Officially, this is the City of Madison Committee, but it has Alders, Dane County Board Supervisors and School Board members along with Mayor and School Superintendent reps. It could be an impactful group! They voted to change the name to City, County, Schools Collaborative Committee (CCSCC). They were almost convinced to disband, but were re-energized with new members after the elections last spring and are discussing what they should be working on.The Committee meets on Wednesday at 5:30 in Room 202 of the Municipal Building (Warning: there may not be chairs for the public to sit in! It’s my new personal mission to get chairs for the public in 202 and 302, but apparently it’s not a “best practice”. /eyeroll.) Here’s some background and a list of ideas from the past that they might choose to work on. What are your ideas?
MISSION AND GOALS OF COMMITTEE
This is from September 2012:
The Education Committee was created with the understanding that the responsibility of educating our children belongs to all of us. The committee’s charge is to bring forth ways in which local governmental bodies can collaborate to improve the educational experience and outcomes for all Madison Metropolitan School District students.
The committee will study the partnerships that are already in place among the different entities. In the process it will learn who is being served and where that is taking place. It will assess the existing need, identify any duplication of services or programs and examine the successes and potential failures thereof.
The committee will begin work immediately to identify areas in which the entities can work together to benefit students and their families.
THE COMMITTEE THAT COULD NOT MEET/DO THEIR JOB
I blogged about this in September with results of the survey they took with old and new members. In November 2017 Jen Cheatam and Mayor Soglin told the group they wanted the to “remain focused” and “not take on new topics”. At that time they also wanted the group to only meet quarterly. These where the three topics they thought were ok for the committee to work on:
1) Madison Out of School Time Initiative (MOST): The potential for MOST to connect and coordinate out of school time providers across our community and to dramatically improve access and the quality of those experiences for our children and youth is important work.
2) Community Schools: The school district wants to move forward with using Community Schools as a model to improve student learning by focusing on a community hub concept, incorporating issues that are real for families in neighborhoods and reducing opportunity gaps by bringing resources to the school.
3) Early Childhood and Early Childhood Zones: We already have two Early Childhood Zones, both supported by City, County and the School District. We believe that support for our families with our youngest children is essential if students are going to enter into school ready for kindergarten. We need to work together to learn from these efforts and improve support for young children (birth to 3 specifically) across the city.
Last year they cancelled the meetings in January, March, April, July, September and October.
So far this year the committee meetings were cancelled in January, not scheduled for March or April, cancelled in May and June. But then the new members started meeting and agreed to meet monthly again.
Mayor Soglin, Jen Cheatam, School Board President Gloria Reyes, Matt Phair and others really wanted the committee to just disband. But that didn’t happen . . . the motion failed in February.
NEW MEMBERS/NEW ENERGY
September
This is from the minutes from the September 2019 Meeting:
O’Donnell provided a brief overview and background information on the Education Committee. O’Donnell shared the Mission and Goals Statement from 2012 and a 2017 email from Matt Phair. The last meeting was in February 2019, where the motion to disband the Education Committee did not pass.
The group discussed the necessity of the Committee and how to move forward. The committee will address the following:
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- Review of Education Committee name. Members will send ideas to staff and then narrow down suggestions at next meeting.
- Discuss potential updates to committee membership. May include voting/non-voting members, additional representatives from City of Madison, Dane County, MMSD or the addition of residents and other stakeholders.
- Review a consolidated list of priorities that were identified at previous Committee meetings. Staff will send this list to all Members, who will then gather input from their respective entities and bring top five priorities to the next meeting. Priorities will be consolidated at future meetings.
- Meetings will be monthly moving forward. Holiday and committee budget deliberations prevent meeting on the standard second Wednesday for October and November. Alternative dates to be scheduled.
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October
Minutes from the October Meeting (Deputy Mayor Linda Vakunta, Alders Shiva Bidar and Tag Evers, Nichelle Nichols the School District Admin appointee, School Board members Gloria Reyes and Ananda Mirilli and County Board Supervisors Carousel Bayrd and Heidi Wegleitner)
- New Name
The group discussed the Education Committee name and potential updated name options to clarify and better reflect its work. Motion by Wegleitner, seconded by Reyes to update Madison Ordinance 33.28 with the name change from Education Committee to City, County, Schools Collaborative Committee (CCSCC). Motion passed by voice vote. - Who should be on the committee
- Motion by Wegleitner, seconded by Evers to modify ordinance 33.28 of City, County, Schools Collaborative Committee membership to establish the Mayor or designee and the Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent or representative positions as ex officio non-voting committee members. Ayes: Shiva Bidar; Tag Evers; ananda mirilli and Heidi Wegleitner Noes: Nichelle Nichols and Gloria Reyes Abstentions: Linda Vakunta and Carousel Andrea S. Bayrd
- The committee continued to discuss advisory membership and community involvement. Classification of members as voting and non-voting was also debated. The committee will revisit membership discussion at future meetings.
PREVIOUS IDEAS FOR THE COMMITTEE TO WORK ON
The new committee members have not brainstormed a list of ideas that they would like to work on. This is the work from the previous committee.
Overarching Priorities/Values
- Racial justice should be focus or lens used on everything
- Support and enhance collaborations
- Illuminate racial disparities
How the Education Committee should do its work or select its work
- MMSD should identify and define the work (2017)
- Items that involve action or work (2017)
- Focus on 1-2 topics (2017)
- Staff for the topic area need to identify role and tasks for the committee
- Areas that intersect all three entities (2017)
- MMSD, City and County staff connected to topic should do work in-between Example: Community Schools – if we were collaborative we would approach the work differently. MMSD does work but where can City and County fit in. (2017)
- Each entity could identify issues that they need/want help from the other entities and work together to address these issues
Potential Topics Generated in 2017-2018
- Create a system to coordinate and share information across systems when youth are returning to the community or transitioning within the community (Opportunity Youth report & DCHS Youth Justice Manager, 2018)
- Address the under-laying cause of truancy through cross-organizational collaboration. Evaluate the situation for individual students and their families before they reach the 10- day threshold (Opportunity Youth report & DCHS Youth Justice Manager, 2018)
- Create and support current youth and school programs to have welcoming and open-door environments. Assuring youth that they are ALL welcome and do not prohibit youth from coming back to program after an issue has caused them to have to leave (Opportunity Youth report & DCHS Youth Justice Manager, 2018)
- Identify what youth want and need. Include youth voices in the process and address gaps in current and proposed systems (Opportunity Youth report & DCHS Youth Justice Manager, 2018)
- Address gaps in communication between entities. Potential solutions include procedural changes or implementation of a software program to expedite electronic data sharing.
- Opportunity youth (2017)
- Young Adults ages 19-22 who are not ready for independence (2017)
- Food waste in school buildings (2017)
- Community Schools (2017)
- Transportation for all students ages 5-18 through free bus passes or other transportationwhen buses aren’t available or appropriate (2013, 2017)
- MOST Updates and what does MOST want from the Committee (2017)
- OST programs that can accommodate children w/ special needs (2017)
- Housing insecurity (2017)
- Basic needs of homeless youth (2017)
- Relationship violence and domestic violence (2017)
- Empowering women (2017)
Potential Topics Generated in 2013
- Strengthen relationships between schools and neighborhood centers – communicating assignments, missing work, behavior (2013)
- Community Partners and Facility Use at Schools
- JFF/ECI program at more elementary schools (2013)
- Interagency team modeled after the Rock County Interagency Team, bringing school, law enforcement/DA, human services to the table to share info and problem solve around specific children and/or families facing challenges in multiple area (2013)
- Engage/connect school social workers and the city/county and funded agencies (2013)
- Funding for Reach Out and Read and replicating this model in other spaces where there isopportunity to interface with parents (2013)
- Annual Educational Symposium/Summit (2013)
- Develop a resource and allocations from each entity (e.g. spreadsheet broken down by age group 0 to 18) and creating an information bucket system.
- Pilot joint data collection at two Elementary and two Middle Schools
- Community-wide literacy program (Phair 2013)
- Schools as neighborhood centers (Phair 2013)
- Restorative justice/youth court (Phair 2013)
- Health and/or local foods in schools (Phair 2013)
- Student hunger and access to meals three meals a day 365 days per year (Bayrd 2013)
- After-school program at every elementary and middle school (Bayrd 2013)
- Supplement 4K to increase access free/affordable programming (Bayrd 2013)
WHAT ARE YOUR IDEAS?
Now is the time to speak up! What ideas do you have for what the committee should be working on? You can either show up Wednesday, December 11th in room 202 of the Madison Municipal Building or email the committee members!
amirilli@madison.k12.wi.us
cbayrd@gmail.com
greyes@madison.k12.wi.us
wegleitner.heidi@countyofdane.com
lvakunta@cityofmadison.com
nenichols@madison.k12.wi.us
district5@cityofmadison.com
district13@cityofmadison.com
