001good evening everyone thank you for being here tonight it is Monday June 26 2023 and I call the Monday June Monday I call the June 26 2023 school board meeting to order it is 7605 pm oh goodness uh we're a conference from Seattle Fisher Administration Building at 12121 West North Avenue Dr means here it's Morse here Mr Meyer here I particip anger here Dr Hawaii here because Emerald problem [Music] s hi Miss Willis is excused this evening um we will begin with public comment and management items members of the wall which was the school board value the import students parents staff members and community members the board's regularly scheduled meetings provide an opportunity for opinions and concerns to be expressed publicly the board values all comments and will respectfully consider this input decision making yeah
002board requests for the individuals limits are comment on each item to three minutes the board following any comment and individual board member May respond on the issues raised however it is not the intent of the public comment portion of the agenda for the board to enter into a 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 knowledgeable items this evening do we have any public comments in the room this evening so uh I noticed last time when I was here there's a little static so I just want to restate something so it's in the record black kids have about a 2.5 chance of being able to read and do math at grade level and what would tell
003us up I've come to realize what's more important than that it's two things the fifteen thousand dollars that the district gets for them physically being here and teach them to expand their sexuality I now was talking or I didn't know I was talking with a gender transition mental health expert so I thought I'd educate myself a little bit on Dr John money The Godfather of gender identity he's the one who coined the term for those born here he stated for those born and educated after the year 2000 we will be their history and they will be mystified by our self-important moralistic ignorance of the principles of sexual and erotic development in childhood I get why we couldn't tell people it was happening like for instance one year ago it was crazy to say a girl
004at the age of 16 was having her healthy breasts removed now we know there was always a good reason and it's been happening for years now today we follow the majority of Dr money's teachings not embracing key aspects we were both hurting adults and kids he States a childhood sexual experience such as being a partner with a relative or an older person need not necessarily affect a child adversely she wrote the board in a book that advocated for men as old as 60 to have lovers as young as 11. efforts in California have made same sex offenders legal uh in Africa to lgbtq plus Community says Senator Scott weiner now a 20 year old can legally have sex with a 12 year old so many in the gender field or in the field of gender
005ideology call for the normalization of minor attracted people that we used to call pedophiles even eliminating the age of consent in Minnesota and effort is underway to make these people a protected class why are we denying young boys the possibility of a male lover in his 60s that could bring him into adulthood the way Dr John money advocated for Dr money was right being born after 2000 means a totally different sexual upbringing soon we could have teachers not only teaching our kids sexual education but showing them how to enjoy a positive relationship with sex this whole will be seen as a hero who got all of us to see the light Children's Hospital will be right there to help all the kids with expensive surgeries and years of hormone therapy affect side effects until the
006day they die I hope you get a corner office for all that you've done with your good work soon an old man will be able to make sweet sweet love to a young boy you can say it's not happening but we were told that before and I've read about this man it's all very safe and I said you need to direct your comments to the board not attack individual board members and your comments are off the rails at this point I mean this is all you can come in and say whatever you want I just don't know the relevance connected in any way to the school district or the school board I mean this is all in the curriculum we should I'm kind of over my limit is this a discussion no it's not going
007your time thank you okay thank you I'm pretty happy somebody just handed out a cookie when he came in the room um but I'm also very excited I just I sent a message to Dr means and he just told me about the May 6th All City strings Festival the board voted on and approved to have the concert to add and fam field and I was inquiring why aren't we celebrating these kids there's nothing on any District communication showing pictures videos and he's waiting I think for the teachers to to get that information to him or Miss Ellis or at Miss Ellis the communications person um so but I'd encourage families guests ptas who were there to send their information we had 1100 kids plus our music educators we spent a lot of money twenty six
008thousand dollars to rent I am famfield that the board um approved but we need to celebrate these children and spread that word out there of their accomplishments and their musical accomplishments so thank you thank you I know I my social media was lit up that day with lots of parents excited about being there so [Music] and I the district's got such a backlog of so many things that have been celebrating online that I'm sure they're and I'm sure it's all keyed up thank you Jamie anything online yes we do have one hand raised carry you have the microphone please state your name and address Harry Sykes 2672 North 114th Street can you hear me okay okay so um if I misread it or overlooked I apologize I heard on the last school board meeting that
009there was a um I believe it's a vote for today that's what I'm trying to verify if it's for the new printer software I heard the ideas of and I've used something similar at my company I was just wondering what is the cost of that number one and number two what um has the district considered if they incentivize the staff to see like how much they could potentially reduce because I heard that you know big print jobs should ideally be done in two to three days at the main copy center so do they even know that are they incentivized to make sure that they're doing that because it sounds like the software just lets you know that hey that you could do this to me that would seem that potentially we could save money um
010for a year or see how that goes before potentially um providing and again I don't know the cost you could incentivize you could have up to 500 for rewards spread out around the staff I didn't I couldn't tell if the benefit was if your staff going in and out of different buildings and that's why the printer software is going to work better versus if you're just at one of the buildings um but I just wondering on how much data analytics run into it sounds like they thought it was going to save money because it it saves on costs being wasted but just curious if you guys have considered other options or incentivizing um for a year before deciding to pay for the software depending on how much it is thank you Mr Brightman I think
011when we get to the point on the agenda if you can comment on it thank you there are no more hands raised thank you Jamie we will then move to 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 may have a motion to approve the consent agenda it is recommended that the school board approve the consent agenda and ISO rules give me a second second thank you very much uh any board come with your questions on this side um I just want to give kudos to Ms de lazaski it is so exciting to see all of these Eisenhower s on the consent agenda for this week so amazing work from you and your team thank you so much for
012prioritizing this and making sure that we are meeting the needs of the Eisenhower community I apologize I should have called for a separate vote on the liability insurance question I would have abstained on that with a separate vote and I plan to abstain now on the consent agenda due to that item just so people understand why I will cast my book available I'm fine with just continuing as we are thank you I would like to Echo uh Dr Hook's comments um I know the team there was a lot of people involved interviews uh the Eisenhower staff who are participating families who participated uh Mr Stein participated um I believe had some cake earlier this evening as the rumor uh and a whole lot of staff from a central office uh really indication doing an incredible
013amount of work really quickly I know we are hiring a lot of people right now across the district this is the hiring season in K-12 education so uh kudos to everybody for the incredible effort the the positive early returns uh any Community comment on this item you can send each other shame anything online no there are no means right okay I will call the roll uh Dr Worley yes Mr Morris yes Mr Meyer upstate Dr Joseph anger's yes Dr hoyke yes [Music] the timer around yes and that passes um thank you all very much um I would hate to let this uh go by this does agenda item go by without acknowledging on the consent agenda I believe Mr Stein was officially moved to and appointed uh this evening with your affirmative vote as principal
014of Eisenhower Mr Stein's a resident of Wauwatosa he's a graduate of Wauwatosa East he'll be interested to see how he changes his Allegiance now is a requirement to be at Eisenhower um and so we're very we're very proud of Mr Stein we know that he's ready he's jumped in and demonstrated his Readiness already we just know good things are ahead for Eisenhower and his leadership so congratulations to you I'm also uh this Bittersweet we're very proud of Miss Leah claybor um and uh Leah is uh as a result of your vote is uh now going to become our director of Human Resources Human Resources was the only uh Division if you will in our our district office that only had nizella zoski so as you speak of the uh effort that was put forth with
015uh hiring for for the one school in our district Sarah has all of our schools um to to really take um account for and she didn't have anyone else I I think her staff has reminded me that she's the only this is the only department where she has no one else to lean on for us to get someone of the caliber of Alia just not because Lee is in the district she um she did amazing work at West and I know at times we've had some challenging times at West the the Solace that I've always taken is that I knew Leah Cleber was there and some of the kiddos who were in the midst of those challenges they relied on her and so I'm I'm I I think it's bittersweet that she will not be
016um helping all of our schools navigate the the the challenges of Human Resources but I know this is someone who cares deeply about kids and the kids care deeply about her um and I know she's going to add so much riches richness to Human Resources these are just two really strong people here as I'm looking out into the crowd our uh I'm I'm really proud of the fact that we're we're building our capacity of our assistant principles and our teams and we're building our bench as a result in it so I think this is just two really strong examples you're gonna get another example in a few minutes uh as a as Sarah's kind of saying stop talking and let me get to business year but I just I didn't want that to go by
017without acknowledging those folks Dr Hoyt thank you for acknowledging the work around Eisenhower I want to start by thanking the parent teacher Association they they showed up and showed out in terms of being there I know that a lot of our candidates referenced last week Thursday that's pretty impressive to have a PTA at a job fair on a Thursday night um I want to thank all of our our and it's just not our administrators we had a lot of our our instructional coaches and academic Specialists who did a lot of background things such as developing um assignments for the candidates to to fulfill before they even came in to uh interview with us I think having some type of activity that you could show that you can teach is really important and I think it's
018important for the Eisenhower community community to know we're not just hiring people for hiring saying we're we're we feel confident about these people that we're hiring um when I look at where we currently stand there are 19 classroom positions that we have to hire for and as of right now I think Mr Stein may have closed the deal one on one of our our positions we have 16 of the 19 hired right now um and uh We've we've called a meeting of the board for this Thursday we are hopeful that we'll be able to bring more to you um but that's classroom teachers then we have a social worker a social emotional learning specialist we have a special education teacher and a music teacher that we're still trying to hire so that that brings us
019to 23 and of the those remaining four positions we think we have a good lead on three of the four uh with the rest of this week still ahead of us so uh I want to personally Thank A lot of people who put a lot of time um into making sure that this is this is the first step I think there's a lot of steps and I would just conclude by saying um from my role while I'm very proud of the work that we've put in place to get here I I am also regretful that we're in this place and so we're committed to making sure that this we're able to look upward and onward and and not have this type of situation occur again that's why we're so excited about the the people that
020we're hiring and Mr Stein but I think it would be I don't I don't want to be uh too optimistic and too Rosy and not acknowledge that if it was up to us we would have never even landed here in the first place and so we're looking forward to continuing to improve our systems and and avoid this from ever happening again but upon us knowing that there was something that needed to happen we I hope we've demonstrated that we responded swiftly and we'll continue to respond Mr Stein and I taught today about making sure that we're getting the new teachers in now and giving them training and and I'm meeting with the external coach around PBIS tomorrow to make sure that they're ready to start working with Mr Stein and teachers in July so I
021think there's a lot of things that we are learning that will not only apply to Eisenhower but today entire District so from that perspective really please thank you for allowing me to have a few minutes to acknowledge the work and my apologies to our to not new hires but newly minted folks and new leadership roles I totally in my mind had it as separate agenda items um that Iran do we have a speech from either of them prepared for this evening possibly a PowerPoint any comments something peer pressure hello everyone um obviously Jordan Stein principal at eisenal Howard uh it's been a whirlwind of two weeks but I can get our parent meeting or principal night tonight and it was just great to get connected with the community hour and a half steady flow of
022kids and families and meeting everybody um Eisenhower is a unique position but it's a committed Community it's an advocate of community that advocates for the building so I'm really excited for this opportunity and I can't wait to see what happens in the years to come um go even [Music] thank you so much I'm William Claymore I was the assistant principal at West for five years and um I agree the Bittersweet feeling is there Sarah will get you like I got I got a lot of good things coming though um I really enjoyed working in the district these past five years I have built great relationships with families in the community I am so excited and think this board is really a symbol of where Wauwatosa is in attracting teachers I think what we just talked
023about at Eisenhower and bringing that many people on we're at a great place for bringing new excited Educators that want to validate students to our our walls and so I'm just really excited to be part of that work work with a great team we went to a game show place today so I'm just I'm really excited for the work thank you so much thank you congrats to to everybody um I'm now going to move us into um strategic goal for high quality staff action to approve the 2324 administrative contract of Austin character as associate principal of Wawa chose to East High School effective July 1 2023 for 200 and I feel like I'm not going to read the whole thing it's uh Austin's character because we're about to have a motion that's going to do
024the whole same thing um Jenny can I have you read this one it's recommended that the school board approve the 2023-2024 administrative contract of Austin carricker as associate principal of Wauwatosa East High School effective July 1 2023 for 221 days per year at an annual salary of 90 000 and I so move thank you may have a second thank you um any I'm really pleased to be here this evening this is an exciting night um to see as Dr means mentioned members of our team that that the organization has invested in and supported their growth moved into some um Advanced leadership positions one of whom is Mr carricker um this is really um in my understanding the first time that uh with the Advent of our Dean positions at our secondary schools we were really
025starting to groom a bench of Future Leaders in that respect not just to move into principal positions but to have the capacity to work in that AP role work with some really talented principals themselves and so when Ms mcginnity decided to go ahead and move on from her role at East uh right away we we knew that the opportunity to post that vacancy internally and to consider some of our our current Talent uh seemed like the right idea and we were very fortunate to gain Mr character's interest and I'm really pleased to present him uh for approval of his contract this evening thank you um any more comments or questions inside them I have two um first is for Miss mcginnity um I've never seen so many people sat on social media for an AP
026to leave you're the AP position is a challenging one um and to have that many people send um it really speaks the level of relationships and everything that you've been you being here this evening so thank you for your time in the district um and we're sad to see you go but wish you our very best I've been hearing about Mr carricker since my daughter had him about four years ago the entire year she was trying to figure out what he actually thought about any given thing in social studies um she's like what is his perspective he's always asking me the other perspective but it's every perspective um so I know you did outstanding work in the classroom and I'm excited that you're in this role so congratulations I'm sure she will still be thoroughly
027perplexed by your Socratic dialogue with her looking forward to stories um any Community comments on these on these items no I will call the room uh Dr Worley yes Mr Morris yes Mr Myers yes Dr Joseph anger is yes Dr Hoy yes Ms Heimer Rock yes congratulations uh I'm Austin character I did want to thank you guys for just a humbling opportunity for all you have done and invested in me over the last few years um I'm also a Wauwatosa East Alum and grad and coming to East as such a private school transfer was very intimidating but east really became a home for me and so when the opportunity came to go back to East I was so excited to pay back all that East did for me and transform me into who I am
028today and so it's very surreal but I'm very excited to continue that work and watch students I once had at Longfellow grow into Young Learners so thank you very much thank you Miss I was asking [Music] next up is strategical six operations action to approve the 2324 school year budget [Music] um Dr Worley will start with the motion it was recommended that the school board approved the 2023-2024 school year budget and ISO move thank you Matt a second okay uh so significant change um but just a couple's uh changes to the budget that board saw at the last board meeting and we discussed briefly uh two weeks ago and a lot of changes in two weeks right so joint Finance had released some tentative media accounts of what they might have in a budget proposal
029but we weren't quite sure what that meant yet so um Tuesday following the last board meeting join Finance did go into Open Session and approve a preliminary recommendation that went to the legislature is still being processed through that platform right now so nothing is finalized yet but we do know what it includes we've updated in the budget document you'll see some yellow highlighted cells those are the updates to what we see but essentially going from we had predicted a 350 increase per student figure one of the biennial budget it looks like it's gonna be 325 for both years so year one would be 325 not 350. so that reduces Revenue Authority by about 147 000 in the district with that item the second need one is reduction in special education aid from 60 which we
030thought was um viable it was something that legislators had communicated was kind of a reasonable lift and something that they could get behind it turns out it was not in part of the the recommendation by joint Finance joint Finance increased from 30 to 33.3 percent with that a reimbursement threshold and so on our budget magnitude that's about a 3.5 million dollar reduction in revenue and fund 27 thereby increasing our fund 10 expense that covers fund 27 costs so it's an increase to expenses on our site so we've updated the budget document to include those parameters there's some other things in the state budget which aren't Quantified yet it's mental health funding um some other new AIDS and some increases to some categorical AIDS but there's not enough information yet and they're not as significant in
031the in the scheme of things but we'll quantify those well in advance of the October budget adjust adoption which comes up in a couple months [Music] um I did highlight those again in page yellow on pages three to six of the attached budget document um in page five you'll see the budget deficiency line went from 4.6 million dollars two weeks ago to just over 7.2 million so that is the financial impact of the biennial state budget um you know personally I'm a little disappointed in the way that this landed for not just volatility but Public Schools um the state coffers or resources are there to cover the requests that the board had in the legislative platform we didn't think that the biennial budget would come in at that level necessarily um but um it fell
032short I think of where our expectations were and where the feedback was that we're getting from the area legislators where it might land making this additional elements to the State financial budget or the biennial budget and again we'll update those as we get closer to the October adoption so I guess I'll take any questions the board we have on the budget packet or I just would if I may add an addition I not to be and um conflict with my colleagues statement I don't know if I'm disappointed um I think there was a message delivered to school boards and to school districts and the message is that what we consider to be adequately funding schools and what our state leaders consider to be what funding schools or adequately funding schools is are two very separate
033things right now and I take solace in the fact that we do have a mechanism when I say we I mean K-12 education there's a mechanism that we have available that can lead the municipalities if we talk to our our dear mayor class of 1972 of volatiles East Dennis the McBride we have a mechanism in K-12 education at municipalities don't have that County governments don't have that is we can't control our destiny if we have to if we don't see the level of funding coming from the state as I talked to colleagues across Wisconsin that is the resounding message that people are taking away from this most recent budgetary cycle so I guess I'm not I'm I'm not disappointed in the legislature I think um us brow beating or or same things that are not
034flattering to the legislature doesn't profit us any Iris I respect the challenge that they have and they have they have priorities too and they've made their priorities known um but K-12 education is funded in a way where there are mechanisms there's at least one or two mechanisms that we are able to control our destiny ourselves to a certain degree I think we have to do a lot of work um to even invoke those mechanisms but that would be my message to the board in the community as we were on the eve of this new 2023-2025 state budget I'm speaking on might be happening at the board but I I will say that I I am disappointed and I think those parts there is that when you think about everything that the state is saying that
035they're trying to do for hey through 12 Public Schools um giving that same energy and all that all that rah-rah that we give and we think about the choice schools and the other funding always talking about these big numbers and the only overlay what is this Surplus that we have what's it for if it's not for the children which are supposed to be the future of the communities that they serve and they live in what are we doing so I I will express my administrative satisfaction but disappointment and hope that the future does ultimate things and I know Mr Myers point out some things that we can't rest on our wills and expect the states are going to hold up and we have to expect that that's coming because just like we saw it didn't
036but then we make other choices in the future that are hopefully in our best interest and not rely on those parts I can't support these levels of spending with the uncertainty we have in Revenue I I hope we quickly proceed down the process go to referendum when Act 10 hit a few years ago we had to make two with money we had and um aligned with what Dr means has just said um not his words but my words we have to assume we have less money until it's proven we have more money and it seems the only route for that it seems as referendum so I we are intended to talk about referendum tonight but if we had that in our future in a more positive way I could support the spending we have but
037I I'm a pragmatist not a happy practice thank you for hearing my comments [Music] I also share um I have some disappointment about where the state budget um discussion has ended up and I I don't think that and I say that as a parent and I say that as a as a resident a taxpayer of the state that I don't think we're doing enough for our kids and for our future and for the practicalities of the future of the state I think we we missed um and I hope that we'll see the next time or the ways we move in the next few years will will look different and that we'll hit on it and we will prepare our communities and our our children to um to be with big campy I don't think this
038decision that's been made is really heading that way but I hope we can find a new way to get there in the comments my comments on kind of on how things have played out in the last several months um where I take some Solace is that we have over the course of the last 18 months developed and approved by the board of Community Driven strategic plan so the community has done a lot of work to articulate what is its values what is its priorities it's laid out for the next three years um kicking off tomorrow I believe the Tulsa 20 2075 task force is in place and is going to be taking a look at what is the future of what we chose to look like um from our footprint to um a whole Gap
039around the whole gamut of key questions that we need to consider as a community I think we're in a really good position to have Community conversations around what are our priorities um what types of resources do we need to meet those priorities and goals as a community and Mr Meyer I'm on board that I think the community is going to need to make decisions very soon um about does the community want to invest uh resources in the schools to maintain what they've had previously and hopefully strategically also find ways to do a bit more than we've been doing over the last couple years in terms of resourcing our schools um so I I'm feeling good about where organizationally we are at I'm disappointed um that there were not strategic Investments made in K-12 education in
040this budget cycle particularly our special education funding um that's the one I thought Mr Brightman I know you had a conversations I think consistently I'd heard some more things that there was a lot of hope that we were going to Resource there and even if we would have resourced public education and choice schools at the same level of priority in this budget I'd be feeling really good right now I'm feeling as good as that helped um so um where I'm feeling good is I think we've set ourselves up to have some really robust Community conversations I think the board will need to do a lot of listening and some uh Community engagement sessions over the course of the next year to kind of further engage the community on some key topics but I think I'm
041hopeful in that um I wanted to I didn't know we were responding a bit to constantly the list of things that we've learned anything that we any questions folks have about the project itself Dr White um the ancillary but connected to our state funding can you remind me when the Esser funds when those Sr funded Physicians run out and how many if you remember how many fde we have that are funded right now yeah we'll have the SR funding through the next fiscal year so through 23 24 and then at sunsets um I believe it's September one of that next school year you have to spend all the dollars down by that time as far as a number of positions I'll have to come back with that um they're all included within the budget side
042um our goal in our we've talked about our budget scorecard would fund at least half of those positions as we're meetings so it's about 1.8 billion dollars per year you know for funded positions um it's still about 850 000. we'd like to fund more than that oh that was just another bunch of discussions kind of leading to display the cycle that we demanded on but we'll have to have discussions on all those positions in fact they're all student-facing so yeah I believe can follow up with this tomorrow but I know for a fact that we have a total of nine ftes on the social emotional Services side for uh four of the FTS are committed to mental health specialists at the secondary level and then I think another five are additional supports throughout the district
043um at the elementary level that that's part of the Esther funded then we I think we funded six but I could be wrong I think it was six academic Specialists out of our best service funds as well is that correct and close because there's some partially funded positions too but yes but when I when I think about the the big ticket item you start to avoid those are the ones that that we're really concerned about I would just remind the public and the board that when we presented our Sr plan back in February of two years ago they said that we would give these staff members a total um we would give them Warning by the fall of this fall that we were approaching these positions as if they were Grant funded in many ways
044and so um I've I've kind of created a preliminary deadline of um October 31st being a deadline where we are going to notify staff what's our plan um for in essence the 2024-2025 school year how many of these positions can we financially carry on and keep we've talked a lot about the ftes that we've invested on the Mental Health social emotional Services side I I would just I would want to Echo the the warning that Miss Jenny Fox gave us back in March where she said that we don't have an academic support structure to help our students who are in the lowest 10 percentile for academics in our schools and so often we talk about behavioral challenges the young people who are academically behind not always but in many times you can make a connection
045and a Nexus between their struggle academically and and the type of support we're able to give them um to to catch up and get on a grade level we don't have enough academic support Specialists to even help those young people who are in third grade of reading at the first grade level when we're not able to catch them up we we're it's a self-fulfilling prophecy in many ways um so I I just I wanted to point that out in terms of that's we've invested our funds and um from an Esther perspective in that space as well and I can tell you our our teachers will tell you and what we've currently invested in all of these that's our positions it's not enough uh we need these are the face the forward-facing on the ground working
046with students positions that uh that that's really necessary but that's a little that's beyond what you ask we intend to let people know by October 31st what our plans are moving forward um Mr Raymond so can you so this is one year so we've got the for the community there's some there may be confusion here because when we're talking about the state budgeting process we're talking about a two-year budget for the school district we're really talking about a single year budget correct um so we have a good sense for next year what the financials will look like because they're they're deciding that now they haven't finalized yet is that correct correct yeah once they finalize all the parameters we'll run projections again to show year two of the budget along with a five-year projection actually
047um to show what that would look like too but right now we're assessing the board to adopt a one-year budget for the next school year correct um if if we were to if we were to come forward with just a purely balanced budget this year what's the number we would need to cut from this budget to achieve that that would be the 7.3 million dollars point of clarification please there this the term balanced budget or deficit I mean Dr means has used a little different terminology than we always used to have so can we tell the community when you say balanced well the books are balanced the accounting is accurate but we're spending more than we're taking it is that is that what we're asking but kind of so people understand what we're saying and
048yeah so we are we are planned to spend 7.3 million dollars this year more than we will be taking in Revenue that is correct so we are in for the short term a very enviable space compared to our peer school districts that are fund balance allows us to do that that's correct we've had a lot of discussion on the cash position in the investment of that giving the timer in correct so not a long-term solution but a short-term solution is to spend down our fund balance to a greater degree than we have historically correct okay um which is a strategy this is where I I I appreciate the disappointment from some this is a state strategy the legislature doesn't like the fact that school districts have healthy fund balances in fact they there's an element
049of there's some legislators who resent it they resent that school districts have they've done this and from a fiscal perspective from a fiscal perspective I understand why because A legislature a legislator would say in order for a school district to have a fund balance a cash position that is healthy like we have that means the taxpayers have been taxed and those funds that were supposed to go towards services for children or not utilize that school year so if I'm a if I'm a state legislator I do understand the fiscal philosophy and and so part of their philosophy is we want to provide we want to provide tax breaks to Wisconsin residents we believe the tax breaks are going to will generate more business in the state and make it more appealing for businesses to come
050here and from a governmental oversight perspective the school board is an agent of the state legislature as the Constitution states the legislators are saying well wait a minute if you if all these school districts have fund balances if that's what you need to do to bridge yourself to continue to serve your students well then that's what that that's what you should do so I think there are mechanisms that are in place that again that's what I meant by we have certain mechanisms as a K-12 institution that certain other governmental bodies don't have um and it's what it's requiring right now is more of a local conversation in regards to what you want your school systems to look like and and that's okay I I would share your disappointment in terms of where the state of
051public education is for the state of Wisconsin I I do share your disappointment there but I I have now officially made the pivot of I'm not relying on the state legislature to control or to give us a pathway for the children of Wauwatosa we if we continue to go down the pathway from a legislative standpoint of relying on a legislator from Onalaska to help us and Wally Tulsa because that's the structure we have right now if we continue to believe in the common good and that the legislators are going to Rally around K-12 education in Wisconsin I think they've shown us who they are um and and so and that's okay I'm not begrudging them for that's their philosophy but what we have to do now for the children of Allah Tulsa is to make
052decisions um and just and then I think part of the making decisions is to hold us accountable and to hold us um responsible for laying out all the different options so then people can make a wise and and educated and informed decision I think that's the lift that Mr Brightman and I will have to engage in over the next few years um but for me this this uh this most recent budget uh cycle has provided Clarity Clarity in a way that I think I've never had before where in the past K-12 leaders at the board level and at the administrative level we've lobbied legislators and we go to demand we go to Madison we go to the Capitol and we we say our peas and I've seen that happen for 20 plus years now and
053over time that strategy has continued to dwindle in its Effectiveness it's just it's not effective anymore and and so we have to turn inward and stop looking to a state body to help preserve the education that we want to provide for kids I can hear the exhaustion that that must bring but I do my mindset's a little different in that I think that if we think in terms of a social contract or a way of putting a society together that I think a lot of people do feel that they've contributed to public education by contributing state taxes and that understanding that to come and now say now can you contribute locally to public education um means that some of us are going to feel that that social contract is broken um and so I I
054see it a little bit differently than you do I do see that the exhaustion of constantly asking and not getting this brings some more clarity right okay it's not going to happen that way but when we think about pure States or states that we want to move ahead of um I know there are some that don't put a lot in but there are some that put a lot in and I just think generally the public expectation is I've done that contribution and I think we'll have to really work to get to that large understanding and to help the public to ask them on their own as well why but I feel like if if a public person the public feels like they're giving twice then that question has to go to their legislator um to
055ask you know why is this happening but I think we will hear that I think that's fair my only and so believe me we're aligned and so I and again I I so I understand what you're saying I think the complexity to this budget cycle is that Governor Evers who I don't know I don't know of any state in Wisconsin or any state in the country that would have a stronger advocate in the governor's mansion than Wisconsin this is the deal that he cut with the legislature's legislators uh so if this is the deal that he landed on and has said in his press releases this is the most money ever invested in public K-12 public education then that's a signal that to me that's a signal of us everyone is indicating and signaling to
056us that this is as much as you're going to get for this this cycle even if the former State superintendent of schools have said because it's not so much what the legislature is saying because I think they we unfairly go after them sometimes in K-12 education the the gov the education governor in essence said here's the package and an event in his press release said and this is where this is the most money ever invested in K-12 education so I think that social contract uh the moral imperative I think it starts with us talking with our governor and re-establishing what we believe uh we need to see I I know he believes in in K-12 education I know he knows it's the backbone of our our state um but In fairness to our our legislative
057leaders I think that conversation in terms of the social construct has to start with at the governor's mansion because I I think so often we we in this conversation we have respectfully avoided having that conversation of there was a settlement made that was announced um two weeks ago and and all parties were at the table when that was made sure so I agree with everything that's been said no and then I'll add a seven-member school board we are an ensemble of voices and I happen to be the voice that as I said I am an unhappy pragmatist and and in this case the analogy to a household I think is helpful yeah I should have got that that other job offer I should have gotten the promotion I should have gotten the cost of living
058raise I shouldn't have had to replace the roof three years earlier than I planned I shouldn't have had health care expenses that no one else had because somebody happened something happened well now there's those households who figure out how to spend within the money they have and those that don't don't figure it out have to start paying interest and we know on loans in charge of borrowing a credit card or and so I don't like it that we only have the money we have we should have more but it is only the money that we have and we have to not start to figure it out to just to make do with what we have and also pursue our to my understanding our only remaining healthy Revenue option would be a referendum so like I
059said I I'm an unhappy pragmatist we have to educate kids with the money we have now and that's the way it is the only thing I think that I would add is it's important I think for our community to keep in front of mind that we're healthier than many other districts so this budget proposal or deal that was struck at the state level luckily we have that cash fund balance and so I think when we talk about the other districts who are already borrowing and already paying interest to just operate their schools it's important that our community knows that we have been fiscally responsible and we've been um but you know use our money wisely for the last several years so you know when you say the state legislature may want to now make local
060communities pay more for their schools we live in a community that that's an option for us and so my disappointment from the state legislature totally comes from a place of where healthy school districts financially there's some school districts that will be devastated by this so I think that's important I know we have to worry about our kids in Tulsa um and luckily we do have that cash fund balance that we can do that at least for next year and so to me it just seems yes we have this deficit for next year we have the money our staff is telling us these are the positions that we need for next school year to be successful I we have you know we use the money we have then I think and then work it out for
061the referendum or make cuts for the next school year budget but um I think we owe it to our students to borrow that money or to use the money we have saved probably just reminds us well no shame in where we are the shame will be as if we're making Cuts two years from now because we don't we have a job ahead of us so no shame in where we are because we were wise to have a front balance now it won't last forever and we have a very tough job ahead of us as a board the next couple of years I think when I look at the numbers that was getting out with Mr Brightman we will have substantial cuts to make in two years if there's not a record we don't know what
062the legislation the legislation is going to do two years from now but we've got a two-year window because of our Funk bounce we don't have anything beyond that your unhappy pragmatists would have started today but that's just me right so I'm not I'm not saying everybody should believe what I believe but I have to be true to my philosophy on this so that's where I'm coming from now which is signal the era of austerity Financial austerity doesn't work in K-12 education and we we constantly talk about kids coming out of covet in the covet period what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing from teachers and from parents is that we need more Educators on the on the ground with our children so if we're I don't know if austerity financially to reduce f is even
063an option in fact as I look at it my philosophy is we need to pay our Educators more and we need more of them and we need to continue to make this a destination district for educators who want to really do interesting work um and in a very interesting interesting place I I continue to say I I love working for this community because it is one of the most unique districts in Wisconsin if not the nation when you look at our demographic breakout when you look at where we're situated there's some powerful things can happen here and we're on the verge of doing amazing things I'm so you know I'll bring it back to when we have Educators like Austin carricker who want they're they're from here and they want to continue to invest or
064Mr Stein we we have the right materials I would just and so maybe I haven't been very clear I don't want us to get distracted by the inability of our state leaders to invest in K-12 education I think this is now a Clarion call for this community to recognize we're not going to get support from the state legislature that's not going to happen um and we clearly know what we want to be as a community we know we know it um and when schools say they need more support they have been very vocal and sharing that with us and I believe we have to be in a position to support them when they said but I would just urge us all I don't I've lived through the the time period of financial austerity and we
065made cuts that doesn't that doesn't help kids at the core it ruins culture um and it it makes people who have the ability to purchase homes and make decisions around what schools they want their kids to be in people avoid those communities and and so I don't think that's what we want to be as a school system so I want to just really emphasize and Echo what you just said I feel like in the last few months and what we've just worked through with your awesome leadership Dr means through the with the work with Eisenhower I think it's really representative of us moving in a very positive direction turning a post-covered corner starting to peek around that corner at least and um I I would concur I don't think pulling out resources now especially since
066we're being you know as clear on the balance sheet and it's clear with our expertise in the district experts in the district that we can do this this year that we need to make this investment this year we need to also be smart and talking with each other and looking at the options and learning more and moving forward but but right now we need to keep investing the last few weeks has shown us that the whole last year has shown us that and it's when we stepped up um and really started putting those additional people in the schools that we started to see a response from the kids in the schools and I think we just we need to notice that um and we as a community yes there's going to be some big conversations
067but right now our work I would say it's important of my work is to say we need to fund this the way it's being asked um and I fully intend to support that well I you know I want to come back to something that you said um because I sort of struggle and I know we've had people come to the mic talking about this idea that we were we're in a good fiscal position is that you know those were really wise choices that were made over the years or decades to save money and yes it's it's helping us now in this in this moment but I'm not sure that that's actually been helpful to us as a school district over the last 10 years and in fact we're sort of paying the price for that
068in in these enormous well they're not enormous these very much well-deserved raises that we're giving to our our teachers and it's just the beginning because we also have talked about our our educational classroom aides needing to be paid at a better rate um if we want to be able to staff those positions because they're going to go elsewhere and so I think the struggle is that the pushes that we we have this money now which is going to allow us to do kind of to pass this budget on the other hand this the reason we have that money is because it's got us into trouble um so I just want to be really thoughtful about that um and I I completely agree with you Dr Worley I'm I'm very I'm I'm not a little bit
069disappointed I'm very frustrated and very angry that this was the budget that was put forward by our state this is this is 80s I don't know 81 percent of children who live in Wisconsin go to public schools there is absolutely no reason that these are not we are not funding public education the way that it needs to be funded for our children to be successful and if any time in our lives we needed that funding it was post-pandemic and so here we are needing more help our students are suffering their their academic achievement is declining the gaps are growing and we got peanuts so I'm not I'm not okay and great conversation I believe it's appropriate for Community leaders in the board to take that macro state level approach I think we could do two
070things um you know in education there are seldom absolutes um and I don't think this is an absolute either um I but my my focus is to to nearly 7 000 students who attend schools here I I I need to make sure that we stay focused on them and I'm disappointed as I'm disappointed for K-12 education in Wisconsin I'm disappointed with the fact that we continue to be to have the largest achievement Gap in the country uh according to the the national assessment um the name um 50 million dollars for a literacy program over five years isn't going to do anything um those are all that's all political theater um but that that's not why we're here tonight uh we're here tonight to pass this budget but I also just want to again send the
071call out this is a moment it's a moment for this school system it is a moment for educators across the metro area in the state to recognize that we're a destination District that we want to compensate people well uh we want to make sure that teachers have the support they need to to work with children we want to make sure that parents know that they send their child to a public school model so they're going to be well resourced and and get the help that they need on both ends of the spectrum be it a child who needs advanced placement or gifted and talented services or a young person who has an individual education plan whatever the case is we we want to we want to make sure that this is a place where people
072want to be and so we present this uh this budget to you tonight board members um this is just another step in the process um the next step and Mr Meyer appropriately asked the question annually and it should be asked so what does our enrollment numbers look like um we'll know that as we get closer to the third Friday account in September um we will we're very hopeful that in our first board meeting in October we can give you an accurate count of what that number was like and how it Compares historically uh over the years as we track things we have a special we've moved our second board meeting in October to the fifth Monday of October um that's the final day I think that's October 31st right um and and so we'll we'll
073uh we'll approve the levy at that time so this is just another step in the process um we have a lot more work to do in terms of looking at our our enrollment at this time but this is just another step um at this point any of the final board comments seeing none uh there's no one in the room with us is there anyone online with uh Community comments no there are no Haynes raised I will call them um Dr Worley yes Mr Morris yes [Music] Mr Meyer no Dr Tessa bangers against Dr White yes Miss Hammer wrong yes in the budget passes uh next up uh action to approve Gordon flush as the winning bid for The district-wide copier release vendor um and previously we had a community question uh that I'm hoping you
074can also answer as part of uh but any recent that we have on this item before going to board questions no same um same discussion points as we had the last video updates to it okay I can comment if you like the words please do so the end range we received was between 89 547 and 126 457 so that was the range the upper level that range was pricing that aligned to the state contract pricing as it stated within those State contracts uh the vendor that we're recommending to go with came a little bit of 89 547 as Gordon flesh and included in that bid which undercuts the state contract pricing for machines and service is a technology solution that helps manage prints volumes and gives us metrics it creates a storefront so our coffee
075center has a more teacher-friendly front-facing storefront to it to input copy jobs hoping to drive more work to that coffee center which saves dollars and save time with our instructional staff so I guess the bottom line is we got an all-in bid undercutting just just the cost for the machines and service that includes about a thirty thousand dollar annual subscription cost for this print uh software also so I feel really good about this I think it's going to be both a money savings for the district there are other levels to this we'll be looking at Standalone printers at the needs for different schools with regarding that and print services and I think there's other room that we have to be more efficient in how we purchase print copies within our system but this is a
076great first step getting this bid right that we did that's great Mr Morris can you read the emotions it is recommended that the school board approved Gordon flush is the winning bid for the district-wide copy early spender it's nice to move thank you maybe second second thank you Mr Mayor any boring comments or questions in this item any Community comments or questions on this item online no there are no hands raised that being the case I'll call the wrong doctor Worley yes yes of course yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Justin is a yes doctor yes yes in that actual item passes uh next is action to approve the meal prices for the 23-24 school year uh Mr Meyer can you read this one it is recommended that the school board approve the meal prices for
077the 2023 to 2024 school year and ISO move you have a second second really any additional information on this that has come forward uh no updates since the last discussion okay any more comments or questions on this I would just if I if I may I would just comment that this is the year this this next school year we will be putting out to bid are Food Service vendor and we received an email from a Community member who I didn't know was a dietitian so that was good information to have but we will use a robust process to that vendor options um I I think making sure that student and parent voice and obviously staff always is part of that process will be very important but this is a very important Year we hope to
078bring forth a um a recommended vendor for the next contract currently we have Sodexo as our our vendor but we'll go through that process and we'll start that this fall and it'll be uh it will be a very involved process but we just I went to the community to know the board to know that we will be involved in that work um next school year Mr Brightman and his team will be leading it so we're really excited to get into that work to hear student voice is that um it that is one issue where they they speak up uh in regards to and they should I mean it's appropriate that they have voice in the food that they are served so Dr we have voice from students from all three levels yes I I think
079Elementary is always the more difficult one but I think there will be a way for us to get Elementary voice as well and that means just to highlight that in that email one of the things I appreciated was the idea that also that Gathering the information be thinking about ways to be creative and offer new and different yeah things as well looking where it matters where we put on spend our district resources so as we think about what we're investing in and how that gives back to the community how that goes back to the region um just really exploring all those choices I agree I thought the email was timely it was informative and um again I I want that Community member to know that it was uh well received and we that's the work
080that we'll get into this fall for sure is the bending is the vetting process for a new food service vendor any Community comment online on this item no there are no hands raised uh I will call the rule Dr Worley yes Mr Morris yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Jessa bangers yes Dr Hoyt yes Hammer wrong yes in that action item passes next up is a finance and resource committee update thank you much very much Mr President uh we met action of the day after the last board meeting so we've actually discussed most of us already tonight but we reviewed the preliminary budget at that time joint Finance was still meeting and a decision hadn't been made so um as Dr breitman noted the attachment to this week's agenda has the new um the new figures
081highlighted in yellow for the changes based on what comment looks like is going to pass joint Finance we reviewed the monthly financial report there was nothing significant no variances to share that and then the final thing we discussed was there's a Community member who has expressed interest in um reconstructions of the East Tower um and there was really no update on that that I remember yeah the update came from the individual who was interested in donating the dollars towards that project and he had an architect look at and give him kind of a dollar scope to that and it's two to three times the investment that he kind of wanted to make towards that and so he's reached out to the volatile Historical Society to see if they have interest in additional private fundraising for
082it or not and I guess we'll kind of wait and see where that goes but just wanted the board to be informed of the committee to be informed that's kind of where that is currently so this is just a Community member who's grown up in tosa and there was a tower at Mama tells the East and he really enjoyed looking at it when he walked through the village and is interested in restoring it or recreating it so much so the tower was part of the architectural integrity of the street that the city did a architecture study that's not so many years ago looking at historical buildings and it was assessed that no one building in that stretch of Wauwatosa Avenue is special in itself as a you know an aged building um like a like
083a historical site for example but the series of buildings together was significant and the tower had been part of that so um just a silly footnote that the building we're in now evidently has historical significance as well which is it's one of our newer buildings yet anyway so um but but to to the community the the donation vehicle that was um a part of this and I'm sure Mr Brightman can speak to specifics to it if if I put you know sixty dollars in my 401k years ago and it's not worth a hundred dollars if I donate that 401k to a charitable cause um the 40 the the forty dollars appreciation on that 401k is not taxed to meet the donor well so if I took out the hundred dollars well I'd have you know
084forty dollars I'm goofing this up I'm sure but the point is that the the donor donates the basis and the appreciation or the earnings and gets credit for having donated the the face you know the full market value of the thing but isn't taxed on the on the on the on the increases that the investment made over the years and you know I have known other people who've done this people do this for um cancer research donations and various things so people who put money at these investment funds the 401K was the wrong example I'm sure but you know whatever the increase in value of that over the years um the donor gets the heartfelt value of you know that hundred the four hundred dollars I gave a hundred dollars but when I put this
085money away for savings I only put away fifty dollars and now I get to give a hundred dollars based on my 50 and I don't pay I never have to pay taxes on the fifty dollars that it increase so just for the community out there if there's someone else who values that street with the way it used to look you know maybe your investments will qualify for this as well thank you any other comments or questions thank you um with that uh we are at the point of uh any final public comment on non-agenda items this evening Jamie do we have anything online yes we have one hand raised dead Falk palak you have the microphone please state your name and address thank you hi Deb Falk palik um this is something that I need
086a little help finding information on it was asked and answered at the PTA council meeting it was asked and answered at the last school board meeting but I can't find the information so we were told that there would be um information out there sh telling people when the ptosis 2075 task force is meeting and information on that and I can't find it on the district it's not on the calendar for I know the meeting is tomorrow but um we were told again at PTA Council and at the last school board meeting that this information would be made publicly available so could it could that be done or if it is done and it's somewhere other than on the district calendar could someone please share that information as to how the public can see that and
087listen and watch the meetings thank you very much tomorrow [Music] at Underwood Elementary School at 6 00 PM the public is more than invited to attend May and we will be posting any materials that are shared at those meetings once the meetings are over so there will be a landing page that people who are unable to attend those meetings are able to um they're able to get the materials this will be the kickoff meeting then we'll have some homework for the the task force part of that task force homework we'll be reviewing the projected enrollment uh outlook for the district and we received that report on Friday um we'll be providing that information to the board in early or the board and the task force in early July and then we'll meet again as a
088task force in August and start digging into that work so again um the first meetings tomorrow at Underwood Elementary School starting at 6 p.m in the web page we'll we'll have a landing page Vector means you were in the district all those 20 years ago when The Toasted committee was formed and do you I I can't recall whether you were and every meeting staff to attendee but do you recall the type of material that was presented to the Tulsa committee I mean it was it was everything it was every week we learned more about school districts in the community even what is that what this is going to is that are those the kinds of materials going to be yes I did as well yes I think this is so I I did not attend
089every meeting I was a junior staffer then um but that uh director but anyway yeah yeah um but I think uh this will be very similar we have a um an expert and what we want to do is be very impartial and so we have experts coming in we have an expert tomorrow coming in from the Wisconsin uh School business officials organization to give an overview of how our schools funded in Wisconsin um and we'll discuss the the charge of this task force um and as you've appropriately Mr Meyer pointed out to us constantly our revenue is driven by our enrollment and so having a real good handle on what our projected enrollment is going to be in this community is something that we want the task force to sit with this report and study
090it and then we'll have the the individuals who created the report come to the task force in August to give us an overview of what what they have determined I I think there's some really interesting patterns that have emerged that I would not have learned about it without this this report and and so I'm looking to a robust conversation in August with the task force and I'm I'm I'm confident that the board will also want to have a discussion my only caution would be I would ask the board not to get too far ahead of the task force that's why we have 60 plus community members investing their time and eventually giving you recommendations on what direction we should take so why I ask that question about so I knew what I was talking about
091having watched that 20 years ago I urge any member of the community who is a Wauwatosa Patriot you know a forever wauwatosan the presentations will be just fascinating and informative about Wauwatosa and Wauwatosa schools and and the history and the future and and how things work it is just a tremendous Civic opportunity to learn about how things work and and so and it's it's it last time it happened was 20 years ago and so it doesn't happen often this is a rare opportunity to have really uh like a nine-month course or whatever and and how things work and and how how the community works and how the schools work so I urge everyone please to to follow this and it's it's quite an interesting thing to watch anything [Music] seeing no other public comments uh
092could I ask uh to have an emotion to a journalist at the close executive closed session so moved okay it is recommended that the school board adjourn it to closed sessions pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85 friends one parent C considering employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any Public Employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility specifically to consider proposed revisions to the terms of the superintendent's Employment contract it is also recommended that the school board adjourn into closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Wisconsin statute 19.85 parents one parents G to confer with legal counsel for the governing body who was rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to to become involved regarding Fox V Wauwatosa School Board
093of Education and I so we have a second second I did that right I went do it on the last one but I was okay um Dr Worley yes Mr Morris yes Mr Meyer yes Dr Jessica yes Miss Hammer Rollins yes we are moving into executive closed session uh we may reconvene um into Open Session um coming out of course session