001take this out okay i now call the meeting of the national school board on august 24th of 2021 to order and um before we continue [Music] um our district is following the nas mandate issued by the governor and the superintendent of public instruction many members of the audience are unmasked this evening all have been offered the opportunity to be provided with a mask if they do not have one a good majority of the people have refused um to acquire a mask and to wear one we respect everybody's right to have an opinion and we do want to hear from each and every one of you however it poses some degree of risk for our district to continue with an open public meeting in violation of the governor's mandate it is the board's decision as a
002whole not mine alone to decide what to do in the circumstance and so i'd like to open uh the floor to the board members to make a motion or to offer direction um i'll start i would be comfortable with um excusing staff from me to be sent their public employees and they're we're concerned about them as employees i would also be willing to proceed with the meeting i don't think there's a clear indication of the proclamation that we can avoid doing business if we have folks exercising their right to um think about without them following the guidelines so i said i'm my i believe that we should all be wearing masks both legally lawfully depart secretary of health and the instructions we have as a responsible board taking care of our obligations and duties i
003believe i would like to reiterate the offer to everybody to have a mosque and then you may speak that is my decision i will second what martin said if we can't fit the audience um to protect everyone and clean our staff we need our staff to follow through with our presented agenda and if we cannot comply with the state mandate then i would suggest attend successive agenda i believe our district has been trying to do what is right to keep people safe if the governor has issued a mass mandate and our district follows regulations i believe we should follow that for a public meeting if the community members who have arrived who choose not to mask would like to see the meeting we do have a zoom option nobody is being forced to wear a
004mask to watch the meeting they they may also watch it from a zoom they may do the zoom option so it is not it is an option that is available for everyone whether you want to wear a mask or not so i would suggest if people are not comfortable wearing a mask that they exit we can certainly pause the meeting so people can go get on zoom and we can continue with medium i'm in favor of taking a brief recess for people if they wish to leave and do it via zoom if people choose not to leave here to do it you assume then i suggest that we adjourn the meeting and reconvene online because we do need to follow the governor's mandate thank you in either one of those options outside of staying in
005the room whether the board moves to zoom or whether the audience moves to zoom there is an opportunity for public input and i would have to leave the staff to provide the instructions on how to do that but we have a link online i believe where you can make a request to give your public comment online and we will definitely allow that if we go online or if you choose to leave and go online we will hear your public comment we are not trying to cycle public comment we do want to hear what you have to say can i ask one quick question what is the what's the word to do the governor mandates that everybody has to work in short churches this would you choose to leave and go online or if the majority
006of the participants in the room refuse to wear a mask then it will be up to the board to decide whether to adjourn and to assume the meeting online in any and all cases the public will be allowed to participate in public comment so you can do that but 10 times more people are going to show up to the next meeting if that's what you choose julie norton's option what was your stance i'd like to hear everybody here what is my stance what what's your i i reheard where everybody else standing like my opinion is that we need to comply with the governor's mandate at this time do i wish that it was different and that we didn't have to wear them absolutely so i think it's good for children to wear masks to school
007no i do not and at the same time there is a potential public health risk so we have a duty and responsibility to raise those risks and to make decisions according so i think what we're going to do now is we're going to recess for 10 minutes and come back and see what you all have decided and then we will take appropriate action about that just go ahead go ahead we don't need to discuss it we have rights i think it's appropriate to take their recess [Music] recess so we have taken our recess and it appears to me that the culture of the audience has chosen to remain as a matter of fact it looks like mostly those who have left were the folks that were actually complying with the mandates so so we get
008the meeting we have this is not a time for discussion with the board i'm sorry so i would like to entertain a motion from the board on finance action lauren [Music] uh we do also have a policy update about there could be a longer adjournment for a number of the items including citizen comment to have a more orderly and more guiding me hey yeah i don't feel like there's anybody who's you know violating the laws right that's not just the platform there right now right um i think we have some choices here we can stay in the room and conduct the meeting as it is we can adjourn and go each go to our respective offices at home or wherever they may be and conduct a meeting online or some other version of that i've
009heard a suggestion about us leaving then anyway in any case public comment will be allowed and it is the duty of the board to continue to conduct the business of the district and so i just want us to keep that in mind that we have a duty to conduct the business of the district and we also have a day to collect public input when there is such let's turn it up say again that's okay so i am looking for a motion from the board as to which action you would like to take right now in terms of the continuation of this meeting how should we proceed are we making a motion to proceed with the meeting in person excusing staff if they feel like they need to participate via zoom given our foundation of the
010district to protect our employees and our contractors and volunteers have been proceeded in person with the remainder of the meeting is there a second to that motion hearing none is there another motion on the table um to remotely just i think we need a second to for purposes of discussion and then vote it down to fail it and then [Music] if there's no second there's no second correction i second [Laughter] i will second the motion for the purpose of discussion thank you [Music] you know not gonna have a meeting so that okay that's part of the reason why i think it makes sense it looks like the folks who have decided to stay are those you know their citizens um we've told them what the requirements are um we as a district enforce the requirements
011uh but i think i've already been meeting with them in the present so it doesn't just ask delay in my mind [Music] you know i do have a duty and responsibility to continue the business of the board however in my personal life i also have direct care for three individuals who are in their ease and i personally am not comfortable spending a long amount of time in a room full of people who are not masked with unknown vaccination status and that is the personal position that i have in life and for that reason i am not in favor of continuing the business of the board um under these circumstances thank you laura i uh personal reasons as well i have a nine-year-old a fourth grader that is scheduled to start school tomorrow um he's not
012vaccinated and for the same reasons as laura the safety of my family i don't feel safe as well conducted a meeting with a group of advanced people without known vaccination studies as well i agree we need to continue with the agenda of the school board and allow our staff to present us as clients i am not in favor of continuing without complying with the mathematics so i have a six-year-old daughter i have a three-year-old son and i have a one-year-old son and i feel it's unsafe for what you guys are forcing down their throats the teaching you're bringing them the awakening where to meet with our staff with public citizens uh wearing or not wearing masks as they wish that motion has not [Music] i so the motion to continue in that format is failed
013[Music] um so i am looking for another motion as to how to continue this meeting i would like to make a motion that can be in a virtual remote option second for discussion any discussion again i just want to reinforce the we do have an agenda to follow we have for business to conduct and um we welcome system comments in our remote option if that's uh our agenda will continue as presented and for the safety of our community complying with the state mandate i support the motion to go remote would just add that we voted against continuing the meeting the audience here the citizens do have an opportunity to express their points of view online and at later meetings and we will bend over backwards to make sure that opportunity is available they also have
014the opportunity to wear masks in accordance with the mandate under which we are obliged to follow and chose not to and with that background we will then adjourn the meeting you know all right uh [Music] we will reconvene in 30 minutes online okay all right thank you and the nervous will be questioned yes oh [Music] hey laura this is ron um do you know i'm we were from from your half an hour i had about 7 25. is that about right 5-1 5-1 was our our time corey kept the time so 7 21 we should be about ready at this point uh just just so you know we have our public commenters lined up um i'm going to be the one who calls them tonight when you get to that point in the agenda and
015i will let them in to the zoo meeting with their video and their microphone for their three minutes and kim will be doing the timer again uh through her camera so okay so what the conversation that i just had with paul said that we were going to do our essential business and then sign off are we now saying that we're going to do public comment as well i think you have to because just because we told them all there that they would have opportunity to have public comment is it possible that we could shorten the comment period because board has that prerogative to be able to the board has a prerogative of not even allowing comment so we can shorten comment if we have a lot of business to do um you know how many
016people are signed up there was quite a long list we have actually nine officially asking for public comment okay i haven't checked the attendee list to see if all nine are in the room currently but we have up to nine that have signed on and i've been paying attention to the sign ups we haven't gotten any additional uh during the recess time okay well nine is only 27 minutes so i'm fine with that but the board cannot it's my understanding that the board can allot a time frame such as 45 minutes or an hour to take public comment and then you know if the three minute limit fits within that that's great but then we could also say um you know we're going to take public comment for an hour that really allows each person
017for you know two minutes if it's they're more than 30 people yeah that also assumes we start our meetings earlier we're already an hour almost an hour and a half behind so and just a reminder we did keep the live stream going we are currently streaming uh during recess and waiting since if we stopped it we would have had to recreate all those links so we've we've been on black screens until you've joined with the camera just so you know we just had a um comment from somebody who says they can't find the zoom link it's on our board webpage on our board agenda for tonight okay so anybody who's listening should be able to hear that right i mean yep okay so on the board on the wenatcheeschools.org website under board meetings there's an
018agenda and there's a link to sign up ron would you please resend uh board member norton uh a link again thank you okay so it's my understanding that we are um three minutes past the time when we were supposed to reconvene so and is it my understanding also that we have uh emotion on the floor that needs to be resolved no emotion was resolved correct where we can go right into public comment and then i would ask the board to adjust the agenda after uh public comment i can make that request to the police so shall we also continue with the agenda as it is written up until that point as in the consent agenda i assume there are payroll items and so on that need to be approved yes thank you okay and then
019the items that i'm seeing um are the policies from second read from last time the resolution regarding the budget and the waiver are the high priorities that i see on the agenda if there are staff people waiting to present on financial literacy then we certainly can do that but um we would like for them to get themselves ready for school tomorrow okay so you've excused everybody does that does that include the cte four-year plan and the wenatchee valley skills technical skills center plan correct okay so the the important items on the agenda are the consent agenda citizen comments the policies second read and the re resolution regarding the budget and the resolution regarding the waiver of the hundred the minimum 180 days okay perfect all right so is julie with us i don't see her
020yet um let me touch base with her one more time we are past the time so i'm going to say we should it's still the same is that correct say what what what is dropped out of the agenda um we have uh financial literacy special uh presentations which we will not do we have policy updates first read which we will not do and we have the cte and the wenatchee valley technical skills center four-year plans which we will not do tonight they'll be deferred okay so um i'm going to call the meeting again to order i hope julie is on her way to join us um the first uh item on our agenda to this evening is the consent agenda which includes the minutes from the august 10th meeting uh the budget hearing and the
021regular meeting vouchers and payroll personnel report surplus report and contracts is there a motion to approve the consent agenda i move approval of the consent agenda is written thank you i will second the motion okay seconded by maria and uh so now we've gotta get used to doing this again so we'll be doing our roll call since we are online again so um those in favor individually signify by saying i want to call your name martin i michelle hi maria hi and laura is i as well thank you okay moving down to action items in section uh six um we have dispense with item oh no i'm sorry be quiet we're moving straight to citizens comments and then we're going to move to the next item sorry about that so please tell me who the
022first um person is that we have to speak are they already signed in uh ron yep they're in attendance there's julie all right great they're in attendance in the meeting so our first speaker tonight is kyle hart uh those who are listening in the zoo meeting them i will put you over to a spot where you can turn on your camera and turn on your microphone and then you have your three minutes once you get that established so kyle is first so are people in a position where they can see the three-minute clock that is up to their own computer and their monitor and how big their window is to see those things so we would ask that you limit your comments to three minutes and if you cannot see the three-minute clock that kim
023is holding up that you would monitor your own time and so we would welcome kyle uh to begin and kyle declined kyle declined cassandra gillespie let me move her over and she should get the ability to turn on her camera here in a second and cassandra has also declined okay uh debbie hilva is next let me look at the list uh i don't see her in the list uh andrew winter is our next name let me look at the list i don't see an andrew winter eric chase was the next commenter let me ask him okay he is going to be popping in here in a second okay and here he comes and eric you can turn you should be able to turn your camera on and do your public comment virtually there he is
024hear me yep just let me know when i need to start you go you're on my name is eric i live in lower sunny slope area taxpaying citizen of chelan county i'd like to make a comment on policy 5252 while i appreciate the more distilled and detailed work you've done since the last board meeting on this policy and the subsequent policy 2331 i still have concerns my concerns are not regarding the nature of the policy itself or procedures set to ensure checks and balances opposing views in the multi-layered decision matrix is that that all seems well in hand in the new policy read my concern mostly has to do with the discretionary and discernment elements of these policies i'll start by quoting some of the phrases in the policies uh to illustrate uh this number
025one teachers will exercise professional judgment in determining the appropriateness of the issue to the curriculum and the maturity of the students number two in the event of complaints from other staff or community members regarding potential con controversy communication the superintendent or designee will review the matter to determine whether the communication is permissible approval from superintendent designee is subject to review by the superintendent at their discretion and number four if the matter is still unresolved the complaints may file a written appeal to the school board and that board shall make final resolutions agreeing to the issue can you see a pattern forming here in the source of my concerns with all this new policy layers of authority to make decisions hoops to jump through the problem still is not solved just made more complicated you see
026it at the core of the reason this policy is being created it's still a problem of leadership and the decisions you make regarding what is deemed appropriate expression at the end of the day the superintendent and board are making the call on what are facts how they're just distributed what is permissible communication what is controversial and what is not i could go on but you get the point if the discretion is yours the question is also yours what is appropriate is it appropriate to hang gender unicorn posters in our grade schools will we say no what is going to be the appropriate expression when it comes to fulfilling state mandate 5044 diversity equity and inclusion training is hiring a an officer a dei officer at the sum of 96 per year appropriate we say no
027what about state mandate 3935 of comprehensive sex education if it's appropriate if we over sexualize our kids through what is deemed appropriate staff expression i also say no what about expression when it comes to critical race theory intersectionality equality of outcome versus equality of opportunity gender race vaccine and mass mandates i could go on and on i'm sorry but your track record of discerning what is appropriate compared to the cultural norms and expectations of our local community is abysmal members of the board and superintendent gordon you have a community trust problem that no amount of policy will solve you don't trust we don't trust your discernment or discretion period in closing we would i would like to help encourage you to pursue more appropriate careers and volunteer opportunities that fit your leadership abilities and from
028this moment on we're putting you on notice thank you is the next person ready to comment we have up next uh matt van burger so let me grab his name from the list here and bring him in here we go okay here he comes matt van bogart declined to comment so next up rachel petro and she is coming in here give it a second glad i didn't get a ticket rushing home good evening my name is rachel uh petro i am a a parent that lives in wenatchee school district and i was really looking forward to testifying in person this zoom business is kind of crazy so i'm really disappointed that we weren't able to do that tonight um i would like to continue to encourage the board to take a look at your governance
029and how you operate your meetings as far as interaction with the public i understand that of course you can choose to not do public comment you can shorten public comment but i would encourage you to think in addition to having that public comment at the beginning of your meeting to have comments after you know a presentation is made on a policy um and then discussion among the board members and then hear from the public um that is pretty much standard operating procedure in most legislative bodies which you are all elected so i would just like to encourage you to i know you did that a few times last year but i just think it would be a lot more conducive to actual communication um and you understanding and have you know folks having the benefit
030of of the presentation and what the board members think and then to be able to weigh in i think would just be more instructional um as as elected officials getting actual input in your meetings anyway um i'm hopeful uh for a new school year we're looking forward to a new school year so um with that i will pass my time although i did want to say um i do support the redline version of policy um so i just wanted to say that i noticed there were two and one popped up later i definitely would encourage you and to support the redline version thank you thank you who is next please next up jeff ovitt and he is coming in here in a second hello yes can you hear me we can all right do you
031have a camera jeff i i do can you see me i'm not sure no can you i'm not real familiar with with the with the system so as long as you can hear me i guess we'll be fine if that's all right with you okay uh i'm just feeling a little uh disappointed at the way you guys uh handled the situation just today uh i just think that you know you didn't have to push everyone out you could have simply let them talk them themselves and hear them out their local people they're tax supporters and i i just feel like as a taxpaying community person here you know i i want them to be able to have a voice just just like i have one right now and i'm pretty sure there's a lot of
032people that don't get to see or hear what's going on right now because of the way you guys reacted to this please keep the forum open and allow other people's to speak please whether there's mass there or not you need to listen to them please that's all i have to say thank you thank you next and that concludes our commenters that have not declined to make the comment tonight okay thank you all right so now um we will move on to our action items and we have policies uh second read and we have uh policy 5252 and we have two different versions of that policy and then we have the procedure which the board does not approve because that is a staff action um to implement the procedures so laura i think we had somebody
033in the chat that signed up for i just noticed that and we must have missed her so i i totally apologize laura there is one that just let us know she did sign up and i just looked and she did sign up so okay great shayna morgan is her name so let me go grab her okay thank you for noticing that yeah it is it is quite the infrastructure to notice all the uh and bring everybody in so i'm gonna bring in shayna here and she should be popping here in a second apologize shayna but you should be good to go here in a second there she is and you should be able to turn on your camera there we go um sorry for the confusion um my name is shana morgan i'm a recent
034graduate and a community member just like anyone else to start off with i want to thank the board for their diligence in upholding the masking guidelines that are mandated by the state and cdc to keep our students staff and families safe my peers and i went through the past year and a half in school in the middle of covent i know what it's like to follow strict coveted protocols and what it was frustrating but it was manageable i had no problem with it because i kept my families and peers i didn't have a normal graduation or even a normal senior year but honestly i don't regret it or miss it because it was still a monumental and important day and year in my life and i'm glad that the school took the necessary precautions to
035keep us as students safe now as it is quite obvious that everyone is fired up right now people are fighting for representation that they deserve but the main group that is being left out of this discussion is our students i asked the board to find effective ways to listen to our students as that is the area i have the most experience in myself as a recent graduate during the last school year i was an outspoken advocate for student representatives programs our students are at the center of everything in our district and every decision affects them our students need representation in the decision-making process and a student representative program is one of the best ways to do that but while it is a good solution it's not an immediate one and we need something more concrete
036this needs to be addressed now this disconnect cannot continue during this covered season we are in right now at this point our students are being misresent misrepresented and drowned out by louder older more outspoken more pushy voices and our students aren't getting what they need and so i need implore to the board to reach out to our students on a deeper level to find out what they need instead of listening to all of the outspoken voices pretending they know what our students need we need to listen to our students about what they need and care about our students don't feel safe expressing their concerns or needs within our district that is a fact and this needs to change so that we work towards helping our students not by not only listening to them but taking
037care of them thank you thank you sheena okay i don't see any more messages in the chat so i presume that our public comment period is now over for this meeting and uh we are moving back to um action items policy second read policy 5252 which we have two versions of in the packet and paul would you like to summarize the difference i would laura thank you so again board thank you and thank you for the really good conversation at the previous board meeting where we had the first read of the 5252 from that i took the board's feedback um and created um drafted up uh two different versions the biggest difference is in 5252 is where um in the first paragraph um of the red line version uh substantial is removed and then the
038last sentence there there's an additional sentence there that that says this may include action in response to expression made as a private citizen on a matter of public concern when substantial disruption results or is otherwise reasonably uh predicted to result so that's that's and then the other version leaves in substantial and really feeling like this is that place where we're at um is to either keep the the term substantial in the policy or to remove it um it is really where we're at i think we i i think we've worked it into a very comprehensive policy and as laura said no changes to the procedure um the procedure did not the board did not offer any other feedback on the procedure and so the procedure is the same as it was presented in the first
039read laura okay um so i would like to lead off the discussion by saying removing the word substantial in my mind removes some of the subjectivity to it because if something interferes it interferes and we don't have to have an additional discussion about whether or not it is um substantial so that's my input and i'll add um the reason i i continue to advocate for removing substantial from that and i believe this was vetted with our legal counsel as being okay is i was concerned there's a um there's the public free speech right and then there's the employer side of a free speech right and i'm concerned by leaving substantial in there the way it was that we're applying the the public free speech right instead of the employer you have a little bit more
040restricted speech in your employer's premises and so this is meant to be a district internal policy for postings in the school buildings during school not not necessarily meant to regulate conduct outside the school those types of things but it's got that reminder in there which is the blue that is if your public civil rights issues infringe in such a way then it could result in an internal violation but this this to me um the way the version two reads is it it is clear that that we're talking only about internal speech um and not crossing that line into the the public speech except with this cautionary note and because i agreed with with our attorneys there's you know substantial is the standard if it's if it's a public speech right it's not the standard in
041um for employer internal posting standards so i was concerned that there was that discrepancy there there was the ability if i'm looking at this as a third party an ability to interpret paragraphs one and paragraphs two as applying differently inside the building and and so i didn't want um i didn't think that was appropriate so i i prefer uh the version two because i think it it gets to martin's you know meets martin's requests in terms of adding the kind of substantial nature in certain areas but it's also compliant with the the public private dynamic of of speech rights well just for clarity um so the policy with the word substantial that went to our to the district legal council and they said yes and when we talk when we're talking about um legal counsel
042this is somebody that's works specifically with policies correct this is an an area of expertise uh for this individual and both he was very comfortable with both uh policies either having the substantial in or out we had i had a good conversation with him with an out and he was his word was i'm very comfortable with it being out okay and then i guess the other thing um i see that the procedure is also listed here as an action item the board does not approve procedures yeah generally the board never approves procedures but in in times when it is a [Music] bad terminology but when it's a more controversial or bigger policy we do present them to the board uh that has been our practice for at least while i've been here and it's only
043happened a small handful of times i guess for the procedure it's it's less of an approval process and more of a board here's here's our procedure you know what are your thoughts on it kind of thing right rather than a board we need you to approve it but more that you're seeking our input that it sounds reasonable is that correct i think that is that's a great way of putting it uh but that we're we're being very transparent with our process and that our community and our board uh know exactly what we're what were what the board could uh take action on so um you know i guess we've we've seen these two different versions and i know the version that we had for the first read got updated quite a bit right and um
044you know it's i guess it's you know i i'm not a lawyer um julie's a lawyer i get that but i know this was also drafted by folks who do constitutional law and education law um so i'm i'm willing to kind of lean on them as experts um i i just want to be sure that our policy is going to hold water um and i i think if it's if it's one of these gray zone areas um then i think it makes sense for our legal counsel to meet with our board about the policy if if there are fine-tuned differences because we want to be following the legal advice from our council because that is their job they are hired to do that so um i would i would appreciate uh i i appreciate the
045work that they've done on this so far but um if if there is at all a difference between those two i i would think they would have an opinion so um i would like to hear from them um that is my feeling and just so the board knows i spent uh many hours uh with legal counsel going back and forth especially on friday afternoon as we were closing in on trying to a a good policy that works and legal counsel was adamant with me that that he supports both of these uh both of these policies and ensuring that uh 2331 is also an important policy because that's around those controversial issues um because that defines it that was one of the pieces that the board really pushed back on and rightfully so and where uh
046legal counsel felt very comfortable was making sure that we were defining that controversial issues uh with greater specificity and i think that's what we did so seeing the totality but michelle that is absolutely if the board would want uh legal counsel to to attend and you can ask uh him any further questions that is 100 the board's prerogative i think it's important that you know we made the point earlier you did paul that you know school is starting on august 25th and that's tomorrow um you know we we began examining this policy in part because it was due to be examined but also in part because one piece of paper in our district caused a community-wide division um in uh conversation and uh it was not it was destructive to the morale of the school
047employees in that particular school and uh not to mention the broader district and also the community and you know was distracting quite honestly um i respect the right of every individual to have their own opinion and i respect their private right to share those and opinions and act but when it comes to our primary duty which is to educate children we need to have the tool uh tools in place that it takes to um kind of nip those things in the bud this has gone on for way too long and i personally um you know i support the red line version as i said but i could go either way i think most importantly it's important for us to make a decision on this topic tonight so we don't enter into another school year with
048the potential of another uh major disruption like we had in the past school year yeah i if sorry martin just to jump in i'll be quick i i mean if legal counsel has vetted both and said either is fine i don't think it's worth our time and money especially given that school starts tomorrow to have them opine further um you know i can give you my my legal reasons why i think one is better than the other i know i'm not the board's attorney but i bring that lens um and so you know respecting everybody's what they bring to the board would would you know be appreciated um i just i felt like that that second version um reduces any inconsistencies reduces um liability exposure reduces ways to read the policy in a way it
049was not intended to be read and if legal counsel has vetted that i don't think it would be in front of us if they didn't approve so okay i am glad to have uh pending 2331 updated because i think that's an important part of it i also agree with moving forward now um i would end with a closing comment i think whatever we do and my word would be messy it's going to be somewhat imperfect and somewhat burdensome in the interpretation it's not an easy subject and it's complicated i actually prefer the clean version um and i think yes we are in a workplace but we're all also in a place where the free exchange of facts and ideas are supposed to happen and that'll never happen without some people being uncomfortable so i actually
050prefer the highest standard of substantial interference or substantial disruption but that's my preference i think it goes along with being brave which means you recognize your neighbor's viewpoints and students also can benefit from learning that as well and we do have different ages of students and part of the complication is what's appropriate at different ages is going to be difficult and burdensome to manage that we need these policies both of them i think will be an improvement on where we are thank you maria unmute um you know i support martin's comment um i know i say that a lot but uh martin it makes a very valid point um i i also support the clean version and again if this was originally vetted by our district attorney somebody that specializes and there was no concern
051with it initially with the word substantial then i'm gonna go with that initial uh what was initially discussed at last board meeting and was was originally vetted for um for our bio attorney district attorney so um that's where i stand on that as well see my my only concern is i when the policies came back to us i was concerned given their response in the memo that they didn't the attorney didn't understand the purpose of the policy because the the guidance that we got back was entirely related to public speech not not employer speech and so i don't know um i don't know that that was clear when it went out to them because you know we had discussed substantial being removed at the last board meeting and then and then martin requested it being
052added back in and my concern is that makes two different standards now in this same policy and so i think if they're comfortable with removing substantially from the top but keeping in that protection that is is meant to be substantial in um in a uh you know an outward context which was consistent with their memo i think that is a less um a less confusing conflicting potential issue because that was my concern when i saw substantial back in and i and then i read um their standard that they were applying they're applying the public standard and it's different and so i was concerned that maybe they're misinterpreting the policy and that's why i thought the second version clears it up a little bit better but it keeps the intent similar and this is also my
053line of work as as well i do the government agency the free speech so i i know i'm not the again i'm not the board's attorney i get it but this is this is my wheelhouse i think uh it would be helpful if we had a motion on the floor i move for approval um i move for approval of policy 5250 to the clean version i will second that motion maria okay any further discussion okay this will be a roll call vote please say i if you approve or nay if you do not uh martin i maria aye julie nay michelle hi i also nay okay but that motion carries and so we move forward with that next um item on our revised agenda tonight is uh resolution uh number 03-2-1 adoption of the 20-21-22
054budget so board members uh you've heard from jeanette quite often over the past uh couple months and with the previous board meeting where she again made the adjustments that the board was requesting she presented that and then tonight is literally the final action on the uh the entire budget so if there are any other questions um that is here for those uh but i believe we're in a place now that uh the board can take action if they choose okay is there a motion on the floor regarding the adoption of the budget i move that we adopt the budget as presented okay it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion do we happen to have any um early numbers on enrollment um i know tomorrow's the first day and we'll see more numbers trickling
055in but i'm just wondering um what that's looked like this week so again the numbers i think the best numbers are going to be students in seats starting tomorrow and for the next few days because we've had a a number of students families choose to go to wia which made some movement we've had some families make some decisions to home school um over these last five to ten days we've had some shifting and so we've seen some class sizes that have uh in certain schools that are a little smaller than we would anticipate but we honestly need to see students in seats and what we've done for the last couple of years i'm not sure if they did it prior to is literally a daily count starting on thursday where our schools report back to
056my team so we're able to really make those adjustments when need be but for right now to be able to say are we hitting our we're on our projection but our projection is is lower than we want to be um but over the next two days and i'll make sure the board is aware um on friday where we stand in those pieces so i wish i had a better answer for you but honestly the best answer is in a couple of days no that's helpful well thank you to that what is the what's the count date on that so the official count date yeah will be september janette i want to say but i'm going to hand it over to jeanette official account day is not until september 8th actually because um it's the fourth
057school day in september thank you jeanette yeah i'm really grateful that our budget and our board supports um the opportunity for the the internet academy giving families that option um if they are not comfortable with in-person school and i know some students actually perform better under that model so great um chance for those students to thrive and i just think during this pandemic it's super important that we give families options and one of those options i you know i know this is uh the budget piece is our uh valley academy of learning it is a great parent partnership program if parents are really thinking about that homeschooling option this is an option i would highly encourage people to to look at because they greg loverkamp and his team do an amazing job out there so
058we have a wide variety to laura's point we have a wide variety of options for our students to to be schooled within our school district thank you any other discussion on the budget this is a rule called vault signify by saying i if you approve me if you do not michelle hi julie hi maria hi martin hi and laura is our eye as well that motion carries thank you uh the next uh action item on the board is uh resolution number 04-2-1 this is the 180-day school uh day waiver which changes the number of school days from 180 to 176 and the purpose of the reduction is to allow for a full day parent-teacher conferences and that's been successful in the past so doing this again anything else you want to say about that paul
059uh for this one no that was beautifully said it's a three-year [Music] request and that we are required to ask for the waiver because otherwise by law we are required to have the 180 days yes thank you and i want to make sure that we are hitting the number of hours that are required for our students to attend school so we will hit uh the ospi uh guidance of the number of total hours each student must be in school so that is not that is not an impact to our students educational opportunities within our schools it is literally an opportunity to make sure that our parents have an opportunity and guardians and family members have an opportunity with their teachers um we we put three in the fall and very purposefully especially this year is
060making those connections with our students with all the testing that we're assessment we're going to be giving our students and really making sure that those um conference days in october are super meaningful that's why we have three in the fall and we have one in the springtime um so quick question this waiver then doesn't help us with trying to do the launch to learn things like we did last year um it doesn't enable us to use any additional days or anything it does not we we still do not have that flexibility that ospi gave us um on what they considered a student attendance that was their that was the biggest waiver was the the language around what constituted a student's attendance day and a student's attendance day could be you know that contact with a
061teacher this is the those rules are not in place which allowed us for that amazing launch to learn uh that so many parents uh including parents on this board it's hard to be really honest and so even and then our even if those days didn't count contracts and other things then prevent us from being able to do that outside the required curriculum correct because it was such a intensive one-on-one aspect with our kids and our families um it took literally for our elementary schools to be able to pull it off five entire days and some of those you know drifted into the afternoon late afternoon hours for us to be able to achieve that outcome again with the flexibility ospi granted us a year ago it was it was pretty amazing but we do not
062have that same flexibility to be able to pull that same thing off okay so is there a motion on the floor to approve uh resolution 0 4 21 i don't believe there is could i have a motion please so moved i'm not going to repeat it sorry it's not in front of me i'll second okay it's been moved and just and seconded is there any further discussion signify by saying i if you approve me if you do not julie hi maria hi martin michelle hi and laura is i and that motion passes thank you okay so the only other two things that we have on our um agenda tonight is uh board communication and then our superintendents report um so in regards to the items that we weren't able to address tonight i guess we
063will simply forward those to the next meeting is there a need to have a special meeting to cover any of those items or is the next meeting soon enough uh from my perspective the next meeting is soon enough to be able to do that which is i believe september 14th uh laura so we will bring back [Music] uh our director of cte and the the director of uh the skills uh the technical skills center um along with eric as we discuss um our graduation policy because that was also here tonight so we'll bring all those individuals back okay and i guess between now and that next meeting um you know we need to think about how things went tonight and what if anything we're going to do differently for meetings you know going forward as
064was stated multiple times in the meeting today public comment is always welcome and appreciated um we cannot conduct the business of the board in a disorderly fashion when folks are calling out um from the audience and i realize that it's emotional and it's tempting and people are only standing up for what they think is right and i can appreciate and respect that [Music] but it's our job to maintain an environment where we can conduct the business of the board at the same time honoring those who wish to comment so thank you for those who continued on and commented with us this evening um written comments are always accepted via our email addresses which are on the district website and um yeah that's what i have to say for now on a topic i have some
065are we on the board communication is that yeah okay so um i just wanted to share with you guys that i attended six of the um meet your teacher nights or uh new sixth grade orientation at a couple of middle schools and a few of the elementary schools and it was fabulous to see our families and our kids back in the buildings and our staff welcoming them uh seeing counselors our paras teachers administrators um nurses it was fabulous and so uh you know ever i think everybody was excited the kids were just as excited as the teachers and the parents so um you know i got a chance to talk to a lot of parents and as well as staff and i think the um the feeling was mutual just to see kids back in
066the building getting back to a new normal and thank you for to our staff for making sure that um you know today at foothills they were talking about you know the launch process lunch process which is going to look a little bit different than what they were used to um same with the gym and the technology having the one-on-one devices so um yeah good job kudos to everybody out of the buildings it was great and kudos to our families for being engaged in your children's education and partaking in in those events so thank you yeah i just want to comment um having kids in the district it's it's so good to have all our kids back full time and um you know it it's great to go to an open house and see everybody kind
067of wearing their mask wearing them properly and making sure that we're keeping all our kids safe and yeah it's i i know it feels like a long time for all of us not just um the staff and the board and the students but the community too and i want you to think back a year ago right we we thought we were going to be in person and then our rates started going up and then um we had we weren't given permission to open um it's um it's still a little scary out there in our community in terms of our rates but i'm really thankful that we have our mitigation strategies and that people know how to mask and i look forward to continued success in our buildings hoping that we don't have you know quarantine
068issues and such because we're doing the proper mitigation so um we're further than we were last year at this time in terms of having everybody back in the building so um it's been a long road but i want us to recognize that we are not at the same place we were a year ago so and i was going to say a couple of things talk about a couple of things today but i'm actually going to roll most of them forward to a calm a day but what i do want to say is that there's a lot that we see that is good solid progress earned with hard work over a long period of time and we need to applaud and recognize that work that's done by staff and achieved by students and with support from
069partners in the community just as a general comment uh but let's say i'll save my spiel for later except paul you have two employees who are state employees of the year do you want to are you going to include that in your superintendent's report i am but i'm actually next uh board meeting we're going to take a special we're going to invite some special guests okay save it till then so i'm going to save it to them but we we have already lined some special guests up for our board in our community to be able to celebrate some state and really amazing uh award winners across our region so we're excited to be welcoming them um next week to us so thank you for that that was a great one that was a good toss
070over martin you work in tv like saying nothing so i know this meeting's been a little strange so i don't know the appropriate place for any of it but um the the questions i'm still getting from folks i'm very excited to start school tomorrow this is literally a school night so i'm yay for that and i you know appreciate all the work the teachers have been doing to get everyone you know familiar with the new systems now i've been to a lot of these you know uh meet the meet the crew uh events so um but the the question that i'm still getting a lot of is is maybe you know i don't want to add now too much to the next meeting but can we get a real detailed rundown of what is our
071recovery plan looking like you kind of explained it last meeting i got that um but it was in reference to things we talked about in march and i don't you know now that we're we're getting back in the building i want to know sort of if if kids are needing extra resources what does that look like um who's responsible for doing that how do we how how is that working because i don't think it's been entirely clear and that's seems to be the comment that i hear a lot of um so just kind of would appreciate that for if not for me for you know others we can add that to the the next uh agenda uh medium but i i would reiterate that um we we we have a very solid plan and we'd
072be happy to share that um with the board again uh on the 14th yeah just you know like i said the meat and potatoes even details that say hey we talked about this it's kind of the recap because i i'm just not sure i know what it is i appreciate that the other the other you know not to be uh you know hot button topics but i know a lot of the local local boards and things um are trying to um it's a do polite correspondence to the governor about the vaccine mandates um and i'm limiting just this topic to the vaccine mandate um so i'm curious if there's any interest on this board and i don't know what if we've heard from many staff that they would leave but i'm really concerned that a
073mandate um and this is not meant to be a vax anti-vaxx issue or anything but i think you you catch more flies with honey than with you know something else you know poison so um if there wouldn't be an interest in our board kind of joining this effort in corresponding with the governor saying let's not mandate but maybe you know our own level we could incentivize but i'm worried about we're just getting rolling and and what happens if if folks decide to decline are we now in a bad staffing place and we've seen the outcry in the medical community i haven't seen it as much here but i know um i would hate to have that disruption and so you know our local jurisdictions have have put together some pretty polite correspondence that i think
074would help say hey can we make the you know make this optional or not have it mandated so that um you know there's a whole a whole litany of reasons i could also get into why i think it it sort of games the system for those who elect not to get it and then come back and get it and you know not getting into that but um just i would personally like to do something like that because i worry that if we have a hard stop date that we end up with employees that may decide to walk off and then we're in a world of hurt with students and disruptions and and whatnot so i just kind of wanted to get a sense sorry i didn't know where where in the agenda to put that
075well i read uh an article that um when anti-world ran with both our superintendent and east mont superintendent on um how how that's being addressed in both the districts it sounds like both of the superintendents um and and i don't want to speak for you paul you can you could i'll let you summarize what you said but it seemed that you know our district really wants to understand um you know if there are limitations for folks who are getting vaccines whether it's you know a religious exemption or something else so um that we're going to be working with our staff so i i'm just going to keep it brief at that but paul maybe you can say more about that um that you know even though there's a state mandate it it it really felt
076like from the article that both districts are really going to be doing their best to meet people where they are to to understand that realizing that obviously we still want to keep kids safe so it's a balance i guess right that's my input it is a balance it's it's exactly what i i said to the world reporter we have to work with our staff making sure that they have all the available options we were just given the religious exemption within the last 24 hours trying to get that out and then making sure that we're following through with on the medical side of things as well making sure that our staff know those two approaches and recognizing where people are at so our approach is to work with our staff the reality is currently there is
077a hard deadline and that is coming up in the coming weeks to make sure you're fully vaccinated if you're not doing the johnson and johnson if you're doing a moderna or pfizer i don't have the exact date in my head but to have them you basically need six weeks out from october 18th to have everything done by but i know [Music] kelly lopez our executive director of human resources and others within the human resources department are in communication on a regular basis with our staff and they they i i know a few people have reached out with some concerns and kelly is working with those individuals on those concerns but i think it will be even more uh informative once we have both of the exemptions out to our staff i think i'll have a
078better sense of where we stand as an organization um in the in the coming days because that was just put out literally in the last 24 hours to our staff i agree um you know what what julie's julie sentiment about you know getting farther with honey than you know with the hammer or whatever the antithesis of honey is um and i also read the newspaper where it sounded to me like our superintendents are you know attempting to work um with people to get through the process um i do have a hard time thinking never in in all my years in the school board have i ever ever known of an instance where there was a hard mind drawn as this hard line has been drawn and is this the thing that it's really necessary to
079have that strong hammer on and then the answer to that question but i agree with the sentiment i think it's very important to recognize that there will be a medical exemption there will be a religious exemption that is a complicated issue that needs to be dealt with with tact and gentleness but fundamentally i think being a good neighbor means that unless you've got a medical or a religious exemption vaccination is how you protect your schools and your community and i think it is reasonable to require that for the safety of all going about it in an intelligent way is important but i would not be in favor of asking that to be removed okay uh paul do you have some other things for us under your report uh just the excitement of bringing our students
080back and i know it's kind of gotten in today's events but we're here for kids and doing right by our kids and i'm excited about our 1200 employees who are working day and night to make sure tomorrow and the rest of the year that we say fully open this is a team game we are all in this thing together and we want to make sure that we open fully to tomorrow and we're fully open by the time our last day in june arrives that is my number one driving force it is creating the safe environment for each of our students each of our staff members in our community i think that is that that's the weight that sits on my shoulders and the board's shoulders is creating this safe environment for our people we are
081one of the largest second to third largest employer in the entire valley it is incumbent upon us that we work together as a team to do this right as a team and right now it doesn't feel like there's team wenatchee right now it feels like we we have a real division and that saddens me it does because it's about that kindergarten who's going to go in through 404 you know this next week we have a little bit of testing for our kinders but when they walk in their first day with their full class with whatever excitement they have that's what i'm excited about for i'm excited for that senior in high school to start something that quite honestly the last few years the other students have not had that same kind of opportunity i'm excited
082for that um excited for our staff and i know there's some some still fear uh and i just want people to know we our plan is a solid plan our plan when we're fully following it this plan will work but it's a plan that's about teamwork that's what this is that we we got each other's back we're there for each other um and that was the community that i knew when i got here when i was fully embraced um two years a little over two years ago that we're a community we're about our kids and tomorrow starts at and that's what i'm excited about is getting back to our students getting back to our educators getting back to our all of our class our incredible classified staff members who are welcoming our students across this
083district so i'm excited for tomorrow i'm ready as michelle somewhat put ready to turn the page and move forward um with our acceleration plan that i've spoken about last week and we spoke about it in march and then again i'll speak about it on september 14th um a comprehensive thoughtful plan from safety and mitigation to how we're supporting students academically to creating a thriving environment for each of our kids that they feel safe they feel seen they feel heard and they can show up as their authentic self that's that's why we do what the board does and why uh why superintendents and others do what we do so i'm excited about that so i'll hop off my uh soapbox here and uh hand it back over to you laura okay well we have no further
084business i will um adjourn the meeting and um plan to see everybody back i apologize laura can i jump in does the board we we do have uh an executive session that i i i need right so if we could do you still have that in front of you laura and i can find it i think uh hold on just be a closed session we have both maybe not correct we have both okay um i have a script here executive session script here we go how long do we anticipate minutes total okay the board will now recess into executive session for a period of 60 minutes to evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for public employment or to review the performance of a staff member pursuant to district policy number 1410 and rcw 42.30.110 this
085discussion is closed to the public the school board is not expected to take final action do you also need me to read uh the statement regarding the closed session no we're good okay so ron will ron will you support us as we yeah once once you adjourn this meeting stay in it i will stop the streams stop the recording and we will have just the board in the meeting and when i confirm that is the case you can move forward after that so board how about we try to come back at 8 35 give ourselves a five minute moment and then we'll come back okay thank you you