001All right. Um, I'm going to read an announcement. In accordance with board procedure BP5, this meeting will be livereamed and recorded and can be viewed on the DASD YouTube channel. So, it's now 6 o'clock. I will call the meeting to order. Um, Rebecca, was the meeting properly noticed? >> Yes. >> Thank you. And Ann, can we have a roll call, please? >> Sure. Jan Burke, >> here. Brian Coker, >> here. Sue Esser >> here. Jeff Han >> here. >> Linda Lenhard >> here. >> Gusty Lewis >> present. >> Gail love >> here. >> Stephanie Sar >> here. And Megan Taylor >> here. >> Thank you. And that brings us to the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the United States of America and one nation indivisible. I've had in a while. >> All right,
002that brings us to the mission, vision, and equity statement. The mission of the DeForest Area School District is to provide an excellent education to engage, challenge, and inspire all students to pursue their full potential. The Divorce Area School District is committed to a culture that honors knowledge, respects individuals, demands excellence, fosters lifelong learning, and supports relationships that strengthened individuals, families, and community. And our equity statement is, we believe every student can learn and deserves equitable access to highquality, rigorous, and engaging learning opportunities. who will ask questions, foster relationships, manage resources, and create systems to increase and sustain access, equity, and safety for all learners. >> Thank you. That brings us to approving the agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda with one uh adjustment. I'd like to postpone 7B until our next
003meeting. >> Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. >> We have a second. All those in favor say I. I >> oppose. That brings us to item four, showcasing students. Yes. So, we're going to have um Kate Davich, our director of K6 instruction, come on up and introduce a whole group of people. So, I'm going to introduce the adults and they are going to help with all the students that are here to show all of the learning that they're doing. So, first I'm going to introduce you to Kilan Egleston, our dance learning coordinator in the district. Nice to meet you. And then we have Megan who was the third teacher and Amy Schmid the instructional and our students learn all about welcome everybody. We are very excited to have you here
004and hear all about what you're doing in your classroom. >> My name is Keelen Egleston and these are some of our fantastic third graders who have experienced the magic of choice-based learning tools. Um it all began back in the fall when I first started working in the district. I started working first with Yahara and I facilitated a workshop for the teachers all about choice-based learning tools and then I partnered with Amy Schmidt a fantastic instructional coach at Yera also and she also partnered then with Miss Carney and together they facilitated um a fantastic opportunity for the kids to experience choice based learning tools to stretch their brains and keep them engaged and motivated and learning and growing. And so it's been a really great experience. Um, invaluable support from the instructional coaches on all of
005the campuses with this and teachers like Megan have been taking it and running with it. And it's been really fantastic to visit all the campuses and the grade levels and see this come to life. So I'm really excited they get to see a little bit about what it's like into the third grade. >> They are very excited to share with you. So, I'm going to let them run the show um because they have a plan. They know what they're doing. Are you ready, Cedric? >> Um hi everyone. We're so excited to show you what we've been doing in our third grade math unit. Um so, presenting mathematicians. I'm Cedric, >> Elena, Clara, >> Sam, Weston, >> you may be wondering what map looks like in our classroom. It's more than just sitting at desk worksheets
006to grow our knowledge in our room. >> We are busy problems solving, collaborating with each other, and learning brand new strategies from our friends. >> We also use choice boards, which we like to call our math menus. >> These menus let us take ownership of our learning because we get to choose how we practice our math skills. We have all kinds of options like using technology, playing games, writing about math, or even doing art. One of our favorite parts of the day is a daily puzzle called All 10. >> We start with a set of numbers and have to find ways to make every number 1 to 10 using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. >> Well, he helps us strengthen our mental math um skills. Now, we'd like to show you how it works with
007the numbers one, two, three, and nine. >> Um, I am going to do two. So, if 9 / 3 would equal 3. So, 3 - 2 + 1 is 2. Um I am going to do one which is 9 / 3 then 3 - 2 then 1 * 1. Uh I am going to do nine. You can get by multiple different ways, but but first I I'm going to do three minus two and and then that minus one and then and then you have a zero. So 0 + 9 gets you to 9. >> I will do 5. 9 - 2 = 7 - 3 + 1 = 5. Oh, I'm going to do 10. First, you start with 3 * 1 = 3. Then you do 3 + 9 = 12. And you do
00812 - 2 = 10. I'm going to do 7. So, 3 = 1. 1 + 1 = 2. And 9 - 2 = I'm going to do three. 9 - 3 = 6 1 + 2 = 3 6 - 3 = So those are different every day. So they're really sometimes takes us a long time, sometimes not quite depending, >> right? It's hard, right? >> But figure it out. >> We also love based learning because it shows how math works in real world. We get to explore different types of math and it challenges our brain in many ways. So why do we do like doing math this way? It's because it is challenging. >> It's engaging. >> It's fun. >> we get to play fun games. >> We love collaborating with each other. >> It's
009entertaining to do different activities and challenges. >> It's inspiring >> and it grows our brains. Thank you so much for listening. We were so excited to share our learning with you today. You are welcome to come visit us during M at Yahara anytime. Does anyone have questions for the mathematicians? >> That was great. I'm still my brain is still reeling on how fast you guys did problems. I'm like my brain does not move that fast especially at six o'clock at night. Does anybody have any questions for them? >> I just want to say great job and I have a first grader. What should I tell my first grader to be ready for for third grade? Go for it. >> Okay. So So third grade, when you get to third grade, the problems get get pretty
010challenging, but but but my tip would be to keep trying and never give up. >> I like that, too. Good line. So, how would you compare this to how you did math last year? Because you guys didn't have this last year, right? Go ahead. >> Um, last year we didn't have access to most like the technology we have now and the freedom to have voices on what we do during that. >> Yeah. Do you have something you wanted to add? >> Um, yeah. Like last year it was a little more easier. Like we had easier problems and like it gets harder every grade level. So you always found your brain every grade. >> Now we have more choices for what we get to do cuz usually we would just work on our math books. But
011now we have more choices of what to do in different games. >> Uh um second grade wasn't really ch challenging me. like I knew most of the stuff that that they were teaching, but but now that I'm in third grade, I do things I didn't know how to do. >> Awesome. That is awesome. >> So, did all of you enjoy math before this way of learning or did this help you enrich your learning of math? >> Yes, I've always loved math. >> What happened? >> I've always loved math. >> Your thought? >> Um, it was still fun. A little more sitting than usual that we do that. Like now we have more stuff to do like like last year. So it's a it's it was okay in second grade, but it's now better. >> Um
012I think it this new way helps me like get like make math a little better. Do you think this would be fun if you did it say in like science or English too? >> Yes. >> Any questions from the book? >> Yes, I have questions. So, so what are we going to be when we grow up? >> Oh, yeah. >> Answer is >> Yeah. Maybe just >> you want to keep thinking first. >> All right. >> I want to be an engineer. >> What? >> I want to be a lawyer. >> Oh, Lord. >> I want to be the first person on Mars. >> Singer, songwriter, >> be a geologist. >> I want to be an engineer like Cedric, but I also want to be an NBA player. I want to be a video game
013tester. >> I need to get all of your autographs. >> Well, thank you very much for sharing all of your learning. We really appreciate you guys coming tonight. You did a great job. Thank you to our staff and to the parents too for supporting this. So always I got to visit your classroom a few weeks ago and observe and it was awesome to see kids in action and really owning their learning. So thanks for your hard work. It's always appreciated. So >> thank you all very much. I got one kids going. It's okay. >> Couple minutes here, guys. I >> mean, it's some riveting stuff. Does that say >> welcome Nate? >> Thank you. I can't believe these guys all left. All right. So that obviously brings us to board business and presentation and possible
014approval of OE4 personnel administration monitoring report. >> So welcome. >> So I'm going to be going over OE4. I have a handful of slides to guide us through and then I'll turn it over to you. So personnel administration, we're monitoring that we're recruiting, employing, developing, evaluating, and compensating employees to support a culture that achieves our results policies. And about two or so years ago, the board revised this policy to really draw a deliberate connection between staff culture and results, which I think is fantastic. I like to think of this report as a gauge of the overall health of both personnel administration and organizational culture. Nine defined operating expectations with 40 different uh pieces of evidence in the indicators. I love the way that this report is constructed in that in the evidence you have comparative
015data, longitudinal data, you have demonstration of process execution, you have some objective measures or outcomes that are probably closer to results than operating expectations, and you have measures of staff perception. So, I like to think of it as are we doing the right things? Are those things having the desired outcome? And how do people feel about that? So, three different kinds of evidence that hopefully align and and tell the same story. So, we're monitoring the 24 25 year, which means we're looking back at 23 24 to see if we uh improved or regress the action plans that we developed. We're implementing this year hopefully to see some the desired outcomes in in the future. So, I'm going to start by walking through last year's capacity building and action plans and outcomes just to see if
016we followed through on what uh we're planning to follow through on. I think our our biggest objective last year action plan was executing the intentions of the operating referendum. Remember that really big project, really big plans. Uh so, a lot of that had to do with strategic hires to manage studentto staff ratios uh and staff. a lot of FTE at the high school level. Um, added supports like our advanced learning coordinator that you were just introduced to. Uh, bilingual student and family advocate, behavioral support teacher, added SRO help. So, a lot of strategic additions to both balance our our staffing and class sizes and also add supports when needed. So, I think we did a nice job of executing uh that plan. expanding recruitment efforts was another initiative. I would describe us previously as being
017a a weekend only district where we really weren't uh pursuing a lot of other posting platforms. Uh we've had a lot of success looking at other places. Uh we formalized our use of the Wisconsin DPI internship program. In fact, we specialed teachers midyear as a result of that internship program. So, it's really become kind of this grow your own program. uh that we formalized uh and we've had a a lot of improvement in filling vacancies. That was an area where we have uh open positions staying open for way longer than we were comfortable for. And uh I think a lot of our efforts and other changes have minimized that that problem. And the last one that we had outlined in the plan was continuing to improve staff perceptions related to employee benefits. That work is
018led by our insurance advisory committee. We've done a lot to uh educate and inform staff uh add and enhance elective benefits and really maintaining stability in our primary benefit. Health insurance has done a lot to continue sustaining improvement in all of our measures there. So that was last year. Let's take a look at the 2425 monitoring report highlights. Uh one would be sustained improvement and high level indicators. So in the report last year, we showed that the district was in a really healthy place and we had high metrics across the board in a lot of our areas. Sustaining that was a big win for us. I talked about uh the the hiring cycle and have being able to fill vacancies with a lot more success. That was something that we saw again last year. Employee
019retention was something that was maintained. We had a retention rate that hovered between 88 and 92% pretty consistently. And then we had a two-year dip where we're at 84%. Uh we recovered from that. Last year demonstrated another year of sustained uh retention which is an important metric. And then overall staff perception measures. Uh we're had historically high rates in many of our ratings in the prior monitoring report. We maintained a lot of those. We look really good both comparatively and longitudinally. We're really pleased with um the big picture measures and sustained improvement in some of those indicators. Uh when you have a plan, execute that and plan and you have the desired outcome, that's a huge success. And we had a couple areas where we had really pronounced success in and really moving the needles
020on some of our measures. Uh one was related to our support staff perceptions around feeling supported and professional development. Our student services department did a ton of work really zeroing in on formalizing the supports, adding professional development opportunities, having a formal professional development plan, and then the business office supported adding professional development time for that employee group and I outlined in the report the incredible increases that we saw in perception ratings. Uh so that was a huge success. Uh and then again, perception ratings related to employee benefits was an area where we were uh below our compliance uh metric mark and we continue to show improvement there which we're pleased with. Uh hardwiring staff engagement efforts. The the foundation of this report is that we believe in the connection between staff engagement and staff culture
021and student outcomes. Uh staff culture doesn't just happen. You have to have a plan in place and consistently execute that plan. Uh, and a lot of these items outlined here are the measures that we take that ensure that we're consistently checking in with staff, practicing shared decision- making, engaging our employees, and really putting feedback into action. So, uh, I would say this is probably our third year of doing these items consistently, and it's starting to feel like not things that we do, but how we operate as as Norski leadership. Uh some areas for improvement or future action plans and capacity building. Uh we pointed out a noted exception in 4.1 related to license application and renewal process. So we didn't have an error on our DPI audit report uh related to licensing, but we identified
022in our support staff uh an opportunity for improvement there. Uh this is my ninth year doing this monitoring report and I I love the uh monitoring report cycle. It's a a way for us to identify areas for improvement and we found some ways to um bolster that process to minimize the likelihood of these things um of these types of exceptions. Uh compensation, this is going to be one that is uh something we keep up with on an annual basis. It's not going away. These are decisions we make on an annual basis. Uh it's a moving target. We shoot using lighting data and uh we've done pretty good in staying in compliance. We identified in this report some incremental regression in that area that we want to keep an eye on. I would by no means
023say we're in an area where we're uh needing to catch up. Uh but we don't want to put ourselves in a position to do so. So just continuing to monitor that closely and make datadriven decisions. And then lastly, uh, continuing systematic staff engagement efforts. All of those things that we're doing, culture is something that you set and forget. Uh, it's something that takes a lot of deliberate action, care, and attention and, uh, every interaction, every decision has the the opportunity to impact culture either positively or negatively. Uh, so making sure we have systems in place to drive a a happy, healthy culture. And then the the last item that we pointed out, OE4 has three may not statements in the policy. The board's we've never developed interpretations, definitions, indicators for these statements. Each one of
024them's monitored in other places that I outlined in the the monitoring report and we're suggesting that the board consider removing them from uh OE4 policy. But of course, that's a policy decision and one for the board to consider. Okay, for that reason um all the reasons that Nate explained, we have marked this report um in compliance with exceptions noted. Okay, accepted motion. >> Make a motion to accept the report. >> Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> We have some second. >> All those in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> All right, we now own the report. We can ask Nate for backup question. >> I have a question. So from 2016 to 2025, we've gone up 30% in employees. Have we gone up 30%
025in student enrollment from that time? >> Have to verify that exact number, but we've gone up every year. So >> I'm just curious about the proportion of >> I can find out from 2016 to 2025. I would say I monitor student staff ratios pretty closely over that time and we've been deliberately trying to push that number down to be a little bit more in line with our peers. >> Yeah, that that'd be worth >> and our policy mean the board policy on size ratios. Yes. >> Just asking the question. >> Yeah. Proportionately are we growing at a similar rate? >> Right. It seems like that's a big number, but maybe it's proportionally correct. >> Yeah. >> I I like how you when you said it, I noted it like you said you added strategic positions
026and and you notated a lot of what those were and I um I think that's been done across the board very well. Like we're making datadriven decisions or community based decisions on not just on a whim. there's purpose behind them. Any other questions from people? I'm interested in knowing I know this report typically comes this time of year, but we're seeing like the lagging data on it. So now like we're going to have staff perceptions come out. You do them in the spring, right? The survey. Yeah. >> Right now it's like he chooses the work to do. I just want like I feel like >> like this already happened in in the school year and then we're already like halfway through another school year before we even see what that data was and you're already
027well into your action plan of making the change and I just from your perspective would it be more opportune to see the report let's say I don't want to say you know two weeks after you scope perception survey but like April, May, something like that. Would that give us a little bit more um real time data, I guess? >> Yeah, it does feel like that the information gets to the board late. I assure you that we're not waiting until >> No, no. Yeah, I don't think so. I just think it's maybe the placement of the cycle of the report. And I also think too like would that help us as we go into compensation talks in the spring or you know I just think would that help with with I don't know any >> a
028couple things I want to add to that if that's okay. Um we we struggle with this as as directors all the time about the lagging data. Um and in fact um when I was you know director of instruction R3 and R4 I remember the board saying the exact same thing about R3 and R4. And so we started adding in measures from the fall into that report. So now we have indicators that are from one part of the year and from another part of the year. That feels weird and actually gotten guidance that that's you know a little bit something we want to be careful of. But what we have done with like R2 is we've provided and um you know to the board a progress monitoring midyear like the I Ready data midyear. So that
029is something we could take the same metrics that are in OE4 and provide when we get those metrics we could provide at least those numbers so that you have that but not do a whole monitoring report or shift the whole thing. >> I'm just saying shift the whole thing like >> don't create more work for yourselves. I the report is very thorough. It's not like I need to remmonitor it halfway through that like what are the implications? just your thoughts on like potential shift. Would that help us with, you know, like when we think about hiring, you know, for the for the next year, would that, you know, benefits as we go into compensation docs, would that help with the school perception survey? We'd be hearing that data as it came out, as you make
030plans for the following year. >> Yeah, I would I monitor each and every one of these as they come out. So, the staff perception survey is out now, closes on 16th. So, I will know on the 16th if we're in compliance with every one of these staff perception measures here. Actually, it will be afterwards because I need comparative data from school perceptions. Uh, >> but that would be a report that we wouldn't see until next year. >> we could easily provide the same metrics that are in this report as a progress monitoring in between. I mean, that would be something >> reported compensation data comes out late in the the spring. So I each the information just kind of trickles out depending on the the source. >> Well, is there a spot is there a
031time of year that you think you know maybe you're like this is the bulk of it and it would be better timing would be better for the board to hear it then knowing the other decisions we have to make around compensation and you know packages and stuff like that. I mean >> I think we have to look at the overall work plan of the board and see how it fits in. and I'm looking at it right now pull that up. So compensation information the board if you wanted to use any of these metrics before that which we do I don't we have yeah um that means you would want for you know May >> of so the this February's perception data in May we wouldn't be ready to report out everything at that point like
032that doesn't flow but we to give you a like I said the progress monitoring of what we can at that point of what we have >> you guys are internally using that for your compensation decisions right your recommendations >> this is where like I agree if it makes more sense to present to the board any particular time of year that's fine I would not add work or a second >> because fundamentally this is your work uh this is our way of keeping up to date with it but as long as you have the data and you're using it that's what this report shows is, right? So, you know, I'm all for changing a time of year if it makes more sense, be more timely, that's great. Um, but I'm not as concerned with that as
033that you're doing. >> Yeah. >> Other question. Did you >> Well, are we finished with this one? >> Oh, yeah. trying to get a sense maybe for us as directors. What does the board want from that discussion >> as far as a shift in know timing or progress monitoring data that we can provide or nothing? >> I don't know that I mean hear me out, but I don't know that we necessarily need to have it set in stone that you give us progress monitoring. I feel I feel very comfortable that when we get to some of those decisions, you guys bring that stuff to us anyways, right? like you bring it to us so that we can make the proper decision on compensation and and things for staff. Um I feel like anytime that pops
034up, I feel like you you bring forward at that time what we need and at that time if we need more, we can always ask for ask for more. So personally for me, I would say if you guys feel timing wise it would be easier or better if there's a different time of year, go ahead and propose it to us and if we can switch that around on the calendar, great. I I don't that's where I Yeah. kind of >> I don't think I think it's you guys need to maybe look at maybe some of the data points that went into this and what makes logistically the most sense. I don't think it's the board saying you have you have to bring this. >> No, I didn't get that. It was I have to I
035was getting a sense of what you all want or need. >> I think I'm with Megan like you do bring us data. I just don't want that to get lost either like where we're making decisions that aren't >> right >> in line with what was already monitored or that the data was >> what would what would be the I mean a lot of these are trends right I mean what would be the harm in it being a little bit later I mean we're getting later but what's the harm of that very little trends trends are pretty consistent say if there was something that was caused for alarm that we were finding in an indicator we'd probably be notifying the board of Yeah, >> waiting till now. >> I'd be comfortable if administration just reviews it
036and if you see a better you know a better time then then we could as you say propose that but otherwise I >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. And do you remember did we move things anything um the monitoring reports? So in the annual work plan, >> were there things that had to be bumped around earlier in the year this year? >> Not this year, but we did move R3 and R4 logistically at the end of a towards the end of a school year so that you could have the data from earlier in the school year because it didn't feel right. We were reporting it I think in December from the year before, >> right? Yeah. Um so I'm just in terms of logistically like there are no so July, August, September the only
037monitoring reports we receive is >> OE2. >> And so I mean in terms of monitoring reports, I know we only have the one meeting in July. Um and that's a busy time of year. I wonder if this makes more sense to table for like right before we do an annual work plan that we can maybe have the directors give them some time all of them to look at the reports I don't think that there's been anyone that's been glaring but do they fit in the right spot so that as we plan our annual for the next year >> I will I will say we bring the draft to directors to have a conversation every single time before it gets approved to ask them you know if they have any input or have you know, um,
038suggestions. So, we that's part of our process before we even bring the draft to you. But, um, yeah, it's always something to be looking at. >> Just think about Okay. Okay. >> I think that it's really good to always get, like you said, data in real time as much as possible. It really is important like for all >> all of our monitoring report. >> I think that's a good idea. I'll bring it back later. Okay. Um I my I guess I I don't want to say it's a concern, but when you think about preparing for the future, and you said it's pretty hard, it's a moving target, that 5% um you know, keeping us um right at that middle ground for compensation, knowing that some of our peers could and probably will go to referendum
039again, competing with that and retaining our staff. And I and I know that there's more to it than just the compensation part. You know, that culture, like you said, was a is a huge part in retaining our staff. Um, but I just wonder how much of a concern that is with potential future or if that's just a loaded question that you really can't answer. >> It's a great question. >> What I like about this report is there are a number of indicators that we're tracking related to retention, uh, separations, why people are leaving. So we've got uh not only the objective measures, the hard data, how do we compare? We also have how are people feeling uh we also have what are their actions? We have the separation report. We have the reasons for separation.
040Uh we track in hiring the number of people who decline an offer based on compensation. So, we're we're really monitoring how attractive we are for new hires and retaining current hires in a lot of different ways. And uh I kind of speak to this in the monitoring report. Although it's not jumping off the page as a compliance error yet, we can see longitudinally a trend where we are, you know, we're not out of compliance. We're not in the red area, but we can see longitudinally that we're slowly regressing. Um, and it's it's just something to keep an eye on. And every district is uh having these same conversations about compensation. I would say uh when the CPI was at 4.72 and 8, there was a lot more fluctuation between districts and compensation and there was
041a lot more jockeying for position happening at that point in time. uh as opposed to now we're we're a lot more stable historically relative to the CPI. So smaller target where two years ago there was quite a bit of fluctuation and those were difficult decisions. There was a lot of room over there >> and you would assume because a lot more districts were going to referendum at that time to support that, right? >> But you could also argue that if you look at the average salary versus the average experience, they don't line up. >> Yeah. they don't line up. I mean, you could say the one of the best retentions is a second to the bottom. >> So, my argument always is is that you have to have a good culture to work in and
042be fair. >> Yeah, I agree. That's I think the the balance of this report and the emphasis on gauging the culture is is a a good measure of of the organization, how healthy we are and this is one element. Compensation is one element measured here and measured in a number of different ways. Yeah, we talk about taking care of people that taking care of them means that they're paid fairly and that we create a culture where they want to have a voice and help and work hard and all of that. So, we have to do both. We have to take we have to take care of people. That's keep them. I think about I think that when I look at that list of things that you're doing from a culture perspective, you you know, you
043had rounding and stuff in there. I think about like the mentor program. I think about things that we're providing that maybe other districts are not that that build that culture of belonging and you know the same same way we would want our students to feel you know and um I do think that that is a good measure to have in there along with the actual data of what we're seeing. Any other questions? Yeah, I I just had a question um if about leadership rounding. There there is a definition in here, but I wasn't entirely clear about um what leadership rounding includes. >> I could share presentation with the board that we introduce that leadership. It's really our leaders deliberately engaging with employees. So going around and asking what's going well, what challenges are you experiencing?
044Do you have what to need you need to do your job and how can I how can I help you? >> And then there's also an element of that of spreading gratitude where you're asking who's one person who's been helpful and then following up with gratitude. It's really keeping our leaders keeping a finger on the pulse of how people are doing what they need and how we can support them better. and every one of our leaders doing that systematically across the district um is really a great way to engage our employees and have a good sense of how people are doing and staff they need. So in that you um not in the leadership rounding but do we ask our our teachers and our staff and whatnot how we can attract more or what we
045could do that >> or what we could do better. >> I would say that probably comes out in rounding of our 30-day and 90-day check-ins that we incorporate into our rounding cycles. That's another way where we're soliciting um feedback from our newer hires. And then the staff engagement survey there are both statement rating measures but also open-ended comments and the narrative feedback that we get there really valuable. >> So rounding came from a researchbased method from stutter and it comes from the hospital um idea of rounding on patients that you you go and check with your your people regularly. Nate um keeps uh keeps us all on track. He keeps the metrics um and then puts out reports to leadership and then at our leadership meetings. Um we meet every other week. We he reminds
046us he shows the data of where we're at with how many people. We all have a certain number of employees that we round with. He keeps track of it and us reports back so we can see our metrics and hold each other accountable. Um to it's in it's intentional systematic way to take care of people. You know what I love about that is like it's more than just the staff survey. So it's getting it's two-way feedback from the staff like you said like it's >> I love surveys they do but >> same with like the student ones like are we getting the most accurate and I feel like that the rounding is another way to really engage with our staff and see how they feel and how they're doing and checking in. So >> an
047important metric in there too is that we keep track of who we've rounded with and what employee group they're in. So like recently he saw a trend where maybe it was few months ago now where our EAs weren't being rounded with as much as like our certified staff. Then we all made an intention to like go find some EAs to check in with. Um and I'm sure we'll have another popup of who else are we missing now? Um but it is great that you oversee that for the team. >> Yeah. >> As far as 4.1 in the lensures, are you saying there's there wasn't very many that we were missing? So were they stipulations like they were >> so support I'll give a hypothetical example >> uh we have an employee we hire midy year
048and they ask do you mind if I get my first paycheck before I submit my license to pay for my license say sure it's ded retroactive back and then we separate employment person never follows through with that payment or application so that would be an example of how there could be a gap in lure where someone could slip through the cracks. >> Is there any danger in doing that or any liability in not having a license putting them? >> There's a compliance error on our report flagged by the DPI. Uh licenses are issued retroactively back. >> Okay. Uh, I looked at the DPI today and uh, like they're processing applications for one-year licenses with stipulations that were paid on October 26th right now. >> So, they're lagging in there, >> right? >> Program license that
049were paid on. >> So, there's a a lag. So there's always going to be the the possibility where someone submits an application and you know for whatever reason they don't submit their fingerprints or some odd stipulation >> but to remember remember we also do a background check. So >> we verify they're eligible for their license. Uh there's going to be friction somewhere along the way where we're moving that friction further up where we're requiring more proof on on the front end rather than offering a grace period. So again, I've been doing this monitoring report for nine years. This is the first time we identified this this practice resulting in an error. That's one that we identified just a process improvement minimizes from happening. >> Um the only other question I had is and you kind
050of highlighted it in 4.8 8 about um support staff not having the lower percentage of receiving evaluations um due to some change in leadership. But I also noticed that the retention rate for that particular group is lower um and I wonder if that there's correlation in not having some sort of touch point with them. Yeah, I I Yes. And I also think the the nature of those positions, like Jeff, you were not surprised to learn of the turnover in our B&G at our our last meeting. Um I I think we should have a higher bar, higher expectation of retention in K12 education, but by the nature of our support staff positions, there's going to be more turnover. a certified position, you have a contractual employment arrangement where they're signing a contract agreeing to a term
051of employment or a support staff or more at will. So by nature of those positions there be more mobility but looking longitudinally um you know that is an area where we have concern. We would like to drive up our retention of our support staff and we've taken some steps to do so. I will say that we don't have very many administrators of support staff. So that's where, you know, support staff are on a three-year um evaluation cycle because of that. So a principal and an AP, this isn't B&G, but now this would be like our educational assistants. So you take like the Harvest or high school building and they probably have 150 staff members. Um se, you know, I don't I'm totally ballparking it. You know, what 75 support staff members. you have three evaluators.
052So that is it is a it's just the reality of what we live with is that our support staff don't have access to their leaders as much. >> Um just the the way of the work, >> but you got to hear from Ros and his team buildings and grounds and learn of some of the added supports that Dan and Katie are putting in place for their teams. So I do think we're making improvements in those areas. based on some of the feedback any trends that we've seen >> and not that's specific to the indicator that's with exceptions is it directly that that B&G team was completely flipped over. So >> I just have one more question the when you when you talk about fringe benefits and you talked about how important it is for for
053the stability especially when it comes to the primary health insurance benefits and I know those are contracted out. Do you know what year we are in our contract for that >> GHC? Uh, we have three more years of not to exceedence. >> Okay. >> Just I feel like that provides when you get to that maybe point then you're kind of like, oh yeah, we don't know what that entails and I Yeah, perfect. >> Really pleased with what we've seen with the trends. There's still u areas that we want to improve with how they're serving our our employees, but they've been really responsive and the stability is huge. not worrying about massive plan design changes or complete provider disruption. >> Well, it's easier, like you said, to get that message about out to staff about the
054benefits that that provides. That's when it when you're not changing constantly. It um it's easier to get that message out. I think other questions hearing none. I would entertain a motion on their report. >> I'll make a motion to approve the report. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> I'll second. We got some seconds. Okay. All those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? That motion passes. Thank you, Nate. Um Stephanie or Jan, do you guys um need any more input or have anybody have anything to add for a summary statement for O4? Take >> addition. somebody else really go with what I see >> about database community based report that you mentioned um continuous improvement is is built in transparency the fact that um he talked about a problem that
055wasn't flags on the DPI report that's still which I think is also significant. Um and just overall professionalism of of our HR department I think is is really appreciated. I think of it like and I know we had a discussion that wasn't like totally this but when you think about how we how we look at when we evaluate children right we look at the whole child and what I can appreciate out of this report is that we're looking at not just their compensation or not just their job title we're looking at them from a whole perspective when you look at their culture their professional development one-on-one engagement with other staff members um the sense the belonging. All of that kind of just to me feels like we're encompassing our staff in like this big blanket
056or big bubble that um that represents our culture as a district. And I to me that um means a whole lot more than just giving them a paycheck. >> Question. Thank you for that. I have a question. I don't know if we can talk about it right now. Um about the policy language related to the may not. We didn't address it in the previous agenda item. We should >> Oh, in the back or do we want to put it in the summary statement that this is what the agenda item is? >> It would be worth putting in the summary statement the suggestion by administration to to have the board look at the policy itself um and whether we want to change it or not. either have it monitored or >> the may >> leave it
057there on the actual board policy, not the reports. >> I would also say too, and I'm sure you're going to catch this in your notes or what we talked about, just reviewing when the report or the data from the report on a more current um basis, whether that be moving the report or just getting the data. Anything else from anybody? Love it. Maybe >> good report. >> Love the structure of it. Love the layout. Love the structure. >> I also love that we circled back on last year. Like I felt like I saw it like I was like you're like Yeah. I was like I was like >> Yeah, I like that. >> Action from last year. Where were we at? Even though it was like 2020 wherever. Yeah. Yeah. >> Love it. All right.
058Is that enough, Jan? >> 20. Okay, great. >> That brings us to public input, which I have none. That brings us to board consent agenda. Would somebody care to make that motion? >> I'll move to uh approve the board consent agenda. >> Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> We have a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion passes. That brings us to superintendent consent agenda. Somebody care to make that motion? I will move approval of the superintendent consent agenda. Okay, >> we have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. We have second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That passes. That brings us to press verification and they are not here. That brings
059us to board debrief of meeting. So I just have one question and I'll just welcome anybody to speak up as they as they wish. What worked well for us tonight as a board >> third graders. >> Well, in the question I love your question especially about what you want to be because that everybody was Yeah. Everyone everybody's answer. Yeah. But just in general that that was a highlight in general. >> The kids are great. >> But how are how were we? >> I think we were fine. I think we were fine >> with them very nicely and got a lot of proving body language and and a lot of good questions showed we were engaged. >> Yes. It makes me feel like we're like in a spot with these reports as a board that we're
060digging into some tough questions, but also like following up on stuff that we've like >> we want to see the action plan and we want to see the the layout laid out like this so that we understand and really can like improve as a district, but we also like follow what's happening, right? And I think that we've gotten to a point in receiving the reports and then like asking the right questions that it is it feels more impactful work. >> Anything else? >> Ditto. >> All right. Ditto. All right. I would entertain a motion. >> Make a motion to >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. We have a second. All those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Meeting is dirty.