Madison Metropolitan School District Madison, Wisconsin Art Rainwater, Superintendent
BOARD OF EDUCATION Minutes for Community Partnerships March 25, 2004		Doyle Administration Building 545 West Dayton Street, Room 103 Madison, Wisconsin

The Partnerships Committee meeting was called to order by Chair Ray Allen at 5:30 p.m.

BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Ray Allen, Carol Carstensen, Ruth Robarts

CITIZEN MEMBERS PRESENT: Mary Ellen Johnson, Don Severson

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: None

CITIZEN MEMBERS ABSENT: None

OTHER BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Bill Clingan, Bill Keys, Shwaw Vang

STAFF PRESENT: Joe Quick, Art Rainwater, Mary Ramberg, Barbara Lehman-Recording Secretary

1. Approval of Minutes

It was moved by Carol Carstensen and seconded by Mary Ellen Johnson to approve the minutes of the Partnerships Committee meeting dated January 26, 2004 as distributed. Motion unanimously carried.

2. Public Appearances

There were no public appearances

3. Announcements

There were no announcements.

4. Personal Finance Courses

(Packets included of a progress report on district directives from the February 2, 2004 Partnerships Committee relative to plan implementation. A copy is attached to the original of these minutes.)

Mary Ramberg highlighted the progress: looking at courses that are already taught in the district that relate to personal finance (five with enrollment data); plans to publicize summer professional development opportunities through Edgewood among all the teachers in social studies, business education, and family and consumer education departments; gathering information from those teachers relative to objectives and what students are expected to know and be able to do. The district also intends to gather the same information from model personal financial courses and determine how best to parallel the model personal finance classes. A report to the Board will follow about what the district has to do to have a personal finance course and credit for graduation.

Discussion: Taking advantage of the offer to have some tuition reimbursement and fees for credit from the Foundation represented by Bill Wilcox. District has a traditional arrangement of paying for teacher registration fees but not for credit. Issue exists for not setting precedent by paying for both. State law not yet passed; concern over unfunded mandate and having more teachers if the course is required. The bill will probably will be introduced again in the next state legislative session. Board will decide whether they want to require the course. It was confirmed that middle school students have access to some finance instruction. It was suggested that administrators be sent to the training to support teachers. Presenters had a few models and said they would do the training. The administration will try to find another route to take so that the district is not setting precedent. The course should cover getting personal loans, signing contracts and leases, credit card debt, insurance, etc.

5. Other Business

The Superintendent gave a brief update on the Wexford Ridge project saying that the lease is basically finished with something left to resolve with the City of Madison. The district is also waiting for the governor to sign the bill that allows the long-term lease. The administration will bring it before the board once these items are decided.

The second announcement was that the specials allocations would not have to be doubled as the result of a question raised by Ms. Carstensen. She had asked if some schools get more SAGE money than they need to lower class size and whether that money could be used to free up allocations and still do the budget cuts. The result will be an increase in the number of sections for specials by one with no doubling. It also left enough for the board to decide whether to add back the TEP social worker and partnerships teacher with the UW that works on professional development or LGBTQ position; there should be three FTEs left. It is at least a one year fix. The governor is proposing to change SAGE by increasing the rate from $2,000 per child to $2,500 per child and to remove the restriction that those funds have to be used at the same school.

Discussion: Next steps for the Wexford Ridge project; lease comes before the board and, if approved, Wexford Ridge will have to have all funding in hand. Uncertain whether they have acquired all the city permits. A suggestion was made that the district should inform the public about the progress noting that there is a three-year window. Uncertainty about whether there is language in the lease if there is difficulty raising the funding. Block grant has an expiration date.

6. Adjournment

It was moved by Mary Ellen Johnson and seconded by Ruth Robarts to adjourn the meeting at 6:04 p.m. Motion unanimously carried.

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