February 25, 2025, Board of Education Retreat

001thank you for allowing us to be here today I'm so excited with Robert and excited be here with you guys and um I know you got a full day the beginning of it so before you open your packet and look okay this wasn't on yeah it's great yes is all to the board to sayig where it goes and superintends somebody who actually installs and then the [Music] board good so just a reminder of what our responsibilities are so now I realized I put that in your power presentation seen the ansers we talking about the engagement Gap and how to engage your community constituents and there's so many ways to do this and I I have so many thoughts in my head I wrote down notes that I want to be sure that um don't leave

002anything out and Robert's going to jump in anytime you have thoughts about anything and we'll just get started so I like this qu says no single education stakeholder grou do the job we'll take all of us teachers education support principles superintend members parents families government leaders Business leers Leaders and really does take everyone more and more while everybody feels that responsibility it's being show p and finding a way to uncover those resources that you have in the community and bring them along and help part of the journey hopefully what TR to do so and again reminding you that you set the T of the whole District you are the model work the way everybody behaves and what they to view you can help create that culture of community and engagement and respect and you can

003grow public school advocates in the process so this is what domain three says that you've seen a million times that you create a culture work s value um communication with all stakeholders you have processes that develop communicate procedures Communications which isend do and everything supports so starts with building trust and communicating transparently and having two-way communication that's really for this um I'm poining to this line of newship have clear norms and protocols for seeking receiving that includes your chain of command and that I don't know if you have a chain of command or one one chain of command but that's basically if somebody wonders how to get information how to take steps for something where do they go often times if they don't go they come to school so it's important for you to know

004go and it's important for you to help educate them so they don't keep coming back to you if it's a teacher who has an issue or a parent who has a problem with Athletics or their child's teachers not doing this or that they don't they don't come to you and if they do you know you don't fix the problem and that's really hard for an elected official right because your goal is often to respond and to want to fix what a constituent wants I worked with a school board member recently like I you know I tried to do that and she had a couple of parents who in the beginning she had sort of fed and helped and so they continue to do that with her and she had a hard time sort of saying

005hey you know I can't do that so that's so important as especially our newer board members is letting the community know what the process is letting them understand that there are people here who can resolve issues for you it's not at the table it's in the classroom or most of the issues can be resolve I told you my story what I did when I so the first couple of weeks I was on the board I got a call from someone who said we need to change the bus stop in our neighborhood it's at a busy intersection and they can easily turn through the neighborhood we are cut through the bu come through come out not miss anything and I said St PA the district for 10 years I know Steve mon director Transportation so I

006give Steve a quick call and find out what has happen to do this let me I'll call you back phone talk Steve he says I need to do a little research on this let me get back to it I said about 10 minutes later a call the superintendent saying stand spoke about changing I was I not supposed to do that I know what to do and he said no you're really not supposed to do that because I manage the district folks I know it's a problem from the community but if you leave me have superintend that I don't know what's going on and not only that you're by doing this you've given Steve a job to do that wasn't assigned to him by me so now he's spending his day doing something for you that

007he shouldn't be doing and yes it's a problem and we can get it fixed but we need to come to me so I always try to remember that and that's that's a real key and again the change of command there should be several of them we'll talk about that a little bit I think AIT but again key principles engaging the community this is the definition of community engagement it's also called public engagement Civic engagement it's the process by whichs actively involve diverse citizens in dialogue deliberation collaborative thinking around common interest so on the right hand side are things that you should do the yellow is what you should try to so you're not just seeking public input you want C Eng you a two- conversation you want them to feel like their citizen owners you

008want them to invest in the community and see their time and efforts and treasures going to better your community you don't want just look at demographics you need to look at voices and you need to recognize sometimes it may be voices you help people that are coming forward they're a whole segment of your population that might need that they have a place when U when I was in County we opened a new elementary school andos and there was a significant non and they did surveys to try to get information about what they needed nobody responded so the principal of the time Wilson decided she needed to go to where they were so she went to be a conf meetings got into that different not only for what the school district was trying to do but

009for those families you realize that oh my I need to be able to speak up and now I know how to do that so A lot of times I just don't know how to do it um you want to build a sense of of Hope and energy and Synergy with things you don't just want to get everybody's lying or not you know I don't see anybody D there is and I'm taking it I can move forward with this and then you want to educate them you want them to come learning more and KN more about the district and see how they did to all this process I want to add one little pin in this the notion of the first one which is like creating Civic engagement we tend to do better at that during

010like a spast campaign right well all of a sudden like we've not communicated as well as any other time except during the SP campaign we have to be so careful not to do that because then people were like well you only come to us when you need us to support you Financial does that make sense and so part of this is trying to think very strategically about the way you use your time uh and building advocacy so not only can they advocate for you at the state capital but they're advocating you're teaching them how to advocate for their themselves and their children and I think that's so critical especially with families who often are um living poverty or understand how to De with a big bureaucracy even though we're a small system it still feels

011like a very complic bureaucracy can yall turn and talk for just a minute on without sharing out leg just with a elbow partner how you think you are viewing on this idea of Civ engagement versus just public let the board members and yeah this is there's a knowledge Gap child impact your child my child [Music] um we had a question about like uh the difference between Civic engagement and public input and like where the difference lies because they're kind of SAR I think that cic is a public inputs just gathering information or um you're reporting out that that's not input that out but Civic engagement is really that two dialogue and and pulling the community in giving them that purpose of making them a part make part of the solution let me give you an

012example so let's say I'm a new superintendent and the school board hires me and they say one of our top priorities is to improve the culture of local high school right you want the kids to feel more engaged so if I go out and meet with those with the children I might show them a series of data points and then ask them what do you think that data means right and what do you think might solve or help us get the kids to be more excited about coming to school does that make sense so it's like a two-way conversation where I'm showing you stuff we're thinking out loud we're brainstorming we're talking back and forth input would be if I just came and said we're building a new high school what would you what would

013you like in it or I'm redrawing the boundaries right and then I'm going to get your input on what the boundary should be okay so it's really a study circles is a process Community engagement so you bring in and you talk about specific issue and you're solving for that issue but you ask for the community to help you and in the process they get on committees they start helping to do the work um when that's just one but in the city of Sandy City of s there have been a lot of school closures in the 90s and um in the early 2000s started seeing that the school were getting up we were hearing that um there were there was a need perhaps to have a new loow interest and so the superintendent at the time

014said let's put together a stud committee to do it so the committee was made up of parents and teachers and business people and um they need the principles and they did the research they came back and discovered that not only STS need one Elementary needed two so that was the district didn't know that the district might have had the resources will to look into that but because the community had that interest they jumped in and wanted to be a part so I think that's I don't know that explains it or not but it's really to engage the community in helping solution what you I think we discussed that there is a fine line between Civic engagement and public put um it's also I think um One Challenge we I we have I have indicator is

015that um there's a small vocal minority here um I think uh and it can kind of skew your perception of what um an actual problem is to solve uh when you hear from the same voices over and over again um so you know how do you solve the problem of getting that engagement when you've done Community meetings you've changed the topic you've changed the um you know the vehicle you've alternated between virtual and in person you changed the location you changed the topic um and I think sometimes that um there sometimes a struggle you know um because then the same people you're engaging with the same people um and then sometimes in my mind I feel like I'm getting a skewed perception of what The public's opinion is if I keep hearing from the same

016it's less than five or 10 Perc of the community um sometimes that becomes a struggle to get that actual back and forth engagement um when it's really not representative of the community as an IND that's in I superintendent it was mation commity that um really opened my eyes to the communication strategy I didn't realized that radio was one of the number one ways that that particular Community engaged and their Wednesday night Church events so I started going to the Wednesday night Church events because I wasn't hearing from them all the committee meetings I was having were mostly the same moms and dads that could come to your point in my getting a SE view so it's a challenge um I think that's why a lot of times on parent nights or whatever when we feed

017people those are the places we should go and you know get get parents who maybe aren't as an age but they'll come watch their children at a play right if there's a special event they B there's food there's dinner so sometimes just of reading the community and trying to find who those key communicators are in those communities to say why AR they coming what is what's the barrier do we need to do as a webinar they have web access at home do they need us to come to an event where they're at and be a part of that so but that's a great Point how about you guys I shared an anecdote with your point about like people contacting you and was about an issue and I said well it's not really in my perview

018um I said so you know the chain of command would be to contact a principal and then you this person was like well it doesn't seem my I said well I'll just tell you what I would do as a parent then I you know the principle I be now the head of this and I be now the superintendant and I'd explain that I don't know where this started and I was struck by the fact that the person was like not comfortable doing it and it was like well you know I don't know if they use the word retaliation and I was just goinging in my own life I don't mind asking questions but I do think there also needs to be a way to invite questions in a way that don't seem like criticism because

019to me that's the biggest way that you engage right to your point of two-way so I don't you know this is one person but and not one that I've seen in any Community or anything like that interesting everybody's different and you just have to try to get where they are [Music] sometimes so here's a question how does the government sure effective communication strategies are in place to address and resolve concerns of community in a transparent Manner and you may have great ideas you might want to go out and run start implementing those ideas but You' got to do it as a group and you can't get ahead of superintendent superintendent's really got to orchestrate that as a districtwide event so the other thing is you there oh getting ahead of myself um the district needs

020to have plans in place I wrote this down for both sending out information and providing input and figuring out where the govern's team plays into that because you may be a part that you may be further up the road and it may be that the the district goes out and does community meetings and that you will hear the results of those meetings but you definitely have a part so I pin this um Community engagement by the Numbers this is from 2018 so it's a few years old but it's still the numbers are disturbing 83% of the US School District side of community involvement is a very high priority however only four out of 10 students felt like their parents were acting involved in their education and there's a at this time there was a 35%

021drop in parent family community engagement as kids move into their Preen and teen years and I think some that well we ask why do you think that is any ideas I think it's a we things I mean elementary school children are going to one school typically they have one teacher two or three by the time we move into middle and high school um multiple things you're managing so I think that alone is hard to do teenagers typically want to be a little more autonomous so yeah I think some of the reason for that is just the Practical elements of a school environment and Elementary versus and I think that again a personal experience I had a whole lot of friends who once their kids got to know school they said my kids can get home

022on their own they can go in I can trust them to get in get snack get their homework done so go back work and I'll I'll see them two hours after they get home and that is one of the biggest mistakes ients made because kids particularly School ages they are feeling so they can get into trouble easily so it's important to remember that um kids need you no matter what age they are and then again only 28% of schools felt like the community is appropriately informed about what school challenges are um I know that everybody's struggling with the homestate exemption right now you're op down in and the community doesn't understand and the legislator doesn't understand why got a large fund bance but business members might understand so if you appe the business Community they

023might have a better feel for why you got to have a large fund boun because you got to have three months of of salaries and benefits and making school system run in case of an emergency but then all of that is in play at the same time that roughly 70% of our basic Community has no connection with they if I well I don't now other than the work that I'm doing because my children have graduated I do have kids coming through Elementary School now them in Camp County so I'm keeping a close eye on what's happening at Lo Academy but um parents who whose kids graduated families that haven't begun yet preschoolers um empty nests they don't they don't know what's happening School St that when they get their tax bill they see you're the

024largest opponent of their tax bill so having a way to make them feel like they can be a part of the school Community is something you want to try to think about so here's a question for you talk about this many businesses organizations like to tell you what they do how they do it when they do it what result they sorry they don't often go back to why they do things and the why should be the most important thing the first thing that you talk about you saw that what your life should be but but what is your District's F beyond what you just saw what are some of the what is some of the reason that your district is here why are you here so talk a few minutes with your El about not

025our personal govern I think District maintain of space it's all chance chance I think um we said that the districts that not our personal wise U but our personal belief was that all students in the city school indicator were given the tools to succeed um and that they were able to graduate um and go out and be able to do well um and that most students and this is what Dr R is saying that most students IND deater are equipped to do are equipped to do great things um but we want to provide the foundation and the framework for them to do excellent things um one thing that we also talked about is that we want to be an equitable Affair and a competitive employer we want this to be a place where where teachers

026want to work um where par Pros want to work um where everybody wants to stay um and that this is not only a place where families want to send their kids but a community where people want to live um because they're only here for the school day but this also a community that people feel um included regardless of their race their ability what language they speak um if they feel like they are given all the tools they need to be successful by graduation and you have a built-in Army already at your disposal with your staff here so if you can engage your staff and understanding why it's important to go out and share the good news about school district that's that's a huge hill you've already climbed so that's that's a wonderful thing but you

027got to make them understand their role and how they're part of the family so it's not it's everybody why why you Mr said it's about providing high quality education for the community that we serve you know you can get into the how and examples but really in the day that's what it is like giving children the education and that was basically the same thing that Sophie said um initially I was thinking of the functions of the board to hire fire supervisor superintendent to be good stewards of um the money that we get in from taxes for education and so like you know ultimately that's all about educating our students that's this is your one this is you're doing it for the kids and oh you're right wrong number sorry sorry but we let in too

028many tuition [Laughter] kids made a whole lot is that you're here for the children you were elected by one group to represent different grou representing the children's interest when you do and what's easiest for kid what's best for kids is not always easiest for the adults pushing move forward so these are some of the topics that are good on put on to do this talk a little bit about Rob do you so these are five things we're again discuss each of them making engagement a priority establishing so think about developing a mission statement and a vision statement for your community and for your community engag them do you have somebody that say dedicated staff person or are they trying to is it is it hit or when something happens when you have somebody who in

029addition to everything else they're doing they expected to manage staff so Dr W what what do you where do you see the system as a whole in so no we do not have staff that's completely dedicated to community engagement I would say I'm the first strategy um in advisories um I have for me I've run various advisory councils I have K5 student advisory 612 student advisory PTO advisory SLT advisory staff advisory uh teacher advisory and I meet with all of them monthly in addition to the other work that I do so just establishing that as a strategy to remain engaged Additionally the engagement for myself through listening sessions so listening sessions do not only occur with your first year for me I have them three times a year multiple locations within the city virtual as

030well as um face to face and I specifically go to Decor housing authority and engage with them when it comes to so those are some engagement strategies for me and and the staff uh now when it comes to the board we do now have Community meetings so we didn't have Community meetings when when I started so to know that um how many have you had we've had three last year this year we're going to have four I we organize them seasonally so you have one in the fall we have uh one in the winter we have two around budget so one prior to uh the vote full full Q&A on what would be is built into the budget and then that spring uh April so that would be strategy for which two-way communication occurs um

031we' like Dr Sultan said we've had it based upon topics we know that it is a time for the board to come from behind the Das because you can't address in public comment you can't address in a in a hearing but it's the time for the community to have that conversation and I would you how many principles do you have 11 uh 10 10 so you know being explicit even with your principles my guess is you have an annual like meet the teacher things like that you know taking advantage of the principles being another layer of voice but being real specific about Gathering from them how are things going right giving them Direction on expectation of that engagement not just you alone but the collection of those viers in building because parents end up rate

032their local school high uh and then as they move up the food chain they'll rate the system lower they actually trust the teachers in the princip more than they often will trust us at central office and if there are issues happening in schools there has to be that trust developed so that teachers feel comfortable coming forward and saying I have a concern about this yeah I think this might be a problem or have we tried this you let them know that they ideas out there and establishing constituent Services otherwise known as resolve CSD um that was a key strategy as well so we launched that this year um and as a formal portal if you will to have concerns would be addressed if you weren't through all the other ways there is way just let

033us know um but informing of an issue or a concern and remaining engaged um is it's just it's a dynamic that's interesting I hear in my head um board member hearnen where he says sometimes they're just ill informed they just don't know they don't necessarily understand and so the communication strategy is is key Sophie and I have been talk went back to um the previous question about um sopie was saying that she thought the input could be a strategy for engagement right and talk some more about in terms of if you're intentional about it in terms of trying to seek out a certain demographic and so what I've been what's been weighing on me since we started the conversation is when you mentioned um being in a district where uh you have a significant demographic

034of non- English speakers and so which we do and um I we I don't think that we see those families at school board meetings at our community meetings and I feel like there should be more of a strategy around um trying to seek input from those families to pull them in um because I wonder when our surveys go out for our Somali speaking families um and you know we have a we have families from different parts of Africa who's uh in the home of English is not the first language how we can you know pull those families in um a significant number of them do live in our dation public housing um but we don't see them at our community meetings board meetings and I just wonder if we could be doing more to engage

035those families yes you but I also think so I love the community meetings and I think the online one maybe because it was easier for people had more in attendance than any of the inperson ones we had so far but I think the inperson ones also increased like I'm think one peac that seem to have more than last year's PE um but it's almost like a full-time job you know I only have one job um but you know I've heard from people who have multiple children in multiple schools like the number of things you're managing so I think there's that access but then I think of what Carmen said and generally speaking you how many people are really involved whether it's language Act or time access um and you know I wonder about incentivizing things

036too you know I don't know you know win a lunch with so and so or something that kind of just gets more people informed and then comfortable we do not record the community meetings we record the board meeting from PR work through work through board and I don't know District but there's a there's a way to do ex summary of after to put on the website so that people can react to that or there's a yeah I would say the safety Summit is a prime example of the community said we want to hear more about safety we want to hear more about safety and so we put on a summit and it was a CO coordinated effort between the city schools of the cater the cater Police Department the cater fire we had um be

037smart was there as far as uh safe gun store storage we had breakout sessions we had a panel we addressed a lot of what they're going to hear today um in addition to like breakout sessions around social emotional psychological safety when it comes to um all of that all that was and this was in response to and requested by the community Bo remember Anderson you were there talk about what you saw yeah there two ways to look at it what I want the auditorium P absolutely um I was glad there were people there exactly I you know and I've always been sharing like oh I learned this did you know the fire department can do this there and I think that's a a challenge that every organization has because online and information over exactly we

038we can oversaturate very already committed people which theor already has you have a lot of committed people that are committed in their own lives and you can oversaturate them with information um um but I would rather oversaturate you with information and you to me out than to say that you did not know and it was not shared so it's a happy medium I know that for our esol parent nights that we host um they're very very well attended from multiple demographics that are English speakers so yes we do have the English speak the non-english speakers that are coming from the decator house Authority but we have some just all throughout the community and so that is something that um those happen Francis how often are ESO parent nights usually have monthly we'll have and it

039includes food so uh uh public sponsors are dinners and so we have dinner I will go down and speak to them um and connect with them and be able to get gner feedback them too it's not obviously the board engaging with them but is the way we support the community and obviously it's we have all of our translators present and and things like that one thing to consider that I seen work I picked up on said a safety Sumit seemed like a lot of people came um again to cut to a certain we're trying really hard to get certain families engaged and it's not only our responsibility so like in a city called Jupiter and Jupiter has um a lot of sports for the Youth and their police force wants the kids to be involve

040so we hosted a sports night at a local elementary school and all the vendors came and they showed the fam that soccer was like only $10 to play for registration things like that and that's also a place that we show value and remember we're not the only show in town there are lots of other resources that are available right we're in one right now I think they do a good job already with communicating and seeing what you need to do to try of Step things up but figure out what what what is your yeah I heard Patrick I heard Patrick as well that that was always his question um there's always what are you solving for are you solving for lack of Engagement are you solving for lack of communication are you so what is

041it that you're solving for was one of the questions that came to my mind when looking at the slide previous I think to answer J to maybe solve that problem directly we do have a problem reaching folks in the Housing Authority it could be language barrier it could be that they don't receive Communications um but maybe we could just have one of those Community meetings there there's the there's the um Rec Center that's right across the street I don't know if who's actually been there but some of their buildings do have meeting space probably couldn't just have one of those Community meetings there and even if they don't receive the communication they might just see us there and stop by yeah I definitely I know when I have the Ling sessions there the community comes

042it's never been one where it's like okay it's just me standing there talking to myself no when I have them and to be honest often times the DHA um listening sessions are more well attended than those that are on CSD property but I think that is that last bullet for me is how no right there where you are that last bullet is how do I build trust with the community at the cater Housing Authority I mean I could say come to the PLC right next door it's literally across the street but they didn't come but when I would have it at the there we made sure we always have food and and they come so it's the Strate it's the strategies that I've known have worked in the past to help build the trust for

043to forward second on events once once your community events have been going on happen for a couple of years people will start recognizing them and and showing up with them and hopefully you'll get those audiences that that are showing up and when you go those places if somebody's there the first time ask them what here what you deci to come tonight what was it that you were looking for how can we more responsive to you so I'm going put communication channels there's all things out there you can do I'm sure you probably tried most of them but um even reaching out sometimes you need to start developing those Masters so reaching out to your local service clubs want us go and offering engagement opportunities like reading or coming to read Across America with your sunent

044to to get in a business or service Club where they can actually see what's going on then they can go and share with their Circles of influence wow I was over at the elementary school and they were doing amazing things here and I'm G to go back and go with there again so finding ways to sometimes it's picking out pockets for people to to engage with um make that they know you're listen out there and share them with them but sometimes you need to say to them what is that you want what can I help you with what do you have questions about so um you know ask listen respond invite people to participate this is something else that not all districts do um s parents to classes several District Lee County which is a

045County in south Georgia they did a program that's called a is understands what those ACS are it's academic parent teacher teams and they did classroom based te de family engagement models where parents come in and learn about viral grade level items that were taking place in skills that kids need to know they might be um they might gather three times a year as part of either a class or a a horse or rid level and talk with each other and here as a everybody's learning and find ways to help support their kids at home but in meeting in a group like that they would find other ways of support so perhaps if my child is struggling with math and I'm not a math person but Roberts in the class is app parent and I know

046he's a m I've now got a build nection I say can you talk to them language so sharing that information maybe it's being done already but I thought this was a great idea for for helping parents and there's another program called villa which is off my well you do that one one way I I remember a myself here when a lot of the social media apps started coming out parents were really worried about we would do a safety night on social media right um then part of our community my last District was heavily Latino and we would have classes for parents to learn some English with the night school program and again the adults were coming in um and resume building and things of that nature a lot of those strategies might be able to

047that more more stick um so you may have some detractors out of the industry maybe you don't but sometimes it it helps to educate them and you might be able to win the V there was a a very vocal gentleman in District where I was a superintendent and he was um very passion was passion about passion about education and he had a mon that we kept talking about because our district was divided into North and South and he would complain that there was South schools weren't get what the schools and so I don't even know who it was but people talked to him including me and ultimately got him to go and visit some of those other schools and he realized things weren't quite so different but maybe called the attention of the superintendent to

048some inequities that were happening that they w aware of and ultimately he became one of the biggest Champions Pro just he recently passed away he been night a lot but you want them to understand the good things that are happening and engage them in making those things happen and you involve people in communities um in inal action teams sitting on committees for being a part of a a study that's done make sure you recognize them afterwards because it's important for them to know that their work is value when you're doing your strategic planning when you do those reviews every year I Y are just embarked on a new strategic plan I think so but at the end of every year when you're doing that b review make sure you reach out again and thank those

049community members and family members and parents who were involved with it to know you recognize your work you still Val with what you stay engaged the build program is called had write down volunteer instructional Leadership Learning Academy so this is where it's like leadership to C leadership to CER bring in a cohort of folks you invite them in you have been chosen to come and be a part of learning about our school district helping us be a great district and we want your input we want your support and they go through classes they graduate they get a certificate then they are in to go out and District so that's a lot of time in investment but it can really one other one know that we did in full I know I did in was principal

050for the day yes did we do that I could remember you do that no we we did that we did yeah so I I like that because a lot of times people don't realize just how complex the job is spend the day with me come see I go from a kindergarten classroom with the kid crying and sick to fifth grade classroom where maybe you know something incredible is happening and then I have a meeting that I sit in of course would let them in on like an I meeting but to understand the complexity they're the ones who show up and then vote and say you know what we need to fund our schools a little better classes are getting too big whatever so those are other a lot more FP of things it's important to

051build public will and you've got to create a sense of urgency Robert always talked about that creating that sense of urgency making sure you um know what you're asking for connect to community what what what do we need to do to gain Community Support sometimes it's that ask what do you need what what can we say to you to make you support us if you have a strong Community Connection you should have these here Community involvement close connection the district is responsible Community needs something Shar responsibility success and again you got this in your this is self assessment and you can change this but this is a good example questions you can ask yourself in with the community p what what would the commun say if we gave this to them so you have a

052public that again the purpose of community engagement is something to be done with the community not to the community and the more they feel like they were part of it the better it is I'm going to skip on through because Robert's exercise wants to do think still part of this it to think about and issu ways to ways to to tackle those issues whether it's an annual issue aing issue something that's a special need or just going to tell story these are all areas that you need to consider when your one thing I want and you all remember I was M my when I County and they did something very unusual I had seen practice before when I was in Charlotte North Carolina um the board would host these periodic meetings together as a groups

053well in fton Miss herna would host a meeting once a month to go over the agenda and get feedback so when they said Dr aosa my community believes this or feels this it wasn't her just independently sort of you know coming up with that saying that's how I feel she was able to say that um and I'm not advocating that that's the right way to do it but I'm just saying that was one way that they kept their little group because you did it by District it [Music] wasn't each other independent commun meeting with that staff member there to capture questions and try to record any information and help help them understand this board and um and sometimes there' be a lot of people who showed up because we were doing a controversial decision on

054sex education and a lot of people would show sometimes there was not much um but I'm sorry you had question well yeah that's what I was going to ask so because I know F's bigger but so in this case you if you're there as the board member then you're not effectively answering questions as much as you if you understand something on the agenda but it's like I want to know from all when you look at this what is it you mean what is it you don't understand what question you have and and the um we try to keep our spirit un so that if I couldn't go to my represent meeting that at night I could go somebody El was Happ the next day I could go there and here basically the same cont that

055sometimes people would bring up it to their individual districts but it was helpful to do that yeah sometimes we had a handful of people sometimes we had I have one last question if someone wants to bring up stuff not on the agenda how would you we go through the agenda then we say question and then if they had questions or complaints you that's why there was a staff member there I think was it the area super or ex again not advocating for adding another five meetings a year or 10 but it's just another idea could you do it quarterly like that maybe they're on certain decisions whether it's the budget or things that people some of your work is mundane it's like policy driven right it's reports that need to be done but other of

056parents might be interested in and we also started inviting cabinet a cabinet M come so quarterly first quter we might have the academic person abouts what was happening the next one we might have the operations person come so it's part of educating the community and if you're doing corly meetings and you're all together it would make sense to think about something like that if there's a if there's a Hot Topic like safety or if there's if there are changes that are happening if you're find for transp if there's something that's timely to be able to F that out I I'll give one last example you you know how emotional people get when we say we need to consolidate school to close the school right you I had uh three small elementary schools South that were

057all very old and very small very inefficient um and we're spending millions of dollars to try to keep them good repair so we went and talk with the community about it and we did a field trip to a brand new school that had been built I think in Sanders don't remember the school and we brought buses and we brought people from the community go see schools and say look this is what a new schol would look like and like my gosh this is so much more beautiful than what we have and you start making a case for why we close three schools that each have 200 kids we can open a brand new ones with 750 seats and you have the same school does that make sense because parts of our community were growing really

058fast and it was mostly in North Bolton and some parts of the community were not growing they were aging right and they were less children so that's an example of of when you would go there as a like I had Miss Bryant and M Maddox at the time working with us to do it and we didn't have people that were upset because we made a case for why they could trust us weild so quickly getting through these um again find what they want make sure that you are you're transporting information back and for community and the school as a board member keep public opinion you might be hearing those squeaky Wheels out there and make sure that you there other opinions out there to get you get them developing relationships is p you got make

059tough decisions if you got people out there for the community that you can call to help share the information got this hand out as well about personal communication [Music] now you have in your packet paper that says that take to read that and talk each where just this just wait it's it's basically I can tell you about it give us summer the sum is you you go to a dance club and you there's and there's a dance and you are down on the dance floor and you're dancing you have the best time and you like the music and at the end of the night you report back and say this was a wonderful event everybody had a great time it was fabulous and I think we should do read it well somebody on the balcony

060is looking down and they see that some people are dancing and having a great time others are holding their hands over their ears because the music is so loud they're sitting next to the and they don't like the kind of music that's being play and you would not get that perspective if we were on the days were all the time [Music] so how do you think this might apply to governance te whether you're on the balcony what are the advantages to be on the balcony what drawbacks spending too much time on the dance FL I know when my husband and I go to to events where there's music and dancing he wants to see the as he can and he'll tolerate as long as he um but I get on the dance slow wait but

061the the idea behind this is that the superintendent is the manager of the floor and the superintendent is making sure that the right T of the music being play that the orchest get what they need that the the dancers have opportunities to do different things and from the balcony the board is able to see and not the superintendent help direct you know something's going on over here you need to check it out this is not happening the way it should so let's make some changes and it be the superintendent go this is just a reminder that superintendent need to do those day to-day things and the board still needs to be aware that they need to be aware at that all right so turn and talk pick one of the questions at your group and

062turn and talk about one of the three that anog some drawbacks spending too much time so basically [Music] en we can only see just Tracy analy um I being up on the back balcony well you are in so far as you say I think what this is missing is it is important to experience in dance floor at least a little bit and that's not out there questions right about that but from balcony you have to spend most of your time there because otherwise you're just going to it's just your experience on the dance floor and then the people the four people that you came there right and it could be the best time in the world and as you the more time you're on the balcony you're seeing those people having a great time but

063you're also seeing the people slipping right you're also seeing people who can't dance people that AR uncomfortable you know Mr BNA who thinks the music's too loud on the corner right like the more time you spend up the less you get into the weeds the the trace it's also you know important to understand what the needs are like thank you so I I said the same thing I was uh telling Sophie you know I like being on the dance a little bit because that gives me an opportunity to interact with the stakeholders and get their different perspectives on things but I said it can be tricky because you know you can cross over into operations but you know on the balcony you can see people dancing but you might not know that they think that

064the music they're dancing but the music they may still think the music is too loud the only way I would know that if I was on the dance for interact I had to yeah I I struggle with this analogy a little bit not because I was fighting it but I just need some explanation but Dr the teacher so she explained it to me but we chose the last one which would what the drawbacks spending too much time on the dance flooor and um similar to um I think what others have said then you're just in the weeds of things you can only see what's in front of you um your perspective is limited um maybe only see the negative um people not having a good time or may you only see the positive everybody appears

065to be having a good time but either way your um your your perspective and your vision is limited to it's crowded down there um you can only see what's visually right in front of you yeah and I think you can see Trends um when you look at the big picture you up a little higher um I agree with all that I think one of the ways that you know I use to take my board members putting vote Dan was to go with them and so for example we roll out a new science Hands-On curriculum we're going to walk some schools together I want you to see the decision you made to invest X money in science I want I want see the laps so let's do a walk together on that right that's the whole

066I want you to see an experience what my are seeing and experiencing um and again just interject one second so I know tomorrow you're good for school visits yes you still do it for tomorrow it's not active I just it was it was actually on my posted just to verify it's in the morning right it's in the morning yes you are good nighttime School visits afternoon so so it was it was just perfect timing it was on my posted so that I could verify who's coming and so yes this is where you get to see people danc yes and we had to reschedule with I think one of the rain snow something that happened earlier in January we need to Res discover the other group but um so yes that's great that's great and it

067brings us into yet another analogy um for those of you who worked with me in the past you've heard me say this over and over again we can accomplish great things if we have three big IDE three big sort of buckets one is what are the rules of the game how we keep score and how much time on the clock okay so in this analogy we can play basketball together if I know the rules of the game that one kind of basket's worth one point one worth two 1.3 and then how much time is on the Block in this example again the rules of the game are what in your example as a governance team what are the rules of the game do you create any of the rules of the game I mean policies

068policies okay what else what other rules exist for us to do this governance Norms yeah budget oversight budget oversight are there Federal rules and regulations federal and state law yeah federal state law at least for now um sorry supped so there are some rules and regulations in our work how do we keep score how do you know things are going well that we're winning or getting close to has a governance team yeah data what kind ofm show us some negative suspension rates right other ways to keep score you know are we overidentifying special ed students um are we under identifying gifted in certain segments of the population so there ways that we can keep score and time on the clock what's time on the CL in this analogy schol year quarterly yeah school year quarterly

069are you elected indefinitely Or do you have terms terms yeah so so time on the clock is you get elected for four years yeah yeah School Board uh hires a superintendent what's her time per contract three years Max three years Max is that state law so state law you can't have a superintendent under contract from under contract for more than three years with yeah yes what so that if we understand how we're going to play this game although I know it's how we're going operate and um board member Davis mentioned this notion of norms how we have an agreement in fton County there was no policy that said one year there'll be a member of the a member of the board who's the president from North County uh and the next year it would be

070a member from the South County was that in policy no no it was a norm that they adhered to for decades as an agreement of so one year missis chair the vice chair came from South the next year the chair from south and north and so those are strong commitments they did not always agree right I always told them you guys can fuss at each other just stay in love with me it'll be fine but we but we managed to get some really hard things done because we decided both formally and informally to EST set of rules of the game some are communication which is this notion of is the board is so I want you to use yet a third analogy of a mechanic who you you go to mechanic and you're looking at

071this really complicated engine he opens it and he's pointing out a couple of things and you ask questions Etc you're not an expert in education um meaning at at the level of of the Dr Whitaker who has spent her entire career moving up a leadership chain understanding the laws the rules regulations instruction inside and now running large systems many of us have been teachers that's fine you see the teaching and learning you get that part but there are a lot of other parts that are are much different and so superintendent is the only one that can operate both below and above the infamous line right you're a government team she can come up here and work with you and say look I saw this policy that a local school district put in place I think

072it's one we might want to consider uh and then she comes back down here you all decide debate and make a decision okay and create a new policy and this is the in the superintendent the figures out what the superintendent through the regulation exactly the superintendent staff are responsible for the how and the what is on top now this is part of again not the district does this this is what I consider the best practice what's our the action and how do we the vision mission beliefs Central values I'm going to be working on this with County next a couple weeks on a Saturday and it's going to be you know there's some changes going on in the district and they want their Community to have a better reflection of what's occurring right the people

073who are involved the community so the superintendent here's from you all what goals and targets are important she creates a strategic plan and she brings you periodically in fact today you're going to hear a little bit about some of that um after lunch okay so Pete performance governance team they do what Miss BNA showed earlier the picture of the kids this is really about reminding for all children they work with a centralized view of that and No Agenda um I work with school boards all across the country and there are people who were very disys frontal whose child maybe was autistic and they ran on a single topic which is I want to do better by the autistic children in our community and I understand that but if that's the only agenda you have you're

074going to have a hard time with that word right there right because there are a lot of different kids who need certain things from us as a as a learning community and then focusing on what's best for all students and not just and if part when you're in single districts you know my community wants this and then somehow is in a opposition to what my te right we need to get away from that thinking and say as a shared responsibility um this is what we need to get out this is an interesting one sometimes people don't get this the board superintendent have an interdependent relationship do that me do you think that me we're kind inextricably connected in order to be effective yeah yeah so if you see something that Dr Whitaker is doing that

075may not be playing well in a certain segment of the population do you have an obligation to share that with her yeah and the same thing and this is hard to do because I was I was that person where I was a superintendent and I saw a board member who was behaving in a way that might take away from our unified vision of what we were getting and to have a hard conversation and that's hard to do as a superintendent with a boss right even though collectively they are the the the people who decide whether or not the work right that's tough but there were times that happened and there were a few moments for me in Fon that I had I had to do that and I think it was one of the reasons

076why our team became so close because we had some very different opinion on what needed to happen um and so if I succeed guess what my school board succeeded they won I mean they went through sorry I'm not they went through four five superintendence Dr low settled things down a little bit and allowed me to have enough space to really start running and we went from some dysfunction to winning like the National School Board of a year and that's a big deal in just four short years and I think a lot of that came from putting all the cards in the table face up how are we do business together I want Weekly News and notes I want to be called if there's a fight on campus um and some for members say no don't

077I don't want to be told that but I need to know what your thresholds are for communication so if you're at public and someone says there was an ambulance at a pool today someone got hurt you might want to know that but you don't feel like right so you have to be able to do that and just the same way it goes that for dysfunctional then it winds up H superintendent so we need to have so kids a success what are they how do you know things are going remember earlier you said man I want more people to come to these meetings I can take you right now to another District where a lot of people come and they're all busing and angry and out of control right that's not that's not what we want

078but what are indicators of success how do you know things are going well not I mean you know as James pointed about we have data that can demonstrate if we're saying that we made these improvements here it is yeah I'm still not sold on if people aren't complaining is a problem think and I accept that also when you have fact you know that yeah yeah oh man and sometimes people are complaining here isn't a problem that's right and that's why constituent Services there's a little bit of smoke coming out back there I'm not going to run away from it I'm going to run toward it because I want to go see what that little smoke could turn into a giant out of control forest fire right and so yes you need to sniff that out

079but if that's all you do is sniff things out and try to look at every s you'll you'll never actually get to the Strategic work right so it's a balancing act we have to constantly be asking ourselves and that's how superintendent get in trouble and they micromanage and that doesn't work either okay so part of this is also based on relationships trust loyalty and respect and this is the most important one it's respect we're going to disagree at times democracy really the beauty of democracy is that we have a safe place to disagree it doesn't mean that I'm against you I just don't believe in the same thing you believe or I don't think your priority is my I have a different priority but it's how we communicate with one another it's where we communicate

080and most importantly is that we don't let stuff F okay so in fton in order for me to not allow things to Fester because I knew that the board was pretty divided on what where they wanted to go in general I used to do a quarterly closed session where the board provid specific feedback about how I was doing as an individual and the board provided themselves a little bit of feedback on how they think they were doing with the team and I watched over a course of meeting after meeting after meeting getting to a point where people started you know bringing Christmas presents to one another celebrating birthdays doing things that said you know it's fine I get it there's some tension between a certain decision but as long as respect each other and keep

081our communication simple then we can with each know about each other the easier that this and that just the more you know about each other want is you've done the the comp activity thinking about those things the way you operate the way you read and that somebody does it differently having an understand from where they're coming from and why um and what kind of disagreement it is is it a disagreement of resources is a philosophical difference can you and if it's a difference you can't overcome can you agree to disagree agree yeah what you're doing right now spending some time together and you all done a very nice job of that I got to give the superintendent credit this these kinds of like times together um can easily go astray and um I appreciate the

082fact that you're willing to get better and and the way you build a relationship is get understanding how you view the world we'll talk a little bit about this this morning about this notion of strong durable linkages with the community um you know we're heading into a time where we have people in this country who may not uh have come here through the the sort of legal process and in where I live in Florida in particular my little town of Jupiter is filled with Guatemala and community members who are newcomers and they're living in fear right now now and the only place they go is where you go on Sunday which is church that's like the only place they feel really safe and they have a Spanish mass there um and they had asked some

083folks in the community to come and try to help ease some of the fear and so I was helping them get some attorneys and some others just for talk and I realized rather quickly can we become again not to use religion but in that Community the church was the place that they felt the most saved right and we cre an environment where when things are going really bad like they are maybe in some families that they feel safe enough to us because they trust us and I think as you look at your schools my guesses most of them probably are we tend to do a much better job at the school level than we do assistant LEL because you can't possibly have 50 different kinds of ice cream up here they know their communities and

084they know the kind of flavors that might affect so those were all good and well what I just shared right then what happens welcome to reality which is we could have people right who come and say well you became a board member as an individual but now you serve as a member of a team you ran because of something right if I were to ask you what one of the primary business your man what would you say um the achievement Gap in district and okay love it why did you choose to be on this yeah love it why did you choose the cater why why did you think you were going to do a good job in school system very different some right it is it's very different but it can be similar yeah um

085theater offers really what I say is the where pon 71 miles long it's all of the same needs but J that's in the 4 and half miles square miles so you commed but I actually Comm but uh but no um when I think about the cater that achievement gap which you all know I've worked tirelessly in my career to close but at the same time my Foundation is really in gifted education to how do you bring about change for the top so theer gives you both in four and a half square miles it it's the focus on closing the achievement Gap but not at the sacrifice of those who have demonstrated that they need more and we are required to give them more at the same time and so it is the both ends but

086I I mean I like that type of challeng um children are my passion they're my life's work um I feel like uh I dedicate all of all of myself to the service of children and this was a different way to show up and be of service to Children uh especially children that um don't have what my children have um I service my children all the time and this was a different way to service children that don't have the resources that um all the blessings that my children have um I've always been passionate about um children that have disabilities children that um uh don't have the same resources children of color children that um are really children that are on their way to Greatness and need that push um um but um I've always I've always

087loved children little ones big ones teenagers um so children of my life's work so this was a natural a natural fit to a way to serve I mean this institution and schools are probably the most important thing my family and my community and schools Play Raised Me Without active parents my life and so that I can give back by contributing I was always going to do that will always do that yeah I grew up in public education um both as a child matriculating through and then a young adult becoming a teacher I love learning and I strongly believe we can do better um you it's the same E I have in the classroom and it's important you hear these Reasons from each other that you're reminded of why here so remember go back I talked

088about welcome to reality but you you don't have the authority as an individual to fix problems which is sometimes a hard F to swallow success of board member is uh completely tied to the success of the board the success of superintendent is tied to the success of the board so let's walk through some examples of the reality those are all nice to have right and that's what should be let's talk through a couple of examples um and let's see if we believe this is sort of above the line or below the line when it gets to I think you need that is okay I think earlier you mention um if you're hearing something or complaints concerns maybe the more appropriate what to use then perhaps keeping a superintendent address this is where I think there's

089a real gr zone I'm hearing some teachers complaining about student Behavior not being managed you might want to take a look at that not sure if it's accurate or not or if it's a standing issue but once the board member said you just need to move to another part of the community it's tough right uh I had a certain board M who told me that a certain race couldn't work in a school that was most African-American um and I also had a board member tell me that a certain race couldn't work in a community that was mostly right which drew me to hire Jerome H and Roswell and Grand Rivera and wesle which means I don't believe either of those things and both of those gentlem did an extraordinary job at west lake and in

090North does that make sense and so I did the opposite with the but that that's mostly but the truth is I also have board members who said it's not a good match sometimes the board member might be right what they're hearing does turn out to be there's a little smoke there and you go take a look at it right let's get another exle important thing is super alert it's good to alert the super if there's anything in the community so they can check it out yeah all right read this one content of the request doesn't the chair have to go to other board members how does that play outat if someone wants to add an item to the agenda for discussing and change the policy of not being school back people who are still alive

091how would that work I think that that's an acceptable first step I think the board say president there we didn't need to talk to other members of the board make sure there's majority support of something like that bring the superintendent's attention and head it to the agenda anybody disagree okay opens up for discussion and there are times one individual wants something added they may add it and they don't get a second that's democracy right you have to try not to take those things first I think that's the critical point is that if it's something that we want to add to the agenda that other board members know and are supportive in being an agenda it otherwise we do get things that come up and you make a motion and there's no second or other people

092are like I didn't know that we were discussing this today or somebody pulls a whole bunch of policies to be reviewed and then you don't know that nobody knew that we were discussing it so it's perfectly reasonable to add it just as people know steps along the way here that over so I don't just say hypothetically this is not happened okay I want to be clear but this board member is doing this because people in the community are set so now the people in the community don't know that the board member has asked about be on the agenda so if we're going back to community engagement and education where does that fall one Community or right so then what is that what is that process I mean look part of is and that's why the

093Civic engagement is important teach people the rules of the game this is how these things are done you have brought this to my attention I think there's some Merit I did some research on it but now I have to bring it to the pool to decide they may accept this discussion it they may not and if you don't hear it then you know they didn't accept it that could be part of it and I also think it's it's interesting I don't know and other people can chime in to have it be something that goes all the way to the to the level of being a board agenda item and it not be on the radar of other board members so if we're going to revise a policy or something's going up for a vote and

094you know other board members be like I've never heard that or I'm not in support of that at all then then you probably are to this point talking about a very small group of people and maybe we've gone the wrong route maybe that's some maybe they need to take it to the principal maybe they need to take it to a Cabinet member but I I I feel like it's pretty rare that you know somebody community members would be coming to you and saying Hey I want this to be on the agenda item and then you take it to James and Jana and they're like I have no idea what you're talking about or I don't want that on the agenda at all one last one last point to put sort of cave is as a

095board member I would recommend you say you know that's that's thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas on it we put some thought into it and not immediately saying yeah I'm I'm going to bring that to the board for agend I'm certainly not saying you would I know this is hypothetical but we don't want the to put any undo sort of negativity on the group does that make sense if you know it's not going to go anywh then I wouldn't say anything to them that maybe that's something I bring to the board Think answer question maybe this is a little the policy making because there some agenda are more well that's just another scenario I don't I don't know that that that makes a big that big enough difference I would just say in

096this case we're talking about actual policy um all right here's another one board member comes back during the regular board meeting say superintendent I just returned from this conference where they were talking about new bilingual education program that's gotten great results in other districts I have a lot ofation like to share with you I'd like for you to put this on the next agenda item so we can discuss it like in the middle of the meeting like I want to discuss this thing and I want to discuss it now regular meeting superintendent I just return no he said the next meeting the okay so midd board meeting let's just call this person board member o I knew you were gonna say that says he's not here uh I I want to discuss this next meeting

097but that mean that's just it's not the norm it's not the rule it's not appropriate that board members making it about themselves that's what would be a more appropriate way to approach I mean that one is an interesting example to get the Leeds like Trace would say cuz like if I did have that experience I I don't know I may just in my one-onone with the superintendent just share like hey I experienced this stuff is that a thing that you all are considering I'd like some feedback on it because that is yeah that's yeah because that's very operational I would I would want the cabinet to be discussing this not the the board y all right one more uh I have to make sure my names aren't like real yeah and steps into the principal's

098office and says you know I'd like a tour of the new building we were told that that was not you cannot do that unless you're somebody like me who has multiple children in multiple school buildings and you know if I'm showing up as a parent like he that's fine but if you're like hey I'm the board chair and I want to see fade today you canot what all right so I'll stop there um we have some good examples of the road line above the line and I'll turn it back over to superintend all right so um thank you so much uh Robert and also to Julia uh for the time today really kind of taking us through Bridging the engage engagement Gap as well as team building and just some other scenarios I will pass

099around the evaluation the signature so that you can sign them yes while you're doing that I just want to mention I have three resources here that I'm to share with Dr Whitaker um one that was recommended to be called elevating Community while I was looking at purchasing this another book popped up that I also B modern day strategies for and then the Alaska school boards Association has a um book that call stronger together so I can leave these with you and get them back to me it's worth pursuing again I'm superintendent she can decide if it's appropriate yes thank you and so I would love to read the full things for vers I have it pulled up right here I can s and so you complete your evaluations your signatures and then um when we

100go to kaspa there will be obviously a vendor Booth room where you can see lots of different types of books so I'm going to encourage you all to pick and select what will be our book study for next year yes awesome and now we'll turn it over to Jennifer and and Mary to provide a a reflection on the visit to Grand rics so good afternoon everybody um we had a great trip um to Grand Rapid this room feels like we may be back in Grand breakfast um but um we wanted to come together and really reflect and talk about our our overall takeaways what did we learn learn um what have we already started to apply from that visit visit and then start talking about our vision statements so what do we envision um for

101our new Early Learning Center so of course this project falls under organizational Effectiveness and Excellence um so quickly um in reflecting what did we learn from our visit to Grand Rapids we've got four buckets um we've got learning environments and facility design so what was a takeaway um when it came to the learning environment and facility design that that we want to kind of bring forward I thought it was it was a nice open space the children had plenty of um um space to move around they weren't constricted um it was I we said this in just but it was it was weather appropriate they do have extremes of weather up there but they had made accommodations um for all of those things the only thing that one thing that did stand out I think

102I talking to you about it was the um the parking um I don't know if that's a we have a walking Community here but it sounds like most of their families Drive the park that was very constricted and congested um they were right up against the street so they didn't seem bothered by it but I think um yeah you have like a little baby that would have been kind of cumbersome yeah I was not crazy about the mud room um and the bathroom those being right there next to each other and like wasn't enough space like I just preach your parents coming in taking off snowsuits and stuff it it felt very like it would be very congested do seem like the M room in the bathroom being right there next to each other I

103see that um what about curriculum and instructional practices so any kind of innovative approaches um that they talked about I saw for the the little kids kind of the Tyler 2os and Tyler 3es there a lot of um Muran kind of them woven in there a lot of uh kind of self-help um where kids were um you know focusing on potty training cleaning up behind themselves there was a lot of opportunities I saw for Teacher feedback so they had kind of the two the kind of oneway mirrors where you know teachers could other teachers could come and observe um I thought that was interesting um and helpful there was you could see a lot of um reading curriculum even at an early age um where kids were um taught phonics books exposed to all of

104that even when they were just you know infants yeah even um so you could definitely see even if it was like the blocks or the you know the sensory tactile things um you saw that um very early everything well for whatever it's worth all the materials were clean so they could probably easily be passed from one kid to the next that their learning SP their kchen spans are handle so much for so long there was a lot for them to learn I thought also thought so it would be I didn't like that the teachers would have to go and get the supply materials the instructional materials were kept in um a separate room and so so I just thought that'd be a big hassle for teachers to have to go get those instructional materials for

105that day um yeah I'm not sure if this falls under instructional practice or but am I correct in saying that there the Grand Rapids Community College student teachers were working in the facility is that isn't that why we learned there was a lot in the yes so I mean I I thought that was pretty crucial um to the Staffing success of it yeah that kind of grow your own um and and that lab um experience yeah absolutely um so what about the family and Community engagement I like the um the play groups that they had so maybe for some kids that were on the waiting list or maybe some parents that didn't need full-time care um maybe some stay-at home moms um or just needed evening care or they wanted to interact with their families

106they had the play groups that were in the evening um I liked that they had um flexible options so not everybody was a full-time student or not every kid was a full-time student so some kids just went two days a week and then they went to the play grp so I thought that that was a good bridge builder for the community it was right on campus um so so there were like we just talked about the students interacted but so did the students who were just walking by so it was really like the Learning Center was a part of the community it wasn't just you know a daycare yeah I was going to say that stood out to me from what they shared they were very intentional about bringing the community into the looking for

107ways to bring the community into the center and allowing the community to use that space you know for meetings and things like that um I feel like they really tried to Center the center in the community yeah and I appreciated the connection to the Early Learning so it wasn't just about bringing the community in but it was as long as this matches with our purpose which is that early learning so keeping the focus on the Early Learning Center and Community please come in for any early learning training and meetings um so keeping that focus on really what Fus was um equity and accessibility the first thing that came to mind was um I don't know what's her name uh no um Jan who was yeah no she was the one who's in charge of the

108weight list um and she kind of worked hand inand with whoever was in charge of Grants um and basically if anybody called and said hey you know I'm interested um her job was basically to make sure that they found the funding um I think that this particular weit list is for you you only have 20 minutes before you know your bus comes well let's do let's do a rapid tour in 20 minutes so her job was to make sure that she was the front face of kind of the center um to make sure that all kids felt like they belonged that they had a spot there so um I think different at least in my personal experience with having kids in on weight list that daycare centers you kind of get an application you sign

109up and they're like we'll call you in a year she was not she wanted all kids regardless of what their primary language was their race how much money they had she wanted them to feel like they pronged um and um I felt that that stood out she really put a lot of extra effort into making sure that kids found a spot somewhere at some point and I think that's going to be we want that and we need that that's going be I may be wrong because I think it started during Co but I think they described for communities farther a field this kind of bags of books and items that I thought was pretty crucial obviously you might need more training to do that hand people a bag of books but and if I remember

110correctly there was a sharing of something where I want to call it like a taxi voucher for those I think she CED a story where parents couldn't get on the bus or the bus was too far away so I mean maybe similar to the weight list but there's more kind of responsive actions to include yeah they they shared that a [Music] nonprofit um provided taxi vouchers for families um something very some something of note is they're not a K12 like school system just a little do they say do they have a sliding [Music] skill how did they what did they say about tuition or access to the impression I may miss speaking I thought they were talking more about the kind of flexible Day Option that opened up some spaces of funding more than different

111tuition I kind of got the impression it depending on what kind of Grant Line you were on so certain kids qualified for certain funding based on their demographics based on what their needs were and that kind of determined what kind of funding scale they got their braided model of funding and so dependent upon Grant as Dr sulan said that would categorize what your threshold of payment would be cuz it felt to me I couldn't remember what the expectation was round tuition it felt like they were intentional about making that that's what came across that almost creativity and strategy back to that person that answered the phone you know that was really like you know it was almost plugging the pieces in to make it happen for each student um was was really critical um so

112I wanted to share you know this is our draft so obviously still draft draft draft not finalized um and you all have a copy of the draft floor plan in your folder but I just wanted to point out some things that you probably saw you did see when you were there in our design so when we started um our working with the Architects we looked at Best Practices across the United St States and so you saw some of those things in Grand Rapids like the courtyard style outdoor play area that was something that we incorporated the multi-purpose rooms for family engagement they're kind of the orange and then having a secured entrance for that multi-purpose area um that is separate um the observation rooms which are the white um kind of in between um we

113built those in for our ctae students to come in um the separate Supply storage so for things like tricycles and things we've got storage that still connects to the outdoor play area you don't want to leave your tries out there and make it all resty and all um and then uh indoor play area so so um we met with the K5 student superintendent student advisory Council and their feedback was please make sure you keep an indoor play Space our students really need play Space um even when it's cold even when it's raining um and that was their number one um point of feedback so we do still have the Indo play Space um there and then reimagining our parking so we saw the backend parking um which was really um I had never thought of

114and so for those that weren't there um they had angled parking but you had to back in to the parking space and the idea was that when you back in you are paying much more attention and so we want you to slowly back in and then when you're when you're leaving then you'll jet on out forward um so that was something I don't think any of us had thought of um and Back Again an expedition was quite so I can say that yes you back up very slowly um into a diagonal parment space so um just some of those things that we've already um I wanted to make those connections and that our team and design team um has already been looking at these things and and wanted to point those out in our design

115and I couldn't answer it because we do have two learning facilities right college fights and prer how with it all that we used those spaces in informing this other than we know you we've got this new building or have we have okay so um we went with the with the Architects into those buildings um we were on the um we walked those buildings we took notes they took the Architects took pictures and there are some things that we would like to continue as we go into the new building um more along the programmatic side and instruction side because College Heights if you remember was a renovated building that had been an elementary school so there were a lot of changes that had to be made um to make it uh Equitable and accessible for this

116demographic of early learning um so there are some things that we that we're taking from there as well um but we also listened to the staff and the leaders in those buildings about the things that we love to be different and especially as it pertains to the frasure center They are packed jam packed wall to wall um and there are some things about accessibility for rooms and space that we that we considered in finding a better solution all right so um I'm gonna pass this over to Mary who's GNA start leading us through um a process to create a vision statement for so so I hope you don't mind and steal that dance floor balcony um and use it again here so our our site visit to Grand rabbits was our opportunity to be on

117the dance board to actually see and feel and hear what it's like to be in a building that is considered to be best in class right this is something that we desire for our place and so um as we move forward we're going to look now from a balcony perspective and working to create this vision statement okay um we're take a brief look at the arc the vision statement that was created cor architecture using that to help inform our uh Focus for creating the vision statement for student outcomes for the early let's look at that the focus on Child Development the project envisions an inclusive accessible safe and sustainable campus the this design will Embrace Community diversity and Foster a sense of belonging and well-being for all children families caregivers and Educators the campus will

118serve as a VI and adaptable asset for future but for current and future Generations so we're going to look at this one i' also like for us to look at The District's vision statement which we have here okay as well as the Grand Rapids vision statement and everybody can read I'll give you just maybe a minute to kind of look over these two because we're going to what I would like for you to do as you're looking through it is to think about the core values that stand out to you the things that resonate with you as we go into um some thinking and we're going to use your pre-work also in our next Cas let's just take a minute so the grand vision statement as it's on the wall here but it's also on

119our screen um has some things that are a little bit different right this is a learning lab it's connected with the a community college so it's focus is a little bit different um as we look at examples of vision statements we realize there are probably things that we like and some things that we don't the important thing for you to remember is what resonates with you what things pop out to you and so as we craft this new vision statement I'd like for us to um look at our freework everybody have that if you don't I've got some extra one copies need i' like for us to take a minute to focus on this next few minutes on the the what is ccal and what will allow us to get a collective understanding and commitment

120to the Future direction of our new early Cent we want to think about who is involved um the impact from administrator to Community member how we can align our goals vision for U making this particular School successful let's think about the longterm this think about's future Focus okay and so what we're going to do is um based on your freework we should you know have already kind of thought about this we're trying to because normally a vision statement creation takes a long time right this is the first step and many steps of Crea statement but in order save us a little bit of time we gave you this pre-work um let's imagine a World Imagine The Future okay we're going to go five years ahead near 2030 the early Le Learning Center is up it's

121thriving what do you see what do you hear how are people experiencing the building what is it like so let's take a moment if you have some seing notes on your table and um jop down one thought on each sticky note maybe two or three sticky notes okay just drop down one thought on each not about what you think you would see hear experience what we desire in theing early Chate learning impact is for e e e sh let's take a moment what are some of the things um that you have written down if I want to share one from that you have collected in your I said children interacting exploring inside and outside and I said I see um cultur and racial diversity in the student population and in the teachers who serve them

122I said fully staffed classrooms with teachers that are uh that want to be there that we can retain that's a difficult group to yeah to to recruit and then I I sit fly St too um and with an Engaged Community parents retiree ccae students public service work and when we think about the innovations that happened when we looked at Grand Rapids we saw how they were using they're being really creative and making sure that they save for the staff and that whole La setting um helped to ensure that they save than any else um I said us to the outdoor play areas just because it's a lot of space it looks like it's probably a third of the building so use put some other I put that I'd love to see a walkable experience in

123the community and I put that I would like to see or hear sense of Pride for Community involvement you know sort of like oh yeah my kids go to the jam Early [Laughter] Learning on the horizon Lear when I said no traffic chance all the most students very important right saw what what D like right um when we were in Grand by the way I just need to say that my wife year was way bigger than her Expedition yes it was they were both really large do are I mean There are rules about parking lots and then sometimes they're bigger parking Early Learning Center having the biggest possible parking spot also makes much sense yes I hated squeezing in College Heights and then having to pull the kid out and if you can imagine a

124narrower driveway yeah that was there their property was was really tight and so it was a drive that was one way in and then you had it pull backwards into the parking space so that you could pull out and go forward it still be on I still don't understand how they how they do I don't especially if I mean I don't when you have to Lug a child in the diapers and the clothes and stuff like that good but are we see sorry the previous slide I think talk about reimagined parking is that the changed model of parking or is there also a reduction in parking space a creative use of other par I still have questions about the cars uh so the parking at the bottom where the D is in draft that uh

125would potentially be moved um but there is actually regulation on based upon the number of adults and serve who you serve for how many parking spaces we we are required to have so and and that's not to be kind of keep repeating the same question but given the proximity to Wilson Center indicator High School that regulation is specific to that new building so th those spots that are over there we can move them and put them in a different way in the next iteration that's just some of the feedback that you've heard but as far as the number of spaces you there is a regulation and also those where it looks like those are spaces if just think of it actually as like a gray blocked that doesn't mean that there's 10 diagonal spaces the

126gray is just representative of [Music] space move into putting it together okay um I'd like for you to think about some of the things that have been recurring things for us um for the district as well as for this Early Learning Center some of our beliefs and values that we have heard over and over again is that we want this to be a high quality learning experience for children right we want this to be to produce Equitable outcomes for all children that we want active family and Community engagement that we want Readiness for kindergarten and that we want transformation for all students um and these are some of the the recurring them that have been um stated from the very beginning when we first started talking about this Pro so i' like for us to

127think about as we begin putting our um our ideas you got your sing notes I'd like for you to just kind of work with your elbow partner if you want to get up and move around you're certainly able to do that we're going to give you a sheet of chart paper um we're got you know this is I am a teacher at heart so you all be my kids my students today um take your sticky notes and let's begin crafting a a vision statement okay um this is a sample template there are also some examples here on the wall above ess's head uh it says thank you sir Mr um this city schools of theator ear Learning Center envisions a world where right and you put the description of what it feels like what it

128looks like those things that you wrote now or the city schools of the created Early Childhood Learning Center vision is and you put the things that you envision right that you wrote down that were important to you that resonate with you what we're going to do is we're going to take PE and then go into the second leg of refining the vision statement we wanted to make sure as you all are part of our primary stakeholders that you all have a voice in helping to create this vision statement all right so we're going to give each El partner group um group two or three do [Music] thatp you like that markers for you [Music] is thank you thank you yeah about five minutes for to work on this you guys can uh can collaborate on

129your sticky notes and decide which ones you want to PL into this vision statement go ahead and start cracking it out and we will reconvene and share out in uh about five minutes or so so do you want is the goal for us to have a a statement here well we're just giving it a shot right yes this is our first our first shot at it okay yep and you can write it on there if you feel like you need to draft it on something else first go ahead and do that yeah oh you're make [Music] what she said just imagine goity it was like okay and but if you write one man this was great ESP [Music] this question elaborate learning students Jennifer and I had a whole conversation about who was gonna this

130up I'm driving like I can write in a straight line at my so cannot stud experience and I feel like something about [Music] instruction I was I mean I like oh no I know but let's to wrap it up on the fast [Music] where do you want instruction outdo will be learn High quity okay ready we are but we did not get to the impact we have no impact students experience eff learning quality instruction the outdoors and Community involvement ensuring they're prepared they're good people we didn't finish impact uh we said our Early Learning Center will be a place where all students experience quality education through resource classrooms and Innovative play based instruction and sharing with students and are prepared for Fant yes thank you for your engagement in that um and for indulging me

131in this process so as we're creating it we want to reflect on these are some things that we will also be thinking about as we does it Inspire action does it Inspire commitment is it uh does it reflect our core values and our longterm aspirations is it clear is it simple is it future focused those are the things that we want to make sure that we have in a statement as we move into finalizing it so let's just do a little wrap around real quick what's one word that Captain your biggest takeaway from this envisioning session just one word can be anybody we don't have to have a response from everybody I know that I'm the buffer between you and lunch so I'm not tring yes remember Johnson Davis said Innovative or Innovations forward focused

132future Focus how students talking about students and students and students thank you so much okay so we'll be we'll continue to revise and work on our vision statement as a team um one of my commitments was that I would come to you quarterly with updates on the Early Learning Center um I am willing to come back at our March 11th meeting um next week and do another update if you feel like this has satisfied a quarterly update I am also okay with that um but we wanted to bring that to you guys as a board um and say I can come back next week um and do another update or if you feel like this satisfies that I'm also comfortable with that would you include in in the updates what we experienced at the during

133the visit is that part of this update what what would you include in that update if we did it part that next week so what we had intended was um to bring forward a schematic design um but our the schematic design is not we are not ready for that our Architects are not ready to to bring that forward um but I could kind of recap our is it um I could recap kind of what we did here um that that would be kind of you know at this point what I have to share because we don't have a schematic design yet I think it would be helpful to recap the visit and what we did today even though this is a public meeting it would just you know give another opportunity for us to share

134with the community um what we learned and experience and our takeaways and I think any the questions I keep getting I I can't always answer and so I think anything that adds to the data that we have to demonstrate not only have we visited Grand Rapids and we've learned this and we got with this you know we're going to budget this but we started here with we need this now this is what we can demonstrate in terms of the effect of our old Center how many students through decay of metricate that may be too much to do um but something that says this is where we are now with the humans that'll be coming here I think be helpful I don't know are you looking at like the enrollment projections is that what you're meaning

135everything so enrollment so enrollment projections not just in a year but in five years um you if student enroll is declining indicator um and nationally and I don't know enough about the birth rate I tried to look up the most recent recent census I think there was a minimal change in under um additionally then where are we in terms of number of students will be serving here number of students will be serving here I can't remember if we've addressed that kind of oneir one3 one3 model so anything that might just fill in some of the stuff that we've presented and I'm not sure we've finalized or moved into the second Arena of action and I was say I was going to suggest that we've been talking about this like the questions that we can't answer

136find out who the appropriate staff person is who can answer those questions and then would I get those too because then it's easier like I still can't answer what our projections look like I know that we know that we have we're looking at building a school that has is it 10 something something to 10 and something I know we're taking the Frasier Center students I know we've looked at a third third model but when people are specifically act asking for the projections I I'd like to know that too not just send them over there I think we're conflating a couple of issues here that third third third thing I don't think is completely based in and you can redirect me I don't know if that's completely based in enrollment projection I think some of that

137has to do with the funding model so right so a third of the kids will be full pay a third of the kids may be completely Grant funded and a third may be on a sliding scale I think we may be making the Assumption as to where those kids may be coming from so maybe that one-third that is completely Grant funded we may be assuming those kids may be coming from the Housing Authority or they may be coming from this particular place or not or we may be assuming that 100% or the third that's coming from sliding skill may be staffed but that may not be the case so I think we don't need to use those terms interchangeably if that's not the case or at least we need to clarify that for maybe folks

138who may be misusing that terminology you're right so the oneir oneir oneir was to try to um explain how a rated funded model would look but we are not stuck to um that you know onethird of 100 students must fall into this bucket it was more about an illustration of you know um that graded funded model um and so but I can see where it did cause some confusion but it is about you know making sure that we have representation um and that we're meeting the needs of our entire Community it's very similar to the original statement I think you said Dr Johnson Davis when we went to Grand Rapids and you were like did they have sling sliding scale how was but it looked very accessible yeah well that's how it's very intentional but

139at the same time you have to be able to communicate it's the way you engage with the community to say yes there is a place for you here it's not going to be 100% full pay which is basically what we have currently at um College house which is it's that envisioning of that and that communication so it sounds like um we we'll do the quy Boe update um on March 11th that last bullet just to kind of let you know when one of the things that occurred when we were in Grand Rapids the AHA of wait a second if we're going to bring this online many of you heard that janean was a part of it from the beginning before even the sh first shovel went in the ground um for budgeting purposes for FY

14026 there would be a Personnel ad that will come on midye so I'm going to put the position in the budget for FY 26 but it would not come online until mid year meaning about January so that will be a budget that will be a Personnel um piece that will go in so I think along those lines then maybe what we could maybe helpful for the next board meeting is a little bit of a rough timeline of what you're what you're thinking um especially if you're talking about you know a budget budget adjustments or I think some there's some you know there's a number that's got thrown around in the community about how much this is going to cost it may be correct or incorrect or how and I think these you know at this

141stage of this is is going to be very rough it's going to change multiple times over um but I think even kind of what that rough timeline may be and that might be the only update that you may have and then that might help us figure out how often we have to have updates as a quarterly and then it may you know maybe you only need to come back in six months you know and then then the Cadence may change but if we kind of have a little bit of an idea as to maybe the Architects have to come back with you um maybe that will give us an idea as to how to plan that out definitely and and I'm not sure this can even be answered by next month but I mean so

142much has happened in the last month um affecting organizations and funding and employees so it's some point are we going to have to I know that we are also counting on um you know kind of support financially and do we need to revisit what that looks like in this changing world again I understand that as things are moving and changing every day and people don't even know how to respond on email whatever um some of that may not be possible but I just wonder if we do need to recognize these changing things if they're going to impact us at all I was also going to ask just to Pig it back on with board member Anderson her question about the third third third because we did have some conversation I think the first time it

143came up because I was trying to figure out the math if we could just have some clarification on what you just said the way you just clarified it for us in terms of that was you know however have you explained it but really we illustrative illustrative purpose to understand that we are going to be accessible to the community and very intentional in the way we actually bring our students in right because I think initially it was kind of fraed like the third will come from frasure a third will come from here from there and so so um just so to kind of clarify that for the community there guys all right thank you so much thank you and enjoy yes and than okay