001Apologies, I was not paying attention. Um, I think we're all here. Welcome everyone. I'm going to call the meeting to order. All of the board is present except George Seabourg, who will be joining us um in about 30 minutes, but he said to start without him. So, we do have a quorum. And I um am going to read the equity statement tonight. In Asheville City Schools, we are committed to equity and anti-racist policies for all students and staff to learn and thrive. We recognize that our positions come with power, responsibility, and public service for the entire ACS community. We will model our commitment to equity through our practices and decisions. During this meeting, we invite a pause if harm has taken place, a moment to name the harm, and space to practice repair. Thank you.
002Um, at this time, I'm in just a minute going to look for a motion to approve the agenda, but there are two changes that I want to bring to your attention. One is that the second contract listed, which is bus planner, is actually under 90,000. So we don't need to vote on it. It was just inadvertently listed for action. So really it's just received as information and we won't be voting on it is the change. The bus planner. It it was only 69,000. I it just means we're not going to act on it is is the change. And the second thing is on the school nutrition calendar. um after consultation with Maggie, we're going to pull that off the agenda tonight and talk some more about it and it'll be back. So, we're not going
003to talk about it tonight. So, with those two changes, is there a motion to approve the agenda? So, moved. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. We have unanimously approved the agenda and at this time I will entertain a motion for the board of education to enter into a closed session pursuant to general statute 143 318.11 for the following purposes under subsection A1 to prevent the disclosure of privileged and confidential personnel information pursuant to general statute 115 C 319 through 321 and under subsection A3 to discuss matters protected by the attorney client privilege. Is there a motion to go into close session? I move that we go into close session. Second. All those in favor? I I. Any opposed? We will now move into close session. I'm going to call us into
004open session. We have several action items before us. The first one I'm going to call in Heidi. [Music] All right. Good evening. Um, as of today, um, not June 30th, but as of today, we have the budget amendment and expenditure report. Um, as y'all probably know, we always have this year-end meeting in order to try to help close things out. Um, but but due to scheduling conflicts this year, this had to be moved up. If we can think about that in the future and try to schedule this meeting on the 30th or as close to the 30th as possible, it would help this be a more complete document and report. But the budget should be fine. Um, we just we just have considerably more work to do on the expenditure side of things. Um, so
005if we could Sorry, Heidi. Well, no, it it it's a fact of life. We all have conflicts, but it is it is very difficult to try to do a close out this early. I mean, I know it sounds like it's not early because it's only a few days away, but for for this time of year with what we have to do, it's it's early. So, um does anyone have any questions about the budget amendment? And um yes, expenditure report as presented. Uh I think I asked you or let you know in advance I'd be asking about the uh balance including escrow column in the budget summary and board report document where it shows a grand total of 12 million291,959 and52. um is what is the relationship between that number and I guess that's the total
006of the balance as of today in funds 1 2 3 4 5 and 8. What's the relationship between that and what people talk about as the general fund balance? Well, first of all, our fund balance isn't in all of those funds. It would only be in fund two and eight. um we're charged with expanding or fully expanding um to the extent possible fund one before June 30th. So, as you can see there, there's a considerably um large amount of money left. We will be moving things around and like I say, expanding that down to as close to zero as possible with the parameters we're given by the state. Um, fund two, as I said, and eight are our local funds. Fund three is our federal grant program, and a lot of that money does carry
007over to next year. So, that is separately accounted for. Fund is the capital fund, and there is um obviously going to be a a good bit of fund balance left there. That's independent of our what we can traditionally consider our fund balance. Um, but what I need to make you aware of there too is as you can see there's a large amount of encumbrances still out at this point. And so, um, some of those projects are summer projects for maintenance and those will be carrying over into next year. So, that is not necessarily all the money that will be available next year. So, as we continue to make the adjustments through the rest of this week and Monday, um we will continue to make make all the adjustments and the funds that are needed to
008be made. And then actually in July and August, we still have a lot of entries that have to be made for the auditor um to make all the final entries um that need to be booked in our system. So by the time we come back in August, we'll have a much better idea of what fund balance we may have to work with moving forward. I really appreciate that answer. Thank you. Board members, other questions. No, only to say thank you again for the way you present this to us where each time we see how we're moving our way through the spending. It's very understandable. I appreciate it. Thank you. So, we will be voting on both the budget what I'm excuse me. We're voting on the budget and expenditure report, right, Heidi? Yes. Is there
009a motion in the budget amendment? The first sheet. Okay. Sorry, I saw the word summary and that was why I quit talking about it. Yes, we are. Apologies. So, we're voting on two things. I'm looking at Heidi to help. You don't actually have to vote on the expenditure report. You're welcome to vote on it. You just have to vote on the actual amendment. Okay. We are voting on the document that is titled budget resolution and amendments. Is there a motion to approve? I move that we approve the budget resolution and amendments. No, just the amendment. That's the title. It It does say budget resolution and amendments. It does on the actual document. I second. I was looking at the document. Sorry, I was looking at the agenda and I somewhere else. There's been a motion
010and a second. Is there any discussion about the document that says budget resolution and amendments which we are going to vote on? All right. All those in favor? I I Any opposed? All right. It passes. We turn now back to Heidi. Um item 3.2 on our interim spending resolution. All right. Thank you very much. As you know, um we had a brief glimmer of hope that we might get a state budget this year, but we did not. Um I understand there is a mini bill in the works to perhaps address raises, but they plan what's today, the 24th. They plan to go home day after tomorrow and may be gone through the end of July. So, I don't expect to see that anytime soon unless they really get busy very quickly. um they are passing
011a lot of policy um uh bills right now to try to do some work before they go home but the budget is not going to happen. So um as a requirement then for us to continue to operate next year um the board has to be brought this interim budget resolution and it is the standard um basically language from straight from the general statutes about what we would do and that would be to continue just operating as we are. No pay increases, no steps, no bumps. everyone's pay would remain the same um for next year until we get further information from the state. So, does anyone have any questions about that? Um Heidi, I just want to clarify, we pulled the school nutrition calendar off of the off of the agenda. We don't meet again until
012August. So if the board votes at that time, then those those managers will they'll know two days before that they would be losing days of pay if the vote would pass. Right? With that pulled off the calendar, all that we can do is roll them into next year with exactly the same compensation as they receive now. No reduction in days. and then the next time you meet you could take action but that would be only two days before managers come back and a week before the workers come back and I know that we kind of got some last minute feedback and wanted to clarify the just for the board the process so the Melissa had informed the the staff that because we have this practice of paying staff for not on days they don't work
013that she was making those changes and we would officially reflect those changes in the calendar. So that was the whole process leading up to the change in that school nutrition calendar. So I know that we got some last minute information on that. Um however the communication was done. It just wasn't done like hey here's your calendar. It was hey you're getting paid for days that you don't work and it's the law. We're we're not supposed to do that. So we needed to rectify that. Yeah. See, actually at the beginning last year when I got here, I did not realize the calendar included those days and I thought it was just an administrative decision. So I had told Melissa to please give her folks a heads up way back at the beginning of last year to
014say those days should not have been included in your calendar and we'll correct that this year. And so then we had the other budget considerations and all to add to that. But then in the last few weeks since Shan has come on board, he has actually distributed a training calendar to them. Um I was at the meeting where they had an agenda where they discussed the days that they would come back and all the additional training opportunities were providing to them this year that we have not been able to do in the past. And that that would be um those would be paid days. And then there would be several training days spread through the year, but there would be those nine um work required work days that would no longer be compensated. But we
015did not feel comfortable distributing the calendar because it was a pay reduction and something that the board would have to approve. So that's why we did not actually distribute this calendar as something final out to the staff. But it was posted on the board agendas. It was it was it was in the board agenda materials the first time we discussed it and then it was in there this time. I would like more information about how we could make an adjustment to the calendar but it not impact anybody's pay whether that means an incremental increase uh for our uh food and nutrition employees. um would like to know how that's done. And then I am concerned about staff being able to take acred time off and how a calendar change may affect that. Well, right now,
016um your newer staff actually generally do not have enough annual leave days to even take all the ones built into the calendar. Um but they would still be able to take their annual leave days during the breaks like everyone else does. This is only affecting those nine required work days to bring their working days down to 202 days. I I just want to offer some perspective about Maggie and I had a conference right at the beginning of the meeting and why it was tabled which I'm not even sure was the right word but just for context um Rebecca and I had Rebecca did all the work had gone back and looked at you know how this is still on the agenda and it had been pulled or taken off the consent agenda I think in
017April and one of the reasons was to get feedback from staff. We had not gotten any up until tonight. I hadn't gotten any. We didn't know of any feedback and right before the meeting started, we heard some feedback that there had not been information shared. So given that we just it wasn't time to process the information we were receiving or to hear, you know, was it like communication's tricky. Sometimes it's provided and you don't hear it. Sometimes it's not provided. But Maggie and I just made a clutch moment decision to take it off procedurally where I think we are unless there's some thing we do to put it back on the agenda. But since it was taken off the approved agenda, um the calendar continues as it was last year. So there are no changes.
018There is a revenue impact to our budget that will have to be dealt with in other ways. I mean, that's part of what Maggie and Heidi will have to figure out what to do. And it what Maggie and I talked about very briefly is we probably need to revisit this and figure out some options. So, I want to be clear with everybody and Anna can tell me if there's something we should do different, but I think by taking it off the agenda, it's not anything we're going to vote on. And so, the status quo is what we have. I just want to offer that that's how we got here. And I I I seem to recall that it is a rounding error impact on the budget of a less than $36,000. So it's, you know,
019it's not as big of a of a deal as putting something else off. Amy, that was my question how much it was. But also, I guess my second question first, thank you for that explanation because that was going to be my question. How did this happen and why? Um because I'm confused. Um, next question I have though is so if we're taking off tonight and you just talked about the fact that if we did it at our next session, it would be two days before and four day five, you know, within a week of the folks coming back. Is the understanding or the intention then not to have it to have this calendar, the current calendar, not the new calendar, govern for all of next year? At this point, I I think I need time
020to talk with Heidi. Okay, thank you. I think we have the status quo until the board gets a recommendation to do something different. So, normally you would never get the calendar because it's just an internal calendar except for the reduction in days, which is why we needed to bring you the calendar. Um, so for next year, basically the oops, wrong pile, but this would be the calendar. The question would be, are those nine days going to be compensated or are they going to be non-compensated? But this is the calendar that the school nutrition program would use. And we could still let them know that if that's okay because a lot of folks want to schedule those doctor's appointments, dentist appointments, and all those things ahead of time to make sure they don't conflict. So, is
021everybody okay with where it stands, which is not on the agenda? Okay. And I think apologies, we got there with we have Have we voted on the spending resolution yet? We have not. That's how that's how we got there as we got off on that. But understanding that, are we ready to vote on the spending resolution that's before us? Is there a motion? I do have one question. with this resolution. Um, will our principles receive an interim uh budget or how will that work in August? I talked to Dr. Maggie about that this week and we pro still plan to provide the local level budgets to our staff and departments this summer because those really wouldn't be impacted by the state and federal budgets that are left to be passed because those are all local.
022Okay. Uh I'm I'm not quite understanding it would not be an interim budget. We plan to prepare school leadership and department heads their their actual budgets over the summer. It would not be interim, it would be their actual budgets. Okay, that's fantastic. Thank you. Yes, sir. Okay. Right. I move that um we authorize interim appropriations for the purpose of paying salaries and other ordinary expenses for fiscal year 2025 to 2026 until we the board adopt the fiscal year 2025 to 2026 budget resolution. So second there's a second. All those in favor I I and the opposed. Okay, that passes. Um, we are still with Heidi on insurance recommendation. Thank you again. I'm I'm these are not my most comfort zone board meetings where every item is mine. Um, this um and I do apologize for
023um this and the budget amendment and expenditure report being a little late to the packet, but I think Dr. Maggie gave you some um background on this insurance proposal. Um as you can imagine, the insurance companies are um reeling from the impact of hurricane Hela still at this time. Um so the first proposal we received back was um higher than we expected it to be. So I asked our broker to revisit that and they did come back with what I feel like is a um a very favorable increase over all policies. it came out to only 11.57% increase this year. Um, a little over $54,000. And then our student accident insurance, which is the second kind of coverage we take, actually decreased about $10,500 because of a decrease in our ADM because that's strictly based
024on how many students we insure in our student exit insurance. So overall, um, considering the market and other things I've heard from other people, I feel like this was, um, very competitive and, uh, we did budget up to $100,000, so we're well under what we had put in as a placeholder in the budget. I want to commend Heidi for her hard work on that. Um, I continually am impressed with her ability to negotiate and find ways to save money in many different ways. So, want to give her a shout out on that. Any other questions about this insurance um recommendation? I have lots of questions, but I don't think it's necessary for the meeting. Okay. So, I'm I'm hoping to have an opportunity to to ask more questions later um maybe in the fall just
025to better understand our coverage. Um I am uh curious about whether we have reached out to the North Carolina uh schoolboard trust and how um if we've explored anything with them recently. We haven't reached out to the schoolboard trust. Um I don't know that Heidi would have any information to share about that right now because we've used Siri and have gotten good coverage with them and a good price. Um, and it wouldn't be beneficial for us to change that at this point. Um, I I have the one thing I have heard is that the actual state insurance trust, not the schoolboard insurance trust, um, has had some favorable property um, premiums come out this year. So, we could, you know, shop that next year to see if that would be a price break for us.
026the the thing that and I've done this for a long time. The the benefit we get from using Suriri is that all our coverages under are under one umbrella and they also advocate for us jointly between all the companies and we have basically just two avenues in student insurance and all other insurance to have to deal with. So, you know, if there's an overlap between coverages or, you know, liability becomes something else, you know, there's there's not a separate company then to have to approach to try to negotiate those differences. So, it it's very helpful for us to have that all under one umbrella. But if we do see a significant price difference, obviously, you know, we would consider a change. Thank you. And I will just say that when you get to multiple companies
027who are disputing who should pay for what, your attorney's fees go up. Yes, indeed. Yeah. Uh we ready to vote on this recommendation? Is there is there a motion to approve the recommendation? I move that we approve the recommended insurance policy. Second. All right. The motion is before us. All those in favor? I I Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Heidi. Thank you. One more for Heidi. And just to remind everyone, um it's only about the BUD group. That's the only one we have to vote on. And I do just as a little background, I do think bus planner got added because of the cost of the current carrier and they wanted to make it clear that this was a way to save money and expand services. So I think that's why they wanted
028that explanation there for you to to hear. So um yes, the BUD group is um basically just a um replication of the current year contract in order to take care of the custodial services at the high school and then they provide some coverage in the district as needed. And if you have questions about that service, I think Principal Edwards is here tonight and you could ask him. Are there questions for Heidi or anyone? How many uh custodians does this? It's approximately half a million dollars. And so I'm just wondering how many full-time equivalents is that uh covering? The contract is up to that amount. Um, but I previously we've never gone all the way ex expended up to that amount. It kind of provides us a ceiling. Um, and I don't know, Derek, do you
029know how many BUD group staff you have? It it varies because they may be working part-time or full-time, and there's a there's a day shift and a night shift, an afternoon shift. So to tell you how many actual named individuals that is that that can change it is about the number of uh I guess hours manh hours to be completed during the week. Um so it yeah it it varies to tell you an exact number of employees that is because it's just about covering the number of hours they've got assigned to the to the different areas. Other questions? Board members, are we ready to vote? Ready. I move that we uh authorize the BUD contract. Sorry. Bud group. Bud group. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All those in favor of approving the contract I
030I. Any opposed? Passes unanimously. May I ask about the bus planner switch? I mean, it's for information only, but you can ask about it. Okay. Um, is is this the software that Bunkham County is currently using or is this Okay, but we're switching from which software are we switching from? They they currently have bus planner for their um routing and Sam Sarah for the GPS service. So, what this contract would let them do is trans is tr um transfer everything over to bus planner and that way their GPS, the routing and all that will be all um connected. Um it's been a very well-rated um software and they've been very pleased with the piece of the bus planner they have right now. And it would also accommodate the um additional responsibilities I guess you'd call
031it that we've put on the transportation department in managing field trips and invoicing for field trips. That is um a very time consuming task. there's a module in the bus planner um software that allows them to do that much more efficiently. So, they're very excited at the prospect of having that all under one um software umbrella. So, um and it is a little bit more reasonably priced too. So, so does that mean that the aggregate amount of what we're paying to bus planner is above the $90,000 threshold? No, that's the total cost there. The new total cost that of everything that Oh, okay. So, this includes the software we've been using. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. I'm going to move to our last action item, which is the personnel report. There's been thorough
032discussion of it during close session. And at this point, I would entertain a motion. I will request a a roll call vote. Okay. I move that we adopt the personnel report. Is there a second? Second. Okay. So, we are going to have a roll call vote and we will start with Pepe. I vote no. Okay. Jesse, are we going in line like this? That's what we're doing. according to what we are that we spoke about within the personal report. I say yes. Thank you. I vote yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Okay. The motion passes. Personnel report has been accepted. Um, the next discussion item is uh something I asked to be on the agenda and I'm if there's staff here, you guys are welcome to stay. It's not going to hurt my feelings if you
033leave this last um item is a chance for me to check in with board members at the end of this school year and talk about how we work together next year. So, that's that's the purpose of this um discussion item. And I had I we're not going to take a long time, don't you worry. Um, but I wanted to start with getting some feedback from you all about how well the board is communicating with each other. Um, we have texting, we have emails occasionally. I have one-on-one meetings with you all during occasional times. And I checked in with Maggie about how she's worked with other boards. And one of the things she told me that I don't do is when we do have these one-on-one meetings, I need to make sure I follow up with
034an email or something to make sure everybody has the same information. Um, so that was good input for me. Um, I really am just sort of checking in. Again, not a long protected conversation, but what do you all think it works well? Thank you, Anna. Um, what could we do better next year as we communicate with internally as a board? Okay, I'll start. As long as there's runners, walkers, cyclists, uh yoga, we can do all those things. U we can catch up with anything else that need to be caught up. But uh I feel that we need to be outside of this building when we do communicate. Give us a fresh start of the conversation that we have. uh also just give us an opportunity to um meet a little bit better oneonone and have
035those uh courageous conversation that a lot of people don't want to have. But it seems like if you having that a one-on-one conversation um it's it seemed like it's a better conversation uh with the class that I just came from couple weeks ago uh with the courageous conversation. I don't mind having a conversation with anyone. I feel that if they want to have a conversation, walking up a hill or running the river art district or get on a psych and bike, whatever, we can have the conversation as long as it is a conversation. It's not trying to overpower one person or the other. It's just having a conversation that a lot of people are not having these days and just be more relaxed and have a conversation. I think a lot of people are afraid
036to have courageous conversation nowadays, but those are what is needed in order to for us to stay as a team, as a board members. We just have to have that conversation. So, and I learned a lot a couple weeks ago and courageous conversation. Talk more about that, Jesse. Yes. I mean, again, I'm happy for you all to give me feedback. I just really was this first I have three points and the first one was as we communicate with each other any input about more texting less texting more emails more communication from me just looking for constructive criticism or comments I think um if I may the only thing I would say is I appreciate the communication we've had um I think we've done a very good job of adhering to our open meetings requirements And
037um as we've all grown in experience as board members, most of us and the only thing I would say is having served as vice chair and now as um you know a line member of the board of um education, I'm aware that there are so many more meetings and conversations happening that I'm not privy to. And so I think I would and I know how it feels to be on the other side of that having so many meetings that you sort of have to figure out what to communicate and what not to communicate and those are really hard decisions but and yeah sometimes a little more. Thank you. Point made. Thank you Amy. I'll do better about that. Okay. I um Sarah, you brought up the the word email and I am absolutely drowning in
038emails from the district. Uh that's not just from the board, it's just from the district. And um I understand that we've got to get information out, right? And that being on the board means that I'm a part of lots of group emails that just, you know, are to keep me informed. uh I have a hard time um catching up with them and so sometimes I feel like I'm less informed because of how much is coming my way. I'm not saying to slow down on the emails. I think it's important that those are there for um for recordkeeping for those kinds of things. I wonder if there's something in advance of a work session and also in advance of a regular meeting that could be a some kind of summary thing. not just the agenda of
039what's coming up for for discussion but maybe these are the things that have been happening across the district right these are things that have been popping up um they might come up in meeting uh even if they might not but I think that would be very helpful um almost kind of like a clearing house and I'm and I feel bad saying it because I know that puts more work on you as chair having been in that position I know um and or it puts more work on Kim Jones or it puts more work on Maggie whoever but I do think it would be a helpful thing. I'm going to tell you how I heard that how what you need me to do and I can let Maggie respond for her, but I I I I
040don't always tell y'all what I'm up to. I mean, I try to and then sometimes I don't like I didn't tell you I was meeting the ACA because I just reached out to Tracy and said I'd like to sit down and chat. And what I'll try to do in one email, not 17, is say, you know, maybe ahead of a work session, hey folks, this is what I've done the past month, right? Is that what you're asking, George? So it's concise. I'm not asking. I don't I mean, you are, we each have our own things that we're doing. I don't think we have to keep each other informed on every little step we take. And there's so much that happens even in a district this small that thing. I might miss things, right? I might
041miss what's a big conversation among a lot of folks within the district, but it just doesn't it doesn't, you know, fall at the right time in my inbox or whatever it might be. And so, um, some some kind of summarization of these are the things that have been going on in the district since the last time we met and things you might you might have missed, right? Does that make sense? How about if you're good with George? I think that's a great idea. How about I work with Maggie and we maybe figure out a way like if there's to your point a way to share this is what's going on and you because we got the Friday followup and we got this and we got that. Can we talk about it and figure out a
042way to do it? I mean I but message received. Thank you. Okay. Just so you guys know where I'm going on next is how we communicate outwardly and in to back to us. This was just internally. Anybody yet got any other comments or suggestions about our internal communications? I'm gonna move on. Okay. Um the next conversation I wanted to have is how do we communicate with what I'm just broadly going to call stakeholders, staff, parents, community members. Um, and I'm just wanted to go ahead and say that I don't do a great job of I know it's part of the board chair and it's part of our norms that I respond to everybody and I get a lot of them done. I'm not proud of this, but if it if it's somebody has sent me
043an email that they've cut and paste and I'm getting 50 of the thing that says the same thing, I'm not always responding. I should, but I'm so I'm going to try to do better. Um, I we've talked about this before. It just seemed like a good time to say this out loud. I think we all know that if somebody emails us personally because they know us, their kid went to school with their kid. Um it's fine to respond um and hear their concerns um I think our the understanding I have is when we hear concerns, we are bringing them back to Maggie, right? Because we're saying, "Hey, I'm hearing a lot about this or I'm hearing a lot about that." Um that that's our role. Um, and so I would I just want to remind
044people to be polite and, you know, be mindful of folks who are communicating with us and what we're doing with that. Um, so I'm going to just pause there. That's kind of what was on my mind, but I would love feedback from you all about how that's going as are you feeling good about how you communicate with stakeholders and how they communicate with you or what would you offer? I I CCU when I'm responding to stakeholders and I know the the rest of the board doesn't see it, but I'm I'm letting our our board chair know whatever it is that I'm putting out there. And although I appreciate it, it you don't have to do that. I mean, you choose to and that's fine. Um and Pepe does this like please always say I speak
045for myself. You can't speak for the whole board. Um Amy, were you gonna say something? The only thing I'm going to say is that I think it this is one of the biggest differences and I'm sort of saying this as a public meeting moment. This is one of the biggest differences between my aspirations as a board member and the realities as a board member which are that um you know I had believed that I could just respond to every concern myself as an individual board member and that I could be really responsive to the stakeholders. Um, and um, I think I've I've learned that that sometimes it's really important just to allow the board chair to speak. And of course, if there is a particular relationship, that's when I do respond and always um, I
046think hopefully unfailingly have communicated with Maggie about those concerns. But um it is a very frustrating part of serving as a board member that it feels like um I'm not as responsive as I want to be and also that if I were as responsive as I want to be, everybody would get a book on the various considerations and um how what they are concerned about is um often not completely completely informed. Um, so anyway, I just want to name that it's a frustrating part and I think I from my part I think you're doing a good job and I've come to appreciate the reasons why we should be speaking as a board. And I think the biggest thing I want to say is we hear you every single time. Like I hear every word that
047is emailed to me. I read it. I contemplate it. I spend time thinking about it and I will respond when I think a response is necessary to Dr. Furman or to Sarah if that's appropriate or Rebecca or whomever. Thank you. I'd just like to add to that too that I think we often hear about closed session material and that we make a point in close session to uplift the voices that we've heard and advocate for. And that's not something that'll ever be in the public eye, but that it does happen. And certainly tonight's not your only opportunity to give feedback. If you think of ways that you think we could improve our communication with stakeholders and them with us, you know, let me know. I My thought is I want to be receptive, right? As
048I'm speaking as the board, we should be receptive to input. We should be respectful. We're not trying to um sew seeds of division. We're just receiving it, passing it along. I think almost all every time Maggie's copied anyway, but sometimes we hear things, you know, differently and I try to pass those along because that's our job is to hear concerns from the community and our stakeholders and receive those. And I guess one request that I would have from board members is when you respond to stakeholders that you include me or forward me your response to them so I can see that the concerns been raised and understand that the board member may have responded. Okay. Okay. I'm moving on to the third and final one. And again, I had a my mindset is looking ahead
049to next school year because we don't meet again until August. And um I wanted to talk about this is a combination of things, but they all are around our equity work, the equity statement, the um centering race, and the the using the pause for harm. like kind of how that is used. This isn't we're not going to revisit the equity statement tonight. That's not what I'm about. But I I did want to think through how that informs the work of this board. And um I would love very briefly if Jesse and or Rebecca and or George who have all three taken the courageous conversations training want to offer any insights about how that work and that training might inform how we work as a board to do that work. So I'm looking at these three.
050I'm not a tax computer uh type person. I work mainly outside. I'm outside about 60% of my day. And having a conversation with people is what I rather do because there's a lot of things we cannot text and a lot of things that you cannot just put on paper or email or whatever. So that's the reason why I don't do a lot of email uh and text. So I will give you a call and say hey can we meet somewhere for a walk or could we just have that conversation? Uh with that said when people are together and having that conversation they feel I felt good after two weeks of conversation with people that I have not some I haven't seen before some I haven't met before. there'll be some people that I say hi
051to and never stop and have a conversation with. And I think that is what missing within our district. We just don't spend that one minute and say, "Hey, how you doing?" before you go to that classroom or to that place where you are decided to go. It's bad when I come to central office and pass by doors and not going in and say, "Hello, how you doing?" uh go into a high school and pass by classrooms if teachers are outside and just pass by them. You know, it's nice to say hello to people. All right? Kindness is the best thing that we can do in this district here. All right? And it would be nice. We are just a little bit more kind to each other. And that's what that courageous conversation did while we
052were in that room for two for two days is spoke of kindness. And with that said, um because I know time uh I just wish that more conversations would be just about courageous and just pick something that people are afraid to talk about and just have that conversation and and just be more kind to people. uh the world itself is bad enough, but when we have to work together and I have to see each and every one of you guys at least twice a month, I would like to be able to come up to you and say, "Hey, how you doing? How was your day?" Even if you lie to me, hey, it's okay. But I get that hug and you get that hug and we are good for that particular moment. And that is
053what's important to me and should be important to our district, right? Um, so caveing all of this with the fact that it was last year that I did Crisis Conversations. Um, and it's it is one of many trainings, workshops, etc. that I've been engaged in around um the work of racial equity. Um, I really appreciated specifically two things during that training. One, the compass that Maggie, you've alluded to quite often. Um, and we we talked about it, I think, in our retreat, I think, is when you first brought it up. Um, and that that compass, um, thinking, feeling, acting, and what was believing. Thank you. Um, and and at the start of any meeting, any conversation, kind of grounding yourself where you are on that compass. That's one. I'm going to come back to that.
054Second one is a real distinction between types of conversations and types of listening. And courageous conversations does a good really good job of distinguishing between listening to respond and listening to understand. And especially in European culture and American culture, I have been trained over and over again to listen to respond. And oftentimes I recognize that in my head I'm think thinking all right what's my response going to be to this as opposed to taking that time to truly listen to what someone's saying. And one thing that courageous conversations actually forced us to do in the training was to listen and actually repeat back what someone said. uh and and uh so that was also really valuable training especially when we as a district continue to need to work on um the inequities in this district,
055the racial inequities and the harms um to black people, to brown people in this district. Um and um and me as a white person recognizing that I come with advantage and privilege and there might even be um there could be some real fear around reprisal or whatever it might be for someone who um is not from my ethnic makeup coming to me to have a conversation. And so sh again getting that training over and over again that I am listening to understand not to respond. What I'm challenged by two things I'm challenged by is you know it's a two-day training. It's an excellent training. One thing that I think we in leadership don't always do is a is model how we expect educators to teach. And that's circling back to concepts over and over again.
056even as adults, no one very rarely gets something the first time, gets a concept. And so, how can we as a district continue to circle back to courageous conversations? I mean, I said that I the caveat is it's been a year since I've done it. And um and so, how can we build in systems for returning to those concepts and then have a shared analysis? I think it's great that we've got other board members who have done courageous conversations. If that's going to be a framework by which we operate as a district, Maggie, I know this is your vision for the whole district. We as the whole board, we need to have some um expectation that all of us are part of that training because then we have that shared analysis. I remember when I
057first got on the board, there was the conversation about everyone attending racial equity institute training as a shared analysis. And so if if I don't even want to say if because we as a district must be committed to resolving the injustices that have happened to our black and brown students and families for for a long time. Um, because of that, everything that we do needs to be doing what Courageous Conversations teaches us to do, which is isolate race and make sure that the decisions we're making are informed by that isolation. And we're having, and again, a shared analysis. It can't just be me having done it a year ago. It can't just be Martha having, you know, kind of as, you know, it has to be, and we've discussed this earlier, it has to be
058all of us working in that shared analysis. So that's my takeaway. I echo what George says that having just done it with Jesse um and being in it, it's so inspiring and you feel so energized and like so many things then you have to practice it and if I do think it's a good framework for our district. I think it is accessible. I think that it we could build a culture here where all the adults not only have been to two days of training but have meaningful ways of practicing it. And one thing that I want to share is David, our trainer, he actually named as an example that he I think oh gosh I hope I have this right. What I remember is that he shared that they had started putting the compass on
059all their agendas. They started every meeting by naming where they are on the compass and then it became wrote and it was just a way of starting a meeting and so like even when you're working to embed um the practice is is takes a lot of effort but I do I do think it's what we need to do and I think that we need to invest in how Like there has to be a plan for March becoming a practitioner. It can't all be hers. What's the what's where's the accountability that we hold ourselves to because we'll mess up. We'll be messy. We'll do things wrong. And it's a way to make sure that because one condition is get ready to be uncomfortable and develop a sense of like being okay with being uncomfortable. But that
060to me feels like the biggest part is that it's George called the shared analysis and it is how do we support each other and all the adults in our district with practice in an ongoing meaningful way. Thank you all for sharing and I'm I think as we um get closer to August, I may have Rebecca and others of you take help us maybe approach our board meetings a little differently in light of all this. So stay tuned on that. Question. Yes. Can I just thank Marta first because I Marta heard lots of people who were super excited about courageous conversations and they mentioned your good work. So I just wanted to say that. Yes. Go ahead. My question was, do we know when it will be offered again? Um, our plan is to offer it
061at least once a year. Um, so we haven't selected our dates yet for next year, but yeah, that's the plan to keep it going um and continue to offer it. And um in light of political context, I don't know that I can require everyone to do it, but it's the expectation that we share that all staff are going to complete this training because it is a framework. And it and George, I think you said it really beautifully. It's about listening to understand, not listening to respond. And that key piece in there is how we will start really creating a common understanding and allowing ourselves to be empathetic to someone else's experiences. Um, and be able to see how a situation that I might experience as a white woman could be as different as possible as
062an experience that Jesse may have as a black man. And I think we were on a walk and this woman walked past us and Jesse said good morning to her and she just I was like whoa. The bear stopped and said hey but the bear did the bear said hello. And that's the interactions that are happening on a daily basis. And um I think had I been alone she probably would have said hello to me if I said hello. Um so yeah it's a it's a framework. It's it's more than and it's it's helpful to drive our our equity work and to make sure we can achieve equitable outcomes in lots of different ways for students. And I also appreciate what Jesse said. It's just a way to treat people respectfully when you have a
063conversation. Sarah, I'm sorry. Can I ask a question or just throw something out um relative to starting the new year in August? You know, we've we have this equity statement that we read at the beginning of every meeting. Uh my memory is when we first adopted that, we we said that's a living document. And it's now been at least two years, if not a little longer, that we've read that. Um, and I remember Liza, if you don't mind me calling you out, I think it was you who said, "I want to make sure that this doesn't become just performative, right?" Um, and so, um, I think it's important that we are stating norms at the at the start of every board meeting that we have something to ground us. And also if that equity statement
064needs some tweaking or some uh or some growth to it so that it doesn't become just performative or just Yeah, I just want to name that. I I like the way you said that, George. And I'm wondering if maybe on our fall retreat that would be a topic that we would as a board discuss maybe. Yeah, I'd like to check into I may be wrong. We didn't make this statement. There was a group of educators that worked hard to create this. They spent a long time. So, this wasn't like a board creation. This was a district creation. And so, um, I think that should be part of whatever. Yeah. Yeah. kind of what I envision is collaborating with Marta, our district equity team, getting some feedback because most of them have been through the training
065and saying, "Okay, bring up like some recommendations to that retreat for the board to consider." Sorry, thank you. um along with the equity statement and this is this is just a flat um looking for clarification at the last board meeting when there was a request for pause for harm and I don't want to go into that or I just want to share with you that it's my understanding that we use a pause I wanted to get some clarity from you all about when we say could we pause I know it's been used over the past year and I have always just me have viewed it as when we are witnessing um institutional racism or um racialized um data or something that we're seeing that as a board is troubling and it's a moment to say
066that is troubling like I I have in my mind when we use it and I just wanted to touch base with others about when it should be used um so that we're all on the same page about that. So, I didn't know if anybody had other thoughts about it. I think that um that I understand it similarly. The only caveat or addition I would add is I don't think it has to be race-based. Um so, for example, if there was someone who made a comment about um the queer community, I might feel harm and I might name that as well. But I do think it it probably in my mind at least has not been a a personal harm that's like it's more a harm that I might feel in that moment but probably wasn't
067directed specifically at me if that makes sense. Or maybe it could be but I don't think of it as a um you know hey uh you offended me a minute ago or I offended you and so yeah I hope that makes sense. I appreciate that, Amy, because I think that the concept of it, as I remember, is related to systems of oppression and how in in racial equity institute, that was the first place I learned about, and I always say it wrong. I'm going to call it system one or system a like kind of automatic thinking that happens fast. My brain can process things really, really quickly and then I can just know how to respond versus things where you have to slow down and really think about it. And for mainstream white people in
068particular, there's a lot of what we make sense of the world where we can use system A really quickly to just move fast. And the pause is a place to say, well, we're moving real fast on something that isn't landing the same for everybody. If we slow it down, we can take a hot second to think a little more with the front of our brain and and potentially catch ourselves before we're rolling through doing something harmful. That's what I'm thinking about with it. And the pause is intentional because it then allows that moment for you to reenter on the compass. So we know that when you are really moved into one quadrant, you're not balancing your actions. So that pause is part of getting reentered on the compass so that you can engage in discussions
069which is also restorative practices like that pause that se moment of separation so you can process and then be ready to recapture your thoughts. So that's another kind of reason for the pause. So, it makes sense for that pause to be asked in a moment when you're like, you notice like, "Oh my gosh, I am way over in feelings. I am having a hard time even focusing. I'm feeling ill." And you're like, "Okay, I need a second just to take a breath." That's that like recognizing that that's probably other people feeling that same moment or people being oblivious and not and then being able to interrupt and address and repair Thanks everybody. Could we get a copy of the compass again because it's been a while since I saw it. Thank you. Yes, I will.
070If you all think of anything else that you think of as we start into the new year, new practices, new communication methods or whatever, please just let me know. Um because we got a whole other school year coming up with us working together. So, thank you everyone. I really do appreciate that. Um, there are some future meetings and announcements in the agenda. July 4th is a holiday. Um, we will next meet on Monday, August 4th. Just also share one thing. We will send out um communication to the schools about the new principles as well as a press release in the morning. Um, so I would just respectfully request that um, board members who are privy to the appointment names um, not share anything publicly until we are able to communicate with the staff. And I
071would like to make one more comment. uh when there's a death in the community or in the family or Asel City School, it would be nice if uh sometimes either before a board or after we just take that moment, that seconds or 30 seconds just to give a pause so that we can recognize it and go and support that family. Uh we do appreciate it. Well, the family will appreciate it. Good idea. Okay. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All in favor? I opposed. Excellent. Thanks everyone.