001okay at this time I will call to order the public hearing or the Muskego Norway School District and this public hearing relates to the district's interest in submitting to the Department of Public Instruction a 2023-24 school calendar waiver to start school prior to September 1st 2023 due to construction projects community members interested in making a comment on this topic must complete a comment card before the meeting starts once the board president calls your name you must come up to the microphone State your first and last name and address and then make your comment please limit your comments to three minutes or less with due respect to Citizens and in order to ensure adequate study of questions arising board members are not expected to discuss issues presented at this time this is an opportunity for the
002public to express their Viewpoint specific to the 2023-24 calendar at this time I'm just gonna ask our clerk to call a roll to put on record board members who are present [Applause] Mr Zimmerman Mrs cotney Mr Hyde Mrs Blair Mr Buckmaster here and I am here all presidents so at this time are there any comments from the community regarding the public hearing on the 2023-24 request for a waiver or possible request going once going twice hearing no comments are ever received any comment card for public comment I will close this public hearing right foreign a call to order the board of education for the Muskego Norway School District verification of meeting posting this meeting was posted Accords with our state's open meeting laws attendance roll call yes again yes okay that sounds good Mrs Boyer
003Mr Zimmerman Mrs cotney Mr Hyde yep Mrs Blair Mr Buckmaster here item 1D Pledge of Allegiance if everyone who is able please rise remove your covers and join Mrs Boyer in the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice thank you Terry the agenda has been approved prior to our closed session we will bypass item two we will move on to item three consent agenda a motion is an order to approve the consent agenda in Gross any discussion or is there any item a board member wishes to remove for individual consideration hearing none all those in favor state by sign I opposed motion carries unanimously moving on to item four student report Mr one so at the
004high school our cross country teams had a police escort out of town on their way to Wisconsin Rapids because they competed in the WIA state championship meet the girls team took first place overall with three runners placing the top ten and those Runners included Ella Ann Schultz Noelle junig and Sarah Martins the boys football team played against Mukwonago at the regional final game and they played a great game but they were defeated and their season is now over student council hosted the annual Spooktacular event on Saturday the 29th girls swim dive placed second as a team at their WIA sectional meet and they went on to place 10th overall state with multiple individual Podium finishes the robotics team hosted the American Society of mechanical engineering Milwaukee chapter meeting at this meeting the team was able
005to show off their 2022 season robot and present information regarding the different robot subsystems to all members student council is currently hosting a school-wide food drive where each class is competing for the most collected items all collected items are being donated to the Muskego food pantry recruited athletes were invited to publicly sign their National letters of intent during lunch last Wednesday these athletes included Ryan stolenach and Kate Larson for swimming Noel junik for running Zach Olson for baseball Ella k and Carly greenfeld for soccer choir and band students hosted the try and Pops concert last Saturday night to Showcase their amazing talents and music the cross-country team also traveled to South Dakota to compete in the nxr midwest Championship meet and the school also hosted a planning for post-secondary options event for juniors and their
006families to help ensure all students have a solid plan for Life After High School at Lake to noon this month a school fundraiser called Battle of the bills is being held this event is an annual school competition where classes compete to raise money for Camp one step all 8th grade students were also given the opportunity to take a pre-act assessment and this assessment serves as an indication of progress and ideas for movement and it also provides students with career interest matching on the 27th like teen hosted a trunk or treat event outside in the parking lot for all students and families to attend at Muskego Lakes uh students also had the opportunity to take the pre-act assessment students also participated in a veteran's honor walk to highlight pass and current service members they also learned
007about the different branches of military and the various ways in which people serve the Muskego Lake student council is hosting a school-wide t-shirt contest and Thanksgiving food drive this month at Bay Lane the PTO hosted a school-wide ornament fundraiser students were able to design and create an ornament in our class and parents were able to purchase the designs a group of veterans also announced a short assembly for all students to attend this year's theme was American flag and students were able to learn all about flag symbolization or symbolism sorry the peppermint fairy was also hosted at Bay Lane on November 3rd at Lakeview a new season of Destination Imagination is being started and Destination Imagination offers students a unique opportunity to participate in challenging and motivating activities from things such as drama writing building and
008creating the school also hosted their annual Scholastic Book Fair parent teachers were held on October 27th and November 22nd as well at Mill Valley reports from the 2022 Wisconsin Ford examer released and it was determined that Mill Valley in English language ranked 1 out of 57 elementary schools in Waukesha County and in math they ranked second school also hosted a school-wide penny war that ended last week and all money raised from this fundraiser was donated to Families in Need for the upcoming holiday season Mill Valley students and families are also participating in stuff the staff to show how much how thankful they are for their teachers by stuffing the lounge with their favorite treats and drinks [Applause] are there any questions for Mr want thank you Mason All Right Moving On item five superintendent's report
009Dr Thompson a good good evening I am delighted to introduce Nancy and Rachel who'll be doing our annual Muskego Lakes report to the board this evening thank you so much for being here and for hosting this evening [Laughter] I did this at your spots you should have a copy and if anyone in the audience would like all right thank you all for being here again I'm Rachel Nancy we're the principals here at Muskego Lakes it's really fun having you all here we get to host in the school we get to be in day in day out and we have a beautiful school with um so much to be grateful for so we're excited to share a few things that we're really proud of in a few areas we are still working on as a school
010so Nancy's going to get us started okay so one of the things that we are really proud of here at mosquito Lakes is our overall math achievement as you can see I'm both forward and I ready we've had an overall increase over time and that's led us to be placed second in the county out of 22 middle schools being able to celebrate our success and continued growth in overall math achievement another area that we are extremely proud of is our literacy reading achievement and as you can see here again we have increased since 1819 and both are I ready and are forward and this has placed Us in fourth among the middle schools in our County one thing to note is that we do have two data sets there I ready and forward iready is
011given three times a year and forward is given once we keep track of both of these because they measure different they measure um the same thing but give us a different lens in looking at our students growth and achievement over time yep you also have some sample artifacts in front of you so for those of you have questions about iready you'll see there are some exemplars of iready reading and you'll see some samples from the Florida exam so that should help you for those interested in the differences between the two and there's a front cover letting you know just the different grade levels and some of the passages that our students are expected to demonstrate proficiency on in both of those assessments in addition we work really hard here at mosquito Lakes to partner with
012our families it's important to us to ensure that they have a voice in our schools are able to give us input and feedback and that has led us to an overall increase in our parent satisfaction you can see the trend there we've gone up for the last four years anything above before we look at maintaining but we can continue to push ourselves to increase our parents satisfaction overall so if you take a look we just wanted to highlight a few of the celebrations um the first being that um what went up was that our school provides a safe environment for our students to learn again anything over four you look to maintain but we were able to increase that significantly the next one the teachers staff and administration demonstrated General concern for my child that
013also went up and that every child has an opportunity to be successful at the school went up significantly as well we're also especially proud We increased in my child's learning as a high priority at the school I would recommend this school to other parents who are able to increase as well as I'm proud to say I have a child at the school another lens that we look at is our student engagement celebrations and we are excited to share with you that our students say that their learning is important at the school that increased that they set learning goals and track their progress and that their teachers hold them to very high expectations at the school that those are three areas that we're very excited that our students can see that and recognize our vision is
014connecting hearts and Minds at Muskego Lakes so a few other celebrations we wanted to note our staff sent 2457 positive contacts to students and families last year uh we brought a mentoring program back after covid we had 20 plus staff members so they give up their time which they have very little of during the school day to invest in the lives of students who need a little bit of extra time and care we hosted our first annual community Day last year students made blankets for animal shelters and artwork for nursing homes this year we continued the tradition of Our Community Days finding ways to connect our students to service both in this community and Beyond Muskego we lost a Homework Center last year for students who need additional practice and support on academics they can
015come during lunches eat their lunches and get help from peers and or adults and then we supported students through a total of 436 mental health contacts in just last school year alone while those are some celebrations we also have some areas we are still working on and we wanted to share a few of those with you as well so in math our overall achievement has increased as Nancy shared but you can see from the graph the bar graph there seventh grade over time had continued to lag behind the other grades and so the team studied the item analysis from both the Ford exam and the i-Ready and they decided to add geometry as a standard of focus that standard of focus in particular impacted many of the other skills and so we found that to
016be a power standard that they added and so we will guarantee that our students are proficient in seventh grade on Geometry and we believe that will impact that lag that you see in seventh grade math and while there are areas of student engagement that we increased and we had action plans around our overall student engagement actually dropped questions range from I'm satisfied with the options in the lunchroom to I feel my bus driver treats us with respect my school is clean there's a wide range of questions just some of the you can see we have a whole lot of strategies we're trying up there one thing in particular we are adding School honor assemblies this year where we get to recognize students for their hard work and effort as well as their different accomplishments so
017that among their peers the students get to see the all the neat things that the students are doing we have our student council we have two new leads who stepped up and they have a whole lot planned for students including some karaoke and trivial over lunches um we also have a student support team that sets attendance goals with our kids who have been truant in years past and so we're providing wrap around support to try and hook those students up with co-curriculars a mentor and then weekly attendance goal setting so just a few of the many ideas that we are working on to increase that overall student engagement as well as trying to honor and working with taher to get some food choices that I think was the most popular comment on the student engagement
018survey was some of the sweets and junk food the kids want in the cafeteria and finally our last area that we have a little bit more to share with you on is reading achievement while we are fourth in the county out of 20 schools that's um we're really proud of that accomplishment but it is a relative weakness in this District we've had math as a strength over time and so we've spent a lot of time these last couple years focusing on literacy and we've implemented and systemized some high impact strategies some that we found were working really well in math and so we transferred them over to literacy and then others were based on analysis that our school's leadership team did and then brought to the overall staff so we have a video that's going
019to highlight these four strategies for you it's about five minutes one of the strategies is literacy spirals another is article of the week so our students will read an expository text in both science and social studies every week air analysis is the third high impact strategy and then literacy standards of focus trackers so you'll hear from some of our teachers and students because reading achievement is a relative weakness compared to math we continue to implement high impact strategies school-wide in order to increase reading achievement when we look at spiraling we're coming back to concept and that can help with working memory and Canada flexibility as we add complexity to those Concepts each time they're spiraled back the connections within the brain become stronger what happens then is the connections become faster in other words the
020learning becomes more automatic or else that way because they repetitively Circle back to information that we've learned in class or past years that I feel like I would not have remembered otherwise and it's a really helpful way to keep it fresh in my life the the purposeful of Designing them we have five buckets that teachers plan for every time they make a spiral there's Common Core academic vocabulary the more academic vocabulary a student knows was second bucket is inferring word being using context clues which classes every single subject area the third skill that teachers are planning for is the standard of focus practice so they are spiraling past present or future standards of focus mini skills every day and then there is a skill check which is prerequisite skills or non-standardofocus skills the fifth bucket
021is forward skill review teachers analyze the forward data by standard and there were a lot of the language and Reign standards that teachers noticed that kids needed more practice on when they're designing Spirals and it has been such a labor of love the amount of work that teachers have put into this is amazing and there have been bigger impacts than what they originally thought I'm really proud of the orphans by making the spirals ourselves as for example team spirals who came tailored to what our students needs were Styles give a good opportunity to review what we've learned and borrow back your brain to remember what you have already learned and to see what we learn about in the future through the spirals we have been able to expose students to a small digestible increments but
022it really adds up over time and we even found a way to use it to practice for the TDA that's the writing portion of forward this way students were comfortable with the types of props and many students said after the forward that they came in with much more confidence and actually we got great results it really helped me because sometimes I forget things that will be important later on but with them I remember that and I can use escalator one of the reasons why we do article the week so we can read informational text when it's not just some literacy we use article the week and social studies to model and practice what close reading and Analysis looks like for both expository texts and primary types through the historical lens the cold read the do
023weekly helps our students get used to relying on context clues and inferences to identify the meaning of unknown words the main ideas and summarizing at the end of an article we know that in social studies this work is one of our levers for building cross-curricular skills and success on this feature assessments article of the week is designed to support the comprehension and fluency of technical informational and expect what we're noticing is through weekly access to text students can develop those pitch reading skills annotation processes being able to cite evidence and writing concisely supportive rationale students are becoming more confident with their ability to comprehend related to organists and thoughts into more coherent and well-structured efforts writing we do error analysis weekly to help students understand their misconceptions and where they went wrong because oftentimes illiteracy
024there are two right answers that are given but they have to choose someone that is most correct and this helps them focus on understanding that misconception and where they went wrong and how to fix it for the next time I want them to look at what mistakes they made this will give them an opportunity to process the question and pick a new answer in addition to just going through and trying again I do ask that they justify their thinking they have to explain why their new answer is correct and why the old one is not correct they would work on this independently and then we would meet together to confer about their result times are making silly mistakes they realize that they got it wrong because they asked for two answers and they only picked
025one so that's something that they can apply to Future assessments sometimes we'll work together in a group to analyze questions together when students have the same questions wrong and hearing feedback from other students also helps them to them to build their confidence and realize that they're not the only ones making the mistakes here at Muskego Norway we use soaps so stands for standards of focus these are standards that teachers have identified as priorities to stay aware of their progress towards these standards of focus students use self trackers these trackers put students in control of their learning because they're setting goals they're recording their own progress on multiple aspects of the standard it gives them a sense of accomplishment and helps them to continue to work towards their goals in that standard and provides feedback on
026next steps parents are aware of the soap trackers the students share them with them and then they are able to talk about the standards with their children at home we use silk trackers and literacy we take a pretest about what we are going to learn in class then after we take the pre-test we see our score and write about what we are proud of and what we need to work on then we set goals after the post-test we go on to our soap tracker and write our score down that way we can see if we're getting better at the standard in literacy I know that when I take standards Mastery I can track my progress with my score so I know how I'm doing and how my family knows what I'm doing it then my
027parents and I can see if I'm proficient as a district we are focused on continuous Improvement so atmosphere ways you regularly analyze our data and reflect on our practices in order to systematize high impact strategies thank you are there any questions from the board or any comments self-assessments from the students I mean I remember when I was that age it's pretty much no idea everything right it's how effective is that so they they're looking at their results on something in order to reflect so they're not just deciding how they think they do they're looking at the pre-test score and then they're looking at what the questions were about in order to decide what they need to do next so it's really tied to their data and then it's they have to pick a Next Step
028that they're going to do in order to get better at that particular skill so and they're pretty I don't want to say accurate but they're they're they're they're very focused on that I mean you're seeing positive results out of that yeah I mean the kids are then driven to want to improve over time there's some standard options in every class like you can meet with a student the teacher one-on-one you can join a skill group you can do some additional practice so there's a bank of ideas they can do based on their learning style and you know what works best for them um but the teachers set up the Assessments in a way where they know if they got question two wrong they need to go back and work on this particular skill so I
029think that helps as well thanks yes so the um students engagement response went down just a little I mean it's not much but was there an area of focus that you saw was it more bus related versus like activities that they didn't feel were available or was there a highlight that you could focus on that's a good question we have we ended up desegregating the data and so each grade level shows a focus based on you know it was lower in eighth grade was students respecting students in fifth grade it was my teachers asked me how I learned best and so depending on the grade level they chose a different area and then the teacher teams meet on our professional development days and they progress monitored around that one question over time and come up
030with an action step because you know what an eighth grade team would do might be different than a fifth grade approach so we really distributed it to the teachers to pick those specific areas yeah I've got a couple so I really appreciate not only I identifying the celebrations but the challenges yeah I think that's really important and I think we expect it and we you know we believe everyone's doing it but to actually be transparent and show that and how you're trying to avoid uh any sort of patterns all right and you're playing these gaps as it comes along I think that's totally powerful so thank you for walking us through that and one of the items that error analysis I was able to actually witness here at the school uh you know walking around
031and I I found that really intriguing when you can connect right that action item to what you're trying to do so thank you and your staff for that um yeah with Tracy the student engagement I don't necessarily know what I mean outside of the buses yeah and but uh the one question I did have for you is and I'm curious about the mindset that you've instilled in the schools as far as social media presence I mean this school is so active on social media where you just I don't think there's a day that you don't know what's going on Emma seagull Lakes is it it is incredible so um how that happened when Muskego Lakes opened and how you've gotten your staff to just tug away at that I mean I think that's totally awesome
032and uh so thank you for doing that too so that's all I have oh and I love that first slide yeah I'll take that ten dollars later thank you again very much all right thank you [Applause] okay the second item in the superintendent's report is just a reminder to the board the WASP joint convention is happening in January so if you're interested in attending uh Lori will take your names um and she will register for you if you'd like her to do that on your behalf if you know today you can just tell her right now that you want her to register you I want you to register me please Lori you know you have to be there all right that concludes the superintendency report thank you Dr Thompson uh moving on item six other
033reports president's report um I just have one item regarding Veterans Day today is the official day but it's celebrated on Friday and I found it really really nice again that the Muskego schools in their own ways that's to celebrate this and you know uniquely I was able to attend a uh a hospice with Amy Morgan had reached out and um you know I went there to help her out and looking at the looks on their faces all these these uh veterans in hospice when they receive all of these letters from students uh it was just an incredible sight so I thought that's just amazing and I know all schools do this and and it's not just our school it's you know across the county in the state but uh it was uh nice to know
034it does make a difference and so I appreciate that very much outside of that that is all I have for the president's report uh clerks report uh clerks report so two School Board positions are up for election in 2023 for three year terms Chris Buckmaster and Robert Bowman the notice of school board election will be published into Wednesday November 16th 2022 edition of the Waukesha County now interested District residents who are eligible May file a declaration of candidacy and his campaign registration statement at the Educational Services Center South 87 West 18763 Woods Road in Muskego between the hours of 8 A.M and 4 30 P.M Monday through Friday beginning December 1st 2022 and the deadline for filing is 5 PM on Tuesday January 3rd 2023. the primary election if necessary will take place on Tuesday
035February 21st 2023 the spring election will take place on Tuesday April 4th 2023. if an incumbent is not running for re-election a written Declaration of non-candidacies should be provided at the Educational Services Center no later than 5 PM on Friday December 23 2022 term of office for candidates elected at the spring election is April 24 2023 to April 27 2026. thank you Mr Bowman and as far the next time as board member reports uh Mrs Blair one three things the last three the science of Happiness maybe push that out to the teachers it's like a way to kind of cope with teaching in general and then the last two the regulation and understanding sensory are both virtual and free so again like that I think that would be more through the um special needs department
036and stuff so those two are three things I think would be kind of help and then um I did reach out to all of the art teachers in the district to hope that they will submit something and so fingers crossed that we get picked and things go well so and again thank you for adding the links and the shortness of that so yeah yeah appreciate that they were excited I got lots of feedback from thank you okay thank you Tracy Mr Hyde um just briefly uh last week when we had our WSB board of directors meeting and focus essentially was on the convention that's coming up there's going to be a lot of good speakers I encourage everybody on the board to just check out the site see if there's something you're interested in attending
037it's always a great event you don't have to be down there every day for the entire time but usually there's something good going on who's our uh delegate this year that would be Mr Zimmerman and uh the the [Music] um alternate thank you would be uh Lori County well hopefully um the beginning they just had this past weekend also was the second meeting for the um uh policy and Republican committee and uh I haven't gotten any feedback yet exactly what came out of that that should be coming our way shortly into our delegate and our alternate so if you have any questions see me and I'll be happy to try and answer the process anyways I can't answer on the policies themselves that's all so we got like three votes yes we do thank you
038Mr Hyde uh Mrs Connie no Mr Zimmerman Mrs Boyer Mr Bowman um I do so um it's been an absolute pleasure and honor to serve on the school board for these past two years I think we've done some great things but there's also great things coming up in the near future as well so I will be running for uh re-election good thank you Mr Bowman and under board member reports I have one I've made it no secret that uh this would be my last term and that is what I'm standing by so I have officially submitted my Declaration of non-cannidacy and uh but I do agree we've done some great things and there'll be a press release coming out on this uh but uh it's been an awesome experience I would recommend to anyone who
039would like to be engaged on the board um it would be it it's really a rewarding experience so uh but it's been a pleasure these past nine years so but and that would conclude the board member reports uh going on to item 6D committee reports this is Boyer tonight we had our Educational Services committee meeting we just went over some changes on the Middle School academic guidebook some minor changes additions that needed to be made to update it and then we talked about a new um book that a teacher is is starting to look at for a class at the High School principles of environmental science inquire and application and that's going to be going to our curriculum planning committee which is also known as the CPC if you hear that um they will be
040taking that for review in December and the the goal would be to bring that back to the board then for um or to the committee to our committee to look at it and determine if we would approve it or not in March and to the board after that and if possible that book would be implemented next school year but if it doesn't if the timeline doesn't go that way that's okay as well the class will still continue and we will adjust that's it thank you Mrs Boyer uh moving on to item seven resolution action items Department of Public Instruction 2023-24 school calendar start date and whatever motion to approve the district's submission of a DPI waiver for an early start to the 2023-24 school year okay any discussion so at this point this was the
041matter that was before as a public hearing okay and then as we did with Muskego Lakes when mosquito Lakes was being built staff takes a look at construction schedules and the master planning team has input and it's basically put together a schedule it can certainly be amended modified it's simply a schedule provided by our construction contractor on the time frame that they would like to be in the schools and uh so in order to meet the legal requirements to get the public Hearing in and a waiver approved this is really just if we want to do this or if we don't or if we want to amend it so um before you as the draft waiver and uh you can read the public content down there so any discussion on this please um the start
042date two issues arise one was addressed by the graduation date they've given options to that the classes family to decide the other one was that two weeks is too early for child care purposes a lot of families use the summer programs and other locations not just in our district and they don't start their summer programs until after in June and two weeks is kind of hard for multiple families to figure out child care for extended amount of time they can do one week so I would recommend and possibly doing the 28th instead of the 21st and we can still start early but one week would be more doable rather than two weeks with child care purposes in mind thank you so on this specific item it's under resolution action that's mainly because of timing so
043um so in this case I would ask Dr Thompson and her staff to feel free to comment on this so so the pardon me the calendar will come separate and that'll be under discussion this is only allowing us to submit a waiver it could be for one day it could be for two weeks it could be for a month it's just approval for us to be able to go forward with um uh with the waiver that's it the calendar itself will come forward to the board in discussion tonight and then action in December so if we could go ahead with the the waiver you get we'll have discussion more discussion about the actual calendar in the discussion items and then over the next month thank you so when we did this from Muskego Lakes when
044we so before the waiver is requested that requires board approval right okay so then I don't sign anything until the board approves it so the draft B for us is that don't mind the dates you're saying the draft is just the draft yes he says before December 1st yeah it's got a date uh August 21st okay we can we can this is just a draft Yeah so we can change that that's what yeah because of the dates but I I got it so then so then approving this mainly gives gives us back when mosquito Lakes was built the ability to request the waiver because we legally have the hearing and we had it before us and then the calendar and this will come back separately yes so we will adjust this if in the discussion
045the board is not comfortable with you know um the calendar that's being brought forward for the discussion this will reflect whatever the board is comfortable with and it could be even blank from the standpoint of which date um we could just say in August you know so so when we submit this to the DPI we could just say that right and then once we approve our calendar then those dates would reflect the actual dates that we're asking and if not we'll we'll get back to the board on that but yeah sorry thank you um and the first line it says Muskego Norway is officially requesting a waiver to the September first start school day start so they could just use that for your line yeah so does the board have any other comment on this
046knowing that it will be coming back but we want to have this basically in our pockets should we choose to use it okay having no other discussion all those in favor state by saying aye opposed all right motion carries unanimously thank you Dr Thompson welcome okay moving on to item eight a 2023-24 budget calendar so you have before you which Julie always puts me for us that the next budget calendar uh any questions or comments fairly certain and standard and she does an awesome job at this so um annual board meeting is October 23rd got it okay all right no other discussion on that we'll move on item 8B policy revisions to 0 100 2260.02 2416 2460.03 2700.01 3120.04 4120.04 4121 32 10 34 25 4425 51 13 5340 55 17.01 5780 81 46 8740
047and administrative guidelines 3440b 4440b and 83 30. motion or good there's no motion so what we have before us is the first reading of policy changes that take three readings unless the board a unanimous consent decides to waive that so um about seeing any of these here that would fall into that category so this would be the first shot at any of the draft policy or revisions that you see um let's see here my screaming blinker so on item eight so I've got some some that say eight but I'm assuming it's 8B I'll just call the names here so there are three comic cards from members of the public uh Jessica pemble am I saying that correct if you could step up to the podium please and state your name address and then um we'll
048start the clock okay um Jessica pemble 8561 Francis Wayne Lake I just had questions um when it said about um no signs of anything in the classrooms with posters that were of religious cleanings or political I felt that was a little gray so I wondered who decides what is okay and what isn't if that's going to be like some classrooms have presidential posters with quotes on them if it's Ronald Reagan or Obama is is that not going to be allowed anymore um so I just had questions about how that's going to work Dr Thompson did you want to address that as we sure I can address it um certainly and that has been the case since before this has been written also so we just if there are items that are on walls or that
049would indicate a person's personal reflection of what their standpoint is from a political Viewpoint or if it leans in one way over another way so if there are presidential quotes up for you know all of the presidents or you know some you know on both ends then that would of course not be an issue so but most situations in schools we do have to you know have a conversation about if something would be brought up where somebody would feel that an item represents something we would have a discussion about it is that it gonna include like rainbow flags and things like that or any any posters that have that in is that no longer going to be allowed well if there's if there are flags and things that represent a particular political party um or
050um but yes the rainbow flag actually represent a political party if there if it leans toward a particular political entity then we would have a discussion about that and then with religion like what about a person wearing a cross necklace or anything like that is that no longer going to be allowed that's allowed why how is that allowed but other things aren't it would depend on if they there there's a line that can be crossed and so we would have to have those discussions so if somebody was wearing a t-shirt that would say you know follow me to you know XYZ or something like that we would have to have a discussion about that as well I just feel this is really a gray area and you guys are creating more of a problem than
051there ever has been what prompted this um have there been problems have there been complaints we what we do is we try our hardest to create some opportunities for putting some black and white into very gray so when we have an opportunity to bring some clarity to some some of the policies or practices that's that's our attempt but of course there's lots of um there's still a lot of gray and so we have to work within that and that's where conversations happen and we work with our staff and we just want to make sure that we're doing the best we can for the clarities for our staff hi thanks you're welcome okay they're the next parent and I'm sorry I'm going to try to say this Lisa Oland is that the correct is that correct
052if you could step up please state your name and address and your comments my name is Lisa Oland address is w163s6922 Oak Ridge Lane in Muskego should I wait until you start the timer okay um so speaking just a little bit more on the points that Jessica was making about the rainbow Flags or the pride flags and that they have more of a political leaning and not allowing them to be allowed I would just urge you all to really consider what message that sends to our students who are part of the lgbtq community speaking from my own personal experience I am the parent of a trans child and I guess for me it sounds almost silly to say that those flags have a political leaning or religious leaning since I'm also a very conservative Lutheran
053and have never voted anything but a straight Republican ticket but I love my child and I support them and so I still have a pride flag hanging in my office at my work and the conversation that I had with my child surrounding this is about the ease of them to be able to identify which staff members they can feel safe with and there's not real easy for them always to be able to identify that and so the presence of that sort of representation can very easily tell them that this is a safe person for them to be able to come to and keeping in mind that I don't have the statistics in front of you but a lot of our lgbtq kids suffer from mental health around the safety and the support issue I think
054you're taking a really important thing away from those children to be able to identify which adults that they feel that they can be themselves around especially since a lot of them can't they don't have that in their home my child does I regularly have several of their friends also from Muskego High School at my house because they know that's a safe space for them and they don't have that at home so I would just urge you to really think about the message that you're sending to those kids and their place in our school and our community also on the issue of needing parental consent to use their preferred pronouns and names this was actually brought to my attention a couple months ago and I instantly reached out to our guidance counselor and our parental consent
055is already on file and spoken but there are those kids that don't have that safe space and they may not have shared this part of them with their family yet and so requiring that parental consent is basically forcefully outing them to their parents when they may not be ready to do so and that's going to have a very harmful effect on their their Mental Health that's all and then next we have a Mrs Ann silky if anybody lgbtq kids who have committed to us are attempted suicide I do have those so I can give those to you um so I'm gonna actually speak on two different policies um so the first is 8330 which is the Student Records policy um this is in fact uh trans awareness week and instead of forcing teachers to potentially
056out trans and non-binary students we should be working to protect our trans Youth and support each student in their individual Journey because policies like this do nothing to better the lives or educational experiences of our students and have the potential real potential to put the lives of our trans and non-binary students at risk according to the 2021 Trevor Project survey on lgbtq youth mental health 42 percent of lgbtq Youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the last year including more than half of transgender and non-binary youth an lgbtq youth who had access to Safe spaces including schools that affirmed their sexual orientation and gender identity reported lower rates of attempting suicide so I think this is where our Focus needs to be it is our responsibility as a community it is your responsibility as our Board
057of Education and as our school district to create safe learning environments for all of our students our trans and non-berry binary students deserve to feel loved and supported in their learning environment and be able to learn free from discrimination and fear so just as our previous speaker said just consider seriously how your actions can have unintended consequences for our students um and the second policy is 3210 that's the staff ethics and conduct that Jessica spoke to um two weeks ago at the annual meeting you all attempted to defend your record as a board when faced with legitimate scrutiny from community members saying multiple times that you support our teachers and staff it's not enough to claim to respect our teachers you need to show them through your actions so once again I stand here to
058tell you that without our wonderful teachers and staff we as a district have nothing I can't fathom the intent of a policy change like this but it has the very real perception of being politically motivated and anti-teacher the questions about how it works is unending who decides what's political or religious what policy does this does a staff member would a staff member be able to wear a hijab at work a necklace with a crucifix religious or political tattoos a rainbow flag lanyard a sticker on their water bottle that says You Belong a t-shirt that promotes inclusion and again who decides how far does this go the truth is religious liberty and freedom of expression are both enshrined in our Constitution and while public school districts must be careful as always not to violate the established
059Establishment Clause teachers and staff do not shed their constitutional rights when they enter a classroom and you shouldn't ask them to so I stand with our teachers and their ability to follow The Establishment Clause without this type of policy change then you should join me and Kelly can we get clarity on whether or not are you saying that a rainbow flag without any language on it is allowed or not allowed it would depend on the context so it would have to everything is contextual right so I mean so if a high school teacher today or tomorrow brought a rainbow flag with nothing else on it no language and put it in their classroom what would that mean for that teacher it would it would mean different things so we would have to have a conversation
060I'm not sure okay but I mean what would it mean for them for this policy right so I mean but can we get some clarity on that let's talk about that but you're asking a specific situation that what I I mean you would have to contact you can talk to the superintendent off off hours on that you can describe the situation and but purpose of your comments here is specific to the policy change so correct but I think we're not getting any Clarity well we have three policy change totally understand that we've got three of these that we're going to go through and uh if the policy gets amended or changes as you move on feel free to come up and speak on that I don't know but specific circumstances are not at argument here
061or at on debate here on what would happen if in a school if you had some you could afford it to Dr Thompson but those are pretty hard to come by unless they're actually happening so if you have a specific circumstance you could forward it to her no no I'm asking what what the intent of the policy is because we're talking about changing a policy correct so what what is the intent of the policy regarding Flags yeah I think for us it's more clarification so we're just like you're going through this and going through the public comment period And as you are too right so that's what we're looking for is clarification on exactly what this means right and that's what we're trying to do too okay that's as clear as mud Chris well I
062don't think it's as clear as mud I mean we receive feedback from a number of places too so anything that's happening here right it's always had to be asked in some way shape or form of the board so um this policy is was drafted and we're reviewing it and we're asking for public comment and that's it so you've made your comment if you have a specific case that you'd like to address with Dr Thompson you can outside of the board but right now we're just looking for a public comment okay thank you Mrs okay do you have a copy of that oh just the the data okay okay thank you Mrs okay and then we have one more comment uh or public comment Jill we'll see all right thank you if you could step up
063please state your name and address hi my name is Jill ozy my address is w151-s-7043 Cornell Circle number five in Muskego [Music] um welcome to Muskego Lakes my son is son just attends this school so it's nice to see you guys all here um for those of you who don't who are not familiar with my name um I was the PTO president at test corners for the last two years that it was in um that the building was open um so this is not my first board meeting with my first public comments um I also have quite a few questions on these policy revisions um when you entered Muskego Lakes if you came in through the main doors you may have seen a very large mural that says connecting hearts and Minds through acceptance empowerment
064and achievement um I'm not seeing a whole lot of acceptance from the board in these policy revisions and as a parent um as a former PTO member as a former student I'm an alumni of Muskego Norway School District I'm disappointed um I don't understand the reason why these policies are being revised what happened what was the Catalyst what was the cause for saying okay we have these policies in place but I think we need to change these in order to you know make sure that excuse me I'm going to read from the um from the amendment of records that um the students personal information including preferred name protons gender race classifications Etc must be submitted to the district school in order for the change to be effectuated and used within any of the operations of
065the district school the point has already been made about trans students so I won't um I won't say that again um but a safe place for a student is a real thing um you all heard from Mrs Milton in the dinner before the school meeting the school board meeting that music is her passion and she shared that and her students shared that passion um for those students and let's be real the Music Theater drama Community has a much higher representative representation excuse me of lgbtq kids than many other groups this is their safe space because they feel accepted if they were less accepted they wouldn't be as involved in the students you're hearing information from the muskego-like staff about student engagement what do you think will be the effect of student engagement for policies like
066these where they come into a school and okay we're not sure that we can be comfortable to be ourselves with these teachers and a student who's not comfortable to be themselves is not going to is Excel in academics is not going to excel socially it's a whole package so along with everyone else I would strongly urge you to reconsider the motivations behind a policy change such as this if it's not broke don't fix it you're con you're creating more confusion you want you say that you're you're you want to have more clarification a very specific example was was provided to you about a flag we're asking for clarification you're refusing to give it thank you okay that ends the public comment portion of the discussion now the board uh if there is any discussion on
067any of these items that the board would like to discuss here tonight or um again we will be reviewing these in December and then again finally in January if you have questions or comments if you want to any of the comments or questions that were made by the public here this evening we can reach out to staff and uh work through that process so are there any other comments or discussion items at the board would like to specifically address on these policies tonight I will just make one comment and then we're done when these policies come forward like it or not um we always struggle with this balance right and when policies come forward they come forward typically to a line right with state law or to align with other schools or simply as a
068result of the majority of what our community wants so neither has to happen or neither necessarily has to be agreed upon by everyone but that's generally how policies are created so if it's not legal it's probably what we consider to be the majority of what our school district wants so if it helps you to address your comments at the next few meetings I would look to that and identify what the majority you think of the district want so so moving on yep represent the teachers in this school district that I don't think there's one teacher in our school district that would feel that they wouldn't want a student to come to them in regards to any problem that they have so to single them out in the opposite direction to say that they're not available
069or they're not sympathetic or they're not empathetic or they're not I have a hard time with that because I think we have phenomenal teachers in the school district that are looking out for all kids in the district so we're not we can't comment we can't so all right so moving on item 8C the Middle School academic Guidebook any comments or concerns on this any discussion yeah Terry I think this is what your committee reviewed right yep yeah we reviewed that um we are fine with that moving moving forward we didn't have any problems with the changes on there yet moving on item 8D 2023-24 school calendar so are you looking for thoughts now by the head is fine okay I'd like an overview okay Jeff yeah well thank you since uh very start of the
070school year the very first week we uh have been meeting as a counter committee to put together a draft calendar in large part we've looked at previous survey results from our staff of our parents and Regional districts to help us make a determination as to some of what you see on the calendar as you know with uh construction projects um you know we were asking and thank you for consideration of the exemption to the school start back in 2017-18 we actually had an early start and we it the sequence of dates is almost identical to what you see in the 23 24 calendar we did start on August 24th the reason why the calendar committee made the recommendation to start on August 21st next year is just given the difference between in the construction environment
071building an environment from 2017-18 to present day there are significant differences and the construction company could benefit for from an additional three days I guess the only other thing that I would comment on graduation date we are going to be surveying parents as far as their preference and taking a look at that particular data for graduation of 2024. Thomas yeah so is there um is there sorry the difference between one and two weeks Jeff um how big a deal is that and what are the ramifications if if we were to go along in construction I mean how long is it let me back up how long is the construction time frame is it like are we really going to get it done all in one summer no actually construction will should begin this spring okay
072and go through the summer but there are certain parts of the building that we cannot touch until the end of next school year so that's why we're looking to be able to access those parts of the building demo those parts of the building with no students or staff in there and then allow a set amount of time for the summer of 2024 to get those projects done okay so then that being said if if we need to demo some of it and that's why we need students out of the building right the tail end of construction is oftentimes kind of your finishes right yeah and you're just your Chuck so if we were to go one week and we found a mid-summer that that wasn't sufficient and we need to bump it into the beginning
073of the following school year um if it's just the finishing touches and some of the you know patching here or there is that that big a deal or does that mean that you know we can't even have the students back in the classroom yeah I think that would be the determination of the city and an occupancy permit and I can't speak for what they would say to that particular piece we run into anything like that here we did that and how many weeks early did we go here I can't call we started um a week and a half earlier than our typical school year the last time but again the reason why the team moved forward with the recommendation that we have is because today construction environments vastly different than back in 2017-18 and I
074think CG Schmidt will work with whatever we give them you know there are a lot of unknowns um but I just think I I think the disturbance to the community the Boston Transportation child care if in fact things are delayed um it could be it could be pretty significant now could we go to DPI mid-summer if we're noticing something and ask for a different uh a different calendar maybe I don't know the answer to that question and could that cause a disruption to families probably would but that would be the opposite effect then right then we're moving it correct later correct okay yeah I mean I think in general it's good that we're getting ahead of the key Gamers so what you know what's ever decided right parents have that option to choose right you
075know they can plan their vacations and whatnot um but I was I was somewhat looking at the calendar and the way the days fall is it I don't know if it's even possible to do a week and a half I initially thought okay a week uh and that was probably that didn't you know that sat fine um certainly you know I'll be interested to see what alternative graduation dates come up uh right and uh I'm you know beyond what the you know on Memorial Day One uh so when do we have to lock this in is there a date that we have to actually make this request um and try to be as general as possible and we'll we'll check in on that but as far as the calendar goes again the sooner we can
076let people our community know about that the better but this would become the the calendar would be coming back in December for so I guess is there how do we do mosquito Lakes do we ask for any I don't know if we had time oh that's right and well actually it was Mill Valley was part of the reason but then getting out of Bay Lane was the other one right because we that because that was the real challenge was we needed to have a Bay Lane being elementary school right before we yeah and but I don't think we sent surveys out or anything at that point because I don't think it was we decided it was a surveillable event that was mainly this is something that either we had to do or not right in
077order to accommodate the school year so I guess if CG Schmidt and the construction crew team is saying that if we don't do a then we jeopardize B right B would be the start date of Muskego High School it would make it even more but I mean there would be safety hazards there would be construction on site I mean I'm assuming we're betting up against that right where it's the high school that we're concerned about um well and most of the high school is already in session that early I know tennis starts the second week of August and football starts the first or second week of August um this survey we're going to be doing is that are we going to be asking the parents how it will affect them whether one date or the
078other is going to make a difference we're only going to be surveying for graduate graduation that's it right and that's the only way we can get some feedback from parents primarily Elementary students um because if if it's not really going to affect more than a couple families I don't see it as a real issue but if there is a broad impact the families out there we may want to reconsider that I mean we have another our next do we receive any issues in 2017 when we started early from Middle School uh for elementary middle school I don't believe I mean I know it's kind of late to kind of get that feedback you know it accurately in time for our next meeting but is there any way we can get some idea how that's going
079to impact so we I mean we've surveyed our parents in the past uh in in that we've asked the question if we could start the school year prior to September 1st please prioritize what you want one would it be one week two week three week um and there wasn't much of a difference between one week and two weeks as far as parents and that's just in general if this is just in general if state law was different we've asked that question multiple times and the data comes back the same every time I mean the one challenge of the survey in this case is that we have a hard time conveying I mean and I'm not so sure a parent survey would overrule a safety right so right because there's so such a short time right
080and we had that right remember I think you brought that up too at the last one and you know we were kind of like oh yeah and you know they walked us through and I'm assuming that that's the same thing here where the construction uh folks are like saying look if we get this extra time we can be out of so much percent of the area it will impact students that much less right I mean I mean that's what we did during the last one and that was even a heavier challenge I think because we were dealing with four schools right so earlier later in or a week later and end school week later so like we would and this school year oh let's say the 28th and then the following school year 24 25
081would start school a week later that would be two weeks so it'll be after Labor Day week we would go back to school so that would give them those two weeks and then it would spread potentially those the child care other concerns not in one general area but over the course of a longer period so families can have an easier time trying to find child care because that was the main concern I got from more than one family was the child care purpose and that way it's it spreads it out so you're not trying to find child care for two consecutive weeks but one week here and then one week three months the only thing I can I can see I thought about that actually as I was looking at um at options the only
082thing that I can see as being a challenges now you're affecting two separate school years right so now it's it's not just one class it's two class right two two classes this year's Juniors and then seniors plus then are you pushing graduation further into June like almost third week of June or fourth week of June by doing that either that or you've got to compress the number of off days that you have during the year so I mean am I off on that Jeff that that would be that challenge because now you're affecting two graduation dates right right yeah for sure you're absolutely right um You delay someone's summer vacation by another week and then also our AP students they would be disadvantaged as well we already know that schools across the country start earlier
083than the state of Wisconsin so to get through all of that AP Curriculum by the time they they take the AP test it would further disadvantage their kids it would put them a week further back for that 24-25 school year we could also look at talking with Champions to start a program early um like if if that is the hang up for that week of um August 21st we could talk with Champions to see if they would provide something district-wide for child care during that you know something you know so supportive the other thing I I thought about was when we I think our challenge this year is different somewhat than the last referendum we had last year was Logistics and timing this year isn't it more wet weather we're kind of building this in
084if there's weather events that happen that delay construction I mean wasn't isn't that what this is for generally because two weeks you know I guess if the construction has to stop here here and here so you know I'm just trying to think is it possible that we would as I don't know what because we have to get the calendar out because we may not even need it and get guessing but maybe we do so how do you know but I'm just thinking it's probably more for that than um I just I guess I have a difficult time I'll just end with starting earlier than a week and yeah graduation I'll be interested in some alternative date then Memorial Day that's a tough one but but I got it you got to put something up so
085um we're talking something nine nine months out yeah that should be enough time to help clearance parents plan and if the parents do say they need that feedback maybe we can like Kelly said to have something with Champions early well and I and I think I misspoke so we're talking about June of 2024 that the parents are concerned about with um child care in the end of May of 2024. yeah it's this year's juniors so I mean it's a year and a half and I'm certain that we could look to partner with Champions to have something available for that end of May time and we can have that conversation with Champions between now and December when we come back to say Champions will you know I mean they already serve our children and so they
086could certainly look to zero in on that if that's the issue if that's the issue that's holding this up so so I guess you've got our feedback the graduation date um did you really start maybe a week is the board expecting to have survey results for graduation by December 14th or are you just I mean like will I mean those dates are there that's not it's not going to impact or what does that impact I mean can we get an accurate counting by them will there be enough feedback do you think or well and we can always change the graduation date even if you have right well we can wait till January and just publish the calendar in January you can request the dates from the DPI now but we can publish our calendar in
087January if you feel that's enough time to get the graduation okay as long as we know is going to watch here oh they will yeah okay we had to submit it the last time okay so I believe they're going to want to see that one of my questions would be if the board is hesitant and and the direction is you know what we don't want to go the full two weeks then my question would be why would we survey our parents for graduation because graduation would be pushed back then to the following weekend so we shouldn't even survey them the only reason why I would see surveying them would be if in fact any type of feedback that we might ascertain would help steer the direction of the board for a decision well here let's
088make this easy um so for starting two weeks early just yay or nay just uh Tracy I want to follow whatever the construction people say that we should do so if they say two weeks two weeks I should Brett um unless there's something compelling where we have numerous families that are going to have issues with it I would stick with the construction recommendations from CG Schmidt okay uh Kevin I will push for one week because I've been contacted by okay Terry I also would not be in favor of two weeks I have also had staff come to me with um concerns because they're pushing them to August 7th I would like to see us maybe follow the same calendar possible that we did the last time we did Construction and that would have been like
089this I believe the Thursday before this would have been a week and then you had Thursday Friday and then that full week I'd be okay with that I'm concerned about a full teammate I've been certain about a full two weeks so I think that's your feedback there so um look and see what CJ Schmick can do with a week and then that makes the graduation Point move if CG Smith can come back and craft a schedule with a one week early start let's see weaker one and a half weeks I think that's going to push us one week further back I think if we were to follow a similar date sequence from 2017-18 which would be a start date on August 24th that will get us to a last student day on that Thursday uh
090which would be June 7th I myself just I struggle with more than a week but I mean so well I just don't think the math will work out where we're going to be able to do that September 1st is a Friday so a week is into that week prior so Jeff is just saying Thursday Friday right I'm saying Thursday the 24th Thursday Friday and then the following week so it's really a week in a day Chris that I mean just to speak up same as 2017-18 let's see if they can cut if that that's okay because then it ends a time otherwise we're ending the week the week after and then we're missing a weekend to have graduation I think if if all right how about this okay so um I'm fine with that starting
091a Thursday I suppose because this is what we did before but then um I think the board would uh I guess we would uh make our desires clear to our superintendent that uh parents would be a common data those that this didn't impact uh for whatever reason that they would be accommodated in school so if there were students that missed out that first week as a result of whatever that we're gonna allow accommodations not penalties for that I'd be fine with that then what the 24th Jeff so I'm looking at my calendar right now so the 24th means what for graduation it would likely put us on uh graduation day to June 3rd first or second June 2nd um Saturday and June 2nd Sunday yeah it'd be June 2nd so Sunday June 2nd yep then
092it becomes anonymous could be what it's not an issue for graduation correct if we do the Thursday correct right with the accommodations yeah I'm cool with that all right Terry Kevin you guys okay with that um I still kind of like to get the feedback from the CDC yeah they just got our feedback so that's your guidance sure then we'll bring back a calendar for Action in December that reflects a Thursday start and a June second graduation maybe yeah second yes and is that going to be uh well no yeah we don't need well daytime or is it it's not gonna be night is it okay so there's something cool about that idea at first but then uh all right any lasting discussions on this or comments we're good all right all right moving on
093um 2023-24 Board calendar any comments or concerns about any of these dates they really don't bother me actually so all right hearing none on that um moving on you've got item nine information follow-up financials your personal information menu memo uh on Communications and miscellaneous businesses authorized by law I have none having no other business before this board of education a motion to adjourn is an order although all those in favor stay by saying aye guys have it we are adjourned thank you everyone Style