001Good evening everybody. Call this meeting school board to order is 6:30 on the nose. Um Dr. Thank you. Uh roll call. Joel here >> Jessica Sarah is not here. here and myself stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Perfect. Put it in electrical conditions. >> The Mount Area School District in partnership with the community is dedicated to nurturing, educating, and challenging all students, preparing them for responsible. >> Awesome. Thanks, Jessica. Item two, our present our agenda as presented or revised and entertain a motion. >> Motion to approve. Second. >> Motion represent Jessica. >> Yeah. Second by Harley. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next up is our regular board and
002close session meeting minutes from February 16th and entertain motion on that. There's one maybe slight error in the regular that's here. Um let's see down towards the consent agenda. It says everyone move at the same time and that's fine. Otherwise motion to approve. Got a motion by Tom and a second by Carly. All in favor? >> I as well. Any opposed? >> Right. Motion passes. Next up are uh addressing the board, Dr. Sner. We have a special guest here today. >> We sure do. I tell you what, the the hardest working man in show business is here with us, Mr. Dorner. How are you doing, buddy? Good. Thank you. a big weekend with solar ensemble and here you are with us and please watch your step coming down. Tell us a little bit about the
003green. >> Yeah, sitting here so much you um so it's probably a long time coming but it seems like um at this point seems like about 3 and 1/2 years ago. Um you know stuff's happened since then. you get back, you're all excited and all a sudden, you know, you move on and everybody's sick for a month and so by the time we get back, here we are. So, um, the trip went really well. Through a couple, this is no, you know, Audrey Hanks level performance here, but there's a couple pictures in the slideshow. Um, we can kind of go through the the trip went off fairly well. All things considered, there's a thousand things that can go wrong through international travels always. Even when it goes well, it can it can go um poorly
004in some areas. So, we only lost three passports in Chicago. Um so, that was, you know, right off the bat, no big deal. Um but we recovered. We figured it out. We got him off. Um some kid lost it on the on the left on the plane and of course he came back playing, stuff like that. So, it all all got there. Once we got to our hotel, that was kind of the end of any major sort of international travel, kids get sick, stuff like that. But all pretty good. Um, so I have some photos from our um shared Google Drive and just saw that kind of call. I actually wouldn't mind going back to the first one. Um, a lot of pictures. We were fortunate. We ended up doing a fair amount of waiting
005for the freight to start pretty, you know, here. The time I think we left it was maybe 5 degrees 10 degrees. There it was 40 which was great until you have to wait outside for like 4 hours and 40 it was really cold. Once you got it was great. You can see that's the pray the whole time they had the police barricades and people just packed and um all the seats were all the streets were very scenic. So that was really cool. And there's our banner. Um for the next photo um I love that somebody chose to share their airplane food picture. Um personal story, my son and I got um operated um for no cost cuz I wouldn't have but we we we got operated and my partner um did not. And so it
006was a little awkward. I mean for for it was great for me. So represented both you know the the trip over and my personal victory over uh over um you know third class. So let's go down to the next one. Um, this is us. Um, you know, we we practice, we practice, we had to ship our instruments over. We didn't really have them for about 3 weeks. And so, how do you maintain momentum for pray for 3 weeks? And the answer is you kind of don't, but hopefully you get enough going in that you can get there and do it. So, um, we have, you can see there's a DJ booth right there. We had a New Year's Eve party and, um, before they could party, we had to run through our stuff. And then
007halfway through the party, stopped and ran through our stuff. Um, all of it went very well. You can see we're relatively in stock even though we haven't tried it for a while. So, that's good to know. Um, but this is kind of our home base in London. Um, next photo if we could. So, once we got to the parade, it was very very the whole thing was scenic. I was surprised any kid ever looked forward because there's so much to see. This was in circus kind of their version of Time Square. Um, but you know, it was a huge media event. It's one of their country's biggest events that they have. So there's just people packed everywhere. This is kind of particularly cool picture. Um for the next one. Um now part of what we
008did is we did some sightseeing. So in addition to doing the parade, um in addition to the wonderful airplane food, we also did a fair amount of sightseeing. Went to a a West I guess a Broadway show um that we went to and that was really cool. Henry Day, so it was kind of fitting. Um the the group that runs the L also does a lot of scenic stuff and a lot lot of historic stuff. You know it's London city. So we did you know the Tower of London we did um um a lot of historical stuff like that which is really cool along with this. This picture kind of represents a little bit the other non music related stuff. Um the next picture if you would. Um now we bring a little bit of
009Wisconsin spirit to us our songs. We do them all the time. I don't know if anybody's sick of it. We're certainly not as big and we thought everybody plays the same old song. We play some sing the audience as opposed to just march in a straight line. And the other nice part about when you're marching for that long, it's a 2hour shot and sing. So end up being really good there in the front row there. Wins for most enthusiastic time doing that. The audience loved it. Um just representative again I don't know I don't think that's me in the background but um all of our music teachers that way our job is to kind of make sure kids were safe in the pre it's not like it's dangerous but there's a lot of places for
010you know of course TV cameras a lot of places for people to get in and some of the barricades were real close so we kind as they were rounding corners we did our best to kind of go around you can see the London famous London um phone booth in the back um that's us marching there um Preston Braverman kind of leading that drum line and then you can see the Susan Falls with the gray covers on it. So kind of a nice uh PR picture if you're ever going to fire from our truck. Um you keep scrolling. And then Maddie, I don't know if some of you have ever met Maddie. I think she was here about 4 minutes ago. Um she was a drum drum major and and goal was basically just to make
011us look good. you know, some kids on set go dance in front of them, do a move, do the baton twirling, and she took it. So, she she really had a good time coming with choreography for the whole parade route and when we weren't doing necessarily marching steps, she was out there kind of leading the way. So, I think she had a really good time with that. And um every every photo was super energetic and great, so had to add that in there. And then um this is our official group photo. Um is not taken from parliament. They took us to some random place where it was like bleachers and they set us up and then they do a fairly decent um photo or Photoshop job in front of a green screen um for us.
012We got a couple photos at the end. We were told we could do a couple photos at the end um in front of actually we walked the pray and checked it all out and we got there and everything that they said was going to be barricaded was and some police officers yelling at us to get moving. So we quickly stopped in the middle of the road, got a half halfway decent picture and did it. So we actually do have a real one in front of this, but it's not nearly as well posed. This is actually pretty good one um that they set up for us. So um is on my last there. So all told a pretty good picture or a pretty good pretty good trip. Um things went pretty smooth. I think everybody had
013a pretty good time and uh people ask how was it and I say it was awesome to do and awesome to have done. So a lot of work but it was a lot of fun. So yeah that's it. Any feedback experience? It was fun. Um I remember we didn't we didn't practice hey baby like at all. >> Yeah you songs. Yeah. >> Right. So I I just remember that and I remember uh singing that really loud and it was really fun to see the people like on the sides also singing Hey Baby. >> Yeah. Didn't know the lyrics at all. >> Yeah. We also did which is a British band. I assume people would know it and they did more people knew Hey Baby. So that was kind of a we picked it and it
014turns out the other song we think they know better. Um sing along. Yeah. So that's it. That's all I got. >> You truly are the Energizer, buddy. Your your team and I can't imagine all that went into not only this, but all the other things you touch in this district and leave such a positive mark on Kelly. No, I it's words can't put into uh the level and depth of gratitude we have for you. Thank you so much for Thank you, Bob. It was funny on the telecast they uh so there's that energetic band director from work and they say my name and they say my go whatever I don't care um but they didn't say my name and then they did mention Will Jans like three different times awesome energetic enthusiastic reality. I probably
015make sure some kids didn't trip on something. So, but like you think you're you're pretty cool and you're taking forget your name and remind you that you're not fully >> at least. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. So, like these are huge undertakings. you got to do this one again. Is there something else out there that's like on your list, wish list at some point that you want to get? >> Maybe I think London is so appealing for all the reasons it's appealing. I mean, for the school board, it's easy for you guys to approve cuz you're in the city school. You know, um it's a time of year where like it's kind of easy to travel because people aren't traveling. Usually, you know, in the cold months, you're usually going the opposite direction. And then obviously
016over there it's an international experience because everything is just a little off. It's all a little different. Prices are different. All the packaging on everything is different. We have Oreos, they have whatever they have, you know, that kind of stuff. Um but all signs are in English. So every kid, even the kid who's never traveled internationally, can still feel like an international traveler without having to have language barriers. So, you know, kids never figured out subway can figure out the subway, but at the same time, they still have to adapt to the local customer. So, it really hits all the spots for us. And then the company that puts the London trade together does a really good job. They know what people want to see and they make sure it's a good experience, not just
017a a trip. So, I don't know. I'd say it's enough work that it like not turn key by this point. But, um it's a lot easier to redo this again and go somewhere else. You know, as much as I like to go to France or something like this, this really get all smart. Yeah. And they still have phones. No, they're all empty. They're all empty, but they leave them all cuz it's just, you know, either either they're um they're good for use storage. Um I I think that's probably in graffiti if you want to practice your techn skills, but um there's a couple here and there like there's a couple that are down there specifically so you can get it taken in um the booth and then have parliament in the background. So a lot
018of kids took pictures by stuff. Well, they're all pretty much abandoned. Yeah. Yeah. My heart questions. >> Yeah. Feel free. >> Yeah. Thank Thank you so much. And is there another highlight, you know, outside of the parade that maybe um Andrew, you want to share? >> My son went with me, which for me was a thrill. Um but I think he was more thrilled to meet him. He also my mom were kids at this point. I think he was thrilled to make some friends there and they played video games on the bus, you know. Um so that it was fun for me to have have him along. Um as far as like like doing the trip itself, um I don't fly very well. I really don't like it. And um but once you get there,
019you're reminded why traveling is worth it cuz you hit the ground and all of a sudden you go to a place and you go to a place and you see stuff. I'm also a huge history buff. So for me personally, I read London for a year and saw the geeky dirty history stuff and that was cool. Um overall, I think the thing the kids loved was just traveling in a group to a different place. You know, it's a little different cuz there was a lot of parents. So it's not like anybody's like, "Well, my mom's not here. I'll do something." but also like you're just more yourself when you're caught with some friends and so I think they got to experience it in a different way than they would have had on a family trip
020or some other way. So that's my personal take from students. Any anything you want to add there? >> I don't have anything as profound as you said. All I remember is the whole thing. >> I do remember one of the funnier parts was we got like screamed out by a homeless man which was sad to see but also it was like the most eloquent like insults ever properly formed >> properly formed insults. It was funny but it was also like >> I hated it. We had a cab ride experience where I was like, you know what? I'm not bold enough. I'm not walking. I'm going to take a cab. So, we did a couple times. We had a cab who I think in the United States if the cab chase for 20 minutes, you just
0212 minutes in he jump out. But this guy just shows like that was cool that you never experience here. So I think that's kind of the little things like the little the journey not the destination. I think that's what kids took away was the little stuff um between all the big stuff the big stuff was cool too. >> Yeah. I heard all the good stuff from the students that went. >> Good. Good. No major other than the passport. So, we had to get a handful of kids get sick, which happens. We had one kid get injured in the hospital. Nothing serious, but you know, you got to got to make sure. And even that was not a not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. So, um yeah, we're all still speaking to
022each other. So, >> yeah. >> So, cool. just a cool opportunity for our kids and I know it's a tremendous amount. Really appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we'll see how how how we do and maybe four years we go maybe maybe not. But certainly always worth looking into. So yeah, no more questions in the middle. All right, up next our school news and reject the boy. All right, I know. Here we go. Um, starting off uh with forensics district, we had that oh just about a week ago. Um, we went to Oh, where was it at? Oh, I can't remember right now, but we went to a different school obviously and we all competed in several different um categories from, you know, poetry to an oratory speech which is like 10 minute
023long speech which is one of my favorite ones. decided to do it this time. But um a lot of us did a pass to district and we really look forward to doing that. Um we also had soul ensemble this weekend where um we obviously was hosted at the high school and um had a lot of fun there and it's just a really great time to show off our abilities that we practiced um all throughout the winter months I guess. Um, I also, um, saw that prom is starting to gear up and they're they're starting to do stuff with that. I'm not really looped with that, but I've just I've just been seeing it. Um, we have the National Honor Society uh, opening up opening up applications again. So, they're going to start um, inducting more
024people. Um, and then Badge Boy State has uh Badge Boy State and Badge Boy uh sorry, Badger Girls State has uh chosen their delegates and given them the information to sign up which is really cool. I think that's all I have. Um DECA happened this weekend which was fun. Um we always do really really good compared to the number of people we have in our school percentage wise. was the most competitive in Wisconsin, which doesn't really surprise me, but I don't know if I'm just like not humble or something. It went well. I think we're taking we're planning to take about 19 people to ICDC. Um, we had more than that qualifying. We had a lot of people qualify in two or more events, but they can only choose one. So, pretty successful with that
025if you ask me. It was a really fun time. Um and then girls basketball did lose I think unfortunately. Um we've got boys basketball also coming up. I don't really know. I don't pay attention to sports as much. >> Friday night >> sold out 20 minutes. >> Great. Thank you both for that. Other school news. and share a few things if you don't mind. >> History was made for Mount Hor on Saturday. This is our state champion, Eli Leonard, uh who um is the first time uh we've ever had a state champion in the 190 lb class. And that's not to be outdone Hunter Stevens, who's also a state champion in the 150 lb uh area. And then I want to acknowledge our top five finishers. this August group of young people working very very
026hard. We're so very proud of them. Um not to be outdone, our gymnastics team uh were the sectional runners up and they're preparing for a trip to state this Friday. Uh and I know that there'll be a team meeting come Wednesday night uh virtual with all the gymnastics students and their coaches. We're really eager uh for that. And then I wanted to share a couple of opportunities for our community to get involved and um participate and be part of uh continued um community collaboration uh at the request for the board of education. That is one of our goals, keeping the community informed and engaged. Here's a great opportunity. Our very first disagree better in a series of opportunities. Um, we're working with Amber Witowski and she uh works at the London School for Public Affairs
027at WMadison. She's going to help facilitate a conversation next Monday night uh probably from 6:00 to about 7:30 or so at the public library. Uh the district is in partnership with them in order to get this successful experience off the ground. We'll see lots more opportunities with what we call deliberation dinners uh throughout the summer and into the fall. Um this first topic though is how we talk across political parties and lines and positions. Uh uh now more than ever that seems to be very important. And speaking of uh politics, I wanted to remind folks that there's some political races that are happening here uh in uh Montour and the district in partnership with the Rotary Mount War. And uh one of our concerned citizens, Kathy Scott, will be hosting a candidate forum at the
028high school this Saturday, September 14th from 9:30 to 11:30. The QR code there is designed for people who wish to have questions considered of the candidates who will be responding. And this of course is in advance of uh the April 7th election. And then one more public engagement session I just wanted to remind you of. We have a series of community visits uh that will be happening around uh the degree to which the district is honoring its commitments made in its um in strategic plan. These are five things that we have said to our community. our community said to us, I should say, they'd like to see students graduate with and we're going to give a little bit of a status report uh at various community uh sessions throughout the course of the next week.
029We'll be finishing that up next Thursday night at the town of Cross Plains. Um I'll include that list again in our work weekend. >> Thank you. Thanks, Dr. Slo. Um any other folks with school news? Jessica, >> I have one thing. Um as Dr. just put in his weekly update. I was able to attend the meeting last week with CD Smith and Bray and I was completely out of my own, but I can share that the questions and the conversation that they had was so impressive. Um, the questions they had about uh safety and planning and logistics was just they just were clearly really good at it. was also really impressive about that and this was in their bid packet as well but the opportunities for our students they are basically willing to do anything
030under his son to help our students learn during the process. Um and of course you know brain has just continued to do such a good job to set us up for success. Like it was really fun to sit there and listen and learn. So >> thank you. >> I was glad that I could do that. Thanks. >> Yeah. Thanks for being there. I'll jump in with one quick thing at the risk of being a broken record because I said it last time, but it's still an ongoing thing. Um, the legislature, even though the legislature is closed, the legislature and the governor are still negotiating over that budget surplus. And so there's still opportunity to reach out to the governor, to reach out to um our state legislators to get them to come to a favorable
031compromise on education funding, including increasing special education reimbursement up to where it was supposed to be. Um and increasing increasing general aid. they they're still kind of rehashing the same um positions at this point between straight property tax relief and education. Um but it sounds like all parties think there's some compromise in there. So hopefully something still to come out of the legislature. Thanks for keeping us posted on that. Um, the fourth grade has a music concert on this Friday at high school at 2:00 p.m. 2 p.m., right? Is the concert season. I had a chance to do the first grade concert. I went with couple as a guest of a couple of friends of mine who have a traveling discover class. It was really good. It was nice to go back into the PC
032and see that um gym, the old gym in use again still. Um, it was an outer space themed performance. >> It was really cool. They they compared it with a gallery walk of space themed art. So, the art and music teachers got together and had a whole uh curriculum developed around it. It was great teamwork. It was Miss Vega and uh Miss Gotthrey that were leading it. Seven songs. They did like three as a whole group and four where they put a couple classes together so they could maximize their uh um training time. Um they it was adorable. The kids were super engaged and sang really well and there were jokes and I thought I should share a few with the school board and the community. Um they started out with a big bang. Um
033why did the star go to the doctor? because it had gas. That got the kids laughing pretty good. Uh, how do you put a baby astronaut to sleep? Anyone? You rock it. And how does the Earth keep its pants up with an asteroid belt? So, good humor. And those were kids stepped up and delivered those jokes and they did a really good job with their timing. So, that was a real treat. Anyone else have any school news? All right. And no citizens comments. I don't see no one signed up there. So, we're good to go. Um, on to personnel transactions. Dr. SL consideration, please. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion by Joel and a second by Leah. All in favor? >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Second. >> Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. Thank you. Um,
034consent agenda. Consider a number of items in that list. Dr. SM, anything that you want to call out on that one? >> My name, please. >> Yeah, Mr. President, I wanted to um thank our transportation team uh for their good work around a budgeted vehicle purchase uh that we have. Um you will see the documentation included in there. This is to help augment our support of our special ed students and early students. I would like to make a motion on the tax motion to approve. >> Second. Got a motion by Tom and a second by Carly. All in favor? >> I. Any oppos. Great. Motion passes. Here we are. Uh to our discussion items. Uh committee member reports buildings, grounds, and transportation. Stop. Yeah. Um we met on February 23rd and we started off with
035a discussion on the board of transit which we just approved. Um pretty straightforward on that and then we moved on to an update on our EV bus. Um, we kind of talked about the history of how everything has gone from when we first decided to get one and then some of the problems that um have been associated with that um with the charger being in the wrong spot from the manufacturer um and kind of all the expected delivery dates and then um there's just more issues. So, as a school district, we've just been not willing to take delivery of the bus with um obviously some some problems still. Um and there will be a meeting between uh some of the parties Bluebird and Cummings and Wisconsin bus I think tomorrow. That's right. Tomorrow to kind
036of discuss um to get some resolutions to some of some of the problems. Um, and hopefully we can get an update at the next BGT meeting related to that and and likely bring um something back to the board to make a decision on that. Um, and then after that we went into close session um where we discuss some things in close session and then we'll meet again on March 23rd virtually at 4:30. Great. Any questions for Tom? >> All right. On to finance, Joel. >> Yeah, we met on the 9th of February and uh couple of items. Uh there was a donation of uh $10,000 that helped support the London trip that we accepted which was from the Mount Horm Community Foundation. So, uh pretty generous uh help offset some of those costs. Um, we
037talked through, looked at the spreadsheet related to taxes being received and, uh, we were right on track with where we expect to be in terms of what normally comes in percentage wise. I think we're we're right in the ballpark. Um, and uh, talking to Scott this last week, I think some of the February stuff is coming in, too. It's we're it's where it needs to be. So, um, and then we got on to our most exciting part of the day for everyone involved. 84 pages of reading later, uh, that's got read to us all meeting. No, wait. Uh, we we went through the audit report. Um, and came back, no deficiencies noted, no issues. It really again testament to the finance department and what a good job they do. um that uh yeah, fact that
038it comes back uh that way is is really amazing. So, well done on that. Um so, there's nothing uh nothing new to note there uh per se. Um and we meet again next Monday at 4:30 virtually. >> Sounds good. Joel, any questions about findings? >> Jessica, I've got potentially two for you. >> I got two. >> All right. and wellness. >> Uh so we met uh Monday, February 16th. Uh we went over one policy 721.1 safe safe and healthful facilities. Um there wasn't much that we revised. Um and I will be coming to a future full board meeting. We spent the bulk of our meeting talking about a special education family engagement survey that was sent out. Um overwhelmingly families were happy with the support that being provided and communications um and were for the
039most part above sele. Brian also gave us an update on the February early release presentation. Um Sarah briefly mentioned it in our last meeting. He gave some of the examples of the scenarios that teachers discussed and sounded like that was a wellreceived um release um professional learning opportunity and let's see safety Brian uh and is still working on uh reunification processes. Um but it sounds like pretty much where it wants to be. Uh and then also mental health updates. uh talked about some grant writing and a little bit about um the sale work that they're doing focusing on the whole child and then we will continue to have future policy updates and mental health data maybe and then we're going to hopefully have some of the sources of strength students come to one of our
040communities. So if that happens maybe that in the weekly update so anyone wanted to come to that. So, and then for uh village parks and wreck, uh we talked about quite a few different things, but the one thing that was most um pertinent to us is uh usage of the village pool for the girls swim team. There was a lot of questions. Um so, uh Jill, who is the rec director, is going to reach out to Chris um and maybe have either have him or one of the swim coaches come to our next They were questions that I was not going to answer. I said, "You have to ask Chris." So, anyways, it was good conversation, but there was just questions because uh the pool is closing a little earlier because of the shortened summer
041and we were hoping to use the pool a little longer. So, anyways, there's some details we worked out there. Um but otherwise, the meeting was a lot of staining agenda items. They're working on a sponsorship um program similar to ours. They're working on becoming a bike friendly community. They've just become a bird friendly community. So, they got all kinds of things coming. So, and it was Nick's last meeting. >> Great. Thank you for the report. All right. Uh to 6B related to our board power goal, we have the Viking Alumni Survey presentation from Aubrey Hanks. >> Hi. Oh, I'm getting so excited about this because we've got some really cool data to pile through. So, this is the second annual Viking Alumni Survey, which means that we get to do a comparison, which is fun.
042Um, so, as you may recall, so this is just going through, um, we sent our postcard out to 205 alums this year. So, we always send it out to the most recent alums. and we sent it to technically 229 at one time and we got 35 replies back which maybe if that sounds a little small that's okay it's 15% technically you always want over about 10% so we met our mark but I think we could do better for next year I have some ideas um but for now we'll talk about some results so this first one which aspects of your high school experience are you most are most valuable to you and you'll note that looks a little bit different next year it'll look the same so that it's easier to cross compare. But um
043you'll note if you look carefully, most of the answers are pretty similar um in how they rank. However, uh one that is different uh is relationships with teachers and staff, which is really cool because we're always talking about belonging. Um and this just shows that not only are we emphasizing belonging, but students are picking up on that and they feel like they belongs to in part relationships with teachers and staff, which is amazing. So, next up, what is your intended area of study or career path? This one's kind of cool because last year STEM was third on our list. Um, and this year it ranks first by a lot. So, 32.4% of respondents say that they're headed into uh to study STEM or that's their career path currently, which is really neat and showcases that
044our plans for IP are really targeted. We were listening to our students and our students are literally going into this field currently which is amazing not only because of what we know about listening to our students but also because our alumni are to be fantastic touch points for our current students and when we make that um alumni association that'll be a pivotal touch point which is really neat and I'll talk about that also later. All right. Third and final piece that I really wanted to highlight here tonight that I thought was really cool is the statement I feel like I have been taught to be an engaged and effective communicator. And so this one is flipping. Um you see last year which is in purple. Uh most people said I somewhat agree. Uh and note
045that the main difference I see um I know that correlation does not equal causation. The main difference I see is that we've been really calling in our approved funds. One of those being uh students will be effective and uh engaged communicators and the fact that we've been calling in on that people are identifying that they are as such. So maybe our 2024 graduates were in fact engaged and effective communicators. maybe they didn't see that as a really big strength as they do um in 2025 which is really neat and just shows that our our proof points are doing their job. We're really working on those. So that's fantastic takeaways. I talked about the first three, but I'm going to highlight that last one there. Um I think we can get a better engagement rate by
046sending that out a bit earlier. So think Thanksgiving and not winter break. um people are still more engaged at that point and I think that might be a good direction to go in. Um it might be a more active time in our schedules that we can make your work and then trying more different attention grabbing art because this past art might have seemed more like uh your usual advert. Um so getting uh kind of like student art which is a perfect timing because we have our student choice which is really neat. Yeah. Oh, and then just an FYI, the alumni association, we're piloting that on LinkedIn. So, look for more information next year on Comp. >> You did a super job of procuring gift cards with the Quick to encourage people to participate, too. >>
047Yeah. Which is fun and no cost to us because we can just ask for donations from them, which is so lovely. And that always is a a big reason for people to want to do the alumni survey which hopefully we have some takers for next year. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Do you send these postcards out through the mail? >> I do. Yes. Because I don't have email addresses for kiddos after they graduate, which is kind of hard. What are you thinking? So, that's kind of what I was wondering because if you're trying to get survey results from those who are most recently graduated, >> it would work if you did decide to pilot it around the winter break time because most kids are home, but then there's also that like, you know,
048that like awkward thing of like they're not really home, >> right? >> Or are they the ones getting the mail? You know what I mean? >> Do you think they'd also be home for Thanksgiving? >> I don't know. I mean, I could say I would be, but I don't know like if that's what other families value. >> That's fair. >> I just know it's hard to because >> I just don't know what their situation is looking like in terms of receiving mail and other content. >> Yeah. >> So, I just wonder if there's like an alternate >> Yeah. >> you know, form of media that could be sent out electronically just cuz I think that's a lot easier. >> Yes. I just don't know how. >> Val, do you know what your email address will
049be after high school? >> I can almost guarantee that everybody's got their own personal email address. >> Okay. So then maybe if we started collecting that >> cuz I can tell you we got ours, but mine wasn't home from school yet. So I stuck it on the fridge and then it stayed on the fridge and then on the 13th of January I went, "Well, you missed your deadline cuz I put on the fridge." So yeah, if you can start collect because I know all my kids, I mean, we've got them email accounts like the day they were born. Just sign them up so they have their name. That's awesome. >> I also have like a maybe a suggestion. I know um we're talking about like winter or like um January. What's the significance of January?
050Or can we push it back to the summer months where they're almost definitely going to be home if we can't find out any other um way through technology? We could I had looked up um when will students in college for the most part go to college based on our data um when will they be home most often and the summertime they're working and could be out of the state really depends. >> Yeah. >> That also makes me wonder like we've got students in the summer months coming home but what about those who decide to get their own places >> right >> cuz you know then they're not really coming home for summer break. Exactly. >> So, I think the winner I mean I think the winner works fine or even that Thanksgiving period, but if
051you can figure out a way to send it >> electronic electronically if you email their parents cuz you have that information, I will gladly send it to the contract too. >> That's a really good idea. So, if Thanksgiving doesn't work and electronics don't work, I'm going to try the summer. That'll be my demo. Cool. Thank you. Any other ideas? This is great. seems like gathering students personal emails as they're graduating. I mean, do they do any sort of >> Yeah. to the house? >> Yeah. >> Totally. >> I mean, that just seems like then you're not worrying about parents getting the mail, parents boarding emails, like you're just And then if you do a cauldron, you can just pester them through it, you know, like >> you haven't responded yet. You haven't responded yet, >>
052you know? Cool. >> I think the alumni association. >> Yeah. What platforms are you planning on like running that through or advertising that through? >> Currently LinkedIn. I've gotten a lot of um feedback from others on what works best. Um Facebook really scared me. >> Uh LinkedIn was the least scary of the options that I've noted, but I'm always open to other ideas. So yeah, if you stumble across anything where you're like to hear that. >> No, that's that sounds like a good bet. And I was just thinking about maybe there's even um you know a time that's set up for kids to set up their LinkedIn profile cuz I imagine a lot of them haven't done that and then you could be like hey >> if you sign up today you get free membership
053to the alumni association. >> I really like that. I'll ask if it should probably help >> if you do it internally like >> cuz I've heard of using LinkedIn for like group networking, but it's for like college age. I mean like older like graduating college going into graduate school, right? >> Cuz they use Handshake. Like that's what they use at Whitewater. They use Handshake. So everything goes through Handshake. I don't know what Handshake is. >> It's not my problem, but maybe there's some way to connect in there. I don't know. >> That's a good point. I've used it but only to find like jobs when I'm in college. >> Let me let me check on that one. >> Yes. >> So, um what one way you could possibly get people to get on LinkedIn more?
054You could um suggest like highly suggest that they add it to the senior advisory that they do kind of maybe near the end of the school year. >> So, it's strongly encouraged, but they don't have to. Maybe >> uh if they don't really want to. That's a great idea. Thank you. Anything else? >> Question. Sorry. Do they have a chance to write any responses on this or are they just certain questions? >> There are some where you can include more info like was there anything that they missed? >> Okay. >> So, there is one of those. I hope for >> Well, I just was noticing that our college counseling was down quite a ways and that that was consistent over the two years. >> Yeah. >> And uh that's I mean obviously that's something that
055all schools struggle with, but that's >> I think that's a place that we need to focus energy on. >> Yeah, good point. Mhm. We should include more areas for comment. So, thank you. >> Right. Thanks a lot. Got a couple of action items tonight for first readings. Roll call if we decide to approve. Otherwise, we can pursue them to a future meeting. Uh first up, revisions to board policy 537, professional growth referred from education. M. Hi guys. Okay. 537 professional growth. Um when this policy uh committee members reviewed education as Adam said, we didn't make any any subst substantive changes. Uh we did have one addition that was highlighted there in red. Um WSB recommended that we had language that better near state statute um where the board of education is required to develop a
056professional development plan. So we include the language that either the superintendent or basically the GD um would establish that annual PD plan. We have done that and have shared it with the board annually anyways but we wanted to make sure it was in policy and writing that we do in fact carry out that statute. Um, other than that, you guys see that language down further, but yeah, that's the the big change to this policy. Any further discussion from our group on this policy? I had a I had a question on um the paragraph second to last paragraph while the board wants to encourage participation on committees. I I think I got to the end of the paragraph before I realized that I think that paragraph is entirely in the context of like external stuff. Is
057that right? Or would you say that? Yes, it just encompasses like board meetings or internal school related stuff that's more like more internal well more staff versus >> like partic like participation on committees. Does that mean like like these committees or more um outside of school outside of the school building >> or could be inside? We have like technology committee or reading special like there's there's many internal committees that we have person um climate reading math. So those kinds of pieces alone can take time. Maybe we should put that because I when I read this because the second sentence says is talking about the superintendent approving ST state committees and I was just assuming that it meant like outside of the district kind of stuff like if you want to you're asked to be on
058this or that committee. So simple but could be if that's the the train that we're going to >> Yeah. Or you can just put it on there. Participation. I mean, >> yeah. >> Participation. >> Yeah. >> And then this the other question I had wasn't really it's not necessarily about the policy or the language or anything, but is there um do are there Are there specific requirements for professional development? I mean, other than the stuff that obviously the legislative initiatives that come up that everybody has to do, the required trainings, those that that come up, are there other of all opportunities we offer? Are do we what kind of requirements if any do we have for staff to complete? Well, we might think about specific staff groups. So, let's say like teachers like making sure
059that they're mentored and they have we have annual meetings and those kind of pieces. Um, we think about curriculum review cycles. I don't think there's any specific state language there. Used to have state language around professional development or emergency licenses and those kinds of things. Would we have that? Maybe stipulation requirements that people would have to do that. I don't know any other >> the state took away the API related requirements that you meet a certain number of extra hours or credits um over a 5year period um and everyone's pretty much moved to a lifetime license once they get out of that. We do have as a school district um statemandated uh trainings but then we also have district level trainings that we often do online and we afford staff time to complete those. Um
060so yes um but we also like to uh encourage our staff to identify areas and tracks of professional development that are relevant to their own growth. >> Um because not everybody's at the same question um and forgive my ignorance. I'm not like super um familiar with this policy but what defines professional growth? Um as Dr. S says the staff member can sort of see and define where they need to go in their journey. Um it could be potentially around curriculum could be around assessment. It could be around instructional practices engagement. um within the educator effectiveness model, staff members have their self-rating form and they look at the areas where they could grow and they could determine that could be an area that they want to grow. So that that would probably be one of the
061better gauges that all staff members can selfrate on to to see where they want want to go. Um we also have school district goals, building goals, department goals and that can be an area too where a team could say based on this data based on this practice and we see we as a team want to grow this way. So it could be many different ways could be individualized it could be by the team could be by a building. Good question. Okay. have one because I've read this sentence like six times and it just bugs me because it's three lines long. Um, the district will provide opportun opportunities internally as much as possible at external level. There's just a lot of extra fluff and stuff in that sense. The district will provide opportunities through local like
062you don't need internally as much as possible at externally as needed. I don't think we need all of that fluff and stuff in there and I don't think that's probably an all exhaustive list. So through opportunities such as for something I can't think of anything else that would come up but I can I can reframe the paragraph for better flow and keep being the content. There's just a lot of stuff in that sentence that I can it took me three times to read that. We can't prove it's fine anyway. So, we don't have enough people. >> There we are. Any other input? >> All right, >> I'll take those. >> We're good with that one. >> Yeah, >> not a problem. >> Our second policy is 3:22 school day for by education. Awesome. >> We
063did not make any changes and what changes were recommended. Uh just a review of the policy. >> So we'll just note in diligent communities when it says last review. We'll just put down today's date if there weren't any suggestions of the board. >> I did have a question. I don't think it's a suggestion, but the the language in the last teachers desired to regularly start their work earlier than they must submit a request. Is that like is that is is the thought behind that that like asking for shift to schedule versus I've allowed stuff to do and I'm going to get here at 7 and stay here until 5 ship shift. >> Okay, that's what I thought. >> Yeah, that's what I thought. >> And I think this matches really similarly to what's in the
064handbook already. That was my first thing and then I was like, well, it references the handbook. I think it's real close. >> Yes. >> Great. Any other thoughts on this one? Feeling good. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Vision. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. No citizens comments. Um I've got a bunch of meetings coming up. of course personnel uh March 3rd aka tomorrow 5:00 finance committee next Monday um potential personnel on the 10th as well um safety and wellness here in 2 weeks and a full board of education just went out on the horizon is that workshop at 6:00 on April 6th and at this point I would entertain a motion to go into close session I'll read this out. Contemplated in close session per section 19851E deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties
065the investing of public funds for conducting other specified public business whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session to it 2627 MGA bargaining potential additional capital projects bill. This one will be a roll call vote. Joel first. >> I'm sorry. Need a motion. >> So moved. Second. >> Yes. >> Jessica and Leah. Thank you for keeping me in order, Leah. Um Joel's a yes. Leah, >> yes. >> Jessica, >> yes. >> Tom, yes. Carly, >> yes. I'm also a yes.