001[Music] Laura just gave us each a copy of these douments. Um, and I'm going to turn it over to you, Dr. Angel, because I think you've got some thoughts on this. >> Yeah. Uh, so totally open to however the school board wants to approach kind of the highle goals that come from uh these two documents. Um, one way that I've been trying to think about it is, um, our policy book for the school board plus our monitoring indicators really functions as a really detailed strategic plan, almost an overwhelming strategic plan in a way. uh but it could provide the foundation of the goals that the board monitors and the action plan that the school district puts together to support these things for the vision. To me, this felt like a lot of our operational expectations.
002So, exceptional staff, you know, we've got a uh OE4 personal administrative policy that talks about attracting, recruiting, retaining folks. uh for learning environment we have um an OE10 learning environment how we will establish and maintain an inclusive welcoming uh place uh it's harder to make some of the connections for some of the other areas but some seem like pretty clear and the board potentially could pull specific uh policy elements as the things that the board wants to use as goals for these things. That was one thought I had. Uh the other for the profile of a graduate. Um to me this really felt like um what was it? R3. Our um students will demonstrate the educational, social, cultural competency necessary to participate as contributing citizens in a diverse and global community. And we've got four
003sub policy elements right now, but theoretically this could replace all of those and we would start to monitor on these portrait of a graduate elements. And so that was a thought that I had. You could take our existing governance structure, the policies that the board has already put in place, align them with these um these vision of the future of our school district and it would create a natural flow of goals that aligns with something we already have. That said, I am totally interested in any other thought that's out there and going in an entirely different direction. I have a document here if the board wants to pick at it a little bit a little bit more to see how things could potentially align. But that was just Erin's thoughts as I was thinking about
004how to integrate this into all the other things that we do. So, how it might help me understand how how do you how are you going to integrate this into the administrative work that you do and the operational work that you do, not just at the board level, but like now that this has been created, what was your vision on what you and your staff are going to do with it? >> Yeah. So um with the the district vision to me that would for me personally that would lead right into at at the at the superintendent level that would be our indicators some of they would lead to indicators you know potentially changing them. So for like exceptional staff OE4.3 says aggressively recruit select and retain a highly qualified and diverse staff for all positions.
005That's the the board's piece of that. And so I'm going to pay more attention to attracting, developing, supporting, and retaining those staff. So that's going to become much more important to to me on an operational level. What that would look like on a reporting to the board, uh, I would want to be able to demonstrate that we're doing that with our staff every year. And so the first thing that would happen is we'd probably sit down with our HR team and our our our district staff representation, probably our joint leadership meetings and start to brainstorm ideas like where what have we done well already and how can we capitalize on that? Where are there gaps in our performance and and what do we need to shore up? And I would do that for every one
006of these elements. I would be taking our existing policy language, thinking about what we're doing already, sitting down with a a community of folks and starting to like think through what do we do next to meet this vision of our schools. Um, and that's what the vision and then for the profile of a graduate, you know, this will be driving a lot of our language in the school district. It will become, you know, visual on the walls. It will be integrated into our courses. that will be uh kind of a a driving narrative about what we're putting out as graduates in our school district. And of course, there's all the curricular things, but in terms of being like a full-fledged, well-rounded citizen, future ready, critical thinkers, engaged citizens, students of character, effective communicators, lifelong learners,
007that is what we're going to be focusing on in that more holistic vision of a student. And so, we'll sit down with our middle school principles and our high school principles and with our staff and start to think about where do we do this already? Where do we need to improve? Uh what are our opportunities uh to to make this a reality? >> This is says there a district vision, but what does this mean to somebody at Longfellow Middle School? Are they going to take this and develop a mission for Long Fellow Middle School or do you see no no you have to adopt this or how do they tag team? So this vision will lead to district goals. You we've already we got four this year and this ties to a number of them
008already. Our building principles integrate the district's stuff through their school improvement plans. So they'll look at their own data, their own challenges, and they might identify something on here as a goal. Maybe they've had high retention of staff, so they're not worried about the exceptional staff part, but maybe um they've had a lot of mental health challenges, and so they're really focused on whole student well-being, you know. So, it might not be everything every year, but they will identify areas in their school improvement plan that align uh with this school district's general um uh goals. And it gives them a framework to talk to you about what they're doing like to to to frame it in terms of this language like we're making these improvements. I'm requesting this kind of support. I that can be
009really helpful. So >> and I would also say you know I'll be looking at this every time we talk about something else like facilities didn't come up explicitly in this process right and so facilities in and of themselves aren't the point. it would be the learning environment, you know. So, when I'm thinking about learning environments in our schools, >> when I think about what buildings to focus on, I would be looking at those that have challenges in fostering diverse, welcoming learning environments, those that aren't physically safe, you know, you know, where there's challenges. So like that would be like help us prioritize what's important, you know, future ready, you know, globally aware, equipped with essential life skills, engage responsibly, you know, do we do the global thing as well as we need to? Do we
010need more language proficiency opportunities? Do we need more connections with international corporations in our community like uh Train or Ashley or some other places to understand what those skill sets are and bring those into our classrooms? every year instructional excellence would be on there. >> Absolutely. >> And excellence was a a very intentional word there also. You know, above and beyond, not just, >> you know, offering like meeting and exceeding. I appreciate that we're taking all of the work that went into this and like kind of acting on it right away rather than having them on the shelf because I don't know and I I appreciate the approach that you're lining out to like letting letting this dictate some potential policy changes because I don't know exactly what the process was when the the governance
011model was implemented and the policies were written or migrated over from the previous model but this represents the most community input at that level that we've had and and so I think it would be foolish to just shove it and not try to work it in in a meaningful way uh to what we're seeing in our reports. And that would show I think on the public side that that we're we're we're listening. This is what the community as best as we've been able to gather it has said that they want to see from us. this is how we're working it into our operational practices and our documents and what we're asking us and future school boards to look at and hold the district accountable to. So, I just appreciate that. And I could see, you
012know, maybe for each of these district vision items, there's a one indicator that is like top priority. Maybe the school board picks it and maybe we monitor that more frequently instead of annually. Maybe it's quarterly and we come back like, hey, here's our action plan to get after this. Here's our success after three months. Here's our success after three months. 90-day cycles uh in order to improve on a particular area. And it would demonstrate our commitment to this vision and in in doing something about it. And in the next year, maybe like, all right, we're satisfied with that. We're attracting people. All right, let's develop them. What does that look like? develop an action plan, 90-day cycles, report to the board, uh, and see how that's improving over time. It would be a way to
013keep it front and center while integrating it with everything else we're already doing. It's not another thing. It's just reinforcing the thing we're already doing. >> And I like the idea that it's a district vision, but at the same time, if a school district, uh, an individual school said, "Hey, listen, our biggest problem or concerns at this school is the learning environment. We need to tackle that." So that gives them ownership in this and not just handed down from on high. >> Yeah, there's unique situations at each school and it and we'll have district goals of course, but you know at the building level we want some ownership and buy in and that involves choice and voice. I have just another very wordy document that outlines connections between the vision and the portrait of a
014graduate and so can share this with folks if they want to want to pick through it could be something useful [Music] discuss seems like what we're talking about focusing conversations are all good. It's what drives the excellence that we want to see right alternate to our constituents, how we want community perceive us, right? This is probably different words. >> Um but I think the framework is very similar in the way that the points that we want to be communicated about how we want both from our own formally but also informally like how are we curating that to build that matches. >> Absolutely. I think this is what our our community wants us to be. They're saying to us and so we can demonstrate that we are that. And so for like exceptional staff, you know,
015for attracting and developing, we have a a unique partnership with W Lacrosse to create teacher residency programs. And so we get the best and brightest from W Lacrosse to student teach in our schools. You know, that's something we can advertise. We have I think we're in the top 20 in the state with the most master's degrees. Our teachers are more educated than other teachers in the area and some of the best educated in the state. You know, so those are ways for us to take this thing that teachers that our community wants us to do and demonstrate we meet it, you know, in a variety of ways to help shift that narrative and perception about our schools. You know, we would do the same thing with learning environment and community partnerships and instructional excellence. You
016know, I can see one sheets that kind of tick off these points and help create while we may not actively compare to others. Like it would beg comparison, you know, by top in the area or top in CISA 4, number one in Lacrosse County. You know, there would be lots of ways to demonstrate our excellence, change the perception around our schools using this as a framework. >> Absolutely. I just want to make sure that we I know at least my experience is it's easier sometimes to focus on the inward, >> right? Because it's it's where our comfort is. It's where our processes land and it's what we do. But I would want to make sure that we we use this at the same time. It's fresh and it's something that we're already passionate and it's
017got we got a lot of feedback. >> Yeah. >> This is this is how we go on the offensive, right? And again, different words. Yeah, >> but this is the framework for how you start laying out a structured branding campaign of here's who we are branding because it's what I'm used to. It's >> the same concepts though, right? It's PR, it's branding, it's whatever you want to call it. >> But you you can't throw everything at once. You can't say, "Here's all my points. This is why we're awesome." >> Yeah. >> It's the layering effect of the right time. Yes. We've got the most educated teachers in the area. This is why our teachers are great. This is why our staff one indicator of why they are. >> Here's all the great things they do.
018>> Yeah. Right. >> Um I think that I would just encourage us to make sure that we're working simultaneously and not waiting for the process to get done and then start that that campaign at the same time. >> Yeah. to be able to go and have a conversation, you know, with somebody in the community to say >> when they when they ask like, "What are you guys doing?" Like, "Wow, we we just we just listen to the community and here's the investments we're making in each of these areas." Right? >> It's going to take a lot of time to change that perception, >> right? >> Or a whole lot of Russian bots to change that perception. >> I don't know which one will be easier. >> Yeah. I don't know. And then you mentioned UWL
019just not step on toes should throw in it for turbo at least a little bit. >> Oh totally. We don't have a residency program with them. That's my only right, you know, comment there. Much to their frustration. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So >> I heard about it yesterday. >> I really appreciate your comments because I think it takes this conversation in a different direction than this document and I it goes back to what we were discussing earlier. about how to become competitive to draw students to our our district and I think that all fits together and can be part of that that workshop that we'll have. >> Yeah, I think we use this as a framework to start the workshop. I think it it identifies the pillars that the community said this is what we
020want to see from the district. >> It's how do we >> message that? >> Correct. And then how do we make some adjustments within >> to try and make us whatever that is, right? And that's the conversation I think we need to have. >> Yeah. Those are the areas that I think as a board members, community member, we can go out and help. >> It's not going to work this year because this the timing didn't match up. But next year in the budget, because you have the priorities that we have in the budget, these are going to be the priorities next year. >> Absolutely. >> I think that'll those things >> is over there like who are you waving at >> like looking at the corner of the TV? >> I can't see anybody. Patty's
021back there hiding. >> Yeah. Because like you've got that, you know, that hypothetical family who's saying I can get a better education in an Alaska and we can say, "Oh, no, you can't." >> Right. And this is why >> this is what the community asked for. Here's how we're aligning our resource. Yeah. >> So, in terms of aligning this with our policies, am I rather than going through line by line on this because I'm old and I can't stay up too late. Um, it looks like a lot of these are already incorporated into our policies. >> Yeah. >> With the exception of R3 that we could add some pieces to. Is is that the summary? Is that the Reader Digest version of this? >> Absolutely. There's maybe one or two that are a bit thin
022in terms of indicators. I wouldn't necessarily recommend adding more. Um, but um, you know, community partnerships, you know, maybe that's a bit thin. future ready. I'm not sure how well that aligns to stuff we have right now. >> Annually, we go through those so when you redo them, you'll incorporate these. >> Absolutely. >> And my recommendation or for R3 would be to fully replace it with >> our portrait of a graduate. >> I know we've we've wrangled over what to do with it and how, but I don't totally want to lose the element of good stewardship towards the environment. >> We can keep that, too. I mean, I would read that into engaged citizens and future ready, right? Like I think there's opportunity there, but I I wouldn't want to lose >> a stated emphasis
023on >> So, are you suggesting that you and I maybe get our put our heads together and come up with a a revision to R3? >> Oh gosh, I I volunteer as tribute. No, I don't think it'd be hard at all. I'd be happy to do that with you. >> Okay. Yeah, I think >> bring that forward in the next couple. >> Keep the elements that aren't full crossovers and you could, >> you know, I think our our community said this is what we want our citizens to be >> and so incorporating it into a policy, creating monitoring indicators, following up on an annually would be super easy and makes a ton of sense to me. >> Other comments, thoughts on how we want to take take this work that's been done, this input from
024the community and not just shel it and keep it alive and keep it going. >> Other thoughts for this evening? >> Has this been shared with building principles? >> It has not. Um, well, we've shared it and, you know, generally solicited some feedback. Most people see it as like, oh, awesome. Looks good. You know, it's the actionability of it once the school board has approved it, which you have tonight. Now we will turn it into action and so um that will be continual work but it will start in earnest tomorrow morning. >> Other thoughts or comments on how we do this. >> Um I would ask that you pass your yellow paper and pencil over towards Laura and save her the trip will come to get them. We >> used to always pass them over
025end of a meeting when you heard that shuffle. Thank you much. I'm just gonna hang on to this. >> Thank you very much. You have a great evening. >> Thanks everybody. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]