Mount Horeb Area School District Board of Education Meeting held on 4/7/25.

001It is 6:30. I will call Monday, April 7th meeting to order. Joel here has our meeting. Yes, it has. Please join me in United States of America under God with liberty and justice for [Music] all the area school district partnership with the community is dedicated to nurturing, educating, and challenging all students, preparing and empowering them to be productive, responsible, and self-fulfilled members of society. Number two, would someone like to make a motion to approve or revise our agenda? Motion approved. Motion by Carly, seconded by Joel to approve our agenda. All those in favor, please say I. Anyone opposed? 2B approval of our March 17th regular board meeting and closed meeting minutes. Would someone like [Music] to motion to approve? Second motion by Tom seconded by Carly. All those in favor please say I. I. Anyone

002opposed? To see approval of March 31st board workshop and close session meeting minutes. Would anyone like to make a motion to approve? Second. Motion by Adam, seconded by Joel. All those in favor, please say I. I. Oppose. Number three, addressing the floor. Building good news and students. That'll be us over here at the intermediate center. So, Satchel, now we get to come over and stand in front of the school. All right. Everyone, I'm very proud to present Satchel Benzing, one of our fifth graders in Miss Young and Miss Whitick's classes. And he is just a fantastic example of the awesome students we have at the intermediate center. When I reached out to some of the staff, here are some of the things that they said about him. Satchel is always super positive. He works well

003with his classmates and is always willing to help them out. They said that he is a bright light at the intermedia center. Um, a daily role model, listens well, participates in class, works hard on tasks, an infectious smile. Do you get to see your [Music] smile? Positive energy. Um, always showing the values of the Viking way by making thoughtful choices and leading by example. He has a great sense of humor, very friendly, a good friend, and a natural leader. So, Satchel is um an awesome student at the IC, and we are really proud to have him as a student. Proud to have him as a Viking class. Can you tell us about your fan club over here? You want people who love you. Wow. All these good people. My older sister Nessa freshman, my little

004brother. I'm going to go to school with you next year. My dad, my little sister Ko, my mom. Well, behind every strong student is a very strong family. And we're so grateful to have all of them here today. And as a small way of commemorating this special event, we have a certificate for you. Do you have a nice place in your room that you can maybe put that up? And then I have a little Viking pin for you as well. We hope that you'll wear that proudly. Would you be willing to take a picture with us so that we can put you in a newspaper and I can bring your family with us to take that picture? And then I have a friend in Mr. Schliman. He helps people at the intermediate center as well.

005He's one of our board members. Can we take a picture together? Let's do that. What do you say we take a break for a minute? We'll be right back. Yeah. Heat. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. We take everybody [Music] else. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] We sure do. Um, I forgot my list, so I'll see what I can remember. Um so just before spring break we had fantastic turnout for conferences. Um uh so so many of our families were able to join us and that is something that um staff who are new to the district always take note of. They can't believe our awesome turnout. Um so we can't take that for granted. Also a lot of support in the Scholastic book fair. So that

006was a nice fundraiser for our library and for teachers libraries in the classroom. Um we had our fourth grade music program that was quite a hit. Um really uh um they went with our theme of belonging and really focused on the monthly messages we have in our morning meeting related to belonging. Um we also um are getting we kicked off a forward exam today. So both fourth and fifth grade started and it was smooth sailing. So that's one of those cases where no news is the best news. Um technology worked great. Um plans were organized that all um went very smoothly. And then um as we look forward, we have another third grade music program at the end of the month and we're getting ready for Earth Day and um we started the fourth quarter

007um today. And so um time is really flying, but uh we're looking forward to a lot of good um fourth quarter events to round out the year. Very much. You're welcome. 3B citizen comments. We have a couple of people who'd like to speak to me. First, this is Mr. Kevin Brown. Good morning, John. Hi. Um, so I'll just speak from here. Um, once again, I'm I'm here to advocate um against some of the changes being considered with evidence-based creative concept. Um, I'm going to take a little different approach. my comments tonight. I'm going to focus on culture and the culture that I believe that this change is going to end up instilling in the kids at home schools with the movement away from the educational standbys of homework being expected on a regular basis and

008graded. So holding people accountable and with the movement away from you have to study for a test because guess what? You get one time to put your best foot forward. Um we're going to be creating a culture of LZ fair and and lack of accountability. One where my daughter can scribble whatever she wants on a piece of paper and put it on the teacher's desk and for her homework and it doesn't really matter because guess what? that homework doesn't count for anything. Um, and one where if I do poorly on a test, hm, it doesn't really matter cuz I can just retake it. Now, why do I care so much that this is my third time speaking in front of this board um with my hair on fire almost every time? That's a great question.

009Um, a little bit about my work. Um, I'm a consultant. So, my job is to help my clients, businesses all over the country, um, implement technology so they can improve their business, right? So, not much connection to homework so far at least. But here's the kicker. A lot of the clients I work with, when I go in there and we start working through a lot of their problems, it's not antiquated software or hardware. It's not business process. It's not all these other things. It's accountability. And I have spent my current client, I have spent 2 years of my time working with them to help them build a better culture of accountability. Um, and over the last 8 days alone, I have gotten these two comments. Our culture needs to seriously change if employees just did

010what was expected of them. I don't want to have to do other people's work for them. So, these are comments I get every day. And the work product that these guys are getting, it's from engineers with masters and PhDs. It's not from, you know, anybody on the street. This is people with significant education backgrounds. Um, and and I'm dealing with one individual work product right now. And it was my client. They had it 539 times it was submitted and guess what? 439 times out of that they had to go through rework. Rework retest similar, huh? $90,000 worth of labor was lost. And I guess I'm out of time, but I want you to consider that impact on these changes. And I'd really like to see more input from the board to me and my wife.

011We've sent emails. We've only heard from Dr. Senel. I'm disappointed in that. He's accountable to you, not him being account, not you being accountable to him. And that's really should change. Oh, please. Thank you. We have another guest speaker and that is K. I think Amy's going to speak. Oh, wonderful. Okay, thank you. Amy L. Hello. Moving a little slow. I did some gardening yesterday. That's right. So, hi, I'm Amy. I'm from Pag and I'm here with some of our fellow P Flag members um just to say thank you again so much to our board for continuing to support all students um and be such an inclusive wonderful place. And I'm actually really glad to see Miss Haggi here um because it takes me back in our family's journey to Miss Haggi was the first

012person that we approached in supporting um our youngest child who's now a junior in high school and she's just doing so awesome and Miss Huggy just didn't hesitate at all even though we were all still figuring things out at that time and just really have so much gratitude to you for that. Yeah, it really meant a lot and continues to mean a lot. Um and so I just wanted to say that and also that I just appreciate um the quality education that this district has provided um our kids and continues to provide. We have a freshman in college um in DC who is absolutely thriving and has um you know got a fantastic education here. And part of I think he's got but like part of what helped um him was every um student being

013um treated as an individual and seen as an individual and when accommodations needed to be made for whatever reason that that really helped him maintain his confidence and um he's he's really um performing really well and so I trust this district um to do what's right by our students and um just I without hesitation. So, thank you very much. All righty. 3C school news. Okay. Uh first things first, the band show is this week, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We have three shows, and I'm pretty sure that there's still tickets. If anyone wants to go, should go. It's going to be really awesome. Um, and you get to see me embarrass myself a little bit. Um, we also have the National Honor Society blood drive this Wednesday. I believe it's Wednesday. Um, I don't know if

014you guys can sign up, but if you can, you should because giving blood is great. Um, also spring sports are fully in swing at this point and I think a lot of my peers and I are missing spring break, but we're looking forward to the next one. So, thank you. You're so right. Spring sports are underway. I was just amazed by our soccer team that took a hold of Sunny P at at Sunny Pe uh on Saturday, I think it was. We won. Uh one student had four goals and a couple of us just they were on fire. Well, you have kids on the team, don't you? Where you had the boys team, not the girls. Okay. Yeah. Absolutely amazing. Yeah. Um today was a big day for Mount Horin. tomorrow will be as well

015uh because we are having our final credentiing through the international balora um career program and uh you don't need me to to tell you that we have just an absolutely amazing high school staff that has been preparing for this day now for at least 2 years uh and they just continue to make uh this district proud. I suspect that we will have a very successful announcement soon. Um, I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but I will tell you that this is a result of a long journey uh that uh starts with our board uh allowing us to uh move forward with a vision and aligning resources in order to make that happen. Lots of training and I think our I know our students are going to be the benefactors of that.

016So, I'm grateful for for um this this final step in an important process. Um you said Viking band show we talked about uh forward exam so I won't talk about that but I will just uh make one more comment with regard to another yet another public engagement session that we'll be hosting next Wednesday night. Uh it's around evidence-based grading. Uh the real purpose I think is to dispel a number of the misnomers uh some of which sadly we heard here this evening. Suffice to say we want to do everything we can to share with you the status of our good work. the team's good work um get feedback from people about uh their experience thus far and then continue to evolve in our practice and our instruction based upon research and there is a great

017deal of research in the movement that we are making. So uh encourage everybody 6:00 p.m. next Wednesday night high school is going to host us over in the cafeteria. Is it 6:30 or 6:30? Like I said, it's 6:30. Other school news. I have two. Um this week, Thursday through Saturday, the middle schooler booster solders are going to state. That's right. So, that's very exciting. And then Friday, if you're feeling fancy, we have the PTO fancy pants dance from 6:30 to 7. Yep. took us a little while to settle on the name that worked, but a lot of it works. Um, then we'll have a silent auction and uh there's a lot of good stuff. If you go to our Facebook page, they just keep posting stuff every day of new stuff we'll have. So, you're

018bored. It's $2 for the family, so it's it's pretty cheap. The whole space and you can get all the clothes stuff now. you're so inclined other schools. I have some stuff. Um I was able to attend a couple things back in March after our last meeting. I went to the Spring Pops concert with the high school choirs. Um and that was really a a fun concert to go to and applaud all the singers um at that event. And on March 20th, I attended the FFA banquet and that was a nice evening um where a lot of awards were given and scholarship winners were recognized um through the FFA. That was there was a lot of people. Um, finally, field trip season is here for the third graders. Uh, I was able to go along with

019uh one or two classes. Um, they went to the planetarium in Madison and then to Haven's Petty and Zoo. And you can imagine there was a lot of a lot of happy kids running around at the new uh camels which are 2 months old. Um the kindergarten concert is this Friday at 2:00 p.m. And then um there's a lot of testing going on this week. Uh forward testing at the IC. Um early reading screeners at the LCP and some middle school testing all happening either now or in uh early April. So have your kids rested ready for school. Anyone else? All right, moving on to our personnel transaction. There's a couple of quick uh items to bring to your attention. First, there's an addendum. And secondly, I want to thank all of the staff who

020have agreed to participate as a coach or sponsor. You'll see their information also included for next year's uh planning purposes. A lot of hours goes in, you don't need me to tell you that. Um, to help support our young people in co and extracurricular activities. Thank them for us. Would anyone like to make a motion to approve? Motion to approve with the addendums. Second. Motion by Leah, seconded by Sarah to approve our personnel transactions. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Number five, our consent agenda. Is there anything that anyone would like to pull out to discuss? Not like to make a motion to approve. Move to approve. A second. Motion by Adam, seconded by Tom approve our consent agenda. All those in favor, please say I. Anyone opposed? Number six, discussion items,

021committee member reports. Tom, would you like to start with building grounds and transportation? I would love to. Uh, we didn't have a a meeting last month. It was during spring break, but we got a written um report from the teams um Dave and Brian. Um so I'll just go over what they sent a bullet point fashion um fully staffed and some of the staff was able to take some vacation during the spring break, which is nice for them and their families. Hopefully the snow season is finally gone and do that anymore, right? Yes. Um they had some warm temperatures, so they were able to bring the cooling systems uh up and all the systems fired up and are working with minimal effort. So that's good to hit the ground running with those. Uh the grounds

022team is working uh hard on projects and getting the fields ready for all the spring sports that are are starting. On the transportation side, um they are hiring a new bus driver to take over a vacant AM and PM route, completing all the licensing requirements. And um and the regional meetings were held for the Wisconsin School Bus Association during the first week in March. And that was good for networking industry updates and learning about new technologies. Um and there's going to be some new updates from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regarding federal medical cards, which will have an impact on us a little bit, but we should be good for that. Um, so that was um update from them. And then during spring break, I was lucky enough like I took some time to

023visit to visit with uh with Jeff Golden and IC uh team. Um, and I'll just go over a couple of the things that um we talked about and I think I'll bring the rest to to committee in the end of April. Um, the boilers uh boiler 3 is down at we've discussed that a little bit already, but just a reminder of that. Um there's one um railing that needs some attention. I think the staff were going to get that taken care of right away as that's kind of a safety hazard. Um I think uh the rest of it I'll I'll take to committee first before. Thank you. Thank you. Joel just finance. Sure. Um we met a long time ago back in March, beginning of March 10th. Um couple things. There was a donation that

024we considered uh a scholarship uh was uh that $2,500 was donated from Donna and Roger Schneider for a Nicholas Day Memorial Scholarship, which was lovely. And we always appreciate any families that are willing to set up scholarships like that for our students. Um, we went over the budget calendar as we are want to do and uh that everything seems to be on track. That's Scott makes sure that we don't miss a date on there. Uh, we went over taxes received. We're right on target where we expect to be at this time of the year. Uh, with a little over 70% of our total expected taxes uh, received at this point. Um and then we had a very robust discussion around revenue limits and what that does to the budget. Uh a couple of uh light

025bulb moments for me uh as a secondyear board member if you will is uh how little impact the per revenue or per student uh revenue increase would have on our district simply because of how everything is calculated with some of the minimums and things like that. uh as well as the fact that as we look at declining enrollment the it's the second year that's the concern the first year there are some things in there so when we look at budgets and everything related to that um we don't see the full impact of a declining enrollment till year two of that decline that that decline in enrollment. So as you look forward that can be some some potential headwinds uh going forward here. So, um, as always, we appreciate those robust discussions because we have a

026a master at, uh, figuring out how that stuff all works. So, we appreciate that. Thank you, Carly. You want to talk about safety? Yeah, we met um a while ago also, March 17th, and we spent a good amount of the update talking about or that meeting talking about uh some outreach that we've received from the Madison School District regarding the WIA's changes in their policies around um inclusion of all students in athletics. Um just spent a bit of time catching up on some of the the efforts that Colleen had made that Dr. just learned around um reaching out to to that group about about that policy and reaching out to other districts and and kind of talking through um what our approach is going to be in the meantime. Um for now, we're we're going

027to keep an eye on legislation. There's state legislation pending. We'll keep an eye on that and consider whether as that advances if it makes sense to do anything there. But but otherwise we're we're just kind of in a holding pattern. Um for our equity update at the time uh Brian gave us the the update that um the focus at that time was looking at the website and reframing the the wording on the website, the language on the website to be more descriptive with what our policy is and what we're actually doing. Focusing on a commitment to belonging. Um, we talked during our mental health and safety update. Um, again, at the time we were just talking about getting started on planning for how to mark the upcoming recurrence of May 1st. Um, sources of strength,

028our student group was pretty been pretty involved in that. And um let's see, there'll be a letter going out to families letting them know what to expect. And we talked about how they're going to be focusing both on not just the day itself, but the days leading up to that, anticipating anxieties and behaviors at that point and then also in the days after. Um, we talked a little bit about the SpeakUp Speakout program and the offices for safety, um, and how we've been in touch with them to give them some feedback on that process that might make things a little smoother. Um, and then we had a title N update where we think it's similar things that we've all heard before. We talked about the courts revoked the current law went back to 2020 and

029that the the major changes and that the definition um reverts back to the the old definition of sexual harassment which is a harder bar to clear because the conditions are all and instead of instead of. So and they're um in the minutes if you want to do the specifics. That's it. We meet again on the 21st. Thank you, Carly. Adam, did the village park, brick, and forestry commission meet? We did. I had one small question for just to speak up. Speak out. Um, yeah. Is it are there is a pretty short list of things that you did. I was just curious recommendations how to improve that. Um I think it had to do with the information that we were getting from the original message was the main feedback and how they could improve giving us

030the better information to act upon. They've been very receptive and I invited them to come to one of our administrative council meetings and we were able to provide them a number of suggestions and they were very amendable to it. Great. That just seems like such a valuable tool. So I love that we're helping shape. Great. and it was a parks and wreck meeting and uh the committee approved $200,000 in playground equipment for Grundle. It's going to replace that current area. It's about the same footprint, a little bit shifted over. Um big gift from the summer follow committee to help make that happen. And one of the cool things that uh Jeff Gorman did was to put it out to the community on um the final selection of some of the elements that will be out

031there and got some initial response. So looking at uh something they'll do again for some other future development. Um, Lucken Park is obviously uh just calling it Lucky Park, Lucken Farm, but the park land that gets there as that gets developed, they're going to be um tapping into from JSD of Verona and we'll be getting a lot of community input and that was one of the main reasons why JSD was selected. So we uh we planted the seed a little bit about maybe having a youth committee um that could help with some of the selection of structures and approach obviously within budget and within choices but nice to have some ownership from kids on what the uh what the park land area will look like there. Um there's going to be a tour of Grandma

032Foster and Grundle coming at the next meeting um by the committee and obviously anyone who wants to join on that. That'll be the 20 1st 28th um being the 4th Tuesday. And uh the only other thing that that prompted in my mind and this is just more of a thought for now was uh if and how and when we might be able to involve students in the uh PC construction process that same way or even if it's giving the window on that or if it's having them um help out in any way in terms of the construction of that building. All righty. Any questions, R? Moving on. 6B, information and advocacy report, co-curricular participation and opportunities. Brian is okay. Thanks for having us tonight. um in looking at not only our board strategic plan and

033the well-being goal which outlines just increasing that sense of belonging through culture good participation. The board of ed also um really looked at that school sponsored activities and and that annual participation for our middle school and high school students as a powerful as well. So we're we're covering two two things with with one stone, right? Two birds and one stone. So, um, I'll take the first part and then then Brian's going to continue on with the second part. So, when we look at that indicator 4 of the board strategic plan, that co-curricular participation opportunities, we decided to go back and look at our DBI pupil non-discrimination self-evaluation that we presented to the board a year ago, April 2024. Um, and within that plan, part of it was looking at again the the participation of students

034and and who they were. was it was disagregated. Um but we really wanted to focus on tonight the action items because it pertains to um the board powerful. So some of the action items, the first one um was looking at um our athletic activities director sharing that that demographic information with adviserss and with coaches so they know who's engaged and who's not engaged. Um from that, Colleen then um talked with all the fall athletic adviserss and coaches during her summer coaches meeting. And then she's also in the spring planning to conduct a similar review with with all adviserss and going into the campus and pulling up that data again to see who is and who is not at at the table for our academics and athletics. The second action I know from the pupil non-discrimination

035report um had to do with having students being more knowledgeable of what's out there, what's available to them. So we know that we have an an activity fair for freshman in August to September time. That's been very successful. So the team wanted to expand that to make sure all students, maybe they're new to the school district, maybe they come to here, maybe they just have an interest now, um are knowledgeable about what's there. Um, so prior to each season, she and Kelly Richardson send out an email to students informing them of what the athletic activities are and what the clubs are so students know what is coming up. Um, and then having that as slideshow each fall during advisory is important as well for students to know what what's available to them. And the third

036item is is pretty cool and Brian's going to talk about that. So when and one of the areas that we really look at when we did the report was which group of students are not able to participate or which which group of students is not participating. Um and what we really found is for sure that our students with significant disabilities had a zero participation rate. Um when we looked at neighboring communities, we did find some prairie a couple years back had started an adaptive sports program um focusing on three sport three seasons fall winter um and spring that are just like a quick 6 week season where they compete against neighboring districts in whiffle ball, field hockey, and indoor soccer. Um and so our plan originally was to try and start up this spring. Um

037and we are officially going to be starting next fall. um with indoor soccer um but we are going to collaborate with Verona because we don't have enough students specifically within our district to start um so we're going to have a collaborative effort um with Verona and so it'll be Verona Mount Horum and we'll have a an adaptive sports league um for just the fall and spring sport. We're not going to do um field hockey to start with. So, kind of stick with the two that are like the easiest to start out with. Um, and then see if we want to build from there. But it's a pretty cool opportunity. We're excited about the next section of our Do you have any questions before we move on? The next section of our report really looks at

038information that was pulled from a really nice survey that Colleen and Cody Lucas put together and provided to students in late fall, early winter. um about school sponsored athletics and activities. We have about a little more than 50% of students um participate in that survey. And in in figure one here, you can see so this is self-reported. So what students think they're doing or what they're involved in. So keep that in mind because we'll have actual data in the campus a little bit later. But in figure one you can see um we have students we have a good amount of students about 22% of students in at least one activity and then we can see that moving all the way up. Um it's amazing that some students are nine and 10 and eight activities um

039keeping their academic lives going as well. So it's pretty neat to see. So we have a nice baseline of that self-reported piece now that we can send the survey out um to collect that data over time. We also wanted to know um Cody and Colleen had many nice questions in there and one of the um other questions was you know why if you don't why what's what's holding you back? Um I know it's hard to see within the graphic itself. So in the paragraph above figure two we we outline what those choices were that range from health concerns to family reasons to work commitments to maybe lack of information or don't know anyone else. Um and we can see from figure two um that maybe not knowing anyone else and lack of information were the

040higher reasons uh why students maybe aren't participating. So again it goes back to that education piece. Um and then maybe making helping students make some connections with peers is also another piece that um the administrative team will have to figure through. Again they they just started diving into this data and will continue to look at it throughout the spring into the summer. But then we can pull back on campus and have the true data, the actual data, right? Um and then that's this is when we look at grades 6 through 12 for students who are actually participating in a school sponsored event. Um and then those results look a little bit different. Um when we look at those, it's about 68, what was it? 60 Yeah, 68%. Yep. Um 68% of middle and high school

041students were participating. um the average kind of got thrown down a little bit. Sixth grade has a lot less opportunities to be able to participate. So if you took them out of the mix, then it brings it up to 73% for 7th through 12th grade. And then you can also see again, you know, we have a lot of students who are in two or more events um participation. Um and so you can kind of see by grade um where we're at and their participation. Um and so it's exciting to be able to do this and we've talked about um you know this goal is really about the whole child right and it's not focusing on academics but it's focusing on how we engage in belonging. How do we have students who are feel connected to

042our school and being involved in a school sponsored activity is is a main reason on how we can accomplish that. And so through this power goal and through this report this is the first time we're doing it. So now we have baseline data um and so now we'll keep track of this and how we move forward and how we can continue to look at ways to increase opportunity and participation for students. Any questions? The um the the uh slideshow that the students are receiving that I'm assuming that's available through campus to parents as well. Um I don't know if it's available on campus as versus the the website you're thinking. Yeah. Or website some somewhere where parents can go or be directed to go. We can ask that question. That' be a fair question. That'd

043be easy to to post. Yeah, that would be helpful just for having conversations. And then for the not participating piece, is there I mean I know you guys are working on on the education side of it and things but are there some other lowhanging fruits on there where we look at cost prohibitive we look at um transportation some of that kind of stuff that we as a community not necessarily district but then we could look at other community partners that we could get some help for some of those kinds of things. Yeah. Yes. We just need to know who who get and I know this is the very first. So, but that's looking for the lowhanging fruit there to say, "Hey, these are these are some easy wins along with the harder or longer term

044work around." Thank you. Good ideas. How do you figure out what's a school sponsored event in Infinite Campus to pull this number? cuz I know like I have kids in in school sponsored stuff and it's not an infinite campus or at least not as a parent I can't see it. Yeah. So, so if they're involved in a club interact or any type of school sanctioned is the correct term, but um at the bottom of students schedule infinite campus, it has like class officer and all those pieces and NHS, all those things that kids are in that Kelly Richardson keeps track of in the rosters and attendance and enrollments. Well, more so not attendance but rosters. So, not all of them cuz like Orion for example is in every choir except the girl choir. those don't

045show up like on his roster and um and and some of those maybe let's look into that some of them may be more academic and already part of it but that's a good like if you count choir as one then yes but if you were to count like mand or right if you were to count all of those like we I bet the numbers jump sure um same with like middle school oh maybe it is a middle school never mind I didn't see it middle school before but I know some of that I think with choir chamber choir after school in school any of the music ones show up. They've never Yeah. So, like it depends on how like how do we want to actually track the data like cuz those are school sponsors. So,

046then the number of students is two plus super increase. That's fair. Yeah. We're only as good as the data we get. So, so getting those rosters um is a piece of it. Also, we have I'm sure those are more school sponsored events, but sometimes we have activities that are provided by advisors that are of the goodness of their heart versus official. So, we also we've been better at teasing those out and making sure we have more official things and data, but we go back to the music piece and figure that piece out, too. Cuz I know we also have kids who can't fit choir. I know choir, for example, cannot fit in their schedule. So, they attend these extra ones. So now they they're not in our numbers cuz they're not in Pittsburgh choir. Yes.

047So thank you for that. Same with like the middle schoolers. They have middle band jazz band 7 a.m. choir. I don't know what that was actually called early. Right. So like some of those again it would it would change our numbers. To me they're all different. Like the kids are going to these things, right? getting up at 7 a.m. So I feel like they should be. So I guess then if we're going to do that, we're going to think about that thing and we got to define what is what's the purpose behind this, right? It's to make additional connections within the community. So it would be a school related activity that allows for additional connection I think would be the learning if that's if we're going to make a change like I take a note

048one of the things I'd like to do is talk with our registar who helps us call all this data together and we'd be happy to to see what's what's the hold up why are we not getting the music piece because to your point those numbers go up music staff is amazing well especially for those kids who like can't get get into their schedule who are taking it like before school or after school or whatever that they those numbers would change and the year's not over so we can adjust our baseline for this year right it also great shows up at 7 a.m. minutes. Any other wonders, questions, suggestions? Yeah. When you when you did this assessment and maybe this wasn't part of the filtering on this aspect of it, but I think about sort of

049uh you know what swaps of the student population maybe just aren't covered. And the thing that comes to mind is esports when that came up and how many kids maybe that weren't as involved in other things decided, yeah, that's for me. Um, did you have any observations that way like, hey, here's something we should really think about the way the power goal was worded. Yeah, we did not at this point. Yep. Um, doesn't mean we can't. Yep. But not not at this point for this first report. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's not like we can offer a lot of things, right? Realize that. Yep. It's crazy people. I did just happen to peek and like jazz band, corral, fiddle band, those are all listed in kids schedules even though they take place outside of the

050school day. Maybe they're in the middle. The high school I didn't see. My laptop on the spot here, right? And I could I could be missing it, right? Like these things I just scroll for days to see what the kids are involved in. So, it's possible. But like like I see FFA is in here and I see yeah there's there's intercurricular versus co-curricular which sometimes I think there's some right like what those two different definitions mean how that looks in here be something we could we could look at make sure that it's what we want to just we can we can definitely circle back that's I got right here nice job both Thank you. Thank you. Colleen for helping you get to stay. Yeah, come down too. Stand over. [Music] Yeah. and we're not too

051I think you know this first this topic was supposed to kind of go from a board workshop right so kind of thinking about it from a discussion standpoint around looking at smart technology devices in schools um and constantly looking and redefining how we're using the process using them in our schools academically but also using them in a social standpoint and what makes the most sense um with what we're learning, what we're learning about kids, what we're seeing in data um and how that really affects overall learning and and social and emotional growth. So, we've kind of, you know, where we are, which is that K5 is locked and put away. Simple. Um 612 is no devices bell to bell um unless they're used for instructional purposes. Um, and there's flexibility at the high school during

052nonstructured academic learning times. So, it's kind of simple. I think locked and putaway is a little um loose because they don't have lockers, right? You can't take schools even have a locker you can put them in. That's true. They're in the cubbies, right? They're in a cubby. Their cubby is put away. They're not in their pockets. That's what I want to know. Right. And so really when we continue to look at this, it's why are we continuing to look at it, right? And what we're concerned about and it's again related directly to the board of education power goals. We want to engage students in connectedness. We want to more focused learning environment and we want a reduction in bullying, harassment and intimidation. We also, you know, another reason is preserving calm during a rare crisis.

053Um, and so those are all the wise on why we need to constantly relook at redefining and refining our process and our procedures. And so we've started to do some research. Um, and we've done a lot of it. Um, and the book, The Anxious Generation, was kind of the really strong point in really making us rethink our current practices and how we could do better. Um, and if and and there's so many. I mean, you could just Google search this and find tons and tons of topics and and research out there. And if you go to the next slide, it kind of talks about what we always do when we're kind of approaching a subject that we're unsure about is what is our community standard. Um, and so we really took the anxious generation. We

054read it as an administrative council. We had lots of discussions about it about the many of the topics and conversations around it. And then we had a community book read that was at the library and as you can see from the picture and many of you were there. It was really well attended um and really great great conversations. Um and then the board of ed retreat last week moved to today. So kind of continuing this discussion, right? Um, and so what are the the next steps and and you know that's what Cody and Paul are here too to kind of continue to talk about continuing the student discussion um continuing to have family input um administrative team. We're always keeping this, you know, talking about this and and how we're we're operating as a as

055a school district, right? Not a district of schools. Making sure that it makes sense on how we progress throughout school. um and then updating handbooks as needed. And and Steve's done some um Zoom workshops with staff um to get their feedback as well. And so we're kind of constantly seeking input. And so we're looking at potential solutions. Um and so as we redefine is that and in um kindergarten through 8th grade is that personal communication devices are off and away during school hours. That includes lunch. That includes lunch. Recess and recess. And I mean is that the way it is now? And so if a student has their phone out at lunch or at Yeah. that we immediately interrupt that. So that'll be consistent um for us. No change there. No. And that will be

056the expectation moving up through eighth grade. Do you feel like for obviously incoming sixth graders, they won't know any different? Correct. for seventh and eighth graders. Part of the book is also, you know, no phones, more free time. We can't really offer more free time at school, but I just wonder if the same point of like uh when you're trying to break a habit, like add something in when you're taking something away, do you feel like there will be a need to provide more social activity? Not I don't mean outside of lunch, but I mean like during lunch like for those students who are relying on their phone because they're anxious to make a friend or don't have a friend. Do you think feel like if you think back to when phones weren't in middle

057school, do you know what I mean? Like do do we need to put it put in more encouragement to like, okay, yes, you don't want to be structured, but at the same time like everybody go play basketball, everyone go play whatever, you know, to build connections. I'm rambling. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Sure. I think in turn it will build in some more free play, right? Because they won't necessarily be on their devices as much. Um I don't think it will impact recess as much as maybe one would think. I think in currently sixth and seventh grade students are um required to go outside when the weather's good on a regular basis. And the vast majority that are out there are interacting with each other in some sort of fashion, not necessarily

058on the phone. For some, definitely it will be a change. There are a handful that find themselves at the picnic tables or the benches and are playing video games. Um, sadly, we're very limited in space out there. Um, if you've been on our playground slash loading dock, um, it's it's yeah, it's unfortunate that we don't have more green space. Um, and we can't do anything about that. I do wonder if we'll need to, um, increase some of the equipment that we have available for kids. Yeah. Um, we've done a little bit of that over the last couple of years in terms of more four square, more six square, a volleyball court, some of those things that are out there. Um, but we might need to think about helping students with options of of things that

059they want to play when they're outside. Um, in terms of reset or in terms of lunch, I think it will feel different for students, but it won't be the first time in during their day when they have some unstructured time to interact with each other where aren't necessarily a part of that. Um, cuz I do think we have times during our day where that is part of what we do a little bit. Um, we also have a very tight common area which doesn't allow a lot in a positive way. doesn't allow from a positive standpoint doesn't allow a lot of time away from peers. They can't sort of put themselves off to a side somewhere cuz we just don't have any space. So, there's a lot of them being on their phone during it, but

060there's also a fair amount of interaction. So, it will definitely be a change. It will absolutely be a change for them. Um because if nothing else, the things that they're doing during that lunchtime won't involve their home. And now a lot of it does. We're gonna shoot a little video of ourselves. We're gonna take some pictures. We're going to send a message to that table over there and see if they get it. There's a mod back. So that or or like that person who's right there and see back. Um so it'll be different. Yeah, for sure. We'll have to set them up for some success, but I'm confident we can do it. I'm also confident. I'm just curious about it. So then also, you know, our sixth graders may not have phones, but I'm sure

061all the eighth graders, not all nearly all will. And are is it going to be similar to the IC, but they just are? Yes, very much so. The the the beauty of it is um most of my colleagues in in the area um in the principal group that I meet with, this is the norm. So, um, being able to learn from from them and have conversations with them over the past, um, 6 to 8 months has been really helpful in terms of the things that work and the things that that have not worked for them for districts who have had this in place for, you know, 5, six, seven, eight years. Yeah, we do think of it as a like a, you know, being older like is this, you know, an unrealistic or unrealistic expectation.

062Um, it's funny cuz Paul and I were just talking beforehand to my son who's 18, right? Just freshman in college. He just subbed a couple of days at the at the middle school over his spring break. And that was the first thing he got in the car and said is, "I can't believe everybody on their phones during lunch like they should not be doing that." That's you know, I mean, he kind of went on about it, but like so it's not even just a parent perspective looking at it. I think that it it it was it seen and while not perfect, the transition that we implemented this year went very smoothly all things considered. Yeah. So, another step in the right direction. And we talked a lot about phones. What else for devices out there?

063Yeah, that's the one that comes to mind. Yeah, that's a tough one. Yeah, I mean Yeah. Chromebooks technically is a way to communicate, right? As well, uh we have ways of monitoring student Chromebooks. Um whether it's just active proctoring around a room or class-wise or some of those types of things. So, um that one I I don't see a big hurdle there. Uh the watches piece will be um something to to figure out for sure. I have a question for you from like a student services standpoint, especially middle school, um, personal experience as a parent with two kids going through middle school, which was really hard time for them, and also mental health issues, relying on being able to get a hold of a parent when you don't want to go talk to someone from

064the school and you're sitting in the bathroom. So like I can see how this would be good to make them so that there's you know if they have to go to a staff person to talk and say I need to get a hold of somebody which would be good so that staff know what's going on but the instances where no I'm not going to do that. So let like I'm just thinking of it from that perspective as well like um outreach to kids like you know if you're just to kind of address that piece as well like you know do you see you know what I'm saying? Yeah. And and I think we're we deal with that now, right? Um and kind of continuous and and I'll kind of say how how I see it

065and you can jump in too, but um a lot of times kids will keep their phones they'll choose to actually keep their phone in the office um or in student services and then they'll go to those locations to make the phone call and then they're getting a check-in with an adult. They're getting to check in with the staff member. There's a communication there and then they can use it. Okay, perfect. that they need to there's a place they can have that phone if they need to. Maybe kids would if certain students would I would say I'm going to call individualized plans but to to that point right I mean whether we've whether we have procured a phone for a few days because someone wasn't using it appropriately which happens you know occasion um or you

066know student services a connection like you know they feel like hey I can't go there and make that call and um you know I I know we knocked out the high school but no I also think there's ways for us to we've seen a lot of success with SUSO and having QR codes and really pushing out there I mean our Susso stuff has increased and so thinking creatively about how can we provide opportunities for students to like seek help whether it's something that's right on their Chromebook that they can quickly quickly fill out so student services see it they're not calling anybody like there there's certain things I think we can do to get creative to still communicate give that student that sense of safety but also be able to have that private and be

067able to communicate so I think there's certainly ways that we can we've already talked about you know putting something in place for those student when we look at 912 right it's taking it one step one step, right? And and if you if you've read the book and participated in it, it's all about progression, right? Teaching progressive skills. And so when we're really looking at 912, it's communication devices are often put away, stored in a schoolisssued storage space um from bell to bell um during instructional time. Yeah. Yeah, I think that that the shift right now right now we have a pretty consistent practice where my high school students in here can can probably attest to where one classroom is you walk in the teachers thing the the locker is right there put in that's the

068expectation they walk in get it next teacher you go into is fine if it's in your backpack next teacher you walk into yeah put the hotel but we'll see and then half time they go right it's it's pretty hit or miss whether it's consistent I think one thing for us find consistency um and then being able to just kind of I think when you have a consist consistent practice one. It's just it's easier to manage and oversee as opposed to kind of who's doing what when and where and it's also like that professional discretion of the instructor with Chromebooks with some other pieces. They have a lot of opport they can do all the things there. Um and then I think the biggest the biggest conversation yet that I was still kind of working is

069like study hall staff. What does that look like? And we have kids are leaving for you the I mean there's a lot of my high school is just this is this living beast that breeds and kids come and go and I think I like that. I I think that means I got kids out in the community doing things. We got students engaged in different ways that aren't traditional. I'm all for finding different ways to do high school differently and but what does it look like with this and how do we keep students still like fully engaged? You know, I think that even I've never seen more Uker in my life played until I got to like this year and like there's a lot of Uker being played and not to say that there aren't phones

070around, but there is. There's Uker all over the or card games, right? Which even the cafeteria like while we we changed policies a little bit this year. Not that phones are gone. They are absolutely still there. But you see you see conversations there there's different you know conversations happening and I think any way that we can find that those replacement things those things that for students to engage and the book does get into that kind you get to high school and all of a sudden you pivot from yeah cell phone but you know so like the social media you know that the book talks about that progression and as a high school that's our challenge how do we kind of acknowledge that progression while also knowing that different expectation for a senior is can be

071challenging for you we already have 11th and 12th graders can if they're passing classes can like leave for study hall and some of these things. So, how do we kind of make sure that we're in the vein of what we're doing, but keeping kids engaged with the work that's at hand, you know, and um I I a couple years ago I had a a principal coach come through walking was your your your classrooms are too quiet. You there needs to be more talking. There needs to be more kids doing things. I think we've heard that a little more this year. We're hearing more talking, engaging. Um and I think being able to kind of tighten up just a little bit more on that next year will also help to to balance some of that out.

072Um, but yeah, I mean the stat I think the stat and study hall piece will be a piece that we need to all have to kind of figure out the the the nuances of it, but that'll be some challenges that we'll face, but we're put pays back in the school. So people have actually my question. I know parents a lot of the time count on that access to be able to plans change or do you have different family situations or things like that? Have you seen since you've adapted no more calls to an office or like how do they how are they communicating? Um things well cuz they can get their phone passing time. I mean they it's you can't go by your phone for 65 minutes. It's a few you have another problem that

073we can manage. Um yeah, they're getting it during passing time. They're getting them during lunch. We'll have families, parents call the main office, stop in, drop things off. Um, you know, it's they can be a little old school, right? We don't have the big herbal printer machine things, but you can call the office and we'll get the message to your um and so I think being able to like do some of those pieces, but they're still getting the messages cuz they have very passive time. Um, and you know those if something's super urgent, you know, people call us or I guess about the adaptivity at the middle school level, then if it's going to be like not accessible, if how are you planning on handling that part of it? Yeah. I mean, there's still a

074lot of ways to communicate with school from home, right? Um, and and we're not saying kids can't bring them into the building. So, if there's something that's going to change after school at 3:25 when students check those, if they've gotten a text from mom or dad or big brother or sister and plans have changed, they'll still be able to see those. It's not that they're not going to make their way into the building. Um, it's just but those types of things are also not things that students need to know at 11:30 in the morning, right? And if they do, there's a phone in every build room in this building. All of us are checking email on a very regular basis. Um, families can even go in and obviously mark their students absent in Infinite Campus

075live. We see that so we know, oh, okay, they're leaving for an appointment at this time, sort of thing. So, there's still lots and lots of ways to communicate, which really is the better way for for us to have kids, especially if they're leaving during the day, is for that to go through the office so that we can arrange to get them here rather than someone showing up and wondering why. So I know as a high school at that point we have a lot of times where parent student will talk to each other and no one but the school knows and then we don't know where the student is. We mark them absent but we haven't got a call from a parent now we're searching bathrooms and we're searching around right that that becomes a

076safety issue right is when and I think at the high school with we do run into that and also like we we've talked to some students but we haven't engaged our students fully yet on part of this piece. So I think as you saw the next step is really being able to have some conversations with students and get that voice. We know most of them are going to say I'm not going to be an idiot and think like oh they're all loves them but and you know as I we've had conversations previously so I'm not a fool to think that they're all like yeah please take them from you know we'll hand them in at 7:00 a.m. and give them back at 4. But I do think be able to engage like what does that

077look like for them? What are their needs? What are the things they're worried about? What are the things that we can help kind of work through or alleviate some of those frustrations or concerns too? And those are the things we need to engage with our students on to get their get their voice because that's the benefit of working in high school which I you you can talk to students and really problem solve and and really kind of get into it which I which I love and that helps us have that like community component of the problem solving we're doing. So it says that they're going to be um stored issues stored space if I remember correctly. We did not purchase those for all of the classrooms when we every high school classroom has one to

078them. Yeah. the last two cuz we got those two or three years ago. So, we've been just kind of like, hey, you need one or we've got a couple extra. This one broke. We kind of refill stockpile um and go through. So, every classroom has one available. They don't all use them right now because as I kind of stated earlier, but and we do have enough and you know, we've kind of slowly we'll purchase some before the end of the school year, at the end of the budgetary season. Those are things at the end of the school year. So, we've got some extra ones left over and um you know, they're not charging for the students. They're also not like blocking off signal and so, you know, they're there's lockers and things. Um but I

079think what they've done is we've talked teachers about it's an extra thing. What an opportunity to go walk around and get to know students and see how their weekend was, see how their day was, see what they're up to, have that checkpoint while you walk around and collect it, too. And so, some teachers have used it for attendance, like, oh, now I know who's here, who's not here. Um and you know, those pieces, too. So certainly some things to figure out, but I feel like we're on the right track to get it right. This could also reduce kind of from a parental standpoint, not getting all the text. I changed my mind on what shirt I want to wear today. Run me over that that blue one. Wait, are you saying that this is a

080I've had conversations with just a couple of teachers who certainly isn't representative, but we're all for more um stricter enforcement or stricter restrictions on it is so I think I know the answer, but how do you faculty feel about continuing to to cut back? Do you think there are any that are worried or don't want to deal with it or in favor? the vast majority know that this is what we need to do. I don't think it's a it's not a question. The the questions maybe are a little bit about how or what exactly does that look like. Um but I think we all recognized the need a while ago about engagement and step one took care of that, but we see what it's doing to our kids in terms of their mental health. even

081just the constant needing to have access to someone else, whether it's a parent or other students. It's convenient, but it's not good for you. And I think we all recognize that as adults that get to work with adolescence. Yeah. And I think in high school, we we've got some staff that feel that as they get high schoolers, you know, they might have some differing opinions, but I think they also they see the benefit of of having that piece of it. I think at the high school it's just a matter of like whose job is it to engage when maybe that student isn't necessarily wanting to or they put a burner phone in or they put a a case in or you know or whatever it is and um you know we have systems in place

082right now that we're using we have step by step very public kids like we we know we it's not like we don't deal with it now um and so I think it's just about trying to give opportunity for teachers because it can be uncomfortable and we have a we have a policy about don't bring expensive things to school right and I mean that we could probably rely more on and and actually talking more to families about that. Like that's not just talking about your baseball bats and your gloves and your whatever. It's also your cell phone. This could be $1,000 that also is included, right? And that's the responsibility of the student. That's not my responsibility as a principal to make sure your phone is safe for me in the end of the day. I'm

083like, you bring it. That's the risk you take as a student. That's not my risk as a principal. And I think relying on that policy along with our current expectations, I think we'll be in a just fine place. Not that want to get over policy and and kind of punitive on it, but I think it's things that we do have are in place that we can rely on too. be interesting to hear all those people. Uh, from a student perspective, I think it's entirely appropriate. I mean, in middle school, I was using my phone and I was using my phone to take pictures of my friends and send it to them. Um, useless. Um, but as a high schooler, like interacting with my family, I have a lot more responsibility. Um, like during my study

084hall, I could like run an errand for my mom. Like during passing time, I think that communication is important to be able to have. Um, as well as communicating with friends. I hate to sound dramatic, but I do like make plans for lunch with my friends like in the morning during passing period. And again, this has been the standard to have our phones put away during class time. Um, most of my classes do that already. So I I don't see like a big change in this, but I do know that it is important to be able to communicate sometimes with our families as well during passing period again with like having our family be able to like bring something to school. I mean, the amount of times I've forgotten like an instrument or my homework

085at home and then I had my mom be able to bring it because I can text her after class or before school or something like that. That's very useful. So I think I think it's perfectly fine. Thank you. Board members are also fortunate to have another student in the audience today who happened to attend a program last week and is working on a Girl Scout project in this regard. Would you be open to sharing? Yeah. So [Music] um All right. So, I'm Abby Schwear. I'm currently in the process of developing my Girl Scout Gold Award. And I really hope to be involved in like decreasing the amount of time we spend on our phones and social media and then increasing peer peer interactions and stuff like that. And as a student, I definitely think that

086having the phones in the phone locker is really beneficial because I mean, let's be honest, we're all like really addicted. Um, but I think in middle school especially, it's actually more important to have the lockers in the high school cuz I know from experience in a high school, not all the students, but most of them are a lot more responsible and can have that time and can manage their time away from their phone like correctly and make it beneficial to them. But in middle school, like fresh out of middle school as I'm a ninth grader last year, I was on my phone in class like and I think if we maybe even invested in some of those phone lockers that we use at the high school, it would be really beneficial for students academic like

087stuff because I know my grades have improved since last year because now I pay attention more. So, good luck with your speaking school. Board members, I I just to put a bow on the conversation here tonight. First of all, thank you for your input. Thank you for allowing us an opportunity to continue to engage our community on this topic. There's work yet to be done. Um as we we heard uh principal Christensen say that we have evolved to the point where we currently are at as a basis for administration's decision. However, we recognize that this uh message this plan may not be amendable to everyone and uh I I think what we're looking for from the board here tonight among any additional questions you may have is how would you like us to proceed? Uh

088would you like this to be a formal vote of the board of education? Um or uh would you like this to be a um part of what we've already been doing and just continue to keep you apprised of its developments? Um happy to go in either direction. We work at the pleasure of the board, but we also want to make certain that um we do move forward because the success of this year's implementation, I think, is due in very large measure to the fact that at about this time last year, we were in the process of communicating and communicating even more to families. One of those pieces is going to have to do with the code of student conduct and being able to adjust that and get to printer. So, happy to go in any

089direction the board wants. We just want to make certain that we're honoring what you what your intentions are. Uh to Paul's point earlier, you know, you've established the what uh in terms of the um uh you what you see is student belonging, what you see is student engagement. Uh and we've attempted up to this point to um help massage the how. Uh but we're at a bit of a crossroads and we welcome your feedback. Can you can you just clarify? I think you may have addressed this before, but nothing in here is is in like policy policy, right? And then and no changes in here would impact anything in there, right? That's correct. Yeah. Mhm. Unless we outlaw smart watches. Does this include staff as well? The definition of instructional time does include staff in

090a study hall. Um, I think we've I think that's part of the conversations that look like for us yet too, right? I think these are potential solutions. I think I there we probably could be using step better to be honest. I think that it's you're you're going to play I think at high school right the 8055 rule, right? 80% who they're supposed to 15 need a little help at five always need kind of that extra level. I think that's a pretty a decent standard. I think stat is probably the one time of the day that we really struggle to see engagement. I think that's the piece and you know there can be a variety of reasons I think part of that too is engaging students on like what are you doing during stack? What do

091you need during stack and is stack useful every day? Like I think those are the pieces we haven't quite nerd in cuz when I walk the halls during well actually I've been walking I just stand in the halls now they're much quieter out there oddly enough. Um is like when I'm out there and about I just see a lot of just kind of you know zombie scrolling as I call it and so like what is that like what's the need for that? we have some students are engaging right but like what does that look like during that time so I do think that there's some conversation that we need to continue to have about um students who are repetitively involved in this behavior and we we've started that I do approach things you probably guess

092this in the 10 years that I've had the pleasure to work in this community is to seek cause in an accepting way helping to understand why you have the cell phone when you know it's against the the practices or something we need to be aware of uh you know and and I'm not looking for punitive really a progressive approach to uh student uh compliance with the expectation but there will be a guarantee uh a little dumbling or two who will make a choice that will get us to the fourth or fifth time where we just have to say we're we're done. Um, and uh, you will likely hear from people who are going to be displeased with that. And we just need to know that um, we're all just like when moms and dads have

093conversations around the kitchen table that we as a school community are aware of what the expectations are so that we can hold everyone to account. That means also uh not just expecting our administrators to be doing this, but every faculty and staff member will have the expectation uh to help us gain compliance in this regard. And one thing you know the high school we're we're doing something new next year called the Viking reset which allows me around attendance and kind of the impact of attendance in ties but also cell phones on kind of impact to be able to participate in certain things. Go to dances, go to games, go to certain things, leave during study hall, leave during lunch, which a little bit now, but we're kind of we're going to be beefing up, put

094a couple more teeth on something called Viking Reset next year, and this is also going to be part of it, too. So, just some pieces that we've been working on for the last two months that we're going to be rolling out here the next month to um staff and then students and families, too. So in my opinion, I don't feel like we need to vote as a official policy, but I do think that I want to convey and I'm guessing all of my fellow board members feel the way same way that you all have our complete support in this and that we think this is incredibly important for our students. Um, and it is like almost everything in education, very nuanced and different at each level. So, leaving it up to you all to figure

095out the how and specifics, but we very much appreciate um the updates and um even related to what you just shared about the middle school like maybe we do need to invest in some phone lockers, you know. I mean, I defer to you, but you know, in your staff, but I I remember from the book, you know, I think it was in the book or maybe it was in the who what was the one that spoke last week? I forgot her name. Anyways, but that phones are just as distracting if it's in your pocket, you know, like it needs to not be on your body. So, whatever we need to do to make those kinds of things happen. Anyway, I don't know what you want. One thing I would add to that, then I turn

096that question back to you. The reason we would vote on that as a board or say do anything as a board is to show public support for it. So, would that be helpful? I think what I'm hearing from you tonight assuming I saw a lot of heads not in in agreement consensus, but certainly if there's uh something that brings cause for concern, we want to hear that because that's another data point that helps us inform our our decision. I do have a question on that other document that's attached about the enforcement. Yeah, the part that's not ready yet for crime. Yeah. So then as well there's a typo or a new word that I didn't know but I'm pretty sure it's a typo. Um just out of curiosity is there a reason that 9 through

09712 and 6 through 8 have different level like this offense for for 6 through or 9 through 12 and 6 through 8 are different like you get they're very different and so like I have a kid who goes to the high school every day for Spanish. So when she goes to Spanish, is she if and she decides to pull out her phone and get in trouble, is she in the 9th through 12th plan or she middle school over there. So just cuz it's a building doesn't mean that she's an why why does it need to be different, I guess, is my question because this because this has become different. So that currently currently well we're in the weeds a little bit. Currently they're very much aligned. They're all they're they're essentially identical because of what

098the expectation is is identical. Um whereas with this with this change with K8, the phones should not be out at all whereas now they are out during passing time sometimes and that can spill over into a classroom. In this prop proposed solution, the phones would not be on middle school students at all from 8:00 until 3:25. I get that part. But the offense is like second offense for high school is 1 to three days and second offense for uh middle school is like the end of the day. Like that part of it. So what like why isn't first offense, second offense, third offense the same level of crime depending on what grade you're in? Because the first blush at No, I'm glad you're asking why I bring it up. The truth be told is that

099we just wanted you to know that we're working on something. Um, and while we don't have all the eyes dotted and tees crossed, once we do come to consensus on it, we absolutely will share with the board and we'll share broadly with the community as well. We're going to need their help in holding uh to account their own children. And I think it would be easier from parents that we have kids across multiple if it was like I get like 6 through eight keep your phone in your backpack locker wherever we decide that is but like offense wise I I will say one thing we talked about though where things may be different a little bit and then we can sort of move on. We may need to do things a little bit differently given

100the way that our kids travel out of our building. Our middle school students um are not traveling on their on their own. they're either going on a bus or someone might be picking them up. So, how we give a device back to a kid in middle school might need to look a little different than a student who we know is getting in their own vehicle and driving home um where the convenience factor of a parent potentially coming to pick something up changes a bit just based off of Yeah. their mobility and how they leave us at the end of the day. So, there are some differences between a Yeah. But anyway, yeah, like you said, one general comment Yeah. on enforcement that I will say is this is going to be a it is a

101demand on teachers and faculty and staff. I wouldn't be too lenient. That's my less is more in my mind. You have the rules the rule. Um don't make it something that's too ownorous on you all to have to police. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Well done. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. All righty. We have one action item this evening. Consider legislative advocacy letter in support of special education reimbursement funding. Carly. Yeah. So, um the letter Dr. going to put up right now. we reviewed in the community last uh kale meeting. Um and the focus of it is to advocate for special education funding as we talked about before. We think that this is both um the highest priority for us financially given what Phil was explaining earlier about the re the impact of a

102increased revenue limit and um probably the most likely to have decent bipartisan support to at least do something in the legislator legislature during this fiscal year. Matter of fact, I was listening to um an update from WASBY last week where they talked a little bit about some of the public hearings that are going on right now and how there's a huge presence for um from from educators in particular around special education funding. So um we have this letter here that would go to our um in this draft. It's not from we have it. Uh thank you. With the board's permission, we'd like to have it serve two roles. One, a letter on behalf of the entire board. And if this were to be approved tonight, I would love to get your signatures on an on

103accompanying page that would include this. But then we also recognize we want to have um the feedback of our community um business partners as well as faculty and staff that we also have this is a bit of a template that people could massage and make their own sergeant purposes. One thing I mean one other thing I'll point out is that we did in in the day at the capital um we we focused on two issues. We focused on special education but we also in general talked about increases it keeping up increases in the revenue limit and other spendable resources to keep tied to inflation. And so originally we did have two letters drafted, but I think we we realized that I if again we're asking for too many things and it's too easy for them

104to pick on one and say, "Sure, I'll give you an inflationary increase on this little tiny thing over here and not what your your main point is." So we decided really just like focus on one one important main priority. Um, and as we as we have the draft up here, one thing to point out that Scott was just telling me that we can actually say the school district transferred over 3.9 million a change. Happy should make I have two things please. One in the that all students lose paragraph or sentence there's two periods. I can help it. And then and then the only other one I have is we have fiscal year as FY. People in the public might not know that means fiscal year. So I would just spell that out. Um just cuz

105they don't we live in Beta, so I'm like that means fiscal year, but they might not. Those remind me too. Otherwise, I think this letter is fantastic. Thank you. Yes. I agree. Love the letter. I had a a couple of just specific ideas to bring up. Um well, I'll do the ticky tag first. Wondering if uh on that all students lose paragraph there. Um wondering if we could make split that last part into two sentences. Um at a time of historic state surpluses, continuing to have to re reallocate resources seems especially egregious period. an infusion of special education learning could allow for I think we should add more comments. [Music] Yes. Um then uh on the on the last paragraph um the doing so at this point points to the failing comment and I'm wondering

106rather than adjust that sentence I feel like we addressed that in the previous paragraph that so I'm wondering if there's a need for that whole sentence of the g given the continued surplus in tax revenue does the last sentence. Get rid of No, I like the last sentence. I would get rid of the middle sentence. This one will take a second for everyone to read through. I cuz I feel like it's covered well in that previous paragraph. And then doing so will apply to um asking them to increase something. I I think you're giving that to help to maintain the message while bringing down the tone. The other because the other word that I was looking at was egregious in that previous I would say burdensome, not egregious. A softer just again we need to

107Yeah. Just a just a softer tone. Yeah. Exactly. Be friends as much as we that's a good thing. I I almost argue that we almost don't need to have that in there. Period. This this money for special education should be given to us regardless of there's a surplus or not. Correct. Do we need do we really need to point it out to them? Something they already should know that they have surplus. Sometimes it's better to point out with stuff like this just because you never reiterating who knows who knows what. That's the other thing that we especially community members are sending this out that I like more people know that we have extra money. Well, one of the things too is the legislator's had extraordinary turnover this year and while there's been a lot of

108news about the surplus, there's a lot of new assembly members who need continual re-education on these topics. to the to the point of um eating any shred of partisanship. Um I I did wonder about saying please support Governor Iver's proposal and I realized that that's his proposed budget. Is there any other way around saying April or police support increasing special and we all agree with cutting? Yeah. Yeah. I'm just trying to figure out if we should better just delete it. Did you talk about do you one thing and I I'm sorry I thought I had um brought this up before but maybe I didn't. The the the letter that we all signed when the Dane County boards were here talked about 90 the gradual increase was 60 to 90. Do you want to just tweak

109that to say reimbursement rate to 60 with an eventual increase to 90 to align with that? I would say no. I well I agree that it aligns. Yeah, this is a mask today. Um I I just don't want to give them an easy thing to pick out and say, "Well, that's ridiculous." So, we know. Yeah. And if I remember correctly, we hear when we were at the day at the capital that like no one is going to agree to something that the next legislator they're not going to right to your point about turnover. We need to keep it really focused. I mean, if we could get them to go halfway, yeah, this is I understand what you're saying and I I agree, but I I think we want to keep this letter to what are

110we asking for right now. Okay. Two more and then I'll shut up. Uh the usually the I know this is all great. It's about um uh again like fill filling in the gaps. Maybe spelling it out a little bit where we talked about how we transferred over $3.9 million in the most recent um fiscal year to fill the void. That's $3.9 million of our local tax levy. Correct. Yes. I'm just wondering if you spell it out of like, you know, this isn't just coming from some pool again just to underscore secret stash of money. Exactly. Exactly. Like this is coming from your constituents pockets to pay for this. Um and then the last one is again on the top on first graph. I understand if we wouldn't want to get into this because it's such

111a nice clear paragraph. it is actual costs associated with meeting the needs of students with disabilities. I think I think we'll leave it at that. Um uh [Music] wait, did we take out a a piece here that said something about the other ask? We did. If we had a second letter that we brought to committee and decided to to No, this is this is great then. Yeah, because I think it was like a this rather than that was spelled out initially. And um then then I was going to say we need to talk about the actual cost, but I think this rewarding is perfect. Do we want to say we're advocating or are we requesting? I mean, I I get that we're advocating, but I think Well, we don't want to be we don't want

112to change our tone. I think we do want to say we we are requesting this. Can is since we changed it um erroneous to burdensome. Can we It's not It doesn't seems as special. It is a special. Can we change the scenes? It is where I I use the word egregious quite frankly because this is the 15th letter I should be having this conversation. We shouldn't have to be fighting for our special education because they need it, right? This is what this is. Can we change that first sentence? Do we have to take out requesting for just say requesting special education funding? Okay, sir. [Music] Could we possibly put a comma after uh surpluses in the third paragraph, second line? Yes. You have no idea what kind of group you just joined. You a t-shirt.

113I really love that. I have a t-shirt all about the Yeah. And I'll have a conversation with you about that. Not yet. I used to wear it when Adam sat across me so he could see my love of the Oxford. It's not It's not Oxford since he sits next to me now. I see you. I see you. Could Could we also I I realize general fund is accurate statement, but Adam made the point from our local taxpayers. Is that or is that too esoteric? Yeah. So, we would include not just our taxpayers, but it would also include the state aid. Scott, I think you Yeah. Um, I really like that idea about the having a general fund, something like that. If we can, um, they said $3.9 million from our local general fund, I think

114is what it was. easily. If we say local general operating fund, that's spot on because it's not fund balance. It's truly from our general fund operating budget. Um, and that includes, to your point, that includes all of our sources that make up our budget, not grant related. And those funds can come from all sources, including our local tax levy, right? Major portion of our budget. um general state aid another massive portion of our revenue budget but I really think it's important to put in operating fund because it is truly our operations. Thank you for letting me. Well, the other thing that I just thought of when I was reading the last paragraph, we don't say anything about some sufficient versus some certain. Do we need to say that when we say raise the rate and

115make sure that it is it was in one of the original letters and I think it was taken out. I think um yeah, I I can go find that in the letter. Oh, no. It's up top. It's up top. But it's out of this letter. It's not. So I think I agree with you. We should put that. I just wondered at the VA. Yeah. Do you do it where it's specifies the 60% and some some certain is a very or some Yeah. It's very esoteric term. I wonder if we um do it by in the last paragraph where it says 60%. Um and we say like make it plain language and say 60% of our actual costs, right? Because people filling this out again, they're not going to know. Oh, the legislators don't. We we

116learned that when we were there. That's true. They were like we we Yeah. or say which is the definition of social. Yeah. And again, maybe not so much for the legislators, but for people that would, right? Do you have to contrast that with the current 30 then, which is not Well, it says estimated current estimated 30 30% reimbursement rate on a first come first basis. If I'm reading that as a as an outsider, I think that means it could be 29, it could be 31, not an estimated amount. We just said which is self-sufficient. Thank you. Okay. Is that just a little clunky? So, so flowering use too much words. I think you got the But I think I hear what you're saying because we're looking to go some sufficient from some surgeon. Mhm. And

117the 30% right now is right. Yeah. Yeah. It's not Yeah. not 30 estimated. That's why I put down estimated. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But like I said, that comes across more like a rounding Yeah. issue than a definitional. And we still don't know what our actual right reimbursement rate is. Um, right. Yeah. Right now they're projecting. So to answer your question, I'm using the word projected. Well, I just wonder if we could even say I I don't have the right words, but to say like the legislature said that what were we supposed what were we supposed to get 32% or something or 33 32 but we actually are getting projected of 29 somehow to say like we're not even getting what you said you would give us. But I don't that's a lot of words. I

118don't know if that's worth adding or How about if you just put from the published 30% and then in parenthesis actual estim actual expected or projected 49.4 I mean it will at least make people reading that wait a second what does that mean? Maybe I think ultimately it's provide adequate funding to back the percentage that they say districts will actually receive. That's that's what some submission is, right? Was it 29.4%. No, it's um um projection right now. I can double check 29.16%. Thank you. Let's double check. I think 29. Yeah. [Music] Or does that just reach a little? And I think if people don't understand what they're asking for, they're not going to send it in. Take it back. I think so. The 32.4 or was last year's actual percentage. Do we is that the

119first time we say anything about 30 minutes? Okay, that's I was wondering if we just say either that or we had bullet pointing crazy like bullet points like what you should have given us what we actually got. Well, if we could just put cage match 30% first serve. I don't I think I think it gets the point. I think it gets the point across and I think that like the legisle isn't going to be the letter. They're going to be like specialized [Music] special and do any like researching our numbers? Sadly. No. Uh would anyone like to make a motion to approve our letter or any other motion by Sarah, second by Leah. Any further discussion from anyone? All those in favor, please say I. I opposed members. May I pass this around so that

120everyone could please sign it then? [Music] Uh, number eight, citizen [Music] comments. Uh, future agenda items. Anything you're interested in discussing, please let Dr. Snow or I know. And our schedule of next meetings. Anything to highlight? Yes. Just one small change that occurred here prior to our meeting tonight. Uh, that's the education committee meeting. will move to 5:15, not 5:30, on May 5th. And then that evening, we will also host at 6, excuse me, 6:00 p.m. the board [Music] reorganization. Thank you. Number 11 to