During the 01/11/2021 Board of Education meeting, the Board considered the 10 resolutions that the Delegate Assembly of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) will be voting on during the annual state education convention held online this year from January 20-22.
Each school district, regardless of size, gets one vote and the resolutions that receive a majority of votes will then be submitted to the legislature in the spring for consideration. They are not guaranteed to be passed into law, but this is WASB’s way of lobbying the legislature.
Jim Bowman is AASD’s WASB representative, and he will vote for these resolutions however a majority of the BOE directs him to vote.
You can download these resolutions in their entirety here:
Resolution 21-01: One-Cent Sales Tax for School Infrastructure, Technology and Tax Relief
“Create: The WASB supports the implementation of a new statewide one-cent (one percent) sales tax to help public school districts build, maintain, and upgrade facilities, upgrade district technology infrastructure, software, and teacher training related to technology and help lower property taxes for Wisconsin taxpayers. District electors would need to approve a one-time revenue purpose statement before these sales tax funds could be expended and funding from the sales tax could not be spent on supplies, hiring additional staff or employee salaries and benefits.“
Per Greg Hartjes the administration supports this resolution, but he thought that it was important to understand that if the revenue generated by the sales tax was used to replace property taxes under the revenue limit it may not mean more revenue for AASD. He likened it to the Outagamie County sales tax and that they were only able to use that to reduce the burden. He reiterated that the district was in favor of this resolution but hoped that some of the money would be outside of the revenue limit, otherwise it would just be swapping this new tax for property taxes.
Gary Jahnke was not in favor of this resolution. Although he was in favor of districts getting more money, he thought this was a half-baked idea and believed there were other ways to generate revenue as opposed to taxation–particularly given that this resolution if implemented would not necessarily result in additional revenue.
The resolution passed 5 to 1 with Gary being the no vote.
Resolution 21-02: Broadband Access
“Create: The WASB supports legislation to expand affordable, reliable, quality broadband access for all Wisconsin communities, including funding for school districts to ensure broadband access and devices for students and staff in their schools, school districts, and communities.”
Per Matt Zimmerman this would allow for increased advocacy at the state level for universal broadband as well as allow them to leveral federal e-rate dollars to pay for increased access for kids who don’t have internet access which is something that they can’t do right now. The district administration is in favor of this resolution.
The Board voted unanimously in favor of this resolution.
Resolution 21-03: Enrollment Hold Harmless
“Create: The WASB supports legislation to create a hold harmless exemption in district membership calculations used for revenue limits and per pupil categorical aid to mitigate the effects of enrollment fluctuations caused by extraordinary public health emergencies or other disasters or emergencies that disrupt large portions of the state. This statutory exemption would be authorized by the DPI upon consultation with state and local leaders.”
Per Greg Hartjes, under this proposal, when the state faces an extraordinary public health emergency such as the pandemic, schools will not be punished for a lack of enrollment. He mentioned that AASD had a decrease of 75% in their summer school enrollment, and those numbers influence their equalization aid, their categorical aid, and their revenue limit. They were down 377 students on their most recent September third Friday count. Between the summer school numbers and their third Friday count the district has lost $1.8 million in their revenue limit and categorical aid this year. He acknowledged that they didn’t have all the expenses they would have had, but they still have those losses. If the legislature passed this resolution, it would give AASD a number equal to last year’s numbers. He believed that most districts support this as most have lost students due to the pandemic.
[To editorialize, presumably students all went somewhere, and some schools have probably seen their enrollment increase. Why not keep the rules as they are so that schools that have been able to rise to the occasion and provide a service that has drawn students are able to enjoy the fruits of their good planning and hard work whereas those who were not able to plan well and provide a quality service have to deal with the results of their choices?]
Deb Truyman thought there was a hold harmless already in effect.
Greg told her there is a hold harmless for declining enrollment. The difference is that their enrollment numbers for this year will carry forward for the next three years because their figures are based on a 3 year rolling average.
The Board voted unanimously for this resolution.
Resolution 21-04: Instruction on Indigenous Tribes (1989 Wisconsin Act 31)
“Create: The WASB calls upon the DPI to provide sufficient curricular resources and professional development opportunities for teachers to assist all school districts in fulfilling the requirements of 1989 Wisconsin Act 31, including initiatives that promote increased student academic competency regarding 1989 Wisconsin Act 31.”
Per Steve Harrison this resolution is in response to Act 31 which was passed in 1989. That act requires all public school districts to provide instruction on the history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of Wisconsin’s 11 federally recognized Native American nations. State statute requires focus on local Native American tribes twice at the elementary level and once at the high school level. AASD is in compliance with this. Its 4th grade social studies focuses on local history, its 5th grade social studies focuses on native american cultures, and their 9th grade civics curriculum also focuses on Native American issues.
This resolution asks DPI to provide further professional development and high quality curriculum resources for districts to remain in compliance with Act 31.
Gary Jahnke pointed out that given that AASD is already in compliance, in some respects this resolution would be encouraging or requiring other districts to get in line.
Steve Harrison stated that there are likely other districts throughout the state that may have some catching up to do
The Board voted unanimously in favor of this.
[To editorialize slightly, I question why. They apparently have all their ducks in a row in this matter. Why vote for a resolution aimed at making other districts do something? Presumably, DPI can themselves already determine if a district is in line with Act 31. There doesn’t seem to be much need for this.]
Resolution 21-05: Special Education Flexibility to Address Emergencies
“Create: The WASB supports legislation that would grant state and federal flexibility for districts in providing educational services, particularly special education services, to students during school years disrupted by extraordinary public health emergencies or other emergencies that affect large portions of the state or the nation. The primary goal of this flexibility should be to enable schools to bring students to the level of achievement they would have been at had the extraordinary emergency not occurred.“
Per Polly Vanden Boogaard there are some school districts that continue to remain in virtual learning. This resolution provides time for those districts and their IEP teams to be able to identify the gaps caused by virtual learning and create plans for their students to close those gaps that were unintentionally caused by virtual instruction.
Kay Eggard asked to clarify that the flexibility provided would be regarding time and would not affect what the IEP or service had to be.
Polly stated that it would provide flexibility to identify and also then to deliver those additional services.
Kay again wanted to confirm that this flexibility was not about the expectations of IEPs but with the timeframe to meet those expectations.
Polly responded that some schools that are still in virtual instruction, may not yet fully know the impact of virtual instruction on their students. They need to get them back in the building to see the gap that has been created. [Which, honestly, didn’t seem like an answer to me. And it is concerning to me that they are supporting a resolution that is advocating a reduction in expectations for teachers. Particularly at the high school level, there may not be any extra time to get a student caught up. Creating an environment where (a) kids are allowed to fall behind and (b) it is not important to address that in a timely manner seems like recipe for failure.]
The Board voted unanimously in favor of this resolution.
Resolution 21-06: Assessment and Report Card Waivers
“Create: The WASB supports that public school districts should continue to assess student growth and performance using assessments and measures approved locally. However, the WASB also supports legislation specifying that in any school year during which a public health emergency (pandemic) or other disaster or emergency occurs that affects large portions of the state, state law requiring assessments to be administered annually to pupils attending school in a public school district, independent charter school, private choice school, or special needs scholarship program school would not apply and the DPI would be prohibited from publishing school and school district accountability reports in the following school year.“
Per Steve Harrison, this resolution recognizes the importance for school districts to continuously progress-monitor both academic achievement and growth, but it recognizes the large challenges districts face during a public health emergency. This waiver would request that during a public health emergency or pandemic that the state does not require for there to be state mandated assessments or a statewide report card for that year. He stated that the focus of this resolution was on test security and data integrity and also a response to the fact that state test vendors do not necessarily have different ways of administering assessments when districts are either in a fully virtual or hybrid model. He mentioned that the state is currently moving forward with requiring the WI Forward exam, ACT, and ACT Aspire exams, but it doesn’t have plans for how districts can conduct those exams other than having all students in the building.
This resolution is recommending that school districts continue to progress-monitor student achievement and growth at the local level but through locally administered assessments instead of state mandated ones. He mentioned AASD’s use of the i-Ready exam.
[It seems to me that during a pandemic of all times school districts’ performance should be measured, so that the state can see who managed to deal with the problems and get a good outcome and who was not able to rise to the occasion. A better resolution would be to simply ask the state to come up with alternative ways of conducting state required tests while in a health emergency instead of doing away with them all together.]
The Board voted unanimously in favor of this
Resolution 21-07: Rehiring Retired Teachers and Staff
“Repeal and Recreate Existing Resolution 4.37 as follows: The WASB supports legislation to remove any impediments to rehiring retired teachers and staff. Policies and standards for rehiring retired staff should be set by each local school board.“
Per Julie King, the current law on rehiring retired teachers is complex. It includes a break in service and also places caps on the number of hours in which teachers can work. Right now being able to rehire recently retired teachers would be very beneficial to schools given the experience of retired teachers as well as the district’s need for substitutes and temporary staff.
[One does wonder why WASB thinks an across the board repeal and rewrite of existing law is necessary. Why not simply add additional language to the existing law that provides some kind of temporary exemption during a public health emergency?]
The Board voted unanimously for this resolution.
Resolution 21-08: Superintendent Evaluations
“Create: The WASB supports confidential Superintendent evaluations to allow school districts to continue to improve by providing a confidential framework for the leader of the district to improve, therefore allowing or helping the district to improve. Disciplinary records are separate and distinct from evaluations and would not be considered confidential under this resolution.”
As the Superintendent, Judy Baseman spoke. Under current law, evaluations of district superintendents are subject to public disclosure under the public records law. That means someone could request a copy of the superintendent’s evaluation via the open records process. This resolution is proposing that those evaluations become confidential. The reasoning is that by allowing this to be confidential there might be a more frank outline of areas that need improvement and other things of that nature. She stated that she was neutral on this resolution. Her perspective is that AASD’s current evaluation process would not be impacted one way or another by this resolution and with the Coherent Governance process that they are transitioning to, every report that they give in regards to monitoring is handled in open session anyway.
Kay Eggart stated that she understands AASD is neutral but she thought this resolution could be appealing or make sense. Perhaps this is more of an issue in other districts, but she would support it.
Jim Bowman thought it might be helpful to others. He wanted to make sure there would be no adverse consequences to AASD.
Kay assured him there would be no adverse consequences.
Gary was opposed to it. The proponents of this resolution argue that, from a public policy standpoint, a board might be more candid or frank in a superintendent’s evaluation if they know the evaluation will remain confidential. He thought it seemed like overreaching to use legislative action to help a board give a frank and honest evaluation. He didn’t think the legislature needed to be involved in that.
Deb agreed that it seemed overreaching and she didn’t see AASD having an issue with that, so she personally didn’t have a preference on the resolution one way or the other.
Barry O’Connor was in favor of it. He thought there was great advantage in having an honest evaluation and not having to worry that it would become public record and that the Board would inadvertently undercut the candidate by registering recommendations for improvements that all of a sudden end up on the front page of the newspaper.
Barry, Jim, Kay, and Kris voted in favor of it. Gary voted against it. Deb remained neutral.
Resolution 21-09: Comprehensive School Safety Legislation
“Repeal and recreate existing resolution 6.115 to read as follows: 29 30 The WASB supports comprehensive school safety legislation, including: a. New, permanent, and consistent funding that allows districts to enhance safety and security by supporting one-time and ongoing costs, including, but not limited to: i. Security improvements to infrastructure; ii. Hiring SROs; iii. Coordinating with community agencies; iv. Training for staff and students about threats to safety, restorative practices, de-escalation techniques and anti-bullying; v. Mental health services; vi. Equipping school crisis teams to react to threats; and b. Allowing prosecutors to bring appropriate charges against any individual who conveys a threat or false information concerning an attempt to injure or create great bodily harm or threat of to a person on school property, school transportation, or at a school event.”
Per Greg Hartjes, this resolution would repeal and recreate existing resolution 6.115. It’s just looking to change language to include the phrase “New, permanent, and consistent funding” instead of the current language which states “allocating sufficient funds”. That difference is important because a lot of these areas are currently funded by grants and when the grants go away often so does the training or the actions that were funded by the grants. If schools had new, permanent, and consistent funding schools would achieve better consistency within their programs. One example is the DOJ grant which allowed AASD to do training for threat assessment in their buildings and also also undergo training regarding adolescent mental health. That DOJ grant was paid in 2019, almost 2 years ago, and those dollars are now gone. When staff members leave or move to a different school, AASD does not have a mechanism to pay for future training.
The Board voted unanimously in favor of it.
Resolution 21-10: School District Mascots, Logos and Imagery
“Create: The WASB encourages school boards and districts to identify imagery, practices or 13 processes that may create a school environment that is not safe and welcoming to all students, 14 regardless of their race, ancestry or ethnicity, and to initiate discussions at the district level that 15 would lead to the retirement of mascots, logos, imagery, practices or processes that may create a 16 hostile, divisive or unwelcoming school environment.“
Per Pa Lee Moua, this resolution supports retiring symbols, images, mascots and logos that do not create a welcoming and inclusive environment for students and staff within a school district. It was a proposal that emerged in 1968 from the national congress of American Indians. The resolution was brought to Appleton in 2019 as well, but per Pa Lee, AASD did not vote in favor of it. She recommended that this time around they vote in favor of retiring any mascots, logos or symbols that do not create an “equitable and inclusive environment for all of our students–particularly our native, indigenous students.”
Jim Bowman said that AASD did actually vote in favor of this resolution last year, but the full WASB delegate assembly did not.
Gary wanted to know if this resolution comes up annually, given that it was voted on last year nd is up for a vote again this year.
Jim stated that it didn’t pass the delegate assembly so districts are pushing to get it through again. He didn’t remember if it was up 2 years ago, but it was up last year.
Barry O’Connor pointed out that the resolution “encourages” rather than “requires”. He wondered whether the past resolution had that qualifier. He also reminded everyone that just because they were voting for what the WASB delegate assembly would lobby the legislature for, the odds of most of these resolutions becoming law is very slim.
Jim Bowman said he was going to vote in favor of this resolution this year. He opposed it last year but he thought Barry was right and that last year it required the elimination of those mascots and symbols. He didn’t think he would have opposed it if it had simply “encouraged” their removal. He opposed the resolution last year on the grounds of local control.
Barry thought this resolution would be more successful if it provided a financial incentive for districts to change their logos–not a huge amount but something to pay for some of the revising of emblems and all of the materials that a district would need to change. It might be enough of an incentive for a community to buy into it.
Jim stated that in the delegate assembly last year, the big districts all voted in favor of that resolution while the little districts opposed it. He thought they felt that their autonomy was being infringed upon. He thought the softening of the word to “encourage” may help this year.
The Board voted unanimously in favor of this resolution.
You can view the entire Board of Education meeting here: https://youtu.be/0sI5lUgVdzo
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