The Appleton Area School District Board of Education is meeting 05/10/2021 at 6pm.
There are several items of particular interest.
1. The Board will be holding a public hearing for Request to Waive Hours of Instruction Requirements and Request to Waive the Kindergarten as a Prerequisite for First Grade requirements from the Department of Public Instruction
They are required by law to hold a public hearing prior to asking for a waiver for any of the laws or administrative rules that govern school districts.
Per state statute, public schools are required to provide “at least 437 hours of direct pupil instruction in kindergarten, at least 1,050 hours of direct pupil instruction in grades 1 to 6 and at least 1,137 hours of direct pupil instruction in grades 7 to 12.”
As is explained in the memo accompanying the waiver request, “students in grades 5K-12 started the 2020-21 school year in a fully virtual learning environment that later transitioned to a hybrid learning model. On January 19, 2021, students in grades 5K-4 returned to fully in-person learning with grades 5-6 returning to five days of in-person instruction on March 15, 2021. Students in grades 7-12 transitioned to four days per week in-person instruction on April 5, 2021 with online learning taking place on Wednesdays. Due to the flexibility needed at the local level for delivering instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are requesting a waiver for Hours of Instruction 121.02(1)(f) 121.006(2)(a) (grades 5-12) for the 2020-21 school year.”
It will be interesting to see if they mention during the meeting by how many hours AASD fell short of providing the legally required minimum hours of instruction.
State Statute 121.006 would seem to indicate that they are facing the prospect of having state aid withheld unless they receive these waivers.
Members of the public have until 12pm on 05/10/2021 to sign up to give public comment via Zoom during the meeting.
2. After having updated the school facility naming policy to allow for the renaming of school buildings, the Board is continuing on the next step of its plans to rename Lincoln Elementary to Ronald C. Dunlap – Home Of The Lincoln Lions which is to consider the naming request. As they note on the agenda “This item pertains to Step 2 of the Renaming Schools and Other Major District Facilities section of Board Policy 940, which states, ‘The School Board will decide by majority vote whether to proceed with the request, seek further review, or deny the request.” This is NOT a vote to approve a new name; rather, it is consideration of whether to continue the process for the proposed renaming.’
Given that the very next item on the agenda is to determine a process for notifying the community and gather community input/feedback on the renaming request, we can generally assume that the Board will be voting to approve moving forward with the renaming process.
They will also discuss spending $105,000 to remodel and furnish a third suite at the Northgate Center to serve as the district’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion department office.
The administrative team will also present a Safe and Resilient Return report.
Additionally, they’ll be considering two grants they were awarded.
They will also be reviewing the Board of Education meeting and work session schedule for the upcoming year.
View full meeting details here: http://go.boarddocs.com/wi/aasd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=C2PS7H714D8E
View AASD YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHo-l09YGgt4uKnCWYvt8Pw
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