WE are Burlington Proud: November 10, 2023

District KUDOS!!!

The following staff have been recognized by the administrative team for their positive contributions to students, their colleagues, and/or to the system as a whole! Thank you all for the amazing work you do on a daily basis!!!

Carol Harry, Ryan Heft, Jessica Bailey, Reid Oldenburg, Becky Sagedal, Trisha Skiles, Mary Pritzl, Josh Dow, Tim Urness, Erin Wrobel, Marilyn Venchus, Jeff Gardon, Tom Berent, Amy Levonian, Dave Wagner, Keri LeDuc, Mike Jones, Heather Mielke, Sheri Christensen, Kristen DuPuis, Julie Heiligenthal, Troy Everson, Scott Staude, Laura Stutzman, Nora Rangel-Kubacki, Stacey Steeples, Dan Bocock, Jess Warren, Cindy Wesley, Carol Harry, Amanda Riggs, Lori Ullenberg, Tom Hermanson, Allison Tenhagen, Presley Mulligan, Laurie Bazan, Anna Abbot, & Pam Bauer

District Wide Updates!

HERE is a promotional video for the district!

Thank you to: Scott Staude, Nick Ryan, Troy Everson, MT Boyle, Allie Zusan, Evan Deans, and Grace Coy for their willingness to be a part of this awesome experience and piece for BASD!

Operational Referendum

The board will be making the final approval for the referendum question at the November 13, 2023 board meeting. The referendum dollar amount / ask (as shared) is:

$6 million for 2024-2025
$3 million for 2025-2026
$1 million for 2026-2027
$1 million for 2027-2028
For a total of $11 million dollars that will remain in our budget moving forward.

HERE are the slides from the Zoom meeting where I shared information about the referendum. Please reference these to have the correct information and facts about the referendum.

NOTE: I did add additional narration to some slides to assist with understanding the information. There is also one slide that looks different as it is updated information.

Strategic Planning / Studer

Our Steering Team met and came up with four pillars: Students, Staff, Community, and Finance.

Steering Team Members:

Peter Turke, Board President
Stephen Quist, President of Experience Burlington
Jon Schultz, President of City Council
Rebecca Faust, Parent
Alison Sergio, Parent
Joel Graham, Administrator
Patti Tenhagen, Teacher
Kerry Sett, Instructional Coordinator
Jeff Erickson, Business Member - WVA

From there, we formed four pillar teams to create goals for each pillar:

Student Pillar: Kristen DuPuis, Kerry Sett, Ben Hendricks, Kurt Rummler, Lisa Schue, Nick Ryan, Annie Phillips, Chris Weins, and Amy Levonian
Staff Pillar: Anna Abbott, Rob Lininger, Allison Hammerstad, Trent Tonn, Wendy Lyon, Ruth Schenning, Amy Levonian, and Sue Neal (new HR Director)
Community Pillar: Allie Zusan, Jon Thorngate, MT Boyle, Amy Levonian, and Annie Phillips
Finance Pillar: Ruth Schenning, Jade Gribble, Josh Dow, and Chris Weins

THANK YOU to all of the staff who so kindly were willing to assist with either being a member of the Steering Team and/or one of the pillars!!! I truly appreciate your willingness to engage and support this vital work for BASD!!! THANK YOU!
Now, the goals will go back to the Steering Team and then to the Board of Education for feedback.
Once the goals are approved by the board, the pillar teams will be brought back together to develop action steps.

BEA Negotiations

The personnel committee met with the BEA and came to an agreed upon decision that will be presented to the full board for approval at the November 13, 2023 board meeting. This is for 2023-2024 wages for all groups except the custodial group, which, have their own negotiations.

Rounding Conversations:

Rounding conversations have started where all administrators have been asked to engage in rounding with two employees per week. Rounding is a conversation that opens up dialogue to ensure we are listening to our employees and understanding what is going well, what is needed, how we can support, and to recognize others.

Additional Information!

We have hired a new Director of Human Resources, Susan Neal. Sue comes to us with 18 years of director experience in HR and is a former BHS alumni! She is eager and excited to join our amazing BASD team with a start date of November 16. Kudos to Lindsey Rossi and Amber Berhorst for holding down the fort until her arrival!
Monday, November 13:

The Board Teaching & Learning Committee will be at Dyer from 9:15-10:45 to set into classrooms to see the amazing work our staff do with students on a daily basis! They will be focusing on understanding what we do when it comes to phonemic awareness and phonics instruction. With the state putting Act 20 in place this is an important piece for board members to understand as it relates to The Science of Reading. Which, we are already ahead of the curve when it comes to some of the adjustments we have been making!

Monday, November 13:

Robin Vos and Bob Wittke will be in the district from 1:00-4:00 in order for us to show them around the district a bit along with gaining some of their feedback and to discuss the operational referendum with them. If you see us, that is what it is all about! Getting them into our schools to understand our work and discuss with them what budget looks like from the "boots on the ground".

Monday, November 13:

All of our board members will be engaging in some filming that will then be put together to show a unified school board in relation to the referendum. Kudos to all of our board members for engaging in this work!

Monday, November 13:

At the board meeting there will be:

Two courses up for proposal at the high school in relation to more supports for EL.
The high school will be joining the school board for dinner and then share their school improvement plan.
There are a few policies that will undergo a first reading with the board.
Reid Oldenburg will be sharing information with the board for approval in relation to Start College Now and Early College Credit for some of our students to engage in.
The board will adopt the resolutions for the referendum.
And then the board will be going into closed session to discuss the BEA negotiations followed by coming back out of closed session to then vote.

School Report Cards will release on Tuesday, November 14!

What is AMAZING for BASD is that we have 5 of our 7 schools who Exceed Expectations on the school report card!!! This is awesome! We have also moved up as a district from 66.4 to 67.6! Though I am not satisfied with that number it is a great shift in the right direction!!! Kudos to all of our staff for the work you do everyday to improve students growth and achievement! I look forward to continued growth in the future!

Note... this is not for public knowledge until the state officially releases the report cards.

Continued meetings with staff teams to answer questions about the referendum are continuing this week!

I met with Karcher and Waller staff this past week and truly appreciated all of your questions about the referendum. Thank you all for your time!
This coming week I have Dyer and BHS!
Then,