12.18.23 Regular Board of Education Meeting

001good evening everyone we're gonna call our meeting to order um for those of you who have been here for a while we want to just thank you for your patience um as we got started a little late tonight I'm going to start with a um our vision statement every school will be a thriving school that prepares every student to graduate from high school college career and Community ready tonight we're going to ask for a moment of silence for our district to recognize the passing of Dan nearad Dan served as superintendent of the Madison School District from 2008 to 2012 he valued collaboration collaboration and was always willing to listen as part of his legacy in mmsd Dan is credited with starting four-year-old kindergarten in the district Dan had many accomplishments including being selected as Wisconsin

002superintendent of the year in 2006 Dan is remembered as someone who was always a champion for mmsd and a strong believer in the power of Education to improve lives and Advance social justice Dan's passing has taken a sign ific toll on so many in the greater Madison community and we remember him tonight please join me in participating in a moment of silence in honor of Dan nrat thank you we'd like to ask for a moment of silence this evening for our district to recognized the passing of Margaret Mickey schaer who was a special education teacher at Memorial High School for 35 years before becoming a substitute teacher within the school district after her retirement Mickey is remembered as someone who selfishly advocated for anyone who needed her whether that be her students her family or

003even the dogs she helped through her volunteer work at animal shelters her Joy came from making a difference in the world and though she left us too soon her impact will continue to be felt by so many Souls Mickey's passing has taken a significant toll on so many students and staff within mmsd community and we remember them tonight please join me in participating in a moment of silence in honor of Margaret Mickey schaer thank you we' like to ask for a moment of silence this evening for our district to recognize the passing of Ron Miller who was a senior maintenance technician with one of our partners access community health centers celebrate Smiles program Ron is remembered as someone who always had a smile on his face and someone always willing to help with whatever was

004needed Ron met with every school met with every school prior to the celebrate Smiles mobile unit coming to the school Ron was responsible for driving the celebrate Smiles RV mobile unit delivering supplies and the E Equipment and for parking it safely at all of our School locations Ron's passing has taken a significant toll on so many staff supporting our celebrate smile program for the entire district and we remember them tonight please join me in celebrating or please join me in participating in a moment of silence in honor of Ron Miller thank you we'll now move into our public input section of the agenda for um written statements a summary of the 42 written registration submitted from noon on Friday December 15th until 3 p.m. on Monday December 18th which is today follows below 18 opposed

005to the proposed attendance areas for the no Mundo Charter renewal as it could adversely impact other DLI programs in that attendance area 12 in support of additional social worker allocation for Kennedy Elementary for in support of additional and targeted allocation for education at mmsd for in support of most new rundo Charter renewal but not as it relates to Transportation two in support of no Mundo Charter renewal as a whole One support one in support of more inform information around why mmsd did not apply for Aid under Wisconsin statute 118.1 1534 and one in support of noo Mundo becoming an international Balor at school we'll now move on to those who are registered to speak um am I reading this now okay for um public comment tonight we will have an interpreter for Spanish speakers if

006needed before you start your comment please let us know if you will be needing The Interpreter and as you give your comment please take periodic pauses for interpretation extra time will be granted for interpretation and interpreter this evening will be Jorge Alva and he will be on Zoom we can start with our speakers oh okay thank you for that jge you can uh read that yeah hear you where hello can you hear me okay thank you okay we'll start with our online speakers thanks our first speaker is Jeff purle thank you can you hear me yes we can hear you appreciate it and thank you for the board for taking time to hear from this evening uh my name is Jeff purle and I'm a parent at Kennedy School I have two boys in that

007school Matthew is in kindergarten it is his birthday today so he's very excited for you to meet on that very special day for him and Marcus is in the fourth grade and I'm coming today to talk about some of the Investments and goals that we have for Kennedy School as we think about kind of how we're moving forward in the next 18 to 24 months we reach out to many of you we're talking about sort of a road map that we've put together that really thinks about how we're leveraging the resources of our parents and our community to support our students in our school and thinking about the kinds of interventions and supports that would help our classrooms and our students Thrive as we move forward as a parent I can really see the value

008of how an additional social worker would really impact and support support the mental health needs of our students an additional fourth and fifth grade teacher would really give us the kind of class sizes that we could effectively manage to support both the student learning and the needs of our students in the classroom over the last five years we have really worked to embrace and support all of the students in our schools we've seen a lot of changes and Transformations even starting back to before the pandemic but we find ourselves in kind of this acute period of transition and we see it reflected in some of the things that are happening academically but also in the community uh in 2021 the Salvation Army moved the family shelter in Milwaukee Street and we Embrace that we're helping

009with Transportation issues helping kids find coats providing snacks and supporting students but when we think about the value of what a social worker could do an additional social worker could do in our schools there are needs that many of the students are bringing into the school today that need specialized mental health support to to be successful in our classrooms and we have seen the way that Community traumas you're all familiar with some of the instances of gun violence that have played out in the community that have impacted students who attend our schools or whose families attend our schools and the way that they're Rippling through our classrooms that kinds of intense mental health trauma informed strategies that our students need are different than they were even just a few years ago and a social worker

010trained in mental health is a vital asset for us in a school in something that this spring could make a huge difference in helping manage students to success and provide the Boost that they need as we try and tackle some of the reading issues that kids are seeing coming out of the pandemic uh and some of the other challenges when we kind of look forward to where we're going we think a couple key interventions here this spring and perhaps trying to put together a summer learning or even summer camp wraparound program at Kennedy leading into next year where we could think about how we might be able to put together a community school and look at Community eligibility for students as ways that we can build and wrap around all of these supports to boost

011student learning and so we really want to be partners in that and we know that you put students first when you're making these decisions but we need your help on addressing some of these things here and now this spring as we try to gear up and really boost the efforts of our students in our school we've got amazing staff I know many of them are here in the room they're doing a fantastic job we have a great leader in our school right now which has not always been the case recently and we are proud of the work that our students are doing but they need a little help and support uh for us to get there so thank you for considering those things we're going to continue to engage in those conversations um but really

012appreciate you taking the time to listen to us tonight thank you thank you our next speaker is Christian Roman hello can you hear me yes we can hear you excellent all right so my name is Christian Roman I am a parent of a third grader that attends testr Mundo um hopefully my other daughter will be able to attend kindergarten starting next year um I grew up in New York where I was exposed to a wide variety of different cultures while going on my educational journey I was able to see my Latino Heritage reflected in many of the teachers and students this allowed me to take pride in my Latino Heritage and um currently where I live um the local population of the school is uh primarily a white population and does not have the same

013level of diversity that n moo provides uh nuro provides a unique opportunity for my daughter and other students of Hispanic background to have the same kind of opportunity that I had growing up to be able to see themselves reflected in the teachers and their fellow students to have an opportunity to uh live their life with their culture being respected and not have to suffer through kind of feeling singled out or different um I would like to speak in favor of continuing to support nestro Mundo by renewing its Charter and expanding to include 4K I believe this would give a great starting point for the youngest of students I also believe to support the um IB and to continue to support them for the equity and diversity opportunities that that this school uniquely provides um I

014want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak and I hope that you will continue to support n from window going forward thank you thank you next is Sarah maloi thank you hi um I'm Sarah meski I've been a teacher at Henderson for over 20 years um and I'm also an mmsc parent of a seventh grader and uh at Senate and a senior at lalet both of whom attended the Henderson DLI program the Kennedy and alvim attendance areas have long been a part of our school community and so being the the resident um old person on the staff the one that's been there a long time um I was asked to give a little bit of History so in the 2003 2004 school year that was the first year that we had

015dbe developmental bilingual education program at uh then Glendale the program then uh later became DLI but the original program was considered a transitional program for student student whose Prim students whose primary home language was Spanish um that's also when we started ESL at Glendale now Henderson um that also happened to be my first year there I taught a combo 23 class we had one dbe section at each grade cluster K1 23 and four5 at that time MMC was considering redrawing attendance boundaries on the East and Southeast sides in order to balance out the needs of schools and use buildings um adequately before we started our dbsl program at Glendale now Henderson we had about 300 students and thanks to our eson bilingual program we now have close to students this is also why our attendance

016area overlaps with Elum and Kennedy language Services ended up being centered at our school so it's been almost it's been that way for over two decades that the Kennedy and Elum area has been a part of the Henderson attendance area in 2011 we started our DLI program which gives Lottery priority to the students in the Kennedy and Al attendance areas we do Outreach to incoming kindergarten families to make sure that they know that and transportation is provided to Henderson in 2016 we were forced by the district to switch from a 9010 model to a 50/50 model which they said was for Equity our staff protested but we were told that we didn't have a choice even though nestro Mundo was able to stay a 910 model his the history of decisions being made based on

017numbers regardless of how that impacted us has long at H at Henderson School first the switch to DLI from dbe the switch to 5050 from 9010 and this year our schedule switch which was we were given only a few weeks notice to change another thing about uh where we happen to be located is that we are already competing not only with nestro Mundo for our students but one city is also in our attendance area for our school by removing the Kennedy and alium attendance area from our um PRI priority for the lottery will definitely impact our students and put us at a disadvantage thank you thank you our next speaker is Cheryl Schwartz okay hello and I am Cheryl Schwartz I'm just using my husband's computer um so yeah thank you for having me um

018several years ago I companied a group of students from Memorial High School as they presented to the board their needs for better music practice and performance facilities this was the seed that resulted in a successful referendum in The Amazing spaces that today's students are enjoying at Memorial um so my number one message today is a sincere thank you to the board of education and the people of Madison for making this dreamer reality as a parent I've seen the pride that the students are taking in their music and the excitement surrounding the environment in which they can now make music after fears that music education might crash due to the challenges imposed by covid it is back and more popular than ever at Memorial this is due in no small part to the extraordinary efforts of

019our music staff at the middle and high school levels a couple of weeks ago I attended an orchestra concert including the gesp and Memorial orchestras 7th through 12th grade the seventh grade Orchestra alone had more members than the entire Memorial Orchestra at the last concert I had attended in 2018 miss shck the orchestra director for both schools is building a strong diverse highquality program with much potential to grow but for these seventh graders to continue making music together to meet the demand and to De meet the demand for our new music production classes using their new facilities guitar instruction and other music performance opportunities we will need staff to teach all these classes we need those staff also to not be burnt out but to have time to Mentor our students for that reason I

020ask that you continue to take advantage of the incredible spaces our community has funded by committing to find music Staffing at a sustainable level for the years to come our public schools are by far the most Equitable space in the city for any child to gain the experience of making music with others and it's not just the equity of opportunity and Excellence that makes public school music so important the healing power of music is one of the most ancient and Universal ways that Humanity has found to deal with the traumas that come our way the mental health struggles of today's students are well documented expressing oneself through music particularly making music as part of a group is one of the most effective and cost effective ways to promote young people's mental health both now and

021into the future I'm no expert on this so I'll quote those who are first Bessel Vander a trauma Pioneer and author of the body keeps the score he says being in tune with other members of our species is enormously rewarding what begins is the attuned play of mother and child continues with the rhythmicity of a good basketball game the synchrony of T Tango dancing and the harmony of coral singing all which Foster a deep sense of pleasure and connection all rely on interpersonal RMS visceral awareness and vocal and facial communication which help shift people out of fight or flight States reorganize their perception of danger and increase their capacity to manage relationships and one more quickly from the association for Child and Adolescent mental health this is their quote music can play a role in

022therapeutic work with anger anxiety and mood regulation and Trauma processing promoting relaxation and mindfulness emotional regulation and meaning the integration of Music can promote group cohesion processes empathy and connectiveness excuse music can be a tool for engagement particularly when young people have complex trauma histories ex or are avoided or disengaged from Beethoven to Beyonce this promotes successful engagement trauma processing and change thank you okay thanks thank you our final online speaker is Erica Evelyn Walker hi can you hear me uh yes we can hear you uh good evening members of the board of directors of mmsd I thank you for allowing me to speak today in behalf of my family uh as you just read my name is Erica Evelyn Walker and I am the mother of two beautiful autistic children as a biracial and

023blackin family the education of my children are very important the education of uh our children in our uh low income and under represented Community are very important to me as well as these children will face multiple obstacles such as discrimination because of their color of the skin background special needs and more this is why it's super important that the integration of International pular Education is a proov for n Mundo I know that the certification Fosters inclusivity and Embraces diverse learning needs something that my children will need along their education future this holistic approach that IB has prioritized on the individualized support encourages of cognitive and social development skills My Two children year for Education that involves their surrounder surroundings nature and focus of global mind mindedness I know that IB will equip my students and

024my children with many other skills that their PE will have especially children with special me special needs like mine and they will be able to be academically successful and social and they will have the social integration that they that they will want nurturing and more Equitable ourf compassionate educational environment on the other hand also having the opportunity for my second child to attend the first full-time dual IM marcial classroom while the staff is getting their IB licensing will mean that her needs will be addressed and nurtur as soon as nundu start their learning certification IB path it will provide a more Equitable classroom where she can learn and grow without having to be concerned about not meeting her dual immersion immersion language needs too limiting the boundaries for acceptance for Mr Mundo Charter School will

025create inequality of access of bilingual and B bicultural families which it will this will will not be Equitable I hope that you take into consideration my work on behalf of renewing Norr Mundo contract with the new innovative ideas that they will that will help our district and children to be prepared for a future where their differences will be an asset and not a disadvantage this will be the best way to honor deer a former superintendent if we as a district are trying to be more Equitable diverse and inclusive we will have to Ser serve our minority students groups families and communities where they need most of the help and resources without any obstacles thank you so much for listening to me tonight thank you to our um online speakers we'll move to our in-person speakers

026um before we start just a quick reminder that when you come to the podium you have 3 minutes there's a clock up here which will show you the three minutes counting down there's also a yellow light that will show up on the little box on the podium which means you have about 30 more seconds and then you'll hear the um the red you'll see the red light and hear the timer um if you're still finishing your final thought I'll I'm going to just set a little timer on my on my phone to give you about 30 seconds seconds to finish up but please be mindful of your time tonight we have 29 speakers and um don't forget that if you would like um interpretation with Jorge to please indicate that when you come up to

027speak um and to give him time um to also do the interpretation so we will start with Megan Roman and then after Megan uh Katie Elliott I think it is uh thank you for the chance to speak tonight and also thank you for this board's commitment to equity I really appreciate that for our whole Community uh I am speaking in support of the nestro Mundo Charter renewal and um particularly the full Day 4k and the IB program as supporting Equity um I believe currently that IB is offered at a private school in this area which is Out Of Reach for so many folks and it would be great to see that offered in the public schools as well and I think it would also be a great way to um regain some of the ground

028educationally that was lost during the pandemic um and um so I really encourage that um I'm also speaking on behalf of my daughter who is an enthusiastic third grader at Nest Mundo and a proud Puerto Rican Latina um uh at nor Mundo she has benefited incalculably from seeing herself culturally and linguistically reflected and celebrated um and she has benefited from a community when she needed it most during the devastating social emotional and educational loss of the global pandemic um I was seeing a a photo of her with her kindergarten teacher um came up on Google them together on a zoom call and just meant so much to her every day and to all of us um since she is open enroll um oh and also like on that note her little sister is supposed to

029go into kindergarten next year at westo and um she says hi to that kindergarten teacher every day and she is someone who suffered greatly social emotional loss during the during the pandemic to see her reaching out that way is just so beautiful um and uh since we are an open enrolled family we hope that any future decisions about admissions requirements continue to allow for internal transfer and open enrolled students to attend nor window going forward thank you so much for your time we'll have Katie come up Katie is Drew Powell hi my name is Katie Elliot I'm here representing um parents at Kennedy Elementary I have a fourth grader and a first grader there and I'm also representing the Kennedy PTO today we have had an immense amount of support of parent support for our

030school and for our extraordinary staff many of whom are here today um and I'm here to emphasize our need for an additional social worker to meet the mental health needs of students in our school Kennedy is a great school and my kids love it there um they're learning about themselves as members of a diverse Community they are learning academic content that is leading to Lasting interests and they have formed strong connections with teachers that they know care about them this this is what we want public schools to be however the last two years as you heard from Jeff have brought challenges and our students are now experiencing greater mental health needs um many of them are facing food insecurity homelessness and gun-related Trauma and as you know when children bring this level of insecurity and

031Trauma it of course influences their Readiness their it influences their Readiness for school and their ability to engage academically this staff is working incredibly hard and cares deeply for Kennedy's students but without the right supports these challenges can become too much and my kids experience this in classrooms that are often disrupted um in uh lessons that are delayed sorry um and in witnessing altercations that have at times made them feel unsafe the fact that despite these challenges my kids love their school is only a testament to the talent and the dedication of the entire Kennedy staff as parents we recognize what we have in this staff and the importance of supporting them and we've stepped up to help by um sourcing food and clothing and snacks um for students by recruiting and organizing mentors and

032volunteers um and by providing funds for classroom and school needs and now we need the district to step us up as well um and we need your leadership to make that happen in order to address the mental health needs of our students our school needs an additional full-time social worker in all honesty we also need another fourth grade and fifth grade section to reduce our class sizes and I know that many of the challenges that Kennedy is experiencing are experienced by other schools and I know everybody wants to reduce their class sizes but we are here because Kennedy's need is acute it is immediate and Action Now can have a profound impact on all of Kennedy's students which includes some of the district's most vulnerable children Kennedy is at a Crossroads and our staff needs

033your support in order to continue doing the extraordinary work that they're doing the addition of a full-time social worker and upper elementary teachers would allow the school to better meet the students mental health needs and keep classrooms focused on achievement and growth these are supports that are doable and are proven to have impact on Student Success we need to see urgency to act now this school year in order to meet the challenges we're facing to support our students and to continue to support our teachers in keeping Kennedy the thriving school that it has been thank you for listening um hi Drew after after Drew will'll have Pablo Sons hi my name is Drew Powell I'm a parent of three girls who attend Kennedy as well as a fourth grade teacher there my family joined the

034Kennedy Community when we moved here two and a half years ago one thing I love about Kennedy is the Deep care and affection that the staff and families have for our school our community and most importantly our students I hope that is evident in what you see in here this evening I'm here today to highlight the disparity in equity and inequity and the resources that have been allocated to Kennedy by mmsd around 10% of Kennedy students are in our program for students experiencing homelessness that's more than 50 students in our our school many of our students both in and out of the T program have experienced significant trauma in their lives including those affected directly and indirectly by recent gun violence it should come as no surprise that systemic racism and economic inequality mean that

035this and other issues disproportionately affect our black students when you look at these and other factors together it paints a picture of a school where many students show up to school each day and through no fault of their own are not ready to learn sometimes that relates to EXP experiences with past trauma or current uncertainty about what to expect when they leave school each day or that their basic needs haven't been met the challenges that the students at our school face are not new exact numbers vary year-to year but it was possible to anticipate the high number of tap students over the past few years armed with this information mmsd has failed to provide enough social workers and psychologists to meet our students needs lvm Elementary has roughly half the number of students as Kennedy

036and significantly fewer students experiencing homeless yet both Kennedy and lvm have the same social worker and psychologist allocation one full-time person for each role the challenges our school faces are not the result of apathy on the part of Kennedy Elementary staff or our community staff and communities ready and willing to do the difficult work to move Kennedy forward to be successful in that work we need the right resources this inequity runs counter to the vision of mmsd part of the district's strategic plan reads we will take responsibility for the ways that our current policies and practices serve to reproduce inequities these are bold and inspirational words but they are not being lived up to at the moment instead the lack of resources at Kennedy is perpetuating the inequities that mmsd wants to eliminate if you

037do not act quickly this problem will grow Kennedy is not the first school in our country to experience his challenges like the ones we currently face there are best practices for schools and situations like ours there is research that can guide the district response to the situation at Kennedy please follow that research and Implement proven strategies to help us succeed we're asking for an immediate increase in Staffing to support the mental health needs of our students including another full-time social worker and for an actionable long-term plan moving forward our community and school is in crisis and our community deserves better our school deserves better and most importantly our students deserves better thank you for listening Pablo come on up and then after Pablo we'll have Rachel Nolan hello my name is Pablo Sans I am

038Spanish and I have a son who goes to NR Mundo and two younger daughters that hopefully will go there in the future I'm here to explain what a school lundo means to my family I'll be brief my wife is American born and raised in wiconsin which means we are a bilingual family growing up in Madison my kids are only exposed to the US culture for a long time I was their only link with their Spanish half this was not important when they were babies or toddlers but at some point when they became more aware of the world I could tell that sometimes it was a little weird for them to be the only kids among their peers whose dad spoke to them different then when it was time for for my son to go to

039nostr Mundo I was able to see how a new World opened for him suddenly he discovered that there are many other children who speak Spanish with their parents that there are other people who speak like us and feel like us in conclusion my children can easily learn to speak Spanish from me but I cannot be a community for them that is what NR Mundo is for us a community where the wonderful cultures of the Spanish speaking world are lived and celebrated this is why I support the current model for Mr Mundo I think it is the best alternative for families like ours and I know that having a 4K DLI and the implementation of IV would be highly beneficial for new families coming to our school thank you after Rachel we'll have Stan ritterbush I

040think it is hi I'm a second grade Eli teacher at Dr Virginia Henderson Elementary School and I'm also a member of the MTI Union um I'm here to Advocate to not have no waer Mundo to change their attendance area um to include the Kennedy Southside Alum and schn Sh shank sorry um I'm proposing this for two reasons the first is speaking to the diversity of our program at Henderson um of both staff and students and the second reason would be to support teacher re attention um if there was that shift in attendance area we would have some very strong negative effects on um students and uh staff retention so first our school like many of the schools here in mmsd are doing amazing work um we are building our building hosts teaching in three different

041languages so we Spanish English and ASL um being a school that supports this kind of diversity and language shows students that this world is full of wonderful and important voices that use many languages um the diversity is not only linguistic in our school we also um have an ethnic demographic that is more representative of the Madison Community um in the 2021 to 22 school year about 31% of our students at Henderson were um black or of two or more races and that's according to the National Center of educational St statistics no rundo that same year only had about 10% um of students who were black or of two more two or more races um while the data doesn't State ex um how many kids were in the DLI program at Henderson um it does show

042that there were more faces that looked that like each other um and that the diversity of Learners present in our Halls were more representative of the diversity of Learners in the greater Madison area um the second reason I am advocating for not changing the attendance areas is that that having just a few students um not enter into our kindergarten DLI programs will decrease the amount of sections um and it is not best practice to be a silo in um a grade level um and this work is also just hard enough on yourself when you don't have anybody to um talk with and to converse about on a daily level a daily time um and so that that being not best practice and having already teacher shortages I would be really concerned about us making our

043school being able to staff be fully staffed which would be hurting our students and then our staff who are already very um amazing and doing great work so thank you for your time and consideration I really believe that voting no to the attendance area changes um will really make our programming contining to be more Equitable here in Madison after Stan we will go with Jennifer dorl hello my name is Stan Ritter Bush and I these are my feelings I feel that my time was cut short by the senior director of Billing Services Mr head Cedric Hodo I was a building head at Hamilton venis for seven of my 15 years and in the fall of 22 my school received a c minus appearance rating by Cedric I truly feel that this was the retaliation for

044me questioning as author earlier in 2021 during a zoom meeting Cedric stated that we could we would be stripping and not soap scrubbing floors anymore no more waxing over dirty floors he said I said that my principes need the school ready for day one and that I may have to go over his head and soap scrub to finish this cleaning as time permits he stated on two occasions during this meeting the quickest way to get fired is to go over your boss's head I was given an improvement plan to strip and wax areas he felt were not done to his standards and that's within his right being my supervisor this was to be done while school was in session classes are full of kids as I tried to complete the test I was constantly monitored

045and areas were added to this plan and the due dates were being moved up more work and less time while running two schools daily on December 5th I was inspected and Cedric found the area he didn't like and I was told to restrip and wax this area he stated I waxed over a dirty floor which I had not I told Cedric I was going home I was angry and that I didn't feel well I didn't want to say anything I may regret I left school I filed harassment charges with HR and him that day he placed me on administrative leave until we met with him we met right away the next day to clear the air Cedric basically started the meeting by stating that God made him with no fear why say that to me

046it had nothing to do with this situation I've also heard him uh that he quotes the Quran during meetings is that even allowed I want a Christmas tree then to be honest I told him of my filing and he stated that when HR sees these CH charges they will dismiss them and that's what HR did I returned to work on December 12th I was placed on a second plan with a deadline of March 1st this time it was in to strip the entire Hamilton complex I was told by Cedric that I would get District help to get this done but very little was given they were all busy at East High School prepping for Mr Jenkins speech which we all know how that turned out I work countless hours of overtime in late January I

047met with the assistant director Dean I asked Dean to please ask Cedric to reconsider his plan as my Stress and Anxiety were getting worse a few few days later we met and Dean stated Cedric would not reconsider this request and we must stay the course I asked Dean if he in fact ask Cedric to reconsider he stated that he could neither confirm nor deny that he asked I continued to work on this impossible task at 3:00 am in early Friday I asked to finish an early Friday afternoon an email came from Cedric St and I was being inspected that day I feared CED was going to fire me I called in sick with a doctor's excuse citing Stress and Anxiety caused by this man I was approved for short-term disability for those reasons I returned

048to work on August 1st because I was turned down for long-term disability being told I could work somewhere else by our insurance company at 9:20 that day Cedric Hodo entered the office and Point Blank Range in my face asked me where my work excuse was I had turned it in the day before I will finish and I turned it into Dean Coons I retired in person the next day at HR this treatment was was not going to stop the handbook guarantees safe and healthy workplace free from bullying and harassment I was not given the environment by HR how many charges have to be filed how many more good people have to leave how many more months do employees have to work in this hostile environment has HR or the lawyers even I'm gonna say one

049more sentence I my union support given to me even though my members are not here with the fear of management retaliation thank you very I appreciate Theo I love this school district it was a great place to work for thank thank you um please be reminded y'all we do have we have a lot of speakers and to give everyone the the respect for them to be able to make their comments as well Jennifer and then we'll go with Bridget kreman bringman sorry if I messed up your name I recently went to Capitol High's ribbon cutting ceremony I am a Hoy School alumni and it was thrilling to see the Hoy space recreated with Innovative features that are responsive to diverse student needs I'm a reading interventionist at Kennedy School and I'm here tonight to advocate

050for the needs of our Kennedy students and families I want to fill in some specifics and share some ideas for our struggling and vulnerable Community while these thoughts are my own I consulted with Kennedy leadership colleagues and families while preparing for this evening our challenge is Staffing which is affecting the academic success of our students I'm going to say it again Staffing levels in the building are stretched Way Too Thin jeopardizing learning success for our students many sports that we could put in place for struggling students are getting disrupted or not being provided at all as we work to cover absences recently Kennedy we experienced a 4-week period with no vocal music teacher ESL intervention Advanced learning climate coach instructional coaches were asked to take turns subbing for a month students needing these those support

051teachers went without central office did send some help but it wasn't always helpful on the discouraging morning of November 15th we found out at 8:21 a.m that the person the district sent to sub for music could not sub because she was not instructional staff and later we found out that the school psychologist the district planed to send would also not be coming just take a minute to process what this means as students are walking into the building that morning all the support teachers I just mentioned finish their morning duties then frantically scramble to figure out which music slot they can cover and which of their students will not receive their support that day also all of us in the Kennedy Community are stressed and sad about recent nearby gun fac fatalities many of our students

052live in communities where neighbors have been gunned down they do do not feel safe on the most basic level have not fully processed these events and they come to school unable to learn their behaviors block many others from learning too we don't have enough staff to deal with challenging behaviors from students who need mental health support not having the staff in place to address these underlying mental health needs is one of the most impactful examples of inequity in our district the only mental health professional we have in our school of 560 students is our excellent social worker our school psychologists and one of our beas have been out on multi-month leaves without consistent and qualified substitutes also we currently have five full-time or M possibly more um full-time special ed education openings for cc teachers

053and seas when there is no one available to help manage disruptive student behaviors classroom teachers are not able to teach math math literacy science and social studies my Kennedy colleagues and I are frustrated disappointed angry that we don't have the resources to begin addressing the overwhelming level of need at Kennedy and I've tried to give you more understanding of what that looks and feels like right now there is much more to say mmsd has shown at Capital High our willingness to provide outof thebox supports when needed understanding that Equity is not an equal distribution of resources I came here to convince you that Kennedy right now needs your attention and action I shared these comments with you via email earlier today and included a list of suggested actions please don't set this issue aside for

054later Kennedy needs help now thank you uh next up will be Teddy Berg good evening my name is Bridget kman bringman and I'm here tonight as a lifelong Madison resident in mmsd alumni my parents were mmsd teachers my brother's an MMS teacher and I'm also the parent of an mmsd graduate and two current mmsd students my partner is an MMS teach D teacher and I have been an MSD social worker for 16 years 15 of which have been at Kennedy Elementary my family also lives in the Kennedy area I give you all of this context to share how deep committed I am to mmsd in Kennedy Elementary including the entire Kennedy Community when I started at Kennedy 15 years ago it was the same large school but with very different demographics and Community needs free

055and reduced lunch numbers were approximately 25% and our entire minority population was also approximately 25% T numbers or students experiencing homelessness hovered around 20 students per year which then was a large number in line with our large L student population overall student numbers were around 550 15 years later we are much more demographically rich as a schooling community 72% of our populations are students of color 56 qualify 56% qualify for free and reduced lunch and as of this morning 51 students at Kennedy are experiencing homelessness and qualify for Te services our entire student population is 591 so this is a staggering 9% the only School in the district with higher te numbers is East High School which is three times the size of Kennedy what I along with so many of these wonderful people in

056the audience and online tonight are here to say is that our community has changed and it's time for our allocation structure to change as well I have been and continue to be the loan social worker at Kennedy along with one school psychologist this has never been enough just based on our numbers alone and is now compounded by City needs that have not been addressed by this I mean the addition of the Salvation Army Family Shelter in two large apartment complexes that were built on the far East side of Madison in an area with no resources or access to transportation and apartment management that has been almost non-existent both of these complexes have been deemed at one time or another to be City nuisances due to the high level of police contact and violence families who

057live in these complexes are often happy to have found housing because it is so scarce only to realize that they are paying Market rent for places that are unsafe due to mismanagement due to gun violence and high police presence our students and their families are experiencing trauma at home through absolutely no fault of our own as you can imagine this is heartbreaking and it feels like we have so little support to offer yet and still are the people who are tasked with creating a safe space every day while we hear from city leaders that there are plans for better support in the future we know this is going to take time years really so what about now what about support for these families and their babies now what about Kennedy Elementary now I ask that

058you consider funding an additional social worker allocation effective immediately at Kennedy I would love to meet with any of all of you to to further advocate for this additionally I think it imperative that our class sizes be lowered at Kennedy to further meet the needs of our students proactively our student staff and their families deserve nothing less thank you for your time and consideration Thank You Bridget we'll have teddy Berg up and then following Teddy is Iris Hill my name is Teddy and I am in fourth grade at Kennedy Elementary I like going to school at Kennedy because of the teachers they are nice and helpful the friends at Kennedy help each other second to last for the Beast Academy teachers they help help us when we struggle with problems that are hard and challenge

059us finally I Lov how activities like science night start of school picnic and the fun run some things I don't like at Candy is fighting and swearing people that do disrupt Me by not letting me learn I can't have playground balls at recess too many kids in classes I'm sometimes scared for safety and these reasons make some of my friends at school change schools I think if we had another teacher like Miss Bridget School social worker things would be better I also think we need small class sizes I hope you will help our school thank you for listening all right thank you teddy come on up Iris and then following Iris will be Rachel bird hello my name is Iris Hill and I'm a teacher at Henderson Elementary I was just here two short months

060ago as a time change was approved that significantly impacted our community and I'm back because there's another proposal on the table that will have devastating effects on the Henderson Community a pro a proposal we knew nothing about until two weeks ago I'm here to ask you to vote no on the motion to include an attendance area for the lottery process that includes Elum and Kennedy for the no Mundo Charter by approving this motion Henderson Elementary will see a minimum net loss of three to five students per year over time this will mean collapsing sections and losing teachers we will lose allocations for interventionists coaches and bilingual resource teachers I think it's unjust to take from our school to give to another our school demographics are representative of the Madison community and the same cannot be

061said about no shundo we embody black excellence and collaboration on all fronts this will be a blow to our school community that we have worked so hard to build additionally adding any more chaos to the transportation system that's already in shambles is asking for trouble all of these things combined do not add up to racial Equity this proposal would have long-term effects on our fifth grade team we currently have 32 students in fifth grade di if we had four or less students we would lose a section and a teacher class size would jump from 16 to 28 you cannot effectively teach or learn a second language in any environment with 28 students this District attack attacks our school our core values of collaboration we've consistently had two sections of Di and this allows us to

062specialize in content areas and partner with our Eli colleagues to provide collaboration across across strands something that cannot be done at a charter where there are no Eli section this year we pair with our buddy rooms and kids cheer when they realize that they get to spend time with their friends they've really bonded and become family by going down to one section it would be impossible for a d teacher to partner because there would be responsible for all content areas all testing and all district initiatives voice is an mmsd core value and I'm here to bring Henderson's voice and again urge you to vote no on the new proposal this proposal takes from one school to give to another please listen to our voice I am not saying that the charter shouldn't be renewed I

063want to make that very clear I'm simply saying changing the attendance area is doing a disservice to the black community at our school and others by taking away a sense of belonging another mmsd core value as well as resources that our school rely on to support our population we have and want to continue to welcome lvm and Kennedy attendance areas with open arms into our DLI program their families become our family your action tonight speaks much louder than the emails saying we value your engagement or your commitment is commendable your action tonight will show us whether or not you truly believe in mmsd core values of voice and belonging our voice has not been heard this year so far and we teachers and families can only take so much before we decide that we no

064longer belong in mmsd thank you Rachel Burr is coming up and then we go to I think it's jedai gerero um hi my name is Rachel bird I'm a bilingual reading interventionist at Henderson Elementary prior to this year I taught fourth grade in our DLI program for seven years like my colleague Iris mentioned this is also my second time here in two months um speaking about a decision that is um having a a big impact on our school um I want to speak out in opposition to the portion of the revised nestro Mundo Charter which would include expanding the attendance area to include alv shank and Kennedy um approving this motion tonight as Iris said Henderson would see a loss of three to five families each year um in many in many circumstances this would

065mean the loss of a section and the loss of a highly qualified experienced teacher over time this would mean the loss of other allocations such as ESL teachers brts and interventionist positions and perhaps most importantly our class sizes would often double um Iris talks a lot about that um I also know that from a parent perspective I have two children at shank um they have already have a very small program my first grader at shank has um 25 kids in his class there's no room to split them up and they're going to be in the same group for the next five years my sixth grader at White Horse has has had 29 to 30 kids in his class the last three years and that's the impact of having a a program a strand that is

066that small um at hundson collaboration is at the heart of what we do as a classroom teacher for many years having two sections of DLI classrooms gave me the opportunity to partner with amazing Educators to best serve our students we were able to problem solve around students group flexibly to give students what they needed uh the collaborative culture of Henderson is what has helped me grow into a better teacher each year um additionally um as Iris mentioned we value collaboration and Community with our Eli counterparts and um that's a meaningful way we can work towards um creating a more anti-racist future um if this motion is approved Henderson will lose this ability to collaborate between and within our strands we will not only lose teachers who who will be surplused when we lose sections but

067also teachers who won't want to work in an environment where we're not able to collaborate and support one another in the same way I know that this district is concerned with teacher Recruitment and Retention particularly as we as we strive to hire teachers who reflect the diversity of our students as a um I'm sorry I lost my place um supporting thriving collaborative School environments is a real way that the board can create schools where new and Veteran teachers want to work new teachers in mmsd a lot has already asked of them they need to learn three new curriculums complete letters training um and for DLI teachers this as this expectation is Al often in two languages expecting a new teacher to to do this while also teaching 29 students without a teammate is not a

068strategy for Teacher recruitment or retention it's easy to say it's just a few students but the impact on our school will be will be um a big one um please um consider your responsibility to look at the sustainability of all DLI programs who making this decision thank you after Jedi uh we're going with Melissa Kuser I think it is I'm going to move okay my name isero an undocumented Asylum Seeker fifth grade teacher and a former mmsd student several years ago I was a newcomer and an English language Learner in the education system that we were talking about today I am here to tell you about the Journey of an immigrant family at Henderson Elementary School many years ago my family came to Madison as immigrants fleeing the oppression of a country when we first

069arrived we were in desperate need of guidance for schooling since neither one of my parents spoke English and we were undocumented within the first few months of our arrival we were forced to move and change addresses due to my parents employment needs talk about an incredable system when my family walked into Henderson we were received with open arms and a sense of safety through this community we were presented with endless opportunities the staff the families and the community supporter and welcome us a feeling that's very hard to experience when you find yourself in a new country I talk to you about this because this is one of the only many instances in which Henderson has impacted the life of all its community members or hold on that impact will change based on the decision that

070we all make today you have recently received a proposal which will impact our community F proof has written how will this District progress if one only one single program benefits and creates a negative long-term impact to the schools who continue to serve under representative communities as one if you're talking about opportunities and equity I want you to please reflect on the power you hold today above many of us by giving only wundo the opportunity to grow while simultaneously shrinking the handerson program D programs were funded to give marginalized students the opportunity to develop crosscultural awareness so you're telling me today that you considered significantly reducing the collaboration between a school like Henderson that promotes a bilingual PR connection with an Eli program the this only leads to a higher separation of programs by expanding a

071school that only supports a bilingual program other students were not part of this program what are you going to tell them about that don't all students have a right to explore the diversity of their communities the separation of students and programs has already been significant for many of our students the gap's huge guys inclusivity is key to diversity I by you today you all too before you make a decision please come to Henderson and observe how collaboration is implemented across classrooms regardless of the program students are enrolled in throughout my years of learning how to navigate a system which I do not know how to do it that was not created for me or my family family I've understood that everything has a purpose in life and today all I ask for you is to

072please consider the purpose of every single student who has already had to deal with the change this school year you all have the power to W the needs of all mmsc schools with the DLI programs before making a decision don't think about me or my job but all of the students in our programs bilingualism isn't Del need within our district Equity is the issue where do our brown and black students fall in this how are you closing the Gap by approving this I became a teacher because someone believed in me and now I believe that you're able to make a difference by think of all students not just the ones that will benefit from this proposal please remember where you came from and how you got to where you are today because I do every

073day of my life once again as an undocumented teacher at Henderson Elementary School mmsd strategic framework states that you will take responsibility for the ways that are curring policies and practices serve to reproduce inequities now it's your turn to think about Equity because I'm exhausted from fighting a system that doesn't hear my voice Henderson's my home and I'll ask from you to please don't take it away from me thank you Melissa yeah Melissa hi Melissa Cruiser um thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight um I am a parent of a fifth grader at Henderson Elementary she is a part of the DLI program and she is actually one of the students who is a part of the Kennedy District so um next year if she wasn't in fifth grade she could possibly be switching

074schools I want to tell you something that's working in Ms mmsd it's Henderson Elementary um Henderson Elementary has amazing teachers they have a diverse group of individuals um I looked at the stats in um just to read them here uh it's 38% Latino in Hispanic students 27% white nearly 20% black African-American students and and 4% Asian students it's pretty incredible I mean people look around and they see themselves and then they also see someone who doesn't look like look like them and they collaborate and they come together um it's working it's working for our family it's working for other families and to think that other students might not have this opportunity is devastating we need to expand bilingual education not take it away from what's already working um I think that I'm concerned because I

075talk to other Stu or other parents of students in the school system and I tell them about what my daughter is doing and they don't know about the bilingual program they don't understand it they don't even know they didn't know it was an opportunity and so I'm wondering with um admissions being down 9,000 students in mmsd why don't we Capital times reported in October 2023 that admissions were down by 9,000 students that's what I read this afternoon I wonder why we are not um advertising this more taking from some of these private schools and and and and pulling them back into our community I mean it's it's bilingual education I mean I know for us it was one of the most important things that we could do for our daughter um so I just implore

076you to vote no on this um transportation and attendance um measure um we we do believe in the the mission of Nester Mundo but we also believe in Henderson and what's working um for all students not just some thank you thank you next we'll have Nina um Nestle tan and I'm sorry if I messed up your name and then Caitlyn F good evening members of the Board of Education my name is Nina Nelsa stn my my monomane last name is Pat Nelson stew Norwegian and I thought it was going to be you know a shift up but it didn't didn't help me anyway I'm a proud member of the tribe the man uh proud Tribal member of theom nation of Wisconsin I'm a parent of two children at noono Community School I'm a speech and

077language clinici and I'm a member of the Norr Mundo Incorporated board I'm here to speak on behalf of norstrom Incorporated to emphatically encourage you to V yes on our Charter renewal we are proposing the candidacy to become an international borate primary years program the benefits include project-based thematic and content integrated teaching which supports mmd's strategic framework while strengthening the schools dual language instruction and anti-racist work we are proposing msd's First full full Day 4k bilingual program which stems directly as a request of our family community as a speech and language I can speak professionally of the research that shows dual language Learners need Proficiency in both their home language and English at kindergarten entry for overall academic success in a second language and our building is currently sitting with rooms to fill to increase to

078provide increased access to our programming the treder renewal will not require an attendance area as an emissions requirement rather we intend to use a lottery waiver for geographical preference to Southside shank Elum and Kennedy to ease the transportation needs of our family we propose continued busing from the southside of attendance area and parent Transportation contracts for families residing in the shank Elum and Kennedy attendance area for me as a person of color in mmsd vote a yes vote on Noom Windows Charter renewal demonstrates the board's of education's commitment to College and Career Readiness for those in need thank you after um Caitlyn will go with Carlos H rodri yes my name is Caitlyn F and I've been a teacher at Kennedy for 13 years and my beautiful autistic son also attends Kennedy my family and

079I have loved and invested so much into this community I'm here today to highlight the disparity and inequity in the resources that have been allocated to Kennedy by mmsd around 10% of our Kennedy students are in our program for students experiencing homelessness that's more than 50 students and could be as close to 80 but by the end of the year many of our students both in and out of T programs have experienced significant trauma in their lives including those affected directly and indirectly by recent gun violence including some of my own former students it should come as no surprise that systemic racism and INE in E economic inequity means that this and other issues disproportionately affect our black students when you look at these and other factors together it paints a picture of a school

080where many students show up to school each day and through no fault of their own are not ready to learn sometimes that relates to experiences with past trauma or current uncertainty about what to expect when they leave school each day and that their basic needs haven't been met our incredible social worker cannot possibly take on all these needs alone at Kennedy we are requesting an additional 1.0 social working allocation for the spring semester the staff and Community are ready and willing to do the difficult work to move Kennedy forward to be successful in that work we need the right resources we ask for an immediate increase in Staffing to support the mental health needs of our students and for an actionable longterm plan moving forward we love our community and are proud to be Kennedy

081cougars even in crisis thank you so much good evening my name is Carlos Rodriguez I'm former student noro community school before my brother and I were born my parents always dreamed of finding a bilingual educating school with English and Spanish because for them it was important that we not lose a part of our culture my brother started kindergarten I couldn't wait to join the same institution it would have been great if they had a 4K program at that time so I could be together with them and share the same Adventures I started going as a volunteer alongside my mother from the very first day I felt welcome I made friends with all the staff especially principal foran and my friends hor and rainbow they provided me with recycled materials to do my science projects I

082will never forget the delicious food that Master Lucia served back then my years there were wonderful I had excellent teachers teaching with love patience and dedication always challenging the students to do their best today today I can go out in a society proud to say that I'm a student of noro community school thanks to the school I was able to pursue my dream of being a scientist and going to the University of Wisconsin that supports young entrepreneurial scientists like me I have managed to attend some of their programs tonight I want to advocate for the school to uh that gave me opportunities and tools to be an outstanding student and leader I asked you to take experiences into account my experiences into account in the journey that led me to hear today sorry speaking in

083front of you I would like to consider this contract renewal project including All Day 4k not only for me but the new generations who have siblings and can live the same experiences that my brother and I enjoyed attending at my beloved nundu community school I will always I will always hold these memories high with pride I ask you to see everything noo has to offer and is given to past Generations appreciate I appreciate your attention on the support T night thank you next up we'll have Maria Esther herera and then Emily Harris dear members of the education and M my name is mariaa I'm a Spanish bilingual resources specialist I have worked at Henderson before know as a Glendo in this position for 20 years to work at Henderson means to love Henderson working with

084such a div device community that values inclusivity and collaboration of all these members resembles mmsd vision mission and beliefs my decision to stayen Henderson for such a long time comes from the dedication love and support from staff to students and familias the bonds and communication among the community and members have been truly valued I have been a witness of all the effort that every single teacher in this uh in the DLI program before know as BBE puts into helping their students became culture comp competent human beings in our society in Henderson We Believe by that creating pos positive supporting relationship we will cultivate a sense of belonging for for all throughout my time at Henderson I have been a witness how the needs of Community are here and supporter today I'm coming up to you

085regarding you V on the charter school presentation for mrr Mundo I am in favor of your re renewal the charter contract however I believe that some of the recommendation do not balance they desired for increased enrollment with what best for students who currently lives in the ching and Kennedy elvan area the program as it was mentioned before it is not ethical not reasonable for the board or worry about enrollment in Independent School reducing enrollment in other programs approve of the transportation component of this plan is um m misalign with the district mission and vision as a district I have worked for my entire life I strongly believe in helping students strive within a diverse community and by approval of this proposal you are choosing to promote the separation or a youth of color I challenge

086the mmsd Board of Education to approve the nestro Mundo Charter but without the inclusion of the transportation priority of PRI prioritizing attendance areas that are already pointing to the other DLI programs by the approval of this writing proposal the resources provided to our community will dismiss while creating a separation of all our district I TR you to make the right decision today approve dundo Charter but do not do so by putting other DLI programs across mmsd at risk for stability and enrollment think of us and how you put an entire Community address thank you for your discernment as you weigh this difficult decision gracias thank you um Emily come on up and then after Emily we'll have Hannah Hartman um I I am a bilingual resource teacher at Kennedy Elementary I'm also an mmsd and

087Kennedy parent um and a lot of my colleagues have already spoken to about some of the high homeless numbers that we're seeing at Kennedy this year and are changing demographics um I do want to point out that um our students are are experiencing trauma an unprecedented rate right now at Kennedy um the murder of our former Kennedy student kaisha Miller on October 10th was especially impactful some students reported hearing gunshots hiding in the bathroom with siblings or seeing police tape and shell casings near their home this is not even the first murder that the St students in this area have been affected by this year and all of this to say is that we are a community in crisis and a students service team of one full-time social worker and one full-time psych who's currently

088on maternity leave without a sub our staff feels like we can't do enough to help our kids and support our kids um our enrollment is sitting right now at about 580 590 students at White Horse which is our feeder Middle School the allocation is one full-time psychologist one full-time social worker and an additional 1.5 allocation for counselors and they have fewer than 580 students I haven't really gotten any answers when I have asked to various people downtown why the discrepancy exists between the middle schools and the elementary schools in terms of allocation for mental health services it really feels not Equitable um because our little kids our littlest kids are having very very big feelings um and experiencing the big things in life just like their their middle school counterparts uh we need more social

089workers we need more counselors our kids need grief groups targeted social emotional learning lessons they need safe spaces with trained adults to share big feelings our current team of two people serving almost 600 kids is inadequate to say the least how can children learn when their emotional needs aren't being met and how can school move forward when the population is in near a constant state of Crisis so we need to do better for our students and we are asking for a 1.0 increase in allocation in social work at Kennedy thanks for your consideration next up after Hannah is Steve Sellwood um my name is Hannah Hartman this might sound repetitive but that's because it's important um so I am a Kennedy parent and a Kennedy teacher I've been a teacher in mmsd for 12 years

090and at Kennedy for the last three years I also have a child who attends 4K at Kennedy the staff at Kennedy are incredibly dedicated and our administrators are incredibly supportive everyone is doing the absolute most that they can to support our students to be successful but we are still drowning I want to highlight the disparity between mental health allocation for Middle School versus elementary schools in in the Madison School District district excuse me with almost 500 almost 600 students and some of the highest homeless numbers in the district second only in numbers to East High the fact that we only have one social worker and one school psychologist who has been on leave for most of this year without a sub so one school social worker doing everything and doing the best she can she's

091amazing but it's unacceptable nearby at White Horse they have more than double the allocation for mental health workers and fewer students than us students cannot make significant academic gains if their emotional needs are not being met and we cannot be proactive about those needs if we don't have adequate staff to do more than just react when a student is already in crisis we're asking for an increase of 1.0 allocation social work to support the mental health and the emotional health of our students so that they they can learn and grow and be successful academically our community is in crisis and Kennedy students staff and families deserve better thank you for your time after Steve selwood we'll have Jenny Logan good evening I am here to speak in support of increasing the number of music teachers

092in Madison middle schools and high schools Madison schools lag behind neighboring school districts and the number of music teachers per student enrolled given the long list of benefits associated with participation in quality music education such as higher attendance higher graduation rates improved test scores Etc we should be encouraging every mmsd student to participate in music education to do that we need more full-time music teacher positions in our Middle School and in our high schools these positions should be targeted allocations to allow these Educators the ability to build and maintain long-term programs my son is a sophomore and in the orchestra at B Phillips Memorial I cannot overstate what a great job the current Orchestra instructor Lisa shrock is doing with the Orchestra program at vpm the turnaround of the vpm Orchestra program under her leadership

093has been fantastic to witness however in a school of over 2,000 students the vpm orchestra teacher isn't a full-time position uh as mrock is also the orchestra teacher at Gillespie Middle School more music teachers are needed to adequately support orchestra band choir and general music education in our middle and high schools I'm here to ask that at the very least we staff Madison middle schools and high schools with music music educators at a level equivalent to schools in the surrounding communities in peer districts let's make sure our students have the same opport opportunity as their peers in neighboring communities to take advantage of the benefits of quality music education but I would say better yet let's be a leader in middle school and high school music education let's create music education programs in Madison schools

094that other districts aspire to let's do such a good job that parents and other school districts go to their school boards and say why can't we fund our music programs The Way Madison does thank you Denny's coming up and after Jenny we'll have Amar Angel and then uh Danny Baron after that hi thank you for your time and your work I'm Jenny Logan parent of two Henderson students and a third grade gii teacher at Henderson I urge you to vote no on the proposed change to the lottery waiver for the shank and Kennedy attendance areas that particular part of The Proposal will change the playing field for all East Side DLI schools I'll start by pointing out that in their Charter renewal proposal no Mundo states that the reason the reason for the shift is

095to quote to increase access for Spanish language models to ensure long-term viability as a DLI school end quote having enough Spanish language models is not a problem unique to noest Mundo it is a challenge that all the I schools face in the 2022 23 school year no wo's English Learners represented 47.9% or nearly half of their student population and Henderson's English Learners represented 26.97 per. taking into account that only half of our school participates in the DLI strand the number of Spanish models at both schools currently is comparable so long-term viability in terms of the need for more Spanish language models cannot be used as an argument in this proposal because what would be nois ramundo's gain would be Henderson and shank's loss one aspect of no rundo that gives it a significant Advantage is

096that it is allowed to continue a 9010 DLI model while all of the DLI schooled in Madison must do 50-50 the perception in the community is that 910 is superior for a language acquisition this perception has led many of my own friends and acquaintances to elect Noy W Noy W over Henderson in the past few years they chose this despite the fact that had they chosen Henderson a bus would have provided door-to-door service for their students choosing the logistical night May of having to drive pick up and drop off their student every day is a testament to the power of 9010 if families who are well-connected and informed are already scrambling to get their kids into Noy window with a transportation barrier removing the transportation barrier would result in a drop in our student population

097and would significantly impact our ability to maintain a healthy DLI program at Henderson adding to this a third point that merely adding a stop at a separate school on existing bus routes would not be a viable option the timing of dismissal and arrival at each school would have to be Flawless and would entail having to change school start and end times yet again we cannot afford to add complications to an already Bel leaguered Transportation situation it is for these reasons that in a district that centers Equity as a pillar of the system the only Equitable outcome is a no vote on that particular part of The Proposal hello good evening uh I believe I was speaker 22 when I signed up uh so feel free to stand up uh if you need during these three

098minutes you've been sitting for a minute uh good evening my name is anmay angal and I'm speaking to you today as the prob parent of two Henderson students Eddie and Libby who are in the fourth and second grade during our time at Henderson we've seen exceptional leadership from principes Jackie Gibson Patty gy Lindsay Malo Le is a pavon and Ben ker we're grateful to the Henderson leaders teachers and staff in addition to offering appreciation to the Henderson staff of course I wanted to thank you for the uh important leadership during this time and the incredible time you invest in this work uh and also thank you to superintendent quad and Dr McCrae uh for their leadership this year our family loves and believes in this District our student students and our staff when I joined

099mmsd more than 10 years ago Henderson was a model of love and rigor this reputation continues today and it does not come by accident it takes intentionality vision and hard work we joined the Henderson Community not only because of the DLI instructional model but also because the teachers and leaders of Henderson have built this incredible thriving diverse loving and rigorous Community please do not sabotage the work of our community to bolster the enrollment at another school later this evening you will vote on the charter renewal for neest Mundo I am in favor of you renewing the charter contract however I believe that some of the recommendations do not balance their desire for increased enrollment with what is best for students who participate in the DLI program and currently live in the sh Kennedy Alum and

100Southside attendance areas I challenge the mmsd Board of Education to approve the newest Mundo Charter but without the inclusion of their transportation strategy of prioritizing attendance areas that are already pointed to other DLI programs approval of the transportation component of this plan is misaligned with the district's mission and vision and I believe that it will have a significant impact on the enrollment of mmd's other DLI programs it is unethical and inequitable to address enrollment concerns at a charter school by reducing the enrollment at other DLI programs across the district if current mmsd families feel that noest rundo is the right partner for their family they can already attend through internal transfer approving the transportation strategy of this Charter proposal sends a clear message that you Val the work and perspective of noest Mundo over the

101work and perspectives at other DLI sites across the city I am not aware of any provided opportunities for affected families to hear about this strategy and provide feedback and the lack of communication is disappointing thank you we'll have Danny Baron and then Jackie Gibson hello my name is Danny I'm the father of air ran Spears a brilliant kind Wise by racial kindergarten student at Kennedy I love you Amir and go Kennedy cougars I'm here to discuss two issues first Kennedy definitely needs an additional employee probably more and we need to fill in this um substitute Gap I've been hearing about specifically a full-time social worker that is 1.0 FTE social worker for Kennedy Elementary School you have the money please don't use HR as an excuse please get it done I am begging you second

102I wish I could talk more about that first issue but unfortunately something else has come up bizarre and shocking which has angered and traumatized me I must address it I just got a quote Good News Club flyer sent home in my son's folder the flyer is explicitly prog God pro Bible and pro-christian and it is faith-based nothing from a Jewish organization or Muslim organization atheist or otherwise more upsetting is the group is allowed to use Kennedy's facilities for its promotion of its religious practices and beliefs I don't find this acceptable I find it highly offensive and it actually scares me whether or not it's unconstitutional that's a whole other story some people think it is some people think it isn't I find it to be religious entanglement I would like you to fix this problem

103I would like you to not allow this Good News Club to use taxpayer resources I don't want you to allow the group to to use our public facility our building our school the last meeting I was at the superintendent correctly went out of her way to denounce a hate group marching through Madison Wisconsin and thank you for doing that this so-called Good News Club is also a hate group and is is homophobic sexist and bigoted in many other ways superintendent will you to be consistent also Den this club if you don't denounce it then you're a hypocrite because this club is also hateful and bigoted thank you Jo US noch District leaders and Board of Education thank you for all you do for our community and our schools I'm Jackie Gibson an mmsd graduate long-term

104mmsd employee and tonight here is the proud principal of Dr Virginia Henderson Elementary School thank you I'm here this evening to encourage you to vote against the motion to expand the attendance area in oyr Mundo's Charter renewal currently Spanish-speaking English Learners and other students who live in Kennedy and lm's attendance area attend Henderson as this is part of our attendance area for dual language programming these students and families are part of our Henderson Family this is my 17th year working in mmsd and I have served in a wide variety of roles being bilingual brought me to mmsd as a BRS then I pursued my teaching degree and Masters in bilingual education this year two of my former students came to read at our first lamos hunos event at Henderson I love this work and believe

105the work we do in bil education specifically dual langual immersion as an equity strategy at Henderson our Equity vision is there is a place for you here and we are committed to collaboration and Collective ownership of students to create Equitable safe structured classrooms engaged in rigorous learning we believe in the innate in ability and Rich history of all students and families being important to our school Community we believe in the importance of teaming and working together to support students and Families we believe in bilingualism biliteracy and black Excellence while taking actions daily to uplift this work as a school leader supporting teachers to collaborate and provide amazing opportunities to all students in their classroom and our school is my primary goal sustaining two classes across strands is critical to our continued success around providing rigorous

106instruction and building Community among our English language instruction in dual language emergence strands at our school all teachers deserve to have a teammate who they can collaborate with in order to grow share experiences and further support the needs of students I would like to share a brief couple of stories of how having two sections across strands has provided equable Equitable access while also supporting teachers to best serve students we have a student who is both in our dual language and DEA heart of hearing program she came to Henderson as a fourth grader and we were able to embrace her as a whole child and develop all three of her languages English Spanish and American Sign Language we also are committed to ensuring our teaching and learning provides impactful instructional moves and we have recently engaged

107in learning walks we have observed joyful learning environments with checks for understanding using mmsd high quality core curricula as part of the early literacy Equity strategy these are just a few examples of the amazing work that happens at Henderson each day it is a busy complex and loving environment again please continue to offer sustainable dual language education programs at multiple district schools as this is critical to our Equity strategy around supporting bilingual Learners thank you when Jackie um next up I think this is em em Bean Emily uh does that sound right okay okay hi I I'm Emily I am uh currently the school nurse at West High School um but I'm here as a parent of Henderson students um I am also a nurse Midwife I've worked in practice for 10 years prior to

108coming over to mmsd and through that practice saw over and over the value of being able to communicate with patients on a on a you know at with their own language and so the access to a quality DLI program was our number one reason for choosing where we were going to live when we moved to Madison and so we my kids have been at Henderson now I have a seventh grader at at Senate and they this group that you've heard from many of their teachers already they just have really cultivated this amazing environment where kids are like everybody has been saying kids are loved kids are respected um and they are getting a high quality um DLI education and I really appreciate that we live in the Kennedy attendance area so my kids would have

109been some that would be would have been affected and and I cannot imagine them not having had Henderson as their school Community because it has been such an important Community for them um I just really cannot say enough wonderful things about the community so I and I support all DLI education I you know I I employed to renew the charter but to really consider the implications that um changing districting and uh attendance areas would have and what that would mean for Henderson and this beautiful community that they've created um so many of the kids in my daughter's fifth grade class are do live in the Kennedy attendance area and they it would just completely change the makeup of the school if that was that was changed um so thank you oh I also while I

110had I just want to say uh I was really moved by everything I heard from Kennedy um you guys are really I I really hope that you're taking everything into consideration again and being new to mmsd but but being a school nurse I see the immense value of services from a young from you know right away so anyway I just I good job you guys thanks for hanging in there and I hope that I hope that they hear that okay I believe we had one speaker who had registered who has left but I just want to call her name to make sure Ela Montes okay thank you Josh all right our next speaker will be Jen straight I believe it is and then we'll follow up with Michelle Vasquez harez I think it is my

111name is Jen strght and I'm here to speak in support of targeted allocations for music I've assembled some research about allocations at other Daye County high schools and I've learned that mmsd has the highest number of students per music teacher in the area what this graph shows is the number of students that would be served per music teacher if every student were to study elect to study music mmsd high schools are in red not only are our numbers the highest in the area but also they are very uneven across our district mmsd students deserve equal opportunity to study music I am advocating for there to be targeted allocations across all level of music that that remain steady for seven years which is the time it would take a sixth grade beginning band choir or orchestra

112student to graduate from high school if the school district were to determine a targeted allocation for each level elementary middle and high school principales would be relieved of being in the position to increase or decrease music curricula at their own discretion and music curricula would be more consistent across the schools in the district the neighboring schools in districts in this graph are in blue DeForest Middleton crossplains manona Grove Oregon Sun Prairie wanaki and Verona these schools have vibrant thriving music curricula because they have ideal allocations in music they have a much lower student to teer ratio than mmsd students in these districts have access to small group learning in band choir and Orchestra and consistent teachers who are able to build relationships with the students this combination leads to Greater Student Success as well as

113higher rates of teacher retention but most importantly it creates opportun unities for students who cannot take private lessons to participate on the same level as those who do in order to ensure that all students have the opportunity to find success in music Elementary CL music classes need to have class sizes comparable to grade level classrooms and one FTE per building at the middle and high school levels we need three to four FTE in music at each Middle School and High School choir and general music curricula need to be valued and invested in as much as instrumental curricula as they are even more accessible to all students without targeted allocations based on the number of students in the school we are at risk of inequitable Music opportunities for students in our in our district every time

114we trim a percentage of FTE because of course enrollment um because course enrollment is slightly lower than the year before we are taking away opportunity for success in music we know that music plays an important role in a well-rounded 21st century education and it's time for mmsd to step it up by investing more funds in arts curricula thank you can I give this to somebody or good evening that's hi I'm still kind of like nervous about it so first of all I'm first generation well second generation of westr Mundo I'm very proud of being second generation cuz all my family has actually been like going there so with this one with my last sister she's actually gonna be on her fifth grade so I'm kind of like super excited about it at the same time

115kind of like sad it's a new change for her but just here to support noer Mundo and just just for the 4K expansion I think in my opinion it would be really important to do so just because as like a Spanish speaking it was really hard for me when I first started in Wester Mundo because um most of the children already knew English and when I first started like I only knew like Spanish so just going overall to a different school or starting like where I started made it kind of like hard and thanks to nundu I had the opportunities that I have right now I'm currently working for social work but it's really important to me just being bilingual for me like for example my sister when she first started inundo she came from

116one of the 4K other schools but it made it so hard for her to kind of like have that development that we all had because she didn't at all understood anything like related to Spanish so thanks to no rundo the support that she was provided not only is she liking more Spanish but she but she's also like opening those barriers that were there when she first started which were English just overall English was like the the only language that she wanted to learn and just for for my personal experience I thought about my own how hard it was for me like not knowing like overall just like trying to get along with any other children trying to even understand the teachers and for her it was kind of like the opposite so when she started

117like for Spanish she was like so go behind and I think expanding to 4K Not only would it make it much easier for the transition but then there would be like less battling for her having to reach out to not only like additional staff to help her on the speech but also just like overall growing those opportunities rather than taking them away from her so I'm just here to support n Mundo and really hope you consider expanding it to 4K thank you um our last registered speaker is Pam Dorne hello I am here today to Advocate to vote no on the current Charter renewal proposal put forth by Nester Mundo to be clear I support Nester Mundo and I am grateful for the path they have paved for all of us for bilingual Ed in

118this District I serve this District in Henderson Elementary as an instructional coach my work centers on serving and collaborating with the amazing teachers you see here the students and the families you also see here within our DLI program at Henderson as part of my role as an instructional coach I collaborate with teachers at h and with coaches in other elementary schools including those other schools with bilingual programs I see myself as an employee of a district that supports a system of 32 elementary schools and how fortunate for us in Madison that one of those schools is Nester Mundo a thriving charter school and Nester Mundo is a celebration for our community I serve at Henderson a school that is proud to be part of the bilingual programming for our district some of the changes in

119The Proposal as you've already heard this evening represent significant impact to other schools within this system and I feel a more transparent process would help all of us both make meaning of what all of this is and innovate together I imagine a scenario where we are working together to serve the nestra Mundo Incorporated website indicates that noest Mundo has been communicating with its stakeholders for months regarding the proposals included in the charter Charter renewal I wonder how many innovative ideas and proposals the rest of us could have dreamed and designed had we only been made aware of what was to be proposed and how it might impact us there are DLI bilingual programs in 10 elementary schools in our system through their Charter neest Mundo has been afforded the opportunity to implement different bilingual programming

120than the other schools in the district we have coexisted as two programs and have been able to offer more families access to bilingual programming I hold the belief that program models are dependent on the context and the desired outcomes for the stakeholders I see a place for different program models to continue to coexist in our diverse District please understand that maintaining a two- strand school is a complex undertaking as you have heard and the other nine elementary schools that operate as dual strand schools have invested so much to create collaborative integrated spaces for stud students to learn grow and Thrive we can learn from each other and create a plan together to move forward please allow us to be part of the decision please pause on the aspect of the charter renewal related to attendance

121areas and transportation those decisions are complex as you've already heard and will negatively impact surrounding schools and programs that are part of this same system I have heard that the current narrative suggests that the proposed impact to Henderson would be minimal this has not been my experience over the past few years please pause and get solid data to refute or confirm that I would encourage newest remoto to find other ways to innovate as a charter school and remove the attendance areas and transportation features at this time bilingual 4K and international or whatever IB sound like substantial goals in themselves and they have minimal impact on the rest of the system there is still time for us to come together if we could pause on these areas we could also create a per a process for

122all of us to come together let us collaborate design and reimagine together I know we can do this thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this proposal before you and thank you for your time thank you to all of our speakers I'm gonna also just quickly summarize um other folks who had registered but um chose not to speak so I'll just do a quick recap Max ferle opposes nesto neest Mundo Charter proposal Gillian Martin opposes noest rundo attendance area Grace Moreno opposes noest rundo attendance area Christina Bravo supports nor rundo Daniela fraboni supports no rundo Benjamin Hodo hodus uh opposes no rundo Charter Omar VAR quizo uh supports noas rundo Charter proposal Lauren kesesi supports no Mundo Charter renewal Aria Walsh Felts opposes noer Mundo attendance area Ricardo Cruz opposes noro Mundo Emily zoler supports

123no Mundo Rachel Lind Meer Lind meart opposes on the Wast rundo Charter [Music] udar Olas DS maybe I don't sorry about that uh supports the contract renewal for new rundo Abby Meister supports noo contract continuation Caroline has uh supports no Mundo Gustavo Vasquez supports no Mundo Sandra Ortiz supports no rundo 4K and um Austina Perez supports noas rundo community school thank you all for your um sustained attention tonight and for um also managing the time well the board is going to take a f minute recess and then we will come back uh to move through the rest of our agenda hello if you're in the auditorium please either go out to the hallway to continue your conversations or bring it on bring it on down we are resuming our business thank you all right we

124are moving on to the minutes I move that the Board of Education approve the minutes from the regular meeting dated November 20th second any corrections or discussion on the minutes all right seeing n Talia you're advisory vote I all those in favor I thank you that passes 70 and can I ask Rob um can you turn your camera off thank you all right board president's announcements and reports okay celebrating our students congratulations to lafallet senior Alana West on her 1,000 point in girls high school basketball what an accomplishment y'all that's that's big celebrating our community the board would like to thank the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County for surprising some of our staff members through their pay it forward campaign the campaign celebrates it the dedication of our student sorry our teachers and

125our school staff some of the recipients included the black student unions at the four comprehensive high schools and Taisha d a custodian at lafallet for a Wisconsin education update recently Governor iers signed the 2023 act 60 into law beginning with the class of 2028 which our current eighth graders high school students must complete 05 credits in personal financial literacy to graduate mmsb has had this as a district level graduation requirement since 20 2017 with curriculum and course content developed by our own high school teachers financial literacy is a critical life skill necessary to be ready for college career and Community for the superintendent search update uh the job posting is still live and the application pool has been growing steadily over the last month the alma team is continuing to interview and Screen candidates and

126the Madison Board of Education is now in the process of screening candidates for the superintendent role and will continue through January we've designed a comprehensive Competency Based process aligns with the feedback we heard from the community about the skills most important for our next superintendent look for more information in January detailing how the community can be involved in the next phase of the search and we will continue to provide regular updates about the process in the new year and now I'll pass it over to our superintendent announcements and reports thank you board president Nichols and thank you board members and as always I would like to thank our public speakers for sharing their comments with us this evening we value hearing from you thank you for being here so tonight I'll begin my remarks by

127giving two kids first superintendent recognition of Excellence certificates Jesse next slide thank thank you so teachers go into um the profession to have an impact on the lives of young people um with that hope to give back to the community in a meaningful way to make a difference one of our teachers Miss Stephanie Bernard did just that she was a third grade teacher at Elum elementary school near and dear to my heart as that's where I started out as a principal a very long time ago um Miss Stephanie Bernard passed away way in 2022 very close to her retirement and we would like to play a video here tonight to give everyone a better understanding of the impact that she had and how she influenced the work of literacy in teaching children how to read

128at alvim school [Music] Jesse Miss Bernard was a very special person and she a very special place in my heart she's a third grade teacher and she was really really really really nice she had extreme levels of patience and kindness the way that she used to read she was so fluent she liked to read books that made um you feel like you belong so these books are very very very special one he provided us with Windows and mirrors to see our in books her retirement plan was to provide books to Black black mothers and their babies one reason I think Miss Bernard was so passionate about reading is books have like a lot of things in them that could like help you throughout your life we're in the library and we're looking at Miss books

129so these books are um they're books that like tell us feature black people and how they're important in history in Black authors I feel like when black people are in they can help you learn like self-confidence this book is called so and it's about a girl who thinks she's way too black and people bully her at school until a star comes in her room you should never feel like you're not supposed to be in this world this book is really important to me because I remember Miss Bernard always saw me checking this book out I can't wait to go to Mir hospital and K [Music] yeah and so these blankets are going to be for the kids it's a good day to read a book these onesies are going to be going in berar books

130bag which includes two to three books a a baby blanket or a onesie that I'm holding postcards and bookmarks and stuff like that for early literacy I am doing this for m Berard who was a third grade teacher that um was about to retire in 2022 and a few weeks later she passed away so we are trying to make her dream that children can learn out of early literacy so I'm making a vinyl which will go on the bag um with this heat press what inspired me to make this project was making Miss Bard really be proud even though our black ho Magic group started this project wanted to be a whole Community project we picked bookmarks because it was something the younger kids to could do and still learn the messages okay which one

131you like they're doing the work and they're actually living so good you guys are so good at we all have a job to do we did this as a group we not one person did it part of our group of black Ro magic they spent quite a few weeks on this mission statement to really say what Miss Bernard's books meant to them students at OBM found a Miss Bernard's books to to continue her dreams to have an impact on the future generation of young mothers just as she had an impact on those she taught we are black girl [Music] magic [Music] that is absolutely amazing and the staff and students at Elum have worked hard to keep Miss Bernard's Legacy alive giving students a way to grieve in a productive way while also honoring her

132impact through Bernard's books I want to be sure that everyone knows lvm has been a role model School in relationship to our focus on literacy and early reading Elum was one of our first elementary schools to implement the new literacy curriculum staff created an lvm lab summer professional development learning opportunity for all of their staff including principls coaches teachers and central office leaders they all convened at Elum to see the work of the new materials and the curriculum in action our staff and some of the students featured in the video and shown here on this slide I actually got to go to the National El conference in Denver and present um with a group of team members from mmst all right give it up for those kids it's pretty awesome and there's actually even a

133commercial on television from El education showing our amazing kids and staff from alum so tonight we'd like to recognize elm's principal Sarah Larson instructional coach Bobby Joe Campbell and library media technology specialist Laura okoa for their efforts in elevating literacy at their school while centering students social and emotional needs and growth so please give a round of applause as we ask lbum staff to come up and receive their kids first superintendent recognition of Excellence certificate our second recognition tonight um is for an organization that is very dear to me and close to my heart and the Heart hearts of many others next slide please let me use their words to share a little bit more about them our schools make Madison they prepare our children for a rapidly changing world that demands new skills and

134the ability to navigate an increasingly complex and challenging world we stand with our Public Schools working tirelessly to provide resources for new projects and programs that otherwise wouldn't be possible with that I say thank you to the Madison Public Schools foundation for everything that you do for our students our staff our families and our community this Foundation Works tirelessly as an advocate for children in the school district to raise funds develop Partnerships raise awareness and advocate for mmsd schools students and teachers every single year I would say probably every single week multiple days during the week our foundation holds and hosts events for community members to learn more about the foundation's work and how individuals can get involved the various programs that support our schools and staff are examples like the teacher support network or

135the adapt to school Partnerships so president of the foundation near and dear to my heart is Melinda heinritz who is a huge champion of mm D please come to the stage to accept our kids first superintendent recognition of EX and now I'd like to highlight one of our amazing opportunities that mmsd offers students board members you already are very familiar with the Early College STEM Academy and I'd like to thank you once again for your generous support of our early college STEM Academy for those who don't know the Early College STEM Academy or EXA we call it is a partnership between mmsd and Madison College and I want to say one of the first Partnerships of its kind and one of the Partnerships that actually our surrounding districts are um starting to model now that

136we have blazed that trail it is designed to expand access to college courses in science technology engineering and math in addition to satisfying their High School graduation requirements the students enrolled in EXA actually have something tangible when they leave mmsd high schools they will earn either a significant number of transfer credits at no cost to them or to their families or they'll satisfy the requirements of a Madison College associate associate degree program the classes will help prepare students for entry into a four-year institution now these numbers are pretty impressive and I can remember when we actually brought that exit contract to the board and we talked about it 328 students have graduated from EXA since 20192020 and on average students in the EXA gr uh graduate earning up to 48 college credits we shared this

137data with the board in January but it's important to highlight and mention again is these are pretty impressive numbers 76 students earned an associate of science degree 168 students that participated were five Theta Kappa which is a 3.5 grade point average or higher 62% of students identify as female 54% of students participating were first generation college going 52% of students came from a low socioeconomic background and 77% of students identifi as students of color the application window for our 10th graders for EXA is open now and closes January 26 so we encourage our community to check this out see if it's right for your family and schools please encourage families and students to apply so um the next um piece that I want to share is that um we're getting close to winter break and

138um it's no surprise that many schools and classrooms are really leaning in on relationship building and um spending some time together these last few days before winter break these centering moments allow our students and adults to reconnect and re-engage with each other but what you might not know is that there's a whole team of people here at central office that are supporting schools and they've been engaged in some of these things as well over the past several days we've had some dress up days um today was um I think sparkling day and I am not going to wear a sparkly sweater again as I am just itching tonight so I need to get this off um and today was the last day of the penny War war and if you're not familiar with a penny

139War the goal is to collect as many pennies as you can but there's a twist for US silver coins and dollar bills actually count negatively so there's a little bit of a a fun factor to that the most important part though of the penny War though is that we are donating to Santa without chimneys which is a nonprofit organization that helps some of our mmsd students experience experiencing homelessness receive gifts during the holiday season so the next piece I want to celebrate a little bit about is our athletic spaces that you can see above you here on the slide at our high schools that come to us um from our 2020 referendum that the school district so generously facilitated and our commun our community voted for um these new and updated spaces provide lots of

140opportunities for students an amazing environment for fall for winter sports as well as well as in physical education at West the pool is open it is a 10 Lane pool with an amazing handicap accessible ramp in the pool as well there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony later this school year the weight rooms that you see at lefal and East are open in being used by students for both their own wellness and also for athletic programming and as you know Mansfield Stadium which is home to Memorial and West is an amazing addition to the school campus schools and athletic directors have been collaborating and working with our Architects and our construction folks um for the last couple of years and it's really quite wonderful to see these spaces actually come to fruition so that students

141and families can be using them I would like to acknowledge the efforts of our athletic directors for their efforts to do this with families and students and December 14th was inter Scholastic athletic administrator day so thanks to our athletic directors in the district so next I'd like to call out one of our grants which is on our consent agenda which is the board's acceptance for $30,000 from our Midwest PBIS for project epic and that's it's going to gillesby middle school projects epic stands for enhancing Family School Community Partnerships through an interconnected system framework and the aim of the donation is to enhance the efforts at Gillespie to implement positive behavioral interventions supports and support for school mental health all into one systems framework the overall goal of the project is to demonstrate how a multi-tiered

142system of support can improve um can improve supports for families school and Community Partnerships and this has the potential for Expediting positive School outcomes for all students including those students with the risk of disabilities in a middle school setting so we want to thank um Midwest PBIS for this grant that is going to glesby and I see our principal Melanie feel in the back so Melanie thank you for advocating for your building and securing this grant we're really proud of you so tonight I end my announ anouncements with a message of gratitude for Janet Dyer Janet has served okay let's give it up for Janet Jet's retirement celebration is Wednesday so I'm just going to give a shout out for that um she has served mmsd and mscr for 38 years showing an unwavering commitment

143to the importance of recreation and instruction and leaving an indelible mark on the district and our community her dedication to promoting learning learning opportunities Beyond School Bay and within our community um has been integral to the growth of our children and our families she's been Innovative she has been tireless and she has had an unwavering belief in the power of education and she has helped the district to create an environment that nurtures the potential of every single child that participates she has this ability to motivate she has this ability to make you feel like you are the most important person in the room when you're talking to her and she has continually strived for excellence and created a positive and empowering work culture within our organization a few things about Janet she created our first

144after school program Safe Haven she launched Casper and and in Afterschool Recreation programming for homeless youth she rolled out msc's covid-19 response and the MCR cares child care that nobody else did she put that together she did it when people were afraid and unsure we all remember those times and I remember sitting there saying as we went back into hybrid but we have to privilege this child care that we have built for Children and Families five days a week and I am proud of the district for doing that and proud of Janet for continuing to support that in our communities um so she does all this with this grace and care and love that we all can learn from and I have in particular learned from this year in my opportunity to work for her

145she led development and operation of the Allied Learning Center on Allied Drive the mscr Meadowwood neighborhood center and she did those in a direct response to what was a community need she managed Youth and adult sports program and she expanded access for lowincome youth she expanded something we heard about tonight in public comment art arts and enrichment and she expanded outdoor and environmental Ed programming she supervised mscr at the Warner Park Community Center for over 20 years and she served as the mscr executive director since 2019 and the supervisor from 1986 to 2019 so Janet your legacy is going to live on and I extend our heartfelt thanks for your significant contributions over the past 38 years it will ever imprinted on MMA come up here Janet on up Janet f hey ready okay thank

146you so much for that love enjoy um in your update all right um let's move on report we're going to go to our report on items that proceeded through the instruction work group held on December 4th 2023 I'm going to pass that over to board member mro thank you board president Nicholls on at our last instruction work group we discussed our be so our Behavior education plan for the third time since June um there was some great conversation about a focus on our middle school students um and some really informative conversation around supporting our instrumentality that we will vote on this evening um next month we will talk about special education and literacy at our January instruction workg group thank you next we'll report on items seed through the operations workg group and I'll hand

147that over over to board member Castro thank you we did not have an operations work group in the month of December however we will have one in January where we will start the 2425 budget uh cycle with a revenue forecast as well as receive a long range facilities report plan and maybe a policy thank you board member Castro all right now we are at action items that proceeded through the instruction work group held on December 4th 2023 and that brings us to the new wro Mundo Charter renewal there are a set of uh recommendations that I will read as motions and we're going to take one at a time um so I'll need a second for each motion and then we can open open it up for discussion so I moved at the Board of

148Education the no Mundo Community School charter renewal pending board approval of the final contract for the term of 5 years beginning July 1 2024 through June 30th 2029 second all right board member malro uh discussion uh board member Vander Mullin yes I um can you hear me or am I still muted yes yes they just needed to adjust the volume on this you're good sorry I didn't mean to blast anyone apologize on that um I am very for the 4K at noest Mundo expenditure I am very for the noest Mundo um Charter renewal but I am against very adamantly is the attendance change and the transportation the transportation I we've had Transportation issues all year adding another Transportation stop to an already overburdened system I don't think is going to be successful and could actually

149cause more harm and I think that's problematic the other thing and this is probably the one that's most important to me is the admissions area I am strong believer that you don't harm one school to help another that I believe that each program deserves its own merits and some will need more support than others but when you change the attendance area you actually could do a reparable harm um board member Vander muan thank you for your comments I wasn't done yet okay can I just I want to interject really quickly so we're reading the Motions in order starting to comment on some of the upcoming I just thought I had to assume on all of them no we're going to do them one at a time and um so right now we're on the one

150the very first one which is renewing uh the contract for the term of 5 years beginning July 1 2024 through June 30th 2029 do you have any additional comments relative to the renewal of the five-year contract I am I am for it if without the attendance area so that's that I don't have any other thank you any other discussion for member malro I want to thank the folks who came here to speak this evening um in support of our instrumentality new estr Mundo um I want to thank the leadership at newest Mundo for uh giving us the the opportunity to discuss our instrumentality thoroughly at our work group this month I am going to vote in favor of renewing the charter for new estr Mundo um new estr Mundo is one of our schools and

151I think our our investment in our own schools our own instrumentality um is is something we can be incredibly proud of I think the work new estr Mundo has done to establish themselves in our community as the first DLI program in Madison um needs to be recognized and celebrated and I'm excited to get to vote in favor of the renewal of their Charter for the second time since I've been on the board thank you Bard member Castro um I too intentive for this 5year renewal um has been said prior um the the latinx population here in Madison and the district is the fastest growing um demographic in our community and I think this partnership with newro moonly growing demographic here in Madison so thank you thank you any other discussion on this motion all right

152Talia your advisory vote I all right all those in favor I I all right that passes 70 thank you all right let's move on to the second motion I move that the Board of Education approved the noo Mundo Community School Charter renewal to include full 4K DLI with guidelines provided by The District administration to be in compliance with State and board policy second okay I'll go with member Castro all right any discussion on 4K DLI or member malro I think we are again seeing neest Mundo lead us forward as a district and I think dual language immersion um positions Us in early childhood in a unique way um to support young people as language Learners expansively um and so I'm I'm really excited to see us continue to invest in full Day 4k and to

153see us in invest for the first time in dual language immersion full Day 4k thank you any other discussion all right seeing and hearing n Talia your advisory vote hi all those in favor I I all right thank you that passes 70 oh and board member Vander mu and your hand is still um raised um all right third motion I mean your hand isn't your hand isn't up right now right sorry hold on for the third one I am okay well here I come let me get it read first perfect I move that the Board of Education approved the no Mundo Community School charter renewal with the intent to request a DPI waiver to include an intendance area for the lottery process that includes shank Henderson Southside and Elum with guidelines provided by The District

154administration to be in compliance with State and board policy I'm sorry it sounds like there's a correction to motion hold on one second okay let me restate that motion I move that the Board of Education approved the noer Mundo Community School charter renewal with the intent to request a DPI waiver to include an attendance area for the lottery process that includes shank Kennedy Southside in alvim with guidelines provided by The District administration to be in compliance with State and board policy second all right thank you any discussion board member Vander Mulan yes okay I I sorry I'm trying to unmute sorry about that different computer um very simply I am worried it says I'm muted am I muted okay I am seriously worried that sorry my Siri what's going on I'm seriously worried that if

155we limit the attent that if we prioritize the attendance area what we're going to do not only is harm another DLI program and other schools got to cause the transportation problem we're going to cause a TR and we're going to cause teacher and listen to the teachers we're going to make sections that are smaller and sections may have to be dropped on an over on a building that's working well on a program that's working well additionally I don't think enough time has been given one to discuss it but two to also have the effect on the the on the de students in some of the situations I absolutely whether it be Henderson whether it be other students with special needs in other programs I just feel that we haven't done enough due diligence on this

156one portion I think everything else I am could deal with but this one portion I think requires the board to go back and take more time is it possible to separate that out chair thank you boor member of Vander Mand uh Vice PE yeah so this is going to just be a question um just for the administration um we've heard an overwhelmingly um um opposition in the attendance area from our hinder and um teachers and families and and students um and so my question is right now the attendance area for my understanding um for NOA Mundo is Alice Southside um which makes up about half of the students that is currently enrolled in no shundo um if we were to open up um or not vote on this motion um and this motion is voted

157down um what does that do for the charter in the attendance area does it revert back on stay at Alice and outside or um would there be opportunities for it just to be districtwide so someone can answer that question we will have Dr TJ McCrae our Deputy superintendent come up he has been working on this with new wer Mundo all right here we go so am M could help me if I'm right around here so currently um it's two pieces that I think that we want to address so one is the mere fact that the lottery has already open for our district and So currently what we've done because we recognized that nor shundo was in the process of uh renor their Charter we've left the lottery based upon what they did last year and

158the reason why that's important because I think that if we going to make any changes we want to make sure like we're providing all of our families with the same amount of time to apply to the lottery so just thinking about what that that that will look like if you do not vote on the current then my recommendation would be that we would need to have some conversation about what will be the attendance area but it will remain as it is for right now um that is currently is will just remain Alice and Southside okay um and then I guess my other question is just around if we decided to um vote in favor of this motion as is what is the expected impact of the schools um that we have in those um added

159in the attendance area or can I know it's hard to kind of tell like what the actual impact will be um because it is a decision that's made by families yeah and I it's going it's going to be kind of hard to determine because remember it's going to be a lottery so parents are going to have to choose to apply to the lottery as well as then to be to go into the school so I don't I it's hard for me to say exactly what that number is going to be there's a possibility that it could impact Henderson or it could just impact one school or it can impact all schools across it's just really hard to kind of think about exactly what is without knowing who are the parents are going to actively enroll

160and be a part of the lottery for the school so in that for me understanding if we were to vote against this and keep the the CH or keep it as is um those students and families that are in the Henderson in the added schools could still potentially apply for n shundo through the Open Enrollment Lottery correct but remember currently the priority is that attendance so and right now that priority is going to be Alice and then Southside and then that second tier is going to be for the district y okay thank you board member mro and then board member Mosner falam thank you board president Nichol I I want to reiterate what board member Castro said which is that our Latino population is the fastest growing population in the district I also think that

161our our job um as the Board of Education isn't to limit people's options Madison has a robust um private school system Madison has some some 2x Charters that are located um near to near the schools we're talking about this evening um our our job is to make our schools the best option and and I think um you know pitting our School communities against one another is is damaging to to morale in in the long run however a lot of folks have talked about Equity tonight and I think when we talk about Equity we have to reconcile with the reality of our dual language immersion program as a whole and so I was provided with a little bit of data um for the folks who are really passionate about dual language immersion in our district and

162making sure that it is an option available to all of our young people you should know um that at Henderson there is 210 students in our DLI program under 15 of those students are African-American at Shrek there is 165 students in dual language immersion under 10 of those students are African-American Southside there's 123 students in full language immersion less than 15 of those students are African-American neest rundo 301 students in dual language immersion seven of those students are African-American there is not a single dual language immersion program in this city right now that is adequately serving all of our children and that is something we need to come together to work on that's it for me thank you um and thank you colleagues for all your thoughts as we we've been thinking about this I'm

163going to vote um against this particular portion of um the charter um partly because uh I understand that newo is in a position to grow even with the current um attendance area uh when you like move down the the Motions there's one about um enrollment and keycon lifting that enrollment cap which I'm interested in and I think I believe that that can happen without negatively affecting enrollment at other schools um or without negatively affecting I guess to be to put a fine point on that the D program at Henderson I have one additional question I think for Dr McCrae thank you I'm sorry I could have probably asked when you were up here earlier so I just want to make sure I'm checking my assumption so with the most motion to include an expanded attendance

164area that would include shank Kennedy and Elum adding it to the adding it to what they currently serve with Southside that means that families in all of those neighborhood school areas could apply to be in the lottery but they may not be selected and they are the and they are the priority so yeah what are you why are you emphasizing that because remember in the second tier anybody could apply but that first tier is a priority that they speak to enroll first okay then they come and select the St because currently nor sha is serving students is across the district but the priority currently is ATC and outside right right okay and so so let's just say there was this expanded opportunity for families to to apply to get in the lottery one they may

165not be guaranteed a spot and secondly if if they were a family that currently went to Henderson even if they were now eligible to apply for the noest Mundo Lottery if they love Henderson they can keep going to Henderson right correct they they wouldn't apply for the lottery so okay remember it's not you're not forcing them to do it they're saying hey I met Henderson and I really want to go Mundo so I'm going to apply okay okay and when you all were doing your analysis doing your work with no rundo regarding this issue of their attendance and their enrollment can you explain a little bit about how you landed here so I I think it was a going a little bit around back and forth because I think that and Josh I don't want

166to speak for you but I think it was really thinking about how we really grow the program to allow them to to to see that growth and we one of the things that Josh is really keen on is standing that attendance area that leid and really servicing inside of the community so what we looked at like at where we currently are with our DLI programs and thinking about like the current capacity of some of our schools and thinking about how having another opportunity might be able to support those schools such as like class-size numbers at Shank and then having students to travel further to go to other different schools and so those were the things that we kind of considered when we looked at the schools that we had within the current attendance area okay

167any further discussion or questions or member cast yeah I just want uh I got a comment and a quick quick question um one I I completely understand the wanting to protect what you have with your community and I'm happy that you you clarified that um families will have the choice they won't be mandated to go anywhere they will have the choice they'll have the choice to enter a lottery I think what we're trying to get at here is managed growth there will be in the long term increased demand for DL options in our district in the long term fastest growing demographic in our district and so I understand the fear that opening this up to n shundo will take away from Henderson but I don't think that accounts for the the the growth that will

168occur in all areas of our city you know so specifically in the plan going in the first two years from 302 students to 342 students 41 students were already on the wait list from the current enrollment area and so you know those additional roughly slots can't all come from Henderson I think it is a numerical impossibility through the the the lottery system um however if even for counting all the growth even after all the growth takes place Henderson somehow loses students even though it's projected not to what other supports could the district offer to maintain those uh to to maintain the DI program some could answer that question so um in terms of supports to maintain um DLI ated Henderson a couple of things um first of all I think TJ you were right in

169terms of we don't actually know um how this will impact um enrollment at some of the other DLI schools in that attendance area um and we through our new budget process that we've been working with our assistant superintendent in building um business services around we had talked about not taking away or basing um um FTE or allocation on what's projected but on current students that are there rolling those numbers up and holding some schools um harmless particularly in this attendance area where we're not quite sure of um of where the numbers will land um I also wanted to say in terms of um let's just take Henderson for example so Elum and Kennedy students who are native Spanish speakers and have rights by law to a dual language program are provided that dual language opportunity

170at Henderson with Transportation so that will continue to happen and Savon as you as you said those numbers are continuing to increase so we need to be sure that we are continuing to Pro to provide those seats at Henderson now I know I'm going to get in a little bit into the next one but I just want to say this what what we're talking about around the transportation in this Lottery area is not transportation and another route or a stop on an existing route what we have proposed is a parent contract for parents in that defined attendance area which means we actually pay the parent to transport their own child to NOA Mundo which is which is um a a choice right you choose to go into the lottery so um families who want to

171continue to attend Henderson from the Elum and the Kennedy neighborhood would definitely be able to do do so with Transportation because that's their assigned school so the impact to an elv or a Kennedy student who's a native na native Spanish speaker um remember you don't have to it it's not mandatory that you go to noer m they have transportation to Henderson already um and if a family decides Ed we want to go to the full immersion school they could do that if they got in the lottery but they would have a transportation contract versus their own transportation yeah so I I you know they're and that's the individual I mean that's in the decision-making metrics of those individual families who knows if that works out if that if that's a better situation for them or

172not other than just the direct yellow bus transportation which I assume is the more simple rout out um but anyway in my mind just looking at the data numbers I'm I'm assuming that we're going to have to add DLI sections all over the city in nearly every school just the way that the numbers are working out thank you board member simin and then back to board member malro well and I think I'm in the quebe oh I'm sorry Nikki I thought your hand was still up from earlier yes I I'm sorry I'll come back to you too as well thank you when I'm thinking about this particular decision um around attendance area there's a couple of pieces that are just um sort of overlaying my decision making one is we there's a lot of unknowns

173in moving forward with increasing that priority attendance area and there could be a lot of un intended consequences which um I am very cautious around I think that that we can very easily make decisions that have unintended consequences negative ones and this feels like one of those times when we just don't know for certain um what might happen by expanding that area as far as the impact on other schools um the other piece that's become really clear tonight is this feels like an issue in which one school sort of pitted against another and that doesn't feel right um we have two really high functioning schools that we're talking about and I don't want to make any decisions that are going to negatively impact either of them um and that's leaning that's for me that's making

174me lean towards voting no for increasing the attendance area at this time okay um for M thank you oh okay Ali if you want to go you can I mean I didn't I'm just I couldn't see your hand then okay so the last thing that I I wanted to talk about and I very much appreciate board member Castro's question but I think when you talk about parent contract right that seems um that's that is something I think most people are not particularly familiar with and I want to emphasize that part of the reason parent contract in my opinion is a competitive and thoughtful approach to Transportation um is that we are obligated by the state to reimburse parents who drive their children to private schools that is something we have been doing for years it

175costs us thousands of dollars to subsidize transportation to private schools um and so if we have the option of subsidizing transportation to our own schools and helping parents make decisions within our system I fully support that and I greatly appreciate the creativity and thoughtfulness that went into looking into that as an option so thank you for explaining it superintendent CAD I do think it's important to contextualize a decision like that that's it for me my my argument um is still stands that I just I listen to the teachers I listen to the people tonight but I've been doing a lot of research on this and what spurned what started it for me was looking at the Trends on open enrollment and seeing how few individuals with disabilities with open enrollment are accepted in Charter in

176public instrumentality charter charter schools and knowing that Henderson's P has the largest deaf population and if we're going to speak on Equity we need to include that population as well that's what I'm worried about that's who I'm afraid will we will hurt un unint unintentionally I think we have as Laura put it best we have two schools that are working wonderfully why was something that's not broken when we can still have people apply we could still add to it but by doing it this way you will directly we have the chance to directly harm another minority group and I think that could seriously impact our ability to face equity in this district and I am all for the west from Mundo to be honest that was the first school I ever went into and probably

177was one of my favorites but I I'm agreeing with the 4K I'm agreeing with everything else but I cannot go there thank you all right any further discussion all right Talia your advisory vote n thank you all those in favor I no one's voted okay uh all those opposed one two three and are those abstaining okay one two three abstain okay fails all right that one um fails then okay let's move on to the next motion I move that the Board of Education approve the Norway Mundo Community School charter renewal to include transportation for those within the newly identified Lottery areas via parent contract with guidelines provided by The District administration to be in compliance with State and board policy second Maya um let's get some advice on this because this motion is directly tied

178to the attendance area yeah we don't need this one right okay all right moving on to number five I move that the Board of Education approved the noer Mundo Community School charter renewal to include scaled enrollment increase of up to 400 students as outlined by The District administration to be in compliance with State and board policy second Maya discussion on this one oh sorry board member Malo yeah so I would like to ask newest leadership directly if this is an achievable goal given the Restriction we just created in relationship to their attendance area so an instrumental part of their ability to increase their attendance area was um or to increase their their student population was to expand their attendance area I I'm not sure if we're setting them up for Success um in these other

179motions I'm gonna allow talk but there's one piece I just want to lift that I was sharing with them when we're thinking about what that growth is going to look like we know like um by year five we want them to hit that 400 number so our recommendation is that for years two and three there's an increase of 350 34 375 and then year five to be at 400 so we want to make sure that U when Josh comeing that we are really looking at that it's a slow increase and it's not just um hidden that 400 number from the very thank you okay so just to provide a little bit more context related to the math of that so if we if we fill um current sections kindergarten through 2 grade to 19 students

180and then funnel the same amount of students into our two sections at third through fifth grade that would put us at 34 two students um depending on uh the demand for 4K DLI uh how many sections that we're that we fill there it could be um up to 20 students uh and that would bring us up to 362 students so 362 students by uh that that's if that's if we fill to to current capacity uh next year okay if we were to fill a current capacity with 2 4K students which is an unknown okay so were we to vote in favor of the growth or increased um attendance of students for newest rundo that feels like an achievable goal over the course of the next five years is to go from being roughly 300 students

181to 400 uh I I don't think that I don't think that we would be able to generate enough allocation to add additional sections and still stay below 400 so I think really 362 is about maximum okay with were I to say that that growth would be so and I'm sorry I want to make sure I understand 362 is maximum for next year yes it's it's a possibility for next year if we F to capacity so if next year the goal is 350 342 without the addition of 4K students okay so if the the goal of next year is to hit 350 and position you all to to be at 375 three years from now and at F at 400 it feels like you're saying we might want to lessen that expectation um I would say

182it's it's you know it's unlikely that we would fill to 362 next year okay that I think I think that's a goal to Aspire to I guess I'm curious about amending this to get you all to a space where by year five you're Landing between 375 and um because I think I think most of us understand that newest rundo is a highly competitive and sought-after program I feel like I understand that personally as a person who's put my kid in that Lottery um and simultaneously I think if you if you come back to us five years from now and are unable to meet the goal of 400 um it may create a narrative around uh a lack of of interest in in the school itself um which I don't think would would be genuinely reflected

183so I guess my real question is to what scale is growth possible and how do we encourage that and make sure that our community knows you all are accepting more and more kids every year um without putting um unnecessary pressure on you all to to grow at a pace that may be challenging right um yeah I I guess I would say that U current the current limitation is maintaining linguistic balance in each classroom and so um like most other dual language program or I'm assuming um we maintain a wait list for our out of attendance Area English families um unable to pull from that list uh because we would go over the the linguistic balance that's required for the for the program okay so I think for me the the compromise is and I'm not

184sure how to amend the EM motion to to get to this compromise so I guess MAA I'm gonna look to you um but given the fact that we reduced their attendance area and the transportation um that was originally proposed were we to say the the growth ultimately gets to 375 instead of 400 could I make a motion to amend that that be shifted from 400 to 375 in year five so I just want to be so the the the purpose of the motion is not to say he has that nor shundo has to hit 400 so it's up to 400 so what you're saying like if he he hit 375 that's totally fine he only hit 375 it's just saying like by year five the his enrollment the cap is 400 okay TJ is there

185a preference from our Administration in terms of of growth would we do we want to kind of continue to Aspire to 400 by year five I would say yes and I think that the the the motion is written to a point for us when we're building out the actual contract to really think about what that scalable piece is we just didn't want say like we wanted him to nor dundo I keep want not say him but norest dundo to be able to grow but in a way that was scalable and not just say 400 and just go and just go out to the 400 knowing like we didn't know what that support was going to look like or their need so by doing it this way it's just allowing us to be able to grow

186and really scale that growth and really think of it there's no penalty if he doesn't hit that 350 or that 375 or whatever that number is that we work on when we begin to work through that contract phase okay I greatly appreciate that you're welcome thank you board members then can and then okay okay so my question TJ I might need you to come back for this um it's it's a little less less yeah please do it's a little less urgent at this moment however I'm wondering um because we don't you know we don't have magic ball to look in and know exactly what the growth of our letx community is going to be and and how quickly that's going to happen we know that that will continue to grow um what is the ability

187of the board and nestra Mundo together to make amendments to this agreement there any is there any limitation and the ability to do so to the contract once the contract so the cont because remember so right now the purpose is to for us to have the information so that we can build the contract that needs to go to DPI and once that contract is uh submitted and Mona help me out I believe like we can then create amendments that will need to go to DPI based upon the contract so once we get the contract the board votes on the contract it goes to DPI if there are any changes we would need to submit an amendment to DPI to the country Okay so so the decisions we make here tonight are set on paper but

188they're not set in stone correct because remember we're going to be working uh the administration as well as Nores shundo to build and put everything in the contract to bring back to the board to vote and then that final contract will need to go to DPI and the process that contract will also be going back and forth to DPI so they can see it before it comes to the board to make the final vote okay thank you you're welcome for member of Andre Millan as I said different machine um just um say what Laura said we would know if like the attendance area was added back changes were added back in before that after it since it failed then do we if someone were to add it back in that would come back to the

189board or any substantial change would come back to the board or would it just go through DPI how does that work that that is correct so right now what the board is voting on is what we will begin to build the contract up if there are any any changes to what the board has put forth it will be reflected in that contract before the boards vote on it and before it goes to DBI thank you that's where I was confused I really appreciate it TJ thanks for all the help no problem I'm staying come on you okay so just to clarify where I was going going with my questions I wasn't suggesting that we're coming up with an idea right now that in a couple months we're going to toss aside yeah it was thinking

190about two or three or four years down the road correct if we haven't estimated well and then again my statement is still saying we would then create an amendment send it to DPI if we wanted to so let's just say for right now we was to go back to askings were um the tenants area would remain aliceon Southside two years now we're really noticing that the community is really growing we want to change it we would then have to submit that to DPI for it to happen so there's still some possibility for it to happen once the contract is signed it does not have to remain as is through that fiveyear period all right um so on this motion Talia your advisory vote okay all those in favor I I all right that looks like

19170 thank you okay last motion I move that the Board of Education approve Community School charter renewal without IB as an instructional program second for the sake of discussion board member MO Pam thank you um I I think um that sounds amazing I think that um being able to be responsive to the to the needs that staff at nuro have have explicitly said that we we need to be able to link curriculum in new ways um is valuable I think that one of the exciting things about having a wonderful instrumentality Charter is getting to be um creative instructionally in ways that um may not yet be available wide uh as an educator I have a lot of respect for the IB Program um I I believe that it's good uh cility so that's where I'm

192at with um number six so I want to make sure because this motion was written in the negative then I'm voting it down if I believe in IB right correct that's what I me Dr MCC right right right I wasn't saying that you were I just want to make sure that we're all calibrated because if you vote in favor of it then you're basically saying you want it without okay just so we're on the same page board member malro yeah I agree with board member mosar feltman um I think that this is an opportunity for us to do something new and Innovative within the context of our district I think that this is an opportunity for us to continue to push ourselves to be GL globally relevant I think that this uh allows for us

193to have real conversations about how to um make a coherent school day out of a lot of different curricular initiatives um and I'm in favor of of IB at new westr Mundo so I will be voting um against this motion um and I look forward to seeing how IB um allows for new Ester Mundo to have uh greater autonomy and shaping their school the the last thing I I want to say to that is I greatly appreciate that the resources it will take to pay for IB um have been raised by new estro as an instrumentality and I think that that is also a unique per position of our instrumentalities um in terms of their ability to have have a different relationship with with funding and piloting opportunities for our young people so I wanted

194to thank the new estro community um for allowing mmsd to have this opportunity to explore what IB means at one of our schools I also am um excited by the opportunity for new way from rundo to start um the inter inter oh Lord let me just go with IB um with the IB program and I think it's it would be a strong attractor for families who want to choose um to go to new Mundo and and I think we'll also learn a lot um from their implementation of this so I'll be voting against the motion um so hopefully they can have it all right any other comments or questions okay Talia your advisory vote n all right all those in favor say I all right I see oh I'm sorry oops that I can't I

195just said I was Voting against and I am so used to going for the positive who okay good catch see look at that see what happens okay let's try it again all those in favor of the motion to approve the renewal without IB all right all those opposed okay that passes seven no that fails golly don't ever write a motion like that again okay okay we are through our newro Mundo Charter R thank you to all of you who have been here patiently waiting to see the results that all right we are gonna I move that the board okay hold on one second we've got to put a new motion on the floor I move that the Board of Education approve the neest Mundo I IB as an instructional program second Maya okay any discussion

196all those in favor say I oh and Talia your advisory vote I thank you passes 70 thank you okay um we're going to continue with our business so if you're leaving the auditorium if you can just bring it down and hold your conversation for the hallway thank you okay 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 December 18th 2023 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 here by subject to any Express separations that have been made by any member of the School Board second Maya all right are there any separations board member

197malro I'd like to pull 10.22 any other separations all right Talia your advisory vote hi all those in favor say I I all right 70 let's go to 10.22 hold one moment I move that the Board of Education approved the December 2023 Human Resources transactions report items 1 through second board member malro yeah I'd like to direct a couple questions at our director of HR and our superintendent so my first question is really about our our fill rate um so I'm hearing from schools frequently um that we're really struggling to cover um vacancies in our schools can you can you talk to us a little bit about our ability to find Subs um when they're are vacant sure Jennifer if you want to come up I can start start um so we have about um

198over the past couple of weeks we've had about a 76% fill rate with substitutes that is um that is up from last year where our average fill rate was 70% it is not at the pre-pandemic rate but it has improved since the pandemic um and we are always actively recruiting subs for our sub pool to both increase the fill rate and keep number of people on the bench we want to add anything to that Jennifer uh yes we have we have 630 active Subs but only 439 of them are actively picking up jobs and we're also trying to shrink that number so that we have more than 70% of our subs who we've actually hired and recruited to go into the schools so we're making efforts like calling them rather than just having a robo

199call or having them pick up jobs and we're also looking look at you know what are the reasons why they're not picking up jobs and what can we do to support them and looking at some more initiatives about actually providing supports in schools so that subbing is a good experience for them because we know that it is it is tough it is like starting a new job every time you go into a new school last month I asked you all about um central office staff who are subbing I am curious what the number of central office staff who are subbing is on any given day I checked with Cindy on that we have 75 central office people subbing in schools so 75 central office people subbing a uh a little over 400 Subs who are

200more or less active and still about 24% of vacancies go unfelt I I think the reason I pulled the report is for the second month in in a row I I looked at our report and I was deeply curious about whether or not we are losing people faster than we are bringing people in um and I also noticed in our last report um that there were certain schools that were seeing um a significant number of Staff leaving um and I was hoping in this report that I would see those schools targeted um for filling vacancies so I guess I want to ask if we have a school um that is experiencing a real significant number of vacancies right now how are we prioritizing supporting that school and how are we making sure that students have

201uh teachers so I know that our associate superintendents have been meeting weekly with the HR team um particularly around some of these schools that have the highest vacancy rates and some of the highest turnovers I know that um Jennifer and the team are also um working with departments to make sure that that onboarding process is um expedited we don't want to sacrifice quality but we do know that we have to get people right off the bench into the into the pipeline and trained up um as as quick as we can I will also say we continue to have struggles I I feel like I say this every time we talk about it doesn't make me any happier but it it is a nationwide problem we continue to struggle um with cross-categorical and um bilingual staff

202so for example um um you know you know Ken a school like Kennedy that we were talking about you know they've received since September almost eight additional FTE some of them were more in Cross categorical and those are the hardest places to fill you know Kennedy has I want to say 13 Seas so when you heard someone say we have five vacancies out of 13 they have five so there so some of our schools that have had the most recent staff additions and Kennedy has been one of them um we are working to fill those and some of those those areas that you heard folks talk about those hard to fill areas are where there there is a critical need so I'll just add that yeah so and I also just want to take a

203moment and correct a piece of data that came out so we didn't lose 9,000 students this year we gained 500 right and and we need to be able to staff to our own growth as a district um correct I I think a lot of times when we've talked about this in terms of HR we have focused on bringing people into our district to fill vacancies I think we are going to have to start talking about keeping people around we are going to have to start talking about about our retention strategy um and being proactive in retaining Talent if we know people are doing a great job um how are we keeping them in our district what are we doing to support our Educators who have invested their careers here who have been here long term

204um I I do think recognizing that each school has specific needs um is is an important part of this conversation but I think what we're hearing more and more is schools that are in a more desperate situation in terms of their Staffing um really advocating that we address this immediately given the the conditions it's creating within classrooms for our young people um and so I'm hoping that we can have a conversation around what our strategy looks like in January um in terms of being proactive and I think that there is a a financial implication to having our schools under staffed and I think that reconciling that reality um is something we need to be pretty transparent about as a district that's it for me I don't know if Jennifer wants to walk away I just

205had um just a quick question I know that we get the weekly updates um around HR and I know that um the HR report comes out every month um but it's been a while since we have had a comprehensive presentation from HR especially after um the investment that we made with Dr Anderson coming in and helping um kind of um revamp the HR departments and and you coming in Jennifer so I just I wonder when are we going to have the the comprehensive like update on HR um in its entirety um and I think it goes in with what Ali just mentioned about what is our strategies I think since I've been on the board for the past three years HR has has been the space that um we have focused a lot of time

206and energy on um and I feel that recently we have at least not been getting the updates that I feel like we require um to make sure that we're in a positive trend and um I know that we have been asking for um what is our strategies around retention and um what is our strategies around um hiring so it just good to get that update um in a more comprehensive way other than just the weekly updates or um the having the pull the HR report okay we can definitely work with the work group chairs um to figure out how to adjust the scope and sequence um and where we might be able to fit that in thank you thanks okay if I go now yes okay thank you Jennifer all right any further discussion or

207questions on 10.22 another okay uh Talia your advisory vote I all right all those in favor I all right thank you that passes 70 we are now moving on to other reports okay uh for the city County Schools collaborative committee um we had a meeting on December 13th um we did discuss briefly the new past State Bill related to driver education and we'll continue that conversation on um our next meeting in January we had a little bit of a conversation about pedestrian safety and really the impact of crossing guards um and started to talk about our 2024 meeting meeting schedule and our next meeting will be on January 20 10th 2024 um all right student Senate thank you uh for student Senate on our at our meeting on November 29th um we had our typical

208Board of Education report and discussion and then we heard from a guest speaker regarding nutrition and student wellness initiatives in the districts um at our meeting December 13th um we also had a board report and discussion and we heard from a guest speaker regarding voter registration initiatives which is something student Senate has done in the past and is hoping to continue um this upcoming spring and our next meeting is on January 10th 2024 thank you um next we'll hear from Madison School and community recreation advisory committee thanks um repeating was said earlier congratulations to Janet Dyer on your retirement um mscr new executive director is um Mary Roth uh who assumed the role last week um Miss Roth has worked for MCR for the past 15 years in various roles um so congratulations to Mary

209rck um the other thing that I wanted to say is that the registration is open for residents and non-residents um for the winter and spring program guide which you can find online uh we meet quarterly so meeting would all right policy committee yeah so we met last week and we are looking to hopefully finalize soon a plan um for the policy Team all right and board governance committee has no update at this time all right moving on to other business we have the receipt of the 2022 2023 financial statements I don't see a motion for this so I don't know if the motion is just to receive or is it's just a report okay um so we don't need to vote to approve it or accept it how are you sorry about that time flies

210um yeah I feel like I was just here like yesterday but uh once again um I'm really I want to first of all thank my fabulous team from BPA um once again we have a very clean audit and um I couldn't do it without the great team that is um working hard year round so that we don't go into year end trying to do a cleanup um with us um from the east coast is actually um Rob gansel our auditor he's on vacation so he took some time to come and present for us um so he is he should be is he there um and so he would just like to give you a quick overview of the audit and then I can answer any questions you have is that okay great thank you Natalie

211can you all hear me yeah great um if you want to advance a slide for me I'm just going to try and go through all this quick I know that you've had a long meeting tonight so I'll just hit the the high points for you um we actually provide you with uh three different documents one is uh called the required Communications letter it's where we put um probably the most important information that uh you would need to know if there were issues at the district that we found during the audit and I'm just going to hit a couple of the high points here in the current Year's financial statements uh there was another new standard implemented this year if you remember last year there was a standard uh that required the the district to account

212for all of its uh leases that it had by recording a lease asset and a lease liability uh gasby 96 is a similar statement but this uh revolves around Information Technology subscription agreements so any long-term agreements that the district has uh relating to Information Technology software type items those items now get reported on the district's financial statements as well um we didn't have we didn't encounter any difficulties uh during the performance of the audit we did not propose any adjustments as a result of procedures that we performed during the audit and likewise there were no uncorrected um misstatements that uh we would have proposed in the district decided not to include in the financial statements because of uh not being material to the financial statements um pleased to report that once again we had no

213disagreements with Management in regards to uh any of the audit procedures or anything that was uh determined as a part of the audit um uh couple other matters that uh were um discovered during the audit that uh we feel that you should be aware of um and the first one is in regards to no valid licenses and this revolves mainly around the special education area at the district DPI uh sends out a listing uh each year of um the districts on or the district's teachers that are teaching in areas for which the state doesn't show them having valid licenses um sometimes it's just a misclassification or a delay on Department of Public instructions side getting the licenses processed but a lot of times um with special education individuals will be um teaching in areas that

214DPI deems them not to have uh the proper license for so what that ultimately results in is the district changes the coding of those teachers from from an aable function to a non- aable function which results in the the district not being able to uh claim state or federal Aids on those salaries and fringes and uh during the current Year's audit that amount resulted in reclassifying about 4.5 million of salaries and fringes which resulted in uh overall reduction of about $2 million in Aid that the district could have claimed on those individuals had they been identified earlier in the year and uh license licenses um obtained for those individuals um by annual certifications what that result what that is the result of is uh the district is required to have time and effort studies to

215show where individuals are spending their time either teaching or if they're not teachers um where their administrative time is being spent which allows the district to also claim federal and state aids for Grant programs and uh the comment around that is currently the process for doing the verifications isn't as efficient as it could be for the district so our suggestion there is to evaluate that matter and determine if there is a solution to make it easier uh for administration of those those certification ations the last item on the slide is in regard to uh food service fees uh while doing uh the audit this year it was determined that uh there was a location or locations uh that were were allowing students that didn't have the correct change for their meals to basically um charge

216meals to their accounts and over time that amount grew and the district ended up writing off about $330,000 worth of charges that were deemed to be uncollectible because the students either uh moved on or didn't have the the resources to be able to end up paying for those meals and they were deemed uncollectible so basically you know our suggestion there is that a uh policy be put in place that um you know that's monitored and uh collected on a consistent basis so that the District doesn't end up having to write off balances for meals that were served but not paid for if you can go to the next slide for me please um we also as part of our audit we look at internal controls over the financial statements as well as internal controls over

217the federal and state programs at the district as well as compliance with laws and regulations for its grants and um laws and regulations in general for the operations of the district uh the district continues uh to place a a high importance on implementing adequate internal controls regarding segregation of Duties cross trining individuals and management oversight to uh limit any internal control deficiencies or compliance findings uh with that we identified one significant deficiency as it related to the internal controls and that was related to uh a prior period adjustment surrounding um the recording of items in the capital Assets in the construction in progress there were some um uh costs that were charged into construction work in progress for environmental uh remediation type costs that should have actually been expensed when incurred um that's been discussed

218with uh District staff and um Pol policies and procedures have been put in place to make sure that that that's taken care of um going forward where happy to identify that with our uh testing over the federal and state programs uh there were no findings that needed to be reported and uh the findings that we did have in last year's financial statements were addressed and remediated during the current year uh next slide please uh independent Auditors report that's what you basically hire our firm to do is to come in and uh look at the operations of the district and uh provide an opinion on the uh financial statements as well as uh the compliance with laws and regulations and as we have done in the past I'm pleased to share with you that we're issuing

219unmodified opinions on the finan fincial statements as well as on the compliance with laws and regulations as it relates to the financial statements and your federal and state Grant programs uh what that opinion represents is we're saying your financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects uh we don't guarantee that there are no errors in the financial statements but our procedures are designed to make sure that there are um no uh material discrepancies in them um our responsibility is to express the opinion on your financial statements even though as the the slide says the financial statements are the responsibility of uh the district's management with your oversight uh next slide please we also uh share with you each year uh the uh information regarding the general fund fund balance um that's the main operating

220fund of the district and um we give you the the different breakdowns and definitions of what goes into each of the the main areas of your fund balance the one that you typically concentrate on the most and the one that we gear our comments towards is the unassigned portion of the fund balance because that's those are the amounts that the district has at its disposal to be used for um unforeseen expenditures applying to Future Year's budgets uh rolling over to be used for for projects in future years as you can see at the end of 2023 the district had right around $80 million of unassigned fund balance out of the total 90.7 million in in fund balance if you flip to the next slide we talk a little bit about our recommendation on the unassigned

221uh fund balance uh our recommendation is typically that the district have at least a a minimum of two months of operating expenditures in that uh fund balance account because what that does is it allows the district to to minimize the amount of cash flow borrowing that it does um and calculating that percentage this year comes out to be about 16.3% it's a little bit lower than where it was last year but still a little bit higher than than the two months operating expenditure amount that uh we recommend on a yearly basis so uh if you look at that as of right now you we deem the the unassigned general fund balance that the district has to be at a reasonable level and aot ows you to to operate in a efficient manner uh next slide

222um just a few upcoming uh gasby statements that'll be that have been uh put out there by gasby that will becoming effective for the district in the next couple years gasby uh number 100 ards to accounting changes it basically uh gives audit firms clear guidance as to how we're required to communicate accounting changes and from the previous year and how they're to be reported in entities financial statements when they happen and then uh gby uh 101 regarding compensated absences it basically uh changes the parameters around how to calculate the liability for compensated absences there's a a few small tweaks in there um shouldn't have a material effect for the the district's financial statements going forward um but there's uh some language change in there that that will affect how we calculate that balance other than

223that there are no other significant uh statements in the the near future that will have an impact on the district and I believe the the next slide is just asking for any comments or questions that you may have in regards to the information that that I provided to you I know that we ran through it pretty quick but I was uh trying to be respectful of your time thank you so much I I do have a couple of questions but I don't know that they would be directed um for you as the auditor I think the questions are more around um the valid lure and the certification of time um what have been the corrective processes or or yeah what has happened since then so that we we don't find ourselves again in a situation

224where we're um having to move staff folks time to non- aable cost and then the the recommendation around efficient processes for time and effort yeah so I'm more curious about what we're doing to address those so um on the E answer on the time and effort um really relates to the fact that last year we had a transition of Staff the individual who used to do that was no longer in that position to do that um and so it kind of didn't get done in a timely basis it was done but not in a timely basis is it so it was and if it had not been done we would have had an audit finding it would not have been an allowable cost but it just didn't get done on the timely basis so it

225got there's a certain window in which you really should be doing it and collecting it you know throughout the year um however um we now have um people in place um in the Departments to make sure that happens um more exciting is the work that's been happening around no valid licensing um so HR has really stepped in and put together task force and teams and um we had a really fabulous meeting about two weeks ago in which they brought us up to date on the latest procedures on um uring that we have um it it's how that we are um making sure that our staff are being able to um follow through with DPI to get their licenses completed um so we're we're putting steps in place during their onboarding and then following them through

226the year to make sure that that they have followed up with their licensing and what do they need to work with DPI on and I was really excited about it when we went to meeting um because it was really um positive um and um lastly related to um food and nutrition again we had a transition um it it was a difficult year in which the prior year we had all of our students on um receiving um meals through um was it like the summer school the the what right um Universal okay Prem meals where they had transitioned back to actually having to pay for the meals and so there was a it was a St it was a difficult transition back um it's my understanding that there are procedures in place now to be um

227operating back to our pre-pandemic um procedures with collecting the money from students um and then on the gby um related issue yes ma'am gby related isue that um we had the one finding on which is really great because last year we had three findings um we had one finding um and that was my finding and really related to the fact of how we treat um environmental remediation I had included it as part of the construction and the full assets of the building when really we needed to expense it immediately it has no impact on the fund statements that you guys use on a day-to-day basis to make your um decisions it had to do on the districtwide Gap statements that was that great thank thank you so much appreciate hearing the updates um and on

228some of the actions that you've taken and appreciate getting this audit report yeah any other comments or questions on the um 2022 23 financial statement audit all right thank you so much and thank you for um staying with us so late you bet you have a great night do you need to vote on accepting the audit no I don't have a motion n do anything so all right thanks Natalie okay our um I believe our final item action item um I move that the Board of Education Direct board representative Laur simin in approval of the Wisconsin Association of school boards 2024 resolutions items 24-0 1 to 24-11 at the January 2020 that should say 2024 State education convention delegate assembly meeting second Maya any discussion any separations of any of the resolutions so while I

229could read all nine pages of the resolutions I'm not going to do that that um I don't have any suggestions from admin or and I wasn't given any questions from any of you around any of the resolutions so I don't have any recommendations for separation okay all right then um Talia you're still there your advisory vote I all right all those in favor I any okay I think that was six yeah Nikki de said had to go um there's no new business or old business so at this point I'll take a motion to adjourn so moved Maya get on yeah Blair's gonna second it second all right all those in favor to adjourn I all right tal your advisory vote I thank you we are adjourned yeah