WSD Board Meeting Regular, August 12, 2024

001good evening everyone I call the August 12th 2024 school board meeting to order it is 6:04 PM we are in conference room C of the Fisher Administration Building at 12121 West North Avenue Miss Summers please call the RO Mr Morris here Dr Ho here Dr Worley excused Miss hmer Rolland here Mr Meyer here Dr Jessa Banger here uh we do have porn this evening uh we will begin with recognition uh we have several students will be recognizing recognizing this evening for the a AP Capstone diploma uh for those who have received it uh the AP Capstone diploma is a really academically rigorous um achievement um I have a child who said about a year ago her single big goal that she had as a student and she's not there quite yet but as a rising

002senior was to pursue uh this program uh and so it is something that students think about that they have to take a lot of time and energy towards uh Dr means could I wonder if you or um Dr Marvel could share a little bit about the program uh and what it takes to be recognized tonight absolutely so um not only does it take uh dedication perseverance and um just a intrinsic motivation on all of our uh young scholars but they also need to complete um two specific classes AP seminar and AP research as well as earn um passing um passing test scores on four AP exams and so this is no small feat for our recognize U um for our students being recognized um this evening so congratul ations I will uh read uh the

003names of all of our students uh first at wosa East and then at waos tosa West who've achieved this uh major academic accomplishment um the first is Parker Bean Claire benthan Theodore Bach Connor Ferrell Vivien Fenson Aiden Hanley Alexander Howen Daniel Klo juwel Lee Mary pepinsky Olivia small meline stencil Steven Thomas and Megan Vince visty all from wosa east from wosa West Morgan bosan Brian Cook madalin D CL cler toson Vivian Koff Eve lazarski David Miller and Laura Norberg uh I suspect there may be some students here this evening with us I know a lot of students are no doubt uh busy doing all the things they do uh any students in the audience this evening who were able to join us I'm putting you on the spot so feel free to pass but if

004you'd like to come up and share your name and if you share one thing that you took away or a favorite course that you took uh in among all the AP courses that you had to uh pass and do really good work on uh we'd love to hear your thoughts sure go up sorry to the you can either go to the microphone or you can sit at the table Yeah if you can start by introducing yourself yeah so I'm Alex um I guess like one thing I really took away from um one of the courses that I did was um really just like the synthesis of perspectives and um how intensive like scholarly research is how to find like good sources and really um analyze where different perspectives on that issue are coming from when

005there is like a debate on a specific topic and how to really like um navigate that uh academic disagreement to come up with a Nuance position and argue that reason it um I mean this is just important in general because there's always going to be disagreement between like you your co-workers your boss um like politically everyone like disagrees all the time it's important we do that in like a respectful Manner and um just like seeing an academic perspective on that through AP seminar was um really enlightening to me what was your project um so for AP seminar we have like multiple um so there was like an individual research project and a presentation to go along with that um I did that on um is solitary confinement a like uh Humane practice and like should

006it be discontinued um and I um argued in favor of discontinuing it because um it's just like outdated um like it violates international law and some sections of the Constitution and um other things and then we had a group project and that was on um was between me and like three other people on the effects of disparities in health care um on our system and um like we just found a lot of interesting like racial disparities um like everyone took a different perspective so like someone would did it someone would do like an economic perspective one on like racial and then like Urban Rural and we found a lot of um interesting things that like um are not really covered in like General news um popular media that are really just on like these academic

007Sidelines that um are just like very important to know about um just like for good policy sense yeah thank you for sharing a little bit about kind of your journey through this process I know it is an incredible amount of course work and course load and the caps and seminar programs are also really independent kind of independently driven uh and so you do a lot of work in your own independent research so congratulations this is a major accomplishment we're really proud of your efforts and for those of all your classmates as well so congratulations um you are welcome to stay for the school board meeting this evening uh you're also welcome to find something else to do this beautiful evening but congratulations and thank you for effort well done thank you um we will now

008move into a time of public comment members of the Wawa tosa School Board value the input of students parents staff members and community members the boards regularly scheduled meetings provide an opportunity for opin Ops 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 their 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 intent of the public comment portion of the agenda for the board to enter into debate with a member or 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 do we have any public comment

009this evening in the seeing none Jamie do we have any public comment on yes we have one hand raised Jen Funk you have the microphone thank you um my name is Jennifer Funk and I am a teacher here in the wossa school district I'm a special education teacher at V Phillips and I'll be going into my fourth year full-time with the district um my comment tonight is about um the upcoming proposal for our benefits for employees for the district and the changes and premiums potentially being taken out of our paychecks um this coming school year um I understand that we have a deficit in our budget um however I would urge the school board to think about not putting that deficit on the backs of teachers um the costs could potentially negate many of our

010raises that we received and could potentially put many of us in precarious positions in paying our bills um myself for example I am also a parent of a student here in wossa I live in wossa and I teach in wossa so I'm very committed to this community however I'm a single parent and so um either the 10 or 15% that you'll be presented later for premiums being taken out our out of our checks could very much impact the bottom L of households not only for new Young teachers but also for single parent teachers um here in the district um some of the the veteran teachers who come into the district or are hired into the district at much higher pay um than myself may not feel the pinch as much or people with two income

011households may not feel that pinch as much um so I urge you to really really think about the impact on teachers and other employees as you consider the future benefits proposal for our district and its impact um that it could have on not only what we consider traditional households with two parents but also our single households here as teachers and community members in the district thank you thank you there are no more hands raised with that I will close uh public comment this evening we will now move into the consent agenda are there any items in the consent agenda which board members would like to remove for separate discussion and action seeing none it is recommended that the school board improve the consent agenda and ISO me may I have a second second thank you

012any more discussion seeing none please call the RO Mr Morris yes Dr hoik yes Dr wle Miss Hammer Rolland yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Jessa benger yes and the consent agenda passes this evening next up is action to approve the Washington Elementary boiler stack priority replacement uh I'm going to have uh Jenny this one and then we'll have uh I presume a bit of a overview and yes it is recommended that the school board approve the Washington Elementary boiler stack priority replacement and ISO move may have a second second um Mr please come on as Mr lealon is making his way up I think um we would just like to emphasize that when we discuss the issue of deferred maintenance at our schools and how issu emerge at any moment this is a prime example

013of such a situation um the timing has actually been beneficial to us that this is happening in the summer I can't and Kevin will go get into this in a second I can't imagine if this failure of significant proportions would have happened during the school year what it would look like for the children at Washington I think it just shows the the dire um position that our five existing elementary schools are in um and U we just want to make sure that this is emphasized to the board and community so Kevin thank you for being here this evening it's it's rare for us as we're I'll keep it's rare it's rare for us to utilize the emergency purchasing Clause of policy 6320 which is the U purchasing policy but we had to uh we're bringing

014this to you tonight for an action item this is very different typically we have a reading of an issue and then um you have two weeks to think about it and then you vote on it um we had to enact the emergency um claws of the purchasing policy so we could start this work immediately so Washington would be ready uh to to greet staff in about a week and a half and children in about two and a half weeks and even then it's going to be very close and so uh without further Ado I think Kevin is ready to go thank you good evening everybody uh I I don't know how much you had a chance to review the attachments but I'm going to try and bring up one of them here br is everybody

015kind of following along in your own you can see the T for the man perfect that's perfect thank you so one attachment that shows all the photos I'll just begin there um on July 9th uh June 9th when we were finishing up the Washington Elementary roofing project over the gymnasium uh the pre-approved project for that roof um we as part of our due diligence and inspecting all the Mechanicals up there thank you for your patience again want to get this so I can you it better uh we we went through all the Mechanicals suspected it all verified attachments to roof and and penetrations through roof and one item we uh did look at is this uh this double wall stack that was installed in 1979 it's probably close to 40 feet tall uh going out

016on the border room so you see the one section that's on above the roof uh itself that is the finished re Roofing of that Washington uh gymnasium um then it goes into the interior portion of that building that that gym is built out to and then from there goes down into the Border Room uh origin before the gym was built that there was a Chim a brick chimney um that had failed before that addition put was put on and the records we have indicate that this this uh double vent was installed in 1979 so in in that due diligence we pull off this uh this cap and curbing of that um of that stack and discovered as you can see in the next photo that's that curve being removed and that Galvan nice deck and

017it was to our shock that we found that now we talk about emergency situation and things failing this failed maybe several years ago we just didn't know it till we opened this up um further examination takes us into the classroom below it's actually I think it's a special ed classroom and an office um that drywall enclosure is what is separating uh the occupance of that room from that chimney um and as we just dug into it further that was the condition that we found that whole outer wall the outer jacket of that uh of that double stack had failed you can see on the bottom here uh some of the galvanized clamping that had failed that's all that's left of that outer jacket so the interior portion is the meat and potatoes of this venting

018there's a uh uh cementitious type liner inside and then metal wrapping around um and then the outer jacket was it's what what provides more protection and durability of the vent and it also gives you the fire rating you need to be in an interior space like that so now that outer jacket is is gone we discovered it's gone um another photo here and then the the area right here in the bottom is where we enter the Border Room and there you can see that that section that outer jacket by the diameter difference you can see the difference that's intact um couple more photos this outer metal layer is what's encasing that meat potato portion of that venting system and it's not in a good State either either um in the Boiler Room uh the boilers

019for a little background those are dating back to 1958 the boilers and the entire heating system and control system are in the decision analysis uh uh plan that was presented uh several times as a high priority item it is however approximately $1 A5 million dollar uh to get new borderers new controls all that and you can't just turn something like that around in a few weeks time uh CC both bers are are running up to a common they have their own flu Vents and then they meet to this common vent right here and then T in and this is the main part of that stack right here um and that's intact uh you can also see next to us this water heater which is also vented in I think originally this stack also by original

020design had an incinerator that vent to it um and perhaps a couple other devices in the bo room that are gone now so brings us to the analysis our mechanical contractor Mar mechanical they were uh on the whole Roofing job from the begin from the beginning of the job to the end they provided the analysis and the investigation of this in the other attachment is a letter from one of their Professional Engineers with his assessment of what he found um and the recommendation to not continue to use it essentially he did give some options on you know the scenario that we that the district faces where if a referend went pass and this system gets replaced next summer or in the next 18 to 24 months um you would not need this anymore however you

021can't replace a boiler uh that quick so the the difficult scenario is that it has to be replaced uh we have a professional engineer mechanical contractor um insisting in their own opinion own professional opinion that now that it's been discovered you can no longer use it in that in that situation and I think that's very obvious to everybody in this room um so the other attachment is I immediately engaged another mechanical contractor to get a comparison price and they came in around the same cost as mered mechanical thinking ahead that we had we're running out of time this summer and that the replacement stack which is shipping out of Kansas next week uh may be here the week of 20 August 22nd and 23rd is shipping out is expected to be here August 26 so

022at the last moment we will be installing this new stack realizing that quick turnaround and all the coordination involved uh engage deer construction uh to work with maror mechanical and they will be running the entire job and coordinating and making all things happen in a rapid manner um so so far we're on target for tomorrow the old stack will be removed in preparation for the new one to be installed um hopefully in the 26 and it's a very significant uh project in that a large crane will have to be set up on that playground we'll likely have to vacate the entire gym while the crane lift is going on both during the removal and the assembly and then there'll be some interior remodeling work that'll have to occur as well so that's kind of how

023we started back in June and rapidly got to where we are right now um and why we're talking about it today I can elaborate on other things more if you have any more questions Mr pountain prior to opening that cap on the on the top of the roof was there any prior repairs done between obviously 1979 and to where it's in's current state where there's clearly water and infiltration for bobbly ice and snow and rain I have no records of that I couldn't find anything so I ask only I'm curious if there because that cap FW the rubber roof and the ballast of the stone on top looks fairly new so we're in the last 10 to 12 years well the uh if I didn't state it earlier um right in that picture there correct

024this this is a picture of after the roping project so we had put we had done the investigation pulled that old one off put this old galvanized piece back on and that is you're right correct it looks intact the rest of the roof yeah that was not the condition of the roof before we started the project gotta yeah so I understand why you had that question just curious making sure that if we had any opportunities for segregation for any prior work or prior contractors or work that have been done if this was not in a position where it was left fully intact that allowed water to infiltrate or snow R to infiltrate in there prematurely correct I think it might just be a case of it's well beyond useful life okay yeah but that is

025not the [Music] case did I hear you say the boilers from 1958 correct so that's the second probably the second round of boilers for that building okay and then this particular stack or whatever you call the tuing whatever is from 1979 correct uh there I have I did find some documents in the archives I actually have the original as builts on this stack and there's some notes that the old chimney the old brick chimney that you would probably associate to an old building like that was falling apart and in 79 this one was put in we know the boiler's been on your radar as concerning this stack obviously didn't you didn't know what was happening inside until you happened upon it sort of right what is the average like lifespan of a boiler stack like

026this you know ashray the association uh feeding Refrigeration air conditioning Engineers I'm a part I belong to that organization they have a chart that describes useful life for various types of mechanical equipment my understanding is something to this uh level of use would be about 25 to 30 years or well beyond that I mean one of my big questions is when this came up was like would this have been different would our pricing have been different would something have been different if we would have had ongoing maintenance and this weren't like an emergent crisis that we found ourselves in you know we've all been in positions where you're like calling that plumber at the 11th hour and that costs you a lot more because you're you're calling you know so late in the game I

027mean you mentioned that like if we get the referendum passed and we get the new boiler we're we're essentially like we have to replace this for the hundred something thousand which we're going to sort of to survive yeah and then we're going to you know potentially a new yeah so a new a new high efficiency border system would not utilize a stack like this um I would many of our buildings that have had the new stuff since the referendum passed have uh condensing borderers in that don't they don't have the heat output that this one does so you vent those in a totally different manner a new border system would not be able to utilize this stack so um it literally is going to be not be necessary if the ref bandaid uh yeah is

028it's actually a great permanent fix let alone you have old boilers but the stack would be great it just can't be used if you replace the bers yeah yeah um and then just like last question so how many things like this do you think are hiding in our buildings I don't know I think we're all educated about the condition of the facilities enough in this room we can all imagine there are things we're not aware of that are out there lurking I just if I knew I would attack them of course of course I it just scares me because these are big things that could come up over and over again and we're talking about reducing our fund balance and today we're making some decisions about you know more money to spend and do we

029how much do we need to put in work fund balance so it's all connects I I think it you know displays the urgency of the referendum passing yeah I think one of the big pieces there and you hit right on it Jenny is that we're talking 45 years when this went up and think about where we live old houses you open up a wall you find something new old Plumbing old this old that it costs more no matter what period you're doing and so these are repairs that have to be done but in order to replace the system to Mr fountain's point where you're you got to start over it's going from knob and tube to whatever the current is to what whatever the current new electrical or new Plumbing all that stuff that comes

030with it and that's not to mention when we get into building codes and I'm assuming we'll run into other things with the boilers and this even we talk about you know PR prior to 1979 asbest and other things when it comes to hazardous materials and you know waste and thebr removal all that stuff that comes into these things with old building problems we're going to open up walls it's a can of worms that I've got a 1906 home I dread putting a hole in any wall and finding out what's behind it for this exact same reason so to your point there yes it it does hurt when you look at I've got $120,000 repair that repair is going to be great it's only last long until we have to replace it right but you'll be

031safe as relatively safe as you can be for what you know what the known Hazard that's out there and I I would like to state to we haven't begun the project um most projects like this would have a contingency fund I don't know what what the unexpected things are we're going to find as this comes out so that 119 in that proposal is not final I I would not be surprised if we find things I I do know that we did notice in the bther room when we had more work being done this horizontal um vent that connects to the boilers we did find right where the insulation ends right here you can actually see some corrosion and see holes into the V U why we have not had a CO issue carbon monoxide issue

032yet I don't know um but just more of a symptom of uh it being passed into his full life Mr Meer two things I would suggest for the finance committee um first is what you just mentioned CO detectors like discuss with us do we have them see a plug in one in the Border Room but I don't know that it ever went off and it may not be effective for that type of space either I I understand um but I mean should we have them in all of our rooms for example or if we know a room is beside a a vent stack maybe there should be some I mean things are cheap these days I um the newer buildings the newer buildings do have them uh quite extensively yeah I um have um I

033won't name the product but I have water sensors key spots all over my house and um lo and behold a a pinhole flaw and a fting for my hot water heat pump blew out when I was in Illinois and I had hot water and steam blowing into my basement and I didn't know it and if I wouldn't have had that little $25 sensor and the $100 B you know I'm sure it would cost more for us but you know I'm it's your line of work those things can be very cheap and very helpful if things go wrong the other question I have is um our Disaster Recovery planning do we have a plan for what we do if we have to close one of our elementary buildings and move classes somewhere else the smile I

034thinking we don't and no actually we do part of the presentation next board meeting with our safety plan okay so if you remember the board through your your vision uh gave us the ability to have a safety audit completed part of that is emergency contingency PL okay so that's very good news and so we we kind of have a framework for what what we'll do if this isn't done in the time period stated or something is uncovered that's a bigger deal and now we have to educate kids comef fall and we have to put them in other buildings I think we were very lucky with this one yeah I think the timing was it still makes us nervous that it happened in August but um I think it still worked I think the question from

035Dr Hoy is the question which is so I I'll address your question with another question for for Kevin what's the likelihood that there are unknowns in our buildings that are considered the existing buildings the the two middle schools the two high schools the five vintage elementary schools what's the likelihood that there are unknowns like this um at all of those buildings I think that's what you were asking not not not not asking you to try to pinpoint what they are but what's the likelihood that there are unknowns that we are just not aware of I guess I'd answer the question by just stating a fact when you use something Beyond useful life you assume a higher risk of [Music] operation a higher likelihood that something will go wrong to to that point from the insurance

036side you know my day-to-day job when we look at risk like that and we go to underwriting and look at things like that you have you know when you talk about functional life 30 years that risk when they talk about going up it goes up not 1% per year year over it's 5% and then the next five years it's another 15% so it increases so when you talk about trying to put a label on is it a 70% likelihood if we're 45 years past now and it's 30 years we're at 15 years over that 15 years is a theoretical because of a changes based on where we live our climate how cold the winters are how hot the summers are how old the building envelope is so we very well be at 85 Plus perc

037and have been there for some time we won't know until we open things up and get into those things we got into the new elementary schools there were plans to make things new so they were going to address all those things because there was something new going on when we go to make repairs and we say it in Insurance all the time we don't know what the final is until we open it up and find out what else is there what's hidden between what's hidden beneath you know when they take that stack off where it meets the what part that looks like it's still in good condition making sure that it doesn't C or create any new issues for something that might change in the construction process with our existing boiler we want to make

038sure that when we have Mar mechanical whoever it is looking at these things they're assessing it have they have that expertise but that's a very hard one it's it's a hard one when we get into Old buildings because most of our country a lot of the buildings are past their functional life and when we get into things like this in school structures which is one of my businesses big businesses with Schoolboard administrations and their uh property in The Bu the building envelope we see it all the time and do means we are self-insured so it's not like we can go and say well we had this inspection done we found this we're not kicking it off to anybody else it says with us um I fully understand the work that needs to be done and

039appreciate the thoroughness of this um one of the things I'm sitting with is so I know we're at a $199,000 budget allocation out of this at this point there may be more um grateful that we're looking at everything that may need to be done to make sure the building is safe for uh staff and students throughout the year um is this would this then come out of fund balance um believe it's coming out of fund 41 cor okay the capital so we we had a $585,000 uh balance for unforeseen things here we are okay question um are we self-insured for this kind of thing we weren't in the past for we were insured for some things I thought health insurance but I I believe we have we self health insurance insurance we do have some

040kind of some kind of insurance and your line of work you know there's going to be all different kind of insurance but we do have some insurance I can't specifically speak to what it is and I do know we had quite a good rate once upon a time and then we had a lot of things go wrong and um maybe that rate went up you know so which would be business okay thanks you run our property liability book P button okay uh property liability workers comp is all through uh outside agencies all right okay so the project does not typically on the property side the ongoing existing seage leakage long-term damage is simply not covered on there if something a result of a sudden accidental something occurred something impacted that stack on the roof and

041caused subsequent damage then they're typically would be but when you look at this and they open up the wall that's the first thing Insurance compan open up and look inside yeah this occurred over time and and it's um it wasn't it just a sudden thing that you could say is attributed to weather or something is the poster CH for defer yes correct and I don't know if you saw the notes in their Jenny inside that proposal there it does bring up some of those pieces there what the proposal uh does not assume you know assumes no exterior improvements you know no new carpet squares and the L we talk about there no abatement so those are things that could arise correct we did there was no there was no damage here it just wore out

042now if it had nothing nothing happened because of its failure it's just that we we discovered something that had been there for quite a while so we don't have warranty coverage on our buildings so this right no cover for this at all it's just a matter of you can't put that back together and ignore it yeah so we're hoping all all goes well in the uh expected shipping dates and delivery and weather's good and we're it's the hard work's over before the first day of school anyways uh a request for the board in terms of communication if you can keep us updated I know Dr mean sends out uh weekly kind of weekly or bi-weekly U board updates that would be great to have kind of things are on target or here's some additional things

043that we found would be would be beneficial to keep us thank you um any other board questions in this side I'd like to add just one more thing if we have the opportunity to inquire from our insurance company on the property side if there is not not that there's any claim to be filed or anything like that but if there's any coverage or anything uh endorsed on there for mechanical break down or hidden rot or uh deterioration sometimes there are coverages in a commercial policy that does have coverage there so in the event that we do I so yes we'll look into at least pursuing it seeing it so we can file a claim um no no harm filing a claim and see what happens who's call the r Mr Morris yes Dr Hoy yes

044Dr Earley Miss Hammer Rolland yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Jess Banger yes and that item passes thank you all for your work um thank you movingly on that next up strategic goal four high quality staff uh this is Far and Away my middle schooler's uh most uh well uh point this evening uh action to approve the 2024 26 administrative contract for uh Miss Monique Porter as principal of Longfellow Middle School effective August 19th 2024 for 229 days per year at an annual salary of $115,000 work days and salary pro rated based on star date um Mr it is recommended that the school board approve the 2024 26 administrative contract from unique Porter as principal of Longfellow Middle School effective August 19th 2024 for 229 days per year at an annual salary of $115,000 work days

045and salary per rated based on start date and ISO move we have a second second thank you m ask uh good evening um I am very pleased uh to make the recommendation uh from the administrative team related to U Miss Porter's employment as an ex principal Long Middle School um as you are familiar with our administrative selection process um is comprehensive and involves many stakeholders uh we were fortunate to have um teams from both staff members um at Longfellow as well as families uh they were some of the most engaged teams I've had the pleasure of working with and we also included um some administrators on both of those teams um uh in the first round um we then reviewed uh the results of the feedback from the two teams and brought um two candidates

046forward for interviews and unanimously um Miss Porter um uh rose out of that process as the recommendation this evening questions or comments from my the board Miss Summers Miss color Mr Morris yes Dr Hy yes Dr willly Miss Tammer Rolland yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Jessa Banker yes congratulations and a big thank you to all the folks who in the midst of Summer did a lot of work spent a lot time making sure we had a great principal Long Fellow thank you absolutely Miss Porter regrets that she's not able to be here this evening she is very excited about getting started and we'll join us her first day uh for next Monday thank you uh the next item under this uh topic is the W chosa School District employee health insurance plan for the 2020

04724 25 uh window of time yes pardon me for just a moment as I go ahead and um bring up that presentation uh as was foreshadowed um by our public comment this evening um we have a very significant proposal related to our employee health insurance benefit um and and overall employee benefits in muosa um as you've heard us discuss um since um June uh and then dating back to last year we've experienced some changing Trends with our employee health insurance in particular um I spent the month of July um hosting um many meetings and inviting staff members to participate and learn about the changes we were experiencing um and what our options were to go ahead and address them uh you approved the first portion of our um of our plan to go ahead and

048address um the uh the change in Trend um with the new provider for a pharmacy benefit manager in July uh and that transition is currently underway um while our health insurance may be giving us some challenges um our other employee benefits are actually doing quite well um our life insurance our short and long-term disability and vision plans are all in rate guarantees um and and no increases for next year um later on this evening in one of the next agenda items we'll be talking about a change relative to our dental insurance um but not because um that plan is running um poorly but because we we have an opportunity for some savings there so it is important to note that health insurance while it is typically the most talked about benefit because it's the most

049significant and cost and significant to us as employees uh it is not the only benefit that we provide um you've seen this slide before uh it represents our last four years of health insurance Trend in the district you can see where in 2021 and 2022 we are maintaining at a level that did not warrant changes with the plan uh but then last year uh we had a significant change in our experience which increased costs um and then this year we were able to mediate some of those costs um but we are still running um from a from a claim standpoint in terms of doctor's visits and descriptions um higher than than we should be from a Health Plan standpoint which is necessitating these conversations um so when we look at where um uh where we're

050at right now um uh we are really uh dealing with um like three primary factors the first is we did not fully address the deficit with the health plan expenses last August um we've had more more employees on the health plan than before this past year and we're also experiencing just like every other provider uh employer and medical provider um inflation in terms of our medical costs and prescription costs so the idea that if we spent um $10 um on the the cost of a prescription um previously that has now gone up by 7.4% this the same thing that you got for $1 is now 107.4 per of that I also think it's important to note that as we dug into um the experience with employees on the plan while we have um increased um

051employees in the district with Asser funds and and as well as to maintain low class sizes the the 40 or 50 new employees on the health plan really appears to be more of a an effect of having a really good health plan and employees families left other health plans to come on pars over time um because the the significant change in that number of employees on the health plan was well beyond um what was related to our staffing changes from one year to the next so um one of our options um again as you previously proved is to go ahead and change our Pharmacy benefit manager we're currently in the process of switching over to National Cooperative CVS and our savings is estimated at 27% um over the next 3 years we realize a portion

052of that due to our plan year starting in October um and then the laging costs of prescriptions as well as rebates um another option that we have um is to go ahead and look at our deductibles um right now uh we've been fortunate enough to maintain A500 single and $3,000 family deductible for every qualified health plan with a high deductible that renewed after January 1 24 um they are required to increase the deductible to a minimum of 1,600 single and 3,200 family that's a change you would have to make regardless um and part of our proposal is to go ahead and and increase to that minimum requirement and also provide another option for staff members uh finally um one of the things that we had um that we have talked about in the past um

053is implementing employee cost sharing um we are the only private or public sector employer that is um known to our benefits Consultants that have maintained a 0% monthly premium contribution thus far um uh I think it is fair to say that every other employer has literally been in this position and had to make this decision previously um and we'll talk a little bit about what it means because we didn't so far um So based on the options that I'm we are recommending for your approval this evening the employee cost share would some be somewhere between 10 15% of that monthly premium the other change uh which is is already um under way is the fact that we have reduced the number of employees um that we have in the district which also should have a

054reduction in the employees on the health plan the two options that we're bringing forward for um your consideration and hopeful approval um are on this slide option A represents the health plan that would have a 15% employee month Premium cost share as well as the 1,600 3200 monthly or annual deductible you can see that under option a um that brings down our deficit uh by just under $2.9 million and leaves a deficit for us to uh to address in the future um of $1.1 million option b which has a savings of a little bit more than option a um includes a plan that has a 10% monthly and premium cost share um but um a $3,000 $6,000 um annual deductible so the deductible is a little bit higher um but employees wouldn't be paying in

055quite as much per month and we'll show a little bit about why why having those options would be important for employees um so again when you look at these um these two different plan options you can see that um that option A is the 15% cost share um per month with the deductible keeping in mind that the, 1600 3200 deductible is for tier one and tier 2 providers last year you remember the change that was approved by the board was to go to a a three- tier provider system tiers one TI two and out of network um you can see what the um what the deductibles are um and the outof pocket max are related to tier 2 and out-of-pocket providers and then you can also see for both options um A and B what

056those um monthly premium contributions are those are actually what what we've calculated to be um our cost as employees depending on which plan we chose and whether or not we needed a single or a family plan so let's look at how that um how that uh pans out um in comparison to others you know I think um sometimes when I'm hitting the Advance on this particular slideshow it is actually jumping multiple slides ahead there was one slide that I wanted to make sure that we touched on one of the questions that I've had um over you know as I've I had these multiple meetings with employees over the month of July one of the questions was why did you provide salary increases rather than you know rather than keeping our our insurance premiums at a

057low level um and um thanks to uh Mr eer and his um some of the um comparison tools we now have um you can see on the on the left side of this particular slide and shows um teacher salaries each each of those blue dots is a teacher in wossa compared to a number of other school districts like Elmbrook Franklin Greendale monomon Falls and New Berlin um and and so both of these slides show comparison with those districts on the left was our average teacher salaries in 2021 you see a black line uh running across the page and then you see a lighter gray line um that that starts out the same but then increases um beyond the black line over time this slide shows that average teacher salaries um we were maintaining with our

058peers until about nine years of experience when you look at that same comparison to average teacher salaries uh after this past school year um we are now competitive up to 20 years of experience so the 21% of um salary increases that the board approved um was necessary to bring our salary to the median for our comparators we are there now um but without that 21% increase over time uh we would still be struggling to go ahead and keep up with teacher salaries in the area uh again um so this uh this slide in particular um shows the breakdown of the plans um I would note that option b um also includes to um to reduce the the outof pocket cost of that 36,000 deductible this um that plan would include a district contribution to the

059employees health savings account of $500 for a single plan and $1,000 for a family plan so while the savings are noted at over $3.5 million some of that money we would reinvest back for employees to help again reduce that overall um much higher um deductible cost and I'm going to use the correct button now that doesn't skip two slides at once so this slide again showed the plan designs as well as the employee premium contributions I would also note that last year the board approved um a cash inl of health insurance option um and uh a very common question or a very common comment that I heard um throughout those employee meetings that I held in the month of July was that many many employees and their families are now really looking at that cash

060andl of insurance option because going with the alternative plan that they have access to with this cash and lo option um provides a better benefit a better option for their family than options A or B so I think again as we're as we are looking to one of our strategies to reduce the number of employees on the health plan having this cash andl of option provides that alternative rather than everyone just staying on our plan now we're going to go ahead and get a bit into the com the comparisons um you can see that um so this slide talks about the plan design value or the richness like what is the plan Worth to employees so in green at the top you see our current plan which has has a relative value When comparing the

061other plans of about 85% then you see in that Nexus ACO 1600 uh what option A would look like um and then um and then you see in terms of um uh what that looks like with the 15% employment contribution and then that last blue line is what the 36,000 plan with a 10% employee contribution would be would be so you can see that the plans that we're offering um uh would be themselves have about the same value from an employee standpoint when we compare then to our um average peer group of other employers with our number of employees you can see that the um average plan is has about an 80% value we don't compare quite as favorably to Wisconsin Public Schools uh they're about 88% but when you look then at other employers

062and the central Midwest you can see again that we compare very favor favorably not only with our current plan um but also um with um with the proposed plan changes that we'd be making when we look at employee payroll contributions um the language that I shared with employees is that the current plan right now is really incomparable there is no other Public School District or private employer that offers anything close to what we're off offering with a 0% premium contribution and you see then as a result that you know our zero monthly contribution plan doesn't even doesn't even show up on the on the comparisons we'll remain very competitive with um plan option A which is that Nexus ACO 1600 um and we be um more competitive from an employee cost standpoint with the higher

063deductible Health Plan again just looking at employee out-of pocket expenses when we look at total employee cost again uh total cost of Premium as well as deductible you can see that um you know we are incomparable with our current plan um and when you start looking then at what the um uh deductible and premium contributions would be with option A and option b you see that we will still be very comparable with option b option A is going to be a little bit a little bit more expensive just like we saw in that overall plan value um here now the reason for that is largely because when other employers public school districts were making changes with health plans a number of years ago we did not make changes and so as a result our premium

064is well beyond um what other what other public school and other employers have been able to maintain so we did not pass along expenses a couple of years ago which would have allowed us to curb the cost of the plan curb what that monthly premium equivalent was um and so now uh because we paid for such a rich plan over time you can't quite get that back um and so going forward it's a we are taking the right steps by starting to share those expenses with employees and starting to control the escalation of that monthly premium contribution does that make sense Dr Joseph anger you're giving me a curious expression I don't know the ins and outs of the escalations over time and why we would have been paying a higher premium than other districts

065who are cost sharing so the savings that you get um so the the discounts that employers get when they decide to cost share is more than just the actual cost of the of the cost share so when those plan design design changes take place they're actuaries who sit behind the scenes and say hey if we make this change so that employees will potentially change their behavior or change the how they go about getting Insurance that's going to have some overall savings cost savings to the plan and so because we didn't make those changes over time and uh we maintained again zero employee Premium cost share um that's why our plan escalated in cost a little bit higher than you would expect for plans that escalated more slowly because they had other cost savings and other

066plan design changes um that had more employees uh involved in that process and now that we are adjusting our possibly adjusting our our choices here will that smooth out our change over time going forward will we become more in line with what our peers in the school district Market are seeing um I can tell you that um making this change makes us comparable um we are well more in line with our peers um and we need to continue to be responsive to the experience that we're seeing on the plan with the cost of healthcare and the cost of prescriptions so we don't just need to make this change once we need to go ahead and continue making changes to keep us comparable is that helpful just so I understand so are you saying that our

067Premium cost went up the plan Premium cost went up was that because our staff the members of the plan were using it more not necessarily so we so our plan design was that um there was Zero 0% zero contributions that all of us as employees paid over time and we only paid up until our deductible and so and so other employers made changes so that there was more cost sharing with employees and that slowed the escalation of those premium equivalents because it slowed the cost of the plan so in again in looking at um at the changes that we're proposing um we have finally now brought salar um to a competitive Place compared with our other districts and now these changes while certainly not our first choice to pass on cost to employees these changes

068are consistent with what every other school district and practically for sure every other private employer sees these are now comparable so when we go ahead and and look at um what our um um what our public speaker shared our our um staff members shared when we look at these actual dollars and cents related to the premiums as well as you know what we've experienced for salary increases we see that um for a single plan um uh we have um determined that the um that the employees um monthly premium contribution on plan a so 15% comes out to be about $139 a month and just under $1,700 for the year if you add to that um the deductible um then you see that the total expense gross um for plan a if you're if you take

069single coverage would be just over $3,200 if you calculate in an estimated 30% cost or tax savings because the um the deductible can be taken out pre-tax and deposited to a health savings account which we offer for employees and the premium contributions are also taken out pre-tax you see that the estimated payroll deduction is about $1,000 or just under $1,000 less than that gross expense um then uh there's a line that indicates like what how much of an increase is that over the current year um and then I also included the average salary increase uh for teachers um the line on the bottom um demonstrates what the district is paying or what the district is currently paying and would potentially pay for each of these plan options going forward so you can see right now

070on the plan that we have um the district pays uh $10,000 a year for every person every employee who has a single plan um and you can see what that looks like then for options A and B the district is still maintaining the vast lineon share um of what these premium contributions are when we look at the same breakdown for family coverage again you can see um what that that increased monthly premium amount is across plans a andb um as well as what those increased deductibles look like um as well as then um the increase in um in expenses over the current year uh for employees on a family plan um and then you can still see that every family plan the district pays for will still cost the district um over $21,000 one of

071the things I mentioned that would be so important in terms of offering a dual Choice plan like we're proposing is that employees like our family who typically meet the deductible within about 6 weeks of the new plan 10 year I know we're going to have these expenses and so choosing to have them deducted out of my payroll helps me even out that cost a little bit whereas if if an employee or an employee with a family um they don't regularly meet their deductible um or they just have their prevented healthare per year they might want to go with the plan that that has that lower monthly premium contribution because they might not meet their deductible um and they might be able to save some of that money especially when you take into consideration that with

072Plan B the district is proposing to make some contribution into the employees health savings account on their behalf that is their money for them to choose um how to use that does do these the last two slides include that 500 or $1,000 say that's included in the um that's included in the increase it's so so the the net is included y y so for instance Liz on this particular slide where it says deductible in network it says $5,000 that would be six but minus the minus the HSA contribution so are we I'm sorry are we making the decision between plan A and B or the employee is making the decision oh the employee would be able to make the decision between plans a b and the cash andl of insurance sure thank you yep and

073so if we move forward with this particular plan um our open enrollment period uh would be between August 29th and September 12th um in at least my this might be the first active open enrollment period we've ever had for employees in wossa because they will have to elect either option a option b or cash in Le of insurance um we already have scheduled uh in anticipation um of open enrollment um a number of um uh open enrollment education sessions presentations for employees to come and learn more about the different options and what those decision-making criteria might be in terms of in terms of making that choice we're offering um and those will all be offered uh either virtual or hybrid um we are also offering another question and answer period right before the Open Enrollment

074deadline of September 12th uh that will take place on the 10th and would be in person um and just like we have in the past we would provide very comprehensive instructions via email also with employees have having the opportunity to contact my team and ask um questions both specific and general um based on their needs and if you remember correctly these options did not completely address the deficit um that we are currently looking at and so um between now and getting ready for our Plan Renewal um in August of 20 2025 um our benefits providers strategy overall um that um that we believe in um as a district is to promote prevention and early identification of health conditions we know that the sooner a health condition is diagnosed or even prevented the better outcome it

075will have for us as staff members and individuals and the lower cost the interventions will be in terms of medical care and prescriptions um in order to help build that into the plan we anticipate offering the lowest cost um uh health plans for the 2025 renewal to be if um if employees and their spouses if they're on the plan um see their Primary Care provider during the year and we can get verification of that so right out front we're telling our staff members hey we don't know what the plan design recommendation is going to look like but we know that you'll get the lowest possible cost if you have these preventive and regular routine visits um we'll provide the form for them to do that and again uh we would we guarantee that that will

076be the lowest cost going into the next year renewal we're also going to increase um the employee education um and benefits education that we'll be offering during the year we had a really great response to those benefits information sessions we had in July um and our health and wellness team is very interested in supporting more educational opportunities for employees to use to learn how to use their money uh more wisely and you can see some examples of that um and then we are committed to continuing to exploring employee health clinic options as well is that we just provide another layer of lowcost highquality healthcare for our staff so if for employees um between um now um and uh and forever with their health plan you know there are things we can do to go ahead

077and help use our money wisely U we are hosting a wellness Fair um at our Opening Day activities on the 27th at tosa West um we are um we are hosting the um the open enrollment information sessions um and the deadline for open enrollment is September 12th we'll provide that um primary care provider verification form we'll have the um different benefits um education opportunities and we'll continue to go ahead and make sure employees know what the lowest cost options are for healthc care not only in tier one but tiers two um and out of network as well my slides contain um items for our next agenda areas that deal with employee benefits so I'll go ahead and pause here um and see what other questions you might have um did you look at an uh

078option for like a single plus child plan I know some employers have that the person who called in hypothetically would have a decrease actually in total compensation as a family plan but is that something that you considered yeah so um so um school districts are a little bit um unique in terms of their benefits offering I I think we've established that wosa notwithstanding um but most school districts do not offer an employee plus one um because the the vast majority of employees have multiple dependents um that the cost difference between the employee the employee plus one and then the the family plan the multiple dependent plan um they become misaligned and so and so really um the single so in if you were to dig into the information our single plan costs approximately $1,000 a

079month with these options um the family plan is about $2,300 a month so cutting that for um an employee plus one dependent um makes those premium contributions um more disperate even so it lessens the single cost and it increases the family cost ultimately so most school districts ought not to offer that the other thing that most school districts choose not to do is called um a spousal S charge and so some employers if so if my husband has a health plan with his employer um in order for me to take that insurance he'd have to pay more in that monthly premium um we do not offer that some school districts do as well but we've chosen not to do that so far it's another strategy to reduce the number of employees on the health plan

080or the number of plans you have I ask another question about that spousal search charge because I I was wondering and I'll put this in the context of my question which is what percent of our employees are choos using the the full family coverage I don't know if I have that information Dr H um I can say that um the vast majority of vast majority of employees choose our health coverage um but I don't know of the employees who have access to a family plan I don't know how many Pi single I I mean I would be very curious my hunch is that most people would choose a family plan because you are getting then you know a no premium insurance for your entire family which doesn't as you mentioned doesn't not only doesn't exist

081in schools anymore but it doesn't really exist anywhere anywhere I suspect that that is what happened when we saw the influx of number of of number or number of plans and the number of members on the plan um that we was contributing to the cost increases this year I mean the increase was over 40 some new members on the plan starting you know starting for the October 1 2024 plan year again I suspect that is exactly due to you know what you're referencing is there a reason we're choosing not to do the spousal sear charge um uh it is an option that we have I think we were really trying to focus on limited impactful changes this year we don't we also don't charge co-pays or co- Insurance there are so many things that we

082don't do and really the philosophy and I support it when you're making changes like this to not make a whole bunch of different changes at once this will be I mean this is substantial enough and to pick some of those smaller changes would not get us the financial savings that we really need on the health plan which I yeah and I do understand and I think ultimately some of this is about perception and some of it is about reality so from a perception standpoint I do think we're going to hear a lot and we have been hearing from teachers and staff to say you gave these raises and now you're basically like taking them right back and it does you know the perception is dollars per month given dollars per month taken away it does

083feel different I think when it is like okay your your monthly premium is going to be this much lower but you're going to pay a co- insurance or you're going to have a co-pay that does I think feel different for families than it does having this large amount taken out of your check when you're not used to having anything taken out of your check so I do think that the I understand the reasoning behind it and that maybe the dollars and cents are all ultimately the same but I think it feels different to families the way that it's being presented if you don't mind me sharing one of the questions that um came up with some frequency uh when we were offering the employee meetings um in July and and then offered a question and

084answer opportunity for staff as well that you was asynchronous um one of the questions that we got um was related to why didn't you know this or why didn't you share this before we had to sign our contracts um primarily that's due to the plan year so when our plan starts in October and there's a two-month leg on reporting we weren't seeing the change in Trend until like it was it was the end of June when we were getting um getting April experience um or end of June yeah when we were getting may experience so two month leg so July almost um to May um so that was piece of it um and the the second piece of it as well is is the kind of the the implication to that is that if employees

085may not have chosen to sign their contracts because they would have gone somewhere else the long and the short of it are are these are the same if not better plans than they would see at other school districts there's nothing else out there like what we've provided in the past and it's been great that we've been able to offer it you know thus far um but now we see the implication of that I think that's the perception piece of this right you're right people might say well I could go over to this other school district and now my my salary is about the same but I'm choosing to do this I'm choosing to take on this and they feel like they've been duped by the by our school district and again I'll just say this

086in the context that the family plan here of $339 is incredibly low for anybody who's been working anywhere anywhere like I'm paying more than $200 a month more than that for my family plan and I work in medicine I wasn't going to say anything but um I don't think they were duped because I said this was going to happen and the union assured their membership it wouldn't so they were warned they were warned and I'm not saying they were duped I think perception is I understand but there was discussion there's been discussion for two to three years in this room where the risk was stated and I know I preach risks a lot and sometimes the downside outcome happens and here it is it's been regularly at risk that health insurance costs can go up

087and we are self-insured and then we will have to deal with that the business manager I'm we have a new business manager now but business manager that I was here for most of the time my time on the board John Mack regularly warned us of that we are not in control of health insurance costs so um I don't like this I don't like that there's a proposal to change um the cost structure after people have signed their contracts to come to work with us for a year that said they were warned thanks so help me sort out for following on this conversation um if we to try to make that break between this perception or these direct connection if we had not done that level of raise we still would be in a similar challenging

088situation to keep our health insurance costs under control so in other words we're not it's not like the deficit all lands over here as one big pile we also have to correct if I Wrong attend to the health insurance in order to not have this continued spiraling problem so even if we had do that if we had a little bit more money left because we hadn't done these races is it correct am I understanding correct we still would have had to do this intervention in order as a self-insured organization in order to to keep ourselves going so I I think what you're asking is had we not given the 21% increase to teachers over the past several years there would have been we we could have we could have given more of what we invested

089in teacher salaries to invest in in benefits but then we would be creating a bigger Cliff right so yeah I'm not sure that we would have had yeah that funding to make up the difference because we still would have had this integral deficit within the health insurance that has its own spiral and so um I am not the mathematician in the group but if you can picture um so I I mentioned when we were talking about like the cost of our premiums and if we had made it made changes before if you have a $2,000 monthly premium and you make adjustments to keep that premium at $2,000 you keep it you keep it from escalating but if you keep going ahead and absorbing the cost those increases increase exponentially so what might be 2100 the

090next year becomes 2400 the next year you stop being able to control that sizable increase because because you're constantly paying paying and absorbing the increase as he's got got his calculator out um well it is a calculator but yeah something else yes yeah so so at any rate again when when you keep paying the increase cost you make it harder to go ahead and get back to a point where that's what I was trying to get as we might still be finding ourselves in a very similar maybe a year or two later but yeah in a similar sort of space one other question was there anything else that came up but thank you for doing all the work on listening and working with employees was there anything else that came up with their from them

091with ideas for if not now as we go forward they would like to see um or would help them to be successful in managing this cost um so the the first idea that came from our health and wellness group or the or the first really I um kind of hey I think that this is the right way to go was the idea of offering the two health plan options because when we initially communicated with staff about what the actual deficit was looking like we were thinking that we would have one option and it was really our health and wellness team that said hey let's give let's give employees two options they can choose and you're going to have to help them decide how to choose now I'm not giving Financial advice but I'm you know

092I will certainly help you know staff members understand you know the deductible premium um area um the other area um was specifically related to those education sessions and just really trying to um help employees understand how best use their dollars themselves um I don't so things like um that uh HSA contributions are pre-tax and how we can just save you know save some money right off the top um uh one of the things um I think our asked our admin team last week is if you have the choice between two different medical providers um one that sees uh patients at a clinic and on that sees patients at a clinic connected to a hospital which one is the lowest cost um you know making sure that everybody knows that automatically right off the top the

093lowest cost is the facility with the hospital attached to it you know just just providing that type of information so that's employees can all access it and not that we would make you know the same decision in every case but let's just know okay thank you could I add something because I I I think there's a perception out there that um the district is taking away the whole raise that teachers may have gotten and the math I was doing is that that isn't the reality for the average teacher um it's about onethird of the raise that they would have got that that they received um and when we think about total compensation the the um chart that Sarah showed um we uh we're still at the median with total compensation as well so even with

094um the contri the yeah employee contribution I would anticipate we'll be right at the median uh as far as total compensation goes now I understand that doesn't still hits people's pocketbooks um but it's not a one forone tradeoff any other questions or comments on this item I I know I think back to act 10 when things were decoupled um and I'm a state employee um and so I I remember experiencing this of going from um no employee contributions and I was remember being very confused when they were explaining to me for my pension that I didn't pay my pension that the state paid my partion of the pension and then they matched my portion of the pension and they had explained that three times to me and so I think the district team made a

095lot of choices over many years to really hold on to the no employee contributions and I think in in many ways there was a lot of good at the individual level for that for the system I see there's also some negative ramifications of the cost now that we're absorbing uh and at some point i i as certainly as I've sat on the board it was I it was very clear to me that that wasn't something that could maintain itself in perpetuity um and so I understand I I want to make sure that we have the the very best compensation we can have for educators and that is a combination certainly of our our benefits our salaries and this is a dance that we're doing and we know that we need either the state or the

096community to step forward and in order to provide resources for us to do better than we're doing right now uh we so we've made major progress and thank you for showing that tonight I think the competitive to nine years versus competitive to 20 years is some really positive progress and we know that the best learning happens in classrooms with the best teachers and so that is an area where we need to commit to both as a board finding and placing resources there and also as a community whether or not we want to choose to to put additional resources in that area so I think this has been really helpful um I will now be excited about this vote and I also recognize um that we've got a lot to to think about over the next

097two weeks and we've got a a balance that we ultimately need but uh to balance I believe we've got a couple more plans that we want to talk through we do thank you um so as I mentioned um us most of our other plans are running very well uh one of them is our employee dental insurance plan uh right now we offer the choice between two different Health Plans um one is through Delta Dental and one is through Care Plus employees get to choose which one they want they have some different coverage and different different benefits that would best meet their needs this proposal uh would would seek to go um self-funded uh for our dental insurance plan um that would save us without any changes to the benefits the total covered per year um

098the cost that um well it would change the cost that the district is paying would not change anything about the coverage to employees um we could save about $60,000 um by going from fully insured paying a company to insure us um to bringing that in-house um and so the change would be to go ahead and move to self funded U for our dental insurance plan for small savings every penny counts but then does that increase our risk like it does for being self-insured for our health insurance um we would I believe we will still have this so the last thing we're going to talk about is our stoploss coverage that helps reduce the risk overall and so this um this recommendation um to self to self-funded dental insurance would include a similar stop loss and

099that's something that I can go ahead and check on two questions one does this change does anybody need to change dental providers because of this change no change to current Services right yep and then are are employees paying for their dental insurance is there any premium for that uh only part-time employees whose benefits are prated okay is that something that we are anticipating at some point we're going to need employees to contribute to that as well so in the grand scheme of things I mean that would be another lever we could push or pull right so but typically um most school districts do their employee premium sharing with their health plan that is then related kind of overall benefits um it would be unusual for a school district to have a really significant uh premium

100contribution for for dental insurance for families unless it was like a very Cadillac plan but again keeping up with comparables and monitoring our costs overall if all of a sudden our dental experience you know shot through the roof like we saw with Healthcare you know that might be something we would need to consider is that is the no premium for dental insurance is that pretty common in school districts still for sure interesting okay that orthodontia uh yeah a little bit and and depending and so that would be a choice based on Care Plus or Delta Dental you get to pick you know so Care Plus is only Care Plus providers Delta dvil has a wider number of providers but Care Plus has more orthodontia coverage curious yeah nothing nothing close to the whole kidney boodle

101can uh and so last but not least um last year um the board approved a change in our stop loss provider um as well as a change in our stock loss um deductible um so stop loss is what prevents self-funded employers from catastrophic claims that would you know that would break us um it caps the amount of the employer cost uh for services um at an agreed upon amount so last year we increased the specific stop- loss deductible from 225,000 to 250,000 and we met with a company called symmetra uh to provide us the best renewal um this year symmetra is offering us initially an 18% increase which they have subsequently reduced uh full and final to 14.77% uh and so on our behalf our benefits consultant USI went out to get bits um and

102so the the recommendation that we're bringing forward um for you would be um for our benefit our stoploss coverage renewal to be with HCC they are higher uh rated carrier um than symmetric currently with the A++ rating um the annual fixed premium percent increase would be 3.49 um and the maximum cost liability without lasers and I'll explain what lasers are in a moment would be 4.11% um a laser is when um when one particular person's claims get separated out and then they would have a higher a higher deductible and so that's really good um that that we have we are offering that without lasers um that particular HCC option is better than the option with the rebate uh the difference in the premium between 3.49% increase over the renewal uh versus 7.7 7.44% is about

103$50,000 itself in order to realize the renewal of about $85,000 we'd have to renew with HCC which would limit our options a year from now if if we have a similar cost increase so we're saving about $50,000 just by going with a lower premium increase so the recommendation going forward would be to um approve HCC as our staff loss provider questions and comments from the board a reminder for the board and the community uh these are all presentations we're getting this week in two weeks we will take action on each of these items so there'll be ample time if anybody wants to reach out to miss alasi Dr memes um either request a conversation or a meeting or send any anything any questions by email or bring questions certainly for our next board meeting uh

104prior to your vote but lots of opportunity for discussion thank you for your work on these I know that um we're working very hard to keep these costs down and um mitigate costs whever we can um we are next going to move into strategic goal five culture and Community uh we've got a series of presentations and conversations and topics here one a 10-minute uh recess for folks to if they want to gra to eat to use restrooms uh before we jump into a series of different uh TOS uh it is is 7:35 why don't we come back around 7:45 we next have underneath number seven strategic goal 5 culture and Community uh the first is action to appoint an expulsion hearing panel and Alternate board member for the first semester for the 2425 school year

105um a reminder for the board last year we went to the hearing panel model um and um one we can choose to do that again next this year again or the board may choose not to vote to go that direction um so that's one point and then last year we had talked about whether that each year we would kind of change up um with four folks on it not everyone could switch on and switch off but I want to talk about kind of who wants to and who has capacity to serve on the board uh they want to really continue or you want to rotate off I did not serve on the board last last year uh and would be happy to serve um my time as well so may I add context pleas um

106in tonight's consent agenda you also reapproved the expulsion panel resolution which will be something that will come forward every August we will also make a typical Cadence of bringing forward 56101 which will route through the policy committee as well it's recommended that policy also bring forward every year so we'll start triggering that early around in the summer so that it's done the same night as well for Action however that policy currently does say that you will approve this panel for first semester and then we'll do it again in December for second semester so as it's currently written There's an opportunity should there be a desire to have different representation out saying and so and we so we already have approved um correct the resolution I wasn't okay I wasn't sure if this was in so

107we've already approved the resolution so now what we are doing as appointing members um I want to kind of check in with my board colleagues to find out who would be interested uh I have not done this uh previously uh who would be interested in serving on the hearing panel for this fall semester I'm available but I I'm fine either way I did it for two semesters so if somebody else wants to take the opportunity to get it was a slow year a Kudos very much opinion will be talking about but if somebody else wants to again I was an ultimate last year but I never got called so I'm happy to serve in the ball so what I have right now is Phil J and Eric and then would be looking for an alternate

108scissors Dr Ry do you want to be the alternate I'm fine doing that okay so Mr Meer for this one philli Phillip Eric Jennifer the alternate is ly got it now just so we know um for second semester term of our board ends at end of April um I am not making a formal legal announcement tonight so think nothing of it oh just thinking it be it almost have to be these three right right so if you're thinking if anyone's thinking I would do this first semester and maybe I don't want to second semester know that second semester is kind of whatever you know ify on it's transitional and so um just keep that in mind if if you're saying for anyone who's you know people could get the the duty the responsibility for two

109full semesters when they really don't want to or they think they're going to get the duty this first semester and um they'll you know defer to other people second semester and then they're going to find out that they're involved anyway because probably you wouldn't want a lot like a majority of inexperienced people on an expulsion panel in the month of May all right so just so just try to help your process here if if somebody wanted me to do this first semester so that and then you know because likely I won't be here in May next semester so if you wanted if you were expecting me to do something more first semester is your time because you know might not be around second semester so I I don't I will defer to the um of

110course what whatever the will of board is but I've sat on my Sher of expulsion decisions so I don't have a pressing desire to um do it I don't I don't think it matters what three of us are there because in all of these hearings for 21 years it is rarely made a difference as far as who was there and who wasn't we are Community might not understand this but we are actually very much aligned in those closed sessions in how we think and we come to consensus when there's disagreement so just to put that there so if if somebody is expecting that I should do this this fall I will it's not something I'm like desperately wanting to do but I'll offer my availability if there's somebody who says well I really only wanted

111to do it one semester now that I hear this that remembering what's going to happen for transition in the second semester possibly so makes sense I'm com I too and I'm fine if as as you alter I move into the regular position in the spring that's not going to be a problem for me okay so it's Philip Eric Jennifer for the um panel and Lynn for the for the author there we good with that are you ready to entertain a motion yes sir thank you it is recommended that the school board appoint an expulsion hearing panel Philip Morris Eric Joseph anger and Jennifer Hoy and an alternate member Lyn Worley for the first semester of the 24 to 25 school year may have a second second thank you um any board discussion see none please

112call the Mr Morris yes Dr Hoy yes Dr Worley yes M HR Rolland yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Jess anger yes thank you everyone who is uh willing to serve uh next up is our annual diversity inclusion and I would invite our director of diversity and inclusion Shonda Holland to come to the board table here and she will take it from here good evening everyone you all had the opportunity to review the diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility presentation so at this time I'm going to ask you to share any questions that you may have um so a couple of questions for you um can you talk about how like you and Mr pinion and Dr marble all work together to address disproportionality and achievement I know for example in your this is maybe I'm jumping

113ahead a little bit but in your talk you talked talked about some of that disproportionality is still a result of having like an mlss system available across schools and then I know in like the school culture talk they also talked about building that mlss system so I just want to kind of get a sense of like how you all are working together on all of these different things that are ultimately kind of connected together I would say that collaboratively our goal is to eliminate and lessen the disproportionality as it relates to academic I am currently working with the instructional coaches and the director of curriculum and instruction to ensure that we are all speaking the same language I believe that's where the disconnect was at our last during our last school year because the messaging

114was primarily coming from The deia Advocates and the instructional coaches may or may not be have been present during some of those presentations now they will have the opportunity to meet with me firsthand so that I am delivering some of the same professional learning directly to them that will also be delivered by The deia Advocates also The deia Advocates this school year will be on the school learning teams and they will have direct collaboration with not only the instructional coaches but other stakeholders within the buildings that will be able to help to make some decisions that are directly related to the school growth plans that will ultimately make I believe a big difference in the buildings and a lot of the staff members believe in it as well if I could to we spend a

115lot of time with Dr Marvel and her team um around this topic and others of course two of the main areas that we're tackling for disproportionality in fact the two primary levers that we report to the state and the federal um agencies that be which we'll talk a little bit about in our latter presentation directly connect to our work with the academic office and the first being pace and SST which is really those foundational structures of our mlss system and how we ensure guarantees universally and how we identify and layer on additional supports be that academic or social emotional and then culturally responsive learning environments which are embedded directly into the instructional handbook and reinforced on their end as well and then my second question is um you mentioned that there were I think seven

116deia complaints this year um what were the focus of those complaints and then kind of what did we learn or how did we change our processes as a result of that there wasn't necessarily a theme okay but what I gathered because they were all very different is it's still this connect Ed to students having a lack of a sense of belonging and there were a couple different situations where students really felt like the staff members that they should have had as trusted adults they could not trust those staff members to um uplift them in the way that they felt supported and the way that they actually wanted to be accepted within their um learning environments they felt like they were being racially discriminated against then are there things that like as a system we're we're

117doing or able to do that will I mean again I realize it's seven complaints out of you know 7,000 students but um but obviously there's I mean maybe the theme really is sense of belonging or lack of sense of belonging and how are we addressing that from a deia perspective what spoke loud and clear was that there is a Brokenness in relationship building that some people feel like it is not imperative to build those relationships but it is very much so not even saying the first day that you meet students but even prior to school starting parents are already starting to reach out with with questions and making sure that we are able to feel those questions and make parents feel very comfortable and confident with bringing their students in and from the teacher level

118anything that we can do to let students know that we are interested in who they are as individuals in addressing the whole child that is going to make a big difference because once we know the students that we are teaching we will be able to be culturally responsive and give those students what they need to be successful in class related to the the number of complaints there one of the things that stuck out to me is that there were 15 a total of 15 total complaints between students staff and families and that that number that Jenny referenced there with the seven did you find anything different or any not necessary themes but correlations between there were only two complaints from student students but seven from families do we have any data or anything there that

119uh points out the tenure of those complaints or these students first time coming in have they been in the district for a while one or two years or you know multiple years because I sometimes wonder when when you have such you know three times as many family complaints than student complaints are there prior bias that's been brought in from some point else coming into our district with the expectation that things are a certain way versus what the reality actually is I would say no with the student um complaints those were situations where students actually tried to advocate for themselves and it they felt as if their um situations fell upon deaf ears and when they couldn't um get any further within their school settings that's when they contacted me to see if I could help

120them to achieve their goals I want to follow up because I think my question's timely um about the sense of belonging and I know we do a variety of different assessments throughout the year and I'm curious what markers we have and where do we see areas of improvement or areas where we really need to continue to focus uh either demographic differences and and I won't ask you tonight talk about school to school but I susp you're looking at the school level um but where are we seeing successes and where are we seeing areas where we're we're just not getting it quite yet we are seeing successes with schools really trying to ensure that students are able to see themselves within the walls of the classrooms and we have had pretty much every single school be

121very intentional about ensuring that our students are able to see themselves through their classroom libraries our students are able to see themselves through bulletin board displays and through the curriculum that's being taught teachers are really focusing and being mindful of the fact that some students are not able to see themselves in the curriculum so they're being intentional and finding ways to infuse um cultural relevance within their curriculum so that is definitely a mindset shift that we did not see in year one that we were definitely able to see in year two we are also receiving feedback directly from teachers qualitative feedback where they are directly referencing mindset shifts that they've had based on some of the professional learning that has been provided as it relates to being culturally responsive where we are not seeing the

122movement is as it relates to um areas of office discipline referrals we are still seeing a very high rate and as suspensions as well and I believe that that is still because we are not building those relationships with students if I know how student a responds to certain things then I may not go in that direction if I'm providing redirection I may use another tactic but if you don't know the students that you're servicing it's really difficult for you to provide what they need to be successful and we end up with writeups quick followup and then one of the things that was interesting in listening to uh and reading about different things is that there were two there's two different walks that you're doing with each uh educational princip educational leader principal in the school

123I'm curious what you what you see qualitatively if if there's anything between learning walk a and learning walk B which presume have some chunk of time between them of at least a few months in most most situations if if you're what you're seeing in kind of experiencing within the school environment and how those are how those differ and I'm listen what I'm what I'm going to listen for is what policy things and what governance things and what resource things are in place or not in place from a board level what could we do to ensure support for this work as it relates to the first learning walk in the second learning walk I looked at different information so I can't necessarily compare the two so Equity core Equity core beliefs number 78 and 10 were

124taken place and observed during the first walk during the second walk I looked at Equity Corp beliefs one two three and four so while all Equity Corps beliefs should be implemented they are they were different so I were I was looking for different things at different times however as it relates to this school year last school year laid the foundation of everyone understanding and knowing what the equity core beliefs were this year we're expecting to see those Equity core beliefs and action the DIA Advocates will be working directly with the school learning teams to ensure that those Equity core beliefs are brought to the Forefront on a monthly basis with professional learning as well as tying into what's needed to achieve the school growth plan goals and so for example Equity cor belief 4 is

125about cult responsive teaching practices being schoolwide and done on a daily basis that we should see in every single School building so when I complete My Equity walks I should see Equity Corp belief number four culturally responsive learning strategies which is also just the instructional levers we should see that consistently whether it's myself um my colleagues from the division of academic performance or individuals from my team we should see that poor Equity belief uplifted um we are focusing on Equity Corps belief number one this year which is disrupting disproportionality the theme is that everyone is going to be a disruptor that is the first message that our staff will hear either on October 21st or October 22nd on the work that we are doing collaboratively not just The Advocates not just Mrs Holland not just

126one or two people it's going to take the entire school and the entire District to actually show a difference in what we can do if we are all working together towards the same goal thank you thank you first of all for all your efforts and also the very rich um report and explanation you've given I just wanted to follow up on something you said um just now recently about just one of your comments about um the disproportionality and discipline so um this is something that has been a long time challenge in this District um and now you've are really seeing it and you know um being more aware of it what is in place or what could be in place um are we keeping track I don't mean in a negative way but are we

127keeping track of patterns among those that folks who are are reporting or using disproportional mindsets in reporting students because I know the goal this year was to try to get everyone to use the disciplinary framework the same way right and so what are we kind of tracking this this I've been told by some parents that there is a process that the parents use to try to keep their students um who have who might be disciplined disproportional disproportionally out of certain classes in order to avoid this you know so that's kind of like a marker so what are our goals this year for moving the needle on the staff I mean is it are these random do we see a pattern among staff you know over and over again not quite getting it or not quite

128addressing so that's one of my questions to address the question around the data that's being looked at I meet with the principal's B monthly and we met bonly last year but we're really going to dig into the data this year because they're going to bring their data forward at every school leadership team meeting and I've talked with principles about what that will look like so when we're looking at specific data points as it relates to the disproportionality and students being um receiving office referrals or being suspended we are looking at not only who is writing those referrals but what are the referrals written for so we will be looking at actual themes and connections to the why behind the referrals in hopes that if the principles are able to put this information back in front

129of their staff they able to identify this is the trend that's happening in our school in our particular grade level so that we can work collaboratively to start slowly ticking away at eliminating some of these biases that are probably going into a lot of the referrals I would add to just as we at the district level look at our building wide data in different risk ratios discipline data that's coming out of each building um true to a PBIS core practice is our buildings are also expected to be looking at that data from the lens of the What's called the big five one of those being the location in which it's happening and is that is there a disproportionate number of referrals coming out of a certain classroom or some such of that nature in which

130they would be expected to respond and and investigate that accordingly and then there's the piece that's before the out of office referral that I don't know if that played into the two students who came forward or not but you know of noticing disproportional disproportionality happening to the students even without the office referral so so the other sort of more lowlevel or I the term micro never really works for me because I don't think microaggressions for example are truly micro because for the person experiencing them they're not so so just building what's in place to help build the classroom awareness of or people's awareness of even before they get to the office referral behaviors that might be making it more difficult for students to have that trusted adult I kind of lost your question question yes

131so so before you have an office referral there are many other kinds of discipline that are happening within a classroom which can also be disproportional it depends I mean can be I didn't say it right right so what but those are often the experiences that keep a student from feeling that that adult in the classroom is a trusted adult so what's the process or what's what's to dig to that layer what's the process or opportunity to move the needle on that classroom experience for students well starting with building culturally responsive learning environments and every teacher in the district received culturally responsive learning environment training last school year it'll be Revisited and brought up in every professional learning that we will have this year so teachers have tools and mechanisms to deal with students and um

132behavior that may be undesired and the steps that can actually be taken before it is um Prov before it leads to a office uh sorry before it leads to a office discipline referral and I would say this is coming up later in and when we talk about behavior and discipline and our disproportionality in the data relative to that but a lot of what Sean is referring to in culturally responsive learning environments are those proactive pieces that are to be in place and are expected prior to any kind of male adaptive or concerning behavior that occurs in the classroom um and then from there it kind of flows into what's been developed from our division around the teach chart or what's office managed there's a flow of kind of how to move through that when it's

133teacher managed what you're doing how you're doing it and then when it crosses that line to office manag me they're all connect um and this is a year of refinement and not creating new okay my other thank you this helpful my other question is um I'm really glad that we're increasing the um opportunities for students to see themselves in the curriculum um and what they're learning and how are we doing on the opportunity for students to see themselves in building leadership um I mean I know obviously tonight one vote moved in that direction for one particular group but how are we doing at um attracting retaining I know kind of crosses over into HR but this year you were doing if I remember correctly um some employee support work as well to try to create

134a connection across different schools how's that going because to me that's part of the students seeing themselves in the school whatever their category is is you know how we're doing and making sure that students are seeing um themselves in those who um are leading and teaching um staff in the buildings I have been working with Sarah and we have not made a lot of traction in that area it's still a goal that we are working towards um but we have not been able to attract the type of staff that we would like to to create a more diverse learning environments for our students um with checking you know periodically with principales starting around last April on their hiring practices they were definitely looking to diversify their staff but we just were not finding the staff

135members that were actually um looking to apply within the district of diverse backgrounds and then at the retention level how are we doing on that I can't speak to that accurately Sarah would have yes but because I know you were working on that that's why I'm asking you because that was one of your initiatives you talked about earlier in the year I know that we did lose several um staff of color this year but I don't know the complete number I would be have to research that and get back to you okay thank you Mark so I'm little confused about which topic we're on so I I'm trying to self-discipline and I had something prepared but I want to wait for the the right time but if if I'm assuming the other staff will come

136up and we'll talk about the other topics as well okay so I'll just try to hit this topic on because we just had the the discussion about staff uh I think this is relevant and it was very disheartening for me I visited the I think it was called the inclusion fair at West High School this past year and it was um heavily for um people with disabilities different you know there's athletic opportunities and voting advocacy and and other things and there was a table that um was staffed with African-American ladies and I um mentioned my desire for um which I've been advocating for a long time an African-American history class and we had um an African-American literature class and we had a while back and we had trouble Staffing it and I was very disheartening

137to see their response that they were truly discouraged that we probably couldn't find appropriate Staffing and it's just sad that there're still disc and not that anybody's doing anything wrong but this um feeling of the school district not um addressing everybody and everybody's you know journey through life it it's and I'm agreeing with you all it's very real and it's um it's just not fair that anybody should that we should um that anybody has to feel that way and but they do and rightfully so they do and so we have a lot I know we're all working and there's a long so just to say there's a long ways to go and um and then um what I'm there's always a new topic there's always like a sort of a flip side to everything and

138for every action there's a reaction and um through I have a couple of anecdotal remembrances here or memories here it was about and it it basically has to do with the outcomes of as a organizations don't focus on competing values or values that live in the same space at the same time organizations don't do well with that it seems from what I've observed so if we have a desire for you know culturally sensitive um disciplinary practices or say we for Student Success we're talking about um positive behavior intervention well if if we only focus on those things right or disproportionality and discipline and and take our all of our Focus off the plight of the victims we do things that aren't I'm sure not what we'd like to do U there was a case five

139years ago where in one of our elementary buildings there was um a young child who was um doing some bullying behaviors and was indiscriminate around the room as far as um who the targets were and um the the parents complaining to me were were white and you know very confident in their build to Advocate but it was also shared with me that one of the victims of the bullying was an African-American child of a single mother and she was afraid to complain I was told because she thought there might be some retaliation of some sort that she didn't belong and and she was a resident I mean there I mean the idea that we could like push a non-resident and open a Roman kid up the district is not we could never do that it

140would be illegal but even an African-American single mother who was a resident was um in fear to um advocate in defense of her child who was a victim of bullying and um I just sorry but just heartbreaking stories and and so this feeling of not belonging it's it's in the parents as well and it's um I don't know what we do but we need I know you're working on it but I just want to validate from my chair with my voice the need for what you're doing so thank you thank you if I may did you have a question Mr Morris I don't want to no no no nothing hurts I just I um I feel compelled to say this so 30 years ago this month I became the first black teacher in a suburban

141school district now that seems odd that in 1994 that was a first what I can tell you is that I was terrified I was terrified now I was terrified because I was a new teacher 22 years old fresh out of college but I was also terrified because I was in an environment that was rare to me um so when we talk about recruiting people of color to work in wone it takes more than the just the HR department trying to draw people to work here I tell the story because I was recently at a memorial service for this person and people who lived in Milwaukee for many years will remember this name but there was a parent who happened to be um also a newscaster in the local media his name was Bill Taylor Bill

142Taylor was the person who created positively Milwaukee for TMJ4 and I remember vividly Bill Taylor came to my classroom right before Labor Day and said I need you to come to my house over a Labor Day weekend okay Bill Taylor told me to go there I went but what I didn't know was that there were be there will be a number of parents at that Gathering as well that looked me in the eyee and said we have your back we support you I share that one story to say that part of this is a community wrapping our Collective arms around the teachers HR can recruit as many people of color as they want until our community and our organizations wrapping arms around these people it it it won't work so that's one story the second

143story is that there were two white men who befriended me who said you don't have to eat lunch by yourself because I was I was scared that you we're going to take you and you you become part of a community and I think that's what Miss Holland is speaking to that we need those things that can't be articulated in a report to the board we need those mental models to shift because then people who are not of the majority will feel more at home as well that happened for me and that made my experience of being the only person and many of us in this room have been the only but to be the only person of color in a for dominantly suburban community to teach is I can speak from experience it's it's terrifying

144and it's just not us recruiting those people here but it's also the families looking them in the eye and it wasn't just families of color who made me feel at home it was white families who said my child is learning so much from you that made me feel like I had a home so I just I wanted to speak to that in terms of the teaching piece in regards to our school Community as a whole yes Miss Holland and I and Mr pinion and it's just not kids of color I I'm I'm so we have a great team and I'm so pleased that Dr marble reminds me often that we spend so much time in wallsa talking about the racial diversity of our community there's gender diversity there's Sexual Orientation Diversity I think the richness

145of wall Tulsa is that we're diverse in a lot of different spaces and we actually minimize ourselves and make us make ourselves smaller when we simply talk about the racial diversity of wosa and and so what I would suggest is that our schools haven't crossed that barrier of being fully inclusive and so it it's really important for us to continue to push the envelope and you've heard you heard a a statement from Miss Holland where she talked about we have to be disruptors is not enough to be kind to certain kids at certain point points when we see that students with disabilities are not being treated fairly we have to disrupt the behavior and change that mental model we can't allow it to simply be there and I think miss howand you need to know

146that this board wants you to disrupt um that they are they're waiting on you to disrupt but more importantly there are people in our our community that want disruptors and that if you teach in wosa if you are educating children in W Tulsa we expect you to disrupt um we are one of the few beacons of the 425 school districts in Wisconsin that wants diversity inclusion accessibility for all kids and the last thing I would say is this it's not enough just to be kind to people it's not enough just to make sure that you see yourself reflected it in if we're truly chasing Equity then we have to start making more opportunity for all kids and we have to start demanding better outcomes and the outcomes is just not being nice and blessing their

147hearts and saying we'll give you a lesser academic Road the better outcomes means that the educators are doing a heavier lift and I'll conclude my my statement by sharing with you the the one person who had the greatest impact on my educational career and I've told this story many times of a man a white Man by the name of Tom wildy Tom grew up in Brookfield unfortunately he was a Brookfield East graduate but he chose he chose to teach at Riverside High School when I was there and I share the story of all time because he was as suburban and as Brookfield and as white as you can be but the impact he has made on this city because of the people he mentored because of his mental model of teaching us that we need

148to be inclusive of one another kind of like what the young man who took the AP Capstone core said he taught us to listen to one another and accept one another he had a greater impact on me than candidly people of color who were teachers of M so I always share that story because I think sometimes our teach our white teachers minimize their potential impact on our kids because they're not of color or they're not of a certain of a certain group if you love kids and you're willing to disrupt the system and to make sure that everyone has access and better outcomes then I don't care if you're blue you're going to you're going to help us Advance our diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility work so those are I know that's the work that

149you're sharing um with with people and those are components and I just I wanted to kind of share a personal an some personal antidotes because those are things that just won't come out in a report that I know you're working on and we're we're continuing to strive towards thank you can I add another anecdote now this was in detail what I'm about to say I will try to use as general terms as possible it was in detail reported by me to the superintendent Dr meets um and this is the intersection of positive behavior intervention and cultural inclusion and I understand positive behavior intervention but when one is when we're deciding whether the PBIS is working and whether the offense has beyond what is appropriate for PBIS that we need a more serious intervention perhaps a

150suspension uh from the perspective of the victim there was a case last year where a student who was a member of multiple protected classes was verbally confronted in the hallway in regard to their class their protected class there was no no effective intervention on the perpetrator two weeks later there was a physical assault related to the same protection and the perpetrator was allowed to stay in the building in the hallways with the victim and culturally to the victim and I did I spoke with experts with regards to that class and the severity of that assault was far beyond anything I understood for that culture and we didn't know that so for that if we're talking about gender sexual identity race um religion um culture cultural customs of C ethnic groups um our assessment here of

151the severity of what was done to the victim is often not enough to to to provide a feeling of inclusion if there's something very specific to my culture my race my Creed My Religion my gender my sexual preference and that and what is at the very core of that is physically assaulted in our hallways that warrant suspension in my mind a physical assault but it there was not a suspension and so this is to my point about somehow balancing the competing rights of different people and I'm willing to sit down with you and tell you what this was but I don't want to say it here um we we there there's a small percentage of cases where the effort for um for you know positive behavior type quote unquote disciplinary stuff misses the plight of

152the victim a small percentage but those cases are very very serious and and I I I'm sure maybe I should give you a call and make an appointment to come and tell you specifically what this is yes I'd like to add just because something you said in there bothers me not because of how you said it but just because I think there's this perception that someone's protected class or their right to culturally responsive approaching or strategies is that odds with safety and that is not the case and I will say it here and I'll say it again many times we will keep School safe and we will work through dangerous behaviors in a way that is culturally responsive in a way that teaches and ceases Behavior so if there are reports like that where things

153seem to have been left we want to know about it so we can look into it and figure out what went wrong yes and I did report to the superintendent and someone had reported to me but why does it have to be that route it shouldn't it it shouldn't yeah okay well isn't am I wrong in thinking that the disciplinary framework 100% for assault like the would call for a suspension amongst other things that will actually also work at our at our August 26 meeting Mr pinion will have the ability to unpack what do we do as a school system when there are accusations of harassment of assault all those different things we'll talk about all those systems but I think there's an erroneous belief in our community that the district is soft on discipline

154because we're trying to pafy and not discipline kids of color that is just notate and I can't say that I'm saying that as one of eight black superintendents out of 425 school districts in Wisconsin that is not happening in wosa and for people who continue to perpetuate that statement they're wrong um now there may be a perception or a belief that that's what's happening but that's not what that's not how we do business here and so and what we want to do is unpack our systems so you don't have to just trust our words um we're on August 26 we're going to share with you our procedures on August 26 we're going to show you our policies but this perception that we're soft on certain kids or we're we're we're looking the other way we

155I can't speak to the past but I can tell you right now and since I've been here that's not how we do business in the wosa school district and if we did do business that way our administrative hearing data would look a lot different than it does you'll see in two presentations a lot better and but I I want to be clear in in right we're doing a poor job if we're doing that then we're doing a really bad job no I I I want to be clear in many of these cases that get brought to me the perpetrator is white and systemically our you know I I think it's really hard for people to exercise to keep their professional judgment mindset on instead of their more wrote I'm exhausted and we don't suspend or

156we don't do this or we don't do that that it it's really exhausting to exercise in organizations to exercise that Judgment Day in day out on a case-by Case basis in the hallways in the classrooms and get it right and and every once in a while just by fatigue and human nature and I just goofed it up that day something doesn't get handled the right way and people need to know to report that my my Elementary School example the perpetrator was white and and and um there was nothing racial about what was going on but yet an African-American family didn't feel included enough to to feel they could put their voice in the complaints and and so um yeah I just want to emphasize this isn't not the the problem with application of the principles

157um is is is not to my thinking racial in effect in that we let on the there are cases where we should have more severe or restrictive interventions and I don't mean punishment I mean protection of the victims and the perpetrators are not black you know and so there there is a a a carryover or something into everything we do when we don't apply things correctly and I know Mr pinion um Dr means you're struggling mightily to to get this right everywhere for everyone but it we won't be able to do that unless we voice the concerns so we're to support you in the vigilance okay thanks I have I think one final question uh something that I I keep coming back to this so much of this work is is being done this creating

158a better sense of longing Dr me talked about it with with the importance of staff and then it's the work of all of us the community the teaching Community the parent Community uh the board um the district leadership to continue to work on this um there's a lot of very specific programmatic work being done um around groups that create a sense of connection uh for students and I applaud that um one of the things I continue to find myself dismayed by is that about two years ago we explored this idea of creating this window of time at the beginning of every Academic Year where Educators and families and students could build and develop a nurtur relationships what came back to the board is that our secondary leadership teams did not feel that they needed more

159than half a day to accomplish what they were doing I have developed on multiple college campuses programs to develop those things and that is where a sense of belonging can begin to be developed at the beginning of each Academic Year particularly for new students and families I want to implore the district to once again return to examine what can we do what tools do we have what capacity can we build certainly the work that you're doing but there also needs to be a dedicated time on task to do this and at the outset of the Academic Year to be able to continue to do this work um there will be opportunities for meet the teacher night or curriculum nights at the at the high schools that whatever the ptas the board and others can do

160the our our principal team our principal groups at secondary schools they are much too sparsely attended um and so whatever whatever we can do to continue to support the work that you have um I would be eager to hear as a board what what additional work can be done um you can only do so much in whether you're doing group work or doing all the different stuff and I'm really glad you're doing it I'm also wondering what other things that we can support in your evidence but thank you we'll end with Mr Phil I I would just add one piece there and it's it's kind of that that qualitative data there taking the opportunities where you have I live in the Lincoln Community and something that to Dr dpinger and Dr means have just talked

161about of the sense of community and belong belonging being more than just the HR side of looking at the things where the engagement happens on all levels I and I again go back to the Lincoln Community something as simple as know plenty of us have here are seen at the back to school barbecue every the communities and the families and the parents and the new families and the teachers they're all in the same place and they make it I one of the volunteers for the last 3 years four years and watching people come in that were terrified as they walk up the steps and then two and a half hours later have found at least some small sense of community four or five families because their kids got to meet other kids in their their

162coming age group and small things like that go a long way because people don't feel like they're a stranger on the first day of school or the stranger that was at drop off and then I only see them after school and that's the full extent of our belonging so I think any any more things that we can learn from those opportunities you know and seeing that that's coming up here very soon uh being able to utilize and find a way to rinse and repeat that at all of our schools and all those things so that way the teachers and the families and you know people that are common recruits that may think they want to come work in our district can see these things happening you know Mr Morris I there's a phrase that I'm

163I'm adopting for the month of August in the district and that is can do anything but we can't do everything and what you're going to hear tonight is that we're getting pretty close with this division of people and family supports of trying to do everything if you remember during the budget process uh development process I propose that we create some type of community Layon position to help build that type of community now someone would say well the principal should be able to do that and and that's how hard that that is just it's really hard to to do yes I would love to have another crack at the strong start model um but that means we're going to be asking Miss OK Conor to help people out because our principles are in a space where

164they can't think that way we want to do this work um but there's just when I look at all the competing interests in the district we can do anything this team is strong enough we can do anything that we really want to own in on the danger when you have a real really good capable team is that then a i in my role superintendent or of governing board or active parents will say well then let's try to do everything and then that really strong team we start to burn them out and and I I'm sensing organizationally that we're we're we're tipping to that point um that we we have a really good team I I just I want us to continue to be strategic as we do these things the message that you're going to

165hear from us from a deia standpoint this year to summarize is that we're working to disrupt uh Miss Holland and I tght to our principles this past week we want to disrupt systems and patterns that position certain people as Superior and others as inferior we want to disrupt programs um um we want to disrupt things that take away opportunities and access and lesser outcomes for kids and create more for them that's that's the goal that we've given miss howand this year um she didn't I mean in her report she talks about the the great work of our multiethnic parent Association that's exciting and that was a heavy lift um I think we're on the right track uh I will conclude and then tur it back over to Mr pinion our capable leader in this I

166think the message that I would want to just Express to the board in our community is that we we've transitioned away from talking about deia work and we're doing something so I think in the past a lot of school districts including ours we talked and and we we had good conversations what we've asked Miss Holland to do is to start penetrating and changing the system and and start asking principles to reflect on to Mr to to Mr Meers Point what are you not doing uh and so when we do those Equity walks we're making people really reflect on so where can you grow um you're going to hear in a in in the month of September how we're building our new school growth plans part of the school growth plans is to deal with disproportionality

167directly in those plans most School PL School growth plans just talk about what you're going to do we're saying no we're going to measure this and you're going to see those plans in September so what we want you to do is to continue to hold us accountable but please know that we we if you want to talk about what the role of the board is is help us deliver the message that we want to disrupt systems that position certain people in in really powerful positions and others in inferior positions to make sure that we're all inclusive kind of like what Mr just said can I ask it's going to it's I can ask it later but it goes along with the whole talk about disproportionality sense of belonging so if I do it now I

168think it makes more sense okay so we we have talked and one of our one of our objectives under our strategic plan is to increase um the number of students particularly students of color who are involved in extracurricular activities um they also you know in that that youth survey that they do every couple of years of high school students they also ask about extracurriculars and again this year like all years repeatedly they demonstrate that that's a protective Factor students who are involved in extracurriculars feel a greater sense of belonging and they they have better mental health outcomes all things that matter very much in you know 2024 um and in the W chosa School District I also find as a parent that part of what involves students at extracurriculars is money and access and that

169starts really really early I mean I have Elementary age students and they're involved in select Sports which are thousands of dollars a year really early things that exclude students who don't have that sort of you know Financial availability so how is a I mean how is a district and I'm leaving this this I really have no idea like how can we even tackle that when we're leaving students out the community the world leaves students out before they're 10 years old can I speak to something there very specifically the music teachers came to me I don't know four five six years ago and said if if you would give us a part-time administrator to do Outreach to families that are underrepresented in our music programs choir and band for example um we believe we can get

170more inclusion that includes people of color people in poverty people with disabilities there were um a number of of people with um children with disabilities who thought oh my child can't be in the choir and the choir teachers wanted them in the choir we would not fund that but we did fund the inclusion talkers the Consultants the coaches and I suggest that for a very relatively small investment to get people in the room we could move the needle maybe I mean we haven't tried it and then for example our four new elementary schools are built with oversized band rooms so that there's room for storage of instruments so that kids who have a difficult time going to and from home you know to school they can leave their instruments right because I was myself carrying

171a trumpet bullied on the way home when I was 12 years old and I could imagine there's neighborhoods people come from and I came from 100% white lacrosse at the time and it happened to me so and but you know if so we even structured the elementary buildings so that to be in band you didn't have to carry your instrument home be a Target on the way home and and then we could provide instruments and they could leave the instruments in in the Band Room overnight and then we could provide morning programs and after school programs where they could practice we've we've for years tried to structure things in to have that infrastructure just for example but now we need to finish the job and provide the instruments which I'm sure we do in some

172cases but but so I'm sorry to cut in on you but we we've been trying and but there there's that extra that final 10% we need to do to see if it works there is no easy answer to your big question that is societal systemic what I can tell you is we are very fortunate to be nested in Milwaukee County if you've been to our incl the inclusion resource fair you will see this community and the greater Milwaukee Community has a lot of resources for families that are untapped unexplored I even learned about many that I hadn't heard of before this last inclusion resource Fair we didn't have a historical investment in social workers to close that school home Community Gap we have writed that I believe we're in the right place with the right

173people to start closing some of those opportunities the the meeting rooms in the Four elementary schools to my thinking were to provide a place for monthly culturally sensitive I mean I don't I know what people My Generation do to play games to meet months and months and you know but I don't know what other cultures you know you know but we have a rule and we shouldn't be charging them fees to use it if they're part of our school Community we should promote that that room is there for you to use for whatever makes you comfortable for your evening weekend whatevers and and so we've I mean a lot of thoughts going into some of this and we need to leverage it now that it's there if it will help thank you both um I'm

174going to move us forward to our next presentation um I look forward to continue to hear more about your work in the outcomes thank you thanks thank you sh next up on the agenda is annual School culture at Student Success all right I will introduce our wonderful director of Student Success Emily o' Conor Cory do we know if this presentation just to have it up for reference was one oh there we go found it all right good evening um I look forward to hearing your questions or remarks following my presentation we're not actually presenting it but if we need to refer to it thank you it was back good of a present yeah right got a lot of related questions out probably already can ask about the mlss update like where are we at with

175sure that's a great question um we have made some really significant in progress over the course of the last year um with collaboration from the division of academic performance so really starting at about this time last year we um in order to really learn and kind of go where we had some Readiness some great resources we really structured the SST or the student support team in every building around academic intervention needs particularly at the highest level or tier three um and set up a series of meetings throughout the course of the year to have the relevant team members come together make database decisions um strategically place students or match students with an appropriate intervention monitor their progress and then at the close of that intervention review the data to see who could fade back um

176and so that was really the focus of last year's um SST work in particular I think it gave us a lot of information to learn about uh our data infrastructure and what remaining needs are still there uh it gave us a lot to learn in terms of teaming and how we um structure our meetings in a way that is efficient and also matches students with the appropriate support pretty quickly um just to kind of name a couple so moving into this year we're going to take a lot of those learnings and structure that SST process specifically around Behavior as well so take those learnings lean into continuous Improvement and replicate that when we think about students who do demonstrate that they need higher levels of intensive intervention at a tier two or tier three level

177so Conor yeah what's SST student support team SST support team do an SST is a group of um experienced staff members typically your building principal or some combination thereof the school counselor or School social soci worker or both depending on the school and um it's typically facilitated by our school psychologists as well um because our part of that is understanding sort of where students needs are along a Continuum of supports um we also have our academic Specialists who attend sometimes coaches attend when it's appropriate um we also have different classroom teachers that attend and depending on the circumstances sometimes we've had ssts where we are looking at one student um and their needs and then in which case the family member would be invited as well um so so if I if I'm a parent

178in the district and have a child that's in crisis that you're concerned about that you would hope that they're being the child is being discussed at an a student support team meeting correct absolutely early on too and I think moving into this year what we want to be really um deliberate about is is saving time for those one on-one student needs or student conversations as well as having an efficient problem solving model where we could potentially review um many students within that teaming structure and looking at all of their data and pretty probably making some more quick efficient decisions about which interventions they're matched to um but for that really in-depth problem solving process we will start building that out different schools have different structures but we really want to um kind of bring some

179uniformity across our system this school year with a child study team or a CST so that will be bu being built out over the course of this year in addition to that behavior SST process so that's kind of a high level overview of where we're at we're really positioned for this next school year to provide some significant professional learning um to administrators student services and other relevant staff like I said who are involved with the SST is it the is it the um mlst or like sort of that guess maybe it's the tier two team but who would identify for example a classroom that had culture issues so I know like last year um in my child's school there were a at least a couple of classrooms that really were struggling with like culture issues

180in the build in the classroom in the teacher alone or or identifying one single student to help was not really addressing the problem it was really again a culture issue in the whole classroom is that is the team you're talking about is that the team that would intervene in a case like that I think it it depends and I think that's why we want to think about a multi-level system of support as a Continuum or a linked teaming processes because there's lots of trigger points that should or you know lots of opportunities for us to notice that within our system so it actually could come from a pace team um a grade level team that is collaborating together it could come from a school learning team um that kind of that leadership structure over the

181school looking at data Trends um or it could come from SST reviewing their data and saying why do we see so many students in this grade level or this classroom who are or are um indicating a higher level of need and I think that really speaks to the need to keep those teams closely connected and communicating well so that we understand kind of what the right hand and the left hand are doing um to develop that plan of how we would support can you talk a little bit more about the Student Success road map um it sounds like that it started out as something that wasn't necessarily called that it's taken on that moniker and that's I think I don't recall hearing that myself in the past I'm curious kind of a little bit to

182learn more about it and would love if if there's anything else you can share with the board and writing kind of at a future point would love to hear more about about it how it's being used uh looks like it'll be also utilized for school growth plans yep um and I think that that's a a really interesting framing yeah uh of this in I'm just curious to learn to learn more at a future at a future point or this evening I you could quickly share absolutely I think high level um that the committee looked at a number of resources from National researchers as well as the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction pulling from National local researchers um that road map the kind of the bones behind it really come from PBIS which are those systemwide

183structures like do you have a team are they using data do we identify behavioral expectations and do we teach them to fluency and support students do we provide high levels of reinforcement and positive feedback um do we engage our students and our families so those are kind of some of the about six or seven of the high leverage about 13 to 15 items that are on that road Ro map and then what we did was review some resources related to trauma sensitive schools and restorative practice and then we elaborated on each of those line items that if we were to have a team in place that were that was focused on positive behavior with a trauma sensitive lens and with an eye towards restorative practice what kinds of things would we be able to see

184what kinds of things would be able to look for and um really that became our basis for sort of ongoing training and support reports um and now within the school growth plans it's giving the school learning team a little bit more um guidance in terms of what are the adult behaviors that we are expecting in order to support student behaviors and student outcomes um rather than you know I student outcomes are really important to monitor like we talked about in terms of the student sense of belonging but we also want to think about the adult behaviors and the adult actions that deliberately Foster that and so um the road map starts to articulate some of those things that we need to do at a system level or collectively across each of our buildings um from

185a PBIS rest started practice in trauma sensitive lens other board questions or comments Mr Mayor so I had conversation with Mr pinion this afternoon and this is what I gathered from it and correct me if I have the interpretation wrong we don't have really good data on in in a manageable way a discernable and way that can victim on the on the Vic data on the victims of bullying for example and we also you know for example on um bullying if we have data on how many bullying cases there are but we don't have such good actionable data on lesser complaints I will clarify for you so we never had any data before this last year on bullying threat assessment or suicide no okay this was the first year we asked principales to manually quarterly

186collect their level of Investigations and we're going to talk about that in two presentations from now so that data is exactly as you saw it by school by count by quarter totaling for the year it is not desegregated desegregated it is not identifiable in any way that may be a future layer what is identifiable and what can be desegregated are confirmed cases that make their way into Infinite Campus as actual referrals then for bullying or for harassment those can be pulled to segregated as such what I was collecting on the front end was more of the investigation hey are you following the processes we set in place what's the numbers at your school we wanted to see those data for the first time ever so we established a baseline there may be potential as there's

187advancement sign Infinite Campus or our data team to do that in a more efficient way but right now it's quite manual and limited okay so why I bring that up is that when we think about um feelings of inclusion and when we think about interventions for positive behavior intervention if if we had a system to gather and report to you lesser level complaints so you can kind of What's the phrase nip things in the butt or intervene early or you know stitch in time saves nine or start you know now it seems that you're doing it on an which is the best you have you're doing it on on an anecdotal basis on a you know a subjective reporting basis but if if you if if we had it that it was and I don't

188want people tattletail for every little thing that's not what I'm saying we'd have to be careful of that but if you knew there was tension in a classroom if there was some way to have it reported to you as an indicator you'd know to go there sooner there are ways I was gonna say actually yeah and we do do that and Mr P feel free to but I do think um I think that's why it's been so important for us to invest this year in the T chart and in distinguishing between minors and major behaviors because I do think that does give school teams um a little bit better of a pulse on a potential pattern of behavior that may be developing um maybe it hasn't risen to a higher level yet but school teams

189are monitoring that data so that they can they can ask questions and start to dig in more is this a pure conflict or is this are we starting to understand that maybe there's a power imbalance for example and we might consider this something else okay I mean it certainly it's not the burden on the victim to um live life in fear such that you don't provoke um The Wrath of the bully but you know I was rear ended two three times at stop signs and I figured out that that there was a way that I press on my breaks in succession that kind of tricks people to think I'm going to go when I'm actually not gonna go and I thought well you know it's their fault they rear ended me but maybe if I

190stop you know breaking twice if I just break once then I won't get run into again and I haven't been run into since I started doing that so it's not wasn't on me to keep people from running into me from behind but there were things I could do that were just smart to to you know not have that happen you know similarly you know the wa TOA police they do uh for free safety inspection of your home and they tell you little things you know don't don't do this little this or little that you know because the people who want to break in if if you have like your screen door locked versus not locked that'll matter if you do you know little things if you have like a motion sensor light outside you know

191suddenly somebody comes up your door light goes on there's little things to do and I wonder are there little things that our you know sort of victimized populations can do just to and again it's not their responsibility to keep themselves to to control the perpetrator but you know I mean down to the you know teaching them I don't I don't know yeah I mean I think to look at to help yeah the circum the mood the atmosphere that if something is setting off somebody well then don't do it certainly if if it's not a burden on you don't do it you know and that probably is related to our collection of social emotional learning resources I think you know thinking about second step and character strong that we use K8 as well as some of

192the supplemental programs that we use that kind of teach add that you know teach that um those skill social skills related to interaction and kind of understanding your own self in relation to someone else yeah I want to emphasize it's not anybody's burden to change themselves culturally so that they are not going to be a victim I am not saying that but I'm just saying as far as human interactions how you get along with people in a room if there's something small that people do idiosyncrasy things or whatever that triggers other people well then kind of don't do that you know it sets them so stop that right okay thanks think I have one any other final comments or questions from the board I feel like I have a really good sense of what we're

193doing and implementing at the K8 level and a little bit less sense kind of what what efforts are underway at the at the high school level um and I think a lot of the work that's been done particularly coming out of the pandemic is helping K students with the capacity to self-regulate uh to to be able to come together certainly there's a lot of research and a lot of writing about the impact of even infants uh as they enter into school now on the capacity to be able operate in a JK or an SK classroom which is I think really an interesting uh impact um one of the things I would love to hear kind of more about or think about uh and and I I'm what made me think about it is how we

194are using uh there was comments that you made the presentation on advi making consistent advisory periods and how we're utilizing them and I think I would love to hear more about how at the secondary level we're we're utilizing advisory periods for um High School aged appropriate yes uh Community Building connection postsecondary planning uh and those sorts of things uh and and I I think it's you know it's interesting as a board member of like the things that you're aware of that from a global level and then as a parent as you flow through the process of like oh here's an area that we seem to be doing really well here's some growth areas but that's an area I would love to hear more about future presentations yeah I mean a lot of the high level

195pieces still have applied at then 912 level although they do end up looking slightly different to be able to implement across a large High School um our advisories have really focused on um kind of four key areas uh one of them being around social emotional skills just using different resources within their advisory period um let's see uh some grade level specific needs you know things that maybe sophomores need to do just kind of get things done um or Juniors that they need to accomplish so grade level things social emotional learning um the other bucket kind of being around that culture and climate building so um meeting people getting to know the school learning how to do school when you're a ninth grader things like that um and then the fourth Buck that's escaping me right

196now uh might be related to careers um and a lot of times that is when zel gets fit in to our Zell lessons for ACP and career exploration get fit in within a student's day um and then I think both of our high schools have really started to lean into from more of the the Student Success roadmap perspective they've really leaned more heavily into learning about restorative practices and what that looks like from a proactive um piece as well as uh kind of in result of a disciplinary action yeah thank you very much I think we'll move into our next presentation which I believe is special education yes I'll introduce director Stacy Clem our director of special education whose presentation was also pre-recorded also known as flipped for you this evening now hand it over

197to her thank you for having me I'm happy to hear um questions you may have or thoughts you may have based on my presentation not a question I do have a comment and I um noticed on your presentation I that you were working on systems to make sure that our special education students have Supportive Services available to them in summer school and in and through their wreck activities and I just wanted to express my appreciation that that's something that you've um been working on I do think that that's an area you know we're all sort of this one big system with having wreck under our school district and it's unfortunate that those are not things that have been available before to have these you know systems talking to each other so I appreciate that that's

198something that you've been working on and I do hope that that will help um a lot of our um families and and our students who are receiving special education services to feel more comfortable having their their kids involved in wreck activities and that's in collaboration with Matthew um he is I'm really wanting to make the full community a community for all all all people really not just all students but all people so what we've been doing is um teaming one making sure we're communicating around students but then also we've done surveys of Staff who work for us who have the skills and the knowledge on how to support students at school and do any of them want to also work for the rec department so he's Gathering a list of Staff members to um have

199available to them if someone signs up for any random activity that he could then reach out to the collective group and say hey we have a student or we have an adult who wants to do whatever it is is anybody interested so it's been fun work other comments and questions from my colleagues I was just going to say um what stood out was how well our students with uh disability did on their act this year I thought that was a bright star in all of the reports that we reviewed so kudos to the team and all the teachers who who helped uh such big growth in that area this year I think that's a collaboration of our teaming with our division along with the academic Division and making sure we're having high expectations children have

200access to that learning and that we're having um just in time right supports when they need them um also in alignment with what they were talking about those student support teams making sure we're teaming and having productive conversations so thanks any know other questions thank you I one one plug um so this Sunday on the 18th the parent special ed committee they I mean this community wraps around each other in really delightful ways and the special ed leaders um parent special ed committee is putting on an activity this Sunday from 3: to six at har Park and by putting on an activity they just created a place and said come to Heart Park on this date at this time bring uh tent so they're not really doing anything other than made a make Meetup space

201and over 80 families have already rsbp saying they want to come so families just want to connect and come together and they're creating that so I'm super excited for them to be doing that and then in Fall we're also going to do um there is a um net net flick um documentary called CP camp and it's actually the signing of the American with Disabilities Act and it's kind of a story a documentary type story around that so they're going to host that at the library this fall so that we're doing with the wosa commissions for persons with disabilities so I'm excited about those few events watch your calendars and I'd like to add just a special thank you to director Clen as well for really taking what um was pressing issues two years ago and

202channeling those into really thoughtful fruitful avenues for our parents and thank you to our parents of our students with disabilities as well for making us better as we came in and really Venture on that road so yeah nice sense of belonging like these activities for sense of belonging could kind of you know think about some of the things we've been talking about yeah what we're finding is they just want to come together and they want to be together it's the learning events are helpful but really we all have access to information nowadays we don't need to go to something but people just want to know each other and feel part of something comment please um something that it's just a an example of something someone else did in another form something that's just wildly successful

203that the health department is doing is at the library on um some Saturday morning mornings I think they have um shall we say seniors who don't know how to use their Tech can partner up with a high schooler who knows how to use Tech so and everybody's really happy to participate so in our inclusion activities and in our um you know our special ed activities if there are things or activities where we can sort of partner different groups together stuff to get to know each other you know there we have you know people as old as me with 16 year olds to you know if you need help to figure out how to use your phone that your you know son who got you for you know Christmas and you're too embarrassed to tell them

204you don't know how to use it these high schoolers will help you that kind of stuff so if there's things maybe things we could do with our communities that we're trying to give them a sense of belonging and a sense of contribution because I'm sure they can contribute things okay thanks now the whole team gets to come out as they're transitioning I don't want to I think what you've heard from Miss Holland Miss OK Conor Miss clim tonight can be understated a few years ago the systems that we've discussed were not even in place um and Andor there were significant complaints coming to this boardroom around some of the services you deserve a lot of credit for empowering us to develop this team and I uh I feel fortunate to have the ability to work

205with them they they're doing outstanding work and they're led by Mr pinan who um I can't I can't say enough about and how strong of a leader he is but I think as and now I'm using this to give you a good transition if there are members of our community who feel that they don't have a voice who have concerns there's outlets and these are the four people that you should be calling you first should start with your building principle let me let me let me let me let me say that very clearly you you if you haven't talked to your teacher and and haven't come to resolution with the teacher then go to the principal if you've gone to the teacher and the principal these people are ready to work with you um I

206I think as a community we tend to LEAP to the board or we tend to LEAP to the superintendent and while we are very invested in your success we're not close enough to really give you the type of support that the teacher can or the principal can or these four fine Educators can so um I just want to thank you because often we only talk about the work you do when there's a crisis or when someone has a complaint when you're doing good work we should acknowledge you and I I appreciate everything you all have done Mr pinion the floor is yours thank you perfect setup um we are in front of you to speak toward our behavior and discipline data review that we now have really established this pace and Cadence of coming to

207generally in February and then again in August I want to first to say that we appreciate this opportun opportunity to be transparent in our work and our results but also to highlight celebrations and our positive outcomes while acknowledging the difficult yet essential work that remains ahead of us approximately one year ago today off by two days but one year ago today you heard me speak to this team's first year of work in the wosa school district I provided a rather lengthy list of foundational and essential aspects of our division that were absent broken disjointed unaligned or otherwise in need of prompt attention and Remediation in our first year this was in addition to our ambitious strategic plan and included everything from systems structures resources processes procedures and other supports that ultimately impact the family and

208student experience and student outcomes we were happy to report that we have maintained our momentum and are in a much healthier and functional position today than we were each year prior if we can say this every year we are doing the right work the exciting progress you reviewed throughout our data presentation would not have been possible without the administrative structure currently in place which has allowed our team to maintain a Vigilant focus on crucial areas of improvement additionally this progress must also be attributed to our dedicated staff and leaders who continue to strive for meeting the diverse and unique needs of every student it is also very very important for me to be clear that this team has absolutely zero interest in manipulating scrubbing swaying or misrepresenting our data in any way we strive for

209accuracy and consistency in all quantitative and qualitative measures of data in order to be accurately informed allocate resources appropriately and ensure we're monitoring our efforts anything else would be counterindicated we want accurate data that's our intention we will start by highlighting the incredible gains we achieved regarding major office discipline referrals which are the administrative managed behaviors we observed an overall reduction of 36% which is just shy of 1,000 and major office discipline referrals from 2223 to 2324 a tool developed by Leading PBIS researcher teren Scott from the University of Florida calculates the number of student learning hours and administrative time regained assuming that for every major referral a minimum of 20 minutes of instruction is lost and an administrator administrator spends 25 minutes working through the referral this highlights a significant cost benefit to this

210reduction that would be a total of 321 student learning hours regained or 40 full days in a total of 401 administrative work hours recovered or 50 full days during this time we also experienced a 1.5 reduction in risk ratio for out of school suspensions for students who identify as black which is well above the expected reduction of point or 0.25 at the state and federal Offices of accountability are seeking through their joint federal identification process Mr yes can you go just because this is big that's a big thing can you explain what that means so the joint Federal notification process which is a federal process that essentially puts us on a list for certain areas of disproportionality one of those being suspensions of our students who identify as black the state and feds are looking

211for a 0.25 reduction of risk ratio for that group every year when we do that for two years we're on a watch list when we do that for three years we are removed from their list the reduction from the first semester of 2223 to this last semester that we just completed was 1.5 that is six times greater than what the state and the federal government is looking for for our discipline that is specific to out of school suspensions we'll come back to that how and why I have a lot of things written here all of which are in the slide so I won't read them to you for a sake of time but of certainly all the items in the Strategic plan under go area to there are a lot there from Advocates to collaboration

212with academics to trauma informed care restorative practices PBIS that you heard about tonight Equity framework and core beliefs targeted mentoring groups that have been provided to students all that is outlined in our strategic plan we also have to acknowledge that these results are possible because of systems that were put in place I know people might get sick of hearing that but that is truly Pace SST expectations guarantees we have for students focusing on a strong positive start to the school year school year that is very proactively planned uh teaming with families to create proactive Behavior plans having a Continuum of responses um and retach instructional expectations to students the te- chart that we talked about earlier a disciplinary framework and then adult behaviors this these are the culturally responsive learning environments are we understand reflecting

213checking our own implicit biases are we intentionally building and maintaining relationships providing instruction that celebrates diverse perspectives and what students contribute to that environment re upholding high expectations visual representation knowing behaviors communication arranging the classroom in a specific way for high visibility active supervision teaching reteaching reinforcing but now what the data clearly articulates where we must continue the important worked that is paying off by sustaining it with staff and improving over time the areas that we still need to focus on that are certainly still concerning is reconciling the dramatic reduction of overall major discipline referrals with no comparable reduction in the utilization of out of school suspension ensuring that out of school suspension is not utilized in isolation of restorative practices or other evidence-based responses that we know improve behavior and teach lagging skills that's

214no endorsement that it is happening in isolation we've worked really closely with principles but we have to wrestle with the data studying analyzing and developing the next steps regarding the lack of comparable reduction in risk ratio for our special ed populations and those receiving free and reduced lunge know those risks are much greater when you look at the data certainly what still jumps off the pl page are our students our black and African-American students um but we're not seeing the same reductions in other groups we need to utilize our newly tracked data on bullying assessment threat assessments suicide risk assessments to better understand the needs of individual School communities and our students continue equitably allocating resources and monitoring the impact of our efforts and we need to continue our considered efforts around supporting the whole

215child ensuring that students have Equitable access to resources receiving what they need when they need it what does this mean for you all as our board in your governance please seek to understand the processes processes systems and resources we have in place and that we're continuing to study and refine over this next year please avoid jumping the ladder of inference when interpreting large amounts of data it's easy to do we do it ourselves although we're paid to do it over time and over a lot of process um trying to stay low on that ladder of inference please continue allocating resources in implementing or revising policies to best meet our student and family needs and please continue maintaining a Vigilant focus on our vision core values strategic plan Milestone milestones and Associated key metrics hold us

216accountable while understanding the complexity of our work and our additional requirements and priorities as a friendly reminder we can do anything but we cannot do everything and this will be particularly true as we undergo the development and iteration or over next iteration of the Strategic plan now we welcome your questions based on the data you saw for tonight sure back in 2013 and I I saw it occur again in PBIS righteously earned a bad name when it continued in specific cases where it wasn't working and so we lacked some kind of a red line or a circuit breaker that PBIS which of course is affective and useful and necessary in most cases doesn't always work but we kept using it anyway and kids got hurt and and the the that outcome was documented in a

217report written by buo veter our current Law Firm back in 2013 so that to me is is always the my fear that somehow out in the classroom buildings we become clerical in our application of the guidance you've given them when of course if you were standing there in front of them you would say no this isn't working we need another strategy for these rare cases where it doesn't work um but back in 2013 actually student services had no other strategy their only strategy was to keep doing but which is why you're here Mr pinion to tell you the truth okay the the a sort of a corollary concern is is how we balance the the rights of the um um the alleged perpetrator of the bullying behaviors with the rights of the victim and sometimes

218I my perception is we kind of get that out of balance too if things don't work out um now on the notion of like disruption here um I was trying to figure out what to say tonight and I I heard a um a podcast by Ezra Klein where he was interviewing Nancy Pelosi and Ezra Klein was trying to figure out how Nancy Pelosi had been so successful and and he kept pressing her and asking her and one of her key responses was you need to always know the why why are you doing what you're doing be cold and brutally honest with yourself and don't deluded those are my words not hers but why we're doing this for the children that's our why and if it's if it's day to day in day out Night by

219night in this room and what whatever we do if we're not if I'm saying it and it's not for the children it's if it's because I'm upset or I'm offended or whatever then I'm not my outcomes for the kids won't be as good as they could be otherwise so I this affected the words I'm using here um this notion of disruption this notion of advocacy which is how you disrupt the um Americans with Disabilities Act has um you know 42 us code 12203 has very strong protections against retaliation and coercion against people advocating for students with disabilities it is stunning how strong this is um it is very broadly written and I was going to read it but everybody would kind of get blurry eyed in the legal ease but trust me if you are

220a um a student a parent an aid a teacher or an administrator or a Schoolboard member if if you Advocate which is their disruption that something's not working and we need to fix it you have powerful Protections in federal statutes so fear not everyone speak up call Mr pinion if something's wrong or call I guess your building principal first start with the teacher start with the teacher and start with the building principle right what's the progression go to Mr pinion go to the superintendent and then all else fails you can come the school board but but you know the the story I told about the African-American single mom who was afraid to join the voices of the white people to complain about the bullying in the classroom you're not you are protected um by federal

221statute now and and then I thought about this this after regardless of whether the student with disabilities is the victim of the bullying or even the student with disabilities is the perpetrator of the bullying Behavior because right our guidance reflects that as well yes yes both are protected by advocacy for both of them are protected by this statute that is stunning I mean it's good stunning but so as we talk for discipline well we can't forget our advocacy for people with disabilities who are doing the behaviors we wish they wouldn't do and we need to you know I'm preaching to the CL I know but it needs to be said I think I think that's important so both ends of that interaction have rights protected by the Disabilities Act and and those who advocate for

222those rights are powerfully protected so please disrupt complain tell us what's going on tell your teacher your building principal you know and these folks now we are all learning we are on a journey um last year there was a a specific case of a student with disabilities who was bullied and administration handled it one way Schoolboard when it came to them handled live this pretty much the same way Dr means had the administration's handling of it reviewed by buer veter and buo veter had some conclusions that um were sort of unhappy as far as how it was handled and doctor means mandated training for the administrators and staff involved similarly Dr means is planning training for the school board with uh is it um Renee Alana who's going to do the training Mr pinion is

223GNA share the information at the August 26 on 4 okay so Administration goofed it up and that's kind of a euphamism for made mistakes and the school board did well no surprise we one culture and we need to be the culture that Dr means is trying to lead us to and it's working for administration and just as with all things like diversity Equity inclusion training everybody gets it and the School Board needs to have this training as well about what are the rights of both ends of the student equation are and our responsibilities and burdens as a school board thanks I want to talk a little bit about some of the data that we see uh particularly related to suicidal threat assessment um one of the notes I had is that one we're seeing this

224explode um across the country Wisconsin's data seems to be worse than the National Data uh based off of some of the different reports that come out um there are three schools that that have significantly higher uh numbers in in terms of reports when I see that in within the higher end context what that generally means is that those institutions in that case or schools in this case are generally better at having things that what people are reporting different people are paying attention in different ways it's not generally that there's just more incidents in those schools it's that the schools are more tuned to be aware of what is occurring I don't know it's it's much smaller end when you're looking at a higher education institution of 10 to 20,000 versus a school of of two

225to 3 to 400 um and so I'm I'm curious I think as I reflected I was thinking if if it is indeed the case that there are certain there's some schools that are just better at this right now and it in one of the schools I noted it's a school that had a lot of additional Staffing last year so additional Staffing and I think there's an additional uh kind of adult who's responsible for some of the beh behavioral ID there's a de of students at an elementary school that's no doubt observing and paying attention and there's a capacity level but one of the things I was I was reflecting on in that is this tension that we are going to have of how do we operate within our budget and our resources how do we

226have the number of adults in our schools for kids who are increasingly in crisis and need supports um then I could go on a whole thing about how the state of Wisconsin is or is not resourcing public schools right now but what do you see as the successes whether it's through suicidal threat assess assessment kind of bullying or other components of that of places where where we seem to be doing really well what do you how do you make sense of by really well I guess me places where we are aware early are able to intervene early and provide supports early why are we doing in cases where that's the case what are we doing well there and why are we able to do well there sure um like you said I think that there's

227probably a number of factors related to this data but I do think in the schools that are Finding Traction with these processes it's because they are following and leaning into that process I think that is very simple but I don't want to um Overlook that um prior to this this last school year we really did not have a consistent way for our student services team and administrators to approach um expressions or concerns around self harm and so now we do have a protocol for everyone to follow um it makes it easier to collaborate and it makes it easier to understand how you enter the process and where you go from there and it makes it less person dependent whether it is the school Psych the social emotional specialist the social worker um because all of

228us are trained in this um we are just like all of the rest of our data I think we are getting better at just starting to document these in a more consistent way as well so not only using the process but accurately capturing that and sharing that so I think there's a level of that within that as well um the other piece that is related to the Strategic plan and I think also as it comes up when we look at this data is around role Clarity for student services um and so I think that was the other thing with the additional resources that we've added within our system has come necessary conversations about where do various roles within student services overlap and where are there clear distinctions so I think in some schools um they've

229been able to D for for again different factors they've been able to more quickly identify where are the boundaries of roles and responsibilities to more efficient intervene um because as the theme seems to be tonight we can do a lot of things but we can't do everything and so how do we help that student services team understand um like what what do they assume kind of responsibility over and what they don't um so I think there's probably a number of factors within that um partly and I think partly it's just due to having some consistent practices um so we will continue to come back to it throughout this year so that we can get to all of those related factors around documentation role Clarity um communication as a team operating as a team uh that

230I think are probably all factoring into why there is some discrepancy in the data um and again not because we're um not trying to accurately report it but because this was the first time we asked everybody to do that more questions and comments after um I mean first your team is just doing such amazing work and I'm just so pleased with everything that I'm seeing here I mean obviously there's lots of room to grow um but the amount of work that you've done the change that your team has has um has brought forward is just really remarkable and I don't want to lose sight of that in sort of recognizing that there's still areas that we want to continue to work on but also like how much you've really done so thank you all so

231much for that um I feel like we've talked a lot about the behavioral Data before um I'm really excited to see this new slide where you're we're documenting bullying threat assessments and suicide risk assessment I mean obviously it is really truly heartbreaking to see these suicide numbers um particularly noting that a lot of them are happening in our elementary schools um So for anybody who thinks that you know kids lower than the age of 10 can't be suicidal this data would certainly dispute that um I I don't really have a I guess a question about the data but more so um if you kind of had a wish list of what's one thing you would like students and families to do now before the school year starts what would that be same thing same thing

232for um staff and teachers and then same thing for the board kind of like give your wish list for each of those I would love to hear what that would be I can go um I think that a lot of things happen for our students over the summer and we really value teaming with families and if there's something going on with a child or within the family um or a significant change both positive or areas of concern that the family is facing um reaching out to your student service or if it's a student with a disability um reaching out to your case manager to say hey these things have been happening over the summer can we meet before summer starts or school starts so that we can Team early and be really proactive to set

233a child up for Success because if things are happening in um a big or little um little things can be big things to some families and some children um someone's sick in their family you know what it might seem little but kids carry that weight and it the more we know the more we can help support and team and that a child for Success so um connect with your school attend those if you can't attend call at least call your case manager or call the school and they will connect you with um the right people to make sure at least we are um helping children get a good start to the school year that would be my mine was similar at least for our staff and our families was really make those connections as early

234on as possible lean into a first enjoy summer what's left of it make sure we do that first um but that week back um in some of those planning times really make those genuine Connections in authentic ways with your case load with your class list with your families let them know who you are learn something personal about them before they even walk in the door if possible um and for the board I think it's some the calls that we had tonight in terms of maintaining that Focus understanding the work where we do have entry points where we might have to say no to great ideas because the most effective healthy organizations do that every day there's a lot of great ideas out there um but really maintaining that Focus words lens similarly to get a

235jump start on building those relationships I would encourage teachers to reach out to their parents early I mean it's very old school but sending that not home um sending an email if you have a Google text message to send that message to the parents and for parents to reach out and share about their children and what they expect for the upcoming school year it's powerful to build those relationships ahead of time and then once school starts to continue to maintain the relationship that was established this sort of ties in with um what Jenny just said but I really appreciate it actually the end of your slide deck where you have recommendations for um Guardians where Guardians um can work with their students and teachers so I was just wondering if this is going to be

236shared anywhere outside of borta it's not always found just on someone pay you to set you up for this plug that I have now um it's been shared and we've shared actually these same last slides that you see in a lot of avenues almost every engagement session we did every board Collective presentation you'll see them in a lot of spaces and we are near the end of finalizing a very comprehensive Guardian guide which we're excited about we've put a lot of energy in collaboration with the academic office it will be very comprehensive it's gone through a few different parent groups already for feedback um but it's essentially a guide for any Guardian that might have a question of what do I do at this point when I need help or what do I do when

237my child might need something so it really guides them in all aspects of that throughout our divisions um so you'll see this there as well awesome thank you I got sucked in looking at all the things that are happening with meet the teacher night and all the um we're doing what we say um and either board comments questions one um [Music] so there's a lot of discussion about um General ideas but also within each School the school's culture what are some of the ways to keep that balance so just like we talk about academic Excellence we don't want just Points of Light we want across the district equilibrium how are we doing that what are some of the things that are being done to make sure that some schools are are perhaps growing faster um

238on addressing the need for Behavioral you know um seal and things like that so what are we doing to help the district as a whole um you know I I not have like oh this I want my kid go to this school because they're really good at supporting a child with disabilities we want that to be the whole District or a child with behavioral issues or a child who you know needs certain types of support so what are some of the things that put that in place that we have the building work but then that keeps going throughout the whole District so we don't get points of light within this work um initially when I hear you I'm thinking about the coordinator model that you would all helped support us to have that model um

239does exactly that so through the coordinators I disseminate or we all disseminate like where the vision is going and what is a PD and then what are the gaps in the buildings and how are we how are we ensuring all the buildings have access to really high quality instruction not only from our division but also the academic division having coaches and all the specialists in that model and then making sure that they're parting those teaming structures so I feel like we talk about systems that's what we're talking about we're talking about like layers of communication that kind of build into a systemic approach and then like not it just being us telling people what to do but coordinators making sure it's happening with Fidelity in your in your building so that's what we're talking about

240when we talk about those systems and using coordinator models thank you sure um I also think that some of the guiding documents that we've able to provide um provide a level of standardization across the system where schools can enter where they have opportunities to grow for example that Student Success road map was established knowing that different schools are in different places but we all are heading in that same direction towards the vision and so one school may choose an you know they may have areas of strength at another doesn't but they also have a couple of areas where they really need to focus their efforts most in line with their growth plan um to support that work and so I think that's where we've we've tried to support that variance um and putting up some

241guide posts to say you know here's the variation and here's where you can um lean into where your areas of need are but like we're all going together we're all we're all heading in the same direction just one particular barrier challenge to highlight in that work is because we entered a system that had not a lot on paper in terms of process structure systems how do we do that how do I write a 504 from beginning to end that is consistent through that evaluation process we laid a lot of that out to to Emily's point about where are we going how do we get there and now it's at that point where we aren't creating a lot of new it's the ability to now which is really the harder work is now assessing supporting making

242sure buildings that were in different places are supported to that ultimate end goal of how we get there so I think the harder work get now any final questions or comments final part of the night yeah I just from a systems perspective I think there's two takeaways one is we really want to ground what you heard this evening we want to ground ourselves in changing perceptions to increase our understanding as as members of this community so the question going back to Dr hoy's question the question that parents and staff members alike should ask themselves as it pertains to serving students from a social emotional diversity equity and inclusion perspective is who should I approach to help me gain newer perspectives on this issue who should I who should I engage who should I approach because

243your perception needs to change but you have to be willing to engage someone else so I would just encourage everyone as we think about these things talk about it that we talk to one another uh and so then the second thing is we should always recognize that the system's structure generates Its Behavior the system's structure generates Its Behavior when we didn't have a division of people and family supports I'm not surprised that we saw more disciplinary problems I'm not surprised that we saw more burnout from staff members I'm not surprised that we saw more frustration from Ames the system was not structured to serve the people that we actually wanted to serve so when Mr pinion says that the structure that we have in place right now is generating the results and we're not we're

244not cooking the numbers this is what's happening it's because we recognize that the system structure generates this Behavior so the question that I would just ask the board to continue to to think about is when things do go wrong and they will we work with people there will be there will be some point throughout the school year where things may not go the way we want it to go the question parents and the boor should ask is how can I focus on the internal causes rather than dwell on external plane how can we continue to refine the system versus blaming external issues those are from A System's perspective that's what the five of us will continue to to do we're going to ask the board to continue to do that work these are questions that

245I continue to kind of reference back to when I reflect on the work I I it's it's the systems work that we want to build is not always exciting it's it's staying low on that that ladder of inference not leaping to action if we continue to do the work that we've put in place I can assure you that this team is good enough that they're going to move us where we want our kids to be and and in September from a thematic standpoint in September when you hear from Dr Marvel and her team you're going to hear the same results you're going to you're going to see the same results with academic performance the structure of the system will generate the behavior that we want thank you all for your work it is I remember

246if we go back a year ago or two years ago that I don't think I ever expected to see is dramatic of an impact of the work that was being done affecting what our numbers look like today and so that initial conversation we had about the risk ratio so thank you for your work uh you worked much faster than I ever would have imagined um and thank you for your work in changing the system to be able to address the needs of our students um with that it is 9:53 p.m may have motion to I moved to aurn second thank you Mr Morris um M Mr Morris yes Dr hoik yes Dr Worley yes Mr Rolland yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Jessa Binger yep and we are