001We'll go ahead and call our meeting to order. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the standy. Thank you for joining us today. Are there any needs for translation? Okay, we will move on um to an approval of the agenda. At this time, I will accept a motion to approve the agenda. I will make that motion. Do I have a second? I will second that. Motion made and seconded. All in favor? I I motion passes 40. Um we have a special opportunity today. We have been heavily recruiting uh people to apply for our open position on the board and we have an application and someone we would like to interview. Um so we're going to do that at this time and then we will adjourn for a small executive session
002and then we will come back. Um so we would like to welcome Mariah Munoz to the mic. Normally there aren't this many people at a board meeting. So, I apologize if you're feeling like, what have I gotten myself into? Yeah. Um, thank you, Carlos. So, we'll just get it kicked off. Um, it's Mariah, right? Is that how you say? Okay. Yeah. So, I'm Lindsay. Um, nice to meet you and thank you for applying to be on the school board. Really appreciate that. if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself and what motivates you to serve on the school board at this time. Yeah. Um, like you announced me, my name is Mariah Munoz, formerly DeLeon, so people might might know me from that. Um, I live here. I have a son, and
003I've always told myself I want to be involved in the community in one way, shape, or form. Um, kind of through discussion with Marisa, my family, and just kind of people around, I thought it was the right time. I was a little scared at first just because I am younger. Um sometimes people have the perception of young, she doesn't know what she's doing. So, um I kind of want to break those barriers. So, I'm really excited. I was really grateful that my family pushed me to do this. But at the end of the day, I want to be a part of the community and a part of this because I believe in second, third, fourth, fifth chances. And I do believe that there are some students who unfortunately have fallen through the cracks. Um, right
004now in my career, I do work with people who uh actively use drugs. So, I've been able to see kind of what addiction does to people, but at the end of the day, people don't don't just turn to addiction for fun. Um, usually there's things that happen in their childhood. Maybe they, like I've said, they've fallen through the cracks in the school system, and I really want to be able to provide those resources to individuals who don't have the framework at home. for example, the parent who works 12-hour shifts to help provide their family uh provide for their family or the person who um unfortunately just doesn't have family around. So, just being able to provide students that um foundation to succeed because at the end of the day, they are a part of our
005community in one shape one way, shape or form and we want to be able to give them the opportunity to thrive and be good citizens in in Oll. Um, I've seen a lot of people um, kind of fall away and not be able to be productive members of the society, but at the same time, I've seen people who have struggled so much in their life become successful. All of a sudden, they got into a mechanic program because they were able to connect with a teacher and maybe school wasn't the right route. It was something else. So, um, I'm really just passionate about providing second chances, second, third chances to individuals who don't necessarily have those at home. Um, and I come from a prevention background. Um, I do have a master's degree in public health.
006So, I'm familiar with prevention and how prevention does help um young adults, kids, uh, even parents when they're older. So, yeah, that's a little bit um of why I'm I'm excited to be here. But at the end of the day, I I'm going to live in Odella for the rest of my life. So, I just want to be able to create something for my son and other people who are my age who are having kids. So, yeah. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Um, Ken, do you want to take the next one? That answer is kind of going to lead me into the next question. How would you describe the role of a school board member in relation to the district staff, students, families, and the community? Kind of going back off what I said a little
007bit ago, there's people my age who are now starting to have kids. I am 26 years old, so kind of in the younger the younger age, but being able to connect with those people my age. Um, giving people the opportunity to express themselves and potentially feel like, hey, I'm heard or hey, I know her. I went to high school with her. Being able just to feel comfortable giving us that feedback. Um, another thing is I I love sports. So, being able to kind of connect with um students who are in who are athletes or parents who are just kind of interested in maybe uh bettering our sports or I was also part of um AVID when I was in high school because I am a first generation college student. So, be able to being able
008to connect um with those types of families. um community engagement. I did read some of the policies and community engagement is a big portion of a um a role of a board member. So just being able to kind of connect with people who don't necessarily feel comfortable kind of give people the opportunity who um like I said don't feel comfortable and who tend to feel timid or hey that's not my space. So just being able to really connect with community is um what I'd like to do. Yeah. And I think it's very important for the for as a school board um member just like I said giving everyone equal opportunity and um being able to advocate for the things that aren't working. So if someone's expressive or multiple people in the community like hey this
009isn't working can we find a way and bring being able to bring that back to the board and saying hey this is what I've heard. What can we do to either fix it or maybe change some things because maybe it's not that big of an issue but there's one portion that does need to get um fixed. Thank you. Uh the next question we have for you is what do you see as the biggest challenges facing the district right now? Something that I did bring to uh Dr. Perez when he first we first communicated was I was really sad to see the closure of DOHS. Um I do I've seen a lot of success stories. Granted, I don't know much of kind of what the school is doing to kind of mitigate that, but I as
010of for me, I do see that as a big problem and I would like to be able to create some type of resources, put things together to kind of give those those students the opportunity who were thriving in DOHS to be able to thrive at the high school. Um, granted, I am not as aware of issues that are being faced just because I don't have specific connections to the school as of right now, but um, for me, it's definitely that portion. Um, I've had seen a lot of people kind of discuss sometimes the hiring of coaches and things like that. So, I think that that'd be something that I could help thrive in and kind of give a different perspective as I was a student athlete in in the school district. So, at least for
011me right now, those are two things that I'm very interested in. But I'm sure if I do get this position, there'll be a lot more that that will open my eyes and I'll be able to understand a little more of what's happening in the school. Uh, tell us about a time you've worked on a team with differences, different point of views. How do you handle disagreement or conflict or Yeah. Um, so just to give you guys a little bit of a background, as of right now in my my career, I do work for the Grant County Health District and I am in charge of an opioid task force. That task force is meant to bring people with different perspectives such as law enforcement, people with lived experience prevention p uh professionals and everyone has a
012different opinion the way law enforcement wants to tackle uh the opioid epidemic or the way prevention services do. So, I am very familiar with being in a situation where there's conflict of opinions or difference of opinions. Um, I think as a facilitator of the opioid task force, I've done a really good job of just saying, "Hey, tell me your thoughts and tell me your thoughts." At the end of the day, we might be saying the exact same thing just in a different language. So, just being able to kind of mitigate those hard conversations. Um, so granted I do see hard conversations every day at my job, but um, like I said, I am well at being, hey, I understand what you're saying. This is what this person's truly trying to say or this is what
013this really means, not something crazy and something crazy. So, I think really it's having open communication and an open mind and letting people know like, hey, at the end of the day, we want to solve a problem. It doesn't matter what one person thinks or the other. we have to find something to um be on equal on an equal playing ground. So I do have experience in that and um I am well equipped at having hard conversations. So I definitely think if we were ever in a situation where it was like we don't disagree at all, I I think we would be able to find something at least in the middle. Great. Um one thing that we do on our school board is we have student reps that are here. So I' I'd like to
014ask them to take question uh five and six if you guys would be willing to do that. Uh okay. How would you balance the input and needs of parents, teachers, students, and taxpayers when making difficult decisions? That's a that's a loaded question. Um we'll start with the parents and teachers. Smaller parent teacher students. Yeah. Yeah. Um definitely I think parents and teachers having really listening to their opinions is probably at the hierarchy of of what you've told me. Um teachers are a part of the current system that there is. So being able to listen to those teachers. Um at the end of the day they are the ones teaching you, right? So you want to be able to kind of listen to what they're saying, be able to give solutions. Um and especially for parents
015too, right? I mean, now that I'm a parent, I can kind of understand what that looks like. And if your mom's really concerned about something, I I would want to listen to it and let her know, hey, your opinion is valid. Let's talk about it. Is there other people who feel the same or is it really just an isolated issue? So, really kind trying to understand, is this a common thing? Is there other parents who feel this way? Is there other students, other teachers so that we can create those solutions? And then going off taxpayer dollars, um I think it'd be very important to kind of be transparent with taxpayers. At the end of the day, they are paying the teacher salaries, right? Or most of what I of what I know. So just being
016able to kind of utilize that, but also give positive reinforcement and letting them know, hey, this is going to lead to this. It's going to be a good thing. Your kids will one day be here. So really trying to navigate that and listen and be as as open as I possibly can. So on to the next question. Are you willing and able to dedicate the time and energy this role demands including meetings, trainings, and community engagement? Yes, I have been very vocal with my current employer and they are very understanding. They've always known that this is something that I've wanted to pursue in my life. So, yes, I am totally on board. I have a very supportive family, so I got it covered. Great. Um, well, thank you so much. Do you have any questions
017for us before we break? Um, as of right now, no. I feel like I've kind of looked through the policies. I've asked uh Dr. Perez a lot of questions. Um, but if anything comes to mind, I'll definitely make sure to ask later on. Okay, perfect. Um, at this time, we're going to break for executive session. um for 15 minutes to to evaluate the qualifications of a candidate for appointment to elected office. Um we'll be right back. Try not to have too much fun.