6.26.23 Regular Board of Education Meeting

001foreign good evening if I can get your attention we are getting ready to start the meeting thank you so much at this time we are officially calling the June regular Board of Education meeting to order and we're going to start with our vision statement every school will be a thriving school that prepares every student to graduate from high school college career and Community ready and before we go to public input we're going to start with a couple of remembrances I'm going to go to vice president Pearson first we would like to ask for a moment of silence this evening for our district to recognize the passing of Marley chavera who was a rising 12th grader student at Val Phillips Memorial High School we would like Marley's peers to remember her by her sense of humor

002and kindness she has a passion and creativity her makeup and had a dream of becoming a ballet dancer Marley always viewed her friends as her besties and was always her true self when around those she loved Marley's passing has taken a significant toll on so many students and staff in the memorial community and we remember them tonight please join me in participating in a moment of silence in honor of Marley chavera thank you next we have another remembrance of a very important former School Board member who transitioned and passed away earlier this month and before we read a resolution in his remembrance I'm going to ask one of our former school board members and longtime mentee of Juan Jose Lopez Ananda Morelia to come forward good evening my name is I'm grateful for the opportunity

003to honor a dear friend and mentor thank you board president Michelle Nichols the entire board and mmsd staff Juan Jose Lopez had many gifts one of them was the ability to see and believe in people even when they couldn't see for themselves Juan Jose Lopez had dreams and Visions from many people of color in this community his dream for me was for me to become the first Latina School Board member to serve mmsd he thought everyone when that didn't happen in 2013. even close friends he was the reason I ever considered such dignified role and he never stopped asking me to run again until he finally happened in 2019 and he called me to tell me that he cried thank you for this moment of remembers and for the recognition of his legacy thank you

004Ananda the resolution is whereas Juan Jose Lopez selfishly served our district students families and staff as a board of education member from 1994 to 2006. where is Juan Jose Lopez was the first Latino elected to the mmsd school board and was also co-founder of the Latino Professional Association of Greater Madison and serve the Greater Community through his leadership on the board of the United migrant Opportunity Services in Milwaukee the Latino Chamber of Commerce and several other organizations whereas Juan Jose Lopez was a tireless advocate for the creation of nuestro Mundo Community School in the Madison metropolitan school district nuestro Mundo is a free public charter school serving children in grades K through five Juan Jose Lopez was involved in the early conversations in 2001 with parents and Educators to consider forming a dual language elementary

005charter school as a strategy to help address achievement outcomes for Latino students he advocated with fellow Board of Education members and the first bilingual Spanish Immersion School in Madison was approved unanimously to begin in the 2004-2005 school year he later served as president of nuestro Mondo Inc in the early years of the school helping to establish nuestro Mundo as an educational model whereas Juan Jose Lopez dedicated his life for the advancement of all students of color and was instrumental in creating opportunities to teach and celebrate Latino Hispanic culture Juan Jose Lopez believed in the Brilliance and grit of all students and was present at various School events Juan Jose Lopez removed barriers and increased visibility of Latino students and their families until his final breath Juan Jose Lopez also LED efforts in diversifying the workforce

006and advocated to hire more individuals who identify as Latino Latina latinx whereas Juan Jose Lopez said a far-reaching example to help local candidates of color to run for office through the organization Adelante providing resources mentorship and guidance on navigating the political process now therefore it therefore be it resolved that the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education in Memorial of Juan Jose Lopez's passing on June 6 2023 recognizes the contributions of Juan Jose Lopez to the Madison metropolitan school district and the greater Madison community be it further resolved this statement be permanently imprinted in the Board of Education minutes for the meeting of June 26 2023 please join me in participating in a moment of silence in honor of Juan Jose Lopez thank you we'll now move on to our public input a written statement

007written statements submitted for this meeting there were a summary of 19 written registrations submitted from noon on Friday June 23rd until 3 pm on Monday June 26th and they were as follows one person wrote in support of mmsd's budget items specific to housing navigation one person wrote in support of mmsd's budget items specific to restorative justice seven wrote in support of custodians getting a five dollar raise above the eight percent cost of living adjustment six were in opposition of ending the staff coveted vaccination mandate one was in support of increasing custodial wages and in opposition of ending the staff coveted vaccination mandate two were in support of the critical investments in literacy identified in mmsd's budget one was in support of making the Strategic framework girl goals less vague more ambitious and very clear in

008addition to those 19 written registrations five additional written registrations came in today all five were in support of increasing custodial hourly rate by five dollars an hour we'll now move to our online speakers our first online speaker is Barbie Jackson hello thank you I was just uh getting out of the um out of the YouTube so you um are you able to hear me fine yes we can hear you yes okay thank you I apologize for the delay good evening and thank you for um letting me speak tonight I'm Barbie Jackson a member of Moses I am here on behalf of Moses to enthusiastically support mmsd draft budget items specific to restorative justice Moses mission is to build Collective power to dismantle the systems of mass incarceration and mass supervision and to eradicate the racial

009disparities in our community that contribute to them we work to have a common voice on issues of social justice including stopping the school to prison pipeline I am a trained Peacemaker for Dane County's Community restorative court and a 25-year youth Mentor in the Allied Drive in Elba Park communities restorative justice has a demonstrated success in reducing involvement in the carceral system with knowledge of this fact Moses adopted a position in support of the 16 components of the school Awards 2021 Safety and Security recommendations which emphasized the need for restorative justice at our schools I another Moses members testified in support of the 2021 budget which expanded on those recommendations to fund for FTE restorative justice coaches we are pleased to see within the draft budget reference to the inclusion of goal three African-American Children and

010Youth excel in school Strategic Equity projects such as restorative justice and continued sr3 funding for the restorative justice program manager based on these we expect and support the district's continued base budget funding for four RJ coaches in the Comprehensive High Schools we also support the sr3 funding for the RJ program manager but request an additional element to assure base budget funding for the position once Esser funds lapse in 2024. as revenues permit we would support any additional funding to expand on the contract with the YWCA to provide RJ support for elementary and middle schools and the potential RJ coordinators coordinators in the middle schools this approach will go a long way towards serving our youth to help them find Positive Solutions in their daily lives and especially in complex conflict situations this will enable avoidance

011of punitive approaches especially suspensions and expulsions that feed the school-to-person pipeline which severely impacts our youth of color especially our black youth our youth deserve the care and services of fully implemented restorative justice program will provide the measure will help release realize Dr Jenkins Vision stated in his cover letter to reflect the heart of mmsd while representing our commitment to accelerate learning disrupt disparities and provide Scholars an inclusive learning environment where all students and staff thrive thank you our next speaker is Patricia lacrosse hello I am Patty lacrosse and I am grateful to all of you as team members of the board for this opportunity I am also a member of Moses and Advocate and an advocate for housing security I'm speaking as an individual also to support the mmsd budget items specific to housing

012in Moses I'm active in the racial justice for all children task force working with the housing group the mission of our task force is also to eradicate the childhood to school to prison pipeline and I'm a community representative on the homeless Services Consortium board in my last two just ten years with mmsd's Early Childhood Department I held bi-weekly parent-child programs in the Salvation Army shelter the East Madison Community Center The Beacon Tree Lane and others in close collaboration with the tep program Early Head Start and the EC staff who do IEPs under the Aegis of Play and Learn I was privileged to partner with parents and grandparents in supporting their children's well-being providing opportunities for connection for play books and resources often lost in the chaos and stress of transition I carry to this meeting

013hundreds of sacred stories of loss of frustration of grief and of resilience and also bursts of laughter within the normalizing space of shared music art and play I represent their hopes to go home we know that the lack of secure housing is harmful to the emotional social psychological and physical well-being of infants and children of all ages and their parents or parenting figures particularly pregnant mothers it creates Havoc an educational Readiness attendance and attention of school-aged children so I am relieved and very grateful for this opportunity to support the district's proposal to provide resources to help house mmsd families in this budget and again I thank all of you thank you just a quick reminder for the online speakers to have your uh video off until your name is called that way we can make

014sure that everyone gets the spotlight when it's their chance all right thank you next up is Sandra Brown hmm Sandra I think you're muted so sorry I'll start over good evening and thank you for having me this evening I'm Sandra Brown vice president of Moses and co-chair of Moses racial justice for all children task force I am here on behalf of Moses to enthusiastically support mmsd draft budget items specifically um to literacy I taught mmsd Elementary School students for 36 years and mentored new District Educators for six years following my retirement I currently teach summer school provide tutorial services in math and literacy and direct curriculum and instruction in the fall term for the 100 Scholars Program sponsored by the 100 black men of Madison the mission of Madison Moses task force is to eradicate

015the childhood to school to prison pipeline through our research we learned that a significant contributor to the school-to-prison pipeline is the racial disparity in literacy booked but can't read an article in the New York um the NYU review of Law and social change states that 70 percent of America's adult incarcerated population and 85 percent of juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate a separate study in Texas indicates that almost 50 percent of the prison population in Texas has dyslexia Moses has adopted and issued to Target dyslexia in the early grades which is well served by a science of reading approach we recently advocated at State Assembly and Senate hearings to support literacy bills as amended to improve literacy across the state using the science of reading and to provide 50 million

016dollars in funding the mmsd budget narrative cites critical investments in early literacy include new kindergarten through five reading curriculum materials and a deliberate shift in the way we teach reading following the science of reading including significant investments in teacher professional development Moses fully support this vision of the district we are hopeful that additional State funds will become available to spin the rollout process in mmsd anticipating the likely adoption of the right to read bill we ask the district to begin the process of screening for reading difficulties and possibly for dyslexia in kindergarten and to inform parents and caregivers of the results we hope mmsd will lead the way help our children Thrive and stop the school to prison pipeline which is devastating Wisconsin's black children and youth Dr Jenkins message to the community in the

017proposed budget States we have much to celebrate our budget makes investments in critical areas which demonstrate our commitment to equity and Excellence including the continuation of priority programs like early literacy Moses Applause and support this Focus thank you for listening thank you Sandra next is Gloria Reyes good evening thank you for the honoring resolution recognizing upon Jose Lopez um thank you Nichelle for leading this effort and for the school board members for taking this um uh honoring resolution it's so important for our community I have known Juan Jose since I was 10 years old he was a family friend and he was like an uncle to me I looked up to Juan Jose as a child he would tease me about how I was following in his footsteps as I later became School Board president

018and the CEO of Briar Patch youth services and the same path that he took it was an honor to start Adelante political action group with him that made great strides in electing people of color into Political positions after he passed I received messages from people who identified themselves as one one of Juan Jose's children this is the kind of impact he had on young people Juan Jose has left a legacy in our community through his advocacy mentorship and his commitment to our latinx and diverse Community particularly our youth as we acknowledge Juan Jose's achievements I urge our Madison School Board and administration to continue his legacy by ensuring diverse representation on the board continues we'll also continue to focus on advancing the education of our latinx students through policies budgets and educational achievements for our

019students Juan Jose left a legacy through the many people he mentored including myself it is our responsibility to take his commitment to our community to the next level Juan Jose made long lasting impact on our Madison schools and I urge the school board to continue his legacy by renaming the next school renaming after Juan Jose Lopez thank you thank you Gloria next is tayasha Aggie hi my name my name is I am the building custodian three over at LaFollette High School um I just want to speak on why I feel that custodial Department deserves the five dollar pay increase on September 19th the title of the document presented to the school board stated recommendations for wage increase to retain and recruit hourly staff at the bottom of the screen it stated ultimately this recommendation is

020about more than what we do it represents affirmative steps to reinforce the notion that being concerned about human decency is Who We Are together we can demonstrate the importance of our hourly employees in a manner which is fiscally responsible and in alignment with our core values the same day Miss Ali Muldrow stated there should be no position in mmsd starting off making under 20 an hour 13 days ago she reiterated that you could make twenty dollars an hour delivering pizza for Ian she also asks Ross if the cost of living increase will put custodial at the 20 Mark and was told yes currently custodial attorneys make 1831. the eight percent increase still have custodials coming in making 1977. even a range seven bottom level custodian with the eight percent increase makes 22.30 after a year

021service blue service start and pay thanks to the five dollar arrays and eight percent increase will be 23.15 security assistance with the five dollar raise and eight percent increase is 2016. special education assistance with the five dollar raise and eight percent increase is also 23.15. the custodial department is the only Department of any weather related event closed school is still required to attend work unless you use the tick tag when the world sat down march of 2020 custodial staff were mandated to work and we were continuously told that we were in Central and thanks for our work 13 days ago it was stated that the custodial department has used 1 million or more for overtime to ensure Scholars from 4K to high school are greeted to a clean building daily we have averaged 25 positions

022being open since the summer of 2021 last September Ross quoted not being able to afford two million it would cost to add custodial to the increase seems the district was able to afford paying half of what was needed to ensure the bare minimum was complete imagine the tired men and women in the custodial Department saying the overtime is no longer enough how does these spaces get clean on June 7th around 40 LaFollette seniors took what was supposed to be a senior prank and vandalized the school the next day was special as the boys and girls who will be our future Lancers for graduating out of our section the Spectrum took four hours to clean and run and then there were 300 shares of Stage Sound a Podium needing to be set up can anybody prioritize

023what we need to go first cleaning for the school day or clean setting up for graduation Miss Nikki vandermeulen was contacted this winter because of the lack of heat in my building three years ago the same person sitting in my position didn't have to juggle being Sure Staff and managing American problems that have come with construction and trust me the longevity of this referendum will make life easier for custodial but we are tired as the head custodian of LaFollette High School and a mom to four kids ages 4 to 13. I am not I am one of those people averaging 65 to 70 hours a week to ensure my building that has been down three or more people consistently and gets overtime four hours for every eight hours of custodian admission would love to reduce

024my hours and have the energy to attend my kids mser I'm so sorry um we're over the three minutes by about a minute and a half um can you try to wrap your thoughts up here in about 20 seconds I had two lines left okay great I said um I would love to reduce my hours and have the energy to attend my kids MSC argument so now I feel guilty because I booked a trip to Jamaica while being a short staff that I started responding to emails while on vacation LaFollette is receiving 44 000 square footage added to our school explain to me how we're going to keep up with this thank you Taisha next is Ray Mendez thank you um Michelle I hope uh one day to be remembered like you remember Juan Jose

025Lopez it was it's an ambition you know to see like someone contributed so much uh my my appeal today to all of you is related to the Strategic framework recalibration update and to frame things I appreciate your service and I know I could never do what you do all of you I can't I would never be able to run for board and be a member of the administration and take the Flack you do so I really sincerely appreciate it um I can offer my input as an informal uh parent consultant that's all I can do from a distance and appreciate what you do and want to want to support you um over the past four years I've taken input from a variety of people board members so much time from Ali and Nikki thank you

026both um parents teachers social workers Community leaders politicians principals former boy board members UW people other board members and superintendents around the country and I've read many numerous studies some from around the world and and the country including a few from UW and Nancy and Nancy more Fanta who's you know really thoughtful um student services leader so what I see after these three four years is the overall problem as I see it and it's kind of big picture I see that there's too much pressure on schools to take care of our kids schools is the only place apparently in America where we put so much pressure by law to take care of their physical health their morals their gender identity their mental health and security and all that stuff work no one else has that

027legal responsibility so I understand the pressures and I appreciate that um we try there's nowhere else in Madison that's legally held accountable to do so beyond mmsd so I get the pressure uh there's a lack of shared values at our community's leadership level and that's not pointing fingers at you it's pointing fingers at all of us like I don't know what values I share with everyone here you know it's important to try and understand why we are disconnected sometimes um there's a lack of consistent system-wise strategy that leads towards optimizing our system mmsd to educate our children in as individualized a manner as possible and I know it's impossible to educate every one of our kids one-on-one as an individuals but we can aspire to do that as much as possible and I think we're

028getting there I see a lot of glimpses of that as in I'm relieved that we have Ali Nancy Nikki Michelle and Laura and so many other caring people like you working on it makes me feel like I can not um be as stressed as I sometimes can be and uh actually I think we have the components we need to succeed I think for one of the first steps in history of this place we have a a board of education that's really passionate caring about the right things and experienced interim superintendent and a dedicated staff I haven't met her but I hear really good things um and here's something important I think we have already have Universal Design for Learning which I think needs to be really really focused on and brought to life we have

029examples of courageous people who speak that truth like Nikki and we have pine it's not the uh Silver Bullet but it's going to be pretty helpful on the Strategic level I think we have teachers I've met so many great teachers principals social workers School staff and a lot of parents who share our values you know and there's UW in our backyard we have and I learned recently that we have 5 000 local non-profits in Madison more per capita than any other City in in America all willing to help so we have a lot of resources money I'm not so sure about but we have so many people to help and give that time right so um yeah we already hit the three minutes and it's about a minute and a half over so if you

030can uh just wrap up in about 20 seconds sure thank you um I wrote some details about the Strategic plan that might be helpful for on a technical level so read it I submitted it you know I think the vision we have you guys have is very clear I think the Strategic plan needs more uh precise goals and I think udl can be focused on and I think one thing we can do is really have the courage to speak up and do things that is my top people is actually um helpful but good for our kids and that's it thanks thank you Ray next is Caitlin sundling hello I'm Caitlin sunling a physician scientist and pathologist in Madison I'm speaking on behalf of the informal UW workers coveted response working group a group of UW

031workers and community members dedicated to improving Public Health we oppose ending the staff coverage vaccine requirement item 8.1 on the agenda additionally we hope the Board of Education will consider incorporating up-to-date vaccination booster requirements into an updated policy a coveted vaccination requirement is a basic level of protection this is occupational protection that's needed during an ongoing pandemic there are clear benefits to staff Health as well as benefits to maintaining Staffing Levels by reducing sick time more comprehensive comments are available in our written group statement and my individual statement submitted to the board covid is still spreading current Wastewater levels in our area are 70 percent higher than they were in a previous low point in summer of 2021 the risks of Occupational exposure to continue to be significant for school staff coveted vaccination reduces the

032risk of severe disease hospitalization and death as well as long covid which can lead to long-term disability these outcomes are even more likely with re-infection with covid so it's especially important for people previously infected to get vaccinated the end of the federal Public Health Emergency unfortunately does not signify the end of covet's harmful impact on our community disability and Justice and racial disparities in education are exacerbated by uncontrolled infectious disease spread in addition to the potential for devastating Health impacts covet infection without adequate up-to-date vaccination will worsen Staffing shortages some of the arguments against the vaccine requirement are based on costs or Logistics of enforcement for most mmsd staff code vaccination will be covered by their health insurance but where resources may run short please call on Health Care Partners such as UW Health and

033other Community Partners to help support the health and safety of our school staff a vaccination policy establishes a norm that will support High vaccination rates among staff regardless of how you enforce it dropping it will certainly reduce vaccination rates I understand the testing requirement for unvaccinated staff has been a burden given our current understanding of covet infection we shouldn't consider testing as an alternative to vaccination but I encourage you to consider making ways finding ways to make testing readily available to all School staff regardless of vaccination status vaccination forms an important part of a multi-layered approach to reducing the harmful impacts of covid in our schools and communities and should be supported by additional measures including air cleaning with ventilation filtration masking testing and providing appropriate sick leave we hope mmsd will maintain effective Public

034Health approaches such as workplace vaccine requirements and we encourage all School staff to get up to date on vaccinations including the current bivalent boosters as well as updated formulations that will become available this fall thank you all right thank you to all of our online speakers we're now going to move to um in person our first speaker will be Dell underbaki and Clay Engel Earth angle Earth will be next a disproportionate number of students of color and students without intellectual disabilities are represented in our behavioral data children living with low literacy are more likely to get bad grades have more school absences and display behavioral issues or literacy rates creates feelings of incompetence low self-esteem and isolation you have heard all of these statements before in 2022 68 percent of our white fourth grade students

035achieved proficient levels of reading less than 15 percent of fourth grade Hispanic and students with disabilities were reading at the proficient level only nine percent of black fourth graders achieve proficiency these gaps expand in the eighth and the 11th grade I find myself asking who wins with these numbers who benefits from these outcomes CCR IEP guidance calls for communication with families about how literacy levels impact behaviors in progress take these opportunities to walk in the shoes of those represented in our behavioral data how would you respond if your friends were learning to read while you were still while your friends were reading to learn while you were still learning to read how would you respond to moving through grade levels knowing you were being left behind how would you respond to earning credits knowing you

036had not learned enough to move forward how would you respond to holding a diploma knowing you are unprepared for college career or Community because you are not proficient in Reading behaviors need to be considered as canaries in the coal mine the behavioral voice of disruptive behavior can be a plea for teach me to read we spend a lot of time discussing how to intervene with social emotional supports if we teach kids to read we will be showing them we care about their learning and their futures mandated change is coming we have all heard how illiteracy has impacted our state's two-year budget negotiations last week as part of a wispy conference literacy achievement was discussed as part of a proposed IEP at a glance document when an instant report is filed why isn't the student's literature

037literacy achievement considered as a possible root cause of the infraction as part of academic and career planning discussions why can't literacy achievement be included in the plan to achieve a North star why can't we explicitly ask parents how they prioritize learning to read as part of their free public and appropriate education my time is up but your clock is ticking calls for local control has placed the ball for creating change in your court as a board of education we can start by crafting a behavioral education plan that is grounded in literacy as the essential element of our graduation promotion and intervention policies how long will it take us for us to respond to these calls for reform how long will it take to respond to the voices represented in our Behavior Education data thank you

038all right clay angler Earth and Then followed by Rob Larson good evening my name is Clay inglorth I am electrician for the district I'm here to speak on the five dollar raise for the trays and the custodians when I started here 12 years ago there were six steam Fitters now we have three there were seven painters now we have five there were seven electricians today we have three I have a printout of the new wages for electricians on the outside they're electric their wage rate will be 46.84 per hour if we just get the eight percent of our wage we will be 39.50 for our base wage rate but in reality our base wage will be just thirty seven dollars an hour because unlike the outside we have to pay two dollars and 37 cents

039per hour for health welfare and retirement which makes us nine dollars and seventy one cents behind I'm pretty sure none of you would take a job for a twenty thousand dollar pay cut so there's no way without the five dollar raise we will ever get any new employees and trades and all the work we once did when we were seven we are still getting done we are just hiring people from the outside to do it at an average of 125 to 150 an hour so for every hour we hire someone to do the work we could be doing ourselves we're paying double I heard a lot in the last board meeting about being fiscally responsible I'm pretty sure paying someone double to do the same job is not fiscally responsible the custodians aren't much different

040you paid somewhere between a million and a million and a half in overtime last year and even with the eight percent raise the starting custodian pay will be less than Food Services I believe Ali said in the last meeting that a pizza man could make twenty dollars an hour so I would ask you each would you choose to be a pizza man or choose to clean up puke and poop for Less without the five dollar raise you won't get any more custodians either you gave the raise to basically everyone in the district except for custodians and trades a quote unquote essential people the people that were here during covid the people that are here on snow days when it's too dangerous for everyone else to show up so for the good of the district I

041hope you all choose to be financially responsible I'm asking you to approve the five dollar raise for custodians And Trades thank you for your time after Rob there is Christina Marie Mara um good evening everyone I'm Rob Larson proud president of Ashley local 60. thank you for allowing me to speak for a couple minutes tonight since October our custodial unit as as well as our trades have been basically the only hourly employees excluded from the five dollar an hour raise we have been short 25 to 30 people on average over the last several years we have spent well over a million dollars in overtime annually we've had more injuries workers comp claims and many more burnt out employees they're trying to do their part to make Madison schools the best it can be the increase

042is an investment in US that will give mmsd the ability to hire quality employees who are here for the Long Haul for a career people who care about our kids our staff and our community of course it will also help to fill the staff shortages which will alleviate the over million dollars spent in overtime most importantly though it will show our current employees that we are valued not to mention getting back to a place in these economical times where we can fully support our own families and not only with things with a monetary value but also getting back some of the one thing you can't get any more of and that's time time with our families time with our own children so my sisters and brothers who have joined me here tonight would greatly appreciate

043your support to help us to get our unit back to a place where we can provide the type of service that goes above and beyond to make sure our schools are safe clean and a great place to send your children not only that but a great place to work which in turn helps with the retention issues district-wide thank you so much for listening and we ask you to please support us with the five dollar an hour raise and show us that we're valued let's get this done tonight and start moving forward to a better tomorrow thank you Christina Mara and if I mispronounce your name please correct me when you come up and uh Jesse Ransom will be or Christina good afternoon everybody good afternoon I'm Christina Mora I'm a building custodian too at East

044High School I hope you remember me when the last time you were at East High School I was so passionate about what I have spoken to you guys and I still carry the same passion this is even more because I'm speaking on behalf of my co-workers the same people that cleans the classroom every single day and yet we did not get that raise we I felt like we were left behind what happens to Equitable treatment I didn't think that we don't deserve the race because kovid or no Kobe snow days all seasons summer winter rainy season we are there all the time we can't just call in because there's nobody in the building if there's only one to store them in the building we can't just call in we can they can approve our vacation

045if they know that we are always short I have a license to teach ma'am but I didn't get a teaching job when I first got here I became a custodian although I feel so proud to be a teacher I am equally proud to be a custodian we all take pride with what we do now I still have a teaching license I don't know why all of a sudden I have to get this license so I can get a second job to be a stop at Monona School District is my other job there are days that I worked 16 hours eight hours stabbing eight hours being a custodian before I didn't have to do that before I never paid attention to how much is a gallon of hey you just step back just a little bit

046just because that's all just a little bit there you go it's my natural speaking voiceless anyways the timer said it's okay I can take another three minutes I I think I was looking at everybody who came here on the on TV they are prepared with a piece of paper and something on their phone I didn't come here with nothing at all I I was wondering where do I start I don't even know where to start and then all of a sudden I have this warm feeling and my heart starts beating so fast that's when I know where to start I want to start with what's in my heart I really think that we deserve the five dollar raise because among everybody in the district features Food Service people security guard among all of us the

047custodians were extra extra hard there's nobody in the district that works that hard that many hours we put in so many hours for the kids because we want to make sure that the classroom they go to are conducive to learning everything the teacher should be very happy that we clean our classroom really well so ma'am I am advocating that we get the five dollar raise because I got two boys to support as a single mom and then all of a sudden I need to get a second job just to support my boys so that's all I have to say thank you very much all right next up is Jesse Ransom and then Travis Thomas hi um so uh yeah I kind of believe this blank uh sorry I'm not a great speaker um so I

048remember like two of my teachers growing up and then the custodian uh the custodians do a lot more than just clean up a lot of times um students know the custodians very well and it's before there was police there was custodians you know like it was just somebody that you dealt with all the time um currently the police their starting salary is sixty seven thousand four hundred and eight dollars um that is eleven Dollars More Than A lot of these people are making just starting um and police generally don't have to clean up poop daily um so um especially with kovid um these guys are rock stars um I did the pandemic response I developed three different types of masks UV sanitizers ultraviolet booths um the Dane County Sheriff had me once beat dial begging

049me for masks when it happened um don't please don't remove the restriction for vaccinations either um that's just going to make their guys's job a lot worse um they do deserve a lot more than five dollars an hour it's the very least you can do um and then on another note um I am a convicted felon um I did the prison the um School the pipeline prison pipeline um when I came back to Wisconsin I was 18 years old and mmsd would not let me back in I said I'm on my own um I ended up going to prison for four years a lot of the guys in there are illiterate and they are ashamed and they can't find jobs a lot of them are in there not because they want to it's because they

050don't have a choice they have to sell drugs they have to do really bad stuff just to get by and we they don't have to like they I've taught some of the guys in there how to read like even in prison they don't have they don't have a place they can they're too ashamed like so um anyways yeah these guys definitely deserve a lot more than five dollars that's the very least you could do um even to get them partially the way up to a surviving role currently you can get a better pay at Women's Quick Trip um yeah doing Pizza over a quick trip uh stocking the shelves at Woodman's Blue Plate um is hiring right now for more just serving food Sub-Zero assembly they pay more I don't know if you guys want

051to keep your janitors I'd pay them more okay Travis Thomas you're up and then Rick marks will follow good evening good evening my name is Travis Thomas I'm treasurer of ask me local 65 Dan County and I rise in support my ass ask me siblings and local 60 in the hopes the board sees fit to give these great workers the full five dollar raise on top of the eight percent increase I want to be clear I support this because I think it's not only in the name of fairness but competitive balance that the school district comes up with a full five dollar increase as a proud mmsd alumnus in K-12 I can tell you firsthand the significance custodial maintenance staff have on a student's ability to learn in a clean safe properly maintained School environment

052the bottom line students cannot learn without the lights working they cannot learn if a school room is not properly sanitized or cleaned they cannot learn if the school lacks safety of preventative routine maintenance and they cannot learn and focus if there's no heat in the building this five dollar raise would would help dramatically in feeling the custodial shortage that is now bored burdened in the school district for years the raise would bring the district more in line with custodial jobs with the city and county allowing the district to recruit workers and fill the gaps in service that these current workers have worked so tirelessly to maintain despite the fact that these shortages exist clothes I just like to say proper education and learning environment takes a village it takes many people in a district working

053in concert to provide the best possible chance at Scholastic Success these workers are the backbone of that process it's time to show them the respect and Financial Security they deserve again I'm rising in support of the five dollar increase thank you for your time after Rick we'll have Tanya novinska uh good evening everybody I'm Rick marks and I am a 35-year ask me member and retired City employee and a graduate of this fine school system that you represent uh go East High uh I have been called in my career an attendant a janitor a cleaner a setup and tear down person a laborer a maintenance worker and also a custodian and when I was hired to be a custodian it was inter I never was sure what that word meant and when I looked it

054up I was pretty proud of what I had gotten as a job because I was called a person who has a responsibility to oversee and take care of something of value and I think we all know that the buildings and the equipment and all those things that we value very highly but we know that the thing that we value most around here and that's the people that's the the workers and the Learners and that's what we're really there to protect and you want to make sure that those people are protected by the best that are qualified to do this kind of work and in order to do that you have to continue to keep making sure that they're paid at the level that those people are expected to be able to get paid I can

055tell you that just not that many years ago my brother Jim was hired here to work for the Madison metropolitan school district and during that time there were 600 people that he was competing against to get this job 600 people that desperately wanted this job now not so much that can't continue or we're going to erode not only the pay and benefits but the overall ability to care for those folks that we need to care for in addition there are people all over this state and the rest of the country that look to Madison and our school district as one of those school districts that create a standard and we want to continue to maintain that standard because you're not just eroding the standards of this group of people but eroding the standards of people

056all over the place and so please make sure that you remember that when you decide to take that vote and this is a five dollar raise that as everybody has said has gone to everyone else and this is a group of people that are traditionally marginalized people that have come in that are immigrants people that start out at the beginning of their career with trying to work their way up and we want to make sure that as a system that believes in inclusion and Equity that the very people that we are trying to help are not the ones that we're going to leave behind thank you after Tanya we'll have Steve books good evening my name is Tanya novinska I currently work at West High School as the building custodian too I am currently the

057interim building custodian at Cherokee middle school because West is under construction uh I'm here to ask that custodians and trades that they deserve the that we deserve the full five dollar raise above the cola increase of eight percent we are currently down 25 to 30 custodians we have been working very hard to cover and keep these buildings clean why are we so short staffed I recently searched on the mmsd job site and nothing came up for under custodian the only term that I could find for for job search was custodial there are other tags that should be used to increase applicant traffic we would be happy to sit down with Administration to help figure this out so we we get the Staffing that and coverage that we need another thing that would increase our knee

058or excuse me offering a competitive wage which is uh competitive with similar jobs my friend has worked for Madison Metro bus for five years she is similar to a custodial worker one her current wage is 31.16 an hour with wrs pension and benefits I earn as a building custodian to 3193 after 20 plus years and promotions with a lot more responsibilities someone said to me two weeks ago you survived the first week of Summer cleanup I'm a selfish survived 21 first week summer cleanups which amounts to 105 days or 840 hours most people don't know what we do Summers consist of working in extreme heat and humidity while deep cleaning buildings to make sure and readying boilers for the next heating season each piece of furniture has to be removed from the room cleaned from

059ceiling to floor heating vents maintained as well floors are scrub scrubbed stripped rinsed Furniture is moved and then it's basically back in and repeat when school when school is closed for inclement weather we still have to come in to remove snow and ice risking life and limb kovid we were shut down and we were the only Department required to report to work in person risking our health and lives we perform a vital service providing students and staff with a clean safe environment I hope you follow the district's core values and mission statement and include custodians in this five dollar raise thank you foreign next up we have Steve books and then after Steve we have I think six more speakers Chris Gomez Schmidt will follow after Steve uh hello uh yes hello School Board community

060members uh I have a couple issues tonight uh yes I'm Steve Brooks I'm here as a Madison Citizen First of all and I do work out at Bill Phillips Memorial High School as a SCA special ed Aid um so my two issues tonight are the funding for cleaning for custodial Services funding the staff for that service and uh tardy policy so I'll I'll start with um cleaning okay as as you know we are under construction at all four high schools and I learned this year that our uh a lot of schools in Madison School District we're having uh custodians go to other schools at night well anyway I also find found out we have 56 schools so that that's a lot of school cleaning at night to do as far as I I was told

061this year how many schools so this year at Memorial I was not happy that our night staff got apparently pulled off to go to a different School and as a result the floors were a mess they did not get clean and there was an article in the cab times I believe last February or last winter sometime that did state that that said our schools are filthy well the schools under construction are uh you know the construction maybe has something to do with it however not having staff funding the staff to clean the schools during this construction that was that was bad so the floors did not get cleaned and yes they were down to concrete because the tile was removed so coffee stains were there on the concrete you'd have gum the usual dirty things

062stuck to the concrete so is this is this a quality thing to have in the high school that it wouldn't get clean for weeks and I I personally after school sometimes would take a mop if I could find one because one mop closet was taken away due to construction so that didn't help so my bottom line is that please find the funding um my question is who's the lobbyist who's the lobbyist to go to Governor Walker and say hey we got to clean the schools come on fund the money find the money um you need to do it cleaning creates a mood and my mood was not very good last year due to that and it took me a long time to figure it out and I had to look at my old boy skull

063manual to see that and I found it sorry and it said litter attracts litter and it took me a while to find that thank you I'm for the five dollar raise after Chris Gomez Schmidt will be Eric Anderson thank you I'm speaking to you tonight to provide perspective for the long-term effects that the budget you're voting on tonight um having been involved in the first four months of this budget process for two years the mmsd board has discussed the fiscal cliff ahead once Federal pandemic funding for Education ends yet this budget will make the fiscal cliff even higher without a plan that I can see to address a long-term shortfall it will create this budget uses both one-time federal funds and fund balance to cover this new operating deficit there is no doubt that this

064budget's salary increase for staff eight percent plus an average two percent steps in Lanes is an incredible boost for each individual staff member this was another difficult year and everyone is challenged by the rising costs of inflation Staffing shortages continue as you're hearing tonight and the pressure to address this reality is understandable investment in staff is an important priority yet when the stick or when the eight to ten percent investment in each individual is added up to over 4 000 employees it adds 26 million dollars to every future budget and will affect District finances going forward in significant ways so it is the responsibility for each board member to be realistic about future budgets and the significant challenges ahead those challenges include declining enrollment increases to health care insurance costs increase funding to Charter in

065voucher schools and significant Investments needed in instruction in Staffing as we're hearing tonight in Strategic Equity projects maintenance for aging buildings and meeting the district's 2040 renewable energy goals I think everyone in this room can agree that over many years there has been inadequate State investment in public education this year's state budget provides in a welcome increase in funding we should collectively continue to advocate for stronger investment in our Public Schools it is needed however and what is frustrating is that no matter what the funding levels are that exist every school district must still balance their budget as a responsibility to look their local communities and to Future students that puts all of you as board members in an extremely difficult position and I want to recognize that my main point tonight is to ask

066you to recognize that overextending the current budget will create challenging budgets going forward that will likely directly affect schools and classrooms and your ability to address many other priorities where investment is needed lastly I'd like to say thank you for the difficult job you do every day the board members the staff teachers custodians creates employees and I sincerely hope you will find a way to govern effectively together as a board with your new interim superintendent thank you Eric and then Brittany McKinney good evening my name is Eric Anderson I'm the president of local 65 afscme in Dane County I didn't prepare anything tonight uh I understand there is a budget amendment on the agenda for five dollar an hour increase or actually 320. uh an hour increase we are advocating one thing I know about

067budget amendments is that they can be amended um I would propose uh uh floor Amendment on on that budget amendment this evening for five dollar an hour increase um my brothers and sisters and asked me local 60 have been cut out of uh five dollar an hour increase uh that uh folks were offered this last year um and uh appreciate Nikki uh for bringing this proposal forward and when I'm done speaking don't applaud for me um applaud for Nikki and we should all be more like Nikki thanks Nikki good evening everyone my name is Brittany McKinney I grew up in Madison Madison metropolitan school district and served for about 16 years as an employee I stand before you today to bring up some racial disparities as well as some things that have been going on

068within the district that I have experienced as well as my former colleagues um back in 2016-17 school year when I was employed with Madison metropolitan school district um I filed a discrimination complaint against three of my administrators you roll around to 2021 my one of my administrators where I filed a discrimination complaint against is then my administrator and I bring this to your attention as the board because I want I understand from previous meetings that the board has had that it has come up about HR this is really big for me because I have three children that are going through this district and to know that HR as well as the district is not taking these type of things serious is weighing pretty heavy on my heart um when I got into the position I

069was formerly A administrative clerk senior and to date from what I know I was the first African-American head secretary at the high school level and for me that was a huge accomplishment because considering that Madison metropolitan school district has been around for over 50 years and never having anyone black in that position was pretty big I speak because a lot of Staff members that I have spoken with both that are now current as well as former mmsd employees have had the fear of not wanting to speak out due to being reprimanded or terminated or in my case having a voluntary resignment not being pushed with the fact of being pushed out and not being able to speak up we're told to just deal with it a lot of the stuff that we've had to deal

070with with threats from our administrators we've had to deal with retaliation we've had to deal with a slew of other things that we we need more than three minutes to explain this past April I had an agreement with mmsd to voluntarily resign and I bring that up because with my voluntary resignment it was never stated that I could never apply for additional excuse me other positions within the district to date I have applied for two head secretary positions in which one I was referred to the hiring staff went through a lot of back and forth with that just to come to the conclusion that I was told that I could not get the position because one of the administrators was leaving the district coming to find out that administrator is still with the district now

071I'm in a space where it's if I'm feeling that I'm being blacklisted or I'm flagged from what I was told in the system and now that any position that I applied for I would no longer get whether I apply now or in the future I've had many talks with current staff members trying to figure out a way that I can get back into the district as my passion is helping students I've done this for over 16 years I started when I was 14 years old working with Madison metropolitan school district as a program leader with mscr and I feel that if it's not spoken upon now that it'll just continuously be swept up under the rug and that the board as well as HR needs to change or else what are we going to do

072now for our students and for our parents that have to go through these things that they don't get the chance to speak upon because of they don't know what will happen to their children or what will what will happen when they're not in the schools thank you for your time okay our um final three speakers I think this is Makia Pierce or peace I'm sorry then after that is Kim um Gasper or back and then Derek Wallace to finish us up good evening my name is Makia price and I also was an employee at LaFollette with Brittany Kinley uh speaking speaking out for home her behalf um I read this thing on Facebook and say you are not truly free unless you're authentic self and I noticed like when you've been your authentic self and

073you um color you good enough to work with the kids good enough to discipline the kids good enough to talk to the angry moms and uh be security but when you challenge uh your administrator and let them know like hey this don't feel good for black and brown students uh this won't be a good look then you pushed out or either you got to go somewhere else so just supporting Brittany I hope that you guys really look um it's uh her case like it take a lot to speak out and so um just supporting her that she was really a great secretary also security like she had a great relationship with students parents she even helped me um with parents when they came in angry like getting to know them and also like letting them

074being trustworthy so please look into her her thing thank you no uh Gasper right back rayback hi uh I'm from Jasper Reebok I was a public school teacher in San Francisco and Oakland California before I had to leave because they were unable to keep the schools in both of those districts clean I had 142 children in my seventh grade come through my classroom every day by the time I left the only cleanliness that was happening in my classroom is that the janitors were coming to take the garbage twice a week that was it twice a week nothing else happened in my classroom of my 142 children at 142 black children my classroom we went from eight custodians in my building to four custodians in my building to two custodians in my building I'm here today

075to talk about racism and Madison School District I felt it was racist that we had two custodians in my public school of a thousand children almost all of whom were black all 142 of my children were black if we're going to talk about fighting racism we have to talk about it where it really counts here in Madison Wisconsin 25 of black children suffer from asthma the national rate is 17 percent the rate for white children who are experiencing asthma is seven percent I am sufferer of asthma I had to stop teaching school because my classroom was impossible for me to teach in that means it was impossible for my students to learn in dust dust my mold mildew cockroach toppings and many other pollen etc etc many other things that are not being cleaned out

076of our classrooms because we are 25 to 30 custodians short in a district in Madison Wisconsin one of the most well-to-do cities in the state one of the most expensive cities to live in right now in Madison Wisconsin nationally we have the highest increase in rent year over year I'm happy to show you the newspaper articles my rent went up a hundred and twenty seven dollars last year and a hundred and seventy five dollars this year I can't believe any of their rents are different this is a question of race and racism making sure that our children could go to a clean school and learn children who are suffering from endless asthma Miss many more days of school than children who are not I would like to see Laura and Ally and Savion and Michelle

077and Maya and Blair and Nikki and Lisa all follow a custodian for a day I think that's your job to follow a custodian for a day and see what they do for all of our children we have a responsibility to all of our children including our black and brown children who suffer disproportionately when we have a massive massive lack of of custodian in our schools thank you all right uh good evening thank you for the opportunity to address the board tonight my name is Derek Wallace I'm the vice president of Aspen Wisconsin and we represent thousands of workers across Wisconsin including uh the custodians here who work at the Madison metropolitan school district um you know we're glad the board has decided to maximize the cost of living increase but let's remember that a percentage-based

078increase benefits the employees earning the most not the employees earning the least uh during the day I worked for Dane County and at our workplace we made sure that all hourly employees at least a combined five dollar per hour raise over the past two years and that's because inflation hits those at the bottom of the wage scales the most obviously the district did the same thing here at the beginning of this school year which was great except the district left out our custodians in the five dollar per hour race um I think this marks the fourth time that we've organized to come speak to you all here this is the start of the school year uh the first time my sister a teacher at Cherokee Middle School explained the significant burden which is placed on

079teachers and other staff when custodian positions go unfilled as you just heard the second time the former superintendent implied that we shouldn't be fighting each other and we should be working together I want to be clear that employees raising their voices and demanding their worth after they're left behind in a wage increase that all other employees received are naturally going to be frustrated but yet we work together superintendent said to vote we voted both in November and in April the superintendent said help us library to get state aid now just last week we have a bill providing additional billion dollars in state aid to Public Schools over the next two years we've been team players and now we need you to support our team of custodians too the percent Cola as you've heard was only

080going to result in an average increase of a dollar fifty an hour for the average codian Which is less than the five dollars a third less of the five dollars per hour than other classifications uh that uh that those classifications already received this school year and you know I'll just say this isn't easy for custodians to do I think largely with a couple of exceptions that you've heard here tonight it's a group of workers who just want to get their job done and remain out of the spotlight but most of you were here last year when the custodians walked out of the meeting now trying to imagine what would happen to the safety in our schools the cleanliness if there weren't custodians at all those vacancies will continue to be the reality in many schools

081until this board acts so I urge that you act quickly and decisively tonight thank you thank you to all of our speakers tonight all right we're going to move into our minutes um and I also want to welcome our new student rep Talia Richmond who is with us virtually can you hear us Talia yes thank you all right wonderful I move that the Board of Education approved the minutes from the regular meeting dated May 22nd 2023. second any corrections or discussion on the minutes all right Talia your advisory vote to approve the minutes you want to say I or yes yes thank you all right all those in favor aye all right none opposed those past seven zero next we'll move into board president announcements all right to celebrate our students and staff we are

082super excited to see our Scholars back in our schools for the summer semester which began last week additionally mscr programming continues to offer the Madison Community a wide variety of options for all ages we are looking forward to a Summer full of engaging learning and fun activities thank you to our staff for creating these experiences for our Scholars and community the board would also like to expend extend sorry a special thank you to outgoing assistant superintendent of financial services Ross McPherson Ross has done an exceptional job in helping the district navigate complexities in school Finance while overseeing state and federal one-time funds resulting from the covid-19 pandemic Ross thank you so much for your leadership your expertise your years of service to mmsd and we are wishing you the best in your next chapter let's

083give him a round of applause hello celebrating our community on behalf of the Board of Education we acknowledge June as pride month recognizing the impact and contributions of the lgbtqia plus Community has had locally nationally and internationally June is a time to celebrate and demonstrate support to our lgbtq IA plus Community raise awareness and promote an inclusive and welcoming Community for all additionally we recognize June 19th known as Juneteenth is a federally recognized holiday and a time to celebrate African-American contributions reflect on our nation's commitment to Liberty and Equity or well equality but Equity um and honor the Brilliance creativity capabilities and Bright Futures of our black Children and Youth and lastly a quick update about our superintendent search uh the work has continued in the search for a permanent superintendent for mmsd the search

084firm along with District staff and our board of education has been meeting with Alma Consulting Group and as we move forward into the summer we will be holding a Late July Workshop in order to fine-tune our process for engaging the community shortly after the school the new school year begins we look forward to you all paying attention and engaging with us in the coming months and with that I'm going to turn it over to our interim superintendent thank you Nichelle board chair um I want to just take a couple of minutes for some celebrations um first of all I want to celebrate the end of a great year for all of our staff and we hope that our staff members have a restful and rejuvenating summer I also want to celebrate the beginning of summer

085school I know the amount of work that goes into summer semester it is like opening a whole another school district in the summer and just want to appreciate and support the staff members who are working in our schools this summer and finally I want to thank the board of education for appointing me as the interim superintendent I bring every day my heart and head to this work and am honored that we had an opportunity to spend our Friday together in the board retreat and I am positive that we can make a positive difference in the lives of our students families and Community moving forward as the interim superintendent as you know I'm focused on four major priorities student achievement and social emotional health and well-being creating the conditions so that the Board of Education can

086conduct a superintendent search and also strengthen our communication and ways of working finally I'm committed to strengthening staff principal and teacher hiring and retention practices and now a few words about our budget process this year as the interim superintendent I want to say first of all thank you to Ross McPherson for the work that he has done over the years supporting this District as a colleague and a friend Ross I appreciate everything and wish you only the best in the future I know that our paths will cross again I also give my commitment to working with Bob soldner our new assistant superintendent for financial services Bob welcome to the team and I know we will have a productive working relationship moving forward the preliminary 2324 budget demonstrates how we value our staff by investing in

087the maximum cost of living adjustment at eight percent it prioritizes classroom and student supports and mental health supports using one-time Sr sources continues investments in early literacy our full Day 4k program and the science of reading however as you know while Federal pandemic funding will go away after this fiscal year our needs will not therefore the Board of Education myself and my cabinet will continue to look at where we can adjust repurpose and find additional sources of revenue we have decisions to make and we can make them together as a team we'll set our district up for ongoing success while being mindful of factors such as declining birth rates and declining enrollment Nationwide staff shortages and limited resources from federal and state funding sources we're also facing as you know a historic rate of inflation

088we are not alone many school districts across the state and the nation are facing these same challenges as we are in mmsd our first job as Educators is to ensure our students are receiving a world-class education where students are prepared for their future and where our staff are able to do their best work this budget is a step in the right direction and there continues to be work ahead I look forward to the partnership with our Board of Education and the Madison Community during this critical next year thank you thank you thank you and welcome to your first official board meeting in this capacity we look forward to working with you oh yes well there's a video [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] all

089right well let's do a little clap up for Lisa and the end the video okay all right we're gonna keep moving through our agenda next we're gonna have a report on the items that proceeded through the instruction work group held on June 5th 2023 and I will go to uh chair of the instruction work group or member Muldrow out Senate Nichols we discussed three major areas including the vaccination mandate for staff which we will vote on this evening revisions to the behavior education plan and apologies and our strategic recalibration uh our next meeting will be August 7th and we will talk about the possible agenda at our next regular board meeting there is no uh instruction work group in the month of July thank you board member Muldrow uh next we'll report on items that

090proceeded through the operations work group held on June 12 2023 and I'm going to pass that over to the chair of the operations work group board member Castro thank you so this past uh work group we discussed the final look at the June preliminary budget and the work Group Forum and we heard and entertained some budget amendments got more information and Analysis from Administration before our final vote tonight uh this final budget does include the largest investment and staff wages in the history of the district it also includes ours sustained investment in full Day 4k and and mental health and so looking forward to our vote and discussion tonight uh we will have no uh work group meeting in July but we will reconvene on uh August 14. thank you board member Castro as board

091member Muldrow indicated there are two items that were in the instruction work group that we do need to vote on tonight the first being a uh item 8.1 the covid-19 employee vaccination mandate policy I move that the Board of Education approve the immediate end of the covid-19 plan approved by the board of education on September 27th of 2021 which included the employee vaccination mandate and related mandatory testing second Maya all right discussion board member Muldrow and then board member vandermeulen thank you board president Nichols I want to explain my vote um I I feel very grateful to our medical experts who have really driven home to the board that our current policy is irrelevant um to the current Evolution um of covet that the vaccines were currently mandating don't actually protect people from covet at

092this point um in the pandemic and so what we would be looking at revising um would be a mandate for people to boost and that that would be an Ever Changing mandate um and because we don't have the support that we would need or the infrastructure that we need to do something like that across governments um I'm voting tonight that we end the Mandate uh for staff I think covet has evolved and so should our approach to coved um and and I thank the folks who spoke up tonight um around their concerns for what happens when when we no longer mandate vaccination I think there there's a need to continue to be in conversation um around the public safety implications of coved I'm arguing against them getting rid of the Mandate here's why very simple

093as an individual with disabilities and I'm far from the only one in this District I have to worry about those who are immunocompromised who wish to get an education like everyone else who may not have that opportunity the CDC may have said that this as long as you don't have far more comorbidities you're fine the majority of individuals with disabilities have at least four we need a safe place to be able to be educated and to go I feel that this policy needs to be Rewritten so that it mandates the current practice of what science of what the doctors are saying that does not mean getting rid of it get rid of it what we're doing is allowing the vaccine to possibly mutate and it could be another variant we are a very large District

094I'm afraid for our students and it's that reason why although um Elm said president sorry board member Muldrow makes an excellent point that we need we the science has changed absolutely the only thing we need to do is to keep up with the science which is to change the policy to fit the current science thank you uh board member Castro and then board member simkin thank you yeah um just to explain some of my vote on why I will vote to end the Mandate tonight uh pretty much in order to maintain a vaccination mandate we need support from all levels of government and so whether I agree with it or not the federal government has deemed this pandemic over and has taken away a lot of institutional support in order for us to implement this

095mandate well um were we to continue it we cannot implement this mandate well um and so I want us to do things well um and that's just not the case uh in addition we would not have the support from much of the um healthcare industry such as Healthcare Providers and so that's what makes this complicated the science is still evolving and we will continue to monitor that it's my hope that in the coming years um covid will be implemented in the other Suite of vaccines um mandated from Early Childhood on I'm in favor uh excuse me of continuing with the vaccine mandate and the reason why is because I believe that it is our responsibility as a large district and as citizens of Madison to do what we can to keep those who are most

096vulnerable in our community safe and that this Mac that a continued vaccine mandate does that I agree with board member Van Der Mullen and board member Muldrow that in its current iteration it doesn't work and it is a complicated task to to keep it updated I believe we're completely capable of doing that if we have the will to do so pattern thanks um I just wanted to um sort of respond to what board member Castro said about not being able to enforce a mandate well and and I agree with that um and I would add I'm gonna I'm gonna vote to keep the covid Mandate um but I would add that um it's okay with me to have a man to have policy that we can't necessarily um enforce completely all the time every time

097um I'm a new board member so I am open to being having my mind changed about that but that's where I'm at right now any further discussion okay so remember the motion again is to the immediate end so if you are voting I you'll be in support of the immediate end and if it's a no then it is um obviously not to approve that so I'll start with uh Talia do you have an advisory vote I or no on this motion no all right thank you board member Mosner feltham it doesn't matter okay can you do it on Mike sorry just no board member vandermeulen no board member Pearson yes board member Nichols aye yes or member Castro aye or remember Muldrow I or member simkin no thank you I lost count there uh that

098is four three passes all right moving on to the next item that we need to vote on is um agenda item 8.2 I move that the Board of Education approved the changes to the behavior education plan for the elementary middle and high school levels policies 452 B 452 C and 452 d as set forth in the documents prepared for the regular Board of Education meeting dated June 26 2023 all right discussion board member simkin and then board member Muldrow at this time I don't have any changes that I'm proposing I do want to see us soon take a very deep look both um collaboratively with the board and with Administration and with teaching staff um to look at the data around the BEP how effective the measures are how they're impacting the ability of teachers

099to be able to teach in the classrooms and then use that information to make large changes to the BEP thank you but remember Mojo I can't hear you I'm wondering if members of the administration can speak to our approach to eliminating uh suspension at the elementary school level and any exceptions around suspension at the elementary school level um that that these changes indicate there's a small number of uh occurrences across the school year that cause major harm both in witnessing and physical harm to students or staff that need to be addressed and it takes time to address these things and having in-school suspensions are um Ms Stanford and I are not asking for this because we think that the out-of-school suspension is going to correct the behavior but it takes time to de-escalate the situation

100both for the students who witness these harmful behaviors and for the people who are harmed and in school suspensions are often not um effective at giving us any kind of time as elementary school because there's no one to supervise the in-school suspension without pulling people off of their other responsibilities meaning that if a social worker needs to supervise an in-school suspension that means they're not seeing students for that entire day so sometimes there needs to be a re-admit conference and this is we are thinking about maybe six incidents out of 12 000 elementary students across the school year that need to be addressed in more serious ways where we have time to respond to all involved and not only to um the student that is causing the harm so I have several issues with that

101one is is that if we're talking about something that across our 32 elementary schools would impact around six young people um if we're having a policy of exceptions that makes the young people who are suspended at the elementary school level incredibly easily identifiable um I think that there's there's an area of of tension around that for me as a board member in terms of the the utilization of suspension as an intervention um the other issue I have with that is at the elementary school level uh we often talk about Behavior as communication um and we you know there's there's a reason why you can't be criminalized for Behavior no matter how egregious um before the age of 10 years old that's you know really based in what is a developmentally appropriate approach so one of

102my Curiosities is why suspension versus mental health intervention why suspension versus having you know a nurse intervene and say hey we need to promote mental health days for our students when they're really struggling at school um is there a result we're hoping to get from suspending students and and administering a punishment and reaction to Behavior at the elementary school level um that we don't think would be better done by promoting an intervention around students Mental Health and Wellness I think the administration agrees that mental health interventions would be our first priority it takes a lot of time to get mental health interventions set up for our scholars in our schools and so this the situation of students witnessing violence in our schools and then having that the person who enacted the violence even if they're

103less than 10 years old and didn't do it on purpose they are still witnessing the violence and the harm is still being caused so we have to be careful on behalf of all of the students to make sure that we create space out of school suspension would be um if we had different terms in this big overhaul of the BEP it would be a good idea to think about it not as a consequence or a punishment but as a way to bring students and parents to the school with us after there's been a cooling off period from the occurrence I guess the last thing I'll say is I think that when you're talking about elementary school students and you talk about violence you talk about like a six-year-old hitting a seven-year-old with a truck or

104you talk about a four-year-old hitting another kid in a sandbox with a shovel um one of the things that stands out to me is when that is considered violence and when it isn't um we know that when we allowed suspension 4K through fifth grade that the only children who were suspended in 4k were African-American boys um so we're not just talking about when we use suspension we're also talking about who is disproportionately suspended or removed from school and that makes this com conversation complex and particularly complex at the elementary school level where we see a disproportionate number of African-American students exposed to restraint and seclusion um I I'm really struggling with with how to support that I felt like the majority of adjustments that were made to the behavior education plan really were about trying

105to find the appropriate response to student behavior um in order to support students I've asked for years what is the benefit of suspension what is the good positive thing that comes out of suspension and no one has ever said oh once a student's suspended they're more likely to be academically successful in fact what I've heard over and over again is once a student is suspended they're more likely to be suspended again um can you talk a little bit about the benefit of suspending Elementary School students or the very rare instances in which students would need to be suspended what what the benefit is and what that should look like what the benefit is for the student being suspended or what the benefit is for those who are harmed I would say if there's benefits for

106both I would love to hear that there are benefits for both if there's benefits from one group and not the other I would appreciate your candor so the benefits it's hard to talk about this in terms of benefits because I don't believe that any of this is a positive situation I think what we are seeking is to have an Avenue to create a space in a space of time to organize for restoration and healing so for example if there was a an extreme negative altercation between students that result in a large injury then we would want some space and time to get the proper people to facilitate the conversation to manage the behaviors that were happening and to bring the community back together in terms of the students who are witnessing or being harmed by

107another individual we aren't not asking for 4K through third we are asking for fourth and fifth graders in terms of the student um so the best thing I can say as far as a reach on the benefit for the student is we have situations where we need parent support to follow through with mental health providers because the school district only has so much capacity to provide Mental Health Services that go beyond our social workers our psychologists and our nurse so nobody in our system can do Beyond those that scope of school based mental health work and we can refer out but if the parent declines all the services or is unreachable then we are in this place of no um no collaboration and so we need collaboration on behalf of the student and that is

108when I would say that it would benefit the student if we could get a larger collaboration around the student for support I appreciate that explanation I will say I think that suspension doesn't necessarily Inspire collaboration with families and I think that suspension sends young people a message not that they've done something bad but that they are bad um and that they don't belong in their school um and I think recovering from an instance in which you've done something bad means having the response to that instance not define you as an unsafe person at the same time I want to be considerate of the impact certain behaviors have on the Greater Community um I do think I'd like to adjust this portion um of of of the adjustments we're making to the behavior education plan to

109be more centered in mental health or offering mental health days in collaboration with families or students but I'm curious what other board members have to say thank you brother member um board member vandermeulen and then um I was never follow them yes I'm voting no one this based on fourth and fifth grade suspension and the reason I am is as follows two groups that are the two groups that are risk screened the most in elementary school and in school in general are African-Americans primarily males and the disabled in fact over 400 incidents at one point on the disabled in the past few years my issue is this we're not worried about harming the community it really looks like we just want to segregate the community into who we don't want to traumatize someone that's been

110used for how many years that our behavior is traumatizing instead of finding out why we have a duty to educate absolutely every student and that doesn't mean that every student is in a regular classroom some need a least restrictive environment and that's what the law says the problem being is you can't get at least restrictive environment if you're not allowed to build like always and that's what unless you are on homebound instruction when you do not provide that information those children aren't getting it and they're not getting instruction and then we discuss collaboration and this is where I really have a hard time and I respect everyone and their opinions because everyone's working at their best capacity and I get that and this is a tough business and you need to be able to create

111a safe environment for everyone I understand that too but where I can't get it is that if the parents don't comply we will punish the student by keeping them from school based on the seriousness of behavior that we're going to set that could be changed that is that could be done on a subjective we don't have an objective standard without an objective standard we have possible gray areas when you have gray areas that's where bias are creeps in so it's for those reasons I cannot support it board member Mosner felt them thank you I'm curious about um if you see it working the way that you hope it works in the middle schools um that makes you think like yeah we could really use this in those few cases um and the reason I ask

112is I generally I generally didn't at the high school not that I was super duper close to the behavioral response stuff but I I don't know like typically when I don't know that it functions is it cooling off and the other thing I would be curious about is like where where there are students and families who take their own cooling off period right who call their kids out sick for a couple days or whatever um how does that show up or does that show up at the elementary the research is pretty clear that suspension does not correct Behavior so if but it doesn't to suggest that somehow something's magically different between a fifth grader and a sixth grader is also um not very accurate as children while the average age is probably around fourth grade

113for more abstract thinking for most of our Scholars that the idea that they are not going to be suspended for bringing a look-alike weapon or injuring another person in fifth fifth grade and then in sixth grade the rules are completely different is also I would ask the board to think about the inconsistency in if this is about whether we believe that suspension corrects Behavior or if it's just about trying to correct it at the elementary level thanks do you do you um at the elementary school level do you see ever or I guess not that's why you would be asking for this but do you see families doing that taking a pulling off period without without the sort of on the book suspensions uh it's certainly the family's Choice most times though I think the

114families that are involved in taking a cooling off period are really already working with us um there are some exceptions to um we are not trying to punish a student for their parents uninvolvement in the school however we need a collaboration with the adult with 612 students there is a difference in terms of if a student leaves property the student is allowed to be off property without supervision because they're old enough if they run off property for us we are putting staff in danger and the student in danger in terms of what we can do once they're off property which is ultimately then they're restrained and secluded in order to keep them safe so the reason the ask is out there is because of serious injury for out of school suspension and the amount of

115time it takes us to gather like a student Support Services team to help do a restorative conversation to work with the family it is meant to be in a time to provide additional support but that doesn't just happen within five minutes after an event occurs and we're not asking for a five-day suspension but to have no time between when an event occurs and um moving back to instructional practices is also um I'm not going to even say it's very challenging it's it's almost unreasonable in terms of a few situations that we do have come up I think our staff is extra scared after what happened this year with the first grader in Virginia and um that is not a reason to change policy fully but I think we need to think about a Continuum of

116policy just like we think about a Continuum of services or remember something the thing I heard you say at the beginning of this is that um there's also a staffing component to in-school suspension see in school suspension and I think I want to just uplift that in our when we move forward to have a much larger discussion um one of the pieces of the BEP that I think I'm I've received the most feedback around is that if we're going to have a really robust set of um consequences that that we are planning to to implement that we have to have the proper Staffing to do it and so I think that in the in our much more um are much deeper discussion I think we need to to link um our our BEP very directly

117to um knowing if we have staff on hand um to implement what is best practice which may actually change what the BEP looks like if we're able to put more staff in the places that we need to um in order to meet students needs completely my latest look at the research would suggest that relationships between student to student and student positive relationships are what curb Behavior the most negative behaviors and produce positive behaviors so I don't think you're incorrect in thinking that proactive Staffing is the route to try to take um in terms of improving our response and basically getting ahead of the negative behaviors that may be occurring that said we have a very wide population that comes to us um in terms of all kinds of things that are not the scholars fault

118or not the scholars responsibility or within their control and their they are communicating like um board member mujo said through their actions and that communication is loud and clear though also for other Scholars and also can result in serious physical injuries and mental injuries emotional injury so or member Pearson yeah I just wanted just to live what um Ali mentioned earlier about when children are suspended they're more likely to be suspended on a reoccurring basis and so although like I understand um the request um to ensure you know the safety of the child and the other children who may have witnessed as well as the child who may be the one who is causing harm and trying to support wraparound services we also know that part of that is the also the adult um reactions

119to sometimes with some of the children that are being suspended and how they are being seen from their forth um and how they are then treated possibly um and possibly resuspended and resuspended and resuspended and they are on this trajectory of then might showing up in our our data later in high school where they might be dropping out what not because we know that there's a progression right um so I just wanted just to live that again because I think that's a very important piece um and I guess my question around that then is just where is going to be the professional development um for all of our staff all of our teachers everyone to ensure that it's not just only you know the adults the principals that are involved in a situation but everyone

120knows that they can have the support to be able to make better decisions for our children especially around suspension as far as the supports the the number one support that we have is nvci training for our staff but only special education assistants special education teachers administrators and um designated staff members or recipients of that training um however we are working toward having all all staff take the part of the training that is not the physical part of the training um in terms of de-escalation strategies so we're working in that direction definitely um there is a lot of work that has been done historically in Madison in terms of mindfulness positive behavior supports some schools have had more success than others in terms of implementation uh I think certainly we've come a long way as a

121principal of 26 years in the district I had a very low suspension rate I do not believe in suspension for for suspension purposes however as a leader of a building when you're leading all the students and all the staff and you're responsible for the safety for everyone I think we have to re-look at um up I believe if we're going to have a policy we need to follow it so if if the policy is going to stand and we are going to be supporting parents keeping their kids out of school for cooling off period then I'm not quite sure if we're telling the truth about what we're really doing so I would love a re-look at the BEP um but we do need more resources in terms of space and time after an event occurs

122and if there isn't an emergency emergency staff that is going to be like a SWAT team that can be sent out to every school when there's a big event then um what is the staff and the principal to do in order to create safety for everyone involved yeah so I had you know one of the recommendations from the safety Wellness ad hoc was that all all staff every staff in our building should be trained in in the non-violent sorry the acronyms kill me the non-violence responses um and I that's something that I want to whole Harley's support because I think that we all should know um how to deal with situations and then also how to support each other in certain situations and ultimately that makes a safer environment for our children um and I

123guess the cost of that I won't ask that right now sorry I like that Ross but I think that that's another conversation that we need to have is then what is the cost um and then also what I hate the word Roi again acronym return on investment um but I think it is important then to look at then how that might actually um change the outcomes so thank you that's it we'll remember Castro yeah thank you I just want to lift my appreciation and respect for Dr Hoffman um and the concerns raised with you know the implementation of this um I will say that what is being spoken is true there are serious events that occur that cause harm to a learning community and we have to take those seriously we have to be serious

124about addressing the harm so all parties understand what happened and repairing the harm that occurred so people can succeed in these learning environments and communities my concern is that I think this particular tool that has been used in doing that um has beyond the event negative externalities down the line uh that not all of us can even anticipate in the moment um and so for me that's that's why I'm really having trouble with um item number 25 in this update um and I just want to amend this proposal to strike number 25 from the update um and then vote on it uh after number 25 is removed so that amendment's on the table okay Vander meal on a second are you calling for a discussion oh I apologize okay so we have a motion to

125strike item 25 as I read it I just want to make sure I understand is for secondary correct I'm sorry I mean 18. I'm sorry so do you want to rescind or correct I will correct that for 16 through 20. I apologize okay so the corrected motion is to strike revision 16 17. 18. and 19. and 20. yes so 16 through 20 um and at the elementary level I will second again Nikki vanderman okay so let me just say from what I can hear so far it does seem like some of the concerns as brought forward in this amendment amended motion is at the elementary level I I have not heard any board members at this point commenting about any of the documents brought forward for middle or High School um and so I know

126that we have an amendment on the floor and so we'll discuss that in just a moment I think one of the other Pathways forward that I'm thinking about is is there a way for us to approve the 4502 C and D which is the middle and high school um to make sure that those changes can go into effect and then at the elementary level let's just see I guess where we land so manka I don't know I know we already have um a new motion on the floor so we'll deal with that okay board member Muldrow thank board member Castro for your comments and your amendment I fully support this amendment I do think that I was deeply encouraged by Dr Hoffman's remarks and understanding and compassion um towards families and entire School communities and

127the individual student who may be suspended um in these scenarios I think that a good use of time this summer would to work out what an alternative to suspension looks like um I think we have the time going into the next school year that we don't have to kind of throw our hands up and say this didn't work this wasn't the solution so we don't have one um I think we still need to work towards a solution My Hope Is that that solution promotes uh student wellness and mental health that our interventions are developmentally appropriate and that they are dig destigmatized and not used to criminalize young people I I do think there's a relevant thing to say hey what's the difference between fifth grade and sixth grade in terms of why we do or

128don't suspend somebody but you can't arrest a nine-year-old if they shoot somebody in this state you can arrest a 10 year old so there are real you know differences um based in in in in age in terms of how we relate to students I think we should embrace best practice when it comes to student Behavior I think we should embrace developmentally appropriate approaches I don't think suspension is either um at the elementary school level or middle school level or High School level um but I I very much appreciate that we had the opportunity to have this conversation thoughtfully um as a board this evening okay board member sunken discussion around the new motion so I absolutely agree that there are I have some major concerns with the suspension of elementary school students um and the

129effectiveness of it um at the same time what I'm hearing is that teachers and staff are coming to us and saying that the current situation is unsafe and unmanageable um and I think that if we are going to remove these changes then we need to be prepared to add resources to schools in order to make sure that our staff can um function within their schools well and that our students are going to be able to be um that everybody's needs are going to be met both the needs of the students that are are having the difficulty and the needs of the students that are impacted by it and so I think [Music] um I just want us to be prepared that you know if if we're if we're saying that this isn't the route that

130we want to go and I do understand why it may not be then we have to back that up with resources thank you vice president Pearson yeah I just have just a quick point of order just around it if this motion amen this amendment was to pass um then that would just um we would be approving um the BEP adjustments without those parts however if it fails then we could go back to a possible motion of just approving a um the middle school and high school um and if we didn't approve the elementary um that would be then have to be a separate motion then um to table the elementary parts of the BEP um and then my thoughts are if that is the case then when will we be able to bring those back

131because my understanding is we're voting on it tonight so that we can be prepared as staff are getting ready for the school year next year and trainings and such like that um so my guess is when I guess my question then around it the point of order is just when will this come back if this motion fails and we were to just approve the other two sorry if that was somewhat confusing to the public I think it could come back at a at another work group maybe in August um if we wanted to but it is certainly the boards um it's your prerogative to approve the portion um with for secondary and not for elementary with with simply just um saying that you would pull 16 through 20. and vote on the other pieces because

132it's Elementary and secondary so I think it is your option to do that if we wanted to further discuss Elementary we can set a time to do that um during work group so yeah we don't have any workrooms in July um and so it would have to be a possible um special session if we were to go back I mean I'm in favor of you know really taking a deeper dive into what is is best um and so for me I'm maybe voting against it not because uh the Striking because I agree with the Striking I think that um but I also think that if we go back it gives us in staff a little more time to kind of come back with responses um speaking to Ali's points all right we have a motion

133that's been seconded and it is to strike revisions in the elementary items 16 through 20. um so I'm going to ask for all those in favor and do a roll call so um simkin hi Muldrow Castro aye Pearson name um vandermeulen aye um Mosner felt them hi hi and I will um I'm gonna abstain so that that passes the to strike the revision 16-20 in the elementary bet now let's go back to the original five one one oh thank you five five one yeah oh Holly I didn't ask for your advisory vote I apologize on that motion hi okay all right now we already have um the main motion that it was read and seconded which means um if we are approving the elementary middle and high school level policies 4502b 2C and 2D that

134that Elementary piece now includes the stricken item numbers right okay all right so all those in favor of approving the changes to the behavior education plan for the elementary middle and high school is set forth AI okay that's all those opposed name okay Talia your advisory vote hi okay thank you so that passes six one all right thank you all for your thoughtful conversation um and I would also want to thank Deb Hoffman for being up front and taking all of the the questions all right uh we are now on to action item 9.1 which is the 2023-24 preliminary budget adoption I move that the board approve and adopt the 2023-24 preliminary budget as proposed in the total amount of 647 million 669 118 dollars or 581 million one hundred and fifty four thousand and

135twenty five dollars net of interfront transfers inclusive of funds 10 general fund 27 special education fund 30 referendum debt Services 39 non-referendum Debt Service 41 Capital maintenance fund 50 Food Service fund and 80 Community Services fund was said proposed budget having been identified in the document entitled DPI preliminary budget adoption format in the June 2023-24 preliminary budget book second Maya all right um discussion I'd like to actually make an amendment okay I move that the Board of Education give custodians an additional raise of three dollars and 20 cents per hour for base wage increase for the period of July 1st 2023 through June through June 30th 2024. second Maya all right discussion yes if I made any errors please correct the reason I brought if I may yes please the reason I brought this motion

136as a spouse I wanted to give the five dollars and I still want to give the five dollars I am trying to walk a tightrope between fiscal responsibility and doing the right thing what we need is a series of talks along with this with the janitorial Union and establish a relationship so that moving forward we can include this additionally we have to include the trades being 9.75 behind is something that is a Inc unconscionable by doing three dollars and twenty cents I chose it so that way no one would be under the twenty dollars that's that I believe my colleague Ali meldrow has said brilliantly so I don't need to say it again but very simply this will account it will crack staff and retain who we have is it everything no do you deserve

137better a hundred percent would I be glad to walk a chef with you absolutely just ask and I'll do it but very very simply janitors are still our lifeblood I can't get in the building as can many of our disabled students if there's ice and snow there I can't get in if they're not shoveled off if it's not safe the immuno car provides as well as every other student in the building suffers so that's why I'm doing this and I'm going to make one personal shout out even though I know I'm not supposed to but I'm doing it anyway thank you to all those janitors including the one who ate lunch with me every single day of middle school so I didn't eat by myself I appreciate you more than you will ever know thank

138you I remember Mosner Felton and Then followed by vice president Pearson thanks um I support board member Bender mulan's Amendment for the same reason I support the preliminary budget it amends um I think it's exciting to to be able to support our staff and I think that it meets my values of believing what working people have to say about their working conditions and their jobs um I think listening to what our staff are telling us really clearly that they need is The Right Move um and I think that it's it's a super exciting investment and that it's still only one piece of the puzzle so I look forward to like um interim superintendent Vista said um getting started on a critical year to be able to um align ourselves rightly for the future vice president

139Pearson and then better member sunken yeah I just have um a quick question um I understand that with the amendment um we would have to adjust our our voting emotions um and possibly because of just adding to the budget book um I guess the two accountants that are here um what what adjustments will need to be made um for us to be able to approve the budget tonight with this amendment good evening everyone foreign I can't tell okay I'm assuming it's on um good evening everybody uh to your question remember Pearson I do have some language prepared however the way Nikki phrased her Amendment we can proceed with the original motion as amended and simply indicate the inclusion of what I heard was 3.20 cents for custodial hourly rates at that point we can continue

140approval of the original motion and move forward I could just speak a little later I don't know can I hear you sorry so yeah we can continue as the amendment was proposed by board member Van Der muellen if we're looking for a dollar impact for that the impact of about three dollars and 20 cents is 1.722 million dollars across the funds 10 50 and 80. thank you and then one other question um and it goes around just like over time because I know that right now we are very short staffed with custodians um and so what would be the overtime impact just based off of just what we've seen historically in the past years uh or a year or so um with overtime for custodians that we are staffed at right now So based on

141the vacancies we've seen that this year for custodians it's true we've had one of our highest years of overtime to date um the fill rate has certainly had an impact on what custodial over time has been authorized and warranted this year in a typical year for us it's about six to seven hundred thousand dollars but we have easily crossed a million dollars for this year of overtime already so the increase will just be more just be more significant around just over time possibly just like yeah actually we were fully staffed that would be the goal is to minimize the amount of overtime in future years I thank you Ross please stay um I have a couple of questions for you first I want to put some data in the room um the first is what

142is the annual we can't hear you I'm sorry what is this better okay um what is the annual cost to the district or cost of benefits for full-time employees on average for janitors do you have that number I don't have that number segregated by head but I know that our health care is approximately 65 million a year say that again 65 million a year for Health Care oh I wonder I'm wondering if so when I think about my salary I think about the money I take home and then I think about the value of my benefits do you have a number that gives us an average or how much benefits are worth for for the custodial units the custodial units give me a minute for Health Care approximately 14 600 on average and um the

143cost of other benefits or wrs and other payroll related benefits are approximately 8.1 eighty one hundred dollars life insurance annually depending on your salary it varies quite a bit but premium costs about 150 dollars dental costs per year 760. and long-term disability about 390. okay so that was twenty three thousand four hundred dollars um I'm sorry can everyone please speak up into the mic I'm really having a hard time thank you those are too far away yeah so so the total cost of benefits is about twenty twenty three thousand four hundred dollars that's the shared with us um is it correct that we right now have a starting wage of twenty dollars and 89 cents for our custodians once they finish their um pass the trainee pass their training period And so with the eight

144percent that becomes twenty two dollars and fifty six cents an hour is my calculation which is also forty six thousand eight hundred and forty one dollars a year as a starting after after the initial period what's that called again the the training period is over um I also saw that we have on average once we add that eight percent to the average salary for custodians we're looking at a salary of 28.61 cents an hour um which is four dollars and 89 cents more than any other school district um is currently paying using the data that you provided in the March 15th memo um and that averages to an annual um full-time amount of 59 507 a year um and then for the highest salary range what I've calculated is that we have with the eight

145percent that our highest salaried custodians will be making 37.49 an hour which is seventy seven thousand nine hundred and seventy two dollars a year um I went ahead and I looked yesterday I Googled what custodian um custodians are being offered in the city of Madison or around the city of Madison and this is what I found I found that at UW-Madison um custodians are starting at 17 an hour and that is a difference of five dollars and 56 cents an hour more that we would be paying at the Overture Center they're starting at 19.90 and 68 cents an hour which is a difference of two dollars and 88 cents an hour more that we pay for the city of Madison they're starting at 20.92 cents an hour we're currently paying a dollar and 64 cents

146an hour more um for Madison College they're paying between 1731 and 1904 an hour we pay the range that we pay more than that is between 3.52 cents an hour and five dollars and 25 cents an hour at the state of Wisconsin custodians are currently starting at 15.29 an hour we are offering 7.27 more an hour um and that was one of the listings for the state of Wisconsin at another listing in the Capitol Building they're offering 14.33 an hour and we are offering eight dollars and 23 cents an hour more and I bring this forward to say that I am really proud of us for passing the eight percent salary increase for all of our staff and I feel really comfortable that we are competitive with the salaries that we are offering right now

147for custodial staff I am less comfortable with the salaries that we're offering for our folks in the trades and I think that that needs to be discussed after we get our salary study completed so that we can make sure that they're in a a competitive place thank you I think board member Muldrow was you want to go next okay I have good questions that are specific to you Ross and specific to HR if HR is able to to speak to how salary increase impacts retention um and our ability to attract staff I want to start from summer school so early on we passed forty dollars an hour um as our rate for summer school Educators it's uh no secret that last year we had such a hard time attracting summer school Educators that we actually

148had to let hundreds of children know um that they were no longer invited to summer school so I guess I want to ask how did the 40 an hour increase or the the Forty dollar an hour rate um help us this summer in terms of attracting staff to summer school did we see a difference in folks um being interested in those positions or are we similarly situated to last year um in which we had so few Educators willing to participate in summer school that we were telling students that they were no longer invited to participate so I can't speak specifically to retention but I can't I do want to remind for the discussion around summer school that we did increase the rate of pay for teachers to 40 an hour based on the fact that

149we knew we were running a smaller summer school session and that we would be capping our student enrollment to ensure that we could fit the 40 an hour threshold within our current summer school budget in terms of other areas of what interest was generated based on 40 an hour or what retention strategies I'd have to see if there's a member of HR willing to speak on that tonight or able to speak on that tonight thank you so much I'd love to hear from HR in terms of how we're doing for Staffing summer school um full disclosure I'm not HR uh Caroline Racine Gillis and I've been managing summer school since it started our current director is out on leave due to a medical um issue so um we are at 100 staffed um which is

150amazing and we have such high quality teachers I want to thank you again for passing the forty dollars an hour because it really seemed to help and summer school is um really going great and again fully staffed and we are at the projections of our student enrollment which is much different from last year if you remember so thank you so much for speaking to that I I want to emphasize the importance of of compensation and attracting and retaining people to roles um and I want to acknowledge that the board has done our best to address that within this budget um through the eight percent increase um and our our investment in Educators and our commitment to you know providing our our Educators with health insurance um I appreciate board member Simpkins comments I think you

151you gave a really thorough analysis in some ways of what is the difference between the custodial group and the groups that we saw come forward last year um last year we heard folks talking about working for the district for 20 years and making 16 an hour as scas um the the the the extreme uh the extreme poverty that people were combating to try to work with our students with disabilities um was something that I'm very proud we were able to reconcile and also something that for me started in 2017 um when scas came forward and said we should be making at least 15 an hour um which I believe should be minimum wage um and and I don't think anybody in our district should be making minimum wage or a poverty wage but I think

152talking about what it means for our custodial staff to make a living wage um is a a an important and thorough conversation I agree complete with the completely with the folks who came forward tonight and said hey throughout the pandemic folks thanked us for our work um demanded that we be present um asked us to do things we had never done before called us essential um and we feel like that that has not been acknowledged or prioritized in this budget um I appreciate your Amendment board member Vander Millen and I think that amendment in combination with the eight percent um gives us an incredibly competitive Dev wage I do think we need to acknowledge the trades in our conversations moving forward and I also think we need to have a real conversation about what it

153looks like to reconcile the salary schedule um across the board so I I'm curious what what other board members think on the three dollars and 20 cents adding up to five dollars I do want to remind folks who did not necessarily watch the series of meetings we had last year that we never voted on five dollars we voted first on three percent um and we only actually ended up voting to get two five dollars um when we were made aware of additional resources that we were going to receive from the state which is not the case in this moment so I think it's important to highlight the differences between this year's conversation and last year's conversation thank you as to what board member Muldrow and others have alluded to I am interested in having a

154conversation going into future budget years uh involving a comprehensive compensation plan I think this has been a cumbersome process to go unit by unit that has inspired some um some feelings and so after this I'm interested in having a comprehensive Compensation Plan for all units any other discussion um I look Ali and my board I look forward very simply and Michelle is our president I look forward to working with all of you on the on this discussion I think we do need a compensation study I think we do need to discuss the trades absolutely but tonight I think is a good start all right y'all uh we have a motion to give custodians an additional raise of 3.20 cents per hour for base wage um we've already discussed so I'm going to go ahead and

155call the question so all those in favor of I'll do that later um all those in favor of giving the custodians an additional raise of 3.20 cents per hour I'll do roll call or remember some again me all right thank you I remember Muldrow aye board member Castro yes or member Nichols yes or member Pearson aye or remember vandermealen aye uh board member Mosner faltham aye all right that pass oh I'm sorry Talia your advisory vote hi all right that passes I said yes or I oh that passes six one thank you all right now let me go back to our main motion and I just want to make sure I understood this Ross you said the main motion as already read and seconded can be voted on okay um all those in favor of

156approving and adopting the 2023-24 preliminary budget as proposed uh say I all right Talia your advisory vote aye thank you that passes seven zero okay can you um okay we have one more motion related to the budget okay I move that the board approved the preliminary tax levies by fund with the said Levy approvals being won for the purpose of enabling short-term borrowing by the district during the 2023-24 fiscal year and two subject to modifications by the board prior to November 1st 2023 in conjunction with certifying the final Levy amounts based upon the then current status of the 2023-24 School District budget considering such alterations and amendments as may be made prior to Levy certification now I'm going to read the fund amounts correct as part of the motion okay fun 10 general fund 337

157million 486 955 fund 38 non-referendum zero fund 30 referendum approved Debt Service 19 million nine hundred and forty three thousand and ninety two dollars fund 41 Capital expansion fund five million dollars fund 80 Community Services funds 16 million seven hundred and fifty three thousand and sixty eight dollars for a total tax levy of which will be updated in October for final approval of 379 million one hundred and eighty three thousand one hundred and fifteen dollars second Maya all right any discussion all right hearing none all those in favor of approving the preliminary tax levies say aye Talia I see your hand thank you that's an advisory vote Yes for you all right that passes seven zero all right we are now moving on to our consent items a move that the Board of Education adopt

158and approve all of the Motions set forth in section 10 of the electronic agenda prepared for the June 26 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 hereby subject to any Express separations that have been made by any member of the School Board second all right thank you any um separations what what okay um does anybody know okay hearing none all those in favor of adopting and approving all motions set forth oh okay one separation then okay we are gonna go to 10.59 I move that the Board of Education except all grants and donations oh okay sorry about that let me go back all those in favor of approving and

159adopting all of the other consent agenda item motions has set forth um say I hey all right um and Talia your advisory vote on that I think I saw hands aye okay perfect okay so all other items have passed thank you for that now to 10.59 I move that the Board of Education accepts all grants and donations under ten thousand dollars received by the mmsd since May 22nd 2023 and the total amount of sixty three thousand eight hundred ninety dollars and ninety cents all right yes board member maldro so I asked that we pulled this motion because I think that it's important to acknowledge the people who support and give to our district and to thank the the folks who contribute to this District through donations um so I wanted to take a moment and

160recognize the 63 890.90 that have come to our district um via the generosity of people who support our Public Schools thank you all for giving to mmsd um and with that I hope we approve this motion all right all those in favor of approving I all right Talia uh can I see your hand up advisory vote seven zero thank you um board member Mosner feltham is your hands up for something oh okay all right we're gonna move into other items of business all right we have some ratifications to do um I move that the Board of Education ratified the Madison teachers Inc educational support employees Association collective bargaining agreement for base wage increase for the period of July 1 2023 through June 30th 2024. second any discussion all right all those in favor aye all

161right I see talia's hand up 7-0 next I move that the Board of Education ratified that the Madison teachers Inc teacher unit collective bargaining agreement for base wage increase for the period of July 1 2023 through June 30th 2024. second any discussion okay all those in favor aye all right and I saw talia's hand up as well 7-0 uh vice president Pearson is your hand up okay all right next I move that the Board of Education ratified the Madison teachers Inc substitute teachers unit collective bargaining agreement for base wage increase for the period of July 1 2023 through June 30th 2024. second any discussion all right all those in favor aye all right thank you that's 7-0 and talia's hand was up passes all right we're now going to go through other reports to the

162board um I will report out for city of Madison education committee we have we held a meeting on June 14th we had an incredible presentation from the County Youth and governance program who had done some really great research on connecting students who are homeless um with also looking at the importance of Housing and other resources we um discussed a draft policy um for our three bodies regarding driver's education and then began to talk about potential budget recommendations um the city of Madison also asked us to review the official code of ethics for elected and appointed officials that concludes our report student Senate Talia do you um do you feel prepared to give the student Senate report it's in bordocks under 13.2 sure um because of student Senate there was an election that occurred on the

163past few weeks of school um it ended in a tie for the board representative position so there was our rerun election um reboots recounted uh the student Senate President position was awarded to Megan thank you so much uh Madison School and community recreation advisory committee I was so glad to join the mscr advisory committee for my first meeting repping the Board of Ed there uh we had a presentation from Cheryl Dietrich who talked about the mscr community programs um we went over uh the or we heard reports from the executive director Janet Dyer that mscr West opened just this past week um by all accounts it looks amazing and um has 17 classes coming in from their temporary locations and there will be open houses an open house on August 9th from 5 to 7

16400 PM with sample classes tours refreshments and a chance to look at the fall program guide um we heard a report that new mscr custodial staff have begun or or begin today and so that's exciting too uh also about the July 19th friends of mscr golf outing is there's still space available for those who would like to support mscr um at the gulf fundraiser um we took a look at the committee goals including staff and volunteer recognition which we'll be working on going forward next time we meet in September we will have a presentation from the mscr sports Aquatics and adapted programs as well as elect a new chair for the committee thank you very much uh policy committee on the first week of June um to discuss our procedures of um just how we

165will have our ways working but also how um the board would be able to um request certain policies um to be reviewed and also create a calendar of policies because of the transition that has been happening in the month of June we haven't been able to um solidify the calendar as of yet um however now that the transitions have happened um within the first couple weeks of July we have planned um consolidating all of the different policies where we're at with the policies who's going to um like where in um the department that Devil's policies lie um and create a plan for it um so our hope is to have that work done in July um to be able to bring back to the board board governance committee do you want to take that board

166member simpkin yes I do um the board governance committee met um I'll say we the last time we met we presented a summary of responses to our request for quotes at the board retreat that was last Friday June 23rd our next steps are to follow up with one of the vendors um and ask the questions that came about during the retreat thank you all right we're moving on to other business um regarding summer 2023 Board of Education meeting schedule um I move that the Board of Education approved the following dates for summer 2023 meetings July 24th will be our regular Board of Education meeting July 28th a special Board of Education Retreat August 7th instruction work group August 7th also a special meeting in Open Session August 14th operations work group and August 28th regular

167Board of Education meeting second and he just thank you any discussion on that schedule all right sure okay okay all those in favor of approving the summer schedule I okay thank you Talia all right that passes 7-0 all right now we have dates for our regular meeting dates for the 2023-24 school year I move that the Board of Education approved the following Mondays for holding the regular board meetings at 6 PM over the 2023-24 school year July 24th August 28th September 26 October 30th November 20th December 18th January 29th February 26 March 18th April 15th May 20th June 24th second Maya right so um we want to avoid any of the board meetings following following during Jewish observed holidays um does anybody know at this time I mean we've had to modify in the past

168if if they have okay so um board member I don't know whose hand was up first okay board member Pearson then Mosner felt them I was just gonna say I think we need to um be mindful that not to only just include uh Jewish holidays but all holidays including Islamic holidays and other holidays that might fall into our calendar okay mmsd has an approved kind of religious holiday observance policy um which does outline which servances are followed and observed so I'm is there board member simkin board member oh I'm sorry board member Mosner yeah I was just um just gonna say that the September 26th meeting is on a Tuesday to make room for Yom Kippur which suggests to me that the person who put this calendar together took into account the mmsd religious observances

169holiday without having checked every single one I'm saying this seems fine to me I remember sunken and then board member module I'm sorry Ollie I think Laura what's up so just because we we had that trouble several times in the last year I kind of want to double check but I don't know that I have time um to do that right now so I'm just a little weary about it because we seem to regularly schedule on Jewish holidays remember Mojo So I'm comfortable voting at this time and adjusting if folks research these dates and find that they are um interfering with anybody's Faith um or ability to observe a sacred or holy day within their within the context of their faith um the other thing I want to acknowledge is that we shifted this year

170um and I think we shifted in March which means I'm like we may have shifted on to a holiday um to avoid spring break and so I guess I'm curious if the March 18th meeting is designed to um alleviate folks working on during spring break so does that is that the purpose of having it on the 18th do you know yes I believe so as spring break is March 25th that week okay thanks so much Jesse I just want to say Jesse you did you did say that these dates you verified that they don't um they don't land on holidays on religious holidays yes based on the religious holiday calendar on the district's website but if there's one that's not on there I can't verify that remember so do you also we've included June teeth

171correct good falls on a Monday and I don't know okay yeah that would be a Wednesday I wanted to make sure and include absolutely everything Nikki I think as we look at our calendar for next year with Juneteenth that would be a summer school implication so we can have that on our radar as we look at the next year's summer school we started all right I hope all questions have been addressed all those in favor of approving the Monday schedule for regular Board of Education meetings in 2023-24 I all right thank you and thank you Talia that passes 7-0 we have no old or new business adjourn oh that was so fast all those in favor of adjourning our regular June Board of Education meetings AI all right congratulations y'all