Summary of
Regular Board Meeting - September 14, 1998

Regular monthly meetings of the Board of Education will now be close captioned. They will be shown again on Tuesday evenings with captions for those unable to watch on Monday evenings.

Recognition

Environmental Education Coordinator Rick Kalvelage described a new agreement with the Department of Natural Resources which will provide long term protection for the School Forest. He gave a brief history of the natural area and described how it is contributing to the District's Environmental Education program and presented a plaque commemorating the event to the Board of Education.

President Carstensen introduced new administrative staff members who were present in the audience. A reception had been held prior to the meeting for the Board to greet new administrators, transferred staff, and the principal interns.

Public Appearances

A Memorial parent spoke about concerns related to space, student-teacher ratios and air quality. A music teacher, physical education teacher and visual arts specialist talked about needs for additional staff, space, equipment and materials in SAGE schools. There were six written registrations in support of these topics.

Board President's Announcements And Reports

Mrs. Carstensen:

• announced the Board has scheduled a series of talking meetings with the public. Advance information will be provided about the location (intent is to move around the district) and topics.
• invited visitors to the Crestwood Garden Project. Students sent flowers for Board members to enjoy at one of their meetings. Parent volunteer Margie Pearce began the project three years ago.
• announced a second cable channel, 20, will begin telecasting instructional and staff development programming for students and staff on October 1. It will broadcast from 8am to 6pm. Channel 10 will continue its 24 hour programming and will be the primary channel.
• recognized Donald Vincent, science teacher at West, and Cheryl Hoyt, third grade teacher at Kennedy for their nominations for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Math Teaching. National winners will be announced in late fall.

Interim Superintendent's Announcements And Reports

Mr. Rainwater announced:

• the School Year Report to Parents and the Community has been added to the District's Web site on the Internet containing statistical information about student performance and achievement as well as general information about the district.
• a continuing study of the Four Block Schedule at La Follette High School reveals the innovative program has been achieving an increase in the number of students named to the honor roll, an increase in overall grade point averages, and an increase in the number of students achieving perfect attendance. The number of suspensions has decreased as well as the number of habitually truant students. The year-end survey among students, parents and teachers last May overwhelmingly reported favorable sentiments by all three groups.
• Principal Mark Cerutti of Whitehorse Middle School reports their hard work on improving student achievement has resulted in a 76% reduction in student GPAs below 2.0 and an 81.2% participation rate in at least one co-curricular activity during the past year.
• Principal Mary Manthey-Roberts of Crestwood Elementary reported that the Families and Schools Together (FAST) Program will begin there on October 15. There will be eight weeks of bringing families together on Thursday evenings to provide parent training, social interaction and general educational support.
• Principal Mark Lichte of Allis Elementary reported that the new windows have been installed and the air flow has increased significantly. Principal Peg Hamele at Randall Elementary reported the new roof is nearly done.
• Mendota Elementary will hold their Open House on August 25th.
• RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program) will hold a folk fair at Sandburg Elementary on September 25th as part of the school's 30th anniversary celebration. The celebration theme is School and Community: Past, Present and Future.
• Schools of Hope is looking for volunteers to tutor children in reading. This is a tremendous opportunity for children and people in the Madison community.

Committee Reports And Action Thereon

Performance & Achievement: Recommendations from the selection of Program Materials Committee were approved. A subcommittee was created to study issues and make recommendations about the recommendations of the Student Results Audit, the Technology Plan, and staff development needs related to these two issues. Mary Ramberg is the staff liaison.

Budget and Finance: There will be discussion at the next meeting regarding the creation of a Subcommittee and performance contracting.

Human Resources: The information gathering deadline for the Superintendent Search has been extended to the end of September. There will be a survey to get information from a cross section of the community. About the middle of November, critical decisions need to be made about doing a formal search and how that would be structured.

Long Range Planning: The Subcommittee has made a recommendation to define building capacity for elementary schools that includes space for REACH or computer rooms, a teachers' lounge, four year old and full day kindergarten rooms for each school. Next, the Subcommittee will determine the criteria for dealing with over-capacity buildings and then determine the process for arriving at changes that need to be made because of over-capacity issues.

Partnerships: A citizen member has joined the committee. They will meet within the month to discuss committee charge(s) for 1998-99.

Board of Education/Common Council Liaison Committee: The committee will meet again in September. There was no report from the August meeting.

Legislative: Agenda items for 1998-99 may include fiscal issues, revenue limits, special needs, local control issues, taxpayer accountability and modifying social promotion/graduation test issues. The committee will meet again in September.

Auditing, Purchasing, Transfers & Other Financial Transactions

Auditing: Interim and Building Fund bills were paid.

Purchasing: There were no Purchasing items.

Transfers: There were no transfers.

Other Financial Transactions: The 1998-99 budget was increased to support the Title VI program with funding from additional grant funds from DPI, district-wide AODA activities with funding from a state AODA grant and the After School AODA grant from DPI, and the SAGE program at Mendota with funding from a grant from the DPI. All donations and grants received since August 24, 1998 were approved.

Human Resources Transactions and Reports:

All personnel items were approved.

Reports to the Board:

There were no reports.

Other Business:

Annual School Food Nutrition Program applications required by the DPI were approved for the school year (National School Lunch, School Breakfast, Commodities and Special Milk Program, Elderly Nutrition Improvement and Wisconsin Morning Milk Program). Thirty-four students were granted diplomas.

Old and New Business: Carol Carstensen commented on the overall smooth opening of school this year with no major disruptions - even calls about bus routes. Deborah Lawson said the At Home In Madison project now has all MMSD schools on its Web site, all the materials are ready, and the kick-off event will be held at La Follette on October 13.

(A complete copy of these minutes is available from the Board of Education Office, 261-9000. This summary may have been published before the minutes were approved by the Board of Education. Please call to check on any changes.)

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Last Modified: 1998-09-24
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