Board Meeting 5-11-26

001and gentlemen, I'd like to call this meeting of the West Alice West Milwaukee School Board to order. Um, got a new uh pathway here. Jane, would you lead us in the pledge tonight, please? >> Thank you. And Sarah, would you call the role, please? >> Mr. Becker >> here. >> Mr. Culler >> here. >> Miss Cart >> here. >> Mr. Verbos >> here. >> Mr. Lee >> here. >> Mr. Tolani >> present. >> Miss Deal here. Miss Lee here. President Burns >> present. Uh, proper notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the open meeting laws of Wisconsin of the state of Wisconsin, sorry. Um, are there any modifications to the agenda tonight? >> There are no modifications. >> All right. Then at this time, I would ask for a ask for a

002motion to adopt the agenda. >> Move to adopt the agenda. Second. >> All right. Uh, are there any questions on that? All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. All right. So, that is adopted. Um, so that will move us right into our student showcase. Um, tonight we have our deeper learning virtual academy or DLVA student showcase. So, please feel free to come on up and get yourself started. And then the only thing as you're speaking, please make sure that the green light on the mic is lit up so the people that are watching digitally can hear you. And it's just push the button and on and off either way. Yep. Okay. So, first of all, thank you so much for letting us come here and present to all of you this evening. We really

003appreciate the opportunity. Um, my name is Dr. Smith and I'm going to be just getting us started on the student showcase. This is Maya Salem. So, she's an 11th grader at Deeper Learning Virtual Academy and she'll be picking up the second half of the presentation to go through her project. Start with our theory of action. So it starts with talking about implementing teaching with intent which we certainly used very we certainly used very closely this school year with everything that we planned and all the structural components that we integrated into the year. We were having a little bit of a struggle with our testing numbers. So our first goal was to increase our test numbers. So we really can't get the data to know how to help our students if we aren't able to get

004them screened with our state test assessments. So the goal was to have 100% of our students show typical or aggressive growth in reading and math is measured by fastbridge. Also like I said, one of our goals is our FAY to increase the number of students that we're testing to 100%. I'll go a little more into that later in the presentation and that all students will be at three or higher in the value added evaluation on the state report card. So again, we really spent a lot of time with teaching with intent this school year and we continue to. Teaching with intent was the foundation of both our 20% synchronous instruction and our 80% asynchronous support model. So, it wasn't just our instructional framework and that was a big part of the 20% synchronous coaching that

005I did, but we also have been doing a lot of professional development around how it's an equity centered tool and allows us to ensure clarity, access, and meaningful experiences for our students and families. The school uses egeneuity as the primary learning tool. So, that's our learning management system. Through that we developed a learning intention for just egeneuity and success criteria. So those will be the first two pieces of the teaching with intent framework. What's really great about the success criteria is we found four components that would ensure success if the student was able to complete all those things. Right? But what's even better about that is is conversations with our families become so much more meaningful. And this is a way to restore access um to our families when we're having a disconnect between what's

006going on with the student and the progress we're trying to see. Now, part of this was increasing our test participation and I'm pretty proud of this data. So, between the 2324 school year and the 2425 school year, we fully imple implemented a new system in the school. So you can see we went from about 27% tested to 97% tested for preACT this school year. For ACT in 2324 we had about 47% tested. This year 93% tested. We've tested 100% of our middle school students for forward and 100% of our 10th graders for Forward as well. and all of like that um all that foundational work that we did, we've seen the um benefits of that in our graduation data as well. So 23 24 with summer school. We only graduated about half of our senior

007class. This year we're anticipating 100% of our seniors to graduate without summer school. And that will be the largest graduating class we've ever had in deeper deeper learning virtual academy history, which I know this is our fifth year. the history but you know what I mean I'm still really proud of the work that we've done in such a short amount of time and how from 23 24 to 24 25 the implementation of our systems and working with consultants and subject matter experts allowed us to see such enormous growth and obviously my staff had a big part of that as well just to follow up on last year when we you know we met about well when we got our reduced credit pathway approved I just wanted to give you some of that data that to

008this this year our largest class is 33 and 73% of them are going to graduate with 24 credits 15% is the GED option two and 12% was the reduced credit pathway and currently we're anticipating 100% to graduate without summer school we projected what the next school year would look like about 76% will be 24 credit pathway because we are still always prioritizing 24 credits for our students we're anticipating about 24% reduced credit pathway. It's really hard to say go to right now. We need to review fast bridge scores and we need to you know they need to be tested. The ontrack to graduate is a little low because we looked at summer school. So we have to see how summer school goes. But we have already started the process for summer school and the outreach

009and the phone calls and the filling out the forms and all that good stuff. Okay. So Maya's project and Maya's going to speak in just a moment. Let me just give a little intro to Maya's project. So as you know, Egene serves as our core curriculum platform and that you know presents some challenges when it comes to doing something like this. So Maya did reach out to me about something she was feeling very passionately about and I then um her it ended up her advisory teacher was one who mentored her through this project. So Amaya completed an extension writing project about a topic she found interesting to provide additional practice aligned to the ELA priority standards. The project was completed in collaboration with her advisory teacher that's Misskea. She's actually our teacher of the year.

010She is amazing and deserves all the shoutouts. And later this project will be shared with our school community at we have Tuesday advisory sessions. This work aligns with our final theory of action goal of achieving a value added score of three or higher on the state report card. And now I'm going to let Maya take it away because I've talked enough. >> Thank you for having me here today. Um, so I did a slideshow using surveys and um, students responses. This is a project that means a lot to me. So, thank you for allowing me to share this with you guys today. Um, yeah. Um, today I mastered the priority standard writing three, which is organization, transitions, and word choices. Um, for this portrait of graduate graduate, I'm sorry. Um, the voice I used two,

011your voice is your power. Own it and achieve it. I believe I choose these out of the rest because I found a problem and I decided to have some goals set and decided to have this problem fixed and talked about. Um so just a summary of my slideshow. It's a teen stress and wellness presentation. Um I decided that mental health can be measured with data and this can help having the best outcomes for students. Um, instead of creating more programs, um, we can somewhat find different ways that we can prioritize our students learning and stress. >> Ready? >> Yeah. Okay. Um, so why does this matter to me? Um, so our school talks about mental health and we have very good resources, but I feel like we could maybe measure mental health with data. Um,

012because there are choices that are made without student data and kind of having student perspective on things can help create a much better routine for students instead of more programs. Um I wanted to understand stress beyond feelings, assumptions through real numbers, real patterns and students perspective in voices. Um so here I created a survey. Um I asked about five questions. Here's just three. Um what type of support would actually help you? Anything else you want the schoolboard to know? And how often do you feel stressed during the school week? Um, and this is shared across our school. I kind of just posted this and said that it was annoyance. Anyone could respond to it. So, I got feedback from students across schools. Um, here's the data that I got from 11 responses from students. I

013used qualitative coding and quantitative analysis. Um so for our graph here we have 54 54.5 um responses from the almost every day and a few like yellow and red and green responses but mostly our graph here is showing that students are stressed almost every day of the school week. Um so from the survey that I used I found um four findings. First non-academic stressors are huge. Uncertainty causes more stress than difficulty. Students want structure changes not coping workshops and time of day stress spikes. Um so for my survey I didn't put anything into organizations. I just let the students share what they felt and the students um they put their responses in their own categories. Some of them said, "Oh, well, I just feel like there's so much school work. I am kind of like

014um not getting enough sleep. I'm awake um overnight. I also have work. So, kind of just prioritizing all of that together can sometimes be hard. Um my recommendation that would help students um teachers can like make a student communication feedback loop. So like what I did here today, we can use data. Teachers can use data. Um just a simple question like what part of workshop? I'm sorry, what part of workload felt most overwhelming? Students can respond and during all those feedbacks, um teachers can adjust pacing using real students input. Um there's a um quote that I have here. This is from an actual student. Um should I read that? >> Sure. >> Um so this student said that the pressure that is put on me from my parents, teachers, coaches, and myself. The workload can

015be overbearing and many times it's hard to balance everything on your own. So here's another thing I also had listed. Help without pressure systems. Annoyments from students can submit any time they feel overwhelmed. This can help the problem. Students don't ask for help when needed or even when they need it. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Hey, before we open up to the board, Devin, could you just expound us a tad bit on some strategies you use to improve your numbers? because I think we talked about the numbers but I wanted the board to hear some of the actions and strategies that you guys undertook to get those numbers. Um I think the a lot of things so I'm going to try to be concise right so we created a strategic

016like outreach plan where we took and we also restructured our entire teaching staff right so it was no longer like a middle school and a high school because our high school was so heavy like 90 students and with only like two teachers just wasn't reasonable and we weren't able to support students the way they deserve to be supported. So we started with restructuring the entire teaching staff, right? So now we have a science teacher, social studies teacher, math teacher, English teacher back there and right there and and then we created something called our roundt spreadsheet which is like the heart of our school and we have these like mixed cohorts for advisory and the teachers have a twoe week outreach cycle. So no matter what over a two-eek period every family student should hear from

017the teacher every single two weeks. Now, right, some students need more support than that. So, they're going to get more outreach, but everyone is going to get at least an attempt once every two weeks. And I think that was one of the the big things. In addition to that, we created a proprietary credit tracker and we sit down as a staff and we go through transcripts, we go through credits, and we talk about it together. We make plans together. We also through our PLC work look at our egeneuity data. So, we started to evaluate this is more of a holistic look at our school, right? So we are looking at pacing and we're looking at mastery. Two things we track every single week. So the teachers give me their core data and then I do

018the analysis and then we talk about what we see and we're like are we in red level? Are we at yellow level right? We want our pacing to be you know we want students we don't want to have more than 30% of our students in the red. If we see more than 30% of the students in red like what are the actions that we're all going to take? And that kind of leads us then into our PBIS matrix that we're going to make right when we start to standardize those actions of red, yellow, green. So that's going to all lead into that work and we were just talking about that today. And then we regularly roundt on our students and and then on Wednesday mornings we have a participation meeting. So I guess like in

019general I could give you a lot of details. What we do is we have these standardized meeting times. We're talking about our students. We're looking at data sometimes student data like a certain student's name or sometimes we're looking at how is our whole school doing and and or like what has come from some of those meetings is okay there's certain courses that most of our students are struggling with now what are our actions to support those students so is that I'm hope I'm answering your question Dr. Robinson because I could go into quite a I could go on for quite a while. I wasn't anticipating >> you know with the with the federal joint notification this was some of the things that you guys had to had to do as a as a as a

020school. >> I just wanted to make sure that we are we we were articulated what those strategies were because I think when when we're looking at these numbers we're impressed but there's a story behind that. I just really wanted you to tell that story. >> Yeah. >> Because it's not an easy thing to do >> um you know when it especially in a virtual environment. So what I'm hearing is you had to come up with systemwide strategies in and in and around uh staying in touch with your your students and developing relationships between your staff and your kids. >> It's and which in would also create the confidence that Maya has to be here tonight, >> right? So just kind of bringing all of that together and and where the the board can understand the

021direction that you're going as a as a as a principal of the school and then it's evident in in some of the work that we're seeing. Well, not only in our numbers improving, but also um the product that she's able she she's ready to do a a real >> she's ready to do a dissertation. That's what I was thinking. I'm like, yeah, I mean, I saw mixed methods all over this this this so that's impressive. So I just wanted to just bring >> so to your point like just and maybe in all educational spaces but I can I'm just going to speak to my like particular model of education like the phone call is such a high lever practice and so we we really prioritize picking up the phone and and and talking like real

022real talk you and how did we get those test numbers and how I mean phone calls and I'd make them too like I don't just expect my staff to do that like I'm there making the phone calls we're tracking it on our roundt spreadsheet I can see what everyone else said to everyone. We have a standardized outreach form. I can see all of the outreach, you know. So, I I honestly it's the consistency. Yes. Of like the relationships we're building, especially with a a group that is more reluctant to be like in a space like that, right? And we during the testing season, we did whatever we could to get what to to to make the students feel comfortable, welcomed, and to come and take their tests. And as you can see from my data,

023we struggled when we didn't know. We didn't know the system. We developed the system and it worked really quickly. But you know, it is I am very good at badgering people. I've gotten very very very good and I and I'm not afraid to pick up the phone and call any of my families and I would welcome them to call me at any time as well. >> All right. So then questions, comments from the board. Miss Deal. >> Um, more a comment. I just, um, one, I'm I work in the mental health field, so I think this is an incredibly important, um, subject. So, I love that you brought this up and brought attention to it, but I also just wanted to, you know, say that while I was watching your your presentation, I was like

024taken back to like college, like that's the level that you were presenting at. I mean, that like when I took, you know, I'm a psychology major and so we had to take, you know, research study or whatever, research methods and all that. I literally that's what it took me back to. So, I just want to say that was incredibly impressive and you did a great job on that. >> Thank you, Mr. Tani. >> Um, as an educator myself who's done egeneuity in the virtual world, you know, 5 years ago. Um, kudos to you and your team for figuring out how to do virtual school well. um cuz in the system I thought and educating and very intimidating for students that don't feel supported and give you kudos to you and your team um for making

025it seem easy. So >> I'm glad we make it look >> less daunting. Maybe maybe that's a better word. >> So >> yeah, thank you. >> Other questions, comments from the board? >> Miss Carr. Well, as someone who attends the graduation every year, u 33 um graduates is very impressive. Yeah, because I've been to I think all of them and uh you know there was not nearly I don't even think half of that and so really says that speaks volumes. >> You all right, anyone else? Mr. Becker. Sure. >> Uh thanks very much for coming on out. Thanks for the presentation. Uh I saw the response rate was 11 students. Uh could you tell us how many students was that reaching out to? Was that to the whole high school uh DLVA or is it

026other campuses? >> Um so I didn't have like this um teachers have it in their classrooms or anything. That's why the um graph was kind of low. So from my end I only could have caught like 11 real students respective in responses. Um so basically I put this on like social media. I asked students who are free to have the time to make this um to record their responses in. It would mean a lot and it would be helpful for our school board. Um yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? No. >> May I had a question for you. you uh you're in 11th grade? >> Yes. >> Have you been in DLVA since for a while? >> Um yeah, for my freshman year I went to Central >> for Central. So two years then

027with DVLA >> Yes. >> Deeper Learning. Yeah. DLVA. Sorry. Um have you seen the change um that we're talking about and that has brought you to this this space? >> Um can you explain a little more? >> Sure. So there we talked numbers and how scores have improved and how the it sounds like the rigor of the work has improved. >> Have you noticed a difference as a student on how teachers and other students are interacting? Uh >> um yes. >> Yeah. Student. Okay. So you're seeing it too. Has it been helpful for you? >> Yeah. It's really comfortable. >> Okay. All right. Good. Um, and then the only other thing that I wanted to ask you is with this, um, presentation that you did, uh, is this kind of where you're looking to go?

028They're talking dissertations and thesis and all that other kind of stuff, but is that is this what interests you as you move into the the wider world? >> Yes. >> Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. >> Um, you want to tell them what you want to do after school? Um, so after school I wanted to maybe work in robotics, um, mechanical robotics. Um, so that's basically kind of just selling surgical parts. So I think mental health is definitely something that's important in the real world and in these type of jobs. >> Absolutely. Cool. It's awesome. Um, yeah. No, thank you very much and thank you for sharing and being up there all on your own as the student uh showcase. So well done. Thank you so much and thank you for your time. >>

029Thank you. >> All right. And as we move to our next item, that'll take us to our superintendence report. So once we're all set up for that, who do you need? Do you need me to call neighbor? >> Uh, officer Herpin, would you come on up? So, uh, as I do the uh, complete the superintendent's report tonight, I just wanted to start out, we did have, uh, some news out of Madison, and I wanted to kind of share with the public before we before we go on. Um, there hopefully there's been an agreement on on some sort of um, reallocation of funds from the state level. We're waiting uh more information, but they have reached an agreement that includes $600 million in investment in K12 education, featuring the largest increase to special education reimbursement rate

030in state history and 300 million in general school aid intended to help reduce property taxes. So, the agreement also includes 50 million in support for Wisconsin Technical College as well. So just uh hopefully all sides will finally agree and we'll have a little bit of relief. We're Mr. Norris is uh anxiously waiting on what that means uh as far as moneywise personally as far as our school is concerned. So um you know it's good it's good news. It's good news uh any way you any way you slice it. We have a a bit of a celebrity here and I just wanted to bring him on up right now. Uh not talking about officer Herpin. We're we're actually we're talking about Kane and I had to get some stuff out of the way because I figured

031once we brought him up, nobody's going to be paying attention to me anymore. >> And so, uh, Officer Herp, you want to just tell us where you are as far as like, uh, you know, how's it going? Just just give us an update if you don't mind. Is it okay? >> Yeah. Uh, it's great. Uh, >> I I'll come I'll come sit Kane. I'll take a tough job. >> Yeah, you could take him. Yeah. Yeah. boy. >> Yeah, it's been great. Uh the school's been receiving Kane extremely well. I couldn't even tell you how much the engagement alone has increased with these kids. We have kids that have been so secluded and kind of, you know, behind the scenes when it comes to school. Just, you know, their their studies, their activities inside and outside

032of school. and just his presence alone has really increased some of that engagement where I've seen kids that haven't said a word to staff there that are coming up to me to talk and ask questions mostly about him but uh it's definitely been a barrier breaker uh where it's opened up a lot of different ways to communicate with these kids um and the support uh with kids in crisis uh the support with uh kids that are just genuinely interested um and the soontobe drug detection. So that training is going to happen in the next couple months here and that's just going to expand his abilities that much more. Uh and then he'll officially be one of three dogs in the country that's therapy certified and drug certified. So really excited about that. But uh presence

033alone has just been so huge. Uh I've every school in the district or many school in the districts asking about him. Uh tons of questions just general interest and uh the community's been receiving him well. I have every donor that's contributed to him just knocking on our door asking when we can come and talk about him and just kind of help out um at their businesses. But it's been great and and the support's been huge, especially by you guys. You know, I remember back in uh December coming up in front of you guys to talk about this idea and here we are and we're just uh we're just getting started, you know, just we get we did seven months of this, six months of this. Yeah, it's interesting because he recognizes who the dog people

034are and we had a perfect example back here with Jody where right away Jod's a dog person. He wants to play. He's like play biting. He's got the softest bite in the world. And then in front of him immediately like soft like I just want you to pet me. I want you to love me. So he's he's really good about recognizing that who the dog people are. Um but yeah, the support's been huge and I really appreciate everything you guys have been doing as far as backing this whole thing. And again, we're just getting started. It's great. I love it. He loves it. He loves the attention. I don't exist anymore. I'm totally in the background and I'm okay with that. But, uh, yeah, he's he's great. >> Yeah. >> Thank you for that. Hey,

035I I feel so much calmer. >> Play with K. >> Yeah. >> So, I try to make a visit over there at least once a week, it seems like, to to at least say hello. >> Yeah. >> To Mr. Thompson, of course. >> Uh, no. Really to Kane. I'm really looking for Kane while I'm there. Uh, >> but I did want to recognize uh Principal Thompson in the back. Uh, and who else is here from your team? >> Mr. Mr. >> Also playful with Gravener. He recognizes right away he wants to play with. There's a handful of people like that, but definitely. >> So, u, thank you guys for being here. I appreciate it. >> The month of May, we have mental health awareness month. We also have Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month and

036Memorial Day will be coming up in two weeks, right? Two weeks. Yeah, two weeks. All right. Teacher Appreciation Week. Last week, we celebrated our amazing WAWWM staff and the impact they make on lives of students each and every day. Their dedication, compassion, and commitment to excellence helped shape the future of our schools and community. We would also like to thank the many organizations, businesses, families, and community groups who generously provided meals, treats, gifts, and messages of appreciation throughout the week. Special shout out to our comm's team for uh helping um as well from a district standpoint and getting things out to our schools. Happy Mother's Day. Belated at this particular point, but every day is Mother's Day. So um to to the mothers that are that are here uh on our board as well to

037those who are in the audience. I hope yesterday was everything that you wanted it to be. So uh thank you to all the moms and mother figures who lead with love, support, learning, and inspire every day. We appreciate you today and every day. uh yesterday. You know, it's Mother's Day is always a tough one for me personally, but it meant a lot um to just send a text message to the ladies in my life who have uh really fill the gap uh to provide that motherly love. And so, just let uh my my uh my godmother know how much I appreciated her and Dr. Johnson, who I talk about all the time, who watches all of my meetings. So, um just just those two in particular are just have to give them their shout out.

038Then of course my wife who um who's my um my biggest supporter, my biggest critic, but if I wanted want to know the the honest to god truth, I will get it from her and I appreciate that about her. So I just love her to death and uh so I just wanted to say that special shout out to all of our mothers today. Uh other updates and I won't be long. Uh had a pretty busy week and a half. So these are all of our our uh my meetings for the last couple of weeks and visits. We have this this uh evening Toby Toby Wymer. Toby is a senior at Daki. She's a member and uh two-year captain of the central dance team and she's a senior girl scout and Badgerette Palm Palm Camp Allstar.

039So Toby um you want to tell us what's going on at Daky? >> Yes. So we have our exhibition night coming up. It's in a little less than a month. It is on June 9th, I believe. So, make sure to come see that to see all our cool projects. And then, do Key that our attendance is at an all-time high right now. Is the highest it has ever been. It is, I think, 92.4% and we're aiming for 93% at least. And then we have the chef, culinary celebrity guy coming on May 19th. I'm not super sure about that. But yeah, he's coming on May 19th. And yeah, that's pretty much it. I I do want to send a a shout out to uh principal Greg Gails. Uh he he knows he's uh I have been

040on him over the last couple years, bought that attendance, and so um it it's good. He every time he he sees me, he talks he gives me that number. And so uh to know that u they I think where our goal for high school was 91%. So they've exceeded that which is uh which is a great thing. So we we know that attendance will will only improve graduation rates. Like it just really has a trickle down effect when you talk about improving that one stat. So we really put a lot of emphasis on improving attendance at our school. So thank you Toby for that. That concludes my report this evening. >> All right. Thank you very much. Uh that will take us to our public comments uh section at this time. So at this time,

041if anyone would like to address the board, you may sign up in the back of the room or in the Zoom link in the chat. Uh introduce yourself with your name and address. You have three minutes to provide comments. The board cannot discuss, debate, or act upon any item during uh the public comments portion of the schoolboard meeting. Follow-up may be provided by the superintendent at the next regularly scheduled board meeting. At this time, I do not see anyone signed up, so I'll hold it open for a moment. Um, see if anyone does sign up. All right. And seeing no one sign up at this time, I will close the public comments section and we will move on to our board reports section, starting with the review of our board calendar, which I closed. So,

042I'll need to open that back up here for a second. All right. And at this time for the calendar, all we have on the docket. so far is tonight, May 11th, we have a regularly scheduled board meeting with a teaching and learning workshop uh for the 612 social studies adoption. And then two, as kind of a switch up because of the Memorial Day coming up, uh we have another regularly scheduled board meeting on May 18th as well. So, next week we'll see you here again. Uh and that is all we have for the board calendar which will take us to committees which we have none. So 9.2 is gone. And then that would take us quickly to 9.3 um member reports of community excuse me community events. Does anyone have anything that they would like

043to share out? Sure. Mr. Verbos. >> Uh I uh I was I was biased and I attended because my child was involved but I went to the West Ellis Central uh band performance. Um the spring the spring band concert's fantastic because you get all the uh they hand out the varsity letter like the pins and they give the recognitions for the seniors that are completing their tenure. Um you know and there's some there there's some great kids there. Uh there's the one that Frankie talks about. Uh Lilia was who joined percussion as a senior and was spectacular and was hugely contributing to them going to state for solo ensemble with their percussion ensemble. Um and then they announced the new uh drum majors and whatnot which is Shayon Kenzora who is Frankie's best friend who

044is fantastic. Um very excited for that. Uh but it's it's a it's a cool thing to go to in the spring because it is like that passing of the torch over while recognizing the the kids that have put in the time and done a lot of great work. So, I did that. That's about it. >> Awesome. Thank you. Other board reports, Mr. Tani, >> again, biased. Um, I attended the Jefferson math night um this past week and um they did a fantastic job. Uh had to drag my kids out of there uh 10 minutes past the end time. And then uh yesterday uh my wife and girls attended the mommy and me tea night at the recck department and um from everything I saw it was a fantastic event um and they really kept them

045engaged for all two hours. So kudos to that team as well. >> Excellent. Thank you others. Yeah, Miss Deal >> BJ had a joke. Um I was able to attend and yes because both my kids kids are involved in this but I was able to attend the uh Hail uh band concert and then also the FLW orchestra concert which are always fabulous. What was really impressive at Hail was they do the same thing obviously as Central is I swear the like half of the band got up like like half of the band is graduating. They had like 25 kids up there. It was so impressive and every I believe every single one of the kids had been in band for all four years. So they all got the pink um cord. It was just like

046really it was just really it was really cool experience. So, um a shout out again to our music program. We you know our our kids are very lucky to have um such great teachers. So, >> thank you Mr. Becker. Uh half credit cuz my kid was there too. Uh but uh saw the saw the the Hail Spring concert and I can't add to anything more than Miss Deal just said. It really was nice to see all the seniors honored. Special shout out to Mr. Leser for calling us out by name, making me duck down and hide. Um, uh, also made it to a track meet on Saturday. So, hats off to all the people making that work. Uh, teachers, coaches, parents at the the, um, concession stand. Uh, great to see everybody out there. >>

047All right. Thank you. Any other reports? >> Yeah, you can do a double report. >> I'm sorry. I forgot that I actually did attend the the state solo and ensemble performance for for Essentials percussion. Uh which >> they didn't do as well as they wanted to, but it was still fantastic to to get to hear it in the uh in the auditorium at uh Carol College was was really great. Um they sounded great when they did the performance at Central, but getting getting to hear it in a in a better room, it was it was much more impressive. And that's the same the same level of excitement as as the solo and ensemble at at the school as well. I mean, seeing the kids and they're they're doing some amazing work in the change ups.

048I saw they cleared out. It was the fastest tear down and clear out that that Miss Gandre had ever seen. And then the next the next school went in and we were still standing outside trying to pack up the gear and they were already loading out. Like the next school was already loading out. It was just gang busters. So also great experience. >> Nice. Thank you. Uh Mr. Lee, you have uh something to share as well. >> Indeed I do. Thank you very much. Uh I was able to attend the FLW orchestra concert and I will give myself uh 66% credit because I uh only had uh one child that was participating. But I did listen to the other two grades when they played uh and they did a wonderful job uh as uh Mary

049Pad Boys ensures that they do. Uh and then I also did uh attend the state soul ensemble. Uh I was able to watch uh two performances for uh Hail's two different orchestra uh groups that made the state ensemble which both received a one rating. So, it was a a wonderful experience for everyone involved and our students definitely um uh were able to represent our district well. Um I also attended a very large track meet at Whitnull, I'm sorry, at um yeah, it was Whitnull uh couple weeks ago. Um and was able to watch my son participate as well as some of the other uh runners uh that were running at the same time. Uh and so uh the coach does a great job ensuring that our students have a wide range of competition to compete

050against uh in in hail track. So just wanted to mention that as well. >> All right. Thank you so much. Anyone else? Anyone else? >> No. Uh no. I was I I figured with all the sports going on that Miss Lee would like to just share out that she was everywhere. >> Yeah. >> It took me a minute. I had to think of where I've been and it actually wasn't sports school related anyway, but um I did pop in at the Nathan Hill prom. Um and this was the first time I was actually ever able to actually stop in and those guys know how to have a good time. So kids look like they were having a great time. They looked amazing. So and uh considering the way our weather has been, they got some

051pretty decent weather. So we were all very happy. >> Thank you. All right. Anyone else? No, just me. um with again probably the 66% because my son also was playing at Franklidd, right? But um yeah, I I can't say really any more besides that, you know, watching the the middle school uh do their work is just that microcosm of the larger orchestra events that we have where you can see the different levels going through there and just seeing each grade and how they transition and how they're just that much better than they were the year before. just kind of fun to watch. So, I was able to make it to that as well. Um, but if there's nothing else, it'll take us to our other updates. And I don't think at this time I have

052any other updates. So, we will move right into our consent agenda, which includes 10.1 our approval of minutes, 10.2 our employment summary, and 10.3 the supplementary contracts. Does anyone need anything separated? No. Then I would entertain a motion at this time. >> Move to approve 10.1, 10.2, 10.3. Second. >> All right. I have a motion and a second. Do I have any questions on that motion? Seeing none. All in favor? >> I. >> Those opposed. All right, that passes and that will take us into our action items of the night, which is going to be 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, but these are our Neola bylaw and policy updates. Uh, that be led by Dr. Robinson and Mr. Norris. >> Sorry, I didn't even know we were ready. We ready? >> We're ready. >> I'm sorry.

053>> No, no, you're fine. So, so this evening we're going to go through uh in our action items 11.1. 11.1 is divided into three different sections though. It's 11.1.1.2 and 11.1.3. What I've what we we tried to do I can't take credit. Sarah has a has played a major part in this is trying to get this organized in a way where I I figure if I can understand it then I better help me to allow you to understand it. So I tried to break it down as much as I could um for the public um just to just to give a little clarification the different sections. So 11.1.1 and are what's called 35-1. They are released in November 2025 from Niola and they all involve special updates school support organizations and special updates of act

05457. So that's all three of them, but in particular 11.1.1 is 351, which are all revised, new or replacement um policies. Okay. So what I wanted to do uh is go through a few of these because some of them I think some have more interest than others. In particular, I wanted to talk about uh 5136, which is the personal communication devices. This was um based on um bill that was passed last November that required um restriction of technology use by students inside of schools, in particular, personal technology uh use. this uh it it allowed for strict um uh language. However, it does have some loose interpretations where it wants school districts to still have that flexibility to enforce within their means. The good thing about this policy is we were given until July third, July

0551st to come up with our own iteration within the statute. So, this is where we are right now. the the state requires us to to create uh a new policy by the f the 1st of July. We don't have to create a brand new policy because we already had one in place. So we are revising our policy to fit within the parts of our current policy that do not fit within the state statute particular are um the wireless technology which would be any headphones um the glasses that are available now the meta glasses all of that kind of stuff it's not within our the the scope of the 2023 version that this board approved okay because of the advancement of technologies um we We the in the 2023 uh policy there was already some flexibility

056around non-instructional time. That's where the cafeteria use comes in at secondary that will remain because the policy is strictly for instructional time. Okay. So I wanted to provide that clarification. What we're trying to do right now is once um I if the board uh approves it tonight, we will have some runway from now until the end of the year to work with our leadership on how to uh start to to kind of get acclimated to what the the new life and new standards are going to be as far as the state of Wisconsin are concerned in schools when it relates to um personal technology. So there will not be any um punishments of sorts right now. Uh we're not looking to that. We're looking to right now to create an environment where kids are not

057distracted. That's our focus. Okay. Our focus is that. So what we're going to do the remainder of the year is try to work with our school leadership on uh signage communication home conversations with students, teachers, and working on on how that looks. and then we'll we'll be prepared for the for the next school year. Uh in talking with principles this week, I've already communicated that. I was talking with uh Brian Summerfield today and just trying to make sure we're on the same page, but reassuring that we're not expecting tomorrow you to come in and say this is the way it is. That's not reasonable. Okay, that's not what what we're doing. We would not never expect anybody to do that. So, uh, we we're again, we're just using it as a runway until the end

058of the school year to try to make sure we have the message clear and that we're providing, um, some guidance to our schools around that. Okay. What I'll do is I'll stop and pause rather for any questions or comments anybody have on in particular on 5135. >> Anyone have any questions on 5135? >> Was it 35 or 36 or 30 36? I had 36. Right. number >> 36. All right. U Mr. Lee, we saw you had a question. >> Yeah. Thank you. I just I wanted to clarify that the addition of the wireless information. This is um essentially a requirement of the act that was passed by the state that we have to add this into our current policy. >> He was he was asking if this is a requirement by the state to include

059the wireless component of our policy. Correct. >> Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to make it clear that this >> Yes. Yes, sir. I'm sorry. I don't know if you hear me. Yes, sir. Wireless communication specifically is in there. Now, it's in there where it says wireless communication, but that could be broad right now. Okay. So, we're trying to use sort of a our own interpretation of what that would cover. And that's why we're saying strictly for instructional time. That's where we're no wireless. Uh I'm thinking AirPods. I'm thinking that headphones, watches, those kind of things uh during the instructional time would not be allowed under this new policy. That's correct. >> Okay. Yeah, I was just checking to say this is not we're adding it in more so this is to comply with the new

060state law. >> I'm sorry that that's your question. That's 100%. This is not a Terrence Robinson wants to do this thing. This is we're trying to get in in and to be compliant with um Act 42. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I and the reason I'm bringing up is because normally we would go through a process communicating with staff and parents or and uh students to see what you know what they think would be reasonable, but this is really something where our hands are more tied. So, thank you for that. >> All right. Any other questions from the board on this one? All right. And then I just as a for my own clarification, we're kind of piloting what might be happening up until July 1 and then that's when we're going to look at

061solidifying that for the fall. >> If you want to use the word piloting that that's fine. That's a that's an adequate uh use adequate word to use right now. >> Um yeah, but I think a lot the communication will be going home tomorrow. Okay. >> With parents to talk about the action tonight. We've already have that prepared, >> but yes, it will definitely be a piloting period, but we'll work with our principles and our teachers on how to how to >> monitor that and implement that. Yes. >> Okay. All right. Sounds good. Thank you. Any other questions then? No. >> No. So, I just go ahead. >> 11.1 >> you. Okay. Do you want to separate 1.1 and 1.2? 1.3. >> Correct. >> Okay. All right. Um, then we're going to look for a motion

062then at this time for 11.1. Motion to approve 11.1.1. >> Second. >> All right. I have a motion and a second. Uh any adjustments to that motion? >> All those in favor? >> I those opposed. All right. 11.1 passes. That'll take us to 11.1.2. 11.1.2. These particular uh policies all are um discussing the following topics. Student protection, financial transparency and legal compliance, equity and integrity, community involvement with boundaries, district branding and liability protection as well as support for uh student leadership. So these particular uh policies all are in that particular area. the majority of the changes are around crowdfunding um um practices that we we know if um we've had to kind of get a hold of uh in a as a district and come up with some some some real um uh systemwide strategies

063around monitoring that and not getting out of control because we do not want the district to be on the hook for something that we that's not following our particular policy. So we had to really make sure that we had these kind of things there. There are companies that are popping up left and right that do this. A lot of them do not have great reputation. Some do, but we've limited that which ones that are are that we consider to be the more um useful for for the things that we're doing in our district. So, that's that's the gist, but um these are all around crowdfunding, gifts, grants, and and requests um school support organizations as well as relations with uh non-school affiliated groups. So all of it is around student organizations and funding. Okay. So

064move for a motion. >> Before we do that, are there any questions on this section and the changes that are? >> No. All right. Then at this time, I would entertain a motion. >> Move to approve 11.1.2. >> Second. >> All right. I have a motion and a second. Is there any adjustments to that motion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I >> I >> those opposed. All right, that passes as well. Continuing on our riveting journey. Uh 11.1.3 11.1.3. There are two policies in particular. Um well actually four, but there's one is broken up into different three different subsets. So it's uh policy 1213, 3213, and 4213. All three deal with student supervision and welfare. Uh and then policy 8642 is child abuse and neglect. These are all revisions to these particular policies and

065uh to be uh more aligned with um the the updates of act 57 um from 2025 and and um act 5. Yeah, act 57 for both of them actually. So these both both um uh both of these particular changes are getting in line with the policy changes from last year. >> Questions on any of that? >> Mr. Tani? >> Um if I could ask a clarification question on what Act 57 includes in there. So I see it says >> Sure. notification of sexual sex sexual misconduct reports by 5:00 pm on the same day. So, could you expand on that, please? >> Yeah. So, it it it Act 57 establishes uh strict new requirements for school districts regarding notification of parents when a report of sexual misconduct by a staff member is received. Under this law,

066school boards, private schools, and charter oper operators must notify the parents of any student alleged to be a victim or target if there's a reasonable cause suspect the conduct occurred. And um the act mandates a timely response requiring notification by 5:00 p.m. the same day if a report is received during school hours. >> Can I ask a follow-up? Um so this is not the person is found guilty of it. They're just there's just a report of >> this. This is if if if someone if if there's something that's happened to your child, the school is required to notify you >> that that there's been an allegation. >> Oh, just you, not all parents. >> No, it's just the the victim. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Any further question? >> That's from a staff member.

067Okay. It says a staff member, not anything outside. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Thank you for the clarifiers. Any questions on that then? All right. Uh, seeing none, I'd entertain a motion for this. >> Move to approve 11.1.3. >> Second. >> All right. I have a motion and a second. Is there any adjustment to that motion? Seeing none, all those in favor? >> I. >> Those opposed. All right. That will pass as well, which will then move us on to 11.2. That's you, right, Mr. Norris? >> Okay, go ahead. >> All right, great. Well, thank you. Um, I have a short presentation tonight, but it's an annual item that we've kind of taken up here in May annually around uh end of year budget. And so, um, the first meeting in May

068is kind of historically when we've had this conversation. So, I want to walk through our end of the year projection and kind of walk the board through where revenues came in, where expenses are projected, and kind of a a um a target plan to expense up to the budget for the year um what that would look like. So, again, as I kind of said, it's uh budget amendments are normal part of the process for us. they occur close to year end and um it's our best guess of where we're going to land and we're close enough to know where our encumbered expenses are, where our school budgets are, department budgets, payroll are certainly able to project out and then um we have until u mid July to make any end ofear transfers for state aid

069purposes. So it's something that we'll continue to look at, but this is kind of a summary of what that looks like. So you can see in the in the left you see the fund 10 revenues and fund 10 expenses. All their funds are required to balance. So for budget amendments, we focus um purely on fund 10. You can see what the board approved in October was a balanced budget, 126 million roughly. And you can see I want to focus on expenses first. Expenses came in very very close. So we had about um a little a little over 700,000 in in a surplus just in expenses. And I'll talk about why that is. And our revenues came in um that's the the lion share of the of the budget surplus today is revenue. So, I want

070to get into that, but I want to show you that, you know, we we really did a good job of projecting expenses to the degree that we can. And uh revenues is the point that I want to focus on tonight. So, from an an expense perspective, like you might ask, well, where is the 700,000 in expense savings coming from? It's really three things e e equally here. Um savings from salary and benefits. What that is is if there are hiring delays like someone quits mid year and we post the position, if that position goes unfilled for three or four weeks and that person had family benefits, those things can exponentially increase over time, right? You know, you get seven, eight positions. Depending on the length of time, that can end up being a full FT

071that could be $80,000, etc. Right? Um we had some OPED benefit savings. That's from our uh OPED redevelopment plan. So, we projected a higher amount. It came in a little bit less. That's an expense savings. And then utilities were actually less than we thought given kind of the energy I wouldn't say crisis, but I'm sure a lot of you have seen increases in your energy bills. We expected the same. It came in less, which is great. Um, that's kind of the expense summary. The the revenue piece is that interest rates are really the focal point of this conversation. Interest rates, if you go back to early fall, the conversation from the Fed, a lot of pressure federally was to cut rates, cut rates, cut rates. our projection given our fund balance was that rates were

072going to be cut and they haven't and so we've been able to um make money off our money. So we projected a little over 700,000 here in um in interest and we're going to make another 1.4 on top of that. So really great news there. Additional revenues, we had some technology sales. So when we refreshed equipment, the sale of that technology exceeded the the revenues there. uh we uh received more money in Medicaid claims and then we received some delayed UHC credits for our um um uh our wellness clinic. So that that in some is about 2.7 million and that's projected at this point, but that's what we're looking at. So um kind of a a projection here or a plan that we're we're looking for the board to give some feedback on and and

073hopefully approve this evening is the 2.7 million is about 2% of our budget. Okay, just give you some context to the overall summary here. So, a lot of money, but a small portion of our budget, right? So, we're um in in in I guess in comparison to prior years, some of the thinking here is that a portion of it we've always recommended the board go back to staff because a portion of these dollars are staff having to backfill for other staff and schools. So, uh we're we're uh looking at a $1.6 million for year-end staff bonuses for our staff. uh we would like to transfer up to a half million dollars into our fund 46 for deferred uh maintenance that helps us with state aid and allows us to continue uh our capital improvement plan.

074Um a number of things here in programming additions. So we're we would like to spend $200,000 from music and teched. I want to just read a couple things from the music department. So $200,000 or it's a h 100,000 each. Okay. So, um, the $100,000 would be spent on, uh, choir risers at Horus man, Hoover, Franklin, and Wilson. Um, a new set of keyboards for our FLW orchestra at Hoover, Walker, Mitchell, Irving, Franklin, Wilson, Jefferson, Man. Um, some of these words I can't pronounce, so I won't try. Okay, I admit. Um, but just this section of replacement of equipment elementary is about $30,000. And the these are things that refreshing the equipment kids use. Not every kid can come with their family producing these. So getting into the buildings and I've asked Mary Pat to do

075this, so thank you to her for the work she did after school to work with staff to get in there and go, "What stuff hasn't been touched in 10 years?" And so that's some of that. Um there's also replacement of keyboard dollies, which haven't been replaced in over 10 years. That's $10,000. Uh ORF instrument set of seven at West Milwaukee is $5,000. There's new trombones at West Milwaukee and cases FLW instrument repair that's 5,000 amps and speakers another 2,000. So this list goes on and on but you can see it's spread wide across the schools. Same thing with technical education. I have a whole spreadsheet here of all the in all the equipment tools machines that are needed across the school district but uh really focusing uh on secondary there. Um the school building equipment

076purchases our schools elementary and secondary were st budget at 75%. So uh when we were projecting a surplus uh we reached out to them and said hey what are the things you guys need in the in the buildings and so these things range from you know equipment that's less than $1,000 for money for field trips to uh you know new new desks and chair things like that. So that's that list that's linked in there. um a new uh gifted and talented curriculum from Melissa's department. And then some facility upgrades here. Um $40,000 for vape detection systems. That's going to be the actual vape detectors in the bathrooms. That would be um installed uh at Hail and FLW this summer. And then at Central ongoing cuz the work for the referendum at Hale and FLW happened

077this summer. Those will get installed while they're doing that. And then since the bathrooms at Central aren't going to get renovated, we'll have to work through those getting installed this school year. Be consistent. um our building radios are just in really bad shape across the district. So Marla's been working across the board on you know which are in the worst shape and we're going to have to get new repeater systems and to things to that extent. So $100,000 really takes a huge chunk of that and addresses that for our schools. And then um our two vans at Central are in pretty bad shape. So this is actually for um two um not brand new but slightly used vans but you know in really good shape to get those replaced. So, that's kind of the the

078the ask tonight. And the this is a an example of the loyalty bonus. You'll notice the amounts don't change cuz one of the pieces of feedback we got from the board is that our budget amendments every year come a little bit short. So, we end up having a surplus. So, you can see that that's actually 1.8. But through this process that we're implementing this year for staff to receive the bonus, they need to acknowledge that. And then the caveat is staff must return for the school year which is measured by a returned contract or be a retiree. So if someone's resigning at the end of the year they would not receive this. Um but if they meet those criteria and acknowledge they will get that pending your approval tonight. Um so we actually project that

0791.8 is going to come down to about 1.6 which is why those numbers don't match. Just kind of point of reference there. Um and that's based off historically kind of where that's come in at. So, so I think with that pending um questions, I'd turn over to President Burns for facilitate questions. >> All right. Are there questions from the board about any of these costs and things moving up forward? Sure. Mr. Becker, >> I had one question on the new line panels. It seems like we've still been rolling them out. Um I was curious when is this just the last handful of classrooms? Cuz I I wasn't sure. I couldn't recall the exact end date for the rollouts. Yeah, I I overstepped that one. So, thanks for bringing that up. So, we we actually I

080I think Jod's here, her and Joanna went through the schools and we realized that we missed um a number of schools through the first wave and so this is going to catch us up so that every school is is completed. >> Okay. >> Yeah, this is the last wave. I >> ju just to add I I I asked the same question like I was I was panicking a little bit. So, so really and truly sometimes uh rooms are repurposed and so this is to kind of pick up those rooms that have been repurposed and now we're using them. We didn't use them at first and that wasn't a a board mounted in in that room. So now we have room uh buildings that are at capacity. So we need every every room in some of

081our buildings that didn't have them before. That's that's what's happening right now. It's kind of catching up on some of those those rooms that we didn't do before. >> And 105,000 of that is the panels and 36,000 is carts. Yeah. >> So just to for the breakdown of that so you guys know. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And I'm trying to remember what the carts were. I actually I didn't actually look up what they were. I was curious what that was too. Yeah. Each cart >> there's an option. They either have it mounted on the cart so you can move it around or it's >> Oh, okay. I have seen those. I see. Okay. Thank you. >> And I got to give it to to our IT our facilities and then Joden they actually went and

082J they actually went and met with every principal and met with every teacher to go like hey what would work best in this room? What would work best for you? And so we tried the best we can to customize that for the classroom. So that's some of some teacher preferences in that as well. So yeah. >> All right. Other questions? I believe Mr. Lee, do you have your hand up? >> I do indeed. Um, thank you. >> So um I have no issue with any of these um these suggestions. I would just wanted to make note about the 75% um elementary budgets that we had approved uh for last year. And it seems at this point we are coming up with a surplus each year. Um and so I'm just bringing this up now that

083I hope that in the budget that we're going to look at for next year that we would try to keep those budgets at 100%. Um those funds being used throughout the entire school year I think serves those those schools better than just doing something at the very end. Although I'm glad to see that we're able to do something uh for those schools that only had 75%. So, thank you. >> I I agree, Mr. Lee, that the budget presented um a month ago included 100% for next year. So, I I agree. Yeah. >> Yeah. I I I agree as well. I think just just remembering though last year around September, the funds didn't come in and so we had to start making some adjustments to make sure that we were able to >> to to uh

084to function. I mean, quite honestly, our our title funds were not not here >> yet. So there was a delay, but because of that delay, I I would agree that our budgets need to be at 100%, but it was also trying to figure out if we're going to even make it. >> Yeah. >> Certainly. Thank you. Other questions about any of this? >> No. All right. Well, then at this time, I would entertain a motion. >> Move to approve uh sorry, move to approve 11.2 to the 2526 budget amendments. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Is there any adjustment to that motion? >> Seeing none, uh, all those in favor? >> I, >> those opposed. All right, that passes, Mr. Norris. Thank you. >> All right, the the next thing I have

085on here is a is a resolution approving a a permanent easement at Persing. And so, um, a couple quick things. the the easements from Wei Energies requires board approval authorization for Dr. Robinson to issue that easement. It gives We Energies essentially the authority to go on district property to provide maintenance to do upgrades. Um certainly not just on their own. They let us know, but it allows them to essentially do that without um requiring the school district to like turn the key and let us do it, right? Um, so the the the extent at Persing is they already have an easement which brings them from the back of Persing's building kind of up through the playground and then there's an alley if you can picture Persian where the staff park. The easement they're requesting is

086just access to the alley because the district actually owns that property and so they want to upgrade the um the I guess there's a word I'm missing. The underground cable that goes from the alley up to the school and they want to install looping cable. So that would get done hopefully this summer. they're planning to do and the thing they keep they had told Steve is that by upgrading that cable it would allow you know if there's power out the delay in getting that back online is going to significantly cut down and they they even further said especially with having an elevator get put in so there's a couple things they wanted to look at that and that led to this process so just for background on kind of how this came to be so

087all right questions on that all All right. Uh, then at this time I'd entertain a motion. >> Move to approve 11.3 resolution approving underground easement at Persing Elementary School. >> Second. >> All right. I have a motion and a second. Uh, is there any adjustment to that motion? Seeing none, all those in favor? >> I those >> got wait for the delay. Those opposed. All right, that will pass. Uh then we will move on to 11.4 our CISA 1 agreement for services. Good evening. Um so this is an annual so for those of you who have been on um this is an annual uh piece that we need to do in order to take a look at the agreement of services that we have with CISA 1. Um, we do a review each year to

088determine what exactly is on there, what are projections for what we're going to need for the next year, as well as keeping a bit of a buffer for potential needs for next year. Um, so those have been reviewed and the agreement that that you've been able to take a look at is what we were able to finish with for this year. So, our recommendation is for the CISA1 membership that allows us uh to take part in all of the services, trainings, many things that occurred throughout the school year. Um seats for specialized programs for when we have students who have needs that they may need a a a placement outside of the school district for a period of time in order to get some intensive uh services and make their way eventually back to our

089school district. Uh so that's what Turning Point, New Connections and Project Success are for different levels of ages of students and the seats that we have set are over the years it's been very consistent throughout the year what how many seats we've needed. Um it begins where it's like we may have an open seat for part of the year then at some point if a student needs that. So, just so that you're aware that the the slot that we um do in this agreement, we only pay for if we do end up actually using that that designated seat that we have. But this way, it holds seats in a sense for us should they be necessary. And then finally for the educational aiologist who does the aiology exams for our students in order to determine

090the um for deaf and heart of hearing services that our students may need as we don't have that specifically within our district readily available. So it's a service that they need to provide for us. Any questions about the CISA agreement? >> Questions on the CISA agreement? So this is something that we do yearly I guess. Can you speak a little bit to the like the value that we get from this? Like is it is it worth the money that we're spending is essentially >> um particularly for the seats if we have students who need outside placements in comparison with some of the other places that we we use for example at Richardson or Jennese Lake. Um, yes, this is it's not as intense of a level as those places, but without this, that's where we

091would have to be going and those definitely cost more for for our students. So, to have this as an option to be able to go like potentially as a bridge if necessary is definitely a a benefit to us. >> No one has uh Mr. Lee, you have a question. I do indeed. I always ask this. Um, in comparison to last year, I know you said it's pretty consistent as far as the seats, but the actual cost of the contract this year, um, compared to last year or years past, is this increased decreased about the same? I mean, at this point, because there were a few items that we had in the past that we don't need any longer that we were able to reduce, we've been a we were able to do a a fairly

092significant decrease for this year because there's other services that we've been able to provide within district. >> Okay, that's great information to know. Thank you. >> Mhm. >> All right. Anything else then? All right. Seeing nothing at this time I would entertain a motion. >> Move to approve 11.4 the 2026 27 CISA1 agreement for services. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Is there any adjustment to that motion? Seeing none. All those in favor. >> Those opposed. All right. And that will pass. Thank you very much everyone. Thank you both. And that will take us to our workshop of the teacher and learning uh 612 social studies adoption workshop. Give you a moment to set up for that. Oh, >> reel it in. Reel it in. >> All right. Thank you. We're

093just congratulating people on on how they're working here tonight. Doing a nice job. Um, Miss Braz, uh, you may take it away with your >> Okay. Wonderful. Thank you for having us here this evening. We're excited to share with you our process around our social studies resource adoption. I'm going to set us up by just grounding us as a board as well as the community and um what this process looks like holistically. So, beginning last year, we started to evaluate our um resources around social studies as well as that programming. Is it working? Is it not? Are there um new courses we need? what does the sequence look like? So, that's all part of a curriculum resource and adoption cycle. And then this year, we've spent a lot of time investigating resources, piloting resources, um

094getting feedback from all of our different stakeholders on what resource is best um for our 612 students in the area of social studies and we are coming to you with a recommendation this evening for that. Um, I will say also just to name this is a really collaborative process with our finance team as well. So, we have these adoption cycles set out for years in advance so we know what ones are coming, what content areas we're going to review um and and our teachers know that they can be part of that process too. And then we're aligning it with the state budget. So we ensure that we are um being really strategic with the the resources that we do have is also a really highly collaborative process with our content experts which are our teachers.

095So we have two of them here with us this evening. We have Miss Jill Miller from Central and Mr. Jason Graner from West. So they'll be here to provide any context and color to questions that you might have um following our short presentation. And then finally, um, I am going to turn it over to Miss Emma Kelly. She's done a phenomenal job of leading this working committee around our curriculum adoption for 612 social studies and really guiding them to what's best for all of our students in this content area. So without further ado, hi everyone. Um, it's good to see you all. Um so I'm going to sort of provide um a lot of information about our purpose and context. What was our process specifically in this adoption um or the piloting uh we're going

096to share our final recommendation. We're going to share uh teacher feedback and levels of support and then our budgets and next steps. So uh we have Jill and Jason here but this is they are a very small part of our very large committee that we had um throughout this process we had at least one person from every school building um with this process of both piloting the resources having discussion about what is top priority for our students. So, our purpose, of course, is to select a 612 social studies resource for us to adopt. Um, we wanted to make sure we were in uh we had alignment to both our Wisconsin state standards and the C3 inquiry framework. Um, and we wanted to make sure that we identified a resource that resource that teachers can implement

097with fidelity. So although I am uh new to us this past August, we started um uh in October with this process where I started to meet with representatives um from various resources and then our committee met for the first time in November where we made sure we we talked about outcomes of this resource. What did we really want to emphasize for the next several years? Um and then we had our first training by HMH. Um and teachers began piloting HMH starting in December and through January as well. In January they also were then trained in Savas um so that they could begin piloting in February and um then in March they had a very brief training originally with McGra Hill and then when we met as a committee in April um teachers requested more time

098with McGra Hill. So, um, between that and our decision-making, we met with the board committee to share our findings and where we were at with the process. And then April 30th, we got together for the last time to decide on McGra Hill as the final recommendation. >> Can you just add why McGraill was more of a brief training? >> Sure. Yeah, McGraill has been the resources resource that our secondary social studies teachers have used for many years at this point. So it was originally brief because teachers have had they've used this resource right for many years. Um but there's a lot of updates which we'll be able to share with you all and so they wanted more time to dig into that. So this is the criteria that we use as a committee to make

099our final decision. This is something that um uh the district uses right as uh to make these decisions. We really focused on our alignment um our emphasis on deeper learning with collaboration and problem solving. Um what are the scaffolds and supports look like for multilingual students, students who receive services with an IEP, students who are gifted and talented. Um we wanted to make sure our materials were culturally relevant and representative of our diverse student body. the content is um able to be delivered within a reading appropriate grade level that we're able to progress monitor uh included both online and paper materials and then on the right hand side you can see um just sort of the content specific focus that that our committee decided was really important in this process. So that included uh the

100inquiry framework, opportunities to produce um both projects and argumentative writing, um focus on disciplinary literacy and diverse narratives and perspectives. And the last bullet point, I'm not sure why I skipped it, is we wanted to focus on that professional development and what was available to teachers. So after teachers um piloted each resource, I took the criteria, the district criteria, and I had them rate their their support of each of the criterion from a scale of one to four. So this hopefully visually captures where teachers sort of landed in each of the categories. Um and then their average at the end. So although Savis and McGraill were close, McGraill did come out on top with a 3.25. 25 um average support. So our strengths and limitations or considerations every resource was a strength uh had some

101strengths and every resource had some areas of consideration. Um where HMH they teachers really liked the visuals and the writing the big idea framing. Um there considerations where there were not a lot of differentiation tools for teachers to use and it would have been a really high implementation lift from uh based on their experience. Savis had uh strengths in primary sources and scaffolds. Their navigation was really easy for the digital platform but their considerations were they would need a lot of support with actual lesson structure and there were some complicated tech pieces that teachers experienced. McGra Hill had strengths in the standards and inquiry alignment. They also had strengths in primary sources and goal alignment um clear and aligned assessments. Uh and there would we would be able to provide um higher teacher support because

102of the cost which I'll go into in a few slides. their considerations which I have since been able to connect with McGraill to sort of figure out how we can tackle these considerations is um pacing concerns that the text is difficult could be difficult more rigorous and that they would need we would need planning support um as well. So in addition to having teachers review um and sort of assess their um each of the resources, I also asked for teacher feedback on the selection process itself. So um I had a Google form where I asked teachers to share um do they feel like their input was was heard, was listened to, um do they feel like they understood the criteria? Um and what was their overall confidence in the group's ability to make a final

103decision? I highlight this because um McGra Hill as the final decision coupled with the average like you know we want to stamp that we trust this group to make the decision supports the the final recommendation. So our final recommendation is to adopt McGraill social studies for grades 612. The areas of consideration um is that its materials we are are similar to what we use. they are what we use. Now, that's also a strength, right? Because teachers are able to um more easily access those materials digitally. But there were other strengths as well, including um while the text was rigorous, there are also reading checks throughout the text to make sure that teachers can understand exactly what the students understand about the text. There are thorough materials, lots of teacher resources digitally, and they would provide

104it paper as well. Um, it allows for a more unified middle school, high school experience, collaboration during PD. In every grade level, there's a historical unit, so teachers could really focus on like what are those reading, writing, listening, uh, speaking skills that historians need. Um, and they can teach that to their students. And, um, there is a little there, it's easier to edit and share out with their collaborative teams as well. And so I know we had this adoption or this resource previously, but it is very different from their last copyright which was in 2014. They just recently updated their copyright in 2024. And so here are some of those differences. um they have kind of transitioned away from teacher talks, student listen and sort of wrote memorization of key wars and dates and people

105and more into that inquiry focus. Um there is now a digital platform and a lot of personalization. There is uh content customization uh with a lot of inclusivity with the resources. Um, and they have a lot of support with their with literacy, with reading and writing. They have a lot of um, uh, a lot available for teachers to use for their potentially struggling readers. And lastly, there's a lot of ability for us to provide support coaching with the implementation. So for the professional learning um on that first column they have a lot of workshops that they provide but they've also um shared that they can sort of create professional development based on what we need as a district. And so that goes into the follow-up training and ongoing support. We would provide schools with um

106coaching um with the new resource and given the affordability of the resource we would be able to provide like even more professional development through and support throughout the year. So here is the overall cost for McGra Hill. Um we were uh dubbed a legacy school, a legacy district. So a lot of the resources that um we need were were free from McGraill. So you'll see that some of the resources that are highlighted, it's both paper phys like physical textbooks as well as online uh licenses for both students and teachers. We also anticipate um because we're able to provide a lot more coaching, we have an anticipated cost of around $50,000 for professional development based on uh what our teachers uh need. And then this is a um a calendar of the next six months of

107support for teachers. You'll see that it starts in June with I have teacher uh previews scheduled every other week starting June 3rd to get teachers into the resource itself. I have um administrator preview sessions so the administrators can know exactly what they're looking for in the classroom. And then we have those district-wide PD days as well as some projected um school-based coaching days as well. This is just would be our next steps. Finalize the purchase and contract, make sure our summer PD planning is ready to go, and then August 26 would be our implementation launch. >> We'll hand it back to you, President Burns. >> Thank you. Uh questions from the board here about this plan and the process or comments? All right, Mr. Lee, I think you'll be first up. >> Here I go

108again. Uh, first and foremost, thank you for negotiating this contract. So, it doesn't look like we're getting nickel and dimed. It looks like we're getting everything that we should with um the amount of money that we are spending. Uh, I had a question about the PD. So, obviously professional development on a new resource is critical to ensure that we can get the most out of the resource so our students can succeed. Um, do we have any like I don't want to say knowledge checks, but like do we check in with the staff after those PD days to see how comfortable they feel with the new um resource to ensure that we're not leaving someone out on an island uh with this new resource because they don't want to speak up or they weren't given an

109opportunity to speak up that they didn't quite feel like they got enough of that professional development to be able to utilize this to the the best that it can be used. I will start that um Mr. Lee and then hand it off to Emma if she has anything to add. Um I'm just thinking about our most recent adoption of Carnegie for for math. And I would say we're constantly um in conversation with teachers, teacher teams, instructional coordinators, and our principles and leadership teams around the resource. Where are they having barriers? How can we fill those gaps? Um, and for the math adoption in particular, Alicia Benetti has created a lot of resources to take that planning lift off of teachers in that year 1 implementation. Um, so that they do have a significant amount of

110guidance. That being said, I don't know if there's anything actually, I'll pause there, Emma, if you want to add anything. >> Um, the one thing I'll add is that this past year with math, we've also had instructional coordinators really push in with math teachers. And so the goal would then to also have them push in with social studies both in collaborative teams and on uh in one-on-one coaching cycles. >> So that sounds good to me. I guess I was looking I I guess I was inquiring to see if there's was any sort of like pulse check after those PD days with the staff that took it to just get kind of some immediate feedback of like give me a one, two, or three how comfortable I am doing this. So then you as administration would

111have an idea how effective that PD was. Um I'm glad to see that there's like ongoing support. That's wonderful. But I just didn't know if there was kind of like after you have a you know full day PD or something on a new resource if immediately after that you ask for kind of feedback on that PD. >> Yes. Sorry if I was um I didn't anticipate that that's what you were asking about Mr. Lee. Yes. So we have um feedback that we give surveys to all district staff on professional learning days and it's alignment with our our goals as a as a district but also with Carnegie in particular with a year one adoption there's additional surveys that those staff also take and give feedback on. So yes there there are also quantitative measures in

112place. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. All right. Well, Mr. Tani, I saw your hand come up. >> Um, so I was at the committee meeting where we discussed this and McGraill was still being piloted and one of the comments Emma you made is that initially the staff was not very key on McGraill and they kind of just came in last minute. So, I want to hear from both of you like what what changed from I don't really like this curriculum cuz it's as an educator I I understand that feeling to now looking at this new one it's like oh okay I'm I'm happy with McGraal. So um given excuse me given more time with the McGra Hill we were able to utilize it better but also in our team the conversation of getting this

113unification of the middle school and high school so that we can really leverage our professional educators was a real significant thing that um both the high school and middle school talked about. Um, I'm lucky Jill was actually my teacher at Central, so I get great opportunity to sit next to her and be part of this team. >> Yeah, you can add >> McGraill is not my first choice, but it was the committee's first choice. And so, um, so that's what, um, we're going to be going with. Um, I think it it has what our what our school district needs. It has the basics. Um, I personally I preferred some of the other resources. I felt that it provided more engagement among students, but my colleagues over at at Hail really didn't didn't feel that way.

114Didn't find that. So, um, person I mean I think it'll be it'll work. It'll work fine. Um, we're using it currently. Um, but the the teachers at Hail really I think engaged with it quite a bit. How did they feel at the middle school? >> Both resources were very good but >> but they preferred preferred McGraw Hill. So, okay. So like if it will provide continuity between the middle school and the high school, I think that that's that's also something that's that's very beneficial. So that's what the committee recommended. So that's what I'm going with. >> And then my other question was around just um I understand the rigor in the readings and um that's obviously good to have, but just supports uh around our students, our EL students. Um, I know you talked about

115there's some supports built in there. So, I just want to kind of uh hear a little bit more about that slash kind of emphasized that we should we should think about our eels's um when it comes to rigorous subjects like this. And I will say as someone whose English was not my first language, history was not my favorite subject just because of the rigor in the reading. So >> yeah, that's something that was absolutely front of mind during this um adoption process. Um all student versions of this text, they do come in Spanish. I know that not Spanish is not like the only language that our students speak. Um digitally all students can um translate. I believe there's um about 15 other languages that the digital version allows students to um translate the text to.

116Um and also because um McGraill knows that a lot of the resources um a lot of teachers like prefer it physically rather than digitally um they have a lot of um ML ML trainings that we could pull as a workshop for teachers as well. >> I I also heard and I I believe when you started your presentation, didn't you mention listening, speaking, writing, all of those? I I could swore you did. th those are direct connections to um the MLLL strategies that our kids have to obtain. So, um access is the the the the test that they take. Those are those are um categories that they that they'll be graded on. So, there's a direct link with that with that resource and and the access test that our students have to take for ML. >>

117Thank you. Other questions from the board? this car. So, I ju I just have to I I have to just say that um I love that there's a process and I love that you followed the process and um I think that you did your due diligence, but it has always been my experience that no matter what we do, there are many staff and teachers that will say, "Ooh, this resource, yuck." like I just I I really don't think this is it. It's it's got so many gaps. It's a it's not doing what we needed to do. And we historically get a lot of complaints once we've gone through all of this and then it comes to the board and we we say okay. And so what will you do when staff gives you that feedback?

118Again, I'll start because you're right, no resource is perfect. Um, and I see the resource as a foundation within the curriculum. Um, but it's not what makes Jill's class come to life, right? And I thinking of uh what was just brought up around ML supports that's going to be not only in the resource but how we use effective researchbased teaching strategies to get students to access the resource. And so I think that um bringing as many people along in the process is important. I'm glad that Jill's here and I'm glad that she shared what she did because she's part of the process. She also now knows kind of the strengths of McGraill and maybe some of the the considerations. So when she sits in collaborative planning with her team, she's gonna be able to guide

119and support that team better because she now almost has a little extra time, right, having piloted the new resources. So I I think you can't I don't think there's ever going to be a way to um I don't want people to not say what they're thinking. I would rather know I'm frustrated by this. I don't like the assessments or I don't think there are enough scaffolds in this way because that's good feedback for us to be able to wrap around a resource and support teachers through that. I think um even in the piloting process, all of the considerations where we kind of got feedback from from teachers um in the committee, Emma went back and talked to all of the three reps again. And some of those things can be resolved or we just didn't

120know that it was possible and that was a big um hindrance for some folks to get behind a certain resource. Um and so I do think it's going to be ongoing conversations. It's going to be ongoing feedback. Um, I do think the professional learning also just makes you, we want our teachers to feel confident and competent in what they're teaching. And when you have a new resource and that's brand new to you, that's obviously going to put our teachers in a more vulnerable place. And so I think having sideby-side coaching from people in our buildings, but also from the resource themselves, we found to be incredibly helpful um through adoption cycles we've done. >> Okay. Other questions from the board? >> No. Okay. And then when is this going to be coming before us for

121actual consideration? This will be coming forward next week, okay, for approval. Um because then that does give us a nice window to be able to collaborate and um get materials here. And as um Emma shared, we'll be doing previews with teachers before school is even out. So for folks that, you know, the summer is the summer and they need time um and they aren't going to be as available, they at least can ease some of their own um concerns and start to see what the resource does look like in its newest best form. >> Okay, no other questions. Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. All right. So that takes us to the end of our open session portion of the meeting here for the moment. Uh so

122at this time the board will convene into executive session in accordance with Wisconsin statute 19 19.85 85 parent one parent C for the purpose of considering employment, promotion or compensation of the superintendent. Um Sarah would >> would you call roll? >> Gentlemen, >> Mr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Tani? >> Yes. >> Mr. Verbos? >> Yes. >> Miss Deal? >> Yes. >> Miss Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Keller? >> Yep. >> Mr. Becker? >> Yes. >> Miss Carr? >> Yes. President Burns. >> Yes. All right. If there is no objection, we will recess for five minutes while the boardroom is set up for close session. >> Seeing none, uh, we will recess for 5 minutes. >> Hold our screen. >> All right. So then, Sarah, would you call the role? >> Miss Cart, >> yes.

123>> Miss Deal, >> yes. >> Mr. Tani, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Becker, >> yes. >> Miss Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Verbos. >> Yes. >> Mr. Culler. >> Yes. >> President Burns. >> Yes. All right. So, we are back in open session and we have one last thing to do which is to I would entertain a motion to act on what we talked about in close session. >> Move to approve the amended items for the superintendent's salary. as discussed in close session. Okay. >> All right. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion or adjustment to that motion? Seeing none. All those in favor? >> I. >> Those opposed. All right. And that will pass. And so there being Hang on, make sure I say it right.

124Um so there being no further business and no objection the meeting will be adjourned at this time. No further business and no objection we are adjourned. Thank you.