001All right. Greetings everyone. I will call this meeting to order. Let's establish. We have a quorum, please. Beginning with a roll call vote. Juan Carlos. >> I. >> Christopher >> here. >> Meredith >> here. >> John >> here. >> Joe >> here. >> I am here as well. We do have a quorum. Juan Carlos, has this meeting been properly noticed? >> Yes. >> Thank you. To help ensure that we're centering our board work around our shared values and serving our students, we begin each of our board meetings by reading our district's equity framework and the Ho Chunk land acknowledgement, which can be found at the top of your agenda. Um, and I am up in the rotation this evening, so I will take the turn to read. Our BASD educational equity framework reads, "In the
002Verona 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 they need to experience success. In acknowledgement of such, the Verona 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 Hounk Nation
003being 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." All right, moving ahead to um adoption of our agenda. It would take any changes, suggestions, or a motion to approve the agenda as written. >> Motion to approve. Thank you, Christopher. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, John. All those in favor of approving tonight's agenda signify with I. >> I. Any opposed? >> All right. Yay. It's recognition time. I might make a recognition song as I'm just going to do that for no reason. So excited to have some esteemed colleagues and guests to honor this evening. So, I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Clary,
004as we recognize some of our staff. >> Excellent. Good afternoon, everyone. Uh, thanks for being here today. We're always like to start these meetings off with a really solid recognition of the outstanding staff that we have here in Broner School District. And today we're excited to acknowledge the members of the choir team including our director Bob De Bosingham. So this is going to be a two-part because there's two awards that that go along here. So first we're going to recognize Deb Bosingham by herself which I know she hates that but that's what makes it fun. who was awarded the outstanding aquatic professional of the year by the Wisconsin Park and Recreation Association. With this award, Deb was recognized for her outstanding contributions to the field and her tenure as an aquatic aquatic professional. In addition,
005the full aquatics department received the Wisconsin Parks and Recreation Association Silver Star Award in the special events category for the first annual Verona area kids triathlon. uh Silverstar awards winners are selected for the purpose for the purpose of the event uh participation operational efficiency creativity and innovation and successful marketing. So congratulations again to Deb, our assistant director of aquatics, Leah Wanderer, our staff and wellness community programming coordinator Sydney Peach and facilities and event scheduling coordinator Janine Inennis on the highly successful kids triathon and this award. So congratulations to this AMAZING TEAM. DE, YOU SPEAK on that blue team. [laughter] >> Okay, I'm gonna talk it, but probably not. [laughter] >> Thank you. [laughter] >> I didn't know there was a speech. >> Okay, good. >> I'm completely messing with you. Perfect. [laughter] >> Thank you,
006Deb, and the team. I mean, we just hear often all the programs, all the things that really thrive out of our aquatic center is just such a gift to the community. Um, such a return on investment for community members that help support the construction of the pool. Thank you so much for what you do and all the offerings that you all bring and this triathlon. What a great first annual. We got to say first definitively that there will be a second. Um, can you all remind me again how many kids participated in the first annual? >> 300. >> It's amazing. >> That's amazing. Um, yeah, what a great opportunity with facilities that we have to bring Littles into the triathlon world. So, thank you. Thanks for being here so we can celebrate and acknowledge your
007work. >> Appreciate. >> Absolutely. >> Chad, same anything for your team? >> Well, Dr. See, like I said to you earlier, you know, in particular, debt, hiring debt, uh, who was a a veteran, longtime tenure device director in Oregon, uh, you on occasion worry about folks like me who are long in the tooth, coming for uh, five or six years and and resting on their laurels. The opposite happened. So when we hired her there isn't the time I meet with Deb that there's not a new innovative idea that she's interested in uh bringing our community and more people into our amazing facilities. Same is true for Sydney and Janine who if there was one thing Deb and I hope you don't blame me for this was not super wild about initially was the kids triathlon
008because she knew it almost killed her when she did it in Oregon. that we have Janine and Sydney who are like we got this help us with the pool part and we're we're going to run with it >> and that's where where you guys end up getting recognized. So it was a ton of work to get sponsors and all the logistics and they they killed it. So super lucky. [applause] >> Thank you again for being here so we can honor all that you do. You are clearly more than welcome to stay for as much of the meeting as you like and we also recognize all the work that you do. So yeah, thank you so much. >> Free to leave without any judgment. [laughter] >> Yeah. and then we'll turn it right back over to
009you Dr. Clary for our superintendence report. >> Absolutely. Uh so for super superintendent report today we're going to I'm going co-present with Marcy and have Amy available also for additional questions if necessary uh to go over a student and families experiences survey uh results. We are in year two of our new um uh survey model. So we have some comparative data to be able to look at and understand and speak to uh as we always do. We'll always also come back with the staff results uh as that survey is still open to the to the public right right now. [clears throat] >> I need to switch over to Canva on my own. Thank you for your input. >> All right. Ready? So, as always, we open up with the the rationale behind our um communication
010survey is in alignment with our priority areas and strategic framework. uh we allow that to uh guide our our focus and how we have formed the questions in collaboration with uh some of our advisories and other caregivers that really helped us morph the the questions into a space that allow for genuine feedback and really be able to get to the heart of our our work here in in the Broner School District. Additionally, we're committed to continuous improvement. So we take this feedback as a way of understanding uh the areas where we are are strong and also the opportunities where we still look to still look to grow. Really excited to that our response rates have continued to uh be very high. Um for our students we had 3,200 33. That's a 75% response rate for
011our our student population and our parents and guardians. Uh that number doubled this year uh from 2020 uh 25 to 2026. Uh some of the things that we want to uh which was a 105% uh increase between 2025 and 2026. Uh we also as we look at that participation rates and from through a demographic lens uh we had a uh 20 >> about 100 about 100 um sorry I should let you finish your question. >> So for Spanish speaking number >> yeah it was about 100 Spanish speaking families >> additional. >> Yes. >> All right. As we prepare for the for the feedback sessions, here's the way that it'll be presented. [clears throat] It'll open with the report to the board of education today. Uh then I will complete a district-wide video with the results
012that will be shared with all families and staff. It'll also be included in the family newsletter available on the on the VSSD website and go through social media. Um and each school will then share a video uh results video of their individual spaces as well. So there'll be multiple methods in which this information is shared back to our our our families and our students. All right, let's get into the meat of it. So as you compare 2025 to 2026, uh what was unique is that the areas that are five areas that were bright spots in 2025 were also the the bright spots for 2026. And but what was good about that is we also had increases in in each of those areas. We know it's hard to have significant um percentage moves when the when
013the percentages are already really high, but it was just very interesting being able to look at those areas that we you know weren't necessarily stagnant and that we still were able to shine in a in a lot of areas when it came to uh the learning [clears throat] is important in our school. Uh families being treated with respect at my school was uh was high. uh have opportunities for success. I believe my principal is a good leader and I believe my teachers challenged me to think all uh statistically were uh our [clears throat] our five highest and for 25 and for and for 20 26. So with anything we also have areas for growth uh in in this area the we had four areas that we excuse me we have five areas that we want
014to look at and four areas identified uh were where every improvement areas of improvement all increased between 2025 and 26. Uh I like going to school each day. I feel students are nice to show respect. I believe the bathrooms are clean and wellmaintained. I think my school is clean and I feel that there's healthy food choices for me for me at lunch. All were areas where uh our percentages were were lower and we want to continue and we did show increases in the in those spaces. Uh we continue to work with our our our students and to better understand some of the areas where we are looking for uh growth and uh we're still getting good feedback in those areas. When we talk we also one of the things that we're learning more about is
015that you know in terms of cleanliness they're uh even though they marked the second one I think my school is clean they are still referencing the the restrooms and like student use of restrooms and the cleaniness of students in in those spaces. So those two are really working hand in hand. One area that we also want to clarify that uh stood out last year that uh we did a lot of additional work around was the bus bus and bus safety. Uh and some of the data last year and this year initially showed that that that was still an area for growth. What we learned is that um when students were completing the survey, if they did not ride the bus, it was being marked as a negative or no. And so it was throwing that
016that data system off. So that's why it's actually no longer on this space because it's significant and hopefully it's getting better as well. And but it's it significantly increased the percentage that did not find that as a as a concern because we removed the students that weren't riding the bus at all. gave us gave us better better data. [clears throat] >> Were those the five lowest that you've highlighted on slide seven? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Thanks. >> All right. We like to go into the uh greatest improvements statistically between uh last year and and this year. Uh the biggest improvement was between 66% to 75% for I feel safe at my school. Uh some of the areas that really stood out whereas the high school which [clears throat] had a 17% increase uh I
017feel safe at at school. Uh I think we also in talking some students believe this aligns with our implementation of our SRO and our and officer so really uh have been having a good partnership and relationship with students being present in the hallways and also understanding that he is there as a support for safety and has done a good job of not making sure that we're not policing in those in those spaces. So uh th those things are working hand in hand as well. Uh we're also an area on the academic side where we were looking for significant growth and saw some was I received uh feedback from my teachers about my academic progress which moved from 68 to 74. uh students feeling nice to show respect was still low did increase by 7% and
018I I believe that my school develops abilities to uh to empathize with others also uh increased by uh around six 6% as well. So then when you talk about having school specific videos and information coming this these might be areas that get more disagregated by site too because this is right the full collective correct >> and remind me again the students >> is it 3 through 12 that took the survey right we don't do the K12s okay thank you for that reminder >> all right so improvement action questions. Uh some of the things that we want to do is uh that we like to do is break it down to understand like you just said uh understand it by school and school and school spaces to better have an understanding are these are their leadership
019moves needed in different spaces as compared to others. um allow time for our leaders to dig into this data themselves and work with their individual staffs, work with their student organizations that they've uh like their advisories that they have created to uh plan their their leadership moves. And then this data is used to inform the continuous improvement plan as they build their goals for next year as as well to allow for uh just deeper implementation, deeper thought of how they will strategize to move to move forward. Right. So, I'm gonna pause before I move over to Marcy uh to specifically stay in the realm of students before we move into families for additional questions. Yeah. >> Yeah. This is great information. I love seeing you also the emphasis on areas for growth. um question um
020in regards to demographic data and just going further into that information and as we center our equity framework this is really an opportunity to see if there's anything that's highlighted from our demographic data if there are barriers to specific demographic groups I think specifically for some communities uniforms officer in a building wouldn't pervey safety and so that's a good way for us to make sure that we're meeting that that um that promise we've made to the community around safety and for everyone in our community. So, that would be one thing I'd be really interested to hear about. Also, thinking about uh immigrant refugee students who may not feel safe to come to school, not necessarily a part of our our school uh um environment or community, but rather outside agencies looking at them and being
021targeted ICE in particular. So those things I I would love if we have that information and can see that uh drill that that down. Uh and I don't know if we track LGBTQ or gender um diverse students as well. Maybe if we don't do that now, we think about that in the future as well because this is another demographic that I think is important if we're thinking about safety and access etc. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> We do do the um we use two different platforms. So Marcy's going to talk about the family survey results which we use the tutor platform for for the student platform exactly what you're talking about Christopher we use next path so we can actually drill down to the student level. So when schools are setting their continuous improvement goals
022they can do that by focus group for any of these questions. groups they can see the question many of them have chosen the question I feel I belong at school and then they just aggregate that by focus groups to think through what are those specific actions because as you're naming the um aggregate can show one thing but as you dig deeper you might see other other trends so we did specifically use a different platform for the students so we could get to that level of analysis and follow through >> and I appreciate this this is the the perfect tool in regards to finding that data to see where those options All right, on to our family results. >> Oh, I'm sorry. One last question. >> Yeah. Um, will this also be available in Spanish and
023other or other languages as we have those videos that are presented? >> We did last year. >> Cool. Thank you. >> And I just I thought of the question too as you're talking about that because I know we talk about this with like staff surveys and feedback. Is it still anonymous though for families and students or is it not? Is your comment to say that we can drill down and know who the individual is that submitted the specific survey >> for families and um for staff it's anonymous and that's we use the student platform for that. For students we use our internal platform so that we can disagregate to that level. Um but really there's a small number of people that have access to individual responses. >> Okay. >> For students. >> Okay. So, so
024students can be somewhat rest assured that it feels anonymous for most individuals in the district that are using and getting the feedback. >> Yes. >> That we're looking at big picture themes. >> Yeah. Individual student results. >> Thanks. >> All right. For our parents and [cough] want to extend thanks for the 105% increase um in respondents. We're really happy about that. The more we can hear from more people, the better way better off we are. So wanting to look at our bright spots. Um they these were also the same last year as this year and we saw um increases in the percentage of respondents who agreed or strongly agreed with these statements. So we have folks um believing that teacher, staff and administrators demonstrate genuine care for their child. And that was brought up over
025and over again. um people talking about the expertise and the commitment and the care that teachers and staff have for their children that they know their children um that they see them for who they are and support their learning. Lots of [clears throat] teachers and principles and school staff mentioned by name. So that was great to see. We had increases in I am treated with respect at this school. I believe my child has the necessary classroom supplies and I believe the school is clean and wellmaintained. for our areas for growth. They were also the same uh similar to the student survey, the same questions are are having the fewest percentage of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing with the response and we saw improvement. And um as we look through these, I'd like to pause just
026for a moment and notice that 11% increase in [clears throat] parents receiving feedback from school staff on how well their child is doing and a 12% increase in families receiving positive communication about their family, I mean about their student. So, um, knowing that yes, these are still areas for improvement, but really seeing big gains and part of that is is baked into the standardsbased teaching and learning approach as we're doing professional learning. Um, part of that is helping students set goals, helping students understand what they're learning and giving them feedback on their academic progress. And for the um family survey, we have an opportunity for open-ended responses and we get hundreds of those and we're we're always excited to see those. Again, seeing a lot of people mentioned by name um for positive the positive
027contributions to the school district. [clears throat] And um then we sort those into themes. And what [clears throat] is working well? What came up with our families was again the caring, committed and skilled staff. Um strong communication with families, safe, welcoming and respectful school environments, high quality teaching and learning and academic supports, interventions, and differentiation. We noted some specific examples here around communication because it also emerged as an area of growth which we'll talk about on our next um slide. So we thought it was interesting that it's landing as what's working well and landing as an area for growth. So we want to provide some specific examples here. Um notably newsletters, people talk about grading rubrics, flyers about activities and events, communication from teachers, and weekly recaps in some of the platforms that we use
028including Seesaw and Campus and Powers School. And then we also wanted to just highlight um some things that came up as things that are working well consistently. They weren't top five by volume um but still we thought these were worth mentioning um particularly multiling multilingual communication and inclusivity with the the increase in Spanish speaking families who responded to the survey. It was encouraging to see that they were feeling the sense of um having access to multilingual materials and information and inclus and and being included. All right. What could be improved? Uh we've got communication, student behavior, discipline, [clears throat] advanced learning, grading, feedback, and transparency about the progress and support for students with special needs. Again, around communication, we wanted to dig a little deeper. um to see what specifically families were talking about. And
029what we noticed was um a continued desire for more information about what students are learning and how they're doing. And then um we noticed a large variation in some people saying, "I hear from a teacher all the time to I never hear from the teachers or I hear from the teacher very little." Um so that could explain, you know, why this may have landed in both places. And then again, um, some areas of what could be improved that were consistently mentioned but weren't in the top five. Um, focused around technology, um, access to extracurriculars, arts and enrichment, transportation, facilities, and some concerns around wellness as well. And for our continued improvement actions, um again, these are things that um were mentioned last year, so we've we've known they were areas of concern and have taken
030actions to address those things. [clears throat] And we're we're happy that we're seeing progress, but we'll continue to to push this work forward. We um have developed an identification process and implemented it for math grades 2 through eight for advanced learning. um developed an advanced learning family advisory and then have worked to get information out there about advanced learning opportunities and the way that we approach advanced learning um through board presentations, our web web page. Amy was thrilled to be a guest on the podcast so that we could get information out to the community and we have increased feedback for students and parents on academic progress and for our student behavior and supports. We continue to do professional learning around restorative practices and social emotional learning. That is the summary of information that we have
031for you today and would love to address any questions. >> So um so part of the feedback in regards to family uh just the anecdotal um do we have specifics that parents are also providing within those details? These are big bucket pieces, but do they have specific items? I'm thinking especially for as we look at our again our equity framework, are they calling out specific things that might be helpful for us to consider? >> Yeah, they do u call out specific things and that's one of the things that when we share out with schools, you know, we're we're sharing all that information with them and they can disagregate the information down by their school. So really look at at some of the specifics that people mentioned. >> Uh I think I heard you mention staff
032took the survey too. Where are their results? Are they in with the family results or are there separate staff questions? >> So that presentation [clears throat] that's a separate presentation that we do because that that that survey is still open right now. >> Oh yes. And for the many staff watching online right now [laughter] we only have 384 responses. So we'd love to hear from you. You have until the 13th. >> Yes. >> You're going to get two extra. [clears throat and laughter] >> That's right. >> What uh what was the survey window for for families and students? When when was that open? >> It was a twoe window in December. >> December. >> Was it is it roughly the same time frame as last year? >> Yeah. >> December 1st through the 19th. any
033ideas what led to the like over like double the respondents among families? What >> yeah like efforts did we put into >> to replicate? >> Yeah, we were talking about that earlier today and one of the things we did was in all of our information pushing the survey out we said we want to double last year. Um and then I was thinking this just came to mind um that you know people saw what we did with the information last year, right? they saw the videos, everyone got that whether or not they completed the survey. So, we're hoping that um you know, people developed an awareness of the survey and then B sort of trust in oh, they're actually going to do something with this data. We're going to find out what people were saying and
034then they're going to take action. We It was I think a little bit heavier, not see a little bit, a lot heavier push in all of our social media sites and pushing, you know, everything that we sent out had a link attached to it that made it as successful as process as possible. The outreach with our family community engagement, trying to making sure that demographically we were able to hit some spaces that we weren't necessarily always hitting occurred as well. So schools have set goals around this too and I think many last year were disappointed in the response rate because they're trying to make action steps as a result and they realize we're making action steps for a very small percent of our families. We need more representation. So I think they were really helpful
035in that push as well. >> That reputation of actually using data though I think is impactful like you said Marcy that families realize this is being used. It isn't a checkbox to make us all feel better that we sent a survey um that it is impacting decisions at the site level and the district level. And I'm always curious, I think you've said this while, Carlos, like who's missing, you know, do people tend to lean into surveys when they have positive things to share? Do people tend to lean in when they're super grouchy? Are we like where, you know, I'm just curious from the emotional standpoint of like who might we be hearing from and who are we not hearing from. Um, so I'm not sure how any of those conversations have gone or the curiosity
036around that, but it's always what voices did we not hear from and perhaps why, >> which I know you all. >> Yeah. And it's great to see the Spanish speaking community taking a higher percentage of the survey results. That's great. >> But also within that engagement framework is always what are the barriers to having access and why are we not seeing some communities? So, >> you know, great job with with that. >> I love having the uh the comparison of the two years. I'm glad we're getting some, you know, longitudinal data. One thing that I'm interested in and I know um each school will have their own data to share and I don't think at the board level having each school data would be would help move the needle a little bit more you know
037my understanding but I would be curious to know if there are any um areas that [clears throat] there were distinct differences between elementary high school you know I like going to school each day >> curious [laughter] I mean that seems like one that's a the nine. I'm not surprised that's where we landed, but the um I feel like they students show respect to each other. Um does that is that something that is consistent across uh each grade level? Are there anything are there any areas where um even for parents? Would they get more outreach? Is that something that is concentrated more at a certain grade level or is that a consistent data point that uh transcends whether it's, you know, elementary, you know, middle or or high school? And I'm also curious how kids think
038the schools are not that clean, but parents are like super duper clean, right? >> Um just hope our kids are not talking about our own houses when they're out and about. >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> So sort of as far as climate survey by level, we do see um elementary students typically have more positive um data results in in some categories over others, which is what we see as students metriculate through the system. We can get this data for students by grade level, too. So it's interesting to see some different grade level trends. And each school knows [clears throat] their own data, but then they also get the district-wide average. so they can see for each question where do we align here um how do we compare and where can we learn from others in
039our district who might be really excelling in that specific area. So that's my hopeful for our leaders to begin to talk about and learn from each other. >> And I know this stud will be data that kind of comes back to us throughout some you know monitoring reports but just as if there's any this would be something that I would be interested in in seeing in the future anything where there's a discrepancy at a certain age group like what stands out um because I think that um I think this is a great overall district picture. Um, but I do think that there may be times where different grade bands are weighing some of the results higher or lower. Um, and and that would be something that I would expect and I could be proven completely
040wrong. So that would be interesting to know. >> See the um in our looking at how to improve the martial social uh learning that intelligence piece is phenomenal. Especially as my kids are in middle school. Oh my gosh, we need to focus on that there. But that's great. Um, but I also did want to report back too that last year uh in the elementary school, we're still there. I think we had a there was a a day where one of the bathrooms got pretty dirty and the kids came together to really show respect for the custodial staff just showing uh saying that, you know, they're really appreciative of all the hard work that they're doing. So I just want to also relay that that even though finesse does come down for students reporting out I
041I think that students do recognize the hard work of our custodial staff. Um and I put that for my own kids. So I just want to do a shout out to custodial staff. >> Yeah. Just one more piece about the site and age discrepancies. I think from the communication piece, you know, I think about that from the bandwidth of our educators in terms of pushing out communication to families, how just different that can be um at the elementary level compared to the secondary level. And so how to tease that out in support of our educators who, you know, the student to teacher ratio grows immensely at the secondary level. And you know, to try to maybe tease out what what specifically our families kind of longing for. And I appreciate that we've gotten to a
042point that it isn't just a grade on paper, right? working through standardsbased learning I think provides a different type of feedback. Um but I'd be curious because that's just s such a broad piece to be able to disagregate that in support of our educators that just you know how that looks at each level and their ability to push information out does you know vary by the structure of our schools. [clears throat] >> This is great to see. I just >> the last thing I wanted to say is I I hope anybody [clears throat] watching or anybody who hears this recognizes how important this information is. And I just I'm I grateful for seeing the action items that come from this. But this is information that is threaded through all of our monitoring reports. Like this
043information really is it's not just a pat on the back or a we'll do better and we shel it. This is what's driving, you know, so much of [clears throat] this. And I I appreciate the um the thoughtfulness about that and also just the transparency on how important this data is. Thank you. >> Thanks for your work and bringing this forward and all the digging in and >> data deep diving. >> Thank you. Thanks for the the feedback and thoughts about doing things by showing this by grade level next year as well. >> Yeah. And maybe in the um summary that we do of the board meetings, Marcy, to add that extra nudge for staff. I know a lot of staff members read these, so maybe keeping that encouragement for staff to do the survey,
044too, would be great. >> Uhhuh. Yep. I saw a nod back there, too. >> Hey. Hey. Excellent. >> Thank you. >> All right. Moving along in our agenda, we'll move ahead to public comments. Um we'll start with Kilby Willenberg. and Kilby, you can speak there. You can come to the front. >> Here's why. So, >> I appreciate it as always. Um, so just going to give kind of a quick update our situation with the Roma program. Um, we're still in the same position as we were two weeks ago. Um, we still don't have clarity on our kit suspension and the target seems like it continues to move off. So I mean more specifically um it was never clear what these kids did. The suspensions was like iterated last time. Um you know in the school
045let's continue to say well we're happy to meet with you and explain to you further what you don't understand. feels like I almost passive aggressive tone or so. But now it seems like the target has shifted because we we're told now that now we have more information on your kid on these kids and and you're lucky we've been told that you are suspended even more. One family was told that they um you're lucky that our kids are walking the line and are walking at graduation. So it just feels like everything is constantly moving and you know time is we have time but you know um it just feels like almost like a scare tactic and that the um you know that we're just trying to run the clock out because the season's almost over which
046we know that it's fine. Um, you know, it's also I think it's important to notice that during the investigation, you guys probably don't know this, but it's brought out that one of the kids that suspended was being bullied. And so, Mr. Steiner, Mr. Cox brought that to the kids' attention, the parents attention that they were there. And, um, you know, you know, they showed remorse, she showed empathy, but nothing happened to those kids that were pulling that kid that was suspended. So it was important enough to break out during that meeting, but it wasn't important enough to do anything and everything was coming out anyway. That kid was bullied, was hazed, got shamed, and nothing happened. So you can imagine what that kid feels like, you know, whenever administrators reached out and said, "If you
047need to talk to us, go ahead and talk to us. We're sorry this happened." And then nothing happened. So that just feels really bad especially for that kid. I feel really bad for that kid. And so lastly, you know, this whole process, you know, could have been avoided, could have been a valuable learning lesson for the kids, for the coaches, for the school. Everyone could have said, "Yeah, you did it wrong." But no one did. We just picked out five kids and we took out. So that's all I got to say. I appreciate that. >> Thank you. Um, and a second comment, Joshua Krueger. >> Hello everyone. Uh, thanks for offering us this time. Um, and I apologize for coming in late if I caused any disruption. Uh, I'll I'll be brief. I'll try not
048to be redundant. There'll be a little bit of crossover, but I just want to share how disappointed and uh, impactful this has [clears throat] been to a number of these kids. And, uh, we just we're really disappointed in the process. You know, this isn't a vendetta against any specific person. We truly believe and hey, I can speak on behalf, excuse me, of all the families. From coaches on up, we think these are all good people trying to do the right thing. Uh we the our issue is more with the process. We didn't feel like there was a whole lot of clarity or transparency. Um we we felt like the the appeal system, you know, wasn't really an appeal. It was kind of things were levied against them, decisions were made. It was kind of detective,
049judge, jury, all the same kind of people. It just didn't really feel like a truly fair or equitable process for some of the kids who are powerless and in a situation where they were generally pretty helpless to defend themselves. We felt like the system kind of came down with heavy hands, uh, without really offering a whole lot of clarity to what the specifics were. And I don't want to get into any of those specifics. It's not really about that. It's more about the process itself and the impact it had on the five kids and some of the stuff was happening to them over the last few years and it wasn't really accounted for. I [clears throat] didn't feel like some of the didn't feel like there's a lot of retroactive kind of examination of that
050or some of the experiences some of these other kids have had as far as ever getting into trouble or anything like that. you know, some of these kids, including mine, have never really been in any significant trouble at all. And probably most important was to kind of reiterate what Kilby said was I I feel like there's a really valuable learning opportunity here that was missed. And instead of trying to do something to enrich the entire program, all of them, for the betterment of all kids, including the five, that opportunity was missed. Instead, the book was thrown at them without really any chance for them to truly defend themselves or, you know, offer an alternative version of events. It kind of felt like, and this could be discussed in another place, but the timeline did suggest
051that their minds were made up long before the appeal process, and that felt really, really unfair. And it kind of felt like they weren't part of the power dynamics. And because of that, the the justice was kind of they picked and choose who was going to be, you know, held accountable. And sure enough, none of the supposed adults in the room were held accountable at all who were in the locker room on the bus when these supposed events took place. And that's a real problem. And it just kind of felt like the kids, the five came away from this with a feeling the lesson they learned is well, if you're not in the power dynamics, they can be kind of, you know, used against you and they'll kind of pick and choose who's going to
052see or not see justice. And it just felt very unfair. And for a young kid who's never been in any trouble, it just felt like there should have been some other measures there to kind of account for that. And but again, it was about the learning lesson I think that was missed that could have really enriched the program. Instead, it kind of deficited the whole program and every kid on it. You know, it just wasn't good for any of them. And I just feel like that's really unfortunate and we were left with very few avenues left and that's why we're here. This is one of the few avenues we have and we some families including myself have been exploring all avenues including talking with you guys and we appreciate your time and one of the
053other ones you know of course we've had to consult with attorneys which is super unfortunate and it's been really hard on me on my son and it just felt like there was there should have been a more amicable resolution to this instead of just crucifying the kids and having their uh sports career effectively brought to a screeching halt, especially when there wasn't really any major past history and there was no accounting for all the stuff that had happened to them over the last 3 years, which was exponentially worse. No accounting for that. So, that also felt just very unjust. And uh you know, we've got a kid at home that he's just he's lost all animation and you know, the the forces that generally generate his happiness are gone. So, it's been pretty tough. So,
054I'll just leave it at that and thank you guys again for your time. Thank you as well for yours. >> All right. Moving through to board action. We are monitoring OE7 this evening. Asset protection. Um, thanks uh in advance of John being our noteaker this evening and thanks in advance to Chad who's joining us at the table for some dialogue around evidence related to O7. >> Thank you Dr. C. I think we just had a last slide. You want to clicker forward? >> I don't have the Oh, I do have clicker >> one slide but 133 pages of evidence if I remember that correctly. 13 in one document and then Yeah. Yeah. And maybe we can go home. Yeah. So there is certainly a lot of evidence. I do think this is similar to OE5,
055another one of the policies that this district inherited uh related to board governance that potentially the board hearing about this work on an annual basis if we were doing policy governance might happen. you would assume on an annual basis that we're renewing our insurance policies. We have um a cyber insurance and a um a cyber attack uh plan and all of the other things that help us take care of making sure we're not the administrative team is not placing the district at undue risk. Without OE7, we don't get to have a brief rinse and repeat every year. The board can see all of the evidence, 133 pages of it. uh that we're doing this work. Uh so we certainly didn't go similar to OE5. I don't think it's going to be very fruitful for us
056to go through uh 15 slides on the fact that we've built systems to make sure that this happens. I believe the evidence we provided does show that. I'm certainly here to answer questions if the board has any specific questions about O7. Uh but again, the big idea is we're protecting the stuff uh that we own and we're protecting the people we've got. Um, and we're doing that a lot of times through uh verifying it through an auditing process or proving to the board that we've got the appropriate insurance uh to um make sure the assets we've got are protected. So here to answer questions. >> Yeah, if I quickly before we transition this to and thanks for the uh opening up Jeff, but I just want to really take a step deeper into the words
057that Chaz was saying around the focus. you know, OE5 does this, OE7 that we're talking about today does this and the this leadership of the board has really put us in a space where accountability and those expectations for accountability are not a bad word. There's just an expectation [clears throat] >> and and just kind of understanding and looking at other spaces. These are often questions that aren't asked. >> And now we have we are in a space where the board is very intentionally ensuring okay we know this is supposed to happen. >> Give us the 110 pieces of of evidence that that and that's and that's fine. >> Michael's Michael's the main guy who runs all the insurance amazing operations manager who works under me. But the second that policy is done, it's PDF and
058he knows that that's going to end up in evidence a year from now. So it's uh it's it's almost trained our district employees in some regards uh to compile evidence through the year on work that you expect all of us to do. [clears throat] >> Yep. So just a long way of saying thank you for asking the right questions and that's because it it really puts us in the mindset of how to how to set up appropriate systems and I'm not sure that we could promise that they would be that way if the board had not put us in put set this up in a way that we have we are monitoring with this fidelity. I was actually going to flip that and say thank you because we didn't you've answered questions that we probably
059should have asked directly and wouldn't even know to do. >> Um you know if somebody came up to me and just asked you know does the district have a cyber security you know incident response plan I actually don't wouldn't have been able to say yes in years past and now it's like well here it is and here's the link to it. So, you know, these are the types of questions that the board the board should know and and unless you're steeped in this type of work, these aren't the conversations that we would that boards normally have. And I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to have the insight into these types of things. I mean, this is very detailed information that um somebody in the district, some community member is interested. Are you
060tracking this type of information? And yes, this is where it is. And I I'm just we asked the big question and the fact that you drilled down to it in such granular fashion um really I think again heightens the the trust because of the transparency. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> I feel like we should also all have these for like our own like homes like are we doing all of that? Yeah. O7 for your personal >> for my wife. >> Yeah. Yeah. For sure. We >> credit card expires and all of a sudden you're not paying home insurance. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So, [clears throat] thank you >> and thank you to Michael for having put on. >> It's great. >> Yeah, this is great. Appreciate this. Um, it's a lot. 134 pages
061is a lot to go through. I've tried my best and I was like, sorry. Um, uh, but this is very comprehensive is amazing. I would just think a couple of qu couple things. So, regards to cyber security because it's a huge liability. Have you noticed a super large increase in premiums? >> Yeah, given that it's gotten so much worse. >> Yeah. Um I um if Jason was here, he could go into immense detail. I can tell you a few things that we've put in place that have helped us keep our rates in check by district standards. Uh, so we have super annoying like 15 character passwords with C the ones you love to try to remember uh that are actually reset on an annual basis. Um, and we and when Jason put uh both the
062um the added extension related to our password and we're required to do dual authentication at least once a week on our devices. So even this morning Dr. C maybe had the same thing. Pop it open on a Monday morning. Go. And I've got three minutes of work to make sure Chad Vizy is signing in to his district issued device. Um and uh that fails safe is in place in lots of other places. And school districts were actually being taken off of cyber insurance plans because they didn't uh go through with some of those additional failafees. Uh we also work with outside consultants on an annual basis uh to kind of do an audit of our own cyber security. Um and we've got it in this week another uh go fishing campaign uh pardon the pun
063with the BH fishing uh where we keep analytics around uh staff members that kind of get duped by um emails that sneak past our firewall. Uh, so, um, our team is, uh, I think I put them up against anybody else in a district of our size. It's never perfect. We had one, uh, two weeks ago that somebody got through, managed to get somebody to dual authenticate. We had fail safes in place that it got tagged. We shut down that Google account, did all the backend stuff necessary uh, to make sure it was shut down. So, it's never going to be perfect. I think it it it and it's only going to get harder. Um I I think with we're just on what the first year of AI uh what is this stuff going to look
064like uh a few years from now but I I do feel like many of the failed safes we have put in place have served us well and the plans we've got on the back. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> So my husband is cyber security and I'm the weakest link in the family. Um I'll try not to be there with the district, but um do you have uh trainings as well for staff just in regards you said you do the um the simulated fish fishing attempt? >> You did one called fish pride fishing Wisconsin. Um anyways, um do you do uh regular trainings for or attempted other pieces around? >> There is a monthly newsletter that now is incorporated into our staff newsletter that there is not one that goes by that doesn't have some
065sort of cyber security tip. Uh after we're done with our gone fishing campaign, Jason will send out an all staff email on what the hit rate was and kind of what the scam was. Um so um we are almost always training uh to have a watchful eye to do it. We had Dr. C impersonated it seems like once a week but we had a bigger one a couple weeks ago and when that's going on Jason will send out timely emails on what they're attempting to do what we did to stop it. Uh, so I I do feel it's not going to be perfect, but as long as we can continue to try to make it on top of mind for our our staff, I think we're we're better than most when it comes to this
066stuff. >> And we're starting to get into, you know, like Chad, my name gets used a lot in cyber uh situations or or scams. The we notice that it often follows a news release. So whether the if it's Ron press or if there's anything local that happens that has either our district or my name attached to it you can almost bet there'll be a scam attempt attached to it within two or three days after that comes out. Do we do anything to inform our community of what types of information coming from us has is is authentic in case you know. Yeah, actually the answer is no. Yeah. Until what we uh that was just I said yeah because it was a topic that we just discussed as our at our superintendents for Dane County because
067we were all thinking about how are we um having like whether it's watermarks or something that shows that this is officially a letter from the Bronary School District or officially a letter from from from my from myself and and trying to figure out how to >> build it in a way that can't be replicated. um which is you know really hard to do but that's that's the step that we're at in that in that process recognizing that that is a factor like that you know we don't want a letter on letterhead that says I said this with my signature on it you know >> well I think coming back to back with our our survey which is you know if we sent we do send you know email links >> how can we >> um
068verify the you know the trust for the community >> which I think you know everything always looks very professionally done and but as you said as AI improves u you know >> yeah either click on everything or nothing that's right and if [clears throat] that's then related to your survey responses right people that are maybe just I'm not going to click on things that I absolutely don't email Facebook is this real >> everybody was great because he gets back pretty quickly >> because that he's he's very wired and he's awesome. Yes. >> Well, then also the multiple platforms we have for communication with our our families, right? So, I think that there's so many opportunities for learning and for additional security. Do do we use multi authentication for everything >> industry? Uh well, we got
069something called single sign on that ties back to your Google account. Uh so there's only one pipe in to the single sign on uh kind of through our firewall and then the fact that we have to dual authenticate to get into Google uh is kind of our fail safe to actually make sure that we uh single sign on is far more secure for something like powers school than having individual passwords for powers school that don't require dual authentication. [snorts] So um you signed into powers school through your through your Gmail.com >> add one last quick wondering. >> Yeah. >> Um with the potential increase in maybe third party uses or facilities fields that we might may or may not build um or current fields. What's is there anything that we need to think about as
070a board as far as like any liabilities that may exist because I know you know we have to trust that the third party has proper insurance. There's a reporting process probably around that. >> Is there anything that we should know or questions that we're not asking about any potential third party third party liabilities of usage of our facilities? I I don't believe that level of detail exists in 07 as far as providing annual evidence. Certainly the board can rewrite that policy to ask for it. Uh you had a chance to meet Janine tonight, so she's in charge of all of our facility rentals. Uh and any outside renter uh if depending on the the type of organization that's coming in to use our space has to provide proof of insurance. Uh so that's one of
071Janine's checkboxes before you before you get a permit. Yep. She's got a big laundry list of stuff that she goes through and that's one of the things that they have to provide. Thank you. >> As always, I appreciate the executive summary. I think it's a great place for just anyone to land and get a sense of what may be ahead within the report. Um, and just kind of echoing what Meredith said, I think this helps inform me as a board member thanks to the strength of you and your team. I know you've mentioned a few individuals, but really want to lift up the people that are underneath this work every day, day in and day out and for the report um that I feel like you and your team are continually educating me for the
072who might be the next people if I'm still serving on the board to ensure that I continue to know the right questions to ask. So, I know the policy is driven by us, but the work that you all are doing is just this cyclical way of partnering um that I'm super appreciative of. So just in following up some of the question here about third party insurance um I just wanted to ask a different question. So just to go back, I think this policy more than some others is one that is definitely developed in partnership with the administration because as elected officials, we don't always know [clears throat] what type of questions or how deep we need to ask questions around this sort of thing to make sure that we're not just covering our butts, but
073that we're, you know, good good governance and all. Um, so I have some specific questions that kind of came out of the conversation so far. Do we need to evaluate the policy language here to more clearly enumerate enumerate the different types of insurance? Because for example, we've talked a lot about cyber security insurance. It's not explicitly mentioned in the board's policies, which is more broadly around casualty and liability insurance. Um, do we need to have uh policy language that specifies that um when people rent our facilities, they have to provide proof of insurance, which I understand is a best practice and is happening anyway, but do we need to codify that in policy language? And then separate from those conversations, the one that I kind of had on my own is is our policy language
074around preventative maintenance um as clear and concise as it should be about not just doing the preventative maintenance but maintaining um replacement schedules >> that are economically efficient for the district >> and using language like that in our policy. So that would be, you know, I I don't know that I'm comfortable as a board taking on like do we need to develop push that language out there ourselves, but I think starting this conversation in public because this is very this is a very jointly developed policy even though the board owns it. Those would be my questions for maybe future consideration to come back and say maybe we should look at the policy language for these three types of things. That's my question that doesn't need a response >> kind of marry in with the administrative
075rules that exist though. >> Yeah, that's that's what I was especially with the second one. The administrative rules cover significant portions of it. So I I think I would to your point cross reference just a good practice for us to cross reference our administrative rules at the same time as a policy uh monitoring report to ensure that we're covered in those in those nuanced areas as well. And the on the preventative maintenance uh front, I think some of that can start to dubtail into OE12 related to long range facilities planning. So I think primarily OE7 is taking care of and protecting the stuff you own. uh and when things are past their useful life. And that's a partnership between uh the board and the administration to make sure that we've got uh budget uh that
076that we should have to do, you know, long-term maintenance projects to take care of things uh that have exceeded that useful life. Um and the board should be informed on an annual basis kind of how we're doing relative to that long-term maintenance. And you are per 12. >> And there currently is I think I remember this from previous reports. All assets are recorded. >> Yeah. Um all all major assets actually are required to be >> is it to yeah to DPI items threshold actually could be $500. Uh but we have a state accounting system that any stuff we buy, we're actually required to uh to inventory on an annual basis. Some of it actually gets uh depreciated and amateurized uh through something called fund 41. Uh if we spend fund 41, we have to report
077what we spend it on. Uh so there's actually a couple fail safes in place as far as our accounting goes. the annual audit. Um, also make sure that that we're inventorying assets we purchase. >> Thank you. >> Y >> any additional questions or comments from the board? >> Okay, then I would um accept a motion to accept the report as meeting expectations if someone is so called to do so. >> Thank you, Meredith. Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you on Carlos. All those in favor of approving OEE7 asset protection monitoring report as meeting expectations signify with I. >> I. Any opposed >> report is approved as meeting expectations. Thanks Chad and again extended gratitude to the team. >> You bet. >> All right, moving on to board updates. >> Any board updates? I
078don't think I have any either. We'll let that for a good wait time moment to just ensure that I don't distract from anyone's thinking. [laughter] I I just wanted to um make a a personal statement around recognizing uh I I know I I've talked a lot about equity inclusion and our we all talk about our equity framework so much and I that's one of the things that just really has always that's what inspired me to come on this board was to uh really see that come alive and make sure that it it is alive. But it it does push me to recognize the time and place that we're in politically right now that I know that some families do feel um additional threats and just being out in community. I know that I carry my
079passport with me at being a Latino man. Um and I don't always feel safe in community, but I want to just make the statement that we value our Latino and our immigrant and refugee communities. They're important parts of our community and uh we recognize um if if you're feeling that sense of stress, additional stress of just being a part of the larger community. But um just wanted you to feel um valued and respected and important and um that we will continue to look at our um I I will be committed to looking at our how we um look at our our equity framework and making sure that you continue to be safe within our community. So, I just wanted to say that because it's important and I know that folks are feeling that very deeply
080right now. And I was out door knocking for a candidate running for [clears throat] office and I know one of my Latino uh constituents in the neighborhood uh did not come to the door and I knew that they were there and I just left stuff there because that they did not feel safe. So, I just want to I think it's important to recognize that. That's all. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Chris. >> Thank you. >> All right. Looking down to then our board consent agenda. Please elevate any questions you have. A couple of added minutes from our close session last week. Any questions? Okay. Hearing none, board's consent agenda is approved. Our future dates are basically all just the board meetings that we have up until and right after spring break and then the spring
081election of course staying on the calendar. So thanks for that reminder even Christopher with your comment before that. And then uh I would propose that we adjourn to close session under Wisconsin statute 19.85 sub1 subc to consider compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. specifically to consider the compensation and performance of the superintendent. Uh we will move to um adjourn to close session with a roll call vote. Joe >> I >> John >> hi >> Meredith. Hi >> Christopher. >> Hi >> Carlos. >> I am I as well. We are adjourned to close session. We'll take just a brief recess.