Sycamore Schools Board of Education Meeting June 4, 2025

001The beginning of each meeting, we like to go through our district's mission and our vision. Our mission is to create a culture of academic excellence through inclusive and innovative learning opportunities for the whole child. And our vision is to empower all learners to reach their full potential in a globally competitive world. And I please get a motion and a second for the approval of the agenda. Second. Thank you, Dr. Steager, for your motion. Thank you, Dr. James, for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. Dr. Seager, I. Dr. James, hi. Mr. Balance, hi. Mr. Harris, I. Mrs. Bitter, I can I please get a motion and a second for the approval of the minutes. So moved. Second. Thank you, Dr. Steer, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Harris, for your second. Mrs. Logan, anyone

002have any Mrs. Logan, please call the RO. Dr. Seager, hold on one second. Mr. Bal, did you have a question? I was just going to make a comment that I'm going to abstain just because I was not at the special board meeting. Sorry. Sorry. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. I You were at the other meeting. There's two two meetings. Should we break it into two? We're small. Just keep it. Mr. Harris, I'm going to abstain as well. not present for the board meeting and Dr. James wasn't there for one of the meetings. I understand correct. So I don't need to do that too separate. Going too separate. Yeah. Separate. But I also want to bring up and I know you all do what you feel is necessary. But you don't have to abstain when you're

003not. I just I didn't I haven't seen a video of the May 27th meeting. I don't I have no idea what was talking. It was a special meeting. We don't video this. I know. So that's okay. So I will I will change my vote to uh I Dr. James. Mrs. Bitter. Okay. So the next very important part of our meeting this morning is the student spotlight. We have Kate Jensen, power of the f pen, first place at state. Have Mrs. Shump tell you a little bit about what that means. And obviously we always like to recognize state champions. So little different state champion. So wonderful. So, um, I'm gonna lean into Mrs. Lawson, who is a middle school English teacher, because I know she's super excited. It's a really big deal, everyone. It is a

004big deal. We're so proud. So, um, Kate is a seventh grade student with us. Um, she does a lot. I learned this morning she not only does, um, power the pen, but she's also involved in cross country track, she was in Newsies, and, um, she's one of our sources of strength leaders. So, she's a leader across our building in a lot of different ways. She actually designed um a really cool campaign called the kindness campaign that hit our school at the end of the school year. Um she had every single student um write down an act of kindness that they received and then her and her other leaders created a chain and they were able to hang it on the balcony overseeing our cafeteria. So it speaks testaments to why she's here, right? She's super

005involved and engaged and we're just really proud of her. And so, um, Power of the Pen is a competition for seventh and eighth grade students, um, that is led by our English teacher, Rebecca Huff. Um, what they do is they take six seventh graders, six to eighth graders, and they put them through a series of competitions. So, our region, I'm sorry, our district is comprised of 22 junior highs or middle schools locally. Um, Kate did really well at that competition. Usually about 50% of those students make it to regionals. So our um group moved on to regionals, K being one of them. Um we went through the same process. So when they're at these competitions, it's a series of three rounds. Um they're each timed and they're given a prompt and they have to write

006on demand in a creative writing style. So it's meant to engage students in learning the creative writing process. They're all given feedback um specific feedback on their writing. So it's growing them as writers. introducing them to authors. Um Kate and another student, two other students were selected to move of that top 20% in the region into the state competition. And as Megan knows, that is a really really big deal. Um so Kate um went to Ashlin University for two days. She got to stay on the university campus. She was um greeted by a keynote author. So, there is a best-selling um young adult novelist um who has also won Power of the Pen in the past as a state finalist. Um and so she got to meet him and hear from him. Um and so

007she was inspired by these authors. Um Kate made it. I have um the numbers here. So there were 200 writers at the state competition. Kate was only one of 54 students in the state of Ohio who got to move into the final round. And for this round, she only had 30 minutes to write. Do you want to tell them the title of your final piece? Uh, it's the Terrible Truth. The Terrible Truth. Yeah. Kate um typed up all of her pieces that she received back from state. I shared them with you, Mrs. Lawson, and I know that you're excited to look at them. Um, but there was a disclaimer at the bottom which I thought was perfect for a seventh grader. It said, "These stories contain a lot of tragedy and death. However, that's not

008reflective of my life." So, the terrible truth is this beautifully written story um about um a note that she found from her mother and it tells this um very descriptive writing about um a tragedy that her mother was involved in and that impacted the character's life. And so she had that 30 minutes and it brought her to um first place in the state of Ohio for powers of patent. So, we're super super proud of want to add anything that I've missed. You so beautifully captured it, but I just think uh writing is such an incredibly important skill and so um you're serving as a beacon of hope for all of us and for the future, but just to be able to demonstrate the incredible skills that um we're working on here in Sycamore. Thank you

009for representing us so well. Thank you for sharing your gifts um with our community. I'm just excited to continue to see you flourish. So, and is there anything fun you're going to do this summer? Do you make space for fun in addition to all that you do? Yes. What do you have planned this summer? Um I'm going to be visiting family and stuff. So, so Kate, we don't let our state champions get out of the room without a small gift. Okay. So, um we thought it was appropriate. We thought it was an appropriate gift based on what we heard. So, you can open it if you would. Oh, sorry. A really nice journal. Um, and there's one other thing in there. And of course, a really nice congratulations. So proud of you. And not only

010because of winning a competition, but it's the value that you add to the junior high and to our district every single day. Like what I heard Mrs. Shunk say about you is it it's bigger than just like participating in competition. Like you're trying to make a real impact on this world. We need more people like you uh in this world and it would be a better place, right? So keep doing good things. Keep bringing ideas to Mrs. Young. Bring ideas to me. bring ideas to the high school when you go there. Like we'd love that. So, um, keep working hard, keep making an impact, keep making change happen. So, thank you. Congratulations. Hey, will you do one other thing for us? Will you introduce the people that support you? like introduce all those great people

011that came with you. Well, this is my dad, Derek Jensen. Um, Sycamore grad. I recognize it when he walked in. Yep. My grandma and Jensen, grandmother of five grads. My brother Torren Jensen, he's um going to attend E3 next year. This is my mom. to this had two grads last year. Thank you. Mind if before public participation I saw Mr. Fang not aware he was going to be here. So just to introduce him and keep it later on the agenda so they could sit through. Yeah, absolutely. So Mr. Fangman, if you weren't listening, not we were just kind of cutting into the agenda a little bit if you don't mind standing up letting the board and team kind of see who you are. Okay. So Mr. Fangman is later on the agenda. um he is

012the recommended candidate for um the vacant one of the vacant assistant principal positions at the high school and uh very excited to welcome him to the team. Um he's very familiar working with Mr. Pota because he spent last year working with Mr. Potam at West Claremont High School. Um so it'll be a nice smooth transition for him and um the new leadership and also being there to support our students. And what we heard throughout the interview process about Mr. Fangglin is that ability to connect with students. Some of the ideas that he came up with to um allow students to kind of have their voice to be heard um in the high school at West Claremont. And it definitely resonated with our team uh of what we were looking for. And the other thing we

013heard about Mr. Fangman is he is a grinder. He's willing to get in there and kind of do the dirty work. And sometimes you need people on the team to do that kind of work doing discipline and doing you know security monitoring and kind of all those different building operations items. So um look forward to hopefully Mr. Fangman joining our team pending board approval but um I don't know if you wanted to say anything about yourself or about um the opportunity. Give you give you a couple seconds here. No, I'm just I'm just really excited and really honored to be able to join this community. Uh my wife was a teacher in the Blue Ash and Maple for eight years. So, uh driving up on this part of the campus. I've been up here a

014couple times, but uh no, I'm just really excited and I'm ready to get to work and I wish I could start tomorrow. You know, obviously pending approval, but um you know, you always want to be in a place like hear great things about it. It's definitely a place you want to go and a place you want to stay. So, I'm excited for the opportunity to to come here. Thank you. Well, we'll tell you that when we vote. I don't want to be premature. Okay. Next item on the agenda is the participation. I know we had Mrs. Logan, you said we had a public participation for an agenda item. So, wait till the agenda. We're going to wait for the agenda item for that, right? But do we have anything for non-aggenda? I do not have

015a request for non-aggenda. All right. Thank you. All right. We will move on to um discussion of policy first read. Sure. So, um this is IGBA. Um this is a followup policy um that's been in the books, but we had to adopt it or at least bring it to you following um the resolution you approved at the last meeting to officially adopt the Ohio Operating Standards for the Education of Children with Disabilities. And I won't go back into why we had to redo that, but we redid it. Um, and now this policy is the first read that basically says we were going to adopt that resolution. Um, and so it's really nothing to discuss other than it's just sequential events of getting that done. Okay. Um, the other thing I would like to mention, if

016it's appropriate at this time, is that um, I I know we had a discussion in regards to bringing Neiola in for a presentation and we've been very active and busy. I did talk to um the representative from Niola and he is able to be here for the next um board meeting if the board is um okay with us adding that to the agenda. Um obviously I won't commit anything until I hear from you all but I just wanted to mention that he can be at that morning meeting um to discuss with the board. Okay. Can you remind us the exact date of the next meeting? June 25th. Yep. Is everybody planning on being here? Because I think that's important that everybody. I will be here. I will not be here for the next one. I

017will not be at the live one either. Mr. You're gonna have to run the Okay. We will all be here for the 25th. So that was Okay. Fantastic. Thank you. I will let him know and then um I'll hold I I can talk with Mr. Lewis and Miss Logan about it as well, but we can hold him the 15 20 minute presentation, whatever we feel is appropriate. Will he be here? Will he be here in person or will be He will be here in person. I requested that he be here and to engage in any questions. Um, and then we can discuss too if we feel it's appropriate to um have a contract on that agenda or wait or whatever at that point. But I just wanted to solidify the fact that he come and

018present. And then this is just a question that maybe you can tell us the answer to now or later. Sure. If we if there was an if there was a possibility that we were to move to Niola, do we are we still members of the board association? So we still get like we still have all the information that they That's a that's a really good question. I think actually Dr. Stagger kind of brought that up in our last policy meeting as well. I think it's really important to note that um Niola and OSBA are two very completely different organizations and so just because we would take policy away from OSBA if that was decision we still highly engage with OSBA for all of our training all the things policy is really just an add-on part

019that we get from OSBA that they do um so it our relationship with OSBA our training and all that stuff would not change we would just be basically doing policy through a different organization Okay. Yep. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Know that. So, I just want to reiterate with this policy so that the public is aware this is coming from some legislation that we had to make sure that we're following the legislation. It's not that we created a new policy. We are following what the Ohio State Legislature requires us to do. So, it's a very indepth policy. If you want to read it, those want to Ohio operating standards for education of children with disabilities. Right. All right. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Can I please get a motion and a second for second read approval

020of policy? So moved. Second. Thank you, Mr. Balon, for your motion. Thank you, Dr. Steer, for your second. All right. So, here these are multiple. We went through first read on these already, but I wanted to just Does anyone have any? These are also Could you please just remind the board and the public? These are also required changes, right? Correct. Yeah, these meaning legally required by the legislature in Ohio that we correct. They were all legislative updates and changes. They all went through our policy committee. Um and I believe if my memory serves me right, I think IDBLA was also um reviewed by legal as well. Um, so there's been a lot of touch points with these policies and we're excited to get to the finish line on a few of them if possible. Does

021anyone have any questions on that? Just a reminder, it has been a process for everyone involved with the policy and the background work that Mr. Joe has done is a lot of that. So, thank you. Yep. You're very welcome. Okay. Uh, can I please Mrs. Logan, please call the role. Mr. Valent. Dr. Stagger. Hi. Mr. Harris. Hi. Dr. James. Hi. Mrs. Bitter. I. Could I please get a motion and a second for administrative leadership coaching services, Kelly Wagner? So moved. Second. Thank you, Dr. Steer, for your motion. Thank you, Mr. Balon, for your second. It was just two additional people that um she picked up during this past school year that needed to be accounted for. Okay. Thank you. Logan, please call the role. Dr. Seager, hi. Mr. Balant, hi. Mr. Harris, hi. Dr. James,

022hi. Mrs. Bidder. Mr. Lewis. Just a couple of quick ones. Uh, our, as I've said before, our women's sports are something to watch um and going forward in the future. Our women's lacrosse team uh beat Kings 18-7 to make it to the state final four. Um so they went to the state final four last night. Unfortunately they were up against the number two team in the state upper Arlington and lost 15 to four. But um great season to make it to the state semiis and um so proud of all the young women on the team. They they really bonded and formed a great team environment and I think that's beyond the the winning we're most proud of uh you know that bond and that building. Um we had state qualifiers and track. Um Isa Pasha

023for the discus, Sam Clyde for the pole vault, and Amarier Troder for the 800 meters. So they're all going to be at the state track meet this week. Is that this weekend? I think so. Um and then summer school is underway. So amazing that school ends and here we're already into summer school. So good things are happening. Great. Can I please get a motion and a second for the personnel consent agenda? Second. Thank you, Mr. Harris, for your motion. Thank you, Dr. Steer, for your second. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. Mr. Harris, I Dr. Steer, I Mr. Valent, I Dr. James, hi. Mrs. Bitter, I Mr. Bangman, welcome to Sycamore School. Right. Can I please can I please get a motion a second to accept donations? So move. Second. Thank you Dr. Stiger for

024your motion. Thank you Dr. James for your second. There's a just every if you people don't actually click in there's every time we accept donations there's a lot of money that's coming in from generous donations from people. So I just want everyone to understand that such person is a lot of Thank you to everybody. Thank you. Yes, absolutely. Mrs. Logan, please call the role. Dr. Steager, I. Dr. James, hi. Mr. Ballot, I. Mr. Harris, I. Mrs. Bidder, I Okay, other board business. Uh, we're going to discuss progress on resolution actions. Progress on the resolution. Um, Mr. Lewis, I know he has talked about word policy. So, I didn't send it to you yet because I hadn't Mr. Love and I got it pretty late. Um, Mr. Lampy reviewed uh policy KC um and sent some

025recommendations. So, just following our process, I'm assuming that Mr. Level want to take that to policy committee. um happy to send it to the entire board for review um just to see his I mean he basically struck through the entire AC and pretty much rewrote it um based on recent um issues that we've had with policy AC and so um I think the next best step would be happy to send it to all of you but send it through the policy committee and let them work through that policy and see if they're in agreement with those changes. Okay. We and we can you remind us what policy AC is. So yeah, it's our non-discrimination policy. So there's AC and there's ACR. AC is the policy. ACR is the regulations around it. So basically the operational

026standpoint of how we go about our business when a complaint's being filed, that kind of stuff. Um but I I I will tell the board that you know the policy committee obviously is an avenue, but the policy committee is just an arm of the board to wrestle with the ongoing policies. there's always the ability to have that policy discussion at the board level for if there's specific policies. So, um whatever you all feel is appropriate with that on that one, we would want to do that because that's the non-discrimination um policy, right? And it's the complaint process. So, when people if someone was feeling like they were if they felt like they were being discriminated, be the process that they would follow. So, it's a public facing policy. I mean I mean all of them

027are public facing but this one is definitely because this is how if an employee or if a a person who lives in the community a parent anyone felt like they needed to make a complaint to Sycamore this is the process that they would house I think we should do it as a board I mean we would definitely send us the changes and I think that's something we should talk about and I think it should be done under other board business under this right do you all agree with that or another or do you want to put it under superintendence or how do you feel like that would be the best place all right from a legal standoint point is is there any Mrs. slogan. Is there any reason it can't be under other board business

028or should we just be consistent with what we normally do? And I don't think it matters. Put it on as like first first read first read. You can always do multi. You can do a first read, second read, third read. It doesn't I guess the reason why I'm bringing it up is because this is part of our resolution to approve certain actions to address the community regarding or regarding these issues, right? I mean, this is part of that. Board policy is one of the most important jobs that you do. I think it should be up your all right and I think it shows our commitment to talking about these issues under this. Okay. I mean it can be both making clearly. Just to reiterate what Mr. Level just said, we can do multiple readings. It

029doesn't have to be first and second. If we feel like we need to keep discussing things like we've done before brought it into committee, out of committee, back and forth, we can just do it publicly multiple times. So, okay. And our commitment was to have that review done by June 25th. Yeah. And here we are June 3rd and it's or June 4th and it's finished. So yeah, we can go back and what I'll do is I'll redline it against the current policy. It's a big literally the red line is everything. Okay. Okay. I saw it. I just didn't see red line. But if it's already done, then we can just send that and then put it on the agenda and then Yeah, we'll get it. Since you're all going to be here the 25th, that'd

030be a good time for a first read. And then the sec the same thing for the 25th, I'm thinking for the racial sensitivity training or number two. I believe that's uh already been taken care of and discussed and we have a plan. Okay. With her representatives. Okay. And then um for number three, does anyone have any updates for themselves or would you like me to go through what we for number three endorsement of the self-referral process? Want to update? I think you you can walk through. Okay, I'll walk us through it. So essentially what we had originally talked about in one of the meetings was possibly doing some type of like some type of review of ourselves to try to get the idea was to get an opinion letter an advisory opinion letter from the

031Ohio Ethics Commission. We are unable to do that. We we cannot do that. It's not possible. So what has to happen is if you would like individually and this would be a confidential matter per board member. So it's not a collective matter. So if you and if you do it it's going to be confidential on your end. Um you may and we have a letter um describing that um dated well it doesn't really matter. I'll forward it to you that says that if you want to do it, you have to go through um and do this on your own through the Ohio Ethics Commission and it would be a confidential matter if you feel like that's what you need to do in order to demonstrate that you um feel like you have an ethics concern

032for yourself. So, Mrs. Ber, if there's a finding, does that still remain confidential or how does that work? It says that if the commission finds there's a violation of law um the referral will remain confidential if the prosecutor fails to act on the referral within 90 days. And then the other thing to know is that we were given so we talked about investigating it ourselves and although we didn't have an investigation we had our board counsel look at it who said that they did not feel that there was a violation. So there's that. So if we were to look at it from that angle, doing our own investigation of our own selves through our board counsel, then we have advice that we were not in violation of that. So if you so choose in your

033own confidential private matter, you may do that or you can call them and you can ask them. It doesn't mean that they're going to do anything, but you can ask yourself and that would eat under your own process. Okay? And then we talked about number four, encouraging transparency and campaign contributions. Once again, if you go to the Hamilton County Board of Elections, you can find every single sheet that exist, every single donation that you have have received and every contribution that you have given out. Um, it is all there. So, I'm just saying that once again, public can find that. Um, we were going to find out if it was allowable for us to put it on a school district website because typically you cannot mix campaigning with board business. It's actually illegal and you

034can get prosecuted for it. So, so we we do have an update from legal. It there's not a problem with putting a link on our web page. Okay. And we could do that on the board of education page. Okay. um under campaign transparency or whatever title we would want to give. Okay. And you would just provide the link and people could click there and go to the Hamilton County site and then do their search and all of their stuff is trans I mean it's pretty easily access do a PDF could that's not a problem but that would be individually if you would want to do that PDF and we could put that on the website. Personally, I'm going to do a PDF because I think that not everyone's going to understand what things mean when

035they look at what's an inind donation versus a monetary donation. So, I'm personally going to make a statement um and then have the link in that to So, you're going to add a link to the website and I'm going to put a PDF. He's going to do both. We'll we'll put the link on there for all of you. Okay. Um, but if you so choose individually to have to also attach a PDF, we can do that on the website as well. Okay. But that's up to each of you individually. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. All right. That sounds good. And I think that um and we should send those to you Jenny or Christian. Send them to me and then I'm going to work with Ashley. Ashley is working on um updating the website and so

036I'll work with her on the best way to put it on there. But if you send me the document Thank you. All right. Did I miss anything? Um good. Yeah, I think that that is really important too because it also would it isn't just for the current board members. It would be for future board members as well. So we would be setting a precedent to say here show us I mean we it already is transparent. I mean it is if you want to know who donated to anyone's campaign you can go online and find out but I do think it's good to be able to encourage we only can encourage board members to do it obviously but for any future board member for us to be able to see for the public to be able

037to look at that I think is really helpful. All right. Um Mrs. slogan. Just a point of clarification. I just want to make sure I want to make sure we protect this board. Like they're really they can't really commit a future board to doing this, right? That is correct. Okay. We can just make your recommendations. I think you're right. Like just to make sure it's clear that it's a recommended action but not a and we can't make a candidate the board. Yeah. Put it on our if you get on the board, we can't make you. But at this at least the five of us are encouraging that. That's what we in our resolution. I mean it might be that a future board gets on there and says we're not going to do that but have

038that right. Okay. So then can I please get a motion and a second to approve word official statement. Thank you Dr. Seager for your motion. Thank you Dr. Bes for your second. Let's discuss. Does anyone have any discussions? pages on that second sentence. Uh I would end it after the word transparency sentence I believe. Okay. Does anyone have any challenges to that? Anybody? Everybody okay with that? I'm okay with that. Yep. I'd be okay with that. Okay. any other changes question of why you know we've seen different statements I was not at the last meeting the first statement that I saw um out of the last meeting clearly had um summary of findings that was included from the report in our statement uh my question is why did we remove the summary of findings we

039did not remove the summary findings that was not that was not in the statement. That was a that was a mistake that was not supposed to be in there. I would like to see a summary of findings included in that mistake. I I don't think it's relevant to this particular matter and this particular issue. I think it's it muddies the water and makes it it doesn't it doesn't go together with this statement. I agree. That's better. I, you know, I I have trouble with this statement. Um, I understand the the and support the need to make a statement. Um, but I think we're looking at one important but section of the report. Um, and I think there's a lot more to this report, including what those summary findings are. And I want to be very

040clear, you know, making any allegations of race-based comments is is concerning, but it's also concerning to look at one piece of a report and not the whole report. I personally believe that this statement of the board needs to be a much higher level statement talking about um how the board and the administration should work uh together. I believe that strongly believe that dis any disparaging comments to anybody about anybody on our entire team are inappropriate. Um I would like to see this this statement talk about um high performing teams built around trust and how um making statements about anyone breaks down and erodess the trust and the function of the board and the administration. I think it needs to be higher level to talk about professionalism, integrity and working together. Um and you know that's

041where I stand on making a statement does it does talk about professionalism and integrity healthy dialogue different perspectives thriving educational system leadership good faith professional standards commitment to transparency fairness respect for all members. Yeah, I really I just have really trouble with that next sentence of undermining the work of the board does not serve in the best interest, which I 100% agree with. I don't know that that's what this report says. I don't know that that's what was proven. I don't know that that's what these comments say. So, I struggle with some of these sentences in here. Um, I am in favor of making a statement, but I think that this is is really going down um into not necessarily how I read these. We just provided an actual screenshot from the report itself quoted

042exactly as it was stated with quotation marks. So, we didn't The way I the way that I read that statement is probably different than other people read the state. And it's a public record, so everyone will read it. So I I for one board member the way this statement is written um do not support this statement. I support a statement. I agree with we shouldn't be making comments about board members or administration. I agree with a lot of what's in here, but I I think there's things in here that I that I don't think I know there's things in here that I'm not going to put my name. Anybody else? Yes. changes. Would the public understand what you're what the statement is referring to? Um clearly I mean we understand it because we're very close

043to it. But if you read it from a standpoint of someone who doesn't know anything about Are you saying if we who say who respondent A is and who the board members are and who administrator F is? No, I think she's talking more about the context of the statement. I don't think she's talking about necessarily. I mean, that's where I am, too. I agree with Dr. James. I think sweeping it under the rug as a statement will do us no service. um because a lot of thought went into this and a lot of energy behind the scenes went into redactions for other people. So, two board members are willing to Yeah, I'm be out there as the public face of certain things. I'm not talking about sweeping it under norm. I I'm not talking about

044that at all. I'm just asking if you were to read this as a person who doesn't understand anything about this situation would this statement at clarity in people's mind as to what happened. Dr. James, I do not feel that it does. No, I think it does. And I think a lot of energy went into this discussion that went into this statement to it's been changed significantly since the first draft and we did this in a public session last week to change this. And I will reiterate that two of us, I am one of the people are willing to put ourselves out there to protect others. about what is it in the statement that you most disagree with you feel strongly about? I believe that should not that should not be in there should be changed.

045I believe that you're reading a statement without taking context of the rest of the report. Um, you know, I strongly believe that, you know, the summary of findings clearly says there's insufficient evidence to find by a prepundance of evidence that respondent A subjected to complaintant to unlawful discrimination or retaliation in violation of word policy. A there is insufficient evidence and it goes on to talk about that the respondent A subjected complainant to unlawful sexual harassment. insufficient evidence they that that there's any unlawful discrimination per board polic multiple board policies you know so I I I think that needs to be in there um and then you know I I still go back to that there this has not been proven all right so I mean we um are you saying Dr. Thank you for your

046Dr. James, are you saying that because the statement doesn't talk about the act the report itself, where the report came from, how the report was laid out, how it was released to the public because it's public record and that there's an accusation um that was made, slanderous accusations that were made, documents released. We show what that is. They show that the superintendent responded to an allegation that he had accumu accused members of the board as outright racism. There was an accusation made. He responded, which is what we're providing here. And then we as a board are making a statement to that what you're saying. We need to add that in there. Ly, I just that, you know, again, the superintendent's response, you know, I don't recall saying they were outright racist, which is in parenthesis

047to her or to anyone else, but it was a common comment. It does not say it was a common comment that they were outright racist. It says it was a common comment. There was a concern on the dis the district team that the superintendent and recommended administrator F and two had voted no. So, I understand from a personal standpoint why board members may want to be more in the weeds of this, but going back to what the report actually says, I can't support uh a lot of what's listed below this and I will remind you that there was a narrow scope on this looking at it through one policy and I can't say much more because we are in open session and I cannot discuss this any further. So I feel like he's currently unable

048to completely just talk. The accusation itself, it says in here is both baseless and harmful. The minutes of the board are clear evidence that the accusation is incorrect. One board member voted in favor of the candidate. The other board member cast their vote based solely on the candidates's qualifications and experience, not never on race. I'm okay and I'm okay with that sentence. The next paragraph I struggle with. Um I don't know why we strongly condemn this allegation. No, I'm okay with that part of it. The board understand criticisms comes with the role of being an election. I mean that doesn't to me even need to be in this. I would strike the entire the rest of the we strongly condemn the allegation. No, I would leave that in there. The board understands criticism comes with

049the role of being a board. I mean this is just I'm with Dr. James to try to have a concise statement with without a lot of things that aren't pointing back to what this investigation is. So, I would pick that. The rest of that's fair. It really has nothing to do with the statement and the report. It has to do with why the board would be making a statement though because board members um are stating that that making statements about board members as being racist for making decisions would be blatantly fa first of all, blatantly false, but they also undermine the board to be able to act effectively. And that's what that's going into. We're not a rubber stamp for decisions. We're supposed to ask questions. Part of our fiduciary duty. It's part of our

050why we were elected by the community, by the public to provide oversight to ask questions to the statement in the report says you it is not saying that there was a statement made that their board members were outright racist. I do not recall. I that's a very vague that's a very vague statement by by by saying that um that's not a comment that you would forget. So I we can go into the degree details but I disagree respectfully disagree. So do is is the feeling of the board we need to craft this just a little bit more to add a few things to create that contextual situation which people will understand. I think it's okay as it is. That's I'm just asking. Yeah. No, I'm just answering my know you have a motion in a

051second on the table. So that sounds like I'm not okay with the way it's current. I mean people can vote no. You can vote yes or vote no. think it get changed then or you want to do that. I mean the context will it speaks for itself. So if and your opinion my it just says we are aware that recent public records request maybe I should just read it. Should I just read it? Remember we struck that back and no. Yeah, I know. We are aware recent public records requests have led to the release of certain internal district records. We believe in transparency. So people will know when they that there were repres that there were documents that this statement was made. It'll say which one it was and then it says it's not substantiated.

052We say that the accusation we find to be harmless and baseless and harmful. Um, and then we go through and explain why we don't think it's okay as a board for accusations like this to undermine. But we've already said it's baseless because it's baseless and harmful because I voted for the candidate and it was a common comment that I did it and that I was an outright racist. That's what this is saying. That's not the way I read the common com. Well, the average person reading that will read that. You don't know that, Mrs. better. So, you're calling me not an average person. You're a highly intelligent person. Thank you. All right. So, what are we going to do? Are we going to need to take a vote or You want to take a vote

053or you want a motion? Your option? I have I would like to take a vote. Well, I'd like What statement do you are you What statement are you concerned with? No, I I not I don't have specific statement that I'm concerned with. I just want this to be something that I think that everyone can support. I think that's very important. Agree that everybody support this statement. If it looks like we're divided on this statement, then that's going to continue to to breed distrust and disunityity in the community. So if we So so if we need to go back and kind of recraft this a little bit, I would I've moved to kind of table this motion right now to come back. Now I know the past couple of weeks has been kind of a struggle

054getting everybody together just because of business and everything concerns etc etc and sit down and maybe craft this statement to to make sure that the context is correct and make sure it's a statement that all of us can support. We can only do that in public session. And we have been in we are in public and this is taking a toll on the two members who are accused of being outright racist in a common comment in the district team. So let's do it now. Let's go through it line by line. Let's edit it. If you want to edit it, let's edit it. Let's do it together. If we want to get all five members on board with it, let's do it right now. We think we can get five people to support this if we

055change it, but that's going to be an issue. I'm supporting it. I'm very supportive of a statement. Okay. Um, but I think the statement has to represent the facts of the report, not how individual board members read. Okay. So, we're we literally are not putting anything of how we read it. We're saying these records provide and we're giving a snapshot. We give an actual screenshot of the words themselves. We're not saying that. We say this accusation is both baseless and harmful. The minutes of this board are clear evidence. So we correct it. One board member voted in favor. The other board voted solely on candidates's qualification and experience, not on race. But we don't know that. I strongly believe that. I don't know how each board member what they take into account when they I

056made a statement and it's in the minute. Are you saying No, I'm not saying. I said I believe that. I I strongly believe that. But that that nowhere in her statement does it say anything about race. It's because race wasn't an issue for me. I agree with you. I know that it's not statement because it can I make a recommendation um that you're asking for recommendations of modifications. Look where it says this accusation is both baseless and harmful. You see where I am now? Yep. Could that next sentence read instead of the sentence that is currently there? The minutes of the board meeting on whatever date it was reflect that that one is incorrect. reflect that one board member voted any further candidate and that the other board member C. Sure. Bear or herb. I

057probably have the date. That's why I'm sure I have the I may have the date of the I have a print out of the actual um meeting. But yes, we could do the date of that more specific and add some context to it. Yeah. and then say the date of the of the vote. But yes, we could put the meeting minute date the date from the meeting itself with with Dr. Steer's u statement that she made before she voted or at least just say that you can look there. That would be in the minutes for the next meeting. I know, but it'll say like Yep. It'll just say no. Oh, yeah. The meeting minutes. Yeah, that would be in the meeting minutes for the next meeting. Okay. Um, so you're saying the meeting the minutes

058of this board say that one more time so we Chinese Mrs. Logan the minutes of the board meeting whatever date that was reflect that and finish out that yeah I I have trouble with the ending of that sentence. this accusation is incorrect and I don't know what accusation this is referring to. Accusation that two of them voted no, the accusation of race or the or any other accusation. So that's why I left that out that sentence out. So say the minutes of such and such a date are clear evidence that one board member voted in favor of the Canada. Yeah, they're fine with the rest of that paragraph. So, you don't want to say that. So, because you're saying that the accusate that you don't believe the statement itself. No, no. I'm asking what accusation

059that's referring to the statement above. Is it the accusation that two board members voted no? Is it the accusation they voted no because of race? Is it another accusation? I don't know. It is it is it is saying that because the board members it the board the board minutes are not clear evidence that there was any racism in any vote. So if you're going to say that the accus the board minutes are clear ev evidence that the accusation I I don't think that's correct. It says, here's the quote says, I believe, so complaint reported that statements about race from respondent A continued throughout her employment with the district and later included respondent A describing board members as outright racist due to them voting no on the hiring of administrator F. Then he the response was

060respondent A said, I believe both of them did vote no. I don't recall saying and then parentheses they were outright racist to her or anyone else. It was a common comment a concern on the district team that the superintendent had recommended administrator F and two voted no. They didn't know anything about him. So we did that's not correct. I voted yes. Dr. Seager voted no. She had a statement before she voted no which was based on 100% agree with that. So saying that we didn't So the the the accusation is both baseless and harmful. The minutes of the board are clear that are on this date are clear evidence that what what do we say there? What I would say that one board member voted in favor of the candidate and the other voted their

061cast their vote solely on the candidates's qualifications and experience never on. Okay, very good. So we that gets changed. So now we get to the next paragraph. We strongly condemn this allegation which misrepresents the facts and is an affront to the professionalism integrity of the board. So what again? Now we're talking the allegation of race that were outright racist. Racist which which says he says he doesn't recall saying that he doesn't ever say this report never says respondent Agreed they were outright racist. But I think you're I think that piece of it is is a disconnect for me. the um I think the lack the lack of I guess the acceptance as common comment is just as harmful to individuals but again you know we could also read that statement the common comment was that

062they voted no and they didn't know anything they voted against the recommendation of the superintendent and they didn't know anything about it and I would say that you know he doesn't recall making the statement but calling a board member outright racist is not the kind of comment that someone would forget um a lack lack of denial, lack of just saying, "No, I did not say that." Paired with his admission that such comments are common in his administration is troubling and it speaks to the broader issue of a leadership and culture and it's one that tolerates inappropriate behavior and it undermines professionalism. So, the board to me has a clear responsibility to uphold the standards and address that in that sentence. um allowing it I mean allowing these kind of statements to go in your administration

063um to me creates a hostile work environment um for everybody for everyone including the board and it's a recorded response superintendent's recorded response um and the perception it creates damages the integrity of the office and the trust the public places in our leadership as a board. So that's why it's there. So moving forward with trust means once we've been undermined and then we find out about it later. Your trust is uh is what I can say. So you want to strongly we say strongly condemn this allegation which misrepresents the fact is a front to professionalism integrity of the board. So you're saying are you okay with that? Is anyone okay with that? You know I'm okay with that. I was there when we crafted it. I'm fine with that stuff. The board understands that criticism

064comes with role of being a board of education member. We understand that as educator or as board members. However, I don't see a need for this and I don't see allegations such as these cross a line as they're blatantly false and seek to undermine not only individual board members but also trust in community places in us. I think you're jumping again from somebody that said I don't recall saying something. And so this is this is saying that this allegation to me I read this as this allegation is true that this was and that's not how I read the report. That's where I struggle. I don't think it reads that way. I think it says it was accepted knowledge and accepted knowledge is the same thing as saying it yourself. That's how I read it. All

065right. Different with you, but I respect your opinion. Since I'm being talked about in open session, I can confirm that I did not say it. It was not said. I did not call board member outright racist. No member of my team called the board outright racist. The common comment was why did the board vote? And I again it was a mistake in words after five plus hours of being interrogated on this comment or these questions. I did not make those statements. End of discussion. I mean, I would like to see something statement of such allegations were not the allegation of race-based comments were not substantiated by others interviewed. Um, the investigator determined that there was insufficient evidence. I I I I agree with, you know, again, I'll say this, disparaging comments to anybody are inappropriate

066and should not occur. But I you know again high performing level teams fundamentally build on trust. Comments break down trust and erode the function of the board and administration. And I think we really need to talk about um what are the expectations of the board uh amongst ourselves holding ourselves accountable to standards as well as the administration. That first part again that you you mentioned the first part. Yeah, I I I think I started with allegations of race-based comments were not substantiated by others interviewed. Um, again, you can make any comment you want to an investigator. Um, but these comments were not substantiated. Okay, there were other witnesses that were not interviewed because the interviewer the uh investigator had already found that there was insufficient evidence. So, I agree with making a statement, but I

067think I'm very concerned with not knowing the rest of the report and what the what the findings were and focusing on one or two sentences out of 450 pages that I interpret different than other people interpret based also on Mr. Lewis's statements today. just recently you know I'm just concerned by saying that these al because I read this that these allegations cross a line as they are blatantly false. Okay to me that means they occurred to me that the way that I read that is the board is saying this this occurred and that they crossed the line and it's blatantly false blah blah blah. There's no proof that this occurred except for the statement that was made by the superintendent who said I don't. So we shouldn't believe the superintendent what he says in a

068statement. He said I don't recall saying Yeah. But he also says it's a common comment. He also doubles down and says they didn't know him and they voted no when we didn't vote no. I don't know what it means. It was a common comment. He just he just was a response to that direct. I also think it's very important to point out that this investigation was one-sided and no witnesses that I provided right invest or all we're gonna we're here's what I would also like to add to this sort of conversation I guess is what I would say there were no breaks on policy AC that's what I found throughout the entire several hundred pages almost a thousand pages of things. The recommendations were that we need to take action on what we're doing to

069follow other things that were not specifically asked by the investigator to look at. That's not what our statement is saying to this damaging to my personal life, my professional life, and us. That's the issue. The board cannot function. And don't blame me for the lack of trust. I did not create this situation. I did not ask I I did not blame you for the Well, you said that I can't tell you if there was race was involved. You just said that when I made my statement. I did that because I don't know what what everybody takes into account. Your statement never said anything about that. I believe you, Dr. Steager, and I said that. I'm just saying that I think All right. Anyone? Yes. Is anyone opposed to adding that sentence that I had Mr.

070Pallet read twice? inserting that. Did you write it down? And can you repeat? I said the allegations of racebased comments were not substantiated by others. They were never asked. No one ever asked. There were in the report. There were when we talk about general race-based comments. Oh, if general racebased comments were right said and there were others that were interviewed that disagreed with that and actually said no, it was the complaintant who frequently bought brought up race. So you not respond. So in the report something like that in the report there was a something and then you could say however we strongly condemn. Yes, I would not this allegation. We can strongly condemn any statement. Any statement? Yes. That undermines the board. Yeah. Are you ready on this now, Mr. Paris? Try it. I did

071find you to the board meeting. Okay. June 28th, 2020. Thank you. Better. Okay. So, however, we strongly condemn any statements that that are that are affront to the professionalism integrity of court. Professionalism. Okay. Um I mean if we want to leave in criticism I'm fine. I'm not sure it's necessary. The next sentence I would I I would say any allegation take out such as these any allegations cross the line and seek any allegations that are blatantly false and seek to undermine indivi not only individual board members blah blah blah. I'm okay with that. But I can't say that these allegations because that's not the right any allegation or any statements. Yep. I would be okay with that. Okay. Okay. Okay. And the rest of that is I think that we're good with the rest of

072it. And you have two things crossed out here. I don't So you're saying I think we said we believe in transparency. Okay. And then I thought we took out the whole thing after I think we just took out this Dr. James the rest of that. Yeah. For the rest of that sentence. The rest of that sentence. So we believe in transparency and then period and then take out all of that records may raise questions. I feel it necessary. Okay, that's fine. I mean that I feel like it gives context simply because you're saying we're talking about release records, right? But if I think that's in the first sentence. All right. Okay. Okay. All right. Mr. Harris has the changes. And I would like to see, you know, in that third paragraph, the board will continue

073to act with professionally and professionalism and integrity and work with the administration uh something about building trust to create a highly performing team with an administration. I'll put an or a admin and administration. Work with administration. I can work with administration. I always have been able to work with administration on professionalism and integrity. That does that goes without saying. I'm not going to add it. We'll continue to work. Yep. Sure. We'll continue to act with Sure. Okay. Build trust with our district's administration. build trust. And what was the second part of that? It already is. It says it there. The board will continue to act for professionalism, integrity, and to and we'll continue to work with district registration to build trust and create a highly high and that's what and create a highly effective team.

074What does that have to hon? I'm just asking this, but what does the that have to do with any of this to be honest with you? I didn't destroy the trust. Yeah, me either. That's where I'm like I don't have I don't like I think it's making a commitment of the board to always work with sacred administration. Absolutely. Yeah. But building with trust is not something I destroyed. It's always put back on me that I have to fix this. It's not my fault. Any highly effective functioning team that I have ever been a part of, trust is the foundation. And you continue to build trust throughout the course of the entire team. You bring new members on and you continue to build trust. Trust is something is never something that you stop working to create

075and build upon. Right. But saying I need to build it is I don't want that in there. How about we say we will continue continue to build is better. Thank you. Yeah. Put continue in to continue to build. So okay. Thank you. To build and then write the word build. I got it. All right. Are we ready now? Vote. I would like just to Mr. Harris to read the whole statement again. All right. Uh if I missed something, um I didn't hire me from my typing. All right. We areware We are aware that recent Oh, dear Secretary. We're aware that recent public records have led to the release of certain internal Hold on a minute. If you're reading the entire state, why are we taking a vote? I think before I vote, I want to

076make sure I know what I'm voting on. That's why. Yeah, he wants to hear what we just went through and word smith. Okay. Okay. All right. Uh we believe in transparency. Uh these records provide Clinton also complaint also reported the states out race from respondent a continued through her employment with the district and later included respondent A describing board members as outright racist due to them voting no on the hiring of administrator F. Respondent A stated I believe both of them did vote no. I don't recall saying that they were outright racist to her or anyone else was a common comment a concern that the district team that the superintendent recommended Mr. F and two voted no. They didn't know anything about him. This allegation was not substantiated. Um, this accusation is both uh this

077accusation is both baseless and harmful. I don't think we changed that. We did take that out. Did we take No, we did not. No, we did not. I think we took it out later. Uh, the minutes of this June 28th, 2022 board are clear evidence that um our clear evidence that one board member Oh, that's right. that one board member. That's a little one board member voted in favor of the candidate and the other board member cast their vote based on solely on the candidate's qualifications and experience never on race. Um allegations of racebased comments were not substantiated by others. We strongly condemn this allegation which mis which misrepresents the facts as front to the professionalism integrity of the board. One understands that criticism comes with the role of being a board of education member.

078any um we strongly condemn um any statements that's that's the one I got. No, I think I for me it was just any allegation any allegations such as these any allegations such as these cross off such as these any allegations. It doesn't matter if it's this one or another one that would would go against the integrity of the u any uh any allegations um that are blatantly false that are blatantly false. Oh, there it is. Okay. seek to undermine not only individual board members but also the trust of the community that places us. All right. Um where do we put this? We strongly condemn the statements. Board members are not a represent for decisions but instead are tasked by this community is our duty to provide oversight, ask questions, ensure that the district serves all

079students and families equitably. Now we added that statement at a front to the professionalism integrity of the board. Where did we add that? We said board will continue to act with professionalism integity and can continue to work with district administration to build trust and create a highly effective team. Healthy dialogue perspectives are vital to thriving educational is essential that all members of our leadership work in good faith and uphold professional standards. undermine the work of the board. However, priv whether privately or publicly, does not serve the best interest of Sycamore schools and only detracts from our shared mission. We remain steadfast in our commitment to transparency, fairness, and respect for all members of our community. We continue to hold ourselves and our administration to the highest standards of accountability and will not tolerate tax that

080distort the truth. That work? Swing. What we just went through? Did that work? Okay. Right. Mr. B, can you please call the RO? Dr. Steager. I. Dr. James. I. Mr. Bick. Hi. Mr. Harris. I. Mrs. Bidder. I. I'd like to make a statement. I appreciate you working on your statement and for your continued service to our school district. I respect the important oversight role that you play on behalf of the Sycamore community and appreciate your commitment to transparency, professionalism, and fairness. Let me be clear. I do not support or condone false allegations or personal attacks toward anyone, including members of this board or the staff, including me. I value the work we all do in our in service to our schools and community. I have always and will continue to engage in open, honest dialogue

081about the complex and sometimes difficult decisions that come with serving as superintendent. At the same time, repeated and unsupported claims, no matter how unfounded, can begin to erode the trust we work so hard to build. These distractions have a real impact not only on me, but also on my family, my health, and the remarkable team of educators and staff who give their all every day. It is essential that we move forward together, grounded in mutual respect, focused on solutions and aligned in our shared commitment to students and staff. As superintendent, I take the responsibility of accountability seriously. Holding team members to the highest standards is not about blame. It's about ensuring that our students and community receive the excellence they deserve. As Bnee Brown said, clear is kind, unclear is unkind. True accountability when rooted

082in fairness and transparency is not personal. It is the work of leadership. That is the job of a superintendent. These situations remind me of a message shared by Kirby Smart, head football coach at the University of Georgia about the cost of leadership. He spoke candidly about the reality that true leadership comes with sacrifice. First, you will have to make hard decisions that negatively impact the people that you care about. Second, you will be disliked even when you are trying to do what's best for the greatest number. And third, you will be misunderstood and you won't always have the chance to explain yourself. These aren't signs of poor leadership. They are evidence of what leadership demands. His words resonate deeply with me, especially today. They serve as a reminder that leadership is not about being popular.

083It's about being principled, focused, and courageous even when it's hard. I also feel compelled to acknowledge the ongoing commentary from a small number of former employees who are no longer part of this district. Many left under challenging circumstances and have since worked to cast doubt on the system and its leadership. While every individual has a right to share their perspective, not all narratives are based in truth or guided by the what is best for Sycamore. We must not allow these voices to distract us from the meaningful work ahead. I remain deeply committed to leading with integrity, openness, and courage. I welcome honest discussion, embrace accountability, and stand firmly behind the work we are doing to move Sycamore forward. I look forward to continuing that work in partnership with this board and our entire community. Thank

084you. I have a quick question for us. Are we releasing both these statements in the minutes or both be reflected in the minutes? All right. Um, we have a Mrs. Logan, you were going to give us just a brief uh legislative update because you testified this week in the slature. If you want me to switch things around, I can do that. You need a minute. You have We could do the next one next if that helps you. No, it wasn't that much, but just just I wanted you to just briefly. So, What I'm passing out to you is um we received this Senate's version of the budget late yesterday. Um and this I am still trying to dig through what all of it means. Um there are some good things. Um they did the Senate

085is saying the fair school funding plan should be completed and they're promoting the complete phase in during the next bianium. But there is so much included in here related to property tax relief. Um changes to um pick up on pickup for superintendent and treasures would no longer be allowed under this version. um lots of of changes to what would be allowable and not allowable um to ask from your community as far as levies five-year forecast going to a three-year forecast. So, I'm just giving this to you while I'm trying to digest all of it. Just letting you know we now have a Senate version. So the next process will be um they will come together the house and the senate and they will through a committee process try to arrive at um through negotiations their

086um version together and then it'll be passed and then the governor it will go to the governor's desk. So it's June, we still have a few weeks here to find out what it will actually look like. Um, also the 30% maximum cash balance is moved up to 50 in this version with some allowance on if you have some capital project needs, you have you can set that money aside, but you have to spend it in three years. So again, this is hot off the press, but um that's my update. I did go last week and testify um and I was there basically just to answer questions um and and did that. I thought it was a a respectful um process while I was there. They asked good questions. Um so we'll see. Hold on. I'm

087going to keep going and changing. Do you anticipate they're going to call you back for more test I guess testimony of the I was I was asked to go up this morning. Of course I can't but um there's more testimony but it will be very limited. So I I doubt that I will go back up but um as Chad and I know sometimes we will get phone calls and ask us to come up on a specific topic. So Mrs. L on behalf of the board I want to thank you for your testifying not just for sale but for funding and the state ofable items. I did have the opportunity to watch it. It was it was well done. So thank you. Um you know longterm I I like the idea of not just a minimum

088cash reserve but a maximum too. Um I know you spoke about that. I think that's something that after we figure all this stuff out that needs to come back to the footwork for consideration. Correct. Correct. And even some of our financial right which is one of the board goals financial recommendations moving forward that is something we discuss. So, I appreciate Thank you very much for going and testifying and I know that they're really um seeking your your input as a treasurer in the state of Ohio and thank you for representing Sycamore and um I watched it as well and it was yeah the questions were great but um sounds like every district is sort of waiting to see especially the suburban districts like ours to see what will happen with this. So thanks for keeping

089us updated. All right. So our next item is is other and under this other board of business we want we received um we have received over um as all of you know through uh public participation over the last or at least during two public participation sessions during um recent board meetings. We received parents coming to speak about their children who have disabilities and um one of them was related to accessibility and being able to play in playgrounds, being able to use um just to play and some in some instances to be able to eat lunch in the lunchrooms and things like that. So physical accessibility. Then we had another group of parents who came to talk about accessibility in curriculum and through um just being able to learn in sycamore and having other types of

090disabilities like autism or even just some um communication needs maybe not just from autism but from other disabilities whereas a lot of developmental disabilities it's really hard to communicate right hard to socialize hard to access their education so as we said we can't answer in public participation we don't typically respond in public participation but as a board I would like for us to acknowledge that we have received that information that we are listening. Um, Mrs. Spencer is our um, expert in this field for our district. And so I um, we we were asked again to make a comment specifically on the discussion related to a communication for education program that was presented to us. Um, I think I said in the email that we rely on our administration. Our administration runs the day-to-day of the

091district, not the board. We oversee. We are 30,000 ft above. So, we take all of our recommendations from our um from our administration. So, Mrs. Spencer, I am not trying to put you on the spot, but I am putting you on the spot because I forwarded that email to you. Do you have I know that our district is um working very hard to train provide professional development for all of our teachers um special education teachers and general education teachers. So I just wanted to um have a discussion as a board but mostly to hear from you if you could provide us with any insight and if you don't mind I I just want to make sure because Mrs. Spencer was not prepared for that. like let's put it on an agenda and and give her

092the opportunity and school just ended so and Mrs. Spencer was, you know, visiting some family and doing some things. So, uh, we need some time as a team to sit down and talk about, you know, the training since the board meeting. And, yeah, we were just trying to finish up the school year, get kids through graduation. Summer's a great time, and honestly, we haven't even had a minute yet. Summer really hasn't started for us. So, um, it's still the day-to-day normal hustle and bustle right now. So we need time to sit down and have that discussion before we have a public u discussion about you know that particular program. Okay. And I think you know for me as one board member obviously I have interest in that particular program. I'm not an expert in any

093of that. Um and and I would love to hear more insight in that. I would like to even look at this higher level of you know what what does what goes into do you know training of our staff or how do we come up with the curriculum what what what's the basis that we use for curriculum decisions for for our special needs community um and really look at not just this one particular program but higher level as well does that make sense I think it's also important that we involve our staff in the discussion about talking around them or above them, you know, what kind of training do they believe or what do they feel they're lacking in any training? What is the training they need? Um because I think being saying to train the

094entire staff, it's really difficult right now with the number of trainings that we already have to figure out and that's why we've had extra professional learning days because we need to go through specific trainings that they have to and our state required to have. It's it's been exhaustive to try to get through just the ones we're required to do so far. So, I'm not saying that it's not worthwhile. Um I just think we need a chance to sit down and look at our whole training. Um yeah, I mean it's easy for the board to improve the money. That's the easy part. But what does that do? What does the impact to our students, staff, that type of thing? And what would be your recommendation? Correct. What's the recommendation? And I I I would like to

095just chime in here quickly because we had an academic retreat this year and um special education was taken out of that retreat this year which was the first time ever. Um it was academic and I know that we had a great update regarding athletics which is wonderful but academically I wanted to get that update and I have talked about that um on multiple occasions in board meetings. I would like Miss Spencer to do that academic retreat presentation that is normally done to the board to the board in a public session. That's what I would like to see and have this addressed as well because we are now getting the public we're getting parents like large groups of parents to come to our meetings to tell us about issues with their children's accessing education in Sycamore.

096And as a board we have to be responsive to that. And we didn't get it at our academic retreat which is a public meeting by the way. And I I I felt like that was missing and I brought that up. I brought that up at least once, maybe twice. I'm bringing up again. That is really important. Board needs to have at least an annual update from our special education department because it's not just people in that department are also getting curriculum, right? It's not just how, you know, it's not just training for teachers, it's accessing their education. So that was why you always came to us, which was always an excellent presentation that you were making and your team was making to us. And I always loved that. I felt like that was a really

097important part of our board role to be able to understand all the areas um for student services. So I agree I would give you time. I'm not trying to pressure you but as a board I wanted to be able to respond to the public participation that we have been receiving regarding this and just to let you know that we hear you but ultimately it is the administration the administration will be the ones to make that determination. Now the board does set the the direction. So board members set the direction clearly. I mean, we are part of this. You're our boss, right? The public is our you're our boss as board members and that's how this goes. So, if you have comments that you want to make, it's great, but and we are responsive to it,

098but we will be looking at this from our administration to see what they recommend and Mrs. Spencer is the expert in this area and we have taken her recommendations literally every single time. So, whatever she says is going to go pretty much, right? Unless we can have some kind of feedback that we share and directionwise, it would be collectively as a board that we would have to do that. I have one quick um question for Mrs. Spencer as you're thinking about this also because um physical accessibility. Yes, that's one issue that I've experienced myself in a wheelchair. Um but the second one for accessibility in the classroom for curriculum, etc. What kind of an impact would these communications program like? How could they positively impact the entire classroom community? I don't see them as detracting,

099but like what would be the impact be for the entire classroom community? Because we're talking about inclusion. Um what would this be for universal design for our kids and how can we support that for everyone instead of having this and that let's figure out how we can do something as a group. That's what I would like the angle I would like to hear something about. Doesn't have to be, you know, a 20 minutes a whatever you clarification. Are you asking how the program that is being requested that we train all of our staff with how that would impact or are you asking me to address how classrooms are impacted with training? And I let's go with specific program or if you had a different program that you because you're the person in charge of the

100programming. So this is one program. Is there another program that you I just want to clarify my role is to make sure that we are have special education programming in place. Right. This program or this training is not a program that we would implement it. It's training that would help support working with individuals who have disabilities. Okay. So who would that would that does that not line up with with you then? Does it line up with a different administrator? No, I'm just saying that that there's a difference between what programming, right, we're providing as a district because all of our students are general education students first. So, they have access to the general education curriculum across the board. If we have students who have unique needs that we need either alternative curriculum or um other

101methods in terms of accessing that curriculum, those are things that we address as well. Perfect. What I can suggest is we'll get together and then we'll get back to you with a timeline and we will include a presentation. I would assume we want to avoid summer because I've already heard multiple of you say that you may miss a meeting or something. So, uh we'll shoot for we will do a separate one before the academic review. Thank you. We have public participation now I believe, right? Um, yep. We're ready. Does anyone have anything else they want? You can go ahead. We will not be making comments for public participation, but you can u you have three minutes to speak. So, please say your name and we already know your you don't even Okay. I know you

102live in the district. Jennifer Gabby. I live in the district. Um, yeah. I just wanted to point out I do think um in terms of this of this course um and conversations, I I don't think that summer is in general the best time to be talking about it. something we have talked about with the administration starting since the beginning of this past school year. So, um, after the experience, my child's individual experience and then speaking to other families in the district, I learned it absolutely was not a unique experience. However, my child might have been extreme. Um, there are students that are being told that they don't have a place for them in the theater program because they they don't uh align with the other students. They have students being told, "I don't know how

103to teach your child in this class. What are they doing in here?" Because they have a communication need. We have brought those concerns to the administration since the beginning of this year and in years past. We brought it to the board having spoken to many other families in the district. realizing our experience was not unique and um it really has become a systemic issue that we felt was important to bring to the public attention to hopefully get some movement in this. We felt after lots of research and the fact that Sycamore has on a very small scale implemented the communication for education course before um that it was the right thing to put forward again on a broader scale. our special education students, our teachers um are the most educated in working with our students.

104But we're talking about administrators at the principal level, general education teachers who some have zero experience with special education and yet our students and others are in the classroom and not being included. um disability rights are are human rights and we're asking not for the accolades of the all the athletics and all the money we're spending on athletics and all these other things and I have a general education student too and I applaud those things. We're just looking for access to the education that our students have have a right to and we're looking for attention and a piece of the pie of the money. I'm seeing all these trainings that we talked about being approved easily. We're asking for a piece of pie for our special ed students. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to

105say something too really quickly. Um I wasn't really quite prepared, so just kind of bear with me here, but I I I also want to comment on um just, you know, every year the district isn't used to a lot of the special ed kids being included in the traditional neurotypical classroom. And every year we do absolutely deal with uh the gen teachers saying how do I teach this child? How do I do accommodations you know my son has a communication disorder so you know obviously it is it is a little difficult but that's why this training would help be so helpful. Um I mean we couldn't even take Spanish too because the Spanish 2 teacher didn't know how she was going to teach him and that's why there are alternative ways. I mean, there's there's

106letter boards, there's ways to type. You don't have to speak Spanish to be able to learn Spanish. So, that's just one example. Um, and I do think whatever we decide to do, um, as far as like training and whatnot, I think it needs to be something that a self- advocates have had input into. That's why another reason I like this course is you know in addition to um special education teachers, college professors, behavior therapists, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists, clinical social workers, a pediatrician. Um there is also self- advocate input into this program and it is um researchbased. So I think you know that's a huge point and we were trying to find something that was broad. If you look at the modules, which I there was some links that were sent and the

107modules are there. It really does encompass so many different special needs, um so many different uh you know, uh presuming competence, inclusion, you know, all the the big issues that we're seeing across the board, not just with this group, but there's there's even more out there that we just haven't uh that we haven't been able to uh that aren't able to be here. Um I think that's it. I think you you touched on Yeah. most of it. So, thank you for listening. I'm excited that you guys were able to have us speak and that you're, you know, allowing us to share. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anything else or other? All right. And the answer