001Okay, maybe you're set there. All right, it is five o'clock. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Um it's a special meeting for the interviews um of the open positions for school board and we'll do a roll call. So uh Nikki here. John here. Meinda here. Tiffany here and myself is here. All right. First things we'll do is the review of common commitments. Um, given that there's five of us, if we could take three piece, that would be great. I can start it off. Um, participate with humility over pride, forgiveness. Uh, we are all here to make decisions that are best for all of our students. No enemies at the table, just differences. Prioritize productive discussion. Adhere to Robert's rules of order. Start on time. Respect others time. Stay in our lane. Board responsibilities
002should not flow over to administration. Dedication to researching issues and agenda items, educating ourselves about topics, be prepared for meetings, recognize and celebrate successes, be complimentary, show appreciation, and follow policies and procedures. Uphold policy and procedures. Don't take offense to questions. Don't assume or be judgmental. Seek clarification and common understanding of policies. Commit to being our best, working together. Growth mindset. Refrain from interruptions and gotcha moments. commitment to our community. All right. Um so discussion of um how we're do it. So we'll be pulling first one out of the lunchback um for interviews. So what I have from I've got the three names and they're exactly the same size. So, what I was going to do is fold them, put them in, and then maybe somebody can just pull three in the order that they're
003pulled is the order that we bring them in. Is that okay? Yep. Okay. Seems more fair than the NBA draft lottery. Kevin's first, Jason's second, and that leaves Matt for third. So, I'll go get Kelly. Oh, do we have to do a motion? Motion to bring candidates to the floor. have to do that. So then I'll second the motion. All those in favor? Anyone opposed? We should. [Music] Hi. Hi. All right. So, we can get started. Um, R just said we did do a motion in a second and yes on that. Yeah. Good. Good. Who was it? I made a motion. Is that second? Perfect. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. All right. Um, so we got a series of questions uh we're going to be asking all three candidates. Um, we'll go through those and
004we'll start just sure the person who they're supposed to ask you. Yeah. Okay. Uh, so what experiences, skills, or perspectives do you bring that will benefit the board? Sure. Um, by trade I'm a veterinarian. Um, so I spend a lot of time advocating for patients that can't speak for themselves. So I also work with a variety of different people on a daily basis trying to figure out what their needs are, what their perspectives are. So communication is really, really important in my job. So I think that experience is going to help me a lot in terms of being a really good listener, being a good detective, and finding out the facts. Um but also trying to be respectful of different perspectives, opinions, uh and and being collaborative in terms of coming up with the best
005plan. May not always be plan A or plan B. Sometimes it is something else down the road, but that I think is really important to kind of keep options open, be communicative, work together uh to find solutions. That's the next question. Okay. Thank you. Um, what role should a board member play in relation to the superintendent and staff? As far as with the with the superintendent, I think it's definitely again that collaboration keeps coming to the surface of my answers here. I think it's really important to assist the superintendent um in terms of carrying out agenda um helping to get information. It should be, you know, a person that you can approach the superintendent with questions and and be able to get those answers and have open dialogue and in the same token, you know,
006work together as a board with the superintendent all together to implement policies to understand issues, to listen to public opinion, to listen to the educators, to the people that run the school to get us where we want to be, you know. And sometimes that is a challenge but I think it is working together. So it is having an open mind. It's communicating clearly, asking lots of questions, doing good research. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Next. What do you see as the most pressing issues facing our district? Uh I think the current issues on the table as far as you there's been some turmoil. So I think settling that down is really important in terms of kind of creating an open collaborative boardroom if you will that everybody that air of us versus them or
007uneven voting or you know being on a side needs to dissolve. I think it's really important that we come with different perspectives, different opinions, but can all say, "Hey, at the end of the day, we're all, you know, still colleagues. We all still are working towards the same goal, which is educational excellence on all levels at all schools." Um, you know, I want to I think it's important to, you know, help make it that way so that our faculty want to stay people want to serve on the board. They want to they want to come and listen. they want to they're able to openly discuss and not feel like well tomorrow people are going to have an opinion of me if I open my mouth at a board meeting. I think that error has to
008be cleared uh and and an air restored that hey the board is working towards the best goals for the schools. Thank you. And next um what strategies would you use to improve transparency and communication between the board and the community? I see the board members as like liaison and it is hard. It's a fine line between pro protecting like sensitive confidential information but also people are interested and genuinely curious about what's going on. Uh you know they want they want to know and sometimes even you know how it is they just kind of want the inside scoop right like hey what's going on? What about this issue? What about that issue? So I think it is a fine line but I think is important. I I've seen a lot of improvement in terms of making
009it more accessible being able to tune in and you know with your phone or with your computer at home even and observe a portion of the meeting even if you're a really busy person or you couldn't make it you can see that and be very open. So I think that's great finding ways to allow people uh to attend opening the communication communicating and reaching out to the people u like I said as they approach you but also being careful uh you know I think it is a fine line of how much information do you divulge on sensitive issues but I think I have to do that in my job anyway so I think that's a nice balance of one to be able to keep people informed but yet also protect sensitive things that aren't public
010information. Um, so I think transparency, open communication, uh, like I said, making your meetings very open, uh, has been a great addition. I hope that continues. Inviting people to come and ask questions, I think is important, too. Um, so if somebody asks you, you know, would come up to me and say, hey, what about this? I might invite them to come and say something. You know, I think it's the more voices you hear, the more opinions you listen to. Sometimes you get kind of locked into your circle, right, of who you talk to and listen to. So, kind of reaching out to people or someone approaches you, inviting them to get their perspective. Awesome. So, I have the last question. Um, what motivated you to apply for the vacancy on the school board? Well, um,
011what motivated me most is I've been in the district. My oldest daughter is 18. She just completed the full circle. She's a freshman at college. So, as far as I have a kid in every school. I have one in elementary, one in middle, one in high. And I So, I've kind of gotten a full flavor of all the faculty, principles, guidance counselors, your programs, the things that the schools can do. And we have another eight years before Charlotte, my baby, graduates. So, I see what I was attracted when we moved here. you people talked about right schools being really good and having great teachers and a great little small school but yet lots of good things to offer. Um I want my motivation is to try to help mend some of the you know things
012that were kind of sliding backwards in some of the controversies that happened. Wanting to help you know obvious I have I want to be of service. I want to volunteer my time to try to help keep the schools good, not only for my own kids, but for all kids and for kids to come. I have a daughter who's going to she's going to school for education. I hope she's attracted to come work here. Um, you know, and and sees right town as a district in a place she wants to work and volunteer her work her skills and time and and be a contributing member to our community. It's a great little town. I've worked here for 15 years. I know a lot of people. There so many good people in this town. Um, and I
013think if we can pull them all together and get back on track to working towards a goal and if I can help with that, that's an awesome thing. So that's my motivation is right sounds awesome. I want to keep it that way. Thank you. All right, that concludes our series of questions. We appreciate your time and so very good. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Join the audience. Welcome. Leaving microphoneware. cheeks. [Music] This is nice. Welcome. Thank you. So we have a series of five questions. Um we'll go through them. Um each of those we'll ask individually and um take our notes and um thank you for your interest. Perfect. We'll get started. I got the first question. Thanks for joining us. Jason, um what experiences, skills, or perspectives do you bring that would benefit this
014board? Yeah, I think um just um living in Ritstown for almost 18 years now, uh coming at this from a perspective of seeing um how my kids have gone through the entire town school system and district um has given me a unique perspective on on what our district has to offer and how great our district really can be. Um I think you know one of the things that Mr. Sorry, son was um talking about continued growth and and how do we push continued growth and that's something I do a lot at work in coaching teams on how we do um continued growth and how we grow and learn from mistakes and that failure and mistakes aren't necessarily a bad thing, right? It's just a way to learn and to adjust and course crack the way
015that you're going. Um I think um having talked with a lot of the staff, volunteered in schools, um being part of activities and in in seeing our kids um compete in sports. I've coached here at Writestown. Um my kids have been in drama events. We've attended many, many things um that Writestown does, whether our students are in it or not. I volunteered in classrooms and not my wife's classroom, other classrooms, but on field trips um and just seeing um the great things that that Bright Sun has to offer. Um we've had conversations with administrators, good conversations, bad not bad conversations, but conversations that weren't always fun conversations, but I've I've seen the great administration staff that we've had and and and worked with them and just seen some of the great things that Rightstone has
016to offer. Um, so that's a core. I I think those are some of the things that that I bring to the table and some of the things that I really want to see come back to Writtown and really be the focus for Writtown. Jason, I have the next one. Sure. Okay. What role should a board member play in relation to the superintendent and staff? Um, yeah. So, I actually have That's funny that you asked that. I actually have a prepared statement that I was going to read to you guys at the end. I think the board really functions in an advisory role and support role. Um, and I I think one of the biggest things is that policies that the board puts in place should be enablers and not seen as prohibitive. Um, and they
017should enable amazing staff to do amazing things. And we have amazing staff here from our pair professionals to our teachers to our administrators. And that board should create policies that support and enable those administrators and that staff to do the amazing things that they are able to do. They are experts in their field and the board shouldn't stand in their way but allow them and enable them to do the best that they possibly can do for our students. Right? That's really the focus here. Um, as far as the superintendent, I do believe that the board has a supervisory role over the superintendent, but again, it's a supportive and mediator role, right? It's a function that the board has. Okay. What do you see as the most pressing issues facing our district? Yeah, I think um
018we've been through some turbulent times, right? And I think um that we need to increase transparency that um that wounds need to close and and bridges need to be built. Um and that's going to take time, but I think the groundwork for that needs to start today. Um, and I think that making sure that the board is there to create policies to enable and support um, our professional staff um, is really one of the biggest things that I I see um, as uh, one of the biggest things that the board needs to do. um being interviewed in front of whoever knows who's watching and and and the people behind me, right, is not super comfortable, but it's amazingly transparent. And I love that. And I love that the board took that step to do that.
019Um, and I think the other thing that I'd love to see more from this board is active listening and not just hearing what people have to come and say when they come with suggestions or feedback or criticism, um, but actively listening to that and then rationalizing that and and looking at that from that person's perspective and and being able to respond to that person and maybe it's not in the way that that person wants, right? Um, but but to have an open mind to listen to that and to be able to actively listen and not just proceed in whatever manner was already preconceived or or whatnot. Okay. Thank you. Sure. All right. I'm next. Um, what strategies would you use to improve transparency and communication between the board and the community? Yeah. Well, I think
020this is a great start, right? Having this all out in the open is uh is a great start. Um, I love the fact that that people can come up and and talk freely. I think people should be able to come up and talk without interruption and and that time that in that time the board should just listen um to what's going what what that person is saying and what they're trying to convey. Um, I think there's a time to reach out to those people and ask clarifying questions and to gain uh additional understanding. So when you have a group think situation, I'm not saying the board does this or has done this, right? But when you have a group think situation, people just come in with an agenda, you just don't you lose that that
021value that um constructive disagreement can provide and and the discourse that that you can have with people. Um, and when you go through and and you sit and you listen to people and you have that interaction with the board, whether it be email or phone call or whatever, um, you gain an understanding at least where that person is coming from. And I think it just lays that common ground and that framework for just that better communication and an overall uh, better appeal for the board. I will say first and foremost though that you know excellence in in student achievement and quality education for every student the board's vision or the district's vision and mission have to become paramount in all the board's decisions and discussions I'm going to guess you're next one here we go
022um what motivated you to apply for the vacancy on the school board. Yeah, I think just seeing um attending a ton of board meetings um coming from the experiences that I have um truly having a love for this district um and and and and seeing how much it can offer students um put me in a position that I really wanted to um apply for this board position. and then um you know if if appointed run for reelection next year because I I just think I provide that that value that common sense approach um the fact that I am a very active listener um and and am very levelheaded in the fact that I can step into from from work experience and other experiences stepping into somebody else's shoes to at least see where that person's
023coming from and try to find common ground and and help build that bridge to to a better future. Thank you. Awesome. That's our series of questions. Appreciate you having a time and interest. Thank you. Thanks, Jason. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. [Music] Yeah, I lost right there. Welcome. Thanks. Um, so we'll uh be going through a series of five questions. Um, each of us will take a turn. um answer appropriately and and to the best of your information and we'll go from there. Sounds good. All right, I got the first question. Thanks for joining us, Matt. Uh what experiences, skills, perspectives do you bring that would benefit this board? I at work I'm I'm the safety manager. So at tweaker there um we have about 800 employees flex up to 1,200 and I'm I interact
024a lot as HR even though safety and HR kind of always go hand in hand and I'm usually the one that people go or the safety person normally is the person that people are like oh man safety's here. It's like cop pulling you over most of the time. So, it's building relationships all the time. So, that way when we do have a situation that we need to address, everybody can have a level head that they know where you're coming from. A lot of it is building relationships and strong communication to uh you know I don't always a lot of times they'll change my perspective but it's being open to that right from the get-go so you can come up with a workable solution because the ultimate goal is figure out how to get this job
025done safely. And I think a lot of that relates to working with any group of people. I have a second question. Um, what role should a board member play in relation to the superintendent and staff? I would say board and staff probably don't interact that much. It's more like I don't inter at work. I don't interact with our CEO. Our CEO interacts with our board. So it'd be much the same and I had maybe talked with our CEO a couple times in passing throughout the year, but it's not like I'm going there for an issue and vice versa. So it's being cordial working through a situation through the right chain. So, in my opinion, it'd be the board working with Ron and or his design of, hey, I want this person involved or whatever to
026deal with the situation or whatever's going on. So, that's what I that's how I feel. Thank you. What do you see as the most pressing pressing issues facing our district? I think it's pretty I think we have a lot of turmoil or the perception is there's a lot of turmoil amongst our in the community with the school board and I think we just need to figure out how to work together and move forward. Um, I haven't really looked I haven't stuck my nose in much. I honestly didn't know who anybody here besides Nikki was because my daughter plays ball with her daughter. So, I didn't really have an opinion. I feel like I'm really neutral because I I'll be honest, I never usually look at the meeting minutes or the upcoming agenda and I just
027I was busy for the last 10 years traveling for work and stuff. So now the last year or two I've been a little more interested. So I think we have obviously with open spots that's a concern. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um what strategies would you use to improve transparency and communication between the board and the community? One of the things we I we talk about at work is we're not all going to always agree, but we agree to disagree and we commit to a thing and we all got to pull the same rope in the same direction. You're not going to get what you want every time. Sometimes you're going to end up in the middle and it it's communicating the same message being consistent. Okay. I have the last question. What motivated you
028to apply for the vacancy on the school board? I've had a little bit of interest for a long time, but work didn't allow that because we tra I traveled periodically and it was never planned out ahead of time like so typically it was a week or two notice, hey, we need somebody to go here and then you might be gone for two weeks or three weeks and it's so I didn't feel like that was fair but then so what finally prompted me this time I actually thought about running last time and then I was like no one, the open get on the ballot time was already gone and passed. So, I thought, well, I'll stick my nose out this time a little bit and see what happens. All right, that's it. Those are our questions.
029Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, we'll move on. Um motion to bring to the floor deliberation selection of two candidates to fill the two open board seats. Make a motion. Second. All those in favor? Anyone opposed? So I guess we can approach this two ways, right? We can have some conversations. Um we could look for nominations and vote. Um there anything anybody wants to talk about openly? I'll just say thank you to all three of you for coming out. I know this is a awkward process to to go through and uh definitely probably not what was on your sites January 1 when the year started. Um yeah, definitely appreciate you guys taking the time sharing about yourselves and giving us the opportunity to work with you in the future. Do
030we feel like we need to discuss or do we feel like voting? Like how do you want to do it? You want to discuss and describe the practice so we're all on the same page for when the time does come how it rolls out. Um, so if we wanted to, we could um do a nomination, get a second, and then do a vote. We don't want to deliberate openly and see where we land from there. We'd be looking for a motion to bring one of the candidates. Okay. Or appoint one of the candidates. Um I would make a motion to appoint Jason Padorski to fail Tony Decker seat. second or we can discuss or um I was just going to say just some of my justification is um Jason talked about multiple levels in involvement
031in school. um from at um some involvement with admin through private kids coaching um and then just kids having gone through the schools. I liked the um couple comments about like common sense approach um be able to do like constructive disagreements um and so yeah I I just felt drawn to all of the involvement with the school already so at multiple levels. So I thought that would be that would be something that would bring a lot to the school board. I would also add um you know creating policy to enable um the staff for professional development and um classrooms. So that stuck out with me. Um focus on transparency, building a bridge to a better future. I like that that closing in the last one. And you all heard it. He did say he was
032committed to running next year. [Laughter] Um, anything else anyone wants to add? Comments about advising and being a support role and policy making. Anything else to add? All right, then we'll go to vote. All those in favor? I. Anyone opposed? All right. So, we'd be looking for another motion to bring um one of the two candidates um forward to appoint to fill Mike Mullen's seat. I would make a motion uh to appoint Kelly to fill Mike Mullen's seat. Second. Um key words that stuck out for me were detective, good listener, um respectful, collaborate, open dialogue with the um superintendent, go to them for questions, um and um motivation to mend issues and be of service not just to to her own or for her own kids but for everyone and just to keep rights tell
033them great. I liked one of Kelly's opening statements and she was talking about how she's advocating for patients who can't speak for themselves. Being a vet know that's really cool because you know we're always here for the students and they're not here. They're not showing out what their their needs and stuff are. So, I'll piggy back kind of off that too with um I liked the us versus them being dissolved. Um I that has kind of been an issue and she's right that does need to be dissolved because we're all here for a common goal. And one of the things she says was work towards the same goal. and then talking to adult staff, having faculty that want to stay um listening to various voices and um listening to public opinion. I wrote many similar,
034but that recognition of staff and appealing, we want people to come work in Ritstown. allowing people to come live in Ritstown and just getting our schools back on track to to be that district again that as well. Anything else to add? Um, so we'll take it to a vote. All those in favor? Anyone opposed? That concludes the interviews and um appointment to the open positions. Um, so we'll have you do the oaths. So if Kelly and Jason could come forward, Tiffany's going to read the oath, swear you in. I'm going to get a picture. copy of the other. So let's see the other way. So here I Jason Hi Jason having been elected or appointed to the office of Brighttown Community School District School Board. having been appointed to the office of brighttown Community School
035District School Board, but have not yet entered upon the duties thereof. But have not yet entered upon the duties thereof. swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States. swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin and will faithfully discharge the duties of set office to the best of my ability. and will faithfully discharge the duties of set office to the best of my ability. I, Kelly Shberg, I Kelly Shber, have been elected or appointed to the office of Wrighttown Community School District School Board. Have been elected or appointed to the office of the Wrighttown Community School District School Board, but have not yet entered upon the duties thereof. but
036have not yet entered upon the duties thereof. swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States. swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin. and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin and will faithfully discharge the duties of set office to the best of my ability. and will faithfully discharge the duties of set office to the best of my ability. Perfect. It's tricky, Mr. Yep. Thank you. All right. At this time, I'll be looking for a motion to go into executive session. The board of education may upon motion duly made and carried convenient to close session under one or more of the exemptions provided in section 19.85 one uh Wisconsin stats for the following purposes um pursuant to
037Wisconsin stat section 19.851F 51F concerning financial, medical, social or personal histories or disciplinary data or specific persons, preliminary consideration of specific p personnel problems or the investigation of charges against specific persons except where um part B applies which if discussed in public would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data or involved in such problems or investigations, specifically reviewing privilege communications between district legal counsel and board members. Can I get a motion to go into close session? Uh before motion's made, uh we're not planning to take any action, right? So we'll be planning to adjourn in close session. So we don't have to have everyone wait for us to We will be adjourning in close session. There's no action listed. Uh, I
038make a motion to close that. Okay. All right. You guys All right. Do a roll call vote for a close session. Um, Nikki, yes. John, yes. Uh, Melinda, yes. Tiffany, yes. Myself, Jason, yes. And then Kelly, yes. All right, it is 5:45.