001All right, greetings everyone. Normally we wait for a lull. Normally there's just inherently a lull, but so appreciate the energy this evening. Um, we're going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to call this meeting to order. Um, and I'm going to bring up my notes because somehow I have too many tabs open. There we go. Um, let's uh establish that we have a quorum, please, beginning with a roll call vote. Joe >> here, >> John here, >> Meredith here, Christopher >> here, >> Juan Carlos, >> and I am here as well. Uh, we have a quorum. Juan Carlos, has this meeting been properly noticed? It >> has. >> Thank you. To help ensure that we're centering our boardwork around our shared values and serving our students, we begin each of our board meetings
002by reading our district's equity framework and the Ho Chunk land acknowledgement, which can be found at the top of your agenda. Meredith, would you be willing to read those for us tonight? >> Yes. >> Um, our equity statement reads, "In the Verona Area School District, our mission is that each student will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve their personal goals, thrive in a diverse global society, and lead a healthy, self-fulfilling life. To meet this mission, the Verona Area School District will ensure that every individual has access to the educational, social, and emotional support they need to feel valued and affirmed in their unique identities and experiences. We acknowledge that inequities and power dynamics exist in our system such that some individuals on the basis of their identities face barriers to accessing the opportunities
003they need to experience success. In acknowledgement of such, the Dorma area school district is committed to disrupting these systems of inequity. And our Ho Chunk land acknowledgement reads, "There are currently 12 tribal nations who call Wisconsin home with the Ho Chunk Nation being the primary group living around Madison. No matter where you are in the state, you are on the ancestral land of a tribal nation. As we begin our meeting, we honor the land upon which we stand. >> Thank you. Uh board members, calling your attention to the remainder of the agenda. And just a reminder, uh we had a blizzard on March 16th. So we had no board meeting. So this evening is basically a consolidation of the two. Um so the agenda is quite robust. So board members just glancing over ensuring that
004everything looks right to you. Um and if so, I would accept a motion to adopt the agenda as printed. >> Motion to adopt. >> Thank you, Christopher. Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you, Juan Carlos. All those in favor of approving tonight's agenda signify with I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, the agenda has been approved and we have a lot of recognitions coming back to the energy in the room. So, Dr. Clarity, I'm going to turn it over you to you to start to go through just a lovely uh list of things we get to celebrate, start our board meeting. >> Thank you so much. And uh we get the honor to celebrate uh what continues to be the greatness of being part of the Bron Area School District. and that's when
005we get to celebrate our students and our staff for the dynamic work they continue to do on the day daily basis. Uh we're going to give it the quality time it deserves today. Also still recognizing we have a championship basketball game that some people may want to watch. I don't know. But who knows? >> Is that a nudge? Is that a hint? >> We're give it a time. >> Um first I'd like to begin with a celebration of the African-American history excuse me academic challenge. Um, if I can just read a quick insert there. The African-American History Academic Challenge of Dan County was staged here at the Ron Area School District uh, a couple weeks ago by the 100 Black Men of Madison Incorporated. The AHAC is conducted in middle and high schools across Day
006County. It is an educational program designed to enhance the appreciation and study of African-American history and culture and a fun way for students to expand their knowledge in a competitive environment. Uh we acknowledge the commitment of the student participants and coaches and congratulate our our local winners of Savannah Oaks Middle School and Ron Area High School. The Savannah Oaks team and Roner High School team both won their regional African African-American history academic challenge and have advanced to the national competition which will take place at the 40th annual national 100 black community conference in June in New York. Uh the conference takes place on June 17th through 20th, 2026 with the preliminary rounds on June 18th and final rounds on June 19th. Here in attendance, we have student rep as well as our dynamic coaches from
007the high school and the uh Savannah Oaks team. So we'd like to first celebrate them with a great round of applause and see if they have any statements for Coach Bender or Coach, >> thank you for having us. We're we're honored to be here. >> Absolutely. >> We're excited for a good competition in June. >> And coach, >> we're also very excited to represent for nationals. Um super excited. You've been working incredibly hard. So, we're here because of them. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much. And um I think the insert the I read that said friendly competition we're it's it's heavily competitive and it may be from their superintendent. I don't know but we we have a lot of high expectations for our performance in the regional uh regional area and there may be a
008superintendent in another close by district that huh so what he'll he'll be okay and I hope Dr. forth watching. Um, but we had a little personal rivalry going on when it comes to effort against challenge balls. So, it's our year and it's your year. So, thank you for allowing me an opportunity to have one up this year. I appreciate it. >> CONGRATULATIONS. >> Sure there'll be more preparations to come and safe travels and we look forward and thank you for the time of course, right? That means for coaches traveling and taking time out of your summer. So, we're excited to hear how things go. >> June in New York. >> Yeah. Yeah. Probably better than August at least. >> Yeah. Better than August. >> All right. Our next celebration is we want to provide a
009congratulations to uh DECA uh the distributed education clubs of America. DECA is a global student organization that prepares students for marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. Miss Aen supported 15 students at state this year and 11 of them and their projects will be moving on to the international career development conference in Atlanta. In just her second year of being a chapter, this group is making great strides. Miss Oden was also recognized with the Red Apple Advisor Award for this chapter's dedication to community service. So, congratulations to Deca and Miss Odden. my finance guru. Do we get to collect freaking fire miles with all? >> I don't believe so. >> We should figure that out. >> All right. Next, we get to celebrate uh the wonderful arts. And at the recent solo and ensemble festival, Broner High
010School music students performed 122 total events. Uh, of those 109 were class A events that could qualify for state and 78 events will be advancing to the state festival at W Platville on on April 25th. All events received superior or very good ratings. Ron High School music team of Miss Thorp, Mr. Rittenberg, and Mr. Anderson and Mr. Bander Muse are incredibly proud of the work these students put, excuse me, put into their preparing their music. A mainly balanced rehearsals, practice, homework, work, and illness. Uh, their dedication, courage to perform, and commitment to excellence were on full display. Also advancing to state are two of our outstanding ensembles, the VHS 7 o'clock jazz band and accidentals vocal jazz, who came and performed to us uh with us earlier earlier this year. Uh, move on to the
011the competition. In addition, where am I at? The 7 o'clock band and the jazz comos performed and competed at the W Platville Jazz Festival recently. Uh, the jazz combo recently received a high honor of being recognized as a featured ensemble at the night concert performance with the university jazz students. So, here in our attendance, we have a membership from our our dynamic staff. We like to give them a great round of applause and see if they have any comments that they to put into into the space. CONGRATULATIONS. >> YEAH, thank you all. This was this was the most students we've ever had participate in our Soul Ensemble District Festival. And um this is the hard work that the students do on their own outside of class time. um is not part of the normal curriculum.
012And so students are here if you're ever down in the music department every morning and every day after school and right now they're still down there with our student teacher. Um and this is hours and hours of hard work and dedication. Um it has been a tremendous um joy to see the effort and work that the students put in, especially the number of our juniors and seniors who qualified for state for the first time um after many years of hard work. and that we're just incredibly proud of them and incredibly proud that Verona is really represented well at at the state um at the state level. And um in addition to the one that 7 o'clock jazz band did at W Flatville this week, the accidentals vocal jazz is going to be working with the
013outstanding take six group up in W Stevens Point up in Wasau um this week. So we look forward to hear telling you more about that experience for our kids. But um we just are excited about all the things that and all the opportunities that our kids have here in this tournament. >> Yeah, it's amazing. >> Thank you so congratulations to to each and every one of you and uh we don't take for granted the amount of time and effort that all of you put into supporting our scholars. You know, people talk about the school day and it's there's no such thing uh as as the school day. And so thank you so much for everything that you continue to give. Uh we have one more uh student recognition that I would like to do before
014we move into another staff recognition. So you just hold tight with us and then we'll we'll transition here. >> Next I would like to provide congratulations to Jakla Powers on winning the first ever uh to ignite leadership and learning in youth or the Tilly scholarship from the Boys and Girls Club of Dayne County. The Taylor scholarship is a life-changing opportunity that covers the full cost of attendance for up to four years of a bachelor's degree at an accredited university. Uh create to ignite leadership and learning in youth uh this award support students who demonstrate outstanding leadership and a commitment to positive change locally or globally. You probably saw a lot of this covered um uh all the all across the media on every station uh la last week and we couldn't be more excited and
015um thankful for the boys and girls club for their support but importantly to uh Jakila who is just an outstanding student, outstanding representation of what it means uh to have uh excellence growing in equity and we're excited for her her family and her and her future. So let's give a congratulations to Chicago. That is incredible. >> It is. >> And superintendent. >> Yeah. Technically, we're shifting to superintendent, but also another acknowledgement to begin with. >> We are. Yeah. >> And I know it's been a minute between some blizzards and some uh >> spring break. spring break and all the things in between. We didn't get a chance to uh formally recognize and congratulate which will be part of the personnel agenda today. Um the incoming superintendent >> I know all the board members. >> Our
016fault. >> It's it's all documented and recorded now. Yeah, I guess so. I guess so. >> The incoming principal >> of Sher Creek Elementary, I would like to congratulate uh Kirsten Ho Hoen on being selected and for an effective date of July 1st, 2026. Congratulations to you, KIRSTEN. And now that I've not named her superintendent, I would like to do a quick expert for her. Miss Owen uh brings a deep understanding of high quality instructional practices and a passion for empowering both students and staff to thrive within a collaborative and inclusive schooling community. She believes schools flourish when there is a shared, excuse me, shared vision of learning. She's deeply committed to educational equity and advances instructional practices that ensure every student has access to grade level standards every day. She will leverage your creek
017strong systems to align instruction strengthen collaboration and ensure that students and staff thrive in a in a safe and positive learning environment. She leads by modeling collaboration, honesty, and reflective practices values that help build trust among staff, families, and students. Again, congratulations to uh Miss Hoen and thank you to the very large committee uh that helped uh us identify the right uh candidate and the right fit for for Sugar Creek moving forward. So, congratulations to you. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. And we'll prove things shortly, but in advance, congratulations and welcome to the administrative team. uh is not an easy task. I will say from a board se how appreciative I am of the robust hiring that we have in this district across all positions including administrative. So um we're excited to have you in
018a different position in our district. Thanks for the service if you've been already. Um as we continue into superintendent report just a piece for the staff that are here. We're going to be talking about the staff feedback survey. We know that you all had those moments to grapple with the data yourselves. So just want to acknowledge that for the sake of the community too that you're not all leaving when we're about to talk about staff survey feedback data but that is our next piece. So thank you for your presence, your time, all of your energy tonight and otherwise. >> All right to the remaining audience to to the board. Uh it's my honor to present the staff feedback for continuous improvement. Uh just a little bit as you can see the dates on here are
019for March 2026. And so it's a little bit out of our normal order where staff have already received this feedback um and our community as as well in the form of both written and in the video form. Normally we would have the board presentation uh beforehand but kind of threw off our threw off our time. Hopefully the board's okay with with it and the board has already received the video uh yourselves. So I will be brief in my comment. What I want to celebrate is uh the 525 staff uh survey respondents which is a 51.8% response rate um which was slightly up from uh last year. So we continue to try to improve to get make sure that voice is shared and there's understanding that that is valued. In looking at the feedback in itself,
020uh what we tried to focus on were excuse me or the methods that we were providing feedback were the video to a Broner school district family um and then a staff newsletter to all staff and then families uh received a copy of the districtwide results. We posted the feedback on the Bron School District website. We also posted the feedback on our social media. A video a video was also created beyond the district level information but from each school. So each school had uh their individual uh staff responses and sent those out uh to to to families as as well and with the expectation that they also do staff sessions to be able to discuss the feedback uh within their own settings. uh the feedback has already been shared at the superintendent advisories and today completing
021the feedback loop with our report to the board board of education. So very robust and making sure that we are transparent about the areas to uh celebrate and those areas that we want to continue to to grow. I'll begin with our bright spots and that we have a very uh very high rankings but also noticing that many of them are the same as last year yet continue to grow which is always even though they're bright spots there the percentage that are agreeing with it uh got got higher. Uh beginning with the work that positively impacts those that we serve. uh working in an environment that is clean and wellmaintained an understanding of the mission and goals of my my organization uh which grew uh at almost 5% rate to 89.7 uh we take a lot
022of pride in that and everyone understanding the mission and goals of an or of an organization and also thankful for the board for continuing to put such a strong and robust mission in front of our front of our uh staff. uh having a clear understanding of my expectations as an employee uh grew feeling having a sense of pride when I tell people where I work uh grew up to 84% uh which is a very strong indicator of success and I work in an organization where employees regularly share and exchange ideas u continued to grow up and moved up by almost four 4%. >> Any questions about our bright spots? But this the slide didn't update. >> Slide in update. That's that's me. Okay. All right. Our areas for growth. Uh the first one that I
023want to dig into and you'll also see this discussed in our um some of our action steps moving forward was I feel that the district level resources are allocated to maximize effectiveness across the organization in this area. We saw that not only was it a uh area for growth last year but it actually red uh went down uh between uh last year and this year. For this reason, we made this a focus area for the advisory to u and our and our reps to make sure that we understood why this area was going down. And I'll talk about that a little bit as we get into some of our our action steps moving forward. Areas that um also needed to to grow or I have opportunity to provide input on decisions that affect my job.
024uh I feel that resources in my immediate work environment are allocated to maximize resources. While that did go up, it was still uh an area for for growth. I feel supported in balancing my work responsibilities. Again, slightly went up, but it uh continues to be an area for growth. Uh I feel that the organizational culture supports open and honest communication. It grew by 4% and but it still uh needs to rise rise more. uh and I see progress being made to create a culture of success for for employees acts employees across the organization. Uh that grew by about 5% but it still shows at the at the lower end of our of our of our so survey. So our greatest growth from last year to this year where and I believe my district level information
025is communicated in a timely manner uh had a 13% in increase. I see progress being made to create a culture of success for employees across the district had a 5% increase. The clear understanding the mission and goals of our district had a 5% increase and I would recommend that parents select my district to serve their child rose by another five%. So uh very uh very positive work there. in our open-ended responses. We we do we began this process last year and it's been very beneficial to have uh the opportunity to write narratives within the uh survey. And you can see the themes in front of you there with the bright spots being uh collaboration uh supportive colleagues, communication, uh resources and curriculum, district level leadership, professional growth and and support systems. uh standing out in
026the bright spot areas in the areas for growth and open-ended comments, communication, information, clarity from administrators to staff across all of our departments. When digging into that one, we learned that there while communication was learned as a highlight earlier, there was sometimes inconsistency around depending on which department you interacted with, how communication was received. So, we wanted to make sure that we had better coherence. Uh again workload time and competing demands uh staffing levels and equal resource allocation consistency across schools and school systems. Uh again coherence implementation clarity around curriculum grading and p and priorities which will also be addressed by the staff advisory feedback. Um staff voice recognition and feeling feeling valued. I just was able to talk to our VA leadership about that about that area as as well. Um and just talking
027about some of the problem solving that we're doing to rec to lift that area up and then variability in leadership effectiveness across site. Again, you know, as we think about in each site has their own building leader and want to make sure that uh we don't have uh that they're consistent on the how leadership is valued and and how instructional leadership is received in in each of those buildings. All right. So, I'm getting close to wrapping up here. The staff advisory, which has been integral because it has representation from all of our buildings and allowing me to hear firsthand experiences within the buildings. We use them to address uh some of the areas that we needed to find um have some deeper understandings of how to improve prove some of our data. when it came
028to communication and information clarity from administration to staff across departments. The recommendation was and I think we began doing it already uh with this newsletter was to include information from not just myself but more departments in the in the monthly newsletter. monthly newsletter is our highest read um communication across across the district and making sure that it was multiple voices, multiple uh uh perspect not perspectives but understand what the individual departments are doing beyond the superintendent's department uh being proactive in protecting uh co-planning time as we know especi you know we our special ed model and also making sure that um as we move into the model in ML LL that we have protected time for for co-planning. If we're going to do the with authenticity, it has to be protected time for both teachers
029to be able to plan, plan, and collaborate. And we agree with that. Uh when we talk about consistency across schools and systems, the three areas that came to life were exploring how to create uh common collaboration time across uh levels, especially for special education. explore how staff who work across multiple sites can be available to collaborate with multiple teams and identify leads for expansion for restorative practices. Uh and knowing that we've piloted from building to building, but uh how do we possibly identify a lead in spaces that don't have a a dedicated restorative practice person in the in their building, which was which was a good thought. Uh and finally, in terms of increasing staff voice and recognition and feeling valued, we want to remind staff and families that the share outs are are being
030recognized. You should see more of those pushed out on social media today. We're also trying to get more feedback from students because students have a lot of positive things to say about our staff. We want to make sure that we get that information out uh to their families so they feel the value and support that they're getting from the students in their in their own in their own classroom. Um, okay. So, with that, I'm going to pause to see if there's any questions about anything that presented before I close it though. So the way the survey is framed is the intention to try to get more district level feedback or is it an and of kind of building specific department specific because I I think there are touch points sometimes during the year at building
031level kind of formative feedback from staff. So I'm curious like when the term organization is used where do we think staff is coming from from that because I know you disagregate this by site but I'm kind of curious some of the feedback what the vision is for staff members of where that onus of control is or where I guess my question kind of relates to when you hear this feedback are you thinking of this from a district-wide your seat and the admin team does some of this land back at sight specific levels is it a combination >> it's a it's a both you know just from this seat you're account I'm accountable for every building and every facet or their the experience of every employee no matter what the situation so even if it is
032a sightsp specific feedback that we that we get we do work with that leader or that leadership team to try to think about how to enhance or improve or make make suggestions around there. And ultimately that's not being dismissive of that that's somebody else's issue. It's owning it and then helping those sites uh navigate you know or problem solver how to how to how to improve those areas. So to your point about both both ends >> great. I thought I had something. >> Oh, if I may on the slide that is still here on the second to last with the um implementation clarity on curriculum grading priorities. Um board members have been mulling over more of the idea of that last um bullet point about encouraging board of education to visit classrooms. We've kind of
033talked about this that we get the ability to go to end of year visits and hear kind of summation um of how things have gone for goals at the site but how to keep a touch point of what's happening. So we when we talk about results policies we have a frame of reference for seeing and being able to acknowledge what staff do every day. Um, so there are times we get invitations from staff members, which is great. Kind of I call those more one-offs because we don't have a a process for any of this, but that staff ought to feel encouraged to kind of do that. And I know we do the best we can with our full-time jobs to try to peek in when we can, but I think that piece I know I've
034been sitting with that quite a bit and kind of thinking more about those opportunities. Um, so just wanted to elevate that in the space here, just knowing that that piece impacts us directly and you know, any thoughts about that? But I know I'm kind of thinking of ways that we can do that. So when we come to the board table to think about results, we have just a bit of a more organic and granular, I think, perspective at times that we can hold on to. >> All right, >> great. >> That's all I had. Anybody else? All right. So, I'm going to close off with our continuing improvement actions that are there in front of you. And just really a quick summary. Um, we want to continue to support and enhance the collaborative problem solving
035assist process across each of our schools. You know, I I continue to value our partnership with VIAAA and and and Vespa and also understanding that it's there's the collaboration between myself as a as a superintendent and VA, but also just as important is that it happens uh at each of our settings. So, continue to have strong uh CPS processes in in those spaces as well. Um, you heard me talk about coherence a couple of times where you noticed that there may have been feedback that or there was feedback that may have been around uh that the level of expectation wasn't always met at each setting and making sure that we um are continuing to support and enhance those uh that as well. uh continue to use our superintendent advisories and surveys while also you know
036how are we considering additional input opportunities beyond the beyond the advisories as we know while that's a highly valued group um and well represented are there other spaces that I can take in information or we can take information for consideration that may be be outside the realm of of the advisories as well so uh I think we have the right continuous improvement action steps moving moving forward And again, appreciative to the uh all of our staff, but really the 500 plus that took the time to give us some very thorough feedback. Um and having half over half the staff do that was is really good pretty good data. >> One quick question. Do staff have an opportunity to add kind of context to the way they answer these survey questions? For example, I feel that
037resources in my immediate work environment are allocated to maximize resources. It's very general. Do we have an opportunity to say specifically these are the one or two things that we feel we could use more sure that they're more spread out. >> Yeah. Yeah. We don't put we don't put character limits or anything on the >> Sure. >> You can write >> anything you want into the opening. We summarize it that that way. So these are themes that came out of it based off the consistency of them popping up. But you can be very detailed. Is there are there any like consistent themes around what those resources are? >> I wouldn't say I would say I think still continue to think about how we're utilizing special education resources. I think MLL resources uh comes comes to
038mind. Um I think advanced learning came up three maybe three or four times off top of my head that I can think of. uh we had again we had to be very cautious of because especially if you I think I reported out before if you you can't just simply use AI because AI is trained to to give more credence to tone and how an email or how a how it's written and and we're we're thinking about more volume as well. Also, we do have to do a little bit of digging to make sure that it just wasn't in all caps response because that does if you just put it in that way, the theme comes out that way that it was more more powerful. >> I just want to elevate not only for this survey,
039but to remind the community that, you know, all the ways that this district leadership gets feedback, it is used. Um there's an expectation I know on your part that it's not just check the box, we gave a survey and now we just smile and not and move on. But with the advisory advisories, the way that you've shared here specifically that you take that feedback into actionable steps, you and your team um and the degree of expectation that we have that you do that because we have OE4 so specific to staff um that this is something this board holds in high regard that the way that staff feel working in the district matters to us and therefore as you said earlier despite you know all the layers with which the survey feedback comes, it lands to
040you um and us looking to you to ensure that staff do feel great about working here. I know it sounds very generic, but that's the piece I know that I think about with all the layers and all the pieces of how do I feel when I come to work each day? Um, and feeling respected, heard, cared for. Those things matter to us. And this data really helps kind of fill in some of those stories. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. So, technically we're moving to public comment. Um, Lori, I'm not aware of anything and just making sure. Great. Thank you. So then as we move into board action, so board members and community members and our amazing facilitators and co-presenters this evening, um all of the all of the presentation pieces were kind
041of flipped classroom um offered to us as board members in advance and they are available to community members. So, in terms of presenting, um, my hope is we're very light on the presenting and we get the opportunity now as board members to really engage in dialogue about the results that we've already been able to preview. Um, so just as a reminder for community members in particular, you won't have to go through a YouTube recording. You can go directly to places that you want to view. Um, so that reminder to you all, super appreciative of the advanced time. I think that was great for us to have that opportunity to reflect individually first. So feel free to take that as you will and know that we are ready to engage in dialogue and >> yeah thank
042you. >> Well thank you really appreciate your um work to describe tonight with a robust agenda. Jen feel like our four has been a robust policy for us to really dig into and appreciated the opportunity to provide sort of the flipped classroom or the blended approach um because we know that the work that goes behind this we certainly did want to not do it justice with the time and yet wanted to maximize the conversation tonight. So really our approach there are four policies within um results policy four which is around special academics tonight um charters and programs advanced learning special education and student behavior. So we will have different people that will be up to share a bit more about that work. We've asked them specifically to talk to the leadership moves and the next
043steps knowing that you saw all of the key findings within those presentations and then save some time obviously for all of your discussion and ultimately your vote on each of those. So that will be a bit of our our format and appreciate the opportunity to share and reminder to board members we are going backwards officially. So 4.4 will be the first um results policy. And also last piece may thank you for note takingaking. Juan Carlos will be doing some note takingaking. Um I will do some right now as Corby was 4.4. So you all know that I will I can Okay. >> Do you have >> I do I will share it with you. Thank you. Little logistical piece. >> Just clarification for my team. Will we be able to pause and vote at each
044one so I can move staff in and out? >> I think that feels like the best way to do that. That's why we like to live this in board action so we can do just that. That would be great. Yeah. Thank you. And that was our recommendation. Thank you for starting with 4.4 and working our way backwards. We have the most staff here for 4.4 looking to get to our families. >> Wonderful. >> Basketball game. >> We'll see. So four is the number of the nights. Results policy four. There's four policies within results policy four. And within 4.4 before we um where we'll begin tonight. We asked the question to what extent are we monitoring and supporting innovation in charter schools and district programs. And in trying to answer that question, our team chose four
045different charters and programs that we wanted to take a moment to highlight. And the first is AVID. So excited tonight to be joined by Lindsay Simonson, our special programs coordinator, who also serves as our AVID district director, and Brayley Kerber, who has um often here in her VA leadership capacity, but tonight is exciting to be here as an AVID elective teacher. And so going to turn it over to the two of them just to highlight some of the leadership moves that they took and that our team has continued to dive into as well as our next steps with gather. All right. Uh, so I can kind of speak to some of the leadership moves. So, um, one really exciting thing that happened this year was that we expanded our AVID elective class offerings down to
046the seventh grade level. Prior to that, it was offered at 8th grade at both middle schools, um, and then all 92 at the high school level. Um, and so really expanding that access down to seventh grade allows us to continue to build uh, earlier those skills and habits and things that we know are really setting up for students or setting students up for success once they get to high school. Um, so that has been really successful. summer offering at both of our middle schools. Um and then continuing to just kind of lead into our um curriculum development um and kind of refining the types of experiences that our students have um across the AVID program in grade 7 to 12. All right. Um and then just kind of quickly through our next steps. Um at
047the high school level, we're continuing to um encourage our AVID students to take advantage of the rigorous coursework that's offered here through AP classes, knowing that that is a real has a strong correlation to overall success in college. And then really supporting our students to um uh be successful in those classes once they're there. So continuing to think about that and what those targeted supports look like um so that when students are stretching themselves into those opportunities, they can feel successful. Um we're also um we're kind of we're going to be at um our fullest uh expansion level at the high school next year. We'll have three sections at all grade levels 9, 10, 11, 12. That's our goal for expansion to kind of be fully enrolled. We won't expand beyond that, but we'll be
048we'll be serving almost 300 students at the high school level within the AVID program um next year and then also the students that we have in seventh and eighth grade and middle school. So continuing to think about how we support students uh to stay um on track academically with their social emotional supports um are things that we're continuing to focus on now that we're reaching even more students than ever. So developing those systems for supports and progress monitoring students is one of the big goals. Um and then we're continuing to um stretch our instructional practices beyond just the AVID elective classroom spaces, but really trying to share those practices building wide at both our middle schools and our high school levels so that more students can benefit from the strategies that we utilize in AVID.
049Then we invited Brayley to come tonight just as a to provide that classroom perspective being one of our eighth grade AVID elective teachers from SP to share her experience as an teacher. One of my favorite things about teaching AVID is that it's um at the eighth grade level. I get to teach them a lot of skills that I know that they'll get to take with them for all of 8th grade but also into high school. Um Socratic seminars come to mind. I try to do them really early in the eighth grade year because I know they come up in social studies and science and language arts later in the year and I want to give them the confidence to be able to say I will do this before they enter those other academic spaces. Um
050Abbott is all about showing kids that they can do something and giving them the skills to do it themselves. Uh at this point in eighth grade like I've turned the class over to them pretty much and I don't do a lot of the talking anymore. Uh I introduce an assignment. I say, "Here are your options to get from point A to point B." And I let the students try to get themselves there with my support along the way. And I think that that gives them a lot of confidence as they transition to high school, which is what I think my part of AVID is. >> As just another piece of evidence, it just happened recently. We were blessed to have the chancellor from W Whitewater come in on the visit to Ron School and specifically
051the high school. And the one class that he insisted on going to and wanted to understand was was AVID because he understood and recognized the amount of skills that are developed in the college readiness that goes uh into uh the programming but also seeing the results as the chancellor in one of our W systems. So again, shout out to the great work of our our AVID team, but also just very recent evidence that may not be reflected in a progress monitoring report, but just really clear that the the effectiveness of the program itself. >> So I'll pause there for questions for our AVID team. >> I have one question. I we've had this AVID has been in our system for a whileish. So I was curious when you just said the three course or the
052three sections for grade level is kind of our goal. that helped me understand like doesn't matter where we've been that that seems like the max capacity that we're aiming for at the high school level. I have a question about the like the in-n-out piece and how students get started in AVID. So, is it an in-n-out? Can it eb and flow? And is there an optin? Is there teacher recommendation? Can you just speak to like how does this even happen for a student? >> Talk about the system and then you want to talk about it from the middle level. So, um recruitment this year began at um the sixth grade level. um because we were looking and Abbott has a set of criteria that we utilize. We work with Franklin to create a datadriven process. So
053we're looking for students who have um academic potential but may need the support. So we have certain metrics that we're looking for within the academic middle um that we're we're looking at. We're also looking at things like attendance um uh English language proficiency some of those different things that we apply like an actual um scale to to come out with a data driven process. we can say these are the students who are meeting most of the AVID criteria and therefore we want to invite them to apply for the AVID elective. So we cast kind of a wide net really wanting to be as inclusive as possible and then use those processes to kind of narrow down to the students who would most benefit from AVID. So from the time that there's a wide net a
054wide net cast based on that datadriven processes it then moves into um a student interview where we get to learn a lot more about the student and the things that they might benefit from in terms of the structures and support that Abbott offers. And then from based on that, we have a team that reviews all of those application pieces um and essentially makes those offerings to students. >> So then the hope would be be they would stay through. Exactly. So whatever grade they start that they follow through to graduation. >> Yep. And we do we have occasionally at the high school level have students maybe step out of AVID because there's a scheduling conflict. I need to leave for a semester in order to access this and they are welcome to jump back into Abid
055at any point. Um or same thing I just maybe I'm haven't been going through some things. I need to step away from this in order to prioritize other things in my life. Um, and we we kind of welcome students back. The only time that students leave the program is if they choose, like, I just want to focus on other electives and other opportunities. Um, and we also have a minimum GPA requirement to maintain a 2.0 GPA. If a student falls below that, we um all are monitoring all the time and putting academic supports in place so that that doesn't happen. If they fall below it for just a little bit, we continue to kind of wrap supports around. It's not an automatic exit, but our goal is to get them above. um we haven't exited
056any students for for or below a 2.0 um not a long time. So the academic supports are in place to to hold students above that that line and keep them keep them focused on their on their school. So >> thank you. >> I love the fact of cascading to other classrooms. I mean we've talked about it in a lot of different programs about giving opportunities for all staff to kind of wrap around some of the strategies that the AVID team uses. So that's an exciting piece. >> Really appreciate it. our teachers like Riley doesn't teach AVID all day, right? So, she's able to take that content and those strategies into her different content areas and that's the case for um all of our AV elective teachers. So, really grateful for them and their leadership. We
057wouldn't be able to grow the program in this way. There wouldn't be demand for seventh grade or these expanded sections if students and families weren't finding this beneficial. Thank you. >> Okay, no other questions on AVID. We'll move to our second um update on innovative programs which will be our 2A immersion program. Thanks. >> So we'll welcome both Rosemary Larson, our director of multilingual programs to share a bit about our 2A immersion program and recognizing the role that it plays um as a part of our overall R4 in terms of special academics. So back in 232 24 um we started working with families and had a work group um because there were questions about how the high school program was being supportive of our students and the vast um interest that they had in wanting
058to give them that flexibility but as well have continued in the two-year virtual program. So one of the things that came out of that uh workg group was also having a twe student advisory. So 2-way immersion student advisory uh students um give us feedback for continuous improvement and uh out of the work that they've done and the feedback that they've gotten from their fellow students, we now have um sort of two pathways of the high school. So students can continue in the 2A immersion program and still have the flexibility um for choosing other courses and interests. Okay. So uh students are reporting that the twe student advisory empowers them and that they can advocate for their peers, they can advocate for themselves and apply their bilingual skills in meaningful ways u both within the school
059community and outside I suppose. And then as the next step the multilingual program uh department will be working on a bi literacy trajectory. What we're finding is that students um their growth that they have in Spanish literacy and English literacy has to be parallel. And so that what that will help us do is uh strengthen alignment across the two languages as well as the grade levels and then support that ongoing language development and long-term literacy. Pause there to see if there's any tweet questions. I do have to throw up one data point that I know was in the summary and we weren't sharing much with key findings, but as Rosemary was digging into the data, our eighth grade students in TWE take the stamp assessment. Um, when our current cohort of eighth grade students took
060that stamp assessment, our current 11th 12th grade students took it as an eighth grader, 19% of them were proficient. When they took it as an 11th grader, 79% of them were proficient. And so the jump in proficiency really speaks to sometimes with the biiteracy trajectory. takes a while for students to get there, but really having this first graduating cohort, seeing 79% of students meeting that benchmark for the seal of bi literacy really speaks to. So with that, we'll open it up for questions for >> like I'm talking a lot. I do have a question. This is actually more of a reminder and I we've talked about this before but this would help me and maybe regground too and seal by literacy. You don't have to be in a twe program. We've talked about the number
061of languages we have students earning a seal of by literacy. So in terms of like credentiing right and leaving Verona area school district having been in TWE that's a thing that gets talked about but the seal of illiteracy is really the tangible consequence of perhaps having done that program. Am I saying that in a way that makes sense to to recognize again where they overlap but where they're parallel to one another? >> Yes. So students the seal by literacy there's two pathways there too. Um there's a global seal of bi literacy which is more um it helps our world language students also reach that credential that um that recognition. The Wisconsin seal of literacy is more rigorous so they do have to attain a higher language >> score. Um however our students are in the
062tweet program have been reaching that benchmark. Now it is a personal choice. Not everybody can finishes by literacy. It's depending on what their goals are and what they would like to do. Um, but they do have that opportunity because of the score that they've achieved on the standard. >> Okay. And then the adjustments that you talked about specifically at the senior level trying to provide that flexibility and the space to still be able to dig into both English and Spanish in this case. Um, this is all space where we as a district can play and explore with what to offer because there isn't like a defined way that twe has to be structured. Am I saying that in a way that makes sense that question? >> Right. >> Okay. So, the flexibility is there for
063our district to try to continue to meet the needs of students, elevate their language proficiency, give them the space they need to be seniors in high school, but there isn't like a guideline of they have to have this, this, and this from some other entity. Yes, we we've taken um that was coming from the parent group that they want that flexibility for their students and we've we've embraced that because we do believe that the ultimate goal of the tweet program is by literacy bilism. >> Um and there's different pathways to to getting there. >> Yeah. interpret and we have worked in collaboration with our consultants at department of public instruction to make sure that the flexibility that we're providing our families is still within their very broad guidelines. Okay? Right? their guidance doesn't say they
064have to have social studies and science in Spanish or this many minutes right just the overall >> are we meeting the vision and mission so working in collaboration with them as we've designed the flexibility within our system and I think as this cohort has grown some of those needs couldn't have been anticipated when they were kindergarteners right about what would this look like in high school and even as students have progressed through their high school career they're realizing well there's this one class that I really want to take that's only offered this one hour so is the the tweet class that I need as well and what flexibility can we offer and families have been very appreciative of what that looks like. I think to that point, I really appreciate hearing, you know, that there's
065the student advisory that's helping those those decisions and I know there was some concern as this program advanced into high school. Are there going to be opportunities? I think having student voice um elevated was just a couple months ago, the students themselves had an application process to invite younger students in because most of them are seniors. Yeah. >> So now they're in the training process. So they're training the students how to be on the student advisory. Well, those students have really advocated for themselves in their program. That's fantastic that um that you validated that voice in this way. So, thank you for giving that opportunity and lifting their their ideas. >> I mean, that's the all of these results policies use the word innovate. And so, I appreciate that the reports talk about that, but
066like this is this is what we're talking I think we talk about this as a board of giving staff and students the the power to be a part of everything and to be creative and innovative. And so that this just elevates that I think. >> Yeah, I'll add to that. I mean I don't have any questions honestly. I just think that this kind of demonstrates that you know we are listening to student feedback and those things have come out as a result of now capsule being offered that was offered three years ago and that was first other programs being offered and especially love the opportunity to have students become teaching assistants. out the, you know, the newer incoming night starters. It's such a powerful experience. >> So, the fact that you guys are adding more
067programming, really adding flexibility as a result of the feedback we're getting, I feel like I hope that that's not lost on anybody's ears that you know, we're listening, we're implementing, and what you say and share really does matter. It does eventually come to fruition to make this a great project. So, I think it's all going in a great direction. So, thank you. And thank you for some of the data. Just to reiterate for folks, you know, because we're not doing a lot on slides that the reports have data. We're talking about results and impact on student learning. So, thank you for those pieces that we have scattered throughout to tell the tell the story. >> Thank you. Great. We're going to continue then with our next innovative program. I appreciate you you calling that out.
068As we approach this, we recognize this couldn't be a full program evaluation of all of TWE or all of the charters. And so we instead thought about what is an innovative practice in each, right? The advocacy expansion with tweed, the student advisory. And so Rosemary has taken the lead here in working with our directors of our charter schools and talking about what are some of the innovative practices that they're using um as a part of their their charter to bring to bring this results to life. So she's going to speak on behalf of them. >> Okay. The first uh charter we will be focusing on is the Verona Area International School. Uh, one thing that they've been working on over the last couple of years is also literacy trajectories and outcomes and their staff has
069been trained in my literacy framework to be able to uh align the content that's being taught in English with the content being taught in Mandarin so that the students are able to um be able to access content in both languages and that had to do with some refinement because of because of the adoption of the SAS curriculum curricular resource. For next steps, um the AAS will continue to strengthen the Mandarin um immersion program by refining these biiteracy units and then as well as using ACTUL aligned. actual is the American Council for Teachers and Foreign Language uh standards aligned step up with Chinese curriculum as well working on vertical alignment and strengthening assessments uh so that they can better monitor uh students by literacy growth in both Mandarin and English. Okay, next we move on to
070uh New Century and at New Century um the students are working with a disciplinary literacy within STE. So they have curriculum maps that span two years because they do have um grade levels that are that so what they're looking at is environmental literacy technology standards they're all combining everything together model and charter renewal core values around the innovation equity agency and community uh What New Century School is going to do is that they're going to continue to refine these vertically aligned steam curriculum maps. Um, again, integrating all these standards together. That's that's very nuanced work because of the amount that they are trying to include within one unit of of learning for the students. Um, they will monitor literacy data closely as well as strengthen disciplinary literacy within the inquiry based and outdoor learning experiences.
071So students uh have deeper learning and they grow at core knowledge um they have been focusing on intentional leadership embedded within service learning. So they are going out uh in creating partnerships that are authentic uh within the community and then structured with reflection and progress monitoring because they they want to make it relevant for the students academically give them student voice and then also engage them civically in the community. Next steps uh they are going to strengthen service learning by improving data collection and reflection practices, expanding student leadership in project design and shared program impact with families. Uh these efforts will continue to support both academic learning and character development and ensuring the students benefit fully from meaningful community connected experiences. Okay, so that is kind of a super high level overview of our of
072our three charters and the way that they are leaning into innovation. So we'll pause there for any questions on charters. >> You go if you have one. >> No, I don't have a question. I just this is a lot to take in. >> So I I appreciate getting the overview of the uh of the charters at the innovation point. just having that nice. >> Yeah, it's super informative right from a just yeah from an informative standpoint and then the results as well. um a mildly curiosity. This is layered in just a little bit in a bit of the data. I think new century in particular and then a um a comment related to core knowledge but how I want to phrase this how it's going to sound but paying attention to that comparative data from
073neighborhood schools and charter schools in terms of proficiency right in language arts in mathematics just we don't have that deep dive here and I don't mean to say that again as a comparative but just that finger on the pulse of outcomes through the charter programs regardless of what it is and kind of living in that sort of state data that we process more holistically across the district. if there's anything that you want to add to just that wondering that I'm sitting with. Mhm. I think we've really appreciated and I um commend the board on this process and building in the questions for us to think about with each results policy because I think in working with our charters to do this work of this results policy, it really helped us to think through what is
074the innovation and how do we measure that? Yeah. And sometimes it is not through the state assessment, right? What we're trying to do innovatively is um is lifting up student voice and what's the feedback from students and much of the data we determined we needed to collect is actually talking to students being in classrooms talking to families and understanding the breadth of their experience that might not live on forward right and it might not quite show up yet. Um you know we know what the long-term stamp assessments for mandering might look like eventually but we also know what they look like at this level. So making sure to provide kind of that balanced approach and comprehensive data review on what is what is innovative and how do we measure ourselves and hold ourselves accountable to
075that innovation when it isn't showing up on a bar graph which we talk about at this table right like how do we measure some of the things that are happening so that's why my question I was so hesitant because we don't love the way we measure data in general anyway but how do we just ensure that the outcomes academically are what we're hoping high standards across whatever ever program our learners are in. So yeah, so thank you for just dialoguing that with me >> and knowing of course that that matters to all of us here. >> Go ahead. Our last program that we will speak to in 4.4 tonight is extended learning pathways. So excited to welcome Dr. Hawkins and Dr. is coming to join us for the presentation. >> Uh good evening. So tonight
076um we're just going to share about extended learning pathways secondary. In previous years, last year we um shared several extensive reports about elementary foundations um as part of extended learning pathways. But tonight, Mr. Cox is going to speak specifically to secondary pathways, the high school level. >> Well, first off, thanks for the opportunity. Um I know we've got a lot so I'll kind of be brief but please know that all questions are welcomed here. Um as we dive into this uh the leadership moves I want to kind of ground us a little bit in the history and I'll be very brief with this but um three years ago in 20 22 23 school year we had really two intervention options for students that struggled at the high school. Ultimately, they could access our LEAP program
077which led to a GED or there was an off-site option to attain that GED through MATC. Outside of those two options, we didn't have a lot built into the system to help support students when they began to struggle. Um, as we started to navigate away from this uh isolated system that we had uh to work from, we found that there were students that had these needs expressing much earlier on. Um, ultimately we had students that knew their freshman year that their older sibling had graduated through our LEAP program and so that's what they were going to do as well. And so ultimately they just needed to wander the halls for three years until they could access that lead programming as a senior and that's how they plan to graduate. So the second we became aware
078of those things, we realized that there was a much higher need to intervene earlier, more often, and ultimately build out a structured system that we could prescribe a specific uh academic medicine, if you will, based on the needs of the student in the moment when they needed it. And so throughout this process, we really developed a broad spectrum of different uh programming to meet different needs throughout that student's experience from 9 through 12. Um throughout the process we really focused on um referring uh students whoops referring students uh uh through our hope team to the specific intervention that they need coupled with progress monitoring uh whether through check-in checkout or data specific metrics. Um, previously we really operated under this system of trying to make sure that students have a certain number of credits on
079the pile in order to reach graduation requirements and really didn't focus entirely on just the skill level that might be missing for students. So, we still had students with with bigger gaps um as they got to their senior year. And ultimately um we were really focused on did they pass a course versus were those skill gaps uh filled in to where they could be successful and not face barriers uh to their future success. So ultimately um that progress and data monitoring as we move into our next steps the right button there. Sorry about that. Um that data progress and monitoring continues to be something that we're working to refine through our use of next path. Um and ultimately our communication as we've built out a wide variety of systems in a very short period of
080time in the past two years um continues to be a point of emphasis for us as we try to make sure that not only um our internal communication is strong and teachers know how to access and refer students but also that our community and our students are aware of what these programs are and how to access them as well. Um I think a lot of the leadership moves that we have done up until this point have really helped us in terms of reducing um the sense of of safety in our building, the sense of belonging in our building. Both which from our student survey saw very large uh 17 percentage points growth this past year. Um continuing on some of the other leadership moves uh beyond that strengthening of communication is really trying to uh
081figure out what we still need to build out. Um and ultimately as you build out these systems you find that there's still yet another need for um a small group of students that is not yet built. And so really it's continuing to figure out now that we have these systems in place, what is our next step and what is the next layer of that onion as we continue to grow and build out a robust uh system of support for our students. And with that, thank you. Any questions? This is awesome. I mean, there's just so there's so much here that's new just to elevate that piece. Um, yeah, this is this is a lot. I can tell the effort for you, your team. I'm curious how this works for staffing, right? as these kind of
082programs come to exist, who's sliding and who's right, how FTE is getting massaged to put this because this takes amazing humans, which we have a lot of, but how because there's so much coming to life here that I think is so amazing, but just how do you do the staffing piece? >> Yeah, a great representation of that would have been Mr. Crow um who unfortunately had to be at another board meeting tonight for some other duties he serves on as well. but he is one of those very nimble, flexible folks along with Miss Elms, along with Miss Foster who really seek to serve um that handoff between these layers of intervention. A big piece of uh you know any medical approach to um fixing a solution really focuses on where does that handoff happen in
083the treatment. And so we're trying to apply that same type of philosophy to education. And where one of these interventions starts to either no longer work or no longer be needed, we can move up or down those that pyramid of interventions to where it's not simply putting the student back into the general environment hoping for the best. Uh much like uh I was taught how to swim back in the day. So >> yeah. Well, kudos to the team. This is really speaking of innovative and just recognizing needs and doing what we can to meet those. That's that's the work. Really exciting to hear these updates. >> I think it's also important to note that some of our neighboring districts have sought us out both last year to visit elementary foundations, but we also have neighboring
084districts that are seeking us out to visit our secondary foundations and extended learning pathways within the coming month. So, while it's not imperative, it certainly shows that other districts are seeking us out. Principal Reinhardt from Middleton will be joining us on the 20th um with a group of 10 folks from his staff um to help uh better understand how we built this system and how we have kind of organized it. So working with principal Ryan Hart is is a great way to not only lift up and showcase all the work that that our team has done, but also I think it it gets just that extra layer of credibility when you when your own peers around uh the work um are are looking to you to kind of have conversation around it and see how
085you build what you did. So >> thank you. >> So that is 4.4. really we tried to answer that question through kind of highlighting those three or those four programs with AVID charters and um extended learning pathways. So we'll turn it back over to the board >> at this point for our discussion. >> I'd just also like to say Mary you kind of touched on this the report is just there's just so much great information. Um I hope the structure of the report like that feedback from you and your team is continuing to feel relevant and because I like I like the structure. I like being able to see the connections to journey of a lifelong learner. Just all the information I thought was really useful and important and it gave us space for dialogue
086and processing a lot of amazing things happening in the district. Yeah, I think I we really appreciate the process and now having gone through it once, right, I said it will help us to think strategically about what is the data we want to collect and how are we monitoring specifically in for innovation um and what does that look like but it's helping to get on the front end of that and to inform our planning which I appreciate that's the intent >> board members we are charged with um determining reasonable progress so keeping that in mind with any further questions comments around the report itself and or motions. >> I'll motion, but I just also want to take a second to direct the public to the videos that go with these. They're a little bit longer,
087contain more detailed information, and they're really, really useful tools for understanding what is going on districtwide across all of these results policies. But consistently the case. So with that said, I'm happy to offer a motion that um we are achieving reasonable progress in R 4.4. >> Thank you. Thank you. Second from Christopher. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor of R or R4.4 um charters and programs monitoring report as being achieving reasonable progress signify with I. >> I. Any opposed? All right. 4.4 is achieving reasonable progress. >> Thank you. >> Moving down the line. Meredith, do you want to do a handoff in any way? Because now 4.3. Okay. Super appreciative. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, thank you. We'll continue then with 4.3 which is around advanced learning. Lindsay is joining me again. One
088of the many hats she wears in addition to AVID is also supporting our advanced learning programming as well. So the question that we sought to answer in this results policy is to what extent are students practicing opportunities for accelerated learning. And earlier back in November, we had the privilege of being here at the board table to share a bit about our approach and our philosophy to advanced learning and recognizing that we are looking at both building an identification system for students and providing talent development and enrichment opportunities that are accessible to all students regardless of their specific data profile. And so as we think about what we've accomplished this year and the leadership moves as we've looked into our data, we see that in progress monitoring, the vast majority of our students that are identified
089are um making typical or even high growth. Actually, a really high percentage of students are making high growth. Um and we attribute that to the targeted supports and enrichments that we've had. We recognize we're strengthening our data and our progress monitoring models. We're also working to provide really specific targeted supports. We started with mathematics in the classroom aligned to the the core curricular resource and some of those opportunities are targeted to a specific population and others are available to any student who may be interested. So really meeting both of our both of our goals there. Another important leadership move for us this year has been our family advisory. So last spring we began family advisory with representation from all of our K8 sites really trying to elevate family voice and understand what their experience is
090in our system and what they wanted to see to better support their students with um a variety of a variety of needs. And the family advisory will has met last spring another two times this year and actually meets later again this week. and they've really helped to inform our direction moving forward as well as given a lot of feedback about what they're hearing and how our systems are are working for for them in terms of communication and knowing where their students at. And then finally, the identification process. So at this time last year, we only had an identification process at the middle school level. So since then, we have built out identification specifically in mathematics down to the third grade level through universal screening. And so having a clear identification process with criteria that is
091informed by data is meant to eliminate some of those systemic barriers that may have been um some students may have been accessing it because a family may have been asking for something specific. Other families may not have had access because they didn't know who to talk to or what that looked like. So implementing an identification process that depends on data and universal screening ensures that all students have access um to that specific programming should their data profile indicate that would be supportive for them. So those have been some of our leadership moves. I'll hand it over to Lindsay to talk about our next step. >> Sure. So, um kind of the first one really is about monitoring those identification systems um both through an equity lens to ensure that we have representation um in all
092of our our different um focal groups um and in those practices for identification and then also continuing to expand our identification systems to other domains of giftedness. So that will be the work to come to continue like I said progress monitoring um those identification trends um addressing uh if there's any concerns or gaps in our identification making sure that we refine our processes for for identification should any of those things arise. Um the second one is around um instructional coherence and thinking about those targeted supports. Um we use star student growth percentile as one of our progress monitoring metrics for students K8. Um, and then we're really looking at AP course um, completion, AP exam, um, the three or higher on the AP exams as some of those data pieces that we're monitoring to ensure
093that students are receiving the supports necessary to continue to make adequate growth and meet their personal goals. Um, so those are data points that we'll continue to monitor and adjust our instructional um, supports based on what that data is telling us. Um, that progress monitoring system is now living within schools MLSS structures which is really exciting. um this it used to be kind of monitored at my level or um and not really um necessarily at the school level. And what that gives us the flexibility to do is be responsive to student needs because they're always looking at the same data points throughout the year. So a student might have new and emerging needs that meet our advanced learning profile and we can bring that student in and match them with the supports in an ongoing
094way. So we're not waiting for a specific set time um to be able to access those supports. And then we can also catch some of those progress monitoring pieces on a more ongoing basis. Um and then the last couple um we are continuing to lean into student voice, really valuing student feedback in those supports, knowing that some of the supports that we're doing, this was the first year of really implementing those on a larger scale, wanting to know more about the student experience, making sure that the supports effectively are meeting their needs, um and feel like they're getting what they need out of the programming that we're offering. um as well as in those family um the family advisory and other ways that we're getting feedback from families about our transparency about identification processes um
095and the effectiveness of of the student experience from their perspective as well. And then the last piece was that in our student experience survey um we noticed that there was um a you know 50% or it was 58% of students saying that they were regularly setting goals and monitoring their progress in all of their academic environments. kind of looking more holistically knowing that that's a really important thing for our advanced learners to really be able to monitor their own progress, figuring out what their own learning goals are. And so we're really trying to intentionally build that across um all of our tier one um instructional programming and in every classroom and every space really trying to elevate that practice um because we know it will support all learners, but it will also support those students
096who we've identified as advanced learners as well. excited to know since we've written these next steps, knowing this was prior to the blizzard, one of our next steps was around continuing to review AP class enrollment and making sure that there's representation in that. Um, Mr. Cox has already let us know that looking at 2627 enrollment, we've already seen some positive trends in terms of what to expect for next year. And so, some of the efforts already underway are showing some some initial trends there. So, we'll pause there for any questions on advanced learning. And this is actually all of 4.3. 4.4 had the four different and now we just have we just have one. >> Were you keeping track? >> I had a quick question. If you can go back to that last slide. Sure.
097>> Um and I think you you answered it, but you're going a little I was thinking on it as you're explaining it, so I missed something. I apologize. Um, but I was just wondering about the process of f of just monitoring more real time or is there a way to monitor in real time any additional layers of sports that might be needed for students to avoid any kind of lags or disconnects with waiting for the next kind of period to test them or star test or what have you. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> just to determine and then I guess second to that or with that my wondering was how do you ensure not you know repeating not that every school does everything the same way right but alignment with how we're approaching advanced learning at
098all the buildings how do we ensure that let's use that is there a way in real time monitor these supports for students to make sure that they get without any kind of walk sorry that was long >> no I appreciate both questions. Um, so the as far as the kind of ongoing data review, um, we really try to make sure that we have tier we have supports that are in tier one instructional programming that all students can access at any point in time. So for math in elementary school, we concept quest the same resource that we use for students who are identified as advanced learners is also available to all students at any point in time. So if a teacher is noticing the student's doing really well in this unit, we need to provide them
099with some extra challenge, they can make those matches um right away without waiting for the data to come through. The data kind of screening windows through MLSS does come through after each star window closes. Um and so the formal identification happens three times a year in an ongoing way, but an opportunity to connect students with the resources they need to be successful um in when they're first uh kind of noticing trends in student data. um we can be responsive at both the middle school and the elementary school level with the academic supports that we have available at tier one. Um so that's kind of the first question. Second question >> oh yeah alignment schools. Um so that is we're we're pretty coherent in our the supports that are being offered. So the resources are the
100same across all elementary school sites um and our neighborhood schools. Um, and so we partner with charters to identify the kind of equivalent curricular resources that will best support them that are in alignment to the the materials that they're using in their school. And at the elementary school level this year, we have the MLSS specialists, which is um kind of a shifted position from some other allocation buckets. And those are teachers that are right um implementing the supports with students. So they're actually going into classrooms where our clustered um students who are advanced centers of math are and using those resources and can monitor kind of that fidelity of implementation report back to us to let us know if students are getting access to those um those opportunities. And similarly at the middle school level
101we have an instructional coach at each site um that monitors the implementation of supports um of advanced learning opportunities at both middle schools. So those are kind of the the staff in the buildings that are allowing us to ensure that there is um access across all buildings in our district to the supports we're we're providing. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> So can I ask I feel like I ask this question whenever accelerated learning comes up to what extent or some version of this question I try to make it different all the time so you don't see it coming. To what extent are we using like non-traditional indicators like boredom or inattentiveness as factors for I mean as someone who's like serially inattentive like I'm staring off I'm doodling I'm not paying attention but that's
102just because I'm thinking about what you're saying and a couple other things at the same time like um to what extent are we like trying to identify those sorts of ways of being maybe ready for accelerated learning. And then my second question not at all related um is usually I ask a question around about like how do we have people or have access for students that just want to try something either because they feel like they're gifted or their parents feel like they're gifted however misguided they may be um that they can just try those things. Um, so those are my two questions that I usually kind of just throw out into this conversation. Um, >> Yeah. In sort of in reverse order, I think to your second question really that is why we've worked
103on building enrichment opportunities. Things like Battle of the Books, things like Concept Quest, they're available to all students. You can opt in regardless of what your star score says, right? And I think that is an area we want to continue as we build identification systems. We also on a parallel track want to make sure that we're continuing to offer opportunities that all students can access. Um, with the idea of student agency and goal setting, it's important for all students to be able to do that and then for us to be able to match them with the specific supports. And so I think we're cognizant of of maintaining kind of those parallel tracks and allowing students to move in and out of either. So where is their opportunity for this is what we're seeing in your
104data. here's something that might be a good match for you and here's what what you see as your strengths and here's an area of interest and here's what that looks like. Battle of the books has continued to grow as one really clear example of that and continuing to spread concept has been another option at the middle school letter level. There's are you ready for more questions that students can lean into. Some of the Dreambox and EXL platforms allow students to personalize that learning without any MLSS team needing to decide or anybody needing to give them permission to do that. And so we we've tried to really make sure that we're not putting putting up additional barriers for students to get access to those areas that they need. And I think to your first question as
105far as the identification um we just began with math. There's five domains of giftedness. We really began with the specific academic areas with math based on the feedback from our families. We got further feedback from them on what's the next area that we want to continue to explore. they really went back and forth on whether it's um leadership as a domain or language arts. Ultimately, we landed on language arts because some of the questions that you're asking are really that we have a lot more quantitative data and people have a schema for how we determine what quantitative data we would use. Knowing though that um perhaps the next area we continue to push in might be something like leadership in which we need to think differently. That's not going to show up on a STAR
106assessment in the same way. What are the the characteristics? what are the attributes and how might we think about identifying students in those areas and then pairing them with some of the skills they have. Part of that process is also identifying students who may be identified as twice exceptional who may have um be identified in multiple areas. And so I think that is um I appreciate you naming that John because I think that's a next step for us. Right now, we worked really hard to be very data driven because we want to take out some of the bias and some of the lack of access that exists when you solely rely on teacher nominations as others may or family referral and we want to strike a balance of where is there also space for some
107of that voice and something that might not show up in a spreadsheet in that way. Other thoughts you answer pretty comprehensive. >> Does that answer the today's version of the question? Well, it sounds also like the process is being refined, >> right? >> And so it's not a one and done. As you get more information, you realize different students show up in different ways. Correct. Whether they have a lack of attention or ADHD or anything on the spectrum or whatever might not be might be hindering them. They're gifted or ready for more. >> Yes. >> But it might be hindering them from being captured in the way that we're highlighting advanced literatur. So I mean I'm I'm comfortable just because we've had additional conversations that all these things are being constantly >> you know thought
108about marinated on to improve the process. Yeah, >> I think we're continuing >> thinking we're continuing to build on the data sets, right? What is a pattern that we're seeing within a student's data? and what additional data sets from the classroom even not just the standardized assessments can we continue to gather to better understand here's the student experience and where might we be the not supporting the student the way that they need and really to Lindsay's point the conversation shift to the MLSS or the multi-level system of support conversations at the school level are with our classroom teachers our administrators the people who know those students best and might see some of these things in the classroom that a district level doesn't necessarily show up on our spreadsheet but So, we're excited that those conversations
109are regularly happening in those spaces to make those to make those connections. >> Yeah. And they're not happening through a pull out model of service delivery that's exclusive to a certain group of students. All of the supports that we're talking about happen within the tier one classroom. It's not in a pull-up model. So, at any point, a teacher can connect a student who might be boredom might be the main thing that they're noticing. They're also noticing the student's pretty solid in their math as well. they're just not landing on our spreadsheet for identification, but we can match that support to the student right in the moment and make sure that they're getting what they need. >> I think it's important to also just reiterate that this is about providing supports in appropriate ways to students
110across the learning spectrum. Like this isn't like a gatekeeping of more opportunities for people that are driven to have every opportunity apply. um even though I'm sure that it feels that way but >> but also I think that it's an opportunity to give everyone the opportunity every student to push them to those higher expectations and use example middle school every student has opportunity to take the exceeds mastery questions right it doesn't mean they're above grade level it just means we're ready to challenge you at this grade level because you can't be beyond the grade from my understanding Right? Because some parents think exceed pastries as oh my seventh grader is now performing at an eighth or nth grade level just it means that they're embracing those extra stretch themselves. So I don't know if this
111this dovtales into advanced learning but this there might be I guess the encouragement of students challenging themselves in middle school to do the stretch questions that are called exceed mastery questions. Is that something that's encouraged for everybody or is it optional? Like what's that? Is that embedded with advanced learning? What's kind of what's that like? >> Yeah, same thing. It's embedded within tier one instruction on a more daily basis. They're called are you ready for Mores and they're kind of challenges that have a little increased depth or complexity from the questions that a student has to complete on their normal daily assignment. And they're available to all students every day. The exceeds mastery questions come on the summitive assessments and same thing, they're on every student's test. Every student has the opportunity to complete the
112exceeds mastery questions, but there's no penalty for not completing those. >> Yeah. Yeah. Here's an option. You stretch, but you're not getting hurt by it. >> I think that that's awesome. >> This is the piece where I think the student agency part is so huge because for so long in math, it's what I'm told I am as a math learner. So, in in strange ways, I feel like students who maybe have had um opportunities to try to stretch themselves and maybe had a stronger aptitude in math maybe didn't have as much like student agency or self- agency to understand their own learning. We always just tend to tell kids who they are mathematically. So, I honestly so I'm really excited that the structures and systems are elevating students like you're talking about that why aren't
113you taking the exceeds mastery? let's think about that from your own vantage point or what are you thinking about this learning versus the adults and even the data always telling our kids who they are mathematically and that's all I'll say because we talked about this earlier but I sit here and ring my hands a lot since this was my world and I'm I'm just excited to again have a different way for us to process results and ways that we're taking on this work um and I do though appreciate the quantitiveness of this so it isn't who has a loud voice who knows our secret pathways in a system that We don't have any of that. >> And do you think Jen to your point about student agency really excited too or all students have access
114to algebra in eighth grade? Should they choose? They can choose math 8 or they can choose algebra. And some districts divide and decide that there's a quantitative threshold students have to reach. And we ultimately give students their data, have conversations with them, think about their long-term goals, but ultimately we leave that decision up up to the student and their families. And then if if we see students may need additional support and preparation for that, we also provide that. But really letting the students drive that so we're not dictating exactly what that looks like has been something I'm proud of. I feel duty bound to say at this point like so my eighth grader is one of the first people I've ever met that I would say has had a great middle school experience like am
115I frustrated that he doesn't ever sometimes he takes the exceeds mastery questions you know like what do I know he can do more what I like to maybe do I care no because ultimately like at the end of the day if he's not the happiest eighth grader he's one of the top 10 eighth graders. So, what do I care about? It exceeds mastery at that point. >> I'm coming to grips that my eighth grader doesn't like math. >> No, no, >> I know. Sorry, Miss Crop. It's not about you. It's just Yeah. So, you know, we don't usually talk I don't usually talk about her, so hopefully she's not listening. But I will just say that does hurt my math heart just a little bit. Not her favorite subject. >> Yes. I I appreciate your
116comment, Jen, >> because that's triggering for me because I didn't have that voice of student agency when I was in school. So, I think that's really important to have that for our students now. And I I see that with with my students at school and which pathways that they're choosing. But then I also think about are there ways to help not only at home but through our our educators to make sure that we're providing guidance if there's you know you do have the skill set if you and it's a matter of believing that you have that skill set to do that leap that leap is important but if you don't believe it internally you may not take it even though you have that skill set so I think >> it's a combination of all those
117pieces to develop that state agency Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. >> So board members, similarly um deciding if 4.3 advanced learning monitoring is achieving reasonable progress. >> Any discussion or motions? >> Oh, sorry. >> Are you making a motion? >> I'm making a motion. >> Okay. Well, Carlos has moved in support of reasonable progress. >> Yes. Is there a second? >> Okay. Second from Christopher. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving results policy 4.3 advanced learning as achieving reasonable progress signify with I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Excellent. Meredith checking in with you as we move to 4.2. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You guys are having conversation. So, I think I just want to say as we're going through all of these, I I want to reiterate
118because I'm going to put it in the notes whether anyone says it or not. There is so much there is so much great information that was provided in the videos and I just want to reiterate the the videos provided so much um complimentary information and just the reports themselves are so full of great information. So I think that's where for me the conversation is less at the table almost because we have gotten such good information that we could digest prior to the meeting. Um and this is one of those areas that I feel like learning more about it is just the goal for me. Like this is a fantastic aspect of our district that um all of these different different programs are just fantastic to learn about. Um so my questioning is more just curiosity
119and just fascination that we're like doing so much work um for the benefit of >> Thank you. >> Thanks. All right, moving on to 4 point or yeah our 4.2 special education monitoring. >> So excited to have Sarah, our interim director of special education here tonight to share a bit about our special education programming, the leadership moves, and our next steps. Good evening. So our question though is what to what extent are we meeting the needs of students with identified needs to ensure access growth and belonging. As you saw in your report, we broke down access growth and belonging through different indicators of success for our students with disabilities. In the last couple years, we've really focused on coherence across our schools. Specifically, thinking about how we can clarify our expectations around inclusive practices and
120what a least restrictive environment is for our students and what service delivery looks like in the various environments that we serve. We strengthened our MLSS systems to think about the tier one and tier 2 instruction and how our students are having access to high quality grade level instruction and not falling back into pull out methods or necessarily students in most restrictive settings. And we had a greater precision looking at data using our next path systems to analyze growth along the um year in terms of our interventions and services we're providing. specifically thinking about behavioral and academic data and indicators of success and thinking how we can move from reactive knowledge models to proactive responses for students. We still have work to do in terms of our next steps next year. We want to have a
121greater focus on instruction. thinking about that continuum of services that are offered at all of our school sites to meet student needs and thinking about how we use our educators in the buildings to think about how they're servicing students and what intervention actually looks like. How every student can continue to have inclusive practices, but what that really means in the classroom when they're having access to grade level instruction. How is it meaningful? And what are we doing in our co-planning environments to really serve students and think differently about instruction and differentiate it for the various needs of learners in the classroom so they truly do have meaningful access and engagement of grade level standards and content and that we're measuring that against our same age peers. We also will improve our school partnerships and think
122differently about how we have ownership of special education in each of our sites and accountability of the measures we're seeing to students. So, a lot of the work is moving away from um just how having foundational understanding and building our special educators capacity, but thinking about instruction differently and what services they're providing in the classroom for students and monitoring the outcomes we see to change the instruction if necessary. So, we'll pause there just to see if there's specific questions around um special education. And I think it's important to note with each of these programs, just as you heard with advanced learning, try to provide as many supports in the classroom as possible and move away from pull-up models. We just heard the same from Sarah as well. How can we continue to live out that
123vision for inclusive practices and naming the leadership moves that she's taken as well as some of our next steps to continue to dive further into that. So hopefully you're seeing a thread throughout several of the different results policies here. Just wanted to quickly uh put into the space. Obviously the the timing of information I think as we're given a monitoring report on our progress up to this year and a significant shift in our um model was completely rolled out today that the board has been informed of in in previous weeks. So in understanding that obviously we couldn't place as part of the monitoring report but it is a impact of the listening and understanding of the and the moves that you'll see moving into uh 2627 and obviously didn't want to have this space where
124we weren't acknowledging that we do have the the next steps in this important process in play ready to go and fully communicated to our to our public. >> Sorry. >> No, that's great. Um, I just wanted to say that was an awesome, clear, concise, and meaningful drive right through these slides. Loved it. Um, also, uh, I think, you know, if people get a chance to look at the data that's highlighted in this growth model, I mean, that's really phenomenal growth. >> Yeah. >> Um, uh, so, so that's that's worth, you know, highlighting. Um the only question that I have and this is just because for my own edification really is u under the access it says that uh restricted placements approximately 80% 86% of students with IEPs were in regular education classrooms 80% or more
125of the time. That seems like a highly inclusive number to me. I'm wondering how that would compare, you know, state or nationwide if we were to label that as inclusive or average or whatever. At one point we did have the comparative data in the report but we couldn't have comparative data that was more than two years out with the DPI reporting. Um so DPI does ask every school district to report on those same metrics of the 80% and going down. Um we were comparative if not more inclusive than our neighboring school districts or comparative districts. >> Okay. So, as a as a parent with a child with hearing impairment, I I will just say that um one of the motivations for me to even be on the school board was to see the resources that
126uh this district not only in the equity framework that we have and recognizing that there are barriers for some of our students that will we will work towards uh addressing those barriers. I've seen it at my in my house and with my students. And I just want to take this moment, not a question, but rather a statement of just calling out the phenomenal work that um our our um our our teachers and resource that we have available for students. So, just kudos to you all for your hard work and I'm just impressed every day. So, thank you. >> Thank you. We have great special educators, related service providers, and special ed assistants in our classrooms every day. And uh they're working incredibly hard and we're really focused now on accelerated growth to really close gaps.
127And that's what we expect of all learners. >> Yeah, the data definitely speaks for itself. I just had one quick question um just to better understand what this meant. What is the shift from the reactive central office consultation to proactive site driven leadership and problem solving? >> That's what you received today. >> Look like >> that was ships you got today. >> Was the email today? >> Oh, got it. Okay. >> Yeah, I was alluding to it. Um, >> thank you. >> It's for March 16th. I just want to also add, you know, how many months ago now we did the time to revise our results policies and thank you again to John for the work. I appreciate R4. I love the fact that we get to take these moments to kind of deep dive
128in some of these programs. So, being able to sit at the table and talk about our special education programming, I think is really valuable. um especially because it's been there's been tumultuous rides in this district regarding special education and I'm so appreciative of how transparent this team is, how outwardly that we bring concerns to the table and just the way that this district has been so responsive with even the number of shifts in this short amount of time to try to make the changes that you're talking about. um and elevating the skill set of our amazing special education staff that do this work day in and out um day in and day out and our special education support staff. Um so just I just want to elevate the power of this dialogue and this particular
129topic because it's a lot and there's a lot to process and digest and having seen amazing data to look at is really impactful. >> Yeah. Um before the board moves forward, I just want to take an opportunity because I just think it's appropriate first to recognize the work of Sarah Sar as our interim director and so happy that she's accepted to move the work into next year knowing that you know her leadership is all of our leadership but especially her leadership is instrumental in bringing that to life and support with support of our staff. I I don't want I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the uh work groups that worked all through last year that were set set up uh after consultation with um VAEA and VESPA Dr. Hawkins and her work with the
130with the special education work groups as as as well seeing all this information move forward. And then our our advisories again really helping to solidify what could some actional steps mean in terms of identifying the instructional model that you know is most supportive of students but also how do we appropriately move resources into the best space to allow that work to come to life. So thank you all for that for that work and thank you Sarah for your for your leadership. Okay, board members. Similarly, for 4.2, special education monitoring charged with decisions around achieving reasonable progress. Any further questions, discussions, potential motions to approve >> as achieving reasonable progress. Okay. Thank you, Christopher. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Carlos. Further discussion. All those in favor of approving R4.2 special education monitoring
131as achieving reasonable progress signify with I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Thank you Sarah. >> Thanks. >> Um Corby is a rearrange. Are you up for taking notes on 4.1? I think that was different than maybe what we had said Meredith's been describing. Are you okay kind of swapping to that? >> Sure. I sent you I emailed you the electronic copy if that's helpful to you or you can hand write for the time being whatever works for you. >> Okay. And then we can convert to electronic later. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. >> And thanks for that little transitional logistical moment again as we have lots of notes to take this evening. >> And now moving on to 4.1 in this backwards extravaganza for student discipline and behavior monitoring. So, welcome Adam. Um,
132Adam Zingsham, our director of people services to share a bit about student discipline and and behavior. We know that OE10 typically had been where we had shared some of this data previously, but it was only one snapshot of one behavior code. So, I really appreciate the opportunity to think about this question and think more holistically about what would we expect for our students. So, here we >> Sure. So, I'm here to share with you how um our district's work is supporting multi-tered systems of support, specifically the behavioral support we're providing for all students. Um it feels somewhat odd and I again I appreciate the time um you've taken to watch the videos prepared to try to summarize an entire year and some change of work in a few slides here. Um and and just to
133thank and appreciate all of our teaching staff in the district, our people services staff and our leadership that have helped make a lot of pretty big um pretty big moves in this area in support of our students. So uh some leadership moves that we focused on this past year. One stemming from the approval from our board of Wisconsin social emotional learning competencies um as the standards that guide this work. um that allowed us to invest a great deal of time this past year in strengthening our universal practices. So that's basically what is the core instruction we're providing to our students through curricular resources such as second step our PBIS positive behavior intervention supports practices in our school and really norming as a district um in an aligned K12 way what that experience is. An example
134of that is the work that our counselors um and some of our secondary PBIS coaches and leadership staff did to develop a scope and sequence that guides that instruction um in the same way we do for many of our academic areas to guide our teachers and how that can be delivered over the course of the year. Uh the second um two really big bodies of work that we use as an opportunity to really align is um we took the amazing progressive response model that uh Dr. Jackson and many folks in our district created and did a really intensive look um with our principal um and leadership staff as a district into really interrogating every aspect from the first word to the last word of that and made a lot of changes based on what we've
135been seeing to better serve our schools and supporting our students with this work and then used it as an opportunity as we moved from keeping our behavior log data in power school to shifting all of that to next path to actually onetoone align progressive response model, the way we keep data in XPath, um from everything from the language of the behavior codes to the levels that we use um to really unify those systems to provide us more information that will help us inform the health of our system um and supports for students. Uh the third is shifting the social emotional learning screen uh that we did. We had been using the savers and my savers assessments and we shifted to uh the the BAS best assessments both the best and the sizzle. one of my
136favorite acronyms. Um the sizzle is a self screener used at the elementary level. Um and that's one that our uh students self-rate themselves on at the upper grade levels and our teachers um kind of assess our students on at the K5 level. the best is a very similar but kind of more upper level focused um cell screener that we use at the sixth grade through 12th grade level where students self assess um that is directly aligned with the Wisconsin self competencies with the national castle standards and gives us a lot better more actionable data to use to inform not just the health of our overall systems in conjunction with some of the other data sets we have access to but also making intervention decisions for students who might be struggling. I think one of the
137biggest issu areas of that that's really helped us is looking at internalizing behaviors. We see very um like externalizing behaviors play out through our behavior lock data. That's the stuff we can see for students that might be struggling um and we might not know using that information to support intervention decisions and responses to students has been um a really positive step forward. And then lastly, looking at the supports we have at the school level for some of our students that might be most at risk. Um uh this kind of overlaps with some of the presentations you've heard before and thinking about uh our extended learning pathways and foundations. Um our behavior uh district behavior coach um works in conjunction with those programs but also at the school level to do behavior coaching cycles for some
138of our students that are demonstrating need. She goes to the school, works with the school team to support observations, looking at data, idea sharing, modeling um and help when schools might feel that they're a little bit stuck with what to do next. As well as shifting our therapy partnership um at our middle school levels from um what we had to a more integrated true school-based mental health model. And so we have um therapists that are onsite just with us um at our three middle schools um that are providing on-site mental health support and therapy for students who have access barriers to seeking that same sort of support outside of the school level. So moving forward um we are looking to build off of this work in a number of key ways. I think one, we've
139done a wonderful job as a district identifying what our core practices are. Um what we're doing is we're taking that same approach now looking at our tier two and tier three systems. So what are the supports that um students who might need a little bit more or a lot more? What do those look like? Uh we've been interrogating our entire menu of interventions, making sure that those that were uplifting are truly researchbased, evidence-based, and aligned with how we teach in our district. Those are aligned with Wisconsin social emotional learning standards. and then doing the same build of those systems into our next path system of making sure that once we have those identified, we have a progress monitoring system that's built right into our next path system. So, we can look in time at how
140those resources are supporting students, which ones are working um to be able to continue to invest in those things beyond looking at those that are just research and evidence-based, which ones are serving us and serving our students. Um the second is a continued review we have of our progressive response model. We have really good data now that we've shifted to our next pass system that is as apples to apples as it's ever been across our schools. And so using that information to make sure that our progressive response model is continuing to support learning over punishment um and the decisions we're making around language and just equitable practices, which is what that uh policy is intended to do. Uh the third is now that we've uh learned more about our cell screeners, um supporting schools and
141learning from our schools about different data processes that we can use to better better use that data and how we're integrating that with our behavior log data, our attendance data, and the things we're seeing um from our students in school to be driving better decisions um not just at the universal level in our programming, but also in a targeted way for students that might be struggling. And then lastly, and this was uh attended to a little bit earlier in the staff feedback section, um Zeland Walsh is amazing and does amazing work as our district restorative practices coordinator. And how are we intentionally building a trainer of trainer models so that we're continuing to build a group of staff with an interest in that work to continue to expand those that can provide that training so
142that doesn't solely fall on Zealand beyond the amazing benefit that that has for students and staff and our buildings. and are working through a plan to continue to build that and have an intentional trainer trainer model. So this year we um expanded our training to have an advanced training for those that received the foundational training and are looking to build that cohort um including opportunities for co- facilitation with her to be able to do more of that training at schools. Um again following that statement um and we know that when we do that particularly the disproportionality we're seeing in some of our cell data we know that that will positively affect that. with that more questions. >> I piggy back off of that last comment. Um, I'm going to latch on to something I heard
143you say too about the idea of learning over punishment and then I think of the word consequence instead of punishment. And I I'm wondering this may be you informing us or maybe it is a wondering that we can share. how much understanding our families and our community have about what what restorative practices mean because right there's so many I think misconceptions around well if there isn't a punishment how did you know what's the learning that took place like just it's so granular and I think for the people that live it now and understand how these practices play out I'm just curious how we share that messaging because it's a really impactful way that we're helping guide right developing adolescence to making mistakes and recognizing harm they pause. Um, so I'm just curious more broadly how
144you all feel about like continuing to share and learn what that really is beyond our walls. >> I think we've continued to take that exact same approach. Um, uh, Zealand and her team have developed little tidbits that have been added to every single monthly staff newsletter and the VST family of family communication of little things not just about what restorative practice is, but every month there's a little tip of something that is working in a restorative way that families can do at home um, with their students and we'll continue to offer that moving forward. Um the team has also developed some some branding and some materials um that will be able to be provided in a more forward- facing way for families to understand that idea of um it's not about a lack of accountability.
145It's actually an emphasis on accountability and that idea of when a mistake is made, it's affecting other people and I can fix the mistake for myself, but how am I thinking about the effect that it have on other people and actually attending to that? Not just in our relationship, staff to staff, but staff to student, student to student um and then using some of those opportunities we have for communication to family to share some real actionable tidbits um that they can employ if they choose in their own homes. >> Yeah. and just really helping our everyone understand it is not a replacement for corrective action. That's not what that's not what what it's designed and it's about the culture and understanding of you know balancing power dynamics and also making sure that we have a
146space where harm can be appropriately rectified because even in unfortunately school's methodology for quoteunquote punishment is removal. Mhm. >> When there's a return, that doesn't mean the harm has has has gone away. So there it it can't replace um the the behavioral uh or the quoteunquote consequence placement for it. And it's I I understand why you asked the question that way because sometimes it gets misconstrued as a softened >> it. Totally. Yeah. >> Response to to behavior and it's completely not what what it does. >> Yeah. Yep. That's the pieces to elevate because I do think that misconception sometimes is there and thanks for growing that as well. I've heard also about the interest from staff and sites to have more supports, trainers, leads in buildings. Just overall again with these presentations, I really appreciate
147the fact that this highlights, I mean, we know the intentionality is always there with your staff and it's really just a great opportunity to highlight that type of work in all of these different areas for our community, for us as a board. I mean, there's things that are happening that we, you know, are thrilled to hear more about. Um, but there's things that I think our community would have no idea about. Um, that's fantastic stuff. And so I just appreciate all of the detailed uh data that's contained in the report because that's like fascinating to see. I love how it's broken out too with the kind of the K3 the four five. I think that's very very helpful especially since that kind of hits the different um different developmental areas. Um that's helpful for me.
148But I um I just can't stress enough like how much fantastic information um there is and just the intentionality that you are all bringing to that and that we're able to um to highlight here. So thank you and thank you for the opportunity. I think it's um in approaching the results policies this way. It's also allowed us to give people a lens into how do we look at the data with OE10. It was just how many incidents of this thing happen or this allows us to think about how many what percent of students have zero to one behavior incident. Let's think about that. And for students who may have many, what where are we seeing a reduction, right? So, how do we tell a more holistic story than just this one thing happened this many
149times? And so, just appreciation to the board for allowing us to to have some transparency in how we look about at the data and how we talk about it and then make action plans around it. I'm so glad you said that because I think that's that's huge that there is so much thought and evaluation and you know just taking data to heart all the time and so we're getting to see this glimpse of it and you know as a community member you just have no idea as a board member sometimes you can forget all of this work is ongoing daily um and just I just am so thrilled that here's a chance to take a look at we can get a little glimpse into all of the gear that you have um meshing with all
150the time on behalf of our kids. So, thanks. Thank you. Okay, board members. R 4.1 student discipline and behavior monitoring is before us now for achieving reasonable progress vote. Further discussion and or motions. I have a motion to move to approve with reasonable progress. >> Thank you, Meredith. Is there a second? I'll second. >> Thank you, John. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor of approving R4.1 student discipline is and behavior monitoring as achieving reasonable progress signify with I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Haven't done that yet. Great. We have approved our 4.1. Thank you team. I know. >> One more to go. We are shifting into OEE land. So we talked about this right that this has been achieving reasonable progress. Now we are shifting back to an operational expectation. This is
151about meeting expectations or not. So as we take that brain shift and personnel shift. >> Thank you Tim. As well as Marcy comes to the table. Thanks for joining us Marcy. Um, as our president uh very appropriately stated, I just wanted to take a give a mental pause for everyone in the room in our board to move our minds from uh the two hours worth of results and now we pivot into our area of operation which requires a different a different mindset. Also, while the term communication uh comes up, we generally don't do the survey results and OE9 on the same day because they can actually get misconstrued where OE the survey results are far more appropriately lined to OE4. This is specifically yes, sorry, apologize. Uh OE9 is talking about the communicating to our
152general public. We do recognize that families comprise a vast majority of our when we say our our general public, but they're also our community and we always put the data back in the space. The mid 60% of our uh um population around the area that don't have a child in school and and our appropriaten is to make sure that uh they have the appropriate information as well. Uh additionally, this is a little more robust uh this time. Um, and you probably noticed that with the 30 minute video and but it was it needed to be that uh way. Thank you again Marcy Marcy for that. But as part of that, we are responsible to the board for every three years to have a communications review. And so the separate packet that you have in front
153of you is the communications review that also will work as a site for the presentation itself. That >> and with that the reminder that we did preview a video. So the offer is still for you as well, Marcy, that we have all previewed. The community can watch that video as well. So keeping that in mind as you opt into slides knowing we've been able to process and digest a lot. All righty. Thank you. >> Okay. And before Marcus begins, um there were a couple of slides missing somehow when I re unsubmitted or reattached the slides. So, if you want to um reboot or whatever you need to do and go into the slide or even just click on the slide that has the one in the parenthesis and then it's what slide 82 or something
154I think it is. You'll be where >> yes we start on 82 or >> so they just need they need to refresh. >> Refresh. Yeah, >> refresh. And then actually slide 61 to refresh the main slide deck >> and then right you need the other slide deck to have all your slides. I apologize for the confusion. >> No, thank you. >> No worries. >> Okay. Yes, the video is out there. High entertainment value. Take a look at it if you want details. And um we're going to focus on a summary of our highlights. Just a reminder to our audience and those watching at home that we are focusing on communication with the public as Dr. Clarity said. Um, a lot of that is with families, but also wanting to make sure that we are sharing
155information and providing opportunities for folks who don't have students in our school district to be aware of what's going on in the district and provide uh their input on how they think it should be moving along. Okay. So, our um indicators 91 and 92 except for the communications review. Just want to point out a few um spectacular highlights that we have throughout the year. Um our family experience survey. Our respondents more than doubled this year. So, we're really happy. Um we take that as a sign that folks are trusting that we're using the information they provide um to us. So, they're more willing to complete the survey. And we had some nice increases in families reporting that they feel the district keeps them informed on important issues and some nice increases around families um feeling
156that the communication they receive meets their needs. Uh now our modalities for input. I just wanted to recognize um some of the amazing staff members you've heard report here this evening. Our advanced learning parent advisory that Amy and Lindsay spoke of um is very important. It wasn't wasn't created because of ' 09, but it's just a good example of how in tune um our staff are with what our community needs and using that information to inform our decisions. Um same thing with Dr. Hawkins who has started some community information sessions and I think there may I think there's one this Wednesday interesting topics that people are interest that um people have the opportunity to engage a little more deeply in one was on school nutrition and you know she takes feedback from them people ask
157questions um there's another one on AI keeping your students safe online so another nice opportunity um without any sort of ongoing commitment for families to both learn and provide input on what they'd like to see happen in the district. And then for our online presence, we had some amazing increases this year, especially on Instagram. You know, having over 1,200,000 views of our Instagram content um similar on Facebook, but >> um our social media um expert Karen Maroeta really deserves some recognition for that. Um, you know, she keeps us on our toes. Um, she really researches what kind of trends are out there, what kind of trends are out there that are school appropriate. Um, and then goes out and works with kids from kindergarten to grades 12 and has them doing all kinds of things
158um to share information on social media. Dr. C on a diving board in a suit um to to help announce conference. So, she knows how to get people's attention. Um, and really we know that's where kids are, especially our high school students that we really have a lot of engagement from them on Instagram. Um, and we do hear people who have concerns about, you know, we don't we shouldn't be using social media or the current kind of the negative side of social media. And we will never use social media as a tool for, you know, urgent information or um, super important information that you need to act on without also having that going out to, you know, via email and text and our other channels. So, it really is to inform and share good news.
159And we know people are um consuming that information and they have the chance to see their own kid um doing things and that always is helpful for people as well. All right. And then as um Dr. Clary said this was our every three-year opportunity to do what in the administrative rules called communications audit, but we use using the friendlier term of communications review. So, um, what we did for that was, of course, had our, um, survey that we do every year and all the other information that we gather every year. And then we went a little bit deeper in looking at another survey that we sent out to folks asking them how they get information in general, and then how they get information about the school district, how they get information from the school district,
160and how they prefer to get information. And we also had the chance to sit down. I think it was Jen maybe who mentioned you having the opportunity to sit down at a table with someone and talk through things. We had the opportunity to do that um with our advisories. So students, family, staff and then another um family gathering cordose group that Miss Stanley has started. Um and that was really valuable to just have these conversations with small groups of people. And um in the video we talked about what a lot of those findings were. So in the interest of time we'll go through things quickly here. But we heard a lot and in interestingly the same themes from different groups. So kids talked about how communication was effective for their families or not. staff talked
161about it, families talked about it, came up with similar trends that the school district has done a good job of providing enough communication, um having consistent ways of providing education and um transparency, right? People feel like they know what they um need to know about what's going on in the school district and that we're um you know, open and honest with them about things that are important to them. However, um across all of the groups, there was definitely concern about the volume of information um and sort of the the complexity of the system. So then we look at having to call for how do we in a system where we have to share a lot of information and we have to share information from different schools with the same families because they might have kids
162in in different schools. How do we simplify a system um while also maintaining and acknowledging the uniqueness of our schools and the uniqueness of developmental levels and what kinds of things you need to be communicating. So, we've got some ambitious uh leadership actions planned for the coming years and we will be looking at um establishing our our shared communication framework um improving coherence across communication systems, strengthening consistency and prioritizing clarity and usability in message design. Uh, one thing that came up um was staff's discomfort and rightfully so with you using personal devices to communicate with families or students. But the recognition that that is where families and students are and the expectation of, you know, oh yeah, you have a lab tomorrow, remember this. Or oh, you know, field trip coming up, remember to get
163this in. Um, and that is a tool that people use and they appreciate the immediacy of it. So, we have started researching, you know, what one tool can we use districtwide for families and staff to have that sort of chat or texting feature that one um doesn't call on staff to use their own devices and two is something that we can have an archive of what those communications have been and our athletics is actually sort of leading the way on that. >> Can I put something real quick? Just want to make sure because I think the way just the way it came out of me, you've misinterpreted because you mentioned personal devices and you said expectations behind it. We don't have an expectation that you use your personal device in our in our in our
164schools uh for or for for our staff. But sometimes we feel that is the easiest mechanism because we don't have another alternative to get information quickly to to parents. But I just for sake we don't there is no we expect you to use your device for with for those type of communications. >> Good clarification. And we've started to look at um some tools that will uh make that even more clear that for families and staff and uh we'll be moving through a process of making a decision about which tool to use and then getting that launched. Um athletics is leading the way on this. Uh Mr. Steiner has done a great job with looking at a couple of different tools. Um, athletics is sort of a whole different animal because you have coaches who aren't
165staff here. They don't have BASD emails necessarily. You have volunteers, you know, people coming in, people going out. Um, so we found a product called Sports U that all of our teams will start using um effective the upcoming fall sports seasons. So again, everyone will be using it. um gives us the ability to kind of have records of what kind of communication is going on between whom >> and how does that situate and land with the feedback that I kept reading and hearing of there's just too many platforms or too many way like so then this is like talking about another one but how do we how does the consolidation concept also layer in that because that was something I thought was interesting of the different things at each school or site and any one
166school using multiple things and >> it does um lead into consolidation. The idea would be you know right now we have um some people using Remind, some people using WhatsApp, some people using Google chat, some people using this that or the other thing. The idea is that if we went with a product, you know, some of the more popular ones, parent square, apt to um we're researching products, but the idea is that would be the tool you would use. So if you need to um communicate with your social studies class 7th hour, you go in, it actually pulls all of that information out of power school and prepopulates it for our teachers. So all they would need to do is say, "Oh yeah, social studies 7th hour." They send out their message and it goes
167through that one tool. Um so it will be important that we have staff voice and participation in selecting the tool, parent input and selection and um perspective on selecting the tool so that you know once it's here we know it's something people are going to want to use. And then to round it out, some of our other um leadership moves will be um some we got some feedback on enhancing access and equity um specifically around translation for languages in addition to Spanish. A lot of the tools um that we're looking at, you select your language. So if you need something in French, you go in and select that. Everything comes through to you in French. Um and then likewise, you can write your message in French, send it back. we see it here in in
168English. So, it has a lot of that functionality built in. And then we'll keep monitoring our progress and adjusting as needed. So, that is the quick version of work that we did um over the past year and what we're looking to do in the future. And would be happy to uh welcome any questions. >> I don't have a question. I just think you guys are crushing it. gonna write that one now. >> Yeah, I feel like way more informed in lot really fun ways, which is cool. And uh it's just funny seeing like half older adults like myself are on more Facebook and all the young are on Instagram for all of us that know. But yeah, I think it's great. you you guys have done a great job and uh I love all the
169modalities for for input. I didn't know about the VAD info at >> Oh, yeah. Was that relatively new? >> We've had it at least the last two years. >> Okay. >> And perhaps before that, the VAD info email address. And yeah, we >> we just moved it to a more predominant place on the site after we switched websites. >> That's cool. So, it's great more engaging than that. >> Yeah. Uh, I just thought that, you know, the ability for us like stood out was just we're able to reach way more Spanish respondents. That's awesome because that's been a struggle for years. >> And is there any one or two channels that have helped push that number up or? Yeah, interestingly in talking with Rosa Maria and her team, um you know, they have that direct
170communication with families and they will just reach out and say, "Hey, this survey is really important. Please fill it out." And um they have those relationships now that we get, you know, a lot of input. Um and I think having um having staff that are bilingual and having staff whose families are in the district, you know, they will reach out to their own families and encourage them to fill things out. So I think a lot of that has been word of mouth. >> That's awesome. Additionally making our Spanish speaking families often the students will identify as they are the main conduit of information to their families. So making they they ask tell even if my parents going to fill out the survey tell me about it so I can make sure that my family understands
171what it is you know to get get it back get it back to you. And that's in not just with surveys, that's in multiple areas of communications. They are often the go-between. Uh, >> right. >> Yeah. I noticed that was interesting to your point how across the board, everyone saw the student as a conveyor for important information. >> Yeah. >> So, it's awesome. I get updates from my kids all the time and I love it. It's like these kids are talking. Listen to your teachers. you're saying, "Hey, encourage your parents to fill out the survey or to respond to this or attend that." It's it's awesome to see that the kids are becoming a more consistent channel communication. Anyway, thank you. I thought the report was great. I don't really have any questions other than
172that. Want to say again, Meredith has said this several times throughout the night, but the video that you put together was so much detail. I really appreciate all the information along with the report. Um, one, um, just maybe something that I saw that was really along the same lines with translation and sharing stories and building kind of an inclusive, um, a sense of belonging, inclusion. One thing that I saw was really powerful when I was in Seattle was um not necessarily the need for translation from our students, but rather collecting of stories in language and then translation through videos and other means and and not having folks necessarily have to uh speak uh uh English, but they can share their stories and we translate for them so that their stories are coming through 100%. And
173there's no need for our students to necessarily have to translate for um our our parents and other community members. But that that then builds its own connection point to communities and or sense of belonging and um and and uplifting of that that perspective. I think it's just something that as we continue thinking about translation and inclusion that that strategy think about. >> Thank you. Yeah, that's I took a note on that. It's a really good idea. I have a question um just so much as you know I think as we're going forward you know picking the best tools to communicate with um you know one of the things that always makes me nervous is um when we talk about personal devices like the ability for one personal device to connect with another personal device and
174when we talk about tools like having a tool that works as a clearing so that those personal connections maybe don't happen in certain ways. Like I don't need um to have the personal contact information of of my kids teachers or coaches or anything like that. Likewise, they don't need to have my personal like I just need to be a part of a list >> where I get it or they can click on my name and I get whatever email. They don't necessarily need to have my contact information. They certainly don't need to have my kids contact information. They just need to be able to like get communication to them. So, I think being clear with the community when we do get to the point where we're picking these tools that we're doing it um kind
175of with that sort of security in mind that um um you know, we don't want to have you know, we want to have people that have personal connections, >> but we don't necessarily want to be facilitating personal communications. >> Right. Correct. >> And so, I think I just want to voice that. It's, you know, I see where we're going with this. I'm fine with it. Um, but I feel like it's appropriate to kind of raise that question whenever we have these discussions. >> Yeah, I'll just be more far more blunt towards that. >> Please do it that we we have no desire, no telling us we want to actually put through rule or possibly bring to the board policy that private messaging is not part of our part of our organizational strategy. It just it
176protects students and it protects adults as well. There's just not a circumstance where a private message should be. Yeah. Going on. >> I know. I just wanted to kind of in my own roundabout way bring that up. >> No worries. >> Thank you. >> No worries. >> I appreciate like just putting it on the table. I actually appreciate the directness about this is where we are at as a district. This is what we want to encourage and discourage >> um as far as communications. So, thank you and Marcy. Thank you for all of this. What I really find interesting in the like the that audit review, communications review, I appreciate just the um evaluating how different things are working for families just that it's there's no communic one communication method that's going to be ideal
177for everyone and but the fact is the district and you at spearing it are taking the time to show interest in how do we best communicate what ways are effective, what ways could we improve that and I just just that process is a a valuable one because you really are taking that information and utilizing it. It's not just thank you for your input. It's it's truly a this is how we approach and I um I think just seeing how the communications within the district have really just evolved um has been this is like the arc of communications over the year you know the years have been really really impressive and it's just been um I feel like you're you are communicating to everybody messages can be done and and still continuing to try. >> Yeah.
178Thank you. I appreciate that. And it's definitely um always room for improvement. And I feel like the feedback that we got from folks this year really will allow us to go to that next level, right? It's like, okay, we've got it down like yes, we communicate. Yes, we do pretty well and now what's next? And I'm excited about that. What's next? >> Yeah, I I just appreciate that. That's even the process is really exciting, but it's been executed so well. So, thank you. And just the reminder too, it's in our OE policy, but the reminder that the the efforts still going to communicating with people that don't have kids in our schools that when we talk about communicating with the greater community, that's that really is the intention of this leadership team. um and the
179QR code to the postcards to everything for the full annual report um of really trying to inform everyone who has a connection to our schools to know and understand the great things that are happening. So super appreciative again for the innovative ways that that's happening too to really keep um a finger on the pulse of everyone that is the Verona area school district community. >> And although it's not sort of buil as a communication tool, the high school tours that we give >> Oh yeah, >> people love those. you know, they're here for a full hour and a half. The tours are often led by Rita Mortonson. So, she's got, you know, energy and enthusiasm galore and they'll sit around and, you know, they they ask a lot of questions. They're glad to be here.
180That's another really good way to engage people who may not currently have kids in the schools. >> I love that. That's a really cool opportunity, especially since we've had such a support in the community, him bringing this building to be um and they just it's great to have the doors open. Okay. So, board members reminder that our um charge here is I'm losing my patience. >> Thank you. Meeting expectations or not. So, of course, any further discussion or questions for Marcy and the team and or any motions to approve. >> Thank you, Meredith. Motion to approve his meeting expectations. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Christopher. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor of approving OE9 communicating with the public monitoring report as meeting expectations signify with I. >> I. Any
181opposed? >> Thank you. Thanks for all the monitoring. Thank you, Marcy. Thank you, Carlos, for notes. You did a great job. all all of the information this evening. So that concludes our board action. So moving on into our agenda for board updates. Any general board updates from any board members this evening? >> Sorry. >> Any general board updates from anyone this evening? I thought there may be a few. Yeah, go ahead. >> Conversation. Uh no. Uh this Friday, um the Latino Wait, sorry, get it right. Latino's Leadership Club is um there is the perseverance and resilience positive influence of Latino community um conference you and I are speaking. >> Yeah. Right. So um it's happening this Friday. So just a call out for that. Uh and then also Gsafe and their um safe school safe
182community 26 conference is coming up on April 14th. Um and you can register at GSafe u for that. Um, so I I would encourage any administration or teachers or board members who want to broaden your perspective from an LGBTQ community and school uh kind of nexus that that will be a great place to learn more uh on allyship and advocacy for our LGBTQ community and students. So those are the two things I >> thank you. >> Yeah. Others reminder that Wednesday is the Greater Dane County Consortium gathering in Oregon. I believe Christopher will be there. Thank you. And Dr. Clary will be there. >> Great. >> Election. I know that was going to be on my future dates also. It all bleeds together of OEA future dates. The election tomorrow. So to everyone here and
183who is listening, please do go out and vote. >> Very excited. Take them. Two board seats >> and take the time to vote. Yeah. Juan Carlos and John on the ballot. >> Yep. >> Running out of >> but still worth the vote. >> Yes. >> I've heard a lot of jokes get a prize for most reading. Exactly. >> From who? >> I don't know. It's anonymous. Yeah, for now. >> Right. Right. So, that is tomorrow. Voting tomorrow. >> All right. Any other general board updates? >> Okay. Moving on to superintendent consent agenda, which we already talked about one piece that is in there explicitly. Do you want to add a couple of >> Absolutely. So, again, congratulations. >> They'll vote shortly. I know we had wait for two hours, 25 minutes for us, but shortly
184we vote on it. But I also wanted to very appropriately take the opportunity to do the initial uh recognition of our retirees before our formal recognition in in May. Um and then you know I just can't let this moment go without passing on a recognizing group of veteran educa educators who have formally indicated that they will be retiring after the school year and get this number together. These outstanding educators have served over 230 years uh worth of service. uh the educators uh and their current roles are as follows. I have a Julie Bay grade two over at C knowledge 28 years of service. Uh Karen Bowers Caddy uh Sher Creek 32 years of service. Katherine Kolier over at Instructional Coach at Country View, 32 years of service. Carmen Curtis, grade one at Country View, 40
185years of service. Uh Diane Liner uh face teacher at Badger Ridge, 37 years. Lorie Martin, mathematics and resource over at Sher Creek Greek, 29 years. And Karine Karina Walsh, mathematics high school, 32 years of service for a total of 230 amazing years of education. So we can do a virtual round of applause and thank you for this group. I'm going to do a you know the more formal presentation. >> Oh yeah, we will >> do a big celebration in May. So we want this is just a paperwork piece OF >> I don't like those >> that is an amazing amazing it's hard to see how these people uh go but the time that they have poured into our students over all of these years they have more than earned >> and to other educators I
186mean I cannot just the mentorship that exists year after year. But with this retirement cohort in particular, of mentoring beginning teachers, of mentoring student teachers, I mean just the robust way that these educators have paid it forward and have impacted countless human beings is just incredible. And I and it's just such a right in its consent and I understand the legality and logistics of that but it feels so passive with such profound things like a new administrator and retirees to say any questions and then be passed. But with that any questions about the superintendent's consent agenda hearing? None. >> It is approved and approved. We'll call that a yaboo. Uh, and then board's consent agenda. Again, there are notes there. Thank you, Christopher, for being our notetaker last time. Um, so those are in our
187consent agenda. Are there any questions? The board's consent agenda is also approved. Um, so we are going to adjourn to close session and um, as we've talked about our transparency as a board to give a few layers of information beyond just the statute that's guiding us. So, I am going to take the time to read this just so I don't miss anything important. Thank you, Meredith, for the readers because I might just use them. Um, I have it blown up pretty big here. Okay. Uh, so before we moved into close session, I want to uh briefly describe the topics that the board will be discussing and why those discussions are appropriately held in close session. The board will be discussing two items involving the district's negotiating position and strategy under Wisconsin statute 19.85 sub1 sub.
188The first is the district's approach to upcoming base wage discussions with employee representatives. This will involve consideration of compensation related factors and potential positioning for those discussions. Discussing those matters in open session could reveal elements of the district's negotiating posture and reduce its effectiveness in bargaining. The second item under that same exception is the district's potential approach to financing and related terms for a proposed improvement project involving dacttronics. This includes consideration of possible financing structures, acceptable terms, and how those decisions may affect the district's position in discussions with external parties. Public discussion of those considerations could also limit the district's flexibility and adversity and adversely affect its ability to secure favorable terms. Before proceeding, are there any other general principles or perspectives that board members would like to share right here in open session regarding
189compensation, cost of living considerations, or our district's general approach to financing a major project? Um, and the board will also confer with legal counsel under Wisconsin statute 19.85 sub1 subg regarding strategy related to potential or ongoing litigation involving recovery of outstanding invoices owed to the district. For clarity, once in close session, the board will take up the items in the following order. First, we'll do B wage discussion. Then, we'll do our litigation strategy with council. And third will be the dacttronics financing and negotiation item. Um, if there are no further comments, I move that the board adjourn to close session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85 sub17 sube to deliberate regarding the district's approach to base wage discussions with employee representatives and to discuss the district's negotiating position and strategy regarding financing and related terms for
190a potential improvement project regard involving or competitive or bargaining reasons require a close session and pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85 85 sub1 subg to confer with legal counsel concerning strategy to be adopted with respect to litigation regarding recovery of outstanding invoices owed to the district. We will move to close session per um roll call vote. Close session. Joe >> I Corby >> I >> John >> I >> Meredith >> hi >> Christopher I Carlos I >> I am I as well. We are adjourned to close session.