001Welcome. Our first online speaker will be Victoria Kerry. >> Hi. Sorry, I missed the >> No problem. You're going to be our first online speaker. Um, you will have three minutes and we'll start the timer whenever you're ready. >> We're good. >> Hi, my name is Victoria Carrie. Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Okay, great. I work as a stay-at-home parent with my three kids. My oldest daughter is a first grader at Caesar Chavez Elementary School, and we love it there. I'm also a leader in our state's chapter of Say Yes to Recess and we are advocating for 60 minutes of unstructured recess for kids every day for every student. Um, currently I my counterpart Allison Greg spoke last at the last school board meeting and to be honest I
002was a little shocked when my daughter started school and I found that there was only 30 minutes. Um, where did [clears throat] the play go? Current re Wisconsin law says a maximum of 30 minutes of recess a day can count towards instructional hours. So I understand where that happened. This misunderstands the worth of play and we are working with legislators to change this. I'm here today to say that our district does not have we have the wiggle room to have 60 minutes of recess a day now and we do not have to wait and we do not have to extend the school day. Um I will I am happy to email that to you later but I have an example where that can work. Um many of us had as much as 70 minutes of
003recess a day as as kids. There is a wealth of research supporting the idea that play is work for children and it is very educational. We want to create a setup for teachers and stu kids to feel safe and encouraged to learn to be lifelong learners. A wealth um sorry wealth of research done by the link project and others has found that 60 minutes of recess a day kids experienced 70% less chronic stress and anxiety. 70% another 70% of kids achieve age appropriate motor development skills like balance fine motor development and cross motor development like moving your hands from one side to the other. They are out there practicing social skills, creating play stories with events going on around them or things they read in books. Their math and reading scores go up. Perhaps we've
004done too much of a good thing. Sitting in class and doing lots of specials is great. But what these kids need right now is to be kids. Their specialty is play. We are a school district who wants a state who stated in our district's vision, all students will thrive, work, and live, work, and thrive as contributing and valued members of our community. Recess is a cost-effective way to grow a learning environment. It's my prediction that the benefits felt from more recess by kids and their families and our teachers will draw more teachers and families to our schools. When students thrive, teachers thrive, and then their families thrive. Let's continue following research in our district practices and get these kids 60 minutes of recess. It's break for play. Thank you. Our next online speaker is sorry
005is Amy Robertson. >> Hi, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Amy Robertson and I'm a member of the Van Heis Elementary School community. Over the past two years, more than a dozen parents in our community have used established channels, including letters to this board, to raise concerns about the school culture since Rebecca Stein became the administrator. Stories of a fifth grader talking about her special needs classmate being humiliated by her principal. An ambulance delayed in responding to an injured child. Lunchroom discussion among students about their crying teachers. almost entirely reported by fifth grade parents because they feel that they are at less risk of retaliation than the lower grade parents. It's worth noting that some of these types of concerns were also reported during her previous administrative roles. Despite these
006ongoing patterns, we have yet to see a meaningful improvement here. Instead, both community members and staff have expressed growing fears of retaliated retaliation related to staff, school programs, and students, which has made many reluctant to raise concerns publicly. Dr. Gard once said, "Safety is the presence of connection." That idea resonates deeply with me. Connection between students, teachers, and families is fundamental to a healthy and successful educational environment. At Vanheis Elementary, that vital connection is frayed. Our community no longer feels the safety and trust that they should that should exist with their school. I urge you to respond to the emails and messages from myself and other community members. We are asking you to address the ongoing issues around inappropriate behavior, unfairness, dishonesty, and fears of retaliation. Our community deserves transparency, respect, and unwavering support for
007our children's education. Thank you. Our next online speaker is Ray Mendes. Thanks, Jesse. Uh, good evening all. By now, I assume that anyone on this call or anyone in Madison, um, has watched the video of the horrific head stomping beating at Madison West High, where a child, one of ours, had his head cracked, his skull cracked. Think about this, okay? Think about in the context of your kids right now, all of you I'm speaking to. So this is a call to everyone who cares about Madison students in the context of this incident that is being considered an attempted murder in your schools in my school. Think about the lives ruined. Think about your kids. Again, you cannot protect them as this escalates. It's been escalating for years. I've been warning you guys. And you have
008listening sessions. Knives and guns are being confiscated every week and there are bloody fights. Literally bloody fights happening every week. Open your eyes, guys. Look at what's happening in our schools. Meanwhile, they're doing PR of rebranding and advertising this district. The hell is wrong with you? The violence, the fear, the silence. And what do we have? PR. This is not normal. Is this normal? You want to live like this? So this is addressed to the principles, teachers, staff. You already know what needs to be done. You know this. You see the danger every day. You feel it. I've been in your schools. You've been asked to carry the weight of policy failures far above your pay grade. And you have done it with grace. Thank you. Thank you, Principal Dan. And thank you staff of
009all schools. You deserve the authority. You deserve real authority, clear policies, and consistent support, not the paralysis and empty promises and talk, non-stop talk from you guys. I'm looking at you right now. To the parents, our job is to protect our children. That means telling the truth. Enough of the Minnesota niceness or Midwest niceness or whatever that crap is. Demand accountability from these people. You're voting for them. You're paying these people. You're paying God knows what you're paying Gothood. 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 meaningless crap. Do your job, man. Don't hide to the police. You are partners in this, not outsiders. You're welcome into my home because I believe in you. The hotspots are not a mystery. They are bus stops, parking lots, and neighborhoods where students gather. You need training. You need trust. And you need
010the leadership to engage effectively and safely, not the divisive crap from you guys. Enough. I'm looking at you. You can raise your eyebrows all you want and call me not the nice guy and insensitive and inconsiderate. Yes, I own it. I would rather be insensitive and inconsiderate than have a child die. Do you understand? Nod if you do. Time's up. Cut me off. To the attorneys and journalists, your job is to expose the truth and protect the public. There will be much to uncover if this city keeps pretending the bureaucracy equals safety. Watch closely, report honestly, and hold every institution, including me accountable, accountable. I know where the money is going. I'm following it. Follow the money. Follow the digital trail. Follow it. Look for the coverups. Look for the deleted emails. I know these
011things. Journalists and attorneys, go for it. Okay. To the politicians and board members, leadership means acting before tragedy. >> Um, point of order. Um, we are way past >> Yes, I understand Maya. I do. >> Please respect people's time, Marie. Thank you. >> I I am sick of respecting your time and anyone else's time when you're doing nothing. So, what I suggest is you do your job. I have a lot more to say. I will say it when I'm ready. I will concede now, but I have a lot more to say and I want your response. Mayer, >> Jesse, >> you've not done your job. Thank you. Good night. >> Um, sorry, Ray. Um, I'm sorry. I didn't see the timer before. So, we are about a minute over and we have many speakers tonight
012who have taken time to to come here and express themselves. So, if we could follow up with you um after tonight's meeting. Done. Okay. All right. Thank you. Our next person who signed up online but is actually in person uh will be William McNeel Flowers. Hello board. Sorry for the confusion there. Uh, good evening members of the board and superintendent Gothard. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is William McNeil Flowers and I'm a West High School social studies teacher. I'm a fourth year teacher and while I'm proud of the work that I've done at MMSD, I know that I'm still a very green teacher. I'm here to speak about the critical issue affecting our district in the form of salary compression. This is a problem that sends a dangerous message to
013our experienced staff and endangers our essential mentorship structure and ultimately hurts the success of teachers like me as well as students of this district. I am genuinely grateful that the district has invested in competitive starting wages for new teachers. It's part of what convinced me to join the district here. However, my excitement quickly turned to shock when I realized the lopsided nature of the salary scale for our veteran staff. By placing my first year salary close to the level of teachers who have a decade of experience on me, you're devaluing the knowledge, expertise, and institutional knowledge they bring. It sends a message that decades of loyalty and perfected expertise are considered less valuable than a beginner's enthusiasm. Additionally, it makes younger staff like me feel like for our own financial future, we may be better
014off shopping around districts rather than investing our time in one community. This isn't an abstract issue. I chose to work here because I saw a community that could support me and help me grow in this challenging career. I know that I'm talented, but I also know that I wouldn't have survived my first year teaching without the constant aid and guidance of the veteran teachers around me. My veteran peers in my department have spent countless hours helping me set up my classroom, showing me how to handle my first parent teacher meetings and lending their expertise to almost every lesson I've designed. They are quite literally the most valuable resource I have and ensure that I don't burn out and become an effective teacher for my students. From rifling through their old lessons and observing their classroom
015management, I simply wouldn't be the same teacher if I didn't have their advice. When I was choosing to work here, I thought about what environment would be best to grow in. And I knew that because of the community that was built up in MMSD, it was the only real option for me as a young teacher. This is why I was shocked when I learned that some veteran teachers barely make more than me, a beginner. This is financially unfair and is a slap in the face to their professional expertise and the importance that they have in our district while also eroding my faith in the district's ability to care for its employees in the long term. It makes me question my own future career here. Why would I stay in a district long term if I
016would get a pay bump by leaving the district or leaving the district and coming back for a higher salary um or just continually bouncing around? If this issue isn't fixed, we will lose these indispensable mentors, the people who train me and the people who stabilize our schools. They'll leave the district that they'll leave for a district that actually respects their commitment. And when they leave, new teachers like me will flounder or turn our turnover rate will spike and the students will ultimately be the ones who suffer the most. I'm proof that you're willing to pay competi competitive wages for new talent. And now I ask you to extend that equity to the veteran teachers who are holding the system together. We need them. Our students need them. And they deserve to be paid fairly for
017their years of experience and expertise. Please make it right for our veteran staffs and urgently fix the salary compression issue. Thank you. All right, we have no um other online speakers um who are registered. So, we'll move to our in-person um registered speakers. Uh I'm going to number one first coming up will be Naomi Smith and then followed by Andrew uh Brandon I believe and feel free to correct me on any name pronunciation. Um for our speakers, just as a reminder, we have a three minute clock um up here. And when you're at the podium, um when you see the little yellow light on the the little black box in front of you, that means you have about 30 seconds. Um try to conclude your thoughts as close to the three minutes as possible. Thank
018you. Good evening, President Nichols, members of the board, and Superintendent Gothard. Um, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Naomi Smith, and I'm a bilingual resource teacher at Shorewood in my 26th year. I'm here to speak about the critical issue affecting our district, the lack of salary equity for our experienced staff. While we're happy to see competitive salaries for new teachers, the calculation to afford this expenditure has devalued moving veteran staff whose vast knowledge, skills, and institutional history continue applying to this public service of education. It sends a message that experience and dedication are not valued. I chose to work here in Madison Metropolitan School District on my third try. It happened during an incredibly diff difficult time in my life in another district. It was 2010. My partner had just
019become unemployed and we were making the best of it raising our two-year-old. I sold makeup to colleagues and tried to believe the second job would be enough, but it was not. In 2015, I came to Madison. I adore that I can use multiple languages in progressive programming and be honest about the politics here. I've kept my home because of the salary. My salary was calculated objectively based on credits I had earned. This was not the case in the district where I had been for the previous 15 years. The former district created a salary step solution. work 60 additional summer hours to step up, taking time away from my family. Madison teachers have been in the right, pushing equity for decades and being paid for their expertise, a fact that made it possible for me to
020keep my home. I can watch my children at O'Keefe and East directly benefit from school district where teachers really roll up their sleeves to make a huge difference. learning what we don't know and being critical of the status quo. My son is successful academically at East High School. And I recall an essay he wrote a few years ago on how the teaching profession is doomed to never catch up to any other career economically based solely on the cost of living wage increase. At that time I objectively showed him my salary since 1999. Each year it has technically increased. It's a labor of love, I told him. However, my son looked at my list of wage increases over 26 years and concluded something is wrong. Sadly, he can think of no reason to become a teacher.
021Before leaving my former district, I recalled the other veteran teachers bowing to never help a new hire. Toying with our wages is divisive and depressing for veteran teachers. To return to counting dollars is very disheartening, but I must in this compressed salary schedule. I came here in 2015 and stepped into wa wage sabotage in Madison. Still to be part of the district, its progressive programming, growing equitable equitable respect for students of color and immigrants, our cultures and languages, and see how colleagues know their tiring hours inspire bright minds to live well. I am impressed, but please make it right and fix it. I came here and met colleagues in MMSD that left the district to be rehired at a better salary step level. >> Was I hired >> at the loss of a more veteran
022teacher wage increase. I ask that you address this issue urgently and thank you for listening. >> Thank you. [applause] We have Andrew coming up next, followed by Carrie Bowman. Good evening, President Nichols, members of the board, and Superintendent Gothic. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Andrew Brandon. I'm an English and multilingual education teacher at Lafala. uh this is my second year which means I should qualify as a veteran in like six months but I'm here to speak on their behalf today anyways specifically regarding sta salary compression it devalues their work their leadership and their institutional knowledge risking the success of future teachers and students when I was doing my student teaching I was really fortunate to have two veteran teachers as my CTS uh Leslie Mitchell at VPM and Andy
023Anderson at at uh O'Keefe. Each of them has been with the district for over 10 years. And when I was finishing my ed program, I knew I wanted to teach in MMSD because of the work that I saw them do, not just as educators, but as leaders in their respective buildings. While I appreciated the competitive starting salaries the district offers, they weren't the deciding factor for me. I didn't get into education for the money. My CT showed me that this is a district where students are centered, not just their education in an individual subject, but in empowering them to be members of their communities. They also showed me it's a district where veterans take an active interest in supporting newer teachers. So, when I got to Lfallet, I knew that I could count on my
024mentor, Darcy Pokeette, my department chairs, Kate Schultz and Shannon Longworth, and all teachers who've been with this district for over 10 years. when I struggled to have a lesson plan some days to engage students to process after fights in my classrooms or even just to figure out how district central printing works. They were the ones who had my back. And at the end of my first year when Kate Schultz came to me and asked if I was going to stick around, the only reason I said yes was because I knew I had that support system. Veteran teachers are the stabilizing force in our schools. They're the reason that we keep getting new teachers and they're also the reason that we keep them. The outcomes of my students last year depended on these veteran teachers. They
025continue to depend on their expertise, their leadership, and their knowledge. The work that they do to support their own classes as well as their mentees, their teams, and their departments is unquantifiable. Right now, they're investing more into this district than their district is investing into them. Prioritizing salary equity for experienced teachers who mentor and guide our entire staff is the best way to ensure long-term health the district and our students. I ask that you take steps to address this immediately. Thank you for listening. But following Carrie and welcome on up Carrie will be Eric um Eiffel or Eer sorry. Um good evening Dr. Gothard. Um President Nichols and board members. Um I've got triocals and cataracts. So okay. Um thank you for the opportunity to speak. Um demoralized I was hired in 2004 with two
026master's degrees and a significant student loan debt as a first generation college graduate. However, I landed my dream job at West High School, coming in at the top of the salary table at level 7. I worked three jobs most of my 21 years of public service at West High School. Night school from 2006 to 2019, as well as summer school. I paid off um I recently was informed that my that night school doesn't factor into my retirement either. Um I was informed recently though I paid off my student loans during the pandemic with assistance from the public forgiveness program for teachers. I was elated but I was still working two to three jobs these past four years in order to make ends meet even with um cost of living increases. Last spring I overheard a
027colleague talking about their salary and how they were retiring now that they had five years in MMSD. I usually never look up salaries, but since salaries are public, I did. And much to my chagrin, this colleague was making 10,000 more than my less less with less education and less years of service in the MMSD. I was insensed. Yes, I taught through Act 10 and made adjustments when I lost Cadillac insurance and tightened up my budget. Being undermined by Governor Walker and the legislature is one thing, but being undermined by your own human resources office is another thing. I am honored to teach my idealistic and inquisitive students at West High School. However, this being my 21st year, I have 34 students in a freshman classroom. 34, 33, 31, and 30 in my nine nth grade
028um four sections. I recently gave students a summitive test with both objective and primary source analysis. Over the fall break, I spent two hours and 20 minutes simply grading and entering the grades in IC. I haven't even touched the written portion which includes reading questions and written responses. We are simply asked to do more and more with the for a salary that isn't just I don't st stay to contract hours. I spend an enormous amount of time planning curriculum grading attending my own professional development and attend to additional responsibilities related to my employment. Moreover, I also am expected to write college recommendations letters on a timely manner. I ask that you as a school board rectify the situation immediately. I receive climate surveys and email fishing phising emails all the time. I wish these individuals
029respons responsible for these surveys and fishing emails would join us in the classroom. Join us in the classroom. Lower these um numbers of the school. How many students are in the school classroom? Let's lower class sizes and allow for more individual assistance with students that have reading issues and need holistic attention. These surveys and fishing emails are an affront as we are working diligently to be the best teachers we can be. Do the right thing. Coming up next is Eric. I think it's Eler or Epher. Sorry about that. And then following will be Sandra Campos Diaz. Um, hi. Uh, my name is Eric Eiffel. I'm here tonight uh representing Operation Fresh Start uh just for a little interlude. I'm uh here in recognition and appreciation of the partnership uh that uh under OIR uh that
030is the legacy program and I just wanted to provide a brief update and then I'm going to get right out of the way. Uh but uh over the 2425 school year uh together we produced uh we opened doors for 42 young people uh with their high school diplomas uh in this in in this partnership. 80% of whom went on to either post-secary employment or education uh six of whom are specifically enrolled in Madison College or other post-secary education right now. Um, just for a little context, uh, the demographic breakdown that we work with at OFS, we've got 49, uh, co-enrolled students currently. Uh, we've 33% of those students have IEPs, 33% are English learners. Uh we've got 58% who identify as black or African-American and 82% who identify uh their race or ethnicity as a
031category other than white. Uh and we have uh we've increased up to a 27% uh uh of female participants in the program. uh which for a work program like a work uh focused program we're working on increasing that number. Um and then uh going into this next year uh I wanted to just mention that we uh just ran our first cohort of a new credential on solar insta in uh solar installation that 22 people participate in participated in. There's another one coming up in November. and I'm looking forward to rolling into the rest of this year and next year uh in this partnership. Thanks for the support. >> Thank you. Next we have Sandra Campos Das and then following will be Drew Cole. I am Sandra Campos. I am a science and multilingual education teacher
032at Lafallet High School. I am here to talk about the impact of salary compression affecting me and many of my colleagues. Upon learning about this issue, I immediately recognize its unfair nature. It affects morale, encourages turnover, and ultimately hurts our students. We support competitive salaries for new teachers. However, we would also like to see salaries of veteran teachers match that competitive salary schedule. having a mismatch the values or knowledge, skills, investment in professional development and institutional history that long serve long-erving educators bring to our schools every day. This sends a message that experience and dedication is not valued. I have been working with MMSD for 12 years. I have also experienced other school districts in Wisconsin. I choose to stay here in MMS because of its commitment to an equitable education system. Based on my
033experience, I can say that other districts are not as equipped to address inequity. I love working with our students and I love working with the MMSD colleagues that I have and I've had in the past. However, working in MMSD has also required me to invest money and time for additional teacher certifications. My plan had always been to teach science to high school students. My certifications to teach science should have been enough qualifications, but MMSD wanted me for my bilingual skills to [snorts] fill positions in the dual language immersion program. I was required to become certified in regular education for which I did not receive compensation and also to invest in bilingual education certifications for which I did not receive tuition reimbursement. I still value those learning experiences because they have contributed to my ability to
034move student success forward in my classroom, in team collaborations, and in professional development. Nonetheless, I can't avoid feeling unappreciated knowing that my salary has been compressed. This is a sentiment that cannot be ignored. I if I was hired right now by MMSD using Asia policy, all of my years of experience teaching would match up with a corresponding letter for my level as is the case of other colleagues. MMSDC can and should fix this issue because prioritizing salary equity for experienced staff is the best way to ensure the long-term health of our district and the continued success of our students. Muchas gracias. All right, we have Drew Cole coming on up and then uh Kate Schultz will follow. Good evening, President Nichols, Superintendent Gothard, and the rest of our esteemed board. Uh, I'm here tonight to
035speak in solidarity with the veteran staff of the Madison Metropolitan School District. My name is Drew Colt, and I'm now a secondyear Spanish teacher at Lafallet High School. Although, as the saying goes, it's not my first rodeo. It's actually my 10th year as an educator. I'm also a proud member of Madison Teachers Incorporated and I'm here tonight to speak on uh behalf of my fellow union members who have been affected by the issue of salary compression. I chose to work in MMSD because I love Madison and after completing my rather expensive uh master's degree at the UW, the Madison school district offered me a competitive salary commensurate with my experience to help me pay back that debt. Unfortunately, I'm deeply concerned about my longevity in the district. If, as is the case for the veteran
036staff now, my salary becomes increasingly less competitive with time. One day, I hope to also be a veteran teacher. And perhaps over optimistically, I hope to retire as a classroom teacher from the Madison School District. The way I see my talented, tireless, and truly masterful veteran colleagues treated now does not give me a lot of hope for that future. Aside from the issue of staff retention in the long term, the issue of retaining veterans is crucial for educators like myself who are either just now completing their education or coming back for more of it. Teachers must complete an apprenticeship of student teaching. And as an aspiring public school teacher at the WMadison, I had the privilege of working with two of the district's most talented and hardworking and long-standing veterans. Maria Brown, a 30-year veteran
037of Hamilton Middle School, and Lafallet's own Kelly Ferguson, who has more than 20 years of experience in the district. The lessons that I learned under their mentorship are invaluable, and they continue to support me with good advice as I find my footing here in Madison schools. If the district is unable to retain long-term staff, the district will also be unable to offer a valuable student teaching experience to aspiring educators in the future. And that positive experience I had with Maria and Kelly was the main reason I wanted to work here in the first place. However, the final reason I'm here today is not for myself and my own future, but in solidarity with my fellow teachers and workers in my labor union. I'll quote another old adage, this one from the labor of movement to
038uh close with a statement of solidarity. An injury to one is an injury to all. I'm not asking for a raise for me. I'm a teacher who's actually a grateful beneficiary of the rate rising salary floor. I'm asking for a raise for them. They deserve it. Thank you. All right. Uh following Kate who's coming up, we'll have Andrew Melli. >> Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. My name is Kate Schultz. I'm the English department chair at Lafalad High School and I currently teach English 2 AP Seminar and my avid kids are seniors this year. I'm here to illustrate the issue of salary compression in MMSD from my own personal experience. First, as someone involved in hiring new staff, I do appreciate that our district has increased starting salaries to attract
039new teachers and compete for talent. That was the right move. However, shaving off levels from the salary schedule but not moving veteran staff to reflect their years of experience. That was the wrong move. Devaluing the knowledge, skills, and experience that veteran educators bring to our schools. I've been teaching in this district under contract for 23 years, but on the salary schedule, I'm at level Q, which is 17 years. So my question for you is which of my six years of service in MMSD don't matter? Is it six of the early years I spent at Sherman Middle School teaching in the true middle school model where I learned how to build classroom community? How to co-e role blend and serve students with diverse needs in a fully inclusive setting? Maybe it was six of my later
040years at Sherman serving on SPLT ACP cell and equity teams, MMSD's literacy leadership team, K12 literacy advisory committee, two different superintendents, super advisory uh teacher advisory groups and leadership institutes and consulting on mikvah challenge project soapbox curriculum. Maybe it was those years, maybe six of the last years at Lfallet, working on crossf functional pathways and 910 success teams, becoming an AVID elective teacher, learning the ways of AP capstone, designing MMSDs, uh, English one and two scope and sequence, serving on instructional leadership team and standardsbased design team and leading my PLC in my department. This district has invested in me my personal uh my professional learning from courageous conversations, love and logic, caring classrooms, restorative justice training to culturally responsive teaching in the brain, equity framework for responsive literacy, developmental designs, an abolitionist teaching. All of
041that unpacking, listening, teaching or learning, I carry that with me in all of the interactions I have with students every single day. every interaction that is within me. I carry that with me while I'm mentoring staff and training student teachers, some of whom um have gone on themselves to become leaders in this district. In any six-year span, which consists of 1,152 contract days of 9,216 hours, I've spent every one of those and so many more thoughtfully planning meaningful learning experiences, meticulously preparing and scaffolding materials so that all of my students can access rigorous instruction, and most importantly, teaching my students with purpose to empower them to use their voices and see themselves as change agents. Honestly, it's uncomfortable for me to be up here advocating for myself when there are so many far more consequential
042battles that we are fighting every day. It's my hope that you'll do the right thing and address the issue of salary equity and allow us to conserve our energy to fight for our students diversity, equity, and inclusion and the right to public education itself. Thank you. Good evening board and everyone. Um, my name is Andrea Miserelli. I'm the Madison Teachers, Inc. President, and I'm here to speak again on the salary compression. We're all here and confused on what the holdup is. Last September 2024, HR presented slides of the history of the compression with cutting off the levels. It informed about the half staff's compression as well. Also, there was discussion in slides about the next steps which states developing a 202526 budget amendment to establish the timeline and to fix it. It wasn't included in
043the 2526 budget that you're voting on tonight. with that HR knows um with the cuto off levels MMSD could use their database in a few clicks and have all the hire dates for people who are affected. DPI has the database as well and it could be done fast yet there's nothing in the budget that you're voting on tonight to fix it even though over a year ago you talked about it and having a timeline to fix it for this budget and future budgets. According to your slides presented a couple weeks ago, around 44% of teachers are in zero to five years in MMSD. That's almost one out of two teachers. Some of these people new to MMSD are making more money than our veteran staff who have been here 20, 25, 30, or 35 years.
044We heard from last month January of 2025 2025 HR reported to the board that from last year's new hires that the number one reason that the staff applied to come here to MMSD was from referral from staff members. Number two was they were a student teacher who was mentored by these teachers behind me. Number three, they were a former staff member returning. Well, the joke's on us because they were the smart staff. They could leave the district and come back and get all their full year's experience in a huge raise in their pay and therefore in their pension in the future. We have heard staff um we have heard from staff giving 25 to 35 years to this district. They are ready. They are ready to look at retirement which is much deserved for all
045their honorable years in our district and they deserve to retire with the pay that they deserve which affects their pension and the rest of their lives. These staff have waited long enough. to fix the compression immediately. Thank you. Next, we'll have I think this is Neporia Hamlin. If I didn't pronounce it correctly, um please just let us know when you come on up. And then followed um following will be Asha I think. Asha Asha Green >> Asa. Thank you. Um, hello. My name is Napora and I'm a humans human trafficking survivor. And I have I I say that to say with all I know and all that I have experienced and all that I've seen, it was very hard to sign my daughter up in MMSD, but I did and the teachers were lifesavers. Um,
046uh, however, I think more needs to be done about the hiring process. And we shouldn't be letting people with violent past and felony records. Oh my gosh. Sorry. Um on I'm sorry. I'm so nervous. Um violent offenders shouldn't be allowed in schools. Um just like the incident that just happened at White Horse Middle School. That's all. I don't think I'mma need this today. [laughter] Um, I want you to close your eyes and imagine I want you to close your eyes and imagine you're a a black disabled woman with a black disabled child. After 13 years of his life, you've learned to take every precautionary measure to ensure he's safe when he's out of your sight. Imagine sending your child off to school like a normal day, only for him to come home not himself. He's
047scared for his life and the lives of his family. Imagine your child requests to be taken to the hospital because he's in pain. Close your eyes now. Open your ears. Your child utters the words that he has been sexually abused by the very people that's supposed to guide, teach, and protect. Imagine checking your child's Angel Sense tag and it displays that your child has not been on the school's property for over a little bit over an hour and know he's not at the age where he's skipping school. You're unaware of any schedule changes or off-campus trips that have been scheduled for the day. As a concerned parent, you go to the school to get some answers as your child's whereabouts during the school hours. You go to the school and you get greeted by the
048school secretary who refuses to listen because I'm sorry, who refuses to listen to you or hear your concerns regarding your child because you're deaf, you're black, and you're a woman um hard of hearing and was taught to be or was thought out to be a problematic black woman. Instead of trying to hear, listen, and understand your concerns, the police were called. You were removed for trespassing. No answers, no justice. Imagine being a black disabled woman with the black disabled child. Where is her answers? Where is the justice? What is MMSD going to do to prevent these situations from continuing to rise within our school district? We didn't seem too often that these issues are swept under the rug and no one's being notified. Why is it that the community has had to take things into
049their own hands to get some answers so this child can feel safe? Where is the support? Where is the love? Being black in Madison, Wisconsin is sad. It's sickening. Because she's black. Because he's black. Don't sweep this under the rug. Next up, and I I'm sorry in advance if I mispronounce. Is it Kumani? No, I have next up Kumani Harris and then following is Asiana I think Alexander. Okay. Hello there. I'm D and I'm the mother of the victim that so I'm going to say yes and maybe just what happened to my child and being having an autism disability and not being believed this really I mean heartbreaking for people to um you know, can't go to school safe without coming home, can't tell what's going on, you know, and I want to let you
050guys know that I'm always be my son first no matter what. And to ensure he's safe from things from happening to him again. And I understand the public's confused right now of the article that went out, but I'm not here to cause problems or anything. I'm here to solve the issues and get justice for my child cuz he need to be heard. And I said like all the kids with disabilities should be ted I mean to be treated fairly and all the teachers and staffs and principles should um mandatory have deeply background checks and stuff like cuz they're just hiding anyone nowadays you know and it's hard to go home and feel like you trust this school you know what I mean so it's like and I feel violated, you know, in every every way
051and um it's just hoping that people understand that things can happen at schools no matter what school it is and no matter what staffs or teachers it is. But everybody has a deep secret into things they you know. So I want us to be aware and protect the disability kids of all kinds no matter what. And I'm looking forward to get justice for my son for all of these things that's happened to him at White Horse Middle School. and things have been failed to vibe. So there's nothing that can be blamed for my child of the lies allegations because nothing is a lie. Everything is true. And that's all I have to say. Hey y'all. I'm Asiana Alexander. I'm a youth leader in the community. Hey Lefallet, I see y'all out here. L's up. You
052already know what it is. No, I'm just like, okay. Hey guys, I'm Asiana Alexander. I'm a youth advocate for black lives and children with disabilities. I just want to be the voice for the youth. Be the voice you guys continue to look past and look over. White Horse Middle School has been known for violence. I've been fighting for the rights of students within the school system since I was 12 years old. Yet, nothing has truly changed. Only Only the way y'all continue to hide the truth about these corrupted teachers and principles within the school systems. Several students came to me trying to express the things that they've been through. And I will be reading these things to show you the severity of children's mental and all these issues have and how all these issues have
053caused trauma for them for the rest of their lives. Here is one student statement who will who still goes to White Horse and is still experiencing traumatic issues. This young lady said, "I'm beyond disgusted, bro. I'm a student at White Horse and and when I brought up to the assistant principal, I won't say his name, but y'all know I was being inappropriately touched by another student. That assistant principal pushed the situation off to the side and continue to defend the boy. She she wished and hoped that the younger 13-year-old boy was okay because she knows what he's going through right now. How are we allowing the same person to harm our children in these school systems? Another statement is, I went to White Horse Middle School and my heart is breaking so badly for you
054and your child. I remember seeing a teacher assault a student back then and then and he got zero criminal charges for what from what I remember. The school has always been bad with teachers and staff putting their hands on students and borderline grooming them. I remember the principal as well and she is not a good woman. I hope that both of you get justice in healing and the healing you deserve and I'm sending so much love your way. Like bro, somebody told me I hope and pray all y'all get justice for the baby because I had to remove my three children due to the abuse that they were receiving from the principles and their peers. Y'all see the pattern, right? Y'all getting the pattern? all this abuse, all this stuff that these kids and and
055adults is saying, like this [ __ ] is real, real life happening today. Still happening and ain't [ __ ] changing about it. And I'm cursing cuz I'm mad. Like, bro, let me warn you for this next one. Even, okay, I I skipped a part and I said, "And don't even get me started on the video evidence I have of that. I should play it to show you how you do how you do is how how My bad. I should play the video to show y'all how bad y'all been felling our students since this incident has happened. This lady has foot foot full footage of her child getting abused at White Horse Middle School. She has three children that she had to homeschool K through 12 because of the [ __ ] that she went through. And let me and let
056me warn y'all, I'm not I'm not done. And I'm not I don't care that my three minutes up. Y'all going to hear what I have to say because these kids didn't get to get to say what they had to say. So y'all going to hear this [ __ ] even if my 30 minutes up. Let me warn y'all for the next one. Even though our children are warned they have pred predators amongst them and it's getting swiped under White Horse's rug. The old bodyguard was also sexually assaulting kids when I went there in 2013. That school's bad news. He asked me if he could give me a birthday spanking. A year later he was on my Facebook feed for sexually assaulting a student. Another incident. Me and a fellow classmate were trying to help this girl learn
057English. She was from Albania. One day, her dad came in there aggressively towards me. And >> Hold on. >> I'm sorry. We um we have a lot more speakers. >> He going to cut our [ __ ] heads off, came in the building, passed the office, and knew where to find us. That's not safe. I don't plan Okay. Another statement on how this would happen was the fourth sexual harassment with minors at this school that we know of. The old principal, Mr. Paddock, the security guard room who used to work at Lala and another school dance coach Pez all have been fired for the same convicted and convicted. So, you can get all of the info you need. Don't touch them. You ain't got to touch >> and I'm still and it was an after we got
058our own private investigators. It just goes to show how nothing's going to change and they're going to keep trying to not I'm going to keep this situation and y'all will hear more. So therefore behind you in the fact that we still have children being abused at White Middle School that Don't touch it. I'm going to encourage everybody to take a deep breath. All right. Yes. >> [snorts] >> All right, we will continue. Um, our next speaker is Sarah Danes and then followed by I believe it's Pam Brandt. Hi everyone, thanks for having us tonight. My name is Sarah Danes and I'm currently a second grade teacher at Sherwood Hills. This is my 23rd year as a certified teacher and my 21st um in MMSD. So in 2005, I was thrilled to get hired with MMSD.
059At that time, Madison was the district everyone wanted to be part of. Jobs here were highly sought after and hard to get. Families moved here to attend our schools. I especially appreciated working in a district that had the highest salaries in the area, great benefits, and a strong teachers union. To date, I've worked at three schools in six six different job roles, teaching everything in my PK through third grade certification, plus reading recovery and ESL. I've also subbed way too many times that I care to remember when I was an ESL teacher, often with no warning and the bell had already rung and no sub plans. To say that I've been patient and flexible is an understatement, but I'm still here. Throughout my career, there have been many highs and lows, but I've remained dedicated
060to you. I've stuck stuck with you through too many new curricula to count. To use a buzzword, I've pivoted to something new every year, but I'm still here. Act 10 was tough. My household at the time lost $500 per paycheck overnight when the Walker administration took away our full retirement benefit. It was a lot of money for us. Of course, we also lost our collective bargaining which impacted everything. But I'm still here. Our seniority no longer affords us any rights. Veteran teachers can easily be moved grade level positions and even buildings through a very opaque and subjective process. years of service does not necessarily count when it comes to job security. So, not only does my place on the salary schedule make me feel undervalued, I also feel very insecure about getting to teach what
061and where I would like, but I'm still here. No one chooses this profession for the money, myself included. I did, however, count on making a salary that reflects my credits and years of service. This summer, I was shocked to compare my current track to where I should be on the salary schedule. The district has has saved $4,500 on my salary each year. So since 2017, I've missed out on $36,000. My son, a senior at East, hopes to attend WMadison next year. So I can't help but notice that this total is almost equal to four years of tuition at WMadison. It's disheartening to see that number on paper, but I'm still here. So, I'm asking you to finally please fix our salary schedule and put our district back on track. I'd really like to say I'm
062still here in the future. Thank you. Hi, my name is Pam Brandt and I'm currently a fourth grade teacher at LOL School. I'm in my 22nd year of teaching for MMSD, but I'm being paid as if I in my 16th year of teaching. I've spent nearly my entire teaching career in MMSD, including as a practicum student and a student teacher with just a single year of long-term subbing in Wasau after graduating from WMadison. After that one year away, I was set on returning to Madison to teach so I could be at the forefront of the best teaching methods and curricula in education. Since that year, the fall of 2004, I've been a proud MMSD employee. I moved to Madison so my children would attend MMSD schools and I continue to be proud to teach at
063LOL and have two kids attending Madison East High School. What I can't understand is why teachers such as myself who have spent their entire teaching career with MMSD could have a lower salary than less experienced teachers or those who have taught somewhere else. Veteran teachers have evolved immensely over our time in MMSD. We began teaching without any formal curricula and no common core standards to guide our instruction. Since that time, we have embraced the adoption of bridges math, e education, amplify, welcoming schools, and letters. And that is just at the elementary level. We have served on school-based leadership teams, supported school and family organizations, taken classes to further our expertise, participated in book groups, and various projects focused on equity over the years. We have also taken on the tremendous responsibility of mentoring pre-ervice teachers
064and our new colleagues. This could not happen without us. We veteran teachers are the backbone of MMSD and deserve to be paid according to the years of service we have given. I know we won't or can't be paid for those years that we've been underpaid because of salary compression, but we need you to demand that our contracts be updated to reflect the number of actual years we've devoted to MMSD. Every person employed by MMSD is a valuable member of our community. And it's time the veteran teacher salaries reflect our commitment to teaching and growing MMSD. Thank you. All right, we are at uh inperson speaker number 15, Jessica Ser or Ser and then moving on to Aaron Proctctor. Okay. Hello. Uh good evening. Um, lots of people sharing their stories and their truths. Um, and
065so I wanted to add uh my story. Um, I am a math teacher and department chair at West High School currently. Um, and I was hired straight out of WMadison uh in 1999 uh at Memorial High School and I have spent my entire career in this district. So if you do the math, that's 27th year. Um, as I say to my students across two millennia, which is kind of nice. Um, my second year teaching, uh, the salary schedule moved forward. So, the people who were hired that year were hired at the same place as me. Um, and that's happened a total of, as you know, seven times. um that and there were six years that I worked part-time uh at Memorial and Lfallet and I was credited half a level for each of those. That's
066not the current policy. Current current policy is a full level if you are part-time. Uh so between those two two things I'm 10 years behind on the salary schedule which comes out to about $7600. I can definitely think of some things I would do with that money. Um, so not only am I not paid according to my years of experience, um, I have a colleague in our department who I thank him for his honesty was hired from some prairie. He has seven years less teaching experience than me and is three levels further down. That is not okay. Um, ultimately if I were to quit my job, go work somewhere else for a year or not work at all. Doesn't that sound nice? And come back, I would make up that year of missed salary in
067less than 10 years. I don't want to do that. Um, I'm a good bargain at my actual full salary. Uh, two of my student teachers work in our department. Um, I think a really healthy high school department has a good mix of early career, mid-career, and late career teachers. And that's what our department has right now. And that's how we try to hire it. We almost hired someone last June who would have had my same number of years of experience and that would have been fantastic. He didn't take the job. Um, but he would have made quite a bit more money than me as department chair and that's not okay. I feel exploited honestly that my reward for staying in this district my entire career and not going somewhere else in Bane County has been
068to be underpaid year after year. And that's I'm not just speaking for me. I'm speaking to all these folks here. Um and you all know what's right. You know what you need to do and you need to do it soon. Thank you. Hey everyone, I'm Erin Proctor. I am a proud member of MTI and an even more proud member of Senate Middle School. I teach in the sixth grade DLI math teacher. And uh one of the things we've learned is that you never let everyone sit for more than 15 minutes because they get real tired and don't pay attention. You all taught us that in one of our PDs. So we are going to have a interactive me too right out of DD. I invite you all to play along. Please stand. Stand if this
069applies to you. At school I am there before my contract. At school I am there after my contract. I have work with me or waiting for me at home. Um I have hosted a practicum semester or a semester student teacher. We are now going to do a quick uh whip around here on please remain standing until I don't mention you. You have at least one year of service. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 37. Your veteran teachers not only teach the children, they also teach student teachers, they also teach new hires. We should not have to make the same amount of money that a new teacher makes. That's
070rude, disrespectful, and disingenuous. Before I let you go tonight, I will leave you with the following. In the words of my lovely and wonderful sixth grade students, when it comes to salary compression, you can't be 67. You got to pick a side. Be on the right one this time. MSD, you can do it. Do it tonight. Thank you. [screaming] All right, next up, Amy Spangler. That's a tough one to follow. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Uh my name is Amy Spangler. I am currently a special education program support teacher and culture and climate coach at LOL. I'm here to speak about lack of salary equity for experienced staff in our district. Salary compre compression impacts staff morale and encourages staff to leave and seek higher paying positions in other districts. I could have
071left many times. I didn't. Our students deserve high quality teachers. However, not paying veteran staff for their years of experience devalues our knowledge and skills. It sends a message that our dedication to our profession and to MMSD are not valued. Sorry. I was hired full-time as a special ed teacher in this district in 1999. Um through my 26 years, um I've continued to strengthen my skills, expand my professional knowledge. I've shared my experiences, my understanding of special ed law, IEP writing skills, and teaching knowledge with colleagues and countless practicum students and student teachers. I've mentored young special ed teachers. Some are here to support us. Um, some with absolutely no training and not even a license yet. Um, and others who are just out of college. Um, you know, I recently learned that there are
072teachers in our building and all across the district with fewer years, you know, of teaching experience and they're [snorts] ahead of me on the um the salary levels. >> [snorts] >> Um it's quite disheartening um when I've given MMSD 26 years, this being 27. Um in a position with an extremely high um burnout rate, uh 50% of special ed teachers are done within the first five years across the nation. 75% are done in 10 years. Yet we have special educators that have given their entire career to MMSD, including me. Um, that doesn't that burnout rate doesn't leave many experienced teachers left to mentor those young teachers, which is why we're having to hire unlicensed people to fill into those spots. Um, and it's I'm not saying they're not doing a good job, but they're at
073a huge disadvantage when they have no training coming into the position. And that is left to program support teachers to mentor them and experienced CC teachers to help them learn how to do the job well and to do the job right with all the legal ramifications that come with special education. And like I said before, I could have left, but I'm invested in MMSD. Um, but MMSD only seems to honor 19 of my 26 27 years. Um, I just ask the board to fix it, please. Um we are important to the work that is done done here. Um and you know the diverse needs of our students can't be met without educators at all the different levels of experience. I learned things from the new teachers, they learn things from me and that's how we
074all get better. Um thanks for your time. Coming up next, Pika Ort and then followed by Abby. Is it Stupar? Stupar. Yep. >> Stupar. All right. Thanks. >> Uh, good evening to President Nichols. Good evening, Dr. Goth and esteemed board members. Good evening, people back here. Uh, obviously I'm here to talk about some salary compression. My name is Mika Orio. I'm a seventh grade teacher, math teacher at Senate Middle School. I've been at Senate, this is my 25th year at Senate, 28th in education. Um, I have two children who have gone through Madison schools who are currently at Lafallet High School. I have a I am a product actually of Senate Middle School and Lala High School and I also have a wife who's in her 24th year at Senate Middle School as well. I'm
075here to highlight and continue on with this talk of salary compression. Obviously, for me and my perspective, uh this is a problem that undervalues veteran educators. It weakens our staff morale and puts students long-term success at risk. I remember the first time I saw the grid of salary and I said, "Wow, what a way to go. What a way to pay people. I can like figure out where I'm going to be in 10 years. It's actually quite sad. Ann and I were happy though to see competitive salaries for new teachers. Um the profession obviously needs this. We need the best and the brightest in our profession. Um we were not happy though with this idea that we have been compressed and that we are not getting what we believe we are worth as teachers. So
076not moving veteran staff to match this appropriate levels devalues our knowledge and our skills and it really for us stings and I'm just being real here. To lighten things up a little bit though I will talk about um six or seven six seven reasons why we think that you should uh address this seller uh compression. So obviously veteran teachers have a lot of knowledge and experience right that experience is something that you can't uh replicate in newness. That experience is something that we carry with us to our schools. We're often on the leadership teams. We plan the curriculums. We write um different aspects of the curriculum. We take the hard kids. We're on the committees. Yeah. We do it all as veteran teachers, including we mentor people. And mentoring both officially, I'm an officially a
077one-on-one district mentor, and I don't get paid for it, but I do it. We mentor university students who come with us. I've had over 75 practicum and student teachers in my time. Uh we are also members of the community. I meet the community every Sunday when I go to Woodman's. I see people that I know, former students, former parents. Um, this is an equity issue that needs to be addressed. So, I'm not in it for the money, but to be honest, my wife and I would go down about six or seven steps. Six, seven, which would be a nice boost and would keep me and my wife hanging out here in the Ma Madison Metropolitan School District much longer. Thank you for your time. Good evening everyone. My name is Abby Stupar and I am
078a secondyear science and social studies teacher at Senate Middle School. I'm here to speak today about salary compression. This is a problem that sends a devastating message to our experienced staff, endangers our essential mentorship structure, and ultimately risks the success of teachers like me and most importantly our students. As a new teacher, of course, I'm grateful that the district has invested in me and having competitive starting salaries for us. However, I was shocked when I realized the lack of movement on our salary scale for our veteran staff. My experience at Senate started when I was placed there as a student teacher in spring of 2024. I immediately fell in love with the school community, a community that's made up of veteran teachers who are deeply committed to the success of their students and to supporting
079and lifting each other up. My experience student teaching is why I chose to start my career in MMSD. Now, as I begin my second year teaching, I know that I made the right choice because of the incredible veteran teachers around me who have given me a sense of belonging in the district and help me and help make me the best teacher I can be for my students. My mentors, Sha Tazinski and Mika Orio, have both been teaching in the district for nearly 20 years. I truly do not know what I would do without them. They go above and beyond to make sure that I'm successful and to make sure that I have all the tools I need to give my students the consistency that they deserve. They're the people I go to when I need
080guidance or just someone to remind me that I can do this. They've made me a better teacher for my students and honestly, their support is the reason that this career feels sustainable for me. While Shawn and Ma have served as my direct mentors, I could name countless other veteran teachers whose support has been invaluable to me. I would not be the educator I am today without the generosity, wisdom, and mentorship of the experienced staff in this district. The current pay scale in our district does not reflect how valuable experienced staff are in our schools. They bring wisdom and stability and spend countless hours mentoring new teachers like me. Dedication, commitment, and loyalty deserve to be financially recognized. If this issue isn't fixed, we will lose our experienced educators, the people who are the heart of
081our schools, and our students will be the people who suffer from this loss the most. New teachers need experienced staff, but more importantly, our students need them. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, next we have Tom. Is it Blau? Okay, Tom Blau. and then Tracy Drell. >> Good evening everybody. Uh thank you for uh hearing us all out. I first of all want to say I I would not want to be in your place. The heavy stuff that happened at West High School and uh the crazy accusations at White Horse. First of all, one of those uh people over there as a co-orker of mine would go way back and I hope you guys take a firm stand and be very transparent. Invite these people who came in and spoke passionately. Show them the evidence.
082It's got to be clear. It's I I I can't imagine there's any truth in this. So, please open that up to them. But on um I'm speaking on the same thing about salary compression that everybody else did, but I'm going to challenge you and uh take a little bit different uh argument with this. And I'll start by uh saying that we start with a truth that we all hold close here in Madison, progressive Madison, liberal Madison, that we're a community that stands with working people. We're a community that knows that education is the ladder to opportunity. Right now across our nation, there's a government shutdown grinding on. federal workers, janitors, scientists, air traffic controllers. Christ, I'm going on a flight in Christmas and I hope they're there so I can get to Colorado and go
083snowboarding with my daughters. Um, people who punch in, serve the public and punch out with pride. They're told, "Go without pay." Many of us in this room, myself included, I'm sure all of you too, when you watch the news, you're all calling that wrong. You're looking saying, "How can I do this? This is wrong. If I were there, I'd be bring justice to this issue. Because when you shut the doors on the people who keep America running, you don't just close a building. You break a promise. You tell working families, your labor is optional. And that Madison Madison school board members, that's not who we are. But here's the opportunity. If we stand against that shutdown in Washington, if we say no, we're not going to let working people pay the price, then we must
084live that same conviction here in Madison right now in our own classrooms because salary compression, it's the same slow motion shutdown on our teachers. It tells a veteran educator, someone with 15 years of lesson plans, 27 in my case, late night parent calls, master's degree earned while raising kids, that tells that teacher, your experience is worth pennies more than a rookies. That's not budget discipline. That's not tough choices. That is your choice. And it's a choice that we can reverse. If memory serves me correctly, you've already reversed this for one other bargaining group. You looked at the numbers, you looked at the people, and you said, "We're going to make this right." Now, I'm asking you to extend that same courage, that same heart to every teacher in this district, especially those in this room,
085that this isn't about favoring one group over another. This is about lifting every educator up. Because when we pay teachers what their years demand, we don't just keep talent in our schools. We send a message to every student walking down these halls that your future is worth our investment. Your dreams are worth the fight. So tonight, school board members, let's be bold. Let's show America and Washington that shutdowns on working people, we don't do that. We open the doors for them right here in Madison, in progressive Madison, in liberal Madison. Let's end a salary compression for every teacher who's earned it. Not because it's easy, Tom, >> but because it's right and because the soul of this community and our country depends on it. Thank you very much. All right, next up, Tracy Drill, followed
086by Peter Thompson. Sorry, I'm not going to be the Statue of Liberty up here, but I I'll uh um Hi, my name is Tracy Drill. I'm a crosscategorical teacher at Senate Middle School. I have had six children of my own go through the Madison public school district. I love this district with great success. My oldest daughter just got her doctorate at Yale. The next one got her uh masters at Dartmouth. The other one who spent a little bit of time in principal's office, Carletra's office, did get her masters at Queen Mary University in London. And the list goes on. They've all been very very successful and it all started here at MMSD. So, but I have to be honest, coming here again and again to speak about the same issues is exhausting. We continue to
087hear how much you value us and how much you care about us and the work that we do and how important we are to the district. But the reality is your actions aren't showing that. Salary compression has become a serious issue that affects every one of us. We are genuinely glad that the district is offering competitive salaries to the new teachers, but it's so important that we attract bright and pass passionate educators to our school. That is so important. But what about those of us who have been there year after year giving our best to our students and to this district? Retaining experienced teachers should be just as important as recruiting new ones. Yet, right now, it just doesn't feel that way. We're not asking for special treatment. We're asking for fairness. We're asking you
088to show, not just say, that you value your veteran teachers because if you truly care about students, which I really do believe you all do, you must also care about the teachers who have dedicated our lives and our career to them. Thank you. All right, Peter, as you're coming up, uh, you'll be followed by Jen. Is it Raina? >> All right. All right. Well, thank you very much for your time, everyone. And I know there's been a lot said tonight and I I echo all those sentiments. I am also a special education teacher. I've been teaching for about 28 years in the in the Madison school district. I started as an SEA back in uh 1997 and I became a certified teacher in 2001. I spent my career at set of middle school and I
089wouldn't change that for the world because I love it there. It's a great school. One of the things that I would like to echo is um the experience part does matter. I mean, it it makes a huge difference. As a as a special education teacher, I rely heavily on my PST. And like Amy Spangler, as a PST out there, has been done more for special education than a lot of other people in this district. She's been there for trainings. She's been there to guide us, mentor us, keep teach us all. And there's a ton of experience that should be rewarded and should be honored because she brings a lot to the table. But that's one person. I'm also a person with some experience. I appreciate that I've had the opportunity to teach at Senate. I've
090been able to have 20 special or um student teachers over the years at least. I've been happy to say that I've been able to be a um someone that has mentored and shaped some of those people to be my colleagues who have st who now stand beside me and teach in my building. And they're exceptional people. But you know what? That doesn't happen just by accident. It doesn't come by just coming into the job and saying, "Okay, this is a nineto-five job where you can just fill it at the moment or at a will." It takes a lot of dedication and work to get to this position. And I've done it along with my colleagues. We've been out there. We we're fighting those battles. We're in the trenches teaching our children every day. And some
091of those days are hard days. Let's be honest. It's not always like a bed of roses. So I would like to honor that by saying do me a solid and let's raise those salaries so we get fairly compensated. I've already heard that it's time to change those that salary compression. We've been down this road. We heard people we've heard the discussion that we cannot keep pushing it down any further. It's time to for change to happen. We want to keep and retain quality people. We have quality people in our district. Let's keep it that way. Let's have our folks be proud to be at at MMSD and say, "Yeah, I want to stay here till I retire. This is my district. This is where I want to be." Let's continue to make it that way.
092Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Good evening. Thank you board members, President Nichols and Superintendent Gothther um for the opportunity to speak tonight on salary compression. Um while I have echoing I will echo a lot of the things that the people have already said. We as veteran teachers are happy to see that compensation for new teachers is competitive, but we also are fighting for our rights to be compensated fully as veterans. I've been an educator in Madison schools for 24 years teaching at East Memorial and Lfallet. I have also I'm also a proud parent of a West High School senior. I love working in Madison. I did my student teaching in MMSD and I wanted and I knew I wanted to teach in this district, one which embraces diversity and meets
093students where they are so that we can help them reach their fullest potential. Throughout my years in MMSD, I have worn many hats, teaching every level of math from fundamentals and pre-alggebra to algebra 2 and financial algebra, as well as Spanish and social studies. I have co-taught literacy skills, physics, health, personal finance, and this year, I am co-eing all five of my courses in my schedule as a multilingual math content specialist. I have coached over 10 years of ultimate frisbee players and trained countless student leaders in our student our Latino student unions and freshman mentoring programs. I have been a graduation name reader for the past three years and spent hours learning over 400 names so that when those students get a chance to walk across that stage, we get it right. So my classes
094are filled with multilingual students, students with disabilities, deaf and heart of hearing students, and students from very diverse backgrounds. Every day I work with them to make math meaningful and accessible to them so they can earn credit and walk across that stage to graduation. But at several points in my 24 years of working in MMSD, I have found instances when I have made less than the new teacher who had just joined my PLC or department. It is discouraging to know that a teacher who has less institutional knowledge than me or who I was mentoring was making more than me. It's disheartening to feel that my dedication is not financially recognized. The salary schedule compensates me for 18 of my 24 years in MMSD. While I am hopeful that I will retire from MMSD, um many
095veterans may not be able to afford to stay. Veteran teachers are your most valuable resource and we want to show we want you to show that you value our loyalty as teachers like me who have dedicated their careers to this district. I ask that you take steps to address this salary compression issue urgently and thoughtfully. Thank you for listening. All right, next up, uh, Sherry. Is it Sherry? Watt or Okay. And then followed by Sarah Schwab. And then we'll be, um, into our final two speakers. Good evening, President Nichols, members of the board, and Superintendent Gothard. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Sheri Watt, and I'm a kindergarten teacher at Lel Elementary School. I'm here to bring attention to an urgent issue in our district, salary compression, which creates inequities
096in pay for our experienced staff. This is a problem that erodess staff morale, encourages turnover, and ultimately hurts our students. I truly appreciate the district's commitment to attracting new teachers with competitive salaries. This is an important step forward, but who are leaving veteran educators behind. Veteran teachers are the mentors, the leaders, and the keepers of our institutional history. And when our salaries have not been adjusted, it sends the message that our experience, expertise, and years of dedication are not valued, which undermines morale and weakens the very foundation of our schools. Beyond the numbers in the spreadsheets, this is really a story about people. I'd like to share a bit of my own experience to put this issue into perspective. I began teaching in Madison in 2004 because I believe deeply in the district's mission to
097inspire and equip students for success. When I think back on my career, it's not just about the years or the positions I've held. It's about the people who shaped me along the way. The veteran teachers who took the time to mentor me, challenge me, and help me grow into the educator I am today. I am grateful for all of those who have shared their experience, knowledge, and wisdom with me. and I am proud to pass that mentorship on to the next generation of teachers. Over the years, I have served as a cooperating teacher for dozens of practicum students and student teachers. I've taught 16 years of summer school and developed and presented professional development for both summer school teachers and fellow educators during my time as an elementary math interventionist. I have also been deeply
098involved in district initiatives serving on the balance math advisory group and the math lead teacher team as well as the report card and social emotional standards committee. I also piloted the comprehensive literacy model. If there is a way to improve learning for my students or for students across the district, I jumped in because I care deeply about my students, their families, and this community. When the salary schedule changed in 2018, I contemplated resigning and applying because and reapplying because as a 15-year teacher, I would make more as a new hire than I did as a veteran teacher. Despite all of this dedication and experience I bring to my job, I earn thousands of dollars less each year because of salary compression. Veteran teachers are your most valuable resource. Please show us that you value our
099loyalty and contributions. We should not have to resign and then return to earn the pay we deserve. What's good for teachers is good for students. Thank you for listening. Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I know it's been a long night and I appreciate everyone's dedication. Uh my name is Sarah Schwab. I'm a special education teacher at Lola Elementary School. I'm here to speak also about salary compression. The amount of people are here tonight and speaking on this just highlights how important this issue is, not only to veteran teachers, but also to teachers like me who've only been here for four years. Um, while I'm happy to see that I was able to get hired into the district with a competitive salary, it's hard to see that my colleagues who have mentored
100me over time do not have that same um respect really. Um, and I feel like seeing that this issue was fixed for um, psych and social workers, I believe, a few years ago, and seeing that the issue wasn't fixed for the rest of us and the other teachers, it's very hurtful, and I'm surprised that it is that we're still speaking about this even though it's clearly been identified. Um, I'm a fourth year teacher, so like I said, my salary has not been impacted. Um, but the reason I'm currently working in MMSD is truly due to my student teaching experience. I went to WMadison and I was able to student teach at LOL with Karen Hall and Kathleen Chapel, two veteran teachers who've been here for over 20 years. Um, I was a dual SER major,
101so I got to do general ed and special ed. And they truly, they just did so much for me. They even helped me apply to the job at Lel, which was so exciting. And I was nervous. I didn't think I would be good. You know, I was worried about my skills, but they really were so there for me and just encouraging me every step of the way. And since I've stepped on, I've been mentored by every teacher I've worked with. I've been in probably 10 different GED classrooms over my four years. All of those teachers, at least eight years or more of experience, which would count as veteran in this case. And all of these people have helped me really shape me and grow me into the educator I am today. Truly could not have
102done it without them. And it it's hard. Special ed can be very difficult, can be draining. There's so many paperwork pieces that you just don't even know. Like you go to college, they don't go over much of it. They don't have time. And then you get thrown into the job and you're writing IEPs, re-evaluations. I had one my first month of school. I had no idea what was going on. I didn't even know there was a thing called a re-evaluation. And now I'm hosting one. And I was like, this is crazy. Um, but they just helped me through it so much. Even I remember my fourth day coming in in tears just and they were like, you're doing a good job. And if I hadn't had that support, I don't know if I would be
103here today. So, I just ask that you really really um value these teachers the way that I do because I'm going to be in their shoes one day and I would deserve the same respect. Um, so anyway, thank you. Really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Next, we'll have Dominic. I think it's Johan Barkle. And then All right, you'll correct correct me when you get on up here. And then our last speaker will be Emily Miller. >> Hi everybody. Uh my name is Dominic Johan Burkel. I teach at West High School. Uh thank you all for your patience tonight. I know this has been a long session. Um I've taught at West High School for 22 years. Uh, which means I've become one of the older, more experienced teachers at West High School. Um, I'm actually
104not going to talk about salary compression, although I am in the position where I'm one of the teachers more affected by it. I'm not going to talk about it, though. Uh, I'm going to talk about the situation at West High School. Um, we have three physics teachers. I am the only one licensed to teach physics. The others are on emergency certification and they are doing fantastic for not being licensed to teach physics. However, a lot of the responsibility then falls on my shoulders to help to to tutor to explain the physics to to explain some of the pedigogy. Uh one of the teachers we have there is a former student of mine um who's learning the craft as he goes along. Um, what I'm here to ask for is to to help me and the
105other teachers navigate some of the difficulties that come with the more recent change that happened when we adopted AP Physics 1. Uh, for many years we taught math physics and AP physics 2 at West. Um, we recently adopted AP Physics 1, which means we have to teach about twice as much material in about 2/3 of the time. The test is May 6th. So, I got to finish what used to be math physics in its entirety plus 50% more um, in twothirds of the time. The number of professional development days that we have in a school year make it exceedingly difficult to do that. My simple request is if we could reduce the number of professional develop development days so I could spend more time with my students. Thank you. Hi, it's Thank you so much
106for listening to us, for serving our community. I'm Emily Miller and um I'm at West with Dom. I'm one of the gayhaireds, I guess, who um have been there uh 25 years now. Um and yes, I'm going to be talking about s salary compression tonight. I want to I hesitate though because as my colleagues talked about, I think there are other issues in our district which really are more pressing. So, if we could address the salary compression issue, then we could get on to the more pressing issues. Um, and I also want to acknowledge I've been at West for a long time since 2001. I've taught in three different departments. I've taught over 20 different courses because I just kind of go where people need me. But I would not have been able to do
107that without standing on the shoulders of giants. All the experienced now retired who mentored me throughout the years. People clap if you know these people. Jenny Kester, Kesha Heiser, Susan Gavevel, Lynn Hajes, all these amazing people who gave me a helping hand. Um, and so, um, now I find myself in a similar position. Um, and, um, yet feeling rather demoralized because of the problem of salary compression. While I am certainly so appreciative of the 8% raise given staff last year, as well as the competitive salaries we now offer to our new teachers, by not moving veteran staff to match these new rates, it devalues our institutional knowledge and the skills we bring to our schools every day. I want to be clear, I am so proud to teach in MMSD. I'm proud to be able
108to team with all my younger colleagues as well as numerous student teachers and learn from them. But I also am able to help them with issues of classroom management, crafting lessons, building curricular units, and many of the small tricks for building community that I've developed over my 20 year five years in MMS. I'm proud to have been able to build relationships with families throughout the years by teaching multiple siblings and yes, in some cases, the children of students who are now parents and whom I taught oh so many years ago. Having these kinds of relationships, bumping into people at Woodman's, like the other guy said, um, builds the type of community that can make our huge comprehensive high schools feel less like a monolith and more like a close-knit, welcoming community. However, if I were
109to have left this community 10 years ago and been hired back the following year, I would be making at least $4,000 more each year. calculating my loss compensation, it adds up to over $70,000, which I have three kids and yeah, college is expensive. Um, a colleague in my department who was hired into the district 10 years ago and who has fewer academic credits and years of teaching experience um is making a lot more money. And I will pause there. Let me just say um I spend um I believe that the time I spend with my 32 35 32 31 and 29 students and grading their 159 essays and writing their 35 plus college letters of wreck this year will be equitably cons compensated. Please rectify this issue of salary compensation. All right, we're going to
110take a five minute recess. I do want to just say as you all are getting ready to leave, thank you so much for coming out. Um, thank you for surfacing and uplifting what your experiences are, how you are feeling. Seeing the diversity of our teaching staff in the auditorium tonight um is amazing and we hear you about what you're asking for and and what you expect and what you need. Um, so that is not falling on deaf ears. Want you to know that. uh and for the speakers who also spoke earlier tonight about um just concerns of harm um desires for the for children to feel safe in our schools. Just know that we are deeply committed um to making sure that our every school and every space that our young people are in um
111is safe and and we're deeply committed to that. And so I just wanted to acknowledge that because so many of you are here tonight. So thank you so much for coming. Let's take a five minute recess. Okay. All right. At this time, we are going to resume our meeting. And as a reminder, tonight's meeting also serves as the uh public hearing component regarding the 2025 2026 MMSD budget. and tax levy. Next, we're going to move into the approval of the minutes. I move that the board of education approve the minutes from the regular meeting dated September 29th, 2025. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any corrections or questions on the minutes? Seeing and hearing none, student representative Lee, your advisory vote. >> I. >> All those in favor? I >> I Maya's eye. >> Make sure
112I can see. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Those that passes unanimously. Next, we are going to have board president announcements and reports. And in tonight, we have a couple of proclamations that we'll start with and then we'll finish up with some um celebrations of our student, staff, and other acknowledgements. So, to start us off tonight, board member Saravo. Oh, I'm sorry. to start us off tonight rather board member Mosner Felam is going to read the proclamation about gifted education. Thank you >> you President Nichols. This is a proclamation by the state superintendent of public instruction on the gifted education month. Whereas we are all responsible for the future we collectively create. All students with intellectual, academic, creative leadership and artistic gifts and talentes must be appropriately identified, instructed and supported so they can
113leaders who help co-create an environment that enables them and all their peers to thrive. And whereas just as giftedness comes in a variety of domains, it has no limits related to age, race, ethnicity or national origin, economic status, sex, gender identity, or gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, multilingualism, or ability. And whereas collaboration between students, families, school district, staff, organizations, community members, and nations serves as the critical foundation for supporting and engaging each and every learner. And whereas the Wisconsin Association for Talented and Gifted's 2025 conference theme of take a chance on gifted education is a clarion call for us to all innovate in ways that can improve not only gifted education itself, but the educational experiences of the students and families we collectively serve. And whereas the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction joins the leadership
114of the Wisconsin Association for Talented and Gifted, the Cooperative Educational Service Agencies, Badger Preol, the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, the Wisconsin Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development as we work together to support Wisconsin's children with gifts and talents. Therefore, Jill K. Underly, state superintendent of public instruction, declares the month of October as gifted education month. >> Thank you. Next, we'll have board member Saravo read our proclamation on National Parental Involvement Day. >> Thank you, board president Nichols. a national parent involvement day proclamation. Whereas research indicates a strong correlation between student achievement and family engagement. Whereas National Parental Involvement Day is observed in Wisconsin on 3rd Thursday in November to celebrate the recruitment, engagement, and recognition of the contributions of dedicated school
115volunteers and families taking an active role in their child's education. Now therefore, the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education recognizes all the ways parents, guardians, and other family members are involved in their child's educ. Be it resolved the statement be permanently imprinted in the board of education minutes for the meeting of October 27th, 2025. >> Thank you, board member Sarafo. Uh we have a couple of other announcements. I'll start with celebrating our students. East High School's journalism students won 39 awards at the Kettle Marine Press Association Fall Scholastic Journalism Conference with the school's Tower Tales yearbook and Tower Times News Magazine each earning first place overall. They competed against 18 other schools. Congratulations, East High School. All right, celebrating our staff. Bell Phillips Memorial High School teachers Miles Tok tookim was awarded a $50,000
116prize and a custom tool chest for teaching excellence from Harbor Freight Harbor Freight Tools. Miles is one of 25 teachers from across the country to be honored. And one more celebration for our staff. Paulina Bravo Valenzuela who's a dual language immersion program and seal of biiteracy coordinator was honored with the Yale educator award. This award recognizes outstanding educators from around the world who have supported and inspired their students to achieve at high levels. And Paulina was one of 61 educators selected of the more than 300 nominees worldwide. Awesome. >> Yes. >> Right. And then I'm going to ask uh Vice President Pearson to do some other acknowledgements. Thank you. >> Yes. Our other acknowledgements. Thank you uh President Nichols. Um in tonight's consent >> Oh, can you not hear me? I can hear you. Oh,
117hello. [laughter] Thank you, President Nichols. Um, in tonight's consent agenda, the board would like to acknowledge and thank all individuals and organizations that have donated to the district, especially the Dayne County Office of Equity and Inclusion for their $30,000 donation to Lfallet High School. The Theorough PTO for $17247,000 to support the renovation and improvement of the Theorough Library. And then Dan and Beverly Schultz for the $25,000 to support materials and resources for students and staff at Gumpers Elementary School. Thank you all for your donations. >> Oh, thank you, Vice President Pearson. Um, one one acknowledgement got cut off just a little bit, so I'm just going to repeat it, which was the acknowledgement of the Dayne County Office for Equity and Inclusion for their $30,000 donation to Lafallet High School. All right. Thank you. And
118with that, I'm going to now move us on to superintendence and and reports. Dr. Gotham. >> Thank you, President Nichols, members of the board, staff, and community. Before I begin tonight, I just want to acknowledge uh you know, a couple incidents were brought up a little bit in public comments tonight. Certainly, the media has been uh very busy covering uh some of the things that have been happening in our community. I I wanted to alert everyone that um along with the board of education, President Nichols and I did release a statement yesterday that was posted to our website mms mmsd.org. And if you just scroll down in the middle of the page, it's it's a large uh link that you can click on to read that statement. And I think it really does capture uh
119much of what I heard President Nichols kind of wrap up public comments with tonight um in terms of the the difficulties that we know many in our community are facing and how we as a school community can work uh must work together to ensure that everybody feels safe and supported and can certainly do their best work in whatever their role might be in our community. Um so with that I'll jump into some of the report for this week. Uh first, last week I joined MSCR after school program as part of their lights on afterchool event. It was a windy day at the capitol, but despite the wind, it was clear that students were having a great time as they helped raise awareness about our afterchool programs. These students are why after school, access to afterchool
120programs really matters. Uh the programs help our students thrive. They build confidence, discover new interests, develop positive relationships, and strengthen their connections to school and community. Not only do our after school programs support our children, they also support our families by providing the quality after school care families need. And as someone who has experienced these programs firsthand, as a student and as a parent, I know just how critical they are to student success. I'm proud that MMSD offers these opportunities at 15 of our elementary schools and of the staff who work with our youth each and every day. I'm also thankful for the neighborhood centers who partner with us to provide these opportunities. Next, in addition to our neighborhood centers, we have many other partners who support our students in a number of ways. Whether
121supporting their academic achievements, nurturing their social emotional growth, or creating a sense of belonging, our partners' commitment makes a difference. Recently, we celebrated our partners at MMSD's inaugural partnership breakfast, which recognized the many talents and deep value they bring to our schools, helping to uplift our uplift our students. more than 100 people joined us for the first time event and it was excellent morning of connection and discussion and I can share that there were so many in the room that we know and many of you know board members but they don't know each other these are these are organizations that work in the same space with the same children but they don't often get a community like that to connect as well so really looking forward to the power of this inaugural event and how
122can help us build the so thank you to our partners Thank you for all you do for our students and our community. As we purposely continue to plan for MA MMSD's future, for our students' futures, we know the importance of building collaborative relationships to help align the work we're doing. Our relationship with the city of Madison has been helpful and beneficial as we plan for what MMSD will look like 5 years from now, 10 years from now, and yes, 20 years from now. Earlier this month, we were invited to present at Madison's planning commission meeting. It was a great opportunity to highlight the strong collaboration between MMSD and Madison. We also shared updates on the 2024 referendum projects and presented on MMSD building for the future. I'd like to especially thank Madison's planning director, Megan
123Tuttle, and her incredible team for welcoming us and for working with us, and we look forward to continuing this really important relationship with the city of Madison. One area that I've been a strong advocate for is raising awareness about critical funding that public schools need. I recently served on a panel hosted by the Wisconsin Public Education Network to share the current realities of school funding in our state. Approximately 40 people were in attendance and we discussed the referendum, state budget, and federal outlook. Joining me was Dr. Jill Underly, Dr. Julie Underwood, Deina Mereditis at the UW School of Education, and our very own board member Nikki Vandermir. On those same topics of funding and advocacy, MMSD hosted the Greater Dayne County District Governance Consortium, which is composed of area superintendents, board members, and staff. As
124our public school districts across the state continue to face financial challenges, it is important for us to come together and present as one voice. This consortium helps us do do that by bringing us together to not only discuss legislative priorities but also connect on the relevant topics that impact us all. We discuss political advocacy, best practices in teaching and learning and best practices in school district governance. And thank you board member Saravo for attending with me as well. Victoria Stewart who works with us on government affairs will be working with members of this consortium to form a subcommittee focused on legislation. And just about finishing up here, an MMSD team attended the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner program with more than 1,200 guests arrived. Jesse, I think we're one slide earlier. There we
125go. No, there it is. Maybe I'm out of order, but um anyway, this uh 1,200 people are there. You can see just a portion of that. Imagine a whole another side of the room filled. Um, and as always, the topics were engaging and we learn more about employment, economic development, housing, technology, climate initiatives, and the region's strategic vision for 20150. Yes, I said 2050. I was pleased to have an opportunity to evening with members of our MMSD team as well as the chance to connect with many others. Building relationships is so important to the work we do and opportunities like this help make those connections happen. And if you look at the table, you'll note that there's certainly senior leader colleagues, but there's also school principles that are there with us as well. And it
126was fascinating for me to watch how they're making connections to some of the things they've heard district leadership talk about or they've maybe read in articles, but for them to be there and experience the presentation by Zach uh Brandon and by uh guests that he had speaking, I I think was a incredibly engaging evening. We're really happy they got to experience that as well. And now we're rounding the bend. MMSD is proud to be inclusive and welcoming of all people. Not only did we celebrate our partners this month, we also joined community members as part of Hispanic Latinx Heritage Month to honor their contributions to MMSD, to Madison, and to the world. We enjoyed music, food, and connection. And please don't think anybody was more important than our scholars from Chavez and Henderson elementary schools
127as they did such a wonderful job showing us a few traditional dances. Thank you to Dr. Karen Manetta Collar and her team at Central Justice Castanada with the Latino Consortium LCA our team and all others who helped make this a successful event. And then lastly, I'd like to remind anyone who's listening that we launched MMSD in focus. And this is a community newsletter. So different than our family newsletter, a standalone uh that's relevant to anyone who has an interest or relationship with MMSD. And it really helps us keep all of our residents informed. And you can sign on sign up for that at mmsd.org. President Nichols, that concludes my report. >> Thank you. lots of partnerships in this this past few weeks. Thank you for highlighting that. All right, we will next um move on
128our agenda and report on items that proceeded through the instruction workg group held on October 6, 2025. And I will pass that chair moldro. Thank you, board president Nichols. On in October, we discussed our data on students earning college credit and industry credentials. In addition, we provided an update on school west wellness, including the superintendent wellness advisory committee. In November, we are having an update on our project with this strate on our progress with the strategic framework draft and we'll provide an update on the launching of our K8 math RFP. And we'll review our first semester class size report. Thank you. Um, let's see here. Next, we will report on the items that proceeded through the operations work group held on October 13, 2025. And I'll pass that over to Chair Castro. >> Good evening,
129board chair Nichols. On October 13, 2025, we reviewed our human resources update to the start of the 2526 school year. received a referendum update. Um and then we received the third Friday September count for the finalization of the budget here tonight. Um our next operations work group will be November 10th where we will uh get an update on the attendance boundary review uh for forthcoming action um review uh plans for insurance uh food service update another referendum update and then finally uh ground ourselves and the guiding principles for the 26 627 budget development. >> Thank you very much. All right. There were no action items um coming through the instruction work group, but we do have an action item as uh Chair Caster just said that's coming through the operations workg group which is our
130budget and tax levy finalization. So, I have um two motions. We'll we'll vote on them one at a time. Okay. So, the first motion, I move that the board approve and adopt the 2025 2026 budget as presented in the 2025 2026 fall budget book for the October 27th 2025 regular meeting in the following amounts. Total revenue for all funds. Net of interfund transfers 668,28,341. >> Second. Oh. >> Oh, sorry. I didn't finish that. I was double checking the numbers. Total expenditures for all funds net of interfund transfers 678,137,958. Second. >> Sorry. Okay. Thank you, board member Castro. And sorry about that, Vice President Pearson. >> No worries. >> Oh, your volume's coming in really loud over here. Um, all right. Any discussion, questions, or comments on this motion? Board member Vandermillan. >> I came in
131here and I made a promise many many years ago that I would support budgets that provided full cold and I normally intend to keep my promises. In this particular case, however, I cannot vote for this budget although I support 99.9% of what's in it. But because the salary compression has weighed on my heart and I've been worried about a good month now about this, I just I can't do it. I urge my board members to support it. It's not that I don't agree with the work. Please do not get me wrong. This is something I could not sleep over and I have tried. So that is the explanation of my book. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you. Board member Van. All right. Board member Saravo. We've heard a lot of people come here and talk
132about the salary compression and everything. Is there any we have heard that there's been updates on that that has been a priority and that things are being done. Is there anything that we can hear that can speak to as what is being what are we doing right now in order to address that and is there a timeline around just so we can put some stuff out there for people who have they've been looking at this for a very long time. >> Thank you presidents board member Saravo rest of the board. Yes. Um, I've responded back to several teachers who I've met with or who have reached out to me. I've copied many of you on that correspondence. I've also been in contact with Jeff Knight and Andrew Miserelli from FTI and really said that we're
133looking at three things. One, making sure that we understand the full scope of compression. It it's it's more than letters and numbers and how it converted. We want to make sure that if we are going to make frame shift adjustments that it's that's not going to lead to further inequities and one that we can stand by so that we don't have to find ourselves continually in this position in future years. The second then is for us to look at at what level and how do we want to make the fix how are we going to you know ensure that by doing that it's going to lead to a a salary schedule that's fair and equitable and and one that we can stand by. And then third is the financial impact and the impact that will
134have in our budget. I think some of the speakers tonight pointed out that there were group a group of student services folks who were adjusted last year. Um you know that was a very small number compared to you know the number who would be up for an adjustment like this. Not saying one is more important than the other. I am saying that one is more of a financial investment. Um if you just look at the total. So we're in that process right now. We will have a presentation team at the OWG timeline this week and we'll have a U and we're beginning to share information internally on some of our findings in terms of studying salary compression. All right. Thank you, board member Savvo. Okay. Uh, board member and do I see your hand going
135up? Board member Maldo, I apologize. Should I go to board member Maldo first? Okay. Board member Maldo. I want to thank the team that for the work that went into this budget, including my fellow board members. Um, our priorities are significantly reflected in this budget, in terms of our investment in staff, in terms of our investment in uh, stability in our district. um in terms of our investments in safety. And I I would have a hard time at this point saying that all of these investments go far enough. But I think we have to be tremendously grateful that we have the ability to make them. and we have to have a level of reverence for what it took for our community to trust us with these resources um and make sure that we're positioned well
136to to do the the work of stewarding our young people's academic and intellectual achievement. I hope that we we can have a a real and nuanced conversation about the entirety of of this budget and how we got here as a group. Um we we have been talking this budget since last fall. Um and and it reflects conversations that each of us had absolutely um a lot of ability to influence and participate in. And it's because of that that I'm voting in favor of of this budget. This budget is a reflection of our own leadership. It is a moral document. It it speaks to what we prioritize. Um I want to talk a little bit about the 20 39% increase in our budget, which is 81 million 81.1 million. Um, and so I'd like to uh
137address a few questions at our administration in terms of that additional resource. I' I'd like to um start that those questions by by thanking our community for voting in favor of our referendums last fall. This budget would not be possible um without the support of our community and the public. Bob, is it possible for you to talk us through that 81.1 million increase? Uh, good evening. Yes, it's very possible. Um, I want to just use the budget book so you have it in front of you. If you go to page 45 and 46, it's what's uh commonly referred to as the DPI budget adoption format. It's actually what's required in law for us to publish and talk about in terms of expenditures and increases. Um if you look at page 46, the bottom talks about
138the $81.1 million tax levy increase. I want to start out by saying um that that levy increase is in part a large part uh directly related to the 19.5% decrease in general school aids this year. Under revenue limits as your general school aids declines to maximize your annual revenues under revenue limits the property tax levy has to be increased. So first and foremost that's a huge uh factor in terms of the increased property tax levy. Uh but if you start up on general fund 10 in terms of the $ 48.3 million, part of that increase is that loss of about $12 million in general school aids. The other part of that increase is the $30 million approved by the voters uh in the November 24 referendum for this year. Um, if you go down to
139the fund, uh, 3039 debt service fund, that $30.1 million is reflective of the annual amount that we have and we talked about as part of the $57 million facility referendum. That that is what we're expecting to be the annual payment for the next 22 years to pay that debt off as it comes onto the books. But that's the first year of that full annualized impact of the referendum to pay those bonds back. Um the board um made an increase of $2 million on capital 41 which is ongoing facility maintenance capital improvement fund uh to maintain the buildings that we have now and take care of any issues that come up that are not impacted by that $57 million referendum. And then really a slight increase 600,000 in our community service fund levy to primarily reflect
140um adjusting the MSCR employee wages upwards to be reflective of what um the district employees have received in terms of base wages and CPI increases. So that's in total $81 revenue. >> Thank you so much for that thorough explanation of that 81 million. in terms of the district's expenses, what are the most significant increases in cost? And so I I want to speak a little bit about our investment in staff. However, if there are other very significant um increases you'd like to speak to, um I'm happy to hear about them. I I hope that we're able to highlight our investment in wages and compensation as well as our investment in healthcare. Uh yes, clearly the largest part of the increases in terms of our operating budget which is reflective of 2526 are salary and benefits.
141They now comprise on this budget 81%. We've gone up a few percentage points over the last few years primarily reflective of two things. The rising health insurance cost and also the CPI wage increase base wage increase along with the step and lane increases. um step and lanes and salary about I don't have the numbers right in front of me but all funds about $20 million to fund that CPI and step increase and then um the health benefit increase was pull the spreadsheet up but about um 12 to 15 million in terms of health benefits increase uh for 2526. So those are the two largest um pieces uh increased. In addition to that, we add custodial staff to maintain the comprehensive high school renovation um and the need to uh spend more money on maintaining our
142facilities. We also expanded the four-year-old kindergarten options in the state and continued the lower class sizes for kindergarten to first grade. So those are the major staff increases in terms of the 25 points. >> I think it's important for folks who have been following our last few meetings to acknowledge that we very recently discussed that our enrollment had actually decreased. And so part of what our budget reflects is that we have fewer students and more staff. And my hope is is that there there are really significant benefits to having a district that is has more staff and more stability within our staffing um and fewer fewer students. Can you speak to kind of what folks can expect in terms of um having additional staff with a smaller student slightly small student population? Yeah, let's let's
143stress the slightly smaller student population. Although there was a decrease in the FD from revenue limits this third Friday compared to last third Friday. When you compare the two basic three-year rolling averages, our current three-year rolling average occurred to the prior four-year rolling average. It's only a difference of 10 FTE. So for revenue purposes, we're essentially flat. Um now technically we are in declining enrollment. We were we were a little little less than the third Friday uh September count this year compared to last year, but it's it's pretty flat when it comes to revenue calculations. Um now the question in terms of the of the class sizes and the the decline to put it in perspective think about we have two fewer students per school building. That's kind of the context of that drop in
144the FTE count. So it's it's fairly marginal. I will say we p we were projecting more um and what that means is we have more schools that are still within the range of the board's minimum class size policy but closer to the minimum than the optimum. Um now so it's still within the policy but we do have additional staff in smaller class sizes compared to the prior year in terms of the staff that were provided. Um, we have used about 16 of the 20 unallocated staff in terms of specific enrollment increases in the needs at specific schools since the June budget included those 20 unallocated. We'll continue as we always do to monitor any changes in the student population to meet their needs um with the remaining four unallocated as the school year progresses. >>
145Thank you very much. Is there anything that we have cut from our our budget that you think we as a board need to be aware of or a community needs to be aware of in terms of services or supports or community partnerships um that are no longer going to be available to our young people? >> I don't think we've well I don't think I know we have not cut any services. I think the area that we continue to monitor in terms of a need which is not unique to Madison is really the mental health the student services the nursing needs of our students that's an area that clearly uh the pandemic has identified as a need where we need to continue to invest um and I think we continue to look at that um the
146hope is um the state will continue to provide a little bit more state aids in that area in terms of mental health supports but we continue to to monitor it but there's not been uh in major reductions. >> Yeah, President Nichols, board member Moldro, one thing I would add is [clears throat] one thing that I think the community sometimes might feel as a cut. There are a lot of changes in education too. So, as we continue to innovate, try new things, students are trying, you know, maybe taking different courses or or participating in new opportunities, it can sometimes diminish some of those longstanding programs. classes, what have you that we've offered. So, it can feel like a cut even though it's based more on student interest. >> Can I ask specifically about the partnership uh
147circles of support? >> The direct partnership circles of support? >> Yes. Are we continuing to invest in that partnership? >> I yield the floor. Good evening. The question was, are we still supporting and working with natural circles of support? This year we are not in a formal partnership with them. They do still do some uh support at East High School uh through community engagement and through the MSC, but we don't have a formal partnership with them this year. Is there a reason why? >> Not any specific reason outside of last year. There was a a partial partnership with them uh through the office of um student services Nancy Mulfenter's office. And then this year uh with uh adjustments to funding, different priorities, the decision was that the the partnership would not be funded. I know
148they worked on a couple grants together to do um to see if they could get outside funding, but as of right now, there isn't a formal partnership. >> Thank you so much for those explanations. I think there is a lot to dive into in terms of this budget. My last question is for Dr. Gothard. Um this is kind of your your first budget beginning to end. I am curious how you think it speaks to you are as a leader um and the investments you're most excited to champion this year. >> Yeah, I certainly my first one beginning to end, but I'm looking at Bob and his team here who are so responsible for for doing such great work. Really fortunate to have the leadership we do in our office of financial services. You know, I
149think for me it starts with 4K. I think you all have heard me from, you know, the time I was just getting to know you and coming here and so excited that MMSD has really grown in terms of 4K. I see this is such an important um introduction into our district, into community, into the way that staff and and principles and teachers receive students and their families. And I just can't think of any more important investment that we're making right now. And it's also part of an enrollment strategy as well. A lot of a lot of the things that we're investing in are are going to continue to be tied with what are what is it that our families and our students desire and how can we make that match? How can we make that
150commitment uh so that they know this isn't going to be here today gone tomorrow? It's a sustained commitment. So those are the kinds of of things that laying that the groundwork that I think will be really important to guide not just my values but the values of our strategic plan, our vision, our mission, and what we learn and hear from our community. >> I want to thank you very much for investing in our educators and preparing a budget that prioritizes equity. I am tremendously proud to have the opportunity to vote in favor of this budget. I'm tremendously grateful for the work of my board colleagues in crafting this budget. Um, I think we we have a lot of of work to do and this is uh a budget that reflects pointing us in the right
151direction. Uh, thank you very much for your work. I know that we went into this budget with a tremendous amount of instability and a lot of unknowns um and and your team had to be um particularly agile to to work with us and get us to this point. This is a balanced budget. Um and I I think that's something we we need to recognize and celebrate. >> Thank you board member board member Catho. >> Thank you. Um, I just want to start off by by thanking my my colleagues and partners on the board and in particular Bob and the finance department and HR and um just and especially the uh taxpayers and folks who supported the referendum this past year. Um this budget would not be possible without that. So, um the fact that we
152manage to reach full cost of living adjustment target smaller class sizes at the lower level and I believe this is the single largest increase in 4K sections in a a given year since we started investing in full day 4K. I think it's something to be remarkably proud of. Um, I know that we have a lot of work for the next cycle. Um, but one last thing before I yield the floor. Um, this is a balanced budget and it's the first budget in a few years that does not utilize onetime funding, which is a big deal. Um, and more than that, thanks to Bob and smart decisions that we've made, we have limited the impact to the local taxpayer here. Um, so I think that's something to be proud of. So, thank you. >> Thank you,
153Member Castro. Uh, Vice President Pearson, I saw your hand earlier. I'm not sure. Did you still want Did you have a question or comment on the budget or the the motion? >> No, I my questions were answered. Thank you. >> Oh, okay. Um then I'm going to go to board member Savo and then come back to you board member Vander Muan and get you board member Mosar fel and hopefully I'll have a comment too to close it out. Board members Bravo. >> Thank you President Nichols. I was wondering if you could kind of explain our public schools are the place where we get to have our kids who need special education. we get their needs met and something that separates us out from private schools. However, our legislature makes it very hard for us to
154work that into the budget when they don't compensate us fully. Can you speak to what we are currently receiving for it this year and how we stand with it and going into next year? What are we going to be preparing for since we're always planning ahead of time? What are we going to think ongoing in the current state of things? You're you're right. Um public school districts and independent charter schools which are considered LEAs under federal law are responsible to implement IDA and to implement uh the IEP plans for individual students. Private schools are not. Um so the state which which helped us in terms of um balancing the budget, the state did provide additional resources for special education categorical aid reimbursement which allowed us to reduce the transfer from the general fund to cover
155those expenditures in fund 27. Uh the state budget uh included a 42% uh reimbursement rate this year and 45% the next year. However, it's not a some uh sufficient appropriation. some certain appropriation. Um so whether we get anywhere close to 42% remains to be seen as this year unfolds in terms of running the final reports and the aid reimbursement. Uh as an example 2425 we um were told it would be 33% reimbursement ended up being 30.6% reimbursement. So, that's something we'll have to continue. My team will continue to monitor uh throughout this year in terms of how the state funds the um [clears throat] private school vouchure program and the special need program, the Wisconsin parental choice private school program. It's a a straight deduct in terms of our state aid. So, what the legislature
156said to school districts, if um we're going to take this aid from your eligibility pot of aid and we're going to pay private school vouchers. And so, as a school district, you have to decide whether you want to cut your programming an equal amount or if you want to raise property taxes or if you want to use one-time revenues uh to cover those expenditures. Um and so this year that amount has gone up again. Just doing some comparisons for today. So, let me That's my line. I got a spreadsheet for that. Let me uh pull that up. So, our final amount in terms of our aid reductions in 2425 ended up being um 11.7 million. Part of that was uh 5.6 million aid reduction for the independent charter schools. Now, those are funded a little
157bit different um quite a bit different than the private voucher schools. So, we count the students that enroll in independent charter schools within our revenue limits. And so they're built into those base levy numbers I shared with you, but our aid is reduced at the end of this year to pay that independent charter school amount back to the state. Um so that'll continue to happen this year. Um this year we're about $6 million compared to last year's 5.6 million for private school vouchers. Um u it's going in total last year private school vouchers and the independent charters was 11.7. This year with our projections it's expected to be 13.4 million. And so that's a $ 1.7 million increase um that we're going to be taxing and then losing our aid at the end of this
158year. Uh in total uh the private school vouchure program Wisconsin parental choice program is estimated to cost us 6 6 million. So part of that levy that I shared with you, that general fund levy, $6.6 million of that, we will have our aid reduced at the end of this year for Wisconsin rental choice program students. That is our residents who choose to attend the private school in participating in the program. And last year's the special needs scholarship program, it was $622,000. That's going up the estimate this year of to be just short of 837,000. So combined it's at 13.4 million which is a 1.7 million increase. >> That make sense? Loud numbers. I'm going to thank you for being very on top of all of the budget concerns that we have in regards to that
159and being able to articulate it uh in a manner where we can appreciate that all the work that went into the referendum and all the all the all the things that we get to do in our public schools that our voters are there. I'm very much into being transparent about where funds are going when it comes down to that. Thank you very much for giving us an overview of what we have. Oh, okay. Do you want to go board member? Thank you, board member Vander. Board member welcome. >> Sure. I'm just going to be so Blair about it. Um um you I think a lot of you know I'm teaching again this year for the first time in a long time and one of the assignments that we're working on right now due today um
160I have my students doing an educational history timeline of their educational experiences. So these are sophomores, juniors and seniors mostly. Um and so I've been hanging with my students and they're reminiscing about their experiences in school about kindergarten and their transition to middle school and high school and all this different stuff. Um, you know, I think that school is so public school is so beautiful. Um, if you look at this big number, um, I want to take a moment to remind people. I know we all think about it a lot. It's really, it's like it's so so beautiful and it's so special and we have a lot of room because there are a lot of room at the mark and don't have But I can be really proud of what this big number represents for
161all these young um who may one day be reminiscing themselves or perhaps um giving public comments about their 30 years of service as a teacher after their time. So um really um big appreciation All right, board member Vander. Thank you, board member. >> Yes. Um, just wanted to ask on the We haven't used the 21 unallocated. Correct. >> We've used about 16 of the 20 unallocated in terms of allocations out to individual school buildings. >> Now, I just have one other question on that. Do we fully do schools request it and we decide it or do we do it or does admin decide it how exactly? I is it that's a question I've had for a long time but never had the guts to ask it. >> It's a combination of factors. School principles will
162put requests in u terms of the need. We use an allocation model that's based on uh student attendance by classroom at the individual schools and then we apply the board of education policy in terms of minimum and maximum AGR and non AGR that's how we make our decisions in terms of the priorities and then I have one last question comment last question is that can we for example assign someone like temporarily for like an LTE for a few months like if the school is federal crisis or a problem or situation, how does that work and how can a school do that? >> We do do that. We do uh give temporary allocations which are generally basically an LTE to help all school populations. uh that happens by principles approaching um the department heads here or
163their associate area associate superintendent and they bring that forth to a group of us that meet regularly on allocations and then we look at the factors in terms of is this a school building that's at the board minimum class sizes or they close the maximum or optimum what kind of resources do they have available within base funding and that if we think it's not sufficient and we have unallocated which we have available then we will allocate either full-time or LTE tempers or in class. >> I really appreciate it was a question that I've had for a long time as I said just didn't have the guts to ask it and my one comment I forgot to say earlier is um forgot to say happy principal awareness month. I am very happy that I just did
164my video for it and my 22nd video. I did that right before the board meeting so I just wanted to get that in. Thank you. All right, I'm not seeing any other questions. I would also just like to echo some of the comments of appreciation um that I've heard my colleague express. There are a couple things that um stand out to me about this budget and not just the final budget, but actually the process. Um this is one of the first budgets that we're arriving to in October that I can recall since I've been on the board that um we were able to get to the maximum kind of base wage increase pretty early on in the budget development process. And I think there was a lot of strong collaboration and appreciation um from our
165Madison teachers um incorporated. Um and I think there was a lot of I was happy to see the the the way in which we went about um doing that. I think that we have worked really hard, especially with rising costs for health insurance and and some of these other things that are really out of our control to um prioritize our employees and to try to maintain um as much as possible. Um, and another thing, um, that I'm I'm proud of is that, you know, when I look at the staffing plan that's on pages 23 and 24 of the budget book, um, you know, there are increases out at the school level. And I I think that sometimes we we talk a lot about wages and benefits and um we don't really talk about how we
166are prioritizing where adults are. Um and so you know what you see in the 2526 budget is there is a small reduction um in district-wide administration that I know Dr. got you know kind of went through in your first year here like some strategic realignment about the choices around that. Um there are 19 more teachers out across our buildings. Um there are 24 more educational assistants. Um there are 11 more custodians. Um, and I I think that although although those numbers may not seem huge across our entire district, the fact that when you compare it to previous years, the fact that we are um allocating and rep prioritizing adults being in our buildings where young people are, I think also says a lot about what we value. Um, and so I appreciate just the work
167that's been done even out at the building level and at the district level to really shore that up and make that a priority. Um, and to board member Castro's point, I I also am really proud of the fact that we have a balanced budget um, and that we are in good position um, as stewards of the referendum dollars that um, this community has said they trust us with um, to move the district forward. So just I want to kudos to everybody who's worked on this budget and I know a lot of it Bob has been through your team and Dr. god through your vision and it's a reflection also of like the hard work that's happening out schools about how to um provide as much adult stability um in our in our schools and and
168folks you know a lot of the public comment tonight even around um not just compression but about the role that our veteran employees play and our new employees feeling proud to be here like all of that's happening out in schools and that's a critical piece um I think of us having a strong budget as well. So I I just wanted to say I'm really proud of this budget. All right, any further comments? All right, hearing and seeing none. Um student representative your advisory vote >> I. All right. All those in favor? I >> I All right. Thank you. Those opposed. All right. That motion passes. 61. All right. We'll move on to the second motion. I further move that the board certify the 2025 2026 all fund all funds tax levy in conjunction with the
1692025 2026 budget in the total tax levy amount of $478,618,790 which consists of the following specific subcomponents. The fund 10 general fund $43,57,04. The fund 3039 referendum approved debt service 49,7997,26. The fund 41 capital expansion fund $7 million. Fund 80 community services fund $18,764,524 for a total tax levy of $478,618,790. >> Second, Maya. >> All right. Thank any questions or comments on the second motion? All right. Seeing none, student representative via your advisory vote. >> I. >> All those in favor? I >> I. >> All right. All those opposed. All right, that's one. So, that passes 61. All right, Bob. I believe we have finalized the budget and the tax levy finalization. Thank you so much. All right, we will now move on to the consent agenda. I move that the board of education adopt
170and approve all of the motions set forth in section 10 of the electronic agenda prepared for the October 27th, 2025 regular school board meeting exactly as said motions are written by voting affirmatively on this motion. A board member expresses his her or their affirmative vote on each of the motions consolidated hereby subject to any express separations that have been made by any member of the school board. >> Second. >> All right. Are there any separations? All right. Seeing none. What was that? All right. Student Representative Lee, your advisory vote. >> I >> All right. All those in favor? I >> I Maya. >> All right. Looks like that passes unanimously. We will now move on to other items. Um we don't have any other business items on the agenda, so we'll go into reports. to
171the board. Um I can start with the city county schools collaborative committee. We have not met and so that concludes the report. Student senate student representatively student senate meets bi-weekly on Wednesdays here and we've had two meetings since the last regular board of education meeting. We have finalized the executive cabinet interviews and are currently informing all the applicants of the results. Middle schools have been nominated by their principles and have started to attend meetings. And both committee committees, student wellness and education equity, are currently creating year-long agendas um with all their goals. And at the past meeting, guest speaker um Gina Agulia from the district has come in to speak um about a potential school safety video that the students want to create. Thank you. >> Nice. Uh all right. Thank you. Madison School and
172Community Recreation Advisory Committee for Member Mosa Felam. >> Thank you, President Nichols. Um, so MSR is doing some strategic planning right in line with MMSD's larger strategic planning. Um, and as the first at the first stage of that, um, MSCR is asking community members for input about their vision for MSCR and public recreation in Madison. Community members are encouraged to complete the community input survey which can be found at mscr.org. The winter and spring MSR program guide will be be available on Sunday, November 16th and registration will open on Monday, December 1st. >> Thank you. >> Um does the policy committee have any report for this month? >> Yeah, I can just report um really quick. Um October 10th, we had our board retreat in which the board um adopted the process um the formal
173process to um review policy as well as a list of policies um that the board would like to focus on in this coming um quarter. And so we as a policy committee met on the 17th um to talk through um each of those policy um focus points um from the board and we'll continue our conversation on their 31st as we have started um going working through our process. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you to the policy committee and board members Pearson and Banner Muan. Uh we have nothing to report from the board governance committee. There's no other old or new business. So at this point I will take a motion to adjurnn which I just heard from board member Vanderm. All those in favor of adjournment. Okay. Thank you. Second by board member Maldo.
174>> All those in favor of adjournment. Student representative Lee >> I. >> All others. Hi.