WSD Board Meeting, Regular March 23rd 2026

001All right. Good evening, everyone. I call the March 23rd, 2026 school board meeting to order. It is 6:02 Pm. We are in the conference room C of the Fisher Administration Building at 12121 West North Avenue. Miss Summers, please call the roll. Ms. Here, Mr. Bauer. Here. Miss Bach here. Mr. Morris? Absent. Ms. Hammer-rolland? Here. Dr. Worley? Here. Mr. Wattier? Here. Thank you. So very exciting. We have a very full room. Those of you watching online may not be able to see the large number of people, but we're really excited because we get to start this evening with item number two, which is recognition of state qualified destination imagination teams and destination imagination film challenge participants. So here's what we're going to do. I have a list. And when I read out the school and the

002name of your team, if you are sitting and can stand, and if you're already standing, just wave. Um, so that everyone in the room for each team will take a pause and give a short round of applause, recognizing your work or destination imagination, which is an amazing program that is. It's very much supported by the district, but is very much parent investment that really makes it happen and go as well as student investment that really makes it happen and go. So we're going to start with the Film Challenge Awards, and we have that, um, we have some students here from Longfellow. If you could stand if you're here, this is team sparkle poof. Don't be shy. Team Sparkle poof took 1st place middle level and overall award for best special visual effects. We're looking forward

003to your contributions to our district's communications material in the future. We're so glad that you are learning these skills. And now we're going to turn to our state qualifying destination imagination teams. And we're going to start with three different teams from Lincoln. Let's start with the Thunderbolts, second place in Fine Arts elementary level. and listen carefully to this team name Supercalifragi llamas. 3rd place in fine arts elementary level. And then we have the Lincoln Boys 1st place in engineering elementary level. We also know some families may be watching online. So it's great that we're clapping for everyone. And second, next school is Roosevelt. We're going to start with the no-namers, first place in technical elementary level. And also from Roosevelt, doorway to DI, fourth place in technical elementary level. Hey there, I'm back. Thank you

004so much for being here. We move on to Washington Elementary School. The Timberwolves tied for 5th place in fine arts elementary level. Okay, excellent. And we move on to Wilson Hall of Famous Animals. Second place in technical elementary level. Kind of looks like Walatosa might have swept the technical elementary level almost. Um, and then we move back to Longfellow, and this is a great name. It is, sorry, this team has no name. First place in technical middle level. They're all great names. The next team is gooses and Mooses drinking juices. Second place in technical middle level. I'm pretty sure Dr. Seuss is jealous, said he never thought of that. And the third is interstellar settlers. Second place in engineering, middle level, also from Long Hollow. Now we move to Whitman and their team, the cave

005tellers, 1st place in fine arts, middle level. And our final team is a combined team from Tosa East and Tosa West. Two peas in a pod, first place in improv, secondary level. We are so proud of all of you. I understand you get to go to State. I have heard that that's in some prairie. We hope that you have a fantastic trip, and that all goes really well. And please make sure to let us know how it goes when you're back. Thank you for doing Destination Imagination and for being here tonight. Now we know how much you love school board meetings. We do, too. However, we would like to give you the option to not stick around, because we guess you probably have some homework, maybe some dinner to eat. You're always welcome to be

006here and to stay as long as you want. But if this is better for you to depart now. We just want to say again how proud we are of you. Yeah, that means, please go ahead. Sorry, I should have given you the answer. As we're transitioning, I just want to also thank all the families who support their DI students. They do a lot of work with our students throughout the year to prepare them for the competition, so. On behalf of the district and the board, I want to say thank you to, as I'm looking at all of these families who are nodding in agreement that they put a lot of effort in support of these scholars. I think it's a hallmark of our district that we have so much creativity among our students. and the

007energy level that they bring to this competition does spill over into the classroom. I understand they also contributed a lot of tape, cardboard paint and other bubble wrap supplies that one might need. Thanks again, everyone. Thank you so much. If you're staying around and you don't feel like sitting in the back, feel free to take a seat a little more to the front. We're happy to have you all here. Okay, we're going to move on to item number 3, Superintendent's update. Dr. Means, thanks so much for preparing this for us. No, no, my pleasure. And I would like to. start by… by really honing in on the fact that Friday was the start of spring. And as I think about my role as superintendent, we're always in a season of growth as a school system.

008There's always more to celebrate and to lift up. There's so many seeds of positivity that is happening in our schools. And so I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to our staff, to our students, to our families who continue to put their best foot forward for our young people. I think there's seeds of excellence that are being planted and they're starting the spring now. No pun intended in terms of all the hard work that happened from the beginning of the school year to now. I'm really proud of what's happening in our classrooms and our schools. We're continuing to see positive, um. positive trajectory with our academics and with our school cultures. With the spring, there are longer days and brighter days, and I feel that our brighter days are ahead of

009us as a school system. We continue to refine what's happening with our strategic plan. That's continuing to always be refined. When you are a school system like ours that are committed to… that's committed to continuous improvement, you never arrive. You're never at a place where things are. at a point where you're not striving to get better. And I'm really happy that we have a leadership team and a staff, a teaching staff, and students who are always looking to improve. And then finally, we're developing deeper, stronger roots. Those roots are connected with our families and with our students, making sure that they have good experiences in our schools. One prime example of this. Is our GED option 2 students who were recognized this past month for their accomplishments. I know you had a chance to hear

010from Dean Hoyt during our school update. to the board. We're really really really pleased and proud of our students who have achieved 90% attendance rate. They're passing their GED test. They're passing graduation classes. It's just another sign of the complexity of our school system. where people tend to believe that the work that's happening in our district is is solely in our brick and mortar buildings and in classrooms. I like to always remind our our community that we we also serve our students who are. incarcerated at Valar Phillips. We serve our students who are dealing with chronic illnesses at Children's Hospital, and we have students who are taking advantage of not only our GED option 2 program, but also WPA. and champions. We're complex, and we try to meet the needs of all of our students.

011We're really proud of the connecting generations component of things that's happening in our district. when Mr. Martin came on board as our Director of Recreation. One thing that I shared with him was that we really needed to make our. Our step program amazing and and to make sure that our our senior citizens have an opportunity to get into our schools and do meaningful work with our students. And I've been so, so pleased with what's happening with the step program. We exceeded our expectations in terms of the number of STEP participants. I think I've shared with you earlier this school year that we've really been excited about the number of people who have taken advantage of the STEP program. But now we're starting to see the connections. that our step participants are having with the students,

012and and now they're forming those relationships where students are expecting their step people to to be in the classroom and to support their work. And so we're really, truly pleased with what's happening. with stuff, and just wanted to bring that back to your attention. If you haven't had a chance to see the most recent video that our. comms director, communications director Jesse Tuttle have put out about our junior kindergarten students. Please take a take a moment and view it online. We believe it's important in our storytelling to give student voice, and you'll hear directly from these junior kindergarten students if you haven't seen. the video of what makes them happy about school and where their happy place is. And it's just, it's a, it's a heartwarming video that I would just encourage the community to

013view. Again, there's so much good to identify, and these are young people who have. Definitely identify the good in school and what's happening in Walthatosa. It is March, and so I'm sure many of you have been watching either college basketball. But for many of us in Walletosa, we were watching and glued to our television sets around high school basketball, specifically our our girls team at Walatosa East. They had a. heartbreaking loss in the championship game, um, to Heartland Arrowhead, um, but this does not diminish a great season that they had. Um, I told Coach Merg, I happened to be at Tulsa East the day that they had their walk through the hallways and. The band played for them and the level of excitement that they brought to women, women's sports and women athletics. Um, but,

014um, bringing that school community together was just really, um, grateful to watch and I was grateful to watch it and. It was happy. Happy to see it. The the thing about this team, they are an amazing group of basketball players, but they're better citizens. They're just really good young people. I'm seeing our student reps are shaking their heads. They're just good students that represents us well. As a school community. Again, lifting up what the positives are about what we do. And I also want to just give a shout out again to coach Murr, who right after her maternity leave came back and started coaching right away. So I'm hopeful that. This heartbreaking loss is not too much for her, um, because I want her to have some downtime and to enjoy what has been a

015really good run for the last two years. I am so thankful that we've built a ditch of leaders here in the district. And later this evening, the board will be considering the recommendation of two hires for principal. I want to thank the human resources team of Sarah Zelizoski and Leah Claibor. from helping both the McKinley and Roosevelt School communities fund, I believe, really strong candidates. we were just cleaning out some of our yearbooks and happened to find some some photos of these 2 candidates Mr. Kriegel. I've shared with Mr. Kriego that I am a little concerned about his candidacy, and that if you've ever been to the third floor at Walatosa East, one of the traditions. is somehow, someway, students get to the third floor and they write their names. In my time on the

016third floor, I've seen Mr. Creco's name at least 4 times. So I don't know. Maybe that was… he was a… he was an administrator in training, uh, while he was at Tulsi East, uh, Red Raider. Class of 2004, but has been with our district, has gone through leadership training, and we're proud to present him this evening as a candidate for the principal at Roosevelt. And Steve Spurl, I don't even know where to start with the head of hair. It is outstanding. But. and cleaning out the yearbooks for Tulsa West, Mr. Spurl is all over, though, that yearbook. He was a very active student, um, and has been with us as well, um, as a kindergarten teacher at McKinley, kindergarten… junior kindergarten teacher at Roosevelt. has served us as an instructional coach. These are two outstanding

017educators who love Walt Tulsa. And again, as we talk about what is good about us, I think Pat and Steve represent the good. that we we have in our district. I'm so pleased that there are people who want to continue to be part of the legacy in the tradition here in our district. So, I just want to conclude by saying thank you to everyone who helps our students grow. who identifies that there are always spaces for us to improve. But there are good things happening in Walletosa, and I want to just thank you for giving me the opportunity to share some of these bright, bright moments in our district. That's the conclusion of my report. Great. Thank you so much. Okay, school board members, we move on to our time of public comment. For those

018of you who are joining us either in the room or online. I'm going to read the public comment policy at board meetings. So some of you may have heard it before. We know that there could always be someone new who's at a meeting. And so we want to make sure that the policy is ready each time. Um, after I read the policy, I will invite people in the room to the microphone. We'll do a few in-room comments, and we'll check for online comments, and we'll go back and forth. We have up to 30 minutes set aside. And Mr. Bauer will be keeping the three minute timing, and I'm going to need a thank you, Miss Hammerald. We'll keep the 30-minute timing, but we'll start that, of course, after we've read the policy. So policy 0

0191 6 7.3 public comment at board meetings. Members of the school board value and the input of students, parents, staff members, and community members. The Board's regularly scheduled meetings provide an opportunity for opinions and concerns to be expressed publicly. The board values all comments and will respectfully consider this input in decision making. The board will take public comment on both non-agenda items and agenda items at each regular Board meeting, and may take public comment during special Board meetings. A public comment period will occur near the beginning of the meeting and shall not exceed 30 min in length unless extended by the presiding officer or a vote of the board. Individuals must limit their comments to 3 min. Participants must be recognized by the presiding officer and will be requested to preface their comments by an

020announcement of their name. Public comments submitted to the school board email address by 10 a.m. On the day of the meeting of the board will be added to the online meeting documents to become part of the public record. Email public comments must include the name of the person or person submitting the comment. All public comments shall be directed to the presiding officer. No person may address or question board members individually or direct statements, comments, or questions to staff or other meeting participants. or members. are obligated to follow the Wisconsin Open Meeting Law, which requires advanced notification to the community of the Board's intent to discuss and or take action on an item. If a public comment concerns an item that is not on the current meeting agenda, board members may not respond other than to

021thank and acknowledge the speaker for their input. The presiding officer may a limit the number of times a speaker may comment on the same topic. B interrupt, warn, or terminate public comment when the statement is too lengthy, directed to anyone other than the board presiding officer obscene or disorderly. C. Request any individual to leave the meeting when that person engages in conduct which is disorderly. D. Request the assistance of law enforcement officers and or security officials in the removal of a disorderly person when that person's conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting. E. Call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when disorderly conduct so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such an action. F weigh these rules with the approval of the board when necessary

022for the protection of privacy or the administration of the Board's business. Recording, filming, or photographing board meetings is permitted. The person operating the equipment should contact the superintendent prior to the board meeting to review possible placement of the equipment, and must agree to abide by the following conditions. No obstructions are created between the board and the audience. No interviews are conducted in the meeting room while the board is in session. No commentary, adjustment of equipment or positioning of operators is made that would distract either the board or members of the audience, or otherwise disrupt the meeting while the board is in session. The board encourages all residents to be well informed about school affairs. Therefore, regular board meetings are live streamed and recorded. School board meetings are available for viewing online on the district website.

023Executive sessions and in services for Board members are not recorded. Okay, we're ready to start public comment. If there's anyone in the room who would like to give a public comment. Please come forward to the microphone. Give us your name, and we'll get started. Almost got it, Bill. Well, thank you so much for being willing to do so. I've always been an icebreaker. My name is Mike Rakwicki. I live here in Wallachosa. I've been teaching for 35 years, not here. Five years in Milwaukee Public Schools in the last 30 in Elm Brook. Uh, and I know that there's. parallels drawn. But when I've seen culture grow where I work, and I've seen culture diminish. And and from people that I know that work in our schools and through the community. I think there's a problem.

024It was a serious problem. I think that. As I was at the last. for our last open forum is that that there was a lot of things that. Seemingly run through the superintendent's office, which kind of… made me question some things like Hr. Things. And then how even the meeting where Cameron needs to go needs to run through the superintendent rather than the board. because I think the board is supposed to be running the school district. as I've been as I figured out 30, 35 years in this game. So I'm really concerned about that. I'm concerned about people leaving. I'm concerned about good teachers leaving, and over the past 3 years I've been very concerned and watched. and study numbers comparing Wauwatosa to other school districts. Why are people leaving en masse? Why are people

025leaving in the middle of the school year? Why are we having so many problems? I think it comes down to culture. I think it comes down to leadership. I really do. I work for a man that I can talk to anytime. anytime. I don't know if our school district has that. being very honest. from what I've been told. Obi can change. I wanted to change. My kids got a great education here. Fantastic. Our Tulsi East was an amazing high school, and it still is. I trust the leadership in the schools. I trust the leadership. There are teachers. I trust the administrators. And I think that's for me where it stops. I have to be very honest. Because. We need a culture change. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we'll take another comment from the room. Good

026evening. My name is Heather Burke. In the last four years, this district has drained our fund reserve balance and put us in hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, going from no operating referendums ever to needing an extra $16 million dollars, and somehow that isn't covering it either. We had our bond rating downgraded, then found out it should have been done last year, while the board and administration kept reassuring the public. You were fine. Uh, we've lost 6% of students, but increased FTE by 18%. We've experienced over 50% staff turnover. Our principal turnover rate is 92%, and while 12% of our total staff turnover was from retirement, many of them opted to retire early, which. has been noted in consent agendas in the past. 85% of staff who left the district resigned. And as we

027finally heard directly from our educators the other week. It's the culture. 20% of educators who resigned did so mid-year. The test scores have gone up and that's good. But some demographic groups saw greater grades than others. For example, our black students grew 10 percentage points in both ELA and math in forward exams, while white students grew over 16 percentage points in each. You actually managed to widen the achievement gap. Our marginalized students continue to experience discipline at higher rates than their peers, and the only solutions I've heard from this room are to pass referendums, because that's why our Black and economically disadvantaged students and our students with disabilities are struggling. the aesthetic is wrong. While our leaders spend time doing work in other districts, attending conferences to pose with for a photo with acute certificate

028to show how progressive they are. sending people to follow me around the city, reporters to badger me, only for them to later admit that they were sent to dig up dirt, and getting endorsements from political parties in a nonpartisan race. I was in our classrooms helping students in reading and math. I was collecting donations of food, clothing, and personal care items for our students. Supporting our families and children or with children with disabilities. Sorry. and finding grant funding to support mental health initiatives in our buildings. And while everyone said teachers were leaving for pay or personal reasons, I was sitting with them in offices, conference rooms, hallways, empty classroom, sidewalks, driveways, and on the phone, listening to their experiences and supporting them as they make gut wrenching decisions to leave the communities. They were part

029of. Well, you talked about it, I did it. and I was retaliated against and ostracized for it, and my children were retaliated against, too. And I still showed up here in this room to advocate for our students and our educators. Tonight you are going to present a schedule change at the high school level. But it's not the first presentation our high school staff saw, not the 1st time. The second one only came out after educators and the public spoke up. Stop gaslighting our educators in our community. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the room? Public comment? Please come forward. Hello! My name is Allison Malcolm. I'm here to speak on the issue of scheduling and to express my objection to moving away from traditional scheduling in the high school. Last night I sent the

030board members a 2,000 word letter detailing my many objections to block scheduling, so shall not reiterate most of the points here. Instead, I want to spend my time refuting the district's premise that block scheduling is shown by research to be advantageous for students. In fact, research does not support such conclusions. It's actually very easy to find evidence that there are no conclusions about the efficacy of blocked scheduling. To quote one analysis of literature from the University of Connecticut, these findings highlight the inconsistent results and lack of strong evidence to support the notion that blocked scheduling leads to significant learning outcomes, end quote. This analysis concludes, based on the current literature, there is not enough evidence to suggest that blocked scheduling's advantages outweigh the drawbacks of overhauling a master schedule. End quote. This analysis also stresses

031that any change to block scheduling would have to include significant teacher support to that end, as it is difficult to maintain students' attention for longer classes and requires new strategies and the rewriting of lesson plans. As a teacher, I personally want to stress that teacher support is not the same as teacher homework. Merely giving teachers a few strategies to overcome the huge change that would be involved in switching to block scheduling is not support. It is stress. It is burden, and it is workload. So unless you are planning to offer actual support, this plan should be dead in the water. I want to additionally question some of the district's stated motivations in switching to block schedules. I have time for two examples. First, the district says that Longfellow has already shifted to longer class periods

032for core classes at the expense of electives, implying, I assume that the district thinks the shift is a success. I question this premise without outing the middle schoolers that I know. They spend an awful lot of time in their core classes doing very, very little. Second, the district says blocks will be a great time to give students, quote, independent reading time. Well, call me old-fashioned, but independent reading time in high school is what we generally used to call homework, which means that what the district is actually proposing is that sections of class time to be set aside for what should be done in study halls. Which means that study halls, which are now optional and filled by my children with cool classes, are now, in actual practice, becoming required at the expense of active teaching.

033I see this as a problem and fodder for the eroding of academic standards. These are just two examples. I am happy to go point by point with any board members who would be interested into why I find the district's additional claims to be ultimately unconvincing for a schedule that threatens. highly successful ARPS program. Thank you. Thank you for your time. There's time for more public comment in the room. I'm not currently seeing any public comment hands raised online. Please proceed. Thank you. I'm Bobby Pantuso. I live here in Walmatosa. I'm a Tucson East grad. Got two kids that graduated from me so far, one that's about to, and one that's about to start at Longville next year. I'm here tonight because I'm concerned about the possibility of implementing block scheduling at Wabatosa East and West.

034Changing a high school schedule might sound like a technical decision, but it's much bigger than that. The schedule shapes how students learn every day, how teachers teach, and what opportunities are available. That's why we need to approach this with caution. The research on block scheduling is mixed. In some cases, it shows little improvement in outcomes, and in others, it raises concerns, especially in sequential subjects. Math is a clear example. Math builds step by step, day by day. When students go long gaps between lessons or take a semester off, you lose momentum and continuity. And that makes it harder for students to succeed. But this isn't about just about academics. It's about what makes Wauwatosa schools special. for decades, our schools have been known for giving students opportunities. Award-winning band and theater programs, a wide range

035of electives, and programs like launch that connects students to real futures. These are experiences where students discover who they are. And those experiences depend on consistency. They depend on regular participation and skill building over time. When you fundamentally restructure the school day, those opportunities can be effective in ways that are hard to predict, and even harder to undo. And that's my biggest concern. We likely won't see the impact of this right away. It takes may take years before we notice programs weakening or participation declining, and by then it may be too late to to easily reverse force. Wamajosa is a sought-after school district because of opportunity. Before making a change is significant, we need to be certain that we are protecting those opportunities and not putting them at risk. Because once they are diminished. They're

036very hard to get back. No, later tonight, I know one of the slides is going to say, we wouldn't be alone. There are other districts that are doing this. But Wabatosa has never been about just doing what other districts are doing. Families don't choose Tosa because it's typical. They choose it because it stands out, because the opportunities, the programs, and the experiences our students have every single day. We shouldn't be asking whether this would be good. We would whether we would be in good company. We should be asking whether this keeps Wabatosa exceptional. because people don't move here for average. They move here for more. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other public comment in the room? Okay, seeing none. I also don't see any online. No hands are raised, so we will end

037our time of public comment. Thank you, everyone who participated. We appreciate your input. We move now to the consent agenda. Board members. This is where I am going to ask you about potential items that are on the consent agenda that you may want to remove. Are there any items on the consent agenda which board members would like to remove for separate discussion and action? Yes, Ms. Brzezinski. Yes, can we, for discussion, letter B, please? as board resolution. Oh, it says the virtual academy transition. From charter school to district instructional program. Excellent. Any others? Yes, Miss Hammer rolls, just room for discussion. Item J, please. Item J, which is the original contract with the secondary school ad hoc committee facilitator. the others. Okay. Is there someone who would offer the rec the motion that recommended to

038approve the remainder of the consent agenda. Thank you, Miss. It is recommended that the school board approve the remainder of the consent agenda, and I assume may I have a second? Thank you, Mr. Bauer. Ms. Summers, please call the roll. Ms. Brzezinski? Yes. Mr. Bauer? Yes. Ms. Bach? Yes. Mr. Morris? Excused. Ms. Heimer-rolland? Yes. Dr. Werley? Yes. Mr. Wattier? Yes. And the motion carries. Okay, so we'll go as usual in alphabetical order. We will start with item B, which is the board resolution regarding Wauwatosa Virtual Academy transition from a charter school to a district instructional program. Ms. Brzezinski, kick us off. Thanks. So we just had our recent review of all of our from our different schools across the district and we heard some. some notes of real. success in this in our program, our

039virtual program, students. finding ways to to engage in academics, people working hard to bring bring our virtual students together socially in public spaces to feel connected to the community. I just want to take a moment to recognize that work that's been done, and to also. just say that how this is an exciting opportunity to not stop that work, but have our students who are working virtually stay connected to their home schools and continue to be. part of our Wawatosa school community. And I just want to make sure we're saying thank you and highlighting. Highlighting what this process is. Yeah, any other board members? Dr. Means, did you have anything you want to say? I think Miss Brusinski said it well. We want to. recognize the people who were founders of the Wallace Virtual Academy. The

040good history and success that it's had, and that will continue to… pivot and make sure that that work continues as it becomes a program and is ban opportunities for students. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for bringing this forward, too. Okay. Ms. Rasinski, would you like to offer that? or as a motion to go ahead and move forward. I move that we go ahead and move forward in. was letter B with letter B. Yes, thank resolution about the wasosa Virtual Academy transition from a charter school to district instructional attached to the agenda tonight is a copy of that resolution. Yep. Okay, second, second. Thank you, Mr. Wattier. Ms. Summers, please call the roll. Miss Brusinski. Yes, Mr. Ballard. Yes. Miss Bach. Yes. Mr. Morris. Absent. Ms. Heimer Rolland. Yes, Dr. Worley? Yes. Mr. Wattier? Yes. Motion carries.

041And now let's move to letter J. Simon Rowland. So I just wanted to clarify. So this looks like this is an addition to what the original contract that the board approved back when the secondary ad hoc committee started its work last May. The board didn't approve the contract. So under policy 6230, if it's under a certain threshold, then it doesn't come to the board. when it's the same… when it's the same work. And there's an extension of that work. And now it goes over that threshold. We are obligated to bring it to the board. That's what's happening. And my understanding is that because the ad hoc committee met for a longer period of time than that was originally designed to meet. That is why the additional cost incurs. That is correct. Gave us extra time.

042It extended from January through the first week of March, on March 3rd, specifically. And I think the… And as you heard when the presentation from the ad hoc committee was made. The difference in the success, I believe, of the process was the facilitation. If you recall, we brought in this facilitator at the midpoint of the. 2075 Task Force, where it was in a bad position, and she was able to help us get to a good conclusion. I believe we started in a good place and ended in a better place as a result of the facilitation. Yes, I mean, from January to March, that person had to add on more time and started to realize that there was more work involved in bringing things to the conclusion. So that's that's the reason why this is coming

043before the board. Thank you. It was, I believe, observable to us at that meeting, how involved she was, but also we're aware that she really helped with the presentation, creating the presentation, and that and with working with the. scribes who were writing up the final document. So her contribution was at many levels, not just those Tuesday evening meetings. She really had a lot of preparation and work in between. I think that's well put, Dr. Worley. I think if someone just looked at the Tuesday night, that was the. That was the the least of the work that she actually did, and and we wanted to create a level of independence or that that ad hoc committee in in Seoul. there was a separation of what the district was able to provide versus there was a level

044of independence. I think the ad hoc committee would tell you they felt because they had their. their facilitator. And then final question. So where in the budget then are we cutting to make up for the additional cost? It's a great question. We're not. So Mr. Hicker and I. knew that there would be cost associated with the ad hoc committee. I think that was another lesson we learned from the task force. We were making adjustments in the budget in real time to help with the costs associated with the task force that the 2075 task force. We budgeted for not only the facilitator, but also for the community survey, for down to the refreshments that the ad hoc committee had. That was a strategic, more planning. better planning than we have with the ad hoc committee. So

045there was a budget outline in the in the superintendent's budget. So I think there have been people who said, boy, the superintendent's budget has grown this year. It wasn't that our my budget grew. It was that we were proactively put money aside. to make sure that this work, both the facilitation calls for the survey calls for working with MD Rothers who did the student population study and answer questions. All of that was. proactively budgeted for. Did we come in at budget for that item? I would have to ask Mr. Eckery, but I believe we were. Okay. I can't remember right. We can we get that to you. Thank you. And in that case, I move to approve. Let's just see if any other anyone else have questions or comments? Yes, Mr. was a question, more

046of a comment or anecdote. So with this originally being under the threshold to be of being brought to the board. I don't doubt the work that was done and it was intensive and a lot and very valuable. I… I am looking at it, though, and seeing the the billable hourly rate is up there probably on par with. Law firms and other professional services is this? I guess my comment would be that I would. I would like to have. seen this in a more transparent way. upfront and I know that we are past that point right now. But that's just a comment from my perspective. Again, within board policy of 62 30. It was under the threshold that did not have to come to the understood. and we're following process, and that once it went over

047that threshold, then it does have to come to the board. So now it is before you. But the work, the work has already been done. I guess the the point I'm looking at is the work's been done. The money is is owed. should be paid. The work was good. But because of the way the policy is written, and maybe this is something we want to look at when we hit that threshold level. Unless my understanding is wrong. That, uh… if it needs to come to the board. Shouldn't it have come to the board before. The work was done. I see what you're trying. I understand. once it wants the same product. exceeds the dollar amount. Then we need to get for approval. Um, I didn't receive… I guess the work happened. We were in the

048midst of the work as it was happening. That's why it would. We couldn't bring it to you in real time. But it would have been inappropriate for us to just pay the additional $25,200, not bringing this to you if the same product was. all together is seated that that threshold. I think that's the reason why it's coming before you. Now, I can see where this is confusing from a board member perspective in that you're saying, well, wait a minute, if it is seated the threshold, why didn't we get a chance to see it in the 1st place? But we did not. assumed that it was going to ever have to come back to you. It only came back to you because we went two months or almost three months beyond the original contracted time period.

049Understood. And the facts are what what they are. I'm just wondering if from the policy perspective. Can we can we have? better language or some sort of clause. I guess I don't. I don't know. I don't. I'm not an expert in accounts payable. But if there would have been some sort of signal just to know, so that it could have been brought up. partway through. I don't think there is a way to have a. no one planned for this service to have to go. into March. That was never the intention. Understood. Is what you're trying to say, Mr. Wadia, that the with the original contract, even though it fell under that policy where it fell. When you look at the agreement with the facilitator, you would have. It's it's of the amount per hour that

050you would have liked to have had. Um, an opportunity to better understand what was involved in all of the work that went in. Typically. I'm looking at a vendor contract, I when when an hourly rate is above. $400 or $500 per hour threshold. I would like to clarification, due diligence. So, so yes, and… They're. and and I'm only pushing back because. This is a process that I do plenty of times in. our daily work. There must have been some indication if how at what point was the. was the realization that the. We'll just say the consulting firm that's billing. was going to need to go enough over that it would need to be brought to the board, be brought to the board interviews. As I'm asking in general as a as a vendor wouldn't wouldn't

051that topic have been brought up kind of. You know, when I, when I ran a consulting company. When we hit… when we hit our statement of work, we realized we were going to need more resources, it was brought up right away with the client and we made sure we got clearance with the first. That's fair. I think… The only problem is we didn't know how farther into. past the December time period, we would have to go. And so that that. We kept adding meetings. If you noticed, we added meetings all the way into February. That's why this was difficult to to. to to project. And that was primarily at the request of the committee members, not that wasn't the facilitator who was asking for one time. Originally, it would have wrapped up in December. I

052think you're you're raising a point of if you want to have trigger language in policy 6220 around a certain. hourly rate. And that is something you can put into the pump. That's what I was going to say. I think hearing what you have to say, that's certainly something we could have to look at as a policy. Yes, as a safety valve, I think that would be worth having a policy to. just adding those additional checks. Sure. Makes sense policy committee will take a look at that. bring it for a 1st read, and those are our usual process. Thank you, Mr. Water, for taking that off the agenda and encouraging us to discuss that further. Any other board members before we… I'm gonna roll next. Sorry, that's right. Let's have a roll. Thank you. Thanks for

053doing that. Is everyone ready? Ms. Brzezinski has a make sure I have the right policy number. 6, 2, 3, 0. Yeah, go ahead, please. I'll make a motion to approve item J as a consent agenda. They have a second. Second. Thank you, Miss Vach. Miss Summers, please call the roll. Miss Brzezinski. Yes, Mr. Bauer. Yes, Miss Bach. Yes, Mr. Morris. Not here. Miss Hammer Rollins. Yes, Dr. Worthy. Yes, Mr. Wattier. Yes. And the motion carries. Okay. We move on to item number 6, strategic goal instruction and leadership. And letter A presentation of high school schedule study. So that's okay. I thought for a moment I might have jumped through this turn. I turned my page, and just to make sure I'm on the right. Thank you for being here. Thank you. for you this evening

054is Dr. Cole Marble, our chief academic officer, Corey Gallo, Principal Walatosa West, and Dr. Steve Point. Principal Walatosa East. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Sorry. I'm, like, fumbling the technology in front of. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm I'm competing with you right now. Sorry. In the text setups. Okay, might need to close that. Yeah, close out a couple of the. If you go under more. Yep. the high meeting controls. No more. We're almost there. Thank you. This means it won't compete with the words. Yes, yes, thank you so much. Apologies for that fumbling. As Dr. Means introduced Nicole Marble, chief academic officer. I'm joined by my esteemed colleagues, Mr. Corey Gala, principal of Watwatosa West High School. And Dr. Steve Plank, principal of Wauwatosi East High School. Um, this evening, we'll be providing you with

055an update of the work that, um, our greater team has been involved in for almost 24 months. Um, so this is not something that just happened yesterday. It is, um. work that we've been engaging in over the last 2 years. I do want to acknowledge that on March 3rd our principals, they did gather their staff to inform them that we were reengaging in discussion around shifting the high school schedule to an extended time model. Anytime there is discussion around a schedule change, it does. The March 3rd meeting was an attempt to get out in front of the inevitable conclusion that some people reached and we have and we overcompensated in trying to express that concern in the presentation. We regret that some listeners took away that budget was… that it was all about finances because

056it's always been primarily about our students. Even when we, um, even when we were engaged in this more. deeply last year, and finances were not anything that were even being discussed at the time. We had people probing and saying, but you're not being transparent and telling us that it is about the finances. So this was us. overcompensating and trying to get out and be transparent and truthful. So our students, this was always about our students and making sure that we are hearing from our educators because their perspective on all of this does matter. Well, sure, some more on the timeline shortly, but just taking us back to May of 2024, our team of Dr. Marble's team and Dr. Plank and I and our administrators from each school came together to begin exploring this problem of

057practice. Um, that stated here that our current schedule does not afford students the opportunity to consistently engage in deep learning. or develop skills of executive functioning is called for by our instructional framework. What are internal data and experiences would tell us is best case assuming a 55 to 57 minute period, and you've got administrative duties at the beginning of the class, and. and the conclusion of the class. You're often somewhere in an area of 35 to 40 minutes of actual instruction in a class period. Students are asked to manage if they have a study hall six, if they max out their schedule, seven courses simultaneously, which we know is a lot for students cognitively. There's no built-in intervention or extension time within our school day for students who need it. Um, and it's often very

058challenging in that short period to do those tier one and tier two interventions within that short class period. And our new curriculum continues to push on the need for deeper student teacher engagement and discourse, which is even more challenging. in a short period. So we were… that was the spring of 2024. For those who have been here longer, um, than many of our teachers have lived this, this timeline really goes all the way back to 2015-16 was the first time Walwa Tulsa had a team that gleamed together to. begin discussing the potential advantages of an extended period classroom. That was paused at that point. In May of 2024, we began with that problem of practice I just described, and we continued that work with teams of teachers and administrators from each school, as well as

059the district, some members of the district office team. to engage in school learning teams and to study teams and actually do visits. Our study schools actually do visits to Elm Brook, Mehwan and New Berlin schools, where some of these schedules exist. The process paused in February of 2025. There really wasn't consensus at that point between the 2 high schools and the district of which of the schedule we thought would best suit our students. So it paused for the better part of a year until we reengaged in February of 2025 and recognized. The problem persists. We have adopted new curriculum. So many ways that problem has exacerbated, and we were still pushing on that need for deeper engagement. So why an extended period schedule? So on the left here you can see some of the challenges

060of some of those I mentioned already. of the challenges of a short period. Also, bullet number 3, 6 transitions every day. which is, I believe, challenging for students, challenging for teachers. If you think about it in our high schools, every 55 to 57 min. 900 to 1,000 people drop what they're doing and change spaces and begin anew. There's no time for intervention or extension or very limited time for interventions or extensions within those classrooms. And in a school day that has seven periods, you really would want to carve out an additional section of the day and shorten those class periods anymore to offer. interventions for students who struggle or extensions for those who may need those. Teachers in our current situation manage an average of 125 students on their schedule. It's difficult to go deep

061into project-based learning. The best example I can come up with is I love to cook. I have a hard time cooking for my own family in 55 minutes. We're asking a culinary teacher to cook a three-course meal in 55 minutes with an army of 25 students still learning. If you think about tech ed areas, a lot of the areas we're really focused on, our elective areas, are technical education. They're setting. They're setting up really getting a very short amount of practice or learning, and then immediately moving into tearing down. They never really have that opportunity to extend their time into longer periods. some of the advantages. So 60 to 75 min period would invite more rich instruction for class. A focus on 4 to 5 courses would provide a deeper opportunity for students to engage,

062fewer tasks transitions during the day would result in less cognitive disruption and fewer. It's in the school overall. Most of our behavior issues, things like that don't happen during during the class period. They happen during transitions during lunch before or after school. Teachers would see fewer students allowing them to create deeper and stronger relationships. There'd be fewer students for longer periods of time. There'd be more room for inquiry, differentiation, project-based learning, and feedback cycles within those classrooms. So we're seeing a lot of advantage to the potential of an extended period of day. We could build strong relationships with our students. It would be time for that deeper learning, more time for inquiry, project-based learning, differentiated instruction, extensions. More processing time and opportunities to intervene with students. improve culture, reducing disciplinary incidents with fewer school transitions,

063really a much more balanced approach for field. Students can feel confident managing fewer responsibilities and ultimately potentially reducing. anxiety. So if we were to transition to an extended time period, we would not be alone. Many of the aspirational schools that our school district continuously get compared to our operating under extended time. Similarly, within our own school district, our students matriculate through our system, having engaged in extended time schedules at both the elementary and middle school levels. And what's more is that all of our high school administrators have worked or been part of the transition from a traditional schedule into an extended time model. Um, many of them, because of this, they know the pitfalls to avoid and how to mitigate many of the concerns that have been elevated by staff and the community, which we

064are continuously taking feedback around. And working to develop plans to mitigate those concerns. Just a little bit earlier, some of. the advantages that Mr. Gala highlighted about having an extended period, and we know that, as you heard, the problem of practice being about deeper learning and maintaining sort of a student focus on how we spend that time. These are some of the models that you see that have surfaced. As some of the most commonly used, and so the 7-period day on the left-hand side, that highlights our current structure, talks a little bit about kind of the fact that students have the same classes every day, and from there, we would consider that really our baseline. As we heard earlier, one of the public comments was, please proceed with caution. And I think what you see

065in this presentation is just that, that we understand that this is a journey. It's one that should also be part of the. culture building process of what goes on in a comprehensive high school. And so these are these options, be it block and A/B block, which is a rotation or a trimester, are three of the most common used extended period schedules. And it's fair to say that there's no right way or perfect way to do it if there were everybody would do that. So it's incumbent upon us. to work collaboratively with our staffs to determine what is going to work best here in Wallatosa. So the straight 4x4, just for context, is literally meaning when the school day is broken up into four blocks, there are approximately 90 minutes long. and then every 9 weeks

066is a new term. So essentially, you would have two nine week blocks would serve as a semester, all four nine week blocks with a full school year. So those are your 36 weeks. And so those class periods at about 90 minutes, that's significantly more than that like 50 to 57 minutes that we have now. in an AB block, same type of basic schedule and methodology, except day A would be periods one through four. DV would maybe be periods five through eight, and then it rotates like that throughout the course of the year. There's lots and lots of nuances to how you might design this, but that's the basic premise for how an AV block works. A trimester, that exists in three 12-week terms. And the most common then is five periods in a day. So

067you could have 4, maybe five courses each trimester. Most common is probably five. That leaves you with that 70 to 75-minute class period. And then at 12 weeks, you start a new term. And so you'd have 3 terms. So some of this goes back to the decisions that we would be making, trying to understand what is sort of best for our environment. We also know in surveys and conversations with staff that have been had through this process and others, then staff really do want us to be very upfront and very clear about decision making processes. So this graphic really kind of shows all the way from, hey, I'm the one who singularly can make a decision all the way to it's someone that tells us decision. We sort of pegged this at about a 3,

068meaning that there are folks within a team that are going to make a decision. With input from others. And so you'll hear us talk a little bit about what kind of comes next in the process. We're going to talk about the timeline in a second. But this is information that we've gotten from staff. Please tell us like who's really going to make this decision once all of the discussions had. So we reached consensus, and we move on, and the perspective of our educators is really going to matter in this conversation, because whichever one of these were to be chosen. At some point we're going to be incorporating that teacher representation in the decision making process. And we've already even gotten feedback about the decision making team, and how do we make sure that there's teacher

069voice in that space as well. So speaking about teachers' rules in the process so far. As it stands right now, we've since having this as a conversation just a few weeks back. We're really trying to gather as much information as we can. So in our initial conversations with folks, we put out feedback forms to say, okay. Now that you know that this is on the table, we're having this conversation, tell us what what hopes do you have? What concerns do you have? We'll start with that kind of high-level feedback. From there, we went into some listening sessions, and that happened at different levels. So. Ole Fisher Gala and I end up meeting with various constituencies within the building, so we'll meet full staff. That's a group, and that's a conversation. We also meet with departments

070specifically, and our school learning teams, kind of the leadership team of each building. And so that's where the listening sessions take place. And I can tell you it was really fascinating to go from whole staff, departments kind of had some time together to talk and share and kind of chew on things. Then our SLT met, and then we had sort of a debrief about it. And so you can see that evolution of the communication. In addition to that, we also know it's going to be really important to have colleagues that work out of the district office predominantly. So that's the Division of Human Resources, People and Family Supports, academic performance, and having those folks spend some time in the building, that's pegged for the month of April. to have some of that one-on-one sort of

071listening, some extended conversation, and that would happen then before we gather to do our potential problem analysis. So we put that all together. I thought you'd appreciate just seeing what what is the timeline? Corey mentioned, you know, all the way back almost 10 years with this conversation. But since since we started on March 3rd with those conversations or those meetings at the schools. We wanted to kind of point out what this looks like going forward. It's been a pretty thoughtfully put together timeline, and ultimately the goal of this timeline. You can see where we are right now in this sort of late March window where we're getting faculty input. and then we're here with you now. In April, when we have those listening sessions from folks here at the district office, we also will be

072scheduling that potential problem analysis, which is an opportunity for us to really methodically and really intentionally hear concerns. What are answers that are what are needs that are going to have to be addressed as we move forward? But the ultimate goal then would be that we'd be making a recommendation at the end of the school year. So you can see kind of at the top, just off to the right hand side, June 2026 recommendation. And that is to actually produce the time and space that we heard about during public comment to make sure that professional learning is not just on the surface, but really talks about how instruction looks different in an extended period. And then that takes us all the way to the potential of the fall of 2027. as a projected implementation date.

073We have started to gather a frequently asked questions document, um, and after completing the review of all of the feedback that's been gathered from staff from both the meeting that Dr. Plink hosted at East and Mr. Gala hosted at West. We will continue to update our frequently asked questions and, um, at our next. team meeting, uh, really discussing how do we help, um, how do we help educate and answer some of the questions and concerns that we have answers to, and then how do we work with our, um, our staff members to. answer questions that we don't have answers to. One of the most frequently asked questions that we've gotten is around performing arts and we want to really make sure that we are honoring a year-round approach with our performing arts as a non-negotiable

074with any sort. any sort of schedule change. If we don't have a decision, we. We need input from our stakeholders to be able to have a really thoughtful decision made. So if we had a decision, maybe we would be coming to you with a decision, but we don't have a decision made. One of the other frequently asked questions that we have is, won't this be harmful to our electives? I just want to reground us in the fact that elective choice is. Currently, and will continue to be driven by student enrollment. So we will have our students tell us what is of interest to them so that we know how to, um, provide those opportunities. Currently, as Dr. Planken mentioned, with the different schedules, our students can only earn up to 7 credits in our current

075schedule in a school year. So if you are a student that takes four core classes, a music and a world language, you have then very limited space to take anything else. In a block, students could earn up to 8 credits in a year. So this would allow students even more opportunity to take more electives. And then in a trimester, it's an additional half credit than what they currently have opportunity for now. So our goal has never been to. and limit the number of electives that students take. It's really how do we, and especially in our land of our strategic plan around academic and career planning, how do we continue to open up more opportunities for our students? As. Mr. Gala shared earlier one of the school districts that we've partnered with a lot in this

076is Elm Brook. And here is their projected or excuse me, their historical music enrollments over the years. So in 2010, 2011, that is when they was their last year of an eight period day. And this shows historically how their music enrollments have ebbed and flowed up to last. school year. This is world language and how that has actually seemingly increased over the years. Matter of fact, our director of continuous strategy and continuous improvement, Miss Jennifer Foch, was a part of this. She was a Latin teacher in Elm Brook at the time. and when she wasn't an 8 period, they should travel to all of the secondary schools. So middle school and high school. As soon as the black schedule came to fruition. She was stagnant in one building and had ample students to fill up

077her full-time, um. FTE. That's just one anecdotal story. And then I know that AP courses, and that's something that we will need to work with our educators on and how that would look in whatever model ended up being moved forward. And you can see how they have. We continued to increase the number of students taking AP exam or taking AP classes and subsequently taking the exam as well. As we move forward, we have a number of commitments. First and foremost, our students always come first. Every decision will be weighed against what's best for them. Our stakeholder feedback is taken very seriously, not just collected, set aside, but deeply analyzed. and we want to make sure that we truly understand everybody's perspective as we work together. Clearly needs to be enough time for a transition, as

078Dr. Plink said, we are anticipating a fall of 2027-2028, but as we continue to go through this process and gather data to see how things are progressing. If we need to also be responsive to our data. So if our data is telling us that we're not ready, then we'll need to reevaluate. Um, and we want to continue to be as transparent as possible throughout this, making sure that we are providing regular updates on for the work. linked here again is just a beginning of the frequently asked questions. So I encourage people to take a look at that. I, uh… We are continuing to gather questions and organize them. I also want to continue to encourage individuals to read facts. Again, when change is on the horizon, emotions tend to elevate. Emotions are valid. And as

079presented this evening, this is something that has occurred in other districts and we have leaders who have seen successes for students. And we need to continue to lean into experience and expertise as we continue to experience, um… new information on this journey. So with that, I welcome. We welcome any questions or thoughts that you would like to share. Yes, for time around, please proceed. have a lot. Pause me and congratulate. Oh. So I do want to acknowledge I am happy to hear sort of your perspective on the March 3rd meeting. I think that was… a missed opportunity to engage with staff from the get go in a positive way. I heard a lot of feedback regarding that meeting. all of it negative, to be honest. Um, and when I saw the presentation. to me, it

080looked like the teachers were not going to have that much say in this decision. So I just. you know, encourage a. everyone, you know, we want our teachers to be happy, and we want to support them. So seeing that presentation which seemed to not take their voice into the decision making process was unfortunate. So I do appreciate the clarification and all of the information that's available on board docs. I encourage. Anyone with questions to look there even before they ask questions, because it took me about 3 h to get through all of the information. There's just a plethora of information and background on many of these models. I also want to clarify that extended period doesn't necessarily mean block scheduling. A lot of the emails that I've received that are have concerns about. Looking at

081an extended period, I think are assuming that it will be that four block option. So I think it's important for the community and the board to know that. That is an option, but not the only thing that's being discussed during these conversations. I personally, I've been a student and a teacher in a block scheduling high school, and I didn't like it as a student or a teacher, so I can understand kind of the pushback that we're getting from the community. I do think that it's hard to say that we'll offer the performing arts. and that it won't change or take away from the student's experience in that area. I also. find it hard to think of a student taking like two blocks or, you know, two of the terms of math and then getting a

082year break and then having to pick back up. So I have a lot of concerns about the four block. model, um, so I hope that as this group and as staff. look at other extended period options that my hope would be that the other ones kind of elevate to the top of the options. As a board member, I am. I was a little bit concerned that the board doesn't actually get a decision in this conversation. We get the information, but ultimately, board policy 88 2 2 0 dictates. the responsibility of determining the daily schedule to the administration. And while I trust this administration to give us a lot of information and to be transparent and honest with us. I do think that a decision. That's this important for our district should come to a board

083vote, or at least come to the board again, because I didn't even see where on that timeline the board would be given updates through this process. So just something to think about. I don't know if that goes back to policy or as the administration is working through this, it would be great if it could come before the board before. sort of the final decision is made. And then finally, I will just say I understand the argument with having longer periods because I agree there's a lot of transition in our students days. there's not a lot of time for that rigorous instruction when there is so much transition. Um… We have asked a lot of our high school teachers in the last 3 years, particularly with the grading policy and all of the new curriculum that

084we've asked them to start implementing. So I'm wondering if this decision. And this is more of a question. Why can't this decision be delayed until at least we know what we're going to do with our secondary schools. To me, that would be a natural time to make a daily schedule change is when. you know, who knows what the secondary layout is going to look like. But that's still another big decision. So just something to think about. We're asking a lot of our staff. We're asking a lot of our students with all of these different. small transitions, but they're really adding up, and I think adding something that. is gonna add a lot of professional learning for our staff. I think maybe this isn't the right time, um, when we put it into the what we've

085asked them in the last two or three years. Do any of this review want to cast some ideas back? You don't have to answer everything. speak to Ms. Hammer Rollins concerns. Yeah. Goodbye. I think I'll start with just the staff, but I certainly appreciate the attention to staff. culture and engagement. And Dr. Flank and I have stayed pretty wide since spring of 2024. I just want to. share kind of what just looked right from the West perspective. We had the meeting on March. 3rd learned, you know, explain why we were coming back after a delay. of the prior meeting for May would be to put the whole thing on pause. We shared this slide deck that you shared and talked about, you know, the financial pieces as a piece of that. I mean, the financial

086piece should be. part of every conversation we have. because it's also a resource that we have for student learning. So it's important that they saw that. That was. Following that we had the next meeting at West happened to be ours. leadership meeting, and I combine that with our cabinet. So every department leader our school leadership team, which is about 9 teachers. and then anybody who had been on the committee studied prior to that. I asked them all to attend, and then I opened it up for anyone else who wanted to attend that felt that it was important. We had 2 staff members and I'll say that as a positive. And I actually asked that question in the meeting of like, how should I read that? And they all said, Well, we. you know, we've met

087as teams, and we have the input, and I just share that because, yes, this is a difficult decision. And it certainly impacts staff, but they're aware of the economy and all of that. However, Wes, and I think I attended the meeting at East also. teachers were very much engaged in those meetings and just talking about. the possibilities of the schedule, some positive things about the schedule change, as well as about yourself. I worry that. I don't know what I feel like as a board member. But I am hopeful that if you're taking voice, that you take all voice. and would even encourage you to speak to our student, our school leadership team, because. I believe our school leaders, our instructional leaders, our department leaders, while I'm not going to speak for them and say. They're

088100% in and can't wait. I think they're prepared to do, and they're thinking about this at the student first. So I just want to put that out there because I would hate for their voice to be compromised because we weren't listening to. Having listening sessions with you all. As far as the. Like, I will hear things about… The research around extended schedules being uncertain. The research around small class sizes is uncertain. But I think that's a good point to consider, because while the research says class size is still have an impact on learning. What we do with students has an impact on learning. And it's easier to do those things in smaller class sizes. So when you think about collaboration about building relationships, about interventions, all of those things, you can do those things easier

089in smaller classrooms, and I would say. It's the same, in my opinion, around extended periods. It gives you more options to do more things, to use more tools. Your tool belt to have more student focus. I think that's really important for us to consider also. So the research is going to be unclear because every school. Maybe they didn't prepare well enough. Maybe they're not doing the things they need to do in classrooms. We have exceptional teachers involved with helping them. We're already doing exceptional things with students and we're developing practices that will transition well to extended periods. So I'm extremely confident that making a move like this will help us better meet our student needs. I can just add on to that, too. I I just want to say thank you for sharing some of

090that, Liz, particularly about how the meeting on the 3rd landed. That was not the intention. Certainly, I heard some of that as well, right? As I talked to people in follow up and had had one on ones. I think maybe Dr. Marble nailed it in that we perhaps overcompensated in just even the presentation saying like, yeah, there is financial impact. We were not talking about that a year ago. And so that was… Lesson learned, for sure. I also think, you know, I hear you very loud and clear about both as a student and a teacher and sort of just a straight 4x4, and I think that is where the caution comes in. And how do we frame something that is going to work. best for the students at Wallatulsa. I think much like what Corey

091is describing, and we both got to go to each other's schools to follow up on this. And there's there's definitely. I think some anxiety or some fear about change, and the devil being in the details. We don't know what all those details are yet as we work together and collaborate to come up with, like, what that exactly would be. It's also a time of excitement. There are people who said, I I've wanted to do. I did work in a block, right? We've. Nicole shared what comment with me earlier about a staff member that said, I would love to do that again. And so I think sometimes those voices do get lost a bit. I talked to one of our amazing fine arts folks who said, yeah, I would love to have that extra time. And

092just as you said, concerned, just like, what is that going to look like from a continuity perspective? So I think those are some of the questions we really have to answer and wrestle with. And there might be some tough choices to have to be made along the way. I do truly believe, though, when I think about the culture of East High School, the pace of East High School, the intensity of East High School. Our our students may very well welcome a slower pace to the day, meaning fewer transitions. I think having a… opportunity to truly build in some type of, I'll just say, flex, for lack of a better word, where we can deliver some some real whole school intervention opportunity for students as well as extended opportunities for students. and even address something that

093frankly doesn't get a lot of airtime. And, like, when do our clubs need even once or twice a month, for example? We've talked about the either effectiveness or lack thereof of our current advisory program. That could also be built into that space. So I think. What we really owe it. To all of our selves is just the time to take and have those conversations and sort of address some of those fears that might exist out there. Thank you for the presentation. I'll just give a few comments. Again, looking at policy. We know that that is. in the hands of the administrators. I would just like to caution against doing this. too quickly. caution against a timing. I think I would echo. what Liz had said. Looking at this in front of me. that showed up

094today. If this is going on, regardless of where the board sits as far as being involved in its level of decision making. This is going to anything, anything from. from the blog from talking about extended schedules is going to take away from focus on secondary facilities and. Secondary facilities, we all know, will have a real large. much larger financial. perspective from it. So. I don't want to try to do be too ambitious here. We've done a lot. We we have asked our our teachers. our students, our families to be flexible. We've gone through a lot of different changes in the last six, seven years. Some by choice, some. Some not really, and. I would like. I would just also like to see or hear that in the in that timeline that you've really got a

095lot of time dedicated to. the larger community feedback. parents and also existing high school students, even if they're not going to be here for the implementation. ask some hypotheticals, some what-ifs. get get some perspective on that. and. And then lastly, I mean, it sounds like you're you've still kept the door open on all different configurations. I think that's a good idea. I don't know. I've been a student of all of those different configurations. I couldn't tell you which one of them I would prefer. I guess I would lean towards trimester, but I was also much older when I was doing that sort of learning. It really, you know, I think there's valid concerns. I think you've you've brought up about counter arguments to a lot of them. But I do. I do feel like making

096sure that you get. True teacher feedback. When I say that, I mean. I do. I want to make sure all the teachers are able to have a say. Nobody thinks that there's going to be any sort of adversarial conversation, not implying that there is, but I… in any sort of one on one talk about the future of how the workplace is going to be. Um, people might hold back, so I want to make sure there's a platform for. just raw honesty on the people that are going to have to make this work and make this happen. So those are my thoughts on it, and. I'm sure we will continue to to talk about this. forward to. collaborating on it, I just want to make sure we need to be too aggressive. Thank you. Mr. But

097do they want to say something in response first? Yeah, okay. Well, first, st before we do that, you have our guests? Do you have presenters? Do you have anything that you want to say toward us? not to put you on the spot, but it looks like June, you might have one queued up. Please go ahead. So I guess to start through my launch program, I've had the ability to talk to a little over 25 Elm Brook students about blog schedules and kind of like get to know what their thoughts are, what their feelings are. And I received a lot of mixed feedback, both positive and negative. But I would say the majority of it was negative, and it kind of gave me a couple concerns that I'm really worried about if we did do a

098block schedule. And one of them, I guess, most importantly, is with AP classes. If we're having students take AP classes for only that one semester, I'm really worried about how that kind of affects both the people who do it at the beginning and the people that do it at the end. For example, the people at the end are going to get a shorter. amount of time to take that class because A-B testing is in May. It's not going to be that full amount of time. And people who take it at the beginning of the semester, they're going to have to go that entire second semester without instruction. So I'm also worried about from students and teachers perspective, if that's going to put a lot more workload onto the teachers who are having to then like

099help maintain their students. Like, being able to keep up with that. Like, for example, also with classes like AP research, that's a very intense class and takes a lot of work and a lot of doing your own findings for people who don't know, like, what specifically in that class is. Like, I know, for example, I had one friend who did a water study, and she went to a bunch of different lakes and took samples. That's a lot of work and a lot of, you know, time that is really hard to be put into one semester. And I think, like, are we going to be having teachers who are going to maybe hold meetings? I guess the second semester to help like kids do study groups for who are taking classes in first semester. There's just

100a lot of concerns like with AP students and AP classes that I have. If we were to do this block schedule. And one other thing that I'm also kind of worried about is we mentioned before about pace and how you think that classes like for schools in general. want a faster, more intense pace, but what I'm kind of worried about is students who are already struggling, having to sit for those longer sessions, and having to fit in a lot of learning and a lot of hard, like, information in such a small time to be able to, like, process that and continue that and, you know, work. through that like that's a big concern. And also with missing school. If a student misses school, they're also missing a lot more instruction with those specific classes, and

101not just like you said, the 35 min of instruction. They're going to be missing a lot more, and that makes also a lot more responsibility on students when they're making up. time and making up working classes to be able to get all of that done, and it also concerns a lot if a student's maybe gone for a couple of days, or because they're sick or a vacation, like, that also puts a lot of stress on them to be able to make up all of that work and instruction that they missed when they already have such a shortened time to. learn all of the instruction. Yeah. But just to address the ap and. I happen to be Amber Field East when they transition from a traditional schedule. Now the biggest, one of the biggest worries at

102Brookfield East with what's going to happen. Oh, sorry. Thank you. One of the biggest worries was what's going to happen with the AP program. What they had done was at after that first 2 terms were done, they then built in review sessions so that students could kind of go and touch base. What we would do. One of the non-negotiables in any schedule we would adopt other than if we. kept it traditional would be an intervention period that would meet every day, which would allow some flexibility for students to either get additional support in a classroom or when they're struggling. see a teacher where maybe they want to do some extension, and in the case of Aps, we could run review sessions within that leading up to that AP class. So, and all that said, like

103Brookfield East was worried they never saw a dip. and their AP performance with that. So my boys both went through that system and I'll say like. And one student was, you know, I don't think he'd. He proud of me saying he was very much a traditional avid student, if you know anything about the AVID program, like he struggled with executive functioning, good student, and was also taking AP courses. He was there during the transition. And she found it much easier to manage those three and he managed to still do well on his AP exams. Despite that gap. So it could be done, but you're absolutely right. You have to plan for it. And we have to be very thoughtful about what are we doing to maintain that support without. expecting that students are taking another

104term of classes and still taking that AP full-time year-round. Just as a follow up to that, I would also say we will make sure we don't create the disparity between those families who can afford to pay for additional. AP supports the outside, so we have to make sure we have a robust. Yes, go ahead. Reasons you guys had on the slideshow for potentially switching to this schedule would be less of like a talking cognitive overload on the student. But I feel like if a student, say, takes 2 AP classes per semester, and then they're still studying to take that AP test while taking another 4 classes. you're back at having basically 6 classes to manage in one semester. So I feel like that one really be solving that problem. Yeah, I would like if you're

105thinking, like, we're gonna teach that AP course rather than going to learn the content that first term, and then you're going to do some things to stay fresh within that intervention period. We couldn't expect necessarily that students are. taking 4 more classes and still studying that AP nonstop. So I we've got to find a balance. That slide or that conversation about cognitive overload is more like right now a student goes home if they take a full load, they're planning for homework for. 7 periods, and that's. That's a lot to manage. So in the case of my son, who struggled a bit more with executive functioning to only have three might be more homework, but it was just three areas she's trying to navigate was a little more… relieving for him. I would just add to

106the. concerned about. kind of opportunity. There's a lot of, as Dr. Marvel indicated, the opportunity to take more courses. Um, and also languages like what Elbrook ended up doing was adding level 6. So, I mean, students could take. Because you could double up and take two years of a language in one year, get deeper into that language, test higher when you get into college and end up with. credits at at the college level. Sorry. Yeah, go ahead. Also, just looking at the like the proposed plan. I don't see anything in here about giving feedback from students like Mr. Lanier and June has said. I think that. Um, like you guys said, the main reason that we would make any potential change is to benefit students, since students would be the ones most impacted by a

107change. So I would definitely recommend adding in something. where if you're like sitting down with students or surveys, Tristan, how students will change. Makes sense. Missinski, was your hand just to point to the student? Okay, yes, and then we'll go from you to stop, and of course. I feel. I'm trying really hard to listen and and consider because I don't see how it works. But I also don't… want to be a naysayer without a clearer picture where is it possible to make available. Example schedules, but not just of a student in a year, but how a student comes in as a freshman and comes out on the the graduate of their senior year, and perhaps a couple different models. A student who is taking. rigorous AP courses. A student who's taking a mix of. courses

108from across all all the wonderful offerings we have. You know, the person who's. In tech classes and music classes, you know, just. What does it really look like across those 4 years? Yeah, I think that's pretty much normal. And so you want to see the pathway just a sample schedule for a year, but right I can. I can figure out a year. What does that student do over the course of 4 years? Yes. What are the 3 alternative schedules on the slideshow? Or is there like other ones outside of that? So I grew up in a different model. It was an extended day. I'm not sure it was very popular with the parents, but we had a six day schedule. It rotated. Monday was 1, you rotate, and then the next Monday was six, Tuesday

109became 1. If there was ever a holiday, then you would… you would skip. Day 2 of Tuesday was a holiday, you would Wednesday would become day 2. So it kept a lot of… you really had to have it, like, a published. up-to-date calendar. But what that did was actually, I don't know if you all have looked at it, but it does sort of… it's sort of in between the 7 periods, because you can fit more classes in over the course of a week because you have 6 days. To do it. So I don't know whether other models. It's a great question. What else is out there that maybe has already been eliminated for particular reasons? sort of variations within. Yeah, I I'm wondering, too, when. Great question, Keegan. There are lots of variations from within,

110and I think that's kind of part of just trying to present and trying to give like, well, these are the basic chunks, because I know what Dr. Riley's talking about is like a drop schedule. And there's other modified versions of blocks. There's lots of ways you can start to control for that. And so I would imagine we will get to that point where I think initially, before we start to delve into that level of detail there, there's some. belief of can you narrow it down to how do people feel about the trimester? What about the block, and then try to whittle it from there. Because then within any of those, you could start to really get creative about how you want to use time, or you begin to really. start to address things like what

111June is talking about, like, how are we best set students up for success when it comes to advanced placement, for example? What about concerns about continuity? Is that something? Is that real? Is it perceived? Do we really have to address that? And so I. I don't know that that really helps with the question about, like, what does it look over four years? I think we could draw that up so you could see a couple of examples, but there are lots of variabilities to any of these types of schedules. I think it's, if I may. Yeah, I think it's kind of a double-edged sword, too, of we want to be highly collaborative in how, how we take the clay, so to speak, that exists for either a trimester or some sort of a block. Yeah. we

112can't necessarily answer all of the detailed questions like Dr. Blank is talking about, because we need to first understand what the concerns are, and then how do we collaboratively work to. mitigate the concerns and be supportive of both the… of students and educators that have those concerns. So it's it's kind of the the land that we're living in right now. Okay, and so that was my other follow-up question to that, like, what does that look like for a student over the course of four years? And then for our educators. What does their… what does their daily life look like? And how does that compare to what they're doing now? We have those details aren't here, and I think that could like. In the in the FAQ, we do have, I believe, because we did come

113up with some mock schedules for a single year in these different models, but certainly not a four year. And that's a really great suggestion that we will absolutely jump on. Okay. Miss Buck. I feel like we have a good team of people who have experience in this and this transition. And while I am concerned about moving too quickly, I also think that. We've got experience with it. these types of schedules that would be implementing this transition. So and I'm also back to Keegan's request for student feedback. I think that's really important, because I think they. have a really good sense of what students are capable of of doing. And is this for these extended periods something that most kids can handle, and what kinds of things do we need to make sure are happening in

114classrooms for kids to be successful? Some other people, I think, would be. good to get some some feedback from since now we have these extended periods in middle school and in our elementary schools. How is that working for teachers? How is that working for? students. And we're seeing improved results coming out of. all of our buildings. Can we… can we trace any of those improvements to that extended Ela block that we're having in in the extended math times. and then I'd also be interested in hearing from. our elective teachers are arts teachers, orchestra, band at the middle school level, because I know that was a concern when we. did implement those extended periods in middle school is what's going to happen. to those performing arts. Are they going to have enough time with their students?

115Because those were actually cut shorter. I think it would be interesting to hear feedback from them to see how things are going in their classrooms, and if they wish they had that time, or if they're able to make it work with what they have, so… I'd be interested in hearing from those other groups that maybe. aren't really going to be affected by this decision, but I think could have some valuable input. Before, thank you, Miss Voss. Did you want to anything you want to respond? Thank you for the feedback. I'm going to go first. Is yours directly to this comment? It's just about something I haven't heard. So why don't we go, Mr. Bauer next? Oh, excellent. Thank you. First, a couple of points of reminder to the board. One, we're a policy governance board.

116So that cuts both ways. One, we are bound by 88 20 right, Liz? 8220, but also policies can be changed. My fellow, my peers on the policy committee might want to take a look at that. Second. We're all policy governance board, which means that. We have a tendency to ask a lot of questions on how it's going to be done. Even though that is technically a little bit beyond our purview. So I would encourage us a little bit of restraint to let the administration cook and figure out what all of this is and gather all of the data from all. stakeholders to generate that plan and then critique it very similar to what we are doing. But I wanted to lead with that, those pair of warnings. Putting out my priors. I taught in. both

117in block and in single. I've also taught in high school 4 h seminars. Um, my preferred mode is honestly the block schedule, the longer term, because it allowed me more flexibility. My concerns are very much. many things that have already been raised. How does a schedule look over the course of 4 years? The research I have seen shows that success really depends on the skill of our scheduling and keeping things together nice and tight, so that people. matriculate through the different stages as they. as they're originally designed. Um, but also the research that I have seen show that. The success also depends on supporting our teachers and training them up. If you put a block schedule in the hands of a good teacher, the students will benefit greatly. If you put it in the hands

118of a teacher that doesn't have that skill set, and it is very specifically a skill set. you can. You have. the potential to do more harm than good. Um, so I'd be very interested to see how we are supporting the teachers in order to make sure that they have the skill sets needed. and that I think leads to the kind of varied. sets of data that we can see that people point to. Yes, block scheduling does good or does not. The final point I would put out there. Knowing that we're in very much the planning and hearing out stages is that electives and. need to be a consistent. thing in Wahwatosa. But the interesting point that I've seen, at least in the public comments directed towards me, is that not only do we want lots

119of time for, let's say, band, right? Because imagine what a band. leader can do in, you know, 60 min as opposed to 35 min. but also the breadth of electives that we expose our students to. and being able to swap in and out and try things on. This is very important for this stage of life is being able to try different hats on and see see what fits. I'll pause there and see what sort of reactions that elicits. And then I think we'll go from there. I would absolutely agree of the importance of preparing teachers. I think the work we've done. has already started us down that path, especially with our recent focus on discourse, and that's going to be. critical to the success of any schedule, even if we stayed. with the current schedule

120of any schedule, I would agree that extended periods. an outstanding teacher is going to thrive and a. teacher who is marginal or below is going to really struggle in that setting. So it'll be important that everybody's ready if we go that route. So if you can bear with me, I'm gonna actually go ahead, June. And then I want to ask something that relates to what was just asked. like a question. I guess, like why this is something that's coming in now. I'm just wondering if there has been any. I know you've talked a lot about studies in in general amongst like students and like performance outcomes. But what I'm kind of wondering if there is have been any like studies or questions that show that this is something that Tosa needs. Because, like, I understand,

121like, as a district, like, we want to really make sure that we're continuing to evolve and continually change and do better for ourselves. But what I'm kind of wondering is, like, why this is something that's come up now, and I think that that's just a question that's going to be talked a lot about amongst, like, students and teachers, like, as this decision continues. So I just want to make sure that there's clarification on that, and then why that this is something we're doing. Yeah, so this conversation initially started a decade ago, and it has ebbed and flowed in and out of conversation. And I'll go back to the, um, the problem of practice that Mr. Gala elevated earlier, and it states that the current schedule does not afford students the opportunity to consistently engage in

122deep learning and develop skills of executive functioning as called for by our instructional framework and our vision. And as we have implemented new curriculums along the way as well, it has pushed for deeper student engagement. And there are some things I'll just use English, for example, there are so many, now that we are a standards-aligned curriculum. There are so many English language arts standards that we need to make sure that students are working towards mastery of every single year. And when we think about English, we've got reading, writing, speaking, listening, language, and to be able to fit all of that in. in a class period is really challenging. And if we have more time, then there's more opportunity to do a quick grammar lesson, for example, and then transition into. some independent reading and making

123that connection to the text that the whole entire class is reading, for example. I think about our science, and I don't know of the two of you, how you've engaged in lab work in your science classes, but either labs having to continue over multiple days, or the teacher having to do a lot of. has to finish the lab for you, or I've even seen it where first hour does this part of the lab and second hour does this part of the lab, and if you had the full time to do the lab, you would be able to actually engage in the full. inquiry of inquiry process of the scientific method, right? So those are just a couple of the couple of things that hopefully I answered your question, June. But the problem hasn't gone away

124that existed a decade ago, and we don't have an opportunity, especially at the high school level. to do some of that in the moment, um, differentiated learning. For example, if I need an extension because I've already I've already read this text, and now I need something layered on top of it. Or, if I need remediated, um, support, that doesn't exist that we struggle to meet those diverse needs in our current schedule. Even though I know that our educators are. trying really, really hard to be able to do so. And then I just had one more quick question. You mentioned that there was a lot of like, you know, for example, English like standards that we needed to meet. I guess something that I'm kind of confused on is, we have these standards that are requiring

125us to have longer periods of time. But we're also getting rid of. the requirements to take certain English classes. Like, for example, I believe it's English 10 that is no longer a requirement, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not quite sure. And we're also no longer requiring oral Tom. So I'm just confused how we're like balancing those 2. Yeah, so oral communications a long time ago was a statutory requirement. It no longer is because our English language arts also incorporates the speaking and listening standards that were divorced of the reading and writing standards, so to speak. That's part of the logic of us. no longer requiring the oral communications requirement. And in terms of English 10 students have a choice. They can either take English 10, or if they have the prerequisites

126to take AP seminar, then they are able to take AP seminar as a 10th grader. So there's still an English requirement for 10th graders. I just want to stamp something Dr. Marble referenced that I want to make sure we keep at the center of all the conversations, because there's always a lot of focus in this around electives. But she referenced. The challenge we have of intervening for students who struggle in our current schedule. At West. somewhere in the neighborhood of 20% of our students need significant help in reading and math. In our present schedule. Their option are either the teacher can meet those additional needs within that 50 minute class period. or those students have to take. In lieu of an elective, they have to take mathemphis. So maybe a student struggles in math, maybe

127they hate math, their option is I'm going to take. two hours of math rather than taking an elective in an area where I have a passion or a career aspiration. some of those same students may have a literacy. deficit. So we need to find ways to meet the needs of those students and having an extended period schedule that allowed for that flex period where those students would have a period every day where they could go for additional help. That's very much targeted to them. is a need we can't meet in our schedule. And it's even if we could meet it, it may be inequitable for us to. ask students that, or we're in these positions of, well, we better be better off helping the student. lean into literacy, or would we be better off to

128allow them to take an area of passion and try to reengage them and get them on a career path where they can have success? So… If we stay in our current model. I just don't want us to lose sight of the fact that we said no to those kids. And we just have to be crystal clear with our community of if. to worry about electives that, quite honestly. didn't come true in any of those schools we mentioned. If those worries are going to drive us to not change. then we are not meeting the needs of those students who need us. to become better mathematicians and better readers. So you just Drew, I'm going to jump in. So you just drew the picture. One of the things I was going to ask about. So thanks for

129anticipating showing us a little more detail about what that would look like. I would also say, add on to that some of the students are coming early. skipping lunch or staying late in order to get extended time or reteach work as well, and that seems like a lot to ask of the students to, you know, to compromise those pieces and the families that have to provide the transportation. I'd love to see a picture of like what you just said, of the extension opportunities, because I'm hearing a lot of concern from community members that and and part of this might well be that we've. transitioned so many curriculums and teachers are learning them, but I'd like to hear about the extension in a similar kind of picture at some point. Um, secondly, and the discussion has

130raised the curiosity of because someone mentioned before that people could have that downtime through study hall, but I think it's… If I'm wrong, listening to, I'm not gonna out my kids, but study hall. Mostly I've encouraged them to take another class because Study Hall didn't seem to really. get them very much studying happening. If I could say there was downtime, which was maybe good, but there wasn't a lot happening in Study Hall, and the fact part of that was that they didn't have an interaction time, like you mentioned, Mr. Gala. with the very people that they needed to ask the questions of. So again, I would encourage in the SMB tonight, but for the community, sort of painting the picture of of how that looks different, how that work time is potentially, I would guess,

131now built in. to the black schedule rather than being a separate time. But I think there's a lot of curiosity of how are we going to serve students who need, um. who need that extension. And then the last thing I'll say related to all of this is I'm imagining trying to be the teacher that is reteaching. Digging deeper with the students who need the support and extending at the same time. I think we need a better picture of what that looks like and what kind of resources that's going to take, whether that's the educational assistance or team teaching, or how that's how that… the possibilities for how that might. play out because it's… if it's not happening in the 50 minute period where differentiation has got to be one of the most challenging things we're

132asking our staff to do. And I hear feedback on that. It's so important. Maybe it's easier when you have a longer time, but it also, as I think Mr. Bauer may have been pointing to, it also could be really more difficult. right? Because you've got it. Here you've got these different next things that happen in that block after the 30 minutes of engaged, you know, deep teaching. Now you're attending to all these different needs. What are we as a school district going to need to do? And make sure that time is used to really extend and to really support. And also, I'm not expecting answers to all that tonight, but I think people are eager for a picture of what some of those things might look like. If I may, just really quick, because I

133think it's a great question, and it also in part, addresses a question that June had earlier, and that is when a student misses, and how do I sort of make up that it's intense? You're right. And one of the things you do see in systems that move toward this. is they take very full advantage over that flex time that exists in the schedule. And so a student that maybe missed class, they can go to that math class where they might be struggling, they can go to that science class. I think one of the greatest applications of that in theory that I ever saw was a group of, you know, 8 to 10 math teachers who, when they posted their space up during that flex time, which was every single day. you know, perhaps I would

134go to Dr. Marble's math class because she posted. This is the learning target we're going to work on, even though she wasn't my math teacher. Maybe Mr. Gala was my math teacher. I already heard it once and didn't follow that. So now I'm going to go to a different teacher, right? So. It really does. It can be messy. That makes me a little nervous in a high school of about 1,100 students, right? Like there is there is transition and experience and getting involved in routine. The opportunities to really experience school in a little bit of a different way, if you've never done it, they're almost hard to imagine. And so what I'm hearing from a couple of you is paint that picture for us. Help us to see what that possibility could look like. And

135that sounds like. something we can do. So thank you. Thank you. It's funny. Just one thing that I haven't really heard talk to a whole lot is. our students that have an IEP. double edged sword here again, too. If I look at it, I'm looking at it saying Okay, in this my personal experience with this. fewer transitions tends to be a lot easier. Although the other edge of that sword is now we're talking about the longer instructional period and. And those learners may not have the stamina for that. So I just want to make sure that that's. part of the consideration that the the intent of. being able to do the deep dive may have a paradoxical effect on some of our learners. So just to since I didn't really hear a whole lot about

136it. like to hear how that factors in. Again, whenever we get a next update would just say like the comments about teacher skill, like. just because I have a 90 min block to teach. I shouldn't just do one deep activity. So teachers still need to. In the same way they we asked them to in 50 min. They need to have different. access points, different activities still have a good structure in the lesson. and the. for special education teachers in particular, my son's a special education teacher. in a block setting, and that flex period is where he's able to meet specifically with his students on his case. He can kind of rotate it. And that allows them to be more consistently in the classroom, supporting students. classroom, because he doesn't have to pull himself out. So

137that's. I think it gives them a bit freedom to meet the needs of kids. I can add on to that as well. So one of the ways in which we currently meet students specially designed instruction is through different resource classes. And I can't remember the name of or the maybe you can help me out LCCR. I know the acronym of it, but I don't know what it stands for, so I apologize. And… by scheduling a student into an LCCR class that takes an hour out of their day where they can't take an elective now. And so, if to what Mr. Gallo was talking about, if the case manager can push into the classroom. and work on some of the specially designed instruction in the classroom during the science class, for example, and then have opportunities

138to touch base with the student during that intervention block or during that flex time, then that opens up students' opportunities to continue to explore their passions. in their in their elective desires. Um, so that's just another layer to what Mr. Gallo was talking about. I would add on to that that our… multi-exceptional students may need LCCR type time in one subject area only, but they would have to take the whole Lcc. our time, um, and like you said, not have as many electives, so that would help maybe accommodate the students who are stretching in one area, but being supported in another. Anything else before we wrap up? I did hear an interest in, even though it's not on your schedule, in getting as much as we know you love to give reports getting some sort

139of report before the final decision or an update. If that, however, that happens. Our plan, Dr. Rowley is to come back to you in May, and then again in June. Okay, perfect. We didn't want to get ahead of ourselves and put that in this presentation, but we'll come back in May, give you an update, and give you another update in June. Sounds good. And then before that, as I understand, looking at the slide, just for the community, that PTA Council. is going to have Dr. Marble, you may want to share the schedule of in tonight's meeting, but I just, you know, I know sometimes digging through all those. So, Mr. Gala and I will be at Whitman's PTA in. April. And then I will be at West's BTA meeting in April as well. And then

140Dr. Plank and I will be at Longfellow's Pta meeting in May and East in April, and then I will be at the Pta Council meeting in April. Excellent. Just a reminder for folks, Pta meetings are open. So obviously votes are the members. But if you want to come and listen, that's a great opportunity to learn a little bit more and and please also remember that, of course, you're always welcome to send public comment. Um, as this evolves, uh, we're happy to hear that. Thank you for this presentation. And for your time and really digging into it with us. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Board members, we have a couple of people who have attended tonight because of the next set of presentations. So I was thinking maybe we could. We could take a break at

1417 after 7 c. If that's okay, we'll take a brief break after 7 c. So that we can go through that human resources presentations first, st if everyone's good with that. Yeah, I understand. I just know you were also very excited about tonight's. Absolutely. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you for being here. I am pleased to bring before you several administrative contract recommendations this evening. And if we want to start with the motions, then I can. add as we go. Yes, it is recommended that the school board approve the 2026, 2028 administrative contact for Stacey Clem as chief of pupil and Family Supports effective July 1st, 2026, for 229 days per year. at an annual salary of $172,000, and I so move. May I have a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Prasinski. This gets it

142on the table so that we can discuss it. Go ahead and let us know what you want to say, Ms. Absolutely. So Miss Clem has served with distinction in the district to past. several years as the Director of Special Education. She has served as the interim chief of people and family supports. Um, and, uh, we were, um, uh, thrilled to know of her interest. Um, she is the unanimous selection from the interview teams for this position. And I'm very pleased to make the recommendation tonight. Great board members, any comments or questions on the motion that is on the floor? Nick Worse well, too. I see a lot of faces that they don't have questions. They just have a excitement and maybe welcome for you to moving into this role. Yeah. Okay, Miss Summers, please call

143the roll. Miss Brzezinski. Yes, Mr. Bauer. Yes, Miss Bach. Yes, Mr. Morris. Yes, Dr. Worley. Yes. Mr. Wattier? Yes. And the motion carries. Thank you, and congratulations. Congratulations. Let's move to. Item B, and we'll start with the motion. Sarah. That's recommended that the school board approve the 2026 28 Administrative contract for Patrick Kriegel as principal of Roosevelt Elementary School. Effective July 1st, 2026, for 229 days per year, and an annual salary of $113,000, and I so move. May I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Bauer. Please go ahead. It is always exciting when we get to see the growth and development of educators within your organization, um, and rising to the level of, um, of being the principal of their own building, especially when that opportunity comes. for an individual who spends so much

144time at a particular school. Um, and that really is the story that we're telling this evening, uh, with Mr. Fiegel's, um, recommendation. Um, uh, I have enjoyed the opportunity to, um, to know more about Mr. Kriegel. Um, to work with him as he is ascended, um, to, um, this point in his leadership, and I'm really excited for, um, for Roosevelt under his leadership. Um, and I am, again, very pleased to bring forward this recommendation. Did you want to introduce him? I heard that he's here. So just in case someone has been patiently waiting in the audience. It feels good to stretch. I just want to thank you guys for the opportunity to kind of continue my leadership journey in Watosa and just looking forward to the opportunity to reconnect, especially with those Roosevelt students and

145families and staff. I'm looking forward to it and very grateful. I understand some rolls of duct tape have been. They pulled the, uh, the basket and it wasn't enough. They needed to be a little longer, I think, for the… pure size of Mr. Kriegel. So. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thanks for being willing. Any board member comment questions about. My only hesitation in voting yes tonight is that my outgoing fifth grader who's going to Longfellow will not have the opportunity to be with Mr. Kriegel again. But I'm very happy for the Roosevelt community. And we understand the long college community has got some mixed feelings about. and sadness about the transition. and they and your fifth grader can't stay this time around. Anyone else? Okay, the summers, go ahead and call the roll, please. Yes,

146Mr. Bauer. Yes, Miss Bach. Yes, Mr. Morris. Absent. Miss Hamer Rowland. Yes, Dr. Worley. Yes, Mr. Wattier. Yes. And the motion carries. Thank you. And we will move on to letter C. We could start with a motion. It is recommended that the school board approve the 2026 through 28 administrative contract for Stevens Pearl as principal of McKinley Elementary school school effective July 1st, 2026, for 229 days. per year at an annual salary of $110,000, and I so move. May I have a second? Second, thank you, Miss Hameron. Michelle's asking. We had the great privilege of having one of the strongest groups of applicant pools, both for our Roosevelt principal position and our McKinley Elementary principal position. Um, and when you see such strong candidate pools, uh, you, um, you want your internal candidates to, um,

147to show their best, to shine, um, and in this, um, in this case as well, uh, Mr. Steve Spurl. Rows above all others to be the right person for this position. Um, it is exciting to see, uh, again, his leadership over time, uh, and certainly his hair. Steve, I had no idea. And I am really excited for the future of McKinley's students and staff and families under Mr. Spurl's leadership. Steve, would you join us? He's also here. Please come forward. Hello, everyone. I just wanted to say it wouldn't be a stretch to say this is a dream opportunity for me, and it's hard to not be a little reflective seeing former students here celebrating their DI success and picture of myself with a little bit more hair. Um, but I am thrilled and excited for

148this opportunity and to really return home to McKinley. That's a really special place to me. Well, thank you for applying and for wanting to be part of McKinley's future as well as the current. Okay, thank you. or members, any comments or questions? Yes, just have a roll. I'll just echo sort of what we heard during the superintendent update is that there's just great things happening in our district every day. I think when we have. previous students coming back and wanting to give back to the district, who I would hope gave a lot to you all while you were here. I think that's a special part of Wauwatosa. We have many educators who went through our system as students, and. Do want to come back and give back to this community and hearing from Miss Elizowski

149that we had a lot of applicants, because Mauwatosa is a destination district for employees, but super grateful that our. Um, previous students shine through the interview process, and our families and students and community are certainly grateful for your service and coming back. So thank you so much. Okay, thank you. Ms. Summers, please call the roll. Ms. Brzezinski. Yes. Mr. Bauer? Yes. Ms. Bach? Yes. Mr. Morris? Absent. Ms. Mayor Rollins? Yes. Dr. Burley? Yes. Mr. Wadio? Yes. And the motion carries. We will take a. 8 min breaks. Okay. We saw a lot on the agenda for tonight. and we're back live again. Thanks, everyone, for your hard work tonight. Mr. Ecker, thanks for sticking around. I know you like us to move efficiently. So yep. So we're going to go to letter D under strategic seven

150strategic goal and systems, a monthly financial report, which you did. provide a lot of material ahead of time. So yeah, I don't have that pulled up right now. There's the video online. We covered it at the Finance and Resources Committee last week. The headline there is that we are trending better than budget, and that's what I shared at the committee as well that I expect will finish. better than budget. And that was affirmed by last month. Excellent. Thank you for the headline approach and encourage everyone to watch the videos, review the meeting, and continue to stay on top of that. Please proceed with what at the pace you would like to go. I believe this is the next item that discussion of fiscal year 2025, 2026 budget revision. So this is for discussion today. Action

151at the April meeting. I think I've been talking for a few months now about having another revised budget put before the board, uh, specific to the property tax chargeback. Um, the property tax chargeback totals. totaled $3,502,031.13. Um, this is, uh, you can see the timeline here of our various budgets. Board passed, it's, I'll call it its first preliminary budget in July of 25. That was at our budget hearing. And then we had a little pop-up here. and the board approved revised budget in January. I'm sorry, original budget in October. That is when we certified the tax levy employee compensation was approved after that meeting. So we had a revised budget in January, and then this is our second revised budget. If anyone were to scroll down and look at the details here, you'll notice that

152the the proposed change isn't the exact amount as the property tax chargeback. That's because we took the chance to update. um, some grants as far as what we're actually getting. What amount of the grant is going to salaries versus personal services, etc. So that is the updated budget, which will be for approval next month. Yeah. Thanks for giving us keying up some work that we need to review for the action item. Um, we move on to F discussion of 2024-2025 audited financial statements. I'm going to invite Jess Hinker, our director of finance and Christina Domer from Lauterbeck Amon, our principal auditor up, and Christina is going to get us started. I guess they're gonna flank me. Welcome, and thank you both for blasting through a long run on the meeting tonight. While everybody is switching

153over to the slides, I just wanted to thank you for your time and letting me discuss the audit this year. I did want to, as I usually like to start with the board, is remind you why you think for the service to begin with. Um, in the state of Wisconsin, the Department of Public Instruction does require for an audit to be completed each year. There is a due date that is written into state law of December 15th for delivery of that audit report. And then you also have a federal audit requirement by the Federal Office of Management and Budget. If you receive more than $750,000 of grant revenue that you spend in expenditures in one fiscal year. That was recently increased to a million dollars, but your district gets several million dollars of federal grant

154revenue, so you have had a single audit, which is also required by the Federal Office of Management and Budget for several years. That single audit is due March 31st of the following fiscal year. Historically, auditors have been able to present those two audits. concurrently in the same report. However, in the previous year, actually starting back when the pandemic began in 2020, the Federal Office of Management and Budget has been delaying their what's called the uniform Grant Guidance update. And it comes out each year for auditors to utilize to perform the single audit in order to get guidance on which programs to pick, and then ultimately what to test within those programs. This year, or well, in 2025, we received that officially in late November. of 2025. It normally comes out in May. So as a

155result, your deliverables before you do not contain the federal single audit, which we are currently finishing testing for. The 2 programs that we are testing for the Federal single audit this year are special education and Medicaid. So, Ashley, today we got audit documentation from the district, and we will be concluding the report during the week in order to get it finalized and uploaded to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse by March 31st, which is when it's due. So we are still on track to meet that deadline. And again, it is a delay this year because of the delay in receiving the Federal Office of Management Budget Management and Budget. And their updated 2025 compliance supplement, which was issued in late November of 2025. The annual audit itself. is, uh… presented before you with what's called a board

156communication letter, and I'll talk more about what that is. But I also did want to go over a little bit about what the audit process should look like in a normal year. As a reminder, this is our first year as a new auditor contracted with the district. And so, uh. at times that may mean that in the 1st year of that contract, it is a challenge to meet that December 15th deadline, which is what occurred this year. There's 2 specific reasons for that occurrence this year, which we do not expect to be repeats next year. The 1st is that as part of the quality control process and an audit, the first year we have to do additional testing and analysis of the previous audits, ending balances, which would be considered our beginning balances, and so

157that did take additional time from management and higher level folks like myself this year. The other challenge that we encounter this year is we were actually also your actuarial firm that performed your actuarial evaluation for your other post-employment benefits plan, and that single employer actuarial evaluation had to be sent out to a different firm in order to not. impair our independence as your auditor. So, in order for that firm to perform their due diligence, this first year as they took you on as a new client, it took additional time. Uh, so as a result, we would expect that in future years, this is your audit timeline. And our role within that as your auditors is to perform the testing. And of course, the staff here performed and provided us with all of the audit documentation.

158So an audit typically contains two different parts, preliminary field work and planning. You take a look at your internal control processes and who's in place, who performs what functions, who reviews who. And then based on that, we perform and plan what's called our final field work. which relies on analytical and substantive testing. uh, all of the audit documentation, the timelines, all the requests that we put out there were 100% fulfilled by the staff. The delay, as I mentioned before, was on our end due to those additional higher-level procedures that required more management time. And having to move your actuary evaluation to a different firm. Those are things I will not have to do for your audit this year, so I am 100% committed to having it completed by December 15th, as is promulgated by the

159Department of Public Instruction. But as I would like to note. Um, oftentimes, the final audit may not be submitted by the December 15th deadline. However, we did submit in conjunction with the district everything that was required through the Department of Public Instruction without issue. As well, our firm had been communicating with the Department of Public Instruction, notifying them. As throughout the process where we were. So as soon as we knew we would not be meeting the deadline, we did reach out and have that communication, and the two-way street was open with the Dpi. Again, as far as we're aware, there's no negative. repercussions or results as a result of this, and I'm really happy to provide your actual audit results. But I did want to at least allay the concerns around the audit timing because

160of that deadline being written into the actual state law. Again, as an auditor, we have to rely first and foremost on our quality control procedures and making sure we put before you a quality set of financial statements rather than meeting the deadline first and foremost. So in addition to your audit report, we also have to gather what are called actuarial evaluations. One of those comes from the State. So we don't have to worry about that because it normally comes out in October. But then you also have a pension stipend and a healthcare post employment benefit plan. And those are individual valuations that, as I said, we used to perform for you and we went elsewhere to get those updates. We still manage that process for you, so there's less heavy lifting on the place of

161management to make sure that those are obtained. timely in future audit years. And we do have to wait in order to get those valuations, vet them, have them go through our quality control process and our actuarial team before it comes to the audit process to get into your financial statements. So even if I hadn't had the challenges with the additional audit procedures, we still would have been delayed by these actuarial valuations. On top of the audit report, you also receive what's called a board communication letter. There are 2 different types of letters that you can receive. promulgated by audit standards, uh, they're numbered. So the audit standard letter number 114 is the one that everybody gets. You did not get one for 115, which would communicate material weaknesses or significant deficiencies that were found as

162part of the audit process. You did not receive that letter. You only received a SAS 114, which just describes the audit process, talks about whether or not we had miscommunications or disagreements with management, which we did not. And that's basically the highlight of that letter. You did not receive the other letters, so there's nothing major in that way to work on as far as your finances. The ultimate result, then my claim to fame, if you will, as an auditor, is just this, you know, 3 pages in your financial statements. It's the independent auditor's report, and just like previous years, you have what I call a plain opinion. which is an unmodified audit opinion on your financial statements. So again, the reason for the audit is it is required as a compliance item for… with the

163State Department of Public Instruction in the state of Wisconsin. And this year, as in previous years, you got a clean, unmodified opinion. the sort of how the sausage is made back behind the scenes. Part of that is, of course, us working with staff to get this done, and especially in the 1st year. That is a huge undertaking, because they have to provide and present new work papers and come up with things in a different way so that we understand it versus their previous auditors. They worked very, very hard on this, and I'm happy to say that on our end, we saw absolutely no reason to believe that we can't meet this deadline in future years. Okay? But I do want to point out, as I mentioned before, we ended up dating this opinion on February

16419th. Rather than that December 15th. and the details of your audit are then just highlighted on this slide. We do want to point out, obviously, the big ticket item of your fund balance. And a lot of that is already accumulated into items that you're. uh, you know, you're going to have for a non-spendable prepaid items, but the remainder, most of it, the $10.8 million at the end of fiscal year 25 was unrestricted. There was a net budgeted decrease in fund balance, as you can see there, which, of course, is no news to the district. And of course the one item that is managed is mentioned in your management letter is that the district fell below your policy. of maintaining a fund balance target at about 15%. So I think you're aware that you're out of

165compliance with your policy there. Your 2 options are, of course, to change your policy to lower that threshold. Uh, which… with which comes more risk from a financial nature. But. It is that target does come with a range. So there are organizations like the National Government Finance Officers Association, the AICPA, all sorts of organizations out there that will tell you what to have as your target. However, typically they will give you a range which can be between 10 to 30%. So you're already on the lower end of that range. But judging by your options, really trying to cut into your budget is not… easy, because that would mean that you're going to have to decrease your staffing levels significantly. So you know, one way to. be more transparent and communicate what you are doing with

166bondholders and and you know, folks of that nature would be to change your policy to show that you are taking on additional financial risk as a board, and that that is. what your policy says. Being out of compliance with it. looks worse than being in compliance with it. But I do realize that even 10% might might be a difficult compliance item to hit just because of where you are with your budgeting currently. And then, of course, your actual results for your budget can be found in the audit. But now we're working on the next year's budget. So usually that's old news. Honestly, the most relevant facts here are the fact that you had that clean opinion. and that, um, you know, you can look at your government-wide presentation for your net worth as a district

167to look at everything that you owe and everything that you own, and really be able to see that you're still in the net positive there, right? I think it's really easy to get. hard on ourselves when budgeting is hard. Right? But budgeting is short-term. and your long-term outlook can still be positive, even if your short-term outlook is challenging. So I do think you need to look at all of the financial picture in order to make those determinations. And as a reminder and as a caution to everybody, transparency means the provision of information that is factually correct. Not interpretation. And I think sometimes the public is looking for interpretation, and they call it transparency, right? Uh, this is your publication that gives you transparency. But sometimes people don't understand the detail within it. So that doesn't

168mean that you're not being transparent. And then, of course, the financial statements. have that same, you know. spirit, uh, because all of the the accounting policies and footnotes describe the rigorous detail behind all of the numbers in the financial statements. But it is difficult to understand, and a lot of. difficult terms for people. So the transparency is there, but there really isn't a lot of analysis, right? So I know in future years we are going to work with management to add management's discussion and analysis to your financial statements. And I think that will be a welcome addition for the community to have some sort of analysis. But the transparency is there and our opinion gives you the assurance that the numbers that are in the financial statements are accurately presented in accordance with generally accepted

169accounting principles. And therefore they can be compared to other districts and all of those things. and… I believe that those are the highlights that I wanted to get before you tonight, but I know there are so many details in your documents, so I'm very happy to be here to answer any questions live. Great. Thank you for a very thoughtful presentation and anticipating some of the things we might be wondering about board members. Questions, comments, Mr. Wayer. We've. talked and and heard about this. This is a surprise for. A few of us and thank you for bringing everything into alignment. Thank you for. Oh. bringing up the concept of transparency. I would just like to ask, in your professional opinion. what do you think of the systems and structures that Mr. Ecker and his team have

170put together. Since. So it was basically since going back as far as you did with the. With your audit. Sure. So we're only your auditors for a year, and we base the audit on the internal control framework and structure. It's clear that you have a full and robust finance staff that is well prepared, well educated and was. responsive to all of our questions and all the information that we needed. Uh, we easily got access to the technology that we needed as well, so you obviously have good technology support at the school for that reason as well. And. you know, comparatively to other districts. I it was a smooth audit process, and I think you have a very… educated, strong staff in order to continue that for years to come. Thank you. I'm gonna, can I

171ask that a different way? What I thought you might be getting at is Christina also was at a finance and resource committee meeting, and you made some comments there just relative to our Finance Committee monthly updates compared to some other meetings you've been to. Yes, I'd be happy to comment on that. Ii don't often get to see how the sausage is made. I know I told you a little bit about how we do that, and attending your finance committee meeting. Yes, I have attended some others at school districts. I noticed that there was a lot more detail. presented and discussed. And there were a lot more questions and, you know, interaction from board members than I typically tend to see. So, uh, that can only bode for positive results from finance. Anyone else? Yeah, just

172one point of clarification regarding the deadline. It was December 15th. Can you rehash that real quick? 30 seconds or less? Yes. So Wisconsin is unique in this. The state law specifically says that the audit is due December 15th. However, as independent auditors, we have to follow our quality control processes. So this year we issued it by February 19th, which is when we were able to conclude all of the detailed review and results in order to publish the report. With a clean opinion. And any expected blowback from DPI? You said that you had conversations with them on an ongoing basis. Any concerns that we should have? Exactly. So. there. Yes. So the Dpi was aware that we were coming in as new auditors, and in addition to that, in the previous few years, auditors are actually

173exiting public service, working with governments and school districts. Because of some of the deadlines and the lack of talent in the industry willing to work on those engagements. So the DPI actually approached us and was willing to work with us outside of the regular deadline for many districts. So this is our third year of doing that, so there really were only a couple of districts this year that were delayed in the process, and most of those were first time submissions or first-time audit clients. So they understand that onboarding. a lot of clients at once can be cumbersome, and a couple of years ago, there was a max exodus, and we took on, you know, like 25 clients in one year. Uh, so they've been working with us since to ensure that we stay in the

174state and continue. to foster this practice, because we want to continue to see audit independence and quality continue to thrive in the State. Absolutely, and so do I. Final question is any evidence, any hint of evidence that we should bring in a 3rd party, another 3rd party to take a look at the books and double check your work? Um, so, uh… That's a really difficult question for me to answer. I guess the way I would answer it is this. What does my opinion or my Cpa mean? If you bring in that third party? I guess I have another question for you, because I do think that that will erode auditor confidence. If we start doing that kind of practice across the state. And I haven't heard of that happening actually yet. But that would be

175my question back to you. Oh, I don't want to have. I think that one third party audit is fine, and we have to yours, and then also our ongoing work at CISO. So I think that would be a bit… redundant, even on top of our redundancies. So that's all I appreciate that. Thank you. What else? I'll just say, thank you quickly. I've we've met virtually and in person a couple times in finance, and you've made the process really easy to understand. I think, for the board and for the community. So I'm just grateful for the work that you provided for us. So thank you. to us appreciate working with the district and with this really great staff. It's always a good time. I agree. Maybe we need to for new board onboarding the future. May

176we clip some of these kinds of. Our moments and little videos, because what you explained tonight just made some things really clear. So thank you for taking the time to to. offer it in a way that a community member signing on could, you know, really understand what your purpose was and what, you know, what hit the calendar and what you're still doing, and why, you know, there's one more piece to turn in. All of that, I think, was super helpful. Thank you for the feedback. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. So this was discussion tonight. Next meeting will be action to accept the audit. Excellent. Thank you for that clarification. and also thanks for staying for a long meeting. It was my pleasure. It was kind of interesting. By the way, I did

177trimesters. And what do you think of them? Okay, it turned out pretty good. Turned out great. So very, very. Good to have input from everywhere. Um, we move on to G. Action to approve resolution awarding the sale of 45 million general obligation promissory notes. It is recommended that the school board approve the resolution awarding the sale of 45 million dollars general obligation promissory notes, and I so move. May I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Whitey. So. So we have another guest, Mike Clark from Robert W. Baird is here. He is our financial advisor. And Mike has been doing this as long as I've been in the field. So maybe you could just give a brief introduction, and then we can talk about the sale today. Yeah, because I believe in the first sale

178of the 24 referendum, I was out of town, and I think a colleague of mine was here. I'm Mike Clark prepared almost 26 years in July. Prior to that, I worked in… Schrecker's role for 11 years. Class the assistant superintendent for business for Appleton. So been around for a while. So. So today we're we took bids on the last portion of the 24 referendum financing. took bids at 10 o'clock. I'll try and yeah, I'll try mirror you. Yeah. Okay. So we did receive 7 bids. I'm very happy with and Northland Securities was the low bid, and it was verified the metal specifications. In communication with. Carlson Brady, the district's bond council. So we're again happy with the number of bids. Been in the last few weeks of the bill chaotic in the market, you know,

179depending on how Monday, how the weekends go. Sometimes the Mondays are a little unpredictable. But we have been seeing good participation. So we're very happy, also very happy with how tight the bids were. That kind of at least shows where the market was. those beds are very close, which always makes us feel better. It's not a single outlier or something like that, or people just kind of guessing at the market. Again, Northland was the winning bidder. Mike, do you mind just… Really briefly, just talking about that bit process looks like. I've been there and seen it, but if you could give the board a visual, it's kind of interesting. So the bids are due. They're due to a third party. organization. We don't have access to them. The district doesn't have access to none of

180the bidders have access to them. Bids were due at 10 o'clock. 10 o'clock. But bids have to be in by a certain point, and then after that point, they're released. Then we communicate with the winning bidder just to verify that they bid, but their math was correct. It's very rare, but on occasion people will. maybe understand something incorrectly and not so good with the intended bid. So we just try to verify that. But again, Mondays are very busy day. School board meetings on Mondays. you know, meetings. Mondays are definitely the busiest day. So every once in a while somebody might get confused. And then once those numbers are we verify the math, it goes to buying council to verify that the other specimen. Vince facts specifications that are laid out are are met, and then

181we. The winning bidder will send an earnest money, kind of a deposit, which this would receive, which will go into the construction fund as part of the $45 million proceeds. It's kind of a down payment. The opposing date isn't for… few weeks for the balance of the dollars. So I'll talk about that. Any questions on the process? Let me scroll. Yeah. So again, just a quick summary of the issue. These are general obligation promissory notes. There's a change in legislation allows us to spot everything notes used to be notes for 10 years. It's worth 20 or beyond 10. So now we just do everything, you know, just to. straightforward. Again, the balance 45 million dollars settlement date. closing date will be April 9th. That'll be the date that this will receive the funds over with

182the district will put our opposing memo. They can verify no wiring instructions, those types of things first interest payment. October 126. First, the call date will be April 1, 34. The rating which I'll talk about a little bit more was double 2. is. downgrade from the district's previous issue. I'll touch on that a little bit more. Again, the cost. And then again moving better. Here shows both issues together. It's a good news for taxpayers is that the result, first of all, is communicated. So I'm a referendum. final both issues are in place. The total entrance costs just under $2 million less than anticipated. So. and. you know, again. timing of the market. You know, I think it's good. A couple things we always have to get you the money when you need to pay bills.

183and also the district will have the opportunity to invest these dollars to earn interest while they're waiting to be spent. Then I just want to spend a minute on the. Moody's. opinion. You know, the AA2 is a very good rating. And anything on the AA level, that's the level is really important. Not to say that you don't want the best rating possible. Minimize that. But it talks about the strengths. You know, the very solid community, very solid tax base. But, you know, there are some challenges, you know, and some opportunities. So in this page, it lists. What could you do to have an upgrade? And the biggest thing in this specialty audit discussion is, you know, strengthening the fund balance. you know, having at a minimum balance budgets for surplus budgets, those types of things

184going forward, you kind of replenish that. And. It's… you're not. It's not going to happen in your turn. to build back up to the level of comparable AA1s where they were. you know. Definitely probably gonna need to get north of 20%. 5% closer to 30% is what you just kind of outlined. There's also, you know, they mentioned long-term liability. Okay, that basically… additional debt that might be put in place. You know, districts make that decision all the time, you know, when the district had no debt. It was a triple a last time when it was the 18 referendum and issued the 125. It was technically downgraded, even though you didn't have that outstanding downgraded to a lot. Well, I think. You know, most districts would make that that trade to be able to deal with

185the facility needs for for that upgrading, which is still. But you know, that's something we'd have to consider and we kind of, you know, if the district in the future seeking to do that, we could have discussions in terms of what that might look like. And then you just have an understanding going into it. the resulting impact on you. your rating may be. So if you could obviously strengthen your fund balance to help keep you a bit more of a push on obligation side. It's a discussion we can have. We can talk through that more in more detail at the time and felt more definitively in place. Uh, but also on the other side, if fund balance does not grow or even. you know, boats the other way. you know possibility for additional downgrading stuff.

186Those are the only things I really wanted to highlight. Otherwise. you know, from a management of. The district, the district did a very nice job. Grady call and we're just very comfortable with that side of things. It's just a fun balance. potential liabilities down the road that may or may not come apart. With that, I will conclude my comments and take any questions. or members. This is an action item. So comments or questions. The motion on the floor. Oh, boy. I was just going to go ahead. So our last guest presented and said. the suggestion. is to because we are out of compliance. the fund balance policy. We have a target of 15 to 30%. A suggestion was made to either lower our. We could lower our targets. or increase the fund balance. and we're

187hearing from you. You're saying this. There was a a downgrade in our trading. slow, small downgrade, and that downgrade is coming from having. a low fund balance. Yes, yes, from primary reason I would say was from Dollsville. Fund balance level. Okay. So yeah, there's a couple couple things. I think they were referring to the fact that you have a stated. policy at a minimum of a 15%, and you're not there. So there's one of 2 ways to address it from that perspective to get aligned with policies, the lower the policy level or to build the fund balance back up to meet your current policy. which is a little bit different. Moses is looking at it comparing you to other. AA2, AA1 issuers from around the country say, how do you compare to them? So you

188know they they do like to from a from a management score level. They do like to see meeting your policies. So it overlaps a bit, but they also look into, how do you compare to. other AA1 districts. So when they state in their report, when they said closer to that 30%, they're thinking that's what you need to be closer to to get back to that double a 1. Anyone else? This was Hamorong. Can you give a. First, thank you for being here. Sorry. Can you just briefly explain what the outcomes of the downgraded Moody's rating does for it looks like our interest rate is pretty similar to what it was last year. What's the big? The structures are a little bit different, bigger issues sometimes bring in bigger buyers. So there's different things. So it

189is hard to quantify because I was going to one sample, you know, half dozen years ago, whatever it was. When Hamilton School District, Waunakee School District, and Whitewater School District all sold on the same day. Hamilton, Wanake were both AA2 wet warps, AA3. Whitewater at the lowest rate. because there's a motivated. There's a really motivated buyer who wanted those products. Other factors besides the rating. If you're in Dane County. Those issuers typically do a little bit better because when they come highly of investment field. So there's other factors beyond just the rating and general market conditions. And if I said, the important thing is to be in the double A spectrum, AA1, 2, 3. you know, as a general rule, we think AA ones get better rates than double the twos. But depending on some

190of those other factors, it's really hard to quantify. So we have no idea what. I do think the fact that you went through AA1 to a few are long standing AA 2. I think it's probably… Minimizes the impact compared to doubling one. The fact that you didn't drop a level probably influenced some of the some of the bidders. I don't think it discouraged any bidders. outstanding rating. to to really quantify it, though, on a given day, it's really difficult time. You know, there's only three AAA. School districts from Wisconsin. Oh. So I I guess I'm reluctant to give a number say 5 basis points. Sure. You know my guess is there's probably a few basis points. In fact, because of the recency of the change. Yeah, due to the long term somebody who might have

191that. getting to know about that. I don't think it still had a major impact. Oh, see. Have you, or do you know if are you seeing a trend in Wisconsin? Because we know a lot of school districts are going to operational referendum, so especially compared to historically. So. Are you seeing, like, is that impacting just generally? There is a lot more conversation with the rating agencies, both movies and S&P, regarding… how you're managing enrollment. high enrollments. You know, and they… so they're looking at how you're managing that in your. Your annual budget results going back. you know, 2, 3, 4 years. Your ability to to live within the resources that you granted. And they do look at the operational referendums a lot in terms of your ability to pass. If you pass one, they look

192at that. That's great. They do that as… community residents, voters supporting you and districts who struggle to pass operational referendum. They really have to do a good job in terms of managing. budget to. not have a negative outcome. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Are we ready to vote? All right, Miss Summers, please call the roll. Miss Brzezinski. Yes, Mr. Bauer. Yes, Miss Pop. Yes, Mr. Morris. Absent. Miss Hammer Rowland. Yes, Dr. Worley. Yes, Mr. Wattier? Yes. And the motion carries. Thank you, and thank you for being here and waiting for a long time. Thank you. You're welcome. Tell us what time schedule you're into when you were. I don't remember. He did tell me Mike lives Roseway vocal. He said he he was glad he would go to Superior today. So better than driving home

193from there. Yeah. Okay, so one more number 77 H. This is a discussion of Vollatosa School District's 3,502,000. 031.13 general obligation promissory yes. Um, so at a high level, this shouldn't be news to this board either, and we also talked about this at length at Finance Committee, uh, I guess that was last week. Um, so this, uh, uh, again, this is a discussion for action in April. This really stems comes right down to the property tax chargeback. In fact, the amount that we're asking for, we've specifically made equal to the property tax chargeback amount. Um, we need to cash flow borrow, like many school districts do in order to meet payroll. When we… Yeah, so annually, we make our estimates as far as when are we going to have a low cash point. Um, we

194have to do that in the summer, uh, so that we can prepare ourselves for our first low cash point. We did not know that we'd have a property tax chargeback when we made that estimate. So I am hopeful that the dollars that we've already borrowed for cash flow will meet our needs. However, I don't want to be caught when we pay our teachers all their summer payroll and not having enough. cash in the bank. So, uh, we are asking the board to pass this resolution, um, at the next meeting as essentially an emergency backup plan, um, so that, uh, we… we can meet our payroll needs. Um, it will have minimum cost because we, we will be looking at cash essentially on a daily basis. Um, and if we don't have to borrow, there'll be

195no cost. And if we do, we'll borrow and then repay back as quickly as we can to keep the cost minimal. Great. Thank you. Board members, questions. Very clear explanation. Miss Brusinski. Was there a. No, this I'm just. This is the Frederick healthcare health. saying the reassessment, the reassessment. That's the word. Thank you. Right. talk to Lana about it. Okay. Thank you so much. Thanks for explanation. Thank you. We'll take action on that at the next meeting. So we move to board governance number 8. Great. And we pass it on to you if you want to. Motion 1st. Yes, it is recommended that school board approve the fund Wisconsin public schools resolution, and I so move second. Thank you, Miss Hammerland. Excellent. We talked about this last time. There were several suggestions. to this document,

196all of them proper. So I went ahead and created a red line version so you can take a look and see what happened. In the meantime, we deleted a duplicative session. the day after we last met. I had a chance to attend. I just lost the name of the organization. But Julie Underwood was presenting. She is one of the principal actors in this, and she outlined several opportunities for a district to engage up to and including providing an amicus brief. And then further down the line in terms of intensity, providing stories, providing data. So I included that in the appropriate section. I was able to find X. Remember that we left a section open. to a conversation between Dr. Means and his team and the LAC to figure out what. How much support do we

197want to offer? So I plugged in a not to exceed amount. Just 200 hours, and that will be split amongst multiple people, including the LAC, including potentially legal to review things. Um, if we find out that it takes a million hours to do something, then we probably won't do it. But if it's 201 hours, we'll probably come back and say, hey, like, we just want to finish this and get it over the line. And there were a couple minor changes for clarity. Entertain questions or follow up. Thank you for doing that research. In case people are following along. That would be on the board docs. If you want to see the red line version. It's very clear what's been changed between last time and this time and the organization is Swsa. So basically, what we're

198looking at is, do we want to commit the resources to do up to the 200? Hours of total effort to support this case. Other questions, concerns. I know our community has been and been asking us. to take action. That's what I've been kind of thinking about is the that, you know, individual outreach to. ask for the better funding in schools. We've been doing that for a lot of the years. I find it exciting to collaborate and corporately move together. And I think that. You know, personally, I think it's it's… as long as we've assessed that those resources can be found, then I think it is a really good partnership to join. Anyone else? I agree. I agree. It's not going to be $700 per hour. Ellie, she's not going to try to $700. I have

199no intention of charging that. fair. Sure. Are we ready to vote? Yeah, I just want to say there's so much comes up that that our challenge is funding over and over again. It's funding and. Man, our hands are tied. in our our community says. Please, our taxes, and we're like, yes, we know. And thanks for taking an action on Of course, and the greater concern about property taxes and funding schools. It should be noted that it is more efficient to fund schools at the state level than it is at the local level. We have one lever to pull. The state has multiple levers in which to fund schools. Oh, and they are electing not to do it. according to the Constitution which it is written, and that is what this group is arguing. Yeah. And

200there's other work that's going on, but it's moving at such a slow pace that adding some more. pressure and energy is, I think, what this case is really about. It's not to create an yet another option, but rather to try to put some energy behind moving forward all the discussions that have been happening and not been successful so far. Finding a way to fund our public schools more effectively and completely. Okay, I'm seeing a lot of preparedness, and I think that Miss Summers, could you call the roll, please? Mr. Bauer. Yes. Sorry, I was not expecting that one. Yes. Mr. Wattier. Yes. Ms. Heimer Rollins. Yes. Miss Bach. Yes. Ms. Brzezinski. Yes. Mr. Morris. Dr. Worley. Yes. and the motion carries for all this you are wondering. We had a we had a a guest

201a few meetings ago that suggested that we were very patterned about our voting. So at the break, I mentioned this. Ms. Summers, and we have already jumped into what is now the new normal. So fun. And it woke us, you know, all of us at, like, 9.20, and we're like, whoa, that's really interesting. What we find fun. All right, let's move on forward. B. second reading and or action to approve the fund Wisconsin Public Schools letter. Let's start by putting the motion on the table. Miss Bach. It is recommended that school board approve the fund Wisconsin Public Schools letter and I so moved. May I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Bauer. Great, and I get to talk some more. So there's the court case that is going up, and where that group is.

202green suit against the assembly. And that will yield at most a slap on the wrist. Well, if you are skeptical live on the rest of the assembly and tell them to do better. This document will be sent to our electeds and the candidates that are running for elected seats, at least as many as I know of, um, to try to encourage them to put forward a plan, um, that. we think would adequately fund schools. It should be noted that there is a group of assembly people who have already put forth a plan that is not all that dissimilar to this, although if my understanding is correct, it's a little bit. more. it is less aggressive than the letter implies, but that's okay, too. That's their job, not mine. Our members can answer questions. There was

203no comments. Right. So there were no changes. Okay. Miss Summers, please call the roll. Dr. Worley. Yes. Ms. Falk? Yes. Ms. Brzezinski. Yes. Mr. Wattier? Yes. Mr. Bauer? Yes. Ms. Samuel Rowland. Yes, Mr. Morris, absent. on the motion carries. Excellent. And then the last piece update on the property tax transparency resolution. This is a resolution that we passed back in, I believe, December. With the new year. I started reaching out to our colleagues over in City Hall to see what steps can be made. in order to bring some transparency on where our school tax dollars are going, specifically the amount of money going to vouchers and our one public charters. I'm happy to report that we have several champions in City Hall who are looking to move this forward in their committees and then ultimately

204to, uh. ultimately to the board itself, or I guess the council itself. So that is progressing at the speed of government. with the government with an election. Government with an election. That's right. Yes. Great. Thank you for that update. That's very helpful. And that's all I have for this one. Excellent. Thank you for all the hard work that Lic is doing. We now move to adjournment. The time is 924 PM. May I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Bauer. May I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Wattier. Miss Summers, please call the roll. Mr. Bauer. Yes, Mr. Wattier? Yes. Director Worley? Yes. Ms. Hymar Rollins. Yes, Miss Hawk. Yes, Ms. Brzezinski. Yes, Mr. Morris, absent. The motion carries. Thank you. We are adjourned, and we move into. our website