001all right good evening we're going to call our regular Board of Education of March 17 2025 to order and 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're going to actually start with a resolution for one of our board members whereas Laura simin Board of Education member for the Madison metropolitan school district has successfully served on the board since 2022 serving as clerk as a member of the board's governance committee a member of the city County Schools collaborative committee and as a delegate representative at the Wisconsin Association of school boards in 2024 and whereas Laura simkin has been a determined advocate for all students and families especially those in
002the lgbtqia plus community and whereas during her service on the board Laura simpkin leveraged her expertise in early childhood and elevated the importance of appropriate Staffing and developmentally appropriate instruction in 4k classrooms helping to influence the board's decisions for 4K expansion and early literacy and whereas during her service on the board Laura simin positively contributed to the district's recovery from the co9 pandemic the hiring of a new superintendent and the passing of the 24 operating and facilities referenda and whereas her service and dedication to support student achievement will shape education in our community for generations of young people and Inspire the leadership of both the board members they leave behind and those who will follow in their footsteps now therefore be it resolved that the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education recognizes and greatly
003values the cont contributions of Laura simin and her dedication to mmsd schools her work and Legacy will continue to have a lasting positive impact in our schools our students our families and the community be it further resolved this statement will be permanently imprinted in the Board of Education minutes for the meeting of March 17th 2025 and with that Laura we also have a little claque and a little K for member simin we know tonight is not your official last meeting but we know it's your last regular um Board of Education meeting so we wanted to just take this opportunity any comments or Reflections that you want to share you don't have to but it's up to you sure I can a couple things okay um way I'm glad I didn't read that in advance because
004that was really beautiful and I loved hearing you read that thank you everybody very much um I don't think anybody who is who is here or listening can possibly understand what it is like to be on the Madison Board of Education unless it's something that you are actively doing and I just want to say this has been a great honor to represent um Madison in this way um to truly be able to lift up lgbtq plus um students and staff and also Early Childhood in the ways that that I can and then just to advocate for all of our students um in last three years I've gotten to know you all really well and I just want to say that I have developed such deep respect for every one of you you are wonderful wonderful
005people so thank you for doing this with me all right we will um move into our public input part of the agenda um let me just see there were 54 written statements submitted for this meeting 35 opposed to the cut in educator allocation for all four of our neighborhood schools lapam Marquette O'Keefe and East 16 opposed to overall educator allocation cuts across the District Two opposed to to the decreasing of teaching positions at West High School one in support of teachers being on The Chopping Block last not first with that um we will start with our registered speakers for tonight I know that we have um I believe 18 speakers here in person who are registered and Jesse two online so we'll start with our online speakers thank you our first online speaker is bear
006Robert is fair Robert online I hello hello we ready for your three minutes yep whenever you're ready all um I don't know if if uh are we just speaking on on what the topic is at hand or cuz I what I wanted to speak about wasn't about what you were just speaking about I'm sorry that's okay you are welcome to speak about whatever you would like during your three minutes okay um um I I was just concerned about um a position of the building head um that was that was um removed from lefet and I was just concerned about um the placement of of the position um we had a great building head there and I just wanted to see uh her position restored to her she's doing a great job we have a great
007crew um and I just I didn't know if this was the form for that but I just wanted to speak out and and see um what was going on or or what what could be done about that kind of in the in the loop about what's going on so I I just wanted to see if I could get some type of clarity that's that's really that's really uh what I was calling for great thank you our next speaker is Eric Beckham did you hear me yes we can hear you yes my name is Eric Beckham I'm I'm a Stan 3 at high school I was calling in regards of the same as Robert fair I was trying to figure out what was going on with the situation with our boss Taisha agie um in the
008past month she's been removed out of the school we just trying to figure out what happened nobody told us anything uh she was replaced with a manager which is unheard of since I've been in the districts always used to be building head is brought over that replaced her so I'm just trying to figure out what's going on we had a like you said we got a great crew uh we we all work hard together we great team great chemistry and I don't understand what happened she out of the blue just a whole month she's been gone nobody said anything there's no Clarity everybody around school like what happened to T nobody knows what's going on we just trying to figure out what's going on I know that y'all talking about other situations and other issues
009but we just trying to figure out what happened why is she not back to work you know I'm saying why she not at the school that she she was supposed to be so that's all I have for today thank you all right thank you um our first registered speaker is Rudy Moore and then following will be Taisha um I think it's a a GE AG thank you and as a reminder for our speakers as you come up um we have three minutes you'll see three minutes up on the clock and on the podium there's a little box when you see the yellow light it means you got about 30 more seconds red light means you're kind of out of time so please wrap up your thoughts and feel free to adjust the mic so we
010can hear you well okay how do I sound right now sound good okay thank you very much um I'm here tonight with my daughter sitting back there her name's RZ um um so I'm here to talk about the allocation um specifically at lapam but I know it's districtwide that uh the issues are currently here um I'd like to ask the board to direct the staff to not allow allocations that are maxed out this early in the planning for next year um 90% of the max class class size would make a reasonable number for this early in the planning for next year but um completely maxed out is the wrong spot to be where we are planning for next year so I'm the parent one parent one of the parents of RZ back there she's a
011first grader at lapam um her class size this year is 17 uh and but she isn't a cohort of 54 and 54 is an important number here um her cohort was in their 3K year during covid or actually 2K but yeah um and during the masking and partial reinstatement years um they especially that cohort I mean but all second graders moving forward as well need smaller class sizes to be able to do well to be able to get the interpersonal communication and the socialization skills that they need to be able to move on to the upper grades um the maximum class size passed for second and third graders right now by the board is 27 27 is too many um 54 is um ex half of 54 is 27 so next year because they had
012an allocation removed one teacher was removed from labam um they that that class size those second graders are both going to be in 27 person classes for sake of reference this year you're going to find out later on in this meeting um in your midyear report oh minute left um there's only two classes right now that are at 27 over the whole District so you're G to have two of them in lapum right now um lum's also gone down two special Educators uh special education teachers that need to be reinstated as well uh our area the district area where we are has 400 new housing units that are about to come online there's almost no chance that there aren't going to be more students at the beginning of the school year than are covered for
013by this 54 and lapam is going to be scrambling to try and fill that space at least I hope they will be because I hope that it wouldn't uh you wouldn't be allowed to go past that maximum number but I'm afraid they might be um so what again just to reiterate what I'm hoping the board will do is direct the staff to choose a number that some what less than the absolute maximum so there's room to grow six months out from when the school year begins say 90% 90% is a very reasonable number and it wouldn't create the catastrophe that I see is coming for our second grade classes and my daughter rods right back there so thank you all right next stop Taisha a g a did you just tell me that I just
014it's ag ag I'm sorry about that and then following will be Calvin Fisher so first I just want to say to everybody I'm the head codian of lafallet this is the shirt design that all custodial I paid for out of pocket as a building cust I provided it to my crew I come to you only after trying to resolve this with the executive director of building service who instead of reaching a resolution created a divide my name is Taisha a I have been with the school district since June of 2013 I have consistently promoted into leadership position since 2016 I have Stellar recommendations and evaluations which have led to my consistent promotions having been a shouted out this school year five times in the lafal Soulful school I am heavily involved in community events at
015mmsd this past December I had a contest my called my 16 for 16 which assisted 17 students and two adults and ensuring Christmas was enjoyable I hosted and funded the first ever black excellence and trade event which provided a different route to students being successful on mmsd I mean another path besides college and even before my sta my star Village scholarship at lolic can be finalized through the mmsd accountant I have already this year provided $1,500 in funding for events benefitting mmsd students and with all of that I am still a parent of four mmsd students and a volunteer at as many school events as possible but still I find myself fighting for my job it has been 24 days with minimum communication on what is going on with me employment wise let me tell
016you what I think led to this I believe I am being targeted by Rob Larson local 60 um for not having a driver's license even though it's not or excuse me Ty is that your name um I just want to be clear that it's okay for you to share your concerns with the board but just make sure that it doesn't border on the line of um airing personal grievances especially directed at a staff person and I just stopped you since you identified someone by name okay so how should I address that D you you have espe and I won't say so if this is a situation where there has already been a complaint filed I don't plan on filing a complaint y know I'm just saying if this is a situation I'm giving you the
017hypotheticals because I'm not sure um and Jesse okay thank you I didn't want to lose her time um one I was going to say just keep it high level so it's not specific to the complaint sound like that applies and also just make sure you can share your concerns but that it's not targeted as specific staff member okay okay so but I think the interpretation of like targeted is really from the person is not targeted I'm just saying my experience which um it involves mmsb people so I can remove his name but I understand but we also have a board policy where this is in a forum to air specific to a staff member so you're welcome to talk about your experience but I would just encourage you to keep it as high level as
018possible because I'd like for you to say whatever it is that you want to say to them all righty okay yep I believe I being targeted for not having a driver's license am I allowed to talk about that part okay even though is not enforced District y I believe this because I have received threatening and harassing messers messages from a former employee of the custodia department this employee should not have this information because it's confidential this employee sent me threatening messages just last week these interactions scare me they scare me because I quote more time to keep coming after you they scare me because he has access to confidential information they scare me for many reasons that I don't have time to get into I am a proactive employee and manager I ask training to
019make my team more self-sufficient yet I have been denied training for my custodians and maintenance team yet in my departure these training sessions have been available I face racial discrimination daily from a district that proba am iow say that I face racial discrimination daily from a district that Prides itself on an anti-racist model I am told regularly that I was given my position because I am black let me tell you I earn my position I deserve my position I am the first black person in this team I am the first black person in the history of mmsd to hold my position I am the only building custodian pouring into my team yearly custodio appreciation I have contacts throughout the year where they take pride in their closets and their areas and the cleanliness that they
020provide I am a building custodian designing and providing shirts representing Unity for custodial and maintenance in times when morale was declined because of Staff shortages I motivated my team and how did I motivate them through these monthly contests that show them that we breed wonderful custodians over at Leal I oversaw during an entire $85 million referendum in an organized manner while being shorty I have maintained transparent and open Communications to ensure this project ran a smoothly as possible L laal staff have on numerous occasions confirmed this I embodied a message highlighted that says people purpose and pride this is not by MSD actions all right we'll have um Kelvin fiser up and then leand e all right thank you for your time and attention tonight um I'm the parent of a kindergartener at lapum elementary
021with a h two-year-old and a four-year-old as well will'll be coming through the district um and I was shocked to hear about the proposed uh teaching staff cuts at our schools our teachers are the lifeblood of our education system and we cannot afford to lose them uh Madison is growing fast you heard my neighbor speak about the hundreds and hundreds of units of residences that are being added to our neighborhood every year um and this policy does not seem to give any thought to those new students in those residences who will be enrolling in the district uh the proposal pushes classrooms to the brink of overcrowding uh and natural growth will push it into formal overcrowding by The District's own definition good teachers are also hard to find if you let them go now why
022do you think you can come simply come and rehire them in a couple years when our enrollment is bursting at the seams and we can't find enough people to do this very difficult and hard work the second grade classrooms as you mentioned they'll all be at a maximum of 27 students one new student that's an over clouded classroom and we know there will be growth uh the particular second grade teacher who has been cut uh to facilitate this overcrowding uh is beloved in our community uh and is one of the few male teachers who our students have to look up to as r models in their schools my kindergartner in particular has already said he wants to be in this teacher's classroom in two years because uh this teacher has been such a supportive presence
023to him in the school but not if these Cuts go through laim is also losing two of its six special education teachers a third of its special education teachers these teachers support the children who most need this extra support and I can't think of a polite way to say that you are failing them um by removing the supports that they need to be stay integrated with other students in an integrated learning environment finally the Optics are not great on this uh because in the same report which you propose a 2% reduction in teaching staff FTE you're also proposing a 2% increase in admin FTE our schools exist to teach our children not to administer them if you decide to cut teachers while expanding secondary staff I think that with all due respect means the district
024is maybe losing uh sight of its Mission here our country is facing a historic dismantling of public institutions and uh here in Madison I like to think that we know better than to pull um pillars of our community like this so don't be the accomplices of that effort from the state and federal governments help us preserve the education system that our children rely on and build a strong Community for us and for our future thank you again following Leland will be um Katherine Hoy uh hey all uh lean pan School social fall at high school building representative and also on the board of directors for MTI uh first we just briefly say as a laala staff member it's a privilege to know to and uh I um she's an institution in my building and I
025hope she gets the answers that she seeks as soon as possible uh but I wanted to speak on the staff um allocation Cuts uh proposed um and I want to talk about more macro level two general points one being that the uh lack of transparency in the system I think creates an excessive amount of tension between staff and District administrators when uh customer first announced for example we were not given reason as to why they were uh proposed um that La of information is fertile breeding ground for misinformation people are grasping to find the reasons why their lives are being uprooted um I've heard one St uh one school claim for example that they are facing Cuts despite projected enrollment increase and without transparency in data it's impossible to verify that or not um the
026similarly every single Comprehensive High Schools uh Union Representatives have reported that uh every Comprehensive High Schools face cuts to teaching positions but that's not reflected in the data that was presented to you all last week in the operations workg group it was not break broken down by building for example um and because of that lack of transparency it creates staff distrust in the information that you're getting um I know most of you well enough to know that you desire staff's retention and strong staff and have done many things to fight for staff um and so that's why I want you to have uh the complete picture um on these things much like we want the complete picture um regarding for example enrollment which seems to be a driving factor in in the allocation decisions there's
027no transparen staff about the calculations we've heard there multiple ways to project enrollment we have no idea which calcul used to determine allocation uh there's staff uh skepticism about enrollments projections accuracy um we would love to see the enrollment projections uh going back years for each building and compare that to the actual enrollment uh outcomes to see what is accurate and what isn't if you could see that enrollment projections by building are inaccurate you also are better equipped to make decisions to correct our district processes um that brings me a second Point um I'm stealing language from one of you that I had a conversation with but there needs to be slack in the system right being quote unquote overstaffed and having a few say High School classes of 18 is far better than trying
028to keep everything running as close to the Limit as possible just to save money right the slack is needed because that 18 could easily become 30 right with newcomers families moving in the housing instability we see in Madison students push out of Charter and private schools and other unforeseen unforeseen circumstances uh that slack also means less stress staff it means students who have at least one class where they have more time to get to know their teachers um and less grin on support staff like myself uh because teachers have the time and capacity to address lower level crisis before it comes to me um in my opinion it's entirely reasonable for passing such an operation referendum uh to St out a position that regardless of enrollment projections building allocations should not go down uh the
029staff and Community expectation of such a large operations referendum is to have some relief from austerity and the community sees that voting after voting for such a referendum their kids favorite teachers are still cut or moved around the appetite for any future referendum is removed thank you all right we'll have Katherine Hy come up and then following following will be Alana Torres B I think it is or sorry if I mispronounced that hi can you guys hear me okay thank you for your time tonight my name is kathern Howley I'm a lapum parent of a first grade student with an IEP and a board member at the lapum Marquette ptg I recently gotten very familiar with our elementary school and therefore most of its occupants as I work closely with building operations to solve the
030overheating problem that our 1940s charmer has been experiencing for some years now many of us are here tonight to express deep unrest about the continued cuts to our schools in my personal experience we're talking about the East Side schools we've learned from our leadership that lapam will be losing a second grade teacher my son George is in the same class as Raz who we have in our audience back here as well as two special education assistance this plan is teing us up for two classrooms of 27 second graders each most parents and educators will raise an eyebrow here because we all know that is too crowded of a room for kids that young then we add that we are losing two special education assistants who are crucial to the Fulfillment of the IEP commitments from
031the district all occurring in a classroom that averages around 77 degrees with no operating windows we are setting our teachers up for fail and that will absolutely fall down on our kids well we hear that other parts of town are receiving more teachers in similary primary grades and then those were removed and then we also learned that O'Keefe and East are also getting significant Cuts not insignificant Cuts these are significant cuts the cuts on the east side especially affecting uh excuse me the cuts on the east side especially affecting Sixth and second grade will create large class sizes a particularly sensitive developmental age and at all of these schools students who are supported by Seas will be negatively impacted the most also in the same uh excuse me also in reports we see that enrollment
032projections for students with disabilities is expected to rise uh Kelvin spoke with the Optics of this how are we supposed to rationalize the the reduction of special education assistance when we know that the enrollment of children we're differently abled is going to rise how do we rationalize that this is not the best that we can do for our schools and our students our direct ask is this number one please reconsider the Staffing cuts to the East Side schools in all throughout lapam Marquette o'keef and East high schools are what I'm talking about specifically these schools have seen seen these Cuts year after year and the tail spin that it ensures leaves us in an already leaves an already hard transition nearly impossible with long-term subs and 30 plus kids in room number two lower the
033maximum allowable students in second grade to be more in line with that of first grade we are talking about a cohort of 54 students that were three years old at the start of the pandemic we need the Hands-On and focused community of a manageable classroom developmentally number three a very repeat theme for tonight is provide transparency on how these allocations are made our teachers and our parents work hard endlessly to make a warm and welcoming environment and it takes all hands on deck we understand that these are complicated isues and that decades long practice of underfunding schools is something we cannot fix tonight but we do need to be prepared for what we know is coming and we do need to provide for what we know our school needs personally I have 20 years of
034experience in the practice of architecture and construction and I've gotten very very deep into the pr report from November of Catherine I'm going to need you to wrap up like 10 seconds sorry I encourage encourage the board I encourage the board to reconsider their recent allocations and how our Eastside schools and Community continue and help our Eastside schools in our community continue to flourish and grow we are excited to welcome all new students and provide the warmth and safe Ed educational environment that we promise every single day and we are asking this board for their support in this growth we literally cannot do it without these changes hello Bor thank you for having me my name is Alana Torres BR and although this is applicable to every High School I am representing myself uh remembering
035that year after year we feel like we are at to do more with less um I am here to Advocate more classroom teachers and the effect of this decisions in classrooms especially for specialized programs like DLI to be more Equitable um DLI is the district's dual language emerging program for which I have taught since 2017 at West High families enrolled in this program are committed to it for from the beginning of the year's students academic career in kindergarten or first grade the population is balanced by taking the number of enrolled families and doubling the numbers with monolingual English speakers these families have sacrificed committed and dedicated time to the goal of graduating from high school as bilinguals at times we have failed them at the secondary level we have had inadequate or insufficient Staffing for
036regular classes elective classes and especially support for special education students in 2025 the 2025 and 26 school year is rapidly approaching with the same challenges as the start compounded by the fact that as a school we have experienced Staffing cuts the DLI program does not have its own budget meaning that in secondary schools the social studies department is responsible for hiring the necessary staff to cover all regular classes and also thei classes at West High overall enrollment has in in increase similarly and particularly the Spanish dual uh immersion program has continued its upward Trend in 2024 and 26 and 25 we started with 138 students and have increased in the same year to 146 that is counting like the newcomers in the program and that is only in ninth grade for 2025 and 26 there
037are 145 students enrolled in Spanish language arts for n9th grade grade each year this pattern of increases can be seen from March to the end of the following years as families who bring their students to West take advantage of the opportunity to continue studying and raising their academic standards in both English and Spanish now with the number of uh numbers uh predicted for the next school year we have five history sections of about 30 students each in grade nine and 10 while there are three or four sections of semester long history classes in grade 11 and 12th continue to grow as I compromise we will need to add new sections hire new bilingual staff and increase the number of students per sections especially in grades 11 and 12 both Solutions have their additional Pro problems
038such as and I'm about to wrap up such as a shortage of bilingual staff budget constraints and the social studies department and the impact of unethical class sizes the needs its own budget in order to deliver adequate education sponsor activities academic cultural field trips and especially celebrate fam's commitment and students success thank you thank you next up is Karen I believe it's herera if I mispronounce I apologize [Music] Karen oh okay sorry about that uh Tracy drill and then Jesse oh Tracy drill and then Andrea miselli hi my name is Tracy drill I'm a special teacher at Senate middle school I'm here today not to advocate for an easier workload for teachers but to try to Champion the well-being and success of our middle school students we must address the undeniable reality that our current
039extended school day is detrimental to their overall development let's be honest by 4:30 the energy in our class rooms is palpable it's the energy of exhaustion our students many of whom have been in school for over eight hours are drained their ability to focus absorb information and engage in any meaningful learning is severely compromised this is not conducive to an academic Excellence we're also witnessing the impact of their lives outside of school many are focused to sacrifice part-time jobs valuable extracurricular activities and crucial family times these experiences are not just mere luxuries they're essential to developing well-rounded individual at age 14 furthermore 10% of our students leave at 3:30 because that's the time they have to leave and um they're missing Vital Information instructional time creating inequitable educational experiences I understand your argument that the
040teachers only have 25 hours of direct student time but let me be clear I did not enter this profession to Simply clock in and clock out I like almost all of my colleagues will are deeply invested in the success of each of these students we are not heartless I will not turn a student away oops sorry 25 hours has been met I can't help you go to the bathroom I can't help you with your problems I can't let you eat lunch with me I can't let you it's 25 hours we don't do that this current schedule forces our students to travel home in the dark during the winter months and it raises serious safety concerns most of our our in our area we don't even have sidewalks so this extended school day I was told
041is necessary for busting Logistics however we've given them two years to fix these problems we can't continue to place the burden of their inefficiencies on the shoulders of our students and staff we can't allow logistical challenges to dictate the educational experiences and well-being of our students we we are not advocating for reduction in quality of our education we're advocating for a more efficient and Humane approach to learning we're advocating for a system that prioritizes the holistic development of our students please do something about this please thank you all right hi everyone I'm Andrea misali and I teach 8th grade math at Wright Middle School I've been speaking here for the past two to three years about student set staffings one of our demands is no cuts to our school-based staff who are facing our students
042every day um the school board should direct Administration not to put any cuts to our schools that the cut should be elsewhere of Staff that's um with our students every every single day second I want to speak on is creative HR Solutions over the past few years this school board has spent over a$1 million on HR Consultants that's the same amount of money that you're looking to save basing on doubling everybody's deductibles from 100 to 200 and 200 to 400 the percent amount saving from all the healthc care options that were listed in the slides are less than 1% of our budget money surely we can find 1% of the budget money somewhere else than taking changing our health care um what we should be looking for are different Health Care Solutions to get our
043numbers down to the green asking for negotiating group counselors at our schools around to provide counseling on dealing with students stress not taking stress home with worries um other proactive things for mental health issues um physical activities for staff so that our health care starts going down to the green then in the red so we get better rates there are many other things that you could do as well and to be looking into also we could be looking into hiring some consultants for taxes you know um a lot of people have to pay fines due to the district not taking out a lot those could be at our schools to help fix some mistakes and restore some trust the last thing I want to speak about is our Middle School times our times must change
044when did this change happen when first student took over it was told that because the busing couldn't handle it to do our normal 7h hour school day these decisions should be made on what's best for our students not what the busing company can't come through on on all their promises I recommend that you guys put in a RFP for new busing just for middle schools that we can fix our mistakes and make decisions putting our students first because that's what our students deserve thank [Applause] you all right next we'll have thank thank you um Dominic Johan Burl all right you you feel free to correct me when you get on up here and then following will be Jessica Hots I think it is all right that didn't work is that about right we good uh
045hi everyone good evening board members um my name is Dominic Johan burkel I teach physics at Madison West High School I'm also the father of two uh children that attend easts Side schools I'd like to share with you if I may an email that I received three days ago March 14th from a former student of mine a current sophomore at W Madison Dear Mr Dominic that that's what they call me I hope this email finds you well I am reaching out because earlier this week I had a physics exam and found myself applying fundamental concepts I had learned during my my time in your class to help me reason through several of the more challenging exam questions while many of my peers were struggling to understand the material the analogies and emphasis on key Concepts
046you had made throughout math physics and AP Physics have stuck with me and aided My Success tremendously moments ago I received that exam score back and found that I had earned 100% for the first for the first time I got it I got it I've come I've Come Close several times but that perfect score has eluded me for several semesters I can say with confidence that my score and more General enjoyment in physics would be significantly lower had I not taken your classes because of this I would like to thank you for the knowledge and fond memories you have imparted on me as they have certainly changed my relationship with education for the better now I share this email not to Pat myself on the back but to highlight the sentiment in that final line
047of the student email the knowledge and memories you have imparted have changed my relationship with education for the better that is why I became a teacher that's why any teacher becomes a teacher to change students relationship with education for the better now next School school year West High School will have six fewer full-time teachers other high schools across the district are facing similar situations as our middle schools and elementary schools across the district if you as a board genuinely believe that a teacher's ability to change students relationships with education is independent of class size than cutting the positions of those who work directly with students on a daily basis makes sense if however you believe a teacher's ability to change students relationship with education for the better is achieved through smaller classes then I ask
048you not to reduce the number of teachers at different schools across the district but to look elsewhere for cost-saving measures thank you good evening my name is Jessica Hots I've been teaching history and social studies for 25 years at Madison East um Dr goth you sent out an email Friday night indicating that operations referendum was for sustained funding and vital initiatives and our staff problem is we're always at the end of that list I think that's the problem student fa facing staff should come before initiatives the most consistent message MTI members have been giving us and the district for as long as I can remember is that there are too many district initiatives these days essentially all initiatives are created autocratically by District district administrators that have not in in a classroom for any length
049of time are out of touch with the way our schools work these days and maybe see the need to develop initiatives to just if their positions if that's the case then those are the staff we should cut um despite what Dr Gothard said in his letter Friday when it comes to initiatives um we've been treated not as partners whose feedback and questions are invaluable our feedback has not been solicited appreciated nor heard our autocratic change one autocratic change that's being put into effect at East next year is the elimination of required courses in multiple if not all core content areas for example there would be no required cours workk in social studies just three credits this makes me livid this is fascist democracy requires an educated populace and what do we do we make it
050so students can graduate high school without learning anything about US Government US History how to vote civil rights economics world history or cultures other than their own no student student has to take a class that includes the Holocaust the history of Labor Native American sovereignty or M history all of which are mandated by state law I never thought I'd see this kind of stuff in Madison we're erasing hising and we might as well be Florida or Oklahoma I believe this has something to do with the move to standards based grading something classroom teachers have had absolutely no voice in it all not only do I wonder how much money we've spent on this autocratic move without teacher input or respect but will will when will those of us that teach two to three Standalone courses
051get the time to totally change their whole curriculum before next year I certainly have to do that we are not getting the time this is why teachers want to eliminate most initiatives because even if they're worthwhile they add exponentially more work to staff without input or feedback and without the time to make them successful initiatives don't work without staff buyin we're not being asked anything um dumbing we've had this inundated with us with high schools since covid dumbing down curriculum Pathways eliminating prerequisites the 3070 grading split eliminating re required courses standardized based grading and now there's talk of weighted GPA we can't handle all those things at once we don't get a time to breathe after one of them comes before another one dismantles it um this hurts teacher retention destroys any positive relationship between
052school-based staff and the district and honestly Mak it it harder for staff to to come to school every day we're disheartened and angry we can't trust the mmsd for anything to do the right thing any at any time if we're concerned about the wellness of school-based Staff or retention of staff for the sake of our kids we must significantly slow down these initiatives to have more time and allow real input for staff the districts shown no real effort to lessen the burden of initiatives they will not do this on your own please give some direction to retain school-based staff and consider eliminating only those that make more work for staff thank thank you we'll have Amanda I think this is fore orne okay thank you and then following will be um Corey Rich Corey or
053Carrie rich okay hi my name is Amanda forche my pronouns are sh and I am a speak uh I am a teacher at East High School I'm here speaking with regards to the budget cuts and the staff Surplus that is occurring as a result um please excuse my voice I have come down with a head cold recently I don't have enough sick days to fully recover so I've been teaching all day with a voice like this uh to be honest it has been both shocking and upsetting to hear about these proposed budget cuts especially in light of both the recent operating referendum and the district's Vision that quote every child will graduate ready for college career and Community end quote with the proposed staff Surplus at East High School alone we would lose nearly seven
054full-time teachers that have preparing the very student students that mmsd claims are so important this reduction in staff would lead to increased class sizes decreased elective opportunities among other effects and none of this improves the odds that again quote every child will graduate ready for college career and Community I will admit I am not impartial here I am one of the staff members who was approached about being Surplus from East High School due to a variety of factors this will be the fourth time that I have been surplused from a school two here and two at a previous District being surplused again would mean that when I start my ninth year of teaching in Fall of 2025 I would be doing so at the fifth School in my career it is worth noting that after
055three of these four experiences the schools ultimately decided to hire for the position I was forced to vacate the a position I was told there was simply no room in the budget for based on the differences in projected enrollment versus actual enrollment in previous years I am greatly concerned that that exact situation will happen again there are consequences to this repeated disruption we as teachers have to become acclimated to several different School cultures instead of growing and building upon one that is familiar we have to start fresh in building relationships with students an aspect of teaching that is crucial to their academic growth it becomes harder for us to celebrate our students long-term successes because we aren't around to see them I will be finishing my eighth year of teaching and I have taught ninth
056grade students for seven of those eight years however I have still not ever seen a freshman class that I have taught graduate while I am at their school this has been brutal for me and my students throughout the years as we grow together only to have that growth severed and fractured over and over again I implore you to reconsider the budget cuts that will lead to these teacher surpluses and if you choose not to reconsider I have a challenge for you take the time to come into each classroom and explain to the children of fmsd why their teachers are leaving if this sounds like a daunting task one that you don't have the skills for I completely understand but then it seems that keeping the people who do have those skills where they are should
057be prioritized in the budget thank you for your time [Applause] Corey or Carrie Corey Corey okay and then following you Corey we'll have Maria Brown just wanted to start off by thanking you all for having me tonight I'm Corey Rich I'm the director of the Legacy program for operation Fresh Start so to come here and thank you all for your partnership with operation fresh start and our Legacy program and just acknowledge that your willingness to partner with operation fresh start and similar programs in uh in Madison is allowing students to find Success Through non-traditional Pathways uh and I wanted to to share some examples of that or one in particular to highlight that that success doesn't stop at the receipt of the diploma so we've got one of our upcoming graduates from our conservation Academy
058he graduated through our Legacy program about a year and a half ago uh this is a young man who had disconnected from high school who was not uh on track to graduate and you know had disengaged from school so graduated with us about a year and a half ago since then has re-engaged earned that high school diploma and joined our conservation Academy where he has since earned his pre-apprenticeship in urban forestry his driver's license uh Federal certifications in Wild in firefighting and state certifications and Chainsaw use and is currently sitting on three separate offers from the city of Madison for employment and has made it through to the second round of hiring for two different positions for Dane County so this is a young man who short time ago did not have a pathway forward
059and through you know our partnership uh which you were key in is got a legitimate pathway towards self- sustaining employment uh and that's to say nothing of the increase and confidence that this young man has experienced so just wanted to come here and thank you all for that uh and also say that it's not a unique situation for us we see this success often with our students I'd like to invite you all to come experience a little bit of that with us we've got two upcoming graduations so next week on Tuesday the 25th and Thursday the 27th both at 4M at operation Fresh Start we have mmsd graduations occurring and then also wanted to invite you all and everyone else we have a Schoolboard candidate form at operation fresh start tomorrow at 3:00 so please
060feel free to join us thank you for your time before I start I just want to say thanks because I live in an operation Fresh Start home so Maria Brown B Hamilton Middle School I'm here on behalf of staff um all across the district to ask you the board to work with superintendent goth to find ways to work to balance the budget that do not reduce our numbers of staff that work face Toof face with students we know that you're working to be fiscally responsible I'm a taxpayer myself and I appreciate that but you cannot continue to balance the budget on the backs of hardworking teachers educational sport professionals and student service staff you cannot continue to increase class size and pass increased Insurance costs on to these same folks it's time to look at
061Doyle central office whatever title you'd like to give it and see where Staffing and costs can be reduced without impacting our school staff's ability to provide the quality education our students deserve it's time to truly put kids first a side note on behalf of folks who don't know they own fines for the district's tax withholding error the District needs to do more my school just hosted the badger Invitational Science Olympiad competition and finished in second place we had 50 schools from the Midwest participating in this shockingly I'm sure the staff involved in organizing this did not have time to notice the short turnaround for applying for financial assistance for the overdue taxes do the right thing extend this deadline and help employees manage an issue that that is your error thank you all right next
062up will be Emily Miller and then following will be Mark uh rner rner greetings thank you so much for being here in your service uh my name is Emily Miller and I'm a social studies teacher at West high but I am also a parent of a current Junior and a parent of two Madison alums I'm here to talk about something which does not involve money go figure or allocation but which like small smaller class sizes does improve student learning and it's something which you all have the power to fix with the flick of your keyboard curious what I'm about to talk about is the high school calendar specifically we need more instructional days with students and fewer staff only days at the high school level let me explain last week at the high school level
063we only had three days of instructional time and the week prior to that we only had four days it's gotten to the point where even students even my own son who is really not the most academically driven was asking hey Which Way days do we have school this week so we had Friday offer conferences Monday offer PD even though we had just had another PD two weeks prior and Tuesday was a junior only day for the ACT well officially it was virtual learning for other students but how many students actually engaged in that virtual learning and this was all happening just 11 days before spring break we have seen a steady erosion of instructional time with students since chetam was superintendent but this year it reached an illogical extreme with a total of 10 staffon
064days one each month and the first one being only two weeks after the start of the school year when we're trying to establish routines and build community we also have missed instructional dime to to one staff Wellness day two days for conferences two days off from classes for standardized testing this means that we have only 168 instructional days at the high school level trust me I've counted in AP classes like Dominic mentioned there if ranges from 135 to 147 days before the AP exams whatever happened to having 180 days of actual Hands-On learning adding minutes to each day does not make up for fewer days that is not how learning works I appreciate the good intention Behind These additional staff only days allegedly they were created to replace the professional collaboration time that used to
065happen during our early release Mondays but please understand that replacing consistent teacher planning time with entire days off from school is not helpful to teachers or students as one teacher recently told me we can't get any traction in learning with the constant interruptions to instruction another colleague who teaches English Lang language Learners described how her student had spent the last five days off um in their apartments and quote as they told her bored there is only so much content they can complete on their own without teacher support as for those students who were taking the act on Tuesday after being away from school for four days in a row how well do you think they did any psychologist of adolescence will tell you that their heads were probably not fully in the mindset of school
066or high stake test after such a prolonged absence please understand that every lost instructional day means lost opportunities of close reading practicing writing collaborative problem solving conducting a science lab of having students engage in discussing controversial issues in a civil manner it means one less lesson on cell division personal finance or perhaps even learning how to recognize early signs of fascism these lessons and opportunities matter they matter for all students but they especially matter for those students who are struggling with overcoming the opportunity Gap in education I find it ironic that mmsd wants more students to be enrolled in AP classes how are we supporting those students I will email the rest of this okay thank [Applause] you all right we have Mark and then following will be Rebecca hail thank you for the opportunity
067to speak my name is Mark richner I'm a parent of two Marquette Elementary School teach uh students and and I'm a third grade teacher at Marquette in the MTI I'm concerned by The District's cut the staff at lapam and Marquette the schools have lost three seas who Ser serve students whose needs must be bet and one classroom teacher who lost result in second grades at the maximum 27 count a class size at a maximum set in 2017 is not kids first and will not meet students needs in our post-pandemic classrooms as often happens at these small Schools student numbers will likely go up as the year begins causing a teacher to be hired at the last possible moment this pattern of surplus and then hiring late signals that teachers are disposable and goes against creating
068strong School communities and putting kids first I urge the board to take action by updating the class siiz policy to maintain optimal class sizes for Effective learning and truly putting kids first thank you for your time hello hello my name is Rebecca H and I teach Orchestra AP music theory and general music at East High School um I attended last week's board meeting from 5: to 9:00 pm so I'm well aware of the conversation that happened about around allocation and budget today I'm just here to share my experience during this year's allocation process as a newi is educ to the district um my husband Josh and I moved from a small town in Mississippi to Madison in the summer of 2022 Madison is our destination city with the cultures and values that match our own
069from my interview with my principal to meeting my colleagues at East I felt like the district valued their teaching Workforce and music education I had a big dream to grow the music program and offer music education to as many students as possible since starting at the district my East Orchestra program has grown from 65 students to 100 students with a projected number of 150 students for the 25 26 school year I'm actually having to start conversations on solutions to accommodate a quickly growing program that could easily reach 200 students within the next couple years this growth is a reaction to opportunity the opportunity for students to improve as a musician the opportunity to be part of a community to um show off their skills to the community and give back the gift of music to
070a city that they love this requires time time during my lunch my break hours where my students who my students that don't have instrument at home or can't afford private lessons I practice with them in the room time after school I organize performances around the community so my students feel like they are working on their music for a reason I spent my weekends putting events together to help build to help build the AU community on the east side um there has been a lot of talk about declining enrollment numbers leading to changes in allocation but I was not worried because everyone my colleagues my students their parents has been telling me how great a job I was doing so imagine how surprised I was when I was told that we are losing allocation in the
071music department a day before our February 26 combined concert all I felt in that moment was that the work I have been doing the time I had spent in and outside class had me nothing I felt that the district didn't care about mus education and the growth of my program I wondered was moving here a mistake did I trust my dream my future to the wrong District I was worried about how I did no longer get to offer students to my offer support to my students how no longer fulfill my credibility mission to provide music education to more students how without my full attention at East High School the momentum in growing our Lal Community would slow down and all the time I spent planning for the future has suddenly become pointless I am shaken
072now even though I was fortunate to have my allocation restored during the adjustment process it's hard for me to trust the district to support my long-term goals part of me wonders is it worth it to continue my mission how much do I need to prove that I'm doing a good job and that my kids needs they deserves a good news education this whole entire non-transparent allocation budget cuts process has shaken the trust of teachers students and parents and it will take a lot of work to build that trust again thank you so so [Applause] much thank you next is I think it's Leon Alvarado and then um our final speaker will be Daniel I think it's kden I apologize in advance hello my name is Leon Alvarado I am 19 years old and last June
073I graduated from Madison East High School as a very recent student in mmsd I think it's completely unreasonable to cut Staffing I've been in classrooms with more students than shares I've watched teachers struggle to effectively teach their classes because there's simply too many students at a time I've seen students burn out because they can't get the support they need to succeed despite Educator's best efforts I've been hearing from my friends and my little siblings who are still in school complain about how class sizes are simply too large for them to learn effectively and with more open housing in the area prompting more families to move in they're just going to get larger teachers have had to split class sections in half because they've exceeded 60 students teachers can't teach students can't learn and now we're
074trying to make it harder I'm planning on going to school for education and I have to wonder whether my future is one where students are provided the best education possible in supportive and engaging environments or one where teachers and staff are barely able to connect with their students because there aren't enough people to teach them is this Staffing cut really because we have a surplus and can't afford to pay them or is it because you're willing to provide students with a weakened education so long as there's fewer people on your payroll thank you hello am all right okay uh my name is Dan Kaplan I am a father of a student at L um Elementary uh I think everyone else has spoken really eloquently and made excellent points about the um budget allocation Cuts so
075I uh want to like reiterate those things but I think I can add something new uh just to what's been voiced today as someone who is cares a lot about how our East Side education uh system is working but doesn't feel like they can devote the amount of time to stay very involved in the particulars of it so what I've sort of learned from listening through through this that I think a lot of other parents will probably take away from is um is that the the uh class siiz maximum seem like shocking that seems like kind of a fundamentally wrong thing I I can't really understand how it's Justified that class sizes could be that big um um uh I also think that the main thing that parents care about are the people who can
076um make deep and important connections with their kids at school and that ultimately what like really matters is the ability for them to do that and so things like small class sizes and having teachers have um you know better compensation and like more um uh choices related to their Healthcare options all of that s sort of you know ultimately seems like the big picture it's just do things so that teachers feel like they can make deep connections with kids because that's what will actually change kids lives um and so that seemed like the really big picture thing that I hope the board can stay aware of as it navigates all of the very difficult bureaucratic crap you guys have to navigate with all the time to make decisions I mean it should be acknowledged that
077that's really hard and so I I value too that you have to go through and do that that work because it sucks um and someone has to do it and so I I think I want to say that like I really thank you for doing that and this seems like one of those moments where looking back and staying more focused on the ultimate end goal should like make us have some other solutions to this budget problem so thanks that's what I want to say thank you to all of our registered speakers I also wanted to acknowledge there are individuals who registered tonight but did not wish to speak um um one person who was in favor of teacher allocation um and making sure that we um adjust for large class sizes another person also hear
078about writing about teacher allocations wanting more transparency um in the funding and um restoring teachers another one um just simply in support of um teacher allocations another wants to avoid cuts and um another also wants to avoid cuts um and wants more staff to work with our students not less so I just wanted to acknowledge those thank you all for coming tonight okay we will now move um through our agenda and um we will go into our approval of the minutes I move that the Board of Education approve the minutes from the regular meeting dated February 24th 2025 second Maya in favor oh and Megan your advisory vote all right that passes unanimously thank you we'll now move into board president's announcements and reports first we're going to start with some congratulations um Metro High
079educator Kate shed shedler was recognized as teacher of the month by the national at risk education Network in Wisconsin for her outstanding work with vulnerable students Alex Heinrich of Memorial earned two division one state titles in swimming and Diving first in the 100 free and first in in the 100 fly mmsd head cook Annette Jackson was featured by Madison magazine for her dedication to providing breakfast and lunch to all elementary and middle school students and the Velma Hamilton Middle School 8ighth grade choir performed at the Wisconsin State capol rotunda Thursday as part of the Wisconsin music educator association's Capital concert series they were the only Middle School in the state invited vice president Pearson will pick up some more announcements yeah that was it was a beautiful concert um mmsd 2025 academic calendar 2025 2026
080academic calendar many of you may be excited to hear that MMD 2025 2026 academic calendar is now available online at mmc.org each year a committee of District staff and MTI Representatives meet over a series of months to finalize important dates for the upcoming school year we are appreciative of all the hard work of all who had a hand in finalizing next year's calendar as well as the patience of all of our mmsd families and staff as they as this work took place Community engagement thank you to the community members staff and students who participated in the first round of input sessions for Sherman shabaz Blackhawk and gers we look forward to the continued engagement for with the community as these projects for the referendum um are further refined your input is important and valued and
081then to close us out in tonight's consent agenda the board would like to acknowledge and thank all individuals and organizations that have donated to the district especially souls for Souls which is donating shoes to support students experiencing homelessness or out of Home Care um and also for families as supplies are available over the next five years they will donate 5,000 pairs of shoes which is valued at $200,000 so many thanks and with that I will pass it on over to superintendent goth for his thank you president Nichol members of the board Community um first of all I just want to say thank you to the schools that I've been able to visit I've shared with many that I'm I'm now doing structured visits at each of our schools a chance for me to spend time
082with students with staff um with the principles trying to understand what it's like to be a student a staff a parent a stakeholder in in the day and of course based on the time of the year uh the themes of the meetings have changed greatly in terms of what's on the mind of of Staff but I found them to be very valuable and though many of you know that I have a um you know a deep background in Madison I have learned so much uh from from those visits and I really look forward to it I'll be at Blackhawk Middle tomorrow and I think I'm at lbum later this week um as well um next is uh this week I also or last week I was at the Wisconsin Association of school boards day at
083the state capital um here you see in the picture Senator Ratcliff many of you know in a group of board members and administrators from what I can see um in the photo many of who I don't knows but uh but I believe most of them are from Dan County this is kind of a local delegation the day started with a panel of both uh GOP members and dfl leaders where we got a chance to hear from them their perspectives on the upcoming or the the ongoing session I have to share with you I did feel I think there was a a hint of optimism in the room and just the fact that from all four of the members regardless of their party supports of special education funding came up um and and their hearing loud
084and clear is the number one issue that I think every single one of their colleagues is talking about that's a long way from having a budget a Target and an approval on said budget but it's definitely a start and something that uh that I think we need to continue to build on advocacy is going to continue to be important for me uh I know it is for the board and I need it to be for the entire Community as well um some of what we heard tonight and trust me I'm not blaming any of the decisions on on factors that are out of our control you all know that that I make recommendations to the board for their approval um but it would be very much helpful if we could get more than 28% of
085the reimbursement on special education 28% of the reimbursement on special education which means that every year or this year we're spending $6 66.4 million to close a gap uh that the state has not made for um funding for federal idea services that we provide to students and we do so a and as inclusive as we possibly can so it's past time for us to get some movement on special education the state superintendent budget raised it to 90% of reimbursement Governor iver's um budget was raised it to 60% just to give you some real numbers on that it'd be about $30 million an additional uh revenue for mmsd if we got 60% and another $30 million if it was 90% one key thing that I want to point out the reason that we only received 28%
086this year is because it was a some figure meaning that the agreement was over 30% but because it was some certain there's flexibility and how much states or districts actually get reimbursed with a sus sufficient number that number is fixed so if it's 30 or if it's 60% you get a 60% reimbursement if it's 90% you get 90% on your reimbursement so very important as we're advocating some sufficient and 90% are actually fully funded why would we ask for anything less than that especially when the state has A4 billion dollar Surplus um so again this advocacy is going to continue to be important um I'll do my part but I know for a fact that more voices are going to lead to better success uh recently I was also able to travel and attend the
087ASA National Conference was able to to award uh superintendent Walter gonin of Jefferson County Public Schools outside of Birmingham Alabama as this year's National superintendent of the year uh truly a highlight uh for me to to watch somebody else receive uh that award and and be able to to walk away knowing that I'm going to get back to Madison and continue to do great work so that year is over it's been uh quite a year with a lot of change uh but I'm really proud uh to have represented mmsd and our association awarding Dr gin's this year's award U right here in this room we had the 26th I couldn't believe it Dr Rose said this 26 years 100 black men of Madison Inc has been sponsoring the African-American history academic challenge um we have
088some veterans on the board from that and we have some parents who were in the audience uh celebrating and cheering on their children as well uh but so nice to see uh Dr Rose and so many of the other 100 black men who have been doing this for years uh continue to to make space for uh this longtime partnership and to allow our students to show off their stuff in a competitive Spirit uh lafalot high school and Spring Harbor students took first place in their divisions in advance to the regional competition on Friday I've not heard the results of Friday's competition Spring Harbor I they were on it so that's great excellent Spring Harbor Middle School congratulations um they did a great job here and it does not surprise me at all that they took
089uh first place at the regional so wonderful job and again thank you to our partners U lastly um want to end by sharing some highlights Madison was named and this is important for us um you heard tonight um how many people are tuning into the tremendous growth and changing in our city and when we see headlines like this that Madison is ranked number three on the list of best cities for working families in 2025 not only do we have to promote that but we have to live up to that as well uh and trust me as I hear people talking tonight it's a challenge that I accept it absolutely is um so it's important this is on our you'll see this on our website I think it's important to let people know about our city
090and you know for a fact that when you're someone who's moved to New cities one of the first things you do is look at school websites um it's a really important part of who we are and who our city is as well um so Madison also ranked number eight in prek through 12 schools um people truly want to come to Madison and one of the ways that I've been sharing this and I believe it went out in the parent uh the message that was sent out uh certainly to staff I think it one in our family connection newsletter as well but Madison the city of Madison has put out a online housing tracker and this is a transparent way that all of us other than me driving and coming back and telling the team did
091you see this building well we've got it on a dashboard now where you can look at where the city is growing or where it's about to grow um in in terms of available housing some of it affordable some maybe not so much but at any rate there's going to be great Mobility to our city and within our city and that's why it's important that I point this out there's ways that we look at that kind of growth and I do understand why and I'll use Hawthorne as an example my team is hurting we say this many times because for months I've been hearing the Hawthorne Community say you know we've got this new complex coming you know right at the old Gardener's Bakery site and I'm like yeah there's construction all over the city well
092about six weeks ago I went to Hawthorne and parked in the back parking lot there and I could barely move because I felt like that complex was on top of me so not only is it nearing completion but it is massive and these are the kinds of things that are happening throughout our city that we have to pay attention to but there's many ways that we have to pay attention to it one is growth in terms of new families new children coming into Madison but the other way the other way and it's so difficult for us to to sometimes understand this but movement around our city which means that students are going to be mobile and they might attend different schools or they might want to stay at their current School uh depending on where
093that move is so we have to look at both and and of course we want to keep our children here and our families here we also want to welcome new families as well so as it relates to the allocation I won't get into to deep details on this right now it's not really the purpose of my report but I think it's important as we talk about the growth of the city how are we going to adjust and one way that I'll share with you is at the elementary level you know I know that uh in a lot of the communication we got we're hearing from a few schools but this really is districtwide and here's how first of all I want to commend the board our staff in our community because in last school year
094you increased Elementary sections by 47 47 new sections to reduce class size was the investment and commitment that you made and I think it's commendable uh that you did that and we heard that uh tonight this last year for our projected enrollment for 2526 we made adjustments because of the changes in some of the schools enrollment based on the numbers that we have and yes there are some areas that we look and the last thing we want to do is push people right to the maximum that is we try to minimize that as much as possible in in the event that things do change and things could change in both directions we all know that as well but for this coming school year there are 10 schools elementary schools that are down one section there
095are four that are down two there are two that are down three and that's based on the sections that they have in that school there are two schools that are up5 there are three that are up one section there are four schools that are up two sections there are two schools that are up three sections so we've allocated sections again U last year you were up 47 this year we're down six from that we're still 41 more sections than we were two years ago and again that says a lot about the commitment that you have to maintain those small class sizes at elementary when you get into secondary schools it's a little little bit more Dynamic there is a lot more room for some site based decisions to be made uh in addition to just
096lump some allocation that buildings get and it's even different from middle school to high school but to stay with this theme of our dynamic city and our city changing we have one middle school that is projected to have 130 more students next year and I talked to that leader today and there is a bit of panic because in one year you are drastically changing the physical layout of that school and there are some real challenges so with this kind of growth yes it's a great opportunity and this leader was so um quick to say it's a good problem to have but it's still a challenge it it really is going to be a challenge this I'm afraid board community staff is going to be the new reality for Madison and for mmsd and it's one
097that I'm learning tonight that we've gota I've got to find a new way to do this in a way that's that's side by side with people I can't hold on all the information I know even though a lot of the information information I receive is from you all people say did you know this new development is coming or the Wisconsin State Journal reports a new development first I've heard it I'm blaming no one I think we all know that Madison is expected to grow by 100,000 people in the next 50 years and that's putting a tremendous a tremendous stress on on our great City and one again that I'm I'm not going to run away from or shy away from one that I'm going to embrace and work with our people all of our people
098and you so that we can deliver what we heard tonight and we've heard so much people want from mmsd they want from their leaders they want from their board members they want from their school communities um so with that I just wanted to give a little bit more information on some of the available data that I have right now and again I will share with you that this is also a snapshot in time you know that the board also approves on allocated resources that we do find reasons that we have to make adjustments sometimes they in September after third Friday count but more times than not they happen in between today and September as well if there is a reason to Warrant that so I just want to share a little bit of highlight on
099that I know there's not really a portion for me tonight to go in any deeper on this but I thought it was a good opportunity with the changes our city is seeing right now and will be in the future to kind of line that with some of our thinking around adjusting how our resources are distributed throughout the city so with that I'll conclude my report president Nichols thank you for that Dr Gothard um I appreciate you incorporating some updates on the allocation and kind of reminding us of the big picture of kind of section at least across Elementary um as well as some of the dynamic factors that you said happen at secondary I think uh and this is not necessarily for you to respond to tonight I think one of the things that has
100um come through a couple of our meetings now right like our operations workg group our board meeting tonight and plus other ways that folks communicate with board members um is is some desire to have a a better understanding of of how the decisions are being made um and so my hope is that as you continue to be in our district and our our better understanding what that process looks like from February through spring that we can continue to um try to make that more transparent um for folks so it it it may not change every single outcome but I think people have a better understanding of the why and the how um it it might it might also help and president Nicholls board members I'll I'll share with you that you know it's three even
101more I mean distinct ways of of how it's done I mean looking at enrollment in sections at elementary is very different than course elections and things that we're offering at the secondary level but again I think that's going to be important so perhaps a way to kind of isolate and really focus on level by level at a time and and do this work in a way that I can report back to you in the community to start with we've already started talking about clearly from the feedback we've re we've received there's Improvement that needs to be made and we've already started discussions about what we'd like to do differently we don't want to wait till next year yeah we want to start now right with projecting really good enrollment making sure people understand how what
102numbers we use and making decisions accordingly thank you so much board member of Vander M yes and my question I respect you for saying all of that and I but my uh quick question is because I didn't write it down right what is a projected enrollment because I know it's slightly higher than something and I did not write it down and it's been I've been combing my notes priv private and I yeah president Nichols uh board members board member Vander Millan I don't don't have the overall right in front of I get it right um you know for for overall but again as I described to you like that one school it's up 130 there's other schools where it's down the projection is down 50 as well but I'll I'll get I'll make sure that
103I have the accurate number that we've used for our point in time for allocation purposes I think that's important as well I really appreciate thank you all right thank you so much for your report um and thank you also for being up at the state capital um last week advocating for an increase in special education funding all right we are going to report on items that proceeded through the instruction work group held on March 3rd 2025 and I'm going to turn that over to chair Alro so much for president Nichols at our most recent instruction work group we discussed class size and student well-being and mental health in our next instruction work group we will be discussing our Partnerships and our community schools we'll hear from our our entire District in relationship to the meaningful
104Partnerships we are coordinating throughout the community um as well as the role of our community school um with a system wise approach to that work thank you um we'll next hear a report on items that proceeded through the operations work group held on March 10th 2025 uh chair asro thank you we held our operations work group on March 10th um we received updates regarding food and N uh nutrition the ref ROM relating to uh construction um and and then we had um we provided Direction on healthc care the employee handbook process Staffing and further development of the the budget specifically with Revenue projections um our next meeting is slated for April 21 2025 where we will receive a our first uh draft of the budget um get an update regarding the insurance uh discussions negotiations
105and the the the handbook and so that'll be April 21 thank you uh there were not action items that proceeded through either of the work groups that we have to take action on tonight so I will go to 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 March 17th 2025 regular school board meeting exactly as said motions are written by voting affirmatively on this motion a board member expresses his her or their affirmative vote on each of the Motions Consolidated hereby subject to any Express separations that have been made by any member of the School Board second Maya any separations for member Vander Mulan yes um 10.8 10.18 10.19 10.20 and 10.21 okay so let
106me repeat those 10.8 10.18 10.19 can you repeat the rest oh sorry I'm I'm trying to follow I apologize 10.20 and 10.21 okay and I think oh I'm sorry or member malro and 10.22 okay all right so the motion is on the rest of the consent items um Megan your advisory vote all those in favor all right thank you that passes unanimously all right let me go back to 10.8 hold one moment I move that the Board of Education approve a contract to purchase the video boards at luer and Manfield stadiums proces it says to be used by all four Comprehensive High School athletic teams and provide training as set forth in quotes from daktronics cost will be reimbursed using sponsorship advertising agreements held by the district total costs are anticipated to not exceed as
107videos such as new scoreboards such as anything like that because it's just a building it's not a person it's not a staff it's not teaching and that's all I want to say the other three are really Quicks okay any other questions or comments on this board member malro okay um Megan your advisory vote all right all those in favor I all right that and then all those opposed all right thank you that passes 61 all right I'll move down to 10.8 okay I have to read the motion I move that the Board of Education award the bid of $1 m2500 from gbr Corporation to 250 $215,600 from Pioneer Roofing and $374,999 from GE rord company for a total cost of $ 4,945 548 to replace failing sections of roof at lalet and West high schools
108with funding from the referendum 2020 and Building Services maintenance accounts all right sorry second over again because it wasn't heard and um my uh question is on this particular item I know we recently renovated the new schools is this just typical maintenance that occurs I I just was confused by that then the other three I'm just uh curious if they were bid okay let's stay on this one at the moment I'm jumping on President Nichols members of the board board member B of exe senior executive director Scott chak provide information on this item thank you Scott yes we are going back to ref 20 funds to the other the stuff that was cut out of the first initial section that was value engineered out so we're going back and correcting the roofs that will F
109in West for criticals that is super important that's all I needed to know and my other three are all okay uh board member malra did I just asked how much is remaining in the facilities referendum funding from 2020 that's right how much funding is remaining right around seven million right around seven million and so after this we'll have about two million left correct and we're working on doing other things to clean up the schools for the punch list items as well things value engineered op it's hard to we got to hear you a little better we're also going back and addressing things from next board meetings be value engineered back into the schools that were taken on from the beginning does this impact the even distribution of resources related to that referendum no okay and
110so the remaining about two million will that be evenly split between the four Comprehensive High Schools yes that is the point okay and is there any additional work related to Capital High I'm sorry kind of um related to Capital High or like we just renamed this Elementary School yes there will be a few more one is for capital for lbers for ventilation system and there will be a few more for Southside car okay thank you remember Moser F can you speak to um your the what do you anti ipate like our next Super exciting referendum projects uh will we be replacing the roofs on those like shortly after we renovate them or is there a different plan for this next referendum for the renovation projects uh upcoming I'm asking like we just renovated these high
111schools and now we're going back to fix the roofs so obviously we missed something in the first round of referendum so I'm asking you to speak on um your plans to make sure that doesn't happen again yeah yes that's one of the valued part of our job is to take sure this infrastructure is complete that that is part of our initial plans to infrastructure first and teaching and learning secondly AC great thank you Mike in your advisory vote all those in [Music] favor all those okay looks like that passed unanimously thank you all right 10.19 [Music] I move that the Board of educ Education approve a Reconciliation to increase the purchase order 23257 for referendum related Moving and Storage Services provided by C kley relocation systems in the total amount of $438,500 for a project
112total of $1,443 45 funded by the referendum 2020 non-construction Services budget second Nikki yes b m yes just concerned that we didn't bid out some of these as much as I thought we possibly would is that because that we had referendum agreements and so we didn't need to that's where I was confused president Nichols members of the board board member Vander Millan executive director Chek talk about the process again remember just to ref familiarize everyone an occupied construction site there was uh you know a lot of equipment that had to be moved out in order to conduct this work and uh this item is related to that yeah and it was bit out and used we had to used multiple vendors and those vendors were spread across the four schools this is the actually was
113one left the memorial they also helped in another side as well that makes more sense all right Megan your advis thank you Megan your advisory vote all those in favor I my okay uh it looks like that passed unanimously um okay well th have th have already been separated so I still need to read the motion so board member veran has indicated that for 10.20 and 10.21 MH you don't you don't necessarily want discussion on it correct but I'm going to still read the Motions because they were separated when we took the previous vote I move that the Board of Education approve an increase to purchase order 4262 provided by anchor moving in the total of $4,200 for a project total of$ 1,714 n643 funded by the referendum 2020 non-construction Services budget second perfect Megan
114your advisory vote all those in favor all right that passes unanimously and 10.21 I move that the Board of Education approve the replacement of the memorial spectator gym 1505 bleachers by the Goodson company for a total of $244,000 funded by the fiscal year 26 Building Services operating budget second okay do you have discussion on this one all right Megan your advisory vote all those in favor all right thank you that passes I'm oppos oh I'm sorry those opposed all right thank you that passes six1 all right let's go to 10.22 [Music] I move that the Board of Education accept a leap Grant in the $20,000 from the Green Bay Packers and US Cellular to enhance technology and stem education at Leopold Elementary second all right board member um malro this was yours right yes okay
115I pulled this just simply to express our gratitude for this support for Leopold Elementary School students want to thank the Green Bay pack and US Cellular for allowing our students to have greater access to technology and stem I'm sorry technology and stem education um at an early age this investment will go a long way in supporting our young people um and I'm tremendously appreciative of this donation thank you Megan your advisory vote all those in [Music] favor all right that passes unanimously all right other reports to the board um City County Schools collaborative committee we did not meet in March and our next proposed meeting is on April 9th of 2025 yeah I was just gonna share an update so the update is and board member simin um spoke to this at our last board
116meeting but we do want the board to know that that committee um has been having several months of conversations about the amount of um Staffing it takes and support currently from the city um and the the city has also been reviewing its committees um and committee structures so there is um there is a proposal at this point to repurpose that committee um moving forward with a new kind of more deepened commitment on the joint purpose of the committee and Dr Gothard has been um taking the lead in his role to connect with the mayor and hopefully the county exec um fairly soon so that we can re kind of draft the purpose of that committee and to make it um more impactful so we um did not meet in in March because we were still
117giving um Dr Gothard some time to make his rounds in communication um and then the thinking is although the committee has not voted on it yet the committee's only been in discussion about it the thinking is the committee would then move to a quarterly meeting and there would be um joint issues of kind of set on the agenda between the superintendent the mayor and the county exec so that that's just kind of the update um so hopefully we'll have we'll be able to decide more at the next meeting on April 9th for member malra president Nichols I want to thank you for your service on course of the last three years my hope is that as we um navigate the complexity of our current political reality in terms of our relationship the state and our
118relationship to the federal government that we're working together concret concretely locally in the best interest of our children and my concern um in having this committee meet fewer times is that uh mmsd will absorb an inappropriate amount of responsibility for this community's children I think that we have to be able to work in partnership with the county um and partnership with the city to serve our young people I also think in terms of the distribution of resources that is relevant to local government government and governance um our county is positioned a lot better than us to build a new jail than we are to build a new school and if we are are going to work together effectively we have to kind of reconcile the different realities of how we as bodies are positioned so
119my hope um is that there is is greater shared responsibility and that's not my way of saying I hope the city keeps this committee um entirely in terms of its Staffing but I do hope that it is split three ways that four months out of the year uh the school district is owning this work to a greater extent four months out of the Year our County Board supervisors are owning this work and and facilitating this committee and four months out of the Year our city is doing that I think that even distribution of Labor um allows for us to alleviate some of the work from the city while remaining committed to doing this work in collaboration I understand that there's a lot of nuance to this and I look forward to the update that informs
120how we are moving forward but I thought it was important to State My Hope um I think we're really dependent on local government and our ability to work together right now and I think it would be a mistake um to back away from opportunities to be in collaboration at a time like this thank you for that Dr Gard president Nichols and board member mro um really good points and first I just want to say there's nothing formal right now there isn't a new ordinance or a new um agreement that that's been drawn these are discussions only I do think it's important for you to express elected to elected how you'd like to see this go because there are some differences between the work that I do with uh with with may ro Conway and with
121County Executive aard you know and here's an example of that I guess I didn't know this because I've never counted thank goodness there's 37 County Commissioners you know not all of them are in Madison so that's a real difference when I think about how I approach Dan County as a body so you know and and again I'm not saying we shouldn't because we have to work with them they're our partners but I mean there's some new there is some Nuance to this without a doubt so I think we're getting closer I did have a good meeting with County Executive aard last week um Dr McCrae and I met so I I don't think we've made any final decisions and I do think that the ongoing work is important as well as an example I'm not
122on or I haven't been I think I came to one of the meetings president Nichols had me come in but I'm working with our city and county Partners all the time too so are there some different spaces that we can we don't de codify everything but at least make more intentional where perhaps a board member or two joined me in some of those meetings or likewise I joined you in some of those meetings I think would be another informal way to continue the strengthening the partnership as well board member simin so thank you board member mro for those thoughts um I want to share in this space what I shared during that last meeting um with with the committee which is that I think that um there is there is a while there is a
123very strong desire to um make some sort of structural change with the committee I I think that the keeping the relationship with County and City feels really critical and figuring out a way to make sure that that we have regular communication and um thoughtful conversation around our communities shared responsibility for children feels critical um I do see an opportunity for um some collaboration around advocacy and when we're thinking about um just the need for for greater funding and for for our for our children within our community I think this is a really appropriate space for those conversations to be happening and I think that we could be effective Advocates together with the city and with the county board member maljo I greatly appreciate that perspective board member sinkin I do think I want to emphasize
124that whatever configuration of this work we do um I have nervousness that it bypasses the bodies of governance that we elected to to serve our greater community and so although I greatly appreciate the work of our mayor and our County Executive I also appreciate the work of their boards um and their city council and and and this board and and our role in being able to collaborate effectively with the community and so I I think this is a moment in which it benefits us greatly um not to Silo executive leadership and to work in in the greatest possible collaboration that we can obviously in an organized and well facilitated way so I very much appreciate you highlighting what it looks like for board members to kind of attend spaces in collaboration with you and for
125you to attend spaces in collaboration with us I am hoping that we have a system that empowers um that level of communication and collaboration very intentionally all right student Senate okay um so I want to make a quick correction board dos um the agenda that you see there is from February 26th we did have a meeting on March 12th but that is not what we did um so on February 26 Dr Gothard and Mr affel met with us in our mental health committee to talk about um a potential event related to Student Wellness um later on this semester so thank you so much for being willing to give us some of your time and your support through that um we also met with the superintendent advisory committee where our students were able to participate in
126a student panel and give some feedback on um um just different aspects of Education that were good were areas for improvement um so that was a great opportunity as well before going into committee time and then on March 12th we went over the election information for the next president and Board of Education representative um right now our elections are going to be taking place in May with the next president and Board of Education rep officially starting their terms in June um and then we had another mental health committee meeting about the event and then went back into committee time our next meeting is on April 2nd that's all Megan it it was great to hear all to hear and see all of your work at the instruction work group so it's it's nice to hear
127that work is continuing on so thank you for all of that all right Madison community recreation advisory committee that's me um thank you president Nichols uh registration for mscr summer programs opened last Monday over 10,500 people have already registered but there are still many options for awesome spring and summer activities for the whole family nonresident registration begins on March 24th adult softball registration open today it's the perfect time to get your team together B of Ed team anybody no not me either but other people should uh spread the word um that mscr summer jobs are now available we cannot make the program the community loves happen without the hundreds of dedicated seasonal staff working in them there are open jobs for um young people as well so check out the msdr website nice all right
128we do need to um dissolve the citizens ad hoc committee for the naming of Southside Elementary so I'm going to read this motion I move that the Board of Education dissolve the citizens ad hoc committee relative to the naming of outside Elementary School the school was renamed to Lori man Cary Elementary School on February 24th 2025 second Maya Megan your advisory vote all those in favor all right that passes unanimously policy committee yeah so since our last um Regular Board of Education meeting we um at our special um meeting for policy on March 13th um reviewed our Title 9 U policy the 80 uh 12a as well as our um it's currently right now considered the Board of Education ethics uh policy which is 1540 um and we um pars out possible new policies from
129that policy um and we are looking to make those updates currently and we'll come back to the board with an update um on where some policies will lie and and update our calendar for that thank you all right in other business we do have a strategic framework update um so I'll turn it over to Dr thank you president Nichols members of the board Dr McCrae give an update on our strategic planning uh update as of today we're waiting on Jesse to pull the slide up um no take your time um super excited to be here before you today to provide an update on where we are with our sh framework um I am joined online by Kyle who is a member of R2 RTI who will kind of jump in and help me co-present this
130um why don't we get started with our next slide please Jesse so um the first thing that we kind of wanted to do can go back one more slide there we go is think about what we are actually doing so as a committee we believe that this body of work is a crucial document for our future um and for our district we are believing that this is truly what Ard nor star is and ensuring that this work will provide us to have clear and consistent direction for where we are right now as a district and where we are going um in order to do this work we have partner with RTI which is an international organization that have um experiencing K12 strategic partnership and so we've been working to do with them and as I
131stated K's online who will help me co-present next slide so thus far we have really been um doing a lot of different work which has really been truly exciting I'm collecting voices from our different stakeholders we have put together a steering committee which is over 80 individuals that include board members central office staff Community leaders elected officials Faith leaders high education leaders parents principales support staff teachers and students um we have held oneon-one with board members to kind of collect their thoughts on our our vision for the board I mean I'm sorry for this work we've taken an opportunity to look at existing data first so we've analyzed that data and presented at the same time thus far as of dat we've held over 32 focus groups I'm hearing from over 600 different stakeholders thus
132far on where we're going as we're beginning to move into the planning phase next slide so this work is ongoing we are going to continue to engage our community members with the focus on traditional under repesentative groups we are working with a number of different organizations in order to be able to partner to do that work because we do want to make sure that we're hearing from all of our voices we are going to be um sitting in a draft and iterate the foundation principles of the plans and so you'll see that in a few minutes on exactly what the plan is going how it's going to be structured and what we've heard about how the plan should be structured thus far because we're hearing a lot of different things from stakeholders on what the
133plan should look like um we will be hearing and holding the implementation on coming up shortly with the number of our stakeholders about um how we going to implement as well as monitor the plan and then we're going to begin to solicit additional feedback so we're in a pre planning where we're gathering information we're going to draft and then we're going to go back into the community to make sure that we're we can hear from the community on what we've draft thus far before we bring it to our board for for them to have that approval all right and then I'm going to turn it over to Kyle who kind of talk about the structure and where we are with this on the next slide yeah absolutely thanks so much and great to be here
134uh with all of you again um again having met with each of you individually it's great to be here in front of the whole Community to share more about this work so I'd love to talk more about the the plan structure and sort of our our thoughts on on approval here for this if we'll go on to the next slide um as we mentioned or as Dr McCrae mentioned right we've heard from a lot of different people and a lot of different points we've heard from our steering committee we've heard from you as individual board members um we've also heard from staff um really answering questions about what what about the last plan has been working what about implementation has been working um and how should that inform the structure and a few things really
135stuck out to us right I think that this plan needs to be structurally different from the current plan and really Mark a fresh start we're at a very different place than we were when that last plan was implemented and so it needs to sort of be different um we also know that there are some things that we need to to keep we don't want to throw everything out right the district's focus on Equity um systems coherence we heard a lot about and also continuous Improvement need to really be Central tenants of this next plan um but also we we've heard that it needs to be more actionable I think one thing that stood out is uh I think we got some feedback that um it felt like the last plan seemed like we were trying
136to get the right answers on the quiz but we weren't necessarily thinking about what actions is is leading toward right and it needs to include more clear and measurable goals um so we heard that we think the structure we're going to propose hopefully can sort of get at some of that feedback but we also know that it needs to be Innovative and unique it has to meet this moment here in Madison um so let's go on to the next slide here so at a high level here I think I I kind of break plans some down sometimes into two pieces the foundations being that top real strategic broad Direction so here is sort of our our current proposed plan for the the structure of this this new framework right so we will revise the vision
137statement and add a new mission statement I think we heard from across the board that folks in the steering committee and even board members as well felt like adding that piece might make the the broad Vision we have a little more tangible um but we also heard that the specifically the core values did not feel actionable enough right they're saying the right things but we don't always see how they impact the practice in mmsd um also the goals that currently exist while aspirational don't necessarily provide a clear way to measure their progress So to that end we are sort of proposing some slight shifts here um we want to have clear goals three to five smart goals are as smart as we can get them right um to that can be used to measure our
138progress over the next five years smart goals um for those that aren't familiar with that term are specific measurable actionable realistic and time bound right those are specific criteria for the types of goals so really making them feel more real to people that we can really see our progress um each year annually but then by the time that the plan is at its end the other thing that we are excited to propose here is replacing the core values with gu in commitments so in our view these would be action-based statements that really operationalize the values through the development of focus areas and then strategies and then guide the decision-making at the district level you know we initially talked about these being guiding principles but really felt like the term commitment better demonstrated uh M msd's
139promise to be accountable for this sort of meaningful progress um and to the best of our ability we're also going to try to align the goals and commitments um while still ensuring the goals are smart I think that can be a little bit tricky um sometimes there's a lot of things we want to be able to measure that aren't always as cleanly measured as a smart goal um but we're really going to do our best to make sure we are trying to adhere to that again keeping this action oriented pieace in mind it needs to feel like that this plan is something that really is living out in our work and that's really impactful for doing so um and so the RTI team is going to work with the internal project team to draft some
140initial elements based on the student and community and staff input we want to make sure we hear from as much of the community first before we start sharing this out we don't want to put something out there while we're still listening to folks to hear what they're sharing we want to make sure we have a clear idea of like here is where we're going to propose them Bas we heard and then we'll get an opportunity to get some more feedback from board members and and steering committee members this is an iterative process as Dr McCrae mentioned and so it won't be that we just give you something and there we are at the end we will have opportunities for board members steering committee members in the community to weigh in on some of these elements
141before we move next slide please so once we have that um those foundations in place it gets to the elements that I always think of as sort of the implementation and monitoring elements what are the things we're going to implement and that we're going to do and then monitor over time to really have a good understanding of our success so we're proposing underneath this broader strategic vision of the foundations that we have four to six Focus areas now these will represent the most important levers to achieve the mission and vision that language may be familiar to some of you that have been on the steering committee I've used that around priorities but we kind of felt like Focus areas was a little more concrete for this um and this structure of the plan um but
142each of these Focus areas will then have real concrete strategies um and then additional metrics to have an idea of our success Within These Focus areas now all of this is going to be aligned to achieving that mission and vision um and we really are going to try to prioritize thinking about how we can design the plan with the work in mind to think about alignment as well as that systems coherence piece that I know staff is really really focusing on right now our plan is that this will be developed by staff with the support of RTI um and they will really again make sure that these elements are more concrete the strategies and metrics that can really say here is the work that we're going to do underneath this broader strategic Vision but we'll
143work across all schools and all departments I'll pass it back to TJ for this next slide um but I think one question we talked about before is you know what what are the different roles in developing and improving this plan so I'll pass it back to Dr McCrae for for this slide thank you so the next slide really highlight something that we've been H kind of understanding having a conversation around is what is the role of the board and so um Kyle basically lifted the new layout and planum structure of what it looked like so if you can what's above the dotted line so the vision the m mission the goals and the guided commitment those will all have board input and final approval by the board what's underneath the do line so the focus
144areas the strategies and the metrics those will have board input but the final approval will become from the superintendent who'll be walking working in collaboration with the administration to set those different those those sign lines next slide K just finally I turn over KY by implementation oh sorry about that I'm talking like I'm unmuted I'm not apologies um yeah another important question uh that we referred to I think Miss Moser Fon raised this was you know implementation when are we going to start implementing this plan because some of the planning for next school year is already underway and if the plan is approved in June we don't want to feel like we are having to slow things up and wait when planning needs to be going on for the 2526 school year so we're proposing
145that full implementation of the entire strategic plan will begin during the 2627 school year um but we don't want to lose momentum right we don't want to approve a plan in June and then not have it come into play until the following school year right we've been a lot of great Community energy around this I think to to start we want to keep that move mov forward and same with um our staff and our students so um I think we want to include in the plan some guidance on areas maybe we could do partial implementation we could do pilots or anything during the 25 26 school year to make sure we're still moving forward um and not just sort of putting a pause on everything we really want to try to find that balance of
146how we can make sure implementation really can can get kickstarted as a full District but also not lose the time um between this school year and the end of next school year um the next slide I have is is just the time or sorry is our next steps for implementation let's get ahead of myself there so I just wanted to quickly walk you through what are the next things we're going to do here um so we want to try to finish our first phase of community input that initial what are your aspirations for the district what are things we can do well what are things we can um continue to build on we want to wrap that up in early April and then we can make sure we have those draft foundations ready for consideration
147by the board and steering committee in early April we're we're trying to be a little flexible we are um doing a little bit of early drafting but we really don't want to present anything until we feel like we've heard from a broad swath of the community then as Dr McCrae mentioned we're also going to have a staff development session um where we're going to think about these implementation monitoring elements what should these strategies be what should some of these metrics be are the focus areas we're thinking about the right Focus areas we're going to do that when we are on site again in April on April 15th um later that evening we're going to convene the steering committee for their third meeting where they're going to be able to review some of the foundational pieces
148that we're talking about they'll be able to see what this structure is we're proposing see some ideas for mission and vision statements give us some feedback um after that point we will launch our second phase of community engagement this is really going to be around feedback so seeing some elements we're starting to put together tell us what do you think about this what does this make you think about the work moving forward um this where we may also include I we've talked about a survey potentially we may include a survey here to have all members of the community have an opportunity to weigh in once again and then these other pieces really are around um other meetings we have we want to present a full draft to the board for initial feedback and consideration on
149May 19th I think it's your May board meeting and then we'll have our fourth steering committee meeting later that week um so you guys will have a chance to weigh in the steering committee may also provide some other thoughts and then that tenative board approval would be June 23rd meeting um this is very high level there are a lot of other pieces moving here and there um within this but I want to give you an idea of what are the biggest rocks for us over the next couple of months um the final slide here um the next one is just that timeline you've seen it before um happy to answer any questions about it but this is just sort of that broader big picture of our timeline um and with that I don't know if
150Dr McCrae is andc wants to add but happy to answer any additional questions from board members yep turn over to our board member for questions for member MOS falam um thank you for your work on this um I'm super super excited about having a new strategic plan a question that I want to put in the room is about the time frame of the plan for five years uh the reason I am curious about it is because it strikes me as very short um we heard from staff members today that in initiative fatigue and initiative turn has negative effects on the experience that our students have in our schools I agree with that um and so I'm curious about the decision to have a five-year plan I'm curious about what kind of um uh what do
151I want to say like what kind of assurances either you or the team at RTI can give about how you might frame it or what we might do as a board to ensure that we're not uh setting ourselves up for initiative turn um that's my question so I think two things one we're in a place where we can continue to hear from stakeholders just about that about the five year because some individuals believe like having a fresh plant is is also something that we heard dout this process so I think we need to continue to test to think about and ask the question directly about a five a seven or 10year plan we haven't asked them that way and so I think it's how we phrase the question when we continue to solicit feedback will
152be important can I can I just clarify you're saying I I share your sense um and RTI sense that a fresh plan is needed now are you saying that um there are people who say a fresh plan every five years is a good thing I don't think that they've ever said the time of how often the fresh year plan is needed but we do are that individuals want to make sure that we're keeping our eyes and keeping up the trends of what's going on so keeping that plan to keep up with the trends that are happening I see okay I understand thank you I think um I don't know I think that like uh education Trends and education fads um are not always what we should be following and so I so I hear what
153you're saying and I uh I understand but I I remain um curious and a little bit apprehensive about what we're going to do to make sure that we don't fall prey to Trends and Fs I also think it's important to think about just be like a five like let's just say we were we sat on five years which I'm not saying that we are it doesn't mean it has to be a new plan right but what it does mean is that we're taking the time to solicit just to hear feedback from individuals to think about how the plan need to be updated within a given certain amount of time so I think it's a number of ways of doing it and so but I I hear what you are saying okay and I mean per
154perhaps it'll turn out that one of our commitments or goals or Focus areas is about longevity I guess we'll find out okay thank you cor thank you before I um call on board member m joke Kyle were you trying to get in on that I was just thank you yes I was just going to add briefly that I think the most successful plans I've seen are those that sort of maintain sort of some of that that long-term in mind while also being Nimble right I think that we as you know Dr McCrae said we can always come back in five years and just determine the degree to which we want to sort of overhaul a plan but I think having a little bit of flexibility to sort of adjust especially in those implementation and monitoring
155elements is really important because there as you say there may be things that we see we need to continue maybe things that you know we think are sort of trendy that we don't want to follow that we can sort of have that flexibility if we we need to and then just sort of come back in a few years and say yes we want to change these elements but keep these elements and know what's working and keep doing with what's working remember maljo thank you very much I really appreciate the importance of this work the importance of our identity as an organization um and and I think that some of this work needs to kind of come alive and stay alive and and what I mean by that is like the ability to shape the the
156visual representation of our organization the art behind who we are is something that we could be proactively including our students in every single year right I I think about like Google as a brand that has actually showcased the talents of the children in this District in order to enhance their ability to act like in order to enhance their ability to raise awareness around who they are as an organization I say that to say I deeply value this work and if I ask my two children who go to school here what is mmd's logo or slogan they don't know and maybe they'll care more after this process but at the end of the day I think there there is there's a way to do this work in concert with the things that that touch our our
157young people every single day and I I think that um there's a lot of opportunity in doing this work well and not needing to revisit it routinely or having the way we revisit it built in to an ongoing plan with a great deal of intentionality um I think it's really important that we do this work in a way that elevates the voices of our young people and Elevate the the voices of our Educators and I appreciate the steps we're taking to do that I also think that I am hoping we engage in some level of reflective process around what the work that has already been done in this interest has actually meant to us as a district and a community and whether or not there are Lessons Learned things that we need to emphasize need
158to do to a greater extent um things that we want to move away from and so I hope as we continue to engage in this conversation um that we become more attached to using this work a vehicle to promote material benefits to our students our Educators in our Greater Community thank you so much for this work thank you for member malro um I do also have a question and an appreciation so I I appreciate the update um tonight I appreciate you also being transparent about where you see the board's input and approval where you see the board's input and the superintendent needing to um execute on the strategies and I I also it's it's nice to see just the the phases of the community engagement so really wanting to um I appreciate seeing just the
159the level of engagement at various levels across our system and our community in order to inform the plant um it's also I just wanted to make a note that the draft plan on on the on slide 11 is supposed to come to the board for initial feedback on May 19th which is like about a year from when you came to mmsd do you believe that wow okay I mean I'm just saying the dates you know you came around May 20 wow okay here is my um my question so when you talked about the plan would be approved tentatively at this point in June we would already be well into the 25 26 school year in terms of preliminary budget big decisions already made um so we would focus on a full implementation the following school
160year with some part partial implementation of of some things in the 25 26 school year um I guess what I'm wondering is W that and this might be more of a question for Kyle but what is the bridge from the current three goals we have the current metrics that we have that have guided and informed the our continuous Improvement our district goals School Improvement plans and goals to whatever the new is going to be um and I'm I'm I'm asking that assuming that some of that gets developed in the 25 26 school year but I'm I'm asking it because I will only speak for myself since we have been back um in school from the covid-19 pandemic we've had at least Le two baselines change one was during the pandemic right when there were lots
161of waivers granted and we we had to do that as districts around the country were doing that right and then we then the new baselines got reinstated and then we saw all the plummeting um results and then you have a state assessment change and then it's like well we have a new Baseline and we can't compare so I think for me as a board member how do how are we going to make the bridge on the metrics on being able to crosswalk um on how our students are learning because I I don't want to lose that because we're going from one plan with a set of goals to a new plan with a different set of goals yes I I don't know if you all have a thought about what that looks like in the
162transition year and if you don't tonight it's okay but it is one of the things that I would be I would want answered at at one of these next phases yeah I think that's a fantastic question and I really appreciate the the thoughtfulness around the context of the different like start and stop and start and stop specifically with the data I think um we don't have a a a a fully baked plan for that just yet but I will say I think that a lot of the data points that you know the district has been looking at aren't necessarily going to change whole whole sale right like some of those data points may still be part of the the next set of goals right some of the like the State Testing pieces don't necessarily change
163so that may may stay in place um I think we will be thinking about that though when we're thinking about the design the initial design session in April um but then definitely also as we're moving forward how can we make that bridge I'm really glad you brought that up and we will definitely be thinking about that um specifically in terms of what what's going to happen during the 25 26 school year but again I I don't think all of the work that has been done at this point is going to be completely forgotten right I think that some of those things will be carried over president Nichols board members I think what's important to me is that it's absolutely important to honor work that was done in the past especially if it's working while we're
164building momentum but for you all that be solid the board that is for the above the dotted line elements of this plan that's to me that's going to be an anchor point for us to do the alignment work in fact that activity by itself knowing exactly where you're at maybe it's the same as it was however however many years ago when that was created but there might be differences too to me that's a really important jumping off point for us to begin to realign both what we've done in the past and what we want to do in the future can can I just clarify one thing so when I look at um slide nine that looks at the proposed plan structure where I see the metrics the metrics right now are tied to the strategies
165of a particular Focus area and those those may not be student learning metrics for all I know they could be implementation metrics right like how would we know that we are achieving and moving this Focus area forward to me that's a different set of metrics that would give the board and the community an indicator that like we're moving in the right direction towards this big North Star but I don't know where the focus on our students as Learners like where that sits I I don't know if that's embedded in the bigger goals under the vision and Mission or it's just not as clear to me where they sit you know because there are a set of student learning um metrics that I think the board also well I'll speak for myself you know that I
166would want to see and then you have your implementation of strategies um so anyway you get my point you don't I do and I I think it's good feedback as we're Contin because we're I think this is the perfect opportunity to have this conversation as we begin to move into the design phase so what I'm hearing we can just make sure we're incorporating that work okay great thank you any other questions or comments tonight on this update all right thank you so much Dr McCrae thank you Kyle and thank you Dr Gothard all right let's move on to our next business item um it looks like we are going to um withdraw from the Dane County Schools Consortium so I'll read the motion I move to authorize the superintendent to withdraw from the Daye County
167Schools Consortium effective July 2025 if no Fiscal Agent is identified by April 1 of 2025 and I move is that two separate go on the first one okay second on the first one any questions or comments on this one all right Megan your advisory vote all right all those in favor all right that is 60 all right I move to authorize the super tant to vote affirmatively to dissolve the Daye County School Consortium if such a vote occurs second on the second one any questions or comments um Cindy was there anything you wanted to yeah seems want to tell president Nichols this was my fault I was I was thinking she could lip read when I'm know we've got some follow-up to do after this action I was just making sure we're going to do
168that oh okay all right we don't seem to have any questions or comments Megan your advisory vote all right all those in favor all right that passes 6 Z all right with that there is no old or new business for this meeting so I'll Mo entertain a motion to adjourn so moved Maya all right or member Mosner felt them seconded Megan your advisory vote all right all those in favor thank you motion passes we are adjourned