4/14/2026 Regular Board of Education Meeting

0016:00 I'll call the April meeting of the Manitowoc School Board to order. And at this time, I would please ask that you rise and join Jefferson Elementary as they lead us in the pledge. >> whole school >> [laughter] >> Hi guys. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. Thank you very much, Jefferson. And Ms. Brown, if you would do the roll call. Mr. Abel David Bowman Present. Beth Hanson Here. Ann Holsen Here. Mary Lofy Blahnik Present. Keith Shaw Here. Gary Trask Present. Thank you. We did get a message from Mr. Abel. So, he is excused tonight. And at this time, we will open up the um

002board meeting to public input. We have two people wishing to speak tonight, so we will go with a 5-minute limit since we will not have to worry about 30 minutes. Um just again, some reminders on public input. Uh you have to speak about something that's germane to the board, which is which something that we can use um that we can listen to, that we can consider as something to do within our schools. Um we ask that you address any concerns you have to the board and not individual employees of the district. Um because we have had in the past some some information given during public input that is not factual. Um the superintendent and myself, if something is given that isn't a fact, we will correct that either right away if we know it, or

003we will also post that on the website if false information given. We want to make sure everything going out to the public is is um right. Um we live in a great country that likes diversity of opinion. And during the last 200 and 40, 50 years, we've had good discussions where people were able to talk and discuss with each with each other over different issues. And as a school district, we're trying to get back to that type of discussion where we may disagree on issues, but we want to be able to talk and come out with solutions to problems. So, we ask that you you try to be fair that way. And um that being said, we'll respect those differences between us because that's as American as apple pie. And we disagree on things, but

004we can talk to each other. So, at this time, I have two people wishing to speak, and I will go with uh Mr. Michler. You may come up and address the board. Good evening, and thank all of you for allowing me to speak. My name is Todd Michler. I am the parent of two students of the Manitowoc Public School District. The reason I am here is to address the recent ice protest that was conducted by students, supported by staff, and condoned by the superintendent. The purpose of publicly funded schools is to educate the children of Wisconsin, not for political indoctrination, our staff supervise student walkouts and leaving of school property during times that are dedicated to classroom instruction. The Wisconsin DPI website reports the results of each each district's proficiency scores on a yearly basis.

005For the 2024-25 school year, the most recent data available, the MPS D reported a 52.6 for English and a 51.5 for mathematics. Both of these scores fall in the two-star range. Meets few expectations. Perhaps the publicly funded employees of the MPS D could use a reassessment of their priorities. However, it is understood by taxpayers and parents that there is more for the future of Wisconsin to glean from their public education than simply bottom line academia. That is not meant to endorse publicly funded skip sessions to tout racial radical Sorry, radical activism. Rather, it is to enshrine the foundations of good character, honesty, integrity, and accountability. Unfortunately, in this regard, the publicly paid staff of the MPS D have performed even worse than the results of their instruction. One star. Failure to meet expectations. The Manitowoc

006Public School District Superintendent told Seehafer News that this was not a school-sanctioned event, but that staff members were present to quote "supervise and support students consistent with district expectations." End quote. It has been reported that the event was organized by students. Is it commonplace in the Manitowoc Public School District for students to be responsible for the ideation, planning, and execution of field trips? If so, what are some other examples? How can it be possible this was not a school-sanctioned event when publicly paid staff were present to supervise? If something were to have happened to one of the children and a lawsuit ensued, would a judge agree with such assessment? Perhaps the superintendent believes the taxpayers and parents are as wanting for intellect as the products churned out of his school district. In conclusion, I have

007two questions for the school board. What will be the consequences and repercussions to the publicly paid staff of Lincoln High School, the staff members that were involved and present, the principal of Lincoln High School, and the superintendent of the Manitowoc Public School District? It is my opinion that the superintendent should tender his resignation or be terminated. Secondly, what statement does the school board have to ensure that such a thing does not happen again in the future? The parents and taxpayers deserve better. Manitowoc Public School District deserves better. But most importantly, the future of Wisconsin deserves better. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Mischler. Barbara Post. Thank you for letting me talk. Barbara Post, 825 Wilson Street, Manitowoc. I want to thank my girl for engaging state strategies. Number one is observation of underachieving students

008and being persistent in defining the cause and pursuing a revamp to get students on an achieving track. Also, check-in and check-out. So helpful in getting students on the track of self-responsibility. [clears throat] These positive real-life strategies have always been available to us. It's a matter of getting into everyday practice and acceptance. It gives individuals sense of ownership and accomplishment in a community setting. They can be themselves with no judgment. We as humans all use strategies to to achieve success in everyday life. Students know who they are, but they don't know who they may become. Through stable, consistent nurturing, and guidance in an environment of acceptance, this becomes never-ending growth for all. Learning is an explanation and guidance to understanding. It's through modification that every student can and will succeed. Everyone on the same page. A

009communicating, collaborative community. It is through repetition and explanation that one gains understanding. One needs to evolve in an ever-changing world. This is not your journey, it is theirs. You are only a temporary guide. And I know we're you're talking about math, but when I was at elementary, we were going through so many transitions of change of curriculum in math, and I really thought when I was in the CPM math class with these sixth graders that they really had to be critical thinkers and cheers of their problem-solving, which meant they had a facilitator, they had a reporter, they all had a group circle, and they had a concept they had to take in their book out, find the concept, and they had to realize as a group what concept they were doing. And when they came

010to the word "I concur," it was like magic. They all got it, and then the reporter would go up to the board and give the report and fight how how their group got their answer. And I really think this never really got a great thing because we kept changing teachers, and it was always and we were always trying something different. And I also want to say when Common Core came for elementary math, the See, people thought this was a lot of work cuz there was a lot of documentation that the kids had to do, and if you look in their logs, there's every concept in here for algebra. And people didn't want to have to go through every log and check that out, but that's how you develop critical thinkers. They're writing it down. Their

011brains are subtracting. Yours have already had that. They need that connection. Same thing with first grade. When they had their units, they knew with their units, if they had 10 units and two groups of units, and they had them in front of them, their visual and manipulatives, they could explain to you exactly why two groups of 10 is 20 or 10 + 10 is 20, and then it would grow from there, but that was too much documentation. Nobody wanted to do the modifications for these kids. Everybody wanted to do it like we did, but these kids could explain to you in words and with visuals what their answer and how they got to that answer. And it was just a beautiful. I really think you really need to think about how you're implementing because these

012kids are in a different evolving world. They're way ahead of the game if you give them a chance. Thank you for letting me talk. Thank you, Barbara. >> [clears throat] >> That will close the public input at this time. And um I will have some response during my remarks later on in the meeting as some of the concerns that were brought up by the first speaker. Um with that being said, we'll move on to the consent agenda. We have anything on the consent agenda that anybody would like pulled off the agenda? Pam. Finance and Facilities Committee meeting, just uh the financial reporting. Okay. Anything else from anybody? Keith. Um Personnel report. Um See. Section three, overall FTE and class sizes. Okay. Anything else? So then if we could get a motion to approve one through

013four on the consent agenda, and then we will consider five and six independently. Do you hear a motion to approve the first four with a second? So, can I just So we're approving We're pulling out number five, and we're pulling out number six. I think I'm missing one. Let's see. Yeah. It's E. Does that make sense? Yeah. So we're approving A, B. A, B, C, D. I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm we're pulling D out, I'm sorry, and we're pulling out um Finance, C. So C and D are coming out. I move to approve A, B, E and F. A, B, E, and F. Yes. Second. Have a motion and a second. Thanks for helping me clarify that. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. And let's look at C, the

014financial report. Any questions on that? Um it was stated that Salem, so I thought that was back to the example that we were provided. Yep. Um a a header buried in Excel got me on that one, and I'll make sure that that is updated for next time, so it says Manitowoc Public School District. It is the right data. It is just from the template that I used from a Baird uh consultant. >> example. Okay. Okay. Any other concerns with that? No. Um motion to approve that one? So moved. Second. >> Motion by Anna, second by Keith. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay, and move on to the Personnel I'm sorry. Yes, Personnel report, B. Keith, you have a concern on that? >> Yes, I do. Thank you. Um

015the overall FTE and class sizes, which was discussed at the Personnel Committee meeting, uh when Director Stacy presented us with the FTE class sizes at Lincoln, and there was some concern at that time the size of those numbers, uh 29, 26, 27. And I remember in the past that the uh superintendent and the district gave us enrollment caps. So, I'd like to know what the enrollment caps are for like AP classes or advanced-level classes, cuz I think we're sitting at a level of 29 is way way too many kids to be put in a AP or advanced-level class, or even some general classes, when the teacher is expected to do a lot of paperwork, a lot of writing and grading and taking home so we could have the kids get the feedback. Um to get

016a learning a sense of learning for these people and as Carrie pointed out at our committee meeting, um you have class sizes to that degree and what's going to happen, less work's going to be required because of the amount of work that's going to have to be taken home and graded and and the time to get back to the kids is going to be delayed. So I I find that as concerning as well. There was a statement made during that committee meeting that these are real numbers, that the real numbers are yet to come in. These are just the guestimate numbers. Um I've been out of the business for a while, but I also know that when I was in the business and talking to the master schedule guru for a number of years, we

017know, we knew what kids were going to go to the extension to see Dr. Trask. We knew what kids were going to go into future business of America leaders. We knew what kids were going to go to youth apprentice. We knew those numbers when we were scheduling. So to tell us that those numbers aren't in there yet, I I'm not sure I quite believe that because I think when you schedule and when kids do schedule, we knew what those numbers were and it was Mr. Hansen's job to build this master schedule. And if there was a cap on an AP bio class of 20 kids, his job was to get that cap of 20 kids in there. So I guess what I'd like to see is what the district is using as caps at Lincoln

018and what the minimum level for a course to run at Lincoln because I think the numbers that we were presented are huge. And and and and I said to to Nate, I would don't take this the wrong way, but I applaud him for doing this the zero balance, this zero budget. I think it's great. It's a it's a great it's a great avenue it's a great tool to look for. But in this first year with all these transitions, I don't want to see this the zero balance budget at the extent of raising class sizes and giving our teachers more kids in a section and try to get this zero balance and balancing this act on on the staffing of our kids and teachers. So Carrie? Yeah, I don't often disagree with the superintendent the superintendent,

019but his his logic is after after I you know, my brain uh works slower now than it used to. So it was after the meeting I thought you the the the present the argument you presented is like, well people will come into these courses and and and and and register, you know, maybe up to 29 or 30 or something, but by the time, you know, the stuff hits the fan, uh it's all sort of settled out and it's all down. I want to know what we what we want in terms of class size when it settles down. Not not not not when it when it's still, you know, a still quite not quite gelled yet. And I would suggest that um well for English and math for sure should be no more than 25 probably.

020But I don't know. I mean there's maybe no magic bullet, but I'd like to know what the English and math teachers say. There were there were there were multiple caps. Um Yeah, that's true. For for a an advanced chemistry or even a chemistry to throw 27 kids in there and you expect the chemistry teacher to put a lab together and do all these sorts of preparation for 27 kids. Our caps were down in the 20s, 22, which was the the norm at that time for these upper level classes and even some other uh classes of general ed. Uh it wasn't the goal to skyrocket those numbers. And I think the statement was made that those numbers are all going to get really small when scheduling is done. Scheduling should almost be done and we should

021be known this time of the year what kids are going to go youth apprentice, what kids are going to go to the UW, what kids are in Rising Phoenix. We should we should be having a pretty good understanding at this time of year uh where that population at Lincoln High School's going. I I got a sense there's a lot more kids involved than that than perhaps when you were working with putting on that schedule. I there's a lot of kids that don't know their youth apprenticeship yet. They don't know if they've been accepted to UW the Rising Phoenix >> That just came up this week. Okay. So we must be narrowing in on it, but I I certainly heard it it was it was an estimate and probably a generous estimate. If I heard the

022guy use the generous Yeah, finally I need to clarify a a few things cuz some of the things that were said here I didn't say. And we could probably refer to the tape, but >> Yeah. So this is how it works. Kids sign up for classes in January. Um typically takes until mid-February. Once those numbers come in, kids are told to take a certain number of classes. Um we look at all those numbers. We have data that we've collected for years and there are plus number or a minus number on a section. So for example, English 11. English 11, you can look it up on the thing and it'll say minus 14 as an example. What that means is whenever they signed up for classes till when the class runs in the first semester, there's

023going to be 14 less kids that that will not be in that class anymore. So these these numbers that you're seeing are the numbers that are real numbers where we have kids signed up. They haven't had the kids who've been accepted into Rising Phoenix removed. They haven't had changing of schedules or anything of that nature. And so what we're relying on is very solid data. And when we're talking about caps, we're always trying to staff and hit that sweet mark of the 25 to 26 mark, but as you know as well as I do, scheduling, master scheduling, sometimes you have imbalanced sections and you have to balance them out. Our team at the high school does that all summer long. They'll balance out sections when those numbers become more clean. Um we're very comfortable. Uh

024our our average class size at the high school right now, I I can't remember when we ran it, but it's like low to mid-20s, not pushing 30. Now, when we're talking about caps for courses, it's been years we just cap everything at 30 in general when we're doing this part of the schedule. We cap everything at 30. Now, what we'll do over the over the course of the summer as we're balancing sections and those types of things is we're going to look more at the caps based on what the rooms can hold and what type of classes they are. And then we hone those class sizes in. So really my whole point is to say that if you're concerned about 29 kids in an English class, we've had that for a really long time. I

025taught 30 kids in social issues class my first year teaching in room 326 at Lincoln which you could barely move in. I mean, it's been happening for years. Um but that's as not as a result that we're staffing at that level. That's as a result of scheduling and getting kids into the classes they want because at the high school level, as soon as you become a junior or a senior, you are taking a lot of electives and singletons and they don't always fit in your schedule. So sometimes you have this class that gets up here a little bit and then you'll so you'll have a US history class of 29, but you'll also have one of 20. And and that's just the way it goes um at the high school level, but we cap we

026have and we always have at least since I've been at Lincoln, uh capped at 30 to start and then we massage it from there. Okay, so my question was is the 29.3 the January cap or is that the September cap? The cap? Well, yeah. I mean the size. Yeah. That is right now. So if you're looking >> 29.3 is what current current. Okay. >> expect that to go down. All right. Yeah. Because you have every single kid sit at Infinite Campus and register themselves. Kind of like college kids do. Yeah. So every single kid is told you have to do English nine or English 10 or >> [clears throat] >> whatever grade they are. And then you wait and see who actually needs English nine and 10 because they might be getting it at alternative

027place or another [clears throat] situation. Okay. Typically the and typically those are particularly true for junior and senior level classes. Our our ninth and 10th grade classes are much more predictable. So when you're looking at your you know, like if you're master scheduling and you want to see you know, we would be about 90% accuracy for kids getting their classes at ninth grade, 80% for 10, 70% for juniors, 60% for seniors and then you have to massage them into what they wanted to based on the conflicts. Keith No, go ahead. You you were ahead of you. What happens if we don't lose those numbers? If it stays >> I would guess we We create an extra section. I overload them. Yeah, so what we've done in the past is if we have if we have

028things that aren't coming in the right way that we expected, we review those numbers in August and we may change a US history section to a world history section and then somebody who is teaching three US histories and two world histories are now going to teach three world histories and two US histories and then we balance the kids out for class size purposes. Folks, we I'll be honest, we have the lowest class sizes at the high school in probably the eastern side of the state of Wisconsin and that will be the case next year, too. So, I don't really know what we're talking about here. Well, I'll tell I'll tell you My concern is when we're presented with the numbers that these are your caps and and I think these caps are tremendously high for

029elementary or high school. That this is you're telling us these are your caps and and that all the numbers are in, but yet there's going to be big changes because we don't know that number yet. I'm not sure that's exactly true because at this point in time of the game, we knew pretty much the class sizes. We were we were told that this class is going to run at 20. Poor David Womans, his class has never had a cap because we would put anybody that wanted to sing in his class. But academics had a cap. And this was our cap and if we reached that cap, we built another section. If we didn't reach that cap, then that section went was added to another one that we maybe have to split exactly as you said.

030But these numbers that we were presented, fictitiously or not, are concerning that I don't want to see us balance a zero budget this year on the back of staffing and kids. Um we should be known as Carrie asked. We should know pretty soon, if not already, how many kids need US history. Divide your sections. How many kids are taking AP chemistry? Divide your sections. So, we should know what these class sizes are. We don't know that. We do have that. That's that's what I'm asking you for. And if they're coming in at 29, 27, 28, then we're going to be back addressing this because I think those are too big. Yeah, I just want to make one last comment. I'd I'd like to see people in high school become more proficient as writers and more

031perceptive readers. And especially writers. Uh I know I got a lot of I I spent a lot of my time teaching writing as as a as a history prof. And um you know, it it it really is a it really is a pretty work labor-intensive process and if you have 40 40 in a section or something like that, you'll have a tendency to say, "Oh God, I'm not going to I'm not going to require that many written assignments." And I do I think more is better in terms of written assignments. But you can't do it with you can't do it on a teacher's back uh with large with large with large sections is all I'm concerned about. Nate. I thought something maybe um Lee and I talked about this the last few weeks. Something that

032we can talk about doing in the long term. So, like, you know, next month that'll be the staffing report. And we'll talk about the staffing report. Um you know, one of the things that that they've done in Sheboygan for decades um and Lee had to do that when he was an AP at North, he had to report on sections under 15, sections over 30. So, I Only over 30. Okay, thanks. Um so, we'll you know, I I think maybe doing something like that that happens in the intermediary. So, like, you just have like a pulse check. So, you know, we can see where the numbers land, you know, for you know, for next month when we have the staffing meeting and then when when fall comes around, you know, we can that that can be

033reported out and you know, we can you know, report I think that's a really good idea. It's less arguing. Can I share something? Mhm. Yes. >> Okay, I just want to make sure you can hear me. Just so you're aware as well, right now the other thing that's happening at the elementary school is that parents can request interdistrict transfer. So, if your home school is Monroe and you want your child to go to Jefferson, right now parents are in the process of requesting um a different home school for their elementary school. So, I'm working really closely with Heidi um and obviously with Katie at the secondary level. So, I would anticipate in the coming months I will have continual updates for you about where all of our numbers are landing in terms of elementary school

034with open enrollment and interdistrict transfers and then high school as those numbers become um more final. So, I will continue to give the board updates. Um I would anticipate all the way up until when school is coming, so you'll be able to monitor those numbers. Any other discussion on this? I don't I don't want to come across as I'm against small class size. Right. I just think it's too early to react to that number. And I think Nathan's suggestion to have more of a dashboard or an ongoing count would be helpful for the board. I think it would also be able to see some of the numbers for those more specific difficult classes that kids take. So, you know, if it's an AP class in some area, that number needs to be smaller just to

035give us an idea of of where we are doing that rather than you hear 29 and you and you think, "Wow, that'd be tough to do in some of the classes that we're teaching." >> Especially when 29 is your cap. >> Yeah, yeah. So, we And if that that cap read to me that this is your cap, all classes are going to be at this level with no variation as to what courses are there and that's that's not so. I think we had last spring a math class with what? 12? Yeah. I'm sure we had been all day students then with with 12. Yeah. I think in the individualized attention. In the I think in the ideal world, I learned this when I was teaching and hosted student teachers in my room. A second staff

036member in there made all the difference. And Can I call a question? You bet you can. >> Thank you. We have a uh motion. >> [clears throat] >> So moved. Do we have a second? >> Second. Um Is is the motion Can Can we amend the motion that that we will get an update on those numbers from [snorts] Nate each month? Are we motioning C and D as I already I don't No, this would just be This is the Yes, thank you. Yes. D. This is D. Any discussion on I have a motion and I have a second from What is David? To accept this? Okay. Okay. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed, say nay. Thank you. Okay. The consent agenda is done. And now we have the report

037from Ms. Lundbom. Yeah. Good evening, everyone. I would first like to update you all on Lincoln varsity sports. Um this past month in athletics, our spring sports have officially began. These sports include track and field, softball, baseball, girls soccer, boys golf, and boys tennis. Track and field has already participated in four meets so far. In their first meet, athletes Charlie Dosart, Ava Bierman, Nora Free, and Natalie Portman broke the school record in the 4 by 800 relay by an impressive 14 seconds. An ex An exciting start to the season. Softball has played four games so far and currently holds a record of one win and three losses. Baseball has also completed four games and stands at a record of one one win and three losses as well. Meanwhile, girls soccer is girls soccer has played

038four games and currently holds an even record of two wins and two losses. Boys tennis and boys golf are set to begin their seasons this week and we look forward to seeing their progress as competition gets underway. Moving on to clubs and other events at James Madison Lincoln, six Lincoln High School students participated in the YMCA Youth in Government program at the Wisconsin State Capitol. Where six of the 17 bills passed were written by Lincoln students, highlighting strong leadership and civic engagement. Um this past Wednesday, as I'm sure we all know, a walkout was staged by dozens of students who marched peacefully to the courthouse in protest of ICE, demonstrating unity, compassion, and activism. Sophomore Soraya George participated in the Saint Norbert Youth Symphony performing alongside advanced musicians and taking part in works by renowned

039composers. In addition, junior Jackson Miller was selected from hundreds of applicants across Wisconsin for the 2026 Wisconsin School Music Association High School School State Honors Mixed Choir and will perform at the State Music Conference in Madison this October. And to wrap things up, we have two we have two students graduate from the dental assistant program and become certified and three students graduated from the CNA program and become eligible for licensure. Thank you so much. Thank you, Lundbom. Anybody have any questions? See none. Thanks again. Superintendent report. All right. Uh we're very excited tonight to have some guests with us from Jefferson Elementary School and I'm going to introduce uh Principal Lisa Dalson uh who will then introduce them and their presentation tonight. I was going to say good morning. Say what I THINK. GOOD MORNING!

040NO, IT'S GOOD EVENING. I wanted to invite Alyssa Hallie up. She is our advisor of our Jefferson Leadership Team. Um we call them the JLT. So, come on up, kids. Um our Jefferson Leadership Team started as a Um put your knees up. Um a focus of four fifth graders, but this year we opened it up to fourth and fifth and we wanted to give our fourth graders the opportunity to be a part of the leadership team just as much cuz it's something they look forward to. Um we expanded their projects, so I'm going I'm going it to Alyssa to let her tell it all to you. Hi guys. Um so we have a representative group of some nervous kiddos, but I think they're doing fine. Um like Miss Olson said, we have um some fifth

041graders and some fourth graders here with us today. Um our fourth graders have just joined us. Um we wanted to present it to them as only our fifth graders, but then you know with our fourth and fifth graders going on to intermediate school next year, we wanted to open up that opportunity for them to join us. So they just got their job assignments last week. So some of them are are just starting with us and some of them have been working with us all year. Um just a few things that they do in our building. Like they are a huge part of um helping to build a community at Jefferson Elementary School. Super proud to work with all of them. I love seeing their smiling faces, even though when they're not smiling >> [clears throat]

042>> Um so just a few things they do. So they handled our weekend meal bags. We have that partnerships with Grow Forward. So they deliver those to classroom teachers to then get get them to students. Um we have kiddos who work in our Jefferson clothing closet helping to keep that organized. Um they write thank you cards for our Read with the Leader events and other thank you cards for things that are needed in our building. I know quite a few of you guys have been there with us for Read with the Leader. So thank you for that. Um they also do read at Read with the Leader sometimes with caregivers and with some of the students. Um we just started having them help with our um we have like a breakfast reading club for kids.

043So they're going to be joining them in the morning to help just sit down and read with some kiddos because that group is growing and they need some more help in there. They promoted our Help the Homeless drive this year. Did a phenomenal job with that. Made posters. We made some videos. Um they do stock our staff soda machine as well. We are hoping to use that as a fundraiser if we can break even on that. Um so um if that happens, we'll talk about what we're going to do as far as those funds. And then um probably the favorite job that we have so far are some classroom mentors. So we have a select group of kiddos who help in some of our kinder and first grade classrooms. So they get to build relationships

044with some of our youngest students and then just help them through what they're doing in class at that time. So that's kind of just a little gist of what we do. Um I have 24 now. Uh so I think I have eight Eight of them with me today. So it's a pretty good group. And we'll just have them kind of introduce themselves. For our fifth graders, please please please let them know like what your favorite part of JLT has been this year. And then for our fourth graders, what are you most excited for being a part of? Can I just before they start, I just want to clarify when they are volunteering their time, they are doing it on their time. They're not pulled out of academic time. It is their recess or their lunch

045and their lunch recess. So they're giving up their time with their friends to be a part of this group. So that's pretty powerful for them. So okay, I'll go. Hello, I'm Lydia Thomas and I'm a part of the JLT leadership team. Um one of my favorite things to do is help with the kindergarteners and I was in Miss Humphrey's class and I've seen uh um I've seen a lot of the kiddos wait until I'm there to just see me. So My favorite part of JLT is handing out the food lunch bags. Um yeah. My name is Danny. My name is Thomas. Um I'm part of the uh Jefferson Leadership Team and my favorite is probably filling up the soda machine for my friends. My name is Sam Song. And uh my favorite part of the

046Jefferson Student Leadership Team is doing the food packs and filling up the vending machine. Um my name is Ian Love and I wanted to join I'm excited to join the leadership clubs to do the food bags. I'm Josie Boshes and um one of my favorite things is that like little kids reflecting on me is help is helping other kids reflect on um the person that's reflecting on me because cuz when we're doing something good, the other the other um people will see like the good in it and will help people to do it too. I'm William um I'm happy because I get to read to little kids in the morning. And it actually helps me. I'm William Thomas and I'm in the Jefferson Leadership Team and one of my favorite things to do is play

047play with the kindergarteners with Miss Miss Grace's class. And they're my favorite because they would always be so nice to us and they wouldn't like they would always have good vibes with them. >> [snorts] >> One of my two classes Thank you very much Jefferson Thank you. Um our next part of our learning showcase uh this evening, uh we have a presentation by the MPS East School Social Workers. Uh we have Lynette here and Michaela Lee here uh to share with you a little bit about um you know, we this was the first year we brought in um our social work and positions back in the district and they're here to sort of update you on all things Manitowoc Public School District social workers. Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks for your time tonight. Um so yeah,

048we're just going to update you after the proposal last spring. Um thankfully Michaela's here with me tonight. The other two um of our team that we'll talk about a little bit were unable to be here because of obligations that they had tonight. So um our team is um comprised of three social workers that are um currently stationed in buildings in kind of different ways. Claudia Fischer is serving our elementary schools currently. Um she has a home school this year which has been Jefferson and then she serves our other elementary school buildings on a referral basis. Um Christina Jenkins Becker is at our middle school locations. Her home school this year has been Washington and then she serves Wilson on on a referral basis. And then Michaela has been at our high school, Lincoln's her um

049home school and she also works with referral programs. And I'm there as well. I'm in our program support. Um my licensure as is as a school social worker. Um and then I also serve our district as our Families in Transition Liaison which I presented and talked to you about um in November. So when we were looking at each of our buildings trying to figure out what it was we were going to do, um all the conversations we were having with our team served around these six main principles of what we wanted to do. We wanted to work focused on being a link between school, home, and the community. We wanted to work on assessing students for barriers in academic and social success. Um On different levels, we wanted to work in crisis intervention support, providing

050family referrals to our community partners, making sure that we were able to advocate, and providing direct intervention services to students. Um this has looked like individual or small group settings um depending on the level and what we're looking at. So we also broke down kind of what this looks like at our different buildings. So in my building, um one of the biggest things that we've been seeing over the last couple years is a huge trend in vaping use um and not really having a good program to help with that. So we've developed in-depth vaping education. So kids who are caught vaping get an education program that helps educate them around the consequences of their decision. Um a lot of the kids who go through that are like, "Now I want to quit and I don't

051know how to do that." Um so we've also worked on that on tobacco which is a small group um that kids can get into with parent consent to actually work on building some skills around wellness um and the learning how to quit using. Um another tool that we've been using, I've been doing one-on-one groups with DDP in schools um which is a program to help build skills around interpersonal skills. It helps kids in those crisis management moments. So like high stress and act like things that are going on helping them manage that to get through what they're doing. Um and then also the emotional regulation skills. Um and I've been doing that with I think I'm at about 12 kids that I started it with. I think I'm actively working with five or six right

052now um on that. I do check-in check-out with some kids. This is a intervention I can't do with as many cuz at the high school level, that's a one-on-one. So I have one kid that I do check-in check-out with right now. Um and then I do a lot of attendance intervention and support. Um so building that system. We just started this semester a tier two intervention where every kid who has missed 10 periods of class unexcused gets called in for a win where we do a survey and kind of assess the barrier to them being in class, breaking it down into different categories, and then providing a follow-up intervention to kind of target those missing areas. Um in the middle school, uh Christina's doing lunch bunch groups. She's doing small groups. She has individual check-ins.

053She's also doing attendance intervention meetings. Um she's doing home visits and then she's also involved in um behavior intervention meetings. When we get down to Claudia, um it looks a little bit different. She's doing a lot through the tier two and tier three character strong. She's doing a lot of those individual check-ins. She's a part of that breakfast reading club. Uh she also has lunch bunch groups. Uh she's doing home visits as well and then attendance and behavioral intervention meetings. Um she also wanted to add that she's doing um initial support of attendance meetings. Um and I didn't include it on mine, but I'm also doing home visits. Um I just forgot to add that. Just a couple of things. Uh one of the kind of big pieces um and specialties of social school social

054workers is that home school community um partnership. [clears throat] So a big focus for me and the three of them this year has really been looking at those community agen- agencies that we're partnered with. So um some of these kind of fall more under my responsibility and um primarily something that I attend and am a part of, but I've invited them to many of these meetings to build those relationships with our community agencies and partners. So when they're referring a family, um they can make that warm handoff and like know who they're sending the person to. Um they all attended This is a picture of them at a fall community resource fair that they attended with many community agencies. I think that was at First Lutheran, First Presbyterian, one one of those churches over there.

055Um so they got to talk to a lot of community agency um providers. Um they've also attended Hunger Coalition, Housing Coalition meetings. Children Services Committee is kind of it's something that's just restarting um back up. It's a quarterly meeting with like the CST, CCS, CLTS programs um through the county. There's a Youth Development Collaborative that comes out of the United Way that meets monthly that they're also have been invited to or attend. Um Michaela and I attended the post pit, which is a prom- post point in time resource fair, um where any any family that was found or any person that was found um during that point in time counts um is attended to is invited to attend that resource fair and engage with um community partners. We um helped with the Help for the

056Homeless Hygiene Drive, um which just com- we just completed and that helped stock our Caring Closet, which is here at Central Office and then helps then stock our closets that are in other buildings. Um we are currently in the process of planning the Mental Health and Wellness um walk and month, which I hope that you got information about. Um they're all involved in that. We have the walk coming up on May 26th and there are other events that will happen um during the month of May. We're also currently planning [clears throat] a collaborative back to school resource fair that will primarily kind of feature Manitowoc and Two Rivers in partnership. Um and also that's where the Can Cool for Scra- Can Cool for School um supply drive that will happen at the YMCA in August.

057Um where we also have community agencies and things that YMs can talk to. We're um we also just did the um bridge bridge the break meals, which was kind of an extension and offshoot from Peter's Pantry has typically done Thanksgiving meals and then we thought, well, why something should happen for winter break. Aaron Stehula started that um over winter break cuz it was a long winter break this year. It was two weeks. He had some funds that he kind of started a bridge the break um process and the social workers assisted with that over winter break. I had some grant funds that then we used for spring break. Um I think we did 39 families that we that we the social work team delivered um before spring break. They delivered 39 families a week's worth

058about uh of meals. Um and then there's an EL fair coming up on um Saturday that we got some involvement with this fall. Uh so throughout this year there's a couple of grants that we've applied for. One that I applied for was through the like Beginning the Nnodum's Bag O group. Um I was able to receive a $500 grant for that, which will go towards items for the group. There's um intended to be like snacks and fidgets and like things that go like the running of that group. Um as well as some like fees for printing all the materials. So it's like it's designed to help with that. Um we are in progress right now of applying for the EHCY compliance grant. This is offered through DPI. It's intended be a review of all of

059the policies, procedures, and practices we have for our families in transition to make sure that we are in compliance and if we're not in compliance helping support that growth. Um it is also partnered with being able to work with DPI to have them help us review and learn new pieces. Um and that application is actually due this Friday. So we are hoping we end up with that grant this year. EHCY stands for Education for Homeless Children and Youth. So that's like a McKinney-Vento Families in Transition program. Then we have our referrals made by schools. So we got 46 referrals in so far this I omitted 23 referrals from this pie chart. The reason for that is 23 of them came from Washington. I didn't have comparative data from other home schools, so I omitted that

060just to look at schools that were not placed in. Um which leaves us with an 23 referrals left and of those referrals 74% of those referrals came from the elementary school level. So when Michaela's saying that what when I was in in the beginning introducing and talking about the schools that like at elementary Claudia's primarily at Jefferson and then the other schools can submit a referral and then she works with and collaborates with the with the staff at that school and vice ver- also with Christina. She serves primarily at Washington. So if Wilson has a student that needs social work services, they submit a referral. So when she's saying the referrals and why Washington data wasn't included, that's why. So yeah, I didn't have Jefferson and Lincoln corresponding data, so I didn't feel like that

061would be a useful data point. So I did omit that in that process. And when when students are reaching the level of that referral for um services from the social worker at not one of their home schools, that's reaching like that tier three, the most intensive needs um that are the students in that building that have the most intensive needs for like heavy heavy involvement with a community intensive um mental health needs, very a lot of like sometimes involvement with um CCS and CPS and community agencies and psychiatry and very intensive things that um these referrals are coming in for. So it's it's like that very top of the triangle when we think about that way. Um when we look at our Families in Transition data, which is again that McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance program, um

062I presented our data in fall. I don't remember what it was at, but currently we have identified 90 students. Um that's at any point in the time 90 students have been identified as meeting that criteria as lacking fixed, regular, adequate housing. That also um includes our students that have been identified as unaccompanied homeless youth. Um so that's where we're at right now. I think we're a little bit lower than maybe we've been in previous years. I'd have to kind of compare like where we were at in April. Um but we might be a little bit under what we've had in the last couple years. If I forecast out, I'm not sure where that'll be. Um if we look at that, 45% of those students um are at schools where they're primarily case managed with someone

063a social worker in their building full-time. Um and then 65% of those students identified are at our elementary school level. We also had the social workers do a feedback survey to some of their families and students that they worked with. Um so might be kind of hard to see some of it, but so we asked what changes did you notice after receiving service? So some of the things that were um mentioned were increased sense of safety or belonging at school, improved academic engagement, improved emotional well-being, improved attendance, improved family communication, increased emotional, finance financial, or housing security. Then on a scale of one to five, um they were rated a 4.7, which is pretty good. Um how did you interact with the social worker? The respondent said, "My child received individual support. There was family

064support, family meetings, or phone calls. Felt during a stressful or difficult situation. Helped connecting to community resources or ongoing check-ins and support provided." Um and as as a part of that we also like left space for testimonies. So um a handful of our families uh shared um how things went. So uh a couple of these are all for Claudia cuz she's super wonderful. Um but Claudia shows she really cares about my family. She's with She frequently checks in and asks if there's anything she can do for us. She's an amazing person for all she has done for me in supporting the girls at school. Claudia's made all my kids feel special and safe. She's been there if we needed anything from our transition with moving twice. If they're they're if my kids needed someone to

065talk to other than me when their father died. Big help, stress reliever with new beds for a home and a new start for them. It's also nice to know that I'm not judged when I'm talking with her. Um provided for gas, clothing, helped in the times child was overwhelmed. Consistent communication with parent and child as well. Um we also took some time to get some feedback from older kids. Um so sixth grader said, "They made me happy when I was still learning to control myself and calm down." Uh third grade student said, "She helps me through the loss of my mom and cheered me on through the hardest times. Honestly, she's the best." Ninth grade student said, "She has made me feel more safe at school, more in control of my feelings, more aware of

066my feeling, more willing to go to class." Um and another ninth grader said, "She made me realize why I didn't actually want to be in school." Um and then we got reached out by a couple staff members. Um so I'm super glad to hear her family reached out. Sorry, I'm super glad to hear that her family reached out and could find a safe harbor with you. We are so lucky to have you here. Thank you for all you do." And that was a middle school teacher. Um "I feel your service to MPSD has been and professionally outstanding. What I appreciate is your eye contact when listening to the students or adults and it responds of understanding that makes people feel safe and heard without judgment no matter the situation. You are calm, cool, and collected

067when dealing with concerns that run the gamut from a very serious to not so serious. It's a safe environment with you to create and support and you deal with situations in a timely manner. You are appreciated. I was a Jefferson kindergarten teacher. And then one of our interpreters said the MPSD social work team provides such needed support to our students and families. Whenever a student needs something, whether it's a snack or a coat, someone to talk to, or anything in between. I know they are ready and willing to help. They are also They also help families connect with resources in the community. Yeah. I'll have that brief you later if you want to read those. No, no, it's fast. So, um again, this was just a time for us to share with you about the

068work that they've been doing in the year. Um as we look forward to next year with realignment, we're going to be looking at how we realign their roles. Um it won't look the same. So, um we're we're looking at that and talking about that as a team. Um does anyone have any questions for myself or Michaela? Questions, Keith. Yeah. Are you finding Is there a lot of crossover between our school social workers and the county social workers or duplicate population and do you collaborate? Your referrals work with them, their referrals work with you. How how does that work? Sometimes So, a lot of times when we are working with county like they And they've been doing this with our counselors for a while where they do get releases of information, we get invited onto their

069team, so we're able to work together. Um so, there isn't a lot of duplicate services, but there is like supporting other services. Um when we're able to attend those meetings and like collaborate with them. Um and it's also sometimes filling gaps. Sometimes it takes longer to get in get connected with like our county services. So, sometimes it's just holding it together until they can get connected with those bigger services. Um but I don't see it from a like duplicate Do they make referrals to you and you make referrals to them or not so much? >> I don't think I've gotten a referral from them this year, but I also don't know if they all the way exist yet. Yeah. Still still working on that, you know, everyone knowing that we have a social work team

070because it is so new, right? But I I would say yes that I think all of our student services staff are making referrals, especially to like our CST, CCS, they call it like the three Cs. Um CLTS, CCS, CST. Yeah. Um so, I know that they all make referrals to those as well as our special education staff and all of those folks as well. Okay. Yeah. I just I want to know kind of a general thing. Uh is the age of anxiety as intense and widespread as as we're we're sort of encouraged to think by newspapers and media? And >> [clears throat] >> is the new phone policy is it having a a positive a you know, is it is the new phone policy diminishing that? So, I can say I see a lot of

071anxiety. I feel like most of the times when I'm dealing with kids it's anxiety. I also feel like I have a really skewed perspective. I see those tier two and a half tier three kids, so I don't feel like I have a really good representation of the level of anxiety with all 1400 of them. Um I will say that my counselors are talking about it a lot about, you know, not feeling like our kids have like regular anxiety level resources um and trying to figure out how we can do some more to bridge that gap on kind of a more universal level. Um so, I think it's definitely something to address. I think it's something we should be paying attention to. Don't think we need to panic mostly cuz I don't think that would be

072helpful anyway. Um And I would I would add that I think there's a difference that I think >> [clears throat] >> needs to be a part of the conversation around like I'm anxious versus diagnosable anxiety disorder. So, there's And there's also productive anxiety. Like I feel anxious about coming and talking to all of you and being in front of an audience, but I'm not going to need to go on anxiety medication for that. That's not a diagnosable thing and that's a productive normal response and what can we do to manage that? So, I think that there are lots of education pieces and things that we can continue to put in place and work on to address and support our students. And one of them being increasing our student services staff and expertise different expertise that

073people have access to. So, I think this has been a great resource for those students who have like that really high level need of support to have access to an an additional person. You think the phone policy is That's a good question. I think that I I'm not in the classrooms. So, like I'm not I don't want to take out take out talk on it from a teacher's perspective. I think it's important. Um I think it's hard for a lot of kids, right? Like we're addicted to phones. We we all know that we're addicted to phones. Um and I think there's >> [laughter] >> like I mean, we have ads for our phones almost all of them was like want an addictive game. Yeah. Like so, and I think there's a little bit of like

074we're not talking about it as an addiction cuz everybody Everybody's addicted to their phone, we don't need to talk about it. So, I think there's still like some like pushback in that department, which also And I think there's also that balance of like, "Well, the teachers still get to have their phones." And like having that discussion with kids has been an ongoing process, I think for a lot of kids it's been really helpful. And I think some kids are really loud about how much they dislike it. So, I think I I see both. Don't want to talk on it from a teacher's perspective. Yeah, sure. David. When you have kids from marginalized communities that are saying, "I feel safe, I feel respected, I feel seen." That is step one to getting them to, "I feel

075like I'm learning." So, I think the more we can do this and more that we understand, there should be no stigma. This is where you're at right now. We are meeting you where you are at. And that kudos to you. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for your time. We look forward. Thank you. Um moving along, just to mention a couple of other things. One is that you've heard some dates come out at you even through that presentation. One thing that we'll work on for you is the upcoming month of May is full of a lot of things. So, we'll put together a calendar and send it out to you so you can keep track of when everything is. You're going to get invited to things like awards night, scholarship

076night, graduation. We have a YA night coming up next month. So, we'll get you something that you can have as like a little calendar for you to refer to for all those types of things for those of you who can make it. I would like to shout out the Rising Tide Award winners for April. Again, the Rising Tide is a district award that we give through nominations of peers. And these these awards are given to peers in our school district who go above and beyond to help support each other. Uh the April Rising Tide winners for April were Cindy Schneider, a Jefferson kindergarten teacher, Julie Sperny, the Monroe's principal's admin assistant, and Tiffany Hacker, a teacher for the visually impaired uh this month. Um important events also coming up with Jackson and Madison legacy events.

077Uh the first one that you'll come up with here is on Saturday, April 25th. That's the Madison legacy event and it'll be an open house style event from 1:00 to 4:00. Um just a huge thanks to all of the staff, current staff, former staff, former administrators, and all the folks who've been just real instrumental in in organizing this for the celebration for our community. Um the open house style will have a bunch of artifacts uh laid out through the building that people can go through. People have donated and or brought in things that can allow people to go down memory lane. Um Ruby has taken all of the digital photos and the memories that were turned in and we created a I don't know, 30-some-odd page memory book uh that we will spiral bound and

078have available at the open house for people to take. Uh it's got some history in it. It's got some just fun pictures in it. Um it really uh we shared it with the committee last week and they were uh impressed with it. So, we'll also have um essentially very similar event at Jackson. So, Saturday the 25th from 1:00 to 4:00, that's Madison. Sunday, May 3rd, that's uh Jackson. Uh and they'll do a 1:00 to 4:00. There's going to be a a program, short 30-minute or so program at each school. Um that'll start at 2:00 p.m. So, we figured we'll put it in kind of in the middle and people can go through and then stay for the presentation if they're interested. Um and we'll have a special guest at Madison, a 102-year-old former teacher uh

079who will be present uh and her son is going to share some uh prepared memories that she has had and uh uh will be real real special day uh for those that are involved in that. So, hopefully you can um find time to make it through there. Um just very grateful for our partnership with the YMCA um and continued working on our planning for having all-day 4K programming next school year. Reminder to the community that you can go to our website to register. Um we should have a pretty good um you know, by June really good number on, you know, how we're doing in comparison to other years that we'll be able to share with you. Uh we're very very that the YMCA applied for a West Foundation grant that will help offset some of

080our operational costs of doing this for the first time. Um and so we're very grateful not only to the West Foundation but for the YMCA who who submitted the grant really that is mutually beneficial to to to all of us um especially our parents of of four-year-olds at this point in time. Um and uh lastly um as part of the consent agenda tonight under the personnel report um you approved the hiring of a new athletic director and activities director for the Manitowoc Public School District and we're very pleased to have her with us tonight. Molly Willsman is with us. Um Molly has served as a science teacher and a coach at Lincoln High School for oh gosh put me on the spot 20 nine years. Uh so do you want to stand up Molly and

081congratulations and welcome. Do you have any words of wisdom for us or we going to put you on the spot or not tonight? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yep. We're very excited too. So thanks for being here. Um the only other thing uh that I have is just a note that I I jotted down um earlier in the uh public comment section there was some conversation about uh the role of our staff in the in the walkout. I really just want to clarify for everyone uh that no staff members of the of the school were involved in supporting any political action here. Um what they were really doing is serving a um a doctrine uh it's a law doctrine. It's called locus locus parentis and what it basically means is that

082in the absence of parents we are that. Okay? So if we find out that our kids have to leave our or are leaving our school for something um the school job and responsibility is to try to ensure their safety. All right? So in this particular case supervision was provided because of locus parentis. Uh we wanted just to make sure that kids are safe when kids are doing or participating in those type of activities you never know how people are going to react to that. So having adults there as far as the district was concerned was an important part of keeping our kids safe. Um and I'd be happy to entertain any questions anybody has. What does what WINN stand for because I don't don't know what what WINN stands for. I what I mean it's

083basically like if you need help in a certain subject you go to a specific teacher. It's like I believe a 45-minute period um between your first class and your second class where you can get extra help if you need it. Okay. So in the absence of my age itself knowing what a study hall is is that so is that a reasonable correlation? Some students use it in different things during that time. Okay. You can use it for enhancement um like special groups will meet for extra help or like um differentiation for kids who are advanced in an area they go in there and they do extra thing for physics or something like that. >> Okay. Well thank you Lulu for the explanation. Study hall indeed. Any questions? Any other questions for leave? Um director's report

084you got the copy of that. I think you got a email from Katie. If you have a question she knew she wasn't going to be here. If you have a question on any of that please contact Katie Katie or Heidi. Um Any question? Thanks thanks the director again for outstanding but Heidi reported which I think is really good the elementary um testing participa participation is almost 100% and I know do we know the high school numbers cuz last year they were not so good and this year are what are the do you know the participation? Um you're talking for like the ACT and things. Yeah yeah. So uh the ACT uh is in the I I don't remember the exact figure it's in the 90s and I know for sure This should be >> Yes

085yeah. And I know for certain that the pre-ACT on the very first day was 93%. >> Awesome. Good. Because everything below 95% counts as an automatic zero. And when you average that out that lowers our test scores. gets kids to get the test. Right. That's why that participation is important. Very key. Any other questions? If not then that then we'll move to the uh unfinished business. We have none of that. We move on to new business and I will turn it over to the curriculum committee. >> [clears throat] >> The curriculum committee met with several different groups that brought forth uh curriculum and some requests. Uh the first one we'll talk about is the K-6 grade general music curriculum. Um they still are doing K-6 even though we're moving the schools because of the way

086that you offer music classes at the middle level. Um there are some minimal recurring costs to that but it's so that they have access to updated music every single year that's new and stuff like that. So the curriculum committee would uh make a motion that we accept uh um K-6 general music MP SD curriculum with the recurring costs that would be incurred. Motion from Mr. Bowman do I have a second? Second from Mr. Shaw. Any discussion on the curriculum for music? Seeing none all those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed say nay. And continue David. Um we also are the next thing would be the fifth through 12th grade band choir and orchestra curriculum adoption. Um this would in this is a rewrite of the curriculum that's based on the Wisconsin music educational standards

087um which were actually the the template for the national standards. Wisconsin leads in this category. Um so there are expenses up front to replace um aging instruments and this is a one-time cost for those types of things. Um so the the curriculum would make a motion that we accept the 5-12 band choir and orchestra curriculum adoption with the costs to um update pianos and other large instruments. So the motion and a Second. Second from Mr. Shaw. Any discussion? I I was just pretty impressed with how many students are involved in this program. >> [clears throat] >> I mean we we really are leaders in the in from this are some Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Say nay. And continue Mr. Bowman. Um physical education the MP SD curriculum adoption for

088health and physical education K-12. Um there are some costs again for this that are one-time costs to update the weight facilities at Lincoln. A lot of that weight stuff is going to be moved to the old swimming pool at Washington so it's not like we're throwing out this material we're going to be using it and um fixing it up. durability so it maintains its usability. Uh the curriculum committee would move that we accept the physical education curriculum and equipment costs at this. I have a motion to accept the physical education and equipment costs. I have a second. Second. Second by Mr. Shaw. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. There's additional discussion there's some additional uh equipment to come. Right. Well there is. And the old equipment is being moved to the old

089swimming pool at Washington. I we I have to do a different one just for the health. Is that right? Okay. It looks like I actually should do two one for the equipment. So this will only be for the I have curriculum amend that. Okay. This will only be for um the education curriculum which includes updates to the new equipment Okay. for the strength [clears throat] and speed program. That's that's right then. All right. So we will revote on that. So we have a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by Carrie. Any other discussion on that? This for the phy ed curriculum and the new equipment that is needed. We are recycling the old equipment to the Washington uh middle school. Discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed say [clears throat]

090nay. And go ahead David. Um we are making a motion that the or the curriculum committee makes a motion that we accept the secondary math curriculum adoption of I've heard it pronounced many different ways. Savvas. Oh yeah. Savvas envision secondary math. It lines up really well with what they have in place at the elementary middle school level so um they were very excited about it and I make that motion to accept that. I have a motion and a second by Mr. Shaw. Discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed say nay. Do you have the fifth grade social studies and the health yet? And the health yet? And the health yet? What we had to do for the health? Um I think the previous motion covered that. that that Let's look at the math.

091Gary Okay. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Fifth grade. Fifth grade. The curriculum committee makes a motion to approve the fifth grade Savvas My World Interactive Social Studies curriculum to be adopted. That's what >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Shaw. Any discussion on the Social Studies fifth grade curriculum? All those in favor say I. I. All those say nay. And that passes. Mr. Yes. Yes. Just just a point. As a member of the curriculum committee as well, the presentations by the math, music, and physical education department chairs was enthusiastic, energetic, and I mean the the level of which they presented their curriculums to us I think it was outstanding. So, department chairs, thank you for all your work because it was really well done and a great presentation. Thank

092you. I'll I'll circle conclude you. >> [laughter] >> We will move on to the policy committee. Okay, personnel policy. Um Stacy has developed new and much much more specific and full full bodied a contractual contractual um um documents. So, uh they um they seem to like clear up the possibility of some ambiguity in some places and and provide people with a better sense of what they're what they're really getting into. Um So, the the the the the committee made a motion to approve the new administrative and teacher contracts drafts as presented. Um unanimously, so we recommend that to the board. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Seconded from Mary. Any discussion? Yeah, just my understanding is these have all gone through legal as well. Oh, yeah, I think so, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

093Yep, I had our school attorney work with me to revise them. So, he looked at our contracts, compared to other contracts, and he he really wrote them. I just presented them to you guys. Any other discussion? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those say nay. And you continue, Gary. Yeah, the this the second the second thing I I want to present from the committee is the calendar adjustments. Um there's been a lot of kind of controversial controversy in picking away at at at the calendar this year, but anyway, we we we we made a motion and and approved it unanimously. Motion to approve the adjustment and waive May 1st, 2026 snow make up day and have it remain a no school day for staff and students,

094comma. And add two additional professional development days before school starts. Second. I have a motion [clears throat] and a second. Discussion on that. >> I feel those need to be two separate. One is for the current calendar and one is for next year. So, I feel like I guess so. Okay, we can We need two motions. They will only do the snow day Well, let's just do the snow day, yeah, that it'd be waived and uh that that that uh uh it it remain a no school day a no school day for staff and students. Second. So, Gary, you have a second. Any discussion on the snow day? Seeing none, all those in favor of leaving that a snow day, say I. I. And now the second one that All right, the second one is

095to add two additional professional development days before school starts. I have a motion. Do I have a second on that? And a second by Mary. Questions on that? Yes, Anne. So, with the addition of those, if now that it is mid-cycle and they're they're coming out and they may might be making some plans. My understanding they can work with their principals. They can if there's issues, conflicts that come up. Cuz it My understanding these are to move in, right? Right. >> They're essentially to move into the new classrooms. Yeah, I can answer that, Anne. So, we you know, I initially had you approve a board or a calendar, so that's why I'm bringing this because you've already approved a calendar for next year. It's just a change. Um I did talk to our union president

096uh last week about this, so I gave her the heads up that this was coming and let her know to let the union members know as well. Um and I did get that question from her specifically like what if people already have plans for that week before um staff in-service. And what I had told her is we'll just work with those people. There are going to be no meetings those days, no staff obligations, no we're not going to sneak anything on the agenda for them. It purely is going to be for those that are moving to move in and get settled. Um we have talked about it Lincoln High School because obviously they don't have as much um movement up there that they're going to be doing some other they do like a school forest

097day and things like that. Um but if people have plans, we're just going to encourage them to work with their principal and we can work with them on that. It's also new teacher week that week typically where new teachers and mentors and mentees come in. So, I would say the majority of staff um typically are around that week, but we're willing to uh work with people that need need that flexibility. Any other questions? We had a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those say nay. And we will thank Mr. Trask for that and move on to finance, Mr. Shaw. Thank you. Um Under the finance, the first one you're going to see is the audit selection. And it came out of um finance and facilities committee. Motion presented to

098us by Director Milkie is recommending the CLA as the district's audit firm. Finance and facilities committee recommends to the full board of education to accept a three-year with a two-year optional year proposal for CLA for audit services to the Mansfield Public School District. This passed the committee um unanimously and presented to the board as a motion. So, we went through um Is it okay if I Do you want me Let me get a second and then I'll let you do that. Do I have a second from this? Anne with the second. Now we have a motion and a second. Go ahead, Nate. Um so, yeah, so we we did interviews um before spring break. Um had three audit firms come in. Um CLA won won the bid. Um very highly recommended by a multitude of

099different school business officials um across the state. Some districts the same size, some bigger, some smaller. So, they really they help out all sorts of different types of uh of school districts. And Amber Druwinsky Druwinsky is here. I even wrote it down and I flubbed it. >> [laughter] >> Uh is here. She's going to be on the audit team. If you could just tell them a little bit about about your firm. Yeah, I happy to be here. Uh hopefully uh glad to hear references checked out. Um CLA as a whole, um we do it in Wisconsin. We're a national firm, um but we we really started in Wisconsin as as Schenck that grew into merged in with CLA. Um we have we do all over 100 I think 100 Wisconsin school districts in the state

100now. Um out of our Green Bay office, which would staff the district here, uh we do approximately 60 of those districts based off of based out of that office that are our staff there, principal group there. Um me myself, I've been doing this about 16 to 18 maybe 18 years now um doing it just state and local government and that is what our group um that would be servicing the district would do as well. So, we have a group of about 27 to 30 state and local government team members just based out of our northeast Wisconsin area uh that would service the district. Looking forward to it. Um as as Nate mentioned, we do a wide range. Um I personally work on Kenosha and Racine, so some of the biggest of the biggest, but I

101also work with uh Avalder's right down the road. That's that's smaller scale. So, um any questions about us, we'd be happy to answer at any point time whether it's tonight or another time. Um and I'm sure you'll see myself. We have uh another manager or director technically is her title on the engagement, uh Elizabeth McMasters. She's been with us for over 10 years. And then Brian Brunwald, um who has been doing this for a lot more than me of years, but exclusively to uh we've all worked state and local government. A lot more than 18 so a lot >> [laughter] >> Questions? Seeing none. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. All those say nay. [clears throat] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next one

102from the facilities is the bid for electrical panels. Michael, do you want to come please? I'll have Mike give a little background about what this is all about before I read the motion out of the committee. This was generated by our insurance company. Uh When I started 3 years ago, they were bringing this up right away about our electrical panels in our buildings. Our buildings are aging, the panels are aging as well. This I guess is a point of concern for a lot of for the insurance companies. They've had a a number of fires generated from the electrical panels. So, there's also a new state board now that I forget what it how it's They they do a spark assessment on there and there's a sticker that goes on our panels and everything which says

103the rating on our panels. So, it's it's gotten to be a big deal. So, Nate Teener, our district electrician, has been working with Suburban Electric and Hubbard Electric getting bids from them for about a year and a half now assessing all of this work. So, it's not all of our panels that have to be replaced, but it's quite a few of them that are going to be updated and upgraded. And as we're looking, I mean, a few some of the things I'm looking at uh the insurance companies. They've had a a number of fires generated more electricity into our building. So, as we upgrade these, we want to put additional power into the buildings also if we need that. Some of them are adequate for for it already if we decide to go in that

104direction. So, the entire project is just under $500,000. In that also, Suburban bid a new generator for over at Stangle Elementary because our backup generator does not hasn't worked since I've been here. So, that's about a $60,000 app. Yes. There's lots of those opportunities. So, motion came out of the committee. The motion recommends Suburban Electric to the full board as the contractor to complete infrared scanning and electrical main paneling replacement as designated by the district buildings. Motion passed unanimously by the committee and carried to the full board. Who is Suburban? They are out of Fox out of the Appleton area. They're around all of them. We see them. So, you're making a motion to Do I have a second? Now, do we have any questions? Seconded by Anne. If there's questions, [clears throat] this is

105the $500,000 is coming out of the referendum that was passed. So, it's not going to be a new tax next fall. I do have a question. So, the grand total is what? Is that the 336819? The because this sheet that says 41426 electrical upgrades and that has a grand total of 336819 [clears throat] unless that doesn't have No, it does have the Stangle on there. I mean, regardless, it's less than $500,000. So, I don't have those numbers in front of me. So, all right. Any other discussion on that? Anne. I had to find out if you weren't at the committee meeting and then you had a chance to listen to it. It was a single bid and we talked about the reasons why we couldn't get multiple bids. This wasn't a double bid though. You

106had two bids for this? I believe Hubbard did not You tried to get Yes, we tried. They were working on it a year and a half ago. I I think they're overloaded with work and they're realizing what their schedule is. This work will be done this summer and into the following year. Hubbard did not feel the same. So, we only have one bid. It's to speak. Hey, Anne's comments from the committee meeting. I I don't know of anybody in the trades that's got extra help ready to to be deployed. You know, we're going to be in these sorts of situations where we want to get stuff done and you know, we don't we're not We don't have the multiple bids per board policy, but we need we want to get stuff done and you know,

107good in good faith, Mike tried to get multiple bids. It didn't work out. So, we'd have documentation that made some reach outs and that they refused or weren't interested in submitting. It was verbal. It was a phone call from them, but I could I could get something like that from Jason Hubbard. I think in order to acknowledge that board policy, it would be helpful. Just ask if they could write that up. Sure. If there's other groups that you reached out to, the dates of those and what the response might be. I think it would be a good Yeah. Other discussion. Hearing seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those saying nay. Jefferson speakers and clocks. This again goes back to Nate. So, if you want to give the introduction or make a motion.

108So, Jefferson's going to get an overhaul the PA system and the clock system. So, you know, when when it was built in the in the in the mid-90s, you know, you had like copper wire connecting everything to this big box that sat in the you know, in the in the main office and like when daylight savings time hit then all the clocks went back and you know, but those boxes are like super old and they can't be replaced anymore. So, what what organizations do is they tie these items into like their computer network. So, the blue data cables that you see, you know, well, when we used to have desktops plugged into and what the what the access points are plugged in to and things like that. So, the the clocks and the the speaker

109system are also plugged into that and then they're interacting with the same system that it's the the clock the the speakers are integrated in with the phone system as well, which is all you know, voice over IP all over all over a you know, computer network. So, Hubbard won the bid. They're going to run the data cables. They're going to install the speakers. They're going to be like you know, drop in like like one of these ceiling tiles, okay? And and then the the clocks will be you know, some will be like facing on on a on a on a wall like that. Some of them in the hallway are going to stick out like this and they're going to do all of those things and then we're going to sort of we're going to

110have like that first step to do it in one building. See how it goes and then be able to repeat that process getting referendum dollars just like with with the the panel work. So, Jessica brought that forward. Got two bids, one from Hubbard and one from Suburban. I move to accept the I make a motion to accept the technology department's recommendation to enter into agreement with Hubbard Electric to install cabling, clocks and speakers for Jefferson Elementary. Second. Seconded by Mr. Bowman. Any other questions, discussion? Again, this is something we're catching up on because we haven't done maintenance in the district because of a lot of reasons. All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those saying nay. And Stangle. Thank you. This was a late This was an added. We did not talk about

111this at the facilities committee meeting simply because it came in late and there as we have talked about before, the importance of getting these things through so that these companies can begin working without delaying an entire month to take action and without me having to call a special meeting the day before this meeting to get this on the agenda. So, Mike, if you want to talk about this and then make your motion to the board, please. We are upgrading the interior of Stangle Elementary painting all of the interior walls and originally, I had discussed about new ceiling tile, painting the grid. That's just just for a complete refreshing because we're doing the new lighting in that school also, the upper lighting. So, it'll look brand new on the interior. With our contractor that's helping us,

112CG Schmidt, he did it in from his office in Milwaukee, gave us a bid just off the square footage and all of that stuff. With all of these areas, replacing ceiling tiles and all of that stuff, it came up to the $850,000. I received another bid from Lee's Color Studio in town here at 195 and he is doing a lot of the work that's was in CG Schmidt's side already. They are giving us quite a value because it is local. They don't Otherwise, they're traveling all over the place and they said this is nice work for them if they could get started at it right away here. Say those numbers again. About $850,000 through CG Schmidt and our total will be about 380,000 going with Lee's color. Lee's color, their portion is 195,000 the painting

113and all of that and then replacing the tiles about 188,000. But just today as I looked at it, we decided we're going to we're going to do one room here, one classroom. They're going to do it tomorrow and we're going to spray the existing tiles that are in there. They said they did it down town on the peninsula at one of the factories down there. He said it makes it look brand new and then we don't have to replace all of that. So that 188,000 is going to come down substantially. >> good. David? We're done. Okay. Do we have a first and second already? Well, we need a motion then. I'll make I make a motion um based on timeline that we approve the staying we approve Lee Studio, Lee Color Studio for the Stangle

114painting project. Do we have a second? I'll second it. Does that cover everything that's getting done or what else is in there? >> It may be less like The debt is It covers the majority of the work. There will be some ceiling work in there but that I'm anticipating well under $100,000. Okay. So the motion should be for the painting project or all of the work. And Mike, you have the same problem again with only two bids. And not a third bid. Um if CG Schmidt were to get involved, I'm sure they would be getting uh numerous bids. They do their own painting as a contracting company. They they have their own painters. So I think that's where he got his numbers from. If someone wants to amend the motion, I'll okay them. Amend the

115motion to include all the work and not just the painting if that's what you're looking for. >> Well, I guess the does that make sense to do to get it done? Are we in that kind of situation again? Or can we just go with the painting? I think we can just go with the painting because they're doing so much of the work and we'll be in balance as far as Not too much money. >> So the motion is just for the painting part of the project. We have a second on that. Seconds on that or not? Carried. Carried. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you. Um Any other discussion? Hearing say none, all those in favor say aye. Those saying nay. I believe that's it for committee reports. Thank you. I will try to do

116my reports pretty quickly. Uh just a shout out Andrew Dunlap, congratulations. Did an amazing job the other night at the symphony concert. Um Some of you may remember Michael was a principal for a while I believe down in Madison. Started as director of fine arts. That's right and and uh I heard his son was amazing. He was amazing. I have a shout out too to Jackie Dram. She was just awarded um outstanding female lead in musical for the Jerry Awards I think it is through Appleton. Very cool. I also want to recognize two gentlemen that were on channel 26 that are Lincoln High School students, Silas Ramos and Odin Villers who during that snowstorm that we had was that two weeks ago already or Yeah. went out and shoveled the neighborhood for people. Oh yeah,

117I did that. >> And that's kind of cool that they did that. They didn't ask for money, just went in and helped people out. And that's that's pretty cool thing. Um along with that uh our discussion I think at last month's meeting um as we were going through facilities, there was a project that needed to be done and we talked about local companies and and and uh they have a higher bid but do we consider um them anyway even though the bid is higher and I think that's something that we need to look at as a board to see how much above the bid we would go. Um there was quite a difference between that bid locally and and the other one and and I just want to make sure we're doing the best for

118the taxpayers and I want to support local business. I think that's important. But we have to I get I think we have to look at a percentage or something that that may be appropriate for those kind of projects rather than just looking at it that night. It'd be good to have that. Just an idea, maybe some formal process of that rather than let's go with them. Um Mr. Shawn I talked a little bit about this in in our meeting in preparation for the last finance and facilities committee meeting um and sort of if the board's comfortable uh at least for his committee, the plan would be if we're bringing in bids and our recommendation is not the lowest one, we have to spell out specifically why. And then it would be the pleasure of the

119board. That would take us away from having to follow percentages or amounts rather than but then we would be consistent in how we do that. >> Just so we have something in writing. >> If we ever have a bid that we're recommending that is not the lowest, then it would come with a report why that is so that the committee and then the board would have that information to make a decision. It's good. And my only other comments to maybe echo a little bit of what the superintendent did on the situation that happened at Lincoln. Um I got an email, I got a text when it happened and right away I called the superintendent, I called the principal. There was no forewarning that this was going to happen to our administration staff. So that being

120said, knowing that it was student led and student organized, we had to react to that. Okay? Um I understand it being student led because if you now work with kids and those that have worked with kids at the high school, kids do social media. They watch the news just like we did at that age and that was something to a group of people was important. And there wasn't any teacher organized part of it. It wasn't something that was done that way. It was kids seeing something that they felt was wrong and created that event. Okay? So it was not anything anybody did within the schools to get that to happen. Um part of that is that when that happened and and Mr. Shawn and I were talking because we had a situation the same type

121of thing happened when we were working where a student went to a protest and then came back and had skipped out of class. And at that time the punishment was on your first offense you had to do a detention and the young man got a detention for or um doing [clears throat] that. So the policy was if there were students that were not in class that took part in this and were marked absent, they will go through the process of skipping a class and what the punishment is for that. Now some of them it may be their first time, some of them it may be a couple times and that punishment is different depending how many times you decide to skip out of class. But that punishment is there. Um the reason some people may

122believe that it was a school sanctioned thing or teachers were involved is because as Lee said, we had people that were already working, already getting paid that were able to free up time to make sure the kids were safe and that's something we have to do. All right? And we all know with the state of where we are and people get upset about different things. Um you could have a situation where kids are marching in a group that doesn't believe in it, you could get into a situation. So it was nice having adults there not saying anything, not encouraging, just there supervising to make sure the kids were safe. Um If you look at this, it it's a first amendment issue and these have happened now across the country. Um A good friend of mine

123was telling me about one in New Jersey where the principal suspended everybody involved in it. Okay? It doesn't matter if you do that, you do what we do or you do something else, she's got lawsuits now because all those kids are suspended and they're out of school for a period of time from the parents. So these are all things that are going to be worked out in court but as of now, you have the right under the first amendment to do this. We have things that we will do if you were truant from school during that time and those things have been done. But anything you read on social media saying we were part of the organization or anybody in the district was part of that is wrong. That didn't happen. Um but if you

124have other questions about that, board members you can ask to at the end of this meeting and we are getting close to the first part of it. We'll look at our dates that we got to do. Um April 28th, that's the organizational meeting for the last election. We'll have a short meeting um organize and then we have a short board meeting that has to clean up >> are you What's the time to especially >> Can we do this at 5:00? That was an email that went out asking if we could do it at 5:00 on the 28th. Wasn't it I actually answered that. Yes, the reorganization. That's the reorganization at 5:00 on the 28th. >> think this is the email. There were several today. Well, I don't know. This was the And then there's the

125regular I think we talked about it. You said you checked and it was good, but I can't remember correctly. I'm pretty sure. Again, Double check and let Lori know tomorrow if 5:00 doesn't work and we'll come up with something. And then the regular meeting is following that? There's a short meeting after that, after the reorganization. Yes, there is. I don't see us being here longer than 5:30. Should be about a half hour meeting then. Um 25th is the Madison celebration. That was already mentioned. That May 3rd is Jackson celebration. I had a friend who did a tour of Jackson and loved it better than going through Lincoln High School. Her comment was, I spent 7 years there in as Uh May 5th The week of May 5th are the committee meetings. So, just kind of

126mark that on your calendar. That's where the committees are. Um any questions on any of those dates? Seeing none. I make a motion to adjourn. Uh we got to go into closed session. I make a motion to go into closed session. >> Session. I'll second. When is graduation? June 12th. It's all here. I'll read this before we do that. Board of Education will move to convene in closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 19.851C 19.851C 18.22 for the discussion and deliberation regarding employment, promotion, compensation, performance evaluation of any public employee over which this body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. We are going to do issue of preliminary notices of non-renewal and potential resignations in lieu of non-renewal. Uh that's something we'll discuss in closed session. So, we need to go into closed session. Do I have

127a motion to go into closed session? David, do I have a second? And Lori, will you do the roll call? Okay. Mr. Ebel is not here. David Boman? Yes. Keith Hanson? Yes. Ann Holsen? >> Hi. Mary Wolfe-Gonis? Yes. Keith Shaw? Yes. And Carrie Traps? >> Yes. Thank you. I'd like to make a motion that it stops raining. >> [laughter]