001I know Lily and Cassie are right outside the door so go then ready yep call to order this meeting of the St Area School District Board of Education Miss McKenna call the RO Miss Pew here Dr milin Bartlett here Mr Fry here miss sorg here miss cyle here she is online yes Mr Masa Myers also online here president Patterson here Zach and Mia can we do a sound check for you can you hear me we can't hear you Zach so keep talking so can you hear me when we can hear you can you hear me we can't hear you either hell okay oh now there are good can you hear me yep yep and you guys are very faint can you hear me yes we can hear you better okay all right um public comment
002no public comment okay there was no written public comment submitted in judging by the empty Gallery I would assume that there are no people wanting to give public comment at the meeting tonight so we will move on to item 2B legislative update uh there several things for legislative update uh on the federal side of things uh you may have heard that the current Administration is cutting half of its Workforce and also um stopping some federal grants uh the Department of Education released an interactive map that would show school districts how much Federal funding they receive and the staff that are generally funded by federal funding and I sent this out to board members but I'll just repeat it that the total federal funds that stoton receives according to DPI from both the Department of Education
003and the Department of Agriculture for um I'm assuming free and reduced lch um $1,777 313 um and the number of full-time Educators supported by US Department of Education funding is 14% according to DPI figures uh total federal funds is a percent of District's Revenue limit is 5% uh this came up on the School Board Association call that I participated on um on Friday they said they're unsure whether the federal action will impact um other federal grants coming to Wisconsin it currently has is impacting a teacher training grant that W Madison receives that helps to support the training of some um rural and urban teachers and is really most directly impacting MPS and one thing I asked about that they didn't have an answer for is that in September uh the Department of Public Instruction received
004several million dollars in federal grants to specifically support um special education teachers which we know are are badly needed um so we don't know whether or not those funds will continue to flow to States uh the Attorney General call in Wisconsin has joined a multi-state coalition filing a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's termination of grant funding for K12 education programs so that is currently making its way through the courts and Governor iver's put out a statement supporting that so I guess it remains to be seen how the major changes that the US Department of Education will impact Wisconsin specifically um on to what's going on in the legislature several bills and in the education committees both the Senate and assembly education committees met and had hearings on several bills last week uh last week Thursday
005the senate committee on education had a public hearing on the uh bill that would require School boards to adopt policies to restrict access to devices during instructional time think we we've talked about that before uh Governor iers has not said what his position is on that of course you know with divided government um the governor has the ability to veto anything that might pass through the legislature I think uh wasby has been the school boards Association has been working on that bill and are just really focused on making sure that it's school board's decisions on the policies that impact the use of um personal devices and schools that it's not directed specifically from the state uh the senate committee also had a hearing on the testing accountability system that's kind of a big news item
006on how the report cards are established and the Baseline for that uh the full Senate will vote that passed through committee last week they had a hearing and then they passed it at a committee last week and then the full Senate will vote on that tomorrow it would reset state report card standards to the 2019 2020 levels uh Governor iers has said he will V tow that bill because he believes it infringes on the independency of the State Department of Public Instruction and the the superintendent as you know is a constitutional officer there was a parent notification bill that the assembly passed by bar bar by bipartisan vote um and that is a that school boards would notify parents if there's a report that their child is the vict victim of sexual assault by School
007staff uh wasby talked about that on their Friday call they said they only concern they weren't consulted on this bill and their major concerns were about the timeline for notification of parents which it sounded like they felt was really kind of um quick and would be um potentially problematic for districts to meet so they're hoping for some modification to that bill again it's only been going through this assembly committee and didn't P yet pass out of that committee I don't think then of course it has to go to the Senate um the assembly also passed a bill require iring um specific police presence in Milwaukee Public Schools this doesn't impact other districts but they're requiring them to um pay for and put in place 25 police officers within the district uh there was a pronouns
008bill that moved through the assembly education committee last Thursday it was approved on a partisan vote it would prohibit School staff from referring to students by their preferred name and pronouns without parental permission it also talked about um name changes in school records uh there was also a uh the committee also on partisan vote uh voted to prohibit transgender girls in K12 schools from playing the sport that matches their gender identity so a lot of these super partisan votes moving through assembly committee and they don't necessarily have a partner yet in the Senate so and I think some of these can be assured that the governor would veto um of Interest also the marquet law school poll uh regularly asks people about their views on public education um this poll was out a March 5th
009uh 58% of the public are satisfied with their Public Schools that's down just a couple of points from previous polling uh 58% favor holding down property taxes versus 41% in favor of increasing funds for public schools so I think as you see more more referendum um you're seeing then uh people kind of getting concerned about their property taxes one really positive point I thought in the poll was 76% of the public that were pulled support a major increase in special education funding with just 23% opposed and that was across party lines so a majority of both um Republicans and Democrats supported this major increase in special education so that's really good news in our state budget um there were a couple other points in that poll that you can go back and look at it
010that I thought were interesting but just helpful for us to know when we're talking with the public or thinking about future funding for our district kind of where the public might be on those issues in terms of the state budget we're in the point in the state budget process where we're waiting for the joint finance committee to which is the legislature's budget committee to announce their date for public hearings and that's when they travel around the state and listen to the public about various issues public school advocates traditionally have been some of the biggest groups that go to these hearings they these uh there are the same two co-chairs of this committee that there have been I think for the last two or three budgets and they generally have four different public hearings and they
011almost never are in Dayne County um but anyway something to look forward to if that is something that you want to participate in um another thing about the budget is because the Republican legislative leaders have said that they absolutely want to pass and have the governor sign a tax cut bill before they proceed with the budget uh and the governor has said he won't do that that he thinks that the that tax cuts are a financial component of the budget and they should be dealt with together that that means there could be a potential impa and could delay the um passage of the budget which has happened in the past but in terms of how that impacts schools uh we don't have like a government shutdown like they have at the federal level at the
012state level uh generally what happens is that funding continues at the prior Year's funding level so I mean I guess that's okay news that the money keeps flowing unless of course you hoping for additional funding which would not occur but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it and that's all I have not very much no does anyone have any questions for Lisa seeing none and I can't see Mia but I can see Zach Mia do you have any questions you see Mia nope okay all right thank you for that and we will move on to item 2C which is work group reports and the work group that met since our last meeting was legislative work group and who's giving Mia has graciously offered to do that excellent give me just a sec sorry
013um sorry I had it but it went away um okay so we met on the 11th and we the majority of the meeting the all of the meeting was uh taken up by doing a debrief on our legislative visit day um we have identified some potential dates already for next year we're looking at either Monday January 26th or Monday February 2nd we heard from some of our attendees that Mondays are a good day for them so if anyone has a conf if anyone would like to attend but already has a conflict on either of those dates let us know um one a couple changes or adaptations that we're looking to make would be NE this com next year um starting an ending in a school building as opposed to in the admin building just so
014we get more time in a physical School physically in a school um we will continue to have a focus on uh the student Voice through a panel that was very effective and very well received um both of the past two years um we're thinking potentially about a theme being um Community Partnerships so showcasing some of our employment and training opportunities that we that our students have in the community and then um also talking about other Partnerships that extend our capaity such as Catholic Charities and our partnership with them that extends our our mental health capacity operation Fresh Start um so looking at a a new handout focusing on that and thinking about ways that we could highlight those Partnerships in our uh in our visit um you know sort of along the theme of how
015we stretch our dollars um and thinking potentially having lunchtime at the high school um which would be definitely a less quiet experience than what we've had the past couple years but just the the attendees tend to really it seems like they really value that interaction with students and it's something they don't necessarily get a lot of outside and out you know outside opportunities to do that so thinking about how can we create um as many opportunities for that interaction as possible great thank thank you Mia um does anyone have any questions for Mia or the legislative work group none excellent work I look forward to next year should I be so lucky as to be on the board um we are now on to item 2D the student representative report all right happy St Patrick's
016Day and happy Monday if I can get my own thing up here and going maybe I promise I was wearing green earlier today but I had to tra change because I had track and then I had rehearsal and then I had dance so i couple of costume changes yet today thank you I I tried did okay um as far as academics and some upcoming dates we had second steps Child Protection unit um had Miss Lawrence come and teach some of our Sand Hill students about personal boundaries and they got to have a really cool and like group conversation about what that looks like um Fox and River Bluff went sorry Fox Prairie students and River Bluff students uh went to the regional math 24 meet at Union South which looked like it was a lot
017of fun I tried to do math 24 in middle school but it did not uh P out quite too well I was not I was not too quick thinking in that so good job to all those kids um we had the Juniors take the ACT last week and next week is spring break for all students as I'm sure you guys know so we just have a bunch of fun dress up days and stuff this week than as far as Athletics we had um our uh Badger Conference Team uh announcements kind of come out so we had a lot of high- Performing athletes um in the winter sports season that are now being recognized so for boys hockey we had Pete Hy I'm I apologize in advance if I 's name okay and Paxton Nelson earn
018a badger conference honorable mention Gatlin EMP and Emily earned a spot on the badger conference first team for wrestling for boys basketball um we had Carter Sullivan and Jacob hibner earn both unanimous votes um to be selected for the badger small first team and then for girls basketball Ella hoker and Elizabeth Stokes also earned a spot on first team and uh on the icebergs ANUK Celler earned a spot on the badger small second team for girls hockey and then in addition to all of our uh Badger Conference Team picks uh Emily Ai and Malia Becker first and third um placed for placed first and third for All Conference in girls wrestling so we've officially wrapped up every sport is done for the winter season and we're on to Spring Sports now so congratulations to all
019of those athletes thank you um as far as activities we had Tim swadley come to ganza and read some books to students about what it's like to be mayor wish he came to the high school and wrote some books P if you're listening anyways St an's 4K students got to celebrate Dr Seuss week so they got to make their own little Dr Seuss hats like cat in a hat which I thought was pretty pretty cool the high school had this awesome opportunity and the U Whitewater wheelchair basketball team got to visit and we held a little assembly and we got to have students and staff actually play in the wheelchairs a little game with the wheelchair basketball team which I thought was really cool I unfortunately uh got my wisdom teeth taken out so I
020was not there but I got to see a lot of videos so um I thought that was really cool and we also had a bunch of our students join the VFW for their Community awards banquet and then we all celebrated spread goodness day last week and everybody wore yellow um I think I actually saw you guys in some pictures so uh as far as Arts only a couple things here we have tickets are on sale for clue and I was going to bring a poster and I forgot it so I apologize that has a QR code so I will have that for you guys in the next meeting um the high school orchestra has a kerto concert tomorrow night at 7 p.m be there b square and the public library currently has students art on
021display through April 2nd so there are a lot of really cool pieces hanging up that you guys should go and appreciate amazing art appreciation guys and that's all I have for you guys I kept excellent thank you does anyone have any questions for Lily Alison when is clue clue is going to be so it's the week after spring break so it's like April 3rd 4th and 5th so we have two shows on Saturday one at two and one at 7 and then Thursday and Friday excellent seeing no questions from the folks online and no other hands in the room we will move on to item 3A Dr Ker's report all right so have uh few slides um to share um for my report the first uh is continuation a little bit of what um Lisa
022was sharing a um I spent last week Wednesday um with um about 93 other school districts um around the state and school board members at the day at the capital advocating for public K12 public education um had a great opportunity to see um and speak with um Representatives both that um represent Stone and adjacent to ston as well as other parts of um the state some of the feedback I gave um Wisconsin's uh Association of school boards is uh for districts like ourselves that have a legislative day and have strong Partnerships with our elected officials having opportunities to um connect with elected officials that don't represent our area so that we can continue to share the story so so that um it isn't just localized to your particular geographic region but the asks and the
023advocacy is universal um some of the themes that we definitely heard as panels um as well as individual means is plan on a delay for the budget um depending on which side of the aisle um you're talking about the the delay was based on things that were happening at the federal level or things that were happening in the courts or things that would be happening in um the assembly or Senate chambers um between the governor's offices um everyone universally talked about April 1st um election day being very important across the state um for a lot of lot of uh reasons um and then part of of all the um budget initiatives and asks that have been um talked about way back from the fall all the way through now special education funding um being some
024suff as opposed to some certain it was a strong theme and then also um both advocacies at the 60% and 90% levels um it was it was great for us to be able to highlight the not only our elected officials day but also the work um that we presented at the at the board table around our budget um snapshot and picture and what that meant for us just moving moving um to some sufficient and being able to get to that 60% level and being able to talk about how that how that would help us in um our advocacy and support of our students was was key um it was also noted that other than the budget addressed by the governor there are no other budget proposals currently on the table so um unlike in the
025past where the the advocacy has been to go to base funding and then having an alternative budget proposal that is competing with the governor um there's it was noted that there was no other proposal on the table I also want um to thank Erica for sharing um with me and then me with the board in the larger Community a couple of Wisconsin policy Forum documents I've linked into board doc they're really good at um helping to make um a better understanding of what is in the governor's budget proposal as well as um understanding kind of the lay of the land when it comes to um K12 education and even simply demographic shifts within the state which if you've been paying attention all K12 funding is based on population and and population growth in and migration
026so having an understanding of where people are moving to and moving from is a key uh Factor um something to let everyone know you know it's springtime Lots happens we have a couple of things that we'll be talking about in actions today but we're also starting to look forward to next year and as part of the spring renewals we look at our insurance and um premiums in premium increases are higher than budget due to um um uh multiple years of the loss ratio being in excess of 100% which means that claims are exceeding premiums um so just want to let uh the board know and let let the community know that we're looking at these and um very similar in very similar uh communication fashion we're working on um sending out some communication to our
027employees so they're not surprised and then uh we'll be bringing that to the board at the next meeting for conversation so we're in the middle of that but want to kind of foreshadow that and then as um also um shared in previous board meetings we've um had conversations around the um SRO and we had a meeting last week with Chief um Janks and Sergeant Sergeant um we discussed a lot of different items one of the things um the mayor was not able to be there but in dis separate discussions with the mayor and communicated through Chief Jinx that if this were approved this position would need to be backfilled so to make that financially feasible we do need to look at more than just an initial year but so we are um having conversations about
028a three-year agreement with optout language if things aren't going um in a manner that is commensurate with our expectations so uh it's an adjustment from what was discussed at the table of a onee with extensions if things are going well but for budgeting purposes kind of flipping it on its head and looking at a multi-year with opt out language the things that we talked about in our means were uh uh address the idea of business casual or in their language a soft uniform um recording of services so how we record the interactions that the SRO would have so for reporting purposes the annual report to the board um when there are emergency situations that would necessitate the PD having to pull the SRO from the school as well as overall um schedule um and then
029selection things that were're currently still need to follow up on are the cost share which is really perview of the mayor and then also training and the approval process it um needs this agreement would have to go through both um the school district and the city independently um and we are currently still working on if approve a start for the 2526 school year and that is my report okay questions any questions for Dan uh when you talk about the approval process does that mean the hiring or selection of the actual person or is that approval of the of the contract the contract did did you talk about how the person is chosen yes we did so there the selection piece of that would be there would be a panel component with the school district and
030how how we we um because the chief was in in the room talking about who would be seen on the panel from the school district um for that so there is nothing about the selection process that there were that there were any issues on there would just be once we get p the agreement piece and post and then get into the interview phase the school district would have a see at the table and we would be in control of who would be sitting there okay I m I see your hand is up go ahead I'm just curious I know some of these things would be included in a position description but do we have a position description drafted we do not have a position description um drafted at at this point that would be oops
031let me do this um hello um we do not have a position dis description drafted I asked if they if they had one they don't so we're in I'm in the process of looking at some draft ones that we could create okay any other questions Sharon when you talked about what the panel would look like did it include discussions around having one or more students on that panel we did talk about having students being having voice at the table Yeah and is there any concern about having a few students on the panel or is that something that everybody was comfortable with yeah there wasn't any any concerns with makeup of administrator staff students being being there it's um from uh surgeon surgeons recollection um there was when he went through the process in the way
032back machine there was an entire panel of District staff that were there and he couldn't remember who was seeing all at the table but it was um part of the interview process but the entire group was school district in individuals do you have a sense among everybody present how many were students in the way back he didn't he couldn't recall who was all all seene there okay he just knew that it that was an entire panel of school district so Y in that annual report component um did you talk about like the sort of data or the sort of things that we were interested in that that the officer would be required to report on or when do we get that level of detail because that's something that's actually kind of important to me right
033so we we discussed what other districts um some of the reporting um information and essentially it is very similar demographic information that uh police officer would take in any other report so um name date of birth um gender um race ethnicity those are those are pieces that are um common in drafting a report and and and all those things would be things that we would have be able to then coate and then give a annual report to say we had a 100 interactions here's the here's the makeup of of that again following our our own data policies we have to watch for small cell sizes in terms of publicly reporting out data but it's all the data that we discussed for like our interim measures and things like that we could do for a report
034like this Mia you have your hand up and then Joe Joe and then Lisa so um I fully understand and think it probably is appropriate to have an annual report to the board but when we're at the new phase I think and maybe this is not the role of the SRO but I would hope that we could get more frequent updates either from you or building leadership just on the implementation of this new you know how's it how's the startup going how's it you know how's it being received um and those seem like more first year kinds of things but and I don't know that they would necessarily need to be included in our contract maybe they do um but it it worries me a little bit that we're going to go a full year
035without checking in on this program so that's a good question Mia and I would I would say that in a contract you're you're listing out the must do and so this it's not a ceiling it's a floor these are the things that have to be done so if we said we wanted to um have quarterly um or three times a year or whatnot it the contract would not preclude it unless it unless if the contract or the agreement would specifically say we are only going to do this x number of times so going into the agreement conversation it's really saying here are the things that at a minimum we are going to do there will be a mandate of at least at least one report to the board every year so cannot not do a
036report you have to do a report if we want to do more reports we could certainly do that but it's it's stating the requirements as as opposed to what how we would actually lay it out Jo yeah sorry I just want to stick with this reporting subject because it's really important last time we had an SRO they did do an annual report not at all robust and I feel like a lot of that had to do with the fact that the board didn't think carefully about what did we want to know from the SRO so the SRO just kind of came in with the barebones report which wasn't satisfying but I just want to encourage I'm not going to be here but I want to encourage all of you to think about what you do
037want to see in that report and ask for it because if you don't you're going to get a very flat report and it sounds like you guys are all thinking about it but just think really specifically about what questions you want answered and I would say that part of our part of our work would be if we approve an agreement where we would do this we would want to have th have those conversations with an individual that is going to be doing the work so that we have a clear line of of and understanding of what what we're looking for moving forward so there will be certainly um conversations we can have in terms of broad broad brush strokes and then be able to say like these are reportable things these are unreportable things but
038I prior to that conversation um knowing kind of what other districts have done with reports and and having kind of a insight into that can bring some of those conversations to the board table as we move further down the process any other questions Lisa I know you mentioned that you parked training as kind of a follow-up thing I just want to make sure because we know an extraordinary high percentage of students with disabilities often have contact with the SRO and to the degree that's possible and I think it would be working with Kelly I think it's important for that officer to have familiarity with any student who has a behavioral support plan because oftentimes the triggers of kids who get into behavioral challenging behavioral situations are very well known and those IEP teams spend a
039lot of time talking about them and how they can support students through them so if an officer is not familiar with that plan on things that can escalate a particular child I mean there's obviously you know escalation and deescalation techniques for all children but for students with disabilities I think it's particularly important and something that I would like to see articulated very specifically because this is a great concern of mine and definitely in the conversations that we we talked about um we the police department even brought some trainings that they would recommend and so part of the reason that we have that parked is we know that there's going to be a cost to that and want incorporate that with our cost share so that we know that if we're requiring it the responsibility if
040they're requiring it what's the responsibility and then what's our shared responsibility on the requirements that or the training that um is not being mandated by either side but something that they say the SRO is saying I love to you know get attend this Workshop or this training for this purpose so be clear on that Mia and then Sharon yeah the other thing that I would really like to see built in in addition to we talked about sort of the panel for for selection of of an individual um it would be in my mind very beneficial to sort of have an oversight committee or panel that reviews a certain category of incidents you know and and maybe we need to spell those out in there but you know if in my mind it's like if they
041have hand if they are if they're in a situation where they put hands on a child or physically restrain have to physically restrain a child like I think that that situation should go in front of an oversight committee to debrief that situation and look at what happened what could we have done differently to prevent this you know not not in a blaming way at all but just you know in a problem solving way whether it's is this a student who we had know who has known behavior issues do we need to add something to their list of sort of known triggers was this a trigger we knew about and we just couldn't avoid tripping that trigger that on that particular day or you know was this a student who doesn't even have an IEP and
042it was you know more of an unknown situation like just to do that inquiry and be in a process of continuous learning both for the school staff and for the SRO and potentially you know for the student um but have some sort of process whereby it's not just you know and you know it's not just like oh ho home that was just another day another day another takeown you know um we don't we don't want it to get to that point and I think the only way that we're [Music] gonna assure that we don't is by having some processes in place I mean police all have civilian oversight so I think we need to have something like that in place specifically for the SRO I'll double double check Mia um our policies in terms of
043seclusion restraint but to to the point that you're ma making the oversight would be the same oversight that we would have anytime our employees would have Hands-On students we have to write that up it has to be reviewed it's reported to DPI on an annual basis and I will do I'll do my due diligence of double-checking but I feel I feel that if approved and SRO will be acting as um as part of our um staff and is in that same report and follows the same oversight that DPI had has laid out across the state so I'll do my double due diligence and and follow up on that and and you know I just used that as example there are probably other examples other instances that we might identify as sort of needing that level
044of review and oversight as well that was just the first one that popped in my mind but you know there are other things that I think might need some oversight definitely I'll I'll still do my due diligence but it I understand bro more broadly what you're you're asking about okay thank you yep Shar just question um Dan a request from you when you have more details worked out you've followed up on the pending topics could you put as detailed of a draft as possible in the board documents for our review before that meeting that we discussed discuss it um I know for myself like to be able to process to like see it in front of me would be so much easier than just hearing it like verbalized in the meeting the verbalizing is helpful
045too but like the reading as the first step would be really helpful for me and if could we also arrange to have the police chief and the mayor here at that meeting at whatever you know date that is so that they can also participate and answer any questions that might arise yeah once we once we have a draft of uh agreement um that we have at least gone through uh a legal review so that we're not writing something that then is discussed and we find out later that we've written it wrong um that would be part of that the discernment process and then ultimately going through the two-step process of a discussion phase where I would want um the mayor and the police chief here so that um if we all worked on it we
046can all kind of talk about how we got to the language that you're viewing and I would imagine um having not talked to the mayor yet about the city approval process but mimicking that same process at the at the city level where I would be in attendance to answer very similar questions I will definitely do that I'll try and keep it brief I can see you're wanting to move on um so I assume if this comes to pass that it would be a cost sharing agreement of some sort is that correct yes okay is there talk then about how we determine like say the expectation is that the officers at the school 60% of the time and then it turns out that throughout the year is there 40% of the time is there a pro
047rating kind of language in there so that we would be made whole if the officer isn't able to be there the amount of time that we expect him to be well I would like to uh disentangle the cost share from the the scheduling piece we did talk about the scheduling piece and and have uh a basic understanding of We're the officer will follow the teacher contract and be expected to participate when our staff are are present in The Bu in the building and then certainly be in the buildings when students are in the buildings and we have talked initially about what happens when we have professional learning days and um being able to swap some of the professional learning days for other events that we would want the SR at um at the discretion of
048the district so we have had some of those conversations but we haven't kind of nailed all all those pieces pieces down yet but it is in terms of um specific parts of the agreement that are going to speak to um when and how they will be in the buildings and if they're absent or whatever reason what what that is going to look like and then the cost share is going to be the ultimate like we're going into this contract and we would want a split of this percent percentage by the school district this percentage by by the city um the factors that are going to tie more closely to um the scheduling piece are things like overtime so getting a bet in this first meeting understanding how are officers paid and how they calculate things
049like overtime and vacation time and stuff like that so we're we just had that first meeting so now we have enough to start to draft and then come back and say here are the remaining pieces that we need to nail down let's figure those pieces out then we can bring it to here and to the to the city for our first rounds of kind of conversations and discernment okay any other questions none I think we can move on then to the consent agenda I move approval of the consent agenda as presented second second by any discussion I just want to make one point I saw the early college credit and start college program requests as part of the consent agenda and I was just recently talking to a couple of recent graduates from ston high
050school and you know to be transparent one of them was my son but um they were talking about how they thought their peers from other high schools were better prepared in terms of um college credit and other sorts of courses that they took in high school that helped them to have fewer credits that they have to pay for in um college and so I just it made me think about how it might be nice at some point to invite back some recent graduates to hear from them about their college experiences and maybe some suggestions they they would have in terms of guidance counseling or courses or things that students should be told um before they graduate in order to maximize their um College time I just feel like it's it sounded as if their perspective
051was that they weren't that they didn't have as much access to um pre-ol credit experiences as other students so it was just interesting right thank you Sharon building on that can someone quickly explain the difference between the start college now program and the early college credit program or like direct me to a resource where I can understand the Nuance there yeah um early college credit is used to be called youth options and it is the program that allows students to take courses at the University level start college now is the technical college or the two-year college so that's the that's the main difference some of the the minutia differences are early college credit is open to 9 to 9 12 and um the technical college system goes based on um age level which typically um
052aligns with the sophomore year so their college now um going to St Madison College or Blackhawk Technical College they typically admit at the age of 16 which is more aligned with the sophomore year of high school any other questions about the consent agenda none oh go ahead one more quick one it references the students below plural and it said something about um if they get the number of courses they want but there was like no additional detail do we know anything more like how many students are requesting this and how many courses they're requesting um I can I can look into that it it will vary from year to year and semester to semester it's twice a year that students can request this and there's very L um the language is in terms of request
053so my experi my experience not necessarily here but in my educational career students can request as many courses as they would like it's not necessarily all the courses that they are going to be accepted or take so first the board has to approve it and um then once approved then the colleges do their part and then ultimately the parent and the student has to make the decision on which courses if any they want to sign up for but I can look into and see what you know roughly how many how many students and how many courses people have have looked at have set requested and that's really what it is at this point so with that specific piece of the consent agenda what are we approving are we is there something that we are agreeing
054with or is it more informational this piece so you're approving any of the requests that have and I and I apologize looking at I what we are approving is we have 16 students who would like to to or sorry um the class can accommodate up to 16 students for the certified assistant classes um and the requests for um the CNA program equate to 11,000 if everyone signs up and then the start college now is 15,000 we need to have that approval so that the kids can then we can notify the the highed institutions that this has been approved and that they can go through their process gotcha thank you y Mia go ahead I do want to say I think that's it's it's just such a valuable um program not just for the individual students
055but for example the CNA there's just an extreme shortage of CNAs right now and in fact it's fairly lucky that the students are able to get it because Madison College at this point has also a shortage of instructors for CNAs so they're not taking any students from out of County into their programs at this time so I mean it's it's really an advantage for the students to be able to get in and you know start this career they will have a job when they are done with their course of CNA assuredly now not necessarily a job with a living wage but they will have a job that's the other end of it but um yeah all right any other questions about the consent agenda seeing none the consent agenda has been moved and seconded I'll
056call the question all in favor I any opposed Zach I assume that I was for in favor that was in favor okay thank you any opposed any extensions consent agenda is approved we are on to item 5A discussion action which requires a motion move approval of the 2025 2026 staffing recommendations as presented moved by Pew is there a second secondy and go for discussion any questions no Lisa just uh with regard to the foreign language change in our student panel legislative day there was a student that talked about how grateful they were that Sten facilitated online access to for him to continue his French course that he was uh participating in um in another District before he moved to ston and if if we're not going to be offering this or there'll be limited offering
057around German is there how are we communicating online access to foreign foreign language or other sorts of courses I think I maybe asked the version of this question at a previous meeting but it seems to me like we should be really telling students about this in order to expand what they maybe see in in our building as options a lot of the co course selection process is facilitated through um well let me back up the course selection process first starts with the counseling and the administrative team coming together and then the counseling team going out to um grade levels and doing um Pres presentations that talk about the the course handbook and what courses are within that course handbook that being said our course handbook talks about German and Spanish so if a student wants
058to take something other than German and Spanish that's going to be a one-off conversation that that individual student and family may have with an administrator or counselor but it's going to start one of those two places have to initiate the they have to be aware enough to know that they could ask for that they would have to have that say like I would like to and that's part of the reason for start college now and um um early college credit is in order to access either one or both of those they have to be asking for a course that the school district doesn't currently offer so if we put say Mandarin into our course book automatically any student cannot ask for it from the ew system or the technical college system that is a way
059that a school uh a student is limited from taking uh either one of those two programs it has to if it is in a school district course catalog then it cannot be something that they access and so that's we will already tried to facilitate um at the state level and from the state level to the building levels having these kind of broader ranges we're fortunate enough to be a district that has com relatively um speaking a lot more options than much smaller school districts in our area and in other parts of the state but that being said the conversation will have to still start with this is my four-year plan and having that conversation with a counselor who can then help facilitate like this is what I see in this and here are the options
060that are available this is what we currently offer and here are options that you and your family might want to consider having that conversation around start college down and early college cred also could facilitate what options that the that our specific District may have access to and that becomes a more nuanced conversation between the building Administration and curriculum and instruction to say what do we have available and what are we able to support moving forward with our resources so in the case of the student who T moved to our district with French yes we were able to have that conversation those conversations facilitate up and we were able to offer it as an online version and moving forward we don't know what the future holds but it always has to start at one of those
061two levels so at the administrative level with with an assistant principal or a counselor and then um having conversations back and forth between both Mia and we pay per the online course correct like so if all of a sudden we had 15 students or I don't know eight students who wanted to take Mandarin we would be paying for each of them is that correct yes yes so we would be paying for that and it s very similar to um the the start college now and early college credit it is it is a um some sufficient type of situation um I often um have been recorded as saying you know one kid could sign up for it every kid at the high school could sign up for it and ultimately it is what is what is
062feasible for the student and the family to to make work within within their schedule because um just because because the board approves it and the higher ed institution approves it doesn't necessarily mean that they have the ability to make it work in their schedule between our graduation requirements and the ability to access the higher ed course or even the online course for that matter any additional questions Allison um I apologize could you explain again um the teachers at River Bluff and Konza that were decreasing how are they certain grades or there's certain grade grade levels because we have smaller we're graduating lar larger groups of students then were bringing in at the younger grade so the these smaller cohorts are now traveling through our through our system so we had a I don't remember specifically
063the grade levels but I know that we have we're graduating a larger eighth grade group to the high school and we're bringing in a smaller group at at sixth grade so that's that's where these are um traveling through and based on retirements and um Movement we don't anticipate any um staff that are going to be impacted it's going to be shifting shifting um individuals by grade level and then um hosting the open positions once those shifts have happened and then it's a similar situation with the German teacher you said we have a temp currently we are we have uh we're going through an agency for providing online services for German so we based on the um course requests at middle school and high school that is five individual classes s a full-time teaching contract between
064both buildings and then we just will renew the the service contract with the with the agency that's providing the Middle School German right now that we have this semester okay thank you any other questions [Music] none we have to have aot on this no okay all right all in favor of the motion presented i z there was a delay again I assume that you're in favor I yes okay any exensions motion carries Staffing is approved item 5B needs a motion move to authorize the district administrator to act on behalf of the stoen area school district in managing the district's membership in the D County School Consortium moved by pe is there a second second second by fry any discussion so some context um I provide a little bit in the um board docs um the
065D County School Consortium is the Consortium of um school districts that help to support youth apprenticeship this um Consortium has been managed um by The manona Grove School District as its Fiscal Agent um The manona Grove School District has made the Consortium and the employees of the Consortium aware that they are no longer in a place where they can be the fiscal fiscal agent and we want to ensure that we can support our students who are seeking um school to work or youth apprenticeship access um with minimal or no disruption to on there end it'll be uh work on our end but the timing being what it is based on the Consortium documents we have to have that decision by April 1st and the way the document is written is the school board or its
066design can make that decision which is why I'm asking for the board's permission to act on behalf um of the school district um to if the school if the Consortium is no longer going to be a viable option for our students and our and our needs we need to be able to withdraw and move to another um another entity that can help support us we've been um meeting since La since last week um and even today on different options we are we're quickly narrowing things down so that we can have um again minimal disruption um on our end and hopefully it no disruption from the students perspective uh who are participating You Youth apprenticeship moving forward so that we can not only um maintain what we're doing but grow what we're doing from the Dan
067K Consortium standpoint we've been hovering around um 10 the last few years from a peak of 30 or of 31 it as of this morning I asked we're hovering around 20 students in youth apprenticeship so that's a great increase and um foreshadowing that we are going to have even more next year so it is important that we are Nimble and we can work with our high school administration um and curriculum and instructions so that we can um keep the keep the train moving in the right direction now that we have some have some positive momentum in that any further questions Sharon do we know what other Consortium members are doing um like what groups or organizations they're exploring some are trying to do it on their own um some of the bigger ones like wanaki
068and Middleton Cross Plains and manona Grove are um choosing to withdraw and some have already W formally withdrawn and said that they're going to go alone others are exploring different options some options are that they're exploring are can they do it on on their own without the support of a ciso or some other Consortium entity and others are exploring things like cesas and and other consortiums right now we're we're kind of looking at all of it and we're kind of narrow narrowing it down so once we make that decision um and I get that recommendation then I'll know exactly what we need to do if enough um consortion members end up withdrawing there will be a a potential vote for disillusionment in and if that occurs any remaining dollars that are in the Consortium will
069be distributed to all the um school school districts um that were a part of it so the money that um if it dissolves that would come to us would be reinvested in the the youth apprenticeship program that we would have move moving forward so we would ju we would shift where that where those costs would go um but they would again um be DED directed towards that youth apprenticeship any other questions all right being none online I'll call a question all in favor of the motion as presented hi hi hi hi any opposed any extensions motion carries that brings us to item six the meeting closing for Action items I have that there is an orchestra concert at stouton high school tomorrow night at 7M um I would like Dan to look for a time
070for um to schedule a meet and confer with the EAA and the sea a um and the employee relations work group everyone should be um aware that April 1 is election day and it's a very important election so please vote and clue will be performed at the high school on April 3 fourth and 5th did I forget anything Dan's looking into SRO oversight and are you looking at the start college now in you're send that and then the legislative work group um had said if there anybody has a conflict with our proposed dates of January 26 or February 2nd great let us know all right there's nothing else I'd entertain a motion for adjournment who Moved second moved by fry seconded by Dr Milan Bartlett all in favor I any opposed any extensions meeting is
071AJ