001i'd like to call this meeting to order like to welcome everybody to the study working session of the school board this evening all are present tonight with the exception of board chair stacy roell who is out ill and director mary france who is out of town i uh in i will be filling in for board chair as clerk and in lieu of that i would like to appoint enrique velasquez to be the clerk pro tem for the evening is that okay very good okay thank you for this evening's meeting i'd like to start by turning it over to superintendent stallow who will introduce the purpose and agenda for the evening thank you good evening all the purpose of listening sessions is to share information and updates to the board to ensure effective and wise decision
002making during regular board meetings this evening we have a final budget discussion and review as well as under the operation of oversight information regarding our educational equity and excellence plan we have several calendar events and a curricular update as well as an update for the safe learning plan followed by some policy review and then we'll move into closed session for two additional items okay thank you and as i welcome you all this evening we do have a full agenda and i want you to know that our normal process during a study session is to have an opportunity for public comment at the end of the meeting however i do have several papers of people who would like to speak and i think in an effort to prioritize the voices of our students and community members
003i'm going to propose that in lieu of the public forum at the end of the evening we move it to the front of the meeting so we can hear those voices first we then will be inviting all of you to stay for the remainder of the meeting so you can hear the work that is being done and committed to going forward but first i'd like to ask dr stallow to give her an opportunity to make a statement thank you very much a few weeks ago we all became aware of a racist video shared by a student on social media the horrific racist video continues to cause pain and hurt to all of our community particularly our bipoc students staff and families to be clear our schools do not tolerate racism and hate speech our hearts
004go out to the student victim and her family we've been in contact with them and are seeking ways to support them our focus continues to be on the safety and well-being of our students we've been communicating regularly with our families students and staff we've been convening groups to share ideas discuss opportunities and identify ways to provide a school environment that is safe respectful and where every student feels a sense of belonging we're listening to the voices and the needs of our students this work will continue as we try to heal and move forward with work that will improve the lived experience for our students we hope this experience will help us to come together as a community in solidarity in support of our students and the environments of respect that they all deserve regarding the
005students seen in the video that student is no longer enrolled in prior lake savage area schools for data privacy laws we cannot share any details about the district's investigation or identify actions the district has taken to address student conduct as a result of its investigation the savage police department is continuing its investigation moving forward we will continue to listen to one another to work together to provide a school environment where that is safe respectful and where all students feel sense of belonging and love thank you dr stallow before we begin the public forum this evening then i'd like to go over some logistics for public comments um first of all this forum time has been prioritized for stakeholders in our community people who live here in our district our students our staff and our families
006i will call you from the name on the forum that was filled out you then can come up to the podium and address the board at that time i'll ask you to state your name and your relationship to the district please do not state your address i will have a timekeeper we have a number of papers tonight but in an effort to make sure that everyone gets to be heard we will stick with our original plan of three minutes per speaker director bernick has time cards with her when you have 15 seconds left of your three minutes if you go that long she will hold that card up so you know and hold up a card when you are at the end of your time as board members we will listen respectfully to your comments
007but as is always the case with public forum we will not engage in dialogue or deliberate as a board our purpose is to listen to comments and to concerns we ask that others in the room also listen respectfully as well after public forum we sincerely invite you to stay for our meeting we have a full agenda which will include a few words from our superintendent on recent events in the district and our director of equity and inclusion sam oak will be presenting the district's e-12 educational equity and excellence plan we thank you for being here tonight and a few more additional comments about public comment speakers are not allowed to verbally attack disparage or potentially defame individual board members employees or students nor may speakers speakers use vulgar or profane language also speakers may be
008precluded from disclosing personally identifiable private data regarding employees and students and i'd ask you to keep in mind please do not be naming people especially minors in public speakers unwilling to conform to the rules or the time constraints may have their privileges speaking uh revoked or stopped we will listen respectfully and again this is not the place where we can take action but if we do need to follow up with you afterward please see us afterward and we will get in touch with the right people who need to make that follow-up once the comments are done and we proceed with the meeting audience comments are no longer in order but the board always has the opportunity to call on administrators in the room to contribute to the conversation so with that i will call you
009forward one at a time and i'm going to start with uh greg henningsen thanks greg if you start by stating your name in relationship to the district and then julie will watch time for us so we can stay on track our masks optional up here um that's fine that that's no problem i know it's harder to speak with them i appreciate that my name is greg henningsen and i've raised two kids in this school district um they both are graduated they went through k-12 i've just recently moved out of the district so thank you for allowing me to speak thank you for coming and uh thank you all for um your service um it's a volunteer you know you guys i i've never been to a private savage school board meeting i've been to two
010in lakeville since i've moved there and uh i see how tense it has become so um but i'm here to try to be as incredibly positive um and actually praise the uh inclusion i've got some notes here the equity and inclusion resolution um after thursday at the rally at the high school i i went to um they were talking about showing up at the school board meeting to support so i went to verify the the date and it turns out it's today 22nd anyway i stumbled across that resolution it's it's fantastic and i just see this and i just encourage leadership students community staff to embrace what is written there and and and take take this opportunity to shine a light on that and i i also just want to emphasize uh the need to
011elevate and this is written in the resolution to need to elevate and listen to the voices of black indigenous people of color students while i was at that rally last thursday many students just had an open mic opportunity to come up and and speak their experiences these are marginalized students any any bipark and it was moving to me and informative and and what i got from from listening to them is that their experience doesn't reflect you know the beautifully written um resolution and i know this isn't easy um stuff is you know this is really hard to get your finger on you got to get all this buy-in from staff it's really you know this is but but very progressive thank you very progressively written and i just i just hope that the community and
012and everybody involved here sees this as an opportunity to show the way to other communities thank you thank you very much all right next i'd like to call up rebecca hailu if you could restate your name and your role in the district yes my name is rebecca hailu and i'm a student at prior lake high school i also live here in this city thank you yeah so um good evening um school board meeting i am a representative of prior lake high school's black student union i hold the position of communications as a student-led club we have always strove to create a safe space for our community we never want or expect our members to be targeted if no one else can be there for these kids we will speaking on behalf of our club no
013matter what is done we will continue to heal together we will continue to have difficult conversations if nobody heard us out we got each other's backs however we would love for any support to be given especially regarding prio lake high school students we should not be dealing with racial issues at this age especially during the supposed modern times i and others await to see what the school can do for us moving forward let's make this community united and that starts with racial equality thank you very much [Applause] okay um next uh i will call up eden alemu did i do that correctly thank you uh good evening my name is eden alamou i am a student at prior lake high school and i'm also the vice president of the black student union unfortunately it isn't
014the first time i am speaking at a board meeting regarding the same issue i first would like to show my gratitude to the to those working diligently behind the scenes to build our community up stronger than it was even before in july of 2021 i spoke at the same podium about promoting an equity and inclusion plan to better the environment of students of color for all marginalized groups and students of color in our community although that plan was put into place no action was truly taken regarding like regarding issues like the one we have been facing in the past few weeks it is my fear that situations like this will continue because of the lack of action taken by administration and the lack of support given to students of color when events like these arise
015and i understand that not everything is possible but rather than seeing fifty percent we want to see one hundred percent a good friend of mine told me this when you leave a piece of candy in front of a child to leave them alone they will not hesitate to reach for it and eat it furthermore if you leave the piece of candy with the child and tell them that it contains something repulsive and explain to them the repercussions of touching it they will never touch the piece of candy we can apply that same analogy to real life putting in place education to prevent repulsive events but also establishing that racist actions lead to harsh consequences correspondingly it is necessary to include equity and inclusion plans and supplementary education on critical race theory community objections should be
016sincerely considered however the final decision should come to the students it's what the students need not what the parents want it is in the best interest of the board and administration to not only consider but to persistently establish such norms despite our opinions we should leave our emotions aside and think about the generations after us putting our children first will promote a positive atmosphere and continue to promote a positive atmosphere and encourage our board to put into action the voices of our students i've said this once before and i'll say it again the equal opportunities we are provided with starts today it starts in our classrooms it starts in our sports practices it starts in our homes and it starts at prior lake it might be difficult for people who don't experience these issues to
017rationalize taking action and providing solutions for such problems but practicing positive peacemakers and making students feel like they are heard is something so little yet beneficial that can change so much so please today when you step out of this building think about something positive something you would want to experience as a student in a classroom where you maybe don't feel so comfortable and put that energy into providing a safe space for students to thrive and become successful and build a strong foundation for the coming generations thank you thank you very much [Applause] jonathan mcclellan hello my name is jonathan mcclellan i'm president of the minnesota justice coalition we are part of a collective of organizations that work with families and community to draft and advance legislation and other policy initiatives at the capitol here in
018st paul and in washington d.c first let me say that we condemn the hateful racist language that was uttered out of the mouths of the student referenced but not just her mouth many others here in prior lake high school i have personally viewed multiple videos of prior lake students making racially derogatory comments we also condemn the failure of the school and the district to act in a meaningful way we are all one family we are all in this together and an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us and when you pair a movement with the cause of action designed to change a system even the mightiest mountains will not be able to stop the force of that movement it might take time but it will move the minnesota justice coalition
019stands with the family of nya and all the other students who have had to endure racism and bullying in the institutions that are supposed to protect and foster a learning environment it shouldn't have taken this issue to blow up on social media for the bells to be ringing in prior lake high school the optics of the situation shows the community that the district cares more about their image than dealing with this problem a problem that has been going on for a long time prior lake high school has a racism problem and there are other schools as well but this is where we are at today hate speech racial violence and sexual exploitation or covering up this conduct is never acceptable period regardless of age and it should not be tolerated my question to the superintendent
020and principal is what is being taught here to educate our youth about racial equality justice and history it is my belief not only the youth but some of the staff need a refresher as well the lieutenant governor peggy flanagan already stated that the state of minnesota is not a safe place for black people now i question the city of prior lake specifically we need to address this problem around racism and rip it out by its root wherever it rears its head it has been reported that the district has launched an investigation into the students involved with the video and will take appropriate action we are demanding full transparency and accountability from the superintendent the principal the savage police department and the prior lake police department however since our initial pull-up many more stories are coming
021forward many more videos are coming out and i am appalled at what i've seen prior lake principal john betsek said in a letter to staff and families that over the past several years we have been engaging in conversations with students in an effort to create a respectful school environment we are determined to continue to work with students and create opportunities for open dialogue so that they can be heard this includes educating students about the impact of their actions the consequences if they choose to infringe on the rights of others end quote the students are still waiting for that accountability you speak of according to the u.s news and world reports 83.2 percent of the population at prior lake high school is white and only 4.3 percent of the population is black jonathan yes we are
022at the end if you want to do your closing sentence i'll allow that thank you okay um you must hold elected leaders to account you must hold your school officials to account and you must speak up and stand up against racism and injustice your secret is out of the bag and your privilege will not protect you or hide you so do the right thing yeah thank you though i need to make time for everybody tonight and then we do have to get to diversity and equity work that we welcome you all to stay for thank you all right next up i have uh langalafa oriho did i say that correctly thank you thank you for the chance my name is langalafa oriho and then i speak on behalf of the family as someone who is
023from the community that you come from we all know that the pain that our country where we come from went through south sudan so one of the things that i can say here we cannot leave the hell that we have back home and come to another hell but i'm still hopeful but that hope require each one of us to work together we need to look into the genesis of the problem instead of of trying to act with the action if we look at the genesis of this problem diversity need to be there we need to be diverse in our community diversity in school diversity in how we get to put ourselves together we cannot today say that by addressing this racism can end here it might continue if we don't really look into the root
024cause of this pain because the pain that's coming to the family it's big and tomorrow it could be each one of us we need to look at this family or at us my daughter or us your sister as anyone of your family and once you look at it and you own the problem you get to feel the pain of it it's not about black people issue it's about our issue because we're all here participating equally to the betterment of our community and to the betterment of our environment but however every time this talk of racism get to come we are hopeful we want to look at prayer lake as a city that embrace diversity the city that leads because the history of prior lake has been not fair especially to people of color therefore i'm
025so grateful that i i have a chance and the family have a chance to speak through me to you and to everyone let us work together in improving ourselves by taking action immediately there are some issues of debate but racism is not issues of debate these are facts need to be dealt with and it need to be dealt with immediately thank you thank you very much okay uh next up julia kojo please good evening my name is julia kojo um i'm my aunt tanaya um it's a very disappointed issue um because this seems like ongoing things since middle school the same things that happened back then and we as a black community in minnesota are very disappointed in the school district here because there is no there's a silence and there is no action has
026been taken into those situations so what i have is for the district is the questions what did you guys do when this problem happened back in the middle school i need to have no comments from the audience during public forum please thank you so much what did you guys do when this situation happened back in the middle school nothing right now this problem happened what are you guys going to do for us as a community to assure the safety of our children i believe any parents send their kids to this to the school because they trust this girl but that is untrusting situation right now how can we trust you guys how you guys going to solve this problem so that don't happen again for us i said black or people of color especially black
027people to assure our children will be safe in this world that's my question for the district and i would love to hear or to see uh improvement in the district in particular this district thank you thank you for being here tonight [Applause] okay luke shot good evening my name is luke shot i'm a proud lady graduate myself i am nia and elizabeth's older brother and what i wanted to say was you know going to high school myself and experiencing it myself and knowing i have younger siblings coming up to go to high school and i'm not around pride lake anymore so i don't i don't hear much of what's going on and when i heard of this it really saddened me when i saw the video i didn't even know i watched the video i
028didn't even know it was about my sister until the next morning when i called my mom because i put two and two together it's sad it's terrible it hurt me so much knowing that my sisters have been going to school dealing with this stuff hurting my older sister yeah she she speaks up and says things my younger one she's soft-spoken quiet so she deals with this on a basis and yet nothing happens until a video goes viral online that is so sad and i'm looking at all of you one video was released what happened i believe they said what uh two three day suspension for the first video that was released of a girl using slurs racist slurs to a three-day suspension she was back in the hallway all the school all the statements was
029all these statements you guys dropped no tolerance no tolerance for racism no tolerance for racism a two to three day suspension is tolerance for me that's that's just what it is and for something to go viral like this and now everyone is in panic got to protect pilots precious reputation so i hope there was a lesson learned here because this precious precious reputation that was you guys were trying to protect is tarnished and i hope something gets done about it and i hope my sisters go to school feeling safe [Music] that's all i have to say thank you [Applause] all right i believe that is all of our speakers this evening thank you for all the speaker i cannot another speaker i do not and i can ask another speaker we need to follow a
030protocol or i will have to ask you to leave the right i'm going to speak personally i want to ask any students please mr mac we have policies we have to follow but i can't have been able to speak yet yes they have all right thank you for that answer we were going to enter this room with the bull horn and i wasn't going to i wasn't going to listen to anything you had to say i understand and we have policies and procedures for a reason and we have need i make a motion for a reason