5.19.25 Regular Board of Education Meeting

001All right. Good evening. I'm going to call our regular board of education meeting for the month of May to order. And we appreciate um you all waiting while we were getting ourselves ready to start the meeting. We'll start with the resuscitation of the vision statement where every school will be a thriving school that prepares every student to graduate from high school college, career, and community ready. Tonight, we have a couple of remembrances um and a resolution before we move into public input. Hello. Okay. So, we'd like to take a moment of silence this evening for our district to recognize the passing of Deshawn Stury, who was a 2024 graduate of Capitol High. Deshawn is remembered as someone who was always who flashed the winning smile and was full of laughter. He leaves a lasting impression

002from the classroom to the neighborhood basketball court. Desawn's passing has taken a significant toll on so many students and staff in the Capitol High community and we remember them tonight. Please join me in participating in a moment of silence to honor Deshawn Stury. Thank you. Unfortunately, we have another um remembrance. Would like to ask for a moment of silence this evening for our district to recognize the passing of Preacher Trible, who was a senior at Lafallet High School. preacher is remembered as someone who would always greet everyone with a smiling face and loving arms. He was the one person that could cheer up just about anyone. His willingness to always lend a helping hand has impacted himself and those around him dearly. He was a free spirit and gave many students the courage and opportunity

003to be themselves. preachers passing has taken a significant toll on so many students and staff at the Lafallet community in of the Lafallet community and we remember them tonight. Please join me in participating in another moment of silence in honor of Preacher Trible. Thank you. Um, while we're starting tonight's meeting with those two unfortunate remembrances, we also do want to spend a little bit of time uh recognizing our outgoing student representative, Megan Fernando. um slightly different note and um we do have a resolution whereas Megan Fernando a senior at West High School has s served as student representative to the board of education during the 2024 2025 academic year and whereas the student representative is elected from the high school student body of MMSD and serves on the student senate. The student representative expresses the

004interests of students on the school board in an advisory role. And whereas the MMSD student senate is composed of up to eight voting representatives chosen from each high school, the student representative and an and an alternate. It functions as a medium for communication among students from all Madison Metropolitan School District schools and programs, district administration, and the school board. And whereas Megan Fernando has demonstrated a commitment and advocacy for student voice through her role on the board, she has amplified students interests and advanced MMSD's core values. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education and the MMSD community recognize and appreciate the work of Megan Fernando and the student senate. And be it further resolved this statement be permanently imprinted in the board of education minutes for the meeting

005of May 19th, 2025. Thank you, Megan. you have any outgoing comments or wisdom you'd like to share? I just want to say thank you so much for opening up this space and welcoming me. Um, and to all of the staff at the district level and school level that helped accommodate me when I wanted to visit schools or attend events. And thank you to the school board for just like maintaining this space and really taking student voice seriously. It means a lot to myself and to every student out there. Thank you. Um, we also want to express our appreciation for Claire Lee who is the alternate board representative. Claire um could not be here this evening as she is currently taking part of the on a mikvah trip to Washington DC and Claire is currently running

006unopposed for vice president um and board representative and we're looking forward to working with her more closely in the 202526 school year. So thank you so much again to Claire and Megan you will be missed. Thank you for all of your leadership. um all of the initiative that you took to really bring student voice um to the board in really powerful ways. So, hope you have a great final meeting tonight. All right, with that, we'll move over to public input. Um for written statements submitted um before this meeting, there were three were there were six written statements total. three in support of board member Vandermu's budget amendments um and in support of reducing class size. One in support of reducing class sizes for early learners and capping the classes at optimum levels. One in support

007of the proposed budget amendments to increase allocation and one in support of increasing allocations for Lefallet High School. Um, for tonight it looks like we have seven registered speakers for in person and two online. And we will start with our online speakers. Thank you. Our first online speaker is Tiffany Glass. Hello. Can you hear me? Thanks for the uh opportunity to share some comments. I'm speaking uh in support of uh Nikki Vandermillan's amendments 9.4 through 9.9 for additional allocation of FTE teachers and educational assistance and to increase expenditures accordingly for the 2025 to 2026 budget. These staffing increases are necessary and I wanted to explain a little bit about our family's experiences that lead us to this feeling. We think the current understaffing and MMSD disproportionately harms students with higher support needs, including disabled students

008with high support needs. Our son is a student with multiple disabilities and high support needs at West High School. He requires one-on-one support to be able to communicate and for all activities of daily living and to access academics. Because of underst staffing at West High School, critical supports mandated by his IEP were not implemented at West High School for the first 5 months of this school year, which resulted in the loss of his ability to communicate. It resulted in a complaint to the Department for Public Instruction, and it resulted in a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights. The staffing levels required for our son to attend class are currently not available, and our son is often unable to attend class. Our son does arrive to school every day, but many times instead of attending

009class, the sea takes him on walks around the school building or for walks outside. Sometimes he arrives to class, but due to understaffing, there's no teacher present, so there is no instruction. Because understaffing makes it difficult for our son to attend class, he has been repeatedly marked absent from school despite actually never having missed a single day of school. He's been marked absent so frequently that he was placed on West High School's restricted regions list. Students who are on the restricted regions list are prohibited from attending school dances, sporting events, pep rallies, and extracurricular activities. However, students with disabilities and advanced support needs have always been prohibited from attending these functions or experience barriers to attending these functions because the staffing that they would require for the support to make it possible for them to

010attend hasn't been available. We really support these amendments to increase staffing at West High School and other schools. underst staffing in MMSD predisposes disabled students to leave school and we think these amendments will help ameliorate MMSD's special education challenges. Thank you. Thank you. Our next and final online speaker is Darius Carter. Hello. Hello. Thank you. Hi. Ready when you are. Good evening. My name is Darius Carter. I have five kids currently in MMSD and I graduated from East High School in 2002. It is ironic that last week the camera situation was brought up as I was the custodian that was watched. I want to point out a news article stated that I was being watched because I was sleeping in the backseat of my car. I have always owned a van and can guarantee you

011a backseat would not be comfortable to a body size and my shape. The building service chose to violate the board policy that was resulted that B, excuse me, the building service had reward the policy which resulted in a $545,000 settlement with families. I'm here today because I have been a custodian for almost nine years with seven being at the East High School. I came to you looking for guidance on the correct way to report getting report and get assistance when I am being harassed. When I came to East in 2018, I immediately there was a sign immediately there was signs of me being getting into it. My first area inspection I had was marked for maintenance issues and second and third shift areas that were not mine. I reported these issues to management and they

012sided with the building head. Siding with the builder head made is the issues word worse. As a black man and other black men, we would be yelled at by our building custodian till he was read in the face. The issue was brought to management and a union and no support was given. He was accu he accused me once of saying I was going to unalab someone. And when I brought this to management and um challenged it, it was told to me that everything was okay and the investigation they said was closed. Sorry. Building custodians. The building custodian kept harassing me until he retired. There was another incident where management was deni where management denied me overtime and I accidentally received an old uh email where it stated deny him from overtime and there was nothing's

013going to happen to you and it'll be okay. When I brought this up to the management and I told him that I found this email, he brought to me that when he came out to see me, the first thing he yelled to me was I voted for Obama and Black Lives Matter and want to give me a fist bump. I come today with to you guys where I just want a clear way that I'm sorry. I've come today to you to try to get a clear way of how to get things figured out where it's clarified of how we go about when we're feeling harassed. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we'll now move on to our um in-person speakers. Our first speaker is Grace Van Burkel and then we'll be followed by Ariel Hendrickson.

014Um, for our speakers in person, as you come forward, um, there's a three minute clock up here and then on the podium, there's a little black box. When the when you see the light turn yellow, it means you're about 30 seconds out and then red light um, will match the timer. If you are still finishing up your thoughts, if you could just do so in a few few short seconds, that would be great. Thank you. Thank you, members of the board. Dr. Gothard, my name is Grace Van Burkel. I have a sixth grader at O'Keefe. I have students also at Marquette and Lapam. So, I'm a parent and I am the early childhood special ed assistant at Lapam Elementary. And I am here today to voice my support of board member Vanderm's budget amendments. Uh

015so please pass uh line items 9.5 through 9.9 to reinstate staff at Lapam O'Keefe East West and Lefalit. Um and that measure I sort of see that as stopping the bleeding that's happening. Um, for a longer term solution, I please urge you to take up board policy 3450 to reduce max class sizes, particularly in the second and third grades. Uh, they need to be lower than 27, more in line with kindergarten and first grade, no more than 23 students. Also, as um a change to the policy, I urge you to keep classes around the optimum when doing the allocation process so that we're not hitting max class sizes already in February, the year before the next school year starts. Um, and I'm sure you all know this, but there um are decades of research showing

016that small class sizes lead to improved literacy outcomes. And so this is very important, especially for our students with individual education plans. Um, and it would just be a huge win for our community to put money um with for studentf facing staff and create those smaller class sizes. So again, I urge you to please pass board for member Vandermulan's budget amendments um items 9.5 through 9.9 and then please take up board policy 3450 and reduce max class sizes um particularly for second and third grade but not limited to even our older students deserve small class sizes. Thank you very much. Thank you. After Ariel Hendrickson, we'll have Ann um Shuli, sorry. Hi board. Thank you for uh taking time to listen to us today. My name is Ariel Hendendrickson. I am a parent of a

017first grade student at Lapam. And I've sent in written statements. I've sent in communications. I've had all the numbers, all the facts, everything that I can. I didn't come prepared today because frankly, it hasn't really felt like I've been heard. So instead, I'm just here to speak impassionately to support our studentf facing staff and to support class size or to support reducing class sizes. My first grader is looking to go into a second grade classroom with 27 students. and I don't know how you'd get anything done with that number of kids in a classroom, especially losing support staff. Um, I also am here as an MMSD graduate myself. I went all the way K through uh high school. So, I'm here not just to criticize and complain, but in partnership. I moved back here to

018bring my kid to Madison schools because of what a great experience I had. and I want him and all students to have that same opportunity to be able to truly learn and he's not going to be able to do that with a class size so large. It also breaks my heart to see that his teacher was cut and is moving to another school and they are an amazing educator and my husband is also an educator outside of MMSD. He's experienced cuts, you know, being surplused, and I know firsthand the pain of not knowing where are you going to be, how are you going to be valued. He would love to teach at MMSD, but he doesn't feel it's worth the risk to come in and be cut and have to bounce around. And you know,

019it breaks my heart to see that for him. It breaks my heart to see that for our educators that, you know, they chose to came to a school and then they're being cut. They have to go somewhere else. and they know that their position is ultimately going to have to be refilled because we're going to have more kids come into our schools. So, I appreciate your time and I really hope that you will listen to all the things Grace said much more eloquently than me. Um, reduce our class sizes and support our educators. Thank you. Hi members of the board. Um my name is Ann Schuli. I'm a parent of a fifth grader at Marquette and a second grader at Lapam. Um, I came here to speak in support of board member Vanderm's budget amendment

0209.5 through 9.99. Um, teachers, well, students deserve adequate support in the classroom and teachers deserve um dignity, the dignity of some basic measure of job security. Um, I wanted to read a statement from a MMSD teacher um that took the time to respond to our school board's survey. Um they said I support a more equitable approach to staffing allocations and it seems like the best option would be capping at 90% max so there is adequate studentf facing people in the buildings as much as possible and smaller class environments support better learning outcomes for as many as possible and also to improve staff satisfaction. Let's stop high turnover rates and keep people in this profession. This will build on the shared purpose and pride of MMSD and our community. People first. Um please support our students

021and our staff via smaller classroom sizes. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Next up is Corey Rich and then following will be Patrick Downey. Hello board. Thanks for having me today. I'm Corey Rich. I am the director of the legacy program at Operation Fresh Start. And I wanted to come today to thank the board for their continued partnership and commitment to finding alternative pathways for education for all students at MMSD. As you're probably aware, the need has never been greater. Uh this year alone at Operation Fresh Start, we've had over 80 applicants uh from the junior class this spring to our legacy program. But I do believe we're seeing those record numbers because our partnership works. So, I wanted to use my time today to tell a couple of those stories about the success that our

022shared students are having. I'll start off by saying this past Saturday, we had two of our former graduates from the legacy program earned their associates degrees from MATC. One of which graduated with a full-time position with Dne County as an arborist. That's a position that is highly soughta uh family sustaining, making a lot more money than I'm making. So, uh really proud of him. uh and also wanted to uh mention that you know both of those students had previously dropped out but through our shared partnership found a pathway forward to complete that high school diploma to allow them to go on to greater success. I also wanted to invite you all and everybody here today to uh celebrate with us. We've got two graduations in the uh you know coming week or so. Uh tomorrow

023we have a graduate from our legacy program. So four o'clock at Operation Fresh Start, an MMSD student will be graduating. And then a really exciting special one for us. Wednesday the 28th at 4 o'clock, a former uh legacy participant and current conservation academy member will be graduating. Uh we're doing what we call a signing day. So he just got an offer from the city of Madison Engineering Division as a land restoration tech. So, uh, that graduate, uh, earned his diploma through our legacy program about two years ago. Uh, last year decided to re-engage with our programming. Earned his driver's license, uh, several certifications including wildland fire certifications, chainsaw use and safety certifications, uh, federal disaster response certifications, and beat out over 100 applicants for this position. So, really excited for him. Uh so yeah, please

024join us in celebrating our shared success. And I just wanted to finish by saying I think what makes the partnership special is that we all have a commitment that doesn't end for our students uh at their last day of high school. It doesn't end at the degree. We, you know, I really appreciate your collective uh partnership and ensuring that folks are landing, you know, important and life sustaining careers. So thank you very much and join us in that celebration. Next up, we have Patrick Downey. And then we'll follow with Calvin Fischer. All right. Um, my name is Patrick Downey. I am a sophomore at Lafallet. I'm here to ask you to give us funding for the purpose of running an AP chemistry class next year. There are at least 16 students that I know of

025who are signed up for and want to take AP chemistry next year. This class would open doors for everyone who takes it, as well as allowing early college opportunities. It would increase accessibility to academic rigor because it is a college class for a fraction of the price of one. Um, finally, there's a teacher, Miss Dudek, who is very motivated to teach the class. It would make a big difference um, if you allocated us funding to fund the class. Um, and I'm going to read a brief statement on behalf of Miss Dudek. Um um okay I'm the AP chemistry teacher at Lad High School. In my short time I have worked to strengthen and increase the rigor in the chemistry department. I fully believe in the district's vision of ensuring students are college and career ready.

026The availability of higher level science classes is an important piece of this and AP chemistry would be a u a great part that could help prepare students for launch. Okay, that's all. Thank you for your time and consideration. board members. Thank you for your time and attention again tonight. I'm a parent of three kids in the lap enrollment area and like many east side parents uh here a couple months ago to complain about what the proposed allocations are going to do to our schools. Much love to my spouse for soloing bedtime and then tonight so I can go complain to and not be heard. That meeting a couple of months ago was a bruising hour and a half of complaints. Uh but I was one of the few who stayed to watch the whole meeting

027and I was kind of astounded that the first item on the agenda after that was about the superintendent's trip to an organization publishing an annual report designed to help superintendent negotiate higher salaries for themselves. It seemed a little out of touch as it's spending hundreds of thousands on a scoreboard when uh the district's planning to cut a third of our special ed teachers uh put almost 30 second graders in one class and shuffle teachers around like some pieces in a board game. Uh but you've heard all this already. Um and yet board member Vanny Ruan seems to be the only one taking the complaints seriously. So try something else. I've served on and chaired boards of directors before. Uh I'm well aware that you all get complained at a lot. Uh last time I was

028here, I heard someone call you fascists. Uh as someone who's had that experience uh shared with you, I know that it can be discouraging to hear all that anger, but ignoring these complaints are not going to make them go away. Um I've heard some members of the school board uh wonder, "Why are they complaining to us? We don't manage the dayto-day. That's the superintendent's job." That's true, but you're his boss. Uh, I'm still getting acquainted with how this specific board works. But unless I'm mistaken, you control the budget. You control higher or higher authority over the superintendent. That makes you his boss. So, what do you do if you're getting a lot of complaints about someone's work who reports to you? You give them clear and direct feedback. You took action X that resulted in

029negative outcome Y. I expect to see Z instead. Easy. Uh, any one of you could have proposed a motion. uh or declaration like the ones uh board member Randy Milan's proposed. I'd like to seed your imagination by putting out that you could do a lot of other things too. You could instruct the superintendent to lower the thresholds for uh classroom overcrowding. You could direct the superintendent to place a two-year moratorum on any new initiatives or top- down work for frontline teachers based on the recurring negative complaints from teachers. Um, you could tell the superintendent to publish and adhere to limits on the practice of surplusing, like no more than two surplusing events in a teacher's career or knowing moving between high school districts, whatever. These are all just ideas. You all have a lot more

030experience with this than I do. So, I'd like to see what you can come up with, but whatever you do, give us back our teachers, please. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next. I think I'm so sorry. I'm going to try to I think it's Kal Khali. Zarakali Lamala. I'm so okay. Thank you. Brush handwriting because I was right at the last minute. Thank you for your correction. Hi, my name is Colleen Goala. I'm a parent of three kids in the um O'Keefe, Marquette, and Lapam schools. So, um I'm here asking you to support uh the amendment uh 9.1 through 9.5 obviously. And then I also am asking you to support the policy change on 3450 about maximum class sizes. And I'm not going to take up all the time um here. I do want

031to say that we've this is our first year in Madison schools. Um we moved here from Texas. Um, I'm from here, so I want to move back to town. When I was researching where to go, what neighborhood to move into. I wanted to move into the market neighborhood. Um, but time and time again in my research, I saw Madison schools have declined. You should go to the outlying school districts. That's what the responsible choice would be for your kids. I refuse that. I want to be part of this community. Madison is a source of great pride for me. It's my hometown and Marquette, our neighborhood in particular. I absolutely love the sense of community we have and I love our schools and the kids love their schools. But Jacob, my youngest, seven years old, he's

032in the classroom that his teacher was surprised. So, he's gone. He won't be there next year for Jacob. Um, Jacob won't see him in the halls. And then Jacob next year might have a class of 27. He's going in a class of 16 this year. So I just want a moment for Jacob to tell us what that might be like for him if he were to be in a class of 27 next year. Um it's it would be harder to learn and harder to listen and um it's like you can't really um learn anything when you're cuz there's going to be so many people. um shouting and having fun when you're trying to learn and it's going to be really hard to learn when that's happening. Appreciate your time. Thank you to all of our

033speakers who are here with us tonight and who also um registered online. We really appreciate you taking the time and the effort to come forward and and let us know what's um on your mind. I'm going to move us into the rest of our um agenda starting with the approval of minutes. I move that the board of education approve the minutes from regular meeting dated April 28th, 2025. Second, Maya. All right. Um, are there any questions, corrections or the minutes? The minutes. All right. I think that's hearing none. Um, Megan, your advisory vote. All right. All those in favor? I I All right. Thank you. Um All right. That's unanimous. Passes. Thank you. All right. Next, we'll move into board president's announcements. I'll start it off and then Vice President Pearson um can also help.

034All right. First, we'll start with celebrating our students. Um East Senior It's Eva Tao, I believe is the pronunciation, was one of 51 students nationwide who was recognized with the prestigious Billy Michael student leadership award from the National World War II Museum. The award is given to students for their leadership, service, and resilience. Also, Lfallet senior Caroline Talis, who was named an international medalist in DECA's entrepreneurship event for her excellence in roleplay. This is Lfallet's first international medal since the club relaunched two years ago. Congratulations to our student athletes from East, there are seven of them. Lethal, there are six of them and West there are 20 of them who have signed college commitments building on their athletic and academic excellence. And there are more than 100 MMSD middle and high school students who took

035to the stage at the Overture Center to participate in the city's project soapbox youth speech showcase speaking not uh speaking out on issues that are important to them. Uh yesterday, Wright Middle School sixth grader Nico Paradiso represented the district at the national event in Washington DC. Celebrating our community, we'd like to recognize our M community and the commemorate the 50 years since their arrival to the states. Their important contributions have enriched our schools and our city. The board celebrates Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and MAM American Day was celebrated on May 14th. Thank you for being part of our dynamic MMSC community. celebrating our staff. Congratulations to Sarah Elmore, a school uh counselor at East High School for being named a counselor of the year finalist in the AVID Global Achievement Awards.

036Sarah is one of just four finalists nationwide and was recognized for her dedication to student success and unwavering support. Sarah will be recognized at the AVID summer institute institutes and the national winner will be announced this December. Nice. Um and then we'll we'll finish out with another couple of acknowledgement acknowledgements. In tonight's um consent agenda, the board would like to acknowledge and thank all individuals and organizations that have donated to the district, especially the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for granting up to $10,000 to support the Healthy Academy at Memorial High School, Badger Rock Middle School, O'Keefe Middle School, and Chavez Elementary School. True Stage Foundation, Inc. um has also donated $10,000 to support students and staff at John Mureer Elementary School. And they also uh True Stage has donated $20,000 to support upgrades to

037Hamilton Middle School's locker room space. We also have some other donations. Dne County has donated $64,368 to support funding for the MSCR Drivers Education Scholarship Program. Um the Enelki Family Foundation, hopefully I pronounced that correctly, um has donated $200,000 to renovate and improve the library at the Row Elementary. The Wisconsin Department of of Workforce Development um has granted $481,540 to the Urban League of Greater Madison to support the Urban Educator Cohort Pathway Program, an innovative partnership between the Urban League of Greater Madison, MMSD, WMadison, and Edgewood College. and that will fund um 42 participants across MMSD and four other local school districts who are working towards various forms of teacher lenture in the program. And then lastly, the Renabomb and WMadison School of Education um for donating $382,000 to support a total of 20 participants

038in the district leadership preparation pipeline program providing current MMSD staff um a cohort-based program to become schoolbased leaders. So, lots of good things um and great donations coming into the district. Before I hand it over to the superintendent, I also wanted to um just go back and acknowledge that there was one person who registered tonight but did not want to speak. Um, and that person, Katie Fitzmeer, um, wrote that they were in support of reducing max class size, going back to the class size policy, um, and supporting any policy modifications. So, sorry for overlooking that earlier. And now I'll turn it over um, Superintendent Gather. Thank you, President Nichols, Vice President Pearson, members of the board, staff, and community. Thank you for this opportunity. like to expand a little bit on celebrating the 50th anniversary

039of our M community in the United States. As board president Nichols shared, this year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the M community in the United States. Multiple events were held throughout Madison to commemorate this important milestone. And on Friday, our Lake View students, staff, and families were invited the community to learn about the M language, history, and culture through art, fashion, dance, and so much more. I also want to uplift our M heritage bilingual program, the first of its kind in the state of Wisconsin. This program models how we can create a cultural connection and deepen cultural pride within strength while strengthening bilingual literacy and providing a space where students can learn from each other. This is a program we can look to as we consider opportunities to create programs that students see themselves

040in. Finally, I want to acknowledge that while we celebrate this important historical milestone, we must also keep in mind that this is this is also a time for reflection, learning, and healing as we remember that their journey to the United States was to escape war and persecution. Their stories are personal and powerful. Next, I'd like to share a little bit about a joint school city bus tour that we took recently. You're looking at a picture of uh members of leadership and administration with the city city planners from the city of Madison. Earlier this month, I joined other district leaders and the city planning staff to tour some of the major housing developments in several areas of Madison, including Oscar Meyer, Hawthorne, Acacia Ridge, and Elver Park. In addition, we explored areas of planned or potential

041growth, including Hill Valley, Ramish Farm, and Spreer Road. We saw firsthand just how much Madison is growing. Apartment buildings and housing developments are popping up throughout the city. According to the city's house tracker, more than 500 homes have been built since January, and there are another 4,200 4,200 under construction. In about 25 years, we are expected to grow by 100,000 people. Although it seems like a long time, as most of us know, it really isn't that long at all. Now, that now is the time to consider how that growth will impact how we support our learners and engage families. A dedicated team is monitoring growth and development throughout the city to help us plan for the future. I cannot express my my greater thanks to Megan Tuttle, Madison's planning division director, and her team for

042joining us on this tour and providing further insights on Madison's growth. And it really was an interactive uh tour that we had with them. And uh it was great to also learn that several of them are MMSD parents. So it was so much more than what you might think from a council meeting or report. uh they know what it's like to also be in our neighborhoods and be in our schools. President Nichols also mentioned a generous uh community philanthropic gift. Let me talk a little bit more about how we prepare future leaders in MMSD. I had an opportunity to welcome our next district leadership preparation pipeline cohort. We call that DLP. This partnership with UW provides an opportunity to help current MMSD staff prepare for school-based leadership. It was a humbling or I'm sorry. It

043was humbling to hear their stories about who inspired them as a leader and what motivated them to be an educational leader. They saw the potential within themselves and what they could bring to our scholars which is not only humbling but exciting for them and the students they may someday lead. Their initiative to begin this journey is inspiring and it is an immense undertaking. Not only will the will they be students, they will also continue to serve our MMSD students. Please join me in wishing them the best success. We need excellent leaders today, in the future, today and in the future to help our students be college, career, and community ready. And I have to add just a couple things. The whole reason we do this, everyone, the whole reason that this school district exists is

044for students like Megan, who in just a few short weeks is going to be walking across the stage and getting her diploma with uh hundreds, thousands of others from the Madison Metropolitan School District. I cannot give our class of 2025 a more heartfelt congratulations. Um, best of luck uh for with your future plans and make these next few weeks memorable. and uh know that we're all very proud of you and we'll continue to support you. So, congratulations to our graduates. As we also close out the staff, many of you know I've now conducted uh a lot of visits, more almost 40 after this week. And I just cannot tell you enough how much I thank our amazing staff uh for a great academic school year and hope many of them uh continue to work throughout

045the summer in various ways with MMSD as well. But this has been an incredible academic school year. And you know, again, being from the district, uh, having worked in the district a long time, I walk away from every one of those visits learning so much more about the moment in the life of a staff member, a teacher, certainly a student, a principal, and uh, just very impressed and very grateful for a wonderful school year as this is the last regular board meeting of our academic uh, calendar. So, just a a wonderful thank you to everyone for uh a successful year and Megan and seniors. Um I hope that you had just an incredible future ahead of you and we'll always remember your time in MMSD as being very grateful and well cared for. And that

046is it for my report. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Gothard. It's always an exciting time to go to all the high school commencements. All right. Um All right. So, we're going to move through now to items that proceeded through the instruction workg group on May 5th, 2025. And I'll have Chair Muldro report on that. Thank you so much, Board President Nichols. On May 5th, our board had a robust conversation about early childhood opportunities throughout the district with emphasis on 4K. Um, we also had a lengthy conversation about our middle school programming. At our next instructional workg group, we will be talking about our multilingual programming. We will also receive an update You will also receive an update on the progress of our office of youth re-engagement. Great. Thank you. Uh next, let's report on items

047that proceed through the operations workg group held on May 12th, 2025. Chair Castro on that. Thank you. So on May 12th, we received the district audit on use of cameras in the district. Uh we re received a update on the district's sustainability efforts. Uh reviewed progress on the referendum. Um reviewed a proposed sale of general obligation bonds. And then finally reviewed where we are with the budget. Um, our next meeting is slated for June 9th, 2025, where we will review final changes to this upcoming budget, ongoing identification of one-time funding from state and federal sources, uh, an outlook at the state budget for 2025 through 2027. um review ongoing community feedback on the budget, look at the facilities uh changes for next year, and then finally just prepare for the final budget or [Music] the

048preliminary June budget vote on June uh 23rd. Thank you. Thank you. Um, all right. We do have one action item tonight that proceeded through the instruction workg group held on May 5th, and that is policy 80012A, sexual harassment or title 9. I move that the board of education approve the sexual harassment title 9 policy policy 80012A in accordance with the documents prepared for the May 19th 2025 regular meeting the policy will be revised effective immediately second Maya all right is there any discussion on this policy board member Maldra I'd like to request a roll call vote And I'd like to explain that I'm going to abstain from voting on this specific item um because the the timing in in which this is being brought back to us and uh the dear colleague we would letter

049we received from the federal government feels out of alignment with the way we've engaged in the process of revising Title N previously. Um I very much appreciate the work our administration has done to ensure that our students are are not being discriminated against on the basis of gender, gender expression, gender identity. Um, and I am not as part of what federal government's desire to shift title something. I don't Okay. Any other questions or comments? Yes. Um, board member Mosner. New seat. Uh, I wondered if our legal council could speak a little bit about why now this is going on for for our community. board member, can you expound in terms of the why now? Sure. So, um, so to board member Moldro's point, so much of the, um, executive orders of the federal government are

050being challenged in court presently. Um, I I had asked previously in recruit meetings why why we would make changes to our Title N policy now when so much of those efforts are currently being litigated um and received some interesting answers. So I was hoping that does that help? Yes and no. Um so the subject matter expert isn't in this space today. your presence today. But what I can at least share in terms of why now I know you referenced the order. So yes, in terms of compliance that order does make it effective immediately in terms of when the change was supposed to happen, but as was shared with the board, this was a change that the district in legal we were comfortable with and supported because it essentially reverted back to what it was prior

051um to when this was made back in 2020. Um, and with our policy that we had in place then and even now is something that well I should say with the policy that we had that pre2020 post 2020 through now that's currently in effect and the one that we're proposing that's something that we can still stand by in terms of in the best interest of our stakeholders and students and staff who are impacted by it. Thanks. And what I would add to that is that that's irrespective of the admin current administration. Um, Mona, ju to clarify the way I remember the last review of this policy that even in going back to the version, we already were um very inclusive in our language around um the district prohibiting discrimination and harassment on the basis of

052gender, sex, sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy, related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Right? So that even even though we're reverting back to the 2020 version, the version that we had already approved as a district was far more inclusive than other perhaps in other places. Um that's correct. Far more in terms of the protection. So it's not it shouldn't be seen as less or a reflection of the current administration which I know right thank you any other comments vice president and then um my my question is just um we are required um to review this yearly so it's more so also on a compliance situation just to make sure that we're timely and that everything is good every year so what I will say is we're not that your point yet. It's okay to look

053at it sooner, but we're not I believe when you voted on it. I have August in my head. It was during the summer, so July or August, correct? Okay. Thank you. All right. So, with that being said, we have the motion on the floor to approve the um the version uploaded in board documents tonight. Um, I will start with Megan, your advisory vote. Okay. Um, board member Saravo. Okay. Um, board member Maldjo, are you abstaining? Okay. Vice President Pearson, I. Okay. Um, I I myself will be I Oh, board member Vandermuan online. Nay. Okay. Board member Castro. Hi. And board member Mosner Felam. Hi. Okay. So, that passes with five eyes, one nay, and one abstain. Oh, no, wait. I think I counted Megan in that. Wait. Five. Yeah, that was right. Right. Okay. Yeah.

054Thank you. All right. We also have several items that proceeded through the operations workg group um on May 12th that we need to um handle. So item 9.1 is the resolution establishing the parameters for the sale of not to for the sale um of promisary notes. So let me read the motion. I move that the board of education approve a resolution establishing parameters for the sale of not to exceed $181 million general obligation promisary notes series 2025A as set forth in the documents prepared for the regular meeting dated May 19th 2025. Second Maya. All right. Are there any questions on this? Okay, board member Castro. Uh, no questions. I just want to make a comment that um I just want to say thank you to our district finance office who over the years um have

055advised, counseledled and partnered with the board to make these um smart and savvy financial decisions that um limit the impact to taxpayers in the district and maintains the district district's long-term financial viability. And that's one of these maneuvers here tonight. So, thank you. Thank you for that. All right. Um, Megan, your advisory vote. All right. Okay. All those in favor? And Nikki, I heard your eye. I Yep. All right. Thank you. That passes unanimously. 70. All right. Moving on to the next resolution. I move that the board of education approve a resolution establishing parameters fail of not to exceed $40 million taxable general obligation promisary notes series 2025B as set forth in the documents prepared for the regular meeting dated May 19th 2025. Second Maya. All right. Thank you. Any discussion or questions on this

056one? All right. Hearing and seeing none, Megan, your advisory vote. All right. All those in favor? I I All right. Thank you. That passes unanimously. All right. 9.3. All right. Now that we have approved the two parameter resolutions that we just did related to the sale of general obl obligation bonds, we should consider amending the 2024 2025 budget to reflect the deposit of the $200 million received from the sale of the bonds in fund 49, which is our construction fund, and to deposit the estimated bid premium in fund 39. 9, which is the referendum approved debt service fund. So, I move that the board of education increase the 2024 2025 budget to reflect the proceeds from debt in fund 49 by $162 million to deposit the sale of general obligation bonds and increase fund 40

057fund 39 rather by 10,15,422 to deposit the estimated bid premium under other sources. Second, Maya. All right. Any questions or comments on this? All right, Megan, your advisory vote. All right. Thank you. All those in favor? I I All right. And I see all other hands up. Passes unanimously. All right. Now we're moving on to specific amendments. 9.4. I move that the board of education approve the allocation of 10 FTE teachers and increase expenditures by 1,188,160 in the proposed 2025 2026 budget to create dedicated buildingbased substitute teacher positions to be assigned to the 10 media schools as identified by human resources in collaboration with associate Superintendent second Maya. All right. Okay. Hold on one more. Sorry. Um board member Vandermilling, I see um board member Maldro's hand up and then I can Can I come

058back to you? Of course. Okay. Board member Maldo, I want to start by recognizing um in part that this is like your your first year with the district and I think we've made pretty significant impact. We've made a really significant impact on staffing that really shifted um a three-year trend and I also think prioritizing our educators has been a priority of this board in terms of our investment and so my question for you Dr. rather is in terms of the the designating substitute teachers to and I'm I'm just going to repeat this because I I actually really dislike this term our neediest schools. Um is that a response to some of what we're hearing from our community and from our schools? Is that a response to some of the board's amendments as ethniki board member

059Vanderbil brought them forward? how how will that function and can you please kind of lean into what media school meet? Sure. President Nichols, board member Moldro, I think that you know the team can certainly come up and address this as well. I think that when you look at data on some of our hard to fill areas, I think sometimes neediest can be described as perhaps schools that have a high percentage of children who qualify for free in reduced price meals. I think that is a a way that many times our schools are ranked in and the mental models of that. There's a lot behind that. So, we could we probably don't have time to have that discussion tonight, but I'll be the first to share with you that I think with our added substitute bonuses,

060um I think that our fill rates are at an all-time high in those three years. That should be no surprise as we're coming back from, you know, with the low point of And I think that I can share with you that I've been in one of the schools just recently that's on this lid. They remarked to me they've identified four people in their community who they can call and are there for them. I think our principles and school staff have done a great job of creating their community of people who can come in and help in in times like this. And I think two years ago, even a year ago, this might have been a very different discussion. uh but to allocate 10 staff uh for this purpose when we have fill rates that are

061approaching 90%. I'm just not sure that right now this is the highest priority. Um we'll support obviously the board's uh movement here. Uh and you certainly could get a different answer from uh members of of the team who are here as well. But that's what I would say to you that it would rank our schools based on how medius is perceived and that's in conjunction with members of our team and those 10 schools would be identified and have that extra uh building based sub. Thank you so much for that explanation. And I I do want to ask in, you know, over the course of the last three years, we've seen we have more vacancies at the end of the year than we do at the at the start of the year. And this year was

062the first time I had seen that trend interrupted and really shifted. And so I'm tremendously grateful for that work. And I think part of that work is really prioritizing our hiring process. And so I do wonder if this creates a little bit of competition between having floating full-time subs to specific buildings that have experienced staffing shortages or have high volumes of students who live in poverty. Um, as a student who grew up grew up with free and reduced lunch, I still like I don't love the term median. I'm just going to be really honest about that. Um, I I don't think that's how I don't think anybody in my family would have appreciated that as a description of us. Um, but that being said, I do wonder if this in some ways shifts our priorities

063in terms of hiring or creates an unnecessary burden in relationship to hiring and so I do want to speak to that portion and I don't know if you want me to direct that at you Dr. Goth or at HR. Yeah, President Nichols and board member Muldra, the first thing I just want to be able to say to everybody who's listening is administration did not write these these amendments. Uh, so the language of neediest is not my language or language of any of my team members. I want to be clear about that. I think that, you know, we're talking about trying to identify the very best people who we can put in front of our children and be that a substitute teacher or a new hire that we're making, we're going to continue to have that

064be the priority. Again, I'm just not sure that directing this kind of staffing is um as appropriate right now, May 19th, 2025, as it would have been last year at this time. you know, we were still facing some real shortages and there were some real questions. Uh, I think our team and our community has responded in a really positive way and I think that every building that I've been in is has created the kind of culture where people want to be there. Um, and it's a really exciting thing. I'm feeling a a real sense of of um, you know, optimism about our future and our continued staffing. Thank you. board member Castro. Um, yeah, I just have two comments and then just my question for the general knowledge of the community, but there's just two

065things I want to point out. Um, one is that this year we've had an average fill rate of 87% since March 1st. It's been north of 90%. So, I just want to say that to give uh deep appreciation to Dr. Gothard and the team for making that shift happen. Um, and then this budget actually adds 10 more or I'm sorry, 20 more subs into the pool. Um, so I just want that to keep in mind, but just for general knowledge, can we um ex just explain how the sub process happens? When a school needs a sub, how are they perceiving that sub in general? Thank you, President Nichols. Board member Caster. I'll have Jennifer Trendle join us to give a little bit of background on our subprocess. Thank you for your question. I'm just going

066to repeat it back to you so that I understand. You want to know um what the process is when a school needs a Yep. And then how that sub is selected just yeah just for the general knowledge of the community. Yeah. Okay. Um human resources has uh a substitute placement team. Um sub they um they don't actually do any placement. The schools will call in teachers will call in and through a system called frontline and enter their absences if they're going to be gone that day. And then those absences go out to our substitute pool and they can pick those up. A lot of times what happens is that principles have developed relationships with substitutes and they have those people come to their schools, but they are open to anybody who is a substitute to

067pick up that job. Got it. Okay. And so if we had 10 dedicated to these schools, then presumably they would be off limits to the general pool or general schools who call in. Correct. Okay. And on the flip side, that would inhibit these subs from potentially filling in at other schools and potentially earning more money. Correct. Okay. Thank you, Board Member Mos. Thanks. Um, I'm going to be voting in favor of this amendment. Um, and I want to explain what my uh, one is that I have like a longunning fantasy of overallocated schools. Um, where people are not at 100% from the dump. Um, so that as needs arise, they can be filled. I respect and appreciate the um what's been put on the table in this meeting completely. Um but I want to also

068include like um what you might use a sub for that you can't use that you don't you wouldn't use a sub for if you don't have lots of support substance support available. Um I'm sick. I'm not going to go to work. Okay, for sure. Um hey, can you cover my class for 30 minutes so I can have a long phone call with the parent? Those are those are sort of different things. And when the when there is a building based sub available, those sorts of things become possible. Hey, can can I can the building based sub cover my afternoon classes so I can do um a student shadow? All these things that that could be possible and I I think would be helpful to our schools. Um so I'm going to vote in favor of

069this. I don't get the sense that it will pass based on our conversations in previous work groups and that's just fine. Um, and I do want to say I probably wouldn't vote for it two years in a row or two years in a row at the same school because when I imagine what could be possible with an extra adult, an extra certified adult whose job is not um set out quite at the beginning of the year. What I imagine with that is that it would make it possible for a school to say where where are our needs? where where does a little bit of extra flex let us grow um and how can we learn from that year of extra support. So, so that's where I'm standing on that at this moment and I wanted

070to share that with my colleagues and thank you board member Vander Muan. I am so sorry. I was supposed to come back to you a couple of um board members ago. So, please you you next. Absolutely. As I uh clarified my Facebook page, sorry I'm not there tonight. Um I meant no offense on neediest. Neediest means the least amount of staff. that had nothing to do with financial. I will avoid the term in the future. However, that was never my intent. It was for the those that had the greatest needs in the building for more teachers, not the financial of realities of the students. As for the amendments, and I'm going to and the substitute amendment, I did this because often times I see schools who are scrambling to find subs at the last minute.

071This would take our schools that had the most vacancies and say, "Hey, we need we have a hard to fill opening and we need these individuals at this time. This is not a permanent fix. This was to be able to create a subpool so that way we won't have any problems in as many problems in the future. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh Vice President Pearson and then board member Saravo. Yeah. Thank you um thank you um my colleagues for um some of the commentary that you you provided on this. Um I did have a question um for admin. I think maybe just to um HR more specifically about um so when a substitute um substitute can choose where they would like to be placed based off of what is available. Am I correct

072in that thinking? Okay. So I'm I'm seeing nods in the in the audience to a yes. Um, and so this directive from my understanding would then direct the administration to have a pool of 10 and then allocate specifically to those. Is that what I'm hearing from this amendment? Am I thinking? Okay. So, I'm getting guesses again from the from the um from the crowd. Okay. to Savian's point, if I am a substitute, um, and to Blair's point of like needing support in classrooms for things that happen like one off, not just as simple as or not just as like maybe a little more complicated where it's like someone's sick or someone goes on maternity leave and those kind of things like long-term subs. If a school gets allocated a substitute and say like they're good,

073they don't necessarily need those like one-off things throughout the year. Um but because of staffing previous years and when we think about um allocations and such, they have been designated this one person. They don't use that person. Then what happens? Does that person just be in limbo and that person doesn't get utilized? Will it be reassigned at any point throughout the school year? So my questions is really around like the mechanics and so um I appreciate the sentiment of the the amendment. I appreciate my colleagues and some of their um commentary because I I do agree like there are those things you know my kids are also in these schools and um there are those times where you need those that support but then I'm also thinking about that staff member if they are then

074mandated essentially to be that filling sub they don't necessarily get to choose um like I'm not really seeing a lot of flexibility for them that person to be able to maneuver and kind of like be where they one want in where necessarily they need. And then again to that question, if someone can answer it, does that person just be in limbo if they're not ever utilized? And so now we're possibly losing a a sub. So couple of things. I think the way the amendment is written, they would be assigned to a school. They would not be assigned to a district to the district. But we will first have to identify the 10 schools and then assign then de then appoint those individuals to the school. The other thing I just also want to talk about

075is one of the things that we're over here talking about is we ran into issues with subs because of the license situation. They can only be in that a certain classroom without having a license for 45 days. after that then we have to switch them over to another position because they can only be in that role according to EPI. So just so in essence we can't use them like a full classroom teacher for a whole year. There's some limitations on how we can even use them in the time where they're in the place. Okay, I appreciate that context. Um and I think um I guess I'll just explain where I'm at. I will be voting no again um on this amendment only because I do think I do understand the sentiment and I do understand

076the need and I think that it was a great like the spirit of it was good. Um I think when you get down to the technicalities um and then you know because of our fill rate because of some of the things that were we're um just mentioned I don't think it's ready to be able to say here are 10 people and we're just going to assign them without some of the mechanisms built in to make sure that one those um those subs are successful two that they're placed where they need to and three that they actually look utilized is the way that they they should be um because of all the nuances that go in there. So, I will be voting against this or members. Oh, thank you for this is I'm still on the

077learning curve coming with everybody here. So I appreciate all the discussion that's going on across the table. Um listening to everybody and having this the idea sub in there's a lot of I worry about the the amount of time that we're assuming that a subs are going to be available and what do you do after that's our amount of time it should they should be needed longer. Um the support in the classroom particularly I think kind of what concerns me about when the classroom teacher expects to have additional support as well. We're looking at class sizes. I know some of the our some of our schools have a certain amount of space that they're dealing with. So you have certain amount of classes but when is a teacher when should they expect more support for

078them and when the students have more support especially when you're growing from the students that we had a year earlier you're growing by 10 more and you have that that less access to one of your teachers during during that period of time. So, I'm looking at all this stuff and how is that how is that applying to the teacher? What can we expect? And within the roles of a sub, the amount of time that they're there and the reliability that the students have on then teachers expectation of how long they're going to have access to that. President Nickel member Saravo. I want to be clear here and share just a little bit about what I believe is the spirit of this there of this amendment. When you have someone in a building who is comfortable,

079known, who can fill in multiple roles on any given day, any given moment that arises, it is a really helpful thing to have an individual like that. Our schools have a lot of those individuals. I know I could I can see faces in schools where that's the only building where that person wants to sub and it's because of that familiarity. So there are a lot of informal building based subs that we have in our system just based on relationships and it could be I live in the neighborhood. It could be my children went to school there. It could be I know that principal and they call. So I think a lot of those relationships exist and even outside of this 10 those would remain as well. But that truly is why a design like this

080isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just a matter of identifying for 10 schools and making sure that it's fixed where I think that there are some other opportunities for us to look at a system for how we support our substitute teachers. All right. Um, I don't see any other further questions or comments. Um, oh, yes, Megan. Um, I will be voting in opposition of this and I want to explain why. Um, I am very supportive of getting these schools the help they need. I am not sure that it necessarily makes the most sense to do it in this form. um especially when there's the 45day restriction and there's not a mechanism here to re-evaluate if um these schools need a different form of support or if another school would be more um supported by this

081role than that school with the original placement like has. Um, I think I would be supportive of this if there was a way to re-evaluate like halfway through the year or like at different points to see like what that would look like. I am just not sure um that I can support it in its current form. Thanks. Thank you for that. Um, I I will just say that the way that the motion reads right now, the motion reads that um this would allow for 10 dedicated building based substitute teacher positions to be assigned to the 10 media schools. Medias I I believe board Mueller means not a reflection on the students, but like the schools that need subs the most. Um and then that those schools would actually be identified by human resources in collaboration

082with the associate superintendent. So although we we see very specific schools listed in board member Vander Muan's original amendment, the way the motion reads, I don't think it limits us to the schools that were that were listed in her original amendment language. Correct. It would follow the correct. Okay. So I think for me uh just to wrap this up I I am in support of this. I I think that um given what we just heard from Dr. McCrae about there there may be some limitations on total number of days there there may be some things about this original um amendment that may not be fully actualized throughout the year. Um, and to your point, Megan, you know, I think it would be worthwhile if if implemented to come back and then evaluate, well, like how

083many of these building based subs were we able to deploy? How long were they able to stay in certain buildings? I think there could be a little bit of a an evaluation of um how this approach works. Um, and it it may not actually go up to the the total dollar amount listed um, based on some some of those limitations, but I I think I I I appreciate the the spirit and the sentiment um, conveyed in in this amendment. All right. given that oh board member Moser Felam I just want to say one one other thing about subs like just like super super shout out to the subs of our district um who do so many different types of things um as the need arises sometimes with like very little warning um and can make

084a really big difference in the educational experiences of our students. So props to the subs All right, we'll go ahead and take the vote. Um, Megan, your advisory vote. Nay. All right. All those in favor? I I That's three. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't I missed you, Martha. Okay, that's four. Those opposed. One, two, three. All right. So, this one passes 43. All right. We will now move on to the next amendment. 9.5. I move that the board of education approve the allocation of 1.0 Z FTE second grade classroom teacher and increase expenditures by $118,816 for the Lapam Elementary in the 2025 2026 proposed budget and board member Vanderm second and may I have discussion? Of course. The reason I wrote this the way I did, and although I clearly am not the best drafter

085in the world, still working on it, we'll get there. But um the reason I wrote this is that time after time I wanted to I heard people saying, "My kid is used to this teacher. My kid thrives under this teacher. My kid does great under this teacher." only to have them surplus and have them or have them moved. And to me, that is devastating to the child. It's devastating the parent. I understand there's a system in place. Problem being is the system is is breaking down and it's not working. We're doing things after the fact, not proactively. And because of that, I think it's I think it's a problem and that we need to restore it. As for why I named specific schools, I named them because they're the ones who often times aren't heard

086from as much as some of the others. I did not base it on poverty. I did not base it on need. I based it on whether or not the school had been requesting it through their parents and the students themselves. Thank you. That's all I have. All right, vice president. Yeah, I'd like to hear from administration just about so if we make if this passes and we give that one allocation back for the second grade class and the expenditure and the expenditure of 118k. Um there's two questions I have about it. One, would that teacher who was surplus be then reallocated back to the school? Um, and I asked that one because we've heard folks um, come and testify to us saying, you know, our teacher was, you know, was removed and we don't have

087the allocation. They're no longer their surplus and whatnot. But I just want to be clear like if we add this, does that mean that that specific teacher will then be added back into that specific school? They will not. Okay. And so to me, is it a question of what? Sorry. Go ahead. Oh. So then to me, it's the question of okay, is it the one teacher that folks are really looking for or is it the the number and the actual class size? Because I I feel like I'm hearing a combination of both. Um and I think it gets a little confusing as to then what what folks really want. Um and so I just wanted just to ask that. So two two reasons I want to make sure why I'm saying no that's what she

088was trying because it's based upon the handbook. Now the position will be posted. That person who was surplus could apply for the position could be reassigned and hired but it will be just come a position that we posted for anyone to be able to apply to because they were surplus and it's based upon the handbook. The second part of your question is the current class size for next year for those second grade that 23 I believe the number because of 27 because that is the maximum amount that it can students can be in that class based upon the class policy but that is not the current class size that's um projected for next year for that particular class. Okay, thank you for saying that. The other question that I have, TJ might just stay, but

089um the other question that I have around this amendment and the rest of the amendments um as related to schools specific um schools is that if we decide to go with either agree to go with each of these amendments um with lap them on just because it's it's the first one, but really to all the questions, what does that mean in terms of us um having to pull staff from other areas? Like would that occur? Um and then how does that then impact some of the other schools? Um and so I just wanted to ask that question and and you can definitely ask me to clarify that more. Yeah. when you say just to clarify a question because so for example let's use Lapam that's example no one would be pulled from that a position

090unless again if someone is already in a position they apply then they get the position then now that just creates another opening got it uh board president Nichols Vice President Pearson I'll explain it another way these are all these would all net positive budget additions, meaning that we would have to post them just like they're new positions to our system. So, we wouldn't be pulling staff. This would all be in addition to everything that we've allocated for the 2526 school year. These would be additional budget would be added to our to our budget and staffing. Okay. So, it won't be pulled necessarily. Sorry, I'm just like thinking through it. Mhm. Um it won't be necessarily pulled from the staffing any staffing allocations or anything like that, but based on our budget, that's another expenditure that

091we will have to add on top of that for each of these correct allocations because we're specifically saying allocate this to this place. Correct. So then my my thinking is is that if there are multiple positions that we and this is just open to the board just to think about as we are going through this each of these. We are adding another allocation another budget piece on an already constrained budget. Okay. Where then are we going to pull some of this money from to make sure that we do that? And so I'm it's just opposing the question. Um, I think I'm grateful for the community and coming and the students and the parents and everyone advocating for that. And I think it's important to make sure that folks um have that space to do that.

092Um, and you know, I've spent some time at Lapo and some of these other schools and and walking through and being in classrooms and hanging out with the kiddos and all that. And so by no means is my position on this meaning that I want any of the schools to to go without or have lack of. Um I think for me on this one I will probably vote against because I'm also thinking about if it's just these schools we have some other schools who have some deep needs also. What happens then once we then say only these schools get this and every other school that also has very specific needs. Some schools are at capacity are almost at the 27. And so then what does that look then to provide support for those schools as

093well? Um and so I am not saying that these schools don't need this. I'm saying that all of our schools need something. Um, and I just want to make sure that we do it in a way that that honors all of our schools. And so, unfortunately, I will be voting against this. Megan, did you have your hand up first and then I'll I'll come back to board member Maldron. Um, I was wondering if someone from the administration could describe um why the initial decision was made to remove this teacher. And then in the hiring process, like let's say this motion passes, the job is posted. What um would the administration be taking into account if an applicant had already been allotted a certain position at a different school? Sorry, I know that may have been

094Oh, that's I think I understand. So, two questions. So, the the particular teacher you question is why was this one moved? So we the handbook helps to determine how the surplus process works. The building principal works with the schools um at their school to say I received my allocation. I have this amount of amount left and then they use a number of different things including a rubric to determine what teacher would be surplus before the teacher is surplus. They also ask for volunteers where teachers can say, "Oh, I will be surplus so that you don't have to mandate someone else to be surplus." So there's a process that happened that's based upon a handbook that allows us to actually go through this process. Second question was if the t if someone can go back into

095the position, I just want to make sure. Yeah. So in the hiring process like let's say this amendment carries and passes we post the new job posting we get a certain amount of applicants in the actual like hiring process would the administration look at whether or not a certain applicant has already been allotted a space in a different school. So what will happen is that come July so this position first and foremost will become available July one because that's when the new budget cycle will take place. So once that happens then the position will become posted. It will be just like any other position to go through the regular hiring process. Anybody will be able to apply. It can be someone internal. It could be someone external. The positions just opened up to allow for

096applicants to be able to apply. And then the principal will use a hiring process to determine who he or she would like to hire. Okay. Thank you so much. You're welcome. All right. Thank you. Next, I see board member Moldro followed by board member Vanderm Bravo and Mosar. Welcome. Thank you so much, Board President Nichols, for the opportunity to speak to this amendment. I I find this amendment and the amendments that follow to be particularly complicated because I have a core belief that the resources of our community should follow the students. And so if you have a school with a shrinking population and you have another school with a growing population, I think that you get to reconcile that internally and I think that that can provide tremendous opportunities. And I don't say that from

097a lack of compassion or understanding for the instability of being surplus. But I do live with a teacher who I'm married to who was surplus twice early in his career. And when he was surplus, the principles he was working with at the time really used the opportunity for him to grow as a professional within education. And he really appreciated as somebody who was originally a substitute teacher um and has gotten to be exposed to schools across our district and work with phenomenal people in different capacities at different schools. The opportunity to, you know, really strengthen um his approach to to his work and to get different opportunities throughout the district early in his career. Um I think the surplusing process is a pretty sensitive process and that people do it in partnership with their principles,

098in partnership with their families. um and have made real decisions about their careers in relationship to being surplus. And I don't think it's as simple as saying we want to move this person back to this school. Um and I think that there there's a a need to be in real communication with the educators we're making these decisions related to in terms of whether or not uh this is the solution to to surplusing. The other thing is is I think what we're talking about is our overall approach to blessing in alignment with our handbook and whether or not we want to shift that uni unilaterally at specific schools at specific times. I think if you have an occupational therapist that's working with a specific group of children and that group of children ends up at another

099school, the school that they're currently working at doesn't get to just say like, "We really like this occupational therapist." And so whether or not we have students who benefit from their presence in the building, we're going to keep them. I think that the resource has to follow the the needs of the students. And so for that reason, I'm voting against this amendment. Voting against this amendment because I think it doesn't take into account um the shifting populations within the district in a way that we can reinforce over the course of time. Um, and I completely respect the board members who who do not agree with me on this. Um, but I think that this amendment uh like like the amendments that will follow it is really complicated in terms of how we operationalize it and

100what it does to undermine our our processes and our practices. I would appreciate greater information from our administration related to our retention of educators that are surplus. Um, and I would appreciate greater information around what we plan to do if we're we're wrong in terms of our our calculation of a student population. So, if we thought there would be a lot more young people at a specific school at the beginning of the year and we get to the third Friday count and that hasn't manifested, what do we do? And if we thought there were going to be a lot fewer students and there actually ends up being more than anticipated, how how do we react to that? because I think some of the tension around destabilizing faculty is that this isn't we don't have a

101crystal ball and we don't know it's going to work out exactly the way we're predicting and I think there's some nervousness around that you have mayor if I could have um a member of the team please describe the third Friday count and the watch list that we have so we can talk about what happens in the event that we our projections are off. I'm I'mma start it off and I think uh Miss Green is going to help me. She's going to be my partner in this one. All right. So, um I took note of your first request about like really understanding the sense of like what happens with the in far as retention for surplus. So, I will follow be able to follow up with that one um at a later time. What happens with

102our what we are considering our watch list is we monitor on a weekly basis the enrollment of our students by grade level. What happens is that there's a group of individuals who are working here in central office and what begin to do is when we notice the number of enrollment shifting we use the unallocated pot that we have in order to add to those courses when the numbers are really high. the number of individuals cover um um individuals from both teaching and learning, our school leadership office and of course budget to make sure that those information um is is is um correct. In addition, there's conversation that's held with the building principal so that they know like your we are watching this particular class for you to see if the enrollment does shift and if

103there's a shift then we will add the additional allocation to it. Let me think. Good evening everybody. I just want to add a few things to what Dr. McCrae said that monitoring of enrollment is is happening right now and there's a few key moments in time we look at. So a reminder that right now our school starts scheduling all the students that they know are returning for the following year at this moment. So we look at our dashboard. We check the number of students per section aligned to our class size policy at all grade levels. Then on August 5th, our registration and enrollment process for the following school year formally opens up for both returning families and new families. And then around August 18th after our secretaries and other 10-month staff come back to buildings,

104we start looking at that enrollment again more closely. And that is really when we start to look at the unallocated pool that Dr. McCrae mentioned for both where we're seeing sections that are over our class- size policy and also where there's sections that are under our class size policy because we see it on both ends. And at that time is when we start to consider if there is a need for additional staff at a school or if there is a need to shift staff from one school to another or one grade level to another. Third Friday count is the kind of next time we do that. But we try as much as possible to have all of those shifts happen before the school year starts so that families are settled, staff are settled, training is

105able to happen. But that is the process and then that process happens all year up until uh we are at this moment in time where we're starting to adjust for the following year and the team meets on a regular basis as we lead up to August 18th. It happens more than once a week. So in this situation where we're talking specifically about Lapam Elementary School as we continue to monitor enrollment the projected enrollment for that grade is 46. If that enrollment changes between now and August 18th, that is when we would take into consideration if there is a need to make adjustments. Does that answer your question, board member Moldro? Thank you. All right, we'll go to board member Vander Muan next and then Martha Saravo and then um Mosner Feld like to take u

106some of the questions in order. Um Maya the reason I wrote and hand on how we're going to pay for this I would like to take the money out of the unallocated pool is what I'd stated in the slides but I'm not sure if that got refreshed tonight. So I just wanted to help on that. As for um the uh surplus process, the allocation process is broken. It involves administration. It involves principles. It doesn't involve the board. It does involve the parents and most importantly it doesn't involve the students and that is a problem directly and they need to have some say. As for the uh surplus and why it's necessary and the following our handbook in 2019 on the on the anniversary of U act 10, the board changed the rules of seniority stating

107that no te teacher under a certain number of years could be surplus because it would affect the ability for us to recruit black and brown um black and brown teachers. that was changed in 2019. And so I'm not saying we should unilaterally change it. I don't believe in unilaterally changing the handbook. That's not how we do things. But what I am saying is this. I think we need to realize that our children need stability and this could bring some back. Additionally, we can't play Jenga with student lives. We can't just place kids one place and not another based on predictions. We got to talk to everyone who's involved. And that's why I made these amendments. Yes, they may pass, they may not. I understand. But I need to state that way we're handling it right

108now and then adding it at the back ends up causing more of a problem. As for the um talking to the direct teachers, I was in brief contact but not close enough to the particular lapam teacher. I did talk to the lapam PTO. That was my error and I should have done it sooner. So I appreciate board member Moldro for bringing up that point. And that's all I have on that. Thank you. Thank you Mickey Saravo. I want to appreciate for member man for bringing this into back into the discussion. I think it's something which it's a system that needs to be addressed. I would actually like to see the board look deeper into this. We always know that just because we have a very strong pool of parents and community members that are willing

109to come and speak at these meetings. multiple times in a row to now know that there is a bigger picture going on that really needs us to bring everybody back to the table and ask what's appropriate, what can we do better, how can we have how can we have the community and teachers have better expectations of what is what does appropriate allocation look like in our schools. So, this is gonna this whole conversation has had me pulled in a really interesting direction because I understand why board member Danny Millan brought these up very specifically and because I think there's a much bigger pool of schools that share the same concerns and have looked at the the process in a very similar fashion. I think that that's a bigger discussion that needs to be revisited especially

110when we're talking about class sizes or what does a teacher when does a teacher expect to have more support in classroom as a class size might get bigger during the school year as well and I'm not sure if the the expectation or the communication in what that process looks like is really clear to everybody and so it creates a lot of anxiety right now which I completely understand because there's always anxiety there, especially when we have our Tiffany, one of our parents who I know I know very well because when you have a student that also needs very direct support, you wonder if your direct support is going to be available during the day, too, just depending on the bus and everything else that's going. So, I'm hoping the board can consider taking up this

111discussion in another manner this more istically um to find to find out what is it come to a better um understanding of what's going on and what does support look like from the beginning of the year more proactive way instead of reactive which is what it seems to be sometimes if you wanted to speak on that I President Nichols as board members I think we would just need to talk about you know as a as a board of directors what is the appropriate governance on this process uh right now we are adhering to the policies that we have in MMSD I mean so that is that's where the discussion would need to take place I think we can also always talk about different ways of support and different models for that that would be additional

112investment and that's also part of the board's purview in terms of how resources are spent So that might be another place too that we look at, you know, that we look at some alternative ways of of supporting classroom teachers. But again, that would be a I think a much longer and more thorough discussion for us to have as well member. Was that okay? Thanks. Uh I I agree board member with your sentiments that um that we're due to take up as a board in questions of like what what we think creates the conditions for the best possible learning experiences for Madison students. I think that class policy class size policy is part of that. Um although I don't think it's the end of that. And so to the um to the community who spoken on

113taking up that cross size policy, I I'm in favor of of looking at that and thinking about as a board, do we want to put um things in place that would say the goal is to be here at a certain time? Um that said, I'm not comfortable with budget amendments that target specific schools in this way. Um it doesn't feel right to me. I think about um yeah, it doesn't feel right to me um to to respond to real needs in what feels to me like um a strictly emotional way um or like uh strictly for the loudest voices in this in this moment. Um because we have had plenty of other times where the loudest voices are from other schools. Um, but without without sort of seeing it s systemwide, I'm not comfortable with

114with supporting these amendments. Um, and that that's where I'm at. And I I haven't heard an argument that changes my mind to that point yet. I do also want to say that although the unallocated pool can be a little like grizzly I guess when it's in when it's working because because these are not ideal situations to not know exactly what's going to happen when before it's going to happen. Um I do I do feel confident in the 20 or the 20 FTE unallocated pool being able to manage um what we don't know yet. So that's where that's where I am sitting. Um and I want to thank my colleagues and I want to thank the administration and community members um especially at these schools who have um who have put forth such such effort to

115do what's right by by Madison students. That's um so I want to agree with board member Mosner Falam and I agree with a lot of what's been said. Um, I think as the student representative, I need to abstain for the votes that are targeting specific schools, especially when the resources that are being taken from uh or given to one school are um taken from another. And I I really struggle with going on a case- by case basis um because I represent all the students. Um I do think that we need to look at our class size policy. It's hard to have big classes when you're in high school. I cannot imagine what it's like to have big classes when you're in elementary school or middle school. Um, and I think we need to look at

116the way that we're doing allocation and surplusing. But when students have reached out to me about teachers or educators being removed from their school, um there have also been students that have reached out to me and said, um our school really really needed the support and like we're really happy to have like this teacher coming in or this educator coming in. And so for me, I'm gonna for all of these amendments that are targeting specific schools. Thank you. Castro, I'd also get in the queue at some point and then Dr. Gothard. Okay. I just want to highlight for member Mold's point that I believe the resources should follow the child. Uh, I know that school-based enrollment projections, I think that we can unlift the veil on that on how that model actually works, but it

117is at the end of the day a statistical model with a margin of error and that's what we have to live with at the end at the end of the day. President Nichols, members of the board, just a couple of comments about the financial impact of this. We would not We're not um in the position right now of moving any resources from a school that's been allocated. So there wouldn't be any shifts right now. Anything that you decide tonight would come from one of two places. The first would be from the 20 unallocated pool. So you've made the decision to uh put in place 10 building based subs. Right now that unallocated pool just went from 20 to 10 because that's how we budgeted it. That means that we go into the fall with 10.

118If those 10 are depleted, you know, then we have to look at how are we going to, you know, spend from our fund balance in order to do that. I mean, it's just a how it's just how it works out. I mean we've un we have 20 unallocated resources and if we deplete all of them then then we have to start looking for other ways and other sources to uh you know to take from to make sure that we can deliver what we have to. So that that's how it would work. We wouldn't be taking from any other schools at this point. Where that situation could happen is if a school is overstaffed in the fall. You know, if we all of a sudden have a section that has four students, you know, that might

119be a place where we look to move that staff member, but that wouldn't be a net new spend. That would be a moved or displaced teacher. We try to avoid that as best to the best of our abilities. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Goth, for that. First of all, let me just say as a person who just voted on in support of the the 10 building base subs, that dollar amount that was in the motion did not lead me to believe that that was coming from the 20 unallocated. So, I would like us to be able to take that up at a later time um because we all may just need some time to figure out where that's coming from. But when I read the motion, I saw the dollar amount. I saw that the human

120resources in collaboration with the associate superintendent would determine the 10 schools. It didn't I did not see that as being funded out of the unallocated pool. So, um I would love to be able to that maybe in more detail. Um but we're I know we're on this motion. So, do did this is not to put you on the spot. I just wanted to I don't know if other board members who voted for it well the same impression. I'll make sure we we I'll make sure that I clear that up. Thank you. Um can I just comment on this amendment? Hey board member Vandermuan, are you still able to put your camera on? Yeah, sorry I hit a button. No, that's okay. I just wanted you to know that I won't be voting in support of

121the following amendments that are very specific to schools. Um, and some of the reasons I stated are are as I stated at the operations workg group, but I wanted to let you know that I appreciate you listening to staff, listening to the community, and bringing these amendments forward. Um, my reasons for not voting in support of the following amendments um that are naming schools are are mostly because I I believe part of what I I hear you saying in your amendments is that you believe the allocation process is broken or or or needs some work. And and what I would say is that might be true to some degree. However, the administration when they're putting forth the allocations, it's based on our policy around class size and and their work to do projected enrollments and

122and the enrollments may not be perfect, right? But they're they're working hard to figure out with with more certainty um as they can how many students they believe will be in a grade in a school the next year. And we have a policy around class size. And so um you know to the extent that our students sometimes move from one well we know they move from one grade to the next but sometimes they move from a school to a different school. Sometimes that those numbers do shift and um and and we need to be able to have our our teaching staff and our support staff kind of shift with where students are enrolled um by grade and by school. And so sometimes that does mean there's there's a shift um in in one place and

123and that's hard to experience. Um, and so I I guess I would say that I don't feel comfortable at this point going into very specific schools down to a class level or a grade band. Um, I I think in the board role, it might be worth it for us to come back and and look at our class size policy and try to get clearer about if there are things in next year's allocation process that we would want to be different that we're having those conversations um kind of starting off the year before the administration um is communicating that out to schools. But um I I do just wanted you to know board member Barry Muan that I appreciate the spirit of the amendments but I won't be able to support them tonight. I may I

124ask answer that? I just want to thank you and I appreciate your heartfelt sentiment. I do agree we have to have discussion on the allocation of class sizes. I've raised that for the past eight years. So we definitely need to raise it. But I have a feeling that this is not a way of punishing anyone. I just want to be able to help as many as possible. And I think that you understanding how heartfelt they are goes a long long way to helping create how important it is because you're listening as much as I am and I really appreciate your work on so I thank you for that and those feedback is excellent. Thank you. All right. Um, Megan, I know Oh, board member Mojo. Oh, okay. Um, board member Megan, I know that you

125said that you wanted to abstain, but I'm going to still pull your advisory vote and then if you can just say you're abstaining. Okay. Um, so with for on this amendment related to Lapam Elementary, your advisory vote. I'm going to abstain. Okay. All those in favor? I all those opposed. Okay. So that uh that amendment fails. Um 61 with one six. Thank you. With um one abstain. All right. Moving on to the next amendment. I move that the board of education approve the allocation of 8.5 FTE teachers and 2.5 FTE educational assistance and increase expenditures by $661,289 for the O'Keefe Middle School in the 2025 2026 proposed budget. Second, Nikki Vanderm. Okay. Any any discussion or comments, questions? Board member Maldro. Board member Vandermillan, I deeply appreciate your willingness to take into consideration the O'Keefe's

126community's needs. I will be sending a sixth grader to O'Keefe next year. Um, I I think that although I I respect the nature of the amendment, I'm going to vote against it for the same reasons I voted against the last amendment. I'd like to be consistent across these amendments as they impact individual schools. Understood. Any further comments as the maker of the amendment or men board member Vander Muan? No, I do not question. No, I do not. All right. Any other comments, questions? All right. Seeing none, Megan, your advisory vote. I'm going to abstain. All right. All those in favor. I. All those opposed. All right. That amendment fails. One six. We'll go on to the next amendment. I move that the board of education approve the allocation of 3.0 FTE teachers and increase expenditures

127by $356,448 for East High School in the 25 2025 2026 proposed budget. Second, Nikki Vanderm. All right. Any questions or comments? Do you have one board member Saravo? I'm just going to continue in the notion of why, you know, we're voting in the in the way that we are for each of these. It's a recognition of being more holistic with our approaches and more discussions going forward. Thank you. Board member Vander Muan, as the maker of the amendment, do you have any further comments that you want to make before I call the question? Nope. All right. Um, board member Megan, your advisory vote. I'm going to abstain. Okay. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. All right. That amendment fails. Six. Next one. I move that the board of education approve the allocation of

1283.0 FTE teachers, 2.0 FTE educational assistants, and 2.0 PBIS positive behavior intervention specialists, coaches, and increase expenditures by $791,34 for the Lfallet High School in the 2025 2026 proposed budget. Second, Nikki Vanderme. All right. All right. I see board member Mjo. I think we've had a lot of conversations around our allocation process and our classroom size, but I do want to bring into this conversation um our overall relationship to staffing. And so, one of the concerns I've had when our board has made decisions to add staffing in specific ways, in specific roles, is that we're not taking into account the entire makeup of the school. And I think a lot of times there's a a partial equity lens applied to those kinds of decisions. And so I think it's really exciting for a student to

129have access to a sub when their when their teacher is sick. But I think it's really important that if your teacher is on maternity leave and your math teacher isn't there, that the teacher you have is certified in in math. Right. And I I think sometimes we're not taking into account like how nice it is to have a village builder at a school, but I think it's a really unfair thing to say this kid gets, you know, a a village builder build builder and this kid gets a certified math teacher depending on where they're going to school. And so I I really hope that we have an analysis of our class size. I'm really in favor of us doing that work. Um, but I also hope that we really have a conversation about the the

130accumulative impacts of roles we've added and and the results um that that those roles have promoted at specific schools. Um, I'm not planning to vote in favor of this amendment or member Vanderm. Yes. I also believe it's a partial equity issue when you cut the only ASL teacher in a school that has the largest deaf population. I believe that is also an equity lens that often is overlooked and needs to be addressed as much as every other equity issue that this board deals with. I respect your comments. I think they make a lot of sense and I hope we can work together in the future on this issue. board member Mojo. Nikki, I'm in complete alignment with you in terms of our need to meet the needs of our our our students who are hearing

131impaired. I do want to ask um our staff in relationship to that cut or surplus. Um you know, because I think what you're talking about is really the integrity of our services for specific student populations. And so you're you're naming that specific cut um as something that could produce an inequitable result. I want to ask our staff to speak to that. That would be a good idea. Good evening again. Um, so I just want to clarify uh between our staff that supports students that are deaf and heart of hearing versus a world language course that offers uh American Sign Language as a world language. There have been no reductions to our staff that support students and staff that need interpretation in the classroom. We have uh interpretators for uh sign language for both staff and

132students at Lala High School and that continues. We also have that at other schools. the the uh what I believe board member Vandermu might be speaking to is American Sign Language as a world language course and based on course requests the number of sections that that school would be offering has been reduced and we've seen that over the last few years that is where students are choosing or not choosing to take a particular world language is that yeah follow up with that and Sure sorry I follow up with that and just say, do we know what makes students more or like more or less likely to take French comparison to Spanish or German or to to learn sign language at the high school level? I would imagine that's really specific year-to-year, schoolto school. Um, is

133there is there something we should take into consideration in terms of this reduction? And and I guess what you're saying is the reduction is really being um dictated by student interest in the course and enrollment in the course. Correct. Um I think a few things. I think students take more than one year of a world language. So it isn't necessarily yeartoyear. Many students take at least two years of a world language even if they've taken world language in middle school. um mostly because of kind of the uh progression that happens and for many students that are interested in going to a post-secary institution two years are required so students usually take two years so we see kind of this continuation I don't know the specific reason for uh the reduced number of course requests for

134American Sign Language um at this particular time I I don't want to speak to that I just don't know the answer to that I I greatly appreciate that and I think it's a really nuanced convers conversation. I do want to mention that we expanded opportunities for world language at the middle school level. And I do wonder if maybe there's some opportunity to kind of reconsider the variety we're offering at that level does allow students to earn high school credit at the middle school level. And so there is potential that students feel like they have achieved that at high school credit and maybe want to pursue courses that benefit them in a different way towards college. So, I I would be curious about the long-term impact of that. I really appreciate you speaking to it, Nikki.

135I Your concerns are valid and I think it's worthwhile to make sure we're we're being pretty precise in this conversation. I really appreciate that and I thank you for the assist. All right. Any other questions, comments, or board member Vander Muan, any anything additional the maker? None. Thank you. Yep. All right. Board member Megan, your advisory vote. I'm going to abstain. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. All right. That amendment fails. One six. All right. We are on to the next amendment. I have to I have to leave. I think that's all of them. Or is that or do I have one more left? Am I missing? We're up to We're up to 9.9, which is the West High School one. I skipped No, no, I skipped one. I missed just I screwed

136up. Okay, I'm going to read the motion. I move that the board of education approve the allocation of 1.0 0 FTEE teacher and 2.5 FTEE educational assistance and increase expenditures by $265,396 for West High School in the 2025 2026 proposed budget. Second, Nikki Vanderm. Okay. Any questions or comments? Anything that you want to say? Board member Vandermuan is the maker of the amendment. No. Okay. Board member Megan, your advisory vote. I'm going to abstain. Okay. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. All right. That amendment fails. One six. And before we go on to before we go to um board amendment 9.10, Dr. Gothur would like to say something. Thank you, President Nick. Members of the board, I just want to uh clarify my misspeaking and misinterpretation of the form of tonight's amendments. Um

137the team will be happy to say that I did not spend any of the unallocated pool tonight. that is a very fixed pool that is that is very much used uh for what they just talked about tonight as we look at things on the watch list over the summer and certainly going to fall. So the affforment would in fact be a 1.188 addition budget addition it would not take away from our unallocated pool. I just wanted to clarify. Thank you. I have to leave. Thank you so much for clarifying that, Dr. Goth. I know at one point when you asked board members for any budget amendments, we were also asked to identify where the payment for those said amendments would come from. And I know at one point board member Vanderm had proposed removing the

138unallocated pool to pay for some of these other amendments. Um but it's it's good to clarify that the the one that passed 9.4 um will be in addition um in our budget line. All right. Thank you. All right. So we have um 9.10. I move that the board of education remove the unallocated pool of 20.0 zero FTE teachers and decrease 2,376,320 from the 202526 proposed budget. All right, that one we will move on from. and 9.11. I move that the board of education eliminate 6.0 FTE village builders and decrease $524,475 from the proposed 2025 2026 budget. All right, we will move forward to the consent agenda. That concludes all amendments. I move that the board of education adopt and approve all of the motions set forth in section 10 of the electronic agenda prepared for

139the May 19th, 2025 regular 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, Maya, are there any separations? All right, board member Castro. Uh, one.14. Is that okay? 10.14. Yeah. Okay. Board member Moldro. Okay. All right. So, the main motion is still on the floor. Board member Megan, your advisory vote. I. All those in favor? I. All right, that passes unanimously. 6. All right, I'm now going to go to 10.7. All right, 10.7. Um, I move that the board of education approve an expenditure in the amount of $169,9448 for the replacement of elementary school math core

140instructional materials and additional math intervention materials. The total cost is distributed as follows. $149,9448 using the FY26 Curriculum and Instruction Elementary Math Line and 20,000 using the FY26 student services workbooks. I need a second. All right. Thank you, board member Maldo. I I believe you pulled this one. Okay. Um, President Nichols, uh, I'm really excited to see that we're exploring new math materials at the elementary level. Um, we've talked about math at the middle school level a little bit this year and more holistically earlier in the year. I am curious about the the materials and and what we are hoping will be kind of gained from them or what we're investing in more specifically. Um when we've made curriculum investments in the past, particularly when I think about uh materials investment related to literacy, it's

141been a far larger investment. And so I'm wondering if this is a specific pilot um or or something that you all would like to explain to a greater extent. Absolutely. Good evening again. Um this is for replacement materials for our current core resource that we have at at elementary which is bridges. So these are the materials needed in our classrooms to continue with the implementation of our current math resource. Just a reminder to your question, board member Moldro is um this month, I'm trying to remember what month it is, we did talk about uh math at our instruction workg group and going into the 2526 school year, we will be engaging in a request for a proposal to look at new uh materials at 4K8 based on some of the recommendations that are coming up

142from our task force that would be implemented the following year. So, we'll be providing the board updates along the way, but this particular consent is just for replacements to continue into next school year. Can I ask, are we specifically happy with these materials and the outcomes that they promoted in terms of math throughout the district? So, I think that we are happy with the materials that we have right now. Um, one of the things we indicated at the instruction workg group is getting back to using our core resource with fidelity. I think postcoid getting back into uh uh the priority and the intention around math and math instruction has been something that this year has been a focus for the curriculum and instruction team and the addition to uh the intervention. It's a built-in intervention

143that is provided and and it for uh the moment, yes, the materials are uh materials that we think are pretty solid, but I do think next year we'll see if there's other materials that might be of more high quality or uh focus on that student identity piece that we talked about that we may consider for a future purp uh purchase. Thank you so much for answering my questions. You're welcome. Any other questions or comments? All right. Board member Megan, your advisory vote. I. All those in favor? I. All right. That passes unanimously. 6. Moving on to 10.12. Okay. I move that the board of education contract with Madison College for the grow your own to associate degree program cohort 2 from fiscal year 202526 for $198,500 and fiscal year 2026 27 for $198,500 to be

144funded through the Department of Engagement, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion budget. I need a second. Second. This is 10.12, I believe. Alli, did you pull this one? Okay, I did. I wanted to celebrate our grow your own program and really talk about what this investment means. And so I was hoping um that our administration to the the impact of of this investment in our grow your own Thank you, President Nichols. Board member Moldro, Dr. Jen Shepki is going to come down who is uh the project manager for both uh MMSD and UW school of education. So the impact of what this means, this is 14 to 18 people traveling as a cohort through all of their classes at Madison College to get their associate degree when they may not have had that opportunity prior. It is

145giving them money to go to school while they earn their um wages in a part-time role and then going to school part-time in ways that many folks are not able to do uh when they're at that level of education and then go to WMadison to earn their bachelor degree and become a middle school or elementary school teacher. with the people who are in the current cohorts. They are uh we have 19 in the initial cohort. 90% of those folks are folks of color. Many are first generation college students. And it is going to increase our depth as a district to be able to have teachers who look and have experiences just like our kids. I just want to say how much I appreciate this work and I'm sorry that we always talk about it with

146you really late at night. Um, but thank you. I think that this is a real stepping stone in us diversifying our staff and making sure that our young people can see themselves and the leadership that is their educators. Um, I also, as a person who dropped out of college twice as a single mom, know what it means to be able to work and go to school and balance that within a full-time schedule and and be able to support your family while you do it. Um, and so I I'm tremendously proud to get to support this motion this evening and tremendously grateful for your work, Jen. Thank you. And it's it's our it's our staff. They're the ones who are doing the work. I just help guide them along. Thank you for that, Board Member Maljo.

147Um, and and Dr. Shepki, any other questions or comments? All right, board member Megan, your advisory vote, I. All those in favor? I All right, that passes unanimously. 6. Moving on to 10.14. I move that the board of education approve the MOA for July 1, 2025 to June 30th, 2030 for a 5-year renewal of the highintensity partnership with Children's Wisconsin to provide behavioral health and schools services as set as set forth in the documents prepared for the May 19th, 2025 regular meeting. In addition, it is recommended that the board of education approve an expenditure of $721,875 to be paid to the children's Wisconsin using funds from student and staff support mental health operating budget for $400,000, roots and wings for $164,375 and DPI per pupil mental mental health funds for $157,500 in order to implement

148behavioral health in schools in 22 MMSD schools. The initial contract shall ran run through June 30th, 2026 with an option to renew for four additional one-year periods. Second. All right. Board member Castro, I know you wanted this one separated. Thank you. I just wanted to take the opportunity to uh lift this topic up for the profound impact it has on students in our district. Um there's way too many students who are experiencing or exposed to poverty, incarceration, um and violence in our district. And so um and the effect that that can have on uh the learning and the brain development for our youngest learners. Um, I know this firsthand. So, um, I'm really thankful that our district and with our partners can support these young people through really hard times in learning spaces so that

149they can feel at home in school and make learning as meaningful as possible. Yeah, thank you for your comments um, board member Castro. All right. Or member Megan, your advisory vote. I. All right. All those in favor? I. All right. That passes um 6. All right. That gets us through the consent agenda. Um All right. Other reports to the board. First up is the City County Schools Collaborative Committee. Um, as a member of that committee, I can report that we did not meet in May. Um, we did have a meeting with our superintendent, the mayor of the city, and other um other folks connected to that committee to determine kind of a future state of that committee. Um and by future state I mean cadence of meetings, purpose of the committee and um how the

150committee will function in the future. Um we will likely hold our next meeting in June. Um although the co-chair the two co-chairs of the committee um still were gathering some additional information to determine um really the purpose of the committee and how to make it um more purposeful. So that is the state for that. Uh next up student senate. All right. So on March 30th, we had a meeting in which we talked about um the election and uh for presidents and for the next board of education representative. Uh planned two voter registration drives, one of which took place at West and I believe one will take place at East um before going into committee time. And then sorry I believe these should be um April 30th in May 14th. Um so um then at our

151meeting after that we had um a voter registration drive recap. So at West we were able to register 20 plus students through the civic center cap gown and ballot program. Um and then we went through the board of education report in which we did talk about allocation and surplusing and then we officially went through our election winners. So, our next board of education representative will be Claire Lee from Madison West. And the next president of the student senate will be Lily Shapiro, also from West um before going into committee time. Our final meeting is going to be May 28th in which we're doing an endofear celebration. Um and our new board of education representative and president will be leading that meeting. Um, board members, I would love it and I'm sure the rest of student

152senate would love it if you were able to drop by and say hi and um, yeah, congratulate everyone on the work they've done this past year. That's all I have. Can you repeat the date and the the time? Sorry. Yes, it is May 28th, uh, starting at 5:30 p.m. and ending at 7 p.m. Thank you. All right, next is our Madison School and Community Recreation Advisory Committee, board member Mosner Fela. Thank you. Um, MSCR after school programs are celebrating another successful year of programming with the right variety of family nights, culminating performances, and final sporting events across our 33 after school programs. Um, and with MSCR after school ending, that means MSCR on the move mobile recreation programs are launching their summer season the week of June 16th with three free mobile Madison kickoff events

153at Prittingham, Warner, and Elver Parks. Join us for one of those events or check out MSR on the move and other mobile program providers throughout the city. Finally, it is not too late to register for summer programs. Many programs and camps for all ages still have spots for summer 2025. Our advisory council's next meeting is this week, Wednesday. Uh, and I think I mentioned to everybody at our last meeting that the MSCR advisory committee has welcomed, I think, nine new members in the last month. So, it'll be pretty exciting to attend that committee meeting and um get that work off the ground. Very nice. Uh, next up is policy committee. Paul, have an update? Yeah, I'll just give a quick update. We have um a special um policy committee meeting as a board um on

154May 22nd, which we will um review some of the policies uh for second reads um as as it relates to the ways of working for board members, job descriptions and such. um and then also have um conversation around um TP um and then our promotion and I believe also um we may have one other that we are just waiting for. So um we have a pretty big slate on Thursday. Thank you for that. And it's virtual. Oh, okay. Nice to know. Um, all right. The next committee is the board governance committee which technically has not been meeting although we will be bringing updates to the board retreat around a variety of options that we may want to explore around board governance and that board retreat is on Friday, May 23rd. All right. For other business,

155next we have the Badger Rock Charter Contract. I move that the board of education approve the charter contract renewal for Badger Rock Middle School as set forth in the documents from the May 19th, 2025 regular meeting for a term of 5 years beginning July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2030. Contract will be edited and formatted, but no substantive changes will be made before it is signed. Second. All right. Thank you. Questions or comments on this motion? Board member Maljo. I just want to thank Badger Rock for all the information they provided to each of us board members throughout the process of renewing their charter. Um I think that there's a lot to be gained from our art instrumentalities and I greatly appreciate their contribution to our looking forward to voting in favor of the extension

156of the Thank you, board member Maldro. Um, seeing no other questions, I I do have a question um that I would I would love to get some followup on, and this came up through the um the renewal vote on the actual charter. And this is um specific to the recruitment and enrollment strategy which was a a big part of our conversation and we knew that it would come forward through the contract. So right now if I'm reading this correctly and this I think would be directed to somebody in the administration. Um number nine, item nine in the contract says that um the Badger Rock Middle School is a multi-age middle school with the capacity to currently serve up to 100 students in grades six, seven, and eight. The school will strive to maintain a minimum

157and maximum student enrollment of 95 and 100 respectively. And the council will implement a robust recruiting plan for incoming sixth graders and available seventh and eighth grade seats. So, um I think my question for someone in the administration is as you all were negotiating with Badger Rock around their minimum and maximum enrollment, did you all reconcile the actual physical capacity of the building? because I I feel like that was one of the things that came up repeatedly from Badger Rock when the enrollment had been at a higher number that there was limitations in the physical space. Um and and shall I assume that they have agreed to this enrollment number because it's in the contract? So I will be happy board president Nichols to answer that question. Um, you may recall that the administration had

158suggested 125 students at as our original number to continue to grow uh students at Badger based on what um Badger has mentioned that they often have a wait list. We have had a really great collaboration with uh the principal uh and the council of Badger Rock to get to this place of 100. And um I'll explain why. The physical capacity of the building does allow for more than 100 students. However, Badger Rock's instructional design and their model that is really what the charter is kind of uh rooted in is around multi-age and project-based learning. and based on their model um the the discussion and decision was to have us move to 100 students as their growth. They're at 92 students this year and the thought of maybe having a larger sixth grade class next year

159as the place to uh grow some of the students to meet the 100 capacity. Um in addition to the instructional design, their uh class size in terms of dividing everything by three when you think of sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, they try to keep it as balanced as possible. And so that was the other reason. So the short answer is yes. We came to this consensus and this collaboration together with our team and Badger Rock and feel comfortable with this number of trying to grow to 100 based on where they are and really rooted in their instructional design around project-based learning and multi-age. Does that answer your question? Yes, that's very helpful. Thank you very much. Are there any other questions or comments on this contract? All right. Seeing none, board member Megan, your

160advisory. I. All right. All those in favor? I. All right. That passes unanimously. 6. We have no other old or new business for this meeting. And so I'll a motion. So moved. Maya. All right. All those ready to adjurnn. I board member Megan. Yes. Your advisory vote. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Meeting is adjourned.