001all right good evening uh I'm going to call our regular Board of Education meeting for February to order I'm also going to start with um our vision statement that every school will be a thriving school that prepares every student to graduate from high school college career and Community ready moving into our public input there were 21 written statements submitted for this meeting 18 oppose to the Charter application for forward College and Career Academy one in support of naming Southside Elementary after Ada deer one in support of naming Southside Elementary after Lori man Cary one in support of mmsd differentiating its high school offerings to include the vocational opportunities presented in the forward College and Career Academy we also have registered speakers for tonight I know that there are uh uh nine individuals who are registered
002to speak in person and I believe we have two people online and we'll start with our online speakers thank you Jesse thanks our first online speaker is Jesse [Music] wickiser hello can you hear me yes we can great thanks just thanks for Oort for the opportunity to speak today um I'm a parent of two mmsd students currently and one alumnus of West High and um I'm just speaking today to oppose the adoption of the proposed new logos for our high schools I feel like the new logos are not necessary no compelling reason has been offered for these new logos the existing logos not offensive they don't violate any copyright they're not difficult to reproduce um I feel like changing the logos break that connection between the committee members and that the alumni have with those
003schools um think any money that's proposed be spent on such an Endeavor would be much better put to use purchasing uniforms and things that mmsd currently leaves the boot local booster clubs to purchase and um just a couple comments in regarding in regards to the survey that went out um soliciting opinions on the the proposed new logos um the survey didn't allow an option to keep the existing logo so um any any responses were required to enter a preference for one of the three new proposals um so any kind of results might be skewed by folks who had to submit something just to submit the form and um I'm kind of suspicious of a large company M proposing this change rather than having a you know Grassroots kind of community involvement student involved um changes
004if changes were necessary I think it should have come from the students or the community not uh a large corporation that sells uh logo t-shirts so feel like the proposed logos are not creative they kind of look like clip art AI generated images and you know even if we knew even if we needed new logos I think they should really have involved the community and students to to address that sort of redesign so that's all thank you our last online speaker are Jennifer and mushroom ladic um I'm here to talk about the W's opposition to trans athletes to trans female athletes as um of not as a as a student athlete who plays in a female sport um I feel that taking it away the I am a non-binary youth and I feel that that
005taking away the opportunity for Trans um females to play in these sports games will exclude them and make it more exclusionary overall and decrease the inclusionary of the sports and it does not affect a very high amount of the popul of the people and there's no science there's no actual science proving that there's any biological differences between um the athletes so I think it's just unfair treatment and I believe that they should be allowed to um play as this goes against the Title Nine um agree the Title Nine law thank you mushroom uh yes I agree completely I also um as a parent of a non-binary senior in high school uh at Memorial I also feel feel that the other thing this does is it excludes uh a whole group of people from participating as
006a part of a team and in essence it also outs people that are trying every single day to be true to themselves and who they are and we are not being fair and that is one of our biggest things we want everyone to feel as though they belong and that is not what we're doing if we follow this ruling of WIA so I really feel that we need to consider to reject this ruling please I'm begging you as a parent of somebody who is completely afraid of what's to come in these next four years we really need to understand and think and step in for a moment on what these young young adults and young children and as young as five years old are thinking about what their future is going to hold we need
007to be able to protect them and right now this is not a protection of them we're actually hurting them and we're going to hurt them please repeal and follow title line Thank you thank you to our online speakers uh for our in-person speakers um just as a reminder when you come up to speak at the podium feel free to adjust the microphone um um kind of to your mouth level so that people who are watching the meeting um on YouTube can hear you clearly you have a three minutes and there's a clock up here and then also on the podium there's a little black box when you get to about 30 seconds you'll see the light turn from green to yellow and then when your three minutes is up it will turn red um please
008try to close your thoughts up um as close as you can to the three minute Mark with that being said our first speaker tonight is Dell undery and then after um Dell will be Michael Jones good evening tonight's consent agenda includes an update on our three-year special education plan including progress and goals dpi's recent overhaul of standardized testing was a frequent ly debated and contentious issue in primary election forums and media coverage this overhaul will complicate achiev achievement comparisons from past years but it will not cover up the disproportionate number of students of color and students with disabilities who are provided certificates of graduation without being able to read regardless of the changes in testing analysis this achievement Gap will continue to be obvious lack of reading proficiency is a concern across our state but
009is especially glaring in the five largest school districts which includes Madison in 2014 the federal office of special education published results driven accountability states were allowed to choose a focus for RDA Wisconsin chose literacy because of the high stakes challenge for the majority of students with disabilities this literacy commitment was clearly reinforced in dpi's 2016 College and Career Readiness IEP document how does our special education plan reflect our commitment to RDA and CCR IEP guidance our own data reflects the disproportionate number of students of color receiving special education services especially in the area of emotional behavioral disabilities in 2020 DPI published an urgent need for a rule change addressing I EBD identif ification special education departments were directed to respond to these changes before December 1st 2021 how does our special education plan reflect our
010meaningful and measurable response to this urgent call for reform in 2023 more than 90% of black graduates earned the required credits and accepted diplomas without achieving Proficiency in Reading over 90% of 2023 graduates with IEPs pre PR maturely exited with postsecondary transition plans compromised by basic and Below basic reading skills is our special education plans seriously considering the links in our data that extend beyond Coal Center celebrations into the consequences of postsecondary outcomes without literacy Wisconsin statue 118 specifically commissions individual School boards the responsibility for students achieveing the ability to read write and spell chapter 121 clearly states that students have a fundamental right to a sound basic education does our special education literacy achievement data reflect the standards of a sound basic education how does this special education plan reflect a sound commitment for
011creating literacy reinforced Pathways towards postsecondary success for students of color and students with disabil ities thank you thank you next up Mike Jones and then following will be Eric eer I I believe apologize if I've mispronounced the last name good evening uh first before I start I just wanted to say um uh Southside should be named after Lori man Cary um that family has done amazing stuff for the for the district and for the community all right uh MTI supports the joint decision of the McKenzie foundation and the Boys and Girls Club of danne County to withdraw their Forge College and Career Academy applications from both mmsd and the W Madison office of educational opportunities um after looking at the application and Charter process we did strongly disagree with either proposal moving forward as it
012would negatively impact our Public School students staff and schools doent in inequitable and inadequate State uh public school funding formula that robs Peter to pay Paul but while our disagreements lie with the fcca application process and potential impacts we do agree with the reality that we need to invest more resources and opportunities into uh mmd's Career and Technical education programming our members uh who are hardworking and dedicated in these fields have been advocating for years for more investment in our schools facilities programs and options because it's simply what's best for our children all of our children not just as an alternative or as a fallback plan for kids Futures but as an equal pathway as uh versus a traditional collegia course we're also pleased to know that this agreement is not ending the conversation but
013continuing a much needed one about doing what's right by our kids because of the foundation and the boys and girls club past present and future willingness to partner with the district our workers and our community members we are comforted that our leaders are listening to all stakeholders on demanding better for our kids and not in a way that divides resources but actually unifies them for the benefit of all of our children and communities because that's whom public schools and public school Educators work for all children not just a select few we also appreciate the multiple Educators and community members including those from operation Fresh Start who attended the listening sessions spoke their truths to demand better and offer different ways to meeting our our children's needs while we may disagree in many ways one thing
014we can all agree with is that we can do better for our kids futures um through engaging collective decision making our union members and educators are always ready to work with those who Center that belief in their work and we expect to be at the table when that time comes thank you thank you Eric and please um make sure you correct me on your last name followed by Vince Cary hi uh my name is Eric eier uh some of you might remember I stood in front of you a couple years ago asking for your support uh for the relationship between offs and the school district to not be dissolved uh at the time and I just wanted to show up today to say thank you for that support and to not uh be up here
015with criticisms or complaints but instead to recognize uh some of the successes that we've had together uh recently um so I just want to say that uh Thursday last week we had a young lady uh who I only identify as KW uh graduate through Legacy program with her mmsd diploma uh this young woman when she started with with offs uh one of the first memories I have is riding with her and her supervisor with the trailer to help her get her Living Goods her dresser her bed out of the house uh she'd been abandoned at um she now is gainfully employed she has stable living uh and she has a high school diploma through mmsd so thanks for your support with that student uh additionally this year we've had uh 10 young people already earn
016diplomas through mmsd um of those 10 six were referred by their counselors but four were students who were entirely disengaged from school and found their way back through the doors at operation Fresh Start uh two of those young people uh proceeded through the over 20 pathway um which I think you guys will be voting on another over over 20 app later today uh but those students graduated uh had were totally disen engaged graduated through mmsd again at uh at no cost to the district um so nine of our 10 this year went directly uh from Legacy program into gainful employment Andor postsecondary training uh all of the 10 completed not just with the high school diploma and most of them with uh driver's licenses but all of them finished with industry recognized credentials OSHA first
017aid CPR and a state issued uh pre-apprenticeship uh certification uh which is not not uh a low bar um well I'm running out of time I have a lot more to say um but I'll just remind people that uh there is an upcoming candidate forum for the school board coming up uh being hosted by operation Fresh Start thank you for your time thank you Vince Cary and then we will have I believe it's um aundra Brown afterwards hey like good evening um just like up here to um to show support that the uh Southside Elementary School should like be named after Lori man Cary um just like for all like she did for our community from man scholarships that there are multiple students like that I know whose parents benefited from the man scholarship that
018go to Southside Elementary School um the positivity she laid in this community and she was standing in the exact same Spotlight that I'm in right now advocating for students in mmsd that did not come out of her body and those things those are just super important and as somebody that went to James C right who like that school being named after somebody so prominent in the like Southside Community and how that reflects on Scholars and people just doing better in those areas um I feel like says a lot and um I just can't like say enough about relevance um just from the like location um and just like now in a time where people need to be highlighted who give back to their Community because we have lost the village mentality of it takes a
019village to like raise a child and those are things like that need to be highlighted again um and like just like keeping it short like that's really like all that I got to say but I do appreciate you guys like listening to me multiple times but thank you thank you is it aandra brown I'm sorry if I sometimes I don't always do a great job of reading the handwriting correct me if you come up and then following will be Jamie Baylor yes you got it right all right hello me MERS of the board my name is lendra brown and I'm the proud Community School's resource coordinator at Southside Elementary I'm speaking on behalf of our dedicated staff students and families to strongly advocate for our school to be officially named Southside Community School this name
020is not just a title it is a reflection of our values our mission and the Deep rooted identity we have built together as a community school that implements the Community Schools model we are more than just a place of learning we are a hub of support collaboration an opportunity for our students and families the name Southside Community School captures our commitment to this model and affirms our role as a school that works in partnership with family and the broader Community to ensure Student Success and whole child support overall our school Community has experienced significant transitions this year after being told otherwise these unexpected changes have been disruptive and have impacted the sense of belonging and stability that students families and staff need as at our most recent family Community Alliance meeting we re Revisited the
021school renaming discussion families expressed that it they had already shared their feedback emphasizing their strong desire to keep the Southside name given the many transitions our school Community has experienced and the significant hardships that we are currently experiencing they feel this name best represents their identity and connection to the school at this point what we need most is continuity preserving the Southside name honors our history our progress and the relationships we have built within our community all under the leadership of principal Candace Terrell and assistant principal Annabelle Torres this name is already part of our identity it is how we see ourselves how our families recognize Us and how we proudly present our work to the community changing it would risk erasing the very foundation of the trust collaboration and dedication that have defined our
022journey we respectfully urge the board to affirm our name as Southside Community School this de decision would reinforce the strength and stability our school Community needs while ensuring that our mission and impact continue for generations to come thank you for your time and consideration we appreciate your commitment to our school and look forward to your support and preserving our identity thank you Jamie all right and then following Jamie Baylor will be Jamie Hawkins I am coming to you as a parent of a West High student alumni of West High and the president of the booster club and with the logo change that's been proposed I just wanted to outline some of the things that I feel would be reasons to not move forward with changeing the logos that were proposed in giving students the voice
023to choose what they currently have or one of the changed opportunities um as a booster I've been part of that for four years we've provided over $500,000 since 2013 to students at West High we currently paid for the turf at Mansfield and this is just the West boosters 50,000 for the weights in the weit room when we had the remodel because it was in oversight and there was no money budgeted to put weights in our new weight room uh we pay for the Huddle which which is the recording which is 8,000 every time it renews uh jerseys we pay for a ton of jerseys and we support the athletes when they need them and also as jerseys are lost and the fees are applied to these students and they're paid to the district the athletic
024department and the teams don't get the money back it stays within the district so as an alumni I'm going to say I love the West logo the one that's proposed looks a lot like AI it doesn't really represent our schools or what we stand for and with the survey that was done and what's online feedback it's clear that people don't want the change three of the four high schools had their logos designed by a student which should stay that way if we can use the current marketing or use the current ones and create our marketing schemes around that it's a better use of our time involve our students and let them have a voice include them in the process let them learn how to create marketing and work in partner with local developer designers to
025do the work um if we do do this change it's going to be a very slow change Wes just got a new pool nobody's going to drain it and put new tiles in the bottom to make it match the other logos we're going to have a great deal of inconsistencies and it'll probably be 20 years before these new logos are Incorporated where they need to be it'll be confusing it's lower quality look and we can do better by increasing our current branding partnering with middle schools if that's part of a concern to make them aware of who we are in the high schools and then as a parent I just want to invest in the children there's basic needs they need that aren't being met can we take the time to take instead of focusing
026on logos and items like this to take and focus on our children and give it back them and keep things as they are thank you Jamie Hawkins and Then followed by latata Jackson Flynn hello my name is Jamie Hawkins and I'm a parent to two MMS students one of my children and one of those mmsc students is transgender this piece of information should mean nothing to anyone else besides her immediate family however given the attacks on trans and non-binary children I have to stand here today to represent my child and remind people that transgender kids are a part of your community and need support like any other student despite what the current Administration claims I want to start by saying thank you thank you to the MMC Board of educ education and Dr Joe Gothard
027for your commitment to supporting all students regardless of gender or gender identity I'm grateful for the statements of commitment to safe and inclusive learning environments in all mmsd schools in one statement Dr Gothard reminded us that while we cannot control what is going on at the federal level we can shape our local community and continue to create a safe and welcoming environment for all students I agree and I hope that despite the continued attacks on trans youth mmsd will remember to keep their promise and not let trans students and families be left behind last week the Wisconsin inter Scholastic Athletic Association or WIA ban trans female students athletes from participating in girls competitions they claim that this policy is to ensure Clarity to provide our membership as they work to comply with a new federal
028guidance from the White House compliance here is the issue I here to ask mmsd to not comply with this ban and to make a clear statement against the WIA and their willingness to do to so quickly comply with the federal administration's attacks on trans Youth Sports teach Sports teach valuable life lessons denying transgender students access to these opportunities deprives them of these benefits transgender students participate in sports for the same reasons as other students Health teamwork and friendship excluding them sends a harmful message and negatively impacts their well-being preventing them from participating presents a dangerous message to all transgender and non-binary youth about not being welcome or wanted and increases the risk to their physical and emotional well-being the adoption of this policy change adds Wisconsin to a growing list of states that are introducing
029similar policies as part of a coordinated effort by national anti-lgbtq activists to spread myths and misinformation about what it means to be transgender and chip away at this um support for the LGB tqi equality in order to keep your commitment to all students mmsd and school leaders need to stand up to the WIA and make a strong statement about how mmsd currently does and will continue to support trans students in school sports especially trans females we know that trans students like any student Thrive when they are treated with dignity and respect please do not let this attack on trans a student athletes slip by student athletes and District administrators should not comply thank you right we'll have latata Jackson Flynn come up and then our last speaker is Kelly mccan thank you in advance Jamie
030for moving this to my level hi everyone I am latata Jackson I am a proud board member of fcca and I came up here to Express gratitude on behalf of the board and just thank you all and the community for your dedication and passion for our youth um we do look forward and are very optimistic about our future endeavors the collaborative efforts that we can continue our initiative one thing that I know is that a halt is the application but our community engagement will continue we'll continue to hear the voices we'll hear continue to hear from our students we'll continue to go to those schools and listen to our students and the parents and teachers and to figure out exactly what our students need so we I came up here to say thank you to
031you all and the community on of for career in college academy thank you Kelly it's pretty close uh my name is Kelly mccan and I have been a teacher for 37 years and 29 of those years have here at mmsd 28 have been at thorough so if you need to get a hold of me you know where I am um I've had some wonderful amazing opportunities every uh I've taught a lot of grades and I've loved every single one of them additionally I've worked with some incredible teachers inspiring leaders and some fabulous families um currently in my school I am the site based coordinator for W Madison for student teachers and practicum teachers and I've mentored dozens of teachers in my time and I only tell you that because um I want you to know
032that I'm for real and I also want to say that in my school I am on the mtss ssit spt hiring attendance read your heart out and core teams so I I really am invested right at this point I've been a teacher more than half my life so but here's what happened now have some issues so I three and a half years ago I was teaching second grade everything was going great it was a beautiful day I didn't feel well that day put my children on the bus and I went to the doctor and he diagnosed me with uh AML leukemia and eight hours later he told me that I would have to have a bone marrow transplant and I did those things I stayed in my house for 16 months or in the hospital
033and every day I thought about coming back to school I dreamed about coming back to school and after 16 months I got to come back back and that was three years ago so but friends it turns out that rebuilding a bone marrow your immune system is really hard and it's taken me a long time so the first this is the third year the first year I was a little sick then I was a little less sick now I'm a little less sick even now but occasionally I do get ill because I have a autoimmune I have a compromised immunity so here's what happened over winter break I got h a respiratory virus the first week I was in the hospital it was winterbreak it was fine the second week I had five sick days the
034third week I had no sick days and what that looks like to me is that's $2,000 left out of my check that month my household just can't run like that I just can't so here's what I'm want I'm asking you to consider so I couldn't access the I could access the sick bank I should say but I would have had to been gone for 11 days consecutively I didn't want to stay gone for 11 days I wanted to come back so I didn't access you right now you have to use it consecutively the second thing is for years I think for like 20 years teachers gave each other sick days we did that forever and I've done that for many people so I'm wondering if that could be a consideration and the third thing is
035some of us not all of us have ouria days and raia days were retirement sick bank that were for uh paying your insurance well here's the thing that's not going to pay my insurance friends but I need those days I need eight days so here's the thing I know I'm not alone I'm just talking for myself today but I know I'm not alone they're alone there are other people who have chronic illnesses I'm not ready to to retire and I'm not ready to quit teaching I love my job and I want to keep on teaching my kids how to read but I need some sick days because I can't stay up all night wearing that I might get a virus because I'm going to get one so I want to thank you for your consideration
036and the ability to come and talk with you today thank you all right thank you to all of our speakers tonight online as well as those who took the time to um be here with us tonight I'm going to move us into the rest of our agenda uh starting with the approval of minutes I move that the Board of Education approve the minutes from the regular meeting dated January 27th 2025 second nck Vander all right thank you any corrections or questions about the minutes all right n Megan your advisory vote all those in favor I all right that looks like it passes unanimous SL thank you next we'll move into board president announcements um and news from the district so first we're going to start tonight with some congratulations um two of our students placed
037in the All City spelling be Benjamin tiken who goes to georgo keeth middle school took home first place honors and Velma Hamilton Middle School student um Casey Barnhill took second place honors both will participate in next month's Statewide competition lafallet High School senior Adriana Villa Gomez was named the Boys and Girls Clubs of D County Youth Of The Year an honor that celebrates her outstanding leadership academic excellence and commitment to community service 120 of our students were recognized at Urban League's MLK Junior Youth Awards and were celebrated for their positive impacts on peers enthusiasm for Learning and dedication to helping others and art created by approximately 200 mmsd students from across the district um is on display as part of the annual Young At Art get it Young At Art okay Exhibition at the Madison
038Museum of Contemporary Art okay the exhibition is on display through April 6th and we encourage the public to view the amazing work of our students I'm missing you tonight here vice president Pearson now celebrating our community um February is Black History Month the board would like to acknowledge the contributions and history black people have made in Wisconsin and throughout the nation and World mmd's 21st annual read your heart out initiative launched across the district read your heart out is an annual celebration of literacy cultural pride and Community engagement the Embraces the African concept of Sankofa which symbolizes the Quest for knowledge and the seven principles of K Quanza which celebrates learning family and celebration we also want to again acknowledge many of our families concerns about what's happening at the federal level and how MMS
039mmsd can be impacted what's occurring is rapid and dynamic and other topics that may come up and cause there may be topics that may come up and cause concern and uncertainties we want to assure you that we are deeply committed to providing every student a safe and inclusive learning environment and our schools are places where every student belongs we do have a transportation update mmd's yellow bus service has expanded to increase Transportation access for students and an area seeing positive impacts is the increased number of middle schoolers who are able to access after school programming through mscr more families are downloading and using the First Student First view app app which allows families to track buses if you have not yet downloaded that app we encourage you to do so again it's called First Student
040First view app and mmsd plans to Pilot a special education route tracking in uh route tracking in the coming weeks and as a reminder approximately 9,400 students use mmsd transportation services for our final acknowledgements for tonight um in tonight's consent agenda the board would like to acknowledge and thank Blackhawk Church for their Advent Conspiracy Grant through the Madison Public Schools foundations adopted School partnership their Grant is totaling $54,000 and it will support Anana Elementary School for early literacy support and and resources Leopold Elementary School will receive funds for staff well-being and morale um an initiative and Capital High School will also receive funding for support for their parenting program each school is receiving $188,000 so thank you again to Blackhawk Church all right that concludes um our board president's announcements and reports I'm going to
041turn it on over to our superintendent Dr Gothard thank you president Nichols members of the board staff Community thank you for this opportunity to begin with tonight over the last few months I've been spending time with students staff and principes uh these visits have been incredibly valuable and I always learned something new about the school the community and mmsd at each one of them most of all I appreciate connecting with students and staff when I ask them what they love about mmsd the answers are the same it's the sense of belonging they feel here in our district about their schools and with and about each other to me that's something to be proud of we are not only talking about this being a place where every student belongs we are this place February's Black History
042Month throughout this month numerous events celebrating the contributions of black people have been held across the district a few highlights Sherman Middle School held its fourth annual Black History Month celebration as part of that I participated in a panel discussion about intersectionality and representation local judge Mario white joined Memorial's black student union for a lunch in chat he spoke about his career path to become a lawyer and shared information about the court system one student share that judge White's presentation inspired him to want to be a lawyer R in Mota will be hosting their events on February 26th and 27th this week respectively at each and lefal high school is hosting a Black excellence in the trades event connecting students with black community members in the field so they can learn about some of the
043many opportunities available to them after graduation and coming up on March 7th lak View Elementary will host its black loud and proud pageant in partnership with mscr so a lot has taken place and still a lot going on community make sure that you get out and check everything out as president Nicholls shared mmsd celebrated the 21st year of re your Hardo I want to touch on this briefly to highlight how this initiative brings the community together as part of Black History Month family members community members family members community partners and volunteers who identify as African-American or black are invited into school to read books recite poetry and connect with students through Visual and oral storytelling this year's theme is kuji chakulia a Swahili word K Quanza principle that translates to self-determination I had the opportunity
044to read to students at goers and Kennedy it's an amazing experience to simply be in the classroom sharing time with students it's not often we have the opportunity to do this and I encourage community members who are interested in participating to reach out to mmsd more information about read your heart out can be found on the mmsd website February is also which is almost over February is also a Career and Technical education or CTE month these courses held or help build a foundation for students to be future ready for a variety of career options mmsd has provided CT programming for more than 20 years to help students be future ready CTE programs are offered throughout our high schools providing opportunities for students to discover different careers and skills through Hands-On learning through programs such as
045Automotive Woods and construction culinary software development digital media early childhood education and Healthcare all of these are offered at mmsd about 95% of mmsd students who complete multiple CTE courses Andor follow a specific pathway graduate we had more than 3,800 students enrolled in at least one CTE course during the 2023 2024 school year our new middle schools will incorporate similar space types in their designs and this fall CTE courses will be offered at 10 middle schools we are excited to continue to expand our CTE programming which is highlighted on our website too which is often updated so please check out our CTE website online and then finally I join more than 30 lafalot alumni from across the and principal Matt Thompson for an online fireside chat hosted by the Madison Public Schools Foundation I truly
046appreciated being able to reconnect with staff former students and some of their family members too to share memories learn more about where they are today and answer questions this was a unique opportunity to see the impacts we as individuals and mmsd had on them and we are making a difference the foundation's looking to do similar opportunities at other mmsd high schools too so president Nichols maybe will'll do a West um board member mold maybe we'll get East in the house and make sure that we can uh spread the good word about mmsd to our friends colleagues former peers and people who genuinely care about public education in Madison president Nichols members of the board this concludes my report thank you Dr Gothard nice to see so many photos of you out read your heart out
047favorite principal from Quanza kuji Jalia self-determined mination you were kui Jalia I know it's a hard one when you first see it isn't it comes out doesn't it all right all right y'all um thank you for your report I appreciate it all right let's move through our agenda we are going to report on the items that proceeded through the instruction work group held on February 3rd 2025 I'm going to ask uh the chair of that work group to report out for member malro thank you so much board president Nichols this past month we reviewed our special education plan for the next three years and got an update related to the Southside Elementary School renaming we will be revisiting both of those items for a vote this evening this coming work group we will be talking
048about mental health and well-being as well as getting a class-size update thank you board Nichols that's it for my report thank you next we're going to report on items that proceeded through the operations work group held on February 10th 20125 and the chair of that work group is board member Castro thank you so this past month we reviewed our strategy and revenue projections for this year's upcoming budget uh we received a transportation update and a referenda and Building Services update um our next workg group meeting is March 10th where we will discuss healthc care and benefits overview and Direction uh compensation projects and uh special projects strategies and focus areas and then a state budget Outlook and a facilities planning update thank you we had one action item that proceeded through the instruction work group
049held on February 3rd 2025 and that is the Southside Elementary School naming um we were presented with um the committee's kind of final recommendation of four names that they vetted and ranked um and the ranked order are as follows Southside Community aah deer Lori man carry and nine Springs um I'll just open it up for discussion at this point um to see if board members would like to either indicate um a a a choice amongst these or something else for member malro thank you board president Nicholls I would love to hear from the leadership of the committee related to student involvement because the last time we talked about this or when we talked about it in the instruction work group what we heard is that there was student voice that was still beinged in the
050ranking um and because we were presented with the same ranking tonight I just want to make sure we're not missing anything in relationship to that President Nichols board member mro I'd like to welcome Dr a new eie to the podium associate superintendent who helped facilitate the process with the community thank you so um we the last time we met there were 33 students who had participated and now there are there were 77 in the last and um they went through a ranking process and Southside Community um um ended up being their top one followed by nine Springs at 3.4 and uh Southside Community was at 3.44 thank you so much yeah thank you yes board member MOS are FC I suppose I can um add my voice here just um I think it's beautiful that
051we had so many um worthy ideas come from the community and I want to appreciate the work of the the committee for for for uh going um yes for member Vander yes I'd like to thank the committee I thank you and new for helping run it and thank you uh Greg Jones for leading the committee I think that that's been real informative and this is going to be a very very meaningful vote so I'm looking forward to it and thank you all is there someone from the board who would like to make a motion regarding one of the names um that could perhaps be seconded and get us um going with discussion board memb so I would propose that we um vote on Lori manery as the name for the for currently Southside Elementary School
052all right so we have a motion to uh vote for Lori man Cary that's been seconded Let's uh see if there's any conversation or questions relative to that board member malro yeah I want to thank board member simin for highlighting this name I think the the story we've been told about the the the person um behind this name and their meaning to this community is deeply compelling and it is a rare and unique opportunity that we get to uplift Educators and the people who work in the interest of our young people through Main our schools after them and so in the past I think I have voted um in part to to kind of create the educational benefit of the name right like that some some young person is going to look into why their
053school was named that and they're going to have a little bit more information about their community and a little bit more information about themselves and there's a a great deal of Pride and opportunity in in that um and I think when people pour their hearts and souls and their careers and their families into this community it's it's a gift to be able to to honor that service and that work and I know that nobody does that work imagining that one day a building will be named after them um but I think it's it's special when we get to recognize folks in that way I'm struggling with whether or not to vote in favor of the motion that I seconded because I I think think although we didn't hear from the entire Southside staff um hearing
054from staff who are here and in the room tonight that the name and identity they already have is treasured deeply by the community and represents stability and continuity um is something I think we have to factor in and I I'm surprised board member sinin that you motioned this name um in part because the last time we talked about this we talked about the the students ability to shape the identity of the school and so hearing that the top two names for for the young people um or not this name gives me a a little bit of um yeah makes makes it a little bit of a struggle for me to to embrace it fully so that's explaining my thinking thank you so much for for the motion and giving me the space to discuss it
055with you all okay I see board member Pearson on or vice president Pearson online and then I'll come back to you board member van thank you thank you um for this motion I will have to um recuse myself due to a conflict um of Interest with my employer thank you all right thank you Maya board member Vander Mulan yes um coming into this before I was pretty certain I was going to vote on adah Deere actually I was up until the instruction group work group and started thinking about Lori men Cary and hearing her son again tonight hearing several of our community members tonight including our union members and realizing the effects of Education in this city and the effects of literacy I have changed my mind I think I can definitely support Lori man
056Cary for the name of this school and that is how I shall V Merson um so I want to say I don't love this process that we're going through um I I would have appreciated if we had changed our policy to have the naming committee give us a name and just be able to affirm it and go on our way because I know a tremendous amount of thought and time has gone into this um I'm happy with all four names which is part of the challenge um we have two incredibly worthy individuals on this list and then um two names that speak to community and and and location um I think just to to respond to board member mro's comment about student voice I do think student voice is incredibly important in this decision and
057I guess what I don't see is I don't see an overwhelming preference for a particular name or you know what I would consider to be like total participation in the process because of the number of students that re responded um which is why I'm not compelled by that information um I do appreciate this as an opportunity to lift up a a teacher in our community in a way that is special um and that is is longlasting and that honors the work that teachers do because that's what we're all about um I think that the story of Lori manu's um Legacy of her work is compelling and um and I'm drawn to that option because because of her story and because she was a teacher um I can say I also really appreciate keeping the name
058Southside as it is um and I would be thrilled to vote for both of those options I know I can't but um well maybe I can we'll see um what happens but that's that's where I'm at thank you board member Mosner welome thank you I'm also not loving this experence um but I'll be honest about what I what I'm feeling in my heart of hearts um um which is um which is when when I think about a decision that we can make here that um sets history for for future student that feels really compelling to me I know that there's an argument that um the time for naming buildings and so on after people has passed um also Birds the like um people who named birds have stop naming Birds after people because they don't
059want to be in a position of finding out 50 years later that maybe that's not a person that they want to have honored but for me in my heart of hearts to be able to to say something about what we value as a community and keeping the history of our community for the future feels compelling to me um to my colleagues point about wishing that you could vote for both dare I suggest the Lor man carry Southside Community Elementary School sorry I'm sorry this is brutal um that would be a different motion yes I know I'm struggling I'm struggling here too I'm struggling here too and my heart of hearts uh sorry Dr Mitchell I'm done thank you madam president sure I would love a response to my rambling comments from the committee I just
060want to clarify the 77 students and how that was those votes were obtained in K2 in kindergarten first and 2 grade um the class voted together um so so for each class it was one vote and in K2 there are 158 students and then three through five they voted they had the opportunity to vote individually I just wanted to clarify that thank you thank you I I'll add myself to the queue and say that I also want to just honor and appreciate all of the time and energy that the renaming um citizen renaming ad hoc committee has put in um I know that it is not a small thing to to put in this much time and energy to to look at the number of ideas and considerations that came forward so I want to
061start from that place and generally I would say that um when a committee or an ad hoc committee is putting in this amount of time and and they kind of give us a recommendation and have gone through the effort of ranking my natural inclination would be to kind of go with the hard work that the committee has put in and I want to hold this Dynamic tension which is is that in some of our more recent school renamings we have renamed schools around some of Madison's unsung heroes Dr Virginia Henderson malele chassa Anana um these are people that you know and I'm sure there are others right and so when I think about Lori man Harry being she's one of our alumni she attended the Madison School District graduated um from Memorial put her children
062through this district and then advocated for everybody else's children um there's something really profound about that and as I look at some of the letters that were written from people that we we as a district often go to Gloria Ladson Billings um Pastor Marcus Allen um Yolanda Shelton Morris who's at the city I mean people who and then we have the former principal of West High School who supported um Lori man car's um 4.0 program when there really was and I was working in the district at that time when when uh Lori had that idea and I remember she saw a gap with our student athletes not having a space for kind of the academic support and some of the other support um in between the after school hours and um practices starting up and
063she you know worked Tire tirelessly to find the funds and to work um with with the administration at West to fill that Gap and I I remember us talking about it as like this could be the pilot of something that could be more become maybe a more promising practice across our district and unfortunately that that didn't get an opportunity to materialize and so um so I say all that to say that I think there is something really powerful about um elevating the work of folks who have dedicated many many hours um and and talent to our district and that doesn't always show up as being the accomplished doctor or the first EOC officer like James C Wright right those folks are are notable and incredible in their own right and you can have other ways
064that folks are making incredible contributions to our district and so I I say all that to say I'm also a native of the Southside Born and Raised on the southide so I also love the idea of the school having a strong like a Southside name um so it it is it's hard to make this Choice um but I think tonight where I'm leaning is and particularly because this is the motion on the floor I I would vote in support of Lori man Cary and then I say Bor member Castro thank you yeah so I was fully prepared to adopt the recommendation from the committee tonight because I thought that it reflected the the the pride that this area of the city had for its own uh local community and context I thought it really represented
065that um and board member Mo Moser falam alluded to um you know sometimes or I think we are as Society rethinking whether we want to kind of personify through an individual kind of a collective effort uh of a community or Collective group of people or there are other ways to do that um but hearing from native from the South Side here tonight um I would be um excited to also vote for the motion on the the table as well as it I think it does reflect the The Pride that southide has for itself than you um I want to explain my vote um I am planning on voting an opposition of the current motion on the table I personally am so in support of having an educator and a parent and an an an alumni
066be on a school name and that is so incredible and I think it speaks to kids and you know um community members that you don't have to do all this insane stuff to still be a really good person um but at the end of the day my job as a student rep is to vote the way that the students have and based on the incredible hard work from the ad hoc committee um to me it sounds like the students have spoken thank you all right is there any further discussion okay so what we have a motion right oh yes member simin I'm I'm wondering about board member Moser feltham's really long combination name is that something that we might want to take up in place of one or the other let me revisit the policy
067quickly because I think you may have to work with what was recommend it yes for member malro I feel like I I really appreciate the sentiment of the longer name but I do think it's important to recognize like it's an elementary school um and I just feel like you want the name to be easy for like a five-year-old to know you know um and and I I and I I think to you know I I mean I think about malele and and what she meant to me as a person growing up here and how proud I was to get to name a school after her um and the and the fact that that's her chosen name right and like what that says to our students too in terms of like recognizing someone in the name
068that they chose for themselves in the identity that they um that they crafted for for themselves right and and and so I like that we're a city that honors you know people who have worked in education I like that we're a city that has like Milt mcpike park I think that that says something about the kind of town that this is um and and I I do recognize like the te I do find this to be tremendously challenging I got to be honest with you all like I I like the idea of the longer name in terms of like a almost like a get out of jail free car like see we don't have to make a decision um but I think it's important that that we make a decision and that we make it
069from a place of like what what means something to us and to this community in the long run and because of that I think I am leaning towards voting in favor of your motion um yeah and I want to recognize like it's a really it's challenging because we have good options and we want to honor as much of our community as possible and so I I think yeah Mona I'm curious about whether or not we are allowed to make the name that long so with the policy see you have the four names before you that were presented by the committee with that being said um as per usual you're able to amend and you can create your own whether you combine it um what I won't make a recommendation I don't think I need to
070make a recommendation for this specific matter um but yes you can I think the policy as it currently reads does give you latitude if you wanted to make an amendment and uh propose your propose a f okay having not seen any enthusiasm over having an elementary school name that has five words in it um I will just leave the recommendation or the motion as I originally said thank you um all right so I'm going to ask for all those that are in favor of renaming the elementary school Lori man carry elementary school I'll start with Megan your advisory vote right all those in favor and I do see Savon online and Maya has recused herself so that passes unanimously six zero okay we just did something y'all thank you again to everyone from the school
071and the committee present here tonight deep appreciations for all of your hard work thank you for bringing forth names that um really made us think hard about the significance of naming of a naming of a school well I know we just voted um I would like to clarify something for the record um initially my position was is that the board could make uh make an amendment and propose a new name in the circulation I'm going to retract that position um as I'm rereading the policy I believe that as the policy is currently written um that because it says at at least 14 days prior to making a decision on the naming hold a public hearing um to propose we wouldn't have been within that window so I just wanted to say on record that I
072would not recommend um us in the future we would not be able to um consider any other names beyond what the PO the committee proposed unless the policy changes thank you all right we are going to move forward now from the one action item that proceeded through the oper ations work group um Coming forward tonight is one policy that we discussed um and it is policy 3031 about school closing I move that the Board of Education Revis the school closing inclement weather policy the policy will be revised effective immediately second Maya all right thank you vice president Pearson any discussion on this policy that we have seen twice major change is um as you can see in the attachment is really replacing um some the collective bargaining agreement with employee handbook and we agreed at
073the last meeting that the superintendent will inform the board um so kind of revising some of the wording there about contacting the president of the board any discussion or question all right seeing none Megan your advisory vote all right all those in favor hi all right that passes unanimously thank you all right we're now moving on to the 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 February 24th 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
074Board second Maya and pull out 107 okay thank you so we're going to separate 10.7 are there any other separations okay hearing none all those in favor oh Megan your advisory vote on the consent agenda all right all those in favor I all right that passes unanimously all right now let me go to 10.7 I move that the Board of Education approve an expenditure in the amount of $30,000 to the Simpson Street Free Press to provide course subject academic instruction to mmsd students through the use of student-led newspaper writing and Publishing during after school and summer with funding from the 2024 2025 strategic Partnerships operating budget contingent Upon A completed memorandum of agreement to formalize a partnership with the district can somebody second thank you yes for member Vander M and I just P this
075to thank um the board and to thank everyone this partnership is very important to I believe to our youth it help it helps with reading it helps with writing and Simpson Street has provided an excellent outlet for students so I pulled this solely as a thank you okay thank you board member malra yeah I'm an alumni of the Simpson Street Free Press I got to write for them as a young young person so I want to thank them for the opportunities that they gave me um were tremendously meaningful to me to get to intern throughout the city with local media and to get to write um with the support of their team as a young person the work that they continue to do I think is more important than ever given the attack on the
076Free Press that we've seen um and and really their their ability to help our young people understand an accurate and reliable source and and I think that that is is so deeply meaningful in today's world um I do want to ask why this is coming to the board before there's a mandum of agreements because that that just seems that seems slightly strange to allocate $30,000 in the absence of agreed upon terms hi I think first is coming to approve the partnership then from the partnership theou is then developed is that is that the process normally I believe it is I I just 100% sure yes okay okay okay thank you um I'm sorry that feel that feels like slightly counterintuitive to me but I guess if that is kind of the normal process then I
077want to celebrate the work of the Simpson Street Free Press and Empower our Administration to negotiate a meaningful the only thing I just want to add also to Ali is because it's a renewal too and it's not a new partnership it's a renewal partnership okay so voting to renew the partnership and then going to having those under additional contacts okay so that's actually important so what you're saying is because it's a renewal we already have an MOA with that correct and we're talking about adjusting it they following that makes that makes so much more sense thank you for answering my questions Dr McCrae I am excited to vote in favor of this allocation right any other questions or comments all right seeing none Megan your advisory vote all right all those in favor I all
078right that's unanimous thank you all right we will now move on to other reports to the board um City County Schools collaborative committee um I was not at this meeting so board member simin would you like to out it's in the board Ducks yep I saw that um so during this meeting there was a discussion around um which um part of this collaborative committee would be sort of housing the committee moving forward right now city is doing that um and there was a decision made to um draft a letter um providing options for the school district to take this committee on under our purview um and also um around discussing perhaps a new model or a more focused mission for for this collaboration yeah and next committee meeting is um scheduled to be March 12
079yeah all right thank you for that board member Syndicate all right let's hear from student Senate okay so our most recent meeting was on January 29th uh we were supposed to have a meeting between then and now and it was cancelled due to weather and transportation concerns um so on January 29th we had a more in-depth Board of Education report and discussion um specifically pertaining to the Charter School proposal uh before going into committee time and then our next meeting is this Wednesday February 26th and we have a couple guest speakers coming in to talk about a potential CL great thank you next we'll hear from Madison School and community recreation advisory committee or member Moser fum thank you well um if you're interested in the MSR advisory committee you are in luck because we
080are currently recruiting members to join our team more information about the committee and the application can be found online at mc.org um MSR after school middle and high school basketball leagues are in full swing with 17 middle school teams and 17 high school teams from across the district competing this winter the season wraps up with an eighth grade tournament on March 1st and a high school tournament on March 8th MCR is teaming up with Madison parks to host four summer hiring fairs this spring at MCR West MCR East and the parks and MSR Central Building uh the first fair is March 12 from 4 to 7 at MSR West and finally mark your calendars for mscr summer registrations that which opens on Monday March 10th at noon for mmsd residents Camp information is available online
081now and the rest of the summer guide will be posted on Friday to February 2 thank you um we've already heard from our citizens ad hoc committee which was the next um report to the board so I'm going to move over to the policy committee or there any updates for tonight um no updates uh for tonight we are going to meet uh this I believe it's this Friday it might be next Friday Maya can correct me if I am wrong to um uh do a first read of the financial policies we did the first read so it would be revision of any Financial policies also additional to look at other policies on our calendar then we will inform the board of any discussions that have been made I saw vice president Pearson give you the
082thumbs up yep all right we have no report from the board governance Committee in other business um we have the appointment of a hearing officer all right I move that the following resolution be approved whereas Madison Schoolboard policy 4045 and Wisconsin State Statute section 12.13 1e provide that the Madison School Board here and after the board May adopt a resolution in which the board May authorize the use of an independent hearing officer appointed by the board to determine pupil expulsion from school and whereas such res resolution is only effective during the school year it is adopted and whereas the board desires to adopt such resolution and use independent hearing officers to determine pupil expulsion from school for the 2024 2025 school year therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby authorizes excuse me
083the use of an independent hearing officer for the 20242 school year to determine a pupil's expulsion from school and be it further resolved that the following independent hearing officer shall be reappointed to the pool of off officers Matthew Bell second Maya any that's it all right I guess we are voting on this were there any questions or concerns comments questions yes board member M thank you board president Nichols I just want to make sure I understand we are opting to have an appointed yes so the board already has an appointed hearing um examiner at the beginning of the school year there were a total of two hearing examiners one stepped away from the position to a job change and so now we need two because um if one is unavailable and because there's a timeline
084that's involved we have to make sure there's always two in this is just making sure we have the minimum number of hearing examiners to process and comply with those statutory obligations related to the timeline so is the one who stepped away former general counsel Matt Bell no that's who we're adding to the list now okay served in this capacity previously but someone else from his firm most recently did it the former Shar Perry did it but she left her position and so now that created a vacancy for hearing cers so now he's stepping even though they work at the same firm he's stepping into that role but we have to identify them by name as opposed to employer I greatly appreciate that and what I will is knowing both of those folks as former staff
085of our own legal department makes me think that they are are very familiar with our process and and what it looks like to be in the room with us when we're talking about expulsion um and so I I support with that us having the two people and one being that just in transparency since you um elevated that the second hearing officer is not a former District employee but still very qualified attorney thank you for that information all right Megan your advisory vote all right all those in favor I all right thank you that passes unanimously we don't have any old or new business and so we're at the point of the meeting where board member Vander Mulan has got us into a motion to adjourn second was that you Maya yeah okay seconded by vice
086president Pearson Megan all right all those in favor all right thank y'all that passes unanimously meeting is adjourned