Verona Area School District Board of Education Meeting February 24, 2025

001to bring voice to what Equity means in vasd there has been much rhetoric and negativity around the word Equity as well as diversity and inclusion as we read this statement this evening we are reminding ourselves and our community what it is that basd stands for per the voice of our staff students community members families School leaders and School Board we value and uplift the power of the lived experiences of those we serve in the VD Equity means an intentional focus on ensuring that students have the resources and support they need regardless of demographic and identity to thrive in a diverse Global society and we strive to remove the predictability of outcomes by demographic or identity characteristics we remain committed to advancing the success of VD through the greatness of all of our students and who

002they are and that will not change or minimize our Equity Focus we will not change or minimize our Equity Focus so with that said Corby would you please read our two stat this evening sure thank you 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 they need to

003experience success in acknowledgement of such the Verona Area School District is committed to disrupting these systems of inequity and land acknowledgement reads there are currently 12 tribal Nations who call Wisconsin home with whole CH 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 um I appreciate being able to share a bit and other board members Dr Clarity I just open it up if you want to share anything as well about just sentiments related to our Equity statement anything that I shared to I would just say that I wanted to say that the cl so thank you for the additional piece and sending the

004the foundation um uh having moved here four years ago from Seattle career family multi-racial many uh challenges just that we faced during the pandemic and then uh catching up as a family um we were nervous to come to a new district and and I will say that having landed here we couldn't be more proud to be part of the B School District my kids are doing great and um we're just really happy to be part of that family it is the framework of the commitment to diversity e inclusion that we will address barriers as they exist uh to uplift all students that is what brought me to the school board so thank you thank you Chris yeah I'll just add that it it's very frustrating from a perspective of a board member to hear all

005this discourse that's going on about you know de being like a a buzzword for anything bad that people don't like when actually it's not just something that we throw out there it's actually really important to the work that we do because if you just take one piece of it the inclusion part of it all that's saying is that making sure that all of our students no matter what their background is no matter who they are feel safe in our schools and feel valued in our schools and there's just a ton of research from people who really know what they're doing in this that that is one of the crucial elements to success in educating kids is making kids feel valued and safe in their classroom and just it's just very sad to me that there

006are people who are opposed to that idea and and that it's not just something that we talk about it's something that's really important to the results that we're trying to achieve so personally going through what I'm going through regarding the EXE itive orders the board knows but the community does it that my wife worked for usaid and the International Development Division and she was responsible the director of uh International Development of schools around the world so she would travel the world and wherever the organization the agency saw that education was was a Dire Straits she would run an analysis do an assessment and they would build a school there the thing I want to Echo is that diversity equity and inclusion has become this this bad word and it seems to be revolving around race

007and knowing what my wife does for International Development that couldn't be further from the truth it's race it's ethnicity it's gender development it's lgbtq plus it's those with disabilities it is all of that and so I I want want us to be mindful of that when we read our Equity statement that we really are talking inclusion and I'm so happy that this District this board stood up and said that whatever's going on on Capitol Hill it's not going to change the direction that we are headed with regards to equity and ensuring that all of our students thrive in a diverse Global Society so I think I owe you an Applause because you were the first person I called when those executive words went out and your superintendent said to me on the Fone we're not

008changing thing so thank you want to add anything there's so much but I want to uh spend most of our time with our our our families and our and our children so I I'll be I'll be very brief I can't tell you how honored and proud I am to Ser in of roner School District as superintendent and and and to be in partnership with a board of education that is made a clear statement around not just what Equity means here in the Bron School District but to continue to be a model what equity and Equity diversity inclusion should be as a model for for our nation um we talked about a lot being the national model of Excellence grounding and equity and to sit before you with Unapologetic extance that we are not going to

009waiver away from that commitment no matter what anyone says no matter what how someone tries to change the language for us or our on our behalf that is not who we are if you look around our room and look in the space tell me we're not diversity equity and inclusion right and to honor everyone in our spaces and to honor every child to honor everyone with the opportunity to have a appropriate world class public education this is why we do the work we do that work so every student has that right has that ability and ultimately is able to be free and be able to thrive in this in the mosters global society that ever existed so yeah we're passionate about it but the commitment couldn't be more great any any greater than it is

010right right now to not just continue that work but to go deeper we will not turn away from from our our stance that'll that'll that'll never happen and I just want to put that out there as a commitment and just doesn't happen without this board of education standing arm in arm to be able to do to do the work together so thank you to our board for for your leadership commitment and driving driving to work your policy thank you um thanks board thanks Dr Clarity and I want to reiterate thank you to the community our entire VD community that Equity statement lives because of the work of everyone it is a reflection of multiple perspectives it was not written by this board it was a collaboration of community voice and so just to uplift again

011the Gratitude I have for our community living and breathing in that statement with us every every meeting thank you for the opportunity everyone on the board stands behind every day thank you and then back to business so uh we do need to formally adopt our agenda for this evening and board um just in looking we do have back-to-back meetings with which is also reminding me as a surprise with how February January have shaken out so given that as of right now we only have one kind of main agenda item for next week so I'm wondering with the other um amazing things we have going on this evening how you all feel about moving our results policy reviews to next week open to discussion any thoughts about that before we before I will make a motion

012to do just that if that's the only thing we have on the agenda that' be a great a great discussion and that would be my yeah appreciation so we can enjoy the discussion in the space we have tonight okay so I'm going to make a motion then to approve tonight's agenda with the um adjustment the amendment of moving the two results policies monitoring reports to next week is there a second second thank you Christopher all those in favor of amending the agenda as moved signify with i i any opposed okay the agenda has been adopted so we will move on to student recognition you all are well placed and ready for us to turn things over we're so glad to have you all here hello y good evening I'm Miss Pate I'm a seventh grade

013teacher at Badger Ridge and with me I have Miss K who's an eighth grade teacher and she also leads the VSU black student union union group at Badger um and today we have some Scholars who who are going to be sharing some of the activities that we did um to honor and celebrate Black his three month at B so let's go ahead let's stand up and have you guys introduce yourselves we'll start with you um Christina name my name is j my name is my name is my name is my name is Nadia Benny my name is and everything we do is rooted in love um Darkness cannot drive out Darkness only light can do that hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that and those are words um kind of pinned by

014Dr Martin Luther King Jr and gu is the work that I do as an educator we have a combination of some schoolwide and community events that Styers are going to share with you first up we have Scholars that'll tell you guys about the daily trivia that we do each day each day students Ann please for Pioneer black history advisory students work together to research and submit their guesses over 30 classes have participated each day and it's an opportunity for our black student um students to have their voices heard over the PA and 30 classes represent Badger and um our other schools in the building and then one of the other schoolwide activities we have is our door decorating contest our year our theme this year is literacy is freedom another schoolwide um activity for my

015month is the contest the door decorating contest is B off decorating a door with uh africanamerican activists or any africanamerican this year's theme aims to uplift African-American individuals who have made contrib contributions and Lit Literature and literacy doors will be judged on Friday February 28th 22 and then there are some other events um that our scholar are taking part in one is the Black History Month Bowl we have um a student winon Carl who's going be um taking who's going to be representing B Badger Ridge as well as Verona and we're hoping that they play well so that they can go on to the Nationals and then we also have some things planned for our family and Community after school after school on February 26th there will be a teacher battle in and so it

016just starts as a time for our families to come together um in the spirit of fun and Community um and just celebrate and have some good food and listen to some music all right and that's all we have for you guys um were there any questions for the group questions or comments I know sometimes the board has a lot of comments to offer when we have students visit I want an invite for the DJ battle February 26 after school okay can anybody participate in the DJ battle I so I know they have a couple of CJs who signed up feel free you can always I can't wait for the black history always love that is it here again okay I can't wait for you sing the book yes that's a good book does so many

017of you have doors that are being judged on Friday okay okay we' love a picture yes for sure oh is that one okay that's one of the current ones right now and so a lot of teachers this week have begun um papering and so part of it is the teachers deliver a lesson um with a central message for students and then all the students work together to create some piece that is then placed on the board and so um some of them are um researching music literacy and then they're presenting that on their door um my classroom we talked a lot about s Street and the African-American beginnings of Sesame Street um and they really really love making pictures of Elmo and then uh this door up here is in the sixth grade Wing um

018they got started early so I told them they will be on the slides oh just I was just going to say I've I've heard that board members are welcome in schools anytime so you feel free to invite us if there's something that you want us to see at school we would love to come and see thank you so much for sharing though some images and some information at our board meeting so today I had the uh all right use time to perly with today I had also had the advisory at the at Bader Ridge and coral some of our Coral advisory students are there hey are here as well as our our our bad Ridge Representatives as as well and I opened up uh today with a uh a black history open open challenge just

019kind of seeing how far things were going and they blew they they brought some knowledge that I had to go back to the book and yeah you're right so the it's not I say all that because the education that's happening in regards to all of our history which a component of that is black history and please not it's not it's celebrated for yall uh February but it but the knowledge that our students are bringing not just in identifying significant characters but they knew where the characters what the charact what our historians meant in terms of where we are now and they were able to bring those connections so it's it's not just memorization there's some thorough knowledge that's happening and I just want to express my appreciation for seeing it live in action in classrooms

020and an advisory today and then hearing how was coming to life with with with the presentation today so shout out to you our amazing staff to both at Brad gidge and cor knowledge for doing very very deep work in representing all of our history and making sure representation matters so congratulations to all of [Applause] you all right we will move on then through our agenda we're headed into the superintendence report our first um item is to hear more about core knowledge Charter School and their renewal proposal all right ready for us to start we are ready awesome um hi I'm Steph prin principal at cornology Charter School I'm joined here with um two of the parents from our one is from our past uh governing board and another parent who's part of our committee we've

021been working diligently the past two years to review our our Charter agreement between uh our M and the Bron area school board and um I'm going to let them talk quite a bit as well but just wanted to the opportunity to present uh about our school share the amazing things that have been happening in our school the hard work that our committee has taken to really review our Charter alongside Dr clity and the Edwards um to just and then brought brought some students as well to show bring bring our school into into the room a little bit for all hey everybody I'm Ben mcquiston while the parents on the renewal board um I going to share the mission statement but on a personal note one of the reasons we picked core was for Parental involvement

022while I didn't foresee presenting to the board as being involved it has certainly been a a privilege and a great opportunity to learn about Charter Schools about our district and uh it's been really uh rewarding so our mission statement uh the Verona Area core knowledge charter school is a public education option for parents students and teachers in the Verona Area School District where students develop strong learning skills in a broad of knowledge to the use of proven educational materials and programs in a safe and structured environment abely abolutely and so I wanted to um really stress how important it is that everyone hears and understands and knows the strong collaborative partnership with uh as the core knowledge charter school being a part of the school district and I I know I said this uh a

023couple weeks ago with uh new centry but this is coral that speak speciically talking about and I want to make sure that if you didn't hear my message last time you clearly hear that it is our Charter system and our and core knowledge and specifically as we're talking about today that really allows us to have those unique opportunities for education for all of our students to to thrive in our in our in our spaces and you know I think there are sometimes there's mindsets around Charter and the brary school district that's not the case you know our our Charter systems are the rary school district we are a a a complete community of Learners together but we offer very unique experiences is what you want in public education you want different experiences for different uh

024opportunities so people have those choices but those choices still are part of our our educational design still under the umbrella and mission of the brary school district and uh not just the the governance Council but also uh just the families have just been such a strong partnership for the last three and a half years I just want to express my appreciation for bringing me into those spaces strong collaborative conversations anytime we've had to work out specific details we did so with honor and been able to to walk away with our students in mind and making sure that our students had had what best so really I just wanted to express that uh on on behalf of myself in the partnership and on behalf of our our Board of Education thank you for the unique experiences

025in allowing our students to thrive in in the chart excuse me in the PO knowledge hi I'm Nate Edwards I'm the school district's legal council and I'm here for a very brief update hopefully um to just say that I have reviewed this contract and I believe that this contract meets all of the statutory requirements needed for the school district to enter into such a contract um some of those requirements are these descriptions you see at the slide here including a description of the school's programming method as well as policy clarifications such as that the um the school will use the school district's um Progressive discipline model Progressive Behavior Progressive respons [Music] they're really concerned with the wording words are important as an attorney um I should say that this this contract is is substantially similar

026to previous iterations of the contract but there are some changes that have been made um one change that was a request from the district side before we get into some of the requests from the charter side was extending the weight list timetable um previous iterations of the contract had the weight list dissolved five days before the school year began um we made change to have this weight list dissolve at the end of quarter one of the school year the reason why we made this change is because students are often times plac in these charter schools during the charter Lottery period early in the spring and over the course of half a calendar year sometimes things happen students move parents change their mind life happens and sometimes students just don't end up in those seats so

027then in the early days of the school year we have to try and figure out okay how do we actually fill these seats um and extend the weight list creates less uncertainty in terms of how to be that so early on our contract Review Committee made a decision to adopt uh Wisconsin's uh DPI Charter template this change gave our Charter committee the confidence that the content of the contract would meet that minimum necessary requirement it allowed us to focus on what is most important both our curriculum and our governance structure um and as we contined to travel through this journey it became evident um the opportunity and the benefits of working in alignment with New Century as well as um being more cohesive with the district as a whole a few other changes to this

028current contract that we wanted to make sure to highlight um the the M the B major change I would say from our the one that we are the contract that we're currently living under to this new sixth contract renewal uh was was a a realization of some conversations that we were having at a governing Council level in order to allow for exploration and change within our our curriculum So currently the contract that we're currently living under names specifically a curriculum of direct instru instuction direct instruction is a method of of giving curriculum so we actually have curriculum that are not titled direct instruction we currently use uh reading Mastery and and math expressions those are curriculum so we were rewriting for more of a technicality of what the current state is and also expanding and

029having conversations as a governing Council as to what are our actual grounding values to guide us in any future curriculum choices that we may have um so to allow us more of a Northstar of our educ program statement and not to lock Us in to one specific curriculum that we've already have changed over the last since 2020 so I'm not going to read all of them but really the values that we have that we we we Consolidated into our educational program statement for this balance of both direct and explicit instruction with a conceptual understanding so it's really important for us anytime that we are looking at curriculum for our school um the idea that we are standards align evidence-based knowledge building and inclusive of diverse diverse perspectives as well as we did name the cornal

030sequence that's a sequence of content it is not necessarily a direct curriculum it's just the content that then is a spiraling coherent sequence kindergarten through 8th grade so that did stay named um specifically in our contract and then we just really wanted to put into words the idea of small flexible learning groups however that may look um as we as we explore different curriculum that small flexible learning groups are important to us but that we're not dedicated to just one specific curriculum as we continue to learn and grow um and so then we do have a short U video that we're going to share it's five minutes just to share a little bit to bring our school into the the space as well if I can go back to that one apologize [Music] I like

031school because like I can see uhhuh you like seeing all the work on the that work on the walls I like about my school is learning about these type of people with like one from the and we also heard about I love learning about these people CU they're so special to me I like corn because there's a lot of nice people here more welcome this year I like that knowled challenges [Music] me sound it out get ready word it out get ready what words s it up get ready what word K yes K read these words the fast [Music] way equals 16 all right I'm going to do my Mach ready 10 + 6 ALS someone make a te number for us [Music] us got it so it's like so need to do 46 so

032great 4 16 she saying to plug in a new number so [Music] how can you analyze the relationship dependent and like like and then depend yeah and like it could be like like five right [Music] here so we're on the science fiction unit so we have to um rewrite fairy tales as science fiction novels so I did the boy cried wolf but instead of crying wolf he pressed the emergency button on his plane yeah like they said we had to do a science fiction version of a fairy tale and I chose pin noio but he's an evil robot who shoots lasers out of his nose what I most enjoy about teaching at cor cor knowledge charter school is the energy and the enthusiasm of our MS how they approach each and every day with the

033love of learning and so thrilled to be here parents always say how much their children like coming to school and that is so important to me to make each day a positive experience for them and the magic happens because we are a part charter school it is amazing how much support we get for our families and that shows in their children and it shows en joy that we as teachers have working here I value our staff collaboration we have a tightened community of Educators who work closely together to support our students each and every day knowing that the students are so excited about learning I think that that makes it a really fun place to work and that the staff collaborates a lot and and we bounce ideas off of each other and we really

034have each other as both the current staff in a form of parent what I value about ckcs is the remarkable longevity of Staff teachers with the vental turnover um I appreciate the um high quality education my children received when they were here I also um truly um appreciate the relationships that teachers and staff build with students and also the whole family like it's just not the kids they you know they build relationship with everybody and also just being a K8 school it's it's great it helps with um with families that just you know need all the children in the same building so [Music] yes uh just a few more slides and we have a few students who want to share what they love about our school um as I already said the values that we

035really grounded in as a governing Council and a charter committee team the things that make us unique and really ground Us in anything that we do are the importance of an explicit and knowledge building instruction direct instruction collaboration between student STA and families as well as helping to grow students in their civic development and engagement so some quick examples that um educational experiences and explicit knowledge building instruction this really is an equity statement or an equity um strategy that we really feel strongly about is the importance of um especially in our our younger students but throughout the the through k through eight is grounding them in explicit knowledge that we are providing them in order for them to have that knowledge in order to then have the education as Freedom that knowledge is helping them

036live their dreams so really connecting it to our educational faulty framework that that is non-negotiable for us in any kind of curriculum that we are looking at also the authentic collaboration um students learning from and with each other K8 almost daily we have our older students um working in classrooms with our younger students helping them to learn content in that picture there the students were learning about the moon phases and really having them learn together um with each other has been is amazing um also on the playground things like that they're always interacting with each other and helping to see how we can help our older students Model Behavior for our younger students we have um sharing with families through learner Fair collaborating of our staff and just really valuing the unique perspectives of all

037in our community and then lastly about that Civic engagement and development uh we do also ground core virtues to help our students learn around um just the values and virtues of showing up in the world and how to help one another through courage Humanity Justice Etc um and we did also bring back this year the service learning component of our school which was a from the beginning important part of our school it took a backseat a little bit during the pandemic um but really every classroom has a service learning project that they are whether it's more local like at this kindergarten literacy walk out on our nature path to more um expand it into the community that they are helping to give back to the grona area school district community so we have four students

038who are in the room as well and they have some short paragraphs that they each got to choose what they wanted to write about what they wanted to write about to share their experiences so we range from first through why don't you just come over here right this is where you yeah um and so we have Elsie want Elsie if you want to come over here we'll get in order and then aan and Natalie and Maddie are going to share a little bit about what they chose to write about that they like about knowledge go ahead hello my name my name is Elsie and I am in first grade at cor one thing I like about my school that I can walk to anitori In scho I also really like being able to visit other

039classrooms if I need to I do this I am in I ameng for our classroom in my four classes we have learned about plants planets ands in their col right now they are learning about black during our time hi my name is a and I'm in fourth grade I came to cool in third grade and one thing I love about school is the learn Fair the learn fair is basically a science fair every grade has a topic and you get to do something from it for example last year in third grade we did a report I did a rtain report because it was an animal report this year we're doing a natural disaster natural disaster simulation and Report I'm doing suies I really like it every year and always have fun also what I find

040fascinating about the learn Affairs every uh year I learn something new about the topic I do that concludes my speech I love Lear in fth grade hello I'm Natalie mcams I'm a fifth grade student at cor Charter School I've attended for three years when I was asked to talk about core knowledge I immediately thought to talk about the amazing reading and math program one favorite reason why my parents wanted me to join core was because they knew I was sure to be placed in a in the right class level that would fit my specific needs I really like the reading and math curriculum course to offer not only because they have two different classes to meet the students levels and needs they also give us the opportunity to correct our papers and learn from our

041mistakes lastly my teacher Miss Shore makes me and everybody else feel very comfortable speaking in the class discussions when it comes to the homework it's not my favorite but I but I like but I think it meets the needs of learning to wrap up my time tonight I would like to say thank you for providing this St of learning it has truly enhanced my learning experience also I wanted to say speaking today was a great experience and opportunity for me thank you very much and have a good night one more Maddie for e8th grade hi my name is Maddie nans I'm 13 years old in eighth grade and I've been at CK since kindergarten since I joined the community I've always had a good experience here at core whether it's getting in 100 on a

042test or cheering at an assembly core knowledge has always been such a fun learning environment one of my favorite things that ckcs has done is the quarterly competitions these competitions have included basketball staing clubs partner activities and Etc but my favorite personal my personal favorite is the eighth grade verse teacher volleyball game this event happens once a year where eighth grade students play the volleyball match against the teachers and faculty since I first run core I've always looked forward to be able to compete and I'm so excited to be able to beat the teachers this year I love that we are able to have these opportun unties to have fun during the school year and I'm so grateful to have such a great and supportive Community all the all these years to help me learn

043grow and have [Applause] fun the record to show that the students have never wleb but every eighth grade class thinks that they're going to be the one so maybe this year very true and then very just to wrap up um putting our Charter into action moving forward um just some things in the future for us uh we are in the process of undergoing our own Ela curriculum adoption and looking at various curriculum opportunities to help build upon the successes that we've experienced as well in grounding and grade level standards for all students and more inclusive material so really looking at what our Ela curriculum how we can we've had a lot of success and we know that we can have even more success um with some new materials continuing to build on our values of

044equity and diversity and just continuing to honor what makes us unique as a school Community as well just want to take a moment and say thank you for sharing our story we're very proud of our school um we value you and the district uh your partnership and your support as we continue uh to um deliver our mission which is developing strong leaders uh or learning skills and broad-based knowledge uh within our student body so thank you well I I didn't share this last week and it was just kind of an afterthought so this would be certainly relevant to uh New Century of folks are listening in um I'm super grateful mate for your partnership and for how you all just kind of inform us of the legal ease behind this because truly I love listening

045to the student stories I love hearing about the school and I know as a board we're technically here to vote on a legal document um with the underlying philosophy of just the belief and the kind of um reassurance to you all that we look forward to seeing your school Community continue and grow so thank you for kind of giving us the backbone to not have to obsess over the document and to be able to really live in just the work that you all shared so thank you and thank you to our students so great to hear from you thank you for bringing your voice into our space questions or comments from the board while we have our ckcs team here I would just uh Echo um I understand the importance of homework but I I

046to have a hard time with homework but I thank you for your presentation and thank you for see this presentation well I love homework well as we did last week and I'm apologize that I didn't formally do this with our adoption of the agenda but last week we also stepped then into board action right away to take our vote um on the renewal for uh New Century so I'd like to do the same thing this evening so if there's any further questions discussion we'll ask for that now otherwise we'll move ahead then into board action if that's right with you all then is there a motion to approve the core knowledge Charter School charter renewal as presented so thank you Meredith is there a second that to Corby second thank you you're already in minut

047um all those in favor of approving the cor knowledge Charter School charter renewal signify with i i any opposed Charter is renewed thank you all so very much [Applause] again super grateful for your time we do have an ongoing agenda that is clearly open to the community by all means please stay however we absolutely honor the rest of your evening and if you would like to uh make your way you can certainly do that as well thank you thank you all again for coming [Music] C all right yes [Music] all right continuing the superintendent report we're going to move to human growth and development update [Music] good evening uh glad to be here with everyone that's still here to hear about human growth and development and all the other riveting information that we're going to

048share but tonight we're going to just give you all an update on the work of the human growth and development committee just want want to take you back and remind you of the work that we've done so far and then our charge at the beginning of the school year by the Board of Education was to review the current state of human growth and development as it exists in our district today and so we along with the committee which is comprised of Educators parents community members uh we have a student um that team has taken on this work with um realized the importance of it so we started back in October and in October we were given um a chance to hear about the data the current data of our youth speaking specifically of risk data

049um we then heard and spent a great deal of time reviewing the charge and the state statute then the next at our next meeting we heard from our elementary and our high school instructors so one of the quest of the team was to learn more and how could they learn more and know more rather outside of experiencing the curriculum itself and so that was uh the second meeting and then the third meeting which was last Thursday we were able to hear about Middle School curriculum and so Diana is going to share um the work of the the committee on Thursday as well as then talk about next steps for our next in upcoming meetings hi uh my name is Theos and the dino students at the high school here I'm just going to go through

050our slides uh so like Dr Hawkins said we had the pleasure of hearing a middle school lesson um that was a big interest of the committee just to kind of see the coherence and the alignment like K12 um and some very interesting conversations came from that um so we had um the teacher that teaches at B Ridge from the family and consumer science um education come and give us that course so the human growth and development is taught within the face um at the middle schools uh which we thought was interesting a lot of us didn't know that so that was great to learn and so it happens over a period of time when students are enrolled in family and consumer Science Education um and so the materials were also distributed to us and one

051thing that was very interesting is the materials were um differentiated there was the materials contain uh sorry the materials contained the same information but it was differentiated for students based on their literacy levels and just kind of needs that they may have um and that's kind of decided with bi four case managers things like that what would be appropriate for a student to kind of work with um because it is kind of like a fill in the blank packet so it has a lot of the things that they're learning in the lesson they're filling out um on a paper packet um so I thought that was really interesting that there was differentiation for students one um had more um like fill in the blank there was a lot of verbage in know that was provided

052for them and explained in one didn't have as much scaffolds in it um for students who maybe that was more appropriate for at the time um and so one thing that came up to is that those materials are given in Spanish but not necessarily delivered in Spanish to students so it is an option they have materials in Spanish but all of the instruction is given in Spanish and so one thing we really talked about at the end when we do briefed is what are other school districts maybe potentially doing for students um who are multilingual right there's a lot of U multilingual programs here in Daye County and we really are wondering what are other schools doing at how's multilingual programs but just also in general I think the biggest roadblock we're running into is

053we don't know what we're comparing to because we don't know what else is out there so I think some of the next steps that we're really leaning into is just what are other school districts doing whether it's like a prepackaged box curriculum or what they've developed on their own and how that's going for them so I think that's one of the biggest things we're kind of going to lead into is just what are other districts doing how is it going for them U and that's one of the things you know Adam zingin was um going to kind of work on and just get some information about that what is something that's you know a box curriculum going to look like or what are other districts doing and just really use that to lean into like

054the comparison because again none of us really know what's out there uh we only know what we've seen thus far um and then one other thing too that we talked about is just the representation for our students who identify as lgbtq um and just really wondering like what does that look like K12 um and so we leaned into that conversation too and just the importance right if we're really truly living out our Equity statement by valuing and affirming all of our students on the basis of their identities and then um what else is I going to say um I think too just some of the language that was used um you know like with students understand what they meant by some of that language you know unpacking that language what did it look like um

055and so that was kind of brought up by one of our medical um members who is in the medical world is just like do our students understand when we're truly using medical terms what we're referring to um and just how we imp that with our students when it's delivered to them um that was another thing that was really brought up and discussed um I think in depth during our meeting is just Tower students perceiving um and unpacking that as they're getting the information to them but that was the biggest thing I think we really want to lean into looking at other school districts and just what they're doing we also talked about student voice and how important that is um I think we're thinking about ways on collecting data around student voice that we hadn't

056kind of closed in on but we think it is really important especially um you know at the secondary level of just how students feel that um this is adding to their own wellness and how they're being uh made aware of just you know how they're growing and developing and just how they feel about that so that was another thing we really wanted to lean into we spent quite a bit of time talking about that and just how to incorporate student voice while also being sensitive to this is something that's difficult to talk about um so wanting to invite that but then also finding Avenues to bring them in without um you know students necessarily having to talk to a room of adults um about it questions concerns comments uh yeah sure U I just want

057to make a just a clarifying statement then two two areas that I I just wanted to appla what what you said uh and ensuring that we frame the the board of education's charge to the committee just for a public to know was to uh look and review current human growth and development care K through K through2 in in the Bron are School District so that's the work overarching work of the of the committee within that I want to send two appreciations one how you've taken two uh two crucial priority areas other BR can done that in overlaying the work which I clearly heard you talk about overlaying Equity framework and how are you thinking about the review process and they also heard you think specifically around academic vocabulary which is our your literacy Focus so

058you're using both of our main our two our key Focus areas to do that work so thank you for that for those two places but also want to make sure our community on behalf of our board education knew what the original charge was of the committee which is review of current state of curriculum thank you maybe I'll just pick you back off of that because I even though that's the charge it's hard not to disentangle the other layers that I'm hearing coming through right as you're looking at what the current curriculum is it sounds like the committee is also grappling with what seem seems to be missing what doesn't resonate what doesn't feel right so that just I the overlay is there um so I'm excited to see where that goes and just to kind

059of take exactly what Dr clity said and thinking about our Equity framework being um kind of over all of the work that not just the curriculum being the piece but the delivery of so how you said like who is the instructor that's delivering the curriculum what is the language beyond the academic language but the language that we use so we are ensuring that students feel included in the discussion so even just being able to see some of the sample slides that you shared and the minutes of being able to see the shift away from like binary terms and things that we just know are not they don't make sense and to ensure that what are we doing to have the right student voice I'm going to come back to that in a second but that

060the language of delivery matters so I I hope that that stays part of the committee's work that it isn't just about a box curriculum the curriculum is one piece how the dialogue gets framed how we support our instructors to then deliver the curriculum in a the students feel seen um and included in the discussion that feels really important to me and sounds like it's part of the discussion it doesn't separate um and then what was I going to do with that last piece oh the student voice thank you for lifting that up um and what does that look like to do that really authentically so I'm really curious to if there's any grappling that's come with that or that you keep us kind of posted about where you think that student voice is going to

061come from so it's not you know I don't know I was when I saw that grappling with like what would you ask a student did you like this class no you know what right what are we trying to really elicit from students about the experience of the of the class yeah the same questions we had we were like what do we ask right so it is authentic and true to their experience but also very pinpointing like those very specific things that we want to learn um you know and we even thought through like you know what what are the student who are the students are going to kind of self- Select to uh give this information more openly where others maybe who won't um openly speak about their experience we really do want to be

062um authentic in that just getting a well-rounded um student voice representation but yes we spent a lot of time talking about that and just what that would look like in that process to honor our student voices but also their privacy um as it is something that's yeah difficult as they're growing and um developing to kind of talk about openly in a in a room of adults so we talk a lot about so I'm glad to hear that you all are giving us the nod to move ahead with um the recommendations for next steps so part of our work though is to be cognizant of the direction that you all want us to go as we interrogate our current state and so um seeking out student voice as well as um looking at other districts and

063what they use use as well as how they deliver those are our thoughts on next steps but we also want to make sure that we capture any thoughts or invite you all into what else you all perhaps would like us to see um would like to see us do um we have a meeting in April and then we when we started we said we would work until May and if the work needed to continue then we certainly will carry on but we certain want to make sure that we're capturing um you all's desires as we do this work as well just want to make a comment um I appreciate the um all the work that you've included here and I appreciate also the W El community and students um again I've been doing equity for

064most of my career one of the questions that's that you always ask when you're evaluating systems especially for unintended consequences uh as we look at how current state exists one thing we want to think about is who's missing at the table and so I think um you know a couple of resources that I can think of right off the bat that we may want to look at for a good lgbtq perspective um gsafe um is a Statewide uh organization that uh does have recommendations for um how we look at this curriculum uh Outreach here in Madison is another organization and then our local our our community GSA um in um our gender inclusion committee which both Corby and I sit on as well so I think those are some additional resources that we can ask

065so as we're centering student perspective in this I think it's important to bring that in um and then another resources that a parent shared with me was that uh advocates for youth uh youth's risk respect and responsibility they that's kind of a uh they've got a lot of guidance within that framework that is inclusive with lgbtq um perspectives in this work specifically at all levels K through2 and so I think that would be another resource I can share that with you all after this meeting but um I I do um thinking about impact as well you know the importance of this work um you know language access you brought up as another important piece but you know I I think about just my own experience growing up and having resources to understand what it meant

066to be queer and um there was no one other than my friends who were giv me very inaccurate information um and the stigma that came about with that so I think as a society we've grown a great deal in regards to holding space for uh our all of our community actually have deeper conversation around that um but I would say that that that impact is different based on resources at home supportive families um income level um Etc there's so many things that can really impact Act and the importance of this curriculum really um being the resource that that we have standardized um will give uh I think important um tools for children and uh other students going through the process of coming out um that they can come out of that process whole um and

067that we can start positively impacting um students that may you know um look at other you know there's higher incidents of suicide and self harm because those resources not always been there so I just want to I know that we all know this but I wanted to put it in the room that that the importance of that work so thank you thank you I just had one more thing that I kind of want to make is just a general statement and I'm only speaking for myself and board members you know you can um share otherwise or whatever um but just in the commitment we have at this table as we shared when we started this meeting to be inclusive to honor our Equity statement and the work that I'm hearing you all doing elevates that

068I just want to say I stand as being a firm supporter of our staff Who deliver this curriculum it can be seen as controversial but if we are choosing something that elevates all the things that we value I stand behind those Educators in doing that work and for them to not be fearful to be the vessel through which our curriculum comes to life um I just want to reassure because I've had staff just share that uncertainty of if we believe this work we have your back and we appreciate the staff that are um in these spaces because it is not an easy space to be so I just want to put that out there oh thank you yeah I mean and I hope that is somewhat reassuring to our teachers because that's really important um

069because they are the front lines of the work and we we are here I'd be remiss if I did not call Out Diana liner she was our presenter Thursday night um that stood in front of our committee and presented Middle School human growth and development to a room full of adults and so kudos to her for being our being our speaker and I did not want to not acknowledge her after that powerful statement president mury thank you thank you any other questions feedback to share at this point for our committee Representatives thank you again for being at the table again all of this information will be found on the website um so our community has access to the agenda the minutes the presentation and all of the notes so we will continue to carry on

070in the direction that you all have given us tonight so thank you thank you very much your work okay back to the agenda feel like it's going in all sorts of order but it really isn't I think we're all right um so that does move us out of superintendance reports so move into public comment I know I have one via email Lori was there anything else um in person tonight or anything else okay um then I'm going to just take a moment to read the public comment that we did receive over email I'm using I as in the email but it's not me I uh I am Aaron Quinn Roberts an education assistant at New Century school and with the district four years as of March 1st I absolutely love my job and students I

071serve each day the staff that is my second family I have a strong ethical and moral system I am cognizant of where my hard-earned money goes I have spent the last 26 years of my life employed at places that align with my value system and this included what health insurance carrier my family had we have been with GHC or Courts for almost three decades because SSM Health Dean a nonprofit Catholic organization is not aligned with my value system I believe in honesty and equity on all levels I am also a survivor of childhood abuse and supporting an organization that is affiliated with the Catholic church that hide thousands of child sexual abuse cases is disturbing just read just read the John J report what's even more perplexing is how many school districts in Dane County

072that promote Equity inclusion and diversity use SSM Health Dean as an insurance carrier it's disheartening as the work I do I love so deeply and the district I work for promotes a value system I believe in but choosing the bottom dollar over a value system then we need to rework some of our fundamental core principles thank you Aaron for the note that is a lead into a discussion we'll be having so I appreciate the public comment and with that we'll move then officially into board action so board if we're following along with the agenda we have taken care of the vote on core knowledge and for our beginning of the meeting we have moved our results policy monitoring to next week's meeting we will be back next week to start March um so now moving

073to the second reading of policy bsr5 adjustment bless you so if you bring that up in your agenda this was something we did as a first read last meeting where we changed um item number seven within this policy that had said in October and we changed the language to reflect each year just to give ourselves that flexibilities we're developing our calendar for evaluation of the superintendent um so this being our second read if there's any further discussion or questions I would ask for those now all right so then given that we will go ahead and move to vote because that is officially our second read um I will accept a motion to approve policy bsr5 as amended I had to pause and did I say that in a way that asked for a motion thank

074you Joe is there a second second second John thank you um all those in favor of approving the policy rewrite for bsr5 signify with i i any opposed all right policy R has been approved moving on to proposal for health insurance so do we have I think we have folks that are gonna even though we're in board action yes thank you have a bit of a presentation to go with our vote this evening so board we have representatives from HR from our uh Union leadership and we do have representatives from Dean in the space as well so as we get a chance to have any dialogue discussion it looks like we have great places to ask questions good evening board members I'm GNA attempt to go through a whole bunch of slides that we're going

075to skip until next week right tonight is an update to share with you on the progress we've made with our health insurance AR and I want to ground this back to the work that we've been doing since the summer back in October we had a meeting with Group Health Cooperative our current health insurance provider to really understand what a continued relationship of GHC would look like at that point we went back and forth with renewal and rate increases um in November GHC provided us with a renewal plan that just did not let align with our budget forecasting and so in early December we pulled together our really great Partnerships with vaa and vesa to really come together and discuss what a health insurance RFP would look like going forward and an RFP for us was

076really to understand what the market looks like to ensure that we are doing the best for our employees as well as what's best financially for the district um in in January we received RFP responses from GHC Dean and courts courts actually came in significantly higher than the two out there providers and so we decided to move forward with GHC and D they came in at the end of January along with vaa and vesa we had an RFP day where we met with the vendors we understood what their plans were we asked lots of questions after that point we realized that we also needed to gather more inform feedback and so a couple of weeks ago we sent a survey to staff asking them what was important for healthcare and tonight we are here to move

077forward with a recommendation specifically for that staff feedback I think it's really important to ground ourselves in what staff provided out of the 850 employees that we sent the survey to 185 people responded that's about 25% of our population enrolled in health insurance and the the priorities for the staff that responded are affordable premiums low out-of-pocket costs a broad and wide access to Providers access to Mental Health Services and prescription drug coverage those were high priority very important items for our staff members we also realized in the survey feedback that many of our employees don't understand that we have access to um a larger network of providers through a program called the point of service plan and um we need to do a better job communicating that to employees that is a followup that we

078definitely have to focus on within that survey feedback we also left an area for open-ended feedback and what we saw within that was about 16% of the respondents about 5% of our employees on insurance stated that staying with GHC was very important to them for a variety of reasons access to U um continuing treatments and some beliefs and we know that that point of service plan allows for that no matter what path we go forward tonight with that I want to go a little deeper into the proposals um after Dean and GHC came and presented in late January we also had further negotiations with them because we needed to understand what a continued relationship would look like GHC came in with their final proposal of a 1.1% in increase from current rates while having a

079very significant disruption to our plan they are actually forcing us to move to a limited network model which only allows members to go to Five GHC clinics in dat County that would disrupt over 650 members as well as have really significant impacts to people on timing on when they go to care how they get to care people who live far away from those clinics when we look at a threeyear cost to the district staying with GHC our three-year healthc care spend is a little under $37 million at that 1.1 rate increase with a 7.9 great cap guarantee $37 million it also includes a minor plan design change returning us to $20 co-pays and aligning our prescription drug to what's more common within the school Healthcare Market Dean on the other hand came in with a

080fairly significant savings 7% less than what we're paying now and what our employees are paying now for insurance a the same rate cap guarantee of 7.9 not to exceed for those two years when we look at the three-year Health Care spend it is almost $3 million less than GHC it's a little under $34 million that's significant and I think it's also significant thinking about the provider disruption staying with GHC has a significant provider disruption the same with staying with D or moving to Dean um again though Dean aligns with some of those things that our employees provided feedback on that were very important to us large access to Providers Mental Health Coverage low premiums access to care along with those minor plan design changes $20 Cay and updating our prescription TR comp now I I

081am uh not deeply involved in the budget but I will provide a very high level overview of the budget impacts we know in early April Chad Weezy is going to be back to give that very detailed look of budgets that you really appreciate tonight I can give you the high level surface idea up until this point we have been projecting to you that we're going to have a budget deficit of about $1.6 million Chad Pete and I have worked really really hard to try to close that Gap we have found about a million dollars in salary savings that is realigning people to the appropriate budget codes we have found some savings and income with open enrollment kind of opening that door for students to be able to come into the district we've made some other

082adjustments and with a change to De we actually go from a budget shortfall of $1.6 million to a budget margin of approximately only 1.2 million now that I just want to pause while that feels really good right now we don't know what the state budget is going to look like in July we have no idea what is happening on the federal side with Federal funding and so while this feels like a a point where we can celebrate it is insurance for us to be able to work through the next couple of months of very unknown times but it provides us more insurance with that bud margin switching to D than it does with remaining with GHC can I make one corre just for our public and and I didn't wanted to acally catch a headline

083the projected open enrollment income was the work of the board vote not not due to the fin Finance team because all all open rollment is are board board yes thank you for clarifying very important um I also want to call out the relationship and the collaboration we've had with fesa and vaa they have been along at our tables with us hard long conversations about understanding Healthcare really questioning our insurance carriers and thought it would be good to have them sit at this table with me tonight they have some statements that they would like to be able to make as well that I think is very important goad yes um my name is bar Wier roor I'm a co-president of the vaea which is the B Verona Area Education Association hi and I'm Jamie Brown I

084am the co-president of our Vespa Union and we are both here to speak on behalf of our Members First We would like to thank Dr Clarity Mr weisi Dr Hawkins and Miss Haiti for their commitment to working collaboratively with both vaa and besta in add addition thank you to the school board for your many hours of service for the betterment of students families and all staff employed in the Verona Area School District and also thank you to Brie from M3 for answering so many of our questions as representatives of vaa and Vesta we understand and respect the recommendation of VD District administrators to switch from GHC to Dean SSM Health to align with V's board governance policy oe4 personnel and oe6 financial our Focus as representatives of baa and vesa um we understand and respect

085the recommendation of vas's District administrators to switch from GHC to Dean SSM Health to align with B board government governance policy but also our Focus as representatives of bae and vesa is to ensure that all of our staff and their family members have Equitable access to the best high quality Health Care regardless of their identity in alignment with the basty educ um educational Equity framework for this reason we have reservations with the transition to Dean SSM Health while we are accepting the District recommendation that we change insurance providers from GHC to Dean SSM Health our reservations with this recommendation focus on the values messaging uh and messaging of the co-ownership between Dean Health Plan by Meda 55% ownership and SSM Health 45% ownership specifically regarding women's and the lgbtqia a2s Plus Health Care with regard

086to this we have been assured that coverage for women's and lgbtqi 2s plus is allowed under the insurance plan and we have and it has been requested by vasd we want our members to know that advocating for access to Equitable highquality health care for all staff and their families will continue to be a focus for us we appreciate the collaborative process facilitated by the vasd district administrators and the opportunity to meet with representatives from GHC and Dean SSM Health to ask detailed questions about the transition process policies and access to Specialty Care we look forward to a continued working partnership with basd District administrators to ensure our staff and families can make the best informed decisions for their individual and unique healthare needs so thank you to everyone for the opportunity to speak and for

087your service and commitment to the students fames staff and community of Bassy thank you thank Youk you thank you all for being here me just to speak to say collaboration and then to see you all here and hear your voices I know as a board member I greatly appreciate that to just get the authentic perspectives from each of you and to just see those long hours and meetings coming together in this space I apprciate hearing from all of you thank you else no you're free to stay up at this table thank thank you thank you thank you so um depending on uh what option we move forward with there's still change that needs to happen for our employees and so really today is a day that a decision needs to be made so that we

088can communicate well and ensure our employees have a smooth transition to to a new health care plan design um we expect to have one-on-one meetings transition of care meetings building based meetings with all of our staff next month starting as early as two weeks from here and really focusing on educating our employees of what our healthare plan is how to utilize the plan how no matter what a majority of them are going to have to find new doctors how we help them find new doctors then in the months of April through June we're going to support people with enrolling in those plans getting them insurance cards ensuring that there are transition of care programs set up so that contined access can happen that they can pick up prescription drugs that we still continue have a

089Continuum of Care and then really our our big date is July 1st that's our goal live date and we know many of our employees are off of work during that time so it's important that we get all of this work done well before the end of the school year so that over the summer they're not stressing about this and so with that um District administration and the health insurance RFP committee would like to recommend moving to Dean as of July 1 2025 we're going to open it up to you for questions and then for thank you thank you so board I heard an invitation there for questions comments any discussion that we want to have just what we've been given as a proposal and things that we've heard this evening I think it's important um

090regard mentioned that there's insurance that we have uh assurances in the insurance but there will be um care for Women's Health and lgbtqia as plus is that something that we are confident that we will be able to our our members will have access to absolutely we have received Assurance from SSM um and Dean Health Plan and it will be written in our plan document I think the piece to understand is that if a doctor cannot provide the care within Network they will refer to an outof network provider that will cover those services at an in network rate so it's very important that the care is built into our plan it's how we access the care um might need some additional support that doesn't mean it's going to take longer but we will just provide support

091to access that care could you speak a little bit about the possibility under the the dean plan for the on-site nearsight cor absolutely absolutely so there is an option to explore an on-site or nearsight clinic we know it provides significant benefits to our employees um it could be no cost access to care quick access to care but there's a financial impact to that as well that could eat up some of that $3 million savings it takes time to build out um but we have received commitment from Dean and SSM that we would be involved along the way including even to the minute details of who they hire as providers um but that is work that we need to do after a decision is made a goal would be that if we can have an on-site

092or nearsight clinic up and running at the beginning of next school year that would be an amazing goal for us to aim for and is the is the idea that having an outsite or nearsight clinic will reduce Dean Health Plans overall you know the risk profile so that they're less likely to get all the way up to that not to exceed that's correct so every um person that goes to that onsite newsite Clinic does not hit our claims um it has been shared that we can realize the savings is quickly as 18 months into the plan if not sooner so we would have to do a good job navigating people to that clinic to reduce those C and I I think that's pretty big because th you start looking at those 7.9% potential increase that's

093those are pretty huge numbers and so just having the option of having something that we can do to keep that keep that number down um is pretty big well you said the access piece I mean right having met a staff member where okay am I GNA have to try to get a half day sub to go and have a doctor visit I mean right shrinking that stressor on staff to try to find coverage um to have that proximity I think is a really huge benefit as well for staff their experience and then as a district as a whole of just the complexity of being able to support staff when they need to have medical well and I think that same point is a reason one of the reasons that gcc's proposal just isn't workable is

094the closest GHC Clinic to where we're sitting right now is the Hatcher Hill Clinic which is like a 15 minute drive or more from here um and that's just from people going from work we have staff members that live outside of D County that I can't imagine what they would have to do to get medical care to 30 40 minute drives just to see a primary care provider and with that that piece so you kind of talked about having to clarify certain things so In the comparison and the discussion staff understand that what we have now does not stay so kind of the current GC is not one of the things that are being voted on that that sh that You' shared with us that she she is also changing the coverage that that got

095really clearly communicated to people we believe it was okay you know our email was but that was important as something that we highlighted right at the beginning yeah that the status quo as it exists as of June 30th is just is not does not ex and I I want to emphasize a point that's really important to me too which is that it's not as if we live in a universe where we can pursue whatever Financial priorities are important to us we live in this Zero Sum game environment where there's this Revenue limit where we can't exceed it so if we're going to be spending more on Employees Healthcare coverage to the tune of several millions of dollars that's got to come from somewhere else because it we have this Zero Sum environment so it isn't

096as if we can just exercise our our whatever values we want financially without sacrificing just to kind of echo some of the things Barb I heard you share and the email that we got from public comment that I'm hearing there's concern around just simply access to the things I'd like to access medically speaking and then there's the philosophical piece of this of not feeling right partnering with an organization that I don't necessarily agree with kind of morally or ethically so just because we had that public comment I just want to lift that back into the space and I don't know if any of our Representatives here I appreciate you being here to be a part of this conversation if anyone wants to put any voice to just that fact of some of our staff members

097just grappling kind of moral from a moral compass standpoint that that is is something we're not diminishing or overlooking or priori or swaying money over values right so if anyone wants to kind of lift up anything to that I I'd appreciate that my moral compass points directly away from for-profit insurance companies in general so I'm in a real conundrum here right that's very true I believe that Dean isit as well all right all insurance companies I think one piece that's really important is I wholeheartedly agree that we all have our own individual beliefs and we have to follow our own moral compass that's why that Appo of service plan is so critically important for people to be able to say I do not align with ssf health and their beliefs in how they treat members

098and so I want to continue to exercise my right to see a w doctor and that's allowable through the point of service plan and I think it's important to know that Dean health insurance is majority owned by Medica which is not SSN Health yeah I didn't know that percentage breakdown that was helpful to hear and all choking aside I think it's important to understand that like you know not every entity or person is all good or all bad right they good things and bad things for me one of the um overarching concerns is um having access right like the GC plan having five clinics in Dame County that you have access to is not the same as you know de plan having much wider access to where you can go and who you can see

099and that's a big deal I know the CH changing health plan for our staff it's a big deal I mean it's a big ask I do appreciate that um we have representatives from Dean help plan here to Signal the partnership ship that will be undertaken at this transition this is a big lift and I think people have very strong attachments to their care providers I've personally been with dhb since 2001 so I I understand that you know these relationships with your treating Physicians is really important um and thep does have a great in network system of Physicians so um I am hopeful that the partnership from dhp and our staff can be strong to help assist with that transition um of care ensure that um continuity is there that's a in this day and age

100it's a big deal um for not just our staff but for the families that are relying on our staff members I don't know if I'm allowed to say it but I'm GNA just say something like it has been nice throughout this process to feel like Dean wants to work with us that isn't always the way I've felt about all parties involved so I appreciate that I just wanted to add more to that point but I understand aligning you know your dollars to your values and that it's important to really make sure every employee understands the POS model because they can circumvent right obviously Dean is the insurance provider but they feel very strongly that they need somebody that's aligned with their values they can choose to direct their dollars to a doctor that's more likeed

101you know a practice that's on obviously it's still going to be covered through the insurance Model D but it's important for them to know that they have some control where they vote for their dollars so to speak so I do like that that's highlighted just we need to make sure it's we do a really good job to make sure everybody knows that and it's educated on that point so they know they have that ability if they want to for those that very strongly like the individual that contribute public comment that will be a priority Focus for how how have you found what method of communication do you feel most effective um so every dire because I mean 25% survey response is not bad right obviously you ideally you get 100 right it's a message like

102this it's you want really make sure you get to as high percentage as possible for sure um so initial thoughts would be an email communication needs to go out tonight or tomorrow morning and then have onsite meetings as early as the second week of March so we've got the email mode of communication um a Google folder that has lots of reading materials for folks that like to research and and kind of read on their own in-person meetings in a group setting where we can all hear things together and then Dean has graciously offered to do one-on-one meetings with any member that SS up and so you think about all of those modes of communication are really important we will have to do a really good job monitoring on who's enrolled to understand who we're missing

103that's important for us as we don't want to miss anyone and I think it's also important to understand that we have very um wide language abilities within the district so we're going to have to focus on English meetings and Spanish meetings in Russian meetings um to support every person so that they're able to understand it in a way that makes sense to them so we do still officially have a vote to take so I want to just make sure one last time that everyone has had any questions answered that they've had any additional comments any board members want to service because we will take a vote and each of you is a single voting member and you can vote however you choose to but we will move forward to that I just want to say

104I don't hate all insurance [Laughter] companies all right so we do have a recommendation so I am going to make a motion then in alignment with the recommendation that is coming forward to us so I would take uh accept a motion to approve the recommendation of District administration and staff leadership um to change to Dean Health Plan incorporated as presented thank you Meredith is there a second second thank you John uh all those in favor of approving the recommendation for BD to move to Dean Health Plan Incorporated please signify with I any opposed okay approved and onward and thank you then in advance for all of the communication you all have said you are committed to we greatly appreciate that um and ensuring our staff have a smooth transition thank you to our Dean Representatives

105your presence uh matters thank you so much for me the space today thank you we really do appreciate the willingness to work with us agree yeah thank you we a good Bunch all right very good thank you again staff leaders so moving on to board updates um anything specific to O8 Communications this evening uh yes yes okay um yes well I didn't know this of the vote so I want to get I'll send to you a um as Melle mentioned a communication that we need to go to staff so okay in the event that there was a yes V we did have that ready to go but considering it directly references the board vote today you want to make sure to had eyes on that just also public aniz that process and making sure the

106board is where ination that goes great okay forward to seeing that thank you oh yeah okay um just one other kind of General board update so obviously we did some reworking of our agenda this evening um but also just an initial hope that we can move some items from March 17th either up to March 3rd and or to the first meeting in April so the our Monday March 17th meeting ideally will be predominantly Workshop time around results um so our little worker be group of Meredith John and myself have been working through some things that can kind of build as a template with some admin insights so we have something to work from in terms of our grappling with um results policies kind of what we're grappling with even with what we're going to monitor

107now next meeting so we look forward to that time and thought if we could actually carve it out to happen within an identified board meeting evening that that may be ideal from a Time perspective so that is the Hope um stay tuned as we continue to kind of massage the meeting schedules but yeah a question that out there yeah add this mini on boarding committee I think three your um yeah I mean slowly very slowly but surely should we make it a goal to have some present on 17 not necessarily but if you I mean yeah because the focus would be the results work so yeah whenever you want to share one thing at a time I I agree I just want to make sure that wasn't no no no but let us know when

108you do have an update we'll make sure it's part of a future agenda when you do feel like yeah a little upate maybe sometimes because we simultaneous work happening but I think the prior the elevation of how often we speak to results and the fact that these reps really kind of reflect yeah we'll do that I think that we can only handle one big discussion I don't know ours would be that look at all the things we discussed for a while we have what just didn't it's on my list okay um if there are no other just general board updates working back through our agenda um you have the superintendent consent agenda that has been linked into your board docs any questions hearing none oh we I need so we do have something in there

109that was per previous um close session discussion so do make sure you all were looking at it um before we move on to that can I give one more yeah yeah that would actually be great as long as we yeah uh so I did attend uh Dr clity uh presentation for Theon Chamber of Commerce phal presentation by leadership of Staff yeah um well um received as well from the chamber so I just wanted to those there it's great so thank you for attending yeah thank you to Dr clity too for being able to present in that space excellent thank you this is why we're a team of seven so I always think there's something that's been we got to talk about and something to share so thank you for being there Chris appreciate big snow

110day yeah right we did all that I SL I spit it right past you is there anything then then we're coming back to a superintending yeah very good thank you for double checking okay any questions about superintendent's consent agenda okay do a refresh that thanks John that's really oh there we go refresh okay Mar do you need an additional pause from me on yeah I looked earlier just make sure yes okay same good thank you all right so hearing no other questions the superintendent consent agenda is approved as presented uh board consent agenda similarly any questions okay hearing none the board's consent agenda is approved um future agenda items I know the paper copy said March 3rd I know our slides did not list March 3rd but as we've talked about multiple times we have

111a meeting next week already March 3rd um so I'm still back in February I know right yeah yeah so we'll see you all next week Time same place um and with that we are sent to adjourn if there's nothing else from any board members I would accept a motion to adjourn thanks Juan Carlos is there a second thanks Christopher all those in favor of adjourning this evening's meeting signify with i i any opposed meeting is adjourned thank you all