001[Music] is [Music] that's awesome [Music] okay so in accordance with ohio advice code 121.22 i hereby call the december 7th 2021 bexley board of education [Music] mitchell here here miss nobody thank you thank you [Music] um the sheep [Music] i pledge allegiance to the flag in the united states of america and to for which it stands one mission under god indivisible with liberty and [Music] can i have a justice to approve the meeting minutes of our regular beginning of [Music] november please subscribe by saying aye aye [Music] all the closing signs thank you that motion carries um can i have a motion to approve our agenda [Music] a second second by saying i have any opposing sign questions as well thank you all right so we are starting um with our board updates i'm just
002saying to victoria to come [Music] um the first thing i want to acknowledge is our policies tonight i really appreciate everybody's time and energy and going through all these policies giving them all sort of like especially carla and dr fine that it has been an honest task in our administrators who helped us with each of them i really appreciate that um i also just want to give a special note to our equity policy i could not be more pleased to look to approve that tonight to give it my vote and i want to thank ms mitchell and mrs powers for their tireless work um mr raxton and all of our leaders in our administration i feel like this is there is no way to feel like you have i don't feel that there's no way
003i will ever be able to solve some of our larger systemic issues but i feel good that this is an important first or second step to doing that and i'm very thankful this board for considering it tonight i also want to say thank you to everyone for the nice reception um that was it meant a lot to me and i appreciate it um and i will thank you for a lot for me over the last 12 years so i'm going to try and keep it brief but those of you who know me know that i'm often kind of happy to give them a microphone so uh since i have it for one last one last board meeting i'm going to take it and just say um i've been truly honored and very humbled to serve
004on this board it hasn't always been a comfortable journey to try and balance the competing priorities of highly engaged and expected community but it has been a rewarding one this is mainly true because i find it really interesting to try to solve pressing issues with research thoughtfulness hard work and collaboration and i found so many individuals here in the wesley city schools who share that passion i've talked a lot over the years especially the last two in this pandemic about teamwork being key success in the school district i'm thankful for the examples and lessons from my previous board colleagues and administration members and i'm exceedingly thankful to those that work with me these last two years since i've served as president i could not have had a better governance team with michelle john felicia victoria
005kyle and jason and so people as i shared with ourselves the convocation this year i've also learned a few things in particular in our little crucible these last 21 months and one of those is what i want to mention here tomorrow a phrase from obra this is one thing that i know for sure how we treat each other hears students parents people of different backgrounds and beliefs matters every day every encounter it matters our response to others especially in crisis is the foundation of our community and the mirror to our own souls we all need to fight for what we think is right but how we fight makes all the difference how we choose to respond with fear frustration anger hopes dreams desires that matters we must act together in positions of public trust two
006as dr young after puts it leave space for grace i am so thankful that i'm leaving this position in the very capable hands of people who have signed up to be part of the solution i implore our community to extend grace patience and kindness to them engaging in this way we will move the important work of educating our students forward and model these essential practices for our children and that is my report tonight ms powers thank you um i want to start by thanking paul for that really lovely reception and all the work that she put into it was really a really lovely way for us to honor the folks that are leaving tonight so i'm grateful for that um i just want to thank kyle for including my few clarifying changes to the minutes
007because i didn't give those to you very quickly and i apologize for that um i think everybody here was probably at our event so i'm not going to repeat my comments but i am very very honored to have been able to serve on this board with these three people who are having their last board meeting tonight with us i've learned so much from them and i admire their service their commitment and their caring for our students our teachers our administrators i hope we our new board can continue the work in the um respectful hardworking and impressive way that we've learned to do from the folks that are that are departing tonight so i just want to again thank each and every one of you three for the for the service um franklin county school board
008alliance this group met on november 11th the discussion focused on the ohio school board association annual meeting issues at the national school board association level we all talked about the election results in our districts we talked about busing issues that are becoming a problem for many districts and there was discussion of levy and facilities issues in various districts the next meeting of that group is this week i continue to really appreciate the opportunity to participate in the alliance faculty wreck at the bex and wrecks board meeting in december we heard reports on the jeffrey mansion preschool jeffrey summer camp program and the before and after camp program bexley rec folks gave a lot of love to bexley city schools administrators teachers and staff and i want to read what was included in the year-end report
009that was published to us and to everybody um and so i'm going to read just this one paragraph throughout this pandemic the schools have gone above and beyond to help make the success of this program possible harley williams jill abraham and john eichenberg to name a few made sure that we were part of all communications and updates on information so we could help support our community they also help providing jobs for our staff when the school is pivoted from one type of learning to another the schools also did a huge part in making sure we always had the busing and space in the schools that was needed they were all easy to work with and the connection we made during this experience really thrived the principles of all three schools were of course super supportive
010like they always are and were always easy to reach out to reach even outside of the school hours and days the teachers and all supportive education staff really connected with our staff at the vex and rec on a whole other level as we sat with kids in their zoom classes or communicated to them about students class and work it was a crazy year but a very magical one as well so i wanted to share that because the appreciation was much appreciated by me and i did on behalf of the district express our gratitude for the work that those programs that are sponsored and run by bexley wreck do because they without the shifts that they did all the time in child care we would have had a much harder time managing through our school dis
011our school changes um in the year that they were reporting on so was able to pass that along that's the end of my report thank you um [Music] we haven't met with rec board or the technology board but i want to thank brad and harley and eli for all their work that they put into those um i hope i'm not going to bore anybody with this usually i'm a litigator usually just a bullet point to go through but i i kind of wanted to make a record of my appreciation for everybody but what going off of what what marley said just a little bit of advice that i could give it's always the grace and respect that you can give one another always makes a huge difference even if you be in the degree disagree
012it makes a huge difference so i have a little bit of a longer statement than than marley does but i there are so many people over the last eight years i just wanted to make sure that i i worked on this to make sure that i try not to miss anybody so there's just so many thank yous to go around so i'll just start by thanking the vaccine community for electing me to two terms on the board and in some ways the last eight years have gone by so fast but in other ways and not so much i'm so grateful and humbled by having the privilege of serving our community our parents our administrators our staff and our parents but most of all our students for which were mined that come through the school district
013i always try to make decisions that were student-centered and what i believe was best for each of our students and but before i think about some people i want to congratulate ms jade and miss pickerel and mr baker and sitting on these this side as a board member i want to thank you in advance for your time and your effort and sacrifice that you will be providing to our community at least from from my personal perspective it won't go unnoticed it's not just the meetings but all the work behind the scenes whether it's reviewing policies or preparing for meetings attending committees going over finances i hope i can fully appreciate what the three of you are going to be providing to our district i wish you all good luck some thick skin and some wisdom
014important too that you can keep our district moving forward also to the many friends and people that i didn't really know and colleagues and people outside of this room that supported me over the years all i want to thank you all individually but it goes without saying that the encouragement the text the emails the phone calls are so much more appreciated than i can express so for the thank yous i've got a lot of thank yous and i apologize to poor people but i think it's important at least for me to thank people um first i want to thank dr johnson superintendent was on the board when i first started dr kim miller dr good and dr fine all four superintendents provided me with some insight and knowledge of what it takes to work as
015a team and i kind of wanted i wanted to shout out dr miller because i was president when she was superintendent we had some really great conversations in my two years as president and i hope that we're not only productive but help keep our district going in the right path and she taught me how i could make how we can make and should make decisions keeping students first secondly for all the former board members some that were here this evening through thick and thin i know you have your hearts in the right place and you're giving your time and your effort i know she couldn't be here but melissa lacroix wanted to make sure that i mentioned her [Music] i greatly admire her her preparation her dedication her wisdom were immeasurable for me and i
016can't thank her enough especially when i became president the insight that she gave me um also chris esman i know he was here earlier he was our treasurer before kyle i think for 30 30 some years um his wisdom and insight in always being available um and no pun intended but he was a true treasurer to our district and always made my job as a board member he does a little dab job i guess um but i also want to thank kyle one of the best decisions i think i made um as part of being this board is hiring kyle and he really is a rock star he especially as my time as president kyle was always there to give a perspective that was invaluable not only was he an exemplary colleague on our governance
017team but he is a good friend anytime we had a meeting or an executive session negotiations or treats um one of the things i could always count on kyle was to join me and making sure all the desserts were tasting just right and were sampled to make sure that they were okay but seriously kyle i appreciate all you do and thank you for everything you do for the district and thank you not personally for me um i want to thank our administrators some that are here and our principals and our teachers for helping guide the district over the years we are so fortunate to have so many gifted people here i also want to thank our maintenance and custodial staff um when i would leave board meetings sometimes at midnight and they were here working
018and making sure our building was in immaculate condition it's it's amazing that they keep our our district schools in great shape um i wanted to thank brad pettit um he's also a very a rock star and he gets it brad gets it he always is thinking what can make our students experience better and that's not only from a technology standpoint but as learners brad has always been extremely gracious with me patient but i always knew his knowledge and his insight and his foresight was a huge asset to the district and and also to me so thank you brown i also want to thank harley um i've known harley since our girls were in kindergarten i think so almost 20 years he's a friend first and foremost and i always put that first harley has been
019a middle school principal high school principal and now an administrator and just an unbelievable great asset to our community i could always kind of hardly to be a friend first and always even keel no matter what and i appreciate everything that you've done for me and especially again our friendship so thank you for everything you've done i want to thank jason dr fine um in the short time perfect um just over the short time i've gotten to know you i consider you a friend as well um clearly an enthusiastic leader and i know that he's going to bring great things to our district but what i really notice is that how much you care deeply for a community that you've just recently joined and that you're just coming into it's not hard to notice when
020you're talking to somebody you are engaged and you're just not talking at them as hey i'm the superintendent but you're listening engaging with them and what a valuable asset they have you as a leader and again i i'm thankful that i was part of that decision to help bring you here i know you're bound for greatness and i look forward to watching it happen i look forward to staying in touch and staying friends with you um want to thank my uh [Music] my current colleagues um first of all we'll always have the bond of copenhagen good bad or different but no one can really know what the five of us went through um and and that can never be taken away from us it's it's in a weird way a bond that we have that
021we had to navigate through unprecedented time not only will you all always be my colleagues but i consider you all friends um now individually michelle i didn't know michelle before she ran but what an unbelievable fantastic addition you've been to the board your perspective of so many issues opened my eyes to look at things differently your kindness your graciousness is clearly evident and you have served this community so well even though you served one term as we joked about earlier just the last two years gonna equal 20 years of service so but with all of that your positive attitude never changed and and i can't tell you how much that i appreciate that uh victoria wow you got elected the board and two months later copenhagen um i'm not going to focus on that baptism
022by fire in your first two years other than to say how amazingly professional you have been and as a leader even as a newbie on the board and how you stepped up to be a leader your wisdom and intelligence are unmatched but mostly your dedication is unmatched and i look forward to seeing the great work ahead for you over the next few years at least i always know that you'll be prepared and undaunted and again always being somebody that that gives everything that they have and knows has that wisdom and leadership so thank you uh marley it's been a long and short 80 years 12 years for you i think what you said about phoebe and kindergarten when you started kind of hit home but she's always been amazing marley is considerate of others always
023puts her heart and soul into being a great school board member the work that goes into being president that you've done twice um and through covet to put you in the board of education hall of fame equally mostly though you've been a trusted colleague somebody that i could bounce ideas off when i was president or whenever i needed that you've been a wonderful friend to me even when we disagreed and i admire your dedication and your service in the board and i couldn't be happy happier for you in 25 days um and alicia there's not there's so much i can say about alicia from the time we appointed her to the board until today she's never let me down both that's a collie and a great friend um she's been unbelievably caring and cares deeply
024deeply for our district and her students and she's not afraid to do what she thinks is right no matter what especially when she believes what is right for our students but all of that aside and by far most importantly to me alicia has become one of my best friends on the planet [Music] no words can do justice about how much i appreciate you and i'll miss being on the board with you but i look forward to being your civilian friend um and there's nothing nothing of a trade for the friendship i have with you and again there's so much i could say but you are amazing as a board member as a mom and it's a great friend um and i appreciate the patience with everybody i know that was a lot of stuff but
025over the last eight years i've been so blessed again i'm humbled and grateful to be then able to serve this community of bexley uh i hope i was able to give something back of what my family has gained for being here since we moved here in 1998. [Music] and lastly most importantly i want to thank my family carla kaylee bethany ashley and ryan i couldn't have lasted eight years about you um the long nights at meetings time away from you and everything in between you've all been so supportive of me over the last eight years being a board member can take a toll on your family and family life but they you have all been so understanding of me and and of me wanting to serve our community that's given so much to all all
026of us talk about being blessed i've been blessed beyond anything that i deserve your love of understanding and support that i felt from you is unremarkable is remarkable thank you from the bottom of my heart for loving me through these last eight years um and again i appreciate all the patience i wanted to make that all part of the record thank you all and everything i said is genuine and i i can't thank everybody enough and i have been so blessed and humbled and honored so thank you thank you um all right miss mitchell go ahead and follow that one i don't believe that i should [Music] um let me get just get through my report really quickly uh bef um i just like to shout out and give recognition that uh the bef has
027awarded over 32 000 almost 33 000 in grants this year alone um they're doing great work in our schools and for our students some of those agreements were particularly centered around mental health and wellness and as we as a district continue to prioritize those those initiatives just having an unbelievable partner like that has been really really helpful and then as you all may be wrapping up your holiday shopping season on amazon if you do the amazon smile um the uh bef gets the beneficiary um of some of those dollars that you spend it's really easy when you're logging in your regular amazon login just do amazon smile and it'll pull it up and switch over everything's all in there your profile and shop away so keep keep donating that's always good um i don't have
028anything to report on facilities i believe we'll be probably kicking that back off after the first of the year um so that'll be great news obviously our administrators have been hard at work working on some additional um efforts for practice space and what have you so we'll that'll probably be wrapped up into all of our discussions on facilities um and then for equity our equity and education policy who will i'll have more comments when we get to that policy so that we don't uh heavy it down here but really really proud and excited to put that policy to vote there are some former board members here even members of the community that have been part of that journey of that work and so that's really really wonderful to have them here tonight too if you
029stay that long no pressure but certainly have an opportunity for them to also see that policy adopted tonight so the only other thing that i will say is you all know that i'm the emotional one in the bunch so um i respect you immensely we'll miss you tremendously you have provided a great example to future boards and an example to me always i have appreciated your counsel your friendship um your wisdom and your patience and i hope that in the five years that we've um it's been five and five years that we have known each other um and that we've served together that i've had an opportunity to be part of history in the making um i will miss all of you but thank you so much for everything that you did to make the
030lives of all specially students better but thank you for the impact that you have in my families as well they always ask after you the kids do they're as interested and invested in your families and your family's successes so enjoy your retirement from this part of the world and i certainly hope it will continue to make you proud [Music] okay okay so um the library report as far as the legislative liaison because i have nothing to report usually i get an email have a updated so i will update you guys with that when it's available um okay so that's that so i'm going to be fairly brief at least i think i am um but i do have some things i want to say johnson i like that we so what like the overriding i
031think thing i want to say is just there's so much gratitude i have um i'm grateful to be sitting here tonight um and you can take that really anyway you choose but i am grateful to be sitting here tonight and i am grateful for the opportunity to go second for the last four years um i'm grateful for the opportunity to serve the community and the trust that you have put into me um but thank yous um start with the community and the parents and of course our students um but to the staff and educators except this um in our last little meeting but i'll say it again especially the educators i've long admired the work that you guys do and i am just so honored to have been a part of the team um and
032really that's where you know that the experiences that my sons had with um the educators really like propelled me to like want to serve in a different capacity on the team so i'm grateful to the staff and educators to the administrators you're all most of you are here tonight i can't thank you enough for the work that you have done you have like made like a very challenging time to have served in a very challenging time and helped our students to thrive and i as a parent on this board member i'm so so so very grateful for that i can say so many things i'm just gonna say oh my gosh i'm so grateful for you i'm so grateful for gratitude to doctors miller and dr good doctor dr miller and dr good um they're
033not here tonight but i do feel like john cena both deserve a shout out they have um given so much to the dessert dr fine yay i'm so glad i'm so glad to have you as part of the team your energy and what you're going to bring leading us forward i'm so grateful for so that's to the that's to the um the education community oh and i almost like skipped [Music] piece of blessings as you continue to move forward wise decisions but as you always do with your heart and your conscience and i know that we're in good i know that we're in good hands john it's been such a pleasure it's been such a pleasure um it's been such a pleasure oh mike and melissa yay melissa's not here tonight but also to recognize
034the time that we spent together and service that you guys have given um but i have to pause for just a minute and say to marley um i don't i don't think maybe i won't say tomorrow maybe i'll say it to the community at large i don't think that our community can really ever appreciate what you have given to this district um i i only feel like i like even have like like sometimes like i'm just like one way like i'm like oh my gosh like you did that too like do anything like i think and i'm so grateful for the leadership i think that she provided us during so many forget the clothing part of it the transitions that we had and the stability that we needed as we changed leadership um i feel
035like you were one of the constants that kind of leveled level the ship and so i'm so i'm so grateful to you for that and again this is the community i just really feel like they need to hear that i think you've done this so what did john say the the stupid word hall of fame i could not i could not agree with that anymore nothing that's really that's really true um okay so to like wrap it up i wanted to say to the community and to the students again thank you for challenging us for asking us the hard questions um for making us consider and reconsider and turn problems and situations over and look at them all from all angles so i think that engagement is important part of the process and i thank
036you of this to the students the parents the community who have done that um i've grown in so many ways that i didn't even know i could grow okay so um it's my family they're gone and they went home but i have to give a shout out to my sons who i feel like have given a lot to my husband who has been super super supportive during quite quite the experience and i look forward very much to it's been an honor and privilege to serve and focus my attention on all the students in fact sleep but i'm really looking forward to taking that attention and turning it on my students um especially as they're getting ready to like leave the nest i feel like i'm gonna like you know hone in on them for just
037a little bit before they're grown and gone um and then finally i just want to like circle it back to the students um because it starts with you it ends with you i hope that to all our students in bexley school i hope that you felt supported and heard i hope that you feel smarter stronger faster more balanced and happier than you did or i hope that those are all things that you have felt coming from us okay so that's my that's my words um i do have to say that i started with a quote and i'm gonna end with a quote [Music] when i think about my service i hear like the theme's not like the musical good you're like wicked the wicked some of the songs are wicked have like been running through
038my head i've been changed for good but i actually chose as my final message on something i want to read it's from wicked it says i have heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason bringing something we must learn and we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them and we help them in return well i don't know if i believe that's true but i know i am today because i knew you thanks to all of you that's to all of you as for our students for our community i have grown and changed in so many ways i hope i hope that you feel like [Music] the amount of growth that i have had i hope that you that have felt in the community as
039well okay that's it thank you all right i got a lot of emotion for everybody listening um but i appreciate your patience because [Music] so that being said i know that um [Music] thank you just before we get started just a another thank you um we've all had an opportunity to say our thanks and our our praises and it's never gonna be enough but it's been an absolute honor to serve with the three of you and the five of you collectively um i am so thankful for your grace your patience your understanding and your trust and i can't imagine having started this journey with anyone else so i'm really thankful i hope you understand the impact of this group of the foundation and the legacy that you've left and the exciting journey that's ahead is
040a reflection of the work that you've all done individually and collectively your love passion commitment but probably most importantly a couple of you spoke to this your trust and your respect the way you carry business the way you operate on a daily basis is something that i will take as i move through this journey and it will put you all into the board of education hall of fame but thank you words are not enough but the impact of the people you have come across is uh evident and i'm thankful to have walked alongside of you for the short time that i have and i hope we all remain close as we move forward so thank you a couple of other things uh just before i start some of the comments on the agenda winter sports
041is gearing up we've got incredible action happening i want to give a quick shout out to eli goldberger our athletic director our coaches our student athletes our families our athletic department it is quite a juggling act and i'm so thankful for that group it gets our our students uh to shine and uh i've enjoyed watching them do so as we started the early winter months also congratulations to many of our student performances not to mention uh diane goodney is here our seventh grade bexley bella voce performed earlier for our board of education which was awesome unbelievable that is why we do it we get to watch our students do their thing led by amazing magicians and staff members that are dedicated and give extra time they hit a home run and i love watching our
042students perform so thank you but also the other students that we've been able to watch over the past month on stage and clubs doing amazing amazing work so we're thankful for that also big shout out to dr williams uh harley and our nurses for hosting a vaccination clinic for our five to 11 year olds last month our second doses are this thursday evening that's a big deal that's an important step to the work that we're doing uh it was quite a an experience to watch that process and to watch our students fight through the agony and the pain the trauma what the nurses and the adults that were there that evening was was really impressive and i'm thankful that we have folks like that that can do that work and then lastly i think it's
043important that we take a moment to acknowledge the horrific tragedy that happened on november 30th at oxford high school in michigan as a parent myself i understand the heightened worry and stress that comes alongside the grief we feel for families experiencing an unimaginable loss at bexley city schools we continue to prioritize the safety and health of our students and our staff members our approach to safety is multi-pronged all of our buildings have recently been outfitted with security upgrades and we continue to do so students and staff engage in regular safety drills and we are fortunate to have a close partnership with our local police department last but certainly not least it is our ongoing commitment to social emotional learning and providing professional counselors at each of our buildings it is critically important we continue to
044ensure all of our students feel safe and supported and learn life skills to manage emotions such as stress disappointment and anger in healthy ways so that'll take me to my first bit of business the superintendence committee [Music] our legendary treasurer kyle smith and i both established the committees for the year we have shared our committees with our current board members are newly elected board members and our board members will serve on these committees and those those board members that will be assigned to those committees will be determined at the january organizational meeting you see the committees that are listed on the screen there's two uh pages of those we greatly appreciate the work and effort that goes into these committees as they're a vital part of who we are and what we do so open
045the discussion if there's any questions i'll move into our exciting athletic facilities update this is really exciting work that uh again i want to thank uh harley williams eli goldberger john eichenberry kyle smith this this work has been really exciting to watch to see it develop and grow since the last board meeting we've met again with the jewish community center about the expansion and improvement of athletic facilities on their property we are now at the phase of beginning to put design and terms into print we will also expand the working groups and involve more individuals from our board of education our boosters and our coaches we have obtained legal counsel who specializes in this work to guide us and to be clear we would improve upon their property that they would continue to own and
046manage but we would have the rights to usage in time we understand and recognize that they would use these fields for their own programming and that is no different than the other public entities that use our facilities during off hours we believe the details such as these are easy to come to terms with and believe the jcc to be tremendous partners as we travel down this path we are grateful for this opportunity and relationship and we hope to share more details with the board of education very soon and i'm happy to open it up for discussion thank you i would just say that i'm very appreciative of that work and i'm looking forward to seeing what you can do and i i also want to acknowledge the members on jccc who are also bestly parents
047i think they they have helped commission the vision of that plan and i appreciate their their efforts yeah i would agree they they've been fantastic wonderful to work with i think we both have a vision that benefits each group and a community as a whole so i'm excited to see where it takes us [Music] i'll move to uh the final bit of information on my agenda which is a just a quick brief covet update [Music] we've had a few questions from community members and folks within the district about when vexi will look at eliminating mass during and after school hours we want to remind everyone that the new math to stay and test to play quarantine guidance that we discussed last month was about keeping kids in school and was never intended to eliminate masks
048franklin county public health advises that we need to lower our seven day case rates to a sustained four-week level below 50 per 100 000 currently the franklin county seven day case rate is 314 per 100 000 which is a 57 increase from last week this keeps our community transmission at a high incidence level in fact our county case rates have been going up the last several weeks after a steady decline in october even more concerning dr heider with the college of public health at the ohio state university who shares the cat's data with us each week has observed a rapid doubling of covet 19 positive cases across school districts in franklin county after the recent holiday break is compared to before the break this trend is not specific to any one district as it is
049happening among all districts at the same time bexley is not immune to this data as we have seen 20 of our total elementary cases for the year have occurred over the past two weeks to combat these numbers health officials continue to encourage eligible folks to get vaccinated in addition to universal masking additionally we met with our medical advisory team we had a great conversation lots of great debate around a possible off-ramp for masks and i greatly appreciate this group's insight and expertise with the information i currently have i am not recommending adjusting our current masking policy at this time we do know that vaccination rates are an important piece in driving our case rates down and it is critical that we continue to vaccinate eligible students to help us find this off ramp sooner i
050am proud of our district's ability to respond quickly and offer a vaccination clinic for our community as i mentioned earlier and as i said earlier our second doses are scheduled for this thursday evening we will continue to observe vaccination and case rates work with our local health officials and watch team as we discuss opportunities to update this recommendation including masking requirements during extracurricular activities after school hours i'm open to conversation at this time as well [Music] thank you sorry to have one question dr fine with those increased in the um cases of our students have we seen any transmission or are we aware of transmission occurring in our buildings yeah i dr williams and i talked earlier this week i'm not aware of much transmission that's occurring in the buildings a lot of these cases
051are happening within the homes um and again like i mentioned this is happening around franklin county uh in lots of school districts but we're not seeing spread within the building that i'm aware of at this point alicia yes i actually just wanted to compliment dr williams and staff and the team on the vaccination clinic so we participated in it because it's convenient um and my anxiety was like 110 because there's kids everywhere they're getting shots they're screaming and staff is like calm as could be like they're smiling kids are like oh it's not that big a deal after they get the shot i just want to tell you i don't know how you guys do that every day i'm sure that's part of you know being in education or whatever but it was amazing to
052watch because as a parent i'm like trying to keep it together too um and i just couldn't believe how calm you all were like i mean littles little littles having meltdowns and they just were like just moving the line through it wasn't a long way um and we're coming back thursday before our concert so and she's like no big deal now so thank you i just wanted to tell you it was a it was a really good experience easier for everyone so just a bit of data on that we had 300 to register for the first dose and i think 275 showed up so a great turnout yeah um yeah i would just say you know none of us like the masks and i'm either have any discussion or i would be or if i
053were here here having a discussion about how to get them off um and i am mindful of your uh statements about the vaccination that if our my chief concern has been keeping as i think it has been for this administration as well and for to keep our students in our schools and healthy as can be so one key answer to that is vaccination and as the vaccination rates go up i think you'll feel more and more um able to release mass mandates knowing that people are protected from having vaccinations so thank you for the work um are very questions other questions for dr fun i i do have a quick question about vaccination um so you know typically as a parent when you submit um verification of vaccination are we required to submit verification of
054the cova vaccine so it is not we do we are not collecting that data because it's not a like required not required from the fda that's right but we will have information on vaccination rates in 43209 so yeah we're still working on that but we do know that 58.3 of franklin county is the vaccination rate i've [Music] uh i think they said everyone was every eligible person [Music] quite a bit and speaking of that is there is that vaccination rate is that taking into consideration yeah so as marley said we we are really interested in what we can do to offering up mass yeah right so we have been talking with our local health officials we've been talking about what does vaccination rate do in terms of your recommendations that's still a conversation that's happening
055i think it's a really important piece when you look at 43209 when you look at what we're doing there's a reason why we offered the vaccination clinic to our families i think it's an important piece of the puzzle that we need to take into consideration as we have those conversations yeah because i know that that was part of the discussion we've had for a long time is you know that kids five through eleven couldn't get it now it's available and at what point is that off ramp to where you can have the vaccine if you choose not to do it at a certain point where does that come into the program and i think as you start to look at some of these locations where we can start looking at possible offerings sooner than later
056looking at extracurricular activities following ohio high school athletics and putting into consideration the vaccination rate okay thank you dr williams i'm sorry what you did um so i can repeat it for the record the vaccination rate of 43209 i'm looking at right now it's 86 with actually city school district 86 from bexley [Music] or it is [Music] all right thank you very much for that uh conversation and i wish you all the best of luck going forward [Music] thank you okay so um we are looking to i'm going to break out our boats a little bit tonight just so we have the ability to discuss a few of our [Music] approve items three be like boy through that like frank so that's it thank you um any discussion did we have i think we were
057gonna on e is this [Music] yeah the field trip thing but um i appreciate all the details in the request that like the timeline and all the things that i know this was scheduled for [Music] okay so this has been a long time coming i'm glad you'll be able to participate in that now [Music] um any questions for um [Music] yes mr bardo yes miss powers yes yes thank you thank you for coming to this one yeah thank you very much [Music] and for your hard work this is your bonuses that's not easy i'm sure because you're going to figure out just and diane i think i think you're here for the other field trip yeah that's representation because i think uh yeah representing the workforce orchestra stephen out there yes okay stephen couldn't be
058here so thank you for filling in in it's wonderful that we can start approving these and reapproving them and having that patience but it's wonderful that the students can get back to that so thank you both no please i know you probably are thrilled to stay that you are i'd really like to we support all the work that you've done thank you thank you very much um all right so moving on our work policies um [Music] um i'll just comment that you'll notice that under g we only have one having one reading of the regulations going forward so that's what you'll see here they most are come from osba are vetted by our authorities and our enforcer administrations and then give us to the policy committees to have looked through as far as the first
059readings are concerned those are just follow-ups from the larger groups that we had that we needed to get more information on us or we could bring first reading so that's why you see this here tonight are there any questions or comments about three shade i just had a question and this maybe goes back a little ways when we talked about policy and this is when dr miller started are we am i missing or do we approve regulations so that's a change thank you for pointing that out um in previous administrations we had included um board approval of regulations and in discussion with dr bond leadership he felt that um and the policy committee agreed that there are often times things and regulations where that's more where the rubber hits the road yeah um and so
060we felt that it was appropriate to have for approval of some of those items okay and i think i think what the discussion that we had probably four three four or five years ago was some of the regulations are we want to give our administrators discretion of how to implement our policy [Music] if this happens you do this and this happens we don't want to get too much into that business but there are certain regulations that you feel more comfortable having to prove because it kind of dovetails into the policy as opposed to like how it's implemented correct okay i just wanted to make sure that i thought that was happening but again i think it's important and i think it's with our administrators we want to give them that discretion on on a number
061of things so they have the ability to could use their background and their knowledge and their insight into even specific situations of how to implement a policy correctly so absolutely let me just add to that that um when the policy committee was reviewing these regulations it was the administrators who were walking us through and we asked questions and they told us and so it it's a great process the way you've described it john and that's i think part of why we only have to do one reading is that it's not really a war driven but it's good for the poor to relate to the policies yes i think you failed forward to not having two attorneys on the policy so all right we have a motion a second coke through all right so i'd like
062to take a motion to approve item jury which is the bulk of our policies that we have all seen last week during last month these are the second readings and includes our new voter policy e-a-e or a-e-a equivalent [Music] thank you okay any comments or questions around three [Music] uh yes uh ms snowden uh we wanted to take an opportunity to make a few remarks ahead of this vote um particularly we know we're voting for several policies here but one particular call out is our dei policy which we have aptly named equity and education the board of education has been engaged in the work i've wrote this down to so what has been engaged in the work of creating an educational experience for our students and families for nearly 10 years and that work while
063at times slow has been a true discovery of our limits our beliefs our core values and aspirations for our district marley snowden john garden varno mike dennison melissa lacroix michelle minion victoria powers and myself have all been engaged in many forms behind the scenes and sometimes very much on the front lines of asking our teachers administration and community members to consider a different lens the job of a good board of education is to draft and adopt policy that is broad enough to encompass that which we have not thought of is not so restrictive that it prevents the nimbleness that is required when dealing with human beings their growth and challenging deeply help norms however most importantly drafting and adopting policy that is sound sustainable attainable and yes aspirational this policy is not performative by any
064means and that was intentional the board holds the superintendent accountable to develop all plans related to student growth and success through the administrative and teaching communities through regular and timely reporting and benchmarking the board reviews the success of the plan makes recommendations provides guidance while relaying our expectations of not only the five of us but also the community when appropriate so um i want to add that i'm grateful that our equity and education policy is up for second reading this evening i want to thank miss miss ms mitchell and mr braxton for their help in preparing this draft the draft was circulated to members of the anti-racism task force policy subcommittee the bestly anti-racism project led by mexico students and graduates the bexson minority parent alliance that's it pride bexley dei and the bexley special
065ed pto and also was circulated in a number of communications that went out from the school over the last month or so i very much appreciate the input that we've received i've shared all the input that came in with our board members so everybody has seen that there was some significant input that came in from bexley anti-racism project students as well as other people in the committee and based on that input we've made some revisions to the policy that alicia and i talked through and i want to walk through those very quickly i had the privilege of visiting the students on the bexley arp group on friday in their meeting and walk them through these changes so that they would understand the relationship of their comments to the changes that we ultimately made to the
066draft that is being considered tonight not all of these comments came from those students these are the comments that came from these changes are informed by the comments that came from the entire community and all those groups so um students said that some of this is vague and you know i think alicia's comments have sort of gone to that that sometimes policy in its best form leaves room for flexible interpretation and as john was pointing out keeps the board out of the work that is not in our lane it sets priorities but it does not give all of the detail that's the job of the superintendent and his team in preparing a plan which is what this policy calls for ethnicity was a word that some of the students suggested that we add into the
067policy and so that has been added in the list of qualities that we want to support for each and every one of our students the students had a comment about language that we included in the first draft it seemed a little lofty when alicia and i read through it again we thought that's a you know as alicia mentioned we are not wanting to be performative in this language and so we was really helpful to have that other lens and all the the lens that came through all the comments to think back about why is each and every one of these words in here what does it what did the words do and so we took out the words and free at the end which was a sentence that had come from the board's statement back
068in june so we changed that sentence there were comments about our definitional sections so what we did was we broke that section down a little bit and we added a definition of resources there were some comments about being very clear about resources and we had a parenthetical in the first draft so we beefed up the definitional section in the bullet points where we talk about the commitments that the board is looking to make and the commitments that we want to be responded to and the plans that the superintendent will provide to us not just this year but going forward we had started one of those bullet point points with a with the thought that the board wants the district to support [Music] multiple learning pathways um that would lead to lifelong success in order to
069meet the needs of each student two changes in that section one was to add the word actively at the beginning to sort of focus that this is not just a passive support but we need to actively support multiple learning pathways and we changed the land language a little bit to say that we want those pathways to widen access to educational opportunities and career success we got rid of the word lifelong and i think that was one of those lofty words that alicia and i agree that's we don't really feel that that was as meaningful we worked with language where we had talked about culturally relevant curricula and and programs and um with this was one of the students one of the comments that came from the students high quality and culturally relevant for each student
070so their question was who are you talking about who's whose relevance is this and so we revised that section a little bit to make that more clear um and finally we changed the language uh at the very end the last paragraph of this policy is the paragraph that announces or requires that the superintendent will prepare an annual draft and get us you know a plan for us to look at and that would need to be measurable and accountability and there were comments and questions along the way about what is the board's obligation in this so we added a little bit of language to make it clear that the board's obligation is to act on that to consider it annually so i really appreciated the opportunity to and i've skipped a couple things but the opportunity
071to meet with the students and get their to get their feedback and meet with them about the process that we're going through really grateful for all the comments that we got from our community for people who are engaged in this work in other areas very very helpful and i'm really grateful for all the work that has gone into this that we can be considering this policy tonight before this board has worked so hard on this so thank you and lastly uh for um and for our community we want you all to understand that this policy reflects work that the district has been engaging in it codifies that effort so that the education community can produce to those expectations it's one thing to always put it as a goal um equity in education in some form
072or other has been part of our superintendent's goals since dr johnson's time here it's been part of every superintendent search it's been part of every effort that we have made from administrator on down um but this codifies that um and so and clarification for our students because i understand some folks don't understand how the board of education works the policy is the board saying hey this is the expectation um so just some final comments i believe our board expects this policy to reflect the expectations of our district always not simply a moment of major social change in our world and communities again that was the reason for the language choices that we selected to go into this policy i believe the plans our administrative leaders engage in adopt and execute through this policy continue to
073shape part of who bestly is our hope for our cultural dna and what it means to be engaged equipped empowered and a champion our blueprint means that every child every family matters and to the best of our abilities we will work to ensure when they graduate from our halls they have experienced it it is my hope that we adopt this policy tonight as a board of education and again thank you deep thanks to all of our former board members and all of our community members have been part of getting us to this process and this journey i'm very very very proud of all of you i'm very proud to be part of this team thank um you there any other questions for comments about item 3i um i i just had a couple of things
074i wanted to know that i really appreciate and victoria touched on it's the definition section um because you know sometimes we sometimes twitter's for your wherever out else out there we can talk about definitions i think defining what we mean is important and not only in this policy but a lot of policies but especially here we talk about what equity means and and where it says that through policy programs and practices that each student which is a phrase that dr miller used a lot and i really like is provided for specifically targeted resources attention and support required to be differentiated social emotional and educational goals and that's important when you talk about definition of inequity we're not talking about ultimate outcomes we're talking about we're a small enough in a very fortunate district to be
075able to target and say we know that this is what is best for our students and equity being defined in that sense really is helpful for for i think everyone and especially when we talk about um equitable access to construction curriculum and support equitable opportunities access widen access to educational opportunities ensure equitable opportunities for all students to co-curricular extracurricular activities which a lot of times especially being on the athletic board there are there are a number of students and i was one of those students in high school is one of the things that really focuses you if you're an athletics or a co-curricular you know that you have to perform in the class and you have these opportunities as