001spot at the right time I'll call the meeting to order rise Alle States na indivisible ly if you could please call R call the role FR y here Diana Johnson Sam AO here David Sher here Dan bolner here Craig Wartman here charity Chandler here Mike Higgins and Lorie Holland um I guess I don't want to say for the record but both Fred and Lori expected to be joining by zoom and Fred made it and uh Lori might be joining soon uh that said uh preview of the agenda Dr Burke any changes modifications NOP comments outstanding okay this comes to the point of the meeting where we're going to open up for public comment as is our uh has been our tradition for the last several meetings uh we put a band on it for 15
002minutes if there's a lot of people who are interested in speaking on matters in front of the board uh we can always vote to extend that and then also I ask you to attempt to keep your comments to three minutes um and uh lastly is the signin which uh as always you're required to state your name and address when you're at the podium but to save on time you can always fill out your uh piece of paper before and or after and then leave it with Melissa on the side so that Lynn has an accurate copy of your name and uh your residency uh and with that I will open it up for public comment um anybody who would like to speak please stand up and take the podium Mary p506 wedge with Drive water
003to and um with this referendum that's coming up for for more money I get postcards and a flyer at home and it says you want to spend all this money over the cap that the state has on but you don't tell us what you're going to spend that money for and how many years you want this extra money for so I was just wondering if you could give us some clarification on that and I'll just sit down and listen to your answer thank you thank you for your comments uh it is not uh customary that the board responds to any public comment at the time the public comments are given uh that being said that information is definitely available and we can certainly address that uh when the board meeting is over and uh you
004can contact anybody on the probably the board Andor the staff afterwards Andor if you email uh we can get that information to you so that's just for clarification for the whole group uh as we're not going to go into the details of the referendum tonight as it's not on the agenda but I appreciate your comments Mary I can give you a call tomorrow I said if you're available I can give you a call tomorrow okay thank you um next okay I'm Jill Kulik W 4520 Smith Thro in WaterOne good evening I come before you tonight as a parent representative for leap Elementary for context leap is an acronym for Lon environmental and agricultural Pathways their mission statement is Leap elementary through a strong Learning Community is committed to engaging all students in meaningful project-based learning
005connected with the environment brought with I brought with me tonight my two children Kylie and Colin who both attend leap Kylie has brought with her tonight a project that she wanted to share with you this is a coral diarama that she made we'll also pass around some of Colin's story webs that Colin has completed recently make sure you read his added comments across the tops of the pages Kylie has attended leap since first grade we chose leap because of its proximity to our home small classroom sizes and because we were so excited to have Kylie experience a Hands-On education that encourages children to be kind to the Earth at leap they encouraged sustainable environmental choices like composting lunchroom food scraps they let kids get Hands-On with planting Gard vegetables and encourage them to literally eat
006the vegetables and fruits of their labor by Try by trying the foods that they grew the funds for the produce cart were donated by teacher Melissa prasa and leap student council pumpkins saved garden seeds as well as items donated by the community members can be purchased here the funds raised from these sales are poured right back into the school to help offset classroom and learning expenses Kylie said that her favorite things about leap are interacting with the school animals and playing outside on the grass at recess Kylie has been a member of the student council for 2 years last year they raised money for the Humane Society through pennies for pause and ran a clothing swap that taught kids to make sustainable choices by selecting New To You items rather than new items this year
007the service project was to collect items for the Gosling nest in total they collected 212 non-p perishables [clears throat] Colin started at leap last year for kindergarten Colin enters school every day with a smile on his face and hugs for his friends and teachers Colin has said that his favorite things about leap are being with his friends and playing soccer outside at recess his favorite part of the classroom is using the program Lexia at the top of Colin's story webs he's been writing things like best school ever and I love leap I brought these with me today to show you that Colin's love and passion for leap quite literally spills out onto the pages of his work every single time he does these story webs both of my children have tested well above State benchmarks
008in both reading and math and while as a parent I'm beyond proud and excited for them I want you to know that at leap this is very common leap has historically had their student body either exceed expectations or exceptionally exceed expectations according to the state DPI report cards this attests to the fact that the school is filled with teachers and staff that are passionate about what they teach they make learning exciting by finding innovative ways to integrate nature into the learning process I brought my children with me today so that you can see their faces and imagine their story and their educational Journey when you are deciding your vote on the future of leap Elementary as fellow leap parent Sandy spoke to at the last school board meeting leap isn't a program that can easily
009be picked up and transplanted to a new location we have multiple large Gardens fruit trees and a chicken run that require the space that is present at none other than leap if you haven't taken the time to tour our school please do so this is an incredible program that you cannot truly appreciate without immersing yourself into it members of the community I ask that you please take some extra time and consideration while doing your research prior to the April 1 election I invite you to join us at the road to referendum session located at leap in the elementary school gym on Mon on uh March 20th at 5:30 p.m. please come and ask any questions that you may want answered so that you can cast your most informed vote please consider your vote when considering
010your vote know that our children teachers and schools depend on you I'm coming before you tonight and asking that you vote Yes to the school operational referendum thank you you any additional public comment one online y Beth Beth online uh please go ahead hey there Elizabeth boxel 809 Casey Drive um I'm looking at the the crowd but I'm addressing the school board uh I'm coming in my capacity as a multilingual teacher to invite you guys to our multilingual family night our annual event um that we have in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce we have students from the high school coming and volunteering um we have nonprofits and profitable businesses alike who are coming to connect with our multilingual families whether they have resources to share or just want to capitalize on um the amazing
011resource that our multilingual families are uh steam Schoolboard members you should have received a save the date in your email earlier this morning from Ashley pyck if you did not please let me know um and we will have a more official invitation coming out just so you can get the date in your head it's on April 8th um but all the rest of the information you can find in your invitation here is a future Watertown Unified School District kiddo and one of the reasons why I stayed home um hold on a second Amiga anyway I just always like I've done for other events encourage uh Schoolboard members it's about an hour and a half event um it's a great way to just come and mingle and get to know the amazing families and students that
012make up over 250 um bodies in all of our levels elementary through secondary and any time that you can take time I know out of your incredibly busy schedules it really shows um how much those families matter to you and not just to us who work with them every day but to use a school board and that you're making decisions with those families in mind so again I know you guys are incredibly busy but if you could find the time maybe half hour just to pop in we promis to give you free pizza maybe even a water um but please please please consider attending our multilingual family night on April 8th Dr Burke was there last year and it made a huge huge impact so we look forward to seeing him and most to hopefully
013all of you there as well all right thanks guys he thank you like have pictures they may end up they may end up leaving before the end of the meeting and I just want to make sure I can at least see it thank you sorry okay um I was trying to do that on the slide okay um that's not agenda uh no one else from the public um oh one more good evening my name is Laura Johnson I'm from w1230 County Road CW in Watertown I'm a parent of two children at leap and I wanted to come here to look at all of you and just know that you are all here as elected representatives of my children and the school District um [clears throat] I know that you have all vowed to do what's
014right for our school district and our students and I feel like you guys have been kind of letting us down I feel like you haven't been listening to our community and to our students our community has shown a deep love for both Lincoln and leap Elementary these two these two schools are the smallest in the district yet they remain full and they have to turn students away often their classes are full their teacher or their um parents want their students to go there and yet we can't get them in they have a unique approach on learning the spaces are small they're comfortable the atmosphere is appealing to the students and the parents the schools themselves are outdated they need some TLC but yet for some reason we all still want our kids there I do
015wonder why the closure of these two schools would even be a suggestion knowing how loved they are by the parents families and the students I'm a realist though I know that my heartfelt speech May likely not grab your attention much longer than the three minutes that I'm here and I fear that the looming referendum and the community strong distrust in your financial irresponsibility [clears throat] we will be seeing a big change to this District I really hope that's not the case and I hope people do vote Yes for this referendum I think we do need it I hope parents see that we need to invest in our children we also need to hold our board and our Administration to a higher standards in regards to their budget but I'm going to digress back to LEAP
016because that's the most important topic at hand tonight for me if we cannot have our building we cannot have a successful program either there is not a way to move our established Gardens our pollinator garden and our native Prairie any true Gardener knows that they know a successful High yielding Garden requires years of care hard work and sweat and probably even some tears before your garden is actually a good Garden we've put a lot of Blood Sweat and Tears into that building and into the outside grounds there are people who have visited leap and have been Green With Envy over our 7.2 Acres of room for our children to roam there are schools ripping up parking lots just to add green space and that is what we have at leap the children are showing you
017what works and makes them succeed the families are telling you what is keeping them in the Watertown school district and they are telling you what's keeping them from choosing them the other private schools in this area I'm telling you what's keeping my children at leap instead of the other multiple schools in this area the community is asking questions and I'm hoping that you guys can do the right thing to ensure that your place on this board is for the right reason Beau that uh finishes up the 15 minutes allowed for public comment um are there any other individuals who wanted to speak and I can give it to the board for consideration otherwise we'll move on with the agenda okay seeing No Hands uh we're next to announcements and recognitions and first up is Addison
018with the uh student board representative hi so over like recently last couple of weeks won High School we've had a lot of accomplishments within our students so our students just hosted Foot Loose this past weekend which was pretty busy and packed um Owen scherg plays second at State wrestling track and field has started has started and just held their winter open Samantha Knight plays six on floor at state in gymnastics students in ya which is youth apprenticeship had their breakfast to recognize their work this program has 16 career Pathways to offer the students Juniors just took the ACT this last Wednesday March 2nd the German and Spanish honor societies inducted new members members these members participate in fundraising community service and keeping solid grades in language classes the oh high has advanced the national level
019for the German exam to for the chance to go on a paid 3we study trip in Germany 12 German students earned recognition of the national German exam out of the 19 that took it that is a record number of students for whs modelu un has a discussion at another school this Thursday and Friday Vis art classic individuals are going to St on April 4th the team itself took fourth overall regionals at Deca state elch was a finalist and received a medal Alexis mua finished fifth and received an automatic invite to the DECA Nationals in Orlando Florida Orlando Florida in April academic de cathlon competed at State and many students placed in the speech category Elliott small had a perfect score earning gold gold along to be chosen to be one of the three to give
020a speech at the award ceremony in the interview section Elliot small Scott butson Julie Glascock all earned gold with perfect scores in the art section Aaron Peterson earned bronze literature Scott butson earned bronze Jackson hmer earned silver will rosett earned gold and math will rosett also earned silver and Jackson Huer earned BR earned bronze and then in social science will rosed also earned bronze the team finished second in division one thank you thank you Addison okay next up is uh the opportunity for all uh individuals running for a board position on April 1st to uh address this board as well as the public who are uh in person or online and uh we will invite them all to speak at the podium except for those who are already seated on the board we can uh
021sit where we are seating and the decision was made to do that in the order of the random draw that their names will appear on the ballot um so uh in order that will be uh Tammy forier Carl schwarzy myself charity Chandler Craig bortman and then Steve good um so with that I will open it up and Tammy if you would be uh so inclined to stand at the podium address us the board as well as the public as to your interest in running for the school board all right well my name is Tammy forer uh thank you for the invitation to address you um I am running for a board not because I have a long history in education I do not um I'm running for board because I was once in a position
022position where there was not a single board member that was advocating for me as a community member when a different District attempted to overstep and uh thwart on my parental rights when I was raising my daughter um that caused me to become highly engrossed in public education to find out what is going on in public education and my children seem to be failing in the United States uh to prepare for this I decided to uh look through some board documents and there are some concerns that should I be elected that I will bring to the board and ask them to address um uh going over documents it seems that our district wants to interweave Dei andal into every facet of our district as a matter of fact your Cornerstone pillars state that you finds seal
023equally as important as AC academic AC education but our high school proficiency and act is not even 40% in math or reading so I kind of feeling like maybe that needs to be transitioned a little and maybe an 8020 where maybe 80% of our school day is spent onal or on Ed academics and 20% is on social emotional learning um it looks like satisfaction with students are going down they think that their P the the staff doesn't care about their education they do not feel safe in school cuz bullying is going up teachers are also upset about the direction that Administration is going going as well as they're unhappy with the board there have been some concerns that I've heard in the community that the board is on responsive to community members um some people
024in this room might say that uh I might not have any place to stand because I did not participate in the Watertown Daily Times candidate Forum nor or the candidate profile or the Forum no I'm not going to participate in um the paper because they do not get information correct and they've done nothing but disparage me for the past n months I'm a principled person I'm not going to work with individuals if I don't have to um if they're going to disparage me to the public without even speaking to me um I will be a disruptor on this board I do not want things to be as they've always been we should not be heavily uh surveying our children we should not be dismissing concerns of constituents in the the community when schools are closing
025and not answer them on their concerns about that especially when they met or exceeded all the expectations that this District put on those schools five years ago to stay open um I intend to make serious change if I get elected I am not going to be working for the board or Administration I will work for my constituents I will be the person there that was not there for me when my school was violating what was in the best interest interest of my family I will work with all of you respectfully I would enjoy robust conversations on why you think that the way that the district is going is in the best interests of our con of our community our children the constituents we're supposed to serve but right now based on what I'm seeing over
026the past nine months is you'd rather disregard what our constituents want because of what direction you're getting from a larger public education system that is failing our entire nation so I would like to get control back to the board I would like us to have an opportunity for the board to look over academics that are currently not available and haven't been available for some years I would like to ask the district why they think it's a good idea to uh continuously uh take away time from learning Core Concepts to survey our children on things that are not any of their concern like if my daughter sexting at home and if they find out my daughter is sexting they don't even reach out to me as a parent to let me know that she might be
027uh involved in uh things that are happening that could seriously affect her outside in my home and you guys are all aware of this or Administration or somebody here knows that this is going on they get the surveys and they do not let the parents know what's going on in their child's life so I hope that my community members elect me because I will put the district's feet under the fire and expect them to move in the direction that the vast majority maity of the constituents we're supposed to serve want our education system to go in and it's not with 40% proficiency rates or less than 40% college readiness when children graduate from our education system that's about all I have to say I hope you all have a great evening and if I get
028on the board I look forward to working with all of you my name is Carl schwarzy Carl E on the poster I have a story to tell you I owned a gas house for about 40 years well I I still own it but I don't run it anymore but I ran it for about 40 years and when you walked into the guest house if you looked over the men's room there was a picture of an old cowboy hat on wrinkled face age spots like I may have now smoking a cigarette drinking a beer at a bar there was a caption above the sign that said so soon old yet so late late schmart and that's how I come to you tonight as I actually volunteered to do this I was approached by some people and
029they asked me to run and I had a weak moment and I said okay I'll do it I'm a very busy man but I know what kind of situation you people are in we're hearing it now tonight it's not good I'm not doing this for myself I'm doing this for my fellow taxpayers and the students and the community I just wonder what I'm into going to be into but my mission is first I want to know where all the money's coming from then I want to know where all the money's going and I want it reported to me in a in a sense that I understand it I've been in the accounting business going on 60 years and I've read some of these reports that I get they certainly don't look like a K10 to
030me the DPI evidently must tell you people how to do your books so be it you do them the way you want to do them but what I want to relay to the public is that they know where your money's coming from where the monies are coming from and where the monies are going it's my only Mission except I will say that our most valuable resource for our country is our youth and we [clears throat] better take care of them I don't want to see him go through the stuff I had to go through so for that reason here I am I don't I'm not telling anybody how to vote you can vote the way you want but vote please vote and vote for the person that's going to fulfill your wishes not mine thank
031you thank you Carl I guess that's Le leaves me to be up next uh I'm David Shrader I've been on the board for almost four years um I guess I'll keep this relatively brief um I am not here with an agenda I am here to serve I attempt to serve all stakeholders that includes the parents the students the taxpayers the teachers the employees uh the businesses who also pay property tax this overall Community I do not come in it with an ego I do not come in it with a grand plan and I try to attempt to leave all of my personal ideologies behind at my home where they belong um I'm a servant leader that's how I treat myself when I'm on the board of the YMCA the board of the hospital Etc I
032tried to support the people who are experts which includes most of the certified staff and other employees in this room I do not usurp their experience with mine mine is from a business World mine is from an engineering background it is not from education so I'm here to give support and lastly I try to keep the level of the board at governance and not management we are not in this business to do the teachers jobs or any other individuals in this room there are certain things that the state empowers us to do and that is our job that's where it stops and that's where I attempt to stop other than that I like to run efficient meetings but uh that's not on the ballot on April 1st just my election so that being said thank
033you all appreciate your support next up is charity been Chandler born and raised in mtown um and and chose to come back because my family's here and families incredibly important to me um we started the business here in Watertown and I've been actively involved as much as possible in educational really Pursuits because at one point I went to school that's what I wanted to do I wanted to be a teacher I have a grandpa who was a teacher and cousins who are teachers and I respect the feel significantly for what they have to offer our students and our future I wanted to be a part of the Board of Education because I want to continue to make a difference and so you know as many folks have already mentioned I can't do that alone I
034represent 23,000 people in this community and some of them are parents and some of them are the students and some of them are neither but have an active invested interest because they pay taxes that contribute to what's going on in our in our schools I've seen amazing things happen we've been able to support a lot of different things and and as was talking about when you have a chance to go and see what these students are doing and what they're contributing it's really powerful and I look around the space and I see engaged teachers Educators leaders parents and that's incredibly important I think um you know to share a little bit personally I think there have there have been some things that are out there and I would just encourage people to get to know
035me to have a conversation with me as well um because I think that people might be surprised by some of the things that I have to sh chair because at the end of the day like David mentioned it's not about me it's not about what I believe and instead is about what is best for the students what is best for the community and it takes all of those voices parents Educators community members students students voices matter to really determine where we can go and how to make the best District possible we have a strategic plan in place that was community co-created so we're going to have that coming up you know that you've got the referendum decision and regard L of what happens with that there are tough decisions that need to be made we
036have a huge financial responsibility we've heard it from basically almost every candidate who's mentioned finances and we know that it's not going to get any easier as we go on and so continuing to have people who are willing to share and hold us accountable as a board as to where those those financial resources go is incredibly important I was appointed to this role not elected to it and as I shared at The Forum selfishly I would love to be an elected representative of my hometown community if you so see Fed time thank you charity Craig I extremely blessed and honor to serve this school district in this capacity for the last three years um it's been a humbling experience I uh I like to think that I've thrown as a person uh I like to
037thank that uh one of my one of my claim to P our personal uh missions is to fix things and help people and the way that I can do that is you know to seek to understand uh I do believe that uh we can come to some common ground we might not agree with everything all the time uh and that's okay we can agree to disagree and separate ways and still respect each other I think that's a a thing that our community um strives to to work towards um I've as I've been out and about the community I've heard a lot of concerns I've heard of concerns about public trust I've heard concerns about uh finances and and believe um I I I'm going to work hard for people here in watert to earn their
038public trust and to work towards trying to find a better solution for those kind of concerns like bullying um I'm husband of a teacher in the district who's been teaching for over 19 years I'm a son of a teacher son of a former business school business administrator um I I myself made it three qus of the way through a music education degree before I decided to serve people in a different fashion I completed a business degree in entrepreneurship I'm a Problem Solver by trade Administration has ex expressed a desire to have uh some stability on the board uh by um you know having board members continue on in their service if possible I feel that there are going to be some really rough challenges that we're faced as a school district coming forward and I
039I'd like to try to help um with that process navigate through that um I I believe in strong I believe in strong board leadership and governance um I believe that we can keep ideologies and politics out of the classroom our school district needs to build a meaningful Bond of trust with our community Through transparency and strong communication we need to focus on academics and academics only uh teaching a child how to think not what to think whether you push a broom work in a c classroom drive a bus or maintain the facilities I'm proud of your contribution and respect your hard work please I welcome your Fe feedback I support full transparency parents staff community members deserve the rationale behind the decisions being made sometimes we have to admit what didn't work so that we
040can find what does I need to know how you feel please speak up it's hard to fix something if you aren't told what's broken I I expect that you won't be a stranger and I really firmly believe that we can make inroads to becoming one of the best school districts in the state of Wisconsin thank you for the opportunity cig and then last up uh Steve good evening my name is Steve good uh thank you for the invitation uh I decided to run for school board uh for a number of reasons first being that uh I believe in accountability I believe in leading uh from the front and showing people where we need to go uh I also believe in being part of a leadership group uh one of the things that has happened over
041the years on our board is that I think there has been so much parismetrodriving for not only the students but the teachers um I would look to represent the needs that our teachers and that our students need I also believe that we need to work on the basic skills raising our reading levels raising our math scores moving in the right direction in that sense uh [snorts] I got the privilege and honor of being invited to LEAP this past week uh for their bingo and pizza night uh great experience erience I got a tour of the school uh I got to see firsthand what they do so I can understand the passion that the parents and the students have about wanting to keep that open I if I had had my students go through there I'd
042be very passionate about keeping it open as well they are doing some amazing things out there and I think I understand more by actually going there what what they see and what they feel and it's it's something that I would encourage all uh board members when you get those invites to go go see them go interact with the students go talk with your administrators go talk with the teachers see where what they need instead of saying that we kind of know or we hear what our community says sometimes you got to be an advocate for the teachers and the administrators as well uh I look forward to talking further with everybody uh one thing I do want to say openly um I've heard that some of our candidates have had people threaten them or say
043things because they have a different view over time uh we have become a society that gets very used to threatening getting on an opposite side and calling people names and doing things like that uh we do not do a good job of being open to other people's opinion and listening and then you can agree to disagree you don't have to agree with it but at least listen to to the side and where they're coming from all the candidates tonight have made similar arguments everybody's talked about accountability everybody's talking about fiscal responsibility how we get there and how we do it there might be a different Road and we don't all necessarily need to agree on that road but we have to find a way to get to where we ultimately want to be which is
044Watertown being one of the best school districts in the state thank you very much and have a great night you Steve thank you all appreciate it uh good luck to each and everyone next up uh Board of canvases selection and meeting uh the board uh will select its Board of canvassers to Canvas the April 1st 2025 referendum and School Board candidate election results the canvasing will take place on Monday April 7th beginning at 400m in the boardroom of the Educational Service Center um here uh for those who haven't been involved in in the past it is counting and verifying the clerk of courts records from all the voting districts adding them up and double checking them triple checking them quadruple checking them and then signing off on them um I've done it three times I
045don't believe I'm allowed to do it this time um with much regret I might add um so uh with that being said uh do we need three or four do you know so I really need two more okay Lorie Holland will be one as she is not re running and she is still an active board member oh she's the clerk she's the one who has to be there Lori if you've joined uh congratulations if not we'll Lynn will send you an email we [clears throat] need at least two other members who are not running so charity myself and Craig are out who wants to count with Lyn and Lori less than an hour yeah it's going to take longer than that with ref referendum ah okay because we have to count that one too got
046it let take good hour and a half I'll do it thanks Dan obligation so that's why it's [laughter] yeah look yeah Diana looked like she wanted to do it yeah if it was less you know then Rel I can't commit it out him guarantee that right yeah so Mike Dan thank you Mike thank you Lor Lori thank you um awesome no additional uh resolution motion needed on that just uh note it got it okay next strategic discussion uh Elementary literacy curriculum Jenny um [clears throat] I just essentially uh we'll recap some of the talking points we had during our U March ed services meeting tonight um Tyler if you wouldn't mind just pulling up I'll review the why one how document um that was shared at that ed services there's a lot of uh supporting
047documentation between the Strategic discussion as well as the minutes from Ed services and then also the um resolution um I just want to start out by thanking the dozens and dozens of elementary teachers whove been a part of this process between the um core team that uh has been working together since this September um as well as the teachers who piloted two different sets of materials in their classroom uh tonight in the audience we have Ashley pyck desha Kyler um and Carrie Dean who can answer questions for us as well and I know Bethy schel is online as well so you may be asking yourself tonight why are we discussing a new Elementary literacy curriculum adoption um I have been giving updates uh over the last year so Wisconsin uh act 20 passed in July
048of um moving districts away from among other things that act2 did but um moving districts away from materials using What's called the three queuing method um our current elementary literacy materials do reference to recing um in addition to that we were doing a analysis of um where our students are at with literacy and how we can help support and improve that as you know our elementary teachers have gone through a very rigorous uh year-long training as well called keys to literacy just supporting um what's known as the reading rope or science of reading um and as a result of that training and some of our data um digging we determined that we needed to move forward with a different set of materials um looking in particular for materials that would support early literacy have a
049more cohesive and comprehensive approach to the early literacy um introduced something called knowledge building curriculum which really supports uh reading comprehension um and then not also noting that we wanted to create a more cohesive model for a bilingual program over at shur um so we pulled together our research study team um which was a board approved this summer um and we looked at many sets of materials all of the materials were on one of two lists um one was a DPI approved list the other was through the element uh early literacy curriculum El LC um which was created through act 20 um through that process we uh determined two sets of materials to Pilot after the pilot it did seem that hmh inter reading um and there the Spanish version of that arala leura um
050along with Aira which is a um AI online reading fluency program would be the best fit for our um school and for our students um some of the reasons that that was the best fit um again it matched most closely the training that are teachers had been doing um the Spanish materials were the best fit in our doal language program uh we heard over and over again that the vocabulary piece uh was very rigorous um join the meeting really uh supported our vocabulary knowledge for our students um you can see here cling um the district is or the administration is proposing the fiveyear um contract uh the reason for the five-year contract though it's more cost per student is that when we look at our curriculum review cycle um we are trying to sync this
051up so that we're moving forward k12 and no longer doing just like Elementary or middle school or high school at any one time um I've worked with Sarah Duncan to talk about how we are funding this um as we discussed at ed services we would be using our fund balance to fund the program whether we're funding it out of this school year um or next school year again the hmh inter reading and arba Laura is like the Core Curriculum a Mira is the um what they consider like a reading tutor for reading fluency in particular um it's an online program that does use AI to help support a student's reading fluency which is like the r at which they reading that um if you can just kind of scroll on to the next page is
052if the board were to um move forward tonight we would start with some pretty uh more intense training with our teachers even before the end of this school year um and then continue that training into the next school year um monitoring our implementation um been working with Chris Malloy on data point points in particular with any of our curriculum adoptions that we would be tracking to ensure that the U materials that we Implement are supporting our um growth in our students um and then we would have to be adjusting our curriculum review cycle that I had proposed earlier just to ensure that our contract would sync up with where our ccul review cycle would be just a few things that I would like to note is as I mentioned um hmh inter reading is on
053the list of early literacy curriculum Council list of approved materials um we could potentially receive up to 50% reimbursement for the English language materials in kindergarten through third grade um there is a long story behind whether or not those materi those dollars will be released or not um those dollars have not yet been released um I'm not sure that we are anticipating that they will be released least but um I did want to note that these materials were on that list of approved materials um we do have some additional work to support both our 4K programming in the future as well as our multi-age classrooms with our scope and sequence and we would anticipate doing that this summer um and then I did also mention that cul Cy so that was a very brief overview
054um of the work that's been happening over the past year so and I'm open to answering any questions or concerns that bolks might have thank you Jenny I'll also add that ed services uh I don't want to say had the same presentation but also uh reviewed and discuss the rest of the documents that were in this and uh its meeting notes uh will reflect that we recommended it for the approval of the fiveyear um program as Jenny had outlined and the meeting minutes capture that relatively well and there's a resolution on tonight's agenda uh but by no means is that intended to diminish discussion at this point just let you know that uh it's already been reviewed uh by ed services and recommended for approval so with that as this is a strategic discussion um
055I open it up for the floor to anybody who has additional questions for Jenny that may or may not have been asked uh during ed Service meeting Craig um uh what grades were piloted oh goodness okay in this particular one to go back and get my actual list um we did Kindergarten first grade English and Spanish second grade Spanish second grade English a two three English and then third fourth and fifth grade English okay and at various different buildings yes yep we tried to pick like a crosssection so that we would get every grade level across the district and then every building would get dis I yeah so I guess uh I I I asked at the last meeting for uh the content of the materials and I appreciate uh the login information that you
056were able to provide um I I I did ask a question at the last meeting about um alignment um why did we ose not to go forward with Whitten wisdom yep good question um this is a question that kind of has uh been one that's been on the Forefront of the team's mind from the very beginning we know there's been a lot of success the Middle School our data shows that success um we were really looking for what would be the best fit at the elementary level and then also continue on to the middle school I think wit and wisdom for the elementary did not seem to be as strong of a fit for a couple of reasons and then I will ask if you guys don't mind chiming in as well uh first and
057foremost we were really looking for a scopen sequence with that those early literacy skills sponic of awareness um that was kind of within one program wh and wisdom is working with not only Whit wisdom but two other companies to create a cohesive model and so for that scope and sequence to sort of like pass muster with BPI and the early literacy curriculum Council they had three companies um kind of looped in to be able to sort of path muster there um we needed to be able to have a scope and or I'm sorry we needed to look at a language model um Whitten wisdom did not have the Spanish materials and I know that that did uh pose a challenge at the middle school and we had to look at our dual language programming differently
058at the middle school so now instead of using Ela as the Dual language piece at the middle school we're using social studies and Science and then using a separate we call SLA Spanish language arts and there was a third reason B so with widom uh the phonic scope and sequence only goes kindergarten through third grade and yes that's what act at 20 requires but we know that a child does not stop stop learning about morphology or phology at the age of nine so we wanted to make sure that we had a strong phonic scope and sequence from kindergarten all the way through fifth grade and if we would have went with was we would had to substitute something for those two grade bubbles which may not have align properly what we do know is with
059the materials that we did select um really moving into to having students read um grade level materials um where they're um right in those materials marking up the text being in the Middle School Ela classrooms and I'm not in there as often as I would like to be I see that happening quite a bit and then also the writing um at the elementary level is Shifting more toward what they're doing at the middle school level which is they're writing about the reading that they're doing instead of having like independent writing about a different topic um so certainly that is something that was kind of top of mind I think there were a lot of people who walked into the process and the Day begin in October where we had the sales rep come who were
060really uh rooting for Whitten wisdom um but at the end of the day it just did not seem like it was a great fit at the elementary level who on your um curriculum review team was represented at the middle school we had it was very specifically an elementary curriculum review team um and that's how we proposed it when we proposed it to the board um mov over the summer oh Craig not just not just a discussion between you and Jenny not that I have a problem continuing uh any additional questions are we aware are we aware of any other districts that have implemented this y we did a site visit to Whitewater um we went with the elementary curriculum review team some members we couldn't take everyone because we can't get subs um and then
061the elementary principles went um on one of our staff development days as well um and we've been in discussions and what's worked for you what hasn't worked with you um and so it was nice to be able to see it in action I know there are other districts in the area that are using it off the top of my head is Beaver Dam and I know there are more um but of course they've all escaped moment and then just one more question do we have do we have our pilot results thus far um and then did white maybe white waterer share any of theirs so we did not track data when we did that um I know Whitewater has really put a very strong focus on the science of reading over the last couple of
062years and I know that there have been some news articles about the growth they've seen with their students um um we did do a site visit we've been there a couple of times now actually earlier in the year we sent our Title One Reading teachers there because they were using uh um intervention materials as well um that we're using there and I know they've seen some success with that and I can share that with you too um but that was kind of more about the um intervention materials but I know that they've seen some success with the for Cal materials as well thank you Diana this is added commentary not necessarily questions um as the board member representative that had attended meetings um I want to say thank you on behalf of the board for
063the work that was done not just to the pilot teachers the pilot teachers are piloting the reading curriculum they've got the new math curriculum all the different subject areas whatever but also to your teams that picked up the slack of the other things while you're putting in all the extra time energy and effort um sitting in those meetings was is I sat through the first one did some of it online connected with Jenny on the others from the board's perspective those decisions were totally data driven that's what we're hoping for I know I've said this before but to speak on behalf of the teachers that were there they walked into that room after sitting all day long with the Reps here's what our data says here's what we need and to Jenny's um statement earlier
064this is what Wen wisdom can give us this this is our Benchmark now how do these other ones fit that Benchmark and so through those pieces they saw hey this school's lacking in this this school's lacking in this but no we need to honor all of our kids our elll kids how do those things fit and if you've ever tried to peacemeal a Spanish curriculum with what it is it doesn't really work so that was a high criteria for them but they also knew that that it wasn't their only criteria so if they had to break ship from that they would they weren't going to lower the bar because of it um I was so excited to see the rich and robust discussions that took place it was very educationally sound um I said this
065at a previous meeting but it's worth stating again there were 20 some people in the room and I didn't know a lot of them personally but you can tell kind of who's the qu every single person spoke and every single person shared their views and opinions it wasn't just kind of going along with what everyone else thinks no at our school we need this and every voice was heard in there um and so I trust the decision that you all put forward because I knew that the conversation going in was Whit wisdom is going to take us here with the middle school that's where it was that's our Benchmark and so I trust that it wasn't anything below that Benchmark because they knew where it was going in my question though to you Jenny is
066as a former educator I don't know of a lot of districts that go with the same program from elementary through middle school because they're not always the best fit Whit and wisdom has a great fit at the middle school that's not always the case at the elementary we love the rigor and the way things are question there but sometimes it goes too deep or or not with the needs that we have do we know how many districts take wit and wisdom from Early Elementary kindergarten whatever through all of middle school is that a commonality I I just want to make sure that we're not breaking the mold yeah if that should be there there are a couple of districts in fact we just were on a site visit on Friday there was a district in
067no and I forget what district it is if my computer hadn't turned off they adopted at elementary and they're moving it to the middle school and I know there's another District in like the Wisconsin Dells area that is using that K8 um but again I agree like when I think about our math adoption for instance like we are using Bridges at the elementary we're using um now of course I'm going to forget but we're using the different set of materials at the middle school different set of materials at the high school but the point is that they build on each other they're based on the same standards um we hope when when we get to our a12 adop process that we're having those conversations more on a K12 level and not just on an individual
068level um in an Ideal World perhaps our timing would have been a little different with this adoption where we would have been with the middle school and high school when we're thinking about this on a K12 process but Acts 20 sort of uh created a little bit more urgency for us than we may would have had previous to that my last piece to follow up on Craig because it is a valid point that for future adoption things curriculum reviews whatever join the meeting Middle School there Elementary there needs to be a middle school rep if you're doing Middle School there needs to be an elementary and a high school rep to see what's coming and what's going um yes that's a primary focus there but there is value to having at least one voice in
069the room for that so I agree with your statement on that I appreciate that and I will say that the middle school team um it was U have been having some conversations um with and J along the way uh certainly I know I know where lean's heart is I know where that Middle School team's heart is and um yeah I understand why because they've seen a lot of success with that well just in terms of what they need at you know those pieces so here's where here's where I take some exception um we happen to have um our our Wht and wisdom program at the middle school which is experiencing lots of success um other districts like uh wapan beer Dam even uh Prairie duen they're all coming in to observe Wht and wisdom here
070in our school district Wht and wisdom has made our district a modeled District um because of its success our high school even comes to down to check things out from time to time because they want to know what how are our kids being better prepared for high school um I I do find it somewhat ironic that we're talking about Spanish being a high priority when it comes to English literacy program and I get it the uh when it comes to El resources put wisdom does have El resources do a language not so much I understand that um 100% of the kids from elementary schools are coming to our middle school yet we're going to select a a curriculum that doesn't perfectly align from fifth to sixth grade because of about 10% of the student population
071when we can easily carve out this 10% for this for hmh and say we can use them for our dual language purpose for our curriculum that's not being that's not what's being proposed tonight and [clears throat] that's what I have an issue with uh not a single teacher not a single administrator was on the study committee from the Middle School to determine whether or not this was a good fit or not to work with her and I don't mean to diminish hard work of our staff that's working that that did that um but when we're talking about priorities of our school district from k through eight one of our biggest challenges is that fifth to sixth grade transition and we're blowing it I think that that is Dea driven we see that we see that
072transition as a problem a lot of other District have explored other options to have a k through eight model because that transition is smooth when you're talking and and the way to illustrate this when you have when you have um routines and habits in the classroom that you're and the way that you describe them is let's say method X and then in the Middle School it turns out to be methab beta something completely different now you're you're taking your sixth grade and having to re adjust these kids who happen to have habits and routines that are completely different you are taking a step backwards why when we know we have a a really robust program right now in the middle school that is a model District that that's well modeled within other districts yet we
073don't even want to entertain that conversation I I'm struggling with this uh I think there's so much more um and and I do understand that that um after third grade we we we have some some issues that might need to be um supplemented and sequenced but can you imagine if we can smooth that transition out and by the time we get to the middle school we can start running we can we can make good strides there I I'm at a loss I I I don't support this proposal as it is written right now I'm sorry I can't I just address the Dual language please so um our dual language program is comprised of half from English speaking homes half from Spanish speaking homes so it's not just an investment for our multilingual families it's an
074invol an investment in by literacy development for all students and we know that students who are who become biliterate um outperform monolingual peeters um there's lots of data that shows that um so I do think that is a big factor to consider because we have a whole building that is comprised of biliterate Learners and not just multilingual Learners um and so that was one of the factors that we did prioritize and it wasn't the only one um we didn't lower the bar in order to meet the needs of our dual language program by any means but didn't suggest that just for record right right but it was for all Learners to become by literate and this was the best fit for that I will say that and I appreciate Diana you pointed out too we
075did have a discussion um you know what if what if the best set of materials for our uh schools that are English only schools are is different than the set of materials that would be better for the Dual language program what would we do then um because I agree we would we want to pick the best set of materials um for all of the students in our district and not like you said lower the bar um and and we did entertain like would we do we need to consider a different adaption for a dual language program than for the remainder of the district and um you know when we when we looked at the information presented to us it was pretty clear that um the set of material materials that came in Spanish were um
076as good or would be a better fit even than the materials that did not come in in Spanish as well because I we did not want to compromise um in order for that to be a can I speak to the comics please again sure is that okay um so just I wanted to reiterate what Desa had said um and I agree that in an Ideal World if Whitten wisdom was the best but for elementary and for middle that would have been a beautiful beautiful situation but a huge part of at 20 is early literacy in phonics we had concerns about the phonics in wit and wisdom um and so if we have those phonics concerns with our Young Learners and we're not giving them those foundational pieces in K one two three four five we're
077we would still maybe continue to have other transition problems from that fifth to six if they don't have those found foundational reading skills before they go so I do think it's important to note that the phonic piece was a concer with the team he I can still address okay so you asked why would we have two different programs keeping elementary and middle please remember there's different purposes our young students are learning how to read older kids are reading to learn and when we looked at those two sets of materials we were not really sure that our kids would learn to read with lits and I'm not going to put Jason on the spot but I am sure he'd rather have kids coming in who can read fluently decode accurately and understand with great depth than
078worrying about the transitional and instructional routines between two programs great if you don't mind uh just in the interest of time as well as the stredic discussion this is a resolution so we're going to have another opportunity for additional board comments and any type of debate at that time um at that point of course Stafford Administration if you're called upon during the resolution you'll be invited to to speak and address board concerns but otherwise I'd prefer to move on and we'll have another bite at this apple when it comes up for a resolution if good that's fine okay thanks right Jenny thank you staff thank you okay reports uh first up is the superintendent report uh we got on on the front here fifth graders sledding in snow uh this was a picture that was
079taken a while ago um but we do have a chance for snow yet uh this week here so they may have a chance to do that again um uh as was mentioned in Addison's report we had a record number of high school students participate in the national uh German exam this year uh of the 19 students 12 of them earned a national recognition and they'll be uh receiving their models later I'm just a little bit more information on the slid for you but congratulations to them um middle school students uh went to skills USA Regional at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton um many of them uh placed uh either first through third place um the students uh who placed Regional competition Advanced the 52nd annual skills uh State leadership uh conference at the Allied
080Energy centor Center coming up here um April 1st and 2nd um I I just want to say that uh you know every year our our skills team not only at the middle school but at the high school they perform really really well um and I assume that some of our middle school students and our high school students will be going to Nationals um but there's some good information for you there um congratulations again to our our music department as well as our musical theater um Watertown High School had sold out performances for foot loose um and I want to congratulate them and the parent volunteers and everybody else uh who made that uh show go it was really great um also um um the Middle School recently had musical s or susal the musical um
081equally uh as spellbinding of performance by them we just don't have a picture because it was so recent um I want to make mention of it um we had a youth apprenticeship breakfast that was held uh Tuesday Morning March 4th uh we had 93 Watertown seniors uh that were uh recognized there but this year we had over 124 students uh because that number is old still going up uh both Juniors and seniors who are participating in the program youth parip program is administered by Sarah tarpy um and Heather jazak from Jefferson County Youth apprenticeship um she's the youth appr coordinator and do an outstanding job we have over 101 area business mentors right who work with those 12 some students um this year uh it's just amazing uh what they do and the the support
082that we have from our businesses um to not only hire but also Mentor these students the amount of money that these students uh through the mentorship program as they're learning and getting SC job on the job skills and training uh produce back in F fing into our community uh just by having those jobs is amazing so I want to thank uh everybody for their support of those students and and and the students who are participating in that U program uh congratulations also uh to our acadc team uh our Wisconsin academic to cathlon uh they uh uh Addison's report was way better than mine they did an excellent job uh finished second place in division one uh and we're very proud of all of them opportunities uh we have Douglas uh Elementary Tigers here who Lear
083are learning about the core values is outlined in our strategic plan um and decided to uh share their posters of some of the work they have around what our core values mean uh to us as a school district and our community uh so that was interesting um also uh Lincoln Stem Elementary recently hosted a career day themselves uh we have career day coming up on Wednesday uh at the high school where eighth graders and other High School are going to be attending but at this one our our Lincoln stem students uh heard from professionals around our community uh some of them were Dairy Farmers police officers mechanic even mayor Emily McFarland came to talk about their jobs and some of the things that they do uh jurry he Excavating was there and uh the students
084just went out of their minds to see how that machine just sucks up all those Legos like that um in the Excavating uh uh you truck that they brought along um to show that a small suction but it was fun uh and then um we have the seventh and eighth grade students in Miss bowden's tourism and Hospitality classes uh recently benefited from experience of mock interviews um working with our area Chamber and commerce students created resumés engaged in interview activities uh and uh provided valuable feedback uh and then um our fourth grade third fourth graders excuse me and some middle schoolers got to see a performance by mat to use my location Matt is BMX bike Champion was on and everything else uh came to talk about bullying and Rising above negativity negativity and and
085never giving up uh and did a lot of job dropping tricks uh like you know bunny hopping over uh teachers uh and other things it was really fun for the kids and uh that's all I got oh what excuse me two more fifth graders at Douglas Elementary um also enjoy a v a visit from Alex Harrington chief meteorologist at Channel 3000 got to be on TV learn all about uh you know uh weather U got to do a pepper tornado experiment to see the pepper uh going into a tornado uh and then um some uh good dates for you to remember remember April 1st vote uh but also uh we have no school on Good Friday uh and uh the rest of the committee and board meetings are as follows um and good luck to
086all of you for Schoolboard I awesome thank you Jared uh next up is committee reports I'll go first with ed services uh minutes have been distributed they are accurate as written uh major topics was the professional development uh update uh Early Learning Systems coordinator and 4K update the presentation you just saw on Elementary literacy adoption uh there were a few future action items added uh with TBD dates for discussion and uh next meeting date is Tuesday April 8th uh and that aforementioned uh Elementary literacy adoption has a resolution on tonight's uh full board agenda any questions on those minutes or that update okay next fiscal management Mike yeah so I'll just hit some highlights with it the the biggest thing that came out of fiscal you're going to see come to a resolution tonight it's
087resurfacing the track at the high school um Kevin gave a pretty good presentation on it uh it should be moving forward this summer as long as we all agree with it tonight um kind of went with the company that was here last uh just because we figured there's going to be L pitfalls once they start Excavating because they they know what they put down underneath other than that uh the monthly monthly bills and stuff like that that no questions were asked very good any questions for Mike or Sarah okay next uh human resource report again Mike yeah uh so the the biggest conversation we had there kind of came around the um a consent agenda process um and we'll be working forward in that uh you know in future meetings that stream that the best
088we can I guess uh talked about uh volunteer recruitment uh Dan brought up a pretty good idea there uh and Dr brick was going to follow through with some of that and kind of rearranging um the board's role not rearranging but just kind of reaffirming the board's role and in the hiring process and teacher contract process for the highlights out of that meeting okay any questions or comments on those minutes of that committee report next planning Diana um planning high level the minutes are accurate we talked about the board evaluation survey new member orientation um join the meeting forward just recapped um how we were doing on the superintendent evaluation feedback there as well as the parent um engagement survey and the board referendum letter few things to highlight to you um first and foremost
089our next meeting is Wednesday May 7th that is also the superintendent check-in so the planning meeting will start at 5: and the superintendent check-in will start at 7 Tim ker will be leading us through that first check-in additionally um May 5th which is a Monday we will be doing another meeting of the chairs so with the meeting of the chairs again it's open to all board members its focus is chairs we don't really have orientation for chair per person positions but trying to streamline Us and how to run effective meetings kind of a thing um we had one a few months ago and this would just kind of be a a check-in following how are things going we may have a new chair at that point in time because of the realignment with the board
090and positions and so on that meeting was scheduled to start at 5:30 but going to the policy committee meeting trying to find a day for policy to meet then as well to get all these things in with niola they have graciously asked if we could push that forward and so okay is it five o'clock or is it 4:30 so someone had asked you know could we do a 4:30 and I didn't want to say yes hey it sounds great I don't know what people's work schedules are if 4:30 is even doable I sent an email out this morning asking you know if you could check calendars so we could at least let everyone know but that would go forward then so the meeting time I guess we just kind of have to look at is
0914:30 a doable ask or due to work schedules do we have to do five o'clock I know it's a big ask I just figured I'd throw it out there I'm okay at 4:30 but if it's not doable then 5 o'clock it is and plan or policy would just have to meet later they're willing to meet later it's just your better work gets done when it's earlier so if we don't and those meetings typically go two hours or more so just being conscientious and at risk of being irrelevant um Mike Diana myself and Greg are the current chairs of the Committees uh which may not be the case on May 5th correct U but given we're the four chairs at this point if the four of us can mute at 4:30 I say let's put a
092you know Mark the calendar as such in and we'll see how things shake out after April 1 okay and then just as a followup to that the meeting of the chairs would then be an ongoing Cadence whether it be once a year or twice a year that would go as part of the new member or or the documentation with all of the different meetings um but this one with just a slightly different time frame and then lastly out of that was the board evaluation survey um Lynn was out of town I did that had a little bit of glitches in terms of getting it shared we got that to go so that was shared with you all today um I'm asking that we have that completed within a week I think I mean it should
093only take you a few minutes to do overall not very long and engaging um but yeah that's we had agreed at that level that it's totally Anonymous I almost said unanimous totally Anonymous um but then we will take a look at it at our next planning committee meeting but looking to collate the data on things prior to that to get that prepared and ready to go so check for that it is a Google survey um if you lose the link you always have access to it in your board folder um so it's always at your fingertips thank you much okay and so yeah I'll reiterate two things about Diana's one uh that uh board survey was sent out today and two the all chairs meeting is all are welcome um so just those two pieces
094of information do we have affirmation 4:30 as a start time we're gonna put that right now and we'll see how everything shakes out in the month of April but tentatively right now tentatively 4:30 for the four current chairs it works let's do it and we'll see what the chairs look like on sometime in April at the next meeting and I guess the one piece to add was we're there The Hope was that we could try to make as seamless of a transition too as possible there's just so much work that needs to get done especially in policy so yeah and hey I can't speak for the next president I can just say that uh the consistency of uh Craig stain as policy lead and Diana stain as planning lead Diana is going to be here
095after April 1 Craig you and I we don't know we don't know uh and we don't know who's going to be in the president's chair but uh from my perspective and I think from the administration's perspective they appreciate whether it be uh Margaret Sarah or Jenny Jason or Sarah or having some consistency from the board and how the meetings are run uh obviously the makeup of the actual committee members changes inevitably um but uh I appreciated when when Tony tried to keep them the same I assume that uh either I would do that uh as a continuing president or the next president would be looking at the same thing to try to keep that level of consistency just for everybody involved okay um any questions or additional comments for Diana on the planning report okay
096policy committee Craig we met on Tuesday March 11 uh everybody was present except one uh as far we have a lot of different action items uh as as well as some past action items that uh we still have to try to get through uh we're getting through the vast majority of the book we're also going to try to pull forward some administrative guidelines to company some of the other discussion that we had um on Tuesday to try to help form uh some guide where we go with the other particular policies that are there um you will see I believe it's about 46 policies for before you tonight tonight for first read uh as well and we did have some some spelling changes and verbiage changes we had a pretty good discussion uh regarding some uh
097discussion I'm sorry verbiage changes uh I forget if was uh under the handbook I'm sorry I forget which one it was educational outcomes and EXP expectations I believe I don't remember but we we uh we were able to um mutually agree on a good uh verbiage on good verbiage moving forward uh so our next meeting date is April 9th okay thank you Craig uh any questions for Craig regarding those minutes or for the policy committee uh chair okay um just as a summary um uh I guess just uh doubling down on Diana's uh chair's meeting comment um for all those involved as the chair as well as the administrative uh the admin assigned or the excuse me the executive uh admin assigned to it or Lynn who's typing these all up uh great job on
098keeping the running action items um those often got lost in the past that's one thing that came out of the first chair's meeting was a way to be a a thorough repository for what was discussed and let's not lose them um to the annals of History uh let's make sure that they stay there until we've address them um as they were brought up at some point and if we vote of course to to or we decide that it's no longer a priority and it it's okay to let it slip but at the same time let's make it intentional we don't want them just to disappear because we forgot about them so for all the committee chairs who have been um working to keep those thorough and Lyn uh as well as uh executive team appreciate
099that I really like the meeting minutes that are coming out and the running log of back action items that said uh we are now on the Cent agenda which includes the minutes the committee summ the committee summaries personal Staffing approval Bills first reading of policies and second reading of policies do I have a motion so moved I think I heard Dan first second Craig discussion Lyn call the rooll Fred y yes Diana Johnson yes Sam owel yes David Shader yes Dan bolner yes Craig Wartman yes charity Chandler yes Mike Higgins yes and the motion carries next up resolution 9375 summer school staff um in your board docs it has all the list of all the certified teachers uh as just the certified teachers it looks like plus the D and the students uh for uh
100employment for wusd for the 2025 summer school program do I have a motion Diana first Mike second any discussion um voice acclamation all in favor I I [clears throat] any opposed very good motion carries next up parent engagement survey as was reviewed at planning [clears throat] um do I have a motion so move Diana second second charity any discussion um go Ahad Craig I just I'm sorry about that uh yeah we there was a concern about um the uh the grouping that was uh made specifically about I identify as and the when into um you know American Indian either of Alaskan Asian uh we felt that as a in discussion I didn't I can't say we because I wasn't on the committee but uh the committee I think uh felt that it was appropriate to
101change um the the Latin X to Latin American that's changed on there no yes no I saw it in the notes and I oh you're highlighting it highlighting yeah and I see that it's changed and that also would be changed for the student stud right which was brought up I think uh Sam you mentioned that at the last at Services meeting I believe okay um thank you Craig [clears throat] any additional comments questions Lynn call the role please oh sorry Diana just a one on page three of the survey gifted and talented that's number three on page three gifted and talented enrichment Advanced can that say Advanced learner I think we just forgot the word learner it was just lost in there we had talked about that um just so it's using the same language
102that we use within our district so there's just a minor that I figured I'd bring it up than good enough for that emotion not friendly Amendment I think I think uh we can do a minor change to the survey without it ruining the motion okay I'm okay with that unless there's any objections otherwise we'll amend we'll amend the motion if it's needed to be amended otherwise I think the board okay with that perfect okay um and Jason you got that note awesome okay hearing no other discussion or comment uh Lynn please call the role Fred young yes Diana Johnson yes Sam o Neil yes David Shader yes Dan bolner yes Craig Wartman yes charity Chandler yes Mike Higgins yes and the motion carries next resolution 9377 this is athletic field service proposal uh as reviewed
103by fiscal and presented by Kevin I understand uh do I have a uh motion motion Sam second Mike discussion how often do we resurface these when's the last time it was done and how often do we he's running away scared I can see him he's hiding back there and he's heading oh no here he comes here he comes thank you [laughter] resurfacing when's the last time it was done how frequently do we do this uh so with the latex system that we put down uh they recommend 7 to 10 years between a resurface in 2015 the track was actually scraped down and the first latex base was put down so we haven't resurfaced it yet this would be the first time we've done it um as part of this there is also some repair that
104gets done too so areas where the base has cracked out because we've gone the full 10 years um there are some areas that need to be repaired so that gets repaired first first then they spray down three layers of latex and we chose the three layers because that should get us to our 10year um resurfacing life thank you gev are they actually going to increase Lanes no this this is just um the the track that's there now the surface that's there now we just resurfacing that that area so lanes and everything will stay the same in in for my understanding it would be just plan maintenance normal maintenance yes okay hearing no additional questions or comments Lynn please call the rooll BR Yan yes Diana Johnson yes Sam o yes David Sher yes Dan bolman
105yes Craig wman yes charity Chandler yes Mike hi yes and the motion carries next up resolution 9378 as uh previously presented in the Strategic discussion uh this is for a five-year contract uh with hmh and arba [clears throat] laor um for about $525,000 um for elementary Reading compliant with act 20 do I have a motion so move Diana second second Mike uh additional discussion or comment Craig I moveed to postpone this particular um literacy adoption until we have some further clarification on Riverside's involvement it's a motion it's a two thir motion if it's that's right thanks I didn't have my notes it's not the same thing motion to table is it goes away to die sort of thing okay sure sure gotta uh second okay we have a first and a second I don't have
106my cheat sheet with as far as does that need to discussion yes anybody recall Craig thank you um discussion on the motion to postpone Diana CR Craig can you clarify you had mentioned that there were some major components that were different from the elementary to the middle school that would cause yeah I'm going to use the word conflict you didn't use the word conflict but a conflict going from that transition to middle and high school and I understand where you're coming from as a teacher that's taught different levels with different curricula but you cited that there were a number of things what specifically would be a in conflict because I'm wondering if those are things that with a month or two of conversation between the sixth grade teachers and the Middle School teachers could be
107a simple hey we use term X they use term beta so in that just to do a transition so without having to redo the program is there a way that we can find a seamless transition so could you first tell what kind of area question I by no means an expert at any of that so but what I can say is when when there are those particular habits and routines that are expected within which ones are you talking about what which ones are you talking about I don't have those off the top of my head but when when they don't quite align like that which they don't um I don't know if I pull pull them up I understand what you're saying it's just without knowing which ones you're specifically talking about it's hard to
108know is that a major one for me to say yeah I agree with you therefore I agree to postpone I know you know what I'm saying so I understand what you're saying but without me having that there I guess you're proving my point that if the Riverside Middle School is part of that discussion they can actually clarify that but you're the one that said that there were those things and I'm I'm thinking that there's there's always the means to be that transition piece and so with it I understand Elementary is a very different being than middle schoolers and the curriculum has very different needs from the elementary level to the middle school I didn't look wholeheartedly at each that's the job of the teachers um I understand your comment with and and that's why I
109said before in the future we need to have voices on both book ends as well as as I understand that I just if I'm going to say and vote Yes to postpone this I need some concrete reason why to postpone it I don't have that here right now the only the only explanation I can give is we're a district that if we want to actually look at uh how to move forward with seamless transitions we have to be rolling in the same direction and this doesn't feel like that this if we don't have our if we don't have our curriculum coordinators from the Middle School that that have had tremendous success with one of the particular curriculums that are being utilized for consideration here part of the discussion I I feel like that's a leadership
110breakdown at some point because I feel that uh yeah you're going to have a ton of buying into a particular different type of curriculum instead of let's let's actually have the discussion start from where we're at which we know is working well and work backwards from there to see if it actually does fit um and it doesn't perfectly align like I said I'm not the curriculum expert well no I just wait sorry not B all right a discussion uh other people want to weigh in on the subject um Sam I have other reasons that I would think that perhaps we should take a second look at whether or not we adopt this curriculum I don't know if now would be the best time to speak on that or if it would be better to speak
111on that after the discussion about postponement um work through postp yeah let's work through postponement first yeah good good question I guess I I have a question is this something that if if as an as a group and with their curriculum leaders in the in the room um both the pilot folks and at Central Administration if we were to attached to this approval the creation of a committee that would be inclusive of curriculum leaders at the elementary five level in the sixth grade middle school level so that those conversations start to happen now in advance of a new school year would that be something that would Merit your consideration I don't I don't know be honest with you I feel like U I feel like there needs to be a plan in place when it
112comes to uh the fifth to sixth grade transition cuz right now it awfully feels like here's our new curriculum deal with it and that doesn't [clears throat] feel right it just doesn't I think there's further discussion to be yet and if I may um others Mike or Dan comments um but I I would say Craig um I can appreciate where you're concerns would probably be better founded in the old organizational structure where we split um Elementary and uh secondary but with one admin running top to bottom um in this situation and Jenny having and whether or not there is actual teacher involved or not or just an awareness of the curriculum at both and I think the asked and answered from the staff on hand that one is to learn to read and the other
113ones read to learn uh in addition to the uh uh ramification of act 20 um I'm going to support the team that put this together um I'm not seeking to convince I'm just explaining my position on the subject um and that's kind of where I stand so just FYI um I save my followup now sure perfect um this came to ed services in July the proposed staff members involved in this came July 9th that it's in our board docs um that was there and the concern wasn't brought up at that particular time that there were no middle school and and maybe it came up later than then but if that's been a concern why wasn't it brought up as far as other concerns about curriculum and things like that we have a committee that's been
114working hard on this for a few months you have a board member that's been involved with that but concerns haven't been brought forth until now when it's time to vote I guess I we need to clean up our process because to come now here we are that teachers have done this they're getting ready to move into the end of the school year and getting ready for the summer and so many other things that if these were showstoppers I guess I don't understand why they didn't come up until now and D that's a good question probably for a board development or a board uh what do you want to call board retreat board surve for discussion um I understand the question I think all people in the room understand the question um but not necessarily Germaine
115to the postponement or the resolution specifically you not want me to respond uh you you can okay obviously I'd prefer to be on the on the um postponement but that's okay you know so much has been talked about um you know trust within the committee to do that particular kind of work and um why wasn't that brought forth was it ever discussed who was on that particular committee and was it ever discussed that uh the Middle School wasn't involved I I would I would have assumed that they would have been involved I mean we're talking about uh curriculum that feeds directly into the middle school so I don't think that's a fair question to ask okay thank you Craig any additional discussion or comment regarding the vote to postpone and if Craig and Jared are
116in agreement because I don't know off the top of my head two-thirds vote vot two3 vote required and there are eight of us here so somebody else do the math in their head uh six I got to carry the one divide by two can't split a person F6 okay got it got F6 okay additional discussion okay Lynn please call the rooll sorry Dan what's a yes vote and what's a no vote Yes vote is yes postpone okay thank you we have to have six yes postpones to carry yeah I got that right okay so a yes vote is to postpone a no vote is to put the motion back on theable t as written Lynn please call the RO FR [snorts] no Diana Johnson no Sam a Neil yes David Shader no Dan wolner yes
117Craig Wartman yes charity Chandler no Mike Higgins no okay and the motion to postpone fails um back to the resolution as it stands uh we are had a motion and a second um so uh additional discussion yeah so uh in so far as that is concerned one of the things that I didn't see talked about uh at the meeting a couple of weeks ago um that I had some constituents bring to my attention was that well as you remember uh I would say well actually wow it's it's almost about it's going on eight or nine months ago now but a while ago we had some people bring us a petition with hundreds and hundreds of signatures saying that they did not want uh critical race Theory diversity Equity inclusion and other similar initiatives in our
118school district that didn't want it in the mission statement the vision statement or to have anything to do with our schools so one of the questions that you know I really wish I had thought to ask a couple of weeks ago is was any consideration taken to ensure that this uh curriculum values neutral and does not incorporate those uh does not incorporate those things or and Jenny I think and and I'll direct you to answer but this was both between the DPI as well as that uh I'll call it the governor it was the cross functional team of legislators I can't remember the name of it and part of that was appointed by boss and part of it was appointed by whomever I don't know all the names I I know you had given that
119to either the committee and or you had that at some point in which case Sam I don't know the answer to that specifically but I am aware of the people who were appointed by the state in order to generate the list of approved curriculum gotcha and I I don't know that I would say that I automatically trust members of the state of course I don't uh I don't think that they always have our best interests at heart unfortunately [clears throat] um you know I only speak as uh well I won't say it out loud but I think we all know about some of the language that they tried to change and uh how that's been received I think that you know some people in the state might have actually a pretty active uh non-neutral values
120agenda and so I did a little bit of research into that after some constituents brought that to my attention and I did find that hmh actually has a very strong Dei initiative uh they have a whole web page dedicated to it where they say our diversity equity and inclusion council is made up of a diverse group of employees across hmh the council engages all employees in taking actions to achieve companywide Dei goals uh their CEO Jack Lynch has signed the CEO action for diversity and inclusion pledge uh they have an entire equity and inclusion office and actually when questioned about how diverse and inclusive they are they wrote an entire response uh rebuking someone who was saying perhaps they're not diverse and inclusive enough and they said hmh materials undergo a rigorous review process for
121ensuring cultural responsiveness led by our chief equity and inclusion officer and our officer of equity and inclusion office of equity and inclusion so they have very very strong leanings in that way I don't think that it sounds like a values neutral program at all which is unfortunate because I think that in the state we're trying to move in the right direction we're trying to move away from poor uh reading education practices towards reading education practices that have a higher you know higher quality of uh return unfortunately it seems like in this situation that initiative is being taken advantage of by people who have a very distinct non-neutral agenda and this is an example of that and I think that we should really think about whether or not we want to vote for that when the
122community has so clearly time and time again told us that they do not want these things in our district and in our curriculum thank you Sam additional points regarding the motion at hand I have a question because that is a very valuable point to bring up and I understand where the community is coming from yet I as you all took a look at can I ask questions to them or does this have to be to just us um I would prefer it to be seek to understand um yeah seek to understand don't seek to convince no my seek to understand is when this pilot was looked at because you had mentioned Dei and you had mentioned culture responsiveness and those two things are different and so teachers need to do things to be culturally responsive
123so I know that there was a look there but I'm wondering was there a look to filter or to make sure that it didn't have that strong Dei component that you're referencing because yes that piece has been pretty loudly stated within the community yet we haven't said Thou shalt not yet you know what I'm saying so cultural responsiveness I just want to make sure there's a delineation there because you interwove them into the same phrase um so was can we ask was there consideration or look into ensuring that it was not strong in the Dei components um I know the conversations that I participated or listened to I should say was very strong in the reading component because they're looking at the core values that's that was very strong in that but I wasn't in
124some of the closed door sessions so can you all speak to how much of it was wow there this is strong in Dei we can't do this there wow this is strong and here and I know that our community and our board and and are going to go whoa no can can you speak to any of that I will say that we walked uh through the DPI crosswalk tool and the focus was on the uh reading components and the components that we're learning about through the teacher training um I know there are certainly um I think a deep dive on any of the materials that would be on the El CCC uh list and or the DPI list uh likely would address diversity Equity inclusion um in each one of these uh sets of materials
125um so I can't say that inclusion or not inclusion of that was one of our key components to it there were certainly sets of materials that had a stronger focus on things like social justice than the materials that we have currently selected uh I would like to make that clarifying sa here um when I talk about cultural responsiveness and Dei I'm reading from their response and so their spe ifying that their their rigorous process to ensure cultural responsiveness is led by their Chief equity and inclusion officer so I would be very skeptical of the fact that cultural responsiveness is not tied to Dei it sounds like it's a component of Dei that's being governed and spearheaded by their Chief equity and inclusion officer out of their office of equity and inclusion as they say so
126that's uh that's where my concern is um yeah appreciate that Sam okay additional comments or discussion if we vote know right now what does that mean um means we're not making the purchase today right that means that they go back to the drawing board and start over that means that means no on hmh uh well it means it could mean no on the fiveyear purchase maybe you want to vote no because you want them to go with the seven-year purchase it could mean a lot of things it doesn't mean that it can't come back as the same program repackaged or for a one-year trial or what have you but that's obviously that's when this hasn't been discussed which means that a no vote now doesn't give clear Direction except for no to this resolution You'
127either you'd either have to augment this resolution or a subsequent ed Service Andor discussion with Administration would have to come up with a new game plan in order to Implement early literacy and be compliant with act 20 by the timeline that we need to be compliant with act 20 well that's what I'm getting at is we have to be compliant sure but we've already been able to modify some of the existing curriculum in order to get three queing and other I just want to make sure I know exactly what I'm C I am not convinced that we're not making a $525,000 mistake and I'm just going to leave it at that thank you Craig oh and Dave just a point of clarification because you you had called it out three are appointed by the speaker
128of the assembly currently Robin boss three by the Senate Majority Leader um Mary Bowski and three by the state superintendent and this board of nine folks reviews and recommends 5K to grade three early literacy curriculum and instructional resources okay thanks charity right clarification okay okay um no additional comments Lynn please call the role Fred yes Diana Johnson yes Sam o no David Sher yes Dan bolner no Craig Wartman no charity Chandler yes Mike Higgins yes and I believe the motion carried okay very good this brings us to our second of two opportunities for public comment same rules as uh applied to the first um any individuals wishing to address the board please take the podium hi good evening um I did not plan to speak tonight um so this is name and address please oh
129Jenny Myers 819 Oakwood Lane Watertown um so so I'm kind of just flying here um when I arrived at the meeting it seemed very very I was very aware that everybody is concerned about keeping solid standards especially when we're dealing with our students and raising those academic core standards um I was fortunate enough to be able to Pilot this program of hmh and I have to say that it is much more structured than what we are using now most of the material are already prepared for us and the teachers this year were asked not asked we were mandated to take a keys to literacy educational program that changed many of the thoughts of how we've been currently teaching and we found that this hmh curriculum was the closest thing to the keys of literacy which
130we were required by the state to have to study and so I I'm curious because this has been ongoing that why is this matter coming up now when we're trying to get ready for next school year already and how we plan kind of Starts Now that some of these concerns weren't brought up before and I guess that's you know that's a question that I have I'm not I feel that if our goal is to get a more challenging and difficult curriculum that's going to improve these children's scores then you have the program like we've studied it it matches what we've been required to learn and all the hours that we've spent learning the keys to literacy and so that is the point that I wanted to make so thank you very much I know who
131she is yeah I figured as much but rules are rules um anyone else please oh three online uh thank you Tyler call them out uh Stacy um yes my name is Stacy um I live on Main East Main Street in Watertown um I think it is important to clarify regardless if the referendum passes or not Lebanon and Lincoln are going to close um I've been having issues getting record requests in a timely and legal manner um Wisconsin State Statute 1932 subsection 2 says they should be fulfilled in 12 days and I have not that has not been the case since January for me um I did get a records request it has the school district has gotten $68 million in Grants since the 2019 2020 school year so how you guys are in such a
132financial disarray is beyond me um and I also had uh Kender Romans uh is being investigated by the state for a licensing issue I had had another school uh District reach out to me and I've been working with the state I think it's important that to recognize that she's a Dei expert um at covenants counseling she deals in critical race therapy um I'm just seeing a lot of the same behaviors that we have over and over and over again stated to you guys overwhelmingly with Community backing that this kind of stuff is not appropriate um I did realize just now that one of my record requests was locked again um so through the Freedom of Information Act I do request that that is unlocked and that my outstanding request will be addressed this week thank
133you muted was there a name called I couldn't hear was my name called I don't know if you can hear me oh we can hear I can hear you David [laughter] all right all right well I I'll speak to you then thank you I'm I'm sorry that I had to leave I did want to remind the board that U moms for Liberty is on the ballot April 1st and that moms for Liberty's National platform threatens to undermine really the moral and ethical principles of inclusivity critical thinking Equity diversity and academic freedom and that if moms for Liberty wins a position on our school board that's what we have to look forward to I believe that would be a tragedy for our children our teachers in our district moms for Liberty promotes s censorship it discourages
134diversity and it seeks to impose a narrow worldview on our students this is not the path for Watertown to take to the Future this is a step backward you all know this most of you at least that our schools should be places where every child feels valued where they are encouraged to explore ideas and where they learn to respect differences in one another we need school board members who prioritize making decisions based on evidence and not on the policies of a National Organization we need Schoolboard members who will listen to Educators and parents and who understand that uh educating our Watertown students is about empowering them and not marginalizing or limiting them thank you very much Elizabeth please yeah hi guys uh same thing I wasn't planning on speaking um again in fact I wasn't
135sure if it was allowed but then I double checked and this time I'm coming in my capacity as a a parent of children in the Dual language program currently in elementary um but my hope and what we're working hard at at my home is that it continues with them to where they can get the Seal of biliteracy in high school which I know some of our students have achieved which then follows them into their career and opens up as we all know when you're bilingual or multiple languages incredible opportunities um and so Craig I wanted to address you specifically because I think it's important and you even mentioned right when we have a difference of opinion to listen to each other um and sometimes we don't understand how our words are being received so um
136with your talk about the importance of w and wisdom or your lack of support for H&H you really focused on what you felt was the key component for choosing hmh was that it had the Spanish curriculum supporting the Dual language program um you mentioned more than once that that only helps 10% of kids in our school district um which includes my kids they're they're in that 10% um and that it that shouldn't impact our decision those students shouldn't yes uh ju uh just want to make sure to had you been here I would have probably cut you off earlier uh at public comments are to address the board Andor uh director Andor to the president uh it's not uh the norm to call out any one specific board member oh goodness I know that that
137wasn't your intent per se uh you were just NE comment that one of our board members made but uh if you can just refocus the present or your comments to the full board I'd appreciate it sure absolutely yeah my apologies thanks for the clarification David um as we were all in discussion and hearing the discussion um I think this is important as a parent that my opinion is heard by the entire board thank you for that refocus um that it's important that even though it's only 10% of our dual language program um that it's being communicated to me as the parent that since my child is not of the majority that their learning experience doesn't matter um and then it makes me feel um like we're not putting uh emphasis into our programs we talk
138about tradition and Innovation but now I'm hearing that the Dual language program um should not be considered when we're talking about curricula um just to clarify I had to double check too if we do not if we go with wit and wisdom they do not have a Spanish curriculum at all so we would have to purchase an entire other uh curriculum or we would have to ask our teachers to piece meal together which is not in the best interest of our Learners um and since we're trying to be fiscally responsible I think it's important um to understand that our comments um can be taken in a very specific way um and even though my kids's only 10% uh as a constituent as a community [clears throat] member I want to know that 10% still matters
139so like our Advanced Learners since it's only 10 or 15% today matter kind of thing thank you guys okay thank you any additional comments okay very good I'll take a motion for adjournment Mike first Diana second all in favor I I adjourn