001All right. Good evening. I'm going to call our regular board of education meeting for April 2025 to order. And we always start with the resuscitation of the vision statement. Every school will be a thriving school that prepares every student to graduate from high school college, career, and community ready. Tonight, before our public input, we will be um holding we will the newly elected board members will take their oaths of office and then we will also hold um election of officers. I'm going to um turn it over to Vice President Pearson. [Music] All right. [Music] Congratulations, fellow board members. Um, we'll now move into the election of officers. [Music] Um, Vice President Pearson, I think it's just easier if you um do this part. Thank you. Okay. So, we will um have the nominations uh for
002president. So, each board member has their ballots at their desk. Um we will ask for nominations, then we will close nominations, and then we will do the ballots. Um, so are there any nominations for the office of president? Okay, Savian. Okay, so we have a nomination for board member Nichols. Any other nominations? Okay. U, board member Nichols, do you accept the nomination? Yes. Okay. So, board member Nichols has accepted the nominations and hear no further nominations. Nominations for the office of president are closed and the following people are nominated. Michelle Nichols, please cast your votes. Okay. All nominations have been collected and Jesse let us know. Michelle Nichols has been elected president for the 2526 school year. Congratulations. All right. Next, we will take nominations for the office of vice president. Are there any nominations
003for the office of vice president board member Mosner Felam? I nominate. All right. Maya Pearson has been nominated. Are there any further nominations? All right. Hearing none. Board member Pearson, do you accept the nomination? I do. All right. At this time, we will cast our ballots for uh Maya Pearson as vice president. Maya Pearson has been elected vice president for the 2526 school year. Thank you all. Next, we'll take nominations for for the role of treasurer. Uh, board member uh Maldro. I'd like to nominate board member Blair Moser Falam. Are there any other nominations for the role of treasurer? All right, seeing none, board member Mosner Falam, do you accept the nomination? Yes. All right, please cast your ballots for Blair Mosner Falam for treasure. Blair has been elected treasurer for the 2526 school year.
004Next, we'll accept nominations for the role of clerk board member Vanderm. Are there any other nominations? All right, nominations are closed. Board member Moldro, do you accept the nomination? I do. All right, please cast your votes. Ali Moldro has been elected clerk for the 2526 school [Applause] year. All right. Thank you to our board colleagues for the nominations and for the votes. Um, we will now move into a moment of remembrance and Vice President Pearson will do us the honors. We'd like to ask for a moment of silence this evening for our district to recognize the passing of Kin Alexander. Mr. Ken, who was a volunteer at Hawthorne Elementary, Mr. Dr. Kin is remembered as someone who was a beloved member of our school community, working directly with students in classrooms, maintaining our community garden,
005and touching countless lives in the process. Mr. Kin's passing has taken a significant toll on so many students, staff, and families in the Hawthorne community, and we remember them tonight. Please join me in participating in a moment of silence to honor Ken Alexander. Thank you. Um before we move into public input, I just realized that I did not um do a motion to appoint um the secretary of the board of education. So, I'm going to come back to that. I move that the board of education appoint Natalie Rue to the position of secretary of the board of education. Second, Maya. Megan, your advisory vote. I. All those in favor? I. All right, that passes unanimously. Thank you. All right, for tonight's public input, um the there were written statements submitted for this meeting. Uh there
006were five written statements submitted for this meeting. Three in support of reinstating staff in East Side schools and modifying policy 3450 to reduce max class size. One is opposed to discrimination against a disabled employee and one was in support of considering class size as a priority and re reallocating staff back to schools in the fall. For those who have registered to speak, do we have um we have one person online. We'll start with that person and then I think we have seven registered um speakers for uh in person tonight. Our online speaker is Megan Ross. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Megan Ross and I'm a parent and community member. Um, I'm here to advocate for targeted adjustment to MMSD's transportation
007policy that would significantly improve safety and school access for some of our youngest and most vulnerable students. Currently, MMSD's transportation eligibility is based on distance, but distance alone does not account for real exposure risk, particularly when students must cross high volume roads like Milwaukee Street, which carries over 10,000 vehicles per day. The city of Madison currently pays for a crossing guard at Milwaukee and Metallark and recently upgraded that crossing with a rapid rectangular flashing beacon to warn drivers with flashing yellow lights. These are important safety improvements. However, Milwaukee Street remains uncontrolled crossing. Even with these measures in place, the volume of traffic creates unavoidable daily exposure. Frequent vehicle interactions continue to increase the risk of driver error or pedestrian misjudgment. Um, through partnership with a local community organization, families at the Carmenta Transitional Shelter previously
008been provided with temporary transportation supports and the results were clear. when reliable transportation was available, students attendance approved, and barriers to consistent school participation were reduced. We know this approach works and we're asking to build sustainable district supported solutions to move forward. I'm submitting a formal proposal asking to expand the existing hazardous route exceptions to include students who must cross artal roads with fully protected crossings even if they live within 1.5 miles of the school. Transportation services would continue to be provided only upon family request, ensuring that resources are managed based on need. I'm also recommending a pilot implementation at Kennedy Elementary for the 2025 2026 school year to immediately address the most urgent needs while gathering data to guide districtwide policy um improvements. Districtwide, the number of students who would qualify under this adjustment
009would be modest, estimated between 50 and 200 students total, making this a focused, manageable improvement rather than a broad expansion. While the Carmenta shelter is pressing example today, uh crossing exposure will continue to affect students across Madison long after current facilities change. The proposal is building smarter, safer system when measured on risks, not just distance on a map. This suggestment aligns with MMSD's commitment to student safety, equity, and educational opportunity. Thank you for your time and your consideration. Thank you. All right. Our first speaker is Grace Van Burkel and then following will be Evelyn Van Burkel. and um Grace, hi, welcome. Um do you know you have a minute clock up here on the podium? You'll see a little black box. Um when it gets to about 30 seconds, that green light will turn yellow
010and then um the red light comes on when the three minutes have um expired. If you're still finishing a thought, if you could do that in just a few seconds, that would be great. Sounds good. Thank you. Um, members of the board, Dr. Gothard, thank you. U, my name is Grace Van Burkel. I am a parent of three MMSD students, kindergarten through sixth grade. I am a longtime volunteer uh, in MMSD since before my kids were in school. And I am the early childhood special ed assistant at Lapam. And so, like all this is to say is like you all, I'm here for the kids. And um it's with these experiences that I want to make sure we are properly staffing our schools and also have the right class sizes for our kids. Um so
011I urge you to take up policy 3450 to reduce max class sizes um and also pass uh board member Vanderm's um budget amendments 1 through five um that would reinstate surplus staff at our east neighborhood schools as well as lfallet and west. Um it's, you know, I think it's especially urgent that we not um particularly have 27 second and third graders in one classroom. Um because that's also including teachers. You have about 30 people in one classroom. It's just too many. Uh especially since students and staff have struggled through a global pandemic. Um I think it's especially urgent um for our children with IEPs. So again, I just urge you to look at policy 3450, particularly the second and third grade class sizes, but um absolutely not limited to. And I also urge you to
012pass uh board member Vandermillan's budget amendments that would reinstate surplus staff at our four east neighborhood schools uh west and lalit. And thank you for your time. Hello. Um, my name is Evelyn and I go to O'Keefe Middle School. I would like to tell you a story from a perspective of a kid um who's in a grade whose uh teacher were was surplus. She told me that there were so many kids in her classroom and not enough chairs that her teacher was hoping a few kids are absent. But we don't want our friends not to go to school. We need enough teachers and chairs for all our friends in the Madison School District. We need to stop surplusing our teachers and we need your support in that. Thank you for your time. Next up is
013Leland Pan and then following will be Katherine Howley. Um, thank you. Uh, here to uh speak on some of the uh the most pressing things for from MTI's perspective for the remainder of the school year. Want to update you about what we've discussed at our our board of directors meeting and our uh United Rep Council. First of all, we had a successful event. We co-sponsored on universal free meals and thank you to Mayor Peterson for attending and others have um followed it online. And then um at the most recent uh URC meeting, we uh focused on three uh main areas of uh sort of most pressing concerns. uh one being allocation which you've already heard from community members about and again just emphasizing um a need for transparency on the allocation process to ensure that
014we can be proper collaborators on that. Um second being uh you know full cost of living adjustment and uh no negative changes to our healthcare costs and third and one I want to spend the most time on today is on supporting school-based response plans in defense of communities targeted by immigration officials. The reason why I want to talk about this one is because, you know, there's organizing happening in the Madison community uh on immigrant rights uh right now as we speak. A lot much of it driven by our students here in MMSD. Um obviously our staff on the front lines want to defend our students and their communities and also recognize that our staff are directly affected by this, right? Um you know, I see the line get closer and closer to even a person
015in a relative position of privilege as myself, right? Like first it's undocumented people, then it's uh you know people with green cards who are um politically active. Well, that was my parents until a few years ago, right? Then it's birthright citizenship. Well, that's me, right? So, um the line is coming at me very quickly and I want to be able to stand in solidarity with the broader community. And I think that this district has a lot of policies on paper to support immigrant communities. But I think we've uh taken a very cautious approach in how we talk about it in order to not bring undue attention to communities at risk. But I think what is happening is that frankly, you know, they're coming for us regardless, right? There's no hiding from this. And we also
016need to enable you know those of us who want to who need to uh take a step back to do that but also those of us who want to take a step forward to organize to fight need to be allowed to do so. Um I have seen um efforts to um provide support for immigrant communities be shut down by uh building administration and I believe that it's out of caution and out of uh desire to protect our communities but you know our students are already planning stuff our uh we want to be in solidarity with them. Um and uh you know we're going to have to resist fascism by fighting. though. We're going to have to fight that together and fight that upfront and there is no hiding from it. So, um I want uh
017to make sure that y'all are are checking in with your administration and making sure the message being sent to staff isn't one that is unintentionally demobilizing efforts and discouraging communities who are being targeted right now. Thank you. Good evening. Hello members of the board of education, Dr. Goth. My name is Katherine Holly and I'm here I'm here speaking on behalf of the Lapa Marquette parent teacher group as well as a parent of a first grader with an IEP. We want to first thank the board for your consideration on our requests. We understand that the allocation process is an iterative and sometimes messy one and we want to thank you for hearing from folks within the school within our building all of them. Second, we want to thank board member Vanderm for standing up with this
018topic of allocations and your very student focused reasoning listed with it. That was lovely. Lastly, I want to reiterate reiterate our car our request. The rollbacks that are being presented next month and voted on are so certainly are so certainly necessary and will point us in the right direction. The revision of proposed policy 3450 is where we can have a lasting and sustaining gain for these student first efforts that are coming forward. We are requesting that the max number of students allowed in second to third grade classes be reduced from 28 to be more in line with the maximums of kindergarten and first grade of 23 students per class. We're also requesting that across all grades, classroom maximums be kept at 90% until the start of the school year so that maximums can actually mean
019something and be maximums and not starting points. The unnecessary surplusing so early in the season breaks a really strong community that we work hard year over year to build. We ask too much of our teachers to work in wildly hot, nearly inhabitable buildings with overcrowded classrooms and these constant reductions of classroom facing assistance. Please follow your fellow board member and vote to reinstate the surplus staff and revise board policy 3450. Thank you for your time. Next we have Michael Jones and then following will be Brian McMahon or McMahan, sorry. Good evening. The last month uh I and other members have been meeting with student organizers on preparing for action on May 1st and 2nd. I believe we've uh communicated as such to you and I wanted to start there because it has been such an
020honor and a privilege to see students especially some of our youngest and most vulnerable populations uh not stand idly by and actually speak up to speak truth to power and and demonstrate that and for staff to uh support them. which is why I was disappointed when I was at one of when I was at a planning meeting last week and I heard about um a staffer being pulled into an administrator's office and being threatened with retaliation for allowing students to put up flyers in the school that day. Um and just so you know, that teacher is actually on the retirement uh leaving list that comes across. So, they won't be here next year, but what do we say to the staffer that comes into that space next year on what we stand for? Because they
021weren't here for all the statements um that have been going around. I understand that you as district leaders um are constrained by the structures and the realities in terms of serving our community and providing uh serving uh everyone in our community, those who agree with us and those who don't agree with us. and and sometimes uh the words can only take you so far. Which is why on behalf of my union and behalf of multiple communities, we are asking for our district to provide action through empowering each school building to provide their own plan in cases of uh ICE or other government entities trying to enter the building. Top-down management and approaches and messages might have worked in 2017. I was in a building when that was happening, but they're not aligned with the reality
022of 2025. Not while judges are being arrested, children and adults are being deported without due process, and denters are being disappeared on the streets in America. We need buildings to have community plans and approaches to unique situations within our neighborhoods and within our school buildings. And we need that to start from the ground up, not from the top down. Because if we don't do it now, when are we going to do it? Are we going to do it when we have an autism registry that's being proposed? Are we going to do it when we have an LGBTQIA registry, which is already being proposed? Are we going to have it when we have a registry of dissenters uh weaponized by by or uh a a list of dissenters um that's being compiled uh by a weaponized
023Federal Bureau of Investigation? A statement must be about planning and consent to action. Otherwise, we are nothing more than just the words. [Applause] Good evening, members of the board and Dr. Gothard. My name is Brian McMahon and I'm the executive director of Operation Fresh Start. First, I want to thank you all for your continued partnership and support. Your collaboration is making a real difference uh in the lives of Madden Madison students and we're we're grateful to work alongside you. I'd also like to offer congratulations to newly elected board members Ali Moldro, uh Michelle Nichols, and Martha Saravo. Um, and thank you for attending the candidate forum hosted at OFS earlier this year. Your presence and engagement meant a lot to our participants. Um, this year we're seeing a record number of applicants and referrals from
024MMSD. Since October 1st, over 120 MMSD students have been referred to their school to pursue a diploma through OFS legacy program. 30 MMSD students have already started in our legacy program since October 1st and another 50 are currently scheduled to interview for spots in the coming months. These numbers confirm what we already know, the need for flexible alternative pathways to graduation is is more urgent than ever. Students are looking for meaningful opportunities that meet them where they are. And thanks to our strategic partnership, we're helping them find those opportunities. At Operation Fresh Start, students do more than earn a diploma. They also gain real world experience and industry recognized credentials that help them build a strong future. Every participant has a chance to earn key credentials like a driver's license and a certified pre-apprenticeship through
025the Wisconsin's Department of Workforce Development Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards. These credentials are tools that lead to family sustaining careers and long-term success. And that's what our partnership is all about. It's about ensuring Madison's young people are not just graduating, but graduating ready for what's next. As we look to the future, OFS is excited to explore ways we can expand our work so we can reach even more students who are ready for a second chance at strong start. So, thank you again for your commitment to every student's success. We're proud uh to be in this work with you and we look forward to what more we can accomplish together. Thank you. Our final speaker tonight is Calvin Fischer. Calvin's coming. He's gone. Oh, okay. Okay, that'll be fine. Um I do although Kelvin Fischer left um
026they did write in their subject that the they would have spoken about allocation amendments. Um and while who is the other speaker? Okay. Um should we get a registration form? Okay. And then there is one person who did not wish to speak um who also wanted to have the subject of traffic congestion um speed and safety of students as a topic. What was that? It didn't say location. If you can hold just one moment. Yeah. All right. We have Emily Miller. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Um, I want to just begin by thanking all of you, especially Superintendent Gothard and President Nichols for your pledger pledging MMSD support of all students. Um, despite recent government directives to public schools to limit their DEI work, it means a lot knowing that
027we work in a district which welcomes and centers all students. So, thank you. Um, I understand that in the current climate, it may seem less urgent to focus on other areas of school design, but I'm here just to urge us to begin seriously rethinking our school calendar so that we can indeed, as you wrote in your letter, provide students the support they need to succeed and thrive. Um, since speaking before you last month, I did conduct a brief survey among my colleagues at West High the two days before spring break. And I won't go into all the details, but some of the broad trends that were evident was number one, at the high school level, a desire for fewer interruptions in instructional time. 87 of the respondents indicated that the reduced instructional time has a
028negative impact on student learning. 68% responded that full staff only days should be limited to three to four during the school year. Um 78% responded that it's very important or somewhat important to restore consistent meeting time for professional collaboration with teams in the form of perhaps either an hour late start, early release or something else. 58% want this collaboration to happen on a weekly basis. A desire for this weekly time was especially obvious among those in the special education department. One CC teacher wrote that the loss of weekly PCT has negatively impacted the segment of our special education department that works with our students with the highest needs. Um the most complex support needs and that this subset of staff really need to collaborate on a weekly basis to be able to pivot and support
029the needs of those students. Um and this year has been particularly challenging as we lost those weekly times with students. Um I just will skip ahead. Uh one of my colleagues in science did the calculations and found that this year we have only 163 instructional days spread over 281 calendar days which averages to 4.06 days a week. He says I can feel it. We all can. Um every time we come back from a three or four day break we have to recalibrate with the students. Maybe we do want to redesign our education system. So that 4.06 days a week is the goal, but that means rethinking how we do education. And as long as we are a district that is advocating for broader integration of AP curriculum and exams, the four days a week is
030not sufficient to adequately prepare students. Um, one of my colleagues wrote, "If we're serious about giving our students access to AP classes and the opportunity to succeed, then we need to put a stop to chipping away at instructional days." Thank you very much. Thank you to all of our speakers. Um, I'm now going to move us through our agenda. I move that the board of education approve the minutes from the regular meeting dated March 17, 2020. Second, Maya. Any corrections, comments, or questions on the minutes? All right, seeing none, Megan, your advisory vote. I. All those in favor? I opposed. You're okay. Uh, thank you. That those are approved unanimously. All right, for the board president's announcements, um, congratulations to our students who participated in this year's statewide career and technical student organization leadership conferences.
031MMSD students earned 12 state championships and 48 national level qualifications. Yes. Students from Robert M. Lfallet, Bell Phillips Memorial, and West High schools earned high honors across the board, and Lafallet's DECA and esport teams earned major awards, including a state championship title in esports. our E students who secured the top three awards in the CEOs of tomorrow incubator program. CEOs of tomorrow provides programs and tools that teach young people about social entrepreneurship and our 26 memorial athletes who have signed college commitments on decision day. This is the first of our uh first of our four comprehensive schools signing days. So, I'd like to say thank you to the city of Madison for celebrating Arbor Day with approximately 100 of our LVM students. Not only did our learners help plant trees, they had an opportunity to
032engage with the Madison Streets and urban forestry division team. Thank you also to our strategic framework committee for continuing to provide their input as we develop our next plan for the future. We appreciate the time that had they have committed and look forward to the work ahead. And lastly in tonight's consent agenda, the board would like to acknowledge and thank all individuals and organizations that have donated to the district, especially the Roots and Wings Foundation, which is providing grants totaling $960,000 to MMSD. 390,000 over the next three years will support MMSD in providing quality connections with our birth to age three students and families and help uplift early learning. And then $570,000 over the next three years will support MMSD in providing quality connections with our birth to age three students and families to help
033uplift. I thought one of those was a 4K, but okay. Um, yes, also birth to age three. And I'll pass it over to the super announcement. Good evening. Thank you, President Nichols, members of the board, staff, and community. Thank you for this opportunity. Few updates. Uh, this month, principal and teachers were honored by the Herb Cole Education Educational Foundation. The Lake View Elementary principal New Vangu was named the 2025 Herb Cole Educational Foundation principal leader. Miss Vang Buu is one of 14 principles throughout the state recognized for exceptional leadership, dedication to students, and com commitment to educational excellence. She was granted an award of $6,000 and Lake View received a matching grant of 6,000 to further support student learning and the school's initiatives. In addition, two of our teachers were recognized as teaching fellows by
034the Herb Cole Foundation. Liz Mel Mels from West and Emily Sonoman from East. They were two of 200 educators from throughout the state to be honored. Each was awarded a $6,000 grant as well as a matching $6,000 grant to support their schools teaching and learning initiatives. Next up was our Mung Do a Language Day. We're deeply committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable learning environment where every student feels valued and empowered. We do this by recognizing and celebrating their rich cultural heritage. Recently, four districts across the nation celebrated Mongda language day, Fresno, California, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, Minnesota, and our very own Madison. MMSD's Mongdua language program is offered at Lake View and Blackhawk. These programs provide a way for us to embrace and uplift the voices and experiences of our M students and families
035who are an integral part of our district and community. Next up, something I've talked about a little bit, but I want to give I'm excited to give this report. We've made some great progress. Our enrollment strategy work. Our enrollment strategy team came together as part of a multi-day design sprint focused on developing a long-term enrollment strategy for MMSD. You might ask, what does that mean exactly? Well, before we can grow enrollment, we have to stabilize enrollment. We have to understand our enrollment and make sure that we have the operational plan to support the changes that Madison is likely to see in the next several years to come. We engaged in conversations about our the future of our schools and explored ideas on how we can align programs with student and family needs, strengthen our district
036identity and brand, enhance customer service, and ensure sustainable enrollment across the district. Our RAI team is reviewing the ideas and feedback gathered, and we look forward to seeing the outcomes of these sprints. We are excited about this work which moves us toward our goal of developing a draft enrollment strategy which will be important to becoming a school district of choice otherwise known as destination MMSD inspiring our students to innovate uh once again this year. I was transitioning last year and was so fortunate to uh be here on the day of the icebreaker event hosted by the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce. Uh last year's event was incredible and I definitely was excited for this year's and it did not disappoint. It was an excellent opportunity to connect with local business and community members and to
037hear from speakers and their innovative work in agriculture, healthcare, and technology. We want to inspire our students to be those innovators and problem solvers that our world needs. That innovation begins in our classrooms where we must encourage our learners to ask questions and to take risks so they can make their bold ideas a reality. We need to ensure our students are future ready. And from our career and technical education courses to the arts and everything in between, these opportunities are right here at MMSD. Last week, I attended the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators spring conference right at the street at the Concourse Hotel. These professional gatherings are valuable places and spaces to learn, connect, reflect, and bring back ideas to our district. The sessions provided timely insights into leadership, enrollment challenges, and strategic innovation,
038many of which align closely with our work at MMSD. Finally, we have so many talented students across the district, and I want to highlight some work being done by our Crestwood fourth and fifth grade students. Their animated short film has been presented at film festivals across the country, Rhode Island, Minnesota, and right here in Madison. They won the Spirit of Independent Filmm award in Mineral Point. They just wrapped up at the Julian Debuke International Festival and next up next up is a showing in Green Bay. This is one example of the excellent work and creativity that happens every day in MMSD. I'm proud of our students and teachers who support them. Thank you all so much. President Nichols and members of the board. This concludes my report. Nice. Thank you so much. Is the do
039you know if the independent film making was that a program sponsored in our school for the fourth and graders? I do not have a lot of information on the international film festival but we Okay. It just sounds amazing that we've got young people out there doing film stuff. All right. I love it. Thank you. Um All right. I'm gonna now uh report on items that proceeded through the instruction workg group held on April 7, 2025 and turn that over to Chair Mald. Thank you so much, Board President Nichols. Uh at our last instruction work group, we focused on community schools and our strategic and received our strategic partnership update. In our upcoming instruction work group, we will focus on middle school holistically with an emphasis on middle school math math and we will get an
040update on early learning including 4K. Thank you. Next, we'll report on the items that proceeded through the operations workg group held on April 21st, 2025. And I'll turn that over to Chair Castro. Thank you. Yeah, there's just a long list. Okay. So, we had our operations work group on April 21st, 2025 where we received a referendum update um received uh numbers regarding healthcare and benefits. Um went through a budget uh review and priority projects discussion. Uh and then we had second readings for three policies, two of which we will vote on tonight. Um, our next meeting is May 12th, 2025, where we will review changes to the the up uh upcoming budget. We'll review and uh identify onetime funding from state and federal sources. We'll take a look at the state budget outlook, which is
041also being debated on right now in the state legislature. Um, review ongoing community feedback on the budget. Review facilities um upgrades and such. Uh and then just take a look at the uh May regular board meeting proposed budget and uh go over um amendment processes. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Uh, all right. We had no action items that proceeded through the instruction workg group, but as uh board member Castro just said, we do have a couple of items that proceeded through our operations workg group. Um, so we have a couple of policies tonight. The first one being policy 6071. I move that the board of education approve the district fund balance policy 6071 in accordance with the documents prepared for the April 28th, 2025 regular meeting. The policy will be revised effective immediately. Second
042Maya discussion member Vanderm. Yes. Um I understand the need for this procedure and I respect it. I happen to uh disagree in the issue of transparency. I think it should be 35,000. I that's my personal view because I'm not comfortable with anyone reaching into as honest as Bob is, which is amazing. As honest as everyone in finance is, which is wonderful, I just don't feel comfortable with anyone in my pocketbook just saying that. But I respect those who do. Okay. So, thank you for your comments, board member Vandermu. That's on We're coming to that policy next. You're fine. But I got to back right now. Right now, we're on the the district's fund balance policy and the the version that's in board docs has moved the minimum up to 12% with a maximum of 17.
043So, uh, we had two two opportunities to discuss this, um, revision and so this is the fund balance one. Any other comments? And then I'll come back to your comments on the next policy. You're just ahead of us. That's all. Um, board member Maljo, I greatly appreciate the work that's gone into revising this policy. Because we're already exceeding this policy in terms of the amount of fund balance we currently have, I would like to amend the policy to give us a range of 12 to 18%. So that we pass a policy that we're currently within the range of second. Oh, uh, vice president. Yeah, just at um for the discussion. Hey Bob, can you um like if you can just speak to us changing that to the 18% how that affects but then also um
044will we be in accordance between the 12 and 17 like uh soon here or I guess just the the thoughts of just moving it to the 18 and what that might do or not do. Um, sure. Uh, increasing to 18% just obviously raises the maximum from 17%. Um, got a spreadsheet for that. I say that jokingly because Joe always says that all you finance guys always say you have a spreadsheet for that which is a compliment. Um if if we would go based on 2425 budget expenditures um and we're about 17%. If we would increase to 18% in terms of the max it's about 5.3 million for 1%. Um but again this is just a range of what's in the fund balance. So it doesn't have really any fiscal effect other than the range is
045increased to 18%. Yeah, I could while Bob is still up there. Vice Chair Pearson Bob, can you talk just briefly about the different ways that we can manage any overages in our general fund balance as well? Yeah, there there are there are several. Um uh the first would be uh last last year we created uh fund 46 that allows us to put money away for the future for facility repairs. Um the board would have the option to move funds into that fund. I will say the way the law reads on that it has to sit on that fund for five years before it can be uh withdrawn. That's one way. Another way would be to talk about you're setting aside fund balance dollars for anticipated increases like health insurance or salary. Um I would I
046would say one of one of the issues in terms of fund balance and um what we're looking at now is um you could have money set aside for any unexpected changes uh in the economy like the conversations going on with the federal government state level. Turn it up. I'm sorry. I wanted to say Petra is also available, our attorney that deals with policy. I know she was gonna tune in. Uh oh, she's up. Uh so I just wanted to double check that. Um other issues in terms of fund balance, in terms of managing the fund balance is you could designate it for for other uses um that that were expected to be happening. Um I mentioned the facility improvements. that could be done and kept in fund 10 versus moving to fund 46. But there
047are a variety of ways one can manage that maximum. And the only reason I bring that up, members of the board, is just so you don't I don't want us to feel like the policy has to be modified every time if we do have, you know, a fluctuation. I don't anticipate us having 25% in fund balance, but let's say we did. There are other ways for us to manage it too outside within the policy. or memor. Yeah, I would just say that for the last few years, we've consistently been outside of our own range. And we've been outside of that range because we've been above our our policies threshold. Um, we've never gone below the minimum of 10% while I've served on this board. I think to inform this policy from a place of integrity
048means to consider the the factors that our superintendent just spoke to. I greatly appreciate you, you know, saying that um we have to take into consideration the external factors that inform the reality of our budget. And my hope is that our our fund balance in the long run lends itself to enough cash flow that we are not engaged in short-term borrowing. And so I do hope in the long run we have that conversation. But given the current kind of tumultuual nature of both our economy and our federal government, I think it's really important that we have flexibility in relationship to our fund balance. um that really allows for us to withstand unanticipated um realities as they impact our budget. And so I I appreciate the consideration of my amendment, y'all. So we have we have
049your motion. Yeah. Your amendment to increase the maximum to 18%. It's been seconded. Are there other comments or questions? I'm asking if we can bring it up because right now we're at about 17.5. So we're already above the maximum that we would be passing. Okay. I'll come back to Vice President Pearson and then board member Moser. I I can support that amendment and would have supported a similar amendment up from there. Um I guess then my question is I support it. It's just what is the the mechanism for us to do that amendment? Do we need to come back um Petra again to or are we able to go ahead and approve the the policy as is or do we need to come back and um again to look at it? This is our last
050point of like um approving. So, I just want to make sure like we don't have to come back again to approve it. I didn't hear that, Pedro. Oh, can you hear me now? Yeah. Okay. I was just saying um you can amend it on the floor now and vote to adopt it now. You don't have to come back to vote on the amendment again. Okay, great. Thank you. I just wanted just that to have that clarifying for everyone. Yeah. All right. So, board member Maldro has um made the motion to amend the policy so that it will um it will change the it will keep the minimum at 12% and move the maximum up to 18%. That's already been seconded. So, um Megan, your advisory vote. I All right. All those in favor? I I
051All right, looks like that passed unanimously. I need to do anything else. Okay, so now I'm we're going to go back and um back to the main motion. Well, the main motion doesn't have the exact language in it. just says, "I move that the board of education approve the district fund balance policy 6071 in accordance with the documents as amended tonight for the April 28th regular meeting." Second, Maya. All right, Megan, your advisory vote. I Right. Thank you. All those in favor? I ask a question. Yeah. Are we want me to suspend the vote real quick? We're voting in favor of the original motion. Does that undermine the amendment or does that No, I just I just said in the I just kind of changed the main motion to say as amended tonight. Thank you.
052All right. Um everybody else say have a I on there. Okay. Thank you. That passes unanimously. Yes. or member Moseldum. Can I move to go into a fivem minute recess to address? I move to go into a fivem minute recess. Second. All right. All those in favor of recess. I All right. Thank you. Okay. All right, we are going to come back and resume the meeting now. All right, I'm going to pick up where we left off, which is we have one more policy um that proceeded through the operations workg group that we also need to um vote on. So, I move that the board of education approve the purchase and/or contracted services limitations policy number 6244 in accordance with the documents prepared for the 28th, 2025 regular. The policy will be revised effective immediately.
053Second, Maya. All right. So, board member Vandermillan, you had already started some comments um on the on the last motion. Do you want to repeat any of that? Okay. All right. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Board member Mosner Felam. I have um I have two amendments to the proposal and I need to do them separately. So I think for the the first one I would um I move to amend this proposal such that uh uses of the phrase his slash her which appears three times in the proposed policy be changed to uh to the word there second should I give reasoning or is it just enough to have saying like in the actual policy in the actual policy. Okay. The proposed policy um in board docs today includes the phrase his his horror
054um three times and I am I move to amend this proposal to replace that. Okay. And I know you did bring that up um at the last workg group. So I'm sorry. No no no it well is uh he slash she. Yep. I see that in number eight. Okay. That's been seconded. [Music] Um, okay. Should I just take one amendment at a time? Okay. Oh, board member Maldo. Yeah, I want to support this amendment and I appreciate board member Moser Falcom for proposing this amendment and I would like to ask that we call the question and vote on it. I'd like to ask that we call the question and vote on this amendment. Yep. I was getting ready to do that. Um, Megan, um, if you're following along, we're in the procurement policy, replacing the
055words his, her, he, or she with their. Your advisory vote, I. All right. All those in favor? I. Okay, that amendment passes. Thank you. Then the second one, I move to alter the proposed policy. Uh, where it says 50,000 to to go up to 60,000 and my my reasoning for that is uh two twofold one I guess three-fold uh one uh based on our conversations in our operations work group I understand that um the actual the rate of inflation between the last time and this time actually put us like uh between 50 and 60 is my first reason. Um my second reason uh is that it gives us a little bit more wiggle room like maybe the policy will be good for a little longer. And then the third reason um is maybe a little
056bit more philosophical with respectful disagreement to board member Vanderm um when I think about like what enables our board to make um really good choices and and really exercise our oversight over um the operations of the school district. Uh I don't believe that it tends to be in the consent agenda items. Um I think that there are other better avenues for our second. Any other comments or discussion? Oh member Castro. Yeah, thank you. Uh I would just say given the data that we saw from the last meeting breaking down just how many amendments we would uh missed on um if by upping it about 30 um I I don't have the specific cut off for 60,000 but from a pragmatic lens I think this makes sense. Thank you. Um Megan if you're still there your
057I don't hear any other discussion. So your advisory vote on this amendment to change the policy for all purchases andor contracted services would move in excess of 60,000. Your advisory vote I. Okay. All those in favor of this amendment I was. Those opposed. All right. Thank you. So that's 61. All right. So, um, let me go back. So, I'm going to go back to the main motion and just, [Music] um, insert the word as amended for tonight. Right. So the main motion now is I move that the board of education approve the purchase and/or contracted services limitations number 6244 in accordance with the documents amended for the April or at the April 28th, 2025 regular meeting. The policy will be revised effective immediately. Second. All right, Megan, your advisory vote. I All those in favor?
058I. All right. And those opposed. All right. That's one. 61. Thank you. That passes. All right. That moves us into our consent agenda. 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 the April 28th, 2025 regular schoolboard 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. All right. Board member Maldro. I'd like to separate item 1033. I have a conflict of interest and we'll have to recuse myself from that vote. Okay. Thank you. Any other separations? All right. Seeing and hearing
059none. Megan, your advisory vote. I All right. All those in favor? I All right. That passes 70. No. Don't I have to go back to 10 point? I have to read that one, right? The donation. All right. On item number 10.33, I move that the board of education accept the three-year grant donation from the Roots and Wings Foundation. It is a total donation of $570,000 split into three payments as follows. $180,000 for 2025, $190,000 for 2026, and $200,000 for 2027 to support MMSD to provide quality 4K programming and uplift early learning programming in our community. Second, Maya Verson. Okay. Board member Mosner Felam, is your hand up? Oh, it's showing up on the Zoom. Okay. Um, okay. Megan, your advisory vote on this. I Okay. All those in favor? Okay. I don't know why I
060can't count. six. Okay. Oh, your hand keeps going up on Zoom. Okay. And then board member Maldo is recusing. All right. Thank you. All right. Other reports to the board for the city county schools collaborative committee. Um the committee did not meet in April. Our next meeting is scheduled for May 7th, 2025. And when board members when we um decide our committee assignments for 2526, we will figure out who um the new board member will be for that committee. The this is the city county schools collaborative committee. All right, student senate. Yeah. So, it's been a busy couple weeks for student senate. Um, so we've had two meetings and then we also hosted a um wellness fair at Holtzman um a little while ago with attendees from various high schools. Um students were able to
061learn about different aspects of mental health um along with addressing some concerns that they've seen at their schools and then taking back an action plan to educate their peers about mental health resources um that they can access within their schools or within their communities. Uh we met on April 2nd and went over election information and committee time to plan for that uh wellness fair. And then again on April 16th, we had a guest speaker, Annie Johnston. Um, and then kind of went over election information again. I also have the finalized candidates for uh student senate president and the next board of education representative. So for student senate president Lily Shapiro and Lena Cox. Um, and then for board of education representative Claire Lee. That is all I have for my report. Very nice. Megan, by
062the way, I was at the superintendent's wellness advisory committee last week as representing the board and um your good work and the all the work around the the wellness fair was um talked about in that space. So, thank you for taking that on. All right. Our next committee report is Madison School and Community Recreation or MSCR Advisory. That's me. Um, the sort of big I don't know if it's the biggest news, the thing I'm excited to tell you about is that the advisory committee welcomed nine new members to our committee this month. So, that's a huge ad. Um, really, really exciting. is going to mean a lot a lot of um exciting work with the new committee members as well as um more veteran committee members. Otherwise, uh MSCR spring sports are underway with uh
063middle school flag football games every Monday and Wednesday night and over,200 players in spring soccer leagues that began this week, this weekend actually. Um maybe you saw people out playing. I know I sure did. Uh MSR staff is continuing to hire for summer and uh we're busy planning training for roughly 900 staff who will work in summer programs this year. The next report is from the policy committee. Yes. So we um approved some of the policies that we worked on in April. Um, one particular one we are looking back with the um um the mileage reimbursements. We're working back with the handbook committee um on that. So that was something that we reviewed previously. Um but wanted just to state that um in May we have um some policies slated for both the instruction work
064group um as well as operations work group and we will have our special meeting policy meeting um in May as well. May will be a very busy time um and we have a lot of policies to come back to us. Um lastly is the board governance committee. the committee has not met. Um although there were some follow-up items from the last board retreat that we will be bringing back to May around board governance. And so we have a couple of board members um Vice President Pearson, myself and board member Maldro who are going to be bringing back to the board retreat some various options for us to consider um with next steps relative to board governance. And then again, this is another committee um with board member or former board member Laura Simkins stepping off
065that we will um put on the list of committees to assign. All right. In our other business, we have um a Junth district holiday memo and it comes with a motion. I move that the board of education approve the adoption of Junth as the paid holiday for MMSD employees. This action demonstrates the district's commitment to recognizing significant historical events and promoting equity within our policies. To formalize this change, it is also recommended that language be added to the MMSD employee handbook to reflect the inclusion of Junth as a paid holiday. I am proud to second that. All right. Any discussion or questions. All right. Seeing it. Oh, board member MJ. I greatly appreciate that we are recognizing Junth as a district and my hope is that we are including uh relevant education on Junth in
066our classrooms. Um, I think it is tremendously exciting to celebrate this holiday. I think it is even more exciting um to make sure our students know why we celebrate this holiday. Thank you. All right. I'm not hearing any questions. Um, so Megan, your advisory vote. I All right. All those in favor of the Junth holiday becoming a paid holiday. All right. All right. We are unanimous on that. We have no other old or new business. So I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. All right. Second. We are adjourned.