001Good morning. All right, the time is now 7 o'clock and we'll call this meeting to order. Uh, has this meeting been posted? Yes, it has. All right, roll call will show that all five board members and both uh student board members are present and we will stand for the p pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. All right. Are there any communications this evening? Yes, there are. Uh Jonathan Mitchell, Zach Gger, and I attended the joint finance committee hearings at State Fair Park last week. We offered testimony in alignment with the board public policy priorities requesting 60% reimbursement for special education services and inflationary increase to per pupil revenue limits and support
002for the teacher apprenticeship program through the department of workforce development. Uh renov renovations began at JC Park playground today. The design selected in a community survey will come to life in the coming months and we look forward to unveiling the new playground in June. Uh, Educators Rising students traveled to Stevens Point for the Educators Rising State Conference. Congratulations to the three students who competed in the event and received awards. Two of those students who wrote a and illustrated a children's book qualified for the national competition and will be traveling to Orlando soon. Uh this Wednesday the community alliance is hosting a book conversation around the text the anxious generation by Jonathan height. Uh as part of the event participants will engage in community circles focused on themes and ideas from the text. This Thursday, there
003is a community connections event for ArabAmerican Heritage Month at Highland View Elementary from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. And the Greenell Park and Recreation recently received two anonymous donations in the amount of $150 each to cover expenses of the Greenell Senior Social Club. Both of those donations are much appreciated, and I recommend that the board take action to reorganize the agenda, taking item 4.4 four on the library plan in advance of item 4.1. You need a motion. You do need a motion and a second and a vote. All right. Uh do we have a motion to reorder the agenda, moving the library DPI plan to 4.1? I will move uh approval to um reorder the agenda to put item 4.4 ahead of item 4.1. I second. All right, we have a motion and a second.
004Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm yes. Motion passes. All right, moving on to student updates. Here we go. Perfect. So, first off, the ghs marching band began practices for the entire band this past Tuesday, and they will continue practicing for the next nine months leading up to the 137th Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day, 2026. Um, 9th graders and tth graders at the high school take the preac tomorrow, which means upper classmen will get the day off. And a reminder about that is that we are also piloting our new exam exemption program at the high school, which we are hoping that offering an incentive of exam exemptions will improve effort on the test and hopefully lead to higher scores across the board. So, we'll get the results of that eventually. And then the GHS
005student council recently held a fundraiser for the upcoming prom at Panther Pub, which we had a variety of donated items, and we received a good amount of profit from that. That concludes my half. Um, for my half, Green Dela is holding interviews and elections for chapter officers to decide the new officer team for 2025 to 26. Uh, spring sports are underway with triyouts being held for golf, baseball, tennis, and other spring sports with tournaments and games for the respective sports being held over the span of the last week and into the next week's coming ahead. And that concludes my half of the student updates. Thank you. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. Uh moving on to questions or comments from visitors. All right, I'm not seeing any. Uh so that'll move us up to uh approving
006the meeting minute meeting minutes from uh March 17th. I move approval of the March 17th regular board meeting minutes as presented in agenda item 1.1. I second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. and I am yes. Motion passes. Uh moving on to new business. We are approving personnel. Under um state statute, uh the board uh needs to take action on teacher contracts to remploy uh staff who are continuing based on their existing contracts that's required. uh administration is recommending that you approve the teacher compensation model which is not changing. Um but it is in place for a group of teachers who are what we refer to as on the schedule and we recommend that teachers be advanced within the structure and in order to do that you need
007to approve the compensation model um which is an annual appointment. Uh so that is what's listed there. There's different categories of reemployment, but that gives you um A through F, and we recommend approval. All right. Did anyone have any questions, comments, or concerns? All right. Uh looks like we need to do a motion individually for each one. You can take them all together. Oh, we can. Yeah, you can motion to approve all of them. Uh it would be similar to a consent agenda. So, you could motion to approve all of them or you could take one out and take it separately. But Okay. I suggest you take them all together. I move the approval of the advancement of the teacher salary structure for teachers recommended for contract renewal as listed below and approve the level
008advancement for eligible teachers for 2025 2026 school year as presented agenda 31A and approval of the full-time teacher contract renewals in 31B the approval of the part-time teacher contracts in 31C as well as the administrative contract in 31D and the two full-time teacher appointments in 31E. E and move the approval of the resignation. Lastly, post an agenda item 3.1F. Second. All right. Wait, I second. We have a motion, a second. Do a roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And I am Yes. Motion passes. Uh, moving on to new business. We'll start off with the library DPI plan. You want to introduce them, Maggie? My mic could work. All right, we have special guests this evening. I'm excited to hear this. Yes. Um, so we do have our two school librarians. Um, we are very excited
009to hear from them today. They will be sharing um the Greenale Library District goals and um share a plan that will cover 2025 to 2027. And they are going to um share. So, we have Danielle and Tara, and they're going to introduce themselves again in their presentation. Hello. Good evening. Happy school library month. Thank you for having us during school library month. I know that was the plan that Maggie put in place from the beginning of the school year. Um, we are here just to talk a little bit about the school library plan. Every school district in Wisconsin is required to have a library plan on file. And Tara and I have put together a plan that we think will be really good for our district for 2024 through 2027. So this school year through
010the end of the 2627 school year. And um this presentation is not the plan. You have the plan I believe um in your packets but we wanted to give a presentation to offer a little bit of background information about libraries and libraries in Greenale. I am new this year and Tara's been here for three years but we don't right but we don't know um how much you know and so we just thought it best to give a little background knowledge before talking about the plan. In discussing our libraries, we thought the best place to start would be to tell you about who's working in the library. So, I'll start with introducing myself. My name is Tara Jordan. I'm the elementary school librarian. And so, I work at all three elementary schools in our district. I've
011been here since the 2021 um fall semester. And before that, I worked in public libraries and specifically at Greenale Public Library as their adult and teen services librarian. Um I have my master's in invi in library and information science since 2014. And when I started working for Greenale School District, I went back for um my certification in library media specialists. And I'm Danielle Brandon. This is my 15th year as a school librarian. It's my first year here in Greenale. Prior to coming here, I worked for four years at Mcquano High School and for 10 years at Stone Bank School, which is a 4K through eighth grade elementary in Okanawok. Elementary and middle. So Danielle is at two libraries. I am at three libraries and we cannot be everywhere all the time. So we do rely
012on support staff at the elementary schools. We have pair of professionals who are there throughout the day to meet with our students, check out books, they do story times. Um they process our materials and also do any programming or projects that um we give them. At the middle school, we have Amy Miller. She is also a paraprofessional. She does book processing. She answers questions at the desk. She pro provides IT support. Unfortunately, currently at the high school level, we do not have any library support, but we do have Alyssa Meyer who is um works in IT and she steps up and provides support very kindly when needed. We also have Casey McCormack who comes in for 3.5 hours a week to shell help. So, we should probably start by explaining what is a school librarian.
013Um you'd be surprised how often we answer this question. Essentially, a librarian connects people with information. That's been the foundation of the profession since the beginning of the profession. Um, but today's school librarian focuses a lot on facilitating access to information in a variety of formats, instructing students about how to acquire, evaluate, and use information effectively, and introducing quality materials that support and encourage literacy. School librarians also collaborate with school staff from teachers to administrators to help develop, promote, and implement programs that help our students become effective information users and lifelong learners. All right, so Danielle and I could talk this entire presentation about how important school libraries are to our students success, but we are probably seen as biased. However, there is independent research that shows when students have access to school libraries that
014are staffed by professional certified librarians, they are more prepared, they are more safe, savvy, curious, and successful overall. And I know that these are all things that we want for our students. On this slide, we are showing you the future ready librarians framework. And this framework is really important because this is what DPI requires that we base our library plan on. What this framework does, it provides librarians with specific areas in which they can develop and strengthen their library programs as well as specific ways in which they can act as leaders and supports in school communities. Okay. So, what is a library plan and why do we need one? Because the law says so. So, um, the first reason that we need a library plan is because it's part of legislative code. Um, the Wisconsin
015administrative code says that we have to have on file a long range plan, that we have to have designated library media personnel to direct and coordinate the media program, that we provide library facilities within the building, and provide library media services to all of our students. Oh, and also it's your policy. So board policy 2522 doesn't say that we have to have a library plan on file, but it does say that we have that we believe in school libraries, that we believe that they're essential to our students learning, and that we want to make sure we're providing the right environment for our students to um foster independent collaborative learning and information seeking skills and that we also provide the right materials to our students that reflect the student body and the cultural diversity and pluralistic
016nature of American society and represent perspectives held in the world more broadly. And this slide shows you the library goals that are included in that policy. They include things like promoting a love of reading and literature among the student body, providing our students with materials that speak to their personal and educational interests, and also providing um information literacy instruction. We also wanted to include um this quote from the American Association of School Librarians because we think it really does speak to why we need a library plan. A school library is effective when it is continuously evaluated and when it is in fully integrated into the curriculum. And that is what the library plan is going to do. It's going to make sure that we are continually looking at our programs, making sure that they're meeting
017our students needs and also making sure that our library is not just working in a silo, that it is working for Greenale goals, missions, and within the curriculum. So, the legislative requirement and board policy are the foundation, the alignment of the library program with district priorities as the logic, and then best practice is the inspiration for our plan. Um, for a little bit of background knowledge, we wanted to share a bit about where we've been, uh, in the Greenale School District libraries. This is the data that Tara was able to collect going back to 1982 because we're professional librarians, so research, we can do that. Yes. And we have had libraries at Greenell schools since before 1982, but we were able to find people who remembered the library and what that looked like. Um, who
018could remember as far back as 1982. So that's why it looks like this. Now this slide is wordy. It's got a lot going on and I'm not going to go through every line, but what you should get from this slide is that there has been a lot of changes at the elementary level with our libraries. If we're looking at the 1982 to 1998 period, we'll see that there is a librarian in every single elementary building. Library was a special the same as Spanish is arts is special. gym is a special library at one time was a special. Then we move into the late 90s into the 2010s and we see that we're down to one librarian servicing our three um elementary schools. And then we move into a period where we have no certified librarian
019and it's a pair professional that is looking um that is serving our schools. Then we move into 2021, some might call it the golden age where there is That's there is we're back to the model of having one librarian and servicing our three our three schools. And what this looks like is that library is not a special. There's a um a time a weekly time where students come to the library. That time is mostly for checkout. Instruction does not happen during library time. It happens outside of the library with collaborations with teachers and through spe special programming. And at the secondary level, we like I mentioned earlier, currently have a certified librarian. It's me serving the middle school and the high school. So, I'm split between both buildings. And then prior to me, there were
020a couple of years where there wasn't a um certified librarian at the high school. There was more of like a support role for quite a number of years. Um and there was a full-time librarian at the middle school until that p person retired last year, opening up the position, which is um when the reshuffleling happened. And the way things look at the secondary level is that at the middle school and high school on days that the librarian is in the building there are collaborative lessons happening with teachers. There are people coming to the library with um or teachers coming to the library with their students for lessons on particular topics. So it could be something like book talks or it could be something like research for a particular uh unit that the students are working
021on or technology instruction um or multiples of those things all combined together into a lesson. And then on the days the librarian is not in the building the library is still open and students are still able to visit the library to borrow materials to ask questions and to get help with Chromebooks and technology issues. Um so the 202527 library plan was crafted based on our current staffing. So, not necessarily just thinking about what could all librarians do everywhere, but what can we do here in Greenale based on two librarians serving five buildings. All right, we are now going to move into where we are currently with our libraries. Here is a snapshot of what the library looks like today at the elementary level. As you will see, there is 33% of me at every building,
022right? We have those weekly class visits. That means that every student comes to the library once a week with their class for a 20 minute school visit. 20-minut school visit, 20 minute library visit. They can and they do come to the library outside of those visits, but everybody um has that opportunity, that guaranteed opportunity to come and visit for their checkout. Literacy programs um and lessons kind of happen by request outside of library time. And what that means is for example at Highland View um at fifth grade as um the three fifth grade teachers have asked that every other Wednesday I come to the fifth grade pod and speak for 30 minutes to their students about whatever I want to whatever lesson that I want to give. Um that's something that the fifth grade teachers
023at Highland View asked of me. It isn't asked of me of any other teacher at Canterbury. There's a second grade teacher who likes doing STEM activities and she will ask me to come into the classroom to give a lesson. Last month we did a lesson on why um how snowflakes get their shape and then we did a STEM activity. So it can look like different things but it's usually by teacher requests. Additionally from this slide I hope that you're seeing that we actually have really really good collections at our elementary school libraries. Um you can see that over 13,000 um items at Canterbury, over 11,000 at College Park, over 14,000 at Highland View, and these are all physical items that are available in each library. But this does not encompass the digital collections that our
024students have access to. They have access to ebooks and audio books, magazines, and databases to do research. So I think there's some really good stuff there. I think another important highlight is that at each of the elementary schools, there are over a hundred checkouts per day. So, or 86 at College Park, which is a little bit smaller, but that's still really amazing. That's how many students are coming into that library to borrow materials every single day. At the middle school level, we have students visiting as needed and there are lessons by request. So I these example links you can open if you would like to but on the library website I have a page where I just kind of leave the um links to lessons that I've done with uh both the middle school and
025the high school. This is for organization for myself but also so that students know at any point in time they can return back to the library website to refer back to something. So for example this week AP Lang will be working on an op-ed project. So the teachers shared with me their guiding document and work documents here and then asked me to curate some resources for their students to use to um learn more about uh opinion writing especially as it pertains to recent news coverage. And so I'll be talking with the students about these websites about finding websites from different perspectives about using the library databases to find additional resource articles um and then about avoiding the payw wall. Also, if you find something online and you're being blocked by a payw wall, our databases
026provide access to those same articles. Um, at the middle school level, you'll see that we have fewer items in our at the middle school and high school level, you'll see that we have fewer items in our collection, which makes sense if you think about it. Our elementary students are checking out picture books, which don't take them as long to peruse. So, they're coming back more frequently. They need more materials per student at that level. Whereas at the middle school and high school level, our students are keeping their materials for a little bit longer. Um, and so we don't need quite as many items in our collection. Additionally, our middle school and high school students have access to devices that they can use to read the digital materials if they want to read an ebook or
027an audiobook or magazine. And there we also invest more of our money at the middle and high school level in databases that our students are using a lot more frequently and things like digital newspaper and magazine access. Um, and then I also just wanted to mention quickly that Badger Link is something that's available K12. That is a resource provided by the state of Wisconsin and it's available to all public school students in Wisconsin. So any of our students here at Greenale High School who will be going on to a public Wisconsin college will continue to use those same databases. Um, so it's good for us to get them started on how to use those here in high school. And then just on a daily basis, librarians are providing support for students and staff related to
028research, readers, advisory, tech support, and any other questions students might have. I always like to say, if you don't know, go to the library. If I can't figure out the answer, or if I don't know the answer, I'll figure out the answer. Um, and that's what a librarian does, right? Like if we can't find the information you're looking for, we're going to figure it out and get back to you. So, uh, we like to be the hub for question asking. And then we also just included some information there about, uh, book checkouts with students. So, we kind of try to teach personal responsibility at a graduated level. So, we're restricting book access or restricting the number of checkouts per student um in the lower grade. So, they can learn to be responsible for one or
029two items and then we open it up as the students get older. This slide shows you some examples of the special programming that we do. Um that's also really really important part of our job. For example, Battle of the Books. We offer a battle books program at elementary, middle school, and high school level. You'll see things like the winter reading challenge and spring into reading which is um programs that are done with the middle school in collaboration with the public library. We have our poetry slam, Native American heritage story walks, books and breakfast. These are all special programs um that we're lead we're leading or working um in collaboration with others or other groups. This does not include um lessons, instruction that happens in the library, instruction that happens um in collaboration with other teachers
030in the classroom, but we thought it was really really important that we highlight these. So, while we're talking about um library services, this is just another visual representation of our work. It is showing the number of items borrowed from the libraries for the past three years. You can get all different kinds of information from this um graph, but when we were looking at it, when Danielle and I were looking at it, one thing that we noted was that this really shows how important it is for us to have robust collections at the elementary school because we really do have um high traffic there. We have students who are coming in with the expectation that they come explore the library and check out. So, a lot of checkout happens there and it's really important that we
031have a really good physical collection. Another graph we have here does show um the collaborations, lessons, special programming and resources um that we've made over the past three years. When I look at this, the big success that I see is the high school. We've had so many years in the past where no programming has been done um here at the high school and Danielle is really working to turn that around. So for me, I see that as one big takeaway, one big success from this. And then just to talk a little bit about our collection development and how we manage our budgets in the library. That's a really big part of what we do each day. Um we have our collection development policy listed there. Policy 2522 is about the criteria for selection of materials
032and that's a board approved policy. Then we also have a weeding policy. Libraries are not museums or archives. We only have so much shelf space. So, we do have to get rid of things in order to make space for the new um things that our students want and need. And so, we have just a policy listed there about how we decide what need what stays and what goes when we do that work each year. And then regarding the budget, perhaps you've heard before of the common school fund, that is the funding, the primary funding source for Wisconsin school libraries, and it's unique to the state of Wisconsin as far as how we utilize that money. It's managed by the board of commissioners of public lands. So, I always like to say here in Wisconsin, we
033take trees and we turn them into library books. It was established by the Wisconsin Constitution in 1848. And it is very specific about what purchases are allowable per the language of the legislation. So, allowable purchases include library books, databases, hardware, and software for library programming. But you may not make purchases from the common school fund for things that are for the curriculum, for anything that's consumable, for supplies, or for furniture. And so then we also have um building budgets in every building for the librarians to use to cover some of those things that are expenses we can't um use the common school fund money for. And then I also just linked the DPI infographic there about the common school fund if you're curious. So we are using the common school fund to build these amazing
034collections that we have. But as we are selecting for materials, we are following board policy. And this here is a list of the criteria that we use to select um materials that come into our libraries. They include things like selecting materials that stimulate growth and factual knowledge, selecting materials that represent differing viewpoints um and also meet high standards of quality. All right. So, for our needs assessment and our discussion of when we're talking about where we are right now with the library, a needs assessment is crucial. That's how we determine um what our needs are and if we are meeting our needs. And in creating this library plan, this is where we started. We use our future ready framework work that I talked about before and examine the areas that we think we've done well
035in, that we've had success in, but also those areas that we really need to improve on. We have reached out to students and staff and conducted surveys. We've talked to community members to get their feedback on how they see the library, um, what they think we're doing well and how we can improve. And that is going to be continued work that we do um, with our library plan. It's important that we continually evaluate So uh with our needs assessment, thanks. Oh no. Okay. With our needs assessment, we identified five areas of need. The first one is we saw the need to educate staff about the role of school librarians and participate in some planning conversations and find more opportunities to provide professional development to our staff here. We saw a need to increase a non-common
036school fund budget at the elementary school and educate about allowable resources for the common school fund spending. Um rebranding the high school library, managing traffic and space and improve an understanding of the program at the elementary school libraries. Provide more time in each building to establish relationships and engage in professional development and provide leadership and build instructional partnerships and increase awareness of all the resources that we have available. and then more time to teach impactful lessons for our students. So that brings us to where we're going in our goals of our library plan. We thought it important to develop a mission statement for the Greenale School Library. So we started here before we created our goals. And we came up with this mission statement that Greendale's library program empowers lifelong learners by fostering critical thinking,
037ethical information use, and innovation. We cultivate future ready skills and inspire a love of reading, preparing individuals to thrive in a rapidly changing world. And that brings us to goal number one. Sure. So, we use those identified areas of need that Danielle just talked about to craft two um goals for our library plan. We have more information um or detailed information about those goals and also the action steps that are associated associated with them in the library plan. But we wanted to provide you with a brief overview in this presentation. Our first goal is that by the end of the 2027 2028 school year, we will have analyzed our collection and updated it to include more themes, perspectives, formats, reading levels to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our students. To do that,
038this year we focused on actually analyzing the collections and determining our areas of need. Next year, we want to focus on promoting the library collections to the Greenale School um district community. And then the following year, we'll reflect um do some more analysis to see how those actions have impacted the collection and then re-evaluate. Oop, sorry, I didn't know that changed. And for our second goal, by the end of the 2728 school year, we want to increase collaboration between library and staff. So we will communicate about programming and materials that we have available and our success will be measured through surveys and student engagement metrics and then we hope to share a library report. We don't hope to we will share a library report annually. Sorry for that language. Um we want to make sure
039that we're working more with our students and staff. And in order to do that we have to educate about what is available and what services we can provide essentially. And so that information then can be shared with administration in our library report. And that way we'll continue to have support of administration as we continue to build those relationships with staff. So this year we hope to develop a better understand why did I do that again? This year we will develop a better understanding of how the library and librarians can and do support existing district goals. Next year we'll increase the use of library resources and engagement with the librarian in each building. And then in our 2627 school year, we'll increase librarianled professional development opportunities for staff. And then in that 2627 school year when
040we're reevaluating how we did on goal number one as well as goal number two, we will look ahead at what goals we want to include for our following three-year library plan. If we want to adjust the existing goals or start with something totally new because who knows where we'll be in three years, we'll probably have met and achieved all of these goals and so we'll just really need to start with something new. Um and then we also shared just a link to the library plan on the last slide um should you need to refer back to that. But this, just to be clear, is this document. And this is the document that would be turned into DPI as our official library plan with the approved date whenever that happens. And finally, we're wondering if you
041have any questions that we can answer. Oh, no. Any questions? Um, I just have a comment. I just want to say thank you for a great presentation for not reading off the slides, but summarizing. We really appreciate that. And this is a really great plan. I went through it. Um, I think it's very accurate for what Greenale needs. And I appreciate the commitment that you both have. Um, library time is my kindergartner's favorite time of the week. When he misses it for some reason, he goes back on his free choice time the next day to get his books. And those books are treated like gold in our house. Like they don't get mixed with the other books. They they're kept in a safe space. They're very so thank you for helping to teach responsibility and
042all of that. As a Canterbury student in the 1980s, I remember my librarian, Mrs. Y, and she was amazing and she really did inspire love of books. So, thank you both for what you're doing um and for your commitment not only to like check the legislative box, but to really put in some thought and some effort into what Greenale specifically needs. Okay. And no further questions or comments on that note. and you're funny, which is great. Anyone else? Kathy, um I want to echo and thank you both for being here tonight. Uh first of all, this was a very comprehensive plan and coming back to even the state statutes I think are really important. Um I have a real passion for libraries. I actually happen to serve on the Milwaukee Public Library Board as a
043trustee and also on the Milwaukee County Federated Library Board. Um, and with our schools, I get concerned sometimes because there are these mandates that we get for a variety of things and they don't always provide adequate funding. And I don't want to just put it on you, but maybe turn it over to either Jonathan or Dr. Mitzik. Um, one of the things I get concerned about is, you know, again, there there's a mandate there, but they don't necessarily provide adequate funding. And so, um, with the common school fund, as you talked about, um, also known as library aid, um, do you feel our schools are getting adequate funding and and if we're not getting like enough from them, are we getting it elsewhere? And so, I don't know who has that answer. I can answer
044the beginning of that question, which is that often times we have a reputation here in Wisconsin for being resourcerich and people poor in our libraries because, as you said, we do have a lot of funding in that library aid. The common school fund is very robust and has set a record for how much money is available for the past four years in a row. So we have a lot of money in the common school fund that we can spend. But again, that can't be spent on people. And as school budgets struggle in Wisconsin, we're you know, we're school staff just like everybody else. And so it strugg um doesn't provide enough money for every school to be able to hire a school librarian. Right. And Tara and Danielle have done a really nice job with
045the common school funds and making sure that they're weeding the collection and that's like and making sure like looking at the data. How many when was this checked out? How old is this book? I mean when we first got there we Tara and I were like this book is from 1952. So there were just some we had some weeding to do. So, um, and they've been really great about ordering books that are aligned, like suggested books aligned to CKLA, for instance, or, um, other books that are aligned to middle school and high school, um, uh, curriculum, not the curriculum, but books that would add on, or different book clubs that would be, um, great additions to um, our different curricular materials, and they've done a really nice job with that using the common school funds.
046So having their expertise has been such a value for our school district. Tara, I want to give you a head um hats off to you. I was at one of the afterchool programs at Highland View. I think it was last year where there was a story hour. You were there in the evening. Do you remember that? Yes. And and so I know you're going beyond just the school day. So I I want to thank you for that. I would like to pull our student board members in for a moment because I'm also a graduate of Greenale High School and remember this thing being filled with books at one point back in the 80s. Um their readership is obviously lower because a lot of kids have access to technology and what have you, but um what
047does it look like this library in in particular? I mean is it being used for other things during the day and um maybe our student board members could talk about their experience with the library. Thank you. So really, I'd say I think there are just some people that are realizing that now we have a librarian, which I think it's it's good they're on the way up. I mean, zero to 14 programs in a year is great, and I think we're just getting that started. So, I mean, it might not look like a lot, but this is a lot of books here. I couldn't read all these. So, Oh, you could. I'm trying hard now. But, um, I think it's great that they're building up the programs. I think I mean, reading is important always for
048any discipline, so it's always good to see that. Um, as far as my experience goes, I think that I've been very interested in the library ever since I was a freshman. And one of the obstacles I ran into very early on was that there wasn't the same books that I'd be getting interest in that were in the library. So, seeing that there's there these expansions being made to the library and having this focus to the library does mean a lot to me because I do want to see the library expand to have a more nuanced selection of material. So, I really appreciate the work that you guys are doing. Have either of you had an opportunity to research using some of the databases that are available during um the sophomore year of high school at
049Green Hill at Standard that you write a research paper which we get a lot of experience using those databases and such. So yes, it was took half of a semester so a lot of using those resources. Uh I'm in medical interventions. So I've used Badger Link to write some of the research papers that we've done in our labs and then I'm also an AP lang so I'll be writing an op-ed with so yeah I think that I've had a lot of experience using the links that they provide and they're very helpful. I think too the tremendous job that Tara does at the elementary level just fuels that for the middle school and now having Danielle at the middle school and just seeing the volume of kids that are in the library every day will bring
050that up into the high school as they get to be high schoolers as well. I just want to mention too that at the high school when I started out this school year, there was uh there's not a lot of traffic in this high school library still. Um maybe a little more than when we started out the year, but at the beginning of the year, this was very much like a study hall space that also had books in it. Um and Steve has been so great. I didn't ask him to do this, but he decided for the second semester to move the study hall to a different location so the library can be more open and available. And what that does is gives us the opportunity to have more classes come in for instruction. So last
051week I had Mr. Shepsky's class come in. They're working on a debate project and I was able to talk to them about databases that they can use for forming their debates and they just have the space to work. Um a couple of weeks ago I had freshman come in. Uh they were working on a video project and I was able to lend them microphones from the library collection so that they could work on that as well. So variety of different reasons, but it's good to have the space available to to continue to grow the program. And I completely agree with what Tracy said. As we have more students from the middle school coming here excited about reading, excited about books, used to using the library, instead of being bummed that the library doesn't have the
052same kind of collection or it doesn't have the same kind of staffing, um there'll be a familiar face here and there will be more uh materials of interest to them as well. Yeah. And I think that says a lot about our administrators and how much they care about the library and they don't see it as just this room or this space or we have to check a 20-minute box every week. They really are committed to making sure that their teachers are engaged with using the library, that their students are engaged, that it's an exciting place. It's it's it's an event each week, and it's a a huge resource that people can use. So, I think it it really is a big team of people that you have behind you to make sure that your work
053is successful and that the libraries are utilized to their full potential. We invested um in the referendum renovations. We invested money in the physical spaces and now we have the uh staff that are really going to bring to life the vision that we had in the renovations. Uh Danielle talked about a video project and lending microphones, but part of the reason that we have the six breakout rooms with visuals into them in this connect space um behind us is because that's a space where they can have a shared screen and do video editing together. Um and so that you can see some of the projects are starting to creep in and I see some really uh great things happening from our team. So thank you. This will be brought up for approval for at the
054next board meeting. So thank you both so much for coming and sharing. I think Kathy had another I just was gonna add um just a real quick uh thank you. I I personally use the library at my own school with my middle schoolers and to try to build that habit. Uh the fact that you guys talk about the PD and trying to work with staff I think is so important and just your personality I can tell you are two young uh two ladies that are probably an asset to all of the teachers. So I just want to thank you for that and um for sharing your passion with libraries. We love what we do. All right. Thanks for coming on. [Applause] And then a high note uh unfortunately we have to discuss fees for 2025
0552026. Sorry J here you are again. I guess that's offense at the fees themselves. So in your board packet we provided background information. And this is conversation that we have each year with the board around this time. This is coming forward as information this evening and then administration will be bringing forward a final um proposal on fees. Um if you'll recall if you'll recall last year when we adjusted fees we u made changes to the student instructional materials and textbook fees. So, we provided notes on that. In terms of the changes that were made during the 2425 school year at K5 um to 5th, we moved from $60 to $70. 6 to 8th grade, we moved from $70 to $80. And then at the high school level, move from $85 to $95. We're not recommending
056any changes at this time to those material and uh textbook fees. That was the first change that had happened in several years and the goal there was to provide stability after we made an increase to reflect just the increased cost of curriculum expenses. Then a couple areas that we looked at um was band orchestra instrument rental fees. And so that was increased from 75 to $100 annually. and that reflected uh investments that we were making through the curriculum review cycle. And then high school athletic fees were increased from $120 to $150 annually. The only thing that we would recommend at this time last year, we did not make any change to the middle school athletic fees and so those stayed at $60 when the high school athletic fees increased from 120 to 150. Um, at
057this point based on just inflationary costs of running that programming, um, including transportation costs, we would recommend an increase in those middle school athletic fees from 60 to $75. So that we would increase those budgets um, for middle school extracurriculars. And we would expect an increase of approximately $2,250 in revenues. with that change. So, there is a a draft that's linked there and I'd be happy to take any questions that board members have um on these uh fees. The last note that I had there in the um discussion was the idea of prorating a fee for material and textbook fees. So, if you are a student and you register in the school, um let's say you're a 10th grader and you're new to the district um in April, uh you're still assigned the full $95
058material and textbook fee. So, we did some comparisons with neighboring districts. We've had conversations with um definitely support staff that are working with families as they're coming into the district. And the ask there was whether or not those fees can be prrated based on some incremental basis. So if I'm coming later in the year, do I pay that full amount? And so there you're weighing that there is investment in the curriculum that they're using. But there's also uh significant cost that's in consumables. So like copy your paper and things you're consuming. So if I'm there only a portion of the year, do I still need to pay that full fee? um in discussions on that. I would recommend if the board's open to it considering just making that a semester um amount. So if someone
059would start after the high school second semester um districtwide, we would just cut that material instructional fee in half. There's a small amount of students, but that makes a difference in terms of people's budgeting if they're coming into the school later on in the year. So, with that, I'll take any questions that the board has. Any questions for Jonathan? Yeah, I just want to say thank you for including the reduced prices in this as well, so we can see um the accommodations that we make to make sure that these activities and extracurriculars are available to every student who comes to Greenale. I appreciate that. That's also indicated in this. Anyone else? Oh. Um, I do like the idea of prorating it if they come in at after a semester. So, I would be on board
060with that. Okay. What is the current policy for the do we prorate or they just don't pay or would they pay full? What's the current policy? They would charge the full amount to that student account. And so I since the board has uh always taken up student fees, I think it's appropriate then that that goes through the formal process. If the board's okay with that, that would be part of the motion the board would make is to allow that and then we'll um note it on the fee schedule. So that's clear and we could start implementing that for the last few weeks of um this school year. I just had a question. the journal in elementary school. Is that like the assignment notebook? Is that what that is or is that something different? Um that
061is that is um actually a journal for writing at the elementary school and it has to do with the lines for writing for penmanship for and handwriting for the elementary grades. So it is not the it's not an assignment notebook. It's it's lined paper that is specific for uh journal writing for the lower elementary grades. So, are we doing assignment notebooks anymore? It doesn't appear on here at all. That's not a thing anymore. Okay. Um I thought I remembered um outdoor ed at one time being one of the fees on here. Is that was am I mistaken on that or is because I know outdoor edit and then it came back. Is that a historically outdoor ed was listed on the fees. However, it is uh similar to any other field trip that a student
062would take and so the fees are assessed based on the field trip costs in alignment with the field trip policy. Yeah, I think we pulled it off of this list when that program was on hiatus, but to Dr. Midzix's point, like we haven't put it back on here to allow for that flexibility. Sure. On the cost of that program that it wouldn't have to come back for separate board approval each year. But I know there's a lot of work that goes into trying to make that as cost efficient as possible so that as many students can participate as possible. Thank you. I and I just think um I appreciate too that you do have both the regular cost and the reduced cost. I know we work with families in the district if there are financial
063hardships. Um all students have an opportunity for an education. So I think that's great. And um I just agree with um uh Tasha in that I do think we should be prrating um for someone that's coming halfway through the year. Anyone else? All right, thanks Jonathan. Thank you. All right, moving on. Uh we will do the alternative education report or I'm sorry, gifted and talented report. We're going to take them both together. So there we go. Make our way through. So I'm gonna let Denise take over. All right. Sounds good. All right. So we're actually going to put all of these reports together. Alternative um programming as well as gifted and talented and ES3. Of course, I'll stop and ask for questions as we go from one to the next. All right. So when we
064think about our programming, we know that we have to meet all learners and that's a focus of Greenale School District and we're always working on cultivating the excellence in every student. When we think about our special populations, we have students that don't necessarily follow the traditional path of high school graduation. So based on their physical or mental health needs, their absenteeism, their learning challenges, some students have family responsibilities, we know that sometimes we have to offer something different because students have had gaps in their learning. So when we think about those unique needs, we know that students require that personalized learning, that small group, very um self-paced learning. We really want to provide instruction, executive functioning, helping with organization, and then of course academic support. When we think about how we identify students, we're obviously
065looking at those unique academic needs. We have a moral responsibility and then of course we have federal, state, and board policy. So we're thinking about all of those things and how we're meeting the needs of our students. We have a three layer approach. So, we're looking at academic support classes, credit recovery, and then the GED O2. Our staff are amazing. We have extremely dedicated staff that are really working to meet the needs of our learners. So, we have um Dan Rogachesky, Mary Guida, and Amanda Hower as well. So when we think about academic support, we're really looking at Alex math and then access. So for Alex math, we know that that's a combination of hybrid and direct instruction and our students are supported by the teachers in that program. And then for access, we also
066are providing that academic support. But then if you are a senior and you are part of access, you're also doing that career planning to get ready for that next step. When we look at Alex math, it's pretty amazing when we can really look over time. So in the fall of 2023, we had students earning 26 credits and 35 semester classes completed. So if you take a look at those numbers, we know that this programming is meeting the needs of our students that need something different. So that next layer is credit recovery. So, when we're thinking about credit recovery, we know that some students have either not had any access to that class at this time or they attempted it and they failed the class. So, again, when we look at the credits earned, this programming
067allowed seven students to get to graduation, which is pretty fantastic when our goal is for all students to graduate. So again, this programming is meeting the needs of our students that need something different and we're using things such as egeneuity to provide that learning. And then our third layer of the programming is the GEDO2. So we know that this is another way students can get um to graduate. So, it's a bit different in that their diploma is annotated, but they're still getting that high school diploma. And again, we're offering students different programs to meet their needs, but we're also helping them because we're giving them the skills around SEAL. They have to work outside of their day and 90% attendance is required. So we are really increasing attendance and making students accountable for what they
068are working on. As far as our continuous improvement, we always want to evaluate our software to see if there's something different that will better meet the needs of our students and purchase, develop, and implement any new GED preparation materials. Does anyone have questions on that part of the report? Just real quick, um do where where did these classes take place? Oh, in the high school. Okay. In the high school in the space here. Well, yeah, just over by the office area. They have It's just a separate It's just another classroom just like any other. Okay. So, we have Okay. Yes. It's not off campus or anything. Oh, no. It's here. Okay. That's a good question. Any other questions? All right. Okay. So, then we'll um transition to GT. All right. So, we know that our
069GT learners are another part of our special population and again, we want to meet the needs of all learners. So, we're going to focus on those needs of our GT learners. We want to give them access to academic programs and we also want to make sure that we are meeting their social and emotional needs. So again, why do I we identify? Well, we have a responsibility and again we have laws telling us what we need to do and policy. So currently we have 79 students. So approximately 3% of our population that are identified as GT. The most um or the highest areas are general intellectual or that specific academic area of math. We have a GT coordinator at each school. So those are teachers um in a different role 80% of their day and then
07020% of their FTE um is devoted to gifted and talented. When we think about the identification identification areas there are five different areas. So that just gives you a summary of what those are. and GT identification. There's like a continuum of how we are determining the process. So, let me just get to my correct page. So, um students are taking the Kogat assessment in second grade or if we have new students to the district, they are able to take that. Then we're using our FastBridge and our AS web plus to look at that screening which is happening three times a year. Of course, a teacher or a parent can refer a student for GT and then we're going um through that evaluation and then determining the supports and then we're doing that ongoing assessment and
071monitoring. The G team the GT team meets with both myself and Bridget Blasque throughout the school year. We're really talking about what's in place, what we can do differently. So that's been um really helpful. When we look at our students, we have 25 of our students um identified as general intellectual. We have 39 students in the area of math. And then we also have students that have more than one area. So general intellectual and math as well as general intellectual and creativity. So it's great to see all the strengths of our students. Our service delivery looks um different based on the level. So that one is differentiation and that we're differentiating for all students. But then we know that our students that are labeled GT need something more. So we're continuing that differentiation. For level
072two, we're doing that enrichment and extension. So this year um our GT team worked with Paige. We brought red oak writing um to the high school. We were in this space actually on a board meeting night um and we worked on a project called Pizzazz. So writers participated in activities and exercises that woke up the creative side of their brains and opened up a world of writing ideas. participants explored different um genres of writing through engaging writing exercises and creativity sparking activities. So we had two different groups. We had third to fifth graders and sixth to eighth graders and we had students from six area school districts here for that event. So the feedback from the event was very positive and the team really worked hard to put that together. And then that level three
073is accelerated learning. So of course we do have students that we consider grade level advancement for or um looking at different course selection for this area of continuous improvement. We're looking at exploring grant opportunities. Of course we want to expand professional learning and then enhancing family engagement. Are there any questions on this area? Questions, Kathy? Thank you. Thank you for this report. I know it's evolved over the years the way we do the gifted and talented program here in Greenale. Um, are the last you talked about uh in uh opportunities for families and so forth. Is there still a group called Paige and and is it are are we a part of that? We are a part of it. And yes, and Paige was um part of the reason that we had the Red Oak
074writing activity here. Okay. Yep. Okay. So, they're very involved. And we have um a staff member that is attending those um meetings as well. I I think it's great compared to other districts I know of that we have someone housed in all five of our buildings. That's that's an anomaly. I don't think that's the case in a lot of districts because there's not always funding to go along with gifted ed. Are the um the representatives for each school then are they kind of like resources for the teachers as well or are they specifically working with students? Nope. They are resources for the staff as well as the students and they're working specifically with them as well. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Uh, one quick question on the students when they get to the high school.
075You notice are they, you mentioned the increase in honors, advanced placement, dual enrollment in the CAP course opportunities. Do we see an increase in the students labeled as gifted with the opportunities for some of those classes? I don't think that we necessarily see an increase in students I that are labeled with that. I do believe though that by having those courses that not only are GT students um accessing them, but other students are. So, we're really just seeing students achieve more through those opportunities of higher level courses. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Denise. Okay. All right. We have one more ES3. So we are in year three of the ES3 grant. So that is the enhancing social and emotional skills in students with IEPs. So this has been a three-year grant where we have been
076working with our special education really program support is working with special education teachers and general ed teachers to enhance our social emotional um instruction for our students. So, we have students um that are typically identified um with autism, emotional behavior disabilities, or other health impairments that require something more because they have divergent social and emotional needs. So, our goals for year three is really to enhance that continuum of services for students and supports for adults in order for students to access and engage in the general education curriculum. So, we have really over the last several years been looking at how do we get all students to be part of the general ed curriculum, right? Because our even our students with special education needs are general ed students first and they have the right to be
077part of that general ed curriculum. So, sometimes their behaviors prevent them from being part of that. So this is really to help support our teachers and teach them strategies so that they can implement them with students. The other piece is that we want to be able to sustain this. So we've been receiving funding in the last three years. So this is our final year, but we know that this work needs to continue. So how can we sustain the learning that we've been providing so that we continue to meet the pretty significant in some cases seal needs for some of our students. So we are supporting students um based on the needs we have our program support team that is really doing some coaching but more importantly we need to be able to sustain what we've
078been doing. Part of that is the belief that you have for students. If you believe and have high expectations for students, they will meet those expectations. So, we're really helping our teachers to understand that and to give them PD and training so that they can implement the strategies um not only with that specific student we're coaching them on, but really with all students. So as part of the grant outcome, we are really focused on family engagement. So we uh of course have the special education advisory team. We have sensory friendly events. So we'll have a sensory space at our Arabic um heritage activity later this week. We have Wispy providing um support to our families through our family leaison and Katie Ke really worked hard on this transition site and we are excited that families
079have the resources that they're looking for regarding activities and events, information about special education, and really just supports like what can I do now if my child is three versus 10 and then 21. What do those long-term supports look like? So, this is a great resource that we have put together to really help families connect with one another, but then also have the resources that they need. When we think about the ES3 grant, one of the focuses is using evidence-based practices to fidelity. So, some of those practices that we've provided professional development on are prompting and modeling. We've also looked at some self-management and extinction and then direct instruction. Our ES3 core team um decided to take a look at the book The Anxious Generation. This year we focused on really reading that book and
080then talking about what we can do to support our students around technology. So there is a lot um in this book. Later this week I will be at the event with the health department to really talk about this and lead circles for this. So, this has been great for our ES3 team because we're able to use this information to help support um just overall the increase in anxiety um that students are facing. And then this is a list of our ES3 team. So, we have representation throughout the district. We have administration that's part of it. we have program support and then we have um teachers, school sites, general ed, special ed teachers um across the district. So, we are lucky to have um this commitment from staff and they have done a great job sharing
081the information that we've learned um with others and really just making sure that we um can maintain sustainability with the resources that we've received. All right, any questions on that one? Any questions? Not on this one. All right. Great. All right. Thank you. All right. Moving on to Tasha with the legislative update. Um I just have a Whoops. A few things this evening. Um one I can mention the election results. Um Dr. Underly was reelected as our state superintendent and we will now have Judge Susan Carford for our state supreme court. Um the joint finance committee discussed state budget process and possible delays. Um the committee is waiting for legislative fiscal bureau um for it to deliver its updated revenue numbers in midmay before making any big decisions and they are also waiting on the
082ruling from the state supreme court on um's 400year veto. Um, in addition, the governor vetoed a bill to undo recent state assessment changes and report card cut scores. And the reasoning that he vetoed the bill was based on his concerns that it infringed on the independency of the DPI. That's all I have. All right. Thank you. Uh, moving on to board committee updates. Does anyone have anything to share? Nothing. All right. Uh board professional development anyone? Nothing there either. All right. Uh last but not least, board calendar. There is a lot on the calendar in the month of April. uh because of the reorganization uh time frame, the um second meeting in April is April 28th, the fourth Monday rather than the third Monday. So, there's a lot happening. Uh you've heard a number of
083times this evening that Wednesday, April 9th, there is ArabAmerican Heritage Month celebration at Highland View Elementary. Sorry, that's uh Thursday the 10th. Uh Wednesday the 9th is the anxious generation uh community conversation at the host tower. Correct. That's the location. Uh so board members may be present and attending those activities. Uh next week we have a number of activities. Oh, sorry. Friday night is activity night for the middle school as well. On next week, Tuesday, April 15th, there's a community listening s session for the equity update. And um on Wednesday there's a library board meeting. Um Friday the 18th and Monday the 20th there is no school for students with professional development happening on the 21st. Sorry it's Monday the 21st not the 20th. Uh and then um we have the board uh meeting and
084workshop after the next meeting which is Friday May 2nd. Uh that's been confirmed for 5 to 9 pm. And two committee meetings coming up in the next two weeks. The board finance committee is meeting on April 23rd. And on April 16th, the uh Greenell Global Charter School Board is meeting at 4:30 p.m. in the district office. That's all the calendar events, but there's a lot of them. All right. Thank you. Uh second opportunity for comments from visitors. All right. Uh I'm not seeing anyone. So we will adjourn. The next school board meeting is April 28th.