001perfect education to order we'll start with our pledge of allegiance all right i pledge allegiance okay i gotta look up in this room when i do that justin painted an american flag on the ceiling this was his bedroom so so i take advantage of that okay let's see here we'll ask laurie to take the role as long as she's still here all righty lisa johnston here dave nichols here richard nitch he said here sorry i saw i saw that okay thank you the lips moved in that direction here catherine chalu and kathy willis here thank you okay thank you okay the purpose of the meeting tonight is to interview candidates for the vacant board seat now um just so we're all aware the position would be filled only until the april election so it's a
002it's a temporary filling of of a vacancy um then the voters will decide who will fill that spot and who will fill any other positions that are available so what we're going to do tonight is um we're going to interview the candidates there's a schedule that we have hopefully that works that we can get everyone connected um we've got five excellent candidates so it's going to be real challenging for us to make a decision um but the candidates have an advantage because they get to talk to us they got to send us answers to questions and they filled out an application so i appreciate all that so as long as carrie is here carrie trask we'll get started right away um what i did was i just we're just going to go in order of
003alphabetical order you know for asking questions you don't have to ask questions if you don't want you can ask them i'll move a lot in about 15 minutes for the candidate so um we'll just take it from there and lisa you're the first one up in alphabetical order okay i'd just like to say uh thank you terry for applying for the position and also for running in april um i really have no question for you you did a very good job in completing the questionnaire thanks again i appreciate it okay good well that was easy let me let me let me tell you i'm i'm gonna start off by saying you know how much i appreciate you taking the time to do this and um to interview me and the other four and you know
004get this get this thing done good well i guess i'm next i think i come up before you richard yep yes you do i gotta see ya and you've got a t okay uh carrie what do you see as the role of the public school board oh wow i think to to you know to reflect the voice to the community for for for starters i mean and to do that in an intelligent way that that you know that that gets beyond uh ideology and politics and partisanism and and all of that i mean so much has been politicized that i think we really need to take an oath that we kind of leave that stuff at the door um i do think it's important to have citizens make policy uh to have people who are
005engaged with the school system that also take responsibility that have to account to the voters for what's done and what's not done and to um really truly be that bridge between community and and the people who have the job to administer and and provide the program good thank you um got one more it might be a little tougher okay our school district began the school year in a blended model we moved to virtual in october and as of january 25th we're going to move back into a blended model what's your position on those decisions that the board made well i watched the meeting last last week and i was i was very happy that you moved into a blended model um i i you know it i really appreciate the concern the the downright danger
006of the situation we're in uh but it does seem to be working in in in other school districts um i think that um as a as a teacher for you know my my entire adult life um i couldn't i can't imagine how teachers are feeling and how students are feeling just in terms of their emotions and in terms of their sense of connection and participation in um doing virtual all the time so i i appreciate meredith's position that you want to be cautious you want to be careful you want to be responsible but the fact of the matter is is i think the blended the blended thing is the is the perfect transition it's not gonna it's not gonna it's not gonna save everybody but i think uh yeah i'm i'm really glad you made
007that decision thank you um that's good for me uh richard you'd be next yes uh hi terry um glad you could join us on this evening i was i was kind of curious to uh to know how you got involved with the uh mckinley academy and can you real briefly share an experience or two you had with uh with that experience yeah i was on the mckinley academy for a long time and i i got on fairly shortly after it was it was started and um i just simply you know i simply got a an email one day i think from the the chair of the the of the board i knew some people on the board that leaner was on the board at the time and and some other people i knew um and
008they said you know we have an opening on the board and your name your name came up and came to mind would you be interested and i thought you know i'm honestly i'm you know first persons in my family to ever have any higher education and actually other than my children the only one that's ever gone to university and i i thought you know in terms of education in general as i said in in my answer to the question that boy it's the last best hope for the children of of the working families and it certainly certainly was good for me and i thought all right this is this the program i know what i know why they've got it i know i know what it does um sure i would like to lend my
009support to it and do whatever work i could to advance it improve it preserve it if necessary uh and i think the mckinley the mckinley experiment oh wow is one that's in evolution uh but i think it's it's it's got good goals i think it's um become a better program over the time that i was i i was with it and then thereafter i think the new the new principle is um it's doing some really good things so um you know my own experience is is that uh i guess you you look for you look for verification and we always had a student who was on as a member of the board and some of the some of the some of the stuff they did some of the some of the parts of the program
010they did really truly reflected a a startling and amazing growth in some of those kids um i also knew some of those kids personally uh some were shy and and you know introverted and some were just smart asses who but i i really did see them mature in ways that was you know was pretty moving i think it was certainly pretty moving for me okay um the other thing one of the things i you know it's i um i kind of grabbed it gravitated to a little bit you know it's on on your uh on your question and answers uh you made reference to the devaluation of education in the state and then you talk about you know it's uh taking a stand to protect revive and advance public education that sounds like quite a
011task you know it's uh well it is i mean it's a big it's a big cause it's a big cause richard um i mean i was just i was just appalled by you know act 10 and everything that went with it and um uh it was done for nakedly political reasons you know the crushing of the teachers unions uh um it was just and and then the slashing of the budget i mean all the way from the university on down to to kindergartens um just seemed to me like boy this is not wisconsin anymore i moved to wisconsin taught at uw uw manitowoc and was really really happy to come to wisconsin because i lived across the river for a while and went to graduate school and college in the in the twin cities and
012i was always impressed by wisconsin especially the quality of the education in the state uh from the university on down in fact and all of a sudden that was under attack and and devalued would be would be a a modest polite term to what they did with education in this state i feel very well militant about that um and i know there are there are forces in this community that would like to um see things cut see things change see things eliminated um you know i think they should be done if any of those things are done they should be done for good reasons that serve the needs not only of the students but of the community um so yeah i mean it's you know it's uh you know it's it's my part of the
013part of the state that i live in where i can perhaps do something about it i mean i have to face the voters yet you know i haven't had too much luck with them yet but uh nevertheless while i was going down going down in flames on the on the assembly run i was talking to my my close friend sherry about you know maybe maybe what i should do is i should try to run for something local and maybe the thing that i i i might be best at would be to try to run for school board and then all of a sudden this this opening occurred and i thought wow give it a whirl give it a try i mean i'd be honored to serve and i'd be excited about having the opportunity to
014you know protect revive and advance public education it is public education that i'm in favor of okay thank you kerry all right meredith europe all right i really appreciate you um acknowledging the consequences that act 10 has had on our state and on our district they've been um fairly monumental um i i know you've had quite a bit of experience working with different teams and so my question to you would be um we we definitely are a team we're we're one body united for the students in our district and so what are some aspects of um serving on teams that you've had or boards um what are some of the aspects you liked and what were some of the aspects you dislike well you know all the way through i mean i mean when we
015we i don't know if you know anything about the history of uw center or uw matadoc uh you know it was in pretty bad shape when i got here and we really truly insisted that we had to do that together it wasn't like oh gee you've got a schedule that you only teach three days a week but you know uh this place exists six days seven days a week and so uh the expectation was that we all did our part bigger than just our slot you know teaching teaching and teaching history 101 and 105 and whatever else um so team stuff i mean i was an athlete in high school and for a while in college and you know that that whole thing just seemed to me to make all kinds of sense not just
016for playing games and winning and losing but you know for for for living life in a sense and you know some of you may know i'm i come from the socialist dominion to the north i'm i'm canadian by my birth and upbringing and uh i really i really i really still encounter them you know have the the embodiment that uh of a value system that uh says well everybody should be covered by health care uh everybody should work together on on on making their communities better and i thought you know the united states in a lot of ways offers people a lot of opportunity to do that sort of stuff and i've always as as you can see been interested in willing and even enthusiastic about being on boards and the one thing i the
017one thing i never liked was you know people who weren't team team players i mean i didn't necessarily dislike them as people but i thought it was a you know just a just a you know a bad thing and and i always found that by working as teams just trying to find a way to move forward what we were trying to move forward together didn't create a kind of a mediocrity didn't kind of you know result in a in a dilution of talent but in fact uh really really had the opposite effect and i think that when people work together for a good cause and i you know you wouldn't be on this if you didn't you wouldn't run for election you didn't think it was a good cause but people that are just doing
018it for for building resumes or doing it to like you know get extra points at work or something um it's like okay you know it's it's okay it's a free country but um i really am for all of all people all the all the people working together um so and if i get if i should happen to get on i mean i'll i'll try to demonstrate that i mean i never hold back on what i think but i'm always i always back down uh when i'm told it's dumb um so you know i'm not in love with my own my my own ideas thank you anything else okay uh kathy you get to go last year hopefully we didn't ask all the questions you wanted to ask but yeah well there were some but uh
019w murray's always on the tail end there um so welcome carrie it's nice to see you nice to meet you hey um my question for you is you have it seems like you have a lot of civic achievements and if you could kind of like briefly think of your greatest civic achievement and how that might play out here on the board like what kind of attributes does that help our board with in our community of learning i would say my you know i i like the fact that i was on the board and was the president of the board when we when we built the library raised the funds and convinced the community that it was a good idea i mean manowak is a kind of a place where a lot of people say well
020you know it'll do you know when how about a lot of stuff i mean um it's it's sometimes hard to sell a new idea especially if it's going to cost money but i i really had a great experience on the library board but i think my my the self the one the the achievement they celebrate the most is the spirit of the rivers now i don't know you know not everybody loves art and you know i i i do because my father was was very artistic um and always stressed that with us but you know we took we took this idea and we said look you know we're really down this was in like 2000 we started right when you know right before barack obama came in right right when you know the bottom was
021falling out of the economy and it looked like the world was like just gonna like sink into the darkness um and a number of us said wow this is a great idea i mean it's not a practical idea but it's a it's a it's a it's an idea that gets could get at the spirit of of this place um that could could could do something to you know rather than curse the darkness we could damn we could do a sculpture um we could we could we could fight back against you know against the the the depression and the feeling of depression by doing something positive and beautiful and majestic and something that really said boy you know this is a special place look what look what look what we could do and of course you
022know we were at it for like four or five years and hardly raised enough money to you know by by lunch um but as we kept at it and we all kept at it we sold it we sold the idea with some modest results at first but then some major results later and we did what everybody said including you know people on the city government there was like oh my god they'll never you'll never be able to accomplish that and the day that it was dedicated you know there was a tremendous outpouring of civic pride on that thing and there was a tremendous sense of celebration that we had done something something you know not just practical but something that really really addressed the sort of the spiritual needs in a way of of of
023the common good um so i'm i'm i'm you know and i i contributed money to it myself and um i always i always you know and i and and um i always you know i think that's kathy i don't know if that's a long answer to one question but i think that was for me you know when i die i think that's going to be something that i'm i'm really so going to be proud of to the very end i think sometimes the things that are most worth doing are the hardest right i think so too yeah i think so the the ones that people say ah you're never going to pull this off so anyway tim is here and i don't want to take up his time but i appreciate appreciate the the good
024discretion we've had here or or at least you know the good question answer period i think and uh look forward to look forward to working with you if i can thank you perry thank you carrie okay what do i do here do uh let me tell well tim might want to know this too um i know you're going to close session and i know that that's for talking about what you're going to do with this appointment uh when can people who are being are are being interviewed tonight when can we expect a kind of a kind of an answer you're muted dave i'm sure it was a delightful speech that happened sometimes yeah yeah i wish i had read that speech yeah yeah we'll we'll uh we'll go into closed session and then i don't
025know you know we have no idea how long that will take but we'll come back into open session and then we'll release our decision so you should be able to access that after the closed session when we go back and open you should be able to come back in you'll be executed go off camera now shouldn't i no you can it's an open meeting it's an open meeting so you can stay around oh okay all right you're welcome to stay on um you know just probably want to meet your comp uh your computer just like i did and uh just move my computer okay so nothing unusual comes out you know but uh of course yeah all right thanks a lot carrie okay thank you okay let's see the next one on my schedule is
026tim rice i see tim is here it's welcome tim and uh let's see here okay you'll have to unmute your self as well and then we're going to do this the format we're using um is the format we're using is um we're all asking questions if we have questions there may be some there may not be some and um you know it's pretty much you just you just answer the questions we got your responses to the questions we sent to you and your cover letters so we appreciate that so you're up um we're gonna go we go in alphabetical order here that's easiest for me then i don't have to think too much so lisa you're first go ahead welcome tim and thank you for applying for the vacant board seat appreciate your your time
027in doing that um the school board recently passed a 4.2 million dollar referendum resolution that we will be placing on the april ballot do you support the referendum wrestle resolution uh so i haven't you know i haven't dug into the finances i think it'd probably be something that was on the board that we'd probably look into is to understand where we spend money where we have extra money uh what's discretional money those type of things right so uh as as an insider as a person would vote uh i would need to understand numbers better uh what things look like uh as a general member of the population uh you know i'm for education and if that's what we need to keep the kids learning better that's something i'll support so any other questions lisa that's
028good okay um i go next time and thank you for um uh applying for this position you were you were on at the beginning and i know aaron wasn't done either but i mentioned that we have five excellent candidates we can only choose one i mean you're only on until april that's it and then the voters have their choice um and we'll see how that goes um so this is actually tougher for for me i've gone through this um i think this is the fourth time i've gone through this elections are so much easier you you vote anonymously and then they accumulate the votes and and that's what we decide here we have to really um we become almost like personnel directors or human resources directors here so anyways my question is um one of
029them is off of your the questions and answers that we sent you you mentioned um an issue that motivated you to serve on the board and the cova issue obviously that's an important issue right um what can you just um expand on that um answer um how do you how do you think the board has handled it or the school has handled it and what do you think we could perhaps do better that's not an easy question is it no it's all right it's part of uh being on boards right so um you know and i hope you don't take this wrong right i'm just going to be honest right that's something i would always offer the board if i'll offer an honest opinion about what i'm thinking all the time but i i think
030the communication uh has not helped uh with the with the community um yeah i it maybe i can't quite phrase i was just to tell you personally when i read some of these things uh sometimes it feels very third pers personish and i get why you do that sometimes uh but i think sometimes you also need to connect with the community a little better about what's going on and why things are happening uh i will you know i will i i think it's i can understand why you why we didn't put in full face option as part of the this is an example why we didn't put in like face-to-face full-time as an option uh in the survey um i understand that was probably a decision that the group said we're not going to do
031that anyway so let's not even put it in there but at least from what i remember reading it wasn't even addressed right so you left a lot of people disenchanted with you just completely disregarding their initial opinion to start with so there's been different things like that but i think maybe uh i'm sometimes i'm very good at putting myself in the perspective of the people i'm working with or working like at work right i very often put myself in their perspective figure out how they're gonna receive my message receive whatever whatever program i'm putting in and uh maybe uh having a voice like that on it that's pretty good at understanding how to put yourself in the other person's shoes prior to the communication could be helpful to the board well thank you um the
032only other question i have i asked this of kerry is what do you see as the role of the public school board i think you set the level of excellence i think i wrote this somewhere i i don't know if that was in there or something i was thinking about i don't remember but i really think the school board it's to me it's like any leadership in any business i mean it's the same thing leadership sets the level excellence that's to be accepted right uh there's human nature right and we talk about this a lot in business i think it's the same everywhere is that it's human nature to maximize people's satisfaction people do that by meeting minimum expectations right if i can if i can get the same satisfaction by doing less work that's
033what most people do right so it's really all about that level of expectation we set right whether it's in in the classroom if it's on the sports team or you know i even if it's on the debate team or a chess team i'm not sure if we have those but yeah i hope we have outlets like that for for kids also that don't do the other thing thank you um okay richard you're next okay actually first off hi tim thanks for joining us this evening um i i actually would like to uh do a follow-up to uh to dave's question and that is you know could you uh could you kind of describe for us the role of the board versus the role of the superintendent to me the superintendent in my world would be
034more like the executor of the strategy put together by the board right the board i would guess that the superintendent proposes i would expect them to propose a strategy a plan for the year i would expect that the board approves that plan they make whatever changes when they think are appropriate and the superintendent's role is to go execute that plan okay and and and what what should the relationship be like between the board and the superintendent uh it needs to be cordial i mean you need to be able to get along right it's okay it's the same at work right i mean yeah i hate to keep on going back to work but that's where i got a lot of experience but you know it's no different than mine myself and my teams right we
035have cordial we get along we don't always agree right but we're always very honest about uh feedback right it doesn't help any organization to sugarcoat how things are going uh you know but you always need to praise people also when they're doing well uh you know it's it's basic blocking and tackling type of stuff of leadership so okay and then after that just have an observation in some of your uh your responses you indicated well i need to get more information and and actually i respect that rather than shooting from the hip and trying to make something up you know if you if you and and being on the board is a learning experience and there's a lot to learn about public education you know so i just want to let you know i actually
036respect those answers well thank you yeah i i don't i guess uh i try to remove emotion from a lot of decisions i mean it's always part of anything but i never do purely emotional decisions right it's looking at what what do we know uh what's the goal and how do we get there okay thank you tim okay meredith your turn thanks tim um i appreciate you being here tonight um we have some uh collision of worlds um and we've never actually met but i've seen your name on papers in my work world so um kind of a neat overlap there um i had a question we um as a district have determined that we need to have some very focused work on diversity equity and inclusion um results of that focus we have been
037training a lot of our building leaders and have formed a an equity committee to begin that discussion of of what that looks like in our district and so my question to you would be how is a board member would you forward or support that initiative um yeah i hate to go back to i think it was dick's question a little bit about uh you need to understand things sure you answer them but i think the starting point would be uh what's the definition of uh diversity and equity that we're going by right so what what's that definition we're going to use is it diversity of grace is it diversity of age is it diversity of religion or is it diversity of thought right so there's different aspects of diversity that we need to be aware
038of uh so i'd start with what's what's our what's our goal right and then go from there uh if you want to talk about diversity and whether i support it i i don't know if this is a fact but i'll tell you among the leader if you look at my team uh you know obviously the the company i work for is very uh uh supportive of the diversity movement uh i think i had over 50 percent of my managers are female uh you know over 50 percent of my my team is female uh i don't know i think at least a third of my group is of asian descent right so uh you know in it i'll say it wasn't all for by accident right i understood where the company wanted to go and i
039support that initiative i'll also tell you i did not put people in positions just because of race belief whatever it was uh they had to earn it right so my philosophy was i'm going to give get a diverse candidate pool and the best will win and those are the people that we promote and put into those positions so that's all i had dave okay thank you meredith and kathy okay hi tim um question goes right from the questions that we had asked you actually and i had noticed that the last time you were actually really involved in anything outside of i'm assuming work and family was in 2016. um so i'm wondering why that is and what brought you to the point where i mean besides covid that you feel you can start contributing back
040again on different groups or committees yeah so i i i i'm trying to think back here 2016 i'm trying to think what role i was doing then i used that one you had saint francis yeah oh but i think what happened at that time career-wise is they offered me to lead a division of uh part of the manitowoc company and i was traveling about eighty percent of the time and i mean it just you know it wasn't even enough time for family hard with that right so yeah that was that i think that was what kind of changed a lot of things at that point in my life because i think there was a number of things that at that time i i stepped away from uh and it was trickled because i was traveling
041all the time so are you you did say though that you are still traveling globally be it be it virtually now but that could change again so how would you fit the board and our schedule into it yeah so i think it's first to know that uh what i commit to i i go after right i don't do something halfway or don't do it at all uh so i i would be committed i have thought about this uh actually with the the hour differences primarily i travel to asia into europe or the two places i travel to the most i don't do a lot of us uh travel things um if if i'm in asia at the time uh it's a 12-hour difference it it'll be uh either it'll be early morning and i can
042schedule meetings around that easy enough if i'm in europe it'll be lunch time i can schedule around those meetings also okay all right thank you and i i mean i do have the latitude to set my schedule on when i'm traveling in terms of what i'm doing during the days when i'm there right i just tell people look i'm going to be busy from this time to that time i'm not going to be able to have meetings set up with me during that time and i also have some latitude of when i travel overseas although sometimes it's not it's just because maybe there's a major meeting or maybe something came up that needs my attention right away type of thing so all right thank you so much okay um any anybody else want to ask
043another question i mean we got a little time here i guess i don't see i think rhonda is on next and i don't see her here yet but she's she wasn't actually scheduled till 6 45 so you know and just you know i didn't know that i wasn't i tried to time it to come in about the time of my schedule i didn't realize it was an open thing so yeah that's all right i'm all an email say hey enjoy whenever so you don't have to wait on them yeah it works yeah when you're welcome to stick around so all right we'll just cut you out when we go to the closed session that's all and then hopefully we can bring you back right good good good yeah i guess all unless there's no if
044there aren't any questions we'll just have to wait around for uh rhonda i see aaron's here but i don't want to jump into him and then have around to show up not to like make me sing or anything are ya you know i and tim i i need to brush up on my math but you know it's in in your uh in your cover letter you made reference to the school district should be in the top quintile in wisconsin and i was going to look up quintile oh it's a different way of staying percentile right i guess the way i think of what was okay we've talked about quintiles of things so you know i think that's something that as a board we need to determine you know what what quintile should we be targeting
045right and what are those schools doing different than what we're doing and and how do we go about getting there fast yeah right yeah and tim i have long for that the manitowoc school district should be above the state average you know and uh and we and we have our work to do i i don't know if you saw my my letter of uh uh what they call the first letter i had to submit with my application yeah we all received that yeah yeah yeah and that's true right i mean i i was fortunate to grow up in extremely it's a very small town it's only 2500 people but uh i mean we were always in the top i think one tenth of a percent of the state i mean we're always had an extremely
046strong school system and a lot of people left that school from that little town become very successful in life so you know i i i want my daughter to have that same thing i think that will take longer than that she's a sophomore but certainly everybody coming out of manitowoc should have that opportunity so thank you anything else for tim i see rhonda's here um and it you know she's supposed to start at 6 45 but she's here there's no reason to wait any longer um welcome rhonda hello [Music] um i'll tell you the same thing i've told the rest is we had five excellent candidates here but we can only choose one and um your your firm would only last until april and then the voters get to decide we got to decide tonight
047and so that's how it's going to work um you can stick around by the way after after you're done um we still have two others that would come after that you can stick around we'll go into closed session though and then then it would just be the board members and then we'll the plan is to come out of closed session and make a decision and then we'll just go from there so here we're just asking questions we got your cover letter we got your responses to the questions and i appreciate that i appreciate your willingness to stick your neck out here and and put up with us so uh we'll get it started lisa johnson you are first with your questions for rhonda sure hi rhonda welcome and thank you for applying for the vagrant
048school board seat thank you my question is school board had just bought a 4.2 million dollar um referendum to be run on the april ballot and i'm just wondering if you are in support of that resolution how you feel about the referendum um without having read the resolution i haven't had an opportunity to do that um i guess i'd like to be able to read that and get more information on it but if it would take away anything from the education or support for the schools and the teachers um i i don't want to take anything away so i i would most likely support that um i just need more information before i would commit to whether or not i would support it but i certainly wouldn't want to take away any necessary funding okay
049thank you very much anything else lisa no i'm fine thank you okay well then i'm next on the alphabetical order here i'm rhonda just this this i'm just pulling some things off of your the questions that you answered that we sent you um i believe you what five children right did they all they all went through the mpsd at one time or are in the mpsd they yeah correct okay what what has been your experience since um the culver 19 situation came up last march we've been in a couple of different methods of teaching and learning um we're going into back into a blended form again in january what has been your experience for your family through that well i have um two children that are in seventh grade and a junior and they have
050been struggling quite a bit with the online schooling um on my junior he also does the youth apprenticeship program so he doesn't really receive any in-person instruction he um is required to after he's done working go and watch the videos which that has put a great deal of stress on him and we're happy that starting next week we are adjusting his um youth apprenticeship schedule so he will be able to attend in person on when on thursdays um the two younger children my son he is absolutely struggling he was a fairly good student um received pretty good grades and through this he is struggling and his grades have suffered my daughter also um has some learning disability the learning issues and she actually is she's thriving she she does she misses the social aspect of
051it but i'm she has a really good reading specialist who's been working with her and taking extra time i'm very impressed with that my concern was she was going to fall even further behind but that hasn't happened so i'm impressed with that aspect of it okay thank you um another thing off your uh off of your question and answer you're the registered probate in calumet county right correct yeah i and and in my role at social services and i'm the chair of the public safety committee in manitoba so i've had a lot of contact with the register and probate and and i know patty pretty well here um well how is that experience because you work with a lot i mean not always but you often work with families that um are in very challenging
052situations um a lot of the students that um we have that are having achievement gaps you would at some time have some contact with how do you think that would really help um in your role on the school board well your experiences yes as a juvenile clerk i see um i read the documents when when it gets to my my office those students are really struggling they're truant and i i'm able to i read the documents and all the efforts that the schools have gone through before they even get to the point of coming to my office and coming to court um i note that sometimes that's all it takes for some students is to show up in a courtroom and have the judge talk to them and that that works other students we have
053to have um monthly check-ins monthly court hearings to make sure they're actually attending school it's just different for each student and i think my my job and what i get to see on the other end like the family life um is beneficial because it i know the struggles um i can relate to some of the the parents in in their positions yeah and that's really what i was looking for you know we we don't always see that end of it we see the child but we don't know the environment we don't always have that environment you have you have better access to that i know that through through what you do it has registered probate there's no doubt and there's some occasions where it's not the student's fault it's the parents fault that they don't
054get up to take the kids to school there's just so many different issues and and aspects of everybody's different families that contribute to truancy or delinquency or abuse and neglect right okay thank you um richard if you you made reference uh several times i i think in your in the information that that i looked over in regard to communication you know and you did seem to emphasize the importance of communication and at one point you made you know as just some suggestions you know establishing a community stakeholder community committee um you also made reference to developing a parent involved parent involvement programs i was wondering he knows what what is your vision in those in those regards and uh and what's the difference between the two terms well the community stakeholders committee is that was
055in reference to closing the the gap the learning gap and that would be to have members of the community teachers students business leaders all coming together to collaborate and find out ways to help close that gap i think the more the more information and the more opinions you have the better success it is um as far as the parent engagement that is just trying to get parents more engaged when you have more engaged parents their students and children will do better okay that's that's that's easier said than done any any thoughts on uh how you engage parents uh more i i think you need to come you need to communicate you need to work around i know a lot of times um some of the meetings that are scheduled aren't they don't work for everybody
056like setting up a couple different meetings making sure that everybody who wants to participate can participate i think that's really important i know people if they're not able to attend a meeting they may not go out of their way to find out exactly what happened at that meeting and they may just shut down and say well i guess it's not important i'm just gonna not do anything about it okay all right thank you um you know the the term learning gap or achievement gap you know actually you know kind of becomes a bit of an education you know it's catch term you know what what does that mean to you and uh and how do you where do you see the gaps in uh in the manitowoc school district well from my personal experience my
057three older children actually attended kindergarten in chilton and when they came out of kindergarten their reading foundation was really good they were able to read and i think that is very important my other two did not go to chilton and they struggle to this day with reading and that's not that could just be them that may not be the difference between the two school districts but i just find that they're struggling more than the three that had the learning experience in a different school district because they approached the way they taught reading a little bit differently than manitowoc does so i don't know if that was a factor or all children learn differently okay all right thank you okay meredith hi ronda thank you for being here tonight we appreciate you throwing your hat in
058um my question to you would be um that as board members we receive a lot of input both from the the public um as well as from one another during meetings so my question to you would be how um how do you handle situations where you may have an opinion that differs from others how do you express that opinion um and and how do you work with others who may differ from your opinion well i think that everybody's opinion matters and everybody's voice matters and you need to give it the proper consideration and you may come to find that your opinion may change based on their experience and what they tell you um you have to be open-minded you can't just say this is my opinion and i'm not going to be cha i'm not
059going to change you have to be open and be able to be receptive to receiving information and receptive to changing thank you and i also just wanted to um thank you as well for sharing your honest feedback about the virtual learning i think we've all kind of had some different experiences and i appreciate you um giving us that that honest opinion [Music] okay and then kathy here's your chance yeah hi rhonda hi um first i wanted to say i i really appreciate what you do as a job that has to be very difficult and to not take that home with you every day so thank you for taking a roll that's i think a tough job so my question for you though is you had mentioned uh when lisa asked you about the referendum that
060you would have a hard time answering it without being more informed so as a board or as a district how do you see um the communication becoming better in our community to to relay that the need for having that referendum right i think you i think you need to put it out there more so it reaches more people right now um i think some people are thinking taking it as a hard pill to swallow that their kids aren't in school their kids are struggling and now you're asking for more money but without that money they may not be able to to um hire the teachers needed or the aids needed they're gonna you'd have to cut cut but your budgets um and resources i i just think that it needs to be out there that
061this is what will happen if this referendum isn't passed that it will be a detriment to the students to the staff it just needs to be communicated more how important this funding is so as a community member though i mean that's what you are at the moment yeah how would we reach you to communicate that like very specifically how do you know we can here and be in a meeting and say how we need it but first of all forward we're not allowed to promote it ourselves so how do you see that communication being able to happen that i'm not familiar with i don't know like promoting it like could you put it out on the website a link saying here's information this is this is where we this is why we need that funding
062without the funding these are some of the cuts that could be made i think just getting it getting the word out there i'm not sure what the rules are as far as posting that information on the school's website or emailing it to families or mailing it that i'm not aware of but i would read information sent to me okay or if in or if i had a link to go to to review it online good point all right thanks anything else anything else anybody want to ask good thanks rhonda you stick around um it's only 6 55 but aaron's been hanging around for a while and we might as well go to him because i believe that michael's will be um he's gonna he sent us a uh video clip right mark is that correct
063so michael or he won't he isn't actually here so we might as well just go ahead with aaron and then we can do michael's right away so aaron welcome um as i told all the rest i appreciate you being here and putting your yourself out here for us um and again we can only choose one so you know i hope there's no hard feelings from anybody we that's all we can do um some of our members that are on the board now have gone through this so they know what it's like um but we're just gonna ask some questions we have the information you provided on your cover letter and um on the question and answer that we had so um lisa you go first sir hi erin thank you and and uh thank you
064for applying for the bacon school board position um my question is to you uh the school board had passed a 4.2 million dollar um resolution to put the referendum on the april ballot just wondering if you support that what your feeling is about it thank you sure so first of all thank you very much for having me in this session um so i would first by start by saying that i you know stay true to my values and um generally i never like increasing my own taxes as a member of the community but i don't have enough information right now to to definitively say whether i would support it or not but generally i am not a fan of referenda but i do appreciate the difference between recurring and non-recurring and i do appreciate that
065it is a three-year span that it covers um so that voters get a say you know again at some point if that comes up again um and i think it's it is a tough sell for the district especially now when a lot of the students are not in school and a lot of parents are are struggling including myself because you know kids in my care they they're they're already starting uh like a you know wrong sound ladder from where other kids are because of uh you know things that they've been through so um from that angle i'm not i'm not a fan of referenda but i do appreciate that it is for three years in that um you know voters ultimately have a say and um i i have noticed too just being a you
066know a citizen of wisconsin that referenda are more and more frequent you know years ago it used to be just for capital expenditures we're going to build a gym we're going to build a high school we're going to renovate you know a school and that would be it but now it's it's um you know the school districts are in a very tough spot because now you're seeing more and more um you know operating expenses on those referenda and so um you know the voters have to decide whether the school district operates business as usual or whether they make really drastic cuts and that could really negatively affect uh you know the education of you know the kids of this community and that's important because you know they're gonna they're gonna give me our shoes you
067know very soon running this community running businesses taking on jobs and leadership so we definitely want to put out the best you know the best future citizens as we possibly can but generally of course i don't think any taxpayer likes their taxes being raised i think it is a really tough sell this year having the kids not in school um but i have not had an opportunity to really dig into it yet because the vote isn't for a few months yet um but you know as as a citizen and as a member of this community i definitely you know will be looking a lot deeper into that um before that uh election okay thank you okay okay my turn aaron welcome um uh this is a question that i've got off of your cover letter
068that you sent and i appreciate your willingness to let us know that you uh apparently struggled in school i mean i guess i could use that word is that fair yeah that's that's fair yeah yeah and that's that's okay um but you certainly have um taken steps beyond that to get well beyond that struggle that you had during your your you know grade school high school days um congratulations on that um you know i think how do you feel that that experience that you had in light of the fact that um we've got identified achievement gaps in our district um our test scores aren't where we'd like them to be and a lot of that is related to those achievement gaps and it would it would be students perhaps somewhat similar to yourself right struggling
069maybe not enjoying school and just hoping you can get through it right and then all of a sudden you turn things around and made it work what do you think you could do what how do you think that experience would help us in in identifying achievement gaps and in in improving those areas in our district sure so um that's a really good question um so what i appreciate from my time in the school district is opportunity and you know coming out of 11th grade going into my senior year getting a letter um explaining this new opportunity and i was the i was one of the first students in the gd02 program um so getting that opportunity it meant a lot to me because it was you know an alternate way to you know to see
070myself in the future so i can remember how i felt back then um working a lot of i you know i worked in that summer before the senior year and not a very fun job so kind of uh thinking about my future and what that looked like and getting that opportunity meant a lot to me so i think what that brings to the board is just that perspective and that that empathy for students who are struggling and um and it's tough for teachers and parents and counselors and you know and everyone else at the school dealing with those kids because sometimes it's hard to get through to them and that was me so uh that's the main thing and another another thing that i can appreciate too is i work at um social services department
071in sheboygan county so um and that has just taught me a ton you know they they have everyone even though i'm an accountant i have nothing to do with you know the clients that go in and out of that building but everyone has to be on board with trauma-informed care and that has completely changed you know how i see a lot of things so um that's given me empathy and um i think that would drive me to you know to to try to be creative to find a way to you know reach these kids and to close that achievement gap um and understanding you know how trauma affects the brain i think has been huge for you know just kind of guiding uh you know my my stance on you know all different things that
072affect kids and then also having you know kids in my house and and dealing with that it's totally changed my perspective so i think that's what i would bring to that thank you um that's that's good uh richard you're you're up well and actually dave you uh you did take the question that i was going to uh i got you that time i was i was also curious you know to to know you know what really turned you around you know it's and uh i thought you did a nice job of explaining you know it's how the the manitowoc alternative program you know gave you uh a fresh start and uh and a different look on life so i i think that's wonderful yeah you know on your cover letter you also make reference to
073uh working um at the department of public instruction and uh and you make reference to you know learning about the ins and outs about school finance you know it's uh how do you think that would help you on the board well i i think you know having um a cpa license in general i think would bring something to the board um and uh just you know just working uh my position um you know dealing with budgets you know with with the state biennial budget and just seeing how you know those statewide decisions affect school districts and um you know their perspective i think that's what they could bring to the board um and i i think you know i think the numbers are everything there's there's nothing there's nothing in the world that you know
074explains any situation better than the numbers i'm a number one so um that's that's why you know i would i would be excited to serve on the board is to you know to dig into the budget did um did your experiences with the uh with the dpi did it give you an understanding of school finances you know and and how school budgets are determined so yeah obviously working at the state um and and i will also say that a lot of my experience was working with food programs at dpi um but that's a very macro level understanding uh you know of of school finances so i'll admit that no that that is not as relevant as you know you know your experience you know uh trying to draft a budget and um pass a budget
075so yeah obviously it is a very macro experience but um working for the county i have experience there uh you know drafting a budget and so yeah it's so it's a lot of work that goes into it and uh none of those decisions are taken lightly i can appreciate that yeah and and you know it's the the state funding mechanism you know that affects district in different ways you know and uh just wondering about your background with that you you do make reference you know to the importance of analyzing data and i i have an appreciation for that you know it's uh i think we should be data driven you know help should help us make decisions but what after that you know i know that there's you know there's an analogy about weighing a
076pig i forget how it goes you know but you know so you can you can gather data until the the cows come home but uh um but then what yeah yeah very good question um and and yeah i definitely have uh felt the you know the analog with paralysis at different times in my career especially you know when i was in the navy um so i i definitely can see your point of view on that um you know i think with with you know with collecting and analyzing data um i i think there also needs to be a human connection too um and and i think it's also incumbent on board members to ask tough questions with that data so i think that's where it ultimately leads is you know the board doing his job
077to ask really tough questions and um to make sure that there's you know measurable results and to really you know see if you know the taxpayers are getting a good return on their investment okay thank you aaron okay meredith erin thanks for for being here for tonight and answering all of our questions um i'm wondering you know obviously we we work together we try to be a team i'm just wondering um if you have served on boards or teams and if so um what aspects did you like what aspects didn't you like okay that's a really tough question um so excuse me so i have not um worked on any boards um in my career but i have worked in you know i would say you know hundreds of teams because you know in the
078navy everything we do is as a team and so working in various situations i've worked with a very diverse uh group of people um and i i think it's you know it's important just to to listen um as much as you speak and i am you know i'll be honest i'm very opinionated and i never you know i i never really just you know kind of hide my opinion but um you know it's important to be respectful of what others have to say and um to respect people as people even if your opinion differs and so yeah i have a lot of experience working on teams with tons of different people and i think i think working working as a team i think it's something that you know you get better at as you work
079on teams more and more and so you know of all my different you know job experiences i would say by far the navy was the most beneficial for you know honing this bill thank you and then i just have another quick question um you know in in i appreciate everything you wrote about your personal journey as well as um just kind of filling in some of those gaps i'm curious um what is driving you to run for school board so yeah that's a really great question um i think it all comes down to being a parent um and then secondly uh you know being a member of this community so um you know my wife and i we recently moved here from columbus uh wisconsin and we were foster parents there and um you know
080we we told the agency we would like to have a you know just like a young child like birth to like you know five years old just one you know to start out with and um they you know they called us and they said hey we have you know three kids for you and much older in age and so um we did not even have beds for them in our house we had like one spare room in the crib so um that we bought when we became foster parents so we had to go out to walmart in the middle of the night and go out and buy mattresses and just you know set them on the floor so that that is uh the major motivator for me but also uh you know being born in
081manor clock um and having to move away obviously i can't serve in the navy in manitowoc um but um you know i i immediately came back and i you know my wife and i bought a house for thirty thousand 000 and fixed it up and we said okay this is the house we're gonna die and we're gonna live here forever it's gonna be great but you know once i once i got into college at uw green bay i got a job opportunity um that i was recruited for in madison and you know i left and i felt terrible but i'm back now and um either i you know it's just something you can't explain but when you have a real love for your community it's it's you know that's what i have and so i've
082always wanted to give back so i mean since i got back here i've been looking at different opportunities to you know serve the community because i mean man as focus is awesome and it's amazing how uh you know just you know coming back to visit you know family like sometimes you're just looking to change this all the new business is going up and all the other development is just awesome thank you so much and kathy yeah i feel really ripped off right now because meredith took the questions the whole time we've used up all the questions right ryan i just i honestly i was so focused on that one thing and meredith beat me to it we're going to start w next time um yeah i don't know what to say uh what can i
083ask you does anyone else have any questions um gosh erin um thank you for being here i love your passion about our community um i guess here's a question if you could work on one thing as a school board member um that you became passionate about let's take numbers out of this okay let's talk about like subject matter what would you want to work on take numbers work on okay so i'm just listening into this meeting before i jumped on i i noticed a lot of talk about the achievement gap and also the report card um so i think that would be the main thing that i would want to focus on is to you know explore ways to address those um and uh and i talked about trauma-informed care before that something that i
084really have taken an intricate uh in the last year so that would be you know another another main topic that i would want to focus on okay thanks erin anybody have anything else yeah you know aaron you know we don't have a navy but you know we have a submarine yeah i don't think i don't think it's so water worthy though other than floating where it is i'm not sure i'd want to take that out too far um okay uh i guess i'll turn it over to mark because i believe mark um we have our uh fifth candidate right and you have a video presentation and just one thing i'll add i think laurie left so i think lori's on her way to perhaps being a grandparent am i correct she's still here she just
085she is okay i didn't see her anywhere anywhere but okay well early congratulations okay i don't want to get too ahead of things but anyways mark i believe that we've got that video presentation from mike gregorich right um so we'll go to that right away if you can figure out a way to get that to show up a very good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is michael gregorich and i certainly want to start out this evening by thanking you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you tonight i do apologize that i am not there and able to do so in in real time at least i'll be it virtually uh due to the fact that i actually came on a fight right now if you are listening to this but i do
086sincerely hope this video resume if you will does allow me the chance to tell you a little bit about myself uh why i'm interested in serving on the npsd board of education and my thoughts around some of the questions that were sent through by superintendent so to start with as i mentioned my name is michael gregerich i was raised right here in manitowoc in a house about two blocks away from jackson elementary school i attended there that's where i actually started my uh education career with the mpsd we moved here when i was in third grade i graduated from jackson and then went on to wilson virginia high school at that time and then on to lincoln where i graduated in and growing up in manitowoc you know i always had the urge to travel
087i wanted to see this amazing world i wanted to see all the incredible sights that had to offer but i knew the first thing i had to do was get out of manitowoc and i did do that when i applied for uh college my undergraduate in pennsylvania i finished that in 1994 and then i went on to graduate school to complete my master's of music degree in 1996 from the prestigious conservatory cleveland institute of music at case western reserve um and you know it really was luckily for me my musical abilities that gave me the gateway that allowed me to fulfill these dreams i had of traveling and seeing the world and it and ultimately those really that opportunity really did grant me a unique experiences that i truly believe shaped who i am today
088a lot of experiences happened throughout the time of graduate school and then after living in south africa for much of the first decade of the 2000s we moved back to manitowoc in 2009 and i have been back home here ever since with my wife madri and our two sons owen and ian so not only did i graduate from the mpsd in 1989 my two sons are currently enrolled in it owen is in sixth grade at wilson and ian is in kindergarten at riverview so without a doubt i have a very vested and personal connection to the mpsd and the incredibly important role it plays in educating our children um a little bit more about myself i work for an international travel group that has offices across africa south asia and south america and one of
089the core messages of that company is to leave the world a better place and a significant component around that actually does sim around education you know from time to time my job allows me the first hand opportunity to work with our philanthropy teams to help implement educational structures standards and resources that help uplift children from global communities in these regions where we have our offices and these opportunities have been truly life-changing and they have shown me that education is so much more than just teaching kids in a classroom as important as that is education is so much more of that it has shown me the importance of engaging immunity uh utilizing resources of realizing that there are stakeholders that should and must be heard and and most importantly it has shown me that education literally
090has the ability to change lives so these experiences and so many others that i've been blessed with have inspired me to be an advocate for children for they have helped me to understand the importance of communication especially the importance of listening to those that may have different opinions of my own um and they have ingrained in me the importance and the empowerment of education so i think that tells you a little bit about myself um and possibly the first question that mr hostman had asked to send through about my skills and experiences um and so looking ahead to the second question we were asked what do you see as the major strengths of the mpsd uh for me right off the bat that's an easy one the teachers the staff in the administration having the
091unique opportunity and perspective of living outside of the united states i know how much we should all value these individuals their dedication the resources we have at our disposal and quality of education that is provided for us when my oldest son was born he was born in south africa and we immediately became interested in his education of course to this day but i have to say things look very different over there than they do over here and one of the things that struck us really right from the beginning and that certainly holds true to today is the interaction with the teachers and that these are educators who love to educate it's not about a paycheck it is not about punching a clock it is about a passion and a dedication to what they do and
092to the impact that they make on our children's lives and if anybody wants to see this in person you are more than welcome to come over to my house and watch how our teachers interact with my kids virtually it is amazing it is funny it uh it blows me away it is a wonderful experience and you know it really is something that has just continually impressed me about our teachers today no matter what the environment is um you know another strength i think we like other parents have had our share of challenges um in in as the kids continue to to kind of evolve through their educational career and what we have found at every single turn is nothing but support and encouragement from everyone that we have come in contact with and that to
093me is a significant strength of intensity um i love that we have a strong athletic department as well as often in musics and the other arts we have a strong foreign language department and other incredibly important electives that really create an outstanding curriculum and that to me i believe is also another strength of the npsd and you know lastly i think a strength for the district right now is an engaged community um this pandemic has brought about many things and one of those certainly is an increased level of engagement in what's going on with our children's education i think one way or the other we are more involved in our children's education either physically and or mentally than we probably ever have in their careers and i know that is absolutely true for my wife
094and i and that is what motivates me to be involved and ultimately is one of the reasons why i chose to run for the board i see an engaged and motivated community to definitely be a strength of the district and it also uh makes for certainly an exciting time to be on the board um so those some strengths of the npsd the next question is there a particular issue that motivates you to serve on the board you know i think it's very easy for us all to get caught up in multiples and of course the pandemic and the follow-up thereof was definitely a catalyst for me um but the real issue that motivates me is to simply propel the cause of education i had listened to a podcast recently and they're talked about a lot
095of about the purpose of what public education is and of course there's a lot of different answers to this it can be to help prepare kids for college or for the workforce or to help them fulfill their potentials to help them become well-rounded individuals and good citizens and lead a productive life there are so many answers that one can give um and my real motivation to that is to help progress those purposes um to help progress education and education for all students and understanding that the road in progressing education for all students might and probably should look different the goal at the end of that road is exactly the same for everybody the next question how are you involved in our community now um i'm trying to be as active as i can i guess
096um i i do wish i was more important in the community um i volunteered for habitat for humanity i volunteered for activities with the manitoba public schools uh and i actually just completed two terms as vice president of the board for redeemer from church where we are members so um i do though see the board is an outstanding opportunity for me to become more involved in our community and especially involved in an organization that i am so passionate about um the next question the district has identified a significant achievement in our student population what steps do you recommend the board should consider to improve the educational opportunities for all students you know firstly i believe that the goal of the educational opportunities i should say i believe that the goal should be improving the educational
097opportunities for all students uh i believe that has to be one of the main tasks and focuses of district administrators and of the board students of color students with disabilities and students in poverty face challenges that for many of us are very hard if not impossible to relate to and that makes it even more important to have a process in place to really personally engage with those individuals who better understand the needs of these students with their families their support systems and then all together put a plan of action in place that allows for the needs of these students to be met um i feel that we have to prioritize these needs as well prioritizing is something i tell my boys about all the time i think it's something very important our time and our
098resources are not unlimited and we know we have the goal of giving students the best possible foundation to help them move forward with their life after their time at the mpsd in order to do that we have a plan to address these achievement gaps so in addition to prioritizing our needs i think very importantly we have to ensure that our educators have enough time and opportunity to engage and i know this is tough as again we have limitations on our on our resources so we have to really understand what our landscape is and every part of that landscape from finances to staffing to those prioritized needs that i talk about and another thing is we have to take into consideration the feedback that we have received from all stakeholders that is incredibly important as well
099you know once we have all of this then we look to implement a plan that address and and and has everybody on board because that is equally as important as well now this is not a problem for the schools to solve alone and honestly a problem is really never solved by a single set of individuals or a board that's dictating a plan um without having those that the plan is in is for involved engaged and honestly taking some kind of ownership i see this a lot in my line of work where we will propose these big plans to these villages that we think is going to help improve their lives but they have absolutely no interest in that and that plan will always fail if they're not engaged the plan doesn't succeed and so everybody
100involved in this plan has to have some sort of engagement you know in this situation you know right or wrong we look to the schools find the solution and wonderfully the mpsd has a set of district leaders and administrators that have been hired to do this and i feel strongly as a member of the board that our position should be that of of empowerment we need to empower our leaders to solve challenges like these and then our role as the board is to then hold them accountable for doing so i truly believe that with the cooperation of schools of parents of the community of the board of all the stakeholders i believe that the cooperation between all of these entities provides us with one of the best ways to close the achievement gap and i
101truly look forward to playing any role that i can and you can support the mpsd's incredibly important work in this area and the last question are you able to attend meetings held at 7pm on the setting tuesday and 12 p.m on the fourth tuesday of each month and other committee meetings um you know i will be honest my job does involve some travel um once we are part of past this um but my job wonderfully is incredibly flexible and because of that i don't foresee any challenges in being able to attend the scheduled meetings in the committee meetings as called knowing that there is this set schedule in place makes it so much more convenient for me because it gives me the ability to work around those meetings and ensure that so i and i
102certainly want to to iterate here i fully intend to be an engaged and active member of the board i see the decisions and the work that is done in meetings like this as paramount um to to to propelling this message that i want and propelling the message of education and the work of the board and i will certainly be prioritizing my schedule to be able to attend each and every meeting and should i not be able to do that for some reason i will be insured notice and i will be sure to watch the reported session of that meeting and my very earliest possible convenience um so in closing i certainly would like to honestly take a moment to thank you mr holzman to thank all of our teachers our staff and administrators in the
103manitoba public school district to thank you for all of your efforts and dedication not just throughout this environment but but throughout the many years of service um have been some challenging times lately and please know that as a parent and as a community member thank you for that and i also would like to thank each of you the members of the school board um for your service to the public schools and your community as well thank you for that um i truly do appreciate the time um that you've taken today for me to tell you a little bit about myself and my thoughts and i sincerely want to thank you for your consideration of my application to become a member of mentor public school district school okay um i guess i can't really thank him
104because he's not really here right but one i i guess i guess something that really impresses me about all the candidates is um their their willingness to serve on the board their their strong interest in being a member of the board and really wanting us to hire them for one non-paying position and then they have to go out and campaign for the for the primary and then the general election in april so that really speaks well for all five of you um and i really appreciate that um again we're gonna well the board's gonna vote here to go into closed session and then as soon as we we're done with that we'll come back an open session um i guess that's our id department has to take care of that mark and you know we'll
105have to exclude the candidates obviously and then bring them back in if they're still here so i guess at this time i would um i would entertain a motion to uh move into convenient session for the purpose of considering the following matter to discuss the candidates interviewed for the vacant seek on the board of education for the manitoba public school district this meeting is authorized pursuant to section 19.85 1c of the wisconsin statutes so it requires a motion and a second and then we'll need a roll call vote to go into closed session i'll move we go into closed session a second okay and then lori is still here i believe so we'll do the roll call okay lisa johnston yes dave nichols yes richard nitch yes meredith sauer yes and kathy willis yes thank
106you okay so we will convene in closed session and we will return in open session when that's completed so as soon as that can take place here okay i see people magically disappearing here let me know if i disappear full circle okay we're live okay we're back in open session um had a really very well vetted discussion in closed session um again we had some great candidates we can only choose one and um i believe we've come to a consensus here so i would ask for a motion to appoint one of the five applicants to the vacant position and they would be in that position through the april this april 2021 election would anyone like to make a motion i would make a motion that we have carry trask serve out the rest of that
107term until april we have a second to that a second at least the second says do we have any further discussion on that do we all have an understanding of what that means so all right hearing none all in favor say aye aye all right okay the motion is carried and mark you said you will reach out then to the candidates is that right okay um there's nothing else here we meet again when next tuesday right at noon can i ask a question or unless it's go ahead go ahead mark i was just wondering is everything moving forward nicely you know for uh um the blended model starting next week yes we're on track absolutely good all we wanted to know thank you and richard just so you know the health numbers regarding covet are
108not spiraling up they're staying fairly steady um some of the factors are good um nothing in there is jumping out at us right now in terms of the statistics right as long as we don't have any jumps from packer gatherings yeah that's right i don't well you know you're right that kind of stuff is what fuels it um but right now we're we're okay where we are i would say at least you know we're okay and there's a possibility that teachers could be receiving that scene in manitowoc county sometime in february it's very possible but again i'm not going to say that as a certainty but it's possible it's not in our hands it's all up to the state and then the federals government you know they're the ones passing it out so that would
109be that would be very helpful for us obviously yeah so i did see though that they're looking at people 65 and over though early too right i've got my i've got my appointment for february 2nd there you go okay happy doesn't help not being a teacher doesn't help much you know so all right um i would entertain a motion to adjourn also move a second okay all in favor say aye you