Dec. 3, 2007 BOE meeting

On Dec. 3rd at 5:30 p.m. there was a special Work Session held to review the Needs Assessment Survey results. You can go to this blog and click on the Label of Needs Assessment to see the original survey document. This was a list of 112 items that were used to survey the following groups and determine priorities for our district. The survey was completed by the 7 members of the BOE (note their responses were given a double dose of priority for scoring so it looks like there were 14 responses), 14 top administrators in the district, 16 elementary employees, 19 secondary employees and the 22 members of the Parent Advisory Council (PAC). Items were ranked by priority (#1 being the highest priority) and also scored as to their perceived cost (high or low) and whether or not their implementation would involve Management effort. The results of the top 60 items is posted on the ECASD website (transparency!) at the following links:

Interpreting the Survey: http://www.ecasd.k12.wi.us/distinfo/SurveyReview.pdf
Survey Results: http://www.ecasd.k12.wi.us/distinfo/SurveywithPAC.pdf

The results were extremely "tight" in that the responses across the groups (BOE, PAC, Admin, etc...) all prioritized the top 15 responses in approx. the same way. Dr. Leary commented that the top 15 items could be broken down into 4 "clusters" in that 5 were related to money, 5 were related to students, 3 were related to schools and the community and 2 were process oriented. The top 30 priorities had 10 related to money, 8 related to students, 5 to school and community relations and 7 related to the process. Dr. Leary said that this "tightness" of response is not common with this number of stakeholders. (So, at least we can stop fighting about what might be priorities and start working on them!)

Comm. Cummins commented that there is some spread between the BOE and the rest of the district and Comm. Bollinger responded that the top 20 responses are "normalized" and it would be scary if everyone was in lock step. There was some discussion about the responses not really including the "community" to which Dr. Leary replied that is was "not possible to get reliable data." Also, I was not certain if the responses from the elementary and secondary groups included teaching and other staff members. Comm. Wogahn indicated that it would be interesting to see the top 60 items put out to the community and maybe distill responses to get the community's top 12 or 15 items. Comm. Craig indicated that Dr. Leary did not want to venture beyond an "internal" assessment at this time so "Now what?" Dr. Leary indicated that a series of 10 to 12 questions could be developed before a referendum went forward to assure that the priorities align with community support. A lengthy discussion followed about whether or not to go back to the Comprehensive Community Planning presenters who had expertise in such matters. BOE members seemed to be in agreement that reliable community data was important enough to use professionals.

Work Session adjourned.

Regular Meeting of the BOE called to order.

No action from Closed Session reported by Pres. O'Brien. NOTE: The ongoing closed session Agenda item labelled "Compensation Issue Involving District Employee" has been the source of much outrageous speculation. Immediately prior to attending the Work Session detailed above I received an amazing phone call from our former Superintendent, Dr. Klaus, who attempted to explain the situation to me. The only comment from my husband (who heard the phone conversation as well) is straight from the movie "The Big Lebowski": "Dude, new s*#t has come to light." Much more on this to come.

More announcements about other Work Sessions scheduled on Dec 17th and 18th, the dates of the schools Winter Break and WASB convention.

Dr. Leary's report consisted of an update on the Superintendent search which he characterized as "either the most popular or least wanted position" in the state since there are so many districts on the hunt. Dennis Richards from WASB will do a statewide compensation analysis. The ECASD position will be posted starting today until the deadline of Jan 18th. Comm. Craig commented that based on the salary data she looked at the wages are phenomenal and quite intimidating for a district like Eau Claire. Then there was an announcement that the ECASD has been honored by some organization for their Annual Report.

Public Comments: Gretchen Beckstrom, a teacher at Northstar and North HS extended an invitation to BOE members to come and visit classrooms. She noted that Commissioners Craig and Cummins are planning to attend and hoped others would choose to visit as well.

A couple of people (Todd Pauls and Dr. Dwight Watson) were appointed to the Montessori Charter School Board.

Jim Kling indicated that the Administrator contracts must be extended for the 08-09 and 09-10 school years. Comm. Craig had a few questions about how this approval might be affected if budget reductions are needed in this area. Kling responded that the Board is approving the position, not the $ amount.

There was a discussion about the Public Input guidelines that Comm. Craig asked to modify to allow citizens to ask clarifying questions after a presentation or discussion (not an action item). Mr. O'Brien indicated that if BOE members agreed they could modify the guidelines that night and then approve. Comm. Cummins noted that the Montessori discussion was respectful and open. Mr. Kling indicated that that was a "Report to the Board". Comm. Craig indicated that her motion would include Reports to the Board as well as Action and Discussion items. Members decided to rework it and bring it back next meeting.

Legislative Issues as reported by Pres. O'Brien included the information that sales tax revenue is down and counties and cities depend on that for their budgets. However since Gov. Doyle is very "pro" education he could help in some way. (Sorry that I am a really bad secretary!) On a federal level, Pres. Bush vetoed funding for Labor and Health and Human Services so if there is no override there is a lot of money lost for Special Ed., Title I and services to the poor.

Comm. Cummins gave an update on the Clear Vision Planning process and said they are doing the community "scan" of trends and conditions. Lots of information on the web at: clearvision eauclaire.org

She said that the region is experiencing only 1% growth and enrollment projections are only approx. 500 students in the next 10 years. The population is becoming more elderly and there is uneven growth with the south and west sides of EC growing more than others. The top employers in the community were Menards and the ECASD and also UWEC and CVTC were in the top 10. But only ECASD depends on the voters for money. Also our community has higher than average poverty levels. None of these indicators bode well for additional $'s for the district.

Comm. Bollinger asked that Board Docs be a future agenda item and he asked about an update on the Little Red committee (isn't Comm. Bollinger on that committee??). Comm. Craig said that they are done gathering info. and have met 5 times and can't just view Little Red in a vacuum since there are so many other impacts on the south and west sides of the city. She said they will begin deliberations on Dec. 6th, have follow up discussions on Dec. 13th and on Jan. 3rd there will be a Public Hearing. Comm. Craig indicated that she has been very impressed with the quality of the conversations and that final action on this will be no later than Feb. 4, 2008. All meetings are open to the public and comments can be made on the link on the ECASD website. Pres. O'Brien thanked her and all the participants for their hard work.

Adjourn!