001(upbeat music) (James) All right, welcome back. Everybody, we are reconvening an open session. We have Superintendent Bayer at the table with us. We also have two representatives from intra city student council. Would you please introduce yourself? (Chanel) Chanel Leopold, Green Bay Preble. (Hannah) Hannah Song, Green Bay Preble. (James) Thank you. At any time you wanna join in the conversation, please feel comfortable doing so. All right, so if we could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. - I Pledge of Allegiance. - to flag of the United States of America. - To the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. (James) Thank you. Will someone please read the mission statement? Sam. (Samantha) We educate all students to be college, career and community ready, inspired to succeed in our
002diverse world. (James) Thank you very much. I'll read the land acknowledgement. We, the members of the Green Bay Area Public School District recognize and honor the original inhabitants of Northeast Wisconsin. Our district lives, works and learns upon the ancestral homelands of the Menominee and Ho-Chunk nations and the current homeland of Oneida Nation. We acknowledge the 12 diverse and vibrant Wisconsin First Nations who have persevered here since before recorded time and continue to be an integral part of our community. We uphold our responsibility to repair relationships, initiate partnerships and stand with all First Nation communities. With that, we'll move to the Intra-City Student Council report and our open forum. (Chanel) So from East High School, the report card grades are going up, which is very exciting. The band is going to the Neville Museum and NHS
003held events. (Hannah) At JDAL, the Veterans Day ceremony happened with a speaker and vent night is upcoming. (Chanel) We had our musical the past two weekends at Preble, which were very successful. Thank you to everybody out in the community who came and saw. We had our first challenge day, so students opened up about tough topics and how to improve school climate. Wrestling has started. One person from the cross country team went to state and the boys team also went. Our DECA chapter just got back from ELC, which is Emerging Leadership Conference and that went very well. I have one more thing. - Do you remember? (Hannah)I have a couple of things. (Chanel) Yes, you can add all. (Hannah) In addition, on November 6th, HOSA went to UW Madison for the annual Fall Leadership Conference and
004there were 32 student attendees from Preble. In addition, HOSA Instinct Cancer recently finished a food drive for students and families in need at our school with six large baskets made by last Wednesday. (Chanel) I remembered my thing now. The Preble Marching Band did win best performance at the holiday parade, so congratulations. (Hannah)And then moving over to Southwest. Southwest had a successful Fall Fest and they gave away a TV. The NHS blood drive was successful. Basketball season is starting and the cross country coach went to a marathon in Athens, Greece. (Chanel) And then finally West, their student council hosted a Halloween contest on October 30th. Link Crew's Pick a Pumpkin fundraiser went on from October 27th to the 30th. IB clubs since NHS and student council are holding a food drive. On November 6th, the student
005council finished making the boxes for the food drive. The blood drive had 29 donors and 21 units of blood. Girls basketball's first practice is November 10th. Boys basketball first practice is November 17th. Wrestling's first practice is November 17th and they had the girls' night out events. Bowling will have a girls' varsity team this year. Musical this year is Mean Girls, the high school edition. Chess Club has had multiple meetings with a slowly growing number of attendees. FBLA had had their first official meeting on the 4th and is establishing groups for the upcoming events. And band students and cheer students performed at the Green Bay Winter Holiday Parade this weekend. (James) Is that it? All right, thank you very much. And I am now very embarrassed with how I vacation because I do not run marathons
006on my vacations. Okay, we'll move to public forum. We have one pre-registered speaker, Jeff DeGrave. I don't see Mr. DeGrave in the audience. Any other individuals? All right, since he's not present, we'll move forward to section four updates and start with the superintendent update. (Vicki) Thank you. The month of November end of October has been very busy for the district. We're gonna start with recognition at the Wisconsin School Public Relations Association Fall Conference, our own Lori Blakeslee and Justine Brown presented a two hour workshop and a one hour presentation with final site representatives regarding the ADA compliance. This is a federal mandate that we're all gonna hear a lot more about over the next couple of months. All of our websites, videos, documents have to be ADA compliant by next April. And it's gonna be
007a huge lift. Lori's leading the charge on that and her presentation at this conference was well attended because all school districts are going to have to comply. At the conference, our team received two awards of merit for the NFL draft video series that Justine and Lori put together and also recognition for the district's November referendum campaign. The November 24 referendum videos were honored. They won an award of excellence in the Best of Show. So congratulations to Lori and the communications team. A couple of weeks ago, I was invited and board member McCoy joined me to the girls night out wrestling event at West High School. This was something put on by coach Luke who gives all girls across the district regardless of what grade they're in an opportunity to experience wrestling. How many kids were
008there, Laura? (Laura) 40? (Vicki) Yeah, 40 to 50, I think. Young ladies, there were girls that were already experienced with wrestling who helped mentor the younger ones. And it was really a great night. Coach Luke is amazing and his team. Luke also is a social studies teacher over at West High School, just an all around great guy. (Laura) I learned a lot about wrestling that I didn't know before. It was really a nice event. (Vicki) As our ICSC students mentioned, this is musical season. And I know some of our board members went to see some of the musicals. I'd love it if you could take a moment to tell us about them. I'm gonna do two quick slides and tell us about your experience, please. - Red Smith, I was able to go over to
009see Between the Lines Junior. Fantastic, I sat there with the elementary students from their feeder schools and the kids really, really enjoyed it. And the students at Red Smith, just beautiful performance. And then also had the chance to go to East High School and see the Lightning Thief, which I think you went to. You didn't make it to that one. Okay, would love your feedback. There too, the voices were extraordinary. The student performances, excellent. The directors, excellent job. Does anybody want to? (Alex) Sure, yeah, I went to the School of Rock at Preble on their first full opening weekend. And it was a packed house and it was a very fun, enjoyable, comedic event. And it was even better because I love music and had a bunch of great music and everybody did an amazing
010job. (Jeanette) I went to see the Lightning Thief as well as the School of Rock at Preble the following weekend. And both of them, so much enthusiasm with the kids. And you could tell they were all having fun on stage. And I was glad I was able to make it. (Samantha) Yeah, I was able to see opening night of School of Rock. And I have to just, it was incredible. That was the best like flawless opening night out of any production I've ever been to in terms of every bit of student, the actors, the musicians, the tech, the sound and lighting folks, the pit crew. I mean, it was awesome. Everybody was on it a hundred percent. So it was a blast. (Lynn) And I saw the Lightning Thief and sat with you. And it
011was amazing how engaged the students were. It was all middle school and grade school students in the audience. And they just loved every single minute of it. (Vicki) And I can't help but think about, you know, Red Smith were still performing in a gymnasium. And in a couple of years, they will get their auditorium. And when I sit in East High School or West High School and admire, then recognizing that the taxpayers helped fund those opportunities for our kids. Okay, November 11 was Veterans Day and it was recognized as our ICSC students mentioned, recognized throughout the districts. These are pictures from Elmore, Lincoln and MacArthur. MacArthur's had their recognition, their Veterans Day recognition, I think for at least 15 years now, maybe longer, but they bring in community members. It's really well done. This past
012weekend, or maybe even two weekends ago now is the Green Bay Hmong New Year. We celebrated in our schools, but also this particular picture was out at UWGB. Over the weekend, David Johns represented the district and you'll see some other folks in there that you might recognize, Jamie Walls there, of course the chancellor and the president from NWTC. This one began, this particular event began because of the hard work of one of our employees, Minu over at Lombardi Middle School. She works really, really hard to make this a spectacular event and now it's become so large that it has to be held at the Kress Center. And this is Washington Middle School in McAuliffe, celebrating Green Bay Hmong New Year. Jackson Elementary, you may have seen this in the news, a retired nurse knitted over
01360 scars and then she donates them to the fourth grade social studies class at Jackson Elementary and then the students walk across the road and hang them around trees in the park and it's an invitation to community members that might be in need to go to the park and grab a scarf. This is the second year of doing that event. And then as the ladies mentioned, this last weekend was the 41st annual Green Bay Holiday Parade. Trouble was recognized for best performance and special thanks to the Press Times and Downtown Green Bay Ink for the pictures. And that's it for this month. (James) Any questions for Superintendent Bayer? I have one question and it's related to the ADA compliance and I know Amy's here as well. Do we plan to have an external audit to
014help us understand our deficiencies or how are we going to go about prepping for that ADA compliance? (Vicki) Lori's already begun the audit. It's quite extensive. (James) Internal resources are doing that. (Vicki) Yeah, she's put together a committee to take care of that. (James) Thank you. - Okay, then we'll move on to 4B, the legislative update. Jeanette. (Jeanette) Okay, so, you all received my long legislative report. I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but before I get into that, I'd like to remind everyone that there are school board elections coming up in April. Potentially, there will be a primary in February. We won't know that until we see how many people are running. But in the past, the Green Bay City's Clerk's Office was responsible for running the elections for the Green Bay Area School
015Board. This has changed starting in this upcoming election cycle. All Green Bay Area School Board elections will be run by the school board clerk, which is myself. Anyone wishing to run for school board can acquire the documents, rules, and dates from the Green Bay School District. So, McKinsey-Lare is going to be coordinating this and if you wish to receive a registration statement, nomination papers, a declaration for candidacy, you want to contact Kinsey at the number, it's all online. If you go on our district website and all the information is there, so you make an appointment with Kinsey to pick up a packet and then once your papers are cleared, you can call Kinsey with an appointment. Now, keep in mind that you need to collect signatures and I believe it's 100 signatures minimum, but you
016can start collecting those as of December 1st, not before, and then they have to be turned in, I believe it's January 6th, it's the first Tuesday of January. And there's no getting around that. If you only have 99 signatures, you don't get on the ballot, if you turn it in on the day after, you don't get on the ballot. So, there's some rules and you need to reach out to Kinsey and she can help you with all of that. And so, move on to the legislative report. A couple things that I just wanted to highlight and if anybody has any questions, please ask. And Superintendent Bayer, you may want to jump in here on the special education that was reported that we, in the budget, there was 45% allocated, but actually what is going to
017be considered is only, it's only a 35%, remember? Or was it 42 is in the budget? And it's 35, the second year is higher, more towards that 45, but they're saying that it will only be a 35, they're estimating only a 35% rate to be reimbursed for special education, correct? (Vicki) That's what they're saying right now, we won't know for sure until April, May-ish, right now they're saying it might be, most likely will be less than what they had expected. (indistinct) Generally, they do come in a little bit lower because they don't want to overpay districts because they don't have all of the reports on five percent for finalize yet, they want to get finalized in December. And if you recall, all 24, 25, (indistinct) So 35% a little low, I'm expecting between 37 and
01838%, this would be about a million dollar loss or a short, so it's about a million dollars for what we want. (Vicki) We'll be providing an update to the board on the budget in January. (Jeanette) Okay, so but that was a significant little bit of a sticker shock there, I think. And then they've been very busy in the Senate and the assembly and a few of the bills that I just wanted to point out, Assembly Bill 166, Academic and Career Planning Services provided to pupils and requiring the reporting of certain data on college student costs and outcomes. This doesn't affect us directly, but it will have an effect on the information that is provided to our high school juniors and seniors. The university system will have to make available as part of their academic and
019career planning services are financial costs and what that might mean to students that these bills have not passed yet, they're still hanging out there. There were several bills that were sent to the governor for signing and as of today, I have not heard that any of them have been signed. Assembly Bill 9 and Senate Bill 11, they're a partner bill. That is going to affect charter youth membership organizations, which may be important. Those are like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. The bill was amended to change principal to school board. So the school board will be making decisions on who uses the property. And it also changed the words from shall to may, which makes it less mandatory. There was also, there's also Assembly Bill 32 and Senate Bill 10, which is relating to access to
020public high schools for military recruiters. This may be a big change, maybe not, if you're already having military recruiters in the school, but this requires school boards and governing boards of charter schools to comply with federal laws, specifically allowing military recruiters access to common areas in high schools and to allow access during a school day and to school sanctioned events. Nothing in the bill requires a school board or governing board of a charter school to provide a military recruiter access to a high school classroom during instruction time. But these bills have not passed. So if you have a feeling about that and you want to talk to your legislators about that, probably a good idea to start doing that. I believe they have taken recess now until after the first of the year. And then
021one thing that a lot of parents of children, special education children are very concerned about is Assembly Bill 614 and Senate Bill 611 relating to a teacher's authority to manage the teacher's class, parental notification of disruptive or violent behavior at school and a school district's code of conduct. So this bill would allow a teacher to remove a student from the class if they're disrupting. And there's not much in the bill related to the child's IEP. There is a lot of concern regarding this bill and where I get my information from, which is WASB Wisconsin Association of School Boards. They are also watching it. So both bills were passed very quickly out of committee. And that also concerns WASB. So something that we are gonna need to keep our eye on. And I'm sure the groups
022that the parents with children with special needs will also be keeping their eye on it as well. So that's all I have for today. Any questions or discussion? (James) Thank you, Jeanette. We will move on to 4C, Clean Energy Advisory Committee Update and invite Cale back to the board table. (Cale) Good evening. Updating the committee's meeting from last week, it was a heavy presentation with our partners at McKinstry. Started with a presentation of where their progress is with the implementation of the recommendations based on the charter. So the electrification and carbon goals of the district. So they're progressing well with that. They have already started to put dates and projects together as part of meeting the goals, or sorry, projects to meet the goals of carbon neutral in 2050. Once that is complete, we can
023share that presentation and show that detailed kind of pathway to get us to our goals. The second presentation was an update. Sorry, one more piece on the updates for the pathway to our goals. We are implementing as part of that retro commissioning at our buildings right now. So that's an active look at our practices of energy efficiency with our current infrastructure. Now our district was very efficient going into this. So we did scale back expectations on this, but that is being done right now. And that information will be part of what I'm gonna share next was the second part of the presentation, which was our district dashboard. So this dashboard will show information regarding our energy savings and carbon footprint improvements. We have yet to determine where we will be sharing that data and what
024exact data we will be sharing, but McKinstry is currently building that for us. And they presented what that potentially could look like at a few schools, including King and Lombardi that have the current solar arrays on them. So that dashboard is called Reveal and more will be coming shortly on that. They believe that would be ready for some sort of rollout depending on what we want that to look like in the quarter one of next year. And then finally, the January begins the end of the original two-year terms with the committee. With that, I have received one resignation from the committee that will not be looking to return. We have also lost one student to graduation on the committee. So we will be reviewing that and potentially reopening applications for review to increase the committee
025membership. Any questions? (James) Discussion questions? Right, thank you, Cale. (James) Okay, with that, we will move to section five of our agenda, the consent agenda approval. Will someone please read the motion? Lynn. (Lynn) I move that the consent agenda items as presented be approved. (James) Discussion? - Second. (James) Kinsey? (Kinsey) Online voting is now open. (silence) - All votes have been entered and the motion is carried with all board members voting in favor. (James) Thank you. We will go to section seven, the action items, and we will start with seven A, which is the potential adoption of a board of education policy around student backpacks. Alex? (Alex) I would like to make a recommended action at the board of education backpack policy that requires student backpacks to be stored outside of the classroom as presented
026be adopted. (James) I'll second. Discussion? - Yes, Hannah. (Hannah) So I had a couple points that I gathered from myself, members of Preble High School and members of all the high schools about their opinion about this policy. So myself, along with many students agreed that many students want their backpacks right by their side in the classroom and not within a cubby or within locker spaces for easy convenience for focusing tools like chewing gum and other items for people diagnosed with ADHD or just with focusing problems in general. In addition, most people store their additional stationary items within their backpacks. Even if you walk around in Preble High School, you'll see a row of highlighters and post-it notes and pencil cases and calculators on the front side of people's backpacks since not all the stationary items
027are needed all the time. And it provides more convenience for instruction time especially. And for hygiene items, especially for teenage girls, many want their own privacy and having to get up and go over to the locker or whatever designated space there is for backpack storage may be very inconvenient and it might just not be possible for that specific situation. In addition, many students felt that there was already too much to carry on a daily basis. We felt as though this policy would only work for the minority who have like a one through six or fewer with college classes and those people are usually upperclassmen anyhow. For the rest of us, there are many AP textbooks that still have to be brought in person on paper on top of workbooks and notebooks and binders and additional
028stationary items. In addition, when at an ICSC meeting, Chris Collar, the safety and security manager came to attend to discuss possible additional safety measures within the district and when backpacks and lockers were brought up, he did mention that there would still be a risk of people concealing weapons or firearms within themselves. For example, there's always going to be the minority of students who don't follow the rules and carry large jackets around and things can be hidden in that. And as much as I'd hate to say it, additional items such as leg warmers or other clothing items, which are bulky can be used to hide like a knife or something like that, additional firearms. In addition, there were some students that were concerned that within the hallways, if backpacks were mandated within locker specifically in high
029schools, hallways at Preble especially are incredibly crowded. And that could arguably be a more dangerous alternative than just having regular backpacks as it is right now since we're exposed to the whole masses of students versus individualized classrooms where there's only two dozen students at most plus teachers. And teachers may be concerned that additional responsibilities like managing who goes in and out to get something from their locker or if cubbies were put in place for classrooms, managing that students go in between their cubbies or worse yet, people stealing things from other people from other people's backpacks may take away from instructional time on top of the sweeping that they have to do for tardiness in the hallways. My last point is that putting additional policies like this where everything's more compartmentalized and teachers have to do
030more management on their part on top of normal teaching also widens the gap between college and the real world versus high school. Many students felt as though if this action were to be implemented that it was sort of treating high schoolers not as the prospect of adults as they will be. And once they go off to college and they get used to this system where everything is in a specific place and they have less personal responsibility for their items that they would feel even less prepared and will have less college success which I'm sure is the opposite of the goal of everyone here and all high school teachers. (Chanel) And then there are a couple of other points that our intercity student council team would also like to bring up to the board. In addition
031to what Hannah has been saying, many students also use their lunch hours or free time in other classes to work on other work for other classes. This policy constructs what students can carry and makes it difficult for them to complete the work they want to do. So like I take college classes at UWGB so I bring all my materials with me for all of my classes in my backpack. And then whenever we have free time I'm working on stuff for other classes to get ahead and stay ahead. Students are worried about not having enough time to go to their lockers. One point that was brought up by one member of our team is that we have a six minute passing time. That's not enough time for a student to go to the bathroom and also
032access their locker having a student choose which they think is more important. Also as Hannah mentioned before, teachers really don't like this idea because it disrupts their class time if a student has to get out of the class and get something from their locker or outside the classroom. Some students from other schools that only have one class in that school are wondering if there will be a locker because some students don't have this assigned locker in the school they're going to. It's like for example, Miranda on our ICSC team also takes classes at Southwest. And at another high school and at one of them she does not have a locker for that class. So in this situation, what would these students do? Also some students are angry because we just got new clear backpacks for
033this school year and now our backpacks are being taken away and we're not allowed to use them. Overall students when they were asked about this policy were very angry. Overall 50% of students voted no and many are still voting in a situation. Over a couple 95% of students do not agree with this policy idea. If backpacks are outside the classroom and not in the lockers, students are worried about stealing especially with the new clear backpack policy even if we return back to our old backpack students are going to be mad because students just spent money on all the clear backpacks as we have mentioned before. There's also a bullying problem within our district that has been talked about here at board meetings. Students have had their items slapped out of their hands which has resulted
034in broken Chromebooks where the family had to pay for the damage. So we really want all the school board members to hear what the students are saying and to take this into consideration when you vote. (James) Thank you. Lynn. (Lynn) I just want to thank the students for that fantastic work for a very comprehensive report and thank you for all the work to put it together. (James) Others? Alex. (Alex) I would just like to remind everybody that and the multiple other meetings that we had and the questions that were brought up and some of the concerns. I or others have pretty much answered and also could answer pretty much every single one of those things if need be. And again, a lot of them already have been. I know that some of these things are
035things that students may not prefer or some sector or some portion of students may not prefer and I totally get that. But I also want to remind everybody the point of this is, well, there's a couple of things to remember. One, when we're sitting here and having our meetings including some of our other ones, we're focusing on how can we make our schools not only safer, but then how can we make them function better on a day by day, hour by hour basis. And there's a couple of things I would say. One, what is the true negative in any of those capacities to doing this? How would doing this hurt school security? How would it hurt the learning environment inside a classroom? In fact, the opposite is true. When I've talked to some teachers at
036all of the middle schools, for example, that already do this in our district with the exception of one middle school, two comments in particular came from two different middle schools, two teachers that have been at their school for about 20 years and they said that this is the best start to a school year that they have had. And one of the things that contributed to, in addition to cell phones, is not having backpacks. There are a lot of functional things that happen that are negative into the classroom experience from a student's perspective and the teacher's perspective by having backpacks there. I'm not gonna go through the list. In addition to the fact, I'll say it one more time, if our middle schoolers can do it, all right, and high schoolers all around us in other
037schools can do it, our kids are more than capable of doing it and succeeding and thriving. And there are a lot of data benefits to them not being there that are just simply not brought up, that have not been brought up as much. And there's no reason why we can't do this and reap the benefits of doing it despite yes, another transition. And I think it's worth considering that if our middle schoolers are doing it and it's having a positive impact, and it's something that other high schools around us have been doing successfully, and they're not going away from it, then why wouldn't we consider doing this at all of our secondary schools? (James) Hannah? (Hannah) I understand this perspective after looking from research from other high schools and how they've implemented their backpack storage
038policies and their successes, but I also wanted to ask for just additional consideration that the jump between middle school and high school is huge. I mean, AP classes and actual college classes and dual credit classes are a huge workload. And just myself and from other people, like I mentioned before, there's already not enough space sometimes within our backpacks to store all of our heavy textbooks and workbooks and notebooks. I do have my clear backpack. Although I don't have all my school items right now. This pile of papers is just from a single unit, like one and a half months into my AP calculus AB class. And my AP psychology notes are three times thicker than this, all of them have to be in a binder. And it's only going to get worse throughout the year.
039And also in comparing high schools, there's a lot that needs to go into it after all. After, sorry, every high school has a completely different culture and completely different demographic makeup and attitude that's going to vastly change how we react to different policies. And personally with Preble, like Chanel has mentioned with certain bullying issues that have been present throughout the entire district, I feel like the additional risk of safety issues within hallways, especially crowded hallways like Preble, where students could technically still hide something in their backpack, hide it in their lockers, take it out during passing time and do whatever. In addition to that, there may be substantial costs in Chromebooks or other damages with technology in the hallways from people carrying piles of notebooks, piles of binders and piles of textbooks throughout the classrooms.
040In addition, students are already having trouble choosing whether or not to use their passing time to go to the bathroom or make some other transportation or tell a teacher something for like a makeup test or something like that. Having no backpacks on top of that, yes, I am aware that all of the items that we mentioned seem like minor inconveniences in isolation, but altogether all these inconveniences are going to add up to huge issues into our everyday lives so that we can function. (James) Sam. (Samantha) I would just like to second and echo, thank you for your report, both of you. One of the pieces that you brought up was the additional responsibility of having your materials with you. And as someone who is in a college classroom, five days a week with college students,
041I appreciate those folks that have built those self-regulation skills and know when it is appropriate to be digging in materials and when it isn't. And I think this is an excellent way for our high schoolers to begin practicing what that looks like and what proper material storage and transportation looks like. I've had students who even at 22, 23, 24 years old are incapable of shuffling through a bag quietly to get what they need in the middle of a class to as to not disturb others. So I do hear you that there's a big difference between our middle school students and our high school students. And so I think I agree that it helps to build that responsibility of how to handle your materials correctly, how to make sure you're prepared for your classes to have
042all of your items and to really set you up for a way to successfully engage in post-secondary spaces. Just like tonight, if I'm digging in my bag, I need to make sure I'm doing so quietly and appropriately as to not disturb a meeting. So I hear you on that point that I think it is building skills to set you up to be successful after the fact. (James) Alex. (Alex) I'm sorry, but this is not about talking about the nuance of papers in a bag. If you really wanna talk about meaningful skills that are transferred over the aspect of planning and time management and all of those other things are way more impactful and uniform across all aspects of your life. And those types of skills that would naturally happen by having the backpacks in your
043safe, secured lockers that only you would have the lock com for that no one else could get into is much more fundamentally sound and helpful for everyone than some of the other parsing apart some of the changes that would naturally happen in a transition. Don't get lost in the fact that this is coming from two places, improving safety and security to whatever degree we might disagree on or agree on it's improving safety and security to some level. That's just a fact. Might be a little bit, might be a lot. We can have differences of opinion, but it's improving safety and security. All right. Furthermore, and this is a big thing, as a classroom teacher of secondary kids, the amount of things that are in backpacks that kids use or go to that cause distraction, disruptions,
044the sanctity of the learning environment is one of the huge reasons I ran for the school board and I got elected. To decrease distractions, to decrease bullying, to decrease access to cell phones where kids do bullying, get distracted, don't pay attention, make threats, set up fights, all of these other things that again, I could go down the list if you really want me to, but this is about improving safety and improving the sanctity of the learning environment. I guess I'm asking for a little bit more faith that that's what this does. And again, we wouldn't see the positive feedback across the middle schools and there wouldn't be other high schoolers doing it if everything was so negative and there were no positives. (Chanel) I know we have mentioned multiple times that other high schools around
045us do have no backpacks. I would also like to mention they are significantly smaller than some of the schools in our districts. And also I would like to say the incident I brought up about the students whose stuff was slapped out of the hands and the chromebook they had to pay for that was at Edison Middle School. (James) Others? Jeanette? (Jeanette) I can see both sides yet. I'm also looking at the description of backpacks and large purses, large is very subjective term. I really think that, and we're also looking at other safety things. Right now, clear backpacks does take some of the risk of sneaking something into a backpack. It's not 100% perfect, but I just don't feel comfortable at this point taking this on. I would need to spend some time in passing times
046at the schools and see what's happening there. It's been a long time since I've been in school as well as my kids. And I would like to experience that and see what's going on. I am not prepared to vote for this, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't support it after getting some more information. I just feel like I love hearing the students and thank you, thank you for your input. And because you're experiencing these things every day. So I would not be comfortable voting for this at this time. I just feel we need to do a little bit more work. (James) Andrew, I have been remiss and I haven't been looking at the screen before. Do you have any comments or wanna add to the discussion? (Andrew) Yes, thank you. What I would say about
047this one is I would not say never. I think if we did it, the time to do it would be probably in the spring ahead of a new school year with announcements going into the next school year. And I would like to hear, I'd like to hear more from principals. I also think as written, it gives complete authority to the superintendent to turn rules on and off. That's at least that's what it looks like to me. So I would wanna look at some wording things. I'm concerned in high school about the impact of larger books plus your Chromebook. And I am concerned about the privacy, the ability to carry hygiene or medical items, although that's not the top thing because I think that can probably be worked with most of the time. So I'm not
048able to support it right now, but I would not necessarily be a never on this. That's where I'm at. (James) Yeah, thank you, Andrew. Alex. (Alex) And I just wanna reiterate two things. I think exactly this is not meaning that, hey, next week, this is something that definitely could wait to a particular beginning of a new semester type situation. And I would also reiterate something to all the students out there. It is my opinion personally, that I don't care what color or clarity backpack you use. In fact, you could go back under, in my opinion, to using your own backpacks. Because to me, again, I go back to, not having them in the classroom is the point at which it becomes a safety improvement. So if it makes you feel any better, I have no,
049myself, necessary strong preference to, I guess, let me say it this way. You might have the opportunity, might, depending on how it could play out, to utilize your own backpacks again, if that matter. (James) Hannah. (Hannah) Mr. Mineau, I appreciate your comment and consideration about students who's to want their old backpacks. And that this could be a possible way for them to reuse their old backpacks. However, I feel as though because of the complicated domino effect that happens with the clear backpack and implementation, that's kind of the least of student worries right now. I also wanted to reiterate that at least within the student perspective and the people who will directly face the brunt of this policy, if it is implemented, that with distractions within the classroom, I completely understand wanting to reduce them. After
050all, we want to maximize learning time. But the distractions that I've seen within the classroom have usually been students themselves or using school items themselves, like loose paper leaves to make like airplanes or something or tossing like crumpled balls or something like that. I don't think I've ever seen like a non-school academic material being used for a distraction. So I'm not sure that backpacks, not in classrooms would directly prevent that. In addition, I'd like to mention that at least at Preble and at all the other high schools at the ICSE board meeting, kids mentioned that at least half or even more than half do not know where their lockers are at the moment because they simply don't use them. And they like having them that close for convenience for everyday use. In addition, some lockers,
051we don't have an exact number, but they're damaged, they're very jammed. It's hard to get them open. That inconvenience on top of constant shuttling in between classes can cause huge tardy attendance problems for students who are already involved as much as me and Chanel with out of school activities. In addition, for Preble size, since Preble has the most students, so more students going to be affected by this, just getting through half of the school takes about five minutes. Passing time, as we said right now, is currently six minutes. If somebody has a classroom in the history hallway, they have to go on the other side of the school for their gym class, that whole passing time, they're going to make it a priority to walk fast and make it to their class. They're not going
052to make it a priority to maybe switch out items for additional safety to make sure that nobody accidentally knocks it out of their hands by accident or on purpose. Also, something that we mentioned at our ICSE principal meeting at Preble is that a possible alternative or like a meet in the middle for backpack storage, just maybe as a little test run, is to instead require just textbooks or even workbooks to stay within the classroom. Since textbooks can be huge, they can also be a safety concern with textbooks themselves and also kids using that to conceal certain items. After all, exacto knives, they're small. They can fit within clothing items, even with the backpacks being forced into lockers or large jackets, so anything as big as a firearm. So, yes, in addition, if we just required
053textbooks in the beginning to be put into classrooms instead, that would also get rid of the huge issue of lack of library returns and library fines for students. It could also help maximize learning so that students have their textbooks on hand to do problems within the classroom. There are many AP classes, especially, AP statistics, AP chemistry, where they take homework questions directly out of the textbooks, so I feel like that would help. In addition, I just wanted to emphasize that for Preble's size, constantly shuttling between classes and all of our items is not feasible with requiring backpacks in lockers, not for our size, not for our current school culture. And making students choose between whether, like their physical wellness with having to go to the bathroom, whether or not it's a huge medical emergency or
054cause, and having to maximize their learning time, I feel that's a huge deal breaker for the wellness of our students, and that concern will be the very first thing brought up if this were to be implemented. (James) Chanel. (Chanel) And then another solution that we were talking about, if we do wanna have where students don't necessarily have access to their backpacks, like right next to them, is that we could invest in either cubbies or requiring that backpacks are put all against the wall, so that way students still have access to their backpacks in the classroom, but they're not right next to them where they can like ruffle through them for disruptions or pull something out during class. (James) Hannah (Hannah) I would also like to mention that requiring backpacks and lockers themselves, the stealing issue,
055or even if we resorted to cubbies alternatively, this is a very valid issue and not just a distant what if, because even within the band room, there are many cases every week of kids not properly locking their lockers, kids stealing out music, even whole music cases, whatever music supplementals, just having that big issue within the music community being spread out into the whole entire student body, we feel as though that'd be pretty catastrophic, especially with having all of your academic items within a locker, I mean, school reports, school projects, essays, et cetera, textbooks, notes, going missing, that's going to cause a lot of setback that could take upon many extra hours to repair and teachers would also feel the brunt of this and have to do even more additional work on top of grading, additional
056lesson planning, additional adjustments, the new schedule, et cetera. (James) So Alex. (Alex) Can I make a motion to postpone so that any board members that have any last concerns or questions could possibly have those kind of hashed out, like Jeanette's experiences she's looking for and also for Andrew to maybe have a chance to take a look at some of the specific languages. (James) So I was going to suggest, Alex, that we entertain a motion to table and I would make a recommendation that we table it until like the spring timeframe so that we have an opportunity to kind of look into, you're correct in that there are school districts that are neighbor to us that have these policies in place. Those school districts, at least one that I know of, has a high school that
057is as large as Preble or something like that. But what I also know is they have an administration that advocates for this and that change wasn't a board directed change and there was a culture and there was preparation. And I think what I am hearing from you and I think from board members is there's preparation that would keep me from supporting a mid-year change associated with this kind of policy. Personally, I would not see this as replacing the need for some sort of transparent backpack because I see this as additive. Alex is right, there are some security enhancements associated with not having access, but it doesn't do anything for point of entry and I see the clear backpacks really addressing the point of entry into the school district and not necessarily in classroom. So if
058you would be okay, then let's table this and we'll agenda it for later in the year. Okay, Lynn, were you just gonna call the question? (Lynn) I was going to call the question. (James) Thank you, all right. All right. (Andrew) Well, what's the, so the motion is to, just to table it and then the chair is stating that he'll re-agenda it? (James) Correct, well, we'll track and we'll, if you need that part of the motion, Alex can make that declaration. (Andrew) I just wanted to make sure what we're tabling. We're tabling, we're not specifying a time, but we're expecting that the chair will put it on a future agenda, otherwise we would request it if there was such a need. (James) Correct. (Andrew) I mean, I'm okay with that. (James) Okay. All right, before we
059move onto the next agenda item. One second, Laura. Oh, I just wanna say that that was extraordinary to watch. I know that it is very difficult for students to come into this kind of an environment and argue the way that you did. I really appreciated hearing your presentation and your ability to engage in a debate that was very adult. I appreciate it, yes, respectfully. Okay, Laura, did you? (Laura) Do we have to take a vote on tabling? (James) Do we vote table? Yes. (Jeanette) I'll second. (Kinsey) We'll just do a voice vote if that's all right. (James) Sure, please. (Kinsey) McCoy. (Laura) No. (Kinsey) Gerlach. (Lynn) No. (Kinsey) Knill. (Jeanette) We're voting on tabling this. (James) Correct. (Jeanette) Yes, I wish to table it. (Kinsey) Meister. (Sam) No. (Kinsey) Becker. (Andrew) Aye. (Kinsey) Knill. (Jeanette)
060Yes. (Kinsey) Lyerly. (James) Aye. (Kinsey) Motion carries. (James) Okay, we'll move to a seven B, the potential revisions to reveal, sorry, to repeal Board of Education Policy, rule 170. Lynn, do you want to read the motion? (Lynn) I move that the Board of Education rule 170 procedures for appointing school board members to preside over work session meetings be repealed. (James) Need a second to enter a debate? (Jeanette) Second. (James) Discussion? (James) Andrew and then Laura. (Andrew) Thank you. So following this for your consideration and deciding about repealing the rule altogether is after this vote would be my vote with a compromise that I did create to try to balance the concerns of those who thought that might create leadership confusion or suggest specialization or suggest additional authority. We have had rotation of the chair for
061work session meetings except for one year when the policy wasn't followed. We've had this for a very long time in our district under many board presidents with the goal of having a little bit of opportunity to share leadership opportunities to get a feel for different, there are slightly different styles of leadership and it's not about who might read the motion off the paper on the next week. It's a convenient way to organize, making sure that different people make motions but that's not what this is about. What this is about is the small amount of opportunity there is to have some shared leadership opportunities for members other than the chair. I would also point out that it's very, no one is and no one ever has been required to do this. If they didn't want to
062do it, they didn't have to although in practice people have virtually always done it. To vote to repeal this is something that does not help any individual individual board, it takes away from those board members who would like to have this opportunity for facilitation and it does not benefit anyone. To completely repeal it serves only to take opportunities away from other board members and if you, nobody's required to do it. So I would encourage a no vote on the complete repeal as I think what I would be offering next addresses all of the concerns that have been brought up other than if the point to be made is we don't want any shared facilitation and we have, I think there's a lot of positives in shared facilitation of the work sessions, thank you. (James) Thank
063you Andrew, Laura. (Laura) I'm really hoping that tonight's the last time we ever have to talk about this. So for years I have felt that this policy lacks any real honest purpose. This isn't a recent feeling that I've had, I've kind of always wondered why this is even here. I've never liked the idea of breaking our board into these subgroups, it feels artificial and unnecessary and it doesn't actually produce anything. And also I don't have any leadership confusion, I feel like we all are equal on this board, we all have a voice. And I've never felt silenced or limited in my ability to express my opinions or explain my votes or offer any kind of input into any conversation. So I can vote with a clear conscience on repealing this. (James) Jeanette. (Jeanette) I feel
064that there are many opportunities on this board for people to show leadership. We just saw, I gave a legislative report, Alex led the discussion on the backpack amendment because he put that on the agenda. And those two things show more leadership than us just doing a performative exercise of, okay, I'm assigned operations today, I'm gonna just read the agenda. It's not really leading anything, it's just a performance of reading what's on the agenda. So I agree, this is, it doesn't benefit the board. I think it would be better if there was somebody who wanted to have true leadership, they could step forward and either propose to put things on the agenda or perhaps do a legislative report or if they felt there was something more to do on some other topic would show much more
065leadership than just reading off the piece of paper. (James) Lynn. (Lynn) I think I'd like to remind everyone why I brought this forward because it was so long ago. I asked for this to be discussed in July and I introduced it to you in August and I have been waiting all this time, I guess for people to have objections. I brought this forward because I'm probably, I believe I'm the only person on this board who ever experienced serving on this board without this rule being enforced for my first year. I didn't know it existed because I didn't have time to read all the policies before I started and I did not know this rule existed and I didn't miss it and it was only when someone insisted that we observe this again, that suddenly I
066had to attend meetings at the convenience of one other board member because we were now put into this work team and I wanna remind everyone that there are no work teams. We do not meet and help bring ideas for how the agenda in this particular area ought to be constructed. All the people who meet with the superintendent to prepare for the meeting have the very same meeting. I have been told that there's a particular work team that has met maybe only once this school year because they just couldn't match the schedules. Last year, the person I was teamed with, as many times as he was present, as many times he was driving in his car when we were having a meeting and the point is we do not, as the rule says, remain in communication
067with each other to facilitate effective work session meetings. We don't do that. It is not real and I don't think that we need to continue to inconvenience ourselves and Kinsey in terms of scheduling people when there's nothing to benefit from it. The only benefit anyone can claim is to be able to read out loud from the agenda and to call on people to speak. That's the only thing that happens with this rule and I do hope we can just repeal it tonight and as Laura said, never talk about it again. (James) Andrew. (Andrew) So, I just wanna be clear, a no vote on this is a vote that takes away from some board members and helps no board members and to vote no on this is to discard a good faith effort for compromise which
068would come up behind it that addresses concerns that were brought up before, that removes the coupling of two board members to have to have their meetings together with the superintendent. There will always be a couple of meetings with a couple of board members and the superintendent and this, my amended rule 170 would decouple that. It would just be, whether this rules are not, there are going to be meetings with two board members and the superintendent. So, I've removed that. I've removed remain in communication with each other because there wouldn't be that tie. It is a schedule for alternating of work sessions and I have removed all the pieces that I think people have legitimate concerns for. It would be a great disappointment if something that is brought up in the spirit of compromise is thrown
069out and not allowed to even get a vote. (James) Others? - Sam. (Samantha) Just a clarification. If this were to go away, it would still be at the discretion of the chair to hand that role if there was a particular topic that somebody on the board was additionally knowledgeable about they could be, they could request that through the chair that they facilitate a part of a meeting. Is that a reasonable question? (James) So, I don't wanna put words in there. I don't wanna put words in Andrew's mouth. The way I interpreted it was very similar. The shell of policy that remains in rule establishes a mechanism for which a board member could say, I'm interested in running a part of a meeting. So, to Lynn's point, that's all that remains. The concept of work teams
070goes away and scheduling goes away, but it would be a construct where someone could say, I'm interested in continuing to participate in meeting management. (Samantha) As a follow up then, in the absence of this rule entirely, could the chair upon themselves decide, I would like to delegate that role temporarily to someone else within the meeting. Is that within their purview to do that? (James) Absolutely, Robert's rules allow me to move the chair. (Samantha) Okay. (James) Yes. Andrew. (Andrew) Yeah, so I'm not concerned about whether the current, chair would do it or not. I would imagine, it seems like it would be likely that he might not speaking for him, but recalling what he said last time, the chair said that at times, he likes to not have to share every single part of every single
071meeting. But this is some protection. And for those who say it's a very tiny leadership role, I would say I agree. There is very, very little shared leadership opportunities. This eliminates one and throws away a compromise that is intended to address everyone's concern and is a compromise in good faith. (James) Laura. (Laura) There is shared leadership. There is shared leadership. Honestly, I'm just gonna reiterate. I've never felt at this table that I couldn't, that I didn't have an equal voice. So that exists and I see our board currently, especially being quite good at nurturing that. (James) Can I call the question? We're good? Okay, so it's my understanding, just make sure. So one thing I wanna understand is if this fails, and then the next item, when Andrew makes a motion fails, we go back
072to current policy. Is that everyone's understanding? - Sure. (James) Okay. So we're voting on repealing 170. So if we fail to repeal 170, and then Andrew wants to motion modifying 170, and it also fails, we have performed no action tonight, right? Okay, thank you. (Kinsey) Does anyone remember who did the second on this one? It didn't, okay, thank you. (Laura) If I want to repeal, I vote yes now. (James) Correct. (Laura) Okay. (James) Yes. (Kinsey) Online voting is now open. (silence) All votes have been entered and the motion did not carry the results of the individual board member votes are as follows. Becker no, McCoy yes, Lyerly no, Gerlach yes, Mineau no, Knill yes, Meister no. (James) All right, so Andrew, do you want a motion? (Andrew) Sure, I will move to approve the amendments
073as can we get up on the screen? It'll be the same proposal I made last time. - Second to one. (James) I have it. - is it found the agenda on the agenda? (James) It is, it's not a PDF on the agenda, it was socialized via email, but the motion is to repeal or to modify the rule. So we've voted on repeal and now we've moved to modify. - It's not-- (Kinsey) Well, there's no motion on the table currently. (Andrew) I move the amendments to rule 170 as presented and displayed on screen. (James) And this again was socialized via email to everyone. So everyone has an opportunity to review it. (Jeanette) Can you tell me what the email was, what date it was, because I'd like to pull it up on my screen. (James)I came
074from Kinsey and it was copy of Becker amendment 170 rule. (James) Oh yeah, sorry, you're right, weekly district summary. (Andrew) So if someone seconds, I can explain the key changes. (James) Sorry, second, I apologize. (Andrew) So now, since it wasn't repealed, I don't really need this all that badly, but I will honor the commitment to compromise that I offered in good faith. I changed preside over to facilitate, I changed a couple other areas, I changed preside over to co-facilitators. I removed the linkage between the two people for a work area that suggested that they would need to be the pairing that meets with the superintendent. And it also clarifies that it would go to the board president if neither of the two can do it. So this changes, it removes all the concerns about whether
075it's committee or not. And it's not about the committee's whether it's, yeah. So like I said, I'm glad that the repeal of it failed. I will stand by my good faith effort to address some concerns that other members had, and I will vote yes on this because I'm presenting a good faith. (James) Discussion. - All right, Kinsey. (Kinsey) Online voting is now open. - All votes have been entered and the motion is carried with all board members voting in favor. (James) All right, we'll move to 7C, the potential revisions of board of education policy 170. I don't know that we need to do this at this point because I think this was in support of Lynn's rule change. Is that? - I didn't see you there. (James) Is that fair, Lynn? (Lynn) Well, I think.
076(James) No, that was the rule. This is the policy. (indistinct) I'm looking for the policy. You know, I've seen the rule under C. (indistinct) Oh, there we go. - Yeah. - Okay. (Lynn) If I may answer your question. If we maintain this policy, it says that the board president shall appoint two board members to preside over discussion in each of the work session areas. I proposed just repealing that section, but I'm not going to, I don't even know if it makes any difference anymore. (Melissa) James, this is Melissa. (James) Yes. (Melissa) I have not seen what just passed for this rule until right now. I'm wondering if we can just leave the policy as is and if I can go back and compare what passed and the rule to the policy to see if anything
077needs to be changed. (James) Okay, as the chair, I move to table all the discussion on policy 170. We have a second. - Second. (James) All right, all in favor? Aye. - Aye. (Andrew)Are we roll calling or are we done? (James) Oh, are we going to roll call that? (Andrew) Are we, I mean, I don't care if we roll call it (James) I don't think we can do it. I just didn't know if we were starting to roll call it. (James) No, we just, we're not going to roll call that. (Andrew) Okay. I vote aye (James) Okay. 7D revisions to board of education policy 672. Someone read the motion, please. Lynn. (Lynn) I move that the revisions to board of education policy 672 procurement and purchasing rule 672 procurement requirements and method exhibit 672 purchase
078threat folds for the Green Bay public school district as presented be approved. - Second. (James) Discussion? Andrew. (Andrew) So I guess my question would be, it's certainly legal to, certainly legal to do it. I guess if it seems to me that there might be some potential value in choosing to hold ourselves to a higher standard of still going to RFP, I'm not talking about the 10 versus 15 more. So I'm talking about the 350,000 or more. If there might be some value in holding ourselves to the stricter standard of 250, but if there's not interest from another member, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. (James) So Andrew, I'll tell you that I was very interested in this policy when I was a new board member and more important than the
079$250,000 threshold, it was extending that threshold accountability to multi-year contracts because I think at that time the district could enter into multi-year contracts, but the current year value of the contract, if it was below $250,000, they wouldn't necessarily need to bring it forward if I remember it correctly and I might be, so I have no problems with 350, given the inflationary pressure that we've all done and various, when I was looking at this, there's been very few that have fallen between 250 and 350, so I didn't see it as a huge risk. Other discussion? Okay, Kinsey? (Kinsey) Online voting is now open. All votes have been entered and the motion is carried with all board members voting in favor. (James) Great, we'll go to 7E, revisions to Board of Education Policy 443.5, someone please read
080the motion. Jeanette? (Jeanette) I move that the revisions to the Board of Education Policy 443.5, student use of wireless communication devices be presented, as presented, be approved. (Samantha) Second. (James) Discussion? - Yes, Hannah. (Hannah) Both me and Chanel just had a quick question on the details of this agenda item. We were just wondering, when we checked the additional documents for this agenda item, we noticed that it was just like one single line related to language. Is this just purely based off of language wording or is there any other implication? (James) Go ahead. (Vicki) The governor signed a bill recently and that adjustment recognizes it. (James) Other discussion? - All right, Kinsey? (Andrew) I have one. (James) Sorry, Andrew. (Andrew) So I'm gonna vote no on this. My no vote reflects that I think we came
081up with a better policy than the state did. I think the state is not correct to exclude other uses that would be beneficial to student learning or wellbeing as identified by the principal or designee. It's a symbolic no vote, but I wanted to make it clear this isn't a vote because I think our staff was incorrect to strike it. It's because I think the staff did a better job than the people that are in Madison that are making them strike it. I think it's a reasonable exception and that's why I'm voting no. (James) Other discussion? Kinsey? (Kinsey) Online voting is now open. - All votes have been entered and the motion is carried. The results of the individual board member votes are as follows. Becker, no. McCoy, yes. Lyerly, yes. Gerlach, yes. Mineau, yes. Knill,
082yes. Meister, yes. (James) Thank you. We'll move to 7 F, provisions of Board of Education Rule 345.6. Someone please read the motion. (Samantha) I move that the revisions to the Board of Education Rule 345.6, procedures for meeting graduation requirements as presented be approved. - Second. - Whatever. (James) Kinsey's choice, on the second. Okay, discussion? All right, Kinsey? (Kinsey) Online voting is now open. (silence) All votes have been entered and the motion is carried with all board members voting in favor. (James) Okay, that brings us to the end of our agenda for the open session. We're going to, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn into closed session. Lynn, you wanna read it? (Lynn) I move that the board adjourn into closed session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85 section 1D to consider strategies for crime detection or
083prevention to review weapon detection, RFI submissions, and Wisconsin statute 19.85 section 1A and F, considering financial, medical, social, or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons, preliminary consideration of specific personnel problems, or the investigation of charges against specific persons except where paragraph B applies, which if discussed in public would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data, or involved in such problems or investigations to it for the purpose of holding expulsion hearings under Wisconsin statute 120.13 section 1C and E and Wisconsin statute 19.85 section 1C, considering employment promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the government abid or exercises responsibility to let superintendent search discussion on developing interview questions to evaluate applicants. (Samantha) Second. (James) Discussion.
084- Kinsey. (Kinsey) Meister. (Samantha) Yes. (Kinsey) Knill. (Jeanette) Yes. (Kinsey) Mineau (Alex) Yes. (Kinsey) Gerlach. (Lynn) Yes. (Kinsey) Lyerly. (James) Yes. (Kinsey) McCoy. (Laura) Yes. (Kinsey) Becker. (Andrew) Yes. (James) All right. Thank you. We'll reconvene in closed session.