001can you hear me Tom can you hear me thank you we'll call the meeting to order you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice thank you very much and welcome everyone if if you haven't already picked them up we have agendas and handouts through the on tables outside these doors so if you haven't picked up those items go ahead and please do that now and we'll start out with asking dr. Brown are there any adjustments to the agenda madam chair we do have an adjustment number seven under recognitions of staff student and outstanding achievements the South High for a State cheer and stunts team will not
002be able to come tonight there there was an emergency situation with family member there so they will come at a later date thank you very much madam chair I move to adopt the agenda were with the adjustment second you heard the motion any discussion all those in favor of adopting the agenda with adjustment say aye aye opposed no motion the agenda is adopted and will move on this is part of our agenda where we recognize staff and students for outstanding achievements in our school district and we'll start with mr. Boland and the awards for science science fair on the district and state level and the state math Awards I get the honor tonight of recognizing some students in my two favorite areas which are science and math and we'll start with science first so you
003want to go ahead and tell him that I think the microphones over there [Applause] [Music] good evening ladies and gentlemen Board of Trustees dr. Brown dr. Kinney dr. new mr. Jackson ladies and gentlemen teachers students and parents thank you so much for being here this evening and helping us recognize outstanding achievement in science we have some ladies and gentlemen who have done quite well this year when I call your name would you please come down to the front and stand right over here we'll have your principal introduce your teacher your teacher then we'll introduce you and we'd like you to tell you tell us a little bit about your project once we have everybody up here you'll receive your award and would you like them to come up there for recognize that can be taken
004once you receive your award you'll go up the stairs here and please shake the hands of dr. Brown and the Board of Trustees they would like to congratulate you as well you'll just go across come down and then go back to your seats all right tonight we would like to well we would like to honor a be James principal Karen Brooks lion teacher Michelle Ross we would also like to celebrate Colton Hynes fifth grade Davis Elementary Beth Emmons Britt spuds Mary Beth Edmonds principal teacher Courtney shields to you we'd like to celebrate Ashlyn Bailey senior at East High School Principal Sam marriage teacher or advisor Kelly Peterson we'd like to recognize Julianne Healey eighth grader at McCormick Junior High Principal Jeff Conine teacher William snow we'd also like to recognize Shelley who blurs principle Jim
005Jim Fraley teacher mark McIlvain and Luc lauderbach sixth grader at Gilchrist principal Kristin Cavalier teacher rod Frederick I'd like to introduce the principal of Henderson Elementary and that is Miss Karen Lyons Brookes superintendent brown and Board Chairman and boy I would like to introduce Michelle Roz who was my fourth grade teacher and she is also the head of our science department I have the lovely chance to introduce you guys to a be James and here she hi my name is Abby James my science fair project was the strength of facial tissue the strongest one was not actually Kleenex but target I made best of show what that what bestest show means that was that out of all of the fourth-grade projects that are in our school district she was the best of all of the
006fourth graders Colton are you here this evening come on over Colton Colton's principal couldn't be here this evening this is Colton he's a fifth grader at Davis Elementary would you please tell us about your science fair project my science fair project is about drainage about different materials and saying did the worst thank you v he's a fifth grader out of all of our fifth grade projects in the district on his was the best of all of them that's why he was bestest show so let's celebrate him some more an hour in our district we have our science fair goes fourth fifth sixth and then we had a junior high this year fourth and fifth graders do not go on to the regional science fair that is for sixth grade and above and so the students
007that I'm going to introduce you to now our students that have done did a great job not just at our district fair if they chose to participate there but they then turned around and did very well at the regional fair and then did amazing at the state fair and our junior high students I think they've all been nominated to move on even nationally so I'd like to first introduce Ashland Bailey and her advisor Kelly Peterson for any of you who didn't get a chance to go to the regional science fair we had a in Cheyenne this year and I think it's such an awesome opportunity because I think kids these days to get a really bad rap but going to science fair is honestly such a inspiring opportunity to see kids who are very creative
008and hard workers and just problem solvers and coming up with solutions to problems that generations before them have maybe unwittingly created and in that I'd like a schlund to tell you guys about her project this is actually the second year of her particular project and she did all of this outside of school outside of class and so I'm so proud of her and again it's there are a ton of students to give us great hope for the future years my name is Ashlyn Bailey I'm a senior at East High School my project I went to regionals and I won first place in my division at regionals and then ended up winning first place in my division at state for my project it was a continuation from the previous year I tested different household pesticides on
009fruit flies and see how fast they could kill them and this year I continued that project and instead of using those household pesticides I used essential oils and I found that peppermint oil can work just as fast and just as effectively meaning killing them same amount of fruit flies in the same amount of time as the household pesticides that I tested last year what Ashlin didn't say was that she was first place at scene in senior division animal science first place and she also won a special numerous special awards that had money involved one of them being the Laramie rivers Conservation District winner she also won certificates and trophies as well congratulations mr. Merrit I did not see you down there at the end I apologize thank you so much for your support of Science
010Fair in your building I appreciate it thank you next Julian Healy are you here okay is your teacher or your your your principals here mr. Kony we're very proud of Julian mr. snow was unable to make it tonight late track practice but we're very proud of Julian she's not newcomer to this stage she was also the seventh grade State Fair winner last year hi my name is Julian Healy and I won at first place regionals and at state first place so my project was called digging deep how much do you know about your well water I was comparing well it's built before and after the year 2000 in the amount of coliform bacteria contamination in them so a common form of coliform bacteria contamination as e.coli so we were trying to test and see if
011people actually can have a coli in their water for periods of time she placed first place in the Junior Division at the state division microbiology first place she also won special awards from the Rocky Mountain Water environmental Association second place and nominated to apply to the Broadcom masters and I'll talk about that a little bit Thank You Shelby who Blair are you here alright is your teacher here or your principal all right I'd like to introduce Shelley who blurr to you she's a sixth grader at Meadow Lark elementary I'm and I'll let her tell you a little bit about her project my project was testing different dams in Crow Creek and its tributary Dry Creek to figure out which would trap sediment in different mats that we put in the creek and to find out
012what would help the health of the creeks Shelby won first place in the Junior Division at state she won the earth and environmental sciences first place University of Wyoming geology inches geophysics second place University of Wyoming geology Museum winner Laramie rivers Conservation District winner bill Barlow Memorial Youth and conservation Award winner Rocky Mountain Water environmental Association first place Association for Women geoscientists winner and nominated to apply to the Broadcom masters competition in Washington DC congratulations oh I'd like to introduce you to luke Lauderback his principal is Kristen Cavalier his teacher rod Frederic we're so excited to have Luke here with you guys tonight Luke did amazing things and I'm going to let him tell you about it but just one thing he probably won't add is that he taught himself C++ to do his project
013so just so you know this is Luke my project was called move over eb-3 and I what I wanted to do was figure out a way to have a homemade robot that was as good or even better than the Microsoft robot II b3 what what Luke didn't tell you was that he was bestest show in our district science fair in regionals he was 1st place junior division at state robotics and computer science 1st place Wyoming NASA space grant consortium winner the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics Rocky Mountains section 1st place Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers winner National Center for Atmospheric Research in the computational and informational systems laboratory special award end car first place there and nominated to apply to the Broadcom masters right quick the Broadcom masters is the nation's premier science
014fair competition for six to eighth grade sixth seventh and eighth grade students the Wyoming science fair can nominate students to apply to compete at the Broadcom Masters there are twenty there are twelve nominees from the state of Wyoming three are just from our district from the entrance the top 300 masters will be selected followed by 30 finalists the finalists travel to Washington DC to compete for more than $100,000 in prizes including a top prize of $25,000 in scholarships for stem summer camps additionally each of the finalists schools receive $1,000 if they're invited congratulations are the parents of our Award winners out in the audience if you are would you please stand so we can recognize you as well now I know the Board of Trustees would like to would like to congratulate each of you
015so if you'll just go on up the stairs here and then proceed through the back shake their hands come down the stairs over there and then join your families thank you so much thank you [Applause] while they're doing that the other rewards are going to give tonight over for the state math contest back in 1979 when I was asked to be a sponsor for the mccormick team it was held in I don't know if they even remember we had a large math classroom at East High School and that room wasn't even full at that point so it's grown from that to if you can imagine the floor and story gym all full of tables and chairs and all those tables and chairs are full of people that are young people that are doing a math
016contest so it's grown a lot and gradual ations all of you who participated and this is Cavaliere gets to speak again because she's the coordinator for the district so you'll tell him worry about it thank you so I also get to be the math coordinator and do the statement contest and we have four students that won first place in each of their categories so I would like to invite them up here as well as their principals and their teachers if we could so I have Isaac Erickson Connor shuck Josh Ahern and Tanner Jacobson's Isaac Erickson's from Kerry junior high Connors from the Cormac junior high Josh a Hearns from Central High School and Tanner's from East High School as I was announcing Award winners this year I kept looking at their scores and how much
017higher the first-place winners were than everybody else that was competing they blew away their competition so they did an awesome job so first I have Isaac from Kara junior high school he won first place in our seventh grade division so if you would please congratulate Isaac and then I have Connor shuck from McCormick Junior High School and he won first place in our eighth grade division so please congratulate him [Applause] next I have Josh a Hearn my redhead over there hey he got first place he's from central high school and he got first place in our class B division which consists of our ninth and 10th graders so please congratulate Josh and finally I have Tanner Jacobsen from East High School who won our Class A Division which consists of 11th and 12th graders so
018please congratulate you I also want to thank their teachers and their principals for all the hard work that they put in and allowing these kids to do this contest it's been so fun for me over the past twelve years to get to be part of this this particular process so so thank you guys so much for for coming and for for helping us out with that I appreciate that thank you so much could I have could I have the kids as parents stand and be recognized please [Applause] the next we have the student of the week awards and MS Clawson is coming down with the certificates I'm following all the fantastic math students but I wouldn't consider myself one of those good needy good evening everyone I get the honor of announcing tonight our student
019of the Week awards and I'd very much like for our students from Johnson junior high we have caleb brewer to come down please and your principal Brian Cox if Sonique Knepper from Central High School would please come down with your principal Fred George and sorry I had that in my Caleb I already named Caleb sorry Talan Bryant from South High School if you would please come down with your principal Phil Thompson would you like to start mr. Cox all right so first off I'm gonna brag on Caleb here a little bit mr. whitehead our associate principal and I we had to rock paper scissor for who got to talk about you tonight and I won so I told me he at least got to come down and hang out with you while we did this
020so Caleb was a little bit of a no-brainer for our selection committee he has straight A's in all honors courses that he takes at Johnson junior high school additionally he was one of our highest placing students in our math combo State math competition above and beyond his academics Caleb is super impressive he said he was almost late tonight because he was coming from swim practice just to get here he participates in our percussion band as a member of our football team and our swim team obviously participates in club swim on top of all of that as well and qualified for state in every single one of his event for swimming and then additionally he participates in our 12 through 18 the stem rope first League robotics as well in the community so those are just
021some of the academic and athletic things that he's done but really that's that's not what drew us to you the most Caleb the number a number one thing that drew us to selecting you is our student of the week is your relentless dedication to our community and I kind of want you to come to tell everyone here a little bit about what your future plans are and a little bit about some of the community service projects you've organized okay so for FBLA Future Business Leaders of America I did a community service project and I did a drive for the Camellia shelter for jackets hats scarves gloves and I wanted to do it because I had been seen I had been seeing kids around my school without good winter wear and I couldn't believe that kids
022my age couldn't have that so we did a winter wear drive for the Camellia shelter and we got 22 jackets for them so is pretty cool we're proud to be proud of you gentlemen well I would like to introduce an aide Knepper as our student of the week at Central High School and as you might expect she's not here because she's busy she's out of we the people competition but a little bit about Sinead she's involved in drama where she's an all-state participant she's all city choir I should back up and say the she needs mom and thank you for coming she's an hour a piece capstone program she's a swimmer she's in competitive speech she's our junior class president president of our interact club secretary of the International Club vice president of our student
023to student organization and she has a 4.3 weighted GPA in just a really nice kid very nice kid so the Knepper should be very proud [Applause] I'm here to recognize South high school student of the week and her name is Talon Bryant and what jumps out at you whenever you look at talent is she is what Laramie one school district is all about she had she's in guitar she's in choir she's had speech she's had drama she's in chemistry she's been in all kinds of honors classes she has a 3.7 GPA she's just a well-rounded student and just a genuinely neat young lady so I'm gonna let talents tell you a little bit about herself also okay so I'm in teen leadership right now and we're helping out at the elementary schools in our well
024not district but in South's range and I'm planning on becoming a marine biologist and my minor will be psychology and I hope to help other kids adults go get through their life could the parents of these students stand up please a team so and miss Tyler is going to be doing those graduations it's good work come on oh there I am okay so I am pleased to present multiple deca state championships to East High School and could I have principal Sam marriage and Manuel Flores up look at they beat me up here you guys are awesome so mr. Flores would you like to talk a little bit about the the deca students in their competition good evening everyone I'd like to eat specifically about a group of young people who have done tremendous things in
025the community as well as in the school and I'd also like to just thank the school board and the administration mr. marriage for all the wonderful things that you guys do in supporting us both locally and nationally but this evening it's all about the kids and so I'm going to go ahead and let Camden Schmidt a two-time national winner speak to you about our program and candidates all yours hi I'm a senior at East High School and I'm also the state secretary for deca and my sophomore and junior year I placed top ten seventh and fifth place in business law and ethics at the International Conference and so this past February we had our state career and development conference here in Cheyenne where we brought 35 students from our chapter 14 of those took first
026place 14 more took second and seven took third so it was great success 29 of those students will be continued on to go to Nationals this year or international career development conference in Orlando Florida and so that that's very exciting and then they'll be competing in 18 different areas of competition so what deca really is is it's a business marketing Club that focuses on a lot more than that focuses on marketing entrepreneurship finance business counting finance all of those areas and so it really prepares students for a future in any aspect of business and what it does is it helps students realize like what situations are really like they do go through role plays imitating real-life situations and so it's a great place to learn what the business world is likening in that interactive setting
027we are missing nine students tonight but up here are our ste some of our state champions so we have some awards but I don't think we have all the people up here so can you help me with these names kakie Miller no Hara childen's Hallie Baker no oh this one's a hard one Nathan's asta pool Elyse Healy Gerardo Almanza is our Gerardo David Garcia Kendall MoIT a sits Sid Cashion Camden Schmidt Maeve Knepper not here Elena Macy Brandon Stewart Braden Stewart and Madison green do we have any parents of these fine young and men and women any parents if you'd stand up [Applause] next we're going to recognize the outstanding performance that the East High's Speech and Debate individual state champions and mr. mr. wieder spawn has those certificates a great time of year when
028we can there's a lot of culminating competitions and it's really fun to celebrate the success of our students largely due to their parents their coaches in there and their principals okay are we ready okay it's an honor for me to be here this evening to assist in the recognition of East High School 2019 Speech and Debate individual state champions and so if I could ask principal Sammy rich and advisor Marcus Viney to assist in this process that would be great so if they could oh you want to you want to do that I'll just hand out the awards okay okay let's do this okay hi I'm Marcus Viney I'm the head Speech and Debate Coast at East High I'm gonna actually let a student tell you about the end of the season just briefly before
029we hand out those awards hi guys my name is Anna Papadopoulos I'm a senior at East High School I've been doing public forum debate and extemporaneous speaking for four years now and the people you see up here are not only my friends but they're now a part of my family and they're just wonderful people all around and they deserve to be up here and here's just a few things that we've done first our national in devant individual event tournament of champions or nie TOC we qualified 20 people now that's a record on the national level nobody has ever qualified that many people to nie TOC before and that was all because of our Speech and Debate team and now we also competed at our district tournament which was in North Platte Nebraska this year and
030qualified another 20 people to go to our national conference which is in Dallas Texas this year that is one of our biggest amount of people with ever qualified this is our second year it's our record of how many people we've ever qualified we won a speech debate and individual sweepstakes points and every single person you see up here plus the other tons of kids that were part of our team actually were able to help us with that too so that's another huge a compliment accomplishment we've made and finally we've had seven state champions up here which is absolutely amazing we had one qualifying humor which is Jayden Rocca Forte and finally we had three state champions in public form debate this year now that's something that has never ever happened in East High or even
031Wyoming history and basically what happens which means that we were so good that we beat everybody there so it was so good yeah we were just so good that we all qualified and made first-place trophies so that was really really awesome and we just want to thank the school board and especially mr. Viney for always supporting every single thing we do on the Speech and Debate team if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have seven state champions up here we wouldn't have 22 national and event individual event tournament of champions and we wouldn't have 20 national qualifiers if it wasn't for this man in our other coaches and the school board standing before us here today so thank you so much [Applause] yeah you handle all handed okay okay so one of our state champions
032in public forum is Darnell Crawford congratulations don't know great job another one is Anna Papadopoulos right here right here congratulations nice job hailey reg'lar hailey Nisan you you one and Josh Mitchell our other state champion as Jayden Rocco Forte down there in humor so again we just want to thank everybody the school board the district our principal mr. marriage we just get so much support and all these great kids get to do all these amazing things so it's really wonderful thank you if we have parents in the audience if you'd like to stand we could like to honor you as well so if they could just go up you bet congratulations okay finally and I know we're enjoying all of this and this is the last recognition for this evening the East High drama and
033theater nowhere oh I'm sorry good well we'll have we'll have something for the adieu the adults want to go now is that what you we have another student comp looking mr. Bartlett yields the floor to one more group of students East High drama theater state champions that mr. Breen is going to present could I have mr. maryk miss Christina czar and the East high performing arts group but you know this is a thrill because a lot of questions out there today with school reform and the question about performing arts but what you see in front of you right here is a testament that Laramie County School District number one says the performing arts and arts in general are alive and strong in Cheyenne so I I want to congratulate you guys for this thank you
034I'm Chris Azhar and I'm sure you would all agree we need to relax our face I'm exhausted from smiling it's been a wonderful few minutes my wonderful co coach Jeff Miller and we'd like to turn it over to some students who have some really exciting things to share with you this evening hi I'm Elizabeth Haleakala I'm a senior at a heart IES high school on behalf of East High School troop 2162 we would like to thank the board for inviting us this evening we are grateful to mr. marriage in the East High School community and our families for their support in December our team was proud to bring our fourth consecutive state drama championship we are honored to represent Laramie County school district number one and we thank the board for continued support for our
035activity hi my name is Alexandra Dorian I am a sophomore at East High School and at state drama East had 21 national qualifiers which is pretty cool this is unique and challenging for any theatre team because students only get one performance or presentation in front of a judge to qualify for a superior rating to get to the national event Laramie County School District number one qualified students from each of the high schools central South and East East Hebert theatre had 16 superior and first place finishes in 20 events 21 students qualified to attend nationals in Lincoln Nebraska in June 8 students will be able to attend representing our school district so I'm Chris house and I'm just about to tell you the following national qualifiers that actually showed up tonight yeah so we have our
036very own stormy Buster come on step 4 take about Alexandria Duran Elizabeth Haleakala myself Christopher housands we also have Hannah McMillan Aspen Miller and last but not least Regan Rockhold Thank You mr. marriage and the board we appreciate you supporting us tonight Mazhar asked me just that she would hand the certificates out to the students she saw that they introduced themselves so they gave themselves the recognition parents if you're out there please stand up and let's all get the congratulations again oh geez okay to wrap up our recognitions of mr. Bartlett is going to is going to recognize some key players in and he'll explain it but we've got legislators a board member various people to recognize in this last event so if I could have senator at the Ellis representative Landon Brown trustee Nate
037Breen program administrator Merle Smith and Sergeant John gave this hand please Department please come forward so it's it's my pleasure to recognize these folks as really championing student safety and security not only in the district but throughout the state as as they helped pass legislation which address stopped armed violations not only here in Lerman County but throughout the state just to give you an idea up to date we've had about 1200 motorists drive-thru stopped armed violations as we're either loading or unloading students in our buses so these folks took that charge carried it forward all the way through and we now have some help to encourage motorists to please pay attention and slow down stop with one of you thank you I'll just explain a little bit about what the bill does and why this
038was a very much a uniquely Laramie County situation we'd heard a lot from our Cheyenne Police Department about the difficulty in enforcing existing law which right now it is illegal to pass a stopped school bus but what we're seeing happen is that for enforcement to happen our law enforcement has to be able to identify the driver before issuing a citation so a few years ago there are about fourteen hundred incidents that happened but our law enforcement was only able to issue about 40 tickets so what the bill that we worked on will accomplish will give law enforcement and other tool in the toolbox if they can't identify the driver then they can issue a citation it's a civil citation it won't go into drivers record but they can be slapped with something like a two
039hundred dollar fine it's one hundred ninety five dollars and so it doesn't create any liability on the driver it really just makes them liable for their vehicle be involved in the infraction and looking at the numbers that we've got in 2011 we lost a young girl in Fremont County by a motorist who didn't stop and Cheyenne by far has the largest numbers this last year we had 1,800 reported violations and so it's not a question of if but when one of those will be tragic so hopefully this law will give law enforcement the ability to get after those drivers and I think the officer can officer Gaye can speak a little bit about this or sergeant gay the goal isn't to punish people it's to get people to stop give me everyone thank you all
040for being here that's absolutely true what senator Ellis says that is our biggest call our goal is not to punish anyone ultimately though we have to be held accountable one way or another when we have these kind of violations if we're not able to identify the driver and issue that ticket we are kind of stuck and as Senator Ellis said it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when when we look at that ball over 1,800 stop armed violations last year that's just completely unacceptable and now with this new law that's been passed it does give us that additional tool that we can go forth and conduct that enforcement without it being punitive as far as going towards the driver's license suspension or towards insurance rate hikes and things like that that being
041said make no mistake about it if we find out who the driver is that person will be getting the visit from us and they'll be the ones that get that 400 plus dollar ticket to make sure that they realize the offense that they have committed and the danger that they've put those children in [Applause] I just want to thank senator Ellis for her leadership on this I think one of the most important things that I realized as I carried this bill on the house side is the most dangerous portion of a student's day is unloading and loading from a school bus and when we have a student unloading and loading from a school bus and we have any of these people who decide to run that stop sign because what they've got going on in
042their lives it's just a little more important than stopping for that thirty seconds or a minute it got to me and when we heard the story about the young lady up in Fremont County that lost her life it's tragic any life is not worth running a stop sign so I also appreciate the Cheyenne Police Department's leadership on this as well and I think we're I think we've definitely made a step in the right direction with this so thank you very much for the recognition thank you again if we could do have any parents here tonight no parents thank you very much and now [Music] you we now come to the portion of the meeting reserved for comments from the public we are going to we're going to do that tonight as well we have a
043couple of subjects that we know people are here to talk about one concerns the issues that have arisen in the past couple of weeks regarding the hate speech at one of the junior high schools the other is the East High pool and there may be others as well but because of the number of people who want to speak will take up the hate speech issue first and hear those comments then we'll hear have comments on the East High pool and when that is completed we'll have comments on anything else people want to talk about we will handle it the way we always handle public comment this is not a community meeting where there will be back and forth discussion between reps representatives from various groups within the community nor will there be a back-and-forth with
044members of the school board as you'll see in the statement that is a handout which copies are outside the doors there we anticipate that something like that will occur at another time we have a set of ground rules we use for this part of the agenda and the board will listen closely to your comments prior to the comments regarding the hate speech issue dr. Brown our superintendent or read a statement by the district which has been handed out regarding that issue and again copies are available on the tables outside the door the ground rules have also been handed out and they will show on the screen during the comments screen back there we will adhere to the ground rules but before mr. Brown reads the position of the district on this matter I will just
045meet over the ground rules and they're only a few the public comment portion of our regular board meeting is not a community meeting as we mentioned before although the district is looking into that type of meeting for the future as such the board will listen closely to the comments but there will not be a question-and-answer format that is the typical public comment procedure for all our regular board meetings and remember the public who wishes to comment must identify himself or herself just give a name each speaker will be limited to three minutes and we will enforce that tonight please try to refrain from repeating comments that have already been made but if you so many said something you really feel moved to say feel free we will not allow direct or indirect references to school
046district personnel or students that information is confidential by law we will not allow and we ask you to refrain from insulting or disparaging what remarks toward anyone or any booing or cheering if these ground rules are violated you'll be asked to stop and indicate whether you can go forward in compliance with the ground rules if you cannot your opportunity to provide comment will end the board looks forward to all comments given in the spirit of these ground rules and now mr. Brown will read the district position statement as we stayed in our policy addressing bullying and harassment Laramie County school district number one and the board of trustees is committed to a safe and civil educational environment for all students employees volunteers and patrons in order to provide an opportunity for maximum achievement for all
047students the district prohibits harassment and/or discrimination of students or by students employees and others at school on the basis of race color gender religion national origin disability or sex the district prohibits any form of harassment sexual harassment intimidation bullying or violence on school property in a school bus or other school related vehicle at a school bus stop an activity or event sponsored by the school whether or not it is held on school premises and any other program or function where the school is responsible for the child we assure you the district is taking the allegations at the local junior high school very seriously the district has a specific has a specific policy addressing harassment sexual harassment intimidation and bullying and is adhering to that policy as it investigates the complaints our investigators have been well
048trained on investigations of this type we recognize the mounting frustration and the need for answers but the district must take the necessary time to be very thorough and thoughtful in an internal investigation in addition because of the confidentiality requirements under the law regarding students and personnel the district will be limited in what it can divulge let us be clear that when white supremacy or any other hate mongering ideology comes into our schools or affects the learning and safety of our students we will take action we oppose any speech or behavior that threatens our students and their ability to learn that would include hate speech racism homophobia or any bullying or harassment for any reason although the although the community has may disagree on what is hate speech or harassment within our schools we will make
049that decision based on our educational judgment and dedication to maintain a safe supportive civil culture in our schools although the district is focused on the current investigation the district has reached out to third parties regarding possible community meetings regarding the above issues as they relate to the district as a whole okay thank you now in the microphone is up here if you would like to speak at the microphone I guess just maybe form a line and everyone will have three minutes and we will let you know when the three minutes is gonna be a reminder to start out with identifying yourself just first and last name Darlene will have a sign and our secretary MS Davis at the very end will let you know when when the three minutes is expired so at that point
050if you can wrap up so just keep an eye out of your peripheral vision for that sign but it thank you and I saw go ahead I'm sorry sir but go ahead if you're ready all right evening to all of you dr. Browns school board members I want to thank this school board for this opportunity to share with you and for your insight to accommodate this large gathering here tonight for effective dialogue I'm Benjamin Watson senior the senior servant at Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church I stand to speak on behalf of all children but particularly those of African descent that was targeted by the distributed fire since the incident at McCormick it's been a wake-up call to alert us that there is still much work to be done in the Equality state and our
051school system when it comes to cultural diversity and its needs for acceptance throughout the school district there's a lack of cultural representation and cultural competence meaning a lack of black teachers black councilors and black curriculum within the school system because of this is why I would like to see a private independent investigation take place no discredit to those who have been chosen to head up the initial investigation because of the urgency sensitivity of this issue and the lack of investigators who represent the affected communities I don't believe that there can be a satisfactory conclusion without an independent investigation you're asking me a black man and our children to trust a system that was developed out of systemic and institutional racism you're asking me a black man to trust a system that tell our children just
052to overlook it stop tattle telling and etc a system that will ignore the issues and sweep them underneath the carpet a system that hesitates to denounce white nationalist and white supremacy a system that is designed to protect the institution and not the affected children you're asking me a black man and our children to trust in an investigation that's basically policing itself no we need an independent investigation that is representative of the effective in ball involved and that has no ties to the McCormack or the school district past or present to ensure culture diversity cultural competence and sensitivity training suggests to the district that the implements such training to be done live in person and interactively by human not some computer training program - where one can have it on but totally disregarding its contents and
053for this training to be implemented before the start of next fall's the school year as I know my three minutes is nearing I would also welcome a special section with the school board where we can sit and Phut and further discuss concerns and resolutions that this particular setting does not accommodate in closing I really need for the school board to understand that though many of us here tonight and our children are descendants of our ancestors who were enslaved here in America make no mistake we are not our ancestors times have changed and no longer can we operate by the status quo we have an opportunity to work together in effecting change and have Wyoming to live up to its declaration of being the Equality state thank you thank you very much [Applause] hi my name's
054Earl Janek my son Avery went to mcCormick he also went to Central High School and when he went was going to Central High School he got in a little bit of trouble and when front of Judge Jeffrey's at that time he was required to write a children's book to help children deal with anger issues and he came up with this one initially and the judge and his assistant were so impressed with a that they turned it into a real children's book featuring it features a rabbit named Ziggy who learns to cope with his anger issues by asking for help by learning to apologize and to by learning to make good decisions I've been meaning to bring this down to the school district that all youth alternatives and myself have been distributing this book for about
055the last year in the community there's several people here that already have a copy of this and I would like to ask the board if they would consider adding this book to their toolbox as a tool to help at-risk youth cope with offense without becoming offended if you would like if you would like to receive a copy each I have one for each of you if you want to hand them up here we'll certainly we'd love to have one yeah there you go thank you thank you did you have another I just want to thank you for the opportunity thank you um next is is there oh okay good thank you sure good evening I'm the Reverend Hannah Phil nave I'm a Unitarian Universalist minister I'm a member of the board of Wyoming equality and
056I am also a former middle school yes Oh L educator in Baltimore City Public Schools I'm here tonight to ask the board to take the following steps in response to the incidents at McCormick junior high first to make a culturally competent mental health professional available to all McCormick students at posted times second to request an independent investigation whether it's through the Office of Civil Rights or through the Department of Justice and independent investigation of the pattern of discrimination at mcCormick third to call a special meeting of the school board to address these issues and finally to hold district-wide professional development that is interactive for all faculty staff and particularly administrators both those who would administrate buildings and those Administrative Professionals administrators who work at the district that teaches cultural competence and culturally responsive teaching and
057has material that specifically addresses racism homophobia and transphobia with at least a first installment before the next school year begins right I want to speak especially out of my own experience to the importance of having this kind of professional development and cultural competence right as an out queer woman teaching recently arrived immigrants from Nepal Bhutan and East Africa in a school district that was primarily and predominantly African American I know a thing or two about teaching a cross cultural difference right and it is absolutely necessary that there be this kind of cultural competence for the principals for the teachers and for district officials who serve our students in order from to make it possible for those students to learn at schools like McCormick and others and the LCS right these adults who we believe need
058this professional development are charged with creating a safe and orderly school environment for all students who attend their schools but the reality is that those as we have clearly seen those in charge of McCormack have failed to create a safe and orderly environment for all students teachers and administrators have an obligation to serve their black and LGBTQ students and at a minimum at a bare minimum that safe environment means that they need adults in that building all the adults in that building to understand it acknowledge the ways in which their identities impact their learning environment privilege in personal religious or cultural beliefs over a student's right to a safe and orderly learning environment is in direct violation of the district's mission vision and core values please I urge you to take these actions right the
059community's trust in this district and you all as elected school board members depends on it if it's not too much of a problem I want to speak where the board can hear me and I can see the wonderful audience and I'm a quite chagrin I embarrassed to have to come before you excuse me could you give us your name first start with your name please I'm James Peebles I thought it most of you knew me I'm the founder and director of Sankofa African heritage awareness we present them off a program we present the Film Festival at L Triple C and other events drew throughout the year which are very diverse and course we'll talk about that later but let me start back where I was thank you for the pause don't take that from my
060account but but it is after having looked at the lovely children young people come before us present themselves their parents the community view the principal teachers and to think that what if those kids of some of them had to go home and tell you about every evening how they were being molested how they were being given racial slurs how they were being harassed and how they had from time to time go from teacher to teacher to tell the teacher about the situation and the teacher says just get over it you know as a former educator myself forty something years I was a principal supervisor teacher and mainly a multicultural and diverse studies throughout New York City Montreal Canada long day to South America South Africa ad infinitum you named but I found it not too
061surprising because we have only been here Jill and I the first year we came here we saw the need for setting up diverse programs and invited to teachers invited many of them and I send letters out to several of the administrators and supervisors and coordinators and our first cell would get an answer I got an answer first time almost went from dr. Boyd Brown who invited me to come over to his sit down look at the problem and for the first time a person in that administration capacity put it on the teachers internet forever so I don't want to I'm rather praising not trying to rid of you dr. Brown because I don't know that much about his administrative work but I know when I came with a problem that he helped that and that's
062what he did and I know all of you parents out there you know I'm far away from this now and I know you feel good the little needles when you read all those pages in the paper International and they're natural I get New York Times every day okay what anyway there are two things that we need to do there's a lack of diversity and then there is a lack of our diverse teachers african-american teachers curricula adjustment has to be done you know what social studies teacher thank you yes casting it so make sure you stay close to the microphone so because we can hear in this room you don't may not be able to hear over there and and I probably should have reminded everyone when it's the same as in we're in the regular
063board room the meeting is being streamed live and it's also being recorded and it will be uploaded to YouTube so yeah so you do need the microphone uh sure no no well I mean yeah it's so just make make sure you speak in the mic that's okay with it whatever whatever suits your comments okay okay hi I'm Veronica Peterson I'm I'm here representing the National Association Association of Social Workers and Wyoming and I'm also a licensed clinical social worker and private practice here in Cheyenne for about a year now and I have a child in the school district who's nine this week so I support what Reverend Hanna requested as a response to what happened at mcCormick and I want to focus on the need for a competent a culturally competent mental health professional or
064a response from professionals in in McCormick and the reason that I support that is because discrimination bullying intimidation assault oppression they all have physical and psychological impacts they can't not have that and adults children who experience that kind of oppression are at high risk and students in these vulnerable groups aren't especially high risk for suicide I just learned this recently and in Wyoming the month of April in the month of September are our months of the year where we have the highest rate of suicide especially students who don't have support at home and then experience this kind of oppression at school are at the highest risk so I really encourage you to consider more of a response to protect those students and an in an inadequate response or a lack of effective recourse from the
065authorities and power of an institution can be as bad or worse as the original abuse or assault so a lot of times institutions support negative behavior they don't its inadvertent but it can continue if there's not an outside look at the institution if the recourses made up of people in the institution if the policy is created just by folks who are in the institution and have power in the institution then it's hard for an institution to change that about itself so to identify any blind spots the school might have or the school district district might have about allowing this kind of behavior to continue I would also really support some kind of outside investigation so I'm gonna stop I'm gonna step away and let a young person talk now okay thank you [Music] okay welcome
066give us your name please hello we can maybe give it good down closer to your mouth there you go hi I am Ashlyn Kircher I'm an eighth grader at mcCormick I'm here to talk about the hosters / 8 speech that has been going on at my school I think what is happening at my school is wrong to have in any school and this should have been dealt with when it was first bullying was first being reported as far as the 3-day training we were given to by the teachers I didn't feel it was satisfactory we talked about the Similan our similarities between us and that was about it luckily I learned enough about acceptance from the GSA at my school and from my uu Church the bullying that went on in my school is not
067about the similarities between us but our differences I feel like the action my school has taken just shows that the students are not taken seriously I feel like nothing has happened to the students who did this nor has nothing happened to protect the victims of this hate speech I feel that releasing miss Cooke from her position at McCormick GSA showed us that even those who protected and supported us are not protected I miss Friday the 29th and Monday the 8th because of this school should be a place where you feel safe and get to learn now school feels like a place where I have to look behind my back and make sure no one's trying to hurt me or my friends how is this even allowed a let alone tolerated let other students frighten others
068to the point where they want to go home and not come back this should not be allowed nor tolerated I thought the school had a zero tolerance policy thank you [Applause] good evening I'm Yvette Harris and this is my son Drew Harris I am his biological mother I have three things one my son was being bullied at school and he wrote a letter to his educator describing what type of bullying what was happening who hair why and when I was never contacted about the bullying he wrote the letter to his educator and she responded to him basically telling him he needed to be a better person - my son was punished for two weeks for feeding another child who was hungry he was secluded in the lecture area for feeding another child and when I
069asked about that they said yes we asked you why he did it and he said because the kid said he was hungry three I have a letter from the educator stating a very racist comment which I will not go ahead and go into detail while I'm with my nine-year-old son but I have it in writing from the principal that it's not disputed I'm yet to get any type of I don't know what the word is I guess my son has been punished over and over again and the educators still there my son's been removed from his normal classroom setting he's on a one-on-one social study setting now I feel as if the system is failing me what I'm trying to do is raise a nine-year-old boy to be a man what I've taught him is
070the people who have done these actions to him it's one person not a race I need some help I need to know that when I said my nine-year-old boy to school the educators have my back and teaching him to be a respectful kind caring loving person but that he receives the same type of respect that she is [Music] basically they're telling him he has to have for them I've addressed this many times and I'm sad I'm sad that I'm having to be here again tonight but it's not just on behalf of my son drew I'm sure this is happening to other students but he's nine years old and this is not only from students it was from the educator and then down to the principal where do I go from here thank you hi I'm
071ray Klein and I'm a freshman at Central and I'm part of central equality I've been involved in Wyoming our quality events and I used to be in McCormick's GSA as well I support what Reverend Hanna said and I'd like to focus on the district-wide professional development in culturally responsive teaching for staff faculty and administrators that specifically addresses discrimination this last request is important because currently the obvious program isn't working many teachers don't take the program seriously I had a teacher at McCormick that would ask students to raise their hand if they or anyone they knew was being bullied and then that teacher would ask if anyone was a bully they should raise their hand and then that was it for the lesson even teachers who took the program slightly more seriously never addressed discrimination which
072is one of the leading underlying causes of bullying the program makes it seem as though anyone can be bullied and it's completely random but that's obviously not true kids who aren't like the majority of students are the ones who get bullied whether it's because of race sexual orientation gender identity religion etc McCormick's black and LGBTQ students should feel safe at their school but many don't and having teachers and staff take a class on discrimination would be a step in the right direction to providing these kids with the resources they need thank you is there someone else good evening my name is Carmen Rossi and I would like to know about your leadership on this issue and ask you where is your diversity equity and inclusion statement and how will this board promote diversity equity inclusion
073in our schools and I urge you to look at the culture of Laramie County school district number one and how you can provide that thought leadership I'd also like to remind all the young people here that Laramie County school district number one board positions are elected thank you how y'all doing board my name is Dominic Thornton I'm here representing a really good friend of mine Fred we're both active duty and we've been here I've probably about three months I'm a father of four children I go to church with Fred and I just wanted to tell a little story about what happened to him and his daughter at McCormick while his daughter was at McCormick she was called the n-word and also was told to just turn her head and act like it didn't happen this
074is the same school that had the racist Flyers and the Flyers us against the LGBT community I'm a person that came from Mississippi I've lived in a bad neighborhood I moved to Texas I've lived in a good neighborhood I was told not to like police and then I became a policeman it's crazy right but I understand issues and I understand the differences that people need to come together and I'm asking for those that were involved and all the things that have happened at McCormick that you get rid of those teachers if it's the principal get rid of the principal I understand this is just what I'm asking this is just what I'm asking also I would like to say Fred have served 11 years overseas and hasn't encountered any racist comments to any of his
075children this is different dialects of people different types of people and not yet one racist comment he's been here for three and a half months and Cheyenne I have four kids that's gonna grow up in Cheyenne four kids that's gonna grow up in Cheyenne in the same school system I'm asking y'all to make a change to do something for everyone thank you [Applause] hi I'm Cora Klein I'm an AP capstone student from Central High School I'm currently a junior and I want to discuss the demand that I feel is most important to me well are important I feel as this one is more most relevant to my time that I felt that I spent at McCormick junior high I'd like to discuss our demand of introducing the employment of a currently culturally competent mental health
076professional and McCormick this person will not be an existing school counselor and they will be available to all McCormick students despite race sexuality gender orientation religion or whatever it may be I believe this will help bullied and harassed students find a way to improve their mental state at school and avoid malicious ways of dealing with harassment such as substance abuse and suicide this professional could offer relief and a parent would not have to pay for them in case the student is under financial restrictions like with the normal therapist I have found myself that I was not sufficiently mentally supported at McCormick as I reflect on my time there I have a rare mental condition known as Asperger's syndrome also known as high-functioning autism and I turned to therapy outside of school because it wasn't properly
077provided at the school for myself the school counsellor did not provide methods for me to understand why I had a social disconnect with others like my therapist did and if I had have mentioned professional to talk with at the school I feel as I might have been more successful with my social connections made at the school students at McCormick desperately need a professional that can provided just assistance in understanding the consequences of having meds assorted and how to deal with trauma caused by harassment what or is this simple company conversation as in like I just need to talk about something or maybe it's something very serious such as I feel like suicide is the only option to deal with the discrimination I face at this point a culturally competent mental health professional could provide support
078for many students who are out suffering from a lack of support and therapy at school and at home thank you for listening thank you hi my name is Whitney Brooks I am a student at Central High School I'm a former McCormack student and I attended the GSA at both of these schools I am also a strong believer in the power of storytelling so I hope that in three minutes or less I can tell you guys the story of some experiences I had at McCormick I'm sure you've heard a lot of the demands tonight over and over again an independent investigation a specific school board meeting to address these issues an interactive professional development that covers discrimination and is more culturally competent than the current one but the one I wanted to talk about most was
079having a culturally competent mental health professional I'm sure you've heard those words a lot tonight but basically it has some very specific meanings for me when I was at McCormick there were counselors and there were feelings that the students had about these counselors I had a friend who suffered from eating disorders who went in to speak to one of the counselors and was told don't you know bulimia ruins your teeth and that was about it I had a friend who was struggling with their gender identity who could not find help outside of school from their family who tried to meet with a therapist from the school or not therapist a counselor from the school and this counselor didn't have much of a clue what was happening I think that we need someone at McCormick who
080can support our students a lot better because I have not seen these students be supported this isn't just about LGBTQ students or students of color although those are very affected groups this is about the football player who was told oh you think you're sad well just brush it off go you know work out or the country kid who has told the cowboy up or the or the kid whose parents wanted to support him but didn't have the financial means this is about all students at McCormick who need to have someone there for them at times when their friend their friends their family and their school is not currently supporting them thank you thank you I'm Jackie Esquivel and I taught at McCormick for thirty years and it saddens me to hear that this is going
081on at McCormick at the time that I was there if there was anything like like that that was going on usually it was taken care of but not to the degree that what happened at McCormick has happened now now this happened at McCormick junior high I think it's a problem for McCormick junior high and it's Laramie School District number ones problem we cannot change the beliefs of other people here with you people we don't have enough people to go out and work with people individually but we cannot condone as the people what went on it McCormick junior high and what some people don't understand is that a seed has been planted which is very dangerous there are groups out there under the white supremacy flag Nazis kki Confederacy that our walk to see what you
082do if you do not do the right thing it's going to spread statewide remember there are other groups out there that might have tried it and it's called down I do not know this but leadership has to let the school district number one note what is appropriate and what won't be condoned and what we see here I think is children fighting adult beliefs and I have a question jet firing of a substitute intimidate other teachers not to speak out and I'm sorry about the teachers that haven't done the right thing it makes me want to cry and yes I mentioned here about the counselors our counselors do not know what's going on and they really do not have the education to follow up in with some of these crises i someone's given a degree but
083they don't understand I don't think they read history and our history books are not right anyway history publishers have to go back and publish the true American story and another thing what happens here will certainly affect what happens in our school statewide negatively or positively and that's all I have to say thank you thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Lindsay Simoneau and I'm a licensed clinical counselor here in Cheyenne Wyoming I am in private practice I have the wonderful opportunity to specialize in adolescents trauma and also LGBTQ issues I'm here today to advocate for the proposals that have been proposed earlier before me with Reverend Hannah there is no overreaction to this situation when it comes to education and training for students and faculty in this district the reality is is when it
084comes to our LGBTQ kiddos within this district they are at a higher risk for suicide ality as previous have spoken before me and to to have that training you will not only be able to promote the safe environment that we have talked about tonight you will also be able to have a direct correlation with the suicide rate within our district which I know is something that is close to all of our hearts as something that I work towards lowering everyday cultural competency is the foundation in which empathy is built and in which institutions of oppression are stripped down so as as much as cultural competency feels like a trendy word I cannot stress how important it is when it comes to moving forward with our brothers and sisters who are different than us and building
085that more diverse inclusive culture that we are working towards all proposals here tonight will ensure a safe environment for schools as well as speak volumes to those who have been victimized by this hate not just within our district but the state is watching as well and so I welcome all of you to this discussion I thank you for inviting us here tonight well we're welcoming us here tonight and if you would like to talk to somebody who is culturally competent within this area I would give my contact information to any of you so thank you so much thank you [Applause] thank you for opening up to the public tonight my name is Bridget Paul and every night I used to be a teacher at mcCormick and I am currently a nurse at the Cheyenne VA
086I taught for 17 years in the public school and I taught with you to Tim I taught my mcCormick from 2005 to 2009 in the five years that I was teaching I worked with some very dedicated and open-minded teachers and administrators and taught a group of kids nearly 150 a year that learned a great deal about science and about themselves I also had some troubling experiences two of which are pertinent related to this recent situation at McCormick I had a student that arrived to my classroom deeply upset and unable to participate in class while talking with the student in the hall he explained a situation in his last class that involved him being in the corner of a classroom surrounded by three other young men and they were calling him names such as and berating
087him for being gay I assumed the teacher was not in the room I was incorrect the teacher either had poor classroom management or was not concerned about his behavior in the classroom the student felt that talking to the administration would not change the behavior of the other boys only make it worse I talked with the parents of this child and their concern about going to administration involved repercussions that their son might experience his final days in junior high and that it would carry over into as a high school experience I married in 2006 and this part I'm gonna use a word that is very uncomfortable for me but I got to hear it at McCormick while I was teaching there I married in 2006 and was in the faculty lounge with a teacher that knew
088my husband from high school this teacher and coach proceeded to ask me in a very public setting if I had ever seen pictures of my husband in high school when I answered in the affirmative he said he had hair right I had no words to even express or talk about this situation in the teacher lounge and I was incredibly dumbfounded and walked away without saying a word which I was frustrated about with myself later when I had gathered my thoughts to talk to the teacher a few days later there was honest confusion about why I would be offended or concerned about the description and was told that there really was no other description that would describe my husband's hair I spent the first few weeks of each year establishing norms and expectations every year I
089addressed using words appropriately words like and gay were to be used appropriately and not derogatorily and I was a science teacher so we could use the word in in a sense that would be appropriate at times my intention was to set a climate in my room for learning that did not demean any of the learners my intention was to never diminish any learners freedom of speech but to model common human decency training does not change a culture consequences for for being poor behavior might and new leadership will an independent investigation into the climate of McCormick Junior High School is long overdue and I hope that this board can agree to that for the sake of the great teachers that are there and administrators that are there and the entire student body that deserves it [Applause]
090good evening my name is Stephen Latham I'm a local pastor here in the community I'm also the president of the local in double-a CP and I just want to thank you for allowing us to speak here on today I also want to thank dr. Brown and Miss Herman for coming to our meetings that we've had several meetings throughout the last couple of weeks and they came and they didn't have to and they let us speak to them about some of the issues so I'm gonna be short I do just want to say we've had many suggestions and I hope you do take them all into consideration but the one I want to stress tonight is that I hope we really do you really do have a school board meeting and a community meeting where we
091just talk about this subject this is way too important to just have this going on you need to hear and we need to hear from you now in the last couple of weeks because of what has been going on I've had several parents people just have been coming up to me I've been just bombarded with people just coming and they have been telling me their stories of their children as they have been through this school system now I don't have any kids in the school system right now and I have several nieces and nephews and I have most of them are biracial and I do not want I love them very dearly and I do not want any of them to have to hear or deal with any of the things that have been going
092on so one of the things again I really want to stress that in addition to the other things that was said and I want this school board to really listen to what we're saying and to have that meeting because it's so important those parents I I never had a chance to go on break because people were calling my phone people were coming up to me just saying all the different things and a lot of these things it has not just started a lot of these parents their students have been they're already out of high school now that started when they were in junior high and when the schools were still junior high seventh eighth and ninth and it's continuing now so again I just want to stress let's have that meeting and I want to
093also just say were community and I hope you see the different people that came up even though the pollster talked about LGBT and black people it's the community that has come together and I want to thank Cheyenne for doing that [Applause] good evening I'm Sara Burlingame I'm the executive director of Wyoming equality and I'm the representative for House District 44 and I'm really grateful for the opportunity to talk to you all this evening I just want to make a couple points one that dr. Brown and Marguerite Herrmann have reached out to us as I'm sure all the board will going forward and that I've been able to share with the community the things that they that they have reflected back to us that helped build trust in the community and they've been able to do
094that because we're in a relationship with one another and I trust them and I believe that they trust me and what I think I've seen you know the most starkly since this incident happened you know almost three weeks ago now it's just how essential that trust in one another that trust in our institutions is and that we have this real opportunity in front of us where we have people who are so outraged who are so upset for such justifiable valid reasons but that we have the opportunity to say when this happens we're not we're gonna meet it with real leadership and so what real leadership would look like to me in this instance has been kind of spelled out here over and over this evening it would look like having someone who's culturally competent a
095mental health professional outside of the school no disrespect to who's in the school I just think they're overworked and busy with their things but that we bring someone in to say hey we understand that when your school is targeted by white supremacists when black students and LGBTQ students are specifically targeted we're gonna make sure that your mat with some resources we think that's kind of traumatic we think that doesn't feel great and we want you to know that you're important and if you want to work through this we've got somebody here for you we want a special session where we can just address this and do a little bit of a deeper dive the good news is is there's so much goodwill and there is so much driven strategic solution oriented leadership in our community
096who has come together in these last three weeks to be really solution or to say what would it look like short turn here are these three four things right that we're asking to do but there are long term things that we could do to that build health that build resilient schools where children can do their very best learning and I think you know we all saw those students who came up tonight and I think everybody was just bursting with pride for how amazing those students are and I think we all agree like they deserve the very best they deserve the very best they deserve schools that will meet them they deserve a school board administrators teachers and staff will have the kind of leadership that when they're not getting their very best will go back
097to the drawing board and will say hey we have a problem here and that brings me to my last piece which is an independent investigation and an independent investigation is not an indictment of the folks who are doing the investigation now and it's not a lack of trust in them as investigators what it is is saying we've broken trust here and in order to regain that trust we want to earn it and we believe that an independent investigation is the very best way to do that thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Casey cook and I am a substitute teacher for Laramie County School District 1 and I am the former co-sponsor of the GSA at McCormick a junior high and I'm also a mom two kids that are at here at the school
098district and the spouse of a full time teacher at McCormick junior high I just want to take a few minutes and talk about the importance of making a safe environment for everybody at McCormick I think that the things that have gone on the last three weeks have not been a great representation of of who we are as a community I think the kids obviously feel vulnerable there are lots of kids there that aren't supported at home they deserve a voice they deserve the opportunity to go to somebody and say this happened to me and I was discriminated I was harassed and I was bullied but unfortunately they're not getting that at home and now they're not getting it at school so they don't have the opportunity and a safe person to go to the kids
099at McCormick mean a lot to me but so do the teachers and the staff unfortunately because of how things have played out I think that the teachers and the staff also feel intimidated so they're not as willing to step forward and they're shielded when kids come to them they feel like they might be retaliated against and there's McCormick's full of amazing teachers amazing staff and most importantly amazing students I think that this board should consider having a private or a separate meeting to discuss the issues at perform at junior high I also think a culturally competent therapists work with the students is important and I also would encourage the board to consider an outside investigation where these teachers and the staff feel comfortable coming forward and and telling their stories and what's happening with the
100kids as well as having the kids have that opportunity I appreciate in the time that you've given me and your consideration of all of the things that have been discussed this evening thank you [Applause] my name is Mohamed Salah and I'm a retired educator from l3 wall C I just want to talk about two groups that were left out of this discussion the recent immigrants and you know they're in the news all the time they're all labeled as others and we see what is happening on the Mexican border and so there is a lot of sort of hate directed towards them without understanding the issues of the immigrants if you notice they were many Somalis here for a while was they left I spoke to some of them and their their children faced a lot
101of discrimination they were called names my two kids went to McCormick junior high and and Central High School but they were strong kids they feel some of this stuff was they shut it down very quickly because they were born in Cheyenne Wyoming so they know how to deal with stuff I just have two recommendations to make and the other issue is Islamophobia it is politicians are jumping on that and hating Muslims is sort of like a sport now so I did some training actually for the whole police department I'm a friend of police chief Kozak and he had all the police officers attend a two-hour session that I offered for them just to kill them about the religion and how to deal with Muslims and to come down this high temperature raised about immigrants and
102Muslims so I have two recommendations one I will offer to the board that I am willing to train whoever wants to come teachers administrators about these two issues because I studied them and of course I live them I am an immigrant notice and I am back a Muslim so I have experience with these two issues and I'm willing to offer mine to do that number to my good friend dr. Peebles here for the last seven years he has been putting together a sort of an educational celebration of the African Diaspora and we have been trying to get a lot of these people to attend so this would be a very good recommendation to let the social science teachers and the student attend this because we talked about the history of Africa and the African Americans
103and it shows films and so on and then the last thing I will recommend I am also a member of a group called compassionate share I think we need to teach the teachers and everyone how to teach kindness and compassion to our children to look at our human being as human beings and to give them their dignity and thank you okay thank you [Applause] Wow great great great guys my name is Jordi this and I'm a community activist from trying while I mean born and raised here family goes back to 1917 children were raised here and went to public school here I went to a private school called st. Mary's was I educated better I don't know I got in trouble a lot anyway I'm pissed I'm pissed about what's going on I've been a
104community activist since the late 60s and Here I am talking about white supremacy hatred and discrimination again and now it's affecting our school children I have a granddaughter that's going to carry junior high and it's gonna affect her it's just not affecting McCormick it's going to affect this whole school and so I highly recommend that you go along with these recommendations of what everybody else came up with not two months from now not next year you got like eight weeks left in the school year so I want some action because when I get pissed if I want action I want to see action I want to see action taken I want guidelines I want whatever I want to see you all tell me that you're going to do something effectively and with empathy not sympathy
105empathy because when you deal with sympathy then you're going to tell us what is the empathy is going to say here's what we can do together thank you [Applause] well good evening rusty board I have attended could could you identify yourself I mean I know who you everyone knows who you are but you have to say it I attended Central High School you know you can you name my name is Paulette gadelle there you go thank you I was employed with the school district for 38 years I retired 2017 and I'm still hanging in there I serve too many days a year but I'm coming to say I have a lot of positive things to say about our district I know most of you who are sitting on the board I was a student here
106my children go to school here I was an instructional facilitators some of these things that have happened I have experienced them myself but fortunately I had a parent that raised me to be strong enough to Know Who I am but this is a different age and the things that I have experienced one thing I'm learning is a lack of education and culture diversity some things that are said to me I don't even think people know that it's hurtful but I do believe that the school district that I work for you and now now that this issue has been identified I do believe in I trust that you will take actions that you will stand up for what's right I know this is not an easy issue I know this is hard because even I was
107a teacher had to deal with some of these issues and now that I have to think about it deeply I'm not even sure if I have to lick correctly but now that we've heard from the community we've heard from parents then we are dealing and depending on you to make some good decisions and to work with us so as I sit down at my seat I don't need three minutes I'm just saying that I believe in Laramie County school district number one and I believe you will stand up for us right I believe that you have taught me even when I was a child that education is the key to success we need some education in the school about culture diversity and I thank you for the positive things that go on and I thank
108you for this time thank you thank you very much so if there's a we're going to close this portion of our public comment period unless there's someone who wants to comment on the hate speech issue one more okay go ahead please no well actually we're we're recording it so you got to use the mic I'm retired army veteran of over 20 years I was a police officer for six years I've said on many of investigative committees and I've done a lot so my biggest thing gives the investigators I have never ever in 54 years seen any investigation conducted where it was all black people on this side all white people on that side it was always a mixture so you can get an honest and open investigation so I would ask that whoever does the
109investigations build the first committee there's no reason for it to be three white guys as they said last week a couple of weeks ago that's unheard of anywhere else in this world hate crimes have gone up two hundred and seventy percent over the last three years and if we can't trust the investigators are they nobody has faith in the investigation nothing that's gonna change everything is gonna stay the same and I understand we're here talking about McCormack this afternoon but it's not just McCormack my son went to Saddle Ridge in the fourth fifth or sixth grade he was called the n-word as sour eh he's a carry name in the 8th grade been there for two years he's been called n-word theory but I always tell my son and it's just a little catchphrase in
110mind refused and that somebody's attitude affect your behavior and hope and pray that your behavior doesn't affect somebody else's attitude and if everybody nailed by that simple Creed we wouldn't have this problem but it's not the kids that McCormick's that needs to be found out and I know it's a privacy issue and that's fine but it's not the kids that's coming up with this by themselves it's the parents that's why the investigation needs to be a diverse outside investigation because those kids are being taught this hate mass and if we don't stop it at the parent it's gonna just get worse thank you that's all very briefly less than a minute I am substitute teacher Charles R charlie Hardy I am a substitute teacher in the school district quite by accident I was teaching McCormick
111junior high the morning when this incident happened and I think someone should say something in behalf of KC cook who was there it happened I was teaching science and Casey came in and said we're having a meeting in here today and I said can I stay here and eat my lunch at usually we're gonna try to stay away from personnel but go ahead and describe the situation so anyway I was there I had no idea what the meeting was going to be about I heard something GSA I didn't know what GSA was then I heard gays dude anyway I saw the person conducting the meeting crying at times I saw students cry at times it was a privilege for me to be there I just wish you could all have been there also that day
112and I think something should be said in favor of that person who was supporting those children she did a very wonderful job that day so if if that concludes if everyone's had a chance and believe me if you think of something later you're free to email us too so just you know don't think that this is it so thank you for your comments on this topic I think at this point we'll go ahead and switch to like we mentioned that we have the East High pool was the next topic to be brought up so we will continue with that and thank you very much everyone who spoke we listened to tentatively thank you for your comments and by the way we have some no hate buttons up here if anyone would like to I'm gonna
113put them down here so if on your way out do you want to grab one or two there you go some people may have missed them okay I would say go ahead and just start with who you are and what you want to say go and you have three minutes and Darlene they'll give you the high sign if you get close thank you thank you good evening I'm leave a slur and I'm speaking in favor of the East High swimming pool I swam throughout high school and then I continued to swim in college swimming brought me lifelong friends it brought me a work ethic discipline and camaraderie the East High swimming pool probably did more to form me as an adult then the classes I attended and I think any any school program if you're
114close will do that I think it's critical to have our important programs I have to say that an auditorium a swimming pool is not as exciting as a football field but it's just as critical in the growth and the education of those students the swim program is is difficult like anything you workout an hour an hour and a half in the morning you work out two or three hours in the afternoon you're putting your life in a situation where you're either going to learn to get along and do well or are you going to quit and I think swimming makes a difference in the students lives and I want to speak in favor of adding in a swim pool that's usable as we know that East High swimming pools not quite as old as this
115auditorium it's pretty old pretty cool thank you li Vossler okay thank you anyone else want to address just Thank You Madame chair dr. Brown trustees thank you for allowing lots of comments tonight I want to speak about the East High poll as well was here last month and listened with interest as mr. Bartlett shared with us the history of the pool I have to say I was a little bit shocked to understand that that report had been done in 2013 so six years ago so at that time I I think the report and I won't repeat it to you all heard it but it was interesting to hear that the average life of a pool is 30-some years and at that point the East High pool was approaching 60 years and here we are six
116years later so the East High pool is certainly 60 some years old so I think really as a school district we've gotten two lives out of the East High pool but really I just want to say I think it's been studied and studied for the last six years and I would just encourage you all to step forward and make a decision tonight to move forward with the pool for East the other thing that I I don't know that we did a great job of representing last month at the board meeting was there were a lot of folks that spoke about the pool and I want to make sure that everyone understands there were folks from all three high schools and all three triads not everyone spoke but that we it was well represented across all
117three triads so it's not just folks who have kids at East or swimmers at East that spoke and feel like this is important thank you thank you new and what else wanted just the pool hi I'm Steve mug and I just came to say that I'm excited that the board is voting on the pool tonight and I think it's been a long time coming it is unfortunate and it's very saddening that it's been since 2013 that this issue has been in front of the board I realized too that you know pools are not sexy and not beautiful and but they are very expensive and so it's a hard issue sometimes but at the same time I know that the school district has been working hard to put money away for this event reality and now
118because that they've kicked the can down the road so long that we've increased the price tag now to where that money isn't going to be sufficient to pay for a decent facility and so it's really unfortunate that there hasn't been enough action and I just hope that you vote to proceed tonight with the design program and I'm also saddened by the fact that there was a task force that was put together you know with parents and administrators and coaches and athletes and seems like most of those suggestions that were taken up haven't been implemented whatsoever in the new design and so I just hope that you vote tonight to proceed with some sort of design thank you thank you hi my name is Brenda staff dr. Brown chair with me and board members I'm back
119again Here I am [Music] it seems like I this is my third time speaking here this is an important issue we you already have an important issue with what McCormick brought to you and the parents tonight this is also an important issue this has been going on since 2013 we have got to do something about this pool and they're talking fairness what about fairness to our East High swimmers the kids that graduated there and didn't even get to swim in their pool I know that mr. weed respond came out to look at the polls and he knows how have you been there has anybody been to a swim meet here I know probably dr. Brown has but I mean it is it's a hole there and the problem is is they we don't move on
120it now it's gonna get more and more expensive and then central's is going to go out and then what are we going to do now because I will be back to root for central also I have central parents up there there's South I mean we're here we have band together we are on Facebook we are sharing everything we need your help I have written a letter marguerite Herman thank you so much for responding back the first time I read a letter I had were three responses in a phone call I didn't I've only had one and I don't know what's up with that but I just want to say this is important I'm passionate about it and I really don't want to have to come back here again my son as a senior but I
121will be back here and fight the fight because when central needs a pool I will be back here to fight for their pool thank you thank you okay do we have do I also want to address the pool please hi my name is Sarah I'm a club coach in town I've written a couple letters to the board members just advocating for the pool so I'll just read a little bit from my letters just basically saying it's not a far-fetched at yet had a championship pool there when this was brought up a couple years ago they said that's ridiculous if we don't need one here and it's it's mind-boggling to us all you need is what has been presented so just more seating if you walk into East High pool there's the championship the conference championship
122that is going on that goes on itself there's six teams here with all their families and you can't even have you you build South pool which is a beautiful facility and through some bleachers in there you know so so it's just learning from those lessons and actually building what we need so let's see her sorry over the years we we've been talking about this there's been coaches in here from all the high schools parents from all these and we're still talking about it there's less of us here now because we're just like I don't know what else to say what are we supposed to do it that's and so just just let's vote on this and vote on what they presented it I know it's a little bit more money but it's investment we've got
123to light periods out of this pool already so let's put that money into it being a club coach just basically I just want to say we want to save modern functional and sustainable facility many of the dreams and plans are created to create such pools or scrap because of cost design limitations are asking the wrong questions to the wrong firms and I do get that it is expensive but the things that we need are enough seeding deck space lane space pool depth parking and a separate diving whoa it's not just swimming it's swimming and diving it's also an aquatic facility for all of the district students so if you think about it that way you're not I'm from Gillette so I grew up in a town where I was I was introduced to aquatics in
124elementary school here junior high is the first time you're even introduced to it so we get kids at the club level they can't even swim it's scary it's really scary I mean we were bused that was another excuse why we did not build the pool a couple years ago is because the kids might have to walk down to carry I mean come on you know build facility it's good for the entire district so it's good for all the other all the other sports also for cross-country for cross-country for football the PE classes for all of that and I asked about that 288 compliance therapy for autism I think we were using something but now I'm not sure if this is accurate but I think the district rents the municipal pool why can't we use our
125own facility so just things like that that we can act look into that stuff and create a facility for everybody really so at the club level we have kids ages we provide lessons in town from ages three to thirty we're getting up on three minutes here so it could you fit wrap up wrap it up we have ages 3 to 13 in our lessons right now because the school district doesn't offer it at the competitive level 5 to 20 and we'd like to have a master's program also so the entire community uses it the capital city athletics took over 50 kids from all triads to Wyoming State swimming in March and we took third in Division one which being I told you beating Laramie and Gillette is a big deal in swimming and in a
126lot of their sports but we were there we beat them so it was amazing the sport of swimming has taken off and to provide that for everybody would be be an amazing opportunity also understanding that all these all these things and the lessons learned from the last pool built more seating separate dialogue more deck space to name a few let's just not take money away from it it's an investment let's find the money Thank You mr. Allen did you want to address the group here I'm sorry are you want to address the group here yes ma'am Thank You mr. superintendent madam chairman members of the board my name is Sean Allen I spoke last month I apologize for my casualness I came from another sport this evening I had two kids that are playing soccer
127right now on our beautiful soccer fields at at Central I just want to make a couple points that I've been thinking about over the last month as this has kind of been brewing and I know this is a is a tough subject for you guys because you don't have it appears to me by looking through your budget message from earlier this year that you may be short a little short on funds for this pool but I and I know that due to some comments that were made last month that maybe we were gonna think about looking to the city or the county for some additional funding so I've been thinking about that for this month and I think that that's probably a worthwhile idea but I think it might be just a little late in
128coming and I think if we try to go down that path and pursue that just with my limited experience with the city I think it's going to be difficult for you to procure those funds on time to help your problem they may be it may be possible to procure them after the fact but I do think that if there's a will there's a way and I do think in a budget of 200 plus million dollars every year I've see that you put three or four million dollars the last couple years into your special fund I assume in anticipation of this expense that if you begin this process now the design process now perhaps by the time that you get to the point where you do need 16 million dollars instead of the 13 million dollars
129that you have now 12 or 13 million dollars now but those funds may become available or you may find a source for those I don't know I can't see into the future but I know that if you don't make a decision then what I think the process that you're going to start is going to be start that the the death of swimming and Cheyenne I don't think that it's any coincidence that two of your students of the week is this that we're up here earlier tonight were swimmers swimmers a difficult sport but I don't want to go get too deep into the weeds on that but because what I was going to say was earlier you know my daughter went out for freshman swimming at Central this year and I believe at the beginning of
130the year it seems to me there's there's there seventy or maybe eighty girls in the pool in an eight-lane pool you can swim about five kids at a time and down a lane so I I don't know that and by that I can tell you that by the time she's a senior there'll be twenty girls on that team everybody wants to go swim everybody wants to swim I think it's gonna be fine it's a very tough spar sport committed swimmers end up being committed students and they ended up being committed adults just like someone spoke earlier I don't want to I can't rehash a lot of great points that mr. Stalin sent you in an email that I read earlier today I don't want it those are great points and I hope you had a
131chance to read those emails please move forward with this project I think that continuing to kick this can down the road is going to be catastrophic you're gonna have a catastrophic event at East and I don't think that we're gonna be able to recover from that so please please move forward with this thank you please again mark Dobler I'm deadboys coach at Chinese high school dr. Boyd and Ward Allen thank you guys I know this is a big concern of you guys I know that a lot of you have put some time and effort into thinking about this and I'm really asking you tonight it's time to move forward as I said last time these pools been a good pool for us for a very long time I read an article that was sent to
132me right before spring break one of the finest aquatic centers we have in the state in Gillette is looking already 35 years old and closing their pool within the next five years you're talking dbest pool the same I talked to Tom Hudson who is the head coach at Laramie high school he's already said their pools been open for a short time it is already paid for itself this is a community pool I think the parents from South I think the parents from Central I think all the coaches coach Miller is behind this coach Jason from South is behind this everybody wants to make sure that we have a good facility so that we can move forward and do some great things here and represent the school district because it is a great School District we
133have great kids and this pool just does not provide a smoking anymore I could not tell you the morning practices in the after-school practices this year where we did not even have as the heat in the building all we had was the pool heating the air the temperature in the pool itself was 55 to 60 degrees I don't know how many of you want to swim where you're getting out of the pool and staying around 55 to 60 degree heat and trying to get custodians and other people to come and figure out why the thermostats not working trying to get the heat to come on there's various and there's so many problems and it's just not fair for tourists members it's not fair to my team to be divided up on my coaches to be
134divided up and trying to build some against system we've got to move forward and I urge you to move forward and do it the right way let's not build something that we're all regretting a few years down the line saying boy we didn't do this the right way this will be something that will be a marquee you know place that will represent all of Laramie County will represent a great opportunity for all of our students thank you for your time okay thank you please step up and identify yourself that's great hi my name is Laura pitch I am a parent of two competitive swimmers from the central triad I think the replacement of the East pool is definitely necessary there have been many times over the years when Central's pool has needed maintenance and we
135have shared ease it's pool but on a bigger scope the swimming community is just that we are a swimming community we support each other it's one of the greatest sports my son also plays baseball he gets to know his teammates but not really the kids he's competing against but some of my kids best friends have come from other teams from other towns from swimming when they get to know each other so it truly is a swimming community but one of the issues is not just building a pool but pools need to be big enough to also accommodate the competition lanes as well as warm up and cool down if you go to a track meet the coach sends the kids out to run and warm up before their event after their event they're sent out
136to cool down a good majority of pools that exist in the state now there's six lanes those kids don't have the ability to truly warm up at efficiently correctly in the necessary way before their events and they don't have the way to the proper way to cool down after those events and you can read the studies the studies they've done them nationally over a second off of your times for lack of a proper warm up and more than that for lack of a proper cooldown so I feel you guys are going to build the pool I mean that's a necessity but please consider putting in eight lanes which is what's necessary to have competition plus the warm up and cool down that science says necessary for athletes to perform at their best and while you're
137building a great facility please put in enough seats for the parents the the schoolmates the grandparents to come and support those kids in the sport that they love South is a wonderful pool unfortunately they forgot to put in enough seating in it for people to come and watch and I realize it's it's not a big revenue sport it's not a big headline sport but there are still people who do support it and want to come and watch their children there their classmates their friends compete in the sport that they love my understanding is to be able to hold a state meet you need 1500 seats in the pool in the state of Wyoming whether that's in the budget or not I don't know if it's not please at least put in more seating than south
138and even central has talked about when we try to have high school conference meets I'm a crazy parent but I will be there before the divers so that I can get a seat to watch my kids compete that typically means six hours before the swimming will start but I want to be able to see my kids compete and not just from peaking around somebody because I'm standing in the doorway which is probably a fire hazard when too many people are in there but so please please consider putting in the necessary warm-up and cool downs which is eight lanes because you are supposed to have a buffer lane between competition and please consider putting in enough seating thank you thank you anyone else then we will close the East pool part of the comment and anyone
139else who wants to address anything else this would be your opportunity and again I want to mention like I did before that if you think of something later you feel free to email us but this is opportunity to become part of the meeting seeing none I think we will close this portion of our meeting and it is that question is on the agenda later say one of the agenda here so we're up to aboard communications and reports first of all at the upcoming meetings April 24th at 6:30 p.m. almost a business appreciate 6:30 a.m. sorry a business appreciation breakfast at the Red Lion Inn it was snowed out the first time so this is a reschedule and 6:30 a.m. on April 24th May 1st 6:30 p.m. Parent Advisory Committee meeting May 6th a 5:00 p.m.
140work session before the 6:00 p.m. regular board meeting and that's May 6th May 8th at 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. the retirement recognition reception at the Red Lion Inn and that's always a very kind of touching celebration that you're welcome to that and and now we're to individual board Communications and reports if anyone has something to share yes mr. Breen madam chair due to the length of this meeting I I will forego any of my report till the next meeting okay and that advice is probably well taken but I don't if you have something you need to share this meeting feel feel free but if it's something you can but something that you can wait for the next time that might be advisable to but please go ahead if anyone mister boland do you want to
141share something now yes I have two things I want a report on first of all I went to the Carrie Junior High School National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony and I was very impressed that there were 66 young people abducted that day so it seemed like very nice students and I really liked the fact that we have a nice auditorium over there that you can do that sort of thing in and when we do finish the new Carrie we're not going to tear down the old Carrie so we will still have that auditorium to use at least for a while so I think the long-term plans even though only build another school there will be to keep that out treatment just like this one tonight it's nice we keep this one a nice shape before
142this kind of event and in case you hadn't noticed the sound system was updated here last summer so I hope you can hear very clearly in here it seems like it's working very well second thing is I went to two of negotiation sessions that we've had with our employee groups I was part of the CTA negotiate I was not part of it I was observing the CTA negotiation and what was dubbed the corner table excuse me one of our other CTAP was there observing and as always it's it's interesting to see the process work and to see the two sides come together as one team work together to get an agreement I also observe the custodial and the CTA did not quite finish there's the custodial dude finish theirs and I wasn't able to see
143the food service one because I had another I'm looking forward to being there some of the ones that are coming up this week Thanks thank you thank you we'd respond and I'm sure I just wanted to mention a couple of things I and mr. Boland attended negotiation sessions I attended the one on CTE a custodial and nutrition services I have to say that I was really impressed with the whole process it's changed so much from the time that I was involved in it the facilitators were just excellent you did a great job the participants seemed to buy in and I know that they felt like they were being heard in the process that seemed to work very well the other opportunity I had was family reading night at Henderson elementary school they enjoyed that and
144that was a that was a good experience it's always great to sit down with elementary students and do a little bit of reading so that's kind of what I've been up to thank you okay thank you anyone else miss Tyler sorry there were several of us that attended the Henderson and and we have the principal here and I just want to thank you for inviting us there were several of us that attended that so thank you okay and I think that concludes the board reports so we will move on to reports from the superintendent and staff dr. Brown madam chair we have a couple things that we'd like to talk about first I'd ask dr. Newton to give us a little brief update on where we're at with middle level education we look forward to
145bringing some more information to you in a little bit but I'll turn it over to dr. Newton to start off with madam chair members the board dr. Brown this report is a follow-up to the January 14th report that this board my principles at that time they share some reasoning behind the need to move to a mid-level model to have specifically address certain performance issues in the junior high and to provide opportunities for deeper support of our students if you'll recall a number of the things that they talked about was I need to increase instructional time in our core areas to truly instruct in a mid-level approach that takes the developmental characteristics of students at this age into account chorong of our teachers to allow a systematic approach to help individual high students in a very
146timely way building in an advisory period to personalize advocacy time for all students and to create a schedule that allows for flexibility of meeting needs where adult advocates can do their work focused on specific children and their needs I'm very pleased with the work that the junior high principals did at the conclusion of this update in January they left you with some of the updates that they intended to put into place between then and now and I'd like to provide a few of those updates the junior high principals have been very busy meeting with different Parent Advisory groups in our elementary triads the principals also met with senior leadership and the division of instruction to provide updates and talk about next steps dr. Kenny Eric Jackson and myself actually conducted site visits in a couple
147of schools in Northern Colorado to get a boots-on-the-ground feel for what mid-level education looks like done well in our region the division of instruction is currently supporting a number of staff development requests for our adults to be able to get some additional training in this this approach to teaching our kids our content coordinators have also sought out resources from a MLE which is the association of educators and have signed up for some upcoming trainings including a few this summer to get PD to see what - mid-level focus schools are doing they also intend to visit some schools that are showing great results within the region and the division of instruction along with the schools were also sharing research brief briefs that are focused on best practices within the literature base on how to do this
148work the right way especially in the transition we're very proud of the work that they have done thus far we know there's a lot of work to come we intend to bring further updates to this board in a work session in the very near future and at this time I will take any questions any questions for dr. Newton thank you very much for that thank you thanks dr. Newton just a few more updates for you madam chair members of the board one of the things I want to make sure you know we have going on is on May 7th will be our last meeting this school year with our local legislators again we'll be talking about all the different things four that are on interim topics for the joint education committee the Select Committee on
149school facilities and the joint appropriations committees we got a few things to celebrate and thank them for as well so just wanted to make sure that you're up to speed on that I didn't want to let you know that on April 24th when we have the business appreciation breakfast scheduled that I will be unavailable that morning I am ass I've been asked to be on a statewide committee for the basket of goods and looking at where we're at with that by the State Board of Education so I will be unable to attend that dr. Kinney has graciously offered to substitute for me and we'll probably do a better job than I would have anyway so appreciate that and then the last thing I want to talk about a little bit is a Wednesday through Friday
150this week I will be in Casper I am kind of in charge of the state superintendents conference so I'll be out of the district for about three days this week appreciate all the work that you guys do and the time that you put in and I'll cut that off as the end of my superintendent report and we can add one crisper duck ground what time is that legislators at noon Mike was the legislative meeting yeah we'll do noon and we will have lunch for them we've normally done it in 152 but I think it might be better I'll find a place and we'll make sure that I get that information out to you I don't want to limit the number of folks that can be there to have that conversation okay so we get to
151the consent agenda route routine matters all agenda items listed with the designation of CA are considered to be routine items by the governing body and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion on these items and the item removed from the consent agenda will be considered in its normal sequence on the agenda so at this time does any board member requests to remove a motion from the consent agenda yes I was closing madam chair I asked that you that we removed D - Juan - a to approval of the minutes of the regular board meeting from the consent agenda okay seeing no objection is that will be removed and voted on separately anything else madam chair I'd like to amend the minutes is can I do that at this time well
152when we get to it I'll go and when we get to the item then you can right all right thank you go okay so the consent agenda that one item yes madam chair I move to approve all motions listed as consent agenda second before the motion all those in favor say aye no the consent agenda has been approved and I guess at this point then we will take up the minutes correct as a separate yes yes madam chair just ahead of time I was not at that meeting so I will not participate in the discussion or the vote okay so noted so I guess the assistant clerk welcome you'll be it would be awkward to move the approval of something that you want to amend I guess at this point mr. vice chairman could you
153please move approval of the names was the second that Miss Lawson is dear mr. Mapp madam chair I believe the proper procedure is to move to approve the minutes with the second and then a motion to amend them can be made so I guess the motion we still need a motion mr. Clerk okay so I move for the amendment please just move the day yeah just move Lee Jung the minutes and then we'll proceed from there madam chair I move that's subject to individual changes in Corrections the minutes of the regular board meeting and executive session topics a discussion held March 18 2009 can be approved secondly you have heard the motion and are there any is there any discussion or proposed amendments to the minutes yes miss Plaza thank you madam chair madam chair
154I'd moved to amend those minutes with regards to the East High pool and the discussion that followed to add that trustees klassen story hilar and Boland all requested that the staff approach other stakeholders such as the City Council and the County Commissioners to see about the possibility of their interest in funding the remaining portion of East High School swimming pool so your motion would be to add those comments that were not reflected in the minutes yes is there a second for that motion second second by the tiler any discussion questions further discussion are you ready for a vote yes I I do would just like to support that that was a discussion that we did have and and so I do think it needs to be reflected in the minutes it was it was omitted
155and you you wouldn't that okay you support that any other question any other comments or are you ready for a vote okay seeing none all those in favor say aye aye those opposed no and noting the abstention of mr. Breen okay so those minutes have been amended and now we move on to new business madam chair I moved to approve the intent to amend board policies of those proposed Laramie County School District number one policy revisions submitted by the district policy Advisory Committee and placed them on a 45-day review for the public second for the motion to the approved the intent to amend board policies which will put them out for public comment any questions or comments madam chair just a reminder for the board that we will have those on display at the public
156library they will be electronically on our board Docs and then we will also have them on display here at the central administration office if somebody wants to see those thank you very much and so there's any any other further discussion seeing none all those in favor of the emotion of the attempt to amend board policy say aye opposed nay that motion passes madam chair and moved to grant permission to purchase novels and teacher resources for grades 7 through 12 in English language arts for a price not to exceed $160,000 second for the motion is there any discussion or questions seeing none all those in favor of the motion to get permit the purchase of novels for a secondary class from the curriculum materials say aye I was opposed no that motion passes madam chair I
157moved to grant permission to purchase eighth grade Earth and space science curriculum materials from Glencoe and high school biology curricular materials from McGraw Hill education for a price not to exceed two hundred eighty seven thousand dollars circuit for the motion any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor of the motion got permission to purchase eighth grade earth in space science and high school biology quickly materials say aye I was opposed nay motion passes madam chair I moved to approve the appointment of Rebecca young in the position of graphics arts manager effective July 1st 2019 and to place her on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule second you've heard the motion any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor of the motion to approve the appointment of graphics arts manager
158Rebekah young say aye I was opposed no motion passes madam chair I move to approve the appointment of Leanne Brennaman as principal of Buffalo Ridge Elementary effective July 1 2019 and place her on the appropriate administrative salary schedule second heard the motion any questions or comments at this time seeing none all those in favor of the motion to approve the appointment of Buffalo Ridge Elementary Principal lien Brennaman say aye I was opposed no that motion passes madam chair I move to approve the appointment of Steven Lloyd as principal of rossmann elementary effective July 1 2019 and placed him on the appropriate administrative administrator salary schedule they are can I know you Sid Rothman I meant to say art by thought should be are up I believe that we have a typo in there I apologize
159he was surprised to find another school not been seconded so let me reread it madam chair I move to approve the appointment of Steven Lloyd as principal of rpm I brought on the paper here I've got Ross from the tarp effective July 1 2019 and place him on the appropriate administrative salary schedule second you've heard the motion there any discussion of questions seeing none all those in favor of the motion to approve appointment of ARP elementary principals dev and Lloyd say aye I was opposed no that motion passes madam chair I moved to approve the appointment of John Waller as principal of Hobbs elementary effective July 1 2019 have placed him on the appropriate administrator salary schedule secondly you've heard the motion any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor the motion to
160approve the appointment of Hobbs elementary principal John Waller say aye aye those opposed no madam chair yes we do plan to have all of those principals and supervisors here to introduce them to you at a later date thank you madam chair I moved to approve a contract with Simon contractors for Alta Vista elementary school playground concrete replacement circuit you've heard the motion is there any question or comment seeing none all those in favor of the motion to approve a contract for Alta Vista elementary school playground concrete say aye all right those opposed nay motion passes madam chair I moved to recognize annual financial institution disclosures from school board members district leadership and finance staff involved in investing school in investing district funds disclosure forms have been completed and reviewed in accordance with Wyoming statute six
161- five - 118 and board policy second you've heard the motion any question or comment seeing none all those in favor of approving the conflict of interest conflict of interest disclosures say aye aye those opposed no motion passes madam chair I moved to direct the division of support operations to put out a request for proposal to select a firm to design a stretch 25-meter pool to be located at option four based on the December 728 the feasibility studies conducted by the art architectural firm of pappus and Pappas architects PC secondly you have heard the motion are there any questions or comments and tonight eating's madam chair yes yes miss Clawson okay thank you I'd like to move at this time to table this item regarding the East High School pool design until the board has
162had an opportunity to discuss the project and provide the division of support operations with more direction is there a second to the motion to table is 7th okay it's a second by micellar it is non debatable so we go straight to the vote on that all those in favor of the motion to table the boat tonight pending further discussion say aye madam higher yes I'm sorry may I make a few comments no formal table motion is not debatable okay so we'll just go straight to the vote on that and I'm sorry so I think I'm gonna call for the hands just because I think it'll be a split vote all those in favor of the motion to table please raise your hand all those opposed please raise your hand okay and that three meaning forth
163okay that motion fails so we return to the to the main motion and I believe mr. Bolen did you have a comment yes the on this part of it has two parts to it first part is where you qualify the firm's to do that and there's always been at least one board member that's been on there and I've had the privilege of serving on that I'm saying I would suggest and there's also two board members that get to but have been justly dissipating on the design charrette later on and I was just I'm not sure how I was chosen to be on those committees in the past or how the board members were chosen what I would suggest is that we have some board input on who it is that's selected to serve in those
164two capacities both on me when you all fight the firm's and also when you do that and I think that should allay some of the fears of the the board here that it's not going to be designed in a way that it's a weekend of so I would suggest that we go ahead with the motion tonight with the understanding that mr. Bartlett will take input from the board about who is going to be chosen by us to represent us on those two committees and and there will be Bennie they'll be vote tonight is to simply forward the process and there will be other chances to review and vote mr. Bartley do you want to respond to mr. Bolin's comment it's question its madam chair members reports so typically we do have one board member minimum
165sitting on the pre-qualification process and at least two we have had up to three board members in on our design charrette so what I would do is simply ask you as a board and that would be two members would be optimal three one would that be alright in the design charrette madam chair we we have any have had anywhere from 20 to say 40 people and we will have stakeholders involved so again you know the more the merrier on that really what we do the design charrette is we do a lot of brainstorming the architects take that back they kind of come up with a conceptual design they come back to the team so it kind of goes back and forth so you bet we would two or three would be great there on the
166pre-qual process what I would tell you if mr. Boland can attest to this it's very riveting and exciting as you grow these these proposals and costs okay so I would say if people want to be part of that process to let mr. Bartlett know it sounds like he'll accommodate whoever wants to be part of that process is there and yes miss Lawson thank you madam chair I want to explain why I proposed tabling this tonight if I if you would allow me please it's not a matter of not supporting this pool I'm absolutely in favor of a competitive pool for our community it's good for our swimmers and it's also good for our economy so it's I think it's a worthwhile dup thing to pursue having said that my my concern is the process I'm
167new to the board and I understand that there's been ways we've done things in the past but I certainly would like to see things done a little bit more as a team where we come together on these complex issues on expensive issues and we talk over important things the first thing that I really think we need to talk over as a board is the options and we've you know this board has decided tonight to vote for option 4 option 4 though was recommendation by our staff but I hope our audience understands that we never as a body sat together and discussed option 4 for it the swimmer community I think you're there's only two left maybe we option 4 includes a 10-lane pool I don't know why there's some miscommunication or people are are making
168comments that they think that this pool isn't going to be bigger than it is I mean we're looking at its hen Lane pool we're looking at a thousand and seating 700 for the public and 300 for swimmers is that correct mr. Bartlett charis Clawson that is that is correct that's what we had estimated keep in mind that the option 4 is simply indicating the location 25 meters stretch okay anything beyond that will be discussed in the shret and obviously that final design would come back in front of the board so keep in mind tonight really what we're asking his permission to move forward with those specifications to seek rfqs we believe putting those specifications in that request for Proposal is going to get the board the appropriate pricing from the design team so once that
169is is decided upon it will bring that design team forward for you to decision to determine then the design will take place we're assuming 12 to 24 months and then once that's approved so you're gonna mad I'm chair I appreciate that mr. Bartlett thank you I think the appropriate pricing is another issue you just said that it'll be set by the design team I actually think it should be set by the board we were told when I came on the board in December I was told that we needed a new pool and that we had about eight million dollars saved up for that then we were told by mr. Bartlett that he thought he could get his hands on about four million more dollars well the math adds up to 12 option for the estimated
170cost as we were shown and voted on tonight is over 15 million dollars so or three million dollars shy of what we need to build this pool so I really think that I would like to see our board develop the budget rather than our staff and I think that we owe it to our community to lead in this regard this is a lot of money it's an important thing the swimming swimming community wants to make sure we do it right they need to be involved as well the that brings me the budget issue brings me to another item and that is at the last meeting at least three of the school board members requested of the staff that you approached other stakeholders such as the City Council and the County Commissioners about the possibility of
171funding the remaining money for this pool and to my knowledge that has not been done or at least not officially I would not aware of any official correspondence where meetings I ran into the mayor the other night she said she hadn't met with the superintendent on the issue could you give us an update on where we are on that and if you're pursuing that so madam chair if I may we did reach out to councilman Riddick we discussed setting up the meeting they had they were doing some negotiations councilmen already informed me that he had spoke with the mayor and with County Commissioners and that they had no funds for a pool and this time no interest her only option would be to seek madam chair yes I would love to see us when we
172asked for meetings that we take an official approach toward those meetings and any interested board members be invited to attend also as I don't know the gentleman's name but he was thinking about the proposal of reaching out for other stakeholders he made a really good point and that's kind of what I was thinking too as far as making the ass now it might take them a while to get that money but it also takes us a while to build a pool and so I think it's a worthwhile endeavor to pursue and of course I'm just one opinion but when we're shy of the budget and we're voting to do a pool that's over what we have I think that's very irresponsible it's it's it's reasonable to think that when you go to buy a car
173you go to buy a house that you know what you want which we have not discussed bored and you also know how much you have to spend which we have not discussed as a board so even though I'm asking a table that it doesn't mean that I'm against the pool it means that I think we need to lead we need to lead this community on issues where we have major expenditures and projects that matter to quite a lot of us so again my opposition was regarding the process in which we're taking and I'd really like to see us more involved moving forward and I think our constituents we owe it to them to be more involved in these kinds of decisions thank you madam chair I think with due respect to my fellow board members
174I think it's a great idea to reach out to other stakeholders and talk to other people with regard to contributing dollars to our pool but I would caution the board that you know if if I'm the city of Cheyenne and I'm gonna give a million dollars to help you build your pool you may I may be relinquishing some control over that facility by doing that they may say well you know I've given you X amount of dollars and now I want my people to be able to use it on these days so I you know there's certainly nothing wrong with with making that that ask I think that's that's fine but I would say that there's some risk in doing that the other point I would make is is reviewing location for I know that
175there was a note there that utilities would need to be relocated so mr. Bartlett I didn't I didn't see a number attached to that could you help me with that so madam chair members of the board I'd like to back up just a little bit so the estimate that you have is is simply looking at taking the four options and taking essentially Laramie swimming pool and dropping it and asking somebody what would you estimate this cost to be built what you have to realize is each one of these sites are very unique and it's going to take a design team to determine just exactly what it's going to cost and what's entailed there so you know I'll give you an example you know South High we had a budget of 65 million we design that
176we put it out for bid and when it's all said and done we returned over three million to the state because it came in under bid so keep in mind that that is an estimate we've got to get a design before I can actually give you a price of what it's going to be estimated to cost you know this design here is actually designed to be a single level pool what we may find with the the elevations at East High it might be cheaper to have the higher ceiling because it's going to tie into the existing building so all of those things it takes a design team they're architects engineers to get together listen to what what we're wanting they put the design together and then we can do many bit alternates and each one
177of those can be line-item and they can be bid separate so you know if you look in the estimate they talked about seating for 750 if you wanted to go to the larger number the 50 they gave you a price of what it could be but those are not real numbers those are estimates based on polls across the country you very briefly address the notion of going forward with the pool when we don't have that the dollar amount in the bank today so madam chair we have right after a little over 11 million dollars in reserve and in 2013 when we were aware of this problem came up from the first report we began intentionally putting money into our capital facility Reserve and so again at the end of this year if we look to
178do that in next year and then again we would approach the record if they were willing to go forward as well so we have put approximately two million a year the last three years contingency dollars those come from some of it is unexpended general fund we've got contingencies for utilities so we have a light winter we've pushed those over so we've asked you guys to do budget adjustments any other yes well madam chair I want to be clear to those that spoke tonight I am totally in favor of building a new pool I like Miss Clawson this is about a procedural thing so I don't want you guys to take this personally at all this is not we've got to build a pool there's just no way around it but I think we as board
179members what what we get concerned about is when I started several years ago it was eight million dollars and it's 13 million dollars now it's 15 or 16 million dollars we we've got to build a pool and we've got to do something quickly but we also we as a board need to be purposeful and having discussions and I think that that's what miss Osen was talking about I don't know if you're aware or not aware we as a board have not even sat down to even have a discussion about this this is it you're hearing our discussion right here I think miss classy and I would like to have more of a discussion a purposeful discussion so that we're all on the same page and we're not fragmented or were not confused about utilities and
180projections and this and this and this we just want more of a purposeful discussion about this so I am going to vote for it tonight because I do we've got to do something about a pool but I would just say to this board and in our administration please we are begging for more discussions we want more discussions on these big topics I don't want it I don't want them coming before me and saying we option for I didn't even talk about option for I didn't talk about option one option two option and three so we want to be part of the discussions I'm sorry and I understand the frustrations and about the budget and and we are immune as a community we all have to look at the fact that we do have a budget
181here and mr. Bartlett is well aware of where that all is and we have some amazing staff Jed Tsereteli really close I'm sorry dad forgive me you're awesome so fit anyway he's gone over a number of things but we have looked at this we had a work we had a work session on going over the different options we talked about what that would look like some of the nuances in it and could it have been longer yeah sometimes I think our work sessions could be you know much more there in you know they're an hour before our meetings so we've got a lot of information to take in but I was looking at the and I can't remember the date of this meeting that we had on this work session but I think a lot
182of us have been doing homework back to mr. Bartlett back to community members back to the board chair definitely taking some questions to dr. Brown so I think we all understand that we need to go forward with this project and as we go along with this there are going to have to be multiple opportunities to look at that budget look at the dot I have been involved in some of the schools that have been built over the last 13 years and watched how that happened and and how the budgets EV didn't flow not the budget but the actual design process and what the final numbers came in at and so I think that once we we as a board and I hope we could do it all together as a board go through this process
183and build that confidence that we've seen like mr. Bolen has been on many of those and has seen how that process works through with mr. Bartlett so I think this will get better but I know that this this is definitely not going to be our last time about talking talking about this and going over these numbers over and over and over again so I'm actually looking forward to going to that next step and getting the design going and then and then talking about how we can meet the majority if not all of the needs that you know our kids and our swimmers have and I know that this district will do the best that it possibly can as well as this board to make that happen I just want to say that on the design
184threats that I've been involved in the architects do a wonderful job and I've worked with probably three different architectural firms they generally bring in somebody from a national firm also that specializes in whatever it is that we're building in this case would be a swimming pool and they do a wonderful job of taking the ideas that our community has about what we want and putting it into what I've seen three schools and those schools really reflect what we want in our community and I'm sure that that will happen with this pool also that they'll look at what do we really want in the pool and they'll incorporate that into their because I've seen those I've seen that what we came in for the design charrette and it looks very very similar to what we see
185in the actual building so I believe that they're very good at getting pretty ideas from the community and putting those into a building in this case support I are we ready for a vote okay seeing no additional comments all those in favor of the motion to permit for permission to proceed with the East High School pool design say aye those opposed nay nay so that motion passes five to one since I didn't vote in that madam chair I move to approve budget amendment fiscal year 2019 for general fund to increase other miscellaneous revenue budget by what four hundred and fifteen thousand dollars for insurance proceeds increased general support expenditure budget by four hundred fifteen thousand dollars for hale related expenses capital construction fund transfer $180,000 from capital outlay to general support second you've heard the
186motion are there any questions or comments at this time seeing none all those in favor of the motion for a budget amendments for fiscal year 2019 say aye all right those opposed no that motion passes madam chair I moved to grant permission to purchase mass notification systems for an amount not to exceed four hundred thirty thousand dollars secondly you've heard the motion is there any question or comment seeing none all those in favor of the motion for permission to purchase mass notification system say aye I was opposed no motion passes and for future business the next regular board meeting will be held may 6th 2009 teen at 6:00 p.m. with the work session beforehand at 5:00 p.m. and all things being equal we'll be back in our boardroom I will say I want to just
187shout out to our staff for the district for making the meeting tonight possible we wanted a venue big enough to accommodate the larger number of people to welcome them so that there wasn't any it wasn't uncomfortable for anyone and the sound system was quickly rigged and and the the streaming and the recording of put together so kudos to our staff Thank You mr. Bartlett and everyone who made this venue work but we'll be back in our regular boardroom next time at this time prior to adjournment for the purpose of possible student long term suspensions expulsions safety security and personnel second all those in favor the motion to go into executive session say aye all right as opposed note we are now in executive session