001okay good evening uh I'm going to call to order the January 24th 2020 governance committee meeting at 602 PM Mr show could I have a roll call please yes Spencer Anderson president Megan Miller present can you hear me okay or icon go but I didn't hear it oh do you want me to come out can you hear me at all or no sorry I'm having trouble with my sound hold on one moment please okay okay Megan Miller I think she might have jumped out she'll come back around though oh there she is he's back okay here she's coming back in uh present can you hear me okay maybe Miller hi present are you able to hear me and Spencer or I'm sorry Sean Levy present all members are present can we get a little more
002volume for Megan I can't hear her are you able to hear me folks full of the agenda so moved well I remember me making I can actually hear you I know you're asking the question can you hear me I can hear you foreign all right um so the there's a motion for approval by board member Spencer Anderson uh second can you hear me okay [Music] okay on the computer [Music] second one speaker so we're recording what parties so foreign are you able to hear me I did second here a little yep I heard you seconds so it's been moved and seconded any discussion hearing on all those in favor signify by saying aye aye hi hi motion passes unanimously all right is there a motion for the approval of the minutes so moved second okay
003it's been moved and seconded all those in favor or is there any discussion sorry you didn't know all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye motion passes unanimously all right so we are we do have uh students with us this evening and so to kind of explain what we do in our governance meeting in our governance meeting uh one of the things that we do is it's a made up of uh different committee chairs business operations and finance and support member Spencer Anderson teaching learning equity and people Service uh committee chair uh Megan Miller myself the board president and uh Dr Willie Garrison has joining us by um online also and our agenda tonight we've got a lot of different things going on in the school district we completed a strategic plan we
004went through the summer we hired a new superintendent and now we're at the point where we're Beginning To What We examined our finances with our ad hoc committee and um so we have just in our last meeting uh voted to go to referendum the other place that we're at is that there's other goals or objectives that we need to complete that are part of the Strategic plan so since our agendas have been full and now that we're moving our way through the work that's in front of the board these are some other things because the way that we've used a governance agenda in the past is to kind of keep um like bring to the top of our minds and finding space to get things worked on um for the district to keep the district
005moving forward so some of the things that we're going to talk about tonight um we're going to be operating our framework of this is what our strategic plan is how it's lifted and some things that as at the board level we can do to actualize and move that understanding that we also have um the context of reconfiguration um and our referendum that'll be moving forward so it's always a matter of time what things can we do and do we have the time but we got to kind of schedule things out and so we continue to have conversations uh moving forward that will help us be successful so that we can comes that we're hoping for for the students in our schools um and and move those things forward so that's kind of the context of
006what's going to happen tonight as we work our way through our agenda let's see board member Levy has joined us uh online and board member Schneider is also here with us all right just a minute so the way that we'll kind of move tonight is we'll just work our way through the agenda to talk about um the different strategic plan um this is an opportunity for us to have a open dialogue and move some things towards a direction if there's things that need to end up in whole board action uh we'll kind of move that way but then also too as we're working with Dr Garrison who might develop some priorities that we have for administrative action and he and his team will follow up in that area so our first item 2A is a
007finance priority um if you're following Along on board docs there are documents and also um some websites linked and this is just resources that kind of put us in a space to keep up with things so that what I'll start with is reading from our strategic plan about Finance so in our strategic plan the school district employee displays its fiscal responsibility by ensuring that every dollar spent enhances and adds value for our students staff and community our objective a is a stabilized budget the School District of Beloit will build and present a stable budget while supporting the goals Effectiveness and longevity of the district objective b Equitable resourcing the School District of Beloit will follow an equitable model to distribute resources to maximize outcomes for students Objective C transparency slash communication School District employee will
008develop a system and structure to communicate our fiscal responsibility to stakeholder groups and so those are the three objectives um in that area and I'm going to open it up to any board member who wants to add to the conversation as we deal with our finance priority foreign president Levy uh go ahead board member Miller yeah sure I was just kind of curious like exactly what kind of feedback are you looking for here just just a minute can you get louder thank you okay can you please repeat that no sir I just want to clarify exactly like what kind of feedback are you looking for are you just like wanting to discuss the like are you looking just like for comments or help help me understand a little bit sorry so okay so we'll walk
009our way through it so with that so I just read to you the objectives of our finance priority those are the three priorities that were there um in the documents that were embedded in the presentation there's like our last presentation that we received from school perceptions or we had some questions like on page 51 on page 43 and on page I think that where where we're at right now um we know that we are working we've moved to go to referendum so that's something that is happening um so that's kind of one way that it's been addressed but just kind of other ideas or thoughts about our work in this area that you might have gotcha thank you very much for clarifying um I just like I appreciated some comments that uh Dr Garrison made
010before about you know adjusting our budget timeline I think that would be helpful but besides like in terms of when we approve things so that we can make a difference from year to year because it feels like our old budget timeline kind of set us back a little bit um other than that I mean I I feel like focusing on the referendum um is really like the big thing right now it's probably good to get updates on sort of like how I just I feel like there's some confusion too in the community about like how things are funded so I think any opportunity that we have to point out like you know while you know fund X typically funds this like the reason that we're asking for operational dollars is to increase the amount that
011we have in fund X to sustain that you know what I mean because I think there's um I've just I think you know in general School financing is a little overwhelming so I just think like as we're building up to the referendum you know election piece it's probably good to educate people as much as possible and I I also like the idea of just like you know just those periodic updates and and bumping the timeline so that we can be a little bit more proactive okay right one of the things that I would add is like um so I'm on page 16 and whether we've got our students students here I'm on page 16 of our um strategic plan like one of the things that we have listed as strategy says Identify protect and enhance
012funding streams annually to reflect the district's beliefs and values so I kind of feel like that's where we're at um with the funding streams as we have voted to go to uh referendum so we know that those things will be addressed in the operational and the capital reference about that we have uh looking at B uh that equitable resourcing where uh it's talking about monitoring and reviewing enrollment data um adjust facilities and Personnel to align with the current and future needs of the district we're in that process now we've taken some action on administrative contracts uh Dr Garrison is leading the reconfiguration as we're studying that since we are down about 2 000 students like how do we make adjustments in our building um in our buildings uh we'll also have to address later teacher
013contracts when that comes up and then even in um in C um that we're you know we shared that information with the ad hoc committee to kind of create that understanding of this this is what we're dealing with in our finances um but then it also looks at that place to develop that annual feedback so our community can see that and we're kind of at the place like in the end when the election kind of comes around that people will end up voting and so that you know that'll be a space where people you know also have the opportunity to be um updated on that uh Mr Shope I know you just got that second part there um but that said transparency communication with our community I think that we've you know we have achieved
014that part to kind of put the facts out there so people see what's going on uh can you go to the school um the school district employee Community survey and go to page we'll start with page 43 first foreign right the school perceptions 2122 School District employee Community survey summary report 40 start at 43 42. I think 42 43. all right oh not not the length um got the email not the website linked okay the attachment [Music] yep that one yeah start at page 42. so kind of just um now this survey was completed last year but it's important and even as we're bringing Dr Garrison on I know that for some of us because you know we've sat through these things but um and I know he has you know watch board meetings but
015want to make sure that all this other information is back there is uh in front of him um we engage with school perceptions to help them to help us get an understanding of where our community is and allow them to have direct input into some things that we needed to shape this work started like a year ago and so like most other school districts across Wisconsin Beloit has experienced a decline in student enrollment we currently serve about 5 500 students nearly 25 percent less than 15 years ago the fewer students we have the less money we received from the state at the same time our costs continue to increase especially for special education services transportation and utilities voters in many Wisconsin District 65 percent have approved an operational referendum to help address these funding challenges
016we'll need to secure an operational referendum to maintain current class size programs and student services can you go to 43 and so that was the survey as was put out and then uh School perceptions didn't measure for us the question would you support the district pursuing an operational referendum to maintain programs and student services and at this time we didn't have you know specific numbers but I think um the staff supporting that 58 percent um families supporting that 52 percent and uh 34 for um community and so that kind of put us in that space even last January as we've been talking about um what we may need to do with referendum that some clarity needed to be developed can you go to page 40 can you go to 46 . because I'm 46 we
017asked a question about capital and we were at 62 percent um of Staff 65 percent of parents and 37 percent of community understanding that Capital question is showing support for it so you get all the way down to 53 please Michelle so lastly on that one where we close on . oh okay maybe go back to 51 new I'm sorry 51. um the questions that we were left with was um that we need to clarify plans for our operational capital and capital referendum so that the community members understood uh what we were doing so it came into questions like what projects are needed what are why are those projects needed and how much will the projects cost and so even as we continue to shape um the steps we need to take for the operational
018and the capital referendum to kind of come back to that and use this tool Dr Garrison have anything to add in this area as we're um closing up on finance sure first of all thank you for president Levy and yes we have um and when we think about our the school perception survey what it does is it gives us a very general overview of kind of where our public is and now we're at a point where the board has agreed to move towards referenda we work through some ad hoc committee conversations um right now as it pertains to support from our um both committee and the board we will be moving forward with a both capital referenda and like you mentioned an operational reprimander the capital referenda we will be moving forward with a 19.5
019million dollar conversation that will help us in conversations around our in our high school and of course um the stadium upgrades along with our Fourth Street entrance that will impact our entire community and as you've already mentioned that answer is again um uh what projects are needed right from a capital conversation when you look at why are these projects needed naturally I'm just speaking from a capital perspective and if you want me to board president I can speak from an operational piece as well but just to give them just giving a snapshot why these projects needed well I'm not sure if many people have been in our high school during the summer time and it's pretty hot and we're thinking about our Stadium conversation um we can't host WIA events because our Fields aren't um
020upgraded our Fields aren't regulation and so although we may have had some great teams here we can't either host and or have WIA events here on our Fields because our Fields aren't regulated now that doesn't that doesn't mean just the football fields it also captures some of our baseball diamonds and some of our soccer complexes as well and then when you think about our Fourth Street conversation the Fourth Street conversation that's been happening in at least since 2017 or a little bit before then when we have pretty much went into conversation with the city and then of course things stopped to be to be quite honest um progress progress wasn't made on how we're going to continue those projects and now we're here in 2023 where we are asking the public to support us on
021the Kappa referendum to help us finish that conversation that we started about five years or so ago as pertaining to that Fourth Street concern with our high school we know that when you look at our school district we want our all of our facilities to be welcoming and it's kind of hard to say that about our high school when you see big roadblock signs saying you know you can't come here um you can't go through this area and that happens to be where our entrance is for our high school students and so we want to change that and so that again that again why are these projects needed and again I'll just covered the 9.5 million dollars that it will cost and that will just cover the capital referendum for prison label would you like
022me to proceed with operational or let's just give a good enough snapshot it addressed our operational real quick okay sir an operational conversation we've had multiple conversations with that as well we fund that from a fun balance conversation we've been having conversations about when you think about our school district we have a policy number one the fund balance policy requires us to keep about 14 to 20 percent of our funds um for for operational costs and we have I like to use the analogy of a diss track we've we've squeezed all that money um out of that Rag and we're to the point now where we will have to come to the public to ask uh to ask for additional support and replenishing our fund balance when you think about fund bonds there's a lot
023of different things that we use fund balance for number one to pay bills um number two um to pay Staffing Staffing that may come up throughout the year and number three if there's something that ever happens in the school district where let's just use um the kec as an example let's say the motherboards all crash and we have to fix that that fund balance will be we can dip into our fun bags to pay for those emergency operational conversations that happens in a district regularly on top of that we also think about fund balance from the aspect of the state sends US money right for for students and the stations up money on a certain type certain times during the school year and and the state oftentimes don't send us the money when we really
024want it but they do send us the money and sometimes we have a different term fund balance to make sure we're balancing our budgets that in essence being able to pay our bills um overall our fund balance is very important to how we operate our school district and we're asking the public for a two-year opportunity to support us in that conversation um in the first year that conversation will look like somewhere close to give me one second sorry I just my screen changed and I got papers here um in the first conversation our fund balance will be my foundries not right there in the first one in the nine in the second correct fourth first year and nine in the second year I also try to give you exact numbers my apologies I have to
025pull it up on my computer um and for all that 14 million will again support not just our fund balance but also will support our operational side on the first year and the operational side we on the on I should say the other part of operational will help support um SEL work teaching and learning opportunities and of course we have SEL learning and there's a third category of them I'm missing right now as well in my apologies I was trying to pull it up give me one second sorry scl t-shirts and social emotion and so those those three we will work towards in an operational request to our to our to our public as well the first year is about six million dollars that we'll ask for and in the second year will be about
026three million dollars that we were asked for overall both of these conversations will be over a two-year request and it will not impact overall taxes again these conversations is what we are leaning towards as pertains to how much uh will the projects cost and I apologize for not having that information pulled up right away when you asked it um board member Anderson um so the thing I was going to add was uh so like objective a uh stabilizing our budget the with us going to a referendum we are our goal is to maintain the current mill rate um so right or right between like four dollars five dollars uh and having that two-year referendum it's kind of is helping stabilize that so we don't see that dramatic right or drop or increase over time um
027it makes it better for our community because it's easier to plan as tax season comes around on what you could be expecting to pay um because without the referendum we're expecting a massive drop in the middle rate it's a good thing for taxpayers everyone's gonna be happy on the break um but then the school district's budgets kind of suffer for that yeah right and just kind of I don't know any other board member of anything they want to add in the finance conversation okay um I agree with you know um getting a stable budget but right sizing what we have both in the district and and buildings that we have a good budget is really important uh I know we've looking at the referendum but it's kind of like our ability to stabilize um the
028needs that we have at this point while we continue to work through all of the other pieces that go with that um you know um and replenishing the fund balance is important it's kind of like um at your own home if you you know you empty your checking account you have to go to your savings account but if you don't have any money in your savings account then you go to where to get the money so it'd be like going to check into cash or any of those those spots um which ultimately are going to cost you more money because you have to borrow um and so we don't want to continue borrowing which raises the cost of doing business as well if we continue to do that our bond rating drops which means anything
029we do with bonds means it's going to cost you more money so by stabilizing this we can stabilize the budget over two years be able to move forward with all of the things that we need to do I really like the the budget forecasting model the tool that we've been using um and and that I think is giving us a lot of better information up front so we understand what the budget really looks like by projecting out into the future and then of course changing those when we need to do that so as we go forward with that all these other pieces become really important to make sure that we're the community is aware of everything that we are doing as we go forth with uh board member Levy thank you I just wanted to
030point out that with our decision to go with the two-year referendum plan um everything for the capital and operational has been discussed but I just wanted to point out that that gives us the opportunity to potentially have our fund balance back at 14 in that first year and then potentially having our fund balance at 20 for that second year right that's added remember Anderson you have something else to add um something outside of the referendum though is uh for the transparency and communication side for our Jeff c um I think that's part where it kind of falls into like my finance or School Finance 101 that we do during our committee meeting is because it's a knowledge part for the board members that are part of it because we don't do day-to-day Finance uh things
031for the school district and also it allows community members that uh are watching us attending uh either watching on YouTube or in person it gives them a chance to start like making connections to fully understand uh some of the decisions that are being made with school finance and why we get the numbers that we do yeah so as I said as we kind of close out on this one um just reiterate that you know in that monitoring review adjusting the line that before we get to April and voters vote there's other decisions that we'll have to make along the way um as Dr Garrison's uh outline for us that um so simultaneously as people are going to vote we will have you know made some decisions that kind of show the beginning of us adjusting
032the budget uh so that we're able to impact the areas that we can so um that is finance our second category is uh the whole child which is really not um so as we move through the uh that's page 12 in the um strategic plan [Music] our area of whole child um this objective uh priority of whole child the School District of Beloit honors the whole child through our focus on student achievement social emotional well-being and health and wellness to allow all students to thrive reach their greatest potential and demonstrate qualities found within our portrait of a graduate objective ADA School District employee will move our state report card from fails to meet expectations to meeting expectations through an increase in Equitable academic outcomes across demographic groups reporting years 23 24 and 25 objective b
033social emotional learning the school district employee will build and strengthen school systems and support around the social emotional and behavioral Wellness of the school community Through implementing strong positive behavior intervention and supports PBIS culturally responsive practices and restorative practices and objective-c health and wellness School District employee will ensure Equitable access to District Health and Wellness Resources as well as Sports and co-curricular activities across all demographic groups um I'll kind of just um the a space I'll take a first kick here just to kind of get us started was um Michelle can you go to the redefining ready um the slide is just the in the in in this part where we're talking about the whole child one of our subjects is uh academic achievement and one of the things for us as uh board members
034that we will have to do that has not specifically been done yet and um is to identify um our learning targets are our goals um of course I'm going to try to talk you through the navigation but so can you go to Readiness scorecards across the top that's the right no no that's you're on the right across uh Wisconsin redefining ready ready to score cards click there please and so of course we know we have our state report card which we did move up a grade from where we were at um but then go down on the uh on that one and here's an example of a Elementary scorecard uh looking at our attendance rate uh which is a predictor of third grade reading success self-regulation when we talk about the learning environment for our
035children but that children's self-regulation skills the ability to maintain engage Focus stay on task inhibit of inappropriate behaviors um denied ratification predicts later school Success that Reading Readiness that math Readiness um I think on the website it's not coming across but the link is there but what these scorecards do is they kind of identify the district's set out the the measurements I think as a parent the thing that I'm concerned about is the school district being able to tell me and you see an example one of those scorecards there is the school district being able to tell me that you've accurately measured my child so not only are you looking at how the buildings are performing but let me know as my student at above or below the standard that they should be so we
036can enhance the work that we do at home if that's necessary or we can continue to support that growth I think that one of the things that we do here our community um asking about rightfully so is what is our academic achievement and this is just one of those tools and I think that as we work with our Administration um that they will work with us to help [Music] um make these some of these abstract ideas of students doing well in school more concrete and in the end it's not just about you know it's great to tell me how Frozen is doing but my student is at Frozen I want to know how my kid is doing also um and so this is one of those other tools to help us monitor that area academic
037achievement in the whole child and whenever anybody else uh board members to address the whole child area or president real quick or do you want I'm sorry to say board members my apologies thank you oh are you speaking Dr Garrison oh I heard you say board members I didn't know if you want me to jump in real quick board members or Dr Garrison I want to make that follow follow suit so you know I think I love I love redefine already has been out there for a while and I think it's something that we can definitely use as a dad to as a tool to make sure our parents know kind of what I where each student is um I think you have to get there through data though right and that's where we um
038have pretty much been using a tool called edgy climber um as our dashboard that we want to really try to delve into we've done some teaching and learning conversations around the edge of climber dashboard this year where we want to build this dashboard for all schools which will house academic achievement and behavioral data such as assessments or GPA let's see if you're not from for ninth grade or track or track attendance we can use that for each Commerce world and referrals we can use that under edu climber um um as well the good thing about it is it also supports ideas that's already our strategic plan um the strategy is to build out data dashboards that align with our overall strategic priorities so that Equity can be met through again using our strategic plan and
039so when you think about data in general it's it's it's this this tool that we are kind of already using I say kind of because we want to make sure that all of our schools are units are using it and I can't 100 say that all of our schools are using the edgy climber piece but we have started um this conversation um this year and a lot of it has already been brought to the teaching and learning committee um just last week because I wanted to make sure that we did have a tool that we can actually use to track this exact conversation so again more person leaving thank you for bringing it to the table but we did last week just like a matter of fact again last week we did bring this conversation
040to the teaching and learning committee using a tool that we can actually show people that we're tracking this information and now the the real key is to get this information into the parents hands and I know you just mentioned that okay other board members for president Levy this is uh Megan can you hear me okay I can hear you all right cool yeah that actually Segway nicely into the question that I had so given that we want data to be uh you know the focus of the you know kind of the driver of the conversation one thing that personally I would find useful and that I know is inherently a part of edge of climber is intervention so you know there was a time that our school district was state recognized as having like the
041predominant like awesome RTI program this is back before mlss terminology with RTI and um you know I'm very proud of school district deployed for that I think it would be really useful in those updates not only to see I guess just to take a look at what the ROI is on the interventions that we have and like where interventions exist so that as a parent like who maybe isn't informed can like look at a report like that and see oh my child's like intermediate school or middle school like has an intervention program and like this is what my child's progress or you know my child's like um cohorts progress is something like that like I just think it's important to like add visibility to the fact that we have intervention and as a board member
042I I'm interested to see like how our interventions are being used um to support that student's achievement so we can make like informed decisions about the vision going forward as we continue to implement our strategic plan okay anybody else all right then I'll make one more and then if nobody else has anything leave it to me but this is the last one I just want to hit on the C part um where we do mention our Sports and co-curricular activities um that you know that's our academics our Arts the Athletics all the activities that we have for our students uh that is a part of our strategic plan also even in that referendum conversation um some of the facility upgrades that are happening support that we've also taken other actions like earlier in this uh
043fall when the um Human Resources committee came we approved more in terms of pay for the theatrical Productions it goes to the person but it goes to the person that is serving the students and so I think that um you know when we think about a school district it's not just as a like I said as an educator myself I tell people students don't remember a worksheet or sometimes the specific things that you do in a classroom unless they're like the engaging activities there's experiences and ways that we make students feel when they say that I had a great time growing up in Beloit doing certain things with my classmates or being certain places and that is a part of the experiences that we want to create for our students in that area of whole
044child so just just something to keep in mind as we're working through um and that we're able to provide for those opportunities for our students anybody else in this area all right we'll move on I think our next area that we have listed as a priority look at the agenda again is our Equity priority uh in this Equity priority um I listed two things um there's a link to the Burlington area school district and then also to the integrated comprehensive systems for Equity audit a lot of times one we want to look to uh what a a neighboring District of ours is doing as you look at their web page the work that they're engaged in every district is in its own place in progress but I just wanted to highlight some of the work
045that they're doing and some of the tools that they're using when you get a chance to look at that integrated comprehensive um a report for that Equity audit Dr Colleen Capper out of ew Madison uh Dr Elise Ventura from UW Milwaukee work directly with the district and so in that document it's 96 pages but in um in that on that on that District's web page and in their link and the doctors make the presentation also um they highlight the inequities that are happening in the district or where there's a disproportionate outcome and the purpose is after we find these disproportionate outcomes is to be able to address them that's kind of like the interventions that board member Miller is speaking about but there's a comprehensive way to go about this and when we do take
046further steps into our Equity work um as I've pointed out with what's there and we'll have the opportunity to see like I said again this is one of those things that sometimes is abstract to people until they've actually seen um certain artifacts uh but I'd like us to take a a serious step uh to get the right tools and resources for our administrators uh and our people so we can get about the greatest result for our students when we come to that area um and then I'll open it to other board members in our area of equity I didn't read the uh I forgot to read the uh in our strategic plan uh when it comes to equity the school district of boy believes in creating an environment that honors and respects our human differences
047Works to ensure everyone is welcomed and commits to removing barriers and providing support for individuals to achieve their greatest potential objective a addressing disproportionality the school district employee will leverage internal and external stakeholders to reveal and address disproportionality across the district objective b systems and structures the school district employee will develop a strong uh will develop strong systems and structures to ensure there is responsibility and accountability for the equity work within each school and the district and objective-c data structures the school district will build comprehensive and robust data structures and protocols to identify barriers to success and so once you click on the integrated comprehensive systems report you'll see the different data presentations as Dr Garrison talked about edgy climber earlier that all these things kind of work together but we need those pieces in
048place because it's some of the work that we have engaged in employee but other parts where the work can go further uh and even when it comes to equity it actually takes the board action um so that it's supported all the way through the organization right so this uh Equity is open Dr Garrison board members I'll start by recognizing uh board member Levy I see your hand thank you and I'll be brief um thank you for providing this resource and also I just wanted to point out that the race to equity report is another great place when you're looking for a math and reading on proficiencies it's also with disparities with discipline it's specific to Rock County and the School District of Beloit is one of the districts that is segmented out and highlighted in
049that report so I think that would be a good resource for us to use and then of course we will compile I'm certain our own up-to-date current data right now document was produced by the YWCA Rock County and you YWCA County and all of the race to equity Dane County report that's correct okay all right thank you my oversight resources in our community any other board members or Dr Garrison yeah sorry about that my uh my jumping in on me I mean so can you hear me now you know um as stated we've been working with uh Rodney Thomas as well from an administrative perspective it's very important that we have deeper dials deeper dives into conversations around um equity and Equity issues and here in our school district but most importantly how our adults
050are handling certain issues that come up in our school we also work with um the new route of opportunity which focuses on restorative practices in our district last year the board also [Music] agree for us to enter into that conversation and I believe it's actually yielding some some results um from last year to this year our overall um I gotta say it uh Administrative Hearings have have been down this year from last year to this point and I believe that that conversation that we took a deep valve into from an Administration perspective it's partly the reason of that right restorative practices and looking at Equity conversation and discipline um oftentimes run into each other but I believe it's the work that we're supposed to be doing especially when you're working with kids now I have
051to be honest as a School Superintendent at different ages kids will do different things and it's our responsibility to work through those situations um Dr Irby and I well Dr Irby I should say um of UWM from when he was at UWM University of Chicago Loyola talk about the the net widening and the net deepening conversation where kids are sometimes going to get in trouble but our goal is not to try to catch every kid in trouble all the time and from that conversation we also believe that sometimes kids should fall out of trouble right they're able to have conversations have restorative conversations and get back on track and that's a balance that the school district has to operate in but we can't do any of that work and all that work without the communication
052and of course not only communication but the sharing of ideas and how we can actually get to um the end result which is student achievement for all students I'm using the discipline as one part of that conversation from Equity but we also know that comes and achievement as well when kids aren't successful in school oftentimes that leads to behavioral problems so we need to we need our students to be successful on a daily basis so they can feel that achievement is actually happening for them one of the things that we can do is actually listen to what our kids want I think that's very important to say you know what what is it that you want to see I mean your own conversation around academic achievement and provide opportunities for them to actually move in
053that direction I believe we're doing some of that in our school district but we have to do a lot more right I was gonna say I'll highlight like you said that you know in uh C with data structures it does talk about collecting that student feedback um but then also too like two areas there uh that in that Equity space of actually using those data structures those different tools like the scorecards from redefining ready understanding uh what exams or indicators of success come for our students that you know for our district that we will be addressing that that uh that the equity conversation the data tools and structures that's very important to us addressing people's perceptions and their lived experiences in our learning environments so that school feels like what we expect the school to
054feel like a sense of order and academic purpose and then also that there's academic achievement in our students everyone learns at you know different paces and rates but being able to provide parents um the feedback and provide the Learners the feedback you know that whether they're at above or below where they should be and then provide that assistance to help them get uh to where they're trying where they need to be and where they're trying to go in their own identified uh career plan um so so those areas will come up again like I said specifically that you know Equity audit is mentioned in our strategic plan anybody else on uh equity all right so we will move on to the next area oh I see Melissa as a handwrites Melissa beavers I just wanted
055to piggyback ing what Dr Garrison uh work with Rodney Thomas it was driven by um an equity audit that we did do with beloved communities and that's where we that's where we um kind of teased out some of the strategies and objective areas in this section right here one of the other things I'll kind of add to the conversation thank you for uh providing that background is say like you know at the board level um one of the other things we included was our annual board development tool and so you know with Dr Garrison uh in place now I know there are some things that uh the administrative team does it's in your day-to-day work but when you get to the um I think engagement section where we'll talk about uh the board evaluation there's
056questions that we have to answer and if we're not aware so through the work we have to made it aware to us so that we were able to answer positively in our self-reflection on where our district is at um so that's just kind of another point to note as we go through the different areas and then you have the opportunity to reflect on the assessment that we're providing for ourselves in our clear in our critical reflection so that we know we're providing Direction and asking for those things so we can give that feedback and by all means if we're doing things that we can note that those things have been achieved in the district when we do our self-evaluation all right just a minute [Music] our next one is our engagement priority and let me
057move to page 14 engagement our engagement priority the School District of Beloit nurtures and cultivates and engage students family staff and community Through consistent proactive connections clear and relevant communication and strong relationship building with an emphasis on diversity equity and inclusion objective a student's engagement and belonging the school district employee will nurture and cultivate student engagement by removing obstacles and providing diverse perspectives and experiences for our 4K through 12th grade students objective b families engagement and communication the School District of Beloit will nurture and cultivate engage families through consistent and effective communication Outreach and Partnerships objectives C staff engagement and development the School District of Beloit will nurture cultivate and cultivate engaged staff through consistent and effective communication and collaboration through the lens of diversity equity and inclusion and objective D Community engagement and Partnerships
058the school district employee will nurture and cultivate and engage community Through consistent and effective communication collaboration and Partnerships and so just out and take the first uh kick here just looking at like again um with a at that students you know we want to make Beloit be a place continue to be a place where uh people live you graduate you go off to do some other things and there's an opportunity to come home to contribute positively but more so by the experiences that you've had when you were a student you want to come home and make a contribution uh looking at be our families when we think about like you know as we're growing uh and working with students you see students through the years when you're looking at your own kids grow that our
059our schools really are our center of our community and the experiences that we're having commonly together as our children are moving through the different age groups um and then in our staff engagement um that it really is the people that make a place great and as a parent you want to know that you have uh good adults uh that are kind and decent that are in front of your children making decisions and leading them um and then even the community engagement part there's a space of understanding our policies and the framework that creates the lived experience for our employees and our students um in in that space and and having that um that opportunity for the um Community to be engaged in our work uh and in that direction I listed that Neola resource um
060because when we think about like our some of our policy um decisions you know it doesn't take away from our ability to make those decisions but it is a resource uh on how we might handle our policy work still provides opportunity for the community to have feedback for the full board and the Committees to have feedback and then um the neolo is just one resource but it also provides administrative guidelines to help our administrators have practice or guidance so we do have um and our own policies now uh which is a different system of review um but like minus those administrative guidelines and when you have an impermanence and administrators the guidelines or the policies sometimes can be different so I just wanted to list those and add that to the conversation others with things
061to add to the conversation and engagement board members are Dr Garrison um more personally I believe that you you touched on all the points that I would speak to um engagement is something that we want to touch on throughout our whole entire School District just last week we had a character we had a conversation not on a conversation but a presentation at the High School where we really focused on our students getting experiences in the career career opportunities here in our school district from CTE conversations and it went very well now I'm thinking from a holistic perspective when you're thinking about whole child we it is our responsibility to make sure that our students have different options as they kind of grow through school right grow through school and to experience different things as pertains
062to their career opportunities we would hope that again they will come back to our school district but I hope we would want our students to come back to our district and support our district in many different ways whether it be in the teaching field or let's just say even being an electrician in the School District of Beloit regardless our our opportunities are vast when we start to truly engage our students in some of their career choice opportunities some of that work can be also seen in snapshots from the work that we're doing with our guidance counselors in our high schools but it also it's also a conversation that we have to have on a regular basis with our kids and so parents naturally I would love for you to continue to have a conversation with
063your kids and bring that information to us whether it be in a parent-teacher conference or just sharing the information in the email with your principal or your guidance counselor those conversations are very important excuse me as it pertains to how we want our students to feel like they have a welcoming place where they can grow and not only grow but thrive in our school district moving forward any other board members all right so then we'll move to our last area culture and Leadership priority and see what page is that page 10. all right culture and Leadership the School District of Beloit commits to fostering a responsive caring and inclusive culture where all feel valued supported and hopeful objective a belonging and Trust the School District of Beloit will develop authentic relationships with all stakeholders students
064staff families and Community by creating welcoming environments nurturing open trusting relationships practicing mutual respect and engaging in proactive communication objective b leadership and Staffing the School District of Beloit will have systems in place that promote recruitment retention and success planning for all staff our systems will value appreciate and support our staff and their professional growth needs Pursuits of excellence and efforts to ensure the success of every student objective c collective efficacy School District of Beloit will share a collective belief that students families staff and community members can positively impact students and so in that space again um you know a focus on our relationships B what I did link is the um little cesa 6 standards that is just a tool uh our our evaluation for the District administrator for our superintendent uh is the
065um the dapes model the strong model but and in that uh link Mr can you go to that link uh it just provides an example of now those are the standards for all categories of employees and those standards are written at the effective level but there's also another level of distinguished and then developing needs Improvement and then um unsuccessful but in that space uh from one of the things that we're developing in our culture and Leadership is that you know our superintendent um is evaluated will be evaluated um the community itself makes decisions on whether any of us should be returned if we got elected um and then the superintendent uh working with the principals and then um evaluating our leaders in the building are other leaders at different levels in the organization or ensuring
066that those evaluations take place and then the the principles evaluating the teachers because in the end it's the teachers that we're expecting are evaluating our students assessing their progress and communicating with parents that your child is at above or below where they should be um and and it's in that space that um also I listed and linked the boards um evaluation and I'm going to click on have Michelle click on that in a minute but just as an area to say um some things that we have talked about at the board level is the evaluation of employees uh not as a gotcha but the continuous professional growth that's necessary and wanting to establish that that evaluation for growth and that that support is there to help employees along the way um so just like I
067said that you know this is just a tool we've made our decision with the tool that we use for the superintendent um but just wanted to add that part to the conversation so that we're providing all staff with clear performance expectations that drive evaluation professional development and accountability as it's listed on page 10. but there's lots of parts to culture and Leadership but those are one of the things that we want to establish that system of accountability to our community and to each other because it's for our kids and then lastly one of the things I'll add to the um Michelle can you click on the um annual School Board development tool because I would ask this specifically Dr Garrison as you get a chance to um you know look at this tool and then
068also if you could have um your team look at it so they understand the areas because as board members we will answer this but again those things that are and we'll get this done through the course of our work together but our our evaluation is tied to the um the key worker School boards and so you know when we look at the different committee meetings that happen it's all for us to be able to answer affirmatively um that we you know can mark that things have been achieved we have to know it and that major interface comes when we have the monthly meetings and that in between space so that would be the place where we're able to hit those things and demonstrate uh the work that we're doing as a board and that we
069know that things are in place and so like in this tool it tells us things as board members that we're supposed to be looking at the organization for as it lines up with the key worker school boards foreign I like to think that these types of documents and again this is just my own commentary allows us to have opportunities where we can continuously get better right and it's not the fact that we'll never arrive but when we get there we still want to continue to get better and so um these documents are definitely needed in our school district and we do need to report we do need to report out when we are making gains and things that we need to get better at um I'm using this tool both from a board perspective but
070also how we intertwine with our work here in the school district right uh other board members and just just to piggyback on the thought around just the the previous tool that you showed with the season six model um from an evaluation perspective you know I just want to make sure that everyone knows that one of the things that I did when I first came to the district was I did make a focus on our evaluation conversations um not only from me to principals but from principles to teachers and as you mentioned that's a very important concept but I also want to note that that is something that we were working on in our district and we really want that to be something that we're seeing that's something I've seen completed in our district as well
071um just today well reports were sent out as it pertains to where school buildings are over the past two days I should say before poor sports sent out from the district office to let letting um letting the administration know kind of where we where they are in their evaluation process and then from my office two principals I also completed a lot of their mid-year evaluations as well and so these themes are not just being talked about in our district but at this current time I can specifically state that these things are actually being moved upon as well and thank you and that's the important part when we think about the day-to-day operations that's you know we're trusting you to um to accomplish those things you said in the end result the outcomes are what is
072the experience for employees uh that they're able to be in a job where they're experiencing growth and receive feedback so they can improve in their craft and then what is the experience for our students that our students are learning and able to demonstrate uh their growth in those areas um culture and Leadership for uh any other board member staff member with Dr Garrison okay all right so no one else has anything to add then I'll just kind of saying to share that uh you know in this conversation it was been uh brief a lot of these are some tools uh and some thoughts that we need to get out we do have a number of initiatives in place but at the same time we know we one of the things that we have to do
073in our work is time it out uh all things need to be done but when can we get certain things done when we look at what we already have uh in the work uh and what's planned out so this is a part of continue to shape our conversations uh for the work and prioritizing uh work to be done like I said so that we can show those gains for our students that our students have what they need that we're meeting expectations of our parents um that we're creating a learning environment and the academic achievement that's necessary um and the uh the work environment uh that our teachers and other staff members are working in and that we're aligned as a system coherent uh and reaching goals and meeting expectations of our community so we will
074continue to have these conversations um and from this there will be some items that will probably come out as specific actions or to Do's but we'll continue to develop the conversation as we get there so we're aligned uh with what we're doing moving with Dr Garrison and the board together anybody else anything to add no I think this is really productive and I'm really glad that we're you know you know front and just sort of showing how everything is in alignment I think this is really helpful and I hope that we can uh continue that right yeah we did work through the framework of our strategic plan because I think one of the other places we want to be able to get to is uh to be able to get our students out in front
075and the work uh some of this stuff is like these things have to happen regardless but I do feel too um that in some ways uh we need to make a different effort than we've made uh to have our students be showcased because I think that you know keeping the students in front uh and all the things that they're doing the experiences that they're having uh you know that's a point of unity for people when they understand that we're really working towards helping students have a future and do the things that they want to do in life and prepare them for that and then it gives us something to celebrate um as these Learners at all ages are making achievements all right so having nothing else I will entertain and look at the agenda oh
076we have future meeting dates first and our next meeting date is Tuesday February 28th at 6 pm and is there a motion for a German some of it's been moved by board member Spencer Anderson seconds talking about board member Megan Miller any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye hi motion passing announcement unanimously uh we are adjourned all right good evening