001okay I of the United and to the God indivisible okay Bob could you give the row a call please sure Wonder Jim here hiar here clein here B here bommer here pki here here as accy to members of the audience and the Board of Education please place your audio on mute until you wish to speak public will only be able to speak during public comment if signed up public comment any person wishing to address the board may speak at this time any person wishing to address the board should sign up through the Google document provided when it is your turn the board president will call upon you and your ability to speak via Zoom will be allowed presentations are limited to 5 minutes at this time we have um no one for public comment so
002can I have an approval of the agenda so moved report all in favor yes yes yes consent action can I have a motion so moved support yes support all in favor yes yes excellent so we've got um a few regular action items and so um remember try to allow the folks presenting to present so first item Network infrastructure expansion it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the minutes oops I'm sorry that aside we have it is recommended the Board of Education approve the purchase of seven Cisco Network switches T1 Cisco IP phones and necessary software licensing from Presidio for the total purchase of 665650 could I have a motion so move support support and I'm looking at Heather recommended by Heather Roger sure so uh with the purchase of the Granville education center
003and the construction that is scheduled to uh take place over the summer and be completed for uh some of our classrooms to be using it in the fall it's important that we have infrastructure there and so this uh includes necessary Hardware licensing wir data voice connectivity and so on for the Granville education center uh question with regard to the overall support from a fiber perspective is this do we have consistent wiring in this as we do other buildings R uh we don't currently currently the building the pathways program is connected with a VPN connection through a Comcast internet this project with purchase of the building we are running a full 10 gig fiber connection to the building so as part of that will be connected to this network infrastructure hey Walt who's who's the service
004provider running that connection the current connection that we have yeah and assuming it's the same provider for that facility So currently the the internet connection and VPN connection runs over a Comcast um internet connection when we switch to a dedicated fiber connection to that building then it will um have access to the same AT&T connection that the rest of the district utilizes okay all right great anybody else okay we're g to do a roll call vote please all right hi bar yes thank you kleene yes orm yes perski yes Palmer yes Wonder Jim yes Buck yes okay excellent next item is the kisd budget resolution it is recommended the Board of Education approve the attached resolution expressing support for the Kent Intermediate School District's 202 2021 general fund budget can I have a motion so
005moved support excellent and Roger sure uh going to double team this one with with Heather uh section 624 revised school code we have to review the isd's budget and either approve or not approve uh a resolution uh the resolution has a portion that says yes we've been informed of their budget and yes we support it and then there's another piece that says uh yes we've been informed and no we do not if we do not then we uh will go back to them with whatever uh areas we have concern about but anyway bringing this resolution to you uh to review and uh you know normally uh they will give us um the general fund but in the spirit of transparency they've given us several other accounts as well and Heather will take it from here
006so I'm gonna if you would follow along on um page 29 um I guess the biggest thing is the general fund um assumptions that are used um they are projecting three and a half% increase in property tax collections um 10% decrease in non-grant state aid and what that means is um they do get some State funding uh for operating costs however it's not on a necessarily on a per pupil basis like we do um so the other reduction is in their investment income for the general fund also with um the you know the decline in interest rates um they're projecting a reduction there um overall um for their general fund um still looking at about a um 600,000 $65,000 reduction um for the next school year if we continue on um a lot of those
007um same assumptions follow through to the special education fund I do want to touch on that one because that is um a rather large fund and again too I guess I should clarify the ISD is mainly funded through um tax Revenue property tax revenue so um they're again looking at a 3.5% increase in property tax um collections for their special education fund um and uh 1% reimburse a reduction of 1% on reimbursed imbursement eligible costs so um I think they're looking at a a trend of um uh potentially a loss of I guess students there from that um perspective that has to do a little bit too with um the Medicaid billable amounts so um and this was a larger because this is a larger fund they anticipate a $375,000 reduction in investment income um
008from the prior school year to this school year so um a lot of that funding um does come back portions of that funding does do come back to the district so um but overall looking at um an ending fund balance there of um 8.7 million with a $2.1 million addition to their fund balance for their special education fund um and then similarly CTE same type of thing um an increase of 3 .5% in property tax Collections and then a 10% decrease to their sections 61 and 62 State funding um they're looking at a $850,000 um reduction in fund balance or $850,000 expenditures over revenue for the year and ending at a $9 million fund balance in that account as well so those are the the um the big three for them the resolution is really
009again just for the general fund um but they wanted to provide the additional information for transparency purposes if you have any questions let me know Heather um a couple things under special ad it seems that they're going to keep straight open again or Raj maybe you can answer that um are they looking to um either uh lease or build another facility in the near future for their transition programs uh I am not clear the last time I talked to uh Mr kth uh they knew that straight was in bad shape they were de debating whether they were going to put some serious money into renovating it or look for another spot uh to create another area for programming yes so I I'm not sure where they're at right now but I I can certainly connect
010with him and get back with you because when you look at straight itself and there's a million dollars there and L LOL Lincoln is in uh dire need of upgrading as well so that million doesn't seem like it would do much to both of those facilities given the needs for both so that's why I'm asking that question I would agree uh one of the other options too uh that I recall talking to Ron was uh finding a facility that a current Kent County District had to and maybe running something uh out of there so I can certainly ask about that uh Mr Phillips their business person did not talk about that during this but I certainly can find out and get back with you great and then Heather on their general fund you know isn't
011that where uh we have our uh our social workers and our shared Staffing isn't that out of their general fund yes yep and is that going to continue in uh the next school year yes it will yes and that those are the amounts too so they're under our contract however paid by the ISD and some of that has to do with reporting purposes and we then the way they are able to um to Bill back for them we then get a portion of that those funding that funds funding stream back so um it it's around $660,000 annually to run that okay through dropping okay overall from my perspective I think this presentation that they provided is one of the best they've ever done other than just providing us numbers every year for us trying to
012figure it out so they gave a great summary of that so if you could pass that on you know I it's appreciated I will do that all right anybody else I agree with Bob very extensive a lot of paper Okay um so all in favor yes yes yes yes thank you all right next item is spring 2020 backup Appliance replacement it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the purchase of a Cisco cohesity backup Appliance of $ 53,9 3413 and a necessary Cisco switch infrastructure for $5,256 32 from precidio for a total purchase price of $69 90,4 can I have a motion to move moved support excellent Roger sure and I'll turn this one over to I believe Walt okay um this purchase will replace U So currently the district's data is backed up
013to three separate data domain backup appliances that are located um out at Sentry Park Learning Center uh th two of those two out of the three appliances are reaching their end of life and end of support um so it's something as critical as backing up the district's data uh we're looking to replace those all three of those appliances with a single uh Cisco cohesity backup solution um it will the implementation of the solution will dramatically reduce the backup time for for backing up all of the district's data and virtual servers um and it will also allow for future expansion if we want to uh for example begin backing up or archiving some of the data into the cloud for an additional off-site uh backup solution well so we don't do any offsite as well as
014a secondary we do not um all the data all the district's data is backed up obviously out to Sentry Park about as far as way as I could get from the administration building but still be part of the the fast Grand Bill Network um but no currently we don't back up to a Cloud solution or anything like that but this implementation would give us that opportunity okay do you know how long before we would start doing that next year um it could be even sooner than that um really this solution has the capability of turning that um Cloud backup ability on day one um it would just be an additional Financial commitment to buy storage space in like the Amazon cloud or Microsoft Azure or one of those Cloud Solutions so we'd have to look
015at um different pricing and storage options there but we could potentially do that right away is that expensive um it's actually not it they have different tiers of pricing depending on um how frequently you think you'll access the data and how quick you want to be able to access the data so pricing varies wildly you know if you want to be able to access it really quickly and on the Fly um then it can be a bit higher but if it's you know more of an archiving solution then it's not too bad okay great so I'm sorry I just had a quick question go ahead so we're we have the the main server or the domain backup appliances that we're replacing correct correct and you're proposing it we replace it with this cohesity Cisco cohesity
016right correct Y and then the new Switch though allows us to get a cloud capability cloud backup capability right no the new Switch allows for the new backup Appliance to connect to our Network at a faster rate um one of the the goals of the replacing the existing backup Hardware is to reduce the backup time so for example currently the main file server for Granville starts its full backup um on Friday at 4:00 and it usually finish is Monday sometime early in the morning so to try and reduce that time down so we can get a a quicker backup uh we need a faster piece of network hardware and that's what that is okay we run differentials sorry what was that do we run differentials so we do a full backup of everything on the
017weekend and then we do an incremental throughout the week okay great so you're anticipating the need to had more capability to do um not just physical backups but also cloud storage backups as well is that what I guess I'm reading here correct that this Appliance would give us the ability to do that it doesn't necessarily purchase the additional storage space out in the cloud but the appliance has the capability of doing it okay I guess I'm just trying to understand because we right now we have one backup we we're backing up to a physical server right now and or physical Appliance right now and then this is getting allow us to do it to a physical Appliance as well as Cloud so we'd have duplication of our backup is that what you're saying yep that's
018correct is there a reason for that is that a best practice or yes redundancy is the best practice correct y so we just don't have that now then correct if a tornado was to come through Granville and wipe out the administration and Sentry park at the same time we would be in trouble um if we had a cloud backup solution then we could fall back to that is there a reason we just don't go to cloud and just be done with it um not necessarily I mean obviously cost is a factor that's that's one of hey Walt yeah the wide area network that's going to be connecting the entire County that also will eventually connect with a lot of other counties around the state that's probably a good opportunity for another backup system correct that's
019offsite um and probably a lot cheaper since there are a lot of uh different districts that might be able to share in the in the pain of that right yeah that's correct um once we have fiber connectivity and fast network connectivity to the ISD you know the ISD could either we could you know buy a redundant Appliance to house our data that would be housed out there or you're right if the ISD wanted to look at doing some Consortium pricing for an appliance that you know that all the districts in Kent County could share that could be an option as well I have a funny feeling they're going to help us up with that nice awesome all right any other questions with this purchase we will take a roll call please all right Wonder Jim
020yes Palmer yes hi Bower yes kleene yes form yes bki yes Buck yes all right next item on the on the agenda let's spend some money it is recommended the Board of Education approved the purchase of playground equipment from landscape structures in the amount of $ 63,9 72 in addition it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the purchase of rubber surfacing and installation of the playground equipment from Pintura in the amount of $3,753 47 13747 so Roger do I have a motion so support excellent Roger okay so you'll recall last board meeting we showed you uh the design for the playground so uh you know and we also talked to you about gmbb uh and our District administration having multiple design meetings with our preschool staff and our Treehouse staff uh to come
021up with a design these are always so much fun just to listen to people and and uh you know talk about everything from uh you know early childhood what kids would would love to do F gross motor skills inclusion you name it so uh they came up with uh a great design and uh you can see some of the stuff here before you and I'll turn it over to Heather to add a little bit too yes so this was um so far one of the most fun projects to kind of be a part of and it it was really great to hear the interaction between ECS teachers Treehouse teachers Preschool teachers um they had great ideas and I'm going to go back to this drawing here a little bit because it well you're approving the
022playground um equipment and the rubber um and that there will be more here you know we will have that paved track one of the coolest things that was talked about was accessibility for kids and there's going to be a hill that kids can climb up and then a slide so they can slide down and they won't need the typical um ladder steps um so again um there'll be a shade structure some trees um and then just wanted to give you a visual of what the equipment looks like um for the kenos so any questions um Heather so with penir here if they're out of uh the other side of the state there's uh obviously they're preferred or they're recommended there aren't any uh other installers on this side of the state um they were this
023was purchased off a contract recommended by gmbb and I think it it's part of the um they their preferred installers of landscape structures so and are we going to put in real trees with all this rubberized material yeah so the rubber material if I come back here you can kind of see it's an orange shaded oh okay geometric the rest is gonna be grass yeah this is all grass okay so all right great thank you y and a tra track right correct and this circle area here will have um some different activities too similar to like a basketball hoop but a lower lowerer level looks great Y and around the outside I know we mentioned this last time but you have fencing you have ballards uh and so on just so double safety here around
024this spot are we on track for the summer installation yes um let's see Thursday um construction is uh just to provide you a quick update pretty much all the projects that you've approved um we're going to be able to start uh back up so um two to three week lead time on the equipment and yes everything is on schedule at this point okay I just want to reiterate um back up on Bob just that you know a message to gmbb that you know we've always been this way when we're moving forward with projects to keep things local so um just at this time just a reminder I mean this is swell and they go together in a package but it'd be great to be able to to do things locally so when you think of
025the current where we're at trying to feed West Michigan families to me is a little bit more important than the other side of the state yep we we'll reiterate that to them we meet with them week and I will go over that with them Friday morning I mean we want the best but West Michigan's got some pretty good suppliers too looks nice very nice uh one other quick thing as we're moving forward with a lot of these purchases too is um I'm hearing of lots of subcontractors giving discounts for pre purchasing equipment so if there's something down the road so these guys don't have to hang their money out there for um purchase and then waiting on lead times like I say subcontractors have been um eager to give discounts as have the manufacturers of
026uh various products that if we're willing to prepay there's a pretty substantial discount so and it reminds me a little bit about what we did with the pool so I know there's two three weekly time we should be fine with that so just something else to keep in mind and and wholeheartedly agree with uh Michigan contractors um Michigan suppliers and Michigan installers as West Michigan I should say um to piggyback on what uh Bob and Christie said okay anybody else all right let's do a roll call on this fun fun project hi bow yes arm yes Klein yes Wonder Jim yes persy yes Palmer yes yes okay excellent okay Roger you are up with our district goal review okay thanks so uh gonna pop up a um well actually I'm going to go review the
027three goals that we had um the first one uh Granville Public Schools administrative leadership team will be involved in a year-long comprehensive learning experience focusing on the following progression in regards to equity inclusion and diversity you can see a spring report um would be compiled and presented to you in regards to our growth and learning uh we had several sessions uh with a facilitator Eric Foster from uh progress strategies plus and uh that report has been sent to you and uh if we can just uh pop that open now Heather since I think you're the the master of the the attachments right now thank you so in here you will see like I said each uh session that all of our administrative uh Team participated in we started out with a pre-assessment based on diversity
028equity and inclusion uh we received a each of us received a score uh in regards to where we're at our growth and that was a confidential uh piece and then from there that gave our facilitator an idea of where we were at and uh it really helped in his um moving us forward with the facilitation of each of those meetings also with each meeting uh in this report later on uh our some the scores of how we responded to the sessions I want to be clear about something because it's very easy when we talk about diversity and Equity inclusion and and what that means in Grandville uh you may recall our discussions were about what our data is telling us and what our data is telling us is we have three uh popul subpopulations of
029students who when we compare to our entire population there is a disparity or a gap in the data and those three populations are our students with disabilities our students in poverty and our students of color so when we look through this training um and we were looking at establishing goals we were looking at through it with that lens and and that is the important thing to remember it's not just race it's not just poverty it's not just students with disabilities it's all three and could change over time uh so we need to be uh very in tune to what our data tells us where our gaps are and develop strategies for how we intend to close those gaps with the populations uh that have those disparities so I want to be clear about that because
030sometimes when people think of diversity they have their own understanding of what they think diversity is and and for Granville public schools right now it's those three populations and if our data changes it it it could change in regards to that but those are very common populations of students where uh there are evident disparities we have a lot of uh data that shows we can be very proud at the same time with those three populations because we do have pockets events Excellence throughout our district uh with each of those and we really look closely at those strategies or ways we are implementing things to uh learn from that as well in other places where there might be gaps so I just wanted to be very clear about that uh so you can see the sessions
031that were here we learned about a lot of screening tools uh we learned a lot we looked at a lot of research we looked at a lot of case studies of districts that uh had similar population disparities and we looked at districts that did close the gap and strategies that they used to close the gap so you know I I think you'll see that in the evaluation from our administrators we learned a great deal from that we established uh some goals and uh as you go later on in this report that you have you'll see uh the goals that we have uh one of the first ones being creating a diversity equity and inclusion committee uh and really that committee will have um along with some of the trainings we had and the tools we
032have for looking uh with a lens at the different populations they will really uh help us set the course and make sure these goals are completed so they will ultimately be the committee that uh as a whole District um we will answer to and far as far as accountability goes in these areas and they will also help us guide the work when there should be um maybe a an area or a building that isn't doing strong in one of these they will help that building with support so I feel very good about the process it's really been a a year and a half process I know there are some people that are on right now that we a part of that uh John uh Scott either one of you want to chime in if they're
033able yeah I'm here and I'm happy to jump in I think um for me personally when I saw my first um score I was shocked at what it said to me and then so I was gr and grateful that I received it because I think I believed um that I exuded something very different than what I did and I think the most important part of the training was it allowed us to really dig deep into who we were and how we were being perceived outside of our own skin even though we felt maybe we were doing something in one way or another and then give us a view of how multiple groups of people might see that in a very different way so I thought it was incredible it was great to be able to
034go through that same process with all of our peers have us all I didn't find a single person who was closed in the moment um and I just think that speaks volumes for the the people that we have with us yeah and and I would Echo that um and and share that it really did force you to peel back some things and and confront some realities in a in a different perspective um but made it really safe and like Roger said it was a about an 18-month process which was one of the real benefits because we were able to dig into uh not only starting with our own Foundation but really dig into some strategies and one of my big takeaways I reflected back on my time as a building principle just practical strategies focusing
035on the importance of um purposeful inclusion um because I'd always questioned that um and so it was it was very personal uh yet very fun foundational for us as a as an admin group I just want to commend the group what a huge commitment for everybody and um you know I read the report and the fact that he saw that better than average group calculation and that's a very positive indicator of exemplary participation from GPS leadership team so um I just want to commend you I just think this is money well spent and uh especially for our district moving forward any other questions I have a question so as these goals are reached do you have outcomes that you're looking for or is it just we will have these three strategies and these four oh
036I see the measurements there so I haven't read the report yet but is it further in depth then those specifics and the goals uh yes they are the goals and strategies are there you know ultimately the measurement um there are several uh screening tools we're able to use okay uh with kids with uh parents and you know the primary goal is to uh you know we want that Gap to decrease so as far as our achievement goes uh you know we fully expect to be closing the achievement Gap even more than we have uh using strategies from these different goals so uh very excited uh about I have another question sure I just wondered so the gaps in these folks are they all academic gaps or are they around any other type of like behavioral
037gaps or social or just a combination of everything yes it's a combination okay it's it's everything from uh academic achievement to attendance to referral behavioral referrals uh disciplinary [Music] action thank you any other questions about goal number one okay so moving along goal number two the superintendent will establish a diverse group of students in each building to meet with on a bimonthly basis to gather feedback regarding their educational experience in Granville meetings will provide student input open communication of what's happening in our district and a summary would be presented to the board in regards to this and I have to admit this was I had so much fun and at the same time a lot of learning uh came from this one uh so uh Heather if you can go to their conversations with our
038students so just to summarize some of theas I broke them down into different pieces here as far as learning realizing we don't learn the same time you know we don't learn things the same time same rate uh they feel like we do that pretty well in our schools uh they believe our staff and Friends see that and all of us and understood that it's not typically looked down upon so if you learn in a different way they see our teachers and they see other students as understanding that is an okay thing uh for the most part so it was nice to hear that from them uh they feel comfortable making mistakes they they were the ones that said we learned from our mistakes so it's okay to to make those and and somebody even quoted
039Einstein a person who never made a mistake never tried anything and I thought that was really really neat for them to see uh they really in our in our UC ation that we provide and right now Lord knows they're going through it appreciate flexibility in the learning uh they love active engaged Hands-On collaboration small groups projects and minimal being talked to or at they do see the importance of some lecture but they said you know if if I go into a classroom and I'm talk that for a class period I I don't really feel like I'm engaged or I'm I'm learning a great deal um and again while sometimes they understand that does have to happen and it is important in in certain uh parts of our instruction uh again they believe that teachers also
040recognize that they don't all learn in the same way or the same rates and they they ask us at times how can I help you learn better think about that from a teacher a teacher saying to a student how can I help you learn better nothing more powerful from that because we know our students know what works for them and what doesn't work we can't just assume that the way we learn and and a lot of times therefore the way we teach is the only way or the right way so again very powerful uh there they do believe that we have high expectations for their learning and they do appreciate when a teacher asks them questions about their experience in class and and again how the teacher can make it better saf talked about that
041um they feel quite safe at school I said well why do you feel safe at school they believe the relationships with the adults not noticing when something's not right uh noticing when something's not right with them or something's not right with the environment and I I thought that was very uh powerful I believe that's that's the first letter uh in nice of be nice huh uh relationships with adults and noticing that so uh entryways they they that our entryways are secure not anyone can just come in and go where they want to they know we have cameras um the procedures we have in place uh not letting people inside doors they said they're routinely told you know we do not allow people in we don't let people in and here's why and they have been
042they've had discussions with their teachers and with staff about again noticing unusual behaviors or actions in their peers and in other people metal detectors they said because we were talking what what something that could really ramp up safety for you and they weren't really sure about that and I said what about Metal Detectors and the response was interesting they said it would only create drama and it would be overpriced versus how they would actually help they're too restrictive and too time consuming uh one student I know told me that he has a friend that is in a school uh that has metal detectors and one day his friend got pulled aside and he said that the social emotional stress that that put his friend under us and even though they found he didn't have anything
043can't remember what it was that triggered off the metal detector uh there were a lot of rumors and so on this s so they just said it's not worth the not worth the money and not it's not worth the time stressors I asked them you know what what stresses you one thing was unanimous and that's homework and so that's something uh you know as administrative staff and staff in general we we'll talk about uh you know at every level our kids said they had too much homework or the timing of the homework and they said a lot of times you know especially in the the middle school and high school when you have different classes everyone seemed you know they don't seem to talk uh they talk in departments but among departments don't talk as
044much about homework and so they might all have have you know test at the on the same day coming up or a project do you know they'll have three or four projects due on one day and so on and they said that tends to be a stressor for them so if if teachers could talk more communicate more and try to spread those out uh week the importance of family came up and you know even if we have homework if it could be a family activity of some sort they're getting a lot of family time right now so they you know it might be very different now but uh anyway that that was brought up uh as well they were aware of the research I said do do you know any research on homework and they
045said yeah there's no there's no connection between homework and achievement they knew what that research said and I I thought that was very interesting um they do understand as far as responsibility as far as uh you know uh having you know discipline to get things done and yes to maybe things you've already learned to be able to expand on that a little bit uh is good in in homework but not the busy work stuff that that uh we can see at times uh they saw the importance of grades social life stressors uh friends and family um you know sometimes trying to balance all that in in this world uh talked about cell phones they do not believe a ban is a way to go I I just point blank said what do you tell me
046about cell phones should we get rid of them should we uh they don't believe that they said the more you restrict them the more we think about who might be calling who might be texting and then it's kind of overload when we do get to that they said don't blanket everyone uh because some into it individuals don't have the responsibility uh they do believe that breaks from the phone are good uh in class uh you know our our teachers do use strategies whether it's putting it in a pocket um having certain things that they do they do see the importance of that and they do believe that at the same time it is um it's important to do that for responsibility and because we are here after all uh for learning so um they do
047believe that that part is important uh and as you can see the rest as you move through there the big thing they said about cell phones is teach us we don't use it if we don't use it appropriately we need to have consequences and then retach and eventually if we don't learn to follow it we can't have it Point Blank so I'm kind of interested who they think are G to be calling them if everybody doesn't have their phone right right yeah I'm not sure you know I the thing that really hits home with me and these were main things and these were not I mean you look at these you might think most of these uh could be high school kids and they're not I mean some of these are high school but this
048is Upper Elementary on up um okay with these so I didn't get in you know this cell phone you can see high school students I really zeroed in on them because to me that's mainly a high school issue and wanted to get some input there but these other areas matter of fact the the quote from Einstein came from a fourth grador so uh you know th those types of things were Priceless to me that I heard I'm really curious now that we're going through this pandemic uh some of the responses to things and and how they'll how they'll approach some of these things as we go into next year this is something I I fully intend to you know while it might not be one of our primary three goals next year two to three
049goals I do plan on continuing this because I really do see the importance of it uh as topics uh come up and I think next year more than ever uh you know it would be a great thing to do to really see where kids are at with certain things that we're experiencing right now I'd be curious about um if you noticed any patterns uh or or differences SE separating these kind of questions among different age groups self phon aside um because I get you know a sense as a parent having kids span multiple age groups throughout the district so very different cultures within um our buildings in terms of beliefs about things like homework Equity um you know just a uh flexibility and I'm wondering if you notice any of that reflected um in the
050conversations with the students that there wasn't maybe a you know areas where they they didn't kind of match the same um experience in your conversations between grade levels yeah really the only the only consistent was the homework part that I heard everywhere um as far as a you know something that I think we really need to to focus on and look at I mean I think the relationship piece the connection with their te teachers uh do your teachers care about you how do you know your teachers care about you they talked about you know um you know they're always asking how can I you know how can I help you uh learn what can I do better uh things like that and and remember these were very diverse groups of students I mean it was
051a cross-section of of everyone um that we have so so uh and and I was very impressed with the confidence that they had I mean I do some Icebreaker things with them early on but they they told me what they thought they were not they were not shy at all and I don't care which grade it was uh they they really did a nice job communicating and I I tried to you know constantly use why or why do you think that or um you know try to get them to expand but uh no not not really Kim didn't see that it would be really interesting to see this same conversation with students post covid right so what changed up obviously you know safety wouldn't be a concern but then who knows I mean it's the
052same well yeah I was say even now I mean have the conversation right what are their stressors now because I mean if it's anything like I see in my house there's no homework anymore so what are the that are you know as we look at this new model I mean not to say there's no homework but I mean it's not like it's not like they're stay staying up at night doing it right they're doing it during the day and it's done says you okay sorry mine are doing it at 1 am but well they start at 11 PM I can't I still had uh you know with us ending in March I ironically had I believe a mid March and a May left uh so I didn't I didn't get a chance to continue to
053meet with him but like I said I'm going to meet with them when and I'll be so excited when it happens when we're back in school and able to get together and and have you know conversation so I I'll bring that back to her even I guess I was just encouraged even if you could do something between now and the end of the the school year right just you know because there are things on here that you know do you know still makes sense right they're learning what's their learning experience like do they still feel that engagement with their their teachers and this and this changed model right and does that highlight something for us that if we do get back into the situation of the Fall that we have to adjust right and we
054will be doing we'll be doing uh parent surveys we are getting feedback now and we'll we'll get feedback from our kids on that because as we move into looking at next year we are going to have to look at different scenarios yeah I I do like how you emphasize how they they mentioned how they notice when someone isn't right or something's not right and I just love that that that's the first step in really doing something about something is when you notice it and notice it's not right so I just love it our work is making a difference Roger I I think it's great that this is one of your goals because I I used to survey my kids at the end of the year and they were always pretty insightful and pretty smart it
055was interesting to hear their observations they they weren't always the greatest I certainly learned from them but I think it's important to hear from our students definitely thanks all right and number three have not made it there yet we were going to start this in the spring and uh something called covid-19 uh happen and it it was kind of it would be kind of hard to get people together to talk about strategic planning for the next three to five years when you're so focused on the here and now and what we were going through so uh so my recommendation on this one is just to table it uh and and look at it as a next year uh goal you'll recall um I had a onepage sample I've shown you before and and to really
056do this the right way you have to get community input student input staff input obviously board input uh all of our stake different stakeholder groups and and really take a look at it so I I think there'll be a better time and I think people will look at it through a different lens uh if we're doing it next year as well because we have learned some things I'm sure from from this time so so that one didn't happen so my perspective on that Raj is um it becomes a priority in the next school year so it's easy to give it a pass right based on where we're at but the importance of a strategic plan needs to go to the top yeah uh once you can focus on it in the appropriate way that's my
057perspective right I agree but it's so it is so hard we've got the same thing where we are at the mental health Foundation and it's you can't do this this stuff is so serious and to do it via zoom and to do it right um yeah but I agree super important okay all right anything else okay so I need a motion to go into closed session support excellent so we're g to flip off and we're going to go to the other we have to vote on that all in favor yes yes excellent so we're gonna close it out yeah hold on Christie um sorry to interrupt let's stay on we decided we'll stay on we'll let everyone else go off oh good we'll go from there sorry uh Walt was playing around with it beforehand
058and there was one glitch we had with it so we didn't want to make it too complicated for everybody that's easier for us now they can go to the other Zoom