001MPSD special July 22nd board meeting to order. And if you would all stand the pledge. Appreciate it. I pledge algiance 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. >> Thank you. And Lori, if you would take your >> here. >> David Bowman >> here. >> Hansen >> Here. Mary Ly Bonnik >> present. >> Harry Tr said let there be air and behold it was very >> um afraid. >> Next we're going to be saying >> my god is cold into your words. >> I will not be saying that. >> All right. We have one uh uh regular board thing to take care of a personnel report. So >> yeah, >> Stacy, you're up. >> Thanks.
002Uh and especially this time of the year when we're trying to get people hired. I appreciate being both board meetings um so we can get people there. Uh Patricia Israel is our new associate principal at Lincoln High School. She was planning on being here tonight and got a flat tire. Uh so she had to take care of that, but she assured me she's going to come to the next board meeting uh to introduce herself and to meet all of you. Um but we're excited to have her on staff. You can see um we're f we we're finding some people. Uh we still need some special ed teachers for sure is an area um of need and you can see a few other a lot of those that are at the bottom of um open positions.
003We are in the in the process of um interviewing for and having some candidates um specialized for this area. And you can see we did hire um one special ed teacher who's going to be on a license with stipulations who's already enrolled in a program. So keeping up with all those folks as well. >> Cool. >> Any questions? We >> Is there anything official we have to do with that? >> Yeah, we have a motion. >> Make a motion to associate principal. >> Second. >> Can I ask who made the motion? >> Keep. >> Okay. Thank and we'll give it to um >> Ann she drove fast today. >> Not overly fast. >> Any other discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I say nay. And that being done, we will move on
004to for this evening. Um, with as we use WASY to help us find the superintendent, they also provide services for the board. So, as Le and I talked and and talked with Patty, we thought it'd be a good idea to just go through some things. Um, and I was thinking about this today, ladies and gentlemen. We have an opportunity to um, I mean, I look at this board and and we've got former educators, we have business people, we have HR people, we have college instructors, we have a group of people, and I think you would all agree over the last couple months that we've had some discussions, but people think and they kind of honor what people say. and and uh I appreciate that. So um today's educational >> aspect will help us as a
005board maybe make some more decisions and um clear up some things and uh with that being said, do you want for or turn it over to Patty right away? >> Okay, turn it over ahead. >> So thank you. It's nice to be back with those of you that I spent lots of hours with earlier this year and a few that I spent just a short period of time with. >> Uh today I tend to over plan. So if we don't get through everything, I will make sure that we get through some essentials and we also cover the superintendent evaluation because you get a free subscription to that for one year. After that, it's renewable on an annual basis for $390. with that you get everything that comes with the superintendent Dell and we'll be going
006through that. So part of our objective is that today I want you to have a chance to get to know each other a little bit better since some of you have been on the board for a while some of you are brand new and also for us to see the diversity that exists within your team. So, the first activity that I would like you to do is to pair up with someone. Could be the person right next to you or however you want to do it. And I want you to ask them these three questions. And they should give a single answer, not a dissertation. Okay? So, just a single answer. When did they first become connected to the Manitwalk district or community? And those questions I'll leave up on the the screen. What is
007their why? So why do they dedicate time to serve the community on the school board or as superintendent? And what's one thing? You all bring many things to this leadership team. And I'm going to refer to this whole group as the leadership team, but share one thing that you bring to this leadership team that will be helpful as you go forward. So, I'm going to give you about three minutes to quickly interview each other and then you will be introducing the person you interviewed. >> They will not be talking about themselves. >> Okay. >> No, we're know each other better because of campaigning. We know you two the least. So, we're coming over by you. >> So, I know you wanted to pair up next to each other. >> So, one of you needs to
008go over there probably. >> Yeah. Oh. Oh, she's gonna She wanted >> I know him. >> Yeah. >> Really well. >> Oh, you said because you're coming to talk to him. >> Yes. >> Sorry. >> I know David very well. So, I want to say >> kick in. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> First connection. >> You want me to go first? >> Graduate from here. No, actually special education. >> Okay. >> My way through. >> But that that wasn't for the job that you studied. What is your why? forever building special education because when I was a teacher >> why did you >> regular special was regular >> okay >> started the school >> bad frustration my own >> and then share one thing attitude >> experience >> do something back for
009the community >> there was a vacancy >> back to the >> just run for the Um >> because there was he didn't experience >> I think I bring is >> 23 years ago >> got a job at the community. All right, you should be going on to your second person. >> Okay, Washington. >> Um, graduated in 91. >> I wanted to add the idea. >> So, uh, family of teachers from Lincoln um, family of teachers. >> So, I have that makes sense. >> Yep. >> Yeah. I don't know. It was the challenges that educators face >> personal same as you >> like we were swinging to the left then we'd swing way to >> sometimes I was at the morning >> not helpful >> you know >> how do how do we all become winners
010game is for school boards and government >> however chose to >> you know >> you're talking about zero >> right driven me crazy all the way >> yeah it's >> and that runs don't Yep. >> That's um share one thing. >> One more minute. >> I think the Republicans spend money. >> I'm an outsider. >> But it was an outsider. >> Finance was >> unless unless you >> unless you're in Manitwalk >> or an outsider. >> So you came I used to I I love >> young adults because as an adult educator for the middle >> and also the other on what was great. Yeah, you have >> 2001 came in with a big group and Clark traveling west and they thought >> we're going to start and Okay. >> All right. What else? What
011else? >> Okay. So, this is Biff Hansen. Biff came to I'm shocked public school district in 1960 as a kindergarten student at McKinley school. >> Uh Miss Rothenbach, did I get that right? Rothenb was was his teacher. Um secondly, his why um particularly becoming an educator. Um he had an experience at Riverview School uh where he was uh basically shown a staff that was very kid- centered and it had a huge impact on him in deciding to go into education. Um and what he brings to uh >> did you tell him who your supervising teacher was? >> Oh boy. I am >> he brings knowledge uh of the community and has uh been involved in it for many years as well as his passion for every kid. >> Okay, Bill. >> Superintendent Lee Tennis came
012to Manitwalk in 2001 >> and I think that winter you actually were sledding with our kids on the hills at Wilson. There's a bunch of new staff members and they came over to help out because I had no idea what I was doing with kids. Um, the why sense of the greatest the greater good and that creates the greater good in more people um not just for the district but for all the man walk and I think that was important. Um it's kind of a Yuper thing I think to the greatest good. >> Um >> his community connections that he's developed over the year for the last one thing is um is impressive. We in one of our meetings somebody made a comment about people in Manitiswalk aren't open and don't accept people. Well, he
013he's proven that completely wrong because into this community I think in in our process of uh hiring you we've seen that support from the community on what you've done over the years. >> Okay, Biff, choose the next pair to go. Bowman. >> Mr. Ael came here in the 80s to help paint a house. >> He bought the job. It was the community. He liked the community. So then he got the job here later. um his his why on the school board as a teacher. He felt frustration um in the way that the board was operating with the rest of the district and the community and had frustrations with that and thought he could help remedy the situation. Um and his secret power is he has a broad range of governance experience. >> Thank you. >>
014David came here first 23 years ago which would be 2002. Yes. Yes. >> And for a job >> with the district. >> Yeah. >> Um why did he decide to join the board? Because he kept seeing and was getting fed up with the zero someum mentality of you either win or you lose. But not enough working together, which I think is really nice to fix at least at some level government. Um and favorite is what is the special thing his magic power that he brings. This one made me laugh. He said he's an outsider. And I know how he feels because unless your grandparents were born here. >> Everybody says, "Oh, but you're not from here, right? You're, you know, like you could be here 27 years and you're still not from here." Or if
015you're born and you leave these things, then you come back, you're an outsider. >> That's like I see people like that and I say it's like the mafia. I want to bring these boys back in. >> Okay. >> Pick the next group. >> I I'll let David do. >> David. Okay. >> Okay. Um Representative Shaw. I started in uh education in 1973. Got started in Manitwalk 1973. um went to Madison for his education degree and then Milwaukee for special education emphasis. Uh he became a went on to Lincoln principal and um for number two his why um he was one of the early uh educators on the board. He saw there was a lack of representation from an educator perspective. So um he wanted to contribute that way and and that was his way to
016give back to the community and um his things that he has abilities experience in the school district and leadership abilities from being a principal from being in the community. So >> yeah Annne Hosen um went to Washington Junior High in 1988. So I was here in 1973. I don't even think she was born when I started in this district maybe. But anyway, graduated from Lincoln High School in 1991. And she is from a family of educators which she never went to be an educator but always tweaked that little interest of what it was like to be an educator and strong relationship to that field. um the why she wanted to give back to the community and uh even more is her experience of of wanting to do good for the people in this community as
017as well as as her need to to to do that and serve that purpose. Um she is a strong business and adult education leader. She feels that that is one of the strengths that she can bring to the board. But I also think that there's a strength that she brings to the board and that's a a level of of attitude. I think when anybody on this board has seen our board over the past few years, the attitude of camaraderie and the strength of what we needed to bring a cohesive board together is very important and I and I think she brings that to this board a great deal. >> Okay, choose the next group. want me to go [Laughter] >> Mary who I thought had been in in Manador for a long time didn't come
018until 2011 and but uh has spent pretty much her whole adult life in in in education. I mean all of her childhood in education I guess too. But um um so um she got interested she got interested in the board by being kind of turned off by what was happening. you know, things were falling apart and um you know, there was all kinds of well, there wasn't so much dissension because for a while I was the only non the only person that voted no on anything, but uh it was it was it was it was pretty bad and especially during especially during co and so Mary who has some experience in HR but is also teacher and you've been a principal too, Right. >> Assistant principal. >> You know, director of curriculum. >> Director of
019curriculum. Yeah. >> So, you know, thought thought that the whole process going on here needed help and uh and has, you know, stepped up and and and is got elected providing that. I think her I think her her her secret power which is not so secret is lots of experience, lots of thinking about education, lots of variety of roles in in education and so you know kind of a renaissance member. >> Yeah. >> So Carrie is also not a local. >> Yeah, I'm not a local. 1972 he >> local either >> I don't want to say how old I was >> all right >> but I was just a weak child >> for a job >> work at W man right >> and professed his great knowledge um so in 2021 or 2020 you he
020ran for state assembly and did not win >> and um I think it would be very hard for a democrat to win in that race. And so someone said, "Hey, there's a vacancy on school board, consider it," and jumped at that opportunity, which we're lucky to have him on this team. Um, and he said it and to describe me, but himself as well, education his whole life has has been his >> his thing. So, he's bringing that skill and that dedication to the board. >> Yeah. I was attracted to the when Lisa Johnson called me and said, "Oh, come on. We want you to run. You've got a good name recognition from the election." And I thought, "Oh, God." You know, I'm supposed to be retired. But um you know, I really did think because
021the the clouds were already forming and u I thought, well, you know, I could represent a point of view that might be helpful. But mostly I wanted to try to run for election and win for a change. >> Still a um a partial Y term Y >> because I remember doing it was during CO and we did your interview virtual. >> Yep. Right. >> Because after that interview I was waiting >> for that to finish so I could go um find out I had a new grandchild that was find out what it was. >> Wow. We couldn't go to the hospital at that time. >> Okay. So, the purposes of tonight's workshop is typically this is a transition meeting that we do when we have conducted a search and we offer it. Not everybody takes
022advantage of it. But when Lee and Biff reached out, I said, "Well, we can address some of those things in this transition meeting." So, we're going to talk a little bit. We did introductions working together as a leadership team. We'll do a little overview of WSB's essential framework elements of governance. Then we're going to talk about board and superintendent roles and responsibilities, levels of authority and norms, some communication needs that maybe we need to work out or we don't. And then talk about a board self- evaluation process and a superintendent evaluation process. And then of course when I talked with Liam Biff, there is a goal setting process to this evaluation thing, but they decided that that goal setting process would probably wait till October because they'll have some important data pieces coming in and
023there'll be some updates with the strategic plan. So it makes sense to have all of that data together before you actually go and and set some goals. So one of the things is I'm just going to put these team commitments up here. I call them the bees. So, just for today, be respectful, non-judgmental. I don't think we're going to have any issues. You guys seem to be really working well together. Be a good listener and open to hearing all points of view. Be curious and open to new learning. Be authentic and welcome that from others. And be purposeful and to the point. Like I said, I have a lot of material to go through. Um, but there are conversations we will start and you certainly can go into them more in depth at other points
024of time. So, what is it like to be in a relationship with you? Has anyone done the north, south, east, west before? Okay. In your packet, you have a compass sheet that looks like this. Okay. I'm going to give you five minutes to go ahead. I don't want you to overthink any of this. You're going to be selecting pairs of words and which ones are important to you that describes you more than what the other one does. Okay? So, you'll do the first test which is north or south. You'll do the second test which is east or west. You total up your numbers at the bottom. And then on the back of the second page, you will be adding up your numbers. And it's then going to tell you which direction on the compass you
025tend to fall. And we will then have you organize yourselves by those and see where we have commonalities and where we have differences. When you get done with your uh while we're waiting for everyone to get done, I want you to put your name at the top of this note card and I want you to put down two things about yourself that you strongly believe nobody else here knows about you. Okay? It's going to be a little starter that we have throughout the the meeting. So, two things that nobody probably knows about you. Put your name at the top and I'll be collecting those from >> personal educational. >> Whatever you want to put. Whatever you want to put. I had someone last night put that they were a jockey with the Greyhounds. >> Oh,
026buddy figured that one out. >> We did this at the block party years ago. >> Yeah, >> Shannon. Okay. >> So, when you have this done, I want you to put it at the front of the table. And I'll come around and pick it up. And I'm gonna have Lori do one, too. >> Okay. >> You want your name on this? >> Yeah. Put your name up at the top because people will be guessing when I read the statement. Three guesses. Congratulations. You do that. A science person. Science is math. 24 on each one, right? >> Yeah. So, you count one and subtract from 24 to get the other. Don't count them both. That'd be crazy. >> No, that's not me, though. said two >> two things for that >> and then you have to
027yeah two things on your card >> okay >> just two things >> both don't think about >> don't overthink it should be what impresses you the most what's going on >> don't think I'm fishing Hey, I'm going to give you one more minute. >> Especially when you're determined to make sure your result is that you are north by >> Northving Albert Hitchco. That's what I want to be in honor of Albert Hitchcock. Absolutely. >> So, which one do you want to be? >> I want to be North by Northwest. >> Well, that's what I am. And I didn't get the answer. Or am I supposed to say that? Sorry. We'll we'll determine where you go after we get everybody done here. >> Everybody's always telling you where to go. >> My apologies. >> Thank you.
028>> Got to look at the teacher look. >> And the things about us can be anything. >> Yes. >> Just >> anything. >> And then we have to do this little card. >> Yes. Put your name at the top here. Okay, now I'm going going to be asking you to go and stand by the sign that is closest to you. If by chance, let's say you're east south, but you also are southeast that you are tied, then read the descriptor underneath and say which one really makes the most sense to you. So, south and southeast and southwest and west south are all there. >> East are over here. North is over here. North is that way. So north is over there. >> I was not. >> What if I don't want a career? >> This
029is pure west here. >> Pure west. Yeah, that's actually with the color thing. >> Yeah. >> And then we got >> with a bunch of people. [Music] >> Okay. >> So, read the area that you are and have one and talk about when you're in a group. Otherwise, you get to do this by yourself and you're in a group. Talk to yourself, buddy. >> Determine, read the description underneath. Determine what it is about your area that people misunderstand. >> What do they misunderstand about your area and then I'm going to ask you to take a spokesperson. The spokesperson will say what the category is. We'll read the descriptors and then we'll share what it is that people misunderstand about your personality type. What what people think about us? >> Okay. So, you two can go
030together. >> Similar. >> What's the order? >> You need to stand by your two highest >> stand. Figure it out. Carrie needs help. >> We also did this as a couple. They said, "When you get out of balance, and these things are >> think that I'm an >> I say, "No, you're wrong. >> We don't have time for you right now." >> Well, there no balance. >> We're drivers. We want to get things done, right? >> Oh my god. >> I was only one. >> Okay. >> Carrie, what they're talking about is the descriptors and what do people misunderstand about >> things? >> What were you? >> I I get that you know what you're talking about. >> That's how I >> don't know today. Agreed. >> What do people misunderstand? >> And then for
031me, >> yeah. What is your descriptor? >> What do they misunderstand about your personality? >> Let me get my glasses. >> It's not time sensitive like that. >> Oh yeah. when you have procedures >> like that. >> I'm a north libert. >> You're a northeast. Okay. Is planning your thing? Love it. >> It depends on what >> because like when I was teaching everything was magic all the time because >> Okay. Welcome. >> Lori says she's a northeast, which means she works hard, she's productive, takes responsibility, is serious, she catches mistakes, she finishes task. I think that probably fits her pretty well, doesn't it? Okay. And it also is a northeast is structured, detailed, organized, that kind of thing. Okay. Let's go to this group. Somebody read. Are you all the same one? You're all
032Northwest. Okay. Interesting. >> Uh, the rest of you pay attention to this crew. >> You should. >> Okay. >> I would never have guessed that. >> Are underneath Northwest. >> Assertive, decisive, flexible, creative, adventurous. >> Okay. And what do they misunderstand about you? >> Where mentioned some of the things that we said. What did you say? >> I cross that >> guys. Can we listen? >> I didn't like that we're indecisive. >> Sorry, we don't listen very >> or our pet peeve is not always indecision. >> Okay. >> Because I'm okay depending on the the circumstance. If a decision needs to be made and under time constraint, >> then I then I am not happy with that. If it's a strategic visioning or collaboration exercise like this >> and >> okay anything else >> talk
033show host >> well they said that spontaneity is in there under west and I'm not spontaneous >> okay >> it's not planned I don't >> but when you look at the typical jobs of a northwest coach manager project leader a chief executive those all come in that area, don't they? Okay, let's go to this group who's still >> socializing. Okay, what is what is the what is the descriptor for you guys? >> Carrie and I are Southwest. >> Okay. And what is and there's your descriptor. There's your descriptor under Southwest. >> Friendly, caring, flexible, creative, adventurous. >> Okay. And what do people misunderstand about you? >> I'm not friendly at all. Um I didn't understand we both for Southwest had said a salesperson but both of us would never >> I every time you walk
034on stage >> you're a sales >> you are selling >> that is selling >> missionary >> and missionary you know service >> yourself >> yeah I come I mixed them up >> okay so you're south >> I'm southeast East. >> You're southeast. Would you >> get over here? Me, too. But >> hey, so go over there with Keith so he's got somebody to work on. >> Okay. >> I'm Southeast. >> So read what Southeast is. >> Southeast says, "Friendly, caring, structured, detailed, and organized." >> Okay, that makes sense. And what do people misunderstand about your group? >> Well, and the job and the descriptors, I could probably do all those things. I would not be a very good coach because I'm not very athletic. Um, but I could I could certainly help somebody be a
035coach. >> That's Yeah, >> but I think the job descriptures I probably fit me pretty care. I I >> Yeah, peaceloving. I'd rather peace love than fight. I'm structured. I friendly, logical. Yeah, I guess that fits me pretty good. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Much more than a military officer. That would not be >> I'm looking at that. >> Okay. So, we have a group over here that probably is adventurous. So, is this group over here adventurous? This group tends to like to make sure everybody's point of view is heard and that people are being nice to each other and whatever. Sometimes people think you guys aren't being so nice because you're just focused on get the job done. Let's take a risk. Let's, you know, get it going. And that group over there says you
036two groups, we need to have organization. We need to have a structure. We need to have processes. >> So you need to have all of those things. Now sometimes when people have done this activity, they just do north, south, east, and west. And it's very confusing because people will go, well, I'm a little bit east, but I'm a little bit north. So this particular activity that I put together has where you can be in some of those different areas. Okay? So it just says that this is the way you're most comfortable. It doesn't mean that you can't develop the other skills or appreciate the other skills. Okay. You can go back. You can keep these. Want to try it on somebody at home? You can. That makes more sense. >> And Carrie, I do need
037your card here with Two things about yourself. >> Two things about yourself. >> And while he's doing that, we're going to go on >> people. >> So, this is WB's essential elements of governance. What we did is we looked at all of the research that is out there about effective governance. There's been research that's been done by D Dr. Michael Ford at W Ash Oshkosh. There's been research that's been done by the Center for Public Education. And this essential elements of governance is what we focus a lot of our workshops on and our work with school boards and with superintendent. So you can see as part of your role as a board, your central mission is governing for high levels of learning for all children. That's what everything should be funneling into. What contributes to
038that? Quality leadership, which is everybody from you as the board to Lee as the superintendent to uh the administrative team to department chairs to your district office leaders even down to the classroom where your teachers are considered the leaders in their classroom. To the left is communication and engagement and that is two-way. How are you communicating with your public, with your stakeholders? How do you invite feedback in from them? How do you engage them? That includes your students and your staff and your parents and families and community. The next one going around is accountability. That is the one that most school boards are most familiar with because they're elected by their constituents and it's fiscal responsibility and accountability, but it's also instructional accountability because your community is looking for you to educate all children. And
039then the last one is a strategic focus on the future because you cannot just live today. We used to talk about strategic plans going out for five to seven years. you no longer can do that. The max is three because the world is so constantly changing. So a strategic focus on the future is when you make a decision while it may be a decision that needs to be made for today, you also have to think what is the longevity of this decision going forward. How will it impact the rest of the organization? You have a copy of this that you can look at later in your folder. It actually gives you more of the things that are underneath each of those categories. So, for instance, when we go out as governance consultants, many times boards
040will call us up or superintendents and they'll say, "We need you to come in and talk about uh accountability and data things. We need you to come in and talk about communication strategies. we need you to come in and talk about strategies to improve learning for all students or how to a governance culture. So that helps us develop the topics in the area that they want to look at. So quality leadership tonight we're going to go over like I said the board superintendent roles and responsibilities. We'll look at the law but we'll also go as to what are some common things that occur. Talk about what makes for a strong board superintendent relationship. uh communications and trust. Talk about board norms a little bit. You have a policy for a code of conduct, but I
041doubt that you read it every time before a board meeting. So, we'll talk about why board norms are important, and then we will talk about the self- evaluation process for both the board and the superintendent. >> So, here's some of the research that's out there, especially that's been kind of gathered about effective schoolboard characteristics. And uh Lori has the fullsize um PowerPoint of this. Did you say you loaded it into their >> I didn't because I made copies. >> Okay. But if if you wouldn't mind loading it into their >> board book, >> their board book, then you would have a larger version of it. So effective schoolboard characteristics, a commitment to a vision of high expectations for all kids is your top priority. You have strong shared beliefs and values about teaching kids. You're
042accountabilitydriven. You make decisions that are data centered. You align your resources to meet your district goals. You have a collaborative, supportive relationship with the staff in the community. That's not just Lee's job. That's the entire leadership team's job. You take part in team development and training just like you are here. Some of you mentioned going to like the fall regional workshops. I know some of you new board members went to the new board member workshops. So, you take part in professional development and you lead as a united team with a superintendent built on collaboration and trust. So, lots of research that says how well you carry out your governance responsibility as a leadership team determines the quality of education the children serve. We've all been in situations and communities where there's so much scuttle at
043the board level that things just seem to be spinning. When you can be united and you can be moving forward, not that you're always agreeing on everything, the education for the kids is going to go up and it's going to improve because you're focusing your efforts in the right place. And I put a picture of your kids graduating there because what greater uh accomplishment is there for you to be sending out a group of young people into your community, into the state, and into the world who are ready to be compassionate citizens in our global society. So here are a couple of themes. There's four themes of good governance. One is that you have a collective commitment and you agree on the direction. Okay? It's not just, oh, these are Lee's goals, or these are
044the board president's goals, or this is the principal's goals. You have a common direction. You agree on the structures that you're going to have in place. Are they school improvement plans? Are they district improvement plans? I know you have a district strategic plan. You work with the superintendent and you're always looking to continuously improve because we all know just like it says if you don't know where you're going just any road may not get you there. This one is sometimes one that challenges people and there's moral imperative. What does moral imperative mean? It means a relentless commitment to the learning of all students. No exceptions. Which means no saying, well, they come from a poverty family and their parents can't support them. No saying, well, they have a special education need, so we shouldn't expect
045them to achieve at a high level. It is a relentless commitment to the learning of all students with no exceptions. And ultimately, that should be what's directing your vision, your decisions, and your outcomes. So that when you're making a decision, and it's about literacy. I think it was here when you were talking about literacy. How does it affect all kids? The third one is understanding that there is a governance mindset. Sometimes when we have board members get on who have been leaders in other aspects. Now I think Chris is a little bit different because he's been in public government as well. When you have been on the United Way board or on the hospital board, number one, usually the CEO chooses who's going to be on the board and it's usually everybody who thinks the
046organization is great. That's a little bit different with a school board because you have elected officials and some people may get on a board who are not interested in what's best for all kids. They just are interested in the tax thing. So everybody has some different reasons for getting on the board. The one thing that is helpful is when their experience on a board can start to gel around the many things that are involved with being a board. I used to have people who would get on a board when I was in Ashkosh who we had boundary change. I think I was on a 100 boundary change committees and they finally felt but who would get on because oh we're going to close the our elementary school and they'd run for the board and there
047were a couple of people who got on with just that agenda but they ended up being excellent board members after a while because they decided they were going to do the professional development. they were going to learn about governance and they were going to do that. And you all know as board members, there's a lot more laws that govern how you behave as a board as well. It's not like the church council where you can have a meeting and then go out in the church parking lot and complain about what happened at the church council meeting, right? Because then all of a sudden we've got a walking quorum and we've got all that stuff going on. And of course, the governance mindset is remembering that accountability and support go hand in hand. You can't hold
048someone accountable but then not provide them with the support that they need in order to do their job. And the last one is a focus, a unity of purpose. You know that you have some core values and beliefs that you all share that are in common about the children, the district, and of course public education. So effective powerful governance occurs when the board is operating in a unified cohesive manner with a unity of purpose driven by that moral imperative of educating all kids. So this is your mission statement. This is your vision statement. I have to give you kudos. Usually people have those flipped around or they have a vision statement that's two paragraphs long. You've got it right. Okay? and you have core values that are values that are important to your community that
049you believe in need to be guiding you. I'm not sure when was the last time that you did this. Does anyone know? >> I would say probably like 2017, 18, 19. So this may be something that when the next time you do your strategic planning, you actually focus an activity on do we need to revisit this so that it's reflecting the current status of education, the current status of the world. You may come back and it may be no, it's still working with us, but it's just like your policies. You should probably do a check on it and say is it still working with us? There's something we need to have. Last night I was working with a board and they for some reason had a value of professionalism and they go well that's a
050given that shouldn't be something that we you know so they were ending up changing some things. >> So next you have some postits on your on your table. I want you to think about what are some next steps you need to take as a team. Does your mission, vision, and core values reflect the belief that all children can learn? So, I need you to kind of think about that. Does your board believe that all children can learn? If not, what do you think needs to happen? And do all your district staff believe that all children can learn? And if not, what steps do you think taken. So, I'm going to give you a couple of minutes to think about that and then we will just popcorn and share some ideas, but you can write your
051thoughts down, put one idea on a post-it note and things like that because it is rare that people can say 100% of our staff believe that because you have such a diversity in this. So, it may help you to think about are there some things we need to be much more direct about as we're meeting with our staff or with our parents or with our community. I'll give you a few minutes to think about that and I will put this back up there for you. Statement, vision, and core values. each idea on a separate. >> Yeah. Because what we'll do is I'll come around and collect your ideas that you have and we'll put those in the thing and then I will pipe those up and I'll get those to uh Biff and to Lee
052to look at and see if there's some things they want to have further discussion with you all at another time. This is also a good uh discussion starter for you to be thinking about after you leave the meeting. Are there some things that we could be doing a little bit differently? If any of the questions are answered, no Okay, I'm going to give you one more minute and then if you wouldn't mind putting your postits that if you have any at the edge of your table, I'm going to come around and collect them. The time just flies. >> The time just flies. >> I know it does. I messed it up. >> We got a lot of stuff to get through, but hopefully these are just things to wet the whistle and get you thinking.
053>> Pressure is just tremendous. >> So when you make your next decision, oh, let's remember, is this about all kids? I hear no whistle. >> Oh yes. Thank you, sir. >> Bless you. Bless your heart. >> Huh? [Music] >> Ben, you're not performing the next couple days, are you? >> Friday. Green day. Inside, outside. >> Thank you. >> It's right next to the new. >> It's right. It's part of a Harley-Davidson dealership. >> Okay. Now, in your folder, we're going to go on to some of the governance. In your folder, you have an activity. >> Thank you. It should look called drawing the lines. It's It's called levels of authority. Do you have that in your >> Okay, that one is real easy. Okay. What you're going to be doing is you're going to be
054reading a scenario and basically you're just going to choose. There's no right or wrong answers right now. This is like a pretest. Is it something that you believe the superintendent has complete authority beside an act? Is it something that they must inform the board about their actions? Is it something they have to obtain prior approval from you or is it something the board makes the final decision themselves? Okay. So, just go ahead and fill out what you think and hang on to it because we're going to be coming back to that after we go through roles and responsibilities. just circle. I guess it is So [Applause] Okay, I'm going Give you 30 seconds to finish up >> because I just circle >> on the ACT test. C is the answer 33% of the time. >>
055Most of the answer. So if you don't know, guess C. Why that would be that's somebodyate that but I'm not taking that test. >> Before we go into board roles and responsibilities, who on the board was an avid skydiver until their insurance company found out? You get three guesses. >> Wow. >> You mean for real? >> For real. >> Oh, okay. >> That'd be Ann. >> Nope. Keith. Nope. No, >> not Biff. >> Carrie because he's Canadian. >> Keith. That's Keith. So, yeah. >> Really? So, my brother was the the airplane company doesn't cover you. >> Huh? >> The airplane company doesn't cover you. >> No, my insurance company, New York Life, dropped me. Said you skydive, we're dropping you. >> I want to go skydiving. Got I got to find out. You only do
056it once. You sign the waiver. >> Okay, let's go on. Board roles and responsibilities. Basically, your roles and responsibilities are in the law and they come in how you govern yourself. They are in key documents and processes. So, your strategic plan, your board policies, the annual budget that you pass, your plan to connect with the community, of course, the district administrator's job description, their contract and evaluation, and then this is one that not all boards know, but their board's own self- evaluation of how you're doing as a board and what you're choosing to continuously improve on. Basically, it's three things. board policy, the superintendent, and being answerable to your community, which is your stakeholders, which is your students, staff, parents, families, community. Section 118 is really where all the board authority lies, educational goals, managing
057the district, setting the tax levy, making sure educator effectiveness is implemented, and then some very specific ones that may refer to students. student expulsion, the opening and closing of school, determining certain course credits and things like that. Individual board members have no power. Their only statutory powers or duties as individuals are as part of the board and manalk you have board policy 0143 that talks about the authority of individual board members. So I would suggest you read that over and it does talk about how you are to function as a board. It also gives some specific things for your various board officer roles. Sometimes individual board members think that they can request information directly from staff. There should be a process put in place and I don't know Lee if you've had a chance to
058talk with them about if they want something like say from your HR director. Do you prefer that they go straight to the HR director or they come to you and you make the connection? What is your preference? >> I'm comfortable either way. >> Either way. Okay. Um just as long as your administrative team knows that, >> right? >> That you the officers really are the only ones to make requests. So if a board member wants a specific report to be given, they have to ask the off at a board meeting, I would like to have a report done on this because the rest of the board has to decide with everything that administrator has to do. Is it worth that information for all of us to spend the time, the resources, and whatever to generate
059this report? If let's say somebody requests a report and the board says, "No, we we don't feel that that's an appropriate use of time," they can always do their own public records requests, but then it follows along their public records uh request line. And then the board has the power to grant individual board member requests, but it's only as a board that you can do that. Basically, you model collaboration and mutual respect because you want your community and your kids to see you modeling the skills that you want your kids to be emulating. You focus on end results. You establish policies and then Lee is in charge of making sure those policies are administered. You select higher support and evaluate the superintendent. And again, you are in charge of the accountability measures. ensure adequate resources
060and their management. You ensure that the district is legally and ethically doing what it's supposed to do. You orientate new board members so that they can quickly assimilate into their jobs. Your job is to enhance the school district's public standing out in the community. And of course, doing that board self- evaluation. Talk about open meetings laws. You probably are pretty familiar with that. And of course the case of avoiding a walking quorum or a negative quorum. Most people understand that. But what people don't sometimes realize is perception is reality. When I was with a rural school board, I had two gentlemen who were farmers and after each board meeting, they would get together in the parking lot and I'm almost certain they were talking about their tractors or their crops or something. but a constituent
061thought they were talking about the board meeting and challenged that they were developing a quorum, a negative quorum. So sometimes you can be perfectly honest and perfectly legit in having a conversation with another board member, but what's the perception of somebody seeing the two of you interact? How do you balance your core values and the board's unity of purpose? Some people will say, "Well, I represent a certain constituency. They're the ones that got me elected." Well, that may be, but you also represent the entire community when you're on a board. Um, we talked a little bit about having a single agenda and that it's really important to understand that there are many kinds of programs and purposes and agendas. It's not a case of my way or the board's way. When you vote, the board
062votes as a whole and makes a decision. Even if you voted no, if you were in the minority, your job is to support. And if a constituent would say, well, you voted no. How do you feel about it? Yeah, I had a different perspective, but I'm on the board. We vote as a board and I'm going to support the board's decision. Thinking about, you know, negative behavior that bothers you about others. Next time that the board meeting is televised, watch yourself. Turn off all the volume and watch yourself. Do you have any kinds of behaviors that other people would think that doesn't come across? You know, some people are really good about their body language and others, you know, I can't lie because people see right through me. They know exactly when I'm lying. So,
063you know, it's really important to know yourself and to know how you come across. And then of course, are you micromanaging or are you being accountable? And we'll get a little bit more into that later. And then of course the confidentiality, which is so important. Uh not only in your closed session stuff, but in things that come to you that may be coming to you from Lee about students, the expulsions and things like that. And I often say to boards, anything you discuss that is related to closed session stays in close session and it's not even pillow talk. It is something that has to remain sacred to that session and to that discussion. So let's look at superintendent responsibilities. Again, >> question. What do what do you mean by a negative quorum? Negative quorum is
064that you may be having a discussion with something that might end up being a go against something that will be voted on. So it's you and >> a quorum setting like four people or more. >> It may not be four. It may be two. >> Okay. >> But it could be seen as influencing a future decision because you've had that conversation with that board member. >> Thank you. >> Um administrator duties again are by state law. You have the contract, you have board policies, you have your evaluation, and then you have board directives. Basically, they're in charge of the general supervision and management of the school. They cannot be a member of the school board, nor can they interfere with the operations of the board. So sometimes they think we as superintendants can control everything
065that happens at the board level and that's not the case. We cannot interfere with the operation. It's the board president and the board members that are in charge of how that board operates, but they do make recommendations to the board on a variety of things. They lead the organization. They implement policies. They make sure that there's a good organization system. They really should serve as a catalyst for the strategic or long range planning because they have the understanding of all the different elements of the district. Of course, you want them to be an instructional leader and to be up on your curriculum and what is best practice. They need to be a developer of your other administrators. Be able to empower them to do a good job in the work that they do and help
066guide them with the support that they need. Of course, even though you have a finance director or a business director, they ultimately was where the stops when it comes to the budget and the finance. And then they are a relationship builder with students, with staff, with families, with you and with the community. They supervise and evaluate people. They may be doing their district staff. They may be doing principles. A lot depends on what falls under their opaces. It was always interesting because a lot of business people would have three to four people that they evaluated underneath them. They would always be surprised when they'd hear as a principal assistant teacher. You know, that's a whole different ballgame. And the same thing for superintendents. They assist the board president by helping to develop the board meeting
067agenda. They're the principal advisor for the board. They answer to the chain of command directly to the board. And of course, they wear, you know, many hats. The thing with the chain of command is that it's very important that everyone from the teachers through parents through administrators understand how your chain of command works and you have that very clear in your board policy. The question I would ask you is do you have it on the website? Do you have it in your student handbook? Do you have it in your parent handbook? Do you put it out in any newsletters there? You don't have to put the entire policy, but you should be able to put a couple of sentences that would say, "If you have a concern or a complaint, please direct this to the
068staff member that is most closely involved. If you are unable to resolve, please contact the superintendent." That saves people from coming to you with something that they should have taken to their child's classroom teacher. And it also helps the teachers then realize that if they have something that is not sitting right with them or they need improved, they go to their building principal first. We all know there's going to be situations where they'll feel, I can't talk to this person or whatever. That's where the superintendent comes in and facilitates a conversation. And sometimes they just want people to know. They don't actually want it solved and just want you to know. So when we look at differentiating your roles and responsibilities on the left is really what comes under policy. The board looks at the
069big picture. Why is something important? What are the outcomes? How much is needed? How does it affect us? So basically you're doing the vision, the mission, the goals, policies, and you're monitoring things. The superintendent with their team decides who's going to implement everything, how is it going to be implemented, when is it going to be reviewed, where is it going to be enforced, and how will the outcomes be reported back to the board. So you can see in a strategic plan, it's your objectives, action plans, the regulations you have to follow, your procedures, and actually doing the implementation. board of course votes always on things the superintendent recommends. Sometimes the roles interconnect and you may have unique situations coming up where they really it's hard to determine what it's going to be. Budget creation and
070approval can be everything from a department chair submitting a budget to the business to the principal to the business director eventually to Lee and it comes to the board and the board has some input on how the budget may need to be reduced. Uh recommending policy may be something where a teacher will say we really need a policy about cell phones because now cell phones have become an issue. um recommending the hire of new administrators, board committee work. You may have a committee um that meets like your curriculum committee and your curriculum person would be at that meeting providing the expert advice and then of course working with the staff if there are any new initiatives or if you're planning a referendum or things like that come up. So, we have some scenarios for discussion.
071And before we get into this, I want you to think about the the um role of the board. Is it oversight that it's really your job? You're just looking at the big picture or or are you overstepping from your lane into someone else's lane? Or is it no big deal? Really doesn't matter. or it's just not a good idea. So, we're going to read uh took three scenarios and you have that as oversight or overstepping. So, the board is discussing the upcoming budget process at a work session. A board member brings up that there is no mention of district goals or the strategic plan in the process. They remember that during a WB workshop presentation that the budget should be tied to I did not write this >> but I did have somebody choose it
072uh that the budget should be tied to the street strategic plan oversight or overstep. What does somebody think? is oversight. Is this a question that the board should be addressing or >> I I personally think they should because we're involved in the budget process and if it's not living up to what we're expecting as a board, why are we spending money on it? >> Okay, anybody disagree with that? >> Okay, that one is pretty clear. Let's do the next one. Your superintendent recommends retaining a staff member. A board member requests to see the HR file as they do not feel this staff member is thought of as good in the role. When the superintendent denies the request, the board member sends an email to the board demanding they as a board request this information. Oversight
073or overstep? >> Overstep. >> Everybody agree with that? >> No. We've had this discussion, you know, when we do our hiring process and and we've actually voted on it, haven't we? That we're talking about who has ultimate hiring authority and >> you have all >> we hire Lee, Lee hires the people. >> Right. That's what he >> and it's hard because people retain people come to you >> people come to you and they they have sometimes some very personal opinions. Now this is about retaining a staff member. So, if the board would decide no to this board member they can't, could they say to Lee, could you check into this and are there some improvement things that we could expect from this individual next year? >> Sure, you could. >> Oh, yeah. >> That could
074certainly be put forward by the board. We have some concerns. Lee would look into that and would go ahead and would do that. Lee may also know because you know with Facebook and everything going on, the reality of a staff member having a 100% of everybody thinking everything they do is the greatest thing since sliced bread does not happen these days. So you always might have someone who's upset with a decision Lee makes, a decision a principal makes, and chooses to air it out publicly and then things just kind of take on a life of their own. So yes, it would be overstep, but there would be a way that the board could say, "Lee, you know, one of our board members has a concern. Can you look into it? And if there are some
075steps for improvement, will you see that those things are put in place? Yes. >> If I even have a person in the community that brings something up to me, and it could be just a rumor or it's a concern, >> I will still say to that person, I'll get back to the superintendent. >> Yeah. >> I'm not going to answer that. I It's not my position to answer that. I'll say I'll let the superintendent know. And it could be all fluff. It could be it could be real. >> It's his job, not my job to answer that question. >> And how many of you currently have kids in the district? >> Nobody. Okay. Well, if you get a board member who has kids in the district, at one time in my school when I was
076principal, I had three board members who had kids in my school. >> Oh. >> So, they would come in sometimes as a parent and even though they would say, well, I'm just a parent, well, no, everybody else sees you as a board member, >> I would say to them, >> that's muddy water. Okay, you're telling me you did not get the request in for your child's teacher on time. Are you asking me as your board member hat if I followed the district policy or are you asking me with your parent hat that you want some special consideration? And I would always say to them, I need to know what hat you're wearing. Because they should always assume people look at them with your highest level of authority, which would be your board member hat on
077on and that sort of thing. Okay, last one. Due to retirement, there is an opening in the district. The superintendent begins the process as is noted in your HR procedures. A board member indicates that he or she wants to be involved in the process as they want to give their input into the hiring. Oversight or overstep? >> Overstep. >> Okay. One thing you may want to make sure is I did work with a board where the board felt that when an administrator was being hired and this was a small district that one board member would at least be part of the interview team. Not that they made the decision or anything like that. It was interesting because they only cared about the principles. Anybody else that I hired, nobody was interested in being part of
078the team. But we had that as part of our policy that that was but it did not mean that somebody could sit in on teacher interview or a parah interview or something like that. So anyway, those are just things. Now, I gave Biff and Lee a packet of like 15 different scenarios. And sometime if you want to if you're doing another um retreat or a workshop, you could certainly have one of those things that lots of times that actually ring true to something you might be dealing with in the district. It's good sometimes to have that vocabulary oversight or overstepping. I had a board member that became very comfortable with that and would ask me a question and say, "Now tell me honestly, am I is this my oversight or do you think I'm overstepping?"
079I really appreciated that because we could have that conversation then about that. >> Can I go back to number one? >> Yeah. >> Um I think we agreed it was an oversight. >> Yes, I think we heard that. My my concern is that may come up the board member may look like they're criticizing the business director who's presenting that budget. Oh, and I think just the way this is worded, it could look almost like you're not doing your job. And I think there's there's a legitimate concern there. So it could be as simple as saying, "Help me understand how some of this spending is going to, you know, in budget in the 110 budget or the three whatever the technology budget, help me understand how that matches what we've been working on, >> right? >>
080Strategic plan." To me, then I'm not overstepping. I'm just saying help me understand the big picture. >> Yeah. And I think so much of it we all know comes in how we put forth the request, right? There's a right way and a not so good way to do it. And you're absolutely right. There's a way to do that that actually still preserves the dignity of the person that's doing the presentation. >> And my guess is the business director probably could >> spew that out for >> and so I'm giving him or her the opportunity to say as a matter of fact, right? >> And so then it looks more like I'm not criticizing them in front of everybody. But you're also helping the superintendent know that eventually it comes down to him and he may
081need to say before it even gets to the board next time. Oh, this is really important. We need to make sure that all of your reports are representing that, you know, and that sort of thing. Okay. Now, I want you to go back to that levels of authority that we just did and take a second look at it and are there any changes you would make to some of the answers? This is just for your own perusal. Are there any that you would change >> or any that you would have questions about that you would like to have the group maybe chat about? >> I'd be interested in what are the answers as to number. >> Yeah, >> the exact answers. >> Yes. What are the correct answers? I don't have an answer key, but
082I will tell you that this is just what usually happens. Sometimes in these situations sometimes in these situations, it really is u combination. I was working with a new superintendent and their board and the board the superintendent said something about uh signing a contract and it was about signing a contract for something and in her previous district it had to go to the board and this board said oh no we're comfortable with you signing it and she said you know I would rather that I bring it to the board it would give me more peace to know that you were aware and you authorized a thing. So, some of those things sometimes end up being in the middle, but right now, um, I'm just going to give you, and some of them could be either.
083Number one is C. Two could be A or B, depending on the district and how you do things. Three >> could be B or C depending on how you do things. >> Number four is D. >> D. >> Number five is B. Number six is A. Seven could be C or D. >> Eight is C. Nine is C. We go with our C's. >> 10 is B. 11 is B. 12 is C. >> Oh, you only Okay, I shortened it up. Okay. Okie do. So again, those are conversations to have. So really your continuum on board leadership goes from empowerment where the board delegates as much as possible to Lee and his administrative team to micromanagement where board delegates very little and remains involved in daily activities or the middle the board decides what to
084delegate to whom and how to monitor. A good example of this and I'm going to give you the county that I last served in as a superintendent. We had four schools. One, the one I was with said to me, "Do a surve when it came time for COVID and are we going to have buses running and are we going to have school and what are we going to do?" Do a survey with parents, ask them these questions and any others you can think of and then design the plan and bring it back to us based on honoring the majority of the parent responses. So, we were in session every single day. We had sports. We because that was but we didn't have everybody riding our buses even though everybody is transported but we honored what
085it still allowed parents who didn't want to have their kids in school be at home because we went through the technology whatever another board in the county said we will make the decision on everything. We're going to make a decision at what percentage kids go home. We're going to make the decision on this. They were very handson. So, but it was a unique situation that districts had never been in before. And you may come across some of those where you really have to sit there and think about what's going to be the man walkway. How are we going to handle it? And then that your public is clear that your public is clear that in my district the board was not going to be giving them percentages in doing all of that. They were entrusting
086our administrative team to do that. but in another district it was going to be managed by the board. So th that's just an example. The other thing to think about if sometimes we're very passionate about something and we may get into something that could be viewed as micromanaging is always think from a board perspective. Think about when you're sitting in your doctor's office, okay? and you're talking with your doctor about some ailment you have or something some health concern, who do you want to get your advice from? The medical doctor who's right in front of you or the hospital board chair who comes into the board meeting and tells the doctor how to do their job. Think about that. >> Yeah, >> that's the overlook you should be having as a board working with Lee
087as the superintendent. Okay. Who's the expert in this? How can I let the expert do their job? So, you mutually agree on a focus. You mutually agree on your roles and responsibilities and you build that collaborative relationship. This was actually uh the chair of one of the school boards in North Carolina who said the most powerful and essential job for a school board is to provide a school district with clear direction toward expected outcomes, regularly monitor progress towards goals, model a culture of accountability, support continuous improvement, and let the professionals do the work they've been hired to do. And that goes all the way down. goes for principles allowing teachers empowering their teachers. Lee empowering his his principles with support. Empowerment with support. So you may want to think about as a board, we're not
088going to do this activity because I want to be able to honor everyone's time. You may want to think about are there some areas where you may want to have some further discussion or would a common vocabulary like overstepping, oversight, would that help you in certain situations? That's totally up to you as the board. So, the board superintendent relationship, lots of research has been shown that when it is strong, and I know that some of you that were on the interview teams wanted to know, how do we make sure that the superintendent stays with us? It's all built on the relationship you build with your superintendent and the support you give to your superintendent. And when you have a strong board superintendent relationship, student achievement will go up because you're spending your time on the
089right things. You'll have an improved staff morale and district culture, and you will be successfully modeling for kids and the staff and the community the behaviors you want your kids to be exhibiting. An effective board superintendent leadership is prepared. They're professional. They're fair and objective, honest and open, comprised of team players representing diversity, which you definitely showed tonight. You're respectful of others times, and no surprises. That has to be from Lee's staff as well. They shouldn't be coming to a meeting and laying something on your laps that you have no idea about. You should be having that information ahead of time. If you get your board packet and you have a question, call Lee or he said one of his administrators and say, "I'm going to ask this question at the board meeting and I'm
090wondering if you could, you know, have an answer ready." Because if people are watching your board meeting and they hear you ask a question and the administrator says, "Well, I'll have to go back and get you that information." They're never going to be benefiting from that information because it probably is going to be a month later before your next board meeting and you may not even talk about the answer to that thing. That administrator would probably get back to that board member or to the entire board. Same thing goes for the administration coming forward. There shouldn't be any surprises from them. And that really helps to build trust. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I this is a little like when I took economics 101 that you know things work under more or less ideal conditions but
091you know in in in the current times there's often like serious ideological differences of of of values and goals and it's it's pretty difficult for a board to to relate and and and you know under under those circumstanc ances. So I don't I don't know I don't know what you know I don't know if there's a handbook. >> Yeah. Always one board member who's very seasoned said you always tied back to the kids. >> Always make it about the kids. Get the adult viewpoint out of the way and get the adults out of always tied back. How does this affect all kids? And once you do that it levels the playing field. I mean because people can have different opinions but we're talking about all kids. How does this come back to all kids? And
092of course this is about attitudes you know and attitudes can you know the accumulation of many thoughts and feelings. We all know like I said you know watch yourself at a board meeting see if there are some unbiased things that you have and uh there's an activity that usually works. However, you know, every time you have an activity that works, then there's going to be the chance that it doesn't work. So, I need a volunteer who's very strong and can put their arm out and hold it out and they think they're very strong. Who wants to be my volunteer? >> I'll do it because otherwise we'll sit here too long. >> Okay. >> Decisive request. >> Okay. >> That way. >> Okay. I want you to we're going to do an activity about and it's
093not voodoo or anything like that. There's lots of research that actually says that there are times and I know I've had it as a superintendent or I've had it as a principal or a teacher when you walk into a room that you just sense a negative vibe. Nobody's saying anything, nobody's doing anything, but there probably are some negative vibes going on. And how does that affect that person's ability to really contribute? If they're or when they're talking, you're thinking, well, he there he goes again. He's off on his band. You know what? How does that impact your ability to work as a group? So, I want you to turn around. >> Put one of your arms out. >> Hold it really, really strong. >> Got it. >> Okay. I'm going to try to pull it
094down. >> Got it? Yep. >> And I'm a farm girl, so I should be able to do this. Okay, stay right there. >> Okay, >> don't turn around. >> I'm going to give you two signals. With this signal, I want you to think only positive things. Can be positive things about him. It can be things that don't even have anything to do with them. Wow, you're a wonderful bowler. You know, just everything is positive. No negative, only positive. If I give you this signal, the complete opposite. Everything's negative. It could be negative things that you've experienced. It's just everything is negative. Okay, are you ready? This is positive. This is negative. We'll see if it works. Okay, number one is power of attitude. Okay. Are you all doing it? >> Yes. Do your arm. They're
095going to keep thinking. >> Okay. >> Oh, it's even stronger. Okay. Well, he's stronger than what I think. I don't know. This may not work this time. Let's try it again. Okay. Arm up. Okay. I don't know. We're going to try one more time. We'll do it one more time. And if that doesn't work, then this is the one time that it didn't work. >> Sorry. >> Okay. Armo. >> All I need to say. [Music] >> Okay. We're going to go on. So, we want to move from I to we. Think of your schools. You have teams. You have bands. You have classes. When do they accomplish the most? Yes, they may have individuals that go on and do individual things at the state level, but they are successful as a team. Okay. So David,
096since you were a participant, the first two times they only thought positive thoughts. >> The first two times. >> The sec the third time it was negative. >> Interesting. >> Okay. >> Not about you. >> It was negative. >> Negative. >> Well, now we don't know that for sure. >> I know me. >> You I tell people I tell high schoolers I've been thought about poorly before. >> But our community and you know the same thing goes I'm going to challenge you the same thing goes if you have public forum and you have somebody who always comes up we had a a gentleman in Ashkash that went to city council meeting every single time you know pretty soon the city council you could just tell by the body language oh here he comes again you
097know but how does that person feel that they're being listened to if that's the negative energy that they're experiencing so the board's expectations with the superintendent. I'm sure Lee because you've been on board that you've talked about, you told me how you meet with the board members. Um you have um information in your board policies, but one thing you did not have in your board policy that I think you may want to consider putting in is uh Niola's board policy 3000 professional staff. There's one for professional staff and paras which is on board staff communications. I didn't see that on your website. >> That's correct. >> And it's very specific as to how the staff communicates with the board, how the board communicates with staff and the social interaction. I'm not saying you have to.
098I just noticed that in a lot of the other districts I work with that's there and then it gets referenced in their employee handbook and it just makes things a lot easier because then people understand that chain of command thing and how that works. Um same thing I think Lee you probably have shared with your board expectations that you have for communication and things like that. Sometimes if we're doing this in July and the new superintendent has just started, those conversations haven't even taken place. But it's always to keep those things in mind. Uh chain of command, this is what I talked about before. Like I said, you have NEOLA policy 3112, but you may want to put a shortened version um into your student handbook, your parent handbook, staff handbook on website, newsletters and
099things like that. And of course, you still have your grievance policy. So, if a staff member has something that really has to do with discipline or their employment, your grievance policy addresses that, but everything else should be going through the chain of command. Um, leadership norms, like I said, you have a policy that talks about code of conduct. Norms are usually agreed upon standards of behavior and they describe how you treat one another. there's a set of understandings of how you will act in a meeting and norms are actually a good way to hold each other accountable. Sometimes I've worked with boards. Um we do have a webinar on the WASB website that says how you can go through a process to set norms. Sometimes I've been asked to come out and do norms with
100a board. Um sometimes the norms are very specific like we worked with one district where the lady had her cell phone. She was a single parent and she would always have her cell phone at the meeting and she'd be checking it to see if her kids had called and one of the citizens in the community thought that she was reporting things from the board to this person in the community. Again, perception's reality. So, what the board came up with is that the administrative assistant would keep her phone there and if the phone went off, then she would let the board president know. they'd stop the meeting for five minutes so the the parent could take the call and that stuff. So sometimes it's just little things like that that need they had another situation where
101a board member was not reading the board packet and of course we go through what are some of the issues and then how can we put it into a norm. It was a brand new superintendent and the young man said I have four kids at home. I work Monday through Friday. He said, "On the weekend, we are busy doing family things." And he said, "And we get the board packet on uh Thursday night. I just don't have time to look at the board packet." So the superintendent said, "Well, I've just always done the the board packet on Thursday night because that's the way the other superintendent did it and that's what the administrative assistant, "Do you mean you want it earlier?" He goes, "Can we have it earlier?" She said, "I can have it to
102you on Tuesdays except if there's like a business report that might come a little bit later. problem was solved here. The rest of the board thought he wasn't being a good board member because he was never reading his packet. It was just it didn't work anymore. So, when you do your orientate your organizational meetings every April, it's good to revisit that sort of stuff, you know. Um, is it still okay the board packet comes out on this day? Is it still working for me as superintendent to meet with you individually? Just, you know, think about the Green Bay Packers. They don't just assume that all the rookies coming in know everything about the Green Bay Packers. They have to go through and review all of those things again, do their own norms because it's a
103whole different team. And even though your board may not change, you have people in your district that change. So, it's always a new team that you're bringing together. I gave you some examples. Here are some examples. you have principles uh for your board meetings, but they're more like what people typically have in policy. So, you may want to look at those and are there some things you really need to be more specific about. Here are some examples of board norms. And I actually gave um I think I gave you all samples of some other districts and their board norms so that you can see you know some of the things and again periodically reviewing that once a year to say is that still working for everything is a good thing to do. So an effective
104team as we said is prepared, professional, objective, fair, honest and open. honors time and is trustworthy because how people feel about you is based on how much they trust you. It's all about relationships, communication, and trust. So, we're going to get into the last two things, board self- evvaluation. I checked in the last time that the Manatwalk School Board did uh the annual school board development tool, which is looks at all aspects across the district. and you are asked individually to say yes, we're doing that or not sure or we need to start doing it. It gives you a feel for how your board is performing compared to other districts that do it was about 15 years ago. It comes it's free for you. Some boards most boards do it once a year. Um it
105really is a good assessment. I worked with a board where the new board members said we put in their thing we never talk about curriculum and we were debriefing. Well, the reason why they didn't talk about curriculum is curriculum was coming up in the next board meeting and they didn't realize that that was coming up and it would be a great big the whole board meeting would be focused on it. So what that board decided to do was to put together a yearly agenda so anybody coming on to the board would know this is when curriculum gets dropped. This is when we start budget discussions and they had some kind of a timeline. So I would encourage you um at the regional meeting in fall NIH house will be talking about it. Uh so will
106the rest of us consultants. Uh it is free to you as a school board. if you want a report or um from WASB or if you want um a consultant to come out and help you go through your results and help you set some governance goals, that is for a fee, but it's a great opportunity for you to get a collective feel about how are we doing in different areas. You don't fill it out as a single board, you fill it out as individual board members. So, you really do get different perspectives. So, I would encourage you to do that. It'll come out like in an email, I think probably to Lori and to Biff and to Lee. However, if you all wanted to do it yet this summer, all you have to do is
107contact Ben at WB and he can have School Perception set it up and you could be taking it this summer and be on your way. So, it's up to you. Um, this is the annual board tool. Just says what it is. Like I said, it's available at no cost to you. Um, and it's just a questionnaire. It's an online questionnaire that you fill out in a survey format. And then we're going to get to the superintendent evaluation. And basically, your superintendent evaluation in the state law says that you have to uh be evaluating the superintendent on observations of their work. It doesn't mean that you're going around shadowing him. Um but it's um it was developed about four years ago and then we got feedback from superintendent and boards that it was very cumbersome that
108some of the criteria were like nine different things they had to rank in one question. It was that the board the superintendent creates develops and models the vision mission and core values in the district. That's nine different things. So we worked last summer and we came up with four descriptors instead of 14 for each of the standards. They are all descriptors that the board itself should be able to say I've witnessed it or I know this about these um performance and it also uh references the legal requirements. So I'm going to have Lori uh click on this. This is on the website. You all have access to it on the WASB website. You log into the website. You go under services and resources. Then you go to governance. Then you go to superintendent evaluation framework.
109Then you slide over and you click on access the framework. You will see a resource manual. You see training videos and you'll see a template. Lee and I talked and because he's been with you since last October, >> right? Yeah, >> we did not feel that being a firstear superintendent was appropriate for him because he's already has surveyed the community. He's already been on board and done a lot of the things that you would be evaluating a brand new superintendent who's never been a superintendent before. So that's why we're going to suggest that you do the beyond firstear superintendent evaluation and we recommend it being done on an annual basis. So Lori, if you wouldn't mind clicking on that >> on the beyond first years. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> I just want
110to say I'm on a pill, so that's why I had >> That's okay. That's fine. Sorry. >> Usually I'm running like that, too, but I didn't say. >> So this is also on the website. Is it not coming up now? >> Oh, good thing we have our technology guy here. >> Eddie, while they're troubleshooting, you mentioned standards. What standards? >> It's the administrative standards. You'll see them in here. It's that just like there are teacher standards at the state level, these are the administrative standards. >> Yep. >> I think there's >> I think standards I think so. >> So you >> So he's going to we're going to do the on beyond the first year superintendent evaluation. >> Okay. >> Right. >> And it will be easy even if you don't get on to the
111WB website. Don't worry because Lee will be taking the first step and he will be presenting his stuff as a self- evaluation and then you will get a link from WSB that you just click on and you can fill out the information. >> Will we see his self-evaluation? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yes, you will see his everything. Y >> how many times during the year do we fill >> We do it once a year. However, we recommend that at least you at least do it twice a year. like midy year he sits down and he doesn't do a report or anything but he just says how things are going and his goals you have a chance to ask questions he may say I need support in this area but then the written report comes at
112the end >> Patty my understanding from because I went to the workshop last year I think the three of us that from that understanding if there was something really good after a board meeting I can go in and log and say hey this one I thought was really really good you so we as board members, we can go into that site and we can log all the time. No, >> no, that was what the old one, but the old one you you couldn't print out anything and it didn't summarize anything. >> Okay. So, if something happens, we take our own notes and then at that halftime year, we log we >> you could log it in. Yes, you could log it in. So, is it not working? >> No, I was just waiting for you
113to Oh, go ahead. Welcome to the online training module for the Wisconsin Association of Supports, also known as WSB Beyond Year Super. >> Yes, exactly. >> He's not supposed to share his pills. presentation evaluation framework. I am Cheryl Sinsky, a WSB governance team member along with my governance team colleagues, Kelly Kelly Thompson and Patty Vickman. We are going to give you what you need to best accomplish evaluating your beyond firstear superintendent. >> It's very short. The objective of this training video is to review the purposes of evaluation and to familiarize the board and superintendent with the WSB evaluation superintendent evaluation framework when using it to evaluate the superintendent who is beyond their first year with the district andor beyond their first year as a superintendent. >> An effective governance and leadership team is based on
114the need for a strong board superintendent partnership. This partnership should be fundamentally grounded in mutual respect and an understanding that while the roles of the board and superintendent differ, the board and superintendent must be unified in ensuring that there is a commonly held focus on high levels of achievement and development for all children. The evaluation of the superintendent should contribute to the strengthening of this partnership. The evaluation process should provide a continuous feedback loop that includes the opportunity for engagement, encouragement, and feedback as well as to address issues regularly. And just as there exists an expectation that our staff will continue to grow in their roles in service of children, the board and superintendent must model in all they do the importance of their own growth. To this end, the ultimate purpose of the board's
115role in evaluating the superintendent rests in ensuring growth for the superintendent and considers the strengths of the superintendent as well as opportunities for improvement. Now, we are going to focus on the process for evaluating the beyond the first year superintendent. This evaluation is designed for the individual who has served as the superintendent for at least one year. However, you might also use this for experienced individuals who are new to the district. The evaluation of the superintendent should be a collaborative process involving the full board and superintendent that focuses on the development and growth of the superintendent. The key expectations for a beyond firstear superintendent are based on the administrator leadership standards identified in this training and in the reference manual, the job description and current superintendent goals. While it is required to complete an annual
116evaluation in the first year and at least every third year thereafter, we recommend to complete an evaluation annually for feedback to be meaningful. It should be provided on an ongoing basis in part through an annual evaluation. This reflects the value of continuous improvement which this evaluation framework endorses. Because board members and priorities can change, it is important to have the opportunity for growth conversations annually and to have a wellestablished and continuous record of evaluation for the benefit of the superintendent and the board. Patty Vickman is now going to walk you through the steps of the beyond the first year superintendent evaluation process. The goal setting process assists the board of the superintendent in setting the superintendent's goals which should align to the leadership of standards district goals and strategic plan. Please view the online goal
117setting process training video on the website to assist you with this process. There should be at least two evaluation meetings a year. One should be midyear and formative in nature. The midyear review is less formal and is a collaborative conversation about how the year is going thus far. Progress made on goals and to determine if any assistance or support is needed with the goals. The scientific evaluation is more formal results in a written evaluation report based on the standards, the goals and the job description and should occur either in December January or in May depending on the early evaluation. The summitative evaluation begins with the superintendent completing a self evaluation process responding to the administrative leadership standards and job description using the W online survey tool. The superintendent then provides their self evaluation goal outcomes
118and accommodation at a meeting at least two months prior to the board summitive evaluation meeting. After the superintendent has provided their self assessment in a close session of the board meeting, board members should assess the work of the superintendent by responding to the administrative leadership standards and job description using the W online tool or a hard copy which then entered into the online tool. As part of completing the rubrics, observation related information should be provided. Listed here are the leadership standards by which the superintendent will be evaluated. >> Let's look at just a few of them. >> Number one, mission, vision, and board values. >> Number four, curriculum, instruction, and assessment. And number eight, meaningful engagement. >> Here is a sample showing the first set of scores. The board and superintendent will score the same
119set of rubrics. You will rate each statement as highly effective, effective, minimally effective, ineffective or don't know. And you can see that the definition of each is included before the definition of standard and the statements to be scored. It is not necessary to include comments and observations of strengths or comments and observations about opportunities for improvement for each standard. However, if you rate any indicator as minimally effective or ineffective, please explain this rating in question three, comments and or observations of opportunities for improvement. To finish up this training, Kelly Thompson is going to share information about the summitive report and summitive evaluation meeting along with the goal setting process and some helpful resources to keep you on track in the process. The resource manual online will receive the superintendent and the board members responses from
120WB. A close session should be convened to review the summary report and to write a final summary evaluation. The evaluation itself will represent the consensus view of the entire board. Any outlying comments will be provided by the individual board member in the evaluation meeting with the board but will not be included in the evaluation document itself. The final written summit report is subject to public records >> in a close session. The written summit of evaluation is shared with the superintendent and a discussion of priorities for goal setting against a sample template of the written summit of evaluation is provided in the reference. The superintendent prepares a draft goal setting plan and shares the plan for board feedback before finalization. The district checkpoint dates form which is completed by the district in the beginning of this
121process and returned to the WSB governance team member sets the superintendent evaluation timeline for this evaluation cycle. An implementation checklist included in your reference manual to show you step by step what needs to happen and who needs to do what action. It starts with the purchase or renewal of the superintendent evaluation framework and ends with the superintendent goal setting for the coming year. If you would like to review a sample survey, the instructions are listed here. We'll now enter the sample survey to give you a chance to see what the survey looks like. When you click your district's unique link, this intro slide appears. After reading the overview, click next and review the instructions. Then enter your name and choose board member superintendent. Then answer no to the question, is the superintendent being evaluated in
122the first year of the role. Then click next. Then begin evaluating each standard by rating each indicator and supplying any comments regarding strengths and opportunities for improvement. You'll see each standard standard three [Music] >> and one of the indicators are listed and you rank each one of those. >> Standard seven professional community engagement. You get to nine is operations and management. 10 is district continuous improvement and 11 is the leadership align to the current job description and that's an openended comment box. Then you can click next and you'll be able to select yes and submit the survey. And please note that you can also click the box send me a copy of my responses via an email. You can include your email and then press done. If you have any questions about the beyond the
123first year superintendent evaluation framework, please contact either Pattyman or Kelly. On behalf of myself, and the W organization, thank you for taking the time to use this training video to help you complete the beyond the first year superintendent evaluation and especially for all that you do for your students, your staff, and your community. This concludes the training for the first year superintendent. Just a couple of points. The resource manual which we can download and send to you so you have a hard copy of everything. Um when you enter your name, your name is not tied to a specific comment that you make. It's just for us to know that you took the survey because about five days before the survey ends for the board, Biff will get an email from us that will say Carrie
124took it, Keith took it, and so and so took it, but these people have not. And then he can remind them, remember the deadlines coming up. The checkpoints form where you fill out when you want the survey sent and what the board meeting is. The best is to decide when it is you want the final evaluation written and then go backwards. Um, in the video it says January to December or uh July to June. We have found we had about 50 new uh districts come on board since January that took the survey this spring. And what we found is there's a number of districts that do their evaluation April 1st to March. And the reason why they do it is because it then is the board that's worked with that superintendent for the year. Otherwise,
125if you wait till June, at least this was their thinking. If they wait till June to do it, there's new board members on and they don't know enough about it. So since Lee started around April, you all can have a discussion about what you think is the best timeline for you um to have. And then as soon as you send me that checkpoint, we put it in our system and then about two weeks prior, we send Lee a thing that says here's your survey link. You can start going and we have either Kelly or I walk your district through every single step of the process. So, it's all taken care of. Board presidents have really liked it because the old system they had to take everybody's copy and they had to summarize everything and they
126had to tally everything up. This will be all done. The report you get will have le stuff and side by side will be the the board's you know averaged rating and everything like that. Plus, we provide you with a sample report that then it become can become the public record and that sort of thing. So, you know, so with that, I want to honor your time. Uh, you know, please know I'm available if you have any questions or anything like that. I had you do these things, so we're quick going to do this as an ending. Uh, who had a try out for the Canadian Olympic team? >> Carrie. Okay. Uh, >> what's Lord? >> That was their half mile. Half model. >> Wow. >> Who has a twin brother? >> Mary. >> Who has
127a motorcycle license and drives a Harley? >> A motorcycle license, but no Harley. >> Lori. >> Oh, really? >> Yeah. A girl. >> Lori. Whose favorite date day is Road America Vintage Races? >> Yep, >> that would be >> uh who played college basketball? >> Biff. >> Okay. Uh, whose first job was picking rocks on a farm at 12 years of age? >> No. >> I love that. >> It's Lee. >> Bailey and I have a lot in common. I spent picking rocks from six years old on all the time. We'll have to talk about that sometime. >> And you we miss David. His first car's name was Shirley. >> So anyway, did you not get yours? >> I don't care. >> Oh, you didn't get it. >> Keith, David, Lee, maybe I put it
128back here. Sorry. am Lori Gary I don't Oh, here it is. I turned it over. Sorry about that. >> The more interesting. >> Now we all got to guess more side blank. Guess who it is. >> He has no depth perception. >> Whoa. >> Works on roofs. >> I have no perception. I've worked on roofs my whole life. Never bothers me. >> You have a check. You have a exit ticket in your folder that I would really like you to fill out because it's going to help Lee and Biff if there are some things that you feel need further discussion. It also helps me if there were things that were helpful were not helpful. In order to get your M&M's, you have to turn in your exit. >> Okay. And then I thank you for
129inviting me back out. >> It's always good. So >> I do. Then does she give it to Cuz I >> No, I type them up. >> Oh, gotcha. >> I type them up >> and it go gets in. >> Whatever one you want. >> I know. Here I have to bring both. >> So, I'm going to um >> close the meeting. >> Oh, yeah. That's right. >> Before I do that, I'll thank Patty for coming and doing this today. Okay. >> Uh and I'm going to thank you guys >> because I think we're learning a lot and we're just going to make the district keep plowing ahead. Yeah, >> absolutely. >> Great job. >> I make a motion to adjourn. >> Proud of this board. >> So, see I have a motion to adjurnn. >>
130I did. Sure. >> Anything else? >> I'm going to second it. >> Second to to um Ann. All those in favor of skydiving with Keith. >> Say I say no. No. >> We are journ. We don't jump out of a perfectly functional. >> I don't need Okay.