Board Update
From the Desk of Cassandra Schug - Week of February 8, 2016
Scheduled Meetings
Special Board Meeting- February 8, 2016 - 5:30 p.m. (Detachment and DAPES)
Educational Services - February 9, 2016 - 7:30 a.m.
Policy Review - February 10, 2016 - 5:30 p.m.
Human Resources and Fiscal Management - February 15, 2016 - 5:30 p.m.
Special Board Meeting - February 17, 2016 - 5:30 p.m.
Board of Education - February 22, 2016 - 6:00 p.m.
Community Meetings/Functions/Conferences for November
This is a snapshot of some of the community events and conferences I am scheduled to attend this month. If you are interested in joining me at one of these meetings or events, please let me know – many are open to you.
List Schedule Here:
February 4 - CESA Superintendents' Meeting
February 4 - CEO Roundtable
February 5 - Webster Idol
February 8 - Professional Development Day
February 8 - Legislative Breakfast
February 8 - Rotary Board Meeting
February 10 - Leadership Watertown - Education Day
February 11 - Library Board Meeting
February 12 - Dialogue for Student Success
February 16 - City Council Meeting - Presentation
February 18 - Regional Superintendent Meeting
February 19 - Madison Business Education Collaborative Meeting
February 20 - Trivia Night
February 21 - Wisconsin Singers
February 25 - Branding Commission
February 26 - Jefferson County Interagency Council
March 2 - Wake Up Watertown
March 3-6 - Women in Education Leadership
Congratulations to the State Champions in High Kick - the Blue Revue!
Lebanon Leopards
Lebanon School Leaders for First Semester!!!
Freshman Preview Night
Gus the Gosling dabbled in the paint at Freshman Preview Night!
What a GREAT night ----- students and parents learned about core curriculars and exciting electives offered at our comprehensive high school, and met faculty members, current students, and advisors of our student clubs, and coaches of our various athletic organizations.
WHS Forensics Team
The Watertown High School Forensics Team took first place in the small schools category at the DeForest Forensics Meet on January 30th. The team started its season at this highly competitive tournament. A number of students excelled at the meet and competed in the power round. Johnathan Frank placed first in the power round in Storytelling. In Group Interp, Britany Mueller, Meghan Mueller, Izzy Beltz, Emily Krysinski, and Yazmin Montalban placed second in the power round. Sarah Radant, Molly Kellner, Savannah Fraser, and Millie Groeler placed fourth in the Group Interp power round. Hillary Lobenstein, head coach, and Jennifer Pennington, assistant coach, are incredibly pleased with this season’s start. The team is looking forward to the Sun Prairie tournament on February 6th.
iPads for Austic Children
WUSD thanks the Watertown Kiwanis and Thrivent Financial for hosting a dinner in fall 2015 and donating $1,250 to purchase iPads for autistic children in the District. Pictured from the left are:
Chris Mallow, Thrivent Financial associate, Jeff Kube, Thrivent Financial consusltant, Clifford Fisk, Kiwanis treasurer, and Roger Herbert, Kiwanis, past president.
Congratulations to Cierra Rice for being named a finalist!
Cierra entered her photograph of a flamingo from Mrs. Strobel’s Advanced Photography class at Watertown High School. The contest was hosted by Photographer’s Forum. The 36th Annual College and High School Photography Contest had over 14,000 photographs entered from the US, Canada, and around the world.
Cierra’s photo made it into the finalists!
Wisconsin Singers
Mark your calendars for February 21, 2016 . . . . . The Wisconsin Singers and all WUSD Show Choirs will perform at WHS in the auditorium, at 3:00 p.m.
General seating tickets go on sale beginning February 9th in the WHS Front Office: $15.00 for Adults and $12.00 for Students and Seniors
Proceeds from this event are being used to help fund new tuxedo jackets for WHS Carolers. See you there!!!
Consumer Price Index
Policy Review
The Policy Review committee is continuing to review the meeting regulations and case law regarding transgender and gender nonconforming students as a part of the committee's discussion on the Equal Educational Opportunities policy and the recommended revisions to this policy to address discrimination regarding gender identity. This discussion will continue at next month's meeting, and the Board's attorney will be present to address Board questions and concerns.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this policy.
Voucher Impact
There has been quite a bit of discussion at the Assembly level regarding changes to Act 55 and the funding for vouchers. Speaker Vos brought forward two amendments http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/related/amendments/ab751/aa2_ab751.pdf to Assembly Bill 751 http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/related/proposals/ab751.pdf that have since been pulled. Assembly Bill 751 is a bill on which the SAA had been neutral; it is regarding vouchers for students with special needs and attempting to close some loop holes in current legislation. AB 751 was proposed by Representative Jagler, but he did not support the amendments to the bill. However, based on my discussion with Representative Jagler, we should anticipate them coming back in some form.
I was also requested to prepare a letter to the Good Shepherd School Board, which I did, explaining vouchers and the possible impact on the WUSD. This is challenging because the impact will depend on how many students and schools will utilize vouchers, and it will also depend on if the funding formula is changed to charge back to the school district both those students currently in our seats and moving to voucher schools and the students that are currently in the seats of the parochial schools or just the students currently in our seats. We will continue to wait to see what amendments will be proposed on this issue.
We have 3 schools in the area which have applied for vouchers now in Watertown - Good Shepherd, Maranatha Baptist Academy, and Lakeside Lutheran. The cost to the District at $7,214/student could conservatively be $100,000 - 5 students at each school for a total of 15 students accepting vouchers. If the program continues to expand, and 25 students at 11 parochial schools were to accept vouchers, that number could grow to just under 2 million dollars. That number would be added to the 1.6 million we spend annually on open enrollment. We will continue to work to understand this impact and watch for legislation on this issue.
http://wsaa.org/saainfo/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Voucher-School-Summary-Oct-28-2015.pdf - Private School Voucher Financial Impacts
http://www.wasda.org/link.asp?e=schugc@watertown.k12.wi.us&job=2164025&ymlink=4327819&finalurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmediatracking%2Ecom%2Fnpcapp%2Fbounce%2Easpx%2Fmynewsclips%2F34453%2F80%2Fbmx1bmRAd2FzZGEub3Jn%2F1234276566 - Taxpayers Pay for Area Voucher Students
Special Board Meeting
We will use the February 17th Special Board meeting to follow up on the healthcare conversations that we have been having the last few months. Willis and WPS will be attending and facilitating discussion with the Board key take aways from the last two meetings as well as next steps. Additionally, at the Board's request, I have arranged for the HR Director and Physician's Assistant from West Bend to attend the meeting.
Please let me know if you have any thoughts or questions on this meeting and/or next steps on healthcare. Also please let me know if you have any specific requests for Willis or WPS for their presentation.
Special Board Meeting - Detachment and DAPES
We will have a Special Board meeting on February 8th to consider a family request to detach from the WUSD and join the Oconomowoc School District. We have not done a detachment hearing since 2011, but the procedures will include a presentation from the family and from the District regarding the request. The Board will then need to adopt a resolution to deny or accept the request to detach. Let me know if you have any questions regarding the hearing.
I have connected with Richard Zimman who is prepared to do a 20-minute presentation to the Board on DAPES - the District Administrator Performance Evaluation System - that we discussed at the December meeting. After the Detachment hearing, we would hear from Richard Zimman; I have scheduled him to appear before the Board at 6:30 p.m.
If you are interested in reading about DAPES before the February meeting, you can find more information here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1m8Vy3IEBjRQlF3eFdzM3hidHc/view?pref=2&pli=1.