The Safety and Licensing Committee met 05/14/2025. One of the items they took up was the resolution calling for the creation of a truancy ordinance.
Appleton Area School District Superintendent Greg Hartjes has submitted a request that the item be held until further stakeholder meetings took place and information was provided to and feedback received from the Common council and members of the public.
The committee ended up voting unanimously to hold the item indefinitely with the expectation that it would appear back on the agenda in the fall of 2025.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Superintendent Hartjes appeared before the committee and said that after his presentation to the Common Council of 03/19/2025 the District continued to provide information and gather input from Council members and the community. Additionally, they took part in a meeting on 04/15/2025 with city staff, Outagamie County staff, and city and county elected officials. After that meeting, questions still remained, so they wanted to meet again. Additionally, AASD hoped to answer questions and gather more input from the Council and community. As a result, he requested that the item be held for the time being.
Scott Korning the Youth and Family Services Manager with Outagamie County encouraged the committee to keep the item open and allow it to continue to be worked on.
A Greenville resident and parent of an AASD student spoke and expressed concern that, although AASD has talked about having heard from stakeholders and parents, they had only done two meetings in two years. Additionally, a new program had been implemented in partnership with Boys and Girls Club to combat truancy, but it didn’t look like any of the people involved in that program had been invited to participate in meetings about the proposed truancy ordinance. She wondered if that program had been given a chance to work before AASD started pursuing the creation of a truancy ordinance.
Superintendent Hartjes stated that the creation of a truancy ordinance had been recommended by a large committee of community members, AASD staff members, and parents that had met during the 2023-2024 school year. That committee had made four recommendations, the first of which was to reinstate a truancy ordinance.
The committee ended up voting unanimously to hold the resolution indefinitely. This was done rather than setting a definite time to bring it back because the next stakeholder meeting was tentatively scheduled for August, but it was not certain it would take place then, and the committee wanted to have the freedom to bring it back when it was convenient.
During the time it was on hold, Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14), the chair of the Safety and Licensing Committee, indicated that he wanted committee meeting agendas to include regular informational updates on the proposed truancy ordinance.
It was noted that members of the public could speak on the truancy ordinance issue during any of the Board of Education meetings, whether or not it appeared on the agenda.
AASD was also working with the city to put together a joint listening session on the proposed ordinance to be held sometime this summer, hopefully in June.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked that care be made when scheduling the listening session or sessions to make sure that they were accessible to a wide range of people because people work different shifts and some may not be able to physically attend.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1281685&GUID=BAE7791B-EBEF-4F52-9ABD-18BFF2D5CC74
Be the first to reply