Regular Board of Education Meeting - 03/12/2024

001[Music] for [Music] for [Music] for [Music] for [Music] for [Music] for [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Music] I would not I'm sure go ahead and call our meting this is [Music] States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible here I'm here here here you supposed to be online but I don't think this is the anybody know set that [Music] up we'll go ahead um I'm sorry you done okay um we'll go ahead on to um public input um we have a about 12 people to speak tonight so we're going to go ahead and do two minutes um there will be a timer here so once you hear that just uh uh please wrap up your comments we can get to everybody okay um okay our first uh guest tonight is

002Braden Meyer Myers four years ago this month I and all other students were sent home to do virtual schooling with the excuse of the Corona virus the following school year masking was forced upon all students on February 9th 2021 it was unanimously voted to keep masking kids for the rest of the school year there was only one person who voted to mask the kids was still on this school board Stacy is the only incumbent in this race who was against masking me and all other students I will happily sign a recall petition at M returns our board president has clear all our kids deserve great Public Schools looks at our district needs Improvement on visits classrooms RS our schools positively holds listing sessions to find solutions that benefit all and meets with the principles to

003see how they're doing and how she has a board member can improve that is being in it for the cause not for herself she supported the parental Bill of Rights District Green scores are up 10% after only two quarters new success for all curriculum competitive pay increases are addressing the Nationwide teacher shortage even Rising Phoenix graduates can become substitutes St the course is a phrase in battle that means to pursue a goal regardless of any obstacles or criticism Schoolboard elections are not just a bad battle there a war a war between the Patriots and the local special interest hate group we the people of madwalk must stay the course that is the only way to get our district back on track and have kids come first okay our next guest is Jeff B was for

004that sorry all right good evening uh first off I was just walking up here in this and I had this composition notebook and I thought man oh man probably the and I'm in a school education building and the last time kids probably saw these was when they went to the Museum of Science and Industry you know but uh hey kind of shows love my age first off my name is Jeff Bell 529 westl Boulevard uh just down the street September 19th uh mid City's mall was uh designated by the manic city council is being blighted uh in according to their uh definition it was a structure that needed Improvement because it was so deteriorated that it can cause health issues city council hoped to get the property developed in a nice way for the community

005of manitto this designation as meaning to me as I was transferred from Illinois to The Mid Cities Mall in 1977 to one to one of to run one of the main stain's uh retailers that were on opposite ends let's go back to what they said here the structure needs Improvement because it is so deteriorated something else comes to mind as I'm here in the school building when I read that phrase I'm not a carpet bagger who just shows up unexpectedly when the time arises that you should speak I spoken twice before tonight one time a gentleman was on the backside that is now on board and I was talking about teacher that uh my father-in-law had and my wife had and that was amazing at that time the next time I came in here and

006I spoke and I said they don't brand me with the letter A because I spoke on my opinion on the Schoolboard referendum as as Heather pryan was given in 1649 of course I wasn't getting accused of adultery but something else because I had separate feelings on the school board represent in that time in a time of uh hard ship economic hardships and the uh the inflation levels that it's was going on um my wife graduated from Lincoln so I have an intense interest in what's going on with the education system here in man my son uh he graduated apologies we're to wrap it up we're only give two minutes for each person we have so many people um I support success for all uh going from 30% to 41% is amazing even for a guy

007who came from Illinois this is absolutely amazing I wish Madame President and Mr superintendent success in getting this program with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction thank you continue continue your program next guest my name's Amy fetus um thank you for letting me speak this evening last week on Tuesday March 5th Mr file was put in the position of actively supporting the reelection campaign of the school board president this was an event that was uh let's see this was an event that was only one Schoolboard candidate was asked to attend and as a parent and a taxpayer I'm very concerned about this situation its lack of complete transparency and also possible violations of Ethics policies as such I have several questions for you I recognize public input does not allow for responses but I want

008to pose these questions anyway number one Stacy do you really believe it is or do you believe it is unethical to ask your subordinate superintendent Jim file to campaign for you this body has the power to hire the superintendent as well as discipline and even terminate him would this not be an abuse of your power as the school board president two Stacy do you support asking Mr file to violate board policy number 3210 the employee conduct policy that policy states a variety of potential offenses that would cause an employee to jeopardize jeopardize their position in the district this policy specifically states it is to be universally applied to All District employees and I would like to specifically cite offense of letter W providing pre preferential treatment to an outside interest group company or individual for

009personal gain Mr file violated that policy and should now be subject to disciplinary action um number three I ask this board is it ethical to ask the superintendent to use District equipment to develop and copy materials to be distributed an event where only partisan candidates were invited to share their PL did the superintendent ask to use tax funded equipment to provide materials about the district that used the board president's tagline stay the course and lastly Mr file will you make a commitment tonight to stop campaigning for Stacy and to treat all candidates equally for your time and efforts will you be campaigning for the other incumbent candidates finally I hope the board carefully considers these questions and holds superintendent file accountable for his actions that have clearly violated policy and ma'am we're going to have

010to and the board presid president accountable for its actions as an abuse of power thank you thanks am thank [Applause] you to Lin Moore first I would like to address the sour Great's attitude about Mr file being at a meeting he was our guest and that is our business and anybody else in this community who wants to invite who they want who they prefer go for it guys okay I'm here to support Stacy along with superintendent bile and some of the other board members who have made it their goal to improve the education of our students reading skill levels were deplorable and yet some who want to be reelected and who want to be elected were party to that downward slide there were also a multitude of other issues that were neglected during the previous

011Reign of Power of the past superintendent and board lack of a system for assessment and progress monitoring lack of systemic relevant viable curriculum students with discipline problems just shun to special need learning classes to get them get them out of the way and a lack of investment or systemic repair of facilities these issues are now being addressed you are short changing the education of your students and our community we must stay the course well said the gr good evening last fall the state legislature set up a committee the early literacy curriculum Council to recommend the best science-based K3 reading programs for the public schools the committee looked at 14 reading curriculum and recommended four II added an additional three programs to the list for a total of seven success for all was ranked next to

012last in the group of curricula that would not be recommended for the final 2024 list this is likely to cause some serious problems for our district the committee was made up of members that were chosen by Robin Voss Devin lahue and the the dpi's uh superintendent although their recommendations are being appealed by mpsd the committee report specifically says that the past date to reexamine any of the failed programs for 2024 they have said the council looks forward to reviewing updated additions in the coming years one drawback for our district is that we will not be able to use the funds provided by the legislature to purchase SFA materials because are not on the list of recommended curriculum in addition to not being able to use State funds to purchase curriculum materials there are other potential

013problems for us in implementing act 20 requirements there's required training for K3 teachers of reading and district principls and SFA training will not qualify so our teachers will have to go through two likely conflicting sets of training in addition the ACT requires testing of students with a state prescribed instrument which may be on top of the testing done for SFA this all will potentially make it difficult to maintain the focus many times required sorry thanks Linda our next guest is Ryan [Applause] Hansen in the mpsd employee policy manual under employee conduct there is a list of actions and behaviors subject to disciplinary action up to and including mischarge acts of misconduct subject to discipline may happen while off duty or on duty one such example of misconduct is providing preferential treatment to an outside interest

014group company or individual for personal gain in cases of misconduct the superintendent or design will make a report to the state superintendent of DPI but quote if the report concerns the superintendent the board president shall file the report but we have an issue when on March 5th superintendent file and board president selner attended a partisan event Miss seldner running for re-election brings her employee superintendent file also Al a representative of all of mpsd whether he's on duty or off duty superintendent file is reported to have advocated for Miss selmer's re-election and presented material that presents her in a favorable light even if uh this isn't illegal it's unethical and it's Unbecoming I would say that the same I would say the exact same thing if Mr file attended an event on behalf of any other

015elected official on this board seems to me that Mr file did exactly what the employee policy manual prohibited providing preferential treatment to an outside interest group a company or individual for personal gain because Mr files uh gain is continued employment with the district this isn't the only area where I believe he runs a foul of his own District policies but it is a start if this board does nothing to discipline Mr and centure Miss seldner it'll be disappointing to me and to everyone else in this District who values accountability and high standards of character thank [Applause] you prepared for five minutes four minutes and 3 minutes but not two so I'll cut to the middle and here we go this is a response to the Wednesday board meeting last week where you changed policy to

016eliminate gender identity from the policies uh for discrimination purposes uh Mr Butler from WB was very knowledgeable and spoke with Clarity it was clear that some of the board members either didn't listen or couldn't comprehend what they were told some of the comments made by certain board members were ridiculous and the board decided to vote contrary to what they were told the bottom line is all students need to have a safe caring and loving environment for learning this should include all students their race sexual orientation gender identity Disability should not matter you as board members have a responsibility to create this learning space for all not just the ones who look like you or fit the vision of how you view the world or think like you cisgender transgender non-binary students all need and deserve

017to live their lives had you listened to Mr Butler changing the language of the policies is nothing but Optics it does not change the expectations of what you must do in the eyes of the law you changing the language does nothing but let those students with gender dis and know that you do not value them as people your actions were exclusionary I find it sadly ironic that during this three-hour meeting you meeting in front of this it says npsd commits to educate engage and inspire all Learners all Learners how on Earth do you inspire all Learners your actions just demonstrated to a population of our students that you do not value them such hypocrisy my experiences have been that students who feel value and respected are more willing to learn those who alienated are not

018last Wednesday you told this group of people that somehow they were less than when you should be making sure that every student knows that they're enough if you want to improve learning and reading create the environment I'll make myself available to educate you about transgender what it's like to live that way if you'd like maybe you know a psychologist who could explain to you about the dsm5 and gender dysphoria U maybe she could let you know the high suicide rate among transgender youth your three-hour professional development did nothing to change the scope of the policy changed the way it looks for marginalized person that look is not pleasant and could be fatal if you're going to serve on this border under its employ I expect you lead with kindness understanding not with ignorance hypocrisy and

019hate thank [Applause] [Music] you our next guest is Jesse simx hi Jesse Sim Cox I'm the Wisconsin chapter leader of gays against rumors we are a coalition of lesbian gay bisexuals and transsexuals of all different political backgrounds that are united for one goal protecting vulnerable children we want to personally thank Mr uh th for his efforts in keeping manag walk schools a neutral environment where students can Thrive free of predatory behavior and ideologies like gender identity and queer Theory normal LGB andt people are not tokens for special interest groups like Ali to parade around what Menat toalk schools are experienc from Ally are the demands of a cult a cult that does not represent gay and lesbians that group that hid behind uh slogans of inclusivity Love Is Love and protect trans kids continuously tries

020to silence actual gay and lesbians everyday special interest groups like Ally called us traitors to our own Community because we refuse to fall in line with their demands which are to sexualize and confuse the malleable minds of students who are also redefining what it means to even be gay they are the modern-day conversion therapists believe us when we say that these people are after children otherwise this predatory cult would not go to Extreme Measures to erase normaly it is psychologically dangerous to push sexuality onto miners or encourage children to urinate in litter boxes and behave like animals you may think it is just a rainbow flag or another bag slogan covered in glitter but is it a test this cult is testing you with how much that they can get away with and how much

021you will tolerate in the name of inclusivity if they want to strip the Dignity of Our Girls by forcing them to accept males and undressing in the locker room with them then what else do they want to do to our girls if they tell boys to choose art over Athletics that they are not boys but must be transgender then what else does this cult want to do to our young men I am pleading with you to choose sanity over degeneracy stand your ground against the Marxist special interest groups like The on here tonight stop the sexism save the tomboys save the fen booys protect our kids from sexual predators if these requests sound like hate to anyone in this room tonight then they are the ones that we need to protect children [Applause] [Music] from

022get all right wow good evening I'm Sarah Weinberg I'm a 17year veteran teacher and the Mana talk Education Association president meting confer has historically been a monthly conver conversation between the teachers union leadership Administration and two school board members for the last several decades this conversations have rised from calendar discussions Staffing concerns wage negotiations benefit discussions at one time negotiations culture in the buildings and many other topics these meetings have been extremely important to build positive relationships among participants I have been told this year that these meetings are appreciated because we have discussions about building conflict um stated by Mr file before they become bigger issues within the district members can share concerns that are happening in their building and work to build a solution that will be effective and have a positive impact on

023student learning throughout this year we have been continuing to meet and we have been continuing with meet and confer and we the members of mea who participate feel these meetings have been vital in growing the culture of Staff within our district um try to get it down to two minutes at the beginning of our meeting or at the end of our meeting last night Mr fil stated that he is backing away from his involvement with these monthly Mee for meetings with the manit Education Association since he feels we are using the meeting for negotiations which is against Act 10 there have only been two noted times where compensation or benefits were discussed and were only suggestions for staff retentions for this school year we feel Mr fil stepping stepping back he is distancing himself from

024the members of the staff who are the ones who work directly with the students and in the schools of our district every day we are highly disappointed by this decision he has made and encourage him to reconsider joining our next meet and confer on Monday April 8th we also want to know from you Stacy if you are going to continue to meet with us and share with the board what is discussed so they are aware of the happenings within the district you have been elected to represent if you are not willing to meet with us we would like to extend an invitation to board members to be part of this historic proactive discussion if you have any questions or would like to have a conversation please reach out and thank you for [Applause] listening with

025regard to the superintendent's memo February 23rd I find it completely inappropriate for a superintendent to make a leap from a board member asking for budgetary information to the assumption that they are questioning that there is a reading problem it's discouraging that the superintendent thinks that a board member who board members who want to gather information related to items that they are expected to vote on are resistant as a taxpayer uh I'm grateful there are board members out there that are trying to be good stewards of public money by making informed decisions and not just tax and spend uh just witnessing the interaction at the February 27th meeting and reaction of the superintendent when asked some pretty straightforward questions about that memo it's no surprise that approximately 40% of District leadership decided to resign and our

026teacher attrition rate was above State average last school year that budgetary information by the way on SFA showed in January that we've gone 148% over the quoted cost for year 1 and are on track to go 260% over by year three when you throw that much instruction time and money at a subject I'm guessing any curriculum would show gains well I'm cautiously optimistic about reading gains seen in District internal testing I do still think it's important to see results provided by external provided sources I've also got three young children that will go through this District I want them to have opportunities to learn other subjects too if we just to continue to spend like a drunken sailor I'm extremely concerned the district will be broke before my children are out of school and the public

027trust will be lost when asking for another tax referendum last April it was proposed we changed to a temporary Committee of the hall structure uh with the goal of adopting Something New by last fall obviously we haven't gotten there yet my ask is that we set a date and adopt something new so board members can make informed decisions thank you thank you [Applause] sir I to was repaired for five four three minutes but not two so I will do my best to uh cut this back the manat schools for years prior to Mr fil's employment were able to retain a truly amazing and highly skilled staff that would put their best teaching skills out regardless of the curriculum materials for the sake of the students although we have lost many of these great folks many

028are still left giving credit to the SFA curriculum for all of the gains in Reading at this point is selling our staff short on what may have been the same gain SC with any other curriculum based on the science of reading and rolled out well with coaches and appropriate professional development what remains to be seen is how the board and the administration will integrate the components of science-based reading instruction that are contained in the rubrics for ACT 20 that are not a part of the SFA a materials the Criterion act 20 for choosing curriculum materials is based on the science of reading the science of reading professional development for the ELA teacher leaders was planned and started by the former SLO team Jason B Pam lensme Jennifer Schultz and myself prior to Mr files employment

029and prior to that professional development a study of the 2020 revised Wisconsin State Ela standard had also been completed giving our teaching staff the knowledge to choose a reading curriculum that would be based on all of the science of reading components and the standards there are 10 areas where curriculum materials need to provide systemic and explicit instruction to students in K 1 two and three in order to be approved by DPI once act 20 was passed SFA only scored highly in three of the 10 or 30% Kinder and Kinder corner and grade one Roots curriculum did have strong phonological awareness pheic awareness and phonics instruction pieces but solid instruction in these skills is required through grade three thank you Lori I'm going to have to ask you to wrap up I'll send you the rest

030than thank you post 825 Wilson Street Wisconsin true inclusion assures a free and open and equal public education for all no exclusion everyone has a place at that table it's guaranteed safe space environment there should be no circumvention of the rules to get an outcome that does not benefit all not just benefit certain people this is public education manat needs to be accepting to and for all people always professional and be open-minded you need people that are willing to step back from themselves to be nurturing patient and kind to teach those kids that are coming up how to be responsible when they get out there so they can make safe choices out in the community I've always been a student Advocate I have two daughters when I grew up in a family of nine I

031was always educating people and doing things for them you need to be positive you're G to make mistakes that's two minutes no that's somebody else you only for a couple you only control the school environment when I was there I said where are you right now that you get those expectations set by the district Wisconsin and your behavior in the classroom and you tell the kids these are what we need to do today so you go through that every day until they get it you should have them posted it shouldn't be like 10 it should be three things be respectful for yourself be respect to others and be able to negotiate and work together and if you can't do that then you step in and try to help them out everybody needs to be trained

032and checked on in all situations when we were pars we didn't all get that but you have to be everybody on the same page all the staff has to have the same rules you can't just be running your own like I said circumventing so it brings you what you want Behavior comes from Fear confusion and past experience break through those barriers by being an exer listener they will come to you out of curiosity and that's all I have to say thank you okay uh we will move on to our uh consent agenda is there anything that need to uh Personnel yeah okay Y and then uh you have the second read of some policies is that part of the consent correct okay I'd like uh the H is removed the H is removed okay yeah

033yep okay anything else anybody else the H is we Ved on last week um I want to remove the uh special Board of Education meeting minutes as well okay so um so we're removing the special uh February 27th special board meeting minutes uh the Personnel report and then also letter H so every anything else b c d e g um can I have a motion to approve um second all right um all those in favor say I I I you post okay um the first item um I just wanted to make a correction on the uh the minutes the very last or second to last paragraph uh the date for our next meeting is wrong I think it says March of 2021 and it should read March 21st of 2024 so I'd like to um

034make that Amendment to the minutes second by Matt all those in favor say I I any okay motion carries and then uh we would need to approve that document then right Chris okay move to approve move to approve I Chris I think by Matthew fif all those in favor say I any opposed okay motion cares um yes I'm sorry I just open for just one moment as we're opening discussion um since we weren't able to be part of the learning session last week correct um so as the Director of student services which just by name alone implies you know my my support and service of all staff who support all students and staff in our district sure I just feel that it would be remiss um I would be remiss if I didn't take a

035moment to just just commit to our unwavering commitment to supporting and serving all students stents in our Learning Community um mainly those in our marginalized populations um our dedicated team um continues to assist families on a daily basis and staff members on a daily basis and all students um and we stand by school counselors and special education teachers and just want to make sure that all of our staff and families and students know that we will continue that supporting commitment um and ensure that they have the resources and support they need to thrive and that all of our students have access to the support and resources they need to thrive okay thank you Katie than from the lens of curriculum and instruction I think you know the attorney that you had as a guest made

036it abundantly clear that um the the law that the laws that are placed and the the case laws that are in place really supersede some of the language choices that we have as options with niola um but the language that we do choose ultimately does speak to our priorities and values as a learning community and no matter what language we do choose I just want to share that knowing a lot of the leaders and the staff in this District I am confident that no matter the language that's chosen our staff here nurture and meet the needs of all kids every single day which is why I've been here for 16 of my 23 years in education and I'm sure certain that U they'll continue to do that thanks um okay so the next one is

037the Personnel report um I I also agreed to pull this as well Biff because um there is an error um and Mike is going to um discuss the error in the report yeah can broad uh we had an incorrect as Lane G step seven the correct is Lane a step 6.9 86.9 sorry about that okay so um salary is correct salary is correct that's what I my question Michael is just we had a jary graduation have we had any luck at all filling any of the positions that we have not filled yet uh for special ed teachers or you know we were able to fill one special education position at semester not with a new graduate though okay with with a teacher from a different District um the top of my head I don't recall

038bringing I don't recall bringing anybody in that semester I I just I was at the high school the other day and U there's some people that are oh that need those positions F yeah I'm sorry Angel just reminded we did have the social studies teacher I'm sorry no I just to try to off memory sometimes sorry we did social studies teacher high school we brought in student teaching oh the tech see helping me the tech teacher at Washington was a semester did the student teaching um we get a full-time sub that finished his student teaching semester we picked up two interns that finished their student teaching at semester sorry it's just offing to me a little bit I was mostly I was worried about all of them but special I know it's more difficult to

039fill one um I'm just concerned about keeping people if we don't thank you thank you uh this is this is not a question it's simply an observation uh I I'm sorry to see uh but grateful for the service of an esteemed and beloved teacher who's retiring at the end of this year just want to thank Paul for everything he's done for the cancel this I would agree Paul's a great guy I've had an opportunity to speak with him before and he's I also wanted to say something last month I missed a a retirement um for a a very special woman uh Karen hints from uh Riverview after 42 years of service and she's so active and you know she's involved with the volleyball and my daughter was in volleyball too at Washington so they played

040against her I just want to say she's an amazing woman and she has a welld deserved retirement and I think that's fantastic good luck to her okay um any other so we need to vote um on amending that with the correct language of the step so I would look for a motion to um approve the Personnel Report with that Amendment yeah move to approve second second by Biff okay um any further discussion on that document okay all those in favor say I okay and then the um the next item is the um second read of apses that were approved um so I would look for a motion and a second to um approve those before we go into discussion on motion motion and a second okay and discussion well the reason I wanted them pulled

041and and hopefully change some Minds after the meeting we had the other night we had an adult who was upset as I would be too um about the decision of the board and I realized the vote was four to three there's not a lot I can do but the kicker was when I open up the email that's and um the principal's letter that went out the first thing you saw was some ideas from the keynote speaker of the SFA conference and and I want to thank Jamie for getting back to me because I emailed her about this and um appreciate her take on it but what that speaker said is very important to this district and it goes a little bit with with what Lee and Katie were saying before but that's speaker talked about

042being relentless on how we treat students and came up with 15 questions questions a sh student should never have to ask so this is a student coming into our building our schools and they should never have to ask these from the SFA keynote speaker am I welcome here do I belong here am I somebody here am I celebrated here am I emotionally safe here do they see me do they hear me do they like me do they know me do they value me do they care about me do they believe in me do you expect highly of me do you understand my truth do you understand my truth and finally do I matter to you that was a keynote speaker of a conference for SFA most of you know that I'm not a huge fan

043of the program but I thought that was pretty pretty good stuff principal and our teachers and I think Jamie said one of the buildings already had these posted somewhere but I trust them to have environments that will try to do this for every kid in our district but what concerns me if the leaders of the district are not doing this what does that say to the kids who go to our schools what does that say to our staff am I welcome here that's all I got I agree with everything B just except for to not being a fan of the program I am aan but everything else you said I agree with whole heart everything any other discussion well as said what was that just last week I can't even keep the leak but uh

044certainly I I will be voting against this because I don't think there's any harm to spelling out the recognized protected category from the federal government and in fact it ensures that people fully understand where we're at thank you else okay um all those in favor say I I any opposed no no what you're the expert well we got three three I got I got Tony did you Tony did you vote can you guys hear me yeah a little bit yes sorry I I voted to pass it yes okay so motion carries 4 to three I didn't even know you're still here okay um the next is our student representative report all right so I have just updates on Lincoln stuff our school Senate stuff um elementary and middle school stuff and then um a recap

045of our meeting our committee had last month with Chris and Biff so linkoln stuff I don't have too much uh the Juniors did take their act today we'll get scores to look at and talk about soon I'm sure um for our uh student Senate stuff we have a we're hosting a school board forum for all of the candidates um it's March 20th at 6:30 in the Lincoln Auditorium um we are having student questions and then we're also opening it up to audience questions um there'll be time limits in stuff um we're sending out more information today or probably tomorrow to the rest of the candidates um with more specifics on how it'll be set up but that was open to the public so we hope to get the word out there and get a lot

046of people there um for the elementary and middle school stuff I got contact information for the Wilson student council I haven't contacted them yet but I plan to do that soon so that in my reports I can talk about outside of Lincoln because I don't want to I want to be here for all the students in the district not just Lincoln but I don't know about I haven't been in middle school for a couple years so I want to accurately represent a lot has changed since I was there so I want to be in contact with these people um and then for our committee recap we talked again about the school infrastructure I know we're getting that um report coming soon um I think we talked about just a lot of students have concerns with

047the building at Lincoln we understand that rebuilding it would just it's would be too big of a project probably but um maybe doing something to like add on like I know we have to fix things first but this will be past my time but just in the future thinking about possibilities like a new cafeteria cuz our cafeteria is smaller than most schools and we're bigger than most schools we have a lot of students and just um having a common area so where students can go during their free period just adding more things other than the bare minimum so that we can attract students to our school I know we were talking about that the other day with enrollment numbers and I think that if we have some of these things that are more not just

048the minimum we will be attracting more students to our district this would be similar like how we added on to the science Wing I don't even know how many years ago but similar to that um we also talked about again about how we're like how to increase numbers and um this was mentioned at the meeting but just promoting like we have so many good things like just at Lincoln I can think of is we have school to work we have youth apprenticeship we have Rising Phoenix we have dual enrollment we have a leadership class we have a mentorship program and we have like this unique block scheduling like we have so many things that could attract students and that like are like really nice to have we just don't not a lot of people know

049about them so if we can advertise not advertise but just pull people in because they're only seeing like bad stuff because that's what reporters will talk about or articles that they read on Facebook and think it's reliable information you we have to get the word out about all these good things that are happening if we want to bring back our numbers and then um we had a meeting with um the Wilson principal talking about the math program um it was more of an informative meeting just kind of talking about um how there's so many barriers to get into the excel math program at Wilson compared to like say when I was in Middle School and they informed us that they're trying to get rid of some of those barriers for next year but also um

050so having a little more than just teacher recommendation so finding a balance in the middle which was very nice to hear um but our thing was just how do we get these the seventh graders that missed this opportunity in sixth grade and because of these barriers how to get them caught up if they're interested in Excel we had a very nice conversation about making sure that everyone has the same opportunities and that's basically all from the committee and then I just wanted to let everyone know that and both meetings in April and the second meeting in May I will have one of my alternates here in replace of me so that is all I have today great thanks so much Ellie yes um next we're going to talk about the uh AGR midyear report um

051I'm skipping to letter B because Matt how our principal needs to be somewhere so come on up you guys so the principles from Jefferson and Franklin will be be reporting on the ag ag our report that you got in your you guys have a copy of the report I wasn't sure which one was Franklin and which one was Jefferson yeah we may not have put those at the top because it's a form by the state um let's see okay Franklin start I think kindergarten Prof if you're looking at the first page kindergarten read proficiency started at 20% went up to 42% so that do is Franklin and the other would be Jefferson um like us just to talk briefly about it do you want to have questions a background on what AGR is AGR is

052achievement Gap production um there's three strategies you can use you look at that middle column right there you can select either class size reduction instructional coaching or one to one toring um we're given additional funds by the state of Wisconsin um to follow one of those strategies in our case I think also in Jefferson's case we're using class size reduction which means the ability to hire additional teachers um maybe even like reading support teacher something along those lines uh keeping our kindergarten first second third grade classes low this grade not third grade not third grade sorry okay1 to that say 18 or less right third grade is part of HR but not CL correct thank you um so you've got and then we have to report out at midy year which is this one and

053end of year we get another report that look exactly like this looking at where did we start the year in uh both reading and math and where are we at the midpoint and then where are we at the end of the year talking about Franklin um reading growth was excellent you can look at all four grades each one up by cons amounts math was a little more mixed but that's because our proficiency rate started a lot higher thanks to already having a good cric in place which is Bridges um very strong Reading Road in fact we had the best in the district K through five he should break please break yeah we uh you know we're seeing great games a lot of hard work by our staff I'd like to point that out to and

054implementing this curriculum um and I think getting through the first couple months was a challenge because it's a lot but I think where we are now got good good price and expect to see similar growth between January and the end of the year measuring the end of the year grow so I would say that same thing for Jefferson um I cannot celebrate the gigantic gains that Franklin had in their reading um but still celebrate Franklin we sell gains um yep all the way through that we're keeping um track for that um our math um also made some gains except in one grade level the little difference for uh Jefferson is had a pool of money to hire a interventionist so we were able to hire a retired teacher from Jefferson um Kelly handles as our

055math interventionist part-time actually less than parttime she's there about 10 hours a day uh or not a day sorry wow not a day a week um and then she also has about two to three hours a week in planning where she will meet with teachers to plan um she pulls small groups Based on data based on conversations with our teachers and then we'll work with those small groups on targeted um instruction that on gaps that they are missing based on our fast bridge data that she's collecting and going through um then meets with the teachers and supports their um intervention time within their class for those same students any questions at all for about the AG yes Chris uh first of all the Gap reduction is that all students or sections of students it's all

056of our k for class reduction and then we target k123 for um like our AGR data that we have to give out um my math interventionist works with K through five this data is not subsense of students so this is our entire student population okay yeah all right yeah so it's not all right and and I assume that all your Baseline stuff since they're primarily stuff we started doing this year there beginning of year stuff is baselines uh all that data you see is um it it shows you in assessment methods but um fast bridge for Math and internal SFA assessments for uh reading okay any other questions yeah I just I was wondering you know as you pointed out you know math wasn't math wasn't coming up like and is that because there's not

057a a strategy dedicated to to to math at this point for for our building I wouldn't argue that I would just say you're you're already starting at pretty high proficiency rates in first place I mean looking at like start of the Year kindergarten first 69% 78% second is a little lower 62% for third so you know then you're a little more up or down because these are computer based tests for kids it kind of depends on their mood on a given day you know so um you're going to see a little more you know up and down there um but there's a lot less room for growth when you're starting at say you know 78 or% efficiency and most people especially looking at our literacy data would be very happy with even that starting proficiency

058rate for our students those are good good numbers Matt I wanted to personally say thank you for your uh how your your Leadership Model at your school uh you've been getting a lot of reviews from just being able well and the problems that they were coming up and how you guys work together in the beginning of the year so I just want to say thank you uh for being able to see strengths and weaknesses and let it happen the way I know it's hard sometimes not to try to micromanage things you did an amazing job thank you you questions about the AGR report I I have a question oh yeah Tony go ahead hey uh great great job guys on the reading it's great to see that growth uh pretty much across every grade level

059uh just to echo on uh what kri was saying is are there any concerns I know we started off higher in math uh at Franklin but I'd still like to see an overall increase if possible and I'm just curious from your guys's vantage point should we be concerned at all with the math curriculum or is that just kind of a blip and we expect that to to increase down the road or can you speak any more to that please I can I can speak to that um I think this is the fourth year of bridges um previously we had math coaches in the district um and when you coach your teachers they're learning those skills and those strategies so now we we're seeing the benefit of targeted intervention for students which is why um Jefferson

060was able to hire a math interventionist um I would say I feel like my teachers are very solid on the bridges curriculum they're using the workplaces which is an intervention time um and targeting that whatever those students need that are that are lacking in a skill and they're receiving that instruction during that time in order to keep that percentage up so you know like some of our math numbers are 62 60% 72% you know we're pretty high too and we just want to keep that going across every grade level Tony I worked with uh bridges for two years in Green Bay at an elementary school a lot like Franklin before coming here and saw great games there as well so um combining that with the time I've spent now Manet walk I mean I've not

061analyzed every single math Trickum out there but I think Bridges is excellent um kids really grow uh year after year after year after year and are prepared for middle and high school when they're going through Elementary Bridges so I think it's a really solid curriculum just a clarification so the math is fast Bridge math um assessment assessment is pass Pass Bridge and the reading assessment is internal SFA we do also test on Fast bridge to we're using SFA okay yeah okay thank you um I had one question kind of in line with what um if was asking Bridges also has its own internal mechanism correct yeah okay um you could look at using that but since we're already using fast bridge and it's just a little you know and we're testing it you know beginning

062middle end we just felt it was the better assessment plus as someone mentioned I forget when during some of the comments that we made earlier it's nice sometimes to use an external assessment piece when you can during the years because that gives you a little you know different looking at it okay and then my only other question was I know that we um introduced fast prdge this year um and do you think that using that new test what did we use last year for the AGR to use internal assessment data last year withr didn't have any standardized assessment okay so my question was um you know again I know where you're happy with you're at but I wondered would that assessment the fast Bridge introducing that would that have created um lower numbers or anything

063like that I mean it's a national standardized assessment so I I would say you know it's not like 100% my area of expertise but I would say no but um you know would be something worth looking into but it's a national assessment um you know so I would assume the data is accurate standard yeah I was just more thinking about the child um being introduced to the new way not necessarily the instrument but just the novelty of it unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it most of the kids are pretty comfortable with anything on computer-based type assessment there it's right in their wheelhouse even in kind so all right any other questions about the AGR report keep up the good work and please share with the staff um again applauding their efforts

064appreciate it thank you thank you so much great job guys thank you thanks Tony okay so um now we are going to bump back up to um which is now becoming B is our district priority goals um and just some information and discussion on that sure first of all just the general one in terms of and then the specifics but um you know at the last whever the board meeting or special board meting when we are presenting on the goals I you know ask for our confirmation is say they still our priority um because we're into a six-year curriculum review cycle you know so it is a long-term commitment of six years and I thought it was important to identify now that was on a 4-3 vote so the board could change and you know

065they could make a decision I would hope that they would stay with a curriculum review cycle um you know and continue on but there's there's that chance you know if it were change maybe they W want us throw it out and get something else but I went and informed everybody U that I was out to promote what our school district is doing what our teachers are doing uh our successes our initial successes uh to promote and build support for our school district and I will accept uh any and all uh invitations and I did receive an invitation of which I presented the material that I use is in here which includes the 10% reading scores but it also includes other areas of the street Chi plan that we have already at work to address there's

066a couple areas that we think are critical that we haven't yet touched uh and I do use stay of the course um because I would think no we're doing the wrong stuff I mean it doesn't make sense um and I don't blame Stacy if she took something from me I don't know sure who who did first but I wanted you to see that that's what I was using and I accepted an invitation I was promoting it as I would any other so that's just uh sharing that for you uh just happen to be introducing can we let him present first and yeah okay I thought I thought he um well then I was going to get into um 7 A1 you know L there's any comments in terms okay yeah go ahead well I just

067I I think it's a little dis some general I that that it just happened to be the time that you were also there and he introduced you I mean I did read a thing from the Republican party today saying the superintendent did a impassioned an impassioned plea to stay the course and reelect Stacy and that's that you know if if that was a private thing I mean it's politics I know and I'm fully prepared to accept you know what that what that implies but um I think you know I think that uh some interesting for tour is you know uh you know just Clarity I didn't invite B you know I was invited U by that organization to present okay an update on the the school board and that's what I did okay sure do

068we have do we have I know the county and the city we have ethics committees we don't have anything with the school board do we no but if you want to raise something to the attorney you certainly could well yeah it's you know it's a l you know that it's just we know what's going on so yeah I would be have to present to the democ party I think yeah they wouldn't want to listen to you would well thanks for sh that yeah well they would sty I call a question let's keep call that's no question call to question we need um there's no no question so the next item is just yes implementation because you want me to report on all the goals you know at the regular meeting and and so just some

069clarification you know in terms of act 20 was passed after we already said that there was a reading problem and we also said there is a read problem in the statement across the country we're just kind of leading this uh I recognize that some people aren't really looking at the evidence and research behind USF they i i t I will be making that public because it is important and so I think when questions and challenges come it provides an opportunity to see clarification I have done a public records request uh to both the committee and to DPI because I do want to know you know for example we identified as we did with other curriculums that were being reviewed uh that there was a writing problem I mean you know that that needed to be

070enhanced and we did something about it so if I'm missing something I need to know um you know however if they're wrong I'm also going to that and point that out uh you know so so that's just making reference that so then you know I was aware that the committee intent was to really uh come with a very few recommendations because they wanted to leverage a vendor to try to get high discounts and um please keep in mind when we're looking at this and we talked later on because part of this will be we're talk when we talking about SFA it's morning a reading program we're talking about training it's more than just training on literacy it is distributive leadership it's Cooperative learning uh it's all the solutions teams there is so much more that

071people are getting trained on so just keep that in mind but anyways what happened was the committee submitted to DPI DPI for the most part rejected it they Advanced Theirs to to the legislator the legislator rejected DPI and went back to the recommendation of the committee so where it stands right now is there's four uh that's been approved uh by the legislator uh now I still have concerned about that uh and I have nothing to say because of the literacy program itself in terms of what they chose so I'm not taking issue with that I am taking issue with um you know unfortunately we have a lot of politics getting involved and everything uh and and I just want to make sure that we understand show the evidence what's the information where is it so

072that we can have this open understanding and uh discussion in terms of where's the evidence uh so so I I make reference that that's the the most uh recent one okay um but I've gotten some some pretty good uh you know support on that then the last item because there's a lot of misinformation circling around you know discussions at the board meeting as though information fact and stuff like this uh and so I asked Angela to provide a summary because SFA cost keeps coming up uh and and so um you know I asked for a page she gave me two page but I thought it was pretty concise but but let me just identify we've been upfront about the cost all along and in fact there is there was one area that was 370,000 if

073I Rec call correctly approximately that we had in the budget meaning that Andel is ready to do this and then in Communications with s they said no that doesn't you don't need that because that's something we covered it was a misunderstanding so we took it out of the budget you know we're not hiding anything we're not over budget all the funds are budgeted uh you had to spend eser funds when I was talking about facility costs like ventilation and stuff like this because of Co this last round of three they identifi that you have to spend 20% um on evidencebased to demonstrate you know that you're doing something to try to improve the learning loss uh and so that would be equ equated to 1.5 million and I remember Angela saying we are kind of

074scrambling looking for where we were using evidence base and I mean we do have that um but you know this was this was kind of like it was targeted for hey this is great you're doing something that we are saying is important so I'm just clarifying that uh you know Angela could could answer this but if you have questions I just want to make sure that you we're not over budget those funds are budget and an amendment we identified and I you I explain in terms of right from the beginning we had a good approximation what our costs are uh but everything in the kitchen s's been added to this you know in the discussion I just want to make sure we I'm the same page any questions about um the SFA costs yes I

075guess I'm confused I mean I I was told when you know when when we were coming up to the Vault and you know we we were also going for referendum and all that sort of stuff and we are a kind of a low budget a lowbudget school district how much was FSA going to c f going to cost us you know for the whole the whole trip and and and I'm sure it's in the minutes it's certainly In My Memory that 1.4 million was the total price for three years 1.4 million I remember remarking like wow that's a lot of money compared to the other the other the other the other ones that really weren't considered but but that the teachers had worked on um and I thought 1.4 that's a that's a big lot

076of money and I thought this is the most expensive reading program that we could possibly get so anyway so I I didn't you know for one one reason or another mostly because it wasn't sold to the teachers I didn't vote for FSA uh now I find out that in five months we spent 2.6 some million on success for all and I don't I don't get like I you know I don't get that I mean that seems like overspending to me Angie you want to talk about um car's number the the figures that were provided in the memo are related just to the uh curriculum adoption materials and professional development so uh and that adjustment was related to that uh there was an open records request that did request all of the expenses related to the

077program and so uh that's where some of the additional expenses being outlined however those were a part of our regular built within the budget but they were like had we not done success for all we wouldn't have incurred those expenses but because that was a priority that took priority in the expenses of the budget but Angel how much money was sent to success for all that Corporation how much money was sent to them uh about I would say in total about because you have the professional development is 386,000 um 24 was the supplies about 750 to 800,000 and then the trade books the about 200 300,000 was to other vendors I believe right because it wasn't through success for all I want to speak up on that the overage carry from what was presented is

078$300,000 and what I will tell you is both Angela and I were on the phone with SFA prior to putting together the presentation the 300,000 we were trying to get clarity on is it included in the 800,000 what we heard was the answer was yes because we had it built in at 1.1 I think or one 1.2 million around there my math is not working tonight so we had it built in and then we pulled it out because we heard them say yes it was included when in fact our question perhaps wasn't clear enough on is it included in this price the 300,000 went to a secondary vendor for trade books so we had to have them yeah because we had to implement like typically any type of uh curriculum Lucy ckins for example has

079has leveled readers you have to buy the leveled readers the same thing with SFA but that that is an additional cost to what was presented okay and I would I'll own that that was a misunder understanding on my part it was in the line item but but it was also known up front I mean it was just you know that was a misunderstanding otherwise that budget would have been right there from the you know Geto and we've identified a source of funds too for those it might be good if the board that stuff at some time or another and you know rather than have it come from you know that that this is is a persistent problem here the transparency of things even with the board is really is really poor and um you know

080I I could understand what Angela I can understand what Angela and Jamie are saying it might have been good for us to know that up front because people ask about that and and and it's like oh God I don't know I mean gez 2.6 million seem like a lot of money uh but I you you know I didn't hear anything from the superintendent on on that at all Angela did you provide a memo to um I thought I saw one in here dated in October when we did the final budget adoption I did mention the fact that you know as aing out the final budget that we had by that time known that the amount was in addition to rather than being in included so we were able to reappropriate some eser funding just from

081one year to the other so and it it did help us from a financial standpoint on aable receipts you know you get funded on your prior year receipts so uh it didn't cost taxpayers any sure sure I'm happy about definitely happy about that so the memo was presented to the board with that information so so it's m so in the 1.4 million did that include the eight coaches no okay okay and the cost of those eight coaches is about 900 th000 so that is not that was not included in the 1.4 million yeah okay that's an additional cost all right I understand the 40,000 we spent to send people to Memphis and and I know we spent money to send people to Baltimore and we took two trips to Ohio and two trips to Kansas

082so to say it was just 1.4 million is not being completely honest because it's another 900,000 to hire the people we had to hire to implement the program and now we're spending another 200,000 I think if I remember correctly on additional staff because of Staff we took away at some of the schools who needed help doing other things so so the costs of the program can't just be the SFA it's the additional cost it has cost the district we have to consider all of that when you consider a program not just the 1.4 million and the extra books there's additional cost and again I think had we had finance committee looking at stuff and going through it this would all be clear at this time but it's not clear because we don't have that knowledge

083you there are additional cost to the program that we are well we're aware of it now but actually that should have been out there for the community to know also yeah uh Tony I saw you had your hand up oh sorry yeah thank you uh I guess for my seat you know just looking at what we've done historically and and Jim or Angela please correct me if I'm wrong but I I think part of this conversation has to be a thorough comparison over what we were doing before and how effective it was and what types of returns we're getting and is it is it is it fair for me to say that there's an ongoing process of evaluating our our spend uh and really just allocating staff in the right areas I mean how long

084have we been trying to raise proficiency levels in this district with little success before the last two quarters right so I I mean if I hear what you're saying but I think part of the conversation has to take be taking a hard look at how are we doing things before and was that working or not and and then reallocating staff to areas that are going to drive results that we want to see thanks Tony I I guess it kind of goes along with what Tony was saying my question would be it probably be an imp possible thing to ask of you Angela is to find out you know how much did Lu cofins cost for us and how long did we use it and and how many how many training things did they do there

085and and then in the end result the biggest cost that it costed us I guess is is the proficiency ratings that we were getting after so many years and and we probably wouldn't know that because there was never any type of metrics put out on those programs before and that kind of addresses uh K's comment before about the transparency everything that we've done on this board so far at least in the last couple years that I've been on has been taking these measurements putting putting these measurements out there showing them on the website whatever else that we can do um it and unfortunately it it brings light to things sometimes that we don't like but that's the whole point is for us to to put it out there and be transparent and then make goals

086to fix that so if I was to add up and somehow figure out exactly what that last uh curriculum costed us and everything else that we put into it and all the additional cost like with what B was mentioning before training and things like that I guarantee you we would spend a lot more than 1.4 2.4 or 5.4 million guaranteed over how many years with an end result of children not being able to read we are already seeing definitely you know we haven't gotten to the states thing I understand that but we are seeing our uh improvements that we are and that's this is a positive thing we have teachers all over this District that have been just working their butts off for this and and and it it's a positive thing and so if

087that's if that's what we have to if we see that by spending this little bit amount of money I have got no problem little bit I just yeah go ahead I completely understand the cost of like you know books materials I I don't like the pill the prices on that that that's kind of like obviously I wasn't happy about the cost of SFA no but when when we differentiate between SFA and then when we start to talk about Personnel staff and how much we're investing in them I I I see the rewards already from investing in people and I don't really want to put the price tank to the people like this is a part of the SFA cost so Biff I understand your argument of the total cost but I see us investing in

088the future staff future you know Educators the the professional development and I see that like as a return on our investment and and an incentive for them to want to stay here that you know we're because I remember hearing oh yeah we get this curriculum it ruled out what's coming new and then it was never developed correctly and never was never presented in a manner where they were given the tools to be successful and and the amount of money that I just heard of us spending on the people not books and and and fixtures but actual people it sounds to me that we're investing in the staff to be successful with this and we're trying to give them the best foot forward so they can have good results for our students to learn so the

089money goes you know right to the student through education to our staff so I'm differentiating that completely between books materials licensing you know like I don't I don't quite see your your your Synergy there with how you're trying to tie that together with the total cost of SFA okay I I just want to make it clear I'm you know I fully agree that things were in rough rough rough shape before we did successful all and that um some of us did bring that up I know Lisa brought it up I know that other members of the school board brought it up we were concerned about we were concerned about academic achievement um and you know there was always a there was always some some reason why that why that didn't get addressed as vigorously as

090it is now my only point on on this thing I mean I have other points but on this issue here my only point is that neither neither I nor most of the public that's conversed with me were shocked to find out that this program costs as much as it does and I blame that on not being the administration not being transparent with even with the board and that is my only only point at this point I'd like to um one thing about the costs um you know comparing uh a typical uh cost of a reading program I think the other thing that we need to remember is you know we have a social emotional learning curriculum that's built into this and we also have the um professional development so it it was going to be

091more money because it had more options than um than just a reading program so I think that that needs to be pointed out we're not comparing apples to app of a a traditional reading program um and I think the other thing is um you know we approved the budget with the positions in it and I believe that that budget was unanimously approved and so um Staffing was was in that budget um we were we were asked to look at the curriculum um and if we go back in years past again I haven't looked but kind of like what Matt was saying is we would get a curriculum cost how much is it going to run that but we never looked at overall how much um we didn't scrutinize how much Staffing was going to take

092and and to me um again if we're not um if we're not over our budget overall to um the whole District as a whole our whole picture our whole strategic plan um and we hired people to get the job done and it's benefiting students I think that that's the most important thing okay yeah Chris yeah and I I I just want to say primarily uh for vice president Spalding's information but for uh those that share um at least if not his perspective bent on this I just want you to be aware of something that you may not be aware of okay when Lucy ckins was adopted there were teachers with real concerns but what teachers do when they get something new is they say let's try this and they try to find the good many

093teachers raised real concerns about it year two year three on and on and on they quickly learned that from central office there was a Blinder approach to everything they were trying to tell them about Lucy cofin so I just want you to be well I I hold you in as as I said all the way along right in in the adoption of this we're going to keep our our ears and our minds open about where we can improve things and where we can make things better rather than assuming that any single program solves everything for every kid because that's just not the way any program worked gotta that makes sense proof thank you yeah can I add something I took a moment to go back to the presentation for February 14 14 on the adoption

094because I I kept thinking okay did did we omit the part that we had to have SFA facilitators and solutions coordinators it's actually in the it is in the presentation where it is not though is in the curriculum adoption cost what is in the curriculum adoption cost though is the professional development and what I want to say is it does feel like a lot the professional development does feel like a lot of money it's a heavy lift especially in the first two years but I would tell you with a curriculum like Lucy cofin you can get successful readers if you continue to invest in the professional development and that's where many districts fall short because money starts to get tight and the first thing we tend to do in a district is cut back on

095the training for our teaching staff when you have a turnover rate you have to devel your staff and your professional professional people that are in the district so we are going to be cutting back a little bit on the training for next year um but if we have new people coming in we must keep every year we are going to have to provide training for them whether it is SFA or a different curriculum they have to have these types of resources so it's in there the dollars are not assigned there so a bit just a couple things and before I say anything I want kids to learn how to read and I'm tired of being accused of not wanting that just because I have questions about this program number two if you are implementing a

096program you include all the cost which means a a additional staff people people have to know that number three can we get off this Narrative of oh we were at 30% and just failing the whole country was at 30% because of covid test scores across the state Across the Nation were at 30% or lower because of Co it wasn't just manat it was a whole country so we're trying to fix that now the question is within the program right now our scores have gone up 6 to 10% within the program how they do on a national or state test we don't know yet and I hope they do well but also the other thing we have to look at is all the other districts in the state and what they're doing and then they do

097it by not having a program that costs that much in the first year are they doing it with a program that the state has approved and and there's two sides to everything you hear but part of the problem with the programs that were approved at the state of Wisconson level was the committee put together by the legislature wasn't getting things done that's the other side of the story so the state DPI said we're going to get it done so so what we need to do I think is just be honest and say it's more than 1.4 million we didn't include the cost of those people they were in the budget but by that time the budget is going hey we took SFA that's our program we got to have those people got to have those

098coaches but that wasn't an upfront cost to this program and that's wrong when our taxes go up as much as they did this year for the school district we have to be honest and open on where the money is going yes so I can't speak on like money things or like SFA really I don't know a lot about SFA because I we don't do it at the high school but just one point that Biff made about like saying we were failing and I've heard a couple other comments like it's kind of offending when you guys are like we we're failing reading sitting up here as somebody who was like went through elementary school and middle school and didn't do any SFA like I I'm a good reader I'd say like I know a lot of

099people are good readers some people don't test well there's so many things so this isn't really about SFA but maybe just like watch your wording like your repres like you're making decisions that we were failing like we weren't I mean maybe SFA is a better program maybe it's not like I don't have enough information to have an opinion on on this right now but I just wish the wording would change about it on going for improvement rather than going from failing to succeeding CU we weren't failing like there is good readers in the program I agree with you K you're absolutely right that's 100% And I think the failure lands on us not you guys us as the board and us as administrators and us as our decisions that have been made in the past

100um anytime failure on that portion is mentioned I'll take all that that's that's as far as being in this position children no we failed them they're not failing us that's for darn true but I just want to make sure you know that at least personally for me that's how I see it um but I understand it's just toally it's the way it's been wording it I totally agree with sounding like you guys are like I totally agree cuz yeah they us faing y absolutely and the way that they're looking at the tricks it Chris super quick followup I encourage everybody on the board the next time they send out the invitations to do the mock interviews over at Lincoln go over and do them and you can be very happy with the kids that we

101are producing that are out there looking for employment so last year I went to it and I met some amazing kids matter of fact I see I've seen a lot of them in their senior year this year and and they're just doing outstanding the things that they're doing in sports and other uh C extracurricular activities some smart kids I totally agree it was a fun it was a fun experience I just couldn't do it um I just want to say one thing um that you know I I think you know krie brought this up about um that that we uh previous boards had brought to the attention that you know our reading was poor and you know one of the things we need to remember is you know we we've had we were already doing

102a downward slide prior to co co certainly didn't help but it wasn't Co that got us behind we've been we've been kicking this can down the road um and Chris you know makes a good point is again our central office was um you know wanted to go this direction and I I think you know as board members um you know we as much as we don't need we don't want to micromanage I think that we need to um when something isn't working and not having that curriculum cycle to look at some of these things um is is just not good way to manage um all our curriculums um so and I would be the first one that if if SFA does not produce or any curriculum doesn't produce the results we're having we need to

103pull the plug way easier earlier than than than we have in the past um which is why the the adoption cycle with all our programs is so important and now we're looking at them um and then the last thing I want to say is uh you know I I I there are probably different ways we could say it Ellie and but we we have to look at the urgency of that there are only uh 30% of our kids that can read at grade level that's very sad to me we've neglected these kids for far too long that was measured after what and and um you know that means that and and again I don't know if you watch on Facebook um Jefferson does a nice job of this the kids that get their wing wings

104that's when you move from Roots which is a kindergarten first grade program to the second grade program and Beyond these These are fifth graders that are just making it out of first and second grade reading to to SEC or from first kindergarten to second grade and they're in fifth grade we have some eighth graders that are at a first grade reading level we have failed them we this board this district has failed them and I don't want to put a smiley face on that we we did not we did not do our job job and so it's not the kids Matt absolutely it's not the kids it's not the teachers it is the lack of us saying no more and we got to do something different so I I apologize that you and your cohort

105would feel as if we don't have successes in our district because we do but every kid 100% of kids deserve to read at level grade level not just 30 and and and the kids that were are graduating from Lincoln that are you know exceptional there are lots of other things besides reading but reading opens the door for so many things so um we'll do better we'll we'll do better we will we will find different language but I think we can't minimize the the impact that this has had on on all the kids here and and I think we're all committed to doing something to to make that better that's very good and just one last thing we discussed this in the past at past board meetings but uh cost is a real significant issue and

106I appreciate your attention to that because I think it's really critically important and one of the things we've done uh is we've identified uh expenditures that wasn't giving us a return and through restructuring by actually reducing staff by two uh and some other things we have now annual savings from 1.5 million that allows us to spend more at the school sites and that was the whole intent was to empower the schools uh with a complete solution though not not just a reading program here or another curriculum there we had to tie the systems and the structures together uh and that's what uh the success for all which is more than a reading prum uh enables to do to a significant level so that's all on that okay thanks let's move on to the next item

107so the next item is the staff uh culture which know let's focus mostly on the staff uh we have uh issued another uh survey uh and we are now meeting with school perceptions Mike have previously mentioned that he was arranging you know um pulling that school Perceptions in to assist us uh and we met uh today you know we still have some followup on on that but it was really good uh one of the things they recommended was you know this was a little earlier today was a listening session and you know Mike informed that we already done that and he said that was probably a little bit too soon you know to do it after that but what we did do and we still have more followup to do this and we'll be bringing

108this back to the board uh we confirm that many things that we heard in the listening sessions are things that we need to do um you know again we we're just La launching that in so Mike I don't know if you have anything else to add but you know we'll be bringing that back to the board Mike could you explain a little bit comparing our results with other districts why why we do that why we compare here with some other why it said yeah why would yeah I'm just curious on that our our findings with other comparable school districts that's good question I think it about two minutes ago you said that we need to look at other districts but I think I think they gives us some perspective as to where our result put

109us relative to other comptable school districts in the state whether that be uh valuable information or not it it it gives us some perspective of are we close are we low are we excelling um you know I think gives you some idea yeah with with that also we had we had uh they had offered a comment in terms of probably what's most important is that Baseline that you established and how you're doing compared to um you know when you started this and and last year was a new survey correct uh abbreviated survey that they were launching correct yeah School perception last year was was going to a a little bit shorter survey um and as a result so last year you weren't able to compare yourself with other cable School District although this year it

110been our second year you were able to do that okay and the results of this survey will be available when well we're looking at having a presentation to the board the second board meeting of April working with a consultant and uh he's leading numerous school districts in the state and out of state and uh we would like to go that route um it I think I think what it what it gives us is an objective more of an objective Viewpoint of of of of our results uh versus any internal people that could be biased um and uh we met with them today it was an initial meeting we thought it went well we think the gentleman is a is a u uh past teacher past High School principal past superintendent retired and decided no he's

111working for exceptions um so he's got a great background like I said he's been he's been doing this for a year or two now and he work for different districts so we'd like to keep this going I mean we had spring break for another week and then before we know it we'll be presenting to the board um and then hopefully uh see where that all moves in addition to that we're trying to take our um listening session information and we developed some action plans for that we try to implement that so um as he would say as he would say we should be doing two or three things because if we take too many things on we don't get anything done so thank you anything else thanks Mike okay next one is the um goals

112three and that's the facilities assessment that will be on uh March 21st you know just just as a reminder um and um I again I think we're GNA find some parallel with what happens when you don't pay attention to certain things you know we have a lot more work heav yourself um and um I I think that there's just no question in terms of it's not U if you'll need a reference it's when uh but again it starts with an assessment then it starts with getting you know your stakeholders engage with understanding where your facilities are at but again we that'll be the you know that that providing us that information in terms of how do our facilities stand so that's all so everybody be smelling Sals of that thank [Laughter] you okay uh the

113next item is the um tax sheltered anties and move benefits Jim and Mike we're gonna present that Jim you know it was a um it was a request you know from Mr Hansen oh right you know and and um you know so we were trying to provide you know this here for that discussion point in terms of okay um so Biff did you have any questions about that were present I think it's something we need to look at if we're providing that for administration and we have people who teach in this district and because you're married only one of you gets the benefit of a health insurance policy there should be some way to try to even something or give something for a family that doesn't take the $20,000 a year they should there should

114be something for those people rather than oh you're married too bad I I I I've never thought that's fair because you sign somebody to a contract you offer benefits and we say well okay but we're not going to give you anything cuz your spouse can take the family plan so so there should be some way to make that fair Mike do you want to share I share some experiences that I've had um in one school district uh they did a cash and loop you cannot do a TSA in loop it's illegal you have to do cash in Loop which just means it goes in your salary it's tax but in this District the cash and L was was not for spouses working in the district because the viewpoint there the perspective there was they are

115getting a benefit they are getting the health insurance benefit okay however if you were working for the district and your spouse was working outside the district and that spouse picked up the health insurance and the internal spouse did not have any health insurance what whatsoever that that person then was not getting a benefit and that person would get the cash in Loon that makes sense try that again well no I I understood what you said but in my head I'm going well I I don't get anything because I'm married who's out on $20,000 that's that way I'm just saying this District looked at it as you are getting something you are getting the benefit the benefit the health insurance right I'm just saying that that's what they that's what they looked at so you know

116in my head I'm going is there a way to say okay if you're if you're married to you were working for the district health insurance is no deductible or something there's some way to say you get a little bit better plan because we're not paying 20,000 and I I just think those are things we should look at because as administrators those perks are there right and I think what we'd have to do is we'd have to do a study obviously we' have to examine it have to look at different options of um one could be cash and l x amount cash and l y amount cash and l z amount or something as your as you're saying I just you know instead of the 12% uh contribution your contribution is zero or 6% or something

117there you know and we'd have to look at and get the get the information from our business office as to how many married spouses do we have in the district we're talking to all employees I think right now right so how many do we have in the district look at that see what those costs would be and then look at somebody in the district we suppos is outside the district and look at some options there I mean so and we'd have to examine that bring that back to the board I guess and say Here's here's what we learned right yeah I'm uh University of Wisconsin system um it was just soera in lots and lots of ways um we had we had um annuities we had you know um CDs Etc Etc but we paid

118for them ourselves it but and that that applied also to everybody up to the Pres of the system if they wanted if they wanted an annuity uh that was it was made available it was processed through payroll etc etc and you know people people I I didn't because I had kids at I had kids in going to college when this was happening but many of my colleagues had money deducted from their from their but I just think I don't know it seems to me that the privilege of of administrator getting a special deal is just sort of goes against my egalitarian instincts I guess and and and and and a sense of fairness I mean gee there maybe another way you can compensate to to get the guy you want or the person the woman

119you want to be the superintendent but you know that just seems that just seems like a an an unfair privilege yeah do you know of any school districts that do payroll deductions for staff to do in annuities yeah oh yeah the fast vast majority of schools state of Wisconsin you can do a voluntary payroll uh uh uh reduction for a 403b or a 457 they're basically comparable type of uh investment products supplements to wrs so yes okay so that's just answer your question we could do that do that and we do that we we do that here too I I would um you know just like to add I think this is a great point that Biff is bringing up because U I think you always need to look internally and externally for comparables uh

120what's missing here we're not equipped to do this but we will in the future as where we're going we should be able to have a total you know total cost of compensation for everybody every group you know so that we can you know I mean some benefits we're even paying people after retirement all those things need to be there so that we know how the do every group compared to each other regarding their responsibilities uh uh assigned to them uh in a risk associated with that and then how would we compare the outside so it's somewhere we're going it would take a lot more now because we're not to view that and one of the benefits would also be to then annually um convey to you know any employee uh what they received in terms

121of total value for working for us because that's something that obviously can benefit us when people recognize um you know what we have you know for example we have a system and this is where you have to you can't take things out of context you need to have the whole thing um right now we have a a pay scale uh for many of our employee groups uh that wraps it R ratches it up a lot faster than most districts you know if if we don't bring this to people's attention uh they might be looking at the the starting pay or the end pay and not recognizing you're going to get there a lot faster here than someplace else so we really need to have that level of understanding to be able to assess whether or

122not we're being fair to everybody relative to their responsibilities but it we'll get there we're just not there yet it would take a lot longer but I mean we can do this as Mike said but it be I mean we do this if we're bidding out health insurance because we really have to know what the comparables and stuff like this they're at the other part of this that you sent us is the comparables with administrative salaries Mike I I don't know if you you got this document and if you didn't it's part of the documents tonight but the comparables used were Hudson Sussex Hamilton mkeo Norway wossa Verona chipo Falls Wisconsin raids Howard swo as comparables do we use those as comparables that was the one that I put together that was and I think

123somebody gave it to me when I questioned this earlier um a board member I'm not sure which one but my question is is that are those the comparables we're going to use for teachers and custodians and peros that we're using those are all those are all wellp pain districts um and and I mean I'm just thinking what about Appleton manasha nenina Kimberly fondel Shuan that are in our area are in the same economic you know some of those areas are a little higher up than us but same socioeconomic area real estate prices growth those are areas I believe we should be using as far as salary but if we're going to use this or Administration we should be using those places for our teacher salaries and our custodian salaries and our par salaries because if

124that's where the comparison is on this board that's what we should be doing for everybody wait a minute are are there I'm just I'm questioning I just want to know understand what he's saying as far as the ones that are on that list don't the ones that were on the list that were put out are are they they're higher paying those are southeastern Wisconsin that's pretty high paying Sal so we should be comparable to the lower pay what I'm saying is we should be comparable to the area around us because this is based on tax value when you when you okay I'm saying we should be comparable with Appleton Shaban Green Bay Kimberly kakana that could very well lower the expectations and what I'm saying is if we're doing it for administration why aren't we

125doing it for them why aren't we doing it for the workers in our district if we're doing it for the administrators in our district that's where the salaries came from that's what I was given as comparables I would just love to pay all of our workers and our teachers at comparable salaries to the high paying districts to me that just seemed like a good thing I don't know you first all that comparison was was to me uh and and following what you're saying it didn't match it at all you know I and I identify the range in terms of the difference there in terms of where I rate to those different so it was comparables of of populations superintendent you recruit even you want to do a national search you know you're ready to you

126know bring somebody in you know to the school district outside uh I mean that that is you that's your prog of what you want to use I mean so I think what different investing is a reasonable consideration depends on what you're trying to Market and what you're trying to do when we U Mike when we have done because I know we've looked uh when we were doing the paraa increases and you know things like that in the steps um what districts um do have you been using [Music] for typically what we use for teachers Angela and I use be analytics so I go to Angela I say hey Angela well you run X Y and Z and it's usually student enrollments between 4,000 and 6,000 and we run that we look at what that tells

127us for teachers okay for support staff typically what you do for support staff is you look at the surrounding school districts where they can commute or maybe even some private sector places that's that's what you use as your comparable uh because typically your support staff you know they're not going to leave manat to relocate for a support staff position somewhere else in the state whereas a teacher possibly would so does that answer to the question ises that help well so I think we're looking for I mean I think the the administration is looking for um a directive here um so how do you want the um the uh administrative team to be doing a search or I mean to be doing a study on uh I mean my preference would be all benefits that we

128look at not just the TSA across the board but I mean I think I think if if uh I just think we need to look at our um benefit package if you would and um see where if we're in the ballpark not in the ballpark where we could you know do something different so does that I wouldn't mind seeing a study but I I just and this really doesn't I guess make too much I didn't get anywhere with this but I my my company that I work for is a very family oriented company and we have several families that work there some are mother father and two daughters the other ones two sons I mean it's quite family oriented and I I did ask a couple of them I said you guys get any type

129of compensation for not having the insurance and like oh I have insurance then I asked that I said I know but do they get like because they don't have to pay the premium like that's their compensation I I pay like $200 a week extra for all these people on my insurance and I'm like okay I get it I I just kind of was trying to figure out what we did as any other company companies might do but I guess that's kind of what you were saying before they have the benefit of the insurance without having to pay the premiums I guess so one of the things to be aware of you know when you're looking that you're you're likely to when you get into a very in depth total cost you're going to say oh

130gez we're overpaying on benefits but underpaying on salaries you know that's why it's important to look at everything you know together so when you start comparing then you you know you just need to know you know sometimes you're going to not necessarily end up where you think you're going to end up when you're there but the only way you know is by making comparisons like that so Mike um if this if this wasn't the directive of the board to um do a study like this how long do you anticipate that taking good question um I mean if we're going to look at if we're going to look at Health then life LTD STD long-term disability short-term disability yeah uh districts that do uh cash aloom just you know they're far more rare than they are

131Comm if we look at that um first up well you'd have to give me you have to give me at least a month that's a oh yeah that's a first of all be figuring out where where can I get that sort of information that's fairly accurate within the last year right um you know so you know we have to work on stuff like that but if you you know I'm I'm more than willing to go at it I just you know I need a little time I have a question can you compare the benefit package in man County for employment between man Public School District and any other employer in the county and tell us comparable where man public school district is on benefits like when you say employer School Districts The City versus the

132county no I County and players how could you do that so my my question is asking the RO of the question is how do we Stack Up compared to all the Employers in the county and would this be a lighthouse of good benefits or crappy benefits or social benefits that's my thank you that's what I'm trying to get at is good to work for man Public School District on a benefit basis I think it is but I would like the data to support it that's what I'm asking I think it is also I think yeah you know I I mean I think this is an interesting discussion but it's it's it's pretty it's it's pretty academic at this point until you know the the the the the State Assembly and the state senate uh grows

133up and changes the formula for for for for financing public education in this state I mean where at the bottom end of you know the bottom end of the you know the Loaves and the fishes in this state and and and you know we can't compare ourselves to like you know some of the suburb schools in west of Milwaukee or even to Appleton I think and and and because we just don't get fair treatment from the state and I think that there's that's the fundamental a fundamental problem with what's going on financially in man to and I think that you know when when I get anywhere with the State Assembly people that we have now uh maybe maybe maybe this should be a high priority uh in in in in in in the up upcoming

134upcoming after after the next election to see if we can get some fairness here but I don't see how we could ever afford how we could ever afford to be totally fair with our employees because you know the formula the formula is against from the very start would it be fair to maybe do the very first thing is to look at our salaries uh salaries our benefits um and and look at what where we're at and in a comparison would it be fair to start there and just see where we're at so we can see if we are not in the ballpark across the board with every position that we have well still take some you know if you're looking at face Couts you know as I mentioned there's a significant benefit here because we

135move people up a lot faster you know so you would have to really kind of take apart One schedule compared to another versus just using the top and the bottom I mean you have to know what the acceleration is in it so yeah what what what Jim is referring to is that after Act 10 a lot of districts restructure their salary St and uh man talk did not to my knowledge uh and you know what today I look at that as been a good thing you know I think I think moving slowly there was in our favor now here's the reason I think it's in our favor is because more lot of districts you go to today there's a bachelor's column a master's column maybe an EDS column that's it whereas if you're medic CL

136if you go from a bachelor to 12 credits you get a little problem so you get a little reimbursement for all that 24 36 Masters blah blah blah the other thing that manat talk does that districts that I've been involved with anyway that uh the step after Act 10 a lot of times the districts reduce the step uh because actually they would say if we can't afford it we can't sustain it oras m left it at $1,800 per year so obviously if you're if you're going through a salary schedule at $1,800 a year versus $1,000 a year obviously you're going to get from the bottom to the top a little sewer and that's that's important for a teacher that's important you know I use that I'm going to tell you right now today's Tuesday yesterday

137I was recruiting a Prof a teacher professional staff member and I was talking about because we were we were competing with another school district for this for this individual so I was talking about our salary Matrix compared to their salary Matrix and I could talk to how you could go up on ours with credits how you would go faster through ours x y and z so my my only Point here is is that we've got some good things in place that I can use to seal sell this District to hey I think you got to come here for another other other reasons too for that why don't we just look at comparable salaries and why don't we then look at some of the ideas you expressed about making things giving a perk rather than nothing

138to two people that work for the district that might be married you know it' be like we can look at it we don't have to make but just to see but the other thing that I think we need to look at is our comparables and what we're comparing our salaries to are are you asking for teachers are you asking for all staff let's let's I I think we have the same health problem with custodians and Paris and all staff right if they're married they they get one plan I that issue I think we could look at everybody right okay uh salaries I think are going to be a little harder but um you know I I just think of hey we send something out and say what do you pay your teachers where do your

139teachers start where do your par start cians let me let me work on um let me work on all groups because but with the support staff I want to work on our competition in the area where they commute 15 minutes and I'm another job right with the Prof professional staff I want to use Barett analytics a little bit and uh and then let me um let me just see what I can find out there's a way to find out that other districts that are doing any cash in Lo and how much and what looks like and then some options for us and what it would cost yeah that's good I mean I'm not looking for two weeks it takes some months I'll do it as fast as I can what do they say um Howes

140that say go under promise and over deliver something like that well I want this to be a board directive so you know it's not just because Biff's asking for it is this something that we want Mike to be spending his time doing sure I'll make a motion that whatever was said Mike does I I what did what did explain what you you asked Mike to do I I'm looking for some kind of compensation for our health program that that you get nothing if you're married to somebody who takes the plan okay so that and then I I guess I'd like to see how we're doing salary wise comparable districts in this area and and and compare our salaries you know in in this area rather than southeastern Wisconsin yeah which which there is a difference

141I'm sure you would find when you look at those salaries so so just so I'm clear yeah you're right I need to be clear on my I'm if you can give me this charge I would use I would use teachers I would try to go to Bar analytics 4,000 to 6,000 somewhere in there try to take those districts for teachers for support staff you know the area right where they could commute and take on a different job and are we are we competitive with that wage they all were the wage okay okay I move that Mike does that second any any discussion way hey Katie are you sure you get the minutes on that do I would ask for a friendly amendment that you also comparable to the jobs in man County area so because

142we I don't believe it's Apples to Apples to our taxpayers when if we are comparing to other school districts about just teaching it because this economic Community has to withstand the wages of everybody and have to bring try we're trying to bring up the whole community and all jobs so I'd like to compare the salaries and the benefits of all positions in this community oh God so it'll be three years and four years before well okay well I'm just I'm saying I want to know some comparisons between the person that works at uh holy family or the person that works at um other places in this community because the T the tax burden has to go on the whole community that sample's still arous though so do we have a second on that amendment I

143I'm going to be honest I think that's I just think that's too much for can we start with what we got and then may before we have any discussion is there a second on this amendment I think seeing none um I think it's I think you're not move on so we go back to our original uh motion um I I'm inclined to to vote no on this this and the reason for that is is that I think that we are not taking things in context I think we really need to look at our benefits as a whole um you know and our overall salary and compensation package and I don't know that that does I don't know if this I don't think we can just take the TSA part out of there or cash and

144move benefits I think that we need to look at the overall compensation pack package and how it um relates to the the bigger picture here so yeah bi we're not we're asking for this study we're not going to change anything just based on these two things that he's looking at I agree if you want to look at it all then let's set up a committee and spend six months looking at it at everything but I think all we're looking for now is are we in the ballpark or not so so we and say hey come to Mana talk this is what we offer we got this and and you know we we have to get an idea of where we are is good enough and we have to get comparisons with districts that are like

145us Northeastern Wisconsin you know where where the CL things is kind of the same doesn't matter if I'm in Denmark man at Walk Through Rivers Green Bay wherever rather than and I'm okay doing that as long as we're not just uh picking uh TSA cash and Lou I just like to look at the whole benefit package if that's what if that's what we're going to do so if that's not the directive then I I wouldn't vote for that right and the and the area would kind of with what that's why i' would be voting Noah the scope of this search isn't isn't full fruited to understand the the scope of the search is for the other like he had said other than teachers like right because that was surrounding Community type stuff right but the

146teachers itself is going by be analytics because I teachers go from District district district so that's where I mean I think it is kind of like what you're saying but and but for the teachers it's for the district because that's where we get a measurement I I'm kind of for it I I I think I want it I I would just like to see the benefit packages between the community of where the best place to work in the community would be and and he's probably going to get some of that with with the other other employment positions that we have like like the the custodians and the maintenance and whatever else that you got typ thing I don't know what you're doing H I honestly have never that's a strong word but in all my

147years have compared the public sector school with private sector right I don't even know if I can get that private sector information can't even get I mean I don't know if if I take phone calls I I don't know I'm just telling I just okay well let's uh if there's no further discussion um let's take a vote on this all those in favor say I any opposed no so one two 3 four 4 to two right so Mike you know it okay okay check with check with Biff and the minutes uh there's a um so District activ you have in in your agenda packet uh items that are going on in the community that are significant you know i' just like to highlight you know a couple the the the U art uh exhibit you

148know uh is just was wonderful and I would just um acknowledge one of our past board members Kathy Willis is uh judging that you know in terms of you know for our competition to be able to have some of that artwork done where they'll get a financial uh uh reward and and also that uh displayed in our building so so that was really um I I think very uh very nice well attended um 13 graphic design and photograph uh photography students won a 2024 uh Scholastic award including two gold key winners who will go on to compete at the national level level MJ Newman was the first girl in Lincoln High School history to bring the championship title at the state wrestling meet uh Rising Phoenix International sessions are underway applications are due March 20th

149U more information can be found at the rising uh Phoenix there's a link there uh and then this is not that far down but the quarter Century retirement celebration is for May 29th put that on your calendar so those are just a two items okay um and then we're move to um unfinished business um the superintendent negotiated contract um can't remember if so there's a document um that is listed in there uh again this was um something that um Biff you had asked about I just wanted the information on why the difference between the 20,000 and 35,000 that's all I wanted nothing else was concerned about but Mike wasn't here when that happened I and I don't know where you're going to get that or who decided on the difference between the two and you're

150talking about um M Mcall versus well yeah y1 is 21's 35 that's what I'm wondering because it was labeled in move of health insurance yeah I mean all I can tell you is that um we used um comparables of of what we had um and we did not the board didn't negotiate Jamie's contract so I don't know um you know anything about that well so my assumption you use the comparables southeastern Wisconsin um actually we we use those but we also um uh EXA connect uh School EXA connect we also use they had given us also that was our search firm they had also given us um a a list of comparables it was an older list so they told us to add 30% I'm sorry not 30 3% sorry um to the numbers that

151they had provided um and then uh the thing I was going to say about that oh and then I think you know one of the things that um I remember when we were negotiating the interim was our attorney said you know at that Point don't use um you know tsas because it's an interim position so one of the things we also did though was we looked at what we were paying previous administration um and and what they were getting as far as the total package goes and so um that was our other we went a lot on recommendations well they just gave us they just gave us the ball par that was EXA connect School EXA connect member question um any any other questions about that no okay good all right um okay so moving

152on to um the proposed new position for the bilingual interpreter yeah it's pretty simple here I I mean you look at this chart you can see that our Spanish speaking students families over the last four years has has overd doubled and our staffing has not it's been constant for five and for for the 2425 next school year we would like to add a a bilingual interpreter Spanish uh to our staff and so we're seeking your your um your your approval tonight for for allowing us to do that y I'm I move that we appoint one one new interpreter Spanish Spanish bilingual interpreters second hey any discussion on that yes Chris yeah I want to say first of all I'm all in favor of this I've spoken to principles who absolutely assure me how desperately this

153is needed my question is how many positions we have in that we have for Spanish teachers do we have any positions that are or or our total ft I suppose because if we have part-time and we can give them full-time employment by sharing some of this responsibility with them I would want to do that rather than have a teacher who's working right now at 60% I don't know I I totally con with you okay I mean if that were to happen we you know first of all in this labor market if you reduce somebody's contract from let's say 1.0 to. 75 the odds of you keeping that individual pretty Dam remote that's what we fast right so absolutely we would be looking at what other needs do we have in the district that we can

154keep you at 1.0 for the next for one year at a time so we have no fraction ft is in Spanish yeah I I don't think so okay but I'd have to do a little research but I don't think so because if we did on my radar I think yeah right yeah okay all right thank you okay any other question or discussion told you I just want to make sure that we're straight because Carri had put forward the motion for one but is this something that we're looking for one for each one for Spanish and one for Mo no no just one for Spanish okay all right all those in favor of the motion signify by saying I I any oppos motion carries okay and then we have the proposed youth apprenticeship education um and

155Le tennis yeah we're very very excited tonight to bring forward this opportunity for the district to really get involved at the ground level of a program that as a district we're very proud of leading in in our area uh just recently the state of Wisconsin and VPI has opened up an opportunity for there to be youth Apprentice in the area of Education given our uh of course our focus on our strategic plan and uh you know really looking hopefully way ahead to some possible kids who might get engag engaged in education is an opportunity for them to explore that career um we're just really excited about it um our youth apprenticeship coordinator Bonnie pinc um as well as um our Librarians uh particularly the leadership team in the libraries are very excited about this opportunity

156because what it really does is it provides them uh some opportunities to go into our elementary schools uh we used to have AIDS working in our libraries in elementary school and we don't anymore um these are positions that our students will be able to do every other day and share uh at our elementary schools they'll get an opportunity to work with promoting literacy in our district um you know and as opposed to um you know because the talk is you know you could have other positions potentially eventually but when you're talking about a pair of position that are working with kids real closely on potentially things that are you know maybe um maybe something that students in high school shouldn't be working working with like questions about confidentiality and some of those things this is

157a very good place and easy place for us to start um The Librarians at the elementary level um Can can nurture and Mentor these kids in this area they'll learn the skills necessary uh but they're also going to get their feet wet in education which I I'm most excited about um because we talk about our strategic plan and wanting to recruit and hire and keep the best people here our community working with our kids and I think this is just one of those strategies you know albe it there'll be 12 kids that are going to have this opportunity every year uh if we would continue to do it um also providing a very necessary service in the district so we're very excited about this and I'd be happy to feel any questions how many uh

158so every Elementary School will essentially get two because the way our schedule works at the high school there'll be part-timers right so you know they'll work Monday and Wednesday Tuesday Thursday and then split Friday um and that would be at each of our elementary schools what what are you looking at at hours per day uh well it would be the normal work day for um it'll be there a full school day a full school day because of the way our schedule works it allows them except for Fridays which they split that's their typical release time for ya all of our ya kids are released for halftime yeah do do we invariably if they're working in the library our Librarians will essentially be their supervisors are we going to work some with them so they understand

159absolutely so so um I I've written them letting them know that this proposal is out there um if it passes we'll have a meeting with all the library leaders and then our leadership team in the library has also uh committed to doing a training so we'll universally train all these students as a district not by site so that they have the standards in place to do all the necessary and essential functions that come out of the meeting that we have and then each additional site person who supervised will also have their own unique set of things that are in place in each School fun with Dewy Decimal System that's right yeah I was just thinking the same thing I wonder are they going to learn next any promise or questions um Le I just had

160one about um I know a lot of the apprenticeships in town are paid yes uh will this person will these students be paid yes okay and what will that be um Mike do you recall what we were $12 an hour well because it says here we don't currently have any yeah we don't we don't cently we don't do it now so that's that's good I'm glad I'm glad that's the case and I think it's just really a nice statement for the district that we're showing you know we're we're we're sort of putting our money where our mouth is so to speak about our ya program and it's giving our kids opportunities too yeah yes Chris move to approve okay second any further discussion okay all those in favor say I I any post motion carries

161just wanted to say one other thing just about the youth apprenticeship program real quick um in our donation list it didn't re doesn't reach the 5,000 where we have to approve it but um we we are constantly money from um our area businesses to promote our youth apprenticeship program so you know if you see what's nice about that list is if you see any of the owners from those businesses or you're there you know please thank them for continuing to support our youth parip program um okay and then um the Cooper rash funds Angela yes uh we have C funds for approval this evening and uh just a little bit of background background was included in the memo but U Mr Cooper and then his sister who had a separate trust uh donated uh or

162set up a trust uh to give money to the school district uh upon their passing and that has uh provided funds for many projects well over 20 years now um Mr Cooper was the principal of Washington Junior High and uh as a part of his legacy he wanted 25 % of that to go directly to Washington Junior High so uh a couple of weeks ago when Ken was here working on Foundation stuff and a year or so ago we look to make sure you know because there was confusion in the past whether they got 25% of the original trust or 25% of the annual allocation so that got a little mixed up over the more recent years and we straightened it out so um you know there's the list for approval and then there's a

163little bit in there that I I just remarked for a general donation to Washington and we'll have to work with them on finding something that they can uh purchase to meet the requirements to use up their portion of the trust and then we'll forward it on to um it'll just be equally available the remaining funds moving forward so the list of of projects is in there and okay so do I have a motion to approve sove so move by Chris and then um any any discussion car okay yeah right now their their their share is 5.16% of of of what's being spent so I guess you know yeah well we had a separate spreadsheet that had their remaining of the original 25% of the original trust so you interpreted that way rather than yes 25%

164of the allocation okay okay okay uh the only thing I had here and I hate to be nitpicky but um the the make the library great improvements it says McKinley but then on the bottom it says Riverview Elementary oh I just was curious which you know what I apologize that was a just a copy paste error from so is it McKinley or McKinley yes I apologize is I Circle that too yeah okay time to work H smarter not harder and okay all right if uh no further discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed okay motion carries all right then we have um our first read on several of our policies here and so the first one is policy 2431 inter Scholastic athletic yeah um so i' be looking for a motion to

165approve that or amend it motion okay motion by Spalding second by Chris okay any discussion about that document no see none all those in favor say I any opposed okay motion parries okay and then we have um policy 2461 the recording of IEP meetings um and um um we have uh looks like option one there um any do I have a motion a second to approve that or understand second seconded sorry okay this um any discussion at all regarding this policy okay seeing none all those in favor say I I any opposed right and then um we have uh the homeless students policy 511 11.01 and um looking for a first and a second Chris okay I'll second okay second by Carri yeah I just want to know do we have a p on homeless

166children now is that in your that must be in your department well not seminar myself okay all right okay any discussion further discussion on that I see n all those in favor say I I any opposed okay right then we have policy uh 5130 this is withdrawal from school uh and I look for a motion a second to approve that I never approve dropping so I'm not okay move to approve move to approve by bi second second by schal okay any discussion on that I just got to open it quick okay is there a peny involved in not not not not playing by the Numbers here I mean I just I mean when I was in school I mean it's just vanished but uh but this is a bureaucratic process um so is there is

167it like treny there if they don't do this they get picked up and beat with hoses or something I don't know the answer yeah can I can speak to that a um so dropping out from high school impacts our state report card so we want kids to complete high school and complete their high school diploma um other than that when students 18 they are eligible for dropping out so then we put a ton of support measures in place to provide or try to provide prevent that okay try to maybe talk about it yeah yeah before we get to that it's a good no water yeah somebody will vote against me because I said that I bet is there a reason why we left it's in discussion sorry is there a reason why we left out

168in um e we only X the home visit conducted by staff and not the additional SRO yeah um typically we do send SRO on home visits but it's not always possible if there's something going on and if there was something scheduled uh by this isn't by policy but by practice we always make sure someone goes so I've been to many home visits as an administrator and I would always make sure someone was with me when it can be the SRO that's great but sometimes I had to take someone else with me because the SRO was indisposed so we didn't want to force that you didn't want to for in the policy leaving it option correct that's what I wanted to make sure because to me personally I I don't don't sending anybody by themselves right

169we don't we don't do that okay all right yep I'm good with that then okay any further discussion well since you brought it up you want to try to make an amendment so you have more than one person go do the visit do we could we could add it's our current practice um okay so just leave it at the as or we could just be conducted by at least two staff me well then if we do then it's going to be two staff members and an SRO if they want to add it cuz going by policy they have to have at least two staff members so all right yeah I'm not aware of any home visits that have taken place in the district without more than one staff member I General protocol that we we

170make sure people have someone with really confident that nobody's going to make the decision to go on their own and yeah yeah I was just curious yep okay um if no further discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed okay motion carries then we have um policy 5420 reporting student progress I look for a motion in a second or an amendment to that Mo okay make a motion fing and Chris AEL for a second any discussion on that policy seeing none all those in favor say I I any opposed okay motion carries um Chris I do have a um Robert's Rules question sure I was looking on these policies because I knew there was something that uh I I I wanted to add so now that we have Motion in the second and

171approved 2431 can we do anything about that right now because it was on 20 it because that's the one where it's we're missing a check box it's super minor but we're we're in this is so nerdy yeah I'm actually grateful that you asked we're in the middle of a meeting where we did it you can make a motion to reconsider which I will immedi second okay and then I ation to rec you can't reconsider at a following meeting yeah okay so um so I have a motion a second to reconsider policy 2431 intercol actic Athletics um now do we have to approve the reconsider well first we we have to vote to reconsider right you make your motion okay so Motion in a second so Stacy and Chris and then um any discussion about that

172that's non- debatable the reconsideration is non debatable okay um all those in favor say I I any opposed okay um so I would like to amend policy 2431 inner Scholastic Athletics um in the first page um where it lists uh AB C and D um there's a check box there that says the district provides the following safeguards and there's an X there so that we want to include that language the district provides the following safeguards and then we list it does that make sense yeah I see that tell me that again yeah so this is you want to show you guys see where that is yeah easy to miss though yeah it was I yeah well I'm a nerd when it comes to that okay we're all nerds in our own way right okay so

173I have I have amendment to that um um do I have a second I did okay Chris I mean sorry Matt and um any discussion on that all those in favor say I I any opposed okay motion carries okay then we have our introduction um these will be the policies that we look at um on our uh now next meeting we are only going to do seesaw so we won't be looking at these um our general meeting in April ail okay so we're going to look at some on FMLA diploma deferral use of tobacco and nicotine by students School daycare closure insurance and automated external defi defibrillators um we will also be looking at a policy that we revised earlier this year to look at um some um language to be consistent um with what

174we adopted earlier so that'll be coming up as well um so remarks from board president um just uh a reminder of our meeting uh we are not going to meet the week of spring break and so we're going to um meet that March 21st um at our regular time which would be six o'clock so that would be our special meeting that we would have on that and I don't think I have anything else next one the 21st that's all we're going to be doing with this facility we have a you know Personnel thing or something of that nature but we're trying we try to just lip baseball thing too oh there there is there is one that's associated with facilities that we okay yes that dat much testing the yes yeah because they're prepared on

175that day I will prepare myself be here okay know there's a conflict okay thank you appreciate it okay um and then um see are any other future meeting oh the only other thing was I wanted to remind you that Tony is will be at your meeting next week um he signed up with Biff okay so okay all right and um so our next um item here is um I would look for uh a motion and a second for the Board of Education um will vote to convene in Clos session for the purposes of considering the following matter uh considering the employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any Public Employee over which the government body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility the meeting is authorized pursuant to section 19.85% a motion in a second motion

176so moved by U spaly second okay second by Biff um all those in favor say I I I'm sorry we need a roll call vote we need a roll call vote thank you no little overly broad yeah yes yeah okay so we are now in close session e