001in progress right call the order the meeting for the UniFi School District Bo tonight uh everyone join me please in the pledge Danner craigman Mike Higgins Lorie Holland here herea here right the agenda any questions on the agenda none we'll go first of our two sections for public contact or public comment tonight anyone can feel free like to speak U please come up to the podium and um please St your name for the record and I'm going to ask this um again and if you had issue with this last time i' like to point this out please for full transparency write your name and address down this is for Lynn so that she can have record of the St that was put out for the public record okay if we don't have someone write their
002name and address down she has to go back and rewatch the video and try to figure out from what you said your name and your address okay so that really helps if you can do that okay appreciate that I like to keep your get a full health tonight so please try to keep your comments to three minutes or less I will try not to gabble someone but no promises feel free to go ahead okay can you hear me is this the microphone here oh okay yeah my name is Ben Adams I live on County Road X in Watertown Township I've been in Watertown for almost seven years now I came from uh uh Northern Illinois um I just wanted to uh I guess remind you of what a miracle public schools are because uh in
003my uh spare time in in near Aurora Illinois I worked with Refugee children and they um mainly from the country of Burma some from Nepal some from Syria and Iraq um and those families were so excited to be be coming to America and they were Amazed by a couple things first of all in their country they usually lived in small villages and in order to economically support a big event they would have to go out and um sell one of their pigs they usually only had one Pig sell their pig that pig would be the money would be used to either get the necessary funds together and school uniforms to send a child to school or some other major event it was sort of their savings account and um that was their the way they
004were working there was also school fees they had to plan for and save for when we told them about the school in Aurora their first shock was what we don't need a lot of money to go to the school um we don't need to buy school uniforms we don't speak English you say there's going to be a teacher there that supports us um and it was such a wonderful thing that as they lined up their first day of school and we always had somebody to help them along to learn the ropes they were so excited with their little backpacks to realize and the family was around them supporting them this is the American dream the American miracle that you guys are part of and I just wanted to reinforce that and everything you're doing here
005is such a unique thing in the world that other countries have copied and it's a gem and um that's about all I want to say I guess thank you very much and again please break you name address if we forget can do it later we're so ahead of it FR that we already put it s that's that's excellent I appreciate that and that's a tough speech to follow thank you sir for those of you who don't know me my name is Elizabeth boxel I am one of two Elementary multilingual Specialists here in Watertown Unified School District and I actually had the great pleasure of being able to sit in on the last ed services meeting uh my boss Ashley was presenting on our multilingual handbook which was very a lot of work a labor of
006love and she's talked a lot about ed services is and how it supports the multilingual team so to be able to sit and observe and see how it works was really something unique um I wanted to say thank you to David for your moderation I don't know where he is Mr Trader's not here today okay uh as it's nice to to see a school board is meant to have different opinions right our differences make us who we are and uh allow us to make the best decisions but moderating that kind of a thing is hard so shout out to him for making that happen but I really specifically want to touch on the Panorama survey um I know you were discussing it today not making any choices so the Panorama survey for those of you
007who don't know last year at um all of the levels is a survey that um students take three times a year and gives us teachers data points on students um self-management social awareness self-efficacy learning strategies and emotional regulation and there were some questions as to whether or not we need to reup our I don't know what we call it membership by the lenser for it um and I wanted to address those questions so when it comes to social emotional learning which are the categories that I mentioned here that we're focusing in on um as we all know as Educators and as was recently discovered in one of the most comprehensive surveys of social emotional learning through Yale University that not only does it help students feel confidence and confidence then allows for them to feel
008trust and respect and the learning happens but it actually has direct correlation to success in engagement to success in attendance and to success in academic um increase by many points for schools that actually have social emotional uh data points and and um lesson specifically to it sorry oh I didn't know I was going to get nervous but I am all right so anyway Lori you were talking about with the uh Panorama survey how you were thinking that teachers should know their students well enough to know who were struggling who needed a little bit more help when it came to categories like that and I am so glad that you had brought that up because you hit the nail on the head right it's about relationships that's what makes education so successful but I wanted to
009let you guys know a couple of scenarios that makes that a little tough so we have a fifth grade class this past year at the had one teacher to 28 kids she had to teach five core content lessons and including that the math is into two different um subjects so we had the number corner and then we had the actual ma pleas what I'm gonna ask you for time if you could close three minutes right yeah yep yep I got you three here so I'm already at three minutes yep oh my gosh okay um or me I have 75 plus students and around two different schools and for me to be able to understand how they're feeling in those different categories I can't just sit there and have those conversations so Panorama is really helpful
010for us teachers to be able to know get get another data point on where our students are the other thing I wanted to talk about is I know Sam you were feeling like that it wasn't um it wasn't data that we can use because it wasn't objective it's subjective right it's how the students feel and that's another thing that they touch on in this um survey from Yale is that even if I think I have strong classroom Community if my student doesn't feel that they do then they're still not going to feel the trust and the respect and to be able to grow so we need to be able to know how our students feel in order to know yet another approach to how to help them feel successful thank you I appreciate you're not
011using the gabble that would have been intense next speaker please good evening uh for those of you who don't know me my name is the Reverend Dr Christopher Ross I live in cage Grove but I work and serve here in Watertown as pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ my pronouns are he him is I'm here tonight to invite you to this year's Watertown Pride event scheduled for Saturday this Saturday July 27th from 10: to 4: the event will be at First Congregational UCC that's because at First Congregational at our church we understand that diversity equity and inclusion are essential not just as part of Christian values but also to our community and youth and indeed to anyone living in a Democratic Society or Republic and so I want to make sure that you
012also know that you are invited and welcome to join us to join us in supporting your communities joyfully diverse Youth and their families Youth and families you all have pledged to serve thank you thank you very much there any other speakers tonight smth I think we have his address right write it down please Dave Smith n210 Huber Brooks Drive Watertown first off I want to thank each of you for the work you do for the USD it is appreciated thank you very much um first topic uh handbook approval uh so today you will be starting a new uh procedure around approving handbooks um with the L handbook while I support this practice uh I think we need to quickly put policies and practices around how we're going to maintain these how revisions will be tracked
013where they'll be kept who's the chair champion of each of them and uh what type of revision requirements uh there is for board approval for each of the revisions that take place uh second topic is around a panoramic survey process well with some persuasion um from many uh in this room tonight I voted uh to uh to invest in the trial of the panoramic last August AUST this was a trial for one year we did not really know the goal or objective of this but felt we needed to do something so as a parent community and board member I actively watched this process over the last year after a year of use it is clear to me that it has minimal value and is a generally poor use of our resources both our student and
014staff time and our funds it would be my request that the board discontinue this program I know some feel it has value but I would say we cannot continue to administer the program as we are and we and if we change its value will diminish even further under no circumstances should the reports be so hard for a parent to receive any other similar data is available on Skyward Andor is given as a paper copy submitted to the the parents and sent home proactively well we have a great and trusted teachers and staff many have access to this data we have minimal controls around the privacy and of this very sensitive and personal information as a student as the students retake this survey several times each year it's the same very ambiguous questions they already are
015very subjective data that comes out as they're taking it's going to become more and more subjective data that comes out of it we have no documented goals are measured for success of this program well marginally understandable in the first trial year it's unacceptable to have a continue this without having clear goals future years well the idea of having parents opt in versus opt out is good the details of how this is presented to the parents and when is critical if it's a checkbox buried in the already very tedious Skyward registration process that's not a good solution again my recommendations is to not reopen this program after giving it a good try thank you thanks again for each of you what you do do your any other speak good evening I'm Terence thir event I'm feeling
016at home here right now because I work for the Watertown Unified School district from 1989 until about a month and a half ago so conrat oh we're lucky we are we have amazing people and I've been so fortunate to really be a part of children's lives hundreds or thousands of them and their families um I have a couple topics I wanted to talk to you about today one is the SE topic which I know is a is a controversial topic and I I don't know why I've taught it for so many years and I I would love to talk with someone about what is controversial about these skills as far as um life skills empathy you know understanding others um problem solving um regulate emotions management right I I don't know what is controversial about
017it it seems like in the media they're saying that it is so people think that it is but I really don't see it I don't see why it is so I support social emotional learning in our schools students with strong social emotional skills do better academically it's a fact a well studied well well studied fact at this point it's not a guess it's it's true um the other topic is pronouns I've done a lot of reading a lot of listening a lot of talking and I know this one's controversial but I feel that our students we can't make every decision for them the best formula for making sure that your children feel comfortable talking with you is if you love them unconditionally and you show that you accept other people and their differences they're watching
018you I've had students watching me and finally will tell me I'm gay and then I can encourage them to talk to their family some of them will they know what they have at home they will talk to their family and some of them will not I can't make them but and with pronouns I I don't know how we not support um it's a just sentence not to support children and I'm going to start shaking now because I have lost a student it's just it's a very serious issue to me um we need to support is it my three minutes thank you Fred it really does if I can three minutes anyway I feel that we need to support our students wishes on this if if their name is James and they want to be called
019Jimmy we don't ask parental permission um if they want to be her when they're biologically born oh I can't write and that's why everybody did it ahead of time that was okay that was pretty smart I wasn't sure if IID say anything now look at um do we have anyone else tonight I just yeah that is all I just want to make sure that we are accepting our students for who they are thank you Mrs St thank you anyone else this would be the last one for right now you have a second public session comment S at the end the board meeting so just us for time we're going to stop back to this one please so go ahead you have three minutes my name is Linda oil and I'm from Watertown I'm gonna read
020fast because I don't have a gel I have four points that I would like to make regarding the strategic planning meetings I understand that you the board give an incredible amount of time to information decisions and meetings it is completely understandable that sometimes there might be factors that have not been brought to your attention I would like to make you of one of these now it has been said several times that the exit surveys from the meetings are informing the Mission Vision and goals of the district however you may not have been made aware that the design of those exit surveys appear to be flawed the surveys appear to allow the same person to answer and submit the same survey numerous times or numerous times by people who even live outside of our community it
021appears they can be submitted once or numerous times without an email address with an email address or by the same person using many different email addresses the possibility that a group could receive $30,000 from our district to among other things provide a set of goals based on such a poorly designed survey that could easily be wide open to abuse and yielding of arous data is obviously a great concern second I would like to point out that the Planning Group was told that Equity was going to be discussed at the previous meeting why it was not on the SWAT analysis however any concepts under consideration deserve to be discussed and defined before being included in the district my third Point comes from the castle.org website itself it gives instruction to quote consider the voices not at
022the table unquote the Strategic meetings effectively bypass the voices not at the table and the very clear message of those broader Community Voices which legitimately succeeded in voting to keep politically diverse equity and inclusion I'm sorry politically political diversity equity and inclusion out of the district and furthermore legitimately succeed in voting the no Dei candidates into the winning positions according to Castle these are the voes that are not at the tables and that should be factored in how will this happen I'm asking the board to please consider the message that the community has sent last I am very aware of the thorough and high quality job that many of our teachers do it is a beautiful thing to watch and personally I am content with teacher teachers continuing their craft and with administrators managing the
023district if political ideologies had not come here first I would be at home cooking dinner however the political leftwing ideologies like Dei no matter how quiet they come on the scene are still political ideologies long before anyone points them out at a board meeting I'm asking the board to please bring the district to a place where political Dei does not need to be addressed I'm asking the board to please refrain from incorporating buzzwords such as diversity Equity inclusion belonging acceptance and the term all students our district should certainly continue to uphold the true meaning of all those words but the politicization of them has changed their true meaning into Political activism which schools and businesses are rejecting after seeing the failed results let's learn from their mistakes in conclusion given that the legitimate votes of
024the broader Community are effectively being bypassed by the Strategic meetings given that the meetings are using faulty surveys for their data and given that there is a lack of meaningful discussion of definitions and how those terms would look in practice I'm asking the board to please approve a set of District statements that are values neutral are free of trendy and politicized words and that are reflective of the people of Watertown whether they are seated at the strategic planning tables or not I sincerely thank you for listening and for your work on time thank you very much y as I said we will have a second public comment section at the end of today's meeting we were interested um with that all right moving forward next item of the agenda is the announcements and recognition and
025Communications we having none I will move forward to a strategic discussion first of the items on our strategic tonight discussion tonight are annual notice so I get te this up to you uh this is just a legal requirement for you to um be aware of the annual noses as we send them out each year they will be attached to the registration process foring families um they'll be located on our website um and have access so that there's transparency to those if you read through them and you have ideas for feedback uh we take those every year we will use those to next year's an so there are any questions answer not hearing any we move forward right everyone next item on the agenda is restraint update s thanks board so this again is a legal
026legal requirement um once a year the data comes to you for review Tyler will queue it up yes thanks Tyler um again as we go through what is seclusion what is restraint all of that is within the presentation it has not changed the definitions have not changed from the previous year but what has changed is the data so we're going to go to page three there Tyler um in 2324 the amount of staff trained was up at 129 that included 12 new staff we recertified the 48 um so we've done three full days three half days moving into next year we are going to do our trainings outside of student contact days meaning professional development days August that will help with the stub issue that we run into as well and I also think that
027it it alleviates some pressure right when a teacher is away from their classroom they're also then creating sub plans and everything else let's take that barrier away and let's get the training done um especially for that deescalation part without the um mix of the subs in I think that that will help them we go to the next page there Tyler the SNR data seclusion restraint data this is just for 2324 um and it'll just show per school and of course per entity 4K while they are in um Community sites as well as our schools we do uh just allocate on their own numbers for that program and then you'll notice on the far right side alternative placements those are schools that we have um partnered with to educate particular children and they are not um
028on school property okay so you'll notice the different numbers of seclusion and restraint by School uh site within the district and then um last year Diana had asked for just kind of a fiveyear I did a seven-year so Tyler if you want to go to the next page I'm going to talk a little bit about why these numbers look a little bit higher for uh one two three four five years prior to 2223 the information unavailable for alternative schools is such because the students that were at alternative sites any seclusion or restraint done at that alternative site was reported into the school that they had previously attended so when it says that at sh there was 159 one year that did not occur at sh part particularly it was a combination maybe of shers but
029also definitely the alternative school okay so there is a comparison there for you to look at with a variety of years knowing that school looked a little bit different that 1920 year and maybe that 2021 year um but there it is and that is accurate reporting and so the next step is every year um in the fall I report this out to the Department of Public Instruction once they have that available to do so it's not out yet um Tyler next page we had three uh Trainers for NBCI nonviolent Crisis Intervention we have Josh Barett who is our Dean over at Riverside we have Rebecca boss who is my special education program manager and then we have Chris W who is one of our social workers so um we will continue with our NBCI training
030we start on the 22nd with new staff followed up by the 23rd with recertification our legal updates every single year we make sure that we are going through that on going collaboration on those deescalation strategies um which is extremely important and then the data submission to DPI any questions thank you thank you brief like questions hearing none we move on to the next item on our strategic agenda 2425 school year calendar discussion like to begin on this start ahead okay sure um it comes the final approval comes through the a committee um so I guess that's kind of where it leavs um and so as far as um the process of that is concerned the reason I guess I just wanted to bring it up is that um I know I had a lot of
031community outreach to myself I don't know if anyone else had experienced it as well kind of what we had talked about in HR as far as like we' had a lot of community outreach as far as like parents um asking questions and voicing their concerns and things like that um that the graduation will take place on Saturday June 14th I believe it's the date um and so um we just wanted to revisit that and um hopefully be able to answer some questions maybe put a little bit more information out there um Margaret has a a staff group that they work with that they take a look as far as the calendar is concerned um and then they come forward with those recommendations um one of the concerns that I had heard was um there was
032originally a school trip I don't know if it was like a year Kean trip or a school trip anyway that was happening the same time graduation um those trip dates have those have been moved so there is not a conflict as far as graduation is concerned um and then I know um some other questions have come up um that I had emailed to Margaret and she kind of responded to all this I don't know if we want to go through some of those just to publicly put the information out there I don't Margaret would you like to speak to that well the 2425 calendar was put together in the same way it's been put together for the last 5 years which was student or 191 contract days and student contact days there's a limited number
033of uh days that can be shuffled around as it relates to scheduling um I think uh for those of you that have been around during the pandemic one of the changes that had been made to the calendar during that time was that we had taken we had previously had the week of Thanksgiving which was uh um uh attended we had two days of school and then three days of no student contact days and since the pandemic we have had that whole week of Thanksgiving off which then takes those two days that have been part of the usual schedule so to speak and then we're required to find those two days somewhere else and like this year we we met with the administrator we meet with a group of Staff members um we uh I come
034to the board in November or to the HR committee and ask for any hard stops or guidance I perhaps I misinterpreted the guidance that I got from the HR committee but I did not get the impression that there was a hard stop on any of the proposals um and so when I took it to the administrator and staff group the administrators and staff had waited in on the various options that were available and opted to retain that week of Thanksgiving rather than shorten the school year um so as a result that pushed graduation back to the 14th if there were scheduling conflicts with anything at the high school or at any other level I would have relied on the building administrators and the staff to bring that forward during one of our uh meetings for
035for the planning of that calendar I mean we had all of the administrators and all uh staff levels represented on that planning committee um so that it followed What has been an established practice in The District in terms of scheduling and then it was brought to the board in December for approval um it was approved in the board and was uh posted to the district website and distributed to students to staff and to um the various administrative support in the various schools to send out for distribution to families and students um it this year coming up I those of you that are on the HR committee know that we are doing a deep dive and looking at some major uh calendar work this summer and into next year so that we have more time to
036explore various options I did get some of direct guidance that was very clear in terms of going forward with hard stops on end dates I think everybody knows we have a hard stop on a beginning date as um being September 1st at least that as of today um so I mean going forward the process will change I I don't really know what else to say about the process that was used for this year um I have not received any concerns or questions regarding the June 14th uh ending date it is a little bit later than we've had in recent in the recent past U I did not do a a deep dive into how you know how late other years have gone beyond six years um I I don't know what else you want me
037to say about the calendar comments cor um there was a discussion at uh in December we had about the the calendar about um parental involvement with uh with that do we have an idea on how we might seek to accomplish that yes the part of the planning for the the group that will be getting together for the 2527 calendar will include uh surveying parents and um putting more structure to the surveys survey practices that are used for staff so I mean I will say that it's an informal survey that has been used in the past where the administrators would go back to their individual buildings and collect feedback and recommendations based on the individual building culture and then bring that back to the committee as a whole so uh by parent involvement and parent feedback
038has not typically been something that we have have done a lot of other than through you know various channels that that come in informally but is part of the plan members comments see as this already approved I don't see the board tonight we had the discussion on this um we' give them maret direction as far as the 2527 calendar we continue forward with that there's anything else I encourage you to hear any complaints there's anything else concerns on this please direct them to Margaret or to Jerry as we move forward um so that they can address those with the with the next plan they do building up all right moving on to the next discussion so the Panorama survey renewal discussion this was discussed at length in the ed services committee this month uh we
039have a preponderance of board members in attendance of that committee but not everyone um the committee decided not to take this up to the board at that time um but there was a general sense of like to have of the other full board have comment in discussion on this so I asked Jared to add this to the calendar or to the agenda for tonight being that this was a discussion of the committee and that we do not have anything in front of the board I would like to put forth a motion that we go into a committee of whole tonight and we operate as a committee um for the purposes of this Panorama discussion um what that means is get a motion from the board we go for this is that when we operating as
040a committee of the whole I will nominate someone to be chair of that committee we will function as a committee we will not be taking board action we will function as a committee to take up this and review the Panorama survey renewal as much like with the the committee does if the committee decides to send that resolution up to the full board then uh it can and you can and the motion is to rise from the committee and send them to the full boards for review and that resolution will be taken up by the board and review tonight for approval or not if the committee decides not to take up anything after the time period then we can rise as out of the committee and we will not take for their action we will go
041forward from there but this will allows everyone to have an equal opportunity to participate in the community structure and have their equal voice say in the committee rather than being as a board do I have a motion to move this into Committee of a whole got a motion for Mike good second second from Roll Call vote L please samol yes van yes GRE Wartman yes Mike Higgins yes Lor yes FR y yes Diana Johnson yes Tina Johnson yes all right so we are now operating as a committee I will set down the president and will nominate Diana Johnson as the chair for the function of this committee and is the ranking member of the head Services committee with David abson so will take bring of this andate this in function as a committee and talk
042as a committee on the Panorama survey renewal discussion what is the purpose of this discussion Mr President yes what makes di the ranking number because she is the only member of that committee that is present who is also a chair I'm I'm not a chair but I am on that yes but D is also a chair so and also at the board president is's the one gets to nominate who's the chair so I wait and I'll will tell you this I wave this Sam's a new member Lor's not a chair Diana is a chair have for several years so I'm that's how I did the for if David would have been here it would have been and would have thought that about and I had to give that some consideration and I appreciate the kind
043the question but that's the thought process that so um so no hand this off to Diana again we will have this and we will function as a committee here going forward if the chair decides we want to do back out of the committee discussion and the the motion to we put forth to as the committee and have this discussion with the pro board again whether the committee decides to send up the inter discussion or not is the same discussion you had at ed services so I will hand this over to di what time will are you saying for comme um we are going quickly through this so I will give us 40 minutes to discuss on this committee all righty then I just found out about this moments ago okay here we go um but
044we had a great discussion at ed services so this is nothing that's new I will be upfront Hest at and services there was no distinct direction as to do we want to move forward or not um because there are a lot of parts and pieces to this so let's just start out with the discussion there we do have um the Poss tell me I'm going down the wrong because I don't even know we're going um but we have Panorama renewal of um tonight one of which is just a K8 adoption one of it is a K12 adoption um just a little background information for our new members that when we did take a look at this adoption process last year that one of the considering factors in it was that it provided curriculum and guidance
045for our teachers so not only the fact that there are survey questions there but it gave them curricular components so that way there are um some uniformity that goes from classroom to classroom so that was a consideration that they wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel um I'm going to add my own sidebars comment that I added back in those meetings as well we had things like that when we were growing up someone in the audience at they had done things like that in their classroom I had done things like that in my classroom we didn't call um some of you date myself now member do so the dinosaur do said dinosaur was a favorite we you don't remember that Tina Johnson but at any rate um whether or not we choose Panorama we're still going
046to have to do some kind of education for our students in those areas so understand that if this is not something that we are going to be approving at the board level for a curricular piece I am sure that there will be discussions somewhere coming forward what are we going to do instead so we'll throw the discussion out there at this point in time right now the discussion piece is um moving forward with Panorama is that something we're going to look to continue and it's also K8 or K and since we don't have individual committee members I'm going to try to do as best as I can like in the classroom first hand second hand third and I great vision so my first sorry um I guess I guess the um the first question I
047would have then is you you me you made the comment or the comment was stated that um similar exercises were um maintained in the classroom um as far as being able to gather data or information from students to to show that um a teacher's engage level of Engagement with students and try to try to understand a student that was done aside from Panorama there was no need at that point in time to invest in a program for that particular style of um survey why do we feel that that you're asking me that specific question sure right off the top um Co changed a lot I haven't been in the classroom since Co but I talked to a lot of my teacher friends I can't imagine what that is the second piece is when I did
048it in the classroom a lot of that wraparound thing that I did came before school after school launch Learning Centers which were like study calls and during work time with that I had 110 students I was also nominated teacher of the year I had there are other people that would do the same thing but how many hours I got out of the teaching profession because I couldn't continue working 60 70 80 hours a we and so those are things that I self created that I self did when my kid says to me mom why do my why did you give those stud more than you give us at home they get the best we get what get what's left so if I can help teachers to not have to give the same sacrifice as I
049did and if they can last longer than age 48 in the classroom my kids were sad to see me leave and my district was sad to see me leave but I couldn't sustain it anymore and when I hear teachers saying I can't do this anymore we we're not only teachers we're counselors we're parents all the differents that a teacher must where if we can provide something where they can have that where they don't have to create think about it I'm offering to make teachers work smarter not harder and if that's a way to do it I'm out there with you saying I don't know if Panorama is working or not I'm not saying hey this is great gho I'm saying one for me personally I don't know if one year is enough data to say
050are we getting what we're paying for so I'm not saying do this long term if I had to make a comment I'd be offering out there can we try it for one more year to see and if we can't provide data that shows that it's working that's abanded but the first year we got our feet wet I don't think we're moving you got a follow up I I I guess my my comment to that would be I'm sure that there's a number of different reasons why one would decide to retire and and this you know this is a different type of conversation that I prefer not to get into but just ask my reason right um but there's there's a number of reasons why why you know a good teacher would stay engaged in the
051classroom and discuss certain things their students I don't think that this is this is just one example of a two uh something that a teacher might use to do that um however uh you know I I think that um when when we examine how this last year has gone with an um we we've heard from parents we've heard concerns we've heard how um one one parent even me mentioned how uh the district may have uh not been as forthcoming as possible with that particular tool um we had um one key individual that was responsible for um overseeing the program not even log in to the to the account we didn't we didn't even run all three surveys in all all buildings I'm inter one second we knew that that wasn't going to happen though because
052we started late so be care I just want to caution on that that the reason that some of the building students they have a late start so nonetheless you know it wasn't implemented to the fullest extent of What U what what the board had laid out as a plan for Panorama and as far as the data is concerned I'm still not convinced that uh that we can't provide that data in any other type of meaningful survey through any other type of way this is actually um a non Anonymous survey uh so it's only good to the point where a student realizes that you know you're asking these questions and then Johnny why did you answer this question this way and Johnny might give you an answer but it might be the answer you want to
053hear or the teacher may turn around and say Johnny you need more re-education in the K character attributes that we Define you must have as a school that's just wrong data mining it's just wrong other comments I this isn't a Diana going back and forth kind of thing so I only answer that question because it directed to you but this is fully open you know um you know what I don't know if Panorama is the perfect solution to it or not um but I know several different things that I've just thought about it I remember a year and a half ago when I went to the wasby State Convention um they were talking about you know student behaviors you know that's we just got done with the employee satisfaction survey you know like that's a
054number one thing that's on a lot of people's mind student behaviors and um from that convention that I went to I remember hearing about programs similar to Panorama I don't know exactly you know they did name specific um programs but they were just like okay we need ways to be able to you know help kids maybe either you know self realize or to be able to give the the teachers and Educators and things like that tools to be able to help kids as far as as that's concerned um I don't know that I necessarily like the the term social emotional learning I'm like all right I had to have a sit down with someone and be like okay you know um but when they explain what this about as life skills social skills you know
055and how that translates we have school is where you have a group of people and where you learn to interact with people that translates into you know we talk about being College and Career ready that translates into what kind of customer service do you provide what you know as employers and community and things like that you employers want you know students going into the workforce that you know are going to have these kinds of skills how you get along with co-workers how you respond to customers um we talk about that on the board level the teamwork the board retreat the you know becoming highly effective and those kind of things and so I think it's all very relatable as far as we have we need to teach those those kinds of things or or help
056kids through them okay um I think as far as Panorama itself is concerned you know we keep talking about you know becoming more data driven and I think this it's now do I know detail about it no I don't um but we have to have something like you said you know we review curriculum in all these other areas um expecting teachers to just come up with this on their own I don't think it's right I mean this provides a consistent tool to be able to be applied that way um I think it helps us as far as becoming data driven now as far as addressing Panorama itself specifically um if it was late in implementation I think we need to Grant some Grace there and I don't know if that necessarily speaks to the program
057or the implementation process and I just don't think with you know with maybe one year of thata I just don't think that that's a fair evaluation on that um I guess I would attend to agree with you Diana as far as give this a goal for another year if it's not you know coming through the way that we want it to when they have a full year of this um then you know then maybe it's time to take a look at something else maybe they will also have the administration or whoever you know will have other recommendations as far as this goes um it sounds like this is a recommendation from the administration and I guess I'm trusting that you know you're kind of you're Gathering all of these you know tools and data and
058things like that I know you want the best for our students so I guess being that I'm not the expert in it that's where I'm going to trust it and typically Emily Lesnar is the administrator that would and I so I guess that's kind of other comments questions next voice one question I guess we didn't really talk about it as in curriculum was a survey is this considered curriculum or is a curriculum that goes along with it because doesn't the board approve curriculum I'm going to go to y when we um first brought it to the board I think there were a couple of different pieces that folks were interested implementing one was the survey piece which we've shared with you and then I know at the data meeting like for example brce stower shared
059um he's a counselor at Lincoln shared that there is what's called The Playbook which has um I want to say evidence-based practices that you can use to support students who may have uh lagging skills in some of the areas and so I know that that is kind of the two pieces of the Panorama that using the survey piece as well as that Playbook which has those evidence-based strategies um that either our classroom teachers can use a pool group or with student servic use small and it's like that works I just want to make I remember the call curriculum and it has like like individual lessons or like a series of lessons that are like targeted toward um like there some of so question you let me know we are still5 minutes left oh I've can
060ask the long question so like you offered so I'm looking straight at you uh so what's the alternative the we've heard from several people tonight that something need say have I agree with that and if it's not this what's our alternative and what's the cost de good question um so we talked about at the at Services meetings the idea of triangulation of data and that Panorama is one of the areas that we would look to some of the things sometimes for student engagement we look at like attendance um we know we had in the past the studor survey for student results um if I back up about a year and a half we did have a small team of folks who looked at some Alternatives um at that time um Panorama seemed like the best
061alternative um I can say that we haven't looked back at the Alternatives since we implemented Panorama I think that the administrative recommendation was to move forward with one more year for kindergarten through 8th grade to determine does it fit the needs of the district or might we want down something else Sarah I know you've worked hand in hand with me on this as well um and our student servic team which is cons cers social workers psychologists uh certainly would have some other recommendations if we decided in one year to not move over with Panorama so I can't say like this company and with the X amount of dollars at this point um but it certainly has been part of the process that brought us to pan around in the first place I would say that
062um and and while I wasn't you know I didn't do Panorama this predate me right I didn't lead Panorama I really didn't have a lot to do with it right um there are um and I do believe that Panorama was the most cost effective for what you guys were looking for at the time um which is always a key note in there I think what the student service staff had enjoyed was that play works because it does provide lessons Playbook sorry to uh provide lessons to students in a very targeted way right if this child has this deficit then we're going to meet that skill deficit by providing this lesson just like we do with reading or math um at least that's what um the student services staff because they were really working on that
063tier 2 tier three not universally universally it was really coming out of curriculum instruction classroom teachers working with their students thank you very much appreciate other questions and comments so I'm G to ask the same question I asked at Services when we talked about this and I'm going to ask how can we know that the information or the data we are receiving from these surveys is of use we talk about being data driven but you can be driven by a pile of data that has no inherent grounding that has no grounding reality and I'm still struggling to see why we should move forward with using Panorama when all the data that is gathered is not objective I hear the phrase triangulation and I understand the sentiment there but again it seems that the data is
064not coming from an objective place it seems like it's coming from what turns into a Hall of Mirrors right you're asking the child how they feel about how they feel about how they feel over and over and over again throughout the year that's touched on earlier and I still got a lot of questions about where seal comes from where Castle comes from and what the motive is I've looked into Panorama since it was first brought up and I'm not entirely comfortable with where Panorama comes from as a specific program I would rather not have any sort of program in our school that's associated with political entities on the federal level I really find that discomforting personally and I'd rather stay away from that so I've heard a few different things can you summarize You' had
065a couple different questions in there because those questions would go to them that to me so can you break the you you have questions and commentary so you kind of rephrase your questions there so they can answer them yeah are you able to provide any meaningful data or is all of the data just drawn from students subjective personal experiences I think it's that one real quick we're at the Port point of trying to gather data around this um for students we're we're really fing on kinds of skills that we're looking at that will help um help us determine how we can react to that data in a way that drives instruction and instruction in the academic sense not necessarily in the socially exal learning sense although some students need to get some social emotional learning
066background and support to be able to be better Learners in the academic sense now outside of having a survey where we start asking students a little bit more formally about that we Rec we're using what we've used in the past which is data from teachers trying to recognize that in the student rather get direct feedback from a student than to have a teacher try to tell me what that student is uh thinking about or or operating as the reason why we try to do it multiple times throughout the year so that we can see if there's a trend in that data or if it is like you said bizarrely this this day they answer this way and this day they answer and they're all the place but even if they are in different slots versus
067one single slot it giv us a chance to lean into the family of that question we in and talk with parents um say here's here's what the students responding uh what are your thoughts are you seeing this at home so that way we can get a student in a place where they can get the social skills they need Executive functioning skills that they need or life skills that they need to be better Learners right we're not saying we're really great at this or that this is the end all or beginning of end all or be all of any tool right we're just really at the Forefront of this going back to need it's not just uh you know you know people say kids are a little different from Co actually that trend has been gearing
068up at us ever since the implementation of this and social media right I'm not blaming social media or you know apple or anybody else who has tablet technology but I what I can say is that there's clearly some data results compared to when this has come into us as as a people uh and how we're we acting to that you may disagree that's fine I can share uh some data with you if you want to see it all I know is that things are different with our students we are trying to understand that and we certainly aren't trying to socially engineer children okay I just want to make sure that the whole public knows that we're not doing it because I think that there's a worry out there that that's what we're aiming to do
069and we're not we're aiming to try to take down barriers around these skills so that we can get to the actual learning so uh I understand and I hear what you're saying I understand that there is a desire to make sure that schools are peaceful places places where we can focus on learning and academics I really appreciate that however I think using a framework that was developed by the castle Institute came out of or by the castle program came out of the fer Institute uh might not be the best move forward with that concerning some of that history I think that using Panorama which is tied in tangentially but it's tied in to people at the federal level and uh the had doj currently I think that that's probably not the best move I think
070that we should probably chop around for something else and I think regardless of what we use we should never give this to children without the express permission of their parents I think that we have to move regardless of what programs we use in the future for surveys we have to move to an op in system not an opt out system um before we go back to there are some people we have not yet heard from whether it be and if either you have anything before we start bouncing back to other people yes I sett um I mentioned at the committee meeting that concern about privacy handing surveys out like this and asking kids to basically talk about what's going on at home and stuff like that I think it's a violation of their privacy I
071mean I I go to the doctor and they're asking me do I feel safe at home well no you know I don't feel sa at home but it's not because of anything they can do um I had epes and and so it's a it's a dangerous place sometimes I was where you were talking about your wife she so um and it can be rather intrusive all service I like that and I don't know if uh if this survey presents answers to the kids this is the way you should have answered it they a problem with that it's not really a survey and it's uh I don't like the roots of Castle need I agree with Sam on that I'm gonna stop one second just does it answer or tell no there's no like you got
072you know nothing along those lines um the S the surveys that we used are on our website we send home to family uh during the opt out process um so in you know wanting to be transparent about what's being asked on the surveys um and the surveys are um you know broken down and you can see them all online um I know there's concerns about like questions about being what's happening at home and whatnot you know it's it's a survey to support learning in the school setting and so we intend to be invasive about happen I just want to thought you said that there's no they do get assessed right them they're either strong or they're not strong in that specific isn't that like one like uh listing them as like how they see their
073strengths not like the right answer to this question was you know what I'm saying sure but I I think I brought that up at the committee where I just F on that and I won't take that if I was given a two and it tells me I'm not very strong in I'm not you know that that would impact me I would look at that and go oh my God and you know what I mean like how are we judging to make sure that that's not impacting the child or for a parent to get the result and go gosh my student is really having a hard time these things you know what I'm saying I'm just wondering where do we get and that was kind of what we and I don't want to get off the
074topic but we talked about that at the committee like where are the parents being notified what is there a number that we go we should really include the tell me if I'm off on the number thing I'm just going off of what I've been told I guess I'm so what it will do is it will determine like is that an area of strength that the child like sort of identified for themselves what was your next question are we notifying say they get a one or a zero oh so because it is about social mental learning it's not like a mental health screener so it's not like anything would come from this that would be like alarming that need to make sure that we're like notifying people is that your question well I'm wondering if a
075student could possibly look at that and think that they're I'm just wondering where when we intervene to are we giving the supports like if if they're getting a two is there any in you know what I mean so that that's student doesn't just sit there and see a result and it says that they have two but where's the gauge on when we intervene otherwise it's just the survey and that students left thinking they don't have very many strengths or the parents left thinking they don't have strengths but is there do we have that was one thing where we talk about like goals protol right right and I think that that's what like student services working through on providing that small group support through the Playbook that we had kind of mentioned previously but thank you
076for that one Tina do you have a follow on those yeah um I don't know what this Castle or federal reference is I guess I know that there's you know we have Wisconsin Department of Education and we have different agencies that of course you know set the vs as far as like how many days we have to be in school I don't understand that concern because I don't understand ref right so I guess I I don't where does the the program come from or is it you guys want to address the chass um the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and I have this as a part of the overview of social emotional learning uh the Wisconsin DPI has adopted with the castle framework and Castle is an organization that um has set forth uh different
077areas for social emotional learning um and I I'm not sure the connection that um is being made to the federal government at that are you familiar Jared or um so specifically Panorama was cored by attorney general Meritt Garland son-in-law so that's the federal connection attorney general Meritt Garland who you know came out pretty strong against parents who were coming to their children's uh School District board meetings very concerned about the things they were finding in class who was implying that he was going to uh have those parents surveilled by the FBI so I don't feel entirely comfortable using uh a piece of curriculum that was created by someone who's connected him I think that that's a slide in the face of parents who are concerned with their kids and the allbe of their kids uh
078as far as the castle uh Castle program goes though um uh they are really an initiative that came out of the festor Institute which was of course um kind of what you touched on when we were speaking at at services program uh based in the 60s and 70s uh and that program wasn't as values or worldview neutral as I think Castle kind of comes across now and it had some pretty strong connections to um to spiritual World Views and I think a lot of those come through in the castle framework and I think that we should reconsider using those things or how closely we align ourselves with them because I think that we should be a worldview neutral School District not a school district that puts forward anyone particular world view so to get to
079a couple of the concerns that I've heard uh from the board as we're speaking um if I can if I can gather intent it sounds like so far um Everybody um I shouldn't say everybody because I don't know each one of your views unless we went around the table but I'm getting a general idea that the idea of having something is better than nothing I'm getting some views that um the the tool that we chose so far we're we're not quite sure is the best tool um some of the things that I hear you wanting to put in place are some controls on that tool or any tool we choose um and there's ways we can do that we can have the Board review any survey that goes up before it goes out and approve
080of that survey uh we can also talk about uh privacy concerns and how we want to address those privacy concerns um so that we're transparent with families about what data we're using and what for um and I also understand that um there are some concerns that um whatever um comes out of the skills development portion uh I think the board wants some more feedback on what that looks like because there may be some worries about inculturation am I hearing those things right and do I need anything El or different from well I'm against most surge maybe all surge I don't know so other than that but uh iish sorry it's hard when you have a number of them and to go back so I didn't mean to interrupt you I just yes on just time
081check 10 minutes thank you uh the survey the question that I read PL seeds of DS and if you know if I remember middle school and remember teaching at sub there those kids already have ads and so when you are asking them these questions and think well should I be worried about this you know I don't think that's an effective way to get an on stance I agree with what s Lor said at committee level that uh are capable at that level of of you know they might change from one day to the next and the last thing uh if the results are more training for teachers and moreal for students there is an agenda and um I question it's effectiv that's it does the day leave the district say does the data leave the
082district leave the district does it get DPI or the the data is hous here in the district obviously work with Panorama um with the data to get in is that the question you're asking panor do they share the data to um train any models that they're using do they use it do they are they allowed to share it with any of their Affiliates or any other third parties the data the district we control this data and it's used for purposes my understanding is that we so doesn't have access to this data well sure because they're helping us administrator administrate the survey yes I mean it's not locally help what's the retention of panorama on on data like how long are they keeping the data that's fact how long they keep the data I would have
083to ask that my concern is that Panorama not hav seen the contract on this uh what are the what are the controls that we have in the data pan use of the data I'm concerned from the perspective of not them sharing it to some shadowy caval but more along the lines using it to train models for AI cck or other things this is our students and should stay within the district with us um as far as being subjective um I have no qual about subjective questioning we can if you take qualitative data which is really what we're talking about subjective questioning you marry that with quanitative data value in the comparison if you using qualitative data on its own outside coding preferences and things like this you can take it an aggregate yes I understand
084your your concerns on that but if we're using that and burying that with quantitative which is what it sounds like we're doing we're looking at students um test scores and gring this and we're trying to marry this to it to give us another better understanding of it I don't don't see any con I don't have any necessary concerns in that I am more along concerned along the lines of how is the data used our control that so we talk about that we certainly look into that with all of our venders um there is don't question you sure you should you should question not only our policies but um looking at these data types how dat are used um with anything from Google to our um visitor data as you come to school and share your
085driver's license you can get in the buildings I mean all of these companies have lots of bits and pieces data um and and you know we we do look through data privacy rights and actions that they use with species um of course we can't know everything that they for right we can just look at what they say they're going to use it for and tell us how you um and every company that we interact with um we ensure that that data is between us and them right uh and so uh I can assure you that we're looking at that piece um I don't know how they're going to use it though I really don't and that's for every single compy it's Microsoft or Google or Skyward or whoever else right I don't know how they
086really are using or how secure they are on the other end and who might come in and grab that and use it for whatever Pur they want we can go down a really scary on any technology so only about five minutes left on this one second is our goal and objective right now to get to do we do a panorama renewal K8 K12 or 9 at all is that the question that we're is up for discussion because right now we've kind of laid thoughts and feelings out there but I don't feel like I've got my brain wrapped around their why so if that's the why you know what are we what are we going through there I don't want to open this up to too much more discussion until we're on our Direction correctly if
087I'm wrong ed services the resolution was fourth ed services and looking at the three services members here again was the recommendation was to put it up to the full board for voting on Anor for K the administrative recommendation was to move forward with it K1 year I believe the discussion at at Services was to discuss with the full board now with a resolution because they did not that feel comfortable moving forward with putting a resolution on the July board meeting so to put that into an August board meeting resolution so as continue discussion tonight with a resolution get the Wanted in so there doesn't to be a resolution you canise comme without having any resolution if the committee decides who wants to send something out to the board can not you can rise up without
088um sending anything to the board and you can continue as plan with a resolution in August thank you for your patience um I'm I'm against Borama on any on any level um I think the primary purpose of the Borama is to push more social emotional which has become politically charged into the bites of ideology um public has mention that you don't understand why social emotional learning is bad you know it's not exactly what you might think it is um there is such a thing as proximity bias when you become so connected to particular issue that you're so bias you don't see you know the flaws of the system um parents um there was another parent that mentioned that uh data and information wasn't very forthright and being able to see that we haven't discussed how
089we're going to fix that problem um that would have to be cleared up too I also feel that the public has made it very clear and I'm concerned about it that social emotional learning is not the direction they want to see this District go it's not something we feel comfortable with um and this district is going to be doubling down by moving forward with Panorama um I don't think we can afford to ignore these concerns of the public family members that have made it clear that they will be weighing their support financially for the district I'm concerned that this district is not listening I feel it's time to start bending or breaking because that's the re reality we're faced with thank I just want to thank the administration for you know bringing something forward um
090for us because um and I the public that I that I hear and things like that the things that I hear um is that you know teaching kids social skills and things like that are very important you know from the Educators and things like that um I think um I've heard like political terms you know being thoughted around and things like that I have heard that from you know board meetings before um and you know we've had a teacher who was in the district for a very very long time an educator in the district for a long time we just maybe didn't give it that name social emotional learning but this has been going on um and you know the most concerns that I hear um from the public from parents from teachers you know
091things like that are student behavior and um I think that that relates to some of these things and so I appreciate that you know we have a tool and that um you know that the Administration has has listened to that piece of it so at this point do we have a recommendation moving forward is that recommendation to move out a committee and and go as charged with continuing this as for the discussion resolution piece at the August War meeting I think is what we strike um we've now had a chance to hear voices that's I mean it's to me that's probably the way to go go back to we go back the goes back [Music] to out a motion rise out of committee I don't make the J so how have we de decided to
092move it to a resolution okay my understanding is we were just well we have a second we a vote discussion would be okay so discussion you can do by approval okay so we're in full committee we now have the motion to move out of V committee and then this discussion will go back to ed services and at ed services then we will put a recommendation for it of K8 K12 or whatever that okay just gonna go back to that service a service Captain board services Captain right okay um at the July Services meeting we wanted to have the discussion continued discussion with the rest of the board that is what put forth from the ed services we use this method to have that discussion here without taking any further actions and then with the idea
093that that Services wanted to move this forward to the August uh board men if if they choose on yes uh I just need a clear direction from our administrative team as to what to expect and at Services because if it's a third time around of the same conversation that's that's going to get a little bit on a ridiculous side and I'm going to make a recomendation to committee that there should be a resolution coming to the August board meeting um because we can bring other things we can you know help the conversation for the direction I have a worry that this is going to get reash the same because we didn't say much different than what was added services tonight we just rehash them which sometimes is good but rehashing it for a third time
094will start getting on house well and you got the question those were the notes that I was taking here is there is um multiple voes here that are looking for something better whether it's to do it better whether there is something better whatever we have not yet had that discussion in ad Services because in order to do it better we have to adopt it to move forward another year if we're going to do something better then what is that something we're going to be doing and so I don't know I don't know that from what I heard tonight that what's on the docent is do better or not I mean the I'm just trying to save us another hour of rehashing and then do we get to better doing better or not doing better I
095want to know what direction this committee might give and services so that we have a productive conversation here's here's the thing okay so we have no resolution that has been presented to the board we have nothing to vote on however if someone would like to make a if if the administration is comfortable with bringing forth their resolution tonight and having the board vote on that resolution we can have a motion for that and the board can also choose to table that resolution effectively putting it off and then sending then sending a message to Services come up with a different solution I feel comfortable having the administration bring forth the resolution to the August meeting where we have an anticip full board as the board the board comfortable with that the statement that I was making
096in that is if we in the resolution if the decision is to not move forward with Panorama are we ready to State what the alternative is going to be because now we are at the end of August students are coming back to school so once in its clim we were at the 11th hour last year which is why the survey at the secondary levels didn't take place right away at the beginning so it's just you don't want to create another L either so we alter I was going to say that I think since there's quite a bit of there's quite a variety of perspectives on this I think probably the best solution would be to kick the prospect of of some sort of data analysis program like Panorama to add services and ask for a
097different program I would be willing to volunteer as a member of ed services for finding an alternative program that is world view neutral values neutral that provides some sort of useful beta set any other comments for board members just a quick one so we do that and I'm not PS but now what the timeline so now we have something for August we maybe bring it up in August to vot on we'll have pricing everything El done by August or we going to push this to September October from the administration perspective we need something by August for approval yes no for time to act I would I would never use that word need okay um right we would prefer um because um it does take time to research but then make sure that training is involved
098and everything if you um you know it would take at least October to get geed up for something new um that would mean we would have to just basically alt stop everything and take another year or two uh reassess and uh Implement so that's the alternative um we as an Administration prefer not we prefer um to continue with one more year pan along the way seek Alternatives in case it is isn't what we hoping for we're looking for um but at least then we can continue on that path and then we can also see um if uh you know the desirable things are are good or um or the UN undesirable outweigh they good and we weren't there yet that's why we ask for everyone to here all right I I still see a number
099of different questions that AR being answered um that need to be discussed one how is the data handled whether it's hous in the district or outside the district um two if the board is going to approve the questions associated with Panorama three whether or not um parent how parent data how data is going to be um handled by the district when app parent requests it and there's a fourth one don't remember what it is but there's there's plenty there's plenty of thereor to have a whether the fourth one is whether to opt in or opt out of the survey um there's there's a number of questions that aren't being answered yet all right we're pass our time on this discussion for tonight there's enough question on it um I'm getting a general assessment from the
100board here you tell me if I'm wrong that you are in agreement to send this back at Serv it's for continued discussion with prend of sending it to the board in the August timeline which was the initial um preference from the UN serves committe want hear that yes all right so we'll move forward with this from here again there's nothing for voting tonight and keep it that way we're going to go back but for clarity purposes for the administration the board would like to have more information about any a potential Al for [Music] Panorama with being cognizant of the questions around data usage and protection beir data usage protection as well as um whether it's opt in or opt out opt in or opt out add that to it we prefer opt out but we
101would do opt in because optin is better than nothing all right trying to gather information so we'll send that back to Services you have the discussion if bed Services decides to move forward with Panorama with an op in they can send that resolution out to the board and we'll vote on that in a or if they want to move in a different direction we'll do that then all right all right folks let's move forward then yes we have to on taking Vos thank you for being little better all right next up we have our reports again uh one of the things with the reports we have set this for 10 minutes um and I'd like us to stick do this I've been hard on people I don't want to dable some board members so um
102I'd like to keep us here um I'm also looking at superintendent he's very loquacious as um my vice president has told me so uh I'd like to keep us you know timly with this um also um with our reports um please stick action items and the the highlights for the reports um if you feel um I don't feel that we you know since um all board members seem to be ending all meetings I'm running down who's there could get us U into the half hour mark so just speak the highlights please your up are you scrolling through or am I power two kids dur sum school um social media um as you know that we we have now a um Direct Communications does a wonderful job a couple of posts to pick out that had
103high reach we're talking over 20,000 views on a couple of those reaches um if you following social media there was one about um a local company U doing some fundraising for helping to pay uh food costs off for students uh unbalanced accounts um as well as a city coming by to talk about Recycling and trash pickup and how they do those operations just bunch of data to R you u a celebration is uh some of our whs students had a chance to go to different European cities Blair Thor was a social studies instructor who took them on the journey couple pictures there for you on their Journeys opportunities uh we had some strategic planning uh work group sessions uh Wednesday July 10th uh uh we had 7 to in attendance that's 10 more um attendees
104than we had in the past or who had signed up our final work group session is actually tomorrow night at 6m in a community room at library I want to say this I'm really excited for um you know how how we've been Gathering data not only through uh the process of these meetings but also the work group sessions and um the uh interviews that we've done with staff students and our business uh people I I really do know that that information is going to be useful to the board as they decide on our strategic plan uh back school opportunities um our registration opens a week from today um and U there'll be a bunch of uh information for parents to fill out within Skyward one of those things that they're going to see and pill
105out our acknowledging that they s our annual noes that you saw tonight um but there's more information on our website um there where you can to register um just want to say welcome to the class of 2028 yeah it's going to be 2028 when they graduates uh and um Tuesday August 15 from 8il 12:30 at the high school cols we're going to have those incoming freshman through their freshman experience and also we have our River School uh Riverside Middle School excuse me hosting their RMS experience for their sixth graders incoming happy to announce that one um my son is one of the um eighth graders who are going to help people um get around on that day um students have opportunity to become more familiar with the building talk to staff provided um and sign
106up through Skyward Family Access great just quick question is that is that new the RS experience no absolutely not no but what is new is my son I really like that because that shows leadership sure okay so there are also some important reminders uh we have an admin Retreat on on 14th through 15 um I want to remind people that um in August I'm taking a couple of different vacations uh as I'm out um next uh at the end of this week and uh next week um Jason B will be on deck be an email reminding you of that and then later on um in that uh week just before teachers come back um uh Jenny will be on board to to take the RS for the school district on that week um but other
107than that the dates are up there we do have to finalize a special board meeting date and a possible planning date that came out of our planning meeting um to make sure that we uh stay on board with some of our our processes within any questions is De Services David has asked me to take over the update on this first item up uh J B sharing the information about the elementary literacy research study the elementary team will be reviewing the current literacy curriculum and examine additional literacy curriculum resources as it relates to Wisconsin Act 20 the committee requested that the research study proposal be included on the July school board meeting as a resolution you'll see layer appr the administrative meetings to direct the curriculum selection next up Janie Bor shared information of the K12
108social studies and research study the study group will exam exam in the Wisconsin standards for social studies and determine areas of strength and areas for improvement in the 612 scope and sequence the committee requested that the research study proposal be included on the July school board meeting as a resolution you will see later approv the administrative meetings to disir the curriculum selection uh after that Ashley pick shared information about the English language learner handbook during a review by the DPI the was wcel programming was suggested that the district create an elll handbook to outline procedures and implementation of the elll program to communicate the staff families the committee recommended bringing both the English language programming handbook in the three courses to the July 2024 school board meeting for resolution you will see later tonight with
109the official course request forms Spilled Out at that time uh and finally Jim shared an overview of theie wsd social emotional learning SL of Earth Health programming she reviewed the variety program at each level as well as the board and Direction given previously the committee suggested that the discussion about the renewal of the Panorama survey be moved to July 2024 board meeting strategic discussion which happened earlier tonight with possible resolution during the August 2024 regular school board meeting the committee uh adjourned at 9:50 a.m. and it will have its next meeting August 13th any questions yes um i' sent a question to David but did you get that you did get that okay um and I don't know maybe this is better um a place for Resolutions concerned um but as far as the um
110whs addition of a class we have the ability to support that I know there's been like questions as far as um you know class sizes and things like that for certain things up at the at um the high school and so I guess I just was wondering as far as the ability to be able to support that and if we're saying yes to that are we saying no to something else yeah so I I can answer that um each year uh school districts in the state of Wisconsin have the ability to apply what's called for transfer of service dollars transfer service dollars follow especially El students who are new to Country new to state or new to us from a different district and uh when we have those students who come new to us from
111new to Country new to state or new from other districts we can um share the need uh and that need caning mat through further funds and so we've applied for transfer service doar to have a fund have teacher and we have another staff member that we're hiring and putting in place at the high school using those funds otherwise we know we wouldn't be able to afford it and ex El okay thank you all right any questions just uh CH suit talked about a lot of fiscal things here I do know back but seriously we talked about some purchases over 20,000 some highlights of these schools PLP uh the virtual learning platform uh there were a couple of things kind of close to 20,000 but not all the way there uh we did talk about the
112facilities mat plan Kevin gave us an update on that um things seem to be moving well I don't see Kevin here but uh extracurricular activities that probably were you have a question or two if I remember the email correctly uh you walked us Dr BKE walked us through that pretty well along with Jamie um and I think we're come back to this and talk some more about it in August we did have a presentation planned that was post we do not have all Comm numbers there uh we did look at the preliminary budget how will impact uh Mill rates um potentially uh but it is very preliminary we'll see things a little bit clearer in August uh and moving forward we looked at the planning calendar Dr Burke recommended a few extra things be added
113uh like updating the purchasing threshold uh to things like that add to calar to discuss uh and we adjourned at 7:36 questions those are more specific for you so for everybody and get no I mean it'll yeah I mean not that there's a secret or anything like that but kind of more of like reflective to probably pass to the next meeting that you have excellent all right well while we're there HR hey that's me um all right probably we had um two items that probably took up the majority of our meeting number one the employee satisfaction survey results we so so appreciate all of the staff that took the time the principles that allowed them the time or however it all worked together that they took the time because we really do value their feedback
114um and so that the full presentation was in the HR um minutes um action items related to that consent agenda very EX but you will see that as a resolution tonight um the support staff salary review project oh you're going to want to go back to the um HR committee to be able to read that Margaret has done a fantastic job being able to put something specific together as far as the roll out for that is concerned and that came out of um you know request for proposal all those kinds of things we brought that full circle um we have got um we did go into closed session um to discuss um you will see the resolution e as far as the educator compensation model Consulting Services um that is a resolution because we do
115need to um take a look at our um certified staff I think I'm speaking that correctly um to be able to take a look at that Compensation Plan there our action items the administration will identify two to three themes one of them being um student behaviors and action plans from the survey to present at the August um HR meeting um number two the administration will present preliminary exit data and turnover data and transfer data um at that meeting as well um let's see we're going to be sent information about the rounding schedule uh there was a question brought up as far as has the board previously done listening sessions either for staff and the community so that's something that we're going to be um exploring as far as how does that you know work together
116with everything that we are trying to do here and then um we have the resolution up for tonight awesome thank you much questions um one of the things on there is the subcommittee we have subcommittee me to develop a board development plan and that I'll talk about a little bit when we get to the planning committee notes but the planning committee notes didn't get onto this um um I didn't see it there unless we refreshed I don't see that on there um the planning committee was moved to a much later date because of the strategic planning um work group and so we right but reg right and so I didn't recognize that because I just switched over to Google and all of my email is going to trash but I didn't realize that till about
1176 o'clock this morning so we're going to have a couple little hiccups along the way and this is one of those hiccups so um I'll just kind of share with you I was going to give the 30 second version and commit to that but there's no way being that you not all read this but the good news is is that seven of nine of you were there so I don't need to read at verbatim um super big highlights Tina's working on the board retreat we'll have more information coming forth the greater Watertown area Health Foundation is going to um help with that again this year so more information will come at our next meeting board evaluation is something that the board evaluation and self evaluation is part of board policy it is something that we
118are developing um throughout the course of this year so Tina and Dan are working on that and those we will see either sometime in the next week just in the trial run or at the end of our August meeting um as reference a little bit ago there is a board development plan kind of like a teacher professional development plan we as a board have things that we can learn and grow from as well and anyone in the education World any if you try to shoot from hip all the time it's not always efficient nor effective and so by having a plan and bringing in some outside sources um hopefully we will be more efficient and more effective in a lot of different areas another area that we talked about was onboarding and mentoring new members
119and just like has been experience throughout the district we have noticed that we are lacking in structure and procedures and things like that and I'm a very linear and sequential kind of person and so putting together onboarding document because we didn't have anything like that who's talking about what to whom and where excuse me kind of working through that as well as mentorship um I'm I'm going to read it to you it's just an area that we talked about the superintendent evaluation that is something that as I am the point person to that we are needing to fill some holes and gaps in the dates process we should be at dates 2.0 we're at the very early stages of dates 1.0 a lot of learning and growing and I'm spending about two to three hours
120a day on it right now just because there's so much to do and if we have to give direction it's not something that we can wait to say okay I think we need to do this there's videos there's things out there is this the best way to go and I need to be able to make a recommendation to the committee is this where we want to go from there and so just have that background information there we also talked about the referendum the Strategic plan um Jared and Jason shared some good information on that there will be a draft coming read your notes specifically because this is the very shorten version this is the longest version but it's the longest meeting I think we've had and Jason informed us that we will be changing the
121data meeting process so no more individualized data meetings we're going to incorporate those into board meetings um adjourned at 7:48 long meeting thanks everybody for being questions right policy we had a very popular meeting we happen to have um all four committee MERS present including uh others present superintendent uh FR board member uh Sam Diana b as well as Margaret and Scott for Neola uh Scott BR uh basically did a Neola checkin uh you met with us virtually and um basically uh also indicated that uh the goal is to try to get to do policies within two years the committee will need to work to do about 30 to 35 policies per month just be on Pace with that which is which I think taunting task so we're going to need some help with that
122uh Scott drown also walked us through a little discussion about title that title 9 policy that's coming forth um due to the injunction out of Kansas um the district legal council recommended that the district hold off on work on that policy so that in that court case is settled um we Al we worked also through uh two groups of the three and 4,000 series of Neola policy some of which are going to be uh for first read tonight um there was some discussion about uh uh you know some various changes that would be made um to some of those policies um for instant uh policy 3240 uh sta gifts um there was uh some wording changes that would allow a little bit more flexibility in in that particular policy uh neol we had a discussion
123about the Neola development process uh we discussed more about the timeline and What needs to work happen as far as trying to tackle uh our moving deadline and goals policy uh 1240 is the evaluation of the superintendent uh we had made some changes to that and that is also on second read for tonight uh policy uh 1427 was regarding the orientation that was a minor change U that you'll also see uh coming back as a minor in first read um future planning discussion it was brought to the attention uh by the administrator Administration that the administrative guidelines around the transgenders uh transgender students is out of compliance and the committee will be discussing those guidelines and the forms that go along with them during the August policy committee meeting um also Laing and act 95
124will be discussed at that time as well we adjourned W later that even remember meeting there lot covers so if you want to uh recast or look through any of that you're welcome but all right thank you sir all right next up we have is a consent agenda before we dive into this can I get a motion to add to adjust the agenda to include the planning committee meeting minutes so second okay I will call vote please Sam yes Dan yes Craig yes Mike HS yes Lorie how yes yes Diana Johnson yes Team Johnson yes the motion carries can I get a motion on the consent agenda resolution 9325 second motion MC Craig second ltina Sation on the resolution comment the questions hearing none roll call vote please Sam a yes Dan Boler yes Craig
125warin yes Mike Higgins yes Lor Holland yes BR y yes Diana Johnson yes Tina Johnson yes all right motion carries next up action items first of which is resolution 9326 literacy research study K12 social studies research study proposals that came out of ed services get a motion on this please motion by Diana second second by Dan comments or questions heing none R call please Sam yes Dan bner yes Craig wman yes Mike Higgins yes Lor H yes BR young yes Diana Johnson yes Tina Johnson yes all right motion Carri next time it's based on that but not based on that we had talked about looking for a board member do we need to do that at this meeting or let them find one at a different time you reach out to the board good with
126that and I am yeah Jenny if there's ever board members are not available and your need to hold the FI let me know and I will step in resolution 9327 English learner handbook and whs English courts proposal another Ling amount of B Services can I give a motion motion by Dan second second by Lori um comments questions on this one question yes it's not a question okay it's a question is this typically done in one resolution it's a handbook and a proposal or is in the same one because it's up new at one time you just answered that yourself yeah it's not typical but um because it's new and putting the and the together that it makes sense okay other comments here Sam uh yeah it is a very very tiny comment but uh the
127word programming within and without the tbook uh it seems to have an inconsistent spelling on a cover it's with one M inside the handbook it's with two M which one are we going to go with on that I love I love two apps I preer two apps first all I like the American can I get a motion to adjust the resolution to accept the uh English Le bhsl English course proposal using programming with two Ms in all use cases second second second all right uh I don't think we need roll call on that one um all in favor all right so we have a standing vote for approval of this roll call vote please can I make one comment I'm sorry um M K just did email us that there are some additional uh materials
128that had been Pur with Esser dollars that would be used for those High School courses those those materials were purchased last year and were already in use I just wanted to bring that to the attention of board it's about $10,000 one of materials for one of the courses but that had been gone through the answerer process and improved that point so I just wanted to add that as well so thank you Mr any other questions in regards to the email from comments all right roll call vote please Sam yes Dan mler yes Craig Wartman yes Mike Higgins yes Lorie hen yes BR y yes Diana Johnson yes Tina Johnson yes all right next up resolution 9328 purchase of copy paper for the 20242 school year which came out of f can I get a motion
129to approve second motion by Mike second by Sam roll call vote please Sam IO yes Dan Boler yes Craig Wartman yes Mike Higgins yes Lorie Helen yes Brad y yes Diana Johnson yes Tina Johnson yes and motion carries next up resolution 9329 the 2425 schools PLP license renewal which also P of fisal we get a motion to approve second motion approv questions roll call vote please Sam yes Dan yes Craig Wartman yes Mike Higgins yes Lorie Holland yes BR y yes Diana Johnson yes Hina Johnson yes last one on our action items tonight resolution 9330 educator compensation model Consulting Services which came out of the HR committee and get a motion to approve second motion by Tina second by Diana comments or questions on this none roll call V please Sam a yes Dan Craig
130Wartman Mike Higgins yes Lorie hen yes Fred y yes Diana Johnson yes Tina Johnson yes all right that brings us to the end of our action items and our second of our two public input sections for this evening as you mentioned before any L comment please come to the podium uh and put your name down in writing again that really helps out Lyn um three minutes I don't want to D anyone so please feel free to come and speak hi I'm Chad ba I live at 804 Lind Lane um there's been a lot of recent discourse at the national state and local level with me about the Pei initiative and a role it should or shouldn't play in our public education system uh the words diversity equity inclusion obviously can indeed represent positive Concepts I
131think we all recognize that unfortunately Dei is an ideology which in practice results in outcomes directly opposed to the true meaning of these words number one it teaches students that they are inherently biased or oppressed based on their race that you're a blind robot of your Genies when we know that all behaviors are an interaction between genes in our environment number two it Awards opportun ities or favor based on skin color gender identity and other social classifications rather than Merit and achievement which by definition is racist and exclusionary not inclusive number three Dei ideology says that Merit is a myth that advances racism and must be corrected through active discrimination on behalf of minoritized groups for it also prescribes that the United States is a matrix of Oppression racism classes and sexism Adultism xenophobia despite
132the fact that all individual possess equal rights protected by the 1964 Civil Rights Act and more foundationally by our country's Bill of Rights ultimately Dei proposes that we solve injustices by the use of more Injustice by using self-appointed Arbiters of favor to decide which students are worthy of opportunities and which are just too privileged by factors outside of their control the ideology has become or has the potential to become a distraction in a district which already faces struggling academic performance ratings and rather than burdening students with even further distractions and emotional baggage I call on the district to instead commit to a renewed focus on academic education absent of Dei politics thank you thank you very much any other comments thank you and I live at 119 North Washington Street in Watertown um I came
133with a list I just wanted to quickly say that I agree with what he just said and what what Linda was saying about the Dei um I've been at the strategic planning meetings and for the most part they've been very good they've been eye opening I've enjoyed getting to talking with some of the teachers um they've been really good about answering some questions that I have but something I learned is that we can be saying the same words but we have very different meaning so whatever way we go we need to make sure that we do have definitions for what we mean I think all of us as parents and people in the community we love our schools we want our schools to flourish we want the kids to feel safe we want the kids
134to have everything they need all the tools they need to um to succeed in their lives they move on into the community um but we need to come to some place where the politics and the things that are becoming more divisive are left out and that we can have some true you know true words and true conversations about how we can both interact because there's a big division going on in Watertown and going on in this community and not I mean in this country and I think the strategic planning has helped in some of that I think I've I've had some opportuni to list some people and they've listened to me which I appreciate um but I do want to say that I am concerned with this the exit survey that was done um I
135think that really needs to be gone over and it needs to be scrapped and whatever comes out of that I don't think they need to use that there was a lot of um if they took pictures of all the the stickers that went on everybody is wanting our kids to um get educated and to be productive members of society we want parents to become more involved and we want parents to continue to have the say in their children's lives communication between the schools and the parents was very important and high on a lot of the boards that were done and that goes to the Panorama survey um I have the same concerns that a lot of um that several the board members said as a parent um what is being asked of my child who
136is reading that how are they being um who is who has the ability to look at that and to know what is going on in our kids life um can we opt out how do we get the questions all these things that um come back to what is being said at strategic planning and I don't think that that pan Panorama survey survey goes along with what the community wants so um please take that in consideration and um I think that's it thank you thank you very much um Ian pilac to 8th Street in Watertown uh couple of things Emily Lesnar is great she was hanging out at the park with her students tonight discussing the book that she assigned to them to read over the summer uh so that's why she's playing hookie from this
137meeting knock out because she has been an excellent administrator um I have participated in the strategic planning meetings I think they've been productive they've been interesting I think they've been well run and it's interesting to see a lot of different perspectives I appreciate that they're taking their Community feedback I am not sure some of the things that have been said about the exit surveys I'm not sure what that's about um but for what it's worth I the value um as far as the Panorama surveys I was just sitting there looking through them as I was listening to you guys and for the next ad Services meeting I would really appreciate if I'm able to listen in those that are objecting to them tell me which questions we're to tell the group committee what questions are
138so objectionable because I I would like my biases corrected because I'm out seeing um so to help assess that because I I listened to the last meeting I found that the answers that Jared and whoever else was presenting I was on the phone so I couldn't see um I found them clear found them understandable I don't have any objection to this what was presented there so I'm not sure where all this is coming from I would like more information as to what the objections are because I again I could be biased certain I am biased but I'm not seeing it that's all that thank you very much any other comments right one more hi my name is Amanda C Gallas I live at 400 South Washington Street um I have one kiddo so far in
139the district um I'm new to school board meetings in general my family and I moved here five years ago um I am also new to learning about the survey um I I'm also an educator myself I teach at Carol University my husband teaches at Walkershaw sou High School um as Educators there are other Educators that spoke as well I think getting that data from students is very important um some students may not have family life where they are comfortable sharing certain things and a Serv is one Avenue to do that um it's not the only way but it is one way um and I also just kind of wanted to mention that I heard some phrases earlier um some words specifically about omitting them from our school district like acceptance belonging I vly disagree I
140think those words are very important to include in water Talent um I think students and family should be welcomed and accepted and everybody should have a fair shot um I think language is very important and I hadn't planned on speaking tonight I don't have notes I didn't write a speech um as a parent and as an educator myself I just think it's important to think about the language that's being used and um thinking about what's best for our students and giving them opportunities to tell us how they feel um I think I heard some people mention how do we know this data is working is it even useful um I think any student any individual sharing how they feel is important and useful thanks thank you very much anyone else twice we close session next
141we will be entering into a close session be motion first we can not take any further action after we come session if you would like to stay around outside and wait for us the enjo rest of get a motion to go Section joh