San Angelo ISD School Board Meeting - August 17, 2020

001everybody's so loud i guess i'll go ahead and call the meeting to order i appreciate everyone being here this evening um this is a meeting of the board of trustees names line independent school district held monday august the 17th we appreciate like i said everyone being here the first item on our agenda is to establish a quorum of our board team we're kind of spread out but all of our board team is here in attendance we appreciate everyone being here our second item on our agenda is our invocation we're honored this evening to have mr michael tercero he's the minister to students and young families at first baptist church and he's going to lead us in our invocation good afternoon um first kings three um solomon asked for wisdom i'd like to pray for wisdom

002for for you guys tonight so um god thank you i've got so much god for who you are and for the things that you do in our lives god regardless of god how we we treat you god and so oh god i just uh god thank you for this community god that you've you blessed us with god thank you for san angelo and god to thank you that you've blessed uh this board god uh to lead it and so god i just commit uh just wisdom on on them god i just ask for wisdom for them to lead god god just like solomon did and he was tested within that chapter god we know that and so i asked for that same wisdom that would uh that would allow people to wonder in all what

003san angelo is doing and the things that we're doing and so in the middle of all of this covid god and and just everything god i pray god for for deep wisdom and god i see you'd bless their families god uh you bless their marriages god their relationships god and their children and then and god i just ask that you god uh god would be over the stress of this job god for them physically and emotionally god of the decisions that they have to make god but god thank you that they're all in agreement of doing what's best for san angelo and so god i just looked them up to you god i looked up this meeting to you god may you be honored and glorified today we love you we thank you it's in

004jesus name i pray amen thank you michael we appreciate you being here very much our next items are pledges we have students doing pledges during the school year but i get to do them in the summer so let's stand up i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all honor in the texas life i pledge allegiance to thee one state under god i think i'll read our script if y'all don't mind uh good evening and welcome president of the board of trustees es and angels independent school district i would like to welcome all of you who are present at tonight's regular board meeting i also welcome those of you who might be watching the tape of this meeting on our public access channel

005channel 4. we appreciate your interest in the students and our students all items that will be discussed at our meeting this evening has been have been posted as required by state law also as you may be aware our board team meets a minimum of two times per month and most if not all the items on our agenda this evening have been previously discussed in an earlier pre-agenda board workshop as members of the san angelo independent school district's board of trustees we're here to set goals listen to reports from our superintendent approve budgets contracts and personnel appointments and to make policy for the school district please keep in mind that our meeting is a meeting of the board of trustees held in the public and not a meeting of the public however with that in mind

006we have an item on each one of our meeting agendas that allows anyone present who wishes to speak to our board team an opportunity to do so i'll make certain that we give everyone an opportunity to speak on any item not listed on our agenda additionally prior to taking any votes i'll ask audience members if they would like to make any comments anyone wishing to make comments on any agenda item should do their best to limit their comments to five minutes in compliance with texas state law these proceedings are recorded and will come become a part of seisd's permanent legal record in order that our tape might adequately reflect the proceedings i ask that you please refrain from talking while others might be speaking i also ask as i remind my fellow board members to

007please turn off or silence their cell phones at this particular time again it's my pleasure to welcome you to tonight's meeting thank you for taking the time to join us here this evening we appreciate your interest in the activities of our students in the business of our school district we have a number of folks that when we get to that part of our agenda that are going to want to make comments on our that's item five on our agenda um we've um we want to make sure we hear from everyone um we want to make sure that we're cordial while everyone else is speaking uh whether you agree or disagree with what they happen to be seeing so if you'll work real hard to do that i'd appreciate that also we've been about probably three

008weeks last three or four weeks we've had a number of folks that have chosen to come up and speak to us as a board team and we again we appreciate those comments but we want to make sure that we limit those comments to five minutes uh we've had a couple of folks that um didn't their watch didn't work very well you know so they spoke more than five minutes and really that that's not fair to anybody else that's um prepared their comments and made uh made made made sure that they could make the comments in five minutes or less so um miss hopkins is gonna help me with that and so and the last thing i want to do is interrupt you um so ms hopkins is gonna is gonna kind of wave at me

009and then um i'll just say if you could finish your thoughts in the you know next 30 seconds so we would appreciate it i think we'll work pretty smoothly through that so i appreciate again everybody being here to speak um our next item on our agenda is item four which is our minutes um do we have a motion to approve our minutes second we have a motion from mr gallegos in a second from mr hernandez to approve the minutes of our july 13th special finance and pre-agenda board meeting uh also that evening on july 13 2020 we had a board training um in july um 20th of 2020 we had a regular board meeting so those are the three minutes that we're approving any comments or questions from our board team concerning our minutes any

010public comment if not all in favor please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed indicate by saying no our motion passes um our next item is item five and this is uh for public comment so we have a number of folks who've signed up if you didn't sign up or still welcome your comments we just need to make sure we get your name and address and contact information prior to you making those comments so the first person i have is and i might i might not be able to read everyone's writing exactly as it as their name is but i think it's chelsea heard um and chelsea if you'll come to the microphone and again try to limit your comments to five minutes we really appreciate you being here thank you hello and good afternoon

011my name is chelsea hurd i'm a sixth generation texan my father is a retired sergeant major of the us army my husband is a purple heart recipient i love my country i love my heritage i love learning about our history i studied american history at asu and i love our community i felt the need to preface my statement with those opening statements because it's important to clarify this isn't about political affiliation it's about moral obligation conservatism and morality are no longer synonymous that was based on a pillar of upholding tradition and that is a noble cause except for when tradition includes racism except when tradition is oppressive in microaggressions except when the tradition is indoctrinating a new generation of hate those in favor of renaming the school know history well we aren't erasing history we

012are convenient or conveniently skipping over the shameful parts i do not support oppression or ownership over humans i certainly don't support a historical failure as representation for my daughter a sixth grader at the current school name and mascot the current name and mascot are offensive to any person of color and group of oppressed people including the many natives to this community who are hispanic or indigenous the civil war and its leaders are in the texas curriculum students attending glenn and lincoln are taught the same material as at robert e lee middle school again history is not being erased the glorification of destructive ideologies however hopefully will be as a student of history it is paramount to teach our children about robert e lee and his contributions to our country it is important so they can

013correctly identify oppression and speak out against it we must educate our children to ensure another civil war will never stay in this country these lessons are so important in a time like this it is easy for privileged people of all origins to say slavery and segregation were evil now but when faced with systemic racism today they deny it exists continuing to glorify traitors against our country by protecting school names in their honor is oppression it sends a message to people of color that they matter less or not at all if you want the race wars protest riots to cease it starts with ending microaggressions like naming schools after oppressive leaders middle schoolers can be cruel all on their own can you imagine being a middle school athlete with the name of the master who owned

014your family 165 years ago across your chest or the name of a man who fought to capture and kill your native american or mexican ancestors 175 years ago can you imagine the taunts you would hear from the opposing team if you can't your privilege has become too deceitful for your own good unfortunately racism is very real even in 2020 especially in san angelo my heart is broken to see the ugliness defended in my community because i grew up in an extremely diverse yet equally equitable subgroup as the child of a soldier i grew up running in and out of houses with wildly differing cultures all next to each other and yet everyone was respectful and mindful of the beautiful diversity among us that doesn't always happen here in san angelo when i moved here to

015attend asu in the early 2000s i was told for the first time that i was brown it was pointed out to me as a negative quality and to add insult to injury i was told by brown people that i was too white i learned about racism firsthand at the age of 18 when i moved to san angelo texas after living all around the world i know i am lucky to have lived the life of privilege i have even as a brown person i'm also very aware that my experience has not been shared by all brown people this is why i advocate unapologetically for the oppressed person regardless of race sex religion or age we as san angelo residents have the opportunity to do better so let's do better we have the opportunity to show our

016students that real leaders command respect instead of demanding it command respect by demanding students be represented respectfully it's time to condemn the use of robert e lee rebels as representation for the children of my neighborhood i understand there is a financial burden that comes with this change but this is not justification to keep systemic racism in place i would love my tax dollars to improve the roads making my daily commute smoother but i also want every child in my neighborhood to feel as valued as their most privileged classmate with equal and equitable representation the children of my community are more important than the tires on my car and i hope you feel the same thank you for your consideration thank you miss hurt i appreciate those comments next on my list is caleb walker [Music]

017mr walker okay um going going gone okay our last our next um person on my list is anna bartosz thank you miss bartosz good afternoon um i am here to speak in favor of keeping the name of lee junior high several years ago we were privileged to be able to go to germany and visit uh the concentration camp dakao now our guide told us that the children of munich uh were all had to go on a field trip to dachau why we ask so they would never forget and i would think that having a concentration camp near you would be a constant reminder of the atrocities that can happen so i'm i'm here to speak in favor of keeping our history keeping the name thank you thank you miss bartosz appreciate those comments our next

018um person is neldon newland nalan nalan thank you [Music] thank you mrs allen can i have one minute good evening my name is nelden allen my voice may be a little rough right now after having my mask on i taught school for 46 years and i mean speaking also with regard to the change of the name of robert e lee middle school each of us brings our own background experiences with regard to any issue as the former speaker has said therefore i want to tell the board why i look at this differently in 1983 governor mark white appointed dallas businessman h ross perot to head a commission on schools most people remember that task force that he chaired because of no pass no play but the changes in education in texas went much deeper than

019that pro wanted to see equality in education in order to bring about that sweeping change the commission of education raymond bynum established a committee to write a framework by which all texas schools would teach basic skills in english and math at each grade level pro wanted tests developed to show that schools were indeed teaching those skills and that all students were mastering them in 1984 i received a 10-year appointment to the 20-member committee to write the framework for english language arts by governor mark white and commissioner of education bynum i was reappointed to that committee in and so it began that framework came to be known as essential elements and antiques the test that was created came to be known as tabs teams tax and finally the star test the test came to include ela

020reading mathematics writing social studies and science as well and of course exams were also added in the beginning the passing grade on those tests was a 70. but before long because kids weren't doing well in texas they lowered the passing grade to 62. finally the state set four levels master's grade level meets grade level or above approaches grade level or above and fails to beat grade level what does that mean all tests have different percentage scores for meeting that level so i send you to the tea website for those specifics the state of texas is now giving all schools within a district letter grades abcdf so parents and community members can see how the district is doing so let's look at how san angelo isd is doing some schools are doing great but four elementary

021schools have a grade of f as well as one middle school has a grade of f two elementary schools and one middle school have a d these grades come directly from the texas education website now let's turn to the middle school lee specifically lee has a grade of d so let's break that down further in 2019 only 38 percent of the students met grade level in ela reading only 39 at lee met grade level in mathematics only 28 percent met grade level in writing 50 met grade level in science and only 25 met grade level in social studies remember these tests were created in order to provide equality in education throughout the state of texas so when someone looks at you and says oh we just don't look at one test on one day they're

022missing the point the point was to provide equality in education for all students in every single school now in order to make the changes that that's going to require it's going to cost money and it only spins once frankly and i went to lee but the name on the building doesn't mean as much to me as the education that each and every student in that building is receiving my husband had a saying honey it only spends once the san angelo isd school board has been entrusted by taxpayers to spend their tax dollars in a way that most benefits student learning please don't lose sight of the fact that it only spins once and make your decisions accordingly thank you and the next person i have on my list is atlanta primo miss primo thank you

023hello my name is lana primo of san angelo and this is the third time i'm speaking to you on behalf of the name changes for lee and now including reagan elementary i want to thank you all by implementing the engaging equity program and i had a chance to be a part of the focus group on august 4th and i enjoyed that dr orr said something that really stuck with me and he said who was included in these decisions when the schools are being named and who is excluded in those decisions and i think that really brings us down to why we're here tonight my previous comments were directed to the board but tonight i'd like to address more of the community specifically to those in attendance of the protest at lee on august 8th to

024support the retention of the name i actually share a lot in common with the people that were there i was born in san angelo i was raised in san angelo i went to saisd schools including lee my children have gone to lee but i think that's about where the similarities end my response to the concern about the representation of our public schools was one of concern how can we begin to repair the damage that has been inflicted over time at the july 20th board meeting shirley spears the president of the naacp spoke of growing up during the civil rights movement as a black girl she said you can empathize but quote you cannot adequately speak to the discrimination the horror and how it hurts to be not considered and invisible in america end quote that

025brings me to debbie cross the organizer of the protest and debbie whether you're here tonight or not or whether you heard that specific quote or not your response to the petition was to show up on a public school campus brandishing confederate flags and wearing shirts with pictures and quotes from lee and sporting gear supporting the 45th president another famous white racist and you said quote i can guarantee you that no one that walked these halls ever felt depressed felt threatened felt the need for therapy after they went to school here end quote really the school's been open for 71 years and you speak for every child black white hispanic asian or other that attended school there nope i don't think so no you can guarantee that your white experience you never felt threatened or oppressed

026i hear a lot of y'all say that you love your community and you love san angelo but your actions and your words say that you care about white san angelo i will give you this you proved several arguments valid for the name change by the protest the name does represent racism it does support divisiveness and it needs to go thank you for your time thank you for comments um our next speaker that signed up that wishes to speak is miss casper mary casper good evening mr layman board this is an odd situation that we're in or actually it isn't very odd given today's culture we've got people that want to erase history we've got people that want to cancel people we've got people that want white people to apologize for everything even things that happened

027175 years ago our world has changed immensely we are now living in an environment created by george orwell's 1984 a dash of robin cook's book contagion and many chapters of saul alinsky's rules for radicals along with coward and cleven piven excuse me p-i-v-e-n thrown in for good measure if you don't know who saul alinsky is or cloward and piven i suggest you find out because it's hitting you in the face right now this name change is not about the name change that is not the issue the issue is power and that's the first rule of saul alinsky's rules for radicals he uh mentioned uh he gave the forward in this book in honor of satan as the first radical who got his own um following shall we say the fallen angel they took that out

028by the way the dedication in his new reprint the board had a request brought before it to change the name it wasn't a request it is a threat it is a threat to each one of you it is a threat to each member of administration it is a threat to each person in this room it is a threat to each citizen of san angelo and of tom greene county and one of the things that they are going to do is they are going to try and bring every single one of us down by name calling by making fun of us if we do not appeal agree with them they are going to come after you one way or another they're going to try to belitter you belittle you the person that brought this already thinks

029thinks that the people of san angelo have absolutely no sense of history no idea of what is on the right or the wrong side of history got news for you there is no right side of history there is no wrong side of history there is only history they say that they do not want to erase history history is already being erased reed howard zinn's book look up the uh what is it the 1619 project that is going on right now look at any of the world history books you take a look at them and many of them that are being brought before the school boards erase israel one of the great religions of the world if they don't even mention it anymore and what is actually israel is now labeled palestine that's not right that's

030erasing history they change history look at what they say about the 9 11. somebody did something nobody mentions anymore they're afraid to because somebody we know who's going to come after you because nobody wants to mention that it was islamic terrorists that hijacked three planes and flew him into the ground now what does this have to do with san angelo he doesn't they want power strictly power you give in to them you give them more power the change of the name of lee and she mentioned reagan is only the first domino they are going to go after every single school name in the south that is connected to the southern culture every single one and they're just waiting to go after borigard chadburn tom greene county saul ross uh you name it reagan all of

031them now you have to decide are you going to give in to are you going to what i think would be a perfect solution is bringing it before the voters i would try very very hard to find a way to do that we have an election coming up in may put it befo so there's no extra cost that would provide a cooling down period and you could have it to the voters and the people will have spoken by them again let me remind you this is power and that's all it is and we can take the national attention we've had it before and i would much rather be known as a town that stood up against the blm and the radicals instead of somebody that caved into them thank you very much appreciate it thank

032you um miss casper our next person that signed up is jesse ramone the best way to handle this and i should have said this initially but we need to try to keep um specific people mentioning specific people out of this and talk about issues rather than people that are sitting in the room i mean we can talk all we want to about historical figures and things like that but we don't need to be you know it's not showing proper um respect for each other if we're at a mic if we have control of the microphone and we start talking poorly about others that are in the room so let's try to move forward in that manner yeah i appreciate you mentioning that um that's pretty much what we've seen here today so um just to

033remind you who i am jesse ramon i approached this board two months ago with a proposal to rename robert lee middle school uh i you know want to extend my thanks and appreciation for the initiative the school board has developed in reaction to that proposal and it's a original petition that's to this day has gained almost 14 000 signatures in favor of renaming that school the focus groups the public summits summits and soon to be released survey uh reaffirm your you know that you're listening to us and that you're open to the proposal as it's clear that you're taking it you know very extensively and a methodical approach to this very sensitive topic i've attempted uh attended a number of the functions and i'm thankful for the opportunity to share my thoughts and opinions on

034the matter in addition to hearing from others both like-minded and that you know disagree with this topic so one thing remains consistent when arguing to keep the name however is the position of supposedly erasing history and that's what we've heard tonight i can assure you like i did back in june that we are not in fact erasing history history will continue to be preserved in the context of the history books that robert lee middle schoolers read in class in addition to countless museums and informative literature both electronic and in paper many of which you were provided today with the added use of technology it makes it easier and easier for you to educate yourself on topics that you find interesting one being so um like podcasts that i've recently caught a number of episodes related

035to the topic of robert lee and the civil war so a lot of what i've read on social immediately recently um insinuates that students need to learn the real history of the civil war which is almost always argued by an older caucasian male who is self-proclaimed as a civil war buff and insist that the war was only about states rights so even if this were partially true i think dr pierce and many other legitimate historians not just facebook warriors have confirmed that not to be true even if we were to entertain this idea for just a moment that it was partially true it is the fact still remains that the there was there was arguments over states rights and there was part of the state's rights was the right to own slaves so this seems

036to be an excusable endeavor that the opposing side continues to present by parading robert lee's many accomplishments as a wartime hero and i think this only adds to the lightheartedness and the disregard to human rights at its core this is in fact inexcusable and has been recognized for over a century this would explain the many attempts to rewrite history in the form of revisionism whichever way you decide to spend this the fact remains robert lee owned slaves he refused to free those slaves and he killed many americans over the right to own slaves i find it irresponsible for us to debate over the character of a man and his right to be on a public school building that was originally built to exclude children of color lee's elevation is a key part of the 150

037year old propaganda campaign designed to erase slavery as the cause for the war and whitewash the confederacy's true cause to be a noble one the ideology is known as the lost cause and and it's provided a foundation on which southerners built the jim crow era despite the frequent interruptions and outbursts in these virtual meetings i've had the opportunity to listen to those that oppose my petition and i'm grateful for the opportunity to hear their thoughts in fact shortly after the last meeting i had with two older women who oppose my petition i received facebook requests from both of them thanking me for being considerate and a respectable citizen with the capacity to listen and engage which is exactly what those meetings are intended for if other interactions like that occurred i think compromise and progression

038is better achieved what i learned from these meetings is that many don't have a significant reason for opposing the change aside from it being an established part of san angelo that many attended i understand that completely and i want to remind you that other schools have been torn down and renamed for less ethical reasons i'm here today remind you of your of our voice and presence you have seen many of the same faces in the past two months and i cannot say the same for the ever-changing group of counter protesters both and which are not here tonight where's the original petitioner who created the uh petition to challenge mine the one that created the other petition last weekend and protested she's not here either i apologize as a parent of an saisd student for not

039being more involved but i promise to be moving forward not only is my child's education pivotal and her comprehension of a um you know as a minority is important in the predominantly white school in the first paragraph of my petition i originally explained why i created youtube could you wrap up your comments in about 30 seconds sure thank you so um to end i reached out to my daughter to get her thoughts and opinions on why she thinks the name should be changed and i just want to end with that i asked her how she felt about slavery she said that she thought it was wrong because we're all human and should be treated equally i asked her if she thought the school should be renamed and if so why she said yes because it

040should be changed because she was a he was a bad man he owned slaves and the school does not and should not represent slavery so again that's coming from an 11 year old so for her ability to comprehend what that name of the school means i think should kind of add context to what some of these adults might be lacking thank you thank you mr ramon our next person wishing to make comments is miss beers charlie spears good evening to the board president and to all of the members present on the board and to the audience this evening on behalf of the members of the san angelo naacp i am here as a local president to again provide comments on this very sensitive matter we appreciate the time and energy that the saisd faculty and

041staff have taken to create a process that's fair where every citizen has the opportunity to be heard through the engaging equity process the naacp chapter applauds you for ensuring that there is truly process we can point to that demonstrates diversity inclusion and most of all equity your actions point to the fact that you not only recognize the differences of opinion but that you are actively listening and creating an environment where ideas can be a part of the solution as a senior aged over 60 african-american woman who experienced racism and segregation unlike some of my peers who are over 60 sitting in this audience this evening i know all too well the impacts that discrimination albeit subtle can have on the minds of people and carry on for generations such as where we are today with

042reagan and lee schools through research time and time again the american story has been captured in books and the spin of those stories often have satisfied only the authors or the publishers today we are at a critical point in our local history to demonstrate that we are truly as we say stronger together today it is time to tell the story accurately and to be sensitive to the harm that we may have caused for more than 60 years on the countless students faculty and staff who have passed through the halls of reagan elementary and lee junior high today we must be honest in our understanding of what these two men stood for in our attempts to have a more perfect union in america we must be clear in our education of our current students parents and

043other citizens of san angelo that the confederacy was created out of hatred and fear and that the reason that we even had a civil war was truly about slavery and economics we must ask ourselves whether we continue to use hurtful and harmful names such as rebel and honor men or women who committed treason against their country or whether it is more important to educate our community with truth it's very easy to find truth today and just as it's easy to twist it what often does not change is the impact of the facts of negative activity in the hearts minds and souls of those who those negative statements are directed there are facts that i could go on and on but we already know everybody in this room that general robert e lee was a slave

044holder like his father we already know that he's not even from texas why are we so set on giving him honor and we already know that he is not never was a hero and anyone that we should suggest children admire fact john reagan when abraham lincoln was lincoln was elected in november 1860 the breakup of the union began in 1861 reagan resigned his congressional seat because of biases racism and discrimination texas withdrew from the union on february the second and two days later delegates elected reagan one of the state's seven representatives to the secession convention in montgomery alabama i wouldn't consider him an e a hero either miss spears could you wrap your i share in 30 seconds please ma'am i sure can thank you the national association for the advancement of colored people has

045been the driving force with other partners across this great country and world to change the landscape of america by making it change laws optics perspectives and describe honor for all citizens who respect the ideals of a great society since 1909 locally we have been on the scene for 75 years so today we repeat our support of the change of the names of both john reagan elementary and robert e lee middle school to finally appreciate the heartache and hardships that these confederate supporters have caused to countless members of our community thank you for all that you do for the students and community of san angelo and we trust as the prayer said that you will be wise men and women in your decision making thank you thank you ms spears [Music] our next uh person wishing

046to speak to the board is cecil caldera jr mr caldera someone outside maybe okay we'll move past that the next name i have on my list is mr gomet okay huh cecil caldera junior and then the next one is sam gomez do yeah thank you welcome come on up to the microphone and you may not have heard of my comments earlier since you were outside um we're going to try to limit or we're doing our best to limit everyone's comments to five minutes and if you'll uh do that we'd really appreciate it and let us know who you are since i announced two names and i'm not sure which one you might be um good evening to everyone my name is cecil caldero i come to speak on the decision i know that's coming for

047you about changing the name to lee junior high school um the first thing i'd like to mention is i see a lot of people talking about the politics i see you've heard it all already but what about san angelo because it's a it's part of our history lee junior high school there's been rivalries in football all the kids when we talk to each other now that we're adults we say oh junior high did you go to i mean it was tragic when y'all took away edison and we still refer to it as edison so we're like and if we take away lee and that's taking part of our history because i don't tell you nobody's offended by the name because it means something else to us it's part of our town's history and then if

048you did decide to change it think of all the things that you would have to change you'd have to change their mascot you'd have to change the uniforms you'd have to change uh all the words on the outside of the building how much is that going to cost where's that money going to come from and then after they do that they're i heard them speaking about reagan elementary well there's another one and how much is that going to cost and then if they go after any of the other schools it's just going to accumulate who's going to pay for this we're just going to raise taxes and you know nobody's going to like that but we got to look at that viewpoint also would call it as far as as far as legos and its

049name i know that they're talking about slavery and all that but is anyone speaking about what he did after the war before the war he wrote a letter saying that he really didn't approve of slavery and the reason that he was a general for the south was because he felt dedication to virginia where he was born that was loyalty after the war he was one of the main people to try to reconstruct our torn country and that's what a lot of people remember him for too and his family has served this country since the revolution when my dad was coming back from vietnam he said that when he stopped at fort bragg he met a young lady there and she was directly uh related to him his granddaughter i believe is what he said so

050they're still serving our country so are you gonna disrespect not only his name but his family because everybody's talking about him but what about the things he did afterwards and what his family is still doing until today because that's legacy so you want people want to tarnish this legacy i think i'll just go ahead and stop here but i want to read you a letter that i printed it's from uh our president eisenhower because somebody asked him this very question about lee and why he had a portrait of him in his office it was the letter was from dr scott he said respecting your august inquiry calling attention to my often expressed admiration for general robert e lee i would say first that we need to understand that at the time of the war between

051the states the issue of secession had remained unresolved for more than 70 years men of probiotic character and public standing and unquestioned loyalty both north and south character sorry and this disagreed over the issue as a matter of principle from the day our constitution was adopted general robert e lee was in my estimation one of the supremely gifted men produced by our nation he belong he he believed unansweringly i mean unswervingly in the in the united states constitution the ability the validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in america he was posed an inspiring leader true to the high trust proposed in him by millions of his fellow citizens he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious unrelenting and personally courageous in

052battle and never dishearted by a reverse or obstacle through all his many trials he remains selfless almost to a fault unwilling unfailing in his faith and in his god taken together he was noble as a leader and as a man and unsullied as i read the pages of our history from deep conviction i simply say this a nation of men of lee's caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul indeed to the degree that present-day american youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking painstaking efforts to help heal the nation's wounds once the bitter struggle was over in our own time of danger in a divided world will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained such are the reasons that i proudly display

053the picture of this great american on my office wall sincerely thank you mr calderon could you wrap your comments up in like 15 or 20 more seconds all right sir i just think that it would be wrong not only to the citizens of san angelo but to our great country if we disrespected our the legacy of the lees by changing the name of the school or any of the other schools they're there for a reason in the past they chose to put these names on these schools because they were great american don't take that from it thank you mr calder we appreciate you being here um mr gomez sam gomez thank you for being here mr gomez good evening everybody thank you for the opportunity i'm not a great speaker i didn't write down nothing

054or anything like that but i'm here to say about history we all got history i mean for those that have not seen casper first stone right i got a history if i put it on my arms my history from being locked up or something i'd have to cut off my arms right but i'm under god's grace i was forgiven by god who's to judge robert e lee for what he did he was just serving his country at the time that's what he figured so it was to judge each other about what we got going on from our past sometimes once in a while i opened a soup because i was in jail a long time ago i opened a soup to remember that history that way i won't go back to history the same people

055that are bringing this history trying to bring history and taking on our our signs they're the same ones that are trying to defund the police same ones that are allowing men to walk in the bathrooms with our children and the same ones that are trying to tear down the flags and burning flags they're the same people they're just trying to start agenda for themselves i don't believe in that i believe that history should be remembered and make sure they'll go back to the history don't go into socialism don't go to another stuff we need to make america free make america great again that's all i got to say robert robert e lee was a good junior high my kids went to junior high there and they came out pretty good i mean i know a

056lot of people went through robert lee lee glen junior high john h reagan i went to john h reagan i was a bad kid when i was there for a while i like to fight and stuff like that but none of them kids that i grew up with remember that they still love me for who i am they know i'm a person they know i finished school john h reagan at least maybe not high school but still they know i was a good person and i'm who i am now today is who i am changing the history would be very sad for this town once they do that who's going to pay you the taxpayers are going to pay for all the name changing and everything so i think it's better to keep lead junior

057high the way it is next thing they're going to want to do they're going to change the name of the streets the cities and everything else it's going to be a domino effect i got to think about the taxpayers everyone's going to pay for this so keep the name of robert lee lee keep the name of john h reagan lakeview chiefs we need to keep our history remember the history of the past and learn from it not erase it that's all i can say thank you thank you mr gomez i appreciate those comments anyone else that didn't sign up wishing to speak this evening yes sir yeah would you um tell us your name when you get up there to the mic so that way our recording will uh capture that my name is larry

058miller i'm a retired school teacher and air force veteran and i certainly hadn't intended to say any words to you but i quite frankly don't know what i know and i need to impart this to you because one of the speakers is very proud of this survey slash petition that he has to the tune of over thirteen thousand names and i need to describe this it's with an organization called change.org which is a very left-leaning organization all you have to do is get on a computer and get into this area re read the little blurb he's got that describes why he has this petition and all you do is punch a button now that sounds pretty good except for the fact that it's not controlled it's not scientific he says he has 13 000 signatures

059but some of those signatures are as far away as iceland and ireland it isn't limited he put no statement on there that please only someone from the san angelo area sign up for this thing he left it open to everybody so as far as that petition is concerned it's only an international popularity contest period thank you very much thank you mr miller yeah i think we have someone else if you do the same thing for me sir if you would let us know who you are when you get there and um and try to limit your comments to five minutes thank you well i'd like to start off by saying i didn't know this was a fancy dress affair so i apologize no don't worry uh secondly um i have no special credentials to offer

060you today don't uh i'm sorry did you tell us your name oh yeah michael brown okay thanks i apologize um i do have an 11 year old son and uh he's going to tlc this year he should have gone to lee um let me explain my first day at lee uh to start off we were stretching out in the uh in the gym and for i think it was for basketball uh and i asked someone next to me what is this guy with a big nose and a hat carrying a flag what is our what is that and uh before he could answer me our coach i think his name was mr payne said it's something that used to be racist it's okay now and that was it that was the last i heard at

061robert e lee about robert e lee in history books and anything i would also like to ask everybody if they have one of these these devices if you do would you hold it up did you know that you can type in robert e lee into this thing and it will give you gigs of information you're not losing history history is right here at your fingertips you refuse to look at it also i would like to say your trip to germany sounds very wonderful that concentration i'm sure is full of lots of information but it is not a junior high it's not a junior high it is not a place where young impressionable minds go every day i have heard somebody say that nobody will be oppressed from this name nobody will lose a job and

062you're right but let me ask you a question if you had to go to a place every day if you went to a job every day that slightly put you down are you gonna quit no will it make you earn less money work less hard no but it sure is disrespectful and i'll tell you one thing as far as money goes i would be proud to see a city that would stand behind equality so much they don't worry about where their tax dollars are going but they care more about a person how their lives are lived i ask for unity of this community and unity will not happen unless we actually stand together unity is never fought with division we must take positive steps to unite our community in san angelo um also i would

063like to speak on the uh petition the gentleman said oh there's people all over the world there's people all over the world folks all over the world that are looking at san angelo texas right now who support equality i ask you what will you tell the world how will your response be will it be we are going to save our money and protect our taxes and protect our legacy legacy is history my grandfather was pete chapa of the american gi forum and he fought for the same thing 30 40 years ago he walked to austin and back twice for this very thing for people of color getting equality i ask you today if your monuments if your general means so much to you why have you not petitioned to make a safe spot for it

064in san angelo why must it be to divide people and keep this i will put forth i will help you to make your own general lead flag or whatever you would like but our kids are more important than that our kid needs positivity our children need a new fundamental change in thought and it hasn't happened yet guys it hasn't and i appreciate your uh sentiments about the learning process yes we need to focus on that but how can we say that we truly care about equality when we push somebody and we effigize and uh make effigies of someone who doesn't the bottom line is is it's discouraging we can all do agree on that if it's discouraging to somebody we should change it my name is michael brown thank you thank you mr brown yes

065i think we have another individual be sure and introduce yourself if you don't mind and do as most everyone did limit your comments to five minutes thank you for being here caleb wallace sorry i think you called my name because i think he said walker i didn't know oh i'm yeah i'm sacrificing correction or not sorry about that yeah um i am the president of the san angelo freedom defenders here in san angelo our birth was on july 4th when this city refused to fly the american flag at the courthouse we've seen time and time again this city take a stance against his taxpayers the stationary school board not getting the picture about bonds multiple multiple votes of telling you no we're here organized and activated today not in hate not in spite of each

066other but in for love for one another i come for you today to offer a message of peace of one of facts and one of the future for all of us to allow us to live here in senegal peacefully together our focus as offenders of san angelo is the freedoms here at san angelo locally we've seen what we've we what we've seen nationally on a national level participating in national organizations like i did it fell on deaf ears but when we started organizing started becoming a thorn into local leaders we started seeing some great movements some great results we started seeing some great conversations being done and some people activated that have never been activated before in their life coming forward and to participate with us whether that be against or for or with arms

067with us or against us on the other side of the street that's perfectly fine we're here to offer that if we cave to this name change we cave here right now promise you you won't see the end of it it's they've already got plans for it they've already got plans to keep pushing they're nerdy not satisfied with the name of lee middle school already not satisfied you will do nothing everything you do will never appease these these organizations that associate with pairs like the black lives matters or antifa while they destruct and set cities aflame people are killed and pulled out of their vehicles for being the wrong color but yet they preached to us about color and preached to us about racial inter racial discriminity and inequality it's the same organization that officers refuse

068to respond to these calls because if they have to respond in a way of violence or one or defense 51 of all homicides are created by the blacks community but yet they make up such a very small part of our nation officers city regular citizens like myself we don't go anywhere unarmed anymore nowhere i don't feel safe i know the city of san antonio sapd officers are sick and tired of this they refuse to have this come to our city but the pressure is on the pressure is real socialist and leftist marxist people that sit here with us today and those are organized against us today are well organized well funded and they have a they have an agenda i ask you to pray with your creator talk with him beg for his mercy and

069for his guidance what we should do i don't know the answer but the answers all entail for us here at san angelo i do know a threat when i see a threat and this is a threat i said we encourage all members of the black lives matter antifa name pro at pro name change please have a conversation with us please refuse to be violent please lift up your voice open up your arms to embrace us and talk with us that's all we ask and let's stop playing the race game name calling we're brothers and sisters we're here for the same thing for our children why in god's green earth are we talking about race in a school board meeting is beyond me it's ridiculous appreciate your time thank you mr wallace anyone else yes ma'am

070susie smith and i had not planned to you can pull the mic down miss smith if you don't yeah that'll be a little better for you thank you and i had not planned to speak tonight but um something he said reminded me of last saturday when we gathered at lee robert e lee junior high and rallied to keep the name and we had a lot of people who were driving by and honking in and we had a petition we were wanting people to come and sign our petition to keep the name and um so then we kind of began texting and letting people know we were there if they wanted to come and sign our petition so they started coming and signing the mission and we are getting our signatures from people here in san

071angelo we believe the ones that should have a voice in this and as we were gathered there and getting close to our time to finish up there was a big black truck that came and parked at the far end of the parking lot and then a speaker system and um martin luther king's i have a dream speech that was very inspiring and i got so excited because i thought wow we have something we agree on not the color of the skin it's the content of character and we do look forward to that time and we believe that much of his dream was realized and we've seen black and white children it's not 100 percent not one percent but we've seen young children like his dream hand in hand black and white and so i got

072so excited i said y'all when when they finish playing this let's let's uh applaud and clap and let them know that we're in agreement it's not about the color of the skin it's about the content of character and so when they finish playing it and they looped it and played it again so i just i just felt compelled to go and to try to dialogue as was stated you know we need to dialogue so that's what i wanted to do and so i approached the gentleman at the end at the back of the truck he had his mask on he had his earplugs in of course he couldn't hear me because it was blaring so loud but he could read my lips and so i was saying can we talk we agree we agree he

073says and hear you hear you i said well can we go over there beside the building away from the speakers and talk can't hear you and hear you i said well can we go back behind the truck and we'll be back behind the speakers he would not he was not dialogue so then i thought well he's not going to talk to me so i'll move to the fella who's in the middle of the truck so i walked over to him to speak to him and the gentleman at the back of the truck came over and got between us but he can't speak to so i couldn't hear him but i understood what he was saying he said what can he speak for himself no i said well that's bullying and so i turned around and

074walked away and i just thought you know what a missed opportunity and so i agree that what we need is dialogue but i don't think that that's what they're here to do and as i said when i spoke at the school board meeting before timing of it i'm concerned about the fact that i sense it's coming from outside of san angelo i don't see it bubbling up which is not to say there have not been individual incidences my kids who are white have been bullied too and so it's not unique to one race or the other and um and i am very concerned because of threats that have been made guaranteeing that if this name was not changed this would go national and that you all be responsible that is very concerning thank you miss

075smith anyone else wishing to share their thoughts with the board this evening [Music] okay um we appreciate everyone being here um one other thing that i said that um that i did failed to say initially is it um we can't because it's not an agenda item we can't make any official comments we can ask questions if we didn't understand anything specific but we can't make we can't have a dialogue about that because it's not on our agenda this evening everyone in the room probably knows but the board is set to address this on october 19th so between now and october 19th we have a number of opportunities for community input for a discussion of um of this particular item as we move forward and address that so we've got a number of opportunities if you

076don't know when those are you can check the seisd website and find that information so again thanks for being here we appreciate you all you're welcome to stay as long as you like and hear us talk about what's going on with our students and things like that in our district if not again we thank you for being here and i think we'll the board will probably take about a five minute recess and then we'll get down to our business for this evening thank you i think we'll try to restart and go through the rest of our board agenda this evening our next item's item six which is a report section of our agenda this evening and first up is an update on academic progress and dr ritter's gonna help us with that so thanks jana

077yes thank you mr layman dr dutloff members of the board uh we have an academic report today uh to give you an update on where we are with our virtual learning our digital learning and our in-person learning that will be beginning this week on wednesday august the 19th which is our first official day of school and we're very very excited about that um regardless of the platform that parents chose for their children we have really done i would say a phenomenal job all of the teams involved to prepare for this for this great day it's hard to think that it's been five months five and a half months since we've had kids in our schools we had our teachers start last week and we had everybody on board with all of our staff members and

078um it was to be fully staffed last week was quite quite an accomplishment and it's been a really exciting week for us as we're getting ready for kids um so tomorrow we will be sending out notification about the virtual academy learning and how students will be accessing that so we informed parents about that today on a facebook live so we'll be sending out an email through swift k-12 with a link to the schoology platform and schoology again is our learning management system which is a a platform where everything lives so our teachers and our students will be accessing all of the lessons and the learning and resources through the schoology learning management system so when they receive the email it will provide more information to them about their own personal experience that they're going to

079have with the schoology learning management system so all students in the district will have a schoology account so every student will will have access to a schoology account but the students who are receiving the information about the virtual academy that is how they were going to access all of their virtual academy learning is through the schoology account there will be a link to edge annuity which is our virtual academy platform also we have digital support teachers who are our own saisd teachers who will be providing support to all of our students in the district through through the schoology platform and helping them with their ingenuity work and communication with them and their parents as well as we know we're doing a little bit of a blended approach because we have all of our high school

080students on a two-week delay for in-person so all of our high school students will be starting online with digital learning and they will be receiving this email also where they will have the link to their schoology account they will access all of their learning through their schoology accounts so those emails will be going out tomorrow for all of the students in the district to have this information so um one thing is we are asking our high school kiddos just because we are taking attendance now and that's a a different kind of a challenge for us because we it was a different from last spring that they will be needing to access their learning by 9 30 in the morning so that we know that we are accounting for all of our kids who are in

081that high school platform so they can certainly get in there earlier and they can access their learning really at any time through the day but for the first week of school we're asking that they access at 9 30 and that will be covered in that email as well going to parents so our first week with the learning is going to be familiarizing our students with schoology helping them to learn that in the virtual academy and the digital learning what it is what that means and then just even our in-person students our focus is to help them just get used to coming back to school and building those relationships and having us kind of check on them see how they're doing and check in find out how you know what their needs are and communicating with

082parents so we're just going to be taking it slow we're not going to hit heavy academics right off of the bat we're going to take our time and just help our students to become acclimated to our virtual platform support that we will be providing to all of them so that is a lot about what we're doing this week starting on wednesday first day of school for our instructional platforms and i have a video to show you some of you may have seen this brandon logan who is our one of our digital innovation facilitators who is on our curriculum instruction team along with jennifer feck but brandon was able to go and do this little video to kind of help our parents and our students understand what it's going to be like when school starts when

083you're coming in person so this is a fun little video to show you and so i hope you enjoy this hey guys it's brandon lagann with sai and we know you guys are all excited to get on back to school i know i am just wanted to give you a little preview of what you can expect that first day of school things are going to be a little bit different but one thing's for sure it's going to be a good time it's going to be a safe time because that's what we're all about let's go on in but first things first i need my mask now i'm ready remember grades four and five elementary school you guys need to be wearing your mask let's go on in oh and by the way parents we've got

084it from here we want to reduce the amount of visitors that we have coming in and out of the building so we've got it from here no worries it's going to be fine all right let's go on in [Music] oh it's so great seeing all my teachers again it's even greater knowing all teachers and staff are screened daily in regards to covet 19. yeah it's gonna be a good day [Music] teachers will greet you at the door just like normal it'll look a little bit different maybe not a high five or a hug you can definitely give a good elbow yeah and they're gonna slap you down with a little sanitizer just to make sure you're clean walking into the building teachers will be practicing social distancing within the classroom so when i get in

085here i could be sitting here here maybe here or over here wherever we are in the classroom we will definitely be practicing social distancing and making sure that everybody's space is respected in the classroom these are my supplies and my supplies only we won't be sharing supplies like we normally do so i get all my special pencils to myself i'm okay with that common areas will be wiped down periodically throughout the day to ensure cleanliness everywhere you go [Music] with all the learning that's going on you're definitely gonna work up appetite and lunch has got to go down it'll look a little bit differently but don't worry you're still going to get socialized and enjoy your lunch you're just going to be spread out a little bit more it can look a little bit like

086this i could be here here here and maybe over here but don't worry we're still going to be able to chat [Music] that was a great day in school looking forward to tomorrow we want to thank you guys and understand that saisd is committed to the safety and the well-being of all of our students academically social emotionally and safety-wise so we're going to make sure that we cover all of our faces and we appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate through these rather difficult times but we're in this together let's make this happen and let's have an awesome school year we'll see you august 19th [Music] that was a little informational video that went out and we're making several of these and brandon's quite the star in these videos he's a natural and our

087people love to see him and he adds a little humor to it and we hope that that's going to just help help people feel a little more comfortable and he's doing several others for the beginning of school also to give some information so along with that i'd like to invite mr wes underwood our chief of school leadership to come to the microphone so that he can share with you some of the changes and things to look for in the physical spaces in our schools starting wednesday president lehman board of trustees superintendent so yeah brandon did a great job with those videos and kind of highlights a few of the changes that we've made in our procedures throughout the throughout the day but we've also made some changes as far as schedules look like uh what

088our arrival and dismissal looks like in the morning so some of that has been adjusted where kids are coming in so that we have more entry points and less congregation of large amounts of students so we've we've worked on that distancing in our classrooms that you saw brandon in that video doing when he was sitting around in various parts of the classroom and then also with our cafeteria making sure that we do have some staggered seating in our cafeteria as well students are going to look a little different when they walk through and they get a box launch as opposed to a tray launch that are individually prepared and then adjusting our schedule so that those classes in elementary and even to a good extent to our middle school are sticking together as much as

089possible and not interacting overall so we've kind of looked at what that looks like in social existencing in all those areas and also working on those and our transitions as well thanks dr ritter mr underwood any questions for mr gallegos when you when they mention the common areas wiping down will the teachers be supplied all that yes sir they uh they have sanitation and some paper towels in each classroom we'll be supplying all that yes sir okay all right thank you yes sir other questions do we have like an official registered number of students this year you want to answer them of course we this year more than ever we're going to know more those first three days of school but our final virtual we're right at 4 500 students and then we're just under

09010 students that are registered officially for in-person so we'll see how many come to school so we'll be doing those daily attendance checks and accounting for attendance every day when does the tea officially start counting students in the classroom um well this year is very different because we do have a grace period of 12 weeks for ada which is very helpful and they know that we will be recovering students and they also do not want to penalize districts as we have that opportunity to provide virtual learning for our students so we will be still reporting to tea but the official official for them starts and we have that grace period for 12 weeks for ada good other questions or comments concerning our our academic report this evening mr layman i do have a comment to

091add please sure first i just want to thank dr ritter and mr underwood for their work and their respective departments really for lifting the start of school up and making that a priority you know i think this year more than ever attendance safety learning and covid are all interlocked and so uh you know as we as we work to provide an environment that is safe conducive to learning uh and also uh you know provide a a healthy and well environment for our staff is critical uh i do for our viewership today that may be tuning into this board meeting i do want to certainly be frank and honest that this is very similar to a ping pong match so we're going to be bouncing up and down in attendance we will be bouncing up and

092down in closures in quarantines classroom closures perhaps building closures campus closures so i do think as information is evolving we want to certainly be transparent we are working in very close partnership with our local health officials and local health authorities with cdc and we in that partnership we have created great plans really to promote the health and wellness of not only our community but our teaching staff and students as families as well so there will be classroom closures there will be quarantines and the cdc is working uh really hand in hand with us in the notification process um in doing that i think the platforms the learning learning management system platforms that we have our district and our curriculum instruction office and department uh they were on top of this from the beginning and utilized

093the schoology platform about two months before tech the texas education agency uh called it a preferred platform and made it available to all districts around the state as well as we look at our transforming engagement plan and the safety precautions mr underwood has done a robust job of doing the best we can with dynamic conditions to you know ensure that we are providing the the safest environment for all as we start school so we've got about a 30 hour period and school starts and we're excited about that i think many of us in this room had the privilege to participate at angelo state university this morning i was invited by senator cornyn's office and to represent our public schools in san angelo and i was honored to do that as we talked about the cares

094act funding and as we talked about president hawkins tenure as president of angelo state university in doing that just walking on the asu campus this morning there were probably 95 percent of students wearing masks and practicing safety precautions uh in angelo state university and we all agreed in conversations that there was a great energy in the air because our students are back there will be challenges and hurdles and obstacles but the silver lining of having our students back is why we show up for this most noble profession so we're excited about the start of school we're excited about this is why we signed up for this job to have kids in class and so we're excited about the opportunities and we're excited about the choice that we are providing our constituents to choose that virtual

095academy or to choose in-person instruction with the safety modifications necessary so it's been a good day in san angelo and we're excited that school is going to start and we cannot wait to just get our kids back because they bring the joy in this profession and we're just excited to launch our new academic year so thank you for all your work on this and uh mr layman i'll turn it back to you okay thanks dr detloff our next item is actually item c [Music] 2020 2021 child care services this is a public hearing and miss hollihan's going to help us with that thanks shelly yes sir thank you board members dr detloff this is a required public hearing for the san angelo ymca after school program which began in 1989 31 years ago the ymca

096after school program gives working parents peace of mind by providing supervised care for their children by a professional staff team the after-school program practices four core values caring honesty respect and responsibility this program is licensed through the texas department of family and protective services the ymca program provides on-site care at all of our elementary campuses due to coven 19 the ymca had to add a cap at all schools a 1 to 10 ratio rather than a 1 to 26 ratio as in the past years all ymca staff have been trained in covet cleaning protocols as well as safety protocols and including specifically drop off and pick up procedures registration can be completed at the ymca site additional information can be found on the ymca website which is www.ymca san angelo.org we appreciate the continued partnership

097with the ymca and their services they provide to our students parents and community thank you thanks shelly any questions about miss holland's report if not we'll move forward thank you um our next item are consent items uh items a through e do we have a motion to approve motion to approve consent items a through e second so we have a motion from dr kingman in a second from mr parker to approve our consent items a through e item a is to consider superintendent's recommendations for personnel for school year 2021 dr gomez provided that information to us in our previous pre-agenda board workshop no additions to that well that those were all new since our vote last week item b's considered t-test certified appraisers she did a pri supply that list for us item c is

098considered bid number 2 20-007 for office supplies equipment and furniture mr henry reviewed that with us last week item d is to consider bid number 20-008 for printer cartridge again mr henry reviewed that bid with us last week and item ease consider changes to co local and eic local board policies and ms holland reviewed those in our pre-agenda board workshop any questions or comments or do we need to pull any of those for further discussion okay so in case that wasn't heard by our tv folks that we've got a uh an addition to that for dr mcfarland he was previously approved as a t-test appraiser and remo he'll shift into our system and and be an approved appraiser as well other questions or comments do we have um any public comment if not all in

099favor of our motion please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed indicate by saying no our motion passes item eight is considered bill's accounts and financial statements for the month of july of 2020. do we have a motion to approve move to approve second we have a motion from mr hernandez in a second from mr dindle to approve our bills accounts and financial statements for the month of july of 2020. any other board questions or comments mr layman just a note to those watching on tv that all these reports were reviewed and previewed in uh our pre-agenda meeting last week and all these reports can be found online in their entirety saisd.org under the i'm trying to remember what tab i'm sorry dr mcfarland help me with that financial transparency thank you thank you bill

100um so anybody wishing to um check that please don't take time to do so is any public comment concerning emotion not all in favor please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed indicate by saying no our motion passes our next items item nine uh to ratify administration's action in operation connectivity interlocal acquisition agreement with region four education service center for technology purchases thanks for that long-winded uh item and we'll turn it over to ms doyle good evening yes the service center region four wrote what that that heading or tea did one of the two and due to covid it has caused a backlog and a shortage in delivery of technology type items for instance laptops chromebooks ipads any kind of in technology items because many of the components are made either like in china indonesia

101countries that first for a period of time shut down or drastically cut back their workforce due to the covet situation and as a result that that slowed production of product so tea recognizes the need and that school districts have in the times we're in for needing more devices to provide online learning and resources and so they're trying to help school districts to acquire more devices for their district so they've been working in partnership with several vendors and they partnered with esc4 to partner with them on a bid that they had already put out for devices and hot spots and so we have chosen to participate in that purchase and those tea is working with those vendors to prioritize the orders that happen as part of tea's bulk order on behalf of school districts the other

102part or our nice part to this is tea will pay half of our bill as part of their grant and um and i believe it's cares funding that they're using but i don't know that part for sure what ta is using on their side but um as part of this process because tea partners with esc region four we have to do a ratification to um as part of the purchasing process to that goes with this order um we are ordering a thousand laptops and we are ordering 800 hot spots and those are the the ones that we can get here the fastest that were on our our options list so we're hoping in the next month to receive those items ntea will pay half of the bill for the hot spot bill for the year

103thank you ms doyle any questions concerning we also discussed this and linked last week at our bridge in the board meeting other questions or comments from our board team do we have a month okay question um so um i'm excited about the 800 hot spots how how will that how far will that go in covering the kids who are missing wi-fi in their homes um well campuses are still getting numbers right now on um we have around 235 right now that campuses are using that we acquired back in the spring and that we passed out um at that time and so they're they're passing those out right now and then making a list of who still also needs hot spots um i've also sent a message to our local internet providers and asking do they

104have any reduced rate options for families at this time you know some did some some specials back in the spring when coveted first started so i'm trying to see if any still do um and and if we do get responses i'll put a a summary list of that together that we can share as possible options also with families if they want to purchase their own hopefully at a discounted rate awesome mr lim yes go ahead dr thank you um i do want to uh also really just restate that connectivity learning our digital platforms are certainly more important than ever as part of that i do want to thank charlene doyle and her group and many other administrators for really mobilizing a technology help desk uh as in the first three days of school and really

105starting this week i believe from five to nine this evening so they're on it right now that's where i'm about to go to take my turn so not only is technology providing additional help desk hours but transportation is as well so just as an effort at customer service and making certain that our families feel comfortable in a new digital environment as well as transportation in the new age we are providing help desk additional hours five to nine i believe monday through wednesday thursday thursday monday through thursday from five to nine pm so uh thank you to charlene and her staff for making that come to fruition and mobilizing that and thank you to the many administrators that are helping prop that up as well so thank you thanks other questions or comments just a comment

106also charlene you've done a wonderful job you and your staff since what march when all this started y'all stepped up y'all got it done quick and thank you really again thank you you've done a wonderful job i have an awesome team i'm very thankful i have a great team who who works great together and they they truly try to go above and beyond and try to make sure things work well for the end users and meet the end user needs so we don't have a motion do we have a motion to approve make a motion to ratify the administration's action in the operation connectivity and our local acquisition agreement with region 4 education services center for technology purposes purchases second so we have a motion from mr gallegos in a second from mr dindle uh

107further questions or comments from our board team oh i'm sorry mr parker [Laughter] i'm gonna get a flag maybe i have a hearing loss we have a third from mr dindle so any other board questions or comments any public comment if not all in favor of our motion please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed indicate by saying no our motion passes our last item this evening is to consider resolution regarding exclusion from extracurricular activities and elective courses and miss hollahan's going to help us with that thank you shelly thank you board members dr detloff rodney chan our athletic director met with athletic directors from our region regarding the upcoming school year and the expectation of competing in extracurricular activities based on those conference conversations we are asking the board to approve the following resolution

108a student who that voluntarily chooses to participate in virtual remote instructional methods will be required to attend on-campus extracurricular activity periods during the school day in order to participate in extracurricular activity a student who chooses not to attend the on-campus extracurricular activity periods will not be allowed to participate in extracurricular activity the board did ask at our pre-agenda if other boards approve this similar resolution in our athletic director did not know i will tell you tasby did have a resolution though and so when i asked them for this resolution they had it ready for me so i'm assuming that boards did ask for this but mr mr chant did not know if other boards did approve this resolution he did say though that this was the expectation that other athletic directors in our region were

109going to expect this regulation would not only include athletics but would also include fine arts in our district the administration is asking that you approve this resolution for the 2021 school year and i think that was the other question is it only for athletics or is it for fine arts and checking with um tiffany huebner and wes underwood they all concurred that it also includes fine arts questions for shelley shelley when you say this region do you mean region 15 or district competitors our district competitors thank you any other questions do we have a motion to approve move to approve the resolution of the board regarding exclusion from extracurricular activities and elective courses second so we have a motion from mr dendel i think i got that right this time in a second from dr

110kingman any other board questions or comments any public comment if not all in favor please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed our motion passes um our announcements are our financing pre-agenda board workshop is september the 14th our regular board meeting is september 21st and the tasa tasby virtual convention will take place september 30th through october 2nd um do we need any reason to go into closed session this evening any board member have a reason to go into closed session just a question we do that's next monday we'll be approving um tax rate and budgeted yeah our final budget yeah thanks taylor other questions or comments any other board business if not and hear no objection will stand adjourned