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[0:00] All righty, good evening everyone. I'm calling the Monday January 22nd, 2024 Education Operations Committee meeting to order. I am seeking a motion to approve the minutes of December 18th, 2023.
[0:31] We went to agenda item number four, Dr. Fran Finkel, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards will share with the board a presentation on the draft timeline for the superintendent search as well as review the process that will be used with that.
[0:50] Thank you for being here Fran.
[0:52] Thank you for having me and thank you for having WASB be part of your search process.
[0:57] Just a little bit about me, I am former superintendent on Alaska for eight years.
[1:05] I was in Alaska for 27 years, middle school principal for nine curriculum instruction assessment for 10, and then superintendent for eight.
[1:14] Prior to that, I spent 16 years in Northwestern Minnesota, moved down here to get away from the cold in the ice.
[1:22] But that's my background and I've been with WA SB for five years and part of my job is helping school boards in their search process.
[1:33] So that's what I'm doing here tonight at your graces.
[1:36] So what we're going to do, there's not going to be a real presentation because I'm already here and you're actually in the first stage of planning and that is to plan your search.
[1:48] So I asked Tabitha to make sure that you had some documents in your enclosures.
[1:57] So we're going to try to tonight in the next hour.
[2:02] Work up a schedule of activities for the search process and also walk through the initial planning.
[2:09] And it's going to be interactive because you all are going to have to make some decisions.
[2:15] So if you would pull out the WASB Search Service Memorandum, and we're going to work from the top down there, unless anybody has any questions before we start.
[2:31] It just feels free to ask along the way folks. This is your plan.
[2:39] So the very first thing we do, or the very last thing we do, is we finalize the dates for the search service calendar.
[2:47] And if you take a look at the calendar, this is a draft calendar with some dates that I tried to tie in some Mondays, assuming that you have Monday board meetings.
[2:58] These dates are flexible to the extent that it works with your calendar and it works with my calendar.
[3:05] Otherwise, if you look to where we are tonight, the planning meeting on January 22nd, and if you look to when you would select your final candidate that you'd offer a contract to more towards the bottom of April 11th, 12th in that window.
[3:23] So, it's about a three month process, but it's a tried and proven, so we can talk more
[3:36] about this once we go through some of the information on the initial planning guide because
[3:44] we need to talk about exactly what you want to be part of this search.
[3:50] WASB search process is a stakeholder-driven process.
[3:56] So one of the things that we require if you're going to work with us is to have a community
[4:01] survey to get stakeholder information there, and then at least focus groups, at least
[4:08] one focus group, I think we built in five into your contracts or up to five.
[4:15] So there's going to be some opportunities for you to have smaller groups of people confirm what you hear in the survey.
[4:24] Okay, but the survey itself would go to everybody, the opportunity for that would go to everybody in the community, the invitation on your social media and press releases.
[4:38] And then it would be emailed to your staff and your parents' groups so that we're going
[4:44] to try to cover as many groups and as many people as possible.
[4:50] So the first thing is, if you have any questions on the community survey, we're going to invite
[4:56] people.
[4:58] You have a copy of the questions in a third document that you were given called Community Survey
[5:08] questions. You can see there's seven of them.
[5:15] We look for personal characteristics
[5:16] and then there's options for people to rank order those characteristics. We look
[5:25] for leadership styles and there's options there, skills, financial expertise,
[5:33] those kinds of things. And then professional expertise also in number four. Strength
[5:38] to the district because we want to look to see from your stakeholders what they see
[5:44] the strong parts of the Quasas School District, and then what are the challenges that are
[5:49] in place?
[5:51] Is that survey that's sent out through our list
[5:58] that we have for most of our stakeholders
[6:00] in the senate?
[6:01] That way, most of our surveys are as sent out in a different way.
[6:05] I'm not sure that we're not going to use your Qualtrics if that's what you're asking, but
[6:09] But we are going to ask you this email of the link to the survey, and then that link
[6:14] will be on your web page also and with your social media, so anybody in your community
[6:19] that wants to take it can go to that link and respond.
[6:23] Is there any sort of identifier that shows that the person taking this is actually a number
[6:33] of our community and a stakeholder that we want to hear from as opposed to what happened
[6:38] with mascots, which is anyone can click on the link and say whatever they want.
[6:43] There's no there's no identifier. But if you look to the last question and it says 11
[6:48] options, but that's not that's not like that anymore. We typically have three
[6:54] options of people identify themselves, community member, staff member or parent.
[7:01] And if you wanted us to break that community member down a little bit
[7:06] smaller we could, but those are typically the three that we have. So if they're
[7:13] going to go on and not tell the truth, you have any control over that, not
[7:18] really. We don't have any control over that.
[7:23] We've seen people stuff the
[7:27] superintendent survey box before, not that we know of.
[7:36] So it's fairly accurate.
[7:38] It's accurate and we get a good response rate I think statistically what's the response for it to be statistically significant is like 14 or 15 percent and we typically get better than that.
[7:51] So,
[7:54] yes sir.
[7:58] Other questions about the survey?
[8:05] Let's keep going now.
[8:05] We're
[8:11] going to try to get it, like I said, we're going to try to get it to as many people
[8:14] as we can so that the more responses you get the better information we're going to have
[8:24] to develop a profile of who your next superintendent candidate is.
[8:29] The reason we ask for the community for input, the parents, the staff for input and the reason
[8:34] and we have focus groups which kind of narrow down
[8:37] and confirm the responses in the survey
[8:41] is to build a profile for the application
[8:44] that we send out that we post when it goes live, okay?
[8:49] So at the end of the day, we're gonna have another meeting
[8:52] and we're gonna review the focus group results.
[8:56] We're gonna review the survey results.
[8:59] And then when I say focus group results,
[9:02] We're going to, if staff is a focus group that you want to have interviewed, then there
[9:09] will be staff results, there will be administrative results.
[9:15] So you'll see the different stakeholder groups and how they're responding.
[9:19] We're going to ask you all to also be interviewed on these and you can see the focus group questions
[9:27] questions in the other document that is in your packet, and it's basically the same questions
[9:34] that you see on the survey, okay, and that's purposeful, so you're getting the same information
[9:41] no matter what group you're looking to get it from.
[9:46] Questions about that.
[9:47] Frank, just one question.
[9:48] How much variance do you see between communities when you're hiring, or when you're all recruiting
[9:54] for a superintendent?
[9:55] And I'm just thinking in my day job,
[9:59] if we're out recruiting some executive leader,
[10:02] the profile is 80% the same.
[10:06] Right.
[10:07] Almost all the time.
[10:08] There's a few things that vary once in a while,
[10:11] but generally speaking, you're all kind of looking
[10:12] for the same person.
[10:15] We kid, you know, there's this ideal job description
[10:19] that you want to complete, right?
[10:21] But there's also things that are specific to your district
[10:24] that you want to include in your profile.
[10:27] I mean, especially when you get their results back,
[10:30] when you ask people, what do we need to do better
[10:33] or what are the challenges of the district?
[10:36] That's where you see the specifics.
[10:38] And it's really interesting for you to be able to see
[10:42] what people believe your strengths are.
[10:44] Maybe you survey your community every so many years
[10:47] and you have that information.
[10:50] But that's another indicator of what people see.
[10:53] It's good about your district and what's where the challenges that you need to still address.
[10:59] And what is the date that the posting you see would like officially go live in the plan?
[11:04] We're going to start advertising this tomorrow.
[11:09] Okay.
[11:09] But the actual application won't go live until another week or so, and you'll get after the focus.
[11:16] Okay.
[11:16] Groups are older.
[11:17] Thank you.
[11:17] You bet.
[11:18] Other questions?
[11:22] Good questions.
[11:22] So number two and number three, that's our way of getting stakeholders involved in creating the profile that we talked about.
[11:31] And also you use that feedback and we're talking about number four but we'll come back to three.
[11:39] You use that feedback to create application questions.
[11:43] When you, when you, what I'm going to ask you to do when we review the information from the focus groups and the survey,
[11:51] is I'm going to ask you as a board to look for themes. What do you see? What are they saying?
[11:57] What are the themes of what people want in the next superintendent? I mean you might see somebody,
[12:03] you might see a theme, we need somebody who can build culture or we need somebody who's very good
[12:10] fiscally. You'll see the themes that'll crop up but we're going to that'll be a task at a meeting
[12:16] where we're going to ask you all to see if you see the same things that we're pulling
[12:21] home. Okay. And so one of the decisions that you have to make is in number three, if you
[12:29] look at the focus group size, it's 18 to 15 and it takes about an hour to ask these questions.
[12:35] And the reason that the groups are the size that they are is so that everybody in the group
[12:40] will be able to give their input and still have time within that 60 minute frame.
[12:45] So, those are, there's random ways to determine who those people are, but the question is for you is, how many focus groups do you want me to conduct, including yours, and how many, you know, what groups are those?
[13:04] So it has a big question right now. How many focus groups do we want?
[13:11] Well, you know, maybe you start with who is it important to ask to
[13:19] solidify if you will the survey responses that you get?
[13:25] Well, I think before you have listed there, and then you said five.
[13:30] So I assume the fifth is probably a parent or community focus group of some sort.
[13:36] It could be a community group.
[13:43] If you have somebody that you have in mind, if you have, when you distribute the survey
[13:50] and get the responses back, you're pretty much hitting your community groups, right?
[13:59] But you could verify that if you had a way to choose who those people are, which is sometimes
[14:05] difficult in a larger district, but I would think we would want those four that are listed.
[14:13] And the other thing that we can do with professional staff is if you think there's a need
[14:20] we could have an elementary focus group and a middle high school focus group because you
[14:25] might get different responses that way. Bearing in mind that these people are probably going to all
[14:32] take your survey to it's just when you when you do this when you answer the survey you're
[14:39] answering there's not a lot of there isn't any input for short answers right but the
[14:48] short answers will come in the interview. So if you wanted a elementary and then a middle
[14:55] high school, that could be five groups that you'd take care of.
[15:00] There, with that work, for everybody. That's what we're discussing and deciding not correct. So is that an interest to have it broken down like that? Because there are definitely different needs at the elementary level from staff members than you are going to see at the middle of high school level.
[15:22] So that when, okay, so then once we get done with those focus groups, we will have that report built for you. And if you look in your calendar,
[15:31] We have a schedule here for the 15th or 19th of February, but I'd bring back a report to the board, and it would say question number one, here's how all these different groups responded, question number two, and so on, including in those in that synopsis would be your responses.
[15:55] So a board would be the fifth one that would be just like it's broken down in number three and
[16:01] We take all five of those groups and you get responses from each
[16:06] Okay, did
[16:10] you say we're gonna discuss the process for selecting the professional staff that'll be involved in the focus group?
[16:17] Or how yeah, what I thought was when you tell me if we need to do it differently
[16:22] But what I thought is I could work with Tabitha and we could look at a random
[16:28] We put what we do is we put a letter out and we invite people to be part of the focus group process and we tell them that if there's high interest and we'll do a random drawing of people's names and allow them to
[16:41] and we let them know when it's going to be so their time, you know, the time works for them and so on.
[16:47] And then that's how we get our 15, not two.
[16:50] It's not really one certain people, let's give it up.
[16:54] Well, that's exactly where I'm going with it.
[16:56] I know that there's been some disgruntled people in the past,
[17:00] and I understand there always will be, but there's been some thought
[17:04] whether it was with restructuring committees or what have you,
[17:08] that there was cherry picking of participants,
[17:11] and I want to make sure that we do, and if that's,
[17:14] if it ends up on the board shoulders, it ends up on the board shoulders,
[17:16] in terms of selecting who the professional staff may be, so I don't know what the rest
[17:22] of you think about that. I just, I don't want to get through this process and hear what
[17:28] we did on restructuring saying, I volunteered, I threw my name in 17 times and I heard nothing
[17:32] back. I want to make sure that we've got the right people in there.
[17:35] Yeah. It seems like what he just described, though, would avoid all of that, right? Because
[17:38] it's, we're looking for 15 people and if 14 volunteer, then it's 14, but if 50 volunteer,
[17:45] Here, it's just randomly taken.
[17:47] You're right.
[17:48] Karen, it'll go to everyone, your staff members.
[17:51] You can say we're going to have two focus groups.
[17:53] One's going to be elementary, one's going to be middle high.
[17:56] If you follow those categories and professional staff,
[17:59] if you want to have input, give us your name,
[18:02] and then when we see how many come in,
[18:04] we'll just go through and do it random.
[18:07] I mean, it's like, okay.
[18:08] And you know how that works, the random selection.
[18:11] Every, you look at how many you have,
[18:13] in every so many, that's the name you're going to take and you offer it to them. But you
[18:18] give them that information ahead of time so that they know, so that they know that it fits
[18:24] into their schedule right. We're going to do it at this day at this time and if you want
[18:28] to be part done. As long as the information has gotten out there early enough so that they
[18:34] can put their name in and then understand that it's going to be random and it's not going
[18:38] to be chosen based on who they are, where they're at, what school they're at, things of that
[18:42] fashion. Truly a random choice. The letter that we send out through the
[18:49] district will say just that. It's a random process of more than more than 15
[18:55] people are interested. That's how it'll be.
[18:59] Chapatita, you haven't?
[19:00] Yeah, I think it's important for that board and everybody to know that when we do a
[19:04] random process, there's a computer-generated process that you can go to call
[19:09] random number generator reuse that. So when they do their survey
[19:13] responses saying I'm interested it'll put them into like on Excel line 1 2 3 4 all
[19:20] the way down and we will just go in the random number generator and say give me 15
[19:26] numbers or whatever between this summer and that number and it'll get out here
[19:31] the 15 numbers and those are the lines that end up coming in and getting invited.
[19:35] So it isn't anything about.
[19:38] She will.
[19:38] They are.
[19:39] I'm aware of that program.
[19:41] Yeah.
[19:42] I'm aware of that program.
[19:43] Yeah.
[19:43] That's a very good program to use.
[19:45] Yeah.
[19:46] What we do is we count on your.
[19:50] Your people to help with that selection.
[19:53] Like I don't have a random.
[19:56] January.
[19:56] But we don't.
[19:58] All right.
[19:59] Jimmy, we can.
[20:00] Talk about that afterwards.
[20:01] Yeah.
[20:02] All right.
[20:02] Thanks.
[20:03] You bet.
[20:04] somebody asked earlier do you do this yourself? I think Jim you said you do you we have a staff of
[20:10] people in both Winnecone and Madison that help help me pull the strings and make sure that you're
[20:16] taking care of correctly just so. Well I asked that only because of the fact that
[20:23] taking how big the district is and how many people were trying to get involved. It's a big
[20:30] big task right it is a big task and it's probably it goes without saying but it's it's in my
[20:38] opinion it's the most important thing school boards do is hire their district administrator the most
[20:44] important okay so are we okay with what I have is elementary middle school professional staff a
[20:53] support staff focus group admin team and board correct five okay if you look down at stakeholder
[21:01] or feedback on number four, like I said, we create a profile, you get a report, we'll
[21:09] also use your job description, because what we're looking to do is create three or four
[21:14] application questions that are specific to your school district, and so we're looking
[21:20] for those themes so that we can get people to answer questions that revolve those themes.
[21:26] And one of the things we ask you to do is when you're considering questions is to take a look at your job description.
[21:34] Is it up to date? Is it something that you need to bring up to date? Is what your job descriptions say about your district administrator?
[21:42] Are those the things that are truly important to you? And if they are, should you be asking questions in the candidates about those areas? Right?
[21:50] Okay, so move on to five.
[21:56] The other thing we do during this process and I think Sally, our support person back in
[22:06] Madison has already been in contact with Cassie.
[22:09] We put together a district brochure and it's based on some of your demographics, it's based
[22:16] on the community and when that application finally gets posted on WSB website and all the
[22:24] other places we posted in there besides the application and the questions that you're
[22:29] going to generate based on those themes in your stakeholder input there will be a brochure
[22:36] that advertises your district.
[22:39] Now I know this has been a question from a lot of people probably on the board as well
[22:43] with community people. When you send information all that we have vacancy is that Midwest, national,
[22:52] statewide, it's a good question.
[22:58] There's, there's, it is statewide. We, we only place,
[23:05] WASB only places, superintendents in Wisconsin. That's why it's kind of a strong answer that
[23:13] you asked us to come in and help. We don't place people in Minnesota. We focus on our people here.
[23:21] So it goes out to eight different states as part of an organization that WASB belongs to.
[23:26] It's called the National Association of Search Services. And then there's another 16 different
[23:33] universities in Wisconsin, public, and private that it goes out to. It goes out. It's posted on our
[23:39] website, it's posted on the WASDA, WASDA, the Superintendents website, and it's on social
[23:48] media. So, our social media and that of the eConnection Weekly News letter that goes
[23:57] out.
[23:57] Yeah, this is new because we moved from the National Association of School Boards to the newer
[24:04] are we going to send out to those organizations as well?
[24:12] You know, I don't know the answer to that.
[24:15] I don't know who else is involved in that, but I can find that out.
[24:19] I can leave this with you.
[24:21] This is where they go now.
[24:24] And in your search proposal, if you want that to go further, out further,
[24:30] there's other places it can go.
[24:32] So you'll just have to let us know when it comes time to posting and you can take a look
[24:38] at that and review this.
[24:40] It's on page 13 of your proposal, let me read some of the places to you here.
[24:53] If you want this to go, this isn't part of your package, but American Association of School
[24:58] Administrators, A-A-S-A, or and that's awesome in Wisconsin.
[25:04] and Ed Weekly, if you wanted to go on Ed Weekly in that magazine, Association of Latino
[25:10] Administrator and Superintendents could go there, they could go to the National Alliance
[25:15] of Black School Educators, Career Center, those are other places that are over and above
[25:20] the search if you wanted to specifically focus on those people you could do that on those
[25:27] agencies.
[25:29] And like you said, WASDA does connect with the national and so they send things out, and that would be picked up nationally as well, I would imagine.
[25:38] Yeah, and you know, when you look at the, exactly, when you look at the National Association of Superintendent searches, this is where it goes.
[25:46] Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota.
[25:57] I'm Mississippi, I'm just going on a list, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, NY, Wyoming.
[26:15] So the five states not mentioned, yeah, I'm pursuing this is because this has been something that's been asked of me
[26:24] to apply several community members that want to know is this just going to be statewide or is this going to be out there?
[26:32] No, I don't mean to be laborer. It's okay. It's okay. It's a good question. People want to know how far do we reach, right?
[26:39] Okay, and that's the answer.
[26:42] Okay, are you ready?
[26:45] What we do, like I said, are my number five now on page two.
[26:49] What we do is we post this early.
[26:52] We're posted tomorrow.
[26:53] We'll say there's a superintendent position open,
[26:56] who was on school district, and so on.
[26:59] And then once we're done with our focus group conversation,
[27:03] the themes, the questions are generated,
[27:06] then there's an online application.
[27:08] Okay, with the brochure, with the profile of the superintendent that you're looking for based on your stakeholder input and then the question that you generated through the process and that will be posted for about a month, a month.
[27:27] Okay, and if you look on your search service draft calendar, if all things go great,
[27:35] February 22nd is when we would post it in March 22nd is when they would close.
[27:45] Deanna, this way, we already have somewhere on the website ready to go.
[27:54] It's not live yet, but with all the information ready to go.
[28:02] The coordination of
[28:03] And this I think is very important that when it goes out, it goes out in all aspects.
[28:08] And by, I like what you're saying, Fran, talking about getting things together here.
[28:14] So that we're ready to go.
[28:15] I know that, and I was working on this before Christmas, getting that website ready to go.
[28:21] So what we do is we have a press release that goes out that announces the opening.
[28:29] and it also gets sent out to your parents and your staff so that they're kind of
[28:36] first-hand knowledge of what you're doing and it also announces the survey in
[28:42] that press release. So it goes on to all your media, let's people know ahead of
[28:46] time, surveys out there, staff and parents get it. So we'll have to coordinate
[28:53] that with what you do so that we're all on the same page and we have the link
[28:58] ready to share with the district when it's ready to go up on your website.
[29:06] Okay so
[29:09] the question number five and it is it's an online process the application is an online process.
[29:17] The question number five is how do you handle internal candidates?
[29:23] Because chances are the district or site you might have somebody from inside that might want the job.
[29:27] So, and that's the question to you all.
[29:32] You can treat internal candidates like you treat any other candidate.
[29:37] They go through the same application process.
[29:39] There's no priorities in terms of skipping through the first round of interviews and go
[29:44] right into the final or you could grant them a final interview or you could grant them an
[29:50] initial interview because they're district employee or for whatever reason you want to use.
[29:57] So those are questions that you have to answer.
[30:07] So, before we come up with that decision, one of the things that you was shared in that information session this past week was sort of some of the controversy that happens that way, and it might be good to just demonstrate one of the pros and cons of either ones going either direction with that, how that impacts then extra.
[30:29] internal candidate interest?
[30:32] Yes, good.
[30:33] Did you want to help with that?
[30:34] No, you could help out here.
[30:36] So where are the pros and cons of internal candidates
[30:41] being moved right into the final round?
[30:44] The pros are, if you have some type of a succession plan
[30:49] in place or you've been thinking about a successor
[30:52] when Dr. Hiltz retires, if you've been thinking about that
[30:57] and you've been grooming this person into that position and you like what's going on in the
[31:02] district and you think we don't want this to change at all then some districts just they don't
[31:08] even have a search they just grant the opening to somebody who's the next person that's ready right
[31:13] but but there's also that transparency issue or a good old boy appointment issue that comes with
[31:22] appointing somebody who's appointing somebody's foos from internal.
[31:29] How am I doing so far? Yeah and
[31:33] I will tell you that this is this is my story but when I had spent 19 years in
[31:40] Alaska and my superintendent asked the board if they would just move me into the
[31:46] position and the board said you know what were you like what's going on but we
[31:50] to be transparent so he can apply and if he gets it we hope he does but if he doesn't get it then
[31:57] somebody better is going to come in. So that's the other side of that. Not only the transparency
[32:03] but allowing yourself to choose the best person that's a match for your district. So there's good
[32:10] there's bad but it's your decision so that's kind of where we're at. Is that a decision that we need
[32:15] to make tonight or is that a decision that we can address once we see who the candidates are both
[32:21] You're not going to know who the candidates are in Toronto.
[32:24] Yeah, you can wait until that if you want, but you won't know until.
[32:28] If this thing closes on March 22nd, you will know at midnight on March 23rd,
[32:36] you'll be able to access the applications.
[32:38] You're all going to get a, you have your WASB log in and password.
[32:43] And if you don't, we'll help you redo that.
[32:45] But you'll be able to access all of those applications at your leisure once that application
[32:52] window closes.
[32:54] So I think one of the other things that you had mentioned, certainly the interest of transparency
[33:00] but also that when external candidates may be are made aware that there's an internal interest,
[33:07] they don't throw their hat in the ring.
[33:10] And we may have fewer applicants to choose from because, you know, the word gets out that
[33:18] there's internal candidates, which really limits potential candidate options.
[33:25] So, you know, I think that's another significant problem.
[33:27] Yes, absolutely.
[33:31] We do not tell people who applies.
[33:34] That's one of the reasons why, when you use a consultant, it's a good thing because that's all confidential, that's kept and that's one of the things we're going to talk about tonight when you see this material, it's all confidential and people count on that, right?
[33:50] You would not get good candidates to apply if they knew their name was going to be out there in the first round.
[33:55] You wouldn't. People just, you know, they want to dip their toe in the water, but if they know that their board's going to find out that they applied for a job in Warsaw, then their board might, well, you know, either sweeten the potter or hit the road, one or the other.
[34:11] So they, they're very cautious when they applied because they count on that confidential IPs.
[34:17] But Karen's right, it's people talk, applicants talk.
[34:23] We don't let that go.
[34:25] We ask you not to let that out once you know, but some people won't, if they think that
[34:31] there's a good internal panic that they might not be able to be better than they want to
[34:36] play.
[34:39] Good question.
[34:42] All right, so do you want to wait until later until you see the applicants?
[34:45] All right.
[34:46] Just the concern that I have is it all like the idea of just moving some way to the final
[34:52] What I also want to avoid though is I want to avoid
[34:55] Us not even finding out that somebody that we really highly think of
[35:00] Didn't make it to us because it got excluded like before we've found out that they applied you know
[35:05] It's that middle
[35:07] Round area that
[35:09] That I want to avoid
[35:11] Okay, just so you know and we're kind of jumping a little bit, but it's a good segue
[35:16] we do not screen your applicants. We will help you screen your applicants but
[35:24] we're not of the consulting firm that's going to say here's your best six,
[35:28] right? We're going to sit down with you and we're going to do pros and cons and you're
[35:32] going to be able to evaluate each one of those candidates based on a tool that we use
[35:37] so that you're comparing apples to apples on each candidate. And then you guys
[35:42] will be able to have your conversation. I'll be there and it's like who do we like? Who do we
[35:48] want to bring in as our top people? So what you're saying is we'll see all of any application
[35:53] accounts will. So also it would prevent if there's more than one internal candidate that finds out
[36:02] you know if it's all confidential then hopefully we'll get every internal candidate that's interested
[36:07] said, versus heard so and so is interested, so I'm not going to do that, you know, to
[36:12] avoid whatever. So it seems to me like a better route to go.
[36:18] Works for me.
[36:21] Okay with that. I'm seeing people nodding their heads. So what I'm hearing
[36:26] is that you're, or at least partially hearing that you don't want to move somebody right into
[36:32] the files. You want to put them in the mix with everybody else. Okay. Good. Some, the
[36:38] That's a good observation because some search firms say you hired us to give you the
[36:45] best candidates, you don't get to see them all, we'll choose your best ones, and that's
[36:50] not how we work.
[36:51] Because you know who's best for you, right?
[36:54] Thank you.
[36:54] You're welcome.
[36:56] Okay, so part of the information that we give you is in number six, you're going to get
[37:02] resource guide. And it's going to help develop first-round interview questions, second-round interview
[37:09] questions. It'll help you when you develop those. You'll talk about how to do reference checks.
[37:15] It'll also have your your athletic conference and your CSA and like school district size salary
[37:25] comparison. So you will get the salary benefit package. That'll be part of that resource guide.
[37:33] And that will come right before, a little bit before we sit down and have that first meeting to review applications.
[37:42] You'll have all of that.
[37:50] Candidate information, we talked a little bit about this in the Segway Electronic Application that you will get on the day after it closes.
[37:58] the importance of confidentiality, the scoring tool that will help things be the same or be a common way to evaluate each applicant applications
[38:14] to expect.
[38:16] One of the things that's new, more so in the last couple of years, is you have superintendent candidates that shop districts before they apply
[38:31] they check you out right they're doing as soon as as soon as you get the
[38:36] application list you're going to start moving who are these people right even
[38:40] though it's more than it'll be way more than what's in their application
[38:43] process but you want to know about them they're doing the same thing about you
[38:47] and it depends on it depends on what their history is this year more than ever
[38:54] since before COVID, our applications have been way up 10, 15, 20 for openings and not
[39:05] necessarily larger district openings. So, you know, there's no way to tell, there's
[39:12] no crystal ball in terms of how many you're going to get, but we're more and more as we move
[39:17] into this season of superintendent searches, we're more and more pleased with the number
[39:23] of applicants are not only the number but the quality.
[39:28] We've done a number of searches already that are almost in completion and the three that
[39:34] we talked about when we were in Milwaukee last week, over half of the applicants were
[39:41] certain people who were actually superintendents in a job looking for another challenge.
[39:49] So, sometimes you get people that aren't, they're qualifying, but they're certified, but they don't have any background.
[39:58] Sometimes you get people that are looking to go into a larger district.
[40:02] I mean, there's all kinds of reasons people would want to come here, the location.
[40:06] I mean, there's lots of reasons why people would want to come.
[40:10] reasons people don't want to come in a lot of times is, is there what's the
[40:16] quality of life where we're going? Is there housing that's going to be
[40:20] available? Childcare, all those things, is my spouse going to be able to find
[40:24] a job when we relocate? I mean, those types of things are what they ask, but you've
[40:30] got all those things here, right?
[40:34] Some districts do not. Okay, run seven, any
[40:40] When
[40:43] we start with the look back over at the calendar or the draft calendar, when we meet
[40:49] to review the focus group results and so on in February, we're going to ask you to start
[40:55] looking at developing a set of first round application questions.
[41:01] Every applicant that you interview will answer the same questions during the first round.
[41:07] It's typically 15 or so questions and you're going to you're scoring tool that you'll have during those interviews.
[41:16] We'll be so that you can compare again apples to apples.
[41:21] I will be part of that first round interviews.
[41:24] Typically people bring in six candidates.
[41:27] If you have six quality candidates and it's three interviews over two different nights back to back.
[41:33] We do all the scheduling, we'll do all the inviting, we'll talk to people who don't get chosen for the final interview, we'll make all the contact for you, so as part of the process.
[41:48] So typically, I guess I jumped down the nine, but you're going to finalize, I think with Tabitha's help too, you're going to finalize what those questions are.
[42:02] And in number eight, and how you do that is you go back to the profile, the job description,
[42:09] what you said was important and superintendent.
[42:12] And you look for questions that revolve around that.
[42:15] Maybe there's a finance question.
[42:17] Maybe there's an interpersonal relationship question.
[42:20] Maybe there's a curriculum type question.
[42:22] Whatever you say is important in your profile.
[42:25] That's what your questions would revolve around.
[42:29] Okay.
[42:32] So we have two evenings from the first round.
[42:34] I'll be there with you.
[42:39] There's typically 15 questions.
[42:41] I said that part of the process of the interview
[42:46] is the candidate has to make sure that they have time to answer all the questions.
[42:53] And we'll give them a copy of the questions in front of them.
[42:55] And we'll say, here they are.
[42:57] That's in case they don't hear or clearly or whatever.
[43:00] it's in front of them so they don't have to guess what you asked, right? And then see
[43:04] on them by their time as well as all of you have their answers. So we'll talk about the
[43:12] interview process or it says orientation. We'll talk about that before and typically the
[43:19] board president greets people and we take turns asking questions. But you will have all of
[43:25] that background material, the application, the resume, the letters of reference. You'll
[43:30] all of that in front of you that night. So if you ever want to delve into some of that material
[43:38] after you get done with your interviews, you'll be able to do that. So we'll have my contact
[43:45] during the search. I understand it's Tavatha, but then we'll read the people who have to identify
[43:52] a reader that writes the interviews. And then after the second interview, you'll choose your finalists.
[43:59] and you typically do it the same night, you sat through three, you're going to sit through three more,
[44:05] you'll figure out who you want to bring back.
[44:08] Okay? Typically it's three, we had a district last week that had four,
[44:13] we've had districts that just brought in two, it just depends on the pool and what you like.
[44:18] Okay? Questions? Got that.
[44:23] Once you choose your three finalists and we'll do a background check,
[44:27] WSP will do a background check and it will be a financial, criminal, and educational background check.
[44:34] So when Dr. Solne so it comes in and says that you got their degree as a certain place,
[44:40] we'll be able to verify that that's happened, that more than once it's happened that they don't.
[44:47] Are you happy with that? Have you experienced that?
[44:51] Yeah, me right, they say they have some degree and they don't and so we'll verify all of that.
[44:57] And then in between the first and second round of it.
[45:02] The school board members conduct reference checks. Now, you may want your HR department to help with that. But if you want to be involved in that, that's something you can decide after the first round of interviews. And we'll help you with the questions so that you're not asking things that you shouldn't be asking. If you want to do it yourself. And if you decide to do it yourself, as board members
[45:30] We'll make sure that one or two of you are assigned to each candidate, so there's no redundancy and
[45:36] You know Jim's calling somebody and Lance is calling the same person and Jennifer
[45:41] It means so there's no overlap. We'll make sure that there's a method to the madness
[45:46] One thing I do like what you just said was you'll create the questions for calling the reference people say that
[45:54] We don't step in a call pie or anything
[45:58] And part of your resource guide, and here's, this is what it looks like, part of your resource guide, one of the chapters is on making reference checks.
[46:09] And so it gives you a list of questions that have been generated for past searches, and you can decide which ones of those that you want to ask.
[46:18] Okay. Other questions about that?
[46:24] Okay, so we're on number 12. We're going to our second interview.
[46:28] We'll call the three finalists. We'll set up the interview nights. The interview times I should say.
[46:36] The format and we'll have a press release saying here's the three finalists that were identified by your president.
[46:45] In a press release as to being finalists and that they're going to have their final interview on whatever night it is that we decide in this calendar.
[46:56] So that your community members know who your finalists are and you will have to decide if that night you have your final interviews, the format that you want to use.
[47:10] Do you want to have a community forum where people could come in and listen to them, answer
[47:17] questions that were generated by staff, parents, community members?
[47:23] Do you want to have that or not?
[47:26] Do you want your administrative team to be part of the interview or a portion of your administrative team to be part of the interview or not?
[47:36] you want it just to be the board is typically in the first round it's just the
[47:40] board okay you guys all men and women get to choose who your finalists are and
[47:47] then you open it up and you say okay admin we'd like your input on these three
[47:52] okay community members we've got some questions we're gonna generate and the
[47:57] consultant or or Tabitha would be the one who would ask the questions and people
[48:03] would come to your auditorium and they'd listen to how people respond. And then we'd actually
[48:11] let them, if you wanted, you could let them rank how they answered each question. There's
[48:19] a way to set up a QR code, right? So five point rubric, they did really well, they didn't
[48:28] well at all. And then you'd have that generated by the time the interviews are over that night.
[48:35] Stepping back just a little bit, we choose the six candidates that we brought in for
[48:41] interviews. It is at that time we still want to be very confidential about who the six people are
[48:48] so that that doesn't go back to their own districts and things of that fashion. But once the three
[48:55] have been decided if that's what we choose to have three or two or whatever the case might be,
[49:01] now that can be announced through the media. That's why I said that's where the press release
[49:06] goes out in but not only announcing who your finalists are but inviting them to be part
[49:11] of a community forum if you want that to be part of your final reviews and it's we do that all in one
[49:19] and we do it in one fell swoop and we also will send it directly to your staff and your parents
[49:25] so that there you know upfront.
[49:28] I think it's I'm glad you mentioned three or two or four or whatever it is
[49:31] because when we get to that point it'll be very important that we not put anybody as a finalist
[49:36] that we don't think has a legitimate chance because they have the right to stay confidential then
[49:42] and there's no reason to put anybody through that if we're like no we know it's between these two
[49:46] we definitely don't want to have three just to have three and I would agree with that about 99 percent
[49:53] And there's always that one percent where you bring somebody and after the first interview
[49:57] and you go, I'm not sure about this one.
[50:00] And then they become a rock star in the second interview, right?
[50:04] And vice versa.
[50:05] Somebody you think is the best one on the group.
[50:08] And then they don't do very well in a second.
[50:12] So there's always that.
[50:13] But you're right, don't waste your time.
[50:15] Don't waste their time.
[50:17] And that kind of goes along with two.
[50:18] one of the red flags could be in the last phase that you were talking about when there's the
[50:26] final two or three bringing in staff and bringing in community and all that stuff. In theory,
[50:32] that's done already in those focus groups when we're getting their feedback on what it is
[50:36] that we're looking for. And I think that there can be a bit of a danger in terms of asking
[50:43] for feedback in that forum where people think it's going to be a consensus vote
[50:48] you know at that point in time and I've heard of incident you know people start
[50:52] talking well the majority of the crowd want to gym you know and then the board
[50:57] selects Judy or you know whatever it is so I just think that at some point we have
[51:02] to take the feedback that we have we have to use the interview process we're
[51:06] elected to represent everybody anyways and then it falls on our shoulders
[51:11] there's ultimately we would not set you up for failure by allowing the community people
[51:18] or the admin if you had an admin group to believe that they get a vote under stood.
[51:26] Or, you set them up for that either people will walk out thinking that they had a vote sure.
[51:30] Yeah, but and that's, I mean that could happen.
[51:34] We try that not to happen, we try not to have that happen because the response if you had
[51:39] an admin team that was part of that interview, that second round of interviews, you would
[51:45] ask them, what are the strengths of the candidate, and what are your concerns about the candidate?
[51:50] And that's all you'd want to know, and you typically, what happens is after the third interview
[51:58] is you bring your team, your admin team in, and you say to each person that was around
[52:04] on the table. Let's say, we'll count it at one. What do you think the strings were?
[52:09] And then go through to your team. And then what do you think the dumb side of that of
[52:14] that person was? And then you go to the next person. You thank them. They leave their cards
[52:20] that they can fill out to talk about, uh, strengths and concerns. They leave those with you and
[52:26] there. And you, we, we enforce the confidentiality piece because their part of the interview was
[52:34] closed session. Also, if you decide to have that, your interview is closed session, their
[52:40] interview is closed session, and then the form would be, of course, open. But so they've
[52:46] got a commitment to confidentiality and it seems to work out well when it doesn't work
[53:04] Well, we all talked on our way in, and here's the one, you know, and I've had that happen once,
[53:09] and the word president said, nope, that's not where we're going. You guys want to give us
[53:13] import or not, and they did, and they kind of backed off, but it's, and it's not a vote. I mean,
[53:19] only you can vote for a superintendent to be hired. So, yeah, I think it's a good point, and I,
[53:27] I think maybe the part that made you think of that, because it made me think of it as when you
[53:32] talked about, perhaps they filled out something where they kind of ranked the answers questions.
[53:36] That's the part that would worry me. Having the community hear the answers to the questions
[53:42] that makes sense and we're all of our meetings are filmed and live so that would certainly be easy.
[53:46] We could even advertise it that hey you might want to tune in tonight. You're going to see answers
[53:49] to questions. So when and it's up to you again this is your search, right? But if you bring in an
[53:58] admin representative group. They all ask, they ask the same questions of all three candidates
[54:06] and it's a representative group of this is then one of these people is going to be our next
[54:12] leader, right? So it's like a courtesy to those people too that you're going to trust them to give
[54:21] you feedback on who might be their next superintendent, their next leader. So it's up to you but
[54:27] That's what you don't have to decide that tonight, how you want to have that final, but we'll
[54:33] talk about it early into the process to see how much outside involvement you want and
[54:42] if you want any administrative involvement as well.
[54:45] Okay.
[54:48] Other questions?
[54:48] Any questions on this side?
[54:56] It is.
[54:58] It is, and I'll tell you why you're valuing their input, right?
[55:05] They've given you their input in a survey, so you were able to create your profile
[55:11] and your application question so on. But now they're going to get to see that person,
[55:17] you know, on the hot seat, if you will, right?
[55:20] And what we'll do, what we would do if you want to do this,
[55:24] as we would generate questions, ask parents, community members, staff members to give us questions
[55:32] that they would like to see asked. We'll dwindle them down some way, might be the president
[55:38] and myself, it might be Tabitha who's doing this, but we'll dwindle them down in some way so that it
[55:43] covers all the areas of say your job description or what you saw that they wanted in the profile.
[55:50] And then to give them an opportunity to listen to those questions being answered and then
[55:56] to give you some feedback.
[55:58] It's another way to get your stakeholders involved in what's a really important process.
[56:07] Okay,
[56:15] so once in the middle of what you have to decide, you don't have to do it tonight,
[56:19] but in the middle of number 12, you have to decide how you want to have your final interview.
[56:25] And if you are going to have an administrative group, the board group, and a community forum,
[56:34] and you brought in three people, you'd run a wrong rob and everybody would be there for
[56:38] the first interview and then they would just rotate groups.
[56:42] And then after that was over, you'd sit down with your admin team.
[56:46] Like I said, they'd give you feedback.
[56:48] You would thank them.
[56:49] and then you could do one of two ways when you deliberate on who you want to be
[56:58] your final person. You can do it the same night okay might be 10 o'clock, it might
[57:06] be later than that depending on when you start your interviews or you could
[57:11] come back the next night after you've sat on things for a while you had a chance
[57:18] to see what the community input was. We had a chance to digest some things. We built into this
[57:25] calendar two nights so that you would have your final interview one night and then you'd come back
[57:33] the next night and you'd do your selection. Which would, but you don't have to do that. It might be
[57:41] We put that in there, so when you advertise the closed session, night one, you'd advertise
[57:49] the closed session the second night in a row, and if you didn't need that second meeting
[57:53] because somebody just rose to the top and everybody felt the same way, then you made a decision
[58:00] after the final round of interviews, then you don't have to come back to the next night.
[58:05] but we'll build it in in case you want to come back and have time to see what
[58:10] people said in your form if you have your form. Okay? Trying to plan a plan ahead
[58:17] for what you haven't decided yet a little bit. And I'll let during this process
[58:23] when you start with when we have our first meeting to talk about applications and
[58:28] focus group results and so on back in February, you're starting to build the
[58:34] contract for your next superintendent. So that the night of the final decision, you're
[58:40] able to call that person and say we want to offer you the contract. You've already
[58:45] got it in essence. What you think is the right thing to offer them. And typically you send
[58:52] them email in the contract proposal the next day and then you've got a week or so to negotiate.
[59:02] Okay? You have HR to help with that. But like I said, when you get your resource guide
[59:11] from us, you'll have all salary comparisons and some night after a regular meeting, you
[59:16] go on the closed session, you can talk about what contracts don't look like for the next
[59:21] soup, right? Okay. And we follow up after you made your final decision, we follow up, we'll
[59:29] call the people who didn't get the job. We will let them know there will be a press release
[59:37] who you chose. It basically will say pending approval at the next board meeting. This
[59:45] is the person that you're going to recommend for hire.
[59:50] And then part of the contract with WASB is if you want me to come in with a new superintendent
[59:59] And
[1:00:00] Board and talk about transition from where you are now and what you expect in a new superintendent. I'd be willing to facilitate that as part of your contract, whether you use it or not. It's up to you. The other part of your contract is you get a three year superintendent evaluation tool.
[1:00:21] You get the tool to use for three years without cost. And it's a it's a consensus driven one evaluation.
[1:00:31] from the board creates one evaluation from all seven of you and it's based on
[1:00:37] continuous improvement of the superintendent and if the person's the first
[1:00:43] year superintendent in your district or if they're a veteran person it's based
[1:00:51] on the national school administrative standards as well as your job description
[1:00:59] so we can do more with that when it gets closer to that but I would do the
[1:01:03] training with you and there's and that's all part of your contract you don't
[1:01:09] pay more for that it's just like you do come with us this is what you get so
[1:01:13] it's part of the deal it's part of the deal but if you don't want it it's not
[1:01:19] subtracted from the deal I guess this is what I'm saying right so and there's
[1:01:25] But also the search guarantee, I don't know if you're familiar with that, but it is in your proposal.
[1:01:32] And what it says is if there wasn't a good match for a lot of different reasons within the first two years,
[1:01:39] not if somebody had to leave because of a family thing, but it explains it in your contract,
[1:01:45] that we will we will do another search just for cost and not we'll do that for
[1:01:53] so it'll question half as much or even less. So in other words, a warranty for
[1:02:00] our practical purposes? Yes, sir. Search guarantee is what it's called. Questions?
[1:02:08] I'm only missing here. Anything from Gordy? Do you have any questions?
[1:02:15] Karen, Pat, Lance, does it make sense? Yeah, good time estimate two.
[1:02:22] Is it an hour? Yeah.
[1:02:24] Oh, yes, that time estimate, yes. Can we talk about the timeline a little bit, because I know it is.
[1:02:32] I just wanted to bring it to our base attention that the review of applications to choose
[1:02:38] interview ease and questions is March 25th spring break.
[1:02:42] So just.
[1:02:43] Yes.
[1:02:44] So what am I going to do is make sure that they work for all of you to go to the same thing
[1:02:50] over on the same cafe.
[1:02:52] So.
[1:02:52] Thank you for bringing that up.
[1:02:54] Yes.
[1:02:55] I think many of us have.
[1:02:56] Right. So one of the questions I would ask about this timeline because I know the application typically is open for a month right is
[1:03:05] It's probably going to be difficult to move that February 22nd much earlier
[1:03:12] Because in order to build that application we have to have the focus groups completed right, but is there any way the deadline could be
[1:03:21] You know midweek and then we could do the review of the applications
[1:03:26] like Thursday of that week.
[1:03:31] Yeah, so what they are you proposing,
[1:03:35] right? So like more like the review of the
[1:03:37] application, March 21st,
[1:03:42] which wouldn't need to move the deadline then.
[1:03:45] Yeah, I can't do the 21st. I can't do the 21st. I can't do the 20th or the 21st.
[1:03:55] What is the 22nd look like for everybody? When is your spring break?
[1:04:09] We
[1:04:16] are meeting already on March 18th, we just bump it up a week because of spring break.
[1:04:29] If it closed, we could close it earlier.
[1:04:34] If you don't want to do a 15 to whatever that Friday is and then yeah, we could do that if you only want a three-week window
[1:04:42] You think three weeks is enough
[1:04:44] That's a better question for you
[1:04:46] Do you think three weeks is enough?
[1:04:48] You're gonna have two types of applicants. You're gonna have the person that's gonna get stuff in right away
[1:04:54] And then you're gonna get people that put things in the last two days
[1:04:58] because they make the last minute so
[1:05:01] And you know what? There's other districts that have already started this process, so really that deadline is not probably out of the ordinary to have it on the 18th.
[1:05:10] Yeah, we can, like I said, we can do whatever you want.
[1:05:14] Let me say that if we close it on us, anybody that's seriously interested in it, if three weeks isn't enough, then they probably need to go to a different district.
[1:05:24] We could close it on the 15th of March as I was just thinking yeah, okay
[1:05:32] And
[1:05:36] then we move the next meeting from March 25th to yep,
[1:05:49] we can do that March
[1:05:54] 25th goes to March 18th
[1:06:01] Anything else to conflicts of
[1:06:07] the
[1:06:09] You're the first round interviews first and second work very way
[1:06:13] April
[1:06:54] Yeah, I can't do the third or the fourth.
[1:07:03] When does the new board get sworn in?
[1:07:07] The
[1:07:10] new board is sworn in on April 22nd.
[1:07:13] Well, they need to be sworn in before April 22nd.
[1:07:16] They take their seat on the 22nd.
[1:07:27] The most critical date is that you're all here for the final round of interviews.
[1:07:33] Right?
[1:07:34] If one of you misses the first round, one of the first round nights, it's hard for that person to say who they think the best three are because you missed half of them.
[1:07:49] But if the more critical is, you're still going to have read all of the applicants, you're still going to have an opinion on paper who these people are.
[1:07:58] The critical date is the 10th, 11th, or 12th, however, whatever
[1:08:04] updates you decide there.
[1:08:19] So wait for one and two, we leave there, and then what about the
[1:08:23] 10th, 11th, or 11th, and 12th, or how do you want to work for the
[1:08:29] final?
[1:08:36] That's a Wednesday, Thursday, 10th, 11th, right?
[1:08:40] because
[1:08:45] at 12th is a Friday, you don't want to come back on Friday.
[1:08:54] So there will be homework for you not tonight, but there will be homework for you in that
[1:09:02] and I'll work with Tabitha to schedule these focus groups that week of the 29th
[1:09:10] through the February 8th of, I'm sorry, the 6th or 8th of February, but
[1:09:17] But the homework will be taking a look at the questions that are out there and trying to determine what those 15 first-round questions are going to look like.
[1:09:28] What can you all agree on? At the very least, what areas do you want them to be in?
[1:09:36] And we can give you some options as to what questions are out there for the areas that you want to ask the people about.
[1:09:48] okay pretty much right and so when we meet on 15th
[1:09:56] I did we decide if it's the 15th or the 19th of February for that first meeting
[1:10:04] 15th is a Thursday 19th is a Monday what helps you better Monday's
[1:10:09] president's day.
[1:10:15] Nineteenth is better.
[1:10:20] How about the rest?
[1:10:28] It's when you look to see what people said in the focus group responses, the
[1:10:34] survey responses, and we're going to start talking about the application
[1:10:38] questions. Yeah.
[1:10:47] 15.
[1:10:51] Right. So I'm here on the 19th, but not the 15th. So it doesn't
[1:10:56] matter whatever. So you're on the 19th, but not the 15th.
[1:11:08] And I should be fine as
[1:11:09] all better
[1:11:12] so Monday the 19th for you although it's the 19th right okay there's no
[1:11:25] school that day just so everybody knows as well February
[1:11:34] 19th
[1:11:38] is that a regular board meeting you
[1:11:39] You can meet twice a month.
[1:11:40] And you two can't make it out of the 15th, right?
[1:11:43] But the 19th, what's
[1:11:47] the name of the 19th?
[1:11:49] Well, I was thinking, I've got one
[1:11:53] just made it down in Madison in the 19th,
[1:11:55] so I thought it could be both of the most missing.
[1:12:00] And I can't work, sir.
[1:12:01] I'm just going to do the thing.
[1:12:04] And I'm just going to miss two more.
[1:12:10] I mean, you've got seven of them.
[1:12:16] OK, so what a bond.
[1:12:27] No, I'm good. I'm good. February. What about the 14th? That's Valentine's Day. Do you want to spend your Valentine's Day? I mean?
[1:12:36] Nope. Okay. That'd be a no? Okay.
[1:12:43] So what's your pleasure?
[1:12:58] 15?
[1:13:03] Okay.
[1:13:27] 15th okay okay
[1:13:36] all the other dates work right we said okay so let's just go
[1:13:41] down that one more time we've got tonight is the 22nd the vacancy vote is
[1:13:46] posted in a couple days the press release also will coordinate those two
[1:13:49] things so that your web page announces it the same way that survey will go on the 29th.
[1:13:59] Focus groups that will be something that we take care of internally.
[1:14:06] Your focus group, the admin, the board focus group, you can do it one or two ways.
[1:14:11] You can sit down virtually with me and answer questions, these questions that you have individually
[1:14:19] or you can write out your answers and submit them to me and I'll just compile them and make them part of the report anyway.
[1:14:30] One way it causes you to have another meeting with me face to face or virtually.
[1:14:37] The other way is you get to take some time to think about each one and turn it in but you're not doing it collectively.
[1:14:45] So what would you like to do there?
[1:14:47] Yeah.
[1:14:53] For me personally, I'd rather have a discussion with you.
[1:14:55] Okay.
[1:14:56] Just me.
[1:14:57] I'm not going to object strongly if...
[1:14:59] If...
[1:15:00] I think you're written stuff, but I'd like to rather have the discussion. Group. Okay, so we're kind of scheduling that. All
[1:15:08] right, I think we're good. Questions that you have for me, anybody?
[1:15:17] I said to your president, so this is going to be fun. These not sure if it's fun, but it's certainly, I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be, I think you're going to enjoy it. If you've done it before, you know that it's somewhat stressful, but it's also. I might use some other senators.
[1:15:35] them some versus exciting and what exciting. Thank you for having me and you have my
[1:15:43] cart if you have any questions, if you want to email me anything.
[1:15:46] I would say if there are any questions for members for Pat, go ahead and Fran, go ahead
[1:15:57] in. I just didn't want to put you on the hot seat there, Pat. I'm looking at you and I
[1:16:04] see. So anyway, the bottom line is feel free to contact
[1:16:08] for it. If you have questions, that does not have to go
[1:16:11] through me or anything like that directly to you. That's why
[1:16:15] we brought you on board. And if I send out something, I will
[1:16:19] send it out to everybody so that you all. Good. So all
[1:16:22] every question will be answered for all of us. Right. Okay.
[1:16:26] Thanks. All right. Thank you.
[1:16:32] Moving on to agenda item
[1:16:33] Number five, annually a three-year capital improvement plan is submitted to the Board of Education for approval.
[1:16:41] Ryan Maskey, Director of Buildings and Grounds will review and audit projects recently completed as
[1:16:47] well as the effective alternate funding sources to provide contacts for the upcoming plans capital
[1:16:53] improvements. Projects planned for 2024-2025 are provided on the final page. Administration
[1:17:01] and recommends the committee of the whole approve the 24-25 capital projects and the corresponding budget.
[1:17:09] So with that, turn there over to you.
[1:17:10] Good evening, everybody.
[1:17:13] We're here tonight, obviously, to present the 24-25 capital budget.
[1:17:21] The information that Cassia is up and your packets have should be looked familiar
[1:17:27] clear than they did in the past and that's because we kept the same format as in the past.
[1:17:35] We bring the capital budget for your approval to in advance other budgets in the district
[1:17:41] due to the need to solicit bids prepare for projects and these projects are mostly done
[1:17:48] in the summer.
[1:17:51] So for those of you that haven't seen this layout from previous years, pages three and
[1:17:57] four contain information pertaining to the rational, the rationale for scheduling projects.
[1:18:05] If you look on page three, the capital budget has remained constant at the $1 million, $8,400
[1:18:16] dollars as it has in the past 10 years, despite increasing costs for labor and supplies.
[1:18:26] So if you go to, I guess you could go to page 5, please.
[1:18:31] So I'm not going to go through all of them, but starting on page 5 through page 28.
[1:18:37] This contains the historical information for each school, the more significant improvements
[1:18:45] completed over the years. I believe started in 1991.
[1:18:53] And then we move forward to page 29.
[1:18:58] 29 is the three-year capital needs cover sheet. Comes from a larger workbook containing anticipated
[1:19:08] capital needs over the next 10 years. Most of the information is based on anticipated life of given
[1:19:15] and building components through the implementation
[1:19:18] of our preventive maintenance program
[1:19:22] and some other sources that we have.
[1:19:25] This is adjusted annually based on repairs,
[1:19:30] replacements, or premature failure.
[1:19:33] So if you look up on the top, the left column on the top,
[1:19:36] as you can see our anticipated need for 24, 25,
[1:19:40] is $3,413,000.
[1:19:45] As a small part of necessary reductions to get to that $1,8,400, we will accomplish some
[1:19:57] of that by using the Q1 funds from a previous referendum.
[1:20:02] The remaining deductions will result in projects being postponed until future years, increase
[1:20:09] budgets or potential referendum funding.
[1:20:14] projects will be focused on locations that represent the least likelihood to
[1:20:19] result in stranded investments. So in other words, we're taking a
[1:20:24] consideration where the district is looking to go and we want to make sure we
[1:20:28] spend our money properly. One other note I went to point out is the major
[1:20:35] increase in capital needs for anticipated capital need in the future. That's in
[1:20:41] year 2526 and 2627. These are noted as important reference since we're we're
[1:20:52] going to have an ongoing roof and HBAC replacement needs as we go forward in
[1:20:56] future. Remember this is a 10 year capital outlook so we have to start a
[1:21:02] county for those so I will continue to add those on as we move forward.
[1:21:08] And finally
[1:21:10] Historically we avoided naming specific projects for our capital plan basically to give us the flexibility to handle on for scene issues such as whether related damage or premature failures.
[1:21:23] So, if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer.
[1:21:30] If you stumped me, that's why Mr. Briguda sticks on my left.
[1:21:34] any questions from the board.
[1:21:39] If not, I'm seeking a motion to recommend to the Full Board of Education, the approval of the 2024-2025 Capital Projects and the corresponding budget.
[1:21:50] So moved.
[1:21:50] Say it.
[1:21:52] All in favor?
[1:21:54] Aye.
[1:21:55] Opposed?
[1:21:56] Motion carries.
[1:21:57] Thank you very much.
[1:21:57] And item number six, Assistant Superintendent Josh Gute is presenting a summary report representing all legal counsel expenses incurred during the second quarter of the 2023-2024 school year.
[1:22:15] The report is broken down by law firm and by the type of legal advice sought.
[1:22:21] This is a written report that requires no action.
[1:22:24] Thank you. I'd just like to note that the top box is the just this quarter. So second quarter of the school year and then the bottom box is the year to date total.
[1:22:39] You'll notice that the first quarter was significantly more than the second quarter. We had about $30,000 this quarter.
[1:22:47] I'd also like to note that the total budget for this is about $90,000, so we're halfway
[1:22:53] through the year and we're already at our budget for this allotment, so take that into
[1:22:58] account next year when we update the budget.
[1:23:02] Any questions on this?
[1:23:05] No questions?
[1:23:07] Okay.
[1:23:08] Thank you very much.
[1:23:10] agenda item number seven.
[1:23:13] Ms. White will present the post 2024-2025 district calendar.
[1:23:18] Good
[1:23:24] evening board members. So it is that time of the year when I bring next year's school calendar to you and before we really get into some of the changes that you'll see it's important to highlight and really celebrate that this calendar is really driven by feedback feedback from our staff and feedback from our family.
[1:23:43] So I would like to thank everybody who has reached out, whether it's over the phone,
[1:23:47] over email and surveys. We sincerely appreciate the feedback, and if
[1:23:51] someone's at home listening and thinking to themselves, I have a thought, I want them
[1:23:55] to feel like and know that they can reach out, and we will, seriously take their
[1:23:59] feedback into consideration. Also important to note, the calendar that we're presenting to you
[1:24:05] does meet DPI instructional minutes requirements, and that's something that's
[1:24:10] That's really important when we plan each calendar, knowing that we have a lot of staff
[1:24:14] who live in other school districts.
[1:24:16] We want to make sure that key dates spring break, winter break, those kinds of things
[1:24:20] align.
[1:24:21] And this calendar very, very much does that just to name a few, Meryl Mosey and DC Everest.
[1:24:28] So now the conversation is about what's new.
[1:24:31] While the calendar all and all is fairly similar to previous years, one thing to note is
[1:24:37] this current school year is the first year that we've done independent learning days and
[1:24:41] as a refresher. Those days are designed for our staff to participate in professional development
[1:24:47] and then our students participate in learning from home. Knowing this is something that we really
[1:24:52] hadn't done before, we wanted to get some feedback to see what is working. Do we like those days?
[1:24:57] Do we not? Where could we improve? And when we looked at the staff feedback, overwhelmingly they were
[1:25:03] really glad to have these added days for collaboration and professional development.
[1:25:09] And the one we looked at families, they were a little bit more split.
[1:25:13] Some of the biggest highlights in the feedback we heard was child care.
[1:25:17] Was an issue as is any day that there is not school in session.
[1:25:22] And then we heard have the independent learning days but maybe just make them professional
[1:25:28] development days don't have the learning at home component because it is one more thing for
[1:25:33] families to plan for. So this calendar takes the independent learning days and turns them into just
[1:25:38] professional learning or professional development days. Excuse me. In order to do that, though,
[1:25:44] and meet instructional minutes, we're okay at the elementary level, but at the secondary level,
[1:25:49] we would be short. So we looked at how do we make up for that time? We could add on to the end of
[1:25:55] the school year. Historically, when we think of the feedback we've gotten today, we've heard from
[1:25:59] families and staff that they that's not really the ideal would to go. So then we looked at adding
[1:26:05] minutes to the day and what would that look like. So before we had the conversation we really wanted
[1:26:11] to bring our busing company for student into that to understand busing routes and the timing.
[1:26:16] So in the feedback we received from them they said one thing that would be important to think about
[1:26:21] is that to add those four minutes to the morning only and by doing so it's the least impact on
[1:26:28] busing routes. Right now, our students who ride yellow buses do arrive to school in time so
[1:26:36] if the bell schedule started four minutes earlier at the secondary level, they would be okay
[1:26:41] barring any sort of issue that may arise in the morning, maybe slippery roads, things like that.
[1:26:46] But all in all, they get to school in plenty of time and would arrive and begin the school day
[1:26:52] four minutes earlier than this year.
[1:26:54] So then if we go to the next slide, here is what the-
[1:26:58] Question about the damage.
[1:26:59] Yes.
[1:27:00] Is home room minutes- do they count as instructional minutes?
[1:27:03] Yes.
[1:27:04] So it's when the morning bell rings and any kind of instruction begins.
[1:27:08] So at the secondary level on that incoming bell rings, that's when we begin counting instructional
[1:27:13] minutes.
[1:27:14] Okay.
[1:27:15] So shortening home room doesn't buy us four minutes because it's already in there.
[1:27:18] Correct.
[1:27:21] So here's what that calendar looks like just a couple of notes graduation dates are still
[1:27:26] being finalized.
[1:27:27] We hope to have those ready for you at the next regular board meeting in February.
[1:27:32] And then I just want to point out, and looking at the calendar, we found a little error and
[1:27:36] it's just in January 17th.
[1:27:39] You see a green box, that should be a yellow box, same with March 21st, so we'll get those
[1:27:45] changed right away and uploaded so they are correct.
[1:27:48] But if you highlights what this calendar, we start the school year after Labor Day, and then we end the first week in June that Thursday would be the last day of classes.
[1:28:00] And then Friday would be the last day for staff.
[1:28:03] We still continue to do the afternoon parent teacher conferences in October that is noted on October 23rd.
[1:28:11] So, those are some of the highlights and you can see the September 27th day.
[1:28:16] That is a traditional professional learning day.
[1:28:19] This year it would have been that independent learning day.
[1:28:21] So there are two days where it's just the professional learning, not learning from home
[1:28:25] students.
[1:28:27] And I think one thing that's going to be important to remember is graduation dates.
[1:28:31] I mean, this is the first year that we're doing two on one day depending on the feedback
[1:28:35] that we get from that is going to influence what we do next year. I've heard a lot on both sides
[1:28:43] of it. Okay. I'll be interested to see how it actually gets pulled off. Okay. Great thing to
[1:28:48] think about. Sure thing. I have a question on one of the days. There's a day off in April.
[1:28:56] I'm wondering what that's for and if it needs to be in April and wondering if it would,
[1:29:01] If not, would it be better served to be on that Friday before spring break?
[1:29:06] And I ask because we have so many traveling families including our staff.
[1:29:12] And I always suspect that we probably have a drop in attendance on Friday before spring break any rack
[1:29:18] So if we're gonna have a day off of school, it would seem to make sense to try to pick one that people already
[1:29:22] I don't want to say skipping, but missing
[1:29:25] And we had that exact conversation and when we took that into consideration we also looked at April 20th that would be that Monday after Easter.
[1:29:37] So we tried to put it up against where there was some kind of break thinking about where families might be traveling to use some of that.
[1:29:44] But if the board would prefer to go with the March date, we could go that route too.
[1:29:49] Well, I don't want to just step in and dictate what a committee or came up with.
[1:29:57] It's just I.
[1:30:00] I just know a lot of a lot of families, including staff, appreciate having time on Friday before spring break because they're traveling. Isn't that already? What am I? Isn't the 21st? It's not.
[1:30:12] April 18th is the Friday before Easter, which is a paid holiday for a number of our employees.
[1:30:20] So I just want to put on the radar that if that were shifted and it becomes a school day,
[1:30:27] we would need to do something with regard to the holidays that they're entitled to.
[1:30:34] I just want to make sure the board knows that.
[1:30:36] No, that's a good point and that's why I asked why it was that day because that maybe that answers it
[1:30:42] Maybe that's a good enough reason that it would be that day and not
[1:30:46] Not March 21st because March 21st that you asked if that's a day that's that's a half day for elementary
[1:30:51] But it's still a full day for secondary students and a full day for all staff
[1:30:58] Yeah, that's right before some great
[1:31:01] Which is the end of the quarter to
[1:31:04] So teachers are usually trying to get grades taken care of before they go off
[1:31:08] or spring break. Got a couple of questions. Having put schedules together for
[1:31:13] over 20-something years. I'm looking at this and I see that we have 11 professional
[1:31:18] development days and just questions. That's what you get a lot of when the calendar
[1:31:25] comes in play. I'm looking at only 173. We look at the secondary level. You look at
[1:31:33] But a little bit differently than you do at the elementary level.
[1:31:35] You can add minutes here and there at the elementary level.
[1:31:39] You miss a day at the high school and middle school situation.
[1:31:43] You're missing an instructional period for all practical purposes.
[1:31:46] You just can't add minutes on at that level.
[1:31:49] It's just a different way of dealing with it, but I know the DPI does that all the time.
[1:31:54] You always get a little bit of a complaint with them, but contact time.
[1:32:00] You've got your AP classes, you've got your IB classes, you've got all of that when
[1:32:04] you lose contact time, that's tough.
[1:32:08] That's tough on those classes, those high-end classes or any classes for that matter.
[1:32:14] So I'm just looking at 173 contact days.
[1:32:16] That's all we have at the middle and secondary level.
[1:32:21] Correct.
[1:32:22] And the DPI used to have a requirement of 175 days.
[1:32:26] they did away with that and they only consider the instructional minutes
[1:32:29] themselves. So to your point elementary has a set level and then our
[1:32:33] middle and high schools do too. So DPI says as long as we meet those minute
[1:32:38] requirements and by adding the four minutes we meet them but then we also exceed
[1:32:44] the minute thresholds and what you'll see in the next slide too is that this
[1:32:48] calendar has three traditional snow days built in as well.
[1:32:54] So the calculation what I did is I factored in those three days to make sure that we are
[1:33:01] still meeting those minutes and then some should we need all three snow days.
[1:33:06] And by the way, the history goes back where not only was it 175 days of contact time, but
[1:33:13] it was at one time 180 days of contact time, which I always fought for because of the fact
[1:33:18] of the high-end classes, now you're losing those contact days and that's very
[1:33:23] important. So I'll just statements that I'm giving you. But the next comment is
[1:33:30] looking at 11 professional days, is that pretty much what we've had in the past
[1:33:34] where we've had 11 professional development? We actually have more now. One thing
[1:33:39] that we have continuously heard from a majority of staff and something that
[1:33:43] really spurred us to look into independent learning days was a need and a
[1:33:48] request for more consistent and ongoing opportunities for collaboration amongst their
[1:33:53] colleagues and professional development, so we really wanted to be cognizant of that
[1:33:58] and try to fit in some more days.
[1:34:00] So this school year, we have eight professional development days within the school year itself,
[1:34:07] and then in this calendar there would be seven, and that is after the first day of school
[1:34:11] and before the end of the school year, and now taking into account the four days in August.
[1:34:15] Yes.
[1:34:16] Well, another comment from the administrative point of view and also from the teacher point
[1:34:21] of view.
[1:34:22] I'm wondering about teachers have a lot to do at the very beginning and at the end and
[1:34:29] throughout the year.
[1:34:31] Questions always come up but is that in service, is that professional development day going
[1:34:36] to be worth my time or is it just going to be me checking off a box that I may have
[1:34:42] professional development. Are they getting that time that they need with their PLCs and others so
[1:34:48] that they can make sure they get the work done that they need to get done and it's not a central
[1:34:54] office directive and I don't mean to put pressure on the central office but I do know as a teacher
[1:35:00] for so many years in the district I used to wonder why are we doing all this when I could get into my PLC's
[1:35:06] or I can get in with my teammates. And I'm wondering if anyone in our education team has anything to
[1:35:12] add to help answer? Some of that that I'm not.
[1:35:18] There's a great question and yes, we're really trying to balance the time between professional
[1:35:24] development and professional learning that goes along with some of our standards and curriculum
[1:35:30] with balancing that time, especially this year. We have a lot of great feedback from those
[1:35:34] in the kind of learning days with collaboration with peers around necessary elements with
[1:35:39] PLCs and departments at all levels. So maintaining, you know, those days first
[1:35:45] staff, I think, is something that they've definitely wanted and would like to
[1:35:49] continue and balancing at time between training and collaboration time. It's
[1:35:54] all professional learning, but both are equally important. So yes, I would
[1:35:57] say. Right. Well, in understand I'm asking those questions because of the fact
[1:36:01] that I'm also a person that, like I said, dealt with 180 and at one time 185
[1:36:06] contact days and now we're seeing them come down in contact days and we added more professional development, just as long as we're making sure there's enough time for teachers to do what they need to do.
[1:36:17] I think one thing that helps with those in service days before their school year starts is not having them run all the way up to that Friday.
[1:36:26] When we made that change but that's been very well received to have Thursday and Friday or at least Friday off, which for many teachers isn't actually off.
[1:36:34] They're in the school working, but at least they're, you know, they have that day to get in there and get ready
[1:36:41] One question. I appreciate the three traditional snow days. I know we'll get really that will be well received
[1:36:47] I've both staff and families I think um, but
[1:36:51] That added four minutes. What does that look like? So there's four more minutes
[1:36:59] Add it on to what?
[1:37:01] So all around to period. So we move the bell schedule up those four minutes. So the end of the school day would still be the same.
[1:37:11] And I don't know if our education department friends have anything to add for that about what that.
[1:37:17] They're just in the building four minutes longer with the bell having wrong under instruction like instruction would begin at that time like it does now.
[1:37:26] And we looked at do we add them to the end of the day and one thing for students that is that would kind of create a snowball effect in that so they would get to the secondary schools four minutes later that would push into the elementary bus route schedules and then if that runs behind than any evening activities that would require any kind of busing would be impacted as well so that's why they suggested the morning so four minutes earlier instruction would start.
[1:37:54] So, can I ask, I mean, I know we're starting a little later and ending a little later and
[1:38:01] my guess is, maybe this is wrong, to assume that that allows for a little bit more time
[1:38:07] with all the construction that's happening.
[1:38:10] Is that right?
[1:38:11] And it's not.
[1:38:12] So, is this a change that we're going to, this four minutes that's added is just because
[1:38:19] of the other changes that we've made to the calendar,
[1:38:22] which might continue halfway.
[1:38:24] So the added professional development,
[1:38:26] but the independent learning day is turning those just
[1:38:29] into professional development days,
[1:38:31] takes away some instruction.
[1:38:32] So that's where we lose our minutes.
[1:38:34] So, and staff have said we want to maintain
[1:38:36] that professional development.
[1:38:37] So that's where the requirement to add those four minutes
[1:38:40] at the secondary level comes into play
[1:38:43] because we need to meet that threshold.
[1:38:45] You know, we have looked at starting,
[1:38:46] Again, before Labor Day, however, DPI is really cutting back on the number of waivers that they grant now if they grant any at all.
[1:38:55] So just be mindful of that.
[1:38:56] We went ahead and started after Labor Day.
[1:39:00] Everybody, when you have a chance and to our legislative liaison,
[1:39:06] it sure would be nice if the state would allow some local control to decide for themselves when the best day is to start the school year.
[1:39:15] as opposed to dictating to us the day that the school year has to start.
[1:39:20] You don't even have to go to legislation and push for that because of the fact that it's been a fight in the state of Wisconsin for a long time,
[1:39:27] especially up north because of tourism, and that I remember pushing the go way into August because of the fact that all the athletic programs start in the first week of August,
[1:39:39] why not start school at that time and then be done in May with school and with
[1:39:46] your AP and IB test being done they're done in the last couple of weeks of May
[1:39:53] and those students are trying to find time to do something actually the
[1:39:58] teachers are trying to find time but the tests are already taken so it would be
[1:40:02] nice a lot of procule schools in the state of Wisconsin are doing that but we are
[1:40:07] We're still hamstrung by the legislature to start on September 1st.
[1:40:13] You're saying private schools that receive public funding.
[1:40:18] I'm not going to go down that way, saying that's what I'm saying.
[1:40:21] I'm just saying what they have.
[1:40:23] So I just think I'm all for the professional development days and I know that's really
[1:40:30] important for our staff and so I'm very supportive of that.
[1:40:33] But I do, it does bother me a little bit to pretend that four minutes at the beginning
[1:40:41] of the day is increased instructional time, if it's really not increased instructional
[1:40:46] time.
[1:40:47] I mean, I think we just need to be honest about what that really is.
[1:40:51] And maybe that's the same thing of the independent learning days as well, which might have been
[1:40:56] the feedback that you received anyway, was not really either considered instructional time
[1:41:01] though it counted as instructional time, and now we've removed that because of the feedback
[1:41:06] that was received from staff and families as well. But I just think that's worth noting.
[1:41:13] Well, I agree. I don't think the four minutes makes a huge difference, but I think having the
[1:41:18] independent days did either. And I think it took away from the professional learning, from the teachers
[1:41:23] who then had to not only prepare for that, but then deal with the fact that it wasn't used,
[1:41:31] All the catch up anyway, so I think it's just a question of whether or not you think that the professional learning days for the teachers is worth it, right, like that's
[1:41:41] Those days do you want? Well, Mr. Sillers, I will turn to you as our representative to the legislature and also to maybe
[1:41:49] Cease and nine so you can talk about this with DPI because DPI
[1:41:54] Directs the number of minutes to have to be done and the legislature has control when we start and what we don't start
[1:42:00] So good discussion because there are calendars not easy, and I'm going to tell you I appreciate that it's not easy and for all the others that have worked on it.
[1:42:11] But we want to make sure we're using our time as wisely as possible again. So that's why we ask questions.
[1:42:17] Anything else?
[1:42:21] Anything else?
[1:42:21] No, at this time unless anyone has any further questions.
[1:42:28] I don't think so. I think we ask you enough questions.
[1:42:30] That's okay. I don't mind.
[1:42:32] I wish you were asking and begging for more questions we could ask those questions.
[1:42:37] You have them sent away.
[1:42:43] So I got to get back to where I'm at here.
[1:42:46] Yeah.
[1:42:49] I'm seeking a motion to recommend to the full board the approval of the 2025 district calendar as presented.
[1:42:59] All
[1:43:02] in favor?
[1:43:03] Aye.
[1:43:04] Opposed?
[1:43:05] Motion carries.
[1:43:06] Thank you very much.
[1:43:07] Thank you so much.
[1:43:08] Sorry to grill you like that.
[1:43:13] All right, Josh will share many of the key variables contributing to the district's
[1:43:20] multi-year financial projection model with the model representative baseline using current
[1:43:26] information to which adjustments are subsequently made.
[1:43:30] The projection model uses budget numbers from the 2023-2024 district budget with percentages
[1:43:36] changes and or dollar amounts cast forward along with adjustments to create this baseline.
[1:43:42] Once these assumptions are built into the projection model, it will be presented to the board
[1:43:47] at a later date.
[1:43:48] So the process continues.
[1:43:50] Yeah.
[1:43:51] Thank you, perfect.
[1:43:52] So back to budget season.
[1:43:55] So exactly like Tim said, some we do every year.
[1:43:59] We use frontline, I think formally forecast five, to create a multi-year projection of
[1:44:06] our budget both in terms of revenues and expenses and these are the assumptions that we will
[1:44:11] feed into that model.
[1:44:13] So if you have feedback on these assumptions please feel free to provide it and we'll
[1:44:18] work from there.
[1:44:20] Obviously our employees are a huge priority and we take them into account when making these
[1:44:25] assumptions.
[1:44:27] I'd also like to note that we know the revenue limit will increase by $325 per pupil
[1:44:34] next year, and that is something like 2.67%. So anything you see over 2.67% is somewhere
[1:44:45] where we are spending more than we will be receiving next year in terms of an increase.
[1:44:50] So we'll have to spend less money in a different category. Any questions on that before I jump
[1:44:56] in?
[1:44:56] So looking for...
[1:45:02] We assumed three percent across the board at this point for salary changes. This is just a starting point, just a baseline. It's important to note that CPI, I think this year it was finalized at 4.1 last year was somewhere around 8. So it came down significantly, but still pretty high.
[1:45:30] And then in terms of retirements and turnover, we know at this point that I think we have 24 retirements, so there will be a trade-off there where a newer teacher costs you less than a more experienced teacher, but you do, of course, lose that experience with the teacher walking out the door, so it's important to note.
[1:45:49] the moving down to benefits, those top line items, those are known and if that's a change
[1:45:56] that's something we don't control. Then we move down to health insurance. In November
[1:46:01] we had a plan change that went into effect in January but our claims to continue to trend
[1:46:09] up. So we did put that 3% number in there at this point as a placeholder and then there's
[1:46:15] additional line, just want to note that there could be additional plan changes or contribution
[1:46:21] model changes, anything that, so I wanted to note that to you.
[1:46:29] And then moving on to non-salary and benefit expenditure assumptions.
[1:46:34] So in the general fund, all of those things, we are expected to make no change at this point
[1:46:39] at least.
[1:46:40] That's what we're projecting.
[1:46:41] But as was noted in the capital budget presentation, things continue to cost more.
[1:46:45] So we are asking people to tighten their belts a little bit on that.
[1:46:50] And then moving down to utilities, we have 2% assumed for next year, 3% for the following
[1:46:56] year, and then 4% in the subsequent years, that 2% number is based on where we are year-to-date
[1:47:03] how we're doing.
[1:47:04] So that's what we have there.
[1:47:07] Then transportation, this current year, and then next year are the final years of our contract,
[1:47:13] current contract with first student, so we will be bringing RFP forward this spring.
[1:47:19] So we know that we're roughly around 2.5 percent for next year for an increase, but then
[1:47:23] projected 5 percent going forward in subsequent years, and there's a chance it could be more
[1:47:28] than that.
[1:47:29] So, Josh, that was one of my questions, just, I mean, 5 percent is great, it looks nice as
[1:47:35] a placeholder, but it's not realistic, based on everything that we've seen and heard,
[1:47:41] I mean, just industry-wide, is there any advantage to keeping the five where it is?
[1:47:50] You're probably correct in that we could see a larger increase.
[1:47:54] I don't know that we will, but I don't know how the bids will come in,
[1:47:58] but it's possible that we could see a larger increase.
[1:48:01] And when we start looking at those subsequent years,
[1:48:04] two, three, four, five years down the model in the next couple of meetings,
[1:48:08] it may be important to increase that. So if that's something you'd like to do, I'm totally
[1:48:13] on board with that. Now, when so are our current contract ends next year? So it goes through June
[1:48:22] of 2025. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. So the first 3% there is really the only, or that I'm sorry, the 2.5%.
[1:48:32] That's the only that's the only one that's the only known exactly. Those next four years are all
[1:48:37] hypotheticals of a new contract, and that's good feedback to take into account with rising
[1:48:44] transportation costs.
[1:48:45] I mean, I hope you're right.
[1:48:47] Well, I think it's good to be realistic, but you don't want to be aggressive with it
[1:48:51] either.
[1:48:51] We don't want to advertise.
[1:48:52] Hey, by the way, we're already budgeted in for 10%, so when you meet your grid, yes.
[1:48:58] And the RFP process will start soon, and we're hoping to have the next contract in place
[1:49:05] by this summer? Am I correct?
[1:49:07] Yeah, the last time we went through this we had someone approved, I think either in June or July,
[1:49:12] so it'd be nice if we could follow that same timeline that would give them a year to work
[1:49:15] behind the scenes, whoever it is, and then we'd know for budgeting purposes. So,
[1:49:22] Josh,
[1:49:23] we'll go back. The water and the sewer charges, is that basically an average for the district?
[1:49:31] because obviously WASA has increased some of their rates and if you aren't aware of it,
[1:49:39] the metro sewage that takes care of Wrathchiles and Remotent has also already increased the sewage
[1:49:47] side and then in 25 Remotent will begin their water plant and then there will be a rate increase
[1:49:55] for water because of that.
[1:49:58] So just things for you, that's good to be aware.
[1:50:01] Thank you.
[1:50:01] Well, appreciate that.
[1:50:02] That
[1:50:05] into account moving forward.
[1:50:06] Any other questions before I keep moving down the page?
[1:50:12] In district insurance, those are, that's just about the average that we've experienced.
[1:50:17] So that's what's factored in there at this time.
[1:50:20] Fun 27, non-salary and benefit, we're not expecting to see any changes there.
[1:50:26] Fund 50, the only change we're projecting that 2% increase you see is in non-capital objects or food
[1:50:33] So that's about where we're trending for next year
[1:50:37] And then nothing in fund 80 at this point any questions on those
[1:50:41] We just have a couple manual adjustments. We have the open
[1:50:47] Open to open enrollment tuition
[1:50:51] net expense increase
[1:50:53] What we're seeing is a leveling off of the gap between open and rolled in and open and rolled out.
[1:51:00] So that $5,000 number you see reflected there.
[1:51:04] That's a placeholder for that flattening of that gap.
[1:51:08] And then we have the voucher program projecting a 10% increase year over year.
[1:51:15] Any questions on those two?
[1:51:18] Okay, revenue assumptions.
[1:51:21] We have the $325 that we talked about.
[1:51:25] One thing I did want to know for other revenue assumptions is the investment income
[1:51:30] that is not referendum specific investments.
[1:51:34] That's just our general money that is invested.
[1:51:39] So we're having right now this year a good year, but it's a very small number.
[1:51:44] So you'll see a 50% increase for next year.
[1:51:48] and then we're going to start dialing that back because we're having a banner year this year
[1:51:53] we'll probably end up something like two percent two hundred percent of budget but again it's a
[1:51:58] very small number so that 50 percent increase is not a large dollar amount increase and then we have
[1:52:05] the revenue limit exemptions so those are the energy efficiency things that we did a couple of
[1:52:11] years ago and we were we did the projects now we have to pay them off so we love it for them and
[1:52:17] that we pay them off, we only have a couple of years of that left and that will fall off the
[1:52:21] levy. The other one I wanted to note is the SR funds that we are spending, this is the
[1:52:28] last real year of SR funding we have through September of next year so there's a tiny little
[1:52:34] window in there but you'll note that we have about $3.5 million of personnel cost in there.
[1:52:43] So, those funds, if nothing's done with current staffing model, will have to move into the
[1:52:50] general fund.
[1:52:52] So.
[1:52:53] And the SRM money goes away, and we have used all of our SRM money, obviously we have it
[1:52:59] until September to finish that up, but we are using it productively.
[1:53:04] We are using it productively, yep.
[1:53:06] And we do have, and I've asked this before, but I just want to say it again, we do have
[1:53:10] of the three and a half million identified of personnel expense.
[1:53:14] So when that time comes, we know what was a net add prior to ESSER.
[1:53:19] So we don't have to-
[1:53:21] So I want to- yes, I want to answer your question best.
[1:53:24] I can. We've identified the positions that were specifically added in response
[1:53:28] to the pandemic with ESSER funding and what can be done with those positions.
[1:53:34] And that is something I will bring before you in terms of the budget reconciliation plan.
[1:53:40] Okay, and all those employees knew that they were hired under extra money as well, so they knew it would run out eventually.
[1:53:50] I was not here. I don't want to speak to the language that was communicated to those employees. Probably a rhetorical question.
[1:53:58] Okay, no answer for you.
[1:54:00] So then we have the fund 80 levy that will stay the same and stay the same last couple years and the
[1:54:07] special education aid reimbursement percentage will stay at that 33 percent.
[1:54:12] Any
[1:54:14] questions on this?
[1:54:20] Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate the information.
[1:54:23] Gender item nine. The Montessori Charter School received school board approval to expand to the
[1:54:31] grades 4K, 8th grade, there is a federal charter of school grants through a DPI that is available
[1:54:38] to support Wisconsin Charter Schools expansion costs and we are seeking approval to buy for
[1:54:44] this grant to help support the costs associated with the expansion such as training and professional
[1:54:50] development curriculum and resources, equipment and expanded learning experiences, these opportunities
[1:54:56] I just want to enhance the learning for all students and staff at the Montessori Charter School.
[1:55:01] So I turn it over to you, ladies.
[1:55:06] Here, go ahead.
[1:55:08] Good evening.
[1:55:09] Thank you.
[1:55:10] We have an exciting opportunity for us at the Montessori Charter School and Head of School of Elizabeth Channel.
[1:55:15] It's going to talk to you a little bit more about it.
[1:55:18] That's what I appreciate.
[1:55:20] Introduced.
[1:55:20] Yes, so back in June of 2022, you all approved for our Montessori Charter School to move from a K6 school to a 4K through eighth grade school.
[1:55:32] So for the fall 2022 school year, we added our first seventh grade class.
[1:55:38] Followed 2023, we moved up to eighth grade and this fall we will be adding our 4K, so we will be officially 4K through eighth.
[1:55:46] So that is really exciting.
[1:55:48] We will have 18 open seats for 4K, and so we've talked through what that will look like.
[1:55:54] But this specific grant for DPI, they offer it on a five-year plan, and so they typically
[1:56:02] take a break in between the five-year cycles.
[1:56:05] So it was five years before, they took a break last year, and now it is back.
[1:56:09] I was very pleased to sit through a webinar with DPI where they explained expectations for
[1:56:14] the grant.
[1:56:15] They're looking for high-quality charter schools, so that is per DPI standards, so they're
[1:56:20] looking for schools that are charter that have met or exceeds expectations in the time
[1:56:24] that they have been in existence.
[1:56:26] And then we are able to look for up to $500,000 for expansion.
[1:56:31] So for those of you that have had the pleasure of walking through our school, you have seen
[1:56:35] all of the materials that we have on the shelves, they are very expensive.
[1:56:39] They're all made out of wood.
[1:56:41] They're built to last for a while, but we have been in existence for eight.
[1:56:46] And you're some of those things are breaking down and now we're expanding classrooms and all of that.
[1:56:50] So I'm just looking for ways to bring in more money into our district to kind of fund that.
[1:56:56] So we are looking at doing an expansion by size.
[1:57:02] Per DPI, we currently are a K-8 school, we'll be a 4K-8 school next year, and so when
[1:57:08] we're looking at the flow chart of opportunities, the expansion by size is what we're looking
[1:57:13] at.
[1:57:13] So we're looking at gaining 20 students each year, but it's 5-year grant.
[1:57:20] DPI materials are due very soon, so there's an expensive list of appendices that we have
[1:57:29] We have to fill out. We have six sections to fill out for the first half. And then if you're in expansion, there's another two sections, so I'll be working with Julie Shell on getting all of that done. And there's a lot where we have to show how we are an autonomous governance council and what they do and how they're involved and what the community needs and how we're a great addition to our districts. So that is what I'll be working on for the next five weeks.
[1:57:57] Thanks.
[1:57:57] You'll be busy.
[1:57:59] Yeah.
[1:58:00] Thank you.
[1:58:02] So yes, we're recommending to the full board the approval of the monastery charter school
[1:58:06] to apply for federal charter grant through Wisconsin DPI that would provide funding for
[1:58:11] the previously approved school board expansion of grades 4k through 8th grade.
[1:58:16] So you get a motion?
[1:58:17] Some move.
[1:58:18] Second.
[1:58:19] Any questions?
[1:58:21] I just had a confirming question.
[1:58:23] So is this part of the Wisconsin Resource Center for Char schools, is this the same group?
[1:58:30] No, so they are the ones who are providing information about it, but it's a federal grant that is coming through DPI.
[1:58:41] Yes.
[1:58:44] Any other questions?
[1:58:46] Not all in favor?
[1:58:47] Aye.
[1:58:48] Opposed?
[1:58:49] Motion carries.
[1:58:51] Thank you very much.
[1:58:51] Yes, thank you.
[1:58:52] I'm seeking a motion to adjourn, my
[1:58:59] favorite, opposed, motion carries.
[1:59:04] Now we'll
[1:59:17] start this here, calling to order a special meeting for January 22nd.
[1:59:26] We're requesting a closed session, presumed to state statutes, or we'll convene into the closed
[1:59:32] session under Wisconsin Statutes 1985-1F to discuss and consider investigation of an employee,
[1:59:40] matter of which if discussed an open session would likely have substantial adverse effect upon
[1:59:46] the reputation of the individuals involved and which involves the confidential student information
[1:59:52] protected by a Wisconsin Statute of 118.125. I need...
[2:00:00] I need, first of all, I'm seeking a motion here. I need a roll call. I'll make the motion. Second, and a roll call. Okay. Pat McKee, Cody, Nicolai, Jennifer Peoli, Cory Sillers, Lance Trawlop, Karen Vanneberg, Jim Boucher. Yes.