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me now [Music] are they ready to begin the meeting thank you call the meeting to order roll call oh i'm here rick raleigh here maria akwara here wilson so here dennis bender here thank you i'm sorry can we lead the place can we do the pledge of allegiance uh mr bender can you lead us in the pledge of allegiance ready thank you so much kylie do we have any cards for public comments we do not thank you we have no cards for public comments you need to go into closed session to discuss the following okay let's see where are we conference litigation government code section 549 6.9 current litigation seven cases one eight one three nine five two one nine zero seven one seven two two zero one one one eight three two zero two two nine five six two zero two three three six six two one zero three three nine six two one one one three o three sections five four nine five four anticipated litigation three cases 2018 1907 2020 2105 2020 2107.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
i need a motion to go into closed session all in favor thank you you call the meeting to order the clerk will read any action taken in closed session there was no accident there was no action taken the board may approve the agenda as is or add and or pull items from the consent item for discussion and or action we need to adopt the agenda as is so move a second third all in favor any discussions thank you kylie do we have any public comments okay for this portion of the board uh candidate interviews uh trine nelson is to serve as the facilitator thank you madam president we welcome today applicants for the provisional appointment to serve trustee area one as well as other members of the public during this agenda item the board respectfully requests that the applicants do not participate in or listen to this portion of the meeting where other applicants are being interviewed as this could cause an unfair advantage for those coming later in the interview sequence who would have the benefit of hearing board questions and more time than their colleague to reflect on an answer the district has timely posted the fact of the vacancy and the notice of its intent to the provisional appointment we are pleased to interview eight applicants today for the possible appointment all have indicated in their applications that they are over the age of 18 are registered voters and reside within the trustee area one of the apple valley unified school district their applications are included in the public agenda packet these have been provided in advance to the four board members of the governing board as well to review and prepare for today's interview each applicant will be allotted up to 30 minutes to respond to questions from board members following the conclusion of the interviews the board will remain in open session and a member may make a motion to nominate an applicant members of the public are reminded that the making or seconding of a such motion does not necessarily imply that the applicant's name is the recommendation rather motions are for the purpose of enabling a discussion between board members as to the applicant's suitability to serve as a provisional appointee once a motion is made and seconded and discussion is concluded the board will vote on the motion if a majority of the board that is three members votes to approve a provisional appointee that individual will be will be sworn in following the vote with the oath of office provided by the california government code and california constitution the board will then post and publish the notice of the newly appointed provisional board member's name and notify the county superintendent of the selection unless there is a petition that sufficient signatures challenging the appointment filed with the county superintendent within 30 days the appointee will serve until the next regular board election at which time the appointee may run for the same office do the members of the board have any questions before we begin this process mr raleigh do you have a question no mr bender no mr so no i have no question i will now invite applicant one to meet the governing board and i ask the other applicants to excuse themselves to the waiting room kylie will actually um get you to the waiting room and then we'll work through moving people back and forth so crystal connors is first and chris i'm going to have you come up to the podium there is a seat there and you may bring whatever you'd like with you okay watch the there you go there's a big step there if any of the board members are startling with an echo um you are welcome to come sit here we are still streaming um but wherever you can hear what the responses are as long as you are still within um view i mean we can we can work through that and we can we can adjust the sound if necessary to make sure that they can be heard so let's do it [Music] okay well they're gonna they're gonna do a test for you just so that they can adjust the sound quality mr conrad if they the microphone there if they can get it really close and pointed toward them that will make the sound much better okay is that right but she is not showing she is not showing on this can you guys hear me miss connors can you just say good morning good morning a little closer um we cannot she needs to move her screen so we can see here just right up in there good morning that's better thank you all right board of trustees this is crystal connors she is our 8 30 interview she we did a process by which there was a lottery um during our workshop what do you have for us to write the notes if you go behind the um the tab that says interview questions yes so that comes in front since she has a portion in the front if the board of trustees would introduce themselves and then we'll start with the first question i'm maria akwara nice to see you nice to meet you mr ollie introduce yourself please introduce yourself oh i'm sorry it's it's hard to hear um good morning good morning welcome my name is rick raleigh and uh we appreciate you coming nice to meet you my name is dennis bender happy you're here thank you yeah my name is wilson so i'm one of the longest-serving board members hi okay crystal here we go you have the questions in front of you to refer to um if you need to okay describe your commitment to the success of the mission and values identified on our logo and they are sitting there for you to see um the mission states apple valley unified school district serves our community with dignity by meeting the unique academic behavioral and social emotional needs of all students so that they may thrive in an ever-changing world um so in regard to the mission you know i think that 2020 definitely put an ever-changing world into perspective for all of us um currently in my in my career i'm a leader in um surgical services executive leader and my priority in that is uh patient safety so i think you know in the same respect uh my priority would be to make sure that we're implementing student safety i have two children in apple valley unified school district so you know i want to make sure that my children are protected but also that all the children that we have within the district have the same safety and then i did not read our values which had to do with dignity community authenticity and service and they're around the outside of our logo um i think i have really strong ethical and moral beliefs uh working in healthcare has given me a lot of experience with diversity and and we you know always strive for keeping patients dignity and being respectful of people and i think that that just carries on over into any any career or any governing board or committee that you're on thank you how does the board's world differ from that of the superintendent and staff of the apple valley unified school district um i don't have a lot of experience with you know school districts or schools a lot of my experiences in hospitals and health care but i do think that there is a team role a role a supportive role um i think that we would work together uh in the best interest of the children and the community um and i think you know i have a lot of experience with policy and procedure not only implementing but developing it i've worked as an incident commander for healthcare organizations in regard to covid and disaster preparedness so i think that those can also roll over the experience that i have to work together with a superintendent to provide the best possible environment for our children thank you if you are selected as the area one provisional appointee what will your priorities for the apple valley unified school district um my priorities i think i would focus on safety i would want to make sure that we are working with whatever the ever-changing state of california rules are in relation to the pandemic um and and we want to provide the best environment possible for our kids i know my kids struggled with the independent learning that they had to go through this last year so as a parent that works full-time and with a spouse that works full-time i do understand deeply the challenges with that um and i think that i could offer a different perspective you know it's it's not a perspective from experience as a teacher but i think i do have a valuable experience in health care that could roll over into this world the school board is a governance team why have you decided to apply for this provisional appointment in area one um i would like to be as involved as possible with my children's education um and i think that serving in this role could help me to you know not only possibly make their learning environment even more exceptional um but you know i can do that for the other kids as well you know i think i think i i have a shared interest what any parent would have as far as being invested in my child's education and then question number five anything else you need us to know about you as an applicant um being in healthcare i do have a lot of experience working with unions directly um i think that could roll over and be a valuable asset and i guess that's it thank you crystal no problem so crystal had asked and since we have a few minutes i want to make sure everybody knows crystal is welcome to go in the waiting room or crystal is welcome to go back and do whatever she needs to do our last scheduled interview is at 12 10 and that would mean 30 minutes so about 12 40 we would um be um completing the interview process and then we would um come back to have the agenda items so just if you need to to come and go please know that um i would return and at least be in the the waiting area somewhere after 12 10.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
okay okay thank you thank you thank you very much thank you we do have a few minutes even though we're streaming if we need to um do a restroom break and then we can check to see if the next candidate is here and is willing to go before the nine o'clock start time we can continue to do that um but we don't want to get too far ahead so that we have a long a long break so if you'd like to take a break right now um our next one is in 15.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
just taking a quick break one is in 15 minutes okay should we pause the stream [Applause] so during um the recess we were on break because the um each applicant has been given 30 minutes if we finish early we will continue to take a break in between and that will keep us on um okay okay schedule uh yes perfect thank you okay so mr rc we are streaming and before um we started i read all of the provisions for the um applicants and so now we're going to have the board introduce themselves and um board this is mr arcy our next candidate good morning good morning mr arts my name is maria oppara nice to meet you nice to meet you good morning good thanks for uh putting an interest in my name's rick raleigh thank you it's pleasure to be here we thought together bender yes we have i'm willing good morning mr cell and mr rc as uncomfortable as it may be make sure you're very close to the mic or speak very loudly because the room is so large and there is not many people in here so question number one describe your commitment to the success of the mission and values identified on our logo you have the questions sitting there and the mission states apple valley unified school district serves our community with dignity by meeting the unique academic behavioral and social emotional needs of all students so that they may thrive in an ever-changing world and then our logo has the augmented values around it dignity community authenticity and service i believe that uh regarding dignity uh every student in our district is deserving of being treated with dignity as a valued member of their school site as well as the the community and so i am absolutely committed to treating every student in a way which reinforces their dignity their sense of dignity their sense of self-worth uh allowing them to to feel a valuable member of the classroom of the school site and of the apple valley community and and that word community it's really a pleasure to see it there because i i very much feel that apple valley schools are a community when i first came here back in in 1990 one of the the things that i most appreciated and took notice to was the fact that there was a very low turnover rate of teachers in the apple valley school district and that to me spoke volumes of what a what a sense of community the teachers felt and uh the sense of community that they then translated onto their students and so i feel that that we do in fact coming from apple valley high school i am so proud of the the community the family that we have there uh there is is something unique in in that school and really in in this district that um communicates this this sense of community this sense of family and it is as i talk with colleagues elsewhere the sense of community that we have here is is very rare as i'm sure you all realize and it's it's something that that's very very valuable and something that i'm very proud of and i have been the the grateful recipient of it as well with 31 years of experience here in the district so we we very much have a sense of community and i think the teachers the administrators the staff the support personnel in the past have done an excellent job of communicating that sense of community to the students as well for example you'll have to excuse my my uh always talking about the high school apple valley high school but that's where i've spent so much of my career but there's an expression that we have on campus there is that uh sun devil for life you know that you're a member of the community for life it doesn't matter if you you if you you know leave the community and maybe move away we have this this saying you're a sun devil for life you're part of the community you're part of the family for life and that that's very very special and that's something that i've always appreciated and that's something that i've tried to communicate to my students and i know other teachers throughout the district are doing the same thing we have a fantastic sense of community here on the various school sites as well as in the in the district as a whole in terms of authenticity to me authenticity means something that is genuine that is authentic that is real and in terms of the the board itself and the governess of the board authenticity to me speaks of honesty openness transparency that we are authentic with the students that we are authentic with the community that we are transparent in all that we do that we are open for scrutiny open for observation uh authenticity i think just permeates the entire culture of of the district and in terms of service services is really a key word for for this entire endeavor that we're involved in as as teachers teachers are there to serve we're there for our students uh the administration the support staff uh i i have been overwhelmed and so grateful for the the dedication of the especially the support staff the behind the scenes people that that so often go unnoticed they are so much the unsung heroes of our of our school sites and of our district and so on so in terms of service i have seen that personified every single day in my career here at napa valley high school the the secretaries the the custodial staff the uh uh you know besides the teachers and so on the administrators the board i've i've seen everyone everyone is here because we all care about kids and we're here to serve kids and i know for me it has been one of the most enriching things that that that that i have felt in my career is when students come back years down the line and they say uh hey uh thank you mr rc you know it was it was it was such a blast to be in your class it was so enjoyable it was you know students will come to me and say hey i majored in geology in college because of your geology class i majored in chemistry because of your chemistry class and and it's it's as as you as members of the community witness yourselves it is so enjoyable to to be out in the community and whether you're at the grocery store the movie theater target costco my my dental hygienist everywhere i go i run into former students and they're always impacted by the way that we serve them and so service absolutely underlies everything that we do so i am so encouraged and so excited about the logo because i think that's that's what all members of the apple valley school district have been been doing uh ev every single year since i've been here i've noticed that and it's been something that i've been privileged to be a part of how does the board's world differ from that of the superintendent and staff of the apple valley unified school district the board sets the structure sets the vision sets the policies for the district the superintendent is hired evaluated by the board and the superintendent uh puts into practice manages the the day-to-day operations of the school district uh the board is responsible to govern the district to to again set the policy set the vision set the direction uh without micromanaging allowing the the superintendent and her staff to put to into implementation and support the decisions the vision that the the board has directed but it is very much a collaboration it's a teamwork it's it's it's not a dictatorial type of thing there is collaboration going on all the time for for the purpose of maximizing student achievement and student growth so it's it's very much a collaborative teamwork type of effort both working together we're all here every single one of us because we care about kids and we want them to achieve not only academic success but emotional success and whether it be in college or career but to be success in society make a positive impact for society and so both the board and the superintendent are working uh collaboratively toward those goals thank you if you are selected as the area one provisional appointee what will your priorities be for the apple valley unified school district what i've seen in in over my career but especially over the past year and a half since this pandemic has been upon us one thing that that i felt very strongly that needs to be a priority is to rebuild student success rebuild student academic success there has been even though i know teachers have been working in a just amazingly dedicated way i i have seen teachers around me my wife is is a teacher as well so i can talk about my own home as well but i have seen even experienced teachers with with 20 30 years of experience working harder this past year because of the challenges that we all faced in terms of this pandemic i have seen them them working harder than ever before so so the the staff i've been so so impressed by the staff on our campus and throughout the district they are absolutely working the hardest that they can to help students be a success to maximize student learning having said that though i think it's uh it's not a stretch to say that that students have been shortchanged in their their normal uh academic setting they have not had that access to teachers with them you know during their regular time they have they haven't had access to that structure and so academic opportunities have been lost as hard as as teachers have been working as hard as parents have been working uh students i believe have still suffered throughout throughout the the circumstances that we've been faced with and so i think there have been academic losses and so i think one of the priorities that needs to be there is that we we need to work for work forward and build toward rebuilding those of those academic losses because there have been academic losses for our students second of all i think it's extremely important to be to be providing a social and emotional support for our students again it's no surprise to any of us here that our students have higher levels of stress higher levels of anxiety that they are dealing with issues of isolation and so on so i think it's extremely important that as we look to rebuilding academic success we also look to providing social and emotional support for our students because they they are dealing with issues now that really they've never had to deal with they they have our students have never had to deal with with circumstances and throughout their entire uh academic education whether they're a junior or a senior now they've never had to deal with circumstances like like we've had in these past 18 months and so there are stresses there are pressures on our students that i think we're still learning about that are still coming to the surface so i think that's a huge point of focus that needs to be addressed is addressing those social and emotional needs that so many of our students have and thirdly i think an area of priority will be rebuilding the sense of family again going back to my experience on the campus of apple valley high school that campus had an amazing sense of family of community and because we have all been isolated and all we see is a little postage stamp of ourselves on a zoom screen and during our staff meetings and so on we have not had the sense of community and family that we have had in past years and the same goes you know not just among staff members but also among students and staff it has always been heartwarming for me when students will come into my room at lunch and say hey mr rc we just came in to talk to you for a little while and and you know we we just visit you know and and we just just uh just have a kind of community time kind of family time there and and we have lost that between the students and the staff they can't just come in before school or after school and talk about their volleyball games or how they're doing on the tennis team or what they're doing in academic uh classes we've lost that sense of family that that that community that we used to have among staff members among students and staff and so on so i think one of the priorities also needs to be rebuilding the sense of family among students themselves because they're not interacting in the way they used to interact uh there needs to be uh activities on on every campus where students can interact with each other again and regain that sense of pride they had in their campus whether it be sandia or vanguard or desert knolls or granite hills or apple valley rebuilding the sense of pride among the students on that campus but also regaining the sense of family among staff members so those i i see looking at the environment around us those i see are three very important priorities that need to be addressed the school board is a governance team why have you decided to apply for this provisional appointment in area one i've been privileged to be a part of the apple valley district for 31 years and i feel that the apple valley district has given me a tremendous blessing and a tremendous opportunity and not just for myself and my wife who was a teacher also for over 30 years before her retirement but also for our two to uh children came came through this school system and they they had just a fantastic experience on all the campuses they were able to be a part of they they formed um really important uh foundational aspects of their positive aspects of their possib of their personality and their direction and their focus because the interaction they had with other students as well as the interaction they had with the teachers the teachers just had a huge impact on on both my son and my daughter coming through this district and so i feel that i've been given a tremendous privilege from what the apple valley district has given to me and so i i would just just simply since i am retired now uh just simply to give give a little bit back to the community and give a little bit back to this district in terms of participating on the school board thank you and the last question anything else you need us to know about you as an applicant uh just just again i'm i'm very excited about the direction that the schools are going i i feel as as a teacher and i think so many of you would share that every the the beginning of every single school year is is a is a time of anticipation of kind of uh excitation that that you know we've we've had a little bit of a break we've had some time off uh ev everyone's kind of got their batteries recharged but the beginning of every school year is always kind of an exciting year and an anticipatory time we're looking forward to it the students are excited about coming back the teachers are excited about coming back it seems like a lot of the administrators almost seem like they didn't leave that that they're always there but even the administrators i think they're excited about coming back there's this sense of excitement about coming back and i think that this coming school year is really special really unique i think this coming uh opening of school is really a opportunity because again as i said our students have faced challenges in these past months that they've never faced before especially our older students who have never known anything like this throughout their entire lives and so i feel that this year is really a year of opportunity where there is a tremendous opportunity to to look at the past look at the circumstances that we've been through and then learn from those build from those if we if we've made mistakes in the past to learn from those mistakes and and just just use these challenges these difficulties of these past months of these pandemic pandemic as an opportunity to to grow and be even more effective in college career or in society as a whole and then again i i look forward if if selected it would be a privilege to be on the board i do want to make the the board aware of something though uh because this uh vacancy in area one occurred so suddenly so unexpectedly again the the seat was not expected to be open for election until 2024 because it occurred so unexpectedly i i have made a couple of commitments that i need the board to be aware of because those commitments would necessitate an absence from board meetings for example the board meeting in october 7th i will be leading a group of 28 students and parents and adults on a trip to the east coast on a history trip to the east coast of washington d.c and boston new york and philadelphia so i will be absent for that for that board meeting because of this previous commitment that i made uh also uh in april uh i will be uh if if selected uh i would be absent from from the uh april 14th board meeting uh because uh there there's a trip that i've already paid for that that's non-refundable that i've already um paid the funds for uh that'll be a trip to the himalayas i will be going to the himalayas and um attempting to climb the first peak north of mount everest there in tibet so just wanted to make the board aware that because this occurred so suddenly i did have those previous commitments but again in a spirit of openness and transparency just just wanted to make the board aware of that thank you mr rc thank you thank you very much mr rc i have explained to others you are welcome to stay in the waiting room if you'd like or you may just plan to come back um by the last um interview time which would be 12 10 to wait until we come back into openstack very good so that's your decision okay very good okay thank you very much thank you thank you and as a reminder to the board and to anybody else in the room um when we pause the streaming now that you've had two candidates we can't have any discussion regarding any of the candidates until we get to the agenda item thank you we are streaming everyone wants it is that a phone good morning good morning maureen good morning um this is applicant maureen mills and maureen before we started all of the interviews we did um talk about the process and so we're going to ask that you speak very closely to the mic there's a chair there you can move it up if you would prefer standing um thank you and if you're not going to be close to it talk loudly okay okay um the board will introduce themselves and then i'll facilitate the questions okay and you have 30 minutes all right thank you good morning i'm maria alpara nice to meet you hi thanks for replying my name is rick rowley good morning rick good morning dennis bender good morning dennis good morning wilson okay question number one describe your commitment to the success of the mission and values identified on our logo the mission is at your podium it says apple valley unified school district serves our community with dignity by meeting the unique academic behavioral and social emotional needs of all students so that they may thrive in an ever-changing world and our logo has our values which are dignity community authenticity and service all right thank you first of all just thank you for the opportunity i appreciate the opportunity to serve i have worked in public education for about 29 years i'm committed to public education i've served on a cabinet level position for 13 years in another district i've experienced the apple valley mission first hand i have two children who went through apple valley unified school district and were very successful and one moved on to college and one is now expecting his first grandchild so i know firsthand the commitment of the educators i love the community focus i believe that it is a partnership that we have to rely on our stakeholders so i'm very committed to the mission and vision of apple valley unified school district how does the board's role differ from the superintendent and staff of the apple valley unified school district well i think the board's role number one we have a moral imperative to ensure that all of the students succeed at a high rate we also want to make sure that we have a fiduciary responsibility to the community in the running of the school district i will serve my community area one to the best of my ability i entrust that our superintendent runs the day-to-day operations of the school district and i'm here to support the work and the goals if you are selected as the area one provisional appointee what will your priorities for the apple valley unit be for the apple valley unified school district once again i'm going to restate the priority is to help ensure that all students in the apple valley unified school district achieve at a very high rate and that would be the number one goal we're all here for the students the board is a governance team why have you decided to apply for this a provisional appointment in area one well once again i have thought over the years my dedication to public education the 29 years i've experienced this is one more way for me to serve my community um and promote the strength of our public education system and then finally anything else you need us to know about you as an applicant well once again i've lived in area one for 29 years i'm married with two sons i believe that public education is a wonderful wonderful thing i've seen it be successful for many many students in my role in the victor elementary school district um i do believe that i um at the i'm a worthy candidate i feel like my experience would really contribute to this particular district and i appreciate the consideration thank you that concludes our interview and i've explained that although we have several candidates still to go you are not required to stay here but we do recommend that you come back at the time of the last interview process to wait in the waiting room because then we will go into public session as soon as that one concludes and allow for the agenda item to be discussed once again thank you so much for this opportunity i appreciate it thank you very much our next interview is at 10 5 minutes after 10 so you have quite a bit of time to have a break you jason's going to be in the live stream again hey rick is it getting warm in here i know i know i thought it was a little cool okay it's nice outside it's only in the 80s out there huh is gonna slide he's making sure the seat is appropriate okay i think i can make that work good morning does that work for you i think sure it can be higher or lower your decision i think we're good okay i think you're good thank you make sure you come from board this is the next candidate it's regina weatherspoon bell and i'd like each of you to introduce yourselves yeah i'm maria para pleased to see you dennis bender glad you're here thank you you know me wilson yes well good morning to you all mrs weatherspoon bell i am going to be the facilitator asking questions you have 30 minutes to respond to five questions and um we're going to begin okay okay describe your commitment to the success of the mission and values identified in our logo the mission is at the podium apple valley unified school district serves our community with dignity by meeting the unique academic behavioral and social emotional needs of all students so that they may thrive in an ever-changing world and our values are located around the edge of our logo that are dignity community authenticity and service and as you speak make sure you are very close to the mic or very loud okay all right and um superintendent nelson will you repeat the question again please sure describe your commitment to the success of the mission and values identified on our logo okay that's not a hard one for me um and first of all i want to thank you for the opportunity to participate as a candidate [Music] they want to hear it okay how is that that's better much better okay all right um but in response to that question i think um the tenets of dignity community authenticity and service right those are values that i practice not only in my professional life but very much in my personal life so i am deeply aligned with those core values that are in the mission statement and i am very much aligned with and supportive of the mission statement because it is absolutely as an educational institution what we should be doing to make sure that our students are well prepared to go into that big world thank you question number two how does the board's role differ from that of the superintendent and the staff of the apple valley unified school district so the board's world differs in the sense that my belief in is that the superintendent is basically the general manager um for the district and the role of the board basically is to one um be an advocate for the district and then to support the superintendent in achieving those goals and the plans that have been set forth to provide fiscal oversight to help in the development and implementation of policy so those roles are very very different and i think i understand the distinction between the two question number three if you are selected as the area one provisional appointee what will your priorities be for the apple valley unified school district uh i think the um priority for me will be to join the board and be a team player in supporting the superintendent and what has already been said this is you i would be coming in to fulfill an existing term um and so things have already been put into motion and so to support that um not only with as an individual but collectively as a board member thank you question number four the school board is a governance team why have you decided to apply for this provisional appointment in area one i have been in this community for almost 30 years and for over 20 of those years i have been involved with the apple valley unified school district i started out as a mother in the classroom just volunteering with my kindergarten and i'm proud to say my son is 27 years old he has gone through apple valley unified school district graduated gone on to college and graduated from there but my work didn't stop there and i have been very committed to not only the education of my own child but the education of children in our community i've been very involved in our community and i believe that education is a high priority it is also an equalizer for these children that come from very diverse backgrounds and challenges especially in today's time and then the final question anything else you need us to know about you as an applicant you know i i will just say this um as i mentioned and as indicated on my application i have been very involved in my community i have also been very involved and committed to apple valley unified school district and i come to the table with what i believe are a number of skills that are of value and would be of benefit to the current board and those skills have to do with my experience in governance and also in government right um also the work that i have done uh in apple valley unified school district i mean i've been an advocate that brought a gift of over a hundred thousand dollars to the school district at one time i have served on school site committee i have been a part of the student attendance review board been a part of the youth accountability board just about anytime i have been called on from the school district through a number of superintendents um as most recently superintendent nelson earlier this year asked if i would come and bring a group of professionals to help address a community issue and i was able to do that and i am very committed to not only my community at large from a regional perspective but also from a very local perspective and that's what i bring with me i have leadership skills understanding and with governance you know i sit on a couple of boards myself most recently i have been elected to the providence healthcare system southern california regional board i serve as the vice chair for that board i'm part of the saint mary's community ministry board so in terms of understanding governance and the work that and responsibilities that the board has very into that and knowledgeable in that i served for eight years which ended in december of last year i served as deputy director for our first district supervisor robert lovinggood and that provided a wealth of information relationships connections that make me a very strong advocate to sit at a table and particularly to sit at this this table so i am just hopeful and looking forward to the opportunity to serve not only the students of this district but also the families of this district and work along with the fine individuals who have been elected to serve on this board thank you so our last interview time is at 12 10. you are not required to stay while in the room while we interview the rest but we would ask that you are back here um in the in the waiting room by 12 10 for that last interview so that when we bring everybody back in for the agenda item you would be available if appointed because we have to do the oath of office at the end great all right well thank you and thank you for your time and your consideration thank you thank you [Music] i just found out that you wrote their names on the bottom and i've been writing the name up here it won't hurt anything i just finally looked down i said oh that just keeps track yeah and do we submit this back in you have to all of the documents all of our notes board our next candidate is christopher nunes and um i'm going to have the board introduce themselves hi i'm maria o'kara nice to meet you good morning welcome thank you for applying rick raleigh thank you welcome chris good to see you good morning hi it's wolfgang's so good to see you good morning chris it's going to be uncomfortable you're going to have to have that mic really close or you have to speak loudly which i know you have the ability to do okay describe your commitment to the success of the mission and values identified on our logo the mission is sitting there as is the logo apple valley unified school district serves our community with dignity by meeting the unique academic behavioral and social emotional needs of all students so that they may thrive in an ever-changing world and the values are around the logo that say dignity community authenticity and service thank you again good morning to everyone here and thank you so much for the opportunity uh to begin with let me go ahead and answer the question describing my commitment first off my commitment as a parent and as a community member here in apple valley i have a son who is now going into the fourth grade and uh to say that we're committed to his success and the success of his school is a gigantic understatement um the truth is is that this district has provided a great launch point for so many students over you know the last several decades and that kind of culture and that kind of of support should only continue and that's my commitment to this mission is to continue the support of providing students who each one of them has that unique individual background and abilities that they need supported whether they have an iep or whether they're following the standardized process for any of our students in the k-12 system the fact that we're not only going to approach their success um with their academics but also from their behavior standpoint because we're creating citizens that are going to of course navigate the very things that we're doing here today they're the ones who are going to drive the success of our community they're the ones who are going to bring a strong economy and good jobs and they're the ones who are going to make sure that the children that follow them are going to continue and secure that success for all of us the social emotional needs is of course something that has come to light a bit more over the last decade or so and continues to grow in a lot of strength and a lot of integration into the way the teachers are teaching these days and the support and resources that come along to those students i think that that is something that is rising to the top and it really goes into serving the the key points that you focus on on the logo very well i have a lot of dignity and dignity and pride come together i feel like the pride that a student has and gains by going through a system that recognizes them supports them and empowers them and gives them the resources to succeed succeed not only academically but as a person and as an individual again i can't stress how strongly i am committed to making sure that the next generation of students is going to become great citizens for our community these are the kids who are going to come back and hopefully one day where i'm sitting where you are there at this podium and they're ready to serve as well to continue to grow the culture and enhance the things that make our community what it is authenticity is a is a very interesting word because i think most of us when we see it we probably think okay well a student should be authentic a teacher or instructor or bus driver or crossing guard or lunch lady should be authentic and show who they are to students to show that of course our administration and our faculty and staff are three-dimensional people we're human beings they all have feelings they all have interactions they all have things that drive them that might be different from those there it also goes on to show that to be authentic means to represent yourself and be exactly who you are i'm i'm happy and sad to say that i have somebody who a few years ago came out to me as as a lesbian and it made me sad that that they went through their entire time here as a student not feeling as though that they could be their own authentic selves and i think the fact that now we are focusing more on the social and emotional needs of our students i think the fact that our students are able to live a more authentic life and over time don't have to drop bombs or come out you know they're able to be their authentic selves their entire career here at abusd and then finally of service i was very very grateful to participate in a lot of extracurricular activities given the opportunity time and time again to to volunteer and to serve my students being a leader to serve as a captain on on soccer teams to serve as the lead in plays or or the head section in a choir and then to go on and be encouraged to do that kind of service and volunteerism in the community through our kiwanis and key clubs these are the kinds of things that we want to continue to perpetuate continue to encourage and that is exactly what the mission and our logo is is signifying to our our students to our parents to our community and to those around us and this is a fantastic logo and mission i know you all worked on this over the pandemic and congratulations on coming up with something that not just those who are in official capacity are serving but something that all of us as this community can actually drive to commit and support thank you okay how does the board's role differ from that of the superintendent and the staff of the apple valley unified school district gosh well they are quite different although they all work in a leadership capacity to support and encourage and and demonstrate the great things that are having happening here at avusd they serve for two very different purposes the board of course is to provide oversight set direction make plans and set protocols that will guide the way that our students are taught the way that our students are disciplined the way that our parents and community stakeholders are able to interact with the district itself the board is meant to be the sounding board if you will to receive that information from the community here at board meetings out in the public representing the district and then of course the superintendent is empowered and uh of course hired by the board to set forth and enact those those visions and those policies and those procedures they have complete executive power and of course all of the district employees report under them and that's a very important chain of command something that was that stood out very much to me is that the board is in is responsible for the what right what are the issues that are facing what are the gaps that need to be covered in our district what are those areas of opportunities for us to prepare our students for the next level and then of course our superintendent along with the rest of the staff is to figure out the how how are we going to do that how are we going to implement these tools what are the metrics that we need to meet and how are we going to best demonstrate this to again the board our students and our community stakeholders so again the what and the how if you are selected as the area one provisional appointee what will your priorities be for the apple valley unified school district so if appointed first and foremost i think all of us are very driven to getting our students here back to school back on campus in in a appropriate safe and again interactive environment because that is a big thing that we've been missing we have lots of students of course who have not received some of the extra resources and attention that they might have been missing during the pandemic at distance learning so that's going to be a big priority and the other thing is is we don't have to be stuck in old ways the pandemic has opened us up to new opportunities for learning new modalities of learning and interacting with one another and it's going to be a big priority of mine to integrate those into the things that we've been doing i just read that uh that south africa is issuing the first patent for something created by artificial intelligence our students have been in the midst of living at home during a global pandemic and learning about new vaccines that are being made with new science our students have been watching how billionaires across our country have been racing to space these are the environments these are the situations these are scenarios that we are preparing them for so i think my biggest priority is going to be make sure making sure that we get students back integrated interactive and back turned on to learning as quickly as possible the school board is a governance team why have you decided to apply for this provisional appointment in area one i'm glad i have the opportunity to actually answer this we have a very strong board and we have a very strong culture in this in apple valley unified school district it's something that has grown over the years that has created much more success and that has really really developed our town we have a small town and very very and pretty much everyone is touched by this district so the fact that we've been that you that we have been able to lead in that aspect has been outstanding and now more than ever i think that that's very important we have great tenure on the board with a mix of of newer board representatives and that creates an excellent opportunity to to collaborate to expand to drive all of our missions forward and the reason that i chose right now is the most opportune time is because well we can focus on the business rather than focusing on an election at this point we can focus on what the actual needs are and focus on the what so that we can let our superintendent and staff get to the how there's been very few issues in watching the board meetings and i think that this is an opportunity for someone who possibly represents a different portion of our constituency to become a part of the team i'm very proud to be a parent of a student here at applevale unified school district i am a spouse of an employee of apple value unified school district i'm the product of apple valley unified school district i graduated in 2005.
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go cougars so to have that aspect and portion be a part of the team i think would be a great advantage the other thing is as a parent i have contact with lots of other parents so hearing some of the strifes and difficulties that they're coming through i think that that could be another unique thing that i could bring to the board in addition to the fact i you know some folks are always looking for someone who appears like them or maybe resonates with them in a certain way so i know that i could have another connection with potentially a a younger group of our constituency that maybe hasn't been involved before as well as communication with our hispanic community um as the district as the director of uh of scholarships and fun coordination with the victor valley college foundation it's my job to be out there and realize some of the difficulties and strives that our later high school students are dealing with before they make it over to either vvc or off to college or joining the workforce and these are some experiences and some insights that i could bring to this board um speaking of other insights and why right now is because of my community involvement actually perhaps i'll wait and let you do the next question anything else you need us to know about you as an applicant thank you so as an applicant it has been my really my mission my drive to be an active member of this community um i have served in a lot of different roles on the educational side it's been my great pleasure you know to assist with my son's school at sycamore rocks elementary helping with schools plays and and field days and 5ks and arts fair it's also been my pleasure as a community person to come in both acting in an official and and volunteer capacity i formerly was the field representative for our 33rd state assembly district with mr j obernal team in that capacity i was able to attend and participate in many sandaps meetings that's san bernardino advocates for better schools getting to learn what the real measures were that our districts are going through to combat in the state and have advocation for those important things um i uh i've also learned that sometimes advocating for those things that are important to you know those here in our district means having the difference of opinions and i love that the uh that the board rules that you've adopted and following csba has to do with having unity on the board and proper discussion and the agreement to disagree and those are things that that i've learned and had to advocate for actually coming out of those sand apps meetings one particular example being a school start time bill that recently passed her state legislature that should be going to effect here soon you know i listened and heard the majority of our district wasn't i wasn't up for it and didn't find it incredibly feasible however the representative that i represented he did believe it and wanted to vote in it vote for it so that required conversation and understanding to see you know why there's such a discrepancy between what he's voting on versus what our constituency is telling us and those are the kinds of things that i've learned and have that understanding on how to utilize that going forward i take great pride in my community involvement i've had the great pleasure to serve a lot of local non-profits including having served on a governing board myself as the president of the high desert phoenix foundation it was my great pleasure to help grow the fiscal capacity of the foundation over my two years as the as the president and then later on carry on the uh the work myself as the executive director going from preparing the what of the plan to the how of the plan so i definitely have a good understanding of of what those two kinds of abilities need and how they need to work together in order to meet that goal lastly i'll just say this i moved here 25 years ago and i started the fourth grade same grade my son's going into now i had never participated in an extracurricular activity i had never been to a friend's house and it never been important to me to see folks who looked like me here i am 25 years later excited for my son to be entering the same fourth grade at the same school that i went to today i'm standing here in front of you confident capable and able to fill this position because of the education and the opportunities that launched me from avosd and i love this community and i love these kids so i appreciate your time i don't envy you you have a very difficult decision ahead of you but uh for what it's worth for my two cents i take a lot of solace in knowing that the candidates that you've reviewed today we're gonna have a great individual sitting in that seat and our students are gonna have excellent stewardship so thank you all so much i very much appreciate your time thank you thank you thank you very much with all of the candidates we have explained that you are not required to stay here in the waiting room um through all of their interviews but we do ask that you return to the waiting room about 12 10 which is our last interview because as soon as that complete concludes we will come back into um everybody will be able to participate and listen while they do um the agenda item all right see you soon thank you good we have a few minutes before the next candidate about um 1105.
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we're going to start streaming what do we test to make sure okay good okay welcome the next candidate is nikki follis and i'm going to ask that the board introduce themselves and then we'll get going on the questions great thank you good morning i'm maria ocpara nice to see you nice to see you rick rowley good morning frank dennis glad to have you here dennis bender good morning good to see you good morning wilson it's awesome so we have questions for you this morning and i know they've said it but just either speak very loudly or close to the mic it's uncomfortable but we're in a big room so okay okay the first question you have all of the questions on the podium as well describe your commitment to the success of the mission and values identified on our logo the mission states apple valley unified school district serves our community with dignity by meeting the unique academic behavioral and social emotional needs of all students so that they may thrive in an ever-changing world and then our values are around the edge of the logo that our dignity community authenticity and service thank you very much my commitment to the values that appa valley unified has is looking at the needs of the whole student and looking at students as individuals and taking education is not a one-size-fits-all approach to meeting the needs of our students today people come from different socioeconomic backgrounds ethnic backgrounds we have children facing mental and emotional needs that aren't being served so i see as the school district and as a member of the board it would be my responsibility to look at the whole student their unique needs as it relates to the mission and vision and make sure we have programs and services and supporting the superintendent and her staff to have everything that they need to meet the needs of the unique students that are within our district how does the board's role differ from that of the superintendent and the staff of the apple valley unified school district so as a member of government staff for many years i'm very well versed in the fact that the board provides direction and guidance to the superintendent and the superintendent and her staff take out handle the day-to-day responsibilities of the district we would be there to provide guidance to answer questions to help possibly lobby sacramento and help get initiatives that the district superintendent and their staff want to see change in sacramento we can take those fights forward but we provide direction and guidance to the superintendent and let her and her fabulous staff do the day-to-day work and meet the goals of the district if you are selected as the area one provisional appointee what will your priorities be for the apple valley unified school district so my first priority would be to get to know the other trustees the superintendent and her cabinet to really dig into the initiatives that the board has already approved and that you're currently working on so i could make myself a meaningful partner straight off the bat i want to know where i can fit in where my role would be how i can assist and how i can start providing added value to the board and provided support to the superintendent and her staff i would listen to the needs of the constituents and even just for applying for this position i've been talking to neighbors i've been talking to people that would be in my district finding out what do you like about the board what do you like about the district what do you know what are you hearing what are you not hearing and what do you need from our schools specifically speaking with the parents the business owners people that have a direct impact on the district that i would be serving so i would jump right in talk to everyone learn everything a lot of listening so i could hear the message that's being conveyed by the people in my district listening to the other board members so i could understand what the work that you've already been doing how i can aid in that work how i can add value and and follow come in and follow along with what you're doing and make suggestions as appropriate the school board is a governance team why have you decided to apply for this provisional appointment in area one thank you that's a great question i recently received my doctorate in education in 2018 with the idea that when i retire from my day job my government administration job i would move into the area of education i'm also an adjunct professor at brandman university part of the chapman system so i'm well versed in the understanding the needs of different types of students in the educational setting so i received a call from one of my neighbors amanda hernandez she sits on the fireboard and said i think this would be a great opportunity for you um i think you could represent your our district and those um in our district very well i'm also a parent in the district i have a 28 year old stepson that came through here i have a 25 year old stepson that came through here and i have children currently in the district going to school so i've seen it on the side of a parent i've seen it on the side of not having kids in the district i moved here specifically for the purpose of having education having my kids educated in apple valley unified i used to live in a different high desert city and when my kids were ready to go to school i moved to apple valley to have my children specifically in this district due to the offerings and the unique educational opportunities so when i heard the position was open i started reaching out sending text messages talking to neighbors my neighbor scott runs a pest control hey tell me about applejack valley unified what do you know about them where do you see needs you came through the school years ago my my neighbor amanda called me and said you know you really need to do this i started talking to my next-door neighbor whose brother teaches at sitting bull and they all gave me a perspective and said you know we've known you for a lot of years and we think you'd be a really good representative of us you listen first you speak second and you really i really like to marinate and take things to heart i 100 understand the relationship between a board and those that do the job because i've been on the other side for 25 years as an assistant city manager and a city manager working with city councils so i definitely see the parallel relationship between a school board so i really feel like i bring a different perspective not coming from a full educational background that i can bring forward to the board not only as a parent but as someone who works in higher education right now but also someone who's worked in government for a lot of years understanding the complexities of things like the brown act and the government code and the education code and how you may have the best intention to do something but your hands are tied with the laws and regulations that may not allow you to do that and how to have that conversation in this case it would be with parents or constituents that may call because i've done that on the other side for 25 years talking to residents whether it be in cities or counties about what we can and can't do based on the rules and regulations that that cities are bound with so that really drove me forward as i'm ending my government career in a few years i'm really ramping up my community service and this is a good way to come and serve the community that i've loved since 2003.
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anything else that you need us to know about you as an applicant um i'm a super excited gung-ho parent i have the utmost respect for our administrators at our school sites i've always done my best to when i speak to them speak to them in a respectful and professional manner understanding that they're there to represent our kids and i would bring that same professionalism to the board not overstepping my authority or interceding in day-to-day affairs even though i do have a child in the district which was something that caused me pause for concern in applying for this position i wouldn't want to make any kind of awkward situation but i do think i can um bring added value in perspective um i was really excited when i saw the seat came open and you know disappointed with the person i voted for didn't make it through the full term but i would really love the opportunity to serve to sit alongside you and to bring forward the initiatives that you guys have brought to apple valley school district i know um i have a high schooler sitting in the car right now cheering me on watching excited you know just just the programs you've offered at some of the schools she chose to go to granite hills high school because of the great academy and that's something that wasn't offered when my 25 year old was at apple valley high school and so there's such unique things available right now and i think just another voice an energetic parent voice maybe someone with a different perspective can bring extra i don't know a little extra shine a little extra something to the board and you have a bunch of great candidates so anyone you pick julie is going to be great but i just feel like i can bring some enthusiasm and i do have that that background in education even though it hasn't been my career it was something that i felt would really help me as i move into what i'm calling the second phase of my life in a few years and making education that focus for for the second part of my career so i just thank you for your time today and your consideration i do apologize my cover letter for some reason was missed on the application so i did leave that here so you can see that i think i had the wonderful paper ran out in the printer issue when i submitted my application that day but i appreciate your time and your attention and letting me speak to you today and i look forward to hearing your decision thank you i've been telling the candidates that we would ask that you return at least to the waiting room you don't have to wait through all the other interviews but at least return to the waiting room for when the last appointment time is which is 12 10 for our interview so that when we complete that the board will then start addressing the agenda item that has to do with the appointment okay thank you guys very much for your time i appreciate nice meeting you that i don't know thank you so much thank you our next candidate is at 11 40 a.m so we'll take a break i love that i love it make sure he's comfortable good uh early afternoon hi how are you how are you um board this is jose arredondo he is our candidate at 11 40 and i'm going to ask that the board introduced themselves and i know dustin said it we all have to shake hands or just no no no we we just want to stay all right we'll just do one of these right there all the way down the line yeah okay thank you all right good morning good morning my name is maria ocara welcome to the interview rick rowling how's it going good to meet you thanks for applying wilson so so we have five questions for you and um we have continued to say really close really loud that way everybody in the room hears and we're streaming um five questions they're at the podium for you and i'll facilitate by reading them okay describe your commitment to the success of the mission and values identified on our logo and the mission states apple valley unified school district serves our community with dignity by meeting the unique academic behavioral and social emotional needs of all students so that they may thrive in an ever-changing world and then our four values are around the logo that say dignity community authenticity and service great all right well um obviously i think the logo kind of brings it all in for us for me uh service uh even though it's at the end uh it's it's number one as far as uh i'm concerned because that's what i was raised in that's what i've always uh i've always done from the time i was a little kid i started as an explorer with the apple valley fire protection district uh and then moving on to uh being a firefighter which is um which is a service industry right it's a public service which is what uh you all are doing here um and i think that's uh that's paramount to the to the goal of achieving all the rest of the uh the rest of the goals here which is the dignity community authenticity the only way that we can that we can achieve that is by truly having that belief in our kids that we can that we can actually affect change for them and we can make it we can make it make them i'll help them grow in whatever whatever way that we can um the ever-changing world i mean i think uh i think we can all kind of look at that for a second especially in the uh recent past how much it's actually changed the only thing i can say about that is we're picking up grounders you know people are coming at us quick with a bunch of different a bunch of different ideas a bunch of different situations and all we can do as a group is kind of field those grounders and make them work best we can for our kids with what we have how does the board's world differ from that of the superintendent and the staff of the apple valley unified school district uh well as we had as we discussed in our orientation meeting there as far as the board goes we're just looking at all the the information that's given to us and put together the best idea that we can and provide it to the superintendent for implementation um [Music] when when it comes down to to the decision making there's only so much that we can do as a collective group there's a there's a reason that there's there's five people so that we don't get we don't get kind of hung up but at the end of the day all we can do is take the information that's provided to us uh keeping obviously the children as paramount the kids paramount and taking the resources that we have available to us to make as impactful of a change or implementation as we can and present to the superintendent so that that change can be affected if you are selected as the area one provisional appointee what will your priorities for the apple valley unified school district be uh well i mean i think the uh the logo says it all but uh the main priority as i said before is the kids is the the children getting their uh getting their their student their learning goals that's number one and then uh down the line is obviously using the using our resources that are made available to us to be able to implement those goals we want to be fiscally responsible obviously in order to attain those goals but at the end of the day the uh kids are number one so as long as we're doing everything that we can as a board as a superintendent as uh people as long as we're doing everything that we can to support that mission and to get uh these kids to a place where they can succeed in life that's number one number four the board is a governance team thank you miss okara sorry i lost my place the board is a governance team why have you decided to apply for this provisional appointment in area one well uh i truly believe that uh either you affect change or you're affected by it and if you have if you're not willing to kind of put your money where your mouth is and put the time in to [Music] to put the time into a position like this where you're uh we're given of yourself to affect change then i don't think that you should be out really preaching it you know unless you're unless you're actually willing to put in the put in the time so for me uh even though you know we all have busy schedules i have uh two kids that i'm about to move out to college and one kid that's still in uh still in high school that's a uh going to be a junior this year uh obviously we're all busy i get that but uh with that the reason i chose to do this is because if i can affect a little bit of change uh in in any way positive of course with the kids in mind that is that's that's key to me and then the final question anything else you need us to know about you as an applicant uh well i mean i've been a long-term resident of apple valley i've moved here when i was 10 years old started in i've been a member of the or been in the av usd my entire my entire life pretty much started as a in junior high actually in this in this very building here and i went all the way uh through high school uh in the av usd even graduated from victor valley college so i've always been a local i've invested in the community uh love this community and want to do everything that that i can for this community whether it's the school board the the town anything that that that i can possibly do to better our community is my goal uh and obviously that starts with the kids you know we uh we raise our own kids in the best way that we can with uh with what we've with the tools that that we've been given and the tools that we make uh but when it comes down to it uh if we don't try and affect change somewhere else if we don't try and and better uh our community then i think we're sorely lacking in what it is that uh that we need to do as as people that have the ability to to do that so that would be my reason for uh coming out for the board um i definitely appreciate the the time that you guys have put into uh allowing us to to speak here in a in open in an open forum i guess yeah we're because we're live streaming here and uh and i hope that no matter who gets picked for the board position i appreciate the fact that i was able to to meet everybody uh come out and and actually uh see everybody and uh hopefully whether i get chosen for the position or not that uh that that open line of communication will remain there that's uh that's actually been been started uh hopefully hopefully today so uh so again if um no matter who makes who gets chosen for the position uh i hope that they can affect a positive change and uh and if you need anything from me even if i don't end up making the position uh i hope that i would be able to reach out to you as well as uh to me for any needs that you you guys might have thank you we have asked that each candidate you don't have to wait in the waiting room while the last interview takes place but certainly you've got a little bit of time not tons because you're closer to the end here our last interview starts at 12 10 and as soon as that concludes um the board will then address the board item having to do with the appointment so we'd want to make sure that each candidate knows that because after they've addressed the board item there would be a swearing-in perfect okay all right so we'll just meet back in the board room there yeah okay thank you all right thank you thank you thank you thank you [Music] so our final interview is at 12 10 and then you'll do your finding your applicant for 12 10 today and um mr extrane they're going to introduce themselves very well good morning mr extra and this is maria ocara nice to see you good to see you rick rowley thanks for applying you're welcome bender good to see you good to see you wilson so good to see you likewise mr extrand um we have five questions for you there at the podium as well um i will read them as the facilitator and just remember that the mic um for streaming purposes and for hearing in the room either very close or speak loudly stage voice okay question number one describe your commitment to the success of the mission and values identified on our logo the mission states apple valley unified school district serves our community with dignity by meeting the unique academic behavioral and social emotional needs of all students so that they may thrive in an ever-changing world and then our values are found on the logo around the edge that say dignity community authenticity and service okay so um i don't know where the camera is should i look at the camera you can look it up hi everybody i'll look at you guys you look better than a camera so i worked for 19 years as a school psychologist for apple valley unified school district and as such i had the opportunity to address many of the issues that are discussed there the dignity of all students different learning abilities different ways of learning and finding ways to help students be successful in their trying to achieve their academic program and i also for 30 years have been a resident of apple valley and have children all five of my wives and my children attended apple valley schools and graduated from apple from high schools in apple valley so i have a lot of experience with the educational process from an insider and from a parent point of view and i think it's important that the board address the issues of equity and fairness of dignity and that they address this the social and emotional as well as the behavioral concerns that students have and the academic concerns so that students can be prepared um and and have strategies that will help them be successful in this world we're seeing some wild changes in the world today and um it takes a lot of fortitude to sort through them it takes a good educational background and it takes emotional stability to handle them in an appropriate manner and i think if the school district fulfills its mission our students will be well prepared to deal with the things that they confront in their adult lives how does the board's world differ from that of the superintendent and the staff of the apple valley unified school district so the school board has the responsibility to to give direction to the district they they possess the vision for the district i'd like to see it as the school board is a monitoring and and intervening at the macro level it's the big picture we you know we want this is our vision for this for the district these are the the goals that we think are important to us as a board and then we hand that off to the superintendent who the school board hired and we say figure out how to do this and so we're not very hands-on in terms of the day-to-day how do you do this that's trine nelson's job and she does that through the staff that she hires to support the learning of the and safety of the students in our district so um those are the main differences we're more of a macro once it gets into your hands it's more of a micro and when you pass it on to your assistant superintendents it's even more micro and when it gets to the principles it's very focused at a specific school site and so the superintendent is doing the hands-on work and the board is giving direction in terms of vision for the district if you are selected as the area one provisional appointee what will your priorities be for the apple valley unified school district my priority will be to see that we serve the community with dignity by seeing that all students have their academic needs their behavior needs their social emotional needs met through the programs and services of the apple valley unified school district i will support the vision and mission of the board of the apple valley school district that's my goal i feel that i'll be able to give input from my own personal perspective but i understand fully that every decision made by the board is a board decision and not tim extran's decision the school board is a governance team why have you decided to apply for this provisional appointment in area one well i heard my echo um i actually didn't even know that a board member had resigned until i got a phone call from somebody who said i had never thought about being on a school board before and they said hey there's an opening and you live in that district and we want you or i want you to consider applying for um to be appointed as a board member and um so at first i said well all right i'll think about it and so i got on the school's website got on the section that talks about the board and started reading about it and i said you know the district has given my family an awful lot they gave me 19 years of experience working with them they gave my wife 20 years of experience working as a teacher my kids went through the district my two of my children are teachers in the district right now maybe i should think about giving back i'm retired i have some time maybe i should give back and that's what really that's what really it came down to it was that and then it became a matter of prayer and i thought you know i feel like this is something i should at least throw my hat in the ring the board will make their decision and i want to be considered i want to be able to give back for all of the wonderful things this district has done for myself and my family and then the final question anything else you need us to know about you as an applicant [Music] i don't know i you might find out some things you don't like i don't know i mean but uh but i don't think so i think you know i i know several people that are in this room right now they know me um and so i don't think so those of you who know me well can give whatever feedback you want about tim extra and if you think i'm a jerk tell them if you think i'm okay tell them that too but uh no i think i think you know what what what you need to know about me thank you mr x strand you're welcome thank you so much we are going into um the agenda item that will um deal with the appointment and so um you are welcome to have a seat we are gonna have the others that are here join us as well very well thank you you want me to go get them we'll let kylie do that you've done enough thank you so we are going to continue to stream while we have the others join and then the board can move back to the agenda and as soon as everybody is back into the room you can go to agenda to the agenda item okay you know like there's a strategy oh we're saying on the street we remain on stream um all discussion and um motion all is part of um public session so you do all of this in a public session while streaming yeah no this it's open open but also just a quick reminder that if you do make a motion or a second just to make sure to move your microphone back up because the so the stream can catch that yeah i would um actually recommend that all microphones are moved forward for the discussion yeah you can just leave it up you can leave it up it's right and point it right at you so or else the stream won't pick it up you speak to it yeah there you go mr raleigh your mic probably needs to be moved forward for the any of you you probably need to move it this direction just because we're streaming now that everybody is back in the room this concludes the interviews at this time i will turn the process over to the board president mrs oppara to lead the discussion and possible action okay we are ready to make provisional appointments to the appleville unified school district board of trustees um does a member wish to make a motion sure i'll make the first motion i want to make a comment first it's um can you spell okay actually okay just make the motion first there'll be an opportunity for for i wanted to thank everybody okay okay okay sorry yeah i just wanted to to uh thank everyone for for applying that was it and then i'll make a motion that we uh nominate christopher nunes uh to uh fill the i have a second vacancy first of all i want to thank you for the abundance of quality people that applied but i also support chris nunes okay um so now that you have a motion for a um a motion and a second um now is the opportunity to discuss okay it's a discussion action item right um i i know that there's a motion on the table and we have not seconded it yet that we have not voted on it right you have not voted so the process right um i actually i do move that we um um maria can't hear you we don't have a motion yet right we don't have a you have a motion and mr bender seconded the motion so what you have now is opportunity to discuss the candidate that he has that mr raleigh made a motion to appoint and mr bender seconded you don't vote yet you have a discussion okay um i don't have a vote a vote yet so i am actually asking um to select another candidate for you have to pause there you that's not part of the pro i this is for everybody that's watching and in the audience um each time we the board would make a um motion we discuss and you have to discuss and then you either um you take a vote and you either move forward with that vote or they can make a motion either the vote fails and they make a motion to talk about another candidate and then if emotion passes then it the process is complete there is no more discussion so with emotion on the table in a second if there's no discussion we just vote that's correct but i would recommend a discussion just so that um that's why it's a discussion action item yes yeah so there's still time for no discussion it's not just automatic okay does anyone have a discussion to make on the motion on the table do you have anything to say before we go i think that chris's presentation and his background is is excellent i think he'd make a great uh addition to this uh to this board so that's why i made the motion to appoint so that's my comments i agree with your assessment please be close to the microphone mister i agree with that assessment you know the quality response yeah and uh i know a lot of your candidates in person and uh same with chris but i don't think we could ask for anything more i do believe that we have other candidates that we need to consider so i am hoping that i need to take a vote though yes well i have a comment oh okay i do believe we have other candidates to discuss so as we take a vote we need to keep in mind that there are other candidates who were equally um qualified that we need to also vote on if that if this vote doesn't go through i heard earlier that maria you said you have a alternate candidate correct that's why i heard yes but mr rowdy has a motion on the floor right so okay so if we don't have any more comments we need to vote on mr what uh on mr nunez um all in favor think if uh it probably better if um kylie did a roll call though yes we would do um we'll call kylie will you do a roll cover on mr nunez starting from the back end kylie doesn't have a microphone so i'll do the roll call if that was okay sorry mr bender vote for mr nunes okay yeah we can't hear anything no mr raleigh hi mr so i'm going to vote no for time being okay because if there's a concern from the president of the board i want to hear her concern okay so the vote currently is a um 2-2 which means we open the floor again for a um motion and if it is seconded then we take a vote and and just for clarification um when we take a vote not me but when they take a vote if it doesn't carry it doesn't mean that it is over it means that this process did not complete and they may go through every single candidate and do that same process until they have a candidate appointed so i just want to be clear that they could bring back mr nunez's name at a later time and they would take a vote again okay it's a strange process i just want to make sure i'm clear all right does a member wish to make a motion um for another candidate i do make a motion for another candidate and that candidate is miss regina weatherstone with a spoon bell is there a second did the people back there hear it was there a second to that okay no second so when there is no second the motion doesn't carry and you can ask for another motion okay i make a motion we nominate christopher nunes we'll come back there any discussion i saved it yes any discussion any discussion is what i asked well i think that like a lot of candidates here he speaks for himself came here he speaks the language also hispanic he went to uh grand hills high school graduated in 2005 what else you need i i need mr conrad to remind us as the hr director of um certain comments sorry yes just a quick reminder uh as we consider candidates for the position obviously diversity equity inclusion is uh paramount in our district as demonstrated by the variety of people we have here in front of us um so the recruitment effort was was well received amongst the community and representative step forward however decisions based on one's either participation in or lack of participation in any protected class needs to be ceased from consideration we have to measure the candidates on their their abilities and successfully merit quality like a lot of them well no no i i i think dennis the the the person's ability to speak other language is not critical industry you know we are in america we all speak english that's important and so i don't think that should be should be brought up but i think we need to look at the candidates background okay and her his or her involvement with education and that's why i want to come i was having this discussion you know yeah and and we have a candidate that has a ph that edd and she's very involved with education how come she's not being considered mr so there the discussion right now is about the motion on the floor which is um a first and a second on mr nunez so keep the discussion if if we can to the person that we're allowed to discuss for the action good just go get straight up sorry do you want to roll call again yes okay the royal call vote mr bender can you clarify the role vote is to for mr moon right the roll call vote is for the motion for mr nunez okay so mr bender i vote for mr nunes miss o'kara i don't know if we're done with our votes so i'm gonna still say now until we get to the end mr raleigh aye and mr cell ibo eye for mr dinners so what you have is a three one in favor of mr nina's which means that is the next person congratulations close to the mic mrs ampara sorry congratulations mr nunez as the president of the board it is important that i stay neutral as much as possible until the final vote comes in so you move on to number to e uh we're now going to do a board on oath of office mr nunez will you meet me at the podium and you can see this partner here um thank you thank you members of the board congratulations to mr nunes please get ready to raise your hand so that i can administer the vote of office go there chris yes [Music] and repeat after me i i your last your first and last name christopher nunes do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies foreign and domestic foreign and domestic that i will bear the faith true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states that i will bear the true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california and in the constitution of the state of california that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservations or purpose of invasion that i take this obligation freely and without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i'm about to enter and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i am about to enter congratulations [Applause] mr nunez do you want to say something you are i i feel like you've stood there but before the other candidates leave please first thank you all so much to the board i appreciate the vote of confidence immensely and i'm incredibly excited to begin working with you and learning from you all it's great to be a student in avusd even on the board we're always learning very much looking forward to working with administration thank you so much for the connections and friendships that we have and i look forward to to growing those and and serving our students well thank you to all of the candidates who came out this was an incredible pool i had a lot of solace in my heart knowing that somebody would fill that seat and and truly be an excellent steward for our district so thank you all don't go anywhere we need you all and to all of our constituents and students i'm incredibly excited and and here to listen and ready to work so thank you mr nunes on behalf of apple valley unified school district you may now join the board and participate in this meeting as a board member madam president i just also want to thank all the candidates we have wonderful candidates and thank you all for participating thank you very much yes superintendent's comments i just want to tell you how overwhelmed when i um saw the list of names that were applicants in this community that were stepping up to apply um for a provisional seat that has been vacated i feel extremely blessed that this community came out in this way to support the students of apple valley unified school district and so thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time out of your very busy schedules because i know they are to be here and to contribute and as mr nunes just said we certainly will be reaching out as each of you said you are i'm committed to the students of this community and um we need you and we need you part of the um process as we move forward with several plans so um i'm sure mr schlosser has made notes about el cap and the people that we want in the room so that's how we recruit around here thank you so much and congratulations mr nunes uh mr nunez you'll be the next comment on our agenda well probably for one of the first times other than what i've already said i i'm speechless so thank you so much and um ready to get to work let's move on thank you mr cell no i as i said i already thanked the candidates and and there's and you're all qualified and it's unfortunate we only got one opening and uh but we we're all going to continue to work together for right now you're all set doing what's best for our students you know we still applaud challenge okay and then by all means you all should continue to be involved with us thank you mr bender i want to say i appreciate the wealth of candidates yeah it shows what a great community we have and thank you mr raleigh yeah i agree with uh echo what ternae said you know we had eight candidates that all applied out of a small section of the community it was one district and uh it just tells you how important school boards are and how much people want to get involved with the schools and we had great candidates could have just drawn straws basically everybody was really qualified so i appreciate it thank you um i can start by saying that we we are truly honored to have such great candidates apply for this position you are all winners in my eyes you have uh stepped up and you have shown that the the apo valley school district is worthy of your service we are hoping that you continue to serve we're hoping that we'll find you in the community to be part of our school district family unfortunately we i wish we had more seats so that we will feel more seeds but we have only five spots i hope you never give up on wanting to serve in whatever type of capacity that is out there we'll reach back in to all of you at some point to ask for your support but don't give up on trying to uh be part of our system and to give us direction you are now the elder statesman of women of this community we are looking to you to help us so we can make a better district for our children thank you very much for your time um for the closing items we don't have any future items does anybody have future items i would like to make sure we address next time no all right i'm going to move that we are joined during this meeting um do we have any motion to adjourn so move uh who's secondly thank you all in favor aye aye meeting agent you
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[Music] uh there's a couple other things [Music] good morning yes good morning everyone let's call this meeting to we please please i will i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god and indivisible with liberty and his justice for all thank you we'll call please is to pull item k which is approval of occupation therapy services physical therapy services and psychology services to a separate alignment okay we will move that to e under new business any further changes to the agenda okay i knew that we approved the second motion in a second further discussion or changes okay mrs allen yes mr australia yes mr hillary yes and mr gibbon yes uh agenda is approved as amended you call to the public i do not receive on this incentive yes yes thank you discussion and approval of the mitigation plan and who's up on that we have attached the documentation that i did send to the pilot county health department the recommendations for back to school and the governor's orders so at this time as a leadership team we had already decided that maps were going to be optional on campus and we are going to make the mass optional on the bus as well so we know that there are covet cases in other districts there have already been outbreaks so we're just we really are trying to get back to business as usual of course with caution we did ask teachers they if the kids are in groups to maybe just separate them just a little bit more to provide a little bit more distance between the students but again it will be optional and last night at our meet and greet we did have um a fair amount of kids and parents who did have masks on so we know that two kids and a few staff members will continue to wear masks for precautionary reasons but we're asking at this time that the governing board support our mass to be optional and we'll continue to follow the mitigation plan in terms of hands advertising and cleaning spraying the rooms okay i'll entertain [Music] is the nurse still able to do covet testing yes that's the rapid one right yes the nurse is still able to do testing we are also still pima county health has asked us to continue to put ourselves in a situation where we can contact trace if kids happen to contract copics so that you know we'll follow that same plan of getting seating charts that the nurse is still able to test and another quick question is are we going to be doing the temperature checks at the drop-off and buses and stuff we are not okay further questions okay mrs allen yes mr australia yes mr hollery yes yes motion passes thank you and thank you for putting that together by the way the mitigation fund uh b approval of prop 301 base pay oh mr schubert is recommending the approval of prop 301 base pay as you um remember we had to make a decision as to how much of the 301 was going to go into the base and our committee decided that they wanted to keep the 80 percent as duties as assigned and committee work like we had done so the 20 that will be added to their base paid is 2 611 spread out overall paid periods for all teachers i'll move that we uh approve the fiscal year 22 prop 301 baseball second motion second discussion this is spread out over how many page periods i guess it depends on whether they're on it it's going to depend uh if the teacher is on a 20 or 24 period 100 bucks further discussion okay mrs allen yes mr australia okay this is routine the only um two that we had to add this year was lebron hill for our math curriculum and action communications which is the radio equipment repair company that we use so other than that then this remains the same okay it just just clarified though with action communications we're bringing them to you for sole source because we use their antenna and their array on the mountain for our communications so going with somebody else within you know radio repairs and purchase things like that it could hamper our ability to use that antenna is keystone is not intended yes okay i will uh prove that we approve the sole source second any discussion okay mrs allen yes ms johnson mrs thank you mcgraw-hill purchase order so this is a motion for um approval of the purchase order for 10667 for the math manipulatives it was brought to our attention that in the bundle price of what we were purchasing did not include the manipulatives so as we started to unpack the boxes we realized that we did not receive the manipulatives and we are working with the vendors right now as well because there were some student licenses digital licenses for students that were left off of the original order so we're working with the vendor to see what they're going to do but they definitely know that they're going to have to cut us a break since bundle did not mean bundle okay entertain a motion on the purpose of it please i'll move to approve the purchase from them that teachers need to teach math so they're the cuisinaire rods they're the base 10 rods they're the counters so the manipulatives are used throughout the curriculum to teach number sense so there's graphs and pie charts and they sometimes have money like coins so that they can practice counting but overall they usually are for when the students are going over place value in the primary grades so they have the hundreds blogs the thousands and like she said the tens rats but they're for the teachers to utilize so that they have the hands-on teaching when they're teaching the lessons and each student has has them in front of them so that may answer my question i had a question about um in my mind i was thinking this was digital so this is not sorry because because my question was a 1300 shipping charge and something was digital it didn't jump in my head so apparently that just answered that song and and we needed kids for everybody because prior to um last year we had teachers doing departmentalizing so we had one teacher per grade level teaching math now we have all teachers teaching math so we're limited in the manipulatives that we have third grade and beyond thank you any further questions okay mrs allen yes mr austin yes mr mullery yes yes okay i'm sorry it's now um approval of uh occupational therapy services physical therapy services and psycho psychology services um correct me if i'm wrong please clarify this change yes so at the time of um us posting the agenda we had not yet received best and final we did ask our psychologist and our physical therapist to give us the best and final because when we got the rfp prices were a little bit above what standard hourly weight is so we received best and final so we write we'd like to recommend that doctor that will continue she did decrease her outing rate for us which is nice we'll save us some money and obviously it's good to continue with someone that we know she understands that we're still trying to find a school psychologist per se because we will always save more money with the school employee rather than having to contract out so the motion will be only will be specific to dr valeno and the others will still be it would be specific to dr berlin as well as mrs rodriguez all right and as of right now we're still waiting on the best final for our physical therapy services got it okay so two out of the three two out of three okay uh occupational therapy is mrs rodriguez psychology and holding on physical therapy yes okay i'll entertain that question so moved second motion a second any further any discussion dr balloon's the one we had last year yes okay mrs allen yes mr hospital mr hollery yes yes motion is approved as amended thank you uh any information from governing board members let's start down there sir i do there are two things one is i would like to give a pitch to the so you guys know there's something called the sunshine fun which um wendy fanning does she's a middle school math teacher which correct me if i'm wrong it helps it pays for the birthday cakes flowers if somebody's sick or somebody passes so the staff and teachers all contribute all you have to do is put a check or cash in the envelope and put it in a lindy's box and the other is could you introduce us to the new mascot to the therapy dog yes jefferson come here boy so jefferson is a registered service animal let's see have a seat good boy and he's a cavalier king charles he is he's been in school since he was like 12 weeks old he is specially trained to work with kids who are elevated in there like they could be very frustrated or upset and they're very vocal he's trained to go up to them to start with and then go back to a safe distance and let the teachers and coaches help de-escalate the child and say that jefferson will come back to you if you will go ahead and have a seat or you know when you come he knows he can come back to you and he'll be safe and a lot of times the kids are able to self-sued and to calm a lot quicker because he um helps him and he's like the carrot for them to also calm down and um and he wanders around the school and he all the kids have gotten to know him that came to a meet and greet last night and parents and stuff and he was introduced at the of course at the um presentation last night too and so he um he's got lots of experience he does real well he um hasn't gotten hurt that he does shy away from kids who will like pull on his ears so that's a teachable moment helping kids understand how to care for pets and so that's jefferson so he came as a package with you right he did all right try that to our staff as to our staffing numbers that jefferson will be at the board meeting so i'll watch closely as to which adult he chooses to go sit by them and we've already noticed even going up to certain people who we know are maybe not having such a great day or feeling stressed so it's pretty amazing thank you welcome jeffrey okay thanks anything else i guess guess we're set i'll uh retain the motion to adjourn it's removed okay okay opposition thanks all right let's go have breakfast
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oh there's kate okay okay you made it first place good okay welcome pat thank you tony all right okay it is six o'clock so if we can please stand for the pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag good evening everyone and uh lisa can we call roll here here we are present and we will begin so the first item on tonight's agenda is the reopening plan and i will uh introduce our new superintendent for his very first meeting uh dr nolte the floor is yours thank you sir um good evening as this is my first board meeting as superintendent i would like to take the opportunity to thank the school board for blessing me with this honor to serve in this role i've invested 17 years in district 230 much of which at andrew high school and some of which at samburg high school and i'm invested in this community and i'm invested in the students and the families in which send their children to our schools i hope that the d230 community that i've worked with will share that i'm passionate and collaborative and they will know that that i have a deep interest in the success of students parents alumni and staff as well that being said it could be described as unfortunate that my first request of the board is to consent uh to seek consent to a plan that is developed to reopening schools while still experiencing a pandemic that has deeply impacted our students our staff and our families this pandemic and the loss of local control in the previous 18 months has led to isolation learning loss mental stress and a disconnection to school that will deeply impact our students in the short term and possibly for years to come although i applaud the effort of our teachers our administrators our staff our sports staff and our families for their heroic efforts last year in attempting to create although i applaud the efforts of our teachers our administrators support staff and families on their heroic efforts last year in attempting to create the best learning environment for kids it was simply not possible given the circumstances we certainly did our best given those circumstances however our students deserve better last january i embarked on a journey to develop a plan to fully reopen our schools this fall this planning process was transparent collaborative and deeply invested in the research and data regarding the pandemic and its impact on our student our schools students and staff today i wish to highlight that plan so we could share with our staff students and parent community as soon as possible to open our schools fully on august 13th there are three essential goals that we prior prioritize throughout this entire work and developing this plan first and foremost we want 100 of our students to attend classes on site with no hybrid situations extended disruptions or pauses this includes a return to our traditional bell scheduling calendar while offering a full complement of after school programs that are so important to our students and our community next to ensure that all students and staff can safely attend school every day and not have their attendance interrupted by illness quarantine or other reasons data shows that extended student absences lead to learning behavioral and mental stress that is detrimental to student success and to speak plainly losing staff for an extended period of time given our significant staffing shortage of substitute teachers bus drivers support staff and food service employees creates a tenuous situation that if large numbers of staff are unable to work due to personal illness family illness or quarantine it would compromise our ability to maintain open schools and finally we've experienced a year and a half of loss of local control over how we educate our kids superintendents like myself has strongly advocated for local control we need to continue to advocate for the for that control within our governor's office our state board of education and other agencies so that we could determine our best opportunity we could determine how to best deliver academic programming to our kids the plan that you have at your desk is eight pages full of information about how we will accomplish these goals i will not go through it in its entirety but i'm going to highlight the main ideas first i returned to in person a period a day school including full-service lunch served in our cafeterias a return to full in-person regularly scheduled extracurricular programs such as clubs sports and other activities continue on-site efforts for eligible student staff eligible and interested student staff and community members for vaccination against cover 19.
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um okay i do see her i do see men from she is logging back in to ensure quorum um let's try it now trustee chavez can you hear us she she's saying no um i wonder that means she can hear us um dr bauer can you call her to see if we can uh maybe get her audio on the cell phone okay as we're uh i do see your hand up i do see your hand up trust me but i didn't um can you go for it i didn't hear you say anything or um you're nothing yes okay but um he's not able to hear us we're able to see you trust each other i can hear you now with my phone but do you do you here no i don't but i don't know so you're fine if you want to continue that way i'm going to hang up because we're able to hear you now yes okay thank you travis bye bye okay perfect trusty chavez we can hear you now you hear me now yes okay okay i'm on i can't hear you i gotta call dr bauer again you can hear me but i can't hear you you can hear you cannot hear us okay um okay oh we can we can hear you we'll continue uh um as she figures out that we can hear her maybe dr bauer can you keep her maybe on your phone and i'll just meet her here in the meeting yes and just for the record also i think trustee quintero has joined us okay yes yes i'm here welcome vice president quintero uh we're having um audio issues with trustee chavez dr bauer is going to be calling her and having her audio via cell phone um i hear you so dr bauer if you can let her know once you have her on the phone we'll just keep her audio via cell phone and then keep her picture on um and as we figure that out out um i just want to move on uh before we move on to the next item just uh open the meeting um as i do every meeting in honor of you know um with an intention i wanna uh open today in honor of all of our children who completed all their summer programs uh children and parents and community who supported them whether it was drop off or make sure that they logged on or make sure that they had breakfast on time that they had their lunch on time that they logged back on i know it's a community effort but most importantly the children who took the time to either show up and or log on congratulations for completing all your programs and hopefully you're enjoying a little bit of your summer break at this time um so with that uh dr bauer did we get her do we have her on cell phone now yes okay great thank you um and then please let me know um in case she doesn't hear us or if i can't hear her or see her if she raises her hand or wants to say something if you can help us out with that dr bauer thank you okay uh moving on to item 201 uh oh gosh pledge of allegiance thank you uh trustee fam please join me in the pledge of allegiance can you turn up i i'm i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay thank you thank you trusted fam for that gentle reminder all right moving on to item 201 public hearing on proposed amendments to board policy 6158 independent studies program education code section 51747 and 5 ccr section 11701 and um just uh reminding our um community who's present um it is a special board meeting so we don't have the public comment agenda item you know where you address other items today today we are going to be focusing on those items just on the agenda and you will have an opportunity to raise your hand and make public comment when appropriate so with that if i can get a motion slow movement trusty fam i see you and the motion is to open the public hearing it will yes um rogelio do we need to have a motion or do we just open it no you just open it and take it thank you all right so we just opened it and uh we'll see if you can help us with the public comment at this time on this agenda item good evening i'm president we have no speakers at the moment okay i'll give the audience a couple seconds do we know yes uh first uh our only speaker at the moment is miss brenda sandejas mesendejas you have two minutes please submit yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin hi good evening board members um i did see that the state has required all schools to provide the parents the choice to have independent studies i just want to know a little bit more information on this i know that we as parents haven't gotten really much information on scheduling is it full time i know that everything is changing right now with this whole new delta variant and we are required to fully mask my questions for independent study will this be a teacher and will there be logging on zoom or will they just be taking a packet um i'm sure that you guys will be answering all these questions i just want to make sure that if this is offered how the grading skill will be for these students versus the students that are going back to school and we could just um have a little bit more communication on that because a lot of us parents are still we're almost two weeks from going back to school and we really know little to nothing on what's going on with our schools and i would appreciate um i've been asked this a lot what's going on a little bit more clarity i understand that everything's changing so i'm just asking on behalf of a lot of parents that are contacting me just for more clarity on the return of schools and independent study thank you our next speaker is miss jessica libodi miss lavodi you have two minutes please submit yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin hi um i'm i'm making a comment in regards also to independent study as teachers don't know um and that we ask to make sure that we have separate teachers for these independent study students and that we hire specific independent study teachers for each grade level i think if it's per school that puts a lot on the independent teacher to teach all grade levels um and that it's not again put on the teacher to figure out the independent study students as well in regards to also having their in-person class um so when you do put this motion forward to make sure that we negotiate with area on what that looks like and to make sure that there is specific district office positions that teach the independent study students um and then it's one teacher per grade level um not a teacher per school site and uh yeah thank you thank you miss libordi our next speaker is miss adrian bain miss vayne you have two minutes please submit yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin um hello i am a teacher at joseph george middle school and um i'm also concerned as far as the workload that this could put on teachers because it would require two different types of grading both for live students and students on independent study and it also requires time to create those independent study packets that you know you don't want i i take pride in my work and i don't want to have give students who are doing independent study work that isn't going to do anything for them and so that requires me sort of essentially teaching double because i would have to not only grade this independent studies differently and uh but also you know take my time to create these packets um and i i know that this is something that we uh all we have to do it's brought by the state but please consider talking to aria to make sure that this burden doesn't fall on the teachers without some sort of compensation that's all i'm asking is you know i i'm aware if i have to do it but i would like some sort of compensation or something to be negotiated for these uh independent learning opportunities for students who may not feel comfortable coming to school and please just i would hope you would keep that in in consideration thank you very much thank you miss vayne madam president at this time we have no more speakers thank you so much jose and speakers uh so now we just keep it open uh renee i see your hand up i see one hand up there miss sandra rivera i'm sorry we might have missed it sandra rivera there's an additional speaker okay thank you um uh jose can you help us see that and then uh please make sure if you're speaking on this item raise your hand otherwise when we move forward um we'll move forward i know it's kind of hard to do it by zoom and uh sometimes you know we're doing something and then click so i'm glad we were able to catch sandra um jose can you help us with that yes mr rivera you have two minutes please send me yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin thank you so much my name is sandra rivera i'm the area vice president and i'm also a teacher here in the district for the last 16 years in regards to this item we understand as teachers moving forward that we need to make special accommodations and we come before you tonight to make sure that you keep those in the front lines in with those special considerations for us as well instead of hiring one teacher per school site in an elementary school they could have seven different grade levels and so we're asking that we hire specific independent studies teacher for each grade level and make that possibly a district office located um position or a different off district office job so then if that way those two teachers would like to collaborate they can work together and do what is in the best interest for our students we're also asking that as we look at this lowering class size for the independence and for in-person work while we go back to make it so that we give our students the best possible start to this unprecedented times and coming back into teaching as well for the kinders and tks we're asking that you look at that as well and see that maybe there's a possible mou to do with the district and the area to make it so that the teachers doing the give and get have the same time in the classroom but don't have the cross-contamination of the students and so working that into the independent study as well so that the time is the same for the person in person and um independent study so please we're here we're wanting to talk to you please consult area and keep the teachers and students best interests thank you do we have sorry do we have other speakers uh maybe raise their hand um and since do we have any others yes madam president we have two more speakers our next speaker is miss vilsa gonzalez ms gonzalez you have two minutes please unmute yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening members of the board my name is ilsa gonzalez i am a community organizer but i am also a parent of two allenbrook students i know that today we're the board is it's talking over um about policy of independent studies but i do have to agree with teachers and the public speakers that um we're over two weeks of returning two to three weeks to returning to schools and based on a last time hold on i was i heard a lot of parents worry about the amount of students are going to be inside a classroom we're talking around 33 to 35 students we also acknowledge that the district has sent a form asking if we wanted independent studies or we wanted our kids to return to to the campuses but once we filled out that form or parents finish filling out that form it didn't specified if we if that was gonna happen or not so there is a lot of questions on the air about safety about how we're gonna maintain our students and our teachers health as a priority and how we're going to be able to ensure that students with going back to to schools don't feel that this is something that doesn't feel that we could go and be our normal cells we know a lot of our students are not vaccinated and we need to think about our younger ones that cannot receive that vaccine yet so um as a mother and as a community member i will ask for the boards and for the staff to actually start thinking about this and maybe having a community town hall or community meeting before the school classes start so we could make sure to alleviate some of these questions and to also ensure our parents and our staff um that this is gonna be a safe return and our our kids and their education are priority like you guys have always done thank you have a really good evening thank you ms gonzalez our next speaker is miss veronica ms veronica you have two minutes please submit yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin great thank you and i'm also here as the previous reporter and the previous um public commenters were speaking about um not knowing what's happening um and it's really frustrating right it's um especially for those of us that have the whole different jobs or that are now you know returning back to work as well and not knowing how my children i have to accommodate them or what's going to happen or you know like one thing is thinking about how am i going to make ends meet and another one how am i going to have my children being taken care of right when i the school hasn't given me anything um and so i do feel that frustration as a parent and i feel for the teachers not knowing what is happening and we're often saying about how you know we appreciate our teachers and we appreciate them and um over the years we've lost so many good teachers and i mean we saw the data um of how many new teachers are entering which is great we have new teachers but what's happening to our teachers that were there before right they're leaving because we're not providing them with the essentials knowing the information um they're going back to work in two weeks because i believe they go one week before our children and they still have zero information so it's again they also have children and family that they need to care for so i really hope that we take this into consideration and that we get more information and like they said many of the parents this survey was done through parents where many of the parents i learned that don't have parents were right i knew but again i was in the last forum i was in some parents said i don't have parents where how am i supposed to fill it out so please make sure that you get to those parents that don't have that that connection thank you thank you thank you ms veronica madam president at this time we have no more speakers okay thank you so much let's say uh so now we're going to go ahead and close the hearing and go on to item 202.
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students and staff who are not vaccinated will have to comply with quarantine guidelines per the illinois department of public health as they are modified continuously we will continue to communicate those modifications those are for unvaccinated students and staff who are deemed in close contact to confirm to probable cases all students staff will be required to wear masks while riding buses and other school vehicles in accordance with cdc guidelines we will adhere to three foot social distancing as much as possible throughout the day including in classrooms and common areas students and staff will be expected to hear hand washing and hygiene protocols and be accountable for monitoring their own symptoms on a regular basis we have leveraged the binex test and their protocols for on-site diagnostic testing for unvaccinated individuals who are either deemed close contact or become symptomatic the goal of this is aligned with reducing class time missed for students and staff it'll be opt-in only it will not be required if a student is medically unable to attend school parents and guardians can give with their medical doctor excuse me parents and guardians can work with their medical doctor to apply for enrollment in an alternative educational platform and those families will be directed to work with our associate principals at each of our campuses we are implementing a tiered approach to mitigations that fully aligns with the cdc community spread matrix this includes three primary indicators community vaccination rate positivity rate and positive cases per 100 000 over seven days time when we are in situations of low or moderate community spread we will reduce mitigations when situations where community spread is deemed substantial or high we will increase mitigations specific to masking the cdc late on july 27th two days ago released guidelines for schools that individuals should be masked regardless of vaccination status due to the rapid spread of the delta variant therefore we will mask until the cdc relaxes that guidance however when the guidance is amended our protocols will adjust immediately based on community metrics at that time these recommendations are made to achieve the previously stated goals of maintaining 100 fully reopened schools the entire school year without interruption while also ensuring that we maintain a high degree of local control these recommendations are tethered to the current cdc guidelines which in early july became fully aligned with the idph and illinois state board of education guidelines as your superintendent i feel it's important to outline the risks connected if we choose not to implement cdc and or idph guidelines first as you well know public schools have toward immunity which protects them from litigation assuming they follow state and federal guidelines our taxpayers generously support our schools and our programs for the benefit of children but not necessarily to support any unnecessary legal expenses our school board attorney has informed us that not adhering to the quarantine masking or other state and federal guidelines will likely compromise our toward immunity we also run the risk of losing recognition status by the state board of education due to non-compliance school districts throughout the state have already experienced these letters from our state superintendent there are three major concerns that i have if we run that risk of losing a recognition status first our students will be unable to participate in ihsa sports and activities since non-recognized schools are ineligible to participate in those activities those activities have already been impacted far too many far too much for our student athletes and students involved in competitive activities and to do anything to compromise future engagement is something i cannot envision our seniors upon graduation may experience compromised college enrollment opportunities in many post-secondary schools because they only accept students from accredited schools or schools recognized by our state superintendent as an example the university of illinois has these guidelines as many of our students attend that university and finally suspension or revocation of state funding including evidence-based funding and our esr grants which we're currently implementing to support fully returned on campus educational experiences this would dramatically reduce our ability to sustain program for special needs students impact school busing implementation of learning loss and sel programs in response to pandemic and numerous other programs that are vital to our school operations to be fair this plan will not be considered ideal by all individuals within our community i dare say that there is no plan that it could accomplish that goal additionally i realize that you and i have received communication from roughly a dozen parents this past month encouraging us to consider the medical implications of covet on youth as well as individual rights when choosing to vaccinate adolescents i completely respect those perspectives and i properly responded to the request to read and reflect on the information that they've provided however to be frank we are not arguing from the same perspective as the rules and guidelines apply our schools cannot remain fully operational given the potential pitfalls we would face through non-compliance we cannot we cannot excuse me we can no longer disrupt classes cancel football games cancel band concerts eliminate dances and other social events for our students my ask of all parents in our communities that they keep their personal perspectives and convictions but extend a bit of trust that our goals for return to normalcy are the same as theirs and our investment in the plan i've outlined is the way our administration believes we could get we could get our school district there our kids teachers staff and families have spent 18 months in a disruptive stressful and less than ideal environment for learning and growing the ability to maintain a regular school day with all of our students and staff is vital significantly limiting disruptions for individual students and staff in order for them to learn enjoy activities and be with their friends is essential a community must weather storms together collaboratively collaboratively solve problems celebrate our incredible successes and make our mark as a destination school district in the state of illinois that is something that we're used to and that is something i believe that this plan will return us to very shortly i thank you for your attention and is aboard your incredible efforts to make decisions for our students staff and families that are incredibly hard and have added stress to your lives and impacted your families as well at this time if you have any questions regarding our plan from the board please feel free to ask them at this time okay any board members have any comments or questions all right um i will just uh make a couple quick comments uh one um you know up until a couple days ago dr nolton and i have been talking back and forth about the plan uh we're very comfortable and confident with the plan the plan is data based and we were very excited that we would have a plan that we would be able to document exactly why and what we were doing two days ago that all changed and we spoke tuesday night when the cdc changed the guidelines and we went through the steps that we would take to determine where we were going to go next uh including contacting our attorneys contacting our insurance carrier and also dr nothing spoke with superintendents of other districts to find out how this would impact their plans and what changes they may or may not make as he stated and i am in total agreement with him is that while this may not be what many people in this room would consider to be the ideal situation we as a board and we as a district are responsible for everyone in this community so that not only includes the students and the teachers and the parents that are here but also includes all the families who do not have a vested interest in the district regarding students but they do have a vested interest in the district regarding their taxes and again we as a board cannot take the risk of incurring liability for not properly following procedures as a board that would be not within our responsibility and as a result of that we must do what is best for everyone and that is the decisions that we have made we understand that this is a very emotional topic we also understand that there are people on both sides of this topic and you feel that your side is the most important you feel that your side is the right side the unfortunate part of this is that you have your opinion someone else has their opinion and we as the board are right in between whatever decision we make someone will not be happy with our job is to do what is best for the district and not what makes you happy and i understand that you may not like to hear that from me but i'm being honest with you i am telling you what our job is and why we are here this has not been an easy year and a half for any of us on the board this is not as easy a job as you may think it is it's not as easy as answering your email and saying yes you're right that's what we're going to do unfortunately that's not how it works and what we ask is that you be understanding of the situation that we are in you can have your opinion we want to hear your opinion but we also understand and would like you to understand that people have other opinions and they all have to be taken into consideration before we make a decision on what we will or will not do once again this is not where any of us want to be we are not happy about this we had a plan that we felt was going to work but unfortunately there are other people who have made those decisions for us and as dr nolting said our control at least right now has been taken away and so at this point this is the decision that we have made this is what we will do but hopefully in the near future we will be able to go back to the plan that we know will work and that will have data to support the decisions we make anybody else have anything okay then at this time uh we will go to uh our public comments section and first of all michelle welcome it is good to see you any anything that you would like to say you know we're excited that all the kids are gonna be in the room with us so thank you thank you for all the work thank you michelle thanks for being here how about our esps we are too thank you okay at this time we have uh public comments and i have four uh so what i will ask is that i will uh i will state the name of the person only wanting to make the comment if you could please uh come to the front uh you will have five minutes uh to voice your comment and uh and then we will move on to the next person uh also so you are aware we will not respond to the comments uh we will just uh take your comments into consideration uh so at this time the first uh commenter is brian begley i believe and if i mispronounce your name i i will apologize okay uh good evening this day my name is brian huggley my wife and i have one son countered by lee competes going into a sophomore here at stanford high school my daughter our daughter jordan begley is one year away going to 8th grade when it comes to health care guidelines and specifically masks i think we can all agree that we the parents are in the position best to determine for our kids what's in their best interest to do that i ask you to reconsider the reopening plan that's just been presented to you today and bulk mask is optional i'm going to point out a couple things to do that it was pointed out just a moment ago that two days ago the cdc guidelines required masks for everybody that's not true the cdc guidelines the illinois department of public health every agency that relied upon by this district statewide and federal is never required or mandated of any school board that masks be mandated recommended is offered recommended is an option you are not incurring additional liability by recommending masks optional to everybody that attends a school the cdc guidelines that were just pointed to out from two days ago were not peer reviewed it was a study out of india it can't be relied upon there are six reasons that i wanted to point out in support of mass optional the first one i just indicated there are over 325 illinois boards of education statewide that have already offered and recommended mass masks optional if you're concerned about our hotel and where those recommendations are coming from i'll point to two districts that are our neighbors district 218 obama oakland high school shepherd high school richards high school recommendation by board of education masks optional brendan township district 228 tinley park high school oak forest high school brendan masks option the decision is local the decision is yours to make it's not enough to point to the cdc and say we're afraid of liability so we're not going to make a decision that's in the best interest of our students and you are not under a mandate to require masks it's not true what is the demographic we're looking at high school ages 14 to 18.
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wait second reading requirement for board bylaw 931 oh and approve amended board policy 6158 independent study i'll go ahead and mute myself in case mr fam is rushing to hit that enemy button in the meantime okay okay so uh for purposes discussion i'll move to wave second reading a second okay motion by trusty fam and second by vice president quintero uh we'll go ahead and open it up well i'm going to go ahead and read um the specifics and then i'll open it up for public comment and then go from there assembly bill 130 signed by government governor newson into law on july 9 2021 imposes new independent studies options and requirements on public school districts ab-130 requires that the governing board adopts policies implementing the new statutory requirements per board by bylaw 9310 board policies are typically reviewed and adopted through a two reading process board bylaw 9310 also provides however that the board may waive a second reading or may require an additional reading if necessary because of the need to adopt the policy changes immediately in advance of the new school year and to inform parents of the independent study options and requirements right away the board is requested to waive the second reading requirement for bylaw 9310 and to approve amended board policy 6158 as presented so at this time i'm going to go ahead and open it up for public comment and then come to trustee's questions comments or concerns jose can you help us with the public comment and anyone wishing to provide public comment on this item please raise your hand yes madam president at this time we have no public speakers i'll wait a couple seconds in case people change your mind and before we go i do see uh board vice president quintero's hand up do you have a comment or question or concern at this time yeah if we're moving to board uh comments and uh i'd like to ask general counsel some questions regarding the the um oh you know what i'll wait we're on the waving the second reading correct yes waving the second reading and so um all right sorry about that i'll just wait until we get to the actual item okay um and then we'll come back to the public comment jose do we have anybody that raised their hand yes madam president we have one speaker ms brenda sendejas mesendejas you have two minutes please submit yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin hi um good evening board members my name is brenda sindejas a parent of two kids here in illinois school district i did have a question on this i just wanted to ask the board if elem rock school district has ever offered independent study because i don't know what the template that you guys will be using i know this will be brand new or i don't know if you guys have offered this before so my concern is if this is brand new structure how will this be implemented in two weeks i want to make sure that these kids get equitable education even the ones that decide to stay at home i want to ensure that our teachers are now burned out overworked and have to do two grading because of this because maybe as a district we need to prepare ourselves a little bit better this pandemic is now brand new it's been more than a year and now we're going to wave two possibly so there always need to be a plan b and i really hope that alan mark has had a plan b other districts have offered independent studies in the past and um i know they have a template to go by i'm just worried about alarm rock school district i know it's doable i'm not saying it's impossible i'm just i'm being realistic on the time that we have right now on how we're going to ensure that these kids get the education they deserve at home as well thank you miss index uh madam president at this time we have no more speakers thank you and uh just coming back to vice president quintero's question earlier um vice president we are um not only waiving but also um approving the amended board policy for independent studies at this time so if you have any questions to counsel yeah at this point uh if we can go ahead and clarify to the public that this wasn't some sort of a an idea that we conjured up as a board and said let's go ahead and develop independent studies two weeks before we start school um then in fact um this was laid upon us by governor gavin newsom's signature of recent legislation that now requires us to move forward with uh these changes in our policies am i correct in that uh in the way i'm interpreting things happening uh matt through mata president uh general counsel can you answer that general counsel yes good evening board uh that's absolutely correct so that the the language of the uh of the new law ab-130 actually wasn't generally released as part of the trailer bill until i believe july 5th which was on a holiday and the governor signed it on july 9th and there was not a lot of fanfare or distribution of the information so school districts didn't were really and all the educational community was really caught by surprise on this issue in terms of how quickly it went through the legislature and to the governor for signature and even though many school districts including alan rock have had an independent studies program ab130 imposes new requirements on school districts in terms of the structure of the program what is required of the program notification to parents synchronous uh instruction asynchronous instruction live interaction and so i know that the administration has been working very hard in putting together a program that meets all of the requirements of the bill again which was just only very recently passed and released thank you uh i do see min bam's uh hand up trusty pen ah okay where is it uh no trouble with the mute button there uh so based upon uh the advice just provided by general counsel and i uh questioned to uh the superintendent uh just to clarify for the public this is basically a a new and different form of independence study our district i i believe that our district has had an independent study for certain special cases in the past but i wanted to make clear to the community that this this independent study is a different a different animal which is mandate which has been recently mandated by the state so this is you know to make it clear to community that our that our district has had experience with independent study but this is a new version independent study very recently mandated by state law may i answer madame the answer is yes thank you trusty fam the answer is yes this is significantly different so that is why we need to retool we have plenty of every district in california has to provide independent study we are very familiar with that format that's why the by-law needs to be amended because you are we the the state is asking the board to put that kind of on on the side and saying you have to approve this new kind of independent study thank you do we have any other questions comments concerns from the board okay and then just also um clarifying that uh as soon as it was into law and dr bauer you got it although you i'm sure you have great ideas in place um along with the administration who's been working hard part of it was today's meeting special board meeting to get things approved to get things going and so i understand the frustration from the parents you know i hear them i hear your concerns from the teachers i hear them um and unfortunately you know we're all frustrated in this together um less than a month ago none of us knew that we would be talking about this um actually 20 days ago right um it came into law july 9th and here we are july 29th so doing um as best as we can with the timing that we have to make sure that we get the information out to our parents as soon as possible and doing as much as we can without obviously making movements um without board approval as a mother i did get the uh the survey um so thank you i'm also hearing the parent in regards to feedback you know to making it available thank you very much um you know i think very valid points so if we depending on the response that we get you know we make those available um through the schools or however best we can do that um i think that's very valid feedback to make sure that we get um the opportunity give the opportunity to every parent if that's something that they want or need um so with that if i don't see any other questions or comments i'll go ahead and take it to a vote okay see none i'll go ahead and call you on my stream as i see you trusty pam hi trustee chubb thank you trustee chavez hi vice president gupto i and myself i um and ernesto is absent all right moving on to item 203 wave second reading requirement per board bylaw 9310 and approve amended board policy 5123 what board president may ask a question yes please so i'm sorry i might have missed something but i i understood member fam's motion only as to the waiver of the second reading requirement not as to include the approval of the amended policy as presented i just want to make sure we have a clear record because this will be part of the audit uh in the state for apportionment purposes thank you uh trust uh council um maribel can you let us know what you have trusty fam made a motion to approve the item on uh purposes of discussion that's what he said for purposes of discussion [Music] do we need to then go through the entire process again just take the vote have the motion in the second and then take the vote on the approval of the amended policy please okay trustee femme do you want to restate your emotion uh so uh the men the motion to uh waive both the second reading on item 2.02 and uh to approve item 2.02 as as presented secondary concurs okay thank you and so now i'll take the vote on that motion correct counsel okay so justin hi chavez hi vice president quintero hi and myself i'm an ernesto zebson thank you all right we'll go ahead and move on to item 203 uh waves second reading requirement per board bylaw 9310 and approve amended board policy 5123 um as stated on the agenda and as we have okay uh so for purposes of discussion i will move to wave second reading on item 2.03 and to approve item 2.03 as presented one second okay now we'll go ahead and open it up before we do i'll go ahead and read the entire um item so that our audience understands what we're uh what we have here um promotion acceleration retention assembly bill 101 signed by governor newsom into law on july 1st 2021 imposes new options for parents and requirements on public school districts relating relating to retention of students in their last grade level including notifications to parents of their rights and opportunities under the new law heard board by law 9310 board policies are typically renewed and adopted through a two reading process or bylaw 9310 also provides however that the board may wait the second reading or may require an additional reading if necessary because of the need to adopt the policy changes immediately in advance of the new school year and to inform parents of the options they may wish to consider for their students a board is requested to waive a second reading requirement per bylaw 9310 and to approve amended board policy 5123 as presented jose do we have any members of the public wishing to address support on this item before we do i do see dr bauer raising her hand there was there was a type of madam president i think we missed it on this one it should read um ab104 not 101.
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there was an indication that we are following the science well then let's follow the data let's follow the science what are we mandating and if we're mandating masks and other items individually that are to those that are unvaccinated versus those are vaccinated that is shameful you're inadvertently pointing out individual students health care data your mat your vaccine-shaming kids i would request that you do not come into our kitchen table and have a discussion with us over the health care decisions for our families thankfully covet has not been the deadly virus to our kids thank god 19 presents a statistical zero risk of severe alcohol in children statistical zeros the infection fatality ratio for those under the age of 20 is point zero zero one percent in other words we're making these steps to protect ourselves against something that to our kids is a 99.999 chance will be overcome without these remediations if we're trying to remediate something that has a 0.001 percent risk of severe health complication or brutality to our demographic to 14 18 year olds these odds are less than the flu bee stings dog attack sun stroke lightning strike motor vehicle accidents choking if we're going to take these measures sports there's a greater risk for a sphere of injury in sports getting to and from school there's a greater risk for injury these steps are nonsensical last year we contact traced and quarantined by the way the quarantine was without parental consent in court order which is something the board should look at the citation if you liked it is 20 ilcs i would like to know that the data shows as far as the quarantine numbers versus those that were actually copied positive students that were symptomatic and quarantined occurred and you took the student and put that 14 days or whatever the time frame was what was that ratio of students and we could actually trace luckily we know that students are not good transmitters of this of this disease too this pandemic to other students the masses are not effective they don't work i took a a box and i was just looking at the box itself products are not intended for medical use or prevent any disease or illness each mask is intended for single use only discounted immediately after use it says right on the box we're not utilized to prevent any disease or illness who are we trying to protect at this point i'm asking our kids for another 18 months who who are we afraid of every teacher every administrator send it has had the opportunity of answering every student has any opportunities in consultation with their family their doctor the advancement this has become assuring you know we recognize many people during this pandemic and i agree with it we recognize nurses paramedics health care workers firefighters police officers grocery store clerks delivery drivers etc i'd like to add one person one group to that list and that's our kids the students they've made a tremendous sacrifice not for themselves but for many of you and many of the teachers that are here today enough is enough they've completely isolated themselves they put on masks they've stopped all their sports and activities they haven't socialized or seen friends they did that for over a year for over a year you know last year when school started we were hoping my wife and i that maybe there will be an opportunity for the students to get back into class because our number one objective should be to make things normal for them get them back to a normal life don't be pride of that for a year we'll never get that back and last year before school started unfortunately my wife and i had to watch a car parade of teachers organized i presume by the teachers union to not have to return to school there was a sign that said if i can't teach i can't teach if i'm deaf not one mention about our kids not one nobody was able to stand up show the courage and say enough i'm not we need to be there they need to be in class we need to get them back tomorrow we owe them they've sacrificed enough as mayor pico noted in a letter earlier this week as adults we should be protecting them not the other way around i implore you to make the decision even upon the reopening plan that's been suggested to reconsider do what's right do it for the students invite them back to school full-time no masks masks optional mass optional does achieve every objective it does make each aspect of this appropriate sir you've exceeded your five minutes so could you please wrap it up because we have other people that like to speak sure i would just leave it with that you have the opportunity right now to do just that to show a little bit of courage you have a precedent established for you and i would ask you to do so thank you thank you okay our our next uh commenter is vicki and i'm sorry i cannot okay i didn't want to butcher itself okay so once again five minutes please thank you now and a senior and i'm really disheartened from what i've heard in regards to i believe everybody should have a choice and tired of our kids having the opportunity to feel like they can isolate it's gonna be ridiculous all i heard today was that it was the lawyers it was everybody else and the parents don't have to say well everybody has a say these people have to we have to stay local we have to provide the best guidance for our children to be competitive right now they are they are so lost emotionally physically they can't even do freaking men right now okay the fact is we need to be there emotionally for our children we are a community as everybody has stated i want us with all of our parents we need to take back everything for our children we need to fight for these people because they can't fight for themselves and if if our schools just can't even get that right why are you here teaching our children maybe that's why home school is becoming so important right now because people aren't have enough whether it's critical race theory or sexualization any of that this all comes back to teaching our children the right thing and being the right thing being with their kids being kids um just having them play sports i have a girl that plays on volleyball the fact is having a mask last year in playing volleyball it was it was ridiculous and then when i would see her take her mask off and smile with all of her friends that's what it's all about whether you're good in sports whether you're good at bands it doesn't matter they just want socialization and i urge you guys do the right thing i know some of you have your own children you see what it's doing to them at home not social you know socializing you know the fact is we are here to do the right thing for our children people have to remember that and the lawyers have nothing to do with that we cannot be bullied by people saying that we can't do something because we're going to lose our accreditation well maybe it's time we lose our accreditation because our parents and our children are more important and maybe it's time for more parents to get more involved um the fact is i've been very involved in our district it happened to be 118 and i've always said more parents need to get involved stop just talking you need to be here you know i was hoping that there'd be more people here and there are plenty of people here but now it's time that we need to act and i thank you for your time and i hope you change your mind and go vote go back back and that's optional and get back to what we need to do is teach our children thank you okay next is amanda good evening thanks for letting me speak um i have six kids who will be in the district one baby so she's too little but uh three two still in 135 one now at stanford and the two have already graduated the three of them have gone through this pandemic now for three years at sandburg those two have graduated but i have one left who's going to be a junior the end of last year we ended up having to go get an eeg and multiple other tests the amount of migraines that my daughter was coming home with every day and why because she had to wear a mask every day she does not have she has not had a migraine since summer started was it the anxiety of school and the pressure of having to make sure that it was over her nose the whole day before a teacher yelled at her or was it trucking through the hallway that quarter of a mile that i remember doing as a kid i can't even imagine doing it now with the mask and they limit it to five minutes instead of seven i don't have a bunch of statistics this time i did with 135.
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i just want to make sure that the public knows that about the typo we corrected it online but you know sometimes even my paper copy um you know so i just want to make sure that we are clear so that we can go to the process yes thank you i did print this uh a few days ago when we got it so that i can study it so i didn't print the updated one thank you um so yes bill 104 thank you dr bauer for that jose do we have any members of the public wishing to address the board at this time yes madam president we have two speakers first speaker is miss brenda sendejas mesendejas you have two minutes please submit yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin evening board members um i just had a comment about this i know that last year the stress of so many students with their grades uh parents were burned out you know and i honestly don't i didn't think that we should have gave any student a grade because i think that it's not their fault they went through something that no one has ever gone through and i would call them all champions and i wouldn't have ever put a grade next to their name um so on that part you know i just want to say to any student or any parent don't be discouraged by your student's grade whatever happened last year i wouldn't even count it to my own kids so that being said i know this is to retain students for their grades if parents choose to with the written letter but i just want to say that i don't think that it's fair for any student or any teacher to have graded a student with what we were going through mentally a lot of teachers were going through a lot um even our kids anxiety as a parent myself i dealt with it through my son and i can imagine how parents with multiple kids and full-time working how they were handling it so just want to say to every parent any teacher don't be discouraged if your kid was failing or seemed like they were failing because that grade doesn't determine your students capacity and every student learns at a different pace thank you miss our next speaker is miss jessica libody miss livoti you have two minutes please unmute yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin yeah i just have a quick question about this bill um from a teaching perspective um which will probably be cleared up after the discussion um is this stating that a parent can request retention and then we as educators would have a discussion about it or it would be the parents right to allow their child to be retained um i just have a lot of questions about the bill in regards to you know just the class structure and you know three weeks from now um on top of everything else what this bill actually is stating i'm reading through it um and it's it's kind of a little bit vague so i was just wondering what this will look like in the fall if the parents feel like oh he wants to let's give the kid another year in second grade they can do that or no um so yeah i just had a couple questions about that and what that would look like from the teaching side is that our class roster would look uh would be evolut you know changing um anyway that's that's my questions thank you thank you miss lavodi our next speaker is miss dilsa gonzalez ms gonzalez you have two minutes please submit yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin hello good evening once again um i just have kind of like a feedback recommendations for the board and for the staff and i saw in the last sentence where it says um to inform parents um can we do a series of workshops maybe the different schools that we have to let parents and and staff actually know what they this means right either if we choose to retain promote or um accelerate and when we talk about their grades um so we could have a better understanding of the build and and what this means for our students future and i could see that we have teachers and parents wondering a lot about that too and having those same questions um just have feedback recommendations let's start doing these workshops i know that it will help a lot of parents understand a little bit more about their children education and their rights as parents as well thank you have a really good evening thank you ms gonzalez madam president at this time we have uh no more speakers thank you thank you speakers thank you jose um at this time i would like to open it up to the trustees for any questions comments concerns trusty fam yes uh also mine's a two-part so the first part will be to uh through you question to general counsel so the way i'm reading this and mind you i have a graduate degree in education and my job is a guidance counselor at a college so uh to to mr ruiz my understanding is that a parent would be able to initial request their teacher uh the possib retention of their child if they um it if they meet or say if they fail to or i shouldn't say hey but if they do not need adequate progress for their grade level so one part of it was for example uh one of the trip wires was receiving three f's in a um on under academic report card and this would allow a parent to request and initiate that that process if their child receives two apps or you know or the equivalent in the elementary grades am i correct mr ruiz so they could still request it um but and this goes to i believe one of the questions raised by the public speakers is the stat what the statute does not do is it does not give the right to the or yet does not vest a right in the parents to have their child retained to repeat a school grade what it does do is it engages a process of consultation and communication between the staff and the parents or the guardian to determine where some learning loss might have occurred and what would be the in the best interest of the child whether it would be to repeat the grade or whether there were some possible interventions or other additional educational services that could be used to bring to elevate the child up to where they would have been otherwise so i i think the answer to your question is that that's correct it's not it's not mandatory okay and uh through the president question to superintendent bower uh you know in a in a nutshell could you uh could you explain the retention process so that we have a better understanding uh which or that so we can give the community a better understanding of what what retention entails please answer them so it's kind i'm gonna echo what rogelio just said this is about a consultation process this is not an automatic the parent request and we have to grant it and i i those are the kinds of things that we will be informing our public once this becomes board policy we are not able as staff to go out and engage in these conversations of information until this is legally the the law of the district and that's what you're doing tonight and that is why it's so important to have the meeting today so that we are able to immediately begin the process for both of these board policies so um we go back to what is best for the child right and so that is once the parent if the parent chooses to do that because that's that's what the board policy says right a parent under these conditions is able to petition then the teacher in an administrator is going to be involved in the consultation process to assess what is the best thing for the child and at the end the administration the district determines whether or not this is really the best for the child always in consultation with the family always considering teacher input so it's just a more robust and clearly delineated process than we had in the past thank you any other questions or comments from trustees before i asked to clarify anything okay see no hands uh counsel can you just um and uh forgive me for just purposes of repeating to ensure that i'm understanding correctly um if you can you know help me out and make sure that i'm understanding it as is so on july 1st governor newson signed this into law and it imposes new options so imposes means that the state is telling us what to do we're updating our policies to reflect exactly what the state is mandating us and posing us to do um and in this case it's specific to the promotion acceleration retention and they gave us guidelines of how to then do that is that correct that that's correct and and there in addition to the guidelines there are timelines within the statute within which the district has to respond to the parent within which the consultation has to occur and within which the district has to make a final determination these are all new elements and concepts that are being added to your policy and because of the legislation okay thank you so much i know for me i asked dr bauer many many times you know something again that was strung on you know policies there's ones that we know it's been over years we just update them these we had to do very specific updates we had to make sure that they match the state um you know with something again that we've never done before because we've never been after a pandemic and so um again i understand the parents frustrations the teachers know that we're working with what we have taken step by step you know to after this i'm sure dr bauer you know is going to go to sleep thinking of what the next step is after the board approves today um and so yes uh i know we're all working and thank you dr bauer for mentioning that right for the best outcomes for all of our children some of us had a hard time i know my daughter did um you know some of our children were able to you know cruise right through and you know whatever that looks like that we're able to think of all of our children and their specific needs so with that um i'm gonna go ahead and call oh i do see trusted chavez stand up trustee travis you have something to add yeah i want to add something so on the board policy 5123 on the second to the last paragraph it says and i just want the parents to understand this regardless of whether an eligible student is retained after the consultation the student must be offered supplemental interventions and supports outlined in education code 4352 43 25 and this is actually a good thing because if the student needs help this allows for extra help um so it's up to the family the student the the teacher but this is putting things in place to help the students so that's all thank you thank you for pointing that out trustee chavez and yes you know uh there was a time where i was feeling bad as a mom like what am i doing wrong and then i just had to you know re-gather myself and like one of the speakers say it's it's not me it's not the school you know none of us have gone through a pandemic and um you know at least for my daughter she's she loves learning and playing and doing and class so um i know that you know distance learning really affected a lot of our children so yes it's not a reflection of our kids it's not a reflection of our teachers it's not a reflection of parents you know we're all just doing um the best we have you know we we can with what we have and even at work you know some of us adults are having a hard time at home you know it's been a tough now going to be two years soon so thank you all um at this time i'm going to go ahead and call for the vote uh and i'll call your name as i see you on the screen trustee fam aye trustee chavez hi vice president quintero hi and myself i uh andres i'm sorry ernesto is out absent today um thank you very much i am adjourning the meeting at 6 21 pm thank you
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today it's coming from a mama's heart and this is just not necessary we are doing so much harm what are we doing to their lungs we don't know what the long term side effects of many of these things these things are the vaccination the mask wearing for multiple hours a day it was the end of school last year and gretchen texted me mom and i just looked at it like what the heck's going on what is wrong with you that's like the weirdest text and i was running some errands and so i knew she was in eighth period i was like all right she'll be home in a few minutes i'll find out what's going on because it was just kind of like some of those like hey can we go get ice cream tonight mama's you know one of those like i'm gonna schmooze you up no but i got home i said what happened she goes mom i had to go to the bathroom and i didn't want to shut my eyes because i was so dizzy i didn't know what was going to happen do you know the rage that came over me that she was terrified to tell a teacher first of all that she wasn't feeling well because oh heaven forbid you actually have something other than covet going on in your body that she couldn't go down to the nurse and say something was wrong so next time that happens you call 9-1-1 and they can deal with that but guess what now i have an eeg bill and the other doctor bills because of the migraines that she was enduring during school but she hasn't had one since the end for all of summer she hasn't had so i'm just asking like the other parents so far i understand that there are people who really do appreciate the mask and i appreciate that as well because that is making them feel safe and it's making them feel healthier so i'm just asking for masks optional i'm not asking for no masks i'm not asking four masks i am asking for optional because we as parents know our children the best even though you guys have them for all those hours out of the day we know our children the best and that's what i'm asking for tonight thank you and next is rich good evening good evening um just wanted to start out and push back a little bit on the lawyer thing and the insurance thing just because i know there are districts um that aren't doing it i also know there's whole states where masks mandates are banned south carolina texas so i mean there's got to be some alternative if that's what your insurance company is telling me anyways i'll go into my career i'm apparent in the district and we'll have a sophomore and senior attending andrew this year i know the past 18 months have been difficult for just about every segment of our population but as a parent nothing is more difficult than watching your own children suffer and not having anything having the power to do anything about it speaks for the local control that bob pointed out earlier um i've watched my children suffer physically mentally and emotionally my wife and i have done our best to get them the resources and support that they need to deal with these issues like amanda my kids have doctor's bills because and i won't go into the details because that's their personal health information although until recently i thought there was not much that i could do it do about this because we didn't have overcontrol but what real problem my kids are facing is that half their time in high school has revolved around coping now i know that the district 230 staff administrators and board members worked tirelessly last year to provide the best experience possible with the constantly changing mandates tears and phases and i thank you generously for your effort however for the 2021-2022 school year they have to do better they deserve better than that this means giving parents the right to choose whether or not their kids wear a mask when parents decide when if their kids are vaccinated and stop quarantining kids that aren't sick one of the few things that has remained constant during this pandemic is that children have a very low risk of getting seriously ill for spreading coping in fact recent data from the united kingdom shows that unvaccinated people under 18 have less risk getting severely ill from coven than vaccinated people over age 35 let that sink information this is the same reason that kids in the uk gone to school the past four months without masks without being vaccinated you need to stop treating every positive coconut case being equal and acknowledge that the risk of coping increases exponentially with age and comorbidity as i mentioned we don't even have to go as far as europe anymore find places where kids do not have to live like this anymore my 10 and 12 year old nephews in south carolina finish out the last two months of the 2021 school year without having to wear a mask to school and they won't have to do it this year either my college roommate now a doctor in the dallas area will be able to send this 15 to 17 year old daughters to school without a mask i should not have to move to another state in order to have the right to decide what is best for my child's health the only consistent result that we've gotten from the guidance from our public health officials this raised more questions than they answered which continues to stop the fear and anxiety of people and create divisions like you all already mentioned in this atmosphere it's impossible for people to agree on what precautions are necessary and that i agree with you however it's no longer necessary for us to agree as there are vaccines readily available that are continually proclaimed being safe and effective in preventing serious illness from coping and those people that are concerned can take those precautions as parents educators and administrators we constantly ask our children work hard accept challenges be flexible and most importantly respect other people's views and opinions from the staff administration and board of district 230 please stand up for our kids and extend the same courtesy to them i know many of you in this room have served the district for a decade or more and i commend you on your dedication but the students of the scriptures of this district they're only here for three years for four years and three of those years have been tarnished by coving we are now overdue to return to a time where parents make the health decisions for their own children thus i ask you to reconsider and make masks optional thank you for that are all the speakers we have uh once again thank you all for your comments uh we appreciate it we will take those under consideration uh and also thank you all for being respectful we also do appreciate that too okay uh our next uh item on the agenda is to uh enter into executive sessions so at this time i would like to entertain a motion to consider information regarding the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of a specific employee or legal counsel for the public body to discuss student disciplinary cases to discuss matters related to placement of individual students and special education programs and to consider other matters relating to individual students to discuss collective negotiating matters or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees and to discuss pending or probable litigation against affecting or on behalf of the public body so moved second motion made my member hardik seconded by member gracias to enter executive session let us vote yes yes yes yes we will enter executive session at 6 41 pm and return upon completion you so you uh [Music] these all right where's your casino at the boat the casino boat north or south well rapidly you're actually going east but okay okay good 17 at this point actually okay i got it guys that's why you said exactly there you go yeah when you get in a little river and just keep going there for holiday inn uh we're good all right we are returning at 56 p.m and do we have any amendments to the agenda no sir okay then our next item was a motion uh ooh i'm sorry uh old business do we have any old business okay board committee reports we had no meetings so i believe we have no reports right so we will move on now i would entertain a motion to approve our consent agenda i move that school board approve the consent agenda as presented second motion made by member murphy peterson seconded by member hardik to approve the consent agenda any comments or questions all right let us vote member of sullivan he's muted he's awesome yes okay thank you remember murphy peterson yes yes yes yes yes yes the motion passes okay the next item is uh an update on our projects so dave everyone good evening as opposed to us having to store all the materials this the other schools as the alterations work the bandwagons will be coming um resurfacing is they finish the crack repair the glass screen has been put down on both schools and the asphalts are important that's it for carrying time in their paint and they the elevators renovation is completely sandberg passed uh the secretary park had us change a few things this week railings at samford they have all been finished fabricated and painted installation will be complete this week and legion will be back next week so december should be turned over next week back to hamburg the the backboard's at andrew which should be fitted tomorrow uh so those will be ready to go sorry i'll speak up that's right we heard you yeah i'm sorry um sorry the window project uh stags cowboy windows have been completed all the way around sandberg's pool started this week it should be finished this week and their comments will be starting next week they're finishing the punch list there is a few odds and events to finish around the stadium the solar project is complete we had our road inspection with that and we're good to go we're waiting on commed to give us the final go ahead to start our money saving okay i think that's it does anybody have any particular questions for any of the projects so basically everything will be done either close to being a school year just shortly afterwards that may show up late that will be done um great good news all right good good job good job dave thank you all right uh next then is uh the uh motion and personnel action um i moved at the school board approved personnel action including staff co-curriculars administrative staff resignation and retirement licensed staff employment leads of absences and resignation professional support staff leave of absence support staff employment and resignation second motion made by member murphy peterson seconded my member gracias to approve the personnel report let's vote sullivan yes remember murphy peterson yes member of connor yes yes member dalton yes member gracias yes members yes the motion passes all right so the next item on the agenda is our uh goal setting uh which i know you're all anxiously awaiting and thank you all for staying until now so we will uh we're going to reset the room and so as soon as that is set then we will continue so a couple minutes and then we'll be ready to go so thank you all right so how are we gonna how are we doing this are we setting up quads okay you
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okay we'll begin this meeting by starting with a pledge of allegiance of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god and indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right thank you thank you for uh hanging around after this public hearing for our regularly regular board meeting we have a couple of items to be taken care of we were led in the pledge of allegiance by lauren webb first item on the agenda is the consent agenda and board after reviewing that are there any items that you would like to have taken out chuck and vote it on separately yes i'd like to discuss items 2.5 and 2.6 all right uh is there anything anything else if not we have a motion to accept a consent agenda with items 2.1 what uh which is personnel 2.2 2.3 2.4 and the exception of 2.5 and 2.6 to be voted on in independently those are the only items i have a motion have a motion from chuck seger from diana all in favor thank you item 2.5 a recommendation to review and approve contract related services provider navajo county consortium chuck what was your question with that well in reading that contract i personally was con found it very confusing because they refer to superintendent in the contract and yet we have the county superintendent and our own district superintendent and they aren't defining which one they do make reference at the first paragraph they have the superintendent in quotes referring to the county superintendent but then on down in the contract they're also referring to our superintendent signing and so forth uh i found it very confusing i had to keep stopping whenever they refer to superintendent and figure out which superintendent we're talking about it seems like it would make a lot more sense if they would simply add one word before the county before the county superintendent put the word county superintendent and when it's referring to the district superintendent they put district superintendent or those two by name i but to me i found it very confusing it is and it frankly needs to get cleaned up it has the details necessary in my view to move forward but it can be more clear we can provide an initial um and i could put county superintendent and district superintendent right spot and just initially and with boards approval that would enable us to move forward with the consortium that's fine i don't have a problem with the contract did you i just found it more difficult to understand the contract in reading it because of the way it was yeah in some in some respects poorly written well and it's clear i don't know when it was written i didn't look on there to see a long time ago yeah but i'll bet it's probably been in the same contract for 15 or 20 years i don't know but anyway just a thought thank you reminds me of a joke i'm not going to share so can we have then uh a motion to accept item 2.5 with the clarification of which superintendent is being referred to in which paragraph all right motion chuck segment from diana all in favor i'd be unanimous also item 2.6 recommendation to review and approve the uh alex alec yeah the alexander math program will you explain that to us would you like mr webb just give you a brief overview of that mr williams i've never heard it before so somebody wake up lauren would love to do that oh there he is so we used alex last year with it's part of the asu curriculum it's it's not produced by asu so it's an outside curriculum that they supported and provided to us so we got a quote from them to continue that this year their quote was 56 000 to have that six through 12.
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to satisfy the requirements of ars 3843.2 we hereby give the general public the governing board unified the school district number 32 will convene for a public hearing in a regular open meeting this is time for anybody in the audience to provide feedback on the schedule i want to reinforce we're not making any schedule changes to the high school however we do have provisions in the event we were forced back online that we're able to do so and we want to be able to provide credit in the form of minutes instructional minutes to our students that are remote that are learning on a remote basis and so we'll stay with the same tools that we've had the schedule monday through friday k through 12 is not changing but we want to have the flexibility this is the last opportunity to provide feedback along those lines but does the board have any questions for any of the information that's been provided in your backup packet or since our last hearing okay josh are there any other requirements um associated with this do you think i've outlined sufficiently the requirements associated with the instructional minutes for the hearing purposes i believe so for the hearing purposes yes okay from the finance perspective brenda is there anything else that we need to add from a compliance perspective no there's not okay so the instructional model uh mr president is the one that we want to propose for 2122 reflects what we've been doing in the past with the caveat that we want to have flexibility to perform if necessary online only education and we will be using the same tools that we use last year or packets that are assigned to students at home or other types of projects in a room on a remote basis for students to meet to satisfy the instructional minutes associated with this specific grade band if there are no further questions from the board or the audience um we'd be ready to i guess we'll provide this time you can vote on it as a board during the special board meeting that will follow this hearing right any questions comments or anything okay um our board meeting will begin in 15 minutes or quarter tail just a few minutes a few more minutes we better wait until the time we have it scheduled at 2 45 to start the board meeting but we will call this hearing
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and in trying to get this service before we went with asu we knew it was a cheaper quote went through something else so that we were able to get it through mcgraw hill i believe for the nine thousand so twenty seven thousand dollars cheaper and they six through twelve it's it's used with the six seven eight regular math classes and then high school use it for algebra geometry and algebra it's just supplemental helping them you know remember the fats and give that drill and kill component different things that they do in the as added resources to the instruction well is this a a whole new way of teaching algebra and geometry a whole new approach or uh yeah are these just worksheets or they're not worksheets it's what it does is it's an intuitive program and kind of sees where the kids are they do a test ahead of time and then builds on their skills what they need and then lets them progress and move forward as they once they master that content then they move on to the next material so it goes along with the teacher instruction but also is individualized based on where the kids are so it's a competency-based curriculum yeah they're going to be building on their previous knowledge and then give them the new content so you're testing them doing a pre-test basically and establishing where they are and then building from that point on right nice okay any other questions comments or concerns not we have a motion to vote on item 2.6 i have a motion from diana segment from chuck all in favor that's good all right next item on the agenda would be item 3.1 recommendation review and approve the instructional time model which we have had two public hearings on so far dr wright anything you need to add to for anybody that might just have stepped in on this meeting no sir just to reemphasize if someone just has logged on we don't we're not making any changes k through 12 on the start or end times of the school the instructional hours have been outlined by the state we exceed all of those extra instructional hours we're just seeking flexibility in the event we're forced online or we need to have greater flexibility to meet the needs of our students for project-based learning or learning off-site gives us far more flexibility still monday through friday no changes in the in the school day itself so the number of minutes for each grade level stayed the same yes they will reflect about what we did last year they each site will will exceed what the state requires okay well um so that shouldn't change our bus schedule much then no it doesn't change anything with the the practical the function of the school date is not altered at all just provides us additional flexibility does the fact that we're exceeding those levels does that give us some flexibility some uh padded hours if it adds it for inclement weather and times that we if we have to be closed again for covet for that kind of thing we're banking hours or minutes yeah absent of the of a cove closure that would i would imagine the ade would step in and a statewide thing where there's grace given but this provides us frankly more room for our kids that are in cte or navit and it provides flexibility when we want to do something different we but to answer your question directly about the school schedule we build in the inclement weather time yeah and knowing that it could happen but with this approval we could say this is a snow day but you're doing your work online and be given credit for those minutes if we had to yeah okay good makes sense thank you other questions or comments not can we have a motion to vote on item 3.1 recommendation to review and approve the instructional time model for the school year 2021-22 i have a motion second from dyna all in favor that's also unanimous okay the last and final item on the agenda is announcements dr wright do you want to go over any announcements are the only announcement we have in the agenda is that our next board meeting will be august 10th 5 p.m that's our regular scheduled meeting i'm sorry i do have nothing further to add all right nothing further than we need a motion to adjourn emotion from chuck second from diana all in favor we are adjourned thank
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[Music] please we'll call christopher espinoza here cheryl fuller here jenny hagstrom here terry pavisic here joanna vazquez drexler present nancy kupko here thank you we have a quorum let's stand for the pledge pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay good evening um [Music] i just want to remind the board members because of the way that this is set up if you're trying to get my attention or dr feli's attention you may have to you okay we're going to start with student perspectives uh let's start with jade we have a little bit of uh background noise all right can everybody hear me yep awesome okay so in the last couple weeks since the boards met um school activities are starting up again which is very exciting we have band camp drum line color guard having their mini camps here on campus i was in person the other day and it was so nice to see the energy being brought back everybody was smiling excited to be here and it was really great those groups that i just mentioned are practicing because we got word that friday night lights will be happening this year and so we'll be getting home games for football our first one being on august 27th which is very exciting because i think everybody really missed having other people near them during the school year after the pandemic where everybody was very isolated so everybody is working very hard to make sure that all students feel welcomed and safe coming back freshmen and transfer student orientation is scheduled for next monday at 4 30 here at north us teachers and school leaders have been working very hard to make this possible we are all very excited to do this we want to make sure the freshmen and transfer students feel safe and welcome and informed when they're coming back and before then we also have another event called trojanpalooza a very fun name in my opinion on thursday august 5th from six to eight where it's going to be an open house type setup for people to be able to come in if they rsvp they get their schedules they can check it out check out their schedules like how their classes are going to go from day to day and they get to see the new renovations here in the building including our commons which are very nice i had a great first experience which is very exciting and we're going to have the therapy dogs here so i think that's the best reason also the health office will be available to present or collect any physicals or vaccination records and answer any questions and in terms of the next week we also have vaccination clinics being hosted here at north we have one tomorrow and we also have one on thursday wednesday wednesday for the second dose of the last clinic so with that i'll give it to scarlet okay so mine is going to be about two specific events some things happening at south before the start of the new year are orientation events for both the freshmen and sophomores at south tomorrow august 3rd the sophomores who were not able to attend in person at any point last year will be invited into the school and they're just going to gain some exposure to the building maybe feel a little bit more comfortable since they are sort of going to be in the same boat as the freshman and the goal of the event is to help their transition to be a little bit less stressful and the other orientation event that south will be holding is on saturday august 7th it's our mad dash for the incoming freshman at this event the students are going to participate in three small group sessions listen to a keynote speaker and watch some skits that address rumors that you might hear about high schools and incoming freshmen and they're also going to be able to ask questions to the leaders who are our juniors and seniors and just hopefully gain a little bit more exposure and have some more information and it'll help ease any of the worries that they have coming into high school thank you thank you jaden scarlett thank you both okay for tonight's for tonight's reception of visitors we're going to be bringing speakers to the microphone to speak on a first first-come first-served basis therefore we ask that you complete the speaker's slip and submit it to mrs nydak our board secretary the reception of visitors occurs in two stages first the public is invited to comment on anything the board is voting on tonight there is one action item where the administration is seeking approval of the return to in-person instruction planned approval resolution this reception of visitors will occur after the administration presents the plan so that everyone in the audience is aware of the details before commenting comments on this single topic are limited to 20 minutes with no more than three minutes per speaker later in the evening there will be an opportunity to address the board on anything concerning district 99 this reception of visitors may last up to 30 minutes with a limit of 20 minutes per topic and again no more than 3 minutes per speaker failure to comply with these guidelines or interruptions to the business of the board such as shouting or the use of vulgar or threatening language to the board or other visitors as well as removing your mask will for the safety of our students staff community members present and the board results in me closing the reception of visitors portion of the evening and moving into closed session to discuss an employment matter after which no action will be taken by the board i also request that you face the board during your presentation finally i'd like to thank the downers grove police department as well as our own security staff for being here again tonight thank you gentlemen dr dealey thank you dr kupka as mentioned we're going to start with the return to school plan and then we'll take public comment on it before i ask the board to take action on it uh later this evening all right so since we met just a couple of weeks ago we've received quite a deal of quite a bit of updated guidance from the cdc idph isb and dupage county health department some of that guidance continued to come in today with updated faqs from the illinois department of public health idph that was then reinforced in a meeting with the dupage county health department so it wasn't until about four o'clock today that i had the most up-to-date recent guidance after that was all processed and updated we updated the plan and posted it on our website today so it's very possible that people in the audience are at home have not had a chance to see this yet board members were provided a copy of this in advance of tonight as soon as i had it i shared it with them all right so we've received uh quite a bit of updated guidance and really the key to areas that this has come in is in the area of face coverings and masks and in the area of close contacts contact racing quarantine so the mass guidance that was updated today at noon from the illinois department of public health mirrors the guidelines that were provided on july 27th from the center for disease controls which talks about universal masking in indoor settings where there is substantial and high transmission i'll make a note for the board that the idph guidance that came out today was much more direct than this and also didn't provide a pathway for how you get out of universal masking the idph faq that was released today had a question of who should wear masks at school and the response to that question was everyone period that's that's part of the recommendation i'm bringing tonight but we're also going with the you know cdc talks about layered mitigations and idph talks about how these guidelines still have local control as to how we move forward with them where we have options to keep ourselves safe while moving forward and we know that about 50 percent of students in dupage county are fully vaccinated i don't know the exact numbers for our own yet we're still gathering that as we move close to school and about 68 percent i believe have had at least one dose of the vaccine so you know they the cdc talks about these are the general guidelines idph talks about these are the general guidelines but we also have to take into consideration what we see here at school we've run very successful vaccination clinics as jade pointed out thank you you stole my thunder in a couple of slides that we have clinics going on the remainder of this week and so does the dupage county health department so what i'm trying to bring the board is remember we're trying to get as close to normal as possible in our return we still need to fit within the guidance and keep students and staff safe so that's what tonight's presentation recommends so i want to be very clear that we're we're providing a pathway to optional mask wearing optional but recommended tonight that reflects what i believe is the intent of the cdc guidance in a community that is like ours so that's why we'll talk tonight about a pathway to that in times when we are no longer in substantial or high transmission our goal is to get us back to normal as much as possible and we're celebrating the fact that we are getting pretty close especially because in comparison to last year at this time close contacts in quarantine one of the key pieces that you're going to hear tonight is this updated mass guidance plays into close contacts and quarantine if we follow the universal masking guidance then close contacts are set at three feet and the quarantine period for those that are unvaccinated is set at 10 days if they're a close contact if we were to not follow the universal masking guidance close contacts would be set at six feet and we'd be at a mandatory 14 days of quarantine so we as an administration are trying to get as close to normal to balance the safety guidelines and to try to keep kids at school learning as much as possible and the plan that i'm bringing you tonight we believe kind of threads the needle of all of those things so when we talk about universal masking in this guidance it does lean towards schools being just universal mass guidance for now right and that we'll update you later but they talk about in indoor settings that this differentiation can be made that there's kind of a line in the middle with on one side low and moderate and at the other substantial and high and that's based on the number of cases for a hundred thousand people in the past seven days in your county is what the cdc outlines that as i've put on the slide there i know it might be hard to see for the board with the little screen up there but it's also behind you where you could see it is the trend for the last two weeks and right now we're we're sitting at about 78 cases per hundred thousand uh in dupage county which puts us in that substantial range the guidance that we received today or since the 27th on july 27 from the cdc was really talked about when you're in that substantial or high that you move to universal masking so all student staff volunteers must wear a mask when indoors so it's still nice in the fact that when our students are outdoors they're doing activities outside if teachers take class outside masks can come off but when we're inside they must be on and then when the county drops below moderate so below 50 cases per hundred thousand or lower than that then we move back to the plan we talked about at the last meeting before this guidance was released that outlines a pathway to you may you know if you'd like to you can it's recommended that if you're unvaccinated you do but we shift back to the families being able to control that risk more because we're now not seeing transmission rates so high in the county so those are the key changes since the last time we met i'm going to pause there and see are there any questions from the board regarding any of that my question is why we need to use the whole county and why we can't use the five zip code sorry five zip code demographic that we used in the second semester yeah so my default is to go with what the recommendation is from the cdc we're also although we're seeing increased cases right now it's still a lot lower than what we were seeing before in the spring my concern is varying and the county numbers and our five zip code numbers i caught i checked them this morning are very close to one another my concern about going with just the five zip codes is that um you could more greatly get quick swings in the numbers better or worse um so you know my default though is to to go with what the cdc says if the board would like for me to consider this is what we did last year we started with what the cdc said and then in discussions with the board we chose to go to our actual community um but i'm always going to start with what the health guidance is by default sorry one of the things that you mentioned is that part of the concern is with the thousands of students in the buildings that the kids interact with every day sort of with the acknowledgement of the caveat that that kids are doing things outside of the school day where they you know may or may not be wearing masks so it sort of seems like if your concern is the children the kids that are in the district in the building with them they're that's our five zip codes that's not dupage county you know as a whole i would entertain it if that's what the the board would like to to entertain i mean i'm like i said i'm always going to start by default with what what that cdc guidance is but if the board would like to advise me to go in a different direction like we did last spring we can maintain that and monitor it as well the only downside i guess data wise is that the county numbers are very easily accessible to people you can just go to the cdc you can go to ph county health department you can see what the numbers are for the county uh for our five zip codes you're kind of relying on us tracking that data and we've done it in the past i'm happy to continue doing it but then you know the only source of that information then becomes us tracking it and maintaining it but you know happy to do that just like we did last spring i i would just say two things when you one you can get the because i follow the zip codes on the northwestern site i don't know if you've been to that yet now i didn't check it this morning the last time i looked it was last night and they only had the dates they only had the numbers through friday as is typical over a weekend and i know they were at point something 48.6 48.6 so i don't do check it today yeah but they're only through the 29th they're only through the 29th so that's part of the problem is northwest you know we're relying on northwestern they're a little delayed i personally prefer i want to bring up two points i personally prefer the county numbers because i understand the concern might argument has always been that there's no like curtain that falls outside of our zip codes we have people coming in and out all the time whether they're going to work or coming from work or going to sport whatever people are going in and elevating the other thing i just wanted to bring up for the for our two new board members in case you weren't aware of this after the last surge when we were coming down in our numbers at the request of some board members at that time we held meetings we at least held one or two meetings at the drop of a dime to see what mitigation we could peel away and that is an expectation i would agree i think we all agree going forward that we may have to call special board meetings either to ramp up mitigation efforts or to scale back mitigation efforts so that we can be responsive as possible to the needs of our community so i would just throw that out for you guys to be aware of that and i'm going to dovetail on that nancy since you provided me an opening the resolution that i'm recommending that the board passes tonight supports the plan as presented tonight or with any modifications we make at the table and then just as the resolution did last year it authorizes the administration to make changes as needed or to to modify policy as needed based on responding to the pandemic in real time if i'm making a significant change i first need to contact nancy the board is giving her authority to consult with me and then make a change and then at our next meeting which could be an emergency or a you know a more quickly scheduled meeting i would then take ask the board to support that action forward or modify or deny it right and that that's how we worked last year that's what the resolution this year uh kind of sets the terms for how we work forward through the this year i'd suggest that we um that we follow the county numbers just from a practical standpoint it's the easiest thing for you to glob onto right now given the fact that those numbers are pretty much paralleling what we're seeing in our zip code right now if by by chance you know we get forward in this and we discover that there is some sort of discrepancy this is certainly something that we could come back to if if for some reason we feel like hey you know our our zip codes have been pretty low compared to the rest of the colonies i mean that's that's something that we could as a board come back to but i'm i'd want to keep your work to a minimum at this point in terms of what you need to do to keep track of what have you and and uh and and there i don't since this is the cdc guidance on this you know i don't see a strong you know a strong reason right now to differ from that but i'd like to reserve the option to come back to it if we do see some you know a discrepancy that makes sense currently we're at 48.6 and they're at i don't believe it i mean that's that's the difference i'm just going by what i was going by i'll i'll double check the number four double check because the four i mean it may be different but the 48.6 was i think from friday right it was from july 29th the other piece and maybe we're going to talk about this later but the other the other piece of this is you know first and foremost to me is having the kids uh in in class and that we avoid remote at all costs i don't see the the masks as being a huge problem so i'm wondering you know we'd all like to not have the masks but hopefully this this surge passes hopefully by the time we start school things are are even getting better but i don't i don't see having to wear a mask as a as a huge detriment to our student learning um that and until i hear a case otherwise um i don't i don't see the i'm not that caught up in it i guess you know and i'd also rather not have a situation where we're going one week mass next week no mass next week mass then two weeks no masks and it'd be i think for consistency stake in getting people to comply with the the requirements it would make sense that we not bounce back and forth too much and so we may want to take a look at that hard line too that 50 line and say you know i mean we need we need i've hank and i have gone last year we kind of back and forth you got to draw the line somewhere right um i'd like to see consistency as much as we can so this is something i think that we can massage and there can be some nuance to it as we go forward um but that's just to provide the most up-to-date data according to the northwestern website which does take time to update that data what we started to do was pull it off of idph so we could track it in real time and that's what we would do again rather than rely on a third party right but just because it's easy to pull it as of it probably got updated this afternoon so as of 8 two the number of new cases seven day per hundred thousand population in those five zip codes which are six zero five one five six zero five one six zero five one seven six zero five five nine and six zero five six one is seventy four so and then i pulled this this morning from idph for dupage county and it's at 70.
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um pam can you take roll call a thief here [ __ ] president pill nolan eric badar rabe here gorman here please turn your mics on thank you you need a motion a second to approve tonight's agenda second a thief yes falk yes amphi yes no nolan yes rabe yes gorman yes please join us in the pledge of allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states thank you all for coming out this evening i would like to welcome everybody in person and watching the youtube at home um we're going to start with public comments this evening i'm going to call them out in the order that i picked them up so that's the order is going to go in tonight so please keep your comments for three minutes my little handy timer is gonna go off so if it goes off please wrap up quickly so the next person can state their comments also first let's start off with joe westwa hello um yeah i'm just a parent of a student starting uh high school and another week or two and i just would like to um i'm hoping that the kids will be able to return back and not have to wear masks that's it next uh justin rendon justin you may have to step up someone had to use the restroom all right chuck barkham we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the rights of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government laying its foundation on such properties and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness we the people we the parents do not want our kids masked as we move forth into the next school year [Applause] parental choice should be the thing you vote on tonight and you should approve tonight we secure our kids every morning every night every day we feed them we clothe them we make sure they're happy they're healthy we know what's best for our kids your elected officials you represent we the parents freedom is the power to act speak or think as one once without hindrance or restraint and that's exactly what we're doing tonight as we the parents of burlington unmask our kids make it our choice end of report thank [Applause] uh you chuck uh next diana brendan is justin here okay there he is good evening board and parents thank you all for coming here my name is tim metz i'm a local i've been a local i've been here since 1965.
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