001thank you it has six thirty Japanese rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge um I don't want to be approval of the agenda items I moved again June 12 2023 regular meeting I had something I just wanted to bring up before we approved that for the agenda I just wanted to see if we could just move one of the action items up right behind the superintendent's report and that would be the new hires since we have a lot talking about today I think it might serve them well if we could do that right after the uh well I think I think Mr Gilles and once we once we have support then we can have conversation so motorbikes is foreign superintendent's report I don't personally have a problem with that if anybody else that has
002a concern with moving that Okay so Renee are you getting that we're going to be moving an item 2D to I guess type it would be 2A now so h2a let me just log out if anyone [Music] ahead of honestly called them apologies report so after superintendent report I guess that would be 1G I think right any other discussion there are none Mr googleski yes Mrs Shaw yes yes which color yes yes vitamin C approval the minutes May 8th 2023 regular meeting I have one thing on the meeting minutes starting we just went through them I ordered a few minutes from May 8th 2023 regular meeting be approved I said support you soon before especially yeah all right we'll get it right one of these days all right Mrs Chandra something to say yep so
003under agenda approved um the last item right before minutes approved it's on the second page of meeting minutes it's the motion for 8805 it says motion carried seven zero but it was actually four three just to take out okay so I'll show you where's it on the backside yeah supported by Keller page seven packet okay all right thanks God all right that's been changed any other discussion yes I did have one I have as well um on page eight so the next page [Music] um second or second to last item on policy 88 sorry 8305 says motion and carrying four three but I see three yeses and four no's but I do believe the motion did carry so I think there's a incorrect voting designation for someone I may have that in my house I'm
004sure when I can go back and look at the video institution okay thanks for touching that any other discussion very Anonymous to go Gillespie yes shop yes moment yes Mr Kellerman yes yes I don't want to be superintendent's report uh first I'd like to thank the high school staff and all of those that attended graduation on Friday night it was fantastic um just to have all the students there to see the parents they're supporting to see all of you there uh that attended it was a really good night we had a great speeches a great song For the First Time Ms Abel sang I think in my time so all went well so again Kate you and your staff especially thank you for putting that together and uh Nicole Conley and because it was Heartland
005schools graduation at Harlan high school we had Heartland high school we had Legacy altered bed we had HBA I think on total of I counted 458 graduates so it was a good night so thank you very much for that next I'd like to um ask Mr minsker to present the educational goals and continuity of learning plan and be your report Mr minsker all right good evening everybody um I sent a copy in the board uh to the board earlier about a week and a half ago and it's also I put a copy in front of you as well and before I get to kind of the data I have to I have a skill I have to read here at the state requires me to read so just make sure everybody understands what this is
006as a reminder this educational goals and continuity of learning plan is required for all school districts in the state of Michigan under section 98b at Public Act 144 of 2022. it was enacted by the state of Michigan following the pandemic related academic impact that schools experienced in an attempt to ensure that school districts have goals related to student growth and reading and math part of that requirement is that districts use benchmark assessments to track growth as well as report updates and results at board meetings in the fall in February and again at the end of the school year this is the end of the year report from the legislation this report is also posted on the transparency page on the district website for the community as a reminder the mandated goals and requirements from the
007state are set for every school district in the state the data from the benchmark assessments is pulled by the state in order for the legislature to track Trends in student growth this is the year-end results from the benchmark assessments in Heartland that that is then gathered with all the other state data from the other districts in the state and they pull it all together and they give it to the legislature to look at it so for ELA and this data is the data that they collect and you report I have a lot more data that I'll explain in a second but this is the only that mistake collapses I'm going to read right here and Ela early literacy Benchmark is given to K2 and 93 of all students showed an inquiry scale score from Fall
008to Spring and for grades three through eight the starter ballast assessment 97 of all students showed an increase improved scale score from fall this spring for math and K2 early literacy Benchmark 95 of all students showed an improve scale score from Fall to Spring and in three through eight Smarter Balance assessment 98 of all students sort of improve scale score from Fall of spring um separate from these mandates I also gave you other data which includes proficiency data from Fall to Spring and [Music] um in the early literacy Benchmark and smarter Dallas and the dra it's also the efficiency data not necessarily have been improved with all the spring but what they got in the fall and the spring and I did that because uh we also lose this use its data as snapshots to
009gauge student Improvement but it's really important that you put this data in proper context these formative assessments m-step PSAT s-a-t all those assessments we use together an overall student performance should be looked at in all areas of students educational profile so this is just one snapshot of how a student did not not their entire profile but that being said we're really pleased with the increased scale scores that the achievement is specific this specific benchmark assessment for this year the m-step data is still coming in that will be reported out to you as soon as I get it and the Embargo is lifted because of the bar going that data and then PSAT should be and sat should be out in the next couple weeks and I'll report that to you when I get that as
010well any questions I uh you just mentioned there's an affair embargo on the data what's what's that mean the state puts in embargo when it's all initial data so it's not final yet for example the ELA data is the writing philosophy scored so whatever scores that are in there right now is not the final scores so I can't present them yet because of that fun one board if you have phones or anything on and it's up by your microphone that's what we get the static from from the cell phones just so you know um so if you have those if you could move them away from your mics so in the superintendent report thank you Mr Hughes item one e would be our new players I move the Board of Education upon the recommendation of
011the superintendent honors information or a teaching contract to Sharon voice for the 2023-24 school year at the step one a VA salary track pending verification of credentials and public acts 99 83 and 189 requirements that applicable support partialitis hormones hypnosis clay bark any discussion very known scoring yes Charlotte yes Mrs Coleman yes this is great about it yeah extra Keller yes yes that motion carries congratulations good evening everybody very very uh privileged to introduce Sharon boycevert uh JK teacher at Lakes uh junior kindergarten is uh well kindergarten I tell people I think I've been at every level now is either as an administrator teacher in kindergarten JK's is challenging you can have perhaps you can make an argument of the widest variety of abilities and experiences coming in and these kids are amazing they just
012want to be cared about and learn and they need lots of structure for a lot of these two new kindergarten kids it's their first time in all day everyday schooling so that rigor is something we have to build throughout the year Sharon is simply one of the calmest uh people the demeanor she has you know always providing kids with a structure they need the DLC they need you know caring about them uh every day and they're always looking with smiles and it's it's not easy and she does a great job very happy to have her our husband Jim is here who's a local business owner and she has a son going into ninth grade a daughter going into eighth grade and uh you know uh really glad to have her as part of our Lakes
013Community and also of course the Heartland Community so thank you congratulations Sharon I recommend that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent offers a probation and teaching contract to Abigail Colvin for the 2023-24 school year at the Step 2 M.A salary track pending verification of credentials and public acts 9983 and 189 requirements if applicable here in the discussion yes yes it's a shop yes yes yes Mr Keller yes yes congratulations Abby a little bit I guess a little before so my the first question we ask is Health about yourself so Abby said oh my gosh well I love dogs and I love the lake and I'm like Abby restocking my Facebook page because if you see mine it's about dogs but she did her research so um but no she's seriously during
014her interview just wowed us I mean just a natural um we are so excited to have Abby at her school and she is going to fit in perfectly with our all of our staff so Abby Welcome to our Farms family thank you and then I would just like to thank the board um for my recommendation and for being able to be a part of the Heartland Community it's truly a blessing thank you I recommend that the Board of Education and on the recommendation of the superintendent offers a probationary teaching contract to Whitney Engel 2023-24 school year at step two be a salary track to pending verification on credentials and public acts 9983 and 189 requirements if applicable all right Mrs Charles Bill support by Mrs Coleman hear any discussion and not Mr Golden Alaskan yes
015Sean yes this is Coleman yes this is Wayback yeah color yeah yeah and I also yes that motion carries congratulations foreign things down I have a lot of hires today so Whitney comes to us from Webberville but most importantly she is a Heartland grad um she actually did her student teaching the year before last in our building with Lori clay and then she did a long-term sub position within our building and was phenomenal we didn't get her in time last year but we got her this year um so Whitney we you again will fit perfectly she again impressed us so much and just a natural teacher so welcome I also just want to say thank you for the opportunity to join the Heartland Community like Mrs Cheney said this is very much home for me
016it's the district that I graduated from so I'm very happy to be back and thank you for the opportunity I moved to the Board of Education upon a recommendation of the superintendent honors the probationary teaching contract with Lisa grimier for the 2023-24 school year at the step two M.A salary check any verification of credentials and public acts 9983 and 189 requirements if political support motionless is former the support by Mrs claybach especially hearing none Mr Google yes shop yes yeah Mr Keller yes yes Social Security congratulations thank you we are pleased to secure another very talented and caring educator at Village and Lisa has been part of our team for the last two years two years ago she did a long-term sub in first grade and in fourth grade and last year she rocked it
017out in third grade so we are super glad to make sure we keep her as part of our village family so congratulations thank you congratulations I recommend that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent office of probation and teaching contract to Rachel Jacobs for the 2023-24 school year at step four be a salary attract Penny verification of credentials in public ads 99 83 and 189 requirements if applicable the discussion you're not Mr Google yes Sean yes this is Coleman yes Square bar yeah which color yes yes I'm also yes congratulations we have another Heartland grad um Rachel taught for a while graduate Heartland taught for a while in Minnesota Missouri I keep getting them mixed up I just asked her before sorry Missouri um but she had the longest interview of everyone
018it was a whole year right so she was here all year with us proved herself within the first couple days that she was going to be an awesome teacher so next year she's going to teach fifth grade science and math bars and again um in her kids school are going through her own also so we are super glad you're here congratulations thank you to the board um Mr Hughes Mr van UPS I am so excited to be home and to start this journey again thank you [Music] I recommend that the board of education on the recommendation of the superintendent offers a probationary teaching contract to Rachel Tania for the 2023-24 school year at the step one BA Plus 10 salary track pending verification of prudentials and public acts 99 83 and 189 requirements if applicable
019I'm really sorry Rachel at five butcher that I say foreign yes this is shot yes yes Mr Keller yes yes I'm also yes congratulations my last one I promise um so Rachel was one of our first interviews we had this year and when we got done she comes out of sorry she's teaching special education um right out of college from Grand Valley and honestly she left the room and I said to Adrian Dean I said can we go get her now because I was so blown away by her interview and her knowledge and her enthusiasm so again another great fit at farms and we're super excited congratulations I think I just want to thank the board I'm so so so excited to be in Harlan such a great community in the great district and I'm
020super eager to get into the classroom and meet my students well thank you foreign I gotta tell the Lord and the audience if you don't know this um we have a process that works really well for us and I'll win the principles recommend hires they come and they meet with uh Scott and I and we get an opportunity to share about the culture of Heartland talk about the family of Heartland talk about the three R's what it means to us and it's really informal and we actually start the meeting every time with you're not here for us not to hire you we're just here to just have a conversation so you get to know us and I am blown away by the quality of people that get sent to us year after year Mickey I
021think he still has some hires if I'm not mistaken uh we'll have quite a few hires on the 26 that will come forward including an athletic director we've got a lot of things going on uh people want to be in Ireland and so far very um a lot of applicants for our position is coming from school districts that they want to come to Heartland and this is what's so awesome about the process is they want to be here with us and I just the caliber it just blows me away every time we sit down and we look out and I see these young people here and I go wow right so I just want you to know that this is this is just a really special place and a lot of the teachers tell us
022that are coming from other school districts they never met the superintendent and the assistant superintendent or like are you kidding me like this is our process and so we really appreciate that and then and it's just exciting so I want to share that with you and thank our team for always sending this good cameras thank you Mr Houston then just on kind of on that same note I thought it was quite impressive that either either they're an alumni or they have kids that they're going to be in the district something that speaks highly of the candidates that have been why they want to be here and the right things that we're doing in the district so thank you to all those new hires who are excited to have you uh I don't want that all
023the public I gotta have to remind the speakers that you can please express themselves in a manner of silver due respect their dignity perhaps for others who may be affected by your comments each speaker may be limited in three minutes it worked out last time where we had a timer going two minutes and 30 seconds you're gonna hear a a little bell and then that's your indication of kind of you have about 30 seconds to kind of grab things up that way you will be able to speak your full time so you just know something there are children in the audience such as that we want to be mindful of that during their calls and public comments yeah civil manner that's okay uh first call card I have Gary schreier sorry Carrie Kerry Schreiber I
024came in running to fill that out before 6 30. so my name wasn't that Lunchable all right hello everyone my name is Carrie schreier I'm a Heartland parent and resident and I'm here to speak in regards to the recommended changes to policy number 8805 regarding flags and displays in the classrooms as well as to specifically address concerns regarding Mr gobowleski's intention and public commentary Mr gogoleski has recently engaged in a discussion on Facebook regarding students being disciplined for continuing to call a student by a different name I'm not privy to the details but it appears to be a bullying situation where a student was teasing and teased and or taunted by the use of a name other than the student's preferred name Glenn said the following and this is a direct quote no one no
025one has the right to force anyone to call them a name other than their legal name secondly I will not enable someone suffering from gender dysphoria or other neuroses or disorders to play pretend much like psychiatrists do not play along with the schizophrenic who claims an invisible friend is next to them I have several concerns regarding the statement the first being that Glenn is not a psychiatrist a psychologist a reproductive endocrinologist or a treating physician of any student in Heartland I fail to understand why he feels that his opinion not only can but should override the decisions of students treating Physicians and their parents when I asked how exactly we would determine what name students could or should use in class if we were restricting this to Legal names he replied with Carrie please stop
026playing dumb this isn't about nicknames this is about changing John to Jane not Thomas to tinney and I'm not taking away parents rights to call their kids what they want no matter how recklessly stupid and irresponsible it may be I am taking no parents rights away by refusing to play pretend and they have no right to force me to go along with it what part of this has you plummixed Mr googleski has determined that his opinion alone should be the overarching decision of what children are to be called in class not their parents not the students it strikes me as quite odd that the person who ran for the board on the basis of emphasizing parents rights is expressly wishing to take away the most parent the most basic of Parental decisions what name is
027used for their students and then is defending that made forcing a child to use a different name is not impacting their parents rights to say it was quite simple quote when a child is first enrolled their biological sex is on their enrollment form this according to Glenn is what should be used to determine if children are addressed by male or female names not what their parents prefer them to be called Mr Google FP apparently feels that he has the rights to call children whatever he wants based on their biological gender assigned at Birth and or their presumed gender based on their appearance I have daughters named Adrian Ellery they're both gender-neutral names are they allowed to use them at school my son has long hair and was often mistaken for a girl when he was
028younger is a teacher going to have to check to see what his biological gender is on his registration forms to determine if he can be called Isaac as we discussed apology changes to rule 8805 that would micromanage what stickers and decorations teachers can have in their classroom I encourage you to keep in mind Mr globaleski's extreme beliefs how far is he willing to go to micromanage our lgbtq youth with a completely out of sight in school first the district decides what stickers or posters can be in a classroom and then the district decides what your name is please vote no on the revisions to 8805 and continue to support all of the students in Heartland schools as Mr gokuleski himself has repeatedly said Heartland should be safe to all and at the very basic level
029that means using their name and protecting the right to be called by their name thank you thank you the current rainbow the current rainbow sign has been an inflammatory and controversial subject in Heartland for over two years now this very device assigned has never approved to be hung in the schools because of its sexual nature and favoritism it shows to one group of students while discriminating against another it has needlessly divided the community no group of students deserves to be bullied but at the same time no group deserves special treatment because of their lifestyle or beliefs either everyone should receive fair and Equitable treatment by the Heartland administrators and up until now that has not been the case good news is that we now have a solution a new safe space sign that represents all
030Heartwood students I want to thank Michelle blondeo and a group of nine traditional value students that have worked tirelessly for the past two years to end this discrimination I contacted Megan going back in Sydney shot at the end of April about the new redesign of the current sign and what that sign should look like so it would represent all students it was after my conversation with Cindy that she had some students at the high school come up with several designs using these parameters Cindy ran with these designs ran these designs by Chris costing Kristen Coleman and I met with Cindy on May 15th to review the one that had been selected I thought the redesign looked good with the exception with minor tweet to the name after nearly two years in action by administrators and
031some board members there is now agreement on a sign and a Way Forward Cindy has commented that she had a kid in high school and she felt it was time to do something about safe space so I want to thank Cindy Chris Kristen and Megan for finally recognizing the need and for getting on board at the last minute the rainbow sea space sign should be removed in the new safe place sign should be hung in Everett classroom in Harlan we have a standard we should have a standardized classroom that consists of American flag a new safe safe place sign in the three hours the benefits is of this are the student will get familiar with these items in kindergarten and it remains the same through through the time until they graduate so there's no confusion
032on what is being displayed or the meaning behind it these three items are inclusive of all students and there's no need for anything else it should also be put into policy that this new safe place sign cannot be modified in any way color shape Etc so as to not cause confusion or controversy a stop sign is always a stop sign wherever you go it never changes always the same shape same color that's what we want to sign that represents all students it never changes I hope you will all support the new design and then we can get back to the important issues such as getting our kids ready to compete in the real world this is takovich thank you once again for letting me come uh what I'm going to speak is going to take
033two minutes and then a little pound afterwards go one nation under God referring to our flag who is this God that the public schools are fearful of everyone has questions about God what is he like does he really care about me how do I get to know him on one occasion a class of kindergarten students or pre-kindergarten we're drawing pictures about people from the Bible this is back in the 80s one youngster was especially intent in her work what are you drawing an observer asked oh I'm drawing a picture of God she replied confidently well that's a nice idea he answered but really no one knows what God looks like oh they will when I get done she replied and hurried on with her drawing think about that for a moment they'll know what God
034looks like when I get done an overstatement yes for a four-year-old but not for Christ Jesus he came to show us God one of the names given to Jesus Emmanuel means god with us when Jesus was on Earth God was on Earth the Bible says that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and he's still doing it today when Jesus came to Earth he revealed God so God is compassionate through him is the knowledge of God he is the bread of life Jesus is to your soul what bread is to your body on the cross of Calvary Jesus fully revealed God's love when he died he was actually taking our place that we might live there he took the punishment that you and I deserve for our sins why the answer is God
035so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life that's John 3 16. I think some of us may know that by Christ's birth his life on Earth his death and his resurrection from the grave we can know God he promises I am the way I am the truth and I am the life no man comes on to the father but by me do you know God or do you just know about him there's a big difference knowing him requires personal faith in his son and what he has accomplished for you coming to him is your admission that you are turning from your sins to receive Jesus as your savior and Lord Jesus Christ invites you behold I stand at the door
036and knock If any man hears my voice opens the door I will come in Christ is God's answers to all your questions a change of heart which I mentioned before and regarding the my comment regarding separation of Churchill state that's a myth of course which I proved to back a couple months ago by the facts and this is really separation of God and man thank you very much thank you Don Schmidt well good evening everyone I'd like to briefly comment on three items tonight uh first is the SRO SSO recommendations uh policy 8805 and the recommendation to hire a director of student services uh one my family and I were very happy to read the school resource officer security officer recommendations to help deter and address potential violent threats to our children teachers and staff
037I strongly encourage the board to pursue appropriate contracts for this service number two uh my family and I agree with the flags and displays 8805 policy update which require that only content neutral media be used in the districts uh the use of media that influences social sexual or political causes has no places in our schools only causes division within the community and society and you're hearing the evidence of this tonight this division tonight and number three I was quite surprised to read on page 46 of the agenda the recommendation of higher director of student services especially the job description the following items are contained in the job description racial education and policy compliance student focus groups at the middle school and high school racial caucuses District climate and culture race-based surveys and diversity equity and
038inclusion committee chair for the district so I'm kind of confused as to why a third of the job description line items are race-based I'm guessing this is a position was developed to coordinate several administrative functions it seems to me that District leadership is using the Staffing opportunity to add ideologically driven work streams into our children's educational experiences ask the board not to support this position recommendation as it's currently written on closing if any of the above is any indication of the direction of leadership unless there's a change I'm concerned we might see a reduction in HCS student enrollment let's continue the education of our kids being the top priority in Hartland schools thank you thank you Laurie is it I was finding a wheelchair but I will put this a little closer in case I
039have to say okay thank you where are you gosh it's been a long time yeah I love the school this was my library that was nice to be Michelle thank you as you all know that I had a really bad accident last September at the Silver Lake Dunes so two long rods complete paraplegic they said and I said no thank you God but anyways please Chris it's hard for three minutes so I'm going to try my best and I need you to respect that it's been a long time and I came here today because the lady who asked me to speak for today and this is why I came here because I wanted to come here without this cane okay because I'm gonna get there but my point is she her sister got in a
040bad accident her son was one of the three boys two weeks before Heartland middle school got out was involved and I will not use any names I love any child for whoever they are I love everybody let's get that straight I just have a different opinion than some well these three boys called her by her birth name accidentally my son was there he witnessed it he's like Mom I've known her since kindergarten I like her it's hard for me to identify her as what she wants and he wanted to be in he's got me as a mom I can't even remember my own kids names I would never in a million years want to hurt someone's feelings by not wanting to call them by their real or what they want to identify as or whatever
041but these three boys one of the moms instantly pulled their child out because they said it was a three-day suspension and it was under sexual harassment are you kidding me now I don't lie you can look it up you can ask I'm up here for the mother who couldn't speak because her sister was in a car accident not even two hours ago I am so sorry to say this this is horrible I can't even believe it's under sexual harassment these kids will have this on their record for the rest of their life sexual harassment for calling another child by her birth name and he said mom I've known her since kindergarten I I would have accidentally said that I would have been in trouble so I just want to put that up you know that
042is just so wrong sexual harassment is me groping people what we did in high school and now we get in trouble for it but that sexual harassment or coming on to somebody or meet me in the back room that's sexual harassment Title IX is getting changed and it's wrong now if anybody wants to ask me I can give them proof that they want it then a freshman I've known since forever they're three generations here and people said if you don't like it leave well we've been here and we've had no problems you guys came and it started all that I'm saying is he touched somebody on the tap of their shoulder on the back entering a classroom which the principal at the high school Heartland High School told them that he had it videotaped and
043put him in a room I believe it was a gym teacher I could be wrong in a private room in Terror guy they they told them oh we got proof we have you on this it's sexual harassment and they said you touched him in properly and blah blah blah and finds out when the mother called me and she said Lori what do I do and I said you call up and you protect your child well she found out she asked him for the proof press they asked me for the proof what and he says I'm sorry I didn't videotape it what you you you Paradise my son you told him you had to prove you told him it was sexual harassment and you said you were going to suspend them a couple days later nothing
044then the female I forget her name is it Gregory I'm not sure one of the principles at the high school I'll be finding out soon and kept on calling and says oh no he's got his own suspension she says for what you know sexually assaulting this kid and she goes what are you talking about he touched him on the shoulder to say excuse me now there is a game going around they have to introduce themselves to somebody they don't know but it was marked under sexual harassment and guess what she did she instantly pulled her to get out of the school okay I know these people I grew up with them this is horrible I met her a couple about a month ago at the election she's awesome I love everybody my brother's gay he
045graduated from here my cousin's transgender she's on my side she tells me that that she's transgender she doesn't want any of this sexuality pedophile stuff involved in what she is I walked at the vet and prayed 17 years ago with Mike and Mark for laundry I love them they're our cousins thank you so much are you kidding I've let you go for almost five minutes is that true yeah okay I'm just kidding I'm just tired I will and I'm gonna get to the point and my standing up this point is you guys got to do your jobs please and protect these children it doesn't matter who they identify as or what have respect I know if I was a kid again I'd be in a lot of trouble because I wouldn't purposely not call the
046person by what they want to be called okay and you guys Gotta Give the other people that too all right and just have respect for everybody I love everybody and I want you to know that I love everybody but I didn't know that person I'm really proud because usually you I thank you I do I I hey that's a lot for me to say that I mean that was a nice idea you know any system to try to make sure people just don't consume the time so yeah thank you exactly but but thank you guys and I hope that you guys just listen to that love all of the kids no one's trying to pick on anybody on purpose Jesse broadback okay all right so I'm here tonight to ask you to vote no on
047the proposed policy advisory can't talk now oh my gosh I feel like I might need to have you restart okay so um anyhow on the number 8805 uh this revision alone is a perfect example as to why the safe space stickers and flags and representation is needed for here in our district I believe that it's vital for our kids to see safe space representation and know that they have adults in places that they can turn to to feel accepted and supported at school I asked my seventh my fifth my third graders what they think when it what they think it means when they see Rainbow stickers that say safe space at their schools and they said that they think it means welcoming kindness that they're colorful that they're caring oh my gosh happy that might
048mean equality and a place that you can talk in a place that will help you I understand that that should be the goal for every space in every classroom in this District regardless of a sticker however that simply is not the case so the adults of this community and on the school board should be looking out for all kids especially the ones that are marginalized I attended a school board meeting back in the fall where I witnessed an Incredible strength from a higher than youth she came out in this type of a public setting as a brave beautiful trans young woman her words to the boards were met with heckling eye rolls and yelling from people pretty sure somebody told her sit down out from adults that are not on this board this is a
049reason that we need safe space stickers one of my kids had the opportunity to make their own country a school this past year it was such a cool project right like you can create anything you want to but when she was leaving her class there were two students that were talking about how in their perfect country they would hang all the gay people this is a reason that we need safe space stickers with rainbows the fact that there are so many homophobic social media posts and jokes being shared by adults in this community is a reason that we need safe space stickers not a general one one with rainbows there are kids in this community that call their people gay on the playground or on school buses as a put down and this is a
050reason that we need safe space rainbow stickers these stickers are not harmful and they do not leave anyone out do more research if you think otherwise they reinforce that classroom or staff members but that classroom or staff member's office is an environment where people from marginalized communities can feel confident and that they will not experience discrimination harassment or any other emotional fiscal harm these stickers promote positive mental health and a sense of belonging validation and empowerment removing them could cause harm and isolate students and families who are already singled out for simply being themselves on a daily basis if you step outside this community you will find safe space rainbows and inclusion flags and stickers all over removing stickers and questions with stickers in question would be a massive step back for the school district
051so because I want my children and their friends to grow grow and experience School in an inclusive safe environment where they can be the most they're the most authentic selves I ask you to vote no on this revision and continue to allow the wonderful teachers and staff who do provide safe spaces to passionately do so while supporting and teaching all of the kids in this community thank you thank you Jeff Scott good evening tonight you're going to be voting on a Freedom of Information Act fee appeal I submitted to the board relating to a foia request I submitted about student safety the administration is retaliating against Me by trying to charge an absurd hourly rate to process by employer requests in violation of Michigan law this is retaliatory shameful and flat out illegal in your
052agenda the superintendent has recommended you uphold the fee he quoted is there a conflict of interest here is there something he doesn't want us to see well what have I requested simple the confirmation emails sent to the district every time a crime report is submitted to the Michigan State Police office of school safety I've written my request so simple my fifth grader could perform it so I know any employee that is part of the technology team could easily carry off this search we're literally searching for one incoming email address that means by law you can only charge me the lowest hourly rate of the employee the lowest paid employee capable of searching the email however the administration must not have very much faith in these individuals because they decided that only the CTO Mr Usher
053can perform such a simple search amazingly enough then they can charge me his hourly rate of 75 dollars well at least it's a quick search right one Incoming Email No Mr Hughes says it will take Mr Usher a day and a half that's not a joke a day and a half to search one incoming email address that brings my total for my foia request to just shy of a thousand dollars as I said this is retaliatory Michigan foia law describes this adherent Behavior as arbitrary and capricious I'm happy to take questions when you get to this item on your agenda but I will leave you with the three options you have under Michigan law you can vote to waive the fees which is what I have requested two you can vote to uphold the fees
054or three you can vote to modify the fees however if you choose to uphold or modify the fees the seven of you are required by law to certify that the fee structure is in accordance with with Michigan foia law Mr Hughes didn't put that in your agenda did he if you certify this retaliatory arbitrary and capricious fee structure you will be in violation of Michigan foil law furthermore you will send a message to the residents of this community that you don't really care about transparency and you would rather close these doors and lock us out I look forward to hearing your discussion thank you thank you Mr staff Angela yarber good evening my name is Angela yarber and as of last Friday and I have two graduates of Heartland high school and my family as
055well as an incoming freshman I didn't start paying attention to school board meetings until last October when it became clear to me that I needed to carefully research candidates to make an informed School Board vote last November IBC all school board members to take an active role as elective Representatives on behalf of Heartland students some school board members seem to rubber stand every idea they are presented with and never use critical thinking skills to question information given some school board members ignore parent emails such was the case last fall when a mom contacted this board uh well some of the members present about an inappropriate book that her child had to read and she was ignored for a month some school board members merely refer parents back to Mr Hughes which is many times futile
056as those parents have often already contacted Mr Hughes and are looking for further recourse I really don't know why some of you ran as you don't seem to want to make a difference you just want more of the status quo maybe it's for the photo ops on Facebook and Twitter I don't know it's not clear to me Heartland has become a microcosm of the divisive issues that plague our nation at the last school board meeting three people spoke showing a photo of a swastika that allegedly was painted on a tree in Dunham Lake but Dunham Lake splits counties and I later learned that it was Oakland County Sheriffs who investigated the complaint during the call to the public the speakers made a connection to the newly elected school board members Dunham lake has an active
057Facebook neighborhood page and two of my friends who are members never saw anything about the swastika posted in the group I am not sure of the conclusion of the investigation but I would like to know as it seems really easy to taint people's names and to run with a story we are in danger of Heartland getting a reputation it does not deserve and I am four school board members to seek and defend truth not to give in to social drama that does not promote the ideals of Reason respect and responsibility please do your part to be active engaged members of the Board of Education who practice reason and responsibility yourselves thank you Mrs Jarvis Mary Peters okay knee surgery okay I want to thank you for the opportunity to present the petition I am delivering
058on behalf of the Heartland stakeholders meaning they specify their parents caregivers of students School staff or taxpayers they all want to see how unconsolidated schools to remain inclusive by the time we saw what was being proposed tonight there was only 72 hours to circulate this petition though we are really happy with getting hundreds of signatures there continues to be support coming in as people keep seeing it for the first time we are turning in what we have now but we'll also update you later on the total number of supporters the petition States and alcohol and Consolidated Schools should be inclusive for all students no matter what their in sexual orientation gender expression religion abilities or other lived experiences bullying and exclusion are serious issues that many students face for a variety of reasons We Believe
059that outward signs of support for marginalized students are not only the right thing to do but what we stand for as a community by signing this petition I urge the Heartland School Board to continue to support our most vulnerable students and create an atmosphere in our schools that allows for the visibility and sensible longing for all of our students that's the end of the quote there is a growing concern in our community about the welfare and well-being of our students too many adults are speaking and encouraging action against students of our Public School District as a school board you have the ability and obligation to prevent this every decision coming from our school but board members working for us in our district must come from a place of support for all students as individuals we
060can do that we have done that the rainbow stickers have been in classrooms for a long time with no problems until it was made a problem very recent which questions or sincerity of the motive here it's hard to comprehend adults sitting on our school board wanting to prevent rainbows in a classroom there are many ways teachers professionally show support for all their students please stop creating barriers among our students and teachers and move on from the stickers and get back to business please vote no on the policy or division for school board policy number 8845 thank you maintenance experience Ella well he gave up on the last name Ellen my defense your handwriting was similar to mine I'm sorry I I would like to talk to all of you about action item 2G specifically policy
061as a refresher I will read what the proposal ads ask any media including signs posters Flags stickers Etc depicting any social and or political causes unrelated to the Daily curriculum shall not be allowed in schools and classrooms unless the media or items are for the sole purpose of classroom discussion as part of the curriculum for that day and subject it is my understanding that the purpose of this policy is to ban the safe space stickers that some teachers have I don't like this goal because it shows that the school just doesn't care about LGBT kids the proposed replacement is meaningless to a queer kid when I was in school homophobic and transphobic jokes were very common and that is why we need the rainbow stickers however in addition to the targeting of queer and trans
062kids there's also the question of what is a social cause because that doesn't just include LGBT people existing hunger alcohol drug use obesity and Health Care are all social causes any posters advertising the food bank or soliciting donations for the food bank would have to go because that would depict the social cause of hunger any posters telling kids to not drink or to not do drugs would have to go since that's also a social cause any posters about drunk driving would have to go because that's also a social cut look at that door in the back of the room back there with all those posters most of those postings would have to go because they depict social cause whether autism or or health care or diabetes exactly yes so there's probably many other examples that
063I'm not thinking of but the important thing is that in the proposed policy it's just way too broad and you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater another question I have is what if a student walked into class with a Pride sticker on their backpack that seems to me like that would be banned that because they now have the media with a Pride sticker in the school that looks to me like a blatant violation of the free speech of students since a Pride sticker does not materially or substantially interfere with anything and a Pride sticker is a type of speech so not only are you throwing out the baby with the bathwater you are also restricting the free speech of students this policy just seems hastily written and too broad and because of that I
064don't think it should be adopted there's just a lot of questions to be answered regarding the unintended consequences not to mention the targeting of bear and trans kids so that is why I think you should vote now on this policy Pride hey everyone we meet again so excited to be here tonight aren't you all right so I just have a few comments um you're a U of M fan and UCA Ohio State sticker on a teacher's door you are allowed to be personally offended but an Ohio State sticker is not offensive in its existence merely just in how you feel about it now you want to lovely Proclaim that Ohio and state is offensive to me and I'm afraid other students in there would discriminate against me because I'm not a part of the club
065you know the people that support Ohio State so I want all Ohio State Stickers removed sure there's a lot of people in this room that think this anyway but does this logically make sense I mean this seems rather overly sensitive behavior from a crowd who says they dislike government overreach so again I ask you where your rights end and mine begin I'm quite sure a few of you would have something to say about my hair if I asked but here I am customizing myself like a video game character because life is short and this is my pursuit of happiness and oh by the way I didn't ask remember that if something offends your eye you should pluck it out when cast it aside next I want to address something that happened at the March meeting
066I was not going to bring it up but since it seems to have come back around I think I should I was literally chased to my seat by some unhinged lady screaming about who would pay for religious instruction for anyone who wants a school that reflects their personal superstitions well I have an answer for you in case you were all interested I did my homework and do you know what I found I found out the reason why churches are tax exempt pictures are charities so if you can't afford a parochial school please contact your religious leaders for a scholarship I'm sure they would be thrilled to have you and for the ones out there claiming The Stance they take isn't based in religion please feel free to join one of our board members children over
067at Cheryl Stockwell where I've heard they don't have rainbow stickers or faith spaces so as my favorite way to end my speech is I have more words here from our founding fathers leave the matter of religion to the family altar the church and the private school supported entirely by private contributions keep the church and state forever separate Ulysses S Grant the clergy by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machine of government have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of men Thomas Jefferson uh good evening I'm Bob Roland um I'm here to shine some light on Craigmont the one who is really filled with pride called Pride evil cried all taught by enemy himself Satan and I want to read out of this Isaiah 14 12 13 and
06814. how are you Paul and this is Lucifer talking how are you falling from heaven and all Lucifer son of the morning how are you cut down to the ground which did weaken the Nations for you have said in your heart I will Ascend into heaven I will exalt all Throne of the stars of God I will sit also upon the Mount of the congregation and the sides of the North I will Ascend above the heights of the clouds and I will be like the Most High um if you look at this um what is the metal ladder in Pride Satan is mentioned mentions I five times in the verses eyes in the middle of pride take out the P or the pr and the th and you'll have demon we are walking through a
069time most would call a nightmare but we see a time for wake up wake up people are finally starting to see where something is not right did you know that the rainbow has seven colors God's promise he would never flood the Earth again the pride flag has six colors God's perfect number seven well Satan's number is 666. that's because of the rate law rainbow belongs to God but while Pride was Satan's Original Sin it's pretty much what I have to say thank you think about Michelle Cameron good evening um hello my name is Michelle Dale canner my family have been taxing and voting members of the Heartland Consolidated Schools Community since 1939. my extended family members attended Heartland schools in the 30 the 40s and the 50s my husband and I along with our son
070and Grandson are all K-12 attendees and graduates I've been teaching in the district since 1985 when I began volunteering to teach dental health education to students this path here I completed my 34th year as an educator at Heartland Consolidated Schools during my time as a student in the 60s and 70s and throughout my experience as a parent grandparent and an educator from the 90s to present day the one aspect of Heartland schools that has always been at the Forefront has been the feeling of a safe and secure environment where learning can take place the idea that it takes a village really sums up the core value of the educational journey through Harlan Consolidated Schools as a student I always felt that every school I attended was a safe and caring place I was never afraid
071to talk to my teachers about the concerns that I had and I knew if I needed a safe place I could voice those concerns to my teachers as a parent and grandparent I felt that the needs of my son and Grandson were always positive and caring in every manner that the district had available as an employee of the district on a daily basis I provide a classroom that's safe and secure for all my students every day I feel supported by this district and my role as an educator in the past year I've noticed the atmosphere in this community has changed suddenly a family approach of Heartland Consolidated Schools is no water no longer what seems to be the focus negativity and accusations of wrongdoing are constantly at the Forefront when discussing Heartland board policies the
072idea of educating all students seems to no longer be the goal of this board to quote the Board of Education page on the Heartland Consolidated Schools website Heartland Consolidated Schools believes in respect respecting abilities qualities achievements differences similarities of all individuals hgs provides the best possible education experience for students eliminating barriers of all policies with our policies practices and procedures and we do not have those that would limit the ability of full participation in what we offer Heartland schools strives to be a safe and welcoming place for all students we will not accept a discrimination or harassment in any form we will not direct or compel students to personally conform to any person or group or Superior or inferior based on sex sexuality orientation or transgender identity disability age weight English speaking race class ethnicity
073religion color national origin ancestry we are all Heartland Eagles that being said said I would hope that the Board of Education thinks long and hard before enacting policies that would be in direct conflict to this mission statement I would remind you that there are federal and state laws that prohibit policies policies that encourage discrimination making a policy change without doing your due diligence it's opening up the district for lawsuits in the future as a Heartland School Board member you were elected by the public your position is now partisan as a member of the community it is your task for decide your personal feelings and make decisions that are in the best interest of all of the community members of this district and also to be fiscally responsible deliberately enacting a policy that changes the very
074well-being may open up the district to lawsuits are down the road that blatantly are discriminatory I highly doubt that the community wants you are elected board members to deliberately waste resources in this manner in closing I would like to remind you the goal of public education as stated by the Michigan Department of Education every Learner in Michigan's public schools will have an inspiring engaging and caring environment that Fosters creative critical thinkers who believe in their ability to positively influence Michigan and the world Beyond as elected members of the board I truly hope that you remember that our district serves every learner and we cannot pick and choose who we serve think of your time and consideration that was the final card item 1G board reports and requests Mr Google Voice thank you Mr Cartman [Music]
075um a lot of good uh discussion here on the call to public or I should say good commentary regarding the fears of discrimination by the removal of a sticker um one thing I I just want to ask as sort of a rhetorical question just a little food for thought you can think about this if a sticker is the only thing that makes kids feel safe what does that say about those teachers that don't have a sticker on their door keep going right if we are not communicating a child's safety and Welfare in the classroom then don't you think we should get rid of the teachers that aren't communicating that Wow we must have a lot that just don't care about kids amazing absolutely amazing but I want to let you know that lo and behold
076we are not going to remove a sticker and not let kids feel safe because there's no sticker on the door I actually understand that we are going to propose a new sticker for a safe place for all students that is going to replace the rainbow sticker that includes students who are Christian who are Muslim who don't subscribe to certain sexual ideas and so on I mean if we're going to be all-inclusive let's be all inclusive let's support everyone and by the way we already have a policy that kind of touches a little bit on the fact of uh teachers having stickers promoting special interests and you know every time I hear somebody speak That Someone's Not Gonna feel safe because a sticker isn't on a door all I can think of is that well I
077guess all kids are equal but some kids are more equal than others no don't think so if you take a look at policy 9700 it talks about school facilities or equipment may not be used as a means of producing or disseminating to the community any materials that advertise or promote a political party political cause or the candidacy of an individual we already have statements on the books that are to some degree open to interpretation but they could be made to mean um talking about things like personal signage personal beliefs and so on I I don't understand the hysteria behind the removal of a sticker that costs 10 cents as if this has been a cause irreparable harm that's all of our students it's not so folks call up I call the public is done I'm
078gonna ask that you please don't interrupt Mr bobleski during his board report no please and by the way there were certain federal laws and regulations on the books already that talk about what is appropriate in a classroom setting and what a teacher can have and say and do if you take a look at Garcetti versus sabellos 2006 it talks about the First Amendment does not entitle teachers to advocate for a particular Viewpoint while teaching to a captive audience of students now I will say this what really disturbs me is that some people actually feel that kids are not going to know that they're not well to been safe by a sticker and this really really gnaws at my skull here it really does because if that's the case we're doing an exceptionally more job of
079communicating that to our students and we better do better yes another thing too there was a a portion of our reason respect and responsibility pleasure and you know what it says and somebody we talked about this but I want to reiterate the end okay I want to reiterate what that actually says and what it actually means some respect Heartland schools strives to be a safe and welcoming place for all all students now the last time I checked the word all is pretty much all incumbency that means everyone we will not accept discrimination or harassment in any form and that includes bullying we will not direct or compel students to personally confirm that any person or group is Superior or inferior and right after that it's really interesting I had Mr Hughes explain this to me
080there's a little addition right after that uh word inferior based on sex including sexual orientation transgender identity disability age height weight and apparently this was something that was uh put in place because of the doj made a recommendation so after we talked about every and all student we all of a sudden subdivide them into identity politics which for me is the number one way to cause Division and strife within a district all means all there's no debate we are all Heartland Eagles all is mentioned again it's mentioned twice so with that um later on tonight I understand that somebody is going to give a presentation I think I assume of what I hear there have been a couple of board members that have been working on a replacement sticker and I think Cindy that might
081be what you were working on okay and I think she may present that tonight so we will have a sticker but at the same time we better ensure that when we say the word all we mean all thank you that's a shot thank you first of all I would like to say what an honor it was to be a graduation on Friday I've been there as a parent and to be there as a board member on stage it was it was an honor to be there um did go through a few kleenexes especially after Mrs Gregory's um speech and all the moms in the room I think felt the same congratulations to all of our 2023 graduates um so you know kids I think five million dollars in scholarships and just so much to be
082proud of and just a just a ghost to show you what what we send out into the world from this District so I am a proud parent Community member board member so congratulations um just a reminder too that the Heartland Chamber of Commerce is working on an art walk for September for information go to heartlandliving.com it's free to enter for Heartland students adults can enter as well so just a reminder um we're looking for students especially to enter their surprise money scholarship money that's a lamp thank you Mrs Sharp it's Coleman uh echoing but both Cindy and Chuck said graduation was spectacular it was very moving but in a good way um and it's always exciting to be there as a board member and just to witness the excitement to see all the smiles and
083um feel the excitement in the room it's always a super cool it's one of my favorite times of the year um I wanted to say thank you again to Mr Comfort and to all of our retirees as they head out we definitely appreciate all of your years of dedication and service and all you've done for our kids uh during your time in Heartland um I hope everyone enjoys some down time over the summer because Lord knows August will be here before we know it and football practice begins [Music] thank you congrats certainly to all of our teachers staff students families support structures for our students on a successful year although I was not able to make it to graduation I have to admit the photos that were posted on the um on our District's page
084um gave me all the feels I think I was talking with someone recently but I don't I'm not a crier at all I don't cry for anything as a matter of fact and for some reason fourth grade clap outs graduation and home football games are three things that give me um and so uh you know thank you to everyone that's a part of that that makes that a success for our students um it's certainly something to be very proud of uh one thing that I do a couple of things that I actually do want to note is um just for the board game or like for the public as we Embark in this school resource officer program um hopefully uh you know moving forward we're gonna have to go through all of our policies and
085procedures with a finding home and ensure that they actually match up um I think we're expecting these folks to come in and do things and forget that um perhaps a vpad or we could have in the future and so this is something that um I think we're going to have to do as I've been digging into policy procedure on various things um you know I think that we have some room for improvement and some ways in which we need to tie the two together um so whoever would like to um start that process with me please feel free I think we're gonna have to tackle chunk by chunk um but to make sure it's all event make sure that we're following our own policy as you know we're switching and things will be in different
086buckets reporting will be in different buckets we'll just have to be super cognizant of that the second thing I want to discuss is rather interesting um you know I think uh Grandma when you talk about change management when you talk about an environment of safety really in my world is we have to be okay to say that we made a mistake we have to be okay to say you know what we didn't do our best in this area but we're going to learn from it improve I'm really worried actually that um just we're not giving people the opportunity to say you know what we can do better and that's really disappointing it's really um it to me does not create a culture of safety because people do not want to come forward and say Hey
087you know here's a gap here um I've I've done this and and we need to fix it and I think we need to turn that train rather quickly because people should say you know hey you identified X policy we're not following it to the core we need to improve upon it or we don't have said policy and someone's identified it and we need to to review it it could be a policy it could be a guideline it could be a procedure um but for me on this board I want our administrators I want our teachers I want our parents I want our board I want our superintendent everyone to be able to say yeah we didn't do the best so we're going to learn from it because how are we going to improve if we
088can't get to a point where we're saying we're learning from it um just want to put that out there I think it's very important moving forward um I think that we have to give each other Grace in order to do that and that's something that I don't think that uh we've been familiar with lately um and I encourage everyone to to do that um you know and and I'm not talking about Big Ticket items where you know we certainly need to be accountable and hold ourselves responsible but I'm talking about things and operation things day to day um things structurally I think we have to be okay accepting some faults and improving upon those um everything else that I have to say I will review um in policy changes and someone's my board of work
089thank you Mrs Claver Mr Keller okay thank you um again just want to Echo some of my colleagues and congratulations to the 2023 graduates unfortunately I was not able to attend the ceremony but I I did see that it was a very successful event and again congrats to everyone and I wish all of the new student or the graduating students great success in their future endeavors uh the girls softball team I understand is in the quarterfinals uh I think tomorrow night in fact so I just want to wish them uh good luck tomorrow against the the gross points North team Jackson Wilson I understood the shot put event at the Michigan champions of Champions Festival so congratulations to him and we represent the Eagles and then I guess last but not least uh Brianna zabrowski
090I hope I'm pronouncing that right I received a high school Best in Show award so congratulations to her and I know she's been uh recognized a few other times so very talented individual in Heartland so congrats um also wanted to just express my sincere thank you to the Livingston County deputies who protect our students and our staff the entire school year we appreciate everything that you do for the Heartland Eagle family and we appreciate that I look forward to loading later tonight on eventually expanding our relationship with the local sheriff's office um would also like to just uh commend Mr Patel who spoke this evening for his efforts I'm working with you know some of the board members who I think previously me had not been in favor of divisive political stickers and and and
091not only that but just replacing it was something that I think encompasses everyone and I think that's just a great example of members of the community kind of getting together to try to find a solution to an issue so I'm glad to see that um I also want to I guess just kind of give a general comment um about what I would classify maybe as kind of a lack of information sometimes on some of the board packet items um I'm gonna work with Mr Hughes just to kind of give him my thoughts on potentially incorporating kind of standard methods and what we can provide to the board and the community to um I guess make more informed decisions during some of these meetings and I guess I'll just give an example we didn't talk about
092it in the previous agenda item which was the new hires again I think you know as a district we do a great job of hiring individuals but as a member of the board I have some concerns that you know as a body we we give have the final say on someone joining our family and yet as a board member I only get to see their resume and I don't I don't even have a chance to speak with them or kind of understand what questions they were asked or how they were answered and it's just kind of an observation I think as a board I hope others might be interested to know more about our hiring process and and have an opportunity to just meet the folks kind of like Mr Hughes mentioned he's not necessarily
093looking to uh derail someone being hired but trying to understand and develop that relationship so that's something that I think as a board I'd like to see some changes or adoption in that area lastly I'm here I'm eager to hear the final report from the state of Michigan regarding the pesticide issue that has been circulating in the community I I know personally I'm not an advocate for using glyphosate in any products that I know are using today on certain areas and Mr Moreno has provided some information on that I'm I'm glad that we're discontinuing its use at least temporarily and I hope that we can adopt that as a permanent measure so that no child is exposed to glyphosate which is you know the active ingredient in Roundup and I don't know how much everyone's
094researched into the Toronto but it's there's a lot of concern in my opinion on its safety so I I don't want to see any of our kids exposed to unnecessary risks when there's other measures like pulling weeds and weed whacking that don't involve chemicals you know for kids that are in elementary school that potentially could be putting something in their mouth right um so I think you know that's the uh the last I wanted to say about it that and then any any children that may have experienced any potential reaction to whatever it was whether it was herbicides or other pesticides I I hope all the children are doing well that ends my board report thank you this value anyway excuse me had some notes and I've forgotten them so I'm going to do my
095best to get out what I want to get out um and you know I've been in two previous graduations I was unable to attend but it's huge and I can't imagine the planning that goes into it and I've heard that it went well really well and very enjoyable so thanks to everybody that worked hard on that because I know it means a lot to the families gets graduating and for it to go smoothly that's their memory so that's great so thank you for that um also you know being a board member it's not so easy I knew when I took the job that you know everybody would have a problem with some of the things that I was deciding to do but I knew that the people that voted for me had in mind when
096I you know I know what their vision is and their vision is to have an all-inclusive school um have the top-notch education make sure it's safe and welcoming for all we don't want to lose any more students um you know and we don't run the day-to-day happenings the school district what we do is we Implement policy we have a vision of what we want the school district to look like and that vision is based upon the community members so we do we do read all the emails we do we may not respond to every single one but we do read them all at least I do I think you know my colleagues do as well because it's important to us um but I think that what needs to to be known is that you know
097when we're up here talking um in fact I recently had a tick tock made about me so I don't know who did that but so be it um and it was my uh talking about the rainbow floodex when when I look at the big picture of I work at a corporation large corporation we don't have Flags around our building to make people feel welcome we're professionals we're kind to each other um once they you know once something like that happens it becomes divisive and and I know that in the business world I know it's divisive and in the school district having a flag in the room is divisive in my mind and for the people that I speak to um it's divisive for them as well I early on had um done you know when
098one was saying you know thanks to Michelle what I did was early on when I was a parent talking to the board um I saw the rainbow as the special interest group and so I suggested that um we add to them and we have a sticker that it was for tea for tradition because things were getting a little a little um it was a struggle for kids that didn't identify with lgbtqia plus and so what we wanted to do instead of taking them down we wanted to add to them and made a sticker that said t safe space for traditional safe space some very intelligent students very brave students took them to the leadership of the school district and said what does lgbtqia what does the rainbow stand for and they admitted it was for
099lgbtqia plus that doesn't that's not them it's not the kids that were standing in front of the administration so they they said okay well we don't identify with that is it okay if we put this sticker up so that we feel represented do you know what took months nobody got back to those Brave kids and um their father you know the several of us was followed up um still didn't get anything so we didn't want to take the sticker down we wanted to add to it so that other kids felt welcome because just because they're the majority you know if the kids majority of the kids are straight doesn't mean they're protected but everybody's got this misconception that these kids are so protected it's almost like it's worse for them right now because they have
100no freedom of speech when you test a kid and you say hey let's put this sticker up and it doesn't represent you they're going to push a boundaries because that's what it means to start growing up and creating your in developing your critical thinking skills no I'm not an expert but I have kids I grew up myself I know what it's like to be in a situation I was a heavy girl it's a bad girl I got kicked on but I didn't want a sticker to make me feel welcome you know I handled it and back then you embrace the fact that if you went through something tough because it it gave you stamina and it provided you with with strength for the future because you know and that my mom's always say kids are
101like waffles you never know what you're gonna get we try really hard to make sure that the first one's perfect second's perfect but but they don't you never know what you're gonna get right and I know that my kids push the boundaries in speech and I before I came I said hey one of my kids are graduate I said do you feel like Heartland um you know is his name he said well I remember when you know we used to make jokes about it but it wasn't to be mean-spirited is because we were testing you know we were pushing the boundaries because that's what kids do when they grow up so when we talk about being all-inclusive and you know stopping kids from you know developing themselves what are we going to do sit them
102at a desk and not let them like you know experience anything because you know everybody needs to be kind I'm not saying people shouldn't be kind I'm saying that people need to understand that these are children kids are going to make mistakes I when I was a kid we had you know principal had a paddle it was okay back then I know it's not but you know if somebody said something wrong a principal would say Hey listen knock it off you go apologize to that kid and get back to your desk and the kid was like okay and then the parents would be called and the kid would go home and the parents would handle it from there they'd either get grounded or whatever but now it seems like we're haranguing all these these kids
103and saying okay you don't fit into this group so you're over here and you have you can't you know just stay right there you you're not gonna you're not gonna feel safe because of you know we don't have a sticker up because that's essentially what we're all saying is that they don't have a sticker up they don't feel safe which we don't agree with we want everybody to feel safe now I I hope it came out right because there was a lot to say and I know that you're gonna somebody's gonna take it and twist it I care about all kids I do I will take a bullet for anybody's child because I believe that all kids matter and I believe that every child has has to grow up they have to make mistakes they
104have to you know like they on their own will create and develop relationships with who they feel comfortable with it it doesn't you know you can't force a kid to be in a you know a friendship with this kid because they may not like them and then it's okay but we're telling them it's not okay that you have to like everybody you can't do that so all I'm saying that you know my vision of this school district is all inclusive my vision of the school district is is you know really not focusing on sexual identity but education whatever that means I saw a couple things and ironically it's like Greg you you looked over my shoulder uh I've got to congratulate the 2023 class it was great to be there in attendance um and then
105the softball that was my other one um I was able to watch one of their games this past Saturday as they Mercy which was undefeated and I thought the coolest thing was at the end um when they won they ended with a like on top of each other but then they they got pushed up and like all right let's do a chair and they chose family and I thought that was like that spot on for Heartland and they ended with a family Chapman it ran off of their trophy which is awesome but they do they play marlite at 6 30 at Wayne State um and I couldn't be more proud of them I think they represent well so when's my report item 2A payment of invoices I'm the Board of Education about the recommendation of
106the Chief Financial Officer approves the financial report as of May 31st 2023 and the payment of invoices totaling 2 million one hundred and seven thousand three hundred and seventy nine dollars and one cent and payroll applications totaling four million three hundred and eighty three thousand three hundred eighty one dollars and seventy nine cents support supported by Mrs claybach new discussion hearing on yeah I'd like to uh just say a big thank you to Rachel who whenever she's asked a question she always provides a very quick and timely answer and uh thank you for that um also in the uh payment of invoices one thing I was really looking for was the total cost of what our April fruit but investigation cost just in legal fees it was twenty thousand dollars above and beyond that we
107get into employee costs and we're probably looking at somewhere around 28 29 000 and that's an estimate but somewhere around there so um before we get uh emotional and do these things that cost the uh District money if we're so concerned about funding and we're so concerned about money and being sued and what have you um we need to be a little less reactive and a little bit more proactive to the truth so that's all I wanted to say I just want to say one thing so I remember when we were doing the recount for Greg and then Michelle because it was a time um everybody was out all up and on arms about you know ten thousand dollars just being out of the school budget it was a really big deal really big deal
108and uh so hateful things were said but in this case um with the globalespie investigation that was prompted by some parents that you know I'm not quite sure what the attention was but you know they prompted this and it cost us thirty thousand dollars so um that's a lot of money for something that resulted in nothing so um that was disappointing so like Glenn said next time um we should be a little more um a little more choosy with what we're doing before we spent thirty thousand dollars on something like that yeah that was purely political too so during uh on the autograph especially I'm sorry this is Mrs Frye this is we can't conduct a business that we can't conduct small business we've all been continuity so I'm asking you please refrain from from
109speaking out please all right um yes carries I'm to the call for July organizational meeting I move that the Board of Education went to board policy said the Dwight organizational meeting for July 17 2023 as discussed support promotional viruses it's just something happening uh the times I think it would be uh yeah it should say about it we could add that it would be 6 30. that's good yeah okay yes Sean yes yes color yes it's ideal yes I just have a question is the public invited to that one or is that a closer yeah that motion carries adding 2C 2023 24 parent student in the book I understand the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the assistant superintendent on personnel and student services approves the secondary intermediate and Elementary parent
110student handle changes for the 2023-2024 school year as a presented Coleman uh we did get this book the last meeting so hopefully everybody take a look at it I was there any discussion hearing them yeah they're um there are people items in here that are still fairly vaguely um when you take a look at as an example um students rules and regulations for uh FIS page and item um we have a little uh red item here that says uh move number three striking attempting to strike threatening the threatening to strike or becoming physically aggressive towards another teacher school or your volunteer and that is not the one I wanted to read it is the one right below it vh9 use of profanity obscenity and or inappropriate language or comments that's in my mind a can
111of worms um when we say inappropriate language or comments and this kind of goes back to the situation of these students who call the student by their um given name um is harassment uh profanity obscenity is that going to include those types of items are we going to talk about inappropriate language or comments in those terms and I'm asking that I'm I'm I'm just sharing that that's a concern I personally don't have the answer I don't know what Mr Hughes does he knows the foreign book does it's just it wasn't one of the updates I personally am okay with the the way it's worded I mean I wouldn't want Community to send it or any appropriate language or comments no no neither would I I guess what I'm saying is that just it's it's a
112little bit more open to interpretation inappropriate language or comments um wow that could be just about anything does that mean anything that's offensive to anyone is inappropriate [Applause] but I the way I see this is this allows our administrative team or our teachers for that matter too a student does something in some manner that they can speak to them about that behavior I mean it doesn't listen can we ask Mr Hughes or Mr van epstead if they want to speak to this Mr Houston mandatory every time I think the interpretations try to Curtis Behavior based on this we would be happy to interject our box and people like those two please uh we do interject your thoughts in regards to your conversation with the Farm staff please yeah is that working I mean um so
113annually we asked our building principals for airport of all the handbooks and other staff student nutrition things change handling uh we experience um sometimes new behaviors or difficult behaviors and one we didn't really have something on point for where we try to expand the rubbish you know to be to publish something um even without things like what we're proposing to add it's up for interpretation and discernment by your school administrators and teachers um so you know to the point remaining about these things again it was like in an effort to say you know for example uh physically aggressive uh was being added to the current language of striking attempting to strike threatening to strike um to say we've had some behaviors that have been perhaps not there but they're this you know becoming physically uh
114aggressive uh that would warrant our response in an appropriate consequences thank you read um some of these things that are in here and I do think that we need some clarification definitions because um you know once these changes are made and it's gonna be difficult to go back and I'm tying this to the this new director of student services uh job description um which is defined um we've got some definition in there and what they're going to be looking for and I feel like if we if we are not careful with how we um said this you know the handbook policies that we're going to be creating situations where there's going to be more kids in trouble that need to be then that should be in trouble you know for little things that's what I
115I want to avoid so I understand the physical stuff absolutely um bullying absolutely but just the the the soft stuff like comments right like what's a comment so it was the director of student services going to say well that comment goes against one you know what I mean the kid's gonna get in trouble for a comment I just feel like we've really got to be mindful of what we're what we're implementing here before we implement it so I do feel like we just need to um just understand what comments mean you know what that what defines the comments there's some gray areas for me and they're open for to interpretation so have we looked at other school districts like that have handbooks or we just no to that question no okay but I would say
116that uh to the first part of the question you know uh in the handbook there's an appeal process so parents are not satisfied with an outcome for their child they would have that appeal process and some take uh utilize that um appeals can come as far as to the assistant superintendent myself so um I'll say philosophically the last thing we want to do is all of a sudden blow up our system with a whole lot of you know micro behaviors and things like that it's not the intent the intent is to really kind of help make sure we're covering the bases as best we can okay thank you and like Mrs leech said I mean we we're losing students because of some of these things right like we don't want to lose any more of
117its students so um we just have to make sure whatever we do is responsible and and clear and not setting students up for failure in certain regards for saying something stupid every kid's gonna say something stupid even adults do okay thank you they're not Mr golusky yes shop yes scholar yeah Mr Kelly yes this is colonial I don't know more clarification um item two e affiliate supplementary contract extension I moved the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the assistant superintendent personnel and the chief finance officer who's the affiliate settlement agreement and contract extension as presented support motion by Mrs Coleman support by Mrs Shaw Mr she's just wanted to speak to how we arrived at this item here for us today if you would please I can but again I'm gonna defer administer van
118s who works with our affiliate group um we will receive the affiliate group so I think it's best that we addressed the issue with you thank you all right and I believe we did discuss this in Personnel correct so I don't know what it has been shared out from Personnel to the rest of the board but um you know to settlement agreement which encompasses a contract extension was in part due to a um the not not a grievance but a unit clarification in the terms of Merck uh for uh two new positions or any new position that we added Human Resources Director um and then two we hired a payroll specialist and uh while the payroll specialist is I've always been a position not represented by the unit there was some argument for that to
119be included and then the Human Resources Director was a an additional position and personnel which was um not designed to perform any affiliate work of course there are elements of a work that we do that might you know are being viewed as such that wasn't the case and two of the HR director positions designed to evolve for example the one thing that's been accomplished now that we're past the one-year hiring anniversary for this individual is the training for the Title IX coordinator which is a position that I hold currently so cool according here so we needed more representation to handle Title IX uh types of events so let that in part precipitated the this activity yeah you explained it well um personality I just wanted to make sure everybody else was aware of it so
120I appreciate it to affiliate um those are the positions that are support personally thank you for asking Affiliates our support Personnel um secretarial one and two para Educators uh working in the classroom special education programming lunch recess follows the end of our central office um Personnel um our accounting uh individual is represented in that department right we have a discussion very nice Mr globalowski um I have to refuse myself on this vote um I am married to an employee that falls in this category thank you Mrs Charlotte yes zero item 2f Sr o s s o recommendation I recommend that a board of education on the recommendation of the superintendent supports the administration pursuing and playing the contracts for school resource officers and school safety officers for the 2023-24 school year as presented partner foreign
121I think it's great thing that's happening fine do you want to speak to him yeah I'll say a couple of things and then I'll defer to Mr Hughes to kind of talk about the process that the team went through the operations team went through um obviously within the safety group and here at the board team will last uh last month um we voted to move forward with the program and allow our operational leaders to development program and start the initial basis of Contracting with the Livingston County Sheriff's Office and then in addition to that understanding that meeting of the third party um uh Team involved as well Mike Murphy was very transparent with us that he um he can offer a couple of uh to share um but can really go beyond that for this
122year and so we can meet up to enlist a third party um and two different third-party groups were interviewed as well as several reference checks done um and uh and so Chuck will talk about the kind of determination from there but one thing I do want to know and I was very transparent with Trucking this and um while while our ultimate goal needs to be to cover every building in my humble opinion and that's just me um I think that we also have to be sure we choose the right people we shouldn't be hiring people to hit a number simply for um a simply to get someone at the door I think that person has to be the right individual they have to be willing to make those relationships with children they have to be
123willing to have those relationships with our administrators and our teachers and our building and our staff um you know they have to be the right person and I don't want to hire someone to check a box um I think we need to be very diligent in that um because this is a program again that um could do really great things for this District really really great things for this District um but it's not done right it could go out very quickly um so those are my uh two cents in that and I'll let Chuck kind of review how his team went through it um and just a huge thing thank you to the team I know several people reached out for um references Michelle called some districts um others were calling the state and other
124districts and so I just really appreciate the teamwork that was done I think that it was something that everyone was really on board and excited about and so um I appreciate my colleagues in that respect um yeah so bottom line is um the summary there just talks about where we we want to uh put our efforts to it um the recommendations really are around the idea that the sheriff office can offer potentially two individuals um the hopes is they can offer to individuals they might only be able to find one that would take on this task we don't know so it's just a matter of getting with the sheriff office do we have a basic contract with them that they've shared with us we'll take a look at that and we'll move that forward with
125the hopes of garnering two uh resource officers one at the high school one at or Creek um we did look at two different security units uh to to provide us with uh ssos so SRO so everybody knows school resource officer isn't a current police officer with the Lindsey County Sheriff Department it could be I guess embroidery with the Brighton police department that's ask our all the school safety officer is a retired law enforcement individual who has the training continues to be trained and can carry a a weapon on them and they would be in our buildings uh carrying a weapon in the buildings that they're assigned to so we interviewed two different groups we decided that we would recommend to the board for this group out of Brighton we like them we talked about it
126at the health and safety committee we liked that group so they're going to work on once you give me the authority to start negotiating with them what can they find who can they find and give us an opportunity to meet those individuals so we decided they would fit in our district knowing that because the contract will read that if we don't like one of them all we have to do is say like a third party Megan's not working out we'd like you to remove Megan and find out somebody else so we want to be able to have that ability to do that we have some options out there they're labeled there ultimately the option of putting one in every building would be awesome but again as Megan said we can't just go into this with
127this idea that we're going to put one in every building and not have really good quality people um we do have a slight uh twist since we met in our committee The Twist being that Mike Capra will no longer be with us he has turned in his resignation so Mike was going to be our safety officer our safety uh put to make sure he's overseeing all this I've taken that position uh or that um job task and added it to the director of student services position the oversee making sure that we're pulling the groups together um our liaison with the County Emergency Management unit and and all the things that Mike has been doing for us making sure that we have our drills and we record our drills and we send our drill information in
128so that's going to be added uh to that position um that this person could take care of for us and then we would look at Fortis to provide somebody for this building because this is the one building that our company that we hire to assess our safety procedures in our districts that this building really needed somebody that's why we're going to bring our most seasoned uh knowledgeable person over here but since Mike's not going to be with us we'll have to get somebody from this building so when we're going into this you know we're going to go in with it uh trying to get at least three individuals from Fortis well four now with this building this building I think has to be a priority um it just does because this is the one building
129that we need to take care of um then I think there is you know the the farms uh Lakes campus then there's the um Creekside potential Creekside Village campus and then you've got round that sits out there by themselves that you got to look at that so we have to look at it and I know that others have different opinions that's why there's three options there but as we're starting to talk with them to build a contract we'll come back to the board and share you know what we're finding and what direction did you go because they might say we can't get five people we can't get three people we can get two people what do you want us to do so I don't know what that's going to look like but we're gonna with
130your Authority you're giving us an opportunity to start that conversation so I hope that all makes sense it does I think it shows the importance to get a good people and also hopefully the board with fellow board members on board for this because if we vote on this and you can start making phone calls tomorrow is that correct yes and I want to point this out and I'd really appreciate uh this layback pointing this out in our committee meeting um with more police officers on our campuses with more Security on our campuses there potentially will be more reports that are made through law enforcement those reports currently we do reports with law enforcement we do lots of reports to record events occurring on our campuses the key is that the reports and reports only there
131there's a there's and I shared this with our health and safety committee when you when you get one of these reports you look in the crime up in the corner it says crime incident there's a number usually assigned there that number if it's a 99 is just a report it's a report so that the the legal system can at least if ever need be tracked at but it doesn't mean it's a crime it's simply uh a nintendent and basically uh Sheriff Murphy we met last week we talked about this again the second time I've talked to sheriff Murphy about this he said we'll do these reports all the time even if you don't want us to do Sports if we're present and something's occurring we're going to do the report because we've got to cover
132ourselves too now that we're in the schools and now that we're present so the caution that we're going to have to give parents is you might get a knock at the door you might get a phone call from a police officer because they're just documenting their activities on our campuses so whether we like it or not we'll see more of these reports generated because we have a police presence that's just what it is so we'll we'll try to write something up before school starts it says parents sit down with your kids and let them know that the police will do these reports because that's what they do and we're not here to tell the police not to do them we're here to cooperate with them so I hope that makes sense but we'll figure out
133a way to get that message out actually I appreciate it because I know in the city that the deputy Echo those same points where that's his job if he's going to talk to a student for one later he has to report it he's recording and it doesn't mean it's Criminal Intent or nature but it's a fact about it that's his job so I think that's great that we can as we go forward in the fall perhaps in that August letter just some type of a reminder again like you mentioned and one of the reference was the director of security for Oxford Schools this man took on Oxford Schools after the shooting um he talked to me for almost three hours and basically what he was saying is that you know he had a he has
134a lot of help from um a lot of feeling federal agencies a lot of people are all up in his business and you know they've gone through three three different tenants because the pressure's so great at Oxford so they've had a lot of trial and error on a lesson to learn that he provided which is great and he um as being a reference reporter said that Fortis is the gold standard so we're choosing uh to vote on uh a group that the Oxford director of security called the gold standard and I feel like that there's nothing more to say about it these guys are top-notch um and they're going to you know like Chuck said we have the ability to interview um but you know several of them you know they're all retired um one
135of the things that um this is Jim Bernier pointed out is the reason that they're so good is because of the training there's a lot of people that you know go into security and they get a little bit of tabletop training um these guys are retired officers and they still have to have training so um you know and the good news is that like the sros they still have to like show up in court they fill up to do certain calls so they'll be they'll have to leave for a little bit which you know is what happened in Oxford is that that individual left um just don't happen during that time the shooting um but they asked that though is reported they don't leave and they make sure that they bring in somebody to you
136know like if somebody was taking time off they'll bring somebody in that's familiar and you know and they and they cover for the individual that's taking a vacation so I just I feel I have a very high um expectations of them and I think they're going to fulfill that so rest assured they'll protect your kids and I also at the uh privilege of speaking with one of the owners of the operations director and I was amazed at how professional they were and they were um after telling them about the district and how many schools we actually have they were able to tell me with Assurance if they have enough lead time they definitely can staff whatever we need and um I believe that that's going to be very possible especially with us moving forward with
137this today that they're going to have enough lead time get the great people um they are all retired police or military individuals and they all live in the community as well and one of the things that they were really excited about was that most of their staff lives in Heartland or in the Hartland area and they were almost uh giddy about having the chance to work with Harlem so I think we're going to be in good shape if you want to go with um options free which we have listed here for Farms Creekside Lakes Mountain Village and that's what I would recommend yeah I guess I just also wanted to weigh in uh remember the Safety Committee I I think um you know there was a lot of effort from everyone so it was good
138to see the uh I'll say the fruits and the labor coming to the table here today uh personally you know my I would advocate for option three I would also you know Echo what Mr wilski said you know they the company talked about having no issues getting eight um SSO so I would like to see us move forward with a plan that would have someone in every building so I hope we can make that happen and I guess it's kind of a point of clarification I understand this resolution gives Mr Hughes the authority to engage the the company I guess what I don't know if I'm hearing is a number of ssos because if obviously if we have Mr Capra potentially being replace that ads from degree to possibly four based on options one and
139two and then if you go to option three it's now we're looking at potentially six so is the request to Borders or up to six is that the the plans to use can I ask yeah I think the options are there for you all to discuss as a board and tell me which direction you want me to go right so um I will do my best to go whatever Direction you tell me to go knowing that if I can't get enough quality officers we're not going to just put a body in the building I just need you to know that I don't feel comfortable with that absolutely I think we all agree on that okay no more discussions a concern um and maybe this is the elephant in the room that nobody nobody in Italy
140to take that big of a leap in the first year like if we were to go with option three how how confident do we feel that we can do that without impacting too many other things in a big way maybe those are conversations you guys have had in the Committees but yeah I think um at year three uh so Rachel does a really good job and not all school districts do this but she models things out for three years um and a lot of you know what we get from a budget standpoint to smile it up for three years um I think at year three is when it gets to um the utilization of a fund balance that's right on the you know cusp of where we would like to be um the way and
141Rachel please chime in um if I miss just speak on your current process but the way she's currently budgeted um is is going with an estimated budget that's somewhere in between what's been proposed to Via the house and the Senate um and that does not include any um dollars that we would expect from a one-time Grant standpoint um we do know that the original proposal for the state budget um surprisingly enough to includes some of that we just don't know what it looks like yet and so we hope that we'll be able to take advantage of some of that in addition to that I will say at year three um which I think you know we're looking into a three-year contract that seems to be the cheapest route you know when you obviously sustain program
142for three years um we will have to take a look at what that looks like from adding longevity cost to the budget if things do not continue to Trend in the direction of what's Trend in from a reimbursement standpoint that's when it gets a little bit iffy is year three um Rachel correctly not wrong please no you didn't you did a good job that that's the key is that you know right now there's a lot of money built in the current state budget for safety initiatives it looks like that's the direction the state is going uh from the next budget cycle but like any any type of State funding is guaranteed for one year so we didn't get into the long-term programs and in terms of the guaranteed for your money so that's just something
143just to keep in mind is is thank you I have one more comment so I've been talking to somebody that works in the Lansing school district and she was saying the same thing that there are uh grumblings of you know more grants for safety that are going to be coming out is she going to alert me when they come through so that I can pass along to and I think it's Mr men'sberry are you the one that that submits for the grants anyone that could be oh you could be okay um so yeah so I'm keeping an eye out for that too so even if we do have the funding the grant would be good right yeah Mr gobleski um absolutely yes uh for option three okay I don't think but right now we're just
144voting out of the recommended action item like I thought they were choosing that option right now okay okay but that's I want to make it known that that's okay yes Mr caliber yes option three absolutely uh myself well yes welcome to G new revised policies I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent adapts for advice policy 7540.03 student technology acceptable use and safety asset perception discussion I'm actually okay okay you already done Mr Google asking yes it's a shop yes yes I think Mr I think Mr uh Arthur's really good yes yes thank you Scott that was much appreciated thank you yes because I know these are back again Mr Usher is here yes vote yeah no very good all right sorry okay uh I move the Board of Education
145upon the recommendation of the superintendent adopts provide policy 754-7104 staff technology acceptable use and safety as presented discussion I guess for me um still having some heartburn over the usage of the term inflammatory comments it's uh I guess not clear who the Armature of that is and so therefore I'm still uncomfortable with with that language right any other comments hearing none Mr googleski no Mrs Charlotte yes this is calling it yes yeah Mr Keller no respond here I'm gonna know I'm telling you some clarification uh I'm gonna stop him I guess and uh I know I can't remember for the Public's understanding of it like Mr Usher makes himself readily available so I would encourage like our board members if they want clarification on certain terminology reach out to them and hopefully he can provide
146wait a minute I moved at the Board of Education upon the Americanization of the superintendent adoption revised policy 8305 and information security as presented foreign I have a recommendation um because this is you know our students uh privacy and their information uh you know is very valuable to a lot of people a lot of people want her students information God knows what they do with it um but we have to protect our children and I feel that I recommend that we add to the policy that we ensure that all current suppliers have assigned um control a contract uh on file and that we review it annually so if anyone changes Personnel that the new the new person that steps into the role at our supplier or um you know the the company that we're going
147to be you know having contract with it those individuals understand that our children's um information is uh protected so I'd like to get into it with this information it generally fall under the problem of your scope of like so like student data when that Mr Mr Usher is it possible idea qualification but you need to come up please so Mrs Blanca suggested adding some verbiage about how it how when this data does go out then it's secure can you somehow speak to that letter so every single uh organization that we do business with we do have um they post their their privacy policy on their website so those are the Privacy policies that were that were going off of right that we are we are making sure that they have in place and it's company-wide
148and the expectation is that all of their company employees are abiding by that company's policy of privacy and uh uh that so that's what we go off there are some of the companies that we do business with we do have a written signed contract with um and that's a contract between us the school district usually is myself or Rachel or Chuck that signs those and then it's their salesperson that's signing that contract on behalf of their company just out of curiosity um in terms of using it's almost like we're using their terms and conditions is is this something that we would want to have on our terms and tell them this is what we want or don't want from you we don't want you selling this information we don't want you giving it to a
149third party period so that's a great question Mr grogleski and the answer to that is in all cases we make sure that that is part of their privacy policy so do we have legal a legal person review their policy policy you know mind-numbingly long or you know have verbiage in there that you know maybe some people don't really recognize so do we just go by trust factor or do we have somebody actually review the contract that they post there are some contracts that we have had reviewed in the past as we you know in my 22 years at Heartland that we have but the vast majority of the things that we are doing now are we're just going off of their typical um uh privacy policies that are listed and available and readily available on
150their websites so are you posed are you opposed to creating our own document that tells them that they're not allowed to disseminate sell share any private data or are we against that I mean because it just makes me uncomfortable we all know that I'm being so old am I yeah I'm not opposed to that in any way shape or form I'm not sure that it would it would necessarily change anything on their part other than if they do then we you know we just stopped doing business with him we have a legal recourse uh anyway because they're cut because their privacy policy indicates that they're not allowed to do that and if they do violate that then we have a legal recourse against them if we have a signed document that says you aren't allowed
151to do this you know here's our you have we have a contract or something we're signing and you're signing in response to that sure we could we could certainly do that but how do we verify that they're actually following their own policies is there some way to I mean like I know it's difficult and in business I get it but if we send a boundary for them and we say listen yes your policy says that this is our policy you have two policies protecting our students right do our legal representation they would have to draw something up but that's certainly something that we could do I don't know of any other school districts that do that you know be honest with you but it doesn't mean that we couldn't do it but do you agree
152that our children's uh information is valuable to a lot of people right people are looking for this information so that they can do their own research and you know find things like I think I think that bad actors are out there looking for anybody's information absolutely okay there's no question about that it's been proven time and time again uh yes I I certainly I certainly think that we are doing we are doing what we need to do in order to protect our students I know that my students attend this school district and I would not want them I would not want their data to be available to just anybody I want to make sure it's protected and I take that very seriously in my job and my role in responsibility and I ensure that that
153is the case for all of our students not just my own this is not a new thing I think it's just I understand but I'm passionate I haven't seen double protection I'm just making sure you understand though that I have a vested interest in this not just as this is my job but this is this is my job but this is when my kids go to school too it's important to me thank you can um just to clarify as well um what I think I heard you say of a structure is we've been doing the business we do with these groups I have it very clearly on their websites that say this is their privacy policy this is what we have to do we don't have reason to believe in our time of doing business
154um and certainly not my time in the district that I've ever had a conversation with Scott that our data has been reached all right that has been sent someplace it shouldn't be and I think that we have that relationship with these vendors that have that on their policies that what you would be asking us to do Michelle is to go spend again resources to try to get each of these companies that we do business with to sign another contract that they could say help me Mr Usher say it's not worth it to do business with you because we we have our policy there now it's only to say well if you're not willing to sign the open business or whatever but some of these are really good entities that we work with that we don't
155have a reason not to trust them that we have their policy in place and it's there for everybody to see and unless somebody gives a reason not to trust them and if that happens then we go after them legally so I think that's what I heard you say that's correct it doesn't seem like you know we need to do this double thing uh I think that it's worked very well and certainly it's something that um I I don't know that we have to go that route I hear what you're saying but I don't I think it's just not worth the time I just think that in this day and age of data mining and what have you I mean I I I I truly and Mr use I agree with you I trust but a
156trust but verify um I just think that maybe there might be something that we can do just to send them whether it's a quick almost informal type of email that you will abide by your policies and protect our data correct you know just something maybe not that simple but just sending it to them making sure that we're looking at your policy we like what we see and we want your assurance that you will follow this to the letter that it is how many companies are we talking about here at variable uh throwing item number seven eight that we've had long-term relationships and contracts with as other and other school entities have as well this is these are people that we get educational institutions do business with all the time so seven or eight ish are
157there any instances you recall when we decided not to go with a particular vendor because of their privacy time privacy policy not being tied enough for our standards nope nope not that we have made that decision um simply just reviewing the policies that for all of the contracts that we've had or all the companies that we've used and contracted with in the past have you know has they looked they looked clean they looked appropriate they looked like they did the things that we wanted them to do or said the things that we wanted them to do say in order to ensure that the data that they are uh housing for us represent you know uh is is secure and safe thank you Mr comments okay you remember the council District um are we voting them
158okay um provisions hello yeah I would agree actually it's amazing I'd like to see some minimum privacy requirements be incorporated so for today I'm Gonna Know Mrs splendium yeah I just I want to protect the students and I know that um you know you said you have but I'm going to say no right now I moved as a board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent adoption revised policy 8400 school safety as presented discussion this is brought back yeah I just have a recommendation um in the first paragraph that says the assistant superintendent of personnel and student services or a designee shout and share continued implementation what's the the design mean because we're responsible for safeties so like I would want to know who that designee is so that's pretty open-ended that that uh
159could be me if something were to happen to Scott right so the assistant superintendent Personnel student services is responsible for over scan this particular issue but let's say something happens and he's gone for two weeks and we've got to address it then it might fall to me as it doesn't need normally it says superintendent or designee and then I as a superintendent can decide I can delegate that out but it doesn't usually when you say designee we have somebody here but if something happens it's whoever we designate to do so so I don't know that you could say uh you know in this case if just just saying in this case if the board and adjust uh uh 1410 and we pursue the hiring of a school um yeah director of student services we could
160add that there and now we have two people so something happens to one the other person picks it up so that's that's a possibility because some of these things are going to be on that job description if I move in that direction for instance the Michigan state police reporting we've been very forthright with you as a board that we have recognized we haven't been as diligent in reporting that as we shared with you as I shared with you in a number of emails related to some uh individuals asking questions about the district we said hey that's an issue we haven't been really good at and so this person would be hired to take over this um so still have the assistant superintendent Personnel but also directors from the services so that they can make sure
161that we're following through with this process I had a long conversation today with my administrative team at Ed staff about this art policy in particular and where we last uh and where we haven't been real proficient and how we have to do better next year and we have a plan to do so so and I think I've shared all that with you all in regards to some other things that you're you're going to address so we think that that we could add that if you want Michelle but definitely just leaves it open so that what if we don't have somebody there to do the work okay thank you any other discussion right now we should go blessing yes Mr Keller yes I am also athletic motion carries I moved at the board of recommendation sorry
162I moved at the Board of Education upon the recommendation of Greg Keller a doctor advise Alice c0152 officers as presented motion buyers support by Mr Keller discussion Mr Kelly did you want to leave the discussion on this uh so yeah we talked about this a little bit last reading you know there's there's was some outcry and community members just in general uh with the election process that we have and how we determine our officers uh the the president I think our example does carry some additional responsibilities as a member of the board and in my opinion it should be filled by somebody that was elected by the members of the community where possible the revised language that I've proposed maximizes the voice of the community since we have had this out now for a month
163I'm not aware of any negative feedback against the proposal change and so again I urge my colleagues to vote Yes any other discussion um and sure is hacked it into any less work than anyone else on the board so is that intended to be a reflection on how much work one does or doesn't do I think that's individual but again when for example I'm not picking on Mr Costa but as president he he does have additional authority to set agendas and things like that that the rest of the board doesn't have and if it wasn't important then why have officer elections at all I guess so in my opinion we need to have the most meaningful process that incorporates the will of the people as much as possible wherever possible and in my mind this
164does that I can understand I mean I agree with Mr Keller that um you know if it's the voice of the people that elected people it's not about workload it's more representing the community collects people um and the board appoints people so I guess uh you know I support with Mr Keller trying to do which is give the community a voice and then they're enlightened officials and it's not necessarily about work or um I mean people like that it's it's the fact that if someone takes a position that wasn't elected it does look to some people to the public a little suspect and that's not to imply that there's anything wrong and I am not saying that um it just looks as if uh you know questions can be asked and it doesn't provide a
165real warm fuzzy when things like that happen so I just personally want to say that on the fact that matters we've had to appoint a couple people because of our board members have resign at inopportune times and we had to choose people and I I feel it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense that the people that we as important choose wouldn't have the same possible duties as other board members it just it seems like that would be one thing like I know this is clear about the main point like she was appointed Treasurer because she absolutely was the best bit of that whether she was voted there or appointed so I just I'm struggling with this one that's that's it might be the board can still appoint somebody if somebody isn't available um
166it's just that all we're doing is giving priority to those elected versus assigned and I'm not against assigning um duties to someone that wasn't elected I'm not against that I just think that we should prioritize it that's all right discussion Mr gobleski yes this is Sean no Mrs Coleman no yeah Mr Keller yes myself at the points I mentioned I am a note this is why people should get motivated foreign there's another item on the agenda I think that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of Glenn globaleski adopts revised policy 8805 flags as presented motion by Mrs Shaw support viruses I know you spoke earlier but if you want to just kind of reiterate facts earlier and I don't think I could be more succinct than I once then um I just feel that
167if we are truly wishing for inclusivity we either include everyone or we don't have anything for one individual group and I believe um too and I I mentioned this earlier I I didn't know when it may come up but um wasn't there going to be a presentation of other alternative or no if you're talking about the alternative space stickers if I don't have a presentation it was a student created alternative that will be an option um and so I wasn't going to present anything or make it officially we're not holding that it was just going to be an alternative option for a sticker a couple of things I would like to know um and we received several emails and I found that email is a discussion even one email in particular from an educator rather
168impactful because they have indicated we need resources and so resources to me um are items for people all people and really If You're vulnerable then vulnerable um obviously understanding that the vulnerable populations have probably different resource needs um but I want to truly understand what those resources are um because to me that's something tangible that we can do for our students um and whether that's uh I mean this goes for anything it goes from kids that don't have food at home to kids that um you know have unstable parents and so on and so forth and so that's where my mind goes with this I'll be very transparent with the public and I have no problem in doing so I think that there is a a fine line with this and unfortunately I think that
169it's been Twisted a bit and for those of you that aren't aware there's been school districts surrounding our district and actually in other states and Canada that have you know teachers thought they were doing a good thing by supporting their students and unfortunately there was a propaganda QR code that none of us would want our students to see none of us and I that that's a true word that's a true concern is that our kids are constantly on their phones so our kids are constantly using QR codes and doing this and doing that and what I saw on that website but I don't care if my kid was 18 I'm about to graduate that's not something that is is further consumption without either me directing that conversation or doing something beyond that I truly feel
170that all students need to matter in our district and you know I was reflecting on when when this when things weren't an issue when we didn't talk about politics and we didn't talk about religion when we didn't talk about back then it was finances we didn't talk about a lot of these things yet everyone still loved their neighbor for who they were and it's really disappointing that now it's like you are one bucket or you're another and I'm choosing not to love you as my neighbor and that really bothers me because I think no matter what Walk of Life no matter what you do in your four walls no matter what you need for me you're gonna get for me I don't need to take my last penny and uh I I think we've lost
171touch of that we lost touch of being compassionate people who truly care about everyone who care about the kid who you know is is insecure because they're homosexual we care about the kid who doesn't have a stable home life because you know Mom and Dad are drug addicts we care about the kid who doesn't have food we care about the kid who you know maybe it's just going through a rough time and has all the resources at home and and that really it I really am having a hard time understanding where our resources for all of our students are going in what those resources look like and I did reply to that individual and said let's chat about what true resources look like and what we can do as a school district to be facilitating
172and advocating not only at the local level but for resources for other districts for resources throughout the country and how to support kids differently um you know I think that [Music] um I I applaud the students that designed this new sticker I think that that's fantastic that our students have come together and could do something like this and could represent um you know their classmates and represent a lot of things and I find that we as adults are making decisions that quite frankly some of our students are so capable of making and it's it's wonderful to see them to come together and it'd be great if that sticker you know is used at the elementary level is used at the middle school level and it's a constant for all kids to see if I'm in
173kindergarten I see it and if I'm a senior in high school I see it and so I think that that's I applaud those students for doing that and I apologize students for coming together and trying to facilitate something that should have a positive notion within our district um there are a couple of things about the policy that I would like to know or request change event and um in referencing policy 3210 which is um staff ethics policy I think we need to align the verbiage with the staff at the ethics policy so we're not kind of going back and forth and my request would be that we also note that a through H have already been defined as exceptions and for the public those are exceptions that are colleges universities those types of things and
174then improved documents that that be integrated in there as well um and so I would note that um a through h I requested a through H be an exception and then it depicting any um social policy religious and or political causes there's a minor changing privilege so depicting any social policies religious and or political causes because I'm 32 1-0 he also note the religious and purposes as well all right long-winded answering so I have a question can I ask you a question because this board is going to make potentially a policy change that you're going to require me the superintendent to enforce right so it's easy to make a policy change but then you're going to require the superintendent to take the policy that potentially is continuing um it's not going to necessarily be something
175that is going to be well received potentially I'm just saying so when you when you change the the verbiage any media including science poster supplies and or others as defined in a b stickers Etc depicting any social policy and or religious and or political causes unrelated to the Daily curriculum my question to you Miss uh Labatt gives where does the current rainbow uh as you guys call a rainbow say speaker land in regards to this change in policy what would you be expecting from neither superintendent I think that would be lovely and we replace it with it so I I I'm just kidding I'm sorry but I was gonna say how do you enforce no crosses for Christians how do you enforce that it's the same concept I mean Australian policy that a teacher a
176Christian teacher can have a promise how do you enforce that it's the same thing I agree or no I I agree that it's a really you know this is a a great area how I how I enforce the no crosses is that I fall back to separation of church and state that may not be popular I get it but I fall back to that idea of that we have a separation in church and state again may not be popular but that's where I fall back to in regards to this particular situation I fall back to I support our Educators supporting every student that's where I stand and I always have so this this change of this policy changes the perspective of me the superintendent in trying to enforce a policy that would require me now
177to go into our buildings any place there might be a say space sticker that happens to be other than the one that has the the generic um eagle on it and say that's got to come down that will cause its own issues I'm just saying that's what that's the reality and I personally don't have a problem currently with the way things are knowing that every child is still loved and cared for regardless so okay well no I I mean because again when the students came in with the tea for traditional safe space and they were told no they can't put the sticker out but the sticker in the tech doesn't represent them when everybody keeps saying they want to support all students it doesn't make sense if you're supporting students you're going to support all
178students the same way right now we're in five months right now the straight students don't have a a straight month they don't have this representation so when we're saying vulnerable and you know like how do you like all kids are vulnerable I would say our straight students have every month we still have to see them choice I have I struggle with and one of our speakers here data points but they said social cause so social causes is vague it is I mean they made a valid point I mean you know poverty I mean I I understand it's an extreme difference of what we're going for because I hear we're focusing on rainbows I get it that's where this is and I and I and I mentioned at the last meeting either one I'm not gonna
179sit up here and create who support some policy where we become the sticker police because really it is vague it absolutely is one of the people who called the public said where does it stop and you know and there's some difference between charity well and going for a social cause and momentum to have people particularly act in a certain way I did I can write something out that I was just going to read the word so I'm going to do it and then again I'm wonderful one of seven yeah but I went and I found just you know I found some thoughts online and I put it into my words but I'm just gonna read them it's uh I personally don't feel that I can stand up here it's a bystander not a lot of
180changes to happen that I can feel more important to respect the inherent Dignity of every human being by creating an environment that is safe and welcoming place for everyone to feel represented and welcome I go on to say our staff student Community are watching right now as they're recalled upon the Border it's a show that we value School culture that supports diverse Equitable and inclusive educational Community like we have a diverse Community whether whether we want to sit a parent like it or not there are diversities within our district and I welcome them quite frankly and I think this policy adding this is the opposite I think that is taking away from it because that's the intent that same time I'm getting bored I'm personally not for it and I won't be voting I think
181it's a mistake respect partly School strives to be a safe and welcome in place for all students we will not accept discrimination or harassment in any form we will not direct or compel students to personally confirm that any person or group is Superior or inferior I don't know how much more inclusive you can make a statement than that I don't understand we have that right now um we either respect everyone or we respect no one the fact that we're thinking well certain groups are not going to be respected or might be dead then we got some big house cleaning to do holy cow if you're telling me that a kid can't go into a classroom and know that he's protected nobody's safe knowing that the teacher will stick up for him and fight for him
182we've got bigger issues than a sticker so well what makes you feel safe what makes you feel respected what makes you feel like you are protected is completely different than what Cindy would need or what Scott would need or what day would be that's why you should have a million different stickers what about what about the nine kids I think it was eight or nine kids that went into the the principal at the high school and said we don't identify with that what does that mean they said lgbtqia and they said okay can we put our sticker out so that we feel and they would not do it that's not inclusive that is that is choosing that's choosing someone that's more important than these kids these kids are good kids and they're worthy kids they're
183worthy of protecting they're worthy of their they felt like they needed to do we don't realize how Brave they needed to be to do that do you understand that for them to walk in into the teacher and with the students say I don't feel represented can we put this up and they were ignored and then they were told no and yet we're talking about inclusivity if you're inclusive you're going to include those kids that actually took it upon themselves to say I don't feel representative but we're not acknowledging them how does that work so is it a viable option then to explain to leave the stickers as they are if they're I believe there's a handful of classrooms that may still have them um and then add add the new sticker add the design any
184to have it open to any teacher let them put up that sticker that you're still creating a division but everybody's represented wow everybody's represented by the all sticker that you guys are all behind the all sticker so so the people that have a rainbow sticker are they more friendly and and capable of dealing with students that have concerns regarding LGBT hold their conversation so again my interpretation of what that sticker represents is those kids who know that they can go into that classroom and just be themselves they're not there for counsel we have a counselors we have consultant workers those kids recognize that this is a place I can just go and I can be me okay it's not that they can't be in any other moves but that's like a beacon of hey I'm
185okay by the way our lgbtq students at 25 29 more likely to commit suicide so the fact that we have a handful of services that is I believe that's fine that's not true it is true so we're going to go down this road and we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna ban psychological issues so yeah that's true I've never seen something I'm going to say something that I set up on last meeting these stickers are not for the kids right you know what these stickers are for it's for the adults in the room to say look at me I care I care more oh look at me I am just a caring individual I have moral superiority over you that's because yeah good night at Mr camera here thank you Mr Hughes so without having to
186take home without going to take a recess if the if the community sitting in this room can't contain themselves then we will just have to recess and then we'll have to sit and we'll have to wait because we bought this before so again if the community is going to continue to speak out we're just going to have to recess we won't get these other action items done these will be table to the next meeting so if that's the way we're going to go that's what we can do but I'm not going to battle the crowd I understand it much for instance I would like to make a comment please appreciate that opportunity so my biggest concern with this policy the way it the way it's written today is with with the opportunity to have these
187stickers I feel like we are telling the kids who are the most important part why we're all here is that certain kids matter more than other kids and that's a terrible message to say I understand that maybe that maybe something that makes someone feel safe but that doesn't mean it makes another person feel safe so we can't have this double standard of you matter more than the other person I think we need to focus on educating our kids eliminate distractions from the classroom we can incorporate something that I thought we already did right with the three R's we have policies and procedures and you know we focus on everybody yet we're going to allow certain groups or folks that need a sticker to feel safe I I just it's it's mind-boggling to see that we
188wouldn't have already a wonderful staff that is already going to address and take care of every student I I can't believe that we don't already have that so I don't think we personally need a sticker to to tell the community or the students that they can only come in here again I think we need to be consistent we've had other kids approach the district about they want this and we've decided that we can't have that so we have to be consistent and for a penny in for a pound so it's either all or done in my opinion okay and this is my other discussion I feel already remote yeah one more thing what about those kids and one of their sticker up I know we I just want everybody to keep in the front of
189your mind that we're talking about kids feeling you know kids not you know being represented and even kids wanted their own sticker up they went there and they got ignored and so I just don't get how this works I feel that I think Mr she's mentioned that that was a separation of church and state no the separation involved with the church but it's a t it was a t t safe space but again the traditional value you can laugh while you won it's okay I don't want to talk about centralizing children just keep conversation appearance would you like to make a motion to amend the current policy based on my comments noting that either of H are exceptions a through H are exceptions and I can do what you have other and then adding so
190that the urban match it would be social policy religious and or political causes and that would include in my mind that includes you know items at the time you've had recently it would be for a live item anything that's really Falls in that Realm Renee are you getting this yeah so sorry religious so you just saying depicting any social and religious or political causes social policy yeah are you pulling that verbiage from another yes 32-10 what item is that item is that what you're getting that from YouTube channel uhm yes part of that artich and then um I just wanted to know instead of just a and b it being made for H M um as exceptions uh he wants to say a through H down in the bottom social policies and religious or political
191causes what I think I want to get away from we got an email on can I put up a picture you know a picture of my family like that yes absolutely which is another thing so emotional people to change the item that Mr clayback uh I'm sorry Mr Bill coleski has added changing the letter B where it says other than to find an H or B to age of H that added depicting any social policy and or religious or political causes right yes all right voted on the amended policy School blessings yes this is shot no it's falling no display bug yes Mr color Yes just one deal yes I would know that when she curious just so the audience hears me I'm going to need direction on what it is that you're expecting me
192to do to uphold this policy and so if Megan you want to sit down with me and let me know what that looks like because I've got to be able to uh give the explanation to my staff and our community on what it is that this policy is directing me to do and clearly that it was voted for free by the Lord and you're directing me to do X so that's what I have to do because that's my job is to honor your policy decisions on what additional resources are needed from the district level to impact change and vulnerable population item 2H revised policy 1410. I moved at the Board of Education about the recommendation of the superintendent the Chief Financial Officer adults revised policy 1410 administrative salary structure and policing 14 1001 compensation and
193Longevity schedule and it was to use you to spot this but it viewers real really really want to explain this again what is what is this position uh it retails and what we do and then obviously we talked about policy um there's a couple of factors uh playing into this position being um created uh one factor it's a Safety and Security in the district we're adding we're adding a number of officers we've lost a Capra so I have to update this I I've got an update on my desk I didn't update it for you where where this condition would take over those security oversight duties as well as being our liaison with um the County Emergency manager our MSP documentation that I've been again very clear with you that we haven't in my investigation brought
194to my attention by a gentleman in the community that may not be as diligent in tracking these incidents yep that's true I'm just telling you it's true I I admit it we have a plan for addressing that this helps us to do that um so all of those things that are there then the next thing is the doj uh the community knows that we have been under the microscope of the Department of Justice for a year and a half now they visited the district recently and said uh we're visiting you just to let you know that once we have time to see your end of the year report we're still going to come back regardless and we're going to be back another year with you and in this year's time we need to see the
195district working towards addressing specifically racial issues in the community we have a number of incidents that have occurred in our school system in regards to students using Burbage and whatnot that um has been reported to the doj they've interviewed they have investigators um I sat in that uh meeting uh with Ms Coleman you were one of them and I felt deflated that we worked so hard to address the needs of every child in the community and yet the doj was still saying uh they um are concerned about racial uh in particular and we have to do a better job showing them and demonstrating to them that we have addressed and put resources into the racial issues now so regardless of how we feel about that the fact is the doj uh is an important entity
196in the business that we do they can make uh that they they they have the ability to um do the things that they do and our attorneys are very clear that we will need to cooperate and continue to cooperate and try to create the environment we want all kids to to be engaged in so this captures all that there's a lot there and the problem is that I felt terrible because I had a superintendent we worked really hard at this and here we are sitting deflated because maybe we didn't give it enough but then I think back about all the distractions and the more and more stuff put on our table the more and more stuff put on our assistant superintendents table that we need some help here we need to demonstrate that we're going
197to work on this in this position would help us do that so that's why I've asked you to do this change and it is commensurate with the uh current principal salary schedule um to get this work done and it's a one-year see how it goes we evaluated at the end of the year it's a one-year position at this point in time and we evaluated at the end of the year thank you Mr Hughes is that that are we open some questions right now I think a discussion sure discussion is this a legal requirement or is this just a doj recommendation yes I would say that um um our attorneys highly encourage and support us working in collaboration with the doj because otherwise we're sending a message that we're not in collaboration with the Dual J
198and expectations so you can read into that how you want it my recommendation is we do not not follow the guidelines to doj period oh shoot go ahead there was something that was given that I examined you had a document that talked about some of the recommendations and one of the recommendations was working with the Great Lakes equity center does that sound familiar yeah well I did a little digging on the right Lakes equity center and I will say this for all of those speeches last year where people got up here and talked about CRT in the schools the doj is now going to ensure that we're going to have CRT in the schools and then tell them to take a look at the Great Lakes equity center website they have a series of resources
199and they have on one of their web features anti-racism resources now get a load of this for those who are white non-disabled Christian non-lgbtqi English only speaking U.S born and otherwise privileged you know most of you are privileged maybe you probably didn't know that this talks about going on to being not just Against Racism but anti-racist do you know what anti-racist means and by the way in this guide they recommend several Resources by ibram X candy who happens to be the author of critical race Theory and do you know what anti-racial mean anti-race racist means the only remedy and this is hence quote it's on his webpage the only remedy for racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination the only remedy to enhance discrimination is present discrimination the only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination think
200about that yeah I'll address that one and I'll address it with this as a school district we continually talk about harmonizing every approach we ever take so just because they say we would like you to at least reach out and get potential information from this organization or this resource we still look at that information and we harmonize it to what is appropriate for our kids and our community and to to point to any individual resource and say well the district wants to use this resource for that resource it doesn't really matter we may we may talk with this company and they and we said no we like something different but you know what we have that opportunity to make sure that we harmonize whatever approach we have and take care of our kids and take
201care of the issue that is on the table so the Department of Justice is ensuring that we are discriminatory to I guess make up for past discrimination I don't agree with that this is unbelievable the very fact that this that the doj the Department of Justice which by the way does not have the best track record right now maintaining objectivity is telling us that we need to hire somebody for a 120 Grand a year to oversee as we've said in the job description I think we have the job description listed here right um page 46 yes oh look at this this is absolutely wonderful racial education and policy compliance restorative practice PD for staff and Leadership student focus groups District climate and Ultra race-based surveys wow but okay I asked what what what are you
202representing the document that we have yeah it's it's it's on page 46. well page 46 of the job description okay so you're concerned about that this new position we're creating yeah is basically it'll be a charity restorative practice job description recommendation to hire a director of student services right job description correct what concern do you have about their job description about them running this sort of practice racial education and policy compliance restorative practice for staff leadership State student focus groups um at the middle school and high school level okay District climate and cultural race-based surveys okay what about that one does that kind of sound some alarms here or no no because because I can share with you that if you had called me in advance and said hey Chuck talk to me about this
203you and I could have said down and I could explain to you that what that is is specifically that our surveys of all students are not good enough they want to see us to just survey our students of color and to get their perspective on their education here in Harlan specifically students of color the the middle school and high school racial caucus that's simply working with those students of color in our buildings to regularly check in on them and say how are things going how do you feel things are going is there anything that you need from us to make your experience in our schools a better experience for you and the opportunity to gain that education restorative practice restorative practices in the law in regards to how you deal with students regardless of race
204color creed and how we get them back on tasks to be successful in school racial education and policy compliance goes back to all of our board policies on anti-harassment anti-discrimination anti-bullying but leaving that conversation at the building level with our staff to make sure we're all on the same page what were some of the other recommendations that the doj gave to each other this pretty much is in this document s can I have a question ask a question sure so with this specific job description have you has that been sent to the doj for their approval in terms of it will satisfy whatever requirement that they say we're not meeting do we have that in writing from them not yet we're waiting on them to redo our documents that we ended the end of the
205year document was um and I thought would it make sense to wait to look at adding a position that essentially would be equivalent to two and a half ssos which we just voiced concerns about financially that we can sign up for additional security officers and if we don't even know that this will meet their requirement I have some concerns over approving that position and when what what is the metric for determining how unracist we are what's what's the metric what's the is it just when they feel a particular Comfort level or or what when when do we uh when we get away from this well I I definitely don't work for the Department of Justice tonight I don't want to speak out we have a SECU so my understanding the Department of Justice is going
206to get back to us when they get back to us it could be next month it could be three months it could be five months it just six months and the fact of the matter is we sit here and do nothing I don't think they're going to appreciate the fact that we're doing anything about the situation that we have so I can one bill that we do need to vote on it um I don't find anything disturbing here as far as the job description um how do we know that this will be the you know requirement that satisfies their their need without getting their actual approval and right I mean that's let's do the right thing not just something Mr Hughes and his team spent an entire year trying to lay out to the example
207now we're still actually sadly yes that specifically we need more can I make a comment so yes this is a very this is quite the conversation we're having um I'd like as a school board member before I vote on something like this as I understand it Mr Comfort I believe it's Gregory Mr Gregory um talked to several many of their students in the high school and in the middle school and they got good reports right they didn't they get positive feedback from the students they spoke to I spoke to several parents who have um you know black kids in the in the community and they're happy with it they don't have any problem at all they don't want their kids seen as victims like this is their this is their input and I'm sure at
208some point they're going to come out and say that but they don't want their kids to feel like they're victimized now I'm in like a little more detail on what what we are being asked to do because it feels like it's like an open-ended thing like you have to do better it's got to be more broad but if we don't know what our Target is how are we developing this position and we won't know you said three months from now it could be totally off Target like we wanted we want to work with them we want to make sure we Supply them with with what they're looking for but it doesn't feel like we know what they're looking for or that this this bar is set by what you know can I can I have
209a uh some some incidence records so that I understand what we're talking about like because it would be nice because like I have no idea what we're talking about these incidents I know that recently you know there's been talk of uh you know the swastika kind of on a tree but I don't know why that woman came here because she lives in Oakland County and the Oakland County sheriffs were investigating but somehow she came here and I think that it cited more you know view of the Heartland District but had nothing to do with us we don't even know who she is like why are we you know what I mean we can't we can't you know put out every fire if we don't know what we're talking about right so I would like more
210information before we choose something like this just a recommendation for the future it may be beneficial to um have a accountable session with our Council in relation to um what I find really interesting is that I am on the Dei committee it's been six months I haven't been to a meeting I have no idea when the next meeting is we're going through all of this and and yeah why do we have a committee I I don't get that and if they're in no hurry if the doj is in no hurry to tell us what they want or want to see I am in no hurry to hire somebody at a principal salary level to make sure we're being less racist well it describe it for me what is less racist but we have to do
211a vote we have to vote on this and it's just one last thing again I think we have a fiduciary responsibility to this community to spend our money wisely and to just arbitrarily create a position for which we don't know it is what is supposed to achieve does not feel like we're we're doing that Justice to the department you spoke to what it was supposed to achieve that's supposed to achieve the fact that well this is something in writing which issues do this then you will have that that's just a we're playing whack-a-mole what I don't solve it I think he brought together a a very descriptive job that would cover what is lacking and what the Department of Justice wants to see from us I I think it would I think it would be
212a mistake not to do it again this is my opinion but like people once again once again do we have it in writing I heard no come back with weekend writing then maybe it's a different decision I answer that question would you like me to answer that question so we had it in writing at the last year at this time going into the school year if you handle these six things it would satisfy the doj they came and talked with us this moment you were there they said yeah you handled those things you handled them from a perspective of all students in a safe environment and that's great but you didn't concentrate on the race issue and here's the deal you demonstrate indifference by doing the same thing next year that he did this year
213that's not going to change our stance on where you stand as a school district for instance when we hear that a teacher is reading a book about Martin Luther King and a young person says why do we have to care about those people using descriptors they say here's the deal what we found in our investigations is you have students of color that specifically are targeted at an early age they get tired of being targeted and no longer bring it up at a later time because they're tired of dealing with it and that makes me feel bad that I don't like that that made me feel terrible and I said that to the doj and I said you know we've worked so hard to move this forward they said yeah but if you've always done what
214you've always done you always get we've always got I think the as a song a Walmart Guy saying um and your deliberate indifference is by not trying something new putting a resource or somebody that's going to guide you forward to specifically take care of these things so we've shared this with our attorney we've shared the plan that this could be a component of it the attorney's responsive this looks really good you're definitely down the path that the doj is asking you to go down I'm saying to you is I feel like I haven't had the time this year to address this as much as I needed to I don't believe that Mr Van Epps in the Personnel department has had the time and energy to build and do the best job possible because we're pulled
215in lots of different directions lots of different issues in the world that we live today lots of Hoyas lots of this lots of that I share a lot that with you that just keeps coming and we don't have time to do the nitty diddy-gritty work that needs to be done I believe we need somebody to guide us through this and I believe it needs to be somebody that's freed up and get this work done I believe that and this is why this position exists so you don't want to vote on it don't vote on it but I think it's the right move for us in moving forward and like I said if you have questions instead of waiting for tonight like it seems happens come in and sit down and let's talk about it so
216we can make sure we get the information you're looking for so yeah but there's there's a whole crowd here that you hear this too and that's why sometimes we've aged until the meetings because not everyone hears what they need to hear and I'm the old racist meter how racist is Heartland schools how where are we at on the doj's racist leader what what kind of marks have they given us what's our score Oakland in regards to the the asking Mr Hughes in advance like I said when when all the new board members came out I encourage you to do that I encourage you to call and you can call him on the weekends the man's gonna pick up his phone he's a workaholic and that's a problem um it doesn't mean you can't ask me
217exact same question here so the constituents that voted for you can hear it because it's it's called the courtesy that you ask mysterious in advance hey I want answers I want to know why are we hiring this person why are we creating this job he talks to you one-on-one and then you say to him Mr Hughes I'm going to ask you those same questions because I feel that our community should hear the answers you just told me and I'd be darned if Mr he's been saying you bet but that's not what's happening to talk to us the problem is is that sometimes um there is no answers or determination made um when we do talk and this is a big subject this is something that everyone should have input on again it's transparency if they
218don't talk about it here I don't think well I'm not saying don't talk about it or what I'm saying is do your due diligence reach out to Mr Hughes and say oh it's tell me what's happening with this position so let me know please have nothing to do about transparency it's about how it has to do about as a board member or expected to come here educate about it they shouldn't vote on them yeah well I'm educated yeah I have a question um so again I want more information to understand what we're looking at as a district that our kids are doing that are prompting the um this type of um coordination over the student body um because I'm not aware I'm aware of two incidents that hit the newspaper both of them are questionable
219um but what I want to know is is I want some more information on this and then I also want to know when we give this book with our kids name there's a child's name in there whatever they say or do the incident we give it to the Department of Justice the Department of Justice is obviously putting in some kind of like a record retention uh database and isn't it isn't it are we protecting our children because kids I keep saying this and I I don't know anybody that would argue that kids do dumb stuff and they say dumb stuff somebody does something you know something happens to you some kid eats more candy than you should he's off The Rocker and he says something and then he gets put in the book apartment adjusted
220um you know puts it in their database and that follows him or her doesn't it yeah yeah are we protecting our students from from that level because the expectation that adults are putting on these children you know I mean I just feel like all of our all this stuff the expectations of these children being perfect and you know doing all this stuff that when adults can't even manage themselves as well as we're expecting our kids to manage themselves you know can we take that off of here right like does it have to go that far is what I'm asking so I think what Megan suggests is we we you know we closed session with lawyer ask Oliver questions understand what the expectations are what the outcome needs to be is it a year-long stint or
221is this going to be something that you know we we adapt forever and and you know what level of racism are we seen as I would really like to know because I'm not familiar with anybody in Heartland and I know a lot of people in Hartland I've not seen one racist um issue and the analogy of the family by Mr Hughes can you just confirm that our our experience okay well I just wanted to pray with Mr Shoes this child description is child care before us today you have you have discussed this and our lawyers recommend that this does look like it's something that I could [Music] report was this included because we had to have a plan the other thing is that you couldn't submit the report without a plan moving forward this is
222part of our plan so very encouraged that it's a good plan it's a good report hoping to get it back soon and we go from there and in the meantime we've got to start preparing we've got to start preparing for the school year as you know this is the time of year and we've got to get things done and this is what I wanted to do it also means that this person also has to take on because if you look at the job description there's a lot of things in there that also security related without Capra without that concept especially now that Kemper has resigned I need somebody to take this over and start moving us you know forward with all the Safety and Security because as I told you we're pulling in many different
223directions and if you look at Bolton 1014 like I've told you before and you look at where we're ranked as far as administrative costs it's like 750 at 826 and it's been that way for years we're not heavy administratively so that's the other fact we need some help this is what's going to help us move that I recommend that we vote um we also have to recognize that I didn't fully understand this or I appreciate this is that the doj doesn't um I don't know that they come to the table with saying that this is going to solve x y or Z you have to show the impact um and then you have these I think quarterly I think reports you know quarterly reported that you have an end of the year and that's actually
224what they determine so for instance the the things we've done this year they didn't review that maybe the years with them so you're not compliant we're not closing this report so I think we also have to consider that that we wouldn't know um I don't necessarily think they're going to tell us X Y and Z is going to solve this they wait for the impact to determine if X Y and Z salt to this just a point of clarification hearing no other discussion this is Mr Gold Pulaski no it's a shot yes this is Coleman yes this is claybach yes Mr Keller no I don't know I want more clarity even if we do even if we do focus in the fallacy I do one more clarity I think it's necessary to protect our kids
225yes that motion carries um two Aid employee appeal 511 2023 and affirms employee of coordinators determination of denying the initiative players are submitted on 5 8 2023 we'll shoot by Mrs Shaw supported by Mrs Poland discussion this is the video this is just for confirmations privacy yeah I guess I'd like to make a comment to the rest of the board in the audience um I mean along with Mr Hughes and Mr Costa had a conversation with the legal team and they didn't provide all of us to read which was a two-page document summarizing their perspective on on how we should vote tonight um one of the comments was that who mentioned that it's not required that we provide this information but but I also asked them if there's anything that prevents us from doing it
226and I guess just as a general Philosophy for me I I guess I can't support intentionally withholding information from uh from someone in our community I think this particular video would be part of that child's record and therefore they should be entitled to have access on it and I don't want the district to put unnecessary burdens to members of the community to try to get information and so I hope that you know I fellow board members can appreciate that again even though we're not required to provide it there's nothing that says we cannot and and rather than make a parent the old The subpoena route I think it's not the message we want to tell members of the community yeah someone else wants to talk as well uh I gotta Mr color I appreciate your
227point of view but I know because I was in the phone call with the our attorney as well he did mention though I mean in the case in point that the parent did take it to see the video it says this card Mr Hughes can you answer that yes he did okay so it's not a matter of see I think it's a matter of the video itself just being out in the public and I think our attorney alluded to the fact that simply don't want to do that to any of those kids involved so it's not a matter of the parent not being able to see this video because he did so I think that's where I struggle with why would we do this if the parent has seen it any board member who's wanted
228to see it could see it I would struggle with going to release this based on the fact that our attorney recommends you don't I guess from all due respect Mr Kaufman were you able to identify any student in that video based on the footage you saw I don't personally know of any of the students so I would say no I couldn't identify them but could you even tell them what color hair they had they were far off in the distance Mr Mr Keller could you identify them no and that's I mean I guess it is the concern for someone again it can't provide it is available to analyze their their hairstyles I guess but I don't think that's the point the point our attorney is saying again I'm not an attorney and we sat in
229that conversation he recommended we don't so uh I mean unless you're an attorney you have a better insight into the law I you know I'm more than welcome to listen no not claiming to be an attorney but again he did specify that there's nothing that said we cannot provide it so I'm I'm airing on the side of transparency and so for that reason I will vote in favor of allowing the individual to have the access to their footage thank you Mr Collins I can appreciate transparency but I think this is some very very slippery slope I think we need to be cognizant of um so now every parent that's going to request video footage um as a parent of two students in the district I don't need you know videos of X Y and Z
230and parents you know I think if this is going down the road or if something happens too many criminal standpoint games during the video over to the County prosecutor or to the Sheriff's Office um but I I have a problem with in I I have a safety issue with that um and the Precedence that it says throughout the entire District you said something and I would like you to repeat it or just clarify for me you said members of the board have the ability and the right to see the videos is that correct oh the as I was meeting with Mr Keller and Mr Hughes and the attorney the fact of the matter is that we now have to be here tonight to vote on this allowed us then the right to see this because
231if we have to make a determination on whether or not I've got to deny this appointment then it becomes a board member's role up until then in my opinion one person up here we we don't we don't deal with day-to-day discipline I'm not the one that's going to determine whether someone was climbing up or down the big slide or whatever occurred that was not my role it became our role when this foia denial came before us and we had to make a decision so that's when Mr Hughes and myself and Mr Keller and the attorney agreed since they have to make a decision board members they want to can take a look at this video from up until then no no I okay that doesn't really answer my question do we have the right as
232a board member to review videos yes or no well I'd like to give you a yes or no but I can't because I'm based on the fact that if it sits before us with the denial language where we're denying a foil appeal and it happens to be a video my understanding the interpretation from our attorney is we have the right to look at that video to make a decision whether or not we want to release the video like she goes away on a day-to-day basis should we be looking at videos from our schools absolutely not no and I'm not I'm not saying that what I'm what I'm asking is do we have the right as board members board members to view videos when we ask to see them I can give you my perspective from
233that meeting thank you Sarah my perspective from what the attorney said is we have the right to see it as a board member however he also had some comments about whether or not it was protocol for us to see it so I think the distinction is we have an obligation now to weigh in on it but before we still had a right to view it if asked and Mr Hughes did you take away a different understanding from that question that I specifically asked to the attorney yeah I think you're exactly right basically the attorney said there are protocols that the district operates under and many of those protocols ought to be filed because they've always been followed and I think that's what we got in to the issue of the protocol is that your job
234as board members are not to do the day-to-day management of the school district but to allow our principals to deal with things when it comes to you as a board member from a parent saying hey I got X Y and Z concern the best thing to do is to say hey Mr Hughes I got the s y and z concern because principle a I didn't get where I needed to be or the parent is is saying they didn't get what they needed I'll check in I'll look at it I'll get back with you if I need to see the video I'll look at the video I'll give you my two cents on the video but really on the day-to-day operations and protocols is you as a board shouldn't be micromanaging that piece of the business
235you all operated from this level we operate from this level and the principles operate from the ground level and so in this case the attorney said because like Chris and and Greg alluded to because the appeal now is sitting here you certainly had the right to come in and take a look at the video because now you're making a decision at the board table based on the appeal and so that opened the door for protocol for you to come in and see the video which was open to you so it you know I'm asking this as a general question because of the denial that many of us have had to see basic things basic rates whether it's using a projector whether it's seeing the video or whatever and I'm I'm just a little uh confused
236as to what we're able to do as board members I'm just a little fuzzy on that so um we're not allowed to go into schools at any time we're not allowed to use certain equipment we're not allowed to view a video I'm curious any other discussion on the action items very nice Mr Google asking no Mr Shah yes Mrs Coleman yeah yeah this is Mr Keller no this is blondeo I'm gonna say I'm um for transparency would say no I myself but yes that is denied item 2J foil 6223 I moved with the Board of Education denies boy FB appeal 6-2 2023 and a pharmaceutical coordinator determination of the initial estimated the ionization submitted on 6th to 2023. motion I'm sorry motion all right so um Mr escher's paid already um so any kind of
237like fees uh her foia is in addition to that I'm not clear what the uh the time would be to to look for one email I talked to my ite director and he didn't seem unless there's some different computer system that you could have it didn't seem that it should take that long you know he couldn't fully understand it what I was saying because I don't know what system we're in that we're looking at if it's just you know Gmail or whatever it shouldn't be that difficult to be able to search for the just one email address and um you know I I go ahead before I got into school board I played a lot there was a lot of big bills I got it's on my paid so I didn't um sometimes I did
238feel like they were to dissuade me from getting the information so I understand how Mr Scott feels so um I just wanted to give that put that out there I wanted us to be transparent and I don't I don't believe in Chicago that much okay um thank you Mrs bondio can I you know Ben yeah you're gonna be jumping in on the cost of it yeah so so obviously um you know I was asked for a breakdown of this um I've shared with uh through Renee the employee coordinator is shared with uh Mr Scott um what the costs are uh keep in mind that foia's cost does because it's taking our employees away from their job so well yes I'm currently on the the clock the fact is I'm not on the clock when I'm
239trying to take and gather all this information for these Point requests I did talk with Mr Usher I shared this with you um the argument is that a lesser person could do it the fact is because of we've made a conscious decision in our district because of the people that have gotten up to the party in the last few years about safety of of um information on the net safety of of our our computers and who has what that Mr Usher is the only one in our district that has the ability to pull this information um we've purposely not trained others because we didn't want them to have access to this sensitivity so he is the one our backup is at LESA and that's at a higher rate and I think I shared that with
240you as well um Mr Usher has said that it in his estimate because he's not had to do a complete search of all 600 employees in regards to this particular email address here's what we do know there's one employee in the school district that would have access to this system and this email return that one employee only takes a half an hour to search that one employee's email Bank we've offered that to Mr Scott Mr Scott hasn't got back to us to say okay yeah I'll take that that's that's one employee we would have a very high confidence that that's the only employee that you can read through emails back from this particular email setting but that wasn't good enough so in order to go and check every employee our best faith estimate is what
241we've given and if that is not good enough I'm sorry but if we don't spend it all then the person gets that remainder back if we go through and check these emails so Banks down the law and our best paid estimate and who can do the work it stands as is if this in particular person wants to say hey okay yeah you're right if it's only one person that would get these emails back then I'd be happy to get them from that person then that's a different story but right now Mr and I think I gave you an email with him copied on it that clearly says he agrees with this and this is his Affidavit of my affidavit that this is our best movement that's what it has to be a fast fake estimate
242can I ask a question sure the time frame in which the email is allotted are requested I don't I did not memorize that have we had any change in personnel that would perform that work um do we have another person that could do this work we're saying this one employee does this yes and we during the time frame of the documents requested and we had a change and who does that work no only one person come on so why even we have to search all the records I guess because [Music] to address to look at all emails in the school district then look at all emails in the school district if you read their foia request that you had given been given and we said okay if we look at all School District employee addresses
243that might get this return email back this is what it's going to cost but isn't there one person that files these emails that's so why do we need the entire District because this individual asks us to check every single District employees email in case they got one of the gentleman the questions in the accordion is that allowed so we can clarify some items to make an informed decision I think they think that's going to hold nothing like and I I would respect believe that that would be not appropriate you've been in the university has been something correct but I I lied to the fact that the problem is to say we wanted to have a conversation invite people up about any other item I I no offense to Mr Scott because I honestly think he's
244probably just trying to get an answer and like I know it sounds like she's offered up something yeah sure yes that was not offered until after my interview about that status thumbs down thank you wonderful now we don't have open mic night because again Mr Mr Scott's attempt to find information I think perhaps the initial employee lesson so it sounds like Mrs clayback have done her research and indicated that Mr Scott perhaps will be comfortable with one individual thank you Mrs clayback for doing that research so as the motion stands uh we are denying the foia appeal based on the initial estimates so the fact that the foil is explored and we can I asked to be so we still want to also make or we get confirmation via email on the g-switch so we
245have that on record please okay it's a great opportunity for someone to do that it's a wonderful idea all right no other discussion about to deny the employer appeal 6 to 23. Mr Google ask him no Mrs shot yes Mrs Coleman yes yes Mr Keller no Supply deal no and he's changing it if he's changing the foia it's about and hoping that our community member reaches out um item 2A future meetings 6 to 22 26 1.3 uh right here in Newport um 3B I do have an informational item Mr Hughes is superintendent evaluation has been complete um I have done all the calculations based on the reports I've received and he is the dean highly effective important thank you foreign