Board of Education Regular Meeting - August 11, 2025

001That's exciting. >> 701. >> I'm go ahead and call us to order. Nikki, please call the role. >> Yep. Nikki Austin is present. Jim Cern. >> Mike Davis. Mike Pres. >> Nicole Joseph >> present. >> Theresa Ke. Steve Mayor >> Jerry Montgomery >> present. >> Bill Westford. >> Oh, he's here. I didn't see him. >> He was like back just enough. He was hiding. He was hiding. >> Stealthy. >> All right, we got a uh we've got a quorum and our uh August 11th regular board of education meeting is officially in session. Uh, first up, we've got um I'm going to propose an amended agenda, but I'm going to have Joe talk to us real briefly about why we're doing that. >> Sure. So, very quickly, we had a couple things listed on the agenda

002tonight that uh were not required to be there. Essentially, there were readings of of the policies that were technical changes. And as we discussed in policy committee previously, that technical changes don't need to come to the board level. there small adjustments in language that don't substantially change the language or the meaning of the language and as such we've removed those. In addition, during our policy committee meeting prior to this meeting, um we had a discussion about policy 5113 and there was a desire by the policy committee to get that on the agenda tonight so we can have the first reading due to some time-sensitive matters that we want the board to consider prior to the start of the school year. So with that, I'll turn it over to Jim. Okay. Okay. So, I'm going to

003go ahead and make the motion to approve the amendment to the agenda to delete 7G and 7H um for tonight's meeting and add a first reading of policy 5113. Look for a second. >> Second from Mike Process. Any discussion? >> All right. All in favor say I. >> All nay. >> Motion carries. Our agenda is amended. I would look for a motion to approve tonight's amended agenda. >> So move. >> Second. >> Got a motion by Terry, second by Mike Davis. Discussion. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppos? Nay. Motion carries. Okay. Next up, we've got our consent items. I'll give the members a chance to review what's on the consent agenda. Is there anything that any member would like to remove from the consent agenda tonight? If not, I would entertain a

004motion to approve the uh consent agenda as stated. >> Second motion by Nikki, second by Terry. I'll read these for ask for discussion. Um we've got four items tonight. Approval of the minutes from July 28th. Approval of support staff hiring. Taylor Rosebrook Cook for Abe Lincoln. Robert Mau, custodian coordinator at Abe Lincoln. Um, we got approval of professional staff resignation. Alicia Kubli, teched teacher for Monroe Middle School and acceptance of community de community donations, $30 from Maryanne Johnson to Backpack Buddies and $50 from Donald Jr. and Bonnie Barker to Backpack Buddies. Thank you very much for the generosity. Any discussion from board members before we vote? All in favor say I. >> I. >> All opposed? Nay. Motion carries. Okay. Next up, we've got public comment. And we've got somebody signed in tonight, which means

005I get to before you get moving too fast. I've got to I've got to frame this up, Josh. I tried to do it last meeting, but the the speaker beat me to it. So, I'm going to um I'm make sure I read this so I so I get it right. Um, so public comment is a vital part of feedback to the board for matters of interest to the public. For those of you for those of you unfamiliar with public comment or open meetings, this is your opportunity to speak during the rest of the meeting. There is no opportunity for feedback from the public. You're making a statement or a speech about your opinions on a topic pertinent to the business that the board board conducts and within the legitimate jurisdiction of the board because our

006board meetings are a meeting held in public, not a public meeting. there wouldn't be a dialogue with you about your comment. That means while the board may not respond directly to your comments, we will take into consideration as those matters come before the board. Please do not infer the lack of interaction as an implicit agreement or disagreement with your statement. Uh while you're making your comment, all statements should be directed to the board of education and myself as the presiding officer. The things you say here may be heard by many. Uh please exercise judgment in your statement and avoid any uh personally directed, abusive, obscene or irrelevant messages. Uh please consider your comments before saying them. Uh we are here to listen to your concerns. Please speak with the same respect. Uh and we will

007that we will provide you um as we listen and we please ask that you limit your comments to five minutes. Pretty sure I'm going to need glasses because I really struggled to read that off the phone. >> Pretty small f. All right. Uh, so we've got uh Mr. Tramy signed up for public comments tonight >> over here. Good. >> Okay. All right. Well, good evening school board members and district staff. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. Uh, my name is Josh Tramy. Uh, many of you know me, but for those of who those of you who don't, I'm the parks and forestry supervisor uh for the city of Monroe. Um, I've been working with athletic fields for over 17 years in two different communities. Um, I'm also very involved in our local baseball organization

008and also connected uh to the youth softball program. In addition, I work closely with both the high school baseball and softball coaches and programs who are here tonight with us as well. On behalf of the baseball and softball programs in this community from the high school level down to the youth, I'd like to express my strong support for installing turf on a baseball field and a softball field at the new sports complex. Turf fields are not a cosmetic upgrade or a want as some may think. They are long-term investments in our student athletes, our programs, and our community. Our spring sports season is already short and every year we lose valuable games and practices due to wet unplayable fields. Turf would drastically reduce weather related cancellations give our student athletes the chance to actually play

009the season they've been working hard to prepare for. With the current umpire shortage, more games are being squeezed into double headers or lower levels are being cancelled. Turf allows us to better accommodate those schedules without worrying about field recovery time or damage and overuse. It also gives us a greater scheduling flexibility not only for high school teams but also for youth teams and the community. This is about maximizing our resources and giving more students access to high school to high quality facilities. Turf brings significant operational benefits as well. It reduces the time, labor and costs of daily field maintenance. No more dragging, chalking, watering or constant repairs. That's money and manpower that could be redirected into priorities with other priorities within the district. In the past 5 years, youth baseball and softball have grown significantly

010in Monroe. In addition to the park and wreck opportunities, the Queen of Diamonds and Aces programs have been established now serving over 150 participants combined. Baseball and softball deserves the same level of investment and reliability as other programs. And thanks to the private donations, we're able to make that happen without using public t public tax dollars, all while reducing ongoing maintenance costs for the school. Even long-term replacement costs would be covered outside the district's operational budget. Turf fields are also highly desirable for outside rentals. Comparable facilities um charge nearly $5,000 for a weekend tournament, and hosting such events not only bring in revenue to the district, but it also benefits local businesses through increased visitors to our community. At the end of the day, this is about giving our kids the best opportunity to succeed

011and represent our school with pride. We now have a unique opportunity, thanks to the support of some private donors, to make this a reality. Please let us know if you have questions. Thank you for your time and confer considering the important upgrade to our students in the community. Thank you. >> So, I didn't actually do an all call for public comment. Is there anybody else who's here for the purpose of public comment tonight? Okay. Thank you. Thanks again for the for the time and for your words, Josh. Um, I'm going to keep us moving. So, we're moving on to uh old business, nothing tonight. On to new business. We've got uh six items tonight. Um, we're going to start off with uh two sponsorship announcements. Uh, and both these going to be action items for

012the board. So, starting off, we've got um approval of our exterior arch installation. I'll pass it over to Joe to give us the background. Yeah. So, this is fun that we're we're creating kind of this tradition of starting every board meeting off with some some good news. And I think again it's a reflect we said this a number of times. It's a reflection of Monroe of this community, the generosity of a variety of u businesses and and families. And tonight we're we're here to celebrate another significant uh sponsorship actually too. Um if there's one thing that we heard most often relative to um building a new high school and what we needed to do to carry forward some of the tra tradition, it was need to bring the arch. And while we're not bringing the

013exact same arch, we will have um an arch uh at at the new high school and in fact we'll have two. And um I'm I'm very excited to announce that the Mardle family um and without and I spoke to Mitch McCartle. Many of you know Mitch um certainly his dad Jeff and mom Barb um and his family. they they stepped forward and and wanted to enter into this agreement, but they've agreed to um sponsor um both an exterior arch um which will be prominently um positioned right outside of the the high school as and it leads up to the plaza outside of the stadium, Badger State Ethanol Stadium. And um that will be a a beautiful reminder of the tra tradition um of Monroe High School. And it'll serve as a really special opportunity to

014um to honor the past and give kids an opportunity to take pictures and do all the things that are special about the arch. Um so I'll I'll hold on the interior arch piece, but I I do want to just say incredibly thankful to the Mardle family. um as a guy who's been here for 27 years. Um I've known that family for a long time. Certainly Barb has been um a longtime teacher, an incredible legacy in terms of being an amazing educator. Um the Mardle family, Lance Mardle Insurance, has been very supportive of the district over the years. Mitch was a guy I coached many years ago, so I have a special place in my heart for Mitch. You'll never find a a guy that got more out of his size than than Mitch McCartle. And

015just their excitement and enthusiasm for this project was incredible. So, we're thankful for their uh their support of the exterior arch at the new Monro High School. That'll be $25,000 uh that is provided over the course of 10 years. >> And it's actually just uh as as Joe has it in his write up, it's a it is a lifetime sponsorship. So, um, and they may actually, they're considering whether they'll just front it all, but, uh, the commitment they've provided right now is over the first five years they'll do, uh, the 5,000 a year and then the 25,000 be paid after five years, but it goes on a 10-year sponsorship form like the other ones, but it'll actually be a lifetime sponsorship. >> Thanks, Joe and Ron. Any questions from members. >> I think it's fantastic.

016Um, you did point out it is not the existing march moved and or the existing arch moved. Uh, we've talked about this before, but for people that that haven't been present or weren't online the last time, that existing arch is a structural element of the the existing high school building. It cannot be moved or taken apart or off the building. So that's why um Joe kind of reiterated in the beginning that uh it's a new exterior arch. >> It it will look as close as it possibly can. Um roughly the same size. Um I think it'll be great. So thanks for making that that point, Mike. The other thing I want to say and Ron has made this point countless times. Um while the Mardle family is sponsoring um both arches, um their name won't

017be on the arch itself. they would their name will be um prominently displayed on some signage next to it. But um this is a piece of Monroe history. It's it's uh going to remain the Monroe High School arch. Um so just to make sure that people understand that we're going to respect that tradition, but also honor the generosity of the the donation as well. And um we feel very good and very confident that we'll do that in a way that's um that's appropriate. just comment, you know, the gratitude we have from the Cardinal family. Of course, I think it's great that we're keeping the legacy of the arch with the new school. That's important to me. Phil, with that, I would entertain a motion to approve the lifetime sponsorship of the Monroe High School exterior

018arch. So moved. >> Motion by Terry. Second by Mike Davis. Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. Nay. Motion passes. >> All right. Next up, we've got the interior arch installation. Anything else you want to say on this trip? >> Yeah, just uh you know what's better than one arch? Two arches. Um and this is uh this is something that we hadn't initially planned. Um, it was something that came about through the design process and um, when Amplify, the company we're working with, provided the this rendering of a beautiful stainless steel arch that's back lit that could go in the M room, we were like, "Wow, that's beautiful. We would love to have that." But then we all looked at Ron and said, "Oh, do we know how much that's going to

019cost and is there money in the budget?" And the short answer was, "No, not really." Um, and fortunately, again, due to the generosity of the Mardle family, we're going to be able to make it happen. And this is going to be one of those features that when you walk into that building, you will it will catch your eye your eye right away. It'll be beautiful. And again, I think to have the ability to honor the history of Monroe as a community, uh the various Monroe High Schools that we've had, um we're taking great care to be very thoughtful and intentional about that and this interior arch installation will do that. So again, same terms. Um lifetime sponsorship, $25,000 as Ron correctly said. Um you know, it's it's going to be paid um over five years

020or or possibly sooner. So we're uh again very thankful to the Mardle family. This is this is going to be a great addition to the project. >> Thanks, Joe. >> Thank you. >> Further discussion from the board. >> All right. I would entertain a motion to approve the lifetime sponsorship of the Monro High School interior arch at $25,000 paid over five years. >> Motion by Mike Rosa. Yeah. >> Yeah. Mike and Mike second by Mike Davis. Um so just a one note of discussion from my end. This is two separate $25,000 gifts, right? So, we're talking about a $50,000 investment. I just want to call that out because that's a um the historical significance is powerful and just want to echo the gratitude for the Mardo family. Um and this is a significant investment into

021into this project. So, just want to say thanks again. Any other discussion? >> Okay. All in favor say I. I. All >> post nay. Motion carries. All right. Next up, we've got an item for discussion, not an action item tonight. We are bringing back, I don't want to say from the dead, but we are reviving a an exciting conversation about um our baseball and softball complex and synthetic turf. I'll turn it over to administration to give us the latest. >> Sure. So, I I I just want to start out as Jim stated, you know, this is this is a uh an idea that has had many twists and turns. Uh there's been, you know, we've been highs and excited about where this might go and then thought maybe it was going away. And I think

022we're in a pretty good position right now. Um before I start, I do want to remind the board that I provided some um information in board docs that is confidential and I'd ask that we don't we don't discuss the names of some of the potential donors. Um, I'll give you some detail of where we're at with with those folks, but um, we don't want to publicly disclose any of that information at this time. Um, so first I do want to, you know, thank uh, Josh, Jamie, Dustin Huffman, Joe Lexi, Jesse's been in the mix providing numbers every time we turn around. Um, we wouldn't be at this point if it wasn't for their persistence, dedication, um, refusal to give up. And so, you know, I I'm just very thankful for their efforts um because we

023would again, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. Um the board had previously discussed this, I think about a month ago, um this idea of putting synthetic turf on the infields of the varsity baseball field and the varsity softball field. Um Josh did a nice job in public comment of explaining why that's so necessary, and I would agree with that. there's a lot of games and practices that are lost to spring weather. Um, and so I think if we can look for a way to make this happen, I think it's in the best interest of our kids and our community. Um, what we learned recently, and by recently I mean towards the end of last week, um, is that um, as there was communication in in the community that this this proposal may

024be dying a quick death because we didn't have the funds to pull it off. Um, we have some major donors that have stepped up and at this point have provided um some verbal confirmation that they're interested in providing sponsorship for this project. Um, before we get into that, I I want to recall what the board said and I think rightly said the last time we discussed this. I think the board had uh voiced their their desire to do this project and their desire to support it, but also some concerns that if we were to do it, we would need to have upfront costs provided um so that the so that the the school district didn't have to front the cost of $400,000 worth of of installation, design, drainage, all that goes into the project. And

025then the other part which was smart on on smart by the board to to recognize was there's going to be some replacement costs. And so I believe the board said if we do move forward with this, we would we would want to make arrangements to make sure that there are dollars allocated for maintenance and replacement going forward. And I'm happy to say I think we're in a position where we're going to be able to make that happen. We have one donor um who I've spoken to a few times and most recently um this afternoon indicated that um their family would be willing to provide $400,000 upfront to pay for the installation of the turf and um Jesse's done a great job of breaking down the numbers that that amount would get us to where we

026need to be in order to complete that project. Um and we're just very thankful. had some discussions with this donor about um how this might work. Uh verified that this donor is absolutely willing to provide that that uh that donation upfront and in exchange we would um would name both the varsity foot varsity baseball and varsity softball fields uh in honor of of that family. Um so we're very excited about that. Um and I think that checks box number one. Box number two is the replacement costs. And so, um, well, let me back up before I get into the replacement costs. I do want to say that, um, just by way of giving you some context, we already had an agreement for the varsity softball field. And so, we had to reach out to a

027business that was very excited and enthusiastic about that sponsorship. And when we provided this information that we were able to possibly secure a significant uh donation that would allow us to get turf, um that business graciously stepped aside and said, "Let's talk about what we can do um in another area of the building." And the reason I share that is just I think Ron and I are blown away every time we have these conversations. It would be easy for someone to get frustrated and say, "Nope, we have an agreement. You're going to stick to it." but instead they said, "No, this is good for the kids, the district, and the community." And when we do honor that business, I will be sure to celebrate them and call that out again. Um but um so now

028turning again to the replacement costs um we have another uh set of donors that have come together and indicated their interest in uh donating $200,000 not an upfront cost right away necessarily but over the course of of 10 years very likely. We we have to work out some of those details. Um, but it's it's our belief after conversations that a portion of that $200,000 could be used um for the maintenance um and replacement costs as outlined in my notes in board docs. Um, roughly speaking, based on the numbers that Jesse provided, it's recommended that, you know, replacement costs and um the the high use area replacement um um essentially warranty package would would get us to $83,000. Um I think we could allocate more than $83,000 towards a a maintenance and replacement fund that could

029be invested in fund 21. Is that correct, Ron? um and make sure that we have um appropriate funds going forward so that we don't put a future board in a tough position relative um to the replacement and maintenance costs. Um, when I spoke to the representative for this group, they indicated again once they heard some of the information about the $400,000 donation that they're willing to be flexible, that they're willing to invest some in the baseball softball fields and then they're also willing to explore some other areas as well. So, what we do need to be careful of and and we'll absolutely do is make sure that any costs related to the baseball softball complex are clearly identified as such and that any funds that would go to say another area of the building are

030identified for appropriate use there. We don't want to borrow from one area to pay for turf, for example. Like just to be clear for anyone in the audience or watching at home, this board has made it very clear that we need to be absolutely transparent about how we're using those dollars and we intend to do so. So I could sit here and talk for a long time about all the things that came together and all these miracles that fell into place in order to put us in a position to say let's put synthetic turf on the uh baseball and softball varsity fields. But I will stop talking and ask the board to um share any questions or concerns they may have at this time. And just procedurally, what we're what you're looking for tonight is

031just kind of a a straw poll, a green light to say if if contingently if you're able to bring these things back, then would the board would be willing to approve that? >> Yeah, exactly. Thanks, Jim. So, at this point, I've I've given um a little bit of background to the the donors. um said, "We're having this conversation tonight. I'm looking for, you know, kind of the green light to say, "Yep, you can go forward and start to negotiate some of these um sponsorship agreements knowing that we would then come forward for formal approval with the board." Uh hopefully at the next board meeting if if everything falls into place, but wanted to make sure that there were no additional questions or concerns that um we didn't cover. I appreciate you going and doing more

032work and definitely getting those questions that we brought up last time answered and um just covering the long-term outlook for the upkeep of the turf. >> Thank you. I didn't have much choice. There's some people in the audience that want to take >> Perfect. However you got it done. I mean, it's amazing that all these credible are stepping up to, >> you know, they're willing to move things around and juggle things that they had their heart set on sponsoring to do something else. And it's just amazing. We have an amazing community. >> We really do. And you know, it's hard enough to go into meetings and put your sponsorship guide, anybody want to give us$25,000 up to a million dollars and and people are just so supportive and and great. But then to your point

033when you do have to make that tough phone call and say here's the situation had to do it a couple times now and um they couldn't have been more supportive. I'm just really proud to be a part of this community. >> Are you going in order here? >> So I I you know obviously again I can't believe how supportive the community is and that's great. I think two weeks ago we talked about this and I think we're all supportive of artificial turf. It's a great idea. The concern of course is the dollars in the budget doing our job as a board. We said you know this because it's not in the budget and the whole landscape has changed in two weeks and so great job and I'm supportive of it because it's paid for. >>

034Yeah. Oh, I'm super I'm absolutely supportive. I think it's fantastic. >> We don't have to go all the way down unless you guys want to. >> You want us to just do a thumbs up. >> So, at least we can feel like our feedback. >> Oh, I'll Well, the board president decide procedurally what he wants to do. But, yeah, I'm just looking for >> again, I I think it's fantastic. I really do. Um, the only concern that I would have is it sounded a little bit iffy yet on the maintenance end of it, the 200 And I want to make sure that that that is totally set so that when everybody in the community realizes yes, it's going to be covered, you know, it's going to be covered. >> Yeah. I would say >> we

035can't we can't be taking money from taxpayers to put something in. That that's my only feeling. Believe me, guys, >> we love we love the ball. There's no question about it. >> But, you know, we have to make sure that the commitment is there. >> Yeah, >> that's the only thing. >> I appreciate that, Mike. And I just want to say the only reason it sounds iffy is just because this is evolving at a high rate of speed over the last few days. And um I promise you that when we bring this forward for formal approval, we will have all of those details sketched out. So there's absolute clarity for the board and for the public as far as how this is going to work and we will make sure that we secure the dollars

036in an appropriate manner to leave no doubt about how this is going to be taken care of in the future. So, thanks for saying that. >> I just want to commend you gentlemen and and the community donors, right? I mean, it had to have taken a little bit of wind out of uh the sales the last time we discussed this as a board and uh the fact that you didn't give up. You came back. Um we got additional donors from the community that pretty much I mean I feel like you watched the video back Joe and addressed every single concern that we talked about at the last meeting. So, um, well done. And I just I'll echo the gratitude from everyone else. And also I think my my understanding of this has evolved quite a

037bit over the past few days because initially I was assuming it was going to be $400,000 upfront and then replacing cost replacement costs would be another 400,000. Of course, that was I don't know much about uh fields and and turf, but just to kind of respond in part to what you were asking, Mike, I think the cost that Jesse's outlined for us is about $83,000 to, you know, over and above the 400. So, I think what Joe is naming tonight is if we come in with $200,000 or even close to that, not only have we covered the upfront cost with the 400, we've covered the 83, that's the full replacement, and then some that could be invested or could could, you know, go to other elements. If I'm if I'm hearing the >> Yeah, I

038mean, ultimately, we'll work with with that donor group to determine how they they would like to use that. I I think what I would say is that probably at least 100,000 of that would need to be allocated to maintenance and replacement costs to cover us and and then that allows us to invest it and maybe grow over time. And then maybe another um the other 100,000 could be allocated in other places in the building if they choose to do so. Or there might be some opportunities within that that complex as well that if the board decided to invest in in that particular fund, we could we could take care of that. But certainly that'll be something that Ron and I work on with those folks. And um what we won't do is come forward with

039a plan that puts us puts a future board in a tough position regarding replacement costs. >> Thankfully Jesse's here and hope you don't mind. I'm going to put you on the spot here. I assume that the reason it's 400,000 upfront and the maintenance costs are far less is because you've got all that substrate and everything underneath. It's it's the wear items that we're going to have to maintain and replace, right? >> Yeah. So, I don't know if some of those were adjusted for inflation if we're looking at a 15-year um future replacement. So, turf on a baseball field lasts about 15 years. Um there's wear areas that are have to be replaced um earlier and those are uh you can buy in a package and when we design those we have those easily replaced. So,

040um but um with the turf field you have a lot of under drain system. So you have a bunch of clear stone that gets put down under drain, storm sewer. That all has to be accounted for. And then there's concrete curb that goes all the way around the outside of the facility. So that's where a lot of your $400,000 costs come from as some of that um construction of the the grading, the base, the under drain, and the concrete curve that has to go in. When you go to replace it after 15 years, we're looking at just replacing the carpet. And so the cost that we have um in front of you, we reached out to to Sprint Turf who's doing the ba the football field and that's what they said today's replacement cost would

041be per square foot. And so those how we ran the numbers and then we also included those wear areas as well to get you through the 15 years. >> So what I I will admit, so this is moving fast. There's numbers. What I want to do is go through the numbers again. I sit down with Jesse and Ron, make sure that we have all that locked down um and make sure that you know whatever plan we we bring back has has an ample amount of dollars to to cover that and we'll go from there. So, um I I think we're in a really good position, much better than I ever could imagine we'd be at this point and um we'll go from there. Can you can you bring back I s I think it's super

042exciting and and fully supportive. Can you bring back a revised um sponsorship guide so so it's clear like what the what who's getting what name looks like. Right. >> Yeah. >> So and what the and then I think some of the language for probably these will have to be changed which is great. >> Yeah. >> But just so it's clear >> who's getting >> Yep. I can a lot of that I largely have done, but if you were to go through um the sponsorship guide, you'd see the vast majority of what's in here already has claim stamps on it. Right. Right. >> And so we can do that and we can also identify >> I feel like some of this will change potentially for >> potentially could >> which is great. >> Yeah. >> Great.

043Just doesn't that make sense? >> Yeah, for sure. Would this be a lifetime then? >> This absolutely would be. Yep. And so it' be um $200,000 per field. So two lifetime agreements >> For the two fields,000 that would cover both the varsity and softball and baseball field. Correct. >> Yes. >> 10 fields of each. Yes. >> Right. All right. Well, just a huge thank you again to Josh and Dustin, Eric. I know you were a part of this and Joe, just and everybody who made this happen. Huge thanks to to Joe for I mean, like Terry said, navigating these conversations that just evolve so quickly and and doing it in in a way that um honestly has been incredibly impressive. So, thank you for all of your work on this. Thank you. Thank you guys

044for showing up tonight and all the work. I think you got your informal uh green light from the board and we'll look forward to to update uh potentially in two weeks. >> Perfect. Thanks everyone. Appreciate the support. >> Great job, guys. >> All right. >> Thank you. Awesome. >> All right. Moving on. We've got um a special guest here tonight. Um and so I'm gonna I'm gonna frame this up a little bit and then I'm going to turn over to uh to Randy Gutenberg uh who's representing uh the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. Um, so we've got a big uh decision ahead of us and one of the most important things that we do as a school board is decide who our superintendent is going to be. Um, and that is uh given that that

045Joe is uh our interim superintendent through this school year, we've got to decide um how we want to proceed over the next few months to to land our our next superintendent. As a new uh board president, this is something I have not done before. And so I reached out to um to WASBY for for some resources and guidance and I asked uh Randy to come speak about a couple things tonight. So one is just the the lay of the land kind of what what is it like out there in the in the in the forest of superintendent hiring. Uh and then two just to kind of help us understand as a board um what are the procedural options in front of us, right? What are the full range of options? And so the purpose of

046this time uh for us as a board this is meant to be informational. It's meant for us to be able to ask questions to uh somebody who's from Monroe. I don't want to steal all your thunder here, Randy, but from Monroe, who was a longtime Waki superintendent, which of course we can boo him after he's done that. Um, but just to to help inform um how we might want to move forward as as a group with this um with this process. And I do just want to say, I know Ry's going to underscore this also, but one thing we're not going to do, we're not going to discuss or make any decisions tonight on um on the next steps that we are going to take because we don't want to I want to make very

047I don't want us to veer into the the world of kind of having an evaluation discussion of our current interim superintendent, which this conversation could easily turn into. Um and so really Ry's here to present some information. we'll get a chance for the board to ask questions um of Randy and then um I'll propose some next steps after that. So with that, Randy, thanks for making the drive. >> Thanks, Jim. Do you have a clicker? >> Con or Amy, do you have the clicker? >> Thank you. I >> think you got most of the highlights there, Jim. So, I'm going to kind of walk through. >> You may have to kind of point it in that direction. down. We'll move youward those problems in wann Jim gave a little bit of my introduction. My name

048is Randy Goodriber. I'm one of the consultants with uh Wisconsin Association of School Boards. We do work with school boards across the state. There's eight of us who work um kind of regionally. We do searches for superintendent. That's not why I'm here tonight. We're not I'm not selling any services. Um, tonight is just really talking about from a perspective of of what what we have to offer or what's the landscape out there for uh for superintendent and the hiring process for them. Uh, my background just real quick, I was in education for 31 years. I spent 11 years in the Barabou schools. I spent 20 years as a school superintendent, four in a little town called Montello and as Jim said, 16 in Wanaki. Don't hold that against me. Um, quick side note, um, I

049graduated from high school in Monroe in 1987. Um, and 1986 was the first time Monroe won the state football championship. So that ball sat in my Wanuki office for all the years I was there. So even though we won a lot of championships in Wanke, the Monroe ball was the one that was in my office. So not many people know that. So that's going to hold that against both. Um, my objectives here tonight are really to talk about um, really the board's role in hiring a superintendent, options, internal appointment versus your search process. I'm going to cover that whole gamut. What should the board consider? And then probably the most important part is opening it up for questions at the end. Um, f first of all, your why superintendent change. I mean, that's is something

050that's inevitable that's going to happen um, within any board. and you're going to be f finding yourself in a situation where you're really doing one of the most important jobs that you as a school board do, which is hiring your leader. As you can see from some of the research that's on the screen, um, next to having high quality teachers in the classroom, having high quality leadership is one of the most important things that's going to impact kids. And hiring the superintendent is the responsibility of the board. And that's really why I'm here tonight. Um, few of my colleagues several years ago went through and did a lot of research on schoolboard governance. I I start all my presentations off with this just to ground us as far as what's the role of the of

051the board in the work that we're discussing. Um and and this model is really built off of the concept oops I will some reason it disappeared. We'll talk off of here. Um it goes off of the concept that you're here to serve all kids but around that you have four quadrants that are within your scope of responsibility. quality leadership, a strategic focus, an accountability system, and then a community engagement or engagement with your stakeholder groups. Um, tonight you are really grounded within your quality leadership. That's really where the search process falls. That is a a a role of you as a board is to work and determine your process for filling and hiring the superintendent who you work very closely with in leading the school district. So, I'm going to talk about two different pieces

052tonight. One is just the search process as if you're going out and you are opening up a wide search. What does that look like? And I'm also then after that going to talk about what have we learned and what have we seen across the state with regards to internal placements because those are both really two different forks in the road for hiring your superintendent that we're seeing in Wisconsin. Um this is really just a this these six boxes are just a flowchart. A very typical process for what it looks like when you are um going through a search process for hiring a superintendent. That's what the first box is really you looking at are we going to do the search ourselves or are we hiring a firm. It's really they'll start in those predecisions that

053you're making but what will that search look like? Once you've decided your your pathway, you are then planning out what your search is going to entail. How are you going to include your community? How are what are things and qualities that are valuable to you? How do you put together stakeholder input in order to put together a profile of the ideal candidate that you would like to have fill that position? Once you have all of those pieces together, you're then ready to put your posting out there. So, there's a lot of preemptive work before you actually write your posting and launch it out there for the community for the future candidates to see. Once it's been out there for for a period of time, those are usually out there usually three weeks to six weeks,

054depending on kind of what your time frame is as a board, then it's a a winnowing section where you're looking at the candidates that you have versus the profile of what you're looking for and looking for then those ideal candidates to bring in for an interview. Um, usually we see boards that are doing a multi-in process. You have a first round of interviews, second round of interviews. There may be some other processes that you decide in there as you're going through your planning for your process. Once you've selected your new superintendent, then there's the piece of then um publicly introducing them to your community. All of those steps take place at a very minimum of under of about three months and I would say they probably stretch out to about five months, but typically they're

055in I would say that three and a half four month time frame. Just to give you an idea of kind of some things to think about particularly as you're as you're looking at do you do the search yourself or do you hire a firm to do it. Um the questions you have to look at is do you have the time to be able to commit towards that? Do you have staff who have background and time and resources to be able to utilize to be able to lead that process and then looking at your kind of your cost benefit piece to bring in an outside firm. I'm just from my experience looking at this, not only working for the schoolboard association, but also um kind of seeing this and just knowing knowing the the landscape of

056this space, you're between about 10,000 and about $20,000 to do a search. Now, those are going to vary incredibly based on which firm you use and decisions you make as a board as far as how you get input from your community, how many meetings you hold, um travel distances for for consultants that are helping to work with the search. A lot of impacts go into that, types of surveys you might use with your community, etc. But generally, I would say dependent is 10,000 to 20,000 is a pretty good idea of somewhere in there. One of the things that um Jim and I talked about was wanting to have a little bit of data for you. So, it's not just talking about it theoretically. I looked back at the 21 searches that the schoolboard association did

057over the last two years. The average number of applicants was 11. Um your median number was nine. highest applicant pools were some of the smaller sub we did some of the smaller suburbs around Milwaukee some of the the joint K8 districts and some of the other small districts in that area those actually brought in about 25 to 28 applicants we had done two larger districts in the state that I would say were probably 4,000 students plus and each of those had nine or less. Um, so your your pool is and I think even from a consulting standpoint, our our pool has gotten smaller over the years. Um, and when you look at even the pools you are getting, not all of them are your highly qualified candidates that you're going to feel comfortable bringing in

058for. So, I'm not trying to be negative towards the search process or kind of what you have for candidates, but it is a relatively narrow pool. I did a search this fall for an outstanding school district and we had eight candidates. Um, and I really thought that one would generate some some additional interest. But there's lots of reasons that people are are making those decisions. Um, they just like school boards are shopping for a candidate, candidates are shopping for schools and communities. And when you start to take a look at some of the things that they are looking at, um, it's the things that you can predict. They're looking at how particularly in this day and age where you can go out and you can watch board meetings, you can read about things online. They

059want to know how is this how is the district um working together? How is it working with the community? What's their governance model? Obviously, you can talk about salaries and benefits, all of those pieces. But I think more importantly to to superintendent is that you're moving into a community, housing, child care. Um I always tell people that um when they talked about when I served as a superintendent, I said it was more of a lifestyle than it was a job. I said it was a lifestyle that you and your family were part of the community. you were a leader in the community. It was who you were. You never took off that hat. And that's a big part of when people are looking for um a superintendent's position, they're looking for a place that they

060can really click their roots. And I think that's one of the things that that they look for. I know that was what I looked for when I was um in that situation. Um the other piece you have to think about when you're doing a search is what do you do if you do have internal candidates? As Jim already said, you have Joe is serving as your interim. Not sure if you have other candidates that would put their name into a process, but it's always a question that has to be answered is how do you handle with internal candidates? Um the C talking to my my consultant colleagues as we've gone through searches, people who are applying for those positions are always asking us are there internal candidates? They want to know that and because there's

061a lot of risk in putting your name out there particularly if if if you are becoming a finalist because that becomes public and that can be challenging for candidates who don't want to make that public that they may be looking at a position. So how you handle internal candidates is a question you have to be thinking about but also then the impact of that and what it has on your other candidate pool is important to consider as well. On the flip side, you're looking at um succession planning. Um I think we all can understand exactly what that is. That's really promotion from within and and looking at ways that you can utilize the resources and the people capital you already have to to best serve your community moving forward. Um I think there's the two

062points that I think that resonate with me most and kind of your benefits are dis decreases your disruption in your leadership. you have somebody that you generally know who knows your community who can work with with um your district moving forward. And then there's also the expense piece. Now, making sure you have the right person is probably one of the most important pieces there. So, I don't believe it's something that you do without process. It's something you have to think about what does that process look like if you are looking at an internal place. Um, I think these are all things that you can probably um articulate as far as why you might want to look internally and what types of qualities you're looking for. It really falls into the type of person that you

063are wanting to have as as your next superintendent, your next leader, and looking at qualities that then may resonate with them um that bring them forward as someone um from an internal perspective. But everything from how are they respected by others, how do they work with others, um do they seek opportunities to grow and giving them opportunities keeps them and maintains people within your system. Some challenges from a um an internal placement is there can be resistance to that. Um there can be folks who think that well there's a lost opportunity of going out and finding somebody better, finding somebody to bring in new ideas. Um, transparency is going to be incredibly important as you go through that process. And whenever you're someone who's internal, you've had to make decisions in your career. And those

064decisions are not always liked by everybody. So, you're always going to have those stories that travel with you as you are an internal candidate. Those are just things to be be aware of. Um through my career I did move internally on in some positions and those are certainly all true as from from my own personal experience. Um amongst my consultant colleagues last week we just did a straw poll amongst us. I think I think I had six out of eight people who had responded to me just to say how many districts are we aware of that in the last few years followed an an internal promotion process. We came up with 17. Um we just did a presentation on succession planning at the summer consortium. Um and we had the superintendent from Cvitz way up

065north and we had the superintendent from DeForest which is a suburb of Madison um both come in and speak about their process. Those were both internal placements that were promoted from the but when we just kind of did our our quick poll, we came up with 17 different individuals. Those are folks that were either earmarked um ahead of time and then were groomed to be moved into that position. There were people that were when they started to look at their candidates. I know one of these individuals um they didn't like the candidate pool they were getting and they went back and recruited somebody from within who they felt more comfortable with. hand just being able to then also look at your interim superintendent and offering them on other opportunities. So I think all across the

066board I would say that there's more than 17 in the state that have utilized internal. These were ones that I concretely knew just from I'm talking to my my consultant colleagues. Some things to think about. These are kind of my final thoughts and then I'll open it up for questions. You have to do what's best for your student, staff, and community. That goes without saying. That's the work of of a of a school board and a school district. But truly being able to think about what's going to get you to the best place that's going to serve your community, staff, and kids the best. Um, thinking about how you articulate that that process, whether it's an internal or it's a search process, what that process looks like is vitally important for your community to know

067so that they're aware of what that looks like and they feel like they have an understanding of where of where you as a governmental body are leading. I would rephrase this one. This one says, "Do you include or solicit?" I would say, "How do you involve or solicit kind of feedback from your stakeholders?" And that can look at anything from focus groups to a survey to lots of different ways that districts go through that. That's ever a point that um you want to have some discussions about that, I can certainly provide options for you. And then the last point, which I think is probably the most resonating one, there isn't a right way to do this. Um whether you go out for a full search with a firm or you look at succession planning internally

068um there is no right way. We have examples of where both have been done very very successfully and they as long as you follow the the right processes and you are working together for the betterment of your community. Those have pieces that um all work out very well. So I think don't think there's one way that I can recommend to go other than to know for you to know really what's best for your community here in Mineral. That's my high level over building. So with that I think probably the best part is just to open it up for questions either any discussions that you have or I would be happy to answer any things from from my experience with the association. >> Thanks Randy. >> Open up to the board for uh questions or discussion.

069>> Randy, how many how many districts um did searches last year out at in the state of Wisconsin? >> Oh, good. How many did searches? I know the Well, I know Joe, you were just at the new superintendence academy. How many new superintendents are there this year? >> There were 35 that were in attendance. I don't know if that represents all >> that. There's probably like 40ome districts that have turnover with new superintendent. How many did searches that I'm not exactly sure because the ones that don't do searches we often don't have access to. Sure. And we don't do all the searches. There's four or five other firms that do them. I would say probably >> if I was going to just put a number to it off the top of my head, I bet

07075% probably do a search and 25% go another direction. But as I started to think through the colleagues that I used to work with, the number that were promoted from within is is is higher than you think. You just don't often see the publicity of those. because I know the superintendent pool has shrunk just like the teacher pool has shrunk over the years. It used to be much larger, but now it's small. >> No, it's definitely there. And I you're seeing a trend for for people being hired into the superintendency who don't have superintendent experience into large districts. You look at the Dayne County suburbs, which there's some large districts there. There's a number of folks that have come in that were curriculum directors, etc. Um, and are are moving in. Used to be many

071years ago. you kind of stepping stoned your way through from a smaller district to a larger district. That's no longer true. >> Thank you. Can you speak to what you know about the appointment process? How did people how did those districts or any districts you're aware of engage in the process then? >> Engage like the community or >> Yes. Yes. If if they chose to appoint, how did they get to that decision? >> Um I think there's a couple ways that they've gotten there. As I was speaking to, I know of one district that did go through a search and when they went through that search, they didn't like the candidate pool they saw. They felt it wasn't meeting their their candidate profile and they went back and evaluated their current administrative team and recruited

072somebody from within. So, that was one direction that they went and then they were just open with the community that this is what they did. Um I've seen other ones where they have done um pointet school district they had a dual superintendent superintendent was retiring in December. So they had um their high school principal they promoted up and they were mentored for six months before they took over. So Jerry took over um at the midpoint but that was determined internally as a move for themselves. Um, >> in that example then was the community asked for feedback or was it just this is what we're doing and they were transparent in the process? >> That was probably I'm not exactly sure of what their process was. I don't I'm not aware of them doing a larger

073community outreach piece. Um, I know DeForest went through a very similar thing. U Rebecca was appointed. I don't believe there was a large community piece. It was I mean she was well known and well connected in her community and I think for they were put her in different positions. She spoke at our summer institute and her story was that she was finding ways for her to get more involved in her community before she was appointed. So she was part of Rotary or Kanas or some of those different organizations and kind of being the face of the district at different levels. So I think that I think every district's done it a little bit differently. I mean we we're doing more of these. This is probably the third or fourth meeting like this that between myself

074or my colleagues we've done. Um I have a colleague of mine up north who's doing work with the school board. They have two internal candidates and they are going through a process where they've asked their community through focus groups and a survey kind of what are the qualities that you're seeking and then they compared those to their internal options as well. I mean, I I think just from a this is just me speaking. I think it's from a political standpoint, you need to you need to involve your community somehow. You need to let them know what you're thinking, why you're thinking it, and then get their feedback on the things that are going to help you guide them to make the best decision. You can so you're feeling comfortable with the direction you're at, regardless

075of whether that's a search or an internal appointment. You talked about the the shrinking candidate pool. I'm I'm curious um what you think about Monroe as a as a potential place for candidates to look. I I mean personally I think we've got an amazing staff and amazing culture, but as a candidate coming in looking seeing that we didn't pass a referendum this last election election cycle and and we have a huge budget shortfall that we have to address. How does that make this search process different for us potentially? >> It's a great question. Um can never guarantee who's going to apply, but I think you're seeing districts are diving into all of those things. They're looking at your success at referendums. They're seeing what am I going to be working on as they walk into

076that role. What's going to be expected to me? I think even on a if you look across the state of Wisconsin, all districts right now, even the growing districts are are challenged financially. I mean, when I was in Ron Key, we gained a thousand kids in 16 years. They're still growing. and the conversations that they're having at their schoolboard meeting is similar as far as what's happening with with with the state budget, etc. So, financial conversations are everywhere. Exceed the cap referendums are everywhere. Um, regardless of which district you're in. So, that's not going to shy somebody away. Um, communities, they're going to be looking at what type of do is this a community I want to live in? I mean, I I've always kind of I mean, I lived in Montello for a while

077for when I when I that was that that community fit me well. It wasn't going to fit some other folks because it was a very it was very it was one school. It was a country school. If you didn't like the country, you didn't like the the farming community. That wasn't going to be your place if you were looking for more of an urban center. And I think that's what you have to find with Monroe is what is you need to find the candidate who wants to be here. They are out there. Absolutely. Um, but our pools are are much more narrow. And I think there's also people looking at kind of what are your adjacencies? What what what's the quality of life here? And is we're getting good candidates for places up north that

078are really small districts in um very rural areas. So, it's not like you don't have folks who want to live there. It's just at that unique point in time what draws people conversation that my wife and I had this afternoon because she asked me she goes did we ever think of moving to Monroe or wanting to go to Monroe in my career and I said it just never fell at the right time. So that's the other piece is kind of trying to find people who are willing to move and are willing to want to make the move at the point in time when their family is ready to do so. So you already have a narrower pool and now you have other pieces that are going. The other part that I'm seeing is if individuals

079are in a good place, they're not moving. I think as I shared earlier, if I go back 25 years ago when I started in this administrative kind of piece, you had folks going from smaller districts to larger districts. There's still some of that, but that's not necessarily the driver. I think people are looking at when they get into that position, they want to see what what kind of an impact can I have and if I have a great community and a strong board and we're going in the right direction that we feel good about, they stay put. So that's I think part of why your applicant pool is down and it's it's a hard job. So I mean that that's the other piece just with the politics of the job have become more difficult and

080the finances of schools have become more difficult. So people are just being cautious as far as where they're at. I think that's the land. That's the honest landscape of where people are. >> Question. Over the last two or three years, um the pools, the makeup of the pools, are you seeing more folks applying that are inexperienced as a superintendent? >> Absolutely. >> Is that segment growing within pools? Um, I would say the majority of the folks that are applying right now, um, it's not 100% true, but we're we're hiring a lot of people that have no experience as a superintendent. They have experience as administrators, but they're coming out of the principal ranks, curriculum directors, special ed directors. It's a little harder for business folks to get their license because they've got to teach. They

081got to find that pathway to figure that out. Um, but yeah, there's definitely a very much a there's not as many people who I see moving from superintendents. If you're looking to say, are we going to interview if you were going to interview six people? I could guarantee you you're not going to find you're not going to interview six people who are sitting superintendent like that. You're going to be looking at people who don't sit in that role. And if you have good people who have good experience in a central office position or are very successful as a principal, they'll be finalists in our district. Good people will rise to the top. They will be the finalist being considered in all the places. Randy, I don't think you probably have it, but uh anecdotally, um

082just because I've been doing this a long time and I've had a lot of superintendents, is there any do you have any sense for uh longevity of internal placements versus external? I'll use Northland Pines as my example. I've been here now 20 years. Scott stepped in at Northland Pines and ran it a long time. I know they just hired another internal because they looked at that as saying >> I'm not sure that the next person will replicate what Scott did, but that's the board's hope is that they can find some of that consistency. >> And I was thinking about this that's a great question. I think I mean um think of sock prairie. I mean, if you go back, I mean, they I'm thinking of Tom Andrew, he was an he went from the high

083school principal to the superintendency and then um forgetting the person who followed him, but he was the athletic director and after him came again, I mean Jeff, who's there now, I believe, was an internal person. He was the high school principal. So, they've had longstanding internal movement as they've had good people. They've just continued to promote up. That's that's an example that I know. Um thinking of um in Loi Vincent Loai's been there for several years. He was the high school principal. These are people that I know. Um so I think that there's there I don't have the data to say this is what it is. I can just think of the examples that the people that I'm thinking about um have been there for a while and they've worked out because I think the

084board made a decision based on is it a good fit for our community and are they going to help move us forward and have they bought into the community. So I think when you have that, that's a direction that districts have gone. >> Any questions, discussion from the board? >> Awesome. Well, Randy, thanks again for making the drive down. This is great and really helpful for us. Yeah. Thanks, >> Randy. No problem. >> If there's anything ever I can do, just you know, you know how to find. So just let me know and I'll be happy to either have a conversation with you or if there's ever a point we need to come back and have any other discussions I'm very willing to do that as well. >> All right. >> Thank you. Thank you.

085>> Moving on to item 7E, our Monroe High School building project update. Turn over to John. Ron. >> Yeah, I'll I'll turn it over to Ron. You all have had to listen to me talking enough tonight. Um, I think, you know, I will just say I think the project is at a pretty exciting uh place. Um, we see a lot of progress happening every week we get out there. And um, I'll I'll let Ron share the highlights of of all the exciting things happening right now. >> I clicked into another document, so I got to get myself reorganized again here. >> So, while Ron's doing that, I'll start out by >> You just get me out. Oh, no. um you know looking at the the building itself and you get into the classroom spaces for

086example um that is all like the spaces are there not only is the you know the steel structure in place but we're drywalling there's painting that's happening it's starting to very much look like a school on the interior which is maybe a little bit um not necessarily what you would expect certainly both in the interior And on the exterior, and I know Ron will talked to this, so I won't I won't share a lot of this, but there's some elements that have uh been put into place on the exterior of the building that normally you would associate with the finishing process. Um, and so we're just very impressed with uh the amount of work, the the varied work, and um just how quickly it's coming along. So Ron, >> yeah, the uh some notes here

087in the summary and I'll I'll touch on some of them. Um certainly uh as we, you know, are working on the site, uh the the progress that's being made on the building is pretty substantial on a week-by-eek basis. As Joe said, uh, a lot of one thing when when with the tiltup type construction we had, it really expedites the shell and then when they move inside, there's so much work being done, but you don't actually see it per se. Uh but you have all the mechanical uh folks who are building out whether it be the fire suppression, you know, the the uh HVAC, the electrical, the wiring that they're running uh along with, you know, duct work and and and pipes and everything else. It's really amazing the work that gets done, but you really

088don't see it. And as Joe said, uh the parts that you do get to see is as the drywall progresses, as the painting progresses. Uh we also have uh one of our interior uh stairwells that is up uh and so we're excited about that. Uh and so uh we'd like to get the rest up and as soon as possible. Makes a little easier for the workers to get around. Uh but we're making some great progress. Um on the exterior, as Joe said, one of the, you know, that's where, you know, the amount of work that's been completed is uh at this stage, you know, with when we're a year moving in, uh is really exciting to see. Um, you know, we have uh curbing and preparation of the front drive. Uh, as you guys saw

089last week on the or two weeks ago on the on the fly over, the uh binder courses on many of our parking lots toward the north. Uh, now they're getting ready to to do the front drive as well. Uh, landscaping had caught up, so they've taken a little break for a second, but you know, we have the retaining walls done. Um, we've got grass and bushes and trees that are all in place and now the landscaping contractor has to work with maintaining those areas and watering those areas and making sure uh that they're getting a good head start for next year. Uh, at the football field uh the underllayment of the field is actively uh being done and is making great progress. Uh so getting ready for the turf to go in yet uh this

090year uh before fall and uh the stadium stadium seating uh was a surprise to us but that was completed and in uh last Tuesday when we were there. Uh we knew the subframe was all ready for it but uh wasn't expecting to see it already in place and so that was exciting. Uh tennis courts are approaching the final grading so much of the exterior site is is coming together. Uh but I think what you know uh people don't realize is all that's going on inside. Uh today we had a couple exciting meetings. Uh we had our branding meeting uh as well as our furniture meeting uh for furniture. Uh likely that may be coming back to the board at the next board meeting uh potentially uh so that uh at least you can have the

091first look and we can likely get the furniture order in place by sometime in September so that we're uh ahead of any price changes. Um we may have to see how long they'll hold the price. If we have to uh work up a little faster, we can look at it on August. Uh but uh I know we we we're kind of uh within budget at the moment. And so that's exciting to know. Uh and I think the the scope is pretty much uh where we want it to be with some minor tweaks to go into it. And then branding, you saw the branding update two weeks ago. Uh we continue to refine that. Uh that's basically in scope and budget as well. U you know where they're just picking out, you know, what points and

092parts and pieces do we want to include and which parts maybe do we not want to include uh as we work on finalizing that. And then um you know obviously tonight you know a couple components of that we got sponsorships for. So that's exciting. Uh we'll continue to look uh for some other maybe sponsorship opportunities for some small areas that are associated with the branding. But then um we have uh all the various budgets that were exterior signage, interior signage, uh the branding budget itself that were all part of the project that uh uh we're working with those budgets to make sure that the fit and finish of the inside and ex exterior of the building are are what the board would like to see. So that's kind of the high level of where we're

093at. >> Questions for administration? Oh, and my last sentence I didn't read. They are still on time and on budget. So, everybody always asks me that if I talking to the public. So, >> right there. >> Yeah, we kind of take it for granted, but >> yeah. And and with good contingencies still in place as well. >> Both of the arches are included in the branding budget. >> Yeah. So there'll be there'll be so there will be we have the revenue set aside and then we had the the branding budget and then obviously we knew we had some sponsorship dollars that'll be helping to to augment that. Yes. >> Y thanks for all the thanks for the thorough update and it just seems like at every every turn things are moving at a faster clip

094than at least than than I was anticipating. So >> well and that's Joe and I had that conversation today. I've stiff armed uh CG Schmidt a long time on they would have liked to had that turf decision back in about April or May and I stiff armed them off a long time but seeing you know the progress that was done on the the the stadium and and and the tennis courts in the last month I'm like oh we're running out of time and so it was exciting that that uh came together in this last week or two. Ron Ron did a great job of diplomatically explaining why we needed a little bit more time. Um, so kudos to him. I think the other thing I would add is, you know, it's been a while since

095we've had many of you out to the site and I think we're going to look at getting another round of tours set up here so you all can get in. Um, and the nice thing is that, you know, much of it should be enclosed. It all should be enclosed by the time we get you out there. and um it's a little easier to get around now. So, we're excited to get you out soon. So, we'll we'll send out an email with um schedule for you guys to sign up and and hopefully get you out there. A lot of cool things to see. >> I don't think I've said the phrase diplomatic stiff arm before, Ron, but >> make the t-shirt now. Trademark. >> You make them wait without them feeling like they're being so damn

096All right. Um, thanks again. Uh, we've got our lastformational item tonight. This is our annual people's services report. >> This is me officially passing off. Amy, >> it's okay. >> So, I'll try to keep this under an hour. >> She's got jokes right out of the game. Okay. So, first of all, um I just want to start by saying, you know, last week when we had our um had the board together in the academic side, I thought that um again reinforcing that conversation that we had was so much about academics. Um so, tonight is really about that other side of just making sure that we're taking care of students. So, I'm really excited. This is kind of back toback for you. Um I it's a there's a lot to celebrate in this district and I

097want to give I have to give um kudos to Joe for his incredible leadership over the past many many many years. Um and that's in conjunction with like all the principles and Todd um school psychologists have a heavy lift lift with this our school counselors our special education teachers. It's really um it's a really comprehensive system that really takes care of kids in all of the ways. Um, so over the years it's I think it's a a system that we're really really really proud of. So going to highlight um a few things that are required um but we're also going to highlight as Joe has done over the years some other things that just to keep you in the loop of how much is monitored and how much we pay attention to everything. All right.

098So um this should look a little familiar. So this is year two of our district instructional priorities. And I just like to bring it back to the relational teaching is really all pupil services. I mean that's that's the heart of what we do in this area. Um and again it takes everything and we really strongly feel that those relationships and those connections are everything that leads to strong student engagement. It leads to strong student learning. Um we know that that's just the true foundational work. Um, I'm gonna skip to this is your first official data slide. Very exciting. Um, okay. So, this is the current special education disability rates and you can see that we are a little bit above the state average. So, I need to pull that up. So, we are at um

099the state is 15.7 and in Monroe we are 17.5. Um I would say over the last few years we have seen that number continue to rise and I know Joe has been a little concerned about that. Um having been in the buildings um I will strongly say and I'll even look to the principles in the back. I don't believe we're overidentifying students. Um we've had a lot of high needs really come into the district. Very challenging, very complex often. Um and there are they're starting with our our early childhood program through our 4K. Um Monroe is known good and bad, right? Um we have an excellent special education program for students. Um and students come here, parents want their child to be here um in our services. So you can see like a couple areas

100that stand out um are autism. Autism is higher. EBD stands for emotional behavioral disability. um that's a little bit higher than the state. Um the other areas that are a little higher are speech and language, which which is the SL, and then SLD, which is a learning disability. Um one of the areas that we saw a big increase in over the last couple years was significant developmental delay. And that's for students um in the I would say early grades of like up through second grade. And that just means that it's not just one area, it's several areas that they're con they're concerned about that they would qualify under. Okay. So, every year um there is a joint federal notifications report that's put out um and that's the ID report which stands for um individuals individuals

101with disabilities education act. So, it's basically it's the it's the federal it's the federal side. Um and so these are all the indicators that are taken a look at. Um and you can get points from zero to two and you can see that we overall we had a great score. Um this is due to ongoing work. Um some of these areas are from like two years ago which is you know the it's the federal government right so like everything's a little bit delayed it seems like. Um but there are some things that are like more current. So that would be the math participation, the ELA participation, proficiency um in math and ELA. Those are areas that went a little bit down. That's in the with um the forward exam. So that is an area those

102are areas that I will be working with our school psychologists and special education teachers with just to make sure that we have we have that we're meeting that certain threshold. Um because that's just an easy thing that we can try to make happen. Um there are I would say more and more parents that are pulling their kids out and just say I don't want my child to participate in that because it's such an extensive difficult um long assessment. Um and then the math and ELA proficiency that that did dip a little bit with um our special education students. So that is another area that we'll be looking into as well and just making sure that like all of the curriculum, all of the academic supports are in place um so that we are we're making

103gains there. The other area that was noted in red is the educational environment for our three to five year olds and our model has been that for early childhood kids they are in pretty much a self-contained um classroom and we get dinged on that because they want them exposed well the criteria is to have more exposure to same age peers. It's just not the model. And Joe, I don't know if you want to speak to that at all. Like it's >> I mean, we've used the model for a long time because it's an efficiency model to do what the state would like us to do would cause >> cost us a significant amount of money. I happen to believe that the model we're using is very effective. if you got Miss Jennifer and you can

104get Miss Jennifer for a dedicated amount of time versus having her float around to various different um sites across the community. I believe in the model that we use and that might not get us two points, but we'll take the one point and ride with Miss Jennifer any day of the week. >> Um areas that we went up in are in green and that's the graduation exitors and dropout exitors as well as preschool transitions. So, it's it does I went back and looked at the last few years and it does fluctuate a little bit, but I will say that um they've really honed in over the years, I feel like on areas that we thought that um we could we needed to do better, not just because of the score, but it's good for kids.

105Um and that one of the areas I want to highlight is the educational environment, which is a two. Um it's in the upper right hand corner. And this is a a focus that Joe has had um on the team that we want 80% of students being in the regular education environment 80% of the time. And we have done a great job and speaking from the principal perspective on this. This was this was a push a few years ago that um was not easy in the beginning and there are many days especially at the beginning of the year where it's a it's a big challenge and a big lift. Um, but when you stick with it and you see what kids are able to do when they're pushed and you set up the right supports, it

106is just success story after success story. Um, and it's just the right thing to do for kids. Um, so, but it takes everyone. It's not just special education teachers, it's not just the teachers, it's our support staff, um, everyone working together to make that happen. So, this is this is a really big deal for our district. Um, and a big celebration This uh graph is um is about our best. So the best is given it's a survey given to our students in grades four through 12. Um and they've been given this as you can see u the survey a long time and we have results in there um for every year. So this is October and in April and this is just the April score. So, a couple things that I just want to point

107out is that it's really this one's individ like our school counselors and our school psychologists dive into this. So, when you see the numbers of like 24% at a 19% at North Side, Parkside, 20% and nothing really over 20 um or close to that. So, our school psychologists and our school counselors meet on with every single kid to to talk to them a little bit more and determine what was the source of them becoming elevated on the bus and then they set up a plan for each student and um always follow up with the parents and just let them know um either you know they were red flagged on this and it's nothing or hey I do think we should take some extra steps. So the areas that they take a look at are friendships,

108anxiety and feelings, um self-confidence, school, how they feel about school, um and their academics, as well as like how they feel about their attention span. So it it is it's very comprehensive um and it's it's to me it's just it's excellent. So I think it's great that as a district um like overall we have 84% that are in the normal range and then we're able to disagregate that data. Jim I thought you would ask this into gender, ethnicity and grade level. So you can really narrow down to see if there's any trends. Another survey that's given um is the panorama and this is broken up into our elementary and secondary. So secondary is both our middle school and high school. This one's a little bit more broad um and it's only given well last year

109we just did it once because twice a year is a is a is a lot for students um and just it's takes a lot of work. So um we were going to have discussions this year about whether we do it once or twice to be determined on that. Um, so a lot of really positive results. So this is just the second year that we've done it and you can see the areas of student teacher relationships, how they value school, what's that sense of belonging um, and the school climate. So I do want to point out a couple of things with this as well. um there's lots of like really strong relationships, but we also realize that um in looking at the data, this is more so at the secondary level is that there's room for

110growth in that like perceptions of is are the school rules fair? um um respecting from their respect from their peers, those teacher student relationships and then the like seeing that relevance of academics of you know am I going to use the information that I'm learning at school today in my daily life. Um so those are all I mean I've heard so many so many of these conversations when we talk about the >> EBTL evidence-based teaching and learning. >> Good job. Um but we also know that there's there's definitely room for growth. Um particularly in that secondary level like those numbers are those numbers are a little bit low. Um one of the areas that really was low was like the cleanliness of the school and that was high school because I think that just the

111condition of the high school was rated low. So that falls into the school climate area. So, it's just it's a little bit there's a lot tied into each one of these categories. Go ahead. >> Clarifying question. Is this the um BESS and the Panorama are the the data that we're looking at are these are we still just focused on students who are enrolled in special education or is this everything? >> No, this these are all I should have said that. Thanks for saying that, Jim. Um all students grades four through 12. >> Thanks. So, you're really getting a you're getting a really good sense of how students feel about themselves and um their surroundings and their relationships. >> Would I be correct in thinking that between the elementary and secondary? I'm assuming there is a

112change in the student themselves, >> you know, in the growing and different things like that. >> Yeah, absolutely. The >> So, is is this somewhat of a normal stance? Has it been that way? Do other schools do it? How does it relate to that? >> All great questions. So, it is it's a normed survey. So, that this is normed against other kids in middle school and high school. So, it's it's low. Um otherwise, and we can we can compare that and I I do have the data on that and it's like probably 20th percentile is where it fell with secondary. >> Oh, that's what I was just going to So this is just percent of our kids. This isn't norm. This is none of the norm data. >> No, this is percent of our kids.

113>> This is just yeah percentage of kids that responded favorably to that particular category. >> So the norm data for that would be like 20 the 20th percentile you're saying. >> Okay. Thanks. >> At the secondary level. >> Yes. >> Yeah. It's higher at the elementary. >> Any other questions about this one? I will say that, you know, middle school and high school have used this panorama data and have worked really hard to address this and dig into the relational teaching and talking about how they can address some of these issues. So, there's there's great effort on part of those those buildings to make sure that they're they're looking for opportunities to grow and improve. >> And one other thing about this survey that I don't love honestly is it it's like five different categories

114that you can choose. So it's a lyer lyker scale kind of and it's like very well extremely well very well somewhat and then so if the kids choose like that three like that somewhat level it counts against you. So they have to in order to get the favorable response they have to um rate in the top two categories and some of them it it kills your score a little bit. So they're right there you know but they're but it's their perception too. I'm going to jump into ODR. So ODR stands for office discipline referrals. So these are those major offenses. Um physical aggression typically at the elementary level is the the biggest offender. Um that defiance, non-compliance, um if it's severe enough, u profanity, things like that. Um so Abe um pretty good here, would

115you say, Sarah? Right. um total of 27 ODRs um which is incredible um and one student had three. So those numbers are those numbers are really good um and they're able to provide a ton of services and supports for those kids. Um North Side ours our bar graph is higher as you can see. Um so we were actually I will say happier with our data this year. we were at 160 overall and um we went down like the previous year we were at 225 we'd been at 2 179 we've been at 206 um we had three students that accounted for 55% of the ODRs and then we also keep track of our minors which are kind of low-level classroom managed behaviors and we had um 96 of those so um we were we were happy

116with this. Um, but still 160 is is a lot and it's more than we want. Um, but I will say and then I'll say this for Parkside too, like we have those um those students who with more complex needs, great challenges no matter what. We have we have significant comprehensive plans in place for them and they're constantly being adjusted. Um, so it's I don't want anybody to think that we just walk away and kind of like throw up your arms, right? Um, our teams are super responsive. Um, our people services team is super responsive, principles, um, to giving students what they need um, and without being too disruptive to the school environment. Parkside. So, Jenna and I talked about this. Jenna hates this slide. Um, Parkside had 300, like over 300. So, I mean, it

117it was a tough it was a tough go. Um, and been there and I know how challenging that can feel and it can feel really demoralizing because you're giving your all to it all the time. Um, but this to me, this is no way a reflection of anything that's being done. Um, we had three students that accounted for like a third of those. So, um, and again, they're they're high needs. It's It's super challenging. Um, but constant effort. >> I I'll I'm doing my best to keep quiet over here, Amy. I really am. >> You're doing a really good job. >> You're doing a great job. I I just want to emphasize what Amy just said. >> There's been years when every single elementary has had their turn to be the hit the high mark,

118right? And every time, >> you know, the principles take it very personally. And I can promise you as we've dug into this this work and we we've done the analysis, it only takes one or two kids to really really increase your ODR numbers. And so as someone who is in Jenna's office a lot working with her, spending time with some of those kids, like there's a tremendous amount of effort that's happening across all those buildings and particularly at Parkside. So I've had board members in the past say, "Well, Ape's numbers look really good and Parkides look high. can you guys do what they're doing? And the answer is everyone's using the same system. It's just different kids, right? And we use this data to look at how we allocate resources and provide necessary support. So,

119if anything, I would applaud certainly all the buildings, but certainly applaud Jenna and her team for working their tails off through a really tough year. >> Can I ask a question? So, the slide that showed like u I don't know what number this slide is. I think it was like the fourth one in was the one where you had the 80 and 80 is the goal >> is are are the ODRs and these are obviously correlated to some degree, right? Um if these are significant needs. >> Yeah. So Oh, are they in the class? >> So at some point are we then are these kids still are we still trying to keep these kids in the classroom all the time if it's this disruptive? >> Yeah. So, it's it's a it's a case by case.

120And so, some of those kids, they they need to be in the environment in the school in the classroom. Actually, they're >> often better behaved, >> okay, >> when they're around their peers than when they're not. Um, and that's from years of experience with it. So, but I understand what you're saying. Like you're saying, if it's too disruptive, >> right? Are we paying attention to that? Yes. And are they removed? Just depends. It just depends on the student. Um, in my experience, the students with the really really high ODRs, um, they're we yeah, they're in the classroom at least half the day, if not a little bit more. But self-contained is I don't know, Jenna, if you would agree with like self-contained or >> typically don't have >> they need some of that structure. >>

121Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. And the peers are the peers are really good with them typically. I mean it's amazing like students are very understanding sometimes more so than us right like than the adults. Um and they're they're great supports and the peer models for them. Um so it's definitely um >> so meaning it it might be happening more work for the peers. Okay. Yeah. Okay. >> Way to draw the connection to that. >> Yeah. >> All right. Monural Middle School. Um they were they were down this year and they were really thrilled with this. Um Lindsay and Matt have done some made some big changes um in terms of their their systems work which is the PBIS which stands for beh positive behavioral interventions and supports which all the schools use. Um they made some

122changes this year. So they were at 288 this year. They were down from 401 and 330. Um, and so the four students had like between 12 and 19 ODRs. So, um, they had a lot more lowlevel. And then you've got the high school. Look at this. They had 16, um, ODRs. However, they had 213 minors, which were mostly technology violations of cell phone, Chromebooks, profan, some profanity. So yeah, I I will say historically Monroe High School has performed very well and yes, cell phone use is a challenge in all schools. All you have to do is >> read the news and and you see all the the policies that are being developed, but we should be very proud that when people from outside of our district walk through the halls of Monroe High School, they

123say, "Where are all your kids? What's going on?" Mr. Mr. Jubac has worked in other schools and he can he can attest to the fact that there's just something about this community and the culture that our our high school kids are very well behaved and and we should be very proud of that. >> I just want to shout out to the teachers, principles and staff. I mean a lot of the schools third and half of the are two, three, four kids and >> first of all having to deal at that and secondly I think you know rather than walk away get mad get frustrated is how can we help how can we solve this I mean we need to recognize that because you know raising your own kids can be challenging >> but you you

124know what I'm saying I mean it's >> good job is the hard part of the job I think >> it is it is and thank you for noticing and acknowledging that because you're absolutely right and it's um you know it's beginning of one beginning of the year is one thing, but when it's still happening in January and February and March and into the spring, it's wearing on you. It's very wearing. Um, so yeah, it's we have a really, really talented, great team. Very lucky. Um, bullying. So, first of all, we always like to start off and just talk about the definition of bully because we definitely feel like this is a word that's tossed around quite a bit and it's kind of the first if they if someone is not nice to somebody else, they

125often jump to my child is being bullied. So, one of the things that um our people services team and our principles really work on is just getting ahead of that a little bit and and talking about what is what is bullying and trying to define it. So I do want to make a point of it is it's in bold deliberate or intentional. It's difficult to stop and it's an imbalance of power. Um so with the the definition of bullying this is how our data falls for the last year and you can see that we have done a I think people have done a great job of talking about bullying what it is and what it is not and then just the kindness like being kind being respectful um and so we're not getting the reports

126that we used to which I think is just says a lot to all the work that's been done because you can see um years ago it was there there was a lot of reports of it. So, and the majority of the cases were at the middle school. Um I would say that's pretty developmentally appropriate. Not not that it's okay, but um >> common. Thank you. >> Um and then a total of 16 incidents overall. So um we'd love for that number to be even lower. Um so we'll continue to work on that. with our students. So, one of the things um I will say that we're going to work on with um our school counselors this year. So, we've got a new school counselor at North Side um who has a lot of experience from

127Broadhead and we've had some conversation about like how we can beef up maybe our elementary um curriculum a little bit more just to really address this and um so that maybe when they get to middle school and high school that this is not even a thing anymore. um that would be a that would be a wonderful celebration. Got that completely off the chart. The other requirement that we have to share with you besides the bullying harassment data is the seclusion and restraint summary. Um so this is a breakdown of every building and the number of seclusions and restraints and then um the number of students that were involved for each building. And as you can see, um this is this these are very low numbers. Um this has also, if you haven't been on the

128board, um these numbers have gone down considerably over the last few years. And I attribute that to the plans, the excellent plans that have been put put into place. Um, and just the training and the guidelines that this is just not something that we want to do with students. Um, unless it's a absolute last resort safety issue. Um, and it is sometimes. So, >> yep. Amy, >> uh, and the monitoring. So, every time one of these incidents happens, um, staff has to fill out a form. it's online and then the director of people services receives an email automatically so that we can review that incident and make sure that it's appropriate compliant and if it's not serves as a a teachable moment and a training opportunity um and I think that as much as anything

129has has led to some improved strategies >> absolutely thanks for point >> and then here is a graph that's representing um just the steep decline in seclusion and restraint over the I think that that says a lot. Um, a couple of things that I wanted to add in are um, school threat threat assessments and management. So, gosh, it's been help me like three or four years probably. Um, so what this is is that anytime a student makes any sort of threat against I'm going to bring a weapon to school, I'm going to bring a bomb to school, I'm going to I'm going to shoot somebody, um, we have to follow up and we have to do um a very thorough process um of a school threat assessment and that involves um Kim Quinn, our police

130lison, um parents um interviewing other students that if we need to interviewing the student himself or herself. Um, and then last year they made a switch that because it it's extremely timeconuming. I mean, it's like it's days of work. Um, and it's a great process when it's really needed. Um, but we were finding that there was a lot of times it just wasn't it just wasn't necessary. And so now um the Wisconsin Department of Justice has developed this flowchart so that we can take a look at whether we need to just it's called an inquiry level or a triage level. So a triage level is you just have to make sure like everybody feels safe um and follow up. You everything has to be documented. Inquiry is like a little bit further. You have to

131set up a plan and a full threat assessment is that's where you're interviewing everybody and have to come up with a really comprehensive plan. Um so last year we had seven in the district that were done. Um six at the inquiry level and 12 at the triage level. And so a couple of years ago and we don't have numbers on this but I mean it was probably 30ome I would say. It was it was a lot. Um, so I just thought it was important that you guys are just aware that when we have to take it very seriously and that there's a very specific process that has to be followed. Um, then it involves like all the players of people services. >> I'd say kudos to our principles and our threat assessment teams. I think

132going back to a few years ago, we were probably uh taking it more seriously and applying it more literally than a number of districts. And I think >> uh that's where the DOJ found you know they needed to >> change some of their language to implement these levels so that you can determine you know is this just you know an incident between you know two students or something that's you know uh you know vaguely said versus is a surreal threat. And so, um, it's great now that we have some of that differentiation, but I think our teams were taking it very seriously and and so I'm I'm happy to see a the numbers are going down, but it's also >> how serious we're still taking it, but now that we don't have to go to

133that level of work for every situation. >> Yep. >> Counselors have done a great job incorporating some of that teaching with kids. A lot of these triage and even inquiry level things, they're reenacting things from video games or movies or like violent content that they're watching and they're thinking that they are these people because they see it on a show, they see it in a video game. And so then they recreate that language with no tools, no intent, no true understanding. So our counselors have done a good job >> pre-teaching some of that and explaining to them >> what that truly means. So, I think that's helped with the 30 >> that we had at one point. Um, and our families have been really supportive. It's really hard to get that phone call saying, "Hey,

134I'm working through this process with your child." >> But in most situations, families are also saying, >> "I'm so thankful that you're taking this so seriously. Thank you so much for calling me. We're going to talk about this at home." >> Yeah. And I I will say that, yeah, having gone through it so many times, I don't think I've had one situation where it didn't end up really helping the child. Um, some sort of services or supports were set up at the end of the day that were helpful. So, it's worth it. Absolutely worth it to go through that process. Um, the last thing I want to cover is the attendance. Um, so we talked about this a little bit last Monday night, so I thought I would give you some numbers, um, of what

135it's looking like with our attendance in each building. Um, so the attendance rate, just so just to clarify, our attendance rate is the rate, the daily rate, how many kids are coming to school, and then the chronic absences are the number of students um, in each building that have 10 or more absences. Um, so you can see that the chronic absences are concerning when you have about 40% in each building. Um, and our district average, it did go up a little bit. We'd like we put a lot of work into that. So, we were hoping that would be a bigger bump, but it's still at 93.7. Um, we're above the state average, which is great, but we'd like to see that a little bit higher. And I um I'm feeling really optimistic with some changes

136that we're going to make this year um that that will get um even higher. So that will help us on the report card. And then just wanted to point out um some areas of like what my focus will be for this this school year. Um new to the um position and haven't been in a lot of the buildings much. So, um I'm going to be getting to know um the systems, the people, um special education departments, um working with uh working with staff just to hopefully work on all the systems. So, I'm really excited. Um and then I've also got uh attendance and chronic absenteeism as something I'll be working with probably with Lindsay and Josh a little bit more closely on than the rest of the team. But we've got we've had some meetings.

137We've um got some I think good good movement happening. So, do you have questions? >> It's less than an hour. It was longer than I thought it was going to be. >> Joe got Joe got more efficient, too. I Ron will tell you that over the years that I went from 45 minutes down to close to 20. I will say that, you know, we don't often have an opportunity to talk about some of these things and I think everyone would acknowledge that this is incredibly important work. I just want to say there's so much so much work, effort, uh so many systems that go into providing this data and there's guys there's some really good results in here. You look at that JFN score of 26 out of 30. That's not easy to do. a

138lot of districts would would love to have that score and that's all because our our staff both special ed and regular ed bought in to what we were we're trying to accomplish. So, um you all should be proud of of your staff and and Amy's going to do a great job of providing a new perspective and making sure that we continue to grow. Looking forward to seeing that play out. Can I my mind I'm just struggling my mind with this attendance snapshot and I'm gonna pick on North Side because you were there so you understand this better but I'm I'm struggling to >> to >> put together a 94 and a.5% attendance rate yet a 41.4% chronic absenteeism rate that that doesn't it's not the correlation I expected. >> Yeah. So do you under like

139does the 10 10 or more absences make sense? >> so that's the chronic >> could you just explain how is the chronic absenteeism rate calc? >> So it's it's it goes student by student. So any student that has 10 or more absences is chronically >> unexcused. >> Yes. >> And is that >> is chronically absent? >> Is that a large number gone all day? It adds up to 10 in as you said excuse me. >> Yeah. It it could be a full day. It could be partial days and in the aggregate >> it adds up to 10. >> It could be excused. >> So a doctor's appointment if they have to go they have a bad tooth from over the weekend they have to go. It counts >> family vacation. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >>

140So Mike I think what you're saying there's 180 days in the school year right. >> So >> if 40% are missing they're not all missing the same days. I'm missing different days. So overall like attendance in any given day is going to be 93%. >> Over time over 180 days because kids are missing all different days. >> Okay. >> That's how you get that absentee. Does that make sense? >> Yes. >> Thanks. >> You there's also those students who you know I wasn't one of them but every school had them where they're 100% enrol they're 100% attendance kids right? They're going to be there no regardless of, you know, even if they're crawling in the door. So, >> I was trying to bring back the stiff arm joke I couldn't figure out. Still, don't give

141up. I'll work on >> Are there any incentives in place for perfect attendance? >> No. And then this is this has been a at least at Northside, I can speak to it. It was a little controversial. So, we were going to implement some sort of Yeah. incentive for it, but we felt like >> it wasn't often the child. It wasn't the child. So, the child would >> feel bad about it, but maybe it wasn't under their control, especially at the elementary level. I know that middle school did an incentive. I don't believe high school's doing one, but I know middle school did an incentive, and they saw the biggest jump. >> It's a double-edged sword, right? You're incentivizing people to be at school if they're sick. >> Yeah. And then you end up getting more

142people out of school because they're sick. >> Y >> I I think one of the biggest things that we did this year and we did get some traction with this is just trying to communicate with parents and families about why this is so important and we did get a little bit of feedback and I think the board heard some of this in terms of the language that was used in in our communication and so we took the time to to rethink that and and to soften it a bit. But ultimately what we're trying to say is we know there's a lot of good families, good kids that have a lot of reasons for missing school and we understand that. But the reality is number one, school matters and we want kids there. But number two,

143the school and the district are being penalized. Regardless of the fact it's a meaningful uh family vacation that has educational value, we still get penalized. And so just creating that awareness, I think helps. that it's created some helpful conversations with some some really good people and and I think they walked away with a better understanding. >> You see a trend that there's a small segment of students that are say have 40 absences during a year >> sir. Um >> I mean is there anything to discourage that that behavior? It's usually more than just not there's more going on than just not coming to school. That's what my experience has been. It's usually some some hardship at home. Um whether that's some mental health issues, substance like there's usually there's more to the story. It's not

144just about >> can't come to school. So, those are the families that we try to work really closely with and see what we can do to help support them. And I'd always like we we're here with we're here to work with you on this. Like, how can we help? >> Is that accepted? Most of the time, but not all of the time. Yeah. >> Yeah. I just want to say thanks to to Amy for putting this together and um for the whole team. I mean, it's two things jump out to me. One is just the the the focus on similar to what Phil was describing, the student well-being that's so holistic, all the different metrics that we're paying attention to and many many of which that are required. I get that. Um and it also

145just points to how how hard the job is of of a classroom teacher. You know, we're talking about everything from school threats to bullying to seclusion and restraint. I mean, there's a there's a I think a lot of people just think a teacher might show up and kind of stand in front of the class and um it is just a an increasingly complex and really challenging job. So, thanks for all that you all are doing to support them and and everything that our our staff are doing, too. Any last questions for Amy? Comments from the board? Okay, thanks again. >> Thank you. >> Okay, moving on toformational items. >> We do have we added uh would be new business 7G. Um first reading of policy 5113. Yes, >> that was on your sheet. >> If

146you're if you're okay with that, I'll jump into that. Yes, please do. >> All right. So, just the quick version again, we talked about this at policy committee tonight. Um, basically what we have is I asked the policy committee to take a look at policy 5113. Overall, it's a great policy on page five and I did load the policy in in board doc so people could open it up. But if you look at page five under tra transportation uh in section F, you'll see in the third paragraph under um transportation, it says the board will permit a neighboring district to bus resident students from within its boundaries for attendance at the non-resident neighboring district with district administrator approval. The with district administrator approval is what we've added to the language. Basically, um without that, we

147have a policy that can read as uh neighboring u districts can come in and make transportation arrangements and transport uh students for open enrollment purposes to their district. And what I'm suggesting is that we put in some language that affords the district a little more control. And by way of um background, one one distinction we might make is if we have a family that's living right on the boundary, um their parents have always attended Judah, for example, or their parents did attend Judah and they want their kids to attend, they just happen to be on the wrong side of the street, we would absolutely make make arrangements for that to happen and provide permission for them to transport. Um, in another situation where, and this is a real issue right now, neighboring district wants to

148come into the heart of the district, pick up kids, and transport them for open enrollment purposes to the neighboring district. We're less inclined to do that because we want to make sure that we're protecting our our district and our numbers. And um, that's just not something we're trying to facilitate as a district. So, um, what we're asking is is for approval of the first reading to add the language, um, with district, u administrator approval, and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you all have at this time. >> So, Joe, just a couple procedural questions because we talked about this a little bit. It's typical for us to do a first and second reading, um, but not absolutely required, right? does have the um ability to say yes, this makes sense. Because it's timesensitive,

149we could make a motion and approve um the addition of this language tonight. >> That is partially why as a policy committee, we talked this over. Um we were generally in agreement that that this is an important issue. it is timesensitive and we thought it uh was worth bringing to the board tonight um and potentially recommending that we just go ahead and approve it after this first reading. >> That's absolutely correct, Mike. And if the board wanted to make that motion, that would be fantastic. As I said, this is a a real life issue that's in play right now and um I'll need to respond depending on what the board deems appropriate for for district policy. So, can I go ahead and make a motion? You >> sure can. >> So, I'd like to make

150a motion that we approve policy number um 5113 with the changes to include with the district administrator's approval I've got a motion by Terry. >> Got a second from Mike Davis. Any discussion before we vote? >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> Nay. >> Motion carries. Thanks to the board and thanks to Mike for his leadership through policy to to expedite that. That's greatly appreciated. >> Thanks for thank you there. >> Okay, moving on toformational items. We got a couple things on the the boardmanship boardsmanship administration side of things. Um I'll take the the kind of back to school night thing first and then I've got a exec committee um thing I'd like to to discuss briefly too. So, um, we we've received some feedback, uh, from administration that last year's, uh, kind of

151setup where, um, for those who weren't on the board, we had a few board members or several board members attend kind of a back to school night, hand out some cookies, greet people at the door. Um, and I think there's a suggestion made and I think some agreement from the admin team to that that that u while nice maybe didn't allow for the type of engagement um maybe fuller engagement that that could be possible on a night like this. And so I just wanted to name people are invited to to do what you want as a board member. We'd love to have board members attend these back to school nights and maybe instead of handing out something at the front door, um go around, visit classrooms, shake hands with teachers, tell them thank you, talk

152to some families, but it doesn't have to be a designated kind of post up at the front entrance. Um so we want to make that change. Anything else you want to say on that? >> Yeah, just I think from the principal's perspective, I think, you know, having board members anchored to a table with cookies. Um, usually it was people coming up awkwardly trying to grab a cookie and run away before they had to have have a conversation with the board member. And I think Jim and I were on the same page of we want the board members there. We love it. We actually believe the staff loves it when the board is is available and engaged. And I think to Jim's point, if if any of you would be willing to attend, certainly talk to

153parents, talk to kids, talk to staff staff, get them excited about the upcoming school year. Um, that's fantastic. We just wanted to shift it a bit from cookie distribution to real engagement in the buildings. >> It was a parent of a third grader. There's still going to be the cookies, right? >> Well, we we we didn't put in the cookie order yet. And um >> I'd entertain a motion, Mike. I'm just kidding. >> But if you all want cookies, we can make cookies happen. But um you know I think the the bigger point is again let's let's allow the board to to engage you. You guys don't get a lot of opportunity to do that. You put in a ton of work in order to make this district run well. Um and our staff does

154appreciate the opportunity to connect with you. >> Awesome. Okay. Uh second item on the boardsmanship side of things and Teresa I was going to look to you for some some guidance on this but after the discussion um presentation and kind of discussion from uh from WBY tonight. I'd like to set up an exact team meeting ideally in between now and the next meeting for us to kind of get together and put a put a plan in place that we can bring back to the full board. Is there anything procedurally I need to do to kind of kick that off? No, other than we need to post it and plan it. >> Great. So, as a next step, we'll we'll pull the exact team together, kind of digest some of the content from tonight and and

155put together, you know, essentially what a proposal for how we advance as a as a um as a team and we'll bring that back to the uh to the full board hopefully at the next meeting. If not, then the meeting after that. Okay. Board of Education correspondents. Um, I've not received uh anything. Um, I did, as I as I noted at our uh data retreat, I made it on to the the radio last Friday. Um, I think I need to announce that. So, that that was the one board of education correspondents note that, um, I guess that I wanted to make. >> Really good work. >> Well, that's good. You did a great job. >> Thanks. Um, okay. Committee reports. >> Um, EIE Pickle Ball Tournament is this Saturday, August 16th. If you haven't registered,

156uh, you can register through park and wreck. Um, and I want to say that thank you again to Lance Mardo Insurance Company because they have donated the insurance to allow us to hold this event. So that was awesome. They're constantly um, supporting us in very positive ways. And um this is a fundraiser and currently we have 10 co-ed teams and seven family teams. We're hoping for 16 for each of those tournaments, but you know it's the first year so we're excited. >> Great start. >> Y >> really cool. >> Nothing. >> Mike, uh policy committee met tonight. Uh the majority of what we uh discussed was technical changes. Um which are just administrative u appreciate Joe and and Ron for for bringing those to the board to go over them to see if we had

157any questions and and talk through them um during that policy committee, but no need to bring them to the full board. The items that did need to come to the full board we we did bring tonight and uh got through. So thank you. Nothing else from me. Agenda items for future discussion. All right. Hearing none. Leaz on reports. Five minutes for the press. I don't see anyone here tonight. >> When will the school start when school starts? >> Sorry. Can you send >> when will Leanne be back? Um I would guess certainly no later than September, but um we can reach out to Leanne and see if she'll be at the next meeting. I know she was excited to >> she'll be again. >> Yeah. And she's excited to be back and more engaged than

158ever. Seriously, she she very much wants to be a part of the conversation, which I think will be great. >> Great. Okay, we got 9:06 and I'd look for a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting. Second motion by Mike Davis, second by Michael Rosth. All in favor say I. >> I. All oppose nay. >> Meeting is adjourned.