001Rec will all right I've got five o' clock wait for the clock to ticket all right we have got our HR meeting um for tonight we've got the agenda laid out any changes or anything like that for marget okay perfect we do have um a full agenda and we did do um kind of some time blocking to be able to keep us on track and things like that um you know um I don't remember exactly when we would end but we would end before 7 o'clock anyway because then we have another um special board meeting right after that so um as far as letter A HR committee operations um I just wanted to um just kind of give an overview um the board had received communication um as far as um from the president from
002board leadership and things like that and so we will be following that as far as our um meeting and how we run that and so um just kind of a little a little synopsis as far as that goes um all all members um have an equal right to make well in committees we don't make motion well we do in close session never mind okay all members have an equal right to make motion speak and discussion and vote non-members do not have the right to make motions speak in discussion or vote one subject is discussed at a time one person speaks at a time no interrupting courtesy and respect are required at all times um no one may speak a second time until everyone who wishes to do so has spoken once members may not speak
003about the motives um and um as far as you know non-members as far as the committee members go you know absorb information um and then um uh comments will be um invited at the the big board meeting and then um also as far as as well as um you know as chairperson I can certainly introduce the topic but then I would encourage discussion among and then um as chairperson I weigh in towards the end so um I just kind of wanted to to go over that for us just so that we all kind of know what's going on there does anybody have any questions well I actually do have a question in regards to that I know I'm not a member of the HR committee which is what you're talking about but um and I
004mean I might be wrong about this I might have a misunderstanding but when I was looking at the current board policy the current board policy does explicitly state that anyone may speak at a committee meeting does it not okay so and I don't know I'm going by the directive that we got from the president so that's something that I believe you need to work out with the president and does the president according to board policy have the ability to change those rules in how committees operate that you need to check with board leadership board president things like that I'm following the latest directive I got as far as committee changes go so that's what I'm following okay I because I chairperson I would just be a little wary of that because if we're operating directly
005in opposition of policy that's a pretty big deal okay well as the chairperson I'm this is what I'm going to follow so you can certainly take that up with the with the president um because then and then if there's changes through that discussion um then I'm sure we would receive further communication regarding that can I make one comment real quick s if you would have that conversation before Wednesday because I fully intend to run HR or on financials the same way until I hear differently so um just heads up okay gotcha gotcha wonderful thank you okay all right sounds good all right our consent agenda we have a resolution um that would be going to the board next Monday Margaret do you have any um well we're fortunate to uh hire a special ed 4K
006teacher who was fully licensed and certified in that area which is a rare thing to find after the start of the school year so we feel like we uh really had a win on that recruitment it's a person coming out of Marshall who has had a a an ongoing interest in working with Watertown but the circumstances and the timing did not work out but this time it did so I'm really happy that we U have that extra support there um I would like to point out that one of our administrators J Jennifer Bal has resigned and Associate principal at the high school to accept a district level position at Appleton it's a promotional move for her a growth move for her and more very much in alignment with her interest in specializing in curriculum and
007instruction so we are doing a a recruitment for an interim position for the rest of this year with the option then to do a full recruitment in spring when there's usually a lot more uh a larger application pool and and more of a traditional time that that people move around during the school at for school year positions so we do believe that we will have a good uh uh pool of both internal and external candidates interested in the inter interim position and we'll be conducting interviews um not this week but the week after so don't know if there's any other questions related to any of these others I have none thank you Margaret for that well glad that that works out for 4K and we're able to to be able to have that come together
008there all right wonderful all right here we go calendar work gr um just to give a little background um if you recall certainly Margaret correct me if I'm wrong but um if you recall we usually do approve the calendar uh November December um November I believe it is maybe an HR and then it goes to the to the full board December those kind of timelines um over the last several years um there have been different questions about um you know the full week off at Thanksgiving or when we you know get out um the last discussion that we had as the HR committee um we you know wanted to and I know Margaret would get um you know questions about it and things like that and so as a as a whole group working together
009um it was um decided to um kind of go back to the drawing board on that and the parameters that um the board gave was um to be out by June 9th um and to have everything completed then and um to take a look at perhaps not the full week in Thanksgiving so our of that um the calendar work group was formed um Margaret has had a whole team of people um myself and um danan and maybe is Fred I'm not sure we're GNA kind of see what we could do for that um I know I've mainly been mainly been there as the board person and hopefully given um the guidance as far as you know what I had heard from you guys and so it's been an intense work group and Margaret take it
010away so so thank you and um I'd like to recognize a couple members of the work group that are here Melanie meracle is a teacher who is on the zoom uh is part of the work group we also have canvas festler here who is also part of the work group and and so I would I would like to ask that either one of them be able to speak to provide backgrounding and additional information or answer any questions that people have related to the development of these options so so we are looking for you as a committee to provide guidance about four options that have been placed in front of you today and the guidance that we're seeking is your recommendations for versions of calendars to include in surveys that will be SP sent to um
011staff and families and and perhaps Community stakeholders so we aren't looking for a final recommendation to go to the board we are still very much in development mode as a work group but what we started with was a direction that we got from the HR committee and um we started with uh started out for 2526 looking at um options that are perhaps categorized as least disruptive to the status quo and those options are the option two of the options that are before you um and then we also in our discussions with the HR committee and certainly some of the I think board discussions last December centered around this interest in exploring other more Innovative types of calendars or things that we could do differently and explore some research in terms of of what other districts
012are doing both from a neighboring standpoint but also from a standpoint of how how we as an organization work with with our staff in terms of providing the best instructional environment for Success so we have a whole bunch of research out has been collected and we have uh four different models that we're putting before you and the options going forward are you can accept some or all or none of them in terms of going forward with a survey again what we're trying to do is to get stakeholder feedback at a pretty wide level in terms of these various options so that's what this document is is just to point out the yellow the highlighted area is where we are today also included in that that packet of information posted in board dox is a a
013nicely colored step uh timeline which includes the various steps and meetings along the way a little bit of adjustment that we're doing and various tasks assigned to the to the work of the work group and so we're at hr1 which is the the meeting to ask for recommendations we will then have a meeting again to follow up on the recommendations and the guidance that we receive and continue to work towards the presentation of what will be we hope will be near final versions at our second the second time we come to HR Committee in November and then I mean we do have to have a final decision on a calendar by December so um whatever comes out of that second round will hopefully be sufficient to make a recommendation to go to the board and
014that we can pass in in a resolution so the four options that have been developed are um one that I just for lack of any better terms categorized as the additional model which is what would the calendar look like if we didn't take any of the guidance for the HR committee if we didn't make any changes and more or less modified the calendar for this year to go into next year and so what we we came up with then was a calendar that um had by by needing to meet certain day requirements we um had a uh we continued with that full week of Thanksgiving which I know has been in a topic s what is it labeled in it is labeled uh let's see uh draft school year calendar 2526 traditional okay thank you
015so a couple areas of of this that are distinguishable is um I know we've had both an HR committee and at the board meetings discussion about that week at Thanksgiving and that week was um not always included in the traditional calendar but has kind of grown like since 2020 and has been become something of an expected calendar schedule for um certain stakeholders so we included that as a scheduled period of time off and then if you look at like by the time that we add up every day and in keeping this it would require us to go to uh June 13th um uh graduation date so we developed this I had consulted with Jared and he had recommended that we put forth uh no changes status qu remains this is what it would look like
016so that's what traditional 2526 is so then 2526 modified traditional is what would happen if we took the guidance that we received from the HR committee as it related to the week at Thanksgiving and getting out no later than June 10th and that's what the modified traditional calendar does what it does is it by necessity removes two of the days the week of Thanksgiving and it um gets us out with a graduation date of June 6th the other thing it does is um it moves spring breakdown a little I think that we had had discussions at points where there was an impression that spring break was something of a sacred tradition here the last week of March and can never be moved and in talking with the various um administrators and and also with Jamie
017K who had a group of people that uh were somewhat invested in that particular last week and and the feedback that we had gotten the last time we talked about this we we felt if in order to make this June 6th date we needed to combine we needed to go one week later for spring break because what that does is it also combines with um Good Friday which is a holiday here in this District it's a paid holiday and a scheduled day off for all staff so so um you can see that there H have been some modifications um and and seemed to meet that seemed to meet the initial guidance that was given from the uh HR committee and various uh board comments that have been collected in other meetings so so those are
018the two for 2526 and then for 26 27 we tasked the work group with the idea of coming up with some research based alternatives for you to consider pause just a moment because I know it starts I got all organ there's a lot I know I know I know I'm like I already kind of know the the stuff and everything but does anybody have any questions related to those two options do those two lead into the next two should we hold our questions until after those or go because I had a few questions yeah I mean I these are like independent models so the next two options are vastly different than any calendar model that we have used here in the district since like 2011 as far as as far as I can see they
019stray quite a bit from any type of traditional model so you have questions on yeah Dan do you have any first I have a bunch so I don't want to occupy all if you want to go first no I don't I don't have calendar questions I'll defer my time Diana okay then so some of the questions I think I know the answer to but I just I never want to assume um October 24th is typically a day on and years and years ago that was around teachers convention time um some districts have upheld that time frame off some have said hey let's continue to have that so at least we get a day or so because they've gone two full months of school I just want to see is that kind of the thinking we've
020talked about those two days in October and several I think Candace you've been on the committee for for a couple years and they come up every year there is some interest in in maintaining those days there are um a number of staff that have special especially in the spe specials area that have their state conventions that include valuable PD time that they would not you know PD experiences that they would not have receive elsewhere in you know costeffective manner because it's state their State Convention and so we know that art we have um by Ed we have a whole group of Music uh people at all levels going so that is part of the rationale that is being used to support continuing that um the scheduling of those two days at that particular time of
021year I mean the alternative would be not to do that and then um approve schoolwork on uh maybe a more restrained basis because it does require the use of retaining subs and um and so I mean that that but it is a possibility I mean I'm just wondering if that's a staff development type day because some are going elsewhere for staff development have some in for staff development and I'm just trying to find out of the box ways to save days another thought and I know the th here maybe this is a click beyond the out of the box um you mentioned that Good Friday is a paid day I get that can that still be paid if it's included in the week of spring break so it's it's a scheduled day off for certified
022staff I and for it's it's not so much a certified staff it's a yearound staff that have that as a paid day off so in if we did that if we if we had class on um I don't mean class I mean let me rephrase the right now typically districts have Good Friday Easter Monday they get a week at least in it's a week plus because it's either the Good Friday Plus or um the Monday afterwards so it's usually a week plus so that's the easiest way it's a bonus day so I'm wondering do we need is that factored in as being that bonus day if you will I'm just still trying to figure out how we can get done in a single digit day so we're not to the middle of June so you
023know this does that though it there's there's things about the traditional calendar and there's things about the modified I'm just wondering the thought process because there's one has it one doesn't like oh well if if we go to one you know it's just overall thinking I'm just wondering the thought processing so the Good Friday is identified as a paid holiday for year round staff and so can that can certainly be changed by board resolution and that can be taken away or replaced with something else um but if we schedule class on that day we or any type of Staff act if we have anything that we do on those days right now just the way it's structured would be done without clerical and without custodial and um um any theoretically yearound people that have that
024identified as a paid legal hity or a paid districtal we we'll keep rolling with that one do yeah yeah yeah do you have another not right now okay all right we ready for the next couple these are the outside of the box thinking creative um creative things to take a look at all right Mar so the third option that we looked at was an option that is called the creative calendar and this is a calendar that is um looking at the idea of uh changing our overall scheduling in a significant way from a 4 day primarily 5 day a week instructional setting to a longer day but um completed on uh four days a week for the most part for student attendance um there are days also carved out on that are five five week
025days throughout the year Prim arily for professional development um or other I mean I think we just identified the professional development and Candace and um Jason B both worked quite a bit on the development of this and I would be happy to turn it over to you to tell us a little bit about your background in in crafting this calendar and the rationale for it and um any other information you want to share about it Candace show the brains behind the operation so prer to Candace starts thank you okay um well I didn't BR any of my notes but um part of the rationale behind it is looking at um staff retention and having oh thank you um having um being fully staffed um this year over at sh as we are still not fully
026staffed so it's been pretty rough um for that piece of it and a lot of districts that are going through that if you look at the research that is attached this is kind of the model that they've moved to um so that's where I started kind of looking at what districts that were having staff shortages what they were doing and as I dug into it a little bit I learned a lot more about um the um the benefits that they were seeing with like mental health attendance and um behaviors that were changing based on this 4-day week model versus a five-day week model so those were also very intriguing um so then we kind of took the board recommendations we figured out the minutes because our state requires minutes and hours versus days so DPI
027does not say that we have to be in school x amount of days but minutes and hours so we used the high school has the highest and we figured out that you would have high schoolers would have to be in school 8 to 4 we didn't figure out middle and elementary so it could be less than 8 to four but 8 to 4 is the the highest based on the amount of days on the the calendar in front of you um so if we adjusted that in any way we could play with with that a little bit but um based on the number of days that are on that calendar um it would be 8 to four another thing that a lot of districts have gone to are say are seeing that the students are
028using that extra day um and they're getting practices for sports cuz that was a big topic that came up when we started talking about it how is that going to affect Sports and what is that going to look like at the upper level and some of the research that I read is that it's actually been better coaches haven't have been able to utilize the extra day um so it wasn't as big of a concern as as you initially thought um another thing that I see is a kind of a wo is our families and our community and like how are they going to react and what are they going to do um and the districts that have gone to it have said that their families actually prefer it now um now that they have kind
029of figured it out they really enjoy that extra day um and Jason Bull and I kind of talked about you know being outside of the box and thinking about what could we do for families that don't have care you know is there a way that you know maybe pair of professionals who need a little extra or something we could offer so that those families who absolutely need it we could think of something for them in within districts still so that you know isn't on here yet but just as we're trying to think of how do we support families in the community you know those are still options we could talk about to try to figure that out um as we look at barriers and like what could be a concern that comes up um it
030talks about or the research shows that you know they do save about 5% of a budget with transportation and food and all of that as you look at only running school for 4 days so that was another plus to that calendar um the educational impact hasn't there isn't a ton of research on it yet because it is fairly new model in the United States um there is the one map attached if you look at number four it's mostly been on the west coast but it is sliding its way on over um there's more states that are doing it than not um so it's you know it is a model that more people are starting to use um I don't think there other things that we talked about or if you have questions about it maybe
031that would be another way to go I also there is some research these are all links if you did want to read the actual research they're linked in your notes but um there's a lot of business like not just schools but businesses that go to 4day work weeks as well and found that St are more productive and that they do have a positive happier work team with that model so you know those were some of the research that I added to the calendar but the calendar that we created stays within the board parameters that we were given with the start and end dates um so we tried to stay with that there was some talk about why why did we take Mondays off instead of Fridays um and that is mainly because I've been on
032the C under committee a while and I know that there's a thing about Mondays and the Jan or the custodial staff there's a day where we have to have be nobody in buildings on Monday so I tried to do where it wouldn't be no now we have to have this Monday off too because of this and that so that's why I put Mondays as no student days for the most part um instead of Fridays cuz that was a big thing that kind of popped up when I did a little mini survey with some people as we were working on this well let's just do Fridays instead of Mondays but that was the reasoning for that c things that thank you Candace the only other things I would just add is that Candace is kind of
033eled to there there be a lot of the finer details that we need to work through but the concept is around four day work weeks or 4 day weeks and so in addition is you know the why Candace had really done a lot of homework on this so really appreciate that and we talked about you know what what what is a calendar why do we have a calendar right that's listed there is it's an informational tool it's also a guide for minutes right as as she said DPI says you need to have these minutes so it is a guide that that that's a a check and balance for that I think we I think part of our conversation was the importance of or maybe the opportunity to to use it as a tool to attract
034and retain and then U um certainly talking about staff collaboration and the importance and power of that and then uh ultimately we're here to support learning and so how how can we leverage our calendar to support learning at the highest levels thanks again K great work new idea who was surveyed were the teachers surveyed did we have we are asking for uh if this is a model you would like us to survey at okay okay and certainly that parents parents haven't been surveyed no when I said that I just like when I talked to people here and there it wasn't no official survey well and Jamie it would affect kids getting out early for sports because they'd be missing the extra hour right it could yeah but it sounds like other districts have utilized the
035day on to help pick up for that time um I can say I'm the retention and uh our members the the ones that work for with me um anytime they get a chance to the three-day weekend they are ecstatic right so I I could see as a retention tool this would be huge and and ultimately that does help learning environment right if you have teachers that are a little bit more infused so my opinion is it doesn't hurt to ask right I think it'd be a good ask actually hi oh I'm sorry this is Melanie is it all right if I have a chance to speak oh yep go ahead all right obviously my husband is a coach and so we're familiar with a lot of coaches and my kids are athletes and stuff like
036that and one suggestion I heard from kind of those group of stakeholders is regarding athletes and leaving school obviously they leave school um a lot right now um and one of the solutions perhaps to that again I don't know how complicated it is but most students have um a study hall or an elective of some sorts that maybe isn't um part of the Core Curriculum um or even potentially moving elt to the afternoon so they're not missing some of their core content maybe those athletes um if they're a All Season sport they would be able to adjust their schedule um so they would have maybe some of those core classes earlier in the day versus at the end of the day that they would be missing if they would have to catch a bus for
037an athletic activity it was just a thought that was suggested okay thank you um a couple things as I was saying earlier other businesses use this model and the employees love it and I'm not comparing a school district to a business I'm just know kind of piggybacking on one like said um questions I had Melanie kind of addressed a little bit um I do wonder how this is going to Impact Sports and activities um we had talked about moving elt to the end of the day as a suggestion and was stated was better before um I know that I've encouraged my kids I've encouraged friends of my kids to try to do just as Melanie said to do the core classes or the not even just non- electives because span is an elective a foreign
038language is an elective but it's very important that you're there every day missing seems to have a greater impact but being more conscientious around that because changes become more more challenging [Music] um the question of how does it impact families I think this is still pretty much unknown I am curious what districts around us in our conference utilize this because it is going to impact I'm not just speaking Sports it's sports activities there there's other things because that is a long day from 8 to 4: it's only a half hour longer than currently but a half hour every day maybe there will be no Major Impact because there's Monday so do we know what districts in our conference around us utilize this if any yeah there aren't right now no time um we talked about
039a mention was about child care and for me that was a question that had come up earlier if we do something to that effect um thank you for all the different background research super helpful like okay saves 5% of the budget how much would we be spending toward Child Care is that a cost neutral kind of scenario because right now if we go to referendum to ask for another monetary piece that's already built in it becomes hard as something's new but if it's a cost new neutal piece that can be you know proposed I'm just trying to think of the counter arguments you think about what the counter arguments are and position It Forward um it's intriguing it looks like kids will go back to school on New Year's Day that becomes a um but
040I don't know if there's any other way to go about it um my last question is the Mondays if we can provide a little clarification teachers and students have Mondays off or just students I think uh the idea can is correct for was the idea here is teachers and students off on three or four weeks and the one it doesn't matter which week right but one of those four would be for a teacher collaboration day but again we can get feedback that could be two days you know twice a month for teachers but exactly to my next question is that why the one Monday was blue because that would be a staff development because I was then going to ask what happens to the collab time on Wednesdays that teachers l so much I didn't
041want that to be lost and I still care of that thank you thanks probably hard work on this thank you guys for bringing forth a you know an Innovative thing and it really does I mean it um you know I have a a college student who does summer internships and you know it's you know they have virtual days and things like that like that's really kind of the the work model there um a couple of questions that um that that I have um go along with um I know you already answered you know as far as like no schools in Wisconsin you know it's an Innovative idea you know as far as that goes we could be cutting edge um I am very concerned though about the kids in sports missing school um I mean
042I think there's a number of you know whether what whatever team it is whatever conference I mean we travel a away and I know they've shifted so I might not have my current upto-date um you know conference and and where we're traveling to but um I mean I think we've got some Hefty traveling like an hour you know I don't think that that's uncommon um so I would be I would be concerned about that um and I'm surprised there's not really negative effects of a longer day that was just interesting to me you know what I mean because you think about you know if they're tired and things like that or does it you know if if it's a longer day and then you know the classes are longer you know or what you know
043obviously there would need to be some some shifting and things like that that way um Ely not in favor of going back to school on New Year's Day I think that one would I think that one would get a lot of push back um as far as that goes but um you know I I really do appreciate as far as the um you know taking a look at at something different it does meet the you know it' be done at June 5th um and then you know the the November Thanksgiving break in there as well I have one additional class I think does this kind of I don't want to say push us nudge us away from a trimester schedule more to a semester schedule or can we truly uphold a trimester schedule with this
044yeah I think both of the calendars that were proposed by the committee as the um outside the box thinking can be tailored to fit either system you know I don't know which ones they looked at when they were putting it together but certainly there are districts out there United States that have used both methods in our trimester and our semester especially like calendar are and so this four day week takes out Wednesday early release right so then it's the Tuesday through Friday okay Tina excuse me um I think with some of those things like if it does take out the Wednesday collaboration there um was also some conversation about maybe you know teachers are working remotely but doing their if they need to come in they can obviously come in but if they're doing their
045collaboration um remotely to save the district money uh by having facilities and stuff closed if necessary they could work on that remotely kind of like you know our corporate world does um and then going back and addressing the long days um some of the high school teachers had expressed well how does this work cuz some of our classes right now they have five class periods that are quite lengthy to begin with um lengthening them they weren't really in favor of but they thought well maybe this means we adjust them a little bit where maybe we add a sixth hour and shorten them all up a little bit um again how that works with Di's question about trimesters and stuff I'm not 100% sure um like I said these are just some conversation pieces that we're
046going on about some of those details great thanks Melanie and definitely obviously the the parent survey piece you know would be important I mean staff too you know we talked about that all right everybody good on that one wonderful thank you yeah and just to go back to like the research did show that the 4 day weeks there was less bully there was less fighting amongst the students instead of the what they had when they were there five days so even though they're there longer there was a positive behavioral effect that's exciting right I don't know how or why you know like that you know that's interesting okay thank you okay and then the fourth one is called the balance calendar and in this particular model you'll see that we're starting starting school well before
047September 1st and ending school well into June and what this this model um in order to be viable would need to get approval from DPI in terms of uh what's considered a year round calendar uh by DPI standards so that that would uh that is an unknown at this point the extent to which this particular um Balan school calendar would fit that but it is aligned with other models that are considered essentially yearround um schools so what it does is it takes the 191 staff contract days it keeps the 176 student cont days but it breaks up the break so to speak so that there's a week at fall a week at Thanksgiving two weeks at winter two weeks at Spring and then shortens up Summer a little so the school year runs then from
048late August to Mid June there's a shortened period of time before school summer school starts and summer school is pushed back a little but it still has enough room for the the traditional model that we use for summer school which which is 20-day programming um those breaks have been used to provide um like the partnership opportunities with other organizations like Park and rock or the Y in terms of like can you support us in this calendar by offering alternative experiences for uh students that need care during those uh those one week break periods so there's some Community Partnership building that we need to go along with this it is research based and it has um the these benefits Which is less burnout um um there's some suggestion that teachers stay in the profession longer and
049and there's some uh research that shows that the more frequent breaks result in uh less stressed Workforce and and an overall better feeling of well-being in the workplace and terms of Staff Dynamics and building culture for students there they did uh there is research that shows an a slight increase in achievement um and and there's some research that supports that there is less student burnout which also includes less stress would results in less disciplinary problems and a lower dropout rate and that there's more thought that this allows people to operate more efficiently um in that it has the benefit of lessening the time between one period of instruction and another particularly during the summer so there is like the staff that participated in the development of this saw some of the positives as focusing um
050on on more the more frequent breaks uh allow for Less uh learning loss and the shorter breaks allow for Less learning loss and particularly with Summer that there was an anticipation there would be less summer slide which um was overwhelmingly seen as a positive for um our our um by our staff that are on that work group there was some concern that uh related to like the amount of community changing we would need to engage in in order to make the successful um obviously might have an impact on how families schedule their time during more traditional periods of Break um and then you you know these more non-traditional periods of Break um also could potentially uh present some challenges for families in terms of caregiver uh availability so I hope I serve that explanation okay
051I don't do any of you want to offer additional comments about the balance calendar okay this time questions from the committee thoughts if you put both out and see what staff and [Music] Community you know as a parent looking at it trying to back up a couple of years um I think I would have rather had known that every week Monday I would need dayare all year long then to go okay every month I'm going have to find somebody that also has off for an extra week or you know what I mean I think that would throw me off as a par but that's that just kind yeah I don't have any questions yet Diana does go ahead Diana um definitely a mind shift definitely a culture shift but it has worked many places across
052the country and so it is tried it is true um it'll work it just change and change is not hard it's just different and so getting our brain to wrap around that similar to the question I had previously is regarding that early release staff collab time um like you said in the last one it was kind of on Mondays where is it on this it stays on Wednesday so they would still get out early on Wednesday I don't have an issue with I'm just I don't see that anywhere you know so that might just be something within the key as we present that um I just lost my other question the one piece that I I personally don't care for is how late it goes into the summer um I would love for us to
053always be able to start a week or two in August to try to move that forward but I do understand as Margaret stated that requires a DPI um I want to say exemption but permission kind of a thing um so that's just one of the pieces I'm still kind of trying to chew on is pushing that back to consistently be done the middle of June um just even though it's only a few days longer than we are this year if that's a consistent piece it just it's hard but it's not that it's not doable just given my first thought first I would agree with that um some of my concerns about this one is um you know and obviously we could learn more through through a survey um but uh two things that I have
054a concern about one is child care um you know if I'm thinking about like if I'm working you know and you get two weeks vacation how do you you know um you know if you don't have family around or you know like H how do you make that work um you know and obviously I know you know we'd have to explore you know Community Partners and things like that um but I would have a concern regarding child care the other concern that I would have um would be as far as a community piece and um students having jobs um because if you're saying okay yes I can have a summer job it's you don't even have two months worth to be able to give that company um and what does that do as far as
055the company and the labor that our you know companies need um but then I also take a at you know I don't know maybe they could work you know during those week breaks and things like that um but then I also take a look as far as like you know student need to work you know as far as maybe they're you know um wanting to gain that experience um maybe they're you know need money for a car maybe they're saving money for college and things like that like how does that affect their ability and maybe they're needing to contribute to their family you know how does that affect um those things on a bigger on a bigger picture that way I mean if I if I had to pick two that I thought and I
056know it's a mind shift and maybe I'm just not quite ready for for that one um I mean I I liked the second option on the traditional and the 4-day work week but or the 4day school day but I don't know if just to be clear we can have more than two I mean we are not limited to just two so and is the idea to to whatever the committee recommends to take one or all four whatever and kind of put that out to right so we would incorporate samples of whatever the recommendation is that comes out of this meeting tonight so we would we would survey on you know a traditional or modified traditional or or a a creative calendar or the balance so those would whatever you're recommending we take out to the
057stakeholders will be included as something that we will survey on okay is this possible they have too many options is four too many is my only question I mean I like the diversity in them in thinking I'm just wondering do you do you not get the information that you want to need because there's too many too many choices so you don't how you if you were to ask the question to rank order them you know um then the the people who rank number one if one's the top you know versus four being the bottom you know um that that total score will be higher for the ones chosen versus the ones chosen down so there there's ways that we can still get at the information I think you guys are looking for it's just what
058is it you are looking to do right the committee has brought forth I think a wealth of information a lot of hard work and knowledge now we're looking to this body to help us refine it to say what are we what are we going to ask the community what would you like us to ask the community what kind of knowledge or information you want from the community and then we'll bring that back to you import it's hard finding daycare Now isn't it I mean we're already stressed that way this would stress it even more um if we came up with a calendar like that and we didn't have places for their kids you know we'd be in a world hurt that way how would you like us to gather that kind of information from people
059do you want us to have a a place in the survey for them to fill in their concerns that they may have about the calendars I like that yeah good idea I just don't want to make the decision for the community it's been a lot of years since I've had to deal with child care and so I don't want to speak on behalf of that but I'd love to solicit that information to see because maybe it's not as difficult as we think maybe it's even harder than we imagined but none of us are living it and so I guess I'd rather ask those that are and and and see I mean obviously it's not going to be a majority rulle because you got that 40% that say this is a major thing it's not majority
060but that's a large enough value to say hey look we might need to think of something different but I guess they're creative they're out of the box I don't foresee them to be a problem until the community says they're a problem you know let's and they may say well I like this but what about this and there might be something that helps that to grow I appreciate all your time energy and effort these are just a couple people I'm sure you'd be you know oh yeah never thought about that or yeah no that doesn't work so I'd say thr are at least three of them out there I like the modified as opposed to the traditional but again if we're asking the community if there's four instead of three you know we did hear from
061you know a couple community members that they didn't want to go till the middle of June you know was that just a couple or was that res I mean that was just kind of I know different people that have talked to me have said this so that's why I had said Hey by the time you get to the middle of June it's getting a little long yeah but maybe the majority say hey it's fine so like where Jared mentioned rank ordering them that'll give us good information now really there's only two options for calendar year right because we're looking at the 25 26 we have two options for that remember we've got two options for the 2627 I well that was my next that was a question I had earlier no no you're perfect in
062line because then it was up so are we saying that we don't have a modified traditional for 2627 we we don't right now I the the reason I mean I can put that together very easily the reason that we didn't include that was that if we are going to consider any major changes we had agreed that those would be part of 2627 so we only put out for your review these two options that indicate substantive culture changing uh um examples I can certainly do a regular a you know a traditional or a modified traditional for 26 27 as well I mean that's very easy that's where I was leading two I understood why this because it's too short of a Runway to put into next year right but to have a whole another calendar set
063is too much look at so the concept behind it but if we just put these forth as is in a survey it could be implied that these are the only two options so we could certainly take that as a recommendation to also build a 2627 either traditional or modified traditional whichever or both and but then we're up to six options if we add those two so is it two separate well no though be two one two options for just for 25 26 and then the four four options for 26 27 I mean is it something that we could just do as I mean it sounds like we're open to presenting all four options and kind of seeing it Gathering the input in perhaps a ranking type of thing um you know is it something that
064we just go based on 26 27 and just say okay these are four different options so that it's not as confusing and then we just take that oh so you would we wouldn't give we wouldn't do two sets is that what you're saying I think yeah because I think you know and maybe somewhere in the wording or the explanation we could say okay for you know um 25 26 we're considering traditional for 26 27 these would be we the possibility yeah instead of like a six option six I think just makes my head using so my question is then is the committee just going to make a a rank decision on next year's calendar that was going to be my of the two or do you want feedback from the community on both of those
065for next year well I make Su yeah ab and so I think for next year we open it up to our staff right um and maybe not the entire Community but have the entire Community to the 26 27 try to try to work around staff accommodations because the difference between the two isn't huge we're talking week in the summer couple days during the school year right so I don't think Community is going to be impacted tremendously for the 25 26 school year so let that one up to staff but then for the going to really do something their shattering for 2627 maybe open up Community for 2627 maybe even break it down three different options I think you're right as far as the 206 27 I think kind of where how we got here was
066that staff was like yeah we want full week at Thanksgiving and families are like no we want to get out earlier in June you know so I think that's kind of where that where that came from and kind of like an impass of all right I you know the board has talked about that for a number of years I hear what you're saying and I like that idea but I I don't know that that accomplishes I've heard different things from staff members that some want the full week some don't want the full week and so I don't know I'm putting the question out there when is the last time they were given an option um I've also been told by multiple staff members that they were pretty much consistently given maybe one choice and and
067they didn't like it well that could be based on their own personal you know whatever take that with a grain of Sal but now if it's like okay we hear you here are two options we've heard what you're saying you know these are two we really you've got more options for a longer Runway the 26 27 year what are your thoughts here and if it's distinctly different go you know if it's similar that makes sense well I know we need to bring this to a close um yes J another option could be to uh get some feedback from uh staff and Community around next year's and then allow that feedback to then guide another round of feedback for 2627 and what I mean by that is give staff families parents uh community members an option
068on modified and traditional whatever those two titles are we make a decision on modified we don't longer need to bring the other work to the to the commun so we we'd be weeding out one option we'll be doing two surveys but we get some feedback on them I like that idea it also gives us time to kind of you know clean up some of the the creative does that fit our timeline of what we're wanting that works does that sound like a good yeah that's great idea thank you all right one a year I'm for all right glad we got an eight wait a minute he's only for one a year he's already made like four there's no banking all right do we do you have clear Direction I know I wanted to clarify so
069if we do one survey for 2526 modified and and traditional and then we collect that feedback and we're going to bring that back to Committee in November for a final review based on the feedback that we get from a survey right but then 2627 we will then bring that back to committee after December or I'm just thinking logistically from a timing standpoint so we would not be bringing two years forward in December it's sounds like we would bring 25 26 with 26 27 to follow closely after is that how yeah that's what you're thinking okay okay as long as I think I think it's closely after I know you want to bring to forward I think that if that gives us just a little bit of time to make sure that we're we need to
070long as we get to a point where we're you know yeah that far ahe for our families yes I've heard that feed we just toing fores so they can you know Vacations or whatever else we can that for the Okay then if we get an early decision on 26 27 then we don't have to talk about calendar for like quite a quite a while so well no that's not true because Ann still talk about calendar yeah but it's still it we have rapid session okay does that make sense and we have clear everybody knows what we're doing there okay all right thank you absolutely thank you all for the questions the input the work I know a lot has gone into it and things like that okay so we're ready for letter D coach evaluation
071system update so Jamie ke is our special guest tonight to give a report on the coach evaluation uh program that he implemented last year and do do we have new do you want to just give a a kind of a refresher on the evaluation system for we have at least one new member on the certainly on on the committee so so last year we tried to get something consistent to do on a regular basis so it was across the board and sometimes with um evaluations they they've differed through the years and the capacity or how they've been done those you that have been involved in the coaching World realize that there's been a lot of variation so we tried to have one one consistent method so last year we tried to we kind of piloted
072the spring before to see how it was going to work and um and we continued it last year so just giving a little bit contining on a little brief piece here I won't insult anyone's intelligence to the stuff that you have in front of you I'll just pick out a few things here the um of each paragraph We have 25 athletic programs 23 of which are uh WIA and two that are endorsed by the WIA so we have out of those 25 there's about 30 30 plus schools in the state of Wisconsin that use this program a little over a thousand throughout the country not a not a monster number by any stretch of the imagination in our conference it kind of fluctuates sometimes it's 6 to 8 sometimes it's 5 to 10 depends where
073the ad is and whether they've moved on or or retired but the nice thing about this is we've been able to collaborate with each other about certain uh certain points of interest so continuing on last year there were that the hope and the my desire was to do an evaluation for every coach and every sport so we did 18 evaluations and they were done for 21 athletic programs and at the time you think track and field wrestling AC cross country have both genders right now so there was one for each of those there were four programs that and evaluation wasn't done uh football girls basketball uh there was resignations that came right after the season and both swim I'm sorry boys swim and boys golf weren't completed because they had uh they they had fall
074coaches that coach the same sport just a different gender so we're trying to experiment that way too uh the rating scale you can certainly see the stuff I sent you has has four potential uh levels let's say as well as four categories so one of the pieces of doing it was to try to get some feedback from the coaches in terms of value not jump through a hoop not check a box so we're trying to get past or we can can be something that's that's useful across the board so feedback wise I was positive that's first and foremost um I found out that specific examples in the form of positive reinforcement were welcome I tried to use a correlation to say my example was a student doing the right thing when no one's watching and
075sometimes feel invisible or not noticed so sometimes I just took it for granted as though things were done well and maybe I didn't uh emphasize that enough or recognize that enough so it's certainly a reflection piece for me as well and um I try to address any necessary things right away I don't wait for the evaluation we're not looking for an I gotcha at the end there shouldn't be any surprises at that point in time work pretty hard to communicate with coaches so they know they you know we have to step forward and you know so they know they're Valu they're appreciated and not taking for graned um I also found out that the coaches are pretty darn reflective and when they took when they did the last year the self- evaluation was an optional
076C optional optional piece they're a lot more harsh on themselves um and obviously they're the experts in that field and or for that specific sport so I don't know if that's a surprise necessarily but that was uh something that came through this and uh maybe I was what was surprised about a little bit were the different strengths and weaknesses um there's not always a direct correlation to the admin responsibilities and the human aspect so there's usually a strength in one area and I do the other one usually it's the the human aspect for a coach building relationships developing a rapport fostering relationship and do the administrative responsibilities because I need to uh that's kind of what what was found out right now there's not a time that's been more challenging and difficult to be a
077cult ever before it's it's incredible right now you know I would say our talks throughout the season they kind of Center on the why for the coach and to focus on the impact being made I mean everything starts and finishes with the biggest stakeholder we have our students and in this case our student athletes um you know being a strong Communicator is essential for any head coach the skill sets are going to be different based on the experience uh the wisdom levels and there's just a wide variety of things because we have have everything from brand new coaches to 30-year veterans and and that doesn't mean that there's one is stronger than the other I would just say this they're difference there's there's a different piece and a different component you know team members regardless
078of what sport you're part you kind of have dog days of a season they're kind of tough there's there's a hump to get through and our student athletes are involved in a lot of things it's not just their one sport it's a lot of things both from an academic standpoint it tends to be higher more difficult challenging could be College prep or just challenging classes in general and uh and there in a variety of activities and and clubs as well and I think that the uh when the coaches are really in a unique position to help nav help kids navigate through those um through fatigue it could be mentally it could be physically whatever combination of the two we've run this in conjunction with our professional development I won't insult anybody here you can certainly
079read the professional development we're uh as as strong as anywhere in the in the State or the country and we kind of kind of we put these two things in conjunction with each other our plan is to continue to use the uh this program for evaluation I'd say this you know I talk to the coaches informally almost in season probably every day if not every day very close and the idea is just to provide some support when it's needed so things don't get out of control and different things like that because there's a lot of moving Parts within a within a season for everybody and I think the the more uh stability the coach can have and the more stability we can have in our programs by having coaches continue in there is very similar
080to the consistency of the uh attrac and retaining from an education standpoint overall uh in in the evaluations in different places are done everywhere differently some schools their goal is to do one gender one year another gender a different year they might get back to it some schools uh don't do it very often at all it's just kind of an afterthought it doesn't fit in I value the importance of it it's it's important to me and I think through the whole thing the the dialogue but it's back and forth I I have a great relationship with a lot of our coaches and they're all at different levels because they're at different levels and I think that's a unique thing too and recognizing that as I go through that in I guess from a closing standpoint
081here you know I I appreciate the effort the coaches put in I appreciate the effort the students students put in you you know the evaluations are there for growth it's it's the idea is to improve and and as much as anything just to recognize the coach is overseeing an entire program there's a I mentioned before there's a lot of moving parts so that also means there's always an opportunity for improvement as well it doesn't have to be Earth shattering Improvement that can be very small pieces so you know they're leading student athletes and and with student athletes you have a lot of different components to that too because that that age bracket of 15 18 brings on challenges all by itself so the uh the primary focus we do everything we do with in within
082education based Athletics is to provide the opportunity for students and try try to use this use education based Athletics as an extension to the classroom I mean my goodness I take great pride in the student athletes to compete they represent Watertown and at the same time there's a lot of coaches they give selfless selflessly for our student athletes and make a lot of sacrifices and put a lot of time and display a lot of passion thanks for listening excellent I know we we talked about the evaluation tools anybody have any questions Mr does it make it easier for you when you're interviewing assistant coaches for a vacant head coach job to bring this this out the evaluation tool out to make that decision I think it can help with the interview process and possibly the
083questions absolutely I'm in front end yeah MH you don't use this though for the assistant coaches corre no just the these are just for the head coaches I was just clarifying because Dan wasn't part of that discussion when we were here last how often are we I know you did all of us last year but I didn't know you know like I I know you mentioned different schools the hope is an I I place a lot of feasible is that a fe I'm not sure we're going to try okay and I think the other piece is if if it doesn't go that way maybe we'll be incorporating some type of selfie Val in between there because we made an optional last year and um and the feedback from the selfie vals as I mentioned coaches
084are a little harder on themselves they're tough yeah and they they there's there's things and I guess as much as anything it's nice it allows for an opportunity for reflection just want to make sure you know like if you know expectations versus feas you know how does how does that work together yes exactly exactly to be seen to be able to okay okay but it was a good tool that you liked I know tested it out everything okay and then the tool do the head coaches evaluate the assistant coaches or how does that they don't do a a formal evaluation on them okay but they interact and you know we're in a position now where we try to do as much coaching up as guiding as possible because our applications for our applicants for coaching
085positions have never been shorter the list so instead of uh I guess our primary focus is just trying to coach up the people in the positions what I mean by coaching up is help with the areas they need to gain some experience sometimes they're going to gain they're going to get better just through gaining experience and I think since there's such a different plethora of experience levels through coaches it can be beneficial it's kind of a tough thing for head coaches to do that for assistant coaches because they work so closely and the turnover could be be difficult to fill I'm excited about the program I could talk about this stuff all night yeah I'm sure you're thinking we're already 30 minutes behind di I know I know I know Diana do you um you
086mentioned last time around that we kind of piloted and last year was the first year through it and one of the common questions I always ask more look at evaluation tools you know in what areas have we seen growth and in what areas have we seen like a decline so I'm not asking specific ratings or specific people but just a common theme that you might have noticed I think what we've figured out is that our coaches don't have any life balance and so I really try to touch on the the the balance the the two things and taking the you know the weekend off we doing different things and balancing the offseason as well the offseason is really really difficult um so that might be one of them and it's easy to say during the
087middle of a season like right now we're in the volleyball season you know end of the end of the season postseason it's hard and I think our interactions daily I think the other piece of that is then what we've improved on and we weren't very good at is utilizing each other in those positions kind of in a an informal mentoring piece because it's hard to Mentor during your season you're holding on for dear life of your own season so it's it's it's we've tried to really capsulate and capture coaches that are outside of their season to kind of check in and helmet it's more of an informal basis than it is a check the box requirement I was trying to get away from the check the box just do it because it's good or you're
088supposed to or something just to be efficient and effective I think as the years go on including this year I think we'll continue to learn more which is which is an objetive thank you for that work and thank you for the the feedback and everything and helping us make sure we're covering our basis as the HR committee so thank you very much all right letter e succession planning um I know this had come up as a as a question I don't know a while back and things like that and I know um that there were just some questions as far as like you know is there is it I think this is fantastic but um you know is there a tool in place or how does that you know like what does that process look
089like or what does you know what does that look like um because we know we we have um you know a lot of knowledge and things like that and um you know when the job description all of the things as assigned you know and all the wonderful things that people do how does that how do we continue that on um so I think that's um if I'm accurately reflecting that's kind of where that that question came came out of from the committee so um there you go that's where we're at okay I can I mean I can talk a little bit about the succession planning template that was included with the um agenda so and actually we are you know putting this into Live status even as we speak so um when we have a
090current administrator who we know will be leaving best case of course is that we have as much notice as possible but we will work with what we have in terms of of um trying to gather as much organizational and job related Knowledge from the person that will be leaving I mean we're doing that right now with the current administrator that we are um that will be leaving us and you know also we have worked with her in terms of a posttermination plan as far as being available to work with the person who is selected to replace her and fill fill the role that she is leaving so we we do that on a regular basis to the best of our ability and that the posttermination arrangements obviously take various forms depending on the the uh
091circumstances under which somebody leaves the organization for example in this case uh the departing administrator is not subject to the 75-day WR RS waiting period or anything like that if they are we try to work really heavily on the front end to collect as much institutional organizational knowledge and history get that organized to the best of our ability into a plan or or a centralized uh container of information and then um do ask that person if they will be available to work with us a after that 75 day waiting period in terms of serving as a posttermination resource which most administrators when they're leaving have been willing to do in some form or the other and the extent of that will be determined by the person coming in do you know so every single plan
092that we put together for a new administrator takes into account what their background and their experience has been for example if we have an internal person transferring we know that some of the nuts and bolts of employment do not need to be covered as in depth as they would with somebody who who is brand new to the organization from the outside so all of that is evaluated and putting together like a personalized plan a personalized orientation on boarding plan for that person um but this is kind of a general format that we use and then the central office team takes an active role in terms of setting making sure that that our new administrator is aware of the various roles and functions and kind of the who to go to if I have this type
093of question we set a a discussion um in each of our areas about expectations and services and you know ways that we can support as well as things that we rely on the building Administration team to forward to us in order to keep the District Operations moving um smoothly we do have one dedicated central office administrator for new building administrators that person serves as an ongoing coach sets up a series of of U meetings throughout the year to provide you know a uh information to coach through scenarios in the moment um to provide guidance or other type of direction that might be needed I mean obviously that's a collaborative effort and we sometimes need to engage other building administrators and coaching um strategies and things like that but it is something that we have found
094is being successful we're using it right now with a new administrator and gotten really great feedback from um everyone participating in that we also do uh work with the new administrator in terms of of their background and the the um professional development opportunities that are available through Assa which is the school administrators uh Professional Organization they have various modules or Ormy so to speak that are based upon the level of experience that a person is bringing into the administrator role so they have an academy for brand new never been an administrator before and then they have they build off of that um and then continue that building even at the district level they have like new superintendent academies and building principales and so we look at what is the role that we hired that person
095into and what type of support are we recommending that or requiring the new administrator to attend or participate in in order to be sure that that those leadership um skills are developed appropriately according to established standards for school administrators and then we have um if there's a building level administrator we usually pair up a colleague to serve as a a you know a sounding board uh I don't want to go to district office with this question can I ask you instead type of of relationship so a peer mentor type of relationship um and then the individual also has again based on their background and experience that they're bringing in the option to engage an awesome Mentor coach and that's a that's an that's a a person that is um really working with the administrator as
096a whole person it's not as much organizationally driven as much as it's working with my individual leadership skills my individual fears and trepidations my individual hopes and aspirations and and that Assa Mentor serves also as a confidant for that person you know somebody who the building administrator can go to and say you can't believe what HR just asked me to do you know that type of thing so so that person then also serves as something of a stress valve you know a relief valve for somebody that I can talk to who gets it and who understands the challenges associated with building Administration and then um Jared Dr Burke also serves in a support role um at least quarterly during year one meeting with the the new District administrator uh more often obviously it if there
097are issues in the in the moment that are occurring but at a minimum the new administrator gets some some time with the superintendent to be sure that um the administrator is um understanding you know his overall leadership direction for the The District administration team and um gives that person an opportunity to ask questions and find out information that you know I you benefit from from talking to some somebody um a level or two above you so um those are the activities that we um use kind of as a general guide again a lot of this is based upon the type of um person that is coming in and their skills and background that have gotten them you know that prepared them to step into an administrative role here excellent questions thank you that was very
098good that was very good detail and um kind of covers I think some of the questions that we've encountered and things hope only have to do this periodically though is our retention right that's a nice tool thank you very much I appreciate that um okay so now we are headed into um closed session do do I have a motion to go into close session motion by Diana yes please all right second by Mike you want me to twist your arm just kidding oh we are now oh roll call vote Diana yes Mike yes Dan Tina yes we are now in closed session that what your okay thank you okay so we're back into Open Session um as far as future agenda items um let's see what do we got next month is November we've got
099of course our regular consent agenda we'll have an employee Wellness committee update um we'll have an update on the exit surveying process um and then of course we will have um yep calendar will be on there so to recap as far as um our action items coming out of today um that would be calendar calendar CL session item that sound yeah accurately reflected all right anything else Margaret um no I it is likely in November I will just probably give an update on our open benefits enrollment that will be underway um in November just as a matter of practice I usually let you all know that what we're doing and and um we do have those changes that went are going into effect and we'll be rolling that out um in early November so I
100just want to make sure that you're all informed about that okay wonderful thank you Comm manye members anything else okay thank you for your time our meeting is ajed 657 those of you online thank you I'm going to end the meeting three minutes it was gonna be dicey gonna be dicey but we need a we need a little more