001thank you this is a meeting of a regular meeting of the Hampton Board of Education present for the board is Mary Ellen Donnelly Mark Becker David hallback Matthew flaggert Juan Ariola and Rose Bisson um and Ann ruenberg I'm so sorry uh I think that's all I have to say so we'll start with um audience for Citizens and staff and I'm going to ask people oh I'm sorry I didn't finish also Frank Ola superintendent and Samantha sarley are soon to be superintendent are in attendance for the board but we'll start with audience for Citizens and staff and I'm going to ask everyone to hold their remarks to two minutes is there anyone who would like to say anything yes Alan yes just want to inform the board that the invoice from Pinecroft was paid for the
002paving of the front parking lot thank you very much people anything else hearing none we'll move on to correspondence for the board Frank did you have any correspondence no no okay I didn't either um I don't know Juan did you have any correspondence to the board yes well this is the time you sent it I see you sent it I sent them because I wanted them right into the record well Juan the lawyer suggested we not do that so I really have trouble reading them into the record okay but they are okay but I I think it was very important that the other person that was accused of malingering and and not living up to contract and and intimidated and threatened with firing and had a letter placed in her fire I think she has
003according to the First Amendment a right to grieve the government and I think that if we don't accommodate her that she could also go to the Connecticut Human Rights Commission and she could probably win a case against us because we're not willing to extend courtesy to her to uh error grievance against the superintendent okay so we're willing to extend a courtesy to her but we're asking her and I've met with her we're asking her to please meet with the new superintendent first so if she doesn't have satisfaction after that then uh that would be when we would consider it at the board level but I think we need to give our new superintendent a chance to handle what our lawyer says is a supervisory matter an administrative matter foreign okay I'm going to move on
004to discussion impossible before we move on I just like to say that as a board member representing constituents in Hampton and that you guys and board members should understand that this was wrong and we should have taken it up as soon as it was brought up rather than dealing with math The Fallout later on thank you you're welcome okay so we're going to go on to discussion and possible action on the hiring of Karen Avis for the 0.4 FTE in art so we see Karen She's Come uh yes Mary Ellen later I'll do it later okay Ann was trying to say something but yeah it was correspondence about policies okay it's about policy so bring it up later sorry thank you oh I'll make a motion that we hire Kerry and Avis for a 0.4
005FTE in our second okay great now we can have discussion um do you have anything that you want to say Dr ola well I think that Karen has a long history of teaching art and chaplain um and um when I interviewed her she she was very knowledgeable in terms of the process of teaching art in the elementary level which is what I focused on obviously but she also brought to the um a conversation a real positive attitude uh about herself for teaching and the students that she has worked with in chaplain and she has had nothing but glowing responses from or recommendations um as you may have seen in her resume uh from her current supervisors um in chaplain so I highly recommend her I think we're very lucky to have her um come in
006as a point for two days a week for our students and um I I asked all candidates this Karen are you comfortable we have a multi-age group uh multi-age grouping approach are you comfortable teaching more than one grade in one class yeah we've actually done that before at chaplain um it's not a consistent uh way of teaching but we have had groups that were multi-age in the past so I am familiar with that I know that I'm sorry go ahead I was just going to say if we're consistent about it that'll that'll work for you I think so yes okay great thank you okay Dr Ola what step of the pay scale are you recommending for um Karen she would be at Masters and at the top scale I think I think that's Masters 12.
007I believe so okay Rose would you oh Mark Becker this question do you want me to amend my motion to include at Masters 12 that's step Masters 12. that would be great thank you all right so I amend my motion um to include at Masters 12 at step level Masters 12 at the end of my motion thank you and I second that is great thank you Mary Ellen any more discussion well in that way I'll call the roll uh again the way you show up on my computer Mary Ellen yes and I just want to say that I liked your letter and um reading your credentials thank you thank you thank you mark uh yes David yes Matthew yes from Matthew in in chat um Juan no and Ian ruenberg yes one two three four
008five six seven did I miss some oh no Russ is in here okay the motion carries one two three four five yeses to one no okay welcome aboard Karen we're waiting for you seeing you in the fall thank you I'm really excited about it great um we don't necessarily expect you to stay for the rest of our meeting um but we're very happy that you came in and met with us oh well thank you so much I really enjoyed everyone that I've met at Hampton and I'm really excited about teaching there this fall wonderful so hopefully I'll see everyone uh in and out of the building well as long as there's no covid restrictions good point I know it's hard to get used to it is yeah okay well thank you thank you so much
009have a great evening you too okay discussion in pot whoops approval of the minutes from 6 22 and the special board meeting on 7 11 22. do we have a motion foreign okay does anyone have any comments on the minutes of 6 22. um I just have one on number four approval of minutes it says Diane Gagnon moved to accept the minutes of the 622 meeting I think that should say 526 meeting does that seem right to people I noticed the dates were off but I don't remember which way they should go well they were this is in the minutes of 622 so we couldn't approve them because they hadn't been written yet right so it must have been from the last meeting any any other changes hearing none oh wait we have to talk
010about the uh the meeting on um we're also approving the 7-Eleven meeting are there any comments on that meeting 7-Eleven that was a special meeting yes yes executive session yeah we came out and hired the superintendent okay uh one more thing yes uh I'm just I'm trying to pull them up um the date of the May meeting that we're trying to approve was this one sec 525 so it has to be connected um it says 5 23. yeah it says 5 23 and um so it is to be corrected in two places what was the meeting 5 25. 25 okay it says 5 22 later so that should be 525 yeah both places 5 25 22 and then Diane moved uh to accept the minutes of the 525 meeting so the correction in two places
011okay thank you okay so to approve the minutes as corrected we'll start with Mary Ellen yes mark oh yes uh David yes Matthew oh yes and Diane's waiting to be let in oh Sarah no is there another place you can look do we know what email she's on she's on her phone um I uh I'm not seeing her asking to come in so um is anyone asking to come in nope okay which means she could be on like she could be on an older link or um but go ahead and speak Diane I'm here hi Diane yeah we're trying to no we're trying to figure out how to get you on um Sam says that you're not on the list of people waiting to get on I put in the number and I put in
012the code and it says waiting for the host to let you in yeah and nobody let me in usually uh just I just some button and then I'm going in yeah yeah I can hold I can keep her on my line so she can participate so okay thank you does that work yeah that works if it's okay with Kathy and you that works for me okay great okay so we're in the middle of a boat um that I'm guessing you probably won't want to vote on uh it yeah it's to accept the minutes you're welcome to vote on it if you'd like um I'll continue down the list Juan no to the June meeting and uh abstention to the executive meeting okay but we took them in one we took them in one motion well
013then no to both of them okay um and yes [Music] and Diane do you want to vote on it so what are we voting on the minutes of both um June uh yeah June 22 and 7 11. yes okay great the most I'm sorry who said that it was yeah no it was June 11th 25th it was June 22nd and July 11th I love it yeah so we have six yes and one no the motion carries okay on to the superintendent's report um I met uh for lunch with our new superintendent um Dr Charlie and she and I I I felt we had a a wonderful lunch and um I tried to help her understand all the issues that are confronting us relative to heating oil on the rising costs she does know that this
014Zoom meeting on August the 17th of the heating oil Consortium through the rest Alliance um she does has been given the name of the person who does the um well has done in the past the installation of the playscape uh and the two playscapes that we ordered through covered uh funding have uh both uh arrived at our building and I just uh wanted to say at the bottom of it just a personality to thank you all for uh what I felt was um um six years that I have enjoyed being your superintendent thank you thank you Frank any questions oh just just uh oh Mark Becker but just a you know continued appreciation you know for being able to work with your doctor I will thank you you're welcome Rose yes Juan I'm sorry I'm
015hearing two people what Diane actually starts um I'm sorry Diane I missed that so we're we are honing in on next week at the beginning of the week but we the contract isn't quite signed yet because there's one issue to take up tonight um but we'll have a signed contract once tonight's issue is handled okay so yeah thank you you're welcome okay Juan I'm sorry what what did you want to say I wanted to say to Mr Ola good riddance and I'm glad that you're gone because you've created a lot of strife and Chaos with personally myself and there was no need for that if you had spoken to me and treated me like a human being it would have been different so good riddance well thank you thank you for your input Juan we'll
016move on to the principles report um hello everybody hope you're having a great summer it's going by faster than usual um my focus will be um over the next few weeks getting um helping getting the um building in order and working with the cleaning crew to make sure everything's um um all set for the students and talking to Samantha and making decisions about um the nuances of how we are going to reopen [Music] um with regards to things like dismissal and um lunch runs and things like that so that's the plan for the rest of the summer any questions I have a question yes Juan uh principle hello is there going to be any changes in policy as far as people coming in because I don't want another human being to go through what I
017have to go through and have nasty messages sent to me from the superintendent I have a lawyer contacted for my entrance when it's basically been proven that I didn't do anything wrong except as the grandparent walked my grandson to his classroom door and I'd like to see a staff who actually smiles and welcomes people rather than calls up a superintendent who's on vacation or gets a hold of lawyers I'm surprised the state police were in call because I was there so I just like to see some work on that and maybe I don't know if anything has been done about the race culture that I've spoken to for over a year now and that's nothing's been done about it I know that Mr Ola dragged his heels at every uh mentioned of it I'm hoping
018that you and the new superintendent will do something about that because we got a problem with race ISM in our school and I know that everybody looked around them and and isn't like what what's he talking about you're all white I'm Brown and I'm the one that got picked on it so think about that thank you thank you for your input and um um all of those um uh topics are definitely on our list to explore and take action on um um well things like the parents coming into the building is something everyone is eager to do um but part of that decision will be made by our covid numbers and the recommendations that we get from the CDC and the regional health District but definitely um you are hitting on topics that we will
019be um discussing and exploring and sharing with families I just want the the people who are coming to the building to be equitable that's all I I just want people of color and people with disabilities and other people to be able to walk into that school and not be hammered by people who are unsmiling people who don't talk to you people who ignore you and then report you without telling you what actually you've done wrong so I I want to see that environment I I want to see it totally gone I want to see it disappear it's 2022 we're not in the 1950s we're not in the 1940s we're not in Alabama and we're not in Mississippi thank you people okay thank you for your input I did want to say uh Sam that I
020liked I liked what you did with your report this month where you told us about um the working through uh project-based learning and gave us a little paragraph explaining the benefits of it I I think that's the perfect use of your report so thank you for that short and to the point yes I like that part too okay I'm sorry there's a question in the chat for the principle I believe no that's for me and I will get to it I just wanna okay sorry it's okay um did Diane have something she wanted to say I want to okay a lot of a little bit of on the security right yes yes okay good and um we we spoke a little bit about that at F and O and and um they'll talk about some
021of it um but that's definitely not being ignored okay good thank you thank you for reminding us okay now we would move on to director of pupil services but she doesn't have a report this month so we're going to pass that right on by and we have business coordinators report and the business coordinator is not here if anyone has a question we'll see if Frank can answer it are there any questions oh there we go we'll move on to discussion and possible action on the paid time off proposal for definition of terms in current paid time off for non-certified employees so business people call paid time off PTO but of course I hear PTO parent-teacher organization so um I'm going to say the words out I'm not going to go PTO for paid time off
022um do we have a motion I moved to accept the proposal as presented July 27 2022 um it's two paragraphs and um I think we could just put them into the minutes that the proposal that was sent to us I still I have a question I know you got a motion going but uh no we have to Dave we have to um make our emotions then we discuss so I need a second and then you can ask your question okay thank you Diane okay Dave what's your question I want you just to give us a brief history on this I know I believe we voted on given uh paid time off allowable lost time to the the non-uh teachers uh non-union employees the office janitor and all that we did do that right and it
023was back in February or something like that right so the issue here is when the term starts or how do you how do you calculate it do you calculate it you use a service from data higher or do you calculate years of service data higher first year rounded off back or forth depending on where they started prorated now what do the teachers do how is the teachers calculator because I want to do the same thing I think how was the teachers calculator for their time as far as they they have their own Union contract and it's right contract and they go from um July 1 to June 30th as a contractual time frame so there you go so they are all treated in that sense so the problem with the non um Union people is
024that we've had various implementation policies so we uh it's everybody seems to have been given their raise not their raise I'm sorry their time paid time off um on July 1 and it was regardless of when they were hired so what we're saying is that that seems um somewhat arbitrary so we're saying that anybody who is currently employed will have their um paid time off as of July 1 um of each year so that the full complement of vacation sick time bereavements um and uh personal time would come then anyone hired after um that point um they would then be well in other words all our new hires uh would then go by anniversary um date of higher so it's uh makes it easier because the way this um document that you approved back in
025February is um determine for example vacation time it's zero to six months they get no days and then six months to one year it will equal one vacation well if we continue with the July 1 somebody who was hired in April would then on July 1st get a full complement of their vacation rather than having to work zero to six months with no vacation and then um the next piece is six months to one year equals one week so um it just helps Define the terms that you've already approved um are we talking about non-certified people have made reference to non-union uh non-certified will be non-union yes it is not certified yes yes it's the same group thank you foreign yes sir if I started in November so that that would mean that this July
026I would get one week you would get your full compliment of everything that is part of that non-union process yes okay thank you and that's because so let's say someone was hired last November um I'm looking I'm pretty sure didn't we get it I can't find my paper with it um did I hold it up no no I read it so I know it came in the packet I just can't oh it's got something in front of it so let's say I was hired in November of 2021. and now it it came to June I mean to July 1 2022 um I would be considered to have one year Service as as is part currently done is that correct yeah uh yes so nine months I'm sorry who was that nine months the way it's
027been implemented up until now it would be considered a year until July 1 turned into a year for whenever you came is how it's been done till now if we make this change um anyone who is already hired would be under the old way of doing things right correct so there's no one currently employed by the board who would be affected by this change I said the same thing two different ways okay that's that's good to understand any further discussion hearing none I just want to wait um I just want to clarify if we vote Yes on this if we pass it then anyone hired in November starting now would not get their one week vacation until November the next November um that's the change we're making no after six months they'd get after six
028months they get a week oh I'm sorry I read it yes after six months one day one week a week where they would get two years yes rather than an arbitrary July 1. so they would need to wait till November if they were hired July 1 . no if they're about hired this coming November they would not wait till the following November and they would get one week vacation right no no that's an example no if they were hired this November they'd have to wait six months it says it right under vacation I'm sorry okay six months one day all right so I said it wrong so they wouldn't wait until the following November and they would get two weeks vacation yes no oh two years no no Mary Ellen zero to six months you
029get nothing at six months you get one week so when November came you've done your six months to a year but then you only have a year in so you only get a week for the next year and after that when you have um two years done you would get two weeks correct you're gonna have to run that by me again November of 2022. it's coming November November of 2020 what are they hired when is your example person hired Mary Ellen this is not this is 2022 now July 2022. so we hire somebody in November this coming November okay November 2022. so then all right so after that so they did six months they get one week so from July 1 till November of 2023 they would have a week and then starting November of
0302023 they they didn't have to do one more year with one week so they'd have one week straight through till the next November of 2024 then they are they qualify for um one minute then they call it no no it takes five minutes I disagree between one and five years they get two weeks vacation so if they go November 22 to November Sunday November 1st 2022 to November 2nd 2023 they get two weeks I agree we were there a year I agree with you I my I slipped up to personal days where it says zero to two years so that was my mistake gotcha okay thanks okay thanks for clarifying that's all right I I I admitted the six months so okay yes Juan so basically everybody who's in right now is basically grandfathered yes
031after this July 1st it doesn't apply anymore the grandfathering it's done well no yeah no one was hired in July so I I know that but I'm just saying there is nobody else that we have to worry about because everybody's been grandfathered in that is correct everybody without exception okay thank you you're welcome okay are we ready to vote all right Diane would you like to vote first Diane you vote Yes okay Mary Ellen plative yes because I don't I don't have the recording uh David yes Mark I skipped you all right yes Matthew uh yes Juan Juan would you like to vote Juan are you there hello Rose I'm sorry I was muted uh yes and Anne yes okay no idea seven to one yep the motion carries unanimously and we'll move on to
032discussion and action and possible action on superintendent compensation so as I was going through the contract you know so we can take the contract from um Frank's needs to Samantha's needs I noticed that the Board of Ed was paying 5969 dollars toward Frank's trb insurance so that was part of this total renumeration and it was budgeted for and it's budgeted for this year now um Dr siley clearly does not qualify for Teacher Retirement Board insurance yet however I would like to suggest that we give her the 5969 dollars as part of her um her compensation as part of her salary but that would need to be done with emotion of the board were you so what's the total salary gonna be could you tell me what the total is now the Europeans total give me
033a minute Mary Ellen I would really like you to uh finish your motion if you don't mind yeah I moved that we um compensate Dr Sarah Lee 5969 in addition to um the salary voted on um at the July 11th I believe Board of Education meeting and that was 61 585 oh thank you Mark uh one minute Mary Ellen Mark okay I'm going to add it in my head so I will not be well on paper but I will not be offended if someone tells me I added wrong we were going to start her at uh at the at a low rate so that we can work our way up to that 5000. at the last meeting I believe is what we had said no we didn't discuss this insurance payment at the last meeting
034okay so it it I get that it comes to sixty seven thousand five five four Mark you're good at math yeah oh sorry I didn't write the numbers it was 67. oh yes okay thank you so any further discussion yeah foreign what's the difference Frank had a retirement insurance is that what you're saying yeah Frank was getting his insurance um he was getting his supplemental insurance through the teacher retirement board I think there's several of us on the board of ed who do that uh and you have to pay for it it um and as part of his contract Hampton was reimbursing him for the amount that went to his um for the amount that he had to pay to the teacher retirement board I'm sorry that beeping is driving me crazy do we know
035where it's from it's gone never mind um so it's budgeted as part of Frank's total um compensation for the job but since Dr sarley is a two day a week um person she doesn't qualify for our insurance plan and because she's not retired she doesn't qualify to get it through teacher retirement so I'm suggesting we give her that part of Frank's um uh Sal is his compensation which would bring the total up to 67 650 54 dollars okay tonight that we all met and we hired uh Dr Sally she agreed on the original salary 61 500 yada yada so and we all agreed to that so now you're just saying that you want to give her a five thousand dollar raise because it was part of Frank's bonus package benefit package as I recall the
036discussion we wanted just trying to get my hands around this yeah yeah as I recall the discussion we said we wanted to give her the same thing Frank thought and at the time I I hadn't I don't know I didn't realize that it would slipped my mind that there's this additional bit that Frank was also getting so Dr sarley has not complained she has not asked for it I noticed it and thought it was something that could be corrected we pay for the insurance for her if we vote the sin 5969 yeah but you're not going to give it to an insurance you're going to give it to her in salary that is correct so it will be taxed for her make sure Diane understands that Diane do you understand that we wouldn't give it
037to her and yeah okay thank you you're at 51 I think something no 61. yeah okay I got it thank you any further discussion years ago hearing none I'll take the call the roll call Diane um yes mark yes David I'm gonna say no uh Matthew thank you so yes yep um one no and yes all right we have one two three four yeses and one two three nose so the motion carries um four to three thank you all excuse me I need a light um now discussion and possible action on the 2020 to 2023 Board of Ed budget so our budget was passed by the board of finance and passed by the town so that would make it um time for us to to pass it on our board I'm trying to see where
038in the paperwork it came didn't we vote on that before we send it to the board of Finance for 30 days no they they cut us from what we voted on so we have to vote on the new number this was this was Sally's request um Rose I'll make a motion okay to uh approve the 2022 to 2023 budget of 2 million 39 382 um as dated on the July 17 2022 draft okay I could second that Okay so I'm not sure how much down it was was this because of the heating oil being put um in the in its contingency fund yeah but that's just ten thousand let me Kathy would you like to tell us where um how much it was lower it's ten thousand dollars lower and the money was put in
039the contingency on so it could be used upon requests if needed so it's ten thousand dollars less than what your board had approved okay thank you any more questions okay I'll take the roll call Diane nope yeah Mary Ellen yes mark yes David yep Matthew yes Juan no and yes yes okay so we have one two three four five yeses and two no's the motion carries foreign okay committee and liaison reports we'll start with Communications has Community nothing to report thank you Matt finance and operations uh yeah so we met last week on the parking lot Paving had been completed and uh thanks to Allen and um Ellen from town hall to work with Sally to get the invoice paid to pinecraft or crop Croft uh I did reach out to a company uh queue
040lines um that will be giving us a estimate to paint the lines on the parking lot um so we'll know more about that hopefully in the near future um I think we talked about it at the last board meeting but the Arsenic tank the second one the contents have been replaced so um that tank should be good for another year and then next year of the year after we'll start have to do the other there's two tanks so the second one uh Mary Ellen and uh David have been um meeting with multiple different people to try to figure out the logistics and how we can uh install Mini Splits within the school um but obviously the uh intention to save oil costs and to provide Cooling in the summer and uh yeah oh the playgrounds
041we'll be just working as we need to um you know Dr sarley we can help out um as part of the committee if you do for the playgrounds to help coordinate people or whatever so just feel free to reach out to us I'm sorry my dog I just wanna yes I just want to say um to Sam and whoever else um David and I are going to be in the building this Friday at 11 o'clock and I just want people to know that so that the Halls aren't being washed or waxed or something we're gonna have to run through most of them I mean most of the rooms um because another company is coming um to take a look foreign for finance and operations thank you Mark and the dogs the dogs wanted to say
042hi too okay policies okay so the policy committee meeting work and I wanted to thank Frank and anyone else who was participating in getting the policies to me the the draft policies the the information from tape uh that was mailed from caves over a period of time but if I received them this week and I'm pleased to say that I think we're well positioned to move ahead with having another policy committee meeting and and updating our policies there was also documentation of the school safety initiatives power I think that's going to be a Statewide priority it's actually a national priority secondary to this shootings so materials were sent on that topic um I'm mostly recommended and required policies are not relevant to us accepted in Concepts because they they may apply to secondary students who
043are in middle school and above developmentally but the media policies that are challenging to students and also policies that do not discriminate against students who may have had some challenges prior to the current time so anyway I'll save the discussion for that until we actually have a meeting which hopefully will be in the near future great question any questions for Anne nope I'm not hearing any Ian thank you okay ad hoc ad hoc job description subcommittee so we met on I think it was the fifth but we met and are currently working on um putting the executive assistant's job description into the same format that all the other job descriptions are in do you have anything to add to that Mary Ellen no we had a three-hour meeting it was very good and productive um
044Yvonne was there Sam Rose and I and um I have notes that I have to give to Dr sarley of course it'll be she'll be part of looking at this um in figuring out that job so thank you great thank you okay the ad hoc minority recruitment and retention subcommittee so we met we met once and um uh we discussed several things but I reported that I went to a workshop at Cade it was a multi-evening workshop and it was called Affinity groups so of course I was in the white affinity group and the reason for the Affinity groups and the reason that we um separated into white and non-white uh was because white people have a lot to learn and people of color already know it so if we're all in the same group
045we're making them go over what they already know and that that doesn't make a lot of sense so I learned many things but the two things I want to report on tonight is that I learned Juan has identified for us we have a problem and it's not up to him to solve it we have to solve our problem ourselves and I got ideas on how to start doing that and the problem starts at the top of an organization not that we made the problem happen I mean there's many reasons for the problem but it starts with us learning so that we can improve and the district can improve and the second thing I learned is um people of color don't want white people's guilt because you know what my sister does this to me with
046my cancer she'll go she'll she'll give me this obnoxious advice and I'll get all upset she says well I would have felt bad if you if you um if I didn't tell you but my cancer is not about her feelings so it's the same thing here our racism is not about our feelings it's about people of color who are discriminated against and who are mistreated so um no one here is going to ask anyone to feel guilty what happened happened we need to fix what we can fix among ourselves so as a way to stop that um at my workshop we were introduced to a series of videos and I'd like to show the first one tonight and the series is called an uncomfortable conversation with a black man Emmanuel Ocho um does them I
047think they're on YouTube I think he put them on YouTube but they're very powerful so tonight um we're gonna watch the first one and uh Sam is gonna put it up on her screen I love Rose's faith and my ability to get this going so or let me share my screen those are your choices um how am I doing so far you're doing great so far there you got it okay can everybody uh so can everybody visually see it I can and and as long as you're ready I'm gonna hit play we're ready foreign welcome to the first of hopefully many episodes of uncomfortable conversations with the black men in the midst of all this chaos in our world so many of you all have reached out to me and by y'all I mean white
048people they reached out to me asking how can I help how can I join in how can I stand with you so I've created this for you um because in order to stand with us and people that look like me you have to be educated on issues that pertain to me and fully educated so that you can fool the full level of pain so that you can have full understanding I firmly believe that if the white person is your problem only the white person could be your solution and so this is made for you my white brothers and sisters to increase your level of understanding so that you can increase your level of compassion and Lead ultimately to change so consider this a safe space to answer so many questions that I've seen from you
049all the first question I've seen a lot of Emmanuel why are you on rioting I understand protesting [Music] with this MLK said that writing is a language of the unheard for years black people have tried peacefully protesting going back to 1965 and before with the Selma March and that didn't work and then in 2016 Colin Kaepernick he took a knee what happened to the sound we've seen riots get the attention of the oppressor they're trying to raise raise awareness of the oppression I I was in uh I was biking around Lake Austin the other day and there was a white girl around about 15 meters ahead and as I'm on my bike I say to her on your left sorry guys because I want to notify her I'm coming so that she can change her
050course of action 10 meters away and I increased my voice on your left because she had yet to move five meters away and she's still there and I say on your left because I realize if she doesn't change her course of action there will be a collision and as I approached her you know on your left then we can lie my goal was never to hit her but because she had her headphones in hear me and so she didn't change her course of action I I believe that that's the same thing black [Music] peas were yelling but the force of action wasn't changed and so we again you know we're oppressed course of action wasn't changed and so again we you know we're oppressed and now you see the Collision that's occurred in America so
051while I don't condone rioting and I'm sure you don't either for the most part black people and others that are looting and rioting destructively they're burning down their own homes but when you think about the five different stages of grief you can sometimes emotions they don't know their actions I remember my mom when I was a child she lost her she lost her sister and I just remember her yelling and screaming and I come outside my room and I see my mom throwing herself into a wall and I'm wondering what happened and my dad tells me that my mom's sister had died thinking back throwing itself into a wall it's not going to change anything you're actually harming yourself but sometimes pain and hurt it doesn't know how to express itself you know another question
052I get from my white friends they ask me why do you think White Privilege exists I say this if you and I were in a race especially at the start line they held me back for the first 200 years had a 200 meter then head start the only way to level out that race is either stop you from running or put me on a golf cart and catch you up and catch myself up well you see what we've done in America is we simply said okay Emmanuel you're now free to run and we acted as if it's a fair race when in honesty black people were held back for hundreds of years and So within the late 1960s we say okay black people you can go now that's not a fair race LBJ you can't
053shackle and change someone for hundreds of years liberate them to freely compete with the rest and still justly believe that you've been so white privilege is it's having a head start due to hundreds and hundreds of years of systematic and systemic racism and having the Head Start intrinsically built into your life it's not saying your life hasn't been hard but what it's saying is your skin color hasn't contributed to the difficulty in your life I live in an affluent neighborhood in Austin Texas and if I ever go to my mailbox and I see a white woman walking up to the mailbox I consciously sit in my car because I don't want her to feel like I'm a threat if I'm on an elevator with the white person I try to hit the button first and
054get off the elevator first because I don't want them to perceive me as a threat because I realize at any point in time whiteness can be weaponized we saw that this past week Amy Cooper Central Park the woman who called the cops on a black man who wanted her to leash her dog because it was illegal to walk your dog without a leash and she used two words that are a death sentence for black people when she called the cops she there's a black man who's threatening my life both of those things and as far as when you compile them together we're alive because that black man who was a bird watcher and while so many people saw that incident and they were heartbroken I as a black man saw that incident and was reminded
055of 1955 and until 14 year old boy who was lynched mutilated and killed by two white men because a white woman made a false claim saying that he flirted 2017 that white woman we can't hit that story in 1956 the two white men that killed him they got off and they admitted that they did it because they knew they couldn't be charged again due to double jeopardy his white privilege the ability to weaponize your whiteness and the ability to live life unconsciously because I as a black man have to calculate every move I make the second I walk outside my house another question I get but I'm sure several of y'all have thought if not your kids have how come black people could say the n-word but we can I had to do some research
056on that to educate myself a little bit further the n-word is synonymous with oppression execution and subordination black people were so long treated and viewed as no more than the slave to a Master we were viewed as dirt and that word is synonymous with that so there is a visceral reaction whenever we hear that word coming out of someone whose complexion is white that reminds us of the pain of our ancestors black people took something that was meant and originally used as evil and we turned and turned it into a term of endearment so white people I submitted you you can't shouldn't and nor should you ever have a desire to say that word whether quoting a rap song a movie or anything because remember that word is truly synonymous with hatred the Abolitionist Frederick
057Douglass hero we're talking about his master that uh reading and learning was spoiled and n-word because remember black people are nothing more than a slave to their master and when you think about well then why is your black people saying it and if I can't say it then you shouldn't either black person we've been oppressed for so long our races for so long been limited the reunion now try to again limit our speech so that's why nutshell in a few minutes and seconds why you can't say the N word another question I've gotten so often how come black people care more about white on black crime than black on black crime it's not that we don't care about black on black crime but let me propose this when a black person commits a crime they
058go to jail when a white person commits a crime they get off and hopefully they even get arrested Ahmad Arbury a black man that was chased and gunned down by two white men in Georgia it took us two months to arrest was perpetrated and the only reason we did because we saw the video I had the camera phones didn't exist black on black crime is an issue but if you do the research High violent crimes are all interracial blacks kill blacks whites kill whites Hispanics kill Hispanics so it's not that we don't care but it's the same issue is why y'all saying black lives matter when all lives matter we understand all lies man but right now both people are dying at the hands of white people you my y'all can change that name so
059if you want to know how can you help how can you stand with us how can you stand with me it was first educate yourself so you know exactly what you're standing for because the only way we can solve this issue is through exposure through education through compassion and through everything thank you all for tuning in to the first of hopefully many episodes of uncomfortable conversations consider this a safe space to entertain yourself and help me help you by leaving your questions and sharing this video because while you like me you're not ignorant someone you know someone you love they may be [Music] okay Sam can you unshare your screen let's hope I I have a lot of limits for some reason you're still sharing your screen yeah so I can minimize it there you
060go apparently if you're if you're the Whatchamacallit you can't like mute yourself and um you can't minimize yourself no but you should be able to turn off screen share yeah I should be able to that could get us back into a strip all right well if I'm gonna keep working on this for a second if you want to keep going here we go um let me see well we can try uh does anyone know how to stop sharing a screen Dr sarley do you know how to do that yeah so if you're just um Sam if you try hovering like towards the top of your screen it should pop up yeah it it usually does but did you minimize us I did and then now I'm back and um so can you see us like
061can you see me I can see you okay that's odd but I can't see the bottom where you usually do all the things unless it have like The Arrow to make us bigger I'm stretching you out yes Okay so do you have the ability to make me a co-host because that might just knock it off well as soon if I can get to the bottom where it has all the options then I'll be fine but I'm it's not giving me those options what if you just brought your mouse down to the bottom of the screen does it that's what happens to me it disappears that's what I'm used to no good Mark sorry well Samantha suggested you hover around the top can you do that yep and nothing's coming up there not that is helping
062just keep making you either bigger or smaller exit full screen oh wait a minute I I paused you stop share here we go ah thank you wonderful gotta play with that Mouse a little yeah we should have practiced it before the meeting I and I was uh afraid because I can't unmute I've tried to unmute for that one second and uh because I thought my dog was gonna start barking but I'm good now okay thank you anyone have any comments about the video uh Rose uh I like the intent but there's also a lot of other minority men and women who are discriminated not just black people and I'm I speak for my group which is Latino and Native American and I know that just my presence in some people's uh it scares them and
063I laugh because I already know that I already know that white people get intimidated just by seeing a person of a different color I know that people lean over and lock their doors as soon as we walk across the street towards them and and so this is just like I like this but I'd rather have other minority people also speaking about the racism they have encountered and the stupid questions that people ask them to answer because like this is our lives you're talking about we face this every day we get pulled over by the cops you're not going to get shot I'm gonna get shot if I move my hands too quickly or if I don't respond quickly enough I have an experiment that I'm going to try someday I'm going to get pulled over
064by State cop and I'm going to refuse to speak English and I want to see how far I get because I'll probably wind up in jail before I reveal to them yes I'm capable of speaking English even though you see me as probably a measurement uh wet back or an ignorant uh undocumented person so you know this is this is It's good to start somewhere but you have to include other minority people because there are other minority people who go through this it's like a black person when I talk to them they understand what I'm talking about when I talk to a Chinese person they understand what I'm talking about when I talk to a Filipino they understand what I'm talking about when I talk to other indigenous people all over America we don't even
065have to talk about it because we're like we live in America it's ruled and controlled by white people and white people just don't give a damn about understanding our culture learning our languages learning our history and and so you know I'm glad we started somewhere but I would Advocate Also let's include other minority people because black people are not the only people who get excuse my word maneuvered upon on a daily basis and I agree we have a lot of work and a lot to get to but I think these are are um good videos to help white people understand um the issues that are very hard to see if you're a white person so um I'm aware that things that happen to all people of color no matter what color they are are very
066similar and something doesn't just happen to black people it just happened um to another culture uh they happen to a lot but I think I'd like to start with this series and then we'll move out and Blossom on Rose do you mind if I say anything not at all okay so yes Juan I I appreciate um where what you're saying because I think you're getting at uh the point here which is every person has their own voice just like every person on the screen has their own voice and so I think um I'm so excited to join Hampton schools as we're endeavoring on something that massively impacts our future generation and so identifying within ourselves our own biases and experiences that we do um hold and possess and act in a certain way I think
067that this work is hard work and it's good work um it's work that I'm familiar with I also am married um Juan to a fellow uh um Hispanic and my children and our family we've experienced many things and so I share that as more of a starting point in the sense of we all have uh stories and come from individualized places and so um I hope that the board is is receptive to this work because it's not it's not easy um and what you're doing though because it's not easy is so impactful for our students and for our future coming forward and so I just kind of wanted to speak up and um share that I'm excited about the work that the board is doing but also the work that I'm looking forward to begin
068doing with the Hampton um staff so thank you Rose and one thank you any further comments okay we'll move on to ad hoc superintendent evaluation subcommittee we're going to meet once um Dr sarley's on board because we're going to want to start jumping right into the evaluation process but part of the law says that the superintendent has the right to um be involved in the development of the process so we'll develop that hopefully starting next week or the week after and we'll move on to Cade and you have anything to report from Cape standing is that that the um diversity and inclusion committee initiated the uh affinity group structure Statewide is that accurate Rose yeah the workshop was a Statewide Workshop I I was on that committee for a number of months good pleased to
069questions yeah it was actually yeah sorry it was actually a very good Workshop I was sorry when it ended yeah well I think it's one piece of many so um and we have new leadership at Cape and there's a lot of continuity I know that Don Harris and his wife Martha brackeen Harris have been very involved in Leonard Lockhart and there's a there's a whole team of uh people who were involved with it so I'm pleased to see this coming to fruition and there's going to be a leadership symposium which is a newer tradition in the summer time so that's going to be at the I believe it's Waters Edge in Westbrook in early August look for the information about that you know that's been showing up in our emails but it's in person so
070I can't go yeah okay should we move on to eastcon um the new executive director began July 18th um there's no board meeting in July but we're going to have our committee meetings early August um to make up for the fact that they they weren't held in July um so there's no no specific news okay thank you um what's what's the new director's name Eric and I um something like the lowest I'm not I'm not sure the spelling of his last name oh okay it starts with a P okay thank you okay um non-meeting non-boe meeting of the Hampton Scotland discussions so I sent out an email telling everyone that um the committee would like to have a combined meeting with the Hampton board event and the Scotland board event and I asked for dates
071that worked for you and everyone but two people got back to me so I was gonna Corner those two people women I want to open chat because Matthew's one of them um Matthew do you have dates in August after August 9th that you can meet or if you'd like you could tell us dates you can't meet after August 9th weekdays are fine okay we'll be in the evening because there are some people on the committee on the Scotland Board of Ed well as well as the Hampton Board of Ed who work during the day okay thank you and then Ann are there certain days I think uh we need to look at what's in filed for the address but um my schedule is in many cases open but there are a few dates that most
072of the dates that are problematic are during the day so the evenings look pretty wide open right now okay um you certainly could I've been sending anytime I send you an email I send one to the Hampton address and one to your personal address so I'm surprised if you're not getting them uh I think it's my technology oh okay I understand okay so we have everybody's time so what I will do is after the meeting tonight I'll put it all together but clearly between August 11th and 19th with maybe one or two days omitted is what I'll give back and when the Scotland board meets they can discuss those days too and then they'll get back to me so thank you Rose can I add something yes of course I I just like for the
073four of you who have already uh voice your opinion against the The Cooperative agreement that you would try to approach a Tabla rasa approach lay down your whatever reasons you started with to oppose it and we're not closing the store we're creating a new school so you guys haven't gotten any facts haven't gotten any data and you jump the gun on from the very start so I would ask you to take time to think about what's being offered not only to the school but to the community and uh people have worked really hard to try to make work even though obstacles have been thrown right and left and the division in the community is not worth not worth it it it's just it right from the very beginning you're losing Steam uh if we when
074we have the vote I'm gonna go by whatever the vote says I'm not going to go because a group of us got together decided we're going to start up against those people and we're going to show them we're we're not going to do this and so I would ask those four of you and Mrs Greenberg even though you don't live in Hampton anymore and probably are not coming back to Hampton I would consider that you should resign you're never going to be able to attend you are being inappropriate commenting on another board member thank you and I'll do it again if I have to in a public session thank you you can go ahead quickly about the um about the process and I'm my my position pretty consistently I'll admit that I maybe have not
075articulated it's so directly but my position is that the this community needs to have input into whatever emerges and that's probably the most important comment that I can make that should include input much more important than what I would pick for myself right sure any other comments okay we will move on to additions to the agenda is there anything that needs to be added to tonight's agenda uh okay Mary Ellen I started we did first well she lit up first on my board so Mary Ellen started speaking first okay Mary Ellen we didn't vote on the May um sorry I I the date we we it was a special meeting we didn't um we didn't approve those minutes I'll pull it up okay we're May 10th are those the minutes you sent out today yes
076um that was a special board meeting discussion in action about changing the school calendar I actually wasn't at that meeting but um it was the one where two days were subtracted from the school calendar to accommodate the paving so that's May 10th 2022 minutes I just sent them to you girls I didn't send them all right so let's put them on the next agenda okay because if people haven't seen them it's hard to it's hard to um to vote Juan what would you like to say I just I just wanted to be able to do something about the communications that were not discussed because and I I just wanted to start with the Tablo rasa for the school but I would also like for this super the new superintendent to reconsider the actions of the
077outgoing superintendent so that she doesn't have to live under the action and behavior of a prior superintendent and that and that is certainly something that she has um the ability to do and she will address it as soon as she starts that will be one of the first things she gets gets to any other things for our next agenda hearing none we will move on to audience for Citizens and staff and again I'm going to ask people to hold their comments to two minutes and we're going to start with I'm sorry B Garvey I don't know your first name it's actually Jamie um I'm on my husband's computer okay hello everyone thank you so much for having me it's been a real pleasure um I live at 43 Rogers Road uh we bought a house
078here in October of 2019. my daughter who had just turned five um we'll be attending Hampton Elementary very excited um my only question is I know there's very few day cares in this area um and my husband and I are both full-time working parents and I'm just a little concerned um now that Hampton Elementary does not have an after and you know before and after school program I'm worried about Transportation she goes to the learning Den in Chaplin it's very close to Hampton Elementary but as I looked before there's only one at-home daycare in this area and I believe that's the only one that provides any transportation to and from the daycare from elementary school and I'm just a little concerned with that because I really do want my daughter to have the best education
079but as we're full full-time working parents I'm concerned about the transportation issue so if anybody has any resources or or email websites that I could go to for transportation that would be wonderful are you asking if we can provide transportation to the daycare absolutely well we're going to have our new superintendent look into that once she starts that would be great I really do appreciate any help that you folks could give me okay thank you for coming and sitting through our whole meeting so you could ask that it was great I I really enjoyed and I got a lot of Education from it so thank you great anyone else Kathy okay I I have a loud question so they might take longer than two minutes um first on the minority Recruitment and Retention um I
080believe it was discussed that NAACP would come in for meetings with the staff and that wasn't brought up under the report yeah I I don't think it was discussed that that would happen I think it was discussed that a committee would work on how to um how to approach this and the committee will be working on that and it might happen or someone else might come in but it's not that it has to be in double ACP okay um well I appreciate the committee's work when we talk about this topic I agree with Juan you know has to be wider um I believe that video was you know a good start one thing is you might want to reach out to the towns of Hebron and I believe Mansfield have also had held Community conversations
081on these topics and had somebody come in um because I think it's important not just for the school but for our community as a whole um the next thing was um Dr Ola you had written back to me I'd requested an update of your financial policies at the elementary school because we're updating them um for Dr sorry I'm the chair of the board of Finance in Hampton um I'd put that request out if you haven't completed that I understand it may continue into the next Administration but I would least like a copy of your financial policies at the school that you currently have and then my other question was surrounding the security um at one of the meetings of the subcommittee there is a question about that the intercoms weren't working and you were going
082to look into Wi-Fi or a combination of repairing the older system and radios and I didn't know if that had gone any further I didn't hear anything about that um hi Kathy it's Mark Becker um just real quick we did talk about it um we had gotten a quote to repair the existing system it was uh fairly expensive I think it was like forty thousand dollars or something like that so um we are gonna continue down the path of looking at options but at the time Dr Ola had not investigated uh going to a wireless system okay yeah you need to obviously update that for security purposes um the other thing is is rd11 after they did lock in and I didn't know whether your board had gotten that information at 383 383 a gallon
083for the next year with a company that's called dying oil they're out of Waterbury um I'm not sure what the Consortium is coming up or if they had any strike prices yet but you can reach out to jovina for additional information at rd11. Waterbury you said you said yeah it's out of Waterbury 383 a gallon is what their their strike price was thank you you're welcome any other comments nope that's it thank you Alan uh has the custodian position been posted after Andy's resignation uh Sam yes it has um and I've um several candidates coming in um I'm probably up to about 17 at this point um candidates no no interviews are set up or anything yet just collecting the resumes where was it posted um indeed is that it um I I can't that
084one I know for sure I know that um Sally made an effort to post it on CT reap um but if I'm not sure if she actually got it there it was um glitchy for her is it on our website um that I don't know I will check into all right thank you uh anything else Alan uh that's fine thank you uh Kathy I just want to add welcome to Dr Farley um congratulations on the twins I'm also a mother of twins um and I'm looking forward to working with our community thank you Kathy I am okay um I'm open to a motion to adjourn okay so Diane who's seconding it I'll second it Mark let's just raise our hands for this one all those in favor how about let me see it but I
085how about Juan do you want to vote yes okay it's unanimous we're adjourning at 8 41. good night everyone Dr ola he already left good night good night