Board Meeting 4-8-24

001all i' like to call this meeting the West Milwaukee School Board to order Mr s would please leave us in the pledge I of the United States of America rep for it stands one nation God indivisible and justice for all thank you very much so that would you please call the role yes Mr Burns here Mr Becker here Mrs Kaiser here Mr Keller here miss steel here Mrs car here Mr sikit President Mrs Lee here president Lee here prop of this meeting has been posted in accord with the meeting laws of the state of Wisconsin do we have any modifications to the agenda this evening there are no modifications all right we'll move right into the superintendent's report good evening so a couple of legislative updates Governor iers vetos bills targeting trans and gender non-conforming

002kids Wisconsin governor Tony iers has vetoed assembly bill um 377 a bill that Target transgender and gender non-conforming Youth and prohibits them from participating in school athletic teams so again that's a a veto by Governor iers uh Governor iers did sign bills uh requiring M and Asian-American instruction in K2 uh schools the new law requires school boards to provide instruction on Mong and asian-americans as part of already required instruction on relations in certain demographic groups referendum results for uh April 2nd election specifically around um District referendum so results indicate that 56 of the 93 School referendums were approved by voters this is a passage rate of just over 60% Governor veto Governor vetos uh several education related bills including uh competitive bidding mandates so Governor iers V Senate Bill 335 and uh assembly Bill 342

003relating to allowing school boards to employ a district administrator who was not licensed by DPI specifically there was um an effort in this bill to have uh superintendence to have uh more business background not necessarily educational superintendent licensing this is specifically What that particular Bill uh would have allowed uh Senate Bill 489 and assembly Bill 510 relating to rights to a parent a guardian of a child um there were a number of of bills that were Vos uh by Governor e on last week music department we're proud to announce that our District's music program has been honored with the best communities for music education designation from the National Association of Music Merchants foundation for his outstanding commitment to music education this year 975 school districts were recognized across the country with with the West Dallas

004West Milwaukee School District being one of 37 in the state of Wisconsin to receive this honor this is the 10th time that our music program has received National recognition from the NM Foundation now now in its 25th year the best communities for music education designation is awarded to districts that demonstrate outstanding achievements and efforts to provide music access and education to all students so along these lines I want to say again congrat ulations to all of our um music teachers our students in our district but specifically I want to urge everyone to continue to support uh the Marty lexman uh Foundation uh scholarship and specifically uh the effort is around increasing opportunities for students to engage in um the music uh and in an instrument and so um this award along with our efforts definitely

005uh support the things that we're doing in our district and trying to give every single kid an opportunity to play a musical instrument this is what's beautiful and what's wonderful about our district when I attend U the various events to see all of those students involved in the Arts is definitely a sight to see 2024 herb CLE educational Award winners I want to say congratulations to Stacy Montoya from Irving Elementary School and Katherine Johnson from West allas Central High School on being selected as 2024 herb Cole education Award winners Stacy was selected as a herb Cole Educational Foundation fellow and Katherine was awarded as a 2024 herb Cole student initiative scholarship thank you for embodying excellence in education and for representing our district that is that is Major our March educators of the month we

006have a short video I just want to recognize before the video plays Miss pessa Smith from hard man and Samantha gassi from Irving Elementary School stop playing no they're not here [Music] okay how are you doing you in the action let me tell you that I received so many compliments and some great words about the work that you're doing of our students and so I just want to First say thank to you for the work that you're doing congratulate [Music] [Applause] you here in front of you how you doing what's your namea T Smith yes congratulations you've been awarded the educator of the [Applause] month they said you're hard working you're patient and you have a y for thank you thank [Music] you in both instances they were in the work so it's good to

007see uh unfortunately I don't believe he either were able to join us tonight we will I will U present their awards at their schools on this week I I do want to close uh out my uh particular section by just reminding everyone that we are having our first spring engagement session on April 16th at uh rest Milwaukee Intermediate School from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. the address is 5104 West Greenfield Avenue that we will it will take place in the auditorium I want to invite everyone to come out become informed and engage and a conversation as to how we can uh improve our district and so again this this engagement session is for uh to solicit feedback and also to give you as much information as you need so you can make an informed decision and

008that's going to uh conclude the superintendent report for tonight all right thank you very much let's move on to itm 7 or public comments for this evening uh so um if there are people here in the audience who have got signed up already there is u a tablet the back of the room to sign up to provide public comments if you are listening via zoom and like to address the board uh there is should be a link in the chat free to fill that form out and do so for those who are trust the board this evening you'll have three minutes to do so uh please start off by stating your name and your address uh and then uh you'll have three minutes to provide your comments U there won't be any back and forth

009conversation however um if there are any uh simple questions or comments that we can address at the time we will right away if there's an official response required that will happen um by the next regular Board of Education meeting all right with that we have our first person up alth Stein hello my name is Eliz Stein I live at 2754 South 11 Street I have three District or three kids in our district one at Hoover in first grade one at Walker in third grade and one at FLW in grade my son did an inter District transfer last year from Hoover to Walker because it was deemed to be a better learning environment for him he has the mo he has for the most part thrived this year and we are grateful for the change that

010the change was made however while he has thrived in his new school our family has struggled because we are balancing three different schools with three different students two of which are very young meaning they have a lot more school events during the year my son was not able to participate at any events at Hoover this year and my daughter is unable or is able to come to Walker so we can participate as a family however she knows very few people and definitely feels out of place as it is not her school therefore our family made the hard decision to petition to move our daughter to Walker for the upcoming year via interdistrict transfer so that she could compete complete her schooling with her brother in a more traditional way sadly because we did not meet

011the very strict guidelines for an interdistrict transfer our request was denied I am here today to ask you to revisit those guidelines there are many viable reasons for a family that a family would need to be to participate in an interdistrict transfer which are addressed in the current guidelines however the guidelines do not allow for transfers to be done as a family they only allow one child the one child who is affected to transfer putting a lot of undue burden on families right now I have to balance getting two kids to and from school at the same time meaning if my husband is not home one child is always late or early more importantly it is very difficult to feel part of both communities and be present for both both schools events this Friday alone

012we will have we will again have to divide and conquer as one school has a family moving night and the other school has a Spring Fling this has happened several times throughout the school year with concerts dances events we would rather do these things as a family but are forced to do them separately so that both kids can participate in their school events as a member of both ptas I can tell you what I'm sure you already know which is that parent involvement in our district has diminished significantly since Co policies that separate families make it even harder for those families to be involved in both schools I asking that you re-evaluate the interdistrict transfer policy to allow families to have students who have to transfer to both schools within the district move as a

013family unit so that their entire family can be part of the school Community eliminating the need for to do events that that are supposed to be geared towards families separately thank you for your time and your consideration thank you okay uh Debbie Marin okay hi I'm Debbie Moren my address is 2345 South 75th Street and I'm here to talk about human growth and development and I was on the advisory committee and I have been in the past um and I was on this current advisory committee and it was very interesting it it's been a while since my kids have been in the district all four of my kids have gone through all all of their education in the west Dallas West Milwaukee schools all of them started in elementary and graduated from um I think

014all of them graduated from Central yep from Central um so I I found the process very interesting and I'm sure it's routine to Educators on how this how decisions get made and how you set up curriculum but it was interesting to lay person to try to figure out how it all worked it there was really good dialogue and the and our meetings were and you know that asking us for input was really well run by Adam hangle so um I found that very um very worthwhile but there's several issues to the board since you're making the policy that I'd like to have you consider I know there was some discussion I watched your Workshop too so there was some discussion about the opt out versus opin and I know Adam had mentioned that too and

015I'd be curious to know what districts have the opt in approach we have opt out so I I would like to see you know the decision- making on that and see if that might be something we could look at and then I was really interested on the difference between sexuality sex biological versus gender social and um how that's going to impact human growth and development instruction so um we're talking about biological you know biological um actions or activities and so I don't know how gender plays in in that role but um I think it needs to be defined if and when the district will will address the will address the gender issues and then and then if you do you need to up to date on the research I've just been seeing lately there's a

01615-year study out of the Netherlands emphasizing the normality of questioning one's gender identity during adolescence and this this study G this highlighted that gender non-c contentedness tends to decrease with age so that's kind of a warning before you before the um hormone replacement and surgical um drastic measures are pursued and kind of put down that path so schools will have something some um not that they're going to do the hormone replacement or the surgery but they can start a student down that path and if there is some if there's some warning that that's not a good direction to go I'd really like the latest information on that um there was a male clinic study that just came out on the 27th of of March raising concerns over irreversible harm and possible cancer link with puberty

017BL blockers for the boys so I mean this this stuff is coming out fast and furious so um am I done yeah thank you wow okay well I I I just like to finish up quickly because these were just for by introduction I'd like the the um School District consider it's time now to move to a a sexual risk avoidance as opposed to sexual risk reduction and there's all that data I'm talking about and research it's new and we need to look at that as the way we conduct and I think you you need to have an advisory committee for your 10th grade human growth and development according to the statutes as far as I can tell and I'm understanding that that 10th grade there's not going to be a advisory committee which is which

018is against the law okay thank you okay um there was no one else that signed up for public comments this evening so we're Clos comments at this time move on to item eight our board reports starting with 8.1 our review of our Board calendar this evening so today is uh May uh Monday April 8th we have a regular Board of Education meeting and we also have a financial stability and efficiency workshop on the proposed 2425 budget and preliminary tax levy number one then on Monday April 15th at 6 PM we have our school showcases six School showcases will be happening next Monday and then on Monday April 22nd at 6m we have rer the Board of Education meeting where nearly elected board members take their olds of office and then we have three college and

019gradous workshops one on student voice projects demonstrations one on student Representatives on our board and one on special education programs moving on to 8.2 our board committee reports this evening uh we have two 8.2.1 we have college Inc Readiness Miss Carr thank you life Readiness met tonight at five o'clock and uh we had several items on the agenda science adoption for elementary was the first uh Adam tangle provided a timeline for the science resource adoption for elementary the committee started in the summer looking at other District's resources they received evaluation samples and they knew that they wanted flexible and inquiry based lessons so that helped narrow down things the two resources being piloted at this time are the McGraw Hill Inspire and Mystery Science both resources will have a cost and both will need some

020consumables there will be a workshop for the board on May 13 so you can stay tuned for all the details uh from that committee the next on our agenda was the technology plan preview Kevin Clark and Adam hangle presented the timeline for this Tech plan the committee started the summer of 2023 and they started with goal setting and continued with goal setting we've had goals for years they sent out A needs assessment and they had staff create a wish list and then took all of that data and they developed they'll have goals that are in four um categories that align with our strategic plan pillars and there was talk about some streamlining the tech support stay tuned for that we need to have more discussion on that a and they talked about 50% of all

021the classrooms will have what's called new line panels which is basically a 75 inch touchscreen with a computer built into it and then um you know and that will be used by um staff and students and then the other 50% will be installed at a future date with hopes of 100% installed within the next two years next on the agenda was um academic career plan Steve gave us a committee um gave um the committee a condensed version of the academic career plan that is um the thing that was new to me was it's now required by the state to have and it focuses on on six through 12 but Steve pointed out that there will be other things throughout Elementary that um will be added in at at that lower level to get kids ready

022and um we're going to receive all the details during a workshop and that is it for my report thank you thank you Miss car does anyone have any questions regarding her report or any questions to be considered a future agenda for her committee seeing none thank you very much Miss Carr uh moving on the point 2.2 Communications and community relations Miss steal all right our committee met on March 25th um so we basically everything uh is about um right now talking about the referendum um so right now we there's a a spreadsheet has been created with all the upcoming major events happening in our district so referendum sessions intermedia PR nights doy exhibit night graduations Etc um directors and managers are encouraged to add additional events to the spreadsheet um there's also a spot on

023the spreadsheet for directors and managers that sign up to be there at these events to talk with community members about the referendum and then all of the principes all the schools uh will be receiving or probably have received it already a referendum tool kit these kits include a large poster advertising the referendum and handouts in both English and Spanish um they're also going to be adding stickers to the toolkit once the design has is decided on um principes will be able to put this information on display in the school office and at school events at their discretion and that is my report all right thank you very much Miss steel does anyone have any questions from Miss steel regarding her report or any items to consider future agendas seeing that thank you very much Mr

024steel uh moving on to 8.3 board member reports community events I know um we did have spring break that we were just have as there any community events anyone intended they would like to uh report on done I'm sure we'll have plenty coming up here now the second we're in the the home stretch as you say of the school year um as we're past all of our big breaks so we'll have lots of things to report on at our next meeting um so 8.4 um other updates and information items from my perspective just want to Echo Dr Robinson's um encouragement to attend our sessions refer information sessions that are coming up um the surveys I know have been hitting um people's mailboxes so um these surveys are going out to every single Community member within

025our district so if you have not received um a survey please reach out to reach out to us um you have an option to either fill it out on paper or electronically uh and this is really uh important to provide us the feedback that we need to get the information we need as we move forward with this referendum question so please do uh fill out the survey and also um please do attend the referendum information sessions that we have coming up um the one at West miluk you just want to note for those that may not not be aware green Avenue is torn up right now in front of West Milwaukee so just imp plan accordly when traveling um I I think perking is definitely restricted at that point and it might be hard to

026um travel down Green no one coming for that meeting um that's all I had to say on that so we'll move on to our consent agenda uh so you have 9.1 approv our regular Board of Education meetings from March 25th um 9.2 our employment summary and 9.3 are supplementary contracts if anyone doesn't need anything separated out look for a motion move to approve second second any last minute discussion all those in favor opposed right that passes right so move right into our financial stability efficiency Workshop this evening uh for our proposed 2425 budget and plary tax LY number one Mr Norris welcome evening everyone we're just gonna get some it setups here okay okay okay all right we're good to go sorry about that all right so thank you this evening for having me um

027so we this is the prelim tax levy number one for 20 425 is an annual item we go through every year it's part of a budget calendar that's board approved um you know we we typically start in early September October with a pupil count leading us to January open enrollment and then leading us to a staffing and projected enrollment count in February which gets us here in April to the first crack kind of at the prelim tax levy budget I do want to take a minute and pause before we jump into the presentation which is short I assured Kristen that tonight it would be short um is I think a good point to pause and I say that intentionally given kind of the votes that took place in early April with the referendums across the

028state breaking the record across the c or across the state of Wisconsin and I and I say that intentionally because everyone here has lived through the past decade of this meeting being about how to get to even and we are no longer in a place where we're discussing how to get to zero how do you climb out of a deficit that's been the work of our team the administration the board certainly our Teachers Association how do we get to even and I say that because it's it's simply fascinating to me that us having this discussion tonight is not about that when the neighboring districts ACR across the state are having that same discussion we've been having for 10 years there and so it's important for people to hear tonight that we are not in that

029place and we do have needs even though we are being financially responsible so tonight I'm hoping the first half of the presentation is about advocacy about learning about why are schools underfunded and how does that impact schools across the state not just here so with that uh was recently put out a three minute video which I think like best goes through in three minutes how schools are funded because that's the fundamental reason of why these discussions are happening not just here but across the state so I think if you would just take a look at this and e our public schools are the Cornerstone of our community the education and opportunities we provide for students today shape their futures and ours schools like any organization need money to operate but in Wisconsin funding the needs

030of our schools has been a growing challenge State policy limits how much school districts can spend the vast majority of school funding comes from a combination of State dollars and local property taxes it's called the revenue limit and it acts as a cap per student that school districts can spend each year even if School costs go above this level schools can't spend any more than this limit from 1994 to 2009 these Revenue caps were adjusted for inflation which meant they helped schools keep up with ongoing needs but since 2010 the resources districts need to survive have fallen farther and farther behind the basic cost to operate our schools by the end of 2025 the revenue limit will have fallen more than $3,300 per student behind inflation with a district of1 ,000 students that's a decrease

031of more than $3 million what's more each district has a different Revenue cap and these caps are not tied to the needs of the students or the costs to the schools that serve them our job as a school district is to make sure all of our students have access to the exceptional educational opportunities we provide no matter what their needs when they walk through our doors but State funding falls short of what it costs to meet the specific spefic needs of many of our students when that happens we have to use money from our general fund to cover the difference which means taking dollars from other important needs the largest portion of our budget goes towards Staffing our people are the heart of our schools without enough Educators who instruct support and Inspire learning schools

032can't provide the lessons programs and opportunities our students deserve other important budget items include curriculum technology Transportation operations and maintenance school districts work hard to balance their budgets yet resources for schools have been shrinking year after year since 2010 with costs growing so much faster than funding districts are always looking for ways to trim costs and work smarter like deferring needed School maintenance cutting programs reducing staff and many other strategies but schools can only cut so much before they start to harm educational opportunities for their students to maintain class sizes keep up with Rising costs take care of school buildings and protect highquality instruction many districts have turned to their Community to help fill the state imposed funding Gap since the arrival of Revenue limits over 80% of school districts have done so by asking

033local voters to raise their caps through an operating referendum most have used the option multi times our children don't have time to wait for State policy makers to fix the school funding system by putting the needs of our students first we are investing in their potential in the future of our whole Community strong schools make strong communities where families want to move and stay learn more about school Finance in Wisconsin by visiting our [Music] websites to me is is much better than me trying to explain that in 30 minutes so that three minute video I think just encapsulates I think like the current issue in school funding in Wisconsin and also kind of what districts are doing and response and I think it directly connects to what most everyone in this room saw happened two

034weeks ago last week and uh with the refer votes across the state and I think it's not something that we won't see continue to happen but I think it's a good uh thing to keep people informed about and certainly we'll have this kind of branded for the information that's specific to our district and have it on our website here in the next week or so for anyone that's interested to learn more about and certainly uh uh to continue to advocate so um it's noteworthy we'll just keep moving here through this now noteworthy that uh as we move through this a prelim budget is just that's preliminary there's things that will change we know that um I'll talk about what those things typically are in later in the presentation and what I thought was interesting because

035I mentioned the comment that for the part of a decade we've at this exact meeting been in a different position I thought I'd go back and kind of show what that looked like so in 1819 this exact meeting we were discussing of how we were going to climb out of a roughly $5 million poll you can kind of go through year by year by year and I think this is a great way to show the work that's gone on from an operations perspective in conjunction with all the groups that I just mentioned earlier so um certainly happy to be in this position we are today uh through that work and uh continue forward to the future so the state budget uh the state budget's an annual B it's B anual budget that's passed every two

036years we're entering the second year of the biannual budget so 2425 brings I guess somewhat good news we'll see an increase in Revenue which is $325 per student which that was passed and it's noteworthy that through the governor's uh line item veto which is nicknamed the Vanna White veto the schools across Wisconson have a guarantee of $320 per year it's also important to note that that really only is is until Governor ravers is potentially no longer Governor right so likely for the next B anual budget the starting point for discussions will be at 325 because it's state law and then after that it's kind of unknown so should Governor rers decide to run and maintain his Governor status and probably the next two banial budgets will also that'll be the starting point should he not

037run or and or his party lose I mean that's up for questions so certainly not something we should Bank on but I think entering the 2527 by IAL budget it's certainly something that that's where I'll start projecting for next year for the I'm sorry in a year and a half from now um but certainly good to knowe I think I the reason I mentioned that is I hear people say well schools got lifetime increases well it's not actually accurate it's currently accurate it's literally the strike of a pen can be changed so just important to note that for any watching certainly everyone in this room so what does that look like I think it's important to know like what does a 325 per pupil members per member increase like so uh this year and next

038year it amounts to just just just under 4% of an increase in revenue and when you compare that to just CPI alone right and staff salaries and benefits make make up about 70% of our expenses when you compare it just to CPI alone right CPI last year was 8% over double what our Revenue increase was and then this year uh again CPI inflation essentially outpaced um our increase in Revenue so if you get beyond that right into other areas where inflations outpacing other areas health insurance Transportation crossing guards these are all things we've had discussions with as a board seeing you know I don't want to say astronomical but 15 to 20% seems nominal seems normal right as a starting point for some of these conversations because just because CPI inflation as a whole across

039this country ranges as an average there other Industries are larger increases then those increases are pushed to schools or whoever uses those uh those goods and services so I think it's important to note as you saw in the video school districts if you go from 2010 until today and you you add up every year so if schools were underfunded by $50 the last two years then this year it's 100 and then this year it's 25 now it's 125 right if you add that up over the past 14 years we are we are literally 3,3 8 behind per student and per year in one year $338 per student leaves us with a net deficit of almost over $20 million as a district so it is significant and it's uh it's appalling to see so I'm going

040to spend a few slides to kind of go through what that looks like across the state Beyond a little bit deeper um from the video they showed so um I included the slide and it doesn't show the whole picture and I'll explain that in a second but what's interesting to note is that this this is the first year now having the 22 23 year ended where you've seen a complete group of students go through the whole school system 4K all the way to graduating post Act 10 and the reason it's important is because when you look at that's the first student that was enrolled in schools when the current school funding landscape changed and this is where when you start to go through uh cumulatively um you can kind of see what happened so in

0412009 there was the first year Revenue limits were decoupled and started in 4k that's when the proficiency through Act 10 the state statutes were changed for proficiency and tests in schools right to what we have today and you can kind of keep going through this and you can see you know the first two years we received $200 that actually outpaced inflation right then 2011 is when the Act 10 uh decrease to schools happen and you can kind of go through that and there's a couple years where uh the increase from the state was was nominal with the increase in inflation so you can see that those years are on there because it was an Net Zero but over the course of their career in public schools that's where this 3,000 over $3,200 comes from and

042it's just an interesting thing to think that's been that long right it was shocking to me to see that I hadn't thought about it in that way so you can see here this this slide kind of takes each of the years in which schools in which our school district received less money than inflation and it multiplies it to add up well how much money in that year did the did our school district lose in the difference between what we received versus inflation so you can see in9 2010 we received more Revenue that year and then you can kind of go through it here to go well in 2011 we had a deficit of $8 million versus inflation and when you add up every year beyond that you can see it's a total of over uh

043$22 million that the school district in that students's lifetime in the school district would have lost the district would have so you can say well how does it impact in one year well you can see it here how does it impact over the lifetime it's certainly growing um and I can't imagine you know what Public Schools would look like today had this not happened I can't even imagine what it would look like $200 million is more than we receive in one budget year to just to put that in in context right so it's certainly astronomical this is just another visual to show kind of the difference between how schools were funded prior to act 10 which was in index to inflation versus today and the Gap obviously continues to grow as we receive increases that

044do not outpace inflation or stay with it um so then I thought well let's look at like is Wisconsin like are we in the middle of every other state when it comes to this because if every other State's doing the same thing well then maybe that's some of the thinking as to why this is happening right so I thought I'd start looking at this so how does Wisconsin rank in K12 spending today than it versus 20 years ago so in 2002 we ranked 11th in the in the country in spending per uh in terms of the the state of Wisconsin on education today we're 25th which is 5.22% below the national average and the main reason that is I went back to prior to covid the main reason that is is Wisconsin was one of

045two states in the entire country that when schools got Esser funding related to covid the state legislature said in Li of you getting a state increase we're going to supplement that with Esser money so literally 48 states in the country said you're going to get an increase in the state and you get Esra money and we were one of two that said no so like this is this that decrease went from I think it was 18th to 25th in just one year so you know when you look at K12 spending in Wisconsin you know are we alone no we are near the Bottom now and that's just a fact in terms of State AIDS again this is how school districts get supplemented in funding through the equalization Aid formula you saw in the video the

046the two different uh the cups pouring into to one so property taxes is certainly a portion of the dollars we receive and the other portion is State aids for every dollar we receive 60 cents comes from the state 40 cents from comes from property taxpayers so you can see from 2003 to today uh the state has actually attributed less dollars in purpose revenues which is Equalization Aid to schools versus when they did 20 years ago and what's astonishing about that is that in 2003 there was much more students accessing public education than today so the state actually has more money today through property taxes through um sales tax revenue than they did then and now they're spending much less more money so that that percent should be you know 60% that would be what I

047would expect because they're going in opposite directions and it's not which is even more of a problem um how does the state of Wisconsin compare to other states in terms of public dollars going to private schools that was another area because in the last Millennial budget schools received 3 to 5% 3 to 4% in Revenue increases private schools received upwards of 33% so what did that do well this is exactly what it did so we are a um third in the nation in the amount of public dollars going to private K12 schools so you talk about a budget to reflection your priorities certainly it is in our same in our homes is the same way and this is where currently our state legislature their priorities lay um special education funding so in the state of

048Wisconsin which is similar to Most states for every dollar you spend on special education or fund 27 eligible expense you receive a reimbursement for that and in some states you can receive up to 60 cents for every dollar in Wisconsin today it's 33.3 cents for every dollar and in the last binal budget Governor iers asked the legislature to increase from 31.7 to 60 and the 60% would have put the state of wiscons in the top 10 in the top 10 in in in the country and obviously that did not happen but what I thought was interesting is today we receive less money in reimbursement from the state than we did in 2000 and to me again this is another key statistic that shows like this is how you start to go backwards and with special

049education needs and student intervention needs On The Rise especially out of a pandemic it's just disheartening to see that this has not changed when the state had a chance to do that um I I'll keep going here national teacher shortage from the USA Today 2024 so most recently you can see kind of the larger the blue circle the more of a shortage you have Wisconsin is is is one of the you know 10 11 states that has the biggest needs here in terms of shortages which again if you kind of go back to the last five slides it's not like a secret how that happens right and then how do districts respond well what does that lead to that leads to last Tuesday it leads to that it leads to communities and school districts having

050to come together to solve the problems that should be H that should be solved in Madison and that's just the truth and it's just facts and it shouldn't be you know um upsetting to anybody but it's just the facts and I think part of these meetings should be about what's happening and how has impact us and so I just wanted to spend a few minutes to talk about that tonight I think it's important for you guys to kind of know and be able to share those out with your groups in the community to know what's happening and kind of why districts are doing these things so we'll get into our budget now so as I mentioned before a prelim budget is certainly a budget that's in flux and there are things we know this is

051a year we know Revenue next year we will not right we'll be in the in this cycle going what if this what if this what if this and we'll start to build a projection but this year we do know so we know that we're going to have increased revenue from the state $320 per student um Penning board approval uh to this evening uh we'll have a 5% increase in CPI compensation for all employee groups um next year we know that we'll have the compensation model uh which includes a $200 retention increase for returning staff and also micr credentials th those are projections at this point it's contingent on people coming back for next year and then also the number of staff that participate in PD opportunities uh we've discussed reduction in staff to line with

052enrollment that's consistent practice we've had in the past uh we're at this point projecting health insurance increases to be about 15% we won't really know that until about July so that's something that will be something to share with the board here probably in August when we get those numbers back uh at this point I'm pretty confident we have no Dental increase we're self-insured for dental and so that's good to hear uh utility costs they've actually come down a little bit this year you probably have heating bills in your homes you can look at this year to past year not really sure why that is but most districts are budgeting seven even though that they we we think it might Trend to closer to three so there's some savings there potentially in July we'll know more

053about that uh currently both school and Department budgets are at 75% this coming year from prior year and then uh it includes some contracted service reductions and then the the budget is built upon a membership reduction of 75 students which is projected those numbers come out again in the September uh pupil count um and then I just made a note that the CPI increases p Bo approval so what does that leave us that leaves us about $339,000 in the Reds so certainly again going back to my third slide here that leaves us in a much better position um than in past year so if we could overcome that I'm 100% sure we can overcome this so very much appreciate your guys' work on that um opportuni to balance certainly have Staffing committees that we review

054kind of staffing needs as we go through schools maybe the principales that's certainly not going to be an issue this year given of the the deficit we're in $38,000 is is nothing to scrutinize over so when we come to June prior to the fiscal year turning we will have a balanced budget for you guys to review and and hopefully approve so mill rate tax levy we'll talk about that now so the projected mill rate there's two different scenarios I have here one is if an equalized property value does not increase at all which is definitely not going to happen the reason I show this is that the mill rate and the tax levy are only connected to each other if the equalized property value is zero and so what I'm saying here tonight is our

055reduction in membership with no equalized property value increase shows a mill rate reduction that means the tax levy will go down next year okay now we don't ever see an equalized property value decrease or zero so what is it going to actually look like the projections currently are that equalize property in the west Dallas West Milwaukee School District at all across all municipalities will increase in aggregate of 6% so given that we are having a looking at a tax levy decrease next year the property taxpayers should project about a 5 to 7% decrease in the mill rate next year that's what we're projecting at this point based upon State AIDS a lot of that is because State AIDS the bucket they increase the bucket for 2425 so some of that's attributed to that but the

056other portion is that we have a a t uh a total revenue limit decrease as well right which impacts property taxpayers as well so it's good good news how does it impact a property taxpayer for $100,000 of value $622 uh would be the school based portion of their property tax payment other District priorities so we are currently in the midst of a food service RFP I included that in my board update for you guys the review so we are working through that actually our committee met today for the first time we have about 14 people on the committee very excited about that we have a student from Central and hail and then we have literally a individual from every employee group across the district essentially um teachers we have administrators we have laced out everybody

057so we made a site visit today to hail to physically try the food and we're going to I believe peuke high school tomorrow to try theirs different different vendor and then we'll be at Brown Deer high school on Thursday to do the same um and then look for board approval here in the next few weeks likely in May around what the recommendation is to you guys so that's that's coming up but you can see here uh we continue to find we continue to try to find ways to spend fun 50 Surplus dollars so we if you can go back a few years this is year three of offering free lunch and breakfast to all students which I think is the most noble thing we can do as Citizens for kids is do that and we've

058done that and that was to spend down our fund balance in fun 50 which is very restricted and it can only be for Food Service eligible expenses so we've been doing that we've been trying to we've working with DPI on eligible expenses for what what costs going to Food Service well certainly the cleaning up of foods of lunch and breakfast is a cost associated with food service if you didn't have breakfast and lunch you wouldn't need someone to clean it up so we've been we last two years ago we attributed the salary and benefit time with cleaning up food service from our custodial staff that certainly helped and this year we're looking at uh also attributing supervision of lunch and breakfast so that's going to be staff and elementaries likely and more administrative and and

059you know youth advisor time which will also help but again that includes this and we're still projecting just barely a deficit based budget this year for food service so you know $50,000 we eat into that but not at the pace that we're expected to per GPI we're only supposed to have three months of carrying costs in a fund balance and as long as we have a plan to try to tackle that we are we're also looking at um metering out the kitchens this summer so that'll also help too to attribute actual gas electricity and water costs for food service and then pay that bill separately out of fun 50 so we're we're doing what we can uh I I this this whole deck will get reshuffled with a new vendor or sedexo whoever the new

060cost will come and we'll have to look through that too but that's Food Service fund 80 uh certainly we've been working on the lane Recreation project um so that's something that's a big uh I believe that'll start here in the next few months so I have to check with shell on that but um that's kind of the the fun 80 Recreation Levy history facility updates so there's some obviously plans for facility improvements for next year so a couple of the highlights the B we're looking at upgrading bathrooms at Nathan hail the athletic bathrooms near the gym and the the the whack uh the bathrooms there we have Music Room upgrade at Frank L right there's some storage in the music and Orchestra room certainly Mary pack could speak to this better than I can but

061there's upgrades and needs there that we're looking to do including new flooring uh for the students at FLW um docky and hail have planned Roofing needs on top of the roofing NE at Hae so working on getting an update to that so more to come there uh with the you know ongoing issues we had there pool upgrades and then some other consistent things that we have every year that come up um that's from a facilties perspective fun 46 you can kind of see some of the projects that we've finished this year and what's coming up next year um certainly our our fund balance obviously working at spending some of those dollars um so you can see here looking at projected balance just over $9 million in the fund balance for 46 and then fund 49

062is our other Capital Improvement fund you can see the fund balance for 2324 began at $8 million and it's just under six now and the main reason that is due to 93rd Street renovation uh which we uh that's from the S this building so other priorities my last slide here is just we're working through next year pending obviously the the referendum a compensation mod Redevelopment the technology refresh will be coming as I think Jane mentioned in her update uh for board approval and then from leadership and learning some early literacy uh professional development supplemental materials to support early literacy development and intervention materials and then a 612 math curriculum review and resource adoption next year so I think yeah that's it that's all I have so I would I guess pause there prior to the

063agenda for questions questions from the board I'm thrilled we're at 39,000 that's when I started I think we're at like three or four million always under and we would approve it it's like this is a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication and a lot of stuff but um it's great work you thank you other questions I just have one um so the current budget includes 75% building budgets that's compared to this year's budget so it's or it's it's basically the same budget from this year to next year yeah so good question so every every year building budgets go back to zero 100% And then what happens is it's based on their January prior enrollment and then what we do is take their January prior enrollment we multiply it out to be 100%

064And then reduce it down to 75% that's the school budgets Department budgets what you just said is correct the current budget at 75% for next year okay you see the difference so they're they're they're different calculations and the reason that is is because if schools we ran the schools that way every year they'd be like from today five years from now their budgets would be a third of what they are right so it's easy it's better for them to do it that way yeah I know we had some discussions about the funds and how we distribute them according to need um so and some we know that some of our school buildings have a higher free reduced lunch population compared to others and so we talked about I know we've discussed the past about title

065funds and how those are distributed more to those schools that have a higher need but when we when we're talking about Department budgets and building budgets beyond the title funds is there any other increase given to the buildings that have a higher free reduce as we know the needs of those buildings tend to be higher sure staffing needs as well as other supports that those require sure yeah so the the two main areas where schools specifically get more funding in terms of like based on the free introduced percentage is title as you mentioned and the other one's AGR so those are two functions through the state and federal government where schools can get more dollars that are attributed based upon that school's free reduced population and those dollars which are allocated to the district to

066deploy to those schools can be used really for funding or and or to meet the needs of the grant so AGR is a grant so we have to apply kind of a budget to what that would look like so our current model is 50% coaching 50% Staffing for for classrooms so that's the main purposes at this point how we fund schools based on fre introduce outside of the we don't we don't have a certain calculation the building budgets for that okay from my perspective I think that'd be good to see something like that sure um some sort of a multiplier if you will that when you calculate everyone's budget maybe based on the free and reduc there's a multiplier provided to each School based on how many free students that they have sure so that

067we and then the building would have the flexibility to then use those funds as they deemed fit to be able to help support their cool Community um I know that budgets are tight and that adds a comp complication to it but when we talk about Equity like that's how I see trying to be able to do that equitably because I know with title funds and things like that we end up like providing Staffing dollars for those from a lot of those funds and maybe some support dollars U but to me that's a little bit different than saying like we know that this is going to be more difficult because of the needs of your population and as such we want to be able to provide you more support for that so I don't know the

068details about how that would possibly work out yeah but I think it's something that it would be great to like maybe look into so that we can consider something that do move through these budgets yeah I certainly can bring that to committee and we can have a discussion and kind of panel other districts if they have something similar to kind of build off of and bring it to the I do know there are instances right now where we have uh deeper learning coaches at some schools specifically because of their population so we do have uh efforts already in place I I agree we need to come up with more of a better plan to identify how that how those monies are hied out but um currently that that's one of the things I would say

069as an example of haris M has two deeper learning coaches where every other El school I think except Jefferson has one that's an example they are one of our highest populations in fre line right yeah so just wanted to bring that up yeah any other questions from the board all right thank you very much Mr Norris for providing us this uh insight into our preliminary budget and tax levy coming up here and we will officially take action on those things in June as you mentioned previously all right so now we're moving on to our action IGS this evening starting with our 2425 base wage increase for all employee groups uh did you have aable Dr just ask for approval Mr noris I'll turn it over to you then yeah yeah no as as Dr Robinson

070said we're we're seeking your approval we thought it'd be most appropriate to kind of talk through the the budget and tax levy projections for next year prior for you guys to see that prior to asking for approval uh for base wage increase for employees I just would note that this is the earliest we've ever asked for this to happen I think it's coming off of the staffings we've had in schools around compensation what your future looks like I think given kind of where the Market's going the earliest we can get this out here to staff to kind of let them know what we're trying to do what our efforts are that we're really doing our best while being fiscally responsible to keep people from looking I mean it's fits the perfect thing we've been trying

071to do which is employee retention so I appreciate you guys' support and as Dr Robin said look for your approval on that questions from the board I only have one um because it might come up in the referendum session so we talk about one of the things we're doing is operational referendum we're talking about trying to get our staff to the middle sure um how does this affect that I mean we don't know what other districts are going to do right but say other districts did nothing and we give everyone 5% right but where that we're second from the last right now in our area sure so would that move us to the middle would that move us to like top lower 25% I just think it's a good sure thing to talk about because

072we this is the comparator right we're this is what we're trying to do we're trying to say we want St to stay the biggest reason to leing up money yeah so how can we keep them we're doing 5% that's what we can do but we need to do a lot more to be able to keep that retir it's a good question and the answer I don't mean to complicate it because I'm not trying to but it is complicated because you got to go a little bit deeper than an inch so if all districts around us gave 4.12 you go we did five we did 088 better but it's not that simple if any District's already 6% above us do 4.12 on 60 Grand versus 5% on 55 the person that makes 60 at four is

073actually going to get a little more Chunk in the right so you have to then dig into like well who gave 4.12 what percent are they above us and rerun the which we will do prior to obviously next fall in the referendum campaign um but from what I have seen there's not like this isn't like board approved in every District but the conversations going on is most districts are looking between three and a half and the 4.12 I'm guessing the aggregate average will be about four that's my guess I've been shocked before I think tosa shocked us all last year stuff like that probably will happen again but hard to say at this point this is pretty early for those conversations but they are happening so I I'll just add we're in an excellent position

074as far as um you know getting things out early but I think that your brings up a a point that Aon mentioned earlier about the compensation model that there's a lot of work that has to be done and um we're looking for you know success in in November and part of that success we'll definitely have to we we have to work with that Compensation Plan to make sure that we we do what's right by our people bottom line and and so uh part of that is making sure that we have a plan that that's equ every thank you that's the the point that I was hoping to made so yeah thank you Mr vers I had one question about this I certainly um like the idea of the 5% um by ask going up above

075and beyond where like other districts are talking right now is that going to impact our ability to put in additional staff support staff other things that might help make our teachers lives easier beond the pce since we are also with our referendum talking about yeah salary I mean I think the honest answer to that is yeah but I think if the truth is I think they'd take the five over the 4.12 I I don't think it's felt across that but I mean for every for every 1% it's a half million dollars so you're probably looking at 400 Grand that's coming from somewhere right it's just the truth so you know is that going to be felt across all schools equitably probably not but of 8.88 more is felt equitably across all employees so I think

076that's been the focus I think should November be successful we're certainly not going to be in this position to you know we'll look at it again and if we're regionally competitive we likely would have a different answer for you today um but given we're not that's could that too we've been doing a lot of work behind not to really talk about some of those my my big ask of Aaron but as an example we're looking at U uh uh EAS for our 4K classes so we would have sort of like one per elementary school that's an example of the supports that you're that you're talking about uh to provide you know our our our 4K teachers with those kids are coming in I I participated in one of the classes at Irving and I just

077looked at the teacher and said I don't know how you do this every day you know and so I going back to with Aaron I said Aaron we gotta do this so that's been an Ask of mine that we're trying to look at the budget and make sure that that that that can happen um again it's an ask no it's we were we're not sure quite how the money is going to flesh out but that's hopefully something we'll be able to get get done yeah it's not like something that people live with say is gone tomorrow it's not like that that's what you're may be more asking Brandon if that is the case then no but the money does come from somewhere so that's yeah yeah thank you any other questions or was I look

078for a motion to approve second move to Second and the next minute discussion all those in favor I post all right that passes than much Mr Norris thank you move on to 11.2 our start college now applicants Mr Carr I believe is here thanks again for having me um I do realize that there's a basketball game that's going to tip up here in a couple minutes so I'm going to try to make this brief um but this is a wonderful opportunity every semester to uh present to you the names of the students who have uh before March 1st uh submitted their applications to um attend uh Technical College um while still here at in our high school system um so I presented you with the list of those students who um met the qualifications they've

079their student ship is uh worthy of us giving them the opportunity to to go to MATC WCTC or Gateway and um I hope uh that you will accept them and so that we can get them into that system of uh registration and enrollment um starting in the fall questions for the board look for a motion move to approve second moved in seconded all those in favor I oos right that passes move right on to 11.3 early college credits applicants similar situation early college credit program um is for students who are into going into the four-year college and university system um also the the one of the unique factors is the students who are going through the eccp process early college credit Pro uh program uh we have a student who applied for the summer session

080as well and that is uh certainly okay in that that uh framework um so we have a a similar situation where we have students who have met all the qualifications um their student ship is uh worthy of us uh justifying them heading into the school uh University environment next uh fall and Summer for one of them and I'm hoping you'll accept them uh accept their proposal so we can get them moving into their enrollment process any questions from the board move to approve second moved and seconded all those in favor post that passes thank you very much thank you appreciate it Mr car thank you all right let's move on to 11.4 gifted in talented program approval all right good evening we're gonna grab one more chair let see how this looks this is interesting

081all right I guess Dr Robinson is going to start us off so this is a continuation U from our previous uh presentation and it's going to be sort of a a followup in a sense of you gave us some homework gave us things we needed to work on and this is kind of what we came back with and so um I'm going to turn it over uh to Lessa and her team and we'll we'll get to this right beautiful well thank you again I'm excited to be joined here with uh Dr Greece um and Kim K who have spent a lot of time over this past year um re envisioning what our gifts and talented programming will look like to serve the needs of our students and Families and so what you were all given

082this past weekend was the gifted and talented program plan which is the complete plan here are all the different aspects of it um there was rich discussion during the workshop so I think we're very familiar with the plan but I'm going to let Kim and Becky speak to just some of the changes based on feedback um from you all and so if you could share okay so I think one of the big pieces from your feedback that we want to make sure that we're including within our plan is that professional development piece and so we will be having um a lot of training around depth and complexity and that will be sort of where professional development goes moving into next year um starting with um a meeting in March and then looking for some teacher

083leaders at each building that will attend a TR this training as well as um some summer training this summer so we will have a two-day training this summer um at two different opportunities for teachers to attend that training um along with Kim and myself to just make sure that we are setting our teachers up for Success um as we're um implementing this new program plan and then the other piece is just making sure that on our website we have um a clear pathway for families um to get the information where the program plan will live as well as um an FAQ section that kind of has all those questions that you're sort of asking us to kind of put those out there as well as other questions that we're getting from families to make that

084apparent um and forward facing for them and then along with the program plan tonight is also a proposed gifted and talented board policy that we also shared um with you all previously and this is just an important piece in alignment with the program plan to have this updated as well as we'll have this brought into our policy as well as a policy around student acceleration those are both things that are um via DPI um highly recommended to be part part of this program approval so again as these changes we have these here um based on your feedback but we also know like as soon as we get approval we're going to be moving and getting this into our schools as soon as possible um so some of that learning and sharing around what the program

085plan is and whatnot will all happen this spring so with them we can identify our um teacher leaders that are going to be kind of guiding the gifted and talented work within the school building alongside the leadership teams so what questions do you all have questions Miss car yeah go ahead just a comment thanking you for U for listening and um making some of those changes I think I feel more comfortable with the the plan now thank you car questions so is the plan once approved to start identifying students right away and then good communication be going out sorry communication be going out to families if their student is identified as well as if they want to have their student identified you know if you know the process that we talked about absolutely so all

086of those yes to all of those right so our next steps will be getting this information out on our website and making sure everyone is aware of this new program plan as well as getting schools and teachers and leaders all up to speed so that's like the work of this next month um we as you know in the program plan the we already have students who are identified as gifted and talented um and then the identification continues on an ongoing basis so we will be entering I know we're in testing season right now with forward and preac and act we will also have our endof year testing and that's another opportunity where we look at that data to again start identifying students that maybe we've missed and then there is always the option for families

087to fill out or complete a form as well as teachers for students that you know maybe were not seeing their giftedness come through in the test scores but maybe they're gifted in leadership or in other areas Kim is there anything you want to add to that I think you're good good okay they've taught me a lot so all credit goes to this team and then my other question was about the policy um it was a little shorter than I expected considering the the girth of the document that is what is used to basically run through the the nuts and bolts of how this program works so at the very least I think that document should be linked in the policy so that if someone is like oh what is the policy on givea oh here's

088the giant document that actually lays everything out because to me this is the the policy here the language is very minimal it doesn't really tell you a lot yeah it was a lot longer yeah through through the guidance of Savon he told us to take certain things out to to sort of normal with the other District so andol looked at this y yes y okay so but I think I think we should link the document to the policy so that if people look to this policy they can see that we it's not just this paragraph It's a Long stuff that is can be considered and is considered um so that people know where look for it right like if someone this is a new thing we might have a lot of people interested in it

089from a community standpoint and so I think it'd be good to have that document readily attached to it yeah since we're and the only reason I'm bringing this up is because we're we're approving this policy and so essentially what I'm asking for is approval with that link added to it that's what I would be looking for and we can bring that to saana and Neola we're meeting with them briefly uh soon so yes poliy and I I I just have to so I'm just questioning I just need to hear one more time about why we changed the name to just gifted and talented because I feel like we've done a really good job as a district of saying hey let's broaden what is gifted and think about all of the things that we're looking at

090music and art that is creative and I I really relish that creative being in there and I know you said well we just want to be with the norm of what everyone else is calling it is that true because I would just say that I think that it's important to have that word I it's just my comment on it so can I I'll comment um I I I would say yes part of the reason that we that the C has been removed is to align with DPI right okay that's that's a huge part of it but I would also tell you that the creative side of it has not gone away it's still still a part of that that hasn't been diminished I think that's the part I want I I totally agree with you

091and again I'm gonna be fine with the name but I I just feel compelled to say that I took a lot of pride in that word and I and it kind of diminishes it through taking it out even though we know it's in so I I don't know I think I just also want to add one of the other things so yes we're aligning with DPI in that title right but when I look now at all those areas of giftedness and some of those areas that involve the creativity or the Arts and the music we weren't identifying students necessarily in those areas we didn't have the protocols in place that are now within the program plan so I think with our program plan the way that it's laid out in all of those areas with

092the specific ways that we are going to identify students that is what is going to allow that piece that you're saying like that creative piece to still be a part of us okay who to approve as amended as amended second as amended all right motion second any last minute discussion all those in favor I opposed that passes thank you very much for all your work on this and we're very much looking forward to seeing it ladies all right so that moves us to 11.5 um human growth and development program approval Mr hangle so I'll start us off um this is a continuation of our um meeting last month where we kind of laid out some of the changes and updates to human growth and development uh plan for the district just in the in the

093meantime uh as you in the in the interim last time we met I kind of did some research and looked at sort of the purposes of school-based sex education so school-based sex education plays a vital role in the sex sexual health and well-being of young people I think all of us have gone through education in various levels and have been exposed to curriculum and things that you know we would say uh were benefits to us in this particular study I looked that um is entitled three decades of research to case of comprehensive sex education uh the results were outcomes include appreciation of sexual diversity dating and intimate partner violence prevention development of healthy relationships prevention of sexual abuse child sexual abuse improve social emotional learning and increase media literacy substantial evidence support sex education beginning

094in elementary school that is scaffolded and of longer durable ation so as as the kids get older things get a little bit more in depth and U and more information is shared and I think that this particular research and article definitely aligned with the direction that we're going with as a district so I wanted to kind of start by by kind of setting the tone for that and I'll turn it over to Alyssa and Adam at this time all right thanks for having us tonight um so again our our committee purpose um as ad hoc committee and our our purpose behind um kind of the evolution of our programming is really to review our proposed changes um one of them being uh obviously the addition of fourth grade we've talked about this a few times

095and sent out through board updates uh through 8th grade uh human growth and development programming that's delivered excuse me to students in the spring of 2024 and then beyond so our goal uh echoing kind of what Dr Robinson said in in in the research is that we're looking for developmentally appropriate fourth fifth 6th 7th e8th grade uh instructional programming including topics uh many of these are Guided by State Statute um but they're all related to human growth and development in order to provide scientifically accurate information and develop a partnership between school and parent for the purposes of Education our goal is to provide this content that is developmentally and age appropriate for students according to State and National Standard guidance in addition to addressing knowledge related to human growth and development in specific skills to

096display healthy behaviors um so uh I want to give a thanks to the hours of time that our committee um has met we kind of we going back and we've we met um seven times over the last 14 months um each for about two hours each time is in our our group Norms so we had um you know we had teachers on our committee community members on our community parents um healthc Care Professionals Pastor so want to thank all of those people um for all of their hard work uh on this over the last 14 months so um you know again our our committee process is um we were evaluating current content across grade levels from what we had had uh previously adopted in the probably mid 2010s um and then look at Best Practices

097related to human growth and development so we worked as a committee to build consensus on topics including delivery of materials so what we kind of did was we would come up with you know we build a slideshow we'd take a look at the slideshow we'd use the uh stoplight feedback system we'd put red yellow green dots on things if we could live with it we couldn't live with it or if it was we thought that was really positive moving forward um and then we reviewed each of those grade levels and contents across um as a committee and then kind of build consensus so the idea that you know over 50% of the committee being able to to build that consensus and live with things versus having a whole bunch of red dots on our papers

098as we were moving forward that was kind of our our practice over those those seven times and so some of our our key shifts and um this is also based off of feedback from you all which I'll get to and um we had another ad hoc committee meeting between our our board workshop and and tonight so our key shifts are the delivery of lessons in fourth grade this is a little bit of a shift is previous um fifth grade was the beginning of our like human growth and development programming so shifting that to fourth grade increasing content that was delivered across grade levels sometimes um like fifth grade was probably around 25 to 30 minutes um with about a 15minute video on top of that so really building out some pieces again based on feedback

099that we heard from board members we added some things around like self-esteem and social media and things like that um um you know building up also to hygiene pieces inclusivity creating those communities where everybody feels safe um in our classrooms and then obviously the continuation of absin and centered um we also use some guidance from the national sex education standards which is also used by DPI in their work um and then consistent with our own board policies in inclusive language and teaching which is Us in the 5000s it's a 41.2 rule and um this is where students should experience education around their own gender identity and expression and sexual orientation and identity so um you know we've we've been sting these out as our our objectives of kind of this is our goals like Dr

100Robinson said we're building on each year kind of like we start with fourth grade we spiral up a little bit of the fourth grade content into the fifth grade add new we bring the fifth grade along with us to sixth grade add new six to 7 7eventh to eth um so it's really like a comprehensive um kind of spiral that you'll see um through those uh those learning objectives and so like Adam shared um there was feedback both from you all during our Workshop as well as the ad hoc committee met shortly after to review that feedback and come back with finalized um plan for our students and so one of those pieces of feedback was around our transgender students and we want to ensure that anytime we we have a student who is transgender

101that there's really strong collaboration between the family and our school um and that those students also have access to the curriculum that is aligned to their gender identity that they consistently ass assert at school and in other social environments so that's directly connected to our board rule that Adam just referenced with the ultimate goal is that students feel safe that they can also learn about um themselves and be part of their classroom community all right and then um also based on our feedback to include um success in Failure rates for our prevention methods so we have a number of different prevention methods that are listed in eth grade um we had things like uh I know there were some suggestion around other health impacts around birth control being used for uh regulating menstrual cycles and

102like skin care and um acne reduction so we we added that in there um and also so we have both of those pieces in there and then highlighting methods that do and don't provide protection for STDs and STI essentially um being male and female condoms are really the only prevention method that prevents the the transmission of STDs and STI so that was added to um eighth grade is also actually added to seventh grade as well um and then we also um based on feedback in fourth fifth sixth grade we included content on consent so um we talked about sorry I'm just I'm working off of a different sidh show here so we talked about that building of a trusting and healthy relationship what consent means for both people put that in like fourth fifth grade

103sixth grade friendly language around like if you're playing a game you're playing somebody doesn't want to play you have to respect their their decision um if they change their mind later that's okay too so making sure that that's um acceptable and and put that in there based off feedback you know it's always okay to say no things like that um our next one was uh the delivery of programming in Spring of 2024 um but in the future switch to a fall delivery so this was suggested to our committee that was pretty um you know everybody was pretty much on board with that it makes sense we're catching fourth graders when they're first coming in versus letting a whole year lapse so we kind of updated some calendaring for that and like where our Communications will

104come from from the leadership and learning um pieces uh some suggestions on sixth seventh and eighth grade social media and how that impacts um uh body image self-esteem so we added in some pieces around you know self-esteem like when you're watching a TV show you're looking at Instagram posts you're seeing things online like there's filters applied those are not necessarily you're not seeing the whole story behind some of those they're they're made for um you know for like entertainment and enjoyment and you're not necessar necessarily seeing the back pieces of that so we added that um in fifth and sixth grade also folding that in with the idea that you know we're building this inclusive community and that everyone is unique and special in their own way and everybody brings strengths to our classroom communities

105so we kind of folded that um around there and then again I talked about the uh the health benefits of birth control um and then one of our pieces that we are looking at is the recommendation of DPI we are revisiting the high school health curriculum that's to we're looking at the high school health curriculum um to incorporate vpi's relevant programming in their resources we are looking at specific things in the health programming around tobacco and vaping prevention building skills for health literacy and nutrition uh issues with mental health and suicide prevention bullying prevention programs community iable diseases prevention and Dating Violence protection those are all things that DPI has published and allowed schools to use kind of like a open resource um and that is a direction that our our DPI contact for health

106has kind of steered us to and then supporting staff on a yearly basis if it's sending people to the whp conference and supporting people that way in terms of like new teachings and once again here's our proposed timeline while the committee the ad hoc committee has been working on this for the past 14 months um have shared this with our college andc readiness committee you all in workshop and now we are here on April 8th uh looking for your approval to move forward with this programming um and then if approved then we'll move forward in getting this information out to schools and families um this week as well as the lesson delivery this school year questions thank you for just thank you for really hearing us at the workshop and working that I mean it's

107super appreciative from the point of view of both a educator as a mom a Schoolboard member that um there's been a lot of uh Focus to detail and what's age appropriate but also what we need as a district and what our kids need to are so I really appreciate all that thank you I did forget one thing um on the consent pie we did add consent in eth grade there's a few State statutes that we added in per um like dpi's regulatory State statutes of what needs to go in health education so there are State statutes that is are included um that's around um age of consent felony um you know if it's a class C felony Class B depending on when you're engaging in those things so um and it references all the the

108state statute and I forgot to mention that I apologize other questions I just had one regarding the high school piece you talked about the other things of DPI are we're looking you know that's another we were looking at this one first fourth through eth now um are we also looking at that the entire curriculum of that or we just looking at adding on this the pieces that we're missing like what is the plan so for high school for 10th grade health we are looking at basically everything outside of human growth and development we're keeping what we have there it's scientifically accurate it's the that's like nine I believe about nine days in the semester we're looking at the other 81 days in that semester um really the um from from our H our PE staff

109and health teachers we're lacking in things like the mental health supports and aoda and vaping not on the human growth and development side so the human growth and development pieces are up to date as far as terminology yes that thing when's the last time that was updated uh I don't know off the top of my head that would be like probably prior to me coming up here maybe um I can check on that and we get back right so that's the only thing that you know if we're looking at one it might be an an opportunity to sure if it's only nine days you're doing 811 sure like just to ensure that the things that we have in there are up to date as far as the terminology as far as you know what what

110the best practices are so forth and so on from from the you know professional organizations in the in the country that would provide us the same thing you did for for this one so that's the only thing I would say if it if it hasn't been within the last you know five years or so but the the focus for this with you all was fourth through eth grade so we knew that that question though would come as we've also been exploring the need for students to have learning around vaping and and more access around wellness and mental health support so um that is noted so oh I was gonna say so in our proposed timeline um I've already been working with Communications where we'll have this updated up on the website a letter will go

111out to all families specific to each grade level directing them to the website where they can preview the slideshows they can preview any videos are already in there so that's where the April 11th piece comes out um and then so families will get that District communication and then we already have a communication laid out that schools will send out probably next week or the week after identifying you know your child is going to be going through programming on April 27th and April 28th and then here are um you know topics here's where you can preview everything Mr BR did you have something you um I'd like to Echo the sentiments of thanks for putting in all the extra work that you did in uh adjustments and building on what you were hearing feedback and anything

112so I really appreciate that um I think one of the things just as a piece moving forward uh and I think partly what uh maybe frustrating with for me for this piece is even uh our Preamble here we're talking about having something scaffolded the MPS has K8 human growth and development they have lessons that go through that and so the piece that they look at there is comprehensive and I think that that's something that we really need to focus on and I think scaffolding can start in kindergarten and what they talk about in even their program is that a lot of it is about communication and about just body awareness and other things that's not the graphic piece or morality based piece of anything knowledge but they start in kindergarten um and I don't see

113why when we're losing so many students to open enrollment out to that District that we can't also provide the same comprehensive education that they do so I would look at that as something in the future that we look at moving past just fourth grade we look at adding third and second and we look past just having the well we need to make 30 minutes we want this to be something that's a VI for the students we want this to be something that's valuable for them and you know if we're just checking boxes for time I don't know that that necessarily does it so I really appreciate looking forward expanding what we're doing and I'll also add that um through our social emotional learning curriculum a lot of those skills are taught starting in in Kinder

114so around like healthy relationships around communication and collaboration and um so I would have to look more into what MPS in particular provides but I would say we do have kind of a gradual release with theal programming and ensuring that oural programming is also happening in the classroom on a consistent basis embedded in the The Daily experience for students um so we can definitely look into that but I do think we are providing some level of scaffolding and skill building um to prepare students for that conversation yeah and I I don't agree I just think we can do more yeah I I mean I love it yeah anything to support students um and too if if a lot of that is in the social emotional piece I also don't see why that can't then be

115included in this presentation that we are starting it earlier so that people are aware and that it may be through a different avenue because then it does show the scaffolding as well and it's more comprehensive then to your point yeah Miss Miss um just very quickly and I I don't want to get get off topic and I know people have basketball games here too um to watch but I would also like to see us um I see the topics that you're bringing into our 10th grade curriculum some of that stuff could really needs to be introduced a lot earlier um I work in a I work in an impatient unit with kids who have I mean kids coming in at 13 with addiction and um or I'm sorry substance use disorders that we're talking about

116addiction recovery or recovery maintenance plans and stuff so um I know we have dare I have feelings about dare but um we don't have really anything from sixth to eth grade there is introduced at fifth I think that that's something that we I mean studies are showing that actually kids are not actually indulging in substance use as much but we also know that the ones that they are indulging is is we're seeing more overdoses so Fentanyl and things like that and heroin and and and some of those harder drugs and I think we're seeing it in kids who are a lot earlier so I agree with Mr Burns and I it's a whole different other topic but looking at not just human growth and development being about um always about relationships but those hygiene aspects

117and um you know things about alcohol another another drugs and especially living in the state that we live in I think these are lessons that we probably should be introducing to our kids sooner rather than later so thank you other questions if not I would look for a motion move to approve second moved in seconded any last minute discussion all those in favor opposed all right I'll pass thank you very much for your work and for the committee's work on this and we'll look forward to the next one all right so that ends our action items for this evening so I look for in a motion to journ vot everybody but CHR Miss Miss Kaiser will have to stay here all those in favor I opposed we are adjourned thank you very much everyone