001Yes. Yep. Okay. Okay. I'd like to call the special board meeting to uh order. Will you please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. [Music] Okay. Just a second. [Music] All right. So, do we have a couple of community comments? We do. We have Michael Blank and Karen Blank. Okay. Are they Well, they are on the agenda item. Okay. So, I have a little something to read. Uh community comments that are related to an item that is on a posted agenda item will be given at the time the agenda item is to be discussed. Please understand that the board will not engage in
002discussion per policy 1400. The board values and supports the opportunity for community members to share ideas. Comments on agenda items will be limited to five minutes per speaker and 20 minutes per topic. Any comments directed at the performance of personnel will not be allowed. Comments that are inappropriate to an open public meeting will be immediately stopped by the board president. Community comments need to be presented in a respectful manner following proper decorum. Disruption of the meeting can result in the meeting being recessed. Okay. All right. First one is Michael Blank. Oh, I thought you guys were going to go over. I've never been to a board meeting, so please excuse my ignorance on this. Um I'm new with attending here. Unfortunately, I'm out of time. Uh but since I have the floor, uh based this
003is all kind of based on the allegations that were uh presumed for certain individuals. Um, as far as a recognition and non-renewal, I'm just kind of curious on when the violations of policies for the district are there, I would be under the assumption that they would be fired depending on the significance of the situation, the severity of the instance that goes on. So, it does draw concern. The reason why it draws concern for me personally is because when someone resigns, they don't have to report anything. nothing gets reported based on the law and it's just they can continue on being certificated and have their certificates and no one can truly know what actually happened and the same thing for that with the non-renewal this is a way of just protecting people I understand in my
004opinion uh it is my opinion that it is just a way to protect people and protect their teaching certificates which is perfectly fine it's just it's frustrating it's upsetting that we hold students accountable for certain situations and our teachers should be held to a higher standard. That is just my opinion. Uh I understand that there's a process for everything, which is fine. I'm trying to learn the process right now. But I think it would be more appropriate in my opinion that if people were not just non-renewal cuz all that means is for me you can go get another job somewhere as a teacher depending on the severity of the situation. Right now everything's in the allegation stage, investigation stage. Not going to question or ask anything in regards to that. It's not my place to
005ask that just yet. But we're allowing people to continue to be teachers at other locations and it's kind of just a a washover. It's upsetting. It's upsetting that we hold our students to a higher standard than our teachers. The professionals are there supposed to give guidance and direction with good morals and values. People make mistakes. Whatever. Everything's an allegation right now. Nothing said as far as what it is. I'm going to be curious to find out what happens. However, with this situation, with the resignation, we're allowing people that are in a position of trust to continue to be teachers. I personally feel that is wrong. They're not being held accountable for the actions and what they possibly did. I I think it's sets a bad precedent for anyone who follows suit because in my opinion
006depending on the outcome invest in of the investigation and the allegations you are not going to have a foot to stand on to hold any student accountable for any policy they're breaking when you're allowing or we are allowing policies to be broken by persons in positions of trust. And it's upsetting. It's upsetting very much so because I know of other situations. I've brought up other situations. I've emailed all of you. I don't hide anything. I I'm very open. I try not to hide anything. But it's upsetting that we're allowing people that should have had something on their record at least to inform other people that can possibly hire them for a position to know like hey this is something that happened. It is completely unprofessional and depending on who how it all came to light
007uh it could involve law enforcement. Once again, allegations, investigations. That is what it is to me right now. So, it's very upsetting that we're allowing people to continue to have their certificates for teaching when I truly believe they should have been fired on the spot for the gross negligence and policies that they've broken, the trust that they've broken, and the actions they've taken. Personal life is one thing. You bring it on a school property and you make it everyone's business. That's wrong. You should be held accountable for your actions. And I truly believe we are failing to do that. And we are setting up this school district for a president you're not willing to accept or you just don't want to accept because it something is going to happen. I don't know if it's not
008an if, it's a when. And no one is going to have Sorry. 30 seconds. Thank you. We're not going to have a leg to stand on. and the precedent you're setting right now is not appropriate. That is my opinion. Thank you for your time. I do greatly appreciate the time you've given me today. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. Karen Blank is the next one. You want me to go up there? You want me to stand? Whatever you want. Okay. So, um, thank you for letting me speak. I am going to speak about the resignation in the non-renewal. I am not only a parent of a student in YM Community School District. I am a teacher in Yelm Community School District. I sign a contract with you guys every year about being professional, about
009a code of conduct, and about our ethical right. These people broke all three. That to me is unacceptable. We need to hold them to a higher standard. We want better teachers. We want teachers that are passionate. We want teachers that care about our kids, that want our kids to come back, that want them to come to school and stay at school. Then we need to have people that have good morals, values, and that are better role models than what these people show. It is not acceptable. I do not think it is okay in any way. My daughter had these people as teachers, looked up to them, respected them. And this was not even put out by other people. I didn't even hear this. I heard this from my child. My child came home and told
010me about this because it went around her school. I teach behavior every day and there has to be a consequence right. If we do not consequence for the actions we are telling them it is okay. How can you sit there and say these teachers modeled correct behavior for their students? We are holding our students up here and our teachers down here. That is not acceptable in my way. It is not acceptable as a teacher, as a parent, as a member of this community. We want this school to get back on track. Then we need to show some consequences. I understand that they can be rehired. That should be the choice of whatever school district they choose to go to. It should be their choice. But we should have in there why we terminated them. We
011should put that in there that we are going to hold you accountable. You are going to have consequences like the students you teach. We need to terminate them and we need to put in there. If we don't put it in there, then when they call us, that's what needs to be said as what what actually happened. Doing a non-renewal, you're letting them out. You're letting them off. resignation. You're letting them off. You're saying it's okay. And when you say it's okay for these teachers, you're saying it for is for every other teacher. It's okay. You should hold those contracts to a higher standard. Right? When I sign it, I sign it with knowing I'm going to model the right behavior for my kids. I'm going to come back. I'm going to be professional. I don't
012work geneted. I work in behavior every day and if I come in there with the wrong attitude and show the wrong behaviors and model that they are going to think it's okay. That is what we're showing our kids. It's okay to do these things because why not? Your role models do it. We need to hold our staff to that higher level. We will rise to that level. I know the staff I work with and I know there some great people and we will rise to that level, but we need to be held accountable for our actions. Thank you for letting us speak. Thank you. No others. Okay. All right. Round three. Huh? I said round three. Okay. I move we approve. You're not going to say new business. Oh, new business. I second. All those
013in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Are there any board comments? I don't have any. Casey, nothing. Bill. I can read. Okay. Any superintendent comments? Uh just thank you to the board for your willingness to uh meet tonight on 24-hour notice. I appreciate that and uh appreciate uh the way that you have uh handled this situation. Okay. All right. Meetings adjourned.