Mcfarland School Board 1.18.21

001so are you getting you're getting ready i'm getting yeah all right the board is back in session and we're going to continue okay consent agenda items amendments of december 21st 2020 school board meeting january 11 2021 board special meeting and january 14 2021 special meeting general fund vouchers and purchasing card transactions 174035 through 175 and two nine zero eight five zero through two nine zero nine two five and purchasing card transactions dated ten twenty one twenty through twelve twenty twenty some professional staffing recommendations do i have a motion to approve craig second christine any comments if not motion by craig second from christine all in favor say aye aye opposed pardon me okay passes by majority we have some personal lineups not necessary for vote uh student council do we have a student council tonight

002guys okay right behind i couldn't barely see him back there sorry about that okay so i'm just going to give a super quick update on kind of what's happening at school because there's stuff to report so for the clubs in school right now there have been a bunch of food drives deca did one in october student council did one in december and nhs has one coming up soon there's other ones that have happened as well but there's so many different clubs that do them that i couldn't keep it all straight model un has been able to do some of their competitions and has an upcoming scrimmage against mg of course all virtual but they've been able to keep their club running pretty well they were also able to attend a conference they normally couldn't attend

003because it's in vancouver so that was really cool nhs has plans for our annual pie teacher fundraiser and instead of doing it in person we're encouraging teachers to have their kids buy them instead as well as teacher appreciation plans and cancer awareness week we've also sent out cards to seniors to the senior centers for the holidays and have been contacting younger grades for collaborations as much as we can eco club has an upcoming plant sale for the spring and just finished up making educational videos for third to fifth grade children science bowl recently had their competition and one of the teams did place fourth student tutoring is going strong with many virtual meetings for students who need tutors sports seasons are starting off and uh it's making a bunch of athletes very happy in-person tech

004classes are going well with students spread out into many different rooms in that giant tech ad area which is really nice link crews working to do tours for incoming freshmen many of whom have never set foot in the high school building which is crazy and they have virtual options too on the school newspapers working on articles and that should be out in february and multicultural club has been doing a cooking event and a video about racism in the school so just a brief update on what everyone's doing yeah um i don't really have much to add to that tonight as you know since we've been back from the break it kind of feels like we've been in a bit of a holding pattern uh the only thing that i really wanted to address um from

005sort of the perspective of more of what we're doing in class and stuff like that is as we're moving forward and moving towards you know um in-person classes for the students who are doing that it seems like um parts of class have been sort of dedicated towards um really getting ready to make that transition like it feels like in a lot of classes the tone has sort of shifted um towards you know helping to get ready and make that transition as smooth as possible which is obviously a very good thing a smooth transition is i think what everybody wants the only thing that concerns me about it is um i worry that the uh approximately i believe 30 of students in the high school who um i might be misquoting facts i don't know um

006but the the other students who aren't going in person um are are going to be left behind um i don't know for sure it's not been anything excessive or anything like that it's just something i noticed and i want to make sure was included in the report that's all i have though order of this from the public comment we're going to do the school board reports first so i'd like and then we'll come right back to the public comment so mcfarland equity project report thank you so much for having us be with you tonight i think all of you know me i'm sue murphy and i was an employee of the district for 30 years and then joining me tonight actually here are gary blackenhauer who's at our primary school oh yes i almost didn't

007say the right name because it's been a change and kelly thompson who's at the high school and we are members of the mcfarland equity project and tonight you will also hear from kerry nelson who's a part of that project but hers will be uh recorded up here so what is the mcfarland equity project uh the mcfarland equity equity project is a group of citizens in mcfarland who want to support all the equity work they can possibly support so we'll tell you our mission and so on but but we started as a group to help these three individuals who are really the ones who started the mcfarland equity project many of you remember in after the george floyd situation that uh there was a rally held at the gazebo some of you may have actually been

008there as well and these three people were crucial vital they actually organized it ran it and i personally felt like it was just a beautiful event and being there and hearing from these people about what their vision what what they've experienced in life and their vision for the future made me and i think everyone who's a part of the equity project and we're not the only ones who are part of it we'll kind of get to that a little bit later um it made the people who are a part of that group say how can we help you help mcfarland help the entire village the entire community and the school district how can we support you now we know that leticia wrote a resolution that came to you and you said yes we want to

009do that so the short version is that our goal is to help her help you help and be a connector for you as a board we know you already have this as a goal we know it's important to you and so we want to be a connector with the community and with you and support in any way so there's this whole group of people that have come together that have said how can we do this we even have a plan we have a common agenda we have a shared measurement we have mutually reinforcing activities we have continuous communication and we have a backbone organization kelly and i are leaders of one part of that organization but there are multiple people who are a part of that so here you can see this is our mission

010our common goal is to address racial inequa inequities seek justice by promoting anti-racist policies and practices and create and maintain inclusive and welcoming environments in the village of mcfarland that's the goal of the whole group so the backbone group or the leadership of this group has a group of people who are putting in some quite a bit of time i'm really super impressed with what some of them have have been doing but they're trying to say what can we do to make mcfarland this amazing place do i think mcfarland's a good place absolutely i would not have worked in this district for 30 years if i thought it was a bad place it's a great place but no matter what even the green bay packers love that team very good team they still practice they

011still work because they know the goal is to be better and they do it every single day so a sports analogy those of you know me that probably doesn't surprise you that i wouldn't throw in a sports analogy but that's what what we're saying here okay we love this community we all live here we just want to make it the best it can be particularly around this topic around every topic of course but really strongly around this particular topic so this is what the backbone committee does and i'll turn it over to kelly uh so as sue mentioned um you know maybe this summer was a real um you know i've heard it called a watershed moment um there was something about that incident in that moment in time that that i think had a

012really significant impact and so um the work that's grown out of that has been um really um enriching in in a lot of ways and and i think has the the power to be very impactful in mcfarland so this is that graphic just um short sort of um shows the overlap uh the backbone group uh really is part of all other groups and sort of um helps facilitate and support the work of the groups which we'll we'll describe in just a moment so um one of the things that came out right away shortly after in the summer is the facebook page actually came first there is a facebook group mcfarlanders for racial equity and justice and that was a way for people who were moved and inspired in the moment to continue the work um

013and and some of its work it is work but also some of its education um the website came along a little bit later um and so when you have a chance please definitely do uh explore the website if you aren't aware of it already it goes into some more detail about how this came about the different components the different groups that are working to make things better in mcfarland and some other resources as well for learning so definitely check that out when you get a moment so one of the groups uh is focused around community and as you can see and i won't read through them all but there are many different activities learning opportunities um action steps that the community group is taking um the in the fall with the election in the middle

014of a pandemic um we we there there was a smaller group within the group that worked to get voters registered and get voter registration information out um at the high schools you know speaking as a high school faculty member um that has been a tradition for a long time that we couldn't do in person this year um obviously but we did virtually there was a video that was sent out to our students who would be eligible to vote so so that was a really important thing there is a sub group within the committee group that is working on issues related to equitable homeownership and and building the opportunity for black wealth through homeownership there's been a discussion and action wanting to be taken about making sure that when we have public celebrations that we're inclusive

015about that around holidays and things like that and then also some child care outreach with diverse books toys and artwork so that kids can see themselves and their experiences in what they read what they play with what they learn another component is the village um and so you can see those things there but carrie uh who uh provided a video description because she is on the village committee will tell you a little more about that hi i'm carrie nelson and i work with leticia hollard mona nelson and jennifer heaton amrin on the village subgroup sorry i can't be there in person tonight thanks for letting me join you like this um our sub group is focused specifically on village government and our work grew out of the resolution to honor the life of george floyd

016that was drafted by leticia in june and the petition of support that was signed onto by a lot of community members and that leticia then brought to the village board ultimately that work led the board to adopt what was called a resolution to advance equity social justice diversity and inclusion within the village and in that resolution it lays out a set of actions and expectations from the village government since then the village has met three of the expectations set out in that resolution we have joined the community restorative court program there was a review of police training and use of force policies and they created a diversity equity and inclusion subcommittee of the of the village board um so that's all been great but there is a lot more to do including several things that

017are explicitly listed listed in that resolution that passed this summer so the village subgroup keeps track of all the activities of the board and the staff communicates with the village trustees and the village administrator about what's going on kind of recruits people to come speak at village board meetings when needed now that we have this official village dei subcommittee we have another way to sort of work with the board and village government and we're figuring out how that's going to work for or three of the members of the equity project backbone team are on that subcommittee so we'll see how that how that works the other thing i want to highlight is that our current priority is making sure that we contribute our voice to the process of selecting a new police chief chief sherman

018was an ally and we were developing a good relationship with him and we just want to make sure that that's a priority for the search in in for the new the new chief also as an aside for anyone interested there is a public listening session about um the search for the new chief that's gonna be on next tuesday the 26th at seven o'clock um so that's about the village subgroup thanks [Music] okay i am part of the education subgroup along with kelly and sue and a group of parents that have children of color in our school district we have been working very closely with administration already and andrew of course getting information back and forth between the school and our subgroup so some of our group members have been going to the monona grove parent

019education committee group already just to get some information on how they're set up and what they're doing and would really like to start something like that within our district as well we'll be getting a snapshot from the district about what the equity work is already being done in the schools not because we don't think it's happening just because a lot of parents aren't aware of what we are already doing in our schools and we're working with the district as a collaborative a connection between the community and the district i am part of that education group as well as ann nicholls so we go and kind of speak on behalf of the school and kelly too even though she's coming as a parent and a teacher and it has been a really good collaboration thus far

020and our group is simply focusing on the education that's taking place about racism and what's going on in our schools so that's a quick overview of the mcfarland equity project um and i we know that you have much other business to do tonight um but we just want to uh thank you for the opportunity to share uh what's going on in the community how it began um and are very appreciative of all that the board in the district has done and and has done ongoing to work toward equity for all students um it's just a really this particular project has been really exciting um you know i think it's a really good opportunity for us to move forward as a as a district and as a community as a whole so thank you for your

021time and any questions or anything before you move on no i don't think i i just want to say thank you very much to the kelly and sue you two reached out to me early uh kind of late in the summer and we were starting to meet right then i had to be gone for a while that we aaron turned sir continued that work while i was away and now that now all of us are continuing that so um thank you very much we really appreciate being able to work with you um having your eye on that along with andrew and us as the lord it's just wonderful um and we will be sharing we have a little that's excellent thank you very much i mean our hope is we know you put it as

022a goal equity was in your 2019 one of your summer goals and then we know you adapted the resolution so we know that you are supportive um and we just want to make sure none of that becomes just a piece of paper we want it to become what we do what we live what we know and we have appreciated working with with aaron and andrew because we know there's a lot already happening and so a big part is letting the community know that and then figure out where are our gaps and what should we do to to make sure that that resolution really does happen in a way that makes the mcfarland school district the best place possible for all children i mean i think it's a great place i told you that already but

023if we just keep doing that so that every single student feels that way i mean that that's really all we want i guess i would i would think that trying to do what we're all trying to do at this particular time speaking of the pandemic it it's got to feel like you're swimming upstream just just trying to do the back and forth and have discussions and have yeah i there there's a tremendous opportunity for sure when we we've been creative and you know but there when we can someday soon yeah yeah back to being able to do things in person that there are so many opportunities exactly thank you so much for all that you're doing though this is spectacular yes and i i compliment that is it's thanks for everything it's important and then

024thank you we'll jump back to public comment now and tom and ann volunteered to read the public comment would you have any objection and i'll ask jerry i know jerry wants to speak in person and i don't want to keep him any later than need be well sure does he want to go first okay sorry gary didn't see him back there related to resuming in-person construction and grades june through 12th for sirens thank you to the school board administration for considering the results of our mft staff survey that we shared in order on december 21st in order to continue to engage the sentiments of our members mft decided to survey ourselves every few weeks as we go through the process of reopening our schools our most recent survey administered this past week showed similar similar

025results to our personal survey over 70 of our staff either feel uncomfortable or somewhat uncomfortable returning in person because of health concerns the specific results of this survey and corresponding staff comments will be shared with building principles that being said mft would like to put our primary efforts into working with the administration and school board to ensure that necessary safety protocols are in place to ensure a safe transition to our in-person hybrid model specifically we would like to develop report cards for each building in concert with staff and administration that clearly defines the safety protocols and policies that will allow students and staff to return to our buildings safely the ceps administration has done a great job establishing procedures that have kept their staff and students safe also at west this past week the principals

026prevented presented their safety protocols and we are hearing that the wiss teachers are feeling more comfortable about returning as a result of corey and elle being responsive to the needs and safety of their students and teaching staff congratulations you corey that you know that meant a lot hearing that from your staff so from from the just the teacher perspective in general thank you additionally mft would like to thank the school board members who have reached out directly to staff in the past few weeks to provide support specifically we have been asked this question what can the board do to support teachers and show that we care about the health and welfare of our staff well we have two suggestions one meeting more regularly with the the berserk committee which just as a reminder which i

027can never remember myself so i made sure i wrote it down today is an acronym for professional staff employee relations committee right andrew all right thank you berserk is the vehicle that we have established for teachers administrators and school board members to collaborately come up with positive solutions and ideas for making the mcfarland school district even stronger on that note we are looking to looking forward to the february 4th berzerk meeting and mft would like to respectfully request that berzerk meet more often during the school year and possibly in the summer as well to prepare for an upcoming school year the other suggestion to the board to demonstrate their care and concern for staff is to be engaged in and involved with the reconvening of our compensation committee later this spring your direct involvement in

028these discussions to further improve the wages benefits and working conditions of teachers would be greatly appreciated and on that note thank you for allowing me to share mft perspectives this evening we the teachers not just just the mft teachers but i would hope all our teachers and have just our district have been extremely proud of the positive relationship that the mft has experienced with the school board and administration for the past 25 years or so it's not like this in a lot of places let's all work to keep it that way oh and by the way if you could pull some strings to get us that vaccine sooner that would be great as well thank you have a great evening everybody all right we do have some other public comments that were uh submitted either

029through our portal or email the first is and i apologize i'm gonna butcher a lot of these pronunciations of names uh prathit andrei in mcfarland uh wants to comment in uh support of a virtual option i am the father of a sixth grader at imms and i want my child to be able to attend imms virtually as covid keeps raging the reasoning to start in-person middle school by mcfarland school district is baffling to me what is even more frustrating is the fact that families who do not want to assume the risk and want to continue to be virtual are not being provided with a viable option we are being told to either join weva homeschool our child or attend a different school we find on our own based on the district's plan children of families

030who need to stay virtual will no longer have their teachers who have been teaching them throughout the year so far and no longer will have their friends and community that they are friends and community that they are currently part of this will be terrible for the social emotional well-being of my child in addition the quality of education of weva is not on par with imms according to greatschools.org weva is rated below average in school quality compared to other schools in wisconsin students are making below average year ever year over year academic improvement the school has below average results in how well it's serving disadvantaged students and students perform below average on state tests weva k8 was rated 3 out of 10 for test scores while imms was rated 9 out of 10. clearly the education

031quality of weva is not comparable to imms we don't see that it that is a viable option for our child both academically and from a social emotional standpoint by not providing an ims virtual option to students you are forcing families to choose between making the safety of our of their family members or exiting their current school community the district's plan district's plan does not serve the needs of students who want to stay at imms and learn with their school community but who do not want to risk exposure with the in-person option i urge you to consider offering a virtual ims option it might not be perfect but it will at least provide access to the excellent imms academics and provide social emotional stabilities for students in this fragile emotional state of life thank you for

032hearing my concern and i do want to i guess for folks at home who may not be fully connected with the school district there isn't there is something that i believe will answer a lot of these concerns but we will still read the the comments nonetheless sure our next contact is from and i apologize in advance also for any pronunciation errors ruthie machad check she's writing regarding virtual school we are very disappointed in the district's decision to bring students back for hybrid in-person learning without offering a mcfarland district virtual option it seems ours is the only district in the madison area not offering a virtual option weeva is not a suitable alternative for many working parents the weva website states that the program needs three to six hours of parental involvement per day this is

033just not feasible for us my husband is in and out of meetings all day and i am a photojournalist who is in and out of the house for news assignments we have heard from local weaver parents that the program has been so inundated with new students that communication is very slow and their children's teachers have been swapped out we have also heard that it is a challenge to adapt to the weva program and that in itself excuse me took parents away from work our kids need consistency and i don't feel the district is providing that we are not comfortable sending our children to school in person while the pandemic is at its all-time peak hospitals are at capacity and the vaccine distribution has been disappointingly slow my husband and i have spent weeks researching any

034option we could think of to safely educate our children we looked at other public virtual schools and they are either full or require even more parent involvement than weva we looked at open enrollment in oregon and madison schools with no luck we finally landed on outschool which is going to cost us roughly 120 dollars a week for both of our kids in the meantime we're both behind at work because we've spent all of this time researching and discussing school options and we now have to figure out a budget to pay for out school we moved to mcfarland because of the district's good reputation now i feel like the district has left us to fend for ourselves my question for the school board is why mcfarland is unable to offer district based virtual option when other

035districts are i urge the school board to reconsider this plan and do what needs to be done to make district virtual option happen as soon as possible and again many of these were submitted well before this night's meeting and well before last week's special meeting but we feel it's important still for them to be heard this one is from jill mallory in mcfarland i am not happy with the hybrid model being implemented it's a lot of trouble to have kids at school for just two hours of instruction i'd rather have them go two full days per week or more ideally allow them the option to stay virtual with their class this in-between situation is the worst of both worlds having kids in person at all is very questionable given the pandemic is out of control

036and teachers and children have not been vaccinated yet i'd like the district to go back to full virtual ideally until full day i'm sorry until full day school can resume jill mallory md the next comment comes from anna thompson i am not comfortable sending my kids back yet and having no virtual option is really putting us in a tough position it's four months before summer and we shouldn't have to start all over with a new school district my kids want to stay in mcfarland but my daughter and i have medical conditions that put us at higher risk i'm upset that there are no options for middle school like there are for high school and the next is from sarah caillou in mcfarland hello please support a ver a virtual option through mcfarland school district we

037are in desperate need for our children to feel a part of the community while also being safe at home one of our children has attended weva and though we were happy to have a virtual option at all weeva is a full-time job to support your student with two full-time working parents it is incredibly difficult to manage yet since our child is in the high-risk category we chose the weeva option if fueva becomes our only option for our other child we may consider moving them to madison school district where a comprehensive online model is being developed students are online from 8 30 a.m to 2 30 p.m with art physical education and music as options and the classes are managed by teachers freeing up parents abilities to be support a supportive parent and not the main

038teacher i hope that you will consider this option to best help support families in this extraordinary time our next comment is in opposition to in-person schooling it comes from erin lempotta madison good evening members of the school board my name is erin lampada i'm a madison resident and work at mcfarland high school i thank you for your time tonight to hear public comments i urge you as decision makers in this community to consider all the factors impacted by the decision to open schools for hybrid learning safety and success of students staff and community remains a top priority but i continue to feel uncomfortable with the plan to return most students to in-person learning this quarter so many big questions remain unanswered not due to the lack of effort but due to the timeline funding and

039personnel it takes to plan for an entirely different kind of school we're also while also teaching and managing current classes and responsibilities making the decision to open schools has dominoed into hundreds likely thousands of decisions and details for teachers and administration to rush into making without precedence for success or risk since the original metrics to move to step 3 hybrid have been abandoned we do not have guidance on what level of community or school spread would require that we step back from the hybrid model this decision is urgent and should reflect the severity of covet spread in our county as well as new strains that are spreading and the timeline of vaccine distribution please consider how you can get involved with your communities educators while we struggle to make and enact these crucial changes only

040then can you truly understand the significant factors of our day-to-day decisions and how each of these decisions could drastically impact the physical and emotional health of our students educators and families thank you we have two video comments submissions opposing in-person learning is this a good time for those sure good evening board members my name is jake rogers i'm a math teacher over at good evening board members my name is jake rodgers i'm a math teacher over at at the high school as our community students administration staff and teachers begin the monumental work of transitioning into a hybrid plan and miss this surging global pandemic we as teachers would like to make it clear the implications that the shift will have on our health safety and pedagogy i think it's crucial that we first acknowledge how

041closely our priorities align it is truly our belief that every school board member administrator parent fellow staff member first and foremost wants to improve student learning opportunities we also have shared hopes for ourselves and for our families that we as a community all wish to keep each other safe and healthy we all want science-based policies that allow us to mitigate virus spread once and for all and we all want to safely reopen our school buildings as soon as possible but it seems that our priorities really only align so far as teachers we have put and will continue to put are all into our profession but we are not willing to put our lives at risk unnecessarily we deserve the same options we are offering to families and we deserve some voice and choice in a

042hybrid plan tonight i have four calls to action that i feel this board needs to take into serious consideration before you return number one offer a voluntary return option for staff students and families were given the option of choosing all virtual this board to do the same for staff members who are in high-risk categories are living or caring for elderly family members and also for staff who just don't feel safe and comfortable coming back to school right now this board has trusted families to make decisions based on their level of comfort and safety and educators and school personnel should be given the same choice number two give staff the option to get vaccinated all staff should have the opportunity to get two doses of the vaccine and we should not rush back into any sort

043of hybrid option until this has been made available to everyone number three provide a fully thought out plan this board has largely left the day-to-day planning to administrators and as of this moment a well-thought-out plan has yet to materialize the most successful schools that reopened in the fall started planning all the way back in april and this two-month planning period is simply not enough time and severely limits what a small body of individuals can put together in order to implement high quality safety members measures and also effectively communicate those to staff who will need ample time to prepare based on the outlines and recommendations given number four increase emotional safety and support all of our students have been through so much this year and we must provide them with as much support as possible as

044we return to schools let's work to hire more social workers clinicians counselors and other mental health service professionals to ensure the mental and physical safety of our students one of the main arguments that this board has cited for returning to in-person instruction was the mental health of our students if that is truly the case let's put our money where our mouth is and hire more mental health services it is imperative that when we return to school buildings it is in a thoughtful safe and fully planned out way as it currently stands we lit we risk losing highly skilled educators both to pre-existing health conditions that preclude them from in-person instruction and also those who will inevitably test positive for covet 19 get sick and quarantine there are simply not enough substitutes to offset this very

045real possibility by working to meet these four calls to actions above we can ensure a more stable transition to back to in-person instruction for students as was mentioned in an email from tom allen last week and i will quote the board is acutely aware that we are presenting you with the seemingly impossible monumental challenge but because we know the depth of your professionalism and commitment to our students we know that you are up to any challenge the board knows that you all of you are professionals who will not only take on this challenge but you every one of you will excel at it school districts cannot survive on the unpaid labor and emotional support that educators continually to provide often at our own detriment we are always going above and beyond for our students and

046our communities it is time for the school board to go above and beyond for us to give us a safe thoughtful and intentional options so that we can ensure a safe and sustainable return to in-person instruction in the midst of this terrible ongoing pandemic thank you uh from muriel mcclear mcaleer as well members of the mcfarland school board good evening my name is mariel mcclear and i teach at mcfarland high school as our community students administration staff and teachers begin the monumental work of transitioning into a hybrid plan amidst a surging global pandemic we as teachers would like to make clear the implications this shift will have on our health our safety and our pedagogy it's critical we first acknowledge how closely our priorities align it is our belief that every school board member administrator

047parent and fellow staff member first and foremost wants to improve students learning opportunities we also have shared hopes for ourselves and for our families we as a community all wish to keep each other healthy we all want science-based policies that allow us to mitigate virus spread once and for all and we all want to safely reopen school buildings as soon as possible but it seems our priorities only align so far as teachers we have put and will continue to put our all into our profession but we are not willing to put our own lives at risk unnecessarily we deserve the same options we are offering families we deserve voice and choice in the hybrid plan i have some asks tonight that i feel the board needs to take into consideration before we go back number

048one voluntary return students and families were given the option of choosing an all virtual option this board should do the same for staff members who are in high risk categories are living or caring for elderly or immunocompromised family members and staff who do not feel safe going back right now this board trusted families to make a decision based on their level of comfort and safety educators and school personnel should get the same choice number two give staff the option to get vaccinated all staff should have the opportunity to get two doses of the vaccine and we should not rush back to hybrid models until this option has been made available number three a fully thought out plan this board has largely left the day-to-day planning to administrators and as of this moment a well thought

049out plan has yet to materialize the most successful schools that reopened in the fall started planning back in april and two months severely limits the amount of time a small body of individuals can implement high quality safety measures and effectively communicate those with staff to be able to prepare and plan number four provide emotional safety students have been through so much this year we must provide them with as much support as possible when we return to schools that's why we say we are returning to schools so let's hire more social workers and other clinicians let's hire more counselors and other mental health services to ensure mental and physical safety of our students we need to be back in school board buildings in a way that is thoughtful safe and fully planned out having the agreements

050in place above will ensure consistency and stability for our students our families and help us educators in this district get back into the classroom safely if covet spread is high there simply will not be enough qualified staff to deliver high quality instruction our students deserve we know there are not nearly enough substitutes to fill positions and educators will inevitably get sick or have to quarantine as mentioned in the email from tom allen last week quote the board is acutely aware that we are presenting you with a seemingly impossible monumental challenge but because we know the depth of your professionalism and commitment to our students we know you are all up to the challenge the board knows that you all of you are professionals who will not only take on this challenge but you every one

051of you will excel at it end quote school districts do not survive without the unpaid labor and emotional support educators continually provide often to their own detriment we are always going above and beyond it is time for this school board to go above and beyond for educators to provide not only safe but stable schools in this ongoing pandemic thank you i can do it all right the next comment we have is from janine cash she said my children are very excited to return to school but we have a serious concern regarding our ability to get our children to school for three hours four days a week our children at wabisa and at imms are less than two miles from the school and had private pay for bus last year so we have no assistance for

052transportation and we are both full-time essential workers we've both had to adjust our schedules take off of work have grandparents help and work weekends to have more flexibility to accommodate virtual and the transportation for these half days are going to make this even more challenging i don't understand the benefit of having four half days instead of just having two full days where the kids are following a more normal school routine day i'm also reluctant to place them in daycare and increase covet exposure just to ensure that they have transportation are there any additional resources available to assist with this next we have several comments in support of in-person instruction the first is from jeff krall in mcfarland good morning i would like my letter below to be read on monday night at the school board

053meeting if there is a public comment portion in the meeting thank you to the administration and our school board for moving forward with giving families the choice of in-person instruction for our kids it's clear you have the best interests of our kids in mind and your decisions reflect that as we have said all along we trust our administrators teachers and staff to put a plan together for our kids that will start this new chapter of learning and healing please know because of these recent decisions you have thousands of happy and hopeful kids and parents in our community my daughter recently began attending in-person tech ed classes at the high school and has learned more in those few hours than multiple hours behind a screen at home her attitude toward school has done 180 degree turnaround

054and she is excited again about finishing her mcfarland school experience with her classmates kids and i emphasize kids because they are not adults have too often been forgotten during this pandemic and we as adults have written written it off with naive attitudes of kids are resilient and this is teaching them different life skills to try to justify ourselves selfish actions it's not okay to ever think of kids second and adults first especially in school school is the one place in our society that kids should always be the number one priority thank you for finally having the courage to begin to right the wrong that has been done to our kids please know that our community is behind you to make this an effective transition transition and please reach out to us parents if we can

055assist in any way as we all move forward together for the education health and well-being of our kids thank you jeff krawl the next comment is from john goser or geezer i guess mcfarland school board first thank you for your efforts and representing the village of mcfarland as elected representatives of our community please continue your efforts in leadership by representing the majority of our community and continuing with the plan to safely bring our kids back into classrooms from our district surveys a majority of parents and students in our community support the choice for in-person learning and intend to send kids back when given the opportunity on this note i would like to register and support a previously voted upon and passed plan to bring kids back to school our national leaders including dr fauci and

056dr joseph allen with harvard have stated we need our kids back in school the harvard model has shown how we can safely get this done other schools within mere miles of mcfarland are getting this done my wife's preschool has been facilitating both early childhood education and k-3 for schools that have remained virtual education in person throughout the past year safely we can do this lastly thank you to our teachers that have been in the classroom with our k-2 kids the safest place for our kids to be is in the classroom with warm regards john goes our phd the next is from jennifer heaton ameren and jim amron in mcfarland thank you again for your service during this time we want to express our support for the current plan to reopen all schools on a hybrid

057basis and to establish a mcfarland-based virtual option we believe this plan balances the need for in-person education for many students with the health and safety concerns of other that others have while we realize this may not be the optimum choice for most it represents a good compromise between those who want kids back to school full time at all grade levels and those who want to ski keep school entirely virtual we appreciate your commitment to find workable solutions for everyone in the school community we ask that you continue to explore opportunities to expand in-person learning and school activities this spring the next comments are from jane and tom sandeen mcfarland school board thank you for your vote to pursue in-person learning for our mcfarland students this is representative of the majority of our community's desires for

058in-person learning we were not surprised to see that 70 percent of our high schoolers want to go back in person the kids are anxious to get back and parents are anxious for them to resume receiving a quality education as i said before our wonderful teachers are trying their best but the education during virtual has not been acceptable for long-term needs it is wonderful for us parents to finally have a choice we would like to register in support of the previously passed plan to bring kids back to school the debate that ensued the last meeting on january 11 to halt the plans was discouraging it had only been three weeks since being passed the hybrid plan for the high school is a step in the right direction but we are proponents for full-time in-person instruction other

059nearby districts just 20 minutes away from us have been doing hybrids since september dane county students have been left behind unfortunately being left to be managed by higher powers we really appreciate tom allen's level-headed discussion of our district accepting risks during covet just as we as parents encounter and accept risks for ourselves or for our kids so do all of us in dealing with covid we cannot stay sheltered in our homes until all can get a vaccine which would be many months away it struck me last week in considering this as we attended our dentist cleanings and have been attending doctor appointments the last 10 months when we attended the dentist last week our doctor and hygienist were within one foot of us working in our mouths they had simple masks on no shields similarly

060we've attended doctor appointments in small rooms where you cannot distance six feet again the doctors and nurses wore simple masks just like us we visit with them up close for more than fifteen minutes a day these professionals see teens who some critics of in-person education say are the riskiest individuals to serve these environments have proven safe and there is no national outcry for these types of medical practices to stop why then would it be so difficult to accomplish full-time in-person learning regarding the argument of inequity to students of color since they have been shown to be more likely to get covered have you specifically asked them what they want the recent madison school district reported that the majority of black students wanted to return to the classroom our senior returned to in-person learning at the

061high school last tuesday for spartan manufacturing he was very excited to enter his high school class for the first time since last march he reported that protocols were very strict for maintaining distances from others safety measures have been put in place for our students those that want to be in school will follow them as mr tarnitzer and mr finstead said students that won't comply or that don't take it seriously won't be allowed to attend school in person lastly we'd like the board to start considering when our kids can transition to full in full time in person this model has been shown to be less complex logistically and just as safe or even more safe for all involved thank you for your considerable time devoted to this issue i believe our last comment of the evening

062is from matt and jenny morris in mcfarland we remain in support of all k-12 children returning to school on the recently approved schedule that's all i have very good thank you both you reading them and thank everybody for sending them and and all the comments it's appreciated uh next is the district manager's report okay thank you very much um just a couple items this evening first uh you have our notice of educational options for wisconsin act 55. this is we have our proclamation for uh adult school prosecutor recognition so i would like to i would like to take a moment and read that in support let me start over the first i apologize that wasn't picking my voice up the first item i want to draw your attention to this evening is our notice of

063educational options so that's an annual notice that we presented the school board each year and then is subsequently posted on the district website and then next i'd like to congratulate and thank our adult school crossing guards and recognize them it is the department of public instructions national adult school crossing guard week january 11 to the 15th so we want to recognize them whereas wisconsin's adult school crossing guards provide an invaluable service in helping to ensure the safe passage of our youngest most vulnerable pedestrians children walking between home and and whereas adult school crossing guards typically serve with a dedication that discounts the rigors of harsh weather split shifts and heavy traffic and these riggers are currently compounded by the challenging challenges presented by covid19 and whereas for more than five decades adult school crossing guards

064have served communities to make them more secure and whereas adult school crossing guards add to the effectiveness of the student safety patrol members with whom they often serve and whose activity they help direct and whereas adult school crossing guards help reinforce the minds of the young people they assist the importance of traffic hazard identification and safe street crossing behavior therefore be it resolved that carolyn stanford taylor state superintendent of the public department of public instruction declared the week of january 11-15 2021 adult school crossing guard recognition week a time to recognize and thank the many adult school crossing guards whose commitment makes a difference to the lives of children in wisconsin public schools so i'd like to thank and congratulate our crossing guards and i also want to take a moment to draw your attention

065to the slide up on the screen which is literary character dress up day at conrad and so this is this is a celebration that our conrad students had where they dressed in character with some of their favorite heroes from from literature around the same time that they were doing this one of our teachers at conrad mrs punzel knowing that it was crossing guard recognition we coming up had her kids dress up as superheroes and as crossing guards in honor of our as superheroes in honor of our crossing guards so i just want to take a moment and and share that and and and note that our the dedication of our crossing guards does not go unnoticed and they're greatly greatly appreciated hey andrew i just happened to choose last friday to stop down at conrad

066and and uh it was really something down there because everybody got a costume the kids were having a ball um and you could tell the staff was as well that was a as in terms of morale and and we're all boosting and that sort of thing uh it's things like these that our teachers and administrators are so creative that i came away from my visit over at conrad albion very encouraged thank you i have a few school status reminders and updates this evening and i'm going to invite mr sheftick to he's got a sheet he's going to pass out as well regarding wabisa but the first thing i want to do is just recap and this will be in part responsive to many of our public comments tonight i'd like to just take a minute

067and recap the outcomes of our january 15 board work session of course the work session was was called to to look at the issue of providing to discuss the feasibility of providing a mcfarland-based in-house if you will virtual option that can be implemented in concert with our return to hybrid in-person instruction and the outcomes of the work session are these students in grades three through eight will now have the opportunity to choose a mcfarland-based virtual option as those grades transition to step three 4k and conrad albion primary school students those students in grades k-2 will not be offering a virtual in-house option for a variety of reasons students in grades 9 through 12 will continue to have the virtual option that isn't already in development for the high school so when the high school took

068the step to move forward to in person they did so uh setting up an in-house from the beginning in-house virtual option that is continuing uh more information will be coming from wabisa and indian mountain high school administrative teams as we move forward i know and those details uh become more firm we did discuss at length on last last thursday that their the step forward with virtual in-person does have a lot of implications and complications with it that we need to work through and we appreciate my administration administrative colleagues and i appreciate your uh hearing us on that and be in your support and understanding of what all that entails um there are some timeline revisions that will be likely be needed at webisa so cory if you want to go ahead and pass out uh

069corey's got a handout he's gonna he's gonna share with each of you just outlining what our what our planning is looking like at webisa and while he's doing that i'll just walk you through it thanks thanks corey we anticipate that the transition week which is already planned for the week of january 26 at that there will be no changes to that that is that is transitional activities that are already on schedule had already been planned as part of uh welby's transition to step three before we added an in-house virtual option and we anticipate no changes to that we do anticipate the following week we will need to change february 1 and february 2 from student instruction days to staff work days to finalize preparations and that means there'll be no instruction and no vip services

070uh to finish preparing uh to start both the hybrid in-person and the virtual in-house virtual programming at the same time on february 4. so that does mean we're looking at a change of two days pushing back that start of hybrid instruction for two days the reason that's needed is as i said is to finalize the the plans and specifically uh there are a lot of very intricate plannings that need to be drawn up for particularly special services students receiving special education and other other supported services like that the staffing issues there get very complex we need to make sure that's all that's all ready to go the other thing that's really important to recognize is that we we cannot operate a school with unless unless all of our students can have learning so we can

071operate we can't delay um we can't move forward with in person for example and like take some extra time to get virtual in-person set up we have to be able to offer school to all of our kids otherwise we run into issues provided for inappropriate public education so that is um that's why we're so we need to be able to start everything on the same day okay that's gonna take us to february 4 and just can i interrupt on that so that's a that's a legal requirement correct that we can't discriminate against a segment of children and say you can't have education but these children can today that is correct okay thank you thank you yes and then on february days it is thank you yep thank you the related arts day in that it

072was already planned uh as that will continue as already planned so um corey did i what would you add to what i just shared and do you have any questions for either myself or for corey regarding their their planning of a visa yeah thanks yeah i think i think andrew covered all of the pieces in regards to the adjustments really the big adjustments first as you can see is really just that february first and second which the first was going to be our first day back to in person and now that we're adding in this virtual option um and you can see the rationale i'd be happy to answer any questions that you have about any of those below um but really then it's just it's pushing that to the to the fourth as our

073beginning of hybrid and the virtual option at the same time as andrew said it's really important that we are starting both those options at the same time and providing that access for all students so are there any questions about either the timeline or the rationale for timeline adjustment is that okay sure okay um so some of the themes that we're hearing um is about um let me step back when we had the working session on thursday night we repeatedly said please share what kind of resources you need so of course time is one of them are you looking at any issues with providing safety like masks or any of those types of things as you ramp up that was a theme that i was hearing both from jerry and i asked for staff yeah exactly

074mass cleaning supplies things like that are i was just curious about that christine are you asking that question kind of under the big umbrella of staff safety i am okay yeah thanks yeah yeah um yes and uh and jerry thank you to jerry out there for for the kind compliments earlier we did uh again are phasing in of hybrid minus the virtual option that was discussed and you know we decided on last thursday we had begun to slowly phase in all these different many many dirt like layered operations that require us to bring our students back to hybrid which again was was february 1. and part of that was to kind of keep our our staff in this frame of mind of not being overwhelmed was layering that and so the thing that we um

075and and part of that was then getting us to the point last week where we're starting to talk about safety protocols and the cleaning procedures and so forth which is why then we brought in to our staff meeting last tuesday or the ceps staff and out of that too we then started to deliver some some of the layered products that they'll need for so additional hand sanitizer and wipes and uh we we haven't it's been probably about two to three weeks now um because folks were starting to think about um oh yeah that return date is coming up um actually the mft so showed up to the mft has provided enough uh face shields for our staff um so those are available too and and so we in our communication to our staff was we

076just reminded them that remember that a face shield is not a um it's not a replacement for a mask it's a supplement to you know for the um and we and we do have face masks that are available and have been available actually all um all fall for our staff so yes to that and yes to our students as well so shout out to our pto um who last uh thursday we we actually had a pto meeting right before our work session and they're delivering a belief tomorrow additional mask for any student so i know that that was a question that came up to our some of our families and we are having a uh an event for our third grade families tomorrow night and our new families um to kind of just welcome them

077to what's because they really didn't have that opportunity and that was a question that came up there too about you know are we going to have additional mass for our students if they their mass gets soiled and they need a replacement so yes the mask for our staff and for our students okay so sorry for the long no no no that's really helpful i think for me as um i guess i'm not even speaking for myself but it sounds like uh the the face shields are being provided by mtf and all extra maths are provided by p2 are the are we not the different pto the extra mask are for for our students okay and then us as a district we're providing the the mass okay so the question really truly i guess now that

078we get to the core of it is is the district providing enough safety things for our staff at wilbisa and are there any other resources you need thank you and thank you very much for the question to speak to that because that question really applies district y yeah so uh the answer is yes we have ppe for our staff um mft mcfarland federation teachers wrote a grant to aft american federal teachers to supplement our ppe which is very very much appreciated ptm does a similar thing um yes we are in very good shape with pve um yeah and thank you for the question so that's a really important that's a really important question to keep to keep asking and and make sure people are aware i just want to say so we as a board

079um i i think throughout the whole pandemic have kind of been informed of the details and i appreciate that and at least i'm not a professional educator and the level of detail you've gone into everything from the logistics the technology best practices of learning limitations how you're meeting those things and it's just not since last thursday but all along because we've asked you to keep looking at it and explaining it to us and it and i want to apologize for slowing you down by asking all you know we kept asking you to do that but but as we see the the back end of what's going on and and all the missing or all the moving pieces that have to fit together always with the goal of providing the best education we can under these

080um very difficult circumstances i appreciate that we are essentially on target and that's not an easy thing to do i i appreciate that so thank you thank you and please know just with this adjusted timeline um and i think we shared this last thursday that any any considerations that we're making to delay that even if it's a day or two it's not gone without thinking about you know everybody who that's going to impact students families you know everybody involved so we just want to make sure that we are also giving our staff and the opportunity to make this adjustment and do it do it well so any other questions for me or appreciations i appreciate that all right thanks very much to you and al your whole staff for i know how fast you're turning

081this around and what a big lift it is and i just want you to know how much i appreciate it and it's not it's not slapped together and i appreciate that you know you're not just throwing an ipad in the back of the room and calling it good i mean the level of consideration you have for each of the students learning and adapting the best technology and the best processes i appreciate that just two brief points that i'll reiterate that we've already in in some respects have already covered that our school safety procedures are in place have been in place since the beginning of the year and they're available to review online on the district webpage on the coronavirus page uh and then just to reiterate that we you know as we have from the

082beginning excuse me continue to follow public health madison dane county school guidance and current guidance continues to be to reopen schools gradually with beginning with elementary grades to implement the public health madison dane county safety protocols uh and then and just to remind everyone that we we do adjust our procedures when new guidance comes out and when and when orders change and so we and we continue to follow uh public health madison county uh guidance so that's really where we look um and that has been the direction that the board has taken from the beginning so we continue to follow that so that's my that's my report on school updates for this evening are there any other questions that i might answer for you yes um uh vaccinations i know that we're able to and

083i'm so sorry for the end of the night and laura florence presented but um how um well i think i think the vaccine the vaccine question generally is obviously an extremely important one and it is um yes as was as we shared last week um certain teaching roles at least uh teachers involving uh special many special education rules are in the one a group and so that decision was made by all of those decisions are made at the state level and then implemented at the local level and so with those with those staff members who have received their first vaccine last week that's why that was able to happen um and then teachers as a full group of 1v we have not yet at the state level beginning to uh begun to move in that

084direction yet and so we'll have more we'll have more information to share with you as it comes to us uh but that's that's why we were able to do that um that's why those staffers were able to receive their vaccine first we've seen last week now you will hear reports around other parts of the state that may look different from that and that's because um you know i can't speak to why that is i should say that's because because i don't know why but i what i will say is our we're in day counting and so we're we're we're following the procedures that are in place from the states through dane county public health and so on uh and so that's how that works for us so we're really excited that we that some of

085our staff are beginning to have that vaccine opportunity now and we're excited for that to continue to involve our people the remainder of our staff is in the in group 1b correct that's i mean that was the understanding i had from what i read in the newspapers that is that that is that is essentially that's correct now now there are some other roles that will be in a different group for example you know particularly educator roles that don't have direct student contact are treated a little bit differently than that um so but essentially your teachers are yes that is correct and we'll have more information you know each time we uh we have more information coming to us we will of course share it with you on the vaccine process and yeah thank you for

086the question no oh oh i'm sorry are you talking so yes um and that is correct that is what we're hearing from from public health well they had to be teaching for how long the 1a or the 1b 1a thank you thanks for the info so the last piece i have is just upcoming meetings our next school board meeting is february 1 here at 5 30 and then february 15th also at 5 30 march 1st and march 15th we'll continue to meet here at indian mountain middle school in the cafeteria through those dates we may need to revisit the location at that point because that's around um as activities continue to develop here in middle school this space may not be may or may not be as easily accessible as it is now so we

087will continue to work with our facilities on on the best uh the best location for important needs and that's my report for this evening very good oh excuse me oh we could we talked about that earlier oh there's more oh i'm so sorry thank you there's another one okay yeah oh thank you angie i didn't realize we've had anyone thank you very much um so we got uh one of the nice things about being outdoors is you can you can have a little bit more freedom of movement of course and uh conrad folks we were blessed with some snow recently so they got to go out and play after a recess uh and then this is across the um this is the reading buddies event uh in uh hypnosis muscles class of mrs eversol's class

088where they did an exchange for virtual reading buddies um so first rate and fifth grade working together something they typically do in person but was reconfigured to be able to do virtually all right and then we've got more over at cps and our kids were virtual and here we were you know we didn't we're at cbs our students were at home i was in my office but yet we were all connected because we're meeting our participators reading um some really positive you know ways that we can still impact our kids together and this is a national crossing guard that piece i mentioned earlier so christine punzel got involved with that and helped make sure that our kids appreciate your send appreciation for crossing guards as well knowing that that was coming up now this is

089this is an interesting one we have um so this is technology at its finest we have therapeutic cats non-allergenic therapeutic cats that are robotic cats that are can be used to help students regulate and stay calm and staff members do for that matter so they're these are due to uh to this middle school dude services team so they're they're a new new part of the of the menagerie if you will yeah yeah what what do they do do they heard doesn't hurt the staff including me someone who so this is as you know we're back in person with uh um um uh and there's still a lot of work that gets done during that transition at home so this is this is a student who's completing a project for technology and engineering while at home

090so our technology staff and steve you could speak to this because you're you're right this is a big part of what you're what you're involved in but being able to help kids have the supplies they need at home and the guidance and then be able for you to be able to connect with them and get feedback from their work and coaching virtually too yeah so this is one of our kids i think the next slide probably has the classroom so so what will happen is mr kinnaman will have them all while they're working on their project up and zoom and they're kind of you know you know just standing there in a wood box or doing something with their hammer here and they're all kind of doing it at home they come on thursdays and

091pick up the supplies that they need for that week and then do the activity at home it was a nice thing to highlight because it's so unique you know you think well there's no way you can do technology in engineering virtual instruction no no you can't take this stuff home we're going to give it to you you don't even need any tools we'll give you what you need and then you just kind of do their work together great to see as we heard earlier there are kids who have not been in the middle school yet their kids haven't been in high school yet so they're doing some orientation work there and then meals we continue to offer food service continues to offer meals they do an incredible job they have all the way through since

092we started with our food service meals program during the pandemic and those are some recent events so that is my report for this evening thank you angie for catching me very good any questions or comments for andrew nice job andrew thank you okay next is action items action and denial of student open enrollment status at this time we recommend the denial of one mcfarland high school students open enrollment status for the second semester of 2021 school year due to habitual truancy during the first semester of 2020-21 school year 2009 wisconsin act 304 states that a non-resident board may notify the parent of a habitual truant that the pupil may not attend the non-resident school district in the following semester or school year please reference the attached recommendation memo and the exhibit details 2020-21 first semester

093attendance do i have a motion to approve thank you ann second thank you craig any questions or comments hearing none most from and second from craig all in favor say aye aye aye opposed passes by majority next is action on mcfarland high school early graduation request the farm high school administration recommends approvally attached high school early graduation request so i have a motion to approve shall move craig i'll second christine thank you any questions or comments hearing none motion from craig's second from christine all in favor say aye aye aye opposed passes by majority next is action recommendation on weva distance career academy and inside school of wisconsin i requested approval of recommended student transfers back to their resident district due to lack of engagement to have a motion to approve thank you ann second

094a second christine any questions comments hearing none motion from an second from christine all in favor say aye aye opposed passes by majority next is a motion to adjourn do i have a motion to adjourn thank you ann second oh second tom thank you motion from and second from tom all in favor say aye aye we are adjourned at 8 15. thank you wow