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| Madison Metropolitan School District Madison, Wisconsin Art Rainwater, Superintendent | ||
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| BOARD OF EDUCATION Minutes for Regular Meetings November 6, 2006 |
Doyle Administration Building 545 West Dayton Street, Auditorium Madison, Wisconsin |
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I CALL TO ORDER
The Board of Education meeting was called to order by President Johnny Winston, Jr. at 7:33 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Carol Carstensen, Lawrie Kobza, Lucy Mathiak, Ruth Robarts, Arlene Silveira, Shwaw Vang, Johnny Winston, Jr.
MEMBERS ABSENT: None
STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE PRESENT: Joe Carlsmith
STAFF PRESENT: Sue Abplanalp, Mary Gulbrandsen, Pam Nash, Roger Price, Art Rainwater, Ken Syke, Barbara Lehman-Recording Secretary
LEGAL COUNSEL PRESENT: Attorney Clarence Sherrod
Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) Career and Technical Education Coordinator and Business & Education Partnership Executive Director Gabrielle Banick described "Money Smart" week initiatives and presentations, including the first Accounting Symposium for 120 MMSD students who explored career and two-year and four-year post-secondary education options on the Madison Area Technical College (MATC) Truax Campus. One of the Board members asked for an update on the program after the holidays.
II APPROVAL OF MINUTES
It was moved by Lawrie Kobza and seconded by Arlene Silveira to approve the minutes of the Regular meeting dated October 9, 2006. Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
III PUBLIC APPEARANCES
Don Severson, Active Citizens for Education, raised a concern about the impact the referendum request has on negative aids to the state. The Superintendent noted that the tax impact was expressed as a cost to the taxpayer on a $239,400 home that stated very clearly that the amount did include negative aid. The Questions and Answers on the web side describe what negative aid is and this issue was covered in each of the four sessions in the community. The Board agreed that the way the District presents negative aid is the fairest way to present it because when the budget is presented in May, the District says how much is spent. The information has always been stated and has always been on the web site, including negative aid and the district's cost of debt.
There were no written registrations.
IV BOARD PRESIDENT'S ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REPORTS
A copy of the report is attached to the original of these minutes.
A copy of the report is attached to the original of these minutes.
VI COMMITTEE REPORTS AND ACTION THEREON
A Performance and Achievement
1 It was moved by Shwaw Vang and seconded by Ruth Robarts to approve the Evaluation of Learning Materials adoptions in the amount of $48,200.94. Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
Mr. Vang reported that the committee met on October 9 and discussed establishing a Performance and Achievement Committee schedule for the 2006-07 school year. The committee will meet next Monday, November 13, at 6:15 p.m., to hear about the District's Fine Arts program.
B Finance and Operations
Ms. Kobza reported that the committee met on October 16 to review the MMSD transportation budget which is over $10 million of the total budget. Accounting provided information on how that is spent and the committee members asked questions. The meeting ended by asking the Administration to come up with seven ideas for reducing the transportation budget for next year. The discussion continued on the Citizen's Budget, a 1-2 page summary that is a more people-friendly document, which should help more people understand the budget. The committee also met on October 30 in a workshop on the Citizen's Budget to get it into a form that the committee is comfortable with. There will be another meeting on this, then the committee will seek public input on the document, and make final modifications before bringing it to the whole Board. The next meeting is scheduled at noon on November 29.
C Human Resources
The committee met on October 23 and Ms. Robarts presented a report on the impact of increasing health insurance costs that the district provides for its employees. The presentation is available on the www.schoolinfosystem.org web site.
A motion was passed by the committee and another motion was tabled until they could receive legal advice about labor law communications that the committee asked for (a copy of a memorandum from Legal Counsel recommending that the issue be tabled is attached to the original of these minutes).
It was moved by Ruth Robarts and seconded by Johnny Winston, Jr. to table the motion to direct the Administration to provide recommendations about how the Administration could communicate information regarding employee health insurance costs to all district employees and the public, illustrating the following points:
i Health insurance costs for school districts are increasing at higher rates than for the private sector or other government employers in Wisconsin;
ii The percentage of the district's operating budget that goes to health insurance is large and growing rapidly;
iii Health insurance costs are reducing dollars that can go for paying competitive wages;
iv Health insurance costs are also reducing post-retirement benefits for our employees;
v Changes in providers and plans can significantly affect future costs; and
vi Some Wisconsin districts have reduced future health costs by working with employee representatives to make changes in plan design, providers, wellness programs and other devices that reduce future costs,
Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
The following motion, as amended in committee, was withdrawn:
It is recommended that the Board direct the administration to ask Madison Teachers, Inc. to do the following:
i. agree to form a Joint Health Task Force whose meetings and records will be subject to Wisconsin Open Records and Open Meetings laws;
ii. hire an independent insurance consultant at the district's expense to work with the Joint Task Force:
iii. explore changes in plan designs and providers, wellness programs and other options that could slow the growth in future costs; and
iv. report back to the bargaining teams of the district and the union.
The committee also referred questions about complaints about teachers, principals, and other staff back to the Human Resources Department for further information. The date of the next meeting is November 27 at 6 p.m. If the committee has recommendations about dealing with parent complaints, it will deal with those and then begin to address administrator contract issues.
D LongRangePlanning
Ms. Carstensen reported that the committee met on October 23 to look at Third Friday Enrollment Counts both districtwide and school-by-school and districtwide enrollment projections. Overall, the district enrollment has grown since last year. They talked about the methodology that is used to project enrollment and about the socioeconomic status of children and began to look at the criteria that the Board considers before redrawing boundary lines. Half of the criteria were reviewed and no changes were made. The rest will be taken up in November. The next meeting is November 13 to continue discussion about the Considerations When Redrawing School Boundary Lines. There will be school-by-school enrollment projections and administration will report on significant enrollment issues over the next few years.
E Community Partnerships
Ms. Mathiak reported that the last meeting was held on October 9. A panel of four principals talked about their perspectives on best practices for connecting with parents and parent participation within the MMSD. They talked briefly about follow-up questions related to community services organizations and about plans for the parent input sessions. The sessions are intended to learn more about parent experiences working with Madison schools and what they think works well and what they would like to see changed to make the schools more welcoming. The committee will meet again on November 13 at 5:15 p.m. Contacts are already being made with the Madison community to set up working sessions to hear from parents. The committee will spend time talking about how to structure those sessions and schedule them. It will also look at all of funded partnerships and types of information gathered through district partnerships.
F Communications
Ms. Silveira reported that the committee met on October 23 to discuss three resolutions. The first was to move security expenditures outside the revenue cap. This resolution moved to the full Board and was approved at last week's special meeting. Legislators will be urged to pass this proposal in January. The Superintendent gave an overview of the state-wide Superintendents' response to the revenue caps called "One Voice, One Project." Out of that came a resolution that the committee discussed asking the Wisconsin Association of School Boards to support and place the One Voice, One Future initiative on their agenda supporting the concept of "adequacy" - that there must be a permanent, positive funding base for education and the state should, based on research, provide the necessary resources to meet the standards it has set (also adopted by "No Child Left Behind"), or lower the standards. All different aspects of the community are working towards this goal of fixing the funding and having adequate resources to meet high standards. This resolution was passed and moved to the full Board where it was approved at last week's meeting. The next item was community conversations. The committee has had some discussion about working with some outside consultants to set up a structure for the best way to move forward in a timely manner. The next meeting is November 27 and will cover more about the community conversations and to hear a presentation from a committee member on new ways to receive community input.
VII AUDITING, PURCHASING, TRANSFERS AND OTHER FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS
A Auditing
1 It was moved by Carol Carstensen and seconded by Arlene Silveira that interim bills be approved amounting to $12,743,544.24 and covering the period of October 4, 2006 through October 27, 2006.
Follow Up: Administration was asked to provide further breakdown of the $8.3 million for checks.
Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
2 There were no School Building Fund bills.
B Purchasing
1 It was moved by Carol Carstensen and seconded by Lucy Mathiak that the Board purchase access to 66 on-line databases through Wisconsin Library Service (WiLS) in the amount of $45,806.80 per requisition #44714 with funding from the 2006‑07 Library Media Services budget and from the 2006-07 individual building-level Library Media Center budgets. Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
2 It was moved by Carol Carstensen and seconded by Arlene Silveira that the Board authorize the payment of $40,162 to Horizon Software International, LLC for the purpose of paying the annual maintenance and license fees that are required as part of Horizon's software package to support the Food Service Program that was purchased and approved by the Board in 2002 through a competitive bid process with funding for the annual maintenance and license fees from the 2006-07 operating budget. Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
C Other Financial Transactions
1 It was moved by Carol Carstensen and seconded by Arlene Silveira that all grants and other donations received by the MMSD since October 9, 2006 be approved. Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
2 Amendments to balance the 2006-07 budget.
There was some discussion about whether they were all budget amendments and the requirement that all amendments and transfers be approved by supermajority vote. Legal Counsel requested time to review the proposed amendments.
It was moved by Ruth Robarts and seconded by Lawrie Kobza to table Item VII C 2 to next week.
Each of the charts included with the agenda were reviewed. Questions and concerns were or will be addressed over the next week.
Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
VIII HUMAN RESOURCES TRANSACTIONS AND REPORTS
It was moved by Ruth Robarts and seconded by Shwaw Vang to approve Item VIII 1-276 in its entirety with the exception of any item a board member may wish to have separated out. There were no separations. Student Representative vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
IX REPORTS TO THE BOARD
A Common Council/Board of Education Liaison Committee
Ms. Mathiak reported that the committee met on October 18 and talked about safety issues related to specific school zones. Discussions of traffic safety in middle and high school zones will continue in December. There was ongoing discussion about how to consider the demographic changes in the district, not in terms of boundary changes, but how schools get what they need. The next meeting is November 15 at 4:30 p.m. in room 303 of the Madison Municipal Building. Mr. Yudice and a representative from the Madison Police Department will be invited to talk about school safety issues.
B Student Representative Report
Joe Carlsmith reported that the Student Senate met on October 17 and saw a presentation by Johnny Winston, Jr. and Pam Nash about the referendum election. The Student Senate voted unanimously to support the referendum and some took advantage of the opportunity to get involved with leafleting and other areas of the campaign. They also discussed legislation proposed by State Assemblyperson Spencer Black to remove school security expenditures outside the revenue cap. The Student Senate decided not to take action because they did not have the draft in front of them. They did discuss security in the schools and how students feel about the recent issues of school violence. One of the members who was a one-time student intern for Mr. Black will try to arrange for Mr. Black to meet with the Student Senate in January to discuss his legislation and school security. Mr. Carlsmith noted that they also hope to discuss some concerns that La Follette students had about the future of four-block scheduling that have been reflected in some recent general community e-mails.
The next meeting is tomorrow evening to hear a presentation from Freddi Adelson, District Health Services and ADA Coordinator, on the Wellness Policy and hold discussion. Future Student Senate agendas will be included on this agenda.
X OTHER BUSINESS
A It was moved by Lawrie Kobza and seconded by Ruth Robarts that the Board approve the agreement with the YMCA for after school childcare at Orchard Ridge Elementary School, under which the District shall reimburse the YMCA costs of care for up to 20 students who are eligible for free/reduced lunch in the amount of $230 per child per month, the total not to exceed $41,400, with funding from Fund 80. Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
B It was moved by Lawrie Kobza and seconded by Ruth Robarts that, pursuant to the provision of Section 118.15 of State Statutes, the Board excuse 18 students from school attendance for the purpose of allowing them to enroll in programs for high school equivalency diplomas. Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
C It was moved by Lawrie Kobza and seconded by Ruth Robarts that three students be granted diplomas of graduation based on completed requirements. Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
D Old and New Business
There was no old or new business.
XI ADJOURNMENT
It was moved by Ruth Robarts and seconded by Lucy Mathiak to adjourn the meeting at 9:09 p.m. Student Representative advisory vote was aye. Motion unanimously carried.
Respectfully submitted,
Roger Price
Secretary to the Board of Education
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Previous: 2006-10-09 || Regular Meetings || Next: 2006-12-04