05/19/2025 Regular Board Meeting

001being of the water school board to order. Today's date is May 19th, 2025. Please join us in the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Lynn, could you please take the role? Craig Whartman here. Charity Chandler here. Tammy Forner here. Mike Higgins, Diana Johnson, Sam Owen here. Carl Schwaresy, Dan Boltner here. All right. Thank you. And as we preview the agenda, we happen to have um I I would like to make one particular change. As you notice, we have um two board members that are delayed this evening, one board member that is absent this evening, and another vacancy. So we have a quorum but I would like to uh move items A

002through D under strategic discussion which is the voting process, the board candidate interview, the discussion of candidates and voting and the board appointment board appointing the candidate D to after number five, after the reports. I think that might give us enough time to have uh potentially seven board members present instead of what? Five. We're making that decision. We also also in making a decision for appointing a board member, we also have to have five votes in order to make that process happen. Uh and we'll be more likely to be successful in that endeavor when those other board members are able to attend. Uh is there any opposition to making that particular agenda change? Okay. hearing none. So we will move forward with uh the the part of the agenda where we have public input. Uh

003I would remind members of the public to keep your comments directed toward the board, not at any individual staff members or any individual board members. and please keep them according to um a civil man. Conduct yourself in a civil manner according to board policy. This is a business meeting of the board held in public. So with that would there any would there be anybody interested in public comment? Go ahead. Please don't forget to identify yourself and also sign. Excellent. Well, my name is Katie Vander Lindon. I live at N8071 High Road and I have two children in the Watertown School District. One uh junior and one an eighth grader. Transparency. This is your catchphrase only. Second to fiscal responsibility. I'm kind of sad Carl's not here for that one. um transparency. What prompted you to

004look at the school dress code? Was it violations? It cannot be. And I did my research and I talked to several um staff members who are in this room. There were 44 dress code violations in five years. 44 in five years total. Is this really a problem? Where is this coming from? Yes, you can review your policies. That's a good idea. But when you come up and go to change things that aren't a problem, why are you doing that? Where is the transparency in that? Or is this just an issue and a smoke screen like people using bathrooms, which also was not an issue. Let's take it fiscally. I along with others received a notice that there's cuts the board will have to make. I personally voted for the referendum as I wanted to keep

005our staff and students well educated and many extracurricular activities. But alas, people vote with their money. Sadly, taxpayers chose to short change our kids. So, who will enforce this dress code policy? Who are you hiring to do that? You can't expect an already taxed staff to do this. Every time you make a policy, you make a price tag. How is that education? Explain to me like I'm a toddler. How is that education? Oh, wait. Maybe you can't even focus because my shoulders are showing. That's a clear violation. Now, mind you, I just came from serving 350 people meals in a very hot room. But that doesn't matter because you can't know because my shoulders are showing. Really, that's the issue. I serve these meals in a church. I work in a church. I show up

006in this outfit in church and no one says a word. But now my kid's going to come to a hot school and do things that are hard, but her shoulders must be covered. So you come up with these policies that are personal, that are outdated, that are unrealistic, that are misogynistic and homophobic and simply dumb. And my children have to do it. My children have to endure it. 44 people in five years. That's not a problem. You have much more problems with bullying and other things than you do with a dress code. You draw your comments to coals. Please focus on what children need, not what you want. Stop playing politics with my kids. They deserve better. Fix real problems, not ones you imagine. And lastly, if you cannot concentrate because a person has their

007shoulders exposed or a short skirt or short, the problem lies not with the person wearing the clothing. Join the meeting. Nobody else want to join us for public input. Tyler. Um, anybody online? No one. Okay. Is it Hold on. Yes. Um, somebody is online. Tyler, I guess so. They just messaged me last night. Okay. Go ahead, Emily. My gosh, I'm so sorry. I am at my son's baseball game. He just hit his first home run, so I apologize. Oh, and I missed it on video, too. Uh, good evening, everybody. I hope you can hear me in the room. U, my name is Emily McFarland, and I'm just commenting uh tonight on behalf of uh quite a few parents that just wanted to demonstrate to the school board our gratitude um for the wonderful teachers and

008staff. So, um I've prepared something on behalf of uh a group of people. Um, as we approach the final weeks of the school year, we wanted just to take a moment to recognize and share appreciation for everything uh that the teachers, leaders, staff, and everyone involved uh at Watertown Unified School District has done. All all the weight that they've carried just with tremendous grace and talent and compassion and and dedication for our students. This year, like many others, has been full of incredible teaching, creative problem solving, and compassion for our students. You've shown resilience every day in every lesson, every hallway, every interaction, and every difficult conversation. And with every twist and turn that came your way, uh you've done this uh with students in mind. You've helped create classrooms where students are not only

009learning, but are balancing their home and life challenges, uh all while growing into the best version of themselves. And that is no small thing, and you should know that it does not go unnoticed. The work you do each day is so critical to the growth of our community. And in these final days of the school year when it can feel so hard at times, because it feels hard even as a parent, just know how much we appreciate all of you and all of your work. This year has brought both amazing highs and difficult lows. You've inspired students. You've helped them grow intellectually. You've built relationships that will last a lifetime. And you've done it all uh under the shadow of difficult conversations after a failed referendum and in the face of difficult budgets. You're there

010for our kids. You're sitting on the floor with them in a reading circle. You're kneeling down next to their desk working out difficult math problems. You're lecturing in front of them standing all day. And you're standing in their corner after hours at their concerts and their extracurricular activities and their games. And we want you to know that we notice that. And we know that you show up for our kids like they're your own. We know the end of the school year is tough and this one in particular feels heavy, but we also know the strength and commitment of this community. So, as we wrap up this year, please take a moment, all of you, to remember the impact you've made, uh, and that you'll continue to make. Remember how much you are appreciated by so

011many of us and remember the lifelong difference you make. And also remember that this community by and large sees you, supports you, and owes a debt to you that we can never repay. So, thank you for taking care of, teaching, supporting, encouraging, and completely caring about our kids. We couldn't have done this year without you. Thank you. Hello. Uh, my name is Angie Graham. My address is North 2230 County Road E. Um, I have three daughters that go to the Watertown School District. Um, one is a sixth grader at Riverside and the other two are a kindergartener and a third grader at Leap Elementary. Um, I just wanted to mention that as you're thinking through, uh, you know, budget cuts and everything, I would ask that you would come see LEAP and everything that they're

012doing there. Um, we have an event on June 6th, which is Leapa Palooa, where they will spend all day um, kind of displaying what they've been learning over the past year. Um in the morning they have all kinds of activities where volunteers, parents, grandparents, everybody are coming out to help them do different crafts and learning activities. And then in the afternoon, uh, the FFA from the high school will be coming out, uh, to should teach them a little bit more about some of the new things in the opport I don't actually know exactly what what they'll be learning for that, but some of the new opportunities and and what they've learned throughout the year, um, and share their experiences. So, um, if you're able to, it's an all day event and it's a really good

013chance for you to see what's going on at LEAP. Um, so I just wanted to make sure everybody was aware of that and um that if if you have some time, please stop up physical signup get moved. Oh, in a box. Love it. Okay, Elizabeth Boxel, 809 KC Drive. I actually want to jump on after you because I too am gonna invite you guys as a board to um one of our school events at Shures. But I want to uplift this trend. I love so so much um that members of the community whether it's a staff member and a parent or just a parent whomever are encouraging you guys to come and get your boots on the ground and be with us and build relationships with our students and our families. I know there's so

014much time that you guys put into just by being board members and admins more than what we can see behind the scenes, but I just as I have been all year want to encourage you guys um come during the school day or at events at the night if that fits your schedule better. it. There is very little replacement um in support and trust of families than you being there with us, celebrating with us, seeing the beauty of what the schools have to do. Um on that note, I want to thank the board members. Almost all of you from the previous board attended our multilingual family night and that too spoke volumes. It might have only been 20 minutes that you were there or 40 minutes and but that lasted made a huge impression that you

015took your precious time to be with our families to say I'm here and I see you and I'm here for you. So on that note, I invite all of you and our potential new board members on June 9th at 9:00 a.m. A little odd time, I know, to come to the Shers Elementary awards ceremony. Um, come with us, celebrate the achievements of our students, see our families, and if you're so willing, I would love for you to help me as the multilingual teacher hand out nine awards to our nine students who have graduated the ELE program, meaning that they were um, English is not their first language, but they now are as proficient in listening, reading, writing, and speaking as any native English speaker is. Um, it's an incredible achievement. I cannot overstate that enough.

016And I would be honored if some board members or some of our ancillary admin would want to be there to help me present that award to our kiddos. So, June 9th, 9:00 a.m. be there. Or I mean, be awesome. I'm not saving square, but uh, thank you guys so much. Hello. Sorry I couldn't hear for a second. Um I This is Cassie Steven. Um, I am at 1102 North Water Street and actually my daughter would like to be the one that talks today. Say hello. Hello. My name is Camille Steven and I'm a student at RMS. And I want to say thank you to all the teachers that won't be here. They've helped so much. Teachers and staff that won't be here because they've just helped so much. They've been so supportive. because I know

017one of my band teachers won't be here and she's been the most supportive as like all of my teachers. And then and then what else did you want to talk about? And then um about the dress code, um I've seen it and I thought it was mostly aimed towards girls cuz I don't think a boy would really show up to school in a skirt or like short shorts. So, I feel like it's mostly aimed at girls and right now I know that it's not evenly enforced, but I don't think it'd be evenly enforced in the future either. Is there anything else? Very good. I'm good. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, that concludes our uh public input. We do have another opportunity for public input later on in our meeting.

018That brings us to uh announcements, recognition, and communications. Do we happen to have our school board our our student board representative from High School, Addison? I did not see her. All right. And that brings us to generous donations. So again, we have a number of uh generous donations from different members of uh the community and beyond. Um an anonymous donation for $250 for Skills USA. Uh DNH Industries of Okanow, $1,000 for Skills USA. Dynamic Tool of Monomin Falls, $500 for Skills USA and Trans Tube Incorporated of Pontiac, Michigan, $1,000 for Skills USA. Thank you to our generous donors. So, that also brings us to uh our WASBY delegate appointment. We during our board reorganization uh we had some hesitancy on if anybody was interested in being uh a WASBY delegate. Do we happen to have

019anybody that is interested in that appointment at this time? Okay. I guess we'll bring that back to the next board meeting or until we decide otherwise what to do in that particular deleg. All right. So as we had discussed earlier in the meeting, we had moved the strategic discussion points A through D to the after the reports. We're going to go ahead and discuss letter E, the public sharing of board me board meeting archive videos. Uh this was this was briefly discussed uh a little bit at the chair's meeting. I don't believe it was at policy, but a number of board members have uh brought up concerns and desires. and also members of the public have also brought up concerns or desires for having meetings posted online and to be consumable whenever somebody wants to

020view them so as to build public relations as well as uh encourage people to understand what the context of discussion actually is. Uh did anybody want to open that discussion? Go ahead, Sam. Uh yeah, so I mean over the past year that's been one of the main things that's come up is uh discussing not just whether or not information is available, but the manner in which you can access information. And I think that one of the main things that I've heard from people in the community is that they would prefer to be able to um at their own convenience and in their own time frame be able to go and watch those videos uh because it it's it's more easily accessible. And I think that it can accidentally, not intentionally, but accidentally create the impression

021that the district is withholding that information. And although I don't think that's the case, I think that it's an easy fix and that um I don't think that there's too many reasons that we would choose to keep doing things the way that it's been done instead of making this easy change. That's kind of all my thoughts. What Diana? I guess my question is why was it changed in the past? Because it was accessible to all. So I guess just the history lesson. So it was accessible and then the board at some point in time said no there needs to be requests. Do we know that historical rationale behind does anybody know it? We don't have any board. I say I only know um the history as it was shared with me. Um because when I

022came here um we were already to the place where um they were requestable uh in instead of just there. Um the uh at some point in time um after COVID uh there was a decision to um go to a requestable document instead of a document that is just produced. Part of the rationale that I heard from that was that um the attorney had shared that um all recordings you know um or documents right should go through an open records request process. Uh that way um you can help any individual. You you know what they're looking for, you can guide them to that. Um and sometimes maybe they don't need the whole meeting, they just need a portion of the meeting of that discussion or whatever else and we can help them through that. The other

023rationale that um the attorney I I believe gave them at the time was that there may be things that happen in a meeting um that were recorded that if you have it as a requestable document you can um do the protections that should have happened um at the meeting. Uh for instance, we have had um information that um was accidentally shown uh that was either uh employee information or student information um that you would redact in a in a document should anybody ask for that document, right? But if it's there in the video um before we post the video, we can still do that, right? We can we can we can we can still do that without having to have it be a requestable and then redact, right? Um, so there are just those things

024that I was told this is this is why we do it this way. So does that your first statement where it would the attorney had said whatever? So does having it posted infringe upon anything that we should think about from the attorney's point of view? I mean the attorney would say you could do it either way. Okay. Right. I mean, just because they had preferred that and that's what uh was shared in the decision that was made to go to that doesn't mean that that's the decision you have to continue to live with. Just telling you the history that I know. No, perfect. I just wanted to make sure that we're not infringing upon something. Yeah. I mean, I I've uh talked it over with Lynn and Tyler who would be in charge of, you

025know, making sure that things are are are ready and viewable and all that stuff. and there may be like uh you know a week's grace period for us to get the videos up and shared but then they would be out there and available and I think that they think that they could make that work happen right. Um the the other the other consideration would probably have been maybe just hours of time it took to do that. Um, but we've restructured, we have a communication specialist now and and other things that we can, you know, we can we can do those kinds of things. So that that's not a barrier either anywhere. So I I know that you mentioned a concern of yours being that um the ability to redact information as necessary. It's not my

026concern. the legal council's concern, but to me that seems as though we should still be able to accomplish that. Yeah, we could. And Okay. Yeah. I I I I fully believe that if if the board wanted to make ready access, um just know that we it wouldn't be tomorrow, right? I mean, we take a week, make sure that we go through and redact anything that may have or may need to be redacted. uh and then make sure that we have a good file structure to be posting things. Um and so uh I would say maybe if you make a change, give us a you know a twomonth grace period to make sure that we have everything in place and then just let everybody know that within a week of that meeting unless there's something terrible

027that happens, right? We would have it up and and viewable for anybody. Sure. Sure. And if it's before then they'd have to do a record request. Anybody else have any Um, I know that uh the question of whether or not this would require some sort of a policy change uh was brought brought up. Do you feel that there's a a need to change policy at this point in time? Um, I don't think so. Uh, we we put stuff out on our web page all the time, you know, that's easily accessible, right? This would be a similar byproduct, you know, um things that would have been records that we just simply say you don't need to do a record request. It's right here, you know, just go to the website. Sure. So, we would be doing

028the same with the videos. Well, I guess what I'm looking for, and I realize we have six of us here, uh we have a a general feeling that this is I support something that we Yeah. comfortable moving forward with going forward. All right. I didn't I didn't feel like there's a formal vote that was needed. But I mean, as long as we make sure we capture it in the minutes so that the next time somebody asks how did this get changed, we know where to go back to. Sure. Um and we can say, "Yeah, it happened at this meeting." But Okay. Well, if if you feel more comfortable with the vote, we'll No, we'll just capture it in the minutes. Okay. Thank you, Lyn and Tyler. Thank you. Um, and that's also I wanted to

029make also the clarification on the uh action item that would also include not only regular board meeting videos but also committee meeting videos. Is that correct? We do not take video of subcommittee meetings. not subies but regular regular but regular uh like our planning committee and you know ad services and those those we do video and those we would be able to put on there. All right, sounds good. And that brings us to letter F on our agenda under strategic discussion. Uh personal communication devices policy 5136 and policy 5136.01 technology resources and other electronic equipment. Could you please turn the volume up? It's difficult to hear you unless you're speaking really loudly. So, turn the microphone volume up. There's no microphones up here. This these are for the online. Oh, they're not hooked into a

030speaker system. Sure. So, personal communication devices. letter. Um, I'm not sure where this came from, if this was a policy discussion that was coming forth. Do you kind of It was a It was It was one of a couple of different items from policy that we had some discussion with the uh with legal counsel about. And so I I mean, we can talk about it here if you guys would like to. It's agenda for Yeah. strategic discussion. Um, and the the questions that I had were about and there were a couple of other people at policy who raised these questions as well. Uh, Tammy was there. Um, and the questions that we had were how does this interplay uh, to put it simply, how does this interplay with um, whistleblowing in situations where, you know,

031someone might be doing something inappropriate in the classroom and that information is not necessarily going to come out through other channels. And uh I think that we had some good discussion with the legal council about that and about some other policies that are more well suited to addressing those issues. Um but the question was specifically about a clause in I want to think I want to say it was in 5136.01 and that's on page One second. Let me find it. It actually might be on not on point. Oh. Um, on page two of document 5136, on page two, you have item number five and subsection B, which talks about um being able to request permission in advance uh to use a device for medical, educational, or other legitimate purposes that the principal designate determines is

032necessary for the student's education. We were talking kind of about having a an accommodation or a support device and whether or not it was appropriate to require students to specifically request that in every instance or whether a student could um uh kind of unobtrusively record uh if they weren't making a distraction out of it, pulling their phone out, playing sounds on their phone, things like that. uh and uh my understanding was that the rationale is that there are some concerns about not so much privacy but about student comfort level which I I I don't from our conversation I don't know that I reached a point where I felt that uh that made a lot of sense because I think if you're asking questions and you're worried what people are going to think of you you're

033already asking them in front of a class of your peers in the relevant subject. Um, but we talked about some of those things and the possibility of using recordings for bullying, uh, where a student could take a recording of a student and then spread it around online. And, uh, what came out of that was, uh, talking about how perhaps at the next policy meeting, we could bring up, uh, we could bring a little bit of clarity to that and actually some other policies because I do think that, um, between whistleblower policies and bullying policies, these issues are already addressed. And this is more about you know ensuring that uh electronic equipment is not being used for anything other than appropriate purposes. So that's pretty simple on my from my perspective. Okay. So, are the changes

034that are um offered here than allowing for students to be permitted to use a cell phone in a classroom without uh to for the purposes of recording without um a request being granted from a from teacher? I don't think we made made any of those changes to these. No. Um and um so so again the committee was split on the discussion of whether or not to allow uh it without permission or to have permission. Okay. And the question came up around um you know what kind of advice would the attorney give? Um the attorney basically had what three categories Sam one was um a category that was like privacy rights of of students. Okay. Wasn't as concerned about furpa uh um but was more concerned about ID IDEIDA. Um if a student is um has

035an IEP is known to maybe uh be disregulated, right? but then um in their learning environment become disregulated and then what becomes of that recording. Right? And that recording is not under uh the purview or the possession of the school district. Okay. Right. And so has major major uh liability concerns if that were to happen especially with a student under a IEP and and has uh protections under that IEP for other interventions and guidance. Right? So that was the ma the main concern of our attorney. Um but again furpa would would and could be an issue. Um uh health under ADA could be uh uh something that would come up uh as a protection. Um and then the last thing was um in a learning environment, are you possibly um infringing on the person's right

036to um you know be educated in an environment where they're not feeling uh insecure or unsafe because they don't know what might happen with that recording. And would that um delay them from learning? and would we have some kind of cause for a parent or a student to make a claim that we allowed that to happen because we allowed um you know unfiltered uh educational response for that. So those were some things just uh for us to think about in regards to that. Um we uh had a lot of great discussion. We think that like one of the concerns that we had about uh protection, right, was if a student felt like um something was happening in the classroom, right, and they felt like they only thing that they could do um to make sure

037people heard and understood what they heard or saw or felt like when they were in that classroom that felt unsafe was to record it. Um but they can't record it so they would get, you know, would they get disciplined? finding a way within our um policies to say, "Listen, if you do this because you're doing it as a whistleblower or um want to make sure that you're sharing something that would be of safety and of great importance to us or the board um to know um that no, you wouldn't you wouldn't get disciplined in in in that kind of a fashion, right? Uh and um then also uh for specific learning purposes, making sure that there was some kind of a way or a tool and this policy outlines it already um by going to

038the building principal and or teacher to request uh times where they could record uh let's say they they um really are having a tough time with a certain topic in a certain subject and they just want to record the lecture for the day. you know, I'm doing that in advance uh to uh have permission. Um this policy already allows, but that would be with the permission of the teacher and or our field principal. Okay. So, um we're we're still covering those learning concerns. What were other things that maybe we came up with, Sam? I might be missing because it was it was a quite a good conversation. I think those were the two main discussions. There were a couple of other items on the docket at that time that are more for uh that are

039still more for the policy committee. But those were the two main concerns was that you know one a student can you know maintain dignity and can maintain a kind of a low profile um that they don't have to feel like nervous about requesting something like that because I know oftent times with requesting accommodations it can be it can be a complicated situation and I think we discussed about how you know that can that can be done in a more smooth manner and then the other one was of course like you said the uh the the whistleblowing stipulation and I think that we made it clear in that conversation that um the standard in our district is that if you're doing this for the purposes of providing documentation of wrongdoing that you believe is going on

040in the classroom that you're not going to be held accountable for that. Um, and then of course, you know, but then the other thing that came out of it that's kind of attached is that maybe we should specify a little bit more strongly in our bullying policy. Um, the that it's not permissible to spread uh videos on social media and things like that. Uh, and that even though we are saying um you're not allowed to do it in this policy, it should be outlined that that is a form of bullying uh a little bit more clearly in the bullying policy from what we were looking at. So those are what we talked about. Any additional comments, Diana? I have a couple. My first question comes after listening to the recording and listening here. In a

041district where I worked in the past, and I don't know if it's the same or someone asked that question first. We had a um document that needed to be signed where parents advocated for their child to be videotaped, photographed, whatever. Do we have something of the sort here? So with that, my question then, and I I thought we did, but I want to confirm that if this is happening unbeknownst to the classmates, whatever, we're now putting families um in a not so great situation where they might have opted for their child to not be recorded in any way, shape, or form. And so we just have to be really cautious of that um to not take those rights away from parents as well. And if this is something that we are going to move toward,

042we need to clearly communicate that because there may be more parents that say, "Hey, look, I don't want my kid recorded in any way, shape, or form, whether that be video, photograph, audio, whatever." Um, secondly, if we're recording, I understand the value there, but there's to having recordings from an educational standpoint, but research does show that anything over about 10 to 15 minutes you're not going to really watch anyway. So now that we are onetoone, I would more advocate for getting onto Google Classroom a small snippet. It could be a recording of an ELT lesson, you know, things that are done that way. I had that in my classroom. It took about three years for me to get every lesson where there was something there. But I understand that there's a need to be able

043to come back and have that reference. I'm not sure that recording the whole class um is the best way to do it. It's a great first step, but I'm not sure it's the best way. Um, another thing that comes to mind is we have a policy that says off and out of sight. And so now we're saying it doesn't have to be often out of sight. So now we're kind of having two different looks to policies. So I caution that a bit. And then my last point is what's the consequence then if Sam has permission to record but I don't have permission to record but I'm recording and he's recording. So we just have to make sure there's clarity in that. We're just bringing up some muddy waters. So I'm just throwing cautionary pieces out

044there for consideration as the committee moves forward through their discussion. I think, sorry. I think uh I think there's always going to be muddy waters. Um especially when you have a child with an IEP that is learning differently in the classroom and utilizing technology differently. It's always going to be muddy. Unfortunately, covered under this. So, a student with an IEP is covered. None of this applies to them, right? However, other students might view that other student as uh not necessary for them to have that same technology yet still ask the questions, why are they utilizing that technology? And then it it gets muddy is all all I'm trying to say. It's already muddy. Um, I I I'm I'm hesitant about this for other reasons and some of the reasons that you mentioned. Um, I'm hesitant

045because I feel like uh the what you mentioned about uh off and out of sight I agree with. I think that um I think that uh devices I don't have enough like personal devices should be in the classroom at all. I think that that that they tend to show more of a disruption period. And I think that uh I wouldn't be opposed to moving towards eliminating uh cell phones altogether, locking them up over the course of the day or something of that nature. Uh and and I I thought that that might have been one of the directions that we deciding to go. If if not, I I understand. I just I just uh I feel like we're a little bit divided on which direction we want to go as a board. I guess that's why

046I appreciate the the nature of the discussion, strategic discussion right now. Deb, do you have any thoughts? Well, I I supporting in the classroom, I suppose. Um I agree with the cell phone issue. Okay. I I also think cell phones are a distraction and it makes the job much harder for the teacher to keep the kids focused because, you know, data does show that it is an addiction for kids to have their cell phone and they'll constantly have to check it. But if a child wants to bring in an audio device to record that class or notes or whatever, as Diana said, posting it online, I would not have a problem with that if it was not a cell phone where they can check their social media or smartphone of something of that nature. I

047personally would not have problem with children reporting in the classrooms. I look at this and this policy for me is personal communication devices. I would like to think as a district we would have district resources that could be available to do recordings and post to a place whether it be on Google Docs or something like that where students could access that, you know, as a learning resource. And again, they could do it to Sam's point from a privacy perspective where they don't need to necessarily self-identify in any way. Um, my challenge with personal communication devices will always be the 700 other apps that are on there at any given point in time. And it's that I'm going to go here to record this and also while I'm here, I'm going to check my, you know,

048Snapchat and I'm going to do all of those other things because it's a temptation for me as an adult. I can only imagine from a student perspective what it would be. So, I think, you know, for for me, I lean toward as much as possible using district resources for those kind of things. um just because I think it it it allows us better control from a district perspective of where those lessons go and to where they're distributed. So, as a followup to that, then I would have to ask the question because Diana brought up using Google Classroom as a resource to uh look back at, you know, at the events that have gone on in the classroom and to take notes. Do all of those recordings get saved consistently or do they ever get deleted?

049Well, I again I would have to say it depends probably on the classroom uh itself and the teacher has a lot of um ability to cut, edit, change uh take this video down, put this one up in its place and those kinds of things. Uh so it really depends. Um we have some teachers who really utilize it as a resource, right? and they um do like all their lectures and everything ahead of time uh and have the kids view them and then they use the time in class to talk about go over and work through those. Uh and some other teachers use it oppositely. They they do all the stuff in the classroom, host a resource afterward. Um and some don't don't even use that part of Google Classroom to its full extent. Right. So

050it's really more up to the teachers. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, like I said, we need having that as an option and uh perhaps we could encourage teachers to utilize that more for students. Uh a student's ability to ask for them to keep that recording afterwards or a student's ability to speak maybe with the principal instead of with the teacher directly if the student wants to keep it away from like the specific classroom. Um and finding ways that are a little bit more subtle to maintain that dignity. I think that satisfies that aspect of it. And like I said, when we're talking about the whistleblowing aspect, I think that because we have specific uh we have specific um special kind of circumstances set aside in those in those cases. I think that's fine

051as well. So, I actually thought that that discussion with you and Renee resolved it for me at least pretty nicely. Any thoughts? Yeah. Are we going to talk about that uh as as it applies to the bullying policy somewhere down the road in policy? I would love to. I'd love to say we yeah we we took a we took a note from the attorney and Okay. You know um put it together. So um we'll have it on our action items within um the next policy meeting uh and start agending that when appropriate. Um but I I guess uh you know for me um the the language that you have here is the language u mostly that we've been using. So anything that's highlighted there uh is what came from our policies that we pulled over

052into the Neola policy, right? And so we have been operating under uh the idea that if you're going to be recording, right, that we're it's still permissive to do so, but you do so with uh you know the authority figure, whether it's the building principal or the teacher's knowledge uh and understanding of what it is you're recording, how you're doing that, and the things that you're going to be about um doing that so that we can support the learning of an individual if they need it. Um, I understand uh some concern of uh that that's being shared by board members about what if a what if a student uh doesn't want to or doesn't feel like they can advocate for that, right? And so we're going to have to really continue to tell students that

053um you know they need to advocate for their learning and here's some of the ways that they can do that. Um and we will continue to do that. Um but uh the larger concern I heard about um you know really as a safety issue uh and and students being able to have some control of that uh would be a discussion point uh that we would look at for like our bullying policy or otherwise. Um, I think that this may become moot in a in a little bit as um you you may be aware of the um there's a state bill that's going through uh both houses of our our legislature talking about banning cell phones uh at at different school levels. Uh and so um they they may ban cell phones in the school during

054the school day for students and at school activities. And if that's the case, then u this uh personal uh recording devices and those kinds of things may may look differently and we will have to take that on when that happens. Anyway, so I still hear mixed um mixed feelings about this particular uh policy, but I am not sure if I just want to get a general temperature of the board. Maybe a maybe a poll of the board. Um, by a show of hands, do you feel would the board like to uh feel like there's more discussion to be had around this particular policy? Uh, so a show of hands would have more discussion around this policy at policy committee. Um and uh the those opposed would um leave the policy as is. So basically, if

055you're raising your hand, you'd like to see changes away from what's on the paper here. That's correct. And have more discussion. If you're okay with uh what has been brought forward, then you're voting in opposition of that or or you're leaving your hand down. and to specify leaving your hand down and being okay with this policy being written as is does not mean that we won't have further clarification in the whistleblowing policy or in the bullying policy. Okay. Gotcha. Just want to make sure. So by show of hands, is there further discussion to be had on this particular policy committee? So those opposed to that that this policy is is good as it is for the time being. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So sounds like u Mr. Chair uh policy we got our action items.

056We're going to be working on bullying and whistleblower with provisions from our attorney. Uh, and then this one should be good for first read going to the board. That'll have to come from the next board, right? Next policy committee. Yes. Thank you for your patience on that. I wanted to clarify what the action item was. Okay. So, moving forward, uh we have uh letter G of our strategic discussion, the use of pesticides and herbicides in our school district. Uh these concerns were uh brought forward as a board member request uh stemming from a community concern about the use of pesticides and herbicides on our school properties and we added it to the agenda. So, if you'd like any information, um, uh, Kevin Suko is here to address any questions that you have or or just

057give you any kind of background information you might be looking for. You just let him know what you're looking for. I think if you could give us a background um on on why and where herbicides and pesticides are used uh on district property so that we can start the discussion. district uh has a uh integrated pest management program that we utilize. Um we do apply pestic pesticides and herbicides on all district properties when needed when the metrics of requiring them are met. The first priority is always to make sure that we can do something that is cultural or physical to remove the issue that's being presented. Whether that be um like if we have ants in a school, the one I love is mouse, right? Or mice in a school. When we have mice, there's

058a hole in the door and we keep throwing, you know, snap traps down or something like that, we're not fixing the problem. So, the most important thing is I was looking at the problem, what's causing the issue. If it's that we don't have a sweep on a door and mice or ants or, you know, silverfish are running under the door, we put a sweep on the door. We eliminate the problem um at the source. The second part then is using preventative mainten or preventative um treatments or products to try to prevent uh insects from coming in. This might be like a barrier treatment at a school that we would do during the summer when students aren't in session or um uh other things would be um you know mowing the lawn and not letting our

059grass grow in fields to 8 in tall or 6 in tall so that we can start to have lots of flowers and pollinators that attract tons of wasp and biting insects or ticks that then our students might be exposed to. Um, finally, the last thing, the the last one is a chemical application when needed. Um, this could be like uh if we need to do a bait treatment in a building, though, we really try to stay away from those. We never put chemicals open and exposed to students when they're in a classroom or anything like that. Or that could be a spray application of our herbicide on our fields um or on our playgrounds or asphalt surfaces or something like that. um herbicide or pesticide. They they take all of these and put them all

060under pesticide application. Uh at the state level, there is a state law that governs the application of pesticides in schools. It's pretty um pretty vague in nature. It basically says if it's being applied, it has to be applied by someone that's licensed and certified by the DATCP and we have to post notice of it for 72 hours after that application has been present. So, we as the district do not have anyone that is certified by the DATCP. So, we use contractors that do carry those certifications as well as liability insurance and things like that. Um, we use one contractor that does the uh interior buildings. Um, and that would be pest management, pest control there. And then we also use one company that works with our outside fields doing pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer application on

061those. I think the the young lady who had started the position the petition with heaven was just speaking kind of the weed killer um as it relates to the bees and things like that that they were just got the grant for out at Lebanon and I believe said it was a little over $7,000 in in the expense to do that I think it's less what I heard was less about the pesticides the internal populations of the school and more about what it looked like in the fields and things like that. Do you see any drawback to not using weed killer at these locations and perhaps maybe a separate conversation independent of athletic fields? Um yes and no. Um the the places that we use them in schools are on playgrounds. Um the fields where students

062might play and then on the front of schools. The front of schools is mainly a ornamental trying to be a good neighbor, not having our front yard look like a weedy mess kind of thing. In the playgrounds and on the fields where students play, it's not necessarily an issue of dandelions popping up and sprouting and and throwing their pollen all over. When weeds take root, they do tend to take over good grass plants, which we grow to create a soft and natural play surface. So, if we weren't to treat and we had weeds take over our our fields and our soft play surfaces, there is the possibility that our grass would die out and we would be left with hard muddy or hard dirt splotches which in rain turn into mud um and things like

063that. So, there it's not just a cosmetic thing. There is a a health of the turf part to it. There is also a pest and insect control part as well. If we have natural flowers, you know, um things that create pollen growing in our grass, things that like pollen are going to come to it. And a lot of times, or I shouldn't say a lot because it's not like it happens all the time, but things that like the pollen also sometimes like to get defensive and protect themselves when students or staff or anybody comes near them, right? So, it's also a way that we can prevent uh insects from getting into the school and bites and ticks and wasps and things like that from coming into the buildings. Um, it is definitely I mean it

064it's something that we do to help the area. If there's a like a a programmatic concern, we just got a huge grant to put in a pollinator garden. We would not ask our contractor to come in and spray that area, right? That would be very self-defeating. So, we can elect, and we do elect when and where we apply the chemicals that we use. And when we do it, we always do it when students are not in session. So, we um you referenced the $8,000. This last year, we sprayed twice. We did a broadleaf spraying uh right around June when school got out um at the locations that we did not have summer school. And then usually right around August, we have them come in and do a non- selective spring of our our hard surfaces

065and our um like the wood chip playgrounds because they're made out of wood chips, they decay and and plants start growing up. So, we want to make sure that when students come back, we don't have have weeds growing. But I mean it's definitely if if there's a programmatic concern um that spraying might do damage to a program or something that's going on, we definitely open be open to looking into that. Thank you. Is there um so has it's just been it's been a practice of our district up until this entire time to uh avoid like certain areas that are like gardens that are uh designated for growing of plants. Uh I'm trying to trying to understand why it was felt that uh the use of herbicides were responsible for uh the death of plants in

066in that that was grown leap um for the use of uh produce gathering. Do you right I think that they had mentioned that the pumpkins Yeah. they had a problem with the pumpkins. So do you know if leak gets sprayed more than the other schools just because of the footage you know like the square footage of grass space that's there or there there's more space that's sprayed. They spray the grass field out behind the playground. I know that that's applied and then the front of the building was applied last year. But so I mean for just from surface area size, yeah, we've had a little bit more coverage than some of our other schools. Like we're sure we don't have hardly any green space, right? So hardly any chemicals applied. So So then we're not

067we're avoiding areas as it is, right? where where gardens exist uh for the use of herbicides. So I'm I'm still confused uh as why there's some sort of a disconnect on why somebody feels that um their crops crops more or less in their garden. If I could jump in please were damaged. So go ahead. Um from the farming standpoint, we just planted a 100 trees. We just had the sprayer come through and if it's slightly windy that overspray pushes out and so it could have been slightly windy that day and it just went and you know went the wrong direction if you will because of the winds. So my question would be and I don't even know if this is possible. I'm just trying to think outside the box because they're trying to grow things

068organically and they're trying to do, you know, so how can we at least help in some way, shape, and form? And I appreciate your email in terms of I never thought about it from terms of what about all those things that are allergy causing. What there there's so many other pieces to that. And so is there a way that okay, someone at leap could know when the spray is coming out there and they could just take a sheet or roll of paper and go right around the garden area and you're there for about 10 minutes, let the air kind of go through. Done. I think that is a relatively simple solution. Someone would have to be willing to be out there while they spray. That wouldn't be me. Um, but that's just contrary, right? But

069there's ways I'm just trying to think is are there creative ways that we can address both concerns to take care of the weeds and the allergens and things like that, but also protect the gardens that they're working on. It's also about the dandelion and their bee population. So I think I mean the ideal case scenario for for Kylie the young lady would be to not spray anything at any of our schools. Now granted you have shared a why as to why it's happening and potentially what some of the cost ramifications could be down the line. I guess my question is could we propose to not spray at leap for the next couple of years and and that way we have the pollinators out there, we have the bees out there. This is something that we

070have a leap student who feels very strongly about this and it is addressing their concern by asking the question. I would ask if we could take that a little further. Okay. Instead of the whole area because we have to think of all students, right? And those that have the allergies and whatever if there's just an area take an 8 by8 area and just not spray that. Let that be for the bees, whatever. So, we're now at least trying to acknowledge both. I don't know if that's a great happy medium, but we got to think of the students there too. Like um if I can refine what you're what you're suggesting would be to create more of a buffer between uh the uh gardens that are whatever. Yeah, you could just keep an 8ft path between

071where they spray and where the garden is. whatever it is, but to to keep something for the bees to acknowledge their work, but also to take care of what Kevin was saying in terms of protecting the grass and the play area, right? All of that. And I and I also believe that part of the requirements for an applicator's license is that you're not spraying in a manner which you can control that overspray. You're supposed to be spraying in a very targeted manner. And you know that that would be the intention but obviously you know weather is weather you know uh is the are you still having meetings because I know both of you have been actively involved in meetings with LEAP are those still ongoing or have those concluded? No they're still going. Is that

072something that we would feel comfortable with you potentially having and and negotiating that conversation with LEAP to say if there is a portion of it, where would it make the most sense, you know, and and find out from the folks at the school, what would protect the garden, what would allow for a space for the bees, you know, and things like that. I mean, do we feel comfortable with moving forward with that and trusting them to do that? So, if I'm if I can hearing from a couple of different board members, uh would it be then more of a recommendation to staff right now to try to establish what what a buffer area what an appropriate buffer area would look like around those particular gardens? Is that what I'm hearing? And are we hosting any

073summer school classes that we ordered? Because if not, then we allow for not spring and then reconsider again in August prior to the application that you're talking about at the start of school. Well, and I don't want to speak for Kevin, but I could imagine that when it comes to uh herbicide, you're trying to maintain uh a a healthy level of weed control. And by delaying it till August, you're going to have more of an issue later on. And that that may have that may play a role in Well, what do you think, Kevin? That's fair. I mean, usually what we what what happens is in the spring when we have students in school, we're not going to spray our grounds. Uh, we do spray I should take that back. When needed, we fertilize and

074spray our athletic fields as needed to maintain those because those are areas where we need to maintain as smooth a surface and as healthy of grass plant as possible due to the physical activity and the aggressiveness of it on those areas. um in usually the spring at the end of school is the earliest we can get on it. And what you'll notice is like during summer when it gets really hot out and there's not a lot of water, plants typically try to go dormant a little bit. And that's kind of why spraying it at the beginning of summer helps because we kill the weeds. We use a selective herbicide that kills, you know, broadleaf plants, not the grasses. kills them and then when everything comes back out of dormcancy in fall, they're not there to

075grow and populate and and spread. Um the spraying at the end of the summer in August is usually a non- selective spray just on hardscapes and our uh uh like wood chip areas to kill weeds so that they're not present when students come back. Can I ask two follow-up questions then? um uh to so I'm going to give you both of them and then answer them as you see fit. So the first question is uh when we're talking about overspraying to the best of your ability how much of an how much of an effect does overspray have uh when we have our contractor spraying? Then the second question is do you have a list a general list of the herbicides that are being used? because I would imagine that there are certain herbicides that they're

076not allowed to use on school grounds because of health risks that come with them. Um, but I'd still be curious to know what the herbicides are. Yep. Uh, so I'll answer that one first because that one's the easiest. Um, we meet with our our representative. They present, you know, what type of uh chemicals they're going to be supplying or spraying. And then they also have to provide for us and we hold on to the MSE booklet so we know what's in every single chemical that is applied on the ground and we hold on to that in my office. We also get a register of when they're when they spray so we have the record of that. Um and good on on the first part now uh overspray overspray. So that is managed by the contractor.

077They will not come out and spray. I I want to say if it's like 5 miles an hour, the wind has to be under, which causes tons of problems for us on our high school sites. If you've ever been on any of those athletic fields, it's never less than 5 miles an hour out there. So, we're like going for the perfect needle in the hay stack. Um, and that I mean, but that is a requirement of their application. So, I I will definitely reinforce with them that we feel that there's some issues with that that have happened and make sure that we're applying them in a way that is in accordance with application procedures. Yeah. In that case, I would agree with what you said earlier, Craig, about establishing a model for a buffer zone.

078Okay. seems to be seems to be the agreement of the board to see if we can work with uh uh schools that happen to have uh some sort of an agricultural program that may want to participate in that buffer zone around the uh those gardens. All right. Well, thank you All right, that brings us to the point uh the point of our agenda where we discussed the reports. So, and you are up, Mr. Dr. Burke. Hey, uh for May 19th, this is uh this front picture is some students at Douglas uh doing the Battle of Books uh contest um and the uh participants showing their ribbons um and different place ribbons. Um we uh tried something new for celebrating our retirees this last year. Uh we went away from a uh today would be the

079day uh where all 14 of them would come here. Uh we would read through and celebrate with them at the board meeting. Uh and we decided to go with something that um uh Margaret and and Lynn uh saw at one of the conferences they had where other school districts uh did a little breakfast ceremony. Uh one where uh the building principal was there and were able to help support and discuss. Uh we really had a good time with that. You'll notice that uh in the consent agenda, their resolutions uh will still be recognized and their names are there in the consent agenda for you to view, but we just had a really great time. I do want to recognize that we had 14 staff members that u are retiring this year. And from those 14

080staff members, 368 years of service is leaving us. And and that's I I I think about that every year. uh as we have retirees who leave, right, and this new batch coming in. If you look at the stark difference between 14 new uh people who don't have even one day of service versus the 368 years of service that are leaving it makes you, you know, uh your heart just kind of go like, oh wow. Um, so we do a lot of things uh within our mentoring program and and um as uh teachers go through and learn their craft and hand that off to one another uh we do a really good job of passing the baton. But I will tell you that that is still felt when uh each year when retirees leave and they

081they leave with that institutional knowledge and that um professionalism that they bring to the school district every year. So we want to thank them for their service. Um but it's a picture of them. Uh we held the uh breakfast at the Markport the other day. Uh so um here we have a celebration. Uh we were talking about different things that happen in our different communities. And if you didn't get a chance to go to the Shur Elementary, uh fiesta night, uh every year they have a fiesta night uh that celebrates culture, community, and connections uh to the learning that happens there. Um they had some musical performances uh and families came together for some delicious food and just uh had a really good time. Um so if anytime any year you have a chance to

082take on the sher fiesta day um please look for that which happens every year. Uh Lincoln STEM also hosted their annual showcase night uh and they had students all over the place uh just like we're going to see uh at the leap uh Palooa uh later on. um uh uh Lincoln STEM and and all the other schools tend to do similar things. This happened to be Lincoln's night uh to host their showcase. There was a lot of different projects there, informal and uh and some of them very formal and and participate participatory in nature. Um our skills team uh as you saw a lot of donations to our skills uh team every year from different manufacturers and and businesses and individuals. Um, but if you want to get involved, the Super Mileage team, uh, had

083a great season. Uh, they and the Electrathon. Uh, so the electric car number 48, uh, broke all four track records this year. Uh, and it peaked at 38 miles, uh, in one hour running on lithium batteries. Uh, and, uh, the high school super mileage car uh, peaked at 700 miles per gallon. Uh and all in all they won over 20 trophies um including third place season champions for the number 48 electric car. So just some information there really uh great job uh for those students at that program and you can see them down there in the lower left. Um we also had an opportunity uh for the pops concert that was held on Saturday at the high school auditorium. Pops concert is a time for all the high schoolers um who are in coral department

084to showcase their talent uh and uh that was also their time for awards and and celebrations. So um that was on Saturday night. And then also we had Endeavor uh students at the library in town um doing a spec a showcase. Those student ambassadors hosted uh presentations and talked about their positive learning and and how they um approach learning and that student self-guided programming that they do uh and talked about um things that are leading for them to prepare them for their futures. Um again being like uh what former mayor McFarland said being that best version of themselves as they prepared to go forward in life. Um and then there was some Q&A session that followed their presentation. And then we have some opportunities uh that our reach program has. Uh our reach program is

085our 18 to 21 transition program. Uh they volunteered their time for our park and wreck and they potted over 100 trees uh that our park and recck department got. Uh those trees were purchased from Dodge County. They get potted into pots and and put a set aside and then when park and recck department has time to put them in, they put them in. And so the reach program helped with that work um and did a great job and had fun doing that. Uh and then um some opportunities that uh you need to think about as board members especially is graduation will be held at the fieldhouse this on Saturday June 14th uh beginning at 10:00 a.m. Uh if you intend on going please let Lynn know by tomorrow so that we can make sure that

086we have everything for you. Um Mr. board president. We have all of the um uh diplomas in my office ready for you to sign. So, if you could get them into get in my office and spend about an hour and a half putting your name down on them um by the end of the week, that would be appreciated. Okay. Um any questions about that? Just here's the reminders. Uh just know again, uh we got an early release on the last day of school, June 10th. Uh Memorial Day is the 26th coming up next Monday. Um graduation again on the 14th. But we are really uh coming to the close of the year and uh our board meetings are up there for you uh if you need to see those. Any questions? Thank you. All right.

087The chair report I'll have it inform me. I'm sorry. Um would that be under committee summaries? Yeah. Committee summaries. Committee summaries and agendas. All right. All right. Well, the committee chairs, we met on May 5th. We had a pretty great discussion about uh a little bit of Robert's rules of order. uh the possibility of utilizing Robert's rules of order um at the committee level so that we can provide clear and concise uh action items to the the administration so that we know that if there's a split or a question that there's maybe a split that some of those discussions may come to to the board uh for a strategic IC discussion so can make a decision or guide some of the direction where to go with that. Uh hope was to keep meetings to uh

088committee meetings at least to around two hours if at all possible. We happen to have u uh to try to also keep the oral summaries to about 2 minutes or less closer to a minute. And uh we talked about chairmanship and how uh the committee's primary function is to do the heavy lifting. Uh members that are not on the committees are also welcome to participate in discussion and the committees can use their feedback to guide the their direction. Chairs will also lead discussion on future agenda items. So the next meeting of the chairs is to be determined yet, but it sounds like uh there is a general desire to continue with having chair meetings from time to time. All right, any questions? Go ahead, Diana. Um, couple questions. First of all, I appreciate the minutes

089and the thoroughess. So, thank you for that. My one of my main questions is as we now shift to moving to have all board members um able to participate equally, I don't want to say equally, equally is not the right word. In the past, committee members kind of had their first opportunity to speak and then regular board members, you know, kind of contributed from there. But um the way the minutes have been read is it's more kind of an equally distributed piece. So I'm wondering um are we looking to move to more of a committee of the whole kind of a situation? Because when I look back at the last 3 months of meeting, we're talking between 60 to 75% attendance of all board members at each of the committee level meetings. And so if

090you look just at the May meeting, the committee of the chairs, I won't include the subcommittees, just the regular committee meetings. At the policy committee meetings, 63% of the board members were there. At planning it was 50%, HR was 75%, ed services was 50% and fiscal was 38%. So let's take one where there's five of eight members. if if the majority of the conversation and I I agree with the fact that the majority of the work should be handled at the committee level. But my understanding the purpose of having committees as they were designed was so that smaller conversations could occur there and then larger conversations come at the board level. Well, if there's a committee meeting where five or six of the board members were at that committee, bringing it to the forward full

091board member full board level is almost not worthwhile because the majority of the discussion and things have have taken place. um where if if the route we're going is that and and Sam has said it very openly in the past that he wants to be at all the meetings, wants to be there. I can't be at every meeting. Would I like to? Yeah. It's it's just not physically possible. And so if this is the practice that we're going to have five and six board members at the majority of our meetings, then I think we should strongly consider moving to a committee of the whole and we meet twice a month. that saves time. If you look at the week of May 5th to the 8th, we asked our administrative team, 12 and a half extra

092hours of meetings was that week alone on top of their regular days. So, we need to be respectful of time. We need to be respectful of each other. So, those are just things to consider. Look at the data over the course of the next couple months. I'm not asking for a decision today, but if this becomes what our common practice is, we might want to look at how do we proceed forward. Thank you. Yeah. No, I think that's really good feedback. And I do think that watching uh the amount of strain that we put on administration and other members of the district as far as the hours that they have to put in in addition to the regular workday is a very valid point and I think that we should have some kind of discussion

093if this continues going forward. However, I do think that in regards to the number of board members who show up, at minimum, you're always going to have what 45% of the board present for any given committee meeting just because it's it's almost half of the board because it's a four member uh committee. Additionally, if we're taking out the president who doesn't sit on any board or on any committee, you have 50% of non-president members at any at any given count the president because he speaks equally as the rest. So, he is a board member. He's just not listed as a committee member. Yeah, I suppose I'm thinking in terms of the fact that you're going to have just under half the board assigned to any given committee. And it seems to me that having one

094extra member or even two extra members um doesn't necessarily make a difference. And I always thought that there was an important distinction between uh say last year myself attending policy uh versus Craig who was the policy chair or anyone else who was on the policy committee at that time and that being that I might be able to give my input which would otherwise have to wait until the general board meeting and which could potentially delay discussions even longer. I can give my input right up front so that the committee is aware of what my thoughts might be instead of them talking about it and then three weeks later me saying actually I would like to see these changes made and then it has to go back. You end up you end up I think having

095a much slower process which ends up costing more time in the long run is my estimate. But I do agree. I think that we should keep track of uh the amount of hours that are uh that that are spent there and we should uh and we should think about what that would measure up to against other models. Um, yeah, I think I think Sam is on the right track on this. I I I have always felt that it's it's never been u like an like an effort and like super efficiency by by not having a a robust conversation at the committee level and not allowing a non-committee member to speak. I'd much rather have the non-committee member speak. We'll say that adds like an extra five t minutes to the meeting. I mean that's that's

096time well spent. I'm not saying not speed. I'm saying the committee members have their parts of the conversation and then non-committee members can kind of join in because otherwise what's the purpose of assigning people to a committee? It should just be show up as you want to show up. And for example at the last policy meeting I posed my questions ahead of time. My questions didn't get answered. I'd say 75% of those questions didn't get answered. Yeah, they came in at about one quarter after 1 on Monday, but they were succinct, easy, just pull them up, answer the questions. So, if you're not able, what's our process to go there? I think some things just need to be um cleaned up or clarified a bit. Okay. I will say that I think the reason for

097committees are to divvy up the work so all board members don't feel an obligation to attend all the meetings. Like if they can attend, please do for a robust conversation, but we're going to divide up all the responsibilities so you don't feel overwhelmed with your responsibility as a board member. Um I agree with the efficiency. It might be advantageous to discuss maybe putting hard stops on committee meetings um so that we become more time friendly uh to administration that are here all day like saying listen you have no more than two hours to discuss these things and if you can't get it done somebody needs to make a motion to move the things that haven't been discussed on the agenda to the next meeting so we learn appropriate time management or um but I I

098personally think it should be open conversation I don't think that it should be just committee members speaking because what if you lose fo and you forget your question or it's not appropriate after that point of discussion has passed with the committee members. I think an open robust discussion with all board members. It is more advantageous to working together and then the only people that get the votes are seated on the committee. But if we have enough if we have enough board members to have a vote at at most of these meetings, we're doing the work twice because we're doing it there and then we're bringing it here to the meetings and we're doing it here which make these Monday meetings once a month three or four hours. We've had folks who have sat here many

099nights with us that long. So is there a way that in the spirit of efficiency if we're doing the work at committee is it just reporting out I mean we've had what five minutes on the agenda for the first two reports and we're probably 15 to 20 minutes in. Yeah. Yep. Well I mean as as a part of Robert's rules board members can bring discussion points uh and have questions regarding regarding the committee meeting minutes and summaries. Uh and that's what's happening. Um so I I do take exception to uh doing the work twice. I think the work has been the heavy lifting has been done and you you'll see that in the uh and in the function of what we have as far as the first reading and our consent agenda, the the action

100items that we have here before the board. And if if people have additional questions, they're they're they're welcome to ask, but then there'll be a very strong clarification that likely that conversation has been had, you know. So, just a couple of things. I'm going to I'm going to move on for the sake of the uh uh the rest of the meeting to the next uh board report services uh April meeting the committee discussed elementary literary review literacy review and the imple implementation of act 20. Uh there were concerns expressed about the process. The committee would like more information slashdata sooner. Uh the DEI roots of HMH raised red flags as well and that was discussed. It was also determined that political surveys needed further discussion at either committee or for the full board or both.

101Um the the math department at the high school prepared um a presentation uh dealing with the advanced algebra. Um and we like to hear the word rigor which is what they're going for. So that's a new catch word much like robust. The eCampus leaders presented a contract renewal plan. The committee requested that the board members that a board member would be leaison and present quarterly updates on the attainment of goals. Uh the full board will discuss the approval of renewal contract tonight. Thank you. Any questions for the ed service? one just a point of clarification under the elementary literacy review in the second line second sentence or I should say the first line second sentence period committee members expressed some concerns with the process etc etc etc it wasn't the committee members that expressed the

102concerns it was Craig at that point so if we can clarify that because Craig brought those forward and then the committee discussed it so either Craig expressed concerns or the committee discussed them just so there's that point of clarification in there. I I disagree with that point of clarification. There was another board member uh committee member present that actually did bring forth concerns which with what? So in that sentence it was the process including the recent adop including um comparative data with the pilot process, the time frame, the transparency, the lack of alignment etc etc. The next sentence talks more about diversity, equity, inclusion. That was what the committee members, that's what Sam had brought up. Correct. So the first sentence, those were all your list of topics. The second sentence was Sam's or the

103next sentence after that was Sam's. I mean, I suppose if I went back and I looked specifically, perhaps Craig was the first person to bring them up, but I think that even prior to uh prior to last month's meeting, this was something that Craig and I were already talking about, both of us at the previous at service meeting, but at the meeting to reflect the minutes of the meeting itself, what transpired at the meeting, it was Craig that spoke to those. It was Craig that had those pieces there. I suppose you could if we're looking at minutes, this is reflecting what happened at the meeting. Is that what happened at previous meetings? If you would like a clarifying statement that the board president initiated that discussion, but I mean I did express concern with those.

104So, I mean, I don't think that it's inaccurate per se. I think that the minutes were accurate as written. I think that further clarification might be worthwhile if that's something you'd like to see. I would just going through. Okay. Okay. It's just if we're expressing accuracy in the minutes. I don't disagree that you brought it up at previous times, but at this particular meeting through that discussion, if you watch the discussion again, that's all. Okay. All right. So, are we correcting those minutes? I'm fine with it. I'm fine with adding in a statement that uh board president initiated discussion on the following topics where commi where committee members express concern about those topics. That's fine by me. Uh do we do we had that vote on the correcting correcting of minutes? Um I would I

105would pull these from the consent agenda. Well we'll okay we'll fix them and then bring them back to the next meeting. All right, we'll do that particular one. That way we don't have to try to word Smith as a whole group here. Right. Okay. Just pull them from the consent agenda and we will uh work on them and bring them back to uh the next meeting. Fiscal management. Carl, did would you be able to do the fiscal report or would you like me to try to tackle it or Sarah or I would like Sarah to take care of that this time around? Sounds good. last Wednesday on the agenda. So we had three purchases. The first is the renewal. The second was the purchase of some light walls at three of the elementary school buildings

106using common school funds. And then the third was for some hardscapes project um at Douglas Elementary School at the at the playground and in front of the building. So those three will all be um on the agenda later. We heard um from the nutrition services department. They recently sent out a parent survey and um the committee looked at two different student surveys that will also be going out um in the next week or so. And then the committee looked at um student fees and meal prices for next school year. That is also on the agenda for later. So the um only changes proposed are a $5 increase to the high school yearbook fee to cover costs and then a 15 cent increase to all student meals and a little bit higher increase for adult meals

107for next year. Um we heard from the IT department about Chromebook purchases for next year. This is going to be year three of the updated replacement schedule for Chromebooks. That is also on the agenda. We had an operational referendum debrief in which the committee discussed different things that they thought maybe could be done differently in the future, some things that we thought maybe were roadblocks for the last oper operational referendum, and then just overall budget planning and forecasting for the next couple of years. That's going to be an agenda item every month going forward. Um and then the last thing was the FISA 2 contract for next year which is also on um the agenda for later today and we are just proposing renewing that contract um as we have in previous years without um

108dialoguing with the attorney for next year. We didn't really have any comments on the monthly reports. I just went through the variance report for future agenda planning. In June, we're going to discuss the budget again, we will have some purchases over $20,000 and the district's liability insurance renewal. Thank you, sir. Those uh those items will be on your consent agenda and your action items for later on this evening. Were there any questions on the report? And one added discussion piece under the operational referendum debrief. Um I've had a lot of opportunity over the last couple weeks whether it be at athletic events, music events, graduation parties, social events, whatever. Um talking about the referendum and why it failed and things and one of the recurring piece coming through was that they me community members didn't

109necessarily feel it was clear. I'm like, what do you mean it was, you know, so you have conversations with them and basically the summary kind of comes down to this that newspapers are typically written at fifth grade level that maybe we should when we um go through if we choose to go through a referendum the next time around, we have a lot of educational speak um that maybe we think about that um kind of newspaper level type conversation going through to connect with more of our community members. some felt it was very um much above them in terms of vocabulary. So that was just I hadn't heard about it necessarily from that perspective just a lot of educational speak and once I kind of had the brass t you know well this means this and

110oh well if I would have known that it's like oh you know I thought we had said that you know many times over but I'm looking at it through an educational lens to me yeah I thought it was crystal clear but I'm coming from an educator um listening to multiple community members and multiple students you know you have 18 and 19 year old kids that didn't understand this as well I thought that was really good feedback. So, I just thought I'd share that at this level. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay, HR. All right. So, this was the May meeting that was on May 12th. Um, we reviewed staff appointments, resignations, and terminations. Um, as well as support staff, employment notices. Um, we discussed summer school consent agenda. Um, and uh, Margaret went

111over the employee wellness committee and gave us an update on what they were doing there and their future plans of potentially getting e cookbook together for the 2025 2026 school year. Um, then we went into a closed session for some discussion. Um, we reconvened to open session at 658. Um the action items that we have is uh Margaret and I got together to come up with some questions um to give to administration on how they make se uh employee selections. Um and then we had Jared or Dr. Burke arrange for a close session on today's meeting agenda. Um there are some changes to remove some appointments for our full session and then Margaret and Dr. Burke would work with committee members to discuss um appointments and the consent agenda and the meeting adjourned at 706.

112Any questions for HR? Okay. Um planning was the May 7th meeting. Uh we discussed uh the superintendent the super evaluation. Um and we also did some board development discussions. Um Sam, I and Jared were working together to work with school boards for academic excellence to get some possible professional developments and we offered that that is scheduled. Um, and then, uh, you and I were supposed to, Craig and myself were supposed to get together to plan the next meeting of the chairs. Um, and then Jason and I have a standing appointment moving forward to keep going with the the planning committee. Any questions for the policy? I'm sorry, the planning committee. None. All right. Policy. All right. Uh, we convened at Oh, this was an odd time. I think it was 4:30, right? On a Monday.

113Uh, oh, no, no, it was 5:30 on a Monday. We had the chair meeting before that. Uh, the committee members present were myself and uh Mrs. Fornier. And the committee members absent were Charity Chandler. Others present were the board president, uh a few other board members and uh some directors of uh other areas of the district such as Sarah Odinhaven, Jenny Borst because of some of the things that we were discussing. We started off the discussion with a board vacancy voting process uh refresher from how things happened last time and we talked about what we would do if it comes down to a 44 deadlock. uh bringing up that some members of the community weren't very happy with the result of uh pulling a name out of a hat. Uh and we talked about some

114of the reasons that we do that, some of the state statutes that require you to appoint a person by a certain time. And we discussed whether or not that would be necessary uh if it were to come to that at the May board meeting, which we're at now. And we decided that uh if we do get a deadlock for some reason uh for 10 rounds, we are going to kick that back to the policy committee to further discuss how to handle that deadlock and we will make sure that an appointment happens prior to July 15th which is the uh statutory cutoff date. Um and uh Mr. Burke or Dr. Burke worked with Lin Linds on clarifying language there. Then we talked about controversial issues in the classroom. We discussed uh uh some of the changes

115that we were going to make to that policy 2240. We talked about uh incorporating some language from Neil or from will model policy 7 and model policy 28. Um as well as adopting model policy 7 and putting that on uh putting that on the agenda. Um, we talked about 3216 and 4216, which is uh staff dress and grooming, as well as student dress and grooming, which we've heard about tonight. Uh, oh, that's a 5511. Uh, we talked about maybe bringing in some more specific language as far as what we're looking for in a dress code uh, from will model policy 13 uh, which I think just makes it a little bit clearer what the boundaries are. Uh we talked about uh how we were going to meet with the uh legal council to discuss aligning

116some of that language with these policies that we're working in as well as not using something that's quite so strict as like a measurement like on a ruler and how that's you know not necessarily the direction you want to go with making those determinations within the schools. We also talked about the curriculum review process uh which it kind of feeds back into the ed services discussion that we had. Um we talked about bringing uh some of that information to a subcommittee meeting where we could discuss it in greater detail. So we decided that we were going to have a joint subcommittee meeting with uh myself and Mr. Wolner as well as with Jenny Borst uh to further determine what it's going to look like and how we could create a uh pol curriculum review uh

117standing committee made out of members of administration, staff, community members, etc. And we talked about human growth and development. We talked about how we were also going to do a subcommittee for that so that we could take a little bit more time to discuss that in greater detail. That still needs to well actually no no that has been scheduled now. that's coming up on I want to say the 21st, right? Um and I'm sorry, you're right down there. Yeah, 21st. And then we talked about the couple of policies that were brought up by a staff member at our last board meeting, uh district issued staff email accounts, WUSD sponsored trips and the controlled substance alcohol policy for employees that transport students. We asked for some clarifications as to why we have certain wording in there

118and I believe that was answered uh sufficiently to my knowledge. uh if there are still any questions from any members of the staff, I would appreciate to hear them of course uh after they listened to that meeting and some of the explanations that were given there. Then we talked about Neola policy group 1000. We talked about um changing some verbiage in 1662, the employee anti-harassment, adding in uh specifications about political harassment in the workplace. Uh and then we struck a few lines that were kind of abstract and not really concrete and that we thought were already answered uh or that were already addressed earlier on there. We also talked about reaching out to legal counsel about political harassment and that was another discussion that was had and uh we agreed to move the 1000 group

119forward to the board meeting, the May board meeting. We talked about the 2000 group. Then we talked about library media centers and pulling that for a uh possible subcommittee that was requested by Mr. Wartman um and that we wanted to maybe develop a long range plan for the periodic review of the materials within the med uh within the media centers and the and then we agreed that the rest uh could go to first read at the May board meeting. We talked about the WSD policies with no match. I don't think we really had any discussion about any of those in particular. we were all uh of general agreement on the plan that you had laid out. We talked about the 5,000 group after that. We had a lot of policies at the last policy meeting.

120I think more than I have seen at uh most of the previous ones. You talked about the 5,000 group. We talked about personal communication devices and technology resources. What we discussed earlier, I think that was already kind of pulled out and explained. Um and that was of course forwarded as a strategic discussion tonight. Uh Diana Johnson did request that 5421 uh a policy about grading be set aside for future discussion. That's something that Diana has worked on in the past and um something that she uh is is more invested in. So that's something that needs to be discussed at greater length and I think Diana was kind of working closely with you guys on that before the recent changeover. Uh we also asked for some language changes to 5350, the suicide prevention policy. Um removing

121uh references to Department of Public Instructions notices and um some other language that kind of moves in a politically biased direction. Um or adjusting that so it's a little bit clearer what's being asked there. uh so that we're moving away from potentially preferential treatment that would be highly inappropriate in in that case and we moved the uh 5,000 group policies to first read uh which are listed below there. Then we talked about the 7,000 group. We talked about uh both of those. There were only two uh moving forward to the May board meeting. Then we talked about the Neola policy development process which we've kind of been doing at the previous board meetings and just kind of what our plan is for finishing that up. Our goal is to finish up in July hopefully. Uh

122we don't have any new major revisions that came out of there and we didn't have any distinct future agenda planning aside from all of the stuff that I listed earlier. Um so the action items are kind of as I listed about the 2000s uh some of that adjustment. Um I think uh the item about the title N policy is now irrelevant because of some of the changes that have happened at the federal level. um creating those subcommittees which have happened and will happen and uh changing of course uh verbiage in policy uh from sub superintendent to superintendent or their designate so that not everything is falling on you quite so much. Um those were past action items and then the future action items. Uh we're creating those subcommittees as I said before uh meeting with

123legal counsel to make sure that we're not in uh that we're not stepping out of line with certain things regarding um political messaging uh the clothing um uh the dress and grooming policies etc. Uh there were some questions about where does that stand and what are things that you can ask students not to wear to school versus what are things you can ask students to wear to school. Um and I think that pretty much covers it. Is there anything that I missed uh from your perspective Jared and Craig? It's a lot to go through so I'm trying to make sure I take care of everything. You were very thorough. Yeah. Well, there was a lot that went on. I mean like you're well beyond your two minutes. Um, we'll get better at capturing a 4hour

124meeting in two minutes, I think. But, um, it was five hours, was it? Yeah, I think it was five and a half if you count on four. Yeah, Sam Sam and I uh have a a number of updates on the dress code issues. Um, the biggest of which um and and we may even want to have our attorney present uh when we're discussing what it is we're looking to do. Sure. Um she she really suggested that because uh for this reason um what you can uh ask and and control for for students um uh is a it's it's less how does she put it? You can control for staff more than you can control for students. Students have more individual student have more individual expression rights and they're uh here by choice and they're in

125a learning environment whereas staff we employ. And so, uh, you can have different kind of controls in that regard if if that's what you're looking for. Sure. Very good. Any questions for the policy committee. I do. Nobody else does. Let them get first. Go ahead, Diane. Which ones do you have? I have a number. Well, a number of them weren't addressed at the meeting, so I'll bring those forward. But in addition to that, let's start with dress and grooming. Um, whether we're talking staff, support staff, or students. I'm not understanding how that was part of the policy discussion. I thought that went through first read and second read. I thought that was adopted into that NEOA policy handbook. I don't Can someone help me understand how it came back to have another discussion to change?

126So now if we change it, it's got to go through first and second read again. I thought we had had taken care of that and at I believe it was the March meeting the details of that were supposed to go through administrative guidelines and I'm I'm almost positive that was one of the action items that was there. So I don't understand how an action item would have changed um because that action item did I have it written down states the administrative team to look at what's currently in place and then make sure the updated guidelines and handbooks are done accordingly. So I I don't know. Can we get clarification there? That's a good question. I'll have to get back to you. As far as I remember, I believe that was a continuing discussion. You know,

127carry over from March into Yeah, there were a number of discussion. There were a number of policies over the previous year that were set aside to be adopted closer to the end of the Neil alignment process because of their uh either contentious, controversial or uh nature or for other reasons just because we thought there needed to be a little bit more time. I get it. But look back 50116 and 4216 all went through both first and second reads and that was at the March meeting. Um March was the first discussion was first read a 5511 second read was April. So then given its first and second read do we still continue on this or does it go to administrative guidelines? Does it come back to this? Because if it's coming back to this I have

128questions about the policy in general, you know, with what the model policy is stating. I don't agree with a lot of what's um being proposed by the committee for a number of reasons. Um there was some good discussion at the committee level about tank tops, about whatever. And I'm a visual person. I apologize, but do you all are you all aware that this outfit that I'm wearing today would be sent to the office to violate dress code on a number of factors? No. No to go through it if we're going to go through. No, but it was it was a discussion started. It says in the minutes that the policy it does in the minutes to do the minutes say that all of the verbiage read the minutes. All of the verbiage is being recommended

129to move forward. No, it does say that. Go back look at your minutes. We as an ongoing discussion. It's it's I don't understand the ongoing discussion. went through first and second read. So now we have the legal council and the policy committee. That's there's it's a work in progress. It's it's not a subtle it's a first and second read. It's a I don't understand the work in progress. That was the first piece. The second piece is if we have committee and now we're bringing it to the board level, isn't this our opportunity for non-committee members that don't attend the board level to talk about it? Isn't this my opportunity? I I put my my questions out ahead of time. Those didn't get addressed. So, when is my opportunity to speak? If it's not now, I

130didn't say that it wasn't your opportunity to speak, Diana. Um it but it it's an ongoing discussion for for you to say that um this is, you know, this is or this is not going to be considered dress code. I mean, I don't know if that's it. The recommendation through the minutes say that all verbiage from this policy is what's being recommended forward. I'm saying we need some strong consideration that it shouldn't be all verbiage moving forward. A simple pair of shoes that have soft soles violates this policy. That's that's hey dudes, that's tennis shoes, that's athletic sandals, that's flip. I mean that's a whole variety of things. So when we look if that was part of the discussion and there were changes and things made I'd have no issue with it. But the fact

131that our minutes captured state that all verbiage here is what is being proposed forward. I have a major issue with that. And I have a number of families. It is not up for first read at this point. It's already been through second read. So I'm not understanding the whole process. We've gone through first and second read already. So the whole process is mixed up. So, I'm not understanding where it goes because we've already done it. It should be an administrative guideline. How it's back in policy, I don't know. So, no, it's not at first read. It's past second read. Damn. Go ahead. Yeah. So, um, the, uh, to address, uh, the wording of the action item, I do think that perhaps all verbiage to be included, maybe it could be better phrased as verbiage from

132will model policy 13 to be brought into alignment with 511 because we did actually discuss um, changing some of the verbiage about like the manner in which skirt length or short length is is addressed. So I I do think that there's something to be said there. Perhaps it could be made a little bit more specific. I think the spirit was that we were going to take the specificity from will model policy 13 and bring that over where 511 is kind of vague. Um but I I have a clarifying question to ask then. Does does the policy committee not have the ability to bring policy that is currently in the district whether it's part of the NELA adoption process or it's part of the current policy book? Do does the policy committee not have the ability

133to bring that in for discussion when they so wish or is that something that's allowed within the purview of the committees? I think that a number of things have changed since since um if there was I I'm not sure where it was in second read. Which meeting was that? Uh so the second read it was an item on the it was an item on the agenda at the April okay meeting but it wasn't included with the other it wasn't included with the others I believe with the professional with the um professional staff and grooming because that that was also I thought that was also in the the queue for regular discussion but I'm looking But you bring up a valid point that when is it appropriate? Typically, yes, it comes up at any time, but

134right now we're on a timeline to get NEO book done. And so that was done. And if there's additional questions, those are things that were kind of set aside that after Niola is adopted, then we'll bring those forthcoming again. So if these are concerns, they would be after the Neola book has been adopted and they would go into the queue to be read and done, you know, right away through that. So yes, it's appropriate. It's just my question is why at this point in time are we going, you know, I didn't understand. If I may, I think the the disconnect that we're seeing right now that we don't usually see is that when a board has made a decision, right, to then have a discussion on that same issue again so rapidly. Usually a board

135makes a decision and we move on to other business and maybe six months or another year, year and a half later that gets discussed. We had a lot of changeover on our board, right? Maybe some other views or thoughts are coming to the board and board members wish to have those discussions and yes maybe even a month ago uh or two months ago a board made a different decision right and I think that's where you're feeling the disconnect but yes it's it's definitely under the purview for a chair to bring forward anything within their their view right um we saw that with ed services ed services we again discussed the committee that that looked at literacy, right? And yes, it got people out of sorts a little bit because it's like, wait, didn't we just

136say we're purchasing this? Why are we taking a pause? Why are we having the conversation that we're having, right? Um and then I had the conversation we move forward with that, right? Um was there constrnation and and thought that we might not move forward? Absolutely there was. Right. Um because it's not gerine to how we generally do business, right? But when you have a turnover like we have on the board that may go in a different direction, right? Um you're going to expect some things that are not linear like they usually are, right? And and that change is going to have questions like this pop up about when are we when is it appropriate to do this? When are we doing that? Um and that's just where we are right now as we're going through

137a change process. And I totally understand that. I guess my suggestion moving forward then would be a little clarity in you know there have been a number of of board members that expressed issue concern whatever with policy whatever. The way the action items read from the previous meeting was that there was going to be some data collection from the schools to determine if more needed to go into that. And after listening to the policy committee meeting, I didn't see or hear of any data that was given that shared why this would have come forward. So that was a disconnect that it seemed like, hey, we're just putting this on because we didn't like the decision of the previous board. Well, that's not necessarily how we run things. It's kind of well, okay, if the action

138item is we're going to bring forth data to support it, we should be modeling what we're expecting our staff to do and that is provide database decisions. That's just my point of view. Um, for the for the sake of clarification on the minutes, which is a good point. Um, I didn't I didn't get the impression from attending the meeting, and that's why I have that's why I'm I'm having a disconnect at the moment. um is that I didn't feel that all of the verbiage from the will nola policy was was being recommended to move forward that it would to be included in the dress code. That's what it says. I realize that's what it says. I don't know that that's accurate. I feel like go back and listen to the minutes because I wrote it

139down. The final recommendation in the last 3 to five minutes of it was to move all language to vineal policy because I had heard a lot of different things too and I'm like oh Tammy that you know and kind of looking to see where that is from person then I was surprised oh we're moving all of the language there. So, I listened to the meeting today just to make sure. I thought I thought the the um the action item was to move it forward to work with the um attorney to come up with a I don't think that's stated as an action item. It's not stated, but I mean, and that was definitely a discussion that we had. I think I mentioned that earlier when I was talking about the discussion that we had with

140the attorney. I I'm ob obviously there's a discussion that had been had with the attorney over the trust code. So that is the action item for a non-committee member if that's our means to capture what's happened at the committee level and if that's our means to ensure that tasks are the action items are done whatever we just need to make sure that um we're capturing what's there and that's where in the past is all right let's read back the action items have I captured the because it's really I mean I commend Lynn for all the different things and policies she's trying to read and do and and that's the committee's job, not not necessarily her job to go and capture those pieces, but I'm just going based off of what I read and what I

141listened to. I don't agree with all of the verbiage moving forward. Um, I know that I've talked to a number of families. I've talked to a number of students that don't agree with all moving forward. The person today spoke about being a gender kind of piece, focusing more on the females. I look at too is it more of a financial piece? There's a lot of questions that I have. Number one obviously was first second read that's been clarified, but this does need um a lot more discussion before it does anything. That's not the what the minutes had stated. So, thank you for the clarification here. No, I feel I feel like personally too, I didn't I felt like not all of the language should move forward as well. I think that I think that there's

142there's further discussion to be had about dress code. I realize that personally, but uh I don't know why it got captured that way. If it's something that we feel we need to wordsmith, we can bring it we can pull it out and and have a dis uh have that ready for the next board meeting for approval. Sure. Uh was there any other discussion under committees? I just make a key point to one of Diana's questions which is you know when is it appropriate and where should we talk about things other than just the correction of the minutes because really when we're talking in this part of our consent agenda on on reports and minute review right it should be talking about any corrections or anything else. Um when we get to the consent agenda lower

143in the consent agenda where it has policies for first read or second reading up the other discussion points if you were a non-member or you weren't at the committee meeting um you know uh would be the place to have those discussions in detail. So with those then because these aren't first and second read topics. Yeah. So it would still go more under the consent agenda because it's not a first read topic and it wasn't a secondary topic. I guess it's going back to the I guess what I'm saying is it's not even coming to the board for action tonight. So an in-depth conversation tonight on that um wouldn't be there um and it may it may never come to the full board if it dies in committee. Right. And so having the discussion when it

144either gets to the full board as a first read or a second read, right? Or going to the committee if it comes up at the committee level again is is where we would have that in-depth conversation. So then what do you recommend if questions get posed and they're not questions get sent to the chair and the administrator and they're not answered there. So then how do you how do you suggest handling those situations when it would come to a full board first read? If it's not answered at the committee level right from from that aspect then uh your chance would be to have that discussion and ask those questions in full detail when it comes to first reading. All right. Thank you for the clarification. Go ahead. You're good. Yeah. I'm just All righty. Any

145further discussion on the on the minutes the summaries? All right. Uh we have one more summary that's the uh subcommittee of the ed services committee and the policy uh it's a subcommittee of both ed and policy. Um anybody want to flip a coin up down bottom defer? Jenny, can I dump that on you? Yeah, that works as well. We discussed a series of uh policies that are interrelated that are all related to curriculum um curriculum development and adoption. Um the first three 2210, 2220, 2230 are pretty closely related. Um 2210 is curriculum development which is sort of the overarching definition of curriculum. um I saw as very closely related to adoption of new courses within the district and 2230 would be the curriculum course guides would be a new policy for us in our district

146and the procedure in which we would be working with our teachers to create curriculum course guides that we would publish on our website to um share with families with the public what is being taught in each one of the courses. Um so we discussed what information we would like in um that curriculum course guide um and how that relates to um the process of adoption of the courses through the school board. 2510 and 2521 talk specifically about the idea of um I I'm jumping ahead. um 2210A which is the administrative guideline. Um we discussed related closely to rule model policy 16 evaluation updated district curriculum purchase from third parties. We discussed the idea of creating a um committee that we named I believe the curriculum review committee that would consists of the chair of ed

147services, myself um and some teacher representation where we would be working through the process of the curriculum course guides as well as any new courses that would be proposed eventually to ED services and then proposed again to the full board. Um then we talked about policies 2510 and 25 2020 2521. Um this these two sets of policies talk a bit more about the adoption from third parties. We talked about renaming the word textbook because um the main source of instructional materials has shifted a bit more in um to more online resources. So word smithing that a bit more. Uh essentially I will be working with Miss Lindskkins to uh take the conversation that we had that evening update those five policies also updating the administrative guideline 2210A um to bring to the policy committee in

148June. So just taking the feedback from that subcommittee for those five policies and administrative guideline to bring to the policy committee in June for further discussion. Accurately represented. Thank you. Very well done. Thank you. Appreciate it. Any questions regarding the subcommittee meeting? Hearing none. That moves us back up to um items A through D of the strategic discussion where we where we discuss the voting process, board candidate interview, discussion of candidates and voting um and board uh the board appoints the candidate. So So letter A, we have a voting process that's indicated here. I don't know why it's in a resolution. It needs to be voted on the process. Can I clarify really quickly? Yes, go ahead. I think it's just a a copying error, but the under public content, it gives the explanation for

149the suggested voting process. It lists the incorrect resigned to board member, and that was the the last Oh, yeah. resigned board member. So, I mean, okay. refct that right now. Sure. Okay. So, so the current recommended action is be it resolved that the Watertown Unified School District Board of Education adopt the following voting process for the board vacancy. Each candidate will be given the opportunity to address the board, explain their interests and qualifications. Given the number of candidates, this will be limited limited to three minutes per candidate. Candidate order will be drawn. The uh board will have an opportunity to ask candidates questions after each candidate makes their remarks to the board. At the conclusion of candidate remarks and board questions, board members will vote by signed written ballot for their preferred candidate. No candidate

150no candidates are eliminated until a one receives a majority of votes. In our case, that would be five. Is that correct? Four. Mike's not here. Um, it would be five. Is it of the um for for the candidate candidate in this portion of the voting process, right? um they need a simple majority to be then taken to what would be letter D board appointment at board appointment by statute you need a majority of the board which would be five okay right if it doesn't get a majority of the board or five votes then um basically we would go to the last bullet which is if voting is suspended because you wouldn't have had a candidate that reached five votes votes of the standing board. Okay. Okay. So that would be four. Yeah. If a candidate

151receives support from a majority of the board members program, the board will then vote on a resolution appointing that candidate to the candidacy or B there will be a there is a four to four tie among two candidates. In the event of a four to four tie after 10 rounds of voting by the sign by signed written ballots at the end of 10 rounds there's no change if no change has been made the board president will move on to the next meeting agenda item. If the voting is super uh is suspended, the selection of a board appointment will be postponed and the continuation of the selection process will be reviewed and outlined at the next policy committee meeting in June. The confirmation of the appointment will happen within a full board meeting prior to July

15215th. That is the resolution. Do I hear a motion to accept the voting process? I'll second. It has been moved by Dan and seconded by Sam. Any discussion on the voting process? Hearing none. Roll call vote, please. Craig Wharton, yes. Charity Chandler, yes. Tammy Fornier, yes. Sam Owen, yes. Carl Schwaresy, yes. Dan Boltner, yes. And Diana Johnson, yes. And the motion carries. That brings us to the candidate interview. And we have five candidates um up for consideration. Thank you for being here. I'll draw a name out of the hat for who gets to go first. And we'll just keep pulling names until we got them all. First one up is uh David Morset. Everyone, thank you. Good to be here. Uh, I'm Dave Morstead. I met a lot of you the last time we went

153through this process last fall. U, it's good to be back. I didn't make it, but here I am again. Uh, I've been in this district for 48 years. Uh we raised three kids all through the district and now I have two grandkids in the district. Um very committed to to education here. Uh my own qualifications uh educationally I have a master's degree in education. Uh but I have never taught in a public school. My uh my background is has been almost 100% in corporate education. I was at Bethesda Lutheran Communities for a lot of years. Uh the the article of the paper said 25. Uh full disclosure, it was 39. So I'm that guy. Uh and it started in the classroom and stretched to uh some administrative roles. I ended uh my career there uh

154as the executive director of an institute. We did educational publishing and partnered for some applied research and did a lot of educational stuff. Um it was a great career. Uh I retired in 2015 was a good time felt I had a good run. Uh in the 10 years since then I have tried to stay busy in educational matters. Um, a couple of weeks after I retired, I was uh appointed to the Governor's Committee for People with Disabilities by then Governor Walker. Uh, I've been on that committee uh thanks to a reappointment by Governor Ivers. I've I've served there for 10 years. It's been great. Uh I do some consulting work uh all over the country. Done some writing uh and actually all over the country and beyond. Uh done some writing and just tried to

155stay active in uh educational matters. um also do some private consulting and writing uh for a company that does um online training for long-term healthcare. Um that's about it for me. Uh I'm just anxious to serve in my career. I was in a leadership role for most of that which means that I developed a lot of policies on education, uh, behavior, medical issues, uh, managed some pretty big budgets, um, led a lot of great teams, ran some pretty efficient meetings in case that ever comes up. and uh uh I think I have a skill set that you could use. So um I do have one other comment. I know that you've already reached your decision on how the voting process goes, but just for the record, I would feel I'm compelled to say that I'm

156sure the policy committee already knows this, but the portion of Wisconsin open meetings laws that apply to school boards, section 19, uh, expressly prohibits secret balloting except for the election of officers. Um, I know that the board got around that the last time by signing the little paper ballots, but all that means is that everybody has to file an open records request just to know how their elected officials voted. If you're after transparency, do a roll call for crying out loud. You know, let's find out how people vote. It'll probably speed things up, but yeah, you have questions. Anybody want to start? I'll start. Yeah, questions will be the same for everyone if you want to take note. Um, what is one schoolboard initiative you view as an accomplishment in the past year and what

157do you think is her greatest opportunity in Yeah. Um every uh every time the superintendent gets up to do his report, you get um a view of what some of the accomplishments have been. Frankly, in spite of the fact that the uh the initiative to gain funding for this school did not pass the referendum, um I considered it a tremendous success. And I'll tell you why. Um, I went to several uh, open meetings that they had where they explained things. Frankly, I loved the process. I thought it was wide open. I thought it was extremely informative. Um, I didn't find them terribly well attended, but man, it was a great time. I mean, it was a great thing. Um, the other things I would I would count as a success. Uh I'm a Rotary guy

158and every month we have a handful of students who come to Rotary. Man, you got to meet these guys. It's amazing. We hear about sports. We hear about um academic decathlons. We hear about um all of the music things that they are in. It's fantastic. Um just one quick thing. couple of months ago, maybe a month ago, the Wisconsin singers were here and anybody who got there, um it was fantastic. This is a group of 24 students at UW. There's 14 singers and dancers, 10 instrumentalists. They come from communities all over Wisconsin, all over every little town. Uh big communities like Madison, Milwaukee sometimes have more than one. Watertown had six. 25% of the group came from our town. They handed a microphone to everyone. They named teachers by name. They named programs by name.

159Two of them talked about the culture of this district and how it specifically helped them to excel. uh you guys are part of that. That's a success. As far as opportunities are concerned, uh I don't know if you noticed this, but the community can sometimes be a little divided. Yeah. Um, what an opportunity for the school board to build consensus to actually do some collaborative things to talk in the community about how you guys work together. Wouldn't it be wonderful to get that portrait so the next time the referendum comes around, and it will, every one of you schoolboard members, and it might include me, can stand shouldertosh shoulder and say we all support this. Every single one of us needs to get behind it. That would be an opportunity, and it's it's got to

160happen. Thank you. Well, the referendum did fail and if you could address more deeply why you think it failed and how you could uh what you would suggest that it would pass the next score up. Yeah. Um, you know, it's I talk to a lot of people who agree with me just like you all do and it's dangerous when you do that. But I I you know, being as independent and as objective as I can, um, there's a lot of people who read the the number as far as how much their taxes were going to go up and probably said to themselves, "I don't have kids in the district. I don't want higher taxes. I'm going to vote no against this thing. I I have a I have two neighbors who told me exactly that.

161Um, a couple of things. First of all, I drive I pay for streets I don't drive on. That's just the way the world works. Uh, but secondly, a tremendous number of our students do not leave Watertown. Some leave and come back. Uh but people have to have to see what happens in this district as an investment in their lives and their businesses and their future. Um I thought your points about how we approach the language were spoton. But I think those are the kind of things that we have to talk about. The other thing that might be interesting is uh when all of these cuts are made, and they're going to be deep and painful cuts, talk honestly about how much tax money people really save because it's not going to be earthshattering. It's not.

162It wasn't earthshattering before. And what you're cutting is not going to be earthshattering now. It's going to be earthshattering in its in effect. But in dollars and cents, forget it. It's a nothing. We got to tell people that. Then we want Yeah. Um, so I feel very strongly that a board or any group of elected officials or civil servants should reflect the will of their constituents. Um, so you list in your resume that you're the author of a book called Whole Community, Introducing Faith Communities to People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Yep. On page 110, you advocate for transforming our society into places of quote justice, equality, and mutuality. I think that the community over the past two years has made it really clear that they do not want a lot of these topics, the

163this very politicized language and these very politicized concepts to be part of our school district. So, keeping in mind that you've written a book on this subject, what do you have to say to people who would question whether or not you would be an accurate reflection of the general will of Watertown's community? Sure. It's hard for me to imagine that something like justice uh would be up for discussion. Um if you take something like DEI for example, when you use those initials, they take on a um they take on a a meaning that is really uh divisive, I think. And honestly, I I like to think that being presented with enough evidence and reason, I I know that I have changed my mind on a lot of things. And if somebody were to give me

164a really compelling argument about why I shouldn't support diversity and equity and inclusion, who knows? I might change my mind on that. But for right now, I mean, if you take the I, that's inclusion. I've spent my entire career fighting for inclusion. E for equity and fairness. I mean, when did that become evil? Equity and fairness in education. you know, racial equity in education, Brown versus the Board of Education, that was passed in May of 1954. I remember that because that's exactly the month and year I was born. So, this is how long it's been around. Um, public law 94142, which became idea, I was in college when that came up. These are not new things. These have been around. They are they are fundamental values of an education system. Diversity that's the one that

165really confuses me. Um I mean maybe you can be against inclusion or you can be against equity. Diversity who controls that? It grows up around us. Ain't nothing you can do about it except decide how you're going to respond to it. So these things are fundamental values. I I would love to have a discussion with the people you're talking about who say justice, forget about that. Mutuality, I don't like that. Inclusion, equity, diversity, forget it. Give me your best argument because they all suck. So if I might clarify, you are saying that you are generally a supporter of DEI, right? Equity including right I I think I think you hold on. Okay. Yeah. I and this is your constituents. Well, the question was for me. Uh, up until the time I get a compelling argument

166to tell me otherwise. Yeah. I think I think we spent enough time on this one. Uh, thank you, David. I appreciate that. Very hot. Okay. Um, before I tell you what I can contribute to the board, I have to clear up a misconception. On Friday, May 9th, the Watertown Daily Times stated, "Hoffman indicates that her lack of experience in the education realm could be a positive factor in determining the correct direction for the district." This is false. I never said or wrote that and I don't believe it. Uh I have experience in the education realm, but I chose not to list it because some of you have more experience. uh we each bring something different to the table and drawing on our combined skills makes us more effective. Um I've experienced creating sound processes and

167policies for federal acquisition regulation compliant purchasing quality and most recently the NIST 8001 171 cyber security certification for DoD contractors. So, what does that mean for the schoolboard? It means I will bring a different perspective to the table. I am a creative problem solver and I'll be asking different questions and proposing fresh solutions when helping you draft and evaluate policies. Um, I've also lived in Watertown for 27 years. My daughter attended Watertown High School and my grandchildren were enrolled in the district before my daughter also transferred them out in 2019 because of the district's lack of transparency and a dismissive attitude toward parents. I'm applying to join I'm applying to join the school board because I see this board prioritizing transparency, fiscal responsibility, and actively working to improve our district by gathering feedback from parents,

168teachers, staff, administrators, and administrators to apply to policy improvements. Right now, the district is not a destination school for teachers or parents. But if we continue on the path that this board is forging, we will be. Our children and grandchildren need this. Watertown needs this. And I believe I'm the right addition to the board to help you accomplish this. Thank you. Anybody want to go first? Same question. Thanks. Thanks to David. I already have you an answer for you. So, um the the best thing and I don't know if it's if if it had to be something you do in this room, but the best thing that you have done in the last month or two is um I heard from a teacher, a retired teacher who has two family members who are current teachers

169that um that two of you visited a classroom and wanted to know what they thought. And the retired teacher said, "In all my 30some years of teaching, I've never had a board member come to the classroom and ask what I thought. I'm amazed. I am so thrilled." Um, so that's if that's the category, that's the very best thing that this board has done. Uh the other thing is you passed the um you just passed the the initiative to make sure that um your meetings were online so people could come and you know who who had to work or or stay home could still be up to date on what was going on. I hope I answer your question. So I did. Yeah. I'd like to Well, first of all, thank you for your service to

170the country. Thank you. And um I'd like to know what you think about the referendum, why it didn't pass, and how you could help us get it passed. That's part of why I decided to run. Um I didn't vote for the referendum and I didn't vote for it for economic reasons. Um, like I said, I've lived here 27 years and I've always felt like the school district only wanted to talk to us when they wanted money. And um, I I went to the listening session and um, I felt like you weren't addressing the issues that that that parents really need you to address. Uh I saw glimmers of hope and light but I felt like uh we need to see results. We need to see movement before we can you know go all in and

171you know give till it hurts. you know, because that that, you know, maybe for for some people that extra money um for the referendum was, you know, they wouldn't feel it, but for a lot of us, yeah, it's painful. But, you know, you you you put your money where things are important. And um if we see movement and we see transparency, not like you're hiding something, but like you're reaching out to the community and you're you're you're looking for collaboration with parents and teachers. Um I think that will pass the next referendum with ease. My opinion, but Sam. Yeah. Um, in a similar vein, uh, I don't have, uh, to my knowledge, you've never written any books, but, uh, in a similar way, uh, you have not run for office previously, you haven't been in

172an election. Um, but given the context of the last few elections, given the context of where the community seems to be indicating the board should go, why do you think that the community would find you a fitting representative to sit on this board? I think because I I'm I'm part of the community. Um I'm not, you know, everybody knows me. Even if they don't agree with me, everybody knows me. And they also know that I'm willing to talk to anybody. Uh I don't care if I disagree with you. And I' be even more interested in talking to you if I disagree with you. Uh because I want to know what you think. And um you know, who knows? Maybe some of these people are more qualified, maybe not. Uh but I feel like I've gotten

173a lot of support ever since I said I was going to run. Lots of messages saying, "This is great you're doing this." But um that's the best answer I can come up with. I'd like to ask a question. Um you mentioned in your objective to facilitate educational excellence and increase trust and communication between the school board, parents or to uh teachers and the district. Um, so what uh what particular steps would you take as a board member to continue to build upon that public trust aside from meeting meetings being posted online, aside from uh you know uh well I I don't know. I I would like to see listening sessions. We have them if it's at the city level. Um, you know, you guys sometimes it's it's really hard to connect with people in a

174board meeting. You have to follow rule Robert's rules of orders. You know, you you have to you have to do all this stuff and you're there's a distance. And I think a listening session periodically would really help get that feedback from the community. That would be a good start. But um I also am really enthusiastic to collaborate with people on what ideas you have. Thank you, J. Um so bullying and discipline is an issue in our district. Um do you support um restorative justice practices in disciplinary matters? I don't know a lot about it. I've asked. Okay. Um, I support positive reinforcement. Um, but I also support consequences because um, you have to have you have to have both and and you can't use punishment is sometimes used as as a as a a tool

175that doesn't work. Um but I think some of the restorative justice pro you know practices have have forgotten that we are as humans we do what's reinforcing and so um we really need to to look at you know step back and look at is this working you know if not we need to modify questions. Thank you Lori. Okay. Michael, is it PC? Yeah. Um, my name is Michael PC and I just want to take this opportunity to thank the board for allowing to in me to introduce myself because I have never been to a board meeting before and uh this is very exciting and for giving me a reason to wear a tie. today. So, all right. I don't get a chance to wear a tie very often. So, all right. My um my family

176has been residents of Watertown for 5 years now. Um and since we've moved here, we've become uh very involved in the city and we've become very big fans of the city. Um since moving here, me and my wife have had two children. Uh one has started 4K at Webster and the other one is in 3K. in September, she'll be in 3K and she'll be starting to terrorize, uh, Webster in another year. Um, so, uh, I'm a very strong advocate of public schools. I'm a very big believer in public schools. I've been involved in public schools most of my life, and I'll get to all this, but, uh, my wife, Lyndon, is the new executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, and I recently joined the board for Gingerbread Daycare. Uh we're also members of the

177River Valley Alliance Church. Uh so as you can see, we're very invested in the town in Watertown and we plan to be for a long time. Um I also have a son who will be 22 and he's graduating this year from University of Whitewater in cyber security and he graduated from high school with high honors from Port Washington High School. I've seen what a quality school system with quality educators can do for a student. I've been involved in education for over 20 years now. Starting out as a sixth grade social studies teacher. Um, prior to that, I worked at a law firm. Um, it was a foreclosure law firm because I had aspirations of being a lawyer. Uh, I graduated from Whitewater with a political science degree. Um, I found out that I did not

178have the personality or the temperament to be a lawyer. Uh, went back to night school, got my degree in education. I got a job working as a teacher in Grafton in sixth grade and um my journey uh in education began there. Um it wasn't long after I started teaching that I thought when I started teaching I thought I I can do the best job if I just go into the classroom, close the door, work with the kids, and I' I'd reach the most kids that way. And then I found out and I was invited to become a mentor teacher. And then I found out that working as a mentor teacher, I could help other teachers become better and reach more students that way. So then following that process, administration came into mind. So I got

179my degree in education leadership and um worked to become a principal. So after I wor worked at Grafton for for about 10 years, I decided that I wanted to challenge myself, got a job in Milwaukee, uh worked in Milwaukee at a charter school for two years, uh teaching fourth and fifth grade students. Um most of them came into the school about two to three grade levels behind in reading and in math. Uh by the time we left in fifth grade, they were all reading and writing and math at at or or above grade level. So we were very proud of that. Um after that, I went and became a principal at a chart at a Catholic school uh in Thorp, Wisconsin. If you know where that is, that's way up north. They make good good

180guda cheese up there if you have ever been. Um, so, uh, but then, uh, throughout my educational journey, I've been awarded the Cole Scholarship as a teacher, which was a great honor. Um, along with other awards and recognitions. I was also a wrestling coach. I coached uh, girls basketball. I coached girls volleyball. And, um, in during my time at uh, Grafton, I worked at we uh, created a science club, too. and uh that we were very proud of. Currently um my role is an assessment coordinator for the department of public instruction. Um the state is required by law uh to give English language arts and math assessments through third through 11th grade. uh we use the forward assessment and the ACT and for the population of students who are the most significantly cognitively disabled students

181uh we use the dynamic learning maps assessment. I monitor the dynamic learning maps assessment. So I work with all 450 districts throughout the state and I work with the teachers on how to instruct and assess the students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. Um, so I manage all aspects of that assessment. Um, so as you can see, making sure every student is given the same opportunity is important to me. The education of students has long been a passion of mine and I have worked very hard to ensure that every student had a place and voice in my classroom and later when I was a principal in school. When students feel safe and seen, they will be more willing to work with you and learn from you. Education after all is about relationships as much as

182it is about anything else. I will not claim that I was perfect at this and then but it is through the mistakes I have made that I have learned and grown in my experiences in education. I have been involved in almost every aspect of the process in Grafton. I was a union representative for my building. I worked closely with the board on negotiation for contracts. I was also a union rep after Governor Walker passed Act 10 and we were working through the new handbooks that districts were creating and navigating the new world that the act created. I have been part of work groups that reviewed and offered suggestions on the national uh NGSS which has the new next generation science standards as well as uh working through the essential elements which are the alternate assessment

183standards for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. I've been part of part of negotiations, seeing how praise from school boards support students and teachers um have encouraged them. I've seen how poor decisions have negatively affected teachers. I've been part of textbook selections, uh standards process, curriculum development, all that fun stuff. Um, currently I'm a member of national education organizations including the chief council of state school officers and the national center of educational outcomes. I'm currently working with a group called Swift on rightful presence for students with uh the goal of implementing equity based MTSS multi-tered support systems and promote justice in schools through whole systems change. I even spent time this weekend going up and down Main Street as Gus the Gozlin. That was a new job for me. Right. I will wrap this

184up as you start to get an idea that I have been heavily involved in education system for a long time and have seen all sides. I have been a teacher, a parent, an administrator. I have worked closely with the school board and have had many different experiences that make me qualified for this position. Hopefully, you will consider my merits and make the decision for this position based on merit and pick the most qualified candidate in the room. Thank you for your time and I'll be happy to answer any questions you pick it up. Um, question. What is one school board initiative you view as an accomplishment in the past year? And then what do you see as the greatest opportunity within the next year? All right. Well, I'll tackle the the referendum one because I

185I know that follow-up question is coming right away. So, I actually thought that you guys got the word out pretty well on the referendum. I there were the listening sessions. Uh, I listened to them. They were well well informed. However, to Diane's point, I I'm in education. I understand the jargon. I I get the need. Um, I think it didn't pass because people don't necessarily understand the history of why 108 what I think there was what 189 referendums that were on the ballot in the spring. why so many districts are needing to go to referendum. Um when act 10 was passed uh and part of act 10 was that school boards couldn't raise the tax levy without going to referendum. So and at that time governor Walker even said if school districts need more money

186they need to go to referendum. So school districts really have no choice but to go to referendum when they need more money now. So, um I think that we could the history of it could come into play there. Um another aspect is that I I heard, you know, I I'm an internet surfer and a social media junkie and so I read all the Facebook stuff and a lot of the negative stuff that I heard about it was because they didn't feel that last time a referendum passed that they got their tax dollars worth or I don't know. I I wasn't here when that went down, so I can't speak to it. But those were just some comments that I heard. Um, and just people were not very trusting. And um, even people who were running

187for elections at the time were telling people to vote no for the referendum. And I don't think having elected officials telling people to vote no for referendums is ever going to help you pass them. That probably won't help. But I think it I think as a school district you did a good job getting the word out. I just think there was a lot of factors against you. So and then what was the other question? Just what do you think is Oh, right. Yeah. One is the accomplishment and one is the opportunity. Opportunity. Oh, opportunities for growth. It's education. There's always opportunities for growth. Um the motto is opportunity runs through it, right? Um, I think what we need to focus on is well, act 20 is coming out and or came out and reading really

188needs to be a focus and an area that we focus on on growth. And so when we start talking about growth, we need to focus on what do the students really truly need and what deficits do we see based on the data. So, let's look at what is the testing showing us? What is what are our teachers seeing? What what can we help with them educationally and focus on their education? That's what we really need to look at. What educationally can we help them? I didn't write a book. No, that's No, that's fine. Actually, I I wanted to thank you because I think that you're pretty straightforward and you're very uh you you express a lot of details in your cover letter and in your resume. Um but between you know the language of ensuring

189that students are being educated in a progressive environment talking about wanting to ensure equity uh your associations with DPI it's a similar question in the previous veins that all seems like a very progressive political point of view. Uh would would I be correct in that assessment? Well, I feel like um that's not a fair question to ask because isn't school board a nonpartisan position? Well, there's no progressive party. Nonpartisan means not associated with a party. I'm talking about political philosophy. So, progressive political philosophy. Well, yeah, but that's the same same thing. Is it? I I I don't know if I would agree with that. But my question really is it seems like you carry a lot of progressive philosophy. The people of Watertown seem to make it really apparent. I do think we should move

190forward. Yes. Okay. So, you think that the people of Watertown would be supportive of having someone with a progressive philosophy on school moving forward? Yes. Thank you. Not sure why you wouldn't want to move forward instead of backwards. just any other um I'm gonna ask you the same question. You know, discipline is a problem within our district and bullying. Uh do you support um restorative justice practices for discipline for children? Well, at home when my children are misbehaving, um they they do have timeouts and consequences. Um, however, when they do something well, I praise the heck out of them because I think praise um, carries way more weight than, you know, making them cry over something. So, right. But you're going to be in a position if you're on the board where we're going to

191have to make some discipline policies that administration's going to have to follow. And I'm asking would you support restorative justice practices over traditional um where con you know there's if you take an action there will be consequences associated with them outside of restorative justice practices where you sit down and share. Well yeah I guess I was kind of alluding to I think restorative justice practices are more I'm more in favor of them than consequential punishment. Okay, thank you. Okay, any other questions? Let me give my good evening. Um, I'm Steve Good. Um I have lived in the district or city of Watertown for 32 years. Um came here after graduation with my dad. Um and lived in this city ever since. Uh I have for educational background. Uh I've coached for the last 20 years

192or so in several different school districts. Um I have family members that are in education. Um, and I've been around collaborating with teachers and students for the last 20 years in my role as a coach. Um, overall the feelings that I have is that this is a nonpartisan position which has been stated before. Um, and that's the stance I take. I don't attribe to any certain particular political party. Um I look at what is best in advocating for the children that are in our school districts. Um along with in our schools also advocating for the teachers and having the best teachers that we can have. Um one of the things that I have noticed in my time in the town is that this our board can get contentious sometimes just based on different viewpoints etc.

193Um, I want to be able to sit down, listen, ask questions, be curious about what other people are thinking. Um, to help come to a a better resolution for everybody. Um, during, uh, the campaign, I did run for school board. Uh, during the campaign, I did go out to the schools. I've talked with parents. I've talked with students um to get a feel of where they think things should be and where we should go. Um, a lot of the talks came up tonight. Transparency was one of them. Uh, and as it's been said before, I think putting the the meetings online so people can get their own information uh is a good thing. Uh, also I I think sometimes we hear what we want to hear rather than what's actually being said. Uh, in some

194cases I've had plenty of families come up and say, "Please don't close my school. it's it's working. My students are doing well. Everybody's doing well. In other cases, I've heard people say, you know, well, we got to make changes somewhere and we know it's coming. Um, with that being said, I'm just going to advocate for our kids and our teachers. That's what I need to do as being a board member. Um, listening to the people that I'm talking to, um, and taking back to this board what they're saying and and repeating what they're saying. questions. Guess what? Uh, you know, I I think one of the things that has been uh good over the last year or so is just the uh calmness of the board. And what I mean by that is that there

195is there was times before that the coming to board meetings would have been pretty contentious and people going back and forth with each other. Um I think there are still some areas of growth that we could work on but I also think there's a little bit more listening to each other than just talking at each other. So I think that is something that has been good opportunity. Uh, I think listening to the teachers, listening to the students, listening to our community about what they need and what they want and not in a way of does it fit my agenda of what I'm looking to do, but actually listening and and taking that information in and sitting with it and then being able to speak to those things. Are we going to talk about referendum next?

196Yeah. All right. uh on the referendum. Uh I think that there were some opportunities that um were there that were missed. And one of those opportunities I think that were missed is that there was an active uh social media presence. And I mean you there was places I couldn't go where I didn't see stickers put up about why you shouldn't vote for the referendum. And there was a there was a big push. um whether it be you know people talking about well if you vote for the referendum then you get DEI um this that whatever and some of those things weren't even talked about but yet they came up and then there was it was kind of like a if we don't talk about it then it might go away well it didn't go away

197and it kind of grew its own way and kept going. Um I think overall educating people at the level that they can understand of what's going on. I I agree. Um I did attend listening sessions. I did ask questions. Um and also in that opportunity of asking questions, there's things that confuse me and I consider myself quas educated. So therefore, I I think if there's questions for me, I think as the average person and average person in Watertown, I think plenty of people had questions and I'm not sure they all got them answered on on the way how we presented it to them. So I actually have a different question for you. Okay. Um and this one's a lot a lot more I I guess linear. Uh it's not quite so broad. um because you

198have run before and uh this question is more of a check-in since the last time uh you came up for uh the appointment. Uh during your statement previously at the last appointment session, you stated that you do not think that there is a reason that males should go into girls locker rooms. Do you still hold that position or have you changed your mind since then? Uh my Yeah, that was my position. I still agree with that and I still think that there's no reason for females to go into males locker rooms. Okay. So, my my point of that is is that the focus was on the males and not the females. And I don't know why we wouldn't protect our males as well. Okay. Gotcha. Thank you. Um, any other questions? Thank you, Steve. Excellent.

199Michaelski, is that correct? Yes, sir. Nice to see you again. Nice to see you again. Well, like the boss man said, my name is Michael Kajowski. I'd like to thank you all for coming to my uh meeting here tonight. Uh sorry it went so long. Um you've seen my cover letter, you've seen my resume, so I'm not going to uh uh take up your time going, you know, rehashing all of that kind of stuff. Um, I think from what the other folks have said, I'm the only one here that has worked directly with students in this district. Uh, as a result, I bring a unique perspective to this uh, job. I'm fair-minded, good listener, respected by both teachers and staff in this district, and I strongly believe collaboration is the key to success around here.

200uh like the rest of us, I've been in this town, been here in this town a long time, been active in different community activities for uh over 30 years. So, I believe I understand the concerns that the community also has. We can't operate on assumptions. We can't just say, "Oh, you know, um uh use some kind of cute buzzword or something and think we we we know what everybody's talking about." Our role as I view the role of of school board, our role is to provide support to the teachers and staff as they prepare our kids to thrive in a pluralistic society. That's a society that has multiple value systems, all of which are valid to certain segments of this community that needs to be respected. We are stronger because we are different. We cannot

201condone teaching our students to live in fear from those who are different. It is also not our role to act in local parents. That's a fancy dancy lawyer's term, which means in place of the parents. It comes to mind in legal situations when you're trying to say the parent isn't capable of doing their job, so somebody else should step in and do it. No, that's not that's not the rule of a school board. We must keep all stakeholders in mind, children, teachers, staff, parents, and community. Uh, as just a little bit of aside, I just I don't know if it's warning you or not, but um I don't do hypotheticals. Okay? So, if as you're preparing your questions, um I don't do hypotheticals. And here's why. as uh a lawyer primarily in law school but

202also uh elsewhere when lawyers get together we often engage in conversations with hypotheticals. Hey, so what if this or you know how about that? Um the problem is the lawyers don't really want an answer. What they want is to back you into a hypothetical corner so that they can label you as pro or con as uh enemy or friend and then they'll use that information against you for everything else afterwards. I mean, I've had people come up to me 10 years later and still hold, you know, you know what I said. Um, no, I'm sorry. Uh, I'm I'm not going down that path. Um, also it it's it's from my experience when last time I was on the school board, it's a whole lot harder to talk smack when you have to look the parent

203and the child in the eye and say this is why I'm not doing this or this is why we're not helping you or this is why you know we're doing it's really easy here in the in this room to say oh yeah you know we should do this we should do that but um I'm I'm you've all been on the board I'm I'm sure you've experienced expulsions um or suspensions. Um it's it it's different when you've got a real life body in front of you. Also, uh again, kind of on as an aside, we talk about sterilizing the school environment in order to protect our children. But a child on his lunch break in Riverside with a cell phone is going to learn a lot more about the dark side of the world than reading

204Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Tequila Mockingbird, Tom Sawyer. All four of those books have been banned somewhere in this country. Lastly, one of the components of community is that we support each other even if we do not have a direct benefit from our support or from our efforts. That needs to be stressed. Um so I would end my comments with simply asking if not us who and if not now when. So questions So, well, I'm curious to to know what you think is the greatest accomplishment of the board in the past year and what you think our greatest opportunity is within the next I think the greatest accomplishment for the board is the people you hire. Um, all especially all the ones that are working behind the scenes, but even even just, you know, a

205third grade teacher, a fifth grade teacher. I mean, can I can I talk like adults? I mean, you're going to bust your ass for, you know, 10 12 hours a day and get paid for only eight of them. Um, working with with kids from all walks of life and stuff and yet they want to do it and they and they resign their contracts and they stick with it. That's just you can't you can't downplay that. Uh one of the opportunities uh for the upcoming year is to focus in my opinion um is to focus on bringing up the reading scores. You saw that I tutored in Douglas for three years uh as a reading core t the lead reading core tutor and um I really think that reading core um has it. I mean they've

206got the proven track record. Uh they can show the numbers. I've worked with kids that were in the 20th percentile. After a couple years, we had them up in the 60th, 70th, 80th percentile. It can be done, but it's it's it's uh hard. And Reading Corps has a very structured um way of doing it. Um but yeah, I I would I would say really put some put some time and effort into uh uh focusing on those reading scores. Michael, thank you for your service using an MP on the board here. So, the um got some interesting stories there. If we go get a beer after this, sounds good. Um could you talk about the referendum? Are you Yeah, the referendum. Um and these are two little things. I don't know if they would uh uh

207greatly change things, but one thing that really um was a B in my bonnet, if there was some way we could do this without calling it a tax, we're not really lying to anybody, but like like somebody else had mentioned with with the way um Act 10 came down, we have no choice. And it's I mean when I think of tax I think of paying to you know the state or to the federal government. This is just an operating cost. I mean, we didn't stress anything about the fact that the bulk of our expenses are um salary and and benefits uh of which we have very little control of and of which you probably all are aware of that we're not very high in the percentiles for what we pay our teachers. Um but yet

208the the community, the very same people that we're working in cohort with um somehow viewed it as as ownorous. Um uh so if if there was a way to I mean come on face we probably pay more for cable TV than we pay for what this um uh referendum would have hit but it was called a tax. who I don't want to pay tax. Um but again, I don't know how in the world we would we would alter um alter that. Um yeah, that's like like I said, it doesn't really, you know, make the problem go away. Um but uh um and then yeah, continue with the meet and greets and stuff. Have you ever read the book 1984? Yes, sir. Good. I've read all of those books that you mentioned. Yes, sir. Because I

209happen to be going to W Whitewater right now, taking a American literature class. [Music] Oh, and Sam, just in case you're wondering, I haven't written a book, but I have written three screenplays. So if you're interested what those screenplays are about because that sounds really interesting when you know I think screenplay writing is very different from novel writing. You have to focus on different things. That's that's really interesting. Um yeah. Can can you clarify for me what years you were on the school board previously because you're in kind of a unique position among the applicants tonight. Yeah, that's got to be a good 20 years ago. Um Lynn, what did we think? It was like 20 0 2006 or I mean ' 06 to '09, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it's been a

210while. Okay. Thanks. I appreciate that. And then do you think that books with uh explicit sexual content in them should be made available to minors outside of their parents' permission? Are we talking about inside the school district? Within the school district. Inside the school district. That's a loaded question. Um to pick a couple of sentences or a paragraph. I mean that's one of the reasons um let's see which one was it? Uh catcher in the rye uh and um 1984 and 1984 had had you know were loaded with that stuff. if it's done in the right context um with with uh uh you know within the classroom uh and within the with adult supervision. Yeah. In and of itself um uh we you know it it's not I mean it would I I think it's

211acceptable. Okay. And and I I should probably go on to explain that I have family members that um uh they sit around sit around and they're really got their undies in the bundle by seeing how society is going to hell in a hand basket. So what they've done uh over the years is they grumble about it, grumble about it. They meet cohorts that also grumble about it and then finally they decide to do something about it. But as individuals, the best things they can do is attempt to change the lifestyle of the children, the only people in society that they have control over. And what they do is or and I'm I'm not speaking broadly. I'm, you know, speaking from from personal experience. And so what they went after was what the kids wore. um

212who they hung out with. Um let's see what I had. Um what they could watch, what they could listen to, what they could read, things like that. Not realizing that by attacking those individual things, they're not going to change society and all they're going to do is turn their children against them. um if if if you don't like those aspects of it, we we have to approach it from a bigger standpoint. Um to to just say, you know, oh, there was, you know, sex in this book, so you're going to become a deviant. Um it it, you know, it doesn't work that way. Um, and and in all fairness, it aggravated my relatives as much as it aggravated the child because they got so poed that they were putting all this effort into it and

213they weren't seeing any change. So, not the best approach. time where we uh distribute the ballots and discussion on the candidates three point order I guess um we also have agenda here the uh discussion of the candidates is there Anybody that wanted to have a discussion about the candidates? I have a question. I'm sorry. This is not the time for public input. All right. Then I guess we'll commence with the ballot. Make sure everybody signs. I didn't sign. Come on, Carl. I didn't know that sign is public record. Thank you. The tallies are in round one. Uh Steve Good, zero votes. Lori Hoffman, five votes. Michael Kajow, excuse me, Michael Kajowski, one vote. David Morris, uh, zero votes. And Michael PC, one vote. Seeing as though we have a candidate that received five votes, that

214would be the candidate that won this particular uh, board appointment election. That would be Lori Hoffman. Uh would you accept the uh appointment of the board? Yes. Okay. So, be it resolved that the Watertown Unified School District Board of Education hereby appoints to fill a board vacancy uh commencing at the next board meeting uh limited term expiring in April 2026 to Lori Hoffman. Do I hear a motion? I moved. I second. It was moved by Sam and seconded by Dan. Roll call vote, please. Craig Warin, yes. Charity Chandler, yes. Tammy Forner, yes. Diana Johnson, yes. Sam Owen, yes. Carl Schwarzy, yes. Dan Bolton, yes. And the motion carries. Congratulations, Lori. We'll be in touch. Um, when it comes to onboarding, you're off of office and you get rotated into the uh uh the the the

215lion's fire here right away. So, um we will be in touch. Thank you. Thank you. All righty. So, that brings us to uh our consent agenda. Resolution 9395. We have uh minutes, committee summaries, uh personal staffing, resignations. We also have retirement of a number of different uh staff members, approval of bills, and the first and second reading of board policy. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Second. It was moved by Sam, seconded by Dan. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call vote, please. Craig Warbin, yes. Charity Chandler, yes. Tammy Four, yes. Diana Johnson, yes. Sam Owen, yes. Carl Schwarzy, yes. Dan Bolton, yes. And the motion carries. one one check in. Um you uh in our discussion of committee uh summaries um you wanted to pull one of the minutes for correction that didn't happen.

216Can't remember exactly which one it was but I it was the change of the word all in the policy committee. I think that's what it was. It was the word all in the action items referring to model 13. There were two sectors. There was that and I believe there was something around the words uh board president versus committee members uh in a discussion. I can't remember there was services ed services and I think we so somebody may need to make a correction uh um motion to amend. Yeah, thank you. What is 9:30 following? Yeah, I motion to amend those two items. motion. Okay. Yeah. Sorry about that. I didn't catch that. I know it's getting late and I'm trying to keep track of everybody. But was it just that one or was it was ED

217services and it was ed services and policy and policy. So you're making the motion to amend to pull ed services as well as what was the other? policy policy minutes to to make revisions to make revisions to be presented with the next technically it's a retroactive think but yeah um is there a second for that motion I already did all right seconded by Diana now roll call roll call vote on the amendment yes Chandler, yes. Tammy Forier, yes. Diana Johnson, yes. Sam Owing, yes. Carl Schwarzy, yes. Dan, yes. And the motion carries. Try not to. Um, do we have to vote for that again or just No, we're good. We're good. Okay. Okay. Okay. Resolution 9396, the 2025 2026 support staff notice of continuing employment. Um, this is support staff going into the next year.

218Do I hear a motion? I moved. Second. It was moved by Sam and seconded by Tammy. Roll call vote, please. Portman. Yes. Charity Chandler. Yes. Tammy Fornier. Yes. Diana Johnson. Yes. Sam Owen. Yes. Carl Schwarzy. Yes. Dan Bolner. Yes. And the motion carries. Resolution 9397. The summer school 2025 summer schooling staff as indicated there. We hear a motion. Second. Moved by Tammy, seconded by Dan. Any discussion? Roll call vote, please. Craig Portman, yes. Carrie Chandler, yes. Tammy Four, yes. Diana Johnson, yes. Sam, yes. Carl Schwarzy, yes. Dan Bolner, yes. Motion carries. Resolution 9398, the Skyward renewal. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Second. It was moved by Sam and seconded by Dan. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Craig Wartman, yes. Charity Chandler, yes. Tammy Porier, yes. Diana Johnson, yes. Sam Owen, yes.

219Carl Schwarzy, yes. Dan Buler, yes. And the motion carries. Resolution 9399. That is a light wall purchase using uh common school funds was discussed in the fiscal committee. Do I hear a motion? I move second. It was moved by Dan and seconded by Tammy. Any discussion hearing? None. Roll call vote, please. Craig Warpin, yes. Charity Chandler, yes. Tammy Borneer, yes. Diana Johnson, yes. Samo, no. Carl Schwarzy, yes. Dan Boltner, yes. And the motion carries. Resolution 9400, Hardscapes Project. This was also brought up in fiscal committee regarding uh the parking lot maintenance at Douglas. Do I hear a motion? Second. It was moved by Sam and seconded by Carl. I'll amend my previous statement. It's not necessary ne necessarily the parking lot parking lot maintenance is the uh contractor but it is for uh the purposes

220of u the playground uh maintenance. Any further discussion? Well, this document has both the quotes on it. So, I just want to clarify in the minutes that we are going to go with proposal where we do the whole repay, not just two inches, right? That's what we're going to move forward with. Alternate one, alternate allowance one, and alternate two. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I think that's uh I think that's what the resolution reads. Yeah. Any other questions or comments? Hey, roll call vote, please. Craig Wharton. Yes. Charity Chandler. Yes. Tammy Forier. Yes. Diana Johnson. Yes. Sam Owen Neil. Yes. Carl Schwaresy. Yes. Dan Bolner. Yes. And the motion carries. Resolution 901, the 2025 2026 breakfast, lunch, and milk prices. Also discussed at fiscal committee. Um there is a slight increase. Uh um we hear a

221motion. I move. I'll second. Moved by Dan, seconded by Tammy. Roll call, please. Craig Wardman, yes. Charity Chandler, yes. Tammy Forier, yes. Diana Johnson, yes. Sam Owen, yes. Carl Schwarzy, no. Dan Wner, yes. And the motion carries. Resolution 9402, the 2025 2026 school fees. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Second. Moved by Sam, seconded by Dan. Any discussion? I did have a concern question about um you know the extracurricular family maximum did were we able to gather any particular impact financial impact on yeah the total revenue for these fees is it ranges a little bit but it's averaging about $50,000. Okay. And what would do you know what like a impact would be if there there would be a change to it was really hard to determine how many people had multiple kids. Yeah.

222So it's hard to say but with the total amount being $50,000 I would guess. Okay. Um what it was asking was that um there's a there's a family maximum for children that um participate in extracurricular um activities in the middle school as well as a family maximum at the high school. Um for for a large family that might discourage children from being able to participate in in both. And I kind of felt like that maybe there should be a family maximum that's that that could serve both uh uh levels and um I don't know what that number was. I asked Sarah uh what what the fiscal impact of those numbers are. I feel I feel like that that's it's not a huge number that that would be if if um I I guess I would

223propose that uh the that the family maximum not exceed $225 for both the middle school and the high school combined as an amendment to that. Can we do that and still pass the motion today or would it's an amendment but it would have the resolution that would be my motion. Okay. Someone would have to second. I'll second that. Yeah, I think we move that. Okay. So, as as moved by myself and seconded by Sam discussion so you feel it would Sorry. Go ahead. Oh, I just have Okay. I understand the 225 because that's the high school maximum. Yeah. If you have two students playing at least two sports, they already get a significant discount at the 225. Sure. So, my original thought is I like the idea of combining them. Yeah. But I was thinking

224whether it be 275, you know, something like that to at least give a little bit of an impact. You know what I'm saying? To acknowledge the middle school level sports because that pays for different things within each of those. Um, so even at say a 275 or a 300, they're still having a savings with three kids. Okay? You know, or more, even more so than that. But we're not taking anything away from um and I don't know in the middle school if they use it for equipment or uniforms or whatever because you don't want to take that either. We're not talking about a ton of people. It's still a savings. It's just how how deep. That would just be my thought. No, that's that's fair. You asking the question just made me think Sarah, how

225do we how would we allocate that if we just have a max across both institutions? So, how does how would that get allocated to middle school versus high school? Because the revenue has to go into a revenue account. So, it isn't like a simple like they collect these fees, they spend these fees. It's more like we collect the fees and put them into a revenue account and then we give them money in the expense account. Thank you. Um, I know I know Diana mentioned a different dollar amount. I just threw that number out as a conversation starter early. So, if if you have a motion to amend the amendment um, Sure. Or 275. Okay. There's a motion to amend the amendment 275. I'll second that. It was sec moved and seconded by Sam. Roll call

226vote on the amendment. Actually, let me let me back up. Is there discussion on the amendment? Hearing none. We'll call vote on amendment. For yes. Charity Chandler, yes. Amy Forier, yes. Diana Johnson, yes. Sam Owen, yes. Carl Schwarzy, yes. Dan Ber, yes. And the motion carries. The amendment to the uh student draft fees carries. Now the uh resolution for uh 9402 as it has been amendment. So moved second moved by Sam and seconded by Tammy. It's already any discussion. We already have a motion on that. We already moved on it. Uh I have Sam and Dan. Sam and Dan. Okay. Any any further discussion? Okay. Sorry, we're getting through it. Good job. No other discussion. Procall vote on the main motion, please. Craig Orbin, yes. Charity Chandler, yes. Tammy Forier, yes. Diana Johnson, yes. Sam

227Owen, yes. Schwarzy, yes. Dan Ber, yes. And the motion carries. Resolution 903, the CC2 contract, which is which provides services to the district at for a number of years. Do we hear a motion? I'll second it. Okay. Moved by Diana, seconded by Sam. Uh Dian. Any further discussion? Okay. Roll call. Vote, please. Craig Wartman, yes. Charity Chandler, yes. Tammy Cornier, yes. Diana Johnson, yes. Sam Owen, yes. Carl Schwarzy, yes. Dan Boner, yes. And the motion carries. Resolution 9404, the purchase of Chromebooks from the vendor insight. Also discuss the fiscal committee. This is a typical uh regular rotation of Chromebooks that our district uh has been planning for. Do I hear a motion? So second moved by Tammy, seconded by Diana. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call vote, please. Greg Orman, yes. Charity Chandler, yes.

228Tammy Fornier, yes. Diana Johnson, no. Sam, no. Craig, excuse me. Carl Schwarzy, yes. Dan Boulder, yes. And the motion carries. Resolution 9405 ecampus charter school 2025 through 2020 well 2030 contract. Um this was discussed at ED services for the purposes of moving uh there was just a logistical um process by which we approve the eCampus charter contract and board's involvement with that charter. Do I hear a motion? I move. I second. Moved by Dan and seconded by Sam. Any any discussion? Yeah, I do have uh one question for clarification. We talked about it uh during the previous meeting where this came up. Um there is an expectation that we're going to be discussing standards and expectations and all of that when it comes to the eCampus and charter contract. Correct. Uh I I believe there

229is a stipulation in there that we're going to be looking for the attainment of those goals and that we're going to ensure that that happens and that this is not a contract that persists outside of the continued achievement of those goals. Correct. There is language at the end of the contract that surrounds that um evaluation piece. Uh if you uh want to take a look at the contract, it's on the last page. Um, let me open it up so I can get there. Uh, and if you're looking at uh the piece where it talks about revocation, that would be on page um 10, I believe. Let's see here if I'm right. Yep, page 10. Uh, top of the page, letter E, revocation. And it does talk about um ways in which revocation could happen. Uh

230and um in that piece talking about acceptable um you know explic explanation as to why certain goals were not met. Okay. That was my only question. So, you know, that that is a is a a clause in the contract that's there available and should you not have sufficient reason or rationale to see that goals are met, the board could do a relocation based on the contract language. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? Yeah, we were soliciting the liaison for that as well. Oh, that's right. Yeah. So at the committee meeting the the board suggested having a board a less on from this board uh to that board to um you know join them uh you know and and hear those things and be able to speak more towards those quarterlys uh in a in a

231fashion that can talk about what the board their board is talking about how they're doing. I think um better communication uh is always a good thing. Um, yeah, and you can ask me more questions, but it is getting really I can't believe I pulled that one out of my So, my reservations were um along those lines. uh ecampuses existed in our school district for a number of years and we hold our our existing staff and uh student body to a a high level of standards when it comes to to measurable standards as per being data driven. The measurable goals that are indicated in this contract um are more qualitative goals than they are quantitative goals. I and I I I think that's a it's an issue. I think that's been lacking in the U accountability

232measure of eCampus for quite some time. The other part of of those measurable goals like for instance 100% of eCampus staff will will complete a minimum of 10 ar hours of targeted professional development annually. While that is a very uh uh great and loudable uh goal, um that seems to be more of an expectation than it is actually a goal. So uh there there's a number of those particular standards, means of measurement that they're utilizing. 100% of the students will create uh a and update a personalized learning plan, a PLP uh with 80 85% meeting or exceeding their PL progress goals. What does that mean? Take another class. Um so, so I mean it's ambiguous at best. Those particular standards are not they're just they're it seems like they're expectations, not goals. Um, and I

233struggle with that. Yeah. Uh, Diana's first. You touched on a number of things. Um, PLPS are part of an online learning profile. They don't have the same testing standards. They don't have the same um, they don't take the forward, you know, I shouldn't say they don't take the forward exam. They don't take assessments the way the traditional schools take assessments. So, their PL is what drives their education. when you teach at an online school and having the fact that they have this as a goal to do that professional development. I thought that was huge because teaching at an online school is very different than teaching in a traditional classroom. So to consistently um meet the needs of those students, I thought these goals were very well done for what's here. Um, I think what you're

234getting at is more of the the they do state with the college and career competencies or college and career readiness, the competency based student progress. Those two pieces are what you're getting at as far as the more tangible qualitative quantitative sorry quantitative pieces. Um, I mean 90% of students will de demonstrate median to accelerated scale score growth in math. Now, it doesn't necessarily say that they're going to be proficient, but if you think about the clientele of students in general that are at um our eCampus and things that way to have that progressive measurement is huge. That means if they started at minimal and they have that growth, now they're basic or above basic. They've grown more than a traditional student. So, we're talking about a different clientele in general. So, I appreciate the achievement

235goals and maybe we just need more um description on what those are to give the board some better knowledge to wrap their brains around it. I guess I I I understand what you're saying and I don't necessarily disagree. I'm just saying that there hasn't been an effort to bring any type of quantitative data to the board to show any type of level trackable level or measurable level of success or um discussion point around sounds like a great ed services conversation. I know and I've been asking for years and there's your chair person. Here we go. So um can can I request a maybe quick solution? Is this the sort of thing that the liaison from the board to the eCampus charter program would be able to discuss and would be able to refine with them?

236It would be able to be discussed and refined, but as far as holding them to the contract, right, these are outlined. Gotcha. So, uh, you know, um, there there's we still have to hold them accountable to the remedy that's in the contract, still allowable to make changes and and look at those things and do those things. Um, but they will still need to be performative to the contract. So, there's that. Then, then there's um on page five, there's a um a statement that says racial and ethnic balance procedures. Um, ecampus academy charter school will strive to achieve a racial and ethnic balance reflective of the district population. What does that mean? You're going to not allow students to participate in eCampus based on what or or we are I'm so confused. Why why is that

237there? Yeah. Is that the question is is this a is this a school version of affirmative action or is this something else because it certainly can read that way? I mean to me to me it's there should be other language in that that would probably be more reflective of what what eCampus is driving. So I guess I would I would move to refer this back to the um ed services committee for further discussion. uh with yeah I would I' I'd move to refer this back to the ED services committee for further discussion. I just have one point of clarification from my own understanding under recommended action. It says eCampus and endeavor staff will provide quarterly data informed updates to the education services committee and everything else in the contract reads ecampus endeavor governance board. So,

238are both eCampus and Endeavor now planning to do these quarterly updates? Yes, the answer is yes. Okay. Uh, I'll second Craig's motion to send it back to Ed services. There's been a motion and there's a motion and a second [Music] to approve of the resolution to refer it back to committee. I I understand that. Um you didn't take care of the the first motion that was sent. Are you amending the motion? No, I think that's proper order. Not mistaken. It can be referred back to committee. Um, would you have to vote down the resolution and then refer it back to committee? No, I think just amend the resolution. Refer back to committee. Right. That's an action you can do, but you would have to do that through an amended motion. What do you say, Darl?

239I was going to say I think if you point a uh if you table it to a committee yes you can do that in a motion but you don't need to turn it down right you don't you don't have to vote no but you have to amend the motion to to do what you did it's a no amendment is as a separate motion it's referring it to the committee so that would be in order So, roll call vote and referring it back to committee. Okay, let's rewind. You're making a motion to do what? To refer the um eCampus eCampus um resolution 94 resolution back to committee. We have discussion first, please. There will be after after you said roll. Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. Go ahead. You just asked for a roll call vote. The

240second was uh Sam. Sam, go ahead, Diane. So, my question is, if it's referred back to committee, what do we hope to achieve or accomplish before it comes back here? What what are the look fors that we're going to do? Sure. One one of them is to to look a little bit closer at at the contract language. Two, is there is there more of a discussion to be had around um quantitative measurable goals? um moving forward and three, you know, is it is it appropriate for a five-year ask? That would be my my my uh perspective that maybe maybe until uh certain metrics are put in place that perhaps maybe five years is too long. So there's there's not the accountability measures. I don't know. Those are my my thoughts, but maybe other people have

241other reasons. Any other discussion? Just a a point of information that um the uh contract submitt has to be to the DPI by June end of June June 30th. So just so you know your timeline to resolve any language. Okay. If it's not then we no longer have a charter with those two entities. All right. The motion is to refer it back to committee for June. Roll call, please. Craig Wharton. Yes. Charity Chandler. Yes. Sandy here. Yes. Diana Johnson. No. Sam Owen. Yes. Chair, I'm sorry. Carl Schwarzy. Yes. Dan Bolton. No. The motion carries. All right. This brings us to our second and last opportunity for public comment. Any takers? that. Um, so on your uh on your chemical um herbicides on the lawn topic, uh the the young lady that came and talked to

242you talked about specifically about um the the herbicides and pesticides on the lawn that they're playing on, as well as the the pumpkins problem. Uh, and I looked this up, uh, and transferring over to a chemical-free lawn solution isn't a matter of just not spraying now and then or it's it's a process. It's a three-year process and Madison Schools has already done it. Um, it's not hard, but it takes training and, um, I believe this is something that the city would be interested in as well. So maybe we can save money on the training. Um, and I I just would encourage you to consider that and I have I can send you an email with the information. Thank you. I just had a quick question with regards to the interview process for the uh board

243member. Is there a reason that all of the candidates weren't asked all of the same questions? Can you identify yourself for uh the record, please? Oh, yeah. My name is Cynthia Lindberg and I have uh grandchildren in the district. Um and of course, I'm very concerned about the education and what goes on. So, I try to stay in touch. Um but my question, can we get your address as well, please? Oh, sure. 313 North Montgomery Street, Watertown, Wisconsin. Thank you. You're welcome. So, my question was, is there a reason that all of the candidates weren't asked all of the same questions? Cynthia, I just want to let you know that this is not really intended to be a back and forth open dialogue between yourself and the board. It is just an opportunity for you

244to pass public input. Okay. I was just curious. It It wasn't I was just curious as to why it wasn't handled that way. That's all. All right. Thank you, Cynthia. Elizabeth Boxel, I promise I'm going to make this brief. 809 KC Drive. Um I just wanted to reinforce some ideas I heard tonight. Um, as a staff member and with children in the district, I pay really close attention to the new policies, including the staff and student grooming and dress policy. Um, and reading the phrase to adopt the the model policy, also communicated to me that every word that was in there, such as dresses with no sleeves, um, the 4 in of the skirts, the no belly showing, etc., was what was going to be proposed to be moving forward. Um, I know it seemed

245kind of some people said there was some assumption there and some people said, but as I read it and as several other staff members and parents read it, it really made it sound like we were going forward with the exact language that was in that model policy. Um, and so I definitely appreciate the attention to um to verbiage as it were and I definitely appreciate the attention intention of being very very specific in our language um because assumptions lead to very dangerous ground as an employee if I thought the assumption was oh we're good with tank tops but in fact it was stated otherwise you know that could that could be very dangerous. Um, and I like to make sure that I, as a member of the school district, I'm representing myself in the best

246way forward and to the expectations of the admin. So, again, just being very, very explicit in verbiage and phrasing moving forward. Um, I just very much highlight that and I appreciate the board members who were um who made a point to express that that could have been interpreted very differently by different people. Um, and I would also appreciate the clarification of when that will be brought up, if it will be brought up as a policy for actually voting on. So, thank you guys for taking attention to that. I know it adds to the evening, but it really does matter to us who have to buy clothes for our kids. We like to buy them on clearance and yet, you know, so if I had to purchase shorts that were different than the expectations of the

247shorts that we were talking about tonight, that has a financial uh impact on my family and me as a staff member. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Any anybody else for uh uh Brad Vicroy, uh W4867 Thresh Road, Watertown, Wisconsin. Just wanted to speak today about Leap Elementary and potential for it being closed. Um I'm not actually from Watertown. Uh we moved here a couple years ago cuz my wife's originally from here and she actually went to LEP in the past. Um, when we first moved back five years ago, um, I got asked to be a part of the original group that was trying to get reinstated and actually got about five more years for him until we're kind of where we're at now. Um, never really had any feeling of, hey, we needed

248to use, you know, save this school, any like that. Never really knew much about it. But the more I got to know about it, um the reason I thought and you know found out why it was so special combination of the green spaces, the teachers that they have out there and kind of um the community and parents that support it. Fast forward 5 years, I got a kindergartener and a second grader out at Leap. And every single day I see more and more why it's a place that needs to get saved. And the last 2, three years alone, there's been garden beds, pollinators, plant teppes, chickens, goats, outdoor classrooms, shade structures for students, um, bees, uh, lots of trees, and I could go on and on and on, but I think you guys want to

249get home because it's already a late night. Um, a lot of students in district can't tell you where their food comes from, but at leap, uh, students actually help harvest it from things from produce to honey and kind of everything in between. and they get responsibility from uh caring for animals um and a lot of values that you don't see in in other unique situations. Um I hear a lot of different things from uh the board, the superintendent about why we should close schools in regards to, you know, low enrollment, um financial responsibilities, um different things like that. Um you know, looking at enrollment across the board, 10ear average, LEAP's the only school in the district that has a net zero average. They're one of the only school in the last five years that has

250actually seen an increase in enrollment and in the last three years uh LEAP and Lincoln are the only two um that have had an increase in enrollment in the last three years. Um coincidence that both of those I believe have specialty programs with STEM um and the environmental stuff and those are the two programs that are actually um increasing percentage- wise in enrollment. there programs like that are things that we need to protect um and are things that actually could help enrollment in the future by bringing people into the district um and doing things like that. From a financial standpoint, LEAP is actually the um lowest per pupil building cost of out all the elementary schools in the district. And they are actually the only school that has decreased their per pupil cost from uh

251LA uh 2023 to 2024 doing it by about 10% while every other school in the district has increased it from anywhere from six to 9%. So from a cost standpoint, $22,000 a year building cost to keep up LEAP. Every other school is a minimum of $65 to $160,000. So I'm not asking, hey, LEAP, we got to save it. Is that the only option? I'm just asking to look at other options. I've even talked to Craig at one of the meetings we went to and asked, hey, have you guys looked at other things? No, really, we haven't. So, like, how are you supposed to make an educated decision about something that's special about our district when you guys haven't even looked at other options? From an enrollment standpoint, you could take the entire school of Shur

252and put it in Douglas and it would not be at its historical high that it was 10 years ago. You could take the entire school of Lincoln and put it into Douglas. It would not be at its historical high or even be at capacity. Would actually be within uh what the target range for student capacity would be. So, is it the answer? Maybe, maybe not. Use facts to do and come up with other answers. It's not something that needs to get done right now. There's other things we can do. So, let's be transparent about what we're doing. Not have an agenda and say, "Hey, Leap's got to go cuz I feel like that's what Leap's had is on a target on his back for the last 5 years." So, hey, let's look at other options.

253Let's be transparent about why and be able to explain it. And you know, it's something in the district that's special that really could bring people in or create a community and culture that we So, thank you very much. Any other comment? All right. Thank you. That concludes um that concludes the public comment period that we have for tonight. And uh do is there Okay. Um do I hear a motion for a fivem minute recess? Yeah. I'll second. So it's moved by Diana, seconded by Sam. All those in favor? Motion carried. Okay, that's why that's why there. Do I hear a motion to enter into close session? Stated in the agenda. So moved. Moved by Sam. Second, seconded by Dan. Oh, I already did, but he can roll. Sorry, Diana. Roll call vote, please. Orin, yes.

254Jody Chandler, yes. Forier, yes. Diana Johnson, yes. Sammy, yes. Carl Schwarzy, yes. Dan Bolner, yes. Okay. And the motion carries.