District Update - Common Council Meeting of March 19, 2025

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

I wish you a happy first day of spring as I listen to my neighbors’ snow blowers 😊 It’s also the first day of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament – a day that makes me glad that I’m retired from full time work since the Badgers play at 12:30 today. For the first time that I can remember, I haven’t filled out a bracket so I can watch the games just for the fun of it.
OK – to serious business. I don’t normally recap the Common Council meeting until we get the agendas for the next week’s committee meetings, but there has already been a lot of news in both traditional media and social media about two items from last night.
First – the “Selfie Sculpture” that Appleton Downtown, Inc. wanted to install in Houdini Plaza –an area that they help maintain, along with other parts of downtown, by funding power washing of sidewalks, graffiti removal, maintaining flower boxes, etc. Executive Director Jennifer Stephany appeared during public participation to share that the bids for the materials for the work were double what they had anticipated and that they were asking the council to refer the item back to committee and essentially table it. She also mentioned the social media outcry that started with a post from Alder Wolff. Alder Van Zeeland made that motion. However, there was an objection to the referral- several alders mentioned online statements by the chair of the Appleton Public Arts Committee (the committee’s approval is needed to move forward to the other committees of jurisdiction and then to council for any public art) and the fact that the item was a consolidated action item that was voted on by both the Parks and Recreation Committee and the City Plan Commission. The objection to the referral was sustained and as a result, the request, which ADI no longer supports, will take up time for three different committees next week and the next. The Public Arts Committee is scheduled to meet next on April 2 – the same day as the next Common Council meeting. I honestly cannot understand the push to re-hash this. The Post-Crescent posted a brief story online with a headline that only mentioned the online criticism – the high quote for materials was mentioned only in the fourth paragraph.
As discussed in Monday’s update, Superintendent Greg Hartjes and the Appleton Area School District made a presentation to the council as an information item on our agenda. The presentation focused on the habitual truancy and chronic absenteeism statistics. Habitual truancy (5 or more full or partial day unexcused absences) is steadily increasing since pre-pandemic years, but Superintendent Hartjes stated that this figure is less of a concern than the chronic absenteeism (missing 10% or more of school days, both excused and unexcused), which spiked in the post-pandemic year, but decreased a bit in the two years since. They then focused on the current support system for student attendance over the past five years, which included adding full time attendance coordinator positions, additional supports and incentives. The presentation noted that in the 2023-2024 school year, there were 116 country truancy referrals. No additional data was presented about these referrals, the basis for them or the outcome.
They contrasted the current support system with the previous one, which involved fewer strategies and seemed more punitive. The previous system included aspect of the city truancy ordinance that included the truancy court. These options were available to the truancy court:
  • An order for the student to attend school.
  • Suspension of a student’s vehicle operating privileges.
  • An order for the student to participate in counseling or a supervised work program.
  • An order for the student to remain at home except during hours in which the student is attending religious worship or a school program.
  • An order for the students to attend an educational program.
  • An order for the student to be placed in a teen court program.
  • A forfeiture of not more than $500 plus costs.
  • An order placing the student under formal or informal supervision.
  • An order for a student to report to a youth report center.
The presentation ended with an ask of the city that we re-enact a truancy ordinance – points from the ask:
  • An ordinance that would support student success
  • The ordinance would be used when our three-tiered system of support has not helped a
    •               student consistently attend school
  • The Common Council determines the dispositions that would be available to the court
  • Implemented during a 4-semester trial period, followed by a review of impact
The full updated presentation is linked below:
I went into this meeting thinking that the presentation would be informational only, with perhaps some information about possible follow-up by the legal and police departments. However, I was surprised at the end of the meeting by the introduction of a resolution by Alder Siebers (who will be leaving office after the April 1 election, having chosen not to run for another term) that duplicated the language of the AASD ask. My understanding is that the resolution was submitted to the City Clerk yesterday. The resolution was referred to the Safety and Licensing Committee, where we will consider it at next week’s meeting (March 26, 5:30 p.m.)
I had an opportunity to speak briefly with Mayor Woodford after the meeting and it seemed that he was as surprised as I was at the timing of the resolution submission. He noted that city staff and AASD had been trying to schedule a meeting with Judge Schneider of the Outagamie County Circuit Court for some time – the meeting is actually set for April 15. In addition, next week is Spring Break for AASD, meaning that some interested parents and staff might be unable to attend the committee meeting to share their thoughts. There were a number of people attending the meeting last night who clearly wanted to be heard on the subject, but according to long-established council rules, public participation is limited to ACTION items that appear on the agenda.
Because the resolution does not provide any proposed ordinance language, including method of enforcement or proposed penalties, I intend to try to get it held in committee until we can receive input from the many sources who could provide direction. I think it would be irresponsible to make a decision of this magnitude on a short timeframe with limited information.
 The repeal of the old ordinance happened just weeks before I was first elected to the Common Council in 2019, but I remember how the community was torn apart at the time. The last thing I want is to rush into a program that could land a child (most high school students are under 18) in the criminal justice system if there is any way at all to address attendance issues any other way.


Denise


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