001foreign thank you session and first on the agenda the consent agenda contains minutes from the January 5th and January 9th school board meetings professional staff co-curricular and administrator staffing recommendations including several retirements um [Applause] otherwise there's a some that are professional staffing recommendations that's unnecessary for vote [Music] and I would look for a motion to request action on the minutes professional staffing recommendations co-curricular Staffing and administrative Staffing so moved thank you Tom by the second oh second okay if there's no other discussion with all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously I have zero and we would move on to public comments Angie do we have anything not to my knowledge and I would be comfortable requesting if you are please do okay I'll do the read in accordance
002with school board policy 167.3 the McFarland School Board welcomes public comment 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 in advance of the meeting please note the following participants are required to register their intention to participate in the notice public comment portion of the meeting upon their arrival at the meeting and shall begin their comments by stating their name address and group affiliation if in one appropriate participants shall 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 participants are asked to limit
003their comments to five minutes in duration written comments will have a word limit of 250 words the portion of the meeting for public comments is limited to 60 minutes unless extended by a vote of the board and participants shall direct all comments to the board and observe reasonable decorum Angie do we have anything well I'll I'll ask those to register at this time thank you so if you'd like to make a public appearance by speaking to the board please utilize the Q a portion found at the bottom of your Zoom window in the Q a we would ask that you type your name address subject of interest and whether you have discussed this item prior to the meeting with either a district administrator or president howery after submitting the information I would transfer you over
004to speak to the board thank you people a moment okay we will move along then to the McFarland High School student report foreign so this past uh weekend or no this week I'm at front High School February 6th through 10th is black lives matter it's school week the week of action so in recognition of this week BSU will be providing a daily black history facts and selling BLM T-shirts they will also be serving concessions at the girls varsity basketball game this Friday Night February 10th um so if you want to you can go and support them and purchase concessions to help us support um also this past weekend our MHS dance team uh went to State at lacrosse so they took home a third place trophy um and that that's making program history so it's
005super awesome for them and congratulations to the dance team for a very amazing performance and their amazing season so far this uh past week also seven MHS students send winners of a tent to play college sports so these group of students included Bruno Wagner Cooper Kennedy Gillen Kyle kuso Pete's dislin and Paul Morris um this happened in the SLC last Wednesday so congratulations to them yeah so in addition this past weekend our model one chapter went to Chicago um and participated in a four-day overnight conference they spent over 18 hours in committee it was really long but a really good time and courtesy of our professor's mom we got a tour of NBC Chicago so we amazing job to everyone who participated there in addition we have some updates from connect we have been working
006diligently to kick start the beginning of second semester and we actually just got a um a small Grant to have a voter registration table at the high school later this year and six of our members are going to get registered and trained how to register people to vote in addition we're also going to be part of a group meeting with members of the village board to discuss student perspectives in the Village of McFarland oh sorry and then lastly you guys should have received or will receive um deca's recently completed our gold chapter for the year so this is a collection of all the activities that we have done prior to State and at the end of each month so hopefully all of you have been provided a copy or will be sometime this week and
007that's all we have today I think anybody have any questions or comments I just have one question maybe for Valerie Valerie you spent 18 hours in committee work and all that stuff if you had to say the most important piece that you learned through your experience what would that be and then I came off a little too strong at some point so I think they wanted me to be a little a little more calm um girl the girl who won she backstabbed me so that says enough stay above The Fray when they go low you go high that's right thanks JD of that please [Laughter] it's a great start to a semester yeah that's awesome once again thank you very much you bring a ray of sunshine to our board meetings every single time you
008show up and we appreciate your positivity and all the great work you're doing thanks very much always thank you [Music] okay question is that would the middle school be interested in doing something like that presenting for us because we get a lot of high school information but I wonder if they have a club yeah there's some very confident middle schoolers I think there's some folks over there who can handle that yep that's true okay all right uh moving along natural Circles of support Community impact Grant update who do we have in the house the floor is yours yeah that's right Dr Lewis and Dr provino for joining us thank you very much for coming we really appreciate it thanks for having us all right well we are excited to be here today sharing a little
009bit of an update as promised in kind of the the middle of the year in a school year but kind of an end of a year in a grand cycle so we have some information we're going to share with you today as our our update so end of year two of our five-year grants reminder that's from January of 2021 through December of 2025 um so the first thing we want to do is just to reorient you to the Grant and really the origins of this grant was just an acknowledgment that our African-American or black students were reporting that they didn't feel that sense of belonging in our schools and that really impacts them in in many ways and so you know we really want to make an impact not only for the students that are
010currently being served through this grant but a long lasting sustainable impact on our systems and structures that will last well beyond and you know we have this wonderful partnership the three of us are sort of the the representatives you see here but there's many other people that are involved in this important work of course we have natural Circles of support with Dr Lewis I'm here to represent the school district and representing the Wisconsin Center for educational research is Dr pribino this grant really it's important to acknowledge that it's about systemic change it's about having matching our intent and our impact in this work but that partnership is critical and one of the things that I think we're really proud of and recently shared in our kind of our progress report for the grant project was
011about the partnership and the strength of that partnership and how that's really grown it really requires a lot of vulnerability on all of our parts it requires a lot of effort and communication trust that's been built and I can say that our our frequent collaboration and in time together has really Foster that we couldn't be more excited with where we are in that in that process so um you know thinking about how this aligns with our work I think we have a great opportunity with our new Mission Vision and strategic plan to just recognize how this um is ingrained you know we talked about that sense of belonging being one of the things that led to this grant being created and here you see it right in our in our vision of course our mission
012is to meet the needs of every learner every day in our newly adapted Vision about and creating an equitable and inclusive community committed to student belonging achievement and growth so it's not hard to see the ties to this important work another thing I'll mention about this work is that while the grant is specifically targeted and meant to address the needs of our African-American students in the district it has profound impacts for all of our students and one of the things that we're really excited about is is some of the opportunities and the growth that we've seen in our staff and then the impact on our students so we will be talking about that so the next thing is we're gonna I'm gonna turn it over to Dr Lewis and we're gonna watch a little bit
013do you want me to start the video already or do you want to give a little I'll say a little bit about it for a second I just sort of picking up what Aaron was saying we this is a climate culture systems change approach to things where we you know we address immediate needs but over time we really are trying to embed ways of working together being together a relationship together that will sustain the work that we have started and actually that started before we came that we're helping to um to grow and develop so this short video we're going to look at sort of give you a sense of the sort of theory of change how we move from centering kids in circle to broader culture change huh so fancy putting this embedding it
014in there share sound approach to have something to do right there okay please hold and just have stuff turn that down so natural Circles of support is an approach to working with schools to address racial disparities to racial inequities in the schools by bringing black students together in circle so that they can have a space to explore their own experiences some of those are a lot of their frustrations some of those are dreams but I have a space that they Define where they feel supported and where they natural Circles of support is an approach to working with schools to address racial disparities to racial inequities in the schools by bringing black students together in circle so that they can have a space to explore their own experiences some of those are a lot of their
015frustrations some of those are their hopes and dreams but I have a space that they Define where they feel supported and where they can bring each other's support and then engage with questions to arrive at Solutions ways of addressing issues that actually make sense they're complex issues and their their issues they're perennial the issues that show up year after year after year they're not going to go away their structural and systemic but we don't stop there because the next level out is that we work with schools to develop a leadership team what we call a professional Learning Community but it really is a staff leadership team made up primarily of staff that students themselves have named as people who have provided support who they feel as supportive now often these staff members don't know that
016and so that that's a little bit of treasure hunting we do and then that group he comes in a way a circle around the circle it's really really important that students come away feeling like if we come together and we we come up with ideas there are people in this school who will help make it happen the next thing is that that same group of Staff members that PLC they are networked in schools schools are ecologies of communities and each of those staff members will have their own group of other staff of peers with whom they have relationship and who they can then draw into this work or connect this work and this is how we build out such that we begin to bring about I wouldn't say systemic change at this point but we
017do begin to influence the climate and then the culture and as more and more people are brought in and our relationships evolve and change and strengthen and then with that our practices our beliefs then we begin to change the culture and then the systems change [Music] hopefully you were able to follow that um no no it's okay um I guess the thing that I would want to highlight about this approach with where we are now is when we talk about being a systems and culture change um approach really we are kind of a catalyst for change in the community in the school community that build on existing assets and resources I mean what our strength I think is that we help schools identify what resources they already have that they may or may not be
018fully aware of or they may not have the capacity to do anything with we find ways for them to to catalyze those resources bringing in additional resources for sure as well but by and large building on some amazing strengths I found in this District that could just needed a little bit of help and support to both strengthen but also then we help with some of the connections that are happening so that there's some continuity and relationship building that's happening across buildings and work that's happening together across buildings that potential was always there we've been we've helped to catalyze that and brought support to that so that that's what I want you to know about I mean it's pretty up it's very straightforward your change again we're ecologies of communities schools and the Village People already
019networked the question is how do we use those existing relationships to strengthen relationships to address what are real problems or real concerns but from an asset-based perspective because the assets are always there always always always I've never gone into a school and I've been in some really distressed schools and districts where we didn't find treasure so that's what I would tell you about the theory of change and I'm really excited about what's happening in in our partnership with with McFarland um I want to also to tell you just remind you also the the goals that we have I mean just as you saw in the video we Center the mentoring circles for students we always center student experience student voice everywhere we go but as you saw in the video you will also want to
020connect that to staff leadership that's both in relationship to the circle space as as we indicated in the circle and in the video but it's also in relationship to one another so we try to really are building a community of practice and again there are lots of wonderful elements of a community of practice related to equity already we're just looking to enhance and help that grow to address problems and issues that they we've not been successful with in the past so again like I said there was so much already in place the question was how do we use it maybe in a different way or how do we help develop it in a different different way so that we're more successful with issues that again have been a bit difficult for us to address um
021you see we number three we engage in District inquiry that's really just to say that everything we do is grounded in data that we do we evaluate what we do both in order to learn from it also you know to hold ourselves accountable to what we promise to to do in the district for for you for the kids for for everyone but this is a you have to have a learning orientation to do this work well because it is so um complex and so getting constant feedback the conversations we have the the sort of informal ways of analyzing things in the formal ways we do it with data it's a lot of what we do we do it at every level from the circle to the district everywhere we work we collect data we analyze
022data we evaluate our efforts we get feedback from those who are doing it to help us figure out how to do it better um the communities of practice seminars and Community Practice that's really been exciting this year because we've finally really been able to work with staff with your Equity leaders all the buildings administrators and staff I guess I know our administrative staff that's just sure I'm an outsider I don't know administrative yeah but it's been really cool um you know we started in August we had another one in November we're going to have one in February and what I'll tell you about that two things you need to know about that one is that what we do in the seminars is a product of what we've been doing in the district in other words
023we see what's needed and we use the seminars as a way to Workshop that or to bring information that that's needed so it they're really customized to your circumstances and situation um that's one thing and so that's that's what we're doing this year we're focusing a lot on belonging we're looking at how do you design for belonging and looking at design in terms of social designs um and again you can use it at different levels but that's been the focus of this work and it emerged out of what we were hearing from students and what that first seminar in August you know that theme began to creep up and we finally were able to nail it in November we did a real focus on belonging it was very successful I'm looking forward to February because
024we're going to deepen that work in that practice um darn I had another point but I lost it um oh the other thing I wanted to say about that and we're seeing the the cohesion of your staff that um and I wasn't at the last one I was virtual at the last I was on a train actually when we had our the last seminar but someone reported to me when a couple staff members arrived was it you who told me that do you want to tell a story you want me well let me if I get it wrong tell me but basically the threat the gist of it was that um someone what are the what's that person sort of noted that they're in a lot of different spaces with other staff but that this
025was different that when they were in the space the equity space they were they felt like they were with their people and so again we're seeing that connection happening that's not just an intellectual one or a practical one but they're really connecting more deeply and you've you got the vibe even on the train on through video you could tell that there's a there's there's a buzz a way of uh positivity in the in the space that I think is really really exciting and it's not always in spaces where we're doing Equity work and then the last thing is we want to engage families and community and I'm not sure how much we'll say about that later but we are beginning that connection with uh with families and communities not sure what that's going to look
026like yet this year through year three of five is the year where we really want to make sure that we have the systems in place in The District in the schools that's been our Focus we're beginning to add the community piece and we have two more years after that we'll build on that as we move forward but for me I really want to make sure that that we're strong in the in the buildings this year right so we'll highlight some of our key accomplishments over the the last couple years a reminder through this grant we're able to expand the mentoring circles for students uh down to a Visa and so we're currently have 54 students involved in the mentoring circles that meet regularly a wonderful space currently the facilitators are provided through natural Circles of
027support but we'll be talking about you know how we can move forward that's our kind of our next step is to to prepare for our staff our community members to lead those circles after the grant is over Dr Lewis talked very well about you know some of the professional development you know that we've done in the seminars but I also want to highlight the work that is done in the buildings with and in the district with our leadership teams really being Consultants coaches for our our Equity leaders so that that work can carry on so building that capacity of our Equity leaders through that that work is is really integral and I'll say that each building one of the things I've really appreciated about about this work has been that each building has its own
028needs and there's flexibility to to address those needs so CPS their Equity team is really focusing on you know looking at different activities and events that we provide in the district through an equity lens and and what is the impact of this event and how are we serving all of our students the high school on the other bookend has really partnered with our our Equity leaders and Affinity groups in our student voice in that process so it kind of meets the needs of where the the building is and what they need to move forward very kind of um intentionally done in that way and then you know we talk a little bit about Dr privito we'll talk about some of the the data that we've seen some of it is just Gathering initially it was
029a situational analysis which we shared previously with you which was the idea of you know what's happening in the buildings and developing work plans from that the big thing that I think that that has really made a difference for for our district in the last couple years is looking at data disaggregating that data and looking at our our results of four populations divided by you know issues such as as Race using those demographics and then using that to set goals which is part of our strategic plan and then you'll hear more about the the Circles members themselves and and the impact of that for them the seminars and communities of practice which we talked about want to highlight again for you I know we've talked about this a lot but I don't I can't I
030can't over emphasize the impact of the the opportunity for our teachers and our students to learn together through a teacher study group the welcoming student voices we just had one recently just a really really powerful way to learn together and to partner in this work and I think I'm not aware of it happening anywhere else so and it's having a profound impact on our on our staff and then lastly provided you with an update in the McFarland minutes but just for all of the viewers out there we are continuing our planning for the parent Equity Group we had a big step last week with a planning meeting what we did was we invited some of the families of the students that are involved in equity leadership to kind of brainstorm some ideas about what this
031this group could look like and came up with some pretty good ideas we just need to work on the wording and get an invite out and get it going so it was a huge step I know that that the pace of this has been uncomfortably slow for me however um you know I'm reassured by Dr Lewis and others that you know sometimes you need to go slow to go fast and being very thoughtful and I feel like um the timing of that last week was the right time because there was momentum that had been built up in relationships that have been built that allowed that to happen and be meaningful the other thing is that we also have our strategic plan which really aligns with that that work so you know kind of moving into
032a little bit more about our goal three the district-wide inquiry Dr Perino is going to share some of our evaluation so far sure I'll be happy to um first of all thank you for having us present we did this a few months ago I'm always honored to be here and also have really appreciated the continued collaboration with your District um and Aaron and and Melissa and natural circles has been just a phenomenal um just a great place to work so I'm giving you an update on some of our evaluation activities Aaron mentioned that on January 31st our annual report was due and we had a dozen or so questions that we had to respond to providing them both numerical data how many people are attending things you know who is there along with other qualitative
033and quantitative data that we've collected so I'm going to talk about two we do multiple levels of data collection certainly our students are are very important and both formal and informal data inquiries have been happening with them one of the things that we shared in our annual report was some of the outcome statements that the students gave after participating last year and I just wanted to share a few of their responses that show them feeling as if they felt that trust was built that they were listening to One Another they were feeling respected and overall just some other contributors to social emotional well-being for example circles has deepened our connections and made it easier for us to relate more at other spaces I am now comfortable to walk to any one of us and begin
034a conversation our seating arrangement in a circle at the same level makes us see each other and felt listen to and respected so those types of you know very heartfelt authentic kind of comments coming from the students we um oh I just had a thought that I lost it's contagious it is contagious it'll come back to me no yeah I know like um anyway oh and right now we're going to do some informal evaluation of circles just check in with them how is it going you know what could be different and so on I'm also really excited to share that we do right now we're in the midst and we just collected a lot of information from the staff um but before I jump into that a few things that we continue to do to
035collect both school and district-wide the facilitators do weekly reports so they talk about what the circles talked about what are issues what's coming up and it's just a way for us to keep track of and collect data about the circles what's going on in them we always do evaluation of professional development and we're seeing huge jumps and knowledge and skill gains which is wonderful to see but I had the pleasure of of putting out a survey in which we assessed climate awareness and practices in the district and got a great response rate and I'm just starting to comb through the data so I'm really excited because this is so much fun and I want to share that even though our our grant is about racial African-American students in particular they are a subset of our
036overall of students and and over overall climate so although I did ask a number of questions about that because we need to for the grant we also asked very general questions about Equity so this these data will provide both at the school level and at the district level what are the needs of Staff what are their perceived strengths and Knowledge and Skills what are their gaps what do they need to know about more and so on so it'll not only serve as a baseline because we'll do it again in a couple of years but we'll hand it over to the leadership we'll hand it over to Melissa we'll look at it as a group and say hey these are the types of things that we need to work on in the next year microaggressions just
037skimming is huge I was just I didn't do any official analysis but and then there were a number of other things a lot related to gender and that so those are the types of things that we'll get from that survey so very exciting yes be sure to share that we will absolutely what is it is the total number of groups which are just K-12 so professional staff or support staff well was this all professional yes this one and support staff it was supported included basically everybody except for Food Service okay I think because those custodians that sound right recreational staff there thank you yeah that's a that's a wonderful number yeah it was 381 that got it and 243 okay yeah 281 yeah 381 got it 381. 243 responded so and so one of the
038things that we did to increase that was providing time to do it so it was part of the professional development that's always so moving forward um and then we'll entertain your questions I want to talk about you know kind of what's next for us you know we still have you know half a year on the current memorandum of agreement here and and so it will continue working obviously with circles one of the things we're hoping to be able to do is at some point before the end of the school year is get students together across districts that are involved in circles that would be something really exciting we also need to prepare for someone to lead the mentoring circles that is not from natural Circles of support and and transitioning to that and who will
039do that will that be a new role will that be a co-curricular those are questions that we have because we want to have those people start in that role before the grant expires so that's a significant issue that you'll hear us come to you probably with a position proposal um continuing our work of course with the staff leadership team those different the natural circles leadership teams work obviously if they could join a student Summit that would be a real goal of ours and continuing to collaborate together with one another and with the facilitators continuing our research of course we do have goals a data review cycle where we add different things throughout the year we haven't we do that so that it's not overwhelming and you can actually really look at the data but then
040also the data that we just heard discussed we have one more community of practice for this year and then and then we need to decide what do we want to do last year certainly we had a lot of success professional development time is very competitive in in the district but clearly the value is there and the results are are very evident and then of course um developing this additional partnership we um also you know it should be noted that the the facilitators of the circles do work with the families um as well on a more individual basis but one of the things we'd like to do is to get families together whose students are involved in the circles and and provide some just some engagement for them in this work so those are kind of
041our our next steps for the next few months and of course you can expect that we're going to keep bringing you updates that's formally in January and July is that plan and we continue to hope that you're going to be curious and support that work particularly in relation to our strategic plan and resource allocation so I'm just foreshadowing um that that in addition to facilitators for the mentoring circles you know the districts at a critical point in terms of equity leadership we had created three positions which were designed to be temporary two-year positions we're finishing that second year so the idea of coming forward with some type of a formal District Equity leadership role within the district that's not in addition to somebody's existing job is something that I've been working on I've been connecting
042with with other districts in the area looking at job descriptions working with our our students and our Equity leaders within the in the district particularly are our leaders in the at the high school level who actually kind of drafted a job description with their ideal position so that the creation of that position is going to involve significant feedback from communities from families that's that's really important session so that's kind of our our update and you know now it's your turn to kind of you've been good listeners thank you um ask us questions or share any comments that you may have for us you'd like to start I will Aaron just to continue what you were just talking about an equity position what is the timeline that the district is looking for no ideally we would
043have something posted you know uh you know maybe later March early April um you know the school hiring season is pretty competitive and so you do kind of want to get out in front but you know if we're going to do this right it's probably going to take us until April to really get Community engagement one of the big decisions well there's many big decisions in this role because we don't we don't typically create new positions in the district and so one of the big position considerations is funding of course and then what level of position it's going to be what Authority they have who do they report to and then of course their responsibilities because it would be easy to throw everything into this one roll but that's not setting someone up for success
044how do you be competitive how do you attract people so we haven't determined the FTE for this position it'll be a full-time position yeah it's just a matter of what level of position it is what about uh collaborative effort between the what the village is trying to do and what the school district is trying to do and so the Village um you know I'm not sure who knows the village did make a decision to allocate within their budget for a full-time position and so that's once they had made that decision and their budget allocation you know that meant that you know they felt they had enough for a full-time position so then I don't want to say like we're on our own but then that means you know we need to to respond um what
045these two individuals would collaborate significantly and there were because there is significant overlap in their roles um there's a lot of different opinions about whether or not a shared position could work and I've changed my mind several times on it I keep thinking is well if it was the ideal person for us that's fine if the village wants to use them too but it's important for a school system to have somebody that understands what it's like to work in a K-12 setting because it's very unique the pace is unique the structures the systems are unique so that was a concern that I had about having a shared role but the village is is is putting support behind a full-time position and and we certainly have enough work to justify that so when you talk about
046K-12 what role would this person have with 4K I'm you know yes thank you for correcting me 4K through 12. um well I only ask because mindsets start really early on before they even enter kindergarten sure and if we can capture them when they're just developing these yeah I think we need to look at all of our curriculum through an equity lens and our practices and policies through that so that does include 4K as well but you know there's too much work to do for that role to be a ton of direct service you know with with 2400 kids you know I saw you two nodding you agreed with the idea that it should be two separate positions yes yeah okay I think that's really important for us to hear it's controversial out there it
047is I mean and I like you I've kind of gone back and forth and I know I've talked with you about that but I'm beginning to think it is really does make sense to have a separate when creating this role and deciding kind of what the job description is going to be have you guys looked at area districts and what they've already done yes okay yes um I have some great job descriptions from other districts and in fact was just on a zoom call with Sun Prairie today with the superintendent and and their director to talk about their position and how they created it and advice so it's just it's something that that is really important to get right yeah so I think looking at what other districts have done and what they've learned more
048importantly through the processes what districts are there I mean there's some prayers right yep who who else Middleton Verona okay those are probably our closest yeah one some have it kind of attached to another position another director role but it really you know right now Melissa and I are are trying to do what we can and then we've got the the K5 and 4k5 and then the 712 or 612 positions uh with the teacher leaders that have a full-time job and this is in addition to that yeah I would add a little bit to what you're saying please do from the perspective of someone who has applied for those positions and in some ways have been in that position I don't know what you're hearing from the other districts but I would be really interested
049in how they're supporting that person's success because you can get isolated really quickly and what you want is someone who's going to be here for a long time so thinking about how we provide the conditions for them to feel successful feel that sense of belonging and value being valued and not exploited that's really important because that is a very common experience for folks who do this work particularly in districts that are you know these kinds of demographics the message of external support was is a message I've really heard like yes support internally of course but you need to have somebody externally to to collaborate with coaches and there's different organizations so basically this person most likely will be assigned a mentor mm-hmm yeah exactly that really helps build that foundation for success [Music] like a
050like roll type person Dr Lewis would you be willing to share more about um how the isolation happens or like where what's what would be things to look for that we would want to avoid that's a big question I can tell you one thing and you've already alluded to it I think one of the biggest things is in the Rel to two related things one is that your position becomes a catch-off of all all things equity and yes and so people are kind of offloading you're not taking responsibility so it's not shared it's like give it to Jeffrey and he'll deal with it um and I guess yeah that's really where so it's it's all things Equity is the one position and then the the lack of of demonstrated commitment in other words so again
051you you you your job is to work in partnership with others who are equally as invested in the work as you and that that can go away and not that people are bad so that people are busy and it becomes really easy for you to sort of let it slip you know so the level of commitment we see now will we see that in the same way when someone comes in to do this work and they'll come in enthusiastic and they'll they'll put a lot of energy into it everyone's busy and before you know it people have are doing less than they maybe need to do to keep the work going and then you begin to feel isolated and frustrated that's one way I mean that's that's real close to personal experience that has come
052through with my contacts and getting to to Kate's question about other what other districts are doing one of the themes that you'll see across these job descriptions and through people's you know what they've shared is Co is in front of a lot of things you know co-facilitate co-lead um and and also important in all of those is coaching the idea is that this person is coaching School leaders coaching you know people who then can disseminate that out to other staff members so that it's not like okay they're going to come in and facilitate this for me so I don't need to learn it or go through my own Journey because they've got it um so it's really like a coach to district and building leaders is one of the primary functions and in that in
053some ways shows the level of commitment that's required so would this be considered an administrative position that's the question yes that's the question in front of us whether it's a coordinator or a director do we have three directors now yes Jeff and Melissa and Lauren yeah and and we have buildings and grounds as well so we do have four okay that's our cabinet okay thank you um I'm just wondering how how do we measure progress along the way and how do we make sure that we that we're staying on the right track you know as we kind of Go is is it is it just a matter of a collaborative thing amongst all the people that are involved in it or how do how do we just make sure that that we stay at the
054course you know that we that we don't let happen with Dr Lewis you know said could happen so clarification president Howard are you asking about the grant are you asking about the position um probably more the grant the grant oh okay um So within the proposal there was an evaluation plan so we're staying I would say pretty true to it our goals and timeline is a little thrown off by covid that's understandable and wpp knows that um if there are remaining funds we make in a no-cost extension to keep going to finish off the goals but the annual reports and the evaluators Kim who's also part of natural circles is on the evaluation team so we meet we meet weekly actually and Melissa joins us when she's able um so yeah we basically follow the
055plan as it is so far there's not been a lot of goal drift I've been in evaluation projects where they're like whoa we call it goal drift and that's not happening here and if it does happen it's more due to circumstances beyond our control than any you know intent or oh we should go do this people are pretty true to what's been written and intended what I would add to that is that we our team is really deeply embedded and and so that we certainly in circles and you just you mentioned earlier we're going to be checking in with kids but we check in all the time kids will let us know if they feel like we're going off course or if we need to do something that we hadn't planned on I mean this
056is something that can you know we can modify the the core goals are the same but how we deliver them how we it accomplish them we'll we'll develop over time but it's that constant communication with with students but I'm finding the same is true in the in the leadership team meetings is that there's opportunity for us to have regular conversation and so I'm sitting in like I'm with ceps that's my team that Equity action team so I'm able to listen with the goals in mind as they develop their work and then I'm there to pose questions around to make sure that you know they maintain they're doing good work and it makes sense what they're doing I'm just my goal is to help them think about how do we make sure that we're answering this
057question around those who are most vulnerable or those who are African-American how are we making sure that we're not leaving something or someone out inadvertently so the fact that we're in the space I think also and we have good communication I think the communication speaks to the partnership at every level is that there's good communication across the board so I think that's also what allows us to stay on course and it's not just communication it's trust the levels of trust are pretty darn solid I would say you know to add to that question about evaluation and results it's you know this is such complicated work and so you know it's not as simple to say we're going to look at test scores or we're going to look at discipline data yes you do want to
058see impacts in those areas but to what do you do attribute those changes and so you try to find these indicators along the way as you go to that the other thing I was listening to a podcast this morning called the diversity Gap and I felt like I was talking to Dr Lewis because they were using a gardening analogy and they were saying you know we always talk about the Harvest and we're thinking about the Harvest and what have you harvested and it's really a reminder that first you've got to cultivate the soil and then you've got to plant those seeds and then you've got to nurture that to help it grow and so everything in this Equity work is to say yes look at outcomes but no it's gonna take a long time eight
059to ten years is is what I've kind of heard to truly see the impact and then in terms of lastly sustainability uh that is one of the things that's been a part of this grant from day one from design from proposal has been you know how do we build that and I and I'll be honest sometimes we've had we've had some tough conversations about the role of the facilitators and saying you know I can help you with that I can consult with you and maybe I can be in the space when that conversation happens but I can't lead it because I'm not going to be here forever and you're going to be the one to lead it you know and I I've been part of those conversations uh with the previous facilitator as a principal
060and so that's that's really important it's building the capacity of our of our staff to carry on this work it's all about trust it is you know and as long as there's transparency there will in all likelihood be trust you know that's that's what's so important it kind of kind of in the same line as that once these initiatives get rolling and we get to the end of the school year how do we keep our momentum you know that we've built throughout on track over the course of the two and a half months that you know the building is empty you know how do we kind of maintain our momentum when there's nobody around well we do have some summer learning that that's what we've done before is typically in August um you know that's
061pretty sacred time those times so they're yeah I do I mean I completely understand but yes and part of it is we're planning in the spring for the fall so that we can hit the ground as quickly as possible and get moving yep yeah I'm not sure let me share one more piece though that we sometimes Miss because I think about that and the the work the way in which we work and the way in which we're working together goes so deep into each of us individually and as well as collectively we the momentum isn't lost because the time because of that time and we all need to rest but the work is to go back to our gardening metaphor and you know that that seed if you will or that's been planted or that
062you plant it's resting a bit but it's just regaining energy to get to to build on it in the fall and that's been the real and that's the experience of it that's not just a made-up metaphor it's really kind of it's not it really is I've seen the and that's been two in every District when you do deep work that's built on trust and relationship you've cultivated you're cultivating something in people that will sust that easily sustains over the summer it would sustain longer than that it does need re-cultivation and support but Summer's not going to stop it of course another option would be if you if we had year-round schools we would have that long Gap already said I don't know glad you brought it.com but I'm serious you know about that long break
063during summer like I was just really impressed with uh Dr provenali the things you said that the kids are saying because I think that yeah I'm I don't know maybe because as a former teacher I think sometimes really hard to measure some of these things and they are almost a visceral kind of a feeling and when kids are saying they feel comfortable they they see people that they they would be able to talk with and and that and that kind of that addresses kind of what you were saying Craig I mean if you're starting this at an early enough age those kids would just keep on growing and it will keep on building and I think that's what gives me hope right and it's and as Aaron was alluding to too the indicators that we
064might default to are not necessarily the ones that they're struggling with these are extremely bright intelligent kids who don't often feel that they have a space to be themselves they're code switching all the time so this allows them to go oh yeah it sounds like they're already starting to go yeah and it's the social emotional space where the where they're building on it is absolutely extremely challenging to measure yeah um but yeah the other night when we had the family Equity Group by the way I just want to remind us oh yeah family Equity not parents we would like to be inclusive um one of the parents ran up to Dr Lewis and said my child adores the facilitator I mean just adores the you know so seeing that kind of impact too that that
065that sacred weekly Space is really precious to them so I forgot I went off Bruce you know me I'll go tangent on something but but you're right it's it's a challenge to evaluate it's challenging indicators um and thank you for appreciating that but what they're telling us and what they're doing and the seeds are being planted you know there's the kind of triangulation of there with with that parent it's like okay now there's another person yes yes we have three different people not connected saying the same thing it's a pretty good chance wonderful anybody have anything else if not thank you so much yes thank you for your time we'll see you in the summer yeah obviously the work you're doing is so critically important to our kids in our district and our community as
066a whole and I just want to express our appreciation to all the hard-working folks are putting in and we'll continue to put in I'm sure so I love it thank you thank you thank you thank you thanks a lot okay joint village board School Board planning committee update Aaron would you like to start sure um we had our meeting I think it was on the 10th it was 10th it was 10. and you know a good kind of the a good meeting it had been a little bit since we had met talked about several things that we share one of the things that we started talking about and spoke about quite a bit at length um is just the municipal center master plan and some ideas they're having and what they're exploring in their process
067for redeveloping that space you know as a community center there's there's also Library needs that they're discussing their role with the youth center is something that that we we share is guiding the youth center it's our support of the youth center you know there's no decisions there's there's you know I don't want you to get the impression that there's like you know key things that haven't been shared with the public um but it was just more of a conversation about our shared interest over that space um we also spoke at at some length about Recreation services and and kind of how how we navigate The District's role and The Village's role and those kind of activities talked about an update on the officially the property has been purchased for the for solar use and that
068joint partnership that was something that we kind of all padded each other on the back even though it was the work of others that weren't there um well Matt was there but a lot of hard work that has led to that that solar project at least taking the next step who's Jeff being one of those key people on Matt shinke as well and others um and then we shared about the district strategic plan so that they had a sense of that and some of the key components of that that was my part yeah I think the the folks from the village were uh I guess quite impressed with a with a strategic plan you know the outline and the layout and you know how we've we've sort of made it easy to understand we we
069spoke something about the youth center as as Aaron said they're currently in that in an old the old library building over across the street from the high school which is a location that works very well for the Youth Center because it's kids coming down from IMS you know they just walk right down the hill and across the street and they're there however I I think the village is looking for something other than the youth center to better use that property so I suspect that both both the village hall and the library are retrofitted to expand I don't believe any decisions have been made in terms of any of those I I think they're still very much in the conversation stage about who's going to go where you know when everything shakes out when that big
070beautiful building is done out there um Library does offer some Youth Services as well we talked about that a little bit um I think they're looking to move Public Safety to the new facility and Rel renovate the current Public Safety facility for uses other than current and probably look at a at a community center as Aaron said the school m m rap is very unique amongst Recreation there's very few school districts that participate as an active I guess member of the community recreation program yeah so it's a additional area of complexity I guess that I think what do you say 107 in the state something like that that's an amazing yeah so um and we also as as uh Aaron said that that they've acquired property next to the Hope Rod and Gun Club opposite
071side of the driveway in there actually I think that's the old McFarland property yeah eight Acres there and and we had talked to the McFarland family at one time about acquiring that property a few years ago um I don't think I really have anything else I I know that we talked about the Power of Words presentation that was going to come the next day and I think they were real happy to see that the school was bringing that back in for the staff really if anything else Bruce did you have anything no I think you guys have done a great job with this um the one thing I'm I'm so excited about is again and I've I've talked to Aaron about this and I know I've talked to many of you is about the fact
072that we're willing to collaborate with the village and we're just we keep on increasing these things and you know I I pointed out that there's people my age who are starting to need places to walk in the wintertime and uh you know can they do that and I think if we can work together with the district and the community and people start throwing ideas out there I mean some of them are not going to work but you know out of some of those ideas we're going to come up with some things that someone's gonna like there's gonna be an aha moment like yeah that this might be something we can explore so I think it was just I really enjoyed working on this committee or being on this committee so any questions no just a
073comment you brought this up the library doing some youth activities it's phenomenal yeah the amount and the quality of services devoted to Youth and every school up through high school that's one of the reasons why they're thinking of relocating so they'll be nearer to that you know to have the the youth center actually over over there and the youth center is limited it's just kids yeah middle schools yeah it is yeah there's a lot of a lot of kids to be filled in around that and the library does a tremendous job I think our library is an underappreciated yeah absolutely the too many people have already made up their mind that libraries are nothing but a bunch of stacks of books you know and who needs to go in there and look through and take
074it out and worry about getting it back when you can just do it a different way they do so many more things and it's just like I say it's an underappreciated entity for sure yeah well I think our imcs are underrated also you know unless you good in the imc's recently in the last few years you have no idea what their roles and responsibilities are for kids and their colleagues I'm seeing the libraries School libraries oh yes yes and I will say um I also we have our this Thursday is the first meeting of the library strategic plan committee and I am a member of that committee as well so is that tied with our school strategic plan no that's right that's theirs or the public library cool nice I'll be serving on that which
075is quite an honor to get invited tonight just don't spread yourself too thin Mr whoops okay there's nothing on that we'll go to the State education convention that was held was that last week yeah week no no no yeah a couple weeks I know Jeff Jeff spent some time there I wasn't able to bump into it but Aaron and I managed to meet up a couple of times to kind of discuss strategy and such but boy I tell you I don't think I've ever had an experience in a state convention like the one I had um when I attended uh helped me here students say United against United against State Donovan and and I'm sorry Maya representative McFarland there was a couple of kids from DeForest there as well and three from Deerfield and there
076was Deerfield was there was there and then who was the virtual one I don't think it was the forest no it wasn't I can't remember anyway there was a third high school that was there virtually but you know they all did a fantastic job but I just sat there and marveled at the way Maya and Donovan represented this history they did an incredible job that the facilitators stood up front and said you know there are days that I absolutely give up on that I can't work with them can't deal with them they they're it's just a non-starter and that and within 20 seconds Maya basically stands up and says I love talking to adults she hasn't given up on adults and they they I I tell you I've never been so proud to be from
077McFarland as I did witnessing those kids and you know the courage they have to stand up and talk about these issues is is not something to be taken lightly know there's a lot of people that don't like to talk in front of people these get these kids did a great job phenomenal yes good thanks to Kelly Thompson for you know organizing that and taking them down there on a somewhat treacherous morning very good we also had a Melissa full presented on um the materials reconsideration also known as book challenges as a member of a panel for that and that did an excellent job and that policy is something that is is really a model for other districts and in our process which we we started putting into place the night that it was adopted by
078the board we had a request that night so but a great process so that was really something else to be proud of being represented she did a wonderful job and I had the opportunity to serve as a delegate again the delegate assembly meets on on Wednesday afternoon at 1 30. and they generally planned for a couple hours and I I've got all these and if you're interested in all of the resolutions I'd be happy to make copies and you can you can look at each and every one of these but there was so many amendments and so much discussion on several of these resolutions that finally got to be 5 30. and that was a drop dead time that they had set we didn't get a chance to even discuss the last resolution and that
079has never happened before I've been gone by four o'clock at the latest every other year this was a it was a year where there was there were some real differences of opinion and how education should be working one thing that disappointed me a little bit was there was very little talk about equity to tell you the truth that you know as important and as Dynamic an issue as that is there was really not much discussion of that as a part of any of these resolutions so I was a little disappointed in that but and I was very disappointed in how long it took was that a g was that a geographical kind of rural urban split yeah that's what I would have suspect without a doubt yeah and it's funny and it's remarkable differences in
080because as Jeff knows you know you talk to some of these school districts from extremely rural areas and such and I think the Lion's Share correct me if I'm wrong if their budgets goes to Transportation sure a lot of years yeah you know you take these three and a half hour bus trip rides you know when you're way up North and such and it's a it's a whole different scenario you know for the kids and we're seeing Kenosha Milwaukee and the kids in Hayward and Eagle River and Menasha but it's uh it's always interesting conversation so were you saying that the delegate assembly was a lot of rural representation there always is got it okay as as well I mean it's all of the school districts in the state you know there's a couple thousand
081folks there I imagine and a lot of different opinions and there'd be amendments to the amendment to the amendment and then you've got a parliamentarian sitting up there and say well I don't know if you really want to do this so it was they've got little burdensome after a while thanks for doing that though Craig it's always interesting yeah it really is and I'll get some copies at this point yeah so Craig we're familiar with all the information that was started at halftime will there be a final document to tell us what was approved with her up with or without resolutions or amendments all of the yes okay I've got it all marked oh you do have to work okay so you'll have all that information some real light reading for you got anything else
082Aaron it's a great opportunity okay and Mr Mooney Club connect k-i-n-e-c-t connect and I went up to Green Bay on Friday because the connect group has purchased a building brick motor building prior to this much of their work was just done virtually and Aaron gave me some information prior to I won as far as the logistics of this whole thing goes because it's connected between connect which is sort of a private entity correct and weva or four lakes serve it as their potential partners because there's cost involved especially when you have a building but I'm not going to get into that part uh other if you're not sure any of that at all or okay these are just some logistical things yes that this is a new program and still working out some of those
083yeah yeah it's a brand new program the two facilitators are directors uh one is the former superintendent from Algoma I think he resigned two years ago maybe and then he brought a fifth grade teacher along with him to connect and together what they've done is they've reached out to five counties in Wisconsin in five states across the country including California and what they do is if they see a problem or an association organization sees a problem what they do is that they go in and help create identify Solutions they're purely an action oriented program you know they don't like to sit around the table just have meetings after meetings they're action oriented but the missing element was students so what they have identified now is they purchase this this building it used to be a
084building that was world headquarters of some of a label maker label makers like labels such as wine bottles or cans or boxes that was the world headquarters before they were bought out but they have a beautiful L-shaped building and there's numerous conference rooms large areas also and the vision is this is that weeva would provide the virtual instruction academics to students in the other part of the building is the career piece and they would have sort of residents there involved with uh connected to the five pathways that they have which is construction business and Business Administration health services law and criminal justice and agriculture will be brand new as of this fall so you have two entities in the virtual part there isn't a teacher teaching because it has to be virtual but the kids
085enrolled in uh weava or other virtual school that we like would be taking their classwork there a teacher from weeva could instruct from there virtually so they get their courses in much of the curriculum is going to be written by construction companies agricultural folks that will meet the state standards for the curriculum they'll do their coursework they go to the other other part of the building it's all Project based and again there might be a lawyer there a detective a farmer a contractor and together they will work on solving real life problems as Solutions and they will do it collectively with a group of students and their mentors basically they are they hope to start with 25 students in the fall and then expand it all depends on funding they have the funding both parties
086have the fun end at this point but it's really intriguing because students will be able to delve into the courses the curriculum that they feel is pertinent to what they want to do after high school it's part of is that is that something that right now it's going to be high school high school yeah ninth grade and it's all part of the destination's career academies it'll be the first one in the nation that does that has this active partnership uh I spoke to Sarah cutter during this and this seems to be a potential the solution for many kids that become disengaged even with Weaver because they can customize their educational program about what it is that the kids need and what they want so it'd be very interesting um you know I certainly sold out
087yeah I'm sure Sarah will give us an update as they move into that whole arena in the future 25 is a small group they plan to extend immensely so just as a point yeah a little more deeper but deeper than underneath the pressure but after they graduate y'all they have many more skills than typical high school kids will have many probably will be hired part-time uh they still have to have to go to school probably for one or two years possibly but they certainly have a jump ahead of students that won't have this type of program option for them mm-hmm it's intriguing it is especially I think for the struggling disengaged students yeah if we can offer them something different and something better for them anyway anybody have any questions if not um Tom you
088are looking you're next on the agenda as well I have a quick question where can we find more information about connect uh you can Google them but they don't have information like I'm talking about on there yet it's pretty early yeah okay too early yeah so it'll be coming I won't steal your thunder you go ahead is it the snow removal or yes okay just a shout out I tell you it's amazing because I live near seps so I'm driving past her all the time could be in the middle of the night on the week whatever and after it snows those no removable people are out there and by morning those walks are yes I'm not going to say as clear as that is because they've already removed the ice as clear as ever and
089there's a lot of folks that walk or run yes walk their pets if it's one safe place that they know they'll have it's the school sidewalks and that's quite remarkable because I know when I drive past high school it's the same way here you gotcha please compliments to whoever does that is that our buildings are grounds well our buildings and grounds manages both internal and then also with a contractor okay but more importantly even things like our coordination and collaboration with the village making sure that they know like Johnson Street is a fine example of making sure that it's plowed the right way so we don't get piles yes so we've had those conversations with them the other thing is money into technology like cameras uh our departments use that for reviewing what's going on
090in their sidewalks and our entrances so you know we tend to hear the snow drops hitting the roof and then everybody gets busy around two in the morning and then we're a little disappointed when school doesn't happen sometimes I know oh geez yeah yeah no there's no worries there it's good thank you for bringing that up yeah salting for the ice Stone Park especially for us it is but we've got to be cognizant of the fact that salt is gonna is gonna be a nightmare for our environment at some point and I think they're starting to I think they're using lessons yeah I think they are too good Madison uses liquid stuff as well yeah yeah you save money into them too but you have to obviously be concerned about safety first yep and I
091won't mention the parking lots even though I know that they're cleared also yeah but many of us just use a sidewalk I do a great job our buildings and grounds are second to none as far as I'm concerned our facilities are nothing else always look great they really do so please pass that along to your guys um last but not least the retirement here yeah take a look at the list of potential retirees holy smokes think of the years of experience that these folks will leave taking it with them oh yeah not well figuratively I guess um but years of service years of collaborating with colleagues and families and kids they have what I call the history but more importantly I view is they've taken responsibility and they've been quite successful in building that foundation
092for learning for kids I'd like to think we as a district should continue to build upon that success and move forward I think sometimes we think out of sight out of mind you know some left you know he's learned to start all over but that's not McFarland way so we have to build upon the strengths that many of our teaching staff and support staff have provided to us just the relationships that I've observed directly with teachers and support staff with kids it is phenomenal we talk about the one thing that makes the most significant difference in the life of a student is having that one meaningful kind of connection with an adult in school and I have to say I mean I'm proud of our staff in extending themselves to do that and this is
093K-12 and that's wrote 4K server sorry Aaron but it's certainly K-12 so congratulations to them I mean talk about leaving a gap yeah that's a challenge how do you find people to replace them and we don't expect them to come at the same level right but my expectation is that we gather information and support from our retirees also because they have a lot to share a lot to give yet and that was something that was brought up at the Convention as well is that retirees are making a significant difference in terms of providing subs for Atlanta school districts a lot of retired staff has volunteered to come back and fill in some gaps I remember it I think it was the first year I was on the board either 2010 or 2011. when at 10
094oh sure was thrust upon us we had 19 retirees that year I think 19 was the number but it's very much in the neighborhood so yeah this this is It's a severe impact and these are valuable valuable folks that have worked long and hard and deserve their retirement but they're going to be asked to you know they're going to continue to be asked to contribute I think to their districts even after they retire and I think that's the key I think we should continue to ask them who's going to continue to extend our hand to them sometimes we don't do that for a number of reasons but accepts regular red special red related arts support staff all impacted this year I love the saying about you know how people say they standing on the shoulders
095of those who came before before them and in some ways I hope we can we can take advantage of these shoulders as it were yeah yeah so it's very good folks and we are really fortunate that we do have our retirees involved in a couple formal ways of course as Subs but also as mentors yeah you know and that that is something that um is something that we we look to do moving forward yeah so we we currently have you know Mark Hoyer as an example of course working with our new to the profession Educators and then um Jackie hickey for example is another a mentor yeah for a staff member so and I want to commend you because I think we're starting to go back that because there were there was a there was
096a period of time where I I did feel like the door was just kind of closed and that was it and we're starting to try to figure ways to bring great expertise that these people have collectively and just get them about get them involved yeah tap into that valuable resource yeah it is definitely that's all I have okay Aaron good District administrators report the floor is yours all right I will make this relatively quick so we can get to Mr Mahoney's presentation um yep you see in your packet there were two administrative holds that that we're sharing that with you so that you know in terms of different recognition it's it's school counselors week so that is it um it you know we are just so fortunate to have such amazing school counselors in our
097district and you know from an administrator perspective I think um what I always was impressed with and have continued to be impressed with with our school counselors is the way that they serve so many people you think of them with students and that's certainly their primary focus but families as well as staff yeah the the role that they play in supporting and Consulting with staff is so important and and we have such we just really have the best I mean we're really really fortunate with our school counselors so make sure to appreciate um them also um some of the things connect shared so I'll save that um girls basketball coach coach mullaney was recognized as coach of the week I'll if you haven't seen the news story I'll make sure to get that it's an
098outstanding bit yeah it's really good yeah I love that that kind of the the Mantra their message of she's so lucky crossed out and she works so hard really good story yeah and there's so many involved in in that um I don't know if you if you saw that in the minutes that our pool was recognized as one of the 13 uh most pools with the most character that's right I love that too saw that on Facebook over the weekend on Facebook yeah so wonderful thing uh there and and thanks so much to the taxpayers well please support that and of course Stu for this amazing leadership I wanted to recognize a high school Equity spear committee that has started to send out a monthly calendar of different equity the events throughout that month it's
099just a nice way to recognize those events and give some information and educate staff we've also had several donations recently including people donating to offset some negative balances for lunch accounts parkas for the the girls soccer team and something near and dear to my heart Dan Chen Holmes with the coffee the month of February so go get your um free to us coffee at the McFarland house a nice way to think Educators and and First Responders um wanted to recognize that our our hate speech staff training and student work continues at the middle school and think Jamie Thomas for a channel for their partnership there um also I know Valerie's shared a little bit about you know Deca and and their work I'm sure you'll look at this it's really impressive it's kind of overwhelming
100to be honest all the things that that they do including raising over five thousand dollars this year wow uh for MDA and Special Olympics and make a wish just great things but you know really impressed with the way not only they attend conferences and compete but the impact on our community and Deco was essentially dead I think there was 12 kids involved in it when Ginger first first came here I think they're over a hundred now yeah you'll see that's membership is one of there's a there's and more actually some are there only four yeah foreign also I wanted to move into sharing um who buy him again yeah here's the photos I just turn off my volume um but wanted to share this with you so this came through a conversation that Tom and
101I had Tom had this idea reminder about some of the photos we used to show photos at board meetings and it's just kind of nice to connect and so it was a nice as a nice first step in in doing that thank you to Angie for pulling these off of our social media account because that's something that's already being done so it's not something extra for our teachers um to do so you may have already seen these but it's a nice way to kind of recognize you know the old having so much fun outside um Lauren arango and I work we're doing one of our walk and talks the other day we're able to see the snow falling at ceps that is very exciting when they're out at recess and they're having a blast so
102that's always fun the winter Spotlight assembly it's really exciting to get to see the assemblies if you ever have a chance I'll try to let you know when they're coming up because it's a real sense of community and they do such a nice job at all the buildings recognizing our students and a variety of students for very specific things that they do to have a positive impact please send those out that'd be good I'd like to know when they are because I happen to see the one wise visiting at the OPC Intermediate School and it was a blast yes they do one every Friday right but I mean they'd be great in all the schools yeah sure I think it's listed in their weekly bulletin it is good news that's true always welcome um third
103and fourth grade students learning about the zones of Regulation and so quick overviews there's different levels and there's corresponding colors for students to describe how they're feeling and then to manage that emotion so sometimes all of us we we get up there and the levels and need to use some strategies so that we move down and calm ourselves so kind of a neat social emotional learning curriculum of course Little Mermaid I'm not sure if you're able to see that some of you probably saw a lot of it but really exciting just amazed at at the work that they do and big shoes to fill for Elise Weber coming in with Katrina lemons having retired last year and she did an amazing job and of course DD and the tech crew the students it was just
104an outstanding production uh the Mr kinnaman's classes I don't know if you've ever seen the the roller coasters it's always fun to see them when they take them home try to get those on the bus the it's a really neat project because it's problem solving but it's also a collaboration and working together as a team so I keep saying we have the best Middle School Technology and Engineering teacher in the state prove me otherwise a little fun at the pool which we were just talking about I love that our district continues to have kids swim as part of physical education throughout their career here and this is the 18 to 21 program with a little fundraiser and they're kind of presenting the check there to Underdog Pet Rescue and they were selling dogs kind of
105a neat service and an ending moment there a multicultural Club you saw this we we had some students from Costa Rica they're staying in the Oregon school district I believe and and were there were some families in Argonne and uh work came and visited and spoke to our classes presented just a neat Multicultural experience here they're meeting with our Multicultural Club uh the MHS advising night just really well attended real uh that that event has just grown into this this huge amazing experience so thanks to everyone involved in organizing it it is a lot of work to organize it's huge really important great event I think that is it for our slideshow stop sharing and um upcoming events school resource officers Appreciation Day is coming up on the 15th that's also the day of our
106board retreat and random acts of kindness on the 17th but we should do those every day don't wait for the 17th board meeting coming up on the 20th school bus driver appreciation day well placed in the middle of winter um and public schools week is coming up to the end of the month on the 20th a lot of good stuff that concludes my report thank you very much thank you nice pictures yeah those pictures yeah I love the idea I appreciate it excellent yeah okay all right come on patiently waiting right District administration with my presentation first page is pretty self-explanatory tonight is tonight and uh we're here to talk just a little bit about budgets um specifically page two what are we working on well the fun thing about the budget um all of
107a lot of the areas in my world Food Service buildings grounds technology HR mrap all of those areas I'm guiding and leading and participating with my teams when it comes to the budget I get to guide and leave myself so this is actually kind of the fun stuff of my job so if there's anybody to blame and it's just kind of me so um okay so you know what are we working on we've shared our updates on enrollments which then impacts our staffing um so you know we're kind of done with the enrollment and some of the Staffing uh you saw tonight there was a significant number of retirements um that's our normal we're about five to seven professional staff usually I think we've been as high as 12 in the last 20 years and
108then you know usually you know a supervisor or director or principal about every five years is kind of where we see things with that this year we also had two career exploration teachers that are not returning um so then we take all of that and we start talking about uh where we're shifting folks um if we need to do that because we do do great particularly at the kindergarten through sixth grade we have the times we have a bubble class going through like right now this year where Visa has a nine teachers at third grade eight at fourth grade nine at fifth grade and next year it'll be a eight nine eight track the elementary presently has 888 ceps kindergarten through second they're going to continue to be an 888. so um you know actually
109Greg and I and Corey had already met today kind of mapping out where we're going to be making sure that we if we're doing any shifting what's that look like are we balanced out um you know and so we're balanced out at the K5 level and you know there's a number of positions that'll be going up for art music another place throughout the district so tomorrow we start uh what we call HR boot camp 2 where we start talking about what the hiring process looks like making sure everybody understands it our administrators and we get moving along so that's tomorrow's a console time frame behind the scenes and looking forward to that so what else are we always working on at this time of year looking at next year's budget and then future years of
110budgets Revenue estimates and expense estimates so if we go to page three uh the revenue situation my new term for it sorry uh 22 23 we're balancing out this fiscal year with 2.2 million of Esther dollars which is one-time money uh this is year two of the two-year biennium in which our state provided no inflationary adjustments so we are using what the uh The Joint finance committee said just use all that one-time money um so we are just a reminder a lot of people see that there's referendums that have occurred last year and this year for districts that also received us or funding we received a lot of our Esser funding after the fact because of the surveys that we had conducted for the amount of time kids were in classes and we actually got
111more money than we were expecting and that's great because now we're at a situation where not only can we use the extra money and it looks like we have enough to balance out 2223 the Year we're currently in but also 23.24 with the remaining 3.4 million um but we're able to get into the next biennial budget which is 23 24 and 24.25 so now we can kind of see what's going to happen through joint Finance the governor um kind of puts us in a unique situation that we should know what we're going to need from a referendum regardless because we will hopefully for sure have the information from the state of what year two of that banging out budget looks like and then also you get a feel for where where is the legislature trending
112so um 24 25 we need a referendum for that um and the dollar amount will be 23.24 amount of Revenue that we are having 3.4 million plus whatever increase in expenses is for 24.25 the referendum that we would be targeting would be primaries in February of 2024 which means in December we have to actually make uh that decision um for setting that referendum so we're not too far off from 2425 even though we're in 2223 if that makes any sense on the expense side just some key points for um those out there listening and those here looking at this document 76 of our costs are wage slash benefit um and we've experienced in the last four years 5.5 average wage change cumulative everybody so we are up about 21 22 percent um from where we
113were four years ago and just waging benefit costs and we really have not expanded any of our staffing levels so just kind of keep that in mind that we have been running at a pretty good clip so just kind of keep those in mind 22 23 again we've balanced our expenditures with extra money 23 24 which is coming up we are going to um I have to add 1.2 million more of Esther money compared to this year to commit to those ongoing expenses that we have for our staffing levels we have now um sometimes people wonder boy that's a lot well if we think about basically salaries and benefits for every one percent we go up in cost there just for our existing staff um you're talking 300 000. now if we've been trending at
114about 5.5 percent it adds up pretty quick yeah yeah so in 2425 there's no more one-time money so again just a reminder for our listeners out there that we will be planning a referendum now my early estimate if the state does nothing is that for 24 25 we'd be looking for just maintaining our staffing levels maintaining our programs about 4.2 million would be the first Year's referendum for 24.25 and then if you think about it that's basically going to go up and school districts across the state have been proving this because the state basically said well if you want inflationary adjustments you have your local voters vote for it and they have and I wouldn't see a difference here in McFarland because as some of you know your school portion of property taxes went down
115you betcha that's because we're using one-time money right now and at some point we're going to need some more assistance now again we have this great view of um like maybe the NFL will be envious of us nobody knows what's happening with Aaron Rodgers but and we don't know what's going to happen with school Finance but in another six months or so we're gonna know what's going on with school Finance for the biennial budget so this is where I wanted to talk what if 2324 and what if 2425 what if dpi's wish to give us 350 dollars on the revenue cap and increase it from 350 to 650 so really keep in mind they do Base building in their budgeting so it's 350 per student more inflationary adjustment for 23.24 and then another 300 for
11624.25 not another 650. this is how they determine that's called Base building so what if that went through joint Finance it's a big caveat there if that actually happens um well it's 1.5 million more than if they would just cap for our school district so what that would mean is that instead of in 24 25 us as a board Administration seeking to our public for 4.2 million we're going to be closer to probably about 2.7 million for that first referendum here so it's encouraging but you can kind of get a sense of had there been inflationary adjustments last year this year allowed the Astro money to be really used for more support versus just balancing budgets um you know I think things would have been fine every school district would have to run another Republic
117um and spend a lot of money just having everybody's time doing that so um so again we know we're going to be going to referendum regardless because if and let's join Finance decides that they're going to go basically to start with 950 more where would catch us all up and across the districts in the state if they did that Jeff of the five billion dollar deficit or Surplus we have in the state how much would be taken out for that proposal great question I have no idea I figured that out I'm sure that's there's a dollar amount there for that um but I don't know specifically but it wouldn't be 7 million I know that there's seven billion billions so that's where I keep saying we're in a good spot where we really get to
118be informative to our public about where we really need to start that first uh dollar amount for our first referendum year which is 24.25 and typically you do like a three or five year uh referendum to not exceed certain increases but what we want to start with is learning what's going to happen through joint Finance as much as I have documents that show me scenarios of what looks like in a three-year five-year I think what's important for us is remember that we're really planning for 24.25 right now because in about eight months nine months we have to be getting ready for some board action to go to referendum so 420 425 but we'll know more from joint Finance by that time and the governor so next steps uh continue revenue and expense evaluation we're certainly
119ramping up with where our Market is for salaries teacher support staff professional staff um you know and then we're also in the middle of right now educating our berserk and suzerk committees on where we're at with health insurance and see where that's going to run because this is we're entering the first year in a long time that we haven't had a multi-year agreement so um were in the home stretch of educating and then we get into negotiating and then we get into hopefully locking in on another longer term deal uh continue to monitor joint finance committee and DPI and also just see what's happening with our neighbors too as far as lots of conversation that business managers have to say what if but um in addition to 2324 like I just mentioned we have to
120as a group start planning for a referendum because it's an like I said joint Finance is not going to add the dollars back that they should have put there in the first place so Eve little faith I'm joking yeah you've never seen joined Finance in 26 years of this actually raise the amount no I know um so that'd be cool it would be very cool but I'd be like and Mr Turner you said that you know you want to thank the taxpayers for our pool and of the 13 pools I somehow thought it was eight but whatever it is okay 13 yeah Unique Pools yeah Unique Pools I mean how many of those open themselves to the public as well as this does they do not that's why I'd say we're number one I mean
121we we have and I'm probably I use that darn pool forever for this operation and I'll tell you what there are so many people in this community this this school pool has just helped so many folks so we are unique from about five until about nine or ten at night I mean every day it's amazing yeah it's great yeah Beth yeah that's a great way to build support it is I think knowing that there's the referendum down the road we should expand opportunities for the community to well that's what that that build us a dome Tom pardon me oh boy don't don't listen Dome we need a dome oh a dome no but but the fact that we have that joint committee we're working on coming up with collaborative ideas wonderful Jeff you talked about
122we received more Esser funds than you had anticipated right by how much more well basically we got about three million more than we were expecting because we are one of the school districts uh like a lot of Dane County districts received extra funding at the end because we are all blocked basically from being in person but we actually did get in person a little bit sooner uh than most districts and we did the minute study we submitted a DPI and after the fact they came up with amounts across the state and we received more than we were expecting great well done thank you very much thank you so much yeah thank you very much and I appreciate your budget calendar yes because you follow it to a T and we still have an idea what's
123coming up next well the public appreciates it too I think we're very transparent here and I think it's really nice thank you very much Mr Mahoney sir again have a great evening thank you thanks Jeff school safety written drill evaluation notification and review per Wisconsin State Statute 118.07 or CP M we did that we're in the district calendar we're done yeah the photos were done number 10. businessman budget update wow we are just flying action items action on approval of 2022 2023 McFarland School District calendar adjustment plan if necessary due to cancellations so we have two um inclement weather days built into our calendar after that we need to do some creative things the first building to be tight on minutes is the high school and that's partly impacted because they have two end of
124they have an end of semester um intervention day had that impacts their instructional minutes so bringing forward this proposal so that if this does happen it's set in place and we can move forward with your approval tonight um so the first step on that day three would involve them I'm coming um so high school students would come on the last day of the semester Maybe if that happens again if there's another day it would be changing a PD day to an instructional day if that happens if there's another day then we need to um The Proposal is to add a day at the end of the year though there's currently a professional development day scheduled after the last student day so be replacing that with a student day and then after that we're crying and
125looking at other options a couple things to note about this there's there's a few things that this is based on and I want to be transparent about it you know the first is you can add instructional minutes to the day to meet the requirement for minutes but I don't think it impacts learning positively you can go to Virtual learning as some of our neighboring districts have done but I think our kids are best we think our kids are best served being in our buildings with our Educators so replacing a inclement weather day with a virtual days is a way to meet the the law but not a way to increase student learning and to the degree that you do when they're in person that's a couple of other there's a couple other notes in there
126but but that's basically the proposal we're bringing forward to you for consideration this was administrative Council put this together you know ran it through um the the McClellan Federation of teachers just for some input through their leadership and people seem to be okay moving forward I appreciate those considerations because I think that the adding minutes I think you're spot on with that I mean it doesn't really make up a full day of school if that's what we have to do and in terms of the learning so that's I really appreciated that that was in there it causes other problems down the road too so we can move to approve this if you would there's no other discussion yeah I was going to ask you Aaron about the the mft response but they were okay with
127yes okay yeah and how do we ever make up the PD days I mean because each of the PD days is so focused in depth if we don't have them when do staff get those PD yeah we just have to get creative you know it depends on what was planned for that that day um you know they're you're right it there's no way you can have these days and not give up something and I know yep it's a bad idea we'll discount that no more cancellation that's it well you have all heard me tell the story I've told everybody I know that I'm not going to be the gazelle that Strays from the herd so I talked to my colleagues but foreign [Laughter] all right anything else I would look for emotion I will make
128that motion thank you so I moved to approve the attached 2022-23 McFarland School District calendar adjustment plan if it is necessary due to school cancellation as recommended by Administration thank you do I have a second I'll second I don't know any other discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries five zero action on first reading of policies I'm not going to read all of these just for the sake of time um and we can go ahead and make a motion to approve the first reading on all of these we can pull some out if someone feels like we need to um but I would open this up for discussion or a motion to approve the first reading of all these policies there's a couple policies I'd like
129to have clarification on and the first is 7440.01 it's video surveillance in the electronic monitoring and under the section of retention storage and Disposal section um are there time limits that we retain all that information before we dispose of it there are I don't know what they are off the top of my head I mean there's no requirement from statute of limitation limitation yeah there's no there's no statute that says that we have to keep them for because it's not clarified you know the only place I've been in where there was a requirement to save them for a certain safe results or data for a certain length of time was when you're doing business with the government I know that a laboratory it's seven years you have to keep paper I don't think it is
130again I'm not advocating that we keep them for five or seven years right when I'm advocating is that we have a timeline so we have an idea of when they're being disposed of even if it's just after one year yeah I can find out what it is you know it might not impact the policy but it would be good to know is what is how does that work I don't know off the top of my head in the other clarification under that same policy I know we have cameras on the bus and when I was working we had cameras on the bus and parents would challenge the bus company well prove to me that my child was bullying this other kid the common response was well we can't because we have to protect the privacy
131of the other students do we have the technology now to block out other students so we can show the parent what has happened on the bus with their child we do okay and we have okay um and in actuality you don't need to block out the other students unless they're also related to a concern about their behavior so if it's just kids on the bus just being kids on the bus you can actually show them but but Nelson's is able to to blur bases they were not able to do that yeah yeah new technology it happens from time to time not often but but it is a it is part of a student's record they have access to it and um just as they would any other writer good question go ahead Tom I don't
132have appeal number here it's protection of District funds oh yeah that last it talks about you know people being bonded who's bonded in our district for this then a number of Staff or yeah so the one of the reasons for that change in that policy is because um we use the insurance and not the the bonding so that's one of the reasons that they changed that and so this was one when Dr Brown came to me and said this is a recommended change she said tell Jeff he'll be really excited so I did he wasn't as excited as I had hoped but it just provides that flexibility for a district to do one or the other you don't have to do that's why they changed the title so it says you know it says and
133prop property be bonded or alternatively covered okay and then uh policy number 3217 uh both of them the weapons the others three of them weapons by Jewel yeah maybe next time someone just could provide a clarification on that I found it quite confusing yeah I'm happy I wouldn't change the policy I guess because maybe I'm I just don't understand the big difference I mean that they can have a weapon as long as it's unloaded and it's locked in a separate yes so the change would be yes this is good this is an important one to talk about it is yeah um because it's a district initiated one it's not part of a Neola update um and so as you know just to reiterate Bruce said it well but you know currently our policy allows for
134a student or not a student a staff member or a visitor to have a weapon on school property in their locked vehicle um and so the proposal the proposed revision is to remove that which would basically say no weapon no firearms on school property at any time by anyone so how do we get that policy information out to parents guests that might visit the high school yeah we'd probably have to do some posting maybe or usually you post it on the doors I think it's typically what well when I lived in Texas that's what they're doing yeah exactly so it was yeah it was like stickers yeah how do you but how do you get the word out I don't you know because it's just on the property and of course you don't want to
135have like Signs throughout your entire parking lot no I understand that so yeah so how do you do that you know yeah I'm opening and then that same those I think the same couple policies I think the wording um when they talk about this for prohibition does not apply to unloadable Firearms or whatever that's what that is on any part of school grounds used as a parking facility I think would sound better if we reword that and said parking facilities on school grounds it would be more clear I would think is allowing for street parking facilities that are not part of our ownership though is that what it's actually well that says it's school grounds used for parking facility yeah so that facility on school grounds so that red part is what is currently in
136policy and is proposed to be removed altogether so none of that would be okay if that makes sense it's a redaction on the street yeah yeah we can try a property so any and that's being off of school property correct yeah that might it might be a good topic for attorneys or travels how do I make that increasing safety on our schools yes hey just so you know or it could be a good topic for Joel to have yeah I think that might be a joint officer yeah Joel there if approved by the board yes yeah didn't Joel play I mean didn't he recommend some of these is it yeah yeah which I think that makes yes that's a good idea and then there are policy 511 eligibility of Resident slash non-resident students eligibility for
137our students to come in yeah letter k this is what I'm concerned about it talks about if a new family is thinking moving in they only have nine weeks to move into the district before they have to start paying tuition nine weeks to build a house I don't think is reasonable okay I gotta catch up with you I think that's a short time span because when we moved to McFarland we had to live in Madison for seven months before our house was built bless you yeah it was delayed and all that stuff I just think for the welfare of any students in the household to have them enroll in one school district after they transition temporarily and then to relocate to the McFarland schools a few months later that you know that's not in the
138best interest of kids do you know what page that's on packet no I don't have I meant to bring my computer with me it's in the district initiated one I think it was by Scott and Shayna yes I mean that's the current language now that part hasn't changed so know that that is the current language and my question is would waivers be available in the state but do not reside in the district but who present evidence they would move into this within nine weeks May enroll okay so you're just saying that nine weeks I can check on that seems awful short and it may not it may be something that it says that in policy but in practice we actually practice I know and it's two and a half in two months okay I can
139I can check on that and then under that same policy Erin uh the part that talks about accepting expelled students into our district either with or without a conditional enrollment order if that can just be expanded it doesn't have to be done tonight but I would find it useful if we could expand on that clarify it a little more I can clarify um now I mean the idea is that the reason for the change the impetus for this change was that weva could allow students have been expelled in another District that that could allow them to attend without requiring board action yes but you can't you can't say that in your policy that it's only for students going virtually and so and we did this with Shayna and researched it so this allows that flexibility
140for them to allow students okay to enroll at weva and so we haven't enrolled any students here in a brick and mortar yeah but we the house yes and I understand that Xavier some of our students in the past and I think the way that it's written that this was also one of my um clarifications it seems like there's a fair amount of discretion given to the district administrator and so that so if there was a request to join the brick and mortar School that you'd have some fair amount of all of us would have some fair amount of discretion yes well actually we wouldn't unless you denied it right because if you accepted it we might not even care about it Oh I thought it was said both yeah it's only if it's conditional
141enrollment so that's if I say you know I'm recommending that they can come but they have these conditions that they have to follow for us they're expelled okay but there's no way to separate it out and say yes for if you're going to the virtual school but no because we don't want to discriminate and then the last one is uh 74 40. zero three small unmanned yeah systems the Thrones uh yes the drones and there seems to be we're being offered two options is that correct yeah but I picked the second one um I just showed you that the both options okay I guess I could have taken that first option on so the second one is that basically requires um you know my approval for them for somebody to have a have a drone
142yeah so once again how do we get the word out to our neighbors yeah that have their resonance butting up against the athletic field from during the day for example yeah I don't I don't know I mean because it would we would just give them a warning probably yeah yeah yeah because the you know you have to ongoing do that right and I mean as people move and change and things and I and I was this was one of those policies that was sort of sitting there and wasn't acted on that that welcomed me when I came into this role um because it was from a previous update and when I checked with Joel I was like why do we care he said well I mean there's a couple of things one is it could
143be dangerous somebody flying a drone can you know can bulk and impact somebody and they could drop something the Drone could actually drop something I don't know I've never thought about these things but not to mention the distraction yeah you feel like you're even lost surveillance yeah there's a graduation right and graduation that's correct so if that's the case do we have to seek your permission to use drones yes yeah if the if the board approves the policy did that affect model rockets because when I was you know many years ago we used to like do you have to I would assuming you have to go through a permission process again they're not technically drones but I mean like if it's a small unmanned I don't know I agree I hereby approve it's done for
144curriculum there's tiny little men um I I do have are we done with that one no yes yeah I think so yeah so I did have a couple um the first one is pretty simple with the one related to the expulsions yes I did because there was so much language added I have noticed that in many of our other updates we are changing the gendered pronouns to gender neutral ones to they them and I think there are some gendered pronouns in our update for that one that we may want to change yeah keep it consistent yeah sounds good catch yeah because anytime they change a policy they're trying to change those so maybe because that was District initiated and something that that Sheena and and Scott worked on yep so that was one of them
145and then the other one that I wanted to pull forward for some food for thought is the um human growth and development policy um what while recognizing I was a little surprise honestly but um recognizing that a lot of our policy language is straight from the statute so it's not necessarily even something that we might have a lot of control over um but I think it's something that we should consider based on our commitment to equity in our district and I think there's some pretty serious concerns with that in the way that it's written in the state statutes so again I don't know that we have a lot of ability to do much about it but um especially related to so one the marriage one um in connection with like all the different ways that
146they talk about marriage and kind of um uphold it so like um let's see in our policy the instructional program will also include the following address the positive connection between marriage and parenting um and while I think that there's probably statistics that do support that I wonder about the kids in our district who outside of their control are part of single parent households um who were born out of wedlock you know things like that like it's um I don't know that a lot of this language is culturally responsive it's certainly culturally responsive for some communities that many of our students might be a part of but I don't know that it is for everything um for everyone and I think and I just think about the kids who um might hear that and about about
147the marriage and parenting and think like I can't have a child out of wedlock or you know that kind of thing um and then the other there's another [Music] reference to unmarried students present the the following shall also be incorporated when age appropriate um about presenting abstinence from sexual activity as the preferred choice of behavior for unmarried students so I get that they're saying um you know for that they're making a distinction between married students although I don't know when at what age students can be married but um but I think it doesn't um I think just the use of marriage in this whole policy is kind of problematic I don't um and again I don't know what control we have over it but um I I think it is a little discriminatory honestly um
148and even in the legislature like we make commitments to the lgbtq community right about following not following State statutes that might harm them and um depending on how our legislature goes in all elections they might redefine marriage and all of a sudden this policy is very much harming marriages other than what I suspect is they're talking about yeah between a biological man and a biological woman or identifying this so I think there's a lot in here that is not um I think it is discriminatory against sexually active students a lot of potential for it to be discriminatory against different communities that have different values about marriage and just sexual activity in general um so I just kind of wanted to put that out there um for food for thought since we are holding up Equity
149as such a high you know a high thing and we specifically have our professional development as culturally responsive learning I think it's I think it's just something we should give some thought to and kind of let marinate in our brains again not knowing if we can actually do anything about it and maybe it's in our in the curriculum and how we that's how we address it I don't know but the I mean it is most of our languages from the state statutes and yeah it's right out of there yeah if we feel like we need further discussion we can pull individual policies out of this further discussion and so if we I mean I mean I would love to discuss it more also to what end because I don't know like what can we if
150there's one that we don't agree with but it's required by State Statute what are our options there do we know all we can really do is change language to suit but didn't it say that you you in ultimately the State statue is gonna yep you know preempt anything that we do I mean if we want it but I can check yeah because I just I mean the council um could you just reword it so that you could cut it well and I mean the state statute if you go if you look at it it's really yeah yeah I mean it's it's really pretty prescriptive yeah um and I'm sorry yep go ahead I mean the language as I'm reading it and I think we just need to consult with legal counsel but it says if
151an instructional program is provided the following instructional program is recommended in the statute you're not in the post you have it open okay and what part of where is that it's right under subjects in two so 118 19. oh subjects you see that yes so if it elects to and then it says if a board elects to provide an instructional program under this section when the school board establishes the curriculum for the instructional program the school board shall make determinations as to whether and if so for what subjects covered in the curriculum the pupils shall be separate about by gender okay um it says recommended okay so maybe we have a little bit more leeway than we thought or the night interpreted originally um the other thing then also well I mean it also has
152required subjects under there though um you can't change those yeah so under 2m and that is I mean just to go on record for me personally that they present abstinence um yep and including and then talk about marriage and the socioeconomic benefits of marriage for adults and their children um and then go through the criminal palette please of you know sexual activities involving a child and then also explain [Music] um how to give up parental rights or custody of a newborn but then there's like those are all the required subjects but there's nothing under there about any other options like prevention or contraceptives um like it's really strange to me that they talk about abstinence and then all the way up to relinquishing custody so I don't know it's it's strange to me but um
153um so I think it would just behoove us to think about that and I don't know what action to what how we do that or you know how we bring it up for discussion um we just don't want to prove this particular policy yeah we've made a lot of very good points thank you and maybe wouldn't Neola have any sample policies that would be more appropriate they could my guess is that this is a Neola policy and this would be what they'd send us um do yeah but that language is that's in there has been in there you know that's not changing so one thing I do appreciate it is that I think there's some language in ours that's not in the statutes that says methods for developing healthy life skills including setting goals making
154responsible decisions communicating managing stress that's totally important right like I think that's a really I really appreciate that and I think from what I've heard at the high school level the curriculum is fairly inclusive but that's also going to probably vary a little bit between teacher and you know um and how we're I think it always has been too yeah I think it always has been but it is weird you're right it's just kind of up almost to the to the teacher or the discretion of the Walton Department as though it used to be called health that class human growth yes this is pretty specific yeah yeah but it used to be years ago yeah yeah that's where not so much what um the but our human growth and development curriculum which lists these things
155I mean it's it's very specific what's taught at each grade level right it's very comprehensive in that in that group decides on that every year and things have changed over time they moved back and forward so so that is very intentional the inclusivity in our curriculum yeah but you know the question is is how does our policy and our human growth and development curriculum how do they jive yeah in mesh well and I think too like people moving into the district if this is an important policy for them and they go to look at this they might think oh this might not be a good match of a district for me because it doesn't allow for my values or my beliefs in either direction I think I mean it's um yeah so I think I
156think there's that I think the other question I had about it um because it might limit what we can do um is if because there are fun federal funds I think that restrict [Music] um the conversation about preventive and contraceptive options in terms of making it a more inclusive policy um that they the way that that curriculum is like funding cannot be used to talk about those items unless it is in the context of I can't remember what it said prevention no prevention of STIs I think so that would be one other thing that we do do you know off the top of your head if we I don't know I wasn't aware of that in the state of Wisconsin but in federal law or what is when are you using federal funds yeah State
157funds yeah so it's just interesting that Part B says emphasizes that abstinence from sexual activity before marriage is the only reliable way to prevent pregnancy it's the only way to prevent pregnancy in general so it has nothing to do with marriage but yes exactly I agree exact point yes because that's true that is factual I think that we do teach that right I mean that's what we preach in the medical community too but it doesn't have anything to do with marriage it's right right so that's that is interesting so yes I would I guess I would request that we keep this one out for further discussion and not approve that and maybe we need some more in depth whatever we do I agree that's all right and Aaron could you ask Scott where human trafficking
158would come in uh because I thought it might come under human growth development B4 when they talk about how to recognize rebuff and Report unwanted and inappropriate regard to physical or social behaviors [Music] bad to pull it out specifically or listed specifically in that one yeah I mean it is in our our curriculum our scope and sequence for um I know as parents we're the curriculum is shared but maybe as part of this um further research could we have a copy of yeah curriculum for all the levels yeah I mean yeah we can print it for you it's on the website oh the whole all of us on the website yeah but we'll get it to you easily are there any others that anyone would like to see pulled out at this action on the
159first reading we'll just make that a part of the motion that will make things that exception so I would if if that's the case that the 2414 is is the only one that we're going to pull out I would look for a motion to approve the first reading of policies as they are listed so moved huh thank you go in the second I can second that again okay any other discussion it was a good discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries five zero so we will take another look at another pass at 24-14 next is action on MHS McFarland High School early graduation requests any discussion was I would look for a motion to approve I moved to approve the attached MHS early graduation request as recommended by
160Administration thank you Kate go in a second I'll second that Bruce any additional discussion hearing done all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 action on recommended weva destination Career Academy and insight School of Wisconsin statute 118.408 G student transfers to resident districts at this time we've a destinations Career Academy and insight School of Wisconsin are requesting approval of recommended student transfers back to their resident districts due to lack of engagements this is a kind of a monthly reoccurring sure connection so if uh if there is no discussion I I do have one point to talk of course of that list I think there's 40 or 50 students 12 students are in kindergarten or first grade through sixth grade think of the life that they do not have
161in front of them that's why what I talked about earlier connect with partnership with Four Lakes it's very promising particularly for the high school kids but these youngsters you know they need something it's hard to it's hard to Fathom it is I just can't imagine there's just nothing there for them okay I would look for a motion for approval some moved okay thank you second great again thank you any additional discussion hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye opposed motion carries five zero and uh at this point I would look for a motion to adjourn I'll do it Bruce my leg will my leg will make that motion thank you you'll have a second oh thank you thank you a favor please please hi hi motion carries five zero
162we are adjourned at 9 31. thanks Craig one and all excellent meeting tonight thank you