001Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us here in person and online for this important Boyd Board of Education candidate forum. If you're in our live audience, this would be the time to grab that device and put it on mute or shut it off or do something so that it doesn't wrinkle, tingle, or do any other thing like that and interrupt the flow of tonight. We appreciate that. Tonight, our candidates will make the case to you, the voters, as to why you should vote for them on the upcoming election on April 7th. Tonight's forum is being livereamed on both the Boet school district and the Lavos de Bloit YouTube channels. The on demand version will be available on the Bo School District and Rack Honey First YouTube channels and the Lavos de Boit Facebook page.
002A special thanks to the school district of Bo for hosting us here tonight, to our candidates for stepping forward to serve our community, and to our co-sponsors of tonight's forum. They include the Greater Bo Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Boote Economic Development Corporation, and Rock County First. As we get started, just a reminder that you can help yourself to refreshments in the back of the room as we go through the evening here. Tonight's theme is simple but powerful. Building a stronger bloit together. Tonight's co-sponsors believe strong schools are the foundation of a thriving community for students, for teachers, families, businesses, and really the entire community. Research backs this up, showing that better educational outcomes lift everyone in a community. So based on the community's input, our discussion tonight will primarily center upon the top challenges
003facing the district today with particular focus on improving the district's academic achievement performance, fiscal responsibility, and teacher retention. If you would like to submit a question from the audience, you can ask for a note card, raise your hand, and someone will pick it up when you're finished. We asked the candidates to focus their answers on practical solutions which they have direct control over as board members and which will directly address these top challenges. The candidates have drawn numbers at random to set the speaking order and they are sitting in that order. With each subsequent question, the next candidate in line will be the first to answer. We will start with opening statements from each candidate who will have two minutes. Candidates will then have up to two minutes to respond to questions. If a candidate
004mentions another candidate by name during their response, that candidate will be given the opportunity for up to a one-minute response. Finally, the candidates will be given up to a minute on their closing statements as to why they believe they are the best candidate to address these challenges and others that are faced by the school district. Our timekeeper sitted in the front row right there by the big computer monitor will operate a digital clock which is visible to myself and all the candidates indicating the time that is left for them to respond. And we just want to remind the candidates to turn on their microphone when they are responding and turn it off when they have completed their response. And we kindly ask the audience members to hold applause till the very end of tonight's forum.
005All right, with that, let us begin with two-minute opening statements from the candidates, starting with Dan Shu. Is that right? No, that's not right. I'm already off one. I'm sorry. Uh, starting with Carol Fox. Let's get Let's get started right here with Carol Fox. Uh, then each other candidate will have up to two minutes to continue their opening statements. Carol, your opening statement, please. Uh, good evening. Um, I'm Carol Fox and I'm honored to be here tonight and thank you to the Greater Bullet Chamber, Greater Em Economic Development Corporation of Rock County First for hosting this event. Um, I've been a Bloiter for 35 years. For nearly two decades, I served our district's families as an elementary principal. Prior to coming to Boyd, I was an elementary teacher in Minnesota and an elementary principal in
006Michigan. After retirement, I continued to work for our district as a leadership mentor and worked as a supervisor for pre-ervice teachers at um working with local colleges. Most of that work being done with Boyd College. As you can see, I have an extensive background in education and my career has been focused on creating safe challenging learning environments for every child. when it just um I'm running for the board of education because my highest priority is and always will continue to be student success and academic excellence. We need to be honest about our current performance as the data we see needs to be a call to action. I believe we can achieve excellence by maintaining a safe supportive environment for students, investing in highquality instructional staff and hiring and maintaining an effective district leadership. I believe
007in bo and I believe that by working together we can move this district in a positive direction and I would be honored to be able to continue serving our students and staff and and community on the board of education. Thank you. >> Thank you Carol. Let's um hear next from Dan Shu. Dan your opening statement. >> Thanks Tim. Good evening. I'm Dan Shu and I'm running for a position on the Bloid School Board. Thank you to the Greater Boy Chamber of Commerce, the GDBEDC and Rock County First for hosting tonight and thanks to everyone who's taken the time to participate in these forums over the last few weeks. Thank you to the my fellow candidates. I'm a lifelong bloider. My grandfather moved to Bo to take a job teaching in the Bo public schools before
008World War II. My wife Alyssa and I raised our two kids here in Bo, sending them throughout uh the entire way through the Bo public schools. Her son Colin graduated in 2019 from Boy Memorial and her daughter Devon graduated in 2023 from Boy Memorial. I believe in this community and its public schools. Like you, I love this community. Over this course of this campaign, I've had conversations with hundreds of people across Bo. What I hear is consistent. People want student achievement at the center of course. They want strong leadership. They want responsible budgeting. And they want a board that rebuilds trust. That's what I'm going to be talking about today. You're going to hear me talk a lot about the role of a good board, what a good board should and shouldn't do. I spent
009my career leading complex public institutions. I represented Boyd in the state assembly a long time ago, uh, three terms there. Then I went to work for the state government, retiring, uh, leaving the state government as one of its top administrators. I went on to spend 14 years at boyoy college during very complicated times including covid uh leading uh complex project like the powerhouse a board's role is not to micromanage its role is to set expectations follow state statutes chapter 120 oversee performance and stay focused on results I'm not running to bring an agenda I'm trying to keep student achievement at the center have strong budgeting strong leadership and rebuilding trust Thank you. >> Thank you, Dan. All right. Next opening statement from Celestino Rafini. >> Good evening and thank you to the Greater Boy Chamber
010of Commerce, the Greater Boy Economic Development Corporation, and Rock County First for conducting this forum tonight. Also, a special welcome to those watching via Lavose Deoit's live stream this evening. Thank you as well to all the candidates for participating in this third and final form of the election season. I'm writing for the board of education because every voice in our community deserves to be heard and represented. I want to represent residents who believe in strong public schools. Business owners who know today's students are tomorrow's workforce. teachers who want a stable, consistent leadership in a district that supports their success and retirees who remember when our schools were a point of pride and wonder how we'll regain that strength. I also want to stand for the families who expect more out of this district. Community leaders
011who refuse to accept low student achievement as our standard. And for the students whose voice isn't heard when decisions are made. I care deeply about this district. My family has made it our priority. Our son, a sixth grader at Aldrich, has deeply benefited from dual language instruction since the age of four, and we've seen firsthand what is possible when programs are strong and expectations are high. In my professional work, I regularly interact with students from Bo Memorial, and I continue to be impressed by their talent and resilience. I'm running because this community deserves a school district that reflects its values, ambition, and potential. Strong schools are essential to a strong boy. With focus, leadership, accountability, and high expectations, we can move forward together, and I'm ready to serve. Thank you much. >> Thank you, Celestino.
012Next opening statement comes from candidate Bill Johnson. >> Bill, your mic on, I think. There you go. >> Now it is. >> Uh, thank you all for coming. I'm Bill Johnson, uh, a lifetime resident of Voit. Um, I've been here twice as long as Carol, 70 years. Um, my mother graduated from school in 1939 from White Memorial. I graduated in 73. I had another nephew graduate in 88 and a great nephew in 2017. So, they've been here a long time. Uh, I worked for the city of Boyd. I was a street supervisor and I always tell everybody, I never put any snow in your driveway. It was the other people. Um, after that, I went to work. I, uh, did the budget every year for the school or for the street department. Uh, we came
013in under budget every single year. So, I'm very good with other people's money. I went to work for Compass and Aramark and delivered food and uh supplies to the schools. So, I was in almost every school every day. I seen a lot of things that we need to improve on and a lot of things that were really good. A lot of good students. Um I don't have any kids. Uh I have no agenda. I'm not trying to, you know, get anything across. I'm here for the kids and that's the main thing. and student achievement, uh, retaining teachers, and that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Bill. All right. I think that our rule extends into opening statements. So, Carol, your name was invoked. If you'd like to question Bill's math, uh, feel free. >> All
014right. And finally, we will hear uh from candidate Amy Levy. Amy, >> thank you so much. Good evening, everyone. I want to start by thanking the organizers of this event and our moderator for providing an opportunity to hear from candidates to hear us share our perspectives on important issues. My name is Amy Levy and I am proud uh to say that I am both a graduate of and a current board of education member for the school district of bo. For the past six years, I've had the privilege of serving on the board and working to support students, families, and staff across our district. The success of this district is deeply personal to me. My husband and I are raising two amazing Purple Knights. That perspective, both as a board member and a parent, keeps me
015grounded in what matters the most. Making sure every student has access to a high quality education and the support needed to succeed. Throughout my time on the board, my focus remains consistent, academic success, financial stability, and strong family and community engagement. I believe that when we invest in our students, manage our resources responsibly, and build meaningful partnerships with families, we create a stronger future for everyone. Thank you. >> Thank you, Amy. All right, our first two questions have to do with improving academic achievement within the district. Each candidate again has up to two minutes to respond to the questions, and this is where we'll start with Dan Shu. Uh for the rest of the candidates, I'll read the complete question here for Dan. I will give it to you in paraphrased version just to shorten
016things up a little bit as we go through, but if you want it read exactly as written, please let me know and I will do that. Question is, it's common knowledge that the district ranks near the bottom of public schools across Wisconsin when looking at academic achievement. What initiatives will you take or support in order to help improve academic performance across the district? Thanks Tim. Great question. So the the number one thing a school board can do collectively to raise academic achievement is to support strong leadership at in here this building the coac center. That's what a board is uh duties are set out in in chapter 1213 of the state statutes. talks about what a a school board is supposed to do and and how that impacts Bloit specifically is our first job is
017to convince Dr. Anderson to stay another year in his interimm role and longer if he and his wife would agree. But in the meantime, we would go and search for a permanent superintendent here at Bo. And I know that someone tonight will read the list of the superintendents we've had since Betty Lang and it's been too many. We need to hire a superintendent that will dig in and stay. That's the number one thing we can do for student achievement. Now as a preview to what we might have to face here in the future that superintendent or Dr. Anderson before that may tell us that we need more resources or we need to do things differently in the district and that's where a board steps in evaluates what's suggested by the professionals and ultimately we reach
018consensus and support that. From there, a board needs to uh annually uh approve an appropriate budget that takes into account the resources provided by the state and the local communities. And then I talk a lot about rebuilding trust in the school board. And I think that's going to be vital if we ever need to go to citizens across the uh district school district of Boe to seek a referendum. We need to rebuild trust to do that. That directly would tie to student achievement. So, thanks for the question. >> Thank you, Dan. Celestina Rafini, what initiatives will you take or support in order to help advance the academic performance in the district? >> It'll be interesting tonight because my colleague here didn't mention my name, so no chance for rebuttal yet, but uh I we'll play
019that game. Uh so, you're my colleague as well as everyone else up here. I we're we'll I'm sure talk a lot about superintendent tonight and and I absolutely agree with u many of the steps that um my colleague here on my right mentioned. Uh so superintendent for me is first and foremost but you know my the fourth priority within my whole campaign is focusing on what should happen in our schools and not how it needs to happen because the how is the superintendent. we have one person to hire and that's the superintendent and ultimately student achievement performance needs to change and it's the superintendent's role uh to make that happen. I believe uh if I were asked as I'm asked specifically about this outside the superintendent, the focus has to be on building principles and
020the culture and the climate that our teachers are working within. The quality of our teachers is outstanding and it needs to be upheld that the teachers are on the front lines and they are doing amazing work and we need to ensure that the quality of the teachers remains because if we have great building principles and wonderful teachers, we will have a positive school climate that's going to do more towards boosting achievement than any of the measures we could sit here and recommend. So, a positive school climate led by the building principles, our teachers, but at the top, our superintendent. That's what's going to strengthen our schools, prepare them for the future, and build the confidence they need to be a great uh Purple Knight and graduate and uh live a great life. >> Thank you,
021Salino. Next to tackle that question will be Bill Johnson. bill your uh initiatives that you might support in order to help improve the academic performance across the district. We need to get kids to school on time and there every day. 38% of the students are gone more than 10%. That's 18 days of the 180. So in 10 years, that's a whole year of school they've missed. 180 days that they're not going to get back. And you can't learn if you're not in school. And as far as hiring a superintendent, we need to ask the right questions. If you get them down to four, don't take the best candidate of a bad group. Throw them out and get the ones you want. And ask why do you want to come to Boyd? What are your plans
022for Boyd? What are you going to do for Bo for the school district? Um, a lot of them interview all the time, so they got a lot of answers, but maybe not the answers we're looking for. Um, and we need to retain teachers by standing behind them and supporting them. And the principles need to stand up and support them, too. And the board. All right, Bill. Thank you. Next, we will hear from Amy Levy on the topic of initiatives she might support to help improve academic performance. >> Thank you so much. Um, I think one suggestion that would be helpful is to more closely connect academic growth to to the superintendent's evaluation. What gets monitored um gets full attention. Um, I think that the board can be instrumental in setting the expectation of increased family
023engagement. We all know that learning does not stop when that final classroom bell rings. Um, we need to figure out how to better engage our families and community to continue to support the learning outside of the classroom. I think that every parent or guardian wants to know, is my child at, above, or below grade level? and what tools can can you provide me with to help get my child where they need to be? Um, we also need to pass a referendum in the school district of Boe. A referendum, not necessarily for capital, but for operational, is going to help to mitigate growing class sizes. Um, I would love to include transportation at the high school level. I think that'll be instrumental in helping with attendance concerns. um making sure that our students and our educators
024have the resources that they need in classrooms to support students. Um and educator retention is huge. It's really difficult to support educators at the level that we should at the level that they deserve. Um if we are also simultaneously making millions of dollars of cuts year overyear. Thank you. >> Thank you Amy. And the final candidate to address this particular area, Carol Fox, what initiatives would you take on or support to help improve academic performance? >> Um, I don't know that I have too much to add because I agree with what um my fellow candidates have stated. Um, the superintendent of course will be the key, but I'm going to be looking for a superintendent who also wants to empower teachers and really work with this the staff on on figuring out what the roadblocks
025are for our kids and what we really need to um to do to really improve that achievement. One of the things I think is key to that is really looking at the achievement data and being really honest about what it is and what it looks like and where we need to go from there. Um I I think again to me it's it's a lot of roadblocks. The the attendance issue is a huge one. So how do we deal with that roadblock? What ideas do the teachers have? What ideas does the community have? Because attendance is more than just a school district problem. It reaches out into the community as well. So how do we pull in um and do the parent involvement? How do we pull in and do the community involvement? Um to get
026the the to get the entire community working towards and wanting good achievement from our students. We need to you know we need to focus on what it is that we want and that I agree we need to set goals and act and hold people accountable for those goals and that would be the superintendent that the board would be working with. you need, we need to we want this kind of achievement. What do we need to do to get there? And we're going to hold you accountable for doing that. Um, so all of those things kind of reiterate what everybody else just said, but I'm not going to say anybody's name specifically. >> All right. Thank you, Carol. Um, next question uh will be fielded first by Celestina Rafini. So Cina, what do you believe a
027school board member can do to ensure that all decision-making and priorities remain focused on improved academic outcomes rather than other extraneous matters? Um the I in the last I've talked to a lot of people about the last six months have been um a crash course on school district operations for myself. You know as a as someone who's lived here in the community now 12 years uh and very engaged with um many schools and many teachers and staff in the community. Um, no one is hearing and hearing the board talk about academics uh at a meeting and maybe maybe it is happening but that's not being communicated not only communicated within the district, it's not being communicated to the rest of the world and there's families making decisions on communication and um there's a lot of
028resources with a lot of great data that clearly explains how our district is performing compared to local peers compared to the rest of the state and resources like that are really easy to understand. Um, but no one no one wants to talk about it and and I feel that communication is really the biggest step forward that this district needs to make to um uh not only within board meetings but also externally to the community uh parents and um business leaders. >> Thank you. Bill Johnson, what do you think as a board member you can do to ensure that those decision-making and priorities are focused on academic outcomes rather than other things? We really need to get the parents involved. Um, I seen at the high school and they had parent teacher conferences and they'd have
029like three parents show up and it it it's heartbreaking. I mean, they got to be involved to get the kids motivated to stay in school and do better. Um, I don't know what we can do. uh you know as far as more information to them and stuff and get them the reports that they're you know how they're doing you know I know they do quarterly and semester but they they got to get the parents involved or grandparents or whoever is in charge of the kids and get the kids motivated to want to learn and it just I don't know like I said it's just heartbreaking to see the teachers there and nobody comes for the parent teacher conferences. >> All right, Amy Levy, what can you do as a board member to ensure that those
030priorities remain focused on academic outcomes rather than other things? >> So, one thing that I believe firmly in is that board members should not always agree. I think that if we are willing to learn from each other's different perspectives, we arrive at our best decision makingaking. Um, with respect to ensuring that decisions are prioritized and focused on improving academic outcomes, we need to keep the students at the center of all of our decision making. Um, and whenever possible, involve the folks that are most impacted by the decisions that we're making. If we need to make a decision to close a school or to change a curriculum or or anything else that directly impacts students and families, we need to make sure that they are providing contexts that help us come to a robust and thoughtful
031decision that's going to positively impact our students and lead to those academic outcomes. Um, but supports in other areas as well. So, and the final point since I have a few seconds left. I think we need to be good role models for our students. I think the decisions we make matter and how we arrive at those decisions hopefully in a respectful manner is equally as important. Thank you. >> Thank you, Carol Fox. We move on to you. Your thoughts on what schoolboard members can do to make sure that decision-making and priorities are focused on academic outcomes. Um, I've only been on the board for a few months, but it certainly has been um very much of of a learning experience. Um, there's just so many things going on and I think one of the things
032that we need to work on as a board is getting ourselves better organized in terms of how uh we work with the flow of information, how the committees and the board um work together in terms of how the information flows. Um, I did go to a a um the WASBA thing and there was a and I probably said that wrong, but there was there's a lot of districts that are using a different kind of model called the governance model where they they do a lot with setting up these expectations and then setting progress monitoring goals throughout the year. So, one of the things I would like to see is I'd like to see us more frequently um and have opportunities to look at data tools and to look at what the progress is that's um
033moving us forward and talk about what are those issues that go along with with student achievement. Um, so one of the things that goes along with that governance thing would be to set up a specific calendar for the board so that at certain times of year we are focused on certain issues and certain things and that we're looking at uh achievement and growth data. I think one of the things we need to be focusing on a lot is growth data, but how are how things are moving along and how things are moving forward. And the superintendent then is accountable for those those that progress monitoring and they have frequent reports um for um how how the district is doing and the superintendent's evaluation then is based on those progress monitoring reports. So that um how
034well that's happening is how you evaluate your superintendent. >> Thank you, Carol. The last candidate to field this question is Dan Shu. Dan, uh ensuring that uh the board is focused on decision- making and priorities remaining in the district as far as students rather than other extraneous matters. >> Thank you. Um my priorities are simple. Hire a superintendent that will dig in and stay. Budget responsibly and rebuild trust. I've worked at large and different organizations and it's really easy to always say what you're doing is mission centric. So it's really easy to say everything we do is uh that we get involved in as a board is for academic achievement. So we have to pull ourselves back and say what does a board need to do? We need to hire one employee. We need to
035support that employee. Give that person the tools they need to do the job. That person in turn reports back to us to do their work. We need to do an annual budget. We need to when we do that, we need to weigh the needs of the community and the ability to pay for um all of our sources of income. And then we need as a board need to rebuild trust so then we can it can can become a virtuous uh cycle here. So, I'm um going to always say that those are the things we need to bring ourselves um stay up at that level and that would u make sure we weren't getting distracted by other matters. Thank you. >> Thank you candidates. All right, the next batch of questions refers to the matter of
036the district's financial responsibility to the taxpayers. So question uh three in our evening will go to Bill Johnson first and Bill here you go. Given that the school district of Bo reduced spending by more than 11 million in the 202425 school year and has relied on reserve funds to balance the budget. What specific priorities should the board focus on to both ensure long-term financial stability and academic achievement in upcoming district budgets? I was a member of the ad hoc committee um and we advised the superintendent on a lot of things. A lot of them weren't done. Um we tried our best to save money going through every single school. Um, we did the best we could. I seen a lot of waste when I was in the schools. Um, you know, it's easy to spend
037somebody else's money. Well, that's not the right way to do it. Um, we need to look at all the money and where it's going and focus the money on student achievement. Um, I've seen a couple of food trucks that we paid over 200,000 for that were never used. They never cooked on them when they took them to the schools. They cooked in the schools and brought them out and they're still sitting here. Um I seen $125 clocks in schools in each room. No, that's too much money and that needs to be brought out. Whoever's looking at this needs to, you know, dig into that. You know, that's money that could be well spent anywhere else. I seen uh monitors and computers tossed out. I seen uh 55 in screen TVs just smashed and the school
038district replaced them and and it was kids doing it and it's just a waste of money and we can't afford to do that. Um, that's all I got. >> All right, Bill. Thank you, Amy. Um, priorities to asssure that there is long-term financial stability and academic achievement. >> Thank you. Before I get to the priorities, I just want to give a little bit of context. So, school funding in Wisconsin operates under revenue limits. And a revenue limit is the number of students in the district times the amount of revenue allowed per student and that's set by the state of Wisconsin. So once that total revenue limit is set, funding happens primarily through two sources. One is state aid and the other is property taxes. Now the school district of boy is a highly aided district.
039That means most of our budget comes from the state. For example, in 2024, the state provided about 92% of our budget and local property taxpayers covered about 8%. Last year, I'm sure all of us in this room realized that there was a hike in our bill associated to taxes. Last year, the state provided 78% of our budget and taxpayers were left with the remaining 22% or three times more than the previous year. That shift in state aid is the primary reason that those increases happened so dramatically. But the thing to keep in mind is that the amount who paid what percentage shifted, but the district received no additional spendable dollars per pupil. So what do we do with that? I think it's a several item at a time approach. One, we need to pass an
040operational referendum. We need to make continue to make cuts, but we need to do that as far away from the classroom as possible. And since we have been in an ongoing cycle of millions of dollars of cuts every year, that is more and more difficult to keep that away from our students. And I'm so proud that the school district of Boyd is currently involved in the lawsuit to require the legislature to appropriately fund public education. >> Thank you, Amy. All right. Uh next we move on to Carol. Carol uh spending in the district what are the priorities and what can you suggest that we might take on to ensure those long-term stability aspects of both academic achievement and school finances. Um well I I'm so glad that my colleague explained all that because it it
041school finance is very complicated and um polite unfortunately has kind of a perfect storm of issues that that come along with the financial pieces. Um you know we have um high poverty, we have a lot of special ed, we have a lot of English language learners. Um, we are highly funded by the state, but the state keeps changing their how they they work on it. Some of that revenue formula is pretty old um and outdated and we're not getting any much in the way of extra funds for some of these extra special needs of students. And then we have declining enrollment and um you know all those other things that are that are happening. So getting stable would be a really nice thing. Um, but that's going to be a difficult thing to do. Um,
042but I I really think that as much as possible, the district needs to work on stabilizing the tax rate so we're not having it jumping up and down and and and going all over the place. That just um it makes things so so difficult for our our taxpayers. So, we need to stabilize it. But think about your own budget. I looked at we cut 11 million the one year, we cut six million the next year, we cut we're going to cut 4.5 million coming up this year. Um, and there's just the clo the more we cut, the closer we get to the students and and it's going to start really being painful. Um, and we're going to have to start looking at closing buildings and all of those things. It's very difficult. It's very painful
043and people get upset and angry. Um, but we we do need to do the best for our kids and and without resources it will be very hard to do that. Um, so we need to continue to work on trying to figure out how to get our better resources and and and may still help our students. >> Thank you, Carol. Dan Shu, >> I love this >> specific priorities. >> Yep. Sorry, Tim. I love this question. Um, yes. >> What do we what do we do to ensure long-term financial stability? Everyone in this room loves bloit. People watching online love this community. And I think we need to shift the narrative slightly. So what I'll look for in a uh to support a superintendent and their leadership team and the buildings is what do we do
044to get out of this cycle? You cannot cut your way to prosperity. We need to build the future for boy schools. If we want six elementary schools, two junior highs, and one worldclass high school, then let's tell people why we want it. Let's communicate what they'll get in their neighbors and friends, and let's tell them what it would take to pay for it. That's what we need to do. We cannot just continue to say 7 million, 6 million, 5 million, cut, cut, cut. That will not grow the district. We're in a growth mode in other parts of this community. We are in a growth mode in other parts of the community. Why is our school district in a cutting mode? That's crazy. We need to be back in a growth mode for this district and
045build that district that these people in this room and watching online are so proud of. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dan. And the final candidate to field this question, Salino Rafini. >> First and foremost, the school district unfortunately has to be looked like a business. And a any business you operate, just like the one I operate, has a budget. And we all have budgets at home. And you have to live within the confines of the budget. And we have to understand that as a district, we've had um a trend line in losing enrollment. and we have to operate a budget that is what is reflective of the kids we're serving. That being said, our district should be a district of choice. I talk to families each and every day that can give me a litany
046of reasons why they've not chose the school district of boy to send their children to. And I've got a rebuttal for all those reasons. But the fact is until our district becomes the district of choice and people that live here choose to send their kids to our schools, this is going to be long-term financial stability is going to be a a topic we debate for many years. I um feel that there's a lot of talk around open enrollment. I feel there's a great need to ensure that the students that are residents of the school district of bo are attending the schools in the school district of bo and not attending schools outside of the open enrollment process. Not that I feel that will net a ton of students but I do feel that that is
047something that needs to be looked at by the board. I feel that we need to budget as a smaller district and be comfortable with that as a community. And being this forum tonight is hosted by the Greater Boy Economic Development Corporation, I'd be remiss to talk about the fact that there is a huge demand for housing in this community. The fact that we have nearly 1,400 acres of land planned for residential development should be a great focus of the district to net new students of which the calculations on the enrollment study that were done could be between 800 and600 additional students. And with 500 vacant residential lots as well, that's another 200 kids. 1,00 to 1,800 kids are out there as a potential uh to join our district. >> Thank you, Clesino. All right, we're
048going to stay with the uh financial questions here. Uh this one looks at revenue opportunities. We'll start with Amy Levy. Amy, as budget pressures continue, what role and responsibility should the school board play in identifying new revenue opportunities while ensuring that the district remains focused on academic achievement? >> Thank you. Well, we just sold one. So, let me back. I think we need to be responsible with the properties that we own. Um, which I believe that we are doing. We just sold one property. We have other properties on the market. I think being aggressive about finding placements for those would definitely help the district. We have a rental property opportunity for the operational center right there on the other side of Burger King. Um so being intentional about finding um an entity, an appropriate entity
049to come in and rent that space is an opportunity for the district to bring in revenue. Um renting out buildings. Um I know it would be more work on our business department, but I see that as an opportunity. We have a wonderful pool, a wonderful theater. Um, we have spaces that could hold community events, and I would love to be the type of partner if we were in a financial position um to to not charge for that, but realistically, that's just not the landscape that is in front of us. So, I think continuing to appropriately managing buildings that are no longer in use, renting wherever possible. I just named one potential item and then looking at creative opportunities that of course didn't get in the way of our academic calendar um to utilize our buildings
050to bring in additional revenues. >> Thank you, Amy. Carol Fox, new revenue opportunities. What do you see out there while ensuring that the district stays focused on the academic achievement part? Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is that we we just um are working hard on a partnership with the Hendrickx Foundation. I think that's an important first step. And um I'm looking for some other um corporation or company or agency in this community that might step up and help with, you know, some other initiative that we could maybe maybe try to work towards our academic achievement. Um that those kinds of things are helpful. Um, we continue need to need to work with the state of Wisconsin as well um on on doing better with their funding formula. Uh, my understanding is
051that there's quite a bit of money that they're sitting on that they're not using and they need to use it for schools. Um, but trying to get that to happen may be beyond my wheelhouse, but we can keep trying um because that needs to happen. And we mentioned earlier the lawsuit. Um that may take many many years, but hopefully that will um yield some benefits in terms of trying to get more and better funding for the school district. Um revenue sources are hard, but um we need to keep looking for how we can improve that. >> Thank you, Carol. Dan Shu, new revenue opportunities. Do you see any as a potential school board member and how do we balance that with keeping the district focused on academic achievement? >> Yeah, so the boy um school
052district is about $und00 million operation about 650 employees. So um any sort of rental revenue is dimminimous. It's just going to be a distraction in my mind. It it doesn't mean we shouldn't do it shouldn't do these things. a a well functioning business office would um would go in that direction and I'd be supportive of a well functioning business office. Um I like what Carol said um in that our big revenue is the revenue that comes from the state. So we have um our state senators uh if is Mark Spritzer is likely to have a very strong leadership role next year in the in the capital. We should work with Clint Anderson. We should work with the new governor. we should be active in those efforts to get our core revenue up. Um and th
053that's where the real difference will be made. Now long-term in a perfectly performing coax center um I think there you know opportunities that others have mentioned would be possible as well. Thank you. >> Thanks Dan Carol. Your name was invoked. Any anything further to offer? >> All right. Thank you. So, Estina Rafini, new uh potential revenue sources while really keeping that focus on academic achievement. What are your thoughts? >> Well, I suppose I maybe jumped ahead there after the last question, so I I won't I won't harp too much terribly on on the vacant residential land. Um other than to say that, uh you know, as a community, most of us, I think, realize we geographically can't grow. You know, we're we're bounded by a state line. We're bounded by neighboring townships. And we have
054to be very intentional as a school board communicate the fact that we need to work in lock step with the city in developing the assets and the resources we have here. And that leads me to think about the assets that we do have. I'm a major proponent of reopening a middle school on the west side of the community. I think that comes with the fact that we would need to likely dispose of a existing middle school on the east side. Um, and if we were to do that, we need to put together a plan on what's going to happen with that versus just putting a property up for sale. I think we have opportunities with district assets that if we were to sell, we can put plans together about how those could be turned into
055residential developments. Therefore, growing the number of people that are living and working and being educated here in the community, very similar to what Boy College has been doing the last couple years of disposal of assets. I think we have to continue communicating the value received for the taxes you pay as a resident of this community. And of course the state the state is um our district as as we've discussed we are heavily state u funded state aid funded um state aid and its funding is a uh definitely been proven as a broken model here in Wisconsin. it needs to be addressed and I'm appreciative that our district's taking um a major lead um on that. >> Thank you, Celestina. Finally, to answer this question, Bill, do you have any thoughts as it relates to identifying
056new revenue opportunities as a member of the board while ensuring that the district keeps their priority on academic achievement? >> I'll take one more kick at the state then. Uh, I think they need to realize, you know, they're sitting on a lot of money and it it it's costs a lot more to educate special needs kids and Boyd has a lot of them and, you know, that costs a lot of money and I wish that they would just put the politics aside and take care of the kids. Um, I'm pretty sure there's about four or five parcels out there on Sixth Street that the school district owns that just sit there. We could sell them. They bought before. I think there's a couple down here on Fourth Street that just sit. Uh, I don't know
057what they did. I mean, they bought them years ago and they thought they're going to expand, but, you know, there's nothing there. Uh, and retain students. you know, we can't keep losing money to other districts when the kids come out of it. Um, I know the old BLA building is sitting there. I don't know if the school district gets any money out of it, but it's being used. Um, and they should be paying for it. It's the custodians, so any money would help. Thank you, Bill. All right, moving on to the next question in this series and the final one that deals specifically with finances. Um, we'll start with Carol Fox. Carol, a school district cannot fund every initiative at the same level. When difficult budget decisions must be made, what guiding principles should the
058board use to determine which programs or investments take priority? >> Um, interesting question. the guiding principles I think need to be um what is going to create the most academic achievement um along the way. Um and I I would I say that with the the you know we need to make sure that we we work on not losing things like music programs and art programs because those things do lead to academic achievement. So, it's it's a really um uh it's a they're very difficult decisions to make. Um but we we need to continue to look at uh at the data that supports some of those programs as well. Um which programs are are more successful at creating the outcomes that we're looking for? Um and we need to be very clear again about what the
059the those outcomes are. Um, you know, we we have had some issues with some of the the programs. The um DLI program we discussed last night was is one of them. Um, we we need to try to maintain that as well as we can, but we're not going to be able to maintain it to the level that that people are really looking for, but because we we can't find the staff. Um, you know, there are a few some funding issues, though it was stated it wasn't really funding, but there are funding issues, but we need to be looking at the outcomes, what we want, and try to create as much of a program as we can to provide for the students needs who really want those kinds of programs. Um, so it's it's a balancing
060act and um I guess the biggest guiding principle I would go with is looking at what the outcomes are and trying to maintain those programs that provide the best outcomes. >> Thank you, Carol. Dan Shu, guiding principles you believe the board should use to determine programs and investments. >> Yeah. Um, thank you. Great question. So, one of the key things I think we could do better at in the Floyd school district is um an important guiding principle when a when it comes to this this board that sits at this table here. Um we need to make sure that in a perfect world when the this place is running as we all expected to in um the community, is the board communicating with parents? Is the board communicating with taxpayers? Is the board communicating with families?
061Is the board communicating with teachers? I think a lot of the debate last night that this board had in this room was a lot of people in the community saying the communication with families in the DA DI program didn't happen to the extent it should. Communication with teachers that teach in the DI program didn't happen as it should. And you know, I I'm not sure that's a surprise. It's not necessarily a criticism of the administration today where we made decisions not to have um the staffing level at the administration that we've had in the past probably for good budgetary reasons. But so for a guiding principle that I would use in the future is have the relevant stakeholders, the members of this community, the people that care about this district and pay for this district,
062people that work in this district, have they been communicated with? people can handle tough decisions that are made for good reasons, but if you don't communicate with them, that's not that's not a guiding principle that we should have. So, thank you. >> All right, next up, Celestino. Guiding principles that you believe the board should use to make some tough decisions on retaining programs, reducing programs, and the same with investments. the the work of the elected body that represents the school district is is really no easy feat. And there's many difficult decisions that have to be made on a bi-weekly basis here in this room that that have a uh massive effect on what is really one of the largest uh public entities here in here in this community. the board's agreement around the vision and
063the goals and being accountable to the taxpayers is top of mind and and it is something I have a firm belief in within my own organization, a firm belief in with the other public committees and boards that I serve on. But as a board member, I want to ensure that we work in lock step with our vision, our goals, and we're accountable not only to each other, but to the community. Ultimately, our superintendent is the lead and they're the face of the district. They're the ones in um in the public. They're the ones in the school shephering the message that we are agreeing upon here. And so the superintendent's lead in the community on each and every day, whether it's the grocery store, it's the gas station, it's the basketball game, or just a day
064at school. The superintendent's lead is something that um I will seek and desire out of our next superintendent. Ultimately, students have to be able to read. They have to be able to write. They have to be able to learn and be nurtured in a culture that we are creating here in this district or as a board for this district. Those things I think will be top of mind if I were to be elected. Bill Johnson, what guiding principles do you think the board needs to use to determine which programs or investments take priority? >> Student achievement has to be at the top. That's the main goal of the district is to make sure the kids are ready to go into the real world. Um, and communication to the public. We need to get everything out
065there so people know, nobody gets blindsided. They know what's going on. I I I've always said, you know, I was a superintendent and you make decisions and people are going to be mad, they'll get over it. You lie to them, they'll never get over it. Just be truthful. Tell them what's going on and explain. You know, the district needs to do better when people try to get questions and they get, you know, put off. Um, you know, I've heard from a lot of people that the district doesn't get back to them on questions that they asked and then they get mad and I understand that they just want answers and that's what we should be giving them and just tell the truth and let people know, you know, what we're doing and everything, you know,
066hopefully will work out and just put the students first. >> Thank you, Bill. Amy Levy will u have the final say on this question regarding guiding principles the board should use when making their decisions. Amy, >> thank you. Fortunately, Bo is a wonderfully diverse community. I think that programs that speak directly to our demographics and our mission um should definitely be prioritized, specifically our DLI program. Um so that's a specific in general student impact has to be um a top of mind concern specifically will this improve the learning success um or the well-being of our students. We have to look at equity and access who benefits and who is left behind in our decisionmaking. We have to look at evidence of effectiveness. If we have a program or an investment and we can't clearly prove
067that this has been effective um then it makes me wonder if that is something that we should continue to do. We also need to look at cost and return on investment. What are we investing in our students and and and what is the likely outcome of that investment? Um and then alignment to our strategic goals is so important. Um once we chart a path for our district through strategic planning, we cannot do things even though they may be good things that are not aligned with what we have stated and agreed our strategic goals are. And throughout this process, communication and transparency is key. If you're doing great work, but you're not able to clearly communicate that work and invite others in to give impact or to give input, then there's a problem. Thank you, Amy,
068and thank you candidates. All right, we're going to uh switch gears a little bit. And as we get to the next question, it's likely we'll have time for this and one more. So, I'm going to just take a look out there uh at our sponsors. And if you would like me to move into one of the other questions, we've got several prepared yet that we're not going to get to. Uh just let me know and we'll jump to it. But this is a question regarding teacher retention. Dan Shu is going to answer this first. Dan, quality teachers are critical in driving student success. As a board member, how can you best support the administration in recruiting and retaining quality educators? >> Thank you. Great question. It's one of our most pressing issues. Uh, one issue
069is this culture of cutting that we've had. Um, I until we get some stability on their district, we're always going to have people looking around at other places. I um have heard from a number of different sources that um really that early career teacher is the one we're losing. um the one that's um uh figured out that um teaching in a wonderfully diverse culturally competent uh district that has um uh this thing that's so strong about Bloit, the fact that we're made up of um incredible uh community that's very diverse teachers that want to work in that district and they get to be three, four, five years in. that's where um they're often um leaving for um additional dollars to other districts. So, we have to take a quick look at that, a real look
070at that. I'm hopeful that the superintendent would bring forward a salary study, see where we're losing exit interviews for um for teachers. So, um part of it is the um big picture, the overarching we love this community and we have have to have a district that's gets back into growth mode. If we can shift to that mode, we will have teachers that want to dig in, but then we have to make sure that we are um paying them appropriately and um having them be part of this team where they can take care of their families and grow here in the district. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Sarino. How do you believe you can best support the administration in teacher recruiting and retention? Just just like all of us in our workplaces, we want to
071be in a place where we're valued, we're supported, and we feel that we can be successful. My five five things on this is remain competitive within compensation benefits. We won't always be the highest paying district, and that's okay. But we must ensure that the total compensation package is going to be strong enough to attract those new teachers, those that have been with us or those that uh for years or those that are in hard to fill areas. Secondly, when I speak to teachers, they say stability and leadership. The fact is when they go to ask a question, by the time they get an answer, the person's already left and out the door. So, how are you going to get questions answered when there's not stability and leadership? Third, working conditions. Teachers continue to look for
072manageable class sizes with adequate planning time, strong instructional resources, and access to the meaningful professional development that this district has afforded them and hopefully will continue to afford them. We should strengthen our partnerships with educator preparation programs not only in the region but throughout the Midwest to continue develop a local pipeline for future teachers whether that's through mentorships or student teaching uh partnerships. And lastly, culture matters. Recognition, respect, and open communication are going to go a long way. And teachers want to know that their expertise is valued not only by the community but by those that are in charge of the district. It's ultimately not one single policy, but building a district where people can do their best work. >> Thank you, Silstino. Bill Johnson, your thoughts on teacher recruitment and retention as far as
073what the board's role in that can be. >> Make sure they feel appreciated. Um, that's the main thing. They're they they're coming to work. They're doing, you know, taking care of our kids, our future. Make sure they feel appreciated. Um, and they're backed up by the board. They're backed up by principles. Um, we need fair wages for them and a and a a contract. And ask the teachers what they need. You know, they're the ones that are there. They know what they need and and the support they need. Um, other than that, you know, make this the district as desirable as he can because it's tough recruiting teachers. You know, there's there's such a small group anymore and there's such a big demand. We have to have something that nobody else has or we have
074something that's better than other people have to get them to want to come here and then get them to stay. and the school district is is is a great district. We just got to sell that to the people coming out of college. Um and other people, you know, maybe have been a few years and want to come to BL, you know, maybe their husband or wife are moving and they're coming here um and do the best we can, but support the teachers and make them feel appreciated. >> Thank you. Bill Amy Levy, as a board member, how can you best support the administration in recruiting and retaining quality educators? So, of course, compensation matters. I think everyone would agree to that. Um, competitive pay is essential, but we also know that the quality of the
075work experience is important in keeping great educators in our district. Um, one thing that we could directly do as board members is to incorporate staffing benchmarks in the superintendent's evaluation. Um, when schools are appropriately staffed, teachers are less likely to spend their prep time covering for a colleague. Um, and protecting that that prep time improves work life balance and and hopefully reduces burnout. Um, continue to model and push for um, admin consistent and predictable administrative support. Teachers need to know that when they raise classroom management concerns, um, their building leaders will respond consistently and fairly. Um, there's so many things that we need to be mindful of. Um, supporting a healthy work envir environment like I mentioned to empower strong leadership. Um, to ve listen to our teachers who are the closest to our students
076and working with them daily. Um, we have had a lot of different leaders in this district and I think we need to be sensitive that when a new leader comes, um, they may want to put their stamp on the district with curriculum or or a set of policies or norms for the district and because we have had frequent changes that whiplash to our educators. I think that's something that we need to be sensitive of and to promote stability in our practices because that's going to benefit our students. Um, and always elevating teacher voice. We're not going to be able to provide teachers with everything that they're requesting, but knowing that we are listening with them and that we are wisely using our resources to meet the needs as best we can, I think is really
077important. >> Thank you, Amy. And the final candidate to give us their thoughts on supporting the administration in teacher recruitment and retention is Carol Fox. >> Um I totally agree um that stable leadership is one of the most important things that we can we can do um to help with some of the teacher retention. Um the constant turnover in in principles and superintendent is very disconcerting. Um, and having been both a teacher and administrator, it's it's very difficult to um constantly be changing gears with with somebody who is has comes in with all kinds of different ideas. Um, we did do a survey um last fall and one of the things the teachers re really requested was um more involvement in decision-making. Uh we need to empower our teachers to be much more involved in
078some of the decisions that are being made. um within the district. The other thing we need to do is really work hard to fill some of these very hard to fill positions and we may need to be looking at some creative ideas with that. Um one of the areas that we really have a hard difficulty with is the special education staff. if we could encourage our own staff um who might be interested in that and getting further degrees and and moving forward with that if we agreed to like pay pay for the classwork or whatever if we if they stay with us that might help. Um we might need also need to do some of those things for for science teachers. We're having difficulties getting getting um science teachers and other kinds of um areas
079that are specialties. So we need to be be looking at that. Um, another thought that um, when we talk about new teachers and working very hard, um, I'm going to steal an idea from our new assistant superintendent. Um, she talked about the fact that we really need to set up better systems for supporting our new teachers. Um, they need they need a lot more support um, just generally than just a mentorship program. We have that, but there needs to be more. >> All right. Thank you, candidates. We'll move on to uh what will likely be the final question and this uh deals with the uh superintendent. So a good one to end on perhaps. We'll start with Celestino Rafini. Celestino, when hiring the next superintendent, what specific experiences or accomplishments would you look for first
080and what measurable outcomes would you set so the board can tell whether the district is truly moving forward? You know, turnover within superintendents is becoming really more the norm in the state as well the nation. This revolving door of leadership is creating distrust and especially in a small community like ours. Seeing a superintendent who is present in the community and not just here within the building or periodically in the school is extremely important. our this board must evaluate the superintendent but also must be realistic and not presenting 20 or 30 different criteria or metrics that we want to see because ultimately I'm tired of being at the bottom. I'm tired of this district being sort of kicked to the bottom and we are going to give someone else a turn. So, frankly, I would love
081to see us as a board come up with two, three things, incremental growth to move this district in a positive direction. As my colleague said earlier, I have a list here of every superintendent we've had since 2009. It's a long list and I'm not going to waste my time talking about it, but I look forward to that changing. Our superintendent must be president of the schools. Must be president of the community. Has to put the needs of our students and of our buildings and our administrators at the top of their importance. They have to have honest communication to our staff and be committed to seeing goals achieved. We've had enough superintendent set goals. They're never here to see them accomplished, let alone to even start working on them. Ideally, it'd be nice if they've been
082a building principal. It's really not too much to ask. >> Thank you, Celeststeino. Bill Johnson, what specific experiences or accomplishments do you think we should be looking for in the next superintendent? And what measurable outcomes would you like to set so you can tell whether we're moving forward? >> I'll change course a little bit. We've had a lot of superintendent, but very few leaders. That's what we need is a leader for a superintendent. You know, anybody can put their name out. There's a all kinds of them out there, superintendents and superintendent, but we need somebody that wants to move to Boyd and look at his record and see what he's done in the district he's been and ask him the right questions to get here and set goals for the superintendent. you know, maybe just
083one and then make sure that he know or he he or she knows what's ac or what's expected of him and go from there. And you know, be it at the sporting events, be it at the farmers market, move to bloss there's ways you can get them here. I mean, you know, if you have to pay a little bit more money to get him to the district or her, that's what needs to be. We need somebody that wants to be involved in blo and wants to get the district where it should be and belong. It It's frustrating to see us down when when we could be so much better, but we need a leader to lead us. Thank you, Bill. Amy Levy, what experiences or accomplishments would you look for in the next superintendent and
084what would you set forth so that you have a good measuring stick to tell whether the district is moving forward after the hire? >> Thank you. So when you read the question, the first thing that popped into my mind is Build-A-Bear. So, if I could build a superintendent, um, one, just to to clear it up in the room, we we can't legally require a residency clause for our superintendent. I I agree it would be great for the the the next superintendent to live and thrive in Bo, but just so everyone's clear, um, so before I get to my build a superintendent, um, I think it's really important for the board to serve as an appropriate partner for the next superintendent. um some an an entity that is not micromanaging but is appropriately supervising um a
085board that works with good in good faith with the superintendent um and genuinely supports because the superintendent success is directly linked to the success of our students. So with all that as a framework um someone who has a proven track record in the things Blo needs the most. Um so someone who has experience and has thrived in diverse environments. Someone who has turned districts around um with respect to improving academic outcomes. Um someone that understands that growth is so important and something that that we need to highlight. someone who has um experience managing a diverse workforce with varying personalities and strengths. Um someone who is a very strong instructional leader because that's what we want in our in our building leadership and in our educators that are in the classroom. someone that has strong um
086financial understanding and a proven track record um of using resources wisely to yield the results that are most important to us. Someone who is a good communicator, who is approachable, um who can speak with anyone, with parents, with students, um with industry leaders, with nonprofits. Yes, that's what I'd like in a superintendent. >> Thank you, Amy. All right, moving up to this end of the table, Carol Fox, your thoughts on what you'd like to see in the next superintendent and how we can measure the outcomes. >> Well, I'll just continue on with with Amy's list. Um, so she gets a rebuttal um um uh because yeah, a wonderful list and um I too I really want somebody who has had some experience hopefully as a superintendent that I think would be helpful to our our
087district. Um I had I put down the three main ones. I had a list just like Amy's. Um results um driven, actionoriented, and inspires trust. Um and I I believe that those those sort of encapsulate um the things that I'm looking for. Um a true visionary leader. Um, and when we look for the outcomes, um, I would hope that the leader would be results driven enough that they could help us create those outcomes and that we could work together with the superintendent and say, um, you know, these are the outcomes we're looking for. These are the progress monitoring measures that we want and we are all going to work together to get there. Um, and yeah, somebody again listens and engage collaborative efforts. um asks hard questions was one that I put down and is
088willing to address hard issues because there are a lot of hard issues and um sometimes it's it's difficult to to really need to face them head-on but you got bravery there's a good word I just thought of one a good word I don't think I had that on my list I'll have to add that to my list um but yeah um somebody who really is interested in results has had a a a track record for coming up with results and um could help us really move the district forward and we could set those goals to get measurable outcomes together. >> Thank you, Carol. Amy, your name was invoked. Would you like a 60-second response? >> I would, but I won't need the full 60 seconds. Um the last few things on my list that I
089think are critically important, and just talking about this gets me so excited. Um I want a strategic thinker. I want someone who can partner with the board to set a vision for our district so we are not just in the day-to-day struggle. Ideally, what do what type of district do we want to provide for our babies? Um, I want someone who's committed to equity, who's not afraid to address disparities, and someone who has the compassion and the thoughtfulness to inspire. >> You're welcome. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. And now Dan Shu, you get the final word on this particular topic. What would you like to see in the next superintendent as you approach the hiring and how will we know whether we're truly moving forward once that hire is made? >> Yeah, great
090great um answers so far. Um agree with what's been said. Um it's a single most important decision that we'll make as a board is how we hire this next superintendent. the single most important decision we will make as a board is who we hire as a superintendent. So when we get to that place where we've uh are in that place where Dr. Anderson had said this will be his his last year here and we are going to go out to a search. We need the entire community to be ready to recruit because we're going to go out and in my opinion it won't be my decision. a board makes a decision. In my opinion, we should do a search even if we have strong internal candidates. In my experience, internal candidates get stronger when they
091win a full search process. So, we need the entire community, teachers, uh property owners, uh families, uh parents, uh organizations, um everyone to be uh supporting that effort that hey, we're ready. This community is ready to get into growth mode. We're ready to support that superintendent. I want that superintendent to quickly figure out how um how we have those hall of fame principles in our buildings. We have 10 principles. You all should know the principal's names. You don't need to know the names up here. I want you to know the names of the principles and the superintendent. We need the next Mike Walls. We need the next Rosa Smith. We need the next Jim Fitzpatrick. We need the next Betty Lang. We need leaders that are here to run this district and be proud of
092us. They run a 650 mil uh person, 100 plus million dollar organization that is vital to all of our success. This is the most important job in Vote and we want you all to be involved in it. So, thank you. >> Thank you. And that's the last question we're going to have time for. So, it is now time to move on to closing remarks from our candidates. Each candidate has up to one minute to make their final remarks. We'll go in reverse order of the way we began this evening. So, we will start with Amy Levy. >> Thank you. Um, again, thank you to our organizers and our moderator. You did a fantastic job this evening. Our timer, thank you to everyone in the room. I'm so excited to see a couple young folks here.
093Um hopefully we didn't bore you with our responses. Uh thank you for for staying and being attentive. I am so deeply invested in this community. It has been a privilege to serve on the school district of Bo. Um I I would be really excited to continue that. We have so much work ahead. Um, but I know that we can do it when we come together as a board and a superintendent and a community. We can make great things happen for our students. Um, so please don't let this be the end of your involvement because the new board is going to need you. The new superintendent is going to need you, your ideas, your willingness to work alongside us. So again, thank you everyone and everyone who's viewing or will watch this in the future. >>
094Thank you Amy. Bill Johnson, your final remarks. >> I'd just like to thank the other candidates for running. Um, for everybody that showed up here and listened to and make your decisions on who to vote for. Uh, I'm first on the ballot, so you don't have to go far down. You can just mark my name. Um, hiring a superintendent and getting the district in the right direction is the biggest need we have. And you know, we can get somebody that can stay and get us into the future and work with the board and the board work with them, you know, get the district back to when it was really great. It's great now, but we can make it a lot better. And uh best of luck to all the candidates and thank you all for
095coming and let's get a leader this time. >> All right. Thank you, Bill. Let's hear the closing remarks of Celestina Rafini. Thank you to all my fellow candidates first and foremost for stepping up to serve. I'm unique compared to my peers because of these two commitments. First, I'm running a zeroll campaign. I want to show that leadership at this level should be guided by values and accountability, not financial contributions from anyone, including myself. Second, I continue to not seek or accept endorsements. Whether I win or lose, I want to stay accountable only to the voters and to the commitments I've made publicly. This campaign for me is about purpose, not promotion. And my purpose is centered on upholding a culture that nurtures student achievement with bold expectations, participating in the critical selection of the next
096superintendent, ensuring fiscal stability and stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and focusing on what needs to happen in our schools rather than recommending how it should happen. I'm Celestino Rafini, and I respectfully ask for your vote on April 7th. Thank you much. >> Thank you, Celestino. Next, the closing thoughts from Dan Shu. >> Thank you. Thank you again to the chamber, the GBEDC, Rock County First, and Lavose for uh live casting this tonight and thanks for everyone who engaged in these forums. I want to thank the other candidates, Amy and Bill and Celino and Carol. Thank you. This is not easy to do this. Thank you for stepping forward. As you make your decision, I'll come back to what matters most. student achievement at the center supported by strong leadership, responsible budgeting, and a board that has
097rebuil that rebuilds trust. What separates me is experience. I've led complex organizations. I've managed budgets. I've helped um helped understand the proper role of the board at each and every place that I've been at. If you're looking for steady leadership and disciplined government's focus on results, I'd be honored to earn one of your three votes. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dan. And I'm going to call an audible and we're not going to give the each of the other kid that, as you mentioned, another 60 seconds, but instead we will move on to Carol Fox's final thoughts. >> Um, I too want to thank everybody for being here, and I particularly want to thank um the audience members for being here. Um my particular belief is while we that as a board and a school district
098we need to face these challenges head-on focus on a student achievement and figure out what some of and and hire a visionary leader. We need the community to be coming along with us. We need the community to support us. We need the community to work with us. We we have to be reaching out to the community for a lot of the broader issues that are are affecting the school district together. I mean, I we mentioned some things like um you know, the chronic absenteeism. We we mentioned things like property tax and and all of these things that affect the community. So, we need to work together as partners um for the better good community, for the better good school district, and first and foremost, the better good students. Um so, I would love to work
099with you on that. I would like to continue my work. So, um please vote. Thank you candidates. And that does conclude tonight's forum. Thank you again for attending or viewing and being engaged in the future of the community. Now we can finally give a warm round of applause to all the candidates this evening. Thank you candidates. And uh if you would be so kind, please stick around. We want to take a group photo before we send you on your way this evening. Everybody, yes. A reminder that early voting begins next Tuesday, the 24th. Election day is Tuesday, April 7th. If you require any additional spring election information, we encourage you to go to the spring election hub at rockcountyfirst.com. As a reminder, the video of tonight's forum will be available on both the school districts
100and the Rock County First YouTube channels and on Lavos de Bloit's Facebook page. For those who could not join us this evening, please let us know. Please let them know uh that they can go to any of those sites to view the forum at their leisure before making their vote. One final note, the sponsors of tonight's forum will be donating $1,000 to the district for their support of tonight's event. The assistance has been very much appreciated. Now that we've heard from all the candidates on the key issues, let's build a stronger Boote. And let's do that together by getting out and voting Tuesday, April 7th, or utilize the absentee and early voting options to be sure your voice is heard. On your way out, please help yourselves to any additional refreshments. Have a safe travel
101home. Good evening, everyone.