HCS Board Meeting - 12/16/2024

001e e e [Music] he um welcome to the December 16th 2024 meeting um it is 6:30 p.m. so we're going to go ahead and get started item 1 a Pledge of Allegiance please join me of the United States of America to the stands na IND all right before moving forward to 1B I would just like to thank both Michelle blondel and Chris Costa for their service to the Board of Education um this is their last um official meeting and so I wanted to thank the two of you and recognize you for your service to our district and certainly to our community so thank you both thank [Applause] you item 1B approval of a agenda items SL items for discussion I move that the agenda for the December 16th 2024 regular meeting be approved support motion

002by Mrs Coleman supported by Mr Costa any discussion uh I move to modify the agenda to add the um uh resolution that I submitted to the board last week in regards to having open committee meetings meetings I move to add that as action item D motion by Mr Scott to add action item D committee resolution yes and I did email it to everybody last week I do did give everyone a copy and I do have copies for anyone in the audience who might want one as well is there support for Mr Scott's motion second by Mr goleski discussion is this the same item that is already on the agenda committee structure for a discussion so I think this is the Madam president may want to correct me but I believe this is what instigated adding

003the committee item as a discussion item um my my concern with waiting you know 2 three four months to formalize open committees is there's a lot of work that needs to be done in that time period And I believe what this resolution right currently the um policy does not forbid open meetings it doesn't call for closed meetings it's just the board's practice uh historically to have closed committee meetings so I think that's a practice we should discontinue immediately and then uh the president gach is working on some um policies that would help kind of craft exactly what that looks like in the long run and I did send that to everyone it was a revision for 0155 I just I guess I feel like it kind of gets the cart before the horse to make

004the resolution before we make any policy changes that support it I don't know if I'm alone in that but I I feel like if they're so related that to have the discussion and be more informed about what what direction the policy is going to go in before making a resolution yeah I think like I said my concern is that if we're currently violating the open meetings act or walking the line when it comes to the open meetings act then I think uh it's more necessary to to change that immediately and so that that's my reasoning for for wanting to add that to the agenda for tonight but and I mean at least I can speak for the Committees that I sit on we do not walk that line we do not make decisions they information

005only and there's never a quorum so if if we're not walking that line if we're following the rules that we're supposed to when it's a closed meeting then I don't understand why we have to make the resolution yeah that can certainly be part of the discussion and I have some um opinions from the attorney general I can read and I also have um some other entities that and their recommendations regarding the open meetings act and their interpretations of the open meetings act and also some you know discussions I've had with masb attorney and some of the masb orientation materials as it comes to best practices so I think I think that's all part of a a good healthy discussion Mr Scott just to clarify are you looking to add it to action it so it

006would be 2D or would this be additional two 2D action item yes sir thank you it's already on the discussion so this would be moving into action I I mean I me we're going to vote to move it but I I would agree with Mrs Coleman it seems like we're kind of jumping ahead here with before you're going to be revising a number of policies with this doesn't seem to make sense to to make it an action item tonight and the reason that I did send a proposal for a transition of policy was because I didn't feel like a current policy necessarily supports us with any meet um it's very just kind of short and sweet and I feel like if we're going to make a transition of that such we do need a policy

007that's very clear that supports that transition um and that's what I sent the board any additional discussion I would like to add I think think we had a discussion about this early on when we first got on the board um because as a a Community member I wanted to be inv invited and see if I could attend some of the committee meetings and I know that there was some opposition to it so for me I'm supportive of this and so just wanted to make that known all right we're going to start with the motion by Mr Scott to modify the agenda to add item to 2D which is the resolution to commit to open committee meeting meetings with public attendance and comment Mr Scott yes Mr galeski yes Mrs Coleman no Mr Keller yes Mr

008Costa no Mrs blondal I'm a yes and I'm a no that motion passes any additional discussion would someone like to make a motion to adopt the modified agenda I move to adopt the modified agenda second I'll admit I might have done that a little bit backwards but thank you all for rolling with it um motion by Mr Scott supported by Mr goleski for clarification to adopt the modified agenda the modification is item 2D for all of those who are following along will you be dropping the discussion item no okay because I want to continue with my discussion item yeah I think the policy is still needed any discussion on the modified adoption Mr Scott yes Mr goleski yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Keller yes Mr Costa yes Mrs blondal yes and I'm a yes that

009motion passes Mr gesi used to be first and so I keep having to check myself all right item 1 C cons agenda I move that the consent agenda for the December 16th 2024 regular meeting be approved support motion by Mrs Coleman supported by Mr Costa any discussion on item 1 C consent agenda hearing none Mr Scott yes Mr goleski yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr ker yes Mr Costa yes Mrs blondal yes and I'm a yes that motion passes item 1D superintendent's report thank you thank you for being here tonight everyone uh first thing on the agenda uh I'd like to ask Mr try to come up front Mr try is our Auto technology teacher at the high school um he had a special uh opportunity to go out of state to a conference to learn

010more about what he can use in the classroom and teach kids so I asked him because it was out of state um to come and talk to us about what he learned and how he'll apply it in the auto sure well thanks for having me tonight um again I'm Dan try I teach Auto at the high school and a month ago I went to the SEMA show uh the SEMA show is a specialty equipment marketing U Association and that is the largest uh Automotive uh trade show there is um I had a couple goals in going there um first off I was looking for um a lot of EV training um D Deep dive EV training uh one of the struggles I shouldn't say struggles we have but one of the challenges I have going

011forward is what are we going to teach on the EV side uh you know I have an Advisory Board you know I share my Advisory board with Pinkney and Brighton and with um talking with our local dealerships we're not getting a lot of feedback from those guys on what a repair looks like and that's simply because here in Lon County they were not selling a lot of EVS uh talking with Brighton Ford the only work that they're really doing is all the recalls that they've had on the Mox and the F-150 lightnings and so forth um you know laan teenss had you know we've had the Vault for a number of years and they're just simply not seeing a lot in there anyhow so uh I took a couple classes when I was down there

012uh one was on EV um general service and then the second one I did I did one on a Tesla um the Tesla training was uh really really um [Music] a deep dive into repairing their uh electric motors they have a really really high failure rate in their electric motors and a coolant U seal if you're not aware um EVS they they have cooling um systems that cool their uh batteries and their Motors and there's a high failure rate in these Tesla Model S's anyhow um so went through uh tring on how to do that particular repair uh they also shared the curriculum with us so um that is I'm going to now slide that into my curriculum when we are teaching electrical now I have some meat and potatoes behind you know what does

013an EV repair look like and uh what are they doing out in the field um the deal now this is a after Amer company that has come up with a kit and uh replacing the bearings is when the coolant leaks it wipes out the the bearings and all that Tesla's answer to it is to just simply replace the motor drive assembly um if you're familiar with Teslas they're terrible when it comes to uh the Service Parts you would be really waiting 3 to four months for um this part so uh there's a lot of shops on the west coast that they're doing nothing but doing this particular repair uh because obviously you know tesl are very very popular out there so um that was one of my goals is to to do the EV uh

014training also did an ads training um that is assist driver um systems so that is all of your lane lane assist your adaptive cruise uh I wrote a grant last year and replaced our alignment machine this would be a secondary partner to our alignment machine so went through some training in there um got some demos from a couple different manufacturers um the beauty of going to the show you also get all of the manufacturers are there you're not dealing with salesmen you're dealing directly with the company uh so along with the EV training um also did some shopping out there when I was out there as well um currently looking to add some uh few welding boosts in the auto Auto lab currently when we weld we really do not have any dedicated uh ventilation

015system there and that gets really problematic when you've got 30 kids trying to weld and I do a pretty good job of sticking up The West Wing so uh uh met with a couple companies out there we're looking at doing um this company makes a pair of uh wdding booths they have integrated HPA filters so I don't have to get you know Air Makeup unit to come in big you know vents on the side of the building nothing like this this is all encased into the booth uh I've met with Matt Marino there is going to be a little bit of electrical impact um we're we're out of all of our circuits in the auto so we're going to have to bring in a uh another panel but uh Matt's already worked with our contractor

016I've already got a quote on that so uh going forward I plan on writing I'm going to be writing a grant another Margaret Dunning Foundation Grant which a grant it's a private uh Foundation that we wrote a grant last year uh and this year we'll be doing the same thing with the welding equipment as well because we're going to be picking up obviously four more wers to to go with each Booth so uh I know that was a 3 days out there it's really packed that was a really high level uh crash course of what I did for three days but uh do you guys have any questions yes so um with adding or potentially adding the EV stuff and and getting the curriculum do you have what you need right now as far as

017hands on training materials for the students or how do you see that evolving um no absolutely not technically my program is accredited through the ASC May Automotive Service Excellence as of right now today it is not in technically in our curriculum that is changing um what that's going to look like I'm not sure we're probably going to go to uh simulators I have zero desire to go out and purchase or get a Tesla or any other EV um because it's a whole another ball of uh wax that's uh you know what the danger of having an EV and stuff and then we need charges and all that but uh to answer your question no not right now what about just the motors could you use just the motors I would love to get a cutaway

018in fact I want the Tesla class I went to I really wanted to take key they a really nice cutaway of one um and that's what we're kind of as of right now we don't have any corporate Tesla connections on how to get one that be me Brighton and Pinkney were all trying to get one as well but um hav't had any much luck yet would that be specifically a Tesla or be it can be anyone it can be anyone did anything catch your eye when you went window shopping at all or oh yes yes yeah we were looking at walers we were looking at a lot of things okay you know we're we're building um I the kids are building a 64 T Bird so we looked at a lot of hot rod parts

019out there as well so so I'd like to ask when the kids graduate from your classes are they able to go and find a job as a mechanic that's excellent sure I have plenty I have uh I think three right now at Brighton I have um two of them are graduates I have I think two or three at La Fontaine um yeah we we have a lot floting around now excellent um they leave with uh they take ASC they take the student version of the AC test um so we're right around about a 75% pass rate there um so there and then there's also additional um certificates that they can earn while they go through assuming they go through AO one two and three so they are pretty employable when they get out and the

020industry is starving for um young techs MH thank you Dan um for the Board of Education just uh a little quick Finance uh um piece of information uh we uh through our CTE programs and our sheer time prr program uh we do uh receive what's called added fund cost dollars uh which is CT based Perkins based and those can be uh quite substantial um certainly the last couple years we've had some uh increased uh funding through grants that uh brought in last year it was something like throughout the county $3.5 million of special equipment uh I understand this morning I talked with Michelle radliff Dan who there's going to be some more money available so you'll want to be talking with her about how we put our orders in and what that looks like when

021we look at all of our Career Tech programs throughout the county so uh we do we do have money often uh to do lots of upgrades so uh we'll look at those and and Dan knows the process very fortunate in the past three years um I think we've brought in I'm just south of I think $193,000 in Capital Equipment grants in the past three years so so we'll I wonder if we could put like a call out to our public or our district um you know to make that connection to get a cutaway I'm sorry didn't to make that connection that make that corporate connection to help get a surely there's somebody in this community who might have that connection so good take that actually if you if you'd like I can help you with

022that so so there you go you got I'm happy to help you with that so okay great we can talk offline and figure out how we can get one and potentially even a battery m awesome and and Dan I have a lot of insight into the future of the EV markets and what the automotive industry is doing right now so I think that I could share that with you that might help you as well sure sure thank you guys thank you Dan thank you all right go home Dan uh next we have a new hire uh James if you could bring Hunter up and introduce her this is our so you know this is our 19th hire this year as a teacher in the district so Hunter you're number 19 all right all right good

023evening I'm excited to introduce you to Mrs uh Hunter Fedor Chu Thomas the kids will call her Mrs Thomas um we have a midyear retirement in our math department Chad Kwa is going to retire here on Friday um and so congratulations to him um so that leaves us an opening for uh some geometry and algebra 3 and Hunter is the perfect fit for that we interviewed her um and then reached out to some resource or some uh refer and um they all said outstanding things about her as well as our interview committee um they mentioned things like knowledgeable organized positive team player great with curriculum planning and and instruction um and she was actually she's currently teaching at Leonia Clarenville through the end of the week and uh reached out to her principal there and

024she was actually a midyear hire at Clarenville in the past and her principal said it was a seamless transition and she really calmed the waters there in a in a midar higher which is difficult so I'm looking forward to her uh doing that for us uh it's been a great year Mr KW has done a great job and set her up for success and uh she's going to be left in a good spot to start um her principal also mentioned that she's one of the best young teachers that he's worked with and he's been around uh for some time so that says a lot uh so I'm excited to have Hunter on our team I think she's going to be a great fit and uh start teaching some geometry in algebra 3 uh to our

025students so Hunter uh like Mr V gereral said I'm Hunter Thomas um I just want to say thank you for having me and I'm really excited for this upcoming opportunity [Applause] awesome great to have you welcome Cameron can you come up here real quick so this is coach Cameron and Coach Cameron is one he's one of our technology experts in the district but he and another coach and I'll let you talk about it okay Cameron um two years ago came to us and said we would like to sponsor and be a part of Esports team and last year in the fall their first year running the Esports team uh they were second in the state this year the students first in the State and the second year in the program and quite a a a

026great bunch of kids every time I go in there they are as I was telling Cameron and he knows the kids are just so happy and what a great group of kids they have one more thing that they can be involved in in our high school to stay connected so cam can you talk a little bit about where you are and where you think you might go as a program uh well we're we're definitely growing um we have almost doubled in size uh just from one year um but it's been really exciting to see so many kids that have come in um some of them are coming in from like uh a basketball background football background uh other sports as well soccers things like that um but uh for the most part this is the

027first time that they've ever been part of a team so it's been really exciting to hear from the kids and uh how how much this U drives them to go to school and do well cuz we still do enforce good grades uh good attendance things like that so uh it's just it's really cool to see and uh see them grow and and do well um these three kids uh well five kids uh three of them that start and two on the bench but they are uh they're a great group they're so much fun uh they have we joke with them that they have ice in their veins they were given us a heart attack during the state championship but you would never know looking at them uh they were just locked in and um just

028representing Harland really well after each game they went and shook hands with the other team even when the other team didn't quite want to but uh they were doing a great job of showing sportsmanship and just really representing our community with pride and um dignity so yeah awesome congratulations [Applause] congratulations um if you haven't noticed uh if you watch our board meetings um Cam and his team are here every time and you'll see that the agenda items are up there and you can see everybody you can hear everybody really well and I know there's been some uh thoughts about you know do it better but uh since we change to this style with YouTube I think that our board meetings are much more uh easy to follow so Cameron I appreciate all the information that

029you're putting up there as we're going through the meeting so thank you all right so ends the superintendent report awesome thank you all moving to item 1e call to the public this is just a reminder that um this portion of the agenda is for citizens to address any questions or comments to the board um speakers are asked to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy of others who may be affected by your comments each speaker may be limited to 3 minutes um at the 2 minute and 30 second Mark I will wave my handy dandy yellow folder so that you have a heads up um other than that we will go ahead and get started first up we have Ella nicotin hello my name is Ellen yukin um

030so I want to take a moment to share my thoughts on the the new bathroom policy that one of the board members has introduced um first of all I am happy to see that um that the board is now you know capable of using they to refer to one person you know I I remember that being a really contentious issue last year for some reason and I'm glad to hear that um you know now the the board is in agreement that it is an okay thing to do um now the portion where you know you want to you know police uh where where all people including you know visitors and uh members of the public can use the bathroom um you know you know some of you you know have your opinions about where people

031like me should be using the bathroom but the reality is that if I walked into the men's bathroom then people would tell me I'm in the wrong bathroom you know that's that's not like an opinion that's just like what's going to happen and you know you you're sitting here trying to offer up as a solution having the single occupancy bathrooms there isn't enough of them you know like for example in this building you know I'd have to go all the way to the other side of the building um the other issue is regarding you know use of a birth certificate to decide which bathroom people have to go to first of all I'm not even sure where my burer certificate is so you know if you want to you know enforce that policy on Me

032based on that you know have fun finding it because I don't know where it is and you know it's it's not even a Michigan birth certificate it's from like another state too so you know just a lot of unclear things regarding this policy just you know you know biological sex is also like really not very clear you know there's a lot of different definitions as to what that could be and you know obviously you you went with birth certificate but like I said not sure where that is so I'm not sure how you how you plan on dealing with that and you know finally I will raise the issue you know not everyone has it's not obvious just by looking at people even with what your policy says which bathroom they belong in you know

033and now you're going to open up the possibility of being challenged you know for example my mom would always um get mistaken for a boy as a child so how is that going to work in that situation next up we have Larry Parsons good evening everybody Merry Christmas and happy New Year I'm happy to hear that there are San policies being passed now at through this school board it's a proud thing to see we've been through some rough times and there's been some crazy stuff especially in the bathrooms when you have teenage girls begging adults to get boys out of the girls' bathrooms we should never be there that's a bad place to be protecting our children should be our first job and we all know what the right thing to do is each and

034every one of us actually knows we shouldn't be cowering down to extremists like the Biden Administration or the current attorney general our children we dropped them there was a school shooting today does everybody know that that there was um two people killed in uh Wisconsin it was a private school shooter went in and shot some people kids should be safe in school and that means we have to take sane steps to do this and not just it's not a gun's fault guns don't get up get dressed and go do evil things you're Educators it's your job or you're the board but it's your job to hire the Educators that work with the parents to install the morals in society I never would have thought about taking a gun to a school you know what my

035dad would have done to my rear end I wouldn't have been afraid of that Deputy over there I'd have been afraid of what my old man was going to do to my hind end did he have a gun safe nope he kept his guns in the closet do you think I ever touched one because I knew due to my hind end if I did never even thought about it he told me if I wanted to shoot a gun we do it at the range we do it together and by God that's what exactly what we did and exactly what happened but I just wanted to take a little bit of time to thank the majority in this board that sits here today for what you're going to do tonight what you did last last month

036it's deeply needed keep the kids safe thank [Applause] you next we have L Len Patilla yeah I want to comment on a couple things from the September board meeting there's a lot of discussion about how well Harland did with the mstep scores and rightfully so the teachers students and parents did a great job I want to remind everyone else of what happened two years ago the Clean Slate Michelle Greg and glang were elected and promised to bring transparency and accountability to the district and that's what they did they asked the tough questions and put the district on a firm foundation stopped the decline and improved the district so I want to thank Michelle blondel for her service over the past couple of years I know it wasn't always easy standing up to four liberal board

037members and a superintendent trying to push their woke agenda on the district but you stood your ground you always stood up for all students and not any individual group like some of your fellow board members so thank you for a job well done George sky hello everybody uh I want to start today with the email that is going around for a couple of days that uh the the principal of high school send it for the parents to evaluate the job that the uh school is doing and I like it there are a lot of good points that you see over there but usually when you take a survey you take only one time I don't know who put that together in this way but you can take that survey about like five six times or

038you can send to people in Cemetery to take the survey to or wherever you want so before you do this guys check a little bit how many times the survey has to be taken or is left with a purpose in this way I don't know I can't put a finger to anybody or talk more about this one second that I want to add is the gentleman that talk first here the uh teacher for uh Automotive he's doing really a great job and I have a a feedback from both of my sons and what I want you guys to ask about the technology that you are putting in the school you have a a guy that is technology director May one make $160,000 a year so he should put some work in that and bring some

039CNC machine in there bring the PLC uh uh programming and so on because I know from my time with my son finished the school some kids that are his friends are making $6 figures now in year that will take a kid that goes in college probably a minimum of 10 years to go to $6 figures so you guys will have to promote more that that the people need especially in electrical field in mechanical field Machining and I can see now that a lot of job are going to if the Trump will put the Tariff to China and other places I can see a lot of jobs are coming here again in United States so we need people to work on those jobs and to make money and to to support their life much better than

040going in a school after they milking them out and starting starting the work with minus $100,000 de from the bank or wherever they borrow the money so think a little bit more what that gentleman told you and add a couple of more things I'm more than open to if you guys have any anybody to take over there I work for stantis and uh to meet somebody that probably will give to you guys a help or somebody who wants to be connected in automotive industry I can even I was looking to tell him because in two days he going to be a show over there at us that I can take that gentleman inside and to see the electric everything yeah I'm wrapping up so thinking this way a little bit to help the people the

041the kids more to make more money and to to start their life with zero de thank you next we have Julie ohashi this district has an apparent weapon-free school policy School Board attendees have witnessed people walk into this boardroom carrying guns on them when this was brought to the board's attention there was refusal to even so much EST State a reminder to the public that this is supposed to be a weapon-free Zone when there was zero effort to even attempt to enforce this school policy parents of children with special needs those with biracial kids marginalized families begged board members to consider opening up the call to public via zoom in order for their voices to be included since they were worried for their physical safety by continuing to attend these school board meetings however the

042request was denied which has effectively silenced anyone's Voice who is intimidated by these people with guns the only reason to allow cards to be accepted to the end of the call to public is so that folks can respond to other commenters dragging it out and allowing for squabbling I don't see why this is more important than people's physical safety marginalized families have been excluded from these meetings why aren't we considering ways for our most vulnerable to be safely included why is zoom called to public not being considered Keller wanting school board members to have free reign access into the schools I want to remind folks that over a thousand parents were so worried when goleski made statements that he would be unsafe around students that they demanded in writing that all board members require a

043background check see currently Heartland school board members are not bound by school policy to have required background checks done something that every single adult on campus must complete before allowing access to our children the only qualification to be a Schoolboard member is that people vote you in so we're basically allowing unfettered access to our kids to the winners of a popularity contest how how many ways can that go wrong remember the Boy Scouts how about the many Catholic Dees they had to file bankruptcy for allowing just anybody access to kids the 242 Church in Brighton has a current issue with a now ex- worship pasture director who took advantage of his position by placing hidden video cameras inside the church's bathroom it just doesn't seem like a good fiscal policy to set the district up

044for liability when someone who happens to get elected just gets sued for something that should have been caught on a background check but the opt out of Dei proposed policy is probably the most ridiculous allowing kids from the most racist families the repeat racial offenders will be given a free pass because their racist parents don't believe their racist ways are racist you see there are racist students in Heartland as determined recently by the courts who criminally charged a group of white boys for stalking assault and battery Etc of a black female classmate so given that these repeat racial offenders will be given free passes I expect to be able to opt my biracial child out of any class that opt out Dia kids are in I need to know that my kid isn't being subjected

045to such harm there is so much stupid crap on this agenda tonight that's going to be getting reversed anyways but everybody appreciates your time suck guys and your attention grab tonight so have fun with [Music] that Dave Van AER all right well I I thought about what I was going to talk about and I decided to change directions here uh what I would like to bring up I brought brought up before and I'll bring it up again two signs here they need to be towards the center this is your product I've been talking about branding so this is your brand you don't want them cut off on YouTube and you you don't want to be sticking them off in the corner just here this is your stage this is where you present yourself you want

046to show off what you're about and let people know what you can do I've learned a lot about people can decide what they want to be no matter where they are are uh one of the things that I I've always liked about Heartland I felt good about it being here is that anybody can move to higher levels of greatness as long as you are willing to recognize what those things are recognize what needs to be corrected and constantly make modifications I have to do that in my own life but I can I can tell you that you don't have to be the big fancy school you got some nice stuff going but it's it's the culture here that matters the willing willness to make changes like this so you let people know who you are

047and that trickles down through your system as a culture right now those two signs are being cut in half on YouTube and people are not getting your message this is part of why I brought out the idea of what kind of posters are going on at the pool what you're promoting because it's not promoting you it's promoting somebody else and you guys can go go as high as you would like to go I work for a company in Oklahoma City we were where we now we saw people from all over the planet treating patients I did research there it was a bunch of cowboys cowboy boots and wearing scrubs okay just a bunch of good old boys treating families like the kennedies all right so that means that you guys are not any different than

048them so shoot your goals a little bit higher cuz you guys can do it all right you definitely can there's nothing special in the water water in an arbor or in Brighton that is this all the same here so start showing your light a little bit more and letting people know what you're about and what you can do Aaron McKenna good evening my name is Aaron McKenna and I am a parent to two children at Lakes Elementary um I'm just going to uh want to reiterate what Julie said just a few minutes ago I agree 100% with everything she said um so I just want to lift her words up again um but I am going to go through a few points of um for few points myself um the social media um changes I

049wanted to point out I'm not in favor of this the these are there are already plenty of Avenues in order to communicate with our Administration and to provide Grievances and this just seems extremely unnecessary and there's already public PL platforms to do this on keeping our Heartland page positive and announcement focused and keeping politics which that's where it will go out of it I find to be very important I want to just find the information I need and not the BS um the terms of the school boards this also seems to be unnecessary um you know as you guys know this this job takes a while it's a job it's not just volunteer work it's a job for you guys and it takes you guys time to learn it um as any job so if

050we get somebody that's willing to stay on and is especially if they can continue to get voted in let's continue to let them what why are we hampering ourselves we already struggle to find um um people to um uh try to be elected to these positions um the board orientation changes regarding the passes the all access pass for the board members no absolutely no I do not want a single one of you no matter how well I know you going in there without signing in and having been properly vetted like it doesn't take that much just go through the the office um I would also you know the orientation part of that change um and having an equivalent training why why do we need an equivalent training take the training so everyone takes the same

051training um that's been vetted go with it um I would even go as far as to say there's additional training that the Board needs you know our our society is changing and we need to continue to educate ourselves I would go as far as to say that the Board needs to take Dei and erase trainings um at identifying how education our education in our institutions are historically racist and not Equitable as Angela Davis said in a in a racist Society it is not enough to be non-racist we must be anti-racist and lastly the bathroom policy um again this is an extremely discriminatory um policy and it should not be enforced um and I will leave at that since the B went thank [Applause] you moving on to item 1 F committee and building reports some

052of the committee report items we are going to address um in some of our discussion items but Mr scottt do you want to kick us off I have a question before you kick us off have you been assigned a building yet no okay I'll get with Mr Keller to make sure that by the next board meeting you have a building okay so no building report um I had the uh building and sight committee meeting that we talked about at the last uh board meeting and we talked about the ongoing Transportation issues uh since it's going to be on here through the rest of the agenda in multiple places I don't think I need to take up much time with it I think we'll get plenty of time to get a an update and kind of

053a plan moving forward so thank you thank you Mr goleski uh thank you yeah um earlier today um I was fortunate enough to be uh part of a meeting with uh many of the uh admin staff regarding some of the situations that we have currently going on with the doj it was a highly productive meeting it was very good to uh um air different sides of concerns and uh I look forward to uh uh the next one that we have but we did uh I feel that we made a lot of progress we reviewed a ton of uh statistics and information um regarding the uh makeup of our students and I think there will be some good things things coming out of it thank you thank you Mr goleski um just for the Public's awareness

054and the board's awareness I have asked Mr galeski to kind of when appropriate through this process as uh an attendee of the training just keep us kind of up to speed on um what's happening in the training the minutes he's taking and so on and so forth so I'm sure we'll get some as things progress but Mrs Coleman thank you um let's see obviously building and sight I was part of that meeting as well and we will be covering quite a bit of that later um I'm also part of the the doj team um so I was in that meeting a couple weeks ago with our representative from the map Center I was I wasn't able to make it to the meeting today with our internal team but thank you Dave for that information I'll

055follow up with you uh with any questions um I have had the pleasure of visiting one of my schools um for the building liaison program I've been around twice I think since our last meeting uh we moved up this month's meeting because of break um and of course it's always such a great time to be round and to uh to hang out there with with the teachers and the kids um and then at Creekside at my last visit there um I'm also a representative on the high school pack and I was asked to deliver Donuts um to Creekside on the day that I just happened to be meeting with Misty gun and um the donuts were for a group of high school students that were coming over to the school to meet their pen pales

056their for third and fourth grade pen pales at Creekside there's a teacher an English teacher at the high school that coordinates this I believe her students or her children are students at Creekside and I got to tell you it was probably the highlight of my year uh my school year so far to be able to witness the interactions between these high schoolers and these kids that they've been writing letters since August probably at least a letter a month either way and um and to be able to meet the person in you know in person and interact with them it was the sweetest thing to see some of these kids just staring in awe at these big kids and these big kids devoting all their time and attention to the to the little kids and it

057was really it was a great experience for them I'm sure in mentoring and in learning how to interact and how to have a conversation and how to have eye contact and and I guess that the teacher the high school teacher she was bringing the students over they walk over from the high school she was telling them that you are the superstars you are the celebrities in the room so you have to you have to make the move because these kids are going to be a struck and it was it was pretty cool it was pretty cool to watch it all happen and watch it unfold so I was super thankful to be part of that um and I guess the last thing I just want to say is to our teachers and our staff and

058our administrators we're in the home stretch I know the countdown is on I've seen I've had conversations I've seen the Facebook posts I know you guys are are all on the countown down um just a few more days to go but thank you for all your hard work and for getting our kids through this is my first run with high school finals so it's a struggle I know the struggle is real so thank you for all that you do and happy holidays awesome Mr Keller all right thank you president gach wish everyone a Merry Christmas happy holidays as um as Kristen mentioned the clock kind of winding down so I'm sure everyone's looking forward to a nice long break a couple highlights for or creek the middle school um tomorrow actually there is a band

059performance going on in the High School auditorium at 6:30 there was some uh stem activities for seventh grade they were learning how to code and I don't even know what this is so I'm I got to do some more homework on my own here but Micro bit which was some um they had a competition in the battle arena and so they got to kind of take everything that they learned over the course of those those classes and kind of compete against each other there were some guitar and choir classes um performances last week so um highlight those we also wanted to congratulate the seventh and eighth grade basketball teams for their victories over um how last year or sorry last Wednesday and then tonight I do uh kind of to cut out early I was

060watching the eighth grade basketball team they were up on Brighton so I hope they hung in there I know it was a close game on the seventh grade but I think we are up by about 20 for the eighth grade so hopefully we'll uh split against Brighton also want to highlight the uh Quiz Bow team they had a actually a perfect match against Howell pinky Stockbridge and Milford both uh the blue and gold teams uh won all of their matches and then I guess last but not least want to acknowledge the uh the top three geography B finalists so in third place we had uh eighth grader Carson lemon in second place was William Palmer and then the the actual spelling be Champion was Joshua Campbell who is then now eligible to do a right

061in test to be a finalist for the national geography B so congratulations to everyone and again Happy Holidays thank you Mr ker Mr Costa uh so for my final board report I actually did write up a number of things um so first and foremost I want to start with uh I'd like to express my gratitude uh to the community for the opportunity to serve on this board for the last 10 years um it's essential to ackowledge all community members who contribute to the positive culture we've established here in Heartland uh as a board member I wholeheartedly support the values we uphold including reason respect and responsibility uh which EXT extend beyond our school walls so I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank several groups for their invaluable contributions to that um first I'd

062like to acknowledge all the individuals involved with haa including the athletes parents and coaches uh while winning is certainly important I believe it's equally vital to teach our young athletes how to win and lose with dignity and I can say as a teacher in South Lion um because my athletes are out here I've heard from numerous um students many that have competed against Heartland teams that Heartland teams consistently Express their their I guess polite I'm going off script but their their manners and their strong being and their sense of respect and they get that from the Heartland athletes so I appreciate the high team for doing that I'd also like to express my sincere gratitude to our partners at the chomain library uh their collaboration with our schools provided numerous valuable opportunities for our students

063Foster an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome and valued I'd also like to extend my appreciation to our bus drivers and transportation team their commitment extends Beyond transporting our students the take the time to recognize students by their name and greet them with a smile this demonstrates their genuine care for our students uh furthermore I'd like to acknowledge our custodial team their efforts to maintain clean and safe school facilities on a daily basis is greatly appreciated I'd also like to express my thanks to our cafeteria staff they consistently go above and beyond in their actions with the students remembering names and preferences your dedications to our students does not go unnoticed I'd also like to give my gratitude to our building administr ators and office staff your leadership sets a positive tone within our buildings

064which is recognized both the staff and students alike your commitment to instill values of Reason respect and responsibility is crucial in upholding the standards we strive for here in Heartland I'd also like to thank Chuck Hughes and his central office staff for their incredible dedication and commitment to our district we're fortunate to have such a competent team supporting our mission I'm especially grateful to the remarkable teaching staff here your dedication is commendable your understand that students well-being is just as vital as our academic success and you Foster a classroom environment that is safe and conducive to learning your ability inspire a love of learning and our students is exceptional uh lastly I'd like to extend my gratitude to our parents and students Hartland is indeed a wonderful Community for living and learning and your belief

065in our values of Reason respect and responsibility is what makes us a premier School District having served on the board the last 10 years I can assure you that we support the values we we value the support of our community has provided while many of the members have changed over the last 10 years our commitment to ensure that all students receive the best educational experience remains constant I take pride in advocating for the inherent Dignity of every individual within our community from staff to students my efforts to promote a safe and welcoming environment that respects diverse and Equitable perspectives have been unwavering in October I encouraged our community to thoroughly understand the lasa special special education millage and Schoolboard election and I appreciate the overwhelming support for the millage I also highlighted some disruptive behaviors

066witnessed in neighboring districts with new board members that were elected I believe it's important to reiterate these points as some of these tactic have been seen here in this boardroom spreading a misleading information regarding the district fostering a negative unsupportive attitude towards Public Schools failing to engage in Collaborative Learning constructive dialogue prioritizing personal agendas our best interests of the district demonstrating a lack of willingness to listen to diverse perspectives neglecting to utilize reliable sources from making decisions filling to uphold the best interest of student staff and family in the community regularly opposing District initiatives using procedural tactics to prolong discussions and attempting to stifle progress by hindering collaborative efforts so I want to thank the community for S supporting a board that's committed to moving in a positive direction and with that said several policies

067that were recently presented for discussion including those that were voted down as well as new policies that conflict with Harton's values tonight those policies will likely pass with the current board's composition however I believe our community seeks a board majority that's focused on collaboration instead of personal and political agendas I'm confident that in January the board's effort to restore reason respect and responsib responsibility will reinstated with an emphasis on prioritizing prioritizing our students needs so in conclusion Heartland is a wonderful Community our schools contribute significantly to the quality of life here and I am proud of Heartland schools for their dedication to our students and I look forward to seeing Heartland Consolidated Schools continue to be the premier District that it is in 2025 and for years to come thank you Mrs blundel sorry I

068didn't want you to have to inter that's okay thank you Mr Casa for uh 10 years of service um harland's better for it um so I didn't write anything down I told myself I just wanted to speak from the heart and I will I love this community I ran for school board because I love this community and there's been a lot of lot of turmoil since not necessarily because of me but some of the things that I'm trying to protect um for this community and for the students I ran because um ear on uh during Co I found that uh we were doing some things that I thought were excessive uh fast forward to today and we now know they were excessive um but my commitment has been to protect all students um there has

069been a narrative that's been creative that created that somehow I'm against teachers um this is far from the truth I've never uh ever called out a teacher I've never said that I wanted anybody fired I never never did anything like that I've been supportive when my my students were here I was very supportive I love this community and I love this this District which is why I ran um the idea that anybody does this for any kind of accolades or any kind of like uh anything other than dedication is wrong we are dedicated people everybody here I respect everybody on this board everyone's opinion matters um I think that if somebody says I have an agenda my agenda is Traditional Values and Truth and to protect all students when I when I was uh first

070on the board I was given an orientation and I was told that I can do as little as I want or as much as I want and that I have nothing to do with the day to day so that has been something that I was like okay I guess you know that's I'm only policy so my policies I I feel that have been important so I have focused on policy um I did take it to heart that um you know uh when everybody stood up here and said that teachers were saying negative stuff about me I took it to heart I did make me hide a little bit um but all in all I feel like i' I've stayed true to myself I've stayed True to this community I've stayed true to the students I

071have uh LED with integrity and um love because I do love this community as I said three times already and um I really hope that I have made a positive positive impact on this district there are so many amazing teachers Administration regardless if we've had rough times or not I respect every single one of you and I know that you have the students best interest at heart because we don't agree with stuff doesn't mean that it's you know horrible or that things can't get done um I think that there has been a big push from the federal side which is when I said education not indoctrination it wasn't about the teachers it was about the federal level and I will say that it's a little scary saying that out loud because who knows who's listening

072but there are a lot of things that teachers are made to do that don't include or that that take away from why they got into teaching which is to teach students Reading Writing math you know everything that that we want them to do they have been l a lot of stuff has been loed on to them I feel that they feel responsible for a lot of things that um Trail into uh a family's responsibility so every policy that I have implemented I've tried to relieve them of their feelings that they have to be everything to every student CU I don't think that's possible and I think that the parents of this community they trust you and they trust that they're dropping their children off in in a in a great school and I'm glad for

073that I want that I want that for this community um we are a Prem Premier school district and will remain a premier School District um tonight there will be some policies that are are being implemented um from from me that I submitted that I feel strongly about yeah when one of the speakers said they'll probably be turned over in January but I've provided the board with some with some food for thought about why our district is is being um you know put it put to task on certain things and it's not my agenda because like I said my agenda is Traditional Values and protecting this community um so I I think that um I just want to thank everybody that voted for me that that supports me and um I appreciate the the opportunity to

074uh be on this board it's been very important thank [Applause] you well I'm sorry guys I'm going to give a building report after those two uh reports so sorry to bring the tone back um I do want to thank continue to thank Chris and Michelle um you know I've had very uh very in-depth conversations with both of you regarding you name it a toz um and while sometimes we agree sometimes we don't agree I've always felt very respected by both of you um no matter what and so I think that that's important um and I appreciate your service and I think this community appreciates your service and um I'm sure we'll see you guys around town or maybe at a board meeting you guys want to come you want to come to the next board

075meeting all right I'm going to round us out with Village uh uh unlike these folks who go a couple times a week I'm at Village or a couple times a month I'm at Village a couple of times a week due to having a kiddo there um my last kid at Village uh but a couple of things that were pretty outstanding for Village this month is they hosted a craft fair so every year um around the same time in the winter they host a craft fair where actually students throughout the district get to to um sell their crafts and it's just really awesome it's awesome to see the engagement of these students um and you know some of them are little entrepreneurs and I think that that's just fantastic uh and thank you all for all

076of you that come out and support them particularly as it was on a snow day and so um those of you who who braved the snow to show these folks these students um that they are important thank you very much in addition uh Village had a successful Santa shop this past year um the PTO had to Pivot very quickly because we have no empty rooms at Village and so uh we used to be able to host a Santa shop in one of the rooms and so they did a the the kids at Village learned a little bit bit about about online shopping um could be good could be bad um hopefully they don't get access to their parents Amazon logins but um it was it was very successful and and again had to change it

077up very quickly but um the kids got to do some meaningful shopping for their for their families in addition uh candy grams went out and so that was a new thing for Village this year where parents um and family members could send their um student or a friend of a student a candy gram with a little note and a candy cane and so those went out I believe today um so that's pretty cool and always you know kids love getting little notes um that they're not expecting and certainly candy that they're not expecting uh so thank you to Mr wreck for addressing up as Santa today um and I heard I heard he also dressed up as the Grinch he may have been both both both in the same day he's he's uh he's a

078man of of many uh disguises and then they have spirit week this week so today was Grinch day um and so if you did see some grinches running around town they were likely Village kiddos aside from that I do uh want to thank the teachers the admin the staff everyone um you know I hope each of you gets to spend some time with your families gets to spend some time you know um doing what you enjoy I have to say that um this time of the year always gives me a very uh blessed reflection because I think there's a couple of things that some folks in our district don't have and some of those are as simple as a roof over their head and so if you go home to a warm house and food

079on your table you are certainly blessed if you go home to your health and your family and a um you know a full dinner table that's even better and so uh just think about those folks and keep them in your prayers um that might not get have that uh this holiday season and um we'll certainly embrace them and love them as they're still part of our district and do everything we can to make sure that they too receive a holiday um that they can be thankful for in that that closes out my committee and building [Music] report all right moving on to item one sorry 2 2 A 2526 High School curriculum guide I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the assistant superintendent of curriculum approves the 2025

08026 High School curriculum guide as presented support motion by Mrs Coleman supported by Mr Costa any discussion on the 2526 High School curriculum guide hearing none Mr Scott yes Mr galeski yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr kellerer yes Mr Costa yes Mrs blondal yes and I'm a yes that motion passes item 2 B revised policies and we'll just move one by one if everyone's okay with that [Music] I'd actually like to move to amend the proposed policy 1423 uh to include the change from 6 years to four years and any previous revisions be withdrawn support you're not amending the agenda you're amending the policy correct correct so great just take this oh sorry go ahead no I was just going to say I mean because I know we have in front of us these were the

081changes that you sent us last night uh with this I think this one was sent last night but there's another change later that came Friday right okay so this is the one where you can read it it's yours yeah so effectively for those in the audience or who may be listening there was some previous language that um included term limits so that language has been removed or withdrawn and instead there is a single change and where it currently reads members of the board shall be elected by the school electors for terms of six years that would be replaced by with terms of four years okay so so any other pre previous edits or modifications that were probably too late for the packet are I'm motioning to remove those edits and vote on the revised policy

082can I make a suggestion would you like to move to adopt the policy that is in front of us with these edits instead of yeah we I could we can do either so okay I think it would just be easier for documentation purposes Renee so since it was in the packet the other way I was trying to undo officially and then transition if we can make a motion to adopt this version um I think that that would just be cleaner for minutes so does anyone object to me referencing this version as December 15th version nope as present okay all right so then I move to adopt policy 01423 term as presented okay support motion by Mr Keller supported by Mr Scott this motion is to adopt the Z the policy 0142 do3 term as presented

083in front of you board what is the Russi oh I'm sorry go ahead I was just going to ask if I can give a little history on why this exists if it's worth it uh sure that's that's fine I just want to be sure that the public and everyone here knows what we're discussing go ahead okay all right so uh obviously uh this policy was changed uh um back when the state legislators uh created an opportunity for school districts to move from four years to six years uh school districts could uh at the time we were always 4-year uh we moved to a six-year because the concern was that every four years uh you had four members up or three members up so it was a major change uh so when you do the numbers

084right seven you know every every four years you've got four new turnover potential or three turnover potential the board adopted back when they adopted this policy to move to the state statute allowability of six years so that now you had a 322 so you weren't in a situation where you had as large a turnover of the board of education at least the potential turnover so that's just the history uh so that everybody understands why the board made that change when legislators allowed them to make that change thank you Mr Costa sorry I was just going to say I just don't understand the rationale from changing it from six to four it seems like if if Community member wants to commit six years to be up here I I think I think that's think that's within

085the right I'm just I don't know what is the reason Reon behind it well I guess you know for me I think the community you know should have the right to an earlier uh for lack of a better word leash on those of us that sit here and I think you know there's lots of other examples that currently exist today that two years or four years is kind of the the existing precedent so I think you know there's I don't see a lot of downside frankly to increasing or sorry decreasing it to four years and I think also one of the concerns when talking to some people about running for school board is the the fact that they're signing up for six years and I think it's a pretty long commitment for anyone to make

086and again I'm thankful for all of you that have made that commitment but I do think as a community we want to have an opportunity to attract as many people good people to potentially sit on this board as possible possible um so I think for me i' I'd like to uh make the change and you know hearing feedback about concerns I'm flattered that people want me to sit up here so long that I may break my hip someday but you know frankly uh I hope that doesn't happen to anyone by the way um but again you know it was I'll say based on the legal opinion that we received while it wasn't explicitly stated that we could it also wasn't explicit that we could not and so even if it wasn't um explicit that we

087could I I sort of viewed the term limits as our commitment to the community out there that you know we're not going to overstay our welcome but again in the spirit of trying to incorporate some of the feedback that we've received I felt the need to to remove that and and and instead look at a a four-year term instead of six I think that um and this is just informational um I do believe that all other districts in the county are four most of them I know how is Brighton is to Brighton is sorry how is six Brighton four follow bills four okay [Music] I think you're right about the the number of people that would run for the commitment right six years is a long time when you don't really know what you're getting

088into um being on the board for only two years I can say that it takes a little while to get your feet wet and then when you do you know you want to you know stay on so most of the time if if somebody's on for four years they've gotten their feet withd they're appreciating it they're enjoying it the community likes what they're doing they're going to go back and they're going to run for reelection and I think it's only fair to give the opportunity to the community um every four years in case somebody that they're not interested in their policies they want to change it out give it back the so and if somebody's doing a good job in four years they'll get reelected right so as as the most recent person here to

089to make this decision and um and to be on the board I absolutely support the four-year term a couple different reasons number one this board has seen tremendous turnover from people dropping off and having to do midterm appointments I'm filling in uh for a midterm appointment uh truste blond deal is a lot of the people sitting up here I think were appointed to the board when somebody dropped off so yes 6 years is a long time it's hard to know what you're going to be doing where you're going to be 6 years from now and that has definitely impacted this board tremend tremendously over the last 10 years um I I think how does anybody know how many trustees we've appointed in the last 10 years I would guess the over under is probably at

090five or six so tremendous tremendous turnover which I which I think uh is a disservice to the community because uh that takes the decision making away from the people in this room and the people in this community and puts it with the people at this table and and I'm am all about anything that's going to put power back to the parents and to the community members so I think that is absolutely number one number two as several people have mentioned attracting new talent I I'll tell you what I I made the decision to run about a year ago almost exactly and I talked to a lot of people I did not want to run I did not want to sit up here and when I talk to people and try to convince them to run

091and and they ask how long the tournament is and you say 6 years they're done they're out turn away stop listening that is a long initial commitment for somebody who doesn't know what they're getting into what the time commitment is and I think that's part of the reason we've seen so much of that unnecessary turnover so um and then third is just the fact that by giving the public more opportunities to vote on trustees we are giving them a bigger say in what happens at this table and so that means when a board member gets elected they're not just uh beholden to the public 5 years later that means it's in the Public's mind every day when they're up here making decisions and it gives a lot more power to the community and as I've

092said I definitely support that so I don't see any downside to going to four-year terms I do want to be sure the community understands just a key point in this term or in this policy that this would go into effect for 2026 election so this would not be um something that's a a current um implication it would be a 2026 uh implication so just so that the public and right everyone is aware I guess um I just wanted to add that um I though I I hear what you're saying in six years yeah it's daunted um but I appreciate the continuity and the consistency of having people up here and more overlap of those terms as Chuck was explaining the 322 versus in four years you've got four people that turn over or potentially turn

093over um and appointing yes absolutely appointing is the board's decision but you only hold that seat until you're elected to keep it in the next general election so the so the public the community does still have have that in your words power to to elect that person to keep the seat so the the public still has that say you still have to vote them in um to be able to keep that seat um so I those those are my concerns primarily the continuity is is a concern for me well for me it's the fact that six years is a long time and there's a potential to get stuck with somebody up here in for six years years that does absolutely nothing so that's a big concern and I think the four-year term would be enough

094to weed out those that maybe don't do their due diligence or just shake their head all the time so I think it's a good uh a good way to keep uh the board fresh and honest any further discussion hearing none Mr Scott yes Mr goleski yes Mrs Coleman no Mr Keller yes Mr Costa no Mrs blondel yes and I'm a yes that motion passes moving on all right so I'm going to try this again so policy 0142 I move to amend policy 01427 to withdraw the item G which was the key card access to all the district buildings and instead add a note um below the section F uh which was superintendent will notify all administrative Personnel staff and Security in each School building that the new board members are to be granted access and

095entry into any building at any time during the use of that building this level of access shall be applied to all current board members I know that was a mouthful I think Mr galeski uh if I'm not mistaken emailed that out yes I just I I emailed that out um yesterday and um definitely to remove the uh key card access um that was something that uh I think could could be changed and has a lot of serious uh um security implications can we stay with the motion real quick the motion's on the table and the motion will need to be supported before we discuss okay oh I support motion by Mr Keller I'm not going to repeat that motion um it'll be the policy 01427 as Pres presented for the public that is the removal

096of item G and then addition of um the paragraph inid which Mr Keller stated and that motion was supported by Mrs bondil you guys are testing me today do Glen that that was the version we got last night yes yes but um there's also uh an additional uh uh three lines that that have been uh uh put on here by Mrs gach which I think are a very good addition are those three lines are are those three lines incl in this version here oh no um those say all board members must complete the background check referenced above and are required to take the Michigan Association of school board orientation course CBA 101 or equivalent within 60 days of taking office each new board member shall be invited to meet with the board president superintendent business

097manager um the board shall encourage attendance of each new board member at orientation and training meetings was it this was added by um Mrs that was okay my addition didn't make it in there it was the superintendent evaluation tool training okay um which I think is probably a crucial part to this policy no matter what the tool shall be today or in the future okay I personally don't think the the language of saying that a board member can have like immediate access to a building is UN necessary or appropriate I think uh skirting around masb training for your option I don't think is appropriate so I for one am not in favor of these changes as much as I hate to propose another change to the verbage can we do all the changes at once

098I know right um and I don't I don't know what the way right way is to do this um but could that statement read um required to take the Michigan Association of school boards Ori ient ation course CBA 101 and potentially something else and an equivalent but at least give all board members one common based and then take any other course that you choose but at least give everybody something consistent so that we're all starting from the same page I think that's a good compromise I mean we all had to take the training snoozer but we did it and then maybe that's where we add um an additional sentence that could indicate in addition [Music] to all board members must complete superintendent evaluation tool training within 60 days of taking taking office how can we

099integrate that into that first par so that we're not saying within 60 days twice is the superintendent evaluation training available as a on demand training tool so I think we had to sign up for it there specific times so the 60 days may be difficult like in my case I started November and I think I'm scheduled to take it in February whereas the orientation you can do on demand they don't offer a class every 60 days I don't believe on the superintendent evaluation okay no would we want to worded that um uh or at the next offering kind of all board members must complete superintendent evaluation tool training as soon as possible as soon as possible and prior to evaluating the superintendent yeah it's fair sure uh did I just say as soon as possible

100so if somebody were to be sorry no I'm just talking this out so if someone were to be appointed to the board in June they and there was no training class they would be prohibited from taking part in the evaluation I is that legal I would think masb I think if you reach out to them they they would have to provide us with some type of training like I I've never dealt with MSB saying no to anything really well when we had our uh superintendent um evaluation training they were very specific about only offering it once uh a month like in a thre month window um we're going to have to make some concession there for whenever they offer it again so uh to answer Jeff's question however if if you don't mind is state

101law State Statute does require that you do have to take the training before you can evaluate and and I certainly would argue that if you're a brand new board member in June and the evaluation is in June it may not be pertinent to have that particular person involved in the evaluation anyway but that's here nor there right so it doesn't have to be 60 days just has to be prior to performing the evaluation there you go prior to participation in review okay so I'm gonna uh write this I'm gonna read this all out uh hold just give me a second okay before we motion I'm going to read it out to make sure everyone is on the same page all board members must complete the background check referenced above and are required to take the

102Michigan Association of school boards orientation course CBA 101 and can choose to take an equivalent within 60 days of taking office all board members must complete superintendent evaluation training as soon as possible or prior to EV to evaluating the superintendent I would say and has to be prior to you said or prior like it's because it's if it's a law then or I mean if it's something that we have to adhere to say must and has and must must occur prior to evaluating the superintendent okay let me read that again all board members must complete superintendent evaluation training as soon as possible and must um and this must occur prior to evaluating the superintendent I think so say that 10 times fast um Glenn I don't have your email can you read your addition sure

103here you go oh which part is this one I just passed her the printed version of the policy yeah but I I read it but I didn't memorize it [Music] yeah sure can I ask a question real quick just for clarification for administrators um so the Glenn I'm assuming Glenn yours was the superintendent will notify all administrative Personnel staff and security is that the one we're talking about yes uh in each school and building that the new board members are to be granted access and entry into any building at any time during the use of that building this level access shall apply to all current board members uh as administrators I sure I'm speaking for everybody um shouldn't there be something in there says you know then you report to the building principal or you

104sign in and and talk with the building principal uh because I think one of the concerns is just coming in and walking around willy-nilly uh creates its own um uh anxiety for everybody right so it seems like when I go into the building I always go and visit with the building principal first right like that's what I always do it would be nice if we could capture something like that so that staff isn't feeling like sta uh board members are just coming in the front door checking in and just going wherever that's that's my I think would be much more palatable to our staff and our building administrators I have no problem checking in with the security of the building I think this sends a bad message uh to our principles and our teachers I

105don't understand why this language is even in here if if I want to visit a building I call up the phone I talk to the principal and say hey I'd like to come in I set up a time and I go there so I I don't I don't I don't understand why this language is here and unfortunately because it's here I I I'm not in favor of voting on this revisions because I think the other revisions we just had conversation about are great but this in my opinion sends the wrong message well there may be a time where I want to enter a building because there may be an incident going on I may get an email from a parent if I'm available I'd like to go check it out so that's that's why so

106that I think opens a whole different can of worms that we have to be very careful about because we are an appeal body and I want to be very clear about that so if we start going in to evaluate incidences that could make it to us from an appeal standpoint particular particularly an expulsion uh you name it I think that that it's a conflict of interest if if we're now if people are now now responding to that that includes staff um discipline that includes the staff process if if someone calls you and says hey there's this concern and you want to go check it out yourself and you're now intimately involved in that then the the question will be whether or not you would have to remove yourself if that discipline issue meets uh moves

107itself through the system through to the board so I would you know highly suggest again that that if you have a concern yes fine come into the building but meet with the building principal have the conversation with building principal if you want to walk around with the building principal I think that's fine but just to come in I think it's putting yourself in a really bad situation and it's putting our staff in a bad situation from the anxiety level of what's going on I think I would like to add um regarding the anxiety level is that um particularly in the lower level grades um those kids don't know who we are they don't they don't know you from any other stranger they don't in fact some of the the teachers probably wouldn't recognize Us by

108face especially if they're seeing us on YouTube it's not a close-up Zoom of our faces right so they're not going to know who we are we walk into a building we're not escorted and there's kids like who's the stranger in the building to me that that raises that raises a huge flag it's it's a a concern I think for many of the parents many of them that we received emails from it's a concern for me I mean my kids probably know who some of you are but still to see some strange person walking in the building to show up unannounced and start strolling through I mean that that raises that raises big concerns for me so I guess the suggestion is is to submit the change that you you can come in unannounced but you

109go straight to the principal I think the purpose I I don't know if you misspoke but when you and I talked about this you know in our field I can't stop the president from walking into my office and at any time he wants I would never tell him not to come in my office if he wanted to look at something on my desk I you know I generally don't stop him I think the idea that you were saying is that you if we if we're to understand what goes on in the schools it it can't just be you know all orchestrated before we get there CU then you don't see the real the real school day right is that what you were trying to say is the real school day like you can go in

110and you can say hi principal I'm here can you show me around is that something that they would accept I think that's more of what you're talking about not like if there's an incident we're going to run in there and what going on right like nobody wants to do that do no well no one no one here on the board is going to be that available to Simply right and that's why simply attend any incident that that happens it's going to be well after the fact yeah I think it's just a little bit of a surprise visit that you would want to you know see the daily happenings when it's it's not orchestrated or planned right is that what you're saying right okay yeah so that's different right so it would be go to the

111principal can we change it and say go to the principal and announce yourself at least at that point and say do you have the opportunity to that's that's fine I have I have no problem um checking in either with security or the principal that's fine that's I think a given I don't think I should have to make an appointment and wait no and we're talking School business hours correct I would say right School business hours and even when there's other activities going on after hours if there's a science fair if there's a you know a public event with parents and things like that robotics competition yeah I think with that the building are generally open right so I don't I'm not as worried about that but let's think about verbage cuz I want to tack

112verbage with the principal upon upon arrival you D you go to the principal if the principal's not available you can go to the security guard and ask the security guard to yeah show you around or or top Administration and security yeah yeah make it known no one's asking to just walk in barge in and and Barge in into a classroom or anything like that that's not the point the point is to see the actual operations of the school as they actually happen so is it is it fair to say that I just heard you say that you're okay with being escorted around the building or are you advocating that you want to build a check in and just go around the building on your own and do what you want to do um I'm not

113asking for an escort no okay what that's what we're asking for as administrators and this is what we're talking about by checking in with the building principal and saying hey you know I'm here I had some time I'm in here to see you and the building principal can say yeah sure let's walk around that's one thing or but just coming in and saying hello security I'm here and going and just doing your thing well I'd be willing to walk with security that's not comfortable to our staff is what I'm saying and I I hope you're hearing me that that's not a comfortable setting for our staff and it's not a comfortable setting for our building principles well um as Michelle said I I I'm finding it hard to think of another example where somebody at

114a company tells the president no you can't come into my cubicle or you can't come into my area I no I'm I'm but I also have to remind the board Chris I want to remind the board as as a board at this meeting you are doing business as the board yeah as an individual coming into a building you are not the board you are an individual and I think there's a there is a whether you believe in that or not the reality is as an individual you are an individual you are not representing the board Mr Hughes I just have to interrupt I apologize so I I mean I feel we should get ready to vote on this but let's make this clear we as a board we we are Mr Hughes Mr hughes's Boss

115I'm not a principal's boss I'm not a teacher's boss I don't need a gotcha moment with any staff member to be honest if I wanted to show up and talk to Mr Hughes and I didn't make an appointment I would hope he's in his office not with his feet up and he's working it's one thing for me to show up at the central office and say hey Chuck sorry I didn't call I need to talk to you about something urgent it's a completely different matter to think we have free reign to go into our schools without not find administrators and then decide that we have the right to walk around it it's it's insulting it's insulting I and I have no more comments on it I do think it's important to note during this discussion

116point that our administrators did have a U and by administrators I mean our building principles not just Central admin did have an opportunity to weigh in on these policies and so I want to be sure that that is taken into consideration that it wasn't it's not just Chuck saying this they actually read through the the policies provided feedback so on and so forth so I want to be sure everyone's aware of that and I also just wanted to point out that yeah you you you and Michelle um Glenn and Michelle you make a good point right you can't tell the president no you're not going to come and see me but you also don't have 30 minors sitting in their office with you you're you are not in charge of the the the well-being and

117the education of minors while a random adult comes walking into your room so to me it's kind of apples and or es it's not quite the same setting to be able to say well I can't tell my boss not to show up um it it's a it's a different setting different set of rules if you ask me so I I tend to agree with the idea that I don't think anybody wants to walk into a school so let's write down what the situation is that would be you you if you did not make an appointment that you go and you first address you know you you go to the principal if the principal is not available if there's somebody you want to see the security guard so you you I think it is important in

118the younger schools to have somebody that they're familiar with instead of just walking around because I know that like kids get to know other kids' parents they see people come through right like it it could be something that would would bother them I could I could understand that so maybe we say you you can show up unannounced but you have to go directly to the principal if the principal's not available then the security guard are you is that something that and then are you suggesting that individual will escort you around the building I think so yeah because they're familiar with the security guard they're SEC familiar with the with the absolutely yeah I mean and that would that would help enable the ability to see the workings of the day un you know unannounced yeah

119right okay I'm going to write it down and then I'll read one moment while while uh the president is writing that down I have a question because I because I don't have a building yet and have not done a building visit as a board member maybe someone could walk us through what that process looks like when you do a board member visit to an assigned building me and them those are usually scheduled ahead of time so um but are they are they um like monthly but are they you checking in the office is are is the principal escorting you through the building for those or a security guard or I think I've done a little bit of a couple of things sometimes it's just a meeting between the principal and I where we go through

120you know what's going well what what they need help with or other things um if there's something cool going on or there's artwork in the hallway or something they want to show off and they'll walk me to whatever that area is um but it's generally a pretty structured kind of thing and not necessarily me just kind of walking around it's usually a meeting either before and after and then they'll often times show us what's going on in stem or something like that and they alert the staff right they say school board members coming and I believe I think they did daddy did that you make an appointment and your letter it's similar for me I have a a standing appointment on the you know third Tuesday of the month whatever so um I go in

121directly to the office usually sit down for a meeting with the principal for a while and like Megan was saying it's like if there's something specific they want me to see like the last visit to Creekside I got to see the reader or the pen pals um interact whatever but typically it's a it's a tour of the building stopping in seeing what the classrooms are doing um but always escorted and it usually lasts about an hour yeah I guess I wanted to kind of say something I think comment was made about Miners and concern for safety I I I find it a little bit odd I mean I think as a board our number one goal probably every single one of you on your campaign pledge is one of the top things was safety so

122I think the fact that there's minors in there I I don't understand I guess the relevance of that I think you know if you ask the board of education at Oxford for example do they who's who's the first place that people are going to come if there's a safety incident it's the board right so I I think the the concern over student safety with respect to board members I I guess I'm not kind of making that connection at all um and I guess for me personally I know I'm reminded several times that as myself Greg Keller I am just a member of the community um but up here I'm you know a board I act as the board so I'm not understanding then if I'm just me when I go into the building I don't

123understand why it becomes an issue for me walking in the building as a board member if I'm by myself and not acting as a board so again I don't don't quite understand that and frankly we all here are representing everyone out there so if you're telling me that I can't come in you're not telling me Greg Keller that I can't come in you're telling everybody out there that I can't come in and I don't understand why that should be a concern I I agree that we should have some protocol and some structure I don't have an issue with that but I think you know I guess I'm kind of Blown Away that people wouldn't want those that represent you to go in those that make has to bully anybody to get in the door we

124can do it we can be respectful I I just again I appreciate everyone's input I but I respectfully submit that many of these concerns are unwarranted and especially for those of us who are making decisions about the schools about what what they're doing what they what they need um improve improvements buildings things like that um I would expect a board member to have that knowledge or to have that ability to to do that level of investigation with an escort and that's what I'm that's that's the point at the end of the day what we're asking for is there's an escort let me read what I have put together from all of the the things superintendent will notify all administrative Personnel staff and Security in each school and building that the new board members are to

125be granted access and entry into any building at any time during the use of that building the board member will check in with the principal or security guard upon arrival and will be escorted throughout the building to be and and will be escorted throughout the building no I mean and this it was principle and security no no well so here's the problem like uh not all of so like high school yes there's security guard right there but when you were to go into an elementary school for example you do your Raptor thing or whatever you have your check in but this the how could we do an end there okay I'm good with without the and but I think we have to require principal you have to okay but you said or so that means

126they could check in with one or the other oh I understand um it's if the principal is not available yes the principal will be available if we made an appointment like I'm struggling with what's happening here like do this gotcha thing is it's it it's where do you get off saying it's a gotcha moment Chris it's not about a gotcha into one at a time thank you the board member will check in with the principal upon arrival if the principal is not available the board member will check in with the security guard and will be escorted through the building does that make sense yeah okay can I just make one uh note it says um new board members well I don't I think it should say board members I think news should be dropped just

127board members doesn't need to say this is an orientation policy but it also applies to all board members in regards to the visitation of the buildings and then we could it erase that last sentence everyone in one of the versions there was a line that said this yeah this level of access shall be shall apply to all current board members but if we X new and just keep it board members then we can X out that last paragraph do you guys need me to read all of the changes again pleas [Music] the superintendent will notify all administrative Personnel staff and Security in each school and building that board members are to be granted access and entry into any building at any time during the use of that building the board member will check in with

128the principal upon arrival if the principal is not available the board member shall check in with the building security guard and will be escorted throughout the building all board members must complete the background check referenced above and are required to take the Michigan Association of school board's orientation course CBA 101 and can choose to take an equivalent an equivalent take an additional equivalent course within 60 days of taking office all board members must complete superintend end evaluation training as soon as possible and this must be must occur prior to the evaluation of the superintendent any questions on those changes from my chicken scratch does somebody need to move to make that the official motion yeah do you want to I know you wanted to drop your first motion so just to offici close that I

129will withdraw my previous motion would someone like to make a motion uh with the addended changes as presented in my reading I motion that we make the changes as read by Mrs gck support motion by Mr galeski clarification that say 014 2.7 orientation that is supported by Mr Keller any additional discussion hearing none Renee I will write this all out for you because it is chicken scratch just FYI perfect Mr Scott yes Mr goleski yes Mrs Coleman no Mr Kelly yes Mr Costa nope Mrs blondal yes and I'm a yes that motion passes okay on to the next one [Music] I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of Greg Keller adops revised policy 01642 special meetings and resend policy 01653 special meetings as presented support motion by Mr Keller supported by Mr

130Scott any discussion uh I I don't see why would we go from the majority of the board to call special meeting to two members it doesn't seem sense to me I will be voting now the very first uh one of the very first items in our first board meeting that um Greg and I were in this was one of the subjects it was for the longest time two board members all of a sudden in the January in which we had Greg Michelle and myself there was a change made to four um if it was two before what's the problem with having two now um I had met with um Mr Keller to suggest additional link this policy that includes language surrounding the special meetings will be reserved for emergencies or to conduct business that is

131immediately impacting the delivery of Education within our district um I don't think we should be calling special meetings just to call special meetings when's the last time a special meeting was called I don't know I've never called one right so we're I I my point being is I high doubt that that that will be abused but when we write policy Glenn it could not be us up here you know what I mean right and so that's why I requested that that verbage be included but it was not included in what was presented to the board no I I have no problem with your addition having having spent some time significant time reviewing the open meetings act and some uh some of what comes on on with that I I think our current policy probably is

132a violation of that to have four board members having any discussion outside of this table about board business is in itself a violation of the open meetings act so um you know maybe I I I don't think it was appropriate to make that decision and I think it needs to be reversed to uh to as stated so I fully support this I don't think that I've seen the um proposed verbiage that you sent to Greg to add to this is that is that something that we can consider adding to this now if we're changing the policy once can we change it just one time that would be great do you have that I don't have your language Mrs leok sorry I did write it give me one moment I think you know just for the

133public there was really no we had a good conversations about adding some of those additional items I think intent was just to change it from two to four and everything that currently didn't did or did not exist uh wasn't changed so again it wasn't I think what um Mrs gach is proposing is certainly worthwhile to consider and I would entertain a motion to amend [Music] the verbiage that I'm requesting to provide is a special meeting is only to occur to conduct emergency business or discuss immediate concerns affecting delivery of Education in the district with all due respect isn't that a matter of opinion an emergency in my case might be not an emergency in someone else's case I just I I understand you you're wanting to add that verbage but I I I I I

134don't I don't see how that's going to hold one or two people for not calling a meeting an emergency meeting for any reason whatsoever I mean I know you say it's an emergency but I know just my opinion well I think at the end of the day a meeting is a a meeting there may or may not be a decision made right so it's it's still going to be on the board to make a decision in that meeting so I guess I don't understand the the concern again I think it will would potentially have you know allow more dialogue with this board which I think we've talked in the past is beneficial I think we still need a quorum so like even if um someone say in the future where to be you know get

135wild and call an emergency meeting you still got to coordinate a quorum right correct yep and I think you know with the current language you know frankly I don't know how it's physically possible to ever call a special meeting because you can't have a meeting to call it I think you would have to have do it like again you're right I don't know Greg but you can't make decisions remember so how do you call I think you'd have to do right now like I would think I'd have to say You' have to schedule a special meeting of an emergency that you don't know that's coming no like now I could say I'd like to make a motion to had a special meeting concerning whatever someone would have to second that and then because two of

136us have agreed to it like in this public setting we'd have to you'd have to make that motion that's my understand of it because you're right it would take four and that means we're putting the district in a position where the board can at some points not act for 30 days in a case of a catastrophe or an emergency you have to do it up here you'd have to say I'd like to call for a special meeting regarding whatever right but if if tomorrow there was a catastrophe emergency in the district the board would not be able to meet again till mid January so we would be prohibited from calling any special meetings for the next 30 days it does Happ by the president though so Mrs glabach deemed some emergency she could she could

137call for a special meeting so we do we do entrust her with that power I think you still have to have a quorum so I'm just going to throw an example out there say again someone were to get crazy and try to call a special meeting for something that's not an emergency when we try to get availability for a quorum that quorum's going to say yeah no what what are we doing here exactly so I don't know that we'll ever B you know what I'm saying and if and if a quorum doesn't show up at the table the meeting doesn't happen then you could have one crazy individual sitting here by their Lonesome or two I guess the two my guests would show up I understand the Oma concern around majority I actually really do

138I think it was implied it's not written but I think and again we've never called a special meeting so I can't really tell you but I think it was implied that it would have been individual discussions but the way it is written I understand what that risk is any further discussion on 01 64.2 are you adding that langu then that's my next comment my brain is just um not functioning as quickly as it normally does um I would like to move to amend this policy that we're voting on to include verbiage after the first sentence that includes special meetings are only to occur to conduct emergency business or discuss immediate concerns affecting the delivery of Education in the district I support your motion okay I made a motion Megan gach supported by Mrs Coleman any

139discussion on the amended motion I agree with the trustee Costa that it's uh subjective so I don't I I would not be in favor of of modifying that language we are going to um Robert and his rules what what language are you talking about the specifying the motion was made to modify this to add the language of emergency only which I I agree with with Mr cus is subjective and unnecessary so I'm in favor of the original okay so let's take the amended motion first and then I guess we'll go back to the original motion so we're voting whether or not to amend the motion before we vote on the motion okay Mr Scott no Mr goleski no mistress Coleman yes Mr Keller yes Mr Costa no Mrs bondal yes I'm also a yes and

140that motion passes I would like to move that we remove the original motion and that the current motion on the table is 016 4.2 special meetings as amended motion by me Megan gach supported by Mrs blondel as amended Mr Scott yes Mr goleski yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Keller yes Mr Costa no Mr Mrs blondal yes and I'm a yes that motion passes I'm going to have nightmares of Robert darn Rules of Order and I'm I probably made a mistake tonight I will admit it to the public in this Robert's Rules thing so feel free to call me afterwards we're doing our best before we move to the next one can I just ask a point of clarification um I believe the the verbiage from 01 65.3 special meetings was included in the new version

141of 01 64.2 do we need to address taking this one out completely let's do it separate so it's clear for the minutes do you want to make a motion to eliminate this policy yeah I will um move to abolish policy z 01653 i special meetings motion by Mr Keller supported by Mr goleski for transparency this 01653 special meetings was kind of like a duplicate policy and so it creates special meetings uh guard rails all under one policy any discussion hearing none Mr Scott yes Mr gogus yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr kellerer yes Mr Costa yes and I'm a yes that motion passes Mr blond deal is not here there's a majority anyways y okay all right keep it going all right I'm going to try to make this one a little simpler so I will

142move to amend rev Revis policy 0673 to the as to the version as presented December 13th and and just to clarify the December 13th version is what's printed in front of us correct okay does Mr Keller have support on his motion yes so Greg this is the one like the revisions came out after the packet that's the yellow one we're looking at this this one okay so in addition to the proposed changes I also kind of marked up an example of what could be utilized for the call the public [Applause] card if you'd like I can kind of again highlight some of the changes so section B um it would it would change the time to turn in the card up to the start of called to public the the previous version that um was

143in the packet uh allowed turning in the card all the way to the end of call to public but based on some feedback the proposing change it to the start of call to public also to try to maintain a sense of order L card turn in I added some language that you know you turn the card into the recording secretary as opposed to kind of walking up here as you know at you know any moment um tell them who that person is uh the recording secretary that's Renee for the for the public yes sorry know it would be over there and I think there's one other section D that we had some language that said um participants participants must first be recognized by the presiding officer and we'll be requested to preface their comments by

144announcement of their name and I eliminated address and group affiliation if and when appropriate just to align the policy with what I am proposing for the call the public card which to sort of anonymize and make the public more comfortable potentially with speaking at called public just eliminate the address and instead you fill out your name and again as long as you turn it in prior to the start of call the public could address any concerns that people have for coming in late um or any other reason for not being able to get the card in by 6:30 start this motion was placed on the table by Mr Keller supported by Mr goleski the version that we're voting on is 01 67.3 12624 the version in front of you with a highlighted area just for

145everyone's Clarity I think taking the Public's oh I'm sorry I was going to say I appreciate Mr Keller taking the Public's feedback into thinking about not having these cards being turned in continuously throughout is is good so I I think I think as it sits it looks good I think it makes sense of people people are running a little late I don't see why but I'd like the idea that you listened because we had dozens of emails about people concerned about this turning into someone up and running in turning in a card and then another one turning in a card which is really not what that's for so I think the changes are good my biggest concern and I it's covered in this is making sure that the public has a chance to to register

146to speak until at least the agenda is solidified because I know that's been my concern as a member of the public is you get the agenda and you think you know whether you want to say something or not and then the agenda changes and you're sitting there angry pound in your fist because you didn't didn't register to speak and I know there's been some people that register to speak even if they don't know specifically what they want to say because they're afraid of what the agenda might change it changed tonight it changed last month uh it changes quite frequently so I would definitely support this I kind of so I overarching I like the revisions I also like the revisions to the card um and I'm willing to give it a try I get very

147uncomfortable at a lot of movement around the room and it's not in a meeting like this where you can pretty much see everyone it's more so our packed meetings and trying to and it's my own internal safety mechanism of trying to monitor kind of the room um and that would would be my only concern thank you for listening to my feedback because I did have feedback around people are presenting particularly our schools are presenting and people are coming up to me to hand in the card it's very disruptive it interrupts their you know performance presentation whatever they're doing up here and so I um I appreciate you taking that into consideration any additional discussion on 01 7.3 version December 16th 2024 hearing none Mr Scott yes Mr galeski yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Keller yes

148Mr Costa yes Mrs blondal yes I'm a yes that motion passes [Applause] I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of Greg Keller adopts revised policy 1220 employment of the superintendent as presented motion by Mr K supported by Mrs blondal discussion so I know that in in the past we've always had sorry we've always had uh contracts for three years and um you know I'm not I understand that we need to keep a superintendent um because it's important for the stability of the school um but then again I'm also not somebody that would give somebody a long-term contract I don't care who you are because things change and fiveyear contracts are are pretty long term so um I think three is appropriate I requested some consideration of additional verbiage um in subsequent years

149uh determin uh based on Market forces to retain an individual so some some verbiage along the lines that um you know in subsequent years that we would consider a longer term contract if we were trying to retain an individual and I was just requesting that the language be flexible in that um I think I'm 100% in agreeance about an initial term but if Market forces um are you know say throughout the state or throughout the district driving five-year terms or five-year contracts for superintendent for example to retain an individual does the board want that flexibility in subsequent years so subsequent renewals the way it's written it doesn't say we have to give them a five-year contract it says no more than five and I again I'm I know we've talked about it at length we

150always compare ourselves to Brighton and Brighton gave Dr Outlaw a 5year one and again this you want to maintain stability students love stability districts love stability and I don't see why we'd like you said put ourselves in this threeyear when it says no more than five so we don't we don't have to give an incoming superintendent a 5-year contract give him a four or could be a three it it'd be up to that board that sits up here so depending on the board because you know mo over and completely on a change Direction with the superintendent and if the previous board votes in for somebody in for five years him or her um they're kind of stuck with that person or they have to buy them out or something you know the language says shall

151be vacant so vacant word IND Ates to me I guess initial because it's not talking about an encumbered individual but I guess I um since we now have four-year terms I have an issue with a a board we talked about now the board can swing 4 or3 every few years every two years um and then a board could simply put a 5-year contract in 60 days before an election and that literally means that those elected officials have absolutely no say with the employment of the superintendent and it's pretty much what happened this year so um I would definitely support the three-year term as as president gach said if if we have a situation where you know we think hey we're going to lose this superintendent if we don't give him 5-year term the board could

152certainly come vote to change the policy I think that's they have to you know answer to the constituents and to each other about why that would be necessary in those extenda circumstances and and whether it would be worth it or not I guess fundamentally I I don't understand I I appreciate the comments and concerns over stability but when your practice is an annual review to assess the performance of an individual and then your continually or perpetually adding the Year back it doesn't mean that after three years that this person is going away it just you know to be blunt it reduces the size of the golden parachute and for me I'm looking at it from a taxpayer perspective that things change and sometimes boards want to move on and and now we've basically just committed

153a a big you know sum of money to an individual that I think you know you know is not prudent frankly and so again given our our practice of continually renewing you know the the superintendent's contract year-over year I I don't understand why we need it to be longer and in fact I would make the case that you would actually want to go shorter if you're always adding a year I'm not proposing that in this case but I I I guess I don't see the need for anything more than 3 years but I again if there was a need for whatever reason because we can't predict the future you know as the board just voted we could have a special meeting and change the policy I believe it was three years until mid 2022 I

154believe it was right before uh some certain individuals announced they were running that the board changed the terms and awarded a longer contract to the superintendent well it does know it shall be vacant so this tells me that this policy is only if shall be vacant I know I agree with what Megan saying the way you read it so does say vacant so I think Greg your point is is to make it um not not three like three consecutive years right not a rolling three years is that what you're trying to clarify like instead of every year we renew it for three years right so it's always a three-year contract no matter what there's never a two-year contract there's never a one-year contract it's it's always three is that what your correct well again there

155there's it's one changing one two words in here it's from three to five so there's no other changes in the policy other than as I mentioned going from three-year term to a five-year term and and so as we talked about you're always either depending if you're at the beginning of the year or the end of the year it's either two years or three years so again I I don't see the stability concern so would this allow the hiring of a superintendent for 3 years and then immediately giving them an additional two years or at their one-ear Mark give them or they would always they could never go above three years correct correct and I think in conjunction with the next policy I think if you take them take together that's I think where we cover

156some of your concerns I mean I agree that when you're and you're if you're hiring somebody because it's vacant and you don't know much about them but I guess Megan I understand your point it depends on what you're offering because it is a package yeah it could be a negotiation Factor too well if we have 1220 on the docket of discussion right now this is talking about a vacancy so I'm this is fine with me I guess my comments would come with 12:41 any further discussion on 1220 hearing none Mr Scott yes Mr goaly yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Keller yes Mr Costa yes Mrs blondal yes and I'm a yes that motion passes I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of Greg Keller adopts revised policy 1241 non Reemployment of the

157superintendent as [Music] presented support motion by Mr Keller supported by Mr Scott on 1241 non Reemployment of the superintendent as presented so to clarify this would be the one that would be referencing the current superintendent where this would lock him into an incumbent yeah any in into a three-year contract and no more okay correct and I think the additional factors that come into play here are is the addition of the extension cannot be within 6 months of an election or two months after again in the interest of the taxpayer to protect from you know a contract that gets executed prior to maybe an outgoing board but does this put us in a bind if there's a vacancy no because the last sentence says this subsection does not prohibit the board from employing an interim Superintendent

158at any time if there's a vacancy so if there was a vacancy within six months we would employ an interim superintendent and we feel like we can take that to Market I think that that's concerning I agree Mrs glak because this is language designed for the state superintendent and we have gone down this road before U where this is not a state superintendent position this is a local position so I agree with you I I don't read it that way I read it as if if there's a vacancy it's 1220 is the policy if it's uh current superintendent then 12 41 is the policy so if we need to have some clarification language in 1241 that would be fine I think I the way it reads today I can't support that I think that to

159have an interm superintendent for six months so we do need to clarify that if it's that's the direction the board wants to go in addition um I guess my comments are for this policy as opposed to the other one but offering that flexibility depending on Market forces um is my request so Mrs gach if we incorporated your concern would if we removed the word interum does that address your concern so it would read this sub subsection does not prohibit the board from employing a superintendent at any time there is a vacancy that addresses that concern yes how can you say that when the same sentence you talk about you can't hire one within six months of a general election like within the same paragraph it says that yes so it says the board shall not

160offer a contract to a person as superintendent so um we would have to read something like this policy does not of the limitations of binding this policy to a vacancy kind of contraindicates itself I think that's the point of this policy the point of this policy is to not hire a superintendent within six months of prior to a general election correct it's not intended necessarily to not hire one it's intended to not extend change a contract from 3 years to 5 years 2 months before an outgoing board exists right then I think we need to consider like I think there's some changes that need to occur in order to operationalize what you're saying Greg so should the first part of that sentence um the board should not offer a contract for person as superintendent or

161then comeo or maybe just take that part of that out and say the board shall not extend the contract of a superintendent yeah I like that because otherwise it is contradictory hold on though technically we would after evaluation would be the extension so it would be not extend for more than one year I think we just need that clarification in that first sentence then what month is Mr Hugh's evaluation going to take place next year it would be the final would be in July okay and then then the following year so that backs you mon going to back you into six months I'm not going to be here but someone's going to have to be here and then you're going to under a problem hiring a superintend if I hear Mr Keller correctly it's the

162transition not the addition um am I understanding you correctly that our our current practice of evaluating the superintendent in July which would then extend that oneye rollover if we're taking a look at a basic contract that one year rollover you're saying don't go above that one year roll over within 6 months or you're saying no rollover at all within 6 months the latter no roll over at all I mean we could change when we vote on his contract to be six month I mean there's nothing that would prohibit that I think the previous contract actually said March right so if we did what we had in the previous contract there's no concern with voting you want the evaluation before you do the extension again we as a board we choose when we do the evaluation

163right you don't want to do it at the end of the year I think ideally we we could change that to be when when the test scores come out and modify the timing as such I have had a conversation with masb about this a little while ago and most school districts they say are transitioning to calendar year evaluations especially with the current evaluation tools because of exactly what was stated the the scores are not in in July or June uh when we're currently doing the evaluation that that would be a different change so I guess I'm just my comments are based on today's current practice any further discussion on the edits of 1241 as present Ed hearing none Mr Scott yes Mr go yes Mrs Coleman no Mr Keller yes Mr Costa no Mrs blondal

164yes and I'm a no that motion passes I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of Greg Hiller adopts revised policy 3132 vacancies as presented motion by Mr Keller supported by Mrs blunt deal policy 3132 vacancies as presented can you clarify what you're looking to change in this one Greg yeah it's hard to read from the um packet we have but it adds so in the final paragraph it reads the superintendent shall EST establish procedures and what's added is documented and approved by the board and that's the end of the addition to facilitate identification evaluation of candidates for administrative supervisory and other leadership positions so back in April I think it was we had there was a I think there was a motion made by Mr galeski to add the additional language documented

165and approved by the board at that time we did not have a full board uh to officially um vote Yes or no so I think it it was a three to3 vote so I wanted to have the opportunity to have a vote with all members present and again you know anytime we have the words establishing procedures I think it's important that the board be part of that process and they be documented I also think that those documented procedures should then be included in the policy so that it's clear that was my request and I don't know that we're going to document that today but I think it creates guardrails around said procedures that are then subsequently approved by the board I definitely would need to know what those procedures are if I'm going to do

166my job and correct take care of business well the policy reads that you will create them but then a matter of us approving them so I don't think there's anything that the board has to do it's the superintendent shall establish so right so it sounds like this policy is kind of a two-stepper we approve this one and then that gives kind of the mandate to the superintendent to set those procedures and then we'll modify it to include those procedures should we not just do the procedures ahead of time and then adopt everything at once so we're voting on a policy so we we set the procedures to to choose our superintendent but now now we're saying we need to approve Mr hughes's procedures isn't that what we entitle him and entrust in him to do

167as superintendent like isn't that why we pay him to to do that Chris if you don't mind I think we have those procedures documented and the procedures are in policy as I shared with the board when we provided our administrative thoughts to these policy changes um policy 1410 outlines who we're going to hire to fill our uh principles and director positions file policy 14101 uh is all other supervisory positions that are listed in transparent fashion for the whole Community to know what positions I have the authority to fill in doing my job so it seems like we if you ask me the superintendent shall establish procedures I'm going to say to you as a board you already have policy in place that's transparent on what positions are going to be hired for and what their

168salaries are in general 1410 doesn't necessarily get into specific salaries it it has some guide uh guide rails in there or guard rails in there so all of that is already out there for you as a board when I come to you and say hey I'm hiring for this Elementary principal position well yeah you know that it's listed in 1410 then we need a principal at the elementary school and then what happens we find that person and that person comes to the board for a contract y or nay contract right like that's how it happens 14101 is a little different because those are positions that are not necessarily building level positions but they directorships they're um if we add an accountant let's say like we did a few years ago we came to the board

169the board approved changing FY 14101 the board is involved in all of that in a very transparent fashion to the public so this is why we're saying if if you're asking me to create it it's already created it's already there for everybody to see so then there really should be no issue cuz we're already doing all this today right is what you're saying as long as you agree that as a superintendent who you hire to to fill positions to operate and make sure all positions are filled to get the job done are already established in 1400 14101 then yeah I think I I think if you want to add that and and we agree that documented is already documented in 1410 1401 then I'm fine with that because now you're not hindering the process it's

170it's already established by the board that's all I'm saying but does that include all positions that you would um identify and evaluate candidates for administrative supervisory and other leadership positions everything is in there Glenn other okay everything's in there and like I said if you go to 14101 if we add an accountant or we add um a technology expert or we add a you know we're going to talk later about social media if we were going to add a uh a media specialist somebody to or whatever they call those people right um then we would get approval by you and we'd add it to 1400 or 14101 and the board would say yay or nay to that and that then gives us permission to fill that position does that policy cover transfers the policy covers

171the ability for the superintendent to say um we have a building principal position available um the board already approved a contract for an assistant principal at the high school and then I recommend to the board that we now take that assistant principal put them into the elementary principal position you then bless the contract as a board which you do because we bring it to the board and so yes I would say that covers that transfer and what you the board have done is said to the superintendent you figure out how these positions are going to be handled you make the recommendation to who we're going to hire for those positions as long as it's already been established that we need that position I can't I don't have the ability in those policies just to go

172out and create a position because I want to create a position but you have the ability to transfer administrators without board approval the board would have to give that individual a contract to move from assistant principal in this case to principal there's a different pay scale there and so we come to the board and say I want to move uh this person to here and you guys either say yes to the contract or no to the contract that's how it's always been done so in the I guess I'll I'll just tell you what I'm thinking about in the case of Miss Gregory when she was transferred to the central office that was done without any board approval there was a there the the position position was approved but the transfer was not discussed at the

173board table or voted on the board had to vote on giving her a contract in approving the contract for her to move from high school principal to that position that did happen don't believe so okay well we can follow up we could review the minutes but as I recall the position was created at the board table approved and and then the next morning um Miss Gregory was was moved appointed but the board never voted on that action so I guess that would be my concern in in this and so so for instance now the position that was created for Miss Gregory last year still exists so tomorrow Mr Hughes could appoint any current administrator to that position and add $200,000 burden in salary to the to the district without the board's approval so it sounds

174like we need to ensure that 1410 14101 align with this policy so I guess I would like [Music] to move that we postpone this until we can ensure the alignment of of 140 1410 and 14101 and that we approve of that because that is then going to need to be documented procedure and referenced in this policy I support your [Music] motion any discussion I mean I I tend to agree with that because if it's not complete right we're completing that we're walking through another policy and then we have to to know if the vacancy or I mean if the transfers are included or not because we don't have that one up for discussion right well I think what I heard Mr Hughes say and correct me if I'm wrong but that the policies already exist

175so there's really no need if I understood correctly there would be no need to change anything but it sounds like Mr Scott has a concern that we want to ensure is baked into 1410 or 1410 that is well documented which couldn't couldn't the couldn't the uh board vote on that policy separately because again this just says you'll estab the superintendent shall establish procedures I guessan I believe they're separate it I I would prefer to reference that policy in this policy from a procedural standpoint but there but there's no reference now so I guess that's why if we're going to correct the policy Would we not correct the policy but but this isn't the policy on the procedure of the V it's just saying that we're going to approve the procedures and if it's not creating

176the procedures with this policy and then in my mind that means that the superintendent would need to stay within the bounds of 1410 and 1410 one for now until further modifications were made so in the case of say the transfer or something he could not transfer someone into the vacant um you know what I have historically called the vacant deis our position uh he could not transfer someone into that position um without first modifying 1410 14101 and getting board approval but this says nothing about transfer so so so if you you know if your concern is that I have the ability to transfer somebody from one position to the other this policy doesn't say it it says superintendent shall establish procedures so my procedures are boor I am following the guidelines of 1410 and 1401

177where these positions have been established by the board and I'm filling it with a transfer this policy says nothing about transfers so I think if you want to talk about transfers that needs to be discussed further at another time is there any way we can review the minutes from the meeting can we get those minutes what does that have to do with this this doesn't have to do with this policy and it's not an agenda item let's continue with this policy 3132 vacancies any additional discussion well I believe oh I'm sorry I was just going to say should we reference the policies that we're keep talking in here I mean that's what I've been saying the whole time because if we read if you read the singular policy and you have no reference to the

178procedure what does what good and then and then those other policies if we want to update them the next meeting you can go ahead and update them but at least that'll get this one approved with the proper policies on it right so do we have the motion um there's a motion right now on the floor to you you made a motion and Kristen second to to to to delay vote on this to postpone it until we could do it all at once I think we got to vote on that before you you decide to add more to vote on the delay of the policy to bring all three forward at once Mr Scott no Mr galeski no Mr Mrs Coleman yes Mr Keller no Mr Costa yes Mrs bondil I'm not going to be here

179to vote on it so I'm a no and I'm a yes that motion pass that motion does not pass excuse me so now we're back to the original motion um that Mr Keller put on the table supported by Mrs bondal on 3132 vacancies as presented Mr Scott yes what I was going to propose another Mo a motion then to amend this to include for references to 14101 so that we at least have that reference and then as Miss bondal suggested come back and and revise 1410 and 14101 if we need to do that support I have a motion on the table to amend the current policy of 3132 vacancy to reference policy 1410 and 14101 as the documented and procedures any discussion on that motion by Mrs Coleman supported by Mr Scott Mr Scott yes

180Mr go yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Keller yes Mr Costa yes yes Mrs blondal sorry jump the gun y it's okay and I'm a yes that motion passes would you like to modify your original motion to adopt the amended policy can you remove your current your existing motion and adopt the Amendments as presented I move to withdraw my pre motion and replace it with the revised policy as presented support motion by Mr Keller supported by Mr Scott just for clarification this is 3132 vacancies as presented and amended those amendments include references to 1410 and 14101 Mr Scott yes yes I'm just trying to Speed it that's all Mrs Coleman yes Mr Keller yes Mr Costa yes Mrs blondal and I'm a yes that motion passes let's go all right I move that the Board of

181Education upon the recommendation of Greg Hiller adopts revised policy 5611 due process rights as presented motion by Mr Keller support supported by Mrs blondal Greg can you speak to the changes that you suggest yeah I mean I think it's similar to what was uh stated last month just again looking for opportunity for parents to have an Avenue if there's you know any kind of disagreement with um students getting reported um on the doj list again I you know I think it's you're innocent until proven guilty and you know not the other way around so for me it's important that we allow people to have an Avenue to appeal and I agree because it's a constitutional right um I did send the board some attorney client privileged information um from Travis gtoo who represents Us in

182all of our doj OCR kind of all the things having to do with that from garel Mullins and Horton um in which I think we do need a closed session with Travis prior to potentially initiating this policy he is willing to do so so I I oh go ahead Glenn sorry yeah this is a fairly from my standpoint a fairly innocuous kind of uh uh revision here here it's just simply stating that um parents Guardians must be informed must be furnished with copies everything that you would expect in in the part of due process I don't think it's the information I think it's the appeal so 100% support the information component and that was a very clear component and part of kind of our director a couple months ago about ensuring that that was quick

183concise and occurred um so our principles at each building are identifying the substantiation but then we have this appeal process that ultimately then goes to the board I believe yes I think a policy like this is long overdue we have been reporting sensitive information to the Department of Justice for years without a policy in place to protect our students I talked about it from this Podium several times I talked about it when uh Mr Hughes signed the original Department of Justice agreement which never went across this board table and I talked about it with the second Department of Justice agreement that did cross this table and to be reporting sensitive information on students to a third party with no policy in place I think is reckless and irresponsible and does not represent the best interest

184of our students I can agree with policy and certain certainly agree with the contact and the parent and guardian involvement I think that we need further clarification on some verbage in this policy that wouldn't then shoot us in the foot elsewise and I hope everyone read what Travis obviously identified but um overarching agree on on many aspects of this but need ification on that last aspect I gu regarding the um the appeal process I don't feel that it's the board's position I don't I think it's going outside of our lane to become a part of that appeal process if if that that portion stays in this in this policy I don't think that's our job but you made the agreement with the Department of Justice I think that's kind of short decided to say hey

185guys we're going to send your kids information over to the Department of Justice but hey we're not responsible for what goes to them I I disagree completely with that well and I don't think there's any guarantee that it would come to the board but I think following the similar approach that we have with discipline right ultimately the board is responsible for final decision if it makes its way so again I don't think it's saying you have to go and have three appeals if the point is if you don't come to an agreement prior to then then you would still be afforded that opportunity again not it's not requiring you appeal to the board at as your first course of business that's in fact the last course if it gets to that point there's several components

186and structural components of this policy that I fully support um I'm not comfortable yet adopting it until we get feedback on ensuring the verbiage aligns with a limited risk with Travis and regardless if this passes today or not um I think we still need to debrief with him on this process um just from a line of visibility to make sure that we all have an understanding and we have new board members as well who probably need to be a part of that process have him bring them up to speed and so on and so forth any further discussion on 5611 due process as presented hearing none Mr Scott yes Mr goleski yes M Coleman no Mr Keller yes Mr Costa no Mrs blundel yes and I'm a no that motion passes I will plan for

187a Clos session though um at the next board meeting just as an FYI I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of Keller adopts revised policy 75402 web accessibility content apps and services as presented motion by Mrs St Keller support supported by Mr Scott any discussion Greg do you mind just revisiting why you brought this forward I think I'm going to defer to Mr Scott on this one if he doesn't mind I think this one is near and dear to his heart and I would like to give him the first opportunity to to talk are you saying I was responsible for the shutdown of comments on social media uh so this uh this policy was revised in mid 2023 to essentially give control of the decision making over to the superintendent as far

188as allowing or not allowing social media comments the the district Facebook page has been in existence for well over a decade always had comments enabled um in January of 2024 uh there were some comments being made on social media about the district holding a uh board meeting on MLK Junior Day and some parents got rather there were there were a lot of comments they they stuck to the um to the post related to the meeting uh and some of the posts about administrative things but some parents were pretty upset they shared their discontent uh with the board and with Administration and then somewhere around January I don't have the date in front of me January 19th or something uh the district decided to shut down all all Facebook comments um I do not I have

189not been able to find another single District in the country that doesn't allow Facebook comments on their Facebook page um and so that's why I have have fought this from the beginning um in today's society uh social media is the modern um Public Square and it has been and is considered around the country that's where we have the opportunity to go and voice our concerns as Citizens to our government to our public officials and to my knowledge I've seen one Police Department I think in North Carolina who shut down public comments but other than that I have not been able to find any public entities who have taken this drastic step to shut down comments from the public that they represent there was one school district in Florida who did it for a very short

190period of time and then uh reopen the comments um for a long time on the school website there was actually a note that uh two-way communication with the public was part of the philosophy of the district and right after comments were shut down WHMI put out an article about it and uh and that note about the pH philosophy of the district changed overnight to coincide with the release of that article to WHMI um so I think it's it's sad it's unfortunate that that's the the way the district has decided to go with this rather than to listen to parents listen to taxpayers Listen to community members just to shut down all conversation so I think it's important to open that back up and uh I I don't just think it's important I think it's the

191First Amendment right of everybody in this community to be able to to voice uh their comments on the modern Public Square and I also believe too the last time that this was put before the board this was one of those instances Where I Was Naive enough to just take the word of certain individuals that oh no we're just we're just keeping up with you know the Social Media stuff that's all we're doing that's all we're doing and then bam then I find out oh wait a minute so yeah I have a a bit of an issue with uh everything that uh Mr Scott just said so so I'd like to point out that two-way communication is not just us posting something and people commenting we have to have a means of two-way communication um it's

192the exchange the definition is the exchange of messages um on this um in this case we're talking a public form so us posting something whether it's celebratory or factual and then having someone comment but us not having a means to comment back is really not to a communication it's like a 1.5 way communication and so my question is what is our plan to operationalize this so parents if indeed they are asking a question asking clarification on X Y or Z how do we get that information then back to them in a framed fashion and monitor this that is my question I asked Greg if we had a plan to operationalize that we have a social media individual currently today they do not do that so do we need to expand that role do we need

193to those are my questions in regards to this policy yes so I'll ask the same question a little bit differently like who would man it if there's somebody that's posting something that is wrong or not necessarily truthful right like that is degrading or is you know detrimental to the the district I understand freedom of speech so who would jump on and say Hey you know you're misinformed about this like how would we control that well the district had a open policy for do do we know how many years it was 13 15 17 years uh I don't I have never heard of any of those issues taking place I've never heard of those with any neighboring districts so so did it h i mean has it happened I I don't know like has there been

194anybody that's manned the Facebook page have we ever had to uh to tell somebody that you're misinformed and that that's not incorrect like do we or do we just let it fly no we not we've never had somebody that managed that two-way communication it was it was well one could say it was two-way communication because that's the intent of comments being open and I agree with Megan you're really not too aake because there's nobody there Manning that saying oh Greg asked the question for clarification Jim jumped in and said this that's wrong nobody was on there trying to say no no no no no go here so uh it's it was never intended that way we never set it up that way and one of our concerns and my concern certainly as a superintendent was

195if people are on providing misinformation people are uh uh saying things that are absolutely the wrong not true narrative the value to the district to have comments open is very negligible actually hurtful to the district when people are sharing stuff that's just not true through and so what happens if there's nobody there monitoring that then people believe what they read we know that they believe what they read and they're getting wrong information and that's a detriment to the district so why did we turn comments off because we weren't monitoring that and we didn't have a way to monitor it so I hope that answers your question so could we do something to make sure that um I mean maybe somebody would have to man this that everybody that is joining or or needs to or

196wants to comment has to have a legitimate Facebook page that is a legitimate person not somebody just coming on with I mean there's so many people that create these accounts that you know you know that aren't even real like so is it something like can we do something like that we have some groups uh here in the Heartland District that are very good at that in this room oh yeah in this room yep but that's not the role of government to start censoring and uh Speech think it's censoring or even DCT I I don't believe that it's legal to to do that I could be wrong let me read um this this WHMI article that highlighted harland's decision to shut down public comments uh they also talked to superintendent Rick Todd of Pinkney Community Schools

197and I'm going to read this it says meanwhile Pinkney community schools superintendent Rick Todd told WHMI they do allow the opportunity for comments as he views social media as a tool to not only communicate but to build trusting relationships and transparency I think I think that's the key here if we if we look at the comments that got this shut off um and we were going to decide factually if those comments were true or if the district's position was true I can assure you that the comments were true not the district's position so I don't think any of us need to be Arbiters of Truth truth or have the uh the misinformation Squad go out there and determine what people can say online I think parents are smart enough to know what is right to

198put on a on a Heartland Community Schools Consolidated school's Facebook page and they're also obviously smart enough to know that they can't take every comment made on a Facebook page as a pure gold fact that's we leave that in the hands of the Community not in the hands of the district and there's also a feature to report various comments too if someone is making uh definitely an outrageous claim of some kind or comments that are inappropriate um there can be different administrators quote unquote um responsible for simply responding to that and taking it off I mean that could be uh a number of people whoever we give permission to so so but this policy specifically states with an edit two-way communication so then how are we providing the means of two-way communication so I believe

199that's a a going back to what the original policy was I don't know that the word to needs to be in there for any purposes um I I I see the purpose of the policy is to open back comments again as it has been for the last decade and a half yeah and I I mean you did your due diligence and researched it and the Precedence is set around the country is what you're stating right it has been a a public forum for like we said 13 15 17 years and then all of a sudden one day nope and uh I believe that's a violation of the first amendment I took a oath to the Constitution of the United States of America I took oath to the Constitution of the great state of Michigan and

200I would supportingly certainly support something like this in order to stand for my oath and stand for First Amendment rights of every every single person in this community whether they agree with me or not my question would be though how many of those districts that do this have somebody monitoring it did we look into that so that might be their president that's great wonderful but how many of them have somebody monitoring did we ask that secondary question so then do we take off the two-way communication I mean two-way Communications it's true you do start with a communication so that's one way right and then they're communicating back so there there is a technical it's just a not a back and forth to a what if you read the technical definition so yeah I mean we

201can get rid of the word to we just had Mr Hughes say that in 15 years or so plus or minus there's never been an issue like that so um so did we just take out the two m is your point if if somebody goes on there and starts posting outlandish things one who's going to catch it two who's going to deem if it's appropriate or not and then who's going to take it down and how often is this person checking it like is do we don't we don't have that person correct correct my secondary thing is is if we're using this as a means of truly communicating two ways not just one way like say somebody asks a question on when's the next I don't know quiz Bowl whatever we we should be able

202to answer that and we don't have that means today the beauty of Facebook is that it doesn't have to be us that answer it it's another parent who's kid is on the quiz Bowl team jumps in and says hey quiz Bowl's Friday at 4: come support the team and that builds support for the team from the community uh this is not just for us this is not for us it's for them not for us at all but I do think there is sorry um I think there is also an opportunity for the district based on the two-way or the communication from the community if there's patterns of you know ideas or you know somebody wants to say misinformation but I think it's it's an indicator for the district to understand maybe there is a misperception

203of something so I I think we would actually want that because if there's you know a large member of the you know community base that's way off on something I think it gives Mr Hughes or the rest of the team an opportunity to address something whether that be in his superintendent newsletter or through Facebook or whatever you know social media platform this happens to be on and I think I know that there's concerns of whether or not we have the staff to continually engage in conversation I think that remains to be seen and you know I I think we need to see how this goes to understand it does it warrant someone coming on board as a full-time position I don't think we have enough data to say that it does at this point but

204I think you know I'm in favor of turning on the community comments again and you know if we need to Pivot and do something different I think that's why we meet once a month to to kind of talk through things and and so again I'm I'm in favor of uh what is presented today my my suggestion would be in all seriousness if you want to go ahead and turn the comments on turn the comments on but add language to the policy it says comments do not reflect the opinion of the school district in any way shape or form that uh if you see information on here that you feel is inappropriate or uh not accurate you know please you know reach out to somebody right reach out like let us know so that we can

205then at least go on there cuz we're not monitoring this we're simply putting information out so people know what's going on in the district and someone needs to speak up because I'll tell you I don't have time to monitor it I'm not going to um but if someone calls me and says hey you know this was out there you're right I can at least try to correct it which I spent a lot of time doing in my weekly update over the last few years of trying to correct misinformation and narrative that just not is not factual so if you're going to do this policy and say yeah let's turn this back on I'd ask the board to put Lang in here says it doesn't reflect the school district please do not take this for fact

206check your sources or represent up okay but then and and if there is an issue you can you can report it to an ad admin on that page we already have somebody working social media don't we yeah but just for Content period well so what's going to happen though when when someone in the public posts something and then someone else in the public has an ISS is with it reaches out to admin admin says yeah in my opinion that's not appropriate I'll remove it and then that person who initially posted is now upset because we have removed their post I wouldn't want to get in the business of removing post that's why I'm saying I don't think that we want to get into business because you know we're going to have somebody say Hey you

207violated my rights you're better off saying the views are not reflected of the school district period you know if you have a concern reach out and ask somebody for clarification like a a wise person would say that doesn't make sense let me call somebody that might be able to help me with this I think that's appropriate to add there the views of the district but of the Board of Education I don't want someone else speaking on behalf of my views right I agree but I mean we've been doing it for years and years and years we just recently shut them off it's a First Amendment right you know people take it for a grain of salt when they see who's posting right if they're being honest about who they are behind the scenes right people

208CH pick and choose what they want to read and what they want to believe and if it doesn't represent us we do need a means I'll be very transparent here we do if if there is students like we can't um there needs to be a means of removal if a student name or those types of things come up like is that not common sense uh if it were up to me I wouldn't post a photo of it single student in this District absolutely not I think it's ludicrous that we do and ever since the Facebook comments have been turned off that's all we do is post pictures of kids we've gotten away from posting hey we have a meeting on this we have a meeting on this we have an event here we have an

209event there and the Facebook page has turned into look here's pictures of our kids and I think it's awful I don't think a single kid's face should be on that Facebook page and there's no way you can tell me that every parent's given their permission to have their kid on there no the the Facebook page should be to communicate the business of the district the activities of the district not you know there was one post I remember um it was summer school and we posted pictures of kids saying hey look at these kids that need special help at summer school we're giving them extra help that is so I mean it makes me boiling mad right here talking about it that is not what social media is for social media is for saying we have

210a football game on Friday we have some great kids who had some high achievements we have this positive things we have a meeting we have a craft show we have a bake sale not here's pictures of this class here's pictures of this class here's pictures of this class here's pictures of kids getting special help here's pictures of the special ed class would that not be a furpa issue I definitely think that we need to to do what Mr Scott says I mean we we definitely need a an Avenue to post things about happenings not kids it's not a Facebook it's not a personal Facebook page it's not something that we should be putting C post no no no no he was saying celebratory post but like if the parent agrees yeah but like there was

211a post of girls and young girls and leotards I mean stuff that should not be on our Facebook page well there you go any further discussion on 754 wait can I can I add something it's going to be more than the Facebook page it's it's it's everything that we do any kind of communication any kind of newsletter any kind of anything we're in the the business of kids we have students we promote students in our programs our programs include students so I don't know if we say no students this is a way bigger issue I don't think that's what's in the policy but I'm just saying it's going to be it's going to be it's going to be we're going to have to really think about that I think it's a conversation we have to

212change everything that we do as far as our culture here if we do that I I mean just to clarify I think what we were talking about is like Mr Scott said you got a special ed special education class that you're promoting online right like it's just like that kind of stuff use common sense right like I don't know that every kid or every parent would like their student on there you know I I think it's great to celebrate and kids out of that they do it at the beginning of every year they mark on whether they they they they don't need want their picture or they can use their picture parents do that during registration every year correct there's you can opt out to not have your child I don't think a parent expects

213that you're going to post a picture of their kid highlighting them as needing additional help above and beyond the rest of the class I don't think that runs through a parent mind when they're 100 forms you keep going back to that example but and I and I agree with your examp I don't need the audience participation I agree what you're saying as far as that particular thing so let's get past that and talk about everything else that we post as far as students go I thought we were on a much better track prior to January of this year when the whole Facebook changed to remove parents and just post pictures of kids in class without a real reason moving forward any additional discussion pertaining to 75402 I would be fine removing um the word to

214if there was some technical issue with that so do we have to motion because to add what Mr Hughes suggested and then just your suggested change yeah someone has to if that's what we don't I like the two-way communication I like a means of answering questions but clearly you all don't so then we'll go on whatever change you want to present oh I like two-way communication I thought there was issue with that so did I sorry I misunderstood that requires a plan though and that requires us to have an operational plan because there's impact to operations on how we then have that two-way communication and who does that doesn't sound like we have a consensus of what that looks like today so given okay so then I motion to make changes to the policy as

215proposed so does he have to motion to remove I mean like I I do believe that we should add in about it doesn't represent our opinion that's what I want to motion to can that we added disclaimers okay so I motion to update the policy to include disclaimers and drop two way at the beginning and just call just start with communication we could do that and then you can modify as necessary right whatever you guys decide but at least it's getting it out there that people can communicate right they can post what they want which is freedom of speech which we all support and then it also we can say that it doesn't represent our opinions of the board or the district right do we need to see that disclaimer written out okay so um

216Jesus Facebook comments I mean I I would say Facebook comments do not represent the opinion of the house Heartland school board or Harland School District employees is that and Board of Education yeah Heartland school board but board the district or its employees yeah and then maybe say something like keep it keep it clean for kids I don't know but I mean I think if we have that in there I'm happy with that um if for now that we want to take out the two-way communication and just say it's used for communication and you know people can comment we can take out two-way motion on the table motion on the table to amend the policy by Michelle to add the disclaimer that the Facebook comments do not represent the board that District or its employees into

217to remove the word two way in item F support sweet supported by Mr Scott any discussion on the amendment hearing none Mr Scott yes Mr goes yes Mrs Coleman no Mr Keller yes Mr Costa we're voting on The the revisions on the revisions we're not voting on the policy itself no yes Mrs bondil yes I support the revisions that motion passes yes you're going to vote to accept the amended the policy because we just did New Motion put a new motion on the table so I motion to oh you go ahead and chers no I motion um well go ahead I'm I'm nervous now because I'm not I don't usually do that you do it I motion to all right I I moved so I moved at the board of education upon the recommendation of

218Greg Keller adopts revised policy 75402 as presented in and amended 1216 board meeting motion by Mr Keller support supported by miss blondal any discussion for what it's worth I still value the two-way communication and wish we could integrate that I think that could maybe be if we do come up with a Communications position within the district that could be something we tackle yes Mr goleski yes Mrs Coleman no Mr Keller yes Mr Costa no Mrs bondil yes and I'm a no until we figure that position out this motion passes item 2 c new policies B Mrs blondal oh sorry start over Okay um I recommend that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of myself Michelle blandel adopts a new policy for bathroom and locker room safety as presented support by or motion by Mrs

219blondal support support by Mr Keller any discussion I think I would um just for transparency standpoint we received a pretty hard stop um from our legal council on this one um if this is something that the board wishes to do I think we then need to involve a third party so you know I understand weigh-ins and all that stuff um the words may like you know when they may do this may do that well you know girls may get attacked if boys are in their bathroom girls may suffer trauma if a boy enters there's a lot of Maze and I as a board member would prefer to choose the safety of children over the fear of a lawsuit that's my opinion I don't have a fear of a lawsuit but when I have our Council

220indicating that this is illegal in the state of Michigan while I independently as an individual can choose to break the law whenever I darn well please I don't know that I can then turn around and create a policy that is expecting that of our administrators and and you know I know that there's a lot of discussion around thrun and you and I have had this discussion with thrun outside of thrun I'm happy to get a third party involved I cannot do that independently that would have to be on behalf of the board um but I I don't know how this policy can come forward when I have such a hard stop from the current Council that represents us and it's I think it's the way in which it's verbalized and I think that there's probably

221some massaging that could be done of this verbal you know of the verbage uh potentially with a third party but that's where I'm at Roberts rues says everybody should weigh in before I speak again anybody else yes no I know but everybody gets a chance to speak before I speak again right right um I'm giving you the option what you for calling that uhhuh um kind of playing off of what Megan was saying that we have a hard stop we've been we've been advised by our current Council and this as it's written is illegal it's not enforceable so to put a policy in place that's that's illegal Al that we would put then put our administrators on the hot seat to enforce a policy that's illegal which which would then result in them losing perhaps

222immunity if a lawsuit were to come into play or they choose not to enforce it and then they lose their job so I I I don't see how we can ask our team to do that and and I I I honestly don't even know how we can we consider this particularly the way it's written to to even make it a policy so if you're are you talking about the title N9 changes the Biden Administration title N9 changes remind me again what he he's saying it's illegal because of of um Elliot Larson I think in Michigan we have so you have the federal level but then we have the state level and so it's going to depend on several things occurred even four years ago several things occurred where they did give States this kind of

223open entity and and allowed states to enforce certain things because this is you are very correct that this policy in some states is take title N Out of the equation 100% legal it's the state of Michigan that's the problem around this policy and so while uh I don't there's many laws that I don't like you guys know my feelings on the sex offender laws that I've discussed the reality is then we still have to follow the law and so how how do we modify things to ensure we're still following the law if if this was as simple as just passing a policy that's illegal many districts probably would have done it to be honest I know you and I know districts locally but I think the fact that we do have a hard stop requires

224a look and I I know you and I have had conversations on thr I've had conversations with maybe Mr goleski um but in other circumstances and again if we want to take a third party to look at that I can't do that individually board can decide to do that but that's going to take a third party coming in to understand what this verbage needs to look like I think we also all need to be aware that when you have such a a line that's been advised then what does that do to us as individuals because we have in an advising Council that's saying X Y and Z and and what what are the ramifications of that and so we just have to consider that and I'm not saying that it's dead in the water but

225I think we do need to involve others in this discussion can I so we several months ago this board passed an addition to the high school handbook in regards to to bathrooms and that passed I I don't I don't know why now this is coming before us and to reiterate what you've already mentioned our legals actually advis us this this is this is a no so I'm just wondering why why are we here again with this when where already have something because it is a policy it's in the student handbook and um you know I was remiss I voted for something that I shouldn't have I because we had the pressure of getting it in the handbook um but I would rather have somebody sue me personally or whatever because I implemented a policy then

226have a parent stand up here or a parent come to me and tell me because I didn't protect their student that's how I feel we are we are how how how is it that we are tasked with the safety of students but we can't administer the safety of students like you know so I guess it's just conflicting for me and I think our state some of our state representatives are conflicted as well I mean if you talk to them and we don't have a problem I I feel like it you know no it's not a problem but it's a slippery slope because you know the the way that things have gone so rapidly and and we're we're losing the uh Common Sense can I ask you a question when you say additional verbiage are you

227talking about the mandatory reporting verbiage so our handbook is adopted as policy though so that that's the I'm going to say the law of Heartland um of the district and so we can certainly pull that out and just assign a number to it as well yeah it was it was more along lines they they I know it's the law that they they you know safety thing but it says in there that they don't have to you know tell the parents but I don't think that um I think if somebody you know didn't want to tell me they'd be afraid afraid of something I would do right like that's where that judgment I'm I'm sorry that I I put that in there I know it's the law that manual mandatory reporting but we put it in

228there that they may not have to mandatory report right if there's a fear of of you know the T child being in danger right well that's the mandatory reporting so we can't report like if we're reporting something on a say a kid that we know has an abuse abusive situation at home because of X Y and Z that's when that parent wouldn't necessarily be involved and it then takes the potentially CPS course or how whatever course that individual is going down and regardless of this policy or any other policy that still exists like we can't we have to protect those children and perhaps I might have some certain feelings of that Michelle because I was a CPS kid so I know what it's like and I think that I take mandatory reporting very very ser

229seriously mhm so again I'm I'm proposing this because I feel it's necessary to protect our students I mean everybody can vote no we've gotten the weigh in from the legal team saying that we may it may it may it may no there was a hard line Michelle can we clarify This legal opinion because I are you saying that they said that there's a Michigan Law that would prohibit this that's not how I read I so I had sent you all yeah I I read it uh one of the first things that is indicated is that the policy as written the bathroom policy is illegal in Michigan with no backup justification or citation down it covers the differences in the sixth court and like the 11th Circuit Court Federal and how kind of things move up

230through and what's binding in which state and what's not Bing in which St and here if I remember correctly because we've had multiple conversations with thr it does lay on regardless of what happens with Title 9 we still have Elliot Larson and I'm not an attorney so I'm not going to advise you on what those implications are but I'm happy to set that up I'm happy to set that up with our current Council I'm happy to set it up with a different Council I'm not even sure how we can vote on this with such a hard stance without an additional opinion but why would they not provide if they're saying it's illegal in Michigan why would they not provide the case law or the statute uh what they gave us was a federal wasn't it

231a federal circuit court six was it six and then they also mentioned that the 11th has said that this policy is absolutely fine and the case law in the sixth was um a vague reference to a similar situation whereas the case law in the 11th was a school district that passed a bathroom policy more strict than the one we have here and the 11th Circuit Court appell it so I I guess if they're saying it's illegal in Michigan I wish they would would cite statute or case law I'm happy to get additional questions answered Again by thr or if we feel was if again Megan I mean we we went through this and and maybe uh the attorneys failed because they felt they've they've said this over and over uh the 11th circuit is South

232it is not applicable to Michigan the six circuit is only applicable to Michigan um but because of the state's law as governed by the Michigan Supreme Court in Elliot Larson civil rights uh act that mandates that gender preference and gender identity is a protected class and then solidified by the um Senate uh the legislative branch through Senate Bill 4 those laws are what we must follow in the state of Michigan so you saw my response from the administrators were clear I I know that the attorneys are a hard no um and what you would do if you pass this tonight is you would ask our administrators to violate the law and so basically what you would be doing as I said in here is pushing the administrators out in front of a moving car with

233no scratches on you as a board but all the administrators that have to make sure that we follow the law as it is written in the state of Michigan forget the 11 circuit that's South in the state of Michigan we cannot even if you tell us that we have to follow this policy we can't and we will be in Jeopardy of losing our jobs because the law will not allow us to violate that so my S hang on please my suggestion is this if you really want to pass something on this particular policy the first two paragraphs are fine there's nothing that's that's pretty it is what it is this the third paragraph all back bathrooms and locker room facilities shall be clearly marked female male and shall otherwise be single occupancy rooms designated for

234individuals families Andor staff um and then policy is covered and established by the Board of Education in the secondary parent student handbook that's how you bring that policy that you adopted in the secondary handbook into this policy and you leave it at that so your policy is now on record it is establishes that the policy for restroom use is in the secondary handbook and you don't get into any of this other stuff that is the illegal side of it and we did get an opinion Mrs blondel's original the one that's in the handbook we did get a legal opinion on that although there was some risk associated with it that it was technically the verbiage was legal understood I don't want to put the district in or the District staff in any kind of Herms

235way either um I'm still not sold that it's on you know the Elliot Larson I think was based upon an adult I don't know that anybody's everever ruled on K through 12 so I'll let you know after I go to law school that's going to be my next Endeavor so I I understand the that gender identity is protected the question then becomes um does that mean you know what does that mean for policy and uh according to not to go back to the 11th circuit but that's who has who has addressed this head on apples for apples right and they said that it was not discriminatory because you are not denying bathrooms to anyone and that the policy applies equally to everyone so uh what did doesn't apply to the state of Michigan the sixth

236circuit I understand but but the sixth circuit hasn't addressed the issue directly but the state supreme court has addressed the issue in the El Civil Rights Act which is what we have to follow that's the bottom line we cannot not follow that so how does this policy violate the the Civil Rights Act because the policy says that biological sex shall use based on the birth certificate get this you can't do that under deliot Larson Civil Rights Act that's a violation of the individual's right to determine their identity it's as clear as that so did you um have an opportunity to I'm sure you did did you have an opportunity to read the one in the sun handbook yes that outlines a process yes and and so while that process still Bears risk there certainly is

237still a risk there is that process being followed yes yes and it's working very well many fitgerald how many wraparound meetings have we had so far since the policy was passed I would say a handful there have been some there have been yeah and I know there's been some follow-ups as well in addition to those wrap-up meetings and I reached out to Tony Howton and James Fitzgerald at the high school and they said that had has clearly been a really good process for the high school and the middle school that's good cuz I got a lot of a lot of hate mail for that glad to hear it I'm sorry that it took this much to hear that feedback thank you but I think we just need to you know I I get where you're

238trying to go Michelle like I get it I think that we just need to understand what's enforcable what's not and what what we can Implement president president gach when you say take this to a third party can you explain or expand on what that what a lot of members have provided they feel like thrun offers a biased approach and um potentially not a conservative integration to their approach again I cannot independently make any type of decision to get any type of third party involved in our policy that has to come from the board we would have to find an individual that we're comfortable with it's not going to be someone's backyard attor um and and and they could certainly review this and give us feedback um but we would have to find someone that has

239experience with the state of Michigan school districts I'm conflicted I know I'm conflicted this isn't an easy you know thing it makes a lot of people uncomfortable I get it I don't appreciate that the legal opinion sent to the board is that's not legal in Michigan with absolutely zero um citation of of case law or MH or uh statute I have been provided case law and I looked them up and a lot of them were settled there wasn't I I mean I there may have been one that went to final decision but most of them were settled so I don't know if that's case law and maybe that's why it was referred to that way they were settled cuz they dragged out for years and finally they were like Uncle okay fine well Mrs blondal

240and I had several conversations I don't know 3 months four months ago before the first iteration came through so Mr Hughes is it your opinion that this policy the first two paragraphs if passed would be enforceable by the district and acceptable yes I believe the the first two paragraphs are in line with how we're already doing things I think the last paragraph is problematic which is what the legal team is saying again if you said the kept the first sentence all bathroom locker room facilities shall be clearly marked um or single occupancy and actually I would call that gender what do we call that Matt um gender neutral unex unisex uh unisex restrooms which we've established throughout the middle school and the and the high school designated for individuals families or staff and we already

241know anybody can use those and so all of our students which is the beauty of it is uh James and Tony are saying lots of kids are using those restrooms it's their choice right they don't have to use the large restrooms they can go to these restrooms um and then you finish that with policy is established in the secondary parent student handbook which you've already established as board policy I think it covers it all you have a policy you reference the handbook that's where it is I think think that covers it I don't know that we want to negate the wraparound meeting particularly if it's working and then and then what would be the follow-up process president gach as far as getting a a nonbiased legal opinion to draft some additional policy is that a

242committee is that a um what would that look like uh we'd first have to find somebody so that that's the first hurdle um and then if we wanted to Turf it to an ad hoc committee that we can select today the ad hoc committee could meet off would have to meet to make a recommendation we could motion it so that the recommendation is open to that individual um as long as you know there's a some guard rails put in place it we can do it multiple different ways the reality is I can't do it by myself um Mrs gach I I think Ser uh I could ask um Mike Hubert be willing to do it they have a different log firm that they use I could ask Mr Hubert I know that he has a

243relationship with Mr Scott for instance um to have his attorney uh uh you know provide an opinion and uh you know Mike I'm sure would work with us on that if you would like me to do so I could I'd be happy to do that do we know what firm that is you know I I don't off the tip him I think Brighton uses the same firm sometimes as well Anderson maybe I don't know why that's ringing a bell but anyway I could ask if you wanted me to and I'm sure that we could do that easily this has been brought to all district meetings as well just full transparency so um we have a decision to make right today to modify and move forward or to postp phone based on an additional legal review

244and so if we want to accomplish something today we can um I just need some guidance from the team on what that looks like suggestion sorry I did it again thanks Chris um I I motion to adopt the changes to this policy is proposed by Mr Hughes Mr would you mind clearly stating the changes to the policy y we would keep the policy the same except for the last uh section where we would say all bathroom locker room facility shall be clearly marked male female or shall otherwise Be unisex occupancy rooms designated for individuals families or staff policies established in the secondary parent student handbook period okay that's what I I wrote down that he said ear M blondal are you amending your original motion to include um now instead of yes these changes yes

245Mr Keller do you still support that do I have support for the motion that Mrs blondal has put on the table I support Mr Scott supports full transparency this motion has now been amended to actually include the changes and not the original proposal that is what we are voting on okay so to clarify Mr Hughes with no disrespect intended to you in in your opinion you just you changed this to where you feel this is going to fall into the legal realm that's that's your opinion that's my opinion okay but you're not a lawyer I'm not a lawyer my opinion okay thank you any further discussion yeah I'm just I'm completely disappointed at the fact that we are tasked with protecting our students and we can't protect our students because somebody's weighing in on something

246and and like I said I I I have reviewed the uh the case the cases that were provided to me several months ago I don't know if anybody else did I you know did you what did you find that they were mostly settled I read them but it's been several months so I don't remember yeah I think they were settled a lot of them were settled that's where it's disappointing is that you know there really wasn't a case precedent set it was just should maybe could be this and that and it was all settled so you know I'm just disappointed because I think it's trauma based when when a child you know there's girls in our community and girls in these schools that are being sexually abused at home you're going to be in a

247restroom and there's going to be a boy that comes in there and whether he looks like a girl or not she's going to have gone to school with him for several years and it's going to traumatize her I think it's wrong and there's safety issues I mean can't you know I mean I've been hearing for oh well that's not why transgenders are using the bathroom they they're just going in there to go to the bathroom but that's not it shouldn't be a blanket statement because not not everyone's safe right we all know that so I think that it would be beneficial for you to have a conversation with Dr or Dr Mr Fitzgerald um he can kind of give you what's happening at the or Mr howon quite frankly yeah because I never got any

248feedback until this moment I mean yeah any additional discussion no hearing none Mr Scott so to clarify we're voting on the amendment this is was the final vote related to this yes sir yes Mr goleski yes Mrs Coleman no um Mr Keller yes Mr Costa no Mrs blondal yes and I'm a yes that motion passes I will um follow up with uh who laa uses um and then everyone can do a little bit of research and we can have a further discussion okay um okay I recommend that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of myself Michelle Blondo adopts a new policy for an opt-in form for a Dei as presented Dei and it's it's written a little incorrectly on the meeting minutes but opt-in policy for racial harassment training programming and surveys so um

249I presented this hold on we have a motion on the table oh I'm sorry thank you I jumped we can't move forward until it's supported okay support motion by Mrs vondal supported by Mr Keller I'm sorry M Von before you get going so is the motion that the Board of Education upon the recommendation Michelle bandal adopts the new opt-in form for optin policy opt-in policy MH for Dei for racial harassment training program and surveys or do it also include CRT andal it does not include CRT andal okay so okay okay thanks it's the one that says draft at the top yep okay so um I mean I I don't know if everybody has read this this is an opt-in policy for racial harassment training programming and surveys the purpose is that the the Heartland cons

250Consolidated Schools is committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive educational environment for all students while upholding the values of diversity and inclusion and maintaining a zero tolerance policy for bullying this policy provides parents and Guardians the autonomy to decide if their student will participate in racial harassment training so the policy statements and the opt-in procedures um are listed below um the parents will have and Guardians will have the ability to decide if their student will be part of training that's developed in cooperation between heartland's Consolidated Schools Great Lakes equity and the Department of Justice and the parents and Guardians will control their students participation it says raining but it should say in training climate surveys and data collection that may be conducted by uh HCS employees or third party the reason I'm doing this is

251because I feel that there's a lot of I've done a lot of research I provided everybody with a lot of uh my opinion about that research that um the the very idea that we have to focus on Race um is something that I think creates Division and um I don't think that parents are understanding of what that means so I made a policy so that they could clearly understand that their child could be impacted by this and that it's going to be their choice whether they do this or not I know that there's been argument of like oh well you know um well what have the arguments been because I mean I don't really even know what the arguments are internally but opting into something is a parents right this is not something that's developed

252now we will be developing it we have no ability to understand yes it's going to be Heartland eyes I don't think there's any ill intent but we certainly don't know what the outcome is going to be and can and I've looked up in several areas that there are no comprehensive studies especially on something that we have developed yet to to know what the outcome is going to be so the only way we're going to know the outcome is after we run through the whole thing and then see what happens which means that uh we will be our students will be experimental so I want to make it very clear that we did task um we have two board members sitting on this training and education and which also have to review any items that extend

253um that the items have to any items extending to our students excuse me have to be reviewed and approved and so un understood I do want to be transparent that we if I can just chime in here from the meeting that we had earlier today I think there's a lot of fear in terms of what this limits um teachers and administrators to do and I I think it can be alleviated with a little bit of rewarded I think this is specifically talking about the doj initiative correct the r yeah okay right for for what we may be test to do right yeah but not existing just to clarify well yeah it's not to stop I mean this is very clear that that the optin procedure is for districtwide climate surveys racial harassment experience questioning there

254training and programming on racial harassment so and underneath the training and programming on racial racial harassment is students may be invited to participate in training programs focused on racial harassment these section these sessions could involve difficult conversations and uncomfortable role playing activities so it's not about a daily thing where if somebody you know if a child does something that you know is deemed racist that a a teacher can't say Charlie that's wrong right like you you can't call somebody out for that it's not that it's specific to the racial harassment training um that is is being developed and you know I I got to add in because you had said that you know that Glenn's going to be on there and and I think Kristen you're on the Dei committee and I get that but

255to the first point of the release of the the press release the press release was not even accurate and it it it it painted a very negative picture and said that it's pervasive in our in our district which is is not true and so I don't feel like we're going to be able to control it as much as we think we are and so I feel like whatever comes out it's it's it doesn't have ill intent but a parent should know that they they can opt their child in if they'd like to and I don't see a problem with that and I and I'm not stopping anybody from doing it it's just an optin how come not an opt out because I think it's more important that that an opt in an opt in because

256there's there's a lot of parents that trust that like oh okay you know like they they don't know that there's an opt out form this is this is going to come with their student hand or their student guide book and they're going to have to fill it out for the first day of school okay I but the opin form is also worded in a way that so so without knowing for instance say Kristen Glenn and the team are Crea something or after the training [Music] mhm this opt-in form mhm I I'm very uncomfortable with the verbiage which which because of because it the verbiage is like a double negative if trying to identify the best words so you're saying that is it the although participation is voluntary we recommend considering the emotional impact the survey

257might have on your child well that and and um the nature of these programs May create unnecessary discomfort and confusion among students who have not encountered these issues like I guess uncomfortable telling kids I I don't care what color you are I don't care what you look like that you know bullying and harassment is whether it's racial whether it's anything else well that's seal right to be clear and that's the three hours this is specific to racism this is specific to racial uh training and programming for the the website of the Great Lakes equity center I didn't make that up that's what they say it's training and programming on racial harassment and um so this does not include existing um programming no it's it's it's the the but this seems like a blanket form this

258is what I'm saying and so if we're doing things for instance our handbook I had emailed you calls out we have anti-harassment Clauses that we review with students and so technically because we're saying that this is a blanket policy that's covered in there I don't I don't know that the definitions in here are robust enough to indicate this or that do you get what I'm saying well I I'm sorry Mich I was going to say like like we have opt out forms for a number of things here in Heartland and you know if this was an opt out form and again I'm not I'm not for this Bo this was an opt out form that would be one thing but I think you opt in when you go to Heartland Consolidated Schools we're a public

259school and like if there's something that's a concern for you and you want your child to opt out whether it be something in health class but I mean you could if you put an opt-in form on everything and you word it in such a way where parents are be like well I don't want my kid doing that because that doesn't sound right when they don't know what it is so I I I personally I think an opt out form would be a better option for a year Avenue than rather as opposed to an opt in this is well beyond any expectation of a parent who enrolls their students in public schools there is not a single parent in this District who enrolls their kids in school and thinks gez tomorrow the district might sign an

260agreement with the federal department of justice and uh uh woke Institute put together by the Department of Education and require my four-year-old to undergo race-based training nobody thinks that absolutely not and there are very few other districts that have taken the steps that this district has to implement that so this is well above and beyond any standard expectation of a parent and I think that's why it deserves a special opt in form not opt out there are still plenty of parents who don't even know that this district has signed this agreement and made these made these uh uh arrangements and they don't know to what extent it applies and they don't understand uh the the ramifications so making this op in will help facilitate that communication with the parents to stand out that no this

261is not just an average day in public school this is something well above and beyond that that involves the federal government getting involved in your child's um it's not even education in your child's uh can I ask a clarifying question yes um just going off What Glenn said because I think he made a good point and we had the discussion today about it in the meeting but when he talks about the doj and how much of this is is this policy about the the doj and what's going to come out of the training and I guess Mike guess is that a yes or no and then and then my followup to that is you know all of our our social skills work and all things that we teach our children harassment is all part of

262it we don't we don't want students to harass and race is part of that there's education that goes along with that that we do currently so I guess that's when when his question was right that when he says it's about the doj part like the thing that's being created by the doj or vers whe whether it's created by us but then I think it this is going to be created by us and this could be something that we talked about today could be really good that we can create out of this whole thing that would be good for our students that would be appropriate that parents will see ahead of time that you guys will see ahead of time before kids even see it I mean I'm I'm a little concerned about about what we're

263currently doing when it comes to harassment but I'm also have huge concerns on the opin also because that's a barrier in itself op opting out is a better way that we'll get more kids is involved with critical education on anti-harassment not to harass students or opt in will be chasing parents and parents may forget to do to do their form and sign it just like the other way that argument doesn't wash with me because it's the same no matter what side you go on um I want to answer your first question because you said as a doj it is the development uh with the Great Lakes Equity with oversight of the doj right we're writing something I I you know I I respect you as a as a assistant superintendent but are you a Prof

264like are you somebody that can develop this whole process with you know of of course with support but how do we develop a process that's unproven and say that we would prefer that we get more kids into it and not you know like that's to me like a parent needs to understand that this may affect their child and you you know it it is something to be said about there's a big movement about tra you know getting kids um you know to to be more activated when it comes to things like that kids are just trying to grow up you guys know this better than anybody right you deal with it every day we've been having seal you guys have doneal we've done the three hours and everything and it seems that you guys are

265is it getting worse I mean are we doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result um you know that's one question the other question is how do we know this is going to work right like because our our kids like it's it's almost it's it's a test subject we're creating test subjects when we're developing something and we're and we want to teach in program the word program is on the great leaks Equity website programming is in it of itself a negative connotation which that's why it's included in here so that parents truly understand they may not have the same values that you're teaching and may not want them to be in here and they won't know it because the op opt out form is not in there right like this is

266a this is an opportunity to the parents may all sign this you don't know that they may look at this and be like oh yeah our kids need this and they may sign it you're assuming they won't because you know that a lot of people don't want it right I think most people will want it okay then what's the problem then we do an OP out form and we're not chasing down parents and having parents trying to decide you know like forgetting to do the form and all the things that you talked about before yeah how why would you CH parents down op the optin opt out argument is a wash it it it either way it's a wash yeah but when they make the choice to do it don't you feel safer when you

267have when you have opt when you when you have a majority of parents that want to do it then we offer it and we send all the information to the parents ahead of time with a neutral opt out form not one that's biased that tilts parents a certain way the training is bias like this one does not not the ones that we're going to create that that's that's the point I'm trying to make is that we have this committee that we're going to go and create this and do things that we are NOS that's going to work for us and our community and our constituents and our student base and we're going to we're going to make sure that happens and if we don't and that's what we talked about in the meeting today was

268that we will push back on that if the doj goes and says you know what no that's not right because Glenn made it made a comment about like like white privilege and CRT things and we we were in agreement that we we're not going there we're not going to ever do that and so we're going to do things that we are going to create our committee share with the board share with parents and have a neutral form to say if you want your parent if you want your kid to opt out of this you're welcome to do that I mean I think that's the way to go administratively I'll say our our principles I'll absolutely speak for them they're not for this at all and for vast majority of our teachers I can guarantee you

269not for this at all too well I'm speaking for parents yeah at that D OJ Dei uh meeting I I don't remember how many parents came but uh 50 60 75 I think there was one or two in favor and the rest were opposed I absolutely know there is not a majority if you put this to a vote of the parents in the community I'm guessing you're going to come about 98 to 2 uh so there is not uh a majority of parents that support this if if if I can just state that what we discussed earlier I think the wording in this form is um scaring some folks thinking that we could no longer talk about racial harassment at all if that's what I understood this afternoon you're it seemed that the concern was

270that if this form is used then everyone's going to be questioning just when can I talk about racial harassment just when can I talk about um racial issues uh in other words this may not be specific enough to the actual training that Michelle is referencing am I kind of right kind of wrong you might to me my opinion okay but I will say that I don't think an opt-in form is the right way to go uh the one thing about an opin form it forces the issue to make sure that a parent understands what's what they're putting their kid into um we just had conversations about trusting our parents that our parents are not dumb and they know and they'll read it and they'll figure out whether they want to do it or not we

271just had that conversation so I'm not sure why not the form would be a problem again the reason form because this is an important subject and we're going to create something that's going to be good for our students to learn and so we want our students to do it part of what we do and if parents really don't want their kids to take it they can opt out of it I think you'll have every opportunity in the world to go sell that to parents and so the optin they op in anything that moves more control to parents I am 100% 200% in support of especially when it is something like this that is so outside the bounds of the normal operation of a public school district this is something you've never done before you've been

272in education for 25 30 years you've never done this before Mr Hughes has never done this before nobody has done this before and now we're saying well we're just going to try to force everybody to jump in and like like a truste blondal said turn them into test subjects when when you know higher education is saying this doesn't work U ofm pulled the plug on decades worth of Dei let not argue what they do and what we do are totally different well let's not follow let's not follow that then is this something that we could potentially wait until it's developed and then determine if it's apt in opt out because we're talking about stuff that hasn't even been developed by the committee yet so we really we have it our heads what we feel like

273it's going to look like and and I hear that maybe there's some questioning if that's really going to be the outcome so perhaps we we wait until it's actually developed and and then we weigh in because it's coming back in front of the board anyhow yeah it has to are you saying wait on the policy or on the forb are these is this a combo deal or are we voting on them separately they they were presented as a combo deal in the um I I think I think the the the the the opt out policy I'm kind of with Glenn on that it's it's kind of seems like it's it gives a different impression of what it actually were trying to do like when you read it it kind of go well we're not going

274to be able to do any kind of racial harassment education for our students which is not accurate because even if the doj wasn't involved with this we're still doing it we have to do it that that was the fear I think expressed this afternoon it was form itself is the I the form itself I don't know how we could use that it's it's not worded anywhere near as neutral as it should or and it doesn't reflect the actual the actual content or what is actually created right because we haven't created it yet Mr Scott you you alluded to a four-year-old and if my four-year-old leaves my house and thinks it's okay to talk to someone I I want I hope someone corrects them that's not the intent the intent is not to stop any of

275that it's to help everyone understand you're developing something and you're you don't know an outcome you don't know how it's going to affect the children you don't know what you're you know we've got SE we've got three hours it's still you know you're saying it's not working we need to do this what how do you know it's going to work but yet you don't know you're you're you're you're taking a student and the parents you're taking the the moral compass away from the parents right like it it doesn't matter if we agree with them or not or however you train them it's not it's it's we have a responsibility to for Education not all of this extens you know extension of education and that's what I'm saying is that parents should be the the sole

276purpose or the sole person to dictate their their students experience at school that's what I'm saying and I'm saying that the opin for I mean everybody can weigh in um it's just something that I feel is important that you know it brings it brings to light that that this is a new developed process it's newly developed our you know all all of these things are not necessarily you know provable if if the doj and the map Center was not part of this would we be sitting here having this conversation because we develop stuff all the time all of our programs our our math curriculum our English curriculum we try new curriculums we develop new things it's not emotionally it's not emotionally stuff is part of our education of what we do math it's critical to

277educate students no I'm say but you said math we change you change CTO all the saying when you do when you do programs when you create programs when you create anything you don't know if it's going to work right away you have to collect data you have to figure out how it's going to work this is this is no different and how do you know that whatever you created is going to be it's going to be something that doesn't affect a student negatively emotionally you don't know and like anything that we do right but that's the point of the reason why this is so we don't do it at all we don't train anything racially no we don't do anything about educating students over race if you highlight something like that division that's what I'm

278hearing that's that's you just said you think everyone's going to opt in right I see most parents will probably opt in when they see what we actually do because I trust our committee to develop it but we also have agreed to let the Department of Justice have the final say in these training materials and the Great Lakes equity center so and it sounds like the troubling language from this draft form is directly off some of the Great Lakes equity center website is that what you said truste I just took the programming yeah like trading programing I just did the standardized you know like the policy or the I'm sorry which makes sense if we were doing direct to student if we were what doing direct to student like direct to Consumer direct to student if

279we were taking say a package and delivering it to our students 100% word for word but this is reflecting something that hasn't been created yet MH but aren't we delivering that through our staff isn't the delivery mechanism our staff right the delivery mechanism is whatever uh Personnel the Department of Justice authorizes to teach our students because that's been signed away too MH I I'll use a benign example hopefully with the opt-in versus opt out as a district how do we decide if somebody you know whether whether we're going to use an opt-in form for a field trip I mean we as parents we get those does that mean that most of the people aren't going to opt into the field [Music] trip there's usually exchange of funds with a field trip that it doesn't correlate

280to me but maybe it does others I I think the point though is that it's it's it's a very for specifically for the doj training it's a very uh polarizing subject for men in the community maybe maybe we can agree or disagree on how many that is whether it's it is or isn't but the point is I think the parents should be the final Arbiter of whether or not the content that we are having to put in front of our students is something that they want and I agree I I don't think there's mistrust in what our group intends on doing I think there's a tremendous mistrust in the doj and a tremendous mistrust in them coming back on a whim and saying No this this really isn't good enough that fear is out there

281I have that fear um and then we deal with it when that comes cuz this doesn't so this represents this doesn't represent this form for me doesn't represent what our team is doing of which is the trusting component that you had indicated right so I guess that goes back to my question about if these are uh are are together or independent um if we're saying we can't create the actual form till we have the actual training materials then that would mean right now we can only create the policy when um when Michelle read the policy Chris asked for clarification and said is this or when you read the motion um Chris asked for clarification said is this are we is this for the form or the policy and you said the policy and you said

282and then um the deic T andal which is here on our agenda you said it wasn't called that but it was called this racial harassment training whatever I took out SEO yes yes so so does that mean that we're only looking at voting on the policy because that's what she stipulated when she read the motion so I mean I submitted the policy and then I followed up with the form because that was what the policy was saying is that there's the policy referen is the form correct so I needed to develop they're going to have to go together and just so the board knows usually what happens is the board establishes policy with an expectation that the administration creates the form that we then put out there to our parents and I think what I

283heard Dave say is what we create is usually a very neutral form that simply says I've looked at the materials and I want to opt in or I want to opt out very generic and what our concern on this particular way it's written is as a parent you're going oh my gosh what is this stuff and and you're not it's very biased towards saying no way and heck am I going to adopt into this versus the Board saying to us the administration uh if you recall last spring when we did the uh survey with the students um my my uh first students I forgot the name of it exactly but uh my student voice the board was very adamant that we send that out to our parents first which we did we sent it out

284parents got to look at it and then they chose whether not their children would take it when when it was time and what we're saying to the board is we don't we don't think that the opin option is a good option it's going to be much harder to try to get the the majority of students to be involved in what we're doing which we think is good for kids but we're more than open to the board to say everything you do when when it's adopted when we create this and it's adopted by the board we're going to send it out to our parents we're going to make sure they have it they're going to take the time to look at it and then decide to fill out an opt out form or do nothing and

285their kids do it same with surveys we're going to send the survey out we're going to say here it is if you don't want your child to do it just sign off that your child's not doing it or like one person told me I if you just tell me when they're going to take it I just won't send them to school that day well that's your choice as a parent as well well so that's that's our whole piece on this I think you're you if you're going to do anything you should be looking at policy adoption is what you're doing at the board here yeah and and the policy does not indicate some connection to this particular form it just it does have some form requirements so you know we could even add something to

286the policy if we wanted that the Forum come across the board table prior to being presented to parents I suppose this policy also isn't specific to just the work on the doj though um well it says that it's between Harland Consolidated Schools Great Lakes equity and the Department of Justice that's the policy statement so it it is specific to that there's a lot of controversy around this kind of stuff yeah so I don't think it would apply to any of the things we're currently doing or policy reviews no but that was a valid concern it's like is that going to stop us from doing what we're currently doing in in terms of um this the policy clarifies the the form needs clarification and I I don't I don't see why these two have to be

287married to one another here here um the form can always be created well like check said they create the forms right we well I was just providing guidance I guess I can so can I move to amend the motion to adopt new policy it doesn't have a number so we'll have to refer to it is the as presented eii policy is that clear or do I need to expand again in the interest of trying to move this along okay amend it to re eliminate the form from the motion so we just vote on the policy the opt-in policy for racial harassment training programming and surveys motion by Mr Keller to amend the policy to eliminate the form support supported by Mrs blondal any discussion I'll be honest guys I need some additional time with this

288verbage I'm supportive of a standard I'm supportive of a structure but to continue this let's just move forward Mr Scott yes Mr galeski yes Mrs Coleman no Mr Keller yes Mr C no Mrs blondel yes and I'm a no that motion passes that was just to amend that was to amend so now I move to adopt the policy adopted policy for racial harassment training programming and surveys U as a standalone policy without the opt-in form as amended as a as amended second Mr Scott's motion to adopt the policy as amended supported by Mr goleski any discussion hearing none Mr Scott yes Mr goleski yes Mrs Coleman no Mr Keller yes Mr Costa no Mrs Lil yes and I'm a no that motion passes item 2D so I had submitted to the uh to the board

289last week I I had originally submitted a resolution entitled resolution to commit to open committee meetings with public attendance and comment uh I had submitted for inclusion in the board package it was not selected but I do appreciate that President glabach did add a uh discussion regarding committee structure however I feel it's necessary to begin conducting committee meetings in open immediately I'm going to read the resolution whereas the Heartland Consolidated Schools Board of Education recognizes the importance of transparency accountability and Community involvement in the decision-making process of the district and whereas the board values the input of parents students staff taxpayers and other stakeholders in the development of policies and decisions that affect the district and whereas open meetings and public engagement are in line with the best practices for Effective governance of public school

290districts and Foster trust between the board and the community now therefore it be resolved that effective immediately all committee meetings of the Heartland Consolidated School Board of Education shall be open to the public for attendance and comment in accordance with applicable laws and regulations regarding public public meetings be it further resolved that all committee meetings shall provide opportunity for public comment and under guidelines established by the committee chair for the respectful and orderly participation of community members be it further resolved that all committee meetings shall be recorded and live streamed and that all recordings shall be made publicly available for transparency in public review be it further resolved that Heartland Consolidated Schools will provide adequate public notice of the committee meetings to ensure that public has ample opportunity to attend and participate resolved this 16th

291day of December 2024 I move that the Heartland Consolidated Schools Board of Education adopt the resolution to commit to open committee meetings with public attendance and comment second motion by Mr Scott seconded by supported by Mr goleski well taking the fire from my policy but um well I have no problems necessarily with the resolution I think it's a cart before the horse because our policy is doesn't have any meat on it today so I did send the team a policy Revision in which I think needs to happen in order to support it that clearly delineates what a committee is and isn't because it is not a decision-making body um nor does it have any authority over staff over anything like that um and so the reason it was added as a discussion item was so

292that the two could come together um but Mr Scott chose differently obviously at the beginning of the meeting so that is my consense and so the reason I did that and I I did go back and forth obviously you and I have discussed um the committee structure and my feeling is that our committee current committee structure um if it doesn't violate the open meeting act it walks the line um and probably trips over the line I have you know I'll kind of give you where this started I I took the masb orientation as uh as directed by the orientation policy and part of what masb dictates is that all committee meetings should generally be open to the public open to uh public comment Etc and so I had a conversation with one of the masb

293attorneys who reviewed our current policy and said well it doesn't say that they're open or close it's just as a policy that it's not a decision-making entity which which is true however uh case law and several attorney general um opinions have have decided that just because a committee doesn't have decisionmaking Authority does not mean that they don't affect the decision process right and so for example the library of Michigan has a open meetings act handbook and their policy is that um board meetings have to be open if the business could lead to a decision so even though their committees don't have the authority to make decisions they they want to act in the best interest of of following the law and make sure that even if it could lead to a decision that it's held

294open um attorney general Mike Cox in uh 1990 something um gave an opinion that uh if if an exercise of government Authority which effectuates public policy then it is subject to the OM um and if it if the committee is effectively authorized to determine what items come across the table of the full board then they should be under the uh the open meetings act so that means if a committee for for example when I was in building and site and we talk about transportation and we talk about some ideas that we want to bring to the board well those ideas we bring to the board for the boards decision that's one thing but the idea is that we throw in the garbage in that meeting is in fact a decision not to allow the board

295to discuss that and that means that leads to decision making and that's where we're walking the line right now and I've talked like I said I've talked to one of them ASB attorneys and his general idea was well why wouldn't you have them open it's the best practice of public schools to do this you're you're not going to have people show up and have a call to public that lasts 3 hours I mean chances are nobody's going to show up but what we're doing is showing transparency to the public we're allowing Public public um comment participation and recording and documenting those meetings so that if there is a a accusation of om violation later on we can say no we held everything uh out in the public um and again another another item uh Morrison

296versus East Lancing courts ruled and that was in a municipality case not a school case but similar situation their committees East Lancing committees were not authorized to renle decisions just like ours however the court found that they again determined what the board hears and sees that was in itself part of the decision-making process and therefore they were violating the open meetings act so I feel it's necessary to begin holding uh open meetings immediately I'm all for the policy revisions absolutely but if that takes 3 months uh that means for the next three months we continue to violate the Oma I will say that hold on you're indicating potentially how's that thank you we can't be doing that go ahead I do know that um in Fenton um recently they did away with their committees and

297now they have full meetings um as suggested by Mr Scott um and I I understand the reason for it I mean there's a lot of good discussion that can come out of that I'm pretty sure that um the uh God I can't remember the school district next door Milford I think they have open committee meetings pardon hon Valley hon Valley thank you I believe they have open committee meetings in their District that works well and generates interest in future Schoolboard members too so they start to get involved and understand it before they get on good point I I can appreciate president Glock your concerned with the policy I think we do need to do that I to me when I read this it's basically a a commitment by the board to go do it so

298that's why I think in this case it's not necessarily you know putting cart before the horse cuz again it's saying we're going to do this maybe it takes a month two three four months whatever it may take to get the policy appreciate that you've already put some draft language out there um so hopefully it won't take long but again for me this is just a a commitment that the board agrees that we want to move forward with with that and for that I am supportive if it came together I would 100% be supportive thank you any further discussion yeah I've got a question um in the next to last paragraph it states that we'll um we'll record all the meetings live stream all the meetings um and that recordings will be made publicly available blah

299blah blah when this is not possible say there's a technical difficulty say there's some issue where where does this put us like what are we now breaking policy or you know what I mean it's as as Mr as Trust as uh Treasurer Keller said the this is not policy it's a commitment by the board to hold to hold open board meetings while we can while we can figure policy out so it is not policy I don't think uh I I don't think there could be any U negative or legal ramifications from a technical difficulty I just going to chime in real quick here and then we can vote I'm just don't understand like um you indicated that like not anybody's going to show up anyways right so so where where are we going with I

300mean like I you've been on a couple committees meetings already um the conversation that can be had in in a smaller setting I think it wife for one appreciate like I appreciate the fact that I've got the ears of the superintendent the assistant superintendent it's myself and a couple other board members we can just have a little bit of conversation we're not making decisions we're just being informed and I'm just wondering when you go to this I'm assuming it's going to be out here and then you're going to have call to the public are you going to be able to have those same conversations or because you're going to get seven people's input as opposed to just two or three people just bouncing around what they're they're hearing again I mean it I I like

301again it's it's going to pass that's fine I just I wonder if why it's so necessary and I do want to bring up one thing um that I think the district and me personally will uh continue to monitor is we've had time several meetings where people cannot act like adults and so I can't have you know our resource officers at these meetings I can't people are going to have to behave themselves and if they don't we're going to have to rethink this as a district so to answer your question uh trusty Costa the the idea of yes I know very few people people would will attend but to have them documented recorded is going to help us from a liability perspective if uh there's some accusation that a that a uh committee was making decisions

302or or whatnot it also by publishing them it gives the ability so there I'm not proposing that these are all Committee of the whole so I'm not proposing seven people have to show up I'm proposing that it's still two or three people but by posting them and making them available to the public that means a board member who's not on that committee who has interest in the subject can still attend without breaking the law um there's going to be subjects we're dealing with over the coming months and years I believe that are going to want more attention especially when it comes to some safety items maybe to these Transportation items um and right now uh board members are prohibited from attending committee meetings in fear of violating the OM this would alleviate all those concerns

303any further discussion on item 2D resolution hearing none Mr Scott yes Mr galeski yes Mr Mrs Coleman yes Mr Keller yes Mr Costa I don't think it's necessary no Mrs bondil yes I'm a no I'll support it when the policy comes that motion passes moving on to items uh 3A new and revised policy Edgar revisions an additional updates there's a list of several policies that came through from Neola in regards to some of our legislative changes Chuck do you want to give a very quick overview of those you all have them in your packet I ask that you take a look at them bring forward any concerns before the next meeting so that we can understand if we need to do modifications prior to doing modifications at the at at the full yeah those policies

304are very self-explanatory um the first group the largest group there are really having to do with accounting principles things that have to be in place based on uh practices for how we record all that information um Rachel do you need to say anything about that no these are all federally mandated and really just apply to um federal grants and spending of federal grants and so um the uniform guidance was updated our policies just have to uh reflect those updates and then uh policy for employment of co-curricular extracurricular we're already doing that everybody has to be trained CPR all of our coaches and AED training uh so we're already doing that we're already taking care of the opiate antagonist policy this this just make sure that it's uh updated but we already have those you have

305a policy with uh that available on campuses uh throughout the district uh the let's see the policy 5340 student accidents again um we already have a cardiac response plan in all of our edps uh uh which are emergency uh development plans um Kate operates those and make sure those are up to date every year uh when this came out we looked and we already have the cardiac respons plan in all of our plans so that'll be good um student conduct again uh just uh the AI um if anybody watched 60 Minutes uh this uh yesterday on AI and how uh schools are dealing with students taking a picture of their teacher their principal some a girl a boy and you have this AI platform there's many of them out there that then takes that picture

306that has clothes on and creates an AI version without clothes on and passing that around really really dangerous stuff and certainly hurtful stuff so um you know in the world we live in uh I I think about how some of the stuff have come out on social media and stuff about me over the last four years and it's just a matter of time someone decides they're going to put a picture of naked Mr Hughes out there I'm just saying that it's just a matter of time right like it's silliness but it's a reality uh so those are the AI versions there and then CH criminal justice information security um we do get audited every year on our um files uh for hand uh fingerprints and whatnot that just makes sure we understand that we have

307these procedures and we have to follow them quick and dirty thank you item 3B Transportation followup Mr Scott would you like to review this under understanding it is 1111 and some of us have to wake up in roughly 5 hours I think Mr Hughes has put out quite a good uh update several times on transportation and made it available last week uh at a Q&A session so I don't think we need to discuss it at this point item 3C committee structure this is in relation to policy 0155 if you have any feedback on that policy and again this policy is the support of the resolution that was passed today but it actually creates meat around the policy and creates an actual policy the resolution today was not a policy um if you could please review

308that and get any edits back to me um and we will be sure to include this in the packet for the public um item 4 a future meetings next meeting January 13th 6:30 p.m. right here um we expect Miss blondel and Mr Costa to both be in attendance um I expect both of you to also talk I call to the public thank you item 4 B informational items does anyone have any informational items that they would like to share with the 10 Troopers in the room but I I'd like to say again before I leave sorry I'd like to say again thank you so much it's been an honor to represent the community it's been an honor to work with all of you whether we agree or not I still respect you hopefully you feel

309the same we don't Mr Scot and I just wanted to say I I I have two pages written about truste blondal but in the in this uh to avoid time going on till 12:30 I will say it's been a pleasure to to serve for just two meetings with you overlap I'm glad we got to do that and and um because you are one of the people who kind of got me interested and uh paying more attention to what goes on at this table um from your your first meeting I think I ran up to you frantic that again I didn't get a chance to to do the call to the public after they changed the agenda and um so I appreciate all you've put in over the last two years sticking to your guns and

310also always talking about the impact of the students which I think is very very important so thank you Mr Scott maybe you could read that to her after and you could stay here till 12:30 I was going to bring a sh shuder board for you Michelle but uh that's a private joke so awesome any additional informational items hearing none item five we are adjourned good night good night good night every but we were having so much [Music] fun three people stay till the end [Music] to my house so I like drop off tomorrow and like