001all right i'd like to call this meeting of the west west milwaukee school board to order uh miss lee could you please lead us in the and to the pledge for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much uh so that would you please call us to call the rules yes mr burns president mr becker president mrs kaiser here mr keller here ms deal here mrs carr here mr sikkids president mrs lee here president lee here craft notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the open meeting laws of the state of wisconsin do we have any modifications to the agenda this evening uh no changes this evening all right so we'll move right on to the election of board officers and that
002starts with the president all right um thank you and according to board policy uh the election of the president is facilitated by the superintendent each year and so we'll do is go through the process and call for nominations um you'll hear each step being called three times and i'll close nominations and we do a vote um if there is consensus then we simply have to call for consensus vote um and if not then we um actually do a vote on little slips so a secret valid vote is the process so with that i will open the um floor for nominations for the position of president of the school other nominations for the position of president with no other nominations i'll assume that that is consensus so all in favor say aye aye any opposed president
003congratulations noah and then i'll turn it back over you to facilitate the rest all right thank you very much i just want to thank the board again for the vote of confidence in me to be able to move forward through this year um i appreciate that i will do my very best to make sure that i am representing the board and everyone else here in our district as best as possible so thank you very much so we'll move forward on with our next nomination so i'd like to open up nominations for vice president mr friends i'd like to nominate brian keller for vice president all right nomination second do we have any other nominations for vice president any other nominations for vice president see none assuming consensus all those in favor opposed all right brian
004once again vice president congratulations all right we'll move on with treasurer i look for a nomination for treasurer i'd like to nominate kristen kaiser second all right nominated in second any other nominations for treasurer all right all those in favor for kristin i opposed all right congratulations kristin thank you all right and then we'll open up nominations for clerk and i would like to nominate jeff sikich second thank you any other nominations for clerk any other nominations for clerk all right all those in favor aye opposed all right jeff congratulations thank you okay so with that we can move on to the superintendent's report um thank you and congratulations to the officers and welcome everybody we'll start with superintendent's report with 7.1 which is a report from west allis central high school student representatives we
005can't we can't even i can't hear you either so then we must have something a little bit is that better yeah okay so we will begin with 7.1 report from the west allis central high school student representative good evening my name is anaya thank you for having us here tonight i'm going to share information about our academic and achievement initiatives we started off this semester with our annual test fest events for our 9th through 11th graders this year we improved the events and utilized the official practice act exams to receive more accurate data and score reports students and staff can use this data to see which area what areas of academics students can learn and grow in the 12th graders were given options that would support their post-secondary paths the 12th grade students were given
006the choice to take the uwm placement test asvab resume development and other career planning options just this past week our 9th and 10th graders completed their dpi required aspire testing students were greatly engaged in this process the ap testing began the week of may 2nd testing students are taking ap exams from the 14 different courses we have 267 students enrolled to take the ap exam this year currently we are holding a 1 000 point challenge by grade level the grade that wins gets a picnic each earns points for best attendance best school spirit and positivity we held a big teacher appreciation week with signs thank yous handouts and lots of food for our staff we know we have great teachers and we're thankful for them we are excited to announce that our school made the
007top 50 in the vance custom culture competition we are the only school in the state of wisconsin to be selected the art students had a few weeks to design their original pair of vans around a given topic we have a chance of winning fifty thousand dollars for our art department and a celebration for our school between march 7th through march 18th we held 12th grade career and college visits to alverno southeastern wisconsin carpenters training institute matc downtown marquette mount mary and uw-milwaukee we held on-site admissions for uw-milwaukee uw-platteville and uw-parkside it was exciting to be able to have our students get on campuses again and have some great hands-on career experiences good evening my name is maria rodriguez torres i'm going to share information regarding our clubs and events on friday april 1st west allis
008central hosted its annual march madness event the first one since 2019 due to the pandemic a big shout out goes to mrs kaley sexton who organized the entire event and the week of fun leading up to it throughout the week students and staff showed off their school pride by wearing their class colors putting on their favorite hawaiian shirt rocking a jersey and wrapping their bulldog gear during lunch students and staff turned on their competitive sides by showing off their papa shot skills and they attempted to break the old record of 143 points on the day of march madness the students were treated to a two-hour pep rally which featured games sponsored by the national guard a performance by our amazing dance team and the usual basketball tournament craziness that only march madness could inspire sophomore
009noel bulow and tristan johnson organized a west allis central version of denim day a day designated to honor and show support for victims of sexual assault or abuse they collaborated with other organizations in the area to get stickers and information for students and spent the week educating students about the origin of the day and the realities of sexual violence they also created a sign up sheet for students to pledge their support for survivors of sexual violence on denim day the students of west allis central came to school rocking their denim to shelter support this year sophomore sean rivera placed high enough at the hosa regionals to compete at the 2022 state leadership conference which was held in the dells during april sean did an amazing job at state and we are so incredibly incredibly proud
010of him for all the work he put into this year way to go sean we are proud of our spongebob musical it was well attended by students parents and community members our prom is being held on may 21st 2022 at serb hall we are having a great america field trip for eligible seniors and our go green students good evening my name is janaya brown i'm going to share information about our sports teams the following student athletes were recognized on the woodland all-conference teams for winter and girls basketball on the first team trishina brown and girls basketball on the second team marquilla bolts and girls basketball as a scholar athlete tori brown and boys basketball on the second team najashi toll-free and grayson fritzel and boys basketball on the honorable mention team josiah gilley and boys
011basketball as a scholar athlete najashi tolfrey and wrestling on the first team ahmadi cameron and wrestling on the second team brodie dressen and gustavo dominguez and wrestling on the honorable mention team nathan frollo and hayden shalabi and wrestling as a scholar athlete will kornacki and dance as the scholar athlete hannah donegan in cheer as the scholar athlete mallory mulvitz and bowling as a scholar athlete nathan rapp we would also like to recognize macy freeland who is among the milwaukee journal settle football softball softball honorable mention player of the week macy went seven for seven with five rbis as the team's catcher threw out each run who attempted to steal a base on her during that previous week macy was also selected to participate in the wisconsin fast-pitched softball coaches association senior night all-star game this
012june and with the wisconsin does congratulations on a successful season to macy and all of our sophomore students looking ahead the spring sports are all midway through their seasons are in all encouraging you all to help them pray for a more favorable weather ahead please consider supporting our student athletes in track softball baseball girls soccer and golf by tenure games this meets this season of note there will be an annual battle of west allis varsity baseball game taking place on thursday may 26 2022 at 7 pm on milkman field at the rec rock complex in franklin thank you for your continued support of the bulldog athletics there's a lot going on at west side central thank you for letting us share with you tonight awesome thanks thank you all three of you on this great
013report it's fun to hear about all the amazing things happening at central it's a great job thank you for sharing thank you thank you if you want please feel free to stay if you want all right uh i will go on then to 7.2 the legislative update uh and wisconsin's sr3 plan received final approval from the department of education so the u.s department of education um it's it refers to the federal covet relief funding that was allocated to k-12 education under the american rescue plan act or arpa uh so arpa uh passed by congress in march 2021 so states were required by the arpa to submit plans for how they would spend those um this funding and get those plans approved by usads department events so that has taken place um the state superintendent convenes
014a new group to tackle early literacy challenges so last thursday state superintendent dr jill underley convened the first meeting of a new state superintendent's reading advisory council and wisconsin public schools received 40.6 million dollars in library aid from common school fund distribution so last week school districts across our state received a record 40.6 million in library aid aid which is disbursed annually to public school libraries across the state in april this year's allocation was paid out on monday april 25th each school district receives an allocation based on its reported resident consensus count and the per-pupil child amount and there are no updates at the federal level for legislation move on to 7.3 which is the board of education recognitions there's quite a few here this evening first of all congratulations to all of our mapsis
015so that's the metropolitan milwaukee association of black school educators 2022 teacher of the year award winners um and this event took place this past friday and uh it is quite an event to experience um it is the big ballroom down at the convention center downtown um people come decked out it is semi-formal to formal and teachers are really kind of front and center in the whole thing teachers come in 100 and i think 82 or 87 were recognized this year so many from milwaukee public schools but it's seven other surrounding school districts participate there's a grand march where all the teachers come in well all of their principals and all kinds of other education leaders from across the state kind of applaud and cheer them on and then after dinner and all of the speeches
016and program then teachers are escorted again on to the front by their principal where they're announced and received a plaque and recognizing them as kind of their school's teacher of the year and so for us from west allis it was um lauren latowski from central wkowski at nathan hale jenny olachowski carrie clark at flw alex staplin at lane ann cornell at west jordan pollard at franklin chris dakin at hoover catherine broamer at horace mann katie zens at irving robin hoopkey at jefferson at longfellow linda dotkin at madison casey rentmeester at mitchell melissa christensen at pershing morgan noster walker and then amanda hendrickson at wilson and you're going to hear a couple individual kind of little learn a little bit more about some of them as recognition from their schools so from madison i'd like to
017recognize linda dotkin as the latest recipient of the mapsy teacher of the year award words cannot begin to describe the impact that linda has on the entire madison community she's an incredible teacher colleague mentor and friend and is well deserving of this prestigious award congratulations linda adaki a big thank you to our head sodexo cleaner teddy teddy is committed to keeping our building safe and clean he shows up to work every day with a smile and a positive attitude teddy is flexible and adjusts quickly when we have experienced um staffing challenges he's also a great communicator where there are things that the building principle of custodian need to know all in all teddy is a value team member and we appreciate him being a part of the dot key family so thank you to teddy
018i love that they're recognizing somebody that shows up every day and cleans um what you may not know is one of our most experienced and probably most effective youth advisors we found as a cleaner in one of our schools right and now he coaches and encourages other youth advisors so that's montrell and he was cleaning for us and now he leads the youth advisor team so so thanks to teddy for doing his work leadership and learning from deidra we'd like to thank our students from our transition program luanne watkins and sheldon watkins for all their work to help get our book rooms organized and ready to better care for all of our materials they have done an amazing job communication from amanda thank you to brianna pluto principal at wilson for leading our virtual 4k
019info session and representing our district brienne does an amazing job making sure our families feel safe welcome and celebrated at west milwaukee mr kosek and mr walker our impact and our teacher have taken over 9th period design thinking together this year we'd like to recognize the wonderful collaborating they've done together and their most recent project with eighth graders the most recent bridge building project was engaging and full of skill development the winning design was able to withstand 500 pounds which is pretty significant for those projects at horace mann it's all about making community connections kindergarten teacher jenny day invited kristen curchain and and storm chaser 4 van from wtmj4 to school to kick off their weather project all the kindergartners are ready to forecast the weather now third grade teachers andrea bother and jessica haukey
020and amy zolitch have partnered with the farmers market to showcase their learning of goods and services recycling and the role of money so head to the market on may 19th and may 31st to see the learners in action and what they created at pershing melissa christensen has been a dedicated educator for 22 years and an integral part of our persian community for the last 18. in a role as a reading specialist and teacher in charge melissa is highly respected by all teachers at pershing as a valued resource and partner for increasing engagement and providing purposeful differentiated instruction to make learning personal for each student her passion and efforts are always in the best interest of students and grounded in research and best practice melissa is a tremendous asset to our west allis west milwaukee community
021congratulations to melissa for receiving the metropolitan milwaukee alliance of black school educators teacher of the year award and then at walker morgan noster a first through third grade team teacher at walker has been nominated for the metropolitan milwaukee alliance of black school educators for the teacher of the year award morgan has been an educator and worked at walker school for nine years she has been nominated for her work with bringing success success skills to life at walker and her work with the school's character committee congratulations morgan and thank you for everything you do for the walker school community so a great set of recognitions for this meeting and then um 7.4 just some quick updates and information items so on april 25th we heard from two members of the public regarding the 4.7 base wage
022increase that we negotiated with our teachers association and are providing for all of our teachers for next year so this increase is the maximum allowable based on wisconsin act 10 and we're actually proud even though it's criticized we're proud that our fiscal planning and management provided the opportunity for us to offer the maximum increase and for us to move towards our strategic plan goal of offering at least the average teacher salary in our area right so we're proud that we're actually in a position where we're able to accomplish that we also heard a member of the public question the legality of the negotiations with our teacher association our notice of negotiations and the agreement the board approved followed the same process instead of practices as used in the past and our legal counsel is not
023objective so we are absolutely confident that negotiations are legal and appropriate then um other updates even though we don't do the kind of return to in-person learning related to the pandemic anymore um if you're curious our coveted percentage district-wide and again it's percent positive for it was on this was friday's numbers was 0.19 district-wide and the highest individual school is at 0.50 so a half a percentage point and that's west milwaukee right now so then this evening our board we may hear some things about school consolidations because we're in that part of the process so our board recently completed two workshops on this topic and these efforts i just want to kind of put it in context for the public they're tied to our long-range facility master plan the development of which was set forth
024as a goal in our strategic plan right so that's how these pieces kind of fit together so in our five-year strategic plan the board approved on the expectation that we developed a long-range facility master plan which we did and then the board approved it right and in that facility master plan is the idea of consolidating schools and it's really again to address declining enrollment aging buildings but in a manner that supports fiscal stability and minimizes impact of consolidations and students and teachers right so options were consistent with these efforts were presented in the recent workshops you know tonight we anticipate um there'll be public comments with feedback about the various schools being considered for consolidation and we and and we welcome that that is part of the entire process so the board has done its
025work with workshops um now we're turning into the more the public part of the process we may hear about flaws in the analysis or even flaws in the process again that's entirely expected and appropriate uh and and we recognize that some of this really gets difficult and when we talk about schools and kids even emotional but the end in the end the sum total of all the analysis and feedback um you know what we've communicated is the board should be looking for what picture emerges as that is that presents the most logical way to move forward even though it's hard and emotional at times right but that doesn't mean that we're done with kind of the information part of this right so part of it is the public process tonight following meeting in may and
026we have three information sessions coming up one is tomorrow night at madison and then each of the subsequent weeks where there's other opportunities for people to learn more so aaron will be doing an abbreviated version of just kind of the the information around madison and wilson that'll be tomorrow night and then we move on to you know the lane piece and then the long philippines so we're inviting not only the schools that are currently conversations um at the board level for consolidation but also schools that would receive those students um just so that we can kind of explore the conversation a little more deeply and then we'll share feedback from those conversations again with the board and approaching and encouraging some decision making in june on because if there are going to be any impact
027of those decisions um by next september um the sooner we know that the better and so that's kind of where we are in the process and for tonight and then finally um we are now in the season of what i call end of year events right so the may and anybody that's worked in schools uh knows how busy schools get um with all of the celebrations and the rituals that come with can ending a school year um and it gets busy and i get invited to lots of them and so this past week i attended the women's club luncheon when they give up they give out scholarships to graduating seniors and it's always fun for for me to sit in the room when the seniors and i know our seniors are going to go off
028and do amazing things but when they say what they're going to do and there's always a gasp that comes from the women's club like holy cow these are really bright kids so one young lady is attending purdue to study aerospace engineering and she said and i'll have my private pilot's license before i leave to go to college and i was like wait what that's right that's pretty stunning what our kids are doing so those kind of things really i think are good feedback for us about what gets accomplished in our schools so i'm looking forward to the various completion ceremonies and there's nw barbecues and then of course the high school graduations and what i like about this year in particular this is bringing a true sense of normalcy again back to the end of
029the school year so looking forward to all of that and seeing all of you at those events as well and that concludes the superintendent's report all right thank you dr let's have one question about the information sessions are those as far as questions go open to any building even though they're going to be held at one building so we prefer that we focus just on the information related to that building just because of we're trying to keep these to one hour um so and we're anticipating that there'll be a presentation of about 30 30 plus minutes so we should have about 20 minutes in q a um but the information really will be focused if if somebody asks questions from a different building we'll do our best to accommodate it but we'll want to spend
030the time with the people that came to hear about the impact on those particular schools i think we need to have those sessions open to anybody because there's several conflicting schedules going on right now from my understanding and for people who might have different nights the week they are available i think there's more overarching consideration of our long-term plans why why all those schools are being considered um it's only fair to the families to be able to get that option so we'll do our best um but again this is i'm trying to balance you know the reality of you know how much how much extra time people take on from here to engage in those information sessions and these were added to people's schedules last week um and so it really is trying to find
031a reasonable balance for everybody we'll do our best to accommodate it but again the information is the plan is the information is focused on the school we're in and the schools if the board decides to consolidate that particular building impact on the schools that would receive students all right so we'll move on to public comments at this point so just uh everyone will who wants to address the board needs to sign up via the online form if there's anyone listening via zoom uh there should be a link in the chat to be able to sign up on the form uh every person will have three minutes to address the board they start with your name and your address the board will not have any back and forth discussion but if there is a question that
032is asked or statement that needs clarification that is readily available that can be provided but there will not be additional questions after that so with that i would like to start with the first person on the list which is going to be miss dana aslina hello dana asalina 3307 south 90th street milwaukee monica and i will be speaking on behalf of the wilson staff i've worked in the west allis west milwaukee school district for 18 years all of which has been at wilson school i've attended many board meetings and presented at quite a few but i've never spoken during public comments until now because i feel so strongly about wilson school i've been through the changes of the west allis west milwaukee school district for 18 years i often have people ask me why i've
033stayed in the district since i could teach in other districts that make more money my family my friends often ask me why why do you stay at wilson school in west allis but they don't understand because they don't work at wilson school you would understand though if you were at wilson we are a family over the years we have built a family stronger each and every year we have received awards together including the 2008 national blue ribbon school and many school of promise recognitions and some have even watched an olympic gymnast grow up at wilson school over the years we have had many successful wilson graduates i know many staff members have kept in contact with former wilson students families and will continue to do so i've attended many high school graduation celebrations of former
034students and love to keep a connection with the wilson families past and present it is because of the wilson families i ask that you reconsider your decision to close three elementary schools in our district one of the goals of these consolidation talks was disrupt as few students as possible wilson has approximately 370 students all of whom i believe would have to be bused to a neighboring school which would be an additional cost they would be spread to as many as three different schools under the current considerations ultimately creating an elementary desert our families and students have been through so much since covid asking our wilson families and students to uproot themselves in two years after what we have all just went through seems not in the best interest of our families west sales west milwaukee
035school district always speaks of what's in the best interest of our students for this reason i hope you will reconsider wilson as a school in need of consolidation thank you thank you very much can we reconsider the president the chip is sale we should have texted it i'm sorry uh next is miss monica lewicki hi monica wiki 2072 south 107th street west south um so i am continuing to speak on behalf of our wilson staff um i want to speak to the one-of-a-kind staff at wilson school i personally have stayed at wilson school over the years because of the staff past and present it is so hard to put into words the dedication they have to the students and families and to one another this dedication is why i have stayed at wilson i ask
036you today to reconsider closing wilson school and see how things go before jumping to close three elementary schools within our district you would be breaking up a very cohesive staff in the district we've spent years building a staff that works as a team both in and out of the school we support each other and the students in our school whether they're on our rosters or someone else's this is not something we have achieved achieved overnight it is something we have fostered through hard work communication and a sense of pride in our school with the possibility of that being a take with that being taken away it is not unlikely staff will start to leave wilson school as was previously mentioned we certainly aren't here for the check that we can get anywhere not having the
037community we have created is a motivation to move on and start somewhere new my colleagues are top-notch educators and i know how hard it is today to find dedicated and experienced staff i know many of my colleagues have stayed at wilson school because of the camaraderie among staff not to mention that our fearless leader miss pluta has created an even stronger community at wilson these past two years i also understand your data was taken from two years ago because of the pandemic i feel the numbers of the students may change in the next few years and i do not want our district to close too many elementary schools too soon overcrowding any particular school may cause issues with class sizes and with finding space for art gym music stem special education spaceship spaces etc in
038closing one thing i would like you to consider is the discrepancy discrepancies we have found in the cip the building assessment and what is present at wilson one basic example is there is a classroom listed and the first floor blueprint that simply doesn't exist at our school another example is some of the classrooms are listed as having carpet that do not and some are listed as not having carpet that do these are two examples of discrepancies that are easily visible and cause me some concern although these may seem like simple mistakes these have an impact on the financial totals that are being used to make this decision as a concern part of the wilson school staff and the wilson community i would encourage you to go through this data and information with a fine-tooth comb
039before you consider continue to consider closing wilson please take a deep dive into the data and plans that have been presented thank you thank you very much do we have a file that that is that being sent to us or yeah leave a copy for us um this is just the cip and the building assessment that's on the board's website but i can leave all my notes i'd like to see the notes yeah of course thank you okay mr steve broadwell west ohio court new berlin uh counselor's post on the district facebook page proclaim great promise here as you dismantle systems that are not serving our students and families appropriately i refuse to answer when i ask what systems need to be dismantled so let me help you out first according to marty's mentor on
040racism that grifting anti-american ibrahim kennedy systems in this country set up by white people to oppress people of color need to be dismantled kennedy says the only way to accomplish this is to be an anti-capitalist he and others of isil whom deidra had leaders study in a 2020 district equity workshop seek to divide us and remove the family as the authority for moral and emotional guidance and deference to a marxist state that would own our kids the 80 kenny books this district wasted money on is just more evidence of this administration's fiscal irresponsibility biblical truths and biological science understood by most sane people that their only two genders needs to be dismantled also like our new supreme court justice you seem confused by this since you would not answer my question my request to define
041a man and a woman at its most basic a man has a penis and a woman has a vagina and bears children your trans transgender policy reflects this confusion as it states sex is a label a person is assigned at birth often based on a medical professional's interpretation of the newborn's physical characteristics what is there to interpret your policy provides a partial list of 12 pronoun examples of possible child gender claims cisgender is so passe right this group contagion is not like other psychosis such as cutting anorexia or even the new social construct of furries as kids try to cope with adolescent identity crisis or personal psychological issues i've asked what grade you introduce transgenderism to kids in this new age non-binary sick realm we find ourselves in you said you don't which is a
042lie considering the books you have in district libraries the search of our library database using the word transgender reveals 55 entries regarding this subject some of these books are in grade schools like as for activists where t stands for transgender and l stands for lgbtq first grade this is all part of the sel vehicle you use to infuse divisive crt tenants of dei and csi into cse into all subjects as you pursue your claimed goal of equity or equal outcomes however many scholars are aware of the left's ultimate marxist agenda with all this nonsense you're creating a generation of academically stunned confused and fearful kids we may be in the bottom 10 in math and science in the state but by god at least our kids will understand the role you groom them for as
043social justice activists and they will know the ever-growing plethora of new pronouns thank you all right i'm miss brienne pluto i had debated whether i get up here i didn't realize just how organized they would be so i thought it'd be a lot longer here um i know you're hearing from many but i'd like to see your name oh sorry brienne i haven't done this uh brian pluta 701 east bridalwood lane oak creek wisconsin 54154 um i know you're hearing from many already but i like to offer a different perspective tonight i understand the challenging position that you are in you're representing our community of west allis and our community has asked you to be fiscally responsible fact is our school enrollment has continued to decline and unfortunately like many districts in our area closing
044schools is inevitable so tonight i don't want to talk to you about the what we know what we may have to do and i understand that the what is the first step but i'd like to like to us to start thinking about i'm going beyond that so i come to you tonight to talk to you about the health tonight i want to talk to you on behalf of the staff and the families of both wilson and madison not that i have anything against lane or long fellow or any school within our district i was just able to have the pleasure of being a principal both even at the same time so i know when closing schools sometimes it makes sense to focus on what is wrong with them especially the actual structures of them as
045our buildings are quite old i also understand that you may feel uneasy continuing to recognize the achievements and progress in these schools as it then makes it difficult to defend why you'd want to close them but i would argue we still need to do this madison has transformed their instruction they went for more traditional teacher-led learning to learning that is more project-based driven by student interest and agency much of the staff there have undergone multiple cycles of student-led coaching that has improved their practice at wilson our staff has incorporated cultural responsive practices into their teaching successfully we have developed systems of support centered around ensuring all students can be successful and each member of wilson understands the importance of building relationships with our families our students and one another there is not one teacher i
046wouldn't feel confident having my own child as being educated by them so i urge you our school board members as well as our district i urge you i gotta find my place here to continue to celebrate the staff members because they are not gonna stop doing the amazing work they have been doing even if they are feeling anxious with all that is happening around them i know and hopefully they know that regardless of school closures we have a place for them here in west allis west milwaukee i feel it is our responsibility though to begin thinking about how we will retain them through this process and it goes beyond our teachers i know what the last board workshop administrators are spoken of because when a building closes a spot doesn't just magically open up for
047an admin and trust you trust me i do appreciate this being in my position [Music] but i think we also need to think of other staff members that are assets to our school buildings that are in the same position as administrators as well custodians building subs secretaries i think sometimes people don't quite understand the impact they can have on a building so let me try and share a few stories during my time at madison our custodian did more than wash tables he became a part of our mtss process often checking in and out with students sorry your time is up but thank you very much all right mr steve harris all right thank you steve harris 3034 west statesman way franklin wisconsin uh first of all thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak
048and brienne thank you for the kind words about madison okay so i'm speaking on behalf of the madison staff and i really have um just a few points that i want to make tonight the first is this is my 25th year in our district uh my first year at madison to be honest i didn't know a lot about madison before i went over there last summer um so what i did is i asked the staff let me know everything about madison and um it would have taken me a few hours to tell you all the great things they had to say about madison a few really stood out number one is they talked about like it's this great park-like setting that we have this awesome green space and that's true um they talk about how
049the families and the kids walk to school and how meaningful that is and i know dr luxman talks about that quite a bit uh as well and the other neat thing is um they talked about when you're at recess and the trains that go by um and just how neat that is i have a little 4k student who comes up to me every single day when he sees the train trains are his favorite things he comes up to me and he grabs on my side somewhere my shirt my pants and he says let's count the trains that go by together well today was 59 okay 59 cars on the train right so i just think that's really neat now the four points that we really want to talk about as a madison staff a lot
050of money and time went into the fact team to identify which school should be consolidated there's a 25 point system created which i don't believe madison was one of the bottom three schools according to the criteria and if the criteria really doesn't matter then why was it created in the first place it was determined that longfellow would close because they of their score of minus 17 points and then that seemed to lead to a domino effect that then really kind of placed madison as one of the schools to possibly consolidate once again i mentioned that we have awesome green space we have great staff a newer school second thing i want to talk about is on june 8 2021 um the fact team did a presentation on capital improvement project budgets but it did not
051include madison madison was nowhere to be found they listed every school except longfellow in madison maybe there was a good reason for that but it really led us to wonder like was were decisions already made if we weren't even included on that the third the third point is um the one of the guiding principles of the fact team is how can we consolidate schools in ways that inspire and shape the education that our children and communities deserve and still be cost effective we go back to we are consolidated because because of declining enrollment which in the long run comes down to dollars and cents and everyone gets that but then why aren't we looking at consolidating um the different schools that have a higher price take than madison does and then our fourth point is
052recently we had our 4k preview night one of our 4k parents who lives in the madison area came in and said they had the choice to either go to the walker or madison 4k preview night and that's very disconcerting to our staff as to why that is the case if they are madison residents thank you thank you very much mr rob hepburn gray good evening rob pepper and gray 8502 west lapham street west ellis uh i'm here to uh add my voice to what i now see to be the uh numerous voices here to speak about uh the uh the excellent community that uh exists at wilson elementary i myself am a father to a uh a kindergarten student who is uh like a lucky enough to be in uh the award-winning descendants uh kindergarten
053class and a fellow educator who works in the city of milwaukee i i must say i am a newcomer to this community i my family relocated to west allis just last year but in this last year as a community member and as a father of a student attending wilson elementary i have been overwhelmed both by the quality of education that my daughter receives uh and the the warmth of the community that has been cultivated at uh at wilson again just a a testament to this community the number of representatives that i uh i see here tonight um a number of points have already been raised tonight i just want to uh emphasize several uh and add a a couple more uh i'm i'm very impressed not only with the core education that my daughter receives
054but also with the arts and music programs that are available at wilson elementary i also want to recognize that wilson elementary serves as a as a focal point and meeting place for the broader broader community wilson is located in the conrad gardens neighborhood which has just recently created a neighborhood organization which uses the wilson building as its meeting point in addition there is a brand new girl scout troop at wilson elementary again using wilson as its uh as its meeting place uh and finally uh wilson the wilson elementary uh campus represents the the only playground in the area accessible without having to cross major uh major roadways if that building is closed my my family and my daughters will have to go on a much farther much more dangerous walk to get to a neighborhood
055playground uh i want to uh finish by uh uh look taking a quick glance at the at the data uh looking at the the enrollment numbers which has been mentioned uh uh are a couple years out of date uh but i want to emphasize that uh wilson itself showed the smallest degree of drop of enrollment at a mere nine percent thank you very much for your time and thank you all thank you thank you very much all right then we have uh caleb berkshire hello my name is caleb berkshire i live at 934 south 56th street west allis first of all apologies for my disheveled appearance i ran here literally right after i got off the work so um first of all i was i was here mainly to speak about the consolidation mainly as
056just a citizen that loves living in west allis and i think that west allis is an amazing community with a lot to offer including our great education system you know i'm not an expert i don't have the wisdom of many of the teachers here nor do i have any kids in the school district so really all i wanted to say was i just wanted to provide encouragement uh during this process and uh as a reminder that these decisions should be made first of all of course with the best you know the best thoughts for the students first of all but also the teachers working there the administers administrators serving it um a lot of times i think there is a you know a tendency to view things in terms of things like profitability you know
057sustainability and those are important factors but school is not a business school is a service we pay for the service and i would challenge you to find a community that is better because of fewer educational options especially when it comes to public education in the state of wisconsin here our public education system already faces enough backlash and attacks against it through multiple fronts um you know that was really all i had to say on that remark you know furthermore i just i had a quick thought that occurred to me as i was sitting here enjoying people's speeches i do want to remind you that my pronouns are he and them and that i am glad we have teachers and schools that recognize that cultures change humanity progresses and i just want you guys to continue
058to have that in your minds that there are plenty of vocal people in this community that i'm sure show up to this meeting twice a month but there's probably even more watching silently and more so uh watching how you guys conduct yourselves through your 10 years thank you very much that is all i have signed up right now for public comments i as always will leave 30 seconds to allow anyone who may have joined the zoom meeting late we'd like to sign up again the link for that uh signup is in the chat or if there's anyone who is in the audience who'd like to run and sign up now too i also give you the opportunity to do that if you want to but seeing none we'll close public comments at this time and
059we'll move on to item nine our board reports starting with item 9.1 review of the board calendar so today is may 9th and we have the board of education meeting immediately followed by a workshop on our guaranteed and viable curriculum on monday may 16th at 6 00 pm we have a workshop communication committee as well as a board workshop with consultant drew howick which will start that portion of the workshop will start at 7pm on monday may 23rd at 6 pm with regular board of education meeting in a monday june 13th at 6 pm we have regular board of education meeting followed by a workshop proposed 2223 budget and preliminary tax levy number two uh so now we'll move on to our appointments of district parliamentarian our season number one delicate and wesley delegate in
060was the alternate i'll just take those in order um so every year we appoint these items out of our board and uh oftentimes they'll ask for volunteers for it and so parliamentarian is first sure and and jeff has been our parliamentarian for some time now on the board um so i guess i would inquire if mr would be interested in being parliamentarian i would be happy to do that unless there's somebody here that wants to give it a shot otherwise i've been doing it for so long [Laughter] so is there anyone else who would like to challenge mr sikich's authority as the parliamentarian if not if jeff is going to do it then i think that he would continue on greatly so thank you very much for taking on that duty for us thank you
061jeff all right so then move on to our seasonal number one delicate which was just this car and so um so i guess like the first last of this car are you interested in staying honest the system more delicate um it's not something that i am dying to do for anybody if i could pass it on to somebody is anyone else interested in being season number one after jane's glowing recommendation what did you have to do you just go to the you actually go to a few meetings and you just represent yeah you're there as a yeah i can do it you get information he doesn't want to do it all right so jane are you going to arm wrestle or are you saying [Music] and their first meeting is the most important it's like
062the one you can't miss and because they pick the delegates after that okay steal any objections from this deal being or see uh all right so we have move on to our wazbee delegate so i believe kaiser was our wesby delegate are you interested in that again i'd love to stay on okay and uh so is there anyone else who's interested in being our rossby delegates i guess just ask that question okay so foreign do you want to kiss you on as the alternate oh sure okay is there anyone else i say that just but if something comes up and she can't make it because it's during the day yeah being off yeah it works that could be the highlight of my videos i saved my pto for that for that two days though i
063really loved it good yeah okay so is everyone all right with this guys to continue on as our delegate and mr sikich as our alternate definitely all right that makes things simple and we'll move on to our committee board reports so item nine point three point one like i'm sorry yeah foreign changed on me uh miss kaiser all right i got both tonight so tonight we met with uh steve carr and we are actually going to move forward with having a trades signing day so you always see the athletics um getting their scholarships and uh learning scholarships but we really want to celebrate our kids who are doing apprenticeships and going into industry because that is everything we are building for these kids to have a future past school so it will probably be tentative
064day early june and i'm very excited for that for our kids and we're gonna um make that an annual thing uh i brought forth the issue and uh we are gonna be working on this of a non-voting student representative to join the board possibly too it's something that the board will have to look at how do we have kids nominated for this position um i've been told currently the students who come from central or hail and report to us it's kind of a similar role but i know other school districts in the state do have a non-voting student representative who's there to share ideas and help us with someone in the building and so we'll have to work on what does that look like what would the application process look like if all that is
065details but it's something i think as a board we are missing that voice beyond just reporting what's going on having a maybe another opinion in the room um we talked about our sr3 money we have to spend 20 percent of the sr3 amount on learning recovery over the next three years uh this first year with the sr3 funding we are looking at part of it to use on our k five fifth through fifth grade math curriculum that's gonna be new we could not use money on ongoing financial needs which we as a border very well of we cannot be spending one-time monies on ongoing staffing um possible stipends for more hope squad monitor monitors in the buildings possibly moving into pearls for girls program which is my daughter is a part of at flw it's
066a wonderful program bringing that to possibly all the schools and our panorama contract was is being renewed through this in years two and three uh we are working out what that looks like and that's it for me for that that one all right thank you very much does anyone have any questions from us kaiser the okay so committee can you just enlighten me a bit about the student representative what what would that look like would they join them every meeting yeah and so other districts do have a student that sits with the board they're there as a student here that they can ask you know go back to the school and say here's what's going on at the board level because i know i was not watching board meetings at 17 18 years old but
067there are kids who are going into police policy who are going to communications who are going into other leadership roles who would like to see you know have more of a voice um we have to see how that looks you know what we as a board would like to do but i think we are missing that voice on our board where we can have interactions with somebody and say what do you think is going on and we have three very different high schools right so what does that look like from each standpoint we'll have to hash it out and i think this is something i would like to see done this year it's gonna say the same kind of thing is there like a student government excuse me is there like a student government in
068each building that could support them and they work as a reference yeah all the schools have a government central has a black student union as well there are numerous people who are in those positions that we could talk about is that something they take on a school president or is it a separate entity we have to hash that out i would be curious to find out how many [Music] one high school places have it where it's easy to just say okay it's going to be from that high school we're dealing with three somebody's going to think they're getting slated sure yeah okay respond to that yeah please um actually if you look in your last school not this issue but i would encourage all board members to read school news the issue before they actually
069talked about elm brook actually has representatives and they have one from each high school so actually in our committee we did i did say that i would like us to see us have represent because it also allows kind of similar how we rotate with our students now it also allows if you know teenagers have busy schedules so um they talked about an article about how they kind of can alternate i'm also going to have the kids know about certain things that like might directly impact them they can come back with maybe some feedback from the students but that was something that i did bring up but i would encourage all of you guys to read that article if that school knows um not yet this the last one um i think it has a kid
070on the front but anyway i can always bring the article but i think it's really good it's just like two pages but it kind of outlines what they do in elm brook and that's i think that'd be kind of their comparable district to ours yeah so any other questions or anything for the community to consider during their next meeting right seeing none we'll move on to the communication and community relations world report item nine point three point two miss kaiser awesome uh we talked about the upcoming school showcase we have jefferson irving west milwaukee wilson mitchell madison it will start at 6 00 pm the next time we have i don't have the date at the top of my head it's the 16th thank you next week we will not be having anything before theirs
071will let the kids go first present on their projects it is honestly the best part of our job so anybody who would like to come watch the workshop or come see more about it it's the absolute best to see what these kids are learning um we also talked about the faces of west allis west milwaukee project that's been um that dr stewart has put out the first one was our sweet elizabeth from franklin school she made the god's eyes with part of her pbl with support from her art teacher and she's going to take over the world someday and it's the another best part of what we do so um that's all we have for that any questions for a person or the committee about what you reported on or anything any items you'd like
072the communications committee to consider at their next meeting all right thank you very much mrs geiser for those reports um they'll move on to 9.4 board member reports of community events anyone have any committee events at carporta um miss kaiser um last week i had the honor of going to the frank lloyd wright uh choir concert full disclosure my daughter is in it but also i always love going to the choir concerts um i want to apologize to everyone who heard me weeping because it was such a beautiful concert emily neuberger who is the choir director there is phenomenal the way that she gets all these kids i mean middle school is no joke and she has all those kids eyes on her interactive she has every kid who wants to participate singing and it's
073beautiful as a teacher a formal special ed teacher it's beautiful to see um it was a wonderful experience awesome thank you for sharing anyone else have an event they would like to share this deal my last week was teacher appreciation week and i just wanted to do a shout out to oh obviously our teachers and staff but also to our ptas our ptas are um i think we're one of the strongest districts we have a pta in almost every one of our schools and actually this year i'm on the board um i should disclose i'm on the board for the pta council we had a great time on wednesday going around and we dropped up kerry's crispy treats and t-shirts to all the staff so i mean i just want to i don't i think
074sometimes we forget about our ptas and how much work they do and i think they did an awesome job at least from my facebook when i saw all the different goodies that was uh given to our staff and our teachers i just think it's it's important that we recognize all those families out there that that made last week really special for for everyone so thank you jeff i'd like to give a shout out to robin yuki at jefferson she invited me and maybe some other board members for their 4k 5k sing it it was great there had to be at least 25 future frank sinatras [Laughter] it was called city dog meets country frog and the principal read the book and then they stopped and the kids sang it was it was really really well
075back fantastic i would have paid to see that performance they were so cute i'm sure they'll take it jeff donations are allowed anyone else any other items from the community would like to report on bottles take opportunity i was able to go and see the spongebob musical i know that a number of our board members were able to go see it earlier during the first weekend i went and saw it the second weekend with my two kids and i thought it was phenomenal um i can be a little bit critical when it comes to musicals as i did that when i was in my younger days myself uh but i thought it was really great the the voices that we have in our district are are quite amazing and the stage presences that they have
076and the very uh you know roles that they took on i just i was very impressed with it and the dancing is something i've never victory that's i'm always impressed people can do that so just want to say you know once again uh kudos to everyone involved in that production uh students uh the staff that were helped uh you know with rehearsals and everything like that and of course mr pollard for organizing the whole thing so i just wanted to come on to that quickly second that oh it was an amazing show there we go fantastic all right so uh we'll move on to our consent agenda we have uh four items this evening item 10.1 is the improve approval of minutes from our regular board of education meeting on april 25th as well as
077our board workshop on may 2nd we have the item 10.2 the employment summary item 10.3 the supplementary contracts in item 10.4 which is approval for our continued use of facsimile signatures does anybody need anything separated did not look for emotion second moved and seconded any last minute discussion all those in favor aye opposed all right that passes all right so let's move on to our action items this evening 11.1 international travel for high school students to west africa spring of 2023 um miss ramer and thing engelkemeyer people come over here nice stupid person so i will pass it right over to you okay i just first want to thank you so much for the support with the travel we've been doing we had our trip to senegal over spring break and i hope you were
078able to see some of the slides that we had posted through our wonderful communications people and it's been a growing experience it's been an eye-opening experience it's been wonderful for the kids that went we had profs at one other teachers that went um it was wonderful so we would like to have the opportunity if possible to go again in spring break again we have the same sort of thing where we'll go to senegal go to dakar and this time we're going to be staying at the global for center for global learning so whereas before we were traveling all the way around going to different places and doing our different activities this time we're going to have a base at the center for global learning and then take our trips out from there when we go
079to the animal refugee center and go to the bird center and then we'll be staying based there so that we can do our boutique workshop and do a cooking workshop and doing her have a wolf lesson we'll have bullet fusses and we'll have french lessons so we're having a little bit more grounded with um the experience for the kids so um it would be over spring break again and we're looking forward to even more participation and having it be a wonderful culturally moving experience for our students and again i thank you for how great it's been any questions i just have one it's not just out of curiosity i see it's like 19 days how many days do you spend traveling like flying there we it's not 19 it's nine nine oh i'm sorry yeah
080that's you i was gonna it takes us two days to get there because of the time change and then when we come back we pick up our day so we get back sunday yeah and we like last time we flew through brussels and changed planes and brussels any other questions don't look for a motion to approve second moved and seconded any last minute discussion all those in favor opposed thank you very much thank you so very much thank you thank you for taking our students all right move on to item 11.2 wage adjustment for educational assistance this marshall good evening and once again i'm following a fantastic trip i'm noticing a trend here okay well anyways thank you um the reason i'm here today is in regards to increasing our starting salaries for our educational
081assistants and our special educational assistants currently um the starting wage for uh the eas is 11.88 an hour and our spendies is at 1348 and as is outlined in the proposal that we set that's not even a livable wage it also is well below um our competitors in cecil one and i also include found a salary survey from the southeastern district of schools in this adjustment in order to avoid what we call compression which occurs when um starting salaries are raised um the folks um who have been with us for some time are below that in order to avoid that we have proposed a schedule that is based on the years that they started with the district um to eliminate some of that compression it will affect 53 of the um spaniards and the eas
082there are individuals who will not see an adjustment based on this rate it is within budget we've been working on this since october so a lot of time and energy um and great thought has been given to this and as we gear up for um our recruitment um we're asking this to go in effect as of july 1st so this is both a change to the starting salary and a rate adjustment for some of our currents yes if they're below um if they're currently below the rate that would be approved again we're trying to avoid compression because it's very discouraging to an employee to work for us for five years and then all of a sudden someone comes in ahead of them um it's a common problem um every um i've worked in several different
083industries um it is a common problem but if we can try to address it on the upfront the better off we will be questions and you said 53 percent would be affected by that yes um i ran the report today and i just double checked the figures to see who would who would be affected there are some people who will not see a wage adjustment other questions and someday i'm going to come with the trick all right no other question look for a motion move to approve moved in second any last minute discussion all those in favor aye aye opposed all right passes thank you very much thank you all right let's move on to item uh 11.3 our school district financial depositories dr lexman i apologize uh thank you uh so there's three different
084uh items that are coming up here that are annual items uh it's required that the board takes action each year um as we can lean into the next fiscal year which starts on july 1. and so what's in front of you with this one as we're seeking port approval on it's really approving a resolution to name the various banks with which we do business and approve them once again for the coming fiscal year and you have them there in the executive summary in the form of the resolution and you'll see the various banks um where they're located we've been doing business with them for a number of um years right some are really the managing kind of cash flow and checking accounts and those kind of things and then there's a set around investments and
085where dollars come in and we do work to invest and gain a little bit interest income on because if you recall dollars come in and lump sums from the state and then we kind of use that so it makes sense to have some investment banks as well unless we're using those dollars that can be invested for income purposes so again it's an annual item and we're hoping for um support to improve questions yeah just this not necessarily pertaining to this one thing but could we take nine point three down 11 i mean 11.3 down 11.6 as a group because it's all just annual annual yeah does anyone have any objections i think there's many questions for any of them is there any questions about so the other 1.4 is the release of the 20 to
08620 purchase orders and 11.5 is the 2223 delegation of leasing authorities these are annual items we have to do it every year it's required by state statute but essentially it's a housekeeping item that we do every year currently just for the clarity 11.5 the only property we currently lease is part way to season one discussion or questions all those in favor proposed all right that gets to 11.7 uh individual contract extension of administrators at wild employees um similar to bob it is an annual recently took action right approving the release of teacher contracts and we typically follow you know once we go through the process with teachers the individual contract extensions for administrators and that will employees you know for our new board members administrative contracts in the state of wisconsin are two-year contracts that
087automatically roll forward unless um you know through a recommendation for the administration on the board's action to interrupt that but this this would kind of permit us then to execute those contracts and those contracts that would include the 4.7 on base wage increase that was approved for all employees through previous board actions that's where we are fighting with the process at will are not actually contracts even though generally we speak of them as if they're contracts but it really is more of an employment agreement and those are one year right so that it's different because they're not administrative they don't require administrative certification and that's why with administrative certification you fall under a different area of the statutes questions any last minute discussion all those in favor aye opposed rights all right with that that
088ends our action for this evening so i would take a five minute recess all right and then we'll come back to the workshop thank you we are at recess oh a workshop this evening on our guaranteed bible curriculum and we have a number of staff members here this evening mrs framer i'll hand it off to you yep um and i'm gonna back up a bit um so thank you again this is you know exciting for our board when they get chance to interact with our staff and so similar to our workshop around student services tonight are different curricular areas that the board will get to engage with our music team is busy in full-fledged concert season um so we have the handout for you and when all the spring concerts are and that would be
089the best place to see their work in action but i also shared some notes with the board so you kind of knew a rough idea of who's doing who are the curricular leads for each area and then some of the goals for each one of our curricular areas um so we won't delay it any longer than that outside of to get you going in the rotations you're gonna have seven minutes at each one um and i'm going to be strict on the time keeping as it is getting late and there may or may not be some other things going on that most people are watching on their phone as we are sitting here having this conversation wow and it is not due to a lack of dedication to our staff and the work we are
090doing in our district in any way shape or form but we do want to make sure that you get the opportunity to hear from staff as well as and get the opportunity to get out of here at a reasonable hour so i'm going to be strict on the time at the seven minutes per station and we have some guest partners to go around with some of our board members noah and rebecca if you don't mind making a pair and going around to the stations together and then we have mr miller our coordinator of innovation who oversees our gct department and our physical education department alyssa roche our coordinator of culturally relevant practices who also oversees our el department and our world language department we have mr summerfield who's the assistant principal at central miss pluta
091who's the principal at wilson and then ann lock who's our coordinator of inclusionary practice um so she oversees all of our work with our special education staff and so um the rest of our board members will pair up with one of these fine individuals to travel around to the different stations so that if you have a question you can get that answered and then marty will also be a partner with somebody as well and then we should have exactly pairs of two to go around to each station for seven minutes and then get your questions answered and kind of learn about all of the absolutely incredible work that these individuals do every day all right so we pair with someone here and then go yeah somebody here or you can pair with me i know
092nobody wants to leave you