LCSD1 School Board of Trustees Meeting - August 15, 2022

001it's six o'clock on august 15 to 2022. i call this business meeting of the laramie county school district number one board of trustees to order would you all please stand for the pledge of allegiance of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice thank you welcome everyone um dr christopher are there any uh adjustments to the agenda madam chair there are no adjustments to the agenda this evening and chair i move to adopt the agenda second all in favor say aye aye aye opposed no the agenda is adopted i'm moving on to b recognition of staff and students for outstanding achievements right now my first one i'd like to call do we have andy or um i agree with adam come on up mr green

002would you come let thank you recognize our wyoming governor's rise award i have a certificate here and i will let you introduce our our recipient oh yeah you have to turn that around thank you apologize so just take it off the take it off the stand thank you mr greenwood yep you got this yeah good evening um madam chair members of the board dr cresto i'm really excited to get up here and introduce stephanie ashworth uh stephanie received the governor's rise award for 20 2022. the governor's rise award is an acronym acronym stands for recognizing inspirational school employees and only two classified people in each state are awarded this award so it's a big big award for transportation and stephanie sorry i had to write notes i didn't know i was doing this until about

00310 minutes ago candidates are selected by a single nomination form our district a transportation leadership team nominated stephanie for this award and it's based on expectation services and provides the fellow sorry to classified employees that provide a great service to their fellow team members parents students and the community stephanie has many great attributes and i'd like to be up here all night if i could i could do that but it's gonna be a long board meeting to talk about all of our attributes um i think anyone in attendance has ever dealt with stephanie i've talked to stephanie and realizes this um this is a great honor for transportation and stephanie and we're blessed to have stephanie as part of our team and so stephanie if you can come up stephanie's a very humble person um

004it's gonna be hard to get her up here but i think i could coax her up here to say a few words there you are stephanie so this is your award from the governor um i want to thank everyone especially the supervisors um there isn't anything any of us would do for our students and so receiving this solely for me is an honor but it's also for everybody that has contributed to this our whole department would never say no and i know we worked with nutrition services during cobid and a lot of facility members and so without them we kind of served all the meals that we served during cobit and i know that's part of this award that i've done so i'm very proud to be part of the transportation department here with the

005district so thank you i know congratulations beautiful thank you thank you thank you for watching congratulations thank you that's the challenge very nice very good congratulations well done thank you mr greenwood we appreciate your department and all that each one of you do for our district and our kids um next up we have uh we have the honor to call up shine we're recognizing the cheyenne frontier days challenge rodeo um and uh the individuals that are um instrumental in putting that on so i'm gonna ask mr fraley our assistant superintendent of instruction to come up here and i have the certificates here if you'd like to call everyone up and give them their their certificate and i just i hope some one of them will at least talk a little bit about the history of

006the challenge rodeo and i would appreciate that thank you thank you madam chair members of the board dr crespo thank you for this opportunity i get to chance to recognize some of our great employees in the school district for a worthy cause cheyenne frontier days helps partner with laramie county school district number one every year to put on our challenge rodeo it lasts for two days um two separate days it's a wonderful partnership between us and cfd during chinatown frontier days it seeks community input and and puts on a rodeo for students with special needs what happens during the challenge rodeo is what they do is they start off with an interactive rodeo where all the contestants get to ride and they get to ride real live horses and pretend horses and pretend bowls they

007get to rope uh pretend or dummy roping steers um and uh they get at the end they get awarded belt buckles and uh they get awarded a well they get to wear a cowboy hat and a cowgirl hat and t-shirts for the event they get to take pictures with distinguished members of our great state like the governor and first lady miss frontier lady in waiting even dr crespo and many other dignitaries throughout our community that come out and support it and so it was just a wonderful event of two days that we had this year filled with many smiles many great memories and i just want to recognize a few people in our district that make this um great coordinated effort and put this together um so if janet maxwell and tammy schlegel and i'm

008hoping will is back from state fair in douglas but if he's not we'll recognize him when he gets back and then terry kirby if you could please come up i'd like to recognize janet first of all and tammy schlegel so janet maxwell and tammy schlegel please give these ladies a round i think tammy and i are i say we're great a great team so hopefully she agrees but um we have the opportunity this year to carry on and um with the help of terry kirby and will luna we were able to continue in the support from the district as well and we had some board members and we had over 44 volunteers from our staff in our district that were out there i'll let tammy share about the numbers of the students but just really

009being able to experience and live out some of their dreams of riding horses and being around animals and being around other contestants and so we're just so grateful to our district and to our board and to all of the community members who helped make this possible we had 54 students who were registered and participated i think we had over 45 students so it was a privilege and an honor to be there and have the support of our district to do this and i guess the one thing i really didn't mention is they also get to go on the carnival rides so i feel like there are so many times that i ask teens and learners to be brave and i'm a horse girl so riding a horse of course you want to ride a horse

010um and so tammy and i got to to go with some contestants that didn't have people to ride carnival rides with them and so i had a contestant helping me break your day jobs with the district is you just just know you know where you fit in yes we're with the microphone okay yes so thank you very much thank you mr fraley i'm well done ladies good job and thank you to all the district volunteers um that helped to put that on every year um it it has a long history of lcs d1 and it's a very very special event um all right uh going on to our at this point in time we will go into it's a little unusual um but we will go into um executive session at this time um prior

011to our adjournment um so for the po whoops actually i'll let mr sorry i'll just do your job i'll give this to our clerk to read this for us and we'll go into executive session i just wanted to let everybody know to take a breath and take a little bit of time and relax and and we will reconvene shortly so thank you madam chair i moved to go into executive session at this time prior to adjournment for the possible for the purpose of possible student long-term suspension expulsion potential litigation and personnel second all in favor say aye aye opposed no thank you motion passes we're in executive sessions chairman can you give an estimate of the time i don't know but there's no answer no idea okay thank you i declare us back into our

012regular meeting thank you all very much give everybody a minute to get their pieces together here very good trustee wiederson we have a new business resolution for potential legal action like to read the resolution yes thank you whereas the wyoming supreme court has ruled the right to a quality education is a fundamental right under the wyoming state constitution and whereas the wyoming state constitution guarantees the children of wyoming an equal opportunity to a quality education regardless of where a student attends school and whereas supporting an opportunity for a complete proper quality education is the legislature's paramount priority and whereas competing priorities not of constitutional magnitude are secondary and whereas the legislature may not yield to these secondary competing priorities until constitutionally sufficient sufficient provision is made for elementary and secondary education and whereas because education

013is one of the state's most important functions lack of financial resources is not an acceptable reason for failure to provide a constitutionally sound education system and whereas the legislature has failed to adequately address historic inflation rates and has further reduced education funding to a level below that which is con which consultants have determined is necessary to fund a proper education and whereas the legislature's choice to not fully fund k-12 education has severely compromised laramie county school district number one's ability to provide their required level of education and whereas safe and efficient physical facilities with which to carry on the process of education are a necessary element of the total educational process and state funding must be readily available for those needs and whereas the legislature bears the burden of funding and providing constitutionally adequate facilities

014to school districts that provide an equal opportunity for a quality education and whereas safe and efficient facilities that are educationally suitable for student learning has been a long-standing need in laramie county school district number one and whereas wyming educational system and the physical facilities with which to carry on the process of education are not currently being funded according to constitutional mandates and governing law resulting in harm to this district whereas this board has diligently exhausted all potential means to resolve this conflict without pursuing legal action and whereas these efforts to work with the state to resolve this conflict has been unsuccessful up to this point be it resolved that the board by a majority agrees to consider authorizing legal action against the state of wyoming to ensure education funding for both operations and capital construction

015complies with the wyoming state constitution and applicable governing law um is that motion to second or that's okay i'll second that motion second that motion all right there's been a second um discussion no discussion no discussion executive session thank you um all in favor say aye aye opposed no no okay please make the record note that i voted i thank you motion passes moving on to d two um actually we're moving on to d1 so um information and reports items from visitors um we do have two individuals signed up at this time for non or for agenda items i would like to remind everyone that um the books or discussion about books is a non-agenda item so please keep your comments targeted to the agenda anything on the agenda at this time please state your

016first and last name keep your comments two to three minutes so others have time to voice their comments keep your comments general in nature not directed at a specific individual or individuals and suitable in language and content for k-12 grade students please do not use explicit language i did please add additional information or perspective and try not to be redundant while the board sincerely values public comment if at any time the meeting is willfully disrupted and cannot continue in an orderly manner and if the business of the district of the board has not been completed the meeting will be recessed and reconvened at another location in time please remember to make a comment at a board meeting you must sign up with the district office darlene davis the day at the week as soon as

017the agenda is posted you may sign up please call 307 771-2121 to be placed on the comment list to discuss agenda on agenda or non-agenda items you may not sign up for other individuals or you may only sign up for yourself and there are no substitutes if you forfeit your um your sign in you are also have the opportunity to speak on zoom and i'm not sure um if we have anyone uh attending via zoom today or not but i will we'll find out when we go through this list our first speaker is mr ted hanlon you may come and address the board please thank you for recognizing me it's really nice to see that i have three minutes because two minutes might not be long enough for me to tell you everything i like

018about sources of strength for youth uh first i like that it was funded with grant money i've applied for grants before and i know the folks behind the scenes who did the hard work to get the grant deserve some recognition second i like that this program is focused on prevention of suicide bullying and substance abuse most people in the community would say those are the three of the biggest issues that we need to resolve third i like that it's an evidence-based approach community leaders in suicide prevention like jeremy bay of grace for two brothers are strong supporters of the program people have been asking me what we're going to do about teen mental health i know there aren't any easy answers because i have a hard time answering that question myself this feels like a

019very positive step let's be sure to collect good data on the pilot program so we can advocate for expansion of the program when the time comes let's also be sure to remember that it will take at least four years to roll the program out completely we can't make any definitive judgments about success or failure for a long while i would encourage you to reach out to the community every step of the way small successes should be celebrated and ultimately success will depend on a great deal on buy-in from the community thank you for your foresight in exploring this and for the hard work it's taken to bring the program this close to fruition thank you carla regario carla is she online sometimes madam chair we have a hand raised okay mrs gregario are you with

020us i you may unmute okay thank you can you hear me now yes please go ahead and introduce hey my name is carla gregorio i am a resident of cheyenne wyoming and i just wanted to say i support the sources of strength program also uh please think about taking something off the teacher's plate if this is introduced school-wide in the teacher's day or curriculum i know that's very hard with the standards but there are some other behavior programs or social motion programs that probably could be taken off so thank you for bringing the program to cheyenne and i also want to thank the board of trustees and dr cressball for your tireless efforts for the students families and community of laramie county school district number one thank you thank you that concludes our public comment

021for agenda topics um at this time we will move on to our next i think we have sorry i have a lot of paper up here today um thank you all right um that comes to upcoming meetings on august 23rd 2022 at 11 to 1 pm we have the lcsd one all stack picnic in the story gym august 24th 2022 we have the first day of school we're super excited about that um august 29 2022 from 5 30 to 7 30 we have the wsba fall roundup meeting in laramie um september 14th 2022 from six to seven we have a work session september 17 2022 8 a.m cheyenne schools foundation run for number one at south high school september 19th 2022 a 5 pm work session and a 6 pm regular board meeting going on

022to item 3 d3 individual board communication pardon me i just wanted to clarify i noticed several t-shirts and people that that work session on the 14th is on our book policy in our district we'll be discussing that that's correct thank you um individual board communications and reports um who would like to start go ahead trusty ashby so i had the opportunity to participate in the wednesday version of the challenge rodeo and i do want to reiterate for uh the recognition earlier that it went very very well the kids loved being out there they love being able to do all of the different things i really appreciate you inviting us to participate because it was it's a highlight for me is to be able to go out and work with the kids for the challenge rodeo

023also i have kids in um actually she's going into central currently but got to participate in the mccormick orientation in the last few weeks and uh loved it uh she was not sure going back as a freshman to help it was a great idea but she ended up having a great time and we got some great feedback from them for my orientation so um good work to all of you that worked on that very good yes trust you um herman thanks and thank you i'm chairman and just kind of along the lines of how laramie one um really is integrated into a lot of good things in this community um just remind everyone that the the final concert of the summer from the cheyenne civic band is tomorrow 7 p.m at the band shell and

024once again giving credit um to the people who are in the band and directing the band or a lot of active and retired lcsd1 music teachers so they continue to give back the community but also matter of fact they're they're tuning up to practice right now over in the admin building which is given free of charge to practice where the the band is given access to the library of music for the district they're copying machines so one more way the lcsd1 supports the arts and and the community in cheyenne so by way of in inviting every everyone to the and in december end of summer concert tomorrow at 7 00 pm um and thanks to the district for supporting it very good anyone else okay at this time um i would like to read we

025have a school park proclamation for constitution uh week 2022 whereas september 17 2022 marks the 235th anniversary of the framing of the constitution of the united states of america by the constitutional convention and whereas the constitution of the united states of america the guardian of our liberties embodies the principles of limited government in a republic dedicated to the rule by law and whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate it and whereas it is a privilege and duty of the american people to commemorate the 235th anniversary of the drafting of the constitution of the united states with the appropriate ceremonies and activities and whereas public law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the

026president of the united states of america designating september 17th through the 23rd as constitution week whereas it's fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document as its memorable anniversary and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate the occasion and whereas as we celebrate this document's profound impact on our everyday lives may americans strive to uphold its vision of freedom and justice for all now therefore i roseanne million rinny chair of the board of trustees of laramie county school district number one do hereby proclaim september 17th through the 23rd 2022 to be constitution week at all schools in laramie county school district number one and ask our students to reaffirm the ideals the framers that the constitution had in 1787. in witness whereof i have here and to set my hand and cause

027to be effect the great affix the great seal of laramie county school district number one on this 17th day of september in the year of our lord 2022. thank you ma'am now a couple of things is it too late he moved on no actually i have some other it's relevant to this right is that correct to not not do that but uh just if i could add it on to other things i said i'll wait two done okay if you don't mind i'll finish what i have to say and then we'll follow back with you yes i understand that sometimes when you're up here you there's a few things you pass up so um so at that time it's a privilege to read that proclamation and our schools um all over our each and every

028school has kind of an individual way that they recognize that with their students and um it's fascinating so please ask your students how that was recognized at each one of their schools our teachers talk about it and uh it's it's really it's a it's a wonderful it's a wonderful week quite frankly um and our administrators as well so they're all very supportive um so and the next thing i'd like to i had the opportunity to um go to the challenge rodeo as well and i'd like to thank everyone and our volunteers in our district and um all the individuals that were recognized up here for their work with the challenge rodeo and historically the district's been participating in that for quite some time and i'd like to thank frontier days and their volunteers that helped

029to put that on and um it's they really work well together um it's it's i it's one of my favorite events to attend and um uh it was a pleasure to be there with governor gordon and the first lady watching them hand out those belt buckles and governor gordon was actually thrown a few loops on on the steer which is fun to watch too and and helping little ones learn how to to throw that so that was fun and i also had the opportunity to go to the boys and girls club uh this weekend and uh with a partnership with laramie county school district number one uh falling in um in line with our strategic plan of student readiness community engagement in a healthy environment we um this student the boys and girls club had

030a grant from ken garf a significant grant from ken garc partnered with several of our community members in the uh district and the district along with this collaboration of all of our community partners came out over a thousand backpacks to students filled with school supplies and i had the opportunity um to work with some of our peeps people to hand out uh backpacks to our elementary students and some of those backpacks are actually larger than our kindergartens sure so um it was a wonderful afternoon and i can't thank the boys and girls club enough and um all of the sponsors and volunteers um that helped put that together so dr crespo thank you mary quest and her team were instrumental i hear and and uh getting a lot of that going on and we had

031needs the director from needs working with justin from boys and girls club and it was just it was a it was a magnificent very well attended event and very well run so i hope to see that grow with our community partners next year so at that i'm finished with my comments and i will turn that back over to you which is the question was that the back to school bash on set yes for the boys i have to say just i dropped off a bunch of things i didn't say and the lines the the need in this community that turned out there it seemed like thousands of people took advantage of that so obviously there's a need to help out with school supplies it was amazing it was amazing yes yes um just and just

032i want to add two real thing quick things for the shine schools foundation the race is september 17th at south high school you can go online find information about how to register for the race and again this is a group that raises money for classroom grants for classroom teachers and their projects that um want to help students it goes a little bit beyond what they have the resources to do so if you can support them um turn out for the race or just i'm sure they'll there's a there's a place for you to just donate money as well so please support them and then finally tomorrow is the um primary election day so if you haven't voted already please vote tomorrow as a matter of fact story gym is set up right now the voting

033machines are there so this is a vote center if you if you're looking for a place to vote tomorrow and you haven't voted yet uh story gym will accommodate you thank you and um we also have an opportunity our peeps are benefiting from the hurst applegate kicks for kids so that's tomorrow at i think mary might have to help me out i want to say 5 30. i don't have the paperwork in front of me but there's a qr code you can go online there's a qr code you can donate and you can also participate and it benefits students to get tennis shoes for students for their pe classes and whatnot that they can't can afford so obviously we have some students in need across our district and remembering we do have 14 000 students

034and a very diverse population and and demographics and and we need to support all of our kiddos so thank you very much i think that concludes our um individual board reports thank you for that and i would uh at this point time we will move on to d4 reports from the superintendent and staff doctor crystal thank you madam chair um i'm going to take just a few minutes and give a quick update uh so first if you remember our strategic plan we'll have a more comprehensive update next month but want to share just the amazing things that we're doing as you mentioned the work that our community relations department did with our community um bash this last weekend really incredible and so grateful to our community partners for coming alongside i had the opportunity to

035speak um as the speaker at the chamber luncheon last week before really phenomenal turnout just a lot of support for our kids and a lot of support for our community and for our school district uh really took an opportunity to give an update on all the work that we're doing around the strategic plan there for those of you that um you know are avid followers of followers of our incredible dashboard over the next couple of weeks you'll see some more information there around the trends that we're seeing in our systems definitely snapshots of information that are provided for students and staff and parents to make sure that they're seeing kind of where we're performing lcsd1 is i would like to take a moment just to thank if you read my uh the op-ed that i

036did this last week really taking a moment to thank our facilities department this summer as i shared in that letter we typically have 20 extra summer health typically kids from our community come out we were only able to get four this year um we have we have tens of thousands of acres of um property that needs to be mowed and buildings that need to be taken care of and this mighty team of four we're out there every day along with our operations team just making sure that it was taken care of um to the best that we could obviously we're dealing with significant shortages on all areas in all areas if you've kind of followed the news the same with the teacher piece we'll have a more comprehensive update once hiring is through when we're

037launched for school next year huge shout out to our administrators who have been working with hr to make sure that our classes have great incredible people in front of them thank you to our teachers and their flexibility as we recognize that there is a shortage we also are feeling the impacts of that as well making sure that again we have the best people in front of our kids um and then with that i want to invite mr jim braley up we want to share a little bit around the work that we shared last month around sources of strength and the work that we've been doing with that and then our professional learning we had um we're obviously over the next couple of weeks and last week bringing our administrators back making sure they're getting professional

038learning in a deep comprehensive way as aligned to the strategic plan and there he is so i'll stop talking thank you dr crespo members of the board it's been a wonderful month so far in this short month of august that we've had getting our district leadership team back we had the first ever district leadership team meeting at lccc where we had nearly well over 100 leaders in our district coming together and learning about how we can deploy the strap plan across those three pillars in those areas and it was a great event in the morning that took place and we got some real grounding and trust building across our leadership in the district we we then moved on with our leadership coaching with our principals and strategic communication we had sage hobbs come into our

039district and jennifer abrams author jennifer abrams she's also a consultant uh do some wonderful work with uh communication of how we communicate this draft plan how we uh work with each other and uh in our parents our community so it was wonderful time well spent over the last couple of weeks uh we we also then partnered with solution tree and uh john and jessica hannigan and they came in to do training for our psychologists our principals assistant principals our multi-tiered support systems team across every school and it was a wonderful day of training out of lccc around how to help students that are really impacted uh through um through bullying through substance abuse through behaviors that have impact their learning and that really is the umbrella of mtss and so it was a wonderful couple

040day training of how do we intervene and prevent these from happening which our sources of strength get into and is is a part of of that piece under the umbrella and then we will kick off tomorrow with our new teachers out at south south high school i'm kind of teaching grabbing a little bit of vikki thompson's thunder here because she's really been instrumental in putting this together with a small slice of our instruction team with the school district and that's going to be three days of really neat uh learning and celebration around these new employees coming into our district and we have certified staff coming back on the 19th in their buildings and then we get that host on august 22nd a wonderful event at the civic center where we're bringing in a guest speaker

041convocation sorts to really kick off the school year a very energetic meaningful way on how we impact students together to really rally around the strategic plan so that will be on the 22nd and then school starts right around the corner on the 24th so with that that kind of wraps up our professional learning for the month of august thank you madam chair i took a moment to cheer a little bit because um now i have vicki thompson coming up to talk a little bit about our status in hiring uh hr has done an incredible incredible job as have our um hiring managers but i think it's important that we recognize kind of where we are okay good evening madam chair trustees dr cressval and vicky thompson um in hr just wanted to give you um

042a quick update as you've heard uh we are facing shortages just like everyone else in the country doing our best to fill positions so working with principals and hiring managers to get new employees processed and in the system as quickly as possible we have a small mighty team in hr so please give us a little little grace here um we're doing as much as we can as fast as we can and also going through a conversion into a new system so right now we're working with enroll looking at enrollment at buildings and other vacant positions seeing where we can move people to make sure that every classroom is covered and we have the right people in the right position so we are in the process right now i'm working with mr fraley on looking at

043where we need to possibly uh reassign some staff so that's what we're doing right now and we're working with the buildings that are impacted trying to do the best we can understanding that you know you never want to move somebody when they think they're going to be in one building and then you get the call and you say hey we need to move you over here because we've got more kiddos coming into this building than we had it at your original building so we're doing everything we can to make sure that that transition happens and it's as painless as possible very good thank you thank you all right very good thank you thank you both mr fraley thank you mrs thompson madam chair uh trustees i do want to just once again say incredible incredible

044work that our teams are doing i have colleagues across the country and frankly regionally here in the state that are having conversations about how they're going to open because they do have such a shortage when it comes to covering classrooms so huge huge shout out to our lcsd staff they do incredible incredible work to make sure that our just our incredible kids have great teachers and great staff so and with that thank you and with that i would like to hand it over to miss holly thank you madam chair uh trustees dr crespo um i'm going to talk to you a little bit about the proposed amendments to chapter 1 and chapter 2 of your board policy um one of the initial tasks that i had coming on as general counsel was to do a

045comprehensive review of your policies um what better place to start than at the very beginning so i took took one and two and and uh started that review process um for um some kind of background uh on my approach to to policy revisions and policies in general um first obviously i'm going to look to make sure that your policies are in accordance with the law state law federal law requires you to have certain policies in place requires those policies to include certain provisions um and then does give you quite a bit of discretion to to manage how you implement those policies um when you're looking at policies as well you want to make sure that they're written in a way um policy is really the 10 000 foot level and administrative regulations are your boots

046on the ground um the policy is is um the what um in broad terms what the board expects what the the programs that you're authorizing what um the direction you want to take and the administrative uh regulations are your how how that's actually going to be accomplished um so looking at your rules those are the first two areas that i look at third i worked for the attorney general's office for a long time and under governor matt mead he issued a directive to all state agencies to reduce the number of rules um and page numbers of rules and and you know i i think that everyone you know there's a there's a tendency to just keep adding and not revisiting things um that maybe we can get rid of and so that was drilled into

047my head from from you know under governor gord or governor meade that policy is getting continued under um governor gordon though most of those things have been been cleaned up so i also look to see what things um don't necessarily belong are there programs are there are there aspects of the policies that are no longer relevant or um programs that have become obsolete um and then lastly i kind of look at the organization to make sure things things are where they make sense so you'll notice um in in some of those it looks like i deleted and or that a deletion was made to the board chair can't vote now because we i took it out of where it was currently located that provision just got moved down into the section that deals with um

048the officers of the board um to me logically it makes more sense um to have that provision the same thing i mean so there were several things like that where things didn't feel to flow or to necessarily belong in the section not that they didn't belong in policy at all but if we're looking at things if we're cleaning things up we might as well have a logical order for for how your policies read um i i personally do not view these as particularly um extensive or significant changes for the vast majority of them it's a lot of cleanup there are programs in here if you if you look at the policies they all have the last time that they were revised and as much as i would like that 1999 to have been five years

049ago if that's where it is in my head it was not and so when we haven't looked at something or haven't taken taken a hard look and and revised something since 1999 that's a signal to me that that's an important part to look at and what we've what i found in talking with staff is that a lot of those things weren't happening anymore um maybe at one time it was a direction for the legislature or from the federal government to have programs in place those directions are no longer there they're not being done and so there's no reason to continue to have those on the books so those are where you'll see um entire sections that are taken out um those have been deleted not because i don't feel like they're worthy but because they're

050they're not actually something that the district is still um obligated to do or for that matter doing so a lot of cleanup on these um going to sort of the policy versus administrative regulation again the policy is that is the really broad umbrella that covers um [Music] the board's direction for the district um the you know the programs are going to offer the kind of general idea of how the district is going to function but it's really dangerous to get down into the weeds into the how in policy one because you're not charged with the day-to-day operations of the district um two a policy does have i mean it's it's a process to to change a policy um and so if if something's in policy and it's not working that's a much more difficult thing

051to change than if an administrative regulation that aligns with your policy which your administrative regulations are required to do if that's not working um at a building level or at you know the administration level that's something that gets brought to the attention um of the rel dr cressbo the executive staff and can be addressed and changed to make sure that that the business of the district is is being carried out so um for instance there is wasn't policy an entire grievance procedure laid out um for you know several pages um that policy is also contained in your negotiated agreements with all of the um different units if you have something in policy and it can you know if it's in a negotiated agreement it's up for negotiations right so you don't want to put something

052in policy that could potentially be changed there and then you're going to have a conflict between policy and the agreement and it just puts you in a messy situation again that's that level of detail doesn't need to be in policy because that's not addressed at a board level that's addressed at you know staff level um i can go one of two routes i can the other i think major policy change that is in here that you'll see um well two i'll back up so one um i did change um and the process for hearings um one it was very detailed um on things that i don't know that you necessarily need to have it as detailed on and left out some things um that you probably do want to have then for your hearing process

053the wyoming school boards association does have the district has access to kind of standard policies that a lot of districts utilize um this is one of those areas where you know it's it's nice to have consistency um between between even between districts so that we know that we're not treating our employees and or those that are agreed by the district in some shape or form any different than albany county or natrona county or sweetwater county those things have been standardized so that process it was easier to just take out what was currently in place and replace it with that standardized process it also kind of comports better to the office of administrative hearings who the board utilizes for certain hearings um so that you know your hearing examiner the attorneys that are that may present

054in front of you for for various hearings have a consistent um process to follow and it's not something unique to just learn me with uh lastly i will mention um we did take out references uh the uh policy advisory committee and i know that that's um a big change i i think that that's um it was important to do for a couple reasons one it's really um unusual for a school board to have that level of um i guess not not that you're delegating authority but you've got um a group of individuals who have a lot of say in policy development um that really is the board's ultimate function um and it's not to say that those people aren't important it's not to see that that feedback isn't important but what we what i what

055i think the district has found is that some some subcommittees of that policy advisory committee were very active and some weren't active at all and so some people were having to attend a lot of meetings and some people weren't attending any at all the work that was coming out wasn't necessarily balanced it's not to say that no one is going to reach out to um anyone that that was in a role on that policy advisory committee you have really really um good staff you have expertise um across the board within the district that are more than capable um and and of course their input is going to be thought out but there are certain aspects of policy you know that i'm as your attorney i'm going to advise you always to follow the law and

056if the law says you have to do x you have to do x and that's not necessarily something that um you need additional input for i think that input the public comment you know there's plenty of opportunities within a rule making process within your policy development for public comments there is a public comment period statutorily required where you gather that information and it's not just gathering that information to them toss aside it's you take every single public comment and consider it and then say why you either do or do not agree to make a change based on that public comment so there's a lot of opportunity but it also um i think you know again it's it goes from a really really uh regimented process that maybe um not hamstring but but kind of put

057the board in a position where you had to go through a really long process to address policy and this takes it and there's plenty about if you know staff or students or board members or members of the community parents they have ideas for policy they can bring that that will be worked through a process it will of course include input from relevant stakeholders um it's just not as regimented in what that process is going to look like so that was that was the purpose behind taking out the policy advisory committee it also um you know i think a reality is that when you have outside legal counsel it's an expensive venture to have them go through and and change and modify every single policy and be part of that process for every every policy that

058you handle that that's part of my job duties now is to go through all of your policies and make sure that you're complying with the law that you are um you know that that those policies are up to date that they're current and so um there's there's maybe a little less need for the structured nature of the policy advisory committee so madam chair it's your pleasure if you would like i can i can run through um the changes one by one or if anyone has any specific questions on changes i'm happy to address that thank you um and i in your conversation and and uh talking to us about that it made me think of another because i've been on that policy committee for many many many many years long before i was ever on

059the board and probably going back to 2008 i want to say maybe 2009 and one of the things that was kind of a hiccup with that was i know that the the board and individuals on the policy uh committee kind of felt we had that timeline that everything had to be worked within and so if there was a policy uh suggestion or change that was a little it was kind of you were always stuck with well we missed the time slot we've approved these policies these have always these have gone to the board and the board was like well we need we'll have are we waiting next year to address this particular policy because we don't we're not convened in policy committee at this time because it didn't run all year long one committee ran

060significantly longer than the other committees before we met as committee of a whole so that was one of the other things and we did not have in-house counsel um at that time so we had kind of a hit and miss as need um counsel on on those policies um and i know that one of our attorneys at that time that we had um helping us navigate uh some federal language uh quite frankly shared you know there's there's a lot of policies in in here currently that could use some professional um eyes on them and so they were you know thrilled and supportive hickey and evans was thrilled and supportive to to have um lcsd1 the size we are the number of students and the impact that we have um looking having a in-house council look

061at our policies so i appreciate the work i know that it's a herculean lift but i appreciate your diligence on this so at this point in time i think it might be um the best i know that all of my board members have read through the the changes and if they have a question pertaining to a particular area or want to know where something might be moved or whatever we could leave it open uh to that does anyone have a question or want some clarification on any of the changes do i have trustee can i ask just more of a logistical question sure so in order to update these particular two or any policies as you bring forward you've gone through updated them for your recommendations as of tonight they're going out to 45-day comment

062period correct correct and then we will take that information and what is the process from there uh madam chair trust trustee ashby so um the 45 public date comment period um if you know if it starts tomorrow it's going to run through around september 30th that still gives you a few days before your next board meeting um in that time you know you all all public comments will be received by the district all public comments will be reviewed i um i will review all the public comments um district staff will review the public comments and we will present those public comments to the board with a recommendation whether or not um you should you know change policy based on that or or continue and why that is so there's a review of the public comments

063along with a recommendation to the board and then the board will vote on um the final adoption of those of those uh policy changes um and then they will be filed and effective mrs paulie um and just some clarification there if we do make changes after it's gone out to 45 day review if the board does decide at that point to take any recommendations that you might make for changes um or the board might have that recommendation then that has to go back out the recommendations have to go back out for 45 day review correct before they would ever be approved by the board uh madam chair uh yes yes so substantive changes so if it's it's more than essentially i missed a punctuation um formatting kind of issues if it doesn't change the the

064intent of the policy it it can be done um as a sort of a cleanup if it doesn't change the intent of the policy is as it was originally proposed to be amended then yes it would go back out for another 45-day public comment period thank you go ahead thank you mr chairman uh so uh miss paulie um in case people are concerned that when we move language guidance direction from policy into the day-to-day nuts and bolts administrative regulations um will they lose any force of enforcement will they lose any um any force by moving the language to the administrative ranks um madam chair trustee hermann no um so the way that again it's policy is sort of your broad overarching principles and your administrative regulations are really intended to be how you implement that

065policy so um you know moving something from from policy to administrative administrative regulation doesn't make it any less effective or more binding on the district those administrative regulations are what administration will follow when dealing with enforcement of the policy any other questions trustee thank you trustee clawson thank you thank you madam chair uh just on that to follow up on that when um i know that you would write your regs after we implemented the new policy but as trustees who are supposed to watch over the interests of our community when you say we would write regs to reinsert certain things it's it's hard to know if we're going to have that accountability up front because it won't be they won't the regs won't be written until the policy is set so um i wonder if

066you couldn't provide the board because i see i saw what changes you're proposing but i wonder if the district couldn't provide the board with information on how they would write the regs if this draft of the policy is adopted by us um sure madam chair trustee clausen i think that that would be a doable thing you know again these administrative regulations wouldn't be um necessarily um in in force you know the policy is what what's in policy currently is what's going to come to to apply up until the point where you um either you know say you vote to approve the policy changes um we've got 45 days those administrative regulations can be drafted and again within your policies and within and still within your policy there is opportunity for the board to review all

067the administrative regulations um that are um currently in operation um and and to you know to have access to those so it's you know it's i don't want you know i i appreciate your your question because i do think it's important to um know that um you know just because you're we're taking something out it's not going to disappear forever um that it will still be done so i i think that that's a reasonable and you know over the next 45 days those regulations can be developed in order to provide to the board and several of these administrative regulations that came out of this are already in the admin so it was redundant we had it in policy and it's already in administrative regulations and have been um so it it was really kind of

068stating me stating the things that we'd already stated in the administrative ranks correct correct madam chair you there there was significant redundancy um between both policy and administrative regulation and then again even going down into your negotiated agreement there were sometimes three if not more places um where the same thing was stated and you know there is a danger with that because if you catch it you know if you change policy in in one place and forget to do it in another um you've got conflicting language and you want to play that so that's part of again the reason why some of that was that was removed to be placed into administrative regulation very good thank you are there any other questions all right thank you dr cressman madam chair and closing um i want

069to just raise the um the idea that part of our conversation over the last couple of months aligned to the strategic plan was making sure that we're good partners and um ms paulie's work just specifically around policy is is so that we have clean policy that's up to date although i like 1999 myself um just making sure that we're up to date so that when we are engaging with our partners and we are working with our staff we're using policy that is relevant up to date and legal so you'll continue to see these policies um as we go through the entire entire policy manual um so we'll get comfortable with having policy conversations moving forward thank you manager very good thank you all right that moves us on to um uh e1 the consent agenda

070all agenda items listed with the designation of ca are considered to be routine items by the governing body and will be intact will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion on these items any item removed from the consent agenda will be considered in its normal sequence on the agenda does any board member request to remove a motion from the consent agenda seeing none of the chair i move to approve all motions listed as consent agenda second all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes that takes us to um new business e3 3.1 madam chair i moved to approve the cancellation of the june 19 2023 meeting for laramie county school district number one board of trustees regular meeting schedule due to juneteenth being a national federal holiday second any

071discussion yes trustees just had a question is this a date on the calendar when the district offices are all closed it was not we were not closed this this year um the calendar at this point does not have a variance and we're a debate we're currently having conversations related to the 410 schedule so that will be determined um based on the feedback that we receive and then we'll let the board know what our status is for the calendar for the summer whether that will be one of the days or we'll continue the friday so in short answer not at this moment any other questions hearing none all in favor say aye aye oppose no motion passes madam chair i move to grant permission to contract with sources of strength for training and materials for an

072amount not to exceed 101 500 utilizing grant funding second any discussion hearing none all in favor say aye opposed no motion 3.2 passes madam chair i moved to approve bus routes as recommended by the transportation advisory committee for the 2022-2023 school year second any discussion yes trusty ashby so i know we had some conversation earlier there were some concerns about recommended bus routes my understanding is that they did not change correct madam chair that is trustee ashby that is correct they did not change okay okay very good all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes and i'm sure i move to approve a contract with tobin and associates for architectural services for roof roof replacements at various sites second discussion yes trustee smith i was just hoping maybe we could get a little

073more information on on this which facilities need new roofs i'm just that's my information madam chair i would invite mr madam chair members of the board uh the roofs that are proposed for that particular agenda item are alta vista fairview johnson junior high clausen elementary and east high school any further questions are they i'm sorry i'm sure um mr now are those are they old or do they have damage or what yeah so we um we generally propose three to five roofs a year depending on the condition of them um these have been on the list and of course we monitor those depending on if there's a school replacement or anything coming up or um or any major remodels that the state would happen to fund between now and then we would back those projects

074out of that list thank you very good any other questions seeing no further discussion all in favor say aye opposed no motion passes madam chair i move to approve a contract with the design studio incorporated for architectural services for central high school boys locker room renovation second discussion yes trusty ashby what why are we doing just the boys locker room go ahead madam chair i would invite mr knapp madam chair members of the board uh the boys locker room is in a lot worse condition actually than the girls locker room and it's been on the list request from central for about two years so we're proposing now going into next year we'll probably evaluate both of them uh prior to the design on that yes please trust me mr knapf are you going to invest

075in air fresheners wow we'll see what we can do with that i recommend it any other questions is there any other discussion thank you mr cole yes i just had just a question for mr how many bids on something like this how many did we receive and and then i mean obviously you've chosen one but uh madam chair trustee smith that has not been bid yet so this is a proposal to uh to go out for design bids okay so i should say design bid and and construction on there and the construction pieces for that designer to see their their proposal through if they were awarded the bid actually um mr nap do you mind going into the process that it takes um when we start this and what that looks like or jed or

076whoever needs to yeah no so um when we start this uh we propose so we we get permission to bid for design of those services and then after we get design we'll come back for uh permission to bid um that project out so in in short um we'll go through a bidding process for a design consultant on that and then we'll go through another bidding process for a contractor to uh provide the work so i i i'm sorry if i confused that did we bid out to find a designer or we just went straight with the design studio trustee smith um they are on our continuing service contract i believe and that is uh is why they're listed on there um we we generally do though that is how that how that would work is

077we go out for design design bid depending on the cost of the project that one will not exceed that and then we will go out again for construction bids after it's designed okay thank you all right three and we have guidelines in state statute in federal i haven't thank you please thank you if i could invite brian hornson up he's uh he can talk a little bit about our process specifically thank you everybody's getting a turn this evening right now i'm sorry um dr crusher i didn't catch the last part of your question just the process of bidding so right now we have this uh ongoing contract with the current design process for uh central and what we're trying to determine is what does the bidding process look like when we go out to bid

078so what are regulations that we have to comply with what are the you know what is that process okay so madam chair trustees if you will and some of this is going to be dependent on you know with construction they have certain requirements in terms of records with with what's called aia and different requirements that are common amongst all construction a lot a lot of our other general supply type service uh procurements will also go through a bid but they don't have the same record keeping and posting uh requirements that uh that construction uh carries with it generally we both will advertise these um when we do have a solicitation we want to put out we'll put it out on a wide service a bulletin board if you will where multiple vendors have an opportunity

079to look at it records for us in both cases when they downloaded those how many downloaded them obviously it's a source of interest for us to know that we put a bid out and we only had one person download it that really isn't competition in a sense that we want to want to see so that gives us a means to go back in then later and say we didn't get the competition we wanted we're going to repost it we're going to go through another process give it another window typically that window is going to be at least 31 days sometimes it's going to be longer depending on the project is if it's more complicated where it's going to take them more time to really put together a meaty proposal for us that we're needing to

080to look at we might give them 45 days that type of thing they will then submit their bid or their proposal back to the district we are very tight on those due dates when we say um this is due back to us on a certain date when we publish that if it comes in a minute later we don't accept those unless there's an extenuating circumstance like we're close for the day because of a snow snowstorm or something like that we can do those things when it's in the best interest of the district but again we still have to maintain that we've got competition amongst all of our vendors give everybody a fair chance to to compete when those are brought in um with a bid generally there is always going to be a public opening

081meaning that any vendor who's whose bid has an opportunity to come and be president when we open that bid to hear what the other vendors have been um members of the public you know they can come into those too hear what's being bid um all of you can certainly come in and see see what different prices we're getting on a request for proposal those are generally going to be a closed opening we're not going to have that published these are a lot of times going to contain vendors proprietary information a lot of times their pricing is considered proprietary because they don't want to have all the rest of their customer base know how much they're undercutting everybody else just to do business with us once we do that we generally will have our committee put

082together um from it's j it's almost always going to be across the all the stakeholder groups within the districts that have have an interest in that so when you're talking about construction we're often going to include you know the building staff as part of that with supply bids we're going to include the people who are going to be using those supplies with the request for proposal for services we're going to have even some disinterested people just just to keep a second set of eyes on some things and maybe highlight some things that maybe some of the other people didn't consider from that we make a recommendation unanimous recommendation that we will put into a motion to bring to you for approval we don't commit to any any kind of expenditure funds until such time as

083we have have your approval to do that thank you that kind of oh no that was great i've actually participated on some of those committees we always welcome more participation and just kind of gets our there's a lot of work we do that no one ever knows about and that's fine but we always like to have other eyes on things too so i think you do thank you thank you thank you yes can i just real briefly since the idea of um ventilation came up uh work work will include interior finishes throughout all areas evaluation for repairs or replacement of hvac fire alarm and fire suppression replacement of lighting electrical data and evaluation and implementation of ada accessibility um and so just to let people know this is not just you know putting new chin

084curtains in the windows these are really pretty serious infrastructure improvements and um and then ada compliance with federal law that's really important and which old facilities what we didn't know back then am i right mr mr harmson but you know i just wanted to give an idea trustee herman that actually brings up another really good point with bids and rfps is there there are a lot of times that we're subject to as miss polly has already kind of alluded to some federal laws some state laws that a lot of a lot of our other private sector folks are not subject to so when we put those those bids and rfps out it's a chance for us to convey that this must be ada compliant this must meet the requirements of you know whether it's fire

085code you know you think about something as simple as a chair you're sitting on that actually has to meet fire code it has to have a certain standard of uh cleanability you know the custodians need to be able to wipe those down and and keep those clean too so that gives us a chance to specify those types of things but thanks for kind of prompting that great any other questions all right thank you you did a great job both of you thank you um hearing no more discussion uh all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes madam chair i moved to approve the appointment of valerie hudson in the position of senior high assistant principal at south high school and to place her on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective

086for the 2022-2023 school year second any discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes madam chair i moved to approve the appointment of william michael maloney in the position of senior high associate principal at central high school and to place him on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second any discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes madam chair i moved to approve the appointment of jeffrey hatcliff in the position of senior high assistant principal at central high school and to place him on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes madam chair i move to approve the appointment of frank murosak in

087the position of special education coordinator and to place him on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes madam chair i move to approve the appointment of elena crouch in the position of production kitchen manager at south high school and to place her on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes at this time if um we have any of these individuals in our district would you please stand so we can welcome you and and uh um do we have anyone yes very good thank you madam chair i move to approve the memorandum of understanding with stride learning center

088as the agency to conduct child find evaluation and screening services for children ages three to five in laramie county in an amount not to exceed 125 000 for the 2022-2023 school year second any discussion all in favor say aye all right oppose no motion passes moving on to f future business the next regular board meeting will be held on monday september 19 2022 at 6 00 pm a work session will begin at 5 pm um the business of the district is done at this time we move on to our public comment these are for non-agenda items the rules still apply um state your first and last name keep your comments two to three minutes so others may have time to voice their comments keep your comments general in nature do not um do not direct

089them at a specific individual or individual and suitable and keep suitable in language for content language and content for okay 12th grade students and please do not use exclusive language um add additional information or perspective and try not to be redundant so at this time we will start with first one on our list is jen solis if you would thank you [Music] madam chair trustees dr crespo thank you my name is jen solis i'm the parent of three in this district i speak this evening in support of our educators our teachers and librarians are highly educated professionals doing an outstanding job supporting our children's education i am grateful for their expertise their kindness and their devotion to me they're heroes which is why i cannot stand silently by as they are maligned by those who

090vilify them in pursuit of political gains further as an american i am called to stand up for the rights endowed to us in the first amendment these rights as courts have affirmed time and time again allow students access to reading materials in our public schools this includes books with mature themes course language and those addressing difficult subjects every family in this district already enjoys full control over what book their student has access to to accommodate the needs of parents wishing to limit or restrict access there is a system to do so the opt out form makes it simple to exclude books authors subjects or genres i commend our professional educators for accommodating the needs of all families in our district throwing the system out in favor of an opt-in system makes little sense to me

091requiring thousands of parents to fill out paperwork to appease the whims of dozens of parents who don't like certain books is fiscally reckless as it would require staff to spend hours processing paperwork and creating new systems to physically segregate books i have a lot of questions about what the process would look like but it sounds like there's an upcoming work session so i look forward to attending that um i don't find it to be um hyperbole to say that books save lives i was eight when i read my first band book the classic matilda when i read it i was delighted to realize there was a path to understanding the world around me through books i would go on to read many banned books including one still found on watch list today slaughter house 5

092a 55 year old novel that beautifully addresses the realities of wartime written by a world war ii infantry combat veteran kurt vonnegut vonnegut's vonnegut's everlasting call to choose kindness and empathy is an in an often cruel world has impacted millions of readers his patriotism and enduring love of country is something that inspires me constantly here's what he had to say about the subject our community grapples with today i want to congratulate librarians not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth who all over this country have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves the america i love still exists in the front desks of our public libraries end quote and if that isn't nice i don't know what it is thank you

093thank you marina ventra oh help me out here ventrue i'm not one thank you thank you i will work on that one thank you madam chair dr crespo board of trustees individuals in this room and on zoom my name is maureena venturelli and i come to you today on behalf of a student who wishes to stay anonymous the student reached out to me last week and asked me if i would share her story until she has the courage to share it herself these are her words at the beginning of my freshman year i was sexually assaulted it took me almost two years to be able to say that out loud it happened after a football game by a player that everybody loved seeing the monster who violated me being praised by so many people was

094infuriating i didn't feel like i could talk to anyone there was no outlet for the angry confused feelings i was harboring the transition into high school was hard enough but after that night i felt like i lost a piece of myself i was ashamed of what happened i felt like it was my fault because of those feelings i didn't tell anyone i spent the majority of the rest of that year being stalked scared and harassed by the boy who raped me a few classes into my sophomore year a teacher recommended a book to me i'm still not sure if she knew what she was doing or if it was pure luck this is where i discovered speak by lori hals anderson this book is about a girl who gets sexually assaulted the summer before she

095goes into high school by a popular upperclassman boy it talks about the isolation she feels about losing herself falling into a depression and nearly giving up this book and many like it have themes that you say are too mature too graphic too inappropriate and shouldn't be in our libraries i think this is exactly what needs to be in our libraries reading these pages was like looking in a mirror i felt seen i didn't feel alone for the first time in more than a year reading this book gave me courage to talk about what had happened and reading this book is what helped me heal from the wounds i was ashamed of i am now a senior and i realized that if speak and fallen into my hands this is tough i truly don't know if

096i would be here today if you think kids in our schools don't experience these things you're wrong you may deem these topics too mature or too inappropriate to exist in our libraries but that doesn't stop them from existing in real life we need books we can relate to my story is not too inappropriate my story is not something with an age requirement my story is not something that students need to be shielded from because my story is not uncommon limiting information because you're scared of it doesn't help anyone it breeds an environment of don't ask don't tell where students don't feel safe having open conversations about things they desperately need to talk about our school libraries are a resource our librarians are guides and heroes showing us books that make us people of substance teaching

097that information providing safe spaces and books helps students know they are on alone having these stories available will save lives it saved mine marina thank you marcy henry marcy madam chair trustees dr crespo thank you for your time and service my name is marcy kindred and i'm the mother of four boys in the district i'm here to join the conversation about books lots of opinions in this room i'd love to start from the common thread that ties us all together we want what's best for our kids we want to keep them safe and support them we all want that every parent wants that i know mine did and they went to great lengths to protect me from the outside world they were involved in all of my activities we went to church every sunday i

098didn't watch a rated r movie until i was 18. and pg-13 was always with them they took that parental guidance piece very seriously and they were still unable to prevent me from being raped when i was 14 years old it was by someone the family trusted i didn't know how to talk about what happened to me i felt a lot of shame and i definitely didn't want to talk to my parents i was broken and dirty they would be so disappointed my perfect grades started to slip and i didn't care about anything my parents didn't understand what had happened to their little girl there were many fights lots of tears and i withdrew from everyone but i had books i was all i had always been a reader but i became a voracious reader i

099disappeared into books and in them i found comfort and hope some of the books that folks would like to remove or put barriers to access quite literally saved my life they saved my life because they talked about the things we'd like to protect our children from they came with me into the darkness they showed me that bad things happened to good people and that it wasn't my fault they made me feel less alone i didn't tell anyone what happened to me until i was 18 but i graduated with a 3.95 gpa i struggled but i made it and i attribute much of what of that to the books that accompanied me the hardest lesson i've had to learn as a parent myself is that most of the time our job is not to protect our

100children from the bad things in life we're not here to shield them from friend trouble or broken hearts and sometimes we are unable to protect them from the darkest parts of humanity we are here to walk beside them to laugh with and cry with them books can lend their wisdom and comfort when we can't be there to walk with them i for one am grateful for any help we can get as parents ahead of the upcoming work session on book policy i'd plead for you to keep the policy the way it is good intentioned parents like mine would have never opted in i never would have had the chance to read those books and i don't know if i'd be here without them thank you [Applause] thank you thank you megan barr um i'm here

101this evening as oh sorry my name is megan barr i'm here this evening as a mother of three children in the district they are in fourth seventh and tenth grades we are concerned about recent efforts to change the library policies in our district the current policy is fair and comprehensive it allows parents who wish to censor content for their own children to do so at their discretion the current policy also allows children to freely access books chosen by highly trained and qualified professionals should their parents choose to trust those professionals if you change the policy based on the views and opinions of a few i believe you will be damaging the education and the civil rights of many thank you danny or mibh h e i r h e c h is she online do

102you see anyone i'm adam i'm sure i do not okay one more time danica hedge okay the next person on the list is ashlynn kirscher hello madam chairs trustees dr crespo i'm ash kercher and i'm a senior at central high school i first came out as gay to my parents in fifth grade right after they picked me up after i tried to kill myself and they took me to the hospital it was hard for me to go through all those feelings i was trying to discover by myself when no one else was talking about it i came from a supportive home in a supportive community but i did not see that in my school until i was in sixth grade and the book drama came out at my school i'm pretty sure i checked that

103out at least three times in a row and read it over and over again because i could finally see myself that i wasn't wrong and these feelings weren't wrong i officially came out to my peers and my teachers when i was in middle school after that i had other students come up to me and come out to me and tell me that they felt safe with me because they couldn't feel that at home that their parents wouldn't let them read these books wouldn't let them see themselves being reflected back and had these th these books these opportunities to see themselves that could save their life i have had to talk friends out of ending their lives more than i need to and i've offered more books and more companionship than i need to at my

104age these books are necessary for children to be able to look at themselves and feel oh sorry sorry i don't know and feel okay because sometimes that's all they need because they won't get that at home they won't get that in their community they and they need it so bad at school i remembered my best friend one time i gave her a book that had a transgender main character in it and she called me the same night and told me she's read it twice already and it's like a 400 page book so she was like speeding through that and she had already read it twice and thanked me so much for giving it to her because she finally felt normal even with me and her friends who tried to make sure she felt normal for

105once she felt normal because in this world it was okay to come out in this world it was okay for this main character to be herself even though my best friend couldn't be because it isn't safe it's important for these kids to have these books to be able to look into other people's eyes to be able to see themselves and be able to see other people because no matter what we do when we grow up and we go to college or we go to work or we go to somewhere we're going to see these people people who have been sexually harassed people who are gay and we need to be able to understand them and not take out what we don't understand out on them thank you thank you an opportunity to becky knees to

106speak please thank you hi my name is becky meese i'm a parent of four students um and my children are why i'm here and that's going to be really hard to follow i believe that having access to a wide variety of books is invaluable to children of all ages there are some very real and scary topics to be found in our libraries i'm sure some of you have read the excerpts that are on some of the social media pages i think that we all know that reading a few paragraphs out of a book does not capture what a book is actually about someone's kids needs these stories these stories can save lives kids don't read a book about being gay unless they're questioning do you know that queer kids are four times more likely to

107commit suicide than their straight counterparts them being able to have access to books speaking honestly and openly about them without shaming them could literally save their lives kids don't often read books about sexual assault unless they're dealing with those issues in their lives one in five girls women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime i don't know about you but i would like for my children to have somewhere to turn to help them digest these heavy topics to know that they're not alone in their experiences there is already a perfectly functioning opt-out program where parents can re can restrict what their children read without controlling what every other children child reads sorry they say restricting isn't banning that's correct but it's certainly getting closer thank you thank you hey rob hi my name is haley

108rob i just wanted to start by saying thank you to all of our teachers librarians and staff that keep our school functioning i know everybody's short-staffed and it's very stressful um we know that you haven't under immense pressure by certain groups to make unnecessary policy changes and i just want to say that i am one of the students that needed lgbtq books but was not allowed to read them because of restrictions placed at my public school where i grew up i think that we need to allow the defaults to be freedom to read and not censorship thank you thank you good morning grant good evening madam chair trustees um my name is lori brand and i'm a lifetime wyoming resident i've been educated in wyoming public schools and i've raised my own son who was

109educated in cheyenne's public schools up through graduation and i hope some someday fingers crossed to have grandchildren educated in our public schools um i do have to confess i haven't been to a school board meeting in a very long time and i do want to thank all of you for the work that you're doing being here in the evening also during the public health emergency it was a very obviously difficult time to be on the on the board and remember the board of trustees with all of the sort of vitriol and uncivic minded behavior that happened uh to so many of you um in this community and i really do appreciate your service and also to the professional staff that come here and spend their time in these meetings and their work and um being

110a government employee i know how important it is that you do this for public service but we do also appreciate your professionalism and expertise so i just did want to say that i am speaking to requests that the school board fulfill its leadership responsibilities under the wyoming constitution to ensure its policies provide student citizens opportunities for education including the right to equality education and to please reject pressure campaigns that sectarian sectarian tenants or doctrines be favored in our public schools specifically i am talking about the requests that the schools limit or ban certain student or teacher books or materials unless parents expressly opt into their use rather than to continue the current program where parents must opt out of general student materials to which they object as you spoke tonight with your resolution and deciding

111um whether to move forward with your own litigation wyoming constitution article 1 section 23 says the right of the citizens to opportunities for education should have practical recognition the legislature shall suitably encourage means and agencies calculated to advance the sciences and liberal arts and there's nothing more that advances the sciences and liberal arts than literacy and the ability to read books and the ability to be to read the books that are important to you um one of the most important parts of the wyoming constitution i would say in the education realm article 7 section 12 states no sectarian instruction qualifications or tests shall be imparted exacted or applied in any manner tolerated in schools of any grade or character controlled by the state nor shall attendance be required at any religious service they're in and

112most importantly nor shall any sectarian tenants or doctrines be taught or favored in any public school or institution that may be established under this constitution so i join with those parents and community members who want our licensed professional educators and librarians to continue to use their professional judgment to select books and instructional materials for students i do not want other parents without those credentials choosing materials based upon their own religion and sectarian needs thank you very much one more time joslyn bart sorry she didn't realize um i'm justin barr and i am i am a student at the district i'm a sophomore um i read lots of books i read 200 books last year and reading books involving sensitive topics is very very important to students especially my age because it helps us build empathy

113towards other groups of people and other people's experience that we have no other access to um reading abroad reading lots of books has not harmed me reading books of sensitive topics has not harmed me in fact it has bettered me in many ways lots of books are up for removable because of the types of representation they offer and that kind of representation is very important um they provide comfort to people who can't find support in other places um i have many friends who use books to see themselves when they can't see themselves in other places in um our community um i will have always have access to books regardless of your decision but not as many people are as privileged as i am madam chair and dr crespo in school district school board thank you

114for this opportunity i'm here as a long-term educator i went to high school here raised my children here i taught here i was in school district for i want to whisper 36 years so it's been a long time it's one of the best education that i believe any of our children can obtain school teachers have always been honest as far as i'm concerned open i see some principles we've had my children in the classroom we didn't always agree on everything but what was what i appreciated most when i had to talk to a principal or a teacher about a book about the content they were always open to listen i do believe parents should have the opportunity to say what books their child should read or not read and i do think our educators should

115take that in consideration and not too often have i heard a teacher say your cat your child has to read this book my challenge in the classroom was to get the kids to pick up a book and to read it to enjoy reading we have a lot of competition today they would rather be on social media videos and pick up a book when i see these young children who come in and speak on their behalf of reading it makes my heart go pity path thank you teachers in this school and administrators work very very hard and we give teachers the opportunity i mean parent the opportunity to say what they want their teach children to read or not school board i'm very proud of you you stayed sad fast unmovable and you had a tough

116year i read a lot i watched some of the things that you had to go through but you're still here and lucky for you teachers that are in the 21st century you guys have a lot more training that we have when i first started okay and a lot more freedom but there are some books that i felt didn't do a lot for my culture and where i came from but let me tell you this book that i love most of all was the five chinese for brothers chinamen never met one in my life but i loved that book it made me read i picked it up it was my book of choice thank you school board thank you educators for doing all that you can for our children and what we need to do is

117just hope they pick up a book and read [Music] wendy volk madam chair members of the board and dr krespo my name is wendy volk i'm a parent and a proud east high school graduate i want you to know how proud i am of our public school system i value and appreciate our board of trustees administration staff teachers librarians and custodians thank you for putting your heart time and energy in your work to support our students i'm here to speak up in support of the freedom to read what is right for you may not be right for me what is right for me might not be right for you but what is not right is for either of us being stripped of the freedom to choose what is right for ourselves i aspire to see

118our school district be welcoming and inclusive i want to see our bullying and suicide rates decline i want our students and staff to feel safe and protected all people have the right to read or not read but not or not read what they want but protect those freedoms the books and information must be available in the effort to eliminate these choices in opposition to freedom of choice and we cannot let that happen there is a community there's a cumulative radicalization taking place a group of parents in our community are trying to control and pressure our school board to ban books or remove them from the shelves and in doing so curtail free will self-expression and curiosity i respect other parents that have chosen to opt out of certain subject matters authors or specific books i

119like that each family is welcome to create curated reading lists for their child every family in our school district has that opportunity to opt your child out of any reading material families that want to restrict their own students reading choices are welcome to work with the school librarians to do so our school district has very specific criteria that i applaud that have to be met for a book to be added to our library collection there is a policy and procedure that i respect that is in place for our school district to reconsider a book thank you for all who are continuing this important work every day books have saved my life they have saved my loved ones lives and the friends that are no longer here i wish they had access to some of the

120books that we read thank you [Applause] kathy sigliano thank you kathy cigliano let's talk mental health mental health of our teachers earlier this month two award-winning teachers resigned after being quoted as feeling defeated and done one said she would die in the classroom after submitting a three-page letter on june 2nd to the campbell county school district she she also mailed a letter on july 18th to the superintendent of that district along with the assistant superintendent and board members the only response that she got was they hoped to fill her spot and wish her well an article was published about these two teachers on august 3rd they're in gillette i've printed off a copy for each of you to read and it's in the in the book or basket basically it talks about how under-supported teachers

121are and how they feel they aren't being heard i have been contacted by several teachers over the last six months on an anonymous basis because they fear if they speak up to their principal or anyone in the admin building they will face retaliation which has actually happened or they will be looked at as a troublemaker they have talked to me on issues of stress being undersupported not being heard being told to just deal with it being told that policies are in place come down from the admin and there there is nothing that we can do about it you have teachers who have been teaching for years and they have systems that have worked and students who have excel then you take those systems and tools away and tell them do this do it this way

122a study has shown that this will work better when in fact these studies are just being conducted by people who aren't in the classroom and who are just talking or taking the department of ed's word for it our district likes to spend money on lots of fancy programs that will that will implement new policy and procedure but we have very little to support that new policy and procedure actually have a better outcome talk to your teachers make them feel important if you don't we will be facing far worse than just 40 teachers short for the school year i also recommend reading why meadow died by andrew andrew pollock you will read a lot about some of the very policies that were discussed during the work session that happened tonight before this meeting thank you thank

123you our public comments thank you very much um trustee i'm sorry we don't have um you need to just sign up thank you very much we had this discussion before appreciate that i'm sure i'm going to adjourn a second all in favor say aye aye there's