001e e e all right then I think we'll call the meeting to order at 803 on Monday May 20th the year 2024 and let's see start we'll start with uh consent agenda items we've got some minutes from the May 6th 2024 school board meeting uh we have general fund vouchers and purchasing card transactions uh that request approval of general fund vouchers 181 620 through 1848 and 292 823 through 292 857 and purchasing card transactions dated 32124 through 42024 um we have some professional staffing recommendations as well as some co-curricular staffing recommendations uh and some Personnel items that are unnecessary for vote so I would look for a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented I move to accept the consent agenda as presented thank you Tom do I have a second I can second
002that thank you Megan all in favor please signify by saying I I oppose motion carries 5 Zer um and then moving on I believe we are at public comments and I do have yes and we've received five written comments for this evening and no one registering to speak in person thank you very much so before I read the comments I have another little read and it's in accordance with Schoolboard policy 1673 the McFarland School Board welcomes public comment during regular meeting ings from individuals who are present at the meeting or who have sent an email to the board president or superintendent participat participants are required to register to speak upon arriving at the meeting State their name address and any group affiliation before speaking address only topics within the legitimate dur jurisdiction of the board
003recognize that the board will not respond to comments during the meeting unless the item is on the published agenda limit their comments to under five minutes or 250 written words and of course maintain deorum so at this point I will read we have some email comments that we received the first is from Ellie Kaiser I'm in support of of raising the pride flag the colorful rainbow flag sends a powerful ful message that our lgbtq plus community members matter they are supported and they belong in our beautiful Village and School District this is also an important piece of our District's Vision to be an equitable and inclusive community committed to student belonging achievement and growth and who doesn't like to see a rainbow in the sky thank you for your time Ellie Kaiser next is Tori
004please excuse me if I mispronounced the last name yoin um I'm a new mother looking forward to raising my baby girl in McFarland it means a lot to me that the community we raise our child in values of Pride openness diversity and Equity I've heard great things about the school district and I hope you do the right thing by approving the pride flag flying this June representation matters Jesse Stags just wanted to lend my support for the McFarland High School GSA and their proposal to fly the pride plague in June my husband and I moved to McFarland two years ago and have been so delighted with all of the lgbtq a plus support we've seen throughout town I take pride in McFarland and tell everyone we know how much we love living in a town
005that respects everyone and outwardly shows love to a group that is constantly Under Fire and last but certainly not least uh Joanna young I am writing in support of flying the pride flag per the request of students at McFarland High School this Flag represents welcoming and support recognizing that all students are welcome and should be proud to be who they are and it is not a political symbol or message it is simply a reminder that all people are welcome at our amazing schools in our amazing Community I would love it if we lived in a world where no one doubted they are welcome and are treated fairly regardless of how they looked who they love or who they are we aren't there yet so for now let's remind everyone especially kids who may be feeling
006disregarded disrespected and unwelcome that they are loved and belong right here in mcfar thank you there oh I do have one more sorry about that Samantha zanga I'm writing to express my support of the GSA proposal for the district to fly the pride flag in June visibility is critically important to those in the lgbtq community flying the flag is not simply a celebration of identity but a symbol of allyship and safe places unfortunately this community remains under attack so it is vital this District show shows its student staff caregivers and community that it stands with them flags of course are only one part of the stance so I encourage you to keep supporting the community Through actions as well thank you very much all and we'll move along to our McFarland High School student report
007there they are they are okay all righty so we've got two two guest clubs here today to present but we're going to start off like usual with with our own little presentation then I'll pass it over to them so some highlights um biotechnology presentation so um one of the things in high school that we have which is super super awesome it's the youth apprenti program um recently our biotech youth apprentices students um got to present their final projects recently um on the research they've been doing with their companies um some of them are affiliated withw some of them are not but either way they've been able to do some super cool research um and they put on these presentations um so congratulations City's incredible students in the science department for fostering their love of the
008biotech field super cool continuing with some youth apprenticeship updates we have two MHS seniors who have recently signed on to a register apprenticeship with Dave Jones following the construction you apprenticeships uh congrats to Tyson Frank and Desmond jera for continuing their career in the trains awesome and then this past week on on May 18th the McFarland music program held Blues in the night in the MHS B Jim um with special performances by MHS vocal ensembles um the IMs Jazz Ensemble the second Lake Jazz Ensemble and the early board Jazz Ensemble um it was a wonderful Showcase of talent congratulations to all the performers they this prior week at MHS our student council hosted Cancer Awareness Week a week in which student council host a dress up days and held the teacher in Paradise competition where
009by donating money students were able to bid on which teacher received a period in Paradise off from teaching and basically locked in the Teachers Lounge this past Friday student council raised a total of 95753 throughout the week to be donated to miss Neil our IMS librarian librarian who is fighting against bile duct cancer I cannot say that word and then on May 8th a little bit earlier in the month um the MHS Eco Club was awarded $2,000 for winning the alumni renew our schools competition for their cohart um again congratulations to the MS Eco Club this was fantastic continuing on many of our students had their artwork displayed at the badger art conference at Oregon high school for the last two weeks with multiple students taking prizes in various categories congratulations to Brook Clark pictured
010at top for an honorable mention in functional Ceramics Nora mizado for third in metals and jewelry and low cordio for first in print making awesome and then this morning the MS hope Squad visited CS to encourage sportsmanship among kindergarteners first graders and second graders um so we played games with them at recess and in the process taught our younger Learners about what it means to be a good sport super fun super acid I saw Joey on that slide thanks coming up what will be going on at MHS okay happy culture week so we have a couple different events going on this week culture week is a CommunityWide event running from May 20th to May 24th with lots of different events and all the proceeds we raise help bring in performers or different activities for next
011year starting off strong tomorrow we have our big sale throughout the school day moving on to Wednesday we have our Fashion Show on different mannequins with um a lot of different cultural clothing brought in from students from all across the school on Thursday we have World Market night we have three different local restaurants and attendance if you've not ordered your food already it closes tonight at midnight so make sure to get on it and then on Friday night we have our community movie night where we have three food trucks I apparently never updated that um as well as showing uh the Elementals a Disney movie and both of those nights will have a raffle with some gracious donations from different community members um and then we have a community cookbook on the back burner for
012next year awesome and then some Athletics updates so on the weekend of May 4th again earlier this may um at the Wisconsin inter Scholastic swim coaches association Justin Harrington head coach for the MHS boys swim team was named division 2 coach of the year and then Blake to beast on the MH boy swimon was also named division two swimmer of the year so congratulations to those two um super awesome super well deserved incredible performances by the swim team this year the Tois Trio insane um as well as our track team had their conference meet recently um at Sten they both took second place and then picture to the right are just some of the many many many uh top three finishes from our track team they are currently competing at regionals right now in Turner
013so hopefully they're doing great congratulations and good luck Spartans and then some student staff updates so staff shouts for the past two weeks we've got congrats to Mr Mor Ari Mr tuy Miss kevana and Mr Greg they are all super super awesome and lovely speaking of incredible teachers uh congratulations to Mr Han a tech ad teacher at our high school primarily teaching autos for being a crystal Apple award honorable mention he is a he is a teacher who truly deserves all of the good things coming to him and then onto our our featured club for this evening um I'm going to start with language Club so if language Club wants to get ready to present we've got Bella Megan and Madam Callen so I'll pass it on over to you guys once my computer decides
014to start working hi I didn't get the memo that I could go in or um log in from home so I'm here one second it's loading folks we're almost there th Wisconsin accent to make it feel real all right all right folks whenever you ready hola uh yeah I'm Megan and uh we represent the language Club at um McFarland we um I'm the Spanish representative so I'm in Spanish 5 right now and um yeah that's me I guess I'll let Bella and um Madame Ken introduce themselves hi I'm Bella I'm the French repres representative um and I am also in French 5 Madam maybe hi hi sorry this is my first time using Google meets on my phone so I thank you for your patience with me um we're also in the middle of uh
015bedtime right now so it might be a little bit chaotic but my name is Madame Chen um I am the French teacher at McFarland High School and also the language Club adviser okay so um this is the presentation that we used uh we used this presentation to present to um all of the language classes um at the school this year trying to get some um some new members new faces um joining us um our full name is Language and Cultural immersion Club but that's a bit of a mouthful so everyone just says language Club um we mostly focus on French and Spanish um because yeah French and Spanish because those are the ones that we speak um but we also learn about cultures from all over the world and um we do that through the
016four on the screen food music film fashion sometimes we find a new um Outlet to go through but um yeah um we have a bunch of pictures in here Bella did you want to again sure um so these are just a bunch of pictures of some of the things that we have worked on um so this is our mural that we did last year with the mural project um then you flip to the next one there should be some more um so here's some of the different projects that we have done um with looking at different fashion from other countries um and so here you can see we made a craft of those and actually made some flipflops um that we learned about and their significance to um a country in Peru and then we
017also do this a lot through food this is one of our favorite ways um and so we just try new recipes we learn about foods from other cultures um and it's really fun because at the end we do like a bracket style um competition with the different foods and we make the two Foods at the end so this year it was um macarons and aapas um and then we've also done a couple of fun field chips like going to the Henry about Su to practice our language skills how we advertised our club to other people um it's I like language Club because I feel like it's a lot it's very unique um to other clubs um our day-to-day um like Club running is pretty much we um do like a warm-up question um kind of
018like an iceberger I don't know and then we also practice um we break off into Spanish and French um groups and we um practice speaking and we'll have a conversation about I think my favorite one from this year I think we did like favorite creature I think or like what animal would what pet would you have if you could have one and I chose a dragon because I think dragons are cool but um yeah so we have conversations and we also play a lot of games too um so it's just it's really helpful for students um to practice their language skills and speaking um in a like non-school or less structured setting yeah so um it varies um we have I don't know how many are on our emailing list but um to be a
019part of the club it's very informal um so we try not to say like you have to be there on this day and this day and this day um people come and go as they please um at the beginning of the year I think we had around like 10 or so people coming regularly um and it dwindles as people like go to sports and things like that or um yeah have other um commitments but yeah um leadership is it right now is being passed down uh Bella and I are both seniors so we will be gone next year um which is very sad but um we're happy to pass it on to um they're not here but it's um Lydia I forget their last names but Lydia and Rachel uh Lydia is a sophomore and
020Rachel is a freshman so we'll hopefully have them um for a while um did you guys have anything to add fella and uh Madame um I don't think so I just kind of want to say that language Club has been a really amazing Club to be a part of um and it's added a lot of value and has really helped to give me an opportunity to practice my language skills in a fun way outside of school I have nothing else to add I think those two did a wonderful job good job awesome if there's not any questions for language Club I will go ahead and pull up the Multicultural Club presentation and and up p and foring thank you I'm glad you came in person anybody any no you can leave it questions specific to
021the language club or Multicultural Club do you do anything at the middle school because the middle school they expose the kids like the French and Spanish anything like that at the middle school don't get comfortable or should there repeat um so we have talked a lot about um like recruitment um things the last couple meetings and it talking to the middle school has been I think it came up a couple times we haven't in the past um but we have been brainstorming ideas on what that might look like and we haven't I don't think we ever decided on something definitively but we have been looking at a bunch of different ways to do events that could involve middle schoolers or um like bring in professors or something from um W Madison to see if we
022can um gain some more interest that way thanks yeah okay okay Carry On thank you thank you thank you I'll be talking a little bit about um McFarland High School's Multicultural Club so to start off some things that we've done this year um every year we have a display case at the edog public library and it's where students or like community members they can bring in an item like a item of significance and they write a little a little Posta or like something about it um and we kind of put that up for the rest of the community to see it's a great way to kind of just like I don't know learn about other people's cultures um and then this year we also had a handful of Costa Rican students come to MHS so
023we had a fun after school event it was kind of just like a nice hangout in pinatas they were delicious um we just kind of hung out they made new friends we made new friends it was a really nice way to welcome them um the biggest thing I feel like we we've done this year is we've read books about diversity and kindness at with CPS in 4k um this was a really eye opening it was a great inspiring inspiring um uh experience for all of us not not just for the kids but for the students reading too um and then we for the wish students when they had their forward testing we created a very short video it was like two to five minutes long just kind of encouraging them um and just telling them
024to not be nervous for the forward test coming up um it was yeah and then we had an annual culture food lunch with Asian-American Student Association um where students brought in students and staff actually they brought in foods that um from their cultures and we all kind of hung out learned about different different cultures I also did henna there so it was just it was really nice to see people come and go people like study hul kids or just if they were walking by in the library it was nice to see them stop by um um and yeah kind of explore and then we've had PCU which is the people of color Union um at the middle school they have visited MHS I think a couple of times one or two right one or two
025um and that's just been a really great way for the middle schoolers to kind of learn about what we have here like what we have to offer here at MHS um and it's a great way for us to kind of just talk about diversity equity and and how we can improve um I think there's a picture of the meeting to the right it's very informal very fun um it's a nice way to just just talk things out um and then wh had a family fun night which we had a group of students they volunteered for um it was really nice just kind of hanging out with the community um multiculture kind of got like its name out a little bit um yeah it was a great opportunity um and then just last week we had
026a custard fundraiser where um half of the proceeds were donated to miss Neil which as mentioned before is battling stage four cancer um and then we have a senior celebration with BSU and Asian-American Student Association um and then to the right you can see a picture of all the delicious food from the uh lunch that we had with a Asian American Student Association Okay and like I said this was the highlight of the year in my opinion it was the highlight of the year it was so inspiring it was so fun um the kids really really enjoyed it the teachers enjoyed it um we read different books to kids and it was I don't it it was just really it was really nice and we're definitely thinking about doing it again in the future years
027to come um here's just some pictures of us reading the kids enjoyed it like I said um yeah and I think that's it unless Miss Thompson has anything to say no thank you Bushra Bushra is uh one of our amazing sophomores so thank you for sharing all of that um I'm Kelly Thompson one of the high school all dead teachers I'm also co-advisor of Multicultural club with aen Swan and I would agree with Bushra the the book reading at whis and and CS was just really a highlight of our of our year for the club and um a shout out to Britney Brazzle for helping us get organized um like make the contacts and and help us organize that um I know that uh the little kids love the big kids coming down to their
028schools and I know hope Squad was there today I know Eco Club went a few weeks ago other groups of of clubs and and so forth have been going down and and it really is a wonderful connection among um across our district for for our kids so definitely something we want to hope to continue awesome any questions from the board for our wonderful multic Culture Club yeah I was just going to say that um Kelly mentioned how the the younger kids enjoy the older students being there but I think the older students enjoy it as much I think any kind of that cross uh I going to call it generational but certainly cross grades is it's just really healthy for everybody so thank you so much this is wonderful you're you're absolutely right Bruce the
029older kids loved it as well very very fun experience for them that as your presentations go on throughout the year is that there's been so much of that interaction between the you know the high school with the younger students and I think that is I mean just phenomenal it's yeah I remember being in like second grade and being in awe of the fifth graders so I can only imagine it's more so now Joey I would say that you'd have to change your intro a little because when you went on you said um our own little presentation little this is a maximum presentation it's phenomenal the diversity of activities and projects that all our students do through the various clubs so thanks for doing that secondly I think it's a great idea that you went over
030to W visa and encouraged their students to do well on the uh forward test yeah I think kids are more likely to listen Maybe respect you know older students versus older people I agree I agree true and then uh and the last thing I was going to say I love the pictures one picture is worth a thousand words so the the graphics and the pictures that you provide during your presentations are are incredible so thanks for taking the time to do all this anybody else if not I hate to be redundant but boy you guys do a great job and and it makes you know people that that sometimes you don't hear all the positive things that students do and that staff does um Society being what it is they you know they want to
031label people but but you folks are are nothing but positivity and good things uh who goes out and raises a thousand bucks you know for for an ill teacher just some of the things you do just are remarkable able and you make uh you make me proud to be a part of the district you really do thank you very much I think what you do on a every Schoolboard basis is the type of presentation and the quality you present if there was a competition of all high schools throughout the state of Wisconsin on their student reps reporting out to the school boards you would definitely take First Choice got Tom Mooney approval oh certainly can't get much better than that what what you do should be emulated across all high schools that's our that's really
032our goal I think we we really enjoy doing this good take over the world all right thank you very much everyone thank you so much thank you okay I'm moving on we'll do the high school Indian Mound what visa and seps 4K family handbooks I assume Aaron this is yours this is yes so we come to you this is an informational item for the board so no need to take action on this tonight and really um just wanted to share with you some of the the changes that that we're looking at um just so for the Public's reference and for yours especially with uh newbor board member here with us each year we update the family handbooks and the associate principles lead this process and they go through in painstaking detail every aspect of the
033family handbook with goals to make changes some common themes that you'll see in the proposed changes are that they're trying to make things more concise they're also trying to to align things more clearly between buildings and so you'll see in their recommended changes several areas where they're moving something from a a building section to a district section and what that means is that they're making efforts to say we we all do this so instead of having each building say it and maybe use a different word or something we're going to put it all together and show our alignment I'll walk through with some of the changes just that I think jumped out to me and of course there be time if you have questions and if the associate principles want to share more um but
034just to really appreciate their detailed hard work it's not glamorous but I know families appreciate it um much of it is updating links and updating language I would say I don't know a percentage but the vast majority of the changes that you'll see are really what we would call technical Corrections not so much substantive Corrections some areas that I think um due to the hard work that you'll see some more significant changes are in relation to attendance the group has really worked hard this year to align attendance practices and policies across building so kids and families have a consistent experience and I've received a lot of positive feedback from all of you about that and from families the behavior including references to the progressive Behavior response plan that they've worked so hard at as well
035as bullying and the the forms that are using the flowchart those things are major major more than year-long projects for this team of associate principles and just so grateful for them and Lauren Rango who has worked with them through that process and Angie brunette our student services coordinator you'll see some references to some of the updated from human growth and development and trying to make things a little more concise in regard to safety others you know policies have updated buildings have a lot of specific updates that are just relevant to some of their practices um just just things about you know the middle school is no longer requiring a PE uniform for example um when you when you look at you know these handbooks you will see there's a couple things that are listed as
036maybe Works in progress and I would say the majority of those if not all of them really fall around grading practices particularly 61 12 been working very hard at revising grading practices and that is just a a uh an ongoing annual thing but both the middle school and the high school have really focused in and collaborating with staff on possible changes to those practices so some of those are a bit unfinished because they want to use all the time we have with the staff in the last few weeks here before making some changes there I you'll see some changes to you know kind of broadening some definitions with personal electronic devices and things but overall I am just so grateful for their work um there's things in my old job that I miss and there's
037things that I don't miss and so this is on one of those lists so you can figure out which list it's on so I'm really grateful for them and I know um they've done great work with that so anything the aps would want to add I mean don't feel like you have to say anything if you want to add something you can this is Brett I would just um appreciate a in your summary that's really well said and I would just Echo the work that Lauren arango did along with Angie Bernett with both the attendance work with the aps um also the bullying prevention work that has been done all year under the leadership of um Lauren and and Angie and then also just this past summer the work that all the aps along with
038Aaron and Lauren did with the progressive Behavior response plan that was really it's been a year and a half Journey and um it's been great to work together with the APS and also with Aaron and and Brooke I'm sorry Aaron and Lauren and and uh Angie as well so it's been a true team effort and um I'm really proud of the administrative team how we've become really unified over the past year through this work but also just other projects that all the administrators have done so um it's a work in progress but it's it's it's the right work so that's just my quick thought any thoughts questions board members I I do have some sure um let me get my glasses on the um oh first of all you have flow charts they're they're tremendous
039I mean as a parent you can exactly go down the flow chart not only see what the consequence what level it is MH but it's a whole package right there it's easy to find there's a couple places where you refer the parents back to the um policy itself somewhere can we do like a hyperlink there's a couple places there that I can share with you later yeah that would be great and and some of the links um need some updating too there's so many links in there so yes if you find a place where we didn't link something and should have or the link isn't working let us know we try our best to take care of that but there's a lot and I have that written down I'll just that thank you yes that'd
040be great and then under the appendix I think this is the family handbook again I think there's three or four items and you have the number like 551 ddess and grooming you're referring to a policy correct I didn't know what that number was at first so maybe put board policy and the number M so the reader knows that it's board policy mhm and I think there's three or four items there for that and then one of the things that we struggle with and maybe the board has insights is some policies we need to include but some policies we choose to include because we think people want to see that do you find that valuable cuz the more pages the less likely it's ever to be read MH so if there's thoughts you have on you
041know those including some in that appendix do you have a feel for there being that kind of curiosity about specific policies happens very often only when you need it so if we call about a dress code issue that's when you want to know the dress code policy and part of the reason we put it in there is that we can say well it was accessible to you you know you looked at it and people sign off on reading the handbook at the beginning of the year um so what we try to do is include common things or things that we most often get questions or concerns about but yeah that's helpful I think a good example would be the opt out policy yes say you can refer to the policy but that would be a
042good place I think where they could just link right to the P right to the opt out form I think it's more user friendly that way MH um it's more immediate I actually did count the pages of each of those books but I can't find them right now so must not been real important you've got a couple notes there it looks like yeah oh I know and credit to the APS in you aming because you have really compacted all the information I like the way you put the 4K 12 information together there might be a couple other areas that can be placed in that family handbook um but anyway just as FYI uh 4K has 10 pages seps has 14 pages Wiis 11 pages Middle School 25 pages and high school 16 Pages District 55
043Pages yeah but that's where all the information shifted to yeah the only other suggestion I would have is the cover page for each building like we have M Middle School we have con Elum Primary School I was talking to somebody and they didn't know what seps was and I had to explain well that's kind of in primary school so I don't know if you just want to put in parenthesis the initials there because we talk about seps we talk about whis we talk about imms again I think it's just another way to inform yes the the readers of the P or the handbooks when just so you know that the staff of Conrad elvan Primary School would tell you they do not like the term seps um that they feel well and I agree so
044just going to own that um it sounds like you have some sort of illness or something right I got a B so CS but yes I did I watch a lot of gry's anatomy sorry that was one of the things they focused so much on the detail dets of those handbooks that I think the formatting those cover pages is something that is you know something that we can do do you have a picture do you just have the word so they're on it and I certainly understand why you don't want to use abbreviation but then it's up to all of us Educators and board not to use we because we use STS all the time I'm telling you we just have to be consistent ourselves I appreciate that thank you that's true I really want
045to just commend you for working on this consistency throughout the district I think that's so important and I do like the idea that it is a work in progress you know you you can get to the point where you don't want to maybe what you were mentioning about the grading and whatnot you know you you say well I guess we won't touch it but it's never going to be perfect it's always going to be something that you're going to revise and that's the way you know life is and I think it's it's y it's great that you're working towards this I really liked um at Indian M middle school and I I'm not sure this is new I don't know if it is because it was nothing highlighted but the idea that you know homework
046will be decided on a individual teacher basis and I kind of think in some ways um I wonder if that's something that the high school I mean it that consistency I think would be again something that they might consider but any I like that because it allows the freedom which I think teachers need to do what they think is best for for teaching those kids and I really applaud that so when our survey results have been pretty clear too that students and families I would say more so families feel the the vast majority feel like the amount of homework is just right I think students maybe less so but um that hasn't changed but but I do think there's a philosop philosophy about let's use our time here together as well as we can and
047minimize the amount of homework that's cuz people have really busy lives once they leave here yeah I would I um I would Echo what Bruce said he stole the words right out of my mouth um that it the the work to make things more consistent across the um school district has been really incredible and really fast so that is I mean I think any parent is going to notice that right away this you know going from one year to the next so that's incredible and I think I mean I agree with you Bruce the um when there's especially something with when it's left up to the teachers discretion there was some comments or um wording in some of the handbooks that were about that and it was specifically about grading and I think as we
048think about families using these as their reference tools like okay what's the grading policy and then why is this grade different in this class than the other and understanding um and having that right there probably gives support to families and then also to the staff to be able to say like well this is my my process and I'm you know this is where I have perview to do that and I thought as a parent that was really really helpful to see that so yeah it's a lot of work to put all this together and it was really great to see it all in one like line I've seen them throughout the years but um so I think the other message is that we're all striving for the what it is that we want kids to
049be able to demonstrate but there's flexibility as Bruce that's how we get the kids from point A to point B or one building to the next building yeah content area and I think you know it's just nice we don't often get a chance to to thank our associate principles so I appreciate the board's gratitude for them and I think having had the privilege of having a position as an associate principal for a couple minutes the the appreciation I just want to make sure the board has is they are truly firefighters their day-to-day is so intense and to sit down and to be able to look at this with such detail I don't know how they did it in the context of unfortunately I think it was a lot of nights and weekends so just really
050appreciate that I think the one word that Brett used was the word unified and it was music to my ears yeah K12 unification yeah I think the more consistency you can inject into any you know whether it's be a handbook or contract or whatever it is it just makes things simpler for you know the contractors and the the contract so you know I think that's a a significant move is to combine them for one thing and to create some consistency across where you can obviously you can't treat all students equally but consistency is great y great moving on yeah thank you thank you thank you very much go to sleep so fun to have so many people with us tonight I know joint village board School Board planning committee meeting update who owns this one
051well turn to the board members that were there to observations so we did have a joint um Schoolboard Village meeting was that last week it feels like it was yeah yeah um first one we've actually had in quite a while and so we were able to share some updates on joint projects between the village and the district as well as some individual things uh I would say the The Joint projects we talked about the the solar project and that's you know on on on the time frames you know as progressing but somewhat slowly but we do have that that joint project with the village and at some point that'll the construction will get going and then we also have the obviously the park the inclusive Park and we're able to see some renderings of that
052very exciting when is that expected to be finished well I don't think I think the school part the playground part will be ready for the fall um but the inclusive part will be later SE 15 September 15th oh yeah that's not bad M so so very close to the start of school yep and so you know I think that is a a huge undertaking a lot of work has been done it's such a good use of limited resources between the two entities and got some great pricing in on the playground equipment so that was great and then we talked about the referendum um and our response to the failed referendum and implications for the district and the village The Village talked a little bit about some of their projects the municipal center um reconstruction project
053and that's still very early they don't even have drawings um so that's where they're at with that what else did I miss I think there was an acknowledgement that we need to keep working more closely together I mean I think particularly in your presentation um eron I think the village kind of realized we have to do a better job of of you know letting the public know what our plans are and you know working together and I think that's something that we're we're we've come a long ways and I just think we're going to get better at so I'm I was very optimistic I thought that the meeting went very well and I think there was an acknowledgement that we have to have this meeting uh more regularly scheduled I think there was definitely that
054um acknowledgement as well just the fact that you're having these meetings is a significant upgrade to right many years we did yeah but there's still a lot of opportunity to collaborate more and even just communicate more and I think we acknowledged that and and the important part to me about the commitment to have the regular meeting meetings was I mean we we kind of had that commitment before but we really committed to having it even if there isn't something specific on the agenda to that we needed to talk about or update each other about just so that like it's in those kind of open conversation spaces that more things come up and like having a standing agenda item I think is to about future collaborations or other things that we want to talk about you
055know going forward so um yeah that was was I liked that part of it um personally I feel like I learned a lot from the referendum and the feedback that we hear from the community about um how we need to work more with the village and communicate more um and so that's that was one of the reasons I wanted to stay in that committee because I think there's a lot of opportunity there so yeah I think you but I think you covered all of it m oh I would say one other thing about the inclusive Park that I think the community also doesn't necessarily not everybody knows but like that collaboration was um a huge savings for both the village and the school district I mean you kind of alluded to that but um like
056there was need for parks in a very Sim like within a block of each other on The Village's side and then on the schools side and it was coming together that saved both entities of money so I think that's just something to recognize I don't know if yeah I would think most of you maybe have been down flam Road past lafalot there and they put a large playground in the Senate the mdle area up by Senate is is that an inclusive Park as well do you know because it's got some real differences it looks like it from the road it it does yeah takeing a look at the surface and the type of structures they have there yeah I'm not sure I would I I think that's good that you point that out Megan you
057know we needed to do something at waisa for their playground that wasn't a a choice that was it was a equipment that was you know you know getting close to disrepair and so that was going to happen and it's just it's nice that we can we can partner together and Sh that resource and these it takes many years to get as far as we have through the hard work of you know Jeff Mahoney and and the village M Shan yeah and I would suggest that since September 15th is the timeline for it to be completed with the community Festival just a week after that oh yeah I mean this park is something to be celebrated M and that would be a good time to highlight it at least publicize it at the community Festival because
058we have so many folks that yeah attend that so if any way that they can Bridge those two things that would be great for the community agreed yeah yeah okay uh WEA update Mr Mooney WEA update okay these are takeaways uh from our last meeting uh just last week WEA continues to work with state legislators uh where they would permit WEA students to take the state forward testing virtually hopefully by next spring what this will result in is an increased number of students taking the exam because right now they have to travel uh away from their homes uh there's going to be I mentioned before three graduation ceremonies uh it's part of the weeva plan uh in a couple weeks and there'll be a sign language interpreter present at all three which is nice the
059board approved the weeva 2425 budget the starting salaries of weeva teachers are now similar to the average beginning teacher salary in the state so they've they've gotten that that far enough there's a higher retention rate and lower turnover rate of Staff uh staff have uh can uh spend up to $1,500 annually for Education expenses um and that total budget for weeva is 30,000 and they've never come close to that really really but you have to remember all their teachers are spread out uh so they aren't close to anything uh there's an increasing number of apprenticeship opportunities for juniors and seniors especially with uh WEA connect DCA connect up in Green Bay student achievement growth goals are now met by 95% of their Elementary Middle School students I can't tell you what the growth range was
060but they have met that parents of high school students who ghost their child's teacher when they try to contact them about conferencing with them um probably result in student withdrawals due to that lack of Engagement by the parents also uh two status reports were given one was provided by the staff advisory Council that focused on a listening session with a focus on open communication planning and prep time it's so different you know when staff are virtual out there versus in the building but they still need that time another status report was provided by the family advisory council with the focus on live streaming this year's graduation for those students that are unable to come to Madison and to provide art kits and science kits to parents uh this month they spotlighted a student an elementary
061age student who was accelerated from uh one grade level skipped grade and went to another grade and again this was made possible through their Advanced learning teacher following full evaluation so again virtual learning does a real nice job customizing what is that kids need so that wasn't a precedent then Tom or is a precedent no I don't think that was a precedent okay it's just that it just I will be happening the media campaign has expanded to discover Wisconsin sponsorship I don't know if you've watch discover Wisconsin on Saturdays um and that's it for that any questions we was doing well yeah they're doing well and if they do well we're doing well that's exactly right true that was that was one situation where Co came and went but they're enrollment about doubled I think
062over the course of that year and a half or two years so they went from from 2,000 to over 4,000 students I think it's the largest virtual school in the state yes yeah so kudos to them I just want to comment also that a lot of their work behind the scenes work as a result of Jeff and some of his staff and certainly Aaron uh you know doing a lot of the behind the scenes work with him uh that has led a lot to their success also MH so yeah that's a it's a great collaborative partnership between our school district who is the host district and we we've given him great Support over the years as well so yeah okay uh District administrator report Mr I think we missed um an item we did yep
0636C reflection on attendance at best practice Schoolboard governance I'm sorry about that so Tom and Megan Chapman were in attendance there along with myself and Angie and there were a variety um of sessions there were some breakouts in the afternoon but for the most part we were all together and it was I don't know how many districts were there but a lot of districts were there there's a lot it was held in Sun Prairie and there were some keynote presenters that shared just um just really I think practical tips for How to Be an Effective board member how to work with the the public and uh the superintendent and then we also had some time to look at um the school perception survey that they provide to districts to help gauge now some of those
064tools we use as a as a board that was interesting and then the the breakout sessions were focused on talking about oh we had somebody from that um the lighthouse study which is she was actually one of the original researchers this is a study about what makes for an effective school board and she took what they had researched back was that 2000 I feel like that's what's in my head yeah yeah 2003 or something yeah yeah late '90s early 2000 and she took that and she said what's different today and she talked about the impact of social media on schools and boards and had some advice there just really interesting and then the breakouts we talked about uh you could go to one on kind of I think was dealing with in difficult times I
065think was the one yeah dealing with um difficult times that was the uh lacrosse School District yeah superintendent lacrosse the financial needs and those things and then um we all went to one on student Representatives at board meetings and heard about some prairies model which was very interesting they're very involved yeah they get paid to yes they get a stipended and they come to every meeting and yeah like in the meetings they they provide they participate Juniors juniors are paid $300 seniors $600 a semester though MH wow yeah I mean it's a lot of work summary but what did you guys think other stuff Megan I really enjoyed the first Speaker the gentleman from Missouri yeah um one thing about presentations is I love really energetic and concise and succinct messages and he came in
066just like a ball of energy which was really appreciative and a lot of the stuff that he talked about for Schoolboard governance I actually really translated into my personal life and like working with like friends and family and that kind of thing um and really understanding how you need to effectively communicate within your role and I mean I I want to just hang out with him and it was unfortunate because he literally spoke and then left to go get on a plane um but I really enjoyed his presentation I enjoyed all the presentations um but a couple things uh that I took away from it uh there talking about 50% of the school board meeting time should be allocated uh with the direct focus on students and student achievement student achievements specifically and when you
067take a look at our agendas you know we're we're sort of lacking on some of that but hopefully we can turn that around after we deal with the referendum and I get back to what we normally do but they talked about also which is a really good point you know students that are Advanced and ex are already acknowledged typically and sort rewarded you know with things but the focus we may want to consider is students who have really good growth during the course of a year that go from point A to point B um overcoming challenges taking advantage of some opportunities uh their growth rate may be small but it's significant mhm and I'm you know the first thing that came to my mind were they at risk kids students with IEPs 504s but there's
068also a heck of a lot of kids in the gray area that are just in the middle you know and I I referred to them as Underachievers some of them yeah but those are the kids that we should be recognizing and acknowledging also you what are we doing to help support those kids what kind of initiative do those kids have themselves and then the panel discussion from the school board members of color very interesting uh to hear their perspective the the challenges and Optical that they overcame um and reward their reward has been to support all students to achieve in their districts again they just bring a different perspective than what I would have guessed yeah that's why I think we need more diversity you on all boards I thought that was really interesting because
069they spoke about the pressure that they feel as a board member of color to represent all students of color and that you know it feels like sometimes all eyes are on them they were very candid too yes also just about the role of a board member you know and how there's times that it can be somewhat disheartening with some of the politics well disheartening because you know they they run for the board because they want to support MH you know children of color but then they're accused of not supporting them right if they have to be on a board because they're just one member of a board right and they can all you know they can do all they can but there are limits but then they're criticized for not going all the way as
070some of you may realize anyway you know as individuals on the board so and they're going to send us a copy of the presentation I was hoping that we get it by now um uh but once we do that we might just want to share it with our other board members it really good information for sure that' be good all right cool that was great opportunity and it was free it was free that was best when there was launch moving on District administrator report all right um so I'm going to try to go through quickly because I don't know if you know but it is like 4 in the morning and that's when I get up so this is late for me do you need some caffeine I'm fully caffeinated um thank you though no
071problem um so I just first I not a good segue I was being lighthearted there but I just wanted to acknowledge our colleagues in in Mount horb and that we are thinking of them during this really difficult time you know there's a lot of connections and similarities between our district and mount horb and certainly I think it was a good reminder of you know not to take anything for granted and just an awful awful situation and it's been very stressful for that community and that District so thoughts go to them as they begin to try to heal after such a tragedy I know that we we uh recognized the situation at some athletic events that took place very shortly after that versus m h so I know at a track meet and I know down
072at the baseball game that we did a moment of silence and just told the spectators and participants there that we were thinking about them and that we supported them uh in any way that they might need so I think I think Paul did a good job with the athletic groups too that's nice we um as a as a safety Committee in the district we spent a full hour reflecting what can be learned from that experience how what should we know how would we handle a situation like that and a lot of takeaways a lot of takeaways so and one thing I was surprised when they interviewed community members were some of them said you know they didn't think it could happen here well it can happen anywhere and the sooner everybody acknowledges that the safer
073our communities will be but but that's sort of disheartening a still here that we didn't think it could happen here it's such a balance of understanding that but not living in fear right um no good transition out of that but the high school cafeteria uh just a little update on that so reminder we had a water um leak there that that happened on a Sunday night and found it on a Monday morning been working really hard I have a company that's come in and is trying to dry the floor and keep the air quality that's the biggest thing with the moisture yeah um and they've done a great job the levels are very low and so we're continuing to to treat that area and just kudos to the buildings and ground staff the school nutrition
074staff um Jeff money for the guidance and direction in work with you know the logistics of moving our cafeteria to a gym and dealing with what sounds like a plane landing at all times or taking off at all times in there it's got a lot better though and um just being creative in the flexibility of the students and staff it's been really good and the amazing thing is we didn't lose any time true mhm yeah yep didn't miss a meal no that that floor that's a special floor you you that's uh I played a lot of basketball on that back in the day yeah that was the gym in 19 69 and 70 yeah but you could I don't know that's a paret floor I don't know you just don't see him anymore yeah and
075we've managed to preserve that baby over couple of constructions and some incidents but kudos to the buildings and grounds folks and Jeff job re-evaluating the the status as time goes on shout out to seventh grade you heard about the community day I wasn't able to to join in unfortunately um but they started the day reading to I think it was first graders and then um then they went out in the community and did things to to better our community um marking storm drains uh creating a middle school garden trash pickup resurfacing uh park playground cleaning the children's area at the at the edilock library and just a ton of things that just were so beneficial um the Larsen house plant sale helping with that and hope you saw I think the social media went out
076today I think is where I saw it I had seen it in the newsletter from the middle school so and that's a new thing new project cleaning The Monuments at the legion so so this is the first year they did that because I don't remember doing this yeah that's wonderful so really really creative and busy people doing busy things been a ton of concerts you've seen some of those things um Middle School band concert uh Choir concerts that have been going on high school cancer awareness week and you saw that with with Melanie Neil and raising a lot of money there had a great PDA PD day professional development day last week where um one of the things some of the buildings did was look at their survey results by building for the parent Guardian
077survey literacy work uh just a lot of important work at this time of year um Blues in the night you saw that I wasn't able to join that but it look like a great event the referendum um engagement committee has had three sets of meetings one more tomorrow night uh really robust in uh conversations and learning from each other and so many ideas I'm telling you that is an Engaged powerful group with a lot of expertise and different perspectives a great cross-section of our community yeah that's a really nice 28 people involved in that the um additional budget cuts staff committee met today looks like we'll have over 400 ,000 of additional budget reductions for next year that we'll be sharing with you and I want to to say that is such a tremendous thing
078that we're doing I I just I again as a former teacher I think the people who are in the trenches or boots are on the ground whatever they're going to give you feedback and I just kudos to you and Jeff for just kind of coordinating that whole thing because I just think it makes them feel like we have some say in what's what's going on and it's not easy it's not easy for anyone right now oh it's not fun no it's not fun but at the same time it empowers them and that's wonderful the alternative would be a disaster I think so y I know the board is aware because you are all reading your email today um but we have made a bit of an adjustment to the library position at the the middle
079school so basically that position had been paused it's a vacant position for next year that position had been paused for hiring to see if we could accommodate and meet those needs in other ways at the same time well later um recently we've had a vacancy with a high school library assistant position and so a group of those involved with the library and um Library staff the library staff in the district technology integration staff uh Melissa fo director of teaching and learning and Jeff Mahoney director of business work together to look at possible solutions to how to address that needs and then this position came open at the high school so the decision for next year is to reallocate that full-time library assistant role into a halftime library media specialist at the middle school for next
080year so that position went out it's posted today awesome good so I think that's a good example yes of how as time goes on you are able to make strategic moves to meet needs through attrition because I think we're trying to do whatever we can to keep the staff that we have absolutely um without laying anybody off so you know I just I really appreciate their creativity and flexibility and it's still going to be additional work on other people cuz you're replacing a full-time librarian library media specialist with a halftime and that's not easy but I was wondering how you're going to do it without doing some type of replacement so this is a step forward tremendous I appreciate the creativity and the flexibility especially I would say you know kudos to the high school
081who is taking an existing pos position and and part of that decision so very grateful for Sheila especially all she's done um in the last few months to help the Middle School um so does the I don't have um pictures for you we'll save our time on that U I'll say some upcoming events and then the board can jump in with any other recognitions right now well it's probably over by now because it's 3: in the morning the orchestra concert should be done sorry is that a sixth grade Orchestra concert no this one I think was 8th grade through 12th cuz I asked my sixth grade grandson today when his concert was and he said he had no idea well that might also be true but um you you saw about culture week senior exit
082interviews are coming up at the end of the week um High School bands concerts on the 29th sixth grade band concert on the must be the 30th um Waba olympiads coming up miss that June is national Safety month lgbtqia plus pride month National Dairy month and we'll be here on the third for another board meeting any recognitions the board would like to share uh Kudos oh I'm sorry no go ahead kudos to the uh boys baseball team for winning against Reedsburg last week very exciting and I understand they're playing in Monona Grove tonight I think they switched that to here because Monona Grove couldn't play on their field oh my Cooper went to that game I stocked him on Life 360 I think I don't know what he was doing though but either way they're
083playing T night so d right now nice thanks for mentioning that Mom exactly um I uh was also gonna just give kudos to the referendum advisory committee and Aaron and Jeff because it um there's so much to say about it I'll try to be brief since it's 3:00 in the morning um but it is really engaged as Aon said and I think um my biggest takeaway is that everybody in there is working really hard on how to figure out to get what the schools need without compromising our education we were already a district that was running really lean um so there's going to be compromises in some of the quality um I mean our our our people are going to work so hard to not have that happen but um it's just a really interesting
084thing to hear everyone talk about their ideas and their takeaways and and what their Circles of friends are talking about and how you know it's really come down to how do we help educate the public about how this all works and it's it's not fun no agree it's not fun um it's hard to sit in there and know how I feel about public education and know that we really face such hard decisions um and knowing that not everybody can do that you know I would I would give up all sorts of things to be able to do what we did what to make the first referendum pass but not everybody can do that so it's just I'm really grateful that they're all committing um to all of that work and then there's you know another
085little couple meetings planned for the summer and so really just to let the public know that there there is so much work going into it and that people are you know like we're hearing you and we're going to figure this out but we're very lucky we live in a great community and they support our schools and we support the community so what I'm hearing is that many of the community are saying that they are being listened to yeah unfortunately they took a failed referendum from you know from their perspective so I'm very optimistic as we move forward what whatever recommendation comes forward I would like to recognize not an individual teacher but a teaching staff uh reading through their job description in the handbook uh very recently uh it is a complex difficult challenging position
086to be a teacher anywhere uh we're fortunate do have resources here in the district but what I'd like to do is share with the public through our board meetings take just parts of that job description at each board meeting and and just summarize what it is that teachers are expected to do because I think even I sort of forgot and I was in education but again I don't know of any other career that is so demanding and accountable and receives such um minimal recognition for what they do and how they impact kids today and in theut future we all have to remember that the scientists the Physicians out there the brain surgeons it was a it was teachers that got to that point that's right K through higher education so we just you can't forget
087that we have to keep uh accentuating that point to all the stakeholders out there and that's why we have public education wson anything else okay moving on it appears though we're in our action items now so the first is action on 2024 25 process to select student representatives to the Board of Education per policy 0141 annually the school board shall approve the selection process established by the high school administration and the the student council if you agree with the plan presented by High School administration the following motion would somebody I'm looking for a motion for approval I'll move to approve the selection process for the student representation at board meetings as presented by the high school administration and student councel thank you Megan do I have a second I'll second that Megan okay any other
088discussion make motion yes oh Chapman yep okay discussion thank you so just so the public knows the The Proposal is to continue uh using the connect club that does the current presentation but also with including some student council leaders and leaders from other club clubs and groups I think we have a great model yeah um that's that's going well we are losing some great connect CL members so um difficult shoes to fill yeah big shoes anything else I would say what yeah why change the process when this one is optimal just as evidenced by our school high school report exactly anything else I would just say I would still love to see a middle school representation about that you did mention that very good point yeah I wonder if they've invested tigated that at all
089or talked about it I'm sure good question someone would want to sure but yes I'm sure we have leaders down there yeah for sure okay all those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed motion carries unanimously 5- Z next is action on 20242 McFarland School District open enrollment applications we must notify open enrollment applicants of whether or not we have accepted their applications at this time we seek separate board approval for each exhibit as listed below I would look for some motions I'll make a motion to move to approve students listed on the attached exhibit who requested attendance at the McFarland School District thank you do I have a second I can second that discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I I oppos motion carries unanimously 5
090Z look for another motion I move to approve the denial of students listed in the attached exhibit who requested attendance at the McFarland School District do I have a second I can do that Bruce thank you discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I I oppose motion carries unanimously 5 and one more time I will make that motion I move to approve the students listed in the attached exhibit who requested attendance outside McFarland School District thank you do I have a second I can second that Megan thank you [Laughter] chairman discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I I oppos motion carries unanimously 5 Z I just make one little quick point just want to thank uh especially our district registar Emily broom for all
091of her work on this it's a ton of work putting it together the report that the board is looking at uh we can't share with the community because it has confidential names on it however it's really clear well done what I will share with you is I think it's important for the community to know that um we had seven 74 applications in and 18 applications out of the district so that's a sign of a district where people want to be and I will tell you if you look further in your exhibit they list where the students who are applying out are currently attending most of those are 4K and then the rest um nearly all of them have never stepped foot in our district so they're just people that were somewhere else right and family
092moves here so I think it's a really good sign that's one of the indicators of a successful District go ahead and 4K I I feel like the like that's I feel like that's not an accurate indication of whether they'll end up in our district because it's most often like paired with child care so becomes about the convenience for the family right it is yeah both in and out yep yeah exactly I think the clarifi clarification that you provided Aron is really key for the community to understand even though we had some requesting out their circumstances that resulted in that yeah so thanks for indulging me okay next uh weeva k38 weeva High School weeva destinations Career Academy and um Insight Insight School of Wisconsin must notify open enrollment applicants of whether or not we have
093accepted their applications at this time we seek separate board approval for each exhibit as listed below I would look for a motion for the first I move to approve the students listed in the attached exhibit who requested attendance at weeva K8 weeva High School wika and is we just a Qui clarification we have a 4K 4K 8 yeah that may be wrong in yes that they're offering 4K coming I apologize that's my aor I should be the same for the next motion okay yeah I apologize do I have a second I can second fesler thank you I recognize lady H discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed motion carries unanimously 5 z i and I would look for another motion I move to approve the denial of the
094students listed in the attached exhibit who requested attendance at weeva 4K through 8 weeva High School wika and is Insight School Insight School Wisconsin do I have a second I'll second Bruce thank you discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppose motion is carried unanimously 5 Z action on open enrollment reversal process Administration is requesting board approval for the district administrator or his or her design to reverse open enrollment approval denial decisions based on updated data related to expulsions wait list and special education status if you are in agreement we'd look for a motion I move to approve the 202 nope wrong one um I I move to approve the district administrator or a designate to reverse open enrollment approval or denial decisions based on updated data related to
095expulsions weight list and special education status thank you do I have a second oh second time discussion what is the drop dead date then before you have to make the final determination those those things can change throughout the course of the year throughout the year okay so I'll give you an example like special education status is one where I've seen it in mid year so our open enrollment is has certain numbers based on St our ability to to serve open enroles um that have disabilities if someone is identified is open enrolled in and is identified with a disability while here we may not be able to serve them anymore and um then they end up that decision gets made at the time so which opens up another spot yeah for another student to come in
096yeah so is this coming up because we don't we didn't we don't have a policy that addresses this particular or what kind of what it says is you just approved the open enroll in and out but know that those can change change based on just these these things just these factors yep and so basically we're saying we don't have to approve based on these factors we yeah you're trusting me to make those adjustments during the course of a year y okay anything else if not all those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed motion carries unanimously 5 Z action on 20242 employee handbook Administration in conjunction with the support staff and professional staff employee relations committees recommends approval of the revised 20242 employee handbook which is a combination of the previous support staff
097and professional staff employee handbooks I would look for a motion to approve I'll make that thank you Bruce do I have a second I'll second thank you Megan read you there discussion I I can just share some things I think for the public to know I I think this is kind of old news for the board a little bit especially some of you serve on those committees but I wanted to highlight some of the changes for you the so the support staff employee Relations Committee and the professional staff employees Relations Committee have met together all year and during the course of the year we actually review recommended handbook changes some come from staff some come from Administration you know sometimes a combination of things and often they're things we've been talking about for years and
098just getting to the language and so what you have in front of you the recommended changes have been vetted not just by those groups but they've been sent out to staff in in a survey for feedback which then the group analyzes and makes the changes that you see before you see the biggest thing um that you'll see is a change is is one handbook so we currently have a support staff handbook and a professional staff handbook there's one handbook it does have different sections if something only applies um to certain staff um but the areas where they're common they are common thank you to Angie for for the laborious task of and tedious task of putting those things together long over do um a ton of hard work but it is something we're really excited
099about and we're going to become a model I think from a lot of school districts I'm hoping so potentially yeah I I'm it's amazing what you guys although we did look at some models yeah I know I know I know so so thank you to our friends and neighboring districts um the other thing is that there were some some changes made that I just want to point out because I just think it's good to kind of have this in your mind before you you vote um the sick leave really really looking at opening up when sick leave can be used to include if you have emergency Child Care needs um talked a lot about uh leaves of absence when staff take unpaid leave that after five staff are responsible for the daily cost of their
100their health and dental benefits um due to the cost that's encumbered by the district um we talked a bit about just anytime you can notifying us of your personal leave uh in advance ideally 5 days um prior the biggest changes I would say just structurally were with the professional development process that applies to professional staff that whole section uh had a separate committee that worked on those changes to revise and simplify the system but more importantly the communication about how staff can um earn what we call points professional development points to progress on the salary schedule co-curricular contracts some a lot of it was technical Corrections um but a few substantive Corrections we also talked about uh additional duties just provided Clarity to staff about when staff are compensated for additional duties outside of um
101their contract and when they're not and how because that's a question we've often got gotten that was a huge undertaking added that staff are now comp compensated for attendance outside of their school hours for individual educational plan meetings IEP meetings um salaries technical correction there we do have some things we're looking at for the future throughout the year we've studied whether we should move to a more flexible paid time off system there's some Financial um uh uh implications for that work work that would require a significant study uh in order to know if that's a viable option and what the impact would be to the to our staff at this time given the failed referendum we've paused that work we don't feel like we can financially justify moving forward with that study today uh so
102and everybody's on on board an understanding of that so those are the the primary changes in front of you today eron do we are there any any school districts that use PTO or pay time off there are okay yep yep there are some that are trying it in the area not so many in in our local area and there's some that have more flexibility so we were um really looking at just providing more flexibility in terms of of personal time that people could use um versus sick time and we had some progress but we needed to study it that's where we were did we have significant push back on that that you know folks would come to their supervisors and such push back on on the the way we do it currently it's not flexible
103enough or too restrictive would push back but just concern I think people felt like at times they felt torn between you know if well this really isn't SI time if I had more flexibility I could use it for other things and I think it's just a challenge you know for staff but wanting more flexibility in the district is really working with them to figure that out and again you you eliminated redundancies and you yeah you know this is just easier I guess and more consistent that's what we've been talking about all night any other discussion I would say that the the chart that you put together and the post changes the change the support staff um professional staff the rational the staff feedback in the berserk uh cerk discussion was very helpful to me particularly
104staff feedback you you have they Cate you categorized as love it can live with it or further discussion needed you know so when I was able to read that decipher that and I read that you know 85 90% staff okay with it yeah that certainly impacts how how I think about that and I would thank you for sharing that and I would say their feedback really did inform um that the group especially there were sometimes we could make a small language change cuz we could tell from the comments there was some confusion or you know things like how do you define family well let the staff member Define a family I don't want to Define who was your family for you so things like that that I think really helped us move forward so thanks
105for thanks for doing that getting that feedback that that's amazing I love it yeah it was really unbelievable I mean it's just another example of the process that we Contin continue to see you use with all of the big process changes that we're doing or you're doing um but that document that you're talking about Tom really drove a lot of the agenda for and discussion um it was the same exact document that we used in the committee meetings and um I mean I just Echo what Erin said like I don't have any questions about it because it was such a robust discussion every single time that um I feel very confident in the process and very confident that the staff are all very in support of the changes so excellent anything else do I need
106to read the actual I move to approve CU I haven't done that yet Craig sure go ahead motion my motion is I move to approve the 20242 employee handbook as recommended by Administration thank you and Megan you would second you second I second yes okay chman any further discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed motion pass is unanimously 5 and uh last but certainly not least discussion and possible action on a request to fly the pride flag during the month of June Pride during the month of June we have received this request from the McFarland High School gay straight Alliance to fly the progress pride flag in front of each school during the month of June after consultation with my administrative colleagues in Dane County and reviewing relevant
107laws I am recommending that in order for a flag other than the United States and Wisconsin's Flags to be flown the board must vote if a board member were in support of anyway I tried not to read that the last four but I can't do it um I would look for a motion I move that the progress pride flag is flown in front of each school during the month of June in recognition of pride month not price month and in alignment with our district vision of an equitable and inclusive community committed to student belonging achievement and growth in our board resolution in support of transgender non-binary and all lgbtqia plus students thank you do I have a second I will second that thank you Megan discussion I just give you a little bit of a
108background so um this is something the district has never done is to to fly the the pride flag in June other districts have and um it's something that I kind of have been investigating a little little bit recently to look for different options on how to best handle this situation and based on the research that I have done and Analysis of of um legal decisions bringing this to the board for consideration after receiving this proposal seemed the best course of action because ultimately this is a situation that the board should should have a voice in versus one building does another building doesn't or you know the the the principal at the time or the superintendent at the time thought it was a good idea and and there's different flags that may come before us with
109requests and so I wanted to make sure that you had a had a part in that decision any other discussion I think you bring up a good point a and there may be other requests in the future to fly different types of flag so we'll have to be prepared to address those y yeah and this is this is the public schools not the 4K schools correct okay correct correct it's for the for the the four four campus sites not each of the community providers of 4K and just as mechanically they all have two flag post we I think so I think we can figure it out um we will do our best I thought maybe so no but I'm just saying I'm not sure I don't two polls though youly I but you have to
110be able to do two and yeah cuz we've had an empty have that here at the high school okay any other discussion I think it's a good move okay hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying I I I oppose motion carries unanimously 5 Z and I believe that is Will conclude our business for the open meeting this evening and we will reassemble for a closed meeting following we have to go I need a motion go into Clos session I move to go into closed session thank you second I'll second thank you Tom can I don't know that did we say why we're going into Clos session well it just says do we have to stated on the agenda I can okay uh probably okay I'm going to say we're going to we're
111discussing administrator salaries what do we got 945 yeah just so the public is aware sounds good 946 got it all right so we are going to reassemble oh yeah that's right we need a roll call do I do that Bruce you Howry yes Mooney yes e