001evening everyone I call the December 9th 2024 school board meeting to order it is 6:03 p.m. we are in conference from SE of the Fisher Administration Building at 12 121 West North Avenue I will call the RO this evening Mr Morris here Dr Hoy here Mr W here Dr Worley here miss Hammer Rolland is excused yes she's here she's here perfect surprise uh Mr Meer here and Dr Joseph anger is here as uh we will begin with an opportunity for public com uh members of the wa TSA School Board value 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 requests that individuals limit
002their comment on each item to three minutes following any comment an individual board member May respond on the issue raised however it is not the in not the intent of public comment portion of the agenda for the board to enter into a debate with a member of members of the community because non-agenda items are not publicly posted in advance no action will be taken on public comment regarding non-agenda items this evening uh and I add this evening the district strives to set a good example of appropr appropriate decorum for members of the school Community including District students in turn it is expected that all speakers at public meetings of the district conduct themselves in a civil Manner and in compliance with board policies comments that are abusive threatening or harassing toward another individual or staff
003member will not be tolerated questions or comments regarding individual Personnel issues should be directed to Administration to review according to applicable District policies and procedures speakers are reminded that they are not immune from legal consequences related to the content of their speech especially speech that is personally directed and contrary to the privacy reputational or due process rights of individuals um Mr Morris if you could do the timer in as well is there any public comment in the room this [Music] evening seeing none is there any public comment online there are no hands raised with that we will move to close public comment next we will move into our consent sorry I've got a lot of uh technology things happening on my computer um are there any items items on the consent agenda which board members
004would like to remove for separate discussion and actions seeing none it is recommended that the school board approve the consent agenda and I so move thank you may I have a second second give that to Mr wattier uh board discussion on consent agenda uh a couple things I would point out uh thank you very much uh to uh the work of the policy committee for continuing to drive through a lot of work uh some of the policies are on the inent this evening others will be discussing in more detail uh and then also thank you uh for the gift given to Underwood Elementary uh always appreciated when the community is thinking of our our schools and our students and Educators in those lands [Music] um I will call the rle in s Mr Morris yes
005Dr Hoy yes Mr wattier yes Dr Worley yes Miss Hammer Rollin yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Joseph anger is a yes and the consent agenda must pass this evening next up is Str Dr jph anger if you didn't mind for just a moment um on the consent agenda for tonight's meeting was um the approval of um uh the employment of our director of strategic Communications and I'm proud to introduce you this evening uh to miss Jesse Tuttle uh who is starting tomorrow thank you for pointing this out welcome and come on up I missed that at the bottom of a million policies we need Communications help this is why right yeah hello I'm Jesse tutle I'm super excited to start with tosa yeah any questions for me or anything feel free to ask otherwise they'll
006be around I am too embarrassed at this point help him yeah shall thank you for joining us this is such an absolutely important time for schools and certainly wsa to make sure that our our community understands the work that we're doing the impact of it uh what we're learning and how we're getting better at what we do so we're delighted to have you I'm excited to be here thank you so much thank you uh next up strategic goal six for operations our financial audit why she's here I there's so many so every year the school district along with all school districts in Wisconsin are required to have a financial audit um prepared by an external auditor uh for submission to DPI um uh so this culminates um the audit U Mike Sama a partner at
007Shaker Sama is here to present our audit um he'll be highlighting a few things uh as far as next steps go uh there'll be further discussion or there's an agenda item on our finance committee for the audit and at the January meeting first January meeting I'll be asking the board to accept the audit um this is not something that is approved the board can't approve an audit um but you can officially accept it as the board audit so that's kind of the the steps uh relative to the audit there was a roughly about 75 page audit report for the board uh that's part of the agenda as well as um some uh a memo with some of the um key areas that the board and Community might be interested in if you didn't want to
008or we unable to perview all 80 pages and Mike's going to be giving um the summary of that as well so I'll invite him up and maybe Corey if you could is the power is the PowerPoint already I sent to the media oh okay e e job anybody so this is the report on audit of year end June 30th 2024 I'm M Sama from shimak Sama and um first of all I just want to thank um Scott and the uh business office staff uh an audit is a big job it's long there's a lot of steps a lot of documentation so we appreciate all the work you guys do to help us get through it okay so just a quick overview of what what we do in this audit so um one of the purposes
009is to issue an opinion on whether the financials are materially accurate another purpose is to issue a report stating we found whether we found any internal control or non-compliance issues uh in accordance with government auditing standards and third purpose is to to issue an opinion on whether the district complied in all material respects with compliance requirements um that are imposed by the federal and state single audit guidelines and to issue another report saying whether uh we found any internal controls from that standpoint um we do this by examining a lot of uh documents documentary evidence um performing a number of tests uh we talked to management about various things and we um have to do specific testing that the federal and state government requires us to do and it's important to note that an audit
010um it does not provide absolute 100% Assurance it's reasonable Assurance so we we do our due diligence but there's always a possibility that something goes unnoticed and so our actual results um our opinion on the financial statements and elves uh we had an unmodified opinion oh sorry okay thank you uh and we had an unmodified opinion on the financial statements so we believe them to be materially accurate uh our report on internal control over um and compliance in accordance with government auditing standards we did have or findings that I'll discuss a little more in depth and then uh our opinion on compliance with the federal and state single audit guidelines again unmodified opinion we believe the district complied in all material respects uh no internal control issues are found in that segment uh just high
011level numbers here so the the final numbers if you will and just kind of the differences um you have sort of two sets of financials you have your fund statements which mirror kind of the DPI budget um you know you'd be probably most familiar with and then the government-wide statements incorporate a number of other things like the capital assets of the district um a number of large pension figures that are required to be recorded from the wrs pension um so that has additional information but these are uh the the balance sheets that show the assets and liabilities of the district and then the income statements um again the on the right the statements of revenues and expenditures and changes in fund balance um kind of the year-to-year comparison there and then the statements of activities
012also include the additional uh amounts I was talking about with the pension figures and things like that um and then we have a little section here on the the budget so the final budget in the general fund showed a $7 million surplus uh actual results were I'm sorry deficit and the actual results were a 15 million uh dollar deficit and we'll discuss more what happened there in the finding section so finding number one uh this is a standard finding that every district has it's most economical most of the time to hire the auditor to prepare the financial statements which we have done um it's a techn technicality that's considered internal control deficiency if the district does not prepare its own financial statements but in order to do that you need to hire a CPA who's
013up to date on all the requirements and it's just not practic in most cases so it's just finding that pretty much there year after year and it's not really of major concern to us we're just required to cited second one um this related to uh the handling of old outstanding checks um the Department of Revenue has guidelines on how this should be done and so um I think the the district is now implementing a process to keep up with this on a regular basis I think there were just some items that were a little bit too old on there so that was essentially um the issue on this finding and finding number three um this relates to the budget issue so the the state um requires there to be a amend budget when there's changes
014and um it's spelled out in detail but basically there was some miscalculations in the budget and they should have probably been um you know detected and then an amended budget published to the board and that did not happen so um essentially now the district is implementing a agenda item to look at this on a regular B basis and that would essentially eliminate that that issue because um by reviewing it on a regular basis you would identify the need for an amendment then and you know at the time it's needed it was eventually found just after the year was over and the last finding um this related to there were some large a adjustments needed to close the books which happens sometimes um and so we made those adjustments and now everything is um accurate but
015uh we do recommend um some training to try to avoid those types of things so that they can be caught in advance and adjusted not through the audit process but by the business office you know there there's always some adjustments so it's not that unusual ual but um I think some of it through education can be brought in advance and then just our assessment of um the responses if the things that the district plans to do about uh these findings are carried out we believe this should prevent U issues like this from arising in the future um and we met uh Dr means and Mr and I um and I feel that we're all on the same page everyone understands what needs to be done so now uh those plans just need to be executed
016oh and then with that any questions anyone has questions from the board documents if there's no comments I just would like to um thank our finance and resource committee many of the items that we have started to implement was spurred by that committee indicating that we needed to make a change in our operations also want to thank Mr eer for implementing them so quickly and we continue to encourage the Community to monitor our transparency in the work that we're doing in this space thank you very much thank you second item we have under strategic goal six is an overview of the November financials let me just get that P up here [Music] te just having so much stay it was so fun I have that effect um so typically we would have our financial update
017at the second board meeting uh of each month we just have one board meeting this month so um that's why we're seeing it today uh and I've done something a little bit different uh as you probably noticed if you when you reviewed the um presentation or Andor if if you watch the video uh I'm also now comparing where we are this year versus what you would have seen had this uh software been used last year so to kind of give you just um trying to triangulate things for the board and community so I'll begin um you're probably getting used to this now kind of just the general uh sort of overview um the the main things I want to point out this month are we have now uh closed Esser so all of our revenues
018and expenses with Esser are done um the good news there is we've received more Revenue than we had budgeted so we're going to have uh some positive variants there um some of that positive variant will be eaten up with additional expenses towards Esser um but we still are going to come out ahead compared to what we budgeted um we we continue to watch our purchase services and our health insurance those are the two uh most volatile areas of our budget um and uh we we heard at our last Finance committee meeting uh about some of the um interventions we're putting in place to impact those things uh and for those that have been tracking um our our projected variances month over month uh we are getting better in our purchase services so uh as I
019had predicted earlier in the year um we know that we had front-end loaded some expenditures and predicted that we would be reverting to the mean that continues to happen uh we're not there yet um but we are on top of that each month uh s and benefits those are largest largest expenses are still trending well and those are the ones that you know I'm um most in tune to each month again here's just a picture of our revenues um basically uh on board again you're used to seeing this now um when we finally get to December uh that we will have received some state aid so in January when you see this report the purple and green lines actually will be somewhere um above practically zero so we'll start to see some movement uh in
020our revenues over the next several months here's I'm just pointing out for you the the um our current year um federal revenue the purple line is significantly higher than the projection that is that extra money that has come in higher than uh we budgeted so pointing that out here all right on the expense side um comparing last month to this month uh both months essentially right on target um within 1% of projection on our salaries and benefits and getting slightly better each month on our all of our other objects but in particular our purchase services and again here's a picture of month over Monon uh totals uh compared to projections here's our general financial statement so I always want to just keep um the the board and Community aware that even though we're talking at
021this point of the Year about projected overan or possible variances um there there is no budget that has been over spent and we have um different interventions and levers we can pull during the year uh to assure that that doesn't happen um so it is a little scary to talk about variances because the idea is we want to be on top of them and we don't anticipate they're going to happen but in to be transparent we need to show them as well okay so this is just a picture of our revenues we haven't spent a lot of time on this in in Prior months because we get you know such little amount uh early in the year but just pointing out um I now believe we are going to finish uh the year a little
022bit under our projected budget in our local sources that is primarily due to interest rates coming down and us having um less fund balance even than I we might recall we ratcheted down our Revenue um budget for interest earnings and I think that's going to come in even under where we had ratchet it down to uh you see the green flag on the federal side that again is that Esra money okay here's our forecast again last month on the top current month on the bottom I've still got yellow flags on our salaries and benefits uh again I triangulate that three different ways I'm confident we're going to end the year fine there uh but I want to point that out overall where you see the the blue arrows you can see that we are in
023better position this month than we were last month and that is in large part um because purchase Services uh and non- capital objects are both getting better they both have red flags you can see but the variance the last two months now has shrunk okay so this is now last year um so had we been looking at this report last year this is what it would have looked like and what I want to point out I don't know if I have a uh if we if we look at the sort of first oh good you you can see my Mouse um the first bracket here this would have been spending um in 2022 so two years ago now okay so for instance two years ago through November 30th we had spent we say 29% of
024our celer where of where we ended last last year at this point in time we were at 33% so um had this report been being used that is something that someone may have caught earlier okay so I just want to point out how this is useful in the area of purchase services for instance you can see we were you know 15% above so some things like that will stand out automatically and those are the things um that you may want to key in on and that we've talked about in Prior prior month when you're looking at these reports what are the things you might want to uh take a look at okay on the top here is if we had used the software last year at this point in time what would the variance have
025looked like versus this year so through this point in time last year you can see our variances in the kind of Circle Blue Area here was projecting uh about 4.6 million in negative variance um as we know that increased to roughly 8 million by the end of the year um and this year we're at 1.5 but the key is we're putting these interventions in place right now so that we can be assured that that doesn't happen and then I want to show you now that we're several months through the year um you know when I I talk when I talked about this sort of scary showing projections because they they change month-to month um I just wanted to give you uh a picture of where our variance sorry I spelled that wrong where our variance
026projection has been month over month so here we can see you know in July we were projecting essentially no variance we heard they had any payrolls or or anything at that point um we reached uh a low point in September and now we're starting to climb back towards uh zero um at the end of the year where where we will be is either you know at this line or if we're above it that means we're able to put some money into fund balance and then this is a comparison um of last year to this year so I just overlaid uh again here's this year and now I overlaid the orange uh on top to just show what what that difference looks like year-over-year that is the November financials rep EXC Mr Morris if I may
027just I think you're seeing um the level of detail that Mr eer promised uh the board and the community I think as we continue to have experience you'll continue to see the detail coming along so thankk you Scot for for the transparency we appreciate next up isic go4 high quality staff um Sarah will back up uh this is a time where I want to pause and also recognize I Believe Miss Tuttle is here who is our Communications specialist director yeah director um and she's joining us for this position I want to welcome you thank you for being here um it's great to have you I or Worse digging and thank you for trying good evening um as as you all know uh we had a transition in the position of associate principal at Longfellow Middle
028School uh this fall um and uh midyear transitions uh to any positions can be challenging um we are really fortunate in the wosa school district that we are growing and supporting um a deep bench in terms of uh Future Leaders in the organization um and so when we posted for an associate principal to finish the remainder of the school year uh one of our internal candidates uh Rose to the very top um of that candidate pool a talented candidate pool um I I would add um and so this evening uh we're presenting for you for approval uh the employment of Mr Pat kgal as the interim associate principal at Longfellow Middle School um Mr kgal uh is currently serving as interim dean of students at Eisenhower Elementary School and so um to be least disruptive
029um to our students which is um you know one of our um goals in Human Resources is to not uh upset the apple cart with our kids um Mr creal is graciously um waiting to make the official transition until we have a replacement for him at Eisenhower uh and Pat is here this evening Pat would you like to say a few words well everyone um I just want to say thank you for the opportunity obviously it's a a really unique one in the middle the school year uh but gives me a great chance to reconnect with some of my former Roosevelt students where I was a school counselor for eight years and then um just a opportunity to uh shine a little more and have an opportunity for growth as a leader so thank you
030very much for the opportunity thank you Pat Uh Mr wattier I'm gonna have you read this it is excuse me it is recommended that the school board approve the 202 425 administrative contract for Patrick kgal as assoc associate principal of Longfellow Middle School effective August 19th 2024 for 221 days per year at an annual salary of $90,000 uh pren work days and salary per rated based on start date and pren and I so move thank you may have a second second thank you Dr merley uh any board questions or comments where are we at with listing the position for the dean at Eisenhower and like what's our time frame we hoping to fill that position yes so um the the dean the interim Dean vacancy to finish the rest of the school year was put
031out on our application uh website last Tuesday Morning uh we do have a handful of candidates in that pool um and so um Leah and I uh will be following up with Mr Jordan Stein who's the principal there um we are optimistic that we could have interviews uh in the next week and a half before our break um and if someone cannot start right after break or hoping shortly thereafter um and please note as well that sometimes those transitions are easier at term so the end of the first semester is the end of January so sometimes that you might be a point but um we have um we have support at Long Fellow you know while we're working through this um transition I just want to say I was excited to see this on our
032agenda today I've heard um amazing things about you from All Families both from Roosevelt and Eisenhower so this is an exciting for you welcome I will call the L Mr Morris yes Dr Hoy yes Mr wattier yes Dr Worley yes Miss hmer Rolland yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Joseph anger yes congratulations Sydney cannot wait to not see you for bad reasons in the office next up is number six strategic goal one academic performance a school report card good evening everyone um as you all know I am Nicole marble Chief academic officer and I'm joined this evening by Miss Lindsay white our director of data quality and analytics we are here this evening to engage in discussion around the district state report card issued by the state of Wisconsin's Department of Public or excuse me Department
033of Education um annually as part of the state's accountability system the Department of Public Instruction or the DPI produces report cards for each publicly funded school and District in the state of Wisconsin a school or District's overall accountability score places the school in District into one of five overall accountability ratings and since the 2015 2016 report card the wosa school district has been identified as a district that exceeds expectations which represents a four out of five star rating annually report cards include data represent presenting multiple indicators over multiple years for example the achievement and growth data on the report cards are from the 2122 22 23 and 23 24 school years data that informs the ratings behind the on track to graduation metric date back to the 2020 2021 school year so I just want
034to preface that that it's uh the and I want to emphasize that the data on the school report cards is not indicative of last year alone it's over a compilation of time and as stated in the flip presentation improvements that have been made at the school level as well as at the district levels may not have yet caught up to the metrics that are represented in the state report cards the most important data for us as Educators to continue to focus on is the current actionable data in front of us each and every day classroom teachers are inundated with student learning data on a daily basis it is their professional responsibility to adjust their practice to ensure all students are receiving the learning that they need and ultimately deserve building principles are also collecting data
035on a daily weekly and monthly basis to monitor the actions that they have set in motion to support the forward progress of their school growth plans and at the district level we monitor systems data which includes three academic checkpoints throughout the year as well as annual end of your data so in short the most actionable data to monitor is what occurs at the classroom level on a daily basis and if as a community we desire for student outcomes to continue to improve then the adults instructional actions and the classroom conditions that Foster The Learning need to change first so at this point in time we welcome any opportunity for a discussion any questions and comments put a comment out there the uh everything that you guys have been doing across the district I just want
036to say thank you because when I came on to the board you heard a lot of noise that CH filtered through about what's not going right and then the students that don't learn here and this that and the other uh but if you dig in and you look at their report card you know I I had already got some feedback from families and parents that were doing comparisons to our neighboring school districts when I always tell people you have to compare apples to apples but one thing that was more important in this one is looking at the student group performance by level by year if you go back to our 2021 22 and then to our 2 3 24 year it's significant growth not just on the upper end but the students that we talk
037about most that we want to see do well the students that fall into that basic and Below basic levels going from in 2122 in English language from 49.2 down to 38.1% and that lower level that that means we are able to teach all students and get them moving and so the community needs to know that same thing in math you know an 11-point jump and increase on those lowest level students is huge because that means we're getting students to not only basic but beyond proficient and Beyond so I don't have to talk about the advanced and proficient because we already know they're going that direction it's that those lower tiers of students that were trying to get there he guys are doing a great job doing that so I appreciate it thank you um I
038agree with everything that you're saying Mr Morris I I think one of my um frustrations is that when these report cards come out often there's a lot of attention and frustration aimed at the district which is Dr means and your team um and it seems like that's where all of the frustration kind of goes rather than what is a much closer um place of influence which is in the classroom and in the at the building level and I I mean when I think about like what does the board do what is our role in you know moving students forward academically making sure that all of our students are successful I think about us being able to give our staff teachers um all of the resources that they need to be successful in the classroom so
039in the three years that I've been on this board we've had 21% salary increases on average we've updated lots of our curriculum we've provided additional planning time well you all did that one we didn't do that one you provided the financial resources sure um and other staff supports like Deans at schools that were having um issues with Behavioral disregulation or disruption mental health interventionists academic interventionists I see that we have given those resources and I also see the frustration coming back again to the district and the board why aren't things getting better faster and when I first came on the board we had a lot of families coming and talking about behavioral issues in the classroom and they would come to the mic and and we really made a concern effort to say this is
040not the place to start that conversation this is the place to end the conversation because you've gone through all the different channels and you didn't get the traction that you wanted I'm going to say that to our families right now if you are unhappy with how your school is performing that conversation should be happening at your school level first you should be talking to your classroom teachers you should be talking to your principal you should be looking at your school growth plan and seeing why your school isn't growing why the students in your school aren't growing or developing or learning as quickly as you think they should be if you don't get any traction there then you come to the district level if you don't get any traction there then you come to the board
041but until those steps are followed we're missing crucial pieces we're missing crucial steps to help our students so this is my push to families if you are unhappy with what's happening at your school go to your school and talk to them go to the teacher ptas go to your your principal meet you know meeting nights your instructional nights have those difficult conversations thank you may I just to put an addendum on that statement and thank you Dr Hoy when families do not start trying to solve the solution or the problem at the closest level where the problem is occurring it actually makes our ability to intervene more difficult so if there is a concern about performance at a school or the performance that a student is having with a in a certain classroom when you
042go directly to the superintendent office or to the chief academic officer to the school board it actually delays the intervention even more so um if those conversations are fulfilled at the teacher School level then we can act more quickly when it does come to our attention I can share with the community that recently I spoke with a building principal who said I don't get any I I don't have any parents coming to me to share their concerns about the academic performance of the school yet Dr marble and I are consistently speaking with parents and community members who have concerns about the academic performance of the same school so the disconnect is is is troubling it's a concern because in the districts that I've been in that are considered to be high achieving school systems the
043the engagement actually starts with the closest level of the impact that's happening and then if there isn't performance if there isn't reaction if there isn't the type of movement that those stakeholders want then they come to the district office and then they come to the school board I think we have It reversed right now um and I understand that people like to go to the top at at times I understand that but in this case when you do that work it actually it it creates a barrier for us to in to engage into intervene as quickly as stakeholders may want us to I have a question um so I agree with both of those statements what has your um Department done to um help families know who to reach out to or um help families
044know more in detail what is going on academically in the schools I think we have um I know we have a Communications problem um in many areas but that seems to me to be a big one um I consider myself like a really engaged parent and um I don't know a lot about the academics that my students have um gone through uh so what is your department doing to um even like a curriculum I think it was at uh the high schools there's not a lot of part participation um open house at East um the Halls looked empty so how are we what's the plan to better engage families so that um they're hearing the information on a regular basis um they know to talk to their teachers and they're not coming to the district
045into the board um as often yeah um so with the curriculum implementations we are also developing um alongside that the curriculum added glances and so that the elementary level I that information is going home on a regular basis at the middle school level um at least I can speak with certainty at Long Fellow that there are weekly updates in the um in the newsletters that go home of what is happening in each house in each grade level in each class um at least for the core content areas at the high school level uh any curriculum that has engaged in new curriculum implementation so English 9 English 10 biology chemistry intro to college chemistry all of those should in they do have communication whether or not the teacher is actually sending that home is um something
046else for commun for families to follow up with so if you are a parent of a child in English n English 10 biology chemistry intro to college chemistry you should have received communication from your teacher about what is happening in that class um and then you have other teachers who have gone above and beyond and have reached out to families and keep amilies engaged in the in the communication um I know of one math teacher in particular at one of our high schools who has gone above and beyond in terms of communication and I know that there are families that have thaned said teacher for the communication and of copy building Administration to say this is communication that we want to see so it's pointing out also the positive communication that is happening for a
047model so if there's new if your child is engaged in New curricul there should be communication coming home if there's not please ask the teacher what's happening in the class and it's a prime example because if you go directly to Dr marble and we don't have the ability to say well this parent triying to reach the teacher and the teacher either ignored it or XY or Z then we're unable to intervene as as actively as we should if there's a gap in communication correct just a follow are the Departments collaborating on that so if you have a teacher that has a strength in an area so that students in different sections of the same course are getting pretty similar yep and so that has already all of that communication is there for the teachers that
048all they have to do is copy paste and send in addition to that too not so much the curriculum aspect but we've set in place um report cards for elementary just went out last week and we've created an email so in addition to just having a email or newsletter that says report cards are available pushing out the communication through an email so it's right there in your inbox and going into Infinite Campus to view the comments um but just trying to put it more front and center for those individuals who you know aren't aware that it's coming out or just need that reminder um we also have sending U missing assignment reports every other week which last year we were doing once a month so we've increased the Cadence of that to help families just
049kind of be more engaged around um assignments that could be missing um and then we've also created questions to ask teachers parents um and principles and then District office too that we've shared in multiple different Avenues just to kind of give parents an understanding of here are some questions you can ask when you're engaging with the families around or with the teachers around curriculum as well I think there's a lot of fear to ask teachers about what's happening in classrooms because you don't want to upset teachers and we we adore our teachers we love our teachers our teachers are what you know makes the the the the school's hum right in addition to our to our students but if we don't know that if they don't know that there's a frustration or a wonder that
050you are are plagued with then they can't help you help your child as well and so it's not inappropriate to ask a teacher questions of what's happening or not happening in a classroom um to support your child because ultimately our parents and Guardians are our child are our students um fiercest Advocates and so we encourage that dialogue and that partnership Miss White is a former assistant principal in elementary school Dr Marvel and I are former principles the best teachers I've worked with are the ones who are actually offended when they haven't had a chance to address the problem with the parent um they those those are the teachers that will always say deand just tell them to email me and I'll I'll talk to them because of what Dr Marvel just said they want the
051very best for the children that they're teaching they can only do do that when they have a true partnership with the family and the household if there's if we skip two or three steps then that partnership can't be formed and when the partnership isn't formed then then we're unable to address the needs of the student think back to my time when I started the board about eight years ago uh and the report cards were kind of the time of year where we got a snapshot trailing though it may be of what's Happening um we have much more updated data I know you all have Rich dashboards that the board has access to and I certainly am looking at on an ongoing basis um I'm curious we have implemented and done and thank you for kind
052of walking through this specific one of here's the interventions that were in place that were not in place um I am grateful to the community Who provided us through the operating referen and the resources to continue to really prioritize economic outcomes achievement the interventionists uh the apparatus that is really driving outcomes and achievement what and I know that it's not an learning tool happens immediately and the data takes a while to for us to get it to where we want it to be and I think in my mind I've always articulated I'm I expect all of our schools to be exceeding expectations and as a district I want to significantly the exceed expectations what are we seeing and what is the story that we're seeing unfold and where do we think we're going next with
053how the interventions are working or not um and that's maybe a little bit outside the scope of this but at a high level where are we seeing things Trend towards um as we move forward and I know we'll have I think in February we'll have more Deep dive into our our Milestone data and and a lot of the things as we close on the first semester rating and so on but anything that you can share uh that you're seeing in the data yeah we have um flooded early intervention with our youngest of Learners because once gaps open in terms of learning they're very hard to close and so we we are hyper Vigilant and Hyper focused on intervening early um with our youngest of Learners with their um literacy and numeracy uh development so that
054is one area that we are monitoring very very closely um additionally we are monitoring how the curriculum implementation is going and we are in classrooms on a regular basis making sure that um the the learning and the curriculum that has been approved um thank you again to all of you and to our community um that that is laying traction because that hasn't always been the case where we've approved curriculum we have left it to our buildings to um Implement that and we haven't been able we didn't have the Personnel to support the implementation and so we have the support to the support to move the implementation forward and I'm really pleased with what we are seeing in the vast majority of our spaces um our youngest of Learners are being asked to do some very
055challenging things and it is so amazing to see I uh I'm a former Spanish teacher as we've talked about in grammar is kind of my jam and um I was in a second grade classroom the other day and they were talking about collective nouns and some adults don't know what collective nouns are and it was it was amazing to see and so that's just one example of our kids are being asked to do hard things that are on grade level we are moving in a positive a positive direction what would we expect to see in the next two years in terms of I know we've got some more curriculum that's being um updated if the community were say okay what's what's next for the district um can you share a little bit about some things
056that are already happening um that parents and families might begin to see yeah so we are um in the middle of a math audit and we'll have that information uh in March for the for the board and the community uh but we'll be making some adjustments in math instruction and math curriculum as a result of that um social studies is moving through the pipeline as well and um I'm really excited to come back in the spring with an update on our stem for all there's some amazing things that are happening um with our design team right now on how we're going to connect the dats to our different curriculum areas that are already in play and how we are continuing to stretch students Minds um around the design thinking process and critical thinking skills but
057what you noticed what she did not say is well here's a a data point or here's the points that we're going to increase that can't be shared because those conversations have to happen at each of the the the buildings that we have children in and so it's incumbent on a parent to go to their their the principles are are are responsible for providing updates to the school growth plan how many times a year three times per year three times a year um so they've already provided one the second one's coming up in January February and then there's one in the spring if if if that conversation isn't happening around what's the growth on the school growth plan um our job is to provide resources our job is to uh make sure that there are structures
058and systems in place our job is to make sure that we're supporting the hardworking staff members and make sure that they're compensated for the hard work that they're doing I think we have done that and we will continue to do it but each school is unique and and different and it would be negligent if we just said well we're just here's a a point total every school is going to travel their own journey and that's the beauty of the school growth plans we strongly encourage not only parents but staff members to make sure that they're working with their building principle to make sure that that school grow plan is a true blueprint for growth and and and student outcomes that that is where the work happens our job is to make sure that they have
059the resources and I guess the last thing I would say is you deserve a lot of credit as a board excuse me because we if we have worked with and I I try to be very open with our faculty and our principles and I share with them that if they believe they they need more resources don't hesitate to tell me and you've made it very comfortable for me to ask you for resources now Mr eer is going to he's G he's gonna say watch it but I you've also made it very comfortable for me to make sure that if a a school community of teachers and a principal have said we need this um that we do come and talk to you I can tell you right now that our principls are saying we're staffed
060we we have the resources we now it's just a matter of what's happening in those buildings on a day-to-day basis and we're here to support them and we're here to hear we're we're going to be good listeners if there's a need for more resources under um obviously um strict Financial considerations but um we believe that the team has put a structure in place now it's a matter of us just staying consistent with the program yes Dr Worley Mr yeah thanks for the um the information the data the overview um very helpful very easy to understand I guess I just ask um as you look at this and see where this District as a whole um and when you do look at schools um Within the district as a whole are there ideas that you're noticing
061or things you're noticing about our Target group um our Target groups that you see uh either as really positive or a place that you have has maybe reset your um goals for the rest of the year or in the coming years one of the things I can say about our Target groups is when we started breaking down our students that are in our Target group for this upcoming year they give us a Target group to start looking at and say these are the kids that may not be proficient if not if support not is not given um when we compared um some of the schools to the students who are receiving intervention and or are being monitored in a tier two they were the same students that we were seeing in our Target group so
062we know that our systems and structures of SST are capturing the kids does that mean every kid we still have some comparison to do but when we pulled those groups originally what myself and Miss fot were seeing was the same kids that were in the Target group were also kids that were being caught in the SST convers ations to triangulate the data so that speaks to the systems and structures that we have in place more strongly even this year than we did last year but being able to compare that and say the kids that DPI is identifying are also kids that we're catching in our process um throughout our three Cycles throughout the year that's great news are there particular just now seeing this are there any goals that are being adjusted or just staying
063on track with what you all are doing the the Swift impact will be at the classroom level and at the building level and so our goal is to just stay consistent as Dr means has said with the implementation plans that we have for uh the different curriculum and the professional learning surrounding that and any adjustments that need to happen at this juncture really is in studying the data that our principles are monitoring for their school growth plans thank you for educating me tonight I did not know what a collective noun was but I did know that a group of owls is called a parliament and a group of fets is called a business so that's fun fun stuff those are all collective nouns yes there they are collective nouns and if you Google you can
064find collective nouns for animals and that would be a fun way to teach what collective nouns are even for 68 year olds so um my only comment is I am surprised to hear from our my co- Board member Miss hmer Rolland of low attendance at open house and you know back in my day open house is where you met the teachers and you established a personal relationship or you know a a onet toone human relationship with a teacher you knew their face you knew how what their voice sounded like so when the phone rang and somebody call called you about your kid in school you knew that it was the teacher's voice and but you also knew who to call right and so I mean I benefit from the blessings of websites the school district
065website and website for anything you want to see like water Collective nons for animals but but um and the the social media groups but those things folks as we see are no substitute for going there as as human beings and meeting with human beings and so maybe that has something to do with this that if we can get parents to come to the open house in person as if there was something we can do with our communications director to promote that maybe that helps I mean I don't know i' I I really am surprised it's like well I guess when I think about it it makes sense because I could think I can find everything I want on the website or from my parent group you know my bunch of parent friends and my social
066Media wosa Group and it's not the same yeah so thank you any final comments questions from the board students anything thank you all very much I look forward to our conversation February y uh next is strategic goal five culture and Community Action to appoint an expulsion hearing panel and Alternate alternative board member for the second semester of the 2425 school year uh this is the third semester that we have uh utilized a uh a hearing panel of the board so of the full board for expulsions uh wanted to check in with board colleagues to find out who has capacity um over the course of spring semester this will carry us through uh through summer until an appointment it'll actually probably the new board will probably need to appoint following elections uh in late April um
067so wanted to check in and looking for three volunteers and I will raise my hand for one of the spots to serve on the panel so I could be voted down on that but um we volunteer for what so we'll leave it two others and then alternate um just a point of clarity or maybe a question it might be helpful I would just not want us to be found in a spot where the election happens and if someone may not or may not know if they're rerunning it may be wise to make the three standing members that will be second semester ones that we know are not up for election must we end this term in April true I just still don't think there' be a window of time depending on how fast expulsion may
068need to happen we never know when I'm just saying Mak sense but one person could be sure you could go with three and four as that would be Dr Worley Mr Morris Mr opinion um can you read this one it is recommended that the school board appoint an expulsion hearing panel of um Mr Morris Miss himer Roland Dr Worley and an alternative board member uh Dr Joseph anger for the second semester of the 2024 2025 school year and I sub a second second thank you any board discuss on second see no call Mr moris yes Dr H yes Mr wer yes Dr Worley yes M hmer Rolland yes Mr me yes Dr Joseph fers yes congratulations and thank you to all the board members serving that well um we now have several second readings and
069our action to approve policies um first uh I'll have Mr mors read it is recommended the school board approve policy 2221 special observance St and I so me have a second second thank you dry uh anything from the policy committee on this one so again looking off the notes that you have in I'm just using up time so I can get back up to 22 to um 2221 special observance days uh you um we had a discussion on 10:28 a policy committee then on 1111 a board member asked to at indigenous people's day and a Community member around the same time requests the following additions as well Jewish American heritage month and Holocaust Remembrance Day um so when we met at 11:25 24 um the policy committee uh decided to add all three of those
070to that table of green um below these are not the ones above just reminder what the state law requires to table green is tosa or TOA own um list uh and so we are bringing it back to you um with these changes um either as a second reading Andor as an action to approve more questions or comments seeing n I'll call the role Mr moris yes Dr Hoy yes Mr wer yes Dr Worley yes hmer roll yes Mr Meer yes Dr Joseph anger is a yes and that item passes uh second reading and our action to approve uh the next policy 2230 articulated curriculum it is recommended the school board approve policy 2230 articulated curriculum and ISO move may have a second second to Mr Morris uh any comments from the policy committee on this
071item so at um the board did not make any requested changes at 11-11 but when we brought it back to policy um we had uh some public comment um oh we had two things we had Dr Marvel suggesting the change the title articula curriculum um to curriculum course guide because we want to be really clear that um uh throughout the document reference a curriculum course guide was changed to articul curriculum want be clear about what this is that people are looking at um and what function it is and then we had Community comment as well um about the uh Community member who um has experienced that it's difficult for special education students um and families in particular to know which courses that are specifically open to them um that they can access and so they're
072finding in their um group group there committee that meets that a lot of parents don't know about this um and so the idea is to go ahead um that's that kind of change or making it more clear is more of an administrative um process and so um we talked about that we uh saw that we should go ahead with the policy um and bring it to the second reading but that there would be um a communication between Dr Marvel and the special education director um to make clear to families and get the communication clearer did I get that any for discussion or questions seeing none I just I have sorry um can you Dr marble tell us why you wanted to call it the articulated curriculum versus a course guide yeah uh the state statute
073around this isn't necessarily the course guides that you all approve every year it really is the articulated curriculum what Should students know and be able to do as a result of taking this class that's not the intent necessarily of the course guides but they articulated curriculum and so um earlier when I mentioned um the add of glances the communication that should be going home to families that is the articulated curriculum and so moving forward as we bring other curriculums to be approved we will be bringing forward the articulated curriculum in conjunction with any of the resources that we would need to um make that articulated curriculum come to life thank you see no other questions and comments I'll call the rooll Mr moris yes Dr po yes Mr wat yes Dr rley yes m hmer
074r yes Mr Meer yes Dr chess Banker is a yes and that item passes uh the next is is it is recommended the school board approve sorry uh second reading action to approve policy 2270 legi the curriculum it is recommended that the school board approve policy 2270 religion and the curriculum n ISO move next s second Mr Mar um El anybody sure so again the board did not ask for any changes but when we did our second review of that as we always do at policy committee um we had Community comment requesting that the word may um be changed to shall and that's um the the idea of having a course that covers religion um the policy committee um and administration uh had a a good and Lively conversation about that um and came to
075the conclusion that we would prefer to keep the word may um but so this could have gone on the consent agenda but we wanted you to be informed um about that conversation so we put it on this agenda we didn't make um further changes um and but we wanted to bring it as a second read that you all would have in case you have any comments or questions about that um this is we we did a little the we were helped with um uh the niola um guide and Dr means we were able to say this this is how it's been this isn't new terminology um May is the language that has been used um throughout and um frankly we all felt that it was the more flexible language and we also reflected on um
076that it's not a single course but there are many courses that are teaching our students about this right now in the curriculum and we felt that was possible um because of that word uh was more flexible so that we just put that out there since there was this Lively conversation we thought it was good to bring it back as a second read question question then so just to repeat so it's clear we're confident that there's um teaching of differing religious philosophies not as religion but as how people think around the world and that we do cover that in different areas and that to have a course that was specifically stated to that as a shell or whatever I mean we just don't want to there could be a course this doesn't oppose having a course
077but we we don't have one specifically right now we could have one um the conversation was also about when you have a course you have to have enough people to take it yeah and then Staffing for it but I will mention um I brought up I have a child in AP hug which all of our students have to take and there is a project that we just that was just finished we're just discussing it that does go to look at religions of the world so I know that's at least one place so there's not really a substantive problem to solve so why legislate a solution for something that's not a problem right I mean yeah yeah I mean that the May is actually or shell is is a narrower because it pushes towards a singular
078course right um whereas a May makes it possible to have a singular course and um should there be space interest and um the process but right now it is elsewhere in the curriculum made a little brainstorming on that so okay so we're not opposed to teaching what you know the the D Ching or Fus or anybody else had to say in fact we we might actually do that I don't know but there's not a a red tape involved in making it happen no what we don't have that districts have is there's a few districts that may have a specific course um we this policy does not prevent that we don't have that course right now okay I agree thank you I may also just add that there are State Statute requirements of different um things
079about religion that do need to um that do need to be taught for example um the Holocaust and other genocides so that in our social studies curriculum that is part of some of the things that we are revising and reviewing to make sure that that is part of the curriculum so um that does tie into religion thank you all for the explanation and for bringing this forward to the board in this m uh I will be calling enrollment Mr Morris yes Dr H yes Mr wattier yes Dr Worley yes M hmer Rolland yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Joseph angery yes and not item passes uh we also have several first readings of policies and I will turn over uh facilitating through that process to Mr Morris I 2420 and goes 2420 okay all right 2420
080education for deployment and so basically have the committee uh meeting on 11:25 uh this is statutory uh Board of Education uh from last year and so we've added this on here for our first reading question we move on to 2421 work experience for students uh same difference as of the last committee meeting on there this is a district specific policy updated uh that hasn't been updated since 2009 and we were adding this uh with this update here uh as first reading here District it's District specific yeah for 4 2.01 students is trainees uh this one here's policy committee notes were referred to related to the administrative guidelines of 24 2.01 protecting students from being taken advantage of basically so we're adding that to making sure that everybody's aware of that labor standards act so both
081these cases we're making sure with these two policies that um that our policies are protecting this the students um but allowing the training to happen moving forward at 24:30 District sponsored clubs and activities for our most recent committee meeting on here this is just updating the 2023 standards and Dr means added the suggestion obvious say to add a designate after superintendent so it doesn't just always fall on just superintendent language to 24 30.01 special programs by community volunteers uh this one uh you know just the 30 days prior to the plan starting date of any suggest activity on to 2440 summer summer or intern session interim session School uh basically on their from our last policy committee meeting the interm 450 40 oh we 4 or 50 May 44440 yes 2440 summer or interim session
082School uh committee notes on here were where the interim is used based on the state statute and this policy this updated policy replaces the current policy 2440 next up is 2450 community and adult education per the policy committee on 11:25 it was discussed that the policy committee should refer to fund 80 to provide transparency to the community and add crost reference language to policy 6236 uh Bally in there that 6236 Community Services fund fund 80 will need to be updated to cross reference policy 2415 it's read that for the first read moving on to 2510 the adoption of textbooks and primary curricular resources uh after the committee meeting the language in green is District specific uh per Dr mean's recommendation there we discuss changing the word textbook because I State it's 2024 we G use
083textbooks Dr Zim Mike it's a new time here lots of different all kinds right and so we basically said we should update these things here so the statute uses the word textbook so it should remain in the title but the title will be changed to an adoption of textbooks and also primary curricular resources mov be on to I this is an incredibly minor point but I saw so the second um paragraph it says shall not discriminate the textbook shall not discriminate on the basis of sex including transgender status and then that's like scratched out should just say gender status change of sex or gender identity isn't aren't those all like sort of redundant can we just say gender identity yes to make it Mr P I would agree with your point that's more inclusive ter
084I certainly am not a professional but are we sure that those are enough words I I that the community involved is very careful with their use of words I I know we're all wanting the same thing I'm not I'm not questioning anybody's intent I I'm just kind of Mr P would be lead expert I we can take it back right we can take it back to committee I would say the when we're talking about the terms in parenthesis only that gender identity does encompass all three of those terms right I know we're all we're all just trying to be really careful somebody disagrees has a some more inclusive language that we should use I certainly be open to yeah or even if we pass it and if we find out later we can amend it
085just everybody let us know right what it's supposed to be yeah we all want the same thing I'm just trying to help okay thanks so as a sociologist I would say sex and gender are not interchangeable in the same thing so typically that's why you'll see both listed um so that maybe we just need to have some discussion at my age more than identity at at my age I've had more opportunities to get in trouble and say things the wrong way so I'm kind of you know even with something that used to be okay is not okay and I respect that that's why I just want to be really careful we all do right thanks down and check the L come outs on 2510 moving forward to 2521 selection of instructional materials and Equipment supplemental
086curricular resources and so this policy is new TOA and the community discussed changing the title to selection of instructional materials and equipment and supplemental curricular resources see this one has the same language in Theo fifth paragraph down whatever we land on let's just be consistent to 2522 library media centers [Music] ubrary it brings it brings the whole bunch of policies together so it's a more comprehensive policy than what we have now true it should be proed to you this it's comprehensive the um what you see uh in green throughout will be making sure that it has the language that we use moving on to 2531 copyrighted works yeah basically just new formatting on this one nothing new other than the formatting moving on to 2605 Academic Program accountability and evaluation uh this is the district
087specific policy and the Nea template languages removed our own specific language for TOA 2623 student assessment of this policy was updated according to the state statute no other additional changes last marrow was 2700 annual district report uh this one was uh sending a duplicative of bylaw 01 74.1 back from our original 1024 or 1028 uh policy committee moveed forward no further changes and then our last one we were just adding it back to the consent agender for this meeting I'm do one is it on for tonight it's supposed to be oh it is yes I missed one spoke too soon 27001 school performance and state accountability report cards updated for DPI regulation right good night for that one report timing we wanted to make sure we got that on tonight last so um several of
088those will come back on the consent agenda if there was no changes made otherwise they'll come back only two that looks like we'll have further discussion on two that we identifi thank you all very much for I know you're getting close well then we get to start on plus something changed that's right stars all over policy like a year um we will now move into board governance uh we have a couple action items here uh high level for the board uh we're making some adjustments to committee responsibilities uh as well as we are looking first uh for a delegate uh the delegate will attend the need to attend the state school board convention that happens uh I think third week of June third January yes sir uh and you will having served on this I
089can share a little bit about it you basically go and sit with uh representatives from many uh school districts across the state to review and give feedback on wasby the Wisconsin Association of school boards um policy booklet that policy booklet guides what they are going to advocate for uh representing School boards across Wisconsin so our normal course of operations for this would uh we get that policy booklet uh we would have an opportunity as a board uh and in service uh The District administration uh would have a chance to look at it we would share anything with the delegate uh we do not have to have a delegate but it that's we we more often than not have my to the is on Wednesday January 22nd from 1:30 to 3:30 so again Wednesday January 22nd
090from 1:30 to 3:30 it tends to go over so if you plan to go um it's likely that you won't get out at 3:30 probably poster to plan from a 1 to four time frame available interest in attending and serving as our development nobody really not available so I I bailed on the finance committee thank you Jason but if no one has time while I'm looking at my calendar I could if we want someone there I think we do there's a resolution um being offered by a school board um to take a stand on trans gender student athletes in the state which is in conflict with the WIA um stance on transgender students already um student athletes already and and so I think it's it's being brought to the delegate floor for school boards to
091weigh in on it and I think frankly and candidly there will be other school districts that will look to this school board to see where you take a stand I am available if it is the will of the board to send me that' be great because I have a conflict so I'll be picking I'll be picking up my kids from school and there's no way out of that that day so I appreciate you willing to be there and the the topic I'm somewhat familiar with it well we would have a conversation yeah what's the will of this board correct at that assembly I would also like like heavily support us enabling any of our student board members to asend attend the assembly that is a fascinating meeting where people you've been there people from all
092over the state are weighing in on different topics and you really understand the diversity of thought around our state about local small small you know small districts large districts rural you know to see that's just an incredibly educational afternoon to hear if you're a student you're interested in politics or government it's big deal to be there so okay um I Mr Myer um when it comes to looking at if students are able to attend that um I do want to point out that January 22nd is the start of finals week at least for East I'm not sure about but just like so now with finals week there are different schedules so like I don't know the schedule off the top of my head I usually do but I don't today um so there there may
093be a possibility and that may just be a look at and certain students may be available and certain may not but and I don't even know there it's a public the public allowed to attend okay so could we leave it flexible for them sure for somehow get the placeholder so they could at the last minute I mean for my opinion if you have to if you say you want to go and you change your mind the night before because something's happening with your finals you should be free to change your mind the night before and we'll just figure out the any cost issues or anything but if you can it certainly is a a one kind of a special kind of a thing to see is am I is true right it's to see all
094this my experience is a lot of it is super boring just like our policy discussion we had right it's like the the wheels of governance are not necessarily exciting um in many cases and then things will pop up and then certain things will pop up that are not of interest to some districts and are really of interest to others so that's I think when there's yeah different issues will pop up in different ways but if uh any of the students are interested in I I was there last year and I had I think I twice now so I'd be happy to share my my thoughts and um you could go for a bit and not stay for long thinger and I would say always prioritize your academic strict fund or ning if you're not because
095finals are exhaust um Mr wattier can you make the motion with Mr Myers name before the motion is made I I commit to representing the will of the board as stated to me in the in a Prep Prep preparation meeting whether I agree with that or not I will state the will of the board okay appreciate um it is recommended that the school board designate Mr Meyer as a school board delegate to the Wisconsin State education convention in January 2025 and I shall move may have second second thank you uh I will call the r Mr Morris yes Dr Hoy yes Mr wattier yes Dr merley yes M hmer Rolland yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Joseph Banger yes thank you Mr Meer for taking on that responsibility next his action to appoint Eric Jess anger
096to the legislative advocacy committee um Mr wattier again is going to be stepping off that committee U Mr Meers stepped off the finance committee and Mr wat here will be stepping on to the finance committee so thank you to uh those who are making some shifts uh Dr Worley it's recommended that the school board appoint Eric Jess anger to the legislative advocacy committee and ISO move have a second second I'll give that to Mr Morris uh any discussion I will call the rule Mr Morris yes Dr Hoy yes Mr wer yes Dr rley yes m R yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Joseph fer is say yes action to appoint Jason wattier to the finance and resource committee it is recommended the school board approve appoint Jason W here to the finance and resource committee and
097I so move may have a second second give that to Dr W I think she came yeah she was first um I will call the role oh may I comment please uh Jason I want to thank you for taking on this role um life circumstances for me have changed faster than I anticipated and I appreciate your stepping in to take this role and I I think your fresh eyes and background will be a very valuable contribution to the committee so I want to say thank you I look forward to the challenge F oh my good F I will call the role Mr Morris yes Dr H yes Mr wer yes yes Dr Worley yes M hmer Rolland yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Joseph Banger as a yes and you are appointed than you congratulations we
098will now adjourn into executive close session it is recommended that the school board adjourn into executive Clos session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 1 9.85 Pern 1 Pern C considering employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any Public Employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility specifically to discuss the superintendent's performance evaluation and ISO move I have a second second it is 7:42 p.m and I shall call the r Mr Morris yes Dr Ho yes Mr wattier yes Dr Worley yes M hmer yes Mr Meer yes Dr Joseph anger is a yes