001All right. I would like to call this meeting of the West Al West Milwaukee School Board to order. Um I believe Miss Carr, would you lead us in the pledge? I'd be delighted. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Well, Sarah, would you call the role? I'd be delighted to. Mr. Lee, excused. Miss Kaiser here. Mr. Burbos here. Miss Deal here. Miss Lee here. Mr. Ker here. Mr. Becker is excused. Miss Carr here. President Burns present. All right. Um, proper notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the open meeting laws of the state of Wisconsin. Dr. Robinson, do you have any modifications to the agenda? There
002are no modifications. All right, that brings us to step six then. And Dr. Robinson, take it away with your report. Good evening. I have a very short report tonight. Believe it or not, this is one of going to be one of my shortest. State budget process at an impass. The joint finance committee canceled a vote on state agencies indicating an impass in the state budget process. Assembly leaders are working with the governor's office to reach a compromise while the state senate struggles with a tight majority. Our district recognitions for the last four years WAWWM school psychologist have provided training to pediatric residents at Children's Hospital. This year they presented on understanding IEPs versus 504 plans, the role of the pediatrician, family education and advocacy and support systems in schools. This learning helps bridge understanding from
003both stakeholder groups so that families and students are best supported. I wanted to invite Jesse, there you go, Jesse Newmore to come up and you want to talk about uh this experience and this program. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so we started this during CO when we realized we were getting lots of reports from pediatricians that had recommendations for school-based services um that weren't necessarily appropriate. Um, and then we were trying to kind of bridge that gap um between their understanding of our our role and our understanding of their role so we could kind of provide better services for our families. Um, so we started doing this, yeah, four years ago. And, and at this point, I think we've trained about 150 pediatricians, um, on the supports that we provide in schools, not only IEPs and 504
004plans, but our MLSS processes, um, therapy, student services supports, all of those things. And we've really started to see a um, increase in good recommendations and collaboration with our pediatricians in the area. Um, which has been very cool. We're connecting with them more. We're getting on the same page, which has really been helpful for our families. So they're not always, you know, trying to understand our language and the medical language. Um, and they've really, I think, benefited from from these services. So, it's been a great experience. Thank you, Jesse, for for your work as well as the rest of your team members. I think this is a great example of how we're extending our uh supports as far as for students and and services from the school to inside of the community. So, great job.
005Thank you for sharing. Thank you. We have a a referendum uh kickoff video that we wanted to kind of show you tonight. This is our uh most viewed video that we've had. We have over 12,000 video uh uh views, I'm sorry, over this particular one. I've received a number of text messages from around the nation saying how this video rocks. And I didn't even know the video they were talking about until I said, "Okay, let me go look at this video." Uh so, so no, it hit social media before I could actually see it in its final version. So, we're just going to show it uh for the community tonight. So, this is our referendum kickoff video. West Milwaukee, we did it. Thanks to you, our incredible community, we passed both of our referendum questions
006on the ballot last November. Because of your support, we are now kicking off a $70 million in transformative facility improvements that will benefit our students, our staff, and our entire community. This summer, the real work begins. Over the next three years, we'll be making upgrades, big and small, all while keeping student learning and safety at the center of everything we do. We're not just making updates, we're making a difference. From updating the fieldhouse into a shared space for students and the community to tackling critical needs like new roofs, improved HVAC systems, refreshed pools, and renovated restrooms. These projects are laying the groundwork for a better future. It's about our health, safety, and pride in our schools. It's about ensuring all students have access to high quality spaces. And it's about keeping our promise to invest
007in what matters most, our kids. And we want you to stay informed every step of the way. We're committed to transparent and consistent communication. Here's how you can follow along. weekly updates on social media, monthly newsletter features, and a regularly updated website with timelines, progress updates, and sneak peeks. We're proud of where we are. We're energized by what's ahead, and we're so grateful to have you with us as we build a stronger future together. Let's get to work. West Dallas, West Milwaukee. The future's bright and it starts right now. So, one of the persons that reached out to me asked me, "Did was that Brad Pitt in the video?" I said, "No, that's that's Aaron Nar." So, so Aaron, hey, they thought you were Brad Pitt, man. Uh, hey, I I couldn't pull that one
008off. I told him I got the next best thing. So, I think it was more like a Ke Reeds. Ke Reeves. Okay. Not Brad. Not quite Brad Pit. All right, some some community events from the last couple of weeks. The senior walks for Central High School and Nathan Hill High School after the the 9th board meeting. I want to say thank you to all of our board members for participating in in those walks. It was such a thrill to see the smiles on those students faces as they were able to go back to our elementary schools. Just a quick story, we're at Mitchell. Uh board member Lee as well as uh Mr. Sick joined us at Mitchell that day and there was a student from hell who's walking down the hallway and he stops and
009he hugs a kid and he picks him up and bear hugs. I said, "Hey, is that your brother?" He said, "Yeah, this is my little brother." And both of them were in tears. And then he walked around the corner and then he's hugging another kid. I said, "Okay, it's another brother." He said, "No, this is my little cousin." I said, "Okay." No, but they were so proud of him and cheering on uh our graduates. So, just want to say thank you to all of our board members for participating. Adaki PBL the exhibition night on the 10th. Milwaukee uh West Milwaukee, I'm sorry, completion ceremony. Frank Lloyd Wright completion ceremony. Irving Elementary School completion ceremony. Wilson docky graduation. DLVA graduation. Central High School graduation. Nathan Hail graduation. I complete I participated in ASA training last week
010and then we had an athletics director's meeting on last Thursday. So, it's been a busy uh week and a half, but again, just wanted to close with uh thanking our our seniors uh for being such good sports and role models throughout their four years and and especially for participating in the senior walks, but graduations were just an absolute thrill for me to participate uh as a superintendent and to wish those those kids on uh to their next phases in life. So, thank you. And that concludes the superintendent report for tonight. All right. Thank you, Dr. Robinson. That'll take us to item seven, public comments. And so, just to remind everyone, there's a signup sheet in the back. There is also a signup sheet in the chat for the Zoom uh link that's there. So, you
011should be able to sign up. Uh and just as a reminder, you have three minutes to uh discuss with us. Well, you have three minutes to speak. The board cannot discuss, debate, or act upon any item made during the public comments portion of the board meeting. Uh if necessary, a followup to any public comments will be made by the superintendent at the next regular board meeting. So earlier I switched on and I saw no one and I currently see no one. So I will wait for a moment. See if anyone wants to make comments. Seeing none, we'll move on from our public comments section and move on to item eight, our uh board reports, starting with the board review of the board calendar. So, uh tonight, June 23rd, we have a regular board meeting with
012action proposed on the 2025 2026 budget and preliminary tax levy. We also have a board workshop for leadership and learning for the AGR and EOI data review. July 14th, we have a regular board meeting scheduled as well as July 21st, we have a board workshop uh scheduled that night as well. And then July 28th, we have a regular board of education meeting scheduled. Uh moving on from there, we then move into our committee reports 8.2 and our first one up would be uh communication and community relations. She's deal All right. Our committee uh met tonight um right before this meeting. The committee went over the two long-term goals developed uh for communications and community engagement for the 202530 strategic plan. These goals included seven key performance indicators or KPIs um that will track progress toward
013these overarching goals. Uh action steps for each KPI was reviewed and feedback was provided. And that's my committee report. and pass. Any questions for that committee? No. All right. Well, then that will bring us over to 8.22, which would be the financial stability and efficiency committee. Board member Kaiser. All right. So, we met last Thursday via Zoom, which will be the new model for our uh committee going forward. In old business, there were there continues to be discussion and research regarding a compensation model for teachers, and these meetings are going very well. The state bianial budget is still in flux. So we do not have new information at this time. The Milicanin actuarial study was completed regarding OPED costs. Correct. Yeah. In new business, we are waiting on figures related to the special education transfer
014service and those costs in our budget and that should be known very soon. Tonight we are seeking preliminary approval of the budget for 2526 which is an annual action item. The property liability insurance for the district went up and as much as expected so that's kind of like a silver lining there, but it did go up in workers comp. So, we're we're talking about how do we um address those issues along with the fact that we do have a health center on campus for our teachers and families. Uh tonight, you're going to hear an action item regarding a nominal annual increase to school fees. There's not been an increase in 10 years. So, you'll hear tonight and discuss the why and what involved in this recommendation. And lastly, we discussed the narrowed down KPIs from
015prior conversations around the 5-year strategic plan. And it was identified that healthc care costs were strongly observed to be a possible measure of financial stability. And that's my reporting. Thank you. Are there any questions for the financial instit group? No. All right. Then that will take us over to 8.2.3 recreation and community services board member Lee. Thank you very much, President Burns. We met last week also on Monday. Um, currently Shelley Straer is meeting with the current ads weekly just to keep them up to date and see what's going on. Monthly she meets with all ads from high schools and the intermediate schools. Um, she met with Dr. Robinson to look over results from the school perception surveys um from Central and Hail. And the two top things that um we see that we need
016to work on and figure out some more options is partnerships and group programming. Um then currently ads are working on their preseason checklists. Um the job description for head coaches are finished. Over the summer they will be working on what those evaluations for the head coaches will be. Um at the activity center. The receptionist area. The shower and changing rooms are almost complete. Um much more progress on the exterior of the site. Um and then as you saw in the video, um the assembling for the construction at the fieldhouse is fully underway. Um the sports field at Irving is up and running. Um and then to the summer recck program sent out emails um to both last summer and the current um participants in programs um to so we're waiting for that feedback to come
017back. And then um just a note, summer school wraparound numbers are up from we're at about 100 from 60. So that's what I got. All right. Thank you. Any questions? All right. Seeing none for that group as well, we will move on to our board member reports of community events 8.3. Any reports from the board? Sure. Mr. Vervos. Hi. Yeah, I uh well, you know, we did a bunch of stuff. So, I did the eighth grade completion ceremony with Dr. Robinson at West West Milwaukee Intermediate. That was a kind of a last minute thing that I jumped on to and it was but you know, it was a good time. We shook a lot of hands. Uh it was, you know, great seeing those kids. And then the same day, I also attended the the
018Nathan Hale Senior Walk at Walker Elementary. Um, I took my 16-year-old with me because, uh, my kids went to Walker and the only the only really amusing part is, "No, no, no, no, they're not graduating. They're they'll be back in two years. Just it's cool." Which a lot of teachers were very excited about. But the kids did a second loop, which I thought was really, really great. You know, it's a it's kind of a smaller loop at at Walker, but they had they were all the kids were so excited that the seniors were like, "We're doing one more." And then they came out with all the the posters and stuff that the kids had made for them. I really really liked the um the four and 5K kids and made posters with pictures of the
019seniors when they were four and 5K students at the school. Um the posters with their names and uh I thought that was really really great. Um, and then on uh and then I attended the West Al Central uh graduation ceremony as well, which um I got to tell you the the the band the combined band and orchestra, fantastic. And the the chorus uh honestly I know that you know my my my kid is a is a chorus kid. They they lost their chorus teacher at Central in like mid year, mid twothirds of the way through the year and and you know they were they were sure it was going to be catastrophic and they brought in Cortez and this guy is fantastic. He does an amazing job with those students. They've the performances since he
020came in were have have blown me away and I hear nothing but good things about him. I think it was a really really great great get for us to get a guy like that in the school. So yeah, but yeah, that's about it. Thank you. Uh any other reports? Um you know, as part of our do, you know, our responsibilities and honors here, you know, I got to do um Hail's graduation and it was very fun to watch Mr. Leser have to get marbles in his hand and after a while started panicking about the number of marbles that he was being given by seniors and it was pretty darn funny to watch. Um it was very inclusive. It was wonderful how inclusive they made the ceremony for every student to participate. Um I also went
021to the musical reveal picnic and 100 degree weather at uh hail. It was a wonderful time. We probably had 100 people there. Um they had us break into groups and we had to go to eight different stations and there were clues at each station about all the different shows and we had to figure it out. I'm very proud and competitive that my group won. Um but the next year shows going to be fantastic and wonderful and I'm very excited. Finding Nemo Junior is gonna be one of them. Um, one of the places, The Crucible, uh, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Anything Goes, which will be next summer's blockbuster. Uh, very excited about the shows for next year. The kids are very excited, and I know we're going to do have another amazing, fantastic year.
022So, that's my it's all for me. Great. Thank you. I see. Yeah. Go ahead, Miss Car. Just to show, I did the senior walk at Irving and I'm really looking forward to being an annual the baseline and it was so wonderful. I'm looking forward to um the little ones anticipating being able to do that creature. So I I enjoyed that. I did do that um exhibition like the white a lot of us were there um graduation um um a graduation as well and um just just a lot of pride a lot of pride at the end of the school year for our students our families our staff and such an honor great thank you thank you Any other reports, Mr. Keller? Yeah, I I quickly wanted to uh acknowledge uh Daki uh and their graduation.
023I was able to attend that on Thursday. It was the first time they held their graduation at Daki. Uh normally they had done that at Hail uh but they brought it in house and it was just as per usual a great event. One of my favorite things is uh the video that they do about all the graduating seniors. So just really thankful to be able to take part in that with with Mr. Burns and uh it was a great experience. And congratulations to all the graduates. Thank you. Yeah, I just I participated in a couple of the um senior walks also, which was a lot of fun. And I know the idea at Mitchell came up of like what they did to see if we can't get the pictures of the kids from four and
0245K and be able to have them on posters next year. So, I also look forward to that continuing. I've seen it a lot of times in other places. Um, and then I did also participate in uh um or watched the uh Franklidd Wright's both graduations and I have to say for as nice and hot as it was that uh Mr. Fish really has it down to a science and I was really appreciative that he does. Um but yeah, it was awesome. It was wonderful to see all these kids moving on. So, congratulations to all our grads. Awesome. Thank you. All right. And I I won't add any more to that. It was a very busy couple of weeks here. So, I've was at several things with everyone else, but uh we'll move on from there
025for other updates and information. I don't think I have anything. Do I need to Yeah, do you guys you guys covered everything. Okay. I was I was multiple things. I could see your hand come up. Sorry. Teasing me. All right. Other information. Uh board member Deal is teasing me. So, what we're going to move on to then is item number nine, our consent agenda with 9.1 the approval of minutes, 9.2 employment summary, 9.3 supplementary contracts, and 9.4 uh financial summary. Is there anything that needs to be separated? No. Then I would look for a motion and a second. Move to approve. Second. All right. Is there any debate on the motion? Seeing none, then all those in favor. Those opposed. All right, that passes. So that would move us to number item 10, our action
026items for tonight, starting with 10.1, the 2025 2026 preliminary budget and tax levy, which would be with Mr. Norris. Great. Good evening everyone. So, um, kind of a I guess a a circle back to a couple weeks ago when we met on the workshop to go over kind of where things stood with the preliminary budget. So, kind of some of this stuff will be a quick summary. Uh, just kind of an update of of the progress we've made. As Dr. Robinson shared in his report, there's been very little progress at the state legislature in terms of passing a budget. This is the final week before officially June 30th, the current budget rolls over into uh the 25, I guess 26 uh school year for us. So, some of the things I'll share are just going
027to be general updates and um it's required by uh statute that we pass something tonight um because spending actually occurs beginning really now post approval uh for next school year even though we don't actually pass a budget in November. So, not new news, but just to kind of bring that back in people's minds. So, we'll talk through the state by Atlanta budget, talk through our revenue summary and overview. Same thing with the expense. And then we'll finish up with mill rate and tax late projections. Obviously, those are subject to change given the state budget. And we'll talk through some of the assumptions we have um for those as well. So, it's still in flux and these will change, but this is kind of the best guess we have conservatively and likely at this point. So,
028a couple quick things. Um every day is a new day with the state budget. I think every day I wake up and I see a new email. Did you hear this? And so, I'm checking quite honestly every day, but trying to, you know, reserve hopes, I suppose. So um at this point with this week being the final week there are currently is nothing scheduled with the joint finance committee to meet uh from both parties to do deliberations. Uh what we do know is the governor and the speaker vos were close on K12 funding and significant tax cuts, state tax cuts. Um the things that really pulled them far apart was the comments that were made from the joint finance committee on the funding for the W system. they had made comments and reservations and then
029they actually included in the budget about um taking $87 million in funding and taking that out of the state budget for W system. Um that would from what I was told that would have significant impacts and drastic cuts and closures of schools would happen. So that's really where things are at. Um but at this point we're we're planning to roll over what we have as what will be for next year. So what is that? That is a current revenue increase of $325 per pupil. That's the current special education reimbursement rate of 29.6 because it's not some sufficient. It's actually 33%. But in real dollars, we get closer to 29 and a half cents there. The low revenue ceiling remaining. And then we're budgeting our budget off of the same amount of state aid we've gotten
030in previous years. So, um, we're trying to show kind of a worst case scenario, I suppose, tonight of what we think it might be. So other expense overview um the 9% increase for employees um working through the final year of our current compensation model. Um we are looking through reducing staff as as um through the budget cycle that you guys are aware of to align with enrollment. Um currently planning on a health benefit increase of 15% no dental increase. That's kind of what we're being shared with. Health insurance is is kind of up in the air still. Our renewal happens in January. So our current budget actually spans two fiscal years. So when we get that that'll impact just the second half of the year because we know our insurance we know our current insurance
031rates through J through December 31st. So um waiting on that we'll talk through property and liability. We got that back which is good news. Utilities is a current estimate that we believe transportation's unknown. We received that. This is the second uh year of our contract. The last large increase after that as you guys had previously approved last year very nominal increases in six years of known. So, that's a really good thing for us. And then, um, from there, um, school budgets at 100%, which is great for our principles. And then, uh, you can see some voucher, charter, and open enrollment expense increases. That is projected with a $325. The private voucher and charter. This is an interesting thing because this is this year was the last year of the 10% cap. So, this is our
032best guess on what could happen. Currently, any school district across the state that has pupils that reside in their territory, if they if they are considered lowincome to the state, they can go to a private voucher. Okay? As it stands in state law today, in this year, that number is capped at 10%. So, if you have 7,000 kids, only 700 can access a private voucher. Next year, that caps unlimited. So, that is an unknown because every dollar that goes from us to that private school comes from taxpayers. And so that's that's the unknown here. So we're budgeting off of what we think is a potentially conservative but you know kind of a worst case scenario here. So that that's just so you're aware of that. Um but we won't know that until November. So and
033then some additional supports is mostly in special education and and school learning specialist positions like special ed coaching things like that. So the current deficit that we're working off of is about a4 million $250,000. So, we're currently working through a special education projected enrollment to align staffing there to kind of reshuffle the deck. So, um we we feel confident that this might become balanced as we get to November, even with no state budget approval. Um but at this point, that's where we're at. But in the greater scheme of things, I I don't think too far off. So, so these are some of the things we'll work through from now until November. You know, we'll obviously be watching what's happening in Madison. Confirming FTEEs a lot of times hiring is a big thing for budgets because
034we budget for everyone to have full health health and dental insurance and if they come in and don't take insurance or take single benefits that has some significant swings in the budget which is in a good way for us. So, um those are areas that we'll be we'll be watching. Um and and then other other areas as as previously communicated. So tax levy, uh, the current tax levy is scheduled at about 57 a.5 million for next year. Um, and really the the thing I would note here is that's based off of the current amount of aid that we received this year. Typically there's increases in state aid. So this number if aid we receive about a million dollars more, which is what we potentially think could happen, uh, you know, this number would go from
03557.6 to 56.6, six, which would see obviously a decrease in taxes for property taxpayers from what's projected today. Same thing with the with the mill rate. This is built off of that 56 or 57.6 million and off of an equalized property value about 7% over the past 10 years property values in the communities as a whole combining New Burland, Greenfield, West Dallas about average about 7%. So um obviously that reduces the mill rate. So if that is to come in at 10% the 753 would go down. if aid comes in higher than this year that would go down. So, this is what I really do believe is is likely the worst case scenario. So, anything we come back with at a later date should be better than this. Um, but that's currently what we believe.
036And then there's the breakdown of what that means to a taxpayer. So, 753 comes out to about 753 per 100,000 of value. and and just to kind of break down uh how we get from you know 47.3 million this year to 57.6 six. And I the one thing I wanted to highlight here, the reason I have this shown is that, you know, a school district's budget is is more than just, you know, a referendum got passed. I think it's easy to just jump to that. And I think it's important that we collectively know that that isn't the case typically and certainly not here. So when you break down, well, what are the things moving the needle here? Here here are the big buckets, right? So the $325 increase is about $2 million in more revenue
037for us. Okay? And you can just go $325 times about 7,000 kids, you get to about 2.1 million. Okay. Private voucher increase, that 11% I showed, that's about 770 grand. Every dollar of that increase comes from taxpayers. Okay. Transfer of service. That's currently what uh Miss Kaiser reported from our committee. That's the increase that we're looking at for students who moved to our district last year um that had a documented disability that we had to hire staff for. that's an allowable expense that's um directly tied to that. The $5.8 million operating question and the 300 or 3 point and the $70 million capital bond come out to about um about $9 million total. But you have to remember part of the referendum promise was a reduction in the fund 81 by4 million. So each of
038those is actually reduced by 2 million for the budget. So when you look at the the mill rate there you'll see next to the $5.8 million operating question about 50 cents mill rate and the 3.25 25 million. That's our payment on that bond this year is 16 cents. And I show that because when you get to what we told the community in the referendum campaign, it should tie out, right? So the actual the actual communication we put out to the community was that the $5.8 million operating um referendum would cost them about 56 cents and it's really coming in at 50 cents at this current time. So that's good news. And the $70 million capital bond due to a couple things. That $3.25 25 million payment will go up in future years. So you can
039see the 16 cents is far less than 44 cents. The two big factors is one that payment will increase as other expenses fall off in the community. And the second reason is our interest rate came in much lower than we projected with our increase in credit rating. So two different factors driving that in future years that 16 cents will probably closer to 30 and won't it won't eclipse 44. So that is all I have for tonight. So if with that I would open up for questions. Can can you go to page uh slide six real quick? Yeah. Just want to make sure that's communicated. Um third bullet. Sure. It says reduction in staff. Shouldn't that be sort of like a reallocation of staff or realignment of staff? Because we didn't technically reduce any staff. Yeah,
040it's a good point. So we we we reduce staff or realign organize staff through attrition. So if a if a teacher retires at a school, we might not replace that teacher, right? And then other we do have we did hap we did happen where we had to re uh organize staff through the RIFF process, but um no one lost their job. I think that's a point. Want to make sure that Yeah. All right. Uh what questions does the board have? All right. Well, seeing none, I guess I would look for a motion and a second. So moved. Second. Second. All right. Is there any debate on the motion? No. Then all those in favor? I I. Those opposed? All right. That passes. Thank you. And then Mr. Norris, you are back up for uh the
041district-wide community eligibility provision. Awesome. Thank you. So, uh the next few things on the agenda here are annuals. So is the preliminary budget approval. But um a couple of things. So this next one is the C program um better known as the community eligibility program. This allows all students to eat breakfast and lunch for free. So this has been I think I think our fourth year now or going into our fourth year doing this. And the good news is that given the federal dollars we get for fun 50, we're able to do this really at no cost to the district's fund 10 budget which is great news. Even with doing this we're still showing this year about a couple hundred,000 surplus in fund 50. So working through plans to reduce that is required by DPI.
042But to me, this is a no-brainer. And it's an annual required approval through DPI to continue to offer free breakfast and lunch for all students. Does anyone have any questions on this? All right. Then I would look for move to approve. Second. All right. Is there any debate on the motion? Oh, then I All those in favor? I I those opposed that passes. All right. Then we are on to school fees, Mr. Norris. Yep. So again, school fees is a required item that is brought to the board annually um for the current year for to be approved and implemented for the p the following year. So um our my committee um has been in discussion about should should a increase to school fees be on the table. And so we've been discussing this and I
043think a couple different things I'd like the board to consider tonight. The first one is that given school fees haven't been touched in 10 years, it's just not typically good financial practice to have um nothing be changed in terms of a revenue or correlating expense to somebody for 10 years. Because what typically happens, and we've seen this in other areas organization is number one, when that happens, all of a sudden when we go, hey, what are school fees? Oh, we're out of whack by 300%. Well, what's the knee-jerk response? Let's increase them to the average. Well, that is a significant impact to somebody to double or triple their fees, right? So, what we're proposing is that annually school fees increase by 3%. But I want to put that in actual real dollars for you. So,
044um I think that helps level set the conversation a bit. So, currently an EC child half day or a 4K half day, they pay $40. The new fee be 42. Okay. Elementary is currently $80. It' be 83. Intermediate would be is currently 95. It would be $983. High school 105 to 109. Um, obviously if a student is qualified, which is another point to connect it back to CP in a minute. I'll talk through that. High school athletic fees for a student is currently 60, it'd be 62. And it's it's it's rounded to the nearest dollar up. So if you're currently doing the 3%, you're like, how come that's not 61? We rounded it to the nearest dollar. It's easier. Okay. Um 180 for three students be 186. You kind of get get the the flow
045here. The second thing I want to note is that if a student qualifies, students qualify for free introduced lunch two different ways. If a student and their family is on on Medicaid, right, that's called a direct. The state goes, we have this on file. There's no need for the paperwork to families still should do it. Okay? But they're automatically qualified. Now, a family that is free and reduced only gets reduced fees if they fill out the form. Okay? and they have to by law fill out our paperwork to the state to get produced fees for the district. Okay. So, one of the things we discussed in in our committee was like if if these fees are so nominal that families just simply don't fill them out, it it's not just they don't get reduced fees.
046We also lose money from state, local, and federal grants because we get more dollars through AGR, which you hear about tonight, through families that are qualifying and participating in these programs. So, that that's an area of discussion. The last one I think we discussed and I'll turn it over to maybe Jane or Kristen to to elaborate if there anything I missed is one of the things we've been talking about is currently athletic fees go they they go into a fun 10 bucket. They don't go to the school. We've been talking about trying to push the athletic fees that are collected at the high schools back to the schools to be implemented for the programs they have. So I think obviously that will if you if you're paying an athletic fee going well this is going
047right to the athletic programs. I think that's obviously a different feeling from a parents perspective than going into the well it goes to the district's budget. Well, that's if I was a parent, I'd be like, well, it's better for me to give it to the program, right? So, am I missing anything, Jane or Kristen? No. Um I was actually um one of the committee members that um really questioned, you know, why why would we even need to raise the fees? You know, we've haven't done it for 10 years. Do do we really need to do this? And um but after listening to the reasoning, it it does make sense as a as a board member wearing that board hat um you know, we need the parents to fill out those forms because it really affects
048us. And if they see that it's gone up and then they can apply for a reduced fee, it makes sense that if they do that, then we would um get reimbursed. And so I do think that that is a good thing and um I I do support it now after we've talked through it quite a bit in our committee. Uh just a quick question for people who might have questions later. The 3% is that just based on average CPI increases. Yeah, that's kind of what we tied it to is that that's kind of the aim across the state. So yeah, a concern that we brought up was the fact that like you know we've had some really great wins recently for our district obviously, but at the same time it's that fiscal responsibility and stability
049of we don't want to be another 5 years out and all of a sudden be like oh we're like 40% behind the other districts. We don't know what these budgets look like. This gives us some background knowing ahead what this is going to look like for ourselves. And like Jane said beautifully like we need these forms filled out to support all of our families. Yeah. And and I think the last thing I'd say is that, you know, we we here today can make decisions for today, but I think sometimes when we make financial decisions like OPED and things like that, like we're making decisions that will impact no one in the room. And so we can't possibly know the district's financial position 24 years from now. We have I have no clue. I hope it's
050in great standing like it is today, but I can't possibly know that. So it's almost like putting in systems like this helps protect the district at a later date, too. So I just it it's it's both like short view and broader consideration I think. So I think if you're having a hard time like consider both obviously and make a decision based upon that. So all right questions from the board. Okay. I did have one question for this one. Um, sure. With the winds that we have had and that it's good fiscal responsibility by, you know, having something in place, is there a reason that we don't just start it with like a 1%. I mean, it's nominal and it's just kind of getting in there, but is there a reason to go to three or
051versus like since we're 10 years behind like 30 like Right. So, I think initially when I did this at two or even at one, it was like you're when you round it ends up at two or three anyway for some of these. So that was some of the reason. But I think most of the time when we hear of the Fed's talk, inflation tying it to some number that's real. I think that was the other reason. Like so 2 to 3% is typically what you see. And and this isn't like the board approving something that will then be in place without a discussion later. Every year it'll come back. And so if three turns into two next year, I mean that's a discussion for Yeah. Okay. So this will this is something that we'd have
052to do yearly. Yep. Okay. All right. All right. Um, if there are no further questions, I would look for a motion in a second. So moved. Second. All right. Is there any debate on the motion? Seeing none, uh, all those in favor? I. Those opposed. All right, that passes. That will bring us to 10.5, uh, which is our 2025 2026 CISA 1 agreement for services. And 104. 104. Yep. Oh, did I skip 104? Oh, I'm sorry. You're You're right. Or Norris. Um, sorry about that. Yep. I got too excited and crossed it off. 2025 2026 district property liability and workers compensation insurance. Mr. Norris, sorry about that. That's okay. Um, so the last one here is again an annual approval. Um, one thing we're working on is trying to get this earlier. It it is
053it is very difficult working with insurance-based entities to get them to commit as early as possible. So, I just want you guys to know that ideally we'd have this, you know, early June and then there can be discussions in committee. We were able to discuss it, but you know, given it's the week the week before, I I do admit that that's something we've been working on. But anyway, um the insurance renewal came in at about 8% 8% higher. We budgeted 10. So, actually there was about a $20,000 like actual budget savings from the projected we had. So, it was good. The main reason of the increase though actually is not related to district property insurance. It's district liability insurance workman's comp. So one of the things that we working on with the new um uh
054HR director is on our mode rating. So our current mode rating or previously was 1 uh 32 and this year it's up to 1.48 and that's due to about 11 significant claims we have. So we'll be diving into that. But that the average mode rating, the aim is about one. And so that 048 difference is about $190,000. It's real money, right? So trying to dig our teeth into that a little bit between finance and human resources to go like are there themes across these claims? You know, some of them range from, you know, falling at work to getting injured at by a student. Like there's just ranges here. So like um sometimes hard to narrow down, but certainly area of focus. So, um, but anyway, this is a required, um, action by the board, uh,
055for a contract to be approved for our property liability insurance. All right, questions on that? No. Seeing none, then look for a motion and a second to approve. Second. All right. Any debate on that motion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I. Those opposed. All right, that passes. All right. Thank you, Mr. Norris. All right. And then we would be I'm doing the next one. You're doing the next one. So, the next one that we have is a CISA1 agreement for for services. So, annually we have an agreement with CISA1 where they'll save certain uh specific number of seats for students with disabilities who need alternative placement. And so, that's part of this particular agreement. also uh leadership networking and um learning opportunities also a continued partnership uh with in uh institute for personalized learning.
056So that's all included in this particular um uh agreement. Uh the to note the students with disabilities and alternative placement are for students who we cannot adequately provide support for uh to meet their their needs of education. So this is why we have this agreement in place. So, we're asking for approval tonight. Any questions on that? All right. I would look for a motion. Some moved. All right. Any debate on that? Say that's all right. Then I would look or said that. All those in favor? I. Those opposed. All right. That will pass as well. So then that brings us to uh the 2526 SWSA annual dues. Dr. Robinson. Sure. This is an also another annual um recommendation that we're asking for approval for the membership dues for the Southeastern Wisconsin School Alliance. This group
057specifically provides policy supports for us. it keeps us in pretty much in the loop on I would say on a daily basis about the the changes that are are coming up or talked about in Madison. So, this is a key uh component of our um legislative work that we're doing as a district. So, I'm asking for approval tonight for membership dues. All right. Thank you. Do we have any questions on the annual dues? All right. Then I would look for a motion in a second. So moved. Second. Second. All right. Any debate on that motion? Seeing none. Uh, all those in favor? I I those opposed. All right, that will pass as well. And that would bring us to our last action item here for tonight. 10.7 approval of additional independent hearing officers for student
058expulsion hearings. And that again will be Dr. Robinson. So, we are asking for an additional uh approver approval for a u independent hearing officer for student expulsion hearings for the 2526 school year. Uh Steve Cruzzle, Harris, Harrison Raymond, and Claire Aable are the the attorneys that will serve as the hearing officers um for the district. All right. And they're all coming from a third party firm. All right, then. Yeah, questions from the board. Car. Dr. Robinson, will this be just for the 2526 school year or will this be um for forever? So, this is an annual approval. So, we come we will come annually and ask for uh for a third party. Yes. For a third party. Yes. So, did we ask for a third party last year? Yes, we did. Okay. Just making sure
059that we did. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? I want to correct that. So, no. Yes, we did, but we also did it in May as well. So, we asked for a third party. This is an additional Okay. So, we're asking for more. Okay. Okay. To be a true third party. Okay. Okay. Any other questions about that? No. All right. Well, seeing none, then I would look for a motion and a second. So moved. Second. All right. Any debate on that motion? Seeing none. All those in favor? I I. Those opposed. All right. And that will pass. Thank you, Dr. Robinson. That will then take us to uh item 11, our workshop, which is our leadership and learning workshop uh for AGR and EOI data review. Hello. Good evening. Good evening everyone. Thanks for
060giving us a second here. The internet has been at least on my computer in and out. So, let's see if this loads. Should I not do full screen? Should be able to All right, here we are. Um I am here joined by Keith Keith Ruffalo and Gisack who are going to lead us through um some of our data around the achievement gap reduction and progress we've made this school year and then talk about instructional steps we're taking um to continue to close opportunity gaps for our students. All right, good evening. Um I'll just start by doing a recap of the achievement gap uh achievement gap reduction grant. Uh this grant was established in 2015-16 uh and fully replaced the student achievement gu uh guarantee and education program or sage at the end of the two
061201718 school year. Uh the AGR program requires uh participating schools to create a performance objectives including uh reducing the achievement gap between low-income students in the school and students in the same age grade and subject statewide. So the timeline uh for the grant um happens uh throughout the school year and the previous school year. Um so we started finalizing the staffing um and the budget creation in August, September. Um third Friday count dictates the funding for the school year and those numbers are reported DPI. We looked at the first and second Fastbridge uh score fall the fall and winter window and we reported those to you on um February 10th. We gave an update of how that how that went. Um and then we looked at our spring window which just closed back in May
062and we're giving you that annual update now which is uh required each year. And then um reporting we'll start the process again um in August of reporting to DPI and then recently I applied for our next 5-year cycle grant um to DPI to renew the grant uh for the next 5 years. And then just a reminder about how our AGR funds are um allocated. Um uh this was like the the rough number of the total that we are allocated and it's based upon socioeconomic status of enrollments. Um so you'll notice on the on the following slide different schools get different amount of allocation uh based on their um messes uh totals. And then um the strategies that you can select are instructional coaching for teachers maintain uh classroom ratios of 18 to1 or 30-2 um
063or 1:1 tutoring. Um we implement all three strategies in grades K through three um within um within our district. And these are just a quick snapshot of uh the different schools like what grade levels we service at each school, how many classes and then uh how much how many instructional coaches or that onetoone tutoring uh for the reading specialists and then um except for for each school. So it's like if you notice like more teachers or more more things, it's because the allocation is different for each building. And next uh Corey will talk about our um our goal and our data. Yep. So this year we tr we shifted from looking at achievement and just where students are based on close to their grade level peers and really wanted to look at the impact we
064have from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. So our goal focused on moving students that are far below grade level or below grade level aggressively or at the 75th or more than one year's progress and moving students that were at or above grade level typical growth or one year's pro progress as the vocabulary from fastbridge calls it. So if we look overall, if we don't get into the specifics of where we were looking at those students that were low making aggressive, we look last year 60 66% of students made at least one year's growth or better. This year in literacy 70% of our students made at least one year's growth or better. If we look in math, last year 70% of our students made that year's growth or better, but
065this year we took a dip in math for we went down to 65%. If we move over to the next slide, this is looking specifically at that goal. If you look across those two top columns with numbers, this is looking at when we were talking about those students that are below or far below grade level, this is how many the percentage of those students that made aggressive growth. So making a year and a half's progress basically. Um you can see the darker green indicates where um 10% or more increase was made and the darker red indicates a 10% or more or yeah 10% or more decrease in the percentage of students. If you look at the bottom two rows you see the same thing but this is for our students that needed to make typical
066growth or the students who started the year at grade level or above and their movement the difference between the 22 or 23 24 school year and our 2425. This does um show the data just for our students that are K3 because those are the the grade levels indicated in the AGR grant. If we move to the math slide um we see the same data just for our math students. So some of the steps that we have taken this year um and are currently still taking with our leadership team is our letters literacy professional development. Um and I think you can see a pretty strong correlation there between starting to uh support all of our staff with professional learning around the science of reading in those early grades. We have seen an increase in growth across
067K3 which is um very reassuring and promising and hoping to see that grow even more over the next year. Um and we also I mean this is two bullet points but hours and hours and hours have been spent around professional development coaching around early literacy and then the development of personal reading plans. So any student who qualifies for a personal reading plan um has like a targeted support plan uh to develop their literacy skills and then that's communicated with families. So we just started with those um per state guidance um that started mid year. So we're talking just having those personal plans developed in um February and focused on through for the remainder of the year. So again, very hopeful as we continue into year two of professional learning around our science of reading and
068early literacy skills with our elementary staff and leadership. Um, in terms of HMH into math, you'll notice there were still significant amounts of growth, but you saw more red within the math side. And there is some um we have some I I would say reflections around how our year 2 implementation with inmath went. Um we did discover through doing learning walks and working with their coaches that our implementation of the core resource was not as intended. And so our first year with the coaches that we worked with um didn't go necessarily as well as we had hoped. Um, and I'm talking about the the coaches from the resource. So, we actually changed coaches the second year. They were able to give us more targeted feedback on the way that we are implementing um was not
069the way that the resource was intended. And I do think that that has impacted um the level of growth that we see. So we spent a lot of time this year um kind of rectifying that and providing clarity around the instructional framework as it pertains to math across our elementaryaries. So the third point instructional coordinators professional development on best practices through OSAC impactful coaching. We talked a lot about that in the uh winter when we shared our data of really pouring into our instructional coordinators or coaches at the elementary and secondary level. And then refining this is work our team has been focused on is refining our EMLSS systems to ensure that we are responsive to student needs. Um including redesigning the schedule for that and how do we ensure that every day students have
070opportunities to work on skills that maybe are lagging for them. um so that they can re access um grade level content. Um and so those are some of our current steps and next steps. We're doing a lot of work around instruction. So identifying priority standards, working on how those fit within a unit of study for our students. um assessment, understanding different types of assessment, when we use them, and then how do we use student feedback, student data to make informed decisions around our instruction. So, those are all areas that our team is currently working on. We're doing leadership learning around. The second bullet point, teaching with intent. Our leadership team is also working on creating an adult learning framework. So a very simple example is the research says that students and teachers when they both
071have clarity on what they're learning learn more. So teachers are really clear on what they are teaching and students are really clear on the expectations of what they're supposed to learn. So what that looks like we would say learning intentions other words you might hear are learning objectives. So what we have been working on as a leadership team is having a very clear learning framework for the adults in our system. So what does that look like when we're doing that at proficiency or at a very high level? Um providing that level of clarity and then going back from there maybe where are there some areas for improvement or where we may maybe missing the mark. And so that's going to be a really helpful guide for our leadership teams in schools to be able to
072give really meaningful feedback to teachers. Um it's also what we are using to design professional learning for our staff um coming back here in August. So that is another big piece. It's both like the core resource and making sure we are understanding how we teach those, but then the actual teaching practices that are really core um is is our two kind of big areas of focus. We've also Laura and I and Dr. Robinson have brought together our crossf functional team um that's meeting regularly to discuss needs across regular education and special education practices. Um, Carnegie Math, we just met with them today, um, and are working through our process to implement 612 math adoption. Um, professional development as, um, went out to all staff. There's a full catalog for learning all summer. There are probably
073over 70 different um, offerings happening uh, across our system this summer. And so that's a big lift as well. Um and then you'll see some different leadership opportunities. Um this whole week we are partnering with solution tree around our collaborative teams and like I mentioned the EMLSS process, the sale work on continuous improvement and then more coaching supports moving forward. So there's a lot of work that's in progress and things to look forward to next year. Um but now I open it up to any questions that you all have. Sure. Thank you. So questions from the board. Sure. Um, something we talk about a lot is we used to have a lot of we didn't used to have a lot of data and now we're very data rich and now we need to be data
074literate. Um, and I'm sure I know the the high level leadership levels you are doing it. How is that getting to teachers? Because I know like but like I do it in PLC's and we really focus in on those learning targets based off our benchmarks exams. Um, so that's my first question. Yeah, that's a a great question. So part of that first bullet point is providing clarity on what are our priority standards, when do we teach them, and how are we assessing them and making sure that our assessments are giving us feedback along the way of students progress towards those priority standards. And so we are that is coming through a refined guaranteed and viable curriculum. So refined GVC that has a specific scope and sequence and so we are working on that and then
075starting next week bringing teachers in um we're calling them educator advisory groups where they're going to then preview that build their understanding around why priority standards are important units and then the assessment piece um and then we'll again start to build capacity and that learning will continue in August. August and then you're exactly right. That's why our leadership team is getting some pretty I would say intensive 4 days of of training and learning around collaborative teams because that's such an important vehicle within schools to have consistency so that we are actually looking at data, understanding data and adjusting based on the data. Yeah. And this kind of came up when we were talking about KPIs and such. something that my school does and it's 45 minutes every quarter and I don't like to do it
076but in the end I do look back we do an assess we do an audit of all our learning targets what did we test we mark up every time we tested that every time we you know went through it and like you know you get to the end of the year go oh we didn't cover this in our curriculum it's just we didn't realize it was missing um I it's a heavy load on teachers I do not want them to do more because I am already doing all that work myself I I understand that but I also see the extreme value in a district of you don't know what you're missing sing until you don't till you go through and miss it and audit. So we realize like oh this curriculum is missing this one
077learning target but it's a target we still have to get you know so it's just something I know I want to kind of keep the conversation going without teachers have such a burden on them and I understand that there's so much work to be done but I have found it valuable after four years of doing it and kicking and screaming the whole way but I do now I'm like oh I get it I understand now like we're missing this here so what do we do as teachers to fill in that gap Yeah, you're exactly right. And I think it's a delicate balance of we're trying to provide the frame of what can we guarantee, what is common across all of our kindergarten classrooms. we can guarantee we are going to focus and we are going
078to measure our progress towards these key standards that we know students need to meet so that they can be prepared for first grade and then in collaborative teams so we can guarantee Kristen that they are going to meet all of those standards and it's going to be mapped out. So that's the work that we're doing right now. But then in teams, they can look at those and be like, "Okay, my students maybe have lagging skills in these areas. So I'm going to put extra emphasis on these other um these other uh standards. And so that's where um there is going to be a lot of conversations driven around that. And that's where teachers are the expert. So, we want to bring them along but also not put um too much of a burden as well
079on on them. All right, other questions. Board member color. Yeah. Um I didn't like the amount of pink I saw on the map, so that was that was disturbing. Um I know you talked a little bit about the implementation and how that didn't necessarily go um exactly as you would have liked. I I I guess my question is, especially as we're rolling out the new curriculum this coming year, what can we do to have walkthroughs or check-ins or evaluations more quickly to make sure we're not falling behind? Because if we're finding that out at the end of the year, that's I don't want to say lost year, but it's concerning, right? So, what can we do to speed that up and identify issues earlier? Yep. So, I again just met with the Carnegie team today.
080Um, and I think it's exactly what you said. It's it's earlier um catching that earlier. Um, and and ensuring that the coach, some of it is you don't know what you don't know. You're you're leaning on the coach from the resource um that is guiding that work. Um, and I do have a lot of confidence in the coach that was here during the pilot because we have the same coach that will be coming back. And so, um, I think that is is, you know, an important part of that. Um, we've also planned out like what those times and check-ins are going to look like. So, we're going to have that um, at least three visits within like 90 days. So in the first 100 days and my eye and ear is going to be very
081attuned to that now seeing how um unfortunately we had to learn that kind of the hard way through through the K5 um implementation. But I'm really uh confident that now we have some pretty bright spots at elementary and I I understand the red is concerning to to me as well. Um, but there still are some pretty significant bright spots and some teacher teams that are doing it exceptionally well that we as a leadership team have talked about. We need to highlight more and get leaders into each other's classrooms more so that they can also see it in action because it's one thing for an outside coach to be able to do that and coach um but we need our principles to be able to see that and share those practices with each other. So, we've
082redesigned also our leadership time this year so that they're going to have more opportunities to be in each other's buildings doing walks. So, um I hear you. We're going to do better this year. Um but and I feel confident that you're going to see a shift in math next year. If I could just add something real quick. I think one one component that was not included in there that I think is very important for reading there was the the the plans that were in place and that go that that tells me that there is a sound progress monitoring. In other words, you're looking at it, you've identified which students are deficient in reading, in literacy, and you create a personal plan for that student. the same type of um what I would say spot-on observations
083and and coaching and monitoring for for reading. That's what's going to happen with our new roll out for EMLSS for next year for math as well. So, we have a district-wide support or systems around supporting students with mathematics as well. So, those kind of things that we talk about creating systems and I know Miss Clark can probably say, "Hey, we did this a long time ago when she was teaching, right? these we're going back to the oldie but goodie is how do you uh improve uh student performance is by looking at each kid individually and creating a plan for that student individually to to make sure that we uh meet the needs of those students. So that will happen as well from math just in the same impact it had on literacy as you can
084see right other questions from the board. Oh yes board member. So this is um internal data through fastbridge. Yes. So when will the board see um the breakdown of the forward exam and the and how we did on that and that we are still planning but that will be coming this um this summer so likely late July. Okay. So um so this is currently just fast bridge data and AGR. Mhm. And are you so you have the answer? You just haven't shared with us. I mean like how we did on the state exam. I mean do we feel like that data is comparable to FastBridge? I'm trying to make that connection. Yes. Well, I just don't want to give like a like a I'll give like a one statement right overview. I would say our
085data is pretty similar to where we were last year. There were some minor shifts um in our data but it wasn't um major differences but I would definitely want to give a more like comprehensive view of that once we have it prepared for you. Okay. Mhm. Any advance? No. Okay. Other questions from the board? No. Um I had two questions for this. Um, the AGR is where we had the a little bit of a I would say a miscommunication as far as what it did and how it was implemented. Like uh so when we're talking about all those extra staff that we have, we're not actually having classes that are specifically just 18 students. It's more about the having the resources spread out over have over more classes because we have more teachers. Is that
086correct? No. So there are classrooms. So we can give an example. Um so at Jefferson for example there's two teachers who have been identified where their classrooms are capped at under 18 to1. Okay. But that allows us again if you have lower numbers there and we're able to add two additional teachers. That means across elementary it's going to you're going to have lower numbers across all of the the classrooms because you have two additional teachers. If you take that away it's not just impacting those two teachers is a positive like ripple impact across the whole school as a as a total. So if we did not choose that as a strategy, all class sizes would increase. Okay. And so and I guess that that then comes back to that question that was there before is
087how are we choosing who's in that capped class, right? Like because that that was kind of that whole question that had happened when we presented previously on this and so that was kind of the miscommunication. I was hoping we could kind of clear that up. So again with AGR we're not saying in these classrooms only those strategies are happening in those classrooms. So this is a whole school like all of K3 areas of focus. So all of these steps are happening across the elementary system. That's just one way, one strategy to support having more adults in front of our students that we're reducing the class sizes across across all of the elementarymentaries. So there's not we're not saying we're only providing um the clarity that I spoke to around curriculum for those classrooms. Those are
088things that are happening across our entire elementary system. Yeah. And and that wasn't my intent. So, I apologize if that's the way it came across more was like that one class that is capped at 18. A teacher dealing with 18 students versus 25 is a very different experience. And so, the ones in the 18 classroom can get more focused than the ones that are in the 25. And so, I was like, how is how is those 18 identified? Do they rotate in and out? And because it's more of a dynamic as they're reaching their standards, do they come out and move more in like how are we putting the people that are in that small class in it? I I also want to say just to say small class like at the elementary level with
089early grades, we're trying to keep classes to 20 and under or 22 and under. So we're talking about a difference of two to four students across K3 classrooms. That's and I'm not I'm not dismissing that. I'm just saying we're those are like those classrooms are flooded with resources including reading specialists, special education specialists, multilingual specialists that are in and out of all the classrooms based on student need. And so I wouldn't say like in the 18 to1 classrooms we're doing that is a principal decision along with teacher input of like who is needed where and what is the best balance of students across a grade level because every every grade level has different challenges. You know some have different you know levels of need depending or have different groups of students are accelerated. So um
090that is something that the principal meets with the holistic team at the school to determine okay who are the best students and what are the best classrooms um to spread out to ensure that no grade level is also on the higher end trying to ensure that we have the lowest numbers possible. Okay. Okay. Okay. And I think I'm just looking for process on how that's accomplished. Not just like, hey, I think and I hey, I think it's I think it goes back to that literature decision with a team. Yes. Right. But what are they doing? And that's that's the process that I'd kind of like to understand what's happening in order to pick those. That's I think that where I'm at. So, okay. I I understand uh what you're saying. I appreciate that everybody's getting
091uh access and that it's, you know, mobile as far as those extra teachers and moving around uh helping, but it's just kind of how that process for those smaller classes or that focus because I think they would get a little bit more. That said, um I'm also um questioning the with the math work where we had all of those low uh lower than expected scores. This is our second year, right, for running through there. And so those those marks I would expect on a first year, right? Because you generally have when you adopt you drop and then you build up. So one who identified that our coach was coaching us incorrectly like do you want to speak to that? Yeah, sure. So u Brenda I did. So I was tasked with like taking on the
092year 2 adoption when I was hired. Um, so through like studying the curricula like curricular resource and like talking with the coach for like I realized that when we were onboarding our new teachers and like as that session was going on, she's talking about things and I was like whoa whoa like this actually isn't what's supposed to be happening and like we got to like course correct here like this isn't going the right direction. So we kind of like reset and then I like worked with H.M.H. They're very like accommodating things. I talked to their implementation manager and she's like no you're absolutely right that is not the messaging that should be going to your staff truly apologize have like this has been like concern before so got a new coach very capable highlevel former
093principal really good came in like course corrected we designed the professional learning for our staff with that time that we had allocated I mean we had a lot of like literacy time plan do act 20 that's just like what we had so we did the best we could that's but to your point like why we focused on instructional framework. What is a what does a math block look like? What are the components and how do you do them well? What are the assessments that are involved in a day, a week, a month? Um and then what is the align technology that really meets kids like where they are. So that was the focus for the year. Um so that like I said we did course correct and then in like so now year three have
094like an like new like another plan to like go a little bit deeper with that. Um, so we're partnering with like HMH, um, one of the bullet points, that last one, I'm sorry, on this slide here, HMH Coachley. So they have a virtual coach experience that are our our instructional coordinators will be a part of to deepen their knowledge because what I realized is that like not only do our teachers not know like the pedagogy and practices at a level, but our coaches didn't and our leaders didn't unfortunately, right? So it's like teachers were getting feedback saying like, "Oh, I see SL like I see HMH up. Okay, good." But like the practices of mimicking like in the workbook that's not what the practices are. It's concrete representation abstract. It's like like that is like
095a really high effect size and that's like not what was happening. Like manipulative use wasn't happening. Math boards like you know like the language routines. And so like in year three like we took this last year and got the foundation back. Year three is getting like like I said manipulative language like when you walk into a math classroom my goal in year three is like it will look sound and feel different and those practices will get better. So like that's what year three like professional learning is going to be like for into math and so like the coachly coaches are going to help our instructional coordinators um get there too. Um, now with that too, uh, Brian, you had brought up before like how do we course correct this? Part of it is like go
096back to structure like our every week our teachers are going to be meeting around math. Uh, they have an hour of time every week to meet around math instruction to review math assessment, exit tickets, conformal assessments, end of unit assessments, talk about like do unit planning, all these things that have not had they have not necessarily had the opportunity to do in like a pretty structured manner, they will now. And so it's like we can move further faster and we'll have a better picture of what's going on and we can be on it like a little sooner. So I we will course correct. It's just a matter of like being able to put those systems and structures and getting really clear about what is really solid math instruction. So that's um yeah my quick answer
097to that one. Sure. Thank you. And yeah, so you identified that the instructional coach that was provided for us was not correct. Mhm. And they have been with us for two years. The last year ju last year, not the year before because this is we had just this is the end of our second year, right? They were with us for that first full year. And when I engaged with them was in August at new teacher meeting. Okay. So we've so then we had a new teacher for the second year. a new coach for the new a new coach. Sorry. Okay, coach. So, I I appreciate that HMH was very like, oh, no, you're right. But what is HMH doing to recover our lost year because it is a lost year where we now have to
098retrain our staff, our students have lost that time and we paid a lot of money to bring this curriculum in. What are they doing to recoup that for us because they were in the wrong and we identified that Yeah, sure. I don't have a great answer to that one to be honest with you. Yeah. Well, I I think we'd have to go back to them, especially looking forward to this HMH Coachley. That's potentially something that they could be providing or supporting with more professional learning, but I don't have an answer to that right now. Okay. Okay. I would like an answer to that at some point if we if we could. Um All right. And then any other questions from the board before we let them free? All right. Well, then thank you so much
099for your time and presentations. Really like it and hopefully we get better looks next year and and keep building. So, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. All right. And that is the end of our main agenda. And so let's see. Yep, that's all done. That's all done. All right. So then I guess we are going to move into close session. And so I would look for a motion in a second for the board to convene into executive session pursuant of Wisconsin's statute sections 19.8 19.85 85, parent one, parent D, and parent F to review written evaluations of school safety drills as required under 2017 Wisconsin Act 143 and to consider student disciplinary expulsion orders which if discussed in public would likely have substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of the students involved.
100So moved. Second. All right, sir. Would you call the role for that? Yes or no? Yes. Mr. Lee excused. And uh do we need to ask Jod and Laura to be excused? We haven't gone in. We haven't gone into yet. We haven't gone in yet. We're fine. We're We're approving to go into We're approving to go into Yes, Miss Car. Yes. I thought she said Clark like what? Mr. Becker is excused. Mr. Culler, yes. Miss Deal, yes. President Burns, yes. All right. Uh, if there is no objection, we will recess for five minutes while the boardroom is set up for the close session. There being no objections, we will recess for five minutes to get it set