that responsibility requires strong communication listening

077to and actually hearing what somebody has to say finding a way to share information and present ideas in a way that other people are going to understand so i do my best to listen to what people say to me and try to take the time to think through my responses rationally and respectfully um and ensure that i am communicating with the the people that uh are speaking with me thank you alex next is jennifer bushman so thank you for this question um growing up with a mother who came to this country knowing very little english i watched her work hard and struggled to learn to speak english and start her life over in the united states and that's one reason i'm very passionate i care deeply about work in the inclusion and diversity space because

078i have felt and witnessed it firsthand the struggles in the absence of equity and inclusion i recall moving to stevens point from southern california 10 years ago and quickly recognized the lack of diversity i feel we have moved the needle since then as an asian american living in central wisconsin i recognize the opportunity we have to share as it relates to more diversity and the work that we have to do in the space the school board's mission and values are very much aligned to the work that i do in my professional space diversity is one of anthem's five core values and as a leader at anthem i work to build upon that strong foundation of inclusion and diversity and i sincerely believe that we can all live this value if we foster a trusting and

079inclusive environment if we champion diversity if we work together to cultivate a space that represents the views and the experiences of the community members and so these values are very much for who i am and i am able and confident to work in an environment that holds diversity equity and inclusion as permission thank you jennifer next is cash cook [Applause] cash what's the deficit um i guess in my in my work life you know i haven't had to deal with like the diversity or uh inclusion because it's just been strictly you know white males that i've worked with but i what i've tried to do is i've tried to hold everybody on an equal plane and kind of base everything off the golden rule and looked at it from a standpoint of you know what

080can i learn from you what can you learn from me and what do we do to make each other better in the process and i feel that's what we need to look forward to is that you know everybody has a different story coming into the situation what can we take out of it what can we learn from it what can we do to make it better not only for the individual but for the people on the other side hearing the story thank you cash next is john cech first allow me to address the uh question it's it's phrased very well as a strategic planner i really greatly appreciate the need for and the importance of an organization having missions and values in other aspects of strategic planning these standards are what drives our actions and

081our decisions they're absolutely necessary for every activity of the organization and i'm pleased that the board has gone through extensive efforts to identify and implement them now as far as my personal answer here my educational background in working with parents community leaders business people and students have given me the experience in working with a diverse group of people as well as a diverse ideas to come to a satisfactory conclusion in my role as an abuse program facilitator people came to me with all kinds of issues needing resolutions these participants counted on me to be fair equitable regardless of their background race color or creed their confidence in me as a peacemaker was essential to the success of the program thank you thank you john next is christina smith hello and um i had interviewed previously

082for one of the school board openings and this question hadn't been on the question list last time so again i was really pleasantly surprised to see it show up this time because it is so important for this question to be addressed throughout my career at aig i've been a safe space not like i broadcast myself a safe space but i have been a safe space people come into my office close the door and they know as soon as that door closes we can talk about anything whether it's diversity inclusion a bad day need a place to cry whatever it is life's hard life's hard for everybody and sometimes you just need that space to sit have somebody listen and hear you and i've always been that person to the best of my ability that said

083i am part of a large multinational corporation i interact daily with not just people in the us but people throughout the world so what i've seen first hand is how important diversity and inclusion are in our company to make our decisions to hear all sides and to make sure everybody has a voice that said we've made good strides on diversity inclusion but we have so much yet to accomplish on equity and that's definitely something that needs to be addressed and pushed forward as much as possible we have a whole department within our company on dive diversity equity and inclusion and as they keep continuing to make steps and trainings i listen and i do whatever is necessary to make sure that we move forward on those things thank you christina next is miguel campos uh

084thank you um as a as a person of color myself with a hispanic background uh i grew up with a hispanic father and a native american mother um and as i said earlier uh coming from texas uh in the late 80s early 90s to wisconsin there was not a lot of uh not a lot of culture in the wausau area i was probably one of one of the first cultural people to come to the area so uh the importance of diversity equity and inclusion to me is extremely personal had something like this existed when i was younger may have had a profound effect on how i experienced the school system as i grew up so i fundamentally this is something that i hold dear to myself and i'm i'm very excited to see that there's

085a is a major uh mission uh for the stevens point school district um diversity uh equity inclusion and inclusion um in in college is is that that adopt those principles in college when i went through college was something that actually had me get through college uh through the different scholarships and grant programs that helped underprivileged individuals people of color people of different uh ethnicities and sexual orientation among some of the things um i definitely if i am part of the border any board for that matter this is something that i would strive to uphold that's probably one of my top priorities i think as the world continues to change and we all fundamentally and just naturally become more diverse as we see more and more people moving globally i think uh this is something that

086becomes intrinsically more important to to everybody because you're going to see diversity equity inclusion whether or not it is something that other people around us do adopt that is something that is naturally occurring and fundamental to how people grow up and it affects it affects everything both psychologically and socially and it is that reason why i think it's extremely important thank you thank you miguel next is elizabeth heimlich hello again um my family brings me a very diverse environment i have a an adopted brother who's black we moved to the stevens point school district in there's to stevens point area when i was 10 and he was six and that was in 1968 i don't believe there were more than five people of color in this community at that time so we we were thrown

087into it it was it was difficult and i even remember it vividly as a 10 year old because it was it was a totally different environment then when i was working and this is more of the special needs inclusion this i started out in a multiple handicapped classroom where the kids were in one classroom all day long we didn't leave for anything we didn't leave for lunch gym art we had nothing and it was they were they were lovely kids but they were considered multiply handicapped and they were considered they stay in that room and you just take care of them so my career showed the progression and when i was when i left the stephens point school district to move to janesville i was at jackson and that was shortly after bannock was built

088this was the most inspiring time of my life because bannock took all of our kids and we only had about 50 but fifth graders and that included all the special needs kids that included the nova kids and included the learning disabled kids so we did everything together all the fifth graders were all together for everything it was the it was just wonderful and i wish that we could do that for everything but it's not i don't think feasible because you have too many numbers but that at that time it worked lovely it was just beautiful so i i really i saw the progression of inclusion and and and diversity growing in the in this classrooms and in the school district and it's been marvelous your time is up perfect thank you thank you elizabeth and

089the last person on this question is caroline scotia hi diversity equity and inclusion are very important to me i think my experience working in chicago public schools was for me a big eye opener of what students actually think and go through i worked on the southwest side of chicago and they had a bunch of basically white teachers and a few few black and maybe a couple hispanic the southwest side of chicago if you've been there it's primarily hispanic and polish and as i worked there the community changed a lot and became more predominantly hispanic mostly puerto rican and mexican and it was just interesting to listen to the students talk about their experiences that as myself i didn't encounter as a child and it made me understand them a little bit more and meeting their

090families and then they it was exciting because they would talk about the changes that they go through and their experiences the food they eat and you'd have the polish students share their experiences so that gave me a way of seeing how different people see see things from a child's perspective i taught junior high but i consider them children they're young and also working in chicago as well in urban setting when i was a project manager in environmental field we worked with multiple different clients throughout the city of chicago in a very diverse range of people and backgrounds and most importantly i think for me i'm a big traveler and i think i've immersed myself in cultures that some people probably wouldn't want to do um i've been to thailand thailand china all over europe and

091i've morocco and i those opportunities which i'm very fortunate to have has given me a chance to be able to listen to different people and connect with others [Music] your time is up carolina experience thank you the fourth question list the top two issues you feel the district is facing and the first person to respond is jack elsinger okay i think that by far the first issue that has to be acted on is to get our schools back to normal just as quickly as we can not only have the students been hurt educationally but there's a tremendous amount of emotional suffering that's gone on at all levels with all the kids secondly interlocking with that we're gonna have to take a very hard look at remediation programs i think there's going to have to be

092a lot of that because even during summer vacation kids slip in their education this is much longer and much more severe in so many ways as far as a layoff from education so we're going to have to see what we can do to bring kids back to their grade levels thank you thank you jack next is rob manske just like jack i mean one of the biggest issues that i see is the the repercussions of kelvid and how it's impacted district it has impacted every aspect of student engagement and academic success every area of the institution significant changes to the learning environment and it's created this uncertainty on all areas access to learning has varied access to student services has changed student achievement has been impacted some students and parents have completely disengaged from the

093learning process employees are stressed they're concerned there's always uncertainty so that the issue is how do we continue to meet the educational objectives during a time of significant disruption and uncertainty and how like jack said how do we get our children back up academically once the code has passed and how do we support our teachers our administrators and our staff through this process as well issue number two uh providing a comprehensive educational experience with with limited resources this goes beyond covet how do we create and implement a strategic plan how do we work with decreasing budgets due to our lower enrollment how do we work with competing needs curricular facilities human resources inclusion how do we recruit and retain excellent staff and how do we provide competitive salaries and benefits how does the district prioritize

094critical needs with limited resources and how do we connect our budgets to our strategic plan how do we do outcomes based priorities and measurable outcomes i on a positive note i am seeing this within the district there you your strategic plan is connecting the current plans and agendas of your meetings to to measurable outcomes these are two very significant issues i'm sure there are more but those are the two big ones thank you rob next is ed morgan roth hi um thanks uh uh i'm sorry yeah uh issue number one um and this has been said is you know how do we how do we go forward how does the district move forward this semester uh and you know summer and next uh with with the blended learning model um which is as everybody knows

095is is uh part time in school in school learning and part-time online learning and while still keeping everybody safe as we've all seen the the the covet is changing and while numbers in wisconsin and i think portage county are better the variants are kind of a big unknown in the vaccine how that's going to roll out uh how fast still is is an unknown so it's possible uh that if everything goes well the district could could even you know consider moving to fully back to five day a week traditional in school learning before the end of the semester or by summer or or not but that's that's issue number one and issue number two is then how do we how does the district remediate the various learning i don't want to say deficiencies but learning

096problems and achievement problems that have been caused by either remote learning and buy you know kids and families challenges uh to adapt to that and less time face time with teachers and with with administrators and counselors and fellow students so you know how can the district uh develop instructional plans and programs to to uh help with the uh you know with the the slide that's that's been caused by the code thank you thank you ed next is lisa richter i think you guys are going to get a lot of similar answers related to this question because i think there's a lot of agreement amongst the candidates and i'm sure with the school board members um as well as the employee teacher group and administration is how do we have um you know effective long-term planning

097to bring back uh where learning should be for our students and the discrepancies related to um you know that slide that's happened due to coped and the pandemic i think that's affected so many people not only um you know our students but the uh parents that have had to take on the teaching roles and how to support them an effective collaboration between the district and and the parents out of the community those community stakeholders that are so important that um you know have had to take over the the teaching of their children it's great that we have gotten back to you know somewhat a semblance of a learning model but that long-term planning is a big issue that i know the district will be facing another area that i feel is an issue is effective

098collaboration and communication between um you know the district administration and the teacher group making sure that we're working together for that collective efficacy uh you know the teachers are out there in the classroom doing uh that doing their best to do um to help those children kind of bridge and make gains in those gaps that have happened and making sure that we um connect with the teachers and ask their opinion and they're involved in the process in those big decision making things that happen with changes that are made thank you thank you lisa next is ron blaha okay well obviously the covent virus has sat at impact with every aspect uh facing the district but the two top issues considering you're not considering covet would be the importance of the district's budget and financial controls

099and the importance of maintaining and supporting the district staff teachers and students thank you thank you ron next is jackie stroik um well obviously the impacts of koben to the school system are the you know most critical problem going on right now but the problem that i have wanted to talk to about more is um you know something from that's been long going on i talked to teacher friends and relatives that i have and especially around parent-teacher conference time and you know they always say that the parents they see are the parents of the kids who are doing well and that the parents are the kids who are not doing as well or who are doing poorly their parents don't show up and i think that um you know to support those kids i think

100that we really need to try to reach the parents and get those parents engaged with their children's education and and um you know having them support education in their homes by giving the kids time to study and asking about homework um and just basically engaging the parents with their kids education from from young on so that those kids don't suffer in the long run with poor education because they've never had it modeled or have anybody supporting them thank you jackie next is alex nelson thanks um i think that our top issue right now is actually one of diversity and inclusion i know that this is something that the district is working at improving but when we talk about preparing our students to be successful and to be part of a global future you know i

101think that they need to be enriched with the curriculum that's going to expose them to diverse cultures and ideas i'll give you kind of a recent anecdote like all parents my kids were home e-learning in december and throughout that time one of my kids heard a lot about uh christmas but essentially nothing about any other holiday uh that time of year and now in the spectrum of diversity and inclusion talking about um other holidays is a pretty low bar to kind of cross when we're talking about um culture and diversity but if we're not kind of even taking that step i think it shows you know just how far we have to go in order to address that concern um the other issue that i think is important um is one about developing and retaining

102teaching staff you know i have a lot of respect for the teachers in the district they have a critical they have a challenging role in addressing the needs of all of our students and i know from my own experience that there are a lot of factors that go into development and retention and attracting um quality stuff um so as we kind of work towards making those uh changes and work towards improving ourselves you know i want to make sure we're recognizing and appreciating the work that our teachers are doing thank you alex next is jennifer bushman so this is uh this is a good question it was a tough question and i took some time to really reflect on what i felt his top two issues were that the district is facing i don't like

103to work in a vacuum and i do appreciate other lenses and diversity of thought so i reached out to a few teachers and staff to check in with them i'm using that outside in perspective to gauge their thoughts and see if they were closely aligned to mine and they were so a couple challenges flows to the top of the list you've heard one of them already which is covid so covet as it relates to the implications that it creates with planning and all that surrounded with that and the unknown regarding what's next with the pandemic legislation and how that may impact our options for how our children will learn and when and how they go to school and most prominently uh how covet has impacted our kids emotional well-being and how do we help kids

104that are behind due to the loss of live instruction from the pandemic the second one that rose at the top of the list is really centered on morale so morale around a teacher from staff so really thinking about what can the district do to boost morale what resources are readily available for our teachers and staff how do we help them be their best because their energy is contagious and we know that it's closely linked to outcomes in the classroom and and even us we're trying to get teachers and so in a year rocked by the pandemic teachers and staff are trying to keep their heads above water and we know that teacher well-being is intrinsically linked to student well-being and so this will continue to be a challenge for some time and this challenge is

105half of mine for me and i i hope i'm able to serve on the school board to help in this amendment thank you jennifer next is cash cook yeah coven seems to be the running topic here my biggest thing coming out of the copied era is that you know i hope that everybody is getting as close to the best education that they possibly can get i realize that it's not going to happen for everyone but if we can at least stay current with it and help bring up those people that were lagging during this time i think it'll be better for everyone i think the second thing and green that i don't pay much attention to what's going on around me but i think the the biggest thing would be like the future or what

106the future plans for the district are you know you see a lot of political and societal changes that are going on that kind of put their sphere of influence on schools and organizations and things of that nature and i think the best thing for the district is you know the people representing the district making the decisions i don't think that all those outside groups need to make a decision for the school i think the people that are in charge of the school district and the people within the district are the ones that are able to make the best decisions for them thank you cash next is john cicac i agree with the majority of the candidates here that the covent is certainly the the top of the list or very near the top for most

107of us our both of my top two issues fall under the category of the covet crisis one is the educational response and the one the second is the administrative first the educational one and the impact on the teachers if i can add parents and teaching staff it's important to restore as most of you have indicated normality to the classroom and to family life many times we forget about the family life and just focus on the school day we need to validate the impact the culvert crisis has had on the teacher teachers and students on the students specifically academically socially and psychologically this will require the input of parents obviously teachers and the professional staff it is important to assess the impact of the crisis on the quality of education this will help us minimize the

108negative effect of the shutdown and the remote learning the second issue is responding administratively i believe that we should evaluate the impact on staff members as well as students we need to create a response team to develop the necessary resources to deal with the present crisis not only the present crisis but also to create a team and create a pip what i call a plan in place to deal with any future similar situations and finally we need to take advantage of resources made available through the government and the private sector to accomplish these goals thank you thank you john next is chris christina smith so i wanted to start off by again agreeing with the vast majority of candidates about the covet-related gaps but i also want to say thank you to everybody that's in

109the room right now and the rest of the school board and the teachers and everybody who's had to turn on a time a dime and be really thoughtful and inclusive and trying their best to figure out a go-forward path to make sure that we had something available right there were bumps in the road sometimes things had to change but there was always thoughtful caring people trying to make those decisions in the best interest of everyone the reason i say this is because me and my family are in a unique situation and thankfully hopefully unique in that i lost my stepmom due to covid in april we learned really quickly how serious this was and probably made our decisions a little bit too cautious but we made our decisions based on how we realized things being

110serious so not only is there going to be gaps as far as education but there's going to be social emotional gaps not just with my family but any family who's now experienced loss associated with copiod so i want to say thank you the the second challenge not to belabor the point about kobed is that we're having a referendum that's expiring there's going to be budget related challenges associated with that as well as everything else piled on top of trying to catch people up from the covid related educational gaps so that's definitely a long-term strategic plan that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later thank you thank you christina next is miguel campos uh thank you um i think um uh everybody prior to me covered a great deal about the covet and i i'm

111i'm in that camp as well uh i think the reinstatement of classes is is an important thing to to consider moving forward and how we how we approach that uh given given the different uh views and opinions uh on the covid uh and the pandemic itself and and how that transition looks for the parents for the students and of course for the student for faculty and teachers and not just the transition back to school but uh just the transition back to normalcy um as as a as a father of two younger kids you know how does this you know affect them emotionally and socially long term um when now they're used to wearing masks everywhere used to um you know seeing signs for sanitation everywhere and having dots and arrows point them in the right

112directions you know we don't no one knows right now what kind of long-term effects this could have on them socially and mentally but it's something that needs to be carefully considered and monitored on a continuous basis for we don't really know how long um given how long this pandemic has lasted so far and how long it looks like it's going to last people's lives have entirely changed people have formed entirely new lives and entirely new habits and this all needs to be carefully considered um on on either side of people's opinions when we look at putting together a plan to get everybody back to school and what that looks like and how that looks and in what time frame um that's that's all i really have to say on the on the coveted and the

113pandemic but i think it is it is an extremely important uh matter to consider i mean the second thing that i had was just the increasing importance of uh technology learning and integration um in the school system and how that looks if covert has taught us anything as far as technology goes people who didn't adopt it prior and were definitely against technology and all the different facets that means we all were forced uh to adapt it uh immediately and entirely and what does it look like moving forward in in the school system not only just for how people interact but how do you integrate technology as we see its importance thank you miguel your time is up elizabeth heimlich hello one more for the covid response um i also have to give you my very

114most uh appreciation for how you've been handling this my granddaughters i think are doing well with the system that you have set up it seems like they are they're handling it and i appreciate it i really do i appreciate it i'm very very thankful every day that i don't have to deal with it i don't know how the teachers do it so that is your short-term problem of the school board right now everyone knows that long term i think probably has been exasperated by this pandemic because i think one of the issues is the retaining and attracting of teachers and i understand that there's been some more retiring and it's been ongoing since act 10 but i think that that's one of the challenges that needs to be addressed and that's all i have to

115say on it thank you elizabeth next is caroline scotia hi i think one of the issues um that the district is facing is just stronger engagement with the community keeping us connected and all the stakeholders having ongoing conversations uh using a variety of communication channels uh whether that's formally or informally i i do feel this year and under the covet umbrella um there is a little bit of a disconnect when you speak to the teachers and versus emails from the district so i would like to see um something happen there where we open those lines of communications and include the parents who are not surprised with certain things and the teachers also the second point i think is getting kids on track is very much needs to be a priority as a sub in the

116district i see it as like elizabeth had messages there is a shortage of subs it's very hard to get substitute teachers right now but as a substitute teacher i do notice i see it for myself huge gaps it's not equitable right now and that's because of the pandemic so getting them back on track and how do we have them meet in the middle because there is a huge divide right now within the classrooms because you have the parents home some are very engaged and some not at all and it's very apparent and it's it's pretty startling startling and eye-opening also as a supervisor um with my student teachers i'm reading the reflections and they're saying the same thing so it's it's something we're going to have to address and we're going to have to figure

117out if we're going to continue a blended model like we have now we have to make those decisions and i think that listening to everybody i think this is such a great opportunity for the district to recalibrate and use all these people sitting before me have all these contributions and unique talents that i think it's exciting for a time for us to recalibrate and strengthen and i think it will be critical to our time is up thank you caroline and the last person to answer this question is carrie prokhoff another one for covid um but a slightly different take although i agree with everybody um i believe that with part of this touching up means that we have lots of students behind and yet the state is still requiring testing and from the testing we

118get report cards for the schools the districts and then we get funding and that would be my second issue would be not that the stevens point school district looks like it has glaring funding issues i just know that all school districts are not funded well to support everything they want to do that's it thank you carrie as the moderator i'm going to take the liberty of calling for a five-minute break and i asked of you that have technology please don't turn anything off um and uh five minutes is five minutes i have on my my cell phone is 8 36 so we're going to be back here at 8 41. and those uh that are not a part of the interview and are simply listening we have three more questions please note that the last

119two questions um should be relatively brief we'll be back in five minutes thank you meg