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News and information for staff members and the Madison community

Vol. I No. 6 - May 2, 2006

Summary of May 1, 2006 Board of Education Meetings

by Carol Carstensen

BUDGET FACTOID:
The 2006-07 proposed budget includes staff reductions of 93.10 FTE (full-time equivalents), 45.46 of which are teachers; 5.0 are administrators and 29.58 are educational assistants. The total number of teacher positions will go down by nearly 80 FTE; about 35 of these are due to enrollment declines at the middle and high schools.

May 1 Meetings

5:30 p.m. Special Board Meeting: Presentation of the 5 Year Long Range Plan this will be discussed further in the Long Range Planning Committee and with members of both East and Memorial/West Task Forces.

The proposals for a district Food Policy were presented. Staff began working on this more than a year ago they involved the Student Senate and invited interested students to be more involved. The student sub-committee met with professionals, staff and community members before making their recommendations. These recommendations were then presented to the Student Senate. The Student Senate voted on each of the recommendations and then the recommendations were presented to the administration management team. The Board has before it a grid showing what each group (student sub-committee, Student Senate, administration) recommends. Discussion about how to proceed was referred to the regular Board meeting.

7:15 p.m. Regular Board Meeting: New Board members were sworn in. The Board then elected new officers as follows:
President Johnny Winston, Jr.;
Vice President Lawrie Kobza;
Clerk Shwaw Vang;
Treasurer Carol Carstensen.

The Board heard two reports of proposed changes for the future:

1. a proposal to restructure the Board's Legislative Committee into an Outreach Committee which will focus on public communication and engagement and government relations. This committee will be composed of 3 Board members and 4 citizens one from each of the high school attendance areas. The Board will take action on this proposal on May 8.
2. A proposal to meet with members of both Long Range Planning Task Forces to get comments on the district's 5 Year Long Range Plan. We will also ask for representation from the LaFollette area.

The Board decided not to act immediately on the proposal to appoint an ad hoc committee of 3 Board members to make recommendations on the proposed food policy to the whole Board. The Board agreed to discuss the policy and the ad hoc committee further on May 15. The most controversial aspect of the proposed Food Policy is the proposal to eliminate sales of candy, chips and soda which many high school groups use as a means to raise needed funds.

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Last Updated: Fri Sep 7 03:02:58 2007
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