001Nevermind. It doesn't work either. Did yours work? No, just... We're good. Let me see. Testing, testing. We are ready to start. Item 1.1, we're going to call the board retreat to order at 5.09 p.m. Item 1.2, we are here to talk about the governing board and superintendent handbook per one of our governing board bowls for the year. I know prior to this meeting, we were each taking time on our own to come up with our top three items that we wanted to bring to the group for change. listed in the table of contents. So what I'd like to do just for the sake of time is just to time and making sure we're prioritizing where the group feels maybe if there's any kind of consensus or anything that merges kind of to the top that
002people feel really strongly about that we can kind of prioritize what's available. So I'd love to start with Vice President. Oh, if any. So not everybody had to have anything, but if we did, you could have up to three just to make sure we had time to go through here. So I will open it up if people want to start. Anybody have anything that they listed that they'd like to discuss? I didn't have anything. Okay. Thank you, Member Collins. I have one. Item that I wanted to ask about okay, and where is that which one? I'm just kind of going through and circling the So what section of the hand? Yeah, okay? I think it would be under communications 11 in this book is it around members in the community or members in the media?
003Board and the superintendent Okay, so that one yeah, are there any others in the communication task? No Yeah this this section right here I Think just the conversations and norm set on items for future consideration Just the latter Okay, and then then I've got that one and then member Davis yes, thank you I had some, the main thing that I would like to talk about, although I think maybe tonight is not the night to do it. In general, I would love to see a glossary section in the policies so that some of the words that are used are defined. So when people read them, they know what they mean. And we all agree that we agree on what they mean. These policies are really important. Remember, Davis, we do have a glossary of terms in
004our policy manual. You do? Yes. Okay. We do not in the handbook, because this is just ours, but it references the policy manual. There's a link, but in the policy manual, that's what I wanted clarification on. Did you mean this book, or did you mean the policy manual? I mean the policy manual. Yeah, there is one. Well, I have the whole thing. Hmm. Okay. So this is not the policy. Oh, the handbook in the handbook. I'm sorry. I would like it in the handbook. If people look in the handbook, I just I want it to be less difficult to find that. Obviously, I missed it, but that's no big surprise to anybody. However. The fact that I missed it and I was specifically, I didn't realize I had to look at something else. And there
005are terms in here that I was a little confused about. So if I got a little confused, I can assume maybe some other people are confused. So maybe we just lift the, maybe there's not a lot of work to do on it. Maybe just lift it and have it printed in the handbook as well. It'll depend on which words. The glossary of terms in the policy manual is not extensive. It's seven or eight terms. I think I may have seen it, actually, now that you're saying that. So if it lines up with the words that I have some difficulty with, maybe we could work on that. If not, I've got as an additional to come to visit the glossary. I just are there any things within this? subsections of the handbook that you wanted to
006address as well? For tonight, I kind of agree about the communications in general. Okay. Is there a specific subject section? Vice President Setri identified the board and the superintendent. We've got board members in the community, board members in the media, and use of social media, and then just open meeting law generally. Yeah, I'd like to review, perhaps review F on page five about board meetings. Okay. That's page five for other board members who are. Okay. Okay. Any others? All right. So we've got an order of how they should open the manual. Let's start with page five, which is item F, which is board meetings. For those... Just for the benefit of those who might be watching this later, item F states the board will conduct all meetings appropriately and professionally by engaging in meaningful, focused,
007and open discussions, actively listening, encouraging input, and allowing others to express their voice, respecting one another's opinions, refraining from use of cell phones during meetings, conducting executive sessions for... only appropriate subjects as determined by legal counsel and being mindful of the confidentiality of executive session discussions and being respectful of others' times. Member Davis. I just wanted to review that and make sure that we all know what it says. I don't have any things that I would like to change it. I did think it was a really good reminder reading it though around. Making sure we're not using our cell phones. I mean, nobody really is using their cell phones on the dais, but it's always a good call out. I have it in my syllabus at school. That's fine. Yeah, no, I think that's fine.
008I think what they're, they don't want us like texting on the dais. Taking a call. Keeping up your Snapchat streaks. President Nelson. Yes, ma'am. This is a little out of order, but I did have a couple items. That's okay. It's not, it's not by content per se, like a section, but. Erin and I are going through. We found a couple words that were left over from the last time we did this. It uses words such as regulations. We don't have that word in our policy anymore. So if it would be okay, once we get through tonight, Erin and I may make some other red line changes that are just very small, more grammatical or things like that. There was a couple sentences that were repeated twice that we didn't think needed to be in there
009twice. So those were the big things we caught. I just want to make sure you are aware that there will be some additional changes just based on the one that I have the language. And I caught a few things like that in my review as well. Like one being we are transitioning away from board docs and board docs is everywhere in this board. I don't know what it's called, but it's going away. So we need something new in there. So that's one of the things that I noticed. Okay. The other piece is we are going to reformat this to make it a little more user-friendly. We now have access we didn't have before to make the document more of like a flip book, it's called, that will sit better in a PDF on the governing
010board page. So that kind of stuff, I don't know that it matters so much, but I just want you to know when you do get it, it won't look just like this once we clean all that language up and formatting. Again, those are just red line changes, not anything with like the actual substance. Yes, Member Davis. And I'm sorry, but I had missed one. I wonder if we could discuss a little bit about in board meetings, we're supposed to be respectful of others' time. I'm not quite sure what that means. And I'd like to have a little more clarification on that. I think I could offer my thoughts. Yes. Member Walsh. I think it would include coming to meetings prepared. having read the materials in advance, looked at the agenda in advance, to the extent
011that there's clarifying questions that can be asked in advance to do so. Certainly anything that should be part of an open meeting, conversations, questions of that nature, fair game. But my thought would be nobody should come to a board meeting looking at materials for the first time on the screen. And I think if I recall from the last time we did this, we had when we this was first created, that's exactly what that conversation was about was there's board memos, there's board prep. So it's engaging in all of the avenues, if you will, to prep and make sure that you are walking into the meeting, not this is the first time you're hearing everything. I think the other piece for me, just to kind of also. I think that bullet point is actually, as I
012read through the document, it seemed to be a theme throughout about preparation. So like in like the communication, we talk about using our time during. board prep for those who in the audience who don't know what board prep is. It's when we have a chance to kind of meet with the cabinet. We don't all meet together, but we're able to then ask clarifying questions or give suggestions out for the community. This might be better to, can we add a little bit more depth in this area or things like that and allows the cabinet to prepare to best answer those questions. Not saying that you can't ask questions on the dais as they come up. However, There are times where it's like, hey, I know you've just given me the answer and I understand this. I'm
013going to ask it again for the sake of the public meeting so that it's not so that, you know, I've heard it, but I think it's good for the community to hear it as well. And my fellow board members know that I'm asking it for the benefit of the community. It's not that a lack of preparedness. or sometimes just making sure, hey, I know, you know, or if there is something that comes to you on the dice, because that happens to me as well, you know, it's easy to say, you know, I understand X, Y, and Z. Something that just occurred to me along this line is, you know, this. And then for, but I think it's also fair when we have those spur of the moment questions that it isn't always. easy for the
014cabinet to get us the answers we need right at that point in time. But if Laura or the team is like, you know what, I don't have that readily available, respecting others' time is, I can get that to board memo and then we can, you know, and have clarifying discussion just so the conversation keeps moving. Yes. And I, if I might, thank you for saying that because I know I ask a lot of clarifying questions and I sometimes ask questions that are potentially look like I don't know what I'm talking about. But oftentimes, something does occur to me. And I don't expect personally, I don't expect you to come with an instant answer. It's just raising it to, could you look at this? And so prior preparation is not something that I'm thinking about. I'm
015thinking about, oh, gee, that could you look for that, you know, and so if there was some expectation or if I left the impression that I wanted you to have an immediate answer, I apologize because I never do. It's something that just happens to occur to me that didn't occur to me when I prepared or even when I talked to you. So thank you. I don't think we are changing anything in F. I know. Okay. So nothing to change in F. It was more a discussion about it. Okay, sure. Yes. We're all in agreement on that. I just want to know what it meant. Thank you. Anything else? The next piece we have is items for future consideration. This is one that I also flagged, but I'll let Member Walsh lead us into the discussion.
016Page 10. I don't have a specific change that I want to see in the... policy the handbook right now, but it's more norm setting to make sure we're all aligned and comfortable on how we can have items for future consideration not only raised, but responded to. So I think obviously there's an agenda-sized item in every meeting where we can do that. That's pretty clear. But I know, Superintendent Tenius, you'll probably have one-on-one communications with board members from time to time where there may be requests that come and they're not in a formal board meeting. And then just making sure board members feel like their requests are being honored and responded to, even if... It's not necessarily asking for this district's endorsement of anything that's being asked, but just making sure that there's a process or
017making sure that requests are responded to. I personally know there are other districts where there's sort of like we need to have some level of consensus. I'm glad we don't do that in this district. I don't think it's like we need to have a majority before a response is merited. So I don't want to keep that practice in place, but just want to make sure we all feel comfortable about. One, how we ask for items for future consideration, and two, are they being responded to? And as a reminder, and it does say this in here, and I think it's an important sentence, is that not all items for future consideration end up on an agenda. So you have to be, there's, it could end up. It's an item for future consideration that gets handed off
018to a department to address something. It could be it's a board memo item that you get responded to with here's the information if it's an item that just needs information. If it's an item that's going to end up on future agenda, then whoever the president is that we do the agenda setting, we'll sit down and look at the timeline of when that agenda item makes the most sense. There have been times, now we will attach the items for future consideration when there's outstanding ones. We just haven't had any outstanding ones. But there have been times where somebody maybe has brought something up and then we'll have a discussion about, well, maybe let's table that for the next two or three months or let's put that in a future agenda because of whatever else is going
019on. But we always either address it through an agenda item, through a board memo item, or through if it's just more of a question and less about. SOMETHING THAT'S GOING TO COME IN FRONT OF THE BOARD, SENDING IT OVER TO THE RIGHT DEPARTMENT. ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO ADD THERE? I think I have some few things I want to add there, especially around like the agenda setting. Superintendent Penias and I do go over what is upcoming, and that is always a point of discussion. Do we have any items for outstanding items for future consideration? One thing that might be helpful, Member Walsh, for this body or future iterations of this body is as part of board memo, do we make that just a standing section so people so that we can see, hey. this was
020brought up during this academic year and here's how it was addressed and when. So the document we used to attach, we can keep attaching. It's just that there hasn't been anything in so long that we probably haven't had anything. So we can just keep attaching. Yeah, I think that's probably a good way to provide, at least for the board, like a long running thing. So if it doesn't end up on it as an agenda item, you still know, hey, this was addressed in the board memo that was sent on. And that's what our air table tracks. So, I mean, I'm just throwing things out there. This is obviously a discussion. I want it to be helpful or fruitful. Yeah, I think that's... What I could do is add a statement. I'll work with Aaron. We'll
021add a statement in here that says... items for future consideration, the list of items for future consideration will be shared in the board memo. That way you always know if there's anything. And if there's nothing, it'll just say none. Nothing. It goes back. The list goes back 10 years. I mean, it's obviously all there. I think you could probably limit it to the current iteration of the board. Yeah, that's exactly. Yeah. Yeah. We don't need, we don't need what we were doing in 20. Exactly. 2016. Or if there's something that's without, because there are things that cross over fiscal year. So if there's still something open, I'll go back as far as that last open item as well. Okay. That'd be great. We'll add a statement there. Great. All right. And that brings us to
022communications with the board and superintendent, Vice President Seatree. Yes, thank you. Okay. So I'm not sure if this could be bulleted under this. section or how it would even fall in, but I would like to see as part of our communication, if possible, notification and reasoning whenever there's a significant impact to our staff or community that might in the future turn into something down the road. So I know that that's kind of open-ended, but There's been a couple instances where I felt I didn't know something was coming and then all of a sudden, you know, what's going on? Why did this change happen? Can you give me an example? I have two examples. Yeah, that'd be great. When we made the changes for the library personnel. I don't, and maybe we did get notified. I
023just kind of don't remember. So I'm going about that ahead of time. That's okay. All of this is where I think board memo, it gets, there are times your board members memo is going to be quite. loaded, if you will, a lot of information. And certain times of the year, especially as we're getting ready to go into a new school year, you probably have an extensive amount of information. But we front load all of that either in a board memo or what we call the supplemental memo. Let's say the information came out and it. came out at a different time than board memo and I want to get that information in your hands and not wait for the next board memo. So you'll get it in a supplemental. And many times you'll get some things
024in a confidential memo, especially if we're asking because, for example, we haven't shared it yet publicly and you're getting front loaded some information, you may get it in a confidential memo because we don't want that shared out publicly before we are able to get the communication out. So all of those changes are shared with the board when they're that big. ahead of time in one of those three ways. Every once in a while, it'll be in board prep. maybe not in the memo because it's something that you happen to have a board prep that day and we want to get the information to you. So sometimes you'll see it in a board prep, but we definitely make sure that all of those types of things, any big personnel changes, obviously what's happening at a school,
025hiring teachers, things like that, we're not doing, but all of the big things, we front load all of that to the board. So we'll go back and look, but, and I'm not saying we've never missed one because. there's a chance that happens, right? But we do definitely have a process for that in place. So when we address the change to electives, was that, that was communicated with us too? Okay. Now, sometimes the communication is close. It's not like you're getting a month's notice because Typically, the decisions, right, you're getting them as soon as it's decided, and these things move rather quickly. So you might only be getting a week's notice, but that's the best that we can do as far as the timing. But as soon as we have the information and we can share
026it, we absolutely do. Superintendent Tenues. So it sounds like that's already our practice, but it's not actually codified in the document. So could we add that as a bullet that that is the method for giving board preview for significant decisions? And I would say with those, and maybe it would help if we kind of codified what we considered a significant decision. So something dealing with maybe how instructional minutes are. I'm just trying to think of like with the library or like the specials changes, like something around like instructional minute changes with instructional minutes or organizational changes. I think, cause I don't, I think there are a lot of things to be fair that we don't know are going to become things until, until it happens and that's just the nature of working with people. So,
027but I think. I don't want to leave the cabinet in a position where they're trying to suss out what is a significant... What the definition of... Yeah, what does it mean to make a significant decision? Member Collins. Oh, I was just going to say, would it be easier for everyone? If like, you know, the library, for example, because I read the board memos and stuff all the time and it does get, it's a lot, it's a lot, you know, a lot of information. I think that you guys do a good job of trying to like color coding them because they are color coded, you know? So, but I think like, I can see what you're saying, like certain things with the, like with the library or the electives, could that, could that be? Like we
028know the library and elective, those are huge things. We know that's big. Could it be, would it be easier for you guys if it was just like separate, like, you know what I mean? Like a separate document, so to speak. So, I mean, I'm just trying to come up with suggestions for y'all. Cause I mean, I appreciate that. It's just, I kind of, I feel bad that I didn't catch that beforehand and I felt like it was a surprise when we started getting responses. So, you know, it's hard to stay on top of everything and make sure that that's. coming in, or maybe it was just something that was very, Oh, this is what we're doing. And, and not like, Oh, it could be a thing. And that might be is that we didn't. And
029there is a section actually to what Aaron just talked about. If you go back to page five, Aaron, just read what we talk about communication. So again, the handbooks a little bit, there is some of that. They're just saying that, right? No surprises. We don't want you to be surprised. You don't want me to be surprised. And so we try to have that. That was part of our norms is that we don't surprise each other. What, What I think I heard, Board Member Collins, and if I think about what you just said, Vice President Satri, is maybe we had a statement that we're identifying, we know what potentially will bubble. If you've been sitting on the board for a long time. Our board members that have been on for a while also know that those
030are the things that are likely to bubble. And so your first couple times that that happens, you may not just been aware. Oh, I get it. She's giving us this information because likely we're going to hear about it because it's a big change. And so we just didn't explicitly say that, assuming that. Giving you the information is telling you what I'm saying is when I put that information in there, I'm assuming you realize it likely could bubble up to the point that you're going to hear about it. But what I could do is find a way to prioritize the information so I can work with the team on maybe a little code or something. Right. Because y'all already do the color codes already, which is great. That helps me a lot when I take my
031notes. And I say attachment. Yeah, but maybe, I don't know. bolding it or italicizing or something like some whatever code y'all come up with and notify us what the code is. I think that'll help out a lot. So people, when they read it, prioritize it. A little red flag. That's what I do in high school. Like when I send stuff out, I do the red little flag. Like, Hey, for, for items that I think it's good. It's easy for items that you anticipate, um, could get feedback. I think, uh, Ms. Hum has done a really good job in the past. you know, some FAQs and how we might be able to respond to that. Putting that, I think also in the memo would be useful because I think there's sometimes where I might read a
032description of a change that's going to happen. And I'm maybe not thinking about the obvious questions that might come out of it, but you all are, because you've probably already have the answers prepared and maybe just putting that into the memo might also help not only with the. the questions if we're asked, but I think it'll also help us understand the implications of the change. Like, oh, by doing this reorganization, staff might have to get moved from here to there. And that might not necessarily be obvious from a lay person's read. What we could do is maybe we'll add a statement here, Aaron, that says, right, if it's something. that requires an FAQ, it's, you know, highlighted or something that gives the talking points that when it's controversial or something that rises to that level
033will include some talking points. I mean, we, whatever I put in the memo. Prior to, I mean, after it's not confidential anymore, if you're getting front-loaded information, it's obviously not to be used as talking points before we say, please, we're not going to communicate this until Friday, whatever that is. But once we do communicate it, we put it in the memo in a way that you can hopefully use it as talking points. That is, the team is always very thoughtful about. Because we say the board's going to use this when they get asked a question and you can paste right from it. You can use it in your email responses that there is some intentionality there by my team to be thoughtful to give you those. But we could do it more in a talking
034point way to make that easier. Yeah. Yes. We can add a statement there. Yeah, I really like that. I think it's maybe two bullets added to this section, but I have notes. Okay, thank you. Is there anything else with board and superintendent communication? I do have one other thing I want clarification on just because our previous two boards have spent a significant amount of time and it is on board members in the community and it's specifically page 12 item G. So the agreements that we came to in the past, and I just want to make sure you are all on the same page with me on this because there's an impact to both you and me, if you will, you the board. The agreement we came to is. The way our emails are set up
035is you each have an individual Kyrene Governing Board email. However, there is a Kyrene Governing Board email, which when somebody emails, BCCs all five of you. Obviously, BCC for the reason we know that you can't all be on the same email and reply all because of open meeting law. The practice has been, while it doesn't spell it out 100% here, the practice and the agreements we came to based on this was, should an email go to your individual governing board inbox, you can respond on your own if you want. You're welcome to send it to me. If you need help with a response or you need somebody from, say, curriculum or communications to help, you send it to me. And then we help you with that. But if it goes into the Kyrene Governing Board
036inbox, because none of you are able to reply all to that, that the district administration, so whether it's me or somebody on the team, responds on behalf of the board. And that was the language that we had agreed upon. You guys wanted used at the time on behalf of the board. And then I send that to you afterwards, should there be. information that you can also use for talking points. So I, one, want to clarify, is that still the same practice that we want to use? That's what we've been doing. That's a great question. Thank you for that. I personally would like to see responses that go out with my name involved as a board member. I'd like to see it before it goes out. So I don't know if you will agree with me
037or not, but that's just how I feel. I'm a little uncomfortable not even seeing it. The answers are administrative answers. I'm not answering a board perspective. I'm answering from an administrative. This is the information. So I know we had a lot of talk about this because part of the issue is the timing then. You won't be very responsive. two people. I won't be able to get that to all of you to get a response. Then I would have to have all five of you respond back and we have to have a meeting for them to agree before we could send it. So I think that was the reason we didn't do it that way. You five would have to come together, have a meeting and agree that that's what you want to go out. Jordan,
038do you, if you're going to get feedback on it, that's the issue we run into. I, excuse me, I'm sorry. I'm not even asking to make changes or anything. I just want to know what's going out that I'm associated with. And if I have any problem later on, I mean, that's something that we can bring up. Then you'd have to bring it up. I just would like to see it before. So I know what's going out that I'm associated with. I mean, I do it pretty much simultaneously. So are you talking like a day before? Are you? I mean, I don't know what everybody else is at, but typically as soon as I hit send to the. to the response, then I forward the response so you can see the response immediately. Is there any
039time limit for any legal reason that's important to stick with? Just being responsive. Emails to the governing board don't have a specific time associated with them. I was wondering more, so it's an administrative desire to be prompt and answer quickly. Which I get. I understand that. We really do try. But again, sometimes I'm not the one actually doing the responding. It's one of my directors. It's one of the executive directors that has to weigh in. Sometimes I have Jordan weighing in, depending administratively what the answer is. But again, I get all that. I understand and appreciate the desire to answer in a timely manner, especially if it's something serious, you know, that needs a quick answer. I just, there must be a way to make it so that we can see it at least before
040it goes out. Well, I could hit send to you first and we could have a, maybe an hour or two hours or something. I just don't have a way to know, right, how quickly you're getting that. We could also change the language. So it says typically, right, on behalf of the governing board, I'm Superintendent Tenius Wright, or whoever is responding on behalf of the governing board, thank you for your patience. We could change that heading if you didn't like that on behalf of the governing board. I think I know Member Walsh has something to chime in here. I'd like to hear kind of what... If we're going to make a change in anything as far as process goes, I'd like to have some kind of consensus about what we all want to do. So, Member
041Walsh. I think your ability to respond quickly is imperative. I have no problem tweaking the language to take the words on behalf of the board out because I understand your concern. If something's being said on your behalf, you know, it could be something like the board has asked that I respond to the email. And I think that's the same message. And it's not necessarily on your behalf. Now it's you sending the message. Yeah. I think getting into a prior notice issue could just logistically become challenging. So although I do appreciate that on key things you usually do, and I hope you continue to do that. But I think to address Member Davis's concern, I'd be fine with just taking the on behalf language out. Yeah, me too. And you notice, yeah, that's fine. We can
042work on the front end of that. We also have a statement that was shared with me from another board about. Also putting something that, and I think we addressed this up in C, you brought this up, I know, President Nelson, when you first joined, about why you don't reply all and why you're not all replying on the same email. So when people are emailing you so they know. So we could add that to the bottom of the signature line, too. Yes. That just says the reason the board does not reply all is because it would be in violation of open meeting law. So you technically can't do that. And let's put the statute there, too, so they can actually. like in case they think we're lying. So there is also language because the governing board
043at Kyrene.org email address is. Not everyone's going to know it, obviously. We have a section on the page when people look for the governing board about contacting the governing board where it speaks to if you want to contact someone individually to click on their picture. But it does have a whole paragraph about individual board members won't respond. The email is going to go to district administration as well. And district administration is likely to follow up. to the question. So we do try to front load that to people who send to that inbox so they know to expect the response from administration. And conversely, I think there's been some emails where the general inbox was not used. On purpose. Correct. And I'm glad that we give that option and that we give that transparency in the
044description. But just to clarify for Member Davis and the language that Superintendent Tenias was saying, we could also look to tweak that language to make it clear that the response from the administration is. To the administrative question, not necessarily on behalf of the governing board. Not on behalf of how they would vote, especially like that's where we don't. So I like that language. The board has, you know, asked us to administratively respond, something like that. The other thing is when it does go into your individual inbox, it doesn't mean so. over the years, many board members have forwarded something and said, can you help me with a response? Right. Because administratively, you're the one you're and when I say you always know, I mean, my team, because it's definitely not just me. It is somebody
045on the administrative team that's probably in in the work and knows the answer. And so many times board members will forward that individual response and say, can you help me with a response or can you give me those talking points? And then we'll send them back. So that you have the correct information to respond. Yeah, that all sounds great. Thank you. But I think we've done a good job. At least I recall like getting text messages, obviously individually. Hey, check your, you know, ahead of time. Like letting us know that this went out or that went out. Not trying to add extra work, but. is there something we can do? Like, I'm good with it. I understand the process, but like, um, remember Walsh mentioned and didn't remember David said maybe like an hour. Is
046that, is that extra work for people or no? No, I mean, I can, it's just like, if we don't respond, like, if you know, yeah, I just, I wouldn't necessarily want to hold it till I heard that. The problem is what I can't have you do, because again, we'd be in violation and I say, I, but legally what we can't have you do is me send. here's what I'm going to send to the community. And then you all start writing back saying, no, change this. No, we don't like that. No, I want this. No, because then you all have to come together and publicly vote in a meeting. You can't say no, if you will. So when I send it back to that person, like I said, I've been doing it simultaneously at the same
047time because that's made sense. But I mean, I could set the email to say, go to the board here and... the person 30 minutes later. Yeah, I appreciate that. I just want the clarification. Yeah, thank you. And also, unless Jordan tells us otherwise, I know different board members have different preferences on responding. Even when it comes to the mass inbox, there's no issue with you individually replying to say thanks for your message. Appreciate you reaching out and sharing your feedback. Sincerely, Member Davis. We're not getting into answering the substantive question. It's more of just thanking them for reaching out. And what I don't do on behalf of the board, right, is I'm only answering the administrative pieces of here is the actual information. What I'm not doing is saying, here's what the board thinks. Here's
048what the board's planning to do. Here's, I don't do any of that. Nor should we be doing that on an individual response. Exactly. None of us should be doing that. The only time we speak in those terms, if you will, is after the board has voted on something and the next day a big communication is going out to the community, say, whether it's internal or external, to say, hey, the governing board voted on this and this is what they said. That is the only time that the district is sending information out on behalf of what the board has voted on. All right. Looks like we've got consensus. All right. Okay, that was it for the major items in the document or at least the sections people wanted to address as far as changes go. Is
049there anything that's come to mind in the interim? Okay, the other piece, remember Davis, we're doing great on time. Your glossary, I'd be really interested in what specific words. Okay, just for example. I, again, I, when we talk about this, the school community, I don't know exactly what that means. This may seem a little nitpicky, but it's sincere. You know, I, I think especially in these times that we're in, language is really, really important and diverse stakeholders and questions the purpose of the handbook. I think it's important to define words that we commonly use, and we may all agree on what they mean, but I'm not sure that everybody who reads our stuff agrees. The word community, I mean, I'm going to go back to something that happened to me early on in my campaign,
050where, in fact, the very first person I spoke to, I said something about... He said, well, I send my kids to private school or something. I said, okay, great. You know, public schools, we're here to, in my opinion, build community, build up our community. And he said, it's not my community. So we clearly disagreed on what community meant. Things that are going on today, I think it's really important for us to define what we mean by the Kyrene school community. Even if it's just everyone who lives in the district boundaries. I mean, I can't say exactly, because that's what I would hope we'd have a conversation about. And you may not have that concern. It's just something that I, language is very important right now. We're in a position to define community the way we
051wish it to be because we're elected. And I think that would be a nice thing for us to do for the benefit of our kids and our Kyrene community. We use the words a lot. I'm not sure we all believe that it means the same thing. I would make the case that it's okay if it doesn't mean the same thing for a community like Kyrene. It could be those that send their kids to Kyrene schools. It could be those that live in the community and support public schools but don't have kids going to the school. It could be people that are making other choices for education that are still in our community. I mean, I don't know that it matters. I agree with you, but I would like to have that said. Yeah, I don't
052know how you want to... I'm curious how we address it in policy because I know we've had this discussion before around. I'm looking at Jordan's number of walls. I feel like we've talked about stakeholders in abundance and how to get feedback and what they need. So I know we've had this discussion before and it always kind of dissembles. We've talked. significantly about parent-guardian, what it means, whether parent, legal guardian, we've taken the position for all of our policies, we use parent-slash-guardian, and we define out all of the individuals who may or may not meet those requirements. I don't recall, and we have not defined in our glossary of terms, community or school community. And I think to Superintendent Tenya's point, and as Member Davis said, I think it does mean different things to different people.
053So I'm not sure we'd be able to come to an agreement on what it necessarily means, because people are going to read it and say it's your tax base. People are going to read it and say it's the kids that go to your school and their parent slash guardian and the staff. So I don't know if there's necessarily a need to have that specifically defined. I don't know that from a legal standpoint, you know, we are just talking about how you as a governing board and the superintendent are interacting with the public at large. which I will tell you includes more than students who are just coming to Kyrene and families, to your point. And it probably involves beyond our boundaries as well. I agree. Why can't we say that? I don't understand why we
054can't actually say that, that that's what it means to us. We can cover that. And I think it is necessary because when... Someone says to me, and yes, it was just one person, but it indicated a larger issue for me. Personally, again, you may all disagree with me, and that's fine, but I feel a need to bring it up, that a lot of people say, if my kids don't go to your schools, I'm not part of the Kyrene community. And I disagree with them. I don't think that's what public school means. You may not disagree with them. You know, whatever. But it's kids who go to Kyrene. It's kids who don't go to Kyrene. It's people who live in our school district. It's public school, whatever. the whole society potentially. I would say for me,
055if someone says they aren't in community with me, I believe them and I honor their choices. But I think when I hear like the school community, I think we saw a really great illustration of this during our many long range planning feedback committees. Not everybody had a student or we had so many people that somehow felt connected to. Kyrene as a community. I don't know that it matters that their kids went there or anything. We had people, I just like living in this area and so I care. I've never had kids. I think it's anybody who feels and wants to be in community with you and is invested in Kyrene's future. To me, that is our community. I mean, yes, we have a fiduciary responsibility to our taxpayers. That's a whole separate thing. But I
056think if you're talking about the community philosophically, people who want to be in community with us and are invested in the future of Kyrene for whatever reason. I think that sounds lovely. And I would love to say something like that. Exactly. So why don't we do this? I do think our glossary of terms, I just looked at them as well. Maybe we can try to work on a statement. Yeah. I don't know how often we use the word community in the policy manual, so I would need to go see that first. I'm not sure that there's very many policies. If the word is not in any policies, then it probably doesn't make sense to put it there. But maybe we could add a statement that just says. I do think we have to be somewhat
057because it's one of those topics that. legally again, right? If it's not in the policy manual, and I honestly don't think that it is, I wonder if we could put just something very simple in the purpose of the handbook. Perfect. It's an opening paragraph talking about how we intergage with this, something about the wider group of whomever wants to be in community with us. I think that's a very simple place to put it. And with that, does everybody else feel comfortable with that? I got a thumbs up. I will just let you know that I just did a very quick search. The word community appears in 26 of your policies. Oh, well, I'm great. I was just going to do the search. Good job. 26. So let us, let us maybe, if you would be
058okay with this. read where it shows up 26 times to get a feel for that. And I will work with Aaron and Jordan, similar to like when we brought the last and we'll make a recommendation, whether it goes here or here. I just do think we have to be thoughtful that while we may define it, right? If somebody in our, what we've now defined as a community does not believe they're part of our community, it doesn't make them part of it just because we said, right? Well, I'm looking for us to make an affirmative statement of what. We're basically talking about everyone. But now I want to be now that it's showing up 26 times in our policy manual, I want to make sure that we are very clear because I don't want to get
059us into any kind of on it in our in our desire to, you know, state what we feel about community. I don't want to put us at odds with anything we have written from a policy perspective. And that would bring up a whole other subject that we'd have to get into, I think. It's a lot. And you know what, Jordan, did you look at our diversity, equity and inclusion policy? Do we define it? Because we do have a whole lot of definitions underneath there. But the word community comes in there quite a bit. It also comes up under board authority responsibilities. When people, right, like you can get a, we even have policy around community complaints. Let's say we get a complaint from, and that's really what it's meant as external. It's not a staff
060member. Correct. I'm looking at the diversity, equity, and inclusion. We don't specifically define community to President Nelson's point. My one concern would be if we. And we'll look at the 26 policies and how we're using the phrase. I don't want to create a duty for us to be doing things that extends beyond our legal duty, where we could create liability to people by bringing them in when we're not actually responsible for them. But as a starting point, having a nice broad definition that is limited to this handbook would be fine. And then we can explore whether that needs to go into the policy and how. But that's not a conversation for tonight. And I'm just glancing without going into deep looking what I believe where the word community is used in policy is basically to
061identify anybody external. So it's you're not your employees. Everybody else is considered a community member. It's also not your parents or guardians, although it could be. But it's really used in policy to mean external. So they're not part of the current system. Well, let's see where it goes. Thanks for that. In advance. So that's an example. There are others, but I don't feel the need to really, unless you would like me to talk to every single one, but that's the big one for me is the word community. I'm willing to let go of the others if you would prefer, you know. Ms. Hum, depending on how this shakes out, we just might need throughout the handbook. to make sure when we use the word community that it's reflecting that. For example, on page 12, it
062says board members should refer staff and community members to appropriate administrators. I think from what I heard from this conversation, we include staff in our definition of community. So we might say staff and other community members or whatever the case may be, I would defer to you. But I think just that change may flow through a couple places rather than just the front page. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other items for consideration? All right, seeing none, I know he's superintendent. I was just going to give a timeline. So our next meeting is the 12th. We will not have this ready by Tuesday, nor have we already kind of already started the agenda for Tuesday. We're going to have a pretty, sorry, pretty full agenda. So if it would be okay, if we could have, do
063we think by the end of the second May meeting, Aaron? We can get something together. So by the May, what I would do is I'll put the draft of the red line. So I'll take this one. So you'll see it. It won't be pretty. You'll just see the word copy, but we'll red line it. And Jordan, Aaron, and I will work on this together. We'll get something in that memo ahead of time before that meeting. So you guys have a chance to look at it or catch anything that we might have missed. And then on the May 28th, I think it's the 28th. meeting we will 26 i'm sorry may 26 meeting we will bring it then for the board what we've done in the past is it just becomes an agenda item for the
064board to adopt the red line versions just like we would policy and then once the board adopts then we'll update it and get it on the website um as soon as it's adopted anything you want to add to that jordan not to that specifically but president nelson if i may remember davis Without going into the same level of detail that we just did with community, I would be interested in knowing what are the other terms, if there's five, ten, whatever, that you have questions about. Because as we're going through this, to the extent we're adding a glossary or anything, that we can clarify those items, I would like to do that. Okay, well, one of my favorites is stakeholders, as you all know. I don't know how stakeholders and community, how we're going to come
065out with definition of community and how stakeholders will be different or the same as community members. And maybe that might suggest that we could use community instead of stakeholders. functionally. That was one. And let's see. There was other language, but those were the two big words. And the other language wasn't such a big deal that I couldn't live with it and needed to say something. It was just notes to myself. Dear self, I will say if something occurs to me, I will let you know. So, President Nelson? Yes. In board prep meeting section on page nine, Ms. Helm, there's language that says that we're going to have board prep prior to each board meeting. In practice, that doesn't actually happen. So, there might be some board meetings where we don't have board prep, so you
066might just make that a little more loose. Nine. Nine, yep, yep. First paragraph, yeah, yeah. That's fine. That's easy. That is true. We don't always have board prep. Yep. Okay. Thank you. I want to thank everybody for their feedback. I think this was a good conversation. I look forward to what Ms. Helm and Superintendent Tenias bring back to us as far as a red line. With that being said, item 3.1 is adjournment and the board retreat is adjourned at 6.06 p.m.