January 14, 2019 at 6:00 PM - Regular Meeting

Description:  As soon as we adjourn from Closed Session, the Board may enter into the Board Development part of the meeting. 

Description:  Included in your packet you will find the minutes from the December 10, 2018 regular meeting for your review and approval.

Description:  A motion will be necessary to approve the agenda as presented (or) with changes as recommended.

Description:  Individuals may use this time to comment on any items listed as part of the meeting agenda. A copy of Board Policy 187 —Public Participation at Board Meetings is enclosed for your reference. Past practice has allowed 30 minutes for this section of the agenda.

Description:  Anaiah Kenas and Sophie Kutz are the high school student representatives who will provide an update of events from the high school.

Description:  Kyle Emmert and Ashley Taylor will give the teacher update.

Description:  This section of the agenda is reserved for any comments from members of the board on meetings they attended over the last month or other informational items.

Description:  Attached please find the WASB Resolutions for 2019 that will be discussed at the Delegate Assembly in a few weeks at the State Education Convention in Milwaukee.  Mark Hetzel is our delegate this year.  Please review the resolutions and you can provide feedback to Mark on Monday night, or at a time prior to the convention.

Description:  Incumbents, Dave Boetcher and Jack Heinemann, will be running for the Waunakee School Board Seats each for the Village of Waunakee . 

We did not receive any Declaration of Candidacy for the Waunakee School Board Seat for the Town of Dane/Springfield

As a result of not having anyone declare for this seat, we will need to count all votes for write-in candidates.  After the election, once all write ins are counted, the candidate with the most votes is offered the position.  If this candidate accepts the position they will complete the 3-year term.  If they decline the position, then there is a vacancy on the Board and the BOE will assign someone to this seat for one year.  At that time this seat will be up for election in April 2020. 

As an information item, the obligation to register is only required if the write in candidate raises or spends funds on the election.

Attached is the Exemption from Filing Campaign Finance Report that each board member must fill out in January each year.  You need to fill out if you are running or not running.  Please complete and return to Rebecca.

Attached FYI is the Nominations memo that went out to all municipality clerks regarding the 2019 spring election.

Description:   As a guideline the 2017-18 timeline was as follows.
* School Perceptions Survey and Open ended Questions due by February BOE meeting
* Superintendent Eval & Priorities Eval given out at Feb BOE meeting and asked to be returned by end of March
* After March BOE meeting Individual Reminder sent to each BOE member sharing what they still needed to turn in by the end of March.
* 4/11/18 Special BOE Meeting  - Evaluations

Description:  Attached please find the January update on progress towards the District Priorities.  My comments are embedded within the attached evaluation document and I will review them with the Board on Monday evening.

Description:  Attached please find a document provided by Kurt Eley that answers questions that were posed by the Board at a previously held Board Development discussion.  This item is on the agenda to ensure that the Board is able to receive timely answers to their questions as Board Development time this month will be very short or non-existent.  Kurt will be in attendance on Monday night to answer any questions you may have about this document, or other questions that may surfaced as a result of this dialog.

Description:  The December Regular Board Meeting included many public comments on the Holiday Policy that the Board approved in November.  Joan Ensign and I met to discuss next steps and we agreed that an agenda item needed to be added to this month's meeting to provide an update, next steps, and to further our work to improve community engagement.

Initial thoughts to this end are as follows:

1.  Much has been learned through the community dialog surrounding the Holiday Policy, particularly with regard to a need for greater communication on the work that is taking place within the district and at the Board level.  On the agenda tonight there are a number of 100 Series Policies that were reviewed by the Policy Committee that start to improve our work in this area.  In quick summary, we are expanding our agenda notices to cover more places including social media and other municipalities, improvements have been made to the district website to make it easier to find agendas for meetings, and policy clarification has taken place with regard to our recording and live streaming our regular meetings.

2.  I believe the challenge and frustration with the implementation with the Holiday Policy was partially related to timing and also engagement and discussion with staff in advance of this policy being approved.  Moving forward we need to engage with our staff to get their input on the policy and how we can improve the implementation for the future.  Joan and I discussed this issue and believe that a staff survey is the place to begin to ensure that all staff have a voice.  We would like the Board's feedback on this idea.

3.  One of our Strategic Planning Priorities is related to stakeholder engagement.  There has been a great deal of engagement around the Holiday Policy, and through discussions with parents who have been in contact with us, there is an interest in being involved in learning more about the work that is taking place in the school district.  We have areas within our work that we have discussed needing greater community and parent feedback, and I recommend that the Goals Committee works to define the right areas to focus on, determine a place to begin, and plan for soliciting feedback and dialog to inform our future decisions on pertinent items.

These are my initial thoughts related to this agenda item.  I ask that Board members think about these possible next steps and bring ideas of your own to the meeting for discussion and consideration.

Description:  Kurt Eley, Joe Bellomo, and Herb Haubrich, and, Audrey Venske, will be present at Monday's Board Meeting to share with the Board the details of the two safety grants that the school district received this year, and an update on the projects associated with these grants.  Kurt, Joe, Herb, and Audrey have spent incredible amounts of time and effort in this area over the last number of months, and they have done great work leading our district into a much stronger place for safety and security.

Description:  Attached please find the 90-Day Outlook. This document will evolve over the coming months and gain more detail.  Its intent is to provide you with a basic outline of what is coming between now and the end of March.

Description:  Attached please find a request to establish a Mindfulness Club at the high school.  This club request did not come through the normal channels of the Co-Curricular Committee.  I am moving it to the Board since there is no request for funding or future adviser pay, and I thought it was worthy to bring to you so the 60 interested students could get started without delay.  I find this club and the student interest to be in line with our strategic initiatives to help address stress, anxiety, and student mental health.

Description:   

Description:  Attached please find the announcement of a grant received for a Girl's STEM Camp.  A description of the camp is provided as follows:

The lack of female participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) related secondary and post-secondary courses as well as the low number of female employees in certain STEM careers shows that there is a need for focused attention on increasing those numbers. Key opportunities in STEM courses that promote critical thinking, collaboration, innovation, and problem-solving skills are being overlooked by our female students. This project includes objectives, activities, and outcomes that will work to shift perception and interest with our female students.  Our goal is to host the camp in June 2019. 

The purpose of this project is to increase the participation of female students in Career & Technical Education, specifically in the pathways of STEM, at Waunakee Community School District. Our enrollment data in certain STEM related courses demonstrates very low (<20%) female participation over the last several years. For this reason, our project goal is to promote awareness and interest for our young female students in science, technology, engineering, and math secondary courses, post-secondary majors, and professional careers.

 The Innovation Center STEM Camp will be offered in our Fab Lab, located in Waunakee High School. The camp and subsequent follow-up promotional activities are designed to produce the following outcomes related to reaching our goals. Specifically, our objective is to enroll at least 50 female participants into the Camp (grades 7-9), with equal opportunity across grade levels (30-35 students per grade) for total camp participation of 100 students. Student teaching assistants from our current IDEA/Big IDEA courses (taught in the Fab Lab), as well as staff from Science, Tech Ed, and Engineering, will be key participants for this camp, available for teaching and mentoring.  The camp is open to both males and females in grades 7-9 to provide equal access opportunities to both genders under Federal Grant guidelines.  

Business partnerships that will be pursued include local companies, RenewAire, Endres Manufacturing, NordGear, and Tormach. Our priority will be working with these companies to find mentors to present or instruct at the camp to bring industry knowledge and skills to the camp participants.  We will also be working with the Society of Women Engineers, Wisconsin Division, to bring in a speaker to our camp that can specially talk about Engineering careers and opportunities for women.  The outreach chair is Heidi Balestrieri, and the section president is Andrea Falasco.  Heidi is a Senior Engineer Project Team Leader at Caterpillar, Inc., and Andrea is an Industrial Engineer at Oshkosh Defense and a graduate of MSOE.  

Description:   

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review the fees for the 2019 summer school
session.  Sheila Weihert, summer school coordinator, was present at the
budget committee meeting to review the challenges associated with collecting fees for summer school, and our district’s multi-year process of reducing the summer school fees. Administration
would like to complete this process in the summer of 2019 and eliminate summer school fees, with the exception of the camp fees and classes not eligible for summer school aid.

The Budget Committee members supported the concept recommended by administration, with a goal of keeping the overall student fee revenue consistent from 2018-19 to 2019-20. Summer school classes and fees will be reviewed at the February 2019 regular school board meeting. Student
fees will be reviewed at the May 2019 regular School Board meeting. No action is requested on this agenda item.

Description:  The Curriculum Committee has reviewed, and will be again discussing this week, a potential sister-school partnership with a high school in China.  Attached is the MOU for this agreement, that we will be discussing with the Curriculum Committee on Thursday afternoon.  Tim Schell and I will represent this topic at Monday's meeting, outline the commitment, costs, and benefits to our students/school.  I provided the full Board an update through my weekly memo  earlier this year on the initial discussions with MATC and their connection with China that brought about this potential partnership.

Description:  Tim Schell will present the updated Student Achievement Report to the Board on Monday evening.  This report is being reviewed on Thursday afternoon by the Curriculum Committee.

Description:  There are a number of policies being presented for initial first reading on Monday night.  The changes are reflected within each policy.  Also, I recommend that you briefly review the minutes from the meetings that took place on December 11th and January 9th as they reflect a summary of some of the changes.  I will walk the Board through these policy changes on Monday evening and answer any questions.  Since this is the first reading, there no action required and the policies will be brought back in February for your consideration and action.

Description:  Coach Noah Beavers and members of the high school dance team booster club were present at the Policy Committee Meeting in December.  They attended to request that the Board review the travel guidelines for teams such as themselves who want to travel outside of the state, and in their case, to Florida.  The administration denied their request to travel for a competition in Florida per current policy guidelines for athletic teams to not travel outside of bordering states of Wisconsin.  As a result of this denial at the administrative level, the request was not forwarded to the Board for consideration.

The dance team made the statement that they are different than other teams, as part of their work is also cultural, similar to music programs who have more opportunities to travel per our policy. 

After some discussion, the Policy Committee voted 3-0 to move the dance team’s request to the full
board for discussion and consideration.

The committee also discussed the field trip policy, and felt it needed clarification of guidelines and the process for field trip review by administration and the Board. There was also dialog of how to solicit feedback from the community / parents regarding the policy, guidelines, and any restrictions on travel for various groups.  Sentiments were also shared that our policy should treat groups in a more consistent manner.

More dialog is needed on this policy.   

The primary issue in front of the Board on Monday is how to respond to the dance team's request that is being forwarded for discussion by the Policy Committee.  Their request is also attached for your information.

Description:  Attached in the "extras" section of Boardbook, please find a list of the accounts payable payments issued during the month of December 2018. Please contact Steve Summers at stevesummers@waunakee.k12.wi.us or 849-2000 if you have any questions. Thanks.

Description:  Attached you will find the 2018-19 Budget Status report as of December 30th, 2018, and the Cash Reconciliation report for November 2018. In addition, please note that the Dean/SSM wellness clinic report for November has also been attached. A new financial report for the wellness clinic has been included for your review. This report tracks expenditures over time beginning with the first month of the clinic. Please contact Steve Summers at stevesummers@waunakee.k12.wi.us or 849-2000 if you have any questions. Thanks.

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to request School Board approval of 2019-
20 open enrollment capacity. Attached are the calculations for both regular and special education, by grade level.  Administration is required to provide the calculated open enrollment openings as attached, and the School Board may opt to modify the calculations. 

The recommendations for the 2019-20 open enrollment capacity is based off the School
Board open enrollment policy. The open enrollment law was significantly
changed during February of 2012. One of the changes in the law was a requirement that the School Board identify in January of each year the number of openings in each grade for open enrollment
students. In addition, the open enrollment law was changed during the 2015-17
state budget process. We are now required to separately calculate the number
of special education openings, and districts are not allowed to deny open
enrollment to special education students based on undue financial burdens.

For 19-20, I am estimating enrollment (and budget planning) based on a 63 student
increase in enrollment. The only regular education openings
recommended are in four-year old kindergarten, 4th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th
grade. The only special education openings recommended are in four-year old kindergarten  The School Board policy states the following “Open enrollment acceptance
guarantees shall be given to a nonresident student already attending school in
the district or his/her sibling even if space is not available”. Because of this
statement, please be aware that all nonresident students already attending
Waunakee will be guaranteed acceptance and students with siblings will be
guaranteed acceptance. A guaranteed acceptance does not guarantee placement
in a specific elementary school as administration retains the right to assign
students to an elementary school with capacity.
For the 18-19 school year, the School Board approved the following number of
open enrollment openings compared to actual number of enrollees:
Four-year old kindergarten 27 openings/27 enrollees
3rd grade 8 openings/1 enrollees
5th grade 7 openings/5 enrollees
6th grade 12 openings/2 enrollees
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments on this agenda
item. You can reach me at stevesummers@waunakee.k12.wi.us or 849-2000. Thanks.

Description: