Menomonie School Board 4/22/2019

Reorganization Meeting - 5:30 PM

1. Call Meeting to Order \

2. Seating of Newly Elected Members

3. Roll Call and Quorum

4. Election of Board Officers

President nominations - David Styer, Amy Riddle-Swanson - results, Styer  4, Riddle-Swanson 5

Vice President nominations - David Styer, Tricia Thompson - results, Styer - 4, Thompson - 5

Treasurer nominations - David Styer - elected by consent

Clerk Nominations - Heather Klanderman, Jim Swanson - Results - Klanderman - 4, Swanson 5

5. Approve Committee Assignments of Board Members

Health and medical insurance committee - Moses has concerns about a conflict of interest as he is an insurance provider for the district - Jim Swanson takes the position

Tif review board - Dan Paulson

CESA board rep - Penny Burstad takes the position

State convention representative for resolutions - Dan takes position, Jim Swanson as alternate

Quality improvement committee - representative serves primarily as a board representative to listen. Amy Riddle-Swanson and Penny Burstad.

Board representative  -- Jim Swanson, Dan Paulson

6. Appoint Deputy Clerk

7. Set Date and Venue for Annual Meeting

Monday, Aug. 26 6 PM tiered lecture hall at high school

8. Establish Starting Times for Regular, Special, and Committee of the Whole Meetings

Will continue to meet at 5:30 on the same days.

9. Adjournment

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Special Board Meeting 5:52 PM

I. OPENING ITEMS A. Call to Order

B. Roll Call and Quorum

C. Agenda Order and Approval/Revision

Item O was moved up to be new item G

D. Community Communications - None

E. Board Member/Superintendent Communications

Burstad attended Band-o-rama with the Bluegold Marching Band as well as Styer and Moses

Moses and Freeman attended WASB New Member meeting

Swanson will be at Environmental site on Friday for Earth Day

Zydowski says Board Docs server has been replaced due to performance issues

School board association is asking for proposals to present at the meeting in January.

II. PERSONNEL CONSENT AGENDA

A. Action to Approve Personnel Consent Agenda

1. Resignations/Retirements

2. New Hires

Approved

III. ACTION AGENDA

A. Action to Approve National Contest for Middle School FCCLA Student

Approved

IV. DISCUSSION ITEMS/POLICY REVIEW

A. SDMA Environmental Site Report

There is a 2-page document of activities that are taking place -

There will be some repairs to the camping cabins and making an accessible camping facility

There will be updates to some benches and tables, and are looking into a mower.

Still working on an ongoing plan with the DNR for timber management.

Working on a K-12 Environmental Curriculum Map for the site and across the district including invasives.

Looking at issues with transportation, etc. and opportunities to go out to the site. 

Freeman raises a question on frequency of site use.

B. Membership Audit Report

25% of districts are audited on membership count - this is Menomonie's turn. There were no problems raised other than an issue on Summer School - there was a glitch in the Skyward system that mis-accounted for absences. A manual count caused an increase of FTE's. There will be additional revenue because of that. This issue has been worked out. 

C. Policy 322, School Day (First Reading)

Question was raised about whether e-learning could be used to make up snow days, and the definition of "school day" - There is an administrative rule on school days, but not a policy. There is a new draft policy to meet or exceed the number of hours, but including some flexibility for elementary start and end times so that snow days do not make for such a labor-intensive project. We do not currently do virtual learning for this, but the policy allows for this in the future. 

D. Policy 371, District Sponsored Student Activities and Organizations (First Reading)

The district is receiving more requests on clubs and organizations for elementary schools - the policy on this is not clear, and the new policy includes the building principals at the elementary levels so that people know how to go about requesting clubs.

E. Policy 374, Student Contests and Tournaments (First Reading)

Raises the question of what level of competition and age is the district comfortable with sending students to competitions. At middle school and elementary levels this will only be allowed if a parent or guardian accompanied. 

There was a lengthy discussion of the wording of this policy.

F. Discuss Update to the 2019-2020 District Calendar

An error was found in the calendar as approved. A staff work day was missed in the calendar, which leaves the year one day shorter than expected. There is a question of how best to fix this. It requires bringing the students back on June 5, or simply extending the school day by a few minutes. There would be other more flexible plans to extend professional development hours. Adding the minutes would allow more time for professional development for both teaching staff and hourly. This would likely mean extending the school day by 10 minutes. 

G. Policy 187, Public Participation at Board Meetings (Second Reading)

Wording of this new policy draft is discussed and the question was raised of first amendment rights vs. maintaining civility in meetings - first amendment needs to win out. 

H. Policy 161, Board Member Authority and Responsibility (First Reading)

Policies 161 and 165 cover the issues brought up at the last board meeting on ethics and what happens if the president violates ethical standards.

Klanderman raises the issue of what happens in that case and Freeman brings in information on ethics policies that other school boards have that are more robust than Menomonie's. 

I. Policy 165, Board Member Ethical Standards (First Reading)

J. Policy 166, Board Member Electronic Communications (First Reading)

Klanderman raises the issue of whether the current policy properly covers social media as well as other forms of electronic communication.  This will likely be a discussion point at the board retreat. 

K. Discuss Potential Penalties for Board Members if District Policy is Violated

This is a holdover from the last board meeting. WASB does not believe any boards in Wisconsin have a penalty system of fines, etc. other than for criminal behavior, in which case a board member may be removed or recalled. There is the possibility of censure for a board member. 

If the board member is an officer WASB suggests and officer can be removed by a majority vote of the board, but that this is a drastic option. 

L. Policy 141, Board Officers (First Reading)

The new version of this policy would allow for censure of a board officer. Swanson asks if the duties of the board officers could be spelled out more explicitly here. 

Klanderman again raises issues of where the board goes if a president is unethical. This is being deferred as a discussion for the board retreat. 

M. Strategic Planning Update

Freeman suggests there is little alignment between the goals in the strategic plan and the mission of the district. It's difficult to see the connection between the theory of the plan and the process. 

N. Review Extracurricular Staff Contract Requests

No Discussion

O. Schedule School Board Retreat

There are 6 choices of dates when the WASB people are available. 

May 22 was selected starting at 6 PM.

P. Items Related to Next Meeting Dates, Board Committees, and Reports

V. CLOSED SESSION A. Action to move to closed session, for the purpose of considering financial, medical, social or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons, 19.85(f), and for the purpose of conferring with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved. 19.85 (g), Wisconsin Statutes B. Action to Approve Minutes of Closed Session on April 8, 2019 C. Retiree Health Insurance Issue V. ADJOURNMENT A. Action to Adjourn