001e e e meeting to order um quick roll call looks like we have all of our trustees currently here this morning and so we're going to move to item 2.1 our welcome and pledge allegiance um and we're going to go ahead and have trusty Jeff lead us in the pledge 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 very much we just want to welcome all of you guys for being here in a midday we appreciate uh you guys coming out and um we do have public comment cards so we appreciate your partic participation in this process as well um just a quick on the agenda there was an error um
002in item 2.1 that has been remedied um on the screen tonight but just so you know that will be amended um board president is no longer D brandom all right we're gonna go ahead and move to item 2.2 approval of the special meeting agenda and are there any changes that need to be made I'm going to go ahead and take a quick roll call um of our our candidates for today just to make sure that you are here John bdet thank you Roy Emerson Lake Taffy Mau thank you Sean Smith thank you Tracy tweet and Joshua Cooper not here so we are going to then that Joshua Cooper is not here for the interview um are we planning I'm assuming we're just going to move this applicant aside um okay so his name will not
003be in the drawing move this to the side and do we have a motion for item 2.2 approval of the special meeting agenda with the removal of Joshua Cooper from the applicant pool I Mo approval I'll second first and a second on item 2.2 approval of the special meeting agenda all in favor say I I I I I all oppose hearing none motion passes unanimously item three action items are interview applicants and appointment to fill the board vacancy that's why you're all here today and uh all right I'm GNA move to a script we're going to we're going to keep this orderly today we have our Council um William tunic um zooming in here and participating remotely and so with that being said uh the with the recent resignation of Ron oats it obviously created
004a vacancy on our board during our December 17th meeting the board decided to fill the vacancy by appointment and directed staff to make available applicants to those seeking appointment applications were available from December 18th to January 7th and posted on the district website the district received six applications which were deemed eligible by the board subcommittee the application submitted were posted as part of the board agenda the board appreciates the interest of all applicants in serving the district as part of the board and expects that the board will have a difficult decision before it today we want to thank all of the applicants for coming forward as part of this process while the board may only select one applicant to fill the seat we want to let you know that there are many ways besides filling
005the vacancy that you can support the district and we hope that you will take advantage of those opportunities before we get started I wanted to let everyone know how the board plans to make this decision the board has reviewed all of the applications and looks forward to hearing from the applicants we will Begin by asking all applicants the same four questions so that each of us has the same each has the same opportunity to respond a drawing will be conducted to determine the order in which the applicants will answer the questions each applicant will have two man minutes to answer each each question uh the staff member or myself will um let applicants know when the time for each question has elapsed I believe we're will'll also be projecting the time um similar to public
006comment so you know that's a little bit of pressure um but you can do it and we'll ask all the other applicants to wait outside while waiting your turn so everyone has a fair process here after all the applicants have an opportunity to speak there will be an opportunity for public comment which we do have public comment cards as I stated previously following the public comment each board member will identify no particular order their top three candidates and they may or may not choose to give three they could give one or two or three at that time the board May entertain a motion for appointment and if a motion is made and receives the affirmative votes of three members the applicant will be uh provisionally appointed if no motion is made or receives the affirmative
007votes of three members the board will move to a second round of interviews for finalists finalists will be those applicants who are listed by at least two board members if this results and more than four finalists the process will be repeated with each board member identifying their top two applicants and those applicants who were listed by at least two board members will be the finalists in the reverse order of the first round each finalist will be asked the same three questions and be provided two minutes to answer each question finalists will be asked to remain outside until it's their turn to interview after the second round of questions the public will be provided another opportunity to comment on the appointment the board will then deliberate or or or entertain a motion for appointment if a
008motion is made and receives the affirmative votes of three members the applicant will be provisionally appointed hope you guys are following all right the successful applicant will be administered the oath and take their seat on the board following their appoint appointment and it will be that one so if we come to an agreement which I believe we will before we begin I would like to ask I've got a basket here um I'll go ahead and have our board clerk here to my right um to select the applicants names to determine the order of the first round of interviews the first name drawn will be our first interviewee um please wait you don't need to exit yet um until we have our final order and um and we will announce the names as they're drawn okay
009oh no please uh Taffy Mau will go first followed by Sean Smith John berett and Tracy tweet and Emerson Lake all right we will now begin the first round of questions and I would like all of the applicants um obviously when it's your turn to step to the podium and ask the other um applicants to step outside our Communications officer Sarah wrath will direct um each of the applicants back from the other room I think I think you guys are heading across the way here so um I think she'll guide you over there at this time and when it's your turn you'll be called back by Sarah thank you very much and Taffy yeah you may stay and hang tight we'll let the other candidates leave and get organized here perfect thank you Desiree Desiree
010is placing the questions at the podium at this time so that um you won't have to ask us to repeat it you you're you'll be able to look at that and just as a reminder to our board um and we each of us have a script in front of us um that questions to each applicant will be limited to those below um each trustee will ask a question and each applicant will have the same opportunity to answer the same question so we will not be asking followup questions at this time um because another applicant may not have the same question and we want to make sure we have a fair process we good okay excellent happy yep come on down thank you thank you all right board each of the applicants also have um their
011their applications inside of your packet if you wanted to have that side by side as we go through this process okay we're going to kick it off with trusty Underwood first of all welcome tap your microphone nice to have you here thank you um how do you view the Competency Based education and promoting equity and education and why thank you yeah I you know I was a teacher for many many years and I've seen uh these these kinds of movements come around to individualize instruction it takes a special teacher to handle that I think it should be uh something where uh The Faculty or maybe departments they would decide how they want to approach that but I really think it boils down to also how our parents feel about it I know personally I was
012not real happy with what I saw and heard but uh I'm not there in the classroom I have a grandson at the school and I have two golden eagles coming up so that um I think sometimes that's how it's rolled out but right now uh I think it needs to be uh parent choice with teachers collaborating with parents and our students to decide what how they want to move forward on this thank you right thank you for being here um uh what is your stance on inclusion of transgender athletes in girl Sports and how would you address the issue while considering the diverse perspectives within the community State of California and the county I um I am opposed to transgender uh athletes in girls Sports uh having been an athlete myself um I just can't
013even imagine I was on the swim team in High School varsity swim team I just can't even imagine uh that is something where we have to tread very carefully I'm just trying to still see the question here uh how would you address this issue while considering the diverse perspectives yes we have diverse perspectives uh but I do believe that uh transgender athletes do not belong in girls Sports is something where we talk with the community we ask the community to give us the direction on on that but that's what I believe if you're asking what I believe thank you all right how do you say your last name ma'am M like power okay thank you all right so I have a two-part question here so uh here it goes do your values beliefs and priorities
014align with the community and what steps will you take to ensure you represent them when making decisions for the students parents and the community thank you that's a great question uh we moved to this community 20 years ago I moved ahead uh before my even my grandkids were born because I'm that Grandma I drive around with the big do in the back of my car and um I was ready I was ready to have kids in this school and um I am definitely part of the community I'm very active in the community I don't stand out like somebody who is controversial in the community because our community we're stronger together we work together we can move mountains we can do anything and I want to be part of the extensive pride and the wonderful culture
015of our community here at Plaster Union High School District thank you for your final question you're doing a good job thank you I know this is a lot of pressure in recent years considering the voting record of the Board of Trustees did you agree or disagree with the board's actions and what are your reasons as an example covid masking and school closures however you may elaborate on any decision of the board yeah I agree recently on the uh um the decision of the board uh for um company based education for sure um you know if I had my way there you do not take children out of school you do not I watched my my grand my one youngest grandson went to school for 3 years wearing a mask I mean how do you learn
016he's in TK how do you learn how to how for phonics how reading how do you do that how do you listen and hear and watch the person's mouth um yeah so I I agree with everything you've had to do and could do within your power because you did what you could and that's um you know if the board I could would have liked to have seen the board just say no masks sometimes you have to go with with what's going on with the community and if you're not listening to the community I think if you had listened to the community there would have been no Mass that's the community so that I hope I answered that question for you because uh that's um I feel strongly that I represent the community and I know
017how we felt in the community thank you very much absolutely is that the end oh that's gracious okay I'm leaving him right here for the next person thank you very much Jeffy thank you Sean board our next is Shan so if you wanted to pull his application forward same questions apply welcome Mr Smith thank you for being here Sean Smith great thank you trusty Underwood ready to roll welcome nice to have you here thank you um the question I have for you is how do you view the Competency Based education and promoting equity in education and why and and why and why so um I know the comp the the CBE program was rolled out uh last year and um and it's it's I think it's adoption has been slow you guys tried to do
018a measured approach of doing it um in in the research and feedback I've gotten from different members I I feel like uh it's been it's been a challenge but I feel like there's also with anything any change there's always challenges with change and so um seems like you guys are looking at uh measures to see ways of maybe tweaking or uh adjusting the program as needed to ensure that it covers the the overarching goals of making sure the education and um that that the students are able to learn different things versus just attain a grade um and regardless of whatever their background is or anything like that um I I I feel like the the program needs to continue to evolve to to meet the needs of the students and in our area I I
019I don't know that I have enough information or data to understand what that looks like but um I would if if needed I would try to gather as much information from teachers and parents and students and whatnot and try to uh see where where I feel like it needs to go to continue to achieve the goal the ultimate goal that it has thank you y the questions in front of them can we remind them that the questions are in front of them oh right here yeah questions in front of you as well if you need to take a look all right thanks for being here appreciate it uh I'll ask the next question um what is your stance on the inclusion of transgender athletes in girl Sports and how would you address the issue while
020also considering the diverse perspectives within the community State of California and plaster County well that's a challenging one um I feel like um that it is um you know biological males um their bodies are are different than biological females and that in in certain certain Arenas there is an unfair Advantage um and so um in in terms of like running swimming basketball boys biological boys competing in against biological girls I don't think is very fair um I feel like everybody needs a fair chance to compete against the the other contestants that are there um and I don't think it's fair for biological girls to compete compete against those that are that are given uh um a higher Advantage more or less because of their their biology and so I I don't think it's fair to
021have biological boys you know competing against girls which is typically what what we're hearing in the news and everything today um how you work that with the perspectives of the State of California that's that's the juggling match um trying to make sure we we you play nice and and adhere to the rules that they do um but my stance is is that yeah they don't you need to you need to make it fair for all those competing in in the sports that they're in and whatever that is thank you all right thank you Mr Smith I my question is actually a two-part question and hopefully it's there in front of you as well yep my question is do your values beliefs and priorities align with the community and what steps will you take to ensure
022that you represent them when making decisions for the students parents and the community so uh the first part yeah I do believe that my beliefs values um I've lived in I grew up in Roseville um I've been in the area I've lived in Newcastle where I currently live now I've lived there for five years um I consider myself a plaster County native uh and I um I feel like I I do ad have a lot of the core values that a lot of the community members have um I'm a father of three my my youngest is now a senior at Del Oro and so he's on his way out um and I've I've very much appreciated all the the leadership that you know the school boards and other other teachers and everybody has done for
023all of my kids and and I hope to be able hope to be able to continue that that that nurture for all students going forward um and in terms of the second aspect of it uh what steps would I take to ensure I I would just use that lens as as different different po questions policies um and decisions come up with whether it's dealing with funding or um dealing with how to handle different things with education what not trying to make sure that we do what would be representative make decisions that would represent the community and the families that are here that care about their kids and want them to have a fair and Equitable education and be able to best prepare them to be great adults in community giving back to the community thank
024you last and final question in recent years considering the voting record of the Board of Trustees did you agree or disagree with the board's actions and what are your reasons as examples Co masking and school closures however you may elaborate on any decision of the board I'll probably stick with the example um the co masking and and uh the the school closures I think the board made the best decision with the information they had at the time um I I think uh it was it was a tough decision um I think if we look back and with the information we have now we probably would have made decisions maybe it might have been different but I given the information the the data at the time there was a lot of unknowns there wasn't Clarity on
025the effectiveness of different things or or or uh how how um how bad different things would be and so there was also the unattend consequences with you know school closures and what that did to the kids and you know the the effects that has on them being work you know being at home and if anybody had kids that were doing school from home you understand what that was and how uneducation that that experience was for them um even though we were doing the best we had with the tools that we had it was just that was tough and so I I uh I I I feel like the board made probably the right decision at the time with the information they had um um I I think that if we would have been given other
026you know looking back I think we would have with the information we have today I think we would have made different decisions thank you very much yep all right it looks like John berett is next that's Sean Smith that was Sean Smith was sh and then on Deck is Tracy can we remind him that the questions are up there oh yes these guys didn't hear that yeah yep yep welcome John hello I was just reminded by trusty Jeff to let you know that the questions are right in front of you oh just just so that you have that for your reference through this process thank you for reminding all righty all right so my name is John berett and thank you uh for allowing to interview here today so the first question is we'll go
027ahead and allow the trustees to ask you okay and then you take it away great welcome um my question for you is uh pretty important I think uh in the Long Hall how do you view Competency Based education and promoting equity in education and why okay um I don't think they're in order here right they should comp okay yeah so company Competency Based education um to me means that we need to make sure that our students are actually learning the materials that we're presenting and I know that that's probably why we went to this new grading system uh to ensure that no student was left behind and promoting Equity uh to me is very important um I don't believe that anybody should be held back because of race religion um sexual gender uh there there
028on and there forth I think every citizen in the United States deserves uh a very high quality public education and I will do everything in my power to support that thank you thanks for being here appreciate it um what's your stance on the on the inclusion of transgender athletes in girl Sports and how would you address the issue while considering the diverse perspectives within the community the state of California and pler County well my stance on the inclusion of transgender athletes and girl Sports uh is probably not a positive one um I I do not believe that there is an advantage to allowing uh certain transgender athletes in girl Sports um I mean you've saw the boxing match at the Olympics and it was to me it wasn't really fair um I do believe that
029that it's a big issue um and that uh we definitely need to make sure that our students are safe uh and they understand um you know why this is happening all right next is my question and my question is kind of a two-part so here's the first part do your values beliefs and priorities align with the community then the second part and what steps will you take to ensure that you represent them when making decisions for the students parents and the community I do do believe my values um and beliefs are aligned with the community I've been a Community member uh in Newcastle uh living on Oak Terrace since 2007 um my wife and I have volunteered uh at our school districts in the past uh coaching sports events um we just recently started going
030to Freedom Point uh which is church at deloro and with respect to aligning our values with the community I believe it's very important to listen to the community members to try to have a deep understanding of of their issues problems concerns and to really take that in consideration when making decisions um here at the board level um we'll be setting policy and reviewing budgets and allocating funds for certain things and we want to make sure that those decisions are in line with the community um because that's who we serve thank you and your last but certainly not least question in recent years considering the voting record of the Board of Trustees did you agree or disagree with the board's actions and what are your reasons as example Co masking and school closures however you may
031elaborate on any decision of the board um throughout the years um I have agreed with most of the decisions of the board um during covid I believe masking was was important in the beginning when we didn't know what it was um school closures I believe were appropriate when we didn't know exactly what it was as time went on though I I believe that my stance on that eased um I I believed that that our children did miss a lot of in-person learning education by not being in school um it was hard for them to keep up online although the technology is awesome and I I was very grateful that that we had the technology to continue lessons in programming um and yeah i' I've always stand behind all the board's decisions thank you very much
032thank you well if it weren't you it would have been me I'm always the first to spill something at Thanksgiving it's true all right looks like we've got Tracy tweet and then our final on Deck is Emerson Lake for being with us this uh this afternoon this TW thank you for having me all right the questions are in front of you so that you can use that as a review but we're going to have the trustees go ahead and read those questions to you one at a time and just be um aware that that timer is going and you're welcome to fill it so that's good thank you you bet I want to welcome you here and uh my question for you is as follows how do you view Competency Based education and promoting equity
033in education and why right well thank you for the question um I have two kids that have graduated from do in the last two years so 23 and 24 and they had a t B of CBE versus traditional they were very aware of which teachers were CBE teachers and which teachers were traditional so they learned how to kind of associate and play to that um I've been listening to the discussion from the five-hour meeting that you guys had to have the other night and I've used CBE as trying to be Equitable we're trying to not produce kids that know how to get an A just because they know the answers and they memorized it but they've actually internalized the skills and the knowledge that they need in order to master the material so the um
034the approach is right but the execution was not thought out right so the intentions were good but we all know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions um so I think like Mr feffer presented only 9% 99.7% of the teachers want to keep CBE the way it is and um however the majority of them don't want to get rid of it and that's because it has good intentions the the principle of CBE reaching out to the scales and saying these are the competencies that you need to master in order to go on is what I think teachers want they want to be able to do that but we have to think through the execution so that every student is given an opportunity to succeed and we have to remember success is not
035the same for every kiddo so um my time is up so I'm gonna stop thank you Tracy thanks for being here uh what is your stance on the inclusion of transgender athletes in girl Sports and how would you address this issue while considering the diverse perspectives within the community the state of California and pler County wow this is not one I thought would be on here so I think it's really important though especially in this state um I teach at American River College and I teach um most of my students are ages 18 and 25 um Taffy just called me hey you're the Undertaker and I am I I um I run Chapel of the hills here in town and another one in Placerville um and the students that come into funeral services are alternative
036they are I I see this every day um people who are comfortable with death are comfortable with alternative Lifestyles for the most part um so I respect them now an 18-year-old is very much more aware of who they are than say a 14-year-old and I I I mean I'm going to say me personally and I'm not saying that the stance of the board should be a personal thing we're here to release all of our personal views and be here to represent the student population that we are here to represent me personally I don't think that that is where students should be if they are identifying with a different gender and that that's my personal view however I do want to represent every student here in the district and so I don't know what the right
037answer is um to be honest with you and uh you know if it's asking me that I don't know because I would have to hear what the um perspectives are of those individual kiddos but I personally do not feel that that um is fair or right um when I see that so might not be the most py answer but that's what I would feel yeah all right ma'am so I have a my question is kind of a two-parter question so here goes do your values beliefs and priorities align with the community and what steps will you take to ensure you represent them when making decisions for the students parents in the community so I was thinking about this the other day we're all busy people all of these applicants are amazing one of them is
038my actual dentist okay so I was like I'm so glad you're here here if my tooth falls out you're here to put it back in um everyone here is qualified and we all you know I run a staff of many people I serve families who are grieving in the community I've actually had the opportunity to um serve families who have lost children in our district as well as teachers that we've lost um so I get it I get the core and the fabric of why pler Union is who it is um my three children will graduate I've got one coming in in the fall and my husband went to PL Union High School in 1994 I think Miss Barry was there when he was there she was a cheer coach um so um but in
039the end what's the most important thing I do every day it's make my daughter's lunch and I think that and I was PTC president at um classer Elementary for a very long time way too long there's a special place in heaven for PTC presidents um but at the end of the day the the most important thing I do is I make Megan's lunch and it's because I am showing her that I'm here to support her through her day some making right choices I'm here for you baby and I'm sending you out to the world and I think that's kind of and I'm not saying buying your lunch is bad because she does that too but in the end the fabric of our community is supporting our kids in any way that we can you might
040be someone who works night shifts but you can maybe be there in the classroom for a half hour on a weekday um I just that's why we're all here that's why we choose Plass Union we we want to pack these kids lunches metaphorically speaking and I think that's what this community is about so thank you all right and our last question for you is in recent years considering the voting record of the Board of Trustees did you agree or disagree with the board's s and what are your reasons as examples Co masking or school closures however you may elaborate on any decision of the board so I've been with plaster union now for five years with L Lumis Union much longer however I want to say what I really appreciated as I was reading the
041website is that these decisions um that you guys collaborate with the elementary schools and also the JC's which also I teach at the JC level like I just said so it's really nice to see when there is that Continuum between all of the districts and um where that's where that's going with that being said what happens for me at do needs to happen at Plaster Elementary I can't be on two different pages masking one kid up and the other one being independent so I appreciate that there is um conversation I think that because there's five of you and and Steve sorry Dr kin here um that the decisions are the right decisions because I believe again in the process um I recognize too and I want to say this I recognize this is usually a
042voted position so so the people didn't get to elect these people um whoever's going to be here and so um that is definitely an honor to to be here to do that um but I would say that what the school said I went with because I knew that it was well thought all and that you guys are thinking about all of the students that the was there's 38 23 3,823 kids in our district and um five of you making that decision for them so I agreed with whatever had to happen had to happen and I teach my kids that I my kids understand that um I have a master's in public health so when it came to covid they understood why and that the district was looking out for their best interest it was tough
043it was really tough kids don't like masks on unless they've got a zit or something then it works but other than that it was tough so thank you for making those decisions thank you very much and that is all for nowk thank you right we have our last [Music] applicant Dr Lake names aren't listed are they um I don't believe all right welcome thank you for being with us here Dr Lake thanks all right um just as a reference you do have the questions in front of you on the podium where um the trustees will still ask the questions in that order um just so that you have some time if you need to look down and and refresh um just be aware of that timer in front of you all righty take it away
044welcome um I'm glad you're here my question for you is how do you view the Competency Based education and promoting equity in education and why uh thank you for the question uh I have uh some hands-on experience going through this transition the last several years uh with the Competency Based education program um because of my kids I have a uh my youngest is in eighth grade now I have a son that's a sophomore I have a son that graduated last year and then two daughters who graduated um you know several years ago and so watching the progression of Education especially in mathematics and um that stands out the most to me because it I don't love it I'll be honest uh compared to the way that we learn math to what they have to go
045through today it's it's challenging and I know that math is it it builds on itself but um I'm fascinated by what prompted the whole change in direction to go towards um you know to change the whole structure of education so to speak and um and I think a lot of it had to do with with equity in education and I think that that's like a really important topic and I feel like there are a lot of students that get that are left behind that uh come from different backgrounds they they come from different support systems at home and uh you know I looked at all the the the statistics and the results that that are coming out uh through the the different slides that were provided from past board meetings and um you know it
046looks like there's a few more A's and that there's there's fewer people failing and so looks promising but I I just I don't know I think that there's there's more information that I I feel like I uh I need to process but yeah thank you thank you thanks sir thanks for being here Emerson um what is your stance on the inclusion of transgender athletes in girl Sports and how would you address the issue while considering the diverse perspectives within the community the state of California and pler County um having a daughter involved with uh she plays basketball um I personally am not in favor of uh trans transgender athletes um involved in in particularly uh girl Sports um and I you know I don't mean to be controversial it's just it's just um it just
047doesn't sit right with me I don't think that uh um you know well there's there's so many different things to unpack with that but you could focus on the the injury aspect where I've seen games where there's a dominant athlete on the floor and um and the other uh female athletes are just you know they're dominating and it's it just again it doesn't sit doesn't sit right I think that girls work very hard to achieve uh a level of excellence and to have it just seems like a disadvantage if um a transgender a transgender athlete can um come into the sport and take first prize thank you m all right sir my question is kind of a two-parter so and hopefully it's there still in front of you so here it goes do your values
048beliefs and priorities align with the community and what steps will you take to ensure that you represent them when making decisions for the students parents and Community um I live in Lumis I've been there for 15 years and uh I would I would say that my values do align with the community um I've been fortunate enough to raise uh five pretty good kids and um that's one of the reasons why I'm here today is because I'm grateful for this school system I mean it's the k through eight has been uh a blessing for our family uh my kids have all attended plaster Elementary and it's been we're just grateful we feel like it's a it's a great Community uh to raise a family and um yeah yeah I think that my values align with with
049the community in that regard was there and there's a second part um what would you do to ensure you represent them when making decisions for students parents and Community um yeah I I love that this the school board represents the community um and it's a there's a it's a way to it's really remark able I mean this district has been around over 100 years and um and there's been changes over the decades based on what's happening in the community so I'm I'm grateful for the system that exists where it seems like the community really has a voice and it comes through you through you all um you know it's I think you just live your life you be a you be a best person that you can be and um I think your value you
050show through in the way that you discuss the challenges that are before you and then when things need to be voted on yeah oftentimes you do vote with your with your values so hopefully I answered your question thank you thank you Dr Lake this is your final question of the day and you're our final candidate before we have um our first round of deliberation in recent years considering the voting record of the Board of Trustees did you agree or disagree with the the board's actions and what are your reasons as examples covid masking and school closures however you may elaborate on any decision of the board um you bring up the uh the school closures that was that was really tough for for our family we had a freshman and a junior in high school
051and you know everything shut down my practice shut down and it was a it was a very challenging time and some difficult decisions had to be made uh I personally was not in favor of the masking especially for the young children uh hindsight's 2020 I I get that but uh you know at the time it just seemed like people in the community that were the most vulnerable uh the focus should have been not with healthy kids but with the more vulnerable in the population and so I personally didn't uh think that that was a good decision and I think the ramifications are still being played out I think we're learning things uh some of the the harm that happened to to young people that had to go through a pandemic um it has lasting effects
052and it still does with my own kids I mean they uh they spent a lot of time you know in their bedrooms with their computers and uh it just was it was hard on a lot of people so I'll just say that thank you very much MH that's it and that's it right for now thank you very much all right are we inviting oh yep I mean technically I mean I guess they they can if they'd like but they or they could wait out until we find out who's coming to the second round um William do you have advisement on um whether the candidates should or should not come back into the room um I think it's up to them at this point while you're doing public comment the ranking the interviews that it makes
053sense for them to be outside up to them at this point or they they may wait um until after public comment yes okay we'll give them a moment just in case they want to come back in there's no unfair Advantage when there's no question being asked exactly okay thanks William we just want to thank all of our applicants for your answers and I would now like to ask for the public comment so each member of the public wishing to provide a comment will be a lotted three minutes I will go in the order that this has been given to me um should you choose to participate in the public comment you do not need to provide us with a blue comment card but if you did we do appreciate that all righty first up will
054be Barbara Smith followed by Carol Coons and then Elizabeth lamell so first up Barbara Smith good afternoon I actually had not planned on speaking today I think I said everything I had to say about this board in my editorial that was published this weekend in the Gold Country media I hope you had a chance to read it but I was extraordinarily concerned about the tenor of the questions that you ask these applicants with the exception of the question on CBE why are you asking about transgender students who is judging what who is judging what those Community Values are that you're trying to see and then why are you so concerned about prior board decisions we need to be looking toward the future where's the concern about the achieve achievement Gap where's the concern about preparing
055our students for the challenges they face where is the concern about our new superintendent search and so it really disturbs me that you focus on these political and cultural issues instead of educational issues we are here to choose a board member we are not here to choose a member of your fan club also I was concerned conned that one of the applicants specifically used disinformation about transgender women when he's discussing the Olympic boxer that didn't happen the woman that they claim was transgender is a woman a biological woman and when we persist in using disinformation to try and promote a political or cultural viewpoint then people aren't able to make appropriate decisions and I hope you'll take that into consideration thinking about what that particular applicant said Thank you thank you um next Carol Coons
056again followed by Elizabeth lamell and then Ed Coons good afternoon um so I've been a resident of this area since my family moved here when I was 17 I graduated from deloro my kids attended District high schools and had good experiences in them and in a few years my grandkids will be attending classer high school so I'm invested this morning I looked over our district mission statement committed to student learning by providing teaching excellence in a supportive environment and there's been so much talk in the questions today about reflecting the values of the community as if our community is a monolith our community is diverse you've got families who live in Los Lagos and families who are homeless so which Community are you listening to you've got families who have different um ethnic Traditions e
057different cultural Traditions different religious backgrounds families which are stable where the moms can or not just the moms the parent can make their kids lunch and other chaotic families where kids are doing it themselves getting theirselves to school themselves so which Community are you talking about that's why I love our mission statement it's not Community it's students it's student achievement and as I've looked over the applications and listened to their responses to the interview questions I've been impressed with Tracy tweet and I think she'd be an excellent board member she's focused on students and she's a has a long history of service to schools and leadership in Parents Club and fundraising for um aquatic been a member of other community organizations she just seems to have the broad experience and the focus on students that's
058so important for us thank you thank you again Elizabeth lelli followed by Ed Coons and then Blake Stratton good afternoon board um District admin and public so I am approaching um in the sense of what feedback I have heard so this is not anything official this is just what um members of our community have said in terms of to me so it sounds like um that the overarching is what will this new board member bring to the board so we have some holes right now we have some places that are filled we have some holes um one of those is experience um we have one person with quite a bit of experience on the board and frankly there's a lot of of newness right in a lot of different areas and so the people that
059have spoken to me have said that um Tracy tweet seems like she has a good range of experience not only within our school district but also within our community and she has that connection to Arc which would be helpful because we're trying trying to focus on College and Career Readiness for the students and then there um to a lesser extent but also that voice was also heard that um John berett some people were very interested in him because of the facilities aspect we do have some issues within um within building and maintenance that would be ideally addressed in terms of what is available for our students and teachers to work with right we have aging Electronics we have holes in some of the walls we have roof leaks and on and on right um and
060so those were the two that I heard about and wanted to make sure that I shared that thank you so much thank you Ed Coons you know I don't have anything to add okay thank you I feel my husband would have done the same thing just for the record Ed all right Blake Stratton followed by our final unless there's others uh Joe Galo hello honorable trustees my name is Blake Straton and I feel fortunate enough to go to Del Ohio where I'm a junior my grandmother Taffy Mau is running for trustee for this school board she's an extraordinary grandmother and she's been real to for some time with my mom but before this she was a teacher and a curriculum home support specialist for real into High School District my grandma is a very hardworking
061individual even though she should be retired she works hard every single day and she's very humble supportive and smart and she somehow always makes enough food for me to come over at night one of the reasons my grandma is a candidate for this spot is because of her dedication and focus to any individual or any set goal she has my mother is a good example of my grandma's core values and dedication as well my grandmother was a teacher for 25 years even though she hasn't taught in a while she understands the needs and values of high schoolers my grandma is like the saying the good old days an example is this when is when me and my brothers would argue and fight my grandmother would pull my ear and say you need to stop that
062you're more mature this is why we need a little bit of the old school in today's world I feel like my grandma is 100% perfect candidate for this position and I hope you will highly consider her thank you thank you Blake I don't know there's ever a better um review than by by one of your babies Thank You Blake Jill hello president made members of the board thank you for giving me this opportunity my name is Jill Galo I have been a Delo parent since 1991 I have served on every position possible to volunteer at Delo uh over 20 years on uh the parent Club including president I think 12 years as your site council president and I was smart smart enough to marry the finest man I've ever met and I met him at
063Delo and arguably I believe the finest principal that's been there as well I can say that proudly um I really wanted to reach out to you today and ask I'm not advocating for any person but I would advocate for the person that shown an interest in the district previously I get this in in my position as well at times Well people will show up and it's well where have you been have you volunteered in the district show me where your commitment was prior to the running for the board or or serving on the board because it's a massive step so I want to see that it's somebody that's involved in our community um I will tell you I too I'm not loving the questions and I I'll always be brutally honest um transgender you're going
064to follow the law the house passed yesterday a ban on the sports if you don't follow the law you won't have any federal funding so why would we ask that it it's not going to be a board level decision it will really come from the laws so I'd encourage you to focus on the issues for this community um in particular you need to hire a superintendent and we all know if you want quality candidates you've got to show that you have a cohesive board people don't come to work for boards that they don't know that they're going to have um a job long term so I think it's really important that you guys work together as a team um it's it's crucial that we see that happen um putting on my other hat as as
065mayor of the city of Rockland I want to thank you for the service that you provide to our students not everyone is aware that a portion of the city of Rockland is and always has been in the boundaries for this school district and I will tell you the hundreds of hours that my husband and I spent walking neighborhoods Rockland passed that school bond it's 70% Rockland voters it would have failed in Lumis and and we made it I mean it was some pretty stressful times in my household when we got to that 55% a lot of sleepless nights um I think he would have been crushed if we hadn't made that happen so we really support our schools we do meet with our other large Rockland school district on a quarterly basis with a 2
066by two I would like to see that happen here too so we communicate how can we support you as a school district what are we doing that will impact you as a school district so I will send out that request but um I would hope that we could do that and make sure we're working together as a team thank you thank you thank you very much and I appreciate that um mayor and and and I've heard of the two by tws and I know that that to my knowledge hasn't been a practice or at least not um in my short time on this board so I'm definitely interested and I look forward to hearing from you looks like we might have another public comment yes okay well I'm so glad that I uh came and
067I just came as a as a uh parent and grandparent and um a school volunteer I volun uh I should say my name is Patty Pand dong and uh my husband and I have lived in The Bowman area since uh 19 uh 78 and it's a wonderful community and our our neighbors are dear to us and we've got all sorts of viewpoints uh just in our little Bowman neighborhood and we managed to get along and and I'm very proud of that and I think it's a wonderful community and feel like I'm a part of it um I didn't come thinking that I would comment but um I just uh thought I'd share that uh to me as somebody who I did read the mission statement and I I was looking forward to coming and just
068hearing what's going on I just live five minutes away um but I was impressed uh particularly with uh Tracy tweet and and uh John uh berett they seem to have the most uh understanding of the questions and of the overview of the the situation and and what uh is going to happen um you know what their job would be so uh I thought that that really stood out um and um you know as just somebody who's who's been a Community member for a long time I thought that they really stood out as people who understood those two issues so or those issues thank you thank you Patty there's any other member of the community that would like to say anything I know we've got student board members here if you would like to share anything
069you're certainly welcome to at this time before board starts making some calls yeah so I know hi um I know that all of us want to say like who um we're wanting to or a preferential vote I suppose um on just who we think that um really showcased you know great qualities when we were going through this application process but I really want to urge the board that when you're um deciding on this position that you sort of take into consideration a lot of what the applicant said and sort of the Community Values that they were thinking of and just really focusing on the students because I think that's something that you know oftentimes when we are put into like these political situations and stuff the student site gets lost and I think that's really
070where we need to just focus on especially um coming up and with CBE and a lot of the different things that we've decided as a board um we just really need to focus Fus on the students and I know that fellow students of mine at kfax and then even throughout the district like we've all sort of felt that way um and that really our perspectives are the ones that really need to be advocated for and whether it's us as the student board members or just with your guys as help we really want to focus on what the students believe um so with that being said I really do think that Tracy tweet um is the best decision for this board um so yeah thank you guys thank you I don't see any other action on
071the front row we're good two thumbs up all right thanks ladies alrighty with that being said uh thank you I would now like to ask each trustee to identify in no particular order no more than their top three applicants and Dr cametti is going to keep track over here um starting with trusty Underwood can you you're you're top three I believe that candidates you're welcome to stay as we we list that out um if we go to a second round just as a sidebar and I'm going off script just out of memory here um if we have a second round of questions candidates who remain in the second round will be asked um to be excused so that there's no you guys aren't hearing the questions in advance if we have a second round all
072right thank you what was your question again um you um do you have your would you like to share in no particular order your top three candidates up to three you don't have to share three the names you want me to list them right now yep yes please um my Top Choice is uh um me get the Taffy and Mau and my second choice is John berett thank you trusty Duncan sure um I my my two I'm going to just go with two uh Emerson Lake and Sean Smith I can't help myself I'm a notetaker know you've got it handled over there okay all right uh trusty jeffre first I want to say thank you to the the applicants coming out um you know this is going to be a really difficult decision for us
073I think um because we really have some qualified people that um I think we can all tell that really care about the district and and our students uh the three names that um that I have in the top of my list um are Taffy Mau John berett and Tracy tweet and it's me um I also um Dr um Dr Lake and Smith Acting Superintendent cetti um could you please summarize which applicants were identified by at least two trustees sure on my list I have Taffy Mau was identified twice John berett was identified twice Emerson Lake twice and Sean Smith twice is that confer with you as well yes all right given the rankings if any trustees believe that there may be a three affirmative votes to appoint one of the applicants they're welcome to make
074a motion to appoint that applicant at this time and given the fact that each of these members had two or applicants had two I think it'd be appropriate to move it through to the second round how do you feel about that board yeah okay okay all right as we do not have a motion uh to appoint at this time we're going to ask our finalists um a second round of three questions if those uh remaining applicants that are moving forward to the second round would please leave the room at this time so that would be U Mrs Powers uh Mr bdet Dr Lake and Mr Smith if you would please um head back to where you were we apologize and thank you you're getting your steps in and just clarification that um Dr Lake went
075last so he'll go first in this round oh yes um so we're going to go in reverse order so sorry Dr Lake you'll be first thank you sorry all right as we have more than uh nope no we do not let me double check so we have four correct we have four y clarify the order just so I could yes Emerson is is first did you hear that y okay em John and Taff you would be last thank you okay so Acting Superintendent cetti will announce the names of those applicants identified I'm just making sure we're on track here okay thank you for our finalists um I also want o apologize I'm double-checking my script here okay nope no I uh we do want to thank all the applicants who are here today and hope
076that if you weren't identified to participate in the second round of questions that we will see you to continue to support the district through other opportunities we will now move to the second round of questions and we'll be asking the applicants to answer them in the reverse order in which the applicants answered the first round and thank you uh for already being ready at the podium here Dr Lake and the other applicants have stepped outside all right uh trusty Underwood trusty Duncan and trusty Jeff will move forward with these questions starting with trustee Underwood um in terms of student achievement what do you think should be the district's top area or areas of focus uh I feel like the the biggest challenge moving forward in the immediate future is finding a superintendent and someone who's
077going to reflect values of the community and it's going to basically be the direction of of this school district um in terms of student achievement I I feel like uh I have a I have a nephew with special needs H he's on the autism spectrum and he's in another district and I feel like there's a lot of uh there's a lot of challenges facing uh students who are neurodiverse and it's it's not an easy it's it's a very challenging situation but I feel like there are policies that the board uh can discuss and generate that can address some of these issues and one of them in particular is is school bullying which has um you know it's easy to throw your hands up and say bullying has always been around and it always will be
078around but I've seen evidence that there are schools that have programs that are very effective in in in addressing this this challenging issue um I have my own personal ideas but um I think priority number one is choose the right candidate for superintendent um and two let's look at what we're doing as a group to there's new challenges it's crazy what technology has done for our uh community and this excuse me moving on finish your point I mean the last sentence I'd like to hear that well um you know especially with my kids this is a new generation who they are attached to their devices and it is it affects their education it affects how they're learning and I feel like there are there's some really good ways that you can integrate technology with education
079I'm not sure Common Core is the is is the number one way to go but I feel like this has to be considered when talking about the future of Education in this District um it it really is a you know at the one at the top of my list as far as great thank you all right sorry okay with a finite budget set by the state a governing board is tasked with making complex financial decisions which often include difficult tradeoffs what do you believe is our top fiscal challenge in what are your thoughts about addressing it well there are some high schools in the district that are kind of dilapidated and uh kfax High School in particular has a lot of uh you know I was we were just talking about this in the parking
080lot uh these schools are old and the funds aren't there to really address every issue I think it's really important that you have a collaboration with uh people who are in the know and discuss and identify what are the top and see if you can come in agreement on where the priority should be when you're talking about these funds I mean there's um So my answer is collaboration and getting the right people in the room to identify the most important issues and see if you can't reach a consensus thank you all right sir looks like I have two separate questions uh first question what will you do to become a more effective as a board member well um first off I there's a lot I need to learn um going through the slides is one
081thing but there's a lot of details I have a lot of questions and I've been talking to a lot of different people I have uh I think it's safe to say dozens of patients who are involved in education one way or another and I get a a really good broad sense of you know what teachers are challenged with and and what students are challenged with because I have a lot of patients who are students as well and so I'm particularly passionate about education I have been since uh in in dental school they elected me to be their their president and then I was a student body president and we didn't necessarily agree with uh you know the administration and but it the outcome was we were able to work together we brought in um it
082actually ended up it turned into like a a research uh paper that was published in the Journal of dental education um because of a a disagreement in policy uh in the administration and um anyway uh to become a more effective board member uh I love the details it's just it's going to require a lot of reading a lot of consideration a lot of studying and uh to be well-versed on all the issues and but I think my this is a later question I think but one of my strengths I think is really listening and understanding where people are coming from before I you know before you make judgment be be full informed okay thank you my next question for you is there anything else about you or about the school district that you would like
083to share um I mean I think the school district stands out if I'm not mistaken uh plaster Union is ranks among the highest in performance uh and compared to the state different areas of the state um so you know hat tip to the district and to the to the administrations that are that do a fine job uh we have our own set of challenges but you know it's I think this process there's there's a system in place to to to move forward and to make the right decisions um about me I I uh I've uh you know this community has kind of a soft place in my heart some people ask why would you want to be involved with the school board and um I've I've had a tug for a long time about getting
084involved with education um my own dental school is is opening up a facility in Sacramento and um and that's a whole new um direction of Education as far as they're integrating medicine with with Dentistry um in a clinic for the underserved in the community but um I guess you could say I care a lot I have a I have a heart for especially those who are underserved um I appreciate the value in giving back and I uh have a lot of respect for people who have put in the time put put in the Years put in the service and uh I feel like it's it's a it's a time for me to get back so that's why I'm here thank you thank you very much Dr cetti or clerk Duncan who's up next sorry no
085you're good it's John John Beret okay our staff's awesome thank you guys for being on top of it thank you welcome back thank you you all right we'll do the same I believe the questions were shifted so they're on the podium as well is that correct yes are the questions right there for you okay perfect okay we're going to go ahead and start with trusty Underwood in terms of student achievement what do you think should be the district's top area or areas of focus well in terms of student achievement I would think that we need to make sure that that we have the proper curriculum grading system and resources available for our children through classrooms technology community and after school Services those are the top things that come to my mind thank you with a
086finite set uh sorry with a finite budget set by the state a governing board is tasked with making complex financial decisions which often include difficult trade-offs what do you believe is our top fiscal Challenge and what are your thoughts about addressing it well I think that that's there there's two areas uh in my belief of the fiscal challenge one is student enrollment which drives revenue and I believe that you know we need to make sure that our students um we're we're actively recruiting in the area and growing our student population uh I also believe that um you know we have to make difficult trade-offs when it comes to special programs versus facilities versus Sports um versus all of the needs of the children so really there's there's the cost aspect of becoming more efficient and
087and stretching our dollar further and becoming more effective uh maybe through Energy Efficiency and and or um other types of programs to where we can make our dollar go further and then there's the revenue generation side of it making sure our kids are healthy coming to school every day um so we get that funding um also trying to grow our student population um maybe bring in more students here in advertising and marketing um and I believe our top fiscal challenge uh I believe would be um those things right there trying to get more Revenue if you have enough Revenue then it's easy to allocate costs can I get an amen yeah all right trusty Jeff all right sir so I have actually two different questions for you so the first question is this what will
088you do to become more effective as a board member what would I do to become more effective as a board member well I would first of all tell myself in my mind that I'm 100% committed to the position um I am a professional at time management um and I will offer my skill sets where appropriate um I believe I can add value um in the areas of construction finance and I'm making our facilities a healthier environment a more productive environment uh through indoor air quality through better lighting um through helping generate Revenue um through grants rebates and incentives many of the programs that I put together for other K through2 school districts um we bring a lot of money to the table um violia the company I work for also offers a stem program at
089no cost that I've been able to offer here to the school district um which is a online course for people who decide not to go to college and it's for water and wastewater treatment operators and and these are online courses that I could bring to the school district uh to help those individuals develop a career path at no cost did I answer your question absolutely thank you sir my last question for you is this is there anything else about you or about the school district that you would like to share yeah because of my facility experience I'm also uh very in tune with Fleet electrification and I know that the state is trying to get us to change all of our school buses from the diesel to the EV and or zero emission Vehicles which
090is a huge expense so when we're dealing with costs it's like how do we afford that um also the utilities are not prepared for the entire population to switch over to electric vehicles at this point in time um so we're helping K through2 school districts prepare for that change and um we're also involved in lobbying with the state to potentially slow him down a little bit on that um let's see here I think that's that's all I add thank you thank you thank you very much all right on Deck that's all for now that's it okay thank you thank you so much SE John Smith welcome back Mr Smith thank all right all right trusty Underwood we'll take it away again questions again are before you on the podium um in terms of student achievement
091what do you think should be the district's top area or areas of focus uh student achievement um I believe you know focusing on uh the education aspect of it and so combined with that is is obviously our teachers um and ensuring that we have the right teachers with the right skill set that'll that'll help our the students in our community you know get to their highest level of achievement I feel like um you know we've as as with all areas that I've worked in there's there's Stellar employees and then there's others that maybe could use a little more training or help and and so um I think focusing on getting leveling up our our teachers across the board would be would be good to help you know help the students with that with that in
092mind as well as um just another one is just around just the um extracurricular activities for students having a wide breath of things I know that um my kids when uh I remember it was one summer um I think we let our our son have a little too much free time and uh and he spent it doing you know video games and other things and at the end of the summer I I regretted that very much and so I I I am I truly believe that making sure all kids have opportunities to be busy um doing things whether it's sports or clubs or what have you um just ensuring that they can uh just have opportunities to mingle with others develop those social skills but also grow their own talents and things that they enjoy
093themselves thank you yep uh with a finite budget set by the state a governing board is tasked with making complex financial decisions which often include difficult trade-offs what do you believe is our top fiscal Challenge and what are your thoughts about addressing it yeah um everybody's program is probably number one in their own mind um um and uh and so that must be a a difficult difficult uh thing to to assess and come up with um I think you know trying to assess um I I feel like infrastructure is always one that I I hear a lot of in in recent uh comments just around uh the needs of the different things going on in in all the schools um and so I think it's important to prioritize where funds should go uh based on
094needs versus wants and trying to Define which what those are um aligning with okay what's our what's our goals as as a community in terms of okay what are we trying to achieve with the the school board uh focusing on the students and so trying to have some type of uh level of priority and then uh looking at urgency as well I've got uh I my background is an it and so I've manag a lot of IT projects and and you know not all I I don't think any of the IT projects go over go over perfect and so at the end when there's a release there's always issues that come out and we always have to manage them priority as well as urgency and so really kind of assessing things in that manner is
095probably you know the best way for the board to address those fiscal decisions thank you all right sir so I actually have two questions here so you'll have two minutes for each question okay first question is what will you do to become a more effective as a board member so I uh I I neglected to put this in my um in my thing because I was thinking more of Civic service that I've given but I I also have donated my time to religious as well as you know Boy Scouts I forgot about the time I've spent doing that but uh what I where I lack is um just understanding the processes and procedures um I I am new to the board member game I I I and so learning understanding the rules and everything and
096how to uh play and how to operate uh so there would be a learning curve there for me personally um but I so that would be number one and this two is just I would want to make sure I get caught up on all the the Urgent issues that are on top of mine CBE being one of them as well as understanding um the the needs of the individual schools and and also just you know teacher teacher feelings and how they where they feel things are in terms of good bad and ugly okay you ready for the next question I'm ready all right last question is there anything else about you or about the school district that you would like to share um I I would say uh I so few years ago I I
097I I mentioned I was in the IT world I I've always had this desire to to become an entrepreneur and I I became a partner with a crumble cookie store and and we have we have two locations with my partner um one's in Rockland and I've uh I uh have enjoyed that and and um just mingling with there's a lot of students that come in uh and my my kids also there um I had my son come home one day it was a couple years ago and said he had a a bad day at school and he he didn't have a good experience with with a sub and so I thought how how hard is it to be a sub and so I I it's not hard so I I went through the process of
098becoming a sub and so every once or twice a month I would go and sub at Delo and try to be a good my goal is to be a good influence on the kids there um and in mingling with them and trying to help them think maybe outside the box what's next what's outside of their phones um and really just trying to be um trying to help them think about life and and and what's beyond uh what's going on there but um I feel like the the I grew up in Roseville went to Roseville High School Del was always kind of been a gym you know I was always like you know trying to uh whether it's in sports or anything it just seemed like Delo was always something special and so when we moved
099up here we were really excited about moving into the Delo High School District and uh I feel like there's something special here and like to keep keep that going and so that's that's my motivation is to be here to make sure that whoever fills that board seat is someone that's going to try to keep maintain that high level and keep the district going in the right direction thank you welcome thank you very much and our final applicant in the second round is taffy Mrs power m thank you very much thank you thank you same processes before the questions are before you on the podium and we're going to Kickstart the questions with trusty Underwood in terms of student achievement what do you think should be the district's top area or areas of focus math right
100now sorry i' got a little frog in my throat math it's math right now that's your top FOC Focus right now is math um math is tough math is hard uh keeping kids engaged with it but let's work on the math even if we have to go back to a little bit more basic to move forward let's focus on the math that's number one right now thank you you're welcome uh with a finite budget set by the state a governing board is tasked with making complex financial decisions which often include difficult tradeoffs what do you believe is our top fiscal Challenge and what are your thoughts about addressing it your top fisical challenge a lot of times is uh teachers okay it's Educators and and their costs as well and that is um that is
101a challenge because we love our teachers and we have to figure out better ways to work um their their schedules figure out better ways to uh utilize their strengths so that we can help meet those physical challenges because that is a tough one labor is always a huge huge uh challenge financially for any District thank you all right ma'am I have the last two questions here they're one at a time and two minutes each um so here's the first question what will you do to become a more effective as a board member to be a more effective board member I need to um first of all catch up on reading on rules and regulations you know there are so many as a as a a school district I was much more caught up on them
102before but I have to do more catching up right now it's uh something that has to be done because if you know the rules you know the regulations then you know how you are more effective in creating a change as well so I know I would do that I also would like then uh since I would be a board member that I can make more school visits it's very important to get in handson observe engage talk to the students it's really all about the students I'm sorry your last the questions from the first round completely threw me off is all about the students that's the only reason any of us are here talk to the students talk to the teachers go out in the community and talk to the parents that's what I would do
103as um to become a more effective board member thank you uh the last question is there anything else about you or about the school district that you would like to share I think our our district is on the right path you've made some changes you're on the right path some changes happen there's a reason why things happen okay nothing is by accident you're on the right path as I have been reading up and reviewing because this opportunity popped up it wasn't something that I could immediately I figured I had a couple years to get ready okay so and you're on I feel you're on the right path uh you're asking some very tough questions I just want to make sure that were always always listening and encouraging conversations I love to hear that teachers and
104students are are having conversations I love to hear that parents and teachers are having conversations and that we're having and that parents are having conversations with their kids about school that is super important and as long as we keep those conversations going and some of them are going to be uncomfortable but we're always listening and we're listening with open minds we listen with open minds and we advocate for the kids religiously the whole time just just keep that what's that Focus kids kids kids and we're all going to be fine thank you for letting me speak about that I'm very passionate thank you very much all righty finalists are welcome to come back into the room thank you to all the finalists for your answers we do appreciate it now we'd like to ask if
105there's any further public comment on our finalists each member of the public wishing to provide comment will be otted three minutes if there's anyone who would like to share feedback on our four finalists all right sure thank you so I think it's been pretty clear it's been brought up from other people too that um it it's looking like there's not only the decision in terms of the direction that we're going to take as a school District but there is a little bit of an un undercurrent of political action in addition to possibly what's best for the kids and I just urge the board to put what's best for the kids what is going to fill the need of our school district above all else thank you very much Mr Coons I'm going to be really
106brief sure um you know tough choice but but the one person who has a record of community service and active involvement in the community is taffy Mau that's all thank you very much I appreciate your guys' feedback your thoughts and all of um our applicants for your time I know there was some controversy I'm going off script for just a moment because I want to acknowledge uh some of the feedback and being uh recent in a campaign a couple of years ago and going through this season this past time around we wanted to ensure through our ad hoc committee that we were addressing some of the things that were consistently coming up within the community so that the community while we're not streaming at this time we are recording and it will be posted later
107so that the community understands where people are at at the questions I was asked that other candidates were asked during campaign season I think it's important and relevant the second round of questions addressed some things more specifically to our school district but I want you to understand that that's where it was coming from because these questions come up on a regular basis and it's important to understand um who's who may understand or not what's going on with our district and moving forward um what they have in mind uh to bring to the table so again appreciate your feedback and comments at this time um we will now entertain a motion to make the appointment it will take an affirmative vote of at least three board members to make the provisional appointment so with that being
108said board you'd like to take a moment you may do so can I say something while we're deliberating please so to the four uh applicants that are still here today um I just want to thank you again for coming out um you guys are all all four of you are very well qualified you're seem to all be uh very well involved and engaged in the community um and I would love to work with any of any of the four of you thank you I second that thank you trusty Jeff yeah I'll say one thing as well I just this is this is a a really difficult decision uh obviously um the four folks that are left um are all are all qualified in my opinion um but uh but definitely um I appreciate to uh
109stepping up because I know what it feels like to step up and do this um uh and it means means a lot for the community uh as well so thank you I concur with that uh I'm we're all here to as trustees to try to do the best we can to provide quality education for our kids that's what that's what it's all about all four applicants I felt uh have much to offer the district and I am very appreciative of you coming up and uh giving us your time your your interest in wanting to uh become a member on the board so I just want to say thank you I'll I'll I'll kick it off um I'll say that uh what was important for me was conviction um and uh and that was that was
110part of my my decision-making process here so uh just making sure I have this right just motion for to uh to appoint okay so it be yeah I move to appoint their name to fill the current board vacancy yeah I um I would uh move to appoint uh Emerson Lake uh to fill the current board vacancy second I uh will second that motion and that uh Dr Lake would be my uh all all candidates were excellent but um that was where my support wasse we have a first and a second for Dr Lake any further discussion all in favor uh I I I I all oppose oos um we have a new board member um with a vote of 31 um at this time Dr Lake yes I have thank you come on down Dr
111Lake we're gonna swear you in right now again thank you all and congratulations to Dr Lake we are going to swear you in at this time all righty got a few papers here oh my my good side's over here I got a sty little nerves this week I don't know where those come from but they're no fun have a paper up there as well Sarah all righty I state your name repeat after you oh sorry sorry raise your hand okay thank you I state your name I Roy Emerson Lake you solemnly swear you solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of California and the constitution of the State of California
112against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and Allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States to the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of California and the constitution of the State of California I will take this I take this obligation freely I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion and that I will well and Faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter that I will well and Faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter thank you thank you trusty Lake please join us at the [Applause] Das congratulations if you'd like to make a a final statement you're certainly
113welcome to do so uh this feels uh kind of surreal um uh this all happened really uh quickly for me um but I feel like we're at an important like I I made some comments earlier we're at an important juncture in education where uh I just I'm feeling very grateful that I will be a part of that with you all to to discuss these important matters of of every you know High School in this district and it's uh it it truly is an honor and I I appreciate the comments from everybody that spoke today and um if I'm being honest I personally felt Tracy tweet was uh was the most qualified so I'm not sure why this worked out the way it did but I'm I'm willing to serve and I uh and I am
114grateful for the opportunity so thank you all thank you right we're going to move to item four our adjournment and do I have a motion I move to adjourn second it's been first and seconded to adjourn our meeting all in favor say I I I all oppos nay that's a wrap thank you