001foreign hello and welcome to our third hashtag we connect webinar series I am Jenna Woodland the superintendent of Evergreen Park I am so humbled and honored to be here with our third session we have a very special guest today that I will be introducing in a split moment just to reconnect with you today it is our goal to ensure that we're providing you the opportunity to connect with all the things that we're doing in Evergreen Park as a district we have gone through a very specific and detailed strategic planning process that will allow us to share information as to how we put our plan into action if I've heard anything in Evergreen Park it's that we want to ensure that we have a strategic plan that really allows us to have detailed action within our
002community that's directly tied to our goals just a reminder we are filming these live every time we have them in the event you have any technical difficulties please just re-sign on to the link that was provided with you today or for you today also these will all be pre-recorded and recorded and shared in the community and all hosted on our website so thank you to Dan Lee who is helping us drive our PowerPoint in the background and host our Zoom webinar as well as a reminder we've had a variety of strategic planning goals that we've Latin facilitated and our five goal areas are culture communication curriculum and instruction diversity equity and inclusion and student Support Services today however though we have a very special guest and that special guest is Miss Colleen klimsack Miss Colleen
003clemzak serves as our board president and she was an active participant in our strategic planning process and our goal for today is to share with you what is board work and what is not board work are very fun and creative theme but before we get to that point I would like to introduce to you Miss Colleen clemsack thank you so much Colleen for being with us tonight thank you so much for having me I am very excited to have this conversation I uh I get asked this actually in general um you know I don't think everybody understands what board work really is I don't even know if I did six years ago when I came on as a board member but I did know I wanted to be part of the good work and I
004just wanted to shed a little light on that this evening so thank you so much for having me I'm great very grateful we have this um this series to uh to share information with our community so perfect so I would love the opportunities to introduce you and a little bit about who you are as a person because I know you're much more than a board president so who are you and how can we get to know you a little bit better awesome uh well thank you um so in front of us here on the slide um I am a sixth Year Board member so um I was elected for the first time in 17 and then I was re-elected for another four-year term in 2021 and we will talk about elections in a little bit
005today as well so I'm excited to kind of explain that process to folks um before I was on the board um I was always active in the community once my children joined uh you know became school age I wanted to be a part of their educational environments so um I was one of the founding members for the Education Foundation Foundation here in Evergreen Park I was on the Southwest school and at the time Central Junior High uh school ptas when they were ptas at booster and then I was also a leader um for a local cub and Boy Scout Troop and Pac so I've always been working with the students here in Evergreen Park I do have three adult sons who attended and graduated from d124 schools I did the math on my commute today
006and I was in the district as a parent for 15 years so from kindergarten for my oldest to eighth grade graduation for my youngest and they are now at 25 22 and 18 years old so I also do own my own business I've been a professional organizer certified professional organizer here in Evergreen Park for 20 years this year so I'm a member of the chamber and and do a lot of presentations and things at local venues and and I also am a liturgical musician so I serve in two Evergreen Park parishes in that capacity as well so Queen of Martyrs and muscle Redeemer so um so yeah that's a little bit about me thank you for asking so you are a busy lady let's just put it that way I am I like it it's
007great it's all good things I want to be involved in so I'm happy to be here yeah you are dedicated to service and we appreciate your opportunity to really dig deep into what board work is and what board work so let's go ahead and get started on that so when I went into the superintendency I always heard about this word board governance and when I think about the word governance I think about a variety of different like big picture Concepts policy procedures guidelines law but if you had to describe what board governance is from the perspective of a board member what does that look like for you got it it is all those things um and more uh so um I will use the analogy that we receive in our initial board training so we
008do have to actually get trained up as board members so uh every new board member goes through an orientation to the district of you know ins and outs of District 124 obviously and then we also are required by the state to participate in um uh training uh two-day training for all new board members um with other board members which is really kind of cool it's always nice to meet people from other districts and we learn a lot about how a board actually really works and governance is one of the first things we talk about so we are told in our training that the board governs and guides but again what does that actually mean right so the analogy in our intro to board work training from the iasb which is the Illinois Association of school
009boards is one of a ballroom so um if there's any other board members hearing this they all know the analogy um so the board stands in the balcony of the ballroom is the analogy as the example so the point is we are overseeing we are watching over the dancers on the Dance Floor which is our community and stakeholders so we are there to watch the movements we might notice Trends we look for celebrations and for stumbles and then we take action accordingly so we kind of take in all of that information and then we um we act on it so our action is to set the standards and the work for the district like the Strategic plan right so you know we kind of um that that helps to order the steps of everybody involved
010um so Dr Woodland and her role as superintendent is responsible for being the go-between between the board up in the balcony and the stakeholders down on the dance floor um so again the board sets the standards um we base those standards on a lot of info input from all of our stakeholders and authorities like the state governing bodies and things like that and then we make sure that those standards are enacted with Fidelity so um to bring it on down right to a a building level um so I could be in classrooms occasionally and I actually love it when I get to do uh School tours with Dr Woodland and I get to visit and I get to see our students and let our teachers know that I support them but my role is not
011to stay in the classroom my role is to again govern and guide and we absolutely trust our classroom teachers to be the people in the classroom so it's like as much as I like to visit I don't stay and so you know that's a big that's a a definition and and we kind of need to remember that that's one of those what is and is not right questions right yeah and really if anybody asks I say that my role is to listen yes and listen and listen right um right for example like uh and Dr Woodland was there so last month in January I listened at a union meeting right um I listened to all of our principals in a principal meeting and then I reported what I heard back to my fellow board members
012at a board meeting and then I listened to them give feedback to that information as well so um we're also required to listen to legal advice so um very often the question we ask when we have to communicate or um you know have something that comes up we don't have to be the experts in educational law because we have experts in educational law so again that helps us to remember what is and is not board work um and you know we need to know like um you know most recently masking right so what was and wasn't legal thank goodness thank goodness that's a year ago but we had to listen and we had to take that legal advice and um and and act on it accordingly so um yeah and since we're talking about listening
013sorry Dr Woodland I'm going to put this in here um I want to mention here a guiding principle that we often refer to as well and that is chain of commands so yeah right um so chain of command refers to Authority and Reporting relationships which is a fancy word for communication um and this is poor per our board policy 330 and we're going to talk about policies a little bit too um and honestly that is the first question in my mind when any District topic comes up in conversation right so I really do have to listen and also determine is this something that's board work or is this something that someone else is going to have a much better chance of being able to explain more fully right right so um I remember I actually
014learned this as a parent because we are told as parents um there's a chain of command for parents to follow so the first chain of our first link um first channel in Communications is our students classroom teacher right and if we don't hear or if we if if the teacher and the parent can't necessarily come up with solutions for the student then maybe then the next step would be the Principal but we have to go through that in order because the way to make change is in your child's classroom versus dumping all those layers and going straight to like the board about something that we know nothing about yet so um you know truly it's it's classroom teacher then principal then superintendent then board there's a chain of command for employees to feel empowered and
015heard and be able to their first line of communication is their immediate supervisor right then the superintendent then the board um at a recent Dei committee meeting a question came up about curriculum and while I can speak in generalities about our curriculum the better person to ask is our director of curriculum instruction and education and technology and that's what we did because luckily she was at the meeting with us which is really really great but you know and the other part in the policy says these channels should be followed and no levels should be bypassed except in unusual situations so you know really we want to talk to the person that's right there at the level that we can actually see change and that's a great reason to stick with the chain of commands so
016I always like to say to the most impactful person is really truly the classroom teacher they're the ones who interact with our students the most absolutely sometimes I'm in a similar position Colleen and which I have to say you know have we talked to the classroom teacher can we really do to make sure that that child can be successful because that is always everyone's goal and intention I know it's the goal at the board level it's the goal at my level is that we want students to have access to education and that they're successful in their environment yeah if you've ever watched or attended a board meeting um you may have heard me say in public comments um that we don't really respond to public comments at board meetings and that's not because we don't
017welcome public comments and board meetings it's that very often the board is not the person or Department to respond to the question so it's very important um you know for chain of command um we don't necessarily know the answers but we know who does and so we will make sure that we get the information but again we don't respond if we're meetings for a number of reasons but very often is because there are other people that are absolutely better equipped to answer a question I can answer a finance question but you'd be much better off getting it from our director of Business Services than you would be from an answer for me so I just wanted to put that out there as well because that's important for for governance um at the root really great
018well thank you so much we're going to switch on to policy so you mentioned policy oh yeah and I view my job every day is to enact word policy and to do that with integrity and good ethics and to ensure that we're following them with Fidelity and support policy really drives all of our work in a school district and so just a big picture overview all of our board policies are accessible on our website and they must be board approved and so oftentimes you'll see Colleen have to read all of these lovely numbers right in a board meeting and then we also have a board policy committee because we have a committee structure here at Evergreen Park and two board members sit on the board policy committee but there's also times in which I might
019bring a policy to all board members in which we can discuss in closed session so from a perspective of a board member describe why board policy is so important to the board and how you really view that from your position got it so I don't currently serve on the policy committee but I have served on a policy committee and I think it really it's very serving on the policy committee really helps you to understand the process and how things how ideas make it into our policy um I mean it exists online so it's not really a book but you know how that happens um and so um just again all of our policies are available um on the district website under the Board of Education Tab and all of them must be approved from um
020my gosh and policies can cover everything anything from student Behavior to family medical leave for our teachers um right like everything falls under board policy and our handbook reflects policies so I wanted to kind of bring that together too so the nuts and bolts is every other month we get this very thick packet of information from the iasb regarding new policies or changes to existing policy and those changes or new policies reflect new legislation or you know things that at the I did visit the last policy meeting and we were still talking about some legislation that was based on if we have another pandemic um how we staff rooms like and because that matters and the 850 plus School Board in and districts in Illinois need to have something to refer back to so it
021is that kind of standardization for all of us which is really helpful um and then the policy committee reviews those and they bring the updates they review them with the superintendent and then they bring the updates to the whole board so I think we just yeah we just uh accepted approved a number of new policies at the January meeting this weekend at the Earth of February so we probably won't have March that's what it was um but it is it's interesting and um I refer to them regularly when I'm looking up information on how to do things the right way um because they really are that culmination of um best practices and um got you know governmental guidance and things like that so they are helpful and they do guide us in our guidance yeah
022perfect thank you so much for explaining that and so our next big topic is this one of our favorite words right is this concept of open meetings act better known as Oma and this really drives everything that we do in public meetings because as a reminder on little quiz Colleen can we just meet as a board together and do work no right those like random things that I think sometimes you know we're just not familiar with is that the Board of Education cannot meet unless if we have an open meeting so walk us through this very very important Illinois law that we have to abide by um I would be happy to I was actually doing some uh extra digging on it this morning too just so I could make sure to not make any
023missteps so um the Oma is the open meetings act and it is one of the first things that we learn about in board work it's one of those items on the uh iasb orientation you know first week of uh of being on board um and so I actually you know per Google of course but also the Department of Public Health Website so uh Oma is uh it's and the Illinois Oma right is provides our public with a right of access to the meetings of a large number like us of governmental bodies at the state and local level um so really it is it is there to make sure that the community stakeholders have access to all the information um that that goes on in the meetings because that absolutely um should be public and it
024also should be um you know we shouldn't be doing things behind closed doors and things like that so and if you want to Google more about it go for it there's many many many pages to the law so I will not go there um but to again to bring it down to what this Illinois law means to us here in Evergreen Park right so what it means is we do not and cannot hold surprise or secret board meeting um we legally can't yeah so um for every meeting there's a public no notice posted on the website and at district office for any board meeting and also the agenda so everyone knows exactly what we'll be speaking of um they're usually two or three pages long because some of our board meetings are are pretty needy
025and that is our time for the board to do the work um so you know for the public portion of the meeting the public is invited our Administration our principals our assistant principals they're all there and um we started live streaming during lockdown and we've actually continued to do that um not even though we can have regular public meetings again we um we saw that people were watching and that we were able to engage our community stakeholders better by offering that option and so even though we're not required to continue to live stream we've decided to keep going um and then you know again public everybody knows what's going to happen at the meeting everybody can watch what's going on at the meeting and then afterwards a summary of the meeting is shared in our
026newsletter so board briefs and right absolutely and then once we accept the minutes at the next meeting right that's what some of the work is our approval our consent agenda is to approve the meeting minutes from the last month then those are all publicly posted on our 124 website as well so there are meeting minutes from for a very long time going back out there um and then you know any board meeting again if you've watched or are curious um it can have both open and closed sessions yeah so Oma says we have to have um that public session but that there are a short list of short being relative right there's like 20 reasons um but we can go into closed session because there really are some things that should not be handled in
027public session for example student discipline or um or teacher issues or something like that that we really would have to respect the privacy and confidentiality of you know staff and students and and things like that like we just again following legal advice like there's just some things that cannot be done in public that we we have to respect everybody involved and so um like I said there's a short list of reasons why we also could go into closed session um so um we don't have to necessarily have a closed session at every meeting there might be things that we could just take care of in public um but then there's usually a short agenda for things that we have to talk about in closed session because of confidentiality and things like that um so so
028yeah that's the meetings and then outside of meetings Oma also means no replying to all when we uh yeah great Point yes we there are some things that we just cannot discuss as a group outside of a public meeting so there's lots of one-way communication during the month between meetings from Dr Woodland from me from anybody else um and so there's a lot of push and push information but if there's any kind of response then it needs to be just reply to whoever sent it versus a reply all because otherwise that could be considered and even if the seven of us are together uh there's no discussing board work when we're out to dinner together like at conference um there's no discussing board work in a group text so birthday reminders and Girl Scout cookie
029notifications are completely fair game so exactly so there's a lot of things as much as I really like talking to my fellow board members because they are just wonderful people there are things that we cannot do and there are things that we cannot talk about when we are all together unless it's at that public meeting so um I think a lot of people don't understand that that we we would not risk the litigation and so um we we are very careful about keeping those Lanes you know appropriately so yeah they have to be kept separate absolutely the one I want to you know every meeting for Oma we also have and this is related to policy in our open meetings Act is this public comment yeah can you walk us through public comment absolutely um
030so uh public I should have brought my uh my script that I say script exactly every meeting um I just and I it's not that it's been so difficult in the last I mean in the last two years I really wanted um people to know what was what is and isn't expected um I think we all do better knowing what the plan is um it's always been listed on the agenda always uh Miss Hernandez is very good about that um and that's again it's part of policy it's in our policies to limit word comments to three minutes to public comments um and that's whether you are agreeing with us or not agreeing with us it does not matter even if we would love to hear more good things we need to keep it to third
031to just down to three minutes because there have been meetings where we have no public comments and there have been meetings when we've had 20 people lined up for public comments and because a board meeting is a working meeting for the board that is our only time that we have to get together and actually do the work and hear the reports and make the decisions and and things like that we just we would never want to limit anybody's opportunity to speak but we do have to kind of rein in the the length of time so um like I said even the things you know good bad and different it doesn't matter we do have to narrow it down to those three minutes and what we always say at the meeting is we can't respond this
032goes back to that command question right we cannot respond necessarily at the board meeting um mostly because we probably want to go back and gather more information to answer it very thoroughly right um and so um it gives the the people that are there who can answer the questions and answer to an opportunity to you know collect the pertinent information and then re respond to that um to that speaker the person who's come to give public comments um fully we really want to be able to do that as well because um you know everyone deserves a chance to be heard and also to have their questions answered so that's a way that we can do it um Faithfully with Integrity um and remembering that approaching a board Chain of Command right is after those other
033areas those other levels have been exhausted as well so just some thoughts about that is that's a great explanation thank you so much I know that comes up frequently oh sure so our next topic is really driven around our strategic plan which you know is one of my favorite experiences so far at Evergreen Park and it's really about this concept of collaboration working with stakeholders to seek information about how do we make Evergreen Park the best place for kids and so the Board of Education you guys own the Strategic plan and you adopt the Strategic plan and then you've charged me as the superintendent to really execute the Strategic plan with my administrative team but this committee really gave input on the plan which is this collaboration piece to ensure that we have a variety
034of pieces of information to really Drive what I like to call systems change in an organization and really push us forward with continuous Improvement so from your perspective as a board member can you just speak to your experience on strategic planning and the work that you're looking forward to as well nice um I'd be happy to I uh one of the first things I did actually I was in I was elected in 17 and one of the first things I did just before I got on the board was to work on the strategic planning process at that point and it was um invaluable oh it was such valuable information and so great to walk through that process with fellow Community stakeholders um and so I was so excited to do it again um we really
035it was time um covid was not our friend so we were supposed to do it in Spring of 2020 and that did not happen um but thankfully it did uh last year and it was a great experience I have spoken glowingly about my board already but we um we own the board but all of the board was actually in the room um with our fellow community members 40 50. yeah 50 community members teachers part of the committee great yes absolutely so um so we were we were also at the table and also listening um but each of us is parents and community members as well so we have a lot of things that we can add and it was it's just so great um to determine what is important and to listen and hear what's
036important and then to really structure those actions that we are going to be taking over the next couple years towards those things that the entire group and consensus came to um that that was you know that was really what was most important for us to focus on so um you know we do own and adopt the Strategic plan and uh it then helps us to guide the actions right it gives us the parameters to evaluate progress you know all of that is part of the plan as well because it is a working a living working plan so um yeah I was really proud of our board members to be a part of it and really all the work that was done um about starting about this time last year right really exactly so it was
037great really yeah it helps us provide Focus too which I think is so important because it's not as if ideas that come to us aren't always great ideas yeah also that we just can't do and prioritize everything from the board level all the way down to the classroom teacher right right oftentimes when ideas come to us even though great in spirit or great in theory it really allows us to provide this laser focus on what are our actions associated with our goals and make sure that we're committed to those actions within our strategic planning process so it helps Focus me helps focus our team and I think all the work that we're doing around making sure that our teachers are the best teachers in front of kids to allow change action was the we didn't
038want it to sit on a shelf right that was our that was our charge from community members from teachers from uh public comments that is not just sit like yes it's lovely but we want it we want to see action we want to see change and Improvement and I'm really enthusiastic about what we've done so far and what we'll continue to do so right it was a great process all right so next we are going to talk a little bit about Board elections and see the word so April is a really important time for Board elections and then right after elections we see our board members and this is a topic there's timelines and dates and things that we have to make sure we do and precedenting during elections which is awesome right and again
039because you know we're subject to Oma we have to make sure we're following certain procedures so I know for certain that you are officially an expert on all this Colleen oh I don't know about that but I'll see what I can do okay so just give us some important things that we should know about Board elections and how we go about seeding our board members great um so yes very timely uh when this is being recorded so um and there's an election day today in the city of Chicago so uh right this is completely different but you know it's a good thing for us to know um we are close but we are not them and we are but so we can kind of lines can be blurred so it is helpful to know what
040is for Evergreen Park um so for the election coming up it's on Tuesday April 4th please register please vote uh it's not just School Board election so um but for this coming election we have three open four-year positions um and one open two-year position so um our term is four years and uh we had someone leave pretty soon after they were elected so that's why we have that strange little two-year uh position open but that doesn't typically happen um so we currently have the same number of candidates that we do for open positions for the for those roles um for the four positions we have um two incumbent candidates that are current board members so incumbent is you know coming back and then we will have two new community members uh join us as well
041which is great and um so it's strange so bear with us because April 4th is the election however we don't receive the final um election results until April 25th which is three weeks after the election so we cannot actively act on those election results until we've gotten that final canvas um that final election Authority go ahead three weeks after the election so if you vote and then you wonder well why in the world haven't we switched everybody over in April and I'm sure our two outgoing board members would feel the same way however yeah we cannot I'm sure they have done so much for us so I I get it but um they we cannot legally seat the new board until after uh April 25th so after three weeks um post-election so um this year
042we will see the new board and the newly elected and re-elected candidates on Wednesday May 3rd at a public meeting it'll be what we call a special board meeting because it's not a regular session and the the agenda for that night will really be uh seating that the new board members and giving our thanks and appreciation to the folks that are parting ways with us so it's a very interesting thing I was really reflecting on this you know even in my six years every year or every two years we have a new board so um every board that I've been on you know some people stay some people go you might only get one New Edition or two um you know we've had people who've moved out of District mid um right mid-cycle midterm and
043so we will go through a process to replace them and so we've had people come in on like off off election years um uh but it's just very interesting so we'll have a new group of similar but new um coming up starting you know beginning of May and that will be our our board for the next two years until the next election cycle so that was probably very wordy no that was see I knew you were in Leesburg you really had timelines deadlines reasons all of those things Dr Woodland knows I have a document called presidenting in an election year I started on Google Docs for that very reason so yeah the idea no that is perfect explanation and it makes sense too when you explain it of you know why we have to wait
044until May 3rd and what that means and everyone now will understand that there's particular protocol and we have to follow and that it is again because of the law right that all makes all right so now are we are heading into our fun question period And I like to just really interview people and kind of get their thoughts on certain things so um Dan I'm just going to double check do we have any questions that we've had come in I'm assuming no or he would let me know so when we reflect Colleen on or when you reflect on Evergreen Park what are you most proud of I'm sure there's so much biased but I really do love Evergreen Park so I am not a a born and raised Evergreen Parker um but I did the
045math on this one too and I will have been here uh 29 years this year so yeah um I've been here longer than I've been anywhere else um and uh it really is you know we chose it when my husband and I got married we chose it because of the schools we chose it because of you know so many you know uh vicinity to the city and and things like that and it's just been it's been the best choice that we could have made I really do believe that um and again the school district was a guiding Factor before we even had kids because we knew that a quality education and a quality school district is going to improve the quality of a community so um you know really when I joined the board I
046just wanted to be a part of a really good thing I didn't have an agenda I didn't have I just wanted to continue the good work um the good experiences that had been happening when my students were my sons were students here so um yeah we've got such good people here we've got a great geographical Community but obviously you know within the walls of the building um I'm just so proud of our students I'm proud of our teachers um I know that our strong schools like I said help Evergreen Park as a whole um specifically I was just when we did the newsletter I mentioned um in my conversation with the person who was writing the article for the perspective that um I'm really proud of us because we returned um to having in-person learning
047fully in 2020. in the fall of 2020 and I was just saying to um to a person that I met today that um you know I know districts who didn't go back to school in person that whole year and that was just that's an example of our amazing teachers um our resilient and clever and creative students our supportive families and stakeholders like it wouldn't have happened without all of those moving pieces and um I that's again it was a great thing but it was also an example that I can point at that I'm really proud of yeah of what we do and what we accomplish in this District kind of biased yeah I'm seeing the actually there's the EP family side behind you there we go I like it yeah and it just reminds me
048of the strength and the commitment to the community and the kids and doing what is best for our kids and our community and our teachers and I think that you know what I love about Evergreen Park is they are one of the strongest families I've ever met yeah and the family is just it's around dedicating what needs to get done to get done and having that shared commitment and love and passion and at the end of the day like our parents and our teachers they just they do it for kids and so does the board and it just it means the world to me to lead a community in a district in this capacity so great answer Colleen kind of proud of us we do good things yeah absolutely great so as a board president
049where do you wish to be the district in three years this is like an interview this is like a job interview question right like we don't bring yourself in five years um uh let's see ideally um you know happy and healthy students um happy and healthy teachers um I say that because there is a very quiet um Global pandemic still happening and that's mental health right and mental health challenges um that I'm so grateful because we are having conversations about that now and we would not have been having the same or as thorough or I don't want to say loud but is prolific I guess um I'm just so grateful that we can have it I'm saddened because we need to right I would I would wish our students that nobody ever struggled ever but
050um that's not likely as well so um my wish or My Hope Is that maybe in three years we're even better at it right at communicating about it um and making sure that we have what everyone needs to succeed um so you know objectively speaking three years yeah three years from right now we'll be starting our next um teacher contract right so and I don't have to wish for this but because I know that we will continue to be responsible um we will continue as a board to make you know responsible decisions and uh while providing you know the best resources for our students um a wish and positive culture through Communications absolutely um I'm gonna say personally um all of this is personal by the way everybody we as a board uh oh I
051should have said that long ago so um we as a board speak as a board right so I am just one opinion I do not speak for the board I'm speaking um but um I would love to see our um test scores improved um post pandemic you know etc etc and not because I'm all about the test scores so hear me out what I really want is to see the better test scores because that would be evidence that our students were getting the resources that they need we have to you know succeed emotionally academically personally um you know success looks different for everybody right we all have our different recipes and we should and so you know that is a quantifiable something we can point at to say yes we're doing this and like I
052said not just because I'm all about the numbers but because that would be evidence to me that that they're doing okay right so healthy teachers and um and you said wish so hey you know yes rant money you know like all the things in the world right like our buildings and you know what could we possibly wish for um there's there's no end of what we could wish for but there are some things like I said that I can absolutely see in the next three years that are manageable and doable and that we're already working towards um so um there are things that we know will happen and that's great yes yeah and I'm really glad that you hit on this you know mental and emotional well-being of a child and how it really is
053dedicated to um you know making sure that kids can learn and I think it's not necessarily at this point saying kids need more they really need different yeah and how can we appeal to what they need so that they can be successful in our current academic environment yep yeah every kid's different right every student is different every every person every teacher every human um so the the blend is different for every student um right and it's important that we know that and work with that nice all right now some fun questions ready all right so do you get paid for their service I mean no I don't get paid for doing this we do not get paid for doing this um we get paid in you know in our heart um but no we don't
054get paid for this um and honestly as much as hey you know an extra paycheck wouldn't be a bad idea I really do think that's best um because uh yes obviously the work is very time consuming and some weeks and some months like come on but by not being paid our work stays more focused on the students so if I was guiding the district and also being paid by the district that sounds a little sketchy um that would seem you know kind of a conflict of interest that I would be both you know guiding the work of it and the allocation of budget and finance and receiving some of that so as much as again I love to get paid I don't think that's going to happen um and we do have limits actually there's
055like limits to you know what we can receive as gifts um so there is very specific they absolutely don't want uh board members to be able to be bribed or cajoled or you know anything like that so it's very important that we do stay focused on what is what is board work and that is for the benefit of our students so so yeah to answer the question no we do not get paid all right and one last final fun one so who is the board's only employee the Woodland is our only employee the board hires one employee that's the superintendent uh we are in charge of the hiring process for that for that position which we successfully completed to bring Dr Woodland to us for Academic Year 2122 and we do not employ any other
056dis any other employees the district does and again we govern and guide but we don't we are only responsible for one employee um we could participate in hiring committees um I think we may have probably all have um but then we're just a member of the committee we are just one person at the table and our opinion is not it's just feedback right it's not decision making um and then the other part of that too is we only evaluate one one person um one position and so the board one of our roles is to evaluate the performance of Dr Woodland and she's doing great um but um so that is our responsibility we do not evaluate anybody else um we do have Educators on the board um Educators in different districts um and so they
057do know education but that is not our role and that's not our strengths so we leave the evaluation of you know of Staff members to their immediate supervisors like any other organization would so so Dr Woodland is our only employee and uh and then she manages all the other ones so yeah such a fun fun topic I think a lot of times people don't know that so it's a fun one so if I were as the superintendent I then would bring like a recommendation to the board to maybe hire a principal and then the board votes yes or no to that recommendation correct right and so that's why it is helpful sometimes for us to be on the committee like it might be able to we might be able to shed some light um in
058closed session because it's a hiring practice you know et cetera et cetera but um ultimately the decision is not on the board we have to approve approve it in board action in an open meeting um but yeah we don't we make the final decision but we don't get to that process we don't get to that point in the process without everybody else so perfect yeah well Colleen this was so much fun I really appreciate you sharing all your wealth of knowledge with us and it's just great to have you and have the experience of really truly understanding what is board work and what is not thank you that I really appreciate that the board that I work with and serve with really understands what board work is and what board work is not which helps
059like keep clear lines of communication and the functionality of our everyday at the highest level because that allows for kids to be successful too so super important any other last bit of information for a good of the order that you'd like to share I'm just so grateful for the opportunity to actually shed some light on some of these questions um so I hope that the folks who may listen to it today or going forward find something useful I mean truly again I have I don't think I knew as much as I could have or should have when I came on as a board member either so I don't think anybody everybody I don't think everybody needs to run for a board position to also be interested in how it works right um so I'm happy
060to be here so I can shed some light on that so thank you for the opportunity thank you so much so this is just a reminder to everyone for more information on our strategic plan board policy board practices we have a whole tab dedicated to our Board of Education including all the committee work that they sit on please visit our website if you have any follow-up questions for either myself or Colleen please reach out for us to us directly and we wish you a happy evening thank you so much signing off for now thanks so much