McFarland School Board Meetings 6/3/2024

001for e e e meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. on Monday the 3rd of June year 2024 and I would look for a motion to go into close session I will do that thank you Bruce do I have a second I'll second that thank you Megan uh chairman okay now we need a roll call okay Howry yes Mooney yes fesler yes Chapman yes and Fisher yes okay so we are in close session at 6:30 one and I will end the call for everyone we will return When Open session is back in session okay e e e so we are back in Open session it is 7:00 and and we will start with our consent agenda items we have minutes let check make sure here minutes of the uh May 20th 2024 school board meeting we

002have some professional staffing recommendations and we have some co-curricular staffing recommendations and we have some Personnel items unnecessary for vote so I would look for a motion to ad oh that's correct that's correct oh yep there it is 3D administrator supervisor and director compensation uh uh as part of the consent agenda items do I need do I hear a motion I move to accept the consent agenda as presented thank you I get second that thank you all those in favor please signify Comm discussion oh I'm sorry yeah go ahead Tom I guess I won't be able to support the uh items that are listed under administrator supervisor director of compensation just based on the timing of all this at this point timing is yes any other discussion yeah I would like to just say that

003I just I'm really very proud to be associated with a school where I've had um some administrators willing to forego any kind of uh pay raise in their and their salaries I just think it's a I I think it shows that they're working with everyone towards this goal of showing this this District that we're being fiscally responsible um and I all also I'm very I I don't want to say I'm disappointed but I feel it's too bad we can't give these people this District finished second in all of D County it's like you know you just achieved this incredible goal and the reward for that is well we're going to give you a 2% pay raise at a time where inflation is much greater than that so again I applaud the people who are not

004taking any salary increase and the fact that another group of Administrators are going to be in a sense held back to what they probably deserve but I do believe we are all in this together and I think this community needs to know that so that will be my I guess comment well said anyone else hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppose no motion carries 41 okay next we have public comments and we do have one so I would do this short read first and then we will proceed in accordance with Schoolboard policy 1673 the McFarland School Board welcomes public comment during regular meetings from individuals who are present at the meeting or who have sent an email to the board president or superintendent participants are required to register to

005speak upon arriving at the meeting State their name address and any group affiliation before speaking address only topics within the N within the legitimate jurisdiction of the board recognize that the board will not respond to comments during the meeting unless the item is on the published agenda limit their comments to under 5 minutes or 200 50 written words and of course maintain decorum so I do understand that we have someone here to make welcome all right all right um thank you my name is Melanie robach I'm a parent of two here and one of about 30 community members from that referendum engagement group with a full range of perspectives at times tense but constructive enlightening I'm surprised by the budget the extreme like tight level of fiscal responsibility hopefully they toot their horn a little

006bit better um this comment regards Mr teter's email update about a June survey about a November referendum a survey is coming out today for staff and next week for the rest of us it sounds like a 20% return return rate is typical but voter turnout in McFarland is much higher so tell your neighbors please wherever the camera is if you plan to vote in November do yourself a favor and complete this survey during its short window of release by the end of June tell someone new like every day um as Mr tarit email explains the survey presents three possible referendum amounts three options used to gauge how the community balances its support for our schools and teachers with its tax tolerance all three options are less than the a April referendum amount and maintain the

007$1.2 million in Cuts made already so at this point all options up for serious consideration November bake in the recent $1.2 million in Cuts as the new normal for the foreseeable future like increased class sizes and fewer sta support staff it's very easy to overlook these Cuts if you're not in schools but the implications of these established cuts are important for the board and Community to understand and that's why I'm here and we'll probably be back next time and first to be clear a standard education as defined by the state of Wisconsin costs what it costs I really don't want to put anyone off but we have to kind of own up to that right like the state identifies the materials and Human Resources requires they add up add up the costs then cap local

008property tax revenue for schools based on this total except that it stopped accounting for inflation in this calculation 15 years ago accounting for that Gap so that schools can keep doing what they do and pay their bills as usual was the point of the April referendum plus catching up on teacher salaries because McFarland's below average teacher pay isn't going to work with a growing teacher shortage and actually 86% of Wisconsin school dist districts have pursued referenda to pay their bills schools are at the mercy of their local voters to secure the necessary resources and the state is a patchwork of yeses and NOS on this with slightly more yeses than NOS the choice to adequately fund the local schools this is a precarious Patchwork in a teacher shortage and what sort of community do you

009want to live in you know I mean as we weigh in through the survey let's seriously consider how far we want to stray from The District's formula of covering the day-to-day operations as we've known them because every option on the survey does stray in a consequential way already mentioned with pretty sign I'm sorry with pretty small differences in savings to taxpayers cuts that impact class size and education assistance cuts that maybe pull teachers into lunch or curbside duties actually compromise the things we tend to care most about day today and the have the greatest impacts on quality of education teachers may rise to it or try because this is who they are but ultimately there's only one teacher in a classroom to go around and only so much time in a day and that's it

010and if there's anyone who understands the natural limits of time and being one person it's parents right and really we all know we have to know if we're looking for more more resources or teachers attention to something academic struggles more challenge more support for a behavioral plan for your child or somebody else's right help for your kid keeping track of it all social concerns maybe closer attention to a a bullying issue then again these options fall short but also they send the message that we don't really need or expect these little extras these are our schools it's not charity it's enlightened self-interest whether you have kids in the district or not it's an investment and it's not just the kids uh that get what we pay what we pay for we all get it it's

011easy to forget this when education is a strength and I know it's expensive but places that inadequately fund education really suffer the consequences skip all right it's the last week of school and the survey was released to teachers today asking them during this totally Bonkers week about their support for three options that all chip away at their ability to do their job let's give our thanks in huge numbers remembering special subject teachers and support staff 2 no note is too simple no gift card is too big I'm sure um thanks thank you thank you m thanks okay moving on Mr tarer the review the staff survey results I think that we have our student our high school part first yes yes oh shoot my bad in case you didn't notice there's a couple people I

012can't believe iess that's who that is I can't believe that and yeah they look different in person so how how should we how shall we do this yeah so are you doing it in person you're going to give us a report in person right here right here the room is yours should we be an order what's it so they represent a lot of different things yeah gu are all connect club members um and most of all of them will be carrying on um to our exec board next year so I will you guys go ahead um hi my name is Ava Vincent I was on the exec board for connect for the past two years and next year I will be president uh I'm had Galindo and I'm a sophomore and I I'm a member

013of I'm e Vio I'm a member of connect I'll be on exec board next year I'm Riley Keller um also with connect and I'm going to be on the board next year too what year is it you YouTube sop Soph all right wonderful all right so we're going to do the McFarland High School student report for June 3rd 2024 so our highlights what's going on at MHS so we had the senior Sunrise plus video on Friday so on Friday our seniors began their day with watching the sunrise marking the end of the school year as Miss wink stated this is the most students we have ever attend in addition a senior video debuted in the PAC created by Elena what's her name Elana there we go yes I'm not two am I two you're next

014I am four four okay um on Friday May 31st the class of 2024 had their senior Celebration Day which included waking up early to see the sunrise as a class decorating the parking lot eating breakfast premiering the senior class video and parading around around McFarland district schools in their caps and gowns so on Wednesday May 22nd there was the senior scholarship night and there was over 80 seniors gathered to receive scholarships from the community for their post high school plans thank you to the McFarland Education Foundation for creating this program and providing so many students with financial assistance for their future on May 23rd and the 24th members of the community came to provide our senior class with the opportunity for a senior exit interview students were able to provide feedback on their entire K

015through 12 experience and Shout Out influ influential staff members sorry so the APUSH and apgov trip to the capital on May 21st our apus and APG classes visited the capital their students heard from Inon D County Executive Patrick miles state senator Melissa Argan and legislative staff from Tony 's office our State assem Assembly representative Jimmy Anderson and Wisconsin state supreme court justice oh my gosh so many words and Jesus apgov students used research from their final project to ask relevant poly like Po policy questions this past weekend the MHS hope Squad got together to hide kindness rocks around withf Farland beyond the look out for some cool rocks decorated by our members on May 24 on May 24th the mhs's equity groups hosted the second annual World Market night this event raised approximately $1,400 and

016partnered with manona Bakery Happy Walk and north of the Bayou for an incredible experience raffle items were also donated by the community and the funds will go towards supporting culture week in future years uh this year was the pilot run of culture week there was a display of clothing items set up throughout throughout the week from 11 different St students and staff members there was a community movie night plan but due to weather it was canceled this was a great start to a bigger and better event in the future years the memory project so zero Bell and coresh participated in this year's memory project where they created Port Pro portf oh my gosh portraits of San Refugee children these images were then gifted to them as something to keep wow what a great idea the

017band concert and Senior video the MHS bands performed their final concert of the year last Wednesday the popups concert which included songs from The Incredibles West Side Story and La La Land the seniors also got to debut the video they created and be recognized for their time in the program there's also a choir concert MHS choir had their last performance with the exception of graduation after studying what makes an Anthem in class they got the opportunity to perform them for a community um the MH M sorry MHS yearbook Club had worked hard this year and the long awaited 202 2023 and 2024 yearbook has been released fantastic work to the yearbook team for crafting a wonderful yearbook and for all the time they spent keeping track of the memories made at Ms this year special

018shout out to the seniors Marissa huffner and Elena El oh Elana sorry for all their hard work Deca trip to the malards on May 28th Deca traveled to Warren Park for a career in sports day along with four other local de Deca chapters students heard from the president marketing director VP of corporate corporate sponsorships and VP of corporate ticket sales followed by attending the opening Madison mards game of the season they also competed in a theme night business pitch competition the jazz bands performed their final concert of the season on Sunday the bands got to experience performing an outdoor concert for the first time there's a probability Carnival so students in the algebra 2 class which I'm in have the opportunity to showcase their skills this week at having class carnivals displaying the games they

019created students from other class played the games to help the game makers gather data to compare against their calculated probabilties I thought it was really fun all right coming up what will be going on at MHS the class of 2024 will be holding its graduation ceremony on June 9th in the MHS aym the ceremony will start at 11:00 a.m. congratulations to graduating seniors wooo right Athletics updates oh that's me mhs's own boys unlimited frisbee team participated in the state tournament where they were knocked out in the quarterfinals after a successful earlier tournament the team finished seventh against other area high schools congrats to the team to the team on all their accomplishments this season the past weekend MHS track took to Lacrosse to compete in the WIA State comp competition school records are highlighted the

020girls pole V got third place with Julia akley girls long jump got second place with Rachel ke girl shot put got sixth place with Kayla Lander did girls 200 meter dash got seventh place with Rachel Keel again girls 100 hurdles got fourth place with Julia akley again and then here's more results the boys 800 M got second place with Spencer elf boys 1600 meter this was a school record got third place with Spencer Al then the boys 3200 meter got fifth place with Isaac eing and the boys 4x200 meter relay got fifth place with Andrew Kelly Brady Ken Kade corth Remy Burns Liam Chapman and Trey zadra and another School record was with the boys 4X 800 meter relay and they got first place with Weston Fischer Brock spel Spencer elf Isaac eing Henry piek

021and Leo fredman and overall they got fourth place and a School record and the school Crush um the MHS girls soccer team became division three regional champions for the fourth year in a row they will be playing um Evansville at the sectional semi-finals this Thursday at home at 7 p.m. and for some student staff updates so our staff shoutouts for this week with Miss Stacy and Miss Latifa I believe I'm saying that wrong um so miss is always smiling and laughing with students quote I appreciate her conversation and joking that lift my spirits on some of the bad days Miss La Latifa there we go it's always so happy to see all of the students in the cafeteria she's always such a kind and helpful member of the Food Service Team all right Mr Odin

022was our other one and it says Mr Odin makes class fun and enjoyable and a students really like being there each day he works hard to get to know his students and make class relatable to their lives and now uh our future that was our future presentation no we have a featur we have a featured presentation from the seniors job guys well done good job I you I love how you were sitting back there like proud parents that's right that's what it was them parents yeah that was the link on the previous SL names are out you taught them well you prepared them the torch has been passed for a look at us hey hey worldy [Applause] this is so weird we've all been looking at your faces for quite some time so up on

023that screen here you are IRL and everything IR that lingo yeah I'm always two years behind so I know right just thanks for what you guys have done I about that one okay oh the year review hey everyone Welcome to our connect year review as presented by by the connect class of 2024 so you may have seen our faces uh but you may be wondering who we are so my name is Val and I am the current connect president I'm Nadia and I have been the Civic engagement coordinator for connect um I'm Annabelle I'm the event management coordinator and I'm Jo I'm the agon relations coordinator got some cute little pictures of us just in case you want they'll be back don't worry um and this is our wonderful advis she's even here today Miss

024[Applause] Maier yeah not only does she advise connect but she co- advises model un and she's a fantastic AP psych and psychology teacher and a world history teacher as well couldn't do it without you miss Ma I can't is that the yeah you got it okay I know oh [Laughter] wow all right and then so this year we had we've had some goals um so one of our goals this year is to connect students with Administration the school board and the village we've also tried to Foster connection between students and staff encourage students to use their voice present resources to stay civically engaged and connect Equity based groups in the village and the school I we've done pretty well and I think we've done pretty well I hope yeah so as a Club Even in

025our short three years that we've been around we've started some traditions that I think have made a very positive impact on our school and our community this includes Schoolboard presentations you're witnessing live and right now um monthly meetings with our Administration team at the high school polling place field trips to help students learn more about being involved with that uh students serving on hiring committees which is an incredible experience um staff shout outs to recognize our awesome staff members because Miss maer is certainly not the only one uh Bell nominations to help move our day along in a bit more fun Manner and the World Market night support which helps not only inform students in our community about different cultures but raise money and raise awareness for issues so this year I don't know why

026I have a Wisconsin accent sorry guys uh was practicing yesterday um this year we started our first ever Equity picnic um some key facts about that we had 70 plus students attend from grades to 12 as well as nine different student organizations were represented we had the village board president and some of you in attendance as well as raising $950 through our community to feed us and also um supplement the connect account here at this Equity picnic where our keynote speaker was actually Mr tarer himself we had workshops Club Action planning intermix action planning and overall a day of bonding between the student bodies of the high school and eth grade all right and then this is another event date night with connect um which actually the our third annual date night happened last Friday

027um we have had a lot of kids a lot um but there were a lot of volunteers to help with that and it ran quite smoothly we raised a lot of money yeah 1,600 and then um we keep some for ourself and then half of the profits are going to arts for all and then um Miss balaki she provided us the idea for date night with connect three years ago hope she's doing well [Music] this and then um I think we did this year early in the year is we helped out with Community week which is a student Le initiative by the student uh Council um so we what painted some kindness cards and added candy to some bags and we handed them out for for free to students um as a way to just

028encourage kindness in our in our school that week also the polling place volunteering is another thing we've been engaging in for I think the last two years and we did it this year again kind of expanded it a little bit so at the April election uh members of our club you have to be over 16 but uh we're able to go down to the polling place and learn about some of the things that they do and actually get to be involved whether it's like Direct ing voters or helping open the absentee ballots and just get to learn more about that process works especially for students who aren't able to vote yet getting to be a part of that process in the election and have their stake in democracy forgot to mention Nadia was an election

029inspector so also big shout out to Nadia for doing her Duty as cic engagement I had to go back and hand count all the ballots because there was a mixup it was very late at night I'm really glad we don't live in a big city where I would have had to do with so many more ballots okay so our time is almost up but we have a couple more things but introducing our 2024 to 2025 EXC board four of them are here today the other two cannot make it our president for the 2024 whatever year is AA Vincent our bread management coordinator will be Maddie Bame you've probably seen her in a million pictures as well our event management coordinator will be Riley Keller our community engagement coordinator will be Eevee vrio did I say

030that let's go um Civic engagement coordinator will be Olivia tyrany and our administrative relations coordinator will be har Galindo solado yes let's go somebody rehearsed well rehearsed all right and then our future plans as a board Valerie will be attending W Madison Joey as well and I will be taking a gap year to work and travel will see the world a little bit and then NY will be going to Washington yes the other W Husky and then that's a picture of US during our um walkth through on Friday Cs and gowns that's great so fun and then we have um some some just a little something to give you guys just for for for providing us for this opportunity is that that's all yes okay find guys doing great you got it Jo for you

031oh you didn't need to do that don't trip oh thank you like running the gauntlet I'm the new one thank you got included thank you Joey and Angie got hers we did not forget her not awward it's okay okay and then of course we have to give a special shout out to Joey because one it's just Joey and Joey always deserves a special shout out but also because they have been constructing the school board meetings and attending all of them and getting to really know all of you for the last three years and really you got to dive in head first when nobody else had done this before and you kind of started it off so yay Joey that all being said um if you want to see the kid pictures again a thank you

032for our final ever school meeting do you have any questions for us no just a couple comments so again it's phenomenal with what you've been able to do each week when you come here it's thrilled to listen to everything that you're doing it's unbelievable I think the year in review yeah that's really close to my heart because I think it's important to go back from the past the past year and see what all that's been accomplished and when you add all that up and you see it all in one place yeah it is unbelievable well said so and I know it took a lot of your time commitment um vision for for this all that happen so thanks again for coordinating this a couple other things uh you mentioned the exit interviews I was part

033of that and again the students had the option of giving staff shout outs I heard a lot of Staff shout outs mostly well High School staff but some elementary middle school Intermediate School um their ideas on what could we make things better um really well thought out answers and I know they're compiling all that data now to see where we take it from there the scholarship night I was able to be there uh there were two both podiums and you were probably on the stage so you couldn't observed this but when the speaker in podium one spoke all your heads turned there when speaker and putting two spoke everyone just turned their head the other way it was like watching a tennis match uh but very well deserved um the other thing you talked about

034four Deca chapters were at the mards yes think was McFarland the largest chapter we were the largest chapter we had around 30 something kids the other chapters had maybe 10 each but some of them were kind of rural so give them some credit mhm but again just a great reflection on the support that you provide each other and the district provides uh the different opportunities for for kids here and Miss meckler thank you for your guidance and support we love Miss maer anybody else I just want to thank you know you you you bring a positivity to the meeting that sometimes is hard to find in places and I I honestly believe that that your group is what uh high school students are are really all about you guys do one good thing after another

035uh you care about others and you're living um you know what this District's mission is and that's to be inclusive and and just do the best that we can with the resources that we've got and you you folks really did bring a light to the meetings every week and I can't thank you enough and I think we appreciate you more than you know well said yes you know you're the only I just want to give you a hug you you are the only people I've had as superintendent right no no offense it's going to take a while for me to warm up to all of you I'm just sad to see you guys go a lot of ways um I can't thank you enough I think you're a real inspiration for us you remind us

036this is you keep centered we do have a thank you which is sugar you have to share but I think the book ends with the one that we're not them at home the most but you can definitely share um but we really do think you've really set a tough example for them but they're ready they're here tonight and they did a great job so got it as you sat back there cheering them on we will miss you you really will standing on the shoulders of giants and you guys are going to do amazing things so don't forget that okay come back and visit us yeah please do good luck and we'll see you on Sunday abely and bring Kleenex okay I've sat through some of these and I just ball my under you know I

037think I probably cried harder last year than I will this year that happens that's true well thank you so much guys thank you thank you we will miss well you can stop by anytime it's a public meting zoom in thank you I we are very somebody warned me that was going to be crying that can happen now and then that can happen Prett proud I'm going to have to dehydrate myself usually it's me you say who me that's true all right moving along now we can review the staff survey results Mr tariner all right well welcome here everybody I that's a tough act to follow um but I will do my best so this is our third in our series of survey um results presentations you had the student survey results earlier and then you

038had the parent Guardian survey results and now we have um the staff survey results so I'm going to you know I'll do my best to highlight these for you I sent you some some additional information and did print some things for you so I'm going to go over kind of the main points but you know welcome your thoughts and and questions as well reminder this is the um a survey that is done through our third party school perceptions and that's really important it gives a sense of an anonymity to our staff because it's all done through a third party we have no way of identifying who's I'm responding and they also do an excellent job helping design the questions and and um providing the results in a way that's understandable we had about a 57%

039participation rate I think it was 56 last year so 20 and 10 people across areas you can see the breakdown by school is pretty proportionate um to the amount of staff in those locations in terms of uh description in terms of rule description there's they do have some different categories and actually I think we may need to look at um changing those because we we tend to use more of the term educational assistant we don't really use Fair professional but for our purposes you can kind of grot them together um and I would say you know in looking at those numbers I would say it's possible our classroom teachers may be a little bit under represented but but a fairly accurate distribution of our staff can see the years in the district um this would

040be pretty prop um proportionate although I would say we're probably a little bit over represented in those um in the the kind of the one to five year categories there for this data remember this is the second year of doing this survey and it's really helpful to look at the percent that agree and and and strongly agree tends to be how we look at this we also have comparison data now the data is average across buildings so know there are differences between buildings and buildings have been reviewing those as building teams and their building results in those comparisons um know that uh that it's compared to similar size districts in the state which is a limited number and so small changes can make huge impacts on the comparisons so just some overall strengths to start

041all four indexes um increased which is really outstanding all items individual items except for three show showed improvements from last year we'll talk about those three but that's pretty dramatic uh for us in most areas you'll see a significant portion of Staff agree um strongly agree one of the things I did want to highlight is the overall satisfaction was strong across but increased at the high school by 21% that is huge that is huge we'll never see that much of a jump again because it's impossible you'd be off the charts you'd be off the charts to go any higher so some things that jumped off that that that cut across is the overall saus or uh sorry the 98% feel that staff does a good job of educating students 95% feel safe at work and

042that's an increase of 7.3 from last year and if you remember those of you that were on the board last year we did discuss this a little bit and that was something we were concerned about was that number so that that increased you see that 87% being feeling proud of our district and 86% feeling that staff input is valued and that's up 14% % so real significant jump there if you look at some we have some themes a big one is about discipline and behavior being more consistent and more effective so you can see that that increase in consistency of 12% and effective of 10% so really attribute that to our our bullying um prevention intervention plan and Progressive Behavior response plan that we've been implementing and will be expanded next year communication being time

043effective and clear you see those increases there in terms of timely effective communication clear communication and many comments about about a unified communication plan and and how much that has has helped the weekly newsletters across buildings with a district section included so that was well received uh nice increases in administration and valuing and supporting staff can see those results up 133% in the percent of staff that feel that they're they're valued by um they're um valued by building admin and feel supported by Administration when they're making decisions and feel they're getting useful feedback in their work so those are really key indicators of a strong administrative team so a lot to be proud of there relationships continue to feel very strong relationships uh amongst our co-workers one of the things that I that we've noticed

044is people feeling really connected within their teams and departments and less connected across a building in between buildings as you know we're moving to um bringing back curriculum councils which was where we bring together staff from across the district next year so we're hopeful that that will help as well as other building wide efforts to increase connections feeling um access to Technology support materials and um that's been really important you see those 94 and 92% and I'm I'm thinking not many districts can can say that student social emotional needs that was something we were really worried about with the results last time and you see this increase of 15% for people feel like those needs are being met we feel like that is largely a result of the increased student services staff m members that

045are able to provide additional support in training uh people feel like they've gotten more training to work with students from different backgrounds 85% strongly agree so that's a an increase of 5% and an 89th percentile compared to other similar siiz districts so you know I have to say that that Britney brazzil as the diversity Equity inclusion of belonging coordinators a significant contributor to that so we are grateful for her and excited for her second year we do have some growth areas overall um the biggest change that we saw was about feeling that parents and the community support the district uh staff only 65% felt either strongly agreed or agreed to that statement and that's the drop of 133% you know the you know as you look at the comments you can see there's some connection

046to the failed referendum and just concerns about fiscal stability which is also reflected in the next question which is only 69% feel the district is headed in the right direction so you see kind of this difference between feeling you know supported feeling like we're doing a great job educating students um but for supported by Administration and our colleagues and a bit of a drop it's still you know positive but not what we're used to only 55% feel the district pay U practices are are fair and we plan to you know continue to address our budget gaps and you know as much as we can and try to with the extent that our budget allows compensate staff as as the board is done for next year continue to be some concerns about discipline and behavior although

047we've seen significant increases so we don't want to minimize that but the effectiveness and consistency is something that we're still working work on and we'll expand with our our efforts with the progressive response to behavior and bullying plan will you see in the comments is some discussion of inconsistency across staff and an acknowledgement that just a few students can really have a large impact on on Behavior other growth areas just Equitable opportunities for students from different economic backgrounds you'll see that in the chart when we get to that really jumped out um as as something that's separated from other areas so we need to explore that a little bit more and what those barriers are you know we do a lot of things to allow kids to access you know co-curriculars and other opportunities you

048know just kind of wondering what what are we what are we missing there and then um workload while some of these showed some nice increases workload continues to be an issue um with only 70 um um 2% strongly agreed that they are able it should say to sustain a healthy work life balance and 73 feeling that the amount of work they are asked to do is reasonable or manageable so yes it's improving we're headed in the right direction by focusing on priorities but there's still works work to do and that was noted in the comments I would say one of the areas that we're really paying attention to is the impact on of Standards based grading on teacher workload particularly in grades 6 through 12 so finding ways to be more effective and efficient there

049as we get into the in index you can see these um and how they increased and the comparison some nice increases um here for you to see across these areas and remember reminder the index what they do is they they take multiple questions and then put them together into one score the engagement so that second one and staff experience the last one those are key performance indicators for the district so that's how we measure the effectiveness one some of the ways we measure the effectiveness of our strategic plan so very excited to see those um increase despite some of the challenges we experienced this year this is also a good indicator I think is you know how How likely are you to recommend the district so a slight increase from last year um not much

050very close to the comparison so still something I think we need to pay attention to and and work on you know we're we see more green than other colors but but it is something to pay attention to and then getting into items there's a lot here so I'm going to try to expedite this and and and welcome your questions I highlighted some things in yellow that I thought just kind of jumped out to me just seeing the change from last year in all of these scores of these top five scores so they're sorted by change so that's why those are that high but wow that is impressive and in areas that really matter um which I've mentioned previously and then these bottom five which I've also mentioned so you can see um some of those

051with the greatest change being parents and communi supporting the district getting into overall work day you can see these high percentages 94s and 95s in these areas which I mentioned earlier and and the positive changes I love this I feel comfortable sharing input and concerns with my supervisor seeing that nice increase there um and being in the 70th percentile and comparison access to technology which I mentioned the relationship with co-workers most days I look forward going to work that was something that was troubling last year with a 3.73 we're up to 3.94 this year on a on a 5 point so it's something to pay attention to certainly not um great compared to the comparisons in environment you can see uh these a lot of jumps in this area which some of which I've mentioned

052previously about largely about Communications I love this all students in our school are respected for their values and beliefs and nice increase there again you see the staff doing a good job um educating our students handling discipline getting that feedback and the policies I've mentioned those that training I mentioned earlier um supporting students from diverse backgrounds certainly those two things go together and support from admin Administration um the social emotional learning and needs come up again here and then here was that message I meant to you message to you about pay practices being fair being being a concerning area continuing with support this is where you see um that being value by a building Administration 87% agree strongly agree love to see that be 100 but we are pleased with a 12.6 Jump Then in

053terms of support how well we provide equable opportunities this is where you can see that difference if you you know look across those areas you see that 85% being the lowest among these categories so that's something and then you see the comparison being so low that's definitely something to can pay attention to and then I'm being proud of I I am proud of our district is 87% and I think uh is agree strongly disagree and I do wonder you know is there some influence from the referendum I don't know the number is exactly the same as last year which is rare for all of the data that we have so that was a very rapid fire but I welcome your questions thoughts observations that the board has any great big surprises for you you think

054yes I was really surprised about the the parent Community Support yeah being where it's at yeah um you know that I think people on a personto person basis feel supported by the families that they work with you know but I think the vote to some people in can be interpreted as a sign that they don't you know have the support that you thought they did do you think part of that is do to group think in other words you know I think the community has been very supportive of the schools we have the failed referendum but then groups of people start teachers start talking about staff talk but you know we don't feel super supported anymore I feel that may be more group think and individual think could be because individually you know they're still

055supportive but you know we have a work to do to gain regain that financial support MH I wonder if it also has I mean any teacher who read any part of the community Facebook group comments that would it is demoralizing I mean I there's nothing better no better way to say it um even though it's from a select few really um unfortunately social media has I think more impact on Mental Health than anything and um I mean if that's what you keep seeing all the time and that's and it's harder to get that voice of support from the keyboard you know that's right well and even if you look at just like the basic algorithm it's going to obviously like populate it to the top and so you have to dig deeper to find the

056positivity right right well and and words do matter absolutely do you know just like the words that Melanie Shar tonight those are the words that staff should be hearing right she's very optimistic she has strategies and how we can move forward those are the things that we have to hear more of yeah the truth of the matter is that's that's kind of good segue for me because I'm just so glad we're doing this we need to do these things and we can dig deep through it um it's interesting and I hope people aren't going to be bored with this but you know having taught here as long as I did it was interesting for me to to see the survey some of the things I guess I could relate to I would have said oh

057yeah that hasn't changed a whole lot but some things really stood out I I just had a list of things um the referendum failing one of the things that's concerning to me is the number of Staff who worried about how compensation will be able to keep up or class sizes are going to go up and so I hope the public understands this I mean this is going to be difficult um number two is an interesting one the balancing academics with uh meeting you know social emotional needs in some ways the fact that we kind of had I when I went through the survey you could see both to me that's a good sign because there's going to be always it's a balance and trying to find that it's it's hard but you know have high

058expectations yet at the same time take care of you know mental health um standard-based grading um I know when I retired it was the year afterwards that they started that and I know it that's been difficult and I think it's something that is probably ongoing um communication particularly um there was some concern about you know Administration to staff but also to the community and I I keep saying Mr tarnisher you wear an awful lot of hats and I don't know how you can do what you you do but I'm going to say that in some ways at some point where our school is getting to the point where we we need to start thinking about some kind of a communication director I just don't think you can do everything time time I can remember when

059I ran for this this three years ago that's what I kept on saying um and one of the things that's been very disappointing for me as a teacher or excuse me as a board member is the fact that the thing that could probably help more than anything resolve that issue with time would be the kind of revamp our calendar it's been hard to get even some of the staff to go along with it because there are things that we could do that would make it I guess I'd say nothing else more Humane you know slow down extend it by a week or whatever I just think be healthy for everybody and I think quite honestly parents would actually enjoy having kids in school an extra week um I so yeah I think they would year

060round school I'm just kidding well you know what the agrarian Cal was fine at one point discipline um I just remember as a as a teacher U my principal I won't name his name but he said you know no one student has the right to take away the rest of that your class their right to learn and again trying to find that balance is that's ongoing but I think it's something that is still there and the one that I thought was interesting was 15 years in the district to get full retirement benefits there was a couple comments about that and I think that's something that is something maybe we need to even consider and then one that was interesting is and I think it's going to keep changing it's going to keep growing is ESL

061English Second Language that we need more resources and again we're talking about a referendum and I just want the public to realize this is you know it it's a you can only cut your way to so much growth after some point you're just you're really cutting and you're going to get into really I guess making our schools worse and then I was concerned about the relationships but I think it's better and I know this was uh something that really was affected by the pandemic but the uh the fact that so many people could identify with their teams and saying their teams were great their Department was great but then getting to know the rest of their staff and I think that's something we've gotten bigger when I first started here everyone knew everybody MH you

062know and that's that's changed there was no middle school at that point there was basically the elementary Conor elium and then there was the high school which was 712 and so that's kind of be understood but you know let's maintain that small Town kind of feel as best we can so I just want to applaud you again we need these These are really important if nothing else they a way for staff to vent occasionally and they need to do that so I just I was really I really enjoy reading this I I um same thing I it was I mean so many jumps in the percentages that was I mean it's just it's been a great year for all of those things and I think it's many different reasons why um I also was pretty

063concerned about the the staff feeling not supported by parents and Community um and I I I wonder how much parents of students are getting in the way I mean just to boil it down I had an intera ction with someone at the high school who basically called to ask when I when all came said and done to ask my permission to hold my kid accountable and I was like because of a really poor interaction that they had with another parent when they tried to hold the kid accountable and I was like um yeah do you know like and I think um you know we've done the love and logic class offered that as parents and I think um and I wonder how much that plays into that feeling I mean I think a lot of

064it is the referendum but I think you know that really takes away the the autonomy that staff should be feeling to do their job you know and I um and and when I was finished talking to the person she you know thanked me and I was like you should not be thanking me for this but I can't believe that you know that I'm the exception here um and so I just I wonder if there's things that we can do about that about helping um staff and Educators feel more empowered to do what's best for the kids even with push back from parents because there's a lot more I think who probably support this staff than than push back thatly what's that undoubtedly yeah you know you have vocal minorities and and sadly enough they wield

065a lot of power especially with social media you know five or six dedicated typers can cause a lot of problems out there and you know little bits of misinformation and and things like that the as much of a blessing as social you know media has been um it creates problems in and of itself um and I think that's going to have to be addressed at some point mhm what's unfortunate is that some people actually enjoy that Power Trip oh yeah without doubt that's what really bothers me without a doubt they really they know what they're doing and way too much credibility yeah and the challenge is how do you how do you correct that how do you provide accurate information out there you certainly don't have to engage in you know conversations like that over

066them over social media so often times we don't do anything you know unfortunately it's sort of like a news uh Network out there you know some people just listen to The One News Network and whatever they say is Gospel right you know without realizing there's a whole scope of other ways of thinking right so I mean I guess it comes down to the oneon-one interactions again but man yeah I that made me sad to feel that they're starting to feel that think about ways to you got anything that no I mean I agree with what everyone is saying reading through I think it was 23 pages of comments just in case you're curious yes 23 Pages um you know to see the repetition of you know some of the topics that you touched upon um

067it it almost made me feel better that the issues aren't selectively at one school if that makes sense that some of the issues are more districtwide um But like everyone else said seeing that the staff feels that the community isn't behind them um you know we've all chatted with staff um you know we're all parents and like the love that we have for our staff we're very very vocal about and so the notion that our voices and the voices of those that are supporting our staff are being overshadowed like we talked about with a few louder voices so to speak is disheartening and you know as board members it's so important to understand how much we want to support our teachers and to know that we are behind them and that as a board and

068as a district we probably need to do better with educating our residence about our support of them and much like Bruce said you know Aaron you're out there consistently spreading the message and I think having someone in a communications director manager position would probably be really helpful because they can engage people on a social media platform um you know in a more consistent manner but the bottom line is do Staff feel the board supports them because to me that's more important than whether or not the community supports something that would be a shock what are we doing if they to convey that I would I would be surprised if if they if they didn't feel that we supported them yeah okay oh absolutely we just don't want to make assumptions though I know I understand

069I I looked at this as a very positive thing you know everything was moving trending in the right direction and I honestly believe it all comes from the leadership ship that the big massive leadership change that we made um and you can almost take it back to the day mhm there were times you could walk around in this school last year and the year before and and the the tension was almost palpable yeah you know as you walked as you walked around and and this year it's just different one question is why didn't we do something sooner you if we knew that if we observed that why didn't we as a board you know put our hand out say hey we have to make a change no we can't wait another year or so so

070I mean and I take ownership also part of that but I think that change is difficult it takes time and I want to just make a nice again you set some goals some things that you set out we want to change and you'll notice that you were successful I think you did a wonderful job and so we'll set out we'll get new goals um I'm really guardedly optimistic that this referendum is going to bring us together and uh we'll handle it right I just think McFarland is a special place and uh the school brings so much to this whole community and uh we're going to be successful so I think this is a a great experience so thank you for this I agree yep I agree well done anything else sir not on that I'm

071not I'm not done are you feeling all warm and fuzzy no it does doesn't hurt but uh but I do appreciate it I appreciate you spending time on all of that looking at it in detail do you want Tom to do his update no I can I can hit strategic plan if you're ready for it oh you're still okay go ahead all right so we check in uh and provide an update on the Strategic plan uh twice a year so this is our update for this this current like half a year let's say it's kind of like 1.5 and so a couple things to keep in mind is that you adopted the Strategic plan in December of 2022 and then we shared it out that April and we've been sharing it out since we have

072action plans that are one-year action plans we call them a CPR continuous performance report card that we check it on regularly so we have another one this is one of the few times that you'll see that we our plans are calendar years um so that we're partway through the 2024 plan and we also have the key performance indicators that we'll be talking about which also include the surveys that we've been discussing as well as as other indicators so in terms of our first uh pillar educational Excellence our objective for this year is to clearly Define an equitable multi-level system of support in the district and educating staff and build structures to support that so that is all in pursuit of that main objective of improving academic achievement with the a focus on literacy and closing

073gaps what we're really trying to do is to have to starting with what we call tier one or Universal all kids get a high quality instruction regardless of the teacher um regardless of your background and so that's where our um our work is done we've we've identified this as our our high leverage uh model and we're starting to roll it out uh first with staff leaders which we'll be doing next week and then uh with all the staff during professional development next year so that's all we're all continuing to do you know the literacy changes we've made K12 um as well so those things don't go away but now we're just putting a little framework about it and being very intentional and saying this is what high quality culturally responsive instruction looks like in the

074McFarland School District and this is how we'll know that it's being done the indicators so that's for um that pillar I also put down here just to so we don't lose track of where we came from because last year we were identifying evaluating and outlining instructional systems and choosing one to best support so we've chosen one and now we're moving forward with it moving to family and Community engagement synthesizing and analyzing family community data to identify gaps and potential opportunities that exist and we're using this information to address the gaps you saw that in uh the presentation that I did I think it was at the last board meeting about this the survey results and our our community engagement tool so we created that tool administered that tool analyzed those results remember this is all

075in our effort to bridge meaningful and constructive communication and Partnerships to ensure more Equitable access representation and voice you can see that reflected in these three areas communication volunteer increasing opportunities for families and Community to volunteer and more opportunities for feedback so you'll see that as a real theme here you'll also see that next week when you um have my midyear evaluation as a as a real Focus about instead of our communication being two families partnering in decision making with families um so doing that that through more opportunities for random questions but also focus group opportunities so that's what's next for us in that pillar and you can see this was before we're were just kind of like trying to get some baseline in our work we had a lot we didn't have some good

076data back back then um there's a couple objectives in exceptional staff we want to have an inclusive work environment that Fosters open communication collaboration growth and support to promote High levels of wellbeing for our staff pause for dramatic effect because that's really important to focus on that word and also actively in uh recruit and routine a diverse staff representative our Global Society so and Aaron how do we Define well-being we don't have a formal definition of well-being other than the indicators that we use in that staff survey as well as our retention rates so I guess that's how we Define it I guess right staff are here and happy is usually what I say um but that's a goal next year to see that that one particular so the I would say the if if

077if you were to ask me the well-being is about workload your satisfaction I enjoy coming to work every day um those are I think three big indicators yeah I think that's a really good example of wellbe yeah and so we really want to one of the things things want to talk about is just building these stronger teams so how are we using the time that we have to collaborate among staff we continue our communication efforts but really that collaborations in teams and across teams so you see we're we're we want to assess that and develop a framework for what that collaboration truly looks like and best practices for that we start that um next week already working kind of our our model is to work with the leaders first and then they take it out

078to their teams the other um objective about recruiting and retaining reminder that we participated in an equitable hiring practices training and we've been redesigning our hiring process for this year that includes our postings our um interview questions and our review process so that has been very intentional we're trying some new things this hiring season and will continue to evolve so a standard hiring process um without having a Human Resources Director we tend to be a little bit building specific in some of our hiring practices so but if there's a template for everyone to follow yep that certainly minimizes the differences and that training was real clear on what words to use words not to use how do you make your um your materials accessible to people instead of all jargon and then lastly is resource

079allocation obviously we want to have a fiscally and environmentally responsible operation plan that's Equitable sustainable and adaptable to our volving needs and deepen our investment in District diversity equity and inclusion efforts so um you'll see here what we've been doing and and you've experienced is when we're looking at our annual budget aligning that to the pillars what are our priorities the one I always bring is being a a good example of when we did that was with the student services Staffing yep um that we said this was a priority for um student mental health and social emotional learning and so you saw that investment uh there in in that and there's really already been an impact that comments just very short time ago so y yeah I I think that's a real positive yeah yeah

080so that's the idea um and that really guided the work of of that additional budget changes staff Advisory Group too was going back what's the impact to to that first pillar academic Excellence what's the or educational Excellence excuse me and what's the impact to our to our uh third pillar of of for staff so so that came through and then um we're working on our Britney brazell diversity Equity inclusion and belonging coordinator it has this plan that she's been developing now that she's got a year uh in and knows the district with how we're infusing that work in everything that we do as opposed to have it being in additive so she's playing a key role in our Equitable multi-level systems of support development so that that what effective instruction looks like at a universal

081level for all kids it's embedded within that um it's not a uh a a Dei curriculum it's just part of who we are for for all kids and then um lastly is I just wanted to show you the metrics that we've been working with so we don't have our Statewide testing data to compare uh these indicators here so we're trying to shrink gaps that's what those uh are for the educational Excellence focused on language uh English language arts but in relation to First all students but then white students and students of color students with and without disabilities students who are and who are not socio economically disadvantaged and then gender as well because you can see we have our Baseline has has has Gap in in these three areas four areas excuse me and then

082um we will be looking at the connection index of the student survey I belong at school because I have health relationships that one uh that will be a key indicator for us to track our growth we do have progress as you noted and has been shared with you in in our survey results in both of these areas family and Community engagement and exceptional staff we don't have our professional staff retention rate yet for this year I I think it'll be very similar to what it was about 95% there which is very high and uh resource allocation we don't have a great way to to to measure that other than having a balanced budget that meets student needs it kind of the way we interpreted it is if we're doing well in our resource allocation it's

083reflected in the other three are um and then these just for your reference are just if you're wondering what questions make up those the index on the survey just to give you a sense so that's the update what questions comments do you have for me it's going to be interesting when we do our formative evaluation in some ways this fits in really well it does it does it's amazing like wow which makes sense right your expectations for me should be the Strategic Implement should be direct relation yeah and Aaron we went from you providing the report update four times a year to twice a year is that correct yes yes how do you feel that's going I I I mean it meets my needs but um because I feel like if you have it too

084often Beyond just the regular updates provide to you I think it can feel a little performative you know and and this way we're able to capture some larger changes apprciate the timing for this yeah so I I I will say I woke up with a start this morning thinking like oh my gosh I haven't filled out the survey it was like somewhere in the back of my head yeah and then went down and was going through my emails went oh okay I don't have to do that no so yeah doing it too often I think would be yeah I think yeah we're learning right yes yeah anything else moving on update from the cesa 2 Board of control Mr Mooney okay it was last two Tuesday nights ago when we had the tornado drill or

085oh boy so that's happened to you before there hasn't it and and we decided to hold a meeting virtually because of the weather conditions uh so we started the meeting out and then half the people end up in their basements so we lost some but anyways um was conducted via the zoom because of the tornadoes around uh they talked about this month we talked about the professional Resource Centers and uh the types of services that they provide to school districts if you're a member um the resources for teachers and students such as the professional Library adaptive student equipment uh syst of Technology Learning Materials student assessments student transitions Etc these are all things that many things that our district has taken advantage in the past our hearing impaired teachers an example not of the resource

086center but of the contract that uh we do with cesa there's only three other cesas that offer professional resource centers in the state and all three are funded by grants um how many are there all together T I think there's 12 that c say that sounds yeah it sounds right that's my memory okay and at one time we had a CA branch in Madison and one down by kosha years 12 combined because of fiscal issues uh right now the board is supporting the administrator Administration from C2 in their strategic planning process of the professional Resource Centers to see what the future direction is for them uh I've talked about purchase services from White from cesa 2 where districts can go through cesas being the middleman and they contact the vendors and actually the model that

087they've created is becoming a nationwide model for them so what has been done here uh has is going to be U expanded uh cesa line of credit is $500,000 uh it's been the same for the past three years and cesa 2 has not even touched that so they have a lot of fiscal responsibility and what they've been doing again Head Start uh cisa 2 does coordinate a head start I think it's in Jefferson County and Personnel transportation and grants and that is um at this point and then we spend a lot of the time on administrative performance evaluation and that concludes this report anybody have any questions comments Tom you're really good yeah thanks very much Tom we appreciate your diligence and following these things even when you're under threat of severe weather that's I

088didn't go the basement I remained in the kitchen we were down in the garage I don't know if we had the TN drill our war did we we did we sat outside a referendum engagement Mee and I did hear the siren's going off and I did hear the weather station going off oh well our referend referendum engagement group just kept moving along yep it's right corageous nothing will stop that grp right school safety written drill evaluation notification and review per Wisconsin state statute 11807 for CP Mr taret sir yep so you can see there's two in your packet those are two uh administrative holds to protect student privacy and that were carried out in different buildings since our last board me okay I appreciate receiving these Kon uh it Happ only happened once where Community

089memb has asked me about emergency that happened I was just provide able to provide a little more information without Crossing that uh confidentiality line and just reassuring this particular parent that everything's handled well there's a whole process set up that's all they need get safe okay thanks very much Tom District administrator's report all right so um some things going on around some recognitions to have obviously congratulations to our spring athletic team some of whose season is continuing um but some a lot of shoutouts there for successful seasons for those that have concluded the referendum engagement committees have concluded this round of their meetings so three sets of two meetings in in preparation for our next steps which is really getting the survey out which went out to staff today just to share three options for

090possible future referendum all of which reflect the $1.2 million in uh budget reductions that were done in two months time and um then what will happen with that process is that information the results will come back be presented to that group to this board and then we'll present those results to the community as well to get additional feedback answer additional questions all of which is meant to inform the board uh who will receive additional information from the referendum engagement group in regards to any recommendations they have for future referendum question which is ultimately the decision of the board should be made no later than August 27th ideally we'd like to make that decision earlier like on August 5th for example which is the first boord meeting in August should that be the case but really

091pleased with how how that work turned out learn so so much and continue to keep in touch with those fine people M oh we also just today um put together a updated website that has budget information excellent wonderful today through some uh exciting work there everything is kind of on schedule yep everything's on schedule so far so good so so I think we had what was the number Angie of 59 staff that filled out the survey or something 49 so far that have filled out the survey oh wow um and it was sent this morning perfect and uh I have not that's the survey so uh additional budget cuts committee uh they met and finalized their recommendations that went back through the department leads basically budget managers received this recommendations for how they could cut

09210% of their budgets so they're now finalizing those DEC decisions but you'll see things like uh reduce professional development opportunities reduce supplies um things like uh Furniture those kind of items there's some interest in in offsetting some cost by increasing some student fees which can be difficult um but that is the financial reality that we're in and that's how we're coming up with that $500,000 part of part of that is how we come up with that $500,000 that's in addition to the $700,000 of Staff reductions and um thank you it is it is music season so thank you to our amazing um music department um all of the concerts we've had you saw some of those High School ones let's not forget about the orchestra concert uh that that happened sixth grade band concert that

093happen so just amazing time showcasing the talent of our kids you mentioned C uh senior exit interviews I always want to give a shout out to our community members who take time to sit and learn from our our seniors and uh also the senior parade is just a great great event I just love it that's when I get all choked up this year I was able to get down to Conrad elvan primary school and see those kindergarteners with with the seniors and that's that's that's where it all happens those book ends so really special also was the Waba Olympiad so um Megan Chapman and I were able to get over there it was so fun see some of that yeah a lot of energy oh my Lord like I was tired after walking through that

094school that was always my favorite of to participate in and the weather was beautiful so yeah the weather was gorgeous and it's so well well designed the way they have downtime built in um it was really really interesting I great event a lot of parent volunteers so thank you for it was a well oiled machine I don't know how they did it yeah it's from years of experience yeah it is that's for sure I'll share some photos from around um as well oh sorry that's an error you can't share your your screen well well I disagree sh didn't want me to share there we go if it first all right look at them batting in PE at CPS God it's such a gorgeous gym isn't it it really is it's really nice but I love

095that there you know really getting into it there you can see that getting ready for Te ball yeah it's pretty important I'm spreading some seeds there that keeping that Prairie um restoration underway I don't know that much about the Waba Prairie that's something I should really learn more about um but where is that located I was just going to say where is it it's right next to behind the hill Oh okay yep you got plenty of water today yeah we're doing well I thought this was really an a neat event having this first generation Club at the middle school so you can see uh school counselor Joe Rundy there with the students and they had a a multicultural potl so what a great event I just love that here you see some more of the

096volunteering pictures for that seventh grade group there they are at the at the Larson house doing some planting the use Center getting rid of an old coua looks like M marking storm drains look at that that's a lot of wood chips that is a lot spreading that out you're welcome that's great I love that oh sixth grade the final money unit Market I didn't get to any markets this year that's one of the perks of being a superintendent is you get to go to all the markets but um great thing right they do the simulation um of for financial literacy and uh always a fun fun event and it all builds up to the auction at the end of the year there's that Middle School choir concert numbers are exploding at Middle School choir holy

097buckets so it's a good problem to have marketing students got to go and hear from um resident business owner Shan o'n about the McFarland House Cafe what a great opportunity I love that kind of stuff thank you Sean here you see I love the excitement signing day I think that was fantastic really bright one of those two young men participated when the state school superintendent came in and we had a kind of a conversation in here and he did did a fantastic job and Dave Jones was there too and really proud of that partnership so thank you to everybody involved in that the cancer awareness week raise the money um almost $1,000 there get what kids will do for a free half a class period really fun there's the fundraisers here are so creative and

098well received just a couple of many pictures from the biotech youth apprenticeship night again our youth apprenticeship program is the Envy of other districts and I I just think it's fun to see the pride the students have sharing their work Crystal Apple honorable mention recipient right here our very own Brian Han certainly very deserving if you're ever feeling down just stop by one of kind there he's got your back sure does excellent teacher and a special recogition wow back backstage look at that our very own Ben Beck um how Ben is grown yes he has many years of service he's he's enjoyed many board meetings over the years and he started when he was a student here right wow and then mov on continued through while at Madison College and and now of course in

099his his uh big role there at the Village of McFarland Communications and technology department so we are so thankful to you Ben and we are so grateful for your service we will let you enjoy Monday nights you're always welcome back and if you would be able to come out from backstage we do have something for you let's see this feels kind of weird to say come out from behind the the door you can Ben there is so Angie has a little something to thank you are such a talented amazing human and I've known you for a long long time and it's just I'm sad that I won't be able to see you every other Monday so yeah I'm I'm a bit I'm a bit heartbroken too yeah it's been great so thank you so much

100for your service you do a great job Ben thank you you you really even when there's surprises right you're not wrong there thank you guys surpr yeah we won't we won't rehash that surprised that we're all thinking of all right so um that concludes my um update on recognitions I will update some upcoming events if you have other things to to share at the end that's great about recognitions it's national Safety month it's lb lgbtqia plus pride month the flag of raising was just today and they look nice out there they look really nice yeah yeah so we we went out there to do a flag raising right as it started downpouring some students sat out there and they were just like no I'm not missing this um love it I think that's fantastic yeah

101it went really well National Dairy month uh we also Wednesday will be the uh eighth grade recognition ceremony and dance and um June 6th is the last day of school for students just to make sure especially with those with kids in the district that you know and then Friday Friday morning at 7:30 we start our end a year recognition 7:30 mhm that's a great event 7:30 where's it at it'll be in the PAC and then it's followed by a kind of grab and go breakfast that will be in the multi-purpose room or the black box of the the high school um after we recognize our our outstanding uh staff members including former board member Kate green who will be in attendance and we had always done that after after school school you know off site

102someplace so this is a I'm sure a welcome change to the folks that would prefer to go home how long how how you're such a great time estimator how long are you anticipating that going it should be done by nine for the recognition part okay uh that's our goal but it might be a little bit later I'm so glad you said something it was in my calendar for 8:30 sometimes we can't sometimes we can't um Sometimes some people talk more than others but our words are limited except I went over my word a lot more is a board sitting together like last year or not it's really up to you you read my mind okay good okay let's do it you what sit together sit together is there a dress code no no okay no

103no just the usual School dress code um which very happy to hear that jeans are allowed per the comment I saw yes they are just for a dollar no I'm just kidding um and then after that event if you're able to join is Wisconsin virtual Academy's graduation ceremony so DCA um destination Career Academy is at 1:30 um according to my notes Here Insight corre is followed right after that and then weeva that evening at 6 at Madison College please let me know join I will make sure should the case if three of you for the on yes okay I will not be an attended I will not be an attendance either unfortunately I don't think I can either that's this Friday right yes it is geez and then Sunday of course is graduation at 11:

104and then um next week Flag Day Robert lafalot Senior Day the juneth celebration is on Sunday the 16th from 11: to 3 at LaRon park that is um largely sponsored by our black student union and then we'll be back here on the 17th for a board meeting reminder I didn't share in this but Monday the 10th is your opportunity to provide me with valuable feedback on my performance so quick question on graduation yes um what time do we need to be here usually half an hour it's I think around 10:30 10:30 and we get the fun little you get uh actually we don't I don't think we not wear the Roby things no oh okay no we're just you'll get a corsage I think oh okay yes I get to wear the fun Robby thing

105okay good the STA official okay the staff too yes yeah so 10:30 in the B JY probably your best beted okay 10:30 gives you plenty of time yep okay too much and really the other board members uh smile and are very encouraging Craig has work to do he's a hand Shaker so awesome right that's that's that's what I remember favorite day of the year we get to sit there and look pretty time to go shopping just kidding somewhere but yes arriving at 10:45 I can tell you by experience is not perfect a little tight little tight good to know yeah I don't know well that's when I've arrived in the past and it wasn't great maybe 15 minutes earlier is better yeah yeah you so 10:30 10:30 I'm there any other recognitions yes yeah you

106have some you go for it go ahead okay we're should we like Ro sh sure we can do that um yeah I have a I have three so one is for Tom um I really do am I'm super grateful for the updates that you provide I'm sure I've mentioned it before but you're very thorough and it's definitely on things that I personally don't have capacity to keep up on and so I'm grateful that we have a representative who can do that so thank you you all second that um and then also I just watching other boards operate I'm continually grateful for our ability to work as a team and to be present and engaged during meetings there's a lot of um other groups that I see that are very distracted and not engaged haven't done

107their homework and I'm just I'm really grateful for that um and then the last I don't think we've talked much about this but one of our board goals um you know was to have a new board member orientation process I think Erin's talked about a little bit but um and I just wanted to give a shout out to eron for setting that up like it was our board goal for the year and um I don't think that the board actually had to do much to get that executed so it was a lot of Aaron and I as serving formally as Megan's Mentor um I sat through a lot of the pro of those things um as many as I could and it so thorough and there's really great documents that go with with it to

108help Orient new board members and I mean I learned a lot even though I've been on the board for 2 years um and it involves you know meeting with the The District administration the director levels tours of the schools um and just an an and and then an actual overview of from Ain um but I just think I wanted to make sure that we recognize that because that's one of our goals and I it's a really great process in documentation so thank you but thank you for doing that being the mentor wonderful that's and having to work with her no oh wait wait oh oh no it's okay it's okay put well I will say as the uh individual who got to experienced the onboarding uh it was very thorough and very overwhelming so I

109appreciate your patience as I get up to speed it will help it's true it's true no that is being Mentor has been easy thanks I thought we were going to alternate what happened to that what were we going to mentors no you were gonna say one thing I oh I'm sorry I just stole the whole show uh Becky Becky Hine has Ted kindergarden since she's been here from day one she's retiring this year all I can say that she is one heck of a gem of a teacher parents kids have loved her consistently m throughout her tenure here I've completely enjoyed her I she's just one of a one of a million Beth Canfield we're organizing the student the senior exit interviews yeah know I'm not sure how she puts it all together and this

110year was opt no not optional it was required but it was a drop in service so I'll be eager to see how that goes after she compiles her a data for us um Danielle Edon through student services organizing all the scholarship information being a member of the Lions Club and the Optimus Club I really appreciate all the work and guidance she provideed to us so it'll be much easier next year as we uh continue to provide those scholarships and finally Sue Richardson from Food Service oh talking about Mis optimism I mean she's been with us for years I mean if if you ever need a ray of sunshine or a a word of Hope or encouragement just see Sue she is another one of a million staff members here and I'm I'm I'm sure the

111district will miss her yes luckily we'll see her walking around the walking around the the neighbor as it were amazing amazing anything else I can Echo that the sixth grade band concert was excellent and also there was at least 50 kids that were in that single grade band you know and I was there early in this year and it was real difficult to recognize exactly what songs were being played and they improved so much from that time you know to last week it was just amazing and and I've got a grandson there and he was all excited they had a big big surprise but he couldn't tell anybody what it was and it just turned out that they played an extra song they played on in Wisconsin and just it was it was just an

112absolute Delight you know and to see that many kids now I understand that things happen that you know you're not going to carry 60 kids all the way through but that's remarkable those are really really good strong numbers and it was a blast yes just the blast making music anything else if not we'll move on to our action items action on intergovernmental Park development agreement with the Village of McFarland for the inclusive park at Waba intermediate school and I would look for a motion to approve that I'll make that motion thank you Megan do I have second I'll second it thank you Megan discussion I have a question about um in the document thanks for providing all that information I know some of was more historical nature I talked about access to the park during

113the school days by members of the community can you just sort of you again Jeff what that entails big because I have a question about that did you want me well let me ask this question go ahead and ask question I'm a grandparent of a um youngster preschooler uh who who requires the use of an Adaptive playground and up for their daily walks all that stuff we're going go up and use it but there may be times when it's not available can you explain what those times would be and how would I know that as a community member so the intended plan will be on school days which are about 70 out of 365 days during the lunch time which L will be is roughly about 11 to one time frame is when we'd be

114asking our community to not use that inclusive part good clarification posted that makes sense be notified and that makes a lot of sense I wasn't quite sure if we were talking about whenever kids are in school you know that would be off limits just the Lun period so the morning recesses and afternoon recesses which are run by the classrooms they will use mostly just the uh School playground and not the inclusive okay but during lunch we want to be able to let our kids yeah and that makes sense okay thanks I had the similar question because it was a little vague in the document but that's good anything else that project again for the inclusive won't be done until mid September yeah but the school playground will be done um for the start of school

115okay um no further discussion all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppos motion carries unanimously 5 Z action on appointment of 2024 2025 medical advisor as per policy annually the district will arrange for a qualified individual to serve as the medical advisor at this time we recommend the appointment of Thomas mwin MD for the 2425 School Year I'll I have a motion to accept I'll make that motion I move to approve the appointment of Thomas Berwin MD as the district medical advisor for the 20242 school year as recommended by Administration thank you sir do I have a second I'll second that thank you Tom discussion is there some reason why this is an annual um action item versus like a two-year commitment that's per board policy is there something that we we

116could the board we the board could revive to that policy I don't think there's any legal statutory requirement for you to do it any he's provided great leadership yeah he has done a wonderful it just seems like each year yeah we have to vote again on it yeah we could take it up well we can thank him every year which is important yes any other discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppos motion carries unanimously 5 Z and I would look for a motion to adjourn I'm going to give that one I'm motion oh okay do I have a second I'll second Megan all right all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppos motion carries 5 it's unanimous we are adjourned at 84 9 okay not

117bad not bad before we depart