001foreign thank you foreign thank you call Order final like School Board of Education if we can do a roll call quick please sure Godfrey here handshell yeah here horse here motor here Canal here yuselman here schreider thank you uh we called our order at five o'clock P.M um first we're going to do is mono reflection and then we're going to do a preced it with the Pledge of Allegiance okay I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States foreign thank you um next following adjournment of the regular meeting we have announcements here the board will convene an executive session to discuss site acquisition as provided for in Wisconsin statutes 19.851 e uh we're going to go to public comment next but I'm going to have a word ahead of time I got a reference
002here if you picked up agendas in the back that should have been attached to it referencing zero one six seven point three of the public comment at board meetings I want to remind everybody that our participants want to remind our producer the presiding officers Guided by the following rules letter F all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer no person may be addressed or question board members individually letter G the presiding officer will interrupt warn or terminate if the participant statement is too lengthy personally directed abusive obscene or irrelevant through the presiding officer will request any individual to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum the presiding number four the presiding officer will requests the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person's
003conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting and number five the presiding officer will call for a recess or an adjournment to the another time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as who warrant such excuse me such action so with that said next is public comment please state your name address also uh five minutes per person 10 minutes per subject my name is Danny Mora I'm at 247 East Bank Street Fond du Lac there's no need to take notes that this has already been transcribed and you can read it and meditate on it at black history for moralprogress home Dot wordpress.com I'd just like to clarify a few things that I said at the last meeting when a person speaks about the philosophies and psychologies
004of the East and the word meditation comes up a lot of westerners will generally assume that they're talking about somebody in a Lotus position sitting in a Lotus position in a quiet and state of mind I'm not talking about that but the second proposal I'm I'm making a mental yoga for the Youth at uh Dot whatever does practice that emptiness but it's at all times and in every situation and um it's done while you're sitting standing walking talking interacting everything it's done at all times in every situation oh it is however meditation within another meditation what I'm talking about is the like Sojourner Truth who was a one of those isolationists I didn't talk about two two meetings ago she was uh raised around 18th and 19th century she was black illiterate and she was
005kind of spiritually inclined so she would have people read the scripture to her from the Bible and she would go off and meditate on it she wouldn't want their interpretations that's the kind of meditation I'm talking about except I'm talking about it from a mystical standpoint and a universal standpoint and if anybody has a problem with the word mystical then I had a couple of science books you might want to check out there that I borrowed to the school board last week that uh confirms Transcendent States in and um experiential knowledge another thing I'd like to clarify is when I was talking about the nine grade religions I'm going to change that to 10. and the mystical the yoga that was present in them all I I refer to it as a as a system
006systematic um content which is you know I I made that uh transcript of the same day of the meeting last week you know and uh that's a little weird so what I'd like to simplify that and say simply that it's a step-by-step formula that's present in the mall that makes it uh uh makes them Define it as great another thing I'd like to simplify is uh that all these 10 great religions have a hierarchy or spiritual leaders or Masters except one and that in this yoga that I'm talking about there there is no leaders there are no Masters and there is no hierarchy and that's a universal truth but it's still not recognized as such um I don't have time to speak too much about other stuff so I'll just get the closing on the
007my first proposal mental or black history for moral progress home.wordpress.com last week I talked about the uh the people in the mind life series uh come eat inclusion after talking to the Director of National Institute mental health that mental health per se from a western perspective couldn't be defined it was to put defined by uh default as lack of psychiatric illness and that the methods used were intended to address the symptoms of emotional suffering and not promote mental flourishing uh my first proposal Frederick Douglas and Sojourner truth's narratives are an excellent example of how we can handle a very sensitive topic while at the same time promoting mental and emotional flourishing you can see page 37 of black history from moral progress home.wordpress.com the second letter to the second police chief for a clear picture
008of how we should implement it implement it walking in the shoes of Frederick Douglas the student not only experiences the dysfunction of his times but finds that within this turmoil Douglas flourishes in his personal journey to becoming a passionate and indiscriminately altruistic human being from a patriotic point of view critical race theory has failed it was a path of the intellect thirty seconds the nation needs a different systematic across the board approach to ending racism and black history for moral progress kills two birds with one stone it promotes mental and emotional flourishing and it is a matter of the heart okay thank you thank you if anybody else wants to come up in their public comment name address five minutes per person my name is Dan Ireland 102 South Sally Fond du Lac first of
009all congratulations on your football Victory on Friday what I want to talk to about this afternoon is uh um our former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos she has come up with a liberating bold approach to give younger Americans the best possible education she calls it in the interview education freedom it's an important concept because it recognizes the structures of structural and Technology opportunities for learning that have emerge from the development of the school choice program that school choice program you've heard about many times that started here in Wisconsin with Governor Thompson and the other lady that I didn't know about Senator our state representative Polly Williams a former welfare recipient who worked with Jesse Jackson as a state chair and became the longest serving Wisconsin state legislator for 30 years the addition of vouchers was
010a bold approach in 1989 the time was assumed the only delivery system for learning was made up of physical schools but vouchers sought to both expand the opportunities for students and parents to find the right schools and their needs and put competitive pressure on unionized public schools and bureaucracies and force them to improve or lose students since the development of school choice and vouchers there have been an explosion of new approaches and Technologies individual family homeschooling Collective homeschooling apprenticeships and now what we used in 2020 online learning at Gingrich 360 we worked with Dr Ben Carson American cons Cornerstone Institute which created a little patriots program that I've read a little bit about is a remarkable resource for students and parents and Educators to learn about American history make it engaging and informative there's also
011the Khan Institute Prager University Udacity Hillsdale College and the Heritage Foundation encourages these students to become lifelong learners Secretary of DeVos captured the explosion of choices and freedom of learning whether book hostages no more the fight for Education freedom and the future of the American child education Freedom starts with a premise that every student is unique every student learns differently there is something every parent knows including my parents yet we have a school system that essentially treats children as if they're all the same at the core of my vision of American education is to ensure all children have the freedom to learn in their own way to give parents freedom to find the best option that fits their children critical education means giving teachers freedom to meet their students needs and many different learning environments
012as it stands Public School teachers have limited choices and where they teach and how they teach and finally my last paragraph the positive aspiration vision for Education freedom is students are empowered to find the places to learn that maximize their potential rather than being trapped and government assigned and zoned schools every child has an opportunity and a resource to become a fully productive member of his or her community thank you thank you any other public comment welcome to come up front all right I see none we'll move on next is the pro approval consent resolution agenda can I get a motion please I moved to approve the consent agenda as follows chief of finance and operations resignation Mackenzie Gable School psychiatrist psychologist at Riverside Elementary and and Tyson Middle School effective August 30th 2023. we
013got a motion a second and I forgot I'm out of practice on being up front here so board members have been provided background material and information and each item have been discussed at a previous meeting these items will be acted upon with one vote without discussion any board member May remove an item from the agenda this item will be discussed and voted on separately under the agenda item of individually considered resolutions so we do have a motion and a second on the finance and operations discussion see none if we can get a vote Godfrey yes horse yes motor yes yeselman yes henschel thank you carries 6 -0 next is the board of Minister reports chief of operations and finance overview of the 2324 preliminary budget I handed over to Mr Gerlach ah thank you Mr
014henschel uh provided was executive summary of where we're at in the budget process and so tonight's update is really just is really just that a basic summary as well as the budget publication that will be part of the budget hearing which is really the next big meeting on October 9th uh the pub the budget hearing as a unified school district is the opportunity where the public has a chance to weigh in and hear about District Financial business that's our big budget meeting of the year but it also won't be finalized until as you'll see October 23rd is when the board is presented with a final budget for adoption because as we've those of you that been around on the board know that it's really formula driven by the state and we've had some of those
015big formula factors including the third Friday student account fall certification of property values on the 1st of October and then by the 15th middle of the month after our budget hearing the state certifies general Aid which is what you'll need to know in order to set a tax levy so the budget publication included will change that's just as it's presented now it doesn't include an updated Revenue limit formula because third Friday account we're still finalizing and and those other formula factors need to go in it also I I put out to it does not fully reflect our final use of federal stimulus revenues which are would go into the revenue picture which would then really as we've said over the a number of meetings we still despite you know a fair a very favorable state
016budget will likely need to utilize some of those funds to what level yet totally to balance out our budget so that's at a real high level I there's not a lot more in terms of the final factors to update at this time at this meeting really the budget hearing which for the viewing audience is 4 30 p.m on a Monday October 9th so it's ahead of the regular board meeting and where we present we'll have some more information at that time finalize it into the fall so we're getting really close any questions I'll be entertained okay all right thank you thank you Mr Gerlach next is uh superintendent reporter Dr Flagg thank you presidential I'm going to go up to the podium here I'm really pleased to be able to see we have Evan's staff
017here this evening to really celebrate uh really a an amazing award that they are recognized by the U.S Department of Education for their work in student achievement and clothing achievement gaps some go up the podium uh they don't Mr Schulte hasn't seen this yet I got about 10 slides I'm going to go through and then I'm going to turn over to you and your staff to talk because this is some good stuff that we need to share so it's really to celebrate the work you all are doing and um so I'll just uh here's a you take one of there's three of them for down there if you guys have a copier hopefully we'll eventually have some new TVs for you all there you go all right so you know I would talk a little
018bit about the the uh the National Blue Ribbon School program recognizes public and private elementary middle and high school is based on their overall academic excellence and their progress in closing achievement gaps among students subgroups which you're going to see tonight is the journey that Evans has been on since the 1819 school year and it's truly been a journey of of continuous Improvement a commitment to changing outcomes for our kids and and really um just hitting it out of the ballpark it's just been some amazing work to to see what they've been able to do across the country there were 353 schools that were recognized as a Blue Ribbon School so here is the high level data that really got the state and the federal government's um attention um here's other here's how the process
019works actually the Department of Public Instruction nominated schools to the U.S department of Ed so as I think I've shared this before the Department of Public Instruction called me last fall and whenever they call it's usually you know you don't not so sure if you want to take the call or not and the the gentleman called me said I have good news I need to talk to the superintendent flag so so that Sean said I have a someone here from the DPI to share some good news I said okay so they told us about this a year ago was right when we when we found out and that we were in the finals for it so let's talk about student outcomes here which is what Evans has been doing for about five years here overall
020student achievement when you look at this from the 1819 school year to now in math they've almost doubled the number of Stu the percentage of students who are proficient in math in ela they went up 15 almost one in two of their students are proficient in Reading which is just an outstanding growth that they have been on and this is keep in mind as I'm I don't mean to belabor this point as I'll say it again is you'll see the the line in there that's for the 20 uh for the 1920 school year where we had the pandemic and we did not test so to come out of the pandemic and perform better than he did pre-pandemic immediately in in math it went down a little bit in reading but to bounce back is truly
021uh remarkable and just outstanding work so let's get down here to uh some other part so there's students with disabilities math one and two students labeled with a disability are proficient in math 41 percent are proficient in Reading we have no other school in our district that is touching this this data we want to get there and hopefully that they can serve as a model for other schools to follow in terms of really working with students who have a handicapping condition but really working to say yes they can learn to at high levels students from low income families 18 19 22 2 of the students who attended Evans were proficient in math 53 are from low-income families English language arts 23 in 1819 40 percent that's a game changer for students major game changer for
022them English language or English language Learners keep in mind that we our population of students who are who are immigrating to Fond du Lac and our non-native speakers is increasing by the day and to see that 40 percent a year ago it was down from the previous year our our proficient in math is great Ela 20 but look where they were back in 1819. seven percent of our students who are I called the emerging bilinguals are were proficient in in reading now we're they're up to 20 once again a commitment to changing outcomes for kids so Dr Flagg on that one yep each year that's a moving Target because you're getting different students coming in and you have different languages coming in yeah now we have roughly 13 languages in our district so so it's
023not really the same students year over year because of that exact demographics change but yeah well the students are shifting through with the cohort but it really does but but keep in mind it doesn't matter we have to get them to grade level no matter who shows up and they're do and this is really great great work look at black student achievement 18 19 school year students were black who attended Evans there were zero percent who were proficient in math one and three are now Ela zero percent for three years in a row last year 22 that's huge we can do better and and I'm confident that number is going to move even further well done Hispanic student achievement 1819 to now 7.1 percent 18 19 67 percent in math Ela 14 in 1819 up
024to 35 once again great job as you can see they have continuously are improving so I think the other thing there's always the other part I'm a shift here to what I call the employee engagement experience survey and I think the uh with the this is really a testament to the staff in that building they have a number of Staff who have been there a long time and I want to talk a little bit about these three parts from the survey thank you in the spring of 2022 the the question was my principal supervisor provides me feedback and my strength as an employee that was a 3.41 average and a 5.0 scale this pastor went to 4.2 as employees we don't get better we cannot get better if we do if we do not receive
025feedback that is Meaningful the uh the question about my principal supervisor provides the support needed to accomplish my work objectives went up one point in one year Mr schultes is very supportive of his teachers he makes sure they that he advocates for them and they get what they need and I think that's a testament to his leadership and once again the last part which is I have a clear understand the mission and goals of my district they went from 3.97 to 4.5 they have bought into changing outcomes for kids and bought into teaching each and every kid who comes into their classroom and I really think that is what needs to be celebrated this evening and closing here Fond du Lac school district is filled with pride and excitement at being associated with the National
026Blue Ribbon School a distinction that truly reflects the exceptional accomplishments of Evans Elementary and the continued success story of Fond du Lac school district as a whole congratulations Evans coming up Kim oh okay Trish oh no okay come on up thank you all thank you my name is Kim Trent uh this is my 23rd year teaching at Evans on behalf of the oven staff I would like to express how much this recognition from the U.S Department of Education means to us it is an affirmation of our hard work and dedication to provide the best education to our students teachers have spent considerable time over the years refining our collaborative efforts with one another it is because of our Collective ambition to be better Educators that we can Ensure High academic success for each and every
027student we look forward to continuing to provide our students in the Fond du Lac school district with an exceptional educational experience thank you thank you foreign I forgot to add uh at the November Mr Schultz myself and a teacher from Evans will be going out to DC to accept this award this as far as I know Matt steinbarth was the first school when he was principal at Lakeshore to get as far as we know going back when were your principal there about 30 years ago all right a while ago so anyway uh 10 okay okay teaching your own kids so anyway uh but I I we don't that's all we know right now is that those have been the only two schools and I just want to so just highlight that so we'll be going
028out there to accept that a word they do a nice little award ceremony for us so thank you thank you awesome job guys amazing thank you well done five years of looking really hard and making changes and then doing well and then seeing things you need to change and then changing again in just five years of this hard work of keeping the data and doing what's right for kids and especially knowing um students with disabilities are near and dear to my heart I'm seeing that huge jump just uh just warms my heart and again super excited to be a grandma of an Evan student nice job best part I thought I saw on there was even with the pandemic you didn't see a huge drop off and that that's huge uh for these kids to
029come back from the pandemic and what they had to go through and and Nets and and just like keeping it going in the right direction thank you for everything you guys do appreciate it um next is notification of Fond du Lac High School orchestra trip to New York Dr Flagg okay I have a this is Mr Bolden Orchestra teacher from the high school has requested to take the students on a trip during spring break out to New York City to take in uh as well as perform I believe and then taking the culture of New York City Broadway in the New York Philharmonic and he's given a pretty extensive uh itinerary here and I'm asking the board to approve it seems like an outstanding learning experience for our kids I'm just I just want to
030uh say if you say one thing when teachers do put these trips on it's a lot of work and it's just great that our teachers are willing to take kids out of town and to uh like New York City or even abroad to really give our students experience that they may not normally have and it's it's always it's great to travel with your classmates and this will be a lifelong memory for our kids so I asked that the board please approve this do you guys not have the packet we don't have a package oh it is okay okay then right oh it's approved out of country I I take to the board for approval thank you all right they're going to New York City so I'm just telling you so awesome so good thank you
031all right I approved it great experience all right father of a previous band member and Linda has two it's an awesome experience for the parents yes and it's no joke it's a 24 7. those teachers are on the whole trip and thank you for doing what you do you guys and I do mean that yes thank you yeah it's a big deal for the teachers to take them on a trip so thank you Mr Bolden um is uh November yeah so I just want to update our viewing audience with the November board means we're going to meet the first Monday in November and the fourth Monday so really the only change in November will be that the second that we normally meet the second and fourth Mondays of the month we're gonna meet the first
032and the fourth those dates are uh six is right I think Sixth and 27th yes so yep Sixth and 27th just want to make sure you all are aware of that as well as the viewing audience is too okay awesome so thank you you bet thank you next is board member staff to Student Activities uh start down by you Mrs panel yes I'm not on sorry um saw Bridges which I have learned obviously is the math program and based on Evan's numbers it sounds like Bridges is doing a good job now one of the major highlights of uh that is the concrete resources that it affords for Hands-On learning for math concepts and the kids were working in groups and that each each suited their level and their understanding is of course does the reading
033and what they were doing in particular they were on a rod using two color beads focused on the concepts of ma of addition and subtraction uh also at chegwin I was introduced to uh steinbarth Louis who is the therapy dog there in which uh Louis does a great job of helping kids to de-escalate and working with them and getting them focused and back on track another part of the observation was mainstreaming one of the classrooms there was a blind child with an individual um special education teacher but I was surprised and pleased that this child was doing exactly what the rest of the class was with all of the the effort put forth um I look forward to continuing to visit the with the focus more on science and on social sciences and the four-day
034all-day kindergarten that's going on at chegwen but overall I'm under the impression and feel very strongly that chegwen is doing a darn good job not only through the numbers but one of the things was they had three families from outside the chegwin border and those three families opted through school choice to stay at chegwin and continue because they're pleased obviously what's what's going on the other thing I was able to do was attend the presentation of the Eagle Scout merit badge um for three young men from the father that have graduated from The Fond du Lac school district Gavin Evans Casey Casper and Zach zinke Troop 1 7 12 put on an excellent presentation in recognizing the the three men as well as their families and the support that was given to propel them this
035far with that much dedication and that much Focus um two of the young men are currently studying at UW Oshkosh one of them is an apprentice at JF Ahern and I two of the moms two of the mothers of these people these boys are teachers within the Fond du Lac school district I was only able to meet Mrs zinke but I'm the other people obviously had plenty of things and focus on their on their children so good all right um so I had the opportunity to visit stem school and welcome Bob Lloyd who will be the Principal for this year and so um we got a chance to talk about his transition in how the students are doing as well as walk around the school in which we saw kids engaged in their learning which
036was great I also had the opportunity to head over to Evan's school and um see the work that they're doing in their classrooms one of the things that was highlighted which I think is really outstanding is there are a few new teachers who are new in that first grade level and so there are teachers in the kindergarten level who have a lot of experience and they are mentoring and they're doing double dosage as far as like peels or Community collaboration meetings where they're meeting with the K1 team to make sure that the new teachers have just some of the feedback and experience that they've received as well as the and doing their own work and I think that just shows the power of being strong as a learning community and how do you use the
037resources within to again strengthen your skills as a school and therefore do better for kids so I thought that was really awesome Mr Godfrey uh well I've also uh attended the uh Kaukauna football game um two weeks ago um it was nice to see our our guy the kids get their first win and I also got over to Evans Elementary School the other last week and just wanted to just congratulate them on their amazing and and I visited sabish Empire and everyone was just learning it's just good to see the kids back in school in their environment and learning and engaging and the teachers are just just uh killing it doing because killings are learning so that's all I got funny high and I ended up wandering around a little bit got a chance to
038talk to some new teachers some veteran teachers it was all very good connections to make um got to go to a football and two band performances and then I was also at the Eagle Scout ceremony with Joan where um I was it was pleased to see how many teachers were in attendance to and were recognized for their their role in raising those kids and helping them become successful so that's it Missouri um I went to the Youth Night volleyball game which I think that was two weeks ago now and they won all three of their matches so that was exciting and threw volleyballs out into the bleachers um and that is all I have this time and I had the privileged Varsity JV a bunch of different football games which it's nice to see the
039excitement on the boys uh the team you know get some encouragement and some positivity going out I also want to encourage everybody that's listening it's homecoming week so lots of activities look at your emails I saw them coming across this morning on a lot of activities with spirit week and we got the game and the parade on Friday so there's a lot of fun stuff going on this Friday and then of course the game and even tonight there's a game at the high school for JV so hopefully it doesn't rain next is public comment for the second uh we got five minutes per person 10 minutes per subject if anybody wants to come up and address the board Jim Hess Eden congratulations Evans Elementary School great job the executive branches Branch's educational secretary Mikhail Cardona
040recently criticized parents misbehaving in public school board meetings and then acting as if they know what's right for kids he also said teachers know best for their kids again I just want to say he said he's this Secretary of Education at the U.S Department of Education Mikhail said he recently criticized parents misbehaving in public school board meetings and then acting as if they know what's right for kids board members I just want to ask you you know do you believe that because that's the ideology behind all the controls and money that come into our schools Common Core Fuzzy Math three times one equals zero us spends three times more money than most other countries per student compared to the 77 other countries the US is 38th in math literacy score I think that every school
041they must have dumped Common Core many years ago Common Core has been such a washout that it's fate in Most states is no longer of interest to most people how can we expect to have a Workforce equip for our modern Tech age ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder last time I brought up the mental health condition of our students there are as many as one in four middle and high schoolers who may be abusing the drugs Adderall and Ritalin reported at study finds April 2023 again the question is why ADHD and the drugs that control it are increasing among our students year over year we know that one of the reasons children become frustrated in the classroom and act up is because of the way they are being taught they enter school at age five or
042six feeling very confident that they are intelligent enough to be able to learn to read after all they taught themselves to speak their own language on their own without the help of a certified teacher so their confidence in their learning ability is quite Justified but once in school they discover that they can't learn to read in the manner they are being taught so they become angry and frustrated doubting their own intelligence soon they join the ranks of the reading disabled the dyslexic and the ADHD sufferers and are given a drug to solve their learning and behavioral problems and makes their teachers and parents happy studies at the University of Michigan found that students that use eight ADHD medications were more likely to later on use cocaine and Other Drugs board members if we love and
043care about our children we should try to get to the bottom of it thank you okay anybody else or public comment name address five minutes Shari Trotter Fond du Lac um I know I talk a lot on this microphone and with people about that Race Matters and when Dr Flagg introduced that data um if it didn't put a spear in your heart and soul that zero black kids were proficient in math and reading at one time in a school building that I think then you're the problem because that just like put a spirit in my heart my soul and that is why I think it's so important to put everything out by race any kind of data and second of all I had a great conversation with Tyrion spaniels today our um Terence um Lupton
044today and um he's the equity coordinator and I had brought up that I hope there's going to be talk in the district with his job position that he can um visit the security tension in our town because we do have two district teachers that teach in secured attention downtown and I just think it's it's well it's been time but it's time now we know better we do better that he gets involved with um either going there I told them I think it would be great for these kids in detention because some of them are there a day some of their there are a month some of them are there six months but they still got to learn and they're still our kids our students and I said it wouldn't it be great if you went
045in there and you taught a science lesson when some of these kids have no idea who he is and he's really a science teacher and they'll be like dang you know this guy knows science too you know and um break down some of the stereotypes and things like that um and still play a board game with them and build a relationship with those kids in there because if we're talking about all students in our district we got to remember all students so I'm hoping that will be some new point of discussion thank you anyone else want to address the board probably comment all right I see none if I can get a motion for adjournment I move the Board of Education to during the regular meeting and convenient in an executive session to discuss the
046site acquisition as provided in Wisconsin statute 19.51 e deliberate or negotiate the purchase of public properties the investing of public funds or conducting other specific business public business whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session second kind of mushroom Mr Godfrey's second business Mrs hearth and if we can get a comb a horse yes motor yes Canal yes useful man yes Godfrey yes potential yes thank you carries six-year-old regular meeting is adjourned at 5 43. we it's exactly