Board of Education Meeting Recap

Charter School Contract Addendum

Relevant Policy: Results (R) 4: Special Academics

Verona Area International School (VAIS) and New Century School (NCS) Principal Sally Parks, NCS Governance Council President Kelly Pasztor, VAIS Governance Council President James Kokal, and NCS Governance Council member Elisabeth Zgraggen shared a proposal to amend NCS and VAIS charter school contracts to add two professional development days per school year. This change would align all three of VASD’s charter schools to have the same number of professional development days and allow more time for curriculum mapping and collaborative design. The group also shared a communication plan to help ensure families are aware of the professional development days ahead of time, so they can make childcare arrangements, as well as a plan for reminders leading up to the professional development days.

Dr. Clardy asserted that alignment among VASD’s three tuition-free, public charter schools is ideal. Member Peguero shared appreciation for the group’s outreach to families to collect data to inform their proposal. Member Stier Christensen noted that support was expressed by families, staff, and VASD administration. Member Murphy concurred. Member Hanes expressed concern that charter contracts not be open to renegotiation as a regular occurrence.

Greater Dane County School District Governance Consortium Meeting

The Greater Dane County School District Governance Consortium will meet on Thursday, October 9th, at the Madison Metropolitan School District Holtzman Learning Center at 333 Holtzman Road in Madison. BOE members, please RSVP to Lorrie Jensen.

Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators (WASDA) Committee Appointment

Dr. Clardy has been appointed to serve on the School Administrators Alliance Legislative Committee. The purpose of the committee is to ​​develop a legislative agenda and lobby activities to promote the welfare of students in Wisconsin schools by combining the resources of WASBO, WASDA, AWSA, WCASS, WASPA, and WREA.

National Education Association (NEA) Secretary-Treasurer to Visit Verona Area High School

The National Education Association (NEA) Secretary-Treasurer Noel Candelaria and Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) President Peggy Wirtz-Olson will visit Verona Area High School on September 9, 2025. We look forward to welcoming them to visit with students and staff.

VASD Annual Budget Meeting and Hearing

The VASD Annual Budget Meeting and Hearing will start at 5 PM on September 22, 2025, with the regular BOE meeting to follow.

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The purpose of a Board Workshop is to provide a publicly available venue in which the BOE discusses current issues.

At this workshop, the BOE continued their conversation about how to approach the concept of “compliance” when reviewing Operational Expectation (OE) monitoring reports. This discussion reflects the BOE’s ongoing effort to make monitoring clear, transparent, and meaningful for both staff and the community.

Shifting the Lens from “Compliance” to “Meeting Expectations”

BOE members noted that the original monitoring process centered on the question: Is the district in compliance with this OE? That approach relied heavily on whether each individual indicator showed compliance. Over time, however, the BOE has recognized that this linear method doesn’t always reflect the reality of progress. For example, some indicators may be in a “capacity-building” phase, or the district may be making reasonable progress overall even if each individual indicator is not fully met.

BOE members and Dr. Clardy emphasized the importance of evaluating whether the district is meeting expectations at the policy level, rather than requiring every single indicator to be satisfied. Indicators, they agreed, should serve as evidence to inform that decision, not dictate it outright.

Balancing Indicators and Policy Expectations

Several BOE members expressed concern about how much weight any single indicator should carry. Some indicators may be so significant that falling short on them could call the entire OE into question, while others might be less central to determining overall compliance. Members discussed the need for balance: keeping indicators meaningful, but ensuring they don’t overshadow the broader intent of policy expectations.

Dr. Clardy added that indicators must stay aligned with the OE policy statements themselves. If indicators become too detailed, they risk drifting away from the policy’s intent. BOE members also acknowledged that as their governance practices have matured, they may be ready to simplify indicators and focus on those that best capture progress toward expectations.

The BOE reached consensus on several refinements moving forward:

• Top-Level Decision: The BOE will decide whether each OE policy “Meets Expectations” or “Expectations Not Met.”
  
  

• Role of Indicators: Administration will assess each indicator as “Met” or “Not Met.” These will serve as evidence, not as automatic determinants of compliance.
  
  

• Streamlining Reports: The phrase “we will know we are compliant when…” will be removed from reports. Each OE monitoring report will instead start with the OE policy statement and include a blank space for the Board’s overall assessment.
  
  

• Future Review: Over the next year, the Board will audit its indicators to ensure they are streamlined, meaningful, and reflective of the policy expectations they are designed to measure.
  
  

BOE members reflected that the district has spent the past several years building strong systems and habits around monitoring. Now, with those structures in place, they see an opportunity to simplify the process and focus more on the most meaningful aspects of governance while keeping staff accountable and the public well-informed.

Board Action

Member Hanes made a motion to make the refinements to Operational Expectation Monitoring Reports as presented. Member Medina seconded. The motion passed 7-0.