Board President's Report

The summer months are more slow-paced for the board, with less meetings and less committees, as we go on vacation with our families, just like our students and staff are on vacation from school. Normally, at this August Board President’s Report, I would talk about the construction projects we’ve been working on this summer, and this summer there haven’t been a lot. As the development of the 20-year plan, we’ve been waiting for that plan to be developed and approved by the board to take on some of the big projects that are outstanding. So I don't have anything to report there, but I do want to report to our community that the board will be completing our annual evaluation of the one employee that we directly hire, Dr. Mark Hansen. And I just want to express, as I've been thinking about Mark and his performance, my gratitude to Dr. Hansen for his leadership and certainly the team that he puts together and the way that he enables and builds leaders around him. We're lucky to have you and we'll talk more in closed session about things you're doing well and the areas in which you can improve, but I appreciate your work. And that is my report.

Recently, over the last month, board members have had the opportunity to attend a lot of promotions, graduation, end of year celebrations, at our schools and it's been a lot of time, and appreciate our board members for going and representing so well. Two days ago, we attended Brookfield Central and Brookfield East graduations and celebrated the graduating class of 2026. I know Mark will have a lot about the specifics of that in his report, but suffice it to say, that it was another impressive year; from scholarships and AP credits to graduation rate and GPA, even to the post high school plans for graduates, the universities they would attend, the class of 2026 is nothing short of amazing. It's been really wonderful and has me reflecting on the amazing work that happens in Elmbrook Schools everyday and our amazing staff and families that make that work happen, and of course the students. 

The next part of my report I changed, actually, this evening after hearing our discussion and being in closed session with the board earlier. The board has been grappling with a lot of important financial decisions. A couple months ago we were talking about a million dollars for transportation changes and school start time changes. Literally tens of millions of dollars for facility needs that we've been discussing tonight and over the last few months. Millions of dollars for teachers and staffing and pay and benefits, a community referendum and investment question. We govern as a board of seven, and as seven individual people, we bring and prioritize seven different criteria as we make our decisions and that's so important and I value that. It makes us better as a board, that we're so individual and so unique. But we do share some common values, for example, tonight and over the last few months, I've heard a priority on student needs and outcomes, educational outcomes. I've seen us value our staff and teachers. I've seen seven board members who want to make sound, responsible financial decisions, and invest in things like school safety, and hiring the best teachers and administrators that we can. 

So, first off, a thank you to my fellow board members for their hard work and preparation and what you bring to the table each and every day in your committee work and to our board meetings. And then a thank you to the community for your trust and support of us as we make these important decisions. Truly over the last couple of years, I felt like we are making really significant decisions that impact the future of our community and the future of our students, who are, in fact, the future of our community. So thank you for your hard work and thank you community for supporting us, trusting us and giving us feedback as we go.

Over the past month, the board has welcomed two new board members, and again I'll just officially welcome Elizabeth to the table and Jen Roskopf returning, welcome. We also reorganized board leadership and the Committees were done tonight. April and May is a busy time when our schools remain focused on academics, especially as you heard tonight from our Student Representatives; the AP test and there'll soon be final projects and final exams over the next month. Before our next meeting. board members are definitely looking forward to honoring our seniors at the awards nights, graduation, and the many opportunities we have to do so over the upcoming month.

Last week was teacher appreciation week, so I just wanted to take a moment and just publicly thank our teachers. The success of Elmbrook would not be possible without, of course, students, and our amazing Educators that help them achieve and learn. They're there every single day with lesson plans, the skills, teaching is an art something that's been developed over the years and so many of our teachers have gone above and beyond in terms of their training and also their lesson preparation and their ability to reach students and help them individually. So in honor of our teachers, last week with teacher appreciation week, on behalf of the Board of Education, just thank you to the wonderful staff and teachers who do so much.

The board is looking forward to reviewing District priorities soon and setting and affirming District goals and metrics for the year ahead. Last year the board embarked on pretty ambitious objectives, a series of objectives, and I'm pleased to know that the Board and District have made significant progress on those and are continuing to work on those. One of the things that we recently finished was the school start time vote that happened at our last Board Meeting. The board, in the future, will continue to spend a lot of time with facility planning and funding, as we just talked about. 

Finally, I just want to thank our families and community members for their engagement and feedback on the survey. Your partnership remains an important part of the success of our schools. From the donations that we talk about each month with our recent gifts to the district, to the information and feedback you give us on things like this community survey, so again thank you, we could not do it without you.  

This is the time of year when I always give a big thank you to our involved ​community for voting and making​ your voices heard​. I started that practice—I don't remember exactly when​, but I believe the year we had t​he r​ecount​. I'm super appreciative to ​board members who are willing to run​, people from our community that are willing to step up, this is largely a volunteer position ​and to our community members​, ​our constituents, that turn out and vote. I know the Spring Election has a lower turnout than say a presidential election but it's still a significant turnout and it's great​. I also​ would like ​to just publicly thank Kevin​, Bob​, Sam​, Jen, and Elizabeth for running. It's not easy​. It's a sacrifice of time​, treasure​, there's a lot that goes into running for the board ​and so thank you for that​. 

I do have a little bit more that I'm going to include in my board president ​report this year following the election. In the run up to the school board election, many people received a flurry of text messages and I've received a lot of questions about them. Many of the text messages I think were generalized, maybe they were used across the nation or the state of Wisconsin. They are not necessarily specific to our district but I would like to clarify some points that were made so that our community ha​s the most current information in terms of Elmbrook School District specifically. 

So some comments, some texts, suggested that facility planning is being fiscally mismanaged. To clarify, the board is currently looking at two planning options; those aren't the only two options that may eventually be considered, but those are the two on the table right now. One would result in no change to your school debt tax by continuing the current debt payment and the other would add about $11 per $100,000 in assessed value. That's our best understanding at the current time. So surveys have gone out to gauge Community opinion on whether that's the best approach, whether that's good stewardship over the facilities, where our students learn everyday, if we want to make those improvements. So the voice of the community will speak loudly and help the board choose the best path forward. 

Other text messages made comments to suggest that student safety and parent communication and transparency are less than optimal. Just want you to know that we value and deliver on open communication to keep parents informed. We have a robust safety program led by a topnotch safety director. We just talked about the safety meeting they have every other month, with shared responsibility across our system for all staff and student safety. 

Comments in another text were made about literacy. I'm proud to say that literacy in Elmbrook is on a steady upward trajectory with 83% of our third graders reading at or above grade level as of spring 2025 and that's a significant age because the science of reading would say that's where you need to be making gains to make a difference in literacy, is third grade, that's where they need to be at that proficiency. So again, just like to thank the significant efforts of our leaders and staff that have made that statistic possible and to point out that we are on track to exceed 90% in the coming year so working on that's a work in progress and it's something to be celebrated.

Comments were made that fiscal accountability and prioritizing academics in the classroom are at risk in Elmbrook. I can assure you that fiscal accountability in Elmbrook consists of a rigorous annual budget process, looks closely at spending and reduces and or reallocates funds to match current and strategic objectives the board sets those objectives. We currently prioritize academics in the classroom. Administrative expenses in Elmbrook account for 4.19% of the annual budget, that's the second lowest in comparison to our 11 Regional benchmarks, meaning we want the majority of our money in our budget going to classrooms and we try to make that happen.

Comments were made that there's no accountability for student misconduct and I'd like to point out that we have an extensive array of student policies, we have a lot of policies, but there's student policies that exist and are enforced to optimize student conduct.

And finally comments were made that parents are shut out of decisions and parental rights are lacking in Elmbrook. Parents are not shut out of decisions; several dozen School District policies clearly call out parent rights to shape and guide their students' education. Parents are in charge of their students' education in Elmbrook. And that concludes my report.

So welcome to our regular scheduled March board meeting. This agenda is unusual in the fact that we have tabled many discussion items and changed the order of other agenda items like this report. This is so that we could listen to almost two dozen of our constituents and community members share their feelings and or concerns about the History Rocks celebration at Brookfield Central last Friday. On behalf of the Board of Education, I want to acknowledge that this event has been divisive for many in our community. I want you to know that we hear you. We will be meeting with the administration to discuss the event and the next steps. The process will begin tonight. I plan to give a more specific update at future board meetings. I would also like to address my fellow board members briefly. Not only do we follow Robert's Rules of Order, but we expect respect and decorum as we navigate serious issues and passionate viewpoints. During the Citizens Forum and other citizen comments, I remind board members that we will not engage in conversation with those addressing the board. During our regular agenda items, I will make sure everyone gets a chance to speak before someone speaks again. I ask board members to address me as the chair when you want to speak and wait to be recognized. Please limit the cross-talk and interrupting others.

Board President Scott Wheeler reported that every year the board sets priorities to guide our work and focus our efforts as we finish the current Board cycle we’re starting to see many of the major Board goals coming to the Board Room as we normally do at this time of year, for the discussion/action sequence. So again, I want to publicly express gratitude to Board Members for the preparation and efforts to do the heavy lifting of school programming, facility planning, school start time, academic performance, healthcare costs, etcetera. It was pretty robust when we agreed to our Strategy Map last spring and it’s taken a lot of time but I am grateful to work with each of you and it truly is a privilege as we work through all these things. Scott reported on one of the events he attended this last month, the Unified Sports Basketball Game at Brookfield Central. He’s been to these games before and I was thrilled and reminded how exciting it is as one of the participants drilled a couple of three pointers, and the crowd was just cheering and going crazy. I found myself cheering on some of these athletes as they tried again and again to score, then they finally did and unified with the crowd and the athletes as they experienced the special game. So, just a couple of shout outs here, so grateful to Hannah Christianson, the student from Brookfield East who founded Unified Sports, back in 2022, inspired by her brother, she wanted to create this program for the inclusion of all students with and without disabilities and it’s just awesome to watch them come together and play this game, and they do. And also grateful thank you to the EEF for raising funds to expand this program in Elmbrook and beyond and just feel truly privileged and honored to be part of a great school district that has so many great programs like this.