Royall to start livestreaming board meetings

 

 

By SARAH PARKER | County Line Editor

Royall’s board of education agreed Monday to give livestreaming meetings a trial run, responding to requests from district residents.

The public will not be able to communicate with the board during the livestreams. Also, if the board cannot livestream the meeting due to technical glitches, the meeting still will go as planned.

The livestream would be designated as “elective,” Gruen said, and he got confirmation from the Wisconsin Association of School Boards that it would be legal to proceed with the meeting if the video does not work.

Additionally, the meetings will not be recorded.

“We do not want to record it,” said Superintendent Mark Gruen. “If we record it, it becomes archival piece.”

IT director Justin Howe added, “We could record it, but that’s a lot more problems and … a lot more problems.”

A member of the public could record the meeting, Howe said, but then it wouldn’t be the school district’s responsibility to archive it.

Howe said he thought it would take about 10 minutes to set up the livestream equipment at each meeting.

Gruen told the board that the district was set up to livestream meetings from a technological standpoint, and in the end, the board’s preference on the matter would determine whether it would broadcast meetings.

“It makes no difference to me,” said board member Doug Waterman. “I personally think if they’re that interested in it, they should show up. But there are instances that they can’t. If we try it for a couple of months and we have only just a few participants … we’ll have to look at it at that point.”

Board president Raye Walz agreed that the board could try it for two or three months.

“But if we don’t get participation, there’s no sense in doing it,” Waterman added.

Ryan McKittrick of Elroy noted that three people had asked him that day if livestreaming was an option.

District requests early start date

After a public hearing, the board agreed to seek a waiver to start school one week early next fall. Though the state typically mandates that school must begin after Labor Day, it may allow an early start due to learning gaps caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Correspondingly, if school does start one week earlier than usual, school will let out one week early in the spring of 2022.

A survey revealed that 75 percent of the staff preferred an early start next year, noted Gruen.

Sally Dana of Kendall noted that some families had already scheduled vacations for late August and will have to either call off their plans or pull their children out of school that week. In response, Gruen noted that many families, as a general rule, take vacations during the school year anyway.

Kari Benish, who owns the Children’s Cottage Child Care Center in Elroy, said she supported the plan, as her summer help often departs a week before school starts each year.   

Moreover, Ryan McKittrick of Elroy maintained that it would be easier for coaches to manage student-athletes in the early-season practices if the school year had already begun.

“It’s impossible to get kids here when they’re not in school,” he said.

On a related note, Benish asked the board if the state might reconsider its rules regarding school start dates.

Gruen replied, “The state is not one bit concerned with what the schools want on this topic. This is 100 percent driven by tourism. The school boards have told them annually that it should be under local control, and every year it’s voted down.”

He continued, “I understand why they vote it down. One of the very best education senators we had would always vote this down because he was a representative of the Wisconsin Dells area. He said, ‘I can’t vote for that even though I know that’s what everybody wants.’”

Responding to a question from Dana, Gruen also noted that potential school construction projects, which still haven’t been set, could be better accommodated by an early school start.

Melrose-Mindoro already had an approved waiver for an early start, Gruen added.

Preuss questions board members’ lack of attendance at referendum meetings

During a public comment session, Kari Preuss of Elroy criticized board members for not attending exploratory meetings on a referendum slated for April 2022.

Six meetings were offered, and the first brought about 60 people.

Preuss said, “It was a wonderful collection of people from Kendall, all of the townships, and the city of Elroy, and business owners. We even had students there. It was great. All of the ideas were collected. We met multiple times. It was wonderful. I think that it was a great idea for the board to ask for all of that input. What evolves out of it I know is probably being presented next month. However, the most disappointing thing for me personally was not the 15 hours I dedicated to all of the meetings. It was that no board member was there. I know that you can’t have a quorum. I know that only two could possibly be there. I thought it was disappointing that they didn’t attend by Zoom, and that they weren’t there personally, because you’ll just get the outcome at the end. You won’t see the process of it and all of the people who had input.”

In response, Walz said, “The board had pretty much decided as a whole to step aside from that process to allow the community (to come up with ideas) without board influence or the appearance of board influence. We wanted this to be a true community endeavor … that’s why there wasn’t any participation from the board.”

Preuss suggested that the board members instead could have attended but not said anything or could have listened to the meetings via Zoom.

McKittrick said to Walz that he thought buildings and grounds committee members would attend the meetings, but that wasn’t the case, according to Walz.

A referendum presentation will be offered at next month’s regular board meeting.

Other business

• The board approved a zero percent increase for the district’s dental insurance plan, which is provided by Delta, and a 3 percent increase for health insurance, which is provided by WEA.

• During a public-comments session, board member Tom Trepes said he had heard “through the grapevine” that the football team was playing in Wisconsin Dells this season.

“Is this true?” he said to Gruen.

Gruen replied that all home games were scheduled in Wisconsin Dells, whose high school has a turf field, with the hope that Royall’s field would be suitable for play later in the season. Games also will be played at Logan High School’s turf field.

Additionally, Waterman noted that most schools had similar strategies.

Trepes asked what the games were costing the district, to which Gruen replied it would $500 per game, which would be covered by federal Elementary and Secondary School Relief funds.

Gruen said, “Tom, are you unhappy that we’re playing football?”

Trepes replied, “No, I’m glad. I would to have them play right here at Royall. Is our field in that bad of shape?”

Gruen said, “Our football field is in good shape, but we don’t want it be in bad shape.”

“It could get torn up from the wet surface,” McKittrick added.

Also, Gruen noted that within the past decade, the board had turned down creating a practice field three years in a row that the district could be using now.

“But we did get a good piece of luck, and that is Heritage Manor is letting us practice on their lawn off the front, too. So we’re practicing in multiple spots … plus (practicing) inside to preserve our space the best we can so that at some point we can have some football games on our land.”

Gruen then said to Trepes, “It feels like you’re accusing us of spending money frivolously.”

Trepes replied, “No, I heard that, and I didn’t know if it was true or not.”

• A band trip to Disney World parks is slated for this June.

• The district hired Emily Wojtowicz as an assistant softball coach.

“We’re excited to have her. She has great experience,” Gruen said.

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