001foreign come to the highest please raise your right hand and repeat after me I Laura simpkin aye Laura Simpkins haven't been elected in the office of school board member having been elected to the office of school board member for the Madison metropolitan school district a firm that I will support the Constitution of the United States affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Wisconsin institution of the state of Wisconsin and will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of said office to the best of my abilities congratulations thank you board member Vander Millen and welcome to the board board member Michelle Nichols and board member Laura simpkin I'm gonna read the summary of written registration submitted there is one in support of relocating Madison School and
002Community Recreation mscr to the new West Town Way site but opposed to moving the specialized academic academics for individuals learning sale program to this new location one in support of open up reading materials and professional development but that serving dual language immersion students is a complex issue one in support of including money specifically for achieving the mmsd clean energy goal we have four speakers joining us by Zoom this evening I'm Barb Osborne will bring them forward to give public comment foreign speaker I have is Diane kopon the next speaker we have is Shannon Weiland we have another speaker signed up Bailey Weiland hi everyone can you all hear me you can all right hi my name is Bailey Wheeland um and I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to speak at tonight's meeting um and
003advocate for the continuation of the West Latin program um I really believe that this program has had the most significant influence on my future out of all my courses at West and um I'm extremely just grateful for the opportunity that I had to um to be a part of it um currently I'm a senior at West and I was a student of Ms bayus my sophomore and Junior years and I took Latin four and five under her instruction um these two classes had just an extremely significant impact I believe on my educational growth and my passion for the language um while I was while I was under her instruction I feel that both inside and outside of the class she just provided constant resources to to help me gain a level of just interest and
004knowledge that I just had never expected to achieve for a subject in high school um especially because I I feel like I kind of came in to the classes without um like any passion for a specific subject even throughout the pandemic while of course school was online she continued to connect with all her students and I always felt that she just showed very genuine interest in my personal development and gave a lot of personal attention to each student and within the classroom she created an environment that truly just encouraged a genuine interest for learning for the sake of learning instead of um I feel like just getting the job done and I always just really appreciated the the very specific care and instruction that she provided each and every student even within large classes where
005I'm sure that that was more difficult um and through her guidance during the pandemic I was able to enroll in two classes this year at UW Madison which were Latin 301 and Latin 539 which I'm currently finishing up this semester and I am currently planning on majoring in the classics at uchicago next year which I'm very excited about um yeah and thank you again for the opportunity to speak today and I definitely have hope that this program will continue next year so that other students discontinued to have the opportunity to benefit from her instruction our next speaker is Fabian McMurray hello can you hear me excellent okay my name is Fabian McMurray I am currently the building custodian two at Spring Harbor Middle School and I'm also the secretary for local 60 representing custodial maintenance
006and Food Service I'm here tonight to ask you to include all school-based staff in the monthly bonus pay by leaving out some of our lowest wage earners it has become an equity issue for the more vulnerable us hourly workers are already owed back wages from the Kronos outage that just that started December 11th into in 2021 we're not paying us uh the administration violated uh Wisconsin State Statute that mandates employers pay for all wages within 30 days many of us are still owed earnings from overtime shift differential and out of class pay not to mention we are being denied holiday premium for hours worked on Christmas and New Year's Day this violates section 61 and 6 6 of the handbook there were co-workers who left their kids to come in to do building checks on
007Christmas morning and they should be compensated more as we collectively agreed on there are co-workers whose checks were smaller going into the holiday season and that created real hardships for them some co-workers who counted on overtime took second jobs to cover lost income and this is all while we are experiencing the same staff shortages everywhere in the district overtime is up covering for lead workers is up my co-workers have felt underappreciated from the unequal treatment and I urge you to reconsider the bonus pay thank you foreign I think there is one more speaker who's trying to get in um I'm just going to give them another minute but we can continue on with the agenda until they're successful so I'm going to have our in person our first in-person speaker for public comment in two
008years come up Ray Mendes can you hear me yes is this better yes oh good evening board members my name is Ray so don't point it directly up okay is that better I think so let's try it I kind of like that sound though good evening again my name is Ray Mendez I'm here as a representative of Madcon Mama's Disability Advocates some of you may know that matter and Mama's is a peer-to-peer support group for families who have students with disabilities we help them navigate obstacles that most people have no idea exist but that's again and we serve as a support system because we share life experiences you know before I had a kid who was disabled it was a different life have a different life now I think that leads to think in people
009understand that the day we are addressing a change to the program called sail west sales stands for student achievement through individualized learning and West refers to West High School it's a program that's highly beneficial to students with disabilities sales helps students with disabilities with individualized instruction and their rights to the least restrictive environment while they are currently located within their home school this program has an immeasurably positive impact on its participants right now the location of sail west is in the Hoyt building that's within five minutes walking distance to the West tonight you have a proposal on your agenda that seeks to change the location that these vital resources offer without engaging the school board teachers and families it would affect while it ideally should be within the West High School campus there's now a
010proposal to move it to the east side of Madison which is a 15-minute drive away and that's without traffic this is unacceptable because that move would infringe on the rights of these students with free and free and appropriate public education sequestering the students with disabilities in a building so far from their Community is segregation you cannot endanger how it fought for disability rights without a transparent discussion if you feel the same you have to agree that the future regarding sail west has a much more appropriate solution than one that's being proposed on today's agenda thanks thank you Barb was the other person able to get in they were our next speaker is Diane Copan foreign [Music] thank you sorry for the technical difficulties dear Board of Ed and Dr Jenkins thank you for granting me
011the opportunity to share my truth I am one voice out of the many school-based lead secretaries as I am joined by multiple secretaries here we represent 117 combined years in the district well my truth is specific to my situation many of us have common shared experiences I am extremely passionate about taking care of my school community we are the heart and soul of our school each and every student parent family and staff member are important to us we exhibit Integrity have upstanding character traits and worth at worth worth ethic with honesty dependability and loyalty not only to the district but mostly to the families we are serving their family to us each and every one of them during coved I personally organized nine material pickup days for our students I alone loaded 384 grocery bags
012of supplies each grades with different materials done nine times over any family that didn't pick up the bag had theirs hand delivered to their house to ensure that all students were kept on track during virtual learning not only were the nurses working endlessly to track the health of the students as attendance takers for the schools we were tracking everyone as well we were the ear to the community we often called to check in with families regarding their status speaking with some and most at links through this we further recognize the necessity for other supplies and responded to that as well along with this we when we originally wanted to lock down we organized a food drive at our school and delivered to grocery delivered groceries to anyone in need in an effort to minimize the
013pressure of home life often these groceries were purchased by us or staff as our students cannot Thrive if our basic needs are not met in returning to school after the surge of covid the issues have not gone away they have just shifted now we have more Behavior calls than ever we may be in the office but we're often assisting our student friends who aren't coping well there are only so many people in the school and more often than not we fulfill this as well even though our covet cases may be dropping we are still partnering every day with the nurse by going through our absentee list confirming students each day those on the screener and who may need contact as well since the beginning of the pandemic we continue to rise pivot flex update maneuver
014always keeping students and families in our hearts we realize that these last two years have been difficult for everyone and that many employees have been challenged in ways no one could anticipate the school-based secretaries that are one of those groups yet we show up each and every day ready to do whatever it takes to serve our students families and fellow staffs beside because of this we are perplexed as to why our particular group was denied the opportunity to earn the bonus pay that our colleagues have we as the school secretaries are asking that we be reconsidered so our bonuses would be retroactive and aligned with the nurses and I thank you for listening thank you I move that the Board of Education approved the minutes from the regular board meeting dated July 26 2021 second
015Nama your advisory vote hi all those in favor motion carry 7-0 we move into the board president's announcements celebrating students and staff congratulations to six mmsd recipients of the 2022 herb coal Foundation Award please join me in celebrating Hawthorne Community Schools Brenda Calis recipient of the teacher fellow award which celebrates Educators who inspire a love of learning in their students Cherokee heights middle school principal undo ebb who is being recognized with the leadership award for setting high standards for instruction achievement and character and to East Senior Samuel can and Wes senior Danica washer and mcconka chin Chino scenario and Soren calderano calderado or demonstrating excellence in academics and achievement we would also like to recognize Alice serverson a science teacher at Hugo Elementary School who is one of the four finalists from Wisconsin for the
0162022 Presidential Award of Excellence in Mathematics and Science teaching and finally kudos to James C Wright Middle School and Memorial High School for winning the 100 black men 2022 African-American history Bowl challenge foreign celebrating our schools April is school library month and we would like to shine a light on our library and media technology Specialists and extend our sincere gratitude to for all they do including selecting and sharing books that represent all students helping students grow their love of reading creating warm and welcoming spaces for everyone maintaining access to online resources and devices for Learning and so much more thank you foreign volunteer month and we are so grateful for the outpouring of support our schools received when we put out our call for volunteers earlier this year our volunteers whether serving as a support
017person in a classroom providing clerical support in an office supporting our food service worker workers or being an extra pair of eyes and ears and helping hands at recess or in the Halls are in are an invaluable asset to our community thank you for being here to support our students and staff foreign that is it for my announcements we're moving into the superintendance announcements and reports I'd like to say thank you there jerem older and uh to all of our support members thank you too for this opportunity to speak to a budget book this evening and before I do that I would just like to welcome again a new board member simpkin to the table and also board member Nicholas to the table thank you so much for being here okay and this is a
018wonderful opportunity for me a superintendent and I just think coming here August 20th that seemed like a long time ago but really really wasn't uh and here we are we're talking about the things that most we treasure in this particular budget books and I'm going to get right to my comments but I want to say thank you for wrestling with us and we're going to continue to wrestle together to make sure that we can live out all of our expectations here students are always at the center of our decisions we make for our district in mmsd we are committed to co-creating a budget which prioritizes accelerating learning for all students while addressing disparities and attending to the social emotional needs of our Scholars and staff thanks to our student-centered approach mmsd continues to be a
019leader in high school completion rates post-secondary enrollment staff for retention and community support and engagement however despite our many successes our district must continue to work to ensure all of our learning spaces are places where all students staff can thrive we are co-creating to make sure this happens for everyone particularly students and staff from historically excluded groups our budget makes this a priority to Investments such as a full day forecast a low class size dual language immersion College access programs this commitment to our Scholars families staff has also been made possible by a historic referendum past our community in 2020. yes this was significant at mmsd we also know the success of our students is based in large part of our world-class Educators and Personnel who make our schools what they are they're really special
020and have always been special in Madison some of these shining examples are like Marianne mile the 2021 school counselor of the year Dr Evan in 2022 herbco principal leadership award Elita lacrosse Teacher of the Year from Madison Area Music Association Jeremy slim the 2021 Wisconsin Athletic Directors Association presidents award you have principles like Jackie Smith you have teachers in our buildings like Miss Christine you have custodians in our buildings that make our schools what they are today we're committed to recruiting a diverse group of staff so our schools look like our communities yes we also continue to provide competitive wages and benefits in order to ensure we can attract and retain top Educators that's our aim this is essential to our students being able to graduate ready for college careers and the community which we
021hold true to our heart while we now have an opportunity to invest a significant amount of one-time funding innovatively across mmsd we still face ongoing challenges which must be addressed the district is at a unique moment in time as we continue to wrestle with a global Health pandemic which has exacerbated the inequities in our public schools and Society this is being felt all over we also continue to face the effects of racial Injustice Global Supply Chain disruptions and staff insurances all these things being felt globally despite the challenges faced by public schools the Wisconsin state legislators continue to abdicate its responsibility to do the bare minimum of our Public Schools forcing districts across the badger state to make creative so-called Creator but tough decisions over what's right and what's right we're having to make decisions
022over what's right and what's right for our children and strategic investments in order to keep prioritizing programs such as social emotional and mental health supports as well as summer acceleration these are the very things that we need for our children to come out of this pandemic budgets are a reflection of our values and priorities the 2223 preliminary budget book reflects what is at the heart of mmsd tough work but we're getting through it and we're going to do it together this year's budget represents our commitment to accelerated learning while providing every scholar who walks through our doors each day a positive safe inclusive learning environment where they all can Thrive some of these strategic Investments include the continuation of priority programs like four Day 4k early literacy and Beyond and Middle School Daily World Language
023also pushing in on the curricular work that we need to do for our indigenous students empowering School communities through family student voice engagement included diversity equity and inclusion efforts that's who we are as mmsd we're going to continue to invest in our people looking at our staff looking at our students looking at our community we're going to continue to invest in library technology and media Specialists Target strategy tiered mental health supports include an addition of social workers to lower the student to social worker ratio the social workers have definitely been the ones along with our nurses and many other staff to help carry us through this pandemic programs which provide personalized opportunities that lead to post-secondary success such as Avid expansion Credit Recovery office of Youth re-engagement Madison promised Early College STEM Academy as well
024as programs to support homeless and highly mobile youth that's a part of our Equity strategy we want to take care of everyone we want to be about restorative justice safety and wellness as we make our way through this ending of this year and into next year we're making investments into Arts including this summer summer arts academy this is big for us because we do know that co-curricular activities are to a strategy to assist with social emotional mental health well-being and making a well-rounded scholar as we embark on this year's budget we will not be making funding decisions in a vacuum we remain committed to budgetary process which is co-created transparent and collaborative as we look to make investments in all students with an equity lens from pre-k to post-graduation we are in this together and
025we will be encouraging all staff students families Community Partners and everyone else to join us in this process to creating a world-class investment in our students and I just wanted to say thank you and to the public we ask you to please weigh in on our budgetary process thank you thank you so much Dr Jenkins moving right along reports and items that proceeded through the instruction work group held on April 4th 2022 board member Pearson thank you so during our instructional work group meeting um on April 4th we received an update on the K-5 literacy and bi-literacy core instructional materials adoptions in the process we had further discussion um tonight we will hear and discuss the recommendation put forward by superintendent Dr Jenkins and make that adoption decision um so first I just wanted just
026to say thank you to the many folks that were on that selection committee um and all the time that went into the evaluation of the different materials um from the beginning of the RFP we got six um six um I guess proposals and they took the time to put them down into two recommendations and so tonight we will hear more about the recommendation that is being put forward so you want me to say permission do you want me to speak a motion hmm yeah okay oh yeah that's fine remember Pearson yeah sorry I'm in the wrong screen I'm breaking up foreign okay so then we also um received the I guess I'm not sure where I'm at where I'm at okay so we also received the wellness check um and we got the updates as
027far as it relates to covid and the cases and the direction that we are moving um with uh with Coven in schools um but then also to um we have our proposed updates uh for the May 9th instructional work group meeting we will continue to have our Wellness updates and also have a briefing of the policy for six one zero in the BP we also will continue having our academic updates and then also have the update of the at-risk plan um then it will move into our summer sessions so thank you board member Pearson reports on items that proceeded through the operation work group held on April 11th 2022 board member Gomez Schmidt foreign at the April operations work group meeting we continued our discussions of the 2223 school year budget leading up to the
028public release of the budget book today that Dr Jenkins highlighted in his report um we discussed the overview of the 2022-23 Excellence and Equity project list including an executive summary provided to the board um the list of projects for the 2022-23 um excellence and Equity projects uses primarily one-time funding as a surge strategy for services we also discussed the debt resolutions coming before the board for tonight's um April 25th regular meeting we will be acting on the sale of bonds for the second portion of the 2022-23 referendum proceeds we originally planned to bring this resolution in May but moved it forward to the April regular meeting tonight due to concerns about increasing interest rates we will also be acting on the defeasants or prepaying of the fund 38 non-referendum debt as part of our budget
029balancing strategy for 2022-23 um this action will free Up 3 million in Revenue limit Authority by using one-time funding to prepay this issue and finally we'll be acting on the defeasants or pre-paying of of existing fund 39 referendum debt related to the 2015 referendum and the Wilson Construction refinancing prepaying these issues will reduce some of the future tax burden on our taxpayers by using one-time funding um also in the operations work group meeting we received an update on the employee handbook discussions from our executive director of Human Resources Tracy Carradine and that will be an ongoing discussion um we acknowledged and celebrated the service of our departing board members I'm Chris perusi and Ananda Morelli and I just wanted to take a few moments given that we are accepting the the budget book tonight um
030to just sort of highlight our conversation regarding the budget book and also with our two new board members joining us um the main themes of this budget um is a significant focus on one-time funding versus operations resources from the state um the state binding budget as Dr Dinkins mentioned for 2021-23 contain no inflationary increase in the revenue limit at the same time we are experiencing significant inflation across the country the district is forced to plan to utilize one-time funding from our Esser Awards while working to ensure that we don't create new recurring costs at the same time attached to the materials tonight and again on our website is our draft preliminary budget for 2022-23 and we will vote on this budget at the end of June and implement it on July 1st of 2022. we
031welcome Community feedback in this draft budget and this is very important to the board and to the administration you can provide feedback by going to the mmsd website and clicking on the budget link or emailing written comments to the board at board madison.k12.wisconsin.us or by providing public comments at upcoming board meetings we will continue to work on the budget for the next two months leading up to our June 2022 board vote um our next operations work group meeting will be held on Monday May 16th and I'm guessing we will take a deeper dive into the budget um and um further discuss that um as a note to board members I'm Chris Carusi mentioned at the operations recruit meeting that a budget amendment process um and wanted to briefly mention that again um Ross McPherson will
032um he's creating an amendment proposal sheet that he will briefly explain um it's important to note that what we see before us tonight is a balanced budget and that means that any amendments to the budget that board members might propose would also have to find a balance or funding source somewhere in order to keep us at a balanced budget um with that I'd like to have Ross join us um thank you for joining us um to give us a few more details on the budget book thank you Chris thank you board members good to see you all in person been a while uh just a few more quick notes on the budget book tonight uh this budget process Incorporated significant shifts in the state budget for 2123 that we've been discussing with the board for
033the last year in the budget book we prepared for tonight there are several key factors that guided our budget development a zero dollar per pupil Revenue limit adjustment for both for the entirety of the 2123 biennium a zero dollar per pupil categorical eight adjustment which is now a frozen allocation our declining enrollment impacts experienced after the start of the Copa 19 pandemic continue to have a long lasting impact on our Revenue limit Authority we anticipate enrollment Trends to continue to fall in the three-year average going forward an increased Reliance on non-recurring exemptions and the revenue limit formula will continue to affect our Revenue limit Authority until enrollment stabilizes the future state budget provides more recurring Authority for districts to Leverage our budget development has stuck to our goals in guiding principles we've been using for
034the past several years as part of this process the district has moved to preserve Services as much as possible for 22-23 while using existing and one-time sources of revenue this includes increased investments in full Day 4k library media and Technology Services social workers Avid teachers and credit recovery in this budget the district has created a plan for 2223 that includes 39.8 million dollars of one-time Esser funding these resources are being used to address major areas of the Federal grant program including addressing learning loss of our students during the covid-19 pandemic investments in mental health services and supports educational technology and ongoing covid-19 mitigation we fully acknowledge that since these are one-time sources of funding we must plan for these services to conclude at the end of the grant period we will not be able to
035make any determinations about future commitments in these areas without knowledge of future State budgets this budget also anticipates a test for 10 reduction in state aid payments to mmsd since the pandemic began payment of state aid has been extremely volatile due in large part to inconsistent educational spending Statewide we will continue to monitor the impact of State spending on our final eight amount all the way to our October budget vote that being said this budget includes a tax Liberty increase of 2.22 for all funds and a projected mill rate decrease of 20 cents to 10 and 20 cents it should be noted that most of this tax increase is attributed to estimated Aid loss not increased Revenue limit Authority if our Aid position improves our tax impact will be reduced aside from one-time spending the
036mmsd revenue limit is only increasing 3.4 million dollars a less than one percent increase in resources this includes required spending on voucher programming of which mmsd does not control following tonight's meeting we welcome all feedback on our website accessed directly at mmsd.org forward slash budget we'll be working closely with the Board of Education throughout May and June prior to our June budget vote to address any questions or concerns about this proposed budget we will also begin our amendment process on May 1st throughout the month of May we'll be working with the board members on identifying any questions or concerns in the 2223 proposed budget this time frame will allow the business office to analyze any proposed amendments prior to the June operations work group meeting we'll be sending out additional guidance to board members on
037the amendment process in the coming days thank you Ross thank you board member Gomez Schmidt we're moving on to action items that proceeded through the instruction work group held on April 4th I moved at the Board of Education I'm sorry I move that the Board of Education approved the expenditure in the amount of four million six hundred sixty three thousand six hundred fifty Seven dollars and sixty cents for the instructional materials from the C and I Esser c l r m budget one million five hundred ninety nine thousand six hundred twelve for benchmarks and three million five hundred thousand thirty five hundred thirty two thousand eight hundred seventy and 60 cents for open up and 000 for the professional development from cni operating budget 48 000 for Benchmark and 414 000 for open up slash
038El for a total expenditure of 5 million 594 482 and 60 cents for the purchase of core instructional resources for literacy and bi-literacy in support of our elementary schools from the cni Esser and f y 23 operating budget respectively foreign second board member vandermeulen any discussion board member Gomez Schmidt thank you president Muldrow um I just wanted to say that I'm in support of this recommendation to select the El curriculum and um for our K-5 English language instruction and Benchmark for the K-5 bilingual and biliteracy instruction um and want to thank Dr Jenkins and the cni team and all of the teachers and staff who really put in a lot of work to evaluating our options of materials um to me this option keeps our students at the center of our decision making by providing
039the strongest literacy and foundational skills options for these two instructional models in literacy and I believe that this investment combined with our investments in letter training will make a difference for our youngest Learners as they develop their reading skills that will Propel their learning through their K-12 education and Beyond um we know that this approval tonight is just the beginning as implementation is the next essential step um and I would like us to recognize the demands that we've already placed on our elementary level staff with the letters training and Implement implementation of the new amplify science curriculum and so um and also attention to the social emotional learning and mental health and all the pivots that have been necessary due to the coveted pandemic um my request is that we find a way to balance
040the desire to have all of these new programs functioning and at once with the reality of how fast we can Implement them all together um and I know that's on your mind already and I know it's on the mind of the curriculum and instruction team um one other thing I want to acknowledge is that this option that we're choosing tonight is um with the two curricula the two literacy curricula is a heavier lift for our schools that have both English language instruction as well as a DLI or a dbe program within their schools and as we start working on the implementation I would like to suggest that we work with these schools to determine what extra support they may need um as they support both their English literacy and bi-literacy programs um this may include
041additional staff additional planning time collaboration time I don't know exactly what they will need um but I really hope we can work in close partnership with these schools to determine what those needs might be um and yeah I'm just wondering if um Dr Jenkins you can maybe um give us a sense of when a more detailed implementation plan will be brought back to the board um to discuss um most definitely as we're going through this together and in my comments tonight you're going to hear it in fact I think you must have read my notes of something you said a number of things I was going to say tonight and I appreciate that that just shows how much we're all in sync with this particular decision but we're going to get together after the decision
042uh it's made tonight and then we'll talk to the administrators and the Bill of reps on Thursday and we plan to come back to the next instructional group with an update as to what we do and uh the next steps but we're working immediately to after the decision is officially approved to get started with the implementation piece of it uh so the next instruction will be to answer your question correctly okay great thank you very much is that all right board member Vander Milan yes thank you chair um I agree that this is her best option for our students I think would we say oh we mean oh whether they be English language Learners Spanish language Learners I wish we could include every language of the hundred languages taught at mmsd unfortunately we can't I
043wish it was possible and maybe someday that will happen as much as possible what I would like though is we don't want to over stress our teachers but I'm not just worried about them I don't want to over stress a seven-year-old I don't want to stress out seven or an eight-year-old who still has to who's still learning through play through school of learning how the world works I don't want to make them jaded and cynical and putting everything on them all at once so maybe we could take it one semester at a time and focus it that way if possible to give students a break into learning how to do it because to be 100 out of essential we're changing that we're changing science we are adding a more social emotional learning which is absolutely
044utterly essential and we're chasing reading that's a lot for a kid that's a lot for a college students so I just want to hope that we can find a way to do it without over overwhelming them number of clients I've had as a juvenile attorney with a severe anxiety starting at age 10. that I've seen this year is absolutely enormous and I don't want to add to the weight they already have thank you thank you board member Vander Mill in further discussion but remember Gomez Schmidt I just wanted to say one positive thing when I when I did visit some classrooms that were using different curricula the kids were really excited and engaged in in the learning that they were doing so I I think in providing the resources that we're going to provide I
045think we're going to see a real engagement with the students and with the teachers and an excitement about learning it's about bringing joy to learning and bringing engagement to learning and I think this will help us deliver that thank you board member Gomez Schmidt I will say I want to highlight the work of our uh of our instruction work group chair Maya Pearson um this conversation and this decision it took us a long time and a lot of thoughtful deliberation to get to this point and for me it was never a question of whether or not we needed materials we all know that we need these materials um it was which materials we were going to invest in and I think because of the work that uh you know our Administration our schools um and
046and our board has done I feel really confident in in these materials being the right fit for our district and our young people um so thank you so much to the the folks who allowed us to have this conversation thoughtfully and thoroughly um over the course of the last few months and I'm excited to continue to have this conversation I will say I my my major concern is no matter what materials we purchase and invest in that we will arrive at a similar conversation a decade from now um and that that conversation will continue to be shaped by disparities um in in literacy and in access to reading for students of color and my hope is that if we continue to have this conversation and continue to Center our young people and the young people
047who need our our support and who have not historically had the same access to achievement throughout our district that we will be able to produce different results um and that is why I am voting in favor of of these materials and resources any further discussion board member Castro yeah thank you um as my colleagues have said I do want to give thanks to Dr Jenkins the cni team and the teachers and community members who engaged in that long RFP process with these six recommendations spending all day for about three weeks at the at the uh the the the the the Holtzman building sifting through the materials I have a lot of appreciation for what y'all did and want to thank the community members who served on the literacy uh and Beyond task force that was
048the Bedrock for this decision and really want to give thanks to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and all other community members um you know we have a diverse Coalition of Learners here in mmsd with great social and cultural linguistic diversity and so I appreciate that this recommendation also provides recommendation to all that linguistic diversity within our district and attention to our students with IEPs and and disabilities um but having said that we're also confronted with the the history of Injustice with reading um and how many of our black and brown students have been and students with disabilities have been disenfranchised from Reading here in mmsd or strong reading practice and materials so there is no one-size-fits-all and want to stress the adaptability that we will have to engage in the the ability to readjust our practices
049will be be Paramount especially with pedagogy that is culturally relevant um and so I understand that I'm looking forward to updates and future actions that we'll have to take uh so every student and mmsd has the opportunity to learn how to read what strong practices and materials um so whether it be changing uh the implementation strategy or adjustments with supplementary materials and reviewing metrics I'm looking forward to the continuation of this conversation thank you Nama your advisory vote I all those in favor motion carries 7-0 boy chair yes I just have to say yes okay yes yes thank you and thank you to the team and to the community for this investment thank you yes yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] my inner James Howard wants to remind you all that there is no clapping at board
050meetings you know every meeting he said this is not we do not clap at board meetings I'm gonna let you slide Dr Jenkins action items that proceeded through the operation work group held on April 11 2022. I move that the Board of Education approve a resolution awarding the sale of 106 000 General Obligations school buildings and facility Improvement bonds series I'm sorry 1 million I'm sorry I'm sorry this is a hundred million 106 million gener General Obligations School building and facility Improvement bonds series 2022. second Nikki vandermeulen any discussion Nama your advisory vote hi all those in favor aye motion carries seven I move that the Board of Education approve of resolution authorizing the Redemption of the general obligation refund bonds dated August 10 2015 and general obligation promissory note dated August 10 2015. second
051second board member Castro any discussion Nama your advisory vote hi all those in favor aye motion carries I move that the Board of Education authorized a revolution resolution authorizing the transfer of funds the establishment of an escrow account with respect to and defecence of the taxable General obligation refunds bonds refunding bonds series 2021b dated February 1st 2021 second second board member Castro any discussion Nami your advisory vote aye all those in favor aye motion carries seven I move that the Board of Education adopt and approve all of the Motions set forth in section 10 of the electronic agenda prepared for the April 25th 2022 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
052Consolidated hereby subject to any Express separations that have been made by any member of the school board second board member Pearson discussion separate 1024 board member Van Der Milan Super 8 10 11. any further discussion all right foreign all those in favor of approving the rest of the consent agenda I'm sorry Nama your advisory vote Barb did I lose namo okay there we go okay I thank you nama all those in favor aye motion carries 7-0 and then we are going to 10 11. I moved the Board of Education approve an expenditure for the purchase of l e r n e r classroom libraries and the amount of 238 320 and custom education Solutions classrooms library in the amount of two hundred thousand two hundred forty nine thousand eight hundred eighty five and fifty six
053cents for a total amount of four hundred eighty eight thousand two hundred five and fifty six cents using the cni 2021 2022 C at lrm budget second board member Gomez Schmidt any discussion yes I I pulled this one um very interested in the Investments that we're making again at the K-5 level um for our classroom libraries and I was just wondering if we could get a um basically a summary of of the the books that are being purchased I can sort of click on the links and and look at um book packages and the numbers that we're purchasing but just wondering like which schools are requesting them and where they're going and sort of what the Yeah the the intent is behind it for supplementing our classrooms um at the k25 level can you hear
054me okay okay I don't want to make that no just not directly up yeah good evening and welcome uh board member simkin and board member Nichols um yes it's for all 32 of our schools and we're happy to provide a list uh we know that even with the approval of the core materials we still need to increase and enhance our classroom libraries so this is a purchase for all 32 schools and happy to provide more details of the genres and the text that is what you're looking for Chris yeah thank you very much I appreciate that okay sure any further discussion yeah and if I recall from our last instructional recruit meeting this was a strategy of those supplementary materials that a lot of our classroom libraries needed more culturally relevant material and so I
055understand this is part of that strategy that is 100 correct and we believe that we need to always increase and add to our classroom libraries we provided a research article in a previous board weekly update as well just on the importance of having a wealth of books and books that represent our students as well as authors that look like our students and so this is that approach to continue to increase I'm wondering if there was um if the intention is to have an independent style library or if it is in coordination with the new curriculum all of the above this is definitely opportunities for independent readers take-home readers as well as to include for our read alouds and other components as well as anchor text could be used for writing Etc thank you any further
056discussion Nama your advisory vote hi all those in favor motion carry seven I move that the Board of Education enter into a lease with capital West Town LLC for the property at 733 West Town Way Madison Wisconsin for mscr programming and office space and the amount of 287 dollars and fifty cents for one year and then 373 238 and 75 cents for year two three hundred eighty one thousand one 180 for year three and thereafter increasing two percent annually through fiscal year 2041 42. funding for this lease will come from the respective mscr operating budget second board member vandermeulen and then board member Vander Milan I hear you want to speak during this discussion all right we'll start with you my issue with this is not the building my issue is the moving of the
057sale program right now sale is less than five minute walking distance it serves 12 to 20 according to the Lead Teacher who told me she said it was it was five minutes walking distance I walk incredibly fast so to me it's five minutes to there it could be eight minutes I don't know it's always been a speed walk however here's the issue I'm Afra I'm afraid if we move these students at a program that's actually helping them to adjust to a four-year high school they will miss out on an inclusive education in their home District they worry about the legal implications of faith of free appropriate public education but more importantly I worry about the kids of what they're going to miss the friendships that they've made the after-school programs that they've done to put
058them almost 4.57 miles away I believe is what it said is quite the distance especially when the former special ed director did have a oral agreement that stated where Sam West would remain in walking distance I know that mscr needs a building I know the capitol High needs space and I respect both of it but this isn't a large program the top number is 24 the my lowest is 12. we are not talking a massive amount of space but we are talking about an equity issue for individuals with disabilities to be educated with their peers and for peers without disabilities to be able to collaborate with individuals my colleague Savion brought up an excellent point of how many individuals with disabilities and who are black and brown are in special ed and I know he
059brought that up several meetings ago that's huge and it's an error that mmsd has made over the years way in the past I can't change the past and I'm just asking for this program that we not remake the same mistakes we made before and that we try and include these students by keeping them close instead of putting them further away thank you so much board member Vander Millen for their discussion board member simkin and board member Gomez Schmidt so I have some questions about the process that led to sale being included in the proposal um I'm wondering if the staff and administrators who work with sale or in sale were able to give input into the impact of moving the program to be a bus ride away from West and if so what were their
060responses to that I'm going to have staff come up and address that Dr Beaufort here as well good evening good evening so I just I want to clarify that this space um this space is primarily for mscr and in communication with Miss Dyer I had asked about student services renting a portion of the space for offering to a program similar to sale or Memorial High School which is right down the street and offering a shared space with West sale at least temporarily until we locate a suitable location there has been a concerted effort by many people it's a fine space that is within walking distance because I agree completely with what you shared board member of Andrew Millen that right now that program works well because it offers an opportunity for individualized instruction into smaller
061environment for part of the day and for Scholars to still be included in their home school at West for the other portion of the day and we absolutely want to support that so this intent is just to offer a possibility for Westdale to partner with Memorial potentially for one year as we continue our search for a more suitable space for Westdale so I just wanted to clarify that I think that maybe that understanding wasn't a common understanding until I just spoke to you any additional questions for me um thank you for the clarification you're welcome um I guess I just respond to that and say you know I appreciate that you're looking for an alternative space for one year one of my concerns with having the space be a bus ride away is that my
062understanding is that a number of the children who are in this program have mental health issues including things like anxiety and may not a bus ride might not be accessible to them sure and so you know I wonder how this fundamentally changes the nature of the program by not allowing the students to be able to get to the half day at the school if that's something that's part of their programming right and I I really appreciate that as well so I will say a couple of things one of them is that in working with our high schools for the past several years um our students who are we have I apologize we have similar programming for through all of our high schools and there are students who have had that same issue with walking or
063who have had a physical disability and haven't been able to walk so we've provided rides and so that's something that each individual Scholars IEP team would consider and it it definitely it does change the nature of the program if West decides to take up this offer from student services to utilize that space temporarily it definitely changes the nature of the program for our Scholars there's no doubt about it we were just seeking a solution in the interim before the most suitable uh you know kind of a location was was found so I absolutely but we would definitely do everything we could to provide transportation to ease the burden for our Scholars um and also IEP teams would need to lead to during this interview just the other part of your question how long we've been
064working with the staff so if you want to address that as well because it's early I think uh it was said like we didn't have a conversation with the staff we've been working with them absolutely so there have been many conversations and for me going back two years so the point in time when it was announced that Capital would be eventually moving into the space at the plate building I've worked very closely with West High School I was their assistant director of student service uh was the interim executive director and so it goes back you know you know years lost that I've worked with the staff who instruct at the sale program as well as Dr Moran and the former assistant principal who oversaw special education services and then there have been many conversations this
065year so and we're still we continue to meet and brainstorm and look for additional spaces we've looked at many and just haven't come up with any that are reasonable in cost and at code where we wouldn't have to completely remodel the space or where the landlord would allow us to utilize the space that's needed for the program so it's it's definitely been a challenge to find the right location for them but there have been many many conversations um and regular meeting so and I've talked personally to both of the teachers at the West program about our challenges and and what we're offering as an interim solution so I think we've tried very hard to communicate as much as possible so I guess one last question if this if this location isn't chosen as an interim
066location are there going to be other options before you have to decide what you're going to do for the fall semester sure so um so student services plans to rent out part of this space as I mentioned as an option for Memorial High School which is walking distance from the location and so for West there is one other location that they're looking at although we're not sure that that's going to work out they also have an option of creating space within their building to try to create the same instructional model and so myself and the high school assistance director could work with them on that as well we can continue to search so that's not you know that's we're not giving up we're just trying to I'm trying to create some possible solutions um so
067that we don't have nothing okay thank you you're welcome board member Schmidt yeah thank you um I'm I'm curious when when Capitol high does the move and we consolidate all of the Capital High programs into the Hoyt building renovated um is there space I mean it sounds like the sale program from West takes up about three classrooms or two classrooms and a office space or something like that is there space that first year within Capitol High to continue to have the sale program within that building it's not um so we the board member of Andrew millen's point it it would be a very odd situation to have students from one high school going into another High School to receive services in that in that situation I guess you know it seems like professionals um and
068Scholars and families alike would recommend creating a space within West versus going to a different high school so it it just it creates it creates a situation where um you know then capitol High becomes responsible and some to some degree for another High School Scholars and um that was it was a question that was posed a number of months ago and uh the determination was that that would not work out okay thank you I just know that it's it's it's harder to find Space within our comprehensive high schools which is why these programs are located outside because um often the students need uh not so much the the hustle and bustle of a 2000 person building um and it creates a different environment so um thank you for the work that you're putting in to
069find these Alternatives and I'm wondering do you think we could get a list if the board could get a list of the different programs we have at our different high schools and where they're located and who we're partnering with to do those programs yeah okay that would be great thank you sure no problem board member Vander Millen and then board member Nichols yes my oh okay oh just just board member Vanderbilt sorry I didn't mean to cut you off no no I apologize okay here my issue is this when you remove a program it's almost impossible to get it back into mainstream area leap neon used to be in Lapham Elementary for multiple years and then it got moved and far away and then eventually got put into Holzman which was even further drive away
070for parrots to be able to see students this is a program that is designed to help students work so they can sort of do well in a comprehensive four-year high school if you cannot take the classes in a comprehensive four-year high school then it defeats the purpose of the program Society for years and this isn't a soapbox but I gotta speak my truth Society for years has made certain opinions on individuals with disabilities and one of those is out of sight out of mind our school district is smart enough not to fall in for them however I don't want to be the first start for it I want our students to have the best because it's doable and it's possible Memorial you still in 93 have the best disability program in the Midwest and I
071think honestly it is doable but my last point on this is that I seriously worry with the bus shortage as well on transportation and accessible Transportation be serving on the city's disability committee trying to find accessible Transportation right now is near impossible except to get people to medical appointments I do not know how this is going to be able to be provided and I don't believe it will be able to be provided at an equitable man for these reasons I asked for that portion of this bill to be removed I'm sorry are you asking to amend the motion yes I am what what to remove the moving of sail west from that doesn't exist in the motion let me try again I would like to use the budgetary funds that are used on sale West
072to remain in a building no less than five months no less than walking distance from West High School I know they're looking at Bethel currently is one of the places they are looking and I would like to amend the motion as such foreign 's gonna fail without a second that's fine board member Vander Millen I greatly appreciate your remarks as well as the concern expressed by several other board members I have had students who have benefited greatly from the sale program located where it is located and have walked from West High School to that program it is about a mile and students actually for a long time received by Ed Credit in order to participate because it's a significant walk right [Music] um that being said I think that we have to separate the the
073lease agreement um that we're talking about for mscr from the the component that is sale and so I am voting in support of this motion um because I do support this space for mscr and I think the temporary space that sale ends up in um you know because because we are creating Capital High at Hoyt uh is something that we need to be cognizant of and and aware of in terms of making sure that we find a suitable space and a convenient space um for the students who benefit from that program so I completely agree with that and that priority voiced by the board and I think that we fall into alignment with the administration in terms of that uh priority or at least I that's what I took from what Dr Moffat uh just
074just spoke to is there a further discussion I'm going to need to ask for some help understanding what's happening right now so is um so I see that the motion is related to the lease and that's specifically related to particular programs um is there money available for the sale program outside of this to rent a different space so I'm struggling right now if we're noticed to have that conversation so I'm going to ask Sherry thank you chair Muldrow no we are not noticed to have that conversation um might I suggest that someone on the board could make the request that this um review of the sale program and its location be scheduled for future instructional work group meeting I would request that formally so we've got that requests from board member Vander Milan to board
075member Pearson um I think beyond that I don't think we should continue the conversation that we're not noticed for um I very much respect what you're asking all right if there's no further discussion specific to this motion uh I'm gonna ask that we vote so Nama you're okay Nama your advisory vote I all those in favor motion carries 7-0 and thank you for putting it on in a later instruction workbook that's really then we could have an actual proper discussion I appreciate that other reports to the board City of Madison education committee board member Castro yes so the City of Madison education committee uh met um last week and we primarily discussed um how the other entities of the committee will formally adopt the the committee into their structure to get full commitment from the
076county and the city and we also uh discuss the future membership and officers of that committee as it was board member morelli's last meeting we had a very nice send-off for board member morilli um and so we are looking to reconvene next month with the elevation of new members and election of new officers foreign student Senate nama yeah so this month the student Summit has just been gearing up for the upcoming spring election which is in a few weeks which is um exciting um we currently have a lot of eager students who are interested in running for both president of student Senate and representative to the Board of Education seats other than that we've been working in our committees again specifically on voter registration infographics and restorative justice practices and we're preparing for transition as
077the year comes to an end thank you so much for that update Nama and thank you for all the work you're doing with student Senate Madison School community and Recreation board member vandermeulen yes um we were discussing whether or not on the lease the building is the last thing that we also discussed on mscr we're also just um our swear we just sworn in new members and have background checks six of them we are looking forward to it and our next meeting is in June thank you so much for that update board member vandermeulen safety and student wellness ad hoc Gordon yes thank you uh during our past meeting the safety all my wonders coming to be worth to set out um essentially like a Communications framework on how we're going to communicate as the
078core group to our stakeholder groups and then to the our community uh we laid out a shared vision for guiding questions that will you know girls go about and seek input that we will all have um the same comprehensible questions that we would ask community community members so uh that what that means is that for the necessary teachers stakeholder group we will ask them the same three guided questions on shared division as we would not see you for family and this is just so we can get a general idea of what is suspected from is you know select demographic within our community in terms of what it means to them for safety and Wellness um aside from that we discussed further on what exactly is the purpose of stakeholder groups because there seems to be
079some confusion between that and core groups and you know that is just so that we can enlist as much Community implants possible and so we can get the community involved as much as possible as well because we understand that this Alpha will be it would be one that we need to take from the ground up and we are willing to you know work with our community and actually going to the schools to get this done as well um after the meeting we have met with Dr Jenkins and Dr mcgregory um to further discuss Communications and to um highlight the fact that we may need um the superintendent's office to reach out to high school principals um to get their uh their input on a lot of motivation goals as well as to Garner their support
080for what we want to do at their respective high schools um and lastly we have an upcoming meeting this Thursday and we hope to continue our efforts with communication and to you know finally getting to the stage of visioning what we want this um committed to accomplish before I lent this up thank you so much future Congressman Alan I I greatly appreciate you citizens ad hoc committee relative to renaming Jefferson Middle School we will hear from Dr Hicks may I be excused in this conversation as I have conflicted absolutely if that's what you prefer Nikki yes I would so I will pick my move thank you thank you chair Mojo um um have two co-chairs salons Rodriguez and Latisha Nelson and we will be having our first meeting shortly thank you so much Dr Hicks
081I moved that the Board of Education disallow a claim on behalf of a minor child and their parents under Wisconsin State Statute 893.8 and said claim alleging liability-based negligence by district and District personnel second second board member Vander Millen Nama your advisory vote I all those in favor aye motion carries seven I move that the Board of Education disallow a claim on behalf of the patron of mscr under Wisconsin State Statute 893.80 and said claim alleged alleging liability-based negligence by the district and District personnel second second board member Castro now I'm a your advisory vote aye all those in favor motion carries seven there is no old new business or new business for this meeting and therefore I will entertain a motion to adjourn so move second Chris Gomez Schmidt oh yeah Nama your advisory
082vote hi all those in favor aye motion carries seven you all have a nice night thank