Board of Education Meeting: 8.13.24

001Eric, good. Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order. The required public's notice of this meeting was sent to Community Newspapers Incorporated and Metropolitan Press on August 8th, 2024 and posted on the doors of the district office. Additionally, meeting notices and agendas were distributed to the city of Brookfield and the village of Elm Grove for posting and posted on the district website. Let the roll call show that all board members are present. Would you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? 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 justice for all. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the agenda? I move. Thank you. I have a motion by Jean and a

002second by Mary. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of the agenda as presented, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote. The first item tonight is the Citizens Forum. Members of our community to address the board on items that fall within the operation or the purview of the board but do not appear on tonight's agenda elsewhere. There are a list of rules and expectations. It's a long list. I won't highlight all of them, but basically address the board. We will not engage in back-and-forth dialogue on things that we haven't had a chance to look into and that aren't agendized. We won't be doing that tonight. And be respectful. Thank you. And there is a three-minute time limit. It'll be up on the screen. It'll change colors to

003kind of give you a visual cue. We do have two requests to speak tonight. Our first request is Tim Croning, a resident of the district. Tim? Thank you. I'm not a parent. I'm just a taxpayer. I just want to spend a few moments to commend Wisconsin Hills Middle School for the personnel and maintenance of the grounds at Wisconsin Hills. It looks like they're ready for school. I noticed that they had six tennis courts. six new swings, nine picnic tables, a baseball diamond, a kickball field, six basketball courts with nets, two volleyball courts, one soccer field, which is very commendable, as I said before, but I'm a little concerned about some of the inequity I see happening between Wisconsin Hills and Pilgrim Park for facilities. So I stopped here today and saw that there were three

004picnic tables and four usable basketball courts at Pilgrim Park. that's basically it so my concern is is are we gonna is it possible we can have some equity between the middle schools especially when it comes time for lunchroom to go outside and do things so that's I know my I don't have to speak very long that's my concern about the middle schools and equity with 9111 12 and 13 year olds coming to school in about two and a half weeks it'd be nice if they could congregate and do some things together with some more facilities that's all Our next request to speak tonight is Angie Pingel a resident of the district Good evening everyone I've survived to nearly the middle of August with a child with significant disabilities at home all summer back to school

005is around the corner and I can't wait most families are out shopping for back to school supplies and clothes with excitement for a new year and a little bit of anxiety that nearly all children have on the first few days of school. But this isn't true for my son. His anxiety is off the charts. He knows fall is coming, and with fall comes school and change. He actually begins his transition back to school this week. Thanks to the wonderful environment at Fairview South and Elmbrook School for children with significant disabilities from our district and surrounding communities, he has the same classroom teacher and the same class he's had for the past six years. He will, however, have a new occupational therapist and a new speech pathologist this year after six years of the same team.

006It's really heartbreaking for us because we were finally seeing real progress. And he doesn't take to new people easily, especially since he is completely nonverbal. My child thrives on consistency. And as a parent, I'm disappointed to lose talented and experienced special education staff that have developed a bond with my son over many years of working with him. A relationship and deep understanding of who my son is and doesn't come very easily. He has already has so many disadvantages when it comes to learning. Losing two key members of his team will absolutely be a setback to his learning. I find myself wondering how both turnover from departing staff throughout his time as an Elmbrook student and just general turnover when he was in elementary school may have impacted his progress. As a community member, I've seen

007the turnover in special education staff reported at these meetings every month for the past seven years that I've been attending these meetings. I've seen the increase, and I've raised it to this board many times. But what I haven't seen is a plan to address it. Everyone assumes our new compensation model will fix this, but I'm not convinced. I know being financially rewarded is very important. but there are so many other intangible benefits that are equally as important. Additionally, we've had so much turnover in our district leadership. I urge our new leadership team to take a close look at why we are losing special education staff and finally fix it. If we truly are a destination district, why are so many special education staff leaving, especially for positions in other districts? With a shrinking pipeline of

008new teachers. Thank you Angie and that concludes our citizens forum Our next agenda item is the consent agenda. Can we start with a motion? And then we'll ask if there's items board members would like to pull I'll move approval of consent agenda items a through F Is there a second? Okay, we have a motion by Jean and a second by Mary Linda. What would you like to pull? Item see I just have a comment to make There any other items Prita I'd like to pull consent agenda item D anything else I'm sorry Kathy like to pull I'm sorry I think I got was that did you pull D D had he's been pulled five thousand policies so long with the grading right correct okay perfect then that's fine I'm good thank you anything else All

009those in favor of approving consent agenda items A, B, E, and F as presented, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote. We'll start with item C, Linda, the 1,000 policy series. Yes, I just had the comment that this is the second reading of the 1,000 policy series on communications. Practice statement 1114.1. It was returned to the committee after discussion at the July 8th board meeting. The committee deleted language prohibiting social media use targeting specific grades and added the language that student social media use is at the discretion of families. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Good work. Any discussion on that? Further discussion, Sam? Yeah. Thank you. from our July meeting I'm the this Practice statement was sent back to the committee in order to add additional

010information that we requested here and for this to come back with the deletion is disappointing because this was a the board agreed to send it back to modify Adding in high school students to not have no social media access within the school district and it comes back with not only not adding that but deleting it and I think there's a level of trust broken when we send it back to the committee with the request for that to be added and then brought back here not to be done so you know then that was exactly what it was sent back to an amendment was proposed to expand the guidelines for use of the district sponsored sponsored social media sites for student engagement in practice statement 111 4.1 in section 2a to all students to not just

011elementary and middle as proposed in the current draft board discretion board discussion led to this policy being returned to committee for amendment consideration so disappointed on that so now we have to bring this back here and now remodify it here at the board or at least make an amendment for that so i would like to propose an amendment to remove the deleted sentence from practice statement 1114.1 section 2 subsection a and then also delete the last sentence which were the changes that were made sent back to committee so you're making a motion right because we don't have a motion on the floor so it would be an emotion not an amendment I guess we didn't we sort of started with them yeah right yeah so she's making a motion that and is it paragraph 8

012that with those changes point of order we have to put the motion on the floor before we can amend it correct I'm just clarifying what the motion is so the motion is is it section 2 verse a of the practice statement yeah 1114.1 okay So he might bring will give Christy a second to type that up and then also well I guess you'll have that on the screen and if you can follow along board members on your board Doc's Looking at the policy statement. So we have a motion. Is there a second? This is a motion to discuss The policy as presented without an amendment at this time, correct? Right? Yeah, so he's made a motion. I second that Thank you. We got a motion in a second to reinstate the deleted sentence from the

013practice statement section 2a No, no to discuss the Practice statement not to amend it. We didn't have a motion on the floor to discuss it I don't think if I rescind my second if it was to second the amendment In order to discuss we need someone to second the motion. It's not an amendment because there's not actually a motion So we've got to start with a motion. Well, that's what I thought we were doing. Yeah. So, Sam, you made it. Say your motion again. I'll make a motion to approve the policy. Well, we need to first of all break these down because I've got questions about 1340 policy as well that we need to look at. So do you want to just deal with one policy at a time? Let's just take this policy first.

014So we're in policy. So your motion is going to deal with practice statement 1114.1. Do you want to deal with the whole policy as a whole? I'll make a motion to approve policy practice policy statement 1114 and practice statement 1114.1 with the amend with an amendment to practice statement 1114.1 to delete the change in section 2A the sentence that was deleted to reinstate that sentence and then delete the last sentence which is C the last sentence of that paragraph So really he's making a motion to that the practice statement should read in section 2A reinstate the deleted sentence and delete the last sentence that was added at committee I do not second that Can I get a second on that motion? Second Thank you we have a motion and a second so now we'll discuss

015that the merits of that move I apologize can I We probably should also add 1114.2 in there. I didn't see that there was another one. I forgot about that one. Practice statement 1114.2. I think we need to do the motion on the floor now before we add to it. We'll take them one at a time. We can make another motion. And may I ask that we see that amendment on the board before we discuss it? Christy's working on it, right? I'm sure she is. If we're open for discussion I'd like to just give some background on what we discussed at the committee meeting because my understanding is different than yours Sam it was sent back to committee because there were multiple questions asked there was an amendment that was proposed and did not pass and

016rather the board as a whole decided to send this back to the committee to discuss not only the verbiage of the amendment that did not pass but also the ramifications that would occur if we were to make the change that was proposed. Chris Thompson presented us with detailed analysis of the use of social media with student groups. We had a robust discussion and after that robust discussion it was a unanimous vote that we put this in the hands of parental choice and that's why it was presented tonight as it was written and i would still support it in that way thank you mary pritha I would also like to say that as a member of the CLE committee I strongly support that any social media use should be monitored by parents and should be at

017the discretion of parents and I agree that we all the three of us unanimously agreed that social media use by any students in our district should be at parental discretion So pre that thank you for that so based on that and I'm just trying to get the clarity So if that is so we as a district Where's our accountability for putting forth such let's say XYZ policy, right and something were to happen and we're saying yes parents have oversight parents have you know Responsibility yet. We're making policy and putting the responsibility on the parents. I just that's been sort of kind of always Right where does accountability lay right because I've heard things like well parents should be monitoring But that's not really parents 100% job right, but we set a policy We're saying our

018students could access XYZ and let's say something happens then where does that lay? I mean that's sort of where my brain space is that I'm either or there but just from the logistics and the accountability We say it's parental rights, but then it's like it's our policy So it's a little bit sometimes back and forth. And when something happens, it kind of all just kind of in a limbo. But maybe it's case by case. So thank you. KATHY GRIMMER- Kathy, I'd like to make sure I understand what you're saying. Come to you, Linda. Are you talking about if the district is putting out something on like a district Twitter account or a district? social media somehow For example for this amendment let's say high school middle school let's let's say there isn't as much of

019a guardrail now let's say this passes as presented without the amended motion then okay say something happens access to because things have happened in the past and I know a lot of work has been put in so when we talk about social media what the school is using for what purpose right and we had discussions a lot too when i was on cle on this policy as well so so then to pre-test point yeah well a parent should have the 100 say but they really don't because we don't really meddle in what happens during class I'm not saying that should happen either but I'm just trying to kind of look at the other side to your statement because then to me it's like what does it look like right I'm not saying that parents should

020be telling the teacher hey you need to be no that's not what I'm saying but based on your statement for me I'm always like what does it look like operationally so that's just my comments and thoughts I'm sharing We're not talking about emails here. We're talking social media, which to my understanding is the websites that post things regarding school activities that are happening So it's not like a Facebook type of thing that's happening. It's the sites that are put out by the school district or by the school to announce certain events and and certain activities you know extracurricular things that are happening i'd like to turn it over to preetha to clarify on that a little bit more Based on the presentation that Chris Thompson gave us there are no mandated use of social media

021by any of our students Again, this isn't for classes necessarily There is nothing that can be again parents have the choice as to whether or not they want their students to use social media They will not be missing something that is only available on social media. So when you say mandates Kathy, we're not mandating that social parental involvement have a say I don't necessarily think that's a place for but when I just I'm trying to call out the rationale of why we're passing this because when we put a rationale to what we're doing there is a logistic operation of how we're gonna So when you say it's a parental final decision I'm just wondering to me I'm fine like you know high school you know I second because I wanted a discussion I didn't know

022where this was coming from May I finish my remarks? So again, none of this is mandated use by students. We are not saying that students must use social media. It is always in the hands of parents as to whether or not they allow their students to use social media. What we are saying and what we came out of CLE saying is that any clubs, activities that use social media in the high school or middle school, regardless if it's high school or middle school. this is in the hands of the parents as to whether or not their students should be allowed to access any social media May I add to that based on, you know, Kathy, to directly respond to what you asked, the content is monitored. That's what this policy does. Yes. So this is

023the practice statement to a policy that lays out monitoring steps and prohibited use. So those rules exist, and that's why we have a practice statement. So it's not as if those are. of the Wild West. Whether a parent decides to allow a student to have access, that's the parental choice. But we are monitoring and we have a policy that governs exactly how we monitor it and what those steps are. So that's not something to wonder about. That's why we have the policy. Correct. And this is a policy I actually worked on extensively my first year in CLE. So that's why I get it. But when we make a statement of rationale, as in parents, we could do what? Yes, parents could opt out of everything, I suppose. But I just want to make sure when

024we're using rationale to throw that to say, well, we're going to do this, but parents could do whatever. So it's just want to make sure that we are logistically, when we are carrying out these things. it's not just a cover-all and just say well they can opt out because that seems to be the popular thing to say just opt their kids out of everything but that's not how a system should be created but anyways thank you for that explanation yes thank you i'm done Just to be very clear, what the policy is requesting is that this isn't social media accounts that are at the middle school. This is social media accounts that are geared and focused on children. So this would be teachers having a social media account for the classroom or our teachers having

025a social media account that is focused on the child as the end consumer. And this is important to remember that all the social media companies have a minimum age requirement of 13 years old. Last I checked, middle school average age is between 11 to 14. That means half the middle school kids aren't even legally or should not be on it based upon the social media companies. And I stated in my last presentation the incredible dangers associated with social media and the... and the mental health crisis that this social media creates. So why would we willingly and knowingly provide that to children in the school district, knowing of the dangers of social media, especially in middle school? My request, and I mentioned it last time, it's not going to go anywhere, it's clear, is I don't

026think anywhere in the school we should be marketing social media to students. And I understand that's my belief because I think we have the greater responsibility to do what's best for the children. and to do what's best for their mental health, not what we think is cool and happening and be a part of the fringe. I think that that's just... foolish, but that's, I've realized that we're not going to get there with the high school. But I think we absolutely, unequivocally should not be marketing when half the kids in middle school can't even get on social media. That's like a teacher coming to the classroom and giving donuts to every kid and saying, oh, I'm sorry, you're not 13 and you're not on social media, so you can't have this donut. And that will now

027instigate that child in his brain to think, well, I can't be like everyone else, or I'm not old enough to have that. or I really want to look and see what's on that Facebook page, that Instagram page. So I'm going to go behind my parents' account, behind my parents' with them unknowing and create my own social media account and lie about my age. So I just think that there's nothing that's good that's going to come out of this. Kids can 100% survive without us having to market social media to them. We can continue to build relationships through Campus Messenger. We can continue to build a relationship through the old-fashioned way of letters and phone calls and emails. But I think we should just forget the idea and scrap the idea of trying to market social

028media to the middle school kids. So that's why I have that amendment. I think, fine, we're not going to do high school, but I think we should absolutely not do this in middle school. What was the last sentence that was added to that motion? You're striking the social media uses of the discretion of families. This isn't telling parents they can't let their kids use social media. This is not that at all. This is a silly sentence to even add to that because we're not saying parents can't let their kids have social media. All we're saying here is the school is not going to be a sponsor of instigating or promoting social media to the kids. That's all we're saying. So parents will continue to have the rights. We're not going to stop it. I don't

029know why we even need that sentence in there. Is there any further discussion before we vote on the motion and amendment? Linda? Yes. It was my understanding that this is not addressed towards Facebook or Instagram or TikTok. That is not this policy. I don't know. Mark, could you clarify what this social media addresses? Since Chris is not here, but I know it's not kids. Chris is right there. Oh, is he? Oh, Chris, I'm sorry. Good try, Chris. Chris would. He was trying to go for the door. Could you clarify exactly what the definition of this social media encompasses? Because I think it's being misunderstood. I hate to correct you, Linda, but it is about Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. that is social media. So it's not email, it's not websites, it's social media platforms. And at

030middle school, right now, we have three social media accounts that are in play. And one is targeted towards National Junior Honor Society, one's targeted towards art in general, and then there's a third that I'm not remembering. So not widespread use at our middle school. Where you'll see in the data with board Docs We talk about high school use and the number really hundreds of activity accounts that exist right now in our system that are Targeted as primary communication tools for our high school students. Okay, so we're talking about three currently three social media accounts across our middle school system And with Sam's motion and proposal we're nixing it in the middle school Correct. I think it's important to take a look at the the bullet points there Chris Would you explain those bullet points so

031people understand what was discussed at the meeting? Yeah So if you take the first one Twitter 61 out of 79 Twitter accounts that are associated with the district so that would be club activity mostly co-curricular accounts that we would consider to be designed for student engagement we also have principal accounts that that might be targeted more towards adults they could also be I'm sure all the students in our system follow our high school principals if they don't but so that would exclude those but 61 of those are mostly driven by club and activity or if if you're on the more popular Instagram 98 out of 104 are designed for student engagement. Not so many on LinkedIn, but we do use LinkedIn, I should note, for lunch, you know, a more practical use that we are

032using to teach students how to engage with professionals on that platform. So we count that there, and then the YouTube is also listed. Do you need any more information before we vote on Sam's motion? I'll pose his motion back to him. Okay. Again, the motion's on the screen. Can I ask for a roll call vote on this? There'll be a roll call vote. Christy's making her way to the podium. Kathy Lim. This is amended motion, right? This is the motion that's on the screen. It's a motion. Yes. Jean Lambert. No. Brita Curdiara. No. Linda Boucher. No. Sam Hughes. Yes. Mary Wacker. No. Scott Wheeler. No. Five no's, two yeses. Okay. Would you like to make another motion, Sam? You said you had another. No. No, my other motion was the high school thing, which wasn't

033going to go anywhere, obviously. Then I'd like to approve this. I'd like to make a motion to approve this practice statement as presented by the CLE committee. Could we amend the motion to approve all of the policy series 1000 in item C? I would absolutely accept that. Friendly amendments. There is no friendly amendment. Well, that is kind of friendly because it doesn't change. Well, all right. I move that we're like. So the amendment would be to approve all the 1,000 policy series. All those in favor of making the amendment to approve all the 1,000 policy series, say aye. Second. Or is there any discussion? Yeah, let's second. So we'll vote on the amendment first, and then it will become an amended motion. To include, yeah. She made a second. Oh, sorry. Yeah, Mary seconded the

034amendment. I amended it to include all the 1,000 policy series, not just. The one that she stated. She accepted the amendment. So now we're voting on. I should have said second. I said, okay. I knew what you meant. But now we got everyone following. All those in favor of the amendments, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. It carries on voice vote. So now the amended motion is to approve all of the 1,000 policy series as presented in consent agenda item C. That's our new motion. Sam? I asked for that to be separated out because I wanted to talk separately about Policy 1340. I guess we can, if... You can talk about it now. Yeah, I guess I... I'll second so we can discuss. Oh. Okay, so it's been seconded. So, yeah. What would you

035like to talk about? So I just wanted to get some clarification. When I was still part of the CLE in the May 8th meeting, the Policy 1340 was brought for discussion. And that was a two-page policy now that from the May 8th meeting and now the June 10th meeting had four pages added to that and I'm I couldn't find in the notes what precipitated that change from the May meeting to the June meeting why the pretty major redraft and redone of that policy was I was hoping someone could explain that to me. And did you happen to know? That's Chris could you give us a hand with that? We made very minor adjustments the first go-round, and I think there was a lot of duplication and a lot of questions and things were not real

036clear. And so this actually makes it more clear and concise, but ultimately says a lot of the same things. It was four pages now, and it was two pages before, so a lot was added, right? Well, are all the strikethroughs in it? No, there's six pages total with strikethroughs, two pages at the bottom. Well, for clarification, one of the pages is just the references. Policy 1340. Well, the things I noticed that stood out were a big difference of it further strips the Board of Education of the legal responsibility for the records authority and gives it solely to the superintendent and the designee. That was a pretty big change that we had even on the existing policy. Now to what that policy there states, I would say that's a pretty significant change. I just was wanting

037to know the process of that I'd be glad to give you back authority of all the records and maintaining those if you'd like them I think Mark's always been the custodian of records No I understand that and I'm not looking at that's not the point there was and if you look at the the June or the May one it very clearly states that the board designates the superintendent as the custodian. And that languaging was taken out completely. And I want to be very clear of what the law states. And I think we should include that in the policy versus ignoring or not calling that out. I feel like that's a pretty significant designation to understand that. And I think to add to that, if you want to pull it up and look at that as

038a difference there. Did anyone else catch that? Didn't catch it. So it's a being the strike through section, right? Yeah, that's where you're reading So look at the existing policy you can compare it. Oh, yeah on the strike through there. So The very end so Sam is at the last paragraph you're looking at right there into page five Version but it's the same Scott, can I clarify something? Mm-hmm, Cathy. Okay, so a couple years ago I had a conversation with the attorney about that FOIA, how it works, custody, as I was reading through some of these things. So we are designating the superintendent to be a custodian when the FOIA comes and things like that. But the owner of that FOIA requested is the person so there's a foia for mary wacker requesting xyz mary

039is supposed this is my understanding mary is supposed to be notified hey there's a foia request and here's this um i believe mary has to consent to release it and mark is just a middle Because we can't possibly manage that. So Mark as the administration and the CEO is executing this custody of what information gets through there. That's how I understood it from the legal. custodian yes and maybe if that is missing we need to do that i don't think this if that is going to clarify how this uh this policy is going to read maybe we need to put that back in if it's not already but that was a big delineation because i'm still the owner of my record you are everyone else's and i have to consent to release it under the

040four-year request as stated so that is how i understand the custody happens with the record request yeah i mean the definition of the legal custodian is on page one at the bottom of page one and the the four kind of responsibilities to receive the request that's exactly what you said kathy compelled prompt assistance take an active role in supervising proper maintenance of the records and ensure all employees are entrusted with the records that are subject to search so FOIA for those who don't know is freedom of information and Can I marry Chris as I read that once it is received we're talking about the retention of the record once it is in the hands of the district. And those are the records that are under the, so you don't lose what you personally have. If

041it's my record, I still have my record. But once I've turned it over as a public record, then it becomes a document that's in the custody of the superintendent, correct? Sort of I mean board members are a little bit different because because you're responsible for keeping any other record you may have district email though is automatically archived so really we have that record that we have access to should we need to search it video records are another example that are just recorded archived and kept it's not something that you would actually turn over it's something we have and we have access to I'm not clear on what problem is created with this policy as it's written. And I would support it as it's written. It was a couple things. When we were at the meeting,

042we asked for clarification. Maybe it was presented at the dream meeting. I wasn't there. But when I read the law and understand that, it says that the Board of Education is the one responsible as the owner of the records. And we designate that custodian of records to the superintendent. And where I was hoping to get clarification on that if that's the case, then why does the Board of Education have to file a FOIA to get information that we're already the owners of? And we're responsible for that because the last record request I had took 47 days for that to be fulfilled and I'm like I'm not going to go along with with designating that unless we clarify or stream up a little bit of the that process so we know a I'd like to see

043the records be turned around in a faster manner I get emails occasionally you guys all get them from people that say it takes 30 40 60 180 days for for responses to happen and then b I want to clarify that the school board us the board of education We are owners. We don't have to fill out a FOIA request, and that's what I was hoping to get that clarification on from the lawyers. I don't know if you had that. Come back. Let's talk about the June 8th meeting. Sure. So we've had over the years periodically board members request information from the district that is in the form of a record, and our attorneys have recommended that we treat those like records requests and just put them in that funnel because you as a board of

044education member have no greater right than a citizen does. But we do, according to the law. We are the owners of the record. Their interpretation of records requests is not the same as yours. And I haven't heard that elsewhere. That's why I think it's important to get that clarification on that. Do you want us to bring the attorney here to reference that? You can. That's up to you. Do you want to kick this back to committee and we have the attorney show up and we can talk through the legal side? I would love for that to have a clarification, for I can vote on that today at least. 1340 in practice statement back to committee. Before. Before you make that motion, one clarification I also would like is if it does go back to the

045committee, is it says legal custodian in the real thing. So what does a legal custodian mean? Does it mean that we are forking over all our by law that is our information for let's say a superintendent to have access to it without our knowledge i don't know so what that legal custodian means i would like that you know redefined because it used to be just custodian i think that legal custodian that changes a lot of things and again i also was told already that if if my information was requested i as the owner have need to see the actual FOIA request before understanding what information is going up it's not that it's a public record so it is a FOIA but it is to be released as it is requested and written and FOIA law

046is very very specific to that so It's a logistics question could be added to the can be added to that and I just want to clarify that because before releasing your information or your information You should be able to see what is being requested of your information. Thank you Okay, so you want to make a motion to take that back to committee and then we'll go down the original ocean and before I do that I'm happy to talk with the attorney I think the other thing that I just would like to see happen or instant put into this policy is that you know, we have us if we are according to the way I understand of the law are the owners of the information as the Board of Education and we're going to assign this

047to the superintendent which of course has to happen i just would like to say then i don't want to be legally responsible for delays or these long responses getting back to foyer requests that i feel or i feel uncomfortable going this long of periods without us properly returning that so as a designee i'd like to say let's let's give the resources what we need to get these things turned around in a quicker manner that can be discussed now at the committee so i'll make a motion i'll make a motion to hold discussions right until we have a motion because now we've muddied the water with the agent the the motion and we're going to have to go back and restate that place well we need a motion take this to committee i'll make a motion

048to remove policy 1340 is there a practice statement on that no okay remove policy not up for vote tonight policy and practice statement 1340 back to committee and remove it out of the So I would make an amendment because that motion was already added. So I'll make an amendment to the motion to remove policy 1340 and practice amendment 1340 and send back to committee. We voted on one already. No, you didn't. I have it written down. It was bundled. All we had left was policy 1340. Right, he's now making a motion to separate it out and move it back to committee. Yeah, he just said amendment. So Sam's making an amendment. that we take policy 1340 and accompanying practice statement 1340 and forward it or send it back to committee so it wouldn't be a

049part of the approve. So that would be amended motion. Can I get a second on the amendment? I'll second for discussion and I have a comment. Okay. Is there a discussion, Mary? Yes. I'm going to vote no to this amendment. We have a legal opinion. I don't see any reason to spend any more money getting more legal opinions, and I will vote no because I hope we can pass this as presented tonight. Any other discussion? We're voting on the amendment to amend the motion to approve all of the 1000 policy series with the exception of policy 1340 and practice statement 1340 that will be sent back to committee. That's the amendment, isn't it? No, the amendment is only to remove policy 1340 from that original motion. Yeah, if that's what you said. Yeah, that's what

050I was trying to say. So the amendment is to remove policy 1340 and the practice statement and send them back to the committee. So to be clear, a no vote is to leave it bundled. Correct. A yes vote is to send those two back to committee, and then we'll be left with three policies. Any other questions, discussion? All those in favor of the amendment? Roll call vote, please. Did you ask for that? Thank you. I did now. This is a roll call vote on the amendment. Fritha Cordiera. Kathy Lim. Yes. Mary Wacker. No. Linda Boucher. Yes. Sam Hughes. Yes. Lejean Lambert. Sorry. Scott Wheeler. Yes. Three, four yeses, three noes. Okay, so 1340 in practice statement 1340 will go back to the committee and are now separated out from the 1000 policy series That are

051up for approval. So the motion on the floor is that we approve all to say the numbers for clarification policy 1114 practice statement 114 point 1 and practice statement 1114 point 2. I hope I said all the right ones But those are the three statements that we're approving now. Any further discussion? Might as well roll call. You want another roll call vote? Okay, a roll call vote on these three practice statements. He requested a roll call vote. So this is for approval of practice statement and the two practice statements in the policy. Kathy Lim. Yes. Sam Hughes. No. Mary Wacker. Yes. Preetha Kurdiyara. Yes. Linda Boucher. Yes. Jean Lambert and Scott Wheeler yes six yeses one no thank you that carries on roll call vote and that concludes our consent agenda longer than I thought

052oh we do hold we're not even done with it I'm sorry we are not done yeah the second reading of the 5000 policy series was pulled by Pritha and I think Kathy had some questions here too Pritha Very specifically talk about practice statement 51 24 our grading scale First I'd just like to say thank you to Lisa Rattler. Dr Amy Farley and dr Hansen for answering my questions regarding our grading scale as it applies to Elmbrook students specifically the questions I had regarding those taking endorsed dual enrollment classes Throughout this discussion that we have had my concern has been for grades applied in endorsed dual enrollment classes I do not believe in grade inflation at A-level work should be deemed A-level work, B-level work should be deemed B-level work, and so forth. I do not

053believe that scaling from a seven-point grading scale to a 10-point grading scale would lower the standards for level of work or should lower the standards for level of work. A-level work should continue to be A-level work and so forth. Here in Elmbrook, there are students who choose to work towards completing college credits while in high school. I do not think that it's fair that a student taking an endorsed dual enrollment class could receive an A at the college level yet be given a B for a high school grade equivalent I have concern that this situation may dissuade students from taking endorsed dual enrollment classes I think we have much to be proud of here in Elmbrook including a multitude of dual enrollment course offerings I don't want to see that any of our students striving

054to challenge and advance themselves with college level courses while in high school should be at a disadvantage due to our current seven point grading scale Additionally I learned today that our counselors believe that our students may be at a disadvantage in the college admissions process due to the different grade expectations I believe Elmbrook students should be on a level playing field with students from across the state and country during the college admissions process and I was hoping I'd perhaps to receive some clarification from Mark regarding that That feeling that sentiment by our counselors sure in a conversation with dr Amy Farley She was able to confirm that counselors have communicated to her that they feel our students may be at a disadvantage At times and the admissions process Thank You Preetha. So you're in favor

055of the policy as changes as presented I concur. Thank you Preetha for that. I know you shared that also during TLC while you were on last year I just wanted to pull and just make a comment that I as a chair did ask that you know we survey or just get feedback from the teachers and parents but it was determined by administration back in spring that speaking with the counselors and getting their input was sufficient so i'm sure teachers and staff everybody parents know about this because it's been on the agenda in the tlc we've kind of talked about it over four months period um so i just wanted to make that it was offered but it was deemed that speaking with the counselors were sufficient and not to need to get feedback from teachers

056or parents thank you mark i have a question so take this policy take effect immediately so for the upcoming school year if it's approved in its current state it would be implemented for the next school year I believe Emily and Lisa I believe once it's passed that are gonna work on this coming school year how we're gonna implement how is it gonna how the scores are gonna change I think that's gonna take little work which I'm sure will come back to TLC and then the what I heard from the admin team was that it will be rolled out in 25-26 school year is that correct is Lisa here Emily so that's what I understood yeah because this year they will need how they're going to implement it I would recommend that you include that in

057the motion then got it because it's August if we approve policy then the position is we would implement policy immediately so I would include that in the motion So Lisa you want to clarify that for us and then yeah just to get the system ready and ensure that all of our background pieces like if an in campus are ready to go we had requested during TLC that this take place if approved in the 25-26 school year can I add another thought Since this will affect students who are going to have some grades on the old grading scale and some on the new, I'd like to make sure that the new policy has language included, that no grades will be reconsidered from one system to the other system. So if somebody got a 91 in a

058class this year and next year, that would be an A. or they think it might be an A, which I don't think it would, but I just want to make sure we don't create a situation where we get requests to reconsider grades or GPAs as a result of this change. Okay, thank you. Thank you. I would like to make a statement about my concern for the potential for a great inflation and maybe I should state it the other way that our teachers are familiar with what a work looks like and our current scale of 93 to 100 is reflective of a work and If the students scoring a 92 today, I would want it to be abundantly clear to that student that That is high-level B work, and likely that will be high-level B work

059as perhaps an 89 in the new system. We're not looking to... move current B students up into the A range just by expanding that grade. We're gonna be recalibrating that system and I spent some time with Lisa talking about our four, three, two, one approach and the rubrics that we use and the fact that we're moving away from the multiple choice or the 100 points that you can achieve on a scale of 93 to 100 or 90 to 100. So I would just like to be really clear that the intent is not to inflate grades from today it's a 92B, tomorrow that 92B is going to be an A. The intent is that our staff understand what A work looks like and what B work looks like, and right now that 92 is a B.

060And in the new world, that 92 may very well be an 89 as a high B again. So that's where I'm... That's where I want to I guess go on record that that's my understanding of what the intent of this is We're gonna be on a 90 to 100 scale pre-tho was eloquently stated some of the reasons why but I've that concern and I believe that the plan is that it will be addressed as its rollout Mary yeah, I I concur with everything Jean said I'd like to also add I as I said when we talked about this before I think we're This is a battle of perception more than it is a real problem. I don't think it was generated I know it wasn't generated from our Administrator from our school community as a

061problem that was to be brought to the committee so I Can support this as long as people understand that with my support? Some of the arguments that were brought in favor of this change just don't I don't believe are true there was a suggestion that I could go down the road with my 92 and at the next school district I would have had a a Our standards generate our grades our standards are not going to be compromised and our standards are not going to be changed So a work remains a work the number that it is awarded may change in Infinite Campus. But this, if we implement it properly, will not do anything more than perhaps make it easier for colleges to look at our 10-point scale because they see it more often or for

062parents to alleviate what they see as a perceived detriment to their students. But I don't believe this is going to change. substantively the work that students do and the way we measure the rigor of our curriculum with our grades grades are nothing more than a summative look at a student at a particular moment in time their primary purpose is to serve our students to monitor our effectiveness as a school district and I think whether we use a seven point or a ten point scale I'm okay if everybody's happier with a ten but don't expect this to change the world I'll make a motion to approve practice statement 5124, 5125.3 and practice statement 5125.3. Thank you. I'll second and I have a comment and we'll vote. Okay, we have a motion and a second. So based

063on everything we said, we heard it, but there will be no, I think you're thinking there is no great inflation. If anything, it happens now. The reality is not a major problem. It is a major problem. It's a butt of joke for kids who go to college from here. So it may be from adult hubris, I know better than you looking down on students, there are real students that are affected by it day to day. It is a real issue so if we think that we're somehow why would rigor change why would standard change our UBDs not change our teachers are administering same rigorous inversely we would think that we need to have 92.5 for A in our district because our standard is somewhat subpar to others that our kids need to get higher grade

064to prove that we are equal to others so that's the inverse way we need to think but the reality is there are kids that are stuck in this system and we need to set them up for success among their peers when they're trying to pursue their next steps their gpa matters where they go it matters and scholarship opportunities it's a real thing thank you i'll make amendment by the way to practice statement 5124 to not take effect to the 25 26 school year Is there a second to that amendment? And that'll just be added to the top of that practice statement. So it'll just be this goes into effect. Okay. So we're discussing the amendment only. We'll vote on it in a second. I did hear one other thing that could be added, which is

065to not make it not retroactive in any way. But we'll consider that in a second. First, a vote on the amendment to the policy 5124 would not take effect until... school year 2025-26. All those in favor of that amendment please say aye. Aye. And practice statement? It's in the practice statement not the policy. Gotcha. You're right it is the practice statement. All those opposed? Carries on voice vote. So and I don't think we need to make an amendment to say it doesn't go in effect the policy doesn't go in effect so we follow the current policy which states the current grading scale so there's no need to make an additional amendment to that. No, but I would like to make an additional amendment that when this policy is enacted no grades will be changed retroactively

066due to the change in the grading scale Can I? We have an amendment and a second. Discussion? What you're looking for are procedures and process that will be handled through TLC committee. The team is going to work on it and they're going to bring it back to TLC to make sure your concerns that that is not happening. I don't think that amendment needs to be in that policy overall statement. That is an action. practicum operation how we're going to enroll uh implement it that is something the team's going to work on and we can moderate that and kind of make sure that it's done that way in tlc committee um after discussion with the administration it was recommended that we get this documented and i would have a hard time supporting this change without that

067documentation so i'd like to stand by the amendment Any further discussion on the amendment of adding the fact that it will not be retroactive in any way? Can I also on that your comment then as a chair of TLC I would have liked a little note unless I missed it I didn't get a text or email unless it was sent today that such recommendation was made not to the TLC chair but It happened in the meeting from Mark just now Was that part of the session? Part of this meeting that's what you're referring to right when Mark said it might be helpful Not to implement until 25 school year that was amended motion but you brought up the concern after that that hey I don't want it retro totally fine that could be handled through

068TLC when they present it Or it could be amended now But I'm not comfortable writing a policy school district grading policy saying it's not going to be retro How about everything else? This would be that we don't want this statement not the policy Well, it are we ready to vote? Put it to a vote on the amendment. Yes on the amendment All those in favor of the amendment that the grading policy will not be retroactive in any way. Please say aye aye aye Any opposed no The ayes have it. So that's now part of the motion that it will take effect in the 2025-26 school year and not be retroactive in any way. Is there further discussion on this policy before we vote on the motion to approve it? All those in favor of approving

069the policy and the amendments as presented, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Carries on voice vote. And that concludes our consent agenda. Our first action item of the evening is a big one. The English elective curriculum and primary resources. Mark's going to kick this off. And we do have some requests to speak. So after Mark, is there someone from the team? So Mark and Lisa will make some comments. This is for board members. We'll hear from members of our committee. We plan, members of the committee, to allow a three-minute comment period. Certainly, if you don't need all three minutes, great. That's helpful. But you'll get the timer on the screen and the same guidelines and regulations. apply here is during our citizens forum then board members will open it up to us for

070comments we'll go around and give everyone a chance to state your positions be as concise as possible then if we need to have any follow-up we can but again just in terms of moving this along so that we can be as concise and expedite this agenda item mark Thanks, Scott. I've been asked by community members and even a board member on why I didn't put my foot on the scale and have these books stripped from the TLC proposal. One individual even went as far as claiming I lacked leadership. I'd like to address this thinking and address my thinking on this topic so as to make it extremely transparent and very clear where I stand on this issue. Reason number one, I'm in support of the teacher recommendation. First and foremost, I trust our teachers. We've

071been able to find some of the very, very best teachers, best educators I've ever seen to teach our children, and I trust them. If our practitioners are unified in their recommendation and have sound rationale, I trust their expertise. I have been very fortunate to have our youngest son influenced and inspired by such amazing teachers in this district. Some of these teachers have spoken out passionately about their craft, and I can tell you they're really, really good at it. Reason number two. I'm increasingly convinced that sensitive topics or trauma are best taught in controlled environments. With the advent of smartphones, our students are exposed to difficult content in environments where a trusted and caring adult may not be available, may not be available to help. Processing the necessary reflections, discussions, and emotions when confronted with traumatizing

072content is very, very important. We can only do that with trained teachers. Reason number three. This is a college-level course that is an elective. Parents have had the option of opting their child out for over a decade. We have not had any objections to the book. Our teachers are as transparent with our families about what is being taught in their classrooms as any school system I'm aware of anywhere. Our families are engaged and know what is going on. Reason number four. This is a slippery slope that could signal to our staff that the Board of Education does not trust their expertise, which would negatively impact our ability to attract and retain great teachers. For these four reasons, among the many others that have been written to you in an email or delivered in a speech

073upcoming, I ask you to support the book list that our experts put forward. Trust our teachers to teach. Trust our parents to parent. Trust our students to learn. Thank you. With that, I'll turn to Lisa. You could. You could please hold your applause so we can keep the meeting moving. Thank you. Thank you. I want to echo some of the things that Mark had said. We have a great community of educators, many are in the audience tonight, who have a tremendous amount of expertise. Districts around us in the state and in the country are envious of what we have hired and how we have built them to be their next best. they have carefully written this curriculum based on college level coursework they have carefully selected a book list that will engage our mature learners

074who opt into this elective course they have created that list to have a balance of authors that are writing acclaimed literary works the two books in question one is from an award-winning author who is an afghan american and the other one is from a female novelist we want to ensure that our students experience diverse books to cultivate their skills our community of educators have justified the literary value of each of these books including the books in question they have a thoughtful approach it's not that these books have been taught over ten plus years so let's keep moving them forward they have looked deeply in the complexity to build our students skills and looked at the engagement that our students have with these books They have provided detail about the rigor of the AP exam and

075how the AP exam has really looked at these two books as literary merit. They, meaning our community of educators, have followed and justified at every angle board policy in the selection process. The board policy itself values the subject area committee, values the expertise of our educators, and we also have verified that we are in alignment with state statute. These books are not pornographic, and they are not obscene. They are literary works of art. Most importantly, our community of educators care deeply about students, not just their academic success, but who they are as people. They provide a safe, controlled, respectful, and caring environment. They are skilled at this. This is not something that anyone can do. They do it. They discuss sensitive topics, and yes, many of the literature at this level have sensitive topics. The

076two books in question talk about the ugliness of oppression against women and the atrocities of war. Finally, our parents, our community of educators want to partner with our parents. We have increased our communication in the last four years, triple the amount of what we have done. Our curriculum is transparently listed on our website. Our teachers are sending out communication to our families every single week about what is happening in the classroom because they know that we all get better when our parents partner with us. I have not received any additional questions on this topic, and so I will turn it back to the board. Thank You Lisa We do have a few requests to speak before board discussion and several after board discussion. We'll take these in order of number It looks like we have

077some more coming Alyssa strata resident of the district would like to speak to us Alyssa Thank you for your time I'm speaking here tonight on behalf of over 860 stakeholders of the Elmbrook School District that have signed this petition they include voters parents existing teachers students and school alumni we concur with Dr. Hansen's comments just now so I won't repeat everything that I had prepared but we want you to understand how important this is to our community Before voting we wanted to understand what the problem is that Kathy and Sam brought up and why they proposed censoring these books because based on the current policy of being able to exclude your student from a title or a reading or an assignment there is already a policy in place to take care of this I as

078a parent I have a child at Brookfield East I know my child is taking AP level classes and I am very aware of the materials through the communications that I receive from the teachers on a regular basis and I inherently understand that the AP classes have a higher level of rigor and maturity for them to succeed in this class I'm also concerned as well as these other parents that the College Board has specifically called out in this course description that they oppose censorship so by removing these two books from the reading list what does that do to our relationship as a community with the College Board will we be able to continue to offer this class does it damage our reputation with College Board that they will be scrutinizing the other AP classes that we

079have in our schools this is extremely important to me as well as many others in our community and frankly it's one of the reasons why we're the best school district in the state I just wanted to make sure that our voices of over the 860 people that have signed this petition I'll give it to Kristi so she can have all the names addresses and also what relationship these people have with our school district to make sure that we're supporting the district in every way possible and please hear the voice of our community that we support including these titles in the AP life course Our next request to speak is Barry Whiteman a resident of the district Barry Thanks very much and I got to thank all of you for doing what you do because it's

080so important and You know, it's amazing. So thank you very much Now I've lived here 20 years my wife we've been here for 20 years in Elm Grove she however grew up here and was a graduate of Brookfield Central class of 73 so I just want to say that I wrote a little email to the to the board on Friday and I'm gonna read read it to you. It's not long at all We the 81 undersigned our parents graduates and concerned residents of the Elmbrook School District Republicans Democrats independents as well as some who have sat out national elections But care passionately about our number one, Wisconsin School District We are writing to oppose a motion before you that would damage our children's ongoing education We understand that two school board members are pushing to

081remove two books from the curriculum you know and we just heard all about it so Both highly acclaimed works and it's the AP lit elect is elective and none of the 17 18 year old young adults young adults Who choose it would be required to read either book if they are their parents object teachers have committed to provide an alternative We all know this to vote for this ban would damage the reputation of the Elmbrook district and more importantly for us damage our children's chances in an increasingly competitive environment for college entrance and success please act in our students best interests and reject this motion making sure that our kids when they go out there they are well informed they know how to think and they can deal with the world as it is so

082thank you very much and again thank you for your service every one of you thank you thank you barry Our next request to speak is Krista Allenstein, a resident of the district, and Sarah Zeman is on deck. My name is Krista Allenstein, and I'm a parent of two Brookfield East graduates. The concern regarding these two books is the welfare of 17-, 18-year-olds who are reading them. And this concern was not raised based on facts and evidence, but rather on the opinion and moral outrage of a few of the board members. It's been suggested that these two books could cause trauma if read. There's been no evidence of trauma in the past 10 years this book has been taught. It's been suggested that the passages in this book could be seared into the memories of the

083readers, and I agree with this, and I believe it to be a good thing. The students who take this class are the best of the best in the district. They are the very students we expect to go out in the world to do great things, things that make the world a better place. And these futures need to be able to imagine terrible realities so they can prevent those realities from coming into fruition. These are not the people to protect from difficult truths. We need to give them all the information, the guidance, and the tools to confront any reality. And we are fortunate to be able to prepare them for the future with fiction, a way to imagine unimaginable worlds. It was suggested that there are, and I quote, tens of thousands of books, especially in

084the last 10, 20 years, that can teach similar stories. And to that idea, I say no. A great book is a piece of art never seen before, never to be seen again, and to suggest that great books can simply be swapped and achieve the same teaching result is wrong. And finally, I need to go on record with the following. One of our board members said, and I quote again, our job as a board is not to listen to everything our employees say and say okay without critical thinking and having to judge against our moral and ethics. Well, I say this. I believe the board should weigh in and think through important decisions, but your decisions should be rooted in facts and evidence, not your opinion. And most important of all, to dismiss our teachers as

085simply employees is belittling. These teachers are the reason Elmbrook School District is the best in the state. And the basic fact is important to remember. Let's trust our experienced and knowledgeable teachers to lead us in the right direction, because they always do. I am very grateful my son had an opportunity to take AP Literature with Kate Woodson with the curriculum of the class at its best. her recommendation and I hope future glasses are given the same opportunity I thank you for your time Thank You Krista our next request to speak is Sarah resident of the district and Susie Coakley is on deck Good evening. I'm here tonight as an Elmbrook parent. My son attends Elmbrook schools, and although he is not in high school yet, he will be in a few short years. And as

086a parent, if my son chooses to take this elective course, my expectation is that he has access to the materials of this AP-level course. And to echo a lot of people here, I trust our educators to make that decision. They have the expertise. They know what is required of an AP-level course. And I don't believe that personal opinion should be coming into play in this. That's really all I have to say, just some short remarks. I don't need to repeat what everyone has said here already tonight, but as a parent, this is a big concern to me and I expect my son to have access to these materials if he chooses to take this course. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. Susie Coakley, a resident of the district, is next and Fletcher Allenstein is on deck.

087Hello, my name is Susie Coakley and I'm a district resident and a rising senior at Brookfield East. I'm here today as a concerned student who is registered to take AP Literature this fall. My time at East has been filled with excellent teachers, classes, and a rigorous curriculum. I've appreciated the educational opportunities and freedoms that Elmbrook has offered me. As someone who has been thoroughly impacted by powerful texts like those discussed today, I can truly say that by removing the kite runner and the handmaid's tale, you are doing a disservice to a generation of curious and energetic learners. Not only is it an infringement on students' educational freedom to be taught these important and sensitive texts, but it is also a threat to their success on the AP exam. As someone who plans to take the

088exam in May, I ask you to allow students like myself to read these books alongside a guided discussions from our excellent teachers. It is through these challenging discourses that students truly understand these themes and messages from the text. While I hear your concerns about the topics in the novel, I would like to say that myself and many of my peers have already been exposed to mature literature and prior courses. and if given the opportunity, would carry the same sensitivity with these two particular texts. As to the concern that there would be peer pressure to read these two books, I would like to be an AP student and point to the evidence. As many have said, In the history of the parental opt-out policy, not a single student requested an alternate text. Rather, these proposed books

089are actually fan favorites. We've heard from prior students. They love these books. Even further, the academic excellence of Elmbrook emphasizes an inclusive community, not one where students like myself would ridicule or ostracize their peers for picking a different book. Thus, there is no clear argument to ban these books from the classroom. Instead, the community commentary and evidence points to keeping these texts in the curriculum. Ultimately, we are beholden to the College Board standards, not Elmbrook. I would love the opportunity to excel in the AP exam with these texts being pivotal to my success. If you don't think students like myself are ready to read award-winning novels like The Kite Runner or The Handmaid's Tale, then you are discounting my maturity and my autonomy. You absolutely have the right to opt out your child from reading

090these books, but not me. That's a choice for myself and my parents. And the current policy is written that way. There's absolutely no required books, no teachers telling me to read this, just the option to. I urge you all to allow me to retain my choice in reading these texts, as I'm very excited and committed to dissecting these complicated themes. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you, Susie. You have some amazing students. Our next request to speak is Fletcher Allenstein and Carla Furman is on deck. Resident of the District Fletcher. Hello, my name is Fletcher Allenstein. I graduated this past spring from Brookfield East and during my senior year I took Ms. Woodson's AP literature class. Throughout high school I can confidently say that I was a great student. I scored well on tests and

091AP exams and as my teachers or former teachers behind me can attest to, I had blistering confidence when it came to, you know, any class I came into. I was like, this is gonna be mine. Coming out of my junior year, I had scored A pluses in AP Lang and over the summer I had got a five on my AP Lang exam. Despite this, at the end of my first term I received a C in AP Literature. Shocking, right? And partly this is because I, at that point, didn't understand what made AP Literature difficult, and that is the source material. The poems, the short stories, and the novels that we read in this class are incredibly difficult, both in the way they're structured, the plot, and the, you know... things that happen within the book.

092They are horrible things that happen within these fiction books, and it's hard to read. That's what makes AP Lit, I think, an amazing class. Reading The Handmaid's Tale, it gave me an entirely new perspective on which to look at the world, and it forced me to rapidly improve my reading, writing, and it gave me an incredible gift, and that was it brought me back to a place where I don't know everything in any way. The humbling experience that I had in this class, I am so grateful for going into college. I understand that I don't know everything, and I understand there's so much more in this world that I have yet to learn, and this is a great benefit to all of our students. So I ask that this remain available to all, anyone that

093takes this class. Thank you. Thank you, Fletcher. Carla Furman, a resident of the district, is next to speak, and Sahil Gupta is on deck. Hi I'm a resident of Brookfield I have three BC grads and one BC senior this year some people have said that students shouldn't be exposed to the subject matter in these books and that our students need to be protected from reading or discussing that a classroom of 12th grade students led by an experienced educator is exactly the right place for it the students would be with classmates they've known for years Our classes are small enough that the teachers know all the students and may have been in contact with families already. Teachers send weekly notes to families reviewing what will be covered the following week. Families could bring concerns to the

094teachers or discuss them with their students. At the end of the day, the students will go home to their families, can discuss the content, and get their families' take on things. Now picture those same students a year later. College English 101 might meet in a large lecture hall. In many cases, professors won't know their students beyond a name on a roster. Small discussion groups may be led by grad students. The students might have no contact with their classmates outside of the classroom. The high school AP classroom is a safer space for students to get experience discussing sensitive topics and learning to stand in support of their convictions. Trust our teachers. They know what skills our students need to learn and what resources will help our students with those skills. Don't micromanage curriculum decisions. Trust our

095students. If they choose to take this AP class, they want a more rigorous and challenging experience and are able to understand the coursework as it relates to and reflects the world around them. and trust our families. Families can and should be involved both in helping students make course selections and discussing coursework with their students. I don't want or need the school board making decisions based on a misguided attempt to protect my child from certain ideas. Thank you. Thank you, Carla. Sahil Gupta, resident of the district, is next to speak, and Catherine Ryan is on deck. Good evening. My name is Sahil Gupta, and I'm a proud alum of the Brookfield East class of 2024 and an informed and engaged voter in our school district. As you are well aware, the world that we live in

096is far from perfect. Over the past two years, we have anxiously observed as the people of Ukraine fright bravely to protect their sovereignty against a powerful Russian regime that seeks to erase their very existence. In the Middle East, the ongoing war in Gaza continues to claim countless lives every day. Here at home, people of color still live in fear of violence at the hands of police. In nearly 104 years after women were granted the right to vote, many still seek to marginalize them as a second-class group in our society. One of the most powerful ways to engage students in understanding these complex issues is through literature. Throughout my time in Elmbrook, I participated in discussions on topics such as free speech, censorship, and the Me Too movement. all facilitated by well-renowned works of literature. These

097conversations were often challenging, but they were universally acknowledged as valuable and essential in helping us better understand the intricacies of our world. I am deeply concerned about the proposal to remove The Handmaid's Tale and The Kite Runner from the AP Literature curriculum. My fellow students have testified that while the content of these books can be intense, they lead to invaluable discussions about real issues facing our world today. What better place to explore such profound topics than in a classroom, guided by a teacher who is committed to the well-being and intellectual growth of all of their students. By engaging with the issues presented in these books, students are better equipped to confront the complex challenges that our world presents. I got my first college syllabus yesterday, and in it was a message specifically saying that sensitive

098topics were going to be discussed in the course. Additionally, the professor stressed the importance of open discussions on viewpoints, even those we disagree with. I, for one, am thankful for the opportunities that Elmbrook gave me to practice these important life skills. Now, I need not remind you that Elmbrook prides itself on preparing its students for post-secondary education. If you vote to remove these books from the curriculum, not only are you sending a message of fear and avoidance to our students, leaving them less prepared to navigate the growing complexities of our society, but you've left them less prepared for their journeys after high school. preparing students for their journeys after high school is one of the biggest thing that Elmbrook prides itself on please do right by our students and keep these important works of literature

099in our curriculum thank you Thank You Sahil good to see you back in the boardroom Katherine Ryan a resident of the district is next to speak and Lisa Dennis is on deck Good evening. My name is Katherine Ryan. I am the English department chair and an instructional coach at East. As someone who has read both The Kite Runner and The Handmaid's Tale in their entirety, I was originally surprised to hear that these are books about rape and sexual assault. I was confused to hear the texts described as pornographic and traumatizing. So I have therefore spent part of the summer revisiting the textual evidence and reading scholarly literature written about these books. And I would like to add some clarity for the community around some of the larger subjects and themes covered in these selections. The

100Kite Runner is, at its core, a redemption story, as one character struggles to overcome guilt over past actions, including the betrayal of a friend. Counting off my subjects and themes. As this character seeks personal growth from childhood to adulthood, readers also learn how ethnic tensions... social hierarchies, and political upheavals that were a part of Afghan's history during the rise of the Taliban influence family dynamics, loyalties, and personal decision-making. Throughout the novel, the subject of forgiveness and healing is explored, providing a rich tapestry for student analysis and discussion as they grapple with how to seek and grant forgiveness in their own lives. The Handmaid's Tale is inherently a dystopian novel of juxtaposing subjects. The desire for individuality and autonomy battles with the need for conformity. this totalitarian society. The text explores gender and power delving into

101how fertility and reproduction drive much of the societal structure. Additionally, as our students have studied throughout many of their history courses, The Handmaid's Tale looks at how manipulation of language and use of propaganda in conjunction with surveillance can be used to create a culture of fear and reshape reality. I've also taken time to peruse AP approved resources, finding that of the 20 close reading multiple choice passages I looked at, none were about the paragraphs that concern the board. And while a student could choose to write about those paragraphs in an essay, they would not need to in order to do well on any of the 12 essay prompts I explored. so unless there's some larger political reason for it i hope that the number one school district in the state is not trying to censor

102these books from their curriculum for a single page out of each respective text thank you thank you catherine lisa dennis is next a resident of the district is next to speak and michelle wainard maynard is on deck thank you lisa Good evening. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak My name is Lisa Dennis and I'm a proud product of the Elmbrook schools a high school and high school and middle school English teacher and a resident who specifically returned to Brookfield 11 years ago seeking an education for my daughter in the very best schools in the state. My own Elmbrook journey began in 1986 as a kindergarten student at Burleigh Elementary through Elmbrook Middle School and on to Brookfield East, class of 1999. I was blessed to receive an education that broadened my perspectives,

103developed my capacity to think critically, and instilled in me a desire to be a lifelong learner. In short, I received an exemplary education. That foundation inspired me to devote my own life to the field of education and I've spent the last 22 years teaching both high school and middle school students English in Franklin and Pewaukee school districts. I am here tonight as a resident, a parent, a teacher, and a logically minded concerned citizen to ask this board to uphold the district's standing as an organization. that values learning as a means of teaching our young people to think, which is achieved through providing opportunity, not through censorship and politically motivated grandstanding. Despite zero complaints from parents or students and zero use of the highly logical policy that affords families access to alternate texts, should they so

104choose, one is left to wonder the motivations for such a proposal by board members whose job it is to be the voice of the community that they serve. Should that voice and the policies enforced here not directly reflect the values of the organization's most valuable stakeholders? If so removal of books from a list of optional texts in an optional class serves only to suggest micromanagement in this case and a dangerous precedent bent toward censorship and suppression of thought in the future. I specifically choose to send my child to the Elmberg schools to partake in educational opportunities that have been proven for decades to not only be effective but instrumental in developing informed and empathetic citizens. A district where she can receive an education that develops her capacity to encounter challenge in a supportive environment and

105achieve a greater understanding of the world and her place within it. This is not done through limiting exposure to complex and challenging topics, but rather through encouragement to discuss process and collaboratively explore with the guidance of the incredible educators this district employs that makes it a place where students excel year after year after year i urge you most ardently to promote continued excellence in the elmbrook school district by rejecting this proposal and instead uphold the publicized mission of the district which is to educate and inspire thank you lisa Michelle Maynard, a resident of the district, is next and Mike Carini is on deck. I am Michelle Maynard and I have two high school students one that just graduated this year and one that will be in 10th grade in the upcoming year and I also

106feel quite passionately as does Mark Hanson thank you for your comments I won't repeat all of the things that you had to say and thank you for your comments as well I trust our educators they do an amazing job and you know another thing that you some of the hasn't been mentioned yet is in addition to providing our students a space within the classroom to get into a lot of these sensitive topics this really brings to light a skill set that they'll need in the future which is critical thinking skills to process this information decide who they are as people and what moral values that they have and that they're going to bring into the world. And this is something that our teachers can really help guide our students through, and I feel passionately that

107we really need to keep these learning opportunities on the table for everyone. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Mike Carini, not a resident of the district, but as stepkids are, is next to speak. And Pat, coffee is Sunday. Hi, my name is Mike Carini. I teach at Brookfield East. My wife teaches at Pilgrim Park, and my kids attend Wisconsin Hills and Brookfield Central. After seeing similar board decisions made by neighboring districts, including Menominee Falls and Waukesha, I feared Elmbrook would also cripple under political pressure. Unfortunately, as I've learned from being married to a social studies teacher, history repeats itself. And here we are, 42 years after the 1982 decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court arguing what is appropriate literature for students. In the case of Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School versus PICO,

108the conservative court voted 5-4 that the school board violated the First Amendment rights of its constituents by removing books from the school libraries that they deemed inappropriate. Tonight's decision sets forth a dangerous precedent that our district's curricular decisions are easily swayed by politics. In a district that is data-driven in its decision-making, I'm curious as to why we're having this conversation, given that not a single complaint by students has been documented about these texts since their introduction. to our schools if two fictional accounts of rape are considered pornography and not age-appropriate for young adults in an elective course at what point is it appropriate and more importantly why do you get to decide and not them thank you thank you Mike Pat Coffey is next to speak make some adjustments to the podium here if you'll

109give us a second and Katherine Wilson a resident of the district is on deck Good evening. My name is Patrick Coffey. I am a 30-year teacher at Brookfield East, and I've taught AP U.S. history and AP government for the last 29 years. Dr. Hansen, you said everything. I'm on medical leave of absence for next year, and it's killing me because I'm ready to teach. And Dr. Hansen, you got me fired up. I'm ready to follow you at Brookfield East. I see Andy and I see Mark right here and I love how you've got this unity and right before school starts all right and I think my colleague Had showed me the board policy and I think it was six one four four about controversial issues I don't have it here right now, but I think

110that is something to to take a look at I also know that we've been here before we've been here before when at that time 15 years ago The movie glory was at question right? It was controversial in a one parent opposed its showing even though it was being showed with the Pepsi classroom edited version there was some scuttlebutt and All of a sudden we were having conversations of we're not going to use any clips. We're not going to use anything a full a full Wiping away of all our resources Tom Gale who was our board president at the time took a day off of work and he came down to the principal's office and he signed he had meetings face-to-face meetings not a meeting in a room here that's going to be filmed it's face-to-face

111and that was the greatest lesson i had ever learned about just having that communication and open communication glenn elgar right glenn elgar would go four times a year he would walk around and i would disagree with glenn on probably 80 of the topics that we were doing But I knew Glenn had the teachers and the students' best interest at the center of his heart. And I would recommend, and I know it's a big ask, I would say that I would really recommend board members to perhaps visit schools and see some of the magic. I watched the tapes of the last meeting to prepare for the discussion here, and I heard Kate Woodson talk about her class, and I want to take her class. I mean, she's so good. And I think it would really help

112to see how our stars act at this. I have benefited from English teachers and from... debating forensics coaches and from the parents and the students and i've had a good record i would love to take credit i'd love to pack myself in the back i am the benefit of all their labor and it's all this collective teamwork and to not trust the student to the teachers would be a huge break for the momentum that we have in a weird way this controversial issue has really started itself on the right foot so thank you for your time Thank you Pat for all your years of service I know from a parent of kids at East that my kids will miss not being able to take the class from you I hope you're back soon Catherine Wilson

113a resident the district is our last request to speak before board member comments We do have board members a few requests to speak after We comment, but let's listen to Catherine and then we'll open it up to board member comments one at a time Good evening Thank you for this opportunity to address the board and thank you to all the people who have spoken already I Don't think I can add a lot except an endorsement My personal opinions are that these are well written literary novels They give readers and especially our students a chance to encounter people they're unfamiliar with to recognize the humanity in the stranger, and to build a base of understanding with the rest of our society. In a couple of decades, these books have become part of our literary canon. People

114who are educated refer to these books all the time. You'll find them in op-ed pieces. You'll find them in conversation. People need to understand what they're about in order to have a conversation with other citizens. It's not frivolous. My personal opinion is that these books demonstrate values that are universal, such as honor, loyalty, courage, and some that we like to consider particularly American, such as liberty. individual dignity, and compassion for those who are suffering disadvantages. There is no moral ambiguity in these stories. Right and wrong is very clear. Reasonable people may disagree with the appropriateness of these books for students. I think respect for our students and their families would defer to the family choice whether or not to enroll their kids. I'm completely confident in our educators to help to manage discussions appropriately in

115our American system the best response to bad ideas is not censorship it's better ideas thank you thank you okay board members opportunity to make comments we've Been around the room the last meeting was fairly lengthy certainly make your comments as concise these you can Once everyone's had a chance to speak then we'll come back around if there's any other additional comments new insights You're looking to make just so we can expedite this agenda item approval of the English lit like the curriculum and primary resources as presented Thank you have a motion and a second. Let's have some discussion who would like to start off Dean we have talked about this lot at the last board meeting the points that I made at the last board meeting would be the points that I would make at

116this meeting which would concur with the 14 speakers that we had and all the points that they made that I believe that this is parents choice we have talented staff It's an elective class. They're senior students. The concepts they learn. Thank you, Catherine Ryan, for detailing all of those. That was brilliant. I support those two items as primary resources and will amend the motion to reflect that at the appropriate time. Thank you. Thank you, Jean. Would you like to speak next? Oh, come on. I know you want to talk. Sam? I will happily. As an elected school board member, we must remember that our primary purpose in being here, we are here to serve the children of Elmbrook. We are to ensure they receive the knowledge and education necessary in order to prepare them for

117the next phase of their life, college, workforce, military, or perhaps other noble causes. Legally, we are given the duty under Statute 120.12, which has been foregone by some people to say school board responsibilities include the management of the school district, subject, and this is the law, I'm not making this up, this isn't Sam's law, this isn't a political thing, this is the law, subject to authority vested in annual meeting and to authority and... possession specifically given to other school district officers have the possession, care, control, and management of the property and affairs of the school district. This is our responsibility. We're here to choose and guide the school, the seven of us. And we have one employee, and that's Dr. Hansen, and our responsibility is to ensure that the district is ran, and that's our

118responsibility. So we can't forego that. We can't give it up to someone else, and it's offensive. to say that it's a matter of we don't trust teachers because we disagree with a decision that is made. I have sat through many meetings and met many, many wonderful teachers and 99.99% of the things that brought to the board we agree with and we move through. It's the 0.1% that we may not disagree with and it by no means reflects our lack of trust or my lack of trust in the teachers. And that's absurd to even say that there's a lack of trust because we disagree with one decision here. This is the first decision that we have brought through, the first big decision that we brought through here that I say I don't agree, and we have

119the right to. Second, this is not a political thing. This is my moral decision. Point of order, please. Order, yeah, please. We need respect as people are talking. Don't interrupt. It's funny that the laughter is about it being political, but this is not. This is my relationship with my Savior and God who dictates my morality, and I am required by my relationship with him to make sure that we don't provide obscene and materials to children. These are children, whether we want to face it or not. And I'm disappointed that the word obscene was not... you know, when describing these books that it was slight, not even considered obscene, when you would read that, you would feel embarrassed to read that in front of your child, and we should. Child rape, child sodomy, child pedophilia, orgies,

120and the like are described in great detail in these books. They're not necessary. Order. Order, please. Do not interrupt the speakers. We're conducting our meeting. So it's important that we don't provide materials and go along with that that will pollute their mind. And I agree. Of these books, I've read enough of them to say there's a lot of really good literature. I agree. 99% of that book is great. They covered all the topics Mrs. Ryan talked about in great detail. but you have polluted it with five to ten pages that are excessively descriptive and sexual content that we should leave out. If you got rid of those five to ten pages, this wouldn't even be a conversation here. I have no problem with the topics being discussed. It's the matter of detail in which they

121are presented in this book. Young boys are flooded with hormones and things going through their head in school, and this is just another distraction that we're presenting to them, and we don't need to do that. It's very clear. that there are plenty of other schools and books that we can have presented to the children and they can read with great success. And I'm not sure about the petition that was going around, but what I read of that petition, it was false, and it was not based on reality because that petition stated we're not even sure if they would approve this. The best school in the entire state does not use these books and they're approved to teach AP literature. So that whole petition of 860 people is thrown out there because that is irrelevant to

122the fact that we are not going to be denied teaching AP literature because we do not use these two books in our literature. In fact, Brookfield Central doesn't use these two books in the literature and they are teaching that with great success. So that's a moot point and it throws that out there. The course, here are the facts, just the facts. The course is 100% effective, taught without the use of Handmaid's Tale and the Kite Runner, as told to us by the teachers of Brookfield Central, and Brookfield East said that. The argument is not about there being good, like I said. It's about the few pages that describe in great excessive detail that doesn't need to be described in those books. This is similar to a magazine. You go to the store, pick up a

123magazine at Barnes & Noble, 80% of it, this is the opposite side of it, is a bunch of ads and stupid, get rid of the ads, get rid of the stupid articles, you'll have a great magazine. It's the same with these books. Get rid of those few pages and you'll have a great book that I would feel 100% comfortable teaching and exploring with our children if you got rid of the descriptive nature of that. The opt-out number two, the fact, the opt-out choice. And I'm disappointed this is being pushed as a valid choice knowing high school kids and knowing how their deep, deep desire to fit in and not be different. I've never met a high school kid that says, oh, I like to be different. I like to be the one kid in the

124class that has to read a different book. No one ever wants to be that child. No one wants to be the one that stands out to be different. The opt-out choice is not inclusive. And if we want to talk about it, can we please ask the audience to be quiet? It's distracting and it's deterring from our trying to focus here. Okay, yeah, just a reminder. Can we ask them to leave if that's the next case? We can if it comes to that. But if you'd like to speak, we have an opportunity to speak to the board after discussion. You can certainly request a form from, send them your way, Christy, right over here on the side. Other than that, if you can please keep down, because it is distracting. We're trying to keep our train

125of thought and move this agenda item along. Thank you. Thank you. I'm addressing the president so just a reminder as many of you spoke on the freedom of speech and diverse views your behavior is contrary to what you spoke so I just want to be mindful so we can get through this topic because we have a heavy agenda so just be just kind of reflect a little bit what is happening based on what you've just spoke about diverse views Thank you Sam number two the opt-out choice like I said is not inclusive for a school that wants to be inclusive We must not rely on that as being our primary option for kids and families that object to these books To ask our children who are already seeking their identity and exploring their desire to

126fit in This concept alone is not inclusive and is a form of segregation that is unfair to our children that desire to remain innocent from the degrading moral depravity, sexual orgies, child rape, pedophilia, and child sodomy that take place in these books. Number three, fact, literature teachers are not properly trained to deal with the sexual trauma some of these children have likely tragically experienced and how to navigate this in the classroom in an open and public forum. The truth is we don't know what kids, someone sent an email today, I don't know how valid the statistics were, but. The incredible number of children that endure sexual trauma is high and it's probably similar in our district, maybe less compared to some other districts that are more impoverished. But we don't know how kids respond to

127that. I have a very close friend of my family that deals with counselor and sexual trauma. And the number of young girls that are brought in that deal with that and then that have had endured some of these tragedies is, and to have to talk about that in class could forever debilitate that child. And sexual trauma is the one thing that will, that almost every counselor will agree with this, that will forever impact that child. And to further traumatize that child by having this as a conversation in a class with an English teacher that is probably most likely not trained to deal with the psychological and counseling effects that this could have because of the great detail that you are going through in this book here. If it was more vague, like I said, it

128would be a different story. That's why. We must approve this as written and move on. Thank you. Thank you, Sam. Who would like to speak next? Preetha. I would like to thank everybody for speaking today. I, for one, do not believe that these books should be removed from our curriculum. I would like to address one thing that I've heard now a few times. I've heard the concern that a student may feel uncomfortable voicing that they do not want to read this text. As we have heard from students and faculty alike, this is an environment with mature students this is a class for mature students if a student has not yet attained the maturity to voice their concerns for fear of being different they may not be ready for this class i would encourage any family

129to have a discussion with their student who's considering this english elective i believe that parents should be involved in determining if determining if their students have attained the maturity required for any of the classes that they take If a student hasn't yet reached the maturity level to feel comfortable opting out of these texts, if they're texts that they may be uncomfortable reading, there are other English electives that may be a better choice. Thank you, Preetam. Mary? I didn't hear a lot new yet in this conversation, and at the risk of maybe saying things I've said before, I'll try to keep this short. This is not by any means a trivial or simple issue. It's much more than about two books. I'd like to thank everyone that came out and spoke tonight so incredibly eloquently. I'd

130like to thank the 860 people whose names on a petition I do not discount. Facts as they've been presented tonight by Sam are not... My understanding of facts, so I'd like to share a few of my own I don't profess to know everything about high school kids, but I did spend the work of my life coaching high school students largely in the interpretation of complex literature, how to understand it, how to present it orally, how to write about it. And I had a lot of conversations that were complex and important. And those students who are now in their 20s and 30s and 40s continue to tell me, as I'm sure they come back and tell Pat and other teachers, and Catherine, when you're old enough, they're going to come back and tell you about the

131impact that... that you're teaching and the words that you shared in conversation have made in their lives. When I ran for the board, it was because, when I was asked why, it was because public education is a magical thing. We open the doors and wide and we admit everyone. We welcome every child and we take them by the hand and we walk them through a K-12 education with the ultimate result. hopefully being that we turn out responsible citizens and healthy adults in order to make sure they are intellectually emotionally socially responsible citizens and healthy adults they must encounter complex issues in a safe environment we say it by policy we do it in practice and i've seen it in my life as important so i know a little bit about high school kids the other

132thing i said when I was running for office is that I know that the magic of what we do isn't because of something the seven of us say at this table. The magic happens in the classroom. It happens on the football field. It happens at Model UN. It happens at all the activities and opportunities that our students have to exercise their critical thinking skills, to question and discern who they are as they become adults and walk out our doors and make a huge difference in this world. So fletcher if you don't mind me borrowing from you i'd like to support what's been said by our teachers by our principals and so eloquently by dr hansen tonight that i too have blistering confidence in our teachers and i wholeheartedly support the inclusion of these two books

133in our list thank you mary kathy so i know a lot of things were repeated and i just want to summarize my thoughts from last week and then we can vote and move on So under the name of literature, yes, how banned and censorship is concerned in our district, yes. Bible is banned. Koran is censored. Torah is banned. Playboy magazine is banned. According to your definition, if it's not on the list, it should be banned. It is considered banned and censored. The committee was given six months at the TLC meeting, December, January. We said, hey, please go back because we trust you to go back if there's other comparable theme sharing books that you can come because we trust your judgment, believe in your intention, know your place, and know our place. and everyone has

134a place and position in the district just like in any societal structure teachers have certain responsibilities parents do in the school district board of education has a responsibility that i am not even sure all seven of us sitting here really understand what your responsibilities as a board of education so when the tlc directed said hey could you please go back and see after 15 years of reading certain books perhaps there are other books that could be found so he came back six months later and we were told no there's no other book that is comparable to this so fine then and honestly i didn't think much too much of it And if you struggle, I struggle with this. Probably from the time I have directed TLC, TLC has directed the team to do. And they

135came back and said, Lisa, please. And I said, no, teacher said there's nothing comparable. Okay. And as I talk through this, this is not political. This is not religious. These are the themes that's in there that's defined. People can say whatever it is that doesn't make it true. You have opinion, I have opinion, we all have opinion. But we all have certain duties and responsibility we're held to that you do not. Teachers do not. Principals do not. The Board of Education does. So when they came back and said there's no other book, I believed it. I trusted it. Then when came back and I see the teachers, yes, the employees. Because I don't give pizza to my kids every dinner because they want pizza every meal. We've taught it for 15 years. And to have

136a closed mindset that there's no other book under the sun that is comparable, that shares redemption, betrayal, a friend, forgiveness, loyalty, political unpleasantness, family dynamic, everything listed. Because I'm not the expert. It's hard to believe. So when the team came out in defiance, in tone, in addressing their view, that got me to start questioning what's going on. I had 100% confidence. Now, I had to wonder if the real due diligence has indeed been done. Never in my mind did I question it before. I'm just being honest. So under the banned books, censorship, whatever you want to call it, we call it whatever we want, we're having word argument. Because like I said last time, we could read this book, I could read this book a thousand times, and we will never lend on the same

137place from the voices we heard last week, this week, and some on the email. And it is obvious I do not represent your voice and vice versa. And I was made aware of this petition circulating last 24 hours. And I wonder how was this petition circulated? People that received it, where's the database coming from? I don't know. I'm just throwing that out there. I'm sure our district did an aid in it. I don't know where the database came from. There's some of the people that got it. How did they receive this petition? It's a genuine question. And people who know, know. Safe control as a nurse, clinician, 30 years. I'm not an expert in dealing with sexual trauma. One page, half a book, paragraph doesn't matter to me. Like I said, we could read this

138a thousand times and we will not land in the same places from the voices we heard. And it's good to have these discussions. You know why? Because true colors really come out. It makes us all think about what our virtues, what our morals are. I'm not to say yours is wrong, but people who... top First Amendment and different views, I would expect the same respect. And when we're discussing this trauma, that the board is saying, okay, so as of seven board members, we're saying, yes, it's okay to put this sexual, explicit, violent, which the board members agreed, it's a violent sexual crime against children, which is pedophilia, and against women, that there's no other book. last 15 years, to address these genres and thematics. And it is not because I don't doubt the teachers, but

139now I question if the indeed due diligence was done. It's good these discussions happen. I don't like to have these discussions. I like to go in a hole and live with my values. But I was elected to this position, and I have a vote. Whether you disagree or not, it is my vote. I have to vote to my morals, ethics, and conviction that I have to be able to defend to myself and to my future self because all this will come full circle. Train teachers. Inducing. When we say okay to these, we're inducing trauma. Sexual trauma, pedophilia, violent crime. that we want none of our children or any of our children to ever, ever experience. And I would like to ask, is our English teacher, are they licensed trained therapists to discuss and guide these

140books and topics? Because I, as a nurse, I'm not licensed to talk through these. So that is my honest question. Are they licensed to do so? I guess there's no requirement to have such thing. But as a clinician that have seen these patients come through, it's not for everyone. And are our teachers qualified for that? It is pedophilia, violent crime against children and women. Yes, there are other valuable topics. Absolutely. But to say these are the only books and somehow the excellence of Elmbrook education hinges on these two books, I don't think so. I think we're better than that. So however we vote, we vote. And those are my final comments. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy. Linda? I have nothing more to say regarding these books. I do know that I don't like putting pedophilia

141and things of that sort in the eye gates of kids who are still not adults. They're not of owning age, most of them, or many of them. So I agree with what Sam said. If you take out those pages, they'd be great. We do know that there's several other lists of books that could be taught. We know that there were a lot of merit scholarship people from students from central who did not it was not required for them to reach that level of academia because they did it without They did it in the absence of not reading or being exposed to these books. So I don't see why these books would be, it's almost coming across as if it's a requirement. Well, when it's really not a requirement because there are many, many options. And

142I thank Kathy for bringing out the fact that, yeah, there are other books that, if you want to say they're banned, Playboy, like she said. So I agree with what Sam and reiterate with Sam and Kathy Lim said so I don't need to say anymore. They said it all Thank you Linda Wow, I'm gonna speak first and then we'll come around for additional comments. Sure. Um, I Missed last month's meeting. It was a Lengthy video. Let me just say that so I've been catching up. I've been doing a lot of reading And I want to start off, I'm going to need my glasses and read some things directly from here so I make sure that I get this right. First of all, I want to say that a lot of good issues have been raised

143about these two books. I appreciate the many emails and phone calls I've received from constituents. I took the day off today. I've been busy on the phone, and I apologize if I haven't gotten back to you. I'll send a little note after, but I do appreciate the feedback. I'm really grateful for the wonderful community we live in and the high community engagement. It's awesome. I'd also like to point out that we have wonderful ELA teachers and leaders at our schools. I know some of them personally, some I don't. And I do want to make the observation that the quality of our curriculum does not stand solely on whether or not these books are used in the classroom as anchor text, supplemental reading, or not at all. As has been pointed out, Burke Field Central doesn't

144use them. And they do well on the test. The students are prepared. So we have a really great curriculum. We have really great teaching in place. It doesn't rise or fall solely on these two books. I'm going to make five points. I'll list them, then I'll repeat them, just so it's clear. First of all, I've read The Handmaid's Tale completely, and I'm partway through The Kite Runner. My wife read that book a few years ago, The Kite Runner, and we discussed her observations about it. I think it's important as board members making this decision to read more than an excerpt. because we know that often context and tone are everything. I think we can all think of instances when somebody's comments were taken out of context and misconstrued. In my opinion, it happens often in

145the media, and it's a shame. Number two, after reading the books, they definitely have literary value. There are also some descriptions, themes, and events that some families would find objectionable. We've heard some of that talked about here tonight, not in the citizens' comments as much as board members representing what is a valid viewpoint in our community. Some Elmbrook students are ready to read these books and would thrive talking about these themes, and some may not be. Number three. The books are both rated 16 and older by several organizations, including I went to Common Sense Media, which I know isn't one of our primary rating sources. But I just want to verify. I want to check that, hey, what are these books rated by independent sources? And the reason that I did that is because... The

146use of these books follows our library book policy. I had something to do with helping to write that when I was on the teaching and learning committee, and I believe strongly in our library book policy. The foundational principle in the library policy is age-appropriate material that has educational value. So my first litmus test is the age-appropriate, and again, while I read them, they definitely have literary value. There are some... Themes and events that are that some would find objectionable number four. This is a college level course There are 65 seniors enrolled in this course the next school year at Brookfield Central and Brookfield East There are no juniors. There are no sophomores. There are no freshmen sign up for these classes For for a pilot was specifically what I'm talking about I lost my spot.

147There we are. These are college-level books with college-level themes, college reading, and college writing in an elective course. I think that's an important factor for us to consider. And number five, I very strongly believe that parents know their students best, and parents are responsible for the education of their children. I heard many people speaking here tonight asking for the right to choose what literature they or their students would read. By the way, I should just shout out to Fletcher. I think I might actually have your book. Did you leave any sticky notes in the back of this book? Because there are some notes here from a student who ever had this book before me. I was thinking about that because my son is a senior this next year, and he signed up for this class.

148So as a AP Lit student, he would be reading these two books. My wife and I happen to be very conservative when it comes to medium books, her more than me, but we are definitely conservative. I have some personal concerns about themes, descriptions, and details in these books. As parents, we should have the right, the Wheelers, to know what books my son will read in this class. We should have the ability to talk with our son about it and decide what will be best for him. I strongly believe that every family in Elmbrook deserves to make the same choice. Before this curriculum came to the board, I didn't know my son would be reading these two books. Nor had I read them now I'm equipped to have a conversation in our family about the books

149about the subject matter and whether or not it's right for our son Family choice and education is a principle that serves all sides of the political spectrum It puts parents in charge of their students education as a board member. You've heard some talk about what board members should do I'm reluctant to force my personal views on to the families and students in Elmbrook As a board, we need to offer age-appropriate materials, and then I think we should increase the transparency of what Elmbrook is teaching and discussing in our classes and allow families to make an individual decision. I think Gene's going to make an amended motion, or someone may, to add the two books in. I'm not opposed. to the books being a part of our curriculum. But whoever makes that motion, I think it

150should include the addition of requiring a parental sign-off on the course syllabus for every enrolled student at the beginning of the course. This is simply to let families know what's being taught. What is the subject matter that's going to be addressed so that parents like me, I don't, my son's a straight-A student. He signs up for his own schedule. I didn't know he was signed up for this class. I wasn't aware of what he would be learning. And now I am. And now my wife and I are empowered, and I think every Elmbrook family deserves that same choice. They deserve the choice to read these books if they feel it's appropriate for their student. You should get to make the same choice for your family that I'm making for mine. And so... I'm in favor

151of the books being included, the two books that have been removed by the Teaching and Learning Committee, A Handmaid's Tale and The Kite Runner. And I would ask whoever makes that motion to include the addition of requiring a parental sign-off on the course syllabus for each enrolled student. Again, my five points are I've read the books myself because context is everything. They have literary value. Some Elmbrook students are ready for this and some are not. These books do follow our library policy about age appropriateness and educational value. It's a college-level course with college-level subject matter, reading and writing. And parents should be the ones to decide if these books are appropriate for your student. Your family and that's why I'm asking for the parental sign off on and apparently it can be done a variety

152of ways Mark even a canvas notification can be sent or an email We would look at a technology solution correct could be infinite campus or canvas the parents would sign off I'm aware. This is a college level course college level content and then parents would know how to make the choice of What books my student and they can work with our teachers who are outstanding educators to say? Do I need the alternate book or not? And that will be a family decision. That's all I have to say. Preetha? I just had one thing that I wanted to say. I heard a statement made tonight that, well, I would just start saying I was on the TLC committee last year. From the time that this book list was presented to us in October, November, fall of

153last year, until the time it returned. Books were added and books were removed and I feel like it's a misrepresentation of the thoughtful work of our staff and educators To say that no changes were made and I just wanted to correct that there were changes that were made and I think it was done in a thoughtful manner I'd like to respond to the thought process of Playboy magazine isn't on our approved reading list and that's because our educators did not recommend that resource nor any of the other resources that were suggested that aren't part of our reading list and as far as training is concerned you might recall we received an email yesterday from one of our One of our long tenured ELA educators that says English teachers are required to take courses in undergrad

154about how to develop environments to have discussions around sensitive topics. In addition, we are an avid district, so we receive training yearly on how to have engaging discussions. We too are a Hope Squad district, so we have training around warning signs and are offered professional development in mental health. We are trained to create a culture where students and parents feel safe to reach out if they are uncomfortable. Our district provides robust learning to help all faculty provide the space to help students navigate, computer just shut off, the world around them, especially after they leave our district. So I think the notion that our ELA teachers are Coming at this without the appropriate tools Supporting them as they navigate these difficult resources. Yeah, I might need another look and finally I'm interested in your Parental sign-off

155suggestion. I would I would wonder about beyond this particular set of resources to me it begs the question of well why these and why not others and what kind of system would we have that in other cases what are the criteria for requiring parental sign-off and it would seem that more work would need to be done to flesh out some sort of system to because this is really precedent-setting and would we expect that this will be a system we will have or will be coming up kind of ad hoc depending on the circumstances So thank you Jean I'll respond to that I did have a chance to I was talking to a former board member today and just kind of developing my thoughts on this Parental permissions sometimes need if a video clip is going

156to be shown or a certain movie in class. With the rating, it's needed for an off-site field trip. And so we do do this. In terms of courses, for me, the delineating factor is that we're taking some serious topics. That again some people might find objection bringing it down to a lower grade level So this wouldn't happen but say in seventh grade we started teaching honors English 9 Course content to a double accelerated seventh graders and now they're going to be looking at some books that would typically be at a different age bracket. In that case, I think you would need parental permission. It may need to be scaled in some of our other classes. I think certainly teaching and learning could look, you know, and the team could do some work to say, are

157there other classes that need that? Do we need any kind of a disclaimer? Hey, this is a Marquette class. It's Marquette syllabus, Marquette grading, Marquette professor. Just parent acknowledgement so they understand. There may be some of those in our system. I'm not sure. In this instance, I would feel... More comfortable just asking it's an elective course just parents being aware you here's what the course is about Here's the issues we're gonna discuss just taking a look at that syllabus I get a lot of emails and I get a lot of emails about my kids and it's easy to lose track of Information that might be important and in canvas. I don't always click on the tab that takes me to the syllabus And so it's nice I think in this instance to call it out

158because we're taking some serious topics and bringing it to our seniors high school students and I think it's good to increase transparency and parent involvement is key parents are in charge of their child's education I strongly believe that I can see TLC taking it on but when you talk about definition of sensitive topics and how for topics that will be challenging for kids I mean this is but one maybe kids have issues with war maybe kids have issues with drug abuse or whatever it is so this could be I don't know. HD&D. I mean, again, it would depend on typically in our curriculum. Our curriculum is pretty traditional in Elmbrook. and our curriculum is pretty mainstream, and so I would anticipate for most classes something like that's not needed. I've appreciated the increased transparency of

159getting a weekly email from most of my teachers, my students' teachers. It has been nice over the years. And again, that's just increased transparency, so parents are involved in their child's education as they should be. Parents have a role to play. Mark, when he started off his comments, he named three groups of people, and if you think of it in terms of... A Venn diagram, we've got educators, we've got kids, and we've got parents, and that sweet spot is in the middle where they overlap. All three are critical in education. Neither know one to the exclusion of another. And so having that balance, hitting that middle sweet spot where all three are working for the betterment of kids, I think is, and again, I just feel that transparency is always better. Mary um thank you

160for your thoughtful analysis and all your video watching well you were here I was on vacation so I watched it again too I'm wondering if you could help me understand your thought process in what would be Why it would be significant for you to have a parental sign-off Above and beyond the fact that you know your student is enrolling in a college level optional class because It's the only one of those that we're talking about making this case for I'm not in love with the idea personally, but I'm wondering how for you and for your family just the decision to take the class isn't enough of an approval. And I'd also just caution you because some of the writing on censorship and censorship. of a page or a thought is a slippery slope. It's where

161we've had people talk about historically where a lot of book bans start. And I think it's a little ironic that one of the books we're talking about is a dystopian culture where women are not allowed to read books. So, but when you label a book, censored or a sensitive book you've already stuck a label on it as different and that is likely to influence perceptions so that there's a lot involved in a sign-off are you thinking of a sign-off just to say I know my child is taking this class and I've seen the list and I have it yeah so looking at not a particular title not it and This may be shame on me, but I didn't know my son was signed up for this class and neither did my wife And we're pretty

162involved parents, but again your kids get to a certain point and I'll call Mark Hanson out He may kick me under the table But didn't all you didn't know Max's schedule necessarily as a senior before he he signed up for those classes I know what he did every day Were you on a social media? Just again in the sense of the volume that parents are looking at and and maybe my life is more busy with five kids I don't know if it's the number but but things do get lost I didn't know my son was signed up for this class and I'm talking about a class sign off not labeling books Just that parents are aware Here's an optional class But it looks a little different in the sense of it's gonna have some college

163themes college level themes, college level reading and writing, and I think the transparency of letting parents know and make that choice. Many parents may know. 90% of the parents may not be like me. They may already be aware, like, yeah, of course I know my kids signed up for this class. I encourage them to. Great. But again, parents just being aware, being able to see the books. Being able to think about the questions that are going to be discussed certainly in the weekly emails Those are the things that are sent home in the weekly emails. What are the lessons going to be? What are the discussions going to be so it's not a lot different than we do just again some of those emails get lost in my inbox depending on the kind of week

164I'm having and what things look like in my life and work professionally, whatever, that I may miss the update on a certain week, but at least at the beginning I looked at that syllabus and I was aware of the kind of course this is in terms of the topics. and the scope of work that my child would be doing in that course. I'm looking at a course sign-off, which, again, Mark said would be fairly easy to do in a technology sense in Canvas. Right. I'm just thinking it's a thing that once done can't be undone, and we can no longer measure parental concerns because everybody's got to sign off where we're looking at a 10-year history of no one has ever felt the need. Could be undone. We're not writing this into policy. I guess,

165well, or no, is this policy? Or what are we voting on here? Is this policy tonight? Perhaps. But, yeah, perhaps we do need to write. Again, just increased transparency and increased family involvement I just don't think is a negative thing. I think it's a positive to say, hey, here's the course. This is what the syllabus looks like. And an opportunity for parents to know how they can contact that teacher. Here's the phone number. Here's the email. I just, I don't see a downside to that kind of engagement with our families. Appreciate that. Linda I think one thing that we need to be considering is the social-emotional impact that it takes on some of the students We don't know which students in those classes may or may not have been victims or no other family members

166that have been impacted and I don't just miss the fact that we have excellent teachers I think we have the top of the crop and I think they do a good job every day but they're not trained counselors they're not psychologists and in regards to putting out a notice parent you know when you say that it's going to be college level You probably want to spell out college level includes violence rape sodomy things of Sensitive subjects like that if you put that in there then if that happens to be a family who was impacted by some type of Incident regarding those subjects that that would at least let them know that maybe that's not the class for them to take. Maybe that's not a comfort level for their child to be involved in. Thank you,

167Linda. Yeah, you bring up a good point. That's an additional reason why parents know their individual students and they know what they're capable of and is the right fit for that kid. Just three clarifications on pre the direction was specific for these so if I said no changes then I misspoke direction then was these specific books that was a directive from the TLC so I just wanted to clarify that point because there was a specific directive and also yes to your point Jean yes Playboy is banned according to the definition the word censorship and banned in our district is used and third um scott what you are saying is proves my this is a great example of where the board has final authority and responsibility yet we make these decisions and let the parents in

168the name of parental choice to have the final signature which is a final accountability so to me The accountability responsibility is not with the authority who has decision to say, these books, I am okay. I am okay that these books are taught. Library books are different. Library policies are different. They have different oversight. Curriculum is 100% you're saying you're blessing these books by voting into it. Whatever all these opt-out options are, yes, those are procedural matters. But we have the final authority and responsibility, but we're letting parents say. I think that's a coward way of doing business. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion on the floor. Scott, I'd like to address, and we do have a couple of people to speak to us. So, Sam, we'll take your comment, and then we'll take these

169citizen comments, and then we'll address the motion. Thank you, Scott. I appreciate that. I think that you're... your preferred amendment is like blowing into the wind. It's just, it's not going to make a bit of a difference. And so let's just be honest. It's not going to matter. It's not going to change. If we really want true accountability is help the parents. There are many parents that move to this district because they have the explicit trust that the teachers are going to teach them good, well-written. sexual-oriented, free material. They move here because they put trust in the teachers. And we're betraying their trust by not truly letting them know what is being taught to their children. And you can send every book home. Prior to joining this board position, I didn't know how to look

170up what books were bad. I didn't know how to look up what content was on there. If you type in Handmaid's Tale... perversion, you would find a thousand things you wouldn't even know what to look for. It wasn't until my research into understanding after spending hours to find what the actual content is that is in these books, including The Handmaid's Tale. Single parents are busy. They can't read every book that their child is assigned to read in AP literature prior to them taking the class to confirm that these books are what they want their children to read. They don't have the time to do that. Most of the families in this district are too... parent working families. They don't have the energy and time to do that. So if you want true accountability and you

171really believe in that, then send these excerpts from this book to every parent that their child takes this class. Let every parent know that this is the content that's in these books. Like, take this one paragraph out of there. Let them know, let's just see what reaction parents are going to really get. Yeah, some of them aren't going to care. Some people don't care if their kids read this. That's their choice. But there are a lot of parents that are going to say, you read this. they're going to think, oh my gosh, why would they be reading this book in this class? And I guarantee you, you sent that home to those 56 parents, you'd get a half a dozen opt-outs. I guarantee you're going to get 5 to 10, 12 people saying, I don't

172want my kid reading that book. But they don't know what's in it. They trust that we're going to provide them sexual-free content and teach them literature, not teach them this. filth of these 15 pages that could easily be removed and just an example like this is just one page out of it you know point of order we're grinding around the same topics and excuse me we have not raised a point of order sam i don't hear new information coming out here and i do hear a lot of representative representation of other people's thoughts when we've heard Many other people's thoughts. Sam's responding to the point about kneeling home to parents. All right, well, if we're going to read an excerpt again that we've heard before, we're just going around the same circles. I wonder how

173many parents will be offended. Women kneeling, sucking penises or gums. Women tied up or chained up with dog collars around their necks. That's just one line. I can't imagine my kid reading that. And I would never have known that we, I would have never known Elmbrook would be wanting to read this type of content. This is the light stuff. Get into the heavier stuff where it's tied up and bondage and orgies. That's like much more extreme. So let's just be honest. If you want true accountability, send every excerpt from these book looks home to the parents. let them sign off on it that this is what your kid's going to be reading not just the title of the book because that's not going to go anywhere parents are busy they trust the school and when

174they find out this truth i guarantee they're going to be upset by that and let's take the citizen comments now and then we'll deal with the motion from at the board level nicole i better put my glasses on nicole yule a resident of the district is requested to speak to us and wesley scilla is on deck Hello everyone my name is Nicole Yule I live in Elm Grove and I have two children in the Elmbrook schools I'd like to start with a very relevant quote from one of the books that is not under review today but is part of our standard district curriculum It may be judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion, but when I see a fellow creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends, I wish

175to be allowed to speak that I may say what I know of her character, Mary Shelley Frankenstein. I'm here today to speak in defense of The Handmaid's Tale and The Kite Runner. I'm a psychologist with 20 years of experience in mental health, the mother of a sophomore at Brookfield East. and a fifth grader at Tonawanda. Both are voracious readers and I've been grateful to our district teachers who have worked to challenge them and encourage them to read things outside of their comfort zone. They've each participated in the Battle of Books, a national competition that features a wide range of books that cover some pretty intense stories. I've worked to expose my children to books that highlight stories that do not reflect their life as white Americans living in an affluent suburb with relatively safe and

176very academically rigorous schools. Why do I do this? Well, in his book, The Kite Runner, which I have read in its entirety, Khalid Hosseini says, children aren't coloring books you don't get to fill them with your favorite colors they need to learn about all aspects of the world uplifting and heartbreaking calming and deeply disturbing so they can truly understand what work needs to be done and can speak for those who cannot speak for themselves some board members have posited that it would be better for our young adults not to be exposed to descriptions of graphic and violent sex acts But as Margaret Atwood says in The Handmaid's Tale, better never means better for everyone. It's always worse for some. We are really talking about rape. This is what is depicted in both books in question.

177Are you aware that the majority of sexual assault victims are under the age of 30? Every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. With these statistics in mind, doesn't it seem important for our youth to understand the trauma and anguish this kind of violence can afflict? At a minimum, we should be equipping our young people to be compassionate. and caring if a friend or loved one experiences sexual trauma. I would defend both these books as great literature that are thought-provoking and enlightening, and I encourage you to maintain these books in our curriculum, and I look forward to discussing them with both my children. I'll close as I began with a quote from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. With how many things are we on the brink of becoming acquainted if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our

178inquiries? Thank you. Thank you, Nicole. Wesley Silla, Elmbrook resident, is next to speak, followed by, on the wrong paper, Carla Furman. Hello, I'm West Silla a resident of the district and a graduate of Brookfield East in 2007. I see some of my former teachers here I would encourage the board to continue to include these in the curriculum I just want to address a few of the points made I don't think that they've been addressed at this point There's been some thought that you know The number one school in the state has taught has done well without teaching these books And I think it's in reference to a private school private schools have different admission criteria private schools potentially have different resources and from what I heard from the last meeting and compared it today it

179sounds like that school is doing about the same that we're doing at Brookfield East and so what I'm not hearing is that they're doing better on the AP lit scoring than then our school is so either their their teachers aren't as great as ours are perhaps or they could do better with these additional books in their curriculum so I just want to address that And I do want to also thank the board for those of you that read the book. I think context is very important as part of reading these books and understanding what they're really about. If you just read specific passages, you can take away that they're just graphic and pornographic and all of that. When you read the entirety of those books, which I know can be difficult if you have kids

180or just time, you're a single parent, I will say, I reiterate again. I read these books in five days, both of them. I had three kids. My wife was working those days. And so it can be done. It doesn't make it easy. But I think it's really important that... You know we we we take the time and really inform ourselves So I do agree that the board does have a different responsibility and I think that responsibility is To make sure that you are informed about these books and sure that you know the whole entirety of these books So those of you that have read the entirety of these books I really want to appreciate you and thank you for doing so because I think without that it's really hard to understand The value and what

181these bring to the table. So, thank you Thank You Wesley Carla Furman a resident the district is next to speak followed by Heidi Anderson I just wanted to address the comments about not knowing where the petition came from and if district databases were involved it was circulated through word of mouth and passion someone I know personally sent me a copy of it it was a link to someone's personal Google Drive doc I forwarded it to my three BC graduates and shared it with my friends in the community. I've shared it with other people that I know are parents of Brookfield Central students. At no time were district resources involved, and I find it offensive that it is somehow implied that we couldn't have done this on our own. There must be something nefarious at work.

182So that's it. Thanks. Thank You Carla Heidi Anderson a resident the district is next to speak followed by Stacy Bernkopf good evening I wasn't planning on speaking tonight but now that I've heard so many so many people come up here and speak, there are a couple of things I wanted to say. The first thing is it's not true that people haven't opted out. Some of us have actually opted to take our children out of this district. My youngest daughter is at Lake Country Lutheran. She's a Christian, and I was really concerned after our older daughter, who's a 2020 graduate of Brookfield Central, and I was very involved in seeing what was going on in the schools, and so I simply opted to move her to somewhere our family was more comfortable with. We're very happy

183with her there. She's having a great experience. And so that works out great for our family. But I do want to say, it's despite the fact that I am a taxpayer in this district, I do care about the kids of this district. And we've chosen to spend an extra almost $17,000 per year to make sure that our daughter is in an environment that we're comfortable with, which is the Missouri Synod High School and a great option for people who are concerned about things going on in the public schools. I think this decision was especially wise for our family when I watched what happened here tonight. And I really ask everyone in this room to really consider the hypocrisy of coming up here and advocating for free speech and for access to materials under the First

184Amendment and all that that entails while ridiculing who I consider to be a brother in Christ. a Christian, Sam Hughes, who had the braveness to stand up here in the public square this afternoon, this evening, and express his faith, his deeply held convictions. And I sat in this room and listened to people ridicule him for it. And I would invite everyone to please, when you get home tonight, think a little bit about what just happened here. And I close by encouraging you all to really reflect on that and consider your behavior. And so I'm going to close by reading from a banned book that I love and read every day. It's the Holy Bible. And this is from Matthew 5, 43 to 48. You've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbors and

185hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, What more are you doing than others? Don't even the Gentiles do the same? Please think about how you behaved here tonight. And Sam, as a fellow Christian, thank you for standing up for your beliefs in the public square. And God bless you and everyone in this room. Thank you, Heidi. Stacey Barncoff, am I saying

186it right? No, okay. A resident of the district. Hi, my name is Stacy Berry Coffey. Sorry, I have messy handwriting. I also was not going to speak tonight. I've sent emails to the board, but I did want to clarify a couple things that were brought up tonight. I spoke to the teacher at Central who teaches the AP Lit class without the Handmaid's Tale, and I feel like his words that were said at the TLC meeting are being misrepresented. I spoke to Mr. Perez and he said that he has used the Handmaid's Tale in the past to teach, but he just chooses currently not to teach it, not because he doesn't value the book or doesn't think it's a worthy piece of literature, but he just has other works he likes better and feels that he

187wants to teach instead. But what he did tell me was that... he is concerned that the board is censoring what the teachers can teach and choose to teach and it's eroding the the trust that the board has in the teachers and the teachers feel that by saying you don't trust them to lead discussions that they've led he's been a teacher for i think he said 30 years like that is a he expressed that that was frustrating to him So I wanted to clear that up and then I also have a question What are you gonna do for the students who are 18 and want to take this class? There's a my daughter's birthday is two days after school or four days after school starts some years So what do you do for those kids? They

188don't have to have their parents consent to take these classes Many of the students who are seniors are going to be 18 by a second quarter third quarter fourth quarter What will happen to those kids who want to take this? and then these two books are being pulled out but what about the other books that are in this ap lit curriculum what about beloved incest and pregnancy that result what about the body the kids find a dead body what about slaughterhouse five what about all of the other books on this list it's a slippery slope to start censoring books that you do not like certain passages in because all of these books have swear words they have many things that some people may find objectionable but that does not mean they are not good works

189of literature and shouldn't be talked about i'm not sure what elmbrook does as far as trauma-informed care but i work at a place where our staff is taught to talk to people about trauma and have trauma-informed care and there that i would think would be part of what elmbrook does with teachers and students and just how to um discuss things so i think that that is not necessarily a valid point that we don't have people who can talk to this and there are also counselors in the schools who can address these items as well um and all these books are on the website i just easily found them so if parents want to know what's in the curriculum they can also do that so thanks Thanks, Stacy. Our last request to speak is Diane Sherwin,

190a resident of the district. Hi, good evening, everyone. Thank you, Scott. I know it's late. One crucial ability of successful leaders is the ability to receive constructive criticism. If we're the number one school district in the state, then we would have the ability to easily review or revisit decisions, ensure that they're still appropriate moving forward. Sometimes this does mean change, but sometimes that affirms that we're still acting appropriately. Something I think we could all agree on is an example of why we do need to challenge at times business as usual. I'm guessing many of us have watched an older movie where there's an inappropriate joke or a storyline was used and everybody just cringes. I personally feel better that generally we evolve and challenge what is no longer appropriate. It's human nature to get defensive

191at times, and I think we have many things in the world currently that are unfortunately stoking outrage that may be muddying normal level-headed review. This review of two books clearly touches many nerves, so I strongly encourage us to focus on the issue at hand. We are talking about two books. They are deeply concerning to some, and I understand that we don't all share the same opinion, and that is fine. These books are not required to be successful in this course And I think that's an important reminder here when we're voting. Thank you very much Thank You Diane Okay, Kathy. Yep At TLC we did ask because of points they see you made and this is agenda item So it could be back and forth just for those who are wondering that's our governing rule I

192did ask, okay, if there are other books, because I didn't read everything on that list, but to assume that some of us didn't read this controversial book here, I don't know why we're assuming we didn't read it in whole. So that's one assumption. Two is, so when that was brought up, I believe Mary brought that up, how about all the other books like Stacy had mentioned. Okay, then educate me. What parts are comparable to these objections, these two books particularly? What are similar things that are in other books? As experts and professionals, help me understand. Were these things where we could be maybe blind siding and not looking at other things as a whole? I was told we didn't have time. This is the eighth month since the TLC directed to kind of look at

193specific to these books. So I think to Sam's point, I think it's fair because whatever is controversial, whatever this point of sexually explicit areas, people disagree. But for those of who vote, I believe it is. Maybe if you want to go parental signature, I think it's fair to send those pages. And third. thank you for clarifying about the petition because some of the former students who received that was very disturbed just so you know sometimes when we think we're doing good just like me we all have our perspective sometimes there are consequences to others too it's all the same and also first amendment has five components not just freedom of speech just fyi and college board i did read the petition it landed on my lap by a very disturbed couple of former students and

194it says ap may not be allowed to be taught in our district so i ask the admin do we make a call to the college board to ask this simple question that's a misleading fear-mongering with not based if you didn't have seven months to ask this since the direction of tlc simple call to college board hey is removing of these two things considered censorship by your definition where we will lose license to administer and our kids to take a test was that call made and your first six months was not made since the last meeting was that call made and that letter is intended unchecked misguided letter and i'm going to tell you there are a lot of students who received that word of mouth i'm sure it was and i believe you that it

195also had upsetting impact so i just want you to know that that's a real thing that you may not see in here so freedom of speech goes both ways diverse views correct and we should be able to discourse without heckling and cackling. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy. We have a motion on the floor that we're going to vote on now. It is to be, again, just clarify for board members, this is the, what? Oh, Jean. Here, can I finish? So the motion on the floor is whether or not, the motion on the floor is for the approval of the. Let me read it here so I get it right. Basically, the English elective curriculum and primary resources is presented, which includes the removal of two books. Several things can happen here, board members. We can

196vote on this motion. If it fails, another motion can be made or somebody can amend it. Any discussion before we vote? Jean, you did raise your hand. to include the Handmaid's Tale and Kite Runner with a requirement for parental sign-off indicating awareness that their student is taking either of these courses. I second. Okay, so now we have an amendment. We'll discuss and vote on the amendment. Is there any conversation or questions before we vote on the amendment? Kathy? Do we have to vote on the amendment for me to make an amendment? Yes. Okay. And then whether that passes or fails, you can make another amendment. Sure, okay. Any other questions? I would like to request a roll call vote on the amendment. I was waiting for that. Thank you. I figured. Christy, getting her steps

197in tonight. Mary Wacker. We're voting. We're voting on the amendment that Jean made. I vote yes. Brita Curdiara. Yes. Jean Lambert. Yes. Kathy Lim. No. Linda Boucher. No. Sam Hughes. No. Scott Wheeler. Yes. Four yeses, three noes. okay now the motion is amended to include that the english elective curriculum include the kite runner and the handmaid's tale along with a requirement that there be a parent sign up on the syllabus that they're aware they're taking the course along those lines what you said sam what's next and then mary looks like kathy was next i'd like to make an amended motion to the recently approved amended motion is that um that we attach the explicit contact that is controversial be attached to the parental sign-off as awareness and transparency from Handmaid's Tale and Kite Runner That

198would come from like booklooks.org or something like that is that what you're? So copy physical copy should be attached Could you give the exact language of that amendment so we know what we're talking about? Okay so the amended motion was that We approve the AP Lit curriculum with right with handmade sale and that parents would be notified in your amending it to add to include a paper copy physical copy of controversial content For awareness and transparency. I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion and we have an amendment and a second. And just by way of clarification, Kathy, you're talking about the excerpts from The Handmaid's Tale and The Kite Runner specifically? Yes. So just add that part to the amended version. So board members know what we're discussing here. Is there discussion and questions?

199I see. I don't know who was first. We're just going to take them and come around the table like this. We're going to go Mary Pritha. Okay. I'm not going to support this. It's so vague, and we would never agree on what the controversial content is. I could never support this amendment. I would like to add who determines what is the controversial content The board would be we would be listing it here. I would assume Jean This would be taking those particular excerpts out of context and Context is everything when you read the book, which you guys said at the last minute you hadn't read the book Have you read it since yes? Yeah, you've read the whole book. Yes Okay good good well and I have two I mean I have to say handmaid's

200tale I'm working on Kite Runner next and you're absolutely entitled to your right to think that but I think taking out the context does a huge disservice because that context is everything and I couldn't support the amended motion either I call the question on the amendment Question has been called So we're voting now on the amendment by Kathy Lim to include language that a physical copy of the controversial content from The Handmaid's Tale and The Kite Runner would be sent to parents along with the syllabus for their sign-off Sam I'm gonna make an amendment to her amendment. There's no discussion Questions been called so we got a vote on that and then you can make an amendment at that point because questions been called All those in favor of the amendment please say aye. Any

201opposed? No. No. That is defeated on voice vote. So we're back to the original motion which you can call it an amended motion but it's not really an amended motion because now it's the motion on the floor. Sam. Can you undelete that? So to help it be more specific because the content matters is I would say you can say amendment by Sam if you want to include the language. from booklooks.org that refers to these two books in particular. They have the excerpts all written out for you. It's very easy. So you can be very clear exactly what, and you can even look at the page numbers. That's the good thing about that. So if parents can decide to read the book and they can see the excerpts and decide if I want to read the

202book or not, so there's your clarity on that. That helps you with being very clear of what we're asking. I'm talking context, not context. But we are going to trust that the parents are going to be smart enough. Hold on, we're not discussing yet. Is that the amendment? Thank you. We're not discussing. We do have a proposed amendment. Is there a second on the amendment? Is it finished, the amendment? Yes, Sam's amendment. Christy's still putting it up. Do you want me to repeat that? Okay. To include excerpts from Handmaid's Tale and Kite Runner. to parents from booklooks.org. And I'm happy to forward those if you want to. I'm giving that as a vague one, or not a vague, but as a specific one. That's your second, yeah. Once we down this. Before we discuss. It's

203booklooks with an L. Yeah, with an L. Yeah, that's why I'm waiting for discussion. Is there a second on the amendment, which you can see on the screen? Second. Thank you. We have a motion and a second on this amendment. Sam, can you direct us? I think it would be important for the board to be able to read, just at least glance at the excerpts so we know what we're talking about. Do you want to put them on the board? Do you want to email it? Do you want to send it to Christy? She can put it up or direct us how we can get there on our Chromebooks. I'm on bookbooks.org, but I don't see, do I do a search? Scott, can I make a comment while we're looking for it? Yeah. For the

204same reasons that I said no to the last amendment, this still takes passages out of context, which is absolutely the wrong way to approach this, and I will not support this amendment. I'm going to say the same thing. I will not support this amendment. You put me on the spot here. I know. Well, I mean, I'll find him here. Can I make another comment? Okay, while we're waiting, yes, Mary. Okay, booklooks.org is supported by the Moms for Liberty. It's a highly politicized website. And for that reason, I don't believe that we should be injecting politics into this decision. Oh, my word. And for that reason, on top of the reason that it's taken out of context, I would vote no. Let's be respectful as other board members are talking. Mary's expressing opinion. Can you also

205ask audience members to not speak amongst themselves if that was a concern that Kathy had earlier? I'm seeing that happen right now again. Well stated. Want me to use it? Yes. I sent the first one. I'll send you the second one. Audience, you don't want me to gavel. That's when you know we're getting serious. Let's get serious. It's time. We're just waiting for, well, do board members want to see the excerpts before we vote? No one needs to. No one needs to? Okay. Well, in that case, we have an amendment and a second. Any further discussion Sam? I'll respond to that. I I cannot believe as adults here in the Board of Education that we're gonna say we can trust to teach these books But we don't trust the parents to take these books out

206of context. I mean there are adults here like that Come up with a better reason than that. I feel embarrassed that as a board of education, we're saying, we don't trust the parents because they'll take this out of context. Let's just be realistic here. If you don't want to, that's fine, but don't use that excuse that we're afraid the parents are going to take this out of context. Let's be honest and transparent. Send the parents the information. Let them decide. Show them what's really in these books. If we really trust the parents. We're going to provide them that information because, like I said, parents are busy. They're not going to read these books. They don't have the time to read these books. I heard that. I may work a full-time job and work here and

207other volunteer opportunities. I'm not going to read every book here. Excuse me. You mumble and repeat things over and over, too. I'd like to call the question on this amendment. We'll hear from Preeta first. Well, if there's a second to calling the question, then you have to vote on the call to question immediately. Okay. I'll check out. Thanks for helping me. Let's see. I should get my cheat sheet out. All those in favor of calling the question, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. No. Doesn't that require? Yes, it does. And it failed. Called the question failed. I would like to respond to Sam's point. If you're saying that parents should have the ability to figure out what's on there and will not take this out of context, then why don't you just give them

208the title of the book? Why provide them with very specific passages from a highly politicized website? Why do that? Why don't you trust parents to be able to look at the title of this book and determine whether or not they feel that their child should read it? Scott. We'll give Sam a chance to respond, and then we'll come to Kathy. I think it's simple because... I don't know. First of all, strip the book looks out or copy the content and you can provide them that you can take the quote political side out of this as a website. The problem is it's not a political excerpt. It's the actual language that came out of the actual book. So if you really believe in transparency, we're going to provide that to the parents and let them know

209what they're really being taught at school. Why would you be afraid to be open, honest and transparent and provide them the actual excerpts? I don't understand why this is even a question. Kathy. May I respond? We'll come back to you after Kathy. Kathy and then Mary. I'm genuinely shocked that adults here are calling using the word political, but it's, again, one-sided. I don't know why this is political. It's a pure pedophilia, sexual crime, violence. It is what it is. One sentence, yet when I say these things, the parents who are advocating for this cringe. So no one here is making it political. People using the word is political. We say we give parents final authority. We board here seven are making these crazy. Let's just be straightforward. Okay. Having parents sign off is a coward

210way of doing business. Final authority responsibility lies here. We either have the book or we don't have the book. Okay. But we as who legally have the authority to say what is okay within the four walls of. classrooms curriculum not library books different oversight curriculums 100% board responsibility accountability per WASBE per legal conference we attended so that's why this is not so yes you can get all these books take your five seven eight nine year olds to go read this at the library our library Sora public library but to ask the board to bless these books with their votes, and to say this violent sodomy, I don't care if it's one page, one sentence, or entirety, to call it a politics, I am truly, honestly shocked. Now may I respond? Thank you, Kathy. Mary? I

211was calling the moms for liberty. Political, they are behind this website, and I question it as a resource that we would put into policy. That was what I called political. That is a fact. My rationale, again, is context is everything, and we've been talking about this for a long time, and I'm finding... If I were sitting in the audience, if I were the people who'd written, if I were part of the overwhelming majority of our community that has spoken in favor of freedom to use these texts, they know what they're talking about. They don't need to be handheld to find the information they need to make a decision that in most cases they have already made. Thoughtfully not out of ignorance. I think we've got to bring this conversation to a conclusion and for that

212reason I'm gonna vote no on this and I hope that that we can move on from this discussion I would simply add I I found Pretty easily the excerpts online just by using the title the title alone. I didn't have to write controversial. I mean Google filled that in pretty fast. So if I was just typing the titles, that may not come up for, you know, Huckleberry Finn. It might be. But in this sense, I think there has been, in these two titles, there's been enough. controversy nationwide or enough discussion nationwide that it comes up certainly within the top five search results that I had on my screen. So my experience again, I agree parents don't have a lot of time. I've been one of those parents. That was one of the reasons I think

213parents need to look at this syllabus and be aware that their kids are signing for the class. Maybe 90% are, maybe 10% aren't. I think it's a little higher than that when life gets busy, but I think parents would find the content pretty quickly. Are we ready to vote on the amendment, Kathy? And then we'll vote. Do you want to turn on the, yeah. Your microphone. Battery. We use, you're now Mark Hanson. If you Google, even Google doesn't spell out all those profanities that's written in the book that kids are read for public consumption. And if those words were said or done or even joked around, I'm sure our student code of conduct and employee handbook would put that person on suspension and expulsion. Thank you, Kathy. We're now voting on the amendment by Sam

214Hughes, which is on the screen. All those in favor of the amendment, please say it. Do you have something else? It should be actually Kite Runner to parents, but. To instead of from? Yeah. Minor edit there. Changing that right now. All those in favor of the amendment, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. No. That fails on voice vote. We're back to the original amendment. For the original original sorry original motion to approve the English elective curriculum and primary resources to include the two books Handmaid's Tale and Kite Runner I'm adding that just for clarification. It's not part of the motion with the addition of Requiring a parental sign off on the course syllabus for each enrolled student. I'd like a roll call on that. Oh, do you want them? You'd have to make

215an amendment any further discussion gene amendment It's a simple one or you could just have it say the list as presented by the committee before the The original want to make an amendment. Oh was in the original The motion on the floor is the one that's on the time but that bottom part comes out now the Sam Hughes amendment goes away that we amend the primary resources for AP Lit and literature and film to include a handmaid's tale and kite runner with a requirement for parental sign-off indicating awareness that their student is taking either of these courses. That's the motion. Thank you. And we do have a request for a roll call vote. We're ready to vote. Christy? Come on, give me a chance. Give me a chance. Come on, Christy. Can I just say

216thank you to Christy Westphal. She's doing amazing. Good job, Christy. She makes us look good. Okay. Jean Lambert. Yes. Mary Wacker. Yes. Kathy Lim. It's a coward way of doing business, so no. Sam Hughes. No. Preetha Kurdiyara. Yes. Linda Boucher. No. And Sam Wheeler. No. Oh. I mean, I'm serious. It's a long way. Scott Wheeler, sir. Yes. Four yeses, three noes. Thank you. That carries. I'm going to call the vote. We do have a, is everybody leaving? You know, this just shows you how sad. Like, we have some of the most important things on tonight. We're talking about strategic, and everyone leaves. Yeah, it's okay. What's really important? They trust you to do the business. Four board members. I would propose adjusting, oh man, I closed out of it. Here we go. I would propose

217adjusting our agenda. What about any fours? Okay. Oh, there was a thumb. I thought he just pointed at you. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Whiteman. Yeah. I ran against him my very first election. Board members, we're going to cruise. I propose. Point of order, are we ready? It was, but it was only three. If you're exiting, awesome. If you could just start your conversation right out in the hall, we can continue our meeting in here. And board members, if you'll look at your agenda on discussion items C and D, I propose that we move those to the next meeting. Discussion or action? It's 5C and 5D, as well as we'll suspend the board president report tonight. Superintendent report, do you need it? Yep. Oh. So we'll move discussion or items 5c, d, and item 6 on the

218agenda to our next meeting. But the rest of the items are somewhat time sensitive, and so we do need to move through them, roll up our sleeves, and get to work. All those in favor? Well, can I have a second on that? Okay, we have a second from Mary. Can you clarify what you're removing? We're removing discussion items C and D. So it's 5C, 5D, and the board presence report number 6 to our next meeting. Oh, okay. Just to facilitate a quicker meeting. All those in favor of the change, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Cruising along, 4B, AP, government primary resource renewal. Lisa. This is an action item and essentially this is an addition update for the primary resource we use for AP government and politics I've had no questions since the discussion

219I'll turn it back to the board You can start this item with a motion can I get a motion on the AP primary resource I move that we accept the recommendation for the AP government primary resource as presented Thank you. We have a motion by Mary and a second by Jean. Is there any discussion or questions? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote. Are you done, Lisa? No, we've got to proceed. Thanks for staying. Master Facility Planning, Chris is making his way up here. Thanks for hanging around, Chris. You've got our next two items, but let's start with Fairview South. So I'm here tonight to help facilitate the action item regarding a decision for the Fairview South School facility

220and a related program location decision for the Waukesha County Special Education Cooperative Since our discussion in June, we've had several questions and individual conversations regarding this decision. I'd like to just share some of the questions, the more common questions and responses, and then I'll certainly turn it over to you for additional questions or dialogue. Much of this information is in board docs in the detail of the agenda items. So I'll just, again, I'll go quickly. Several of you have asked, will this proposed renovation be too small or too big? for current and future needs of the cooperative Our leadership team has consistently responded that enrollment is driven by three things first regional districts decisions to participate or not in the cooperative and as we know The number of districts has declined over time and today

221we have two districts that cooperate including Umbrook The second factor is the IEP team placement decision and the third is just the percentage of students who would meet placement criteria which includes alternate alternative curriculum and in most cases involves students with medically complex challenges using enrollment participation trend data we project future enrollment will range between five and ten students possibly up to 15 and the renovated space at either location is designed to accommodate at least 20 students depending on their needs So we have plenty of room for enrollment fluctuations over time Additionally our market assessment of alternative programs in the region suggests that we do not have the enrollment numbers nor the resources to justify an investment in other alternative programs for behavior based placements or credit recovery Which is why we have our partnerships

222with CESA 1 the Richardson School Ladd Lake and others Regarding facility capabilities, in June we presented two renovation plans based on the same program requirements. At the North Avenue location, a renovation includes the entire building currently dedicated to learning spaces, and also includes a full facility HVAC replacement at a total cost of a little more than $3 million. For the Fairview South facility, this includes many Changes or upgrades to the exterior envelope of the school and the renovation of all public entry spaces in the front the gymnasium and the east wing of the school which currently houses students at a projected cost of a little more than 3.4 million dollars After the renovation, we believe both schools would be usable for at least the next 15 years though the North Avenue facility renovation could last

223longer Finally our recommendation tonight To meet our one-year district goal of addressing our hillside and Fairview South facilities It's our administration's recommendation to pursue a renovation at Fairview South School for the following reasons One we believe the continuity of environment for students and staff is important to greater flexibility for the for the Fairview South facility offers greater flexibility for cooperative programming and its utilization of indoor and outdoor spaces Three, additional unused space in the Fairview South facility could be used for either undetermined district needs for programming or possibly current district needs like district storage. And lastly, investment in the Fairview South facility would also offer a continued revenue stream for the district from our current North Avenue property, which currently houses the Amy Montessori Early Childhood Program. With that, happy to answer questions. We do

224have a request to speak to us after board discussion. Let's go ahead and start with a motion. You'll see on your board docs there's two suggested motions. If you're interested in using that wording to help you get through the motion, of course, you could say you can make a motion for anything. But let's start with a motion, then we'll kick the discussion off. Preetha? Second, yeah. Thank you. We have a motion by Preetha and a second by Linda. Is there discussion or questions for Chris, Sam, and then Gene? I'll scroll down to the bottom of my notes now. Yeah, I know. First of all, I'm really glad to see the recommendation for this. I think that's a real positive thing for the district. In my conversations with Dr. Hansen and the team, their reasoning I

225thought was really sound. One of the big things they talked about was giving the board more diverse, more options for future and deal with future growth and issues. I think that was great. I also do want to recognize this has been a conversation for a very long time. The hard work by the Elmbrook administration team and patience as the board has worked through this conversation and through multiple changeovers on the board. So thank you for that as well. What I... The only thing I really would like to see happen, and I apologize for not knowing the exact process, but the way it works, that once it's approved, the budget gets approved through F&O before the final okay is given? Specific come back to F&O. If more money is needed, say the bids are coming in

226high, then that would be a comeback. Okay. So, yeah. So, F&O just works. Okay. And I would just add that the estimate given, which led to the dollar amount in the motion, We accounted for $25, $26. The work will start next June and we anticipate construction costs to increase. So I would just like to, because this isn't like your typical school and we have lots of experience with schools, being the special needs world and the special needs that is required, I would love to see some type of either like a behavioral consultant. work with the architect or whatever we're doing to design the layout in the facility so we know it'll best suit those with special needs I mean, the smallest thing, like with my daughter, she loves to STEM, and so I had to

227install special equipment up in the ceiling. I had to climb up my rafters and install everything so she could swing on it because she's big. So just things that we wouldn't necessarily know, and I know you probably already know a lot of it, but I would love to see maybe approval of the layout, the final layout before it's moved forward to go through maybe just the TLC committee since they'll be working with Emily and that team there just to say, yep. we approve of this layout or approve of this design? Because right now this is a concept, but the final one will be different. Yeah, I can respond. I think our typical process once we receive general approval or... oversight approval would be to engage stakeholders a little bit more deeply including families and staff

228we included staff in the in the conversation to get to the design and the square footage layout which is really what the costs are based on right now we have a placeholder for furniture there's allowances for more specific you know couture months I want to say yeah I know you know but But we also know that we're not building it for just the students that are there today. We're building it for students that are there 15 years from now. So we can't design an individual environment for an individual student per se, but we can certainly consider trends, needs, and ideas to get to a deeper plan as we put the... And that's great to know and that's why I think it's important to bring it just the final layout to the public eye and so

229the public can have a little bit of input to it whether even if it's just through the TLC committee something simple as that so it'll give a chance for people in community to give other additional feedback that we may be missing does that sound like doable So our typical process would be once the full board has given its endorsement of the project we would go into design phase and then we bring back to finance and operations a guaranteed maximum price with details to the design. Yeah, and that's great for F&O. I just thought the TLC- We would involve the teaching and learning team in all of that design. I'm sorry? We'd involve the teaching and learning team with all of that design. Not the team, the committee. I want the design part to be in

230the public eye through the committee for the TLC to see that as well. I think we could present the plans to both committees for feedback. I don't think there's no problem with that. I don't think TLC needs to look at the budget, but I think they should look at the layout. Understood. Yeah. Great. In terms of Fairview South and the capital investment going forward, if we do renovation at $3.4 million, The 1 million that's indicated the three sections of roof over ten years is that the extent of what's going to need to be done to that building or are there other items that are within the long-range capital budget that aren't really that aren't reflected here that I think we ought to think about if there are any So we'll treat Fairview South like all

231the other buildings and in our portfolio We will go through and assess them every year like I do for our long-range budget So if we determine roofs are needed they will be placed in the plan if we need HVAC upgrades, so it'll be part of our portfolio and Treated just like all our other buildings And I get that, but if, as we look forward 10 years or 15 years or whatever it is, we must have some idea of what's coming and if I'm going to make an investment in this wing of the building, but I'm going to have to make an investment like this in the rest of it to keep the building together for storage and everything else. It would be good to know if it's more than this million in roofing that we're

232also thinking we're going to have to do this and this and this in the next 10 or 15. It would be good to understand that. I think to have a complete picture of if I'm going to approve Fairview South as the location. I'm also signing up for a substantial capital spend going forward. So we had the expenses in. Kristen and I, when we were going through this, we have the numbers pulled out. They're not in the budget amount right now, but they're sitting in the plan off to the side so I can put them back in the years that were there for some of the maintenance coming up. everything but we are addressing part of this project we're taking care of the beams we're taking care of the brick and the sidewalk in the front

233we're taking care of the asphalt so we're taking care of the immediate needs probably for the first three to five years in the 3.4 yes I think the tricky thing with with the proposed plan is that you know it is for a portion of the building and we don't have a different than schools we don't have a centralized HVAC model and so there is no major upgrade of HVAC to this facility because we'll continue with the approach that we have for heating and air conditioning in the rooms and so and and there there's also As much as it might provide flexibility to have the north wing and the west wing available to us there could Come a time when we decide that the north wing isn't going to be usable or desirable and it could

234be demolished So to upgrade beyond the scope of the project now I don't think would make sense Because I think it would it would commit us even more to the building without having a clear plan for programming which we've talked about extensively As long as I know what is anticipated, I know we don't know. Maybe someday we'll take that down. But if it's in the long-range plan that we're planning besides these roofs sections, we're also planning these other expenses, I think that would complete the picture of what we're deciding. So we would know we intend to make the expense not just of this 3-4, but we're also going to be buying this rest of it. So if that could be part of the next conversation or next meeting. Keep in mind that some of that

235some of the budget that's included in here like you said the doorway the entryways when we did all the entryways to the other schools we didn't do the big entryway Project the same way at Fairview South did we well? Yeah, I think there was Yeah, Fairview South still has a security vestibule the double lock just like we did with all the buildings They go into the main office to check in so that doesn't need to be It's redone again. It's all identical to our other buildings same with cameras We have the same amount of cameras based on feet square footage and everything covering everything. Okay. Thank you Mary? Don't go far. He's just sitting down in the corner. He's ready. So when you said those amounts were taken out of the budget, when we looked

236at, like, for the reinvestment, the investment in the TRAN, were the amounts that had been in the 10-year plan for Fairview South improvements not in those numbers we were looking at and would have to be added back in? When you say they were taken out, what does that mean? So they're they're held in the plan But they weren't counted in the dollar amount on the capital improvement plan right now. Okay, we took them out We were waiting for board decision. So they're not counted in those year-over-year totals looking at to compare it's not I was gonna say do a ballpark of how much got taken out or not off my head, but I can get that for you Yeah, well, we're voting tonight. So I guess we're gonna have to make a decision without that

237information But I would say that we do have in the plan five million dollars allocated for a hillside decision and a fair be South decision in In the 10-year capital plan right now so this comes in well under that and and the expenses that Rick is referring to don't exceed at 1.5 million dollars, it's significantly less I think we still had the roof parts in there but okay yeah but but we're okay thanks it's built in the budget yes Kathy thank you for putting it together I appreciate the option I know it's uh hours of back and forth so the third option I was looking for I know we were short time so I appreciate option one um and also as far as budget I think it's uh Fairview South is not just looking at

238the dollars. I think the investment is long overdue. So thank you for putting it together. I'll make a couple of comments. You know, I had some concerns after our last meeting, and I just want to publicly thank Mark and his team. It's been wonderfully responsive. I mean we Mark went back and looked at the video of our last discussion on Fairview South which was two months ago is at the June meeting and Really took board member concerns seriously and I appreciate that if you didn't get a chance to meet with Mark I know he met with five board members and two of you weren't able to meet with him Again, Mark and team went through and looked at questions and concerns from board members ranging from, I'll probably list some things out, Mark, feel free

239to correct me, but programming, district IEP satisfaction, restraint, the autism incidents in our school district and the general population at large. Am I forgetting something? Again, just to be really responsive to board member comments. And one of my biggest concerns is, okay, so if I vote to go to North Avenue, what about Fairview South? Like, how many millions of dollars do we need to demolish it or to mothball it or to keep it climate controlled for store? What are we talking about? And again, Mark went to his team and said, you know, let's make a recommendation. And they're back tonight with a recommendation, I think, that surprised some people saying, hey. Fairview South you remember Chris was very neutral at our June meeting and I pressed mark a little bit on some of these issues

240and Came back with a recommendation. So just mark again publicly. Thank you for being responsive Thank you for listening to board member comments and concerns if you haven't had a chance to go through that presentation highly recommend it Well, I think you should look at it But and it is in your email one other thing that I wonder if we can do again There's a budget kind of holding for five million dollars. It may require coming back to the board for an increase now I wonder about more daylight at Fairview South Do we increase the ceiling height a little bit and put some higher windows in I think there's just some things we could do on that one wing To me I'm kind of with you Sam like hey, we're putting the money in and

241I don't want to say a half a million dollars isn't you know It's decimal dust or anything, but if we could put in a little more money to make this something that that goes You know 15 or 20 years rather than 10 to 15 or he gives us a nice facility for 25 years I'm interested. I don't know that I would approve it, but I'm interested in the information So as you go to Epstein you and as we look at some designs and finalize that designs I'd be interested in several options It doesn't have to be as high as the robotic lab at ease, but it's the robotics lab when I was standing there I thought you know what if we did something like this at Fairview South where it was just a nice You

242know remodel again. It's a lot of money and I don't know that I could approve without knowing the more of the specifics But I just want to I'm only one board member but empower you to say hey, you know, what would the Cadillac plan be? What would reasonable investment if we were more on a budget? What would that look like? I am interested in in several options in terms of this this remodel Fairview South is a gem and One thing that I don't know Chris if you touched on it, if not, I'll call it out again publicly here Mark and the administration saying what could be the uses for Fairview South 15 to 20 years from now and again if you went through If you got to sit with Mark and go through that presentation

243We don't know what's gonna happen with commercial property where will launch be? Would there ever be a need to demolish one of those wings and build a facility that could house launch? next to Fairview South. Again, there's just some, we just don't know where will the transition center be. And again, I'm talking long term, in 20 years. Long past our time, likely on the board, but just to give future boards the opportunity to meet the programming needs of Elmbrook, this is the right decision. Wholeheartedly support it. Are there any other comments before we take citizen comments? A couple questions, yeah. Three? It's interesting that this was a 15-year Window we were looking at and Scott just managed to creep it up to 20 or 25. I heard that I Want to be careful about what

244we commit to there? And my questions are the same as the ones that you raised, looking at what a good, better, best plan might be, but also looking at if there is a potential that we may not need a wing and a demolition would be involved. I don't want to get into a situation where all of a sudden the demolition triples in cost in five years and we get into a hillside situation where we should have been looking at what that would look like now. So I'd be interested in knowing if there's any kind of estimates we can have on that. And as well, from Mark and your team, we've heard a lot of future use in a... possibilities because we can't we don't a crystal ball I get it but what kind of spaces

245we actually have and does it make any sense to do more of a remodel of that building while we've got them in is there any kind of aggregate savings to take a better look at like the windows in the whole building or some of the other wings and have it done so that if we need it next year for something say we move the early childhood program there say we you know whatever we'd be able to do it without having to jump into another construction project, which would be more disruptive. And speaking of that, how disruptive is the construction of this to the program? Are they going to be able to be in that building during the construction? Construction would happen next summer. Nobody is going to be in the building. I would just say,

246remember that this is a 62-year-old building right now. So when we met with C.G. Schmidt and talked about the lifespan of the building. You know we started back in November with kind of the designation by our architect analysis of approaching end of life I think by the time you get to 80 years on the building You might have reached it and so to create grand visions for the existing space beyond 20 years from now I think would be Asking too much it might not be very responsible. We did look at demolition costs and we assess that we just feel like Without knowing our programming needs first. I don't know that it would be prudent to demo first and then and Then find out you have needs second, but I would say that when we talk

247about strategy map next One of the district goals is to create a plan for each of our facilities a master plan for each of our facilities and I think that would still include Fairview South where we look at program needs and all of our facilities across the system remember and again before we go too big in the design we've got a lot of other needs lining up right behind this that will come out in a master planning process so you know we want to put all those on the table I guess so in your opinion as we go through that master facility planning Hopefully starting soon, right? Would there potentially be time to make some of those decisions about do more or do less at Fairview South before the construction begins next summer or are

248we making this decision? Maybe this is a Rick question too and and we don't have an option to alter that I would say we work through our normal process of developing the details under the plan we put our best plan forward and we see how it sits you're gonna know I mean we'll move at whatever pace we move at with the rest of our facility planning but you know I would say let's get the ball rolling and the planning process rolling now we'll have plenty of time to develop those plans because they're pretty detailed now but we can certainly take into account some of, you know, And I know you want to get going on it. I get that, and I hear you, but I'm still feeling like this is a little piecemeal. And while

249it may be our best choice now, our best option, I'd really like to really have some better answers about what could be done in the rest of the building. The short-term answer to that will lie in the results of the Hillside property because you will have a need for the thousands of square feet of storage that we currently use at Hillside. So Fairview South will have a home in the wings that are not occupied by the consortium right now. And after that, then we'll determine what the future needs are. Right now, the crystal ball is not existing. Okay. Maybe we should just have a big rummage sale. You can organize that. Prita. Don't tempt me. It doesn't matter. in January the long-range master plan was for five hundred seventy seven thousand for hardscape but that's

250in the three four three point four million yeah yes and then a generator for 300k for that's also in the project so those mmm almost nine hundred thousand is covered and that was in the twenty five twenty six budget I don't see anything else beyond that so if that's still current yes okay thanks Okay, so as we've had this discussion over the past months I've been on the fence about which of these options I would consider to be what I would vote for my concerns have always been the best placement of students attending the education cooperative and I want to thank Mark Chris and Emily for their presentation to me it was very insightful and with consideration of the foreseeable future of the cooperative I'm very comfortable today voting for the option to renovate Fairview

251South We do have a request to speak to the board, Angie Pingel, a resident of the district. And if you want to speak, I think Chrissy's got a form if you want to start filling it out. They're up here, Mark. It's okay. I'm going to start. Oh, sorry. I want to start by thanking our administration for raising the situation at Fairview South and bringing these two proposals to the table. I know it had to be very frustrating for you to propose the North Avenue scenario and then have families express reservations. We really appreciate you listening to those concerns and creating a proposal for remaining in our current location. For our board members faced with this very difficult decision, I appreciate your thoughtful questions and concern for getting this right. It's no secret that I am

252in support of renovating our current space. So much so that I would rather do nothing than move into a newly renovated space at North Avenue. Why would I want to stay in a building that... desperately needs repairs with visible mouse traps in the classrooms, peeling paint, and generally out-of-date and well-used accommodations instead of moving to a beautifully renovated space. It's simple. You cannot overcome the safety issues with the North Avenue location, particularly when my son frequently needs to walk around outside to help him stay regulated. Putting a school... significantly intellectually disabled students who have no concern for their own safety on a four-lane highway and sharing it with our grounds maintenance department is in my opinion irresponsible and there is nothing that could overcome with that so for me hearing that there's a lot of

253favorability towards staying where we're currently located that is the best possible outcome we have a tenant leasing that North Avenue building We have a reason to maintain the Fairview South building, which would also provide the district with much-needed storage space. The entire wing formerly occupied by St. Coletta's is available for storage. The current building also has the space necessary for the Fork Farms project, which provides necessary job training skills for our students and all that organically grown lettuce for our district-wide food services program. But I am troubled about one thing in this whole process that I can't stop thinking about and that's the contrast to our recently approved robotic space How many teachers and staff participated in the board meeting surrounding that approval? I reviewed that video both videos actually and it was multiple Aren't

254you at all curious as to what the experts on the children at Fairview South think? Just because we have senior leaders does not make them experts on the day-to-day workings of that school and those students Why haven't we heard from any Fairview South teachers? That deeply concerns me to know that we're maybe not listening to the people who know best Thank You Angie Our next request to speak is Michelle Osick a resident of the district. Is she back? I'll hear you. I just wanted to say that The Fairview South School where they now as currently is we need the space for my daughter She likes to grab and whatnot she was at Wisconsin Hills middle school briefly and They recommend that she would attend Fairview South and at first I was a little unhappy about

255that But you know what she really fits in that environment She thrives in that environment and my fear is if that environments taken away from her I and she's put into a environment that's smaller and More confined spaces that she won't fare well, and I guess that was the only thing that I really wanted to say Thank you. Thank You Michelle And our last request to speak is from Anthony Pauls. Good evening. I'm with Michelle in Autumn. And a lot of what Angie said earlier, a couple minutes ago, is definitely true. You have a facility that the alternative is 3,000 feet less space. I've seen a lot of the blueprints from the previous facility that was going on, and there was a lot of things that weren't considered, like space. I saw the rooms where

256there was six chairs in a room. That's not going to work with these kids. I mean, my arms are testaments to tell you that right now. You need to give these kids their space or they're going to hurt people and cause marks. I've got the wear and tear on both arms if you want to see them. Fairview South has a gym. They use that gym for dances and other other things you also have that that storage space that's available from the hillside project or other projects that you can move stuff in you got a profitable Thing going on over at the other facility Why not just keep making the money if you're doing it to help provide for the district. You got a food resource program I can say this, that Autumn thrives in this

257program at Fairview South. The teachers are great. The programs are great. I mean you already have the best school district in the state here and we need to keep that not just for the students that thrive with robotics programs and getting scholarships to Stanford and Harvard and all these other places but we also need to support the children at the lowest levels of cognitive abilities because they deserve it too as people of the school district It's definitely needed. So, I mean, some of you may have some special needs experiences and some of you may not, and that's okay. And, you know, you can learn and grow more from that, and you totally should if you have it. But this space is needed, and these kids deserve the same resources, you know. or close to it

258as we can get them as the kids with the superior abilities and robotics programs and the football team, the million-dollar swimming pools and so on. I mean, these kids deserve that also. So please put that in your consideration. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. In the interest of time, and I think we're ready to vote unless there's something materially different that board members would like to say. All those yeah, just one thing I thank you for sharing Paul and Angie I do think it's important that we have just the right consultant or the right team look to see what this would best serve this community So I just want to make sure that's part of that process and I guess you said that is Dr. Hansen So that's good to know and then so do we

259need to make an amendment for this to also be presented to TLC? Or will that just be done? Okay. Thank you All those in favor of the motion to renovate Fairview South at the cost stated, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote. Chris is standing at the table for the district strategy map. Chris, you've got 30 seconds. Just hold your applause to the end. That's just wishful thinking. I move to approve. I can start with a motion. It's an action item. Isn't that the process? I'll start with a motion. I move approval of the 2024-25 district strategy map as presented. Second. You have a motion by Dean and a second. Chris, is there anything you'd like to draw our attention to? The goals are considered continuing from last year

260I appreciate the committee conversations that we had slight changes to the middle school program as we advance that work forward broaden the As I mentioned broaden the long-term plan for each of our facilities. So create a master facility plan That will prove beneficial in a lot of different ways. We'll move our compensation system forward. We still need to work on health care costs. So goals stay the same. The work is big work. This reflects the big work that's needed in our system and holds us accountable to that work. So no other comments from me. Thank you. Linda? Just for the record, everyone on this board has gone over the strategy with Chris at their committee level meetings. So when we approved it, this is something that we have all been privy to and we are

261all aware of. Except for me. Just not being on a committee, but the strategy map looks great. We can make that happen for you, Stan. maybe yeah I could yeah just one question for you Chris just because I wasn't a part of those conversations when I look at grade school district I see two goals I'm just wondering kind of a high level 30 seconds kind of what's our roadmap on the middle school thing and then on the facility plan are we thinking task force kind of what's your approach there do you have any ideas middle school program recommendations many of them will come to the board in October November so that they could be considered before our course schedule course scheduling process happens in January February if there are any course changes and schedule changes

262and then I do see a community-based group task force workgroup whatever you want to call it who would consider all of our needs and priorities and then make a recommendation to the board which of course you have the you know you choose to accept or not or modify but I just think that's the most efficient way to get The work done doesn't tie up the board in several work sessions and tours and all that. And it gives us a wide perspective of views in the community for all the different needs that we service with our facilities, from before school, after school needs, to athletic, co-curricular, classroom needs, just a wide range. So when I vote on this and it says June 2025 there, is it 2025 that... community group would have their recommendation to the

263board or by 2025 we formed the yeah no no no by 2025 by June I would say that their recommendations are coming to the board for consideration I would then suggest further out the next year that we have a goal of how do we pay for these renovations so we have a year-long process then to consider how we finance them but that's That wouldn't be the part of this committee this committee would just assess the needs using our Epstein-Yuen assessment and their own knowledge and walkthroughs and whatever else we need but then they would just recommend priorities in the plan thank you thanks for clarifying that Mary and Jean um Chris I like the middle school that to me is a really strong goal when I look at the prioritizing our facilities by June 2025

264I hope there is an understanding that those will that will involve some program discussion at all the other levels that may influence needs and changes for the use of of those spaces and size and projected enrollment so i don't know that it needs to say program driven facility plan but i hope that's an understanding yeah that's certainly a big part of it okay i'd like to understand where the um act literacy scores for 2025 and math scores how were those how are those chosen what was the source of those and and How were they devised? 21.9 and 23.7. Yeah, both the literacy and the math goal, kind of. Yeah. How did we pick those scores? You want to hit your button there, Kathy. That was based on from the last year's and the KPI. I

265got to pull the TLC. It's a slight improvement over our most recent data, which is two years old. The problem with both ACT and Wisconsin Forward assessment data is that we don't have that information until November when it becomes publicly available so to change a goal now based on information that isn't public we can't do it and so it's a continuation of the same target that we had last year I think next year we would have obviously this falls data and we'll just have to adjust on a lagging basis going forward But one thing is the 11th grade because we were measuring both forever I think on TLC and the recommendation is because senior ACT is like whoever wants to optional 11 everyone takes so that's like our one score that we consolidated to in

266TLC so we could measure that because that is the only measurement for high school because in math tests they don't have all that and then we're also reporting out both ela and math so we'll focus on the 11th just for kpi not that we're not looking at but that is the most consistent non least variable everybody takes it 11th grade you guys have the most kpis yeah the committee definitely watches we reduced it by three pages so it's reasonable to expect that we could achieve these with what we're doing from now and through spring and it is incremental it's very desk like it's like so it's not like they're going to improve 0.5 every year right um and because we're a year and a half lagging we're working on old data for the future so

267it's just like like just like any number budget it's a guesstimate it's a decimal point and we all we want is we want to see it moving up I think it's important to note that we have you know all of our schools and the district have hundred day plans which drive action based on data and results. And so I think there's a lot of momentum behind those plans and we're looking forward to seeing the results of those plans through our standardized achievement data because we feel like they're gonna make a difference. Thank you. Right, are you ready to vote on the motion? All those in favor of approving the strategy map as presented, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you, another unanimous vote. Appreciate that. Thanks for your work, Chris. And are you going

268home now? Stay till morning. Wow, that's great. I heard Mark's bringing coffee and donuts tomorrow morning, so you'll be okay. Did that hear you? There's some clapping back there. Oh, yeah, it's in the back. Now you've got to. Legislative priorities. This should be a relatively quick agenda item. This is a returning item that was delayed a couple months based upon long agendas previously In the long delay, I've not had any questions from folks But would open it up for any discussion or any motion that you may have Let's start with a motion and then we can ask mark questions. Can I get a motion gene? I'm of approval of the legislative priorities as presented second Gene made the motion and Kathy seconded that is are there questions for mark before we vote? I'll just ask

269one, just to refresh my memory, what's new? I mean, a lot of these priorities I see on here are similar. Is there one on here or two that you say, hey, this is kind of a new area for us, we're going to try something? Probably the biggest change has been the efforts we had around influencing public policy related to early literacy made it to the finish line. And we got what is now referred to as Act 20. Although we didn't get all the wins we wanted in that, we did get... Floor put in for all learners in the state of Wisconsin based on some of our experiences We did alter the percent reimbursement rate for special education, which is in the funding section The private school transportation is not new. The teacher pipeline is not

270new Retiree hiring is not new school start date Mandates directory information the last one in the operation section that is new and that is based upon some of the experiences we've had with public records requests and The accountability section is not new. Thank you for them any other questions all those in favor of approving the Legislative priorities is presented. Please say aye. Aye Any opposed? Thank you that carries on voice votes Now we're to the draft resolutions for WASBE Chris you taking this? Sure New process to identify resolution proposals which have to be submitted by September so We were trying to hit the deadline here We talked through at the last meeting the discussion of of this proposed resolution and I have had no questions since Start with the motion Thank you a motion by

271Jean and a second by Kathy is there any further discussion on the WASBE proposed resolution Sam yeah I just want to say that this was the primary reason pushing through this or that we're recommending this is that allows the district to be much more nimble and promoting assistants or teacher aides up through to actually do teaching that have the experience and qualifications to do it but the heart of it is limiting That teach teachers licensure to the actual school district. So that actually might help with retention as well So I thought it's a win-win for us as a district. This is pushed. That's great, Jean Say that in my tenure on the board This is the first resolution that we've submitted and kudos to you Linda and your committee for pulling this together And we're

272getting it off the ground in time for the deadline. So Great work. Thank you. That's great. And you'll have a chance to champion it in January I mean, it's kind of exciting. It's actually a very cool thing to kind of be involved kind of at a state level. Yeah, I'm also glad that this includes some acknowledgement that compensation matters and that we can improve what we do there to improve our teacher retention and attracting teachers. Great. Yeah, good job. Thank you, Sam and Linda. All those in favor of the WASBE resolution as presented, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote. Our next agenda item is the annual meeting notice. I'll take this. This is required by state statute. Basically, there's a variety of things, a list of, I

273don't know, 20 or 25 things we could talk about at the annual meeting. This is setting the agenda for that annual meeting and the time and place. You can see on your board docs, it's the fourth Monday in September. What is it? Monday, September 23rd. And this year it will be held at Brookfield Central Cafeteria. Oh, yeah. Okay. So are there any questions on what's going to be on the annual meeting agenda or the notice for people at the meeting? If not, I could entertain a motion. I move that we accept the agenda for the annual meeting as presented. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. So we have a motion to approve the annual meeting agenda. presented any further discussion just a question about one we might see some of the present

274I know we've got a turnover in finance but we last year at this time had already kind of seen a rough draft of the budget presentation you had the preliminary budget back in the spring okay Chris so nothing's changed budget changes okay radically between now and October okay and you'll do your flashy thing I don't do anything flashy anymore. At the annual meeting, there will be kind of a backing out a little bit to talk about the tax levy and just kind of bring the public up to speed a little bit, but it won't. The budget there isn't materially different than what the preliminary budget you've seen so far. The finalized budget in October after the third Friday count in September is the one that changes. It won't really change until October. Thank you for

275that question. Anything else? All those in favor of the motion to approve the budget hearing and annual meeting notice, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote and brings us to our last item, Jean, gifts to the district. I'd like to draw your attention to this green. On to the screen that highlights the recent gifts to the district during the month of May 2024 for a total amount of $49,968.40 This slide will join the myriad of others that's posted on our website so that these gifts and their donors are memorialized and people can access them into the future That I move approval of the gifts as presented. Second. Thank you. We have a motion to approve the recent gifts to the district. All those in favor of the motion, please

276say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That carries on voice vote and concludes our action item. These mics tonight. You know, the mics are tired. We need to go home. Yeah, okay. Our first of two discussion items is the health insurance stop loss. I'm inviting, I believe, Pam to the podium. Scott's here too as backup. Thanks Scott. Just remember there's coffee and donuts here at the district office if you stop by tomorrow morning It's my pleasure to introduce Scott Fuller VP senior VP at USI our benefits consultant I was going to talk to the board about the stop-loss renewal Briefly talk to the board you added right? Okay. Good evening Stop-loss insurance is generally used by self-funded health plans to mitigate risk. This year we had a very difficult renewal with your incumbent optum

277based upon the claim situation. So we went to market, we went to a dozen alternative insurance companies, narrowed it down to two. Presented that to the personnel committee a couple weeks ago. The recommended carrier is Evolution Risk. the total increase um let me back up there are two components of stop loss there is a specific uh stop-loss deductible which for you is 350 000 um and there's an aggregate component of it so that if there's major claims for the entire membership you are also covered You currently have what's called a no light right to laser at renewal contract and a rate cap of 50% Optum's increase was the 50% and they're taking away that no right to laser provision of the contract for the next period With all of that said we went to market.

278We found a carrier that was very competitive the specific deductible increase was 15% They actually reduce the aggregate premium. So the total increase is 8.4%. They also are including the no right to laser contract and the rate cap at 49%. So the recommendation, I guess, is to move forward or to talk about evolution risk. Perfect. Thank you. This is a discussion item tonight. Are there questions for Scott? I'll be back as an action item next month. Sam? So what was the, so you said the total increase was 8.4%. What was the total dollar we paid last year for? Roughly $575,000. Okay, so we're going to see an 8% increase on top of that total number? It's about, on a net basis, $52,000. Of the $585,000 that we paid, what? What was the actual losses that

279were covered? To date? Yeah. I don't have the exact number, but it's over 200%. Okay, so we made off pretty well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why they're looking at such a big rate. So why is this other company not offering? They see that, right? They see the increase in premiums. Was it just a fluke and they recognize that, or are there something? What are we missing? They're not missing anything. They believe that the existing risk will not be their risk at the new effective date on 9-1 of this year. So they're willing to, I guess, take the risk that that claim will not be there when the contract starts. And can you explain the laser? Sure. What is that again? So your specific deductible is 350,000. So any individual that exceeds that, the plan, it's

280insured. They have the ability, the carriers have the ability to say, well, we don't like that risk. So that potential liability is a million dollars. We're going to laser that. And that person's specific deductible is a million dollars. Okay. Optum lasered one person at $400,000. Oh, last year? This coming year. For the upcoming year. Oh, okay. Just to clarify, that's not a deductible. That's our cost then correct? You have the additional $50,000 of liability yes Okay, I see. So they look at the individual? No, no, not the organization. The health plan or districts. So that one individual we will have to pay $400,000 out before the premiums? If you were to renew with Optum, yes. That's not in the recommended areas. There are no lasers on that. Thank you for doing a lot of work

281on that and figuring that out. I appreciate that. My pleasure. Scott's actually amazing. And you've got a great name. It should be Sam Fuller according to Christy. Sam Wheeler. Okay, it's 10 o'clock. You can't make those jokes. Yeah, it's like we got to save air. One thing. In the personnel meeting, it sounded like Adam wants to get out of, you know, insuring us. And they did 50% raise because I think that's the max they could per contract. I think they would have more if they could have. And then this year's rebate was super low, right? Because of all this, like. 2,000 something, which is insanely low because of all the higher costs. So we talked about is it the number of increase of people claiming more or that some of our employees unfortunately got a

282lot sicker. And I think it's a little bit of both. And you never want to hear that because you don't want people getting sicker. But those were the reasons I think these numbers look that way. So thank you for doing your homework, Scott. The real challenge is Scott Christy yeah oh thank you for that clarification It has to be done by August 28th otherwise they get the right to Because of that it will not be back in our regular board meeting in September it'll be back in August so come to that meeting prepared to vote on that yep thank you thank you for that clarification Thanks for your patience with us Thank you Scott Thank you guys our final discussion on the evening is the CTE curriculum phase two so Lisa's coming to the podium

283again discussion item will be back next month for action so as I think many of you know we have a great portfolio of classes that we offer in career and technical education this past year we launched 30 new courses that were approved by the board in 22-23 we do it in two phases due to the amount of courses that we offer so these are courses that have existed in our portfolio of courses for a very long time and we simply refined them using current standards and so forth so the attachment that is in the document is where you would find all of the courses that are included in this next phase i've also included for your reference a map of each department so you can see what we offer in business what we offer in

284ate and and so forth so again um this has come through before for discussion this is now phase two of curricular courses that were refined thank you are there questions for lisa hearing none thank you lisa donuts and coffee tomorrow Our next agenda item is discussion by exception only are there any items the board members would like to comment on Kathy don't you dare Hit your button there. Well, you could oh you're on I pull here. It's my So two things map testing was purchased by a publisher I can't remember the name they kind of they're going to change all that up as they as a sole proper proprietor they got that license so they're changing it all up as a publisher because we don't know how it's going to change we're still going to

285administer mapped this school year we'll see more next school year what it's going to look like and also you know we've been doing uh Fast oh my god. What is that fast bridge and then now state just came out with Pearson based It's called Ames web, which is totally new is for our younger elementary students So just FYI those those are new tests that's gonna be administered and then once those are administered it comes back next fall our staff will our team will have a lot of data to compare how does it compare with the fast bridge and if they're really measuring to what we did so there will be a lot of data digging so that's new this year with our school year for the younger ones fast bridge has served us well hasn't

286it They just came out and we're hoping and then when Emily said it's Pearson we're like So we have no choice is state required and if you go to TLC committee we have a whole list of they did a great job of Putting when each test are it's like crazy So they share that with the board and it's been very helpful. So we're not asking same questions all the time Yeah, thank you, Kathy. The map was sold to Houghton Mifflin, I think was the company that bought it. And the AIMS web, I think Emily was pretty high on the potential for us to use that as a comparative tool. It's just the transition that will get messy, because now we're going to start baselining all over again. Right and that's gonna require a little communication

287to parents and the GTP I just have an FML committee report it's only four pages so I'll go fast I'm just kidding just for the fund 46 transfer took place and that was a total of 6.5 in addition so total of 8.8 million so just a FYI so you guys knew that Thanks any other discussion by exception only hearing none we're to the superintendent's report Mark Sure as Kristi gets that launched I want to welcome our two newest associate principals Brian is joining us at Brookfield Central as is Chad they both come with considerable experience as administrators in other districts they have hit the ground running they've had leadership teams in already this week so we're really excited about what they're going to offer In addition to our two new APs at Brookfield Central, we

288had a student who won an animated film award for his stop-motion film. This is Sam learning to fly. If you did not see the link I sent to you from the Waksha Freeman who picked up the story on the front page, it was tremendous. The next slide, you will recognize the gentleman in the middle holding the big trophy. We've talked about this before, but that's Jake Zhang. He spoke as a student rep to this board for at least this past year. Maybe he will be coming back as he's a junior to be. He won the national FBLA speaking competition, so he's a national champion. Right. Yeah. I used him, I gave a presentation to future superintendents and I used him as a way that you can use students to engage the Board of Education. It

289was a speech where he's constantly doing this, constantly talking with his hands, so it was great. Finally, just wanted to update the board on we're in the final quarter of our capital improvement projects for the summer. The big number at the top references what we spent in the last decade on capital improvements as a school district without a referendum. That is stunning. There's not another district that I know of that can say that. So $68 million over the course of about 10 years. This summer we're doing $3.6 million worth of projects. They're all listed there. They're all on target. The Brookfield Central Press Box is out to bid, and we will start that as the football season comes to a conclusion. With that, I would open it up to one last topic. I wanted to

290offer my public thank you to Christy Westphal for managing what has become a behemoth, and that is responding to public records requests. We've had 48 of them this calendar year so far. We had 123 of them last year. We had 115 of them in 2022. You go back to 2019, we had less than 10 a year. So in the calendar, if you're looking for a calendar year comparison, a school calendar year, you can see we had 79 during the course of the last school year. Christy spends a considerable amount of her time making sure these are done accurately and timely. There is no time deadline to these record requests being fulfilled. It's really when we can get to them. And we can charge for location costs, but we cannot charge for redaction costs. One person

291is responsible for 33% of these records requests. With that, I offer opportunity for any questions that you may have. I would say that we're a half a calendar year in 2024, so we're halfway to 100. A slight down tick. You call it what you need to. Jean? Can you look at security upgrades on schedule? Are those set to be done by the time school starts? They will be done by the time school starts. We've got some buildings coming online right now. So there will be new swipe cards and a whole bunch of different security protocols. And we'll update the board at our security work session. Thank you. Yep, right in the scans. Just kidding. I don't know what. One thing I'd point out I was going to mention in my board presence report, but board

292members, if you're interested in seeing, again, a lot of our capital improvement projects this summer aren't really interesting like a new parking lot or a new roof. But if you want to get up on the roof, can we get up on the roof? but the wood shops are there and I always take the opportunity to tour the schools at the beginning of the year and I'm gonna put Mark out here to say hey if you'd like to do that certainly Mark can arrange those tours or take you or a senior leader can go with you I think it's just great to be visible in the schools if you've got time certainly connect with Mark on on that and I'm gonna be seeing our wood shops on Monday with you yep so Mark and I will

293be there and I'll report on that different ones if you want to come Monday we're going to win 8 I think 8 a.m. start here are we starting that the district office we're meeting so meet at East 8 a.m. if you're interested in yep tagging along with Mark and I'd be great alrighty but do let us know that you're coming so there's not a walking quorum right Christy Chris he's like oh my gosh stop inviting people Oh central thank you But again, board member, I do encourage you. I know we've got professional lives and family lives, and it's not always possible. But if you're interested, certainly reach out to Mark. He can facilitate that. Any other questions for Mark? Can I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. All those in favor of adjourning, please

294say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We are adjourned.