January 23, 2012 Wauwatosa School District Board of Education Meeting

001please with a moment of Silent reflection roll call please Mrs galante Mrs Fe here Mr D here Mr croner here Mr Meer he's excused Mrs meld yeah okay Mrs Randall here and Mrs Weber here here you missed I'm sorry I'd like to read a statement to begin the meeting please members of the wosa school board value the input of students parents staff members and community members the board's regularly scheduled meetings provide an opportunity for opinions and concerns to be expressed publicly the board values all comments and will respectfully consider this input in decision making the board requests that individuals limit 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

002for the board to enter into a debate with members 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 it items this evening is there anyone present who would like to speak to the board at this time on a non-agenda item if so please come to the mic and give your name and address seeing none we will proceed I would like to entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda and before we begin uh is there anyone on the board who would like to uh separate an item on the consent agenda for separate action see none is there a motion please so move this is Randall is there a second second thank you is there any public comment on the consent

003agenda okay board members we will take a vote please roll call Mrs Fe yes Mr Dr yes Mr croner yes Mrs milfeld yes Mrs Randall yes Mrs Weber yes Mrs P would you read the recognition yes the national Center for safe routes to school awarded McKinley Elementary School with one of just $ 26 $1,000 mini grants designed to support projects that encourage students and their families to walk or bicycle safely to school schools municipalities and organizations from across the country will receive the grants during the 201122 school year spring semester McKinley Elementary School seeks to expand its walking School Bus program by reaching out to local community members businesses and three nearby universities this grant award reflects the dedication of McKinley staff and families Sarah laurand McKinley parent along with other parents Mark Carter McKinley

004principal and Jeff rosowski McKinley District Alderman have all been instrumental in promoting safe routes to school this partnership between the city of wosa and the wossa school district is essential in providing safe travel for our students board members any questions or comments on this I have one drle do you know if this will begin to address some of the questions and concerns that have been presented to us with respect to the uh McKinley young people that uh go to West High School and there's concern about safe routes do you know if this will uh possibly address some of those concerns I don't know if this will address the concerns um about traveling to west from the McKinley area but I think it's generally in that McKinley area but I know there's concerns throughout the city

005about safe routes and um working with the city we're going to be doing a traffic study in the Madison area and the Eisenhower Whitman West area so hopefully some of that can be addressed as well through safe roads the only thing I would ask if we could be kept informed because I think this is a great opportunity for us and certain certainly grateful for it but if you wouldn't mind just keeping us informed as we move along um business services please Mr croner thank you Mrs it is recommended that the school board amend the approved 201122 budget changes are summarized as follows one amending the 201122 School District budget whereas chapter 65 paragraph 90 sub5 Suba with constant statutes requires a school board by a 2third vote of the entire membership to approve alterations made

006to the previously adopted 201122 budget and whereas the school board adopted a 22 201122 Budget on October 24th 2011 now therefore be it resolved that the school board does hereby make the following alterations to the 201122 expenditure budget under description other nonprogram transactions category 490000 uh previous ly approved at $330,000 adjusted to $282,000 for a revised budget amount of $2,112 th000 and general fund 10 total 69,99 7,285 adjustment of 2,000 $282,000 to a revised budget amount of 72 mil 29,285 and ISO move thank you is there a second second thank you Mrs fee board members discussion if I could just make a couple of comments I think the uh the discussion at the last meeting we discussed a little bit related to The Levy and this is the chargeback for the Wheaten Franciscan um lawsuit

007with the city this action that we're asking the board to take does not relate to eliminating or taking any kind of Levy Authority that is um something that the board will have to make a decision on in relationship to the budget process for next year um for that that $2.1 million so the board is not giving up Levy Authority by approving this this is simply just an a budget adjustment to make that payment that needs to be made um but I think later on that discussion the board is going to have to have related to that Levy Authority that is still there for this this amount and we're we're doing more research uh to find out whether or not that's a one-year Levy or if it can be spread out over several years so trying

008to see if there's more options for the board but ultimately this decision is solely on making the payment so we can adjust the budget to make that payment out of fund balance than you any questions please Mrs Randall um just a couple of things please uh the nonprogram transactions uh previously approved $30,000 that doesn't show a to and from account the account that this is coming from is there a current balance available for that is there a balance to I'm not understanding I'm sorry we're uh approving 2 milon 82,000 right Mr Mack would you mind please coming to the front because I don't know if the camera can pick it up from there thank you so that's coming from fund 49 no no no this is coming from the general fund it's just a tax

009chargeback okay um that 490 tri0 is actually a function I have to put that legally when we make a budget change that's the program number and that's just a function in the any accounting sequence it has nothing to do with the fund it's a general fund when the when the city what the city does is when they want to do a charge back they actually certify it with the state Wisconsin Department of Revenue the Department of Revenue sends us the actual invoice invoice is then paid to the city and then we're able to relevy for that if the board should would decide to do that um there's no other way to go around that the city can't um Levy for that amount themselves they have to certify that amount with the state of Wisconsin and

010we have to pay it back to the city okay that's just the way it worked we have this every year it's just that we normally don't see anything ever close to this amount okay I I thought it was going into fund 10 not coming out of fund 10 so I must be reading this I better look at it again um so previously approved 69 million revised budget 72 million so the 2 million is not going into fund right the 2 million is just actually we're going to payt it out of fund balance is what we're going to do but that's just an adjustment simply because that dollar amount was so big that charge back and I didn't know about it when we we approved the budget in October okay um is there a balance available

011for our fund balance then after this transaction well in the short run we can do we couldn't do it permanently but um we we do need to replenish that fund balance for cash flow purposes um it's going to be whether the board decides as a policy decision to Levy back that money and I am trying to find out if we can do it over a number of years or we have to do it just over next year and that decision will have to be made in the next few months before we pass the next budget okay and we have to pay this um amount by February 1st or beginning of February is that correct it's actually do by Valentine's Day okay and are we paying the city of wossa or are we paying ween Franciscan

012have we paid them yet who is who is getting this money oh yeah it's the city of wosa the city of wosa right okay all right thanks any other questions Mr JS I I guess I want to make sure I have this right so this this is money that was previously levied and incorrectly applied by the city of wssa based on a lawsuit that they lost and now the district's going to pay back the city of Wawatosa it it yes it it's kind of the way the process works whenever there's a tax charge back in other words a city it wants to um it's not just us it's also the Milwaukee County and MATC right they actually say that somebody either didn't pay or they certified the levy incorrectly in this case the pi was

013divied up incorrectly by the city of wson right the citya had to pay Covenant back up front and then they have the authority to certify with the state of Wisconsin to tax the underlying jurisdictions which were one of so then we get an invoice already received it from the the state of Wisconsin believe it's Department of Revenue for that amount but it's payable to the city of W with toosa to pay them back but it had to be certified by the state but there is no there was no way that I know of that the city could have said no we're not going to certify that and not charge the school district I just want to make it clear that we didn't have anything to do with not getting this money it was levied it

014was supposed to be our Levy was always correct it's always correct the city of wssa didn't didn't pay something that the city did in this case where they deemed Covenant to be a taxable entity and the lawsuit that was finally resolved by the Wisconsin Supreme Court deemed them non- taxable so in whatever number of years eight or nine years that the city taxed Covenant the pi would have been smaller because Covenant would have been out of there right and everybody else would have paid two to 20 or whatever dollars more per year in taxes and because they didn't now we have to retx for that money the school board has to ret tax you have to make a decision on so we end up being the heavy to make up for an error by the

015city of wossa basically yeah if you want to consider in an error I mean there there are cases well the money's been paid out we asked for the money right it's funds you know Services have been delivered for those funds and now you lost they lost a lawsuit we got to make good on their assumptions right that is true and correct assumptions that's all okay thank you Mr Mack is there anyone from the audience that would like to question or make comment on this item seeing none uh roll call please Mrs fee yes Mr Jose no Mr croner yes Mrs milfeld yes Mrs Randall yes Mrs we yes if we may move on please to Student Services Mrs muel thank you it is recommended that the school board approve re revisions to policy 5330 administration

016of medications to bring the district into compliance with Wisconsin statute 11829 sub6 as presented and discussed at the January 9th 2012 meeting can I so move thank you is there a second second thank you Mr croner discussion board members Dr do you have any comment on this nothing to add just getting us in compliance which we seem to bring a number of policies forward that um do to State Law changes we're adjusting thank you audience any questions seeing none roll call vote Mrs fee yes Mr Jose yes Mr croner yes Mrs Mel yes Mrs Randall yes Mrs Weber yes uh at this time we will like to introduce Kathy Eli who is president of the uh efw Miss Eli would you please come forward and if you'd like to introduce any of the your members

017of your efw please introduce them also thank you my my name is excuse me my name is Kathy Eli and I'm the um president of the Education Foundation and attending this evening is also Andrea gain one of our board members and we're here this evening just to take a brief moment of your time to give you an update on what the Education Foundation has been doing the organization's over 20 years old and it's run fairly independently uh with a focus um not fairly very independently with a focus on providing grants to individual class classroom teachers and that's the way the focus has been for the 20 years well about a year ago um we had numerous discussions within the board about the fact that education has changed dramatically in those 20 years and the needs

018for support have changed dramatically as well and so we had uh two we had conversations with Dr erle about um the philosophy that he had within the District of more of the uh teachers collaborating with one another the shift from Individual classroom Focus to uh uh Department collaborations or grade level collaborations and we felt it would be best to align realign our grant requirements and focus to match up with the district and also support that collaboration as well so we've done that and it's been exciting to see what's happened we still support the grants for the individual teachers and it may be a a Kindergarten class that's going to be doing testing a project on some new books or a different way to handle some classroom textbooks for reading but we've also funded things like

019uh the ropes course at East and we for two years we've provided grants to the journalism class out at um wossa West and it's been exciting to see the projects that they've done and it and fun for us to get emails from them letting us know how what types of projects they're doing with their uh new video equipment as well as just the whole journalism class as well we've also granted uh for new technology because technology is dramatically different as we all know than it was 20 years ago uh so so uh smart response technology as well as technology that can help children learn um especially for those who don't learn as easily in traditional methods and we've also this last year provided some grant money for for uh the world language program so that

020they could have new headsets for their lab and where the reports back is that it's really helping the children learn to listen and to speak the language uh more directly because they can work oneon-one and more intensely um but we're also doing things like funding a project uh the ukuleles that uh Roosevelt School has purchased over the last year and it was really fun to go to their Christmas concert and see the children playing and every single grade level is using them so the foundation really wants to it's it's positioning itself to grow working to communicate more with out into the community so that we can raise awareness and raise more of money for the school so we just what we'd like to do going forward is come to the board twice a year just

021give you an update um have that communication going back and forth like we're doing with the school district it's wonderful to work with them and I also want to thank those of you who have personally supported the foundation as well so thank you very much and uh we'll be back hopefully in Fall you'll allow us a few moments on the calendar as on the agenda as well so thank you very much Kath would you like to comment on the annual meeting which is coming yes thank you the busy about this other St we have on February 9th we have our annual meeting coming up and this year we have an alumni from uh I think he's from East it's w East and Dan Hayes and he has produced a documentary on the honor flights and

022it's gotten quite a bit of of recognition the project has gotten recognition it's not going it's not finished yet it's just about done I'm not sure when he's going to be premiering it but he will be showing some of uh the footage and talking about his experience as well as how wossa helped him to grow into the adult that he is so that's on February 9th is going to be at the blumont CL Country Club starting at 5:00 and then we also are working we've started the work on our walk run which is the first weekend in May that first Saturday in May so we hope you all join us you should have gotten your invitations already good I'm glad to see some nodding faces so we hope you join us that evening okay thank

023you we need to commend you um and the uh work that the efw is doing and I I'm excited to just I think I'm right on this Jim Funk is now a member of ew he was one of the uh ones that planted the seeds for efw when he was on the board and it's been a wonderful contribution to wosa so well it's it's a it's great to have people who were involved when it was first started Tom kirchin is still someone that I talk to quite often and it's good to have the new ideas and to see how everyone's coming together not because it's directly affecting our children at this moment because my children are going gone uh they they're both independent adults now so it's not that I'm I'm doing this or Jim

024is doing this because we have children in the system but we believe that having a strong public school system is critical for our children and for wosa so that's why we're involved Kathy isn't Mr Hayes the second Hayes that has spoken yes at efw his older brother Steve also Spokeo five or six years ago I think it was so the Hayes family is has got ma their Mark they certainly have and Beyond wosa so good well thank you very much any other questions yes Mary Jo just a comment and thank you um for being here I think the visibility is an important piece um we are currently engaging in some Schoolboard development and Community um engagement is is always been an important part but we're going to be needing need to do more as you

025said um things are changing and so um for you to come tonight and be here I think is is one important step I just want to say too I I was visiting um Roosevelt and just happened on the class with the ukuleles right before Christmas it was wonderful wasn't it it it was so cute yeah she had a fourth grade class playing and then she had first grade audience and um so we stopped in and listened so well when the children came out to play for the Christmas concert you could just see how that ukulele just fits so right you know I think before that we all thought well it's a very creative idea but there were a number of us at the concerts this year and it was it was exciting to see how

026much the kids enjoyed it and now I understand there's a ukul um group that started at Longfellow as well the children are are moving up you know and they're very excited about it and so it's it's great to see the seed money then bling within the district yeah and then just briefly recognition of Peggy par who is the teacher absolutely thank you so yeah um so that's all thanks good anyone are there any other comments all right thank you is there anyone from the audience that wishes to speak to miss Eli nfw thank you Andrea for being here also and we look forward to the next visit wonderful thank you so much and if we could get into Human Resources please u a policy I believe Mr chanan will be speaking to that the board

027should have in their packet uh a revision to policy 8462 uh this is again a a statutory update the main changes that uh prior to the legislative change uh only our professional staff members were mandatory reporters and so the policy basically had a two level change uh there was the obligations of our professional staff members and then a um board level directive that anyone else in the district who noticed abuse or neglect were to reported to a principal who would then make the report um the law is now change so that School Employees in general have an obligation uh to report abuse and neglect directly and are now mandatory reporters and so the change is that we're deleting the word professional because all staff members uh now share this obligation along with that at the

028bottom of the page we are uh adding a training requirement which is an update to uh uh chapter 118 that we now have an obligation to make sure we provide training to all staff U which is something that we'll be integrating into our annual training and uh policy distribution requirements um I would note that there is one deletion in the policy which when I bring back to you I will correct um the very final deletion in the right hand column uh which indicates that we would not discriminate or dismiss an employee who makes a report in good faith that will be added back into the policy that was an inadvertent deletion um and when I present it in its final form that will be back in there questions yes Mr croner just one clarification um

029it states early on the policy that employees should immediately call the local office of child welfare department or the administrative administrator should do so but then then next to the last paragraph it talks about principles being mindful of physical or mental abuse being inflicted on a student and any such instances whether the real or allege should be dealt with in accordance with administrative procedures are those also I assume those administrative procedures are as significant asage above they've been updated as well and um to be in compliance with this uh one thing that we added to the administrative procedure we actually added in the phone numbers for local law enforcement and um our Milwaukee County Child Welfare I think that's a um oversight in the administrative procedures because I I think that if someone had something

030to report they shouldn't have to go hunting around for that number so yeah all right thank you any other questions is there anyone in the audience that has a question of Mr chanan seeing none thank you very much and I believe you have a proposed calendar for us to review you wish to speak to that that at this time I I do um all the board members should have found a a memo with an updated uh proposal we circulated The Proposal that was originally in the board packet and uh there was some feedback from teachers feedback from administrators and um there's always uh choices that that have to be made about when that last day of school is and when snow day makeup and I want to go through through those um changes and also

031give you an overview of of the calendar in general uh it maintains that 180 days of student contact time it comes out to 192 work days again our traditional teacher calendar has been 191 uh the reason why there's an extra day is because one of the objectives of this calendar was to remove half days those half days were um in the calendar they're counted the student contact time but they're not necessarily our most productive learning time when you take out those two half days which counted as full days of student contact U and you want to have the same level of professional development you end up with an extra day in the calendar so that's the reason why there's 192 days uh we maintain the same number of holidays as in the past uh along

032with uh conference compensation days uh we started as our school day as early as possible which is September 4th uh which is you know statutorily required that we're not starting in August the changes that you're seeing from the calendar that you initially reviewed was that in January we wanted to move that staff um in service and work day to the week after exams uh but we did want to maintain uh the mar Luther King holiday on the 21st of January this does mean that our last day of school got pushed one day we also wanted to um not have our snow makeup day be at the end of the school year uh we wanted to push that back to earlier in the year and we push that back to May 24th uh which would create

033a 4-day weekend if we don't have any snow days but again we didn't want to give up that staff development time that had been built in on that date so as you see our last day of school rather than being the 12th of June is now the 14th of June for students okay okay board members any questions yes Mary Joe um I the snow day so we're just scheduling one is that correct that's correct smart that's a good idea we don't have snow days anymore I know I know I mean I'm sure that we can I'm sure that we can do whatever we would need to do if we had an unusual year but you know parents get those calendars and see you know at the end of the year their kids might have to

034go three more days and maybe they do maybe they don't and you know there's always questions of how productive those are for anybody so um that's good January 21st though I'm confus about that um is that um a non-w work day but it's a non-school day correct the district is closed right I don't know that the administrative offices are closed but is not a workday for uh teaching staff um and it's not a school day but it's not a paid holiday I think one of the misconceptions about um paid holidays for staff is that our teachers are paid a salary so to create a paid holiday simply means you divide their salary by an additional day um you obviously they're paid a weekly salary so they're it won't vary that week okay um and then

035I I had a question this is our first year um of developing the calendar without um collective bargaining being involved and I I was wondering what was the difference in the process that you use well obviously rather than meeting um with a bargaining committee and exchanging proposals uh we uh actually presented some calendar ideas of this year's calendar to the district advisory committee we want to get their input on the types of choices that we're making we didn't have them designed this year's calendar um we really wanted more feedback on the process we then developed a calendar uh administratively we shared that with the members of the district advisory committee and then with you know a broader administrative group the principles uh and we got feedback from principes and uh from members of the district

036advisory committee um and how does is it very different in the way of prep time and any of those other it's not the real big any of the other things that were always discussed the real big change I think is um uh that that extra day that results from removing the half days um there's really no way to maintain the same amount of staff development and also remove half days of instruction so that results an extra day you'll notice that we also don't have two days at the beginning of the school year as we have in the past but that's a decision administratively to to uh combine the building day and the um districtwide opening day into one day and to reduce that amount of kind of meetings that we hold uh but obviously there

037is still an obligation for teachers to have their classroom set up by the 4th and and just like in the past teachers often were in in August set up classrooms and doing that type of work okay and um the revisions that we got tonight um those haven't been shared yet with no I mean that they were a result of the feedback right but I guess this would be the first time they've been shared public okay and then my final question is along the same lines this is a proposed calendar meaning meaning has to be board approved or or it will go back to the group it would it would it would be in your discretion I think traditionally um this was an item that was contained in a collective bargaining agreement and the board ratified

038it as part of a package although I think when we look back at our collective bargaining it has been one of those items where we may very well settle on a collective bargain agreement and then delegate to committee the committee to to decide but because this is something that's traditionally approved by the board through collective bargaining it's will be before you for approval okay well I appreciate it thank you I everything is different now so um I want to make sure I know what uh how we're operating so thank you just one of excuse me one of the other concerns which was the last workday on June 17th and when we start summer school we have to set up the start of summer school because obviously a number of our teachers are teaching summer school

039traditionally it's been the week after school is out but I know in the past where we've had snow days bump that back and there was a teacher workday on the Monday following we were very flexible and looking at it and saying you've got responsibilities get them done it doesn't necessarily mean you have to be on Monday we open the schools on the weekend people can come in and ultimately a lot of the work they have to do can be done electronically with grades and things like that so that is something we'll continue to be flexible on at the end of next year as well yes shared um what will be happening to professional learning time will that still be Wednesday early release yes and so what I see is the major change here is moving

040from the half days to the full days correct in Services yeah for the two days I believe right traditionally I think there's a half day in October and a half day in February that we being eliminated with a full day of school instead and I could see that having the last day of school on the 14th but is that provide it's a snow day no if there is that is the last day that is if there is a snow day we would be in school on the 24th of May okay instead that become up three-day instead of a 4- day weekend okay I just wanted to clarify that and one thing you did bring up summer school so that would have been a concern but I know this isn't really related to this particular calendar

041but one thing that I think would be helpful is if on the district calendar we put the summer school start and the summer school end so that parents can plan ahead that can be done thanks okay Sharon is that yes thank you anyone else is there anyone in the audience that would like to address a question concerning the calendar see none student earning this is Aron Burger I believe and Mr Anderson good evening you're here with uh Beth arenberger uh director of student learning and Andrea who is the content team leader of health and we're going to give you an update on the work that has been done on our human growth and development uh Committee in terms of recommendations that we move forward in the work done in our content team in the health

042area so um just starting out we um put the advisory committee together based upon uh 9140 policy and also um 8.09 Wisconsin State Statute um basically states that every three years we need to have um an advisory committee looking over our health uh human growth and development C Curriculum by the way that curriculum used to be called our life Ed curriculum we're now calling that human growth and development uh the purpose of our advisory committee is really to review that Health uh human growth and development curriculum make some recommendations um and also be guided by our uh policy 2414 uh which really dictates and has some language about human growth and development um in terms of how we program students um these are our number of committee members uh all committee members um did not

043participate in every single meeting uh we'll go over that uh meeting schedule with you we met for four times uh from about 5:30 to 7:30 here in the boardroom and in those uh four meetings we had a uh format where the public uh had any public interest that we needed to address in the first 10 minutes and then our large group uh would uh do some work and then we'd break up into small work teams and I'll talk about the talk about the four areas where we are making some recommendations okay and the last piece was that at the end of the night we'd all get together to craft the communication as we move forward so the charge of our committee was to create District belief statements around human growth development um we created a

044looked at revising our communication process with uh parent letters and communication looking at rubrics to evaluate any mediate materials and identifying curriculum gaps are area for improvement um all this again presenting uh moving forward to our health curriculum uh team that will do the actual um work on the curriculum so here are our district belief statements um we want to promote a healthy lifestyle including respect for your self and others and encourage students to make healthy decisions the group wants to in terms of our health and human growth and development curriculum promote and encourage open and respectful communication between students and their parents Guardians and other trusted responsible adults our program will provide current medically accurate developmentally appropriate and comprehensive information about human growth and development and sexuality we'll provide a safe and respectful form

045to address issues questions concerns about personal sexual development and feelings develop an understanding that sexuality is an integral part of integral component excuse me of one's physical social and emotional development and to promote the development of positive personal standards of behavior so these are belief statements that help to shape um our program the first we're going to look at a group that worked on revising parent communication letters uh recommendation number one was to standardize their parent letters um be specific about dates of instruction topics to be covered um opportunities for when review of material would take place um any specifics about the instruction whether we'd be separating uh males females um and any other pertinent information and materials so that was um clearly outlined as part of uh one of our com our Communications the

046second piece that that this group recommended was to create a website for our human growth development resources one that could provide access and support to learning for parents so this area is something that um we want to do a um do some work to again provide additional resources for our parents in our community in terms of the evaluation of materials and rubric uh group subgroup uh recommendations uh number one was to uh need to meet the pka Wisconsin Health standards Wisconsin Act 134 act 113 Wisconsin State statutes 1809 um then the wosa school board policy those are critical documents that shall be used by our health content team in um evaluating materials also looking at the fourth edition uh 2005 of the human growth development packet published by uh Wisconsin Department of Public construction and

047third recommendation was to um use developmentally appropriate um literacy appropriate uh to our population student level and that that um that rubric is in the human growth development packet uh 16.15 uh within the DPI packet fourth recommendation was in terms of evaluating website content was so also use a reference of rubric in that packet uh rubric 16.17 and the fifth recommendation again another rubric within that packet for evaluating DVDs uh YouTube any media of that nature final recommendation from the group was uh again using the pamphlet re relevant materials um and any textbooks to again use the reference document in um 16.14 the human growth development packet so these these rubrics were all developed prior uh through DPI terms of identifying curriculum area gaps um I'll let uh Miss Powers talk a little bit more

048about U some of the work in this area and these are yes we looked at the curriculum that's already in place um as part of the Life Education we looked at a couple recommendations one was to um clearly Define what the human growth and development curriculum would look like like and the responsibility for who would be teaching that at the different grade levels so that there is the accountability piece that this material will be covered um the second was to use um language during the work that's important that's listed in here and also making sure that we have staff development um available for teaching human growth and development um and to have that continuous training to keep teachers um informed of best practices and new information um a couple things came up for elementary was

049we looked at a few different things one was to note any gaps that might have occurred we saw that there was some material covered say in first grade but then didn't necessarily come up again until later in maybe fourth or fifth grade so we looked at some ways to bring more continuity from grade level to grade level so there's a little more progression um we also looked at what was recommended that we be proactive and teach information before the kids would need it so making sure we're not giving them information maybe after it might be useful to them um so some of the recommendations that we have listed again we we put down any of the topics that are already a part of the curriculum as is noted with the plus sign and then in

050the X shows anything that we would suggest be added to that grade level or to multiple grade levels and as you can see some of them may um be covered in every grade level some maybe kindergarten and first first and second grade or some that were fourth and fifth grade but again trying to repeat some of the topics we felt were the most important and the secondary team um used a similar format they looked at fifth grade through um 10th grade health and similar um looked at topics that are covered already and made some suggestions for where there should be some additions made and again it's to provide the continuity um as kids progress through the grade levels um to note uh we've used uh two um Consultants during this process um John hiskin who

051uh is the DPI consultant for health and human growth development through DPI also Dr uh Sabina daier from Milwaukee Medical College uh she is a um she is a parent within our district and um she's provided um some uh basic background on medically appropriate um education and um developmentally appropriate um learning for students the slides that we presented for both uh middle and high school in terms of uh some of the curriculum recommendations are just a snapshot on the the overhead the complete um recommendations are in the board package that you received so this all this information now will be used um in conjunction with the health content team as they work through um moving forward and writing the actual curriculum looking at materials um one of the things that we're going to continue to

052do is have a subgroup of our overall committee to continue to um work with and get feedback from the health content team as they work on human growth and development um one thing I want to point out if you look in your board packet uh we put together a matrix to help delineate the curriculum and the instruction um at both um in all in our health health areas um so you'll notice that um across that Matrix there are a number of different areas within our health curriculum uh where we uh actually um instruct students we want to make sure that we highlight the human growth in development not only the curriculum Itself by grade level but the instruction where it takes place by whom it's delineated and delivered so part of the work that the

053content team is going to do is to create this um scope and sequence matric so that um parents um and all employees and professionals know where and allloy one we're supposed to be teaching it we will have an opt out um and part of that opt out is we want our students just to opt out of the human growth and development slice of the overall health curriculum so again this this piece becomes very important for us to clearly delineate that questions yes M mu thank you I think this is a very important initiative in our district you were mentioning um when this work is going to be done um how quickly will it be done will it be ready by the Fall well we have a meeting set up uh tomorrow to meet with Andrea

054and begin talking about with the health content team and how we're going to be in to uh work through this process um as you know we do have a science review going on at the same time um certainly the uh recommendation from the committee itself um wanted to emphasize the importance of um addressing human growth and development and um getting to that work sooner than later um as it is really important for us and it hasn't been looked at in a long time so to put a timeline that would be hard but we're going to start looking at that right away and certainly we'd like to begin to maybe target areas that we could um look at sooner this year if we can and we're going to be putting together an implementation like plan that

055would get us to the end of this year so we could Implement for next year they've been working on the health part of this now for over a year in in a Content team so I think they're ready to pull the work together so we're anticipated that that timeline would get us ready to go by next year I mean it does sound like it from the content and and the detail that we've received um one other question that I had was uh the opt out do um many parents and our students opt out no okay I don't and at the high schools and this is done as well at elementary the elementary level is the high school teachers do hold a meeting for parents with all the materials parents can come take a look and

056really see what the program is about and um it is something that isn't necessarily as well attended as we might um typically like it to be but we do try to get that information out to to parents so that they are fully aware of what is taught and then they have that option to opt out if they choose yes because I can see situations where um some may be uncomfortable with some of the subjects and just so that they have a way that they can specifically Target that so that their student can take advantage of the other parts of the curriculum thank you further questions Mrs Fe thank you I think my questions are actually more properly directed to Dr erle first off who's adopting these District belief statements is this something that's going to

057come before the board for adoption or will this simply be a district belief statement adopted by a committee I think it came as a result of the committee to help guide the work in this area for the health um the health implementation team or the health health development team so it's from the C advisory committee that helps to guide the work for the health Team but if they're labeled District belief statements are they actually being adopted by anyone I don't know that there's going to be a board vote on the district well that leads to my next question which is what if any role does the board have in this whole process well this is an advisory committee that um the recommendations are to come to the board of education so um that we need

058to bring them to you and I the recommendations to the committee work I believe the board does have a role in whether or not you accept that these recommendations brought to you by the advisory committee or something that um will guide our curriculum and lastly uh you mentioned at the beginning Mr Anderson that there was a time at each of your committee meetings for public forum so to speak were there members of the public who came and spoke um what we did is we asked for if there were public forums and that they need to make an appointment through the curriculum office uh so that we can get them on the docket to address that um we did not have any public form people that wanted to come in and and set those times up

059so so there there was there were no public comment at the meetings no no one came in to um want to speak to the entire group on any any specific subject okay thank you but they were given the opportunity yes to do that yes the other thing I want to mention is that um the the 2210 procedures in curriculum also apply as as the content team is writing that curriculum um they'll be coming back and forth to um the curriculum Council also so any recommendations for the curriculum do will have to come back to the board for approval so thank you yes Mrs Randall um I just wanted to respond to Mrs S as well um the board's role is is also um in our policy which um almost word for word reflects the state

060statute our policy 2414 so um that is again what these recommendations were built around so but not a lot of choice um again the statutes are very particular our our board policy follows that and these recommendations then were built around that so it is definitely um inclusive of board input Mr croner I also had a question about the belief statements but only because the ones that we have in our packet are different than the ones you showed us tonight so which is the final the one on the slide the final version I apolog iiz if they're difference um some of the themes are the same but they're worded differently I do apologize they should be the slides that were presented uh through um through the PowerPoint um that's the that's actual correct um statements will

061guide the ones in the text are out of date then yes um one question I had is as we revised the human growth development policy last spring to include um instruction on gender identity specifically making sure students understand uh gay lesbian transgender bisexual and questioning um people so that they one could understand their own development and to understand other people to reduce bowling but I I didn't identify that in any of the paperwork that we had so my question is was that talked about and am I just missing where it would be discussed in the curriculum no that was discussed within our um within our committees um in their work um as we developed our um District belief statements that was also a piece that we discussed um so um we made sure um to

062look at the language um outlined by 2414 that that was a document that we're going to be uh during the process as we look at the curriculum also so that was an important in terms of the the actual language within that that piece so when I look at you know like this table you gave us for like the secondary 6 through eight in the high school Under human growth and development I really don't see anything to me that identifies that as a topic is that yeah that's actually just a draft example um so that's not a completed mate it's not a completed um Matrix yet that work's going to be done uh as we move forward so what you have in the board pack is an example of how we want to clearly delineate um

063between human growth and development and all our other health areas and then um some of this work that has been done even through the health committee and we did do some work with this uh last spring with both the Adolescent studies teachers in sixth grade um family and consumer education teachers at the high school and health teachers so we started we have not finished that work but we have um involved them they're our teachers are very receptive to how they might approach that and are looking for materials and things um to be able to include so I I was looking here too I don't see it but I do know that it's part of what we um expect to have in our um Health review and it'll be included with human growth and development as

064a topic okay I I know you consider priority as well I just didn't see it I want to make sure it didn't get lost in the Shu all right thank you further comments or questions questions is there anyone from the audience that wishes to come forth and speak on this subject see none thank you very much and you will be coming before us again as you proceed right you as the Things become close to finalization thank you uh Mr Anderson are you going to stay right there I certainly am okay thank you and you're going to give us a report on the trade school yes good evening uh again uh we're here uh to talk about our to school of trade really an OP operational review um I have sitting next to me John Finch

065uh governance board president um and so we're here to talk to you a little bit about some changes um that are coming our way in terms of the to School of Trades Uh current year we were expecting in our Charter approximately 60 students maximum at this point um for our third year of implementation uh currently we have 14 students enrolled six seniors eight Juniors um we've saw cine in enrollment this year um we are not meeting our current goals as outlined by the current Charter agreement so we know that we've had a number of obstacles from last year's uh recruitment um feedback from students parents um our governance board and counselors that students were very reluctant to leave their home schools and come to um the trade school after attending their home school for two

066years um the other piece that we're working with is um in space define space here at uh the Fisher Building with Renovations so those things together um led us to some of our current work over the last two months um John Finch and myself have toured both East and West High School facilities we've looked uh with those facilities at um both East and West with principles Bruce Johnson uh has been shared the pros and cons yeah actually looked over both building uh both sites um reflected and gave us some information about um those facilities the current uh building tech ed programs in terms of their operation were looked at uh knowing that uh we have to knowing that we want to take our school to one of uh one of the buildings to make it

067an integral part of the community um we didn't want we wanted to look at where was the least disruptive environment for us to uh to transfer to so we didn't want to disrupt current ticket programming fall possible um government board um with all that feedback the help of John and myself um uh voted to to have a halfday program to modify what we currently do and have that uh located over at East High School the half day would focus on um taking what we currently do and boiling it down to just the trade piece we know that that's a critical area that we have to get right so I think from the board perspective and the governance board perspective and from an Administration we know this is a critical career pathway for our students but

068instead of trying to create a new wheel we're saying let's bring it back to what our core value is for the trade school and that's to provide students with a pathway and construction and carpentry plumbing and electrical so in our discussions um that's kind of where we want to take the school we want to shrink it down rebuild it and really get to our core values and and really get it right we know there's going to be a reduction in staff um this certainly is going to be need determined based upon student enrollment for next year um currently we'll have to look at our Charter agreement uh currently we feel that um this Charter agreement formally former formally acknowledges the partnership between the trades and the school district so one of the things that we're

069going to have to do and we talked about it is uh our enrollment period for the trade school is set forth by the charter the first three weeks of February so February 6 through 24th we will be actively pursuing students who would be interested in a halfday program located at East High School so um we've put together some guidelines because I think uh one of the things that we have found is that we hav been clearly communicated uh what we're after in the trades for in terms of student as they're coming in a trade student needs to be College ready they need to be on track for graduation so as a junior we're looking for someone who has credits of 13 U 12 to 13 credits successful completion of elig are currently enrolled in Geometry

070um successful completion of introduction to engineering um and then ninth grade reading level so again looking at discipline and attendance and good standings again these recommendations to help um really frame for um teachers for guidance counselors for parents to understand that students that are going into the trades pathway are just as capable and just as necessary in terms of getting um a College ready education or Mossa um as s me that's going College Bound we know currently that um about 40% of our students um estimated drop out of of college um this there's an average of about $40,000 excuse me of $24,000 that college students acrew in debt um if we looked at East High School 9% of our graduates pursue postsecondary and two 16% pursue two-year institutions and at West High School 80% of

071our student graduates pursue uh postsecondary and 70% of our students um pursue a four-year within that also 20% uh a two-year institution so we know we have to engage our students within the pathway we have we have the capability of doing that but in the current program the way we have the charter set up um it's the detached from uh the confines of a culture within a school so um in terms of what it looks like next year again we're looking at downsizing in terms of um going after a population of students that truly will be engaged but we'll be engaged for a half day and then we'll receive their instruction outside that that time period and regular classes and instruction through WTO School District um but we feel that we we have to get

072this equation right um and to do that we need to shrink down and get back to what I said is our Basics it's really helping our students learn Plumbing electrical um and carpentry through trades instructor and collaboration with uh teachers here in the district so that we can provide that pathway and once we begin to develop that pathway and we get successful at it and we can look at other options down the road but right now we know that this is a critical pie of what we need to do um so we have a lot of work to do we have a lot of U recruitment um John certainly um is willing um with other board members to um make this work and make this a viable pathway for our students um I think the

073charter school experience is an interest interesting experience not every experiment works so rather than um you know the trades they're they're in we in and we want to make this uh right for our kids as a as a pathway to success questions where at East High School is this going to be located currently um the ticket room at East High School which is located back by the uh building ground area is currently um not used um it's used very sparingly for um different classes here and there but not teched classes um that's not scheduled on a regular basis for actually classes so we've used that in the morning still give access to the rest of the school in the afternoon to those facilities if they need be questions Mr croner oh thank you um I

074didn't understand the logic between moving the half day of the tech ed part to East High School if that setup and equipment is already here why not do that half day here and then have the kids move to the high school for this other classes the second half of the day again one thing that we found from feedback was that students are very reluctant to leave their home school um to come to the trade school even though we provide you know a pathway for them so um if we can embed within the culture of the school the access to that pathway we feel that that could be a winning success um for our students um again students after two years are feeling very attached to their school um and so part of it is um

075we feel that's a good fit for for moving forward trying to build that program and you'll be able to replicate the building spaces and things that you have here at the high schools it's actually better so East High School has a higher higher ceiling more room for that space on the residential build plus down the stairs and actually part of the mechanical room we could actually replicate some commercial industrial uh Plumbing electrical so the experience for the students would be actually much more realistic I think more impactful and will also allow us for expansion and current space downstairs in this building we're already full okay and what about the trades are they on board with this is it a reduction in time for training for them or how is that going to work um not

076not as we see it um uh it for in terms of our commitment um we're seeing a reduction in FTE again that's going to depend on the student body that we recruit um in February uh so right now I could predict Maybe uh 6.8 um FTE to allocate for the trade school at this time um over time we hope to grow that but again we're trying to bring it back to the basics to deliver the instruction in plumbing electrical and carpentry do that very well and do that so good that we can build off that program um I think we we tried to do a lot of things um and that became difficult so we think it's better to regroup focus on what's important what we're after and then build from there so when you

077say staff reduction you're talking about District employees that's is it two FTE now yes right now we have two FTE and so you're just mainly reducing it to one potentially one to part time possibly yeah okay and you mentioned in your slides estimated College Dropout rate of 40% is that just a general statistic or is that wosa students no that's a general statistic that's not wosa I should have highlighted that um certainly I'd like to say we do better um but that statistic I do I do not have but yeah on average it's somewhere around 38 39 some say 45 and Depends for different minority groups and socioeconomic so I wanted to point that out because I think we do much better than that I think that's something we I don't know if we track

078that hopefully we do it at some point but I wanted to point that out um and I was a little concerned about well I don't know if I should be concerned about it but you're the goal of raising the standards I guess of the students that are entering the program um this seems to me you're sort of changing the emphasis from what this the students that this program was targeted for is that is everyone on board with that I mean it seems like you're might be leaving out students that are currently in the program from the most the we're not leaving those students out what we have to do is the the trades are really clear on um they need the students they need are the same students that are going to college all kids

079college ready what we have to do is if there are students who are not quite ready for that type of program at um at the end of their sophomore year what we have to do is provide how we're going to get students to be ready to enter a program like the trades and so what it's what we're not doing is saying you can't be part of it we just as a system have to say we have to involve and get kids up to speed for reading for math so that they can be successful through the trades um we found out we've had some very um low math students and low reading students and it's just very difficult for us to um navigate those pieces and actually intervene and do a really good job with those

080students to help them get back to where they need to be you look at the ocean manual you you open that ocean manual up high level reading so um yeah students that go into the trade we do need a high level competency and and again they're recommendations um we certainly don't want to exclude students but we certainly want to set the bar and kind of talk about it is that the trades really needed students just like any other class so um we're going we're going to have to figure out how to scaffold for students who aren't quite there to get them there so that we can get them through that program because what we're finding is students who are coming in that are lacking those pieces we don't have the pieces of scaffold for them

081so they're they're failing and we're failing them so that's why we're kind of trying to go back to the basics for those trade pieces right now and really develop that develop it well and begin looking at how what are those support mechanisms that have a student is you know in freshman year and they're really looking at maybe going into the trades and they're reading at a sixth grade level how are we going to scaff their learning freshman in sophomore year to get them ready to enter the trades and just cuz I forgot to look this up today I apologize with with the current contract is that a three-year contract or there still was that a fiveyear contract with two years it goes through 2014 I believe okay so we need I assume you'll address contract

082modifications if we need it yes before we move forward okay yeah one of the things we you know we talk about you know would it be a better program would it be a a a charter and again I tried to address that saying a charter helps to formally recognize the partnership between the trades and the school district and the board and and the administration feel that that is important and one last question I don't know if you've estimated this yet do you know how much it will cost to move the program to East and retrofit the school for what it needs for the program actual moving cost and an actual doing some retrofitting um talking with Bruce Johnson he has budgeted some money um I can't give you exact dollar figure I certainly can get

083that um but it's more manpower moving things uh storage area that they have over already at East will accommodate uh what our needs are so it's going to take a little bit of transition for us to to figure out you know so it's not going to be a it's not going to be a huge renovation expense it's going to be more um working with buildings grounds to figure out the fit and storage and things of that nature all right thank you Mrs Randle um thanks very much um Mr Finch what is your background how how did you get involved in our in the charter school I've worked from milwauke to for 12 years and I worked with Joe weisling on some prop training programs that we actually trade uh essentially Training Services for my sales

084staff then into the Carpenters that come and use our facility so I worked with Joe for a few years and then actually got involved with Joe in this program here I've done some training with the to school of the trades graduat so with our instructors Neil and Jill we've done some training at the Milwaukee tool fac and I've been here a few times thank you very much you looked familiar I'm sure I probably have seen you in the charter school but um regarding FTE now my understanding is that our two outstanding Educators Mrs cernick and Mr story were delivering Core Curriculum is that correct yes yes so so we've already had conversations um with building principles in terms of um how they might be brought back into um the schools um again depending on you

085know our our student role um we might need one of the one of the teachers so we're already exploring and having those conversations you might need one of the teachers in the charter school yes for um one of the things that um we need to have we can't just have um we can't have no instructor licensed um teacher in the classroom so that's why it has to be a partnership between the instructor um and also our trades instructor so one of the things we've talked about a lot is um really developing um the teacher um instructor relationship that they should be developing their lessons collaboratively uh their assessments how they're tracking their assessments and progress with students so those are the pieces that we're really going to focus on next year in terms of we

086kind we have an outline of the curriculum we have that but the actual implemented curriculum as opposed to the intended curriculum there's a gap and we need to close that Gap okay so you will be able to build on the work that yes our staff members have done with with the trades people already because I know that partnership work has already started so so hopefully that'll continue the other thing is um if we know that it's um a problem for kids to leave their home school and we just implement this at East what does that say to West well we talked about we talked about that piece and the hope is that um you know Vision down the road when we when we become successful you know maybe we can look at expanding this to

087another High School one of the things we've talked about is if we're putting this work in and we know it's a needed Pathway to success to the trades for not only our students but any students soue Southeastern wiscons and United States that if we can create a program so it could be replicated it could be replicated in any southeastern Wisconsin high school so that's kind of our aim we had to pick uh East or West because we wanted to again bring the program down so it could be manageable that we could focus on that important piece of the trades and really do it well and then grow from there and it just so happens that he was the better Candidate For Less disruption um space availability those things okay and is there a way that

088you can encourage West students and yes somehow you know make we'll be West and our our hope is that we have West students at East for that first part of the day um and certainly then they'll have to go back to their home school in the afternoon but that is our hope so we'll be we'll be actually going over to West to have those conversations and look for students at West also certainly we want West any students um in this program we're not exclus just because it's going to be at East doesn't mean it's exclusively for East students so it's for both East and West students right initially right but it it doesn't overcome that that barrier that the kids themselves have about leaving their home school so yeah it was I think that's fair

089I think the other thing is they now they left their home school but they've left to come to a building where there are no other students they work with the community is gone the lunch room's gone they don't see anyone else that they wouldn't know cing the hallways and I think that will be mitigated by having wonderful environment like East has I think that we'll we'll be able to overcome that okay and you know it's a really good opportunity I know there are clubs and groups that combine among East and or between East and West so perhaps it's going to be the beginning of a another opportunity so um thank you very much um for all of the work you've been doing on this um I've I've been supportive from the beginning and um I

090know it's kind of difficult when things things don't go the way you had hoped but we had a lot of discussion when we started this that you know the the structure of doing it under a charter allows us to what make mistakes maybe not mistakes but find out what works find out what does what doesn't and to recognize that and then formulate um a response to that is is very commendable and I know it takes a lot of work and a lot of communication so thank you Mrs R excuse me you mentioned the teachers and I think um I just want to point out that we have the two teachers basically when we started this program took a risk jumped out of completely out of their comfort zone came over here to a school again

091for teachers it's there's not a lot of collaboration opportunities for the teachers and um you know I think when they took that risk I I think that says a lot about them and they've done a lot of different things and attempts to work with the students that are here and to make it successful and I just wanted to thank thank them for everything they've done to step out so absolutely Mr Finch I'm real pleased that you talked just a little bit more about the lunch I don't know if we realize that um I think at the secondary level particular high school that social time that time with their friends across the lunch table is extremely important and I think that is going to be a very important factor so I I appreciate the that's that's

092how we're going to recruit schools be so fantastic they're need to tell the story at the lunch table we'll get more students and they could take part in the music program uh absolutely that is made much easier for them so just keep us informed again how we proceed and exactly again what is your title I'm the director of training for Milwaukee elri tool thank you okay Mr Jal or Mrs Fe any questions okay thank you thank you very much thank you uh we will now ask um Mrs muel um if you will review the uh School Board Wisconsin school board convention that was held last the week yes thank you the delegate assembly was held uh last Wednesday afternoon the 18 I have a recap that I printed off of the website I do have

093a few extra copies for the audience as well I have one thank you yes he has one okay um they didn't release the final um adjusted those amended resolutions um yet but at least this gives you some background on the discussion held at the delegate assembly it did uh largely go as we had in uh we had thought it would there was a very interesting set of motions that happened at the delegate assembly and I have attended several times in the past um but actually what ended up happening was the assembly needed to reconsider an amendment which had not an amendment to one of the resolutions which has not ever happened to my knowledge in in the course of the delegate assembly and go back to the and make their way back to the original

094resolution um so that was something unprecedented and um and I thought was very interesting um mostly I should I guess I should start by saying there were 320 21 delegates out of the 425 school districts plus the cesas that can um bring delegates to the delegate assembly so there was a pretty good uh representation there um again uh probably the uh most activity happened on resolution 12.6 which was the revenue limit calculation timeline um that uh one school district wanted to amend and then it was reconsidered it did then go back to the original motion which which then passed so um it's always very interesting when so many people speak on one resolution the Dynamics are um can be again quite interesting um there was also another resolution that had considerable activity which also passed

095and that was resolution 12.7 opposing private school aid um basically the uh there was an amendment Amendment H to that long and lengthy resolution um that stated if a voucher if the voucher program continues it must be uh requested that a student must have attended it must be required that a student must have attended a public school to be eligible to receive a voucher and an additional amendment was made for a minimum of one year and it was a very interesting discussion on that Amendment there were districts opposed to it there were districts in favor of it but again um I think the the assembly overwhelmingly passed that to 261 to 47 with the amendment largely because public school districts want to oppose private school aid so that one was the most interesting addition as

096far as an amendment goes so again um you know I'm sorry they didn't have a typed out sheet yet for you to review but that should be coming within the next few probably the next few days and I can make sure that's forwarded to the board members and that will include the numbers on the resolution yes it will basically um be the same handout uh a similar handout that we reviewed at our last meeting but it would contain the anything amended um there might have been uh one or two other wording amendments to some of the resolutions but there was not much discussion um I think one other um discussion at the pre- delegate assembly L was on um sparsity Aid that was resolution 12.02 um there was also some discussion at the delegate assembly

097floor um uh that was also something that you know districts were very interested in um but largely most of the resolutions passed by a large margin I'm looking back at my notes here to see what was very close um educator Effectiveness was very close actually um and uh that was 183 to 108 so it's um always very interesting to see which resolutions come come very close and um and I'm looking back at my notes here and I don't see any that are as close as that one any other questions or curious about any Mrs Randall so what weight do these carry and and what do we need to do as a district if anything in support of the resolutions that have been approved and and one of the reasons I'm asking is um we had

098joined in signing a letter a while back um regarding the private school funding that they were going to fix the original legislation and apparently that is not moving through the legislature as people had hoped so um again you know will this put some pressure on legislators or what happens what these resolutions do is um they're entered into this book The resolutions adopted by the delegate assemblies and this is what uh the was B uses as their guideline when the legislative session um happens it doesn't always correspond with uh a particular delegate assembly for example some of these resolutions that were discussed um last week may not come up right um you know in the session um but what what it does is give the uh wasb uh legislators the pulse of what the school boards

099in Wisconsin and this is a direct link with the school boards in Wisconsin to to go and and legislate on their behalf individual school districts should definitely stay AB breast of what is happening and advocate for their own positions again this is just a u a guideline if you will um but of course there are winners and losers on the side of any one of these resolutions and that's the fact and if we want to advocate for a position we have to be um meeting with our legisl laters going to the hearings and and advocating getting our citizens involved really educating them on what is the impact and a lot of other school districts are in the same situation we we might in and wa TOA or they may not so um so having those

100relationships and advocating on on our own is important too thanks exctly else thank you Sharon for taking time to represent wosa at the convention did you go to the exhibits I did not get a chance to go to the exhibit penil well because the delegate assembly went long it didn't conclude until 4:30 and it started at 1:30 so it was actually a very lengthy assembly this time was there some reason they've always held it in the morning was there some reason that they changed the afternoon of this assembly I don't know why they they changed it I I know that they had it in past years in the morning um I I did did hear that um on the 18th there was a and I don't know if anyone from the district was able to

101go but there was a General Session speaker that was that was very good um what was the topic I did I didn't get to attend it there was nothing okay no but I I did hear people you know saying it was a good session and and I would be interested to hear if someone from our district went okay thank you anyone in the audience have a question of Mrs muel seeing none uh Dr Earl just a comment I think the best session of the whole convention was where Mr Mack was a panelist um talking about Open Enrollment which I actually did stop in to sa so do you wish to make any comment Mr Mac he made plenty during that thank you the this p last week I had contacted Mrs Weber about a number

102of things um and asking her ultimately to reinstate the Personnel committee um and for several different reasons and I I put together some um recommendations for the role of the Personnel committee and I think there's we've certainly moved into a different time with negotiations or not having negotiations and decisions being made related to pay benefits salary structure and I think there's a gap and as we looked at it administratively think think that having a Personnel committee can help fill that that void of looking at in-depth at research of different different things we're working on and can report back to the full board one of the uh intentions that I would have is that we would start this process out with full board executive session after our next meeting to be able to discuss um what

103we can related to negotiations for the upcoming session we do need to get that ball rolling rolling even though we don't uh know what base wages necessarily means um but I think we need to have some discussions and get that that piece going the Personnel committee would be also as I have it here would be a um the group that would sit during negotiations and again excuse me not knowing what that's that could be a 15minute meeting I'm not sure what we can all negotiate but I don't think it's certainly not as extensive as it used to be but really looking at um recommendations regarding Staffing um from Administration um to look at not just teachers but all of our professional groups and we still do have requirements to bargain we're still under contract with

104some of our groups um the handbook is another piece that we've had plenty of discussions about and I think that's can't be a static type thing we need to do the continual review and again out of the direction of the full board I think that's where the Personnel committee can help with Administration and developing and and reviewing and researching um on different conditions that relate to the handbook and working conditions for our teachers and our our staff members but I think ultimately the reason that I I come to this point in saying this would be helpful for the administration to be able to work with the board and work through a lot of these different issues um in a in a timely manner and when I say timely we're not real sure what that means

105either we don't know how quickly we have to go we know we need to determine how we're going to pay the teachers for next year we know we need to get a salary structure in place for the future um and again we don't want to go too fast and we don't want to make those kind of mistakes that you never can recover from or takes a long time to recover and gets us out of competition but I I think this um is is a way that can help us and I reflect back upon our time when we had the Personnel committee operating I know it was one committee that was effective um at least I felt it was effective working with the administration and with the full board um so Sharon um so question for

106you Dr erle it looks like the Personnel committee's goals or objectives are expanded from the last time we convened a committee of this nature I think the role is a little bit different because there's there's more to it now I think in particular I think that was set up to look at administrative benefits and it I think it was about a year and a half that that committee Opera looking at that major component but this is kind of expanding that that's also part of the discussion as well um and bringing recommendations for changes to policies as well related to benefits and pay I'm wondering um what the thoughts are there's a last bullet point here on any other matter concerning Personnel referred to the committee what type of matters would those be would those be

107complaints or no I think it to I think it would relate to any policy that impacts staff that the full board has a concern or or questions or um a need for further clarification that they want the committee that they can charge the full commit or the committee with researching um I mean an example might be sick days although that's part of our policy but the the board may want full board may want some research and some review on on sick days and the administration would bring that to the committee to look through and and study and bring to the full board so that might be one example or leaves whether it's sick or other kinds well and I can see the value in this um but I'm hesitant because I really think that to

108Be an Effective and functioning committee that there really has to be a commitment by the administration to really present all of the issues and the documentation and anything related to the subject matter data uh whatever it is and also then that the full board would have the opportunity to review such material if it pertained you know to a board Vote or a policy decision or whatever it is and then also a commitment by the committee Personnel to make sure that they are holding Administration accountable to give them that information that they need to have the to have these discussions to bring it back to the board for discussions um because I'm worried about that I think that's listed under bullet number the last towards the bottom of the sheet to keep the board informed uh

109to meet with the total board in ex session I'm just picking out separate words but I think that's already in place and I think this board has been very careful about that that um we do include the in complete board in decision making and I think whenever the um if there's something that we feel we don't have enough information we've asked for further and it's there immediately so I don't think we have to worry about that we can be reminded but I I do think this district is operated very carefully on that in allowing all board members to uh be fully informed and each board member has a responsibility if there's something missing like you're presenting then we bring that to the full board or to the superintendent yes Mary Joe I think Sharon you

110just described what a committee should do and how it should operate um and I know you expressed it as a concern you know historically we have not been real successful you know in committee what what I see in in the need for this committee is the volume of things that we now have to know about and keep up to date on that we didn't have to before um because those things were all addressed in in a bargaining contract um also the many changes that are coming legislatively and so um I see it as yeah I think the people who are involved do need to be um committed and they do need to um know that there's going to have to be some time um involved in this because if we start at the full board

111level I mean this could take up every meeting for forever and and it goes back to what I was saying a couple weeks ago which I know you talked about as well we don't have a trigger right now to review um wages benefits any of that we you know unless an individual comes to us with a with a situation or whatever um I think we need to be well acquainted with with our handbook um and I think we need to be well acquainted with our policy um so at any rate I I just feel like um there are just too much many things to be done to approach everything at the full board level and I I think there's value in for instance I think evaluations was was um one of the requests that Administration

112would want to look at so we need you know somebody to sit down and say where are we with our evaluations procedure I know we've gotten reports on it um how is that working um do we have any other recommendations for it or whatever there's just a lot going on that I think can't get to a bimonthly board meeting me yes Mrs B uh I would support um reconstituting the Personnel committee uh in some shape or form I think that um Mrs randle's correct that there are a lot of topics that need to be um addressed and I think it is important to have board input into that um for the administration um at at an earlier level than it would be if it came before the board uh once everything was done uh I

113do have a question just procedurally this is different than what we've had before does there need to be a board vote to establish this this committee and the outline that you have presented to us today I don't think there needs to be a board vote on it what I think well by policy the the board president can the board president can immediately after the organiz as soon after the organizational meeting appoint people to standing committees um or any they can create the board president can create ad hoc committees or the superintendent can create it with board approval so that being said I would say where does this fall into that I guess is my question because I agree with completely with what you said but I'm not sure exactly where this fits I don't know

114either um I mean I think it can be just this is the role that we're going to do or we can have the board vote I to me I guess i' not I'm not overly concerned one way or the other if the the general consensus of the board is they'd like to vote on this as the roles for it I would certainly be fine with that and maybe that sends a stronger message about the role of that committee as well I don't there's there's no groundworker policy that says this has to be voted on or doesn't it could be the roles and the accepted roles of the committee or it could be voted on as well well again I do think that it is um it would be beneficial to the district and perhaps I

115would go so far as to say it's necessary because there are so many items that need to be addressed and I think it would be highly inefficient to try to do that with the full board uh so I would support reconstituting the Personnel committee Mr Dres did you have any questions um do you know we're we're forging new ground do you know if the teachers will be operating in any uh in a small group or I know Mr hencher is the new leader of the teaching faculty uh and he has served as chair of the WEA in the past he's a teacher at Jefferson School a very fine gentleman um but will they have are they going through some of the same questions we're going through do you know I don't I don't know what

116they're going through but I just know that the only thing that can be be negotiated is base wages and that could come out as simple as we pay $30 million for wages and we can negotiate the CPI of 2% so the maximum that they can request through negotiations would be $600,000 increase and the board would have a stance and say we're either going to say zero or anywhere between Z and 6% you can't offer more or 600,000 whatever the CPI is and then it comes to impass so it's the the role is completely been reduced used unless the legislation comes out or or the the uh the ruling from WC that base wages is more complicated than that that it's on the individual basis and each person's individual base salary has to be negotiated in

117a different Manner and we don't know that we're only assuming that it's not going to be as complicated because that was the intent that's the only type of thing we can actually sit down at the table with the association and discuss related to negotiations okay is there yes Mr croner um is my recollection I don't remember the exact policy language that the board president can establish a standing committee and Name the members subject to the approval of the board so I think the Board needs to approve it in some form perhaps Mr chanan can check on that or we could take a short break to establish that before we move forward um my con I see the need for this my concern is that the board had committee organization before that didn't seem to suit

118the board at that time so I'm not sure if this can be structured differently to make it more effective if it can then I would be in favor of moving forward um one of the issues that I don't quite understand is the procedural functions for this committee many committees receive proposals and then the committee votes on whether they recommend it to the full board for approval or not is that something that this board this committee would do as well yes so it wouldn't move forward unless it had the recommendation of the committee yeah absolutely not I mean that it would have to have the support of the committee to bring something forward if we bring a recommendation and we don't have support at the committee level it' be pretty challenging to try to bring it

119to the the full board and get support for it and I think that's um yeah I can't think of anything I've ever done in the committee where I would take it forward without the support of the committee and I lost my turn of thought there um it it is it is going to require that board members accept a different view on how we operate on these policy matters because in the past even though we were working through contracts during the negotiation discussions we were able to meet as a full board and executive session and discuss various options and each express our own opinions and decide you you know we might have options this wide to begin with and we would narrow the options that we wanted to move forward with in negotiations and board members

120would be giving up that opportunity to participate in the initial discussion phase of what are the parameters around the various issues that we want to discuss and how do we want to narrow it before we go forward so it it is going to be different um the way I see it is board members in some sense are giving up the ability to part participate in a more General discussion of some of these issues and that it will take place at the committee level so the opportunity is that hopefully board members will be able to have those open discussions again if it comes back to the whole board I'm not sure how that's going to work though it's going to be different because you can't discuss an exact session even at the committee level a lot

121of those things and I'm not sure if that's what you were to we could still discuss them now even at a session like this correct and I that's going to have to be discussed if a recommendation from a committee comes forward on let's just throw out sick Lea you know I I think we're going to have seven members of the board that are going to certainly share their opinions on how that should operate but hopefully we can have enough research to help make informed decisions for everybody um my only concern about some of the specific recommendations is like the first two the number one review recommendations of administrative regarding Staffing at all levels accept the annual Staffing request which shall be presented to the full board I've been trying to take very seriously the board

122approach of policy governance and we have not the board has normally not been offering opinions on decisions you make at for Staffing such at the level that this this committee would be working on here so I'm just curious if you see that as departure from our normal operating procedure regarding our participation in your Staffing decisions I think it would be no I don't see it as a different level I think it's probably more discussion related if I look at it and say what is it at for Staffing it's almost a financial piece before we would it's almost a budget piece when I look and say for example teachers at the high school currently are teaching five of seven classes um if there was a recommendation to or a decision to go to Six of seven

123what impact would that have and trying to get some feedback before we would we would make that kind of decision I think that's where this committee could could help and offer some perspective from our board level perspective before we go down that path but as far as it's not saying that they would make recommendations now there might be an example when you you asked would there be support you know I think we'd have to have pause if there wasn't if we had three members of a committee saying that's a problem or I think you're going to have a problem because ultimately my thought process is okay we're going to present the budget to the board and it includes money shifted from Staffing levels of teaching of teaching Lev into salary that might not go over

124so well so I think that's kind of advisory as well to where it wouldn't necessarily be just a strict recommendation coming from a committee but I think it's an opportunity for the administration to get feedback from a board perspective too of a of a committee perspective okay um yeah I guess I at this point I'm I would be willing to give it a try I'm not sure yet having not I thought about it but considering the the history of how committees worked in the past I'm not sure how it will work but I know that because things are different now maybe it has a better chance of success and I'm not sure either you know it's something I just think it's it's there there's a gap and I think it can help us as I

125listen to you Mr croner I think of the scheduling committee there's so many unnown in that on in that at this time that will be a factor that will come into the discussion as we move forward um it seems like a puzzle to me right now but I know the answers will start coming um when when again will we might we hear a report on the scheduling committee I don't know the exact date they're they just actually took another visit last week of another school district so or two weeks ago I believe it was so we're working through it and there's going to be two different looks middle school and high school but um certainly a recommendation for before the end of the school year for the following year not for this next year but

126for the following year so we aren't going to see any change obviously this school year but we could for 12113 or are you saying 1314 134 is when I expect it but the recommendation to be done this school year so the staff development and all the changes we scheduling whatever it might be that we go to can be implemented and I think the key thing no matter what we do if it needs and requires professional development that we can do that so if I can just read let me read the language from that policy in the bylaws and you guys can um decide how you want to approach it my interpretation this is exact language not my interpretation put it that way president is authorized to appoint as soon after the annual reorganizational meeting as

127practicable members of the board to standing committees where they Shall Serve a term of one year ad hoc committees may be created and changed at any time by the president or the superintendent with approval of the board um members of the ad hoc committee Shall Serve until the committee is discharged I look at it and say the president has the authority without approval of the board is that correct that's how I read it yes that's how we've operated to I'm not going to commit to that at this point till I have a chance to sit down and read it more carefully well I think in past practice we have had a discussion of the committee what is the committee's purpose what will they be doing how many members who are the members and we have

128had a thorough discussion of it and I think it's necessary to have a vote even if maybe we'll interpret something different different I think it is important it's a very important time for our district for our employees and if this is the vehicle by which we're going to thoroughly investigate and examine a lot of these topics then I think we should officially organize it and maintain it that way my question is are there three people three board members on this committee not including the president no three to three total okay yes Mrs you know we do have some success um record of success in committee work um and I our most recent bargaining sessions I think is is a good example of that um and it's going to be the responsibility of everybody whether you're

129on the committee or outside of it on the full board um to make sure that the full board does have all the information it doesn't necessarily preclude it but we did um give a level of trust and responsibility um to the individuals that we asked to um be present at negotiations so it's going to involve trust it's going to involve responsibility um and if we can't do that it wouldn't be successful so I you know we we can try it um if it doesn't work well then then it doesn't work but truly there are just too many issues um that need to be addressed right now and that we need to keep on top of so um and and to deal with them all with seven individuals it's not realistic um for anybody to think

130that um um they would not be able to approach a person on the committee um or to have even if even if a recommendation comes forward that either you disagree with or you want to know why wasn't this option considered that discussion is going to happen nothing is going to happen um just like when we got reports back from negotiations so I I think that's um a model that that we can follow and that can be effective for us and and the reason for doing that the last time was to avoid all of this okay we negotiated we're coming back to all seven of you and and all of these things happened and nobody had an opportunity to kind of condense it ask some questions at the time and so on so I I really

131think it's needed I really I think it's very necessary piggy back on to what you're saying I think it requires careful respectful listening um and there's nothing wrong with with this agreement because out of that comes growth in decision making and it's important that we do get all the questions out on the table to move forward why don't I bring it back at the next meeting for a vote if there's a couple of questions about process and that taking place why don't we just take a vote on it at the next meeting we can schedule it for a vote and establish it that way yes I am in agreement for a vote I think if the board wants to commission this action then we should commission this action and obviously we need to all do

132our homework that is not the issue here we just want to make sure that we all understand how it's organized what are the topics that um you know what are the general topics and and how will that discussion occur I'm assuming but I don't know I could probably ask this at the next meeting that you bring it back but will it be the same thing where you present in a report and then at the next meeting we vote on it will that be the course of action or the Personnel committee for personnel committee yes will it be the same sort of uh process that we use in our normal board operations there'll be a report on some recommendation and then at the following with discussion and then the following meeting there will be a vote

133you mean as far as the committee operations correct I think that's up to the committee too certainly I mean generally that's the way you're going to operate to try to give information be able to study come back discuss it again but in some cases that might not be needed and I think that comes from the group if there's enough understanding and agreement we can direct that the vote be taken can it or do we have to always post that there's going to be a vote vot there's never going to be a vote of the committee committees can't vote so you wouldn't post that it's going to be discussion and there's consensus or there's not consensus okay yes Ann um I would like to point out that Dr erle said that the committee would start with

134really a committee of the whole where there would be an exact session where there would be discussion of what the committee the subcommittee of the board was allowed to do which I think would address a lot of what you're talking about Mrs milfeld so I think that that sort of built into what the proposal is at least that's what I heard um I would also um suggest that as our policies give the president of the board the authority to uh constitute committees that Mrs Weber um take a look at that policy and decide prior to setting the next agenda whether or not it needs to be on for a vote I know Dr urle said why don't I bring it back but it really is I think uh within Mrs Weber's perview as president of

135the board to decide whether that is something that needs to be on the agenda okay thank you yes sorry well um let me point out that there's a fourth bullet point on our handout here that basically discusses the executive session but in the parameters of negotiation with employee groups so I would not assume that to mean other topics that the Personnel committee might cover and my preference would be yes that um Mrs Weber as our president consider how to bring this back for the board but I would like a board vote to convene this committee Is there further comment I will be discussing it with you and move forward thank you anyone else have any other comment at this point thank you is there any Community comment please okay see none um I believe we

136are ready to adjourn this meeting following this regular meeting the school board will convene excuse me will adjourn into executive session to consider a request for additional leave of absence under board policy 3430 and 343 0.01 pursuant to Wisconsin statutes 19.8 5 subsection L subsection F to consider a Personnel issue related to financial medical social and personal histories of specific persons which if discussed in public would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such is there motion to Mrs Randall yeah and is there a second second thank you roll call please Mrs gante Mrs V yes Mr Jose yes Mr croner yes Mrs meld yes Mrs Randall yes Mrs Weber yes and we'll take five minutes and then reconvene is that enough time