001foreign at 7 00 pm you'll see some consent agenda items including units of the March 6th school board meeting Journal fund vultures and Purchase Card transactions uh request approval of general fund belcher's number 17920 through number 17942 and numbers 2 9 2 1 4 5 through number 292205 and purchasing car transactions dated 12123 through to 2023 there are some professional staffing recommendations identified there are core curricular Staffing recommend recommendations identified sorry there's direct requests an action of minutes the journal fund vouchers professional staffing recommendations co-curricular staffing recommendations is there a motion I'll make that Tom okay thanks Bruce is there second I'll second thanks are any discussion okay no discussion all in favor of the uh motion say yay yay okay it passes unanimously okay there's some personal items personal items uh that require no
002action okay public comment all right we have not um have anyone submit uh public comments prior to the meeting would you be comfortable with me um asking members of the public who may wish to uh apply via Zoom yes please register okay thank you all right if you'd like to make a public appearance by speaking to the board please please utilize the Q a portion found at the bottom of your Zoom window in the Q a we would ask you to type your name address subject of interest and whether you have discussed this item prior to the meeting with a district administrator or president Towery at submitter after submitting the information I would transfer you over to speak to the board thank you thanks Andrew in accordance with school board policy number 167.3 the Brown
003School Board welcomes public comments during regular meetings the board will accept public comments via individuals who are physically present at the board meeting who are participating in the board meeting virtually or who have sent an email to the board president or superintendent please note the following register participants are required to register their intention to participate in the notice public common portion of the meeting upon their arrival at the meeting and shall begin their comments by stating their name address and group affiliation if and when appropriate topics or Justice eventually I'll address only topics within the legitimate jurisdiction of the board the board members will not directly respond to comments and may only take action on topics that are on the published agenda time the participants are asked to limit their comments to five minutes in
004duration written comments will have a word limit of 250 words the portion of the meeting for public comments is limited to 60 minutes less otherwise extended by vote by the board and lastly decorum participant sheldirect all comments to the board and observe reasonable decorum Angie do we have any comments yet any participants we have thank you okay did I keep that open a little bit longer or sure I'm close if someone registers in the next you know minute or so I can certainly okay we have not had anyone registered okay let's close it off and we'll continue thanks next time I'm on the agenda is mcfarrell High School's new report uh with joy Lewis good evening Joey good evening hi sorry I was studying for ab chem so I am in a Starbucks and my
005headphones refused to work but it's okay um so do you want to go to the next slide for me so just to start off our forensics team has had an amazing season so far they actually just had their District conference at La Follette and all six students Advanced to state in April and that's a lovely picture we got from their advisor a few days ago who is the advisor uh I think it's Miss Connor I know there's a Miss Miller as well as far as I know yeah thank you thanks um the next one um I can speak to this one really well Deca had our state conference at the end of February and we had 21 students participate in Lake Geneva all students did amazing and 14 of us are going to be advancing
006to Internationals in Orlando this April it was a huge weekend congrats to everyone as well this last weekend on Saturday we hosted superhero training camp and big little and this was to raise money for our International Conference we raised over three thousand dollars for all our students participating um the next one um I'm sure most people are aware our basketball teams had a big few weeks recently so I just want to give a little shout out to our boys team for making it to the sectional final um I never finished typing but they barely lost to win it was a great game foreign the next one is that our Multicultural Club is hosting a lunch tomorrow and a bunch of the different members are going to be bringing foods from different cultures it's going to
007be really cool it's exciting to see them to get um get together and really experience different cultures and this is my last one um we just wanted to wish good luck to all our spring Sports I know soccer trials started today softball track started last week they even had a meet in um at UW Platteville so good luck to all our spring Sports um also very recently our girls basketball was at State uh very very very close game they played um they also secured a win as Champions at the Rock Valley Conference um that was not this past weekend I don't know why but congratulations to girls basketball for making it that far that is super super impressive um our club specifically uh this past month has actually been doing some work with the League
008of Women Voters to help register seniors at our school turning 18 before April 4th to register for the spring election we've had over 20 students come up to the table that we had at lunches and like a drive after school one day confirm that they are registered um and we even confirmed with staff that they are registered uh so that was super super awesome um uh as we know March just women's History Month our girl up Club this past month has been encouraging our MHS to celebrate women's History Month they're also currently holding a fundraiser selling T-shirts um through the 608 uh threads store so that they continue supplying um MHS with menstrual products in the restrooms and that's QR code in case you're interested in purchasing your shirt um Club murals so um this
009has been mentioned a few times but our club murals that were projects beginning of the year just kind of designed to make the MHS hallways a little bit brighter um they they have been hung up and here are some pictures of them they're currently in the hallway of the SLC but they will be traveling to different places I do believe a fantastic job to all the clubs that participated and showcase their art skills and then uh just just this past week or last week um the McDonald black student union have a movie night at the MHS SLC watching the biographical film just Mercy based on the book written by Brian Stevenson see lots of members there um just kind of a nice end to Black History Month thank you hey thanks Joy uh comments from
010board members that was one of my favorite parts of the board meeting so glad to hear it and you guys didn't even really mention that much about the fact that if I'm correct I think school is going to take a break it's probably not on it's probably not on your mind spring break no I have like four times oh yeah Joy I would say this it is phenomenal the type of information that you and Valerie shared tonight in previous school board meetings it's just mind-boggling to realize the type of activities and events opportunities and challenges that are provided to our students here at McFarland High School I can't think of another High School our size that provides this type of opportunities number of opportunities for our kids so thank you for reporting out and providing
011the feedback to us thank you Greg and congratulations to you and every club and Sport uh that you just mentioned we are very proud of you and all the kids that are involved here at the high school so thanks thanks Joy thanks Valerie thank you bye guys yep okay our next agenda item is uh informational item uh Career and Technical education Report with Penny Thompson I think Angie has a slideshow so I am the Career and Technical education coordinator and and we know we have so many programs going on we I um when you hear the student report and following up from what Tom just said it is amazing that a school our size is able to capture all of these things in in um as far as opportunities for students and that's kind of
012what this is about um and so I listed there on the first slide that are three different or four different programs really that fall underneath our career in Tech ad business and marketing family consumer Science Tech ad and then youth apprenticeship which is kind of a culmination of a lot of those different experiences on the next slide and again I tried I wanted to share all these wonderful things that get great support that's okay um for our kids in in the classes in programs to have a full CTE experience um there's kind of four elements to that and we're able to provide all four of those Elements which is um wonderful um the first being obviously classes we have amazing classes for the um again the size of the school as well as meeting industry
013demands and also providing just a lot of career exploration for students so that is really good we offer two school-based Enterprises um that being Spartan headquarters and Spartan manufacturing and the idea of it being called a school-based Enterprise is that the students are having the opportunity to run businesses create products understand the finance and the marketing that goes behind all of that so it is absolutely amazing the other element which is again kind of a hand in hand the ctsos and that's our career in technical student organizations and they should be viewed as not an extracurricular rather a co-curricular because they relate directly to what our students are learning in the classrooms and then being able to demonstrate so again we have um very strong decade chapter as Valerie just alluded to we have a
014great skills USA and we had some budding experiences this year with FCCLA and pro start which are experiences we've offered in the past but kind of had lost some of that opportunity for kids and it's back and they did some amazing things and then we have the work based learning component which is youth apprenticeship in the DPI skills so the next slide I don't know if anybody has glasses well enough to read all of these but I if nothing else I took this just straight from our course book but to show you the courses that our kids are able to take that are for kids who are planning to go on to college planning to go into the workforce planning to do a combo of all of those things we just offer a great setting
015for them to try to figure out where their passions are so that's that part of it and our CTE teachers are phenomenal um on to the next slide our ctso just kind of celebrating a couple of things Valerie shared with you all the wonderful things that Deca is doing we should have compared notes because I I shared kind of some of the same things but um running the community events like those are those are entrepreneurial experiences our kids are getting inexperience in um so they ran the big little dance along with the superhero camp and the kids running those events had to think about all of the operational things they had to promote they had to think on their feet the night of all of those types of things and very well attended and raised
016some money for them going on and of course going on is that 14 students to Orlando Florida um later in April Junior Achievement is actually a mentored program that we have for they work directly with Brian hellenbrand's classrooms there's a mentor that goes in they make different decisions in the classroom all of them and then there were like 10 of them that advanced onto a regional level to make financial decisions again they have a mentor from the banking industry that worked with them and okay this picture do you love it the two boys there that was them realizing they just jumped to first place on their faces they're excited um and so those first place boys will be heading on to Sheboygan for the next level so Junior Achievement is a nationwide organization that brings
017learning into all grade levels but this is a specific one for financial literacy and business challenge isn't it fun so fun on the next side a couple of other fun pictures to see our skills USA team um competed and did very well at regionals for students advancing on to the state competition um kind of a bird's eye view and that picture looking down at the kinds of experiences that they can compete in um and that's that's kind of that very visual in the construction area but they have a zillion of other things that fall in it and this was our Pro start team I know a couple of you were able to stop by when they were here unfortunately I didn't connect fast enough with Arlene welcher but she took the great uh the team
018to the Fox Valley Technical College and they this was their dress rehearsal but they did a great job working as a team at that other level but again all of these that I've kind of you know shared we have business mentors that work with these kids in all of these experiences and again I usually say to the kids you know it's great to walk out of high school with the GPA and class experiences but it's really great if you can tell a story as well and that's what some of these experiences do on the next page another part um of preparing our students for for being uh infinity and beyond right we have industry recognized certifications that our kids can earn when they're in these different classes just as just a couple snapshots of them
019the CNA we work closely with quality CNA and MATC in helping students earn those certifications the others we are offering by partnering with some online platforms to be able to offer those things the Dual credit all of us are very familiar with ap and advanced placement into college but something that's kind of a well-known secret or a kept secret rather is the Dual credit option and in our classes in marketing one marketing two computer apps and Entrepreneurship kids have the opportunity to earn credits that yes transfer to the technical college but also because of the new accreditation that Madison College has had over the years they can earn those credits at Madison college to go to a four-year University as I explained to kids it's always advocating for yourself in that regard because no one's
020going to want to say to you do you want to take fewer classes under our tuition bill right there so the same way that you would talk about your AP classes go in and talk about those fortunately because the teacher Works to align the curriculum with Madison College and oftentimes provide the same testing experience and so forth they don't have to take an AP test so they can earn those credits by taking the course and meeting a satisfactory level of that so um I'm really excited that Brian helenbrand and Sarah Hart Olson are adding some things in there that's the entrepreneurship one of the computer apps because those are really great things um so hoping to continue to grow that because that is that is awesome that they can earn those college credits and um
021I know for a fact having students in the marketing one there are UW systems that are taking that um other fun things to kind of celebrate um our CTE programs leadership Ginger just got elected Ginger host our marketing Deca advisor to the Wisconsin DACA Center board and Sarah Hart Olson is just finishing up her presidency with the center board and she will be serving as a past president scholarships Caden Bannon got a 500 Wisconsin Deca scholarship and now he advances on to be um it to have the International Scholarship too so he automatically gets thrown into that pool we had two students that we just recently selected for the technical and Excellence scholarship and that is is a program where students that have been a part of some classes they've been a part of ctso
022or youth apprenticeship or other work based learning earning certifications whatever those are kind of the qualifications they can earn up to um two thousand two hundred fifty dollars for three years at one of the technical colleges so that really can set them off very well so I'm not announcing them yet we I know them but that's a secret to scholarship night um and another great thing I am so lucky lucky um or award opportunities I should also mention that Kaden Bannon is the running for the CTE presidential scholar first time ever in my career we've had a student Advance on so I'm super excited that he's there and then um Brian Han and Sarah Hart Olson in the running for the co-teacher fellowship and even though Angie bazan is an a CTE instructor I thought
023I should recognize she also is in the running on that and she's fabulous the next slide there I get to work very closely with youth apprenticeship this is a couple of our kids that are out there this year doing really neat and different things we have two work based learning opportunities youth apprenticeship and the other one is sponsored through DPI for the assistant Child Care teacher but we have seen coming off of covid a lot a lot of interest from employers and students and families for this experience variants so if we advance on to the next slide and again one of the reasons why I gave you some copies tonight because a little much to take in all at one time but these are the different program areas we have them broken down to kind
024of show where our students are at we were at a nice round number of 70 and then one of my biotech kids we have to hold out on his placement for a while fortunately he's only a junior but we had around 70 for a little bit with that but um some things you know obviously on here you can see where some of our bigger program areas are and you know I've tried to explain a little bit to the kids too as they've been coming in this time of year and talking about it we're very fortunate to be able to offer pretty much every program area other parts of the state that doesn't happen we're also able to offer kids very fast commutes to a variety of areas close to us so we have kids working
025in so many different communities including McFarland but that is also huge to our advantage within there some things we could do better obviously we want to kind of create some more diversity in the program those are some things we're looking to do we also want to take a look at some of those non-traditional occupations and encourage people so you'll see you know in our construction and auto we maybe could be doing a better job of trying to capture some females into that as well so that's a very typical non-traditional occupation so a goal that we kind of make for ourselves every year as we look into that also can probably do a better job at making the opportunity known to our students that are at risk or our IEP and 504 plans so that we
026can make sure all students can benefit the next slide there just kind of gives you that visual so again it pops out pretty easily that our big areas health and biotech I'm telling you our biotech good kids are they should be taking marketing classes because they're really good at marketing it to other people my first year I think I had two biotech and this year we have 11 students in the biotech courses and that we provide for them at night and just one student yet that needs to be placed so that's a phenomenal number of kids in there and um but we also are capturing I mean Finance we're doing awesome in two and just um we've been very fortunate because some some companies and as everybody knows the labor pool is pretty shallow right
027now and so some companies that are very desirable for our kids to be a part of are now saying you know what we might have some interest in helping with this so one of those being UW Madison Hospital and Clinics and you know those are great opportunities we've got three kids working down in the pharmacy and taking a pharmacy tech class at night but helping working right alongside Pharmacy Tech students or Pharmacy students rather from the UW I'm really getting some great exposures we everybody is paid we have nobody under ten dollars an hour and we our highest paid positions right now are at twenty dollars an hour so kids are making good money as well so all right and then on the back side they're the last couple of slides just showing how we've
028kind of exploded and and how we compared to other Dane County students our schools rather um but we've really seen just a whole lot of growth um over the last couple of years and again I think coming off of covid we've learned that our our kids want alternatives to the traditional style of education and we have lots of opportunities for them with that this is a time of year that I'm meeting with kids that are interested for next year so it's been extremely busy managing those new students and working with kids on some new opportunities um with that but exciting times I always say I have the best job because I get to see every kid in their element some of our kids you know nothing could be more painful than sitting in a classroom
029but yet they're phenomenal on the job site and other kids that just really have great experiences and then finally and this is and I they are not in alphabetical order because I think I captured them from my spreadsheet of by names where kids were at um and a couple I thought I caught some of them but Oak Park Place where um Caroline Green Works um also she uh that we have several kids there so that showed up a couple times I thought I caught all of them but this just shows you these are kids that are not working first job experiences these are amazing opportunities and um finally I'll just there's one last slide that I didn't print off but I wanted to remember to say you know we can't do this without a school
030board and community that really supports these experiences for kids that make our jobs really really exciting and create some really great wonderful experiences for our kids I'm happy to answer any questions comments from the board okay I'm amazed at the opportunities that you provide these kids and just the ability to try things out before they get to college or move on to their next step in life I think this is fantastic and you've really built this program along with your team but yeah it's you're doing a great job yeah and um you know with that being said one of my students that always always thought she wanted to be a vet tech and has discovered after working as a vet tech it's really not her game you know and so sometimes what we what we
031see from you know in that case bringing your puppy in for an exam is very different when you're behind the scenes right and that's a win that's a win she's not going to continue to go that pathway and her family and herself are not going to spend money that they you know to find that out two years later and so we don't but then on the other hand I have kids that are staying with those companies and are going to continue to advance are going to continue to be paid to go to school be paid for tools that they need all of those types of things so we do have employers that you know we love when we've made a really great match or my students in nursing oftentimes they may run off to a
032four-year school because their long-term career goal is is medicine and they come back every Christmas and work where else could you come back and work for a month in a job that you really know and is going to pay a great wage I mean so we're just it's super exciting Megan you had a question or comments yeah I was just gonna Echo what Kate said um and those numbers in the Dane County like comparing the Dane County schools are really impactful is that as do you think I mean it would be interesting to see what the percentage is because for our school district like there's some really big school districts in there that don't have a lot of usage of this program so one kudos to you absolutely um this was so much good learning
033tonight but um do you have any ideas about why that would be besides the I mean you said that we offer so many more opportunities um geographically Geographics are definitely to our advantage because we do have opportunities where kids can go um I think the kids are really good at sharing the experience what we started a couple of years ago during covid which we've now made it as alive was we do a youth apprenticeship panel where the kids talk to their peers about it and that has been phenomenally successful at just spreading the word a little bit more and parents talk to parents right and they they I mean so there's those kinds of marketing efforts um I came into a well-oiled machine following Cindy Brady however my whole teaching career I've had I found
034myself in the 1996 used apprenticeship guide as having a student back then in 1996. so my even though I was not doing school to Career or anything like that but you know I've just been able to be part of work based learning which has probably helped but um and our kids are phenomenal I mean they truly are and you know what another great point is our counselors are excellent at talking about all opportunities to kids and you don't find that in every school district um and so I think that plays a huge part of it as well as well as support I mean I walked into a school where there was from the top down support for youth apprenticeship so that's wonderful um and it's exciting it's exciting that's great thank you yeah thank you
035so good to hear that about the counselors too that they're really preventing or presenting all of the actions yeah students that's really really great yeah we have an awesome team so we're really lucky but I appreciate the time to be able to share some of this fun stuff with you it's been a couple of years and um I will head on out for the rest of the meeting thank you all right yeah well before you leave I have some comments and then some questions okay first of all yeah I appreciate everything I think we as a board appreciate everything that you've done and the effort that you have put effort and time and a lot of uh reaching out networking with a number of countless people out in our communities secondly you know just taking
036a look at the statistics and what you've shared you know you really are a Visionary for this type of program for kids yeah and and again I think your second commandment you are truly you know following our district mission and vision when it's connected to kids and building it upon their successes what do you hear from employer employers out there once they finish their youth apprenticeship program once they graduated from high school you get feedback from employees later on well I'll tell you right now the current thing is nobody wants to wait for you to finish anything um so obviously there was just a great article that I I shared with with Aaron that maybe he can pass along but it has gotten to the labor shortage is we don't we can't wait for you
037to come in work we want to pay you to go to school and we want to train you on site but we want you working here all the time as well that's a big big thing worried yes about some of those um those technical skills to have some of those things but honestly if they're coming in with the positive attitude and the willingness to learn most employers are saying we can train you so you know that dependability and communication skills and initiative and all of those things are really really big they're all very impressed with what high school students can do and the creativity that comes from a high school student like when our students can walk into a business in the marketing area and they can be writing content for social media they can
038be doing voiceovers be behind you know videos and stuff like that that are going to go out on a company's website I mean it is amazing how these kids they don't they have enough experience and not enough experience to take chances right and and that's having that younger body in a building just sometimes reminds the mentors of why they love what they do I've had an engineer say that one to me before that you know helping Mentor him has reminded me why I love engineering you know so it's kind of cool that way did that answer the question in a roundabout way yes I certainly did and only one other comment uh as you know the Pearl Alchemist Club selects a high school senior of the month from Lake Pearl High School many of them
039are going through the youth apprenticeship program you know and we don't realize it until we get into the presentation because sometimes they fail to identify that as and um things that they're doing in high school right now right um it's just remarkable when they share what they're doing I mean these are experiences that you would have heard from first year second year college students Master college or the university so right but thank you yeah in fact one of the things that I hear oftentimes like I'll say to the kids when they're graduating you you only think you kind of get it now that that experience was good but wait till you're up against another student that's going for an internship and you will be you know steps ahead of them because you had those experiences
040in high school so you know we have students that will start their internships earlier in college and so forth and um yeah there are businesses that really want to work with their kids and that's really wonderful as well so it's a great place to be McFarland High School is right good thing it is and and thanks for being with us also yeah thank you have a great night thanks Betty okay next on the agenda is a discussion night discussion items and Equity leadership position Aaron all right so um thank you for this opportunity I know this was added to the agenda kind of later in the process but in plenty of time for notice but I wanted to provide you with a little bit of uh I always have to do this thank you um
041information about the the equity leadership kind of the current status as well as kind of some next steps with this process and this is a discussion item there's the board is doesn't need to take any action this evening um but I wanted to provide an opportunity to kind of share some things with you and then also to entertain your questions and and comments about this as well so I'm gonna let me see I'm gonna share my screen with you because I know I sent you I just emailed a little bit ago a fairly lengthy document and I'm going to reference that here in our our time together today [Music] all right so um you know the purpose is I want to I want to make sure that that all the board members and and the
042the public that's watching has an understanding about where we've come with Equity leadership as well as kind of you know some ideas for the next steps in terms of an actual formalized uh full-time position in the district for Equity leadership so I'll highlight a few things there's a lot of words here this is partly for for historical purposes I like to put together documents like this so so we don't lose the history as we move forward you know several years ago the district was doing a lot of excellent work and well-intentioned work about Equity related initiatives but it was very building LED and often redundant and we weren't very efficient about it in 2019 the board identified diversity embracing opportunities for diversity and addressing challenges of equity as a priority and then of course in
043June of 2022 through some leadership from students current and graduates uh the the district adopted an anti-racism resolution which later became a board policy at that time um superintendent Dr burdell was really coordinating and and leading our Equity um efforts um which of course resulted in the the grant um with natural Circles of support in our UW partner Dr pribino that resulted in that in that receiving that Grant and then um during the the times when Dr burdell had was on leaves of absence and then during his subsequent resignation in Melissa full and I um I was then the principal and she was and is the director of teaching and learning did our best to coordinate some of these Equity efforts but we recognized that we didn't necessarily have the expertise nor the capacity to
044do that alone and so the district created three positions at that point you know one was more of an administrator type role an equity coordinator which was an additive to an administrator's contract in that case Ann Nichols and then along with that created two additional co-curricular positions which were Equity team leaders um for EC through fifth grade and then sixth through 12th grade and so the idea was that you know these were to be temporary positions one to two years to provide you know kind of help us continue the work that we were already doing and expand it but to really keep things moving as we transitioned into the grant the the the new administrative team with you know in interim superintendent and then a future superintendent yet to be named at that point um
045so that was really the plan that was always meant to be kind of temporary and to build into something bigger when I had the honor of being selected as a superintendent in February of 2022 I started looking into this in Earnest and in fact I felt like I felt a charge to get a position and get it hired for the start of this this school year the 2022 and 23 school year I may have made that up no one told me to do that but I felt like that was what I was supposed to do because I knew there was this this Gap in the work that we needed to do and what we had really done was taken really complicated and hard work and put it on to people who already had full-time jobs
046um the first Contact I made was to Monona Grove and I reached out to them because they have an equity coordinator role they're similar in size and felt like they could offer some expertise um and some of the things that were shared with that really resonated with me which was make sure you know what you want this person to do and that you have clear goals and objectives for this role before you do so make sure they have some Authority and support particularly from the district office and do this before and make sure it aligns to your strategic plan so and receiving that feedback knowing that we didn't have a strategic plan I kind of slowed my role a little bit and and paused that process to make sure we focused first on the Strategic
047plan so we were beginning that work of course last year and into this year we had Ann Nichols resignation in October and at that point Melissa and I again assumed we were still involved in the equity work but we kind of along with the the equity team leaders kind of tried to do our best to to replace the work that that Ann Nichols had been doing and of course our strategic plan as the board knows um clearly identifies a mission and vision objectives and commitments that align with the work of diversity Equity inclusion and belonging in looking at you know our current capacity and existing staff it was clear that we needed it just affirmed I think the Strategic plan affirmed that we need additional leadership for this important work in in coordination and so
048since that time I've had many conversations with staff parents Guardians students community members including members of of equity leadership in in the area about kind of these needs and really it's often been in response to them reaching out to me saying when are we going to get a full-time Equity leadership position and me explaining the process more formally what I've done is I reached out to Percy Brown Jr who of course has a similar a director role in Middleton Cross Plains School District met with staff from the Sun Prairie School District including their director of system systemic equity and inclusion and their superintendent and of course have continued my contacts in Monona Grove looked at their job descriptions but some of the things that have come out of their um these contacts I think are
049are important for the board to know and the community to know is they're talking about the importance again of that Clarity of the role the purpose making sure it aligns with your mission vision and strategic plan uh an emphasis that has come through through those contacts as well as through Dr Lewis and natural Circles of support is this is hard work and it's complicated work and instead of expecting one person to be the expert of all of this work to make sure that you have internal and external supports and consultants and groups of people for them to collaborate with so that they're you know both feel supported and also embracing best practices they also need it needs to be clear that their role is supporting others doing that work and not that all the equity
050work falls on this one person because this work is embedded in everything we do and so this is just someone that's coordinating and making sure that we're moving forward in this work but everyone is involved in the work this isn't a replacement um the other thing and this is going to be the more the subject of of some debate I would say and consideration is about the the the status of the position whether it is the level of the position whether it is a coordinator or a director which I'll talk about in detail a little bit later the recommendation that I've been given is um you know the idea of a director uh was emphasized particularly with Sun Prairie now granted that is a much bigger system both both Middleton and Sun Prairie it's a
051director role in Monona Grove it's a coordinator role although um the person in that role also has an administrative a role in The District but they emphasize that in order for that person to have a level of authority so that they can actually make decisions and move things forward and to attract a qualified candidate it was recommended that it be a director position versus a coordinator position in that the compensation be commensurate with a title so I want to just explain a little bit to you about what that means because I've realized when I say this not everybody lives and breathes in in this work in the at the district to understand so a coordinator has a teacher contract it's not an administrative contract and as a result there it's not they don't need to
052have an administrative degree a director is a position just below the superintendent and in the hierarchy of a district above a principle so you know our current directors we have a director of buildings and grounds we have a Director of Business and Technology we have a director of teaching and learning and we have a director of student services that those are the the four positions that we'd have and and typically in my work um it's really the the three with buildings and grounds you know working closely with Jeff Mahoney as their Director of Business and Technology I typically work more closely with Lauren Melissa and Jeff um as part of the sort of the cabinet if you will so you know that that would be if it was a director position which is what it
053was drafted as and has been drafted as that's the level of position a coordinator position is typically under a director so we have literacy coordinators for example in the district um there's a curriculum coordinator Darian Riggins who is underneath um Melissa there is a student services coordinator Angie brunette who is underneath um Lauren so those positions kind of fall in that level oh man I'll talk some more about some ideas about that and I welcome your feedback I did create a draft job description based on some of the things that I had learned I shared that with a few people as a first draft out to administrative Council the backbone of the McFarland Equity project the natural Circle support Grant team in our district Equity leaders for feedback made some revisions and sent it out
054more broadly just a couple weeks ago for principals to share with their Equity teams to share with the entire McFarland Equity project team and I will be meeting tomorrow with social justice Club advisors and students for additional feedback and I'm going to tell you about some of the feedback I've received for so far ideally I'd like to get this position posted by the end of the month early April that's a really The Sweet Spot of hiring but I don't want to rush it if if we're not ready the job description which is which is linked in which I believe you've seen before it you know it details kind of the job responsibilities some things I want to point out about it is it was drafted as a as a director position with the person reporting
055directly to me similar to the other cabinet director positions requiring an administrative degree you know in order to be at at a director level within a school district you really need an advanced degree in licensure because you are you know advising making decisions that that are are in that role between superintendent and principal the responsibilities include a lot of the language particularly that I valued from Sun Prairie about co-creation so that it's not all on that one person to do all the work they're doing it with people in conjunction with administrative team members and Equity leaders within buildings in relation to our long-term Equity goals and strategic plan and I identified specific job responsibilities within um I believe the seven areas so um some of the feedback that I've gotten I didn't put this one
056on because some of this was coming in late today yet was there's a lot it's a lot there's a lot on that job description and as someone that has been engaged in this work um you know you know since 2000 outside of my role as principal in a district level role it is a lot of work there's a lot of people doing a lot of this work in addition to their their current roles or or as part of their current role um you know there's some concerns being raised about when you make it in a a requiring an administrative degree and licensure are you limiting your pool are you then shrinking people who may have have great skills and expertise and experiences both lived and in in districts that that can't apply now for this
057position of course on the other hand you have to think about if you're going to attract high quality candidate you know doesn't need to be a director position there's also been that continued advocacy for external support for the position including support for outside consultants and groups and that does impact us financially in terms of identifying those supports um another concern that has been come that has come forward is our ability to fund a director position and of course given the current level of leadership in this work jumping to a director is a pretty pretty significant jump so that's that has come forward in terms of the initial draft as as well as some other areas kind of the next steps you know continuing to gather some feedback both with you tonight and then of course
058with some people in the coming days really need to make some final decisions before posting about whether it is a director or coordinator I felt like I had come to some pretty um you know I felt like that was pretty much a finalized decision in making the draft but now I'm questioning whether a coordinator position would be more appropriate you know which which of those is going to get a stronger pool which is a more logical progression for the district um will a coordinator have the expertise and authority to make the kind of changes that we need to this position doesn't involve supervising a staff it doesn't involve budgeting and that is a currently an important part of our director roles and a significant responsibility that are that our directors have as well as our
059principals and the funding you know between a coordinator and a director you're talking about about fifty thousand dollars difference um we don't have the funds to fund a director currently we would need to find additional funds because the in looking at our our current Equity roles you know that that'll fund 10 to 15 percent of the position depending upon whether it's a a director or coordinator position we do have a reduction in a section of a of a grade level which which you know allows us um some some funds which we anticipate continuing based on enrollment projections that's 37 to 53 depending upon the size of the position and then my budget offsetting it um which you know there's some money in there but um there that we have attributed Equity leadership but if we
060use you know 32 and I don't have 53 to contribute out of my budget for that work the concern is that it doesn't leave you funds to fund professional development Consulting that would support this role it's kind of like you fund the position with a director but you then can't provide for those other things the professional development things we'd have to take funds from that to fund the position so that's where I'm starting to really question that but obviously want to get an amazing human being that can do this important work and lead us through this um another consideration is who who who supervises the position it's different in different districts given the size of our district you know it would be appropriate to be either myself or the director of teaching and learning I
061don't supervise any coordinators you know I supervise directors and principals it's not to say that I couldn't supervise a coordinator in this role at least to start but that's you know not the most significant decision to be made and of course looking at the the job responsibilities and then wanting to get the position posted and hired and wanting to make sure there's involvement from various groups I think we've started a a trend with these these district and and building level leadership teams have been hiring teams inviting and involving parents Guardians community members and uh and students along with staff so that's you know my overview um look at that right at 20 minutes um which is my goal so those are some of the things now I know as this is a lot of information
062for you to take in but I chose to make this a discussion or brought forward the idea of making this a discussion item as opposed to just a presentation because I wanted to provide the opportunity for the board members to really engage in sharing your thoughts questions comments concerns to the extent that you're able to do so tonight so that this doesn't get delayed too much going forward the board's a roll you know you know historically the board hasn't created positions or voted on creating positions where the board has has voted is an improving a a person for a position that's typically been um the process in this District but I don't want to negate your wisdom insight and perspective so I'm done talking now so what questions comments thoughts from the board start if
063no one else wants to um well first I want to I know I've said just said this to you before but I want to really commend you for um the amount of research that you've done to make this position um as sorry my husband's doing some construction if you can hear those sounds um my apologies there's some pounding happening um you have done a lot of background work to ensure that this position is very thoughtfully developed thoughtfully funded um I think you've probably achieved that goal of the slowing down to make sure that it's what we want um and also for reaching out to community members and different resources within the community even though it meant sharing potentially you know information that wasn't really ready for public consumption yet um I think that was really
064a really mindful great strategy on your part um and I think the one thing that with Equity work that is so important is that accountability and who this person reports to I mean you said it a bunch in your in your 20 minutes um that this person people need to be able to feel safe coming to this person um when they have issues with their supervisor or um the the previous or like the other ways that they can um when they experience an issue of inequity that they feel needs to be addressed um they have to feel like there's going to be action there and um an authority without there being a conflict of interest and so with this kind of position that is really that's just a challenge anywhere um but I think it's
065director versus coordinator I think that part has to be really clear what their Authority is and um things like that um and then my own my other thought about you know kind of director versus coordinator um just food for thought is is there anything that we want this individual to be able to develop into or promote to like is it you know is it like an end um I mean it's a new position right and we don't really have um uh Department of equity or anything like that so like if you think about employees where you want them to develop to and what their personal goals might be you know is that a consideration that we want to make in this role that there would be a place for them to move up to or
066develop their skills to mm-hmm otherwise I think this is a really really great product of a lot of work so thank you for that thank you and that has been one of the things in terms of growth you know there's kind of two ways to to look at it you know is do you start as a coordinator and maybe the work ends up becoming a director role you know maybe it grows to that I've had some people suggest that idea you know to me which provides an opportunity for growth um or our you know why you're creating a coordinator position are you really creating a director for another District you know is that what you're doing and maybe so I mean maybe that the size of our district is just that's how it is because
067I'm talking to Sun Prairie in Middleton that's they're they're much different than we are maybe that's just the reality of the size of our district for this new role Aaron could you tell us a little bit more about the uh the mg you say that they have a coordinator but the person is also has an administrative role yes so how does that is it is that unheard of Elsewhere or I mean you're only you're talking 3A districts that we've communicated in the area right and uh which again I I just I keep chuckling because everyone always says you know for a school year size McFarland's an amazing place and I mean the whole thing with Penny Thompson is a good example of that and the fact that you're pursuing this we're not your typical small
068school we're like thinking big and I think that's awesome but I just kind of curious how do they do that yeah so um I you know I don't want to speak on their behalf you know as I look at their the Monona Grove position um what they have done is they have the person in their role is a student services coordinator the equity coordinator and is the principal of mg21 so their alternative school so they've got a lot on their plates they also have they do have um people underneath them that report to them so they recently created a position of a restorative justice coordinator who's actually um um the person in that position is George Randolph who's a McFarland Community member so they you know they've kind of built some supports with within that
069but it's a significant responsibility for them now the way that they find the most success given that it's a coordinator role is the level of involvement with the superintendent so you know and that is something that Middleton Percy Brown Jr recommended to me too is you know if it's a coordinator position having them report to you directly does give them more Authority than if they reported to a director which makes sense you know so that's one way to be able to do it but I think it just happened that the mg person is also a principal of another school in the district some questions after I read the draft yes job description and a couple other things first of all thanks for the presentation that actually answered some of the questions that I have but
070are there other school districts in Dane County that have a accurate leadership position besides the three that you mentioned um yeah yeah obviously Madison does I believe you know I don't know the details about what Oregon and Verona have um but um I'm confident that they do I didn't I didn't reach out to them um that's certainly something I could do I you know I felt like one of the things that was really nice about the people that I reached out to are there people I do have a relationship with and have a sense of their systems um but certainly certainly I could um what I'm finding is that we would be the only District of our size that has a role like this but similar to you know some of the you know we're
071also the only Village of our size um that has has a Dei committee um the way that our village does I mean it's just that's just something that our community it's part of who we are an identity and our commitment so but if the board would like me to to reach out to additional districts I certainly could do that again you know uh I I guess I certainly wouldn't across that you do that because of the the time limitations you have and I strongly support inequity leadership position here McFarland based on our student based on our district Vision our district Mission and our strategic plan I do have reservations though whether or not it's a director position or a coordinator position um first of all funding yeah we're talking about fifty thousand dollars difference between
072an accordion position and a director position and in light of the fiscal cliff that some people are referring to that will impact our district in our two years something we'll have to give and I think once the position is in the district it's very hard to get rid of it I would not Advocate get rid of a new physician but the money will have to come somewhere um next I do like the idea of a coordinate coordinator position with that person uh directly communicating and um with with you serve as their supervisor because I do agree that regardless of it's a whether it's an administrative position or a coordinator position we have some of the same challenges as far as enforcing whatever new approaches we want to take I just you know take a look
073at our whole District the size the resources the student population again um I would have reservations about a director position versus a coordinator position um and did you say in your report um and again I apologize for slurring my speech that's going to be a thing a new normal for me um I didn't see in the draft position or budget and hiring Personnel was part of their responsibility is that correct Aaron yes correct they um you know depending upon the position they may or may not have a budget right because how much money we have they also would be involved in our human resources and hiring practices but they would not be hiring anyone there's no one underneath them to hire nor supervise which is one of the things that I think separates a director
074maybe from a coordinator correct two of those things and again that would be the other reservation I have yeah when you take a look at other administrative positions they're fully comprehensive with the budget funding things hiring staff Personnel things so this one would be much different than the others and and lastly my comment would be this I know that there's a hiring window usually in the spring where you can capture the best candidates out there I have to be honestly I'll be serving as the principal here at McFarland for years some of our best hires were made in July and August so I don't have to negate that but I think it's important to recognize and realize that if we miss a certain window of opportunity there may be another window of opportunity out there
075yeah I think that and maybe this is just me and I could be off I don't have any data to support this but my thought is if it's a director position you probably need to post it earlier just because those you know people that are in those roles are looking at administrative positions all the time in a different way um partly because they they may be looking at you know a bump up versus someone that's making a lateral move may make that that later your commitments you know to districts in our administrative positions have a different timeline than yeah I certainly would concur with that area also okay and I like the idea of hiring teams because I think it's proved to be very effective in the district yeah and I really love that concept
076so I applaud your efforts to have that continued with uh new positions here certainly thank you I think um I mean we talked about this a little bit on our own as well and when I went into talking about this with you I definitely was thinking more of a coordinator role and then when you explained the director of responsibilities that made sense too I I think this obviously this job description that you gave us is written more for a director level and I think you have to think about what you're you're looking for right a director is going to bring something to the table that probably a coordinator is not in terms of experience with policies procedures some of those it doesn't mean a coordinator can't do it but it there's there's a different set
077of skills that may be a director level would bring that a coordinator wouldn't so some of these responsibilities would likely Fall and someone else to assist right if if we went with a coordinator versus a director so you do have to think about that they may report directly to you but who's going to assist them in doing some of these things that are clearly goals that we still want to accomplish whether it's a coordinator or a director level and so I mean it would be great to bring in a director level person who could achieve these things but at the same time if there's no funding to assist in that you you need to have the ability to move things forward and if we don't have the funding I'm not sure that that can happen
078so I think that's a big part of this right because you still need to continue to push these Concepts these goals these initiatives out to the staff and the schools and if you if you don't have necessarily the professional development money to do that I'm not sure that it's a feasible task thank you yeah that makes sense so Aaron what would the next step before us you so I'm you know I'll I'll take some more feedback over the next couple of days um and then bring forward kind of a you know a decision you know typically as I as I shared before this wouldn't be something in the board takes action on however you know if that's something the board wanted to take action on on the creation of a position um that's that's fine
079too um you know it would be somewhat unprecedented you know in the district and it could be that if it's a director position maybe the board says well then we do wanna get more involved if it's a coordinator position then you know that's a level of position that we don't feel we need to be as involved um you know I I feel like I want to honor the feedback that I'm getting and not make a decision um today or tomorrow you know give it a few days and maybe there's some things that as the board thinks about it a little bit more now that you have a lot of information um maybe you know it's something that we entertain in another conversation whether individually or you know during Open Session I just want to thank
080you asking for our feedback and I know that I was typing it up today I'm going like oh my gosh so um there has been no interest right I mean we've pretty much decided we don't want to work with the village that there's going to be two distinct probably positions yes I mean the the bill the village took action long ago yes which once that happened yeah that was to me this like okay they're they're moving forward we're going to move forward and I think also as you see this job description it's it's a we have a full-time positions worth of work I I understand currently yeah and I remember the arguments that were given and I and I support them I'm just wondering I'm just thinking outside the box right now some crazy idea
081but I mean would it be possible I mean in a way we're setting ourselves up we're going to be going to referendum probably 20 24. I think that's the plan yeah I mean at that point you hopefully have your your kind of your wish list kind of in order this is what we would like to do I'm wondering could we work I'm just throwing this out with the village so they could kind of help us I mean the very thing that Kate's talking about would they be willing to do that for basically a year until we can kind of fund this ourselves I mean I just throwing that idea out there yeah I don't think that's on the table from the village probably not currently where where that you know could that change Maybe I
082I have you know it's kind of like whether if this was a shared position I'd want to make sure that they're have education experience that's going to be my bias and I'm probably going to want more than 50 of their time so I'm thinking that the district's probably not interested in a partnership where I'm saying I need them to meet basically this job description and to meet the goals I don't see our goals changing all right I agree with that but the the question is I mean you get to the point where if you can't do what you really want in effect you're saying you know maybe we should wait a year and I don't think we want to do that either you know what I'm saying so that that's the only reason I I
083think I'm trying to think of creative ways that we might be able to pull this off I don't know yeah it you know it is a dilemma and I think it's one of the reasons why this process has gone slowly in my opinion um although my pace is unrealistic sometimes is that there's so many ways to to look at it my thought is if both the village and the district have enough work to do at currently right you know as we're getting started with these positions and have unique needs to have two possibly full-time positions collaborating right yes together like that could be really powerful and it could be over time we set up systems and structures that make the position you know less necessary to be full-time because everybody's doing the work and we
084got things moving that could be you know and then maybe it would evolve into a shared position right now he's speaking for the school district I just know I would want a hundred percent of that person's time no I agree with that I think that's that's what we'd want to yeah shoot for I mean it seems like really the biggest thing right now would be to for you to do the feedback and then decide what type of a role you want and once you do that then this is easier to kind of narrow down but I will say If you think about who's been helping in this role up to this point right it's a director level position because you guys have all been kind of assisting and filling the need of this role so
085I think you guys need to look at how effective have you been in this role what were some of the challenges of this role and think about a person who maybe is at a coordinator level what will they experience in that same type of situation right as you've tried to create some of these initiatives and roll them out I'm sure there's been challenges and and really I think you need to think about how difficult was it or do you can you see somebody in a coordinator role being able to do that effectively or are you afraid that there's going to be issues with that and if you feel like they're not going to be able to effectively do what you guys in the director level role have already done then I think there's your answer
086I agree with that yeah you've got to feel comfortable I think I think yeah and I think to be honest like even a director level role sometimes you know feel like you know they don't necessarily have the the authority to to make certain decisions you know ultimately what regardless of the title people are going to need to know that what that whoever's in that role says is that's what's going to happen like that that they are probably going to need a report to me and so that people know like well that's you know that's kind of where Aaron's coming from I mean I don't mean to sound authoritative but there's so many important things to do and and teachers are so overwhelmed and sometimes we have to make difficult decisions and say this is actually
087a priority but in order to do that getting to your point is they would need to be be supported in in that yeah this this is what we need to do in relation to our strategic plan the the challenges that that that we faced in this work is primarily an issue of time but also of expertise so you know I'm on my own Equity Journey as a white male um doing this work um you know and and so going through this I've learned a lot and I'm going to continue learning regardless of whether or not I'm leading this work or you know working with someone who's who's coordinating this work so there's an expertise part but there's also just a Time part that that isn't being met through Melissa and I and you know our
088Equity team leaders so no just thank you this is thanks yeah well I appreciate how thoughtful the board is on these things and insightful and looking at it from different angles and you know for the public that's watching know that we've talked about this individually each of us you know I've had meetings with and we've talked about this before and you know what you share tonight as representative of those conversations as well because there's a lot to a lot to consider and the last thing I'll say is just know that as many people that are contacting me saying you need this position what are you waiting for go forward there is a group of people in our community that are saying I don't think you need this position you know and I feel like that
089is political divisiveness that I'm turning to our strategic plan and that process that's driving the this role in this position it's not some political agenda for from any from myself or any other member of the district this is clearly something that um you know is important for our strategic plan and making sure all of our our kids and Families feel that they belong and are successful in our district and I wanted to say that when you were talking about you know I feel like it's it's gone longer in a way than than I would have liked we had to do that strategic plan and it was so overwhelming the support for this there's there's no way you can sit there and say well it just doesn't have the it has that Grassroots support that that
090very very clearly stated so so I was sorry do you have any suggestions on what we the board can do to further support uh all these efforts uh because I I also realized that you know you're probably hearing from a number of community members that don't have the understanding that some of us have on the importance of a leadership Equity position here in the district is there something else or usual things we as a board can do to get that message out or yeah support this what would you suggest I appreciate that question I mean I certainly I feel the support I think tonight is a big step in that you know I think a Community member watching this would would recognize that you are being thoughtful considerate and that you support this position in
091relation to our strategic plan I mean that has clearly been the the message to a board member um tonight you know I don't have anything specifically um you know at this point but as things evolve it may come to a point where the board may need to be more vocally advocating um for the value of this position but you know I feel like that message at least with with the people that I'm communicating with has been heard and they feel like the board does recognize the value I can tell you the staff certainly does the staff are coming to me saying this is important work and we need somebody to lead us in this work so the questions would be I think what you're saying Tom is just those that don't have the information whereas
092our staff have the information you have the information so maybe it is a matter of maybe the board has insights in how I and or you can better reach the people that that maybe don't have that information and need that information okay thanks anything else okay thank you Aaron thank you okay next District administrators report oh boy there and again yeah um all right some stuff that's going on um some recognitions uh you know I always appreciate the student report because it it helps me cut to the chase a little bit one thing I found really interesting that it just kind of got developed through our high school um School social work department is a Spartan grocery program where families can donate groceries to families in need and Families in Need can ask for help
093it's the idea is to be a kind of a one-time thing but our school social workers felt like there was a need beyond what our amazing food pantry provides and and put together this this program and just was sharing my compliments and gratitude with them today and got an email back saying how grateful they are for the the response that they've received from families wanting to donate and help so that was kind of a neat thing and know that that is Zach Springer who's our high school school social worker and also he's had an intern Coley Huebner who you just hired as uh his long-term sub while he's out on on paternity leave so kind of the the two of them have really LED that initiative any collaboration with the McFarland food pantry and I'm
094not there do we I'm not sure I mean I know we as a hasn't done a ton of food drives for the food pantry I think this is in addition to not meant to replace but in addition to okay um I haven't heard there's a real connection direct to that I'm involved with the pantry quite a bit so that's it's really awesome I'm just amazed yeah um I wanted to share just gratitude um for the the students the staff the coaches the players the athletes involved in our recent tournament appearances for basketball um you know yes there's there's success that's associated with it but I want to acknowledge more importantly just just the class that our community has shown throughout this process both through wins and losses um we if you look back at this
095this Sports um season recently um and and um co-curriculars with with Deca and you know we just saw forensics and um swimming and it's just been amazing the success but the thing that that I take such great pride in and I think I want to acknowledge here is that Beyond wins and losses is just how kind and respectful and supportive people are um you had you know administrators scrambling to to basically put together a field trip for several hundred students on a Friday afternoon in bad weather um and they threw that together and you know I'm a little biased but I can tell you those middle school students and there were I think four buses of middle school students that went they need a lot of supervision uh they need a lot of Direction and
096guidance and we made it happen and I had gotten some questions about should we have closed school and making sure all the staff that wanted to go could go and and it was a tough decision we had the most fans for division two so at the at the girls basketball state tournament um and I think we did a great job supporting the teams but more important they represent us so well so I wanted to share a couple comments um um an official from a girl sectional game said Thank you to Sarah coach mullaney and your players um there are always tough calls to make and last night your players just played in Sarah coached pretty sure there were calls they did not agree with but they let us do our jobs that was great your
097players are a definite reflection of their coach Class Acts um a supervisor at the boys one of the boys sectionals game said I wanted to let you know that your staff and kids were exemplary in their behavior and the way they handled themselves so you know when you're on a bigger stage with these tournament games there's a lot of eyes on you and for people that take the time to share that feedback with us even though we already know it's all true um you know it just it says a lot about our community in the support for all of our Athletics and co-curriculars not just those that make it to state or not just those that have a bigger stage so that was my not rehearsed speech that came out better than I thought it
098would it was a good speech Aaron thank you thank you um I do have um some pictures um to share uh from our social media and you know the kindness Bingo challenge you know what a great thing these are our students excited to let you know that they they reached Bingo on being kind in Mrs everson's class uh just what a what a cool thing that that is um also wanted to um recognize we had the fifth grade orchestras perform for the fourth grade class just to show them what Orchestra is about because you know let's be honest most fourth graders don't know what Orchestra is and so fifth grade students you know the role models at wabisa sharing that and thank you to Leanna Hershey for her amazing leadership across three buildings in multiple
099grade levels I'm raising money for the Dane County Humane Society so grateful to no longer be at the middle school or I might have been sitting in that chair um but the uh they selected the student selective Mr Rowley um as the winner to have a a fundraiser for a a pie in the face I love that that first picture like that is the moment right before um he gets that but uh great attitude you can see Mr John doll really get getting a lot of joy out of that happening right there in the background um all right we've been trying to share with you and and post on social media just uh the importance of literacy and getting on great books in the hands of kids so here's our eighth grade team we've got
100some new classroom library books and that is something that you know years ago when I first came to the district we had some classroom libraries they have grown so much more because you want to get get as many books as close to kids hands as you can so um that's an exciting thing the Middle School choir concert happened I I wasn't able to attend but I heard wonderful things about that and currently and grateful for Elise Weber as she fills those big shoes from Katrina lemons people of color Union at the middle school had a fundraiser a badminton tournament tournament what a fun idea and I think what I really love about this picture over here is just that you see students and staff raising money but having fun together um doing it so that
101just makes me a little sappy um the 8th grade Orchestra and high school chamber singers um chamber strings members were able to participate in a field trip to see the Madison uh Symphony Orchestra what a great opportunity I'm inspirational so I know a lot of work goes into creating these field trips so thanks to those involved I wasn't able to attend this but you know bringing in outside speakers is so important and so kudos to the The Freshman U.S history teachers for providing an opportunity for students to hear from a speaker about the Holocaust and their families experience very powerful um and of course um I I think you've probably received this notification but yabo has moved on to the next round so a finalist among I think it's 1500 or 15 000 excuse me
102students in the country competing for this honor as a national Merit finalists so in about um from what I've heard from our Advanced learning Department about half of those who make it to this level actually I'll receive the honor so fingers crossed and yeah bro uh so that's our slideshow and then in terms of other events coming up just a reminder we're we're still in youth art month so if you haven't had a chance to get to the library to see those wonderful displays and to send gratitude to our teachers please do so the 21st that's tomorrow is World Down syndrome day this Friday is another makeup day for 4K um having school on Friday to make up for my decisions to call a snow day um so spring break is next week as as
103Bruce alluded to earlier April many recognitions I don't know why there's so many in April but Autism Awareness financial literacy volunteer month School library month poetry month so a lot of great things for that we have our next board meeting on the third and there's many recognitions following after that that I will share at the April 3rd meaning so that concludes my report thank you Aaron thank you time for adjournment is there a motion I'll make that motion thanks is there a second I'll second okay any discussion hearing none all in favor say yay excuse me it depends on what uh meeting I'm in yeah uh those are Applause nay hearing on the meeting is adjourned thank you everybody thank you for for leading us Tom yeah you're welcome yeah it's a little later this
104time it's 9 40 out here down here so oh boy yeah we think we're getting done early yeah yeah Aaron thanks again