| BOE Minutes | BOE Home Page | |
| Previous: 2007-05-22 || Special Meeting - Open Session || Next: 2007-06-18 | ||
| Madison Metropolitan School District Madison, Wisconsin Art Rainwater, Superintendent | ||
|---|---|---|
| BOARD OF EDUCATION Minutes for Special Meeting - Open Session May 29, 2007 |
Doyle Administration Building 545 West Dayton Street, Room 103 Madison, Wisconsin |
|
Special Meeting of the Board of Education was called to order by President Arlene Silveira at 5:04 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Carol Carstensen, Maya Cole (arrived 5:07 p.m.), Lawrie Kobza, Lucy Mathiak, Beth Moss, Arlene Silveira, Johnny Winston, Jr.
MEMBERS ABSENT: None
STAFF PRESENT: Steve Hartley, Art Rainwater, Barbara Lehman-Recording Secretary
Reconvened at 6:23 p.m.
Kathy Lyngaas joined the meeting at this time and Mr. Rainwater and Mr. Hartley left at this time.
OPEN SESSION
2. Approval of Minutes
It was moved by Carol Carstensen and seconded by Lawrie Kobza to approve the minutes of the Special meeting dated March 19, 2007 as distributed. Motion unanimously carried.
3. Public Appearances
There were no public appearances.
4. Announcements
There were no announcements.
5. Selecting the Consultant to Conduct a Superintendent Search
It was moved by Lucy Mathiak and seconded by Johnny Winston, Jr. to table the selection of the consultant to conduct the superintendent search pending completion of reference checks. Motion unanimously carried.
6. Establishing the Topics the Board and its Standing Committees will consider for the 2007-08 School Year
(Packets included notes from the special meeting workshop on June 19, 2006 regarding board and committee goals for 2006-07. A copy is attached to the original of these minutes.)
Ms. Silveira noted that committee assignments have been made. The packet materials reflected what was done last year as a reference. The committees could start meeting at any time. She added that the goals would not be prioritized until the board has had a chance to hold a retreat. She asked the Superintendent to give an overview of his direction and how he has been moving the district and the choices he has made during his tenure.
Discussion:
o Topics that were mentioned as having a higher priority: developing a leadership profile for the new superintendent; decisions relative to the superintendent search; retreats serving as a preamble to the priorities; board training with George McShan; expulsions, Code of Conduct, behavior, courses, etc.; superintendent evaluation; search calendar.
o Cannot complete in one workshop.
o Last year tried to make one meeting time per month for each committee. If they do not need to meet, that is fine.
Kathy Lyngaas described the brainstorming process and the rules. They would be clustering ideas by committee
and for the whole board. One idea per "sticky note."
Chairperson Reactions:
Community Partnerships - Maya Cole
v Fund 80 grants oversight and reports; finding alternative funding for athletics and fine arts; new community partnerships; Fine Arts Task Force report; going into community centers and being more active (helping with work study sites); expulsions.
v Committee has a lot of potential, hard to find a focus, community is willing but would like to see systemic change, chair is committed to doing something on a regular basis to develop new partnerships.
Long Range Planning - Carol Carstensen
v Space needs and boundary issues of where kids turn out to be in September; continuing to develop long range plan for facility needs, including identifying when the board needs to consider building a new middle school or high school; working with other school districts and the city on long range planning; physical building quality throughout the district.
Performance and Achievement - Lawrie Kobza
v Community input on high school re-design; tracking high school smaller learning community grants and getting community input; tracking the math task force progress; tracking the progress of the Fine Arts Task Force and getting community input; how middle school re-design is working; evaluation/measurement aspect (student achievement with Infinite Campus); talented and gifted programming; charter school options; special education collaboration; No Child Left Behind.
v Have to prioritize and want to work on the measurement piece that shows programs are working and children are learning.
Communications - Beth Moss
v Developing a plan for public and media communications promoting the district's image; sending out communications and talking to people about a referendum and state funding legislation reform; strategic communication plan (hoped people would share ideas for that); inviting groups to meetings and starting dialogues with people the board does not normally talk to; get out more press releases; possibly starting and maintaining a blog site; creative communications, e.g., standardizing backpack mail.
Finance and Operations - Lucy Mathiak
v Five categories - building on work to enhance and add to the Citizens' Budget; developing ways for citizens to have input into the budget process; ongoing timeline for the budget process so as not to compress everything into one month; dealing with Fund 80 and making decisions about community assets (buildings and land that could be resources); also involves partnerships and funding those partnerships as the district looks at a referendum.
Human Resources - Johnny Winston, Jr.
v Salary survey; working on district goals relative to historically underutilized businesses; reports on hiring minorities and affirmative action to increase pools.
Whole Board - Arlene Silveira
v Whether or not to conduct an evaluation of the current Superintendent and progress on the four goals; Superintendent search; community involvement communications issues; potential referendum in February (plays out in a number of committees with much overlapping); behavior, expulsions, Code of Conduct, bullying, expungement policy, expulsion matrix, etc.; implementation of equity policy; overview of public relations effort for the board going to the community; Board of Education code of conduct and involvement of board members during school board races.
Ms. Lyngaas then moved the members toward prioritization and small goal statements.
Ms. Lyngaas left the meeting at this time.
Trying to get blocks of time for whole board. Committees encouraged to
start meeting. Cannot commit to
committee times for regular meeting times until the fall.
Good to prioritize board's work at retreats.
Overlap - how do committee chairs decide (there was some
discussion about particular issues that overlap).
Very hard to continue to support athletics and fifth grade
strings. Need to know what other
communities have done in terms of funds for these programs. Mr. Rainwater is meeting with John
Olson--good place to start.
Class size - how are we looking at it.
Free and Reduced drive for scholarships.
Referendum time frame -- topic for retreat (community involvement,
how long, how much, what to cut, community survey on what is important to
people to keep, etc.). Timing is
critical for when the new superintendent comes in. Nailing down some of the groups for the
consultants. Good to take a look at has
happened around Wisconsin. Responding to community concerns.
Vang Pao and other things like parochial busing require
building a story and getting information to the community.
Need to use glossy press release communications with a
single message, roll out different ideas that the board has done.
Impacts of the cuts - specials classes -- retreat focus.
Using data to substantiate any changes the board might want
to make.
How to get people to listen.
Board forgets that parents and people who come before us are
very small segment.
Have to tell compelling stories. Touching people at a personal level.
Do have unique opportunity in our initial part of the
superintendent search to survey the community in a variety of ways. Ned to make sure groups and questions get
identified and then find the financing piece.
Good way to do it broadly.
Privatizing education by raising fees which excludes some
people from participating. Have to
figure out how to handle that.
Have to
wait for direction from consultant on a survey.
RFP for strategic communication plan and getting that
input.
7. Other Business
There was no other business.
8. Adjournment
It was moved by Lucy Mathiak and seconded by Johnny Winston, Jr. to adjourn the meeting at 8:28 p.m. Motion unanimously carried.
bl
Previous: 2007-05-22 || Special Meeting - Open Session || Next: 2007-06-18