001All right. I would like to call this meeting of the West Dallas West Milwaukee School Board to order. Mr. Keller, will you please uh lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, Sarah, will you please call the role? Mr. Verbos >> here. >> Mr. Lee >> here. >> Mr. Becker >> here. >> Mr. Tani >> here. >> Miss Carr >> here. >> Miss Lee is excused. Mr. Keller >> here. >> President Burns is excused. And Miss Deal >> here. >> Uh, proper notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the open meeting laws of the state of Wisconsin. Um,
002do we have any modifications to the agenda? >> There are no modifications. All right. Then I would ask or uh for a motion and a second to adopt the agenda. >> Move to adopt the agenda. Second. >> All right. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. All right. That passes and the uh the agenda is adopted. All right. So, our first thing that we get to start out with today is to hear from Wilson Elementary. So, welcome. And um let you Yeah. Make sure your um your but your uh lights or your >> We they read the sheet up for us so we knew to hit the button. >> All right. >> Uh good evening. Thanks for having us here. Um we are representing Wilson Elementary. Um so I'm going to jump
003into I want to get the kids talking more than me. Um but you can see this is our theory of action. I'm not going to go through it all because it directly aligns to our district theory of action with the four um main components that are listed on the side. the high impact strategies, priority standards, collaborative teams, and ownership of our outcomes. And today's presentation is really going to hone in on those first top two. Then we wanted to share some of our data, which is why we have this team of kids. This is our 5K data. Um but we've noticed that um some of the phonics instruction, some of our literacy instruction, our data has greatly improved specifically in grades 5K, but also in first grade as well. So, um we just kind of
004wanted to highlight the success we've been having. So, I have uh Mrs. Pettit here with her two first graders and Miss Aelina with her two first graders and they will take it away. All right. Um Cameron and I are going to start with our comprehension lesson. So um >> actually yes. >> Um so we follow the um fiveday comprehension lesson framework that um that every school is using. And um so what we do is we take a text from Scholastic and then we create our own lessons to align um with the priority standards as set out by the district. So if you just look briefly look through that um that fiveday cycle and we've been doing this every week since the beginning of the year. So the the piece we have to share with you
005today is from the book Bear Snores On. Um and when we um create these lessons, we align it with the scholastics um essential question as well as the priority standard. So day one, we set the purpose for reading. As you can see, we have our learning intentions and success criteria. Um the we heavy we hit vocabulary a lot the first day. Um this week's one of the words was blubbers. We had a lot of fun acting out blubers. Uh blubbering. Um then after we go through it as a class, we answer some yes and no questions. And then the kids also work independently on giving examples in their life when someone was blubbering. We had a lot of chats about people getting hurt and then non-examples would be someone not blubbering. Um so the first
006read what we do is we um read the text and then we also um decide well how we're going to roll out the priority standard for the week. So for this particular book um we were focusing on how to create questions. You wouldn't think that you have to scaffold and explicitly tell how do you create a question that is the purpose is to learn more about a story. So um all week we practiced um let me skip that part. Um we did when questions, we did where questions, how, why, and then on day five, this is when we gave our final read and then we um have a common formative assessment. What we do is we um give the assessment and then as a grade level we we look at it together and think, okay,
007where are we where are we kids knocking it out of the park and what do we need to review? So, um, we had two components to this one where we had kids had to answer questions about bear snores on and then they had to ask um they had to ask bear specifically a question. So, Cameron um has his um piece that he um that I have up here. Did you I He wants me to talk about it. So, um in that box the question was who was in the cave and who did you tell me was in the cave? The chip the chipmunk and raven. And who was sleeping? >> The bear. And so, as you can see, he illustrated and labeled. And then, Cameron, where did the story happen? >> In the cave. >>
008Mhm. And then, what did they eat and drink? Do you remember? >> Tea and honey nuts. >> And honey nuts. And also, what was this pot there? Why did you draw that? >> There's the pot of the honey nuts >> and the stew, right? >> Yeah. >> Mhm. And then Bear was feeling real sad at one point in the story. Um, why was he feeling so sad? >> Because um, they was having the fun, but the bear didn't have any fun because he was taking a nap. >> Mhm. And I'll just show you a quick picture. So, all the animals are having a party and poor bear is hibernating until what lands on his nose. Do you remember? So, a little piece of something. >> Little piece of pepper. Mhm. And so then um what
009we did is for the ask a question, the prompt was like what would you ask bear if you could talk to him at the end of the story? And we gave them some examples and Cameron chose the how did it feel when read your question. Okay, go ahead. So I can do how how you want me to read for you? Okay. Yeah, it's a lot of people. Um, how did it feel when you woke up from your nap? And what I really enjoyed about Cameron's um, uh, response here is he drew pictures of himself, as you can see, asking Bear the question and Bear just looking really, really sad right there. And so um he he decided that Bear um was feeling sad because everyone was having a party without him and we would all
010be sad if we was having a party without us, right? And so just from that example, he definitely understood the story and the um the standard. So that's now my turn. Um so we've been doing so much with phonics this year with a new u um and the why behind it. I'm just going to quickly talk about how um the science of reading connection with ACT 20 this year um UFly has explicit phonics for us to teach. There's repetition, there's routines that build confidence. In a second, I'm going to show you my classroom where we do a routine every um every day with visual drills. Um is multiensory. So, in this drill that you're going to be seeing, we're doing letters. We're looking at letters and the kids are telling me what sounds they make.
011But we also do actions with their hands, too. Some of the kids, if they want to, they don't have to, but we do actions as well. Um, and why it works is, um, it it just helps struggling readers because it's consistent. Every day we go through letters and sounds. Um, so I don't know if you can play that. >> I don't if you guys want to do it with us. >> Want to do it? No. >> So, they're doing um hands signals. So, a Then they do their faces faces. >> They're being shy now. >> So we kind of do this throughout the lesson. It's about a minute. We don't have to watch the whole thing. But so we do all hand signals and we do facial signals. So it's it brings in all the
012senses as well. So um Oh, thank you. Um, this is just the priority standards of phonics. I won't go through this all, but all the phonics is what I'm going to be focusing on with the writing as well. Oops, I went backwards. Sorry, I didn't practice with the clicker thing. Miss Pluto was playing with it. Um, as for what we're seeing as the teachers perspective for students is students are more confident this year using UFly. Their engagement is increased. Students transfer skills into authentic reading and writing, which my two uh students here will be showing their writing in just a minute. It's just amazing to me. Um the routines create success for our learners and for teacher benefits. It's been so awesome to have the easy routines, strong pacing, um high engagement from all our
013kids. There's a clear skill progression by grade level. Students knowing expectations and the confidence in teaching phonics explicitly has been awesome this year. So I'm really excited that we we got this curriculum. And we also within the curriculum learn irregular words. And those are words that don't follow the normal pattern with the letter sounds that we have for like the word because the B e C. I think you guys have probably seen this from other class schools that have um shared about UFly. But one of we do a couple fun things as well with the UFly. And one of them is we do basketball spelling. I don't know if you guys know but Miss Aelina loves to play basketball. So we do dribbings. And you guys want to do it with me for because is
014it is it the top one or the bottom? on the bottom. >> I don't know how to use this one. >> Zahara showed me. >> Okay, I don't have a fancy clicker. Oh, here's the kids >> and then they shoot the ball at the end. So, we do that with all the regular words. We do B E C A U S and then shoot the ball for because. So, that's some of the regular words. We've done shaving cream. This past last week, we did shaving cream. Oh, she's already passing you through. And then we also do a sparkle spelling where we go in a circle and spell the words and the kid that afterwards the words spelled they say sparkle and they sit down and they just have so much fun with it. So we
015do sparkle spelling too that maybe you can talk about later. So that's for our regular words. Um so there is a missing component from UFly um that's a vital part of reading instruction and explicit phonics instruction which is called phonography mapping. um which is basically word mapping where you connect sounds to spoken language and so you step one you start with your phone names. So like if we did the word cat we would segment it c and then graphims we match it to the letters c a t and then when you're phoning graphy matching you put the letters in individual boxes so you can isolate the sounds and then kids blend it write it and then they read the word. Um it's this is a really important um uh lesson strategy. It's a researchbased instructional
016strategy. It activates multiple parts of multiple parts of the brain. It improves um decoding and encoding across all skill levels. So your students who have lagging skills and others who are were looking to extend um and it's really the most impactful also with your students who have lagging skills. Um because it involves the tactile piece, the auditory piece, the visual piece and that's just an example of what it might look like in the classroom. So Zahara is going to model some phonography mapping and are you going to teach everyone? Okay. So >> the word is check spell. >> So everyone put their hand up and what do we need to do? >> Oh, sorry. >> Okay, then we all do it. Check. >> What's the first sound? >> All right. Mr. D. Got it. >>
017Um, why is ch in one box? >> Because it's a team. >> Makes one sound. All right. Then what's the next sound, Ray? >> What's the next sound? >> Yeah. Go ahead and do that. And >> what's the last sound? >> Uh oh, you stumped them. >> Good job, Cameron. >> And Zahara, why is CK in the one box? >> Cuz it's a cuz it's a T. >> And the word is >> chick. >> And so did you want to do one more? Do we have time for one more? Would that be okay? Should we do green? Okay. >> The word is green. Touch spelling. >> Here we go. G. >> What's the first sound? >> G. G. >> What's the next sound? >> E. >> Why is it E in one box? Because it's
018a team. >> What's the last sound? >> What did that spell? >> What does it spell? >> What do spell? >> So that's our phony mapping. A phonic mapping um >> routine. Oh, good job. >> Thanks a heart. All right, I'm taking the clicker back. Thank you. >> Oh, um and and then just quickly um so you can that's just the priority standard. You can skip that. I did want to show how um you fly has impacted like Zahara's writing. So the first is an example from fall where she has simple sentences. You can see some phonetic spelling and then check out her spring writing. I mean how beautiful is that? Common spelling patterns, high frequency words. And then I also have an example of Cameron. So, here's his fall um spelling, very simple sentence
019phonetic spelling, and then here's his spring. So, you can see the huge growth there. And I I and UFly has been a huge piece of that as well. All right, that brings it back to me. So, for writing, um the students absolutely love writing in first grade. As a matter of fact, this is from last week Friday. My kids got a free choice Friday for their reading time. And I think 99% of the kids wanted to work on their writing, which was like awesome to me. Um, do you want to click it? So, here's a couple more pictures of the kids working on their writing. And then I have Betty, Lou, and Aiden here tonight. They're going to read some of their realistic fiction writing. Um, but I just wanted to show also that this
020year they participate in the Haw um Hannah's Haven partnership where they got to read with a dog. Um, Betty Lou did it every week and Aiden did it on subbing basis. So, that was something also really cool. So, I'm gonna That's okay. I'm gonna give it to Betty Lou now. She's going to share her realistic fiction piece which is also up here. But hey, Betty. One sunny day, Kate was at the lake. She loved to swim. She was so excited. She could not wait. Kate jumped into the lake. She swam. "Yay," said Kate. "It was so sunny that the lake was warm." "It is never warm," said Kate. But then Kate said, "Uh-oh, a wave." "Slam!" She went underwater, but she was a great swimmer. "I can swim very well," said Kate. She felt way
021happier now. She said, "It is very late. I would go home. The end. >> Yeah. So, this was a good job. >> Such a great job by Betty Lou. And um we just started talking about dialogue and she started adding that in as well. So, that was pretty amazing. And also, I have Aiden here. He's going to read his writing piece of realistic fiction as well. You ready, Aiden? One one morning Jay was sleeping and then he heard something like a banging sound and then ring ring his alarm went off. So he got up and splash he got water on his face and got out of his bathroom and heard more banging. Then he looked at where it was coming from. It was coming from the neighbors. So he he put on his headphones and
022got out of his PJs. Then he shut off his alarm. He put on his favorite song. Jay took a walk and on his way back he saw a rare flower. So he picked it up and went back home. The end. >> Excellent job. >> So we're just so proud of the work they've been doing this year and um EUI has been a huge part of that. So, >> thank you very much. Any questions? >> All right. Thank you, Wilson. Um, board members, do we have any questions? >> Miss Car, >> just a comment. Um, as I as I saw all of the UFly activities, um, reminds me very much of what we might have done with a a specialty reading group, you know, like where if you um, you needed some help. Now the whole
023class elonein boxes come on that's good stuff. >> So using all of those strategies with the whole class I think was very underutilized years ago >> and that was really nice to see. >> Yep. And I have I noticed a huge and I I would assume that you picked some the cream but I'll bet you a lot of the kids spelling has improved because of this. >> And I wish I would have put their prewriting in there. Yep. >> Because you would see a huge difference. >> I can tell. I was so worried about spelling for so long. >> So, it's really nice to see that that's transferring over because isn't that what it's all about? Does this transfer over to readers and writers >> and we want them to feel successful to be able
024to spell instead of coming as how do you spell now? They're just using what they know and putting the sounds together. >> Right. >> Yeah. Thank you. Other member board members have questions, comments, Mr. Becker. >> Uh, thanks very much for sharing you guys. Um, so we all can see the difference. Do you feel the difference between what you could do at the beginning of the year and what you can do now as writers? >> Just the not is okay. I don't need big answers. >> Yeah. >> Do you want to talk about it? >> That's really great. You guys should be proud. It's really great. All right. Anyone else? Well, I just want to say thank you for coming. Um, I was incredibly impressed by all of you. Um, your writing, you guys have
025some great handwriting. Keep that up. Okay. But, um, yes, thank you for coming. Thank you for sharing your learning with us. Um, yeah, let's give you guys a round of applause. All right, we'll move on then to the superintendence report. Dr. Robinson. >> Right. >> So, again, thank you. Thank you guys for being here tonight. Very, very impressive. I thought I was looking at like third graders or something, you know. No. So, seriously, uh, great job. Great job. >> So, our legislative updates this week. Uh unfortunately there are some um bad news coming out of Madison. The the um the budget surplus bill was voted down um on last week. So at this particular point, we're kind of in a a wait and see mode, but um after speaking with our representative the other day
026that it doesn't look like there's any good news on the horizon, so we'll be patient with that. I wanted to actually um bring up Mary Pat Michaels. I'm gonna put her on the spot. She doesn't know this. Come on up. Come on up. You You happen to show up to the right meeting tonight. Come on up here. >> I was going to read this slide, but I just thought I would bring you up and you talk about the accomplishment again that we've received as a district. So, Miss Mayor Pat Michaels, look at how short I am. Tell us the good news. >> Okay, I think this there should be a box. I need a box. >> There should I think this is our 12th year, right? 12th. Is that what I put on here? Our
02712th year of receiving the um best communities of music education in the country from NAM, which is the National Association of Music Merchants. So, all the music stores and all the places that support music education in the schools. Um that's their organization. And so, we apply. Um, it's like takes me about 45 minutes to write a bunch of essays and fill out all of the information about our district and our music program. So, it's fun to kind of go through and find things that we do that are different each year so I don't sound like I'm saying the same thing to them. Um, and then get to press go and send it in and hope we get the email each year. So, um, we're very proud of our district because we do have music starting
028in kindergarten for instruments and all the way through, which I think only happens in two districts in the whole state for strings. So, yeah. So, thank you. And you brought me >> I could not have done a better job than you. So, I knew I knew what to do. >> And these pictures, what are these pictures? Um, Prelude Strings, which is Wednesday this week at Central. That's the top one. And the bottom one is all of the kids singing at the tree lighting. >> Yep. >> Thank you again. Great job. Great job. >> We did want to highlight, we've been in the news for great things lately. And so we just wanted to just uh draw some attention to uh some of the headlines that we've made. You know, often districts run away from headlines
029because they're all negative, but when you have positive news, you want to make sure that everybody knows it. So, uh, this past week we the the the past two weeks the district has been highlighted five times on the various news outlets. So, teacher appreciation week at Jefferson for example, West Alisa Central High School art teacher uh with her providing a safe place for for students uh through their through their artwork. our um our West Alice Blue Jays are the combined team uh softball um Wisconsin adaptive uh sports association at West Milwaukee and then Young Liberace's Promising Beginning featuring uh West Milwaukee. So again, we we love news, but especially the good news. So uh let's keep up the good work. Do want to bring up I am going to give him permission to to say
030a few words. Um Mr. Matt Leser, >> come on up. >> You know, not notice >> just a few >> there was a there was a specific u amount or or quantitative measure I put in there and it was few. >> So just stay within. Now it doesn't have a a certain numerical value to it, but just few. All right, Mr. Leser, can we do that? >> All right. All right. >> Where do you want these guys? >> I warned him. Right. >> You want to sit here? You guys want to sit here or stand here or >> so? So So we did receive some some great news. Um the Nathan Hale High School Junior Achievement um our Junior Achievement team has advanced to national competition. And part of the the approval that we're going
031to ask tonight in our action items is to approve them going to Boston uh for the competition. I am going to turn it over to Mr. Lester because I just took some of his time. >> Yep. >> That was intentional. >> So now he just extending it out. I'm handing I'm handing you the baton. Bring it home. >> Handing me the mic. >> Bring it home. The baton. Bring it home. >> All right. So, all right. There you go. >> Well, yeah. I'm honored to be here today with uh Robert Kvassic and Ashton Stone Cipher and Sam Cab is at uh he runs the 400 at the GMC Championships right now. So, he's over there so he can't attend. Uh Mr. Machinsky is with us today as the business teacher that directed this process. So,
032uh, they're going to talk a little bit about how they their path went, but really proud of this group. We had two teams of three in the junior achievement contest. I'll just say he threw it out there on ACT uh, day when all the ninth, 10th, and 11th graders were there and all the seniors were sleeping in and doing their online work to take attendance and all that. Six kids went to uh to the regional and said, "We'll get up. will go for it and and uh and go as part of the marketing class. So, that's awesome. And uh they took it and ran with it and they're a team that's going on to nationals. In my tenure, 17 years at Hale, I don't think I've had a national qualifier in in anything. So, this
033is phenomenal. And they'll talk more about the contest. It's really kind of cool how it all comes together. And uh Mr. Machinsky, thank you very much for your leadership with this. And uh I'll turn it over to them. Sure. >> Um, starting off, thank you very much everybody for allowing us to be here. I appreciate the uh the time of day that you guys have given us. So, starting off with an explanation about what the competition is. It is a um a simulated marketing um game of sorts where you sell phones to a um public of audience. Um, the entire goal is to achieve the most amount of money and you get these different coins for different CSR bonuses and um, market share across the entire game. And we are going in um, we're going
034July June 6th, sorry, for nationals at Boston. And um, I'm going to pass it over to Robert. So more about the competition. What we have to know is like when we go in there, we have to know what our market is. So who we are marketing for. We have to decide like what they're willing to pay for. And we're also we also need to make sure how much phones we need to produce in order to not make too many to go under and lose money in the process. So a lot of our strategy was you need to capture the market. In order to move on, we use our marketing skills that we learned in our marketing class from our teacher to learn how to kind of gain of who we need to focus more towards
035and put more um research and develop into those sections. Anything else you want to add to that? >> If you don't about the process, how how they got to this point? >> Yeah. What was cool the So I I've taken >> Come talk to the >> I know I'm I'm loud anyhow, but um >> so I've I've taken teams from Catholic Memorial uh for seven different years. We've got kids in, you know, low to mid-30s ACTs and stuff. We've never even won the local competition. So, um I think the difference between those teams and and these young men and even the other team that we had who did rather well, uh they're problem solvers. uh so they can take a look at a situation and and understand where they're at and so what adaptations do
036we need to make before this next quarter uh and our business to to do better. Um the other team we had Latavian Spencer and Javaria they ended up bankrupt uh after the second quarter and and passed up I believe it was 15 other teams to take ninth. So you know in in in taking ninth I think they learned a lot and and showed that they had a lot of good skills too. So, just really proud of these guys. They've represented uh West Dallas well and probably the biggest victory was that we beat Brookfield East at the local competition. I was very very satisfied about that. >> Senator, say that one more time. >> We beat Brookfield East. >> Really? I I'm I will text Dr. Hansen tonight and remind him. >> Okay. So, thank you.
037Thank you for letting me know that. >> So, yeah. So, the the like I said, I was like you said, Mr. bless her. Um the fact that they even got up on ACT day when seniors could sleep in uh and decided, yeah, we'll we'll do this thing. So, we went to Landmark Credit Union and and they won the local competition and then um we were in Shbboan at Acuity Insurance for uh the state competition and they did a great job there as well. So, yeah, it's been a lot of fun and and really proud of them. They put in a lot of work. I gave them the curriculum, uh some guidelines, and they they took the rest. Uh so, they've really worked hard. That's been great. So >> yeah, I mean why don't you just
038tell us about yourself seniors? What what are your what are your plans? >> So um my name is Ashton Stone Cipher and um my goals after high school are I'm actually going to the military July 27th. I'm shipping out. I am a 91 Bravo four-wheel mechanic and um I will be there for the next 5 and a half 6 months until I complete my basic training. I'll return to Wisconsin um let's see I believe in January which then I will be going out to Wiiotech um technical college for um degrees in mechanics. >> Um I uh just completed a youth apprentichip in business at Crystal Ridge where I was the tubing manager and I'm looking to use that. I'm starting off my career at the local 601. I just passed my test and now all
039I have to do is graduate and then I can go work and then hopefully in a few years I can be running my own uh commercial business. >> I think you guys are are the examples of what we're trying to do in a district is increase the opportunities for students. What I heard, you know, you're not interested in college military technical stuff, right? That that's that's great because that's your pathway. So, I just commend you guys on on on your choices and and we're here to support you and and and your your next steps. So, it was important for me to have you here. When I received the email last week from Mr. Leser, the it was a long email. I'm not going to lie to you. It was long. >> It was like, get
040to the point, man. No, no, but he he he was so excited to to brag about your accomplishments. >> And so, um you know, the it was the only it was the right thing to do is to bring you here tonight. so the public could see you and so we can brag about the things that you guys are doing. So, thank you as well for for leading them. Okay. All right. Thank you guys. >> I just want to say real quick that you were super proud of them. These guys work really hard in class. It's it it's uh going to be great to see you go if approved. And that was that that was the big thing was it's a turnaround. It's unbelievable. It's like they say you have to commit by 3 days later
041and so thanks for getting us in. >> Thank you Mr. We do have a question from one of the board members if you guys can just stick up here for a moment. Mr. Lee >> I just had one statement really and once you are successful in what you're doing next after high school don't forget about us here. We love to have alumni come back and help mentor our students as they keep coming through. So, you guys are great examples of the successes that our students can have here in our district, and I hope that you'll continue to be a part of it uh after you graduate. >> Don't you worry. We'll both um set up scholarships with our businesses. >> Excellent. Excellent. Thank you so much. Good luck at Good luck at Nationals. >> And
042now for our voice representative tonight, Mr. Tobias Jesse, fresh off a haircut and prom. I see you. I see you, Toby. I see you. Looking like your dad tonight, too, by the way. >> The the younger version. So, uh, Tobias is a a senior at West Dallas Central, captain of the football team, 4.0 GPA, and member of the WAC leadership team. So, Toby, just tell us what's going on at at West Dallas Central. >> Well, recently, um, we did have the orchestra concert, which I went to for Senior Assassin. My target was there. And, um, let's see what else we got going. Prom. Yep, we had that at the Emerald. It was very nice besides the no AC mishap, >> so it was very hot and but I still had a great time and everyone
043else did and it was awesome. Mr. Somefield set it up very nicely. >> Um, I'd also like to uh congratulate Mr. Tani on being elected to the board. It's nice to meet you, sir. And also Dr. Robinson on being elected to the WIA athletic board, of course. And that should be everything. All right. At this time, I will open up um public comments. Um if anyone would like to address the board, um you have a limit. Um your comments needs to be need to stick to three minutes. The board cannot discuss, debate, or act upon any item made during the public comments portion of the board meeting. Follow-up to public comments will be made by the superintendent at the next regular board meeting. All right. At this time, I do not have anyone signed up.
044I will give about 30 seconds if anyone would like to sign up from back there or if you're on Zoom, if you just want to put your uh the link is in the uh the chat. All right, I don't see anybody signing up. So, at this time, I will close public comments. All right, so now we are on um let's see, item sorry, uh board, I'm sorry, board reports item nine, so 9.1, review of the board calendar. All right. So, tonight, May 18th, uh at 6 PM here, we had our regular board meeting. On June 8th, at 6, we have our regular board meeting. Um the finance FSE what finance committee will be uh doing their workshop proposal of the 2627 budget and preliminary tax levy. And then the safety committee workshop on safety and
045bags update number two. And then June 22nd at 6, we have our regular board meeting and uh teaching and learning uh uh workshop on EO Y and AGR data review. All right. From 9.2 board committee reports. We do not have any board committee reports uh tonight. 9.3 board member reports of community events. Would anyone like to share any events they've been to? Mr. Verbos. >> Hi. I uh I took the opportunity to attend the uh the Boxcard Children's show at uh FLW on Friday, I believe it was. Um yeah, f Thursday. Thursday. It was Thursday. Um opening night. Uh was well attended. Uh I was curious to see how it it would play out because of the lack of sets and props and stuff. Um you know, young kids, uh good performance, interesting show. Um
046yeah, I enjoyed it. It was good. Had a good time. That's about it. Uh >> Mr. Tani, >> uh I attended the mental health fair on uh Saturday along with Mystiel. Um and uh it was great to see all the resources and all the organizations in our community. They're ready to step up and help our youth and and are doing the work. So, >> Mr. Becker. >> Uh, Friday evening I went to the track meet at Hail and there were it was neat because there were three events going on. There was a baseball game going on as well and a girls soccer game. So, it was really exciting to see the the entire facility in use at once. Hundreds of people, dozens and dozens of kids participating. Really nice night for it. >> Mr. Lee.
047>> Yeah. First, I want to comment. I'm surprised that Mr. Verbos went to see the box car children. He never goes to any of those performances. So, I'm glad you got out there. Um, I was, uh, able to attend, uh, the same, uh, track meet that Mr. Becker was at, uh, as well as an additional one that was held at, um, for the JV GMC conference that was held on Saturday, um, which was another good showing from our students at West Milwaukee. And then I also was able to attend the orchestra and choir concert at Hail that was held on Thursday. Um and so uh it was good to see that's the last performances for our seniors at Hail. Uh so they also had the um the awards for the seniors who were in uh
048orchestra and they talked about band a little bit too as well as choir even though the band did not perform. So a good performance uh by everyone there and uh congratulations to those outgoing seniors in their careers in music here in West Dallas. >> All right, anyone else? Um yes, I just wanted to mention that I did attend the u mental health and community um resources fair at Central on on Saturday. It was a really um really great I hope that we can continue to expand on it and certainly advertise it a lot more. It was our first year doing it, but um I was actually able to pick up a lot of really great resources for myself for my own job. So it was it was great. Um all right. Uh let's see here.
049All right. Then we have 9.4 other updates. Um I do not have any any updates at that at this time. All right. So, agenda item 10, consent agenda. We have 10.1, approval of minutes, 10.2, employment summary. 10.3, excuse me, supplementary contracts. 10.4 financial report summary. Does anyone need anything separated? >> No. >> All right. At this time, then I would look for a motion and second to approve the consent agenda. >> Move to approve 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4. >> Second. All right. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. All right. That passes and then we'll move on to our um action items. So our first one 11.1 Nathan Hail traveled to Junior Achievement Nationals in Boston. U Miss Braz, >> you got to be more >> I'll go ahead
050and go ahead and get set up for the next one. So we're asking for approval uh for the the team that you just uh met to travel to Boston. This is a because of is a competition that they earned the right to do. This is why it's coming at the last minute. So, we're just asking the board would approve um this out of town field trip. >> Boston, >> does anyone have any questions? >> Move to approve 11.1. >> Oh, hold on. Mr. Tani had >> um so I noticed it's during finals week. I just wanted to make sure there was an alternative plan to allow our students to um take their finals um >> all all the academic requirements that we will make some exceptions for them to make sure that they they're not
051penalized at all. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Then I would look for a motion. >> Okay. >> Any discussions? All right. All those in favor I >> opposed. All right. That passes. All right, then we have 11.2, our 612 social studies adoption, McGraill, U, Miss Braj, and Miss Kelly. All right, good evening everyone. Thank you for um letting us come back for two weeks in a row. We're here tonight to ask for your approval of an updated version of our 612 social studies core resource, McGra Hill. Our district-wide committee, which we shared our process um with you last week, engaged in a really thorough review of resources um that would support inquiry and discipline literacy as well as a strong alignment with social studies standards. So with your support, this adoption would guarantee
052that we continue to have really high quality instructional materials both for our students to access and also our teachers to use as a guide um in their courses. So with that, we're seeking approval of McGra Hill for a 612 social studies core resource um and a continuence of the updated version of that. And I'll pass it back over to Vice President D. >> Thank you. Um, I want to start out by asking committee members, do you have anything about this that you would like to add or any additional information? >> No, I don't think I have anything else to add. The presentation was pretty thorough. >> Okay. Um, then uh any additional questions about the adoption, Mr. Lee? >> Just real quick, any changes from the workshop that we had last time? >> No, no
053changes from last week. >> All right, then. And if there's no further discussion, I would uh look for a motion and a second. >> Move to approve 11.2 6 through 12 social studies adoption. >> Second. >> All right. It's been motioned seconded. Any additional questions, discussion? All right. All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. All right. That passes. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. All right. Then we have 11.3 uh temporary wave board policies 3122.01, 4122.01, 7434, and 8:30 rule 2 for a city of West Dallas fireworks event on school district property. Um, Miss Strazzer, or is it going to be okay, Dr. Robins? >> So, I believe this is the third year that we will be hosting the um July 4th fireworks event at the West Alice. athletic
054complex and each year we've come with a request of the board to wave um specific things in dealing with policy mainly around the fireworks as well as um the uh alcohol and tobacco policy. And so that we're asking again for the third year that we support um the waving of um this these policies in order for um us to the city to to adequately host the event. Does anyone have any questions? All right. Then I would look for a motion in a second. >> Move to approve 11.3 temporarily wave board policies 3122.014122.017434 and 830. Rule two for a city of West Dallas fireworks event on school district property. All right. Any any discussion? All right. >> All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. All right. That passes. All right. Then we are moving on
055to 11.4 benefit consultant services RFP. Um Mr. Norris. >> Well, Mr. Verbos is a tough act to follow here, so I'll do my do my best. Um before I jump in, I want to introduce Mike Lamsky. is our uh current assistant finance manager, our soon to be finance manager with Mr. Borland retiring. So, just want to welcome him this evening. Um we have about nine slides. Uh Michael will jump in and speak to some of the RFP. Mike led a lot of the RFP that we're going to talk through tonight and then we have two gentlemen in the background introduced pending your guys' uh thoughts and approval this evening. So, uh yeah, we'll bring them up in a second. Yeah. Yep. Yep. So we want to talk through kind of like why why now go
056to RFP for health insurance consulting and that uh the firm Brown and Brown is our current or our current vendor. Um so we'll talk through that. We'll talk about the RFP process more. Mike will talk through kind of the criteria we use the bids we receive the interview process and then recommendations kind of our thinking along lines and then um we'll bring up um Mr. Sper and Mr. Mr. D. to tail to talk through kind of who they are, history with the district um and their firm, what they can do for us. So, why why Asian RFP now? So, we've been with Brown and Brown for a little over a little under a decade. And so, there was a shakeup with the firm and a lot of the people that were working directly with our
057account left. And so, we thought, hey, no better time to go out to bid and see what's out there, what are everyone what's everyone else doing? What what's the pricing look like? Kind of let someone else look at our business and go, here's what we might be thinking, right? Just a good fresh look. And so, we did that. um that timeline and criteria. I'll let Mike speak to this slide and talk through kind of the criteria we used and kind of what that looked like. >> Yeah. So, um some of the things that um we were really looking for in the the proposals um we reached out to uh some vendors that we knew and then we posted all over um our district website and and let this uh anybody submit um for this, but
058we were really looking for any um firms with uh K12 experience first of all because um I mean that's who we are. Uh we were looking for clarity uh completeness with their proposed services and some of the things that we were looking for with that is um well currently we're fully insured. So what what do they see as kind of the the future of renewals with fully insured type um plans and then also what could they provide us if we were ever going to go to a self-insured model. Um so that was included in the proposal. Um some of their results that they've had as a team. um the service model, what they can provide as far as communication with the district, tools for our staff so that there is some learning um involved with
059um any type of benefit plan that that we might offer and then really finally what cost structure they might have and then their transparency around compensation. Um so we we put the RFP out there um beginning of March. Uh had um five submissions um by that April 2nd deadline. Uh the team, myself, Aaron um and Jessica Johnson and Jill Rowski who are in in benefits. We all um came together and kind of reviewed those submissions and brought three um finalists back for interviews that were um in on May 7th. And then uh today we're we're here seeking your approval. Um so our our biders were um Brown and Brown, USI Insurance, Howen, um RNR Insurance, and Gallagher. Um uh lot of what we saw from these biders were they they handle most of the school
060districts in southeastern Wisconsin and throughout the state of Wisconsin. So um pretty consistent with what we thought we would get um back from from the different bids. jump back. >> Yeah, sure. >> So, this is kind of a quick overview of the bids we got. Just kind of wanted to highlight as Mike said, a lot of the categories we highlighted early in the presentation were pretty consistent across these five main players here. So, it really came down to bringing the firms in mainly on price. So, we brought in Brown and Brown, which is the incumbent. We brought in Howen, who is here tonight, and we brought in RNR for interviews. And through this process, we we we landed really on on on Hen because mainly uh beyond just the price, given the team that left
061Brown and Brown, many of them went to work for Hen. And we really do, as Mike kind of hit on, we really feel like in the health insurance benefits area for our district, the next 24 months are probably the most pivotal for our district because we've been with United Healthcare now going on four years. We moved from WA when they closed. We got a two-year rate lock. We've made some, I would say, some substantial changes last two years. Like we're running out of room here. And so we need to start looking into like, okay, is there a way to move self-insured? Can we do that? What's the financial an analysis look like? The next 24 months are really it for us. And so I think the team at Howen beyond price that you saw the
062knowledge and history of the district certainly played a factor in the discussion because if we were if we were we if we were where we wanted to be already it wouldn't be a immediate concern of having someone like we don't have the time for a new firm to come in and learn what they already need to know here. So that was really important to the group. Um and as you say like the service team worked on nine of the top 40 school districts in the state of Wisconsin. It's really important that we have people that have done this before. they've transitioned school districts and they they've kind of been through that process before. >> So, I'll let Mike kind of talk through this piece before we wrap it up. >> Yeah. So, as Aaron said,
063they they did come in on the lower side of the the bids, but also um we saw one of the the real positives of bringing Chris and Lorenzo and and the Hen team on is um there isn't going to be that back and forth of trying to learn who we are as a district and the different plans that we've had throughout the past couple of years. they've they've worked on our our proposals. They've gone to bat for us to try and to to lower that renewal every year. So, they we already know what type of service they bring as far as customer service and and the responsiveness to our needs. Um so, that was um really helpful in the process as well as now um some of the the reach that they have now at
064Howen is is more global. So they they have greater capabilities with the the data that um they can provide our our district and um we thought it was really a no-brainer. >> So so one last thing I'll add before we take questions and and bring up Chris and Lorenzo. Um so the the last thing I want to mention is that part of the RFP put together is we wanted to bring underneath our health insurance consultants our HA plan. So as it currently exists today, Brown and Brown that is separate of their entity. They don't negotiate with NAS Mid America. They don't do any of that. And we feel like working with a a Howen or a different firm that manages that they can get us the best bang for their buck because as you guys
065know over the past four years now we've been shifting dollars into our fund 73. So there's a substantial amount of money there and getting the best bang for our buck from an interest perspective benefits the employees benefits the district etc. The other thing I'd mention too, given that we were late to the game post act 10 on I guess our OPED renewal and like restructuring that we have a substantial we have more retirees on our insurance I know it's post 65 than we do active employees. So we're a very unique organization in that sense like most school districts don't have that same experience. So we during even the interviews we were taking questions from firms like talk more talk to us more about that >> and and this that's exactly what Mike's getting at. We
066don't have time to get people briefed on that, right? That's an important piece. And so I think um pending questions, I'll let Chris and Lorenzo introduce themselves. Um make sure the mic's green, but y >> good evening. Chris Smeert from Hen Lorenzo with Hen Benefits Consultant. Nice to see everyone tonight. >> So I think that's our presentation. I mean pending any questions to them. I know Chris and Lorenzo have a few minutes to kind of provide an introduction and and talk a little bit more about how I'm not sure kind of what venue you'd prefer. Amy, >> all right. Well, let's uh start with any board questions. Anybody have questions, Mr. Lee? >> How does the fee structure work? Uh is it a percent of something? Is it something that you renew every year just
067like everything else that we renew every year? And then what is the basis on that? And I'm asking this because I always know that especially with insurance companies, they want to get you in the door and then there's like discounts that fall off. So that's what I'm asking about. >> Yeah. >> Um you guys want to take that? >> Yeah, I think in this particular case now fee structures can vary depending on client. I think in this particular case it is a base fee and some commissions that are predefined and always disclosed. Um so pretty straightforward. It's not contingent on we'll just say you may hear about this a percentage for instance of your medical insurance premiums. >> So that way when your medical insurance premiums increase your consultant automatically gets an increase. We prefer
068to not operate in that environment uh for full transparency. >> Great question though. >> Okay. Thank you. And then the other piece, it really is the self-insured piece that um I know we've looked at the last few years and there is a um a group of school districts that are self-insured, but they kind of work all together, which we had never heard about. I found out about an education conference. So, with whoever we end up going with that we at least investigate that to see if that would be something that would be useful for our district to look into to hopefully share some of those costs that we were discussing. So, that was my questions. Thank you. Yeah, I think I think in the next four to six months, certainly pre pre uh renewal, I
069think the board will be fully briefed on what that self-insured analysis looks like by maintaining the existing plan staff have today. That's what we've talked to Chris Lorenzo about. That's what we want to look at because when we come to you and go, here's the fully insured note, the next question you should ask is what's it look like to go self-insured? What's it look like over 24 months, 36 months? Because that's the place that we know we're going to end up. The questions will end. I think that is likely going to be now. So, >> and to supplement that as well, so over the years, uh, the district has had an eye towards self-unding. With a district your size, self-funding, I would say, is the position the district should be in. Now, historically, school districts
070have been more fully insured than self-funded because of predictability. But in the last 5 to 10 years, there has been a shift toward self-funding because of budget challenges for school districts for seizing control of the health plan because when you're self-funded, you have a greater ability to patch in the point source solutions you need and to really drive your health plan utilization. But the district has done a nice job of positioning itself over the last 5 to 10 years of implementing strategies to improve financial performance and utilization to get to a point where self-funding makes sense. In addition, with the clinic today with successful uh self-funded strategies, clinics can be an integral part of that. So we could utilize the clinic in a much more aggressive manner um if and when the time is right
071in a self-funded health plan strategy. Um so you know what over the next 12 to 24 months what we would expect to do is to you know analyze the utilization because self-unding sounds great but it needs to make sense. Uh so we'll talk through the financials, we'll talk through really the practical operational implications and we'll help the district weigh that again assuming that we move forward with this uh this partnership. And so we're eager to do that. And as part of that evaluation process, you know, there are three or four key components as I'll call it for self-funding. That's really looking at your medical administrator and your medical network. Today it's United Healthcare. Um and you have the nexus acco network in place today. But then looking at pharmacy or pharmacy benefit managers, so the
072PBM world and then we always get the question about the risk the most significant risk portion of self-funding. So there's catastrophic risk insurance called stop-loss. So that will be another critical component we'll evaluate in this entire process. And then I say fourth because this is a big deal with the clinic. Again, we'll look at plan design with that clinic portion of it. But given how the district is positioned today, you could fairly easily flip a switch to convert from fully insured to self-funding with minimal impact. Same medical administrator, native healthcare, same network, same pharmacy benefit manager. The significant difference there is in a self-funded model as opposed to fully insured, the financial risk shifts from the carrier to the district. So that's really the primary difference between fully insuring and self-unding. So we would evaluate
073and present all of that. >> And I think that's the key piece here is that when we talk about things like employee retention, even our 10-year employees, 15ear employees, a lot of them, this is really important, this conversation, because for us to maintain the benefits we offer today, something has to change. Well, this is the thing that we think is going to make this sustainable for the next decade. And so having this team here is is crucial to that because we don't have six months to get someone up on board. And so I think that kind of I guess solidifies the thinking I suppose. So >> and we didn't necessarily do formal introductions with any background. So I know Aaron mentioned that. Uh so again Chris Smeer with Howen US. I've been in the benefits
074consulting world for 13 plus years. I also practice law prior to that and in that capacity also work with school districts. So I've been working with school districts for over 20 years. and on the benefits consulting side. I've worked with many districts fully insured, many self-funded, and many that have transitioned from fully insured to self-funding. So, a little bit more about my background. >> Yeah. And I've been in the industry doing consulting for 12 years. Um, so out of college, I worked in HR for a few years, but got into consulting after that. Um, similar to Chris, worked with a number of fully insured, self-funded clients, taken many clients from fully insured to self-funded. um my other client base I work with a number of public and private sector and I know obviously we're focused
075on public sector here but some of your competitors right are still the private sector as well so it's important to have that experience also in my opinion >> great point >> all right any other questions from the board >> all right uh I don't see anybody raising a hand so then I'd look for a motion in a second please >> motion to approve 11.4 the Hen uh benefit consultant services contract >> second. >> Any discussion? All right. All those in favor >> opposed. >> All right. That passes. >> Appreciate it with you. >> Absolutely. >> Good morning. >> Have a good evening. >> I was completely stumped when I saw you guys in the back. I'm like, why is Brown and Brown? Wait, what's going on? Like, are we >> Got it. Got it. >>
076You'reing. >> Yeah. Yeah. Both of these guys were with >> Yeah. I was like, why are they here? >> What? Okay. >> I wasn't. >> All right. Let's move on to 11.52627. Districtwide community eligibility provision C. Mr. works. >> Thank you. >> Um, so the C, uh, community eligibility provision is an annual thing at this point that the board considers around May and June, which is to continue offering all students breakfast and lunch for free. Um, we're we're a we're usually aligned with the prelim budget, but since the C, we're actually up for renewal this year. We wanted to get board approval prior to submitting that end of May here. So, we wanted to kind of get to get ahead of that a little bit. But we've done this now for I think this is
077are going into our fifth year at this point and we've been able to manage our fund 50 revenues with expenses while offering breakfast and lunch for free to all kids. So Mike and I u have run the numbers for the end of this year. Fund 50 is looking uh to be a wash meaning revenues balance expenses with students eating breakfast for free. that over time we've been able to manage the fund 50 expenses with with the inclusion of things like amortizing custodial um salary time that they're in the breakfast and cleaning up like things like that that should be that's effort and time specifically for that. So to me like this is the best use of a benefit we have to offer all kids the ability to eat breakfast for free. I think this is
078a great thing to offer the kids and their families. So >> all right any questions Mr. Lee? Is there a good reason to not maybe change a policy so that we don't have to do this annually? I can't imagine the a point in time where I wouldn't be like, "Yes, we should feed kids." I understand there's a financial piece each time, but I'd almost rather have it be built in and then the board at that time if we didn't have the money for could take action to not do it. >> Sure. I I'd have to check on that. I know there's specific requirements with DPI given the federal funds requirement. So, I'll have to check on that. Um, but it's a good question. I I would agree with your comment. I'm sure the board would
079as well, but I'll check on that and and get back to you and uh the finance committee. >> Yeah. And then like would it be a policy we have to change or is it something else that we have to do, but I was just thinking about that when I saw it on the agenda, but um I think it's something that I'd rather bake it in almost and then have have to take action to remove it. >> Sure. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Other questions, Mr. Becker, >> I keep on reading the news and seeing about the affordability of things and anticipating food costs rising. Is there I'm curious how are we getting closer to the point where you starting to wonder about this? Is this uh I understand what you're saying as far as shuffling
080things around and how we manage those funds. >> Do you foresee a time when it won't be affordable? >> I mean, it's it's possible. It's hard to predict kind of where the federal government's going to go with things sometimes, but at this point, we've uh been thankful that the increase in expense every year, which is tied to CPI, that's how food service contracts federally are required to be. Um the increase in revenue has been there to offset it. So, at this point, um at least for now, there's been a commitment from the federal government to do that thankfully. Um there's more to that puzzle than I'm sharing but um you know >> at this point I feel comfortable confident with that. >> Additional questions. >> All right then I would look for a motion in
081a second. >> Move to approve 11.5. Second. >> Any additional discussion? >> All those in favor? opposed. All right, that passes. All right, at this time, the board will convene into executive session in accordance with Wisconsin Statute 19851F for the purpose of considering and discussing a specific personnel matter, which if discussed in public would have a substantial adverse effect on the reputation of the person involved. Um, so I would ask for a motion and a second to convene into executive session in accordance with Wisconsin statutes 19.85. >> Move to move into executive session. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded. Sarah, we call the role. Mr. Color, >> yes. >> Mr. Tani, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Cart, >> yes. >> Mr. Verbos, >> yes. Miss Lee is
082excused. Mr. Becker, >> yes. >> President Burns is excused. Miss Deal. >> Yes. >> All right. What am I doing? Turning the meeting, right? >> Yeah. Taking a break. Okay. So, uh, and what is I'm sorry. Brendan always does. He says, "So, if there's no objection, um, we will >> recess for five minutes to set up for close session. We're in clo. Wearjourned.