001thank you all right this being the appointed time and place and seeing a quorum present I would all call this meeting to order get off these rise and join me I pledge of the United States of America under God indivisible with liberty and justice thank you Doug would you please take the role Diana Johnson Tina Johnson here David Trader here Nathan Smith here Doug will here Craig Wardman here Tony Arnett here Mike Higgins here Lori Allen here thank you under premium agenda I will know will one have one change the stated agenda we will not be having in closed session at the end we were anticipating receiving some formal paperwork which we did not receive yet so we will not have that at previously anticipated closed session regarding potential property sale any other changes to
002the agenda sometimes nope all right thank you then this brings us to public input this is the first time in the agenda which members of public May address the board either virtual or in person if you'd like to do so just please wait to be recognized give your name and address for the record and please keep your remarks brief and we've got one right here in the audience so go ahead please yeah thank you uh Tony please take care if I can used to be a Podium here which is a little bit easier but um thank you for your time and uh I'm uh Ken Berg 1201 Richards Avenue Watertown I was on your school board 1982 and 1994. 12 years long time ago showing my age by making that comment but I want you
003to know anyways I I came last time when you when you did approve the budget and I um I was not aware because that's been a while since I have been in a board meeting where you had an opportunity at the end of the meeting so I thought I lost my chance and then I was reminded I did so I came in and made some very quickly I made comments and I I just want to reiterate a few things on that topic but I really am here for another topic involving uh test scores and that's what I want to give you two or three minutes of time on but I want to go back to the to the budget I read in the Daily Times that the Dodge County Board took seven and a half
004hours to approve their budget ouch that's the big number and I'm not encouraging you to have that kind of deliberation but I am telling you how important it is to look at that budget critically and make sure it's a budget you understand and that you stay on top of as far in your duties as a board member um so when I looked at it last time again I I I wanted to hit on a few points and one of the things that I did look at I look at spending and spending actually in different areas did go up in in some ways uh fairly significant uh salary benefits in my information I got from your business manager Mike it showed a seven percent increase in salary and benefits over the previous year actual from last
005year versus this year projected what you want what you need for the here's here if I do that's a decent amount of money for our salaries and I wanted to bring it to your attention the the general fund is one part of your budget but it shows it's actually a the largest part and it showed last year that you had 47 million uh 78 000 in that general fund you're projecting and you actually got approval for 52 million dollars uh 52 million five thousand dollars and that's a 10 increase based on that information now you can show me where I'm wrong and I don't mind being told I am but I'm giving you uh just comments from the documents I got from you and I've reviewed that and I tried to critically find areas where
006I wanted to make a point that I thought was concerning so spending overall was significant in you but you were offset by two million which I mentioned before state aid in in the form of Equalization Aid and you also had what they call a special project around 700 870 000. those two together are a lot of money that was Revenue that helped offset along with a lot the larger property valuation in our city and in our district because of a assessment in Watertown those things worked in your favor you had a four percent uh decline in your in your Levy which is good job I mean we need lower levies we need we need to have our our budgets critically looked at because we have to make it affordable for people to a Deliverance sound
007do business and and I want you just to be looking at the budgets in a critical way year round because I did that when I was on that board like you I want you to be like that my bigger point that I want to get into though is on the topic of test scores and I we all know what kova did to our our school system and into our country but it was you know it was a once in a hundred years type of event I mean we had a deal with it we did I'm not critical of anything other than the fact that it had impact and this was an article that went into the Milwaukee Shaw Freeman and I've only got nine copies so I'm going to pass it on this and I'm
008going to kind of ask you give it to the board members give it one to your superintendent uh Dr Burke and otherwise uh pass it on where you think you can for it's pointing out though that test scores everywhere were down in a bad way across the country math scores saw their largest declines ever on a national level and reading scores uh would drop to 1992 levels as far as uh the comparison 4 and 10 8th graders failed to grasp basic math concepts and that type of thing all the way through it talked about the whole issue of test scores going down in a very critical way and I'm telling you the that we we need to find ways of of helping address that and we got money from the federal government through the Biden
009Administration and it was Asser funds Watertown got them too in a different form but Tony's got them school's got them and all units of government's got these funds you had 7.2 million you bear marked a decent dollar decent dollar amount of that already for projects and I know you're air conditioning and other things were part of that which is is a good use of those funds but I'm trying to tell you that the remediation need to get some of these students hopefully caught up in a way over time because those those drops is scores that were National and actually you'll find out when you get your scores for Watertown College of a water tone but I I would encourage you to find a decent dollar amount within those extra funds and find a way through
010a mediation there's got to be ways you've got sharp people in this room and you got good Administration people to lean on but I would say you know what portion of those extra funds can we actually allocate and how can we use them in the area of remediation to help kids catch up and move closer to where they were prior to this uh this uh pandemic because the pandemic is largely over thank goodness but it was real and it impacted and we can't let that have a continuing impact on ability on the aptitude of people that are going to be in our school system so they can learn and that aptitude has been tarnished and it's been it's been impacted in a negative way but through your efforts if you address it and make it
011a plan you can use decent dollars at One impact in our budget because it's already been given it's up to you how to use it and that's directly correlated to the purpose of those funds when they said use it for remediation use it for things that were impacted by by the pandemic there's a perfect example Milwaukee Shaw is your example and and I want you to see where you can use it for water tone maybe you could please thank you for listening all right thank you how is anyone online okay anyone else in the audience all right thank you then we will move on to announcements and recognition Communications start with you superintendents so we have a number of gifts uh for um our donation towards skillsusa number of companies uh so Richter heating and
012air conditioning 500 dollars uh mods automation 500 interpack of Wisconsin 500 dollars Glenn's Market and Catering 500. grimwell Ford Incorporated 200. Peru heating and air conditioning three hundred dollars Fisher Barton five thousand dollars cost in quality chocolates a thousand dollars Nicholson manufacturing a thousand dollars Metal Tech International two thousand dollars and clnd Graphics one thousand dollars and I want to just say thank you so much to all these companies who are continuing to uh bear gifts towards the skillsusa program it's a high need high impact program for kids uh what I say I need is it's not cheap to run the program and so all of those companies who can help us with that it's greatly appreciated thank you other announcements and recognition anything else not this time okay if our student board representative joins
013if they're not online you see Andrew Scheid online yeah okay all right so should they appear then we'll backtrack to that and hear what they have to say we have no items under under strategic discussion this therefore takes us two reports and we will start with the superintendent's report so good evening uh for November I had an excellent break I know many of you are asking it was well needed I think our staff really well needed it I think our Administration will need it that's all right um but I will tell you it was it was a good time just to collect thoughts get refocused and now are push into the winter months and winter season uh is to come upon us thank you you don't get a connection it appears on uh online here
014if you just close the yeah the Mortal Court he's trying to get insurance and then you can run off this Jared so you can see here what you're talking about I think that works yeah uh and and you know for the for the zoom audience I'll try to well there they can see it face yes oh yeah okay another guy I can advance it okay so I uh want to take a few minutes to um share with you a couple of recognition ceremonies that we have for our veterans uh I know that most people have at least um some kind of connection if not a direct connection to a veteran uh and um like me and my family I have a number of direct connections to Veterans and I just want to say that I'm
015really impressed with uh our schools and and how they have uh celebrated these people in our community so sharers I had a wonderful assembly and slideshow as well as the RMS and so if you have a chance and if you haven't gone on Facebook to look at those um the specific uh Facebook site for either the district or the school buildings please do because it really does pay tribute to those who serve and uh we honored that day and it was a great great time um also uh we had a non-violent Crisis Intervention refresher training our Aaron Meyer and Chris wedding uh had uh two sessions uh about 25 participants we had a student involved in one of the sessions uh which was interesting because they also got to learn about what we were learning
016about to keep kids safe so that was really interesting to watch that part but you can see uh some of them practicing their holds and are getting the information to de-escalate situations uh this is very valuable training for us and we we offer it multiple times throughout the year if you're ever interested as a board member and want to participate on trainings no um because I think it's important to have as many people trained in uh who's who are going to be in and honorabilities as possible also we had Merc training this was set up with our Watertown fire department and our school nursing Services um they did a Simmons man 3G mock drill on those November 17th uh and I hear it went fabulous I wasn't here for the training but here's really really
017well it's First Medical Emergency Response Team yes also um the high school Ela curriculum update our 11th grade ELA English language arts if you want me to point out all of them uh teachers spent half day working with Mary Jo Ziegler and Aaron uh to review uh Ela curriculum so that piece was going by uh quite well uh and who some important date updates uh I just wanted to share this with you you may have heard in the news that there was a generous common School fund uh release of 40.6 million dollars by the commission of public lands this money um has been accruing interest that was off of the original sale of 1.5 million acres and that money has been sitting in an accountant each year the state uh public lands commission draws on
018that account each year to give specific money to libraries School libraries in the in the um a school library Aid called Town School funds and those are the funds that we get each year to help update technology or other things related to our our school libraries last year our allocation was around 170 000 and we won't know this year's allocation until January and because that's about when they go through and they take that 40.6 million dollars they divide it uh out by people expenditures and then they tell us what our release is so we'll have some uh time to do that since it was in the news if you wanted to learn more about it there's a YouTube video there in the slideshow and learn all about that it's a short a little bit and
019then some important reminders we've got uh December 2nd is it early release day no school on the 23rd through the 2nd which is winter break and then uh December we have these committee meetings and services on six policy on the seventh Human Resources fiscal management and our regular monthly meeting through to the 19th any questions so just to note that the regular monthly meeting that's for everyone's earlier than usual because of the Christmas holiday so that schedule is shifted forward then so because [Laughter] any other items under Communications that's right under your report okay thank you fiscal management okay on November 16th had a meeting 5 30 p.m Doug will Dave Smith and Craig Wortman were present Mike Higgins and also present was Dr Burke building ground supervisor Bill surdick and uh uh wusd accompany
020Stacy Rado and CP Smith representative Brian Peppino uh we contemplated a closed session went in a closed session bought and deliberated bought purchase of prop public property investment of public funds um during the cold session and then we went out of closed session while in co-session CD Smith representative Brian Medina provided an update on the bid process for Air Conditioning at Douglas Insurance elementary schools no motions were made while in post-section closed session we reconvened into Open Session then we reviewed payments uh there is some questions on the response or the questions of what we as far as uh sending outside resources for kids with IEPs there's questions about that from Mr Smith and uh Dr Burke a little follow-up on that uh then we reviewed the variance report and there's a couple of objects
021in there that we had some questions on and that was rectified and explained and then we went through Ester spending update um there was quite a bit of work done on that in the Esser and that we just it was discussed at the ed services committee area all the projects that are in that um that are being discussed in that services will be brought to the full board for approval rather than going through any the fiscal committee we already approved most of the projects or recommended them under s or two and sr3 so instead of going through another committee they'll just bring those projects over twenty thousand dollars right for the board for approval so the billing is grounds update there was uh over two million dollars worth of accrue pending projects in the buildings
022and grounds and then there's some preliminary stage projects of another two million dollars over two million so we went through quite a few of those projects uh for quite a while to go through each individual line item of what was going on with each of them and then which fund they use to purchase those or on those projects so the last comment was our last area was audit uh contract renewal since it was over twenty thousand dollars this year we just went recommended that we stayed with our current auditor and then God forbid for next year so the meeting adjourned at 8 40 PM so it was a long meeting and our next meeting will be December 14th at 5 30. all right thank you any comments or questions on that no all right then
023we'll move to HR excellent we had our meeting on November 14th at 5 30 p.m um the committee members were present except for Mike um we also had others president present pardon me um we reviewed our consent agenda we took a look as far as the staff calendar is concerned um and um Miss Brady provided the information as far as like okay this is the process that it goes through and then you know it comes to us as the HR Committee just to kind of take a look at it see if we see anything um and Diana requested the final calendar include designation of trimester end dates for the high school and so um also as far as so that will be that has been adjusted and designated a little more clearly um we were
024also informed by Margaret The Ready Set Go conferences for elementary students will be held the evening of August 31st and the days of September 1st and September 5th um and then we just wanted to to stay focused we didn't you know dive deep into those things we stayed in our HR area and then we did receive an overview of restorative practices from the principal Kerr at the high school and then associate principal Cunningham from the middle school and they were able to kind of give us some definitions um it's been in practice longer at the middle school and so we were able to receive some more staff feedback as far as how from the HR perspective how is this affecting culture is what we wanted to take a look at and um and respect in
025the building and things like that it's newer to whs so they don't have as much information but it sounded like it's a positive move from they get positive feedback from RMS staff as far as the effectiveness we went into the educator Effectiveness system um and Dr vitelli gave us um information as far as the details on how that is determined how that was brought brought about and what all that means regarding um certified staff and then as far as agenda planning is concerned um our anticipation for December is the consent agenda and um responsive classroom from the elementary perspective as far as how what that what does that look like at the elementary level and how is that affecting culture and staff culture that way this Brady will also invite Bill Foster from school perceptions
026to present um information on survey methodology that we use for the employee satisfaction survey because we're taking a look at that um earlier probably starting that in January um let's see because we're looking to move that up to February and who adjourned about 7 30 our next meeting is Monday December 12th thank you any comments or questions in that report no all right then we'll go to planning committee okay the planning committee was November 9th uh 5 30. Doug well Tina Johnson Craig Wortman and Larry Holland were president um superintendent Burke along with uh Dave Vitale was present as well we discussed a strategic plan and how we're trying to determine the best way to look for guidelines or any kind of just make sure we're moving in the right right direction as far as
027academics go as our report card we're just um and then we talked about Dr Vitale and Dr Burke explain the correlation between the star reading scores and the forward exam for a fifth grade classroom that they had picked out and so that might be one way of looking at if we're on the right track so the administration was not try and find some indicators that we can look at on a trimester basis so we know if we're moving in the right direction and you're gonna we're gonna try and establish what those indicators would be then we also talked about the communication process uh there's a Donovan group School of Communications the committee went over a proposal and looked at their proposal and we also had one from uh ceso Communications and we're just trying to
028get um there's three main areas of communication the messaging with the staff and families informing the stakeholders of Wisconsin our Watertown School District student academic process then create more of a family communication process so we're looking at this groups or a consultant that would help us with all three of those and establish some good communication in this history so and then we also had a discussion on Advanced learner the audit Dr Burke in Pharma community that we're entering into a contract with a consultant to help us with determine how our program is being run and any recommendations to make it top-notch so adjournment was at 7 12 and we don't have a meeting set up for a future right now so yeah January yeah we're hoping to have one sooner to go through we have
029three different phases for communication communication okay so we just did this Saturday yeah all right any comments or questions on that report thank you and throw it out of order and services sure and services met on November 8th all committee members myself Dave Smith Larry Holland and Diana Johnson were present along with several others the major items on the agenda were a Esser review but then also the addition of a couple of uh course proposals uh on the subject of course proposals they had to do with AP Spanish AP Creek elk and some Career and Technical education opportunities those will make it to the board I mean they were reviewed by ed services and all thought to be value-added and then they will make it to the the formal course book and then for approval
030by the board I believe in December uh one comment that didn't make the minutes um was just a little feedback there is a standard form that the uh teachers fill out or or departments fill out and um including you know is it going to take additional resources uh is it uh you know uh who's it going to be offered to uh Etc one of the things that we just thought might be addition uh beneficial would be a tie to the Strategic plan um it's not to say that they throw on basket weaving into these course things but at the same time tying things directly to the Strategic plan just to Ram it home on the standardized form seemed like a good idea of whoever owns the standardized form um that might be helpful to put
031in there just so that we know that everything's funneling towards that um after we talked about the additional coursework we also touched on the Esser updates and that was predominantly that's a standard agenda item um the music program the K-12 program and the advanced learner Advanced learner the consultant was well received there's going to be additional activity on that K-12 curriculum is on Pace although the schedule is a little bit jockeyed around due to some things that they learned in the process so some of the short-term dates may be missed or pushed but the long-term dates are still expected to get to a decision in an appropriate time to uh to finish that task and then lastly the music program we reviewed a uh several pages of wishes um the priorities made it to fiscal
032and the summary of that I believe Jared would hand it out it is in front of you and that is part of the resolution later tonight for those items that were originally approved in the Escher spending plan and the music department did their part by paring that down to ensure that it was spent on the most uh uh effective items uh to meet the goals of the Ester dollars um let's see for board members present or for Dave or Jenny did I miss anything okay next meeting is uh Tuesday December 6th that Webster I believe so so just to comment on the music as an example of process when it comes to asset funds we're trying to do is streamline the committee process here so we're not running extra expenditures through multiple committees in this
033case the music expenditure we live with ed services so once they reviewed it is to bring it to the board rather than running through another committee there'll be other expenditures that will primarily live with fiscal such as buildings and grounds so they'll review them and once they've reviewed them it'll come to the board so that's the intent we're trying to avoid having a single Esser project proposal go through multiple committees instead have it go through the committee that really is in charge of that area and then bring it to the board all right thank you any comments or questions on that sorry Tina I just have two so we're going to have a resolution on this so if your questions about this I would like to suggestions um the other item I just wanted to
034to put out there um in the um adaptations and things like that for as far as in the um preliminary review of the program of studies and course proposal um so does it am I reading this right like instead of having honors pre-calc and pre-calc it will just be AP pre-calp okay all right um thank you for that notification there and I in looking at it I just just a comment as far as when we move things to AP classes it um makes it can make it very difficult for students scheduling because APS only happens semester one or try one and try to all right thank you thank you any other comments or questions in that report hearing none then we will move on to the consent agenda resolution 9165 the consent agenda includes our
035board meeting minutes our committee summaries Personnel Staffing changes that includes resignations retirements and appointments it includes the approval of bills the first and second reading of policies for tonight there are no first reading of policies but there are a number of second greetings included in here do I hear a motion on resolution 9165 thank you now do I hear a second by Mike all right discussion any comments or questions on the consent agenda please Doug Tina Johnson yes baby Trader yes David Smith yes Doug will yes Craig Workman yes I want to hear that yes Mike Higgins yes yes and the motion carries this then moves us to our three action items additional resolutions for this evening the first of which is resolution 9166 which is the expenditure of investor funds for the music program
036do I hear a motion on 9166 I moved to divide that resolution into two resolutions first to include the itemized list of high priority objects currently identified to cost sixty four thousand three hundred and eight dollars and to to include the second of which brother to include a grand piano or the restoration of a grand piano the combined expenses of both resolutions not to exceed 75 000. 23 is part of the 64 though so I'm going to say that it's not actually a motion to divide because it's not taking the existing your recon reconfiguring it uh I'm going to ask you to make a motion prevent once we have the initial resolution on the table right do I hear a motion on 9166 David and do I have a second second by month now your
037motion to amend ment and for clarity's sake it's the only difficulty I think we've got it but before you go all the way through the 64 000 number includes the grand piano cost so if you're intended to split into the tube then I believe what you'd actually be suggesting is in the neighborhood of 51 000 and then for the piano either purchase or restoration with the total of those two pieces not to exceed because all the all the other items they've identified don't add up to 64. I see the 64 included the 23 for the piano so then yes that Amendment of the 51 I'm sorry 41 yeah yeah 41 000. so I believe that your intended motion would be to amend this resolution to say well the language you've got and then I'll pull
038it up and rather than making it up provided by the department as refunds which will provide to the public speak expenses not to exceed seventy five thousand dollars the item ided list including the item ident itemized list of high priority items totaling 40 665 dollars and the purchase or restoration of a grand piano or not or do you want to make a 64 total there's 10 grand we're not approving here at all at the moment where well there's a not to exceed amount then the resolution is not to exceed amount that's to allow for changes in pricing between these Angel quoted and when they're going out to purchase now that's correct so not additional items no at the time we're approving a listed this is why this is why I understand on your desk you
039now have a specific list of items all right certification on that yeah so is your intent to just have ten thousand dollars to be able to be used for our grand piano no registration or the first without getting into it yeah I need emotions event first yes so if I if I said it right so that you wanted to say addressing the last sentence the itemized list of high priority items not including the grand piano totaling 40 665 and the purchase and or restoration of the grand piano the total of the two not to exceed seventy five thousand dollars total yes absolute okay is there a second on that motion to amend second there is a second all right now if you want to explain yeah um so so apologize for the confusion on there
040um so basically uh I've Loved for the district to be able to move uh for this particular instrument that's being proposed as far as the piano is concerned um to be part of the Watertown story well however I am still left with a lot of questions on that um I feel like there still needs to be a little bit of a discussion around one you know more than one vendor or this particular instrument uh we only have one price two the possibility of restoration of our existing piano which could theoretically give us a um a longer serviceable life out of that particular piano that hopefully a lower cost and two what is the plan for the existing piano if it is replaced is it going to be an ongoing expense by the school district um
041as well as what would if we do decide to replace that particular piano what are the intentions for that as far as resale is concerned is is there a salvage value associated with that piano there are so many questions left to be answered for for me to be comfortable moving forward with the vote on that and I'm not I'm not entirely certain on the need I I guess I could understand that um the particular piano in question maybe you know reaching the end of the serviceable life but how do we know is it is there 10 years left in the serviceable life is there five years left on the service boy there's not I just need more answers on that that those are my thoughts I I'm not opposed to um the instrument itself but
042I I have questions that still need to be answered all right other comments on the amendment Tina it's just on the amendment this time okay I hope I'm staying in the right Zone let me know let me know um I guess regarding the amendment I've been involved in the music program for a very long time more than 10 years and um I think that the the staff are very good stewards of the instruments and everything that they have been given um and um they do a lot with what they have they limp a lot of things along um a lot of times there's um things that they need and stuff like that that are not even covered by the school budget it's actually covered by the boosters program and so when and I don't know
043if this helps or not but so when I'm taking a look at this and if they work with it every day I'm trusting the expertise of our teachers that they are utilizing their resources to the utmost um because I've talked to them I've you know experienced it as a parent and things like that so I'm not doubting at all if they could restore it um I'm I'm in faith trusting that they've looked into that and if this is what they're saying that they need then I'm trusting this is what they need baby are the comments on the amendment so I'll offer two things one I recall Mr would do expressing uh you know as much um all pianos not the same and literally two of exactly the same model don't sound the same and as
044I recall this particular one at this particular vendor he had personally gone out to inspect it and to shall we say play it to test it to make sure it had the sound that they're after so that's just relay a little bit of factual bit that I learned my last bit though is a bit of clarification question for you I believe as proposed in your Amendment it would not necessitate that the administration go out and pursue restoration you're you're expressing it as an option to consider but your Amendment does not preclude the administration pursuing the course that's been outlined currently that's correct I mean I just want to make sure I understood your emotions okay I guess I want let's put it this way my assumption is that you know as a as a music
045geek I I definitely would love to see um us have have the the best use of um instruments at our disposal when when the when the time comes but as a school board member I have to kind of put my perspective on that I have a responsibility to act in the good faith of the rest of the stakeholders in the district that we're doing our due diligence to um look at those things you know if they're and and at this point I'm there has not been a discussion that I'm aware of where um we have considered other cost uh measures for this particular piano um it just hasn't been brought up you know and um in we have an excellent music program I want to see that continue um so my question is is this
046the best use of those files you know I I hope the answer is yes but um I don't know I still have questions just interject here Mr Ledoux and Spidey are on the call we did interjected he's willing to address any questions or make some comment if it's appropriate would you like to hear from me yeah absolutely Reid you're uh you're welcome to make some comments excellent good evening everyone hopefully you can hear me my name is Reid Ledoux and director at Watertown High School and acting team leader of the music department here in Watertown and uh can everyone hear me in the room yep you're fine okay great I'm getting some feedback on my end a little distracting but we'll roll with it so um if it's okay with you uh I would love
047to answer each question one at a time there were a handful of questions all offered up and I think I can do a better job speaking to each one individually if those questions could be restated before we do that I would like to say um that everything that you've said um uh is absolutely correct uh yes especially the comment about uh each piano being different um to the point where it's made with the same materials in the same Factory by the same people uh but each instrument plays feels and sounds uh differently yes that's why we've selected the piano we have um we were told that that was enough that we were not going to need to provide any other uh bids from other vendors we're happy to do that that just kind of slows
048down the process but I completely understand it from a financial perspective um however this piano is the one that we want and um having spoken to other vendors we know that it's in the the right ballpark um obviously if you want that documentation that's something we can work to provide so the other two questions I heard one was is the topic of restoration of restoring the current piano positive topic uh the current piano is over 30 years old um right now for the last about five years we've been limping it along with our current piano technician uh Richard severing um Richard's uh spouse Marie was a educator in the district for a few years we have a fantastic relationship with with Richard um he's been surfacing all of the pianos in the school district um
049we see him three to five times per year and for the last five years he's been telling us that uh he can do nothing more with the piano um if something breaks it will be broken and relatively unrepairable um so to question the the current serviceable life the answer is zero um we are essentially going day to day on the instrument um obviously if these funds were not available we would do what we could to limp the piano along um but at this point a restoration is not necessarily a viable option um I would feel a restoration would be a gross misuse of the funds um as opposed to purchasing a new uh Modern Piano um in terms of value that was another question that had come up um the current value of the piano
050is believed to be zero uh it would actually be an expense to remove the piano from the school district um that we are looking into uh taking care of um Mr molden out Ryan uh the the choir director who uses the piano on a daily basis hopes that we might be able to sell the piano for a thousand dollars uh to that point uh Richard severing has uh simply laughed and said good luck so um travels around the state and and repairs and tunes panels for a living lives it and breathes it um I'm gonna take his word for it so um we're at a position where the the piano would not be uh utilized Beyond uh its replacement we would be disposing of the piano to a very non-musical person what does a 25
051000 grand piano do for us musically that a five thousand dollar really nice piano doesn't do for us that's a very good question um ultimately the piano that we're initially looking at uh used up all of the 75 000 budget um so we've paired back uh to a lesser model that we believe uh can not only last for 30 years but provide an excellent student engagement and experience this piano is used on a daily basis uh about four hours per day at whs in the choir room for workers and and then subsequent performances um the fact that this piano is used along with a choir of 30 to 50 musicians um is it's important that it's an acoustic instrument it has better response for the performer um it has a louder sound um and a
052more natural quality than an electronic instrument can provide we did uh test out a few electronic instruments and as a department we have action over the course of the last five years as Tina Johnson had alluded to worked with our boosters um and using budget money as well we've worked to replace all of the acoustic pianos in high school these are pianos that are used for students to perform on um and to practice on throughout the year and we've replaced all of those with electronic pianos that that will save money in terms of repair and maintenance and it's important for us to have this large acoustic grand piano in this large space it's the choir room one of the largest performance rooms that we have or rehearsal rooms we have to provide students that authentic
053quality acoustic sounds along with [Music] so just for clarification would this piano be used by students at all so for example in preparing for their solos that they do at state level would they use this instrument so in terms of student performance this is a piano that students will be singing along ninety percent of the time it is a piano that would be used uh less for practice but more for performance by students um not only at concerts but um district and state solo Ensemble events as well thank you any other questions for Mr Badoo we appreciate you making yourself available no problem correct I was just gonna um comment I appreciate I appreciate the Insight on it um please don't understand my my position was more long lines to ask the very basic question
054that I didn't have answers to um so I do appreciate the the more in-depth uh discussion and um Insight on on the need going forward so thank you all right we have a motion on the table moved and seconded to amend just to keep that motion place I think it's immaterial at this point so to withdraw the motion I will withdraw emotion all right thank you brings us back to the main resolution other comments or questions on resolution 9166 I also do trust the committee not to denote the committee at all so I trust the committee in car this is the diligent work that you've done I was was checking this out and um I was looking at a cello for only 874 dollars and just wanted to make sure that wasn't a typo and
055if it's not I wanted to um commend um I know like we purchased a violin for more than that and it's a much smaller instrument and so I wanted to commend them on their workshopping if that's that one thank you Dave did you have something um just Federal is we'd get better at this especially around the disaster funds and how it goes through committees and so forth to me the not the condensed list that's in front of us here but the one that's online was given to us at the ed services committee it was not presented there was nobody to present with it we didn't really at the interesting we didn't really know what the ask was there wasn't a clear this is our ask to do these priority items to use for the Esther
056funds at this moment in time uh with it so I think there's a the learning for us in the process here you know we didn't have a Mr Ledoux to answer these questions that we've probably asked at the community level is able to come through so I think there's some learning in the process to make sure that we have a a process around it that has been noted in particular around this item so thank you other comments or questions I will also echo on that same from committee Dave was the applicability of best for funds towards these expenses and I know Dr Burke looked into it and found out that I assume everyone had a little green chat next to him that says Yep this is good to go but also for future ones uh
057things being brought to Esser if they even appear to be something that's not exactly aligned with the dpi's uh you know what's the purpose of those funds uh I assume that the committee and or Dr Burke or whoever brings it forward will make sure that that box is checked so there's no ambiguity during the discussion which was another thing that we learned uh while looking at that list people all right any other comments or questions on resolution 9166 Johnson yes David Trader hi David Smith yes Craig Martin yes money on that yes my kids yes yes and the motion carries next is resolution 9167 this is the 2023-2024 certified staff calendar do I hear emotional Tina comments or questions Tina go ahead yes please um I've already sent a message there will be The Ready
058Set goal conferences um at the bottom in the key are highlighted in yellow um and every student contact day is in yellow um I had asked for a little bit of clarification on that and it seems as though it didn't come through um on this copy it will be further clarified there's some dots I think that are supposed to be specifically designated for those days that will provide you ever the original Challenger is developed in an Excel spreadsheet and adapt and not happy over to PD so we will fix that first thing tomorrow morning get a deeper uh background shading or perhaps even a new color for those days and adjust the key accordingly but it's not it's so it's clearly denoted as ready Central So Ready set go if I heard earlier is the
059evening of the 31st all day on the first and all day on the fifth if you are in middle school or High School you are starting on Friday the 1st correct 8 A.M ish and if you are a elementary school student you are starting on Wednesday the 6th yes so that's the because it's split each based on the level that air involved when we we attempted to illustrate that by putting Dax in as opposed to and a different color just but um I will take her with Excel and Adobe tomorrow and see what I can come up with that makes it very clear as to what those things happen scheduled for other comments or questions on the motion so I am surprised because it was my understanding that Ready set go was still an open
060Topic at Educational Services and I'm not sure why it's here and I think that there's time for us to still approve these days this this work schedule for staff while we continue to work with the administration on the best form and format of Ready Set Go and we did mention that at HR yes so I'm surprised to see here that was where I understood where we were oh also worth noting um if I am I seeing this right on the calendar um September 1st it's a Friday so we're coming back there's a three-day weekend yeah and then we have so we have there it's like you got this bookshelf where you have um you know uh operating some goal on one day then you know raise that goal on the other end of this holiday
061weekend how um successful is the one one day and not to mention everybody coming back on that on Friday what is what what's the success rate of attendance on Friday I guess I would ask that question again I think those amongst other questions so I would like to propose that we amend this to um not commit to the timing of the writings that go conferences at this time but approved this the calendar as otherwise as presented and that's my motion is there a second on that let's check at that comments or questions on the amendment Tina so am I to understand that Ready set go was not discussed and formalized at ed services it was discussed it was discussed questions okay so then because I'm trying to put together like just the process on it
062because if it goes to HR like we're you know we don't dive deep into that so we're kind of taking it at face value that it's like oh okay those parts have already been gone through trying to understand I think it was again if you could present this as a certified staff account which is indicating work days then that's what it is okay right how those work days are used in terms of whether they are instructional time for students is a separate is a separate Instinct topic sure so entirely appropriate for HR to review a staff calendar right that is committing us to a schedule of work days because that's an HR topic right right the timing and format of conferences is something separate and distinct which is correct which I'm just going to work
063within the confines of the approved work schedule that's what it has to aspect excuse me that's another calendar to be approved with instructional or is this if we would approve this today as it is that's this is the this would be the counter that would move forward that's you talk about that now or is that going to be okay that's all I wanted to make sure confines of when we schedule a conference day right that can happen happen through the fact we can make a revised that has that on and or wait to put out everything else this calendar you're seeing is largely the HR function calendar right how many days are in the contract how many are holidays you know those kinds of things what are start date is when our end date is
064Major breaks those kinds of things that's the main Crux of what you're talking about today um we did put on uh what administratively we have so far for um those Ready set go days and we've we're trying to take a lot of the feedback that we got um as adding an extra evening we tried to condense it to one day we don't feel like we can get that done in one day uh and um you know we're still working with staff on you know that kind of discussion and getting the feedback that Ed Services wants from staff about the value of that day has seen from the staff size so I I did anticipate that there was probably going to be some discussion of it already cycle and whether or not you're going to have
065that as part of the approved calendar um however it shouldn't change the bulk of the calendar committee from HR standpoint I mean if you have another comment on the topic of school starting well I first I just questioned if that is if there's options that we could possibly not start on the first and why not start on Tuesday and if it is about instructional days I think there is some leeway where we could either take a day away from the Thanksgiving break or I didn't know you know if this if the board wanted to have the discussion obviously I would be open to that idea I think the idea of starting on a Friday seems I don't know okay so before we get to that um again are there any other comments or questions on
066the motion too which is just pertaining to not designating at this point in time the timing performance of the race at build conferences so what is that what is that motion it is the motion to amend this removes the reference to The Ready Set Go conference timing from this calendar but it sets start and then dates but everything else everything else I so any other kinds or questions on that motion I my comment would be with Lori is that I don't to me that implies that the start date will be the first so then once we vote on motion on the Amendments then we can get back to the parent resolution which is the timing overall timing the calendar we can talk all day long all right well yeah so my comment is is that
067the the motion is proposed the amended is just correctly reference to Ready set go for this calendar okay and then continue the content and then we'll continue the conversation on the rest of the recipe thank you excited yeah if there's a motion to amend serious voting on Amendment and there's going to be a second vote on the procedural legs for Tony so all right the rest of us are all right I'm with you we're just striking race to go for this document that's all we're doing at this time yeah and then we're going to continue talking about the document the first thing we're doing is just strike and raise that go from it okay all right roll call vote on the motion to amend please Kim Johnson yes David Trader yes David Smith yes Doug
068will yes Craig Warren yes on the internet all right that motion carries now we can talk about the calendar overall and talk about whether to start on the first a question related to just the efficacy of one day of instructional day on a Friday I assume HR and HR committee discussed all the other options to try to get the days into a calendar including I see at the end and I don't want to because I don't want to horse Trade Days on this but it would appear like June 5th and June 6th are both quasi instructional days you could shift the entire calendar one day and not really lose much now that's a naive approach because I didn't dig into the rest of the document so I'm not sure but it sounds like Margaret has
069an answer okay so just to explain the process that was used to develop this calendar we have a calendar committee that is representation from all of our certified staff at all of the levels and when we go through the calendar we initially put out a template that pretty much mimics more or less to the extent possible the previous year and then we do account to make sure that we're including at least 176 of your contact days and 191 certified staff contract days which is the contract under which are the staff work so we use September 1st because that is illegal permissible start date early start date absent any other unusual extending conditions like construction or that type of thing to begin the school year because it's the earliest start date so that is what we've
070developed we had the committee provides input in terms of the timing of the grades such as you know that week of Thanksgiving has come up frequently in terms of should we take one of those days and move it to October or April or things like that to permit a break between some of these longer periods of consumers student contact days but we meet uh four or five times during the course of October and early November um we do I will say uh as long as I've been here trying to give to death Prince to the preferences of the teaching staff in terms of scheduling things like teaching work days and PD days non-student contact work they have to do like rating and and um getting things set up for um either either wrapping up things
071from the past or getting things set up for future Days of instruction so that's the process that is used and then um I mean maybe I I may perhaps a misunderstood I thought there was a decision on two days of Ready set go we had had quite a spirited discussion about that topic at one of our cabinet meetings so um I had asked because I know in past years that it has been important to the board to designate those days to somehow point out that those were ready cycle of days I didn't was not aware that the actual content of those as Dave's student contact is well it's still up in the air or I never would have like pushed our administrative group to commit to something um so so that's the process that's used
072to get to this point today and um I I know in the past we have some head a board member that was interested in how we did the calendar and that board member did participate in the initial initial preparation for the calendar in the past years we would always welcome foreign okay I'd like to hear from the superintendent next and then we'll go back to the four questions and comments so can you speak to the idea of starting on the first versus not starting versus starting later yeah first of all I'll say this uh I've been doing school calendars for 15 years or better and different uh administrative roles including which you know would be leading the role for at least 10 of those years so it's not an easy task I don't want to
073tell you that many different interests come into play some of them are politically motivated some of them are personally motivated and it's just not easy um generally schools try to start at the earliest start date that the law allows and I'm sure if we would have been able to start by August 26th there'd be people begging to do that to get out of here by the end of May um now we do provide for more than the minimum amount of Education by quite a bit uh here in the Watertown school district and I commend the board for doing that um and one of the easiest shifts would be just to say we we will let up for one year on one day to make the rest of the calendar flow better and fit so that
074you're not trying to figure out you know what day during the course of a holiday or a break or uh needed professional development or other things to think about because those are difficult things to think about on the topic of Ready Set goal um I I by no means meant to try to pull a fast one on the board I fully anticipated in my discussion with board leadership and Ed services that it would probably be something that we would have to continue discussion on but I didn't want you to see where we are at least thinking because we didn't have many discussions not only with our elementary leadership team but also as an admin team as a whole about trying to gather uh not only wisdom from that feedback that was given to us and
075made changes based on that feedback um but also try to condense to maybe one day we fell short of that we really we really tried to do that but we're falling short and so this gave us one more chance at the board level for every board member to hear that not just a committee um to say Hey you know we are listening to the feedback we do see value in it here's what we're proposing right at this point in time and yes they can the communication will continue if that's what you want but I'm not trying to pull a fast one but I do own that decision for it to be on this calendar tonight I want everybody to know that um because calendars aren't easy things to put together so I'll share any other
076comments to questions that you may have the warmers did so what we're here for Education what would be the educational benefit to starting our high school on our middle school on Friday the 1st have a three-day weekend and middle school starting next what's what's the educational benefit of that day well the educational benefit of that day would be more than the educational benefit of not having students that day even if it's to get them organized get them into their mock schedules you know walk through the things that you can do reviewing those classroom rules the silhouette of the coursework all of those things that happen on first days to have one more day to do that is better than not having the day which is why we chose to have school that day now if
077the board thinks that that is not that worthy of that then we I say take the day out have one less instructional day because that will be better than the educational impact that would have to move other days within the calendar and try to figure that out along with the contract and everything else because it will it will get much more difficult moving those things around just because of how this calendar itself and I'm not talking every year this particular um way it's it's it's driving for this year and I'm actually forecasting a little bit so the next for the next three years well at least the next two this one and the next one but the one after that it'll be on Labor Day the first student Labor Day so it won't be there
078so we're talking about right it could impact you know three years of just weirdness and that's it's never going to be perfect no matter when the state decides Ace a hard start date you know because we don't have that flexibility and that's what the legislature has decided it's that start date what's the um I guess the tradition what's the history I mean growing up uh Northeast Wisconsin I thought we had to go to school for 180 days I was told that we all got Thanksgiving week off because we weren't going to come anyway but but because of that we only got two days for Easter we never had a spring break at my high school or my entire School District now universities I used to have to go to school on Monday Tuesday Wednesday of
079Thanksgiving week but my daughter was off this entire past week from Butler I have no idea what the tradition is I just see some flexibility there where where we may not be treating as if there's flexibility there and and so now it's it's higher and glad that we must give a week for Thanksgiving and a week for spring break and that is not negotiable you're telling me that it's not you're saying that there's no flexibility I'm asking where is there flexibility right uh I'm not saying that there's not flexibility okay uh what I'm saying there's not flexibility in is of all the last decade and a half approximately the law has gotten more prescriptive around start days and number of minutes that have to be done before it was just total number of days that
080you had to put into a calendar start mandates could could move and flow sure which meant having discussions around things like holidays and time that's precious to me a little easier to be had because you had some flexibility because you don't have flexibility with that start date and you have so many minutes of instruction that you want to get in that the board prescribes that are either at the state minimum or above then it starts forcing some more of those conversations sure but if I'm at I'm asking if you started on the day after Labor Day why not take two days out of Thanksgiving break or Easter break or spring break plenty I mean you're saying that there's no flexibility to give by the state but then you're also between the Rock and the hard
081place by not being able to sacrifice what we've come to enjoy as a a right when it's really a privilege to have five days in November and five days and sometime in March and I'm not advocating one or the other I'm just asking what are the limits so tell me yeah so a couple things that I'm pretty sure I know and so one is state laws we you should not start yeah shall not start before September 1st but there's now an asterisk by that because after covid they started they stayed past a law that allows districts to apply for a waiver to start earlier than September 1st because there's something to say hey we're behind we want to catch up we want to add we want to start earlier so so there is a possibility
082of a waiver I'll say I think it would be difficult at this point in time and you're halfway through the year and you're already looking ahead to that for us now think about the whole process of now we're going to consider starting on no matter what the last you know the last Wednesday or whatever you know that that honestly comes from Ohio that's what it was it was always either the last Wednesday in in August for the first Wednesday in September whichever came first and school always started then so you always had a three-day week when you started and then we like assumed you know it made sense it doesn't make sincere um so there is that possibility I think it would be awkward for us to pursue that path at this time uh as
083far as Thanksgiving I'll again set the way back machine for for 2018 we didn't have Thanksgiving week off we didn't have Thanksgiving week off how did this come about this came about because the fall of 2019 we put that in as a fire break to control spread to be blind that's we put that 20. yeah 2020 yeah okay yep sorry yep fall 2020. we put that full week we turned it in right full week off instead of two days off or two and a half days early Wednesday to put a fire break in okay and that's how we in this District ended up with Thanksgiving week okay that's off because so that's how that arose you know when do or do we know when the majority of school districts start in Wisconsin do they serve
084on the first cowboys like even if it would be a Friday they usually start on the first day available yep that has been our historical is that we've started up for a state no matter where it fell is there a another earliest date is there a date that's the latest that school is concerned I'm just curious um like are they you know what I mean not take long but we can combine it with a number of days you need to quickly put in the number of hours you need to put in over those days is pretty well dictated because you start spreading way out into June if you start pushing it too far out I mean there there are any number of ways you can try to get around state law I mean there's a
085school district that is chartered its whole world I'm saying if you want to find angles like your angle that you brought up like well there's this little tiny asterisk well yes but we got clarification on that asterisk not too long ago because the legislature started getting mad at the end Department because they were doing a waiver approvals over that and other things and they said you know though there's laws on file for reasons and there went back to their other asterisks which is you know we're not going to get too bendy on that anymore because colvin's coming down um and if you want to have a waiver it's going to be due to things like construction or other major things that would impact your calendar not the idea that you know you want to change
086for instructional days for covet uh so that's not really a viable option either anymore but you know if if we want to do those things we can get creative my question would be is Margaret what's your read I mean do you think that and all the principles in the room would you all rather come back for Friday before Labor Day or get that three day or four day weekend off and then come back for two to three days in the Thanksgiving week or would you rather get the full week off for Thanksgiving and come back for a day on a Friday where there could be questionable instructional value I mean I'm not going to be the one to make this I mean I guess I'll vote on the choice but I'd rather hear from the
087people who have to live it and work it um because I see that as being a a good trade from my perspective but so I'm gonna go back to what the superintendents you know behalf of the administration said which is having that first day has value and the value better value than not having it and I'm saying why not the two days in November in place of that day in September I believe that those discussions were had at our committee level okay and this is the calendar that the staff and the committee has put together okay for your review if they want to kick it back to the committee that is the prerogative of the board I have just something to maybe add or just uh I know we're not moving forward with rights that
088go on those dates but I just wanted to mention I know that there were some issues with older kids being starting school and the little ones maybe we're not at right and they you know where parents maybe depend on them if we didn't have school on the first at the older level I just thought it would maybe and you did end up keeping the ready site go for that Friday and Tuesday it would technically be only one day that there would be that they wouldn't all be in school at the same time does that following me I am following where I said now it's the older kids are starting for two days extra and I know that was a stress on some families so it's just something to think about maybe that would even out
089that a little bit too if that was the rewind well let me suggest that if that were to be the course recommended that that could also be an amendment to this calendar after we have them this evening and then if there's some change necessitated by following through on that conversation Ready set go then we can by all means make that amendment is there a need to vote today for a month and we resolve start data and Ready set go and have it all done for two months murdering perspective from nhr uh well I do know that people are usually by December parents and families are asking for that calendar for the following year and I know also that there's some extracurricular activities that are looking for confirmation of spring break in order to enter certain
090tournaments I think there's a big softball one in particular that is always waiting to see that we've confirmed spring break so that they can get their reservation and under that circumstance if you do better for us to put a calendar out right now that starts a day to make end up being a day earlier than we end up but that way people know it's there because you can start the day later you can't start the day earlier right if we were to put on a calendar now that said we're starting on Tuesday the 5th and then walk that back a month from now and now we're suddenly starting the week before okay that that dog won't hunt if so if there are changes that the board sees as unpalatable I would need to know those
091so that we can finalize and work through some things that's all I'm asking is if you don't improve the calendar or if you approve it but you're expecting a change I need to know that so we can work that through our committees okay other comments or questions on the motion which is to approve it as presented here but no longer making a reference to the timing of The Ready Set gov conferences at this time yes yes David Smith no well yes Craig Waterman no Pony Arnett yes Mike Higgins yes five to three and the motion cares so again from out of that the remaining Topic open is the transitive format of worries that go thank you foreign services [Music] with the feedback that uh was asked for in September as well as options that may
092have been considered regarding night day yada yada yada yep thanks you've had the feedback that's been provided uh we have uh the document of feedback yeah then there was a discussion regarding having uh some of the teachers who had seen it both before and after the instruction the value of the instructional days and then also trying to accommodate some of the comments regarding Daytime Nighttime as Lori mentioned the parents with middle school high school and elementary kids it sounds like you had an approach earlier today that might help accommodate some of those um I think that they're probably all going to be adequately vetted and presented in which case you'd probably get exactly a revised program the way that you would expect it but uh just want to make sure that that's all discussed one
093more time at services got touched and you should have received some of that information uh David sent out to you the committee members so mostly the survey information and all we receive was survey comments yeah the word forward survey no uh there was I sent it to you David yeah it was wild we can talk about it okay but it was it was fun in an identical manner that the Lincoln died that was shared at the October and services meeting staff uh at our elementary schools and took that and then work it through with their own staffs um okay yeah might be on me I don't uh I will support or resend it one question just for clarification purposes so for the purposes of the HR committee and the underlying calendar committee it's not is
094it your expectation then that we would the HR committee would not need to earn another calendar forward that the shell of a calendar that's been approved tonight it that marks the end of the HR communities work in this other than that would be the case unless something radical comes out of the discussion we've already said go I believe that would be the case okay thank you I just wanted to clarify so hi Bill all right our last resolution is 9168 for our auditor services do I hear a motion so moved by Craig second by Lori so this does re-up us with Hawkins Ash who has been doing these for at least The Last Five Years on my recollection so something for our new business services director to review that's correct all right any other comments
095or questions on the motion hearing that roll call vote please Tina Johnson yes David Trader yes David Smith yes Craig Wortman yes on the internet yes Mike Higgins yes hurry up yes and the motion carries all right so for this evening for our board agenda items I do not have anything that came up here that I need to put on a future meeting but obviously for committee leads to bring ready psycho reveal right to take on there um also on the subject policy uh you had been including policies that were up and coming I know I saw that in October and maybe at November one I don't think I've seen that lately but the other thing is if we could I don't know if it's appropriate Tony to keep even if there is no report
096from the policy subcommittee to leave it as a standing item just to keep it on there I mean I may skip it and say nothing you report sure but I'd like the opportunity to at least remind everybody what's going to be talked about at the next one okay so appreciate that and as I mentioned we are not having the closed session uh there are any other opportunities for public comments move here nope anyone online no no okay sir um before uh fiscal goal our skin the planning goes I would like to try to get dates uh scheduled so we can do Communications discussion all right so allow you to take care of that yeah okay do I hear a motion to adjourn move by Tina is our second second by Laurie all those in favor
097say goodbye by saying aye aye both we stand in terms um next Wednesday we will have a large discussion just letting you know I'm not going to be there meetings [Music] I think yeah