001[Music] good evening and welcome to the may 18th meeting of the mount vernon board of education please stand for the pledge 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 mr reporter could you please call the uh role good evening trustee red trusty turnquest trustee crump trustee mitchell president trustee patterson president trustee mick owen president trustee white trustee saunders president trustee miller president quorum is present ma'am excellent do we have any from the public there are no communications this evening okay that's new and different is there a report from our superintendent there is good evening everyone a couple of items i'd like to share with you this evening i'll be very brief first
002just by way of information just like to remind you all in our listening audience the pta scholarship dance is thursday june 10th at mount vernon high school from 5 to 10 and there is a rain date on june 12th same time and if you are interested in attending you can reach out to the district pta council at pta council at mt vernon mcsd.org they can provide more information for you if you're interested in attending and and i hope we will get as many people as possible this is in lieu of their traditional pta dinner dance which is the highlight of the year this year they are doing a picnic style event because of covet in an effort to try to raise funds for their annual scholarship endeavor so these funds are for the benefit of
003our students who will receive scholarships so i would encourage everyone to support it also sponsored by the mount vernon uh foundation federation of teachers on june 16th at one o'clock p.m the that at the davenport mansion in new rochelle the annual retirement event will occur there is 50 cash or check payable to mount vernon federation of teachers and all payments must be submitted on or before june 19th they june 9th i correct myself june 9th they will they will not be accepting payment at the door um as they have in the past so this is the retirement event for the mount vernon federation of teachers and lastly this evening i am very pleased to present in abstentia a very special nightlight award on this evening's agenda one of the most significant retirements of the board
004of education will be acted upon the most significant in my tenure as superintendent tonight we will present before you for your acceptance the resignation of our lifelong educator and beloved principal and mount vernon education icon sharon bradley over the last seven years i have grown to know sharon professionally and personally she is dedicated and compassionate a devoted educator and a cherished friend and a great source of knowledge about the school district that is unmatched in all of my years of education sharon has always proven herself to be a dependable leader rising to whatever challenge she may be presented with most recently as we prepared a brand new steam academy sharon jumped at the opportunity as i was committed to having a female a woman of color in particular lead this steam initiative so that it
005would serve as a beacon and an example to other young women of color she led this most innovative program with distinction and honor and she opened the mount vernon school steam academy and created a new generation she has done a phenomenal job turning the steem academy into an incredible educational institution and has become a premier showcase in our district she has led the building with pride and distinction so tonight in recognition of her retirement i am pleased to present her with the nightlight award sharon was not able to attend this uh tonight this meeting tonight so i will be presenting her with her plaque at a later time but for the record i would just like to read the plaque in to the record the mount vernon city school district presents the nightlight award to
006sharon bradley for her tireless dedication to the students of mount vernon city school district on may 18 sherman will complete 41 years in the mount vernon city school district and that concludes the superintendent's report for this evening and we have no presentations great thank you um this one makes me cry sharon bradley was the one of the first she was she was a second principal i met in mount vernon 10 years ago and i was so impressed with her um her attitude her commitment anyway i i wish her well i'm going to miss her a lot um we're moving on to committee reports does anyone have a report they'd like to share this evening tj uh good evening everyone so i met with uh a couple of um uh interesting and interested uh community members
007i met with jeff monroe as per what i stipulated i met with him and a couple of other individuals bassia jeff adam and tyrine wright and that was on april 24th 2021 it was a saturday and it was a really um excellent uh meeting our meeting as you know was about our african-american curriculum that we have here at mount vernon city school district and the following questions are on the table right now for us to be able to respond i just wanted to make sure that it's interdisciplinary in how our african-american studies take place here in mount vernon and what that means is that it's across all of the subjects so making sure that it's embedded in mathematics science social studies technology and of course we know ela they also were very concerned about our
008parent outreach for mount vernon city school district and the outreach in regards to encouraging parents to make sure that they hold us accountable in regards to our african-american literature curriculum push other than that um i will be getting back to them they wanted to know uh what i what i explained was that being that school was um in a coveted sense of uh lessons that when we start in september that it should be like a full throttle in regards to uh what we have in place right now and continuing i also made sure that they understood that dr bennett conroy is in a interesting position right now because it's us making sure in her making sure that schools have closely relevant books and culturally relevant lessons and so they agreed to uh for the for
009the um for an update later on right uh last but not least uh a couple of trustees melissa mitchu and myself we attended a a forum at city hall about the our the violence that's taking place here in mount vernon stop the violence and and um gun awareness and so we um are making sure that the arteries in mount vernon are connected um it's very important that uh city hall is working with mount vernon city school district mount vernon city school district is working with the library the library is working with the police department the police department is working with the fire department and so with that said there was another meeting that will be scheduled on this thursday at the dole center at 6 30 and the team that melissa and mitchell and myself
010are on we're starting um the book study in mount vernon city school district so i mean right now we have dr bennett conroy who has been pushing reading of specific books and said there is a particular book that she uh gave to me and i started reading it and i have to just share with everyone that it has changed my ways of speaking with individuals and looking at individuals this book talks about trauma in order for us to be able to teach our students in order for us to uh walk and talk with our students we also have to know and understand what trauma does and we also have to make sure that um that we're looking at them and not in a way that they don't want to learn because who doesn't want to
011learn right maybe they can't learn especially if they have the level of trauma that we don't understand and so this is the book so this is the book right here i know i showed this book before when we was on zoom and i'm showing it again and i just want to share um on the record that in new york city department of education my boss brought 1600 worth of these books because our staff are going to read it as well the first chapter is a very deep chapter and it's about trauma there are five levels of trauma and until we start understanding what's going on the police cannot stop the gun violence parents won't be able to stop the gun violence and mount vernon city school district won't be able to stop the gun violence
012until we understand where our students are coming from so i hope to see anyone and everyone at the dole center on thursday at 6 30. thank you thank you very much madam president if i may before you move on something i wanted to mention um we've i know we've talked about it behind the scenes but i think it's worth mentioning the district um administration will be recommending uh to our policy committee chair a policy that i would like to ask the board to uh once once mr mcdonald has an opportunity to review it um to move uh pretty expeditiously to adopt and that's a policy on diversity equity and inclusion um and one of the things that i am recommending in this policy in response to uh some concerns that have been expressed in our
013community not there and they're not new concerns frankly they've been going on for a while is our our an opportunity or a mechanism by which we may be able to really hold contractors and vendors to a standard relative to hiring minority employees on in our district and in this policy one of the things that i will be recommending is that we put a clause in this policy that speaks to diversification of our workforce so when contractors and vendors and related service providers apply for business in their district that they are obligated to meet the stipulations as outlined in this policy you've seen you've probably heard a lot of talk about dei across the state the district is ahead of it the book that trustee turquoise jones just showed we did a district-wide book study um
014on that particular book so that our staff would have a script to operate from the same script if you will and the same framework relative to our work around dei and understanding students and trauma and how to address the needs of our students and this will all be a part of that policy that will really dictate and provide a framework for how we work moving forward to ensure the dei is at the forefront in the interim i have issued a moratorium on issuing contracts and construction work pending the adoption of this policy so that we can really work to get a handle on this and respond to the concerns expressed in our community can i thank you thanks i saw that today and i really appreciate you doing that president can i just make a
015comment sure thanks uh just to clarify we have had for many years existing policies in the district that uh permit uh consideration of vendors and their their inclusion of women-owned and minority-owned businesses that has been the case for many years what so so dr hamilton is referring to is a revision to existing policy we already have existing we have existing policies that cover this what we're doing is taking a fresh look and seeing how can we give them more teeth and and more enforceable and and make sure that it's something that we strive towards and not just one of the many uh various factors that can be considered but instead something that should be considered in every case thank you thanks for clarifying that does anyone else have a committee report this evening trustee mitchell
016um so is this one no no no no yeah here we go okay um so back last year before the pandemic uh we all know i was working with uh mr pelicio we were going through the schools uh for issues regarding and related to the food services and the pandemic came things fell off i didn't get to finish some of it but we're jumping on that really hard effective now and i'm bringing in a trusty red with me who's gonna be doing some touring um basically not just the food services and things and related to food services we're going into the schools in general i'm going to be working really closely with michael pelagio our superintendent of buildings and grounds so that we can get to the bottom and i'm going to say we are
017starting south side first uh south side shine that's what i say and um that's what we're trying to bring this outside back to we're starting there every school in the district we're starting on the south side and the tours are beginning this week so uh below on the lookout for uh report updates from us on a regular basis of our meetings coming forward i just wanted to let the public and everybody know that we're continuing on uh the uh we didn't just get get slight and chill and just there's nothing left we got plenty more to do can i add something yes go go i trustee mitchell i believe um trustee um miller and i discussed doing a um building tour with all the trustees and we talked about having the um this school to
018find out what's going on with school dude how um how the um repairs are being requested and how long it's taken them to to get resolved so i believe all trustees are going to have all hands on deck that's the intent we haven't told them yet but i actually did request access to view school dude today so that i can see every single ticket that's open on every single building in the district so um it's going to be in a hall but i'm i'm digging in and i think one of the things we will need to do is is figure out how to fine-tune uh this process so that trustees can get the information they they need in order to do what it is that that you're doing without appearing to be functioning in a
019supervisory capacity relative to items in school dude so i'd like to collaborate on the best way to make sure you get what you need in order to do that and maintain appropriate roles and responsibilities [Music] sure we can work that out so okay you'll be on that great anyone else have a committee report mommy no okay hey mommy well i just had an observation um i i went to observe the life skills class at the high school last week and um i met with one of the students and they told me how they um they did the farm to table for our board meeting that a couple of weeks ago and um when i was speaking to one of the students he was telling me how he planted the seed and how he watched it
020and i said so you know so you put plant food in there and he said that plants don't eat food so i thought that was really cute but it was really nice to see those children engaged so i just wanted to share that with you guys excellent trustee patterson yes oh my i'm too short for this microphone um just to kind of reiterate what um we came away with from that meeting on thursday one of the really important things and trusty turnquest jones definitely said and i just want to reiterate how important it is that we work together with the city with the library board or the library with the you know deep whoever it is that is willing to come to the table and help us help our kids we have to be able
021and willing to meet them and try to figure it out and my joke the other night was that we're kind of like the archdiocese we don't have a lot of money but we do have a lot of space we have a lot of land so we really need to figure out how we can pair up and you know help the kids in the community and i just really would love it if everybody you know in this room everybody at home whoever if you have an idea reach out let us know because we can come up i mean we have ideas i was writing down things all night um of things that i'm hopefully gonna be i think we're talking about it during roundtable no yes maybe okay um but again just think about how we
022can utilize our resources and how we can pair our resources up with their resources and see where we can partner great thank you very much trustee mcgowan do you have anything further okay trusty forsen is it on okay um so two quick things next year is there gonna be a virtual option for students or is it all you have to come in person and second is there going to be like something that's in place for social or emotional what like well-being like wellness wellness days this year because as trustee chunk said there's been a lot of trauma for students to see whether it's due to losing a friend to gun violence or other things that my friends have gone through and they needed some days off sometimes so will that be like an option next
023year so we were planning to not have a virtual option um i'm meeting weekly with the commissioner and area superintendent and their conversations on both sides of the equation um having no virtual options available and getting everybody back in school and there's another school of thought that some districts in circumstances may continue to require a virtual option so the governor will issue an executive order at some point that will give us better guidance in terms of what the school must do what schools must do and what items are discretionary so i don't have a complete answer for that yet um because it really is evolving if you had asked me this question last week i would have said there will definitely be a virtual option but as recently as last week thursday that seems to
024be changing somewhat and even today you understand there's some new information coming out about virtual options so i'm not sure yet but i will definitely keep you posted but it's also um mommy we need to start thinking about elections for your seat next year so at our next uh student advisory uh superintendent's advisory council we'll need to begin that process so you may want to think about talking to some of your underclassmen and sharing your experience and think about some names you may want to bring forward for us to consider from that committee the second part of my question about the wellness wednesdays next year yes um we will absolutely have some type of emotional support process in place it may not be the same as wellness wednesdays but we absolutely have a commitment to
025ensure that we're providing office hours and opportunities for children to have more personalized interactions with teachers and support people along the way absolutely okay trustee brad yeah i just want to piggyback off what they were saying regards to the violence that is going on in the city of alberta i think is very important that we come together with like you said all entities library city police and maybe and maybe before school year's up it's hold the form so that we can um find out what's really going on you know because i know it's a lot of um tension now in the city and you know someone get got killed and now i think there's a retaliation that's you know in place so it's just those sort of things that we have to because these are
026our students as well great thank you very much um two things one um the mount vernon ptsa has extended their scholarship applications till friday so any senior any parent of the senior who has not applied for this scholarship you can get the info to apply from your guidance counselor and the deadline is friday it's it's not a heavy lift you just like your college essay and a couple of other things but it is a thousand dollar scholarship and they extended it because of covid so that's going to be open until friday so um anyone who is graduating a thousand bucks is a thousand bucks it can go a long way when you get when you're in your first year of college so i just wanted to share that and i will be i was asked
027by actually one of our former students moms vanessa gomez yeah uh so what i knew i knew this woman who's at the mount vernon high school pts pta because her daughter was a star scholar uh victoria anyway um she asked me to speak uh i'm going to be joining the pta meeting thursday night thursday night yes thursday night via zoom uh to speak about what's new and i will say that one of the things that she said her members are most interested in is what kind of social and emotional supports additional and incremental ones we're going to be putting in place for uh for the fall and i i did mention summer school and i understand we have a very good sign up rate for summer school which i think is going to be helpful
028for getting our students thinking about being back in the buildings i'm hoping that we also have a very good social emotional support program incorporated into our summer school because i think it's that's we might as well start right away anyway um that's my report president can i ask a follow-up can i ask dr hamilton sorry to talk more about silence for summer schools and what parents need to do and what the deadlines are and how they should they talk to their principal is every school different are the dates all the same and in addition uh for student devices are students supposed to turn in their device at the end of the year and does it matter whether they're continuing in summer school does that change whether they turn it in or not it does matter
029so i'll take the last question first students who are attending summer school do not need to turn their devices in we are starting with their senior class uh and there is a schedule in place we're starting with a senior class with uh collecting those devices so that they could be updated and and ghost uh but those students who are continuing on in our summer program of which we have 3 000 students registered so that's almost half of our students who will be able to keep their devices and we'll work on them and we'll figure out our process once summer school ends in terms of eligibility all students are eligible for summer school it is not just students who need remediation um it's students across the continuum but whether they need remediation or enrichment or anything
030in between summer school is available to them and if they have not already received an invite from their teacher or if a parent has not received that information they can reach out to the school principal directly you will be getting a tab at our next board meeting increasing a posting will come out we need additional staff so you will be getting a new posting and a new list of of recommendations obviously to increase staffing to accommodate the number of students that we now anticipate in our summer program is it sorry just to clarify summer school is 100 in person summer school is 100 in person yes and it's the same at each school right i mean so it'll be consistent across the okay dr hamilton i um i mentioned that the last sport meeting how
031um i guess the um the um the age of leaving school is has from 21 to 23 is it so we are we keeping some of our students that want to stay we are right now that extension is just for this year um there is talk about making that a permanent revision to uh student eligibility but we are keeping some of our students here maybe i'll go back to high school um okay um any other questions or clarifications at this point i'm really so excited that we are able to do oh my time's up i'm really sorry i know i i'm really so glad that that we're able to offer summer school to everyone and anyone who who feels they want it would like to have it needs it um i think it's fantastic and
032i'm just thrilled to hear the numbers the number of people who've signed up so i think this is excellent it's a really really great start and i hope we are able to continue this over the next several years okay i believe now i need a motion to go into executive session mr mccormack for the purpose of your mind here we need a motion to enter executive session this evening for the discussion of the employment history particular person or person as well as discussions regarding the mount vernon federation of t uh teachers negotiations updates i have a motion how long did you say how long um we should be about an hour today motion second second all in favor aye aye opposed abstain we'll be as fast as we can but we have to get our
033business done sorry folks i need a motion to return to public session promotion second all in favor aye opposed abstain all right motion carries so we're on to the business of the evening or the next business of the evening which is the agenda approving the tab so we'll move right to human resources may i have a motion to approve human resources resolution 5.1 motion any questions about this resolution [Music] okay all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries we have a motion to approve human resources resolution 5.2 motion any questions about this we do this every year but any questions about this okay all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries i have a motion to approve human resources resolution 5.3 motion any any questions about the summer the uh summer registration work okay all
034in favor i opposed abstain motion carries may have a motion to approve human resources resolution 5.4 motion second any questions about the cni work okay all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries may i have a motion to approve human resources resolution 5.5 summer work for technology may have a motion fine second i'm not going to laugh does anyone have any questions um technology are they are they 12 month employees or 10 month employees so so this this particular uh employee is uh is not a 12 month employee um these additional work days we do have uh 000 computers in our inventory this year that will need to be collected and update it and prepared for redistribution so there's an extraordinary amount of work involved this year any other questions yeah it's been on youtube
035yeah i just have a question is and i know you don't have all the answers yet about next year but assuming we do not uh have a remote option next year is the plan to still nevertheless give students all devices again absolutely i think we're gonna we want to begin to shift from um for students where it works uh shift from textbooks and get immediate updates and and move to a more digital format absolutely yes we've made the investment i think we need to make it exactly we already have the devices we should use them yeah that's a great idea okay um we all good okay all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries may i have a motion to approve business office resolution 6.1 motion okay yeah any questions about these i just had
036a question about the hr audit number five i i'm just going off memory i thought we already accepted this one or two meetings ago does something change yeah we accept that there's a there's just a change to the date of of the deliverables from us was it made earlier or later i forget i think we didn't have a specific we have a specific date and the state request that requires us to put a specific date for for the resolution of these issues gotcha okay keeping us honest which is good so we know we got to get it done okay um any other questions about uh 6.1 okay all in favor yes i opposed abstain promotion carries may i have a motion to approve trustee forsen's trip no may i have a motion to approve business
037office resolution 6.2 which is for the senior trip from steam to travel to pennsylvania we have a motion motion second second all in favor i have questions i have questions please my questions of course you do what do you mean of course uh dr hamilton or whoever needs to answer this what are the rules about uh trips with with covet right now i mean that change the rules change all the time i don't know i didn't i actually didn't know we were allowed to do overnight trips at all is that a recent change uh yes dr gorman manages the uh trips correct uh uh overnight trips um and the approval so dr gorman good evening everybody um so i do have answers for you trustee mcgowan um there are 20 students on a bus so
038they're following the travel protocols um they are going to pocono valleys which is basically their outside and log cabins um the the place has ensured disinfecting on a regular basis and the kids have to use the same procedure that they do here on a daily basis they fill out the covered questionnaire and they take temperatures every day and um and it seems to be in line with all of the county recommendations and they are by themselves more or less so they're not interacting with other communities out there as well does our um does our district insurance cover trips like this well yes sir okay uh quick question are they testing students up to the point before they go on this trip we are not mandating testing um as per the protocols that says only when
039the gatherings are larger than 50. okay also is there any detail as to exactly what's going what they're going to be doing on this trip is this something steam related team building um related trust let's let's let trustee follow some tell us what's going on what's going on on that trip yeah trust me um yeah so the trip i believe it's two days one night it costs about 175. um we go there we they do like a bunch of sports stuff so there's like volleyball i think there's ziplining um what else are they doing there's like a free ice cream bar or sundae bar something like that um i think they said they're gonna do a bonfire so bring s'mores it's just like a bunch of little team building exercises and then we come back
040i think the day after yeah this is their senior trip so they're they're not getting a lot and i'm thrilled that you guys are getting to do this is fantastic and i'll come for the ice cream only kidding um any other questions about this okay i mean all our trips are covered by insurance we wouldn't plan them if they weren't but that's a good question that's always good to double check okay all in favor aye opposed abstain have fun we want pictures um okay may have a motion to approve school improvement resolution 7.1 motion second any questions about this okay you want to save it for round table okay great um so all in favor aye opposed abstain okay motion carries may have a motion to approve student services resolution 8.1 motion second any questions
041about this yes when it says a student attendance was recently confirmed confirmed by whom confirmed by us or confirmed by the submitting district the submitting district right that is correct yes this defending district and just a question can you go down to the very last last one the very last item the agreement with the devereaux foundation that's just really generic can we just just for the public record can we state what the contract went i mean i've seen the contract because it's private but i've seen it so can we just explain what that contract is going to be it's just to provide student services at that at that facility for students that are eligible and attending that program yeah that's awesome it just doesn't say it in me yes these are are for students who
042are eligible for out-of-district services that are beyond the scope of what we can provide in district yes thank you any other questions okay all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries may i have a motion to approve student services resolution 8.2 second any questions about this resolution all right all in favor aye opposed abstain may i have a motion to approve buildings and grounds memorandum motion let me have a second i'll second it any questions about the one lonely change order and why would we have these type of inconsistencies and we just finished building this entire place and it should be up to up to the state of the art cool yeah all that good stuff mr felicio please good evening everyone good evening um so when we were doing the final walk through and
043the final testing of the security system we found power inconsistencies on the third floor in the two security doors the district team investigated and determined that the course of action would be provide remote power to those doors there's a couple of reasons why there's a reason we could have done investigative demolition which would have cost us even more money so we there was one of two reasons why the the power fluctuated one is the distance every 200 feet there's a voltage drop in any electrical service so that created some fluctuations but it also um there could be something obstructing the wires in the walls something net close to it that caused the power fluctuation it's impossible to find out exactly without demo without demo demolishing the walls to find that so the work included labor
044and cost labor and materials it was the i know it's a high ticket item but it was the most effective cost effective way to to correct the condition we also brought the security contractor in mandela was the last of five buildings to come on to our big security platform so this was added along with um denzel washington graham steam and pennington so between the labor the material the two vendors that um came in with prevailing wage that's how we got to the nineteen thousand but this only references one vendor it just references so he was a sub the the security contractor was sub to neighbor we brought him in as a consultant because of the security and to tie him in we added more software into the um security part of it but i thought
045the software was for the whole building doesn't the original contract cover the whole building it does but this plow this power fluctuation caused an inconsistency on these doors up on the third floor so we had to address it so we added additional software along with the power supply right but didn't i mean when they installed the doors did no one check this it was checked but when the so the it and security portion of the bond was the last thing to happen the doors operate but when they tied into the system there was fluctuations and they just weren't working they weren't working on lockdown they weren't working on fire so the doors remained open and we were in code violation at that point so we had to make an aggressive stand we took an aggressive
046stance here we could have opened up walls but i believe that would have cost way more no i mean i understand it needed to be fixed the doors have to close during a lockdown that's the whole point of the security system i get it i also get as the owner of 125 year old house that old wires have power fluctuations and that's a huge issue what i don't get is how was this not determined at the time of installation because the again the i.t insecurity part was after the construction it was it was the last part of the bond referendum that we were doing was actually still doing it we just had a training session the other day with joe mcgrath's team so it came after the construction walls were closed it was wired properly
047but when we finally put in the security system we determined we uncovered the fluctuations but this is me but in the future is it possible for them to come in right before they close everything up so that we don't have this um problem so think about it holistically a little bit so the wall the construction happens the wiring for all the doors and hardware and everything are existing but the security system the access control and everything that comes at the last phase it has to because that's how everything ties into the the main security and so out of all of the doors and all of the stuff that we did wire into these five buildings there's been one major fluctuation so i i think if you look at it in a in a holistic way
048you'll see that it it's a small the numbers big but the incident but who's responsible for that yeah you know it's like just like i say i'm a vendor i come in i fix something i put it together and it doesn't work so then what you bring somebody else in to fix what i didn't do and i supposed to get paid for doing that right so what happens is in those instances as long as the work is good workmanship and that it works as like if the door is functioning so they they run wires it happens all the time you run wires and then you go to make a final connection and you realize that there's something going wrong in the wire something is too close to it something causes an electrical fluctuation and it's
049just there and there's no way to remedy it unless we just take aggressive action and that's what we did and so i i'm happy to report that the building is 100 secure from intrusion of both burglar fire and um an active shooter i got to ask one thing the building's been open since september yeah so that would say that for the past school year that building has been less than secure and our babies have been in there and if any parent just listening to this right now have kids in that building they would be asking the same question does that mean that we've had of this building up and running full of children and that building really has not been secured because of this issue why did it take this long for us to figure
050it out when did it actually get fixed i'm sorry i missed it so it did we just did the work and so what happened like i said the it and security access control was just put into that building so that building at the minute we occupied it was probably more secure than most of our buildings because of their age so it had you know fire locked down except for these two doors so we would we had a manual we had part of the evacuation plan was to manually close these doors so we did everything manually and made sure that the building met all the other codes we got a certificate of occupancy a fire inspection a burglar inspection we got all of those inspections and they passed with flying colors this was just to tie
051it in at the end yeah i mean that's that's an important clarification right i mean our our buildings do have safety plans and all that stuff is in place what this system is is trying to get our buildings more state of art it's the kind of system that when you flip a switch all the doors automatically close and lock which many of our buildings don't have right lots of buildings don't it's the only building that has a one-button lockdown and the superintendent can do it from a phone app and the building can do it from several locations maybe someday with another bond or something we can get all the buildings up to that kind of we're ready dr hamilton thank you we good okay so where were we all in favor i opposed abstain motion
052carries may i have a motion to approve minutes from may 4th motion any questions all in favor yes i opposed abstain thank you it actually shows the trustee turn quest present on that so on may 4th yeah so these minutes will check one of one of them on tuesday may 4th um trustee turn quest is listed she wasn't here she wasn't here nope she wasn't here that was the last meeting that's me when jonathan took the meeting i'm sorry yeah that's correct she was not here that's correct i'm sorry that was confusing all right may i have a motion to approve just sorry just mr corman can you confirm that that is being changed in the record thank you okay may have a motion to approve acceptance of minutes from april 20th of this year
053second all in favor aye opposed abstain okay motion carries may i have a motion to approve acceptance of minutes from april 6th motion ocean any questions i believe we had everyone here except for trustee crump so uh okay all in favor aye opposed abstain okay merchant carries um this evening where uh some trustees have requested to have since we are going to be here until at least probably 9 15 9 30. uh some trustees have requested that we utilize some of this time to discuss some topics that have been kind of on hold for roundtable and um the first the first and and there's two things i'd say and then the first thing is uh we do want to discuss our the date for our reorg meeting we have a reorg meeting every year it
054has to occur between july 1st and july 10th 10th so we just wanted to get a beat on what people's schedules were to see when we can try to schedule that meeting so we get that nailed down and then the next thing is is that one of the things that i wanted to implement starting now and i made my notes i can share them uh mr mccormick if you don't have all the same notes we can compare notes we compare notes on our notes but um i want to create a parking lot for any issues that we discuss at a board meeting and we say well we're going to follow up on that no matter who says they're going to follow up on that we're going to make a parking lot and we'll know everything
055that is supposed to be followed up on and the beginning well i guess when i start with my president's report or maybe an unfinished business although no one has really wants to stay later but anyway we will we will cover those issues to make sure that we are not falling letting anything fall through the cracks so that's a new practice going forward okay so first off um on the reorg meeting um the first of july is a thursday night i believe so we could do it the first obviously we're not going to do it on a friday night i don't know how many people are going away for july 4th weekend but there's the first and then we get into the week of what is the what is the holiday i'm not available until after
056the holiday personally so the sixth seventh june july july so we either do it july first or we do it the sixth seventh or eighth talking about the meeting right this is a reorg meeting time after the fifth i just can't do it before sixth that's the day after the fourth who's gonna have a hangover apparently i think i think i'm not i'm not repeating that um so anyway how do we feel about july 6th tuesday the 6th yeah okay so we'll lock it in for tuesday the 6th and those of you who have not yet attended a reorg everybody's attended the reorg meeting right okay okay so july 6 it is yeah and and the other thing is i asked just so we could take a look at it ahead of time mr mccormick's
057going to send home a draft calendar for board meetings 4 21 22 this weekend so we can all take a look at that but we're planning on continuing on tuesday every other tuesday at 6 30 yes yes okay um that was it except for round table what what point was i pointing at who are you playing oh yeah go she she was supposed to go vote oh anyone who hasn't voted on the board since we're not gonna oh we're going to be certifying the election 20 minutes we'd like you to come back to help us certify the election results she's giving me the look yeah well we're going to be certifying the election results in about in about an hour you can wear pajamas that's cool okay so we've got the pajama thing out of
058the way so um there are a couple trustees who wanted to uh raise some issues so have at it mr mitchell all right so i mean i know at our last meeting we mentioned that uh principles they had just passed and we had some folks come out from uh i think it was pennington and they were really expressing their love for the principal that was there and he's he's leaving or something like that and and then i just started to think about principles across all our buildings as a whole and the bottom line is they're the front line lead at a building level for all our buildings so that's to say that you know one day ken decides hey you know what i'm moving to sweden and i'm never coming back and that's it our
059buildings should have true leadership at a building level and my question or my concern is are our buildings truly at a good leadership level a subtle leadership level and how so could that statement be made if we have principles that are leaving our district principles constantly seemingly being shuffled around building to building uh consistency not seemingly in place so i guess the challenge and i'm hearing from the public the same question and i'm asking this question for the public as well is are there challenges to us being able to recruit the proper people for these positions in principle an assistant principle and if there are challenges are those challenges being voiced from the folks who need that whatever assistance or whatever support they need is it really just a lack of people a lack of
060valid candidates or and i'd like to know how are we looking forward to keeping our children in schools that have solid leadership our teachers are there they're looking to that same leadership how can they look to to that leadership if they don't even know who's going to be in the building leading them the next year it just doesn't seem consistent so i'd like to i'd like to be able to expand on that and just fill in fill me in on how this is working and why it doesn't seem to be working um so i what i want to be careful to do that i don't publicly evaluate principles and so my comment to that is all of our buildings are led by extremely competent people in terms of principles is being shuffled around i've been
061here six years going on year seven um or seven going on year eight seven going on year eight um i've moved principals twice since i've been in the district and sometimes a principal may have an experience in one building their leadership or their style of leadership may benefit another building based on circumstances and conditions we are not at a loss for for quality candidates there are principal ships that are we anticipate will be open in a few years i'm sorry in this this school year and we have a broad pool of people to select from we lose principles because there are districts that pay more considerably more so sometimes principals come here they get their feet wet they get the experience and they go where they can make more money we don't have a we
062don't have the luxury of just shifting people around on the pay scale people the scale is is based on years of experience and advanced degrees and those are the ways our principles are compensated so if a principal gets an offer or decides they need for personal reasons to make more money they they often pursue that that is not in it at all reflective of anything other than sheer personal choice and economics that guide most people in today's economy um regarding um pennington in particular since you referenced that as as part of the opening comment the situation at pennington is the current principal is a retired principal working under a consultant agreement that consultant agreement ends at the end of one year um the opportunity to extend that consultancy to an additional year uh looks at
063a couple of factors all of which are beyond my control one the union owns that position so the fact that the union has graciously allowed us to extend that consultancy for a year um has been a courtesy they did not have to do and allowed us to do it now if they choose to do that there is a process in place that we can go through and and if that happens i'm okay with it i don't i'm not interested in spending about 10 hours for hiring another principal in terms of the process interviewing screening etc um for each position so um i happen to think we have a great group of principals in our district i think we have some extraordinary leaders some are are better at something than of some things than others but
064you will find that in any district usa um but it is not true that principles get shuffled around all the time because they don't that's not true so um so then my other question is you said that we have a lot of we have great principles in our buildings and you know that's fine i agree um what i haven't seen at one point i know we had a climate of our school buildings uh survey that went around i think it was email uh parents were able to say how they felt so for to your statement that we have great principles and i totally agree with that i know i have one at a school my children go to uh but where are these where are the climate where the climate surveys for us as trustees
065to review so that we can truly get the temperature of what our parents think about our principles because i think principles are great but if our parents who have children in all these different buildings feel differently then we need to know that so are we where do we stand on those the initial survey climate survey results were shared with the board um and it's time to redistribute that um if you remember we said we were going to do it in the fall and redistribute it at the end of the school year um so we're at that point now well we will redistribute that and when those results come in i'll share those with the board as well okay good and one of the things i just wanted to add on to what trustee mitchell said
066is i just want to make sure that the that you dr hamilton and the administrative your administration understand that we really want to put whatever muscle we need to behind getting the best and the brightest to fill our positions we wanted we want to just take make that as a an absolute priority because we know you know any any time we have you know a teacher absent or or a vacancy it affects our children so we just want to make sure that that specifically you uh marcy have the resources that you need to to do what you need to do and if i may met on president just to add to that and into what trustee mitchell says sometimes that means going outside mount vernon so we get um our back gets pushed up against
067the wall when there are internal candidates who feel they have earned a certain position and start reaching out to trustees to advocate on their behalf and sometimes that's at the expense of candidates who may have other experiences that may bring a a broader scope of of experience and innovation to the table so i say that to say that mount vernon has some extraordinary people and some dynamic teachers who we should give every opportunity to to advance into administrative positions and that is exactly what the principal leadership program does that we've implemented in the district but we've been very clear that does not mean it's a promise that anyone will get an administrative position but certainly home growing your your your your leaders is better than um not but uh in order to make certain we
068have a broad pool of people that sometimes mean that we we have to attract people from outside our community as well are you are you good mr mitchell i think i'm good for now thank you thank you trustee munoz patterson well thank you very much um so this is kind of some just my notes about when we sat in that meeting on thursday and how we can better serve the community in terms of what we have or what we can do um and i know trustee mitchell and i were kind of knocking them back and forth a little bit one of the things that we were talking about was community schools and the ability to leave our buildings open later so kids are not on the streets kids have somewhere to go and obviously i
069don't think every school i would say you know if we can pilot i know i think um i may have been harassing part of your cabinet over the weekend and i apologize not so much but a little bit um but i think um we've already on track to get one of our buildings open for a community school and if we could share that information with the public i think that'd be a great start to understanding and how we can get the funding for that because again and this is from my understanding is in order to leave a building open we'll need a security and we will need i believe an administrator as well so just for expectation you know yeah so i i am a big supporter of community schools um i think it has
070first of all let's let's define what community school means for for everyone so that we're operating from the same definition a community school serves as the hub of that particular community meaning not only is it open additional hours but it has recreational activities for students it has opportunity for parents to access social services in that building that sometimes mean health services are also available job training opportunities for parents supports for parents so it really is a an extensive community hub and we have been applying we applied for a grant and i think we're in a very good position to receive it to start our first official community school at benjamin turner we've been working to make that a community school i have actually made contact with a business partner who is contemplating partnering with us
071that as well around um funding that who has contacts with chase bank who may hopefully probably sharing more than i should right now but um who will hopefully put some some money toward this as well to supplement the grant or my plan b if we don't get the grant to have an additional funding source to be able to expand that um but even within some of the existing grants that we have we have the opportunity to restructure some of those grants to begin to expand community schools but there is a planning period that is required in order to be eligible to be deemed a community school so whether we get those funds or not we will start the um six to six to ten month planning period for benjamin turning to be a community school
072awesome six to 10 months can i ask another question on top of that sure so once it's established as a community school does it continue to be a community school for how long if so for how long once it becomes a community school the concept that it is a community school it is it's definite it's not it's not a temporary um situation um generally when a community school is funded by a grant of course you have to be careful about making certain you put in programs that you can sustain over time but frankly when social service agencies come in they come in as silent satellite services so they're those that expense most of the time is is on that particular agency because they want to include their increase their roster and increase their opportunities for
073students as well where it may get into a nominal cost for the board is around what trustee patterson mentioned and that is staffing for recreational programs sports programs um tutorial programs where the buildings may be open later than usual and one of the things that i'd like to explore around that see the issue with roundtable is when i don't have a heads up i don't get a chance to prepare in advance so i may be sharing more than i should but it also requires negotiation with teachers to look at how we can create flexible work schedules there may be people amongst our teaching staff who may want to start their day at 10 o'clock and work till 6 because of their lifestyle or whatever they have going home or may want to start at 12
074o'clock and work till 8. so really being creative about an innovative around creating community schools requires conversations with principals unions teachers unions support staff unions and social service agencies okay so that was i'm going to apologize because i have more um but i think that's a great i think it's something that should be on everyone's radar in terms of what we can do and things that we can provide and things that are again it's not i'm not saying it's an easy reach but i'm saying it's it's a reach and it's something that's really not again conceivable um and it's funny that you mentioned uh job training and supports because my next point was adult education um and talk and looking into how we can help the parents get the training that they need maybe to
075get to the next level with their um education or even something as simple as if i'm helping my kid with math we're dangerously close to the point where i'm not gonna know second grade math dangerously close um i did tell him the other day i said he's like we don't do this this way at school and i'm like that's how we're doing it today and that's just because if not it wasn't gonna get done um so again something for people to think about brother muhammad had a fantastic idea about mediation and having a mediation clinic and i thought maybe there was a way for us to institute some kind of basic mediation training for our students in maybe one of their classes where they can start to develop these skills and then as he brings
076them in or whoever starts doing it but again he was the one that mentioned it and i thought it was a great idea um and then the other two points i have and then i swear i'll stop talking um one was a general cte and i don't know if that's even an option or a possibility but if we can renovate that large room that we have and then look at it to say you know what maybe instead of plumbing per se we can do a basic understanding of carpentry plumbing uh you know i don't know whatever something to that effect where we could hey you voted i like your sticker um in our pajamas yeah i'm slightly disappointed i expected a onesie with like ears or something um so yeah just again something just to
077think about and then the last point and um trustee mitchell and i came um dangerously close to just you know running out of the room and doing this the night of was a building by building um event an event at each building for the community that that building services um and to try to get the parents in and i will say that the one event that we had recently that was fantastically attended um was the christmas event and that was a event based you know for the kids there was no nothing fancy at all santa claus might have gotten bum rushed and i apologize to santa claus profusely um i didn't realize you needed security but um just something where we can start to get the community to come in and start to get them
078in an event that's not directed at hey we want to talk to you about your kids grades or hey we want to talk to you about this more of like hey we just want to talk i think we had something like that with the ela and math nights we did and you know it stopped because of kobe but it was wonderful very well it was very very well attended well absolutely so do we maybe we should have a leica where i'm sure that dr bc has been working on this but hi but um i maybe we should look at um let's put it in the parking lot but let's at the next because we uh mr mccormick reminded we have to take a recess at 8 55 so that they can start counting the vote
079and then we will come back i know i know and then we will come back and we will certify can i say something else yes go ahead now mediation we did have a program in this district for mediation each school had a mediation teacher i was one at lincoln and when the students had a conflict we came and we were trained i was trained to be a mediator and then the students would come and you know they do most of the mediation themselves talking about what happened how could they solve it what would they do next time so it really worked that i was at the elementary school i don't know if it would work at a high school or junior i mean but it really worked at the uh elementary level so what i'm
080hearing trustee white is that you want to start one that you want to be in i mean i'm sure my literature is and we do have me there there are our guidance counselors are trained to um trained as facilitators of mediation at the high school level and some of our deans as well are trained at the at the secondary level um to serve as mediators so we do have mediator mediation sessions with our students matter of fact there was we just had one at almost called we had one at tripagan last week and the mediation involves students and parents um so we do have um some trained mediators that at our disposal in the district perhaps even from from from that period miss trustee yeah i just think that and what i was hearing what
081i feel like i heard is that any skills that we can give the kids that they can take out of the building you know and that's why my only idea was can we give them a basic you know working knowledge of what a mediation would look like rather than you know talking with your fists or rather than talking with something else god forbid you're talking with you know you're using your words and we're going to try to work it out you know kind of i don't know i don't know anything about education so i'm just really just talking you know i i look i think these are these are great suggestions and i think what we'll do and i'm sorry dr hamilton got sprung on you but uh it's been a little hectic around this
082past couple of days and i was really excited i'm sorry that was me that was it look we want excitement and we want innovation and we've got a great team to implement it and we just need to prioritize it but you know we can do all of this um so on in one second and so just um so we got we got to wrap this up in two minutes but we will put in the parking lot for discussion uh if not at the next meeting meeting after because next meeting is a special meeting but the meeting after that um and we are going to be having a board retreat in june date to be determined um but will uh community schools mediation the the general ct so i think what you're envisioning is like uh
083this old house yeah in a room okay got it and um also what they like before you know then maybe we can then talk to them and then unions and make those connections but if you don't know what you like first yeah and and the other things i have um in the parking lot for a subsequent meeting are um trustee mitchell meeting with dr hamilton and maybe mr pelicio to coordinate on these uh tours that you and trustee read are going to go on and the school dude and and you know understanding the the the issues in the in the different buildings and also the tj uh question on the interdisciplinary nature of african american studies once we ramp up in the fall making sure that that crosses all all academic disciplines right can we
084also add on i know i went through that uh can we also add on the um in the parking lot about um trying to make sure that we have uh gardens at all schools yes we did discuss that at the last meeting well now it's in the parking lot we went now but now it's in the parking lot and i noticed the nice the nice beds at uh traffic madam president one of the things i'd like to encourage us to do just so that we we kind of look at it work as a as a funnel um and i'm fortunate i'm fortunate to work with a board of folks who have such eclectic experiences and views and who are so invested in the community and i think i consider myself privileged to be able to
085do so i also think it's good for us to think about how we organize these lists for example and identify some commonalities amongst them um so that we we are not working in 12 different directions but identifying things like community school and how the community schools fit in with other ideas and and how the gardens may fit in and how training parent training and peer mediation where that fits in so it it is in perhaps three four buckets yeah that's what i'm thinking versus you know these the laundry list exactly i think i think what we'll do is um my idea was to to kind of put these in buckets to discuss them with you and then to also you know we we also do have to prioritize these at our meeting in june because
086we can't do everything all at once but we can certainly have answers and have plans right and keep teaching and learning at the forefront yeah exactly because i just want to make an observation that i think that everything that we've talked about does tie into one concept and that is community schools i don't mean in the strict definition per se but the concept that we all know it takes a village right to raise each child and that village does not stop with teachers and administrators it has to be the whole community and that's why one of the reasons like big picture right five six seven years ago we started this journey of making of trying to get closer to equity right there were a lot of huge inequities not just in terms of money spent
087but all sorts of inequities and we still have issues with that but we are much much much better than we were a few years ago and i i view big picture kind of the journey that i've been on at least since i've been on the board is this process of okay let's have standardized curriculum standardized data standardized at least so we can get the same information from every school district so that we can put everyone on the same playing field so that you can get the right principle for that building who can build the type of community that that neighborhood needs right and all these specific things that not everything at every school not everything's going to work at every school but every every school has to get the same opportunity so that you can
088build this community from the leadership down that's great that's a great point all right i i'm sorry to cut this short but i need a motion to recess uh we'll recess until we get the final counts and then we will reconvene when we when we have the votes in to certify the vote so may i have a motion to recess second all in favor hi okay hopefully it'll be about 20 minutes 30 minutes hey hello everyone we're back from our recess uh i'd like a motion to return to uh session motion i guess that's everybody made a motion so we're good all in favor we're all in favor aye okay now we have the business of um certifying the election results good evening everybody um there are 97 absentee ballots outstanding that will be counted
089following this meeting tonight there are not enough absentee ballots outstanding to change the results of the election so we are excited to announce that the budget has passed with 865 votes [Applause] to 330 no votes we have elected candace sorensen to the board of education with 711 votes dorothea darcy miller with 784 votes and wanda white with 742 votes [Applause] michael mick owen received 615 votes and mark stuckey received 396 votes you got it uh on the library side vivian salmon has been elected to a term on the library board with 592 votes thomas received 275 votes and ron hood received 181 votes we would need a motion to accept the results of the election so moved second did you mean did you say second i didn't know if i needed to be second but
090if it does need to be second i seconded then i second all in favor aye aye opposed abstain motion carries congratulations everyone thanks everyone who ran who cared who wants to be involved and who cared to vote and yeah who took the time to vote a lot of people i went door to door a lot of people said i don't i'm not i'm give up i said well that's not an option for me so anyway thank you to everyone who participated we really appreciate your support thank you for supporting the budget the team the budget committee the whole group worked very hard on this so i really really we all appreciate your support very much and um i guess now i'd like a motion to adjourn motion all in favor all right we'll see you
091soon