001We call the meeting of the Calonia Community Schools July 28th regular meetings to order. Please stand and honor our country with the flag. Aliance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Welcome everyone. And I say welcome everyone. I see a lot of teachers. It's great to see all of you here tonight. appreciate you coming and and showing us you're here. Um Katie Euch, our secretary and um long- serving board member, has moved out of the district. And once we have a a full board appointed and voted on, we will be taking action in the August regular meeting to appoint a secretary or or to elect a secretary should say. Until that time,
002I have appointed Jessica Con as secretary promp and would ask her to please call the role. >> Barbara Garcia >> here. Grand >> here. >> Collins >> here. here. Morris >> here. >> Nicholls here. >> Thank you. On to item number four, public comment. The board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express their views. Please limit your statement to three minutes. Participants shall direct comments to the board and not staff or other participants. No person may address or question board members individually. The board cannot accept public comment regarding personnel issues. All personnel issues are to be referred to the superintendent for resolution. Remarks should be made in a respectful and professional manner. And our first is James Ernest. When I was in
003first grade, Mrs. McMans was very gentle in her rebukes when she caught me and cute little Terry Crocker kissing on the playground during recess. In third grade, Mrs. Stockdale read us Charlotte's Web. In seventh grade, Mr. Baker yelled at us ferociously and inflicted corporal punishments because we boys were a little bit rowdy in fizzed class. Imagine that. And then the next day taught us one of the most important lessons of our whole education when he came back and apologized and asked our forgiveness. Also in seventh grade, Mrs. Stallard taught us to diagram sentences and taught us every tense void and mood tense voice and mood for regular and irregular verbs in the English language. Also in seventh grade, Mrs. Fanny May Gillum taught us about 10 different Latin verbs that mean to kill. And that
004was like in the first six weeks. We thought it was great. In 11th grade, Miss Lambert took our little debate team to tournaments all across the state. Miss Man sat while she gave us written assignments to do in our literature class and read Mark Twain stories to herself, giggling uncontrollably all the way through, teaching us in her own way to love literature. My point here is that I remember all of my teachers from my school years, grades 1 through 12. They were some of the most important people in my life. I am very grateful to them and grateful for what they did. I think many of you, many of us would say the same things about your teachers, our teachers. These are people who are dear to us because they pour their lives into us
005and help form us into the human beings that we become. Here in Calonia, we are grateful for our teachers. I don't have details from the inside of negotiations that are happening currently. I just want you to know that I think we all want our teachers to be treated with respect and with generosity. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Ernest. Next we have I'm not a public speaker, so I apologize. I'm a great volunteer in the district. Um, it is a great concern for several parents in our district, the lack of communication and accessibility to speak with someone during summer break. I have made numerous calls shortly after the school year had ended to not have phones answered during the published summer sorry during the published summer hours. I also had left a message
006or maybe it was too and never got a call back. No, it was not during the fourth of July holiday break. I actually had to go to the building and try to find someone to ask our questions because of summer break. The building was understandably a ghost town. However, we did find a nice custodian to direct us where to find someone to ask our questions. To better serve Calonia's families and to display that you communicate well with us, it would be nice if somebody would actually answer the phones during the posted hours, return the messages left on voicemail, and also post signage for families of where exactly to go into the high school to get answers if you're not willing to have the phones answered. to extend to expound on the district's lack of communication
007issue. It's been maddening for us KCTC families to try to get answers. I personally called the high school one and a half weeks ago at least five times with no answer and also know of other parents that had tried to call for other questions with no one answering phones. So, I decided to call this building, the administration building, and I listened to the prompts and chose the appropriate operator prompt. No one answered. I called, I believe, two more times using the operator extension to get the same result. Out of frustration, I called again, but chose a superintendent option because why not go to the top when no one answers anywhere else? Michelle answered, and she too did not have the answers to our questions. However, she was willing to listen and give me another phone
008phone number to call and try to get answer about KCT's transportation for the week of August 18 when the high school is not in session yet. She even called back later with the information she had gotten concerning the the skill center transportation. Thank you, Michelle. Since my initial calls to this building, I learned that a couple of other KCT families are in the same boat. And I asked Michelle to ask whoever is responsible for communicating with Calonia's KCT families to send out communication as we are all wondering what we're going to do for transportation. I would think it would be protocol and also doing the courteous thing to communicate with families that this impacts. It is better for this information to come from the district rather than a new to KCT spam family and what's
009expected of students during the unmatched start date of the school years. I don't know who's all I don't know who all is going to skill center and it's not my job to inform others as I'm not your employee. You expect our children to communicate such things with you. Why doesn't it go both ways? It's very rude and inconsiderate to leave these families in the dark about what's going on. Please do the right thing and keep KCTC families in the loop of what's going on. Since writing this, I did receive an email from Mrs. Derky this morning. The person that was responsible for the KCT, she notified me that the person responsible for the KCTC communication will not be back in office until August 11th. This is unreasonable because families that need to make plans, they
010they're scrambling. We don't know what to do. Okay, I ended this poorly in my writing. So, I'm going to leave it there. Thank you for your time. >> We will have somebody get back to you for certain. >> Not just me, all the families, please. >> Thank you. Next, we have Susan Demuse. >> Welcome back. >> A thank you. It's good to see you. Um, my name is Susan Demuse and my family and I have very strong ties to the Calonia Community Schools. My husband Ken is a retired Calonia middle school teacher of more than 30 years and both our children received their education K12 in Calonia. I finished my teaching career as an elementary teacher at Kell Lake. I had the privilege of working with Chris Warren as my principal. He always said he
011always takes care of his teachers to ensure that the students are well taken care of. He believed this not only because he was a kind and empathetic man, but he was an excellent administrator. Chris Warren valued teachers. Isn't that what our community and you, our community representatives should be doing, too? Valuing teachers as professionals, many with multiple degrees, years of experience, and hours of continuing education. Valuing teachers time and energy it takes to do our jobs. Valuing teachers with proper monetary compensation. valuing the impact that teachers have on the lives of the children in this community. As you negotiate with our Calonia teachers, as our community representatives for our schools, I challenge you to be like Chris Warren. Come from a place of respect for the professionals that are here in Calonia. Come from a
012place of empathy for the need that teachers have to maintain the work life balance. Come from a place of understanding that the profession of teaching should be well compensated. Families are still moving here to Calonia for our school system. And at the heart of our school system are our excellent teachers. Let us make sure that we provide and honor our teachers so they in turn continue to provide for our students. Thank you. >> Thank you, Susan. I I'll say this. I I'll I'll speak for the board and say that the history of the board is we've had a good relationship with our teachers and as we've negotiated and you can expect the same from us moving forward. Next we have Bob Thailand. >> Good evening. I'm here to inform the board and Calonia parents about
013the results of the Mahmood versus Taylor Supreme Court case and its implications for this district. The court yet again recognized the rights of parents to direct the education and religious upbringing of their own children. They uphold the rights of parents to opt out of books and other classroom materials that are hostile to parents religious beliefs because this material quote exerts upon children a psychological pressure to conform to their specific viewpoints unquote. They also make clear that schools have to inform parents of when and where the religiously offensive material is taught. Embedding these topics throughout the curriculum does not dissolve the school from creating a pathway for parents to opt their child out. Unfortunately, this puts a burden on our teachers to know exactly when and where it appears in their curriculum throughout the day and
014be able to provide that information to parents in advance. Calonia's own law firm, Trun Law, stated in its June newsletter, providing parents with notice before using curriculum materials that may conflict with some religious beliefs, and an opportunity for the parents to opt their parents students out of that instruction may prevent litigation," unquote. It goes on to say that the school should review curriculum and opt out policies before the upcoming school year begins. This is a huge task. This trun law letter confirms that the Supreme Court decision means public schools must uphold the First Amendment rights of parents or risk lawsuits and court costs from both sides. By the way, why does this matter? Tonight, the board's starting to choose a new school board member. The person you select has to understand and accept that they're
015legally obligated to uphold the Constitution, including protecting parental rights per this court case. Otherwise, they put this school district and themselves in legal jeopardy. Also, it's the board's responsibility to understand the legal ramifications of what they bring into the schools, including textbooks. The board has a well- definfined list of criteria to accept or reject a textbook, which includes freedom from bias and impact on community standards. This court decision shows that the board needs to take this seriously, which they did in a recent textbook review. Turns out that that book in question also had embedded material that would not pass the hostility of religious belief standards of this court case. So, textbook approval is not a no-brainer decision, as one former member suggested. Finally, this board has group norms that ask its members to show respect
016and never dismiss or devalue others, which I assume should include their social media posts. This standard was violated repeatedly in the past, and hopefully you'll carefully choose a candidate who believes this type of behavior falls well below ethical standards expected of a schoolboard member. Thank you. [Applause] Next we have Chris McKenna. Good evening, members of the board. I'm Chris McKenna. Andre and I are the proud parents of four fighting Scots, ages 13 to 20, and I'm concerned about Calonia's technology policies. Professionally, I'm a founder of Protect Young Eyes, a nationally recognized digital safety organization. I've spoken globally from the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to Capitol Hill about the impacts of social media, educational technology, and AI on childhood. I'm here tonight with three specific requests. Number one, remove personal electronics from passing and cafeteria
017time in the high school. Number two, pass a resolution that encourages responsible and limited screen time in classrooms. And number three, allow parents to opt in to all uses of AI in the classroom. First, the removal of personal electronic devices from passing the cafeteria time in the high school. You might remember a similar request from Jill Thompson last month. We already have strong, consistently enforced bell-to-bell policies in grades K through 8, especially in Duncan Lake. Why not continue this approach in high school? A Common Sense Media study showed that 41% of teens have viewed pornography during the school day. Another study from the University of California showed it takes over 23 minutes to refocus after checking a smartphone. Because of the work of my friend Dr. Jonathan Height, entire countries, US states, and thousands of
018schools have made the bold and common sense decision to remove access to personal electronics from the school day. Every school that does this experiences benefits including shifts in behavior, improved grades, decreases in bullying, and according to many schools, laughter and conversation in the cafeteria. Once again, second, pass resolution that encourages responsible and limited screen time in education unless it offers clear evidence-based advantages. Every parent I've spoken to about the use of Google Classroom and Chromebooks in Calonia schools wishes they were used less. According to a study by Internet Safety Labs, 96% of tech used in classrooms sells student data. A Science Direct report found that 38 of every 60 minutes spent on school laptops are off task. During a conversation with a teacher during conferences last year, I was told that one of my sons
019was sometimes distracted while using his Chromebook. I smiled and then I imagined my 1990s history book with 25% of its pages being about baseball, porn, and video games and Mr. Corser, my middle school teacher, getting upset if I was distracted. Our current approach to tech in the classroom demands re-evaluation. Finally, allow parents to opt in to all uses of AI in classrooms. In May, school GPT used by thousands of students was tricked into giving an investigator from Forbep instructions for manufacturing fentanyl. Last week, while using chat GPT, a reporter from the Atlantic was told, "Hail Satan," and was encouraged to harm herself. In closing, our Cal School's mission is empower and equip all persons to achieve their best by ensuring the highest quality system for learning. I invite the board to ask if our current
020approaches to personal devices, educational technology, and AI support this mission. I know your list of priorities this fall is long and ownorous, but I stand ready to collaborate with you on these critical issues, including making changes to the handbook, which is on your agenda tonight. Thank you. Next we have Tammy Singleton. >> Good evening. Um I have lived in Calonia since 2009. My um stu my own children are adults that have graduated from Calonia. And um I have three nieces who also graduated, three nephews. Both of my sisters and their families also live in Calonia. My children didn't stray far from us. And I'm thankful that I also now the currently have two granddaughters that attend Paris Ridge Elementary. Um there's nothing in my opinion that is more impactful and important in a child's life
021than education. Nothing. Um, and I am for that reason proud to be a resident of Calonia. That's why we're here. That's why our children are here and our grandchildren. Um, I am thankful for that. I think that's why we're all here. The board of education, our teachers, our bus drivers, our administrators, we all have that shared goal in mind of doing the best that we can for our children. And I know it's not an easy job. I'm an educator myself in a neighboring district and I just wanted to take the time to say that I applaud you all for keeping the children in the forefront doing what's best for them and um I appreciate that and recognize it as it's a passion of my own. Um thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Next,
022we'll move on to consent agenda. Uh 5A, June 16, 2026 regular meeting minutes. B June 2025 payables and 5C July 2025 personnel report. Is there a motion? >> I move that the board of education approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you, John. Any discussion? They call the vote. >> Garcia, >> yes. >> Nicholls, >> yes. >> Agenda passes. On to number six, superintendent of the floor. >> All right. Just a couple of items today because I know we have quite a few other things to discuss, but uh I'd like to invite Dr. Diaz to come up and update the board on some recent news from the AP. >> Good evening. Um I am extremely excited to share that we have had another incredible year of success at Calonia High School in
023our AP program. Um, from AP government to all of the AP offerings that we provide, we have seen a continued increase in the number of students who not only are taking AP courses, but those who are also passing at higher rates. This year, our AP government students achieved a 98.6% passing rate with 82% earning a four or a five on the exam and five is the highest you can earn. Um, so our students have continued to score at or above the national and state averages on every single one of the 30 AP learning targets. So we have to really recognize um what this means which is not only academic mastery but real college savings. And so, um, for many students, AP courses give them an opportunity to pass out of taking, uh, courses at the
024collegiate level, which multiply that by the cost dollar per credit that our current colleges and universities are charging, and that results in a substantial savings. So, we are just very excited that we're continuing to expand our AP offerings. We're continuing to u support students so that they can be successful in our AP courses and again their success in those AP exams that are taken um not graded by our staff but um tests that are given nationally. Um it's very exciting to see how well our students are performing. So hats off to our students and our amazing teachers who work with our kids across the board. Thank you. if you could just leave that up there a second just to point out a couple of things. First of all, we've discussed this before, but you can
025see that the number of AP exams taken uh continues to rise as well as that percentage of students with the score that's considered passing, which is at least a three out of five. So, uh it's not that uh the numbers have shrunk and that's what's leading to better scores. It's more kids and higher achievements. uh nonetheless. So I think that's well worth separate uh celebrating. So uh the only other item uh thank you Chrissy. The only other item I'd like to point out is that uh construction uh continues to move along rapidly and we are nearing it's hard to believe here's uh August just around the corner and so uh we have uh quite a few projects that are uh coming to a close here and um they're looking really good. So, we are going
026to be announcing officially all the details for uh two ribbon cutings here coming up within the next week or so, and those will be for the brand new Dutton Elementary School as well as for our uh stadium renovations. So, uh watch for those uh coming up. Of course, uh Calonia Elementary's been getting a complete makeover this summer. Uh there is site work going on at Kettle Lake. There's just a lot of things happening and uh it's great to see. So, uh, we look forward to welcoming all of our students and staff back here in a few weeks. Just some wonderful, uh, new facilities that the, uh, voters have, uh, helped to, uh, to improve. >> Any questions for superintendent by the trustees? >> Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to item seven, which is board
027trustee vacancy. Um, this is one of the biggest honors I think a board could have is to appoint another representative of the community. Um, there's a a process that we followed. The the board is required by state law to complete the appointment process within 30 days or in this case to seat a new trustee no later than August 1st, 2025. The board began accepting appointment candidate applications on July 14th and concluded on July 25th. July 28 application review which is today and tonight we'll be reviewing 14 applications. Conducting interviews, deliberation and appointment to one applicant is due tomorrow, July 29 in a special meeting. If we can't agree on one by July 29, we'll have until the 30th. But let's hope we can um that candidate must uh accept and admin have the both administered
028by August 1st, 2025. The district must then file with the clerk within 3 days of the board of ed's appointment and acceptance and the candidate would serve until December 31st uh 2026. There any questions from the board about the review process? Great. Now we'll get into candidate selection criteria. the state law does not determine how we set up the criteria um and how we select the board candidate. So one option is to consider a rubric which would be sort of a mathematical means of scoring the final selection. That's one side of it. The other side of that is another option to score the candidate based upon individual credentials, answers to questions and how they presented themselves. So that is our first point of discussion is how we're going to score or choose. So I'll open
029it up for uh trustee thoughts >> if I could interject before. So, um you should all have in front of you um some compilation of uh some selection criteria that um you know our office had first uh distributed and then just asked for you to review and send back individually and so then that was compiled uh so that you could all see what uh your fellow board members um held up as most important things. So this was just an attempt to try and help discussion uh tonight and um so that is there in front of you. The criteria that was presented I I personally think it's good and solid and covering all the bases and appreciate my fellow trustes input. Is there any discussion to change the criteria or are we comfortable with that in
030moving forward? >> Uh just a clarifying question. Would the criteria exist with the kind of friendly amendments that were made that are in front of us right now in color? Just clarify. >> Yes, I believe so. Yes. Okay. >> Yes. Good question. I'm not hearing any any more about the criteria. So >> through them just for the public. >> Sure. >> Just top point. >> Uh the first category is commitment to p public education. Second category is experience, skills, contribution. Third, knowledge of education and district needs. Fourth decision making and judgment. Fifth, governance and collaboration. Six, communication and public engagement. And seven, commitment to serving students. >> I'm personally comfortable with the criteria the way that they are presented. I think that the amendments were reasonable. I think that the descriptions um will help us
031to hopefully be able to uh choose a great candidate. >> Great. And then everyone else comfortable just give any comments. Next step in the review process is reviewing the candidates. For the purpose of selection discussion tonight, please refer to the candidate by the designated alphabetical letter. However, when a motion to interview motion is made to interview the candidate, please do so by name as well. The board has planned in a lotments of 30 minutes for each candidate for questions and tomorrow has limited time. We should consider how many candidates we would like to interview. I suggest we begin the process with each trustee selecting their top candidate choices or if you have other suggestions. Okay, good with that. You want to mention how many candidates? >> I think I mention I'm sorry if I did
032mention we have 14 candidates to consider tonight. Um we appreciate everyone's intention to to interview. We're obviously not able to interview everyone. Uh or we'd be here till Tuesday midm morning. Um I should say Wednesday midm morning, not tonight. So, um, I'll start at, uh, the left end of the board with Sean. >> So, I think process-wise, what I'm going to suggest I, we prepared a little tally sheet here. And so, um, as we go through this discussion, if you have like maybe your top candidates that you would like to put forward to be interviewed, uh, we will tally that on this sheet here. And then at the end of our first go round here, we'll see where everybody's at. And uh how many of the board members feel that um whichever candidate is among
033their top candidates to interview and then I think that we'll see hopefully if we've got a pool that um we're ready to work with. If uh you want to go to the tally right now or if we want to have just general discussion have general discussion for for sure. I want to make sure we have questions answered. This is all this is new to the entire board. I've been on the board since 2013 in January and I've not went through this process. So, we want to make sure it's as transparent and open as possible and that the board has plenty of time to ask its questions. >> So, when you say topics, um are we looking at are we looking at two to three? Are we looking at three to four? Like, >> well, I
034think that is up to you. Um, with keeping in mind that we we have a half an hour plan per candidate to interview tomorrow and we provide kind of a culmination of the 22 questions we had into six. We'll get to that and get to discussing and breaking that down. But um yeah, there's no limit to the number of candidates. I wouldn't want anyone to feel that there's a limit. So >> are we going to vote on each nominee or just go through and get our top picks first and then go through each individually? >> We go through and tally and then >> first. >> Yeah. >> So I have unfortunately gone through this a few times. Uh I do I do think it works best if you know there's general discussion and then we
035do uh kind of create a tally here because then you can see how many candidates you're looking at. Uh if it ends up being 8 to 10 candidates that are being put forward then maybe we need further discussion on that or you can decide to interview all eight to 10. On the other hand, if four or whatever number rise to the top, then four rise to the top. So, I think that's just something that you see going through this uh process here. >> Any other qu Britney, you look like you might have a question. >> Questions? I'm ready. >> Everyone ready? >> I go back to you and >> we're using the letters right now. >> Correct. >> Okay. I move that the board invite the >> we're not sorry. I'm already ahead of myself
036again. >> All right. Uh candidate F. >> We want to you want to share why or are we just >> I think I think we'll discuss the can. We just want to get a sense from the Got it. Okay. doing one or we doing >> have one just one or do you have one >> a couple? >> Yeah. Can you list off a couple? >> Sorry. I can list off a couple. >> G, H, J, and L. >> Sorry, it's not like common for me to just like say the letter. I want to like share so much more. I think we have some outstanding candidates. So anyway, um I the couple that I would hope to be inviting back would be candidate L, candidate C, candidate J, candidate D, candidate F. >> Okay, >> sorry.
037So, the candidates that I would like to see interviewed would be candidate C, candidate F, candidate I, and candidate H. >> I'm going to skip over myself and go to John. I would say candidate F, J, and H. I am going to say candidates E F. >> She said T >> E T E E F and H >> and I will choose E F and H as well. Looks like we have candidate F. This is a problem with glasses. It stops right about the screen distance. So, we have candidate F with six, candidate five or I'm sorry, H with five, candidate J with three, candidate C with two, candidate L with two E also. >> E, I'm sorry, E with two and D with with one. So I think with this post of candidates, do
038we want to choose how many of these we'd like to interview like the top three or four vote getters? That's really about where we're next unless you have another way of doing it. D, what do you think? I mean, you've been through this. >> Again, this Well, this is up to the board's >> Yeah, this is your call totally. I mean, if you want to interview, what is that? Nine, all nine of these that you can do that. Um, but it's obviously some that everybody would like to see. Figure out where you want to have that cut line be. Five candidates have more than one vote. >> That's kind of like a top five. Good start. There are six. Six. >> Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's a good place to start. >> You believe
039top six for discussion? >> Sure. I think that's reasonable. Yeah. >> Six. Six if we end up interviewing would be three hours. We owe it to the community for sure. Anyway, Jen, >> only concern I have with that many candidates is being able to effectively compare them. So, um I guess just looking at the rubric, I want to make sure that we're prepared to compare that many candidates. >> Well, I don't think we had much input on how we were going to evaluate the candidates. And we're going to come back to that before we move any further with with the uh number of candidates we're in here or at least I think we should. Again, that's where the selection criteria come into play. So, uh based on the resumes, but then obviously it's the interviewer
040that can be followed up on and ascertained more. So, I don't have a problem spending the three hours, but I would suggest that it might be if we dropped the candidates that only received two votes, it would bring our pool down to three, and we may be able to compare those three a little bit more deeply or effectively. >> Mr. Brando, what are your thoughts? I kind of agree uh with Jennifer, but I'm open to all sex with it as well to our due diligence. >> Yes, >> I'm kind of in the same camp. Um I think it I think the fact that there was two or more people that nominated or selected that I I think we should probably do all six to give due diligence, proper due diligence. So, I'm totally fine with
041that. I just kind of wondered everybody's like wanted to feel temperature on that, but I'm totally fine with that. >> All right. And I'm good with that, too. I think the bigger question is now, are we going to evaluate them with a rubric based upon what we have learned and seen or is there something in between that we want to use as a means of evaluation? I think maybe one of the things that we could do now that we have like a if we are going to go forward with this right with the top six candidates is we could now um that we have an agreed upon rubric evaluate each of the candidates candidates based on the rubric. So going into tomorrow we're not going in kind of with just the information we have now
042or our thoughts about you know the candidates that we had going into this. I have notes about each of them but um you know things that stood out in relation to what I assumed that the or was you know figured that the rubric would be but now we have that. So, we could assign some sort of a points system or something like that and rank candidates between now and tomorrow. A little bit of homework, but um would maybe help us get to a place where we could be more um yeah, be ready for those um interviews and discussions tomorrow. >> So, Britney, when you say we have the rubric, I just want to make sure I'm looking at this correctly. So, we kind of went through the different areas that we're going to be obviously.
043>> Yes. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah. That working selection criteria is what I'm talking about. >> And a lot of the a lot of that is going to be also based on the interview, right? And how they answer the questions that are going to be assigned to those. So, are you suggesting that we go home and kind of just based on resume alone just kind of saying, "Oh, from what I see, here's how I would kind of rank and then of course the follow-up questions would could may or may not answer it or not." Yeah. >> Okay. That's what you're saying. >> Okay. Just want to make sure >> proposal. >> Okay. We have more information than we might, you know what I mean? Like we have uh letters of interest and and resumes
044in front of us, you know, which is how we evaluate how I would often. I just wanted to clarify for a splush candidate. If >> I could just interject and make a suggestion, we don't we of course don't have a heck of a lot of turnaround time between um you know uh tomorrow night. So um appreciate that suggestion. My thought would be you do have selection criteria then if this would be the selection criteria we're going to use and you can kind of informally do your own uh checking on that now that you know those are set rather than um us trying to distribute and push out and create score sheets and all that kind of thing. I think for this uh pre-review that you do maybe it's more of an informal basis and I
045think the real question is do you want to do a sort of one to five kind of uh categorization on this in a rubric form tomorrow night or um do you not and um that is again completely up to the board. There is no rule saying you have to use a rubric. There's no rule saying you can't use a rubric. So that that's kind of what I think we would need direction on so that we know what to prepare for you. If it's to prepare, you know, so that you each have six or whatever rubric sheets in front of you so you can score each candidate according to those. Um we certainly do that um between now and then, but that's what we I think need to know. If you don't want to go that
046direction, that's certainly fine too. And then you can in the end you just interview and I've seen boards do it. What do they do that to? They just interview and based on the candidate that resonates the most individually um and uh they feel the best about according to their selection criteria then that's what they do. >> Excuse me John losing my voice. You have any opinion on how we go about this? >> I think that the rubric would be the way the rubric would be the way to go. Okay. >> Be my choice. >> I am open to whatever. Honestly, I I don't have I don't really have an opinion one way or the other. Again, having not been through this, it's hard for me to say, well, this really works or this doesn't work.
047I know professionally um you know in a business setting um having interviewed individuals for for different positions um there sometimes there's wings and sometimes there isn't and sometimes there are more important categories to to demonstrate than others um but I am literally open to either way sometimes many of you I don't know sometimes you just go in your gut feeling too um on what the best person is for the job Right. So, I'm very open to whatever um everybody wants to do. So, >> to be clear, Durk, I was not suggesting that you or Michelle stay up all night to create a rubric for tomorrow. So, >> it'd be you reading them and then scoring them and then going to work as we >> So, if I could just like suggest I think that um
048there are some of these categories that would work very well to score um one to five like for example experience and skills. they either have relevant volunteer experience or prior board experience or community involvement or they don't. Um but some of these as far as like um communicating with openness to listen and understand with curiosity I think are much more difficult to quantify on a scale of one to five. So I wouldn't want to make the criteria simply who scores the most points. I think that it should be at least a mix of both our overall impressions of the candidate as well as how closely they um match our criteria that we've pre-selected. Yeah, I personally don't need a rubric. I think my experience I've had experience interviewing in the business world and you have
049you have what you need and what you think is necessary and then it's how how it presents how the person present presents handles themselves one-on-one and and with others. So I think we're we're in a consensus that we'll kind of use a little bit of both. your own rubric as a as a guide and do our own scoring and present the scores as as you feel necessary in discussion tomorrow there's I just want to be clear so we will not we'll provide then a sheet but you can do your own kind of uh however you want to rank them uh we won't provide it as one to five you can do that on your own if you want to but then those are individual notes for you okay I just want to be clear on
050that because you know as we go through this process and as we uh you know even go into record maintenance and stuff like that individual notes are your individual notes and we would not need to collect them if we do the official scoring uh kind of system we would be collecting those and those would be maintained as records. So uh just as your information on that note as well. So, we'll take the other approach. We'll just provide you with these. They can be used for your individual notes or whatever and then we'll move forward from there. Okay. >> Thank you. >> That makes sense to me. Okay. Now, on to the interview questions. Um [Music] over the weekend I took the liberty of asking myself how how can we begin to condense 22 questions maintain
051the the spirit of the board and and I had two in mind. Michelle said, "Hey, let's take a look at this." And I agree. I think it's a good idea to take a crack at what it would be like to take those 22 and condense them into six. I think she did a great job with it. Um that was today is as you know we're on a fast pace and wanted to hopefully tee this up a little bit so it' be a little easier to have questions instead of being here for three hours and then have another long meeting tomorrow as we're debating which of the 22 questions we'd like to or there are others too that we can consider tonight. So, what do you think? >> So, so we're referring to the like the
052final questions to consider, >> Right. Okay. Um, I reviewed that earlier today and there was one question. Oh, I think it was the judgment and use of evidence. um describe a time when you had to balance multiple viewpoints. Um I think I think it would be important as one of the questions to um on the original set of questions when we first got them we kind of reviewed them all and then if I recall we kind we went through and said hey how would you change this or would you say this a little differently? Britney, you had some awesome, by the way, some great suggestions on how to rephrase it. Um, but there was one question in particular that I thought was um I really wanted it to be is that what we're supposed to
053be discussing right now? Specific question. Okay. Okay, I just want to make sure I'm so and one was um around just you know basically was there any was there any decisions that were made by the board whether that was current board, past board, whatever that you may or may not have agreed with and and in doing so could you you know describe that and then tell us how you know you may have you might have um thought differently or if it wasn't your viewpoint for example that you agreed with um with the board like um how would you handle that and you know with the with the rest of your board members as far as you know working together and communicating and that kind of thing and I just think that that question should still
054be on there. I see that it was specifically omitted um on the final questions but I thought I think for me that would be a question I wanted to bring back into the fold. >> So this this implies what questions are important to you. So >> yeah, >> taking the 22 and smashing them into six may not transfer the spirit of the question you wanted to ask or the questions you you would suggest asking. So we're certainly able to bring that in. Nothing's been decided. This is just an attempt at putting something together that might be a discussion point for us to to consider. But um if you if you have one in particular that that you would like to have asked um and we can identify it on the sheet. You see my >>
055Yeah, >> it's a mess. But um >> so do we do that via email to get a final or is that a thing? Is that something we do now or how do we >> I think we should do it now. This is the portion of the meeting where we want to nail down the questions. >> Bear with me. I have to find it. So, if somebody else wants to say something, feel free. >> John, do you have any feedback? >> Sorry, I was trying to press turn the mic on. Um to me the only I of these six questions I I think that they do a good job of getting at many of the points that we were trying to um inquire to our candidates about. The one that to me that I don't know
056if it's going to help us like differentiate between candidates. I guess um is this like what steps would you take to grow your knowledge of schoolboard responsibilities um public education issues work of of the schools to become a more informed and effective board member. I think some of those and I think part of why I think that is because some of the education is information that we give as a board and that our administration helps give, right? There's trainings out there, things like that. I don't know if somebody's going to be able to share something as a as a response to that question that's going to be able to help us really see a ton of difference and kind of their approach and what that might look like. Um, I might offer a a friendly
057amendment to that question of, you know, maybe being um either kind of a reword of the question that Jessica was mentioning that um number 11 on the previous sheet. Um, one of the reasons I like that question or and you can see with some of the suggestions I made for other questions, one of the things that I really tried to do is ask candidates to describe a time when they've had to approach a situation like, you know, some of the things that we've described in these questions in the past to give an example. To me, that helps differentiate a experiences that people have had and b how they responded to some of those difficult situations. So, I would love to see us ask a question where our candidates can give us back information that I
058think can help us really understand, okay, how did they communicate? What were those skills like? How did they listen to others? Where did they get that information? I think we can hear all of that from a candidate with a question more like that than maybe this one. So, would just offer maybe changing it to to something like that. >> So, it sounds like you'd like to see 11 as it was presented with your uh recommended edits. And I I think Sean, you two had commented on that in its original form. Was was something you'd like to see asked. >> I actually think H also kind of gets at that question truthfully. >> Yeah. Which that's the question Jessica's bringing up. It's the final >> Yeah. The final ones we have here. Yeah. The spirit of
059it is in there. Partial doesn't much detail >> as the list we have to choose from but in a sense it's in >> yes it's H thank you like where is this thing yes it's H >> so do we want to consider H as it is written or with with the uh I believe it's Jennifer had amendments to that was that Britney there's two greens I need different >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Let's take a closer >> So then that would replace number three. Is that what we're >> That was my suggestion. >> Third rate. With that said, I don't know that that's different enough from current question 5F and possibly too close to 2F. So, would we be comfortable replacing 2F and 5F with question H? I would be good with that. >> Yeah,
060I would too. >> Says yes. Take a minute to read it through. So that would be 2, three, and five. We would be replacing F. So then that opens up the opportunity for other questions. So before we move on, I need to clarify. We're replacing 2F, 3F, and 5F with H. >> Just want to make sure. >> I think just 2F and 5F being replaced with H. But then Britney had further discussed removing 3F because it may not help us differentiate between candidates. >> Good clarification. Do we need six questions or that was just an intention to have everyone have an opportunity to ask a question? >> That was question chowder. So I see bringing it all together and I know we want to keep these as specific as possible. Yeah. >> So I'm glad
061we're having this discussion and we're weeding out what we don't like. >> Sure. >> We don't like vote on that, right? we just kind of say, "Hey, let's just we just agree to it. >> We want to make sure we're in agreement with all the questions that are going to be presented." >> Okay. So, can I just So, we want to say 2F and 5F are being replaced with H and then we're going to remove 3F and potentially maybe add a question or two in addition to what we're already doing. >> Yes. >> Right now, I have us at four questions. Correct. I have a set 1 F, 4 F, 6F, and H. Is that fine? >> Mhm. >> And then side from there. >> I'll point out that a couple of these are kind
062of multi-quests. Um, >> and you know, like one F could easily go to two questions >> split right in the middle and you could create two questions out of that. Agreed. >> That would be under the first category then. Yeah, >> I actually think you could even kind of move that category or that question that what qualities, experiences or perspectives and you could move that to the kind of learning and board readiness category. In my mind, >> a lot of these I think overlap. >> Yeah. >> Move move the second half you said to board readiness. >> Yes. I'll say I like F while pondering the document. Which number? >> Oh, you're at the original. >> The original left. >> Sorry. >> What do you believe? The biggest challenges we would be maintaining is number
063four. >> That's included in four. It is >> that we're keeping. >> Yes. >> Oh, yeah. >> I'd like to throw G back in there. I think that's kind of a sixf I think >> or similar. We could reword it but there So currently we have five >> I would be comfortable with keeping it at five. Um the five that we have listed if we wanted to add additional I I like the sort of specific questions of like 3A and 5A which have kind of been generalized when they got lumped together. Um, at the same time, an interviewee could bring those topics up on their own, which would show us where their interest lies. So, I'm fine not specifically asking. >> I also am comfortable with the list of five questions. Personally, >> I am
064too. And again, there's always there's always those little bit of follow-up questions for clarification that we always have to like somebody may say something and then you're like, oo, got another question about what you just said. So, be laboring it and having six questions for the sake of six might not make sense. So I'm good with five. >> I could just add operatively too. I mean if we're looking at six interviews of a half hour each, there really needs to be kind of a five minute at least uh buffer in the middle. Uh just so now you're really talking about kind of 25 minuteish interviews. And so five questions allows for >> um enough time for a candidate to express their perspectives and you're not going over and so on. My question is how are
065we are we going to limit the answers to are we going to just go if they don't they have 25 minutes to a half hour that's it you're cut or see this going long if we don't have some requirements to keep it moving >> I think that should be expressed to the candidates uh at the start of their interview is that we're looking to hold this to 25 minutes and we will move you along. Um, and we want you though to have the opportunity to answer all of the questions we're going to ask, but we have five questions and we go from there. >> Another thing, if we do want something to kind of wrap with, frequently in an interview, you do provide people with an opportunity to state, you know, at the end if
066there's something that they weren't asked about, um, that they really feel passionate that they would like to express, you let them do that, too. So that could be that uh closing opportunity for them because I think there are a couple that makes great sense as intro questions, but that could be a closer. >> So it sounds like we have our questions. All right. So I just want to review so that uh Michelle can check and she can make sure she knows what she's doing here. So we're going to use uh 1 F and uh we're going to split that into two questions and then uh we are going to use 4F we are going to use 6F we are going to use H and then like I just suggested we could provide that opportunity at
067the end. Mhm. >> Okay. Everyone comfortable with that? >> Yes. >> Yep. >> Now, another question this I want to throw out to the group. Um, so there are a couple ways you can go on this. We can try not to share these questions in advance, but I just I don't know if that's uh feasible or not. um and perhaps sharing them in advance provides equal playing field for everybody to be prepared. I it's kind of that's a question we also need to answer uh here at this point. I'll I'll say personally I think given the toret pace that we're on and giving the amount of time that the candidates after tonight will know I think it might be a good idea to share the questions in advance, but there's no right or wrong way.
068It's totally up to us as a board. >> It's equal playing field either way. All five of them or all six of them don't know or they do know. I'm kind of in favor of not knowing. I'll just say I just don't want there to be any blowback or accusation that somebody was getting fed information from the board who seen the questions in advance and others didn't get it. That's the only concern I would have just in the interest of openness then everybody gets the same and they can speak to it. So that would be my only concern about not doing it. I personally also like to just ask people and get their reactions. Um but you know in this process that's an interesting process and it's blend of public and not that's where I
069don't know in a private setting and an employee setting I for sure yeah we don't give an advance but >> um would it be a compromise almost where you can invite the applicants for the interview and then topically share with um you know these are the areas we're going to kind of be focusing on. Uh maybe not give them the direct question but at least they need to make sure that they're kind of thinking through some things before they get here. >> So essentially to share the categories that these questions will be question each under each of the categories. That's an interesting to think. Yeah. >> I mean, alternatively, we could share our selection criteria because then they'll know what we're looking for in a response. I think that along with what Jess is suggesting,
070the the categories are part of the um yeah, they are they're in each of the criteria for the most part. But yeah, I think that's another way of doing it. >> I personally don't have a problem with sharing the questions ahead of time actually. It gives everyone a chance to prepare, think thoughtfully about what they want to say and um otherwise we do have there will be some people sitting in the audience who are going to hear the questions who you know candidate whoever comes first didn't get the opportunity to kind of sit and formulate a little bit. Uh the meeting will be held obviously in the same venue. So um just thinking about it from that perspective but um but >> you're saying in this day and age of texting there could be Yeah.
071Well, just being at the meeting or just being at the meeting, but you're you're right. We choose five. >> We're interviewing in public. >> You get to hear the answers of one through. >> So, Right. Right. But aren't we are we we're interviewing them separately though, right? And they're not going to be in the same room at the same time. Correct. >> That would be my suggestion that they report we'll have them in a area where they, you know, would be waiting and then we'll just have them report at >> different times so that they would come in and then >> I did not realize that. Yeah, that would be that would be my just like a normal candidate interview for any other position. That would be the way we >> I'd want to be
072last for sure. >> But I I think that still makes it, you know, there's still the opportunity for people in this day and age to communicate. So >> 100%. >> Right. We're never going to make it completely fair, but we can give it our best shot. >> Okay. So I guess I just need to know am I uh am I sending along the all the questions or are we just uh doing sort of topics. >> I am good either way. I can see both sides of it. Um I agree with Britney on the fact of if we give them the or give them the questions they can prepare. We are on a crunch time for to let them interview. So that would be pro for me, but I could go either way. >> Okay. >>
073I could see sharing the question categories along with the selection criteria as compromise and versus sending the full question set >> categories. No political answers. >> One or the other. >> All right. So, I think what I will do, Mr. Morris, if it's okay, I will we'll try to put some things together and we'll run it by you and then I'll probably be still tonight just for your blessing on what we worded as extrapolation out of this and then we'll go from there. >> Okay. >> All right. Sounds good. I'll be looking for it. Okay. So now I believe we're at the point where we want to decide which candidates we'd like to make offers to interview tomorrow night. So I'll open that. >> So that motion is in 8B. If uh I mean it's
074the board's agenda. If we are ready to move to action items and uh ready to move to that do it or are we do the handbook first and then All right. Well, I think I think Superintendent Wheelry is right. We should probably come back to that as a motion in 8B if you're okay with moving on and then holding that discussion in motions as an action item in 8B. If we're ready to do that, >> feels like we are. Okay, move on to action items number 8A, student handbook 2025 through 2026. Is there a motion? >> I have a quick question. Um, I just have a quick question. If I looked over the student handbook and was, you know, fine. um in light of you know there's other discussion throughout the year that there are
075things in the handbook that we feel would need to be changed for whatever reason whether it's a law whether it's you know I don't know whatever could come up do we if we vote today and do we have the right to obviously revisit that to make sure and and revise it if needed from a okay just want to make sure okay >> we're the ultimate authority when it comes to that sort of thing I move that the board accept the student handbooks as presented. >> Second. >> Any further discussion? >> Seeing none, please call the vote. >> Collins, >> yes. >> Cone, yes. >> Rando, >> yes. >> Arber Garcia, yes. Nicholls, yes. Morris. >> Yes. I will for the community's edification let them know that we have reviewed this a time and a half
076I believe you might you might call it and we've seen the changes and have had a chance to review it and we're not just voting on it without looking at it tonight. So just uh wanted to let everyone know that. Okay. On to action items 8B, board trustee candidate interview invitations. >> You need We need names now, right? Y >> Yeah. So, at this point, we should use names in our >> Okay, here we go. I move that the board invite the following applicants to be interviewed on Tuesday, July 29, 2025 for the vacant board trustee position. Carrie Dyke House, Brad Mazlowski, Jim Cwley, Tammy Singleton, Bernie Nagel, and Kyle Clement. >> Well, that would be >> six. >> Right. >> We said that. >> Yes, the six. That's correct. >> A second. Okay, we
077have a second. Is there any discussion about those motioned by Britney to attend the interview? See no further discussion. Please call the vote. >> Collins, >> yes. >> Pone, yes. Brando, >> yes. Barbara Garcia, yes. Nicholls, yes. Morris >> Morris votes, yes. Motion carries. On to item nine, discussion of anticipated board considerations for the 18th of August regular meeting. >> Yeah. So um in preparation of this agenda as uh President Morris and I myself were working through this um we didn't want to get into deep discussions on other things tonight not knowing how long this would go and knowing we had the prospect of uh additional stuff coming. Uh so next month we will have a committee the whole meeting which we did not have this uh month and so we will be having a
078few things for you. One of the things that of course had a first reading but we did not advance at this meeting because we wanted to have further discussion on which we again didn't have a committee meeting to do was our lengthy list of Neola policies that uh we had um had the first reading of last month. So uh there will be those NEOA policies and um we are still in development on some other things. So, uh that's all I have for you at this point as far as uh things coming up on the 18th, but um we will have again that committee meeting prior. >> Okay, time to board comments. Any comments from board members? Well, I' I'd like to thank the the candidates who applied and and to those who didn't get a
079shot at interviewing. Uh your your resumes were looked over thoroughly. It's a hard decision to take that down to so few. Uh I'm I had a hard time getting lower than six. So, um, we got very talented, uh, folks in our community that their hearts are in the right spot to represent our kids and staff, teachers, and the community well. So, thank you very much. And to those who have applied, looking forward to reaching out to you, I believe tonight for sure. And, uh, hope all can make it tomorrow. We are also flexible to be a excuse me be able to offer uh the uh interview via Zoom for those that are traveling for whatever reason. We didn't want to exclude those that couldn't be here in person with this tour base that we're on.
080So, um I'll I'll finish with that. Anyone else? Seeing none. Motion to adjurnn. All those >> John. Thank you, John. For the second, please call the roll. >> That is not on here. So, have to do that. >> We can voice vote for eyes. >> All those in favor of adjournment say I. >> I. Those opposed. Most stairs.