001dr masetti good evening this is your spanish interpreter i'm just doing a sound check can you hear the interpreter okay yeah we can hear you claudia thank you you're welcome hello hello can you hear me yeah we can hear you president gonzalez perfect thank you uh we've got public on we're just waiting for the last trustees to join um we will have quorum tonight based on our attendance preliminary attendance check but we will not have all trustees president gonzalez um yep we are good to go okay thank you doctor from setting you're welcome good evening everybody let's call the meeting to order my name is alba gonzalez mares and this is a meeting of the napa valley unified school district board of education the nbusd board of education is holding a special board meeting tonight
002that all can participate in remotely via zoom interpretation in spanish is available for tonight's virtual board meeting to access interpretation from a computer click on the interpretation icon on the bottom of your screen from within the zoom application on a mobile device click on the more button on the bottom of your screen and choose language interpretation from within the zoom application this is a separate channel that will allow you to hear english to spanish translation concurrently please note interpretation services are not available when you join our meeting by calling in our interpreter for tonight's meeting is claudia lindgren may we have these directions translated on our english channel so our spanish-speaking families can access the instructions [Music] gracias specific instructions on how to participate in the meeting are located on the board of education webpage
003on the district's website nvusd.org board can we please start with an attendance roll call from vr morales executive assistant yes student board member bin president trustee gonzalez present trustee jankowitz is absent today trustee gracia is absent trustee riser present trustee water president trustee shu president trustee dooley here quorum present thank you thank you vera thank you for joining us tonight for our napa valley unified school district board meeting public participation remains virtual online only this meeting tonight is in accordance with the open meeting rules in the state of california for the governor's order and assembly bill 361 i'm going to start tonight with some basic instructions on how we're going to be using zoom and involve the members of the community all board of education trustees and the superintendent are in video throughout the entire
004board meeting members of the community will not be on video and will be muted except during public comment during public comment any member of the community that wishes to speak must raise their hand using the raised hand feature in zoom you will be unmuted and will be provided three minutes to speak instructions on how to raise your hand are available on the district's website at nvusd.org board tonight's meeting is a special meeting of the board and there will be no public comment on non-agenda items you may make public comment on agenda genderized items only [Music] all right so we are now um conducting our next item which is our flag salute so um dr masseni i know we don't have trustee gracia here usually does the there we go we have a backup plan awesome
005perfect all right i know um when we were in the last time in the boardroom i think it was robin who was next but since she's not here i'm gonna go around the room again and ask trustee trustee dooley to lead us in the flag salute please sure i'm gonna stand yes i pledge allegiance 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 our next item is an announcement um this is the announcement that this meeting is live streamed and recorded via zoom and will be archived on the district youtube channel for a detailed review of any meeting agenda item the archive video can be referenced and located on the district webpage at nvusd.org
006the public can join the virtual board meeting remotely via zoom participation instructions and the process for public comment can be found on the district webpage next item is approval of special session agenda so moved second first by trustee dooley second by trustee chu student board rep i all those in favor oppose or abstain okay motion passes thank you next item is our action items um regards to general services is a discussion and approval of resolution number 22-08 authorizing continued use of remote teleconferencing provisions pursuant to assembly bill 361 or ab631 and government code section 54953 i move to approve all second uh first by trustee dooley and a second by trustee water do i have any public comment mr michaels on this item uh yes we do uh first speaker will be el grega go
007ahead please hi can you hear me yes go ahead okay so um hi everybody i'm actually it this hold on i if you could just bear with me um so if our children are able to attend school in person then the standard is set i think it's pretty clear it's safe enough for them uh it's safe enough for you unless you hold yourself to a different standard than our kids um if that's true then the issue is really serious uh is this a classic rules for thee but not for we situation uh it seems you might all have a grave misrepresentation if that's the truth of what it means to be a school board member um you're here to serve us which means you have to be present you're here to serve our children our
008families and our community for the purpose of educating our kids not creating hostile uninviting uninvited masked sterile albeit virtual world for educators and families to grow the quality of life that kids have in and through school so parents working together with teachers to enhance their children's education is essential right us being together for them is the most powerful thing because we know that school is one world and home is one world but those kids that really succeed have parents and teachers that work together right we know when we have kids that need why do you have counselors at school right kids that need extra help emotionally you guys have that emotional support at school for them why if we're two different worlds right if we don't get to approach you and say hey i think
009you could do better here i think this needs to be changed i have an opinion about this especially if you don't want to hear it and we can't approach you with our hearts open and see your faces and experience this together for real then what is it um i don't know if you've noticed the quality of communication keeps diminishing instead of advancing even our kids test scores there's no progression um we're not looking for commonalities or compromises it's just do what you say because someone else told you to say it and you have no responsibility for it we're asking you to face us to be with us we are needing to unite for our kid's sake not just perpetuate hate division lies because you're too afraid to step out and be accountable we demand that
010you stop hiding behind computers and narratives and be vulnerable and authentic with us all of us we work as a community engaging sharing one another's experiences learning from each other's mistakes and successes how can we do this when we're behind a screen we know that our kids didn't thrive with online learning our board of supervisors is in person this whole entire time in napa we ask that you follow their lead they're at least willing to look at us so you know really really really not because we want to tell you what to do but we don't want you to tell us what to do anymore we want to come together and work together for our kids sake thank you happy thanksgiving merry christmas next speaker yes next speaker is meredith go ahead please hi um
011i this is my first time joining a a remote meeting like this and i just i just wanted to share concern that i have that um i would i would really rather be in person and um i think we would all rather be in person and i question why the board has chosen to stay remotely when we do have other government agencies running with in-person as well as our schools and basically almost the rest of the our society is all running in person and so what would be the real solid reason why this particular board cannot and i i do echo what that previous person was saying of wanting to come together and work together um for solutions and i'm sure that's what the board is wanting to do too and as the your community
012and the parents i have a parent in your school district i am a parent in your school district and um i would just ask that we all show up together and work on a solution so thank you for the time next speaker [Music] uh yes next speaker is francine go ahead please yes can you hear me okay yes go ahead yeah i just want to call this out for what it is uh first of all i have three minutes and by the uh constitution the first amendment i can say whatever i want for three minutes you are not allowed to mute me this is a bunch of and you all know it um we've had it you guys are hiding behind zoom because you do not want to deal with parents coming in front of
013you demanding answers you guys are a bunch of chicken shits who refuse to come out into the public and do your job so let me get this straight it's okay for literally thousands of tourists to come to napa that's safe every single weekend to wine and dine and spend their money um it's okay for all of our children to be in school every single day with their masks on god forbid they take off their masks but they're there with their masks on with their teachers around their friends eating talking blah blah blah supposedly learning but we know that's not really happening um so that's okay um it's fine for the uh board of supervisors to have their meetings um up close and personal but for some reason you guys are afraid to get a room
014full of parents to hear what we have to say now my children are grown but i am speaking on behalf of helping other parents protect their children from the vaccine mandates from critical race theory from also other things that i can go on and on about horrific things that you guys want to start indoctrinating our children with do your job get a town hall together and buck up grow a pair you know what and listen to what the parents have to say you guys are pathetic your chicken shits and this is we're through we're done with this that's all next speaker uh yes next speaker is p uh demick go ahead please we're not hearing anything mr michaels oh hi all right i'm here um hi um i just would like to encourage you all
015can you hear me now oh the clock's starting so you guess you can um i just like encourage you guys all to meet in person this is getting ridiculous now you guys are like the only ones and i don't get that um last week we all saw on social media the uh barbara nemco and a whole bunch of her teacher um the napa valley education foundation had a party and there was 30 to 40 educators there all in attendance they were in a public restaurant there a restaurant that was very small it's about 1800 square feet indoor and outdoor there were many people indoor guess what nobody wearing a mask nobody wearing a mask and that's great i wouldn't either they're silly they do nothing but they're all together educators are all together drinking eating
016handing out awards and they have no they weren't scared nobody looks scared you guys i don't know if you're trying to look scared or you want us to be scared we're not scared anymore we're done with this we're done with this we're moving on it's time to moving on you guys got your vaccine you're all going to be healthy no worries you need to meet in person you need to look at us in the face and you need to grow up thank you very much next speaker yes next speaker is the initial k go ahead please hi can you hear me yes go ahead hi um it's nice to see all your faces tonight um i just wanted to call in and say that the hypocrisy being displayed by your board is shameful you guys
017have no logical or database reasoning to keep from resuming in-person meetings children are in school extracurricular activities have resumed holiday performances and concerts continue tourists still travel here from all over the world it's glaringly apparent that this board's motive is to keep parents at a distance every chance they get which is truly disgraceful you all need to take accountability for the responsibility you have to serve your community and stop passing the buck and that's it next speaker yes next speaker is aisley go ahead please hi um to the board i just wanted to say um please keep holding meetings online if it makes you feel safer and protects your health to everyone who's on right now who has been speaking about meeting back in person i just want to say that the board is obviously
018working under the supervision of the state and with recommendations given to them due to covid back to the board i've been to board of supervisors meetings with the same people who are on tonight and i would not want to hold in person meetings with them either a group of unvaccinated try to be unmasked people yelling in confined space isn't ideal and they've been known to harass as well as been on video like breaking into the board of supervisors chambers and being yelled at by officers to get out because they're not allowed to now back to speaking to the people who are on tonight who compared all of this to a school setting and said practice what you preached to the board you are not kids these board members are not kids except for the student
019rep cheers to you you guys are all adults and it's sad that you have less composure than the actual kids that you are discussing you guys cannot show this type of composure in person you have demonstrated that you've demonstrated you can't even show it online chicken shits really we we've gone down that far the only recommendation that i can make to the board is that the only thing being hindered here are people's faces which i don't think we're missing anything but you know if you want to open it up and actually listen to people's recommendations then maybe turn on the camera feature but otherwise stay safe and protect yourselves thank you very much next speaker this next speaker is jacqueline go ahead please can you hear me yes go ahead sorry i'm in an area
020where i don't have very good service so i'm hoping that i don't get dropped or i'm not too broken up doing this which is another reason why i hate doing this over the computer because i don't i'm not always in an area that has good service um anyway i just i really think that we should resume in-person meetings so many of the people that went before me um spoke so much what i was going to say so they've taken a lot of the words that we're going to that i was going to use but i do want to reiterate that school boards all across the state of california are open they're meeting in person they're facing the parents face to face i haven't started attending school board meetings until this year i have kids that
021have gone through the school district i have grown kids have kids in the school district currently and i have one that's getting ready to go into the school district but she's not going to because i don't agree with what you guys are doing anyway i know it's easier when you don't have to see our faces we all know it's easier to text somebody to email somebody things and not face them in person it's time we start having these difficult conversations face to face um yeah i agree performances are happening in the county i was appalled to see the fundraiser and barbara nemco out and about and all shoulder-to-shoulder it's it's hypocrisy is just becoming sickening just this is becoming a lot and you have people calling in from other states who actually like aisley do
022not have students she was just a student herself with my children like if this is getting ridiculous us parents who actually have students in the school district want to meet with you guys face to face this is it's like what's it gonna take i guess that's what i wanna hear from you guys what's it going to take because other districts in california are doing it face to face so i would like an answer what to take for you guys is it a vaccine percentage is it a certain color tier it's just enough already that's all i have to say next speaker yes next speaker is amy martinson go ahead please hi good evening um yeah it's pretty disappointing that we're here again um and that we're doing this again i have the same questions as
023the previous speakers um when is this going to end what it what local data are you using to just drive your decision making so far the only thing i've heard is that gavin newsom has still declared a state of emergency um but he declared that back in march 2020 and he actually just extended it to march 2022 so does that mean that you're not going to meet in person until march 2022 um you know just because gavin newsom says it's a state of emergency that shouldn't be your only bar for holding in-person meetings these are local meetings you need to be looking at local conditions and really do need to say what metrics are you using to decide when you will reopen um personally i don't think you have any reason not to open them
024right now based on everything else that we've been talking about the fact that school has been in person since last year there have been many indoor events at the district auditorium there was a showing of the film butter about bullying at the district auditorium there's a winter concert and appa winter concert coming up in the district auditorium um so if it's safe enough for school and for concerts and movies indoors it's certainly safe enough to hold a board meeting and those aren't rights it's not a right to attend a movie it's not a right to attend a concert but it's a right to peacefully assemble and to address your elected officials those are constitutional rights um and so to single that out that should be the last thing that you're taking away um is people's
025right to peacefully assemble to speak before their elected officials there should be a very very high bar for that and that that bar has not been met um when a previous trustee said well we're in the middle of a pandemic um look at the data we need critical thinkers here right now the last report of hospitalizations at the queen there was one person in icu by the way fully vaccinated that's it i wonder how many other people were in the icu or in the hospital for heart attacks or drug overdoses or suicide attempts we don't see those that data every single day if you look at the statewide data they're the same number of deaths every year 2020 was no higher in fact 2017 was higher than 2020. and then i asked you to think
026about this would you really know we were in a pandemic if you weren't constantly being reminded if you weren't watching the news telling you that you were in a pandemic if everybody wasn't wearing masks if we didn't have testing site on our corner if you turned off the news and we took off the masks and we didn't have the testing sites you wouldn't not know we were in a pandemic therefore we're not in a pandemic nobody needed to be told in the middle ages that they were in a pandemic during the bubonic plague they saw people dying around them thank you next speaker yes next speaker is deanna go ahead please hello guys this is deanna bowers i'm a teacher on leave this year and uh hey i just wanted to share a couple things
027you guys know some of you know who i am i can't i'm coming from a place of kids mental health as i have for years and years and years i just want to share with you guys um the kids are watching they're watching the lead of the adults and they're also watching what's happening beyond our borders i have been in 12 stadiums in four states over the past 12 weeks i've sat with ranges of fans from 50 000 to 100 000 unmasked people every weekend in these collegiate football stadiums our kids are watching saturdays on tv they're seeing michigan storm the field we're not seeing spikes so please consider the mental health of our kids and how they view the adults who are supposed to be making these decisions because like i said i've been
028out of town four days a week for the last 12 weeks and every time i come back to this state i shake my head and i wonder what are we doing everybody's back to normal so i just encourage you to look beyond the borders think of what the kids are thinking of you and the decisions you're making and how that impacts them and their mental health thanks guys next speaker but we have no further public comment yep thank you mr michaels yeah we had um a first and a second and public comment so any discussion on this item from the board i don't mind beginning it um well i just cancelled the trip uh because of uh of the variant that's coming up it was uh recommended and i did um there are other people
029i guess who are thrill seekers i do look past the borders of california and i see other states with much higher rates of transmission than we have because we are trying to keep the lid on things wearing a mask is important our students yes they're they're back in school and they're happy to be back in school and i'm glad they're there too but they're in a controlled setting where the adults are wearing masks and where um and where the children are wearing masks uh several speakers mentioned our tourist economy and yeah there's i i live downtown i'm i'm in the thick of it and i see a rather uh devil may care attitude uh towards mask wearing from people who i presume are visiting our area and uh i i don't know there's this idea
030that napa is a solid border and everything happens here and is contained here when actually we are extremely permeable and we do welcome thousands of people from all over the place into our community because this is this is the economy here um but it doesn't mean that people uh don't get sick and staying home and um i don't know not watching the news not reading about uh not reading about it isn't exactly a solution to staying healthy i think and i look forward to opening it to opening up um in person but i have to uh i have to say that um when we do open it up in person anybody who comes up to to our podium and uh uses you know really remarkable profanity as we heard earlier is going to be escorted
031out of the room that is that is absolutely not allowable maybe uh maybe the standards um have uh sagged a bit because uh we're all on these screens but no that won't be tolerated for a minute it's not going to be a free-for-all done i'll i'll go next i i kind of want to dovetail on what trustee water just mentioned there are constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and to speak but those rights are not absolute they are bound by rules regarding the time place and manner in which you can speak and and assemble those rules are uh i mean this is simple constitutional law um that that i've i've studied as a lawyer so um i'm not speaking out of turn here but uh it doesn't allow people to um come and and speak beyond
032what the the agenda item is or beyond the uh jurisdiction of what is our our board governs it doesn't allow for disruption it doesn't allow it allows for agencies to provide their own rules of conduct to allow us to perform the work that we are required to perform we are conducting the business of the district and public comment is an integral part to that um but i find it very confusing that we had a dozen or so commenters today that all were given three minutes to petition uh this board and yet we're being accused of not providing the opportunity for people to position this board this the the medium that we're using the virtual medium is a provision that that is allowed under the law based on the prevailing conditions in the area of a
033public health emergency it's not just the governor's declaration of emergency but the county has declared an emergency as well based on local conditions it's you know we can set up as many false equivalencies as we want to try to compare a board meeting to a football game they're different they're not it's not the same conditions it's not the same locations it's not the same situation so um i think that there's there's substantial evidence showing that we are in a state of where social distancing physical distancing is uh recommended for prevention of the transmission of a deadly disease i think if we didn't watch the news we didn't do any of those you know we would still you know there have been millions of people around the world who have died so suggesting that there's not
034a pandemic is is difficult to to swallow um i i support the continued use of this medium because it provides for the public the opportunity to speak um and it uh maintains the the physical distancing that will help prevent further transmission of a deadly disease i would just like to say that um i don't at all feel that we are being cowardly and hiding we are all here um listening to the statements of the people that called in um and to the caller that said that that scolded us that the kids are watching well if there were any kids watching this board meeting i think it's the conduct of the callers that would be called into question about modeling appropriate behavior and being respectful so i want to echo trustee waters comment about conduct and
035respectful behavior and i also look forward to having in-person meetings i'm a new trustee and we've been in this format since i joined the board and i look forward to that when it's safe and appropriate i'm absolutely gobsmacked by the caller that says if we didn't if we weren't being told that there was a pandemic then we wouldn't know it and that means there's not a pandemic we're losing a thousand americans a day right now a thousand people a day are dying of covid and for people like me who do like to stay informed about science-based fact-based data-driven reporting about this pandemic uh you're aware that there's now a new variant that is potentially even more transmissible than the delta variant that has kept this pandemic building steam over the summer we've surpassed the number
036of deaths in our in this year already that we had in 2020 when the pandemic we had hoped in 2020 was at its worst so um in response to the callers saying we're tired of this we're over this we're done you know if only wishing made it true we would all love to be done with pandemic with the death with the limitation with the with all of the difficulties and the constraints that we are currently operating with i'd also like to say that the reason that california is in better shape than some of the states across our borders is precisely because of the commitment to public health mitigation strategies that we are enacting here and this is an example of that it's not true that school boards across the state are meeting in person and
037that we are the exception fact i just watched coverage of a school board meeting in hayward and they were all also on zoom so i feel it feels to me a little bit like a false flag operation to say to to decry us for depriving you of your right to see us in person um that's not the point of public comment to see to see our human faces in person the point is to share your positions to share your point of view to give us important input about your feelings and your um your points of view related to children educating the children of our community and that's what this forum allows and i would also like to point out that those callers that seem very eager to come in person and call us names at
038the podium instead of behind zoom there's anyone hiding behind zoom right now it feels like the people calling me chicken but i um i would say i think we also need to consider the community members that are having increased access and are feeling able to safely access our meetings because they're not in person there may be far more community members that are joining in our meetings that would not feel safe enough either because of their own health conditions or because they have a vulnerable family member at home or they could be for their own reasons whatever their reasons are so it were we to return to in person while we are still in a public health emergency yes it has been going on since 2020. it's a global historic pandemic and it's not over so
039berating us for not pretending that it's over feels really misguided and hostile you know we're all here to show up to govern the school district and make the best possible informed decisions that we can as we go about the business of running a large school district and educating our students and supporting our community in doing that so um i i'm really i guess i'm not surprised because this isn't the first time that we've been called names for following public health recommendations but i'm firmly in the camp of we listen to the public health experts at the county level in the state level and we do what's recommended and what's safest and if you want to call me names for prioritizing public health in my community feel free to do so but that's going to be
040my choice every time so the i think the main job that we have is to educate our students and i think we've seen from last year being in distance learning hybrid learning whatever format it is it didn't really work as well as the kids being in school so how do we make sure that the kids remain in school not contribute to outbreaks to make sure we have layered protective risk mitigation ways of making sure our kids can go to school i mean the latest data is showing that we are still in the red tier um but we have no outbreaks in schools and i really would like to keep it that way because i my kids need to be in school i think all of our district kids need to be in school because that's
041how they learn and how do we as a school board do that it's to not have congregated settings but still provide an avenue where people can share their views and thoughts to us which i i think in the in the past year since i've been on the board it seems to you know it's been pretty good in that we are offering this online system for both people who are not really comfortable in coming and meeting us in person and others who would like to meet us in person we we've heard many of them on our meeting today so i'd like to keep our ability to have risk mitigation to prioritize our children to be able to be in school because i from what i'm hearing today is you know they they're all appreciated the fact
042that the kids are in school and the reason why is because we are taking whatever control we can have to make sure that they they can remain in school i mean we can't control the visitors coming here we can't control other boards from meeting in person but we can control our own ways of conducting ourselves to ensure our objective of educating our kids actually happened so i do support this resolution i i just want to clarify i think as of today we've moved into the yellow tier just uh everything you said is 100 true but today it was announced we moved into the yellow just for the record president um before you move towards uh potentially uh concluding board deliberation and discussion um in the vote i just would like to make a couple comments
043superintendent does that work yes please go ahead and dr mitti so um um i uh i do want to just recognize a couple of things and just bring clarity to the public so this resolution even if the board room was open a resolution would need to be passed if we wanted to allow for any online engagement so i just i want to take these opportunities to educate the public um that there are that that would be a requirement so even when the board determines that it is safe and just like again just to restate for for the record this is a special board meeting we're doing a special board meeting where we're all participating remotely but our typical format for regular business meetings are the trustees do come into the boardroom and we are electing
044our decision making up until now and we'll see what your vote is tonight has been to continue we come together in the boardroom but to continue to provide zoom access because our fundamental guiding principle is we want as many people we want as many people to access the meeting as as possible the school district in response to all kinds of issues declining enrollment which you know tethered to declining revenue etc etc we have had some some intense topics and the flip side and and this has been stated to me i'm just letting you know as superintendent when i'm out in the community is the concern of many of these topics people feel that it during the emergency conditions they would not feel comfortable coming to the boardroom and they would view it as a direct
045barrier to access as the district continues to navigate complex issues due to forces beyond our control you know we've for us the fundamental issue really has been declining enrollment so we've had to do tough things as you know lay off school closures in response to all of that which has brought uh an increased amount of public participation to our board meetings and many many uh community members have stated parents have stated that it is the remote access that has allowed them to be able to engage in ways that historically the community has not engaged so i can just reiterate for the board and the public that our participation has actually increased um vis-a-vis this format so for us we just want to continue to engage in the ongoing assessment the continual every 30 days as
046the legislation requires assessing um access the access point in our community while the the emergency conditions still exist and what is going to continue to um solidify access for public participation because our interest is actually i think the opposite of of what the concern is here our interest is always what are the mechanisms to increase access and we have seen over and over and over that the app the the amount of public participation has skyrocketed um in comparison to when folks had to come in person i also just want to reiterate that many many many people from our uh the american canyon um a community have reiterated to me um that this this virtual access they have felt fundamentally um included um in the engagement element of our governance because of this um access and
047that's not to say that oh you know that's the sole reason or what not that to create access for american canyon but um we do again it's just you know in these conditions there's a lot of hesitation from many members of the public um to um to come into public space um in the way that potentially uh we would if we eliminated the zoom access and and i think that we would get a lot a lot of concern and push back from many people who have appreciated the increased access so i just want to have mindfulness around that and then to understand when the board if and when the board gets to a determination that yes open up the board room um that we we may still have to pass this resolution if we want
048to maintain remote at remote access as well so there's you know and you're gonna see an evolution of this as the conditions evolve and change so i just kind of want to take an opportunity to educate the public that um also the the other benefit is that right now the the governance team is eight the seven trustees and myself as the staffer the superintendent of schools if we don't have this resolution and let's say uh you know uh uh members of the governance team were to contract covet and had to stay back we would not be able to conduct the business of the district because if you have symptoms and or um have contracted covid we would have to cancel meeting meetings if we couldn't attain quorum right so having again this resolution positions the
049district to have that flexibility to be able to convene remotely if necessary in that scenario as well so many districts are are passing the resolution every 30 days in order to have that safety net of making sure trustees can continue to suit up show up and conduct the business of the district um in case there are symptoms and or covet contraction amongst the governance team the business can still be conducted in this format that's another reason districts continue to pass the resolution as um allowable for you know with the governor's flexibility in this assembly bill so just wanted to put those points out there thank you dr masseni um you know i won't add much more because i agree completely with every single comment shared by the christine's um and uh my that was my
050thought exactly it was just you know what one thing that i've learned with um the pandemic um and i think many of us have is just a lot of the adaptation right this is it's been unprecedented and and i'm just very proud of of the fellow trustees and um the nvusd uh staff and so for working so hard to find those uh midpoints so that we can all get our work done right and this is definitely has been a way for us to get our work done and we've been able to do that uh and we've been able to handle so much um and inclu and include um and provide those access points for our community and so i i um as a trustee feel absolutely confident that i've been able to receive all forms
051of communication and information needed in order for me to conduct the work that i need to do um and um and and and i agree i think um something that's going to be really interesting is just how does the future uh going to look like in our board meetings when we'll have in person and then continue to have input um and so that's you know one of the very few good things about all of this is is the learning opportunities and this is one of those that i know that has increased our ability to connect with our community in more ways that i that i never had before having been on the board uh pre-pandemic um so it's been fascinated actually to be able to see us transform um and adapt and and react and
052and um and respond um to the needs of our communities more specifically to the needs of our of our students and our nbusd team and we've we've been able to do that very well um well that being said as we can are conducting our business tonight uh we did have um everyone on award-winning comments and and we did have a first and a second motion but um yeah twisty water go ahead well i was wondering if we could have the student perspective um from uh emily trusty bit um yeah i just wanted to like very quickly add something before we conclude um because i heard a lot of discussion around students and wearing maths at school and a student that goes to in-person school every single day i feel like i along with my peers
053that have compassion don't necessarily feel like small discomforts um are a bad thing such as you know it can be discomfort it can be uncomfortable to wear a mask every single day but i do it because i want to keep my community safe and i don't mind that small sacrifice knowing that other students who have younger siblings that are unvaccinated or family members that you know that are elderly or something like that i understand that their families might be at risk and i have members of my family have a little brother um who's like recently getting his vaccination there's there's just circumstances and i understand us from a student perspective that you know i can't always have everything there are sacrifices that i have to make um and i also think that being in a
054zoom platform is really beneficial because um throughout my last school year throughout the june my junior year so the end of 2020 and all throughout 2021 i had the opportunity to attend so many city council meetings all throughout the county i went to american canyon calistoga yonville i went to county-wide meetings and i got to interact with these local elected officials and get involved in things that i never could have before or never knew about before because of this online format um i've presented to multiple city councils you know calistoga is really far away from american canyon and without this zoom platform i wouldn't have been able to do that and i think that having this option for parents it allows parents to come on and voice their concerns even though you're not necessarily face
055to face it allows students to come on and voice their concerns i've had friends be able to attend these meetings i let them know that something is on the agenda and they hop on um while doing their homework multi multitasking when they wouldn't have been able to drive um like 20 30 minutes to come to napa to sit in the boardroom and so as a student i think that this is beneficial um and that's just my take on it can i just elaborate thank you so much student representative and thank you for prompting that trustee water um i i just do wanna i i think the point being made by the student representative i think it reiterates that concept of access um and and that um you know i know school districts who have let
056go of the remote access and just let it all go aren't passing the resolution are have open are just doing the regular format and um there have been there's been tremendous backlash from their communities from the students um and from parents who feel like uh the driving force behind that decision was in order to keep people away from the difficult issues right um and so kind of the the flipped narrative and so i think what um student representative bit is just reiterating this concept that um right now again we're actually hearing from more people than we have historically heard from consistently meeting after meeting whether it's a high interest topic or a regular business meeting we have more people participating engaging and providing public comment than we have had historically and and i was and
057i want to reiterate students parents and community members are all leveraging that access so we are not um i think the organization has demonstrated that we are not fearful we were actually one of the first k-12 systems in the state of california to open up campuses uh while everybody else stayed closed so you know we've created access to all of our events you know we have been i just want to reiterate this this theme of continuing to provide access to the majority of people who want it and really demanded of us because the envy usd community is highly engaged in their schools and so we believe that having this option and flexibility allows for that engagement to really come in and touch the governance um work that we do so um thank you for for
058kind of pointing that out and reminding us of that in your own personal experience as a student and a youth leader in our community um student representative thank you yeah yeah thank you for propping prompting that uh trustee water and thank you for your input um student board rep emily bed um okay any remaining comments all right um we did have a first and a second this is a resolution so i will ask um vera morales to conduct roll call yes student board member ben aye trustee gonzalez aye trustee reiser hi trustee water hi trusty shoe hi trusty dooley hi thank you vera um our next item is now adjourning the special board meeting move to adjourn a second second first by trustee dooley second by trustee chu uh student board rep hi all those
059in favor oppose or abstain okay we are a journey have a good evening everybody thank you thank you all right thank you