Menomonie School Board 6/24/2019

Community Communication discussions on the strategic plan and what the plans are going forward.

Amy Riddle-Swanson asks question on what book should be read for the issue of trust, and to have the board read it and study together.

Menomonie Cares has donated $400 from Menomonie Cares for a Native American Dance event next school year.

Discussion and Policy Review

Summer Maintenance:Work being done on Fieldhouse maintenance for next year.

Sports Complex Lighting project to start soon.

Working on playground equipment at Wakanda, new carpeting.

Oaklawn lost multiple trees in the past year.

Downsville - installing new tile in parts of the building.

Environmental Site has a dedicated staff for the summer season and a lot of clean up and trail maintenance is happening.

Annual Review of Equipment and Materials Including Advertising:

No major changes this year.

Annual Human Resources Report:

A few more teachers, school nutrition staff. Had a pilot of substitute staffing having a continuous substitute staffer. This has been successful but some things still need to be worked on .Will be doing more advertising to have more substitutes in the pool. Problems continue with not having enough active substitutes. Recent changes toward giving more resources and benefits to substitutes has also been helpful.

Calendar of Board Reports for 2019-2020:

This builds a calendar for when reports will happen during the year.

Policy 823,access to Public Records:

A review of the policy indicates that the policy might be changed to agree more with the policy built by the School Boards Association. A new policy has been put out to the board members for consideration.

Discuss Board Norms and Operating Procedures:

A new set of norms has been distributed to the board members. Klanderman discussed an issue with the wording of the new policy that involves the District Administrator in the case of a dispute between board officers. She also raises the question of what punishment will occur when board members violate these norms. Possibilty was raised of involving WASB as a mediator rather than the Administrator.  Likely the only penalty is the potential for the board to censure a member.

Procedures for posting Meeting Agendas and Minutes:

Board considers new procedures for making the Agendas and Minutes more widely available, and to make the Minutes more quickly available to the community. Minutes are currently published according to state law, within 45 days of the meeting, and agendas and the minutes are published in the Dunn County News and the door of the Administrative Center. DIfficulty of making a balance between being more transparent and deluging families with email. Issues were raised with the fact that the agenda often changes between when the agenda is initially published and when the meeting occurs. This will be deferred, but it was an interesting discussion. As a matter of transparency, some of this discussion revolved around the Wis.Community videotaping of the meetings. We would be interested in your opinions about transparency of the board meetings and what you would like to see happen re: agendas, minutes, and the board meetings.

Board meetings:

The next meeting will include the yearly evaluation of the District Administrator.

Board then went into closed session.