This is disturbing on so many levels . . . primarily from an open government perspective, but also to see the first all female school board act just like any other school board without regard for community is just sad. I can’t believe they announced announced the agreement on Friday and called a special meeting to approve it on Monday with little time for the community to react. OR READ THE LANGUAGE (spoiler alert, they skipped an important detail in the description of the contract) I’m not surprised, especially with Gloria’s disdain for the public, I’m just disappointed. And not one school board member had a word to say?
BOARD MEETING RECAP
I looked and looked for the video . . . and eventually figured it out. The video is actually labeled Board of Education Operations Work Group and its the last 5 minutes of that more than 3 hour meeting. To watch for yourself here is the video, the board meeting starts at 3:02:10 and is over by 3:06:03.
School Board President Gloria Reyes calls the meeting to order. She says “today we are going to be talking about the SRO contract”. She asks Matt to provide the board with an update on where they are on that.
Matt says he’s going to give a high level overview of the contract that has been negotiated thus far, he is looking at the redline version to follow along. He says he will highlight the major changes. On page 2 the change is at the beginning or in the middle of the 2021 school year they have the ability to remove one SRO from one of their comprehensive high schools. On page 4 either the board or the city has the ability to terminate the contract on June 2021. The term and renewal of the contract is it starts August 1st of 2019 and covers the 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years. It ends June 15th 2022 unless it is terminated earlier by the city or the school board. And finally on page A6 paragraph 6 is an attempt to collaboratively work with the city to review data. He says the data they are required to review must be disaggratated by race gender and disability, they will be looking at the type of offenses, the trends related to who is calling the SROs, is it the staff call or the SROs and based on that analysis the MPD and MMSD will work to identify any disproportionality and develop steps to eliminate it. Those are the major changes that have been made to the contract that he brings back to the board for discussion and a vote.
The time is now 3:04:53
School Board President Gloria Reyes says “Great, thank you. So, uh, tonight I move that the Board of Education enter into the school board resource officer contract with the City of Madison for the period of August 1st, 2019 to June 15th, 2022 as set forth in the document prepared for the Special Board of Education meeting dated June 10th, 2019.”
Some seconds, I don’t know who. She doesn’t announce it.
School Board President Gloria Reyes says “Discussion? Go ahead and have . . . we’ve had significant discussion over this very important topic, a lot of community engagement on this, uh. If we could just go around the table and give brief remarks on this topic, it, uh, we’ll go ahead and vote.”
Brief pause.
School Board President Gloria Reyes says “No discussion? Alright. All in favor of approving the contract”
They vote aye and no, they ask for a show of hands and Reyes announces the contract passes.
The time is no 3:06:03
So, they had a 1 minute and 20 second motion and “discussion”.
THE CONTRACT
Did you know it says this?!?!?! That the MMSD can request the removal but the CITY will decide if the remaining SRPs remain at their assigned schools or whether the SROs will be reassigned to the remaining schools?
9.C. MMSD may amend this Contract to reduce the number of SROs assigned to MMSD as outlined in Attachment A. Section I. from four (4) SROs to three (3) SROs. MMSD shall notify the CITY in writing before the removal is to occur. Specifically said notice shall be provided by September 15, 2019, to effectuate a reduction on June 15, 2020 or June 10, 2020 to effectuate a reduction on January 1, 2021. The notice must include the name of the school that will no longer have a SRO assigned and the reason for said reduction. MMSD understands that the removal of a SRO from a school may result in reassignment of some or all of the remaining SORs among the remaining schools and that the assignments of the SROs shall be determined at the sole discretion of the CITY.
If MMSD notifies the CITY that it requests the removal of a SRO as outlined in Section 9(C) of this Contract the CITY will determine whether the remaining SROs will remain at their assigned schools or whether the SROs will be reassigned to the remaining schools as the CITY deems appropriate.
So, the City decides? And the CITY has appointed the Chief of Police of the Madison Police Department as the Contract Agent. Does that mean this is a council decision? Or the Chief’s?
We already know the chief’s opinion:
Police Chief Mike Koval expressed his opposition Friday to the clause allowing for the reduction of an SRO, saying it could negatively impact police response time to a school without an officer. He also questioned how the district would select the high school.
Who wrote that crappy contract language?
THE PROCESS
- No public comment? There is new information with actual contract language for people to comment on, and the public is denied?
- Since when do people comment at one meeting about an agenda topic for a second meeting?
- Short notice of the meeting. On Friday they announced they are making a decision on Monday? I was gone Wednesday – Sunday and barely had 5 hours notice that this was going on . . . and I pay attention?
- Not a single word was said by any elected official on this huge, important topic?
- Since when does the chair of a committee make the motion? Trivial at this point, I know, but that was odd.
