SASD School Board Meeting 6/5/23

001development call to order this meeting of the Stoughton Area School District Board of Education Kate will you take the role yes Mr Tim bubon's Excuse miss Mia croyle here Mr Joe Frye here Mr Zach the Myers here Ms Lisa Pugh here Miss Allison sorg here Mr Frank Sullivan you're Miss Holly tellender here our student rep Simon here and President Joe Patterson here okay first item on the agenda is public comment and like Dara has signed up for public comment tonight so just as a matter of information cable and start a timer you get about three minutes we're not really regimented on that and sure unless it is you're speaking to something that is on the agenda tonight the board is not at liberty or respond to your comment at this time but it will inform

002future activities and board meetings potentially okay okay all right so these good evening members of the board we are Sarah and Jose Les and this is our son jack we are here before you not only to represent our son but also to represent the IEP families of this community Stoughton area school district has unacceptably and indisputably fallen short on upholding IEPs throughout the district they have failed our remarkable kits IEPs are not guides IEPs are legal binding agreements to ensure the best quality education and outcomes for our children through little to often times no communication we have stumbled through these past three months since January of this year Jack has missed five days due to not having the required nursing staff however we do question the accuracy of documentation because at least two of those

003days were incorrectly documented as parent excused these do not reflect the days cut short due to lack of nursing staff in which I had to transport Jack to Andor from school which goes against the transportation requirement in his IEP I can also provide dates and documentation if needed this also does not include years past in which he missed days due to lack of Staff these are lost days in a learning environment with his peers as well as lost service minutes the Lost Time cannot be made up in the manner in which the family educational rights and Privacy Act States as a log this is that persons with a disability are to receive education in the same learning environment as non-disabled persons this means in school with peers we want the district to understand that routine

004is critical factor in the progress of children with different needs right down to riding the bus to and from school an unexpected change can cause quick regression today we are pleading for an increase in nurse FTE which is needed throughout the district Jack has never been provided to substitute nurse thus far into in his school career if the RN couldn't make it Jack would have to miss school Jack has six plus years in this district and he is not going anywhere the district needs to fix this we can no longer be patient our son has taken a hard hit we are currently working with DPI and we have created a plan however we have provided the district with much grace and ample opportunity to make this right if this is not read right our next

005step is litigation as we have representation lined up we have tried to avoid getting to this point at all costs we love our community we love our teachers and we have two boys going through this District we have not been able to rely on Jack's school schedule week to week and often day to day we are literally a 24 7 family we stay alert at night to ensure our sun wakes up in the morning we take pride in how beautifully we function this last quarter has disrupted our family well-being we think it is very important to bring to light the significant toll this has taken on Mental Health in our household school is not only critical for Jack but it is critical for our family unit to be able to function to go to work

006and to tackle the everyday household needs our family intently moved to this community when Jack was an infant after extensive research on inclusive districts sasd needs to live up to the standard of an inclusive District that they claim to be I thank you for this time there is also a written public comment which I will read now it is from Rachel canistraro sorry if I mispronounced that and it goes like this it is the district's responsibility to ensure that the appropriate staff is available for all of our Learners especially those that are legally required due to IEPs no child should have to stay home be isolated from their peers or not be able to complete academic tasks due to staff availability there is no excuse for poor contingency planning these actions not only affect our

007special education students but all of our Learners and the staff in the schools teachers educational assistants and other school support staff need to have enough colleagues available to ensure that their workloads are realistic and backups are in place there are only so many workable hours in a day it can't be possible to instruct and or support students in the classroom and then complete the paperwork or evaluation necessary in the same day in the same eight hour day and expect all of that to be at the Quality we should expect it concerns me to hear that our Educators and support staff are leaving or we have difficulty recruiting new staff due to the stress that comes with not feeling supported or valued in order for our district to grow and Thrive what the district is going

008to what the district is going to do about these concerns Rachel canestraro 1209 Hall Avenue Kate are there any other written comments no okay next on the agenda is legislative update uh so our legislative committee is not met but I've been tracking um activity on behalf of the board um but as folks likely know the congress met uh that's made a debt ceiling deal signed by the president on Saturday there was some concern that there it includes quavac of unspent covered dollars but that does not include unspent funding for schools so that is good news um there is a bill moving through the legislature there's a hearing on it tomorrow it's a bill that would allow school board members to serve as volunteer bus drivers that is supported by the school boards Association and is

009expected to pass it's that bipartisan support there will be a floor session in the assembly on Wednesday it's um another bill likely to pass requires a half credit of personal financial literacy uh course in order for students beginning in 2028 to graduate from high school the School Board Association education was Neutron that bill because it was perceived as an unfunded mandate however there is some funding for professional development and free curriculum available um so again this would be in place for graduates in 2028 as far as the budget is concerned K-12 education still is not up for consideration by The Joint finance committee uh very likely will be one of the last items if not the last item that they're considering as they are working with um spending down what they consider to be ongoing

010funds which is about 2.2 billion dollars but they still have to figure out what shared revenue is to counties how much they want to leave in the pot for tax relief which is a priority for the Republican leadership and they still also have Medicaid to figure out so that two point billion dollars has to fund shared Revenue Medicaid and a couple of other big things um the the school boards Association said they'd likely get to Cape 12 funding decisions potentially by June 15th so we won't know much more until then anyone have any questions foreign schools safety and justice uh I believe Justice is up this Thursday so joint Finance is only meeting one day this week on Thursday and Department of justices on the agenda but I don't know I don't really know what

011they're considering for the office of school safety that's a good question yeah thank you any other questions all right item 2C is committee reports we had two committees but then ad hoc EOC committee and employee relations committees met since our last calling yep so the ad hoc EOC um committee wrapped up we had our final presentation from the committee other committee that had um spent a lot of time being very intentional about going through our human growth and sexuality standards and coming up with a recommendation which the board will hear tonight um they did an amazing amount of work it was big thanks to Kate for shepherding the whole process along and we're excited for you to hear all about it tonight right and employee relations right yeah we met on May 17th um we

012onboarded Zach a little bit and welcome him to the committee um we reviewed the March Meet and confer sessions with SCA baas as well as reviewed the handbook edit requests uh both of those will result in things coming to the board for approval I believe we decided that that would count as step one and two-step process so it will I think planned into action when it comes your recollection I recall that as well I believe that's the case um as well as that we discussed the committee goals for this year many of which are just sort of standing things that have to happen in ERC such as board authority negotiations with the represented groups we are going to continue the meeting confers and do our policy reviews and there's a couple other things that we

013are potentially going to explore one of which is to review the survey questions for the staff survey prior to it going out and also potentially look at some sort of q a sessions with either the ERC or a representative or yeah some schools are potentially all schools we have to work out weather and how to do that and that was the meeting any questions for Joe no okay that was a good start to the year I think all right we're on to item 2D student representative report hi Simon hello so as you all know I saw many of you there we had graduation this weekend just finishing up for 9th 10th and 11th graders finals this week so on Friday the school year will be officially done right now I'm just looking at different ways

014of improvement for the role of student rep um bringing different student groups and and see stuff for the board hopefully to have a a solid plan corrupting put in place by Fall so we can bring some more different people to the board to share but for now I like to be doing over the summer for this role that's about it great all right now we are on to item 3A Dr Kaiser's report all right um yeah start same place Simon did in terms of uh update we had our um graduation and um happy to share that we had 250 graduates um and 100 percent graduation uh attainment some of the highlights from um yesterday uh on this up on the screen um it was a nice sunny day thankfully the breeze provide a little bit

015of respite for everyone who is in the stands out on the field so it wasn't it was a great first graduation uh from my perspective I'm looking forward to many many more um we start as Simon alluded we are wrapping up this week and Monday we start right into summer Excel we hit our capacity of 500 students so we are fully uh maxed out on on students who have enrolled we are staffed with as you can see 40 staff we have 30 um and that does not include the 34 uh High School interns that are helping us out again this year oh year or two of that and we are continuing our Partnerships with um Master ballet stem and different academies we're looking forward to having the same programming although instead of being out at

016Sand Hill we will be out at the high school so this Friday and the weekend will be very busy for our custodial maintenance staff as they're moving Elementary [Music] Furniture up to the high school so that we can service our 4K all the way through to 12th graders and that is because we are doing um work at a lot of our buildings which is the last piece here um a little bit of an update uh we as you remember I showed this kind of schematic but I put a little box around where we are moving into so we are phasing out of the schematic design and into the design development phase um this summer we have already scheduled some uh projects in each of our buildings for instance kaganza is getting new wiring for the

017PA systems and lighting uh our PA and client system River Bluff and Sandy are getting new windows um there's some work being done in Fox carpeting flooring whitening and so forth what you see below um in kind of a spreadsheet format is the timeline and what you can't see on the screen but if you were to look at it online is where each of the dates so we are on a phase right now where we are looking at um this summer getting into that design development in July and August in preparation for some sign offs here in right as the school year starts with the hope that we can get to a point where we are approved for construction um going into winter break and just coming out winter break so that we can start

018eight days of construction right as the 2024 year commences and then we will be in a construction mode through the 24 calendar year and then wrapping up into the beginning of the 25 calendar year we are playing and working with eua and indoor to do a more in-depth presentation as we move all the schematic design into design development in part because the last thing as the experts in the field say you do not share designs until they are finalized because everyone has a mental imprint of the very first picture they see and so the change is then some something's a mess so we are working on that presentation to the board and then to the community coming out of Summer into the beginning of the next school year so we'll start with the board and

019then put days out from there questions comments thank you that's it all right we are on to item four the consent agenda I read the whole emotions about is that how it goes okay sorry yep approval of the May 15 2023 regular board meeting minutes as presented move approval of the May 11 2023 through June 20th 2023 check register and May 18 2023 Pete card statement has presented we would like to say thank you to the following individuals and groups and move approval of their donations to the District 54 000 from the Stoughton Sports boosters for updating the athletic training room one um 50 1500 from the women of Wisconsin Lutheran Church for social services one thousand dollars from TDS for a scholarship 350 from the Stoughton Orchestra uh boosters for the bus to the

020Beyond notes Kalahari Music Festival 350 from the Stoughton High School choir boosters Incorporated for busing for a field trip 200 from Lori Kittleson for the Norway way trip 100 from Connie zwetler for the Norway trip 62.74 cents from the customers of the Scholastic Book Fair for library books 25 from Kent and Helen carberg for the Margaret Larson Healthcare scholarship fund and related cash donation budget adjustments totaling 57 587.74 move approval of the resignations of Daniel Bach and Amanda Olson as submitted move approval of the professional educator contracts for Rosalind Andrews Rachel boersma Patricia Castaneda Carla Cornell wexlade Jessica demato Hahn Nancy Durango Jeff Albus Caitlin Everson Catherine garango uh Jen Hopper Tim dramas Angie Kettner Avery Lyons Jessica Martinez Jake meckler Scott Monty Jennifer Monty Taylor noggle Jamie Noble Kaylee Novotny Hannah opela Melissa Paulson

021Ruth Phillips Diane penno Casey Reed Caitlin Richie Kristen Rosenberg Katie Sainz and Jill Schmidt or the 2023 summer Excel program move a pro approval of professional educator contracts for murder colon Adrian Cox Jennifer porrish and Peyton Weaver for the 2023-24 school year and move approval of the Edwin and Janet Bryant Foundation Grant totaling thirty five thousand dollars the consent agenda has been moved is there a second second by calendar are there any questions Joe yeah what is the uh Edwin Regina Foundation grade one it is a grant for um bad luck or supplies and materials and equipment and training thank you are there any other questions okay I'll call the question then all in favor of improving the consent agenda please so signify by saying aye any opposed any extensions motion passes next up item

022five is discussion item 5A it's human growth and development I think hi everyone hello good to see all of you I'm so eager to be here tonight to share with you the recommendations we have for the board's consideration as Holly mentioned we have previously shared these recommendations with our educational opportunities committee on May 4th and previously we shared various iterations and versions of the draft earlier this year with that committee and we gratefully acknowledge their contributions and excellent scrupulous feedback um I want to begin really by thanking members of our advisory committees which we'll talk about but first of all our stakeholder advisory committee comprised of people from a variety of different roles and perspectives coming together to share their opinions perspectives ideas and hopes for our community around what it will look like to

023educate all of our students 4K through 12 and comparing them to be an excellent decision makers when we think of about their their health and human growth and development so we had a stakeholder committee and we also had a student committee we'll talk a little bit more about that as we move through the presentation um just to note about what we had to share here you'll notice there are you probably have noticed already there are many links here lots of documents a lot of dense content robust content but also really exciting content I'm happy to linger on any area that you'd like to however in the interest of time I will move through it um very purposefully and we can come back to any area that you'd like to spend some time on so first

024of all we really want to share out once again um that we have developed this committee at the behest of the board who asked us to form this committee and I took responsibility of chairing uh our stakeholder and advisory committees both the student and our community I would like to First say that our student of committee was also co-chaired by Kelly tway who was with us for when we shared out our earlier versions of our draft on May 4th and would be here with us tonight is unable but has been an excellent contributor to the whole process we developed it in accordance with Wisconsin statute 118.019 the committee is chaired but got once again by me and also again but with support from members of our community I want to also say that the committee's

025role is advisory in nature so of course this body as you well know will be decide whether or not to vote on on this tonight whether or not to see it go further and the extent to which you might agree or support the recommendations I also want to say that there was not a unanimous vote on the recommendations that you see here there were points of Divergence and I'll draw out those points of Divergence as we move through the presentation however I do want to share that the recommendations do convey a general consensus of the committee much again you see here members of our committee listed both our student advisory committee and our stakeholder advisory committee wanting to really appreciate their efforts Nettie we met via Zoom a couple of those meetings were canceled due

026to weather we met on Thursdays and if any of you remember the winter of 2022 um at 2023 we had lots of Thursdays where there was a snow event so we did cancel on a couple of those and we really appreciate their patience and sticking with us the role of the advisory is what you see there number was one through four I'll pause you can read them and I also want to just emphasize that we were really aiming for consensus you see kind of the the light blue circle there around majority and unanimous we had lots of areas of unanimous agreement um and we had some areas where it tended to be the majority but once again the majority does not mean unanimous and so there were areas where people without even inside a couple

027of instances very strongly about a couple of the recommendations and I'll share with you what those um perceptions and and um opinions were the Norms of collaboration that we followed as a committee are as you see we also if you follow the link had working agreements that we constructed as a team this was really important uh for us to not only be engaged in a democratic process ourselves as a committee but to model the change that we wish to see um in the world um and certainly in our community so the members of the committee devised and created working agreements for us as you see there knowing that there would be by Design differences of opinion uh grounding documents that you see here and then of course reinscribed in the recommendations are many Wisconsin statutes

028that support human growth and development I won't go through all of them unless of course board would like to in which case we can do that um there is a board policy as you well know around human growth and development that is linked there for your review there is also an fasd board resolution on racial equity and Kate would you mind just clicking into that and I just want to sort of call this up so that we can all recall that part of this resolution does call for us and I think it's on the second page does call for us to ensure that we are providing I think it's 6B that we are working to develop curriculum and instructional practices that are universally designed anti-racist and reflective of our diverse history including prioritizing by bypoc

029people with disabilities and lgbtq plus communities and other historically marginalized populations so this was an important and guiding document that the committee used when we were thinking about some of the answers to those questions about the role of the advisory um and what we thought Are Not only was right for our students but also what we felt like committee and Community would be able to support so this was a helpful reference for us thanks Kate uh we also took a look at our current K-12 standards and as we move through our development of our recommendations the committee began to formulate beliefs around an inclusive uh curriculum and wanted to we wanted to ensure that that meant that we were looking at the most recent iteration of the national sex ed standards so those are included

030there for your review as well um these were the this was one of our approaches to developing consensus was simply meeting very regularly having good note-taking processes many thanks to Laurel gretovic who took Greta Beck who took notes throughout all of our committee meetings we really appreciated that we used exit surveys as a way to follow up in several instances I had individual phone calls with committee members just to learn a little bit more about what their advocacy was and to learn more about how we could use that advocacy to influence the final recommendations these as you see here were also the dates of the in-person meetings that we held at the high school we held those over both lunches so that students could participate um and we really appreciated those opportunities to be with

031them and learn from them um you can see there without going into it the very specific agenda and outcomes that we aimed for during each of those meetings and then our student advisory meetings were strategically lined up to align with our community stakeholder meetings so that we could connect those two committees together and share advocacy back and forth which is what we did um I'll pause here while you take a look at our belief statements once again connecting us back to our board resolution and racial equity and that's at item 6B which is in support but really importantly by meeting number three committee was able to form consensus around our recommendations to you tonight which is that we advance at an inclusive and comprehensive sex education believing in curricula that build on a foundation of

032Knowledge and Skills relating to human development relationships decision making abstinence contraception and disease prevention inclusive sexuality education occurs when students receive comprehensive meaningful empirical and applicable information that is inclusive of diverse sexual orientation sectors sex assigned at Birth gender identity socioeconomic status race ethnicity disability status and cultural backgrounds and provides access to accurate and unbiased information relating to supporting sexuality education in a developmentally appropriate manner I would like to say that one of those guiding documents was our current guidance which is from 2011 2012 and we found that guidance to be tremendously helpful and as you can see there were many precepts from that guidance that helped us to formulate our new recommendation and many of these principles already embedded in the previous guidance that we had so there were certainly some adjustments that we

033made and we'll go through those but there was a great deal to work from that we have in place already um it was important that we looked at stakeholder groups Beyond those who were on the Committees so we did take a look at advocacy from teachers across the grade levels General themes that came up for us were really around materials uh their advocacy for more inclusive diverse and updated content especially for Elementary videos that we watch including language gender inclusivity depictions and examples there was also advocacy from some teachers around introducing puberty sooner that was advocacy that was eventually taken up and before you now so we used to see that at fourth grade and the recommendations that you see tonight have us introducing that at third grade that maps on to some of the

034statistics that we've looked at around the average onset of puberty which has evolved in the past 10 or 12 years we want to make sure that we are mindful of that increased Clarity for teachers across the grade stands and how to introduce and reference gender identity gender expression sexual orientation and sexual identity so you'll see that and embedded in our standard a bit more specificity and once again they're already what um where you tended to see that specificity in our previous version of the standards was in questions that that teachers could respond to when students ask questions so again already there but really wanting to clarify how to ensure that we're having coherence across all of our schools across classrooms and Incredibly importantly that we're communicating clearly and accurately with our families about what's being

035taught families as primary Partners as you'll see in the document also there was advocacy among teachers for increased emphasis on personal care and hygienes and once again especially specifics on menstrual care in earlier grades for reasons that I've named and wanting to see updated definitions with the caveat that's espoused in the national sex ad standards that language evolves over time so you will see in our recommendations that we do have some updates around vocabulary with once again the understanding that language evolves in beautifully so to represent and acknowledge ways in which we can become ever more inclusive which we are bound ethically morally legally to do in our schools when those changes happen we we would like to make them and that's part of why we want to see this come before board in a

036more increased rate um I want to just share a little bit more about our process for integrating the feedback addressing Divergence and developing concerns once again we used exit surveys at the end of every meeting while we used Jam boards and small group conversations during the meetings which um Zoom meetings are especially conducive to actually putting people in in small groups asking people to uh to think out and talk out their concerns and then represent them in ways that can be preserved for everyone to see so while that was really helpful it was also really important to once again Ask for exit surveys so that I could follow up with members of our committee understand their concerns better and see how we could address them in in next meetings um so there is a sample

037of one of our Jam boards in there linked if you'd like to look at it once again thank you um so not only miss gradovic but awesome was playing for taking notes um this play also helping to manage the breakout groups which is important um so again having phone conversations and then teach our conversations throughout I also want to acknowledge the many teachers Who provided contributions to the committee uh by way of recorded um descriptions of how their curriculum currently meets the standards or currently addresses some of the new standards in the sex ed and the national sex that standards from 2020. that was a really important and um way for our community to know what's actually being taught now so teachers just recorded uh what full reviews of what their curriculum currently is and

038that was helpful as a way to explain to our community so we appreciate all who contributed in that way um our advocacy from students so we did have a student member of our panel sharing out this advocacy at one of our Zoom meetings I'll do it here um you see what's up on the on the overhead here but from our students essentially um and very importantly wanting to see many of the same things our teachers wanted to see more inclusive language and updated inclusive terminology ensuring students are comfortable with medically appropriate terminology which is part of our recommendations a very strong advocacy around updating the materials in fourth and fifth grade emphasizing importance of consent at an early age for some of our students they we have actually updated our curriculum particularly around State schools

039um and even at early ages and particularly around our second step curriculum since perhaps they might have experienced it but really wanting to ensure that consent is a part of this of these recommendations and it is acknowledging the different types of sexual intercourse as they pertain to Sexual Health knowing it's important for all of us to stay healthy responsibility of all Partners so again being really clear on consent the variety of sexual violence harmful language and harassment so identifying the difference between intent and impact and healthy relationships really focusing on how students both create and and all of us create and maintain relationships and gender inclusivity in instructional environments so this was a strong area of advocacy from our student group wanting to see that when those puberty topics are introduced I'm beginning now in

040our recommendations at third grade that it's done in a gender inclusive setting that that just became really important but that also that there might be some Affinity based groups that could be developed to answer specific questions as we try to do with all student groups to identify a need uh from the committee you see areas of advocacy here on the side so I'll pause for a moment while you can take a look at that and while I can advance my slides um so you see here a committee wanting very much the same thing many of the other stakeholder groups Desiring to see more inclusive language um wanting to see us defining gender gender identity and gender role stereotypes across the grade levels um have is age appropriate so being really mindful as the standards are

041that we are sharing information that students need to know at that developmentally appropriate level um and lots of advocacy around consent that can really really important and once again you see more advocacy around the earlier start of menstruation in puberty making sure that that information is available to our students when they need it um and now I'd like us to take a look at our draft progression so this is a long document here grateful acknowledgment many who help this development develop it and also wanting to pause on the guide to reviewing the sequence we tried to make this um as helpful as possible both for board and then eventually for committee um if board decides to pass these recommendations this would also be shared with our community so the guy wants us to understand that

042as you look through the standards those that you see highlighted in green represent content that's new to our human growth and development guidance yet already taught somewhere within our curriculum so it might be that it wouldn't necessarily see it in the 2011-2012 version but it has been a part of our curriculum and we wanted to make sure that that's acknowledged there um the yellow would represent a new standard either not taught previously or only partially addressed so whenever when we felt like there was any ambiguity about that we did use yellow to signify that this might be something new and I'll give a couple of examples of that um when only the grade level docs is highlighted yellow this represents content that we might have previously addressed but that now we're recommending that it happened

043at an earlier grade level uh where you see the gray that's content that we lifted from our 2011-2012 version and you just see it repeated here um so as we move through thanks Kate um you can see that what is new is in yellow and sometimes seeing it happen at an earlier grade level so for example you see medically accurate names for the body parts that is partially part of our second step curriculum which does its part of our child protection units very important for protecting obviously our children and their health and safety and well-being where students are taught to identify body parts and it's very specific in the sex ed standards that we identify body parts including genitals we wanted to make sure that that will be something that if these recommendations go through

044that our students even at very early grade levels know about are able to use that medically appropriate language once again that being an area of of support across stakeholder groups that students have accurate terminology to describe all body parts at a very Nation a couple of other ways in which a couple of other standards that are new um are do arrive are around some of our child protection around describing strategies that sex traffickers or exploiters might use to recruit uh through recruit youth all of that being done of course um and throughout our entire curriculum when teachers are establishing a space in which students a container for students to be discussing these topics teachers mindfully exploring how to develop that classroom Community talking about parameters in the classroom that we would set up to ensure

045that we can have these conversations and share this information in a in a responsible way in a healthy way in an affirmative way if I want to talk now that you have a little bit more background on what it is we're proposing that's new I'd like to take us back out to the slide deck just to talk a little bit about what some of those areas of uh concern and consensus were um there were there was General support for the national sex ed standards uh at grades 6 through 12 so that you see inscribe to your committee took a look at those standards which are very robust lifted up and prioritize the most high leverage standards that they thought were the most critical that our students experienced so that's what you see in the guidance

046wanting to also acknowledge that we do have a we do have a member expressing concern around gender identity and expression and sexual orientation at all levels so there is that Divergence in our committee in our community and we want to make sure that we are sharing that here we'll talk a bit about parent communication and how we're sharing with parents what we're doing uh so that we are attentive and responsive to those concerns that are expressed not only on committee but we know with um that other other community members may have as well the themes of concern and response about the K5 strands were largely around the gender identity strands and there was a desire among those concerns that were expressed to see that that Focus become an overcoming stereotypes which is where we've placed

047the emphasis including that there's no one way to express gender I mean that's really a part of what we want to do to create communities in which all of our students can come to school and learn and that's the Abiding and motivating course for that particular standard that you see wanting committee wanting to see that we are setting up the conditions as we said before we're inclusive and accepting communities and mostly to teach students to live and work with others and to ensure that all of our students across settings in Stoughton area school districts are treated with kindness and respect and looking at providing that background for example standards you see around families that that is happening in the classrooms and then we are once again creating that container of safety for our students we

048are a community that very much wants to be strives to be around learning and belonging and to do that that does mean um setting that stage for us to have those thriving and healthy communities um I would also say on the next slide thanks Kate um what we can keep in mind when some of these concerns come up and we talk through this with epic committee level is that school is a place once again where children are taught to respect one another and learn to work together regardless of their differences um and and often what we need is our differences in order to be able to be the kind of expansive community that we want to be learning about gender diversity is part of that work and creating more tolerant inclusive and accepting School environment

049teaches all children to recognize and resist stereotypes we teach children to stand up for each other to resist bullying and to work together so it really really is landing on acceptance and respect for all and that's where we want to be and I also want to we don't necessarily need to go into it but we have linked here our current curriculum once again just reinforcing that gender identity is already addressed now when students have questions even at the k-3 level um and and it's part of our curriculum in middle school so just wanting to acknowledge that this has been part of what community has been supportive for quite some time um so one one of the questions that a committee wanted to learn more about and we certainly wanted to explore um is really around

050what this instruction at elementary would look like that was the area of most kind of discussion at the community level so students would learn for example about how we all have differences yet we are all the same in many ways um we all have different noses but our noses help us to smell and breathe so that's the kind of that's the level that we're thinking about here really understanding respecting and accepting differences and letting that be part of why we need each other uh students would learn about gender stereotypes and how these stereotypes can affect people negatively for example um there's a book that could possibly be used or learning around Mary Edwards Walker a trailblazing doctor who didn't adhere to the dress code at the time and instead wore pants once again people expressed

051their gender in a variety of ways students would just get discuss concentrates and experiences so this is really around affirmation feelings bodies perspectives dreams and likes and then share aspects of their own unique qualities students would understand that all it takes to be a family is love and that families come in many shapes and sizes and that there are all kinds of ways to be a family and much of his work is already being done now across our classrooms we really strive our board has been really responsive and um has been so supportive of these types of classroom environments and these types of discussions and we feel strongly and we did putting it into our standards for human growth and development really helps link the two and helps us to understand how important this is

052uh for us to grow in terms of our own growth and development as humans um so our next steps on deliverables a couple of of things that we're thinking about we know there'll be many questions uh we'd like to have pending you know boards but thoughts on our next steps um some thoughts would be that we would have curriculum work groups beginning as early as this summer we know that it will take a year to fully Implement we'd like to do some grade band curriculum development so some more in-depth work on what um some of these standards could actually look like as expressed in the classroom we want to integrate with social emotional learning in many ways it's already there it might be lifting up particular Concepts exploring them a bit more we also know

053that it will be really important that all of our students have access to this curriculum so when we think about students who we have a question about accessing so students who may have an IEP we want to think about that team ensuring that are their students have access to this content because it's important for all of us um we would like to provide updates on how it's going next year at the educational opportunities committee meeting um and to the extent that committee thinks that they would like to see it at the board will certainly do that we'd like to see this come before the board every three years we at least we have some other creative ways about how we can gain some opinions from stakeholders and perspectives from stakeholders in the committee and meet

054that obligation of not only of the statute but what we want to do in terms of inviting our community to provide feedback on how we're doing and and what we're doing and so there's so much more that we can talk about I know that um and yet I'm interested right now in pausing and learning what questions you have anyone have questions okay know that it's so much a question that I really appreciate the effort from our our staff and our community and the students um really seems like a a lot of folks were able to have input and have some discussions and like you said not necessarily agree one of the things that's really standing out for me is this idea of safety that that really is a huge um I think that's really important

055because I think it does keep safer to know what is going on and and be able to express things that are happening to them or things that they're thinking about and I I really appreciate that that was thank you Joe yeah thanks Kate and committee for a tremendous amount of work and really good work um I guess what I'm trying to understand Kate is what are you asking from us tonight do you need sort of broad consensus going forward or is this informational or yes so um yes to all of that and I think you I think do you want to talk a little bit about like apparently so as part of um statutory requirements we have a duty that if we have a human growth and development curriculum that we pull together on a

056regular basis this ad hoc committee which it has LED and as part of Board responsibility approving any update search ages to the curriculum so ultimately we're seeking on Boards of approval for the adoption of these recommended changes so that we can update the curriculum moving forward as Kate said I'll take a whole school year to fully implement but to get this work started down so would that be the point of approval that would be the point of approval would be to approve the recommendations of the that have been forwarded from the EOC committee um which has reviewed and improved good recommendations thus far okay so this will be on the agenda next meeting then for approval right it was it was talking about talking about that because again not wanting to presume that that would

057continue to move forward we decided to be conservative uh knowing that board members have the ability to say I if they have any concerns in other words we could move too you could move into discussion action yep I would move to believe the two-step process one second did you document that so fry moved to wave the two-step process so we're seconded I'll call the question has the community seen this proposal before tonight uh it's been in board docs and our committee has seen it but the community as a whole except for board docs except for this presentation tonight the community is not no have an opportunity to review this not no not outside of the postings and the ad hoc committee's conversations with um just the ancillary because we had community and student involvement parent

058involvement so but to your point um like a public viewing or showing you know and is there any urgency to approving this tonight uh so far as to get uh if the board is comfortable with polymeri work around curriculum updates or concerns around that that's the only that would be the only piece would be um summer time to do some curriculum revisions that's that's really the the only aspect that I would see um being held back and with the curriculum proposed curriculum revisions go into effect for 23 24 resistor 24 25. yeah so I think what we're proposing is that it may take a year to fully develop out and teach into all of these standards this would take a little bit of time but before we teach human growth and development we always send

059home parent letters so that there's that opportunity for families to opt out so were there any changes made um so for example if there would be a new um you know one of the things you saw with some updated content at grades four and five so families of students in those grades experiencing that would see a letter they would see the new content and they would then be able to make the decision probably well I'm just thinking kind of going along with what you said Frank so the process was open to the entire Community to to act to be a part of the advisory committee we open it up to students to be a part of that advisory committee and I'm not sure what um what we would gain from more time to let the

060community weigh in I'm not sure what would change um at this point like Kay said we've we've there's a process in place for parents to determine whether or not they want their children to participate at every stage so um what we've done is gone through the process of taking all of those resources all of the districts stated visions and values and making sure that what we're recommending is in alignment with all of those and that we have Community input and perspective and I feel like we've done a really good and thorough job as well I'm gonna call on Joe first yeah I just want to be clear that I'm not making this motion because I think there's urgency on making this motion because I think it's consistent what we agreed to as a board which

061was that if things came to the board having been approved by the committee it was my understanding we had decided that that represented step one in the two-step process okay and I just wanted to respond briefly to Holland's point I think there's a difference for community members to being invite invited to be involved in a process and seeing the result of what the process has produced and I don't necessarily think that anyone that we're going to receive meaningful public comment about this document I take the work here if you heard me say anything to denigrate the work of the people who produced this I sure didn't mean to say that and I absolutely was brought it my concern is that this is a subject in which people have very strong opinions a subject in which

062people may want to be heard and give input to the board and even though we have uh discussed this extensively in committee and in the um in the work that it's not something the community as a whole is really had in front of it to look at and think about so you're just proposing that we will make it available so people can come not that we would go back and revise or in any way like yeah I have no idea what people are going to say about it um yeah my positions and perhaps we should give them the chance to do that before we go so then we moved this to the 19th the discussion the action movies well I think first you would take a vote on the motion that's on the table okay

063are there any other questions Lisa um I'm just wondering will this curriculum be posted in uh in its entirety for parents to review when they know that their child is going to be participating well they what will they be able to look at more than just a set of standards yes so they would see our draft guide which is in also in this document and they would see the standards documents of both of those things with that there's one the guide that links all of the statues the values the beliefs the specific questions that teachers would ask uh that may be asked those teachers and the ways in which they would respond so all of that is posted on our website uh and is now you know our 2011 2012 standards still in effect those

064are what are on our website so anything new that the board would choose to vote in would also live on our website and would also be shared with families when students are actually moving through the curriculum when do those those particular aspects yeah Mia um I have a question about the recommendation to revisit this in three years yes and I'm I have to admit I'm not um super up to date on what all the policies currently say yeah but I pulled up the one policy that was linked and it doesn't seem to have any time frame referenced in there I'm wondering if that's something we need to change in policy or how we make sure that that if we agree to that recommendation how do we make sure as the board that that happens in

065three years yeah it used to be that all districts had to it used to be researched every three years and then it just became regular and I think you know however I think there could be lots of ways to make sure that that gets done um I think there are all kinds of Additionally you know creative ways also to ensure that we have our communities input um but I can think of several but Dr Keith or you might have some ideas about that no I think the when we think about the number of different areas that we review as far as like the not just Mass science and research studies but art on music and then each of the subgroups within within all those it just does become a uh space for hate um and

066the team to map out and so having it regular and allowing us as a district to Define that um based on capacity as well as when the state decides to update standards they sometimes will um we might for example say three years but let's say halfway through that the State updates the standards then that kind of gets us out of sequence because the state has an expectation that when they update the standards all districts are going to jump right into a curriculum review process um so that's kind of why we moved away from putting aside on the timeline in that um so Kate's giving you a an estimate of how what her definition of regular is based on capacity at this point and I get that I just like hearing our current standards are from

067when 2011 2012. like more than a decade ago that feels like I wonder if we consider um I guess I'm handing this to the committee but I wonder if we consider um updating the policy to say something like no less than every X number of years or something just putting in some sort of absolutely yeah along the side so that and then there's flexibility in there so I I like that sense of garden guard rails um so especially for such an important topic yeah all right are there any other questions around the motion to waive the two-step process okay so all in favor of the motion as presented Lisa signify by saying aye aye any opposed hi hi I'm also going to oppose the waiver okay so we will revisit this at the next fourth

068meeting giving the community the opportunity to weigh in um so how um how will we make this available to the community benefits we good question email yeah all right positive and negative all right wow thank you thank you we are now on to I-55 B food service request for proposal isn't uh nearly as exciting as human growth development although eating is pretty good so um uh we as you know we can check out with taher for our good service provider um they they do all of our school meal planning breakfast lunch um they do a lot of catering within the district as well we have been with them for a number of years because we do um work with an external vendor to provide that service DPI does require us to to bid out that

069service on a regular basis once you go through an RFP process you award uh the vendor of through the selection process the contract and then you have the opportunity to renew that up to four additional years so at least every five years we go through this process I know some of you have have been here since last time we did this I'm not going to go through everything that we did but we did try to outline a basic timeline in board docs as far as is what we do and then I did attach the template that we use from DPI I didn't attach all of the attachments because it does put get quite lengthy the I think the RFP itself is like almost 80 Pages which kind of spells out all the information that we

070provide through the RRP process we did use a team primarily of my office but we also included Aaron Conrad we usually try to pull principal in um to review all of the proposals any vendor that wants to provide an opportunity through the RFP process is required to do a pre-bid walkthrough so we did have any interest of vendor comment we walked through the high school Sandhill River Bluff I think it was just those three schools this time so so we did uh walk through those schools Sandhills our main prep kitchens so they were able to take a look at that and then we were able to catch some serving time at River Bluff and then one of the lunch periods at the high school so um once they did that they then submitted their proposals

071we had three contractors provide a proposal and the after the results are reviewing those proposals that we did come to the recommendation to continue to extend our contract to taher in the selection process we do we submit the RFP to DPI for approval and within that um within that document we have to identify the criteria that we're going to use for the selection process and we are required to make cost the highest uh highest weighted component of that process so we have to give at least 30 points to cost a loan um to ensure that we are receiving um are receiving and selecting a vendor that's going to be um you know very cost conscious in addition to that we also think it's really important that we provide a quality service to our students um

072and from my perspective our biggest concern is that we operate on a self-sustainable in a self-sustainable way food service is handled outside of our general operational fund so if your food service fund is not self-sustaining you have to transfer money from from your operational funds to be able to support that so knock on wood we've not had to do that since I've been here and before then so we've been able to to run our food service program successfully without having to draw from our other resources and all three of the vendors did provide a proposal that would be able to do that failed at a very nice job actually but we've again after we went through that process we did land on a recommendation of extending a contract to her for next year thank you

073Erica a question Lisa in looking at the criteria documents you mentioned cost was a potential of 30 points and Taha rated the lowest out of the three contractors but then seemed to gain points on the on-site manager component yep um was was that kind of uh a more important criteria than costs um well from a Point's perspective cost is the most important it has to be I do think the on-site manager is very very important they are the person that that's here that does all of the managing the hiring you know the menu planning and we've had very good luck with our food service directors um the the person we had prior to um you know to this year and part way through this year has had dated a wonderful job he was amazing and

074um we an interim person come in who has actually did the training of our last manager and has been here before she's fantastic and then um we were very much included in the hiring process of of the person who is here now and um she's she's been here for a very short period of time but we've been very happy with um Natalie their performance but then the ability for us to participate in the hiring of those people when that's occurred each and I can jump in a little bit um to your question Lisa uh while I haven't been directly involved with um a lot of the uh work with taher or the uh on-site manager here in Stoughton I can say the person who is that individual is a key uh because it if if

075that person is doing their job extremely well it actually supports the work because it takes it it helps take things off of the plate of the staff here to to do that work well so you may end up having a little lower overall cost in the contract but if you are spending and ordering amount of human resources on day-to-day operations because the person who is the account manager is not holding up bit in an apartment not only does it reflect early on the company but it also adds additional costs which doesn't reflect in the contract but reflects in how much time and effort you're dedicating your District resources to to that which always ends up being a cost-benefit ratio I had to say it in that that way whenever you do contracted services for some

076something like food service or things like in that area are there any other questions I have a great question so I know that for this rubric in The Matrix um do you keep comments and things about when you meet with each vendor and for each individual item and just kind of comparing and contrasting and there's a more just off what's on the proposal there so it so we do look at their proposals they've had giant binders on my table for a few weeks um they provide a lot of information so the team went through all of that and we did take notes um as we were evaluating the different criteria to determine how we wanted to rank each of the three vendors based on the criteria yeah so we did work as a group and

077we we took balances as we were doing our work okay Frank is there uh I never been in the RFP that it uh suggests support Improvement date of June 5th is there any urgency in approving this contract it needs to be done prior to July 1st because that's the start of next year we were hoping to bring this in May and our we got a little bit held up with some of the requirements DPI had so it took us a little bit longer to get our RFP approved than we intended but um it does we do need approval for July 1st I'll make a motion to move this to the discussion action portion of the agenda exactly I mean okay moved by Sullivan second by fry are there any other questions about that movement in

078discussion action so we're essentially waiving the two-step process for this yes that would be my motion yes all right thank you everyone just call the question now or wait until we get through the rest of the discussions um right all in favor of moving this to discussion action please so signify by saying aye aye aye any opposed many extensions all right motion carry um I moved to considerate now as opposed to when I think the discussion action pollution so we have the common questions all right all in favor of voting on this thing now instead of moving it too all right any opposed any extensions it's all right now okay I moved to approve the Food Service um proposal as presented by a second I was second by Q any further discussion all right all

079in favor of the motion FIFA signify by saying aye um any opposed any extensions motion carries thank you and welcome stay here again now we are on to item 5c Essex good evening I'd like to introduce you to Mr Robert Miller he is here with us from ESS he happened to be in Wisconsin this evening so I said could you please jump over to Stoughton and join us for this discussion um so as we all know and we've heard from many of our state visitors particular Educators within the system there has been a really strong pain point when it comes to selling and it's been that way since coveted and he's not really lighting up so far so we wanted to look at different options that might be um what would be best for the

080system and to be the best value and use of our dollars in doing so and we believe that that is ESS so we wanted to go through this proposal this evening and then um please invite questions that you have all right so just a little bit about ESS because I had not been familiar with them until the last year or so um they actually are so they specialize specifically in K-12 Staffing or daily long-term and permanent positions including teachers and EAS as well as a suite of other positions basically everything but bus drivers and yeah thank you uh they are somewhat new to Wisconsin but they have been around for quite a few years in Southern and Eastern states uh they're in 34 states more more than 900 school districts I mean they actually just

081started with McFarland this year what I and the team appreciated about the ESS business model is they actually have a local management team that helps with the entire program and included in our class is actually a local coordinator and that is someone who is literally in our neighborhood who will physically sit in one of our buildings if we would like him or her to do so and what I like about that business model is that person will get to know us Louis Stoughton what do our buildings need what do our building principles need what do our Educators need and I really liked that Personal Touch option that puts them apart from other subbing Contracting Services foreign so with the use of ESS some of the main benefits that we will see is um we hope

082some higher flow rates and I will in uh when we're done I'll ask Mr Miller to talk more about the recruiting campaigns and what they use to attract and retain Talent with this um what is also very important besides the higher fill rates is it's going to allow some of our our District staff to prioritize their focus on other needs so our principles are admin assistant central office will no longer be doing that six o'clock in the morning coordination of last minute sub-fills things like that so that they're able to focus on their students and other pieces also recruiting credentialing training payroll and workers compensation will be completely taken over by ESS that will no longer be part of a district function another nice piece to consider is currently our wrs Educators who are those

083who have retired or are on annuity right now they have to wait six months before they can sub for us because they technically would not be employed by us they'd be able to sub the day after they retire so foreign so what would a pain benefits package look like for a substitute staff once they are hired on by ESS so we still set the pay rate and we can change that pay rate at any time so for those of you who may know our daily sub rates are 150 for our daily subs 224 our long term and then for EAS at 17 35 an hour that can stay the same there's just a margin cost on top of that the substitutes will receive their pay weekly instead of semi-monthly as they do know they will

084receive help and other benefits we study medical dental vision insurance and 401K as well as life accident and disability insurance I know that ESS is very big on performance incentives I've heard it also from our cohort in McFarland that examples include Employee of the Month employee of the year cash Awards monthly gift card Raffles and more again it's just a large much larger organization they have the resources to be able to do such things and again the district has a dedicated ESS management team to help answer questions including payroll benefits technology help Etc foreign so if the board did decide to move forward with this plan we would be able to work with them over the summer and have this ready for the next school year coming up in September so our principals will continue

085to use Frontline just as they do now they'll be able to see the vacancies and the bills ESS will work this summer onboarding all of our current Educators and EA substitute staff and I've made that font very small didn't I anyway um including onboarding session listening sessions making sure that people have an opportunity to fully get on board and ready before the school starts and they will also help with the communication and the welcoming of all of our substitutes so that they feel welcomed because we want them to still feel because they will be still a part of our stolen community so the fine details so their business model is that it is a 33.5 margin on top of whatever we set as our current pay rates again currently they're 150 220 and 17.35 and

086that includes all wages taxes benefits incentives unemployment workers comp and general liability know their fees or costs on top of that uh we estimate based on this current pastor's usage it would be an approximate net increase cost of 73 000 for the 23-24 school year actually can I just add one to these that that's not necessarily based on the usage that's based on our budget so if we were to look at what our budget is and apply that extra cost that's what we anticipated however um as you know we've had some conversations the last couple years because we are having such a hard time billing we have not necessarily spent our entire budget we're closer this year because we did add some full-time building Subs but that would be if we took our current budget

087and added the cost if we are spending less than what our budget is it may not be you know that's probably like the biggest um the biggest impact we would see so that's the most conservative estimate thank you very much um and including that is also our Frontline absence management yes that's we'll take that over as the management of it again our principals our administrators our teams will still have access to it as they do now it'll just be owned under the ESS contract uh the contract is the standard three-year initial term plus two one-year renewals I've spoken with Robert and they are committed that should be run into any snags that they're very committed in wanting to make this work um but if things should just be coming back coming in impasse and not

088be able to move forward we can terminate the contract if proven to not be able to Fed and I know a question that some of us have asked is if we should separate from them in the future we are able to we hire the subs immediately without a penalty there is not a non-complete so that is the end of our presentation I know that there will probably be quite a few questions so I welcome all right uh we want to start with Lisa then Mia based upon the need we are seeing right now what percentage of these Subs do you think would be working directly with students with disabilities like what are what are those sorts of vacancies that you like it's hard to say because our data doesn't have it that granular um our

089general fill rate right now that we know of that we pay for is 70 we know that that's not an accurate fill rate number because we know that there's a lot of shuffling that goes on behind the scenes that aren't paid for and so we don't have that particular data um I think that's a really good question Lisa I don't know that I have that specific information um do you do you place our ends in for school the huge huge majority of folks that we place our our subs and EAS but uh yeah virtually any administrative position we can also place them and do I have another one but I'll okay so um this would eliminate that shifting that's happening because I know that's been a big pain point for teachers is that well we

090hope it will lessen it unless we hope it will lessen it what's how do we know like what will be the cutoff right like how do we know when we're just going to shift this one or we're going to get a sub we always try to get a sub if we can it's just that we haven't had enough Subs to fill the vacancies that have been that we usually I mean we use um Frontline so if if you know you're going to be out for a doctor's appointment in two weeks you put in your sub request or if and then Lisa calls in sick in the morning she puts in her sub request we we try to fill it with external Subs whenever we can it's when we don't have somebody filling those spots where

091we then work to cover internally so that will continue right that will happen yeah that will have to continue because you you have to have people in the classrooms the hope is that you know by having um a company with some expertise and maybe a broader net to cast in terms of finding people that that might help that retirement piece is huge too if we have retirees that want to be able to work this will provide some more flexibility with that um especially not only that the time here in which I come back but um once you've retired and you're receiving wrs there's an hours there's a maximum that you're allowed to work you can't exceed a certain number of hours a year so there's there's some flexibility with that too but but yes there

092there's no guarantee that we'll have perfect fill rates but we're hoping anyone else um Joe then Frank then back to me yeah I don't have a specific question but I will say that the few folks that I know that sub 3 ESS already they are thrilled with it you said yes they are good yeah much like it so I think this is we had I had a really good conversation with the business director over at McFarland and he was various static about the services that they've received this year so all right well we continue to have building Subs yeah this would replace in the budget the building subs and one of the reasons that we feel that this is a better usage of the money um when it's considerably less expensive but two building Subs

093have over the last year and for very good reason gotten absorbed as vacancies have opened up and because there's someone on site who knows the system and so they're like hey someone's left we've got this long-term gig can you start tomorrow and then it eliminates the buildings of opportunity to have that float option so we believe that this is a good alternative to that or at least to try to see if that's this is a good alternative to that yeah the other piece of that is we talked about this quite a bit and you know I had to thinking about like long term what our budget is all those different pieces one of the biggest pain points we have heard for the last couple of years is is making classrooms and then stress that it

094puts on staff to cover a long-term a full-time building sub is one um but we still May hey when you have five unfilled vacancies that's still only one if this can provide three four five you know Subs to fill that we felt like that again would be a better use of those funds to to really try to get to the root cause and fill in many classrooms as possible with quality people and that we can at least try it see if it helps because what we've been doing I mean we've we've been trying some things and it's still it's still that great all right Mia um I asked this question with full acknowledgment that I don't know what we currently do um but my question is how would Subs be prepared to enter into our

095schools um and I'm thinking about things like understanding our emergency procedures [Music] um understanding some of our sasd beliefs and guidelines and ways of being um if it may be more like a float coming from other communities who isn't a frequent sub in our school like how are they how I guess the I don't know who the question is for but how will those subs be prepared to really belong in our schools I'll start and then to welcome to join in so a couple things so on the front end is part of part of onboarding they are going to take some of the same training that our subs have now including their long-term substitute Alice and other things so that they're prepared in an emergency safe I do know that each building and each educator

096does does have a plan prepared for stops particularly ones who aren't familiar with their their classroom or their building so that will stay the same but that's also why we really like the business model of having someone who knows who only does Stoughton so they can help to now hey when you go to Fox Prairie these are a couple things you're going to want to keep in mind things like that okay yeah and I would also say too I know in front line and I'm assuming it would be the same like teachers attach their sub fans right into the the system which it won't be changing we'll still be using Frontline and I do believe that our emergency plans are also a testimonial sub plans not necessarily the full plan manual but there's like a

097yeah it's like I don't remember what color it is now because we changed the color when we change the sheet to make sure we change them a lot but there's like a one-pager that's like you know what you do real quick you know where you go for the fire where you go for a tornado and if there's an active threat while you do that kind of thing so and I believe that isn't I think that's a transition Frontline as well but there's a few different ways there's the subfolders but I'm curious but yes that's just serves as an extension to your existing HR team your HRT maintains complete control we're there to serve them you know ultimately what we do is increase the qualified Subs we do that by recruiting heavily um both both actively

098and passively you know we're in a post-pandemic world it takes back at recruiting to to bring bodies in right and you know we also do all those past things by by advertising on LinkedIn um in the Facebook we do all those things as well but we put our account management our team throughout in your community recruiting folks we're we're at your basketball games right your football games the table set up pulling folks in people job fairs at the local library on a very regular basis and interestingly we already know Stone pretty well as our account manager for McFarland is a resident here in Stoughton and it has children in your school district but I've been told they can't steal her unfortunately McFarland loves her and she loves serving McFarland too so so we we don't

099genuinely don't share that way um that's not to say that some some system could be set up but but yeah for now it would be a completely separate person but those are just some of the things that we do we're here to serve as an extension here HR team those are folks May detain complete control the system we're there to serve and make it better thank you other questions they suck do you have any thoughts about the sorts of measures you'd have in place to continue to determine if this is working if it's cost effective and then like some really objective criteria yeah so we will so we monitor both our internal fills at least the ones that are paid and then obviously our external fills through Frontline so we'll continue to monitor that data

100and then also budgetarily we'll be able to look at your year what our costs have been um you know by having this service does that help to replace those five building subs and have a higher quality bill right so those are the pieces that will absolutely continue to monitor and it might be a little bit harder to measure but I know you know it is feedback that we've got in our Employee Engagement surveys I mean um there's just a lot of talk and you know the principals share with us too like what they're hearing you know in their staff meetings that kind of thing so it may be a little squishier than you know being able to crunch numbers based on what you're paying people but um I think that's really important too you know

101if that can if if we're still finding that our fill rates aren't high and people are really stressed out over that piece of the day um we'll hear about that too foreign [Music] points um we're going we're going to meet the same bill rates that we were required like two years prior to the pandemic um it is as much a sales problem as also uh why people are are taking the time away from from school um which we I feel have been addressing through the conversations at ERC and and so forth well we still haven't figured out the mechanism you had to address when people are gone how do we fill them effectively and it is never that we get to a hundred percent but it is the regularity at which we've had to pull

102those internal staff to do that and we can really at least some of that pressure again just even and I'm throwing out a number there like 10 10 increase in that we're going to have a significant the the feeling from what we're hearing in the buildings is that's going to be a huge pressure relief for our staff because they're feeling as if they there's more staff more subs and more time for our staff to have for their props their team meetings and so forth tell you are historically you know we track we track the build rates of districts prior to partnering with us and then uh a year after and it's greater than 10 percent so that's what you should certainly expect that's sort of a McFarland experience as well being so close I see

103no reason why you wouldn't have the same exceptional results before you ask a second question does anyone else have a first question so um ESS is the employer of these individuals correct so I'm thinking of um children with disabilities that might have an EA a parent is unhappy or there's some issues with how they feel about their child's IEP being implemented is the principal still or the Lea that's in that IEP meeting still have the ability to say this is not a good fit absolutely absolutely and in fact that's one of the things that is encouraged is that the principal has that direct communication with that local coordinator so that they know you know what for this student for this classroom this is not the right substitute for them any other questions okay so this

104comes back for discussion action none of them that's meeting all right okay thank you thank you thank you thank you we are now on to item 5D which is request to add one mte third grade suggestions sorry that's me because I just take me bring down my notes um and I just want to say going into this thank you to the teams that have been doing um the great work these the past three um items have been have you left support teams so I just want to acknowledge um the work of all the individuals who are presenting because they are representing the individuals who weren't in the room room tonight um our this last discussion item is a request to add a 1.0 FTE third grade teacher at kaganza in looking at um the uh

105numbers in third grade echogon's Uh current as it currently is Staff should be uh um three sections instead of two sections um so we are asking that the due to that enrollment to add that we are we are currently monitoring all of our numbers um due to move-ins as well as open enrollment outs and this is where we are at this point and as per our practice from when I first started um almost a year ago we will be doing this throughout the summer as between every board meeting we will be monitoring and when we are at a point where we can safely say that we need to in increase the statue we will do so um as a note while I still have the floor um open enrollment it has closed out and decisions

106for open enrollment have to be made by the end of this month so the next time we probably will hear anything around Staffing will be in the month of July because families who have selected open enrollment have to make their decisions by the end of this end of this month for that so with that I will you know the questions Joe yeah um is this time sensitive in other words is it better to post this now and then wait for two weeks for the next meeting if better in my opinion it's best to post it post it now in fact it it is my oversight I should have had this on for the last for the last meeting in May so that we could do to the two-step process um we are actively um staff

107we are actively hiring and so we don't want to miss out on the moments that we have like this and well in the interest of that and not to be a pain but again I'm going to move that we wave reduce that process for this agenda item second oh second five last night all right any other discussion about waving the two-step process so all right all in favor of waiver any opposed any abstentions motion carries no go ahead I moved approval of the administration recommendation to add a 1.0 FTE it's a third grade teacher for teganza and second Ed by queue many decisions any discussion about that anymore no all right all in favor any opposed any abstentions motion carries who all right so item six a recap of action items I have none does

108anyone else have any for me yeah so it's a nurse problem yes yes I would be great we do have that we do have um the nurse position posted um and we do have an applicant that we are um reaching out to so that human growth and development curriculum would not be positive or just just available Joe you'll have to tell me as the president whether this is an appropriate action item or not and say if it's not is there a chance that we can sort of do to have a review of staffing issues related to IEPs that are future made it so that we can sort of see what next year looks like and if there are holes that goes by if there are always people discuss that when we meet next okay thank

109you I had a question about the nurse position and I suppose it's different um who's being in a school district what I'm wondering is um I know for like out in in the general Healthcare world that everybody is hiring Travelers is that something that is even done the nurses they're generally very expensive that's another thing yeah and I don't know but I'm just curious I'm not saying I think it's a viable option I mean it may be if we have to get someone I'm just wondering how that would even work so right now we are under contract with a therapy agency and that's how we found the fill that we did because we had no applicants for the original um okay we have posted that several times um and have hired we have posted for

110sub nurses and no one has applied or we did have one application um in the winter and then she withdrew that application so um but we finally found an agency but you can't hire that's one of those agencies that you can't hire them within a year otherwise you have to pay a significant penalty so in order to fill it we finally had an agency that had someone um that could find it takes them a while to find somebody so we have been really working hard at it I noticed and hopefully this next will get more applicants I'd love to get part-time people in there that we could have backup plans just one sec this topic was not noticed and we refrained from discussing it when the public commenters were present I don't think it's appropriate

111to discuss it at this time at the meeting I'm sorry Kelly this is um I think it's a very important discussion to have I just it it's not it wasn't publicly noticed and that was why we couldn't respond in the moment good point thank you all right thanks all right um that note no other action items so future meetings we have a virtual board meeting on June 19th and then the next board meeting after that is July 17th committees are encouraged to set up initial meetings in the meantime Kate has generously offered her services and helping to coordinate those meeting times so reach out to her if you need help am I listening to do tomorrow so yeah and then on the 19th we uh we'll be moving forward the two discussions the discussion action

112yep and certainly for the for those two items all right thank you for pointing out a spiritual because I probably love showed up yeah I appreciate that I'll make sure to remind you well what happens to moving to the 20th I thought yeah I think we had too many conflicts with other things happening Okay so all right there's nothing else I'll entertain a motion moved by Try seconded by Sullivan all in favor any opposed any of symptoms