Board of Education Work Session & Meeting 8/9/2021

001ladies and gentlemen is now 6:47 and a quorum of members is present so the meeting of the Board of Education of the school district of new berin is called to order please call the role Miss Crosby here Mr Helmer here Mr Kur here miss schules here Mr cidel here miss miss anger here miss wand Miss wand told me she would be calling in so I'm not sure if she will be available for the workshop but um maybe she's joining us later during the regular meeting so we're going to start off with the work SE work session uh revering our board goals so over the last two years um in the summer we've had a work session and under the leadership of uh Amy Crosby she got us started got us um going with our goals

002goal setting and I just figured we should probably take time again this summer to go over them to uh make sure that's what we are going to continue with and if we need to make any changes so we've got up on the screen is just a quick slides here um reviewing the school district mission and vision because what we've been doing is trying to align our own mission along with that just a moment here I'm going to answer this hello Kristen is that you hello hi we're just getting started oh great thank you sure so I'm just going over the first um main slide that has the district's mission and vision on it and then of course their strategic plan it has the four goals which then we go and align our goals to these

003goals I'm not going to take too much time to go over this but this is a little more detail of what this school district goals are and so that's for goal one when it comes to students uh will graduate ready for college careers and future opportunities and then we have goal two attract retain and honor high quality staff goal three maintain and promote fiscal responsibility that reflects the commitment to Student Learning and for develop mutually beneficial relationships in community and then these were just some continuous Improvement items that the district has so this is coming from the administration Diana did you make this public at this point so that if anybody is watching online they want to go back through those thank you so here is the mission that we came up with and this

004is two years ago and last year we confirmed it um do we have any disc discussion on this it's to oversee the district to live out its Mission through accountability Vision Community leadership and policy are we all good on continuing with this mission statement I'm hearing no no objections so we will we will stick with that mission since it really is just uh aligning along with the district's Mission and then we have um the Schoolboard goals these were were set in 2020 and it's the number one student achievement which goes along with the school district's uh first goal state report card increases by two points over three years districtwide expand opportunities for students understand student experience uh through having more student WSET meetings attending events at schools and I think we missed something there but

005um whoops let me see if there was anything I cut out by accident no I'm not sure what I cut out there so do we have any um comments on these my first thought was the first one I'm not sure can we even go back and look at the report card for last year I don't think they were available to us because of Co is this a goal we still want though once we are able to get those was this I think visiting schools well the first one is thir the third one yes the we pretty much have done the third one and I think that's something we want to continue once like this year I think we will be able to we need to get yeah exactly we need to get back do you

006want to put your microphone on so people can hear you we never got to poor Creek did we or did I miss that one I think Elmwood was the last one we did yeah I don't remember going to popler Creek unless I missed it or no oh yeah yeah we didn't we didn't get to go to Reagan or Papa Creek because at the end of the 2019 2020 school year they got cancelled and then this year obviously we haven't been right going anywhere else Madam president I move that we go visit it's a work session we don't need to okay so we're GNA continue continue on with our uh School visits this year so I'll make note of that you want to try to squeeze in six to get the last two we didn't and

007then revisit the other four again this whole year yeah Kristen did you have something I'm sorry uh no that's all right Dan I'm it's hard for me to hear everybody that I'm just kind of struggling a little bit okay well are you able to hear me okay or was it the other people that weren't hearing it's it's kind of I think it's it's just like a little bit muffled but I'm just I put in both of my um airpods so I can hopefully hear a little bit better now so yeah okay so we're talking about continuing visiting schools and we were going to pick up where we left off and start yep start over again too okay okay I'm making note of that any other thoughts on this first goal under student achievement what do

008we want to do as a board one of them was expand opportunities for students does anyone have any um particular thoughts on what type of opportunities we might want to encourage to expand just doing what we're doing I was going to say I think the one thing and I don't know if it's really expand but it's getting back to normal I know we started approving field trips and I think that's a big thing for us especially the out of state ones the I think it was chir and there was a band trip I Tri okay there's two is that or okay I think one wants art to I believe New York City yep I think that's big for us as getting kids but back on those elementary kids the farms and everything else that they

009go to the zoos how about student achievement is there anything I know we're limited probably on data but we have our own data to compare to our I think we talked about last year if you remember it wasn't so much comparing ourselves necessarily to other school districts but like to our own improvement from year to year like comparing our our own District how how we're progressing so I touched on this before when we were talking about the budget and how I think it's Elm Brooks has like increased acts from 21 to 22 or I feel like we need some more of that because the state report card as good of a measure as it is I don't know that it's the best best measure for us because there's a lot of variables in there that

010they factor in and it's not necessarily our growth it's year-over-year growth too so if you're already higher up it's really hard to improve in some of those areas so I think we probably I I would like to pick two or three more metrics within there to help guide that acts are an easy one I don't know if our graduation rate can really go up from yeah so look at ACT scores now that's for the secondary um I think we we probably I think we talked about this maps maps reading score or something for and I don't know the cut off but third grade or so I think we would probably need some feedback from yeah Joe and Kelly on the exact metric that would be the best to pick for that okay so what I'm

011putting in for the notes is look at District year-over-year growth ACT scores and Maps more feedback on metrics from Administration okay so we can move on to the second goal if there's no other comments on this one okay the second one was staff understand staff experience through participating in state interviews and retain 90% of Staff each year now I think we have a retention report coming up from um Nicole so were we asking as members to be able to occasionally sit on a state interview was that what our goal was if I remember correctly or to get the results from those and be able to siip through those okay to get more results from them yeah I think we did ask um about sitting in and and it was not really recommended and instead I

012think we're getting that report from nle a couple times a year and we just had that information last month was that last month or maybe in June yeah retained 90% And I think that we'll see that in the next report that's given to us yeah we're getting the exit in inter viw and retention information in September so it sort of looks like we we were attained that goal probably this year and so we want to keep it going am I getting the right feedback we want to just keep this going okay all right any other thoughts on this do we want to add anything to this jet the only thing that I would say about this one is I don't I mean do we know if the 90% retention rate I mean I know we're

013looking for a report from Nicole soon but is the 90% retention rate something that is realistic for us or I I don't have a sense of that so maybe once we get Nicole's report we could possibly Circle back to this goal I I don't think that number is high at all I think that number is actually too low so you're I know in general from an HR standpoint most employers have about a 10% turnover rate so I think maybe that's why we went at 90 so but yeah I think we probably should ask Nicole that before yeah we check check with still yeah if we could just once we get the data from Nicole I'm just saying maybe we should Circle back and kind of talk about this and make sure that we feel like

014it doesn't need to be tweaked or it does or whatever okay I put Circle back on this um and um I do want to do a more you know basic work sessions like this at least one more halfway through one area to add here might be something to do with our health insurance with all the changes we're doing okay does it make sense sense to get some feedback on how our employees feel about this because I feel like we're making changes to the stuff and I don't know that I've ever seen an employee no it's a good one there should be a benefits um survey of employees so I how they feel for value for the it's hard to really get good value out of that but it's something I think part of the state

015interview um actually a benefits survey is is different than a stay interview although sometimes that might be part of the state interview but I just know personally I conduct an annual benefits interview at my employer so I I get I would suggest we do it so um that would again be something probably the Personnel committee can take up and talk to Nicole about okay I'll put that on there usually they're done probably um Midway through the year or leading up to maybe like 3 months before a renewal and if I remember correctly now renewals take place July 1st so probably beginning of next year um talk to Nicole about doing one of those and a lot of times the insurance broker or the benefit consultant will do them for you yeah and I wonder if

016that'll be something I mean since we've changed providers maybe that's something that they're already planning so I'll add it through the list I think we were going to meet in August but then not again until January February not January so I'll put it I'll put it on the agenda for January when we talk about the health insurance sounds to ask Nicole about doing a survey okay any other thoughts on this one fix my not okay then we'll move on to number three fiscal we have act with fiscal responsibility a second uh balance budget yearly without depleting fund balance and stewards of physical assets yeah on this one Janet I think that we did vote to use some of our fund balance so we um I'm not sure we're in line with that but I think

017I mean I think we had good reason to vote in that fashion but I don't know if that should be tweaked then with the wording of this goal okay well I know our our fund balance has actually grown I was just the reason why we did is cu it grew right so much from all the cost right so yeah we should tweak it probably because it shouldn't it shouldn't get too big no that was the that was the right goal for 2020 it's not the right goal that's not the goal this year okay so this year's goal is any suggestions on how we'd want to word it without F you know what's interesting didn't Patrick just reply to something he did and that was related to Joe's goal but basically he said the same thing

018we can't really have a balanced budget since we've already voted to pull funds out of the fund balance so I think it's similar here we need to say something about I don't know if we just say like balance the budget except for this thing we already approved or I was I think balance budget with a portion of fund balance going to fund long-term range long range plan for the next four years or something like that because then I think we're in compliance with that but I think we all know we're at it with it we just got to verbalize it are we against State like without going below X percentage of fund balance you know like we want to keep a certain amount in there so without going below 15% or something thoughts on that

01915% like I mean these are goals it's not like it has to be set and goal you know like uh we can't change this but our policy is 15% I think right for right I thought it was 10 I thought it was 10 too I don't know I thought pry High I think it all depends on what our fund balance is percentage wise to begin with because at one point before we started with the iic so many many years ago we had the I think it's the iic which is where we actually got the fund balance to about $35 million with the intent of being able to do all these extra projects and then it is slowly we Ed those funds to be able to put us down to where we were about 15 million

020and then we were down to about 10 but with a little projects that we were doing so the percentage that we're talking about is pretty much directly related to the amount of fund balance we actually have as opposed to what we're intending to use it for so if we were able to put money into the fund balance for our rainy day fund obviously is what we want then the number that we put in is kind of arbitrary because it all depends on what we're able to do with it and the amount that we have I think we have to write a two or threee goal here okay so I think we just do the balance budget with using a million dollars or whatever it is from fund balance right because this year it was a

021million right no this year was like $300 oh that's right 350 or something and it was like four something it was 350 this year yeah that's right 350 and it works it weight up to a thou a million a million okay so we just got to get those two numbers I would say for do we want to make a one-year goal or we we sort of like revisit this every year we could we could set the goal for threee and we still look at it next year and and say okay yeah this still works I think that's good because then we're giving guidance more than one year at least so balance budget other than money allocated for long money allocated for longterm what long range facilities okay our policy states 10% oh jeez I just

022so I think that that is the goal obviously I would say I I personally would rather be at you know maintaining 15% that would be my preference you know to maintain at a minimum of 15% yeah I think we're way above that right now we're at like 25% so I feel like I wouldn't want to put such a low number in our shortterm goal because then that it makes seem seem like we're going to spend millions of dollars 25% it is yeah so if I put it in general terms balanced budget other than money allocated for long range planning over next three years does that sound like that'll fit it's flexible enough but has enough Direction don't be silly I I think so okay all right so anything else on this one um I feel

023like since we've started talking about fun 41 it may be good to kind of set that as part of our goal that you know we're going to start allocating funds to that line item or whatever and I know I think officially the community has to make the vote yeah on the budget but I feel like we could still set that as one of our goals because it's something that we as a board want to be doing well I guess we we do have to give direction on how much we would want allocated in order for it to be proposed to the community to vote on so what are we thinking here I think we had to work with Patrick to figure out that numbers I think our goal now is just to start putting money

024into fund 41 I don't know that we want to put a dollar amount yet okay so just a goal can be allocate money to fund 41 work with Patrick to set an amount okay should I move on okay if you think of anything we can come back four community communication to all stakeholders and um post meeting summary so I don't recall what post meeting summary meant that was um on social media to like be able to post or to post what we talked about at the meeting okay so I think David Cody is doing that now okay and you want if I vaguely I think I remember I saw it it's listed on our Facebook not Facebook it's on the actual um School District website under school board and I think it lists our goals

025that we set for last year okay maybe we then we send it off to him to update or I will after today's meeting go ahead hey Janet yeah I'm sorry um one thing that I I thought about when we were and I remember having this discussion um but I also think that one of the problems that people have said numerous times to me is that they feel like they don't know what's going on at the meetings because they have a hard time navigating our board dock system to get the minutes uhuh and I was wondering I was wondering if it would first of all make life easier for you and not having to do this post meeting summary so to speak if we could just have like a link on our web page like on

026the front page that says like meeting minutes or something and then people can just navigate like with one click to get the meeting minutes which I think is the most often requested item that people want you know if we could just make that sort of user friendly for people then we might have better communication to all stakeholders and you wouldn't have to have an extra step of putting together a summary when we do have an official record in the minute so are you thinking like when when the public navigates to school board on the school district website to just have one L listing out all of the minutes yeah if you could just I mean I I often go to the School District web page and I do think it's a little bit difficult to

027you know it's a fair amount of Clicks in order to be able to get to the minutes in my experience so I just think if we could just make it easier by maybe having like I know that recently we've made some updates to the website which I think have made it better but I think that there's a tab right now that says Schoolboard info and then you go to that and then I think it's a couple more clicks before you can get to the minutes whereas if I think we had like meet like Schoolboard meeting minutes as like one of the primary tabs that would be really easy and then you wouldn't have to do an extra step of making a summary people could just say you could say look just go to the website

028go to the meeting MK they're right there you know it's it could be much easier I think for everybody well the the yeah would be Su would be different it wouldn't be the official record of the meeting but um I do think that you know you do run into difficulties as far as we're a governmental body and then if you have somebody writing a summary like is that summary going to reflect everything that was in the meeting minut it's probably not because it's supposed to be a summary and then you know are we really doing our job as far as being transparent if we don't just say hey look here are the meeting minutes this is the official record of the meeting that's really all we have and that's what people should be getting so

029Diana now this is a question for you is that possible because I know already you know the meeting minutes is already posted the next meeting after the actual meeting is there is this possible just to post it again but just in one place on the well possible I mean they are on board docs there's not a separate link the minutes page in board dos unfortunately yeah so it would be one more step for you or whoever I'd have to recreate those minutes and then at link them on to the website oh so it's not like you could like Download a pdf and then just post it to the website I could do that okay um why don't you check it out yeah let us know if that's possible okay at this point it doesn't look

030like it because when I click on the minutes they have the same URL I mean it's board Docs mhm so and it would just take you to the login page okay well we'll see if that's possible then okay I'll put in here link meeting minutes on uh the Board website but as far as this meeting goes if I notice correctly there are board goals actually on the website already and I think what I'll do now after this meeting is to send um Dave or whoever's in charge of that to update our goals you could send them to Dave and copy me we both have our hands in there okay so just so hey Janet yes I'm sorry well while I was sitting here I just went through and tried to find meeting minutes like through

031the public portal and I have already I've already clicked six different links and I still don't have them so like it's complic and I think that like if Diana could do it in like a PDF and just have it in you know accessible in both places as far as like being on board du and just being on the web page I just think that that would save you a lot of work because you wouldn't have to do a summary and we really want the official record I'm not doing any summaries I I I don't know if you if you're I'm not sure what you mean by I don't have to do any summaries and would save me time I'm not doing any summaries what I'm saying here okay I'm sorry yeah no no what I'm

032saying here is that this means meeting we're we're setting our goals for this year so we're revisiting last year's what and right now the goals that we set after last year's Meeting those and I and I'm just saying out of off of memory I didn't look recently but I remember seeing that the goals were posted to the website to our website yeah so I'm just going to have Dave update our goals based off of this meeting um so that's what I meant by summary and so I think the meeting notes for each of our meetings that's something that's something different we're talking about and making those more accessible so going back to the original goal that we had set last year though I don't really feel like it's happening so on Facebook there's always like

033a hey there's a board meeting Monday night and these are the things that are going to be covered but no one ever posts what actually happened like if we vote on something or something is discussed like I feel like those are so you want to see more results of the meetings just not post the meeting and then the next day post here's what happened yeah that's what you're thinking yeah because I feel like the way that people can get information of what happened if they do not come is to watch the entire YouTube video which is not realistic for the average person to watch like they don't have two hours to watch it like there's nowhere and or you could read the minutes which does give you kind of the highlights but it but it's

034not really very detailed it doesn't necessarily give you the new policy that was voted on or the preliminary budget that was approved or whatever like that stuff isn't ever shared I think when we talked about this we were going to have it updated on Facebook but I think actually what's happened this year is Joe is sending out an email like the mask mandates have been lifted at the end of the year or the back to fall real reopening last year fall I feel like that's all being achieved through an email so I don't know that people outside of the student body population and the families are getting that so maybe we could stretch that but I think I think we're getting the important changes out and I think he's also putting it into into the

035newsletter The Edge right so that's where they've been going but yeah as far as Facebook posts no I haven't seen it either other than the they post the um the newsletter though you know here's the newsletter mhm cuz I think it's hard I mean after tonight we've got what six p or whatever on there I don't know that everyone is all that interested in the policies but something that actually changes mitigation strategies or funding longterm long-term um facilities or like Gaga court stuff like that I think is what the general population cares a little bit more about but I could be mistaken no I'm not saying policy specifically I was just trying to think of like stuff that has happened recently but yeah it is in the edge um which I know we're trying to

036get more people to subscribe to I just feel like there's a lot of attention on like what's going to be discussed but then it might take weeks or months to actually hear what did actually get discussed or what changed and I agree you know related I I I kind of agree with you but in in a video format the fact that the video of the entire meeting if people want to see what's being discussed it's in a video format and you could see word for word what's happening per video so being redundant because we're telling everybody that they don't have an attention span long enough to watch a whole video that we need to bullet point it it's bullet pointed in the edge and then the newsletters as well so they have access the communication

037is happening they just people have to choose to look at it I don't want to say that just because we have a video it's not convenient to watch an hour and a half worth of video I guarantee it's it's not convenient but it's less convenient to show up here and watch the whole thing that way as well well but the communication is there uh minimizing the fact the entire meeting is posted so everybody can see it should not be discounted I'm not saying and I certainly didn't say anything about attention span it was more around the fact that do people have two hours to go through the meeting if they're just interested in hey what was the outcome of this portion there's there's not an easy way to get to just the outcome of of

038a specific portion of the meeting especially if we have to wait two weeks for the minutes to be approved at the next board meeting so that's that's all I was saying and I think the intent of the goal was to have um a meeting summary posted on Facebook because we the year before we had a goal to post post what was going to be on the agenda now I think we just wanted something afterwards because like he said there isn't the the meeting minutes aren't approved until the next meeting so if we're posting that we're having a meeting then an outcome would be good I think that we could at least ask Dave if that's possible no it's a good point because I remember knowing that the meeting notes are not posted until they're approved

039so yeah there is a huge DeLay So I think it's important to get feedback from Dave too because I don't know what the reach is on this if Dave says when we post 300 people see it does it make sense to do Facebook or should we just do a better email coverage or something like that I don't know maybe that is the case that an email goes out after every board meeting with a quick summary yeah can we take that as an action item just kind of I just I have no idea what that what the views on that are he should be able to have some visibility into that uh all right let's see we can get outcomes of board meetings communicated quicker check with Dave okay anything else on this because the next

040screens um sort of go a little we got a little um more detailed into like short-term goals this is what we had for notes for last year so actually let's talk about Communications so response time 24 to 48 hours number of postings per month by-weekly postings and meetings is sort of what we already talked about uh board president to answer emails and BCC or CC board this has been an interesting one because I guess as president sometimes the questions that have been coming in have been more opinion than information so I will totally copy everybody if it's purely information but if I'm being emailed directly or it's a I want your opinion then that should be one on one AG okay all right we agree thank you um let's see any other thoughts on these

041we put balanced budget we already sort of talked about that we can get rid of closed deficit Gap okay have we totally closed the deficit Gap is there some left for this year yeah for this year we the problem we always have is when you start looking four years old we start building Ultra Ultra conservative budgets that build in like a loss of Revenue and stuff like that and I mean as you see when three years ago when we were in this position MH we were projecting like a $6 million deficit this year or whatever it was was and we're nowhere near that um back to the first point are we I think this was our attempt to try and quantify these goals which is obviously kind of difficult to do but the budget versus

042actual by category is that something we're seeing in yeah we did that in the finance committee yeah okay that's right that is better okay so so I mean I think that's definitely something we'd want to continue because it's you know good to kind of see obviously we can set the budget but then how did we do on actually meeting it and where things allocated to the right categories all right so I think we're on agreement on that to continue that and just remove closed deficit Gap y okay unless you want to put never get in a deficit again yeah definitely um I don't think we really have anything on communication since we addressed that already unless someone has something else uh understand student experience so that yeah that was actually our action goal that's the

043actual action we want to take on the goal so we're going to pick that up again um and then reviewing the stay exit interviews so we're going to continue that this one also hit on acceptance rate so that I would be interested in as well everybody else probably need to let let Nicole know I don't know if that's in her report yeah that's a good one okay they we're going to ask Nicole to add that if she hasn't already anything else on our immediate steps short term um I don't know if we want to revise the communication ones okay thoughts on that how would you like to do that I don't know I just I don't obviously we're not doing the middle two because there weren't any postings so and if we're going to try

044and get Dave's feedback first I don't know that we can set those as targets I don't I think the second was just post so it' be like Eisen how is a wrestling meet tonight or yeah a choir concert I don't think that was related to the meeting I think that was it was promoting the school district making sure people knew hey this cool thing is happening in our district kind of a and that might be happening I just don't know what to to what level I mean I do see some post probably less this year I think than we did the year before that right there's there's still usually at least one per day um yeah and then I mean for the emails I don't know if we want to set a different metric on

045I I totally agree with you Janet that it's it's difficult to respond unless it was just like a thanks we got your email right because it is very opinion based um you certainly cannot respond on I can't respond on your I know and I I always tell them I'm like just so you know this is just my opinion so so and there there has you know the volume has been greater than in the past as well so even sending that type of a response to every email can be challenging so I don't know okay so so I can add I can revise that to on when asking for information now sometimes I get direct requests for information would you want to be bccd on those even though you're not all sent an email what do

046you mean well for instance there was a recent request for information about enrollment enrolling in the district and I sent Tim you know got some help from Diana would you all want to be you know about that okay any other thoughts on this I would say if someone said like if it and I think you would probably reach out to us but if we're getting a lawsuit or oh yeah some something that we have to know to make you informed of sure yeah but if someone's asked about enrollment or yeah I I don't know the guidelines for that and I think it's probably within your discretion to share that or not yes okay well we only have a few minutes the only other one I have for understand student experience is that we implemented sixth

047grade board like leaon and I would like to continue that because that was a good way to get to know what's going on the schools okay definitely continue that I think the I I agree Amy I I've really enjoyed hearing the sixth grade presentations um one thing in general I think for the student reps um they talk a lot about extracurricular stuff and not a lot about academics which you know I think this was my complaint about the Facebook page a couple years ago as well is that like it's very very Sports and extracurricular Focus um and we're not hearing as much about what's going on in the classroom so I don't know that it has to be a goal but like if there's any way that they could share a little bit more of

048like the core academic experience in addition to the extracurriculars that would be really great and I think one of the sixth graders did recently I want to say maybe it was El what I feel like I emailed Katie to let her know that I really liked their presentation because they finally talked about something that had been happening in the classroom which is really really rare I know we have requested that they do so I don't know if it's just put it out there again yep we will and we have requested from Eisenhower their um replacement for Nishi okay I agree I think it's that would be good because um there's a lot of great curriculum things going on in the classrooms as well and I'd like to see the Primary students here again because that's

049also a really good experience for them all right so 6:30 but we just had one here for long-term goals build fund balance do we need to anymore we're talking about spending fund balance now so should we remove this as a long-term goal how about maintain I don't I'd rather have something along the lines of like putting more money in the classrooms okay so I don't know if we have a metric for that but I think that's bigger to me I don't know how we measure that again but x% of our funding is spent in the classrooms and I think there's already been some I'm sure Patrick can probably share with us like what percentage really is going towards classroom versus and I'm sure there'd be debate what we consider what is and that's the problem

050too is like when you look at cuz it's mostly labor costs well when you look at like DPI it's how they factor that is it classroom teachers or is it an assistant and if you if just District to district and year to year it's very very different because that you start skewing your total if you do a referendum or something like that where you're where you're doing a build where you build a building over five years and paying for it so I think it get very tricky with that but okay well I'm thinking that because we need a lot of feedback from some of our administrators maybe we need to revisit this when we have another slower agenda later before the end of the year so we can um yeah revisit this and and tighten

051it up more and so I I probably will not be sending Dave anything to put on the Facebook page not Facebook um the website at this point since we sort of have some questions out there yet okay um before I wrap it up just want to give you one more chance anything else on this okay so we will then end our work session and I need a motion to recess to close session so moved I need the motion first oh so I'm sorry we have to say the word sorry oh you got it yes I move to recess and to close session pursuant to section 19.85% close session minutes of July 26th B employment performance and compensation matters pertaining to staff C superintendent goals review second okay so I have a motion by Mr cirth

052and the second by Mr Helmer all those in favor raise your wait sorry we won't say that we're GNA take the role because we have kren on the phone and it has to be a roll call oh that's right okay Mr Kurth yes Mr Helmer yes Miss Crosby yes Miss scholes yes Mr cidal yes Miss uner yes Miss Rond yes okay motion passes we're moving in the Clos session be back around 7:00 you're ready all right it is now 7:12 and we are returning from closed session into Open session in recognition of the serious and important nature of our efforts here we will join in the pledge of allegiance to the flag for all those who are able please rise stes and now for those who wish to prepare for the meeting we will have

053a moment of silence this is a public meeting of the Board of Education prior to this meeting notice was given to the public last Friday by providing the agenda to the city library the agenda was also posted on the district website a copy of the agenda was forwarded to the Journal Sentinel the Walkera Freeman and the wakaan now all of which have filed requests for all Public Notices privilege of the floor is next meetings of the board are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the business of the schools and their are not public meetings but meetings held in public this portion of the meeting is an opportunity for you to come and voice your concerns to the board so please do not be offended when we quietly listen we may even take notes we

054do not immediately respond to your questions and comments this is a time for you to talk and us to listen thank you for coming to voice your comments and concerns when I call your name please step up to the microphone address the chair and state your name and whether or not you are a resident in the school district each presentation is to be restricted to a maximum of 3 minutes privilege of the floor will be limited to 1 half hour presentations are not to be designed for purposes of engaging others in a debate in this forum discussion of certified classified or professional Personnel or of individual Board of Education members shall not be considered an appropriate topic for this forum and the speaker will be ruled out of order are you ready okay Tanya tayak

055it only took a few times right hi um yeah my name is Tanya tayak yes I'm a New Berlin um resident and I wanted to just say that our children have been through quite a bit over these last 17 months I want to say thank you very much um to the board members and to Joel Garza for supporting our children to a back to normal school year restoring a positive and healthy learning and social environment our children deserve their freedom so thank you very much I do appreciate that as I said about a month ago or so maybe back in May that my oldest daughter had cancer and so when I do my research and trust me I probably spent 40 hours or so a week researching covid now the jab because I do take

056that seriously and the masks when it comes to masks and the jab the science is not there so I just want to say thank you for recognizing that and getting giving our kids back their freedom on to the um policy regarding controversial issues in the classroom as in the previous 12 years before last year that my children have been in the New Berlin School District I am looking forward to not having to talk to the principal over controversial topics and assignments my children are looking forward to a school year of positive and fun learning without the negative controversial topics so again thank you very much and thank you for all you do thank you Leah deml hello I'm Leah duml and I'm a New Berlin resident and a parent I'd like to thank you for

057your recent decisions on critical issues in our school including covid medication and masking diversity and inclusion and curriculum transparency among others I would like to thank you for supporting parental choice I know that you have received criticism from some of these decisions but I am here to tell you that I think you made the right choices for the majority of students and their families since the start of 2021-22 school year is right around the corner I would like to focus on the math and briefly demonstrate why optional math in covid mitigation strategies was the correct decision there are 7.8 billion people currently living on the planet 182 million have unfortunately contracted the Corona virus of those that contracted the virus there have been 3.9 million deaths worldwide that is 2.3% of the world's population that

058had covid and 2.1% of that 2.3% that have died therefore the overall chance of dying from covid is 0.4% not even a half a percent and it's even less for people that are healthy and young like children the math on cloth masks the covid-19 virus particle is about .1 micrometer in diameter that's 1 1000 of a millimeter the natural ho H in a woven cloth mask that are visible to the naked eye are 5 to 200 micromet in diameter does that sound effective to you doesn't to me in fact there have been suppressed studies including a indicating a danger to Children's Health when wearing masks including reduced oxygenation and infections from Dirty masks so although organizations such as the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics are recommending masks for even the fully vaccinated individuals as

059they are transmitting variants the guidance does not make much sense and experimental vaccinations um and guidance changes frequently did you know that the AAP took money from fizer and then funded programs through aap's fiscal year ending in June 30th 2021 that's interesting and did you know that the CDC stopped tracking most covid cases and vaccinated people in May well that certainly explains why the CDC director said this is becoming the pandemic of the unvaccinated at first it was about slowing the spread so hospitals would not be overwhelmed now the goal seems to be to eradicate the disease which is just not feasible anyway lots of thanks to most of the board members who considered the other sources of of information besides Legacy institutions such as the CDC and the AAP were the science is murky

060at best thank you Jeff Brunner can you hear me I've got one of these terrible cloth masks on good evening my name is Jeff pruner I'm a resident of the school district of New Berlin I have one child at West thank you for making this time available to members of the community I've watched with growing dismay while politically motivated organizations attack and defame our cherished public institutions particularly our schools and libraries the performa of outrage and pearl clutching are designed to hide the true objective that is the Eraser and continued marginalization of people of color of queer people of disabled people and others our society is evolving people who have historically been oppressed are gaining power and refusing to accept the status quo this frightens those who have historically benefited from the very real systematic

061prejudices which have made life so difficult for so many many people in short these organizations very much want the world to be something that it isn't they want a world in which middle schoolers have never heard of oral sex they want a world where there is no gay trans or non-binary people they want a world in which black people indigenous people and other people of color were not systematically enslaved and murdered so that they could have a nice home in the suburbs but we don't live in that world we live in a world where 12-year-olds are well aware of what sex is we live in a world where gay trans and non-binary people exist and deserve the same rights and privileges as all other people and we live in a nation a state and even

062a city with a long and bloody sometimes history of conquest enslavement and oppression these are facts pretending that those things aren't true won't serve our children removing books with Frank and plain language discussions of sex won't prepare our children for the complexities of adult life removing books about queer people and their contributions to society won't make queer people go away and banning schools from teaching the facts about 500 years of systematic oppression of people of color won't change the history if hearing about white oppression of minorities makes white people so uncomfortable imagine what it must feel like to be on the receiving end of that oppression our children are strong they are smart they are resilient they don't need to be protected from the facts of the social conditions in our society they need to

063learn about those conditions so that when their time comes they can work to change them members of the board I urge you to recognize that the world is not the way that these organizations want it to be they are afraid of the empowerment of marginalized people because they see that as a loss of their own power and privilege we cannot move forward if we see the world as a zero some proposition recognizing respecting and empowering those with less makes us all better and recognizing and acknowledging the sins of our ancestors is the first step towards writing those terrible wrongs thank you again thank you we have an Angelo Spielman good evening my name is Angela Spielman I'm a resident of New Berlin and I want to start by thanking the board and Mr Garza for

064continuing to support support parental freedom I appreciate your trust and support in my ability to make the best choices for my children and encourage you to keep this energy and moment mum as we move into the school year and continue to keep and or and continue to keep your current masking social distancing plexy glass and all those other things relaxed getting back to normal in 2021 and 22 is the best thing for our students another thing I've been concerned about with sending my children back to the classroom is not being able to be in the building as a volunteer to support the staff and visit my children and I appreciate you lifting the ban on parent volunteers I'm looking forward to getting back into the classroom and being able to support our wonderful teachers and

065administrators in sdnb in that same vein I'm very excited about the addition of the Schoolboard policy 2240 regarding controversial issues in the classroom I believe it's not only my right but my responsibility as a parent to know what my children are consuming in the classroom it's very important um or this very important policy will offer transparency for parents and the choice to exclude our children from something we may not agree with or feel they're not ready for once again thank you to the board for supporting parental freedom I will continue to show up and remind you that I along with many other parents here in New Berlin and across the state of Wisconsin refuse to co-parent with the government we are united we will be heard thank you for your time thank you Caitlyn mry

066hello my name is Caitlyn Ma and I am a resident of New Berlin and I have four children well three that are in the district now 1's three and a half he'll be coming up but I wanted to also start by thinking I'm a little shorter than I'm on my tippy toes I'm going to just tip this um I wanted to start out by thanking the board um and Jo Joe Garza for um giving us this parental freedom because as you see I have nothing prepared and it's me as the passionate parent wanting to I just feel ve I felt very led to come here and um just really drive home the point that how crucial it is for us as parents to have choice and I was thinking about it and I thought okay

067well masking my child is my choice for their medical well-being right so it's like saying it's like the school is saying well we're going to give your child this medication without telling you well they would never do that they would always ask for my consent right so the way I see it is the mask is the same way it's something that holds a risk there's peer-reviewed science to back it and I thank you guys for looking at that science and following the science and so as a parent I'm just super grateful that I'm going to have the choice that medical choice for my children because they're not OSHA trained they don't have the ability to wear a mask properly and so as a parent I need to be able to make that choice whether they're

068capable of safely being in an environment a learning environment um where they can be successful and my older daughter she as ADHD and she honestly is she thrives in the classroom so the thought of her me having to pull her because masks are all the sudden mandatory just breaks my heart because that's where she needs to be that's where she thrives and so that's where my passion comes from and so I just want to thank you guys for um for that decision and um I hope and pray it continues to go in that direction and um I also thank you for being transparent with the curriculum cuz again as Angela said I think it's super important that as parents um bringing home the point that I mean even the last meeting when she talked about

069the book with sex I'm their parent I can talk to them about sex I am not and it has nothing to do with how I have a cousin who's transgender I have friends who are L lgbq I love everybody in every Community it is not that issue at all the issue is that I don't want my child exposed to a text without my knowledge or able to grab hold of a text that I'm not able to Monitor and talk to them about and because everybody's different right every family's different every child's different and so um I just thank you for continuing to give us that parental freedom and choice thank you thank you Janette Noak my name is Janette Noak I'm a New Berlin resident thank you for your time tonight and listening to everyone

070present their opinions I am here to continue to advocate for the consideration of adoption of policy 5350 student suicide that Neola the company that the district pays for to retrieve blanket policies that can be modified to meet specific District needs I would like to add that starting in 2018 there is a school district of new berin mental health advisory committee working to identify alleviate mental health barriers in schools in the statement released in 2019 by this group it said that there's student anxiety depression stress and a plethora of other social and emotional issues which is why the hard work and dedication of this committee is so invaluable if this work is so invaluable then why is there not a policy in place I have several questions as to why the district has not yet adopted

071this policy what barriers continue to exist for the vard to put on the agenda to consider proposing uh student Sol student suicide prevention intervention and postvention especially when a blanket policy already exists if there are barriers addressed from question one what can be done to overcome them as a district to ensure that all of school district New Berlin is providing a safe learning environment and Catering to the Social and emotional needs I created a position for the community to signed and I shared it on Facebook and as of right now there are 109 community members this wasn't sh shared all around it is genuinely our community who are in favor of this policy being put into place and it is still open to receive signatures and I will be closing it shortly and sending it

072to you next I want to say a few words about policy 2240 the controversial issues in the classroom uh I request that a motion be moved to have more time for the public and educators of the district to have a chance to be aware of this policy because two weeks is not enough time for the community and Educators to be informed of such a new policy especially over the summer when educators are off this is a new policy for the district and it directly affects teachers what exactly falls under controversial issues this is open for interpretation that needs more time to be revised and look at it more specifically a student's identity is not a controversial issue lastly it says that there will be administrative guideline for dealing with controversial issues I think that those

073guidelines should be part of this policy and also approved so that as explicit and transparent for parents Educators and students I've emailed the board other examples of controversial issu issue policies that have been adopted and I believe that with a motion to have extra time will allow more research to have a better policy put in place for parents Educators and students thank you so much for your time thank you Gil Northway hi I'm a resident of New Berlin and I'm here because I'm concerned for the students of this District as well as the teachers as a former teacher myself I can attest to the fact that there is no way that teachers can post all of their materials online of course Educators have a lesson plan but things always come up during lessons and discussions

074that are not in the plan under the new uh uh transparency issue uh parents May then accuse teachers of teaching something that was not explicitly in the plan or with materials that were not listed and then the teachers might face disciplinary action I'm going to give a personal example of of a minor issue that I think you'll be able to see how that could expand once while teaching my second grade students about where different foods come from a little boy asked what hot dogs are made of I told them the truth insides and other parts not used for meat cuts the little boy went home and apparently refused to eat the hot dog that were served for dinner the parent was livid with me and went to the principal wanting to know why they hadn't

075been informed that I would be teaching that specific information they needed to have transparency I never intended to talk about hot dogs it wasn't in my plan and I didn't tell the kids not to eat them but the parent blamed me and wanted me disciplined that's a small second great example imagine what happens as students get older and subject matter becomes more complex the point is that many things come up in the course of the day and there is really no way to include everything in a plan online teaching is already a very difficult and timeconsuming job asking Educators to document even more than they currently do is unreasonable and won't provide any more benefit than is presently occurring while teachers are and should be neutral when teaching students about controversial topics that doesn't and

076shouldn't preclude teaching the truth some parents talk about indoctrination of our children but what is more indoctrinating than only being allowed to teach what a minority deems acceptable but which does not include all the facts and Truth in that case we would just be teaching propaganda of a small group that's indoctrination there is a very vocal and passionate group Behind These sorts of bills but I assure you most citizens are do not want our children to only be taught what that small group deems it most citizens are unfortunately not aware that this issue is even being discussed they're busy working and raising their children trusting that the schools provide a fact-based curriculum and teach acceptance of all beliefs races religions sexual identities Etc this is a public school board if some residents only want revisionist

077history and scientifically incorrect information given to their children then they are the ones who need to teach it in the private schools that they run and leave our public education alone thank you Lindsay nelbert uh Lindsay nelbert and I'm a resident of the district um so Robert Frost wrote the best way out is always through to do what needs to be done to get to a better place to proactively look at a solution free from Co in this case by blatantly ignoring CDC and other guidelines to not require mass or any other precautionary measures in schools to prevent the spread is a negligent decision driven by personal opinion and not data driven facts not requiring mass as a school and as a community does not get us to a better place free from this pandemic

078we therefore are part of the problem and not part of the solution as Co cases continue to rise this month in wakashaw county and throughout the state the New Berlin District needs to mandate masks to prevent the spread of covid-19 until all children have the opportunity to be vaccinated the CDC Co you as the Schoolboard and the district have been tasked with the duty to make sound decisions to keep our kids protected and learning in a healthy environment what affects hundreds of kids especially the 12 and under population that do not have an opportunity to be vaccinated yet is a big public health issue this is a public institution all kids have the right to learn in a safe and healthy environment the district continues to lose students and families that do not feel safe

079going back and do not want to be part of the third party vendor option for virtual learning the benefits of wearing a mask far outweigh the consequences for our district wearing a mask costs the district virtually nothing financially as far as you are protecting the children that do not have a choice to protect themselves yet the 12 and unders you are protecting your teachers your staff your Administration you're saving time money and resources on substitute teachers if teachers and staff become sick from covid no student will be bullied and singled out for wearing a mask if masks are required requirement of masks for parent volunteers and other visitors in the school will prevent the spread of covid you are protecting families who are vulnerable due to underlying illness or health the district will set a

080positive example to be a leader in our community the risks of mass are not mandated in schools and I think we all know what those risks are outbreaks in the school or classroom which will happen children becoming sick and or very sick loss of learning for children it it's it Cascades risk of children falling behind in the classroom puts strains on teachers families and students lack of substitute teachers to cover the the teachers that may become ill loss of sick time bullying of children wearing masks to protect themselves that is a risk unmasked parent volunteers I use this example really often you may have heard me talk about it but it's probably the best example that I can think of that I was driving my son in a carpool last winter we made the decision

081to all wear masks half hour to the sports practice half hour back from the sports practice at the sports practice they were marrying Mass the very next morning one of the kids tested positive for covid-19 no one else in that car came down with Co I can't think of a better example Mass work thank you an sininsky hello an shinsky Fox Haven Court New Berlin resident and District parent I applaud the board's new effort to finally do regular policy reviews but I must urge you to do your homework before approving a slew of new policies and retiring really important ones here's what I mean the policy review schedule says that three of tonight's brand new policies 5500 5611 5780 are all presented to replace policy 5131 and 51311 the existing conduct respons abilities and rights

082please read 51 31.1 carefully once you do compare it to these three Replacements and you'll find that none of its most important content has been brought forward Into The Replacements there's a reason that 51311 has withstood over 50 years of Board of Education reviews it beautifully delineates the responsibilities the 11 basic rights of students and Basic Essentials like physical safety protection of personal property free elections for student government to be involved in school activities without discrimination present complaints to school authorities like this board and more that existing policy also lays out responsibilities of parents with regard to Children's Behavior expectations like sending your kids to school with proper attention to their health supporting homework in compliance with school rules of conduct and responding to school's requests good stuff right some of the wording of 51.1

083uh 51 31.1 may be outdated like parents instead of parents and guardians but this policy is really important and needs to be updated and retained and not dumped entirely take a close look at your new 5780 student and parents rights it makes a pitiful attempt to collapse all of those 11 student rights into of the existing policy into a single vague sentence it does not offer any parent responsibilities and surprisingly despite its title offers only a single parent right to inspect any instructional materials used as part of educational curriculum for their student these demands could come without warning without expectations of with expectations of producing copies of copyrighted materials regardless of the format whether they're in an app textbook thousands of online sources Etc that the teachers leverage to do their jobs in government the

084OM tries to protect us by disallowing data collection that carries an unnecessary burden under the paperwork reduction act who is going to help those teachers particularly those most likely to cover controversial topics who will receive these demands to see all of their materials this seems reactionary and potentially highly problematic please remember any philosophical policy stance carries real world administrative burdens now look at your 55 100 student code of school conduct it does not outline student rights and fails to Define what unacceptable conduct is it actually says the superintendent will figure out how to carry out board philosophy and hold parents responsible for conduct don't you have any questions about this it says that everyone's actions are governed by rules and provisions of the student code of school conduct which is supposed to include some things

085but does not actually outline any rules or Provisions so where are they you need to keep policy 51 31.1 thank you thank you thank you Brenda leer hi Brenda latell and I am a resident of New Berlin um with children in the district and I like an support uh keeping 5131 point1 for the same reasons and I want to comment on the two proposed policies 5780 parents rights and 2240 controversial issues um in my 15 years of Parental experience in this District I've been extremely involved I'm the parent that consistently goes through all papers that come home and I'm not kidding all papers even if it's this high at the end of the year I look through every textbook I read every assigned reading that the English teachers assign I read it together with my

086child I just I see what they're doing I see Zero Zero evidence to Warrant either of these policies ideally um controversial subjects do get discussed in classrooms overseen by a certified common core standards educated teacher the right to inspect is unnecessary as almost all printed material comes home like I said the board reviews book lists selects a textbooks AP content is decided at the national level this is a radical extreme reaction to a few parents unwarranted fear about indoctrination your wording in the proposals which isn't happening in my experiencing why do we want this stuff discussed in the classroom I'll tell you why because kids are going to discuss everything on their own at all grades if you don't think kids are discussing the presidency and everything else in grade school talk to your kids

087they are kids are curious kids like to debate so are you going to monitor the bus stops buses recess lunch open campus practices rehearsals events texting dates social media because that is where kids are talking about issues important to them teachers in classrooms are not indoctrinating kids kids are talking and if we can have an adult in the room in the classroom and let kids talk about this with supervision I think I think that's fabulous I feel like these two policies are based on fear as I said earlier and a need to control things that aren't even happening in our classroom if you as a parent are close with your children you listen to them they can come to you you can talk about things they have your trust then ultimately these policies are useless

088and just a burden that deprives the teachers of their gift of teaching and their time and worse it deprives students of their right to be autonomous and have open discussion please stick with 51311 and if you're going to look at these again revise them thank you Scott yench Scott yench I'm a resident of New Berlin I have a child in uh New Berlin Eisenhower right now um there's so much to cover but there's only so much time so I'm going to stick with um my concern about the wording of the proposed policy 2240 as presented in the packet for tonight's Schoolboard meeting while the policy was initially presented at the previous meeting as a don't worry there's nothing here that isn't what we already do the language of this policy differs from what I think

089it needs to in order to document what is currently being done in schools because it is being formalized as a policy I feel the language used is very important and to be chosen carefully I take issue with the term indoctrinated which has become weapon ized by some factions of society recently and popularized by commentators and certain media Outlets if teachers were truly capable of indoctrinating students don't you think they would start by getting the students to participate better in class finish their homework and come prepared for exams I think the school district would do well to avoid paring language talking points and agendas from any group or organization looking to further one particular point of view or agenda by using fear uncertainty and doubt to so trust in our educational system and staff our schools

090should be a place for the exploration of issues learning to think critically debating issues for which there's disagreement in a way that is constructive to a larger conversation does this proposed policy do that I don't believe it does furthermore this policy wants to dictate what a teacher can and cannot do but it fails to even Define what is or isn't a controversial topic what is controversial to you may not be controversial to me who's to decide what fits that difference def I'll provide an example for you to consider a high school teacher shows students the seven time Academy award-winning movie Dances with Wolves as part of US history or American film class in this movie a civil war soldier played by Kevin cner requests a post on the frontier to experience that part of America

091he initially regards Native Americans in the area as dangerous and people to be feared but wants to learn from them and he sets his fear aside which allows him to form a relationship with him his rocky relationship takes a turn for the better when he alerts them to a herd of buffalo which they desperately need to survive while tracking the herd they come across a field of slain Buffalo which were killed only for their hides causing distress among the Native Americans and shame on the part of the white man excuse me who understands how important these animals are to them and the wasteful actions of his fellow people later in the movie The US army finally checks in on his fort finds him dressed in a hybrid uniform of Army soldier and Tribal member he

092is taken into custody beaten and carried off in shackles most viewers would be sympathetic with Kevin Cosner's character and would cheer the outcome of a rescue mission the feelings that the students might have watching this movie could be considered by some to be controversial especially given recent events would that teacher be disciplined under this policy would they be accused of teaching white guilt after being reported on a Google form that currently exists in this community speaker I'd like to give them the chance to speak thank you Crystal pres Vicki I'm sor sorry hello my name is Crystal I'm a uh resident of New Berlin this is my first time actually in person but I've watched many Schoolboard meetings on video before I'm here tonight to please ask you to consider your re-entry plans for fall

0932021 school year for at least our elementary students your entry and mitigation plans discussed at your meeting on July 26th are no longer applicable to today's current climate it cannot be a one- siiz fits-all approach especially for a younger Elementary population do not have the choice to become vaccinated unlike most of the parents that I've heard from tonight I actually work in healthcare with researchers that track and follow the data and the voice of our community some board members have referenced the success of the previous school year and the ability to safely unass the last few weeks in summer school my son actually went to summer school and had no problems at all but that can no longer be a Bel Benchmark when we're dealing with Delta and it's not about freedom and no longer

094relevant data that others have referenced that is not comparable to Delta and when we made the decision to unmask remove the mitigation strategies at the end of the last school year transmission our County was low now our count County Transmission excuse me is labeled as high with our neighboring County Milwaukee very high there's no longer an Apples to Apples comparison Delta has been factually proven to be more contagious and impactful to the Pediatric population recently in just one week the US has increased in 84% seen in 84% increase excuse me in new Co cases among children according to the American Academy of Pediatrics the cases increased to from 39,000 to 7172645114 elementary students who have not been afforded the option to protect themselves via vaccine I'm not even asking you to bring back masking for

095everyone in middle and high school I'm asking you just to protect our elementary population that has no choice Green Bay School District had created a similar model and only required masking of their youngest students the elementary population is common sense that you don't even have to excite the entire parent population which I know is very passionate um by letting the middle and high schoolers have their choice it makes sense they were afforded the choice to protect themselves if they wish to receive the vaccine this segment can also make the choice whether to mask Etc please reconsider at least starting the school year with Elementary masking and mitigation measures in place it can be reevaluated just like anything else a couple months in once we better understand if cases and transmission continue to climb in our

096area thank you for your time thank you thank you everybody for speaking uh next president's message I just want to thank fellow board members for coming early today for our work session we worked on some uh re revisiting our goals we've set for the last two years um we're going to continue on that um and so that's all I have for this evening uh we can move on then to the administrative team report yes so we uh have a brief presentation to the board related to uh fall re-entry um I would like to remind again not only those in the audience and those watching uh but also the school board about the process that we've entered in related to the timeline over the course of the last three months um the first school board meeting

097in May the school board voted to make adjustments to mitigation efforts uh further than we were asked to uh make mask recommended versus required as of May 18th we held a special meeting to do so on May 24th uh based on the May 10th board meeting we were asked to bring forth a um a plan for summer schools to inform our families of those efforts um as a result we changed even uh further mitigation strategy including increasing class sizes allowing students to move from class to class and that the summer planning would help inform our work to re-entry at the last board meeting on July 26 the board did approve fall re-entry plans with all families in the school district just some reminders related to um our work with covid uh there is continued planning

098uh and process uh elements related and we continue to monitor County city and District covid-19 data uh we continue to work with County and City officials and we work with our internal internal pandemic response team uh we've got several people on that team that work with other groups including myself our district nurse and others uh the district nurse collaborates with other nurses and the County Health Department uh on a weekly basis and I also do the same thing uh with other County superint tenants as well as the uh wer County Health Department do want to clear ify that our communication efforts uh we do uh include all mitigation strategies learning models in school calendar and that they are subject to change throughout uh as needed uh from the administration or through Schoolboard decision I do

099want to clarify there have been many things that have gone back and forth um you know in the media uh and I do get questions occasionally on uh will we change because some media Outlet is is mentioning something or not I just want to let families know and remind them that should there be an update we would certainly inform them of any changes as needed but to not assume any changes based on Independent um media outlets and so on uh specific to masking uh I do want to clarify that um we are doing what the county and state are doing and that's recommending masks there is not currently a city county or state mask mandate now I do recognize that last school year for part of the time there was a mask mandate that ended

100um as well as uh there are no other requirements for uh other mitigation strategies I also want to point out that in my conversation with other wer County superintendents there is no other wsha County School District that is requiring masks uh in their schools at this time Joe can you repeat that you said zero wakaa County schools are requiring masks correct okay at this time all right thanks um again masks will remain these are just reminders will remain recommended versus required for all individuals in our buildings uh we will though uh similar to what we are required to do because there are certain requirements uh we are required to uh have students wear masks while on buses as well as our staff members when they're traveling in our district provided Transportation uh mask will be

101provided as necessary though all students are encouraged to have one if riding the bus or any when we refer to bus it's any District sponsored Transportation contact contract tracing will continue uh so for example uh I did mention some of this but just we added a few more details we will have assigned seats and that will continue to allow us to contact Trace I we continue to contact families of students who are considered close contacts in school settings of individuals who test positive for covid-19 uh quarantining will continue to be recommended but not required for close contacts of someone who has covid-19 um and just another further point of clarification household members of those who are covid-19 positive and who are symptomatic are required to quarantine as well similar to what we did at the

102end of last school year and then then again those who test positive for corate covid-19 or think they know they had or have covid-19 are required to isolate per CDC guidelines uh we do uh we will be moving forward with uh other mitigation strategies as shared with you at the last meeting we will continue to encourage hand sanitizing cleaning protocols will remain the same we'll utilize a bottle filling stations not so much the drinking fountains uh the secondary students are asked to remain outside the building until 7:00 a.m. leave at 300 p.m. if not uh in a school sponsored activity or supervised activity of course we'll continue to ask families to keep their children home when sick are displaying covid-19 symptoms we'll continue to ask families and staff to perform Health self checks and we'll

103continue to share covid-19 case quarantine data through daily dashboard on the website uh specific to that point um as of right now we are no longer getting the direct data from the county like we were last school year instead we are getting data from the state in some cases as a result of that the data is delayed I also want to clarify that data that's provided on Monday can seem somewhat skewed because that data is from uh EV evidence uh that was brought forth over the course of a weekend and not just of that day or that Friday um but again um we'll continue to monitor that uh we don't believe that we're going to necessarily have such a broad uh dashboard as we did last year uh for example last year we we tracked

104covid positive cases which I I'm sure we will continue to do uh but as far as quarantining and so on it'd be somewhat irrelevant if not everyone is required to quarantine and so therefore um it would be uh the data would be incomplete and so therefore we're not sure that that's something that we would project on our dashboard but again we'll continue to work with the county and other school districts to determine exactly what will be shared uh virtual learning options again I did want to dig a Little Deeper as was asked by the board about uh what exactly um you know where are the numbers um but specifically I want to talk about uh what other school districts are doing related to Virtual learning options um of those that were of those 19 respondant

105which are either other Walker County Schools or other comparable school districts six school districts are are not even offering a virtual option for their Elementary grade uh level students of those four districts are only offering to those who have health related needs so in those cases students that have a specific health condition that's determined at that needing extremely uh or extreme accommodations that's the only time those districts will offer a virtual option um two are only offering virtual option to who who showed success last year in that capacity and seven of us including the school district of New Berlin are offering a virtual option with some staff support as of today uh and again uh the the the deadline was today to have families get back to us um actually it's tomorrow I I apologize

106for that the deadline is tomorrow um we've only had 20 families uh total uh 15 at the elementary and five at the secondary requesting that virtual option uh and again as a reminder we do have till the end of the day tomorrow for uh to be informed of their decision so that again if there are any adjustments that need to be made um as needed uh we will see what we we what's feasible to be done uh I do I do want to encourage those that are still considering the virtual option uh to continue to work with their principles our principles have done a great job of of talking to many families uh that that have concerns one way or the other um and again they are those that are able to provide the best

107information of how that impacts their respective student so that we're not talking broadly about all students but specifically about their students and their respective students needs um I also you know I do know that there's been negative feedback uh about uh um what we are offering uh as far as uity as well as other negative feedback and it's unfortunate that some of the feedback that I'm that are getting back to me about what's being posted on social media is that people want to take it out on the school district so for example they don't want us to get the school funding so they they're going to wait until the very end to tell us whether they're going to choose virtual or not they'd rather go to the Wisconsin Virtual Academy because they don't want us

108to get the funding for their kid again to every that's their choice uh I personally believe that uity and the support provided by the school district will be better than what others are offering but again we leave that up to the parents to make that determination for for the respective students but but meanwhile one of the things that was shared with us and that's been openly shared out on Facebook uh is that there was a uh an NBC news story that was done that criticized uity um it was an you know it was uh you have to read the article and I'm certainly happy to share that article with the board um but that article was based off of uity uity and the learning that occurred mainly immediately after we were shut down back in

109in March of 2019 uh what I will tell you is that some districts did not do what we did uh they instead went to AG genuity so instead of having uh the staff members uh you know we we prepared as best that could with the not so not so timely uh uh closure of our schools we did the best that we could we made adjustments as needed but some districts chose uity as their platform um quite honestly not all districts uh implemented Edgenuity well um so it's only as good as the tool just like anything else uh you know for example textbooks we share textbooks with MPS and other school districts just because we share that text textbook doesn't mean that the outcome will be the same um and so it's it's really it's a

110means to it's a means to the end it is not the end uh and again with Edgenuity it was the same way um there were many frustrations and criticisms of virtual and distance learning at the onset of the pandemic related to school closures we had a lot of the same things with our programming too uh we learned from that and we move forward and you know the platform is used best when combined with teacher support and we will be providing that uh and as of right now those supports will be provided uh through AG genuity uh all of those uh teacher supports are provided uh by Wisconsin certified teacher support to support the students learning um you know we we do expect uh a a a viable uh uh curriculum we we expect uh that

111these learning options and I will say we've also utilized uity at the secondary level for several years uh We've not heard of any complaint of utilization with a genuity because again it's only a means to the end it is not the end um and that more than 200 public school districts in the county in the country I'm sorry utilize Edgenuity um I'm and again I'm not suggesting that uh all 200 districts will apply it the same way that we do or that will monitor it as well as we will uh to ensure Student Success um but certainly I do believe um in our staff and and that of uity and working with them that we will we will be able to be successful or as successful as we can be as needed because again in

112these cases too it's also about the support that we can get from our families if that's the option that they so choose for them uh and then we will continue to review how AG enuity will be used by families that choose use it we and we will continue to support those families throughout the year um so again uh that is uh I've been asked by the board to bring back uh an update related to how many we've provided that uh and again these were some of the the big things that have uh at least come across my desk over the course of the last couple weeks since the last school board meeting any questions I had one question I forgot to ask you last time um for the students that do virtual how will it

113work for them to do um extracurriculars or Athletics is that still going to be a possibility yes have you gotten a lot of parents getting feedback that they're going to go to the Wisconsin Virtual Academy or um I didn't know if you had a feeling on any of that no again this was related to me about a a Facebook page that'ss out there um that you know you I understand people are frustrated but that um you know they were going to inform us last second that they're going to just not choose a genuity and and that's their choice and that they don't want to give the school district the the funds that go with their student which you know again is somewhat disturbing to me but understandable uh it's not about the money but it

114but it certainly again I I think we can do better than Wisconsin Virtual Academy uh even with us supporting a genuity and vice versa uh but again um I know of a few but it hasn't been been like this dramatic and again we've always had students go to Wisconsin virtual uh but I'm not aware of any dramatic uptick as such because I received some negative feedback I mean as you saw to with the Edgenuity option but I mean I'm shocked that there's only 20 people I felt like there was a lot of noise for that of people that were very upset with that and I thought there would have been a lot more than 20 but is that part of the reason why we can't do a a teacher run classroom for that because obviously

115that would be one classroom across grade six one through six probably right or K through six and again that's you know that's not an educ educationally sound practice agreed um so you know again as of now based on the data we we we certainly wouldn't believe that it's feasible okay thanks I think we will have to wait until school actually starts to get final numbers on how many people have chosen something else I am in that Facebook group since my son was virtual this past school year um and there's a lot of people still trying to decide what they're going to do there are a lot of people not thrilled with no masks and then a third party as their two options so I think there are many people still trying to decide um I

116suspect we will get decisions after tomorrow just because families are are really trying to weigh their options right now so I feel like we'll have to look at those numbers again in September and see how many people actually went to the Wisconsin Virtual Academy or uh there was another one being discussed as well so I don't think anyone's trying to be vindictive and and stick it to the district I think they are just trying to figure out what their options are Kristen did you have anything I just wanted to make sure you had an opportunity thanks Janet I appreciate that um I guess um the only question I had was regarding masking um and I know Joe you indicated that um we're going to align ourselves with the county and have continued to do that

117um and I I guess I I didn't remember that Waka Shak count had ever mandated any masks is that right the governor required masks not the county right yeah but it wasn't yeah it wasn't the county that ever did it I believe correct okay okay yes that's all I've got thank you any other questions I do have another update uh that the board had requested that we provide measurable goals uh just so that everyone's aware uh the school district utilizes is a consultant for uh our employee benefits uh from kind of Soup To Nuts And um we've used um several vendors throughout the last 10 20 years uh this last year we decided to kind of open things up and uh vet other uh vendors and we determined and in working with the Personnel committee

118and with the board we determined that we were going to move forward with USI uh benefits as our as our benefits consultant uh I would ask like Patrick since he is uh working directly with USI about these goals um and at least for the next uh 12 months which we are currently we've entered into an agreement with them and we've moved away from Hub uh International as our previous vendor uh but these are going to be the three goals that we're going to focus on for the next 12 months and uh we'll re-evaluate probably over the course of the next 6 to 12 months determine what our future goals will be Patrick sorry I have to pull those goals up didn't know that you were gonna I I go started uh until Patrick does but

119you know essentially the three goals are to develop a clear communication strategy to support employee understanding of our district benefits plan I think one of the things that um that we all know is benefits are complicated uh especially when it's a consumer-driven plan uh because when it's consumer-driven there that's a good thing because we don't want to have just a blank blanket uh benefits for our staff where you have the halves and the have knots based on that comprehensive plan you want some sort of customization that's what the consumer-driven options do and so when you have a consumer-driven uh program or comprehensive plan then what you have is well what what benefits Janet versus what would benefit Kate uh as far as you know single where are they in life do they you know are

120they healthy do they have you know uh long-term medical issues and so each of our different plans uh is going to be different for each individual um so clearly communicating that is going to be something that is one of our goals and again we believe that USI is going to be able to help us with that with their team uh their resources uh some of the uh technology options that they have will help with that but again I'll hand it uh over to Patrick to uh kind of dig a little deeper into that sure uh given the complexity of our of our plan um it it just as Joe said it becomes uh very very important for us to be able to communicate clearly uh to our members to our employees uh the differences between

121those plans um it's not that our previous Consultants didn't have communication plans in place um what we're finding with USI is they bring um more communication platforms to the table that will allow us to uh essentially communicate with employees on a level that they like to communicate in so it's going to be utilizing apps utilizing in printed word utilizing um you know whether it's a it's an email or it's a link or it's a video they're just they're going to they have a lot of tools at their disposal so that's our our one of our goals for this next year is to sort of find out or develop um a strategy to utilize those tools that USI has at its disposal for our benefit J do you want me to continue to go through the

122other two now that I've got them up thanks um the second goal is create clear coordination of services between plans and some of the contracted Services one of the things that we've done over the the last few years is we've done some direct Contracting for example with uh ATI Physical Therapy or um with it used to be paladen Health now it's everside nearsight Clinic um those are great plans and they're definitely um plans that can save the district money and bring greater benefits to our employees but what's really important is to make sure that while we have all of these plans that those plans are all um coordinating their services um if they're if those Services aren't coordinated well it's we're not going to get the full benefit from having those um contracted services and

123so again I believe that USI brings uh great tools to the table that are going to help us sort of first of all dissect all of those the plants and contracted services and then make sure that they're all uh coordinated in their efforts and finally to uh to design an analytic uh reporting that provides the district with the information necessary to not only guide our future benefit recommendations but uh Budget Building for the future uh and again our previous consultant did have some analytics um but what we're looking for are uh more customization in our analytics and again we this was something that we reviewed very carefully with the Consultants that we were interviewing and we feel that USI has uh the broadest um analytic tools that we can use and they will meet with

124us as much as they need to in order to help us um take the the analytics that they produce and um put them into you know a a a platform that we want the other thing that I feel we get from USI is um you know listening talking to some of the other districts that use them uh sometimes when you're working with different providers they can be a little shall I say difficult in providing the information needed in order to provide uh good analytics for a district like us to to um uh be able to to drive our decision-making USI we feel brings um a great balance between a collegial working environment and for lack of a better term a little bit of bulldog that's going to help us make sure that we can get

125the the information from all the carriers to feed into our analytics to feed us the information that we need to make decisions going forward what we would like to do is uh just because and again maybe Ron and Kate can fight over this but we would we would plan on actually reporting back to the Personnel committee um now mind you if there are some financial implications and so on WE again feel free to determine where this goes but that's our plan uh and maybe uh Kate what we can do is in order for us to gather enough time so maybe we do like a quarterly check-in with these specific goals with that committee and then as part of your committee updates you know bring those to the board as needed uh so that's how we

126plan to proceed unless we hear differently from the board again uh we don't plan on making any significant plan design changes those things have already been done are in the Works um and so and they've been implemented so now it's really just a matter of what next as needed and it's those plan design changes that eventually would have you know financial implications possibly but uh but as of right now we'll monitor those goals um in internally and then share those out with the Personnel committee any questions if you overheard our discussion on goals we talked about doing um an employee benefit survey and um I don't know if this adviser has brought it up with you if that's something they do because I know sometimes advisers do that so um that was one of our

127goals we we would like to look into seeing if they can conduct an employee benefit survey now do you mean internal or external or both so for example are you looking for comparable data from other school district no we meant feedback from staff who are using the benefits like what you know their their feedback on how they feel about the benefits because that can help Drive the communication sure and because sometimes there's a lot of miscommunication and you'll get feedback and they're like well wait they don't understand the plan so that helps communicate better sounds good Janet I can speak to that that is one of the things that we are having USI develop is to um sort survey those survey the people that are using the benefits and even survey the people that are

128choosing not to use our benefits to find out why and again I feel it's it's sometimes it's better when you have your thirdparty vendor that's asking those survey questions you find that you'll glean more honest information than if all of those surveys are done internally okay if there's nothing else we'll move on to the committee update we have a Personnel committee update from Kate sure so the Personnel committee has been working on um a revised superintendent evaluation process um so attached in board docs is kind of the recommendations and the proposed plan that we put together um so I don't know how much of this you want me to go through maybe just highlight like some of the stuff on the summary page yeah yeah highlight it so we can um give everybody an idea

129of what's been going on and and get any of their feedback um so in regards to the rating scale we currently have a fourpoint scale which forced us to use decimals to try and find a middle ground so we were proposing using a fivepoint scale um we had propos Z through four to kind of align a little bit with the grading system that we use for our students um but obviously we are open to using a one through five if that makes things easier for people um the schedule that we were looking at we wanted to make some adjustments to the timing um we really wanted to add a self evaluation component for Joe so we were looking to have that take place annually in October um and then moving the board evaluation up to

130November so that we weren't doing it in December um it gets a little trickier with having only one meeting in December um so the board would still do the evaluation form although we're hoping that the new form can be set up as a Google doc that'll allow us to collect data a little bit easier and then also kind of calculate the results and and review them a little bit easier as well um so I have some notes in here kind of about how the president would compile those results um making sure that comments were or the ratings and comments were Anonymous but that we could actually view them all um we talked about the waiting of the section so the 70% of the review would be based on uh superintendent goals for the year with

13130% based on some core competencies um and then I just put notes about how that would be calculated um so then with the goal being to review the results um together as a board in the beginning of November um and then making sure that we finalize by the beginning of December um including the new goals for the following year um and then we also proposed that the superintendent bonus be awarded on an All or Nothing basis um I think that was something that we were kind of debating over this year and then we added kind of a more formal documentation of a midyear review um which would be just kind of an more a less formal kind of self- review very similar to what we did tonight with the goals and I have the form

132itself which again would be set up in a Google doc but just to kind of give an idea um we paired down a lot of what was in the original so it's really just the goals that are set for the year in this case we have five currently um and then the core competencies kind of align with the superintendent job description that we put together breaking it down into four key areas um kind of the the reporting to the board implementing of the district Vision conducting the day-to-day operations of the district um and then Community involvement so questions comments I think we were going to actually Vote or to approve this in a future meeting right yeah I think we were going to put it on a first read at the next meeting if so

133we do have another um Personnel committee meeting on August 30th so if there are questions or comments if you want to send them to me before then we can discuss in further depth um before we do the official vote okay if there's no other questions on that one we'll go to the consent agenda which includes the notice and the approv minutes of July 26th are there any items that should be pulled for separate consideration since there's none do I have a motion for the consent agenda so moved second I have a motion by Mr Helmer and a second by Mr Kur to approve the consent agenda as presented any discussion hearing none all those um actually we're going to do a we'll do a roll since we have um Krysten on the phone uh hearing

134none uh please call the role Mr Helmer yes Mr Kur yes yes Miss Crosby yes Miss schules yes Mr cidal yes Miss uner yes Miss Wonder yes okay motion passes on to the regular agenda first item on the regular agenda is to discuss approve policy 2240 controversial issues in the classroom do I have a motion I move to approve policy 20 240 as written second I have a motion by Mr Helmer and a second by Mr cidel any discussion yes I would like to um just uh clarify that the board has determined a plan to revise their policies we uh put together a proposed plan to the board I do want to clarify further that the we are already because of what we've experienced over the course of the last several months on on first

135reads approvals first reads approvals that we're going to hit pause briefly uh just kind of gather ourselves and so there are going to be some timing issues related to the other policies that we had in that plan um and so um we will uh be slowing down the process slightly uh but we do believe we're going to be bringing another round of first reads to the board at the next meeting again just one of the things that we learned was there was a lot there was a lot of policies proposed presented and then not only were you approving all of those but then you were already reviewing the other ones so based on some of the feedback we're just going to slow that down slightly uh the ones that we've brought before you that have

136already been approved and the ones that are being proposed tonight are those that have a direct impact on the school year and that's why there was a somewhat of a sense of urgency per se or a bit more of a priority not urgency but priority based on the policy plan that we had um so I I just uh generally speaking um I I want to just refer to the the the the plan and the purpose to some of these policies that were Consolidated as the board is aware we work with Neola for policy uh work uh I believe that of the 400 some OD districts in the state almost 34s of school districts work with with Neola um and so and we are one of them so you know for example they are the ones

137that are suggesting that we compress certain policies and and put them into one uh I also want to clarify that some of the things that are referred to or may not be referred to in policy but are referred to in our handbooks and so therefore you may not need certain policies so for example uh one of the policies that we're going to be talking about uh tonight is the policy 5610 which quite actually according to not only Neola but also per legal council we actually don't need um I'm sorry not 5610 but 5611 that we wouldn't need 5611 because we already have um those due process rights outlined in our handbook or handbooks per se so again um based on ola's feedback to us uh that's why we'll be recommending that that actually we delete

138that policy uh that's our recommendation certainly the board can do what it wants uh and that again that's part of the reason why we're compressing some policies as what we have presented here in so uh again back to the controversial issues in the classroom you know we recommended as presented um and we'll seek board questions comments concerns this is written from Neila right there weren't additions to this I didn't see any correct BL R lines okay thank you any other discussion um at the end of the policy it says superintendent or design shall develop administrative guidelines for dealing with controversial issues is that something that we have currently I feel like that language is very similar to what we just approved in the entrance age so I'm not disputing that I'm just curious is there

139an administrative guideline on how you would deal with controversial issues and is that something you can share with the board yes we can do that um so we have practices in place or guidelines in place um certainly we've we've dealt with these types of issues in the past um and again I do want to clarify you know I know that there was discussion during privilege of the floor um this policy does Define what a controversial issue is um it also does you know there will be controversial issues discussed in our classrooms um it's just a matter of how they will be approached and it clarifies just like we've tried doing and has as has been our practice that we not allow ourselves or us as Educators to impose our opinion on our students uh that

140that's really for students to determine um where they they may be without the influence of us as Educators in that determination um and so uh but and again if if that's the case which again we have addressed Personnel issues in the past where it's been brought to our attention that uh opinions were imposed and we've dealt with that accordingly um but uh but again uh it's really just a matter of we were waiting for the board to approve this so that we could determine exactly what the guidelines should be based on our our previous practice as well as now the specifics that are outlined here in um the other question that I have is in regards to so it's was talking about review of program lessons and materials by parents um I know you are

141going to do a presentation I'm hoping that's maybe at the next meeting so just curious this policy isn't really expecting the teacher to do anything that they're not currently doing as far as sharing lesson plans with parents correct so I guess I don't want to get too far ahead of myself um and our our goal is to first of all outline exactly what we currently do in that presentation uh from there we want the board to tell us what more if anything you want so for example right now we have a web page that's available to our community that shares what standards well first of all the board approved the standards which we need to operate typically they're in at the previous board meeting uh and then also our resources so we are updating that

142web page based on our curriculum updates and our resource updates so we'll present that to the board and say here here's where it's all found and here's what's presented do you think we need more or is that enough you know and again that would be for the community The Next Step that we would also share with the board in that presentation is here is what's currently available to our families via canvas and you know is that enough is it not enough what else would you like to see uh we are already working internally on some of the expectations that we have for our staff because we actually want as much as we can but also being um being pragmatic you know like every minute detail may not be in there uh and so uh certainly

143we want to have as much transparency as possible but it's also feasible and at the same time quite honestly we may need some time to get there too you know so um you know so that's again really the purpose of that presentation is what's our current state what does the you know this is where we're at this is where we as an administrative team want to get to and by when what are we missing board and what do you what do you want as a result of that and so that is the intent of our next presentation and we plan on doing that at the next board meeting did that answer your question Kate yes yes it did I I think so my concern is this this feels kind of like a chicken egg situation

144like um which of these things should we do first so my concern with this policy um is I I completely agree with the intent which is to document what we're doing so it's a little bit more formalized I obviously agree that teachers should not be sharing their own political opinions on controversial topics or trying to force that on students um I'm very happy that this policy says that we should be discussing these issues in the classroom especially where they are Rel to the curriculum being shared what I'm concerned about is putting more burden onto the teachers to potentially provide in advance to parents what they're going to be discussing um we all know teachers spend a lot of time already outside of the classroom preparing for their classes and I do not want them to

145have to do any more than they're already doing so I I I think I would propose we hold this policy until we have the conversation at the next meeting so that we're kind of aligning those two things together versus trying to approve a policy that talks about reviewing materials but we haven't really discussed what the expectation is for teachers providing that information or parents being able to review it and I'll stop talking with someone else talk now sorry anyone else hey Janet this is kren um so I just had a couple of question questions about this proposed new um policy um Joe what I and I apologize if any of this repeats anything that anybody else said my audio isn't awesome right now because my airpods died so um just let me know if I'm

146repeating anything so was this policy 2240 was this discussed or presented to teachers and did we get any and gather Any teacher feedback on this policy no okay I think that would be important yeah and again because I think that what that sorry just to clarify of the of all the policies that we brought forth we've not sought feedback from staff okay and I think that as a Schoolboard member who's you know got a vote on dictating policy to I mean this is real like on the ground stuff where teachers have to abide by the these things and I mean when I in in reviewing the language of this policy more often than not I think Neola policies are really good I think this one's a little bit problematic um right in the second paragraph

147where it says that a controversial issue is a topic on which opposing points of view have been promulgated by responsible opinion I don't know what responsible opinion is and I don't think any of the rest of us do either um I think that's problematic language and I also think I do I I totally agree with the I think the one of the messages of this policy is to to enforce what we already do Joe which is what you said in that we don't want our staff to be um promulgating their own personal views in the classroom and I think that's reasonable um but I don't know if we're giving staff an insurmountable burden by imposing something like this upon them when number one we have haven't really defined all of its terms and number two

148we don't know how it's going to be able to be carried out when the teachers don't really know what's being asked of them so I just don't think it's very practical as it is written I think that the idea is okay um but I think that it's problematic in the lacking of the definitions in that policy um yeah so I'm not sure what the standards are that are being talked about in this policy have you talked to legal council about this policy Joe other than theola directly no but I am aware that other school districts have already adopted this policy for decades yeah and I well this policy is only a decade old so um as far as niola has written it but um I think that just because other districts have done it doesn't

149necess necessarily mean it's the right thing to do I'm not always persuaded by that um but I do think that it's something that if we if we want to do it right I think that we probably should bring some teachers into the conversation um especially those teachers that do sometimes end up dealing with controversial issues in their classrooms I mean I know that we have them um and I think it would beho us to ask them about it since none of us are in the classroom with them so Kate you mentioned you didn't feel comfortable because you didn't want teachers to have to show their entire curriculum that's not in this policy that's a different policy so it sounds we're going to get to that but no it says if after a careful personal review

150of the program lessons Andor materials apparent indicates to the school blah blah blah blah blah but I'm trying to understand what is what does that mean because we don't provide all of the lesson plans right now in advance so how is a teacher going to or parent sorry going to decide that they want to opt their kid out so for example my son was in fifth grade this past year we do sexed in fifth grade or whatever body chain whatever it's called they send that out to families I reviewed the whole website and decided that of course it was fine for him to attend that but a parent could choose to opt out if we're saying that parents can choose to opt out of controversial topic discussions they have to be made aware that that

151is going to be happening so what does that mean for the the teacher what are they going to have to provide in advance if we put this policy in place and I think we' Joe we just had that didn't we didn't we have someone that asked about something in biology where we reviewed that with the family showed them the curriculum and they were either comfortable with it or they rejected it correct yeah I mean I think what what you currently have is we're striking a balance of proactive versus reactive I'm not suggesting it's right or wrong um parents have always had the opportunity now in many cases is unfortunately it's been reactive um and that's I think what we're trying to balance is what can be more proactively and again you know Kate and um

152krin meant you know we are certainly very well aware of the burden on our staff and that's why I suggested that the board it's not going to be implemented tomorrow uh we need to be mindful of and being realistic of how this will be rolled out again we are Memorial I izing what we currently have into practice so this is not different than what we already do the board is just now putting a policy behind it now now that we have this though uh and now that we've heard some of the feedback from board members if we want to be a a bit more transparent or proactive I guess I'd call it we can we we are working on that we will work on that to what degree it may not be everything but at

153least we can let families know this is what to expect uh moving forward and again we are extremely mindful of our staff and that's what we plan on presenting at at the next board meeting is what approaches are we going to take you know certainly are we going to put together a staff survey probably not but are we going to get feedback from our staff members along the way we will I mean we do that um as needed so so this was three or four weeks ago we were given this policy have you gotten questions so I wasn't copied on any questions have you been copied on questions about taking surveying the staff or changing any langu in here no okay so I I think you touched on it before that this is kind of

154burdensome of going through these policies doing a first read and then debating it on that final approval so I guess asking the board if we're going to have lots of questions and ask to reject these policies I'd ask that we do that the day of the first read or try to get these questions to Joel in advance that was the purpose of the first read is is to get the ball going so that you know there is time for feedback and so I I guess I'm surprised if anybody's bringing up questions today they could have been brought up at the last meeting and within the last two weeks I mean and for example I will in some of the upcoming policies I did get questions from Kate that I will I can address those um

155and I can you know at least provide you the the our best response to it I think Kate did put a question and I don't know if this was one but I saw a couple questions come through but yeah that's one I did not include um it was a this one was a little bit harder to review because it was brand new and I didn't really have anything to compare it against um but it's I also wasn't sure at the time whether this was the meeting where we were going to have the discussion about curriculum transparency so I thought maybe they would align and that that might answer some of my questions so I mean I'm not saying I don't think we should approve this I'm just saying it might make more sense to approve

156it after we discussed I my concern is I'm worried if we publish this policy we're going to get a lot of questions from parents about my son is taking X andx class this year and I want to know it's being taught and and I don't know yet if we already have a way for them to get that information I mean I know how to use canvas but is there more that we're saying is currently available I just don't want there to be a flood of concerns that then teachers are having to scramble to address and and I we we'll talk about that in one of the other ones cuz it did also talk about how to request information if you want to review it believe we already have policies that indicate parents have a right

157to review curriculum it's also in state law this is basically backing up state law um showing that parents do have a right to review curriculum um I don't see how this can possibly be controversial that we would want to block parents in any way from seeing what their children are learning um the other thing I it's good about the policy is it's it specifically states that students are you know they're going to bring up controversial issues in class this this does not ban them from doing that it just simply says you know if that happens just the teacher cannot persuade the students to think a certain way so this is just giving some assurance that students will be able to speak and share their thoughts without being influenced and to be feel safe that they

158can talk and and this doesn't support any type of ideology or anything like that this is completely supportive of students regardless of their beliefs or anything this is supportive of parents keep in mind you know the parents are the ones that are employing the teachers so I don't think it's really offensive to ask a teacher to share their work because any employer anybody who's paying somebody to work has that right I don't want to burden teachers that's why you know that's something we're going to talk about that we can do that the best way possible but again it's it's about the students and it's about the parents being able to see what their children are learning and that really is something that we're here for that's what the board is for we're here to represent

159the parents and the tax payers so I'm very in favor of this I think this is something good that we should pass any other thoughts on this seems pretty straightforward we ready to vote Yes uh Diana if you want to call the role Mr Helmer yes Mr cidel yes Miss Crosby yes Mr Kurth yes Miss schules yes Miss anger I guess no Miss wander no motion passes next policy is discuss approve policy 5500 student code of school conduct oh do I have a motion second I have a motion by Mr Kur and a second by Mr Helmer any discussion once again this is straight from Neola correct all everything on in here is we didn't change anything on the Neola policy well that's the school from yeah yeah gr grammatical yes um I had asked

160if we could since this policy doesn't actually include the code of conduct I asked Joe where that was assuming it was in the handbook which he confirmed that yes it's in the student handbook um so if that is the case I feel like we should say that in this policy if somebody reads this policy and they're looking to find the code of conduct it doesn't really tell you where to go um and I think you said okay to that but I didn't see a change to the policy yeah I hadn't made that change bending so I don't know I mean I feel like it could just you know comma in the student handbook comma somewhere in this policy it doesn't have to be crazy but I just think if someone reads this and they're trying

161to find that information I agree it shouldn't necessarily be in the policy because we want that to be able to change a little bit more easily but knowing where to go to get that information would be helpful k I think that can easily be done we typically reference like for example in this policy at the bottom it does you know legal reference we can reference the handbook or the student handbook and that's not necessarily changing any of the policy language then the only other question I had had was on the the wording of the title of the policy 84621 which you did change so thank you for that and Neola actually had them both way it was an error on their part so and just for clarification I Kate brought up a good point and

162I got me thinking why can't this just be in the handbook why do we even have a policy on this is that needed recommended by Neola okay anything else so the policy that this is is replacing in regards to the old language is some of that language then in the student handbook instead yes okay when we're looking at the teacher handbook we're reviewing that student handbook too before the school year correct those are both getting revised okay all right um if there's no other discussion we'll put this to vote if you could call the roll Mr Kurt yes Mr Helmer yes Miss Crosby yes Miss Schulz yes Mr cidal yes Miss uner yes Miss Wonder Kristen you still there hello Jenna did you not hear me oh I'm sorry I couldn't hear you did you

163you ready to vote we yes yes I said yes okay thank you motion passes discuss approv policy 5610 suspension and expulsion oh I'm sorry have a motion so I have a so moved and I have a motion by Mr Kurt and a second by Mr hmer discussion yeah no discussion um so I had two questions on this one the first one um the original policy had a reference to the non-discrimination policy it it say something like all disciplinary actions including suspensions and expulsions will comply with the school district non-discrimination policy that reference is not in this one so I would like to see that remain um and then I asked about whether the procedures outlined in this policy match what we were currently doing and Joe said yes so I'm good with that but I

164think we should put the reference back to the non-discrimination policy and again Kate could would that be suffice if we added it at the bottom I I don't really care where it is I think it's just important to make sure that um in case someone's going to try and compl claim that their suspension was discriminatory it's good to have that reference in here and you're referring to 2260 we um 5110 I think is the nondiscrimination right we we reviewed that one last time it was 5110 in the old policy so that's the the sentence I copied so I'm guessing that's the right one I accept your friendly Amendment yeah I was going to ask you have a friendly motion yeah just put back the reference to the non-discrimination policy somewhere within this policy would would

165be good I agree I think there's no reason not to put that in there and thank you Joel for combining policies yes um any other thoughts on this danet can you just sort of repeat what just happened it was really hard to hear that whole discussion yes so Kate gave a friendly um motion um to amend uh to add back the non-discrimination language into this policy that was in the old ones not the language just a reference oh a reference to the nondescript yeah to added a reference to the non-discrimination policy to this policy okay thank you okay all right so if we're ready to vote give Diana a moment are you ready can you take the role please Shu on papers here okay Mr Kur yes Mr Helmer yes Miss Crosby yes Miss schules

166yes Mr cidel yes Miss younger yes Miss W yes okay motion passes discuss approve policy 5611 due process rights motion so moved second I have a motion by Mr Kur and a second by Mr Helmer um I want to mention that I did contact our uh board attorney we had about a 10-minute call so hopefully it wasn't too expensive um so I did ask her about this because this was something and Krysten actually you brought this up in a couple meetings ago as well in regards to due process so there was um the code of conduct for athletics and activities there was a section removed about due process right so I asked her to refresh my memory why we why that was done why she why Sheed advis us to do that and she said

167it was because um it was just a definition of what due process was and it didn't actually belong in a Athletics and activities code and that what was important was the actual procedures of due process which is what was kept in that and so she said that we really don't need this Standalone um policy as long as our suspension and expulsion policy does lay out the procedures U the due process procedures that are to take place before a suspension or expulsion would happen so I just wanted to let you know that um before we disc just start any discussion to see what you want to do with this policy yes so the only other thing I would add is actually I'm not sure that we will actually need the Motions because we're going to be

168recommending that no action be taken okay this policy wasn't didn't exist prior to we were adding it because the old you know had it but again if it's as long as it's included in the student expulsion policy then we don't need it so I would ask that the Motions be withdrawn that would be our recommendation and no action is needed but the board can determine what it would like to do motion I withdraw my I second withdrawing my motion okay motion is withdrawn we'll go on to uh discuss approved policy 5780 student parent right just a point of order uh should we remove that from our agenda since we're not taking any action on it remove it from the agenda yeah the discuss and approve policy there was really no action taken on that because

169we're just saying so I think it still has to be there for people to look back at to see what happened you don't have to vote for it yeah because yeah we don't have to vote for it that's right because it's yeah it's it's discussed and without action on it it's going to stay on the agenda I motion to cancel oh to can to cancel the motion that's not an action that's not no I'll I'll do this I'll make a motion to remove a PO discussion and policy 5611 due process and rights from the agenda second okay I have a motion by Mr seidle and I'll give the second to Mr Kur um I'm assuming there's no discussion on this so let's go straight to vote trying to decipher my notes sir okay sir Mr

170cidal yes Mr Kur yes Miss Crosby yes Mr Helmer yes Miss schules yes Miss uner yes Miss Wonder yes sorry we heard you thank you than you okay so that motion that motion passes now we will discuss approved policy 5780 student parent rights so I have a motion so moved second I have a motion by Mr Helmer second by Mr Kur any discussion this is again Neil's recommendations correct correct I have a couple questions go ahead [Music] um so I had a question about the the phrasing specific rights are listed in topic areas of these policies Joe you did answer and and I'm still not sure like what policies is it talking about so it says parents have rights in the school system to know about their students educational experience specific rights are listed in

171topic areas of these policies one example is controversial issues okay uh so outlined in that policy it clarifies exactly what you know what some of what the parents process rights are uh as I mean it could be a multitude of different ones um so for example even though we took out the due process rights from this policy or it wasn't accepted as policy those due process rights are in the handbook as it relates to suspension and expulsion um and so it depend the point being is that depending on the topic that would be outlined somewhere else okay so I think it's maybe just the these policies that's confusing me I feel like it should maybe just say in the district's policies or or something Schoolboard policies cuz I was like is it talking about this

172policy what policy is it actually talking about so that if it confuse me I feel like it might confuse someone else um the other question that I had similarly to my concerns earlier about parents requesting instructional materials [Music] um it it says that they have the right to inspect it but doesn't really say anything about how you would go about getting it if you wanted to review um so I did look around at some other districts and I saw that whitel had an additional paragraph in this policy um that said the superintendent shall in consultation with the parents develop a procedure addressing the rights of the parents and procedures to assure timely response to parental request to review instructional materials the procedure shall also address reasonable notification to parents and students of their rights to

173review these materials so I just feel like that kind of and you know maybe we'll come up with something when we review the current method of reviewing stuff at the next meeting but it just it sort of just left it open-ended and I was again concerned that we might get a flood of requests for instructional materials that who and how are they actually going to put that information together so there's a lot of information currently made available to families but if someone doesn't know how to get it or they want more like what are we expecting to be done by adopting this policy and again in that case we would do what we've done which is any request would either go to the teacher to the board myself and others and then we address those

174in a timely manner each case is different I mean I can't you know say that if somebody doesn't want to read Where the Red Fern Grows and the teacher lays it out like three months in advance then we would have three months to prepare or sometimes if they do it the week of it would be the week of so you know it's really just a matter of each individual circumstance which is how we've addressed them at this just because the circumstances could be so unique So currently right now if a parent wants to know something about the curriculum it's handled by going to the teacher and escalating it up if something like that so in essence we are currently following this policy correct yes thank you but again sometimes you know for example we you

175know they'll exhaust their they'll exhaust the meeting with the teacher and then they'll go to the principal sometimes they'll go to the me or come to me and then I got to to kick it back to the teacher and the principal so again it's it's tough to just say blanketly this is how we're going to handle them because each circumstance is going to just be that different well I'm guessing most of these situations someone's asking for an assignment or a question about a textbook I mean you're not getting requests that say I want every single page that has ever handed out in this class I mean every single word that's going to be said given to me before this class starts correct I mean that is that a safe assumption I mean that's what we've

176done now will somebody expect that could they expect it I guess but you also have to be reasonable um and I think we're dealing with mostly reasonable people so my concern is stemming from the several people that have come to meetings over the last couple months demanding curriculum transparency with concerns about CRT or whatever they're concerned about they want to be able to see exactly what teachers are going to be talking to their students about so that's my concern with none of this really being outlined is that that if we approve these policies those parents and other parents in the district are going to feel that they should see literally everything that the teacher may say in the classroom which is not a reasonable expectation I mean I'm not saying the teacher shouldn't post the

177rough outline of what they're talking about but they can't possibly list out every single thing they're going to say in the classroom I think a lot of these concerns stem from having these issues happen in the classroom and I think we address that with not having teachers giving their opinions and trying to persuade kids and pushing them to their agenda so I think in that case a lot of that will be addressed with this and we have that policy in place so I think we do need to discuss this and I think we got to lay out how that looks but I don't think that that's going to be as important now that we have some of the stuff in place so once we have a presentation next meeting will we have a policy that

178outlines our expectation for what teachers are supposed to share with families that's not my end goal as a result of that um my end goal is to be able to share with the board this is what we currently do this is where we're going with it and if there's more and Beyond what and then a rough timeline of what we plan on doing um if the board wants more we're certainly open to do what we need to do on behalf of the board um but but again I also you know some of these things are already in place it's not new for us um but if somebody's demanding certain things there's also just the the reality of we have to be pragmatic in our expectations and um I mean again I I share your some

179of your concern um but again it's it's um there are there are a lot of things that can go into policy a lot of the stuff is what we deal with on a day-to-day basis and we have been anyone else um I'll just say I agree that we probably need to clarify what topic areas of these policies means because I I found that confusing too so I'm not sure how we would I I had a thought I'm trying to remember what it was I had um let's see specific rights are listed in other board policies and handbooks could I make a um friendly motion for that would that make sense can you say that again sorry um we could it oh sorry go ahead Kristen you had something already I'm sorry thank you thank you

180Janet I think I I get what you're trying to do but I think unless we site specific resources I don't think it's any more clarifying you know what I'm saying I mean I think that's the board's oper I mean if the board agrees to that operational definition that's how we're going to interpret it as we yeah because each each policy has things listed out in there so the whole point is is to direct people who are reading this policy to look at all the other policies to see where they where other specific rights are listed I think that one of the things my I had a couple thoughts on this policy the first one was in this draft Nea policy 5780 we refer to student and parent rights I think we also have to consider

181the fact that we have people who are Guardians to children in our district that are not necessarily parents and I think that that's a semantic issue that probably should be addressed um I also think that if this supplants policy 51 31.1 we're losing a lot of good guidance in that 51 31.1 policy um that's a policy which I think you know is not a Neola policy it's our policy but it's one that I think more in a meaningful way lays out not just the rights but the responsibilities of students parents and Guardians even though it doesn't say guardians in that one either um I worry that if we use I mean I I think that there are some useful things in this 5780 policy but I don't think that it's well defined what teachers are

182supposed to do and again if we're setting up an unascertainable standard for teachers then we're just setting them up to fail and we're setting it up to be more difficult and we're going to impact our retention as a result if teachers feel that the burden is too much to them this is a balancing act we have to constantly revisit because I want parents to know what's going on in their kids' classrooms I think that's a reasonable expectation but it's not reasonable to require teachers to do double duty day in and day out either so I think we have to Define what the expectation is so that everybody knows what their rights are on both sides of the fence and I don't think this policy does that you have something Ron I agree with her on

183the guardian on including the term Guardian in the policy I do um what I will say is that if we're currently following this policy now where if a parent has a question about or parent or Guardian has a question about what's being being taught in the classroom I I mean my wife and I have both emailed teachers and asked questions about certain items they get back to us we may like the answer we may not but at least we're getting answers so if we're currently following it I don't see a reason in why it's really putting an undue burden on any anybody because we're currently doing it this is just putting what we're doing down on paper so I would like to see the the um parent Guardian rights so to speak on there just

184make a friendly Amendment I'll make the friendly amendment to include student parent Guardian rights I second it don't have to it's friendly I want to okay anything else on this yeah I mean I think it's kind of the same comment I had before I feel like this is the opportunity to make small tweaks and small changes but to be abolishing policies and tearing them apart and adding other ones into it I just I mean we're four weeks into this we we shouldn't be doing that at this stage i' like to just mention i' I've done some research on niola and I was looking at their website looking at what it is they do and how they came about one of the things that they point out is that these policies are all written basically in

185response to state and federal laws and case laws and things like that and so what this is is basically putting our policies in place that are you know we're pretty much required to because of state laws and things like that and as you can see on the noola policies it always cites the state law that this this goes along with and so this policy here is basically reating exactly what's in Wisconsin's stat 115 807 and 118 125 and then there's also some US law there as well so I mean we have to do this anyway this is just taking laws already written and putting it into Schoolboard policy so that it's basically having us making sure that we are following along with these laws I think to add to that too the reason why these

186are vague is because we're setting board policy the procedures and process and stuff is what Joe said so if it's time that the teacher has to share or the the time frame in which it is if it's electronic or a print material the board shouldn't be setting those policies we need to keep these very vague I think to avoid that and stepping on Joe's toes as well as making undue recommendations to teachers because I it's a perfect example we don't know what the teachers have to go through and what the requirements are for this so we have to let our staff do their jobs and manage that and have the teachers give the feedback to them as well anything else otherwise we'll go to vote um two things great great Point Mitch I agree so

187if there was a procedure that came out of or already exists and part of what we're going to see at the next meeting I think that would make me feel a little bit better that you have some written documentation on what teachers are expected to do as far as providing information to parents um just back to the these policies um do we want friendly amendment to just maybe change that to say specific rights are listed in topic areas of other board policies but they're also possibly in handbooks is that right Jo correct sorry Yeahs and policies and handbooks or you could do example and Pen example other policies handbooks Etc and like making the in topic areas and then in parenthesis get rid of the of these policies should we let Joe and Diana pick

188the link yeah I don't really care I think just changing changing these policies to be more clear on what the heck we're talking about CU yeah I don't completely I think we'll just let Diana and Joel finish that sentence for us sure okay so we have a friendly amendment to add guardian and now we have a friendly amendment to let Diana and Joe determine how we're going to better clarify where these other rights are listed yeah well to the board uh again in speaking to uh the you know Kate had brought up the question about what that meant and it's exactly what you're talking about I'll actually we'll go back to niola actually and just say can you clarify this because this wasn't you know this wasn't sticking with us and this is what we'd

189like to see in it and we'll bring that back to the board uh as long as the board is approving it in this manner okay then we ready for the vote go ahead Mr Helmer yes Mr Kurt yes Miss Crosby yes Miss schules yes Mr cido yes Miss anger yes Miss wander no okay the motion passes discuss approved policy 6152 student fees and charges motion to approve okay I got a motion second and a second by Mr hmer as a point of clarification there is no stive changes to this policy as far as you know we're not changing student fees for the upcoming school year or charges all we're doing is actually adjusting the the policy numbering uh with with what niola recommends so any any discussion on this at all since so why aren't

190we using a Neola policy on this one actually we're just changing the numbering but not actually using any wording from Neola Patrick actually addressed that at the U finance committee so I'll let him take it here okay sure I feel like the the Neola policy painted a bit broader and our policy essentially said everything that the Neola policy did MH changing it to the Neola policy is it it just it didn't really do anything so let's just update the numbering and we're good okay so does Neola um they they allow that to use a different policy but their number MH okay all right any other questions on that I know Jeff had to go for a moment but um if you're ready to take the vote Mr cidel yes Mr Helmer yes Miss Crosby yes

191Mr Kurt yes Miss schules yes Miss younger yes Miss wand yes motion passes discuss approv policy 8462 0.01 threats of violence do I have a motion no one this time so moved second I have a motion by Mr Helmer and a second by Mr cidel we did want to clarify a couple points and again uh in speaking to Kate uh and her suggestion uh under staff training required um we are recommending that we remove the reference to policy 8462 uh the only reason we would do that at this time is because um 8462 is identified to be reviewed but it's forthcoming it is not been adopted yet by the board so um we would suggest that um we we go forward without that reference in the policy uh as and but that was I believe

192noted uh in the hand in the in the board packet uh with it deleted so I just wanted to clarify that that had so no change to no need to change the motion I'm just referencing why we were doing that and I think Kate had good feedback as a result of why we would do that do we need that sentence at all it says this training may be held in conjunction again the only reason we had it in there is it was suggested by niola my concern is we yeah my concern is we just leave it and we don't add if our goal is to add it back then we're I just don't like the policies referencing each other if we don't have to and I don't know that we need that in there and

193actually I hadn't made that change yet again pending approval but we could just say as required period MH that's what I thought you meant yeah to just end it there and then then later we could bring back and add policy 8462 once or passed just make reference to it like we are with these previous ones that were recommended because I do believe 8462 is regarding the um suspected child abuse and neglect and that is required training for all staff annually but I guess what I'm trying to say it says this policy may be held in conjunction with staff training for why why do we care if it's held in conjunction with it or if those policies are held on their own does that make sense I'm saying get rid of that whole sentence yeah the

194whole sentence do we need the rest of that in there unless those are required trainings it's just saying that the the trainings conjunction would be held in conjunction with staff training um for that specifically okay for us we could I mean it doesn't matter to us it means the same thing okay me me too I'm just trying simplify it but yeah if we can just get rid of in policy then entirely and just put as required okay since it's presented to us with the policy listed friendly amendment to remove in policy 8462 then I support you thank you any other discussion on this Kristen you have anything Janet I don't have anything thank you for asking thanks um then if there's no other discussion let's take the vote Mr Helmer yes Mr cidal yes Miss

195Crosby yes Mr Kurt yes Miss schules yes Miss uner yes Miss wander yes motion passes then we have action on items discussed in Clos session I move to approve the employment performance compensation matters pertaining to staff as presented second I have a motion by Mr Kurth and a second by Mr Helmer any dis well no discussion that was in Clos session so um please take the vote Mr Kur yes Mr Helmer yes Miss Crosby yes Miss schules yes Mr cidel yes Miss uner yes Miss Wonder Che yes motion passes future meetings and dates board meetings are generally held the 2D and fourth Mondays beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the eisar Commons unless noted otherwise our next meeting is August 23rd um there is a 545 finance committee meeting August 30th there is a 4:00 Personnel

196committee at this time it's going to be held virtual um and then there's September 13th is um another school board meeting and another important event Date to Remember is September 27th is our District budget hearing and annual meeting 7:00 p.m. in the Eisenhower Commons uh then it's time to adjourn do I have a motion second so I have a motion by Mr Kurth and second by Mr Helmer all those in favor say I I kren hi thank you um this