Monthly Board of Ed. Meeting (7-22-24)

001like I mean the executive order president's ex executive order was 1500 pages long most of it was commentary didn't matter at all and then it was boiled down to a summary of about five pages um and then included let me see here it included ah the major provisions of the final regulations and a resource for drafting the title n in non-discrimination policies notices of non-discrimination and grievance procedures the final regulations are effective August 1st 2024 okay so and then they have given you resources so you know H what how to protect yourselves against litigation Etc it just seems to me that what what are what are they trying to do I don't understand it so they've changed the wording from there's a lot of the verbage has changed from um actual to alleged and harassment

002to non-discrimination so does any of this increase opportunities for litigation against the school just wondering but how does this improve the education of our students I I I hope you'll I hope you'll enlighten me because I do not understand this at all you have come to the right meeting because we are going to have a significant presentation on that today any other people like to address the board all right then we are going to move on and we have um informational items from our new superintendent David Bell okay I guess we'll get started that for my point in at Amanda at you yes there we go okay so uh for for the report this month I I thought it would be smart to start with the superintendent entry plan and so I've submitted that entry

003plan to the board it's linked to the presentation so anyone who wants to view that entry plan can have an opportunity to look at it the the slide deck here summarizes the key Provisions to it so the idea with transition is we're making sure uh that we're maintaining the continuity in our culture sustaining the positive moment momentum that we have in the district but we're also identifying opportunities for continuous District growth and Improvement so it's a good opportunity for us to hold ourselves accountable to the goals that we set um in any type of transition and so I I've identified four goals uh to really focus on um and then for each goal we have checkpoints throughout the year where I'll bring that information back to the board and we can have a conversation about

004uh the the action steps that we've taken towards that and any adjustments that we want to make so first goal is governance uh so as we as I enter into this role we want to make sure that we're supporting challenging meaningful engaging learning experiences uh by maintaining effective board governance and so a big uh piece of that puzzle is is making sure and ensuring we're having conversations about policy uh and and making sure that the policy decisions that we make here guide the decisions that administrators and teachers and support staff make throughout the year and so we'll talk a little bit about our goal to review the big uh policy uh guide that we have and make sure that we've got a plan effective plan for monitoring that uh a big piece is ensuring Student

005Success and we have a strong strategic plan fortunate to come in the middle of a strategic plan um and so what we'll do is uh create and have conversations about how we will monitor that strategic plan and really focusing on aligning resources promoting collaboration eliminating barriers and really advocating for student growth uh for all of our students uh another piece with the entry plan is to is to solidify our organizational alignment so leading the administrative structure looking at the administrative structure addressing system needs and supporting the attainment of district and school goals really leading that administrative te and then the last piece is community engagement um and really looking and communicating with all stakeholder groups finding ways to connect with students staff families community in a transparent open collaborative and sincere Manner and so those

006are good goals but just like anything we can have goals but but we probably have to a way to monitor those and so what I'd propose is that we'd monitor that entry uh entry plan at 30 days uh 90 days 180 days and 360 days get feedback from the board to make sure it's we're on track and if there's any modifications uh or adjustments that we want it's also a chance for for everybody to kind of follow and listen in on on on how we're doing so the first that 30-day checkin will be today it's 22 days but you know I didn't want to be late so um so 30-day check-in so when we talk about governance the first piece is to have the uh superintendent entry plan so this in and of itself is

007is part of that governance piece is to make sure that the superintendent is communicating to the board uh that transition plan the other piece that we're going to talk about is the review policy review schedule I know we've had conversations about that um started some policy discussions um but we we as an admin team have kind of looked at how can we systemically uh identify the policies that we're going to review and make sure that the community and uh you as the board know those policies and can understand the adjustments that are being made uh the next piece is Student Success we're going to talk a little bit about our strategic plan monitoring uh schedule so uh we we have a great strategic plan and I think a really strong goal this summer has been

008for our our uh our admin team and then ultimately more than just our admin team our teachers and support staff having an opportunity to to maybe look at how we're executing that strategic plan and prioritizing those goals so we we'll spend a little bit of time on that and then for organizational alignment the goal was to actually complete the admin recruitment we're excited about that and then supporting the onboarding of those new administrators and then a little bit about communication and engagement again that's that's an ongoing piece but I want to highlight a few things that we've been able to do in the first few weeks and then some future plans as well so governance uh this is a there's a link to a doc that will be our monitoring Dock and it's a it's

009a public dock there are certain elements of the dock that are um not public yet the draft revisions those become public for you all once we have a draft that we would bring to to a meeting to have discussion about um so we're working on those draft revisions and then when they become available for you as the board uh then they'll become available on this document and so the idea with this doc if we don't have to click into it is it it organizes the all of the policies on one spreadsheet and each spreadsheet has what the current policy is linked so we can we know where we sit right now when it was last revised um what the draft revision is and again that becomes live once we're at a point where we're going

010to talk about it um and then when the scheduled draft revision is so the idea is we we can become systemic and everybody can kind of follow along on on where where we are with this uh with this project and so if you're unfamiliar with policy handbooks right there there are different series there's the 100 200 all the way through the 900 series and the first two the first two series The 100 operations and 200 Administration those are those are uh policy reviews that we're prepared to bring to the board um over the next four to five months and so the goal would be to have our 100 operations series complete by the end of this calendar year and the 200 series complete by the end of January and so there we're balancing a couple

011things we're balancing the idea that we want to make sure that we're continuously looking at this um and our policies don't become outdate outdated and so that means hey let's try to get as many done as we can so we can hit our Target against making sure that we're not just sort of jamming things through so hey here's 47 policies you guys have to read all of them in in in one month period of time so we' really try to look at that and find uh uh reasonable ways to do that uh we seek support from legal and WB uh to to look at our current policies and highlight some things that we want to make sure that we address with review and so that's a really helpful aid but ultimately the board is the

012deciding factor on um policy adjustments and so um they somebody from W all of them that's correct y do we contract that or is that part of our uh it's part of our membership there's there's different layers to it and so we didn't get like the Super Deluxe Cadillac version where they write us the entire policy and other districts use something called niola we didn't do that we feel like it's important for the district to engage in those conversations so there's a a review making sure that there's compliance if there's a policy that we should add that we don't have those types of things so uh hundreds and 200s would would come essentially right to the school board meeting and we would have conversations in here about those updates and and and we would hope

013to have that done by the end of January for the 300 through 900 series that that uh policy review will start in a committee it will start in Personnel Ed programming and finance and facilities and so that will be our first opportunity to have conversation about what the what the policy updates will be um and then once that committee work is done then it will come to the board but we'll still have two readings uh at at the full board meeting so essentially that will take we'll have three opportunities to have conversation about those policies so for us committee chairs we can expect to be having policies new policy revisions on our agendas yep during that time that is correct uh if if you've had a chance to dig in especially 300 and 400 there's

014a lot of policies right so the idea that we would be able to address every single policy and give it the time that it's really due um doesn't work so we're setting a goal of per series eight to 12 policies so some have less so then there might be only the need to cover eight some have more so we would try to get to 12 so so we're setting the schedule here to for the year address in total 8 to 12 policies per Series so that by my math gets us a goal of about 60 policies in the 300 to 900 series that we would hopefully have updated by the end of this calendar of this school year now a couple things with that right so some policies for example some of our pupil non-discrimination

015policies that we'll talk about tonight those are pretty intense right they take a long time there's a lot of discussion that goes with them um and so we might on a on a night where we're covering a heavy policy only have one policy to review there would be other other times um some of the operations Administration policies have been reviewed they're they're compliant they align to our current practices so the updates will be less and we wouldn't require as much discussion way I think especially as new people come on the board and you're doing these policies is a great way to get on but part of your question was how often do we do this we have not done it as regularly in the past I think right which is why maybe there's a few

016more to do right now but well this put us on a regular cycle now to always be reviewing it right so go ahead excuse me I think it's a bit more accurate to say that we've been um reviewing things as the need has arisen but every so often it's a really good idea to stop and take stock of everything and that's what we're doing now it's not that we haven't been reviewing them there hasn't been a calendar with a series like this right so that's our governance goal and so what I wanted to put out um in the first 30 days is the plan right that's the easy part right the plan is the easy part the execution will be a little bit trickier um and so we will monitor we'll do a check-in at

017different points to to to kind of demonstrate how far we are but this policy discussion will become a part of what we're talking about and just we are policy-driven board most boards are but not all boards really but if you're going to have policies they need to be updated but they also need to be reviewed by legal counsel which is why we're doing this because it protects the district protects kids and makes sure that we're actually saying what it is we wanted to say so part of what legal council is is just not protect the district that's not the only reason we bring them in is does this say what you want it to say and is it effective so um that's the reason reason we would bring in legal councel okay so uh the

018next goal is Student Success and and kind of the one part that I wanted to touch on is the the concept of strategic plan monitoring and if you leave with four big things from this section it's that we've got a lot to celebrate in the district and a lot of that work starts with for the board with Mission Vision and strategic planning and one thing that we're really attempting to do this year is close that execution Gap right so there's a lot of things within the Strategic plan and we want to move from um having the idea of what the Strategic plan is into executing that and with that comes prioritization and so if we're prioritizing we're really looking at uh lots of different data points and stakeholder feedback to guide us to what's the

019most important thing and how we would prioritize our time and resources so the Strategic plan is great but if we're going to move forward we have to kind of have a systemic way that we're going to address that and communicate um what what are our most important goals so lots to celebrate uh pulled pulled this off of uh the the website to identify all of the different activ activities our students have to grow socially emotionally academically um it's it's really a fantastic place to be if you have an opportunity to be in the school schools on a day-to-day basis you see the relationships that are created those are all wonderful things there's a ton to celebrate and one thing is we owe it to all of the uh students and parents and our teachers to

020to be focused on continuously improving so we don't just rest on what we celebrate now but we continue to grow and so when we say well where do we want to grow that's our strategic plan that's our mission and vision uh and that's our values and so this is a document that you've seen quite a bit and it's still rooted in the in the planning that's taking place with our administrative team this summer and then when they go out and they have their planning sessions with their support staff and teachers they're they're using that same model so you've seen these goals high expectations for student learning five sub goals a safe welcoming environment six sub goals attracting and retaining high quality teachers and staff six more sub goals and then life Readiness four sub goals

021upholding operational excellence five sub goals so that's great right I I feel like over five years it's legitimate to to say we can address 34 five goals and 34 sub goals I think that's a legitimate thing however it can be overwhelming uh if if you don't have a discipline way that you look at and prioritize those goals and so one thing that we're engaging in right now is trying to make it less overwhelming and have a discipline planning process within our district and when we say within the district we mean at the district level in our departments like academic Services human resources and finance and facilities and then at the school level as well so hopefully we can adopt kind of a common way that we are addressing and setting goals within our district and

022so we won't spend too much time on this uh we we have at our board retreat had some of these same themes but the idea uh the ideas that we have are based on the work of Sean cvy and and those four disciplines are uh starting with focusing on what is most important and and the concept that if you have too many priorities you really don't have any priorities and being very specific and measurable with what your targets are the second discipline is really acting on your lead measures um looking at things within your circle of influence that can impact your goal areas and if we are focusing on things that are outside of our sphere of influence um that's really just frustrating and and not productive the next discipline is making sure we're keeping

023a compelling score scoreboard that we share widely and we we share it widely not not about blaming and shaming not about getting up and and having conversations about what kids can't do but sharing widely and and putting on top of the table where where we are at as a district and where we want to go uh and the the last discipline is Crea an accountant of accountability that starts here at the board level it starts in administrative team meetings it starts with school and department meetings and and it continues into the classroom and and so when we talk about a Cadence of accountability what we're just saying is regular repeated and predictable the board can expect we're going to provide updates on the Strategic plan they're going to understand the the data that we're using

024they're going to understand the steps that we're taking the lead measures that we're taking so there's conversations that are taking place place at the board level and then the board can also trust that those same conversations are H happening at the admin level and and other departments within the district so really quickly what do we mean by too many priorities means no priorities I've already touched on that so okay great you know Dave do you just pick the most priority areas no uh we have a discipline process where we're looking at data we're looking at stakeholder Fe feedback uh we did stakeholder survey in the spring we looked a lot of that data when we say stakeholder we had uh uh parent feedback uh student feedback and then employee feedback as well there's a lot

025of academic attendance uh benchmarks that we can use um and and really the process here is what's most worth closing what Gap is most worth closing what what's most critical to our access and what's most aligned to the Strategic plan so those are the areas that we're really looking at and so so far we're not done yet I don't have I don't have our most important goals right now but what I can tell you is the data and feedback are zeroing in on three big areas and this isn't going to be like oh my gosh fall off your chair there's a new thing here it's academic growth right we learn in this uh School District it's student engagement we make connections and it's employee satisfaction it's a great place to work and so if we're

026focusing our school and Department goals on very specific targeted goals within those areas um and we're focusing on what's in our circle of influence we feel like we can better execute our strategic plan and so when we talk about being specific like people talk about smart goals and we want to even be smarter than that we want to be very clear we're this is our current situation this is where we're at and this is where we want to be by 2027 because that is where uh that's when our strategic plan will be renewed and so we're going to set we're going to set big goals here too and so we believe in our we believe in the growth we believe in our students we believe in our our employees um and so by setting those

027big goals we understand we might we might we might not get all the way there by 2027 but we is there's value in really pushing the envelope there so I talked a little bit about add um acting on lead measures and just is this concept here of you know we dig into at the board level a lot of lag data um and that's data that uh like school report cards forward data act data and I'll I'll say that's super important data right uh we value that we look at it very closely um but if you look only at that in isolation without identifying lead measures commitments that we can do to influence that change it's just really it's really frustrating and it's ineffective if we plop act data in front of teachers and we say

028this isn't good enough and we don't we don't take the next Conversation Piece to say what can we do within our control what can we can we influence to impact that change um we're really missing a big piece and so some of the language that we're focusing on right now is is that is how do we create an environment where we're we're committing to lead measures that will impact our our areas that maybe we would say is leg data and so um this is I think there's probably some people in this room that are sick of seeing this graphic because we've talked about it a lot um but but the point of the matter is um if you want to impact a leg measure um then you you want to do things as a school

029district that are in that lever point in that lead measure point and so you should be picking things that are predictive of making change to the leg measure and that you can influence right if one of those things is missing that that becomes problematic for actually influencing change so if you say well we should do X Y and Z and x y and z are out of our influence of control well then that's not really going to be an effective thing or we should do you know a b and c but that's not really predictive of change then that's problematic as well so quick specific example that we've talked about just to kind of continue conversations from last year is when we talk about academic growth for students we should be really laser focused on

030these three areas we should be laser focused on ensuring a guaranteed and viable curriculum for all of our students uh that we should be ensuring that our teachers are collaborating around that curriculum authentically having um good meaningful conversations and we should be implementing highquality research-based proven uh strategies that are effective and if if we focus our efforts on those things then lag measures like academic growth should come for all students we should keep a compelling scorecard and so why do we do that um we do that to understand where we're going how we know if we've we've actually got somewhere if we're making progress um how do we examine our programs and systems to ensure U that they're effective and it creates that mindset of continuous Improvement it's not about blame or shame we're not

031going to get up here and com you know compare um Elementary School a to elementary school B uh and we're not going to have personally identifiable information even down to the school what we're really looking at is that growth and and and having a conversation about where we're at so one thing you will see I'm not going to go through this in great detail but uh the team has been working together on a scorecard for the for the district level and so what we talk about here um will be a combination of what are our most wildly important goals at the department level and school level those are kind of on more in that lead measure side of things and we'll also talk about leg measures as well so we're holding ourselves accountable so we're

032looking at both the lead measures the commitments and then the result of those um so you will see a final scorecard for the district to for the board to review approve in September and we're doing it September it actually be near the end of September and the reason we're doing it near the end of September is that gives it a chance for it to not be the administrative team scorecard it's going to be um all of the people who will have an impact on the data points on there having having a say on it and so then the last piece is accountability and so we talk about accountability at at all levels for the school board we'll bring to you in September a final monitoring calendar and that will give you some information on where

033the different scorecard elements will be presented to you and shared with you so there's different elements uh within that scorecard of which on a regular basis the the part of what we talk about here will be reporting back on how things are going so whether that's an elementary school talking about their wildly important goal or uh the the Personnel committee talking about our staff retention rate uh or financing facilities talking about a budget forecast or facilities planning all those things will be part of our scorecard and and and you will know when those things will be taking place so that's that's that's a lot of the work that are that we've been focusing on um and it's really zeroed on that Student Success piece are there questions on that all that in 22 days Dave

034good job yeah don't don't judge me if the next one's not quite as long um uh so then the next piece then just to give the final update organizational alignment we have Rachel Mater hired as our new side principal uh she's not here today but Mary Beth Elliot and Amy wise are here they're are co-directors of academic Services we're very excited to have them on on board I think everybody in this room even our visitors know Mary Beth and Amy and and we talked a little bit about them um last last time as well we'll do a we'll do a full like in our next HR update as well as uh newsletters at Westside we'll do a full update on on um introducing them um both of them have some familiarity with with Riv fall

035School District so we're really excited about that transition and then the last piece communication and engagement this is Amanda's favorite slide because her pictures on it uh we we've been doing some things to update you'd be surprised how many things you have to update just to to get names uh correct and and all those things so we're working on that especially with DPI right Amanda that's a lot of fun um but we've also had some initial Community conversations and connections with forward foundations WF and other community organizations uh and a big piece of this engagement planning is working with aims to have some guiding principles for all stakeholders on Communications and coming up with ideas to connect um and and new ideas and hanging on to the the great work that's already happening okay that

036is all for my update thank you very much any questions or comments from the board B okay so uh B is a notice uh around preliminary agendas and newspapers and so what we've run our what we run into is we want to stay committed to publishing our agendas in the local newspapers um but their deadlines are are pretty far 15 days 15 days um before the actual meeting and so what can happen sometimes is um we maybe need to make some agenda adjustments and we wanted to make sure that somebody who read the paper knew that that might happen and so we what we're recommending is this language would be in every published uh agenda that we put into both of of the newspapers it would just say the preliminary agenda is prepared early in

037order to meet publication uh timelines for area newspapers changes to the agenda may occur if so those changes uh will appear within 24 hours and it gives the location on our web page where you can do that we also update the postings because that's the difference between posting and Publishing so we feel like that stays that commitment of of really meeting our uh commitment to publishing this information but also making sure that publish information is as accurate as possible Dave what's the likelihood that we're going to make changes I mean a likelihood in 15 days out it's pretty good there's going to be some changes right's nodding yeah there are changes that can then occur that can occur and sometimes they're very small but sometimes there aren't any but well I'm just wondering if if

038if changes to the agenda may occur well may may likely occur um that would prompt someone to say why don't you just assume that there's some changes in there I don't I don't think regular enough basis that we do changes I would say maybe one every couple months you have to add something or take something off but I don't think it's these are both committee meetings hand y yep because committee meetings are often coming together the week before right oh that's why I'm wondering the law wants to ensure that the public has proper notice yeah and and so the publishing is is something that by policy we we want we're committed to do but but really the posting is is the key thing yep and so but the other piece is to your point we

039just want people to know yeah what's being talked about I would say I would say when there's like a full like agenda item that isn't on there and then is added that's rare that that's not a an everyday thing we kind of have an idea what the agenda will be um but sometimes enough where we want to make sure that people have noticed that it could happen we have it there okay so this is not an action item this is really simply notifying the board that this is the intent of the of administration anything else on that all right then we're going to move on to action items and at this point we have um the meeting minutes from the June 24th regular Board of Education meeting we have bills that have been submitted for

040payment we also have employment recommendations so is there a motion to approve minutes bills and employment as presented thank you Lindsay thank you alen questions or comments all those in favor I opposed the motion is carried thank you we will move on to a report um and recommendations from the educational program committee and Allen um we had a good meeting and a lot of good really good conversation um both Mary Beth and Amy were there um welcome them um Nate still led the academic Service as part of it for the board because he's had the history of dealing with this and he'll help us with this tonight um as well I think what we'll do is we will take items um item one we'll talk about academic standards and um present that for approval and

041then if it's okay with you we'll take items two through seven which we've had pretty good conversation about take those as one motion yes if that works so um the first is academic standards public notice um we talked about that that's an annual thing it's basically telling everyone putting it out there here are the standards we adhere to we adhere to the Wisconsin State Standards in that Nate can you want to give us a yeah th that's a u a really good summary each year in the month of July all school districts have to adopt the standards that they're going to use to guide how teachers will develop their instruction and what the aims are for for the students at all of the grade levels in this in the school so our standards are for

042the most part entirely the Wisconsin State Standards but we do have a couple national standards uh woven into that because it allows for um sometimes greater breadth and depth of those standards okay I'll move that we um approve the academic standards as presented and what we talked about at our committee meeting is there a second thank you Alison any discussion thanks Nate for your work on that and keeping us in compliance all those in favor I HST the motion is carried um then um items two through seven and I'll also move their adoption these are handback book updates just like we're doing policy reviews um and updating our policies each year we do a review of handbooks a year ago we did a really thorough review but there's always changes that need to happen as

043well as the athletic AC um activities handbook um and this year the the ren is in there um and all of that so that's in there um think Nate we had some suggestions for some minor revisions and those have been included in what we have is that correct yes yep so um anyway I moved so you've made that motion is there a second thank you Lindsay questions or comments a lot of work went into this really appreciate the work that was done on this and the presentations we had in committee very good so please extend our appreciation to the the principles and the people who worked on it all those in favor I I post the motion is carried thank you uh Mike is not able to be with us this evening because he's not

044feeling 100% And so um in his absence Lynette is going to give us the update from the finance and Facilities committee and then she'll also outline the recommended actions thank you Stacy um Finance meeting uh initially we went over a an internal controls presentation and talked about the internal controls we have in the finance department um couple of the key I I think things I wanted to emphasize through that was that yes we have an audit which is part of our internal controls but that isn't when people think of that audit it's often um I think people think of an audit as something that's meant to catch any fraud or misappropriations or anything and that's really not the main goal of our audit um is the main goal is to make sure that we are

045coding all of our revenues and expenditures in accordance with um accounting practices uh standard accounting practices and also with the Wisconsin uniform um accounting as well so uh it's called woofer is the acronym for that um so that's the main some of the main goals of our audit um but we have a lot of internal controls if you're interested that presentation is available and you can review those uh we also went over the uh um 2023-24 budget update and that was through May um so we're always like a month behind um but we did talk about kind of how we were going to be finishing the year or at least where I was seeing things um finishing out at the end of June um and then we talked about the other uh items um up

046for recommendation the fiscal year-end fund balance designations and the fund 46 transfer um do you want me to go over those now or when we get to those approval items um uh well are there any questions or comments about the summary I think we were all there so we had design and planning team for the referendum projects we went over kind of where things are at with that and they're moving along really nicely so why don't you give us the background please about number one yeah so uh you did have some um some updated if you remember at the finance meeting I said we're still there's still things happening and there there still are things happening in our books as we close out the year um so uh you do have an updated uh fund

047balance designation and percentages document again I I always put the caveat there that it's still an estimate um it or I put the caveat that it's unaudited so as as we move through our audit there may still be some adjustments made um we talked about what the restricted this the restricted doesn't require board action but I like to keep on this list as well that restricted of the 46,000 includes our common School funds that we carry over every year and then the get kids ahead grant that uh districts all got for two years um we do have a deadline to spend all of that by September December thank you by the end of the calendar year so we're still carrying those funds forward and we have a plan to spend those out it was part

048of mental health yes so somewhat related but also um it was focused on Mental Health Services um so those are the remaining funds for both of those um then we have the assigned which is the required uh requires board approval for a either committed or assigned fund balance um and what we have here uh a little bit of an update from last week um we are asking for approval for 470,000 48877 for um our school bus and classroom furniture that were budgeted in 23 24 and as we discussed even though we ordered the bus back in September I believe we not expecting it until December of this year so well over a year later so we need to carry those forward as assigned and then also some of our classroom Furniture we've been working with

049um all of our buildings to well besides the montau because they are very well updated um to update some of the classroom Furniture in our buildings so those many of those purchases were done near the end of the year uh end of the fiscal year and because they haven't come on site yet um we need to move those funds forward to pay out um in this new fiscal year so um what that brings us to is an unassigned fund balance um you know I would say this is within our policy which is 25 to 30% again still estimates as we finish these out um and you'll see those final numbers um once the audit is finished so asking for approval of those fund balance designations thank you Ellison is there a second thank you Lindsay

050questions or comments all those in favor I I opposed the motion is carried and now could you explain to us please about the fund 46 transfer all right so the other document you have is uh really a fund balance history at year end also includes what we just reviewed for designations and then also ads dramatic yeah um also adds uh a couple other line items which shows our transfers to fund 46 over the the history of that fund um and um just to clarify fund 4 six is also called our Capital um now I'm blanking sinking F Capital Improvement fund I think is how it's designated so once funds are moved over to fund 46 um they can be spent only on what is part of your 10-year Capital plan and we approved that last

051month we have our 10-year Capital plan again it's a working living document we can add to it we can change it um but once you when you're ready ready to spend the funds out of 46 it must match up with what you have approved by the board in that Capital plan um they cannot be the funds can't be moved back so once they are moved to fund 46 they can't be moved back and used for operating um expenses so you can see the history uh there starting in 1718 and just in 2324 we had a balance of about $650,000 which was spent down so now this transfer that we're asking for approval for for $1,505 will actually replenish that um so that will essentially be our our new balance in fund 46 um contributions to

052fund 73 and I I add all of this um on here just so you can see in total um I think they all play into each other as far as our total fund balance because those contributions to fund 73 also come from the general fund and so that's kind of what I was talking about last week that although we were talking last week about a $600,000 transfer I said it's going to kind of depend on where we end up um with those fund 73 contributions and one of the things we did a little bit differently this year is um rather than making a large transfer or wire from fund 10 when when we're contributing to fund 73 for active employees and then they resign they forfeit the funds that are in that account and that

053forfeiture balance has just been building and building so instead we used that balance um which has not been um part of our cash balance it's been with the uh with mid- America um so we we essentially said move those funds from our forfeiture account to help with the contribution to fund 73 so um we didn't make as large of a trans er um from our general fund for that and this is this so so that helped that contributed to um sort of where we are in total fund balance and then the 624 that you see here um for a contribution to fund 73 is um the required actuarially determined contribution so we have an Actuarial report done every year and they make a recommendation to keep your fund 73 um properly funded and at the

054end of last fiscal year we were slightly overfunded there so there's there's really no reason at this point to make any additional contributions so that is right in line with the ADC just for people who don't listen to this every day watching audence can you just repeat what6 yeah so fund 46 is our Capital Improvement fund when the funds are transferred from fund 10 to fund 46 they have to stay there and be used from there they can't be transferred back they have to be used for a yes they are also con um counted in your uh shared cost or expenses for that fiscal year which is then used to calculate your state aid for next year there there is um again we've talked about how we're aided and we we actually lose Aid um

055at that that higher level so we we still need to at least be aware there's not much we can do about it but we need to be aware of our expenses and that if we're going to if we're going to make a large expenditure that that could actually reduce our Aid a little bit um and then fund 73 is OPB or other post employment benefits is what that stands for so those are essentially our retirement um account so our retirement benefits so um the recommendation uh tonight we're asking for approval for the transfer to fund 46 um in the amount of $1 1,50,000 is there a motion for that please Allison thank you is there a second second okay questions or comments I I I would just add on to Allison's comment because looking at

056this this can get really confusing and it' be real easy for someone to misconstrue this if anybody watching this or has questions of us about this I would suggest that they contact Lynette directly to clarify this because it may not sound logical but it's the way we have to do it in the state so um we want to be very transparent and and remind everybody that Lynette's available to help explain this to anyone who has questions so any further discussion all those in favor I I opposed the motion is carried it thank you again um Lynette for the internal controls presentation I think it was really helpful and it's confidence inspiring for us and for the community to understand the careful systems that you and your staff have in place to ensure fiscal Integrity so

057thank you yeah and I I think we one of the other things we hit on was the board's responsibility in that as well so um that's that's really important to keep asking the questions and I was just going to say that and you gave us permission to ask you any of those questions that we have so um all right then the Personnel committee met the same day it was a marathon and during that meeting we received a certified Staffing update um from David Bell we also approved recommendations for the employment handbook there were some revisions for the 2024 year we also then approved um the safety and crisis response program assistant these are some job descriptions some of them were they were for the most part really very minor and I will outline those when

058we get to the to the recommended action um um as well as what let's see the student services and the finance and Facilities program assistant and then we talked about the speed and strength program assistant job description which is a bit which is different so we'll get to that um once we make the Motions so is there a motion to approve the 20242 employment employee handbook revisions thank you Lindsay a second second thank you questions or comments all those in favor I opposed the motion is carried and maybe Dave you would like to add into this but I'm going to take um numbers two and three together they are not new positions um there's no increase in Staffing for these uh positions it's simply a job title change um so really very minor do you

059want to add anything else okay so at this point is there a motion to approve the safety and crisis response program assistant job description as well as the academic Services student services and finance and Facilities program assistant job descriptions thank you Allison is there a second thank you Bo questions or comments all those in favor I opposed the motion is carried and the final recommend action is the speed and strength program assistant job description um this is a new position but it replaces purchase services that we that we they're services that we use to purchase and so it's really a shift so at this point I will make the motion to approve the speed and strength program job description is there a second thank you Alan do you want to add anything Dave just that

060uh with that last purchase service piece we made an intentional decision to take a step back from requiring students to pay for ETS Services during the summer and during the school year and we've seen an increase in participation over the summer um which will help our overall summer school numbers which will increase some state aid um but really the that decision was made to increase access to our speed and strength programs for students who are who are maybe considering particip in a sport or um maybe they aren't even in a sport but just want to to to do that now that now there isn't the barrier of the cost that's associated with it so just wanted to make sure that we we're moving away from ETS but because of that there is there is some

061shifting in priorities it's a good thing and we've heard positive response from families anything else all those in favor I opposed the motion is carried and for E I will turn over to you Dave to to explain this please so last year we suspended our K8 virtual echool um and that was a decision that was made based on enrollment and and overall funding concerns uh where we are now is that was a suspension and we're we've made the decision when we look at our goals and and where we're headed is to make that K8 virtual echool uh a permanent decision to officially close that virtual school program so uh no change in opportunities uh between the 23 24 school year and Beyond because we've already we had already made that decision um so our K8

062virtual program we're we're ending that virtual program and what that would mean then is if if the board accepts it if we decided we did want to do a ka8 program we'd have to go through the pro the process of of re uh restarting that as a charter school we're comfortable with that because if we make that decision we would want to do that anyways so is there a motion to approve the ad administrative recommendation to officially close the K8 virtual school program thank you Lindsay is there a second thanks Ellison it was important for a time in our District's life but that's run its course all those in favor I post the motion is carried and now we are going to turn to a presentation about the updates to Title 9 Dave and Mark

063are going to do this and I'm just going to tell the board or ask you please please um they have a very specific presentation they are going to stop every so often for questions and so let's not interrupt let's just wait until we get to the point where they have questions it's they I've gone through it now I've gone through it once and it's very a well done presentation but your question might be answered in the next statement so okay so couple couple broad things why are we doing this well we're doing this in response to um the approval of the 2024 Title 9 amendments and so we've got a plan of attack to ex to provide some background information so the board understands uh the ins and outs of Title 9 and the the

064hous and wise of of why we're focused on updating this policy we have some uh sections that we will talk about how that will not be impacted um by these new amendments and other other sections that that may be impacted by the by the amendments our legal council has reviewed it um and we feel confident that this is we're in a place to have a first reading and just like any other policy we will engage in conversation we'll sit with it and then we'll come back for a second reading before it becomes fully approved and we feel very comfortable even with where the regulations are at with that process and the legal council agrees with us David I wonder in response to um questions about why are we talking about this anyway and what what

065was wrong with the old policy we can go through that you'll go through that at the 20,000 level yeah we might even we might down a little bit we'll get a little closer yeah so yeah so the the first piece the starting the broad piece is that we have policies that prohibit discrimination to zero the board in a couple of those policies are 411 and 511 which address equal opportunities both in employment and and for our students I put a link there to our 411 policy um and and that is kind of all forms of discrimination including sex discrimination and so one thing we're addressing today is that we're we're not recommending adjustments to either of those policies tonight we may come back after we've updated the Title Nine non-discrimination policies and do some cleanup

066to make sure that the language is aligned in these policies but we really don't see any need to update the policies as they are written right now based on Title 9 the district can choose to engage in policy updates anytime it wants but based on the title 9 amendments we don't see a reason to have to change 411 or 511 okay so we did discrimination is prohibited so unfortunately there are times when we get a report complaint or other notice of discrimination within the district and so we have specific complaint procedures that take us through the process of addressing that concern kind of guiding the process that goes through when that happens and so the first thing is if the complaint is not related to sex discrimination that's really not a title one issue um

067doesn't mean it's not important it just means that we have a different set of complaint procedures that we go through and those complaint procedures are outlined in policy 411 rule one student discrimination complaint procedures that is the step-by-step process that uh guides the district to resolving the complaint uh we're not making any recommended adjustments to that policy at this time again we might have to do some cleanup for alignment sakes but sake but we see that policy as being aligned to uh the rules and requirements that we need to to investigate complaints of discrimination it doesn't mean it's an absolutely airtight perfect situa uh perfect policy but we feel like it it it allows the district to engage in a process to meet a resolution of the complaint and it allows the person making the

068complaint to have multiple opportunities to engage in that process so what if the complaint is related to sex discrimination including sexual harassment so the broad sex discrimination and then the maybe a little more specific sexual harassment so what happens then is our Title 9 coordinator is responsible for determining if the complaint should be investigated through Title 9 specific complaint procedures or if there's other applicable District procedures that go with it and so the the 41111 one of the policies that we'll look at today guides the title 9 coordinator with in making that determination so there's specific definitions specific uh um ways to interpret to understand if the the complaint should be investigated as a a sex non-discrimination a sex non-discrimination situation in which Title 9 applies if the answer to that is yes if the

069title 9 coordinator uses that policy and says this complaint this notice this concern does fit under these definitions then he uh the process that we will use to investigate that complaint procedure is the title 9411 11 rule non-discrimination complaint procedures and the regs update some of the elements of how we're supposed to go through that process if if the title n coordinator looks at the complaint and concern and says this is this doesn't meet the standard for a non a Title Nine discrimination complaint it doesn't mean we just say oh no biggie good luck and move on uh we we have other District procedures that guide the process to resolving that complaint code of conduct other policies that are in play so I think the first piece to say from taking a step back is

070the district is compelled to have policies that prohibit discrimination um what we're really talking about today is one form of that discrimination which is sex discrimination and the complaint procedure process we will use if the complaint falls under Title 9 I have to use this thing all right Mark all right so just to give you a little bit of background and I don't have like the exact reason why um the government decided to do some of these updates but I have some good re some good reasons so Title 9 as you know started way back in 1972 all about prohibiting sex discrimination in any sort of program that received Federal funding since then it's been updated a number of times 2020 was kind of the last major revision up until this past April or not

071past April this April um in 2020 that was probably a very well like large large update that it gave us a whole bunch of policies and procedures on how we needed to kind of go through the Bri grievance process but in doing that they were you know very prescriptive in some things and there wasn't some definitions so when you look at the new amendments some of the things that were were kind of beneficial is they've added a little bit of flexibility in particular for some of our smaller districts where there's certain rules that or roles that are required where a small District might not have enough people to fulfill all those rules so it allows some flexibility in people covering multiple rules you'll see that it provides a lot of definitions as well so in

072the pr past Amendment or the past changes there was a lot of things mentioned but they really didn't Define them so there's a lot of nice definitions kind of uh kind of adding to the equation as far as what that looks like um so again late April this April was kind of when the final definitions were or final amendment was published um that might seem like that's a little bit of time between now and then but it really isn't um WB and a lot of the organizations have really been working on trying to identify exactly what this means um Jackie mentioned there's a couple of you know guidance documents that they put out that we've been referencing Dave Nate and I have been meeting we've we've consulted with h with a legal council on trying

073to get this you know as right as possible based on the information that we know um so I think as Dave mentioned I think we think we're in a pretty darn good place as far as kind of what our policy looks like um it might come back that there might be a few little tweaks we need to make um and if that's the case we will come back to you with with some of those adjustments um so really it's all about um taking us and kind of looking at the 24 2024 amendments putting those into practice um and and then getting those um on our uh policy uh updates um again any District who accepts Federal funding is required um to adopt these these policies um Dave will talk in a little bit about the

074one small little exception based on some some legal stuff that's going on he'll talk about that in a second but uh we are not part of that so that does not apply to us yeah I just so we say well do um what kind of federal funding does the district receive well the largest levels of Aid come from our state aid on our local tax levy the federal funding is is in third place but I would say it's a distant third place somewhere between five and 8% of our funding each year is is based uh is federal funding and I think the two biggest rocks of that are are uh special eded idea funding which supports our special education program as well as uh Title One funding which supports some early intervening Services uh in

075literacy and math for our students so um if the district were to not comply with Title 9 UM and the regulations associated with it there would be some risk for for uh accessibility to those those federal funds now I W what I will say is that in the immediate I mean that's not going to be something that you know if if we choose if to take one extra month or or whatever um we're not going to immediately lose that Federal funding but U this the federal government will not be okay with us not aligning our processes and practices to Title 9 okay so a couple of related items um on July 2nd 2024 the Department of Education was enjoined in by federal government orders from enforcing the 2024 regulation in the states that are listed

076there it has to do with um some lawsuits associated with the with the new regulations I'll get into some specifics of what those lawsuits are but essentially if we were in one of those States uh we may not be coming to you at this point for updates we may be waiting to see if that takes place we had a convers uh what takes place from that um uh situation um so um the district legal council that we had a conversation with recommended moving forward with the adoption of of these policies because that injunction doesn't enjoin riverfall School District so it is his recommendation that we move forward with these updates and as you will see well there's a lot of language to these updates there isn't some some huge fundamental changes as well so what

077what's the injunction about well it's primarily about the expanded definition of sex in Title 9 and so the definition of sex entitle n n includes sex discrimination based on sex stere stereotypes sex characteristics pregnancy or related and so that expanded definition of sex is now um all covered under Title 9 so anyone who fits into those categories could potentially make a discrimination claim so in Wisconsin that definition that more broad definition and the obligations to not discriminate against people based on those discriminations already exists in Wisconsin case law because of Whitaker versus kosha Unified School District this is a case in which a transgender student made a a title n sex discrimination claim and was successful in that claim and so that and our own policy 411 u mean that we already have that more

078expanded definition of sex are there any questions on that um just so I'm following this we're updating this because we're required to have a policy in place so we have to have it it needs to be updated we're updating it and we're doing it in conjunction with legal counsel to make sure it's legal so why do we even have one we're required to have one yeah and and and ultimately we're required to have a process in which we would identify what is sex discrimination and then a process if we have notice of sex discrimination what are we going to do to investigate it that's that's the piece so we've always had something like that and now starting in 2020 and now in 2024 they've gotten more specific and and sort of prescribed in what that

079looks like okay and our legal council is brought in here to make sure that we're doing exactly what current case law is and that's a little bit up in the air I think we talked about this at an earlier board meeting too is is based on what the what's happening in those other states and the court case in Wisconsin could always change with another court case well but this yeah so the I I think the point you're bringing up Allan is this idea of um a subsequent court case that might um change the scope or definition of Title 9 and if that were in if that were in Wisconsin then the district would have to respond and make a make a decision on if it were going to update its policy and our practice normally

080is to stay in line with case law but we can't go do our own thing if it's in conflict with correct Wisconsin or federal state law y sure and some of the weren't some of the decisions or some of the changes this year were made to reverse changes that were made in 2020 there were certain changes put in place we'll get to that I I I don't think it's in direct reversal I think it's more well we'll get to it okay how's that um so Title Nine uh another related item that that can come up is just this idea of do these regulations govern the eligibility for gender specific athletic teams and the answer is no there's some viewpoint that the department might come back with a separate rule but the the what we're talking

081about here is doesn't pertain to that in any way our policy is that all students will be able to participate in school sponsored Athletics in accordance with wa policy procedures and guidelines so there's some specific very prescribed guidelines related to transgender participation um and specifically when we're talking about a a a male to female transition there's some very specific rules associated with that okay so now for this part Mark and I thought it would be a good idea if you had your policy in front of you because we're going to talk about uh the notable changes and then reference where they are in the policy so we'll kind of say page one and all of that so we uh have the the blue policy is the 41111 title 9 sex non-discrimination so I'll just I'll

082just address the first piece which is the name of the policy so the name of the policy um before was specific to uh sexual harassment and now it's it's expanded to all forms of sex uh discrimination or sex non-discrimination and so now this is uh we're we're we are exp uh potentially expanding how we would use these complaint procedures um we wouldn't use just the complaint procedures and if it were uh a claim of harassment we could also use these complaint procedures if it was a claim of discrimination we had a um an an employee of the district who was by by sex um discriminating against one gender over the other um we could use the complaint procedures for that okay yeah so as Dave said I'm going to just talk through some notable changes

083um you'll have your policy in front of you and we'll kind of reference that as we go I won't go line by line or word by word or we be here until about 1:00 um you will notice that there is a lot of yellow as well maybe not yellow on your non-colored copy but uh there's a lot of highlighting and there's a lot of um strikethroughs and it might look a little overwhelming as you're looking at it but as Dave mentioned before there is not a lot of substantive changes to like the nuts and bolts of what we do we will talk through a few things that are kind of expansions and we will talk through a few other things um but when we get to like griev procedures and those kind of things a

084lot of this stuff we were already doing so as Dave said probably one of the the bigger things and when I say bigger it might be bigger for some districts who hadn't already kind of used their 411 policy to kind of talk about kind of the the definition of sex but in Title Nine um the scope of sex discrimination is expanded to talk a little bit about those things Dave mentioned earlier sex stereotypes sex characteristics pregnancy and related conditions sexual orientation and gender identity again that is already in policy 41111 the main one so this is just matching our policy with our the other policy that we currently have which again is based on Wisconsin's seventh C seventh circuit lack uh I forget the Whitaker versus Kenosha um so again adding this language to our

085policy to make it consistent across the board so again I don't see this as being a major change to kind of the the nuts and bolts of what we do the next one and this is on pages one and two of policy 4 1111 the blue the blue yep the blue and this is really some expansion and some definitions around what Title 9 sexual harassment includes um before we had a lot of this same language but we didn't have the definition so we are lucky enough to kind of you know have those definitions now in place because again some certain things might mean one thing to one person and maybe a little bit of a different thing to another person so things that are considered title n sexual harassment quid proquo harassment um the Hostile

086environments and then what's called specific offenses which are the the definitions around sexual assault Dating Violence domestic violence and stalking so again in policy in pages one and two of your aqua colored document there um you can see a lot of those definitions um I'll now pause to see you know if as you kind of look those over if there are any questions about any of those definitions okay secondly and and this is probably one of the larger changes into into what we see in in some of this new um these new amendments um there is has been an expansion around what kind of qualifies or what is condu uh considered on that hostile environment um if you look down at the bottom under 2020 you can see what we what the old kind of

087definition was so that was sex-based conduct that was severe pervasive and objectively offensive that effectively denies a person's equal access to our educational programming a lot of very kind of clear guidelines there in 2024 you can see that there's a lot of ores kind of added some additional qualifiers added um and so essentially the language there is unwelcome sex sex-based conduct that is subjectively and objectively offensive and is so severe or pervasive that it limits or denies a person's ability to participate in or benefit from our educational programs or activities so you can see just by reading that there is an expansion of what might qualify under Title 9 as far as that hostile environment so essentially when we look at this the the real you know outcome of this is there might be more

088things that qualify under this category than did before now again the difference is is that again we were still addressing these things we were just addressing them through a different avenue now these things will have to be addressed under Title 9 so that is one of the notable changes is that expansion and kind of what that hostile environment entails so any questions on that um so one of the questions I had and you touched on it was the idea of subjectively being added and then adding um you mentioned that those types of things were coming up and they were being addressed but not necessarily labeled as Ty I'm curious if you anticipate the outcome or the con potential consequences of resolving those types of issues will be different now that they will have the label

089of being a title n yeah sense that does make sense I don't necessarily anticipate that the the consequences at the end of the the road would be markedly different just because we went down the title n route didn't mean that the consequences were more severe than say we went down like the building code of conduct routes or the general harassment policy it's all really kind of spec based on the specific situation um so I I wouldn't say that just because it's Title Nine means that it's a more arduous um Consequence the process will be different and yes that is correct thank you absolutely any other questions on that okay so the next section really is all about definitions um and so again um before we didn't have necessarily all the the definitions included here they

090gave us some very specific um definitions of those areas probably you know a lot of those are pretty self explanatory the one I just wanted to touch on briefly was supportive measures um supportive measures are something that the district puts into place anytime there is a title 9 matter um and we're essentially looking to make sure that both the res uh complaintants and the respondents um have the the supports in place um to help them continue to access our programming as we're working through this um this investigation um so that's just a little bit about supportive measures um but again you can kind of look at your document and look at some of those definitions page five yes thank you Stacy Mike's mic yeah just a point of clarification because the first time I read

091this I missed this and I caught it the second time um I'm on page four under education program or activity uh the first time I read it I wondered if when it says including activities that occur on school grounds or other property owned or occupied by the district I wondered about other youth groups or organizations in our community using our buildings we would not be responsible for claims it's only School sponsored activities events programming on our campuses on our property or events that happen off of school grounds but are still sponsored by the district anything where we exert institutional control all right we can move on to the next section um the next section and this is an ad um so they added a a rather large section around pregnancy or related conditions um as

092far as kind of how that that ties into title line as well this is another area though even though they added it um our students services staff and our health staff and our teachers have done a really nice job of of providing for um uh students who may uh be pregnant uh but this just kind of um you know formalizes a little bit of additional responsibility around kind of formal notification um for students to make sure that they are aware of their rights related to non sexual non-discrimination when it comes to pregnancy related conditions um so again you can kind of read through that a little bit but and there's another section uh for employees and pregnancy yep and and I would say our practices aligned to those already um but now it is another

093Avenue potentially for an employee who could make a complaint if we weren't following our own policies now we have another policy in place so it just kind of raises the bar to make sure that we are following um these Provisions yep and we don't have the exact Logistics worked out yet on how we're going to do this but that's that's coming so yeah for the most part those things are in place when you talk about logistics we're talking about making sure that notice and and training is done and we're going to rely on um organizations to to support the creation of that training and then Mark and Nate and I and other leaders will go through that training to make sure that it aligns to what we we can do all right so that takes

094us to kind of the end of our I'm really bad with colors our Aqua [Laughter] documents is that that's probably not the right color but uh and and now now we can move on to Blue that's a little bit Aqua we can move on to our purple or pinkish document oh kid says it's magenta so okay yes so this is our kind of our grievance process the process that we go through um as far as as Title 9 so we're going to take this kind of bullet by bullet um and you can see the page numbers that are referenced up there at the top um and again Dave talked about this a lot of this stuff is really kind of updates to language some clarification we really as we as Nate Dave and I went

095through this we did not notice or or even observe anything that would be a marked change for how we do business um so again this is just kind of um some clarity around language some flexibility that was added around kind of the the roles and responsibilities a little bit of adjustment as far as kind when you can do that informal resolution and we'll kind of talk through some of that but again just kind of you use that as kind of your your base as you look through this um the first thing is the notice of discrimination um language there was added so you can see that on page one all right the second one is around employee expectations again no changes here um last year Dave and I went and talked to every single staff

096member in the district about expectations for communicating when you know you may observe these kind of things um we'll continue to do that and we'll update that training as well all right the third thing is all around the assignment of the title 9 coordinator um so I am the title N9 coordinator for students uh Dr Sherman is for emplo employees um I think there is something where you have to designate a primary um Title 9 coordinator and that is me um and so again that's just a little bit assignments all right Pages three and four all around duties of the title N9 coordinator again as we look through this again nothing that uh we weren't already doing I'm just kind of some adjusted language and the big the big picture there is that the title

097line coordinator uh has some responsibilities around around screening the reports um or complaints and so the difference between a report is maybe somebody else is observing something and then the title 9 coordinator is responsible for looking into that uh complaint is when someone is saying I'm directly impacted by this uh and then and I guess the only other big update that I would say there is just again that kind of continuous theme of we're moving away from sexual harassment and now talking about the bigger picture of sex discrimination and maybe we said this but just so everybody on the same page who is our title L coordinator so Mark is the title n Mark is our title n coordinator right for when the complaint is a student because he's the director of student services and

098then Dr Sherman is the Title Nine coordinator if the complaint is an employee right and that's been the case identifying Prim adding primary yep and switching out there yep right all right um the next section really is around expectations for handling a complaint that's on pages four and five also includes a little bit about if the student is a student with disability um other things there all right and the final bullet and I know I'm going through this kind of fast um but it's is the first reading so we certainly would welcome additional feedback uh simplification of language related to District standards and emergency removals um again emergency removals are all about if you know title line in general says that until you've gone through the entire investigation process disciplinary action is not permissible however

099there are some certain situations in where because of you know the nature of the of the issue we might be able to do an emergency removal um to to make sure that that all parties are safe number on page District May to remove remove we got it thank you y y wanted to emphasize [Laughter] that all right so on the top there of the the next slide um again greater detail provided for the investigation the decision maker um dismissal appeal process that's all pages 9 through 14 again all this this was really laid out in the 2020 regulations this is really just kind of um kind of adjusting and clarifying language a little bit no change in practice uh we went through this uh Bullet by Bullet to make sure this is what we were

100already doing and that was the case yeah so just to kind of call back to the 2020 rigs one of the big things there was to make make sure you have a a a practice that is a grievance process that protects the rights of the complaintant but also the respondant and so that some of the themes around making sure that um that we're taking actions to make sure that the respondent is innocent until proven guilty we can't we can't put in supportive measures that kind of put that person in a situation where they're already deemed as as guilty um so so I think those those changes while the regulations are clarifying some of those practices that processes is still in place um and and again that that goes to the point of making sure that

101if you're going to go down the road of a uh of making a title n decision um and doing sanctions based on it that you've you've can represent that you've followed the steps to the te and a lot of these additional language pieces is the lawyer pulling and stuff that was in our training and saying hey this should just really be part of the policy yeah quick question um wasn't it in 2020 the requirement that the hearing public and then now that has been taken away um or did I read that wrong do not the investigation or is there a hearing or do we have I think there's a hearing that's available I don't think it was a public hearing okay um I'd have to double check on that we look at that but that's

102not in our policy there's no hearing no there's an investigation well there's you want to speak to that in the investigation piece yep so there is an investigation so the investigation is very thorough as far as kind of who gets interviewed how that process works um there's a very clear delineation of when that investigation is completed how that those results are shared there's a kind of a comment period back from the the complaintant and the respondent before it goes to the decision maker um so there's a there's a very expansive process I don't believe that there's any sort of hearing but there is definitely opportunity for both parties to to share information and make comments and that's that's the piece that I had heard was a concern with these new regulations is that there would

103not be a sharing of evidence I don't know if that's the actual word that they use but both parties the complaintant and the respondent will have the ability to review the evidence and the investigation and so they will have the ability to have a fully transparent view of what's happening so that is just something I think is important to note that that is still part of the process in our policy yep okay yep yeah the main reason for the 20 update was just to make sure that the the respondent was given due process rights um because I think the the idea was that there was some places that were rushing to judgment um so this was all about kind of slowing down making sure there's a very delineated process and I don't see anything in

104the 2024 reg updates that that changes that just a quick editorial comment when you pair that which is is a good thing I guess um with the maybe expanded definition um so when we talk about implementation that's probably the part that gives us a little bit of pause is the idea is now we have an expanded definition of what hostile environment is and we have a very prescribed step-by-step process um The District's going to work really hard to to achieve that um and train the appropriate people to to make that but if if you were going to ask me what's the pause I think combining those two things a very prescribed process and a very open uh definition of what hostile environment is will put us in a situation um in which we're going to

105have to work really hard to make sure that we're staying aligned to our policies but the next Point can hopefully help a little bit with that yeah so the the other kind of uh change is um the informal resolution process so now in in past practice we were only able to offer or even consider an informal resolution after a formal complaint was made the new regs do allow us some more flexibility into looking into an informal resolution again it has to be voluntary if there were a case where where that was um something that both parties sought now it's important to not that this is not permissible in cases where the harassment is between an employee and a student um that's off the table um but when it's a student student issue this this piece

106is a is a a tool we could you know use again if both parties were interested and then finally just greater detail around uh you know consolidation of multiple complaints um confidentiality supportive measur 's again no legitimate change in in practice there oh and I spoke to yeah I shouldn't have said finally I spoke to this earlier um there is again that flexibility related to playing more than one role in the grievance procedures um instead of just kind of being a assigned a singular role so that uh that's going forward um finally and this kind of relates back to some of the handbook stuff that you guys were looking at earlier uh Dr Sherman and I were looking at some of our notices along with with Dave and um one thing we noticed was we

107had a we had consistency but there was a little bit of difference as far as how we provided this notice in our various handbooks so we wanted to make sure that we were consistent across the board and how we noticed Title 9 and anti-discrimination um policies in our handbooks so you will notice that all of them should look exactly the same now and as we adjust our policies ever going forward we will include those in in a template for each of our buildings and then finally training training is ongoing uh we haven't gotten any training from WB yet I assume that's coming but once it does we will have a large Title 9 training party where all of us are able to uh participate in our appropriate trainings and it will it will be good

108so one thing I want to stress with that is each year since 2020 we've uh undergone these trainings so our Title 9 coordinators have to go through a comprehensive review if you fit the role of an investigator or decision maker which is a lot of our administrative team there's an additional specialized training um if you're somebody who would engage in facilitating an informal resolution which for for us as mainly our Title 9 coordinators there's this there's a training that goes with that we have a training for all employ employees kind of what you need to know um and this says about sexual harassment and now it's going to be about sexual discrimination or sex non-discrimination um and then there's a special uh extra training for somebody who's a supervisor principal or somebody who um or

109another administrator so essentially even if you aren't an investigator or decision maker Title Nine coordinator but you are a leader in the district there's an additional set of trainings that you have and then just kind of a a summary document that we share out and and and face to face so some of these trainings are done asynchronously uh virtually and then but then also there's a commitment to face-to-face conversations with employees so they they understand um how important it is to to know these rules I'm just curious question why is it sex non-discrimination instead of sex discrimination what's what's the tripping over that uh uh that's the recommendation there okay I guess it's just that that's the that's the the expected behavior is that's positive right which makes some sense just seems I trip over

110it one way or the other yeah right yeah and then finally this is my actual finally um as Dave mentioned um we've I think we are in a really good place that's not to say that tomorrow we might find out that that something big has happened on the legal landscape or it might cause us to to need to Pivot um so as information comes to us from w SB or our attorneys we will come back to to the board with with adjustments or recommended changes at that point in time thank you very much that was helpful so are there further questions or comments one question about the training you talked about is that training we design or is that training that comes from someone else so we will work with WB to provide uh a

111training but one thing that we'll always do is we won't just be like oh there's a training we'll go through the training to make sure that it it lines up to the language that we use um and make any clarifications that are needed so we'll use WB to support with that training but then Nate and uh Mark and I and other administrators will look at it to make sure that it syns up and is appropriate okay so there's there are guidelines on how to do this so that we know that because later on someone could say well I was never trained in this um I mean they could always say that but I mean we're being careful and working with WB to make sure we're covering all the bases yeah I I think one additional

112step we did last year was just that idea of of making sure we didn't just rely on um asynchronous virtual trainings but also kind of have that face Toof face so okay anything else at this point I will make the motion to approve the first reading of revised School Board policy 4111 Title 9 sex uh well the title actually that should really change because the title the new title is going to be um sex non-discrimination complaint procedures as well as the rule yes theor yeah it's it's so I'll just say it and then the the rule is policy 41111 rule Title 9 sex non-discrimination the the policy is policy 41111 Title 9 sex non-discrimination right which is not what we have here that's why I'm reading it so that the correct titles are on the

113blue and purple Pages I've made that motion is there a second second thank you further discussion This is complicated thank you to Mark and to Dave for walking us through this I think that you brought Clarity to a very complicated situation um I'm suspecting that this is not going to be the last time that we um have this before even though we do have a second reading but my experience is that the school board is not anxious to be on the wrong side of the law so we do need to muddle through the complication to be able to make sure that we're in compliance which is why we're doing this any anything else well I have one mundane question sure people might be curious I was curious in the states where this is not applicable

114because there's ongoing lawsuits does anybody understand the nature of those lawsuits are they has to do with the alleged perpetrators no okay it has to do with the language of the definition of sex broadening the broading the definition of sex okay to include gender identity um orientation okay sex-based stereotypes non-converted sex roles yeah okay I think I'm saying that right that's the big Point okay but that again to make sure that everybody's really clear about that that does not include Wisconsin we are not enjoyed so far the school district right the school district of Falls is not enjoined in that ruling all right anything else all those in favor I I opposed the motion is carried and it will come back in August for a second reading at this point we are going to turn

115to approve the second reading of the new Schoolboard policy for 342 programs for children with disabilities at the last meeting in June the board um went through this so this is the second reading is there a motion please so moved thank you Ellison second thank you Ellen questions or comments all those in favor I oppos the motion is carried H we are not ready to do that that is going to be postponed until we're ready so we are going to move on to I are there any proposed or suggested items for future regular board meeting agendas all right then we are going to move on to some scheduling educational program committee will meet Monday August 5th at 6 o'clock finance and Facilities will meet Monday August 12th at 6 o' and the Personnel committee will

116meet Monday August 12th at 7:00 or immediately following the finance facilities committee those meetings are held here the next regular board meeting will be Monday August 19th at 6:00 that meeting sorry to interrupt you just one time thing okay um we're going to do finance and facilities at 7 and we're going to do Personnel at 6 we're flip-flopping those based on some availability of board members on the 12th on the 12th that's right okay so we're starting everything's on the same day we're starting with personnel and then fnf will go follow yep all right everybody get that um and will we have enough people there I might be a little late to that meeting to Personnel to Personnel on the 12 who's on personel I'm on there you're on there you're gonna be there right

117all right you two are so you're gonna be there right you'll be there so if I'm a little bit late okay I'll pick you up all right so you will join us as soon as you can then and we'll but we will proceed um that's good