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“How can the school board help out the school?” board member Lance Carlson asked middle school principal David Ludy recently. Ludy was appearing before the board at its workshop November 16, one week prior to the regular meeting. No decisions are made at the workshops, but Ludy did have one suggestion.

Encourage the City of Stanley to follow through on its Comprehensive Plan statement about the need for more upscale housing in town, Ludy shared as the substance of his reply to Carlson. Lowincome housing was both needed and cheap, but not everyone wanted to live in it. Increasing the housing options within the City would help attract teachers and others. Before the district could add teachers though, there was an additional matter to think about.

“If we’re going to ever add teachers, we have to add space,” Ludy said, noting that while the district had had more students in the past, “we did things differently,” he said. Jumping in to add to Ludy’s comments was district superintendent Jeff Koenig, who noted that the principals needed board support when it came to matters of student discipline.

“Mr. Ludy or Mrs. Mahr (the high school principal) are often the first one not to let them do what they want,” Koenig said of, meaning that when parents potentially complained the board’s support was important. Not to leave parents out, however, the Community Conversation also came up during workshop discussion, as Koenig put the district’s Ends Policy

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“If you go back to the Community Conversation, these are the things that were identified,” the Superintendent said as he noted that the End policy was “more important than the limits (documents)” that the board reviewed periodically for re-approval at its regular board meetings.

Approved June 24,2019 after the Community Conversation the previous Spring, the End Policy lists the School Mission as being “to ensure that all students will learn at a high level while becoming college and career ready.” Included in the vision statement section are the expectations that students have access to “relevant, engaging, and meaningful learning experiences every day,” administration, faculty and staff that work interdependently and enjoy their work, faculty collaboration with students, families and the community to ensure student acquisition of “necessary knowledge, skills, and core values,” and a school culture where every student, parent, staff and community member feels valued, respected, supported, and challenged in their interactions with each other on a daily basis. From there the document goes into goals or ends, listing these according to E – 1, E – 2, and E -3 classifications. Creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving skills using multiple measures of performance, along with effective communication, citizenship, and personal responsibility as contributing members to a diverse and global community” are among the things that students are expected to demonstrate per the Ends Policy. From Ends it was into the budget, which Madison wasn’t talking about, or so it seemed.

“I saw you said in an email that something came in less than was thought,” board member Chad Verbeten said to Koenig, adding that he was “as curious as the next person on the ongoing effects” of the present reality. There was reported to be “no talk” in Madison of the next budget and its impact on education.

Talking about district policy SL – 9 meanwhile, Koenig said in part that, “I think my biggest question on all these is what’s ‘in a timely manner?”’ “It was probably left intentionally vague,” Carlson said of the language in question, “otherwise you wouldn’t be in compliance at some point.” Verbeten meanwhile, brought up how Koenig had told the board “right away” when the pool and other things happened, going on.

“Let’s just hypothetically say I don’t agree with policy governance,” he said. That notwithstanding, the district had policy governance. “We hired a superintendent —in this case you —and we trust” the teaching and other experience that you have, Verbeten told Koenig. As to Oriole Park, meanwhile, the district’s setup in terms of governance made a difference. For one example, Stanley-Boyd’s arrangement as a unified school board made it different than a common school district in that it had a budget hearing, as opposed to an annual meeting—but there was more. As one of the district residents chaired the annual meeting in a common school district, pushing through Oriole Park would have been harder, meaning that it might not have happened. Before long, it was time to adjourn for the night, possibly taking a break from workshop meetings for COVID safety reasons.

'Thanks for presenting,” Area Two representative Denise Hoffstatter told Ludy at the end of the night’s workshop on how to help the school.

'Thanks for asking,” Ludy replied.