001[Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] good evening I'd like to call to order the October 10 2022 regular meeting of the Dearborn Board of Education may have a roll call please trustee Berry here trustee d'ambrosio trustee Moses here trustee petrika here trustee Thorpe trustee Watts here president McDonald here next item please pledge of allegiance to the flag Mr Mike casaley executive director of special populations we'll introduce students that will lead the Pledge of Allegiance foreign all right thank you very much president McDonald trustee superintendent maleko it gives me great pleasure to introduce some of our amazing students today who are going to be leading the pledge uh we have Michael shammy from Whitmore Bulls Elementary with his sister Cosette uh we also have Mr Kareem K from ol Smith we have uh Jonah uh mahowski
002from Nowlin Elementary and then we have Rami Bazi from Carter Elementary with his sister Layla as well I pledge your music I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign well done Mike please bring them up I have a certificate for them watch your step come on she wants to give you something to hang on your refrigerator good job thank you well done thank you very much great job thank you give me my thank you he said to pass it on yeah well done Michael great job [Music] great job [Music] we've started the meeting it's okay you guys could make a pet thank you students well done please don't block the podium
003access young man can you move over a little thank you now I'm going to start by reading a statement this evening I want to welcome everyone and thank you for joining us this evening we are all here because we care about students and their education we have heard concerns of our parents and the community at previous board meetings and through other lines of communication some aren't concerned about the age-appropriateness of reading materials in our school libraries While others are concerned about the censorship of information available to students this shows that we are a caring and diverse Community with a variety of opinions each parent or Guardian has the right to determine the appropriateness of Library resources for their children but they also must afford that same right to other families to that end I want
004to commend the great work of Dr Gruber and Mr Martin in spearheading the team of dedicated media specials and administrators who have worked diligently to revamp the district's outdated book review process details of this new process were released this past week and will be presented this evening although balancing the rights of All Families is challenging our students will be successful and prepared to enter adulthood with confidence if they are provided the proper instructional tools that give them the opportunity to become critical thinkers thank you next item please next item superintendent's update good evening board members of the audience those at home I wanna I'm gonna go down my I'm just going to go through my commentary I'm going to start with um agenda items wanted to congratulate as we always do our retirees and I
005send letters to them we have George Gilbo 36 years of service and Cheryl Johnson over 21 years of service if we can show our appreciation we thank them and we congratulate them for the review I also want to mention I know the students did a great job with the Pledge on the agenda it is National disability month and Mr saley does have a presentation coming up during the Special Report section going down to non-agenda items I want to congratulate uh trustee Watts on her appointment to the Early Childhood investment Corp I know there was a press release from the college and we sent it out and congratulations uh for that appointment by the governor I am going to now introduce Mr Ibrahim or Abe deklala Who was appointed last month as our assistant supervisor for
006Safety and Security working with missile zayat um and with Mr Andrews I'll let him come up to the podium and say a few words and that way the board knows he's going to be here at all the meetings helping with the uh controlling and then uh you know providing security throughout our schools to make sure that students and staff are safe in every building for this great opportunity speaking to the mic speaking to the mic I apologize uh thank you Dr Maliko thank you uh board members for this opportunity um as uh Dr Maliko already introduced me my name is uh uh Abraham declava um born and raised in Dearborn I love it here uh attended McDonald Elementary Laurie Middle School Woodworth Fortson uh went on to graduate from U of M Dearborn uh where
007I met my wife I've been married 12 years uh after U of M I worked for the state managed uh youth homes took in kids who were abused and neglected by their families just keep going okay I apologize um took in kids who were uh um abused and neglected by their families uh had uh criminal behavioral disorders as well as uh severe mental health disorders as well um all throughout College I worked at the uh 19 District Court where I gained some valuable experience um after my stent went to State um I spent eight years with the Dearborn Police Department um where I was happy to learn and grow as a professional and they had brought me here today um so I'd like to thank you all for the opportunity and uh hopefully many good
008years to come welcome to the team thank you Mr Carla I know uh president McDonald and I were also we tend to talk a lot uh support president and superintendent we talked about National School Lunch week and how important that is uh that our students are eating nutritious meals feel very positive that we on a daily basis serve approximately 14 000 students I want to thank our entire Food Service staff Mr Murphy our partnership with sfe and the great work that all of our kitchen staff do every day to ensure that our students are come to school and they have proper nutrition so if we could show our appreciation to them I appreciate that I want to comment on you know the press release that we had that went out we were trying to put
009information out I want to mention that you know we were attempting to be proactive we started hearing some concerns as far as different materials and books in the spring our team started working on it um there's always been a process in place but we knew that we needed to revamp it when we started hearing from different parents uh we were talking to parents listening to concerns we always do that that's what we always do uh we decided that we need to really look at that process and I want to you know thank Dr groover and Mr Martin the executive cabinet was involved but really the two of them took the took the lead on it and I know that they had other staff involved others media Specialists teachers other administrators and it went through a
010very thorough process we want to make sure that um you know we have a system in place that is fair to all I think that's very important I also want to mention that the books that have been in question I think there's have been at the high school level there hasn't been any question at the elementary uh that we're aware of and I just wanted to clarify that I know there's a lot of information going on in social media and that's why we tried to put out our process last week um you know my time in the districts spanning now almost 27 years I think we have a track record with this board of education of working in the best interests of all and to ensure that our students receive a high quality education we
011also know we need to listen to the parents and that's why we came up with this process I want to stress too that parents have the right to opt out their own child and uh any parent can opt out their own child of the books or materials however other parents may want certain materials and so we want to respect the rights of all parents when we're making these decisions uh there is a form online that can be used as that went out and I just want to mention as well that you know our schools will continue to be welcoming safe places our media centers will reflect books on different topics uh we will we will go through a massive review process understand that I said I've been here 27 years I mean this book collection
012has started over many many years we have over a half a million books just the physical books and then you know Electronics so it is a Monumental task but we understand we're listening to all and that's why I do want to call up now if we can see where they are you're going to have to make some room Mr Martin and Dr groover and they're probably over to the side so we're going to have to make some room to allow them to come up to the podium right now and talk about the process that we uh outlaid in our oh there they come through our press release and I can tell you they've been working very hard um and again we're going to stand by the process we think the process is fair and again
013parents have individual rights so turn up the podium Mike is that better yeah all right Dr Maliko uh president McDonald trustees uh thank you again I'm going to do a quick uh clarification and then turn it over to Dr Gruber as Dr baleko said um she's been working hand in hand with media Specialists revisiting a process and a policy that had already been in existence and is aligned really to the American libraries Association guidance in terms of what is that process right a couple things I know there has been some um misunderstanding of Dearborn City libraries versus Dearborn Public School library libraries as much as Dr malaco might want to be the mayor I don't think that's his role and the same with mayor hamoud so they are two distinct separate entities we do work
014with the Dearborn City libraries in terms of trying to support students having access but we govern our libraries and our media centers separately from them the other thing is as we got with the media specialist and Dr groover started talking about what is our standard for books that are in our media centers and our resources absolutely we want to make sure that what is in there is appropriate for all of our students so um in the process that went out to everyone there was a bolded section that I want to read to make sure that everybody knows kind of where we're at so it says Dearborn Public Schools believes that media materials containing graphic and or gratuitous violent sexual conduct content sorry expletives or hate speech and without literary or educational merits should not be
015included in our media centers we do not want this material in our media centers so we're very we're very foreign [Applause] I appreciate I appreciate all the noise right but the goal is to make sure that what we have in our in our media centers is appropriate for all of our students and as Dr maleko said parents have the right to limit their children's ability to check things out I'm going to turn it over to Dr groover who can kind of talk through the four big rocks of the the process and then we can ask answer some questions from there Dr Gruber okay before Dr Gruber gets started please keep your voices down so everyone can hear thank you good evening board president McDonald and Dr Malika there are really four big pieces of what
016we've been revising and refreshing it has existed for many many years but we have gone through it completely the four big pieces and I'll go through them each briefly um they're all contained in the document that was linked in the press release that went out last week so we have a process to determine the selection of our medium materials moving forward that same selection process also governs what is called weeding which is reviewing all of the books in the media centers to make sure that they meet our our standards um and our age-appropriate ranges we also have a book challenge procedure and a book reconsideration procedure so the first part of the selection process you can see it on the screen is really just to govern the selection and to Aid the media Specialists as
017they select materials for the media centers media centers and libraries those are the same terms we happen to use Media Center in our district we really want to have a well-balanced and Broad collection of materials for information and reference and research for our students we also want to foster a lifelong love of learning and we want students to see books as a way to explore other worlds to explore other other things and to really develop that enjoyment of reading as a pastime so when we select materials for our media centers you can see on the screen the things that we are looking for we have spent a great bit great deal of time on the last bullet which is age appropriate so you can see that defined here on the screen Elementary is defined as
018grades pre-k through five or ages 0 through 10. Middle School is defined as grades six through eight or ages 10 to 13 and high school is defined as grades 9 through 12 ages 13 to 17. so as I said the weeding process which is really going through the existing collection will also follow these same selection guidelines so when we are selecting materials or weeding materials we look at the publisher recommendation for the greater age ranges and again that's the same grade ranges that you saw on the last screen and every book that is published has a Publisher's recommended age range we also don't just take the Publisher's recommendation we look for at least two reviews supporting that we actually look for many more of these six sources which are nationally published well-respected journals that look
019at everything that is published and give it a review so we have to find two that support that publisher grade range so if we find the sites that if some of those sites show disagreement the media Specialists meet at either the elementary or the secondary level to actually look at the materials themselves look at all of the reviews actually handle the buck if necessary and then they vote we have 14 media Specialists there are seven members of the elementary committee and seven members of the secondary committee there are also some books that are generally classic some science fiction some things like that that are published as adult books um Tom Clancy novels is one of them to Kill a Mockingbird is another those books must actually be reviewed by looking through the book before they
020could remain on our shelves I just want to repeat what both Dr maleko and Mr Martin already said parents can opt their their children out of any or all media materials there is a form that's readily available through the parent portal on the district website that that parents will fill out and then that gets transmitted to our media Specialists who then will make sure that that restriction is flagged in the student's Destiny account Destiny is the online library management system Mr Martin already read this statement that this is our standard when we are either purchasing or reviewing books and then should a parent think that we have not met that standard and find a material that they don't think meets that standard that is the book challenge process that process starts at the local level
021at the school level so a parent a staff member or a student who have a question or concern about any media material can either go to the school media center or the administrator of that school the media specialist at that school then gathers information about that book including going back to the Publisher's recommendation as well as at least two journals supporting it or disagree with it and then they meet with this Elementary or secondary committee to talk about the book to discuss the book and they actually vote on whether that's an age-appropriate book or medium material I keep saying book but this applies to any medium material after that a meeting is scheduled with the parent and the media specialist and the administrator to discuss the outcome of that book review process that has taken
022place with seven of the district media media specialists again each parent has the right to opt their child out at any point if a parent still feels like that has not been adequately addressed after the meeting then it goes into a book challenge procedure after that it goes to um sorry I'm looking at the slide because I'm looking for the book consideration oh here we are so at the meeting the parent is given the option of filing a book reconsideration form and so what that does is it takes that working question along with all of its history to a committee and you can see the it has nine members three parents are community members three teachers or a media Specialists one administrator one school social worker or school psychologist and one student so that book
023a reconsideration committee would be given copies of the material they do agreed to read the entire book because we are looking at the educational or literary merit of the entire work and then they schedule a meeting to um to discuss the book and then vote on the outcome of what happens to that book there's an initial meeting to discuss the process there's minutes kept they read the whole book they could bring in an outside expertise an outside expert and then they make the decision about what happens to the book a written report is shared with Dr Maliko the school administrator and the media specialist um and then if the decision is to remove the book it's shared with all administrators and media Specialists and teachers in the district um I want to reiterate that we
024have not banned any books in Dearborn I think that's an important point we did temporarily remove the six books from the shelves only from circulation they're still in the media centers while we refresh this process while we go through this process with any subsequent books we would not remove the books from the shelves while all of this is going on if they were to be removed though they would be on a do not purchase list and we would hold that decision for at least five years before it is reconsidered thank you are there any questions trustee Barry I don't have a question it's a couple comments uh as a parent of two young ladies at the high school level and a grandfather of four young ones in elementary and middle school the way I understand
025our thought or opt-in processes is is a way to empower parents in which way they want a parent I'm an old man so back when I was in school at Salina when there was co-ed swimming and somebody didn't want their daughter swimming with the boys it was a mechanism I don't know if it was opt out or opt-in but also uh back then there was school dances on Wednesday nights and some parents didn't want their daughters or Sons attend those and they opted out uh fast forward it was when the sexual sex education classes so that opt out is a way to give parents control without breaking any laws you know as a district we get funds from the federal government we get funds from the state we get funds from many many sources so
026there are laws on the books that determine what we can and we can't do but every single time there's an issue that comes up we find a way to empower our parents and I know that and face side I don't know if you're here or you're watching I just want to thank you for your trust I had somebody do some research and back in 1972 repeat that 1972 that's the year I came to the strong country speaking of books I didn't read English back then but that's the year that we actually had a Dearborn book challenge policy and I have that in front of me here so somebody questioned me if this has been around yes it's been around for a long long time it needed to be updated because you know what the parents
027want today compared to 50 years ago is a little different so I'm kind of I took what we what you did and great job by the way on that I took which didn't shared with many many community members that were very very how do I say to keeping it clean they weren't too happy but when they saw what we did they're like yeah we can live with this it's not going to make everybody happy but we can't break any laws by trying to make everybody happy we have to we have to agree to that but the power [Applause] we need to hear from Mr Berry continue please I think keep it down I think the policy that we put in place will serve us well and if we have to adjust it make changes we're
028willing to listen we're willing to listen to our staff we're willing to listen to our parents and we'll go from there I just wanted to say great job Dr Groover trustee Adam our trustee medical I'm sorry thank you madam president um and thank you to Mr Martin and Dr groover for this presentation I know uh this school district has been working with parents all around and Librarians to offer excellent educational experiences to our students when there are concerns that are raised from parents this board and this Administration has have been attentive as a student of Fortune High School from 2000 to 2004 I appreciate all of the library staff who have helped me during my research whether it was on a country of Pakistan or Louis Cuero story and novels as an ESL student and
029my curiosity on scientific books our school libraries offer so much to our students and I'm grateful to these institutions for educating myself and now my kids and yours I'm probably the most critical board member that you would find at this board but this Administration has handled this issue with care and cooperation the current process of ruling inappropriate books and that comes in in place from our libraries has been there for many many years as trustee area has mentioned now as evident from our last meeting we did have a former librarian who was here and and spoke to us about sometimes themselves exercising their true discretion of returning some some books and per the Michigan state code Dearborn Public Libraries believe that mid materials that might contain graphic and or violent sexual content explicitive or hate
030speech without literary or educational Merit should not be included in our schools now there are some books that might have fallen through the cracks and that's why there is this challenge process this is not a book Banning as unfortunately some media has painted it this is making sure that sexual and explicit content that is vulgar is prohibited per hour policy I support this Administration categorizing Library materials and making them appropriate for our students however during all of these conversations our Librarians and Educators have been attacked by some of members of the public and labeled the sexual predators and groomers this is insulting and disrespectful and liable this is this is a serious accusation and undermines our Educators and Librarians I agree with my colleague trustee Berry and all of you that parents have a choice
031and they have a voice and this Administration have given you that voice thank you [Music] [Applause] that is that is not necessary we understand that people have differing opinions we will conduct ourselves as adults we will not boo we will not jeer you can clap if you'd like and you'll listen to the speaker I just want to remind everyone there are young children here watching your behavior please please be courteous and respectful of each other's opinions [Applause] you do not have the floor you do not have the floor trustee Watts Dr Gruber Could you um explain what was the process before this and you said it was on the book since 1972 and I don't mean to go all the way back to 1972 but in the most recent what was the process if a
032parent said hey maybe this book is not necessarily something that I want my child to read so what would they what would have looked like as of a couple of weeks ago so it looked a lot like this um I would have to say that what we did was tightened up the definitions of age appropriate and also formalize the opt-out process our media Specialists have been allowing parents to opt students out informally just by sending a note or having a conversation at the school so we have formalized this process but we also have a very specific definition now of age-appropriateness and then the need to go not only with the Publisher's recommended age group but then also at least two supporting recommendations or reviews from those six journals but the book reconsideration process was taken
033from the American Library Association and so it looked a lot like this okay thank you Jesse pencil patch no I I would just like to make a statement for everyone here I was going to hold this till after but I just want you to understand from the beginning when a parent came with a book challenge earlier this year we have been proactive with this parent this parent even came to the board meeting in August and thanked Dr malaco for the efforts he had been putting forward to respect the concerns we have never ever turned a blind eye to the issue when it was brought before the board we have always been proactive and responsive and receptive to all of our parents and the rest of the community that we represent there is a process and
034it's one that is to be balancing all of those competing challenges within this community and I will like to remind everyone one of the biggest values that we have always talked about in this community is about our diversity and yet all of a sudden this diversity has drawn A Line in the Sand and it's US versus them and nobody is respecting that diversity anymore because they've decided to choose a side and they aren't going to be representing the collective Community anymore and I find that disheartening that we've come to this point at this part of the year when everyone should be finding ways to dialogue with each other and this District it's employees its staff Dr malaco has done nothing but to be proactive and representative of all of the concerns and we've tried very
035hard to balance those needs that everyone has in order to that everyone has the opportunity to be represented here in this community and that's what our role is well stated continue okay I have one more topic if Miss farage can make her way thank you Dr groover I just wanted to say one thing and that was I want to thank the district media Specialists there are 14 of them and they have worked hard on this we've had lots of meetings we've had lots of discussions and I just want to publicly thank them for all of their work absolutely surprisingly enough today is International School library day it's for all our Librarians to let you know thank you and I saw that firsthand when I attended your meeting briefly on Friday thank you Dr groover media
036specialist agreed thank you so much so this next uh Miss farage is going to come up and this is required um under the Esser federal law that we have to have we know we're coming out of you know numbers of covid but we still have to have a plan so she needs to publicly present this and we'll turn it over to her and take questions if anyone has and I believe this will go the plan goes out on the website after the boardroom good evening everyone so this is about section 98c of Public Act 144 this is another funding source that the district is receiving and to be eligible for this fund it is required that we present the information about the plan that we've developed in this board meeting in October so the requirement
037of the fund is the all districts who wish to receive the funds we need to develop and make publicly available a safe return to in-person instruction and can't even continuity of services uh this should address the learning loss for all students lagging lagging in academic progress it also includes health and safety we know even though that the covet numbers are decreasing we're seeing less coveted numbers we still have to have safety measures in order to make uh in-person instruction healthy and safe for students it should address the academic social emotional and other needs such as mental health it focuses on acceleration of learning meaning that we need to have equity for all students in terms of having accessibility to essential standards at grade level and it needs to be aligned to and measured by a
038benchmark assessment and correlate with covid-19 learning plans that we've had in the past as well as each one of our school Improvement plans other requirements include that we present this information it is a lengthy plan that's going to be posted on the website as of five minutes from now and it must be presented to the community at a public board meeting and if you click on a link that looks like the clip art in the photo up here it will take you to the plan we need to present the progress on the plan in April and in September any questions thank you Miss faraj for always being on top of those rules to ensure that we use our funding for the safety and the education of students thank you and your team thank you [Applause]
039thank you Dr maleko next item please recognition and acknowledgments uh commendations I'm a Dearborn High School senior and um I have your accommodations so first I have the district accommodations for the food service director Jeff Murphy who was recently part of webinar panel on understanding cultural food ways and school communities that event was organized by by The Institute of children nutrition to look at how a community's religious and cultural preferences impact the school's menus and strategies for outreach to understand Community needs accommodations to a human resource director nada alamandi I'm sorry that's the name of for her article HR meeting the challenge of Workforce shortages featured in the October School business Affairs publication thank you to miss for her consistent commitment to eight to the HR department and to the district now on to Middle
040School accommodations to the transportation staff for supporting Salina intermediate the staff wanted to recognize Anna Lawton Luton Janine Nash and Andre price and Dennis Dombrowski and noted that the parents and students have nothing but praise for the crew uh also the elementary accommodations to Oakland Elementary principal Mahmoud Abu Rose who is named an ex sorry our exceptional educator by the W uh w w x y z TV channel 7 and drugs uh Papa's uh trial attorneys Mr abarus was presented the award of a thousand dollar check for open Elementary at the school's late late last month thank you thank you so much Mira well done next acknowledgment of donations a grant of ten thousand dollars has been offered to Snow Elementary School by a national Philippine philanthropic trust to be used for the Garden project
041a donation of 360 has been offered to Salina Intermediate School by the my community cares to be used for PBIS student incentives and awards a donation of 16 cases of gloves 60 cases of hand sanitizer 18 cases of hand soap and 16 cases of disinfectant wipes has been offered to McDonald Elementary School by Rama worldwide to be used at the classrooms at McDonald's Elementary a donation of two pallets of hand sanitizer has been offered to Dearborn Public School by zom Trucking to be distributed throughout the district thank you Next Step staff recognition counselors if our counselors that are here can please try to make your way towards the front cast and Darwish from Dearborn High Mona mahudley from Fortson Helen Hamed from Edsel Ford and Carrie bazzi from Henry Ford Early College [Applause] thank you
042to our counselors a counselor is a patient a patient empathetic and resourceful professional also a multitasking star helping students with their goals and challenges collaborating with teachers administrators and families to develop and Implement plans for diverse learners advocating for students fostering resilience and fostering hope your flexibility and your understanding of the whole child is recognized and greatly valued not to mention the challenges you overcome while navigating all the complexities of the high school offerings and the high school scheduling dear counselors thank you for your hearts being full of love your ears willing to listen and your hands ready to help thank you very much thank you if you could hold on just a moment Dr maleko is going to come out and get a photograph with you [Music] foreign thank you very much for all
043your hard work Castle thank you thank you next the staff appreciation drawing we have six winners this month and they are as follows Al bastani she's a cook manager at Howard Elementary thank you Doha yet Talib is a paraprofessional at Miller Elementary Ernie DeSantis is a teacher at Snow Elementary [Applause] is a teacher at Stout Middle School Joel Blake is a teacher at Bryant middle school and our hundred dollar winner is Lois Katz a custodian at Maples Elementary I'd like to read just one of the nominations this is for hayat Talib she's the paraprofessional at Miller everyone bring your voices down you do not have the floor be kind and listen to our speaker I would like to nominate my parapro Hyatt Talib she goes above and beyond every single day she is assigned to
044one student but anyone that walks in the room would never know who her student is because she helps everyone that needs it without hesitation or without being asked she helps me prep materials for the kids and manages reading groups she brings in decorations for the classroom to make it festive and makes treat bags for the kids out of the goodness of her heart she takes extra time each day to clean the classroom by wiping down desks countertops and door handles he truly goes above and beyond to make school a fun exciting and safe place for all of us to be thank you Hyatt thank you next approval of minutes approval of minutes of the following Dearborn Board of Education meeting policy committee meeting September 12 2022 board report 22 hyphen 37 building and site committee
045meeting September 12 2022 board report 22 hyphen 38. the regular p12 meeting September 12 2022 board report 22 hyphen 39. recommended action make any necessary Corrections and move approval of these minutes support I have a moved by uh trustee Berry and a supported by trustee mosa are there any corrections very no none may I have a role excuse me yeah one quick correction sorry yes trustee Barry close enough uh on page five fifth paragraph down actually it's the last paragraph General the general minute I'm sorry yes the gentleman is thank you trustee petrikov uh it starts out saying trustee Berry said the second sentence says I want to make sure that our lawyer has been or will be involved in this process then it says trustee Watts said as this committee starts to form we
046need legal hand to make sure we're not violating Supreme Court law in between those two sentences I also asked for uh an opinion from our lawyer which I have received but I just want the minister reflect that okay thank you Chester thank you yes trustee Moses yes trustee petrikov yeah yeah trustee Thorpe trustee Watts yes president McDonald yes