I would like to thank our community for their passage of the referendum on November 7th. This referendum will build a new school in Linden Park, finance the cafeteria and remodeling of Leopold Elementary and refinance existing debt…

Board committees have been working hard this year and have been at the forefront of the meeting calendar. Here’s an update.

• Finance and Operations (Lawrie Kobza, Chair) continues its work on the People’s Budget document and analyzing transportation costs.
• Long Range Planning (Carol Carstensen, Chair) received reports from the City of Madison and Fitchburg planning depts. about housing developments and its affect on the district. They also received reports on enrollment which is 24,576, up 86 students from last year.
• Human Resources (Ruth Robarts, Chair) received a report on the status and impact of health care costs from Bob Butler from the Wisc. Assoc. of School Boards. The committee also discussed handing complaints of staff.
• Communications (Arlene Silveira, Chair) discussed legislative issues and supported them such as Rep. Spencer Black’s proposal to move security expenditures outside the revenue cap and supporting educational leadership for all students. The committee also discussed their next steps for community conversations.
• Community Partnerships (Lucy Mathiak, Chair) had a panel of school principals discuss best practices for parent participation. They also discussed a timetable and plan for parent input sessions.
• Performance and Achievement (Shwaw Vang, Chair) will receive a report on District’s Fine Arts programs and discuss credits for courses outside the MMSD.

For a listing of the board calendar, please log onto www.mmsd.org/boe/…
On Oct. 31st the board approved the tax levy of $10.02 per $1,000 of assessed property value, down from $10.43 last year. Taxes on the typical city home will increase by $74, or 3.2 percent. The board will complete it’s work on the overall budget soon… We are close to completing our evaluation of the Superintendent and goal setting… The board has ratified two collective bargaining agreements with Local 60 custodial and food service employees. The custodians agreed to a 2.0 % wage increase for the first year and a 2.9 % increase in the second year. The food service workers agreed to a 3.25% the first year and 4.25% the second. These wage increases were the result of savings passed on to the employees by their agreeing to a new three-HMO employee health insurance option for the employees that includes Group Health Cooperative, Physicians Plus and Dean Health Plan effective 1/1/07.
District News:
Centro Hispano recognized Cherokee Principal Karen Seno, with its 2006 Partnership Award for outstanding leadership in promoting academic achievement for Latino students…
Building Services Director Douglas Pearson accepted the Governor’s Energy Efficiency Award and a check for more than $45,000 on behalf of the MMSD. The award recognizes the districts on-going commitment to energy conservation that results in significant cost savings for the District…
East High teacher, Mary Klecker received an Honorary Recognition award in October from the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. It is the highest honor bestowed, recognizing outstanding contributions toward the development of agriculture, protection of natural resources and improvement of rural living…
The Madison West Rocket Club has won yet another NASA Student Launch Initiative grant. This is West’s fourth SLI grant in three years…
The LaFollette Boys’ cross–country team, led by Coach Brady Nicols, won it’s first-ever WIAA state title…
Congratulations to East and Memorial for their participation in the state soccer tournament. This was East’s first ever appearance at the state tournament. Memorial was the eventual champion in division 1…
Congratulations to all the schools in the MMSD for exceeding the $10,000 milestone needed to establish their endowment fund for the Foundation for Madison’s Public Schools! Endowments are held at the Madison Community Foundation.
Your Input Is Needed:
The Equity Task Force, appointed by the MMSD Board of Education, is seeking community and district employee input regarding aspects of a proposed equity policy. To facilitate gathering community input, a brief online survey is available. To take the survey, please go to http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/boe/equity/survey.htm or go to the district’s home page www.mmsd.org and click on the top link under “News from MMSD Today”.
Thank you for your interest and support of the MMSD.
Johnny Winston, Jr., President, Madison School Board
jwinstonjr@madison.k12.wi.us
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