001Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order. The required public notice of this meeting was sent to Community Newspapers Incorporated at Metropolitan Press on January 9th, 2026 and posted on the doors of the district office. Additionally, meeting notices and agendas were posted on the district website and distributed to the city of Brookfield and the village of Elm Grove for posting. Let the roll call show that all board members are present and we would also like to welcome back Dr. Mark Hanson. Thank you. Will you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Natalia de Granville? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Natalia. May I
002have a motion to approve the agenda? Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion to approve the agenda, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you that carries on voice vote our first agenda item of the evening is our celebration of excellence mark Thanks, Scott. We're here tonight to celebrate Carolyn Wanozek for her state championship in the hundred butterfly Carolyn has had an impressive four-year career at Brookfield East, not only as a Spartan swimmer, but also as a Brookfield East student. She does some amazing things there. We appreciate her commitment in the classroom and her leadership throughout the school, and also the entire family for their complete, complete dedication to Brookfield East. We're going to welcome Mike Rose to the podium to talk about Carolyn's accomplishments and welcome her to
003the podium as well. Mike. I usually try not to read these things just but I want to make sure that I don't forget anything you know and she's like you said Caroline is here because she won the WI Division one state title in the 100 butterfly it's a very exciting race she won by two one hundredths of a second so about a finger length so but it was Yeah, it was an outstanding race And that kept off a very successful high school career at Brookfield East I've actually had the privilege of knowing Caroline her entire life since You know, we've known the family and coached with family and stuff And I've been coaching her for about the last ten years on and off with her swimming with the club also during high school Caroline qualified
004for all 16 possible events at the state high school meet eight individual events and then she was a key member on eight relays that we swam that includes four WIA division one state titles additionally and I'm going out on a little limb here She should be a six-event high school All-American. They don't really select those things until July, but just based on the times that she did this year, I think there's really no question that she will be an All-American. Kind of highlight that just because for most schools, you know, you never have a high school All-American in any sport, but she's... She joins quite a few of them that we've had at East. To be a high school All-American, you need to have one of the top 100 times in the country out of
005138,000 girls that were swimming this year. So that would be the... I'm a nerd. That would be the top seven one-hundredths of a percent in terms of the people that are swimming, which is, I think when you put it in those terms, really kind of reflects how good she really is. She also earned eight First Team All-State Awards and seven All-State Honorable Mentions, and she was recognized this year as the Greater Metro Conference Swimmer of the Year. As he said in addition to her accomplishments in the pool She also dedicates a lot of time to club swimming. So she trains a lot Travels a lot for me and she didn't get to be at last month's board meeting because she was swimming in a meet in Austin, Texas But the Along with her training. She's
006also recognized as a conference scholar athlete the last two years All-state academic and an academic all-american So Caroline's gonna be joining her sister Maggie Studying and swimming at the University of Wisconsin this year. I don't know the Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't know how you look at it her older sister Abby is gonna be graduating this spring so she will not be on the team with them, but I do think University of Wisconsin swimming should definitely appreciate us at Brookfield East so that's all i have you do you have something yeah i'll say something hi um thank you for having me here tonight i just quickly wanted to thank mike and carol for being such amazing coaches you have not only made my high school swimming career successful but super fun so i appreciate everything
007you guys have done for me and i wish you the best in your retirement also a big thanks to mr westfall who couldn't be here today for all of his support throughout my past four years thank you Any questions from board members or comments? Scott's making his way to the podium Cheryl go ahead Congratulations, I got to watch your aunts swim with my daughter when she was in the pool And I know how hard it is and what you've done. It's quite an accomplishment With that I'm going to turn to Scott Wheeler for a presentation of a certificate Scott So Carolyn I've got a certificate here from the school board recognizing and extending congratulations to you for being the 2025 WIAA Division one state champion in the hundred yard butterfly and just again expressing our
008appreciation for representing Elmbrook so well and congratulating you for years of work it's not an easy accomplishments in the pool and of course academically you're an all-star as well and so just thank you so much and so we've got a certificate here honoring that yeah so we're gonna take a picture so we'll face this direction to have that behind us so if you stand will somebody send Ben a picture Are there other board member comments or questions for Caroline? So you get to stand right here. There'll be some more. Jean? I would like to echo Cheryl's comments of congratulations. Amazing work and such a commitment to both academics as well as your sport. And I'd also like to congratulate and thank your coaches. I'm understanding that they've announced their retirement. I don't know if we'll
009have another celebration of your careers, but in the event that we don't. Thank you for your commitment and the years 43 years I'm seeing Wow incredible thank you Thanks Sam Congratulations and I just recognize this maturity in you and I could tell that your parents are proud by the way they stood by you and just thank you for representing the community well and doing a great job at working hard Wes yeah, I'd echo that congratulations and having lived in this community a long time Whenever my parents may look online and they see Juana's a family again. It's like here we go again There's certain families you just see constant greatness when it comes to swimming especially But yeah, just congratulations. Is there a specific stroke that you preferred or liked most? Okay, awesome well congratulations
010Caroline, one more. We're going to turn to State Senator Rob Hutton, who's got a certificate for you as well. Senator Hutton. Just what you need is another certificate, right? Absolutely. Well, thank you, school board, for allowing me to get up and speak and just be a part of this celebration and all of your accomplishments. As a former Brookfield East student and not a very good athlete, I can say that is a huge accomplishment on your part. And I know there's a lot of folks that did a lot of things athletically in this room, but I say I was always astounded by the discipline it takes to be a swimmer. whether at the high school or for you now at the collegiate level, if you had to guess, just rough number, any idea how many miles
011you have swam? I honestly have no idea. Okay. Well, I'm sure it's not just a few. Yes. Which is always remarkable to me to know what it takes for you as swimmers to get up in the morning and in the evening and to swim the laps that you do. It is just hard to fathom. But we give you a great deal of respect and a great deal of congratulations for that discipline that has obviously led to a tremendous amount of accomplishment. You've obviously had coaches who have poured into you tremendously, and we can all be blessed by the coaches that have touched our lives, certainly including yours. Your mom and dad have probably done a little bit of commuting back and forth to some meets every now and then, and what a joy that is,
012I know, for them, but what it means for family participation in that regard. So congratulations. This is a certificate from the state of Wisconsin on behalf of the governor and the state legislature for your amazing accomplishments for not only what you do in the pool but outside of the pool just as a young citizen here in our community. And so best wishes to you, and we're thrilled that we kept you in the state as a number one draft pick for the Badgers. We will enjoy watching you. you for many, many seasons to come. So wonderful job and congratulations. Thank you so much. We would be remiss without saying thank you to mom and dad. You guys have been amazing. Thank you for sharing with us your most cherished gifts. I would also be remiss in
013not thanking the Roses for their incredible dedication. As Ms. Lambert said, 43 years is a long time. Four decades. Amazing. Thank you for your dedication to kids. Thank you for your dedication to the sport. And thank you for making Brookfield East what it is today. Well done. Congratulations to both of you. And I would just add, for the sake of Mike Rose, it's 4.3 decades. So Mike and Carol, if you wouldn't mind, it is a family effort. I know any time you commit that much time in volunteer hours and... I know there's a small pay that goes with it but just the amount of time that you spend it really is a volunteer effort so we'd like to publicly the school board of Elmbrook would like to publicly recognize and extend our congratulations to you
014both of you for your long-standing dedication to the Elmbrook swim and dive program and give you the certificate Just another certificate, right? Absolutely. Well deserved. I would just thank you. No, you certainly can't. I would just thank you for what our board chair said. All those that have lived through high school athletics and collegiate athletics to see what the dedication looks like for the coaches that you folks have poured your heart and life out on so many young people here. not only have helped them become better athletes, but certainly I'm sure better kids and citizens as well. And so we can't overstate our appreciation for just the number of sheer hours that you put into and poured into the life of these young people. You folks will not be replaced anytime soon by any means.
015And we hope you don't go anywhere too far because we may continue to call on you for how we continue to replicate the amazing work that you two did on behalf of so many student athletes. So congratulations and enjoy your retirement. It's well deserved. Are there any additional board member questions or comments for coach Rose? Cheryl? Thank you so much for your years and years of dedication both at Brookfield East and for the Elmbrook Swim Club Yeah, I echo my thanks to the Roses for giving time to our kids. I know that took away time from your kids, probably from time to time. The job of a coach is extraordinary, and Mike, second only to your incredible career as a math instructor to so many decades of our students in Elmbrook. We are incredibly grateful
016and wish you well. Thank you. Anyone else? Perfect. Thank you so much. Okay, and now I'd like to turn some time to Dan Scott. to come and we'll have some additional recognitions. Dan? It's been a long time. I know what to expect. It's a wonderful celebration, though. Thank you and good evening. Before I start, just if you are here today and you have been part of the PURSE project as a volunteer, just go ahead and stand up real quick. If you have been part of the PURSE project as a volunteer, go ahead and stand up. Thank you. I just want you to... When I talk about sense of community, I want you to just kind of, you know, know who we're talking about as I identify those groups of people. And so good evening, members
017of the board, Dr. Hansen, colleagues, community members. My name is Dan Scott, Director of Technology for the School District of Elmbrook, and it is an honor to be here tonight to share Gene's story of excellence. For those of you who don't know Gene... Jean has been with Elmbrook for more than 18 years and she is on my team as the end-user technology specialist for the district It is said that to change the world. You don't need a grand plan You just need a willing heart in a place to start and for Jean that place was one bag It started with a simple idea that a backpack or a purse could be more than just a container for somebody in need arriving at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission. A bag provided by Gene is a lifeline. It's
018a warm blanket on a cold night. It is the dignity of fresh clothes and personal care items. It is the message that says you are not forgotten. Tonight, we're here to celebrate how that single bag grew into a 10-year legacy of excellence. Jean is a visionary behind the purse project and under her leadership This initiative has achieved a staggering milestone over the last decade Jean has coordinated the collection the assembly and the delivery of over 6,500 purses and bags to the Milwaukee rescue mission. I'm gonna pause there for a second. That's where they have a pause And I need a drink of water 6,500 is not just a statistic. It represents 6,500 individual moments of relief. 6,500 opportunities to do something kind. 6,500. During my conversation with Tom Griffey, development officer and pastor at the
019Milwaukee Rescue Mission, he immediately challenged me on that number. Am I thinking around the number 6,500? I asked him if it was fair to say that Gene's work has had an impact on 6,500 people, and Tom assured me that that number is much more than that. A bag handed to one individual is handed to one individual, but the impact is felt across the family. It's fair to say that Gene's Purse Project has positively impacted well over 10,000 people in our neighboring community. What makes Jean's work a model for our district is how she's invited all of us to be part of the solution. She has turned service into a bridge that connects every corner of our organization. From our students in the Key Club, who number in the hundreds, for them it's learning that leadership
020is defined by service. Our facilities and food service individuals who dedicate their time and energy supporting the logistics and creating of items. Our school communities to support the collection efforts at the local schools, our board members and our administrators who have joined the effort donating items and stuffing bags, and our own family, Sister Karen, Fiance Dean, Father Arnold stuffing, packing, and delivering items to the rescue mission. Gene, you have showed our students, staff, and community that we all have a role to play and that we can all contribute in lifting up our community. When you see students... Staff members board members and community members all working towards the same common goal You see an example of this true strength of our district Jean provided the vision and the result is service to those in need.
021Jean, your excellence is found in your enthusiasm and steady persistence. You saw a need, and your vision has positively impacted thousands upon thousands of individuals. Through your work, you just didn't give out bags. You built a community of caregivers. You have taught us that excellence isn't just what happens in our classroom. It's how we care for the community beyond our walls. On behalf of the thousands and thousands of individuals you have helped and the team members that you have inspired to serve, thank you for your leadership and your 10 plus years of unwavering dedication to community service. Members of the board, please join me in recognizing Gene Leffey. Dean, we'll start off with a certificate here from the school board publicly recognizing you and extending congratulations for your continued dedication to Elmbrook's annual Purse Project
022and representing, as Dan Scott stated so well, the spirit of service and the spirit of Elmbrook in all that you do in giving and making a huge difference for our community. Thank you, thank you so much for everything you've done. And would you like to say anything before we open it for board member questions or comments? Yes, I'd really just like to thank the school district for allowing me the opportunity to do this I'd like to thank Dan For supporting my vision. He allowed me to work with and encouraged me For this project. I'd like to thank the students the Key Club Members they were awesome. They were so fun to work with very enthusiastic Enjoyed that very much too. So again, thank you very much for allowing me to even do this. I appreciate
023it Thank You Jean. Are there board member questions or comments? Yes, please. We have two P club members here. Yeah, that would be great introductions Hi, I'm Manish. I'm the Key Club treasurer and the Purse Projects has been an incredible event for us. It gives like a premier event for students to volunteer and help out the community at the same time. We've gotten more donations than ever this year and it's been a growing event throughout like the whole of the year. Like this is one of our premier events, like I said. Hi, I'm Sean. I'm the Key Club president. The Purse Project is one of those where you can donate and give your time. And it's not one of those recurring events where we can only get a couple students after every event. It's one
024of those big ones, like a blood drive. We get so many students that are happy to give and give their time, and it's just a great event to have. Hi, my name is Evelina Kim. I'm a member of Key Club, and the Purse Project was a really fun thing to do, especially knowing I was helping people, and Key Club really means a lot to me because helping others is a big thing I like to do. Thank you. Hi, I'm Jepji Aurora, and I'm also a member of Key Club. The Purse Project was a super inspiring thing to be a part of, and I really enjoyed the... like meaning behind it and it really resonated with me in a way. Thank you. I do have a couple of, we have a couple of certificates here for
025the Brookfield East Key Club, publicly recognizing your dedication and help with the first project. We know that it takes an army. We've got a division and certainly organization, but it takes so much help to pull a project like that off. And you guys. as Dan stated, are making a huge difference in our community for people that need it. And the impact here, maybe it's 6,500 purses, but it's so much bigger than that when you start to think about the individuals and families whose lives you're changing in a small but meaningful way. It's just huge. So I've got a couple of certificates, and we'll take a picture, and then board members, if you'll be ready with some questions or comments for the group when we're done. So I've got two. Okay, so you guys hold on
026to the east. I understand. So if you'll come this way. This is a proud moment. I mean, parents want to remember. I'm a fiancé. I'm not a parent. If you'll just stand up here. I think board members have some questions or comments. This will just come right here. And are there any board member questions or comments? Mary. The comments are just this is an extraordinary accomplishment Jean so much that is great about Elmbrook is often learning that happens outside the classroom and you're as much of an educator as anybody in this district ever has been and I thank you for that I thank you for the example that you set for these young people and those that have come before you When do you start this process, and when does, is it ongoing, or is
027there a finite amount of time, and how much time are you putting in on this? So many hours. I started it about 11 years ago, but my heart's always gone out to people who are suffering from homelessness. My first time seeing a homeless person just... I wanted to go give them everything in my purse. And my dad was a really good example. He just like, let's go get some food for this individual. And then we ended up handing over things that we had. And it just stuck with me. So it's just kind of been a tugged at my heart all these years. And I'm so glad that I've had so many people that embraced it and helped. Well, you lead by example, and you help us see the humanity there. As somebody who spent much
028of my career at Marquette University, I am well aware of the impact of those who support the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, which does phenomenal work. So I love... the charity you've chosen to to live within your heart i love that this is a collaboration between the brookfield central and brookfield east key clubs that's very cool we hear a lot about east versus central and when you work together that's kind of the way the world works best and so we really appreciate the time you've put in and spread the word because it sounds like this is going to get bigger next year And when do you start collecting? When school starts. Okay. There's boxes that are placed at all the schools. We notify the key club groups, and they let the students know, and it just goes
029in the staff lounge and student areas, and we collect through around Thanksgiving. And then the items are stuffed after Thanksgiving, and then they go to the mission that same week. Thank you for putting in the time to make this great. Thank you so much. Are there other board members? Sam? Thank you guys again for that. Gene, the Milwaukee Arts Commission has probably been one of my, I think one of the most impactful non-profits in the Milwaukee area. And it's really neat with their connection to a school down there too they have just to help the students. So there's some overlap there which I think is beautiful. So not only are you helping me solve my IT problems, but you're also helping me resolve some... problems for the homeless so thank you for that and the
030Key Club as well that's neat that you guys are getting to experience that did you visit the facility downtown and get to do a tour of the Milwaukee Rescue Mission? So we started off just by kind of collecting the items then we had one assembly day there were multiple buildings it was at but they just kind of came in and they helped to get everything in the purses. Have you toured the actual facility Milwaukee Rescue Mission? Have you guys had a chance to do that? I would encourage that it's a really neat yeah just I like a commitment that day but I'm probably gonna go next year or whenever it is it seems like a really cool place yeah thank you well it's Wes it's just awesome this whole thing heartwarming bringing community together this
031is you know the school and learning is so important but this is what life's really about and how we help one another so thank you for leading this gene it's fantastic and thanks for the students for participating I also want to just echo my fellow board members comments and just to say it's a wonderful project and what an amazing experience it is for all of our students to participate in this and really see that service and dignity is something that we can give and I really appreciate that you brought that for our students here and all of you guys for participating that is wonderful And I echo the thanks too it's wonderful to see how many lives that you've touched already and that it will continue and that's just exciting and it's great to start
032working on service now as students in the high school and thank you so much for organizing it is as others have said what it's about thank students as well thank you let's give them another round of applause thank you so much can't thank you enough thank you all right that concludes our celebration of excellence and brings us to the high school student representatives report mark Thanks Scott we're gonna turn to Brookfield Central first for an update and then also Brookfield East and then we'll jump into our topic which is senior privilege option and our students will define SPO as it's often referred to which I think you guys know that that actually originated from a student representative back in 2015 I want to say so have at it what's going on at Brookfield Central lately
033Starting with academics, BC students and incoming freshmen alike have begun selecting their classes for the 2026-2027 academic year with BC Fire hosting the class of 2023 this past week, giving them a tour of our extensive elective classes. Additionally, Victor Hahn was named a 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar for his project about how AI can be used to rehabilitate Parkinson's patients. Lastly, for academics, the junior class took the practice ACT on January 7th. As for activities, the Distinguished Young Women Showcase was held on January 9th and 10th, and Lucia Brewer was named 2026 Distinguished Young Women of Brookfield. Mock Trial also hosted a competition on January 10th, and BC Team 1 was undefeated, placing second overall, with four Lancer teams placing within the top 20, a strong showing for the Lancers. Additionally, BC DECA students
034competed at districts before winter break and 34 of these competitors qualified for state and are currently working on their projects. APA Art Seminar students will be holding many art shows throughout the rest of the school year with each artist being designated their own week to showcase their uniquely themed project. Moving on to the arts, the BC Fall Musical Something Rotten has received a multitude of jury awards nominations for a job well done. This includes nominations for outstanding musical, ensemble, and orchestra, six nominations for outstanding lead roles, three nominations for outstanding supporting roles, and numerous nominations for production, elements, and direction. Overall, an outstanding performance. Following the success of Something Rotten, Little Women performances are coming up with shows scheduled for the end of the month. Finally, in athletics, on January 9th, BC hosted the most
035widely attended girls wrestling tournament in the entire state of Wisconsin and a boys wrestling tournament the following day. Lastly, the first unified sports game of the year is being held tonight at Brookfield East, a game we look forward to each year. Thanks, Abby. You mentioned the wrestling tournaments. I had a chance to stop on Friday night and Saturday morning, and the volume of people at those events, I've never seen anything like it. It was amazing. So thanks for hosting that. And also on the front side of the building on Saturday, I couldn't figure out why we had like 45 buses parked at Brookfield Central on a Saturday, but it was the wrestling meet, and then mock trial had buses on the front side. So the building was full of kids. It was awesome. So thank
036you for sharing. How about Brookfield East? Updates. Okay, so starting with our arts highlights, Brookfield East Band, their concert was yesterday, and we had an amazing turnout and great job to all the bands. Additionally, the spring play is already being planned with auditions being set to be held the first couple weeks of February. Those who excelled at this year's musical are considering auditioning, so keep an eye out for those who get the lead. Next, on to our athletics highlights. Unified Sports is holding their game tonight at Brookfield East, which if you don't know, Unified Sports is a program that allows students with disabilities to participate in different games and sports. Additionally, Brookfield East Lacrosse is hosting an open gym to interested and committed players to prepare for the spring season. Additionally, after more than four
037decades of dedication to student athletes in the sport of swimming and diving, Mike and Carol Rose have announced their retirement. And then additionally, Brookfield East has officially seven Greater Metro Conference Athletes of the Year for fall sports. So as we've seen already, we have Peyton Haugen for golf, Jack Murray for football, Emre Evran for soccer, Caroline Rastor for tennis. As we saw, Caroline Wodczak for swim, Izzy Yutry for cross country, and Lincoln Goldsmith for football. On to our activities highlights, the Red Cross held their blood drive today throughout the entire school and almost every single slot was filled. Additionally, January 10th was Beast Robotics kickoff for their new challenge. Teams around the globe learned all about the hashtag Rebuilt Challenge. They not only read and reread the rules, but also strategized. Additionally, AVID held an
038alumni panel on... post-secondary readiness, success, and leadership. And Anna Ewig was awarded the Distinguished Young Woman of Elm Grove. On to our academic highlights. Post-winter break, students have gotten back to the swing of classes and activities, and as term two pulls to an end, students are now preparing for finals in these next couple of weeks, and new classes are right around the corner. Initially, Peace Out Production Studio, which is inspired by Brookfield East alumnae Mikey Schlifsky, features high-end equipment to help students learn and develop their skills in video and audio production. Initially, the outdoor pursuits gym class went on multiple field trips such as rock climbing and a skating rink to do curling. And the juniors also had their practice ACT on the 7th. Thank you anything else that you guys want to cover real
039quick Busy places pretty amazing. Thanks for everything you guys do I know tonight is a Brookfield East Brookfield Central battle of Brookfield night So we're gonna try to get you out of here pretty fast because you guys probably want to get to that Somebody give me a description of senior privilege option from what you understand who would like to do that? Well, as a senior myself, I do have senior privilege option currently for this semester. From at least what I've understood from being a part of it is that As a junior throughout the summer that you apply for it, you have to have a minimum GPA of 3.5. And you also have to be truant, so you don't want any absences or any tardies. And as you apply, you basically have a study hall. But
040instead of having your study hall in school in the cafeteria, you then are going to be allowed to do that off campus, which, as for me in the morning, allows me to sleep in. For other students, it allows them to either maybe go out for lunch to eat or just go to class. library to study so kind of allows seniors also for juniors if they have a certain amount of grades or also have you know certain amount of absences and tardies to also be a part of this privilege so it's rewarding students who are accomplishing the things that make them great right nice awesome give me a little sense as to the preferred period that spo occurs is it the first block is it the fourth block is the third block because it's long Any
041preference? I know I heard you say you get to sleep in. That's a big deal, right? Yeah. Preferences? I've heard mixed opinions. I've heard at least one person have a preference for each individual hour. My personal preference is second hour with a lunch because then you get Lancer Block or Excellence Period if you're at East, second hour, and a lunch off, which can give you more opportunities to either go further if you need to do something or give you more time off to really lock in and study for a few hours. Great, thank you. Let's jump into the questions. How does managing the freedom of SPO directly prepare you for the unstructured time and personal responsibility that you're going to be required to demonstrate while in college or the workforce? Let's start with Brookfield Central.
042What did you hear? Absolutely. So primarily, students reported that SPO teaches them how to balance their free time and their rest time with their academic and extracurricular commitments. And additionally, it allows students to learn time management and prioritization skills as they determine how to most effectively allocate that unstructured time during the school day. Awesome. What did you guys hear at Brookfield East? So we were saying that like SPO kind of mirrors how it's gonna be post like this education so like college in the workforce and there's gonna be unstructured time that we're not like told what to do how to do it and this kind of shows us how we can use our time productively it teaches us how to maybe force ourselves to do things we don't want to do and it kind of
043allows us to be prepared for our future. Awesome. Thank you. If the school board were to change policy and expand or restrict SPO, what advice would you give us? Overall in terms of school culture, our students reported that offering SPO really improves our school culture because it ultimately motivates underclassmen to maintain good attendance and academic standing to prepare to allow them to have SPO in their scheduled senior year. Additionally, it's a really enjoyable and appropriately available to students who both desire it and are prepared to use it responsibly. And so in terms of if we were to expand or restricted in the future, the access to SPO should remain contingent on established eligibility requirements to ensure that the students who are taking advantage of the opportunity have demonstrated the responsibility necessary to be able to
044handle it. So I think I agree with a lot of the points in that like SPO should remain a reward and not a privilege and it should be something that's like awarded that like allows us to mirror like the school's goals and like values in a way that like the seniors can reflect. Awesome. Thank you. Before we turn it over to board members for questions, let's finish up with the last question, which is if you could change one thing about the SPO program to make it better, what would you change? Let's start with Brookfield East. So one thing that's like a large issue to many seniors is, especially as the second part of the school year when, like the second semester when sophomores and other like young, maybe old freshmen get parking spots and parking
045tickets, it's increasingly difficult to find a spot, especially if you come later in the day. Maybe you leave at third block, you need to come back for your fourth block. It could be... literally impossible to find a parking spot so one suggestion was having assigned parking spots for seniors and many seniors have said it's like extremely hard to find and that would really solve that issue by having like an assigned parking spot there's pros and cons to that we just got to be careful there are folks that would really not like that and there are folks that would really like that a lot what'd you guys hear at brookfield central The biggest thing that we heard could be improved was bringing student awareness to the requirements of SPO sooner in their academic career, just so
046that they have the ability to plan their schedule progression that will allow them to take advantage of it senior year, considering you need a total of 18 academic credits to qualify for SPO your first term of senior year. So that was something that was brought up at Central, was just taking some time out of link classes or with counselors when we have all-grade meetings for the underclassmen to better allow them to understand what the... requirements for eligibility for SPO are. Awesome. Thank you. Board member questions or comments? Mary? I have a question. Do you have to have a study hall to use SPO? And does that ever cause scheduling issues? Yes, so to get your SBO you already have to have a study hall in your schedule and then once you have that study hall
047so we find this around the end of August about when our schedules come out so yes you have to have an SBO you have to have your study hall first and then apply for your SBO. Wes? Question as well. Do you find or have you heard from your fall students that this has been a motivating factor when it comes to you know grades or attending regularly or has the just been something more happenstance that you know I've been doing all the work and it so happens that I've made my way into getting SPO I definitely know some people who might have missed out on SBO first term and really use that as an incentive to get a second term or people who have had SBO in the past and use that as an incentive to
048keep up their grades and their attendance because they appreciate the option. Evie, early in your report, you mentioned BC Fire. Can you tell me about BC Fire? What is that? So BC Fire is a mentorship club where... upperclassmen and just Brookfield Central students are able to work with freshmen at various points throughout the year to kind of help them get prepared for high school. We know it can be a big transition. In addition to classes, there's lots of clubs. People can struggle to know what to get involved with. So it's an opportunity for students in the middle school to not only talk to administrators and hear from their teachers about offerings at Brookfield Central, but real students who live the same experiences not too long ago. And is that something that's open to anyone who
049chooses or do you need to apply and are selected or how does that work? There's an application process if you want to be a BC Fire mentor but they do encourage high participation to make sure that they can get the most one-on-one attention with middle schoolers and answer the questions to the best of their abilities. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Great. We appreciate the report. Thank you guys. You have a lot of things going on tonight. And go Brookfield, right? Thanks guys. Have a good night. Appreciate it. Brookfield will likely win tonight. Our next agenda item is the Citizens Forum. This is an opportunity for members of our community to address the board on topics that fall within the purview of the board but are not on tonight's agenda. If anyone would like
050to speak and has not yet filled out a form, Christy over here to the right is available, and there's a list of rules and expectations that I won't go over tonight because the one request we have to speak is a Citizens Forum pro. We welcome back to the podium Angie Pingel. Angie? Good evening. Angie Pingel, resident of the city of Brookfield. I wanted to talk tonight about the election season. As we begin, I'm here tonight to ask that the board consider adopting a policy regarding political endorsements. I did look at board policy 1325 and it's not clear to me whether it applies to a board member endorsing a political candidate and I believe a clear policy prohibiting political endorsements should be adopted as soon as practicable let me explain why I was very surprised to
051see political endorsements from sitting board members in their official capacity as Elmbrook school board members our school board positions are supposed to be nonpartisan which means that you don't represent a particular party. In fact, most of you made your nonpartisan status a cornerstone of your campaigns. In my opinion, it seems very inconsistent with the representations you made as a candidate to be nonpartisan. when you then use your official title in an endorsement of a candidate that is a member of a political party, such as a candidate for Wisconsin's next governor. You were elected because of your position on issues facing our school district, not so you can use your elected position to attempt to influence voting in other political races. I would argue such endorsements create the appearance of a conflict of interest between your
052nonpartisan obligations as school board members and an allegiance to a political party. I believe that it is best practice to restrict endorsements in a board member's official capacity. If you choose to insert yourself in politics, please do it in your personal capacity and not in the name of the Elmbrook School District. I would ask that the chair of the community and legislative engagement committee add this time sensitive and important issue to your agenda for your February 2nd meeting thank you Thank you Angie That concludes our citizens forum for the evening and brings us to our consent agenda I'll start by asking for a motion to approve the consent agenda and then ask if there are items the board members would like to pull I'll move approval of consent agenda items A through E as presented
053Second Thank you, I'm going to pull item C district bond and legal counsel because we have a request to speak on that item Are there any other items that board members would like to pull? Mary? Scott, I don't want to pull, but just want to clarify that on item D, it is listed as 2627 student fees with policies 3250 and 3251. The consent agenda does not include approving the policies. The policies are actually further down in our agenda and our discussion items coming forward. from F&O and it is the list of student fees for 26-27 that's part of the consent agenda so I wanted people to understand what they're consenting to but I don't need to pull it Thank you Mary are there any other items the board members would like to pull hearing none
054all those in favor of approving consent agenda items A B D and E please say aye aye any opposed thank you that carries on voice vote Angie Pingel, a resident of the district, would like to speak to the board on item 5C, which is the district bond and legal counsel. Angie? Thank you again. Still a resident of the city of Brookfield. First, I just want to say that I'm rather disappointed to see this item on the consent agenda without any discussion. I know I've raised this issue before, as have other community members in Citizens Forum. I just really struggle to understand how approving council is such an uncertainty that it appears on a consent agenda without any previous discussion. It does not follow the discussion action sequence, and what troubles me most is that there's
055no discussion of the effectiveness of council, only a blanket statement that they've provided, and I quote, experienced and reliable council during the past several years, end quote. What statistics did you review to conclude that they are both experienced and reliable? In my opinion, in the case of one firm, it can't be the success in defending lawsuits. I understand that this isn't the largest item on our budget, but it is one with very serious financial and reputational impacts if we aren't getting the best legal advice. When was the last time we went to RFP for counsel? Have you ever considered other firms? If so, who and when? I've been here a long time, and I've never seen it. Have you compared the hourly rates for associates and partners to other law firms to determine if the
056rates we're paying are reasonable? How have the rates changed over time? Is the firm appropriately allocating work between lower-cost associates and higher-cost partners? Has there been turnover in key positions? What about an updated conflicts check? I realize that Bello Vetter represents other school districts, but that isn't enough of a reason to retain them in my opinion. Where is the due diligence you reviewed to make this important decision? And how comfortable do you feel about making this decision based on a record that provides no actual support? So... My advice if so that you're not without counsel My best advice is to approve this motion for a limited period of time to allow actual due diligence to be performed and Revisit the approval when you have been provided a record that supports your decision This meeting record
057clearly does not I hope you'll consider this lawyers free advice Thank You Angie Are there any further questions or discussions about item C the district bond and legal counsel Sam I didn't actually was noticing that too like we was it wasn't last year the year before but Why don't we attach what the contract are is to this item? It's a there's no contract. It's just an open There's not a contract. So it's an out well, it's basically approving we can continue to see we continue to work with Okay so we're just approving a dollar amount basically to that You approve the relationship with those attorney firms So the the budget then is that the right year here the $140,000 it won't exceed that but we may not use that right Is that the budget amount?
058It says it's the budget amount So if we go over that do we have to bring that back to the board? Typically not no and there are times where we go over that depending upon any litigation that we face It's a budget estimate And the hourly rate is different depending on what we're seeking with Servit Correct we bifurcate hourly rate based upon the needs of legal expertise Do we get the rate sheet from them at the beginning of the year, or when is that updated? So during the billing cycle, we're able to determine rates of attorneys, and we work with, depending upon the legal complexity, we work with the appropriate attorney and get charged the appropriate fee. Is there a standard rate sheet, or is it depending on what attorney is available, or is there
059a lot of wide variety? Everything that you just mentioned comes into play. Availability is one of the first filters. Sometimes we have time-sensitive things, so we need to take whatever attorney is available. Then the complexity becomes the next one. So anything that is ritualistic or redundant or repeated, we try to find the lowest rate possible in the law firm, depending upon the issue. And then for some of our complex things like student services, there's a standard fee that gets applied across whoever we're working with. So there's a lot of variety is what I'm hearing. There is. And it's hard to – there's not a rate sheet per se, and it's going to be depending on that. thank you good questions any other questions or comments and if not i'd entertain a motion wes would there
060be anything that would prevent us from deciding in a couple of months to if we were unhappy with our council to go in a different direction No. Your policy is 9660 and requires an annual approval by the end of January for legal counsel related to bonding, related to sale or management of properties, and general legal counsel. Okay. So this is just to comply with our policy, but if we decided to go, we weren't happy with our counsel, we could go a different direction at some point? Correct. Okay. Thank you. Sharon. When is the last time we did an RFP or looked at other legal counsel? We're constantly looking at other legal counsel depending upon the issue Last time we went to a competitive RFP. I'm not sure depending upon the issue if it was bonding
061I would imagine during the high school referendum renovation There was a RFP issued for that bonding counsel is my guess, but I don't know that for sure sure In my time as president, I can think of a couple of times where we've gone outside of our regular legal counsel to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, for example, for running some kind of an investigation. In my experience, the rates we paid were slightly higher to use some of the other educational firms, but those have been special circumstances, again, depending on the complexity and the factors that Mark was just discussing. Any other questions or comments? Sam? I'll just make one comment. I admittedly have not hired too many attorneys in my life. Maybe that's a good thing. Even though running a business, I do
062have to engage with that. And the rates are all over the board. I mean, you can get one for $200 an hour and one for $1,000 an hour. And I guess you sometimes get what you pay for and sometimes you don't. And it's, you know, an RFP or... An interview isn't necessarily going to tell us anything about how good that firm is. And I generally operate it for getting good service, and it's probably worthwhile to at least get some competitive rates once in a while. I think it makes sense. But to do that when you're satisfied with them, I've been content with who we've been dealing with, in my opinion. necessarily need to see a change until there's a problem or there's some something is alerting us that we're the pricing is way outside the
063market and I haven't witnessed that yet so I think it makes sense to approve this I'll move approval of the consent agenda item C district bond and legal counsel I'll second we have a motion and a second is there any further discussion before we vote hearing none all those in favor of approving the district bond and legal counsel please say aye aye any opposed Thank you that carries on voice vote and concludes our consent agenda and brings us to our first action item of the evening which is the third party administrator the TPA for self insured health insurance plan renewal and Pam it's going to take that Thank You Pam good evening at the last board meeting Chris Kramer our insurance consultant from R&R insurance services presented to you and we made the request for
064a two-year extension of our current third-party administrator, UMR. Since that presentation, I have not received any questions. Thank you. We'll start with a motion on this, and then we'll ask for questions or comments. Jean? I move approval of the third-party administrator for self-insured health insurance plan renewal as presented. Second. We had Mary and Cheryl. Yeah, Cheryl. Cheryl wins the tiebreaker. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote. Thank you. Thank you, Pam. Okay, our next action item of the evening is the visual language design, drawing, and color theory curriculum document. Dr. Hansen is going to take this. So Amy Farley presented this at the last board meeting,
065and I have not received any questions except a couple typo corrections. Thank you, Wes, for making that happen. Feel free to ask any questions. I don't know that I will be able to answer them right now, but I will certainly find the answers. Dr. Farley is watching her daughter play basketball right now. Thank you. That's probably the place she needs to be. So I'd start with a motion on this, and then we'll take board member questions or comments. Prita? I move approval of the curricular documents for visual language design drawing and color theory as presented second thank you have a motion by Preet and a second by Jean any discussion or questions hearing none all those in favor of approving the curriculum as presented please say aye aye any opposed thank you that carries on
066voice vote that brings us to our next item action item of the evening which is the annual review of open enrollment seats mark Sure, this is an annual requirement per state statute. Oh, Dr. Farley, you made it. We're done. You're approved. We just approved. You're all set. We approved it. Thank you. Open enrollment seats are a requirement by the end of February that we need to take action on, and we're holding true to a 13-year tradition of not having any open enrollment seats available for folks to pursue. We do need to remind the board that we do get applications for open enrollment in this district. We get about 400 applications annually, but we deny all of those. Chris Thompson indicated that he has not received any questions. I have not received any questions, but I'm
067glad to entertain any questions that you may have tonight. So start with a motion on this and then we'll take questions or comments can I get a motion? That no new open enrollment seats be made available for the 2026-2027 school year as presented I second Thank you have a motion by Jean and a second by Cheryl are there any questions or comments? We're trying to get on that all those in favor of the motion. Please say aye aye Any opposed? Thank you that carries on voice vote brings us to our next action item which is the recommendations for the 2026 WASBE resolutions we do have a request to speak before board member comments so Preetha go ahead and introduce the item and then we'll take citizen comment and then I'll ask for board member discussion
068and a motion after that At our board meeting last month the proposed resolutions were presented for discussion along with our CLE committee's recommendations the board previously established the district's public policy priorities which served as a guide for the recommendations today we are requesting board action on these recommendations which will provide direction for me as the district's delegate for the delegate assembly on January 21st of 2025 Once these resolutions are adopted, they become the official policy positions that guide the WASBE's advocacy and lobbying efforts with state and federal lawmakers. The WASBE Policy and Resolutions Committee ensures that the WASBE advocacy is member-driven, reflecting the concerns and interests of local school boards across the state. I encourage you to keep our public policy priorities in mind when considering these resolutions as they represent our district as a
069whole rather than individual opinions on legislation. With that being said, we are looking to the board to indicate which direction would be in the best interest of Elmbrook. Thank you, Preetha. And before I turn the time to Angie, I would add, too, that we had some... comment and discussion at our last meeting about the resolutions not being public and that was because of WASBE's new this year login requirement for members only to see the resolutions we checked with WASBE found out that they can be made public they are a part of the public side of board docs now so they're publicly available tonight you can you can see all those in board docs so we do have a request to speak Angie Pingel a resident the district would like to speak before board discussion Angie
070I just wanted to say thank you for taking the effort to request that these proposed resolutions be made public I know that I appreciated it and I know that a couple of other people called me about it also appreciated it so thank you for doing that I did want to just make one very brief comment about amendment to resolution number four with respect to referenda. I see that we're supporting this proposed resolution, and I just wanted to ask a question because, to me, it's not a sustainable model to go to a referendum every year to meet operating costs. So by encouraging this... resolution, it seems like you're entering into some difficult areas. And one of the questions I had was, how much does it cost a district to bring a referendum? Because that would be
071money that we're taking away from student education to market and advertise and try to get a referendum passed. So by doing that every year and then it gets defeated and then you bring it back the next year, how much money are districts losing from pushing referendum? So those were the questions I would have and I would ask that perhaps instead of support, we either abstain or oppose WASBE resolution number four. Thank you. Thank you Angie. Sam? Are we gonna go through this like we did last year's we're gonna go through one at a time and vote collectively on how we want this to be presented? I'd like to do it that way because I certainly don't support all of these the way they're written and I think it would be the most honorable way for
072us to have a chance to share our thoughts whether it's even just a statement of oppose or abstain or support. Preeta, how would you like to? So again we did have these items for discussion last time again which was some of the discussion that occurred they're on for action tonight are you proposing that we just go through each one individually and say support or abstain or are you suggesting that this is a time for us to launch another discussion into each of these Like the way that was worded that was fun No, I just think that we should just vote on each one individually I don't necessarily have a lot of discussion But I think we should just all decide collectively on how we want each one to be supported at the convention And we
073did that last year So just want to kind of follow the same method we did last year. It might have proposed a compromise Can we do this the way we do the consent agenda if there are items you want to pull out to discuss individually we'll discuss those but hopefully everybody has like I have had the opportunity to review all of these ahead of time and I'm guessing that there are many which there won't be discussion or won't there may not be a disagreement with the CLE committee's recommendation which is really what we're we're voting up or down on so if does that work for you Sam are there particular ones that you want to pull aside they're all numbered just four of them okay I think that's a good approach just four to pull
074those four well there's what there's like 12 So yeah, so Sam why don't you talk about the ones the four that you're looking at and then other that board members like to I don't need Discussion. I just want to publicly state, you know, whether I you know oppose the recommendation Okay, so what's the first one you're looking at one two one two four nine of the four that I just wanted I just I just oppose I pose one I pose two I pose for and I pose nine So let's start with one Preeti can you just give us a high overview of one and then I think we just didn't say I'm sorry I don't mean to speak for you but didn't he just say he didn't need discussion he just wanted to be on
075the record as opposing those these decisions is that yeah I think that's why I think we should just go through each one and vote yeah so we did last year right yeah we did I can't remember exactly we did well can I can I make a motion that i gotta get back to the agenda here uh that i moved to authorize the district's delegate dr preetha karudiar to act on behalf of the district on the 2026 wasby resolutions with the exceptions of number one two nine what was the other one four one two four and nine for approval as presented and sorry i didn't read it exactly right that works okay So we have a motion to authorize Preetha to yeah, you can second but I just want to make sure everyone understands the motion
076as and so we do have a second but the motion is we to approve Preetha to represent the district and vote according to CLE recommendation on all the Westbury resolutions with the exception of 1 2 4 & 9 We have a motion a second on that Jean discussion on that motion i'm going to second this because we're voting about pita's authority and i think it's more appropriate that i would be the second and then i would like to discuss her discretion there's more to the motion in terms of using discretion to respond to the delegate assembly motions and amendments using her judgment which having been a delegate in the delegate assembly there are amendments that are brought forward and you need to think on your feet and we would authorize pita to do that so
077i would amend the motion to reflect that as it's currently Any discussion on that motion? You can't amend a motion that hasn't been, it was seconded. You can amend it. So yeah. She can amend it. So we're voting on the amendment. Do we need a second on the amendment? I'll second the amendment. Okay, so we have an amendment to allow Preeta to use her judgment. And I as well have been there and there are, it seems like on every one of these, there's always people going to the microphone and making. Making amendments so she will have to definitely use her judgment any further discussion on the amendment all those in favor of amending the motion to allow preetha to use her judgment to How did you say it respond to amendments on the floor, please
078say aye aye aye Any opposed? Okay. So that's an amended motion. Just now a motion to in essence allow her to support the CLE recommendations for the numbers indicated and Respond to any amendments on the floor. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of approving? That amendment or that motion. Please say aye aye Any opposed? Thank you. And now we'll take Item number one. My suggestion is just we vote to approve one two four nine And give her authority to as stated and I'll just I'll make my vote against that Okay Then I would move that we approve, sorry, let me go back to the, 1, 2, 4, and 9, that we authorize the district's delegate to act on behalf of the district in the same language that we did previously, including the
079amendment on policy recommendations 1, 2, 4, and 9. Do we have a motion? Is there a second? A motion by Mary and a second by Gene. Any discussion on? That motion. The one thing I would say is, you know, I read these and, you know, and then I picked up the phone and called Preeta, had a few questions about some of them, and I had misunderstood the language, the intent behind it. And so one thing I do appreciate is the alignment to our priorities. And then Preeta was also able to share with me the discussion at CLE. I think the discussion was very thoughtful, and I appreciate the CLE members taking the time to dive into that and look at those. And after hearing and understanding better, again, when I read it, I had an
080impression that wasn't actually what it seemed. And then understanding the CLE discussion, I do want to say that I support the CLE position on these four that we're discussing, although that wasn't my initial position on all of them. But I do support the position. Mary? Yeah, I have a comment very much like yours, Scott. I don't think we looked at it this way last year with the alignment column. I found it very helpful and easy to read, and I was on CLE last year, and I think this might have clarified. I also just want to give props to the districts. legislative priority form which really is well thought out and guides us to support those things that benefit our public school system so with those two pieces I am in full support of all of
081these thank you any further discussion Sam yeah thank you I'm in agreement again with both you I did actually want to say I noticed this the sheet was put together with thought it was more clear than ever before on these WASBE things so I really did appreciate the layout and did present a lot of clarity so thank you Preeta I'm going to give credit where credit is due Chris Thompson was very was basically the creator of this document and I do really appreciate the the division in which we separated these things out and really focusing on our alignment which is Really what's important for us and why we belong to the organization. I think that's important for us to know Well, I will take my appreciation from you and give it to Chris. Just so
082you know, thank you for doing that. I appreciate it Sure. Oh I'm so sorry. I did you want to go ahead? I just wanted to say that when we started the process in CLE there were areas that I disagreed with and when I found out and dug a little deeper into the rationale that definitely helped me to understand it a bit better Thank you. Thank you Cheryl. Preeta? And I wanted to say that I do very much appreciate that we had the opportunity to have a very robust discussion about all of this in our CLE committee and and again also in a more limited fashion at our last board meeting but I do I do want to say that my experience of being the WASBE delegate last year has obviously led me to a for
083the first time last year due to the unfortunate circumstances that led to there being a last-minute replacement of myself As the delegate I want to say that I have a better understanding having attended that meeting of what? What the purpose of of these resolutions are and I think that that really helped to guide our I hope that that helped to guide our CLE discussion Attending the delegate resolutions committee as a member gave me some understanding really of what the the spirit of the resolution is and we all agree that wording can be changed and again at the as you had mentioned scott at the delegate assembly there will be people who make amendments a lot of times is to have some clarification of the language so understanding i think the spirit of the amendment is
084really important and i feel that that was very helpful for us in deciding very clearly what aligned with our district priorities so wes i just wanted to make sure that prieta did get her kudos because she did do a lot and the combination of chris and prieta really i'd say shaped the conversation um and was really helpful ensuring that i would say that our ultimate recommendations were really focused on how do we align with what our priorities are based on that sheet, the legislative sheet. So it was really tried to be tailored to that to the extent possible. So thank you, Preetha, and thank you, Chris, especially for your work. Great. Any other discussion, Jean? Sam, could you talk about why you oppose the position that's being taken for 1, 2, 4, and 9? Yeah,
085I guess basically I felt that, one, it's just... The way I read it, maybe I should have had a conversation directly with Pritha about this, but I didn't have a chance to. But I just felt that it restricts parent choice, and I think it's important to keep that open. Number two, I felt number two from my research and what I looked into is that it does some limiting of some of the charters that really focus on the high poverty areas. And so it presents some challenges to those school districts, and I think we have an obligation for children, even if they're in high poverty, to have a chance for the best education possible. Number four, similar to what Angie said, I totally understand why schools are having to seek referendum. I operate on the philosophy
086that that creates, in my opinion, a lot more work, a lot more wasted money, and a lot more burden on the local taxpayers. And so I feel that by allowing that and letting that be a part of it, this will put hopefully more pressure on our state government to normalize the funding model. versus us trying to add band-aids where possible. I know that it's not necessarily an issue in Elmbrook, but I'm sure it's an issue with other schools that have had to seek referendum. So I don't want to approve the band-aid. I want to resolve the main problem, which is why I thought the endowment thing was a really cool idea. I can actually see some value in that, which is why I was willing to support that one. And then number nine. I felt
087number nine, what I didn't, again, my research of what I found out is that it put an undue and unnecessary burden on daycare facilities that are currently licensed to do 4K. or other private child care centers that focus on that, and this would put an undue burden on those. I think that, to me, is extremely important, that if kids necessarily don't want to come to the school, which I understand, they want to have a different child care approach, whether it's an all-day without the transitions or whatever. I just didn't think that was very fair to try to restrict that for maybe the advantage of some schools to some. you know to get a little bit more enrollment I just don't think it's a fair at all to to restrict 4k approach on that so that's
088why I'm not able to support that Thank you I appreciate your providing some detail Any other discussion before we vote I would like to add if I might Sam most of these resolutions have to do less with the say concept of someone have being for or against school choice and they're more about accountability for everyone receiving state funds whether or not it's a private school or a public school it's it's not really about the choice program at all it's more about accountability for anyone using state funds and that that's the spirit of the resolution um similarly i mean again just to You said you weren't opposed to the public education endowment one For number four if I might ask I just want to make sure we all have the understanding and that's why we were
089in support of any limits on school referendum we're basically just saying it's opposing any limitations on on existing ability to bring referenda as needed it's not saying that we are pro or against referenda so I guess I guess I just I'm not sure if what you're saying has to do really with what the intent of this resolution is and if it provides much guidance to me in the way of voting As I'm told the road to hell is paved with good intentions and so sometimes you may have good intentions in a bill or desire but it may open it up to other opportunities that we don't necessarily want to see happen and so I look at it as approaches the intent is good I may honor that but I can see where the problems in
090the loophole that process would be and I think in this situation I think it would cause greater harm to the students of the community I guess we'll have to disagree about what this resolution actually is doing Can I just, not to belabor the point, but to me, number four is about local control. And we shouldn't be putting ourselves in a position to say we know better than your community, and I think that's something WASBE stands behind, which is my reason for supporting that, and the knowledge that once you've had to go to an operational referendum, you're caught in a cycle because you've spent more. And if the state... funding model doesn't change which we know for a long time it has not you're stuck going back to the well because you overspent in the first
091place so i have great empathy for districts that are finding that's the only way they can get through at this time when madison needs to make some changes in my opinion so um i just would add those convert those bits of conversation should there be any amendments to this one Any other discussion before we vote? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the WASBE or directing Preta-Cudiara to vote, follow the CLE recommendation for amendments 1, 2, 4, and 9. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Say aye. Any opposed? Nay. Any abstain? Thank you. That carries on voice vote. And thank you Preetha for being our delegate. Our next item, action item here is related to something we discussed in November. On November 18th, 2025, the board appointed Wes Silla as clerk pro tem to
092carry out the responsibilities of the clerk for the 2026 school board election since Dr. Preetha Kudyar was. an incumbent whose seat expires in April 2026. Since the deadline has now passed to file election paperwork and Dr. Preetha Kudyarra is not a candidate for the 2026 school board election, tonight the board will consider restoring her election duties for the 2026 school board election. and again there's some information as part of this agenda item that the complications listed below at according to Wisconsin statute no longer exists and this would restore her election duties effective immediately so I'd start by entertaining a motion then we can have conversation Jean I move to restore election duties to a board clerk Pritha Kurdiyara effective immediately And with thanks to Wes for being willing to step in, I second that. Thank
093you. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? We have Mary's thanks already to Wes. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Welcome back to election duties. And our last action item of the evening is recent gifts to the district. Jean? I'm pleased to acknowledge and thank donors of gifts to the district. For October 2025 in the amount of $66,783.19 We are grateful for your generosity and support of excellence in Elmbrook A record of these donations will be maintained on the district website into the future and with that I move approval of agenda item 7 excuse me 6F as presented I second motion by jean and second by wes any discussion just a reminder that these are so many of the things that make
094our district special the money that's being donated from outside of our budget to make things happen um and i see on this list is the artist in residence at dixon i've seen a preview of what's coming in gallery night and empty bowls and i encourage you to keep that date open on your calendar it's going to be something typically incredibly special by amy jacobson and her kids I was thinking something similar. We do this every month, and it almost just becomes routine, but, I mean, look at the dollar amount. It's just so incredible how the community supports our schools. And, again, this doesn't even put a dollar amount on the time, the volunteer time they go. It's just, it blows my mind, and every year when I give the annual report, it's just so staggering,
095the amounts. But, you know, $66,000 in one month, just incredible. So thank you. I just don't think we could say thank you enough. Any other comments all those in favor of the motion, please say aye aye Any opposed? Thank you that carries on voice vote and concludes our action items for the evening our first discussion item of the evening will be Brought to us by McKenna Ellis and Lisa Rettler. It's on the k-12 curriculum Good evening everyone. We are excited tonight to present to you some revised curriculum that we have been working on for the past year. We've bundled this together, discussed it thoroughly at Teaching and Learning Committee and so McKenna is going to in a moment share some of the high-level overview of the refinements we did in the K-12 music curriculum. And
096then Amy is going to share one specific course that we're super excited about that we run in our launch program where we have now a accredited educator who is able to deliver this, and this course offers college credit for our students. So I'm going to turn it over to McKenna to talk about our K-12 music refinements. Good evening, everybody. We had the privilege of working with our K-12 music educators over the last two years to evaluate and update our curricular documents for music. As part of that evaluation, we identified a number of opportunities for improvement. We were able to use our updated curricular docs to improve upon those opportunities, and I want to give a couple of examples of those right here. So we started by realigning our priority standards. That's the first step in
097any curricular renewal process is we want to... to make sure that our priorities align with our state standards. So in addition to our priority standards, we also created targeted feedback and assessment opportunities related to those priority standards. In particular, we were able to increase our scope and target not only our performance standards for music, but also look at create, respond, and connect. Our goal is to make sure that music is accessible to all students, not just those who choose to perform. We additionally added some differentiated strategies and targeted support and techniques for teachers to use to be able to support all students, whether they're developing in their music. or to expand in their music. And part of that was including targeted and direct vocabulary that can help scan that scope between kindergarten and 12th grade.
098And finally, in order to help our students to understand the value of learning music through relevant connections, we made explicit connections to career, life, and readiness within our curricular docs. And so students are able to see what does their learning look like after high school and how are they able to support that in a career or in a hobby that they might enjoy. in the future i'll take it over to amy and then we'll take questions at the end How fitting that I came directly from our unified sports and the celebration and the you know just immense volume of people that show up for that event to hear present introduction to special education to you we want to continue adding to our future teacher strand and launch and we had been offering introduction to special
099education as an opportunity through early college credit and students would take that you know, on their own, sort of with an instructor from Whitewater. And we had a tremendous opportunity this year to expand our future teacher program and add a new instructor. She happens to be someone I'm quite fond of because she's my sister-in-law. But Mrs. Farley, Lisa, has been a special education teacher for many years in our district, also an instructional coach. So easy to say, she knows her stuff. She's also been a department chair for many years at Brookfield East. We expanded the launch program by including her. She was also approved for one of our courses for educational inquiry is a 1,000-level course with Marquette. So she had already taught that. This course we were offering online asynchronous with students, and we
100thought we can make this better. So we did and got Lisa involved and put her through approval She was approved through UW-Whitewater as an adjunct instructor. So we'll be able to add another layer of Coursework on a very special and very important topic of introduction to special education in our launch program So you might be aware our concurrent enrollment courses students are enrolled their curriculum aligns with the UW-Whitewater curriculum Most universities provide still a large level of local control, which we're happy about. So Lisa was able to put her touch on the curriculum so that it supports the strand and our students in our community. in addition our parents then pay a very low cost tuition 110 dollars a credit for that course students do not have to be dual enrolled if they're in the
101course so they can enroll if they just choose to do that and that's absolutely fine but they have that added benefit of that dual credit as well so we're really excited to be offering this as another opportunity as you also know we've been able to grow our own and have many of our future teacher come back and be strong candidates and educators in our own school system. And that was really part of the vision when we started all of that. The units, there are four main units. The first unit really gives an overview of the history of special education. The second unit's gonna talk a little bit about families, how to support families. And the last two units are dedicated to really understanding what is a label and how do we identify what these are.
102There is a primary text included in that if anyone would like to review that we always keep them here for you to review in anticipation of the next board meeting. So I'm happy to take any questions you might have. I do have Lisa here so if you want to ask her any questions about the course and how launch is going. They just started some more adventures this week in launch so please feel free to ask any questions you might have. Thank you, Dr. Farley. And Lisa, I understand that you recently completed a doctorate. So Dr. Rettler, congratulations. Are there board member questions or comments about either the K-12 music that we're looking at or the special education curriculum here? I'm really pleased to hear that we will be able to offer a special education course
103and that there will be some ability for our kids to have college credit for that and thank you for your willingness to step forward for that and I'd also like to comment around the revised music curriculum and as I was reviewing the documents to see the connection to careers and so that kids aren't just going to music because I have to take music but that there's a broader realization of that this could be something more and there are careers in this area and here's at least what they're titled I don't know how far and in depth you get into all what's involved but I appreciate the connection with the real world so to say so thank you thank you dr ferley and dr redler and too many doctors around here so but thank you um
104and mckenna of course um i this all went through the of course the tlc committee so it was a lot of good conversation we had about that and uh i just wanted to point out the special education book because that of course has been near and dear to my heart with with a child that i've been spent you know whatever, 14, 12 years, I guess, in that whole process going through that. And I did think that I had a chance to look at the book because it's important to me. I know what we're teaching and the documents there. And I just thought the book was laid out really well. I thought it was a very balanced approach. I know that can be some parts of special ed can be controversial. And I just thought the
105way that approached it, I looked through, I found those areas I know would probably be controversial and I thought they handled them really well. So I did appreciate, you know, you and your team finding the right. you know school to partner with and making sure that the the material that we're teaching is is in depth knowledgeable and it certainly had a lot of content in there and balance so thank you guys for doing that and that's fully supporting of this being passed I'll just share my accolades for the work that's been done here and especially my appreciation for the refinements to the music education program. As the mother of two adults who make careers in music and music education and the mother of three who were very active participants in the music program, and they
106were really good students across the board, but those are the things. that are memorable the performance opportunities i love seeing the digital music and music theory and composition because i know we have former students who are working in that field and that doesn't always get the attention that it deserves but it's something we're known for in elbrook went to the brookfield east winter concert and could not find a seat in shaddock auditorium so that's something we need to as a board remember the the significant impact that music education has on the lives not just of students who go into music but students who appreciate for life the what they have learned about music in the elmbrook schools i'll just throw one quick anecdote out here John Hibbler was a longtime music educator in the Elmbrook
107schools I had him when he was a brand new teacher for summer band in fifth grade and I played the clarinet and that was his thing so we bonded years later when I was coaching at Brookfield East he was still there and he was walking down the hall past me one day and he said stop He said, I know you. Which class were you? And I told him the year. He took me to his file cabinet. He showed me. I said, it wasn't that great a clarinet player. He said, that was never the point. The point was to learn to love music. We have those music educators who understand that every child that's involved in music education takes away something for life. And it is an academic discipline. And I like that it got that
108attention. from your group so thank you for that. Are there questions or comments? I appreciate it. I'm excited about the, when I saw the special education course I was very interested in looking through that document. It looks like this is going to be a great thing for our students and I didn't have a chance to look at all the music documents. I'll look at those in the upcoming month but it's exciting. I'm nervous to perform, but yet I love music. And so it was really interesting to me to see the opportunities the students have. I mean, I don't mind performing when I'm in a choir, a bunch of people on the stage, but it is interesting that students are going to have a chance to engage in this music curriculum, depending on their comfort level,
109and it's not just about performance. And so I'm excited to dive deeper into that curriculum, and the work looks really great. So thank you for your time on that. Any other comments? Okay, if there are any questions you can direct those to Dr. Rettler or Dr. Farley in this upcoming month or Sam, Chair of Teaching and Learning Committee. This will be back next month as an action item. Thank you so much. Karaoke, yeah. I'll be doing it right after this meeting with the mic off. Our next discussion item of the evening is the 1000 Policy Series. Preetha? So this is our recommendation for the policy 1120. And again, we just recommend renaming the policy to clarify the purpose and had one minor word added. I think that's the word on. And we reviewed this policy
110at our December 8th meeting and then forwarded it to the board. Are there any questions for Preetha? Any discussion? I think this policy had a revision three years ago, right? It's been in the boardroom. Thank you for your work on that if you have any questions in the mean in the next month Please address those to preetha and that will be back on next month's consent agenda Our next discussion item of the evening is the 3000 policy series Mary Thank you Scott. You all got a chance to look at the fees and we approved those in the consent agenda. We've discussed these at F&O and are recommending that we reconfirm both policy 3250 and 3251 which indicate registration fees and user fees for the district. It was News to me that we make about a
111million dollars in these fees and that's a big chunk for us to be collecting I remember the time when we didn't charge a user fee and I remember a time when we charged a lot more Than the user fee that we have now. I think what we have is equitable. It's on par with our peer organizations and I would we unanimously reviewed and recommended reconfirmation If you have any questions, let me know. Any questions for Mary tonight or discussion on these policies? Hearing none, yes, as Mary said, direct any questions to her in the upcoming month. It will be back on our consent agenda. Our next discussion item is the first reading of the 5,000 policy series. Sam? Carrying over the legacy of Kathy Lim, we decided to put 4,400 policies on one night so
112we can make sure you had plenty to read. I'd love if you could start your own legacy on that. I'd like to discuss these one at a time. I would like to read them out loud to you guys so we make sure we're all in agreement on the few minor changes. The majority of these policies are for the most part minor revisions. Emily and her team did a fantastic job at... Really going through each of these and making sure that they're simplified where there was a non-discrimination statement in that policy We made reference to the policy that had non-discrimination So then we wouldn't have to update every single policy when we update a non-discrimination statement. So that was I thought a really good idea and then I'm not gonna read through all of these I
113think you guys have the chance to look through all of these as well But again, like I think most of them are pretty minor. We we actually had a couple more in this that we pulled That I think will be a little bit more complicated, so we'll bring those back. Our next meeting, we'll have a little bit more discussion on that, so it'll be a couple of board meetings before those come back, and then we have the 6,000 series coming along as well. So TLC is a little heavy on the policy side, as you can imagine. So, Gene, you did point out to me one policy that I will pull up real quick here, 5146.7. Made reference to an annual review shall be made of the emergency nursing services by the Board of Education That
114has not been done successfully in the past but Emily and her team will look at getting that added to either a board brief or And then we'll have a discussion in the March or April meeting about that particular annual review so So that will be conducted, and that's why this policy can still be pushed through, knowing that this will happen this year and then ongoing as well. Any questions? Any questions for Sam? Marie? I have two. One is largely procedural. It starts with 5112, and I think it applies to almost all of these where you are. changing the the non-discrimination phrase it references policy 6005 in the text but that policy is not listed at the bottom of any of those as a reference policy and i think that should be added to each of
115those um if you look at 5112 you can see what i'm talking about um it just it says we're going to comply with 60 but it's not one of the policies listed in the amended version where you're taking things out. And I think policy references should include 6005 on all of those. So probably have to go through them and make sure that that's accurate. My second question is about policy. Let's see, where did it go? It's a long list. 51 13.4 the name of the policy is listed as police access to students in the text of it it says law enforcement access to students but we do not define law enforcement here and i think that if we're saying police access It should say police access. I looked at some of the state statutes that
116are listed here, 4819, and they refer to times when a child is taken into custody or a child is spoken to, both on our premises about an event that happens in school and... where law enforcement comes to the school to talk to them and they reference police in the state statute and they reference judicial orders but we aren't being specific when we say law enforcement here and given the world that we live in now i think that we should be very specific about what we're referring to as law enforcement jean i have one minor recommendation on practice statement 5142.2 and section, oh, it's page two of 10, management of sudden cardiac arrest B emergency response plan. The very last statement talks about defibrillation and it suggests that early defibrillation is critical, but I would like
117to suggest we modify that to note, if warranted, early defibrillation is critical since not all, you do not just open the AED and defibrillate someone. You need to understand that not every rhythm is defibrillatable new word so I will forward that language to Sam to Emily You said 5142.2 right Yep page two bottom of the page management of sudden cardiac arrest B number four the very last sentence I would add if warranted comma early defibrillation is critical Thank you for your medical background is helpful in that how would that individual know if warranted Well it does say that you're to turn on the AED and follow the directions so I think that's the most important thing but I think it's also helpful that folks know that you don't automatically turn on the AED and go
118You need to follow the voice instructions and that it's only if it's warranted that defibrillation is critical early So and I'm not super familiar with AEDs so I thought they were designed now that you say this I thought they were designed to not Perform if there is a heartbeat or right so that would prevent it or is there a way to override that or something in that You know I'm not sure either if the down to the minutiae of how the defibrillator works but I could also live with taking that last statement off that just saying turn it on and follow the voice prompts and then leave it at that Well maybe run that by the nurse and have it answer for you next month does that work? Yeah check it out would be great
119thank you And then Mary can I ask you one quick question follow up on that so You said there's a, tell me the difference, I guess, between law enforcement and police officers. Is that, what are you, what are we missing there? You know, I looked at that policy. It was adopted in 1973. The world was a very different place in 1973. We certainly didn't have SROs in the buildings, and we didn't have. a myriad of things that are going on now with different levels of policing. So I went back, I would say go back to the Wisconsin statute and find out what we are statutorily required to permit. I would like to see this policy have everything to do with protecting the rights of the children in our buildings, first and foremost. And I don't
120know, I know in Illinois, I don't know what the case is in Wisconsin, but other than a DFC situation where... People come in. I don't know if parents sign off on Who I know they sign off on who can pick their kid up after school I don't know if we have any kind of policy school in our schools about who can talk to children while they're in our care and If that's the case, this may be something that has to get coordinated with that I just, I mean, we are talking about school-related incidents, and we've seen myriad policies about that in the last several months, I think, about what can and cannot be done as we looked at SROs and their responsibilities. But this also includes non-school-related incidents, and it starts with if law enforcement
121officers request to interview or interrogate students at school on their own initiative. It is advisable to have the law enforcement officer first contact the principal. That seems kind of wishy-washy to me, like we'd like them to, but we're not required. This policy doesn't require it. This policy doesn't require that the parent be contacted in advance, and it doesn't even say that they will be contacted. It says we're going to make an effort to contact. So I guess I'd like maybe even legal counsel to take a look at this and see where the lines are. about how we prioritize the safety of the children in our care while they're in our schools. Well, thank you for your feedback and your thoughts. So I think we did have attorneys look over this, Emily, right? So we'll pull
122it back to the committee since we have a few other ones. And if you want to email me any additional comments about that or to Emily, that'd be great. So we'll remove this one out of the discussion. Okay. So, again, just to summarize, do parents agree to a policy about who can have access to their children while they're in our care? Yes or no? And can we, should we do that? The second is how are we defining law enforcement? It's, I'm assuming, not, you know, a parking. meter maid can come in and say, I need to talk to this kid. And if this was intended initially in the 70s, early 80s, to be local law enforcement, police department, coming to talk to a kid, maybe we ought to take a look at the language that
123that inclusive phrasing of law enforcement and what parameters ought to be set around it in 2026. First and foremost it's got to be a child first child safety first and I wouldn't want to take away parental rights In a process I mean what it's one thing if we're talking about high school kid and we think about it in a different way but we could be talking about a seven-year-old or an eight-year-old and as a parent I might feel a little different about Somebody coming in and talking to my child at school without my knowledge We had part of that discussion in our committee, so we'll pull that back and we'll have further discussion and bring that back down the road then. Thank you. Any other questions? I would just add it's been some years now.
124When I was on the Teaching and Learning Committee, I do remember a discussion about this topic, and it would have been, Emily, before your time as the administrator over teaching and learning, but we looked at that language and... I'm glad you're taking it back and you'll be able to discuss that but it does also relate to the SRO procedures because we have SROs in and they follow they do follow the law specifically and we talked about again it was years now so I don't even want to say how that discussion went and well you're probably in the room but in a different capacity but again we talked about the order of phone calls and and I remember having the concern like gosh why don't we call the parents right away but sometimes again you're talking
125about an emergency situation getting information the safety of students so that phone call is going to be placed but we may not Sure yet the parents and yet the law enforcement's got to perform a search or a school needs to go on a lockdown or you know something needs to happen because of information given and so Sealy I'm sure we'll look at that and those parameters aren't in the policy and we also wrote most of our policies about this long before we approved SROs in our buildings and I think We still there may even be new policies to write when we're looking at balancing our responsibility to a child that's in our building and How we integrate someone who doesn't really work for us works for the police department has a different safe to say
126we're going to get some legal opinion and get that recommendation to TLC and bring it forward for a conversation and We'll get it right Emily. Did you have something to add? the non-school related incidents are specific to the bulleted items so it's not just in general police show up and it's specific to the incidents that are all in there but we'll take it for further review thank you for that clarification any other discussion or feedback for sam tonight okay minus the policy that's going back to the committee we'll see the rest of those policies next month as part of our consent agenda please direct any questions to emily or sam One more thing, if I could, I don't know if there's any ability to sprinkle these out a little bit more than 400 at a
127time as you said, but I would be appreciative of that if that's doable. Kathy. She's not even here to defend herself. Can't throw her under the bus, she's not here to answer. It did used to be a significant part of our meeting. They were spaced out, you know, and it would take, the policies took some time. that's what we did and since most of these are reconfirms and i know it's a lot of reading and all of that but most of these were i thought were minor and then the we did have the heavier ones that thought we were going to be the more conversation on the next meeting so great thanks sam it's a lot of work and doing a great job um our final discussion item of the evening is our 26 27
128board meeting calendar this is always an interesting one because some of the members who will be board members who will be attending these meetings aren't possibly even elected yet. But we forecast these meetings far in advance and you'll notice we're continuing with our kind of two meetings a month cadence just to have them on the calendar. It makes scheduling so much easier for Christy Westphal. So generally speaking, as you pull up that calendar, you'll see on the second Tuesday of the month, a meeting shaded in green. And by the way, Mark or Christy, I just don't recall who was the person that did the color coding on the calendar this year because it was amazing. Brooke. So thank you to Brooke in the central office because I think the calendar is easy to read and
129looks great in terms of the graphic design. There are a couple of instances I would draw your attention to where we don't have that kind of second, fourth meeting. The fourth would be kind of our work session. It is a placeholder of sorts. If not needed, could be canceled, could be repurposed. This year we've needed more. work sessions and board meetings and we'll talk about that. I'll mention that in my presence report actually. But in July there's not a second meeting. In September that second meeting is the annual meeting. So again it's not the fourth week. It kind of, I don't know, depending how you read that calendar, kind of falls on that fifth week. November and December we scoot that fourth week meeting up to avoid the Thanksgiving and Christmas week holidays. And so
130again, there are just a few changes there. What we would ask is that you, oh, in March, again, kind of getting close to spring break there, that meeting scoots up. So we would just ask current board members, and this is emailed to candidates as well, to just kind of look at your calendars. If there are any obvious conflicts. It is great to have as many board members as we can at every meeting, but also not necessary that we have, I have missed board meetings, and we understand when board members have family obligations or a vacation planned or something and you do miss a board meeting, we understand. So balance that as you're considering, you know moving a date obviously it sends out a lot of ripples to our system But take a look at those
131dates contact Christy or myself with any questions or concerns you have specifically about any calendar dates there and With that I just entertain any discussion or questions before we move on from this agenda item I know we've had some communication about May, and I just want to point out that we get into that time when the budget, the preliminary budget has to be looked at. And I would want to really give our business team enough time to prepare that and not crunch too much together at that time. We're also seating the newly elected board members. on the 26th of april so we've got it it's hard to think that we're going to be there already but we get into a lot of stuff about budget and finance that um and with our um with our
132big agenda this year we don't know what is coming there so i i kind of like i kind of like knowing these advance i think most of us can make adjustments as needed and I just want to keep in mind and to all committee members when those big things hit that we have to kind of guard time for our teams to get that work done And Mark we did look at the budget approval process and this calendar works with that again if you got any questions or comments talk to Christy or I that'll be back as part of our agenda next month that concludes our discussion items for the evening and brings us to the board presence report Tonight I'm going to start just with a couple of housekeeping items. We fill out a meeting
133and feedback form every meeting and struggled with how do we follow up to the things that are brought up and some of those things appear in confidential communication and to board members but I did want to address a couple of them publicly they're anonymous so I don't necessarily know who wrote them. And so this isn't directed towards any particular person. If I'm looking at you and you wrote it, it's not, I never see the handwriting. So I don't know who we're talking about. But we did have last couple of meetings, just some talking about getting information sooner than a board meeting. And we have been. really careful about making sure that things get into board docs, make sure you're logged in and authenticated. So the authentication lets you see executive content if there is. And
134if you're not sure about that... Bringing your computer in and just having Dan Scott or even Chris Thompson can probably do it. Just make sure, because there have been times myself where I've been on the public side and the public can't always see the executive content of a closed session. They can't. And so if you need to see that agenda for the closed session, you've got to be authenticated in there. And the feedback that we've received the last couple months about things, all those... Items were actually communicated previously also in confidential communications sooner than that So I would ask my fellow board members to read closely the confidential communication and Mark is willing to take a phone call anytime if you read that confidential communication and you're not sure about what he's talking about because
135that is an email that comes from Mark to the board. Certainly pick up the phone and ask Mark. He can give you more information about that. I think that will help you feel more prepared for the meeting and would address a few of the concerns we've been seeing on the feedback forms. The second item. talks about something we've seen recurring about student reps and the policy that the time we spend in our board meetings about student reps we have student reps and allow them to report monthly to us according to policy 9500 and that is coming to CLE in February I'm told February 2nd so if you're interested in student reps and changing the way that we look at student reps and use student reps in our boardroom changing that policy or adjusting that policy
136would be the place to do it so I'd encourage you to Attend that meeting, engage with Pritha and the members of the CLE committee if you're wanting to make your viewpoint known. Again, I don't know who's writing that feedback, but that then will ultimately come to the board, whatever policy they come up with, and we can discuss that here. So that's coming. We're not ignoring that feedback has been fairly consistent, but it is coming and will be to the boardroom this spring. And the last one is if you want to abstain from a consent agenda item. So this most often happens when, There's a meeting agenda that you didn't attend. Robert's Rules actually allows you to approve the agenda of a meeting that you didn't attend. If you look over the minutes, the notes, and
137they seem reasonable and complete, then you're just allowed to vote aye. You don't necessarily have to have been intense. I'm saying that wording right. So you certainly can pull that agenda item and say, you know, make known that you weren't at the meeting and abstain from the meeting. minutes but that's the only reason you're pulling it you don't necessarily have to according to Robert's rules we do follow Robert's rules here in the boardroom so I just wanted to make all board members and the public aware of that so even though a board member may not have been at a meeting they still can approve the agenda if that sorry the minutes of that I'm saying agenda and I should be saying minutes you can approve the minutes of the meeting that you were not at
138if they look reasonable So my board president's report continuing on in the new year. We've had a nice break I hope you enjoyed the time off with your families, but we've started up and we have a robust January meeting schedule I just want to remind the board and the public too that we're focused on several priorities which can be found on the district website I won't address all those priorities, but a few of them tonight in my report Academic priorities are always a top focus for the board And related to that, the board is looking at middle school programming. That's currently going to be on the agenda at the Teaching and Learning Committee. So we had a work session on that in the fall. That work is coming to the committee level. So for board
139members interested in that, I would, again, direct you to those meetings, to the Teaching and Learning Committee members, and Sam, who is the chair of that committee, that work will be there at committee and will be to our boardroom soon. And we're talking about ELA programming. Math science and social studies in those minutes that are allocated to those largely, but there's other things as well So that middle school programming is coming Just right around the corner, so I wanted you to be aware of that One of the biggest complaints I hear as the board member from district families is the middle school start time and again I want to publicly thank all the people that served on our middle school start time committee a year ago it was a lot of work a lot of
140meetings and I know some people have been wondering what happened at work seems like we spent hours and hours looking into that and the board hasn't done anything with that and I want you to know it's one of our annual priorities The next step in that process will be an upcoming work session talking about school start time and will kind of be coupled with that middle school programming but that is one of our annual priorities and you will again see a work session coming and then possibly some action items out of that work session so that work is ongoing, not forgotten, just a little slower than some of the other work that we've been doing and prioritizing is the board. facility needs and our 20-year plan really has been the work that's dominated our work
141sessions this fall and now in January we continue that work. The board's going is has already started considering options to decide what should be improved in our facilities and possibly make its way to the 20-year plan and soon the community will have the opportunity to tour and engage with the board in that work. Board members in an upcoming work session will be directing the administration on what we want that to look like in terms of surveys, school tours, and listening sessions. So the board hasn't yet decided exactly what that's going to look like, and that's why it's not finalized. But there are some school tours on the calendar, and board members, you received invitations to that. You can attend those if you want. but you're starting to see in the community will be informed of
142school tours coming up and then again the listening sessions mailing surveys all that stuff will be decided by the board at an upcoming work session This is going to allow the board to start narrowing options, after which we can consider timing and funding, what makes it onto the 20-year plan, and when that work might be done. So this is all big work and has taken the board a lot of time. And so I want to start by thanking the administration, Mark, you and your team for the hours and hours of work that's been spent working on these priorities so far, and to my colleagues, fellow board members, because it has been a heavy lift. It's a lot of meetings. Just look at your January schedule. February and March will no doubt continue to be pretty
143heavy as well. But I know that the hours we've spent so far and the future hours we're going to spend on these important issues will really define the work that we're doing in Elmbrook and will help to keep Elmbrook a cutting-edge district. And so, again, I appreciate the vision that this board is setting for the district and the work that the administration is doing to make our vision a reality happening. That is my report. With that, I'd entertain any questions. Mary? I just want to make very clear, especially for the people that worked on the start time task force, that program was never, it was outside of the scope of the work done, so I'm a little curious about the coupling of those two conversations, and I would want to make sure that those decisions
144are considered in an appropriate way. Let me just, again, say that I was saying that they're related. and so we were just doing that work at us at the same time but you're right they are two separate issues because start time wasn't just about middle school right and then that was secondary education and it was all of education and elementary school yep thank you for that clarification i'd like to point out that the link newsletter was sent to the community in december of 2025 and on the front cover of that document the school tours the dates of those tours and places of those tours are clearly noted and It's also posted on them on the district website So so we hope the community will engage and and be a you know part of this a
145very important conversation and give us feedback Thank you with that. I'll turn it to well. I'm sorry Our next agenda item is information items discussed by exception only are there any items that board members would like to discuss? Wes I don't a want to congratulate the six Candidates for making it on the ballot getting the signatures also special thanks to Christy Westphal for all the work she does in ensuring the process goes smoothly as Someone temporarily serving as the clerk. I could not have done it without her So always want to recognize Christie's efforts because she makes she makes the process smooth Thank you, Christy. Mary. And I just, in addition to our school board not having a primary election, I just as liaison to Brookfield want to say City of Brookfield has no primaries.
146So there's no primary election for Brookfield residents in February. And I think that's okay. I don't know about Elm Grove. Does Elm Grove have any primaries? Their website didn't give any information. I did look today. You know just the school's election websites by far the best compared to Brookfield and Elm Grove. Oh we do have Kristy so. Kristy you're doing fantastic that year. Don't we. Okay in our last agenda item tonight. Oh, sorry one more Wes. Yeah, sorry I just want to call it that parent network has an event on Thursday this week and then the regular meeting tomorrow So for those of you that are interested in parent network, they have what to teach your kids about social media And that will be a virtual event. I believe anything else. Okay mark the superintendent's
147report Thanks Scott as Kristi pulls up that slide deck I wanted to thank the students in our launch program for creating a big footprint for us on social media and Eric Hagan and Aaron Kokta for helping them if you follow our social media platforms which are going to be LinkedIn snapchat and Instagram you'll see that our hype videos get a lot of play so each of our schools have a hype video that is typically going to feature the principal and students each of our programs from the transition program also have a hype video launch as a hype video these have been really well received all student generated so thank you to all the students for that and thank you to our instructors that made it happen and the adults that supported the kids on that
148front As you heard earlier, we had two students that were recognized for distinguished young women. You'll see on the left, Ms. Ewig, and on the right, Ms. Brewer. They were both recognized this past weekend for distinguished young women of Brookfield and Elm Grove. So congratulations to both of them. It should be noted that we have a significant disruption to traffic patterns in the city of Brookfield. Pilgrim Road, right next to Dixon Elementary School, has a bridge that's... bridge is a creek of some nature that bridge is being replaced right now which means pilgrim road is shut down that impacts about 20 bus routes in the school system two of them we're still working with to get on time but 18 of them have been serviced on time so far and we thank all the parents
149for their cooperation we've changed an entire traffic pattern at one of our elementary schools they have to enter off of cavanaugh as opposed to off of pilgrim parkway or pilgrim road We have an artist in resident at Dixon that Mary referenced before. This will be highlighted at Fine Arts Night at Dixon at the Empty Bowls evening. On the residents is Jamie Snyder being supported by alumna Emma Fava. Emma is on the right here. She's a BC graduate. She went to Dixon. She sat in Amy Jacobson's class, and she came back to support the artist in resident. I had a chance to visit this classroom earlier this week. The energy in that classroom is spectacular. So if you don't have Empty Bowls Night on your calendar, as Mary said, it's going to be an amazing night.
150So thank you to Emma and Jamie and all of the folks attached to Gallery Night at Dixon Elementary School. Gene referenced the linked newsletter that arrived in mailboxes over the holiday break as Referenced you'll see that we have a number of facility tours scheduled if you want to see this go to this report and click on the link and you'll see it Just for those that are listening. We have pilgrim park tours on February 9th. We have Swanson tours on February 11th We have Tonawanda tours on February 16th and Wisconsin Hills on February 17th. All of those start at 6 p.m and they will be done in 90 minutes or less. And again, you can find that on clicking the link. You saw Mike and Carol Rose in the boardroom before, but I wanted to
151call them out. These are legendary coaches. And when you have legendary folks retire, you create a void and they will have a big void. Mike still teaches mathematics for us. He comes back and teaches some high-level math for us. We can't find anybody to do it. So his departure, they're going to go chase grandkids in another state. Their departure is a big one for us, and we want to thank them for all that they have done to make. Brookfield used what it is today. Huge congratulations and thanks to the Brookfield Central Key Club. They had the chance to go ahead and provide our bus drivers with some recognition and were able to take donuts and cards of gratitude to the bus terminal and recognize all the bus drivers. They did it on their own. They
152were not prompted by anybody to do it. It was amazing. You may be following Sophia Bowden. She is a standout in the Girl Scouts local governance system, and she is pictured here as part of a panel. These are all the leaders of Girl Scouts from across the region that come together. She served on a panel to help folks understand what leadership footprint and impact Girl Scouts has been having on her. Amazing, amazing learner. You heard from the Brookfield Central student reps that Victor Hahn was recognized for something that I did not do in high school. I did not do a project related to artificial intelligence diagnostic and robot assisted rehabilitation system for Parkinson's patients. I've never, I don't even know what that means. But nevertheless, Victor was able to execute a project on it and
153he's being recognized. this is a thousand dollar plus scholarship that he wins for this one of 300 students in the country that received this recognition We did spotlight an employee that may be familiar to you. Pam Craig serves in our student information system team. So she is the one that does all of the registration for new students. So think of, we recognize about 900 new students every year when you include all 4K or 5K students that are new to the system, plus all the move-ins. For instance, I was at Dixon earlier this week for parent drop-off on Monday, and I opened the door to a car of a family that was on day one. They arrived here from France. The three students in the car spoke no English. So when I asked them what their
154teacher's name was, they looked at me like I was crazy. But Pam Craig is the one that is responsible for making all of those registrations happen. So if you get a chance to see Pam and thank her, she does amazing work. Customer service is an incredible strength of hers. The art in the back of the room is out of Brookfield Central's Sarah Scott's class. If you get a chance to take a look at it, it's really, really complex work, and we thank Sarah for providing us with that art to display in the boardroom. And finally, January is National School Board Appreciation Month. If you've not been following this, we do want to provide a huge level of thanks to everybody in this room for your willingness to serve publicly. It is not easy to be
155a public servant right now. In the political times we're in, as you know, you can become easily targeted for your position on anything, but we thank you for that, and we could not do what we're doing without you. So we really appreciate you. That concludes my report. Are there any questions that folks have for me? Just want to add extra thanks to a couple of the Dixon staff Dudley who will be an unnamed teacher although I know who was in the costume and Mike Rakowicki the band teacher at Dixon who were out at Kevin our in the neighborhood with a sign saying turn here for Dixon it is a monumental task we are undertaking to reroute those students and All I've heard so far is that so far so good. So congrats to everybody that
156was involved in that transition. Can I get a motion to adjourn? Second. Jean made the motion, Sam made the second. All those in favor of adjourning please say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you, we are adjourned. Thanks for looking at me for that one. I appreciate that, I feel honored. Your mic was off.