State Board of Education, January 8, 2026

001I have to create an account to lo >> testing. One, two, three. >> Testing, testing. We'll get started in just a second. Feel free to keep talking. >> Good. Oh, hi. >> Good morning. >> Okay. Uh, good morning. We will started with the January 8th, 2026 state board meeting at 92. Will you please join me in a moment of silence before we get started? Would you please stand and join me in 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. >> Thank you. If you'll remain standing, we're going to sing the national anthem. I'm going to introduce Maggie Kennedy. She is a ninth grader from is going to

002be singing for us. And then we also have Annabelle Flores who will be signing So we Watch the boats. Let our flag still of the home of the y. So, I don't want to put on the spot, but we would love if you just introduce yourself and give us just a little bit about you. >> Yeah, I'm Maggie Kennedy. I've been homeschooled for my whole life and I really love it. So, Uh, what sports do you play? What are you involved in? >> I play volleyball and I do uh sometimes I do acting in like community theaters and I do um voice with Miss Angela Collier. >> And have you always enjoyed singing? >> I have. I've done it since I was little. So, yeah. >> Thank you so much. >> Yes. Would you like

003a picture? >> Sure. >> Okay. I was gonna give the opportunity to also introduce herself. not put you on the spot. >> Hello, I'm Annabelle Flores. I'm a senior this year. >> Excellent. >> Do you have any questions for me? >> What are your plans after school? So, I'm planning to go to college and I'm planning to do cosmetology so that I can focus on styling hairs. Um, I think what we'll do if you guys want to have a seat, we're gonna introduce another recognition we have and we'll do pictures right at the end that works for you guys. Yeah, Dr. Pride. >> Good morning, Keify Pride, assistant commissioner of learning services. And I have the pleasure this morning to um honor our Arkansas History Teacher of the Year award for 2025. Uh, the Arkansas

004History Teacher of the Year Award is presented annually by the Gilder Laramman Institute of American History, the nation's leading organization dedicated to K12 American history education. This award highlights the crucial importance of history education by honoring exceptional American history teachers from elementary through high school. We proudly recognize Elizabeth Puit as the 2025 Arkansas History Teacher of the Year. Desi is honored to present this award to Miss Puit. Before I present it, I want to share some of her key accomplishments that reflect her impact in history for teaching history. Miss Puit is in her sixth year of teaching in Arkansas public schools where she inspires students through her AP United States history, AP psychology, and United States history since 1929. She teaches currently at Mills University Studies High School. She's taught seventh grade honors, Arkansas history,

005world geography, general Arkansas history, and world geography. Um, in for seventh graders, eighth grade, she's also in at taught American history at P Ridge Junior High School. Miss Puit earned her bachelor of arts in history and masters of arts and teaching from the University of Arkansas. She holds an Arkansas educator's license in social studies 7 through 12, English language arts 7 through 12, and teaching English to speakers of other languages. Some professional accomplishments for Miss Puit. She serves as department chair of the design career academy, mentors three novice teachers through bi-weekly coaching, and serves on the guiding coalition in AVID site team, participating in the national endowment for the humanities Nelson Hackett Project summer teaching institute institution at the University of Arkansas, a selective two-week study of Arkansas and US history. She serves as served

006as an adject adjunct professor at St. at John Brown University, teaching world regional geography and preparing future educators. She designed a year-long historical research project for junior high school students, co-developed a professional development curriculum with Economics Arkansas and Arkansas State Parks, earned her national board certification in December 2025, demonstrating advanced expertise and positive impact on student learning. Miss Puit inspires her students by integrating Arkansas history into the social studies classroom through primary resources and creative projects. From children's books about historical figures to comic strips that illustrate key events, she makes history engaging and accessible. We are proud to honor her as the 2025 Arkansas History Teacher of the Year. So, Elizabeth Puit. I just wanted to recognize her. Um, her administrator here today is Mr. Charles Rimmer. He's the assistant principal at Mills High School.

007She also has family here with her, her husband. Anybody else? Okay. Yeah. So, she's gonna say just a few things. Yeah. Um I'm just so thankful for this award. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Um I'm really blessed to get to teach history. I think it's um one of the most important things that you know I've done with my life. So I really enjoy it. >> Thank you so much. >> Have any questions? >> Congratulations. I'm super excited. We would love to come get a picture with you as well. That works. One, two, three. One, two, three. Thank you. Are you That was beautiful. How are you doing? >> Good. >> Happy new year. >> Why is there >> new tie facial hair? Next thing you're going to grow on your head and then

008we're like >> okay. Do we have any changes to the agenda? >> Okay. Um, at this time it's my understanding that we have Representative Alyssa Brown here and I wanted to give her a moment just out of deference to her schedule if you want to come and make a few comments. Thank you so much for joining us today. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, board. Representative Alyssa Brown, District 41. I feel kind of like a fish out of my normal pond, still in water. Um, but it's an honor to be here with you all today. I just want to thank you for the work that you do. um and for giving me a brief moment to address you this morning. Thank you, Secretary. Um I'm here today because I have the honor of representing

00932,000 Aransens in District 41 and one of those Aranons, one of my constituents is Miss Mandy Goodwin and there is a hearing for her today. Um I know that there has been a ruling and I won't pretend to be an attorney. I won't pretend to do your job better than you, but I have known Mandy, Miss Goodwin, for many years now and I happen to see her uh most Sundays. And so I do want to speak on behalf of her character and just let you know um that I truly believe she has made a good faith effort to be an educator uh that is worthy of her responsibility with our students and um I understand that this board must take responsible measures to ensure that this is an isolated event. I believe in accountability. Trust

010me, I do not envy your position today and I will not tell you how to do your job. I believe in accountability and I believe um in taking appropriate measures, but I am here today to advocate on behalf of not just her um but I have received many emails, many multiple letters, calls from teachers and uh parents in Concord School District where Mandy is currently in employment today. And if this ruling goes through, it's my understanding, please forgive me if I make mistakes in this speech, it's my understanding that if your ruling goes through today, it'll be a one-year suspension and some other things. And they have let me know, multiple of them have let me know how much they will be disappointed by that. And so I am just here today because I took

011that oath to represent my constituents in the legislature, but also in moments like this when I can speak on their behalf. And I couldn't speak on every teacher's behalf in my district. And I'm not necessarily speaking on behalf of the case because I know you guys have to follow rules and regulations. And I know that you guys do your job to the best of your ability with the facts you are given. But I wanted to come here today and do my job on behalf of my constituents. And so, um, I believe that this is a lesson well learned. I think my first communications with Miss Goodwin on this case, I think happened about a year ago, and I've heard many different commentary from people in my district. And so, I believe it's a lesson well

012learned. Um, and I believe that Mandy is a teacher that we need in Arkansas. what that looks like after today, I don't know. But I do want it to be on record that even with a ruling today where wherever it may go, that I came here to advocate for her. And again, I wouldn't be able to do that for everyone. And so I thank you for your time. Um I hope that I didn't dishonor my office or this case. Um but I'm also here to learn and to listen and and watch as you guys roll. And so, um, Concord is in my school district or is in my district. They're a school there and I wanted to honor them and stand on behalf of them today. The parents and the teachers who have reached out

013to me and asked me to do so. And so, I thank you for your time. Um, again, I feel like a a fish out of out of water, but I'm here in good faith because I believe that Mandy um is doing what she can, Miss Goodwin is doing what she can to learn from this and to continue to walk out and be an educator in Arkansas and we are all students first and I understand um y'all put that priority in place too and I believe that Mandy does too. So, thank you all. Appreciate your time. >> Thank you, Representative. >> Okay. I think we're gonna start with the first action item. Stacy Smith. >> Good morning. Stacy Smith, deputy commissioner. Um, first action item is um has our rules. Kevin, do we have the slide

014deck? These rules are the rules um governing the Arkansas adult diploma program. These rules have been presented to this board before. Let me let me keep clicking here. There we go. All right. These rules have been presented to this board before and released for public comment period. um they have done the public comment period and now they're back before this board for final approval for state board of education which is step number three there. Um once you approve them they then go to the Arkansas Legislative Council. All right. Um so these were the rules governing the adult program. If you have any specific questions pertaining to the program, Ross White is here and he can go into deeper conversation about those. But mainly these were existing rules that had some legislative things that needed to

015be definitions needed to be cleaned up and they had to clarify the payment process for the program and those were the changes that were actually made to the rules. So I'd ask this board for approval for um final approval to move to ALC. Any questions? I need a motion to send overc. >> Seconded by Dr. Abbott. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> All right. Salace board. Chief Chief Salace board. >> The actual No, I I'm just blessed to follow the infamous Stacy Smith. Um, good morning, Courtney Solace for the department. Um, I am bringing to you a very important but minor issue. Um, you all are required by law to each year authorize to pay yourselves um a stipen for your meeting um for attendance

016obviously and any expense reimbursement for mileage. Um, in the past it has been set at $85 per meeting. Um, and so you do have authority to increase that or to say stay at that rate that it has been for many, many, many years. So with that, I will kick it to the board. >> I'm just going to go on record that I think this is so funny that we have to approve our own stuff, but I also know Congress does it. So um, does anybody have any questions? Discussion? >> If not, then I need a motion and a second. >> We're all >> Nobody wants to do that. I will make the motion. Okay. Motion by Miss Hunter. Do I have a second? >> Seconded by Mr. Henderson. All in favor say I. >> Any

017oppose? >> Hearing none. Motion passes. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Then we are going to move on to the consideration of the PLSB case number 25-223. So Miss Mandy Goodwin, if you're going to be testifying, I need you to stand up so that I can administer an oath. >> Anybody else? If you'll raise your right hand, do you solemnly affirm and swear that the what you will be testifying today will be the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Thank you. All right, let's get started. Um, I think we're going to have Mr. Schultz come up and he's going to give us our rules for the road. >> Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the board. Um, as I'm sure y'all are well aware, this is a

018PSB review of a hearing committee determination. The educator has appealed that decision for your consideration. Uh this hearing is a consideration of the transcript, the pleadings and the oral argument only. Uh the educator will be provided 10 minutes. Uh the PLSB will then be provided 10 minutes. Uh the chair can add additional time for uh at at the chair's discretion for cause. the the also at the request of the board uh the PSB investigator or the educator can uh be asked to answer questions. Uh all testimony provided by the educator and the PSB will be given under oath this process. Those are the only testimony we should receive. >> Thank you. >> And I just want to for the benefit of our newer board members make sure we are looking for whether or not the

019act was committed, the sanction and then the rationale. Is that correct? Those are the decisions for us today. >> Yes, ma'am. Okay. >> Thank you. >> So, as we go through, there will be three different motions. Just Okay. Then, Mr. Keys. >> Thank you, members of the board. Always good to be in front of you. I was dropping my kids off at school today. I told my 8-year-old I was going to help a teacher uh try to keep her license today. And my 8-year-old said, "Well, I sure hope she's able to keep driving." Um, and it reminded me how great it is to be a kid in Arkansas and and not have to worry about some of the the weighty decisions we have. Um, I represent Mandy Goodwin and I can truly say it's an

020honor to be able to represent her on this issue today regarding her teaching license. U, the recommendation before you is a one-year suspension of her license. And I think that there are a lot of facts that are that were unclear to the subcommittee and we want a chance to clarify those today. I think a lot of that is because in this process, as you may be aware, you go into the subcommittee with one issue that's been presented. You know, there's no discovery in these issu in these matters. You just show up at the hearing and you know what the complaint is. And so we knew that the complaint was a prayer with a student, but then when we go into the hearing and they last hours, um, which is understandable, we need to get down

021to the the meat of the issue, the board members or the committee members are able to ask questions. A lot of other things are brought up and I just feel like some of the facts that were brought up or some of the issues that were brought up, the facts weren't clear and we want opportunity to clarify that today. I want to make sure that I this is the Concord community. Um, Mandy did not ask one person to be here. She said she couldn't even turn around to see who was here because of how emotional it is. But she has huge support from her community. This is her husband Blake who um at was previously a volunteer AAA volunteer and um he's here today to support her. Her two daughters um Ally and Anna who were

022both part of this. They were part of a Bible study that you may have read about and her current superintendent Mr. Wallace who fully supports her. I think we have a board member from Concord and then her previous superintendent is also here as well, Mr. Jeff Williams. Um, and you know, they want her to return to Concord High School, Chesape. So, we're excited about that. Um, I want to let her talk and clarify things because I know that you don't want to hear from lawyers, you want to hear from her, and then I will help clarify anything I can, but we just want to make sure that you as a board know the facts. What started as a simple voluntary prayer with a student who Mandy and her husband had prayed for many times before,

023a very troubled student in a very difficult situation, has been contorted into something it's not with talks of demons and rape and suicide. And that's just those facts are not accurate. And we want to clarify that for you today. So, I'm going to let Mandy talk and share with you. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to stand before you today and to speak as part of this appeal process. I appreciate your time and your willingness to listen. I began coaching more than 20 years ago because of the impact my own coach has had on my life. I played sports through high school and college and I personally experienced the pressures, insecurities, and emotional challenges that a young female athlete faces. At the beginning of my career, I did not yet have my own children.

024But even then, I understood the student athlete often carries burdens far beyond the game. Over the years, those pressures have only increased for these students. My purpose as a coach has always been to help young women grow, not just as athletes, but as people, but as people. I've always tried to teach communication, teamwork, respect, and resilience with the hope that my players would become confident leaders in their families, careers, and communities. I have never viewed coaching as just my job. It is my calling. The incident that brings me before you today arose from a single voluntary prayer offered on a Sunday for a student player who had experienced repeated seizures. This prayer did not occur during instructional time or on school activ or school activity but on a weekend and was completely voluntary. I asked

025the student for permission to pray with her and I also asked the adult caring for her at the time if she would be okay and they both said yes. The prayer was arranged on a Sunday so it not so it would be outside of school hours and my husband and I met the student at the school gym. The prayer was offered only because the student was hurting, scared, and in physical distress for several months. We previously planned to meet at the home where the student was staying. She was staying with the mother of the then boyfriend, but the adult was sick that day, and the meeting at her home was not available. So, she suggested that we pivot to the gym where I had access. The student was someone my husband and I had coached

026for several years both in school and travel sports. She was a professing Christian active in my Fellowship of Christians athlete program and had prayed with me before. Nothing about the prayer was intended to be secretive or coercive. My husband was also present along with the students boyfriend and a couple of others who were practicing ball in the gym. And the family member who brought the student was also invited to stay but refused. I understand now that even with good intentions, certain words or situations can be misunderstood or later viewed differently. I am truly sorry that any words spoken by me or in my presence, cause discomfort or distress. I take responsibility for how people felt. Even though my intent was never to harm, frighten or pressure anyone in any way. I ask you to understand

027that these moment what these moments were like. It was a tough year. Please place yourself in a moment when a player's crying. I'm telling you, coach, it just hurts so bad. Sorry. It hurts so bad while holding her head. Or a moment when a student has been medfotted and you're told the outlook does not look good. or moments when you're physically holding a student during a seizure to keep them from hurting being hurt. In these moments, I was not acting for attention, influence, or personal gain. I was acting out of care and concern. I do live my faith openly and understand that this can make some uncomfortable. My faith has never been about control, judgment, or fear. It has always been about compassion, hope, and helping others through a difficult moments. That said, this process

028has caused me to reflect deeply. I now better understand how even well-intended words can be interpreted differently, especially when students are vulnerable. Going forward, I will be more cautious, more deliberate, and more aware of how my actions may be perceived. What has been especially difficult for me in this time and in the days that followed, the student did not appear to be distressed by the prayer. In fact, she told my daughter the next morning how much better she felt and ran up to my husband the same way. To say the same, she was excited that her headaches were gone and went several months without another seizure. I was grateful and believed she had found some relief and I still thank God for that. Her suicidal thoughts that were mentioned had been a year prior to

029this. I did not take opportunity to fill Miss Wilson in because the things became stirred and the student was was okay at that moment because I asked her if she had told anyone the previous year and she said yes. Since then, I've taken classes to find if I was supposed to report. Even though it had been a year later, I have not found that answer. So, I apologize if I did mishandle that. I respectfully ask the board to consider that multiple administrators, the superintendent, principal, counselor, school board, and later the interim superintendent at this school reviewed the situation firsthand and were going to allow me to return to my coaching and teaching duties. These individuals knew the student, knew me, and evaluated the matter with full context. I am deeply troubled that a voluntary prayer

030offered with permission and meant only to help has led to possibility of a year-long suspension. I would never tell a student they were demonpossessed, and that accusation is contrary to my beliefs. I understand how references to spiritual struggles may have been mischaracterized through hearsay, but that portrayal does not reflect what truly occurred. I stand before you today not claiming perfection. I have failed students before and I will fail again. But I can say with certainty that my motives have never been rooted in harm or personal gain. I respectfully ask that no more students including including my own daughter be impacted by this decision any longer. Please also consider with both the Bible study and the credibility of the lady who filed. I gave the investigator witnesses I was told by her that she would interview

031anyone with firsthand knowledge of the complaints. However, the other parents during the Bible study were not contacted. The other lady at the school who was guardian that filed tried to get fired was never contacted. She is the other person S1 stayed with a lot because she is the mother of students best friend. Also my husband only the other one in the room was not interviewed. Both incidents with the two students were stated by adults not there. I understand not talking with S1 but why could we not have spoken with S3? The adults mentioned in the complaints are friends and I'm not saying they were purposeful in it but there are condemning lies in both stories. I feel my livelihood career is on trial because of events going through one person to another to become the

032rhetoric it has become. I thank you for your time. I thank you for your service and for allowing me to be heard. Thank you. We have the current superintendent who is just going to say that, you know, she has a job at Concord. We want her at Concord. So, if you want to hear from him, you can. But that's the crux of that. >> Okay. We're going to hear from the department, give them their 10 minutes and then we may as a board have questions for you or the superintendent. >> Just a point of clarification on the rules. Only the educator, myself, and Mr. Keys are able to speak during the hearing. Yes, ma'am. Um, again, my my name is Whitney James with the department. I haven't met everybody here, but everyone else has seen

033me before. Um, in this case, Miss Mandy Goodwin, a veteran educator and coach, demonstrated a pattern of disregard for ethical and professional boundaries with students. Specifically, invasive, lengthy personal counseling of a student in conjunction with a prayer in a locker room behind locked doors outside of camera view in violation of school policy, and with the educator's husband, a volunteer coach, present in the locker room. The student was med medically fragile as you have heard uh due to a head injury and she had been experiencing stress induced seizures at the time of this conversation. She had also experienced trauma unrelated to the seizures. The student reported to Miss Goodwin that she had thoughts of suicide. And before I go on, there are some children in the room. I don't know if we want to give the

034opportunity for their parents to >> Okay, >> I'll say there's the warning. So, if you don't want your children here, you can ask them to leave and they can come back in when we're done with this portion. >> Okay. Uh, Miss Goodwin counseledled the student herself instead of following the training required by law for all educators and seeking professional help for the student. She failed to report the students suicidal thoughts that came up during this conversation to the school counselor, a mental health professional, or the students parents. There was discussion with a different student, someone other than S1, we'll call her S3, uh regarding viewing pornography, there was testimony about it, about that at the hearing, as being a possible reason for that student, S3, experiencing seizures. Uh, Miss Goodwin allowed her husband to discuss

035his premarital sex history with students while on a school trip during a Bible study session. Uh, she also shared private information about student medical conditions on a public forum, namely Facebook. Uh, based on the evidence presented and the testimony given during the investigation, and again, she had a full evidentiary hearing during which she was able to call all witnesses that she felt like had information. uh related to our case. The ethics subcommittee found that the educator, Miss Mandy Goodwin, violated standards one and two of the code of ethics and recommended suspension of license for one year, followed by probation for two years. And the ethics hearing, the ethics subcommittee also recommended training, coursework, written reflections, and quarterly reports from the educator's supervisor when she is on probation. Again, the educator requested an evidentiary hearing which

036we had on September the 10th of 2025. It was almost eight hours long. At the hearing, the PLSB called witnesses. The educator was allowed to present her case and she and her husband both testified. The five members of the ethics hearing subcommittee unanimously upheld the recommendation of the ethics subcommittee. And the PLSB does not take the position that the ethics violations were related to the prayer or any religious exercise that occurred. The PLSB does take the position that the recommended sanction is based on other inappropriate, unethical, and unprofessional misconduct that fell outside of any protected religious liberty or expression. The sanction recommended by both the ethics subcommittee and the ethics hearing subcommittee should be upheld. Thank you. Um start Mr. Wood start Mr. Anderson. >> No questions. >> Questions. Do you have chicken? >> Are

037you trained like formally in counseling in any way? >> No ma'am. Can I clarify the statement against so when we were with S1 it was not in counseling. We went over scripture about what we were going to pray. I did not counsel her. Um, I think that's one of the things Mr. Keys was alluding to that have been lost in the shuffle. We were actually speaking on and I made a list how our conversation went. We were talking about hindrances to prayer and then it came up different ones and that's where the statement from the girl came about um that she had had we talked about passing thoughts or she had had that passing thought uh the year previous and I'd asked her if she had received help at that time. It was just a

038real quick moment and she had it wasn't intrusive questioning as I feel like has been brought about with uh with the statements. We went on to talk about different scriptures before we prayed with her. Um but no, I have not had the training but I just wanted to clarify this counseling session because it was not a counseling session. Um it was more of like a Bible study before we prayed um because we didn't want to do anything to offend her. And I believe you'll find Miss Amy's Wilson's uh counselor had mentioned that we made sure the the young lady was okay with everything. Um and that's why we took her through scripture. >> So is your Thank you for that. Is is this common like you know for and I applaud uh all educators particularly

039those who are so dedicated to their students inside and outside the classroom >> but I mean so is this normal practice for you to recognize one of your students needs or even one of your athletes needs and to pursue >> and it's not the prayer that's not my concern here whatsoever but you you know, to just have heart-to-he heart conversations. >> I'm a ra relational uh coach. I want to make sure they're okay. Um, as I stated in my previous statement, I've seen the struggles, not necessarily with them, even going through trials. Um, I think that's where some of this has been lost in translation, uh, with spiritual struggles, uh, mental struggles. Um, I care about them. I reach I don't pressure by no means. I asked that one time because that had been said.

040I asked that one time in the text to the guardian and the kid and the child young lady if she would be open to the prayer and she said yes of course. So I've asked others um if they're okay. They they know I pray. Not that I, you know, push it on them. Um they'll pray after the ball games and I'll stand by, you know, at the side. And so there are different things and different occasions I that I have prayed with students. >> Well, again I want to be clear that it's not the prayer that is my concern here. >> I don't try to understand how we >> Yeah. Can I add one thing? I think it's also important. S1 was a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. They had been to church

041previously. They have been in Bible studies. So I don't want you to get the impression that Mandy just goes up to students and proitizes because that wouldn't be appropriate in a public school setting. this was a student that had a relationship in a in a forum that that would be allowed through the FCA. So, I think that's really important because that relationship was already there. There was a comfort level and the guardian felt that way as well because the guardian allowed the student that she was actually going to go to their home because she didn't live this was at a previous school. She didn't live there. So, the guardian was fine with it and allowed the student and um so that I think that's important to note. >> I want to ask a clarifying question

042because I thought I understood it and then I don't. So there was an issue with suicidal ideation. Was it a year ago and you failed to report or was it in this conversation? >> It was a year prior to this conversation >> that conversation that she >> But she mentioned it that I learned of it >> and then you didn't report that at the time >> that she had had the thought a year prior. >> Yes. >> Correct. >> You said that in your testimony. And is that this department's position? I guess that's where I'm confused as to what we're talking about. >> It was it was a little unclear, but at the hearing, uh, Miss Goodwin did mention where it became clear for the first time to us that she knew about the students

043suicidal ideiation >> from a year prior. >> I'm not I think this is the first time I've heard of that, but the at the hearing she testified that she did know during that conversation in the locker room that the student had expressed thoughts of suicidal ideiation. Yes, ma'am. >> And clarify though, when was the student told you at that prayer meeting, but when did she say she had had >> the the spring previously and that's when I asked if she had gotten help and was okay, she said yes. >> Okay. So in this conversation she references a year ago I was having suic and being a man response and to the extent that didn't align with that I haven't been able to determine I see best practice you always want to report it a year

044or But in her judgment at the time, a year prior, she's okay. She sought help. And it didn't help that Mandy was placed on leave the next day, >> couple days. >> So, she wasn't able to have any more conversations with administration because she was on leave for this >> or clarify anything. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> I have a question. >> Yes, sir. >> Of the I guess the department. If the prayer that occurred in the locker room had occurred anywhere else, would we be here today? >> The reason that we're here today, if it had been a simple five minute prayer without all of the other >> But no, no, don't get into that. I just want to know if the prayer that occurred on the Sunday in the

045locker room, if it had occurred in someone's home for for instance, or if it had occurred at a gas station or if it had occurred anywhere other than school property, would we be here today? >> To answer your question, I think part of what brings this to you is the fact that she's an educator and the locker room is aggravating. >> Let's just get right to the question though. The question is, if the prayer that occurred on that Sunday had occurred anywhere else, would we be here? >> I can't tell you that because I've never had anything like this come before me. We typically don't authorize cases that are just a simple prayer somewhere other than at school. So, so in in breaking down the prayer that occurred today, I'm I'm going to start from

046the position as that if this had occurred off of school property, there would have been no questions. We have a parent that brought a child to the teacher to be prayed for. There's a lot of consent going on there. And I'm I'm also going to assume into that situation, I'll allow someone to correct me, that the parent could have been present for the actual prayer, but consented to their the child going to a room just with the Am I wrong about that? They told they told them, "Well, what what did the parent do to stop the prayer from occurring at that point?" >> Okay. She was living with someone who was not her legal guardian. >> Fair enough. And I apologize for using the wrong word maybe with the word parent. I understand there guardian.

047So the person responsible for the child, what did they do to stop the prayer from occurring before it began? >> Okay, let me tell you the facts. She did not do anything to stop the prayer. She consented to the prayer. She did not consent to the other things that came with it. She did not consent to the locker room. >> She did. She brought him to the locker room, did she not? >> No. No. The grandmother of the student dropped the student off at the school. >> No. The grandmother of the student >> The grandmother of I'm sorry. The grandmother of S2 dropped the student off at the school with the expectation that it was going to be a quick a reasonably quick prayer. Did not know they were going to take the student into

048the locker room. did not know that there would be nobody else present because S2 walked inside with them. So I think she didn't do anything to stop it because she did not know what was happening. >> but I feel like I'm sorry just but I feel like they consented to the prayer by dropping her off five minutes or 50 minutes. Am I wrong? >> I I I agree with that. I I feel like there was consent to it cap happening. I believe there was a request by the guardian to have this person take them to the school. Is that right? >> I believe so because the guardian had shingles. But it's >> whatever the reason. I I'm not and I'm listen I'm not even questioning that. I'm just saying that from the perspective of the

049educator, you have guardian consenting however many levels ago consented to the student being brought to the teacher for a prayer. and entrusted the student with an adult to take them to the prayer. And then a prayer occurred that in hindsight the guardian and one or more other adults became uncomfortable with. But but they were never denied the opportunity to be there. >> They were asked to stay as well. >> They were g they gave the student permission with certain expectations. How do we know where those voice issues were? Yeah, >> it is it is throughout the testimony at the evidentiary hearing. They testified that they expected the student to be dropped off for a quick prayer. They did not expect that the other conversations would occur. >> But quick prayer, that's not fair to postevent

050judge the educator for praying too long or saying things in the prayer that we didn't think you were going to say before. we allowed our student to come there. >> I believe one of the big concerns is that the educator allowed her husband to talk about his prior thoughts of sexual assault during the prayer. Um there were lots of conversations within that that fell outside of the scope. >> Maybe I might I might could understand that. If that conversation had occurred at Walmart, would we be here today? >> A conversation about sexual assault, I believe. So, yes, sir. >> From a non-licensed educator >> from Oh, do are you are you referencing a conversation with Miss Goodwin and the student? >> I'm referencing what occurred what's alleged to have occurred that a conversation with the

051teacher and the teacher's husband occurred on school property. if that conversation had occurred >> on an aisle at Walmart about and I believe the the husband of the educator said that when he was in high school he had gotten angry and had thoughts of sexual assault. Is that right? >> Yes. If that conversation had occurred, if that was accurate and that occurred in an aisle in Walmart, would the educator be up for one-year suspension of her license today? >> It's possible. Uh we have recommended revocation for one comment of a sexual nature. So, it's possible >> by the educator or by a third party. >> By the educator, >> right? But she didn't >> or allowing I I've never again I've never had a situation like this where an educator allowed her husband to make

052those comments in her presence. >> And I'm not saying if those were true that they were appropriate, but I go back to the point that Mr. Wood had. If this was at Walmart, I don't know that we would be here. >> Can I inter can I offer a counter just a different thought? Um, so one of the things I really tried to do was sort of disentangle the religious aspects of this from the responsibilities of a licensed educator. >> And my concern comes from the assumption that Miss Goodwin was qualified enough to not only diagnose but treat a seizure disorder. In the same way, um, that's where that's where it's problematic for me that in addition to the failure to report, in the same way that a first grade teacher might suspect a student has

053ADHD or suspect that they have dyslexia, it is wildly inappropriate and against all ethical, you responsibility to tell a parent or tell the student, you have ADHD, you have, and here's what we're going to do to treat it. >> We're not diagnosticians. We can't make those assumptions. I do think there was a pattern of um repeated behavior that went beyond her qualifications and role as a teacher. I also believe that if you're standing in an aisle at Walmart and you hear that a student once thought of suicide, it is it is still your obligation to make sure that that had been handled. Um and that is as Mr. Keys said, yes, best practice. that is um I can understand a gray area. Well, I checked and she said it was handled. It is still that's

054the failure to report. You're under an obligation to make sure it's handled. Just like if I were in an aisle at Walmart and overheard that um you know, one of my students uh there was an abuse allegation, I would still do my due diligence to make sure that it had been properly handled because it's not I am not qualified as an educator, nor was she to do the checks and the balances to go through that due process. That's why you turn it over to someone else. So that's where I take issue. I think um without a doubt she put the student in a bad spot in a position where there was a power dynamic there where the student didn't feel like she could say no and I think without a doubt um there was no

055malicious intent here. I think she genuinely as an educator, as a caregiver, had the best interest in heart at heart. And I will always favor and prefer a deeply passionate, caring educator over one that's apathetic and ineffective. I think what's necessary here and ideally for every volunteer coach that's certified through AAA, every pre-educator as an onboarding process is boundaries training. Um that boundary training for educators goes over the emotional and and relationship boundaries because yes, as an as a relational coach, that is at the core of how you can reach your children, but where's the line? The boundary training can help with that. It also goes over power dynamics um so that you can understand when you're putting a child or a parent or a guardian even though they're not the legal guardian in a

056weird situation. Um it goes over communication boundaries so that that AAA coach never ends up in a text group with only children. Um it goes over physical boundaries. Um, and of course risk management, which all I think would have prevented us getting to this position right here. Um, I want you to continue to educate and as you say, help young women grow um in a way that protects the students, protects the district and the school, but also protects you. Because I worry without those boundaries, you're not only opening yourself up to things like this, you're also opening yourself up to caregiver burnout. You can't pour your heart and your soul beyond what you're licensed and paid to do and not have repercussions. So, that's kind of where I stand on the role of the educator

057and the license. >> I have a question and this is let me ask you can can I ask questions of the other board members? >> Oh, yeah. So we can have a discussion all day long if you want to take a seat and discuss. >> Um >> I know we have three motions that we vote on whether it happened whether the punishment is appropriate and I can't >> whether we have to adopt the rationale and I'll just be honest I didn't love this rationale. So I attempted to rewrite if we end up deciding if there was a violation and we have something um I think this was full of subjective inferences on her character rather than facts. And so if we decide there was a violation, I would propose a different rale. >> So my

058question is if we assume that that we vote yes on the first one that it actually occurred the comment about we want teachers to be passionate and involved with their students. What's the chilling effect of punishing a student to the excuse me the teacher by suspending her for a full year >> and so does that That's my one of my concerns. Excuse me. And so it's this the punishment piece is yes or no. It's not as an example three years of probation instead of >> we can we can change this all day long. We can say right now that she didn't violate the standard of ethics and it's over. So just to give >> I'm just I'm just trying to get clarity for my head. >> We are not bound by anything that they relate

059to us. Now a lot of times we will affirm it but we can change any part of this. >> Okay. Thank you. Could I could I ask something of belief? >> Um and and I >> can I say no. >> You probably will. >> Tell me I did not pick up on a power dynamic >> situation. Would you expound for me what you saw that you felt was >> power dynamic situation? Now this was reported from the counselor and the principal who heard it from the student. So again this is you know multiple lines but the student said she didn't feel like she could say no and this is the person who holds her ability to play the game. Is she going to venture? Is she going to favor another kid over me? Is she

060going to am I going to lose my favor with her in the same way that um a boss? And you know that's that's kind of where I'm >> I got you. I I'm concerned about I believe that can exist. >> I'm not sure I would be prepared to say that the question, can I pray for you? Should become off limits. I >> I agree with that. >> I I understand what you're saying and I and I and I think that a response could be, well, she's my coach. How can I say no to her? I think we have to teach society that there are reasonable nos. >> Anyone can say no to a reasonable number of things. There are things that you could be reasonably concerned about. I will I will be punished if I

061say no to this and those would be issues. I'm not I'm not sure that can I pray for you should become an improper question. >> I I absolutely agree with that. One other concern that I had is I this is part of why I believe the intent was true is because they sought consent but not from the right person. That adult who was living in the same home as that child could not offer medical consent, couldn't give consent for her to have her photos elsewhere. the legal guardian is that would have maybe been that's another piece that I thought just so close but maybe not a protection. >> Yes. >> This person, this individual was acting like completely in locus >> and there was no contact with the actual mother who my understanding had abandoned

062the child. And this individual who consented to the prayer was taking the student to school games, doctor's appointments. So I think legally she had full rights to that. >> Um is our understanding. >> And I don't know the rules about like >> you know and I'm equating this to marriage that after seven years you're legally married if you know whatever if you've lived together ex long. >> No common law. >> But what is the rule? You're going to >> get Justin worried. you know that common law marriage but what is the rule for say the in local parents is that the common law parent that where at some point she is allowed to sign off on things for the school or she is the one that it's not a fal violation to talk about the

063academic things where does that line and maybe that's what I don't know enough about >> can I speak >> to well I was going to respond to his statements about the parent >> could I well I've never known anything about the parent if I misspoke it she was never presented by the state department >> I also had a different take my take on that was that the child the parent did not abandon the child. The child chose to remove herself from a bad address. >> And I apologize if I use the term abandonment. I think the point I'm trying to make was Mandy felt like this in this parent had or this guardian who filed the complaint had full legal authority as in loco parents to make these decisions. >> U just a point of

064clarification. >> No, sorry. the the student was living with her boyfriend because she had experienced sexual trauma in her biological home and also her biological mother was out of town a lot. She didn't abandon the student. The student was just living there temporarily which is again another aggravating factor for the conversation about sexual assault. >> I have a question. Um, you know, when you talk about um good faith versus uh willful intent, uh it may have been an oversight on my behalf, but uh it happened during the weekend, which was a Sunday, of course. Uh what was the timeline of reporting? Was it it was reported by the guardian before uh the teacher had the opportunity to report and may maybe an oversight on my behalf, but I'm curious to know that. >> No, the

065student went home that day and reported to S2's mother who she was living with what had happened. She was actually very upset. Her statement is in your documents. So, she did report that and then I believe the school counselor called her in and said, "Let's, you know, let's get a statement because I believe the Enlo apprentice guardian reported it to the district." And the district and the Enlo apprentice guardian both filed allegations with us. So, that I don't know if that answers your question about the timeline, but it was immediate like that that night she went home and reported and then they got this statement from her that was included in your file. Could you review the the reason for suspension as opposed to probation or some other decision? >> Sure. Um there were two

066rationes. There was one from the ethics subcommittee and one from the hearing subcommittee. Um which one would you like to hear? >> Just in general why suspension. >> Sure. Um the initial recommendation for suspension as opposed to probation was due to multiple aggravating factors um including the conversation about um about premarital sex. The conversation about uh pornography with S3 which there was testimony about that that the hearing panel found to be credible. um the lengthy personal counseling outside of the prayer, the fact that they were in a locker room without cameras in violation of school policy, the fact that the husband was in the locker room, which is against the law. Um and impact on the student and at the time of the ethics subcommittee review, there was no accountability. Um like I said, high

067level of negative impact. She has 18 years of experience. She's undoubtedly had code of ethics multiple times. So that is why they listed the educator should have known that her actions violated the code of ethics. >> But I also have a question right above that. It says the educator did not take accountability and her demeanor indicated that she would do this type of behavior again in the future. That is 100% opposite of I feel like what we've seen here. >> That was at the time the subcommittee looked at it that when they read her interview, I believe there was somewhere in there that she indicated that she thought she was just doing what a coach does. Um I'm I'm paraphrasing there, but that would be in the final report that they reviewed. Now, of course,

068at the evidentiary hearing and today, you might have heard something different, but this is that first rationale. Um but the ethics hearing subcommittee also gave a rationale that I have in front of me. >> I may have missed it, but do we have access to the rubric? We used to have that. >> Yes, I was just thinking about that. >> We used to have that packet. >> It should be in your binder. It's not. I have some extra copies >> that would be helpful in our >> I don't know how many extra copies I have, but I do have some extra copies. >> Can you run down the aggravating and mitigating? >> Sure. >> To consider. >> Sure. Sure. >> Yeah, that's just thinking about that when you said that. >> Okay. >> No, I

069don't think we have a copy of that. >> Usually, it's in the folder. >> Oh, yeah. And >> if that could be included in the shared folder ahead of time, that could be helpful, too. Is that chair? >> While while we're reviewing that, can I ask a couple questions? Yes, sir. Is that okay? Uh things that you've mentioned and and Miss James, I I respect your work and I'm I'm pinpointing you with several questions. I just Please forgive me. Um in the locker room with no cameras against school policy. Tell me about that. What is wrong with that? The school had a policy and they had made Miss Goodwin aware of it that you should not take a student outside of camera view and that is well I understand how when you put those together

070you're questioning which part is I'm not saying that a camera should be in the locker room but >> she couldn't have put the camera in the locker room you know I mean various people >> also but we're not during school hours during instructional time. >> I don't think that that was cl I don't think that that was clarified. I think it was just across the board. You shouldn't take a student alone outside of camera view. And I believe she said, "Well, my husband's with me, so I'm not alone." >> Well, I'm willing to listen. >> The office I think they're suggesting the office was a better alternative. It didn't have cameras and the office was being used at the time by a male teacher who was out on the I think going back and forth.

071So, it wasn't like a nefarious to use the locker room. They were used to that because she's a coach. >> The common spot, >> female, female, it's quiet. There was a couch there that's in the testimony in case she had had a medical issue or needed a couch. And she did feel like since her husband, who was a volunteer with the district at the time, was also there that that wasn't a lone setting. So, I could see in hindsight, oh, we don't like the optics of that, but I don't know that there was an alternative in the gym that day if you were going to do a prayer, which I think we all recognize would you'd want to be in a quiet spot? >> Well, then my next question is about the pornography references. Can

072you expound on that? Yes, there was uh testimony at the hearing and also there was an interview with the parent of S3 who claimed that who S3 is a student told her mother that Miss Goodwin had expressed to her or had a conversation with her that was along the lines of have you viewed pornography uh the eyes or windows and if you view pornography that could be the reason for your seizures and the mother testified that her daughter told her that under oath at the hearing. Miss Goodwin has a different version of that conversation, but that is where that came from. >> Okay. >> What What law was broken by the husband being in a locker room? You said you said that was against the law. So, >> at the time that this took place,

073a male could it be in the locker than the girl's locker room and that's where this took place. But we're not here to judge the the husband and his decisions um and his breaking of the law or policy. Right. So that's it's not is it her obligation under the law or under policy I suppose to >> I believe if you're a licensed educator then if your husband is there with you that you are somewhat responsible for what happens in your presence >> agree but I also but I mean but I also feel like if we had if she had gone in there alone with her she would be damned right and so she was trying this too deep leadership approach of we have to have another adult. I'm not saying it was right to have

074her husband, but I also feel like we've put her in a position to say, "Well, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't." >> And I don't love the insinuation that she allowed an adult to do anything. We don't allow adults to do things. Adults do things. And it's the how you handle it after the fact. And that's where the failure report or I think comes in. >> Sure. and we argued at the hearing, I believe, or that came out in the testimony that she didn't stop the conversation or um the discussion from continuing after those comments were made. >> So, I'm looking here at the potential aggravating factors. There's a moderate to severe level of negative impact on the student. I think that's >> subjective given that the student had already experienced

075trauma. I mean, I don't know escalated it or not. There's no evidence, in my opinion, of prior similar behavior. I don't know if it was willful or an intentional violation of the code of ethics. I don't know that the actions constitute an act of child maltreatment. There's a criminal offense. There's no criminal offense involving a student. There is moderate to severe impact on the community. I mean, but I would say it's in the reverse for them. There's no evidence on district property fines. I guess I'm trying to figure out where the subcommittee used all of these aggravating factors and what what it led to because I'm seeing no for most of these. >> And again, these are potential aggravating factors. A lot of times they list factspecific aggravating factors. >> Okay, >> this is just

076kind of a starting point just like the sanctioning guidelines are a starting a starting point so that you have the freedom to add your own aggravating mitigating factors. Um, >> and I guess that's where I come back to and again I'm I guess I'm reading the first level because we said at the beginning this had nothing to do with the prayer but all of their reasons are regarding the prayer and things that were said during the prayer. So am I exhibit four is what I'm referencing that looks like to be the >> initial determination and recommendation. >> Yes ma'am. >> Exhibit. >> And as we're looking at that I just wanted to note that even though we've tried to separate educator from spouse, spouse from educator. It seems like the spousal narrative has inflamed the

077the lean of this so that it's like if those things hadn't been shared then it would have moderated this narrative from the beginning and yet so we're saying well our the spousal comments aren't under her control and I would agree with that that uh but yet the spouse is continues to enter into the narrative in ways that um add fuel to the fire or passion to the narrative. >> I also want to give a defense of Miss James. The PSB sanctioning guidelines are uploaded. They're not in this file, but they're in another one and I just found them. So, thank you. That's helpful. >> I just wanted a few copies. >> You had put them up there. >> That's nice to know. >> I'm sorry. Where is I had exhibit pulled up the other one.

078>> The second rationale, >> yes, >> that would be titled the final determination recommendation. That is the hearing subcommittee's decision >> and the rationale is going to be on page four of that document. >> Is that exhibit two? >> It is not an exhibit because that came after the hearing. Yes, ma'am. So, I have here's my files. I have briefs for the state, which is your brief and Mr. Key's brief. Okay. Third third file. Got it. Okay. Does anybody else have questions? Okay, I do like this rale a lot better than the one I read last night. What? >> So, can I read the rationale that they've currently given for where they came from? The final one. Yes, ma'am. Just so that everybody knows. >> Go ahead. >> Tell me where this is. >> So,

079if you go to the third file, let me back out of this for a second. >> So, if you go into her file, it says her name review document. >> It's the hearing recommendation rejection file. >> Yes. Are you about to read off page four of seven? >> I believe so. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Final. >> Here's the final. All right. So, it says, "The hearing subcommittee recommends the aforementioned actions based on this rationale. Standard one, the Bible study conversation that led to the talk of premarital sex and the educator allowed her husband to share his premarital sexual experiences with uh current team members. The Sunday meeting between the coach, her husband, and a student, which occurred in the locker room, and the educator allowed her husband to share inappropriate topics such as

080demon possession and sexual assault. Um where the educator changed the conversation which led to intrusive thoughts including suicidal thoughts from the students that were not reported. And then the violation of standard two is based on the educator should promote and provide an atmosphere of mental and emotional safety at all times. The educator engaged in unprofessional conversation while on and off school grounds. Student one stated that she felt uncomfortable, anxious, and worried and expressed fear. Student three stated there was conversation where the coach would be willing to pray for the student um and student three because the seizures could be caused by demons in her. So that was their rationale. and the topics of and the topics thereof. Yes. >> Just becoming more familiar with this chart. Yes. One year in >> um there's two beginning

081sanctions for suspension, drugs and alcohol and physical contact with student resulting in injury. So that would lead us then to page three where we are pushed into considering potential aggravating factors. >> Do I read the chart correctly? >> I believe so. So the >> page one line one >> and then on page >> twothirds of the way down physical contact was to result in. So those are the two suspendable sanctions. >> Um >> that's where they start. is where they start and then that pushes us into considering potential aggravating factors. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> And remind me for the new members on the board, written reprimands do go on her the file or No, >> they are not publicly viewable in ALS. >> Okay. There would be a state board order, but it wouldn't

082be something that um a district or member of the public could see by looking at ALS alone. Okay. Any other comments, questions? >> I uh you know, looking at this guidelines, I take suspension very seriously and um I don't doubt what happened. I don't have any doubt that it was inappropriate, but u just not sure suspension is is one. I think it was really poor judgment, not unethical behavior in my mind. Yeah. >> And there was a lot of judge M James, can you tell us what is the proper proced proper statement for the first motion? >> Uh the first motion is uh whether the educator violated the code of ethics and if so what standards. So motion that the educator violated or did not violate standards and we're looking at one and two. >>

083So that's the first question we got to answer today. I stand by my earlier comments and that I believe um she went beyond her responsibilities and duties as an educator by sort of diagnosing and self- treating the child. Um, I don't personally don't believe there's sufficient evidence that she herself had inappropriate interactions with the student or inappropriate communication. Um, I also believe to be violated the law or the policy by not reporting. Those that would be kind of my thoughts. If I hear you correctly, you do think there's a violation of standard two >> to A and B. Yes, >> A and B, but not necessarily standard one. >> And I'm throwing that out there just because I don't know that everyone agrees with me, so I'm not ready to make a motion, but just

084my thoughts. >> I mean, my thoughts are I do think there was a standard of ethics violation. I I personally think that the punishment does not rise to the level that was found, but that's my own personal opinion. Do you think do you agree that 1 AB and 2 AB were all violated? >> So I do I the maltreat the malt treatment one the failure to report. Yes. So definitely for 2B you had brought up a good point about most of what we're harping on from an inappropriate conversation standpoint was not her. It was the spouse. >> And we cannot for I am not ready to hold her responsible for that. We also have no idea what went on in the home afterwards. She could have said I don't know that I said that I

085don't know what we require her to go report that to her principal. I don't know. But I definitely say to be would be mine. >> So when we make a motion or vote upon a motion, will we segregate those two standards? So I think what a motion would as an example we could put forward that motion is to find that the educator violated standard 2B. Somebody would second that and then that would be the only thing we would do or it wouldn't get seconded and then somebody would add to it. It's the way you do it and I think it's correct me if I'm wrong. Did she violate the standard of ethics? Yes or no? And then in our rationale we would explain which one or would you put that in your first motion? Your

086motion would well your rationale is separate. Your mo your first motion is if you say my motion is that she violated standard one that is also saying she violated the code of ethics. >> Okay. So basically we're just trying to find if she did. >> Yes ma'am. >> Broad policy. >> Well then I'll make a motion that I um believe she violated uh 2 A and 2B. Okay. I have a motion by Miss Kener. for defining that the educator did violate the standard of ethics, specifically standards 2 A and 2 B. Do I have a second once having no second motion fails do I have another motion? >> I'll try again with I will make a motion that she violated 2B. I have a motion by Miss Kener that the educator did violate the standard

087of ethics specifically to be I have a second. >> Who's that? Mr. Peacock. So I have a second by Mr. Peacock. >> Before we vote on that, could you elaborate on what >> what was violated? >> I think it was the failure to report the suicidal ideation. >> Failure to report. So, so it's going to be our position >> that when you hear a student talking about suicide, you are under by law and policy obligation to report it. >> Do you believe there's do you believe there's any statute of limitation on that burden? >> I don't um because it is not my obligation as an educator to determine whether it's been handled or not. My only obligation is to turn it over to those that are qualified to do so. >> My push back on

088that respectfully, Lee, yeah, of course, I respect the heck out of you. >> There is a statute of limitation. It is not written down anywhere, but we all have one. If she had said, five years ago, I thought about killing myself, that would not be unethical for the teacher to not report that. The question is, is one year too far? Yesterday is clearly a burden to report. I have a problem saying that a year ago, and no other factors compel me to believe there are still suicidal ideiations going on. I just don't know that I can agree to that with that length of time. I respect you, but I disagree. >> Yeah. >> All right. Well, I do have a motion in a second, so I can take a vote. So, we all all the

089vote is on is whether the educator violated standard 2B. Um, basically violated district, state, or federal policies or law. So, Mr. Peacock, I will start with you. Yes or no? >> Dr. Abbott? >> No. >> Dr. Arnold? >> No. >> Miss Ker? >> Yes. >> Miss Hunter? >> No. >> Mr. Mr. Henderson. >> No. >> Mr. Bragg, >> no. >> Mr. Wood, >> no. >> Motion fails. >> Is there any other state of ethics violation? >> I I'll make a motion next. First off, before I do so, I want to say that if some of the things that have been alleged to have been said by the husband were said, I find them inappropriate. I'm not judging that they were actually said, but if they were, I would very much caution you to be very

090careful about language like that. This this does seem to have touched on some topics that were extremely sensitive. However, I don't believe that Miss Goodwin should be held responsible for those things if they were said at all. Um, I would also encourage parents to be involved in the decision-making process about what you take your children to before you take them there rather than complain afterwards when you decide you don't like it. I respect that you might not have liked it. Every parent, even in my own role as parent, I want the opportunity to have my judgment on what situations my children are involved in. I 1,000% support that. But don't don't take your children to a teacher who is asked to pray for them and then complain and and not and not be present and

091then complain later about the prayer. I I find that disturbing. uh at a pretty high level. Um educators have to be responsible, have to make good decisions, have to be careful, protect themselves. The parents need to be more involved on the front end as well. And so with that, I will make a motion that we find there were no ethical violations by Miss. >> Okay. >> I have a motion by Mr. Wood. There is no ethical violations. Do I have a second? >> Seconded by Dr. Abbott. We'll do a roll call vote. >> Mr. Wood? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bragg? >> Yes. >> Mr. Henderson? >> Yes. >> Miss Hunter? >> Yes. >> Miss Kener? >> No. >> Dr. Arnold? >> Yes. >> Dr. Abbott? >> Yes. >> Mr. Peacock? >> Yes. >> Right. And

092with that and dismissed. Thank you, Miss Goodman. Yes. So, I understand the rest of the motions are dead at that point. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. We'll get an order ready. All right. Thank you so much. >> Yeah. Um, we'll just do new business and then Miss Goodwin, thank you for coming today. >> Thanks, sir. >> Nice to meet you. I bet you've been here. >> I've been hearing football. >> Good job on the school. >> No, not >> how are you? Thanks for coming. >> Hi, good to see you. Thanks for coming today. I appreciate you coming. >> I mean, everybody can stay for the meeting. It's fine. I mean, have to leave. >> We We have some consent things we would like to approve real quick if y'all want to stay. >>

093Yes, sir. >> Please know this means a lot to >> step up to the microphone so that people online can hear you. Please know that this means a whole lot to our community. >> Thank you. >> Is there any new business? >> No. No business. Okay. So, then we will go on to consent agenda. Everybody's had a chance to review. I will just need a motion to approve consent. Before I make a motion to approve the consent agenda, >> I would like to highlight the district conversion charter application by the driven school of opportunity for the Palaski County School District. My son is part of the current driven program at Robinson High School, which is what this is about. And uh because this is not not being hidden, but because it is going to just

094happen in a consent agenda thing, I wanted to highlight how good of a program that is at Robinson. How much the community loves it, what a magnet it is to that school. It is a phenomenal program, and I'm excited about what's happening here. This is an opportunity for it to grow and become even more productive uh and effective. And I want to uh congratulate all the administrators out there starting with coach Todd Escola and his right-hand woman Nina Halib uh on the work they've done to make the current driven program so awesome. And I look forward to what's going to happen in the future with what's what's coming. So >> and with that, I'll make a motion to approve the consent. I have a motion by Mr. Wood to approve consent. Do I have a

095second? >> Seconded by Mr. Henderson. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. And with that, our business section of the meeting comes to close. Let's take like a 10-minute break. Get everything kind of cleaned up. Yeah, we'll come back. Yeah, let's say 10:45. We'll come back. Another day. Okay. >> Okay. It is 10:45. Uh Courtney, could you do me a favor? Could you stand up there and make sure you can hear our mics? Apparently, people were saying that you couldn't hear right out there. Okay. just come back in and if we you can't hear me Courtney then talk to the professionals. I just want to make sure everybody can hear. We're going to go ahead and move up public comment. Um and so the first that I have on the list is

096Miss Alen Bop and we're going to start with three minutes for everybody. If I may interject real quickly to answer your question. Um yes, if we could just ask some of the more softly spoken members to maybe get a little closer to your mic when you speak. It is very clear. Um, but if the know that the further away you are from your mics, it it gets very quiet on the live stream. >> I've got something to hand out. >> Oh, okay. You just want to give it to me and I'll make sure they get passed out. >> She didn't mean the test. colors. They don't Thanks. And you may start. >> We're ready. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you members of the board for the opportunity to speak today. I want to start

097by saying this is going to take more than three minutes, but the people behind me will continue with the contents of my speech. They're going to pick up where I left off unless you in the interest of efficiency and I'm sure they will be okay with you deferring their time to me. We are having to do this in silos because there is so much to unpack. Today is the second silo. We came in December for the first. I want to talk about Quipman Public Schools and the behavior of the administrator who appealed before you who appeared before you. We have no idea. We had no idea what was contained into investigative file regarding the ethics violator's response until we got the investigative file after his hearing in front of you. There's a lot of misinformation

098that was shared in front of you guys verbally but also in print by the defense. For example, it was said that I contacted the attorney general multiple times asking them to investigate. I never contacted the attorney general. I'm upset about due processes. We've won every due process. So, I would not be upset about those. or that the attorney had to send me a letter telling me to stop posting. I foied that letter. No letter exists. So, it was news to me. But I want to draw your attention to the document that is marked Quitman Junior High football locker room incident May September 24. It's behind the pink sheet in your binder. This document was sent to Secretary Oliva on September se September the 14th, 2024 at 9:42 p.m. 2 days after the parents spoke here.

099and the Attorney General's offices on Tuesday, September the 24th, 1:47 p.m. The document was authored by the administrator listed in the as the sender on the email, and the metadata at the back of this section proves that. First, the title of the document is misleaded. It wasn't an incident. It was multiple incidents that went on for months. And the only reason the incidents were reported is because a brave boy, Eli White, was tired of fighting off the offenders, and he was tired of seeing his friends abused. Near the end of school, the abuse was daily and worsening. We did include evidence in our complaint of the falsehoods contained in this four-page document. Unfortunately, that didn't make it to you guys. So, I'm going to take this opportunity to share the evidence with you today. Why

100those documents were removed, we have no idea, but we do believe the truth is important to be shared. I refer to you to the four-page document, page one, paragraph 4, where it states, Stephanie White, or SW, met with Staxs and Mars and told them that our son had been sexually assaulted in the locker room while he was naked and the boys assaulting them were also naked. Stephanie White never said anyone was naked. We know this to be true because the meeting was recorded. She recorded it. In fact, all of our parents recorded their initial conversations with the administration. This was a full month before the parents reached out to any of us. In the same paragraph, it says, "After she gave us information, we immediately reported the information to DHS as sexual assault, leading readers

101to believe they made three reports to DHS. This is not true. They reported one incident for Eli White and one perpetrator. They knew from the meeting that there was more than one perpetrator and more than one victim. It is peculiar, though, that they submitted the report in triplicate to the investigator they hire. Please note, in triplicate of one report, it was a tad misleading at best. It is true that DHS did not accept the report they filed. We know the school personnel had incorrect birth dates in there. We also know that the child on child crime is almost impossible for DHS to have a true finding. And we have heard over and over and over again that for sexual assault, you have to prove gratification. >> Free. I'm fine if they want to yield their

102time to you for the next six minutes. Does that work? >> Okay, good. We also we have included the transcript of that interaction and the recording is on the flash drive that's in your packet. The transcript is behind the blue sheet. Moving on to page two of the four-page document and the pink sheet. The document states that none of the students were special needs students and none of the students had IEPs or 504. Yet, the administrator stood before this body and claims some did. The behavior plans were mentioned in his defense before the board. You guys can watch the testimony. It's on your YouTube channel. In the time this document was written sent, only five of the six perpetrators had plead guilty and their hearing for the five took took plea deals. The sixth perpetrator

103didn't have a hearing till January the 202 28, 2025. This is important because the author said that all four had take all six had taken plea for thirdderee misdemeanor and were assigned community service. We assume he did this to downplay the perpetrators what the perpetrators did to the victims. You can see on page two, paragraph five of the four-page document, fact. The sixth perpetrator did not go to court until long after his document was written and handed out. The perpetrators were charged with various counts of assault, harassment, and thirdderee battery. And you and they were sentenced to much more than community service. We've included the adjudication orders from the court behind the evidence that the statement was made that the administrator that the statement the administrator made is false. They're behind the orange sheet. There

104may also have been more charges, but the police report that the SRO filed only listed two of the victims despite there being four victims. The two victims left off of the police report did come to court, but they weren't allowed to speak because they weren't listed on the report. On this same page two, paragraph 5, it states that the prosecuting attorney found no evidence of sexual assault. We were told they couldn't prove sexual gratification. It also states that AA, which I assume is me, pushed for sexual assault and hazing, but I never spoke at the initial hearing, never spoke in any of the hearings, and that's the only time I was in the courtroom. Perhaps the most egregious claim in my mind is the last paragraph of page two. The administrator wrote this and sent

105it to Secretary of Education and the Attorney General's office that states Miss White's son admitted in court that he had participated in the humping of other boys in the locker room. That is a lie. That is a flatout lie. And the primary reason that we went back in September to the juvenile court to ask for him to issue an order stating that Eli White had never spoken in court. There were six separate orders because there were six cases, one for each of the perpetrator. And you will read that the judge states Eli White never spoke in court. He never spoke in any of them. His parent gave an impact statement. And again, that impact statement did change because different perpetrators did different things to her child. But again, Eli White never spoke in court. You

106can see that behind the yellow sheet. There's another document that the administrator submitted in his ethics case. It's 18 pages and it's titled facts. The title itself is laughable because it's full of untruths. But I will save those for another day with the exception of one. On page seven of that document titled facts under the heading page 17, second paragraph, it mentions that they provided a timeline. That's that four-page document in the pink. He says that they go over the court heard the judge question him and he acknowledged that he humped one of the offenders two times. Now again, the judge never spoke to Eli and Eli never spoke to the judge. He never uttered a single word in court. It's bad enough that these boys were victimized by their teammates, but to be victimized

107over and over by the administration is incredibly egregious. This document is behind the green sheet. Back to the four-page timeline document. On page three, first paragraph, you will see that he claimed that I, Audi Alen, had violated a protective order by continuing to post about the case, and the judge set a recase to review. This is not true. Fact, I've never been held in contempt, nor was I ever in a court date. Was there ever a court date set to review the allegations? This is only I was only in court for the initial hearing and have not been there and have not seen a protected order and to mine and the judge's knowledge, I've never violated a judge's order as evidenced by the document provided by the court in your packet. We went back in

108September and the judge complied and said, "No, there's never been that." That's a lie by the administrator in a seemingly pathetic effort to deflect from the failed leadership decisions of the district. Again, this is behind the yellow sheet. On paragraph 3, on page 3, paragraph 3, the four-page document, it states, "Miss White attended the June schoolboard meeting." She did. It says she had asked Mr. Trxler to be placed on the agenda because she wanted to know what punishment the boys had received, and he denied her request, but she came anyway. Fact, Miss White did call Mr. Truckler on May the 17th, and she requested to be placed on the agenda. She wanted to speak about what was happening in the locker room. Mr. instructor told her she could not and if she if she showed

109up, she would just tell the board it's been handled. Miss White did go to the June board meeting with copies of a letter that she wrote, which is included in this packet. She waited until the meeting was over and tried to pass out the letters. The board was hateful to her so much that the president of the board, Julie Varville, told her, "Go back to where you came from." The superintendent told her this was one incident and she didn't have her facts straight like most who come here to complain. And we learned from a police report that was filed on Miss White for attending the We learned that a police report was filed on Miss White for just attending a public meeting. We learned that when we got the investigative file. In the investigative report

110on page 72, this administrator in his interview with Miss Banker stated she came around the room to the point and got behind me as if she was going to grab me and the SRO had to step in between. We actually got the video and the police report from the Quipman Police Department. A previous FOI request regarding the video yielded nothing from the school. This administrator's account of what took place regarding the what Miss White was acting like going to grab him did not happen. This statement about grabbing him while he was at the while while while made to the PLS investigator didn't make it to the police report. You can see for yourself. We've included a copy on the flash drive and the police report behind the blue sheet. You also you also have included

111in the transcript to the phone call made to Mr. Trxler to be on the agenda. video of it is pinned at the top of the Arkansas Learn Facebook page. >> Let me interrupt for you just a second. Is Liz also a part and you have up to 15? Can they all defer their time? >> Okay, gone. >> This isn't close to all the untruths that were told. I started marking up some of the documents, but I could seriously take up all day here. So, we're going to save those for another day or perhaps another mode of transport uh transmission. When you ask how many times are we going to come? as many times as it takes. I'm advocating for kids. They're advocating for their jobs. All right. I just want to make sure that everybody

112So, I had Audi and then Stephanie. >> Yes. Okay. And then Amber. And you were fine with her taking your time. And so then I have Liz and Melanie. >> Okay. We still have time. How about >> she only used like minutes and so you're I think we still have three minutes. >> Well, I won't take my full three minutes, but I just wanted to, you know, reiterate what Miss Alenog just said. There are many untruths and false material statements that were included that have been said and were included in the files. Some of our documents were not included in the file for some reason. Um, but we consider these false material statements and the definition of that in Arkansas law is defined in Arkansas law. fair statements which could affect the outcome of official

113proceeding or decision of any agency function. So I'd like everybody to keep that in mind when we outline these false entrance. >> And then next I have Maria Hegwood. >> Good morning or evening. I'm not even sure what time it is right now. Um, Jacksonville North Palaski School District Parent Coalition sent me to talk and I I took it upon myself to do that because it's very important. I'm not sure if y'all have heard about what's going on in Jacksonville with the Bayou Middle School incident with the custodian. It is outrageous. And I am just going to start my speech. My name is Maria Haywood. I am a parent in Jacksonville, but I stand before you as a product of the Spackover class of 2009. I was an Arkansas scholar. My name is in your

114records as a success story of the 13th district. But I am here to tell you that the success you see on paper was built on a culture of silence. I was there in 2004 when the district filed fields in the public pool behind ban hall. I watched them bury the physical history of our town just as I watched them bury the open secrets involving authority figures. Secrets handled with handshakes instead of reports. Today, the same smack over silence has infected Jacksonville. At Bayu Meadow Elementary, we didn't have transparency. We had a 60day notification gap. I was here when I were talking to Miss Goodwin. Had she reported after a year, she would be in big trouble right now. Had she made that report. to wait a year and then report it is unnecessary when it

115could have been a 24-day rule. Um, the administration knew of misconduct in October yet kept parents in the dark until December 4th. I remember the era of prosecutor John Thomas Sheepard. I remember witnesses like Crystal Jenkins who were failed by the system. When districts stay silent for 60 days or a year, people do get hurt. I have officially referred these reporting failures to prosecutor Will Jones, prosecutor Jeff Rogers, and the Office of Professional Conduct through emails, but I'm not sure if it's my phone, but some of these emails don't even work. I am demanding a 24-hour parental notification rule under ACA6-17-48 supervisors report to you in 24 hours. I am demanding that they report to us the parents in the same window >> minutes. Can you go ahead? >> Who are you? >> You have

116So we were you have about a minute and a half then. >> Okay. The Arkansas secret ends with my generation. Protect the students not the good old boy system. Thank you. We also implemented a plan um titled the truth and transparency initiative ending the 60-day gap. We just asked that evidence of misconduct at Bayou Meadow Elementary was allegedly reviewed in October 2025. Parents and the public were not notified until December. a historical pattern in the six and 13 districts where institutional reputation is prioritized over student safety and parental rights. We just would like um the legislation to notify parents within 24 hours of any arrest or a substantiated incident involving staff misconduct with a minor. an immediate investigation into the reporting timelines of the six and 13 districts to ensure compliance with state state ethic

117laws. And that's all I have to say. >> Thank you. >> I don't know if I should keep this here or >> take it or you can leave it there if you want the department to have it. Either one. >> Leave it here. >> Yeah. You want to bring it to me. All right. Mr. Wright. Good morning, Arkansas State Board members, Secretary Olivia, Chairperson Adrienne Woods, and all others present. I am Judy Wright, Pine Bluff School District stakeholder. Appreciate the opportunity to present public comments. It is with deep regret our Pine Buff School District has a letter grade of F. We appreciate the efforts of the Arkansas Department of Education plan of working with district with letter grades of Fability to enable us to be successful. We feel a need to address a few comments

118that were made in the last state board meeting that the Pine School be appreciative or celebrated having a state superintendent that has not turned around our district for five plus years. We feel that the newly appointed state board member was not aware of the history of our district. We are petitioning you to consider certain mitigating factors that we feel are directly linked to our district failure. First of all, the current leadership who has been with our district for four for more than five years in the Delaware district prior to annexation prior to release to local control and was not reassigned to the office of coordinated support. She did not produce positive results in dollar and now in Pine Bluff. No improvement. The leadership and appointed limited board supported the the defiance of act 633 which

119would have enabled our district to elect a democratically elected board who could have adv advertised and hired a turnaround superintendent who could have produced positive students outcomes for our district such as Little Rock School District Dr. J Wright who admits there is still more work to be done after a letter grade of C in three years. We petition our superintendent and the appointed limited board three months to comply with acts 503 for the election of four seats March 2026. And it was not until state attorney general Griffin, state legislator McKenzie, CEO Gary Newton intervened on November the 6, seat five was open. Again, thank you for allowing me to have public comment. >> Thank you, Mr. M. Happy new year. >> Good morning Arkansas State Board members, Secretary Oliva, Chairperson Adrienne Woods, and all others

120present. I am Charminine Wright at Pine Bluff School District resident. As we reflect on Dollar School annexation in 2020, our leadership was part of the lack of improvement in academic results in Dollarid was not the option. Our superintendent was a part of both districts in the office of coordinated support when it was mandated that each school district have its own superintendent. And this was not the case with Pine Bluff and Dollar. Our superintendent supported non-compliance of act 633 and 2023 and election of all school board of directors for the sake of continuity. The denial of an election of all seven board members hindered the ability of the Pinelor School District to advertise and hire a turnaround superintendent due to the continuation of the superintendent that perhaps would have prevented our status of an F in

121the submitting of a strategic plan to prevent another state takeover. At the state board of education in November, Secretary Lever stated that no school uh stateapp appointed superintendent has turned around a school district in Arkansas, which concerns us. Why was Pine Bluff School District leadership allowed to remain and hinder our advertising and obtaining a turnaround superintendent to affect the positive outcomes of our district? Our superintendent constantly denied the academic pro progress of our district as if we were moving on up until the state announced that our district was district grade was enough. Chaos was created to deny complying with act 503 and act 90 was unheard of in the Pine Bla school district to hinder community engagement and the election of four board of directors in 2026 which was supported by our leadership. We pray

122that you have the fortitude to reassign our superintendent back to the Arkansas Department of Education in the Office of Coordinated Support and to appoint Mr. right and I to co-chair a community engagement committee to assist in the implementation of a strategic plan for our district to assist the appointed limited board that we were given that remained after the annexation to hire a turnaround superintendent or to appoint an interim superintendent. We have been here for the past almost three years and being advocates for our district and we are passionate. As stated before, we will be coming back. We will not accept failure. We want proven turnaround leadership. >> You're at three minutes. >> Thank you for allowing me to have public comment. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And with that, we will go ahead and move

123on to board reports. Or Dr. Arnold, either one can start. Go ahead. >> Oh, good. Thank you. Um, I just wanted to say um I wrote a two-page statement which I reduced to less than a page uh for your benefit. >> I've read the two-page and it was very good. >> Well, it was better pros than what I'm about to read aloud. But >> you have three minutes. I yield my time. >> I just found that the December 28th opinion commentary in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette regarding our December Arkansas State Board of Education meeting was rather startling. And as a board member who participated in that session, my impression was so vastly different from the authors that I watched the YouTube recording and took notes. Dare I say, not a great use of my time,

124but uh it was imperative that I do that. I want to again commend the superintendent of our state's six failing districts for their earnest work to reverse their situation. Each leader recognized their situation as dire and presented a substantial realistic plan for improvement. The angst expressed in the um opinion column is difficult to reconcile with the actual event of the meeting. Secretary Jacob Oliva stated clearly that the meeting was not punitive, but rather a collegial effort to ensure that we're all rowing in the same direction. This wasn't about individual schools. It was about identifying systemic failures in districts where resources are now being deployed to reverse the trajectory. Notably, no superintendent cited funding as a limiting factor. Instead they identified teacher lensure, attendance and buyin as their primary hurdles. Our questions were fundamental such as

125do you believe all students can learn? Is a lack of growth almost always an adult issue? Each superintendent answered with an emphatic yes. Far from being demeaning, the board offered praise and constructive inquiry, asking about family engagement, safety, and teacher retention. Again, the overall dialogue was supportive. If we're to join the southern surge of educational success seen in our neighboring states, we must continue to identify the root causes of district failure. Accountability is not an attack. It's the first step towards repairing and refilling our classrooms for the sake of Arkansas students. Thank you. >> Yes. So, um I'm not as prepared. Um but but very much as passionate as you are. Um we are as you know early childhood's a big um passion of mine and um we have been digging into the hard work

126really being vulnerable and looking at um what we can do better to serve all children in Arkansas. And um it is with great excitement that um Arkansas was awarded 14.751 million dollars for the next year just for early childhood. And I give full credit to Ashlin Abney who is our new director of the office of early childhood. She has helped us shift from understanding quality not as what can the adults in the room know and be able to do for their students and instead what are the students what do they know and are able to do by the time they leave early childhood and enter kindergarten and it is a constant reminder she pushes in the best way and I am pumped for her I'm excited for the office um the money will be used

127to expand the work of the local leads um conduct third-party class observations. So, we've been working hard to become obser uh class observers and now we have the money to bring in an external party to make sure that we're doing it well so that we can trust ourselves. I just think that's fabulous. Um quality enhancement grants for those that are ready to improve. Um modernize the licensing training and really get that program to a point where more people can get involved in the industry if they want to be. and um work on budgeting and forecasting and build a unified and coherent early childhood data system. And that has been a big thing. We could not project or predict how much money we would have based on the levers that we turn on and turn off

128because our data system couldn't provide us with that information. So, how can we make a decision if we don't know what the impact will be? Well, we now have the money to start working on that. And I am just thrilled for Ashley. I'm thrilled for her team. build for Arkansas's kids. So, yay. >> Anybody else? >> Am I Can y'all hear me? Okay. Good morning. Um, so, uh, I have a presentation if we can get that put up there. Thank you. And I can someone get me a clicker? Okay. So, um I'd like to start my presentation today. Um I attended Shanah Elementary and I'm not sure if everyone here knows, but that is where I teach at. I'm a fourth grade math teacher there. And um I was invited, my principal reached out and

129she's like, "We're having a big celebration to celebrate their school report card for receiving an A." And I am beyond thrilled for my school. I am so grateful to be a part of Chanel. Um the students, the administration, the faculty, the parents, it it's just a wonderful community. and just to spend the day with them outside the classroom having fun and just, you know, being recognized of all their hard work was truly special. Um, I know you see that I got to tell you a funny story. I know you see the blowups there. While I was there, I was challenged by two boys to race them through those obstacle courses. And in that moment, I'm looking at I'm going and of course I got a hund and something kids behind me. Do it, you know,

130do it. And so I did it. And I'm happy to say I won one, lost one. So um and then of course the next day my body reminded me that I'm not still nine and 10 like they are. But but needless to say, I mean, it was such a fun day and um just I want to give much credit to them and I believe that Chanel was the only a school in Pal Elementary School in Palaski County Social School District. So big honor for my school. Um I was also um able to I had a few speaking engagements. Um, I visited Henderson State University, um, where I was able to speak to, um, college students who are either in their, uh, current year of student teaching or there they will be student teaching the following

131year. And I was just kind of able to speak to them about education and what's to come and uh the good, the bad, some call it the ugly, I like to call it the challenging um days that you know could they could be facing as they um continue their career in education. But it was just really special to stand in front of so many young people who are wanting to pursue education because I know firsthand how bad Arkansas needs teachers. I know how bad the kids need teachers. And so it's it's just really um inspiring to me to see so many people um wanting to become educators. And then again, I also spoke at uh Arkansas State University at the Educators Rising Conference. I'm so thankful for all the support that Educators Rising offers the

132uh students around our state. Um particularly on this day, I was speaking to 9th through 12th grade high school students who are thinking they're not quite sure as it was at Henderson because they were already, you know, pursuing a degree in it. But um this room was packed full of students and um Jill Clston in the picture with me there, she um just talked about how passionate um she felt just even these kids at such an early age were uh about entering into um education. And so again, I just spoke with them um kind of told a few stories about my journey into education and um hopefully I when I left they were inspired and will continue their journey heading towards becoming educators. um re rec or in the past couple months I've spent a

133lot of time in math classrooms working with teacher different teachers in um different districts whether that be co-eing with them um some classes I've actually modeled you know what effective tier one instruction looks like um I've helped with uh resources for some teachers who need resources even some classroom management pacing of lessons and um just all those things uh to be able to offer support to teachers around the state and um it's that has been really exciting to me because that's you know being a math teacher I want to be in the classrooms helping teachers um any way I can. I've was have been fortunate to work with uh the math team here at uh Desi under the direction of Dr. Pride and Kisa Mormon. Um, and so I've been um traveling and participating in

134math lab experiences as well as uh attending their math unit meetings and working with the coaching specialists for math for the whole state. This was a really unique experience where this in this case we traveled to Jacksonville Elementary School and worked with uh teachers at different grade levels. I was of course assigned to the fourth grade math teacher and um basically it's a three-day coaching cycle where we go in, we observe, we meet with them, we collaborative do goal setting with them on um how to enrich their you know uh teaching practices and instruction and we go and we meet with them and then we observe again and it's just it's there to support them and you know and offer them guidance on um how they can improve in in the classroom. We have two

135more coming up. One's in Watson Chapel and another at Daisy Bates. So, I'm super excited about those two coming up. So, and something recently that I um am very excited about doing is which will require a lot of travel. So, I've got to figure out where all these places are around the state. Um my husband travels for work all over the state. So, I'm just gonna have him map me out a route for all these schools because I got a list and there's probably I don't even know. I didn't even count them because when I got the list, I was like, "Whoa, that's a lot of places." But I'm super excited to um work alongside Melissa Jax at the State Department, of course, Capri, my coordinator, to visit schools and work with teachers who are

136currently in the aspiring teacher permits. So, if you're not sure what that means, um you know, they took the route to education through not the traditional route, but um they are in their first year of teaching and that counts as their student teaching. And so I can only imagine that some of them could use some support. Um, and so I am about to start traveling to all of those schools and uh meet with those teachers to see if um I can be of any help with them. And so, and of course, they're not all that teachers, but I do know if I can't find the answer for them, I have a ton of wonderful friends that are educators and um that teach other areas. and I I'm happy, you know, to connect them because, you

137know, I think a lot of times people don't think of connecting with people outside of your school, but I mean, there's so many great teachers in our state. And so, you know, if if there's a teacher, especially first year teacher, you know, I want to make sure that they're getting everything they need to stay in the profession because I just I know how much we need teachers. So, so yeah. So, that's that's what's been going on in my life. >> It's awesome. I think it was Susanna Post who traveled the state in a heart-shaped pattern. So, you could always get a map and create a fun little I think it was for teacher appreciation week and she mapped it out in the heart and that's where she chose to sell that. It was really fun.

138>> I love it. >> So, okay, Lee County. >> Um, have a couple comments and then I want to do some updates. So, you have to still be patient. Don't don't get antsy. We still have a lot of work to do. Um, first want to say welcome to 2026. I think this is going to be a great year. I I feel like every time, especially now that we have a full board seated, every time we meet, we get better, we get stronger, and we keep making wonderful decisions what's right for students, and that's who we're here to serve in the state. So, I want to let you know that I appreciate each and every one of you. And sometimes these decisions are easy, sometimes they're not, but you do your homework, you do your due

139diligence, and that's all we could ever ask from each of you. So, thank you for your commitment. Thank you, Dr. Arnold. I think you stepped out um for your comments as we move forward to uh our our roles in supporting schools with improvement, right? Like our our job as a as a board is is oversight and compliance, right? Accountability is a big part of what we do, but we also want to be a thought partner. We have a lot of expertise on this board. We have access to a lot of wonderful resources across the state and we should have a seat at the table when we start working with districts on how do you build out a plan for a cycle of continuous improvement. What are leverages and resources that we can provide and how

140do we all engage in a collegial conversation? So that that's really where we're headed this year and and we've got I think a world-class system uh on how we're going to support students in schools and learning and as we're implementing this system, we want to make sure we're making the right pivots and decisions along the way. So uh Lee, thank you for mentioning the PDG grant, right? The preschool development grant. One of the things that she did not mention and I agree with all of her sentiments about how lucky we are to have Ashlin and how we're committed to this work that there there is no greater investment than we can make into our early learning world, right? Is we get students ready to come to school, kindergarten readiness matters and anything we can do

141to help prepare students before they come into our system in K12 is a wonderful investment. But what she didn't mention is that that was a competitive grant, right? That's not an entitlement. And uh one of the things that we've been really fortunate with as a state in working with our partners at the federal level, the United States Department of Education, is that they did release some competitive grants? And it was up the states to put together teams to say, how can we be innovative? How can we build on the investment that we've already made? We we've made an incredible investment in the state um legislatively and and policy-wise from this board with the implementation of access and learns and anytime we can find competitive grants that can complement that work, we're going to roll up

142our sleeves and sharpen our pencils and make sure we have the first application in. So, not only did our talented folks rise to that call, they did we just did receive um recent notification that we got a grant to help sustain the work that we've already been making as an investment as a state. But that's not the only grant, right? So, we we're actually getting announcement, I think it went out this morning, is um the the United States Department of Education has some literacy grants that were up available for a state. And so, not only did we apply for a literacy grant, we put in two applications, right? These are competitive grants. There was not very many awarded nationally. Not only did we put in two applications, we received both of those applications to build

143on what we've done and it's over $20 million in the next five years to expand high impact tutoring across rural Arkansas, which is an investment we've made through learns and to build out capacity with literacy coaches, which at our DNS schools, which was a big investment in learn. So, not only are we allowing the laying the groundwork, we're able to get external dollars in a competitive manner to help build and sustain and propel us forward. And one of the things that I know the administration's been really interested in is returning um some of the federal decisions and dollars and grants back to states. States should be making decisions on what's best for their students. The federal government can't tell us what's best for our kindergarten classrooms here in the state. So, um, they've been very

144proactive in encouraging states to seek federal accountability waiverss because that guides a lot of our work and it handcuffs a lot of what we do for to to make sure that we're eligible for federal grants and dollars. And they just announced, I think it was yesterday, that they approved Iowa's waiver request. That's a big deal, right? And I can I want to applaud Secretary McMahon and her team for being innovative in this approach because anything that we can do at the federal level to make it um more flexible and um inspire innovation at the local state level. That's a good thing for students. That's a good thing for families. We are not going to be far behind Iowa. We we have also got a a great team that's working on um some ideas around what

145a flexible um waiver request from the federal government would look like for us because I can tell you right now our theory of knowledge around this is that we have a really good accountability system and we're going to be able to identify more schools and more students that need support than their federal accountability system. So, why would we not use what we've invested in this state? Why are we doing duplicative work? Why are we not using those resources to port schools? We're going to work on getting that waiver. We'll be coming to this board with that because we want to be able to put that off for public comment and release. And we're going to be an innovative state here as well. So we we want to applaud um all the efforts from the administration

146at the federal level to recognize that innovation happens at the states, it happens at the local level and they're making the right actions and we want to stand side by side with them to make sure we can help get that across the finish line. So for us to be able to as a state have a seat at the table and not even just be able to apply for competitive grants to reinforce the work that we've been doing, that's huge. We're winning that and these aren't the only ones we've applied for and we're looking forward to more good news in the coming weeks because we are going to do everything we can to get the right resources for our students across the state. So, with that said, one of the things that we've been talking about

147with accountability, and if you remember our last board meeting, um we we did talk about the F school districts and what are those plans and I think it was a really productive meeting and um we keep continuing that follow-up conversations with those school districts and they're very appreciative for the opportunity to share their plans and then learn more about how we can better support them. Right? That's what this is about. and and it's about a partnership. But one of the things that we did talk about in uh that there was a desire to see if we can set up some board visits to some of those school districts. And um that's the one thing I want to just kind of put out there and just maybe get some guidance on. Do we want to make

148like an official workshop or a business meeting at a v at at at a a business meeting at one of the schools or do we want do you want us to just set up times and just say, "Hey, the these are available times that we want to invite board members because some of those districts are easier to get to than others, right? I'm just I'm just being real about this in everybody's schedule. like with nine different people who are all very busy in their personal professional lives. Um we we want to make that happen and I just want to make sure I can hear from you. What what is the best way for us to do that because I don't I don't want to miss this opportunity. So chair I don't know if you want

149me to turn it over to you or just >> No, I feel like somebody on this side wanted to go to a specific >> we talked about Lefayet I think was or Lafayette was a priority. So would that would that be one that you would want us to work maybe with everybody to to find a common time to to do a board meeting where we could start there or do you want me to just map out all of them or we want to prioritize that one because I felt a lot of urgency around that one? >> I would say let's see if we can plan maybe the March board meeting or April unless there's any objection to that >> to have the board meeting there. >> Me there time. >> Okay. I mean I we

150we we we serve it the pleasure. We can make it work. So >> I mean unless somebody else has feedback, but that was the one I know that was specifically mentioned last month >> or next month's board meeting. >> Is that too soon? >> We'll we'll talk. We'll figure I'll work If it's okay with the board, I'll work with the chair. We'll come up with some ideas and then um we'll see if we can get that calendar. Does that sound fair? >> One of the schools that is Oh, sorry. >> Piggy back into that. Could could we also work on visits to the other schools? I do think Lefay County was particularly uh concerning and warranting a >> full visit, whole board, board meeting down there, all that type of stuff. But a visit to

151North to visit wherever and I I don't have the list in front of me so I don't remember exactly where all they are but I I would I mean >> like in the next few weeks is that like like timeline wise >> two months maybe I don't know whatever >> like spread them out a little bit >> they'll get new grades >> oh it well hope is not here she'll come I keep saying this summer but she's going to be like pro probably like >> Augustish would be the new grades. Now, um, one of the things that we did talk about because the board asked about like, well, what about D school districts? What about the next level districts? So, we're we're in the I I don't know if it's this week or maybe early

152next week is the last week of our second progress monitoring administration. So, when that is complete, we're going to start pulling current year data, year-over-year data, and do a kind of a analysis through all of the D districts to say which ones do we feel like are going to hit their targets, which ones do we think may not the one if hopefully they all show up that they're going to meet their target, right? Best case scenario. But if we see, and we're going to run the F districts, if we see folks that we're saying we're probably not where we need to be, those are probably going to be districts we're going to invite back to the board next month to talk about what are we doing? We got to act with urgency. What do we

153need to do to make sure we're moving the needle in the right direction? So, um I I do want to add that that that has not been lost on us, right? like we but we're trying to be a little bit more meth methodical I think and more real time data on on who do we where do we want to target our next set of energy if that makes sense >> I think setting them great intra visits >> okay yeah >> sounds like there's a lot to do >> and there and some of them we can do like two districts in like one day like they're they're close enough like with that's probably a single Well, um it's a single day visit because it's it's pretty far off there, but like Watson Chapel, Pine Bluff, even

154North Little Rock, some of those you can pretty >> Yeah, BL is another one we want to talk about because we we've done a lot of work there and we didn't invite them as the F district even though we know they are, but we've we've got the external operator contract in place. We have a superintendent, the leadership's been established there. there. It's time for them to come back to the board, I think, to do an update on current year. So, um, that's definitely on our our our list to talk about. And then the other one I want to talk about and I and Stacy's going to provide some overview is Lee County and they are a D district, right? but they're also in state authority and their five-year timeline's coming up to where we've started

155that process to re relinquish back to local control with the right systems and support in place. So, um, I'm going to ask Miss Smith to come up to talk about what's been the historical timeline, where are we, and where are the next steps for that happening as well? Because I think for the next few board meetings, we're going to be talking about lease schools like standing until we hit that timeline. It's over here. I think Miss Wilox. >> Okay. So, Lee County School District. So today's overview is really kind of prepping prepping you for what's coming um prepping you for documents that I'm going to send you this month so that you can start getting prepared for future presentations. Okay. So Lee County School District just a quick overview of the timeline for Lee County

156and and what's been going on with them. So in back in 2019 um they were actually came before the board for a standards of accreditation violation. Okay. Okay. And at that time um their their board and their superintendent were dissolved and replaced and it was under standards for accreditation before 2019. Lee County was already a district that had already gone back and forth under state authority. Okay. So this was just another like two years later coming back again for this. Um and so that they were under a standards of accreditation violation for two years which you have two years to fix. But once we went in there for standards accreditation, we realized they were under fiscal issues. So they were labeled as fiscal distress. Working with them for two years recognized that yes, they fixed

157the violation that they were under for standards of accreditation, but in no way were they ready to be um by left by themselves. And so at that point, you can see in we placed them under level five intensive support in 2021. So when you get placed under levels of support under level five and that authority piece begins becomes a fiveyear timeline. Okay. And so timelines are different every time whether it's fiscal distress standards for creditation level five state authority. So 2021 they were classified in that intensive support. We named the superintendent at the time was Willie Murdoch. She was in that position for a while. She then went to the co-op and we named Dr. Michael Stone in 2022 who is the current superintendent. Um our team um OCSS with Sheila Whitlo and that team

158who remember Sheila retired so that's why I'm back up here doing this part and not Sheila. Um at that point our team has been in there consistently working with them since 2019. Okay. Um Lee County is one of those districts for us that that really is a success story. Um, and it it I can't tell you how many times they're on the agenda for us, like tenative agenda, to bring to the board to do a presentation, and then we bump them because we have a fire and we have a district that we want to put in front of you that you need to hear from, right? Um, their timeline for being returned is May. All right. you received earlier um a quarterly report in which we had the exit criteria in not when I say

159earlier I'm saying back in September October their first quarterly report we scored them on their exit criteria you don't have this in your files right now this was something that was sent to you months ago all right what I'm going to do in the next coming month is I'm going to make sure you have this quarterly report from the first quarter that shows how our team went in and scored them on exit criteria area where they were got very specific and narrowly focused on specific goals for this school year that they're in. Okay. This is also where we went through and set up the advisory committee. Mr. Henderson participated in that selecting that. That advisory committee is set up acting in an advisory capacity right now in the district. All right. We have a second

160report like this coming out with scores that will come to you this month. So, I'm going to send you this report and the new one this month together. I'm also going to send you all the exit criteria so you have all the information beforehand. All right. Um, when we look at the indicators or things that we're looking at for exit criteria, remember these indicators have been set up and worked on over five years and they have been massaged and they've adjusted and they've changed each time depending on what's work going on in the district. Indicator number one is really about safe learning environment and the expectation of what we want our campuses and our schools to be. Um, indicator number two talks about the district level to monitor student progress. The expectation that our districts

161administrative offices are in our buildings working with principles. Um, supervising, giving directions is a must, right? And that is an area a lot of times that you see break down at the district level. Indicator number three is about instructional experiences happening at the school level. Feedback to educators, curriculum and materials being used, instructional strategies. Indicator number four is about the educator workforce, right? What happens from the beginning to the end? How are we continuing to grow our staff? And indicator number five is actually specifically to instructional materials in the hands and meeting the standards. All right. So, at a glance, where is this district? Any district that goes under state authority, every system is broken when we take them over. Okay? So, I'm not going to stand here today and tell you that they are

162an A district. They're not. They are District. Every district that was under state authority, minus BL, who just went under state authority, was a D this last circle on letter grades. Okay? There's a lot of work going on in those districts. there's a lot of support being pushed in in that school. There's been a lot of emphasis and work that's happened at the elementary school specifically around science of reading. Um really working in on licensing teachers and a strong elementary school for two years in a row now has been a C. It's a big deal. The high school still has an F. There are still systems and structures in the high school, especially getting the content up to grade level. All right, teaching kids at that higher part. They're they're still an F. Their graduation

163rate from this last year had an 86%. I will say on the H2 pathways law requires them to have one. They have three in place. That's huge for that area, right? They are trying to rebuild that whole system. That's work that's been going on. For preK, they've been very aggressive in opening a pre-K spot. They were we they had 60 awarded spots. Some of those 11 open spots were recently awarded and they're filling them now. Okay. They originally had 40 spots. They were given an additional 20 and they're filling them. Um all spots that were open or in the four-year-old setting. So they're really going out and trying to recruit and get those filled immediately. >> What's an H2 pathway? >> So that's the high wage high demand. It was a part of the Arkansas

164le learns legislation. There's actually a committee um in our state that gets together and identifies those and it has to do with your salary, the demand of it in the state um the need in the state and so there have been specific pathways that have been identified as that. >> How many >> um overall 30 you think some >> I will get you that number. Okay. It but it but it's probably in the 2030 range. at one point as far as the number of pathways in our state I think it's over >> and so we started narrowing down on what where do we want people to start really pushing kids to and what credentials do we want them to have >> so learns require that every school district have three pathways that lead to completion

165towards an industry certification and one pathway has to come off that list because there's some pathways that work regionally or historically from some of the schools So that was a big live for like Ross' team for that legislation to come out to be implemented for the following school year. And to the state's credit, every single high school within a short amount months of time pivoted and changed their programs to meet that requirement. So that so it's great like every high school has at least one pathway on that high skill, high wage, high demand list, but Lee County is like we're we're going to go above and beyond the minimum expectations. So I think that's what we're trying to highlight here. So that's a pretty good >> good celebration >> and my recommendation in this presentation

166is going to be that we need to have the superintendent stone come and present and he needs to be able to give you very specifics, right? What are the number of the students participating? Um you know Lee County is the one who built the teacher housing with our ESR money, right? It's it was a national spotlight that was all done while it was under state authority. um building out three H2 pathways, leveraged our ESRE money, that extra money that came in to rebuild the automotive part per um part in their building so that they could actually offer this. Um and so they have done some really innovative things. They're really trying to get build that up, especially that secondary piece. Um the rewards are going to come for the district. They're doing all the right

167work. All the directions and arrows are going in the right direction. It's the outcomes piece that we need to see happen now. And there's 22 pathways that are identified. We'll we'll send you the list of what they are. >> Um on their licensing area, this was an area when we first went in and you're seeing 2023 data here that 40% of their teachers were unlicensed. When we went in in 2019, 2020, like 2020, like it it was worse than this, right? So, you can just see even in the last three years how that continues to decrease and making sure we're getting licensed teachers in the area. And again, they did really robust things with their teacher housing. They did really robust things with mentoring. Um, and those are things that I'd love for the district

168to to share with you when when you get the chance to hear from them. Again, an advisory board was set up earlier this year. Interviews were conducted, applications were selected, there was a committee. These folks were selected to be as part of the advisory committee. One of the big questions that this board will grapple with when they decide to release is is this advisory board, are they going to be staying as the board currently? And then when it goes to election in two years, this would all open up. Those would be the discussions we'd have. That's what we would anticipate happening. This board, these folks right now are being trained as board members. We're monitoring their actions. We're monitoring the meetings. We're coaching, right? um what you know taking opportunities when they're seeing actions for

169their first time. What you can do, what you can't do, what are the questions you need to be asking, especially on the fiscal side. Okay, school finance is very very difficult um and especially for folks who don't have a background there. So what can you do? What should you be expecting your superintendent to show you or give you? Right? So again, we held an initial training in December. Um five board members are currently active and going. You have question. >> Under current state law, can a school board be five people? >> Yes, I believe so. Yes. Yes. >> So, that's enough people. >> Yes. >> To turn into a school board. >> Yes, sir. >> In Lee, >> correct me if I'm wrong. I I think Lee County is an interesting district because I believe

170they're the only county with one school district in the entire county. >> And it's a district that's been consolidated over time. accurate. >> Yeah. >> Need more of those. >> Don't give me a trouble up here today. Listen. Um, so there's been a lot of good work going in Lake County. Um, I'm super proud of the team. I'm super proud of Michael Stone who's been been there. So, again, prepping us for where we're going, what we're doing over the next couple of months so that you're comfortable when you make your vote, right? So, um, I'm going to make sure that you get not only the first quarterly report that was sent out September October area. I'm going to get that back to you in your mailboxes this this month with the new second quarterly report

171that gives you the update on what they've been doing this semester. Okay. Um, the OCSS team is going to be on site um in the month of January and they're going to be doing interviews, exit interviews with all staff. All right. they're going to be and looking for evidence that they've met the criteria and the expectations um so that you guys not only have um you have qualitative and quantitative data that we're making a a a judgment based on. Okay. Um I would recommend um and I know you're talking about what what should we be doing in our board meetings. I would recommend in February that we have Dr. Stone come and present to the state board. Um, this is where I think you guys need to decide. Um, timewise, we have March, April, and

172May to actually vote to return them. All right. So, I would like for him to come February, possibly do a presentation, and then I would like for you guys to either let's decide one of those months that we go to Lee County. I would love for you to see it. I'd love for you to see the teacher housing. I'd love for you to see the elementary school. I'd love you to see what's happened in that high school. Um, and then that you can make a vote in front of that community to return them, have those advisory. I mean, I think there's there's there's power in that. Um, and I know that there's so many other districts that need your attention and so it's hard to kind of figure out where to go. Um, but that's

173one that I would hope that you would would consider doing. Um, so I'd like to ask Dr. Stone in February to present and we could come if if you decide to have it offsite, he'll travel to wherever we go. We'll make sure he gets there. Okay. Um, but that's kind of where we are right now. What other things do you need from me this next couple weeks so that you feel really good when Dr. Stone comes to present to you next month and that you feel really good when you go to the district? >> Well, I had a question about the graduation rate. Um 86%'s not great, but I'm kind of okay with that if they're holding the students to the graduation to standards. I'm afraid for too long we've been graduating students who aren't

174capable of reading a job interview or filling it out. So, I I guess I want to know about that 16%. Is it kids dropping out? Is it being held back? What's the um I'm curious to hear. That's a great thing for him to put in his presentation. I'll make sure he knows to do that. >> And I will say this, they did start an associates degree program. Oh yeah, I'm gonna steal your thunder. Secretary, you just sit there for a second. >> Um, >> they they I mean, when everyone else in the Delta region was like, "We can't do that. Here's a state authority school district that started doing it." And Dr. Stone, man, he's something he's something special. He would actually bring the kids here to Little Rock. The kids who scored it like

175the first even I think if they made a 19 or 20 like they could get into college, he'd bring them down to Little Rock. They'd go to the Capitol. He would take them to see experiences um like opportunities that are available to them that they didn't know. Um as superintendent, he did that, right? That's pretty cool. Um so yes, we've got we still we're not where we need to be. And I'm not going to tell you that we that but but they're a solid D in the when you look at the pack of school districts that are in a D, they're in the middle. They weren't right there on the edge. We some of some of our other state authority districts that were D's, but they were just a hair. And I wouldn't be as

176confident saying to you today, they're ready there. There's work to be done still. >> I had a question on your slide about licensed and unlicensed. you commented on there fewer unlicensed but there were also fewer licensed. Can can you speak to the decreased quantity in 23 the number? >> I can't speak to the specifics of it but that's something I can absolutely have him do. >> I think like enrollment trends. >> Yeah. And the enrollment trends they've continued to go up in enrollment. They're about one of the only districts in that area who were going up. That's a big thing. a lot of our districts under state authority actually lose students. Um, licensed teachers in an area um is always a struggle. I will say one of the things that we've had happen in Lee

177County is um when the state first went under our state authority and we brought in a new superintendent, there was a lot of recruitment of people who had just retired to come back. And so we pulled in a lot of teachers who they had already done this once and they were like, "Well, I'm going to give you two or three years." And so I think we've probably seen some of that coming in and out. Um, the housing has been an aim at trying to get people to move to the community because there's a lack of housing there, but I will definitely have him address that in a presentation. Anything else specific? >> I I I'm sorry. >> No. >> One of their H2s is advanced manufacturers, which obviously interests me a lot. I'd like if

178he could address the outreach that they're doing with local business, local manufacturers in that area. I know there's a couple in West Memphis that probably engage with. But I'd be interested to know how they're leveraging those businesses to help them with that. >> That's great. We can do that. >> Well, I'll tell you, when we were down there, the superintendent said, "If you can get the governor to bring us some industry, we're ready for it. We're ready for it." And we kind of said, "Well, you've got to get ready for the industry. You've got to be so attractive that companies want to move in." And having those pathways is a big part of it. Having, you know, pre-K spots, having a C, uh, elementary school, they're on their way. And so, um, they're doing the

179work. It's great. >> Miss Kener, do you remember who he had subbing in that preschool classroom? >> That teacher who >> who was his mother. >> I remember. It was his mother. That's right. >> He had recruited his mom to come in as a substitute teachers because they needed people. >> That's great. Yeah. to your point, um, you know, I I felt really good about having opportunity to be able to work with Lee County and the framework that the state has in place to helping them advance, uh, does include that H2 piece of advanced manufacturing, which I think is very important to that region, and we know the industry and stuff like that that's in northeast Arkansas. So it complements the approach that the state is taking to ensure that framework is in place for

180a contingent plan. >> So um I have some curiosity around the advisory committee and I'm tickled that Mr. Henderson helped with with the selection but you know just a like a highle bio of those >> Yeah absolutely if they have interest in continuing to serve. >> Yeah, absolutely. We'll do that. They all had to submit resumes. They had to submit a letter of interest. Um, and so there was quite a few who did that. We actually reached out to local legislators in the area to give us recommendations of people in the community that they would also recommend. That's part of our leg legislative requirement to do so. Um, and so um, they all submitted it. So we have that information for you. >> Great. Thank you. >> Anything else? >> I do have a question.

181Um, when when were these exit criteria indicators >> I'll I'll use the word adopted. When when were they? >> So, that's a great great question. And and I know you're probably taking some of this from like the Little Rock era. >> Um, >> memories. Okay. Um, you'll never ask me to come sing. I promise. Okay. So there was criteria established um for Lee County back in 2019 2020. A lot of that that criteria was based on Marzano's work on high reliability schools and the professional learning communities model. Um so that work was kind of continuing in this last year. We sat down with the superintendent, went back over the criteria and adjusted some of those components that needed to be adjusted to reflect some of the the priorities in conjunction with the superintendent. For example,

182school safety being a really solid number one thing that we expected. So, in agreement, we made some adjustments to the criteria over a year ago with the superintendent getting very specific on our goals. That's what you see scored on this first um quarterly report that I will resend to you. Um and that's what they're scoring on right now. So it's been very consistent in getting laser-like focus on the goals and the outcomes. A lot of Morzano's work previously, it correlates directly to this work. >> Does that help? >> It it does. So what I but what I heard was 2019 2020 is roughly when these were adopted. So, so the and and I I'm assuming that the school district was made aware that that these were the things that we were going to be looking

183for before the district would be returned to local control. >> Yes. And again, Yes. Yes, sir. >> And so that would be five or six years ago, >> you know, that they would have received these indicators. Um, and I I'm kind of bringing this up just as we contemplate other uh school districts ever being before us for level five intensive support, taking over the district, the daily management of the district. Um, some of these, well, all of them actually, I think, they they don't really address down to the level of like >> so >> growth measurements. Yeah. >> Achievement measurements. It it doesn't seem to be things like that that we are looking to implement in a school system. It's more school district. It's more that you have the correct systems in place that that

184the school district is monitoring that that they have the right tools that they have the right personnel that they have the right policies and procedures. and then whatever the measurements are, that's not really part of the criteria for return to local control. Is that right? >> I kind of disagree a little bit. So, let me let me let me see if I can maybe give a little bit more clarity to it. So, >> um again, we're talking about a district that's been under state authority now five, six, seven years, >> and just system changes in the way we've talked about things has morphed over time. We have a different commissioner. we have I mean there's just things that have changed and so um levels of support and what was happening at those levels of support

185we also refer to something one time as systems you know financial system or um human capital system we don't necessarily refer to systems like we did seven eight years ago all right when the criteria was established for Lee County in 201920 it was based on the six systems you're still going to see that pres in presentation, Michael's going to present in terms of those systems because that's how when they first went under state authority, it was kind of set up. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> That's fair. >> As we've morphed um and have worked directly with the district, really identifying what are the things they've got to get right, what are the things they they've got to figure out how to improve. Um again, districts under state authority like this, every system is is

186broken. things that we take for granted. Um like bus routes. We assume people know how to do bus routes. When we go into some of these districts, they're literally just sending a bus out picking up kids and we're all just a gasast. Um those are the kind of things that we've so so that's why a lot of times in this criteria and and Jeff, one of the other documents I'm going to send you is a much more detail of this is the indicator one. here are specific actions and expectations and here are the artifacts we're looking for to show that you're doing that. >> So there is a there is a companion document that you don't have yet that I will make sure you have this month. It's not necessarily about what their total score

187is in the end on their atlas assessment. We we hope the summitive data um the number of students graduating, the number of licensed teachers, all those um quantitative pieces um we hope to start seeing that those trend lines go up. But the systems piece that these systems are in place so that they can for sure continue making progress is what we're trying to score. So Stacy, the next thing I want to ask is kind of it's the fundamental reason we do all of this. it's student outcomes because we can talk about these indicators in every school district and we can talk about bus routes and we can talk about number of licensed teachers and all that but at the at the end of the day after six or seven years of state takeover in Lee

188County or in Marvel Elaine or in Bllytheville or in Little Rock or in Pine Bluff or in Palaski County or wherever. How do we how do we change achievement and growth? How do we change reading when when and I'm and I don't have Lee County's numbers in front of me and and I'm not even making an argument about failure of the state or anything like that. It's just I'm I'm burdened by what what difference have we made in in the in the kids lives when they when they leave Lee County schools. So again, this is where I think Superintendent >> um Stone presing next month, >> but but I can >> I I want when we take over >> and this is where I wish sometimes I I I we would do a better job

189and and this board transitions and transforms over time, you know, for me and and this is something Secretary Leva gets to hear all the time in terms of me talking again really passionate about some of these districts because when I think about Lee County, I think about, you know, a school district that when we took it over the bathrooms weren't even where kids could go in them, right? There were no stalled doors. It was filthy. It was it was dirty. There wasn't a pl It wasn't it wasn't clean, right? The education happening in a classroom was so far off level that in the K that in the elementary building like it it wasn't quality instruction. It was they didn't even have curriculum that made sense. Um and so now to get to a point where

190Anna Strong Elementary is a C. Is that where we want them to be? No. Right. But there is a bigger discussion here and there's bigger movement going on here because we've I believe have a superintendent and advisory board now that it's not just a school. This is a community issue in terms of rebuilding their region. Right? The school district can't be held responsible for everything. But I'll tell you, the school district is a heart of what can start making a difference and provide momentum for the community as a whole. Business is coming in. They're not going to work with a dysfunctional school that doesn't have systems. They're not going to invest in a career pathway if they don't think it goes anywhere. So if we don't get the system built up in a manner in

191which businesses feel like okay I can invest there or okay I want to give an associates degree to a kid there because I can see that the kids coming from that school are now at that level of academic rigor like those are the those are the pieces systems wise when a state takes over that we have to set up. >> I agree with you I I understand that. >> Will you say that twice? >> Yeah I agree with you. Good. Thank you. Thank you. >> But I understand. I mean, bathrooms aren't functional. Bus routes aren't functional. We've got school districts that are giving out credits that students didn't achieve. I mean, I get it. There's chaos out there. Y >> and we fix all of these things. I assume that the bathrooms in Lee County

192are functional now. >> And I'm assuming that >> they are. But but like the F I I hear what you're I mean, you and I because there I can think of an F district that came before y'all last month that I walked through that district and I thought, why are they an F? Like everything's put together here. They they have it's clean. It's systems. They love their kids. They're like, there were those pieces. And then when I went in the classroom and I saw the instruction, I was like, now I know why they're an F, >> right? I could see the disconnect. They're not a takeover district. They're an F. They're not a takeover district. We got to figure out how to improve instructional systems there. It's a completely different thing you have to do.

193>> But I really do think that we need to grapple with a couple questions. And that is what is the third grade reading level of kids in schools that are under state control for six or seven years. And why is I'm just going to assume that it's not all that impressive. >> I'm sorry if I'm wrong. >> And I think you're going to see growth. Why isn't Why isn't it better? And this why would we why why after six or seven years of state control does a school district have a D letter grade? >> I mean and it's it's if there are good reasons it's fair. I just think that we have to have that discussion what that is. >> I would love to go with you and walk through these school districts together. I

194love to to love to get together and let's go and talk and let's walk through the schools. >> I think that's the only I mean I can stand here in this podium today and give you a lot of things but I think making the appointments and going through some of these districts um I I I mean I think it matters. I think, you know, when you think of Lee County five or six years ago and they didn't have a single when you looked at their kindergarten teachers, only one teacher out of the four teacher teaching kindergarten was a licensed teacher. >> Like that like >> and I think part of the answer to your question is because until the last two years, they've been working in a broken state system. >> We didn't have the

195system and structures we have in place. clear expectations for teachers and students to know what they're doing and a unified coordinated progress monitoring and assessment system that tells us whether or not they're learning it. And now we can have real-time information to get back to those teachers and make those instructional pivots instead of playing a guessing game. We had an assessment system that wasn't built on criteria and of course exams. It was built on college career readiness that gave no information back to the school or those teachers on what they can do to better help their students. We didn't have literacy coaches. We didn't have impact tutoring. we didn't have a lot of these systems that we now have in place. So, I I I think and I agree a thousand% a state takeover district

196probably shouldn't be relinquished to local control if they're a D or an F. Like that that to me does not sound like a win. But we now have a school grade and a district grade accountability system that measures whether or not kids are achieving, learning, or graduating. before we measured all kinds of nonsense that didn't tell us whether or not kids could learn and administrators had no idea what to focus on. Teachers didn't know what to teach and then we're holding folks accountable to a grade that doesn't mean anything that's happening to a school. So I I hear you and I and we're on a timeline, right? Like because the law says we only have so many years there there's a reason that the elementaryaries a C for the last two years because they're focusing

197on the right work. the high school still has a lot of ways to go. And and when I think about like some of these schools that I've walked into like Marvel Lane and I've I've walked into failing schools my whole life from the heart of Miami to Marvel Lane, I've seen it all. There are a lot of schools that we have taken over where they can't even play school, right? Like like when we and that's what Stacy's talking about like they don't even attempt that it's school. Like you walk into a high school and students are just roaming around doing whatever they want. You walk into a classroom, the teachers got their head down at the desk, let alone sleeping, not holding kids accountable. We're not even playing school, right? Like, so that is a

198broken broken. That's where I think we got so frustrated with Blackville. We couldn't get the adults to act like a functioning school district. So, I think what what we're saying and and I and we're maybe this is part of what we got to figure out right now that we have a new system and we're looking at the co-op's role, the district approvement plan that they're bringing to us to approve. We we've put the right systems in in place so that we can monitor throughout the year instead of giving um an assessment and getting results and examining it like an autopsy to try to figure out what killed the school. that that's not what we should be doing. We now have the right systems in place to stop that from happening and should see more students

199entering kindergarten ready to learn, third graders at or above grade level. We didn't have those systems as a state and we got to be honest about that and that's why we needed Arkansas Learns. That's why we built on Arkansas Learns with Access. We spent three years writing the policy and laying the foundation and building out a world-class assessment system and standards. We involved 3,000 Arkansas educators and saying, "How are we going to reimagine what we want to see in our classrooms?" That took three years to build, right? It's built. Now, we got to hold people accountable and implement it. And Lee is part of that journey. They're they're just in a different space. But I hope we have when we get to that five years in Bllyville, Marvel Lane's probably only like two years away.

200Um Earl, I think we still have a lot of concerns about they're not moving in the direction that we want them to, you know. Um I'm thinking about some of the other state takeover schools. >> Yeah. >> Because we have better data now, we can come to you with more informed decisions. And I think what Stacy's saying is Lee County was broken. They couldn't balance a checkbook, right? They're spending money they don't have. We're not doing that anymore. Kids are in class. Teachers are working on the right work. We're seeing growth at the elementary school. It's going to trickle into the high school. It It's going to happen. It It's getting to the point where we can pass the baton and trust the adults to make those decisions at the local level that works best

201for their community and students. We couldn't say that about Blackville. We're going to Lafayette. I I hope when we get there they're open and having school because nobody knows when they ever go to school around there. So that's the there there's a difference to me I think and I I agree with you but like when I think about the conversations we're about to have with Lafayette and Lee we're at different ends of the spectrum. >> Yeah. And I think there's I think there's this this when you say state authority district, I think there's this view that >> this whole army of people from the state go in and take over all the classes and that's not the case. It's like a team of three or four and we're boots on the ground every single week

202working with the people in the community to improve their school. What we are lucky about with Lee County and Dr. Michael Stone is that Dr. Stone was actually um in other districts, larger districts, but he was from Lee County. When I said he had his mother there subbing, she that's because he grew up there. He's a graduate from Lee County. And so he returned back to his home community to to lead. So having solid leadership, building his capacity as a firsttime superintendent, building the capacity at the elementary school with the principal there, pulling in more teachers, building their capacity. Um, Lee County was one of the first places with our literacy specialist. I really had to talk to them about you're not going in to like you're talking about people who have no background in

203education. So you can't go in there and dazzle them with a a a teach lesson on a great reading lesson. You have to go in there and show them how to use high quality instructional materials and follow the lesson and then model that lesson. Don't go rogue and bring something else in. Stick with the lesson because that's the materials they have. And so creating the structure for them to work in. Creating a structure of this is how many times the administrators are going to be going in and out of these classrooms. This is the work that the literacy coach is doing to improve. There's a lot of work that's been done and there's still a lot of work to do. You're right. I don't want them to stay a C. I don't want that school

204to stay an F. I don't want the district to be a D. And just because we give them back authority as a district doesn't mean they get off of our radar. They're still a D. The school high school is still an F. There's still supports going in there. It's about the authority of who is their board, whether that's Jacob or back to their local community. So, I agree with you. I'll >> You say that again. >> I agree with you. You know, I I did just pull up the my school info for Lee High School, and I will say the one promising thing I I see is the growth of the low performing students there. And so, uh, one question I think I would have for Dr. Stone, um, we have the intermediate, >> um,

205stuff by then. So, I would just like to see I would Yeah, >> we're going to have the interim scores for you. We'll pull all those pieces for you. >> Yeah, I I would just like to see if that's continuing. And then, you know, the concern there is just the growth of all students isn't probably where we need it to be, but I'd like to see that. >> It's been it's it's a concern. >> Yeah. I was just going to say, uh, you know, and secretary did a really good job of, uh, preaching a sermon on it. You know, uh, I've said the last three, four years, it's not apples to apples. Menville looks a lot different than Lee County. And one thing that um u secretary's presentation one thing he did mention and uh

206my board member fellow Peacock said advanced manufacturing now exists. So one thing he did mention was lunch. So there's another piece of the puzzle that didn't exist three, four, five years ago. So uh there's a lot of opportunity there for us to continue the sustainability factor with Lee County. Yeah. Yeah. That I think it's just it's stabilized at this moment. >> Yeah. Okay. That was a lot longer than I expected it to be. I apologize. >> I have one more update. >> Sorry. Probably my fault. update. >> So, one one more thing I want to just highlight because I know especially working with struggling schools and and students and families and um a kind of common theme that we hear when we meet with school leaders and teachers is supporting students and families especially around

207mental health and how do we make sure we have access to high quality mental health instruction? How do we ensure families have access to mental health services, especially in a state um where there's some deserts and islands and and um we have families that may need support and it it may not be available as easy it is in other parts of the state. And we've done some really great work um with the leadership of our governor around like making sure every kid has access to breakfast, right? Like that leads into kind of that preparation to be ready for school. looking at the impact of cell phones and the mental health crisis that we're seeing with students that are addicted to technology and social media and um you know make sure we're supporting behaviors. So we

208asked some of our folks here to say what can we do differently? How like school counselors are overwhelmed right? I think most folks would say like like they can identify a student that may be in crisis or a family in crisis but then their capacity or bandwidth may be limited in the type of support and services they can do. So we we asked our folks like what can we do? What can we be innovative? How can Arkansas now lead the nation in doing um above and beyond support for students and families that nobody else is doing? And so Jerry Clark and her team kind of took that charge and I I want her to just do an update on something that's now available to our school districts and families. Um, I I want to say

209we got it in place last month and we're trying to promote it to make sure people know this exists. That I think is really just another big piece of that support puzzle that is so much needed and different than anything we've ever done before, which is another reason why we're going to continue to excel in the state. So, Jerry, do you mind just doing a high level overview and and updating? >> Sure, I'd love to. Thank you. Thank you, Secretary Oliva, first of all, for giving me an opportunity to come before this body today. I do appreciate it. Um, I'm Jerry Clark. I serve as the health services director here at DESIE, which encompasses nursing services, mental health services, Medicaid in the schools, really all things health and wellness, providing leadership to school districts to

210assist them with addressing those basic personal needs that students cross the threshold into the classroom with. Um, but today I'm here to provide you with an update on a statewide initiative that we've recently launched in November of 25. So, we're just a couple of months in. Um, it's a mental health care navigation referral service for school districts. This is a statewide initiative. Um, and it is intended really is designed to support school districts in making effective mental health referrals for their students. Um, the purpose of this initiative is to strengthen the capacity of school personnel. So, Secretary Aliva mentioned the burden on school counselors. Typically, your school counselors are the school personnel that are making those mental health referrals for their students. So this initiative is designed to help families successfully navigate through the steps

211to get to the point of care, which is very important. That's the whole point, right? Um achieving connection to care and minimizing the time that it takes to do so is the ultimate goal of this initiative. um why this work matters. As many as you as many of you know, mental health referrals when they're made, there's a number of barriers that can get in the way of actually connecting a student with care. Um, some of those barriers could be insurance limitations, the geographic location of the service that is needed for that student, appointment availability, lack of providers, transportation, the complexity of just the intake process and scheduling that parent consent. There's a lot of different barriers and a lot of things that have to keep that ball rolling down uh or rolling forward in order

212to get to the point of care. Um, and we know that school personnel often don't have the capacity to keep that ball rolling, right? That's what this initiative does. Um, Desi has contracted within us with an organization, Care Solace, that is designed to help public school districts with following through and navigating through the mental health referral process. So, that's what this company is going to be doing. Um, their role is not, I want to be really clear, their role is not to provide mental health services. They do not employ clinicians. They simply are there to close that gap between a referral that is made by a school personnel in Arkansas for a student and get them to that point of care and the least amount of time as possible. Assisting the parent, the student, the

213family, the school district, whatever they have to do, that's what they're there for. Um, another thing that I want to make really clear with this initiative is for this organization, the referral service navigation service that we've contracted with, their first step in seeking services for a referral is to look within the school district. A lot of our school districts have school-based services and they offer access to mental health care right there on their campuses. So that's going to be the first place that this care navigation service goes to. Um but a lot of those schools are at capacity with the therapists that are coming onto their campuses. So their next step is going to be the immediate commu immediate community. So our goal here is not to take services away from students and push them

214out to other states. Right? Arkansas providers right here in the state are going to be our key um component to making this work and connecting kids with this with the service providers that are right there in their school are right there in their community. We know there is a lack of access though. So there there are other avenues such as teleaalth and and looking across the state to traveling clinics or whatever they need to do really to make sure kids are actually getting access to care. Um, the reser referral service model is designed to support every single Arkansas student, Arkansas public school student. They are all eligible to be supported by this service. So, school personnel can make a referral for any public school student in the state of Arkansas. I wanted to make that

215clear because some of the um questions that we've gotten as we have talked to people and educated them um as we launched this is that DHS provides a robust support system right for mental health services. So, I want to make it very clear that DHS does have a robust system um to provide mental health services, but those are for Medicaid beneficiaries specifically um which this referral service provider will be working with and accepting referrals for Medicaid beneficiaries, but they're accepting referrals for any student in the state of Arkansas, regardless of coverage, regardless of geographic location, regardless if the school offers mental health services on campus. us or not. Um, so that's kind of our that's our main goal there is to make sure that we're very clear that this is really designed in a way

216that it complements what DHS and the PASS um model for Medicaid beneficiaries has in place. This is designed to complement and encompass that as well, but it's specifically designed to serve school districts to alleviate some of the pressures and the barriers that we know school counselors face when they make a referral for mental health for their students and all of those things that we know need to take place. So, this alleviates some of that. Um, as I stated earlier, we did launch this initiative in November of 25. So, we're just a couple of months in. Uh we're in the process of onboarding all of the school district personnel across the state. So I'm happy to say in this short amount of time we've onboarded 139 school districts. Um which means that we've trained them, they

217have access to the referral system and um they're working through actively using that across the state. Um we know that the next thing that we'll probably need to address is the lack of actual providers that we have in the state. So that is something that we're looking into is potentially identifying a teleaalth mental health provider that we can contract with to complement uh this service that we're offering to school districts. The last thing that we want is to successfully navigate students through to the point of care and still end up with no options because of lack of coverage or personal finances or geographic locations. Those are some things that could potentially get in the way and we know that. Um, I do want to share finally before I would be happy to take some questions,

218but I do want to share a little bit a little bit of the mental health data that we have for Arkansas schools. It's very limited the information that we have related to mental health. There's not a lot of mandates around that. Um, but I do have some information. So, I do want to take some time to share that with you. As of the 2425 school year, 31,318 students in the state of Arkansas were receiving mental health services on school campus. 6,758 students, this is reported from our schools, receive were receiving mental health services off-campus. So that kind of gives you an idea of how important the school is as a key component to access to mental health care efforts is in terms of our school districts and what they're doing to address the mental health

219concerns of their students. We have 238 school districts in the state that are partnering with the behavioral health agency, which means they're opening up their doors and allowing access to mental health care services for their students on their campuses. Um 78 school districts in the state of Arkansas actually employ a licensed mental health professional. 134 school districts employ an additional counselor beyond the mandated ratio. And 129 school districts employ additional personnel such as a psychologist or behavior specialist, those types of professionals. Um and a last thing I want to mention um is the Medicaid rate. So in my office we do have the Medicaid in the schools program. So we assist school districts with their Medicaid operations. And part of the process of what we do is we calculate a Medicaid rate at the district

220level and a statewide level Medicaid rate related to um school age children in the state of Arkansas. We do this annually. So, as of the 2425 school year, I think that's the right year. 2526 school year. So, as of this last school year, wait, is that this year? Oh my goodness, I don't even know. It's 2026. I know that. So, as of the 2526 school year, um the student population in the state of Arkansas that were Medicaid eligible was 86%. So that does leave a window of students who could potentially really truly benefit from this service. Anyway, I'll be glad to answer any questions you might have. Being a a new program, do you anticipate maybe overwhelming the system with new referrals or >> Well, um I've I do feel like our contractor that we've

221selected to take on this work um is well equipped with care companions. That's what they're calling them. Um those are the folks that will be accepting the referrals across the state. This is a national organization. They do this for other states. Um and and so I I believe that this is going not going to be something that they're gonna that they've taken lightly and that they're well prepared to take on. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. So um like the secretary mentioned the efforts around you know no sale bell to bail that that type are there how do we measure the benefit of of it's legislation I know but it's efforts around you know creating a good and safe mental health environment for our kids how do we can we measure that or and if so

222who does that So, in terms of the mental health environment, I I don't know if you want to offer something there. >> You're smarter than me. >> So, I I'm really thinking in terms of access to mental health care services and what we know students need. We schools do assess their environments. They do that through a mandated school health index assessment annually. So, they're assessing those different things about their environments to ensure that the the work that they're doing and their efforts are not hindering um the learning environment maybe intentionally or unintentionally typically. So, there's ways for schools to assess that. We do have access to that information as well. >> Yeah. And I don't know if you have like a direct data point that says the overall mental health well-being of a school, but

223there's indicators when you're looking at out of school suspensions, discipline referrals, the types of behaviors that kids are um engaged in, like if it's agreed, egregious type behaviors, attendance, chronic absenteeism, I think would be a big measure. And all of those are kind of those inputs that we monitor to try to um reduce because if kids are in class, the likelihood of them learning goes up, right? So um like we're participating in some studies, some national studies like on our cell phone impact like different policy initiatives, but I think and this may be a good question for Lee County too when they come in next month with their data is that there's a lot of stories to be told in expulsions. there's a lot of stories to be told in out of school suspensions, in

224school suspensions. Um, that paints also a picture of the overall kind of mental health, safety, well-being of a school as well. >> I would add to that schoolwide inter behavior intervention programming, which a lot of our schools are implementing. Um, that's probably that's a huge uh indicator of of safe environments related to mental health for students, schools that are implementing those things. >> I did have a comment and a question. Uh but before I did that, I did want to say uh Mr. Peacock and I did visit a couple of schools last month and both of them commented on how different the school environment is with the Bel Noel. I mean unprompted >> in a good way. >> Great way positive. >> Which way did the comments go? >> They were very very positive. So

225I just want to say uh that I think I think that's going to go a long way in this. My one question is how many other states are doing something like this? >> I knew I was going to get that question. I'm not sure. I know there are there are several other states that are contracting specifically for a service such as this care navigation. I can't answer how many, but I can get that for you. >> That's fine. Um, my comment really is just I I am so happy that we're doing something like this. I think it's very needed. going back to the cell phone on thing if you've read the anxious generation knowing where a lot of this comes from just knowing I mean uh when I was in school I'm sure mental health

226was was a thing but it's not what it is today um and so I'm so glad that we're taking steps to try to I guess mitigate some of the issues going on on campuses >> thank you >> I'd just like to add to that um I know in our business that our investment in mental health benefits for our employees have gone up significantly over the last five years. There's a a significant uptick in need and the fact that we have this program I think is is is very forwardlooking. >> Agreed. >> Yeah. Hopefully I'll be able to come back in a few months. Secretary Oliva hopefully he'll ask me back to come and share some some updates. As I said, we're in the onboarding process right now. So we're just now engaging districts around being

227trained and and understanding what this is. I mean, I think I don't want to speak, but I mean, I think a quarterly update might be good, even if it was just >> Yeah. And I I mean, I believe like part of the goal as we're implementing this is to build a dashboard, right? So that we can pull some data to see where referrals are happening, where they're not happening. And >> and and you know, you use care navigator, I I think is the term. Is that the right term? >> Care navigation. Yes. >> Care navigation. I I call it like a concier service, right? like the counselor can make a call to a referral, says, "I've I've worked with a family. We need help." They take the ball and find out if they're on Medicaid,

228find out if they're insurance, schedule appointments, find them providers, and and continue with that family to make sure it happens. And like talk about just um being proactive and just reducing a lot of the burden on the school. Um, this is a big deal and this is going to lead to more action because I if I'm sure every single one of you just trying to figure out your own health insurance, right? Like it's really hard. It's not easy to do and it's really easy to just give up and say we'll just tough it out, right? Like maybe we didn't need that hope after all. So anything that we can reduce the stigma, the burden and and increase efficiency in the system is going to be a win because I think more students and families will

229participate. It includes families as well, right? Like >> it it doesn't students students and staff are our focus, but this there is a family aspect here where families can make self-referrals using the the um navigator's website, >> make self-referrals, find providers. >> Yep. All right. Thank you all very much. Appreciate this. >> Thank you. >> Anything else? >> No. >> You have all the good stuff. Okay. >> The workshop we can break. >> Yeah. I was going to say let's break for lunch till 1:15 and then we'll come back and we'll do the EFA workshop if that works for >> All right. Then I guess the action