001Waiting for the thumbs up. There it is. >> Good to go. I will call the Germantown School District Board of Education meeting to order November 18th at 7 p.m. located at the PAC. Could please stand if you are able and rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and brief moment of silence. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Dr. Reutder, official meeting notification. Public notice of all meetings has been given by communication from the superintendent's office to the public to those news media who have requested such notices and to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Northwest now express News and Westbend Daily News. Public notice has also been posted in schools throughout the district
002and on the Germantown School District website. >> Thank you. Roll call. >> Heert >> here. >> Brown >> here. >> Barney is here. Loath >> here. >> Pollock >> here. >> Ping and Botham >> here. Very >> here. Thank you. Item two, approval of agenda. >> Motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Mr. Barney with the motion. Mr. Voyer with the second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Hearing? None. That passes. Item three reports a district administrator update. Dr. Reutder. >> Thank you, Mr. Eart. Uh, congratulations to our Germantown High School boys volleyball team who took second this past week or last weekend at the state tournament. They had a great season. We had an awesome sendoff here with the student body as well as many of their parents. Um
003they came up and taking second. Um I think from talking to Mrs. Yur or Dr. Nurle and Mr. Smith, this was a really um close-knit team and did a great job and they fell short to a nationally ranked team. So, we just want to congratulate them on a great season. um as well as we've had a lot of different athletes participate at the state level in swimming um and other uh fall sports as we get ready for the winter sports season. So, congratulations to all our student athletes. Um you may have seen on our social media feeds as well as our district YouTube channel, um Mr. Marian, our new communications manager, has built out a podcast series to try to um see both sides of uh some of the people in that work in this
004district, both from a professional side and a personal side. Um I was able to be in the first podcast series as well as some of our principles, Mrs. Garren, Mrs. Chandelia, and Mr. Barren. And um we look to continue that podcast series every other week on Thursdays. Um we'll be interviewing staff, students, custodians, food service, everyone that makes uh the district tick and go. So um be on the lookout for that. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback from community and internally um about that beginning of that series. Tomorrow night in this building right here in the PAC at 7:00 we uh induct our newest members of the National Honor Society. I think we have 99 students will be inducting. Mr. Smith and I will be speaking at that and welcoming um those students for
005their work around the four pillars of the National Honor Society. Tonight you'll see in new business two discussion areas. One around our results from the state report card. We have a lot to be proud of. Mr. Mizak will dive deeper into what the metrics uh do tell us and what um we want to continue to improve on which then will work well in the second report or second uh discussion where myself and the directors will present on our strategic plan goals and the work up to date that's taking place and future um topics and agenda items [cough] for board meetings. I'd like to thank uh Mr. Pollock, Mr. Eert, and Mr. Voyer for walking in the Christmas parade and representing the district this past Saturday. It was unfortunately we ran out of candy I think
006for the fourth straight year, but we'll continue to improve and do better. And uh everyone else from the district that participated. It was great to be behind the band and have music playing the whole time we were walking. And then to everyone out there, happy Thanksgiving. Next week is a short week for students and staff. It's a two-day week and we hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. That's what I have this evening. >> Thank you. through the uh B3B student uh representative report. >> Hello. My name is Uma Gradia. I am the senior class president. So, I'm filling in for Cassie today. So, I'll start by talking about Rockfield. We are looking forward to focusing on gratitude this month. Uh one way to think about gratitude is choosing to appreciate the people and things in
007our lives. Practicing gratitude can increase our well-being and our happiness. Personally, I am beyond grateful for the Rockfield school community. Our teachers continue to grow and learn together so they create engaging learning experiences in their classrooms. Additionally, our students come to school ready to learn, support their classmates, and persevere through new learning concepts. Finally, our parents rock. Our parents are extremely supportive and responsive to academic and emotional needs. Parent teacher conferences are scheduled for this month. It is a perfect opportunity to show the gratitude to your child or children for the hard work they're doing in the classroom. Teachers will talk through how your child is performing based on their grade level standards along with some goals to move them forward so they may grow in all academic areas. November has been a month full
008of learning, community, and celebration at County Line Elementary. Our fifth graders participated in an overnight up in woods camping trip where they explored nature, engaged in team building activities, and strengthened their environmental education. The trip was an exciting and memorable experience for our students. On November 11th, we honored our local heroes during annual Veterans Day celebrations throughout our school. Students shared letters of appreciation and presented artwork to thank veterans for their service. Miss Wisconsin's teen visited our third graders where she read her children's book Lou for the red, white, and blue, and they made blankets to send to local veterans. Board ambassador Mr. Barney joined in the blank blanket making too. November has been a wonderful reminder of how our countyline community learns, grows, and gives back together with kindness and gratitude. As we reach
009the first of the end of first quarter, Mrs. Skiran is so proud of the hard work, learning, and growth our students have shown here at Kennedy Middle School. November, we have a gratitude challenge. We challenge ourselves to be grateful every day and show it to others. This week, we have given a thank you note to a friend, told a family member we were grateful for them, and encouraged ourselves to be grateful for the small things. And on Veterans Day, we showed gratefulness to our veterans. Every day this month, we picked a different thing to be grateful for and challenge ourselves to let people know and spread the gratefulness to others. Speaking of KMS, KMS is grateful for our parents. Thank you for always supporting and cheering on our students. Your partnership means so much and
010helps our school community thrive. Teachers, thank you for everything you do each day to support, teach, and inspire our students. Your care and dedication make our school a truly special place to learn and grow. Students, every day you have the power to make a difference for yourself and others. Your effort, your kindness, and your choices mean something to our school community. Thank you for showing up, trying your best, and being an important part of KMS. As we look forward to the next quarter, let's keep building on this momentum. And as always, if you'd like to celebrate a particular staff member here, please submit a positive note through our community to staff shoutouts form. Let's have a wonderful second quarter. At Amy Bell, they recently wrapped up their fall parent teacher conferences, which provided a valuable
011opportunity for families and teachers to connect about student progress, celebrate accomplishments, and collaborate on next steps for continued growth. Looking ahead, we are excited for our monthly Belfast celebration on Monday, November 24th. This month's theme centers on gratitude, aligning perfectly with the season. During Belfast, classes will spend time with their buddy classrooms where older and younger students pair up to engage in activities that foster connections, gratitude, and appreciation. These crossgrade partnerships help build a sense of belonging and community, allowing students to model positive character traits and learn from one another in meaningful ways. MacArthur is gearing up for the PTA spelling be. The music classes are practicing for the upcoming music concerts. Our teachers had the opportunity during their PD day in October to dive deeper into our work in professional learning communities, focusing on
012collaboratively analyzing and unpacking academic standards to identify essential knowledge skills and levels of rigor for student proficiency. The kids have enjoyed some off-site learning opportunities on field trips to Rivers Eds Nature Center, Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, just to mention a few. The PTA did an amazing job organizing the book fair and family bingo night. Our students and families enjoyed both of these events. We appreciate all that our PTA does for our school. Germantown High School students are off to a strong start to their second quarters. We are transitioning from fall to winter sports, but not without celebrating some major successes, including our boys volleyball team and our GHS band, both taking second place in state. We continue to celebrate the growth of our students as evidenced by the release of our
013state report card. GHS jumped from the 64th percentile to the 89th percentile when assessing the performance of students in our target group. This is a testament to the hard work of our students and the commitment of our staff to provide a highquality educational experience. And lastly, National Honor Society will induct its newest members tomorrow night as the students in Germantown continue to develop as leaders res ready to positively impact our community. Thank you. >> Fantastic. Thank you. >> Are there any questions? >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh we'll go to C Germantown High School presentation. Principal Mr. Smith and AP Mr. Rooney. Good evening, guys. Thanks for hosting us tonight. I'm actually going to keep this down for the students. Uh so, we just want to talk about a
014few things going on in and um outside of GHS, talk about some of the those exciting things and then most importantly here from three of our awesome students here. So, we go to our next slide here. One of the most exciting things this year, uh, we have a full functioning greenhouse at the high school where they've been growing all types of lettuce, butter lettuce, red lettuce, romaine, some of the plumpest, juiciest cucumbers you could think of. Um, [laughter] I shout out to Jill Seafeld who's done an absolutely awesome job taking on that work. Um, one of the coolest parts of that is that it uh our special ed kids are spending time in there. Our our science classes are spending time in there. Staff is stopping by and they're tearing off a little piece of
015a radish or lettuce to taste, myself included. Um, but it's just been something that's been a really cool thing for both staff and students to see. Um, another thing to point out is our next slide. Actually, a this is a mural uh that was done by some of our awesome art students here at the high school and just kind of meant to symbolize all of our students and other different strengths that they bring to our building. And looking at our next slide here of soaring and this is going to introduce these three awesome students behind me. Uh a huge part of what we try and do for our students at Germantown High School is get them ready for life after high school. whether that's trades, military, four-year school, graduate school. And Mr. Smith is gonna
016briefly talk about a few of these schools here. [snorts] We've been talking a lot over the last couple years about our portrait of a graduate and how we prepare students for life after high school. And so, we really take a lot of pride in all of the different options that we have both in courses and extracurriculars to make sure that we have well-rounded students prepared for whatever comes next and making sure that they're ready to positively impact our community. We have the students that are capable of doing that and they're engaged and they want to do it. We need to make sure that we live up to our responsibility by giving them all of the necessary opportunities to do so. Uh the next slide I want to highlight uh we have a variety of different
017opportunities in our building where we partner with colleges and students are able to get college credits. This is just one of the examples. Our dual credit work with W Green Bay. They sent a report actually just a couple weeks ago and from our 2425 school year, we had 47 students that obtained credits through W Green Bay. A total of 208 credits and a total of $115,000 saved in tuition for those students. We also partner with W Oshkosh and UWM. So we have a lot of opportunities with our courses where students are able to get a head start on their college careers and make sure that they know exactly what they want to do or just as importantly what they might not want to do and get that exposure in high school so that they don't
018have to spend money making that decision but they really know exactly what's next. Uh the next slide I just want to highlight some of our different options and availabilities for students. When we look through our enrollment for this current school year, throughout the course of the year, we have 746, not total students, but total seats taken in our teched courses. Some students will take multiple classes, but 746 over the course of our teched program. And just showing the amount of opportunities and courses available to our students. We have 419 students in our building taking AP courses. currently 734 tests that will be taken in May through for our AP courses. Again, students opportunities to get college credits from the classes that they're in. And overall, in our business program, we will have 936 seats over
019the course of all of our classes for this year of students getting exposed to a variety of different career opportunities and engagement and just making sure that we give them every opportunity to see what they want to do next. Next, I'm going to be introducing our students. We've asked a few students to come here and talk about their experiences at Germantown High School and how we're trying to help set students up for the future. And it's titled Warhawks Leading the Way because that's what these students are. They are absolutely leaders. They're leaders in our building, in the classroom, and in the community. They're taking full advantage of the different opportunities that we have available to make sure that they're setting themselves up for success in whatever path they might want to take post high school.
020And we're really proud to have them here. We're proud that they're able to emulate what we want a Germantown High School student to be. We really lean on our students to set that positive example and excited to have them talk and share a little bit about their experiences over the course of their time here. >> Uh good evening everybody. My name is Carter Johnson. I'm a senior here at Germantown High School. As you can see, I took more of the uh teched classes. And first I want to talk about uh welding or uh first I work at Johnson's nursery right now and I plan on working for a farmer uh for the next couple years just getting outside experience. Uh I plan to have a career in John at Johnson's Nursery and uh I'm going
021to start with welding. Uh I didn't really know a whole lot coming into Germantown High School. Uh Mr. Larby the teacher here at Germantown High School. I learned a lot from him last year. I learned a lot from upper upper classmen and learning how to weld weld plates together and just learning how to put two and two together and make sure it's strong and secure. The shop is excellent. Kids have fun. They learn a lot in there and just it's a good uh environment overall. And then uh secondly, I want to talk about the automotive uh area with M uh Scott Munsm. Uh he's a good teacher. He teaches us kids a lot. At first, I didn't really know anything or I knew some about engines coming in here. I didn't know Hunt a lot.
022And uh again, last year a lot of upper classmen uh come into resource. And you get kids that are freshman, sophomores, juniors, seniors that all come together and talk to each other. And the upper classmen teach those younger kids, which I think is really good. And the teacher again, he's you ask him a question, he dives into it and expands. not just says X, Y, and Z. And then finally, uh the construction class who uh with Mr. Stowak I personally like the most. Uh we get to actually go to outside experience on job sites playing concrete and uh putting up little sheds which mimic uh housing houses and it's up all of it's up to code which is really cool too. and getting that experience I think personally from someone that has uh goes out
023onto the or has a job kind of related to construction is very important for us kids to learn who are interested in that field and Mr. S does a good job uh teaching us kids and just going over everything whether it's laying concrete, having to slope it uh for a drain in a garage or bracing stuff up for a house. He's good teacher and I really appreciate him and all the other two teachers as well as all the other teachers I've had here at Germantown High School. And just the those three classes I really uh liked and have loved compared to like other CLA schools that don't get to have that opportunity. Germantown High School does and I really appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Hello again. Um I'm Uma. I'm also
024a senior. Um as you can see I've taken like a variety of classes. I mean, since middle school, I did know that I wanted to go into healthcare and that I wanted to be an orthodontist, and that still stands. But one of my biggest goals, like, not just in high school, but in life, is to be a well-rounded person. I believe that knowing a little bit about everything helps you connect better with others. And I love connecting with others. I like knowing people that I'm talking to, that I'm sharing a workplace with. So, it's really important to me to try and know at least something about everything. So, taking all these different classes and being in all these different clubs definitely helped me strengthen my passion for healthcare, but it also helped me learn so
025much about other things. Um, I wanted to be an orthodontist. I wasn't sure that I wanted to own a practice one day, but through DECA and FBA and all the business classes I took, I found a lot of interest in business and I will definitely be attempting to pursue an MBA in addition to my um orthodontistry degree so that I can own my own practice because that's something that interests me and I don't think I ever would have known that if I didn't have all these amazing opportunities here at the high school. Um, further, all of the teachers here are incredibly supportive of anything that I've ever wanted to do. I've always been an ambitious person who has wanted to try everything and do everything. And I've really found that support here. If I wanted
026to start a new club, it's not up there, but um, I co-founded Smart Teams with some of my friends. We wanted something that was completely science-based, and it's an amazing opportunity for research and other stuff like that. And I think that it was so easy for me to just be like, "Hey, we want to do this." We go to a teacher, it's Miss GW, she's the adviser. We ask her about it. She's interested. We ask administration and it's rolling. So, anything that you want to do here, I think it's a genuine possibility. Like even in the classroom itself, we have so many opportunities like Carter mentioned previously to experience the workforce and people who are actually in those fields. And I think that is one of the most valuable parts of learning is learning from
027other people's and your own experiences. Um you can only learn so much from textbooks and slideshows and notes. I think some of the real learning comes from people who are experienced and can share those experiences with you to make you more well-rounded. So I think I've definitely um gotten closer to my goal of knowing a little bit about everything through everything I've done. And I did I did it because I enjoyed it. I mean, even just submitting college applications, my personal statement was about all the things I've been involved in. I talked about being a jack of all trades and how I was proud of that. And I don't think that I would have been able to say that if I wasn't at Germantown because Germantown with like the resource periods and being able to
028sign up for different resources really gave me that opportunity to do every single thing that I wanted to do. Um, yes, of course conflicts were there, but all the staff and teachers and administration were there to help you pave the path that you wanted for yourself. So, I think I've really found that Germantown has helped me become exactly who I wanted to be since elementary school. And I mean, I I feel like I'm on a good path, but I'll definitely report back to you guys. But I really Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, hi. I'm Somaya Fox. I'm a senior and um I have taken a lot of art classes. I'll be going to um an art college. Um I've enjoyed every single one of my art classes. They've been very helpful to me and
029they've helped create my interests and love for art and my teachers that I've had all like have helped with that. And then with cross country and track, um they've helped me stay very active and they've helped me create great habits to stay healthy. And um I'm really excited cuz I'll be running and doing art in college. And that's it. >> Thank you. >> Again, this is a proud moment for me to be able to listen to all the accomplishments of our students and see everything they're doing. ing to highlight. We have Carter involved in youth apprenticeship. He's getting credit to be able to work. We have all of the extracurriculars that Uma was able to talk about. Somaya that she didn't mention is also a multiple time state qualifier in cross country. So, when we
030talk about well-rounded students and everything that they're accomplishing, I mean, our building is full of talent and they're doing incredible things already. They're leaders for us. Our goal is to figure out how we can get them back to Germantown, wherever they end up going from here, so they can continue to contribute and we can continue to benefit from everything that they know and everything that they're going to do. And so, it's a very proud moment for us to be able to hear that and be able to talk to them and connect with them and and do whatever we can to support them in their journeys. And uh just very happy that they were willing to come and share today and and excited to see everything that they continue to do post high school. >> Fantastic.
031Any questions? Can't think of any. >> Okay. I just wonder usually get a car question. >> Oh yeah. Well, >> no. Uh I think to your point, it echoes out, right? All the amazing work that the staff's doing in the building and all the amazing work the students are doing and putting into into uh becoming well-rounded as they move towards graduation and going out to the world. Uh we've talked about portrait of graduate and soaring for how many years now? Three. three or four. >> Three or four, right? >> Three good years. Yeah. >> Yeah. And it and it really seems I think the three of you just kind of summed it up, right? What what it means on your end because that's the reality of the work that we're putting in is for the
032students. Um and the staff does a great job with it and with your buy in and the ability to provide those opportunities. I'm glad you guys are jumping in head first and and really taking advantage of it. So, thank you and thank you for coming and sharing it because I think it helps us up here when we're making decisions or talking about different topics. It really helps us understand uh the final destination for a lot of our students. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> 3D election report, Mr. Barney. >> Yes. Thank you. Um I'd like like to let the public know that there will be a schoolboard election on Tuesday, April 7th, 2026 for board seat three and board seat five. On November 25th, a notice of our schoolboard election will be posted uh
033in Washington County Daily News and on the Germantown School District website. Anyone that would like to run for seat three or five can pick up a candidate packet starting November 25th from Melissa at the district office. >> Fantastic. Thank you. >> Welcome. >> 3E village of uh Germantown leazison reports Mr. Pollock in buildings or in parks and recrecks. >> Uh we have not had a meeting since our last uh board meeting, but we do have a meeting tomorrow at 5:30 at Village Hall. They've started to live stream those, but obviously if you want to join us uh at the village hall, you can go ahead and and do so for the park and rec committee meeting tomorrow. >> Fantastic. Mr. Voyer, economic development. >> Yeah. So the EDC did meet on November 11th. We did
034have a conflict between the village and the school board due to an emergency meeting. I did speak to trustee Jan Miller today and we are meeting December 9th at 6 p.m. >> Fantastic. Thank you. And myself, planning commission. Uh we met Monday, November 10th. Uh heard some information in new business regarding a heyday uh development agency proposing 164 uh unit um rentalbased complex [clears throat] um off of Lilac Lane just uh sh uh east of the Shlafam Park. Um that was met with approval from the planning commission uh moved forward to the full board. uh they met last evening and I did not get to quite review all of that uh to see what the final decision there was. Uh we also saw uh New Business F Newman Developments was their third phase 23 single
035family home lots um to complete the subdivision of Warren North subdivision located off of Fry Staten Pleasant uh View Drive. I believe that will be uh Rockfield neighborhood. That was all uh residentialbased. Uh and I know the meeting last evening um the Blackstone Creek project that involved a couple over 200 apartments um was back on the full board after being um denied from the full village board. uh they will move forward with approving the commercial aspects of that and are putting a hold on the residential [clears throat] development side not hold but uh going to address the residential side of that development at a later date. And that is all I have regarding that for citizen comment. I believe I have one uh Todd Schneider representing the GA. >> Yep. Good evening. I'm Todd Schneider.
036[clears throat] Excuse me. I'm a teacher here at the high school uh representing the GA. If you'd have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Thank you. >> Thank you. Five, consent agenda. A, approval of uh October 21st, 2025 meeting minutes. B, approval of November 11th, 2025 meeting minutes, open session only for close session. C, approval of teacher contracts. And D, approval of donations. >> Motion to approve consent agenda items A through D. Second, [clears throat] >> Mr. Barney with the motion, Mr. Ber with the second. Any discussion? >> Yeah. Can we get a highlight of the donations, please? >> For sure. Uh, tonight you are approving the following donations. MacArthur PTA, $1,5948 for a first grade field trip. Kennedy Middle School PTA, $1,450 for all school assembly. A presentation by Matt Wilhelm on anti-bullying.
037Um, Weissman Automotive, $250 to the Germantown High School Bowling Club and Novam Structures, $250 to the Germantown High School girls golf team. >> Fantastic. Thank you. And can we cover teacher contracts? >> Yeah, so we were able to hire Jamie Johnson for our Spanish position that was being filled by Amy, who was serving as our English language learner teacher. We transitioned her into that Spanish position to start the year to make sure we had that covered. And we were fortunate to find Jamie. She comes to us with 15 years of experience uh teaching in a variety of settings in high school, in middle school for Spanish. So, it's definitely one of those nice pickups at this time of the year. >> Fantastic. Thank you. Any further discussion? [clears throat] >> Hearing none. All in favor?
038I. >> Any opposed? Hearing none, consent agenda passes. Um item six, negotiation committee. Uh that was myself. Uh we met also November 10th. Um and on the agenda were um first of actually I want to thank the GA. This is the earliest we've ever been able to meet uh and and kind of lay some groundwork so we can get off and running for the meat and potatoes and negotiations as the year goes on. Um it was a good good collaborative meeting. We discussed a couple of things on that agenda. Uh determination of district comps uh meaning compary districts um in regards to salary and benefits that as we continue the negotiations move forward we'll continue to rely on as a common source salary determination for negotiation wage um timeline and communication uh internal external uh
039the GA to members and I believe uh Dr. you you did send out some communication after this meeting to all staff. >> Yeah, that is correct. So, we are just going to regularly make sure that we're communicating as well with all employees after each of those meetings. >> Fantastic. So, we look forward to uh continuing. We got an early meeting in November and that's about as early as I can ever remember meeting. So, we should be on a good uh path moving forward to get that done before the end of the school year. Um any questions regarding that? If not, I have nothing further. Seven, finance committee, Mr. Loath. >> Yes, the finance committee met earlier this evening here at the PAC at 5:48 p.m. Uh, full board item 7A updates. Uh, Britney Altonorf answered
040a few questions about vouchers and we approved the vouchers. Um we tabled the uh GSD financial series number two. Our CISO1 uh speaker was not able to make it this evening. Uh Britney uh Altonorf uh provided her variance report to finance committee meeting. And last full board item 7B is for a Germantown High School combi oven. Our old oven is no longer working and it's not worth fixing. So, uh, we have a motion with a positive recommendation to the board of education to approve the purchase of a combi oven through Fine Brothers with a cost not to exceed $27,34824 and will be funded through the food and nutrition department budget >> comes forward with a positive recommendation. Does not require a second. Any discussion? >> Hearing none, all in favor? I I >> any opposed
041hearing? None. That passes. >> And finance committee adjourned at 6:11 p.m. >> Item eight, new business discussion and presentation of the 2425 DPI state report card. Germantown School District, Mr. Mizak. >> Good evening. Uh tonight I'm presenting the district state report card. Uh typically uh what I've done in previous years is during this time frame of the year I present the overall state report card for Germantown and then in January I have another update to the board uh that kind of dives a little bit deeper into individual school data along with some of the other measures that we use at the building level. Um but I'm happy to answer any questions about individual schools. But tonight I um put together a presentation that's basically uh reflective of our school district and its cumulative performance. Um
042so within the state report card and in the board packet I put together um or I I copied you a chart that shows what elements of the state report card are comparable to uh prior school years. So they note on there that the overall score that we received on the state report card along with the number of stars that are associated with it and the priority area weights are not comparable to previous years. Um the waiting of the priority areas are that that waiting process is similar to what they've done previously. So that part is comparable. Um and year to year you see slight changes in what u those weights are on track to graduation and our target group outcomes always represent 25% of our state report card with growth in achievement fluctuating a little
043bit. Um but typically we're we're in that 38% range for what our achievement represents on our state report card. On the next slide, you're going to see even though it is not comparable uh what our overall performance score is relative to uh previous years. So remember that for the 2324 state report card, there was a um formula that was used to limit the impact of the significant increase in achievement scores that we saw. So that year uh you did not see as much growth in terms of your score because of that formula that was used and applied to how much um our schools grew in terms of their achievement. So the 23 24 uh overall score if you were to look at trend lines for most school districts you're going to see kind of a
044blip in there that that doesn't really represent the overall trend that they had. But on top of that, uh, the way in which DPI has presented our overall performance score, you're really not supposed to look back and say, "This is how that score compares to previous years, and this score is supposed to be a baseline year." With all of that said, uh, the Germantown School District, uh, if you take a look at each one of our individual schools, I think, uh, as Dr. Reutder mentioned earlier, there's a lot to celebrate in terms of how well the schools did overall. One of the things that you can do is if you dive into any of the individual school report cards, uh, and I'll show you on the slides that that come later where it shows the
045percentile ranking for schools. So the percentile ranking is us relative to all of our other school districts in the state of Wisconsin. So that that does give you kind of an idea of where you're performing compared to everybody else. So if you're if you're looking for that measure to put it into context to to say here's what our accountability score is and how well did we actually do that percentile ranking does give you an indication of how well you we performed. Uh but and I I did not fact check this but Dr. Reutder has said it a couple times to me that this is the first time that our four elementary schools all significantly exceed expectation. So that's definitely a celebration for the Germantown School District. And then Kennedy Middle School and High School both
046exceed expectations. And this is where that percentile ranking that I had previously talked about. You can see that. So this district score was the same or higher than 89.7% of the districts in the state of Wisconsin. The bar chart that's underneath there sometimes is confusing to people. It's representative of the score that you see on the left. So our priority area score is 80.4. So they take that score and then they they show you where that falls within that bar chart. So we're in the second to last bar chart and bar for our overall performance. Uh as noted in the table that's in your board packet, achievement is not one of the prior priority areas that is uh comparable to previous years. Uh so again, we can't necessarily take this score and then plot it
047against all of our other achievement scores because they're not comparable. Uh but the the fact that we're near the 90th percentile for school districts in the state of Wisconsin gives you an idea of relatively how well we're doing. Uh this shows our performance compared to the previous school year in terms of the tests that are used to measure our achievement. uh in theory these ones are comparable because the tests did remain the same. So the number of students who are scoring in uh the advanced area meeting approaching or developing uh you could see year-over-year how well we're doing compared to that. So you can see some minor fluctuations that happened within uh the overall achievement that we had. uh you'll notice that in uh English language arts we increased the number of students who were
048in that advanced area and the same can be said for our mathematics uh students we we slightly saw an increase there uh with the number of students who are in the lowest developing area uh you saw a slight decrease in ELA and then it's uh the identical performance for mathematics uh so growth both is one of the areas that they've identified in terms of our priority area scores that uh is comparable to previous school years. Uh for growth on the next slide they'll I can show you how that's calculated. But for growth we uh relative to the other school districts in the state of Wisconsin fall in the 90th percentile. So again, this is another area where we can consider this a celebration for the the school district because it indicates that um in terms
049of how well our students are doing compared to their relative peers, they're they're demonstrating high quality growth. How that score is calculated takes the assessment score for last year. So for example, a student who was in the 50th percentile and it takes a look at that same cohort of students, all students who scored in the 50th percentile and compares them to how much their score increased for the next school year and that's where they come up with this growth score. Uh it's not like NWA map that is actually comparing the students performance last year, you know, on the previous test to their performance here. So you can see that how much that student grew relative to themselves. Here you're looking at how well that student performed relative to a cohort that's similar to them. So
050all students who are in the 50th percentile, how much did they grow? And then they compare that growth. Uh the next chart shows the culmination of that. So this is the growth by student group. So uh the line down the middle that represents what the state will say is average growth and anything to the right of that they call that value ad. So what it means is students who and this is relative across the whole distribution of students. Uh if you are a student at uh in our school district overall for the entire school district, it shows that our students grow faster than uh the average for the state of Wisconsin or students that perform similar to them. Uh target group outcomes. Again, this is um a score that's not comparable to previous years. You'll
051notice in the chart that there are some components of the target group outcome that are comparable to previous school years. Target group outcomes uh basically creates a mini state report card for our students who perform in the lowest quartortile. Um so it it shows how well that group performs relative to uh all other members of our student body. So into this score goes achievement, growth, chronic absenteeism and our graduation. Um for this because achievement is not comparable to previous years, the target group outcome score isn't comparable to previous years. But again, if you look at the percentile ranking for the school district, we're in the 90th percentile again. Uh which again, I would call an area of um celebration for us. And then on track to graduation. [clears throat] Um what this score contains is
052four components for the school district. If you were to go down into any one of our individual school reports, uh it varies based on the school level. So into an elementary uh on track to graduation, you're going to find third grade ELA is one of the scores that's a part of that component. But for the district, eighth grade, uh, math performance is a part of our on track to graduation. So for the district, you'll see the components um that I'm mentioning here, but the individual uh schools are going to vary slightly by level, whether or not that metric is available to them. So for the district, this score is compiled for chronic absenteeism, our graduation rate, third grade ELA, and then eighth grade mathematics. So when you take those four component scores for on track
053to graduation, we're in the 70 uh about the 79th percentile. Uh and then for on track to graduation, here are the distribution scores for those four components that I had mentioned. uh third grade language arts and eighth grade mathematics uh historically have been indicators of how well students perform on the ACT and that's why those two metrics are used when we talk about on track to graduation. Uh new to the state report card uh as I previously mentioned in the teaching and learning committee uh there is a third grade reading performance score. This is part of act 20 that uh all school districts have to report how well they're performing. So you can see for our district 63.5% of our students are meeting or exceeding grade level expectations uh for reading compared to the statewide
054average of 50.3. Uh and there these are uh not factored into the overall score for the state report card. So, these are for reporting purposes only. And as Mr. Smith and the students from Germantown High School uh presented to you before, they talked to you about some of those post-secary uh opportunities that they have here at Germantown High School. So, you can see the number of students who took advanced placement courses, those that were involved in dual enrollment that received industry recognized credentials and work-based learning. Uh, one of the things to note here is on the state report card, you're going to see that this is a lagging um, metric. So, it doesn't necessarily represent just last year's cohort. It's a year prior to that. Uh, one of the things that uh, we have been
055working on is increasing the number of industry recognized credentials that our students are able to receive here at Germantown High School. So that number of 50 is going to increase uh I would anticipate that it's going to increase significant significantly over the next couple of years. Uh this is another one of those areas of the state report card. Uh Mr. Pollock had pointed out in the teaching and learning committee last year that this did not look very accurate. Uh part of that was because of the fact that this is one of those lagging indicators that all of the fixes that we put into place to make sure that we were accurately reporting couldn't show up until essentially two years later. so that you could see it reflected in our data. And this is far more
056representative of what our students do uh at GHS. And then lastly, they show you the art participation uh in courses that we offer at GHS. So you can see that in areas of music and art and design again as illustrated by the students who presented here tonight uh there are students who are taking advantage of the vast array of courses that we offer in the arts. Any questions from the board? I don't see any. So, does that conclude your presentation? >> That concludes my presentation. >> Okay. Well, we'll move on to new business. >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah, I've got uh on that on that third grade reading score, are we at a point where we might hold students back for not passing? Uh so when uh the legislation was passed for act 20 that
057was a part of it was the third grade retention. The way that that policy that the board adopted works is the retention conversation doesn't come into play until and and the state designed it this way in terms of their model policy. It's not for students um until they've actually experienced all the years of that high quality reading resource. So if you think about our third graders now uh just in Germantown, they only had one year of wonders when they took this uh exam. Uh next year there'll be two years worth of wonders, three years. And that's when the policy will kick in is once students have, you know, kindergarten, first grade all the way through experience that high quality resource, that's when that policy comes into play. And then the board policy would then dictate
058the conversations that would happen around what we would do next for students who aren't meeting grade level expectations. Uh one of the things that we have to do for students who aren't meeting third grade uh expectations is provide that intensive summer reading for them which we started building into our summer school this year. It's not required of us until we hit that three years out from when the policy was enacted. We again tried to be ahead of the curve and make sure that we're providing those opportunities for our students who might need some additional reading support and give them that that little extra boost during the summer. Uh so that's one of the things that we've already put into place, but it's not required by um our board policy or by the state yet, but
059we wanted to make sure that that was in place. So there there are interventions that we want to make sure that our students have um in addition to if there is that conversation that we need to have around whether or not students would be promoted to the next grade. Okay. And uh I I have one more question. I don't It's probably not a fair question, so do your do do your best. >> Um in the in the news recently, I'm hearing I think the number might have been 8% of college students entering their freshman year can't do um addition of fractions. Can you say whether I I'm I'm listening to this and I'm like, "Oh [clears throat] my god, I hope they're none of those students are from Germantown, Wisconsin." Can Can you Can you
060say none of those students are from Germantown, [laughter] Wisconsin? Uh I I I can't say for certain because I have not uh tracked our students postsecary. Uh what I can say is uh if you want to visit one of our bridges classrooms, they do an excellent job of supporting our students with those uh building those foundational math skills. Uh and even though you might see that um the way in which we develop number sense looks slightly different than how you or I may have experienced that in school. uh I think bridges and as indicated by our our performance at our elementary school the mathematics um our students do very well uh with those foundational math skills. >> Okay, very good. Thank you. Okay, any other questions? >> Okay, we will move on to new business
061item 8B, discussion and presentation of the Germantown GSD strategic plan. Dr. Reutder and district administrators. >> Thank you, Mr. Brown. Um I'd ask the directors to find a mic as this will be a joint presentation. Uh the board adopted in the summer um in July strategic goals and we have formalized work for the next three years around that. So this evening I'm going to walk through um our goal priority areas and the um tactics that will take place over the next three years if not already haven't started um and the work we're doing. So, I want to ground us in our mission and this is something that those of you that were part of our opening um day kickoff and the continued work throughout this year and this is posted, you know, on our website
062and in in our letterhead and it's to empower and inspire every student to success. I think you'll hear tonight in this presentation as you've just heard from Mr. Mizak we have a lot of success um and that's as a result of what our students do every day as we empower and inspire them as well as um you heard directly from students this evening their experiences in Germantown school district and specifically at the high school that success that they've seen and how they've been empowered to make decisions about their future. So some of the guiding principles in our strategic work moving forward is that uh in Germantown we believe that each student is valued will learn and experience personal success. Um I didn't set this up at all this evening but you heard from three students
063who are inspired. Um they have learned during their their time here in Germantown and they're already thinking about their experiences and how that's going to lead to future personal success. Um, we know that our community, whether you're a parent or a taxpayer, as well as our high-quality staff we have here, from our teaching staff to our instructional aids, our educational support staff, our office staff, our custodians, our food service, everyone, our bus drivers, they're our most valuable asset. Um, in order to achieve that daily mission and our vision, uh, we continue to work to improve all practices. I think that's evident tonight. You approved a new oven, right? You might think that's silly, but uh to make sure that we have um quality food. We we've seen the hydroponic work. Um we have quality food
064to feed our kids every day so that they're they're full of energy to constantly increase the value of this organization for our shareholders, which are everyone involved in this community as well as those who work for this great organization. And uh we'll continue to utilize research, assessment, and measurements um to inform our decision-m and accountability. And that's not just on the academic side, that's also on the financial side and the operational side. We'll continue to sustain fiscal strengths, um, which is necessary for the vitality of our schools and our community. Um, everything takes money to operate and run. And we want to make sure we're utilizing every taxpayer dollar to its fullest potential to make sure that vision and that mission are reality every day. And we'll continue engage engage our community through meaningful relationships
065that foster trust and accountability. So, I want you to think about these guiding principles as we dive into our goal areas this evening and talk about the work that we'll be um that are we are currently doing and continue to do over the life of the next three years of this plan. So, again, the the goal areas that you adopted as a board and inrusted in us as an administrative team to pursue now over the next three years are academic achievement, growth for each student, workforce engagement, environment, and community relationship. So our first goal this evening we're going to talk through and the objectives of it is to around academic achievement and how we will provide highquality instruction and support informed by data and progress measures to ensure the academic growth of each student. I'm
066going to turn that over to Mr. Mizak to talk through the objectives and what we might see. I will preface that in January, myself and the full director team will come back with um concrete examples of the objectives in action as well as you hear that through um committee work over the next year as well as metrics on how we're measuring this and that um Mr. Mizak spoke to that a little bit this evening. Um historically in January we come with a full assessment report because we have multiple measures, not just our school report card. We have historical map data, current map data, we have as web data, we have um forward data, KOAT, ACT, all of the different uh testing mechanisms we utilize, and we'll have um scorecards for each of our goal areas
067that will show measurement and projected goals uh that we want to accomplish. So, more to come. Tonight's kind of the 30,000 foot view, and we'll continue to taper down as we go through the school year this year, as well as um through our committee work. So, Mr. Mr. Misak, would you please speak to objective A and B? >> Yep. Uh for objective A, that's a core piece of the curriculum review process. So, back in August, I brought to the board the curriculum review timeline of all the departments that were going into the curriculum review process as well as what each one of those phases looks like. So when we identify uh academic standards and establish that universal curricula that's really talking about the understanding by design process and that's developed through that curriculum review process
068that I'm working through with teams. So currently uh in the district we are looking at 912 ELA 912 math K12 social studies and K12 science. um as well as we have several departments who have kind of moved through those phases that started um a couple years back. So, world language is continuing with their uh review as well as the business department. So there are multiple uh departments that are currently being worked through in that process. And then that timeline that was provided to the board in terms of what other departments are coming up in subsequent years would um help us create that robust curriculum uh that would be used in each of our classrooms. And then the refining academic assessment practices. Um that's a critical component of the work that our teacher teams are currently
069engaging in and our principles are working with their teachers on through um the professional learning communities and that goal that we kind of have universally throughout the district this year. Uh one of the things that we're looking at is what assessment practices can be used in classrooms that can lead to responsive instruction. So, how do we assess so that we can learn more about our students, learn what they're learning, and then adjust our instruction to better meet their needs so that we can make sure that all students are growing as much as they possibly can. >> Thank you. Our second goal area is around growth for each student. Will provide every student with the knowledge, opportunities, and skills needed to understand and access pathways toward their future college, career, and life aspirations. I think you
070can when you think about objective one um that was evident tonight when we heard from our ghs students and the work that's been done related to um our academic and career planning that cascades down to the fifth grade level um and those those opportunities for students to learn about careers and pathways that um you know it's when ECP was put into place by the state one of the the models was college is a really expensive um time to just try to determine what you want to be when you grow up. We we have um great systems and support and and programming here that help kids start to determine and make decisions around what they want to do once they graduate from Germantown High School. So, an area that we know we can continually improve upon
071is those opportunities. And when we looked at the state report card um data as well when it comes to youth apprenticeship um industry cred credentials AP um credits we know that that is growing and will continue to grow and that we don't want to just be settling with what we have is good enough. That's an area that through Jake's department as we go through curriculum reviews we can look at more opportunities to meet more kids individual needs and inspire success there. Uh Mrs. Cole, would you talk about letter B? Yeah. So, um developing the comprehensive district and school support system to meet the unique needs of every student. Um the work that I had brought to the teaching and learning committee regarding the comprehensive counseling model and going through the review pro process with that
072um will really help to um put together that school support system so that we can link that 4K all the way through 12th grade with that portrait of a graduate. um they had gone through some of that sore tonight when GHS had um come and had the students present. So really we want to make sure that we cascade that down at what we want students um to to know and to what they look like coming out of um eighth grade into high school and also at elementary school um transitioning to middle school. Um so that work really fits within um that support system districtwide. And then um with the special education side as far as meeting the unique needs of every student and talking about growth um we've done a lot of work around progress
073monitoring students IEP goals. So that's a focus of some of the professional development um as well as using um some of the tools that we have like Ames web in order to monitor our academic um goals and then working with staff really around some of those functional goals and behavioral goals and ways to progress monitor those so that we are ensuring that our students are growing not just within the general curriculum but with our special education goals as well. >> And then C is a continuation of A. It's just more uh pinpointed at 6th through 12th grade where kids are and families are thinking about what is what is life after high school? What is life from middle school to high school? So, as we continue to work with our community partnerships and our youth
074apprenticeship and uh schoolto job experiences, we want to continue to explore diverse opportunities so it's not um a limited track for kids to have those opportunities. Um goal three is around workforce engagement environment. Dr. Castro is a huge lead on this. um we want to nurture a workplace environment where growth is a priority to strengthen employees sense of belonging and impact. So I'll turn it over to him. >> Yeah, thank you. [clears throat] Thank you. So a lot of the work right now is really around developing a more robust employee engagement survey uh so that we can have quality metrics that develop not just based off of questions but based off of indexes. Uh so example would be uh workplace culture and index with multiple questions under that. So it's not just solely based off
075of a question. So that first objective of enhancing employee experience uh obviously really looking continuing to develop our onboarding process as you guys are aware I am conducting my 30 and 90day interviews which I will be or surveys with all new employees which I will be presenting at our next personnel uh committee meeting with that as well. And what has really come out of those um interviews has been the need for a more robust mentoring um program here in the district. So that's going to be something that we're going to continue to look at developing um for that. Second one as well would be and give me one second. I'm just looking here uh the promoting the self uh safety while um maintained and flexible work learning environment. This is around continuing to engage our
076staff uh through interviews, engaging them through listening sessions. Dr. Reutder and I will be scheduling building the listening sessions during the month of December, really targeting these three objectives to gather more insight from our staff. So, we're continuing to try to engage our staff on a regular basis. And then that last one is around the attract, develop, and retain a high performing work uh force. This includes making sure that we're monitoring our teacher retention rate. Uh really reviewing our substitute rate as well. So I meet with our vendor every single month to review our fill rate. So continuing to look at that and look at strategies uh when it comes to our substitutes. And then also looking at how are we trending on our platforms such as we can. So looking at our candidates, how
077many candidates are we getting in and then from there working with our staff to develop those strategies. Once again, one of those big ones is going to be around mentoring. So it's just a quick overview. >> Thanks Dr. Castro. The last one, goal four around community relationship is foster meaningful communication engagement opportunities with all shareholders to cultivate strong relationshipships and trust throughout the school community. Um the first objective is really about developing um accessible, consistent and purposeful methods of communication. We know that in any um setting, communication is something that can always be improved upon. Um we have a great new um employee that has a strategic plan built within his um his repertoire of work related to um improving and and setting a brand and narrative of what the district is doing well and
078celebrating as well as a way to foster open two-way communication between community staff and um the school district. We also uh we're unable to have our session this evening, but we've already had one series related to our financial GSD financial series um to really look at the components of what make up uh the financial aspects of a school district, what we can and can't spend money on, how we receive funding, what funding we may not receive but that other districts receive, so that we can build a a series through our YouTube channel as well as Spotlight on social media and through our communication. ation methods to help educate the community um and the shareholders who whose tax bill does portion of that does come to this this school district. We also want to continue to
079promote community and business partnerships. Um that that has a scaffold effect of not only as a chamber member. I sit on the chamber board and being connected to businesses in the community not only helps with um civic pride and engagement, but it also helps as we talk about um sponsorship opportunities, community um service opportunities as well as um programming opportunities for our kids. So there's a lot of potential in this community and along a lot of great relationships that have formed now what's the next level of that and that's in uh work we'll be bringing forward too and then engage internal external external shareholders in long-term planning to ensure the allocation of appropriate resources for programming and facilities. Think about what we've accomplished in the last year through our facility use study as well as
080our Roers report. And then tonight, just listening to our board members who have engaged and are sitting in in seats with the village board. What does that look like now from an administrative standpoint to take that information and knowledge to plan for the future? Right? We're doing a lot of great things right now, but we always have to be uh in this case three plus years ahead of the curve of what's right for this school district and what's the vision to move forward. Because at the end of the day, it comes back to this. Our district's vision. Our district's vision is to be that Germantown School District will be the premier district in Wisconsin. We have a lot to celebrate tonight. We just heard from Mr. Mizak where we rank in the upper 90th percentile
081in many categories related to um student success. I think we're we're fiscally sound. Mr. Altonorf has done a great job. We just had our annual meeting in looking at how we're spending taxpayer money to make sure that outcomes are great and we're serving this community. And if we continue on that trajectory, implement the work around these goal areas, um there's no doubt in my mind and our our administrative team's mind that we will be a premier, if not the premier school district in the state of Wisconsin. >> Very good. Thank you. Any questions from the board? >> We will be posting the formal document that's in the packet tonight on the district website. Mr. Marian's creating a special section with the strategic plan, the um Rafers report, a lot of the work that's gone on
082in the last couple years, the referendum report that came out after the referendum. Um those type of things and try to promote that through social media so people can can see the work that's has happened and will be happening. >> Great. Yeah, there's a lot of good information out there and been doing a good job getting you out there. Um, and thank you for sharing your strategic uh, plan and all the work that you guys have put into that. Look forward to more information, the follow-up information coming out in December and then again in January. >> Yep. And there'll probably be something we touch upon through every committee and we're we're going to intentionally make those connections to show you as a board as well as these are the fence lines that we hope that
083you always ask us these type of questions. How does this relate back to the goals of the district? Right now, we have goals. How is this work tonight? How is how is approving again an oven? How does that relate back? We should see a direct connection to supporting our kids and the needs of well-maintained facilities, right? And those type of things. >> Terrific. All right, last chance for questions before we move on to C. All right, we'll move on to item C, discussion and action to approve winter coaching in Destination Imagination Advisor Contracts. and I'll turn it over to Dr. Castro. >> All right. Thank you. So, tonight I'm just coming forth to request the approval of our winter co-curricular coaching and destination imagination advising contracts for the Germantown High School as well as Kennedy
084Middle School and also one hourly advising position for the 2526 school year. >> Very good. And I will take a motion on that. Motion to approve the winter coaching and DI advising contracts and one KMS hourly advising position. >> Okay, >> second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Hearing none, we will go ahead and uh vote on approving those contracts. All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed say no. And that passes. With that, I will take one more motion. Move to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Have a first and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Hearing none, we are closing this board meeting at 8:08 p.m. Thank you for attending.