September 12, 2023, Board of Education Meeting

001Texas five in quick review I did think that it would be interesting for us to have a public conversation about the specific five steps to get outlined because I think that's really the Crux of diseases that the book push forward as what uh sits within the purview of a board what should be modeled by the board and then um you know what we need to be doing in order to ensure our focus is on the kids as opposed to the adults who references this a couple of times to ensure that you have a student Focus a student-centric focus as opposed to an adult so um I'm actually going to assign people around the table to talk about each of the ones so James since you previously in my lap I appreciate it why don't you

002take step one away from us describe what the step is and then we should have a conversation about whether this resonates and what we can do to ensure that we're modeling now yeah absolutely um so I underlined right above the steps the engagement never-ending continuous improvement process so just above that step one because uh I've shared this before publicly and I sat next to jaina that day listening to um Miss Wilson talked about like parenting and just everything it's like we hear criticisms and we think that means we're bad we get praise we think that means we're good and the truth is that we are good we can be better and we should aim to be the best and step one here all that is to say is that Focus mindset adopting a way of

003viewing the world that inspires effective governance behavior um and then if I skip down to by definition if a school board is not engaged in continuous Improvement routines or spends its time blaming anyone for lower than promise student performance then the school board is not doing the work to focus mindset and so I like step one it was identifying what you want to focus on and that you need to improve as you focus on it and there was in the in the reading I think the statistic that he put out for the the goal that he put out was that 50 of our board meetings if 50 of the board meeting is not focused on student outcomes and priorities for what drives student outcomes then we're actually not doing the work of the board and

004so that resonated a lot that that focus is really critical I actually like to I'll read this little segment that says that uh school boards should lead from the stance that school this is the important one school systems only exist to improve student outcome and I think it's easy to get lost on that right like there's so much other stuff that we do up here but really the sole purpose of being here is to improve student outcomes we're not doing nothing that brings me back to you know going through the pandemic and you know the community expecting us to be epidemiologists and pediatricians and you know and there was so much expected of us that had nothing to do with student outcomes at all um and we went through about two years where it just

005was more about the administration and what was going on there and what was going on with the pandemic and so I appreciate that this this governance board as we've been set up now has really started to shift and making sure that student outcomes are the most important you know aspect of every conversation that we have is really hard to do that sometimes in the community or something is going on in the community or the world where our attention is continually shifted from student outcomes pretty great segue to the next step I said okay clarifying priorities and so um you know of course the first thing that came to my mind when I read that is our strategic plan but not just the Strategic plan I think that specifically this year we were doing or we're

006the goal is to do a much better job of always going back to the Strategic plan so it not being something that was worked on written and then we don't really see or hear about it until it's time to write another one I think you know with this Administration especially always going back to all means all all in Decatur and what does that look like and then everything that she's dealing with um her team and the executive team in the cabinets and the principal is all like connected back to that and it's a it's not just a practice or something that's just said uh you know in passing that we're actually seeing that that's where that's that's leading back to that so I think for me that's my the biggest outcome for me in that

007whole I mean the paragraph is good but I just kept going back to the Strategic plan and just making sure that if we ever have a question about should we go in a direction or what do we think about this or should we be doing that that we always go back to the Strategic plan and say okay does it fit with the priorities that we've set forth in the next five years and if it's going to shift and we have to have a really good reason for it to ship um I feel like in this section was the first time [Music] this goals and guardrails yeah and so I'm anxious to learn more about that um I had totally cheated in redhead okay yeah yeah so um so yeah what I liked about those goals

008is starting from the smart goals and then all the way through the guard rails um that really it helps us Focus provides Clarity on what we're trying to do but I think it also I mean it's the foundation of how we hold the superintendent accountable right that becomes the basis for what we're looking at as we you know review your performance and that so that is I think also really really helpful in terms of uh taking the arbitrariness out of it and ensuring everything is aligned to that that plan before and even take it a step further that's also a way that we can communicate with the community about something as well we always go back to the Strategic plan as our answer to why they may not be getting something that they want in

009the in the way that they want it if we stick by the Strategic plan which was which involved which had you know a plethora of involvement from the community and that we all agreed upon so I think that that we can take kind of the personal part out of it or our personal feelings out of it and say the reason why we're sticking with this plan and the way that it's going is because it's in our strategic plan that's the only answer I can give you you know I'm sorry you're not happy with it but that's you know we've all agreed that we're following Mr Pizza our representative from the West we want to take the monitoring part to scratch that so step three talks about monitoring progress and the thing I liked about this

010was a specify your cash calendar which I think um Dr Whitaker has already started to put in place where she kind of uh tells us board cadences and when we can expect on periodic updates which I think is also helpful for the community but this author said specifically that helps the superintendent uh communicate to the communities when goals are in place and how those goals are to be monitored and when they can expect updates which also helps clarify expectations so I think that's where um I think in the past maybe we've had some room to grow is that we put goals out there but we haven't taken the extra step where community members teachers other cabinet members have known when they're to be assessed and when that monitoring is to take place and when those

011goals are to be published so having a very organized calendar so those goals are published and clear and what expectations are that are in alignment with the Strategic plan but also in alignment with student outcomes so that has to also be the books we can't keep Shifting the goals based on whatever um new sort of priority begins they're constantly going to be getting new priorities from the community from parents from you know other stakeholders but if you have that multi-year calendar that's set at the beginning with what our priorities are at the beginning we can just keep referencing that to go back to keep ourselves kind of grounded and if it's color-coded that would also be great and it will be color-coded the uh I mean it's a virtuous cycle right if you're if you're

012being a if if you're able to see more quickly when things aren't working to be able to adjust more quickly be able to see what other things need to be adjusted right I mean that's the purpose of it being a living document um uh and uh in in the spirit of having the kind of data systems necessary to track and manage uh all of that uh Dana do you want to take us uh on the online resources for making sure that our priorities and you know this section also made me think about our strategic plan because you know that will stick to our goodness to dictate how we use our resources and so um I I felt in reading this this is first section it Affirmed kind of the path that we are on having

013this new strategic plan and getting community in but I feel like we are trying to do each of these steps and so that was affirming for me um and you know this uh you trying to do breakfast this early when they said we need to redesign our make sure that our meeting was within at least 50 50 of our time management progress towards the goals and if the school board using any criteria other than goals and guard rails to determine adoption of budget policy superintendent evaluation nearly everything else that it vote on then the school board is not doing the work to learn resources so if we're doing anything outside those things we really wasting Focus time and resources and so um the profound yes definitely and it's not it's not I didn't read that

014as limiting I read that as Focus yes I mean there's a difference right and I think that was really an important uh important Point yeah awesome too um Dr Whitaker do you want [Music] yes I think um step five talks about communicating the results of all the work that we have been doing and when you have a communication it is to be two-way so oftentimes we are discussing and we are delivering information but we aren't necessarily receiving that information or receiving feedback from the community on its implementation and so this book actually begs us to do that to have forums of two-way communication and tonight is our first Venture into that uh obviously grading has provided us a catalyst to have that conversation but great on their behalf really says that if our vision and

015our values are to be communicated to the public we should receive feedback from the community on the way in which we they are receiving it and as we are doing that then we can see that we're moving forward for student achievement on behalf of students within those goals and within the guardrails of the Strategic plan so I'm excited about tonight uh I think that it will be our first foray but it will not be our last as it is the launch of a series of community meetings and opportunities for us as a governance team to inter interact with the community in a different way I mean I couldn't agree with him I'm super excited about tonight I think uh it aligns with my previous experience in the public sector and I know that uh board

016meetings have have pretty strict structures uh and there are norms and protocols associated with that that I I to be honest have not ever been comfortable in my time on the board that didn't have a way to just talk to people in the community as a body and so I'm super excited about it tonight I do want to just you know say it can get uncomfortable right and I think if we're always comfortable in front of the crowd then maybe we're not asking hard enough questions um if it's okay to it's okay to be uncomfortable um and so I kind of closing these these parts out I do want to just highlight in that last paragraph where it says you know this is a basic continuous Improvement cycle to James's comments uh but in here

017I'm going to quote very specifically but basic is not synonymous with effortless and so this is going to be it's going to be a lesson all right and I think we appreciate that we've got the support of of cabinet and the leadership here uh we're going to need to hear from the community they're a part of this as well uh and uh I just look forward to digging further into this book and implementing more of what we're uh more of what we're taking care thank you yeah well thank you foreign look forward to chapter one next month seeing if you can do better you'll all be graded [Laughter] um so much chair Herndon good evening and today we will have one presentation and that is a policy audit update by Amanda Lynch who is our

018chief of staff the presentation will also be followed by discussion of policies also facilitated by this election good afternoon prayer Sultan the student members of the board and superintendent Dr Dima Whitaker last month I presented with you the process we will use to identify our policy priorities for this year the end of August meeting I informed you that our next steps would be would be to begin our policy audit process today I'm happy to provide you with an update of the progress that we have missed as a reminder our policy review process included three steps audits prioritize and then to calendar and implement feedback Cycles are included throughout each of these steps as we begin our policy review process we recognize the need for a small update to our policy development models rather than each

019step occurring sequentially there will be some fluid movement between each of the during our audit we identified several policies as priorities some of these policies are ones that you'll hear about in this pre-work session today we recognize that our policy cycle of auditing prioritizing and calendaring will continue especially as we gain feedback from our various stakeholders we started with step one in our policy process which was too audit we identified 79 policies we have in place all of these active policies were adopted by the four during the 2022-2023 school year we also have three policies currently interact as part of the audit step we also benchmarked our policies against other districts these districts included DeKalb County Fulton County Henry County Lee County and Marietta City schools we also engaged in consultation with the Georgia School

020Board Association or gsea and the legal we leverage them to provide Clarity around required policies and existing policies after the initial auditing process we began working to prioritize the policies for development we use the results from the benchmarking against other districts identifying policies in most of the comparison districts have in place that we did not we also consider the priority criteria that was shared with those last month with the board these criteria included fiscal impact direct student impacts legal implications and reputational risk staff also informed the policy priorities prioritization process by identifying policies that were needed to support their daily operations finally feedback from the superintendent's Gathering phase including the stakeholders listening session was considered as well through the audit prioritization and feedback that's just described we identified as the first policies for action first

021our audit revealed the discrepancy around our existing policy for gagc employee ethics the language that was adopted as gagc is actually titled as policy gaea staff protection so these two policies will be brought to the board after this during the pre-work session today for discussion second policy BAC Equity existed in draft form from last year BAC is also on today's pre-work sessions for discussion next are audit review that we do not currently have policy km visitors to schools in place based on the need for school safety feedback we have heard in the superintendent listening sessions and staff feedback we are in the beginning stages of drafting this policy and plan to bring it to board pre-work in October finally our audit revealed that we do not currently have a policy adopted around grading we recognize

022a grading policy has a direct student impact we've also heard from staff and community members confusion around our current grading practices therefore we recognize that it is vital to Begin work on policy Iha grading systems we recognize that this policy will require meaningful opportunities for various stakeholders students staff and parents to provide feedback as you are aware a community meeting will be held later tonight seven o'clock at Decatur High School with a focus on our current grading practices so for the challenging step of policy development we are tentatively anticipating that because the Iha grading systems will be presented as pre-work in October and November I will share more about the proposed timeline for policy Iha specifically in a subsequent side so in addition to the policies highlighted on the previous slide we've also begun to

023calendar policies that we will bring to the board for pre-work during the first semester here as I mentioned you see two versions of Iha grading systems as pre-work in October and November as mentioned on the previous slide but for the month of October you will see policies djd which is expense reimbursement of course Iha which I've already mentioned hey B ikb I'm sorry controversial issues and K and visitors to school bjd expense reimbursements was identified by staff as a district meet meeting the priority criteria we had established ikb controversial issues is currently in draft form from the previous school year so we'll be able to bring it to pre-work in October am as I mentioned visitors to school was identified as a meeting policy and it's expected that address will be ready for pre-work for

024the October 14th for the month of November in addition to revisiting the draft of Iha grading systems several D policies have been identified D policies address fiscal management DC's annual operating budget div Financial reports and DK Student Activities funds management are all policies present in at least four of the five districts we use for benchmarking therefore we believe it is important to examine these policies closely and determine if these policies are needed here in our district we will also continue to work with staff and consider feedback to identify if there are any other fiscal management policies that will be calendared for this semester now for the month of December you have identified G policies for free work D policies address personnel policy gbka professional Personnel layoff was identified because again four of the five Benchmark

025districts have this policy in place and we did not we will continue to work with our staff consider the priority criteria and listen to feedback to identify the additional or any additional G policies that can be brought to the board in December for framework please do note that this calendar May Be subject to change as a result of ongoing feedback and any gaps that might be identified through daily operations finally I'd like to dive a little more deeply into how we have envisioned the timeline for developing policy Iha grading system for the remainder of September and early October we will get survey data from students staff and families on this is what we're going to do tonight as well an initial draft of a policy will be presented during the pre-work session of the October

026Board of Education meeting then continue to consider feedback leveraging the superintendent's councils the sclt PTA student teacher councils that she holds the provides draft version of policy Iha will be presented during the Board of Education pre-work session in November the date for the first read of policy Iha is currently to be determined as it is contingent upon the previous steps that subscribe subscribe please note the timeline for policy Iha will be shared again during the grading guidance presentation scheduled for tonight's work session this presentation will review current grading practices additionally during this forthcoming presentation specific considerations around policy development for Iha will also be shared so that concludes tonight's update on the policy development process you have any questions um just the clarity and I know that we're getting ready to talk about this in

027a minute but the fast protection is that just a recapitalization of The Whistleblower policy that we had or is this yeah so it was adopted as gagc but it's really a gaea policy it even said it so we can basically took it as is and moved it over to gaea whereas and then the annual operating budget policies are those could we just get examples of those to review if that's okay I'm sure I'm curious what they're calling for at a policy level yeah okay so I will be happy to pull those up those systems so move on to them did you ever nope okay all right so I think I'm still I'm obviously talk about policies specifically yes um so me again um today we have three policies that are going to be presented during

028this pre-work session for any discussion that you'd like to have so I'd like to begin with again a little bit of that Clarity that you just kind of spoke about around policy gagc which is employee ethics or should be employee ethics and policy gaea which is Staff protection um the current policy the board has adopted as gagc is actually titled in the body of it as gaea and it says whistleblower at the top we remove that and left the language in the draft form but it is otherwise as is it just is it is what you adopted as gagc we can adopt it as is just under the correct code which would be gaea staff protection so it's currently sitting out there in that draft form but the language has not changed at all from

029what was accepted as gagc essentially it was just adopted under the wrong code but it is still going to say whistleblower or we're not going to have whistles we could at the very very top it said the word whistleblower part of it but it's in staff protection if you read further through it it talks about broad waste abuse and all that so the redraft version had whistleblower deleted the reason why I ask and the reason why I think whistleblower needs to stay in it is because nobody is going to know to look for gabc I mean letters wrong yeah nobody's going to know to look for that and I wouldn't necessarily know to look for something called staff protection but I would know to look for something called a whistleblower policy and so I do

030think if I'm searching for that that term has to be able to be pulled out okay so the the name and the code is above us like that's kind of what it's called but it does say under the purpose it still says The Whistleblower policy encourages and simply does have a great search feature where literally if you type in whistleblower any word it will pull up all of the the ones that hit that I would still love to have it at the top no I mean I understand not at the very very top about where it is and what I'm seeing in this draft where it says under like right above the purpose not in the past okay does that make sense in my um 15 of the um the full packet and I do

031have some extra copies if you want me to close them so it's not going to be called employee ethics anymore it's going to be called so that's going to be a different one so yes this one that was called employee ethics is really stacked for so we'll get will we be able to say staff protection so the Nate the codes come from gsbase is called staff protection but if I'm understanding correctly the hack on the table is at the top to also above purpose to put whistleblower policy and then go into the remaining language Yeah so basically it will stay like where it is right now with whistleblower and we'll just take out employee ethics and add water support staff protection I think I've captured that I will make sure that I send it you

032guys the revised version the red line version we have to keep staff protection yes right that's Universal right exactly so if we just keep whistleblower policy there underneath meeting I'm fine with that yeah how is it working in other districts um I would have to look I did speak with both gsba and their legal team as well as our legal team around this um and and they didn't specifically say like whistleblower um on there necessarily so most most districts utilize Beyond simply the term of whistleblower because you're including in fraud waste and abuse and so that's why it has the overarching term of um of Staff protection because it's basically for anything that's encompassing in that I feel like I remember from these conversations when this was being drafted that there were only a couple

033of other districts that actually had a whistleblower specific component of it which we explicitly wanted okay um and so I'm totally fine obviously with it being a staff protection because I get that it is more than just whistleblower but I just said that that is an easily searchable clearly identifiable term in the document for whoever might need it it's not like it's very next one I think it should if if it's if it's staff protection that's what it should be called um because it does sound like it encompasses other things and if that's what gsba told us I think it's I mean it sounds like it encompasses like she said throughout voice and abuse otherwise if I was looking for the fraud portion I might also be misled you know I might be looking for

034that portion and then not realizing that it was actually encompassed in that particular policy so I think if if it's bad protection and that's the way that is characterized um across other districts that's what GSB as I would leave it like that and you would you would prefer to take this out if this is going to be staff projections right because I think that's a subcategory of the broader umbrella because it's whistleblower fraud fraud it's wages abuse it's all of those things so my pushback there is that what motivated us to put this policy in place was specifically so that teachers knew that they had whistleblower Protections in this District which is different from a number of other districts and I think that if that if we bury the lead on that you know I

035get that people can search but if they don't see title policies where there's that word whistleblower policy then it gets missed I get that there's other things I mean I would be fine saying whistle below our policy and fraud blah blah blah blah but I think it's important to have whistleblower but it is it's right there at the top I mean like right under staff protection the first subheadings Oh I thought you were suggesting that we paid that out no no I'm fine with it if it stays there above purpose I'm fine with it I thought you were suggesting anything all right so my understanding is that I'm gonna we're gonna make sure the work with the lower policy appears above the purpose that will look other than the gaea like it was that this

036board adopted not too long ago anyway just reclasses we'll be able to then look at them under the under um gaea underwrite code all right fantastic I believe in Dr Whitaker this King goes into first read for the October board meeting perfect um and then the next step is under gagc so that's the one where we have this mislabeled so it did work and look at some surrounding districts as well so under gagc that would leave us without a policy so would the policy kind of propose there gagc again is employee ethics again consulted with gfda and legal um the draft proposal that you have is simple it just literally is a sentence that says that all school system employees will comply with laws statutes foreign policies administrative procedures and the standards of the code

037of ethics as provided by the Georgia Professional thinkers Commission so thoughts about um uh or thoughts about that or discussion about that as gagc stress not much room yeah all right excellence and we will move that to first read for October as well right and then finally we have policy DAC which is equity um presenting for discussion tonight as you are aware this policy has been in draft form since last school year a previous version has been open for public comments tonight the redlined version of the policy is open for discussion so of course we can have any discussion and then we can decide if we would be ready to open it for public comment and add it to be to the October calendar for first read psychologist can I get a red line copy

038of it I don't I just have the non-red lines was this version with the edits and what I can see viewable by for the public yeah public side okay yeah yeah okay and the context for some of these changes if we're if we're going to be talking publicly about it the context of some of these changes keep me honest here Dr Whitaker and everyone's um is that we need to be able to comport to state law without paying a Target on ourselves but we also have to be able to reflect the values and wishes of the community which are very clear on this particular topic and um the one thing that is not at all controversial even in the case of the state law is that all shelter in the classroom need to be treated

039fairly equitably and be provided the same resources and capable education and so that actually is where the rubber me to the road on this policy is in the classroom we'll be looking at differential outcomes we will be executing against differential outcomes and we will be closing those gaps that we have so consistently seen in our day yes it's that's exactly what that means uh board members when you think about what we just read with um great on their behalf understanding that we will be able to not only look at our budget and our resources that we align but also ultimately the that it is not as far as race ethnicity or any other indicator would be the reason why or would be that reason why the student does or does not succeed and so if

040we believe that all children in our district should be seen safe and successful we are providing equity to do so you know I feel confident about the changes because I know that um our Council has been engaged in this and um I forget good about us having Equity policy but with you know recent laws um within the state that we are complying with that and so I'm good having an equity policy even with the exchanges um and the community it still communicates our commitment um to equity to the community I think that's an important point I think that a lot of people watch the policy go up and they come down and they go up again and they watch some of these red line changes it's not it's not a reflection on our commitment to

041the core values it is to make sure that we're in compliance with us I think we really as good about it as you eat some of it has to do with the language of it so that we can um so that we can be um in compliance with the state but um it's not because we had put it on the back burner that we weren't committed or that we had decided that it wasn't important because I think that there were some concerns that it had gone up and come down and we could prioritize some other things but that was not the core issue it was more or less that we had to make sure that we were able to put something out there that we could sustain and very specifically how do we be as

042aggressive as we possibly can through our policy on this particular point but without bringing the state into the into the right because I mean if anything if it was a commitment it's a demonstration of our commitment to this that it took us as long as it did to actually get it right so that we can be comfortable all right so it sounds like we will add this as a first read in October yeah yeah and I think that you know I would like to come in Dr Huddleston Dr Banks for all the work that they put into it in the beginning um you know it's what three two pages but I know a lot of time ever went into this and then then we have these changes that are beyond that control and and so

043um but I appreciate their commitment to in this policy okay so the thing that we of all as five members of board been universally in agreement out is we want to communicate to the staff and the community the teaching and I I it's one of these in the a through J it's like we will do all we can for an equitable system that eliminates disparities where they are identified and that has been and will continue to be our priority and that's what we want when we open it up Community that's I mean that's what we're trying to do and teachers know because we we get that all the time like is a tough time to be a teacher trying to teach the reality of the world which should just be what teaching is um so

044I'm sure I stole it from one of you let's take the policy back down and add that language [Music] exactly speak to some of the things that we know we must do now in the state of Georgia based upon law and we are going to be compliant but at the same time ensure that we do have Equity whereas these schools of Decatur all truly involved all right thank you thank you thank you very much I'm getting there that's it we're done with the pre-work session we can take uh you know a nine minute break we'll begin the work session presentations at five that makes sense we are adjourned from the pre-work session all right call the order though five o'clock work session thank you for joining us today for this monthly work session uh I

045know this is the second time we've kind of combined the work session in the board meeting and our new board meetings uh Cadence an example of how we create a more effective and efficient organization uh through the implementation of our strategic plan all indicator during our first board retreat on August 17th we discussed the board and superintendent norms and working agreements Dr Whitaker do you have any comments yes thank you chair Herndon uh the superintendent norms and working agreement speak to how we as a team will operate the Board of Education and the superintendent we really form a governance leadership team for the local school system and act in a manner that focuses on student achievement so in the document and you are he highlights a few things one the governance team roles and responsibilities

046it details how I will communicate with board members and provide information to you all also it specifies constituent concerns and how they are handled it illuminates how the board interacts with me as well as how they interact and then finally when we think about how they how you all have a role in the community as many of you are also current CSD parents it communicates how the leadership team plans and how we conduct our formal meetings and finally it speaks to the superintendent evaluation process so chair Herndon do board members have any comments regarding the communication norms and the working agreement any comments concerns okay third Whitaker to share uh yeah under the constituent requests and issues I did there was I guess maybe just a quick discussion on the boundaries of that right so

047I think we wrote this for when people have kind of structured or formal requests that might come to one of us or all of us there's this clear process in place but you know like if my wife asks me a question about like I'm not going to refer her I'm just going to answer the question practically speaking and so she's been calling me regularly related questions [Laughter] thank you you know friends or Community conversations that you have before it's just a very simple piece that you know that I just is there how are we as a body thinking about where those lines are well I think you can obviously but it's clear is when an email comes in and there's a request for some specific thing like that's very straightforward yes uh it can be

048something as little as I want to know why we don't have um hot dogs on certain days where it could sue some they may Wonder uh is that really a true constituent concern well if it is something that a family is concerned about giving us giving me the opportunity to address it so that I can really begin to see if certain things have a trend or a pattern of concern so certain things if you can just answer off the top of your head you know feel free to to do so but if you are finding that this is something that is reoccurring and I need to address it I need to make sure staff is aware then give us the opportunity to do so and I mean that makes complete sense I think it's more

049the low lying thing you know when did the budget get adopted well we know the date today I don't know that that needs to get run back through you or the whole process and so there are I think that makes sense because it's a very simple just sort of straightforward fact that isn't really impacting policy or anything like that that's straightforward to answer if there is something that is potentially yes or if there is something that might actually refer to a policy that needs to be built out obviously that is that's okay um just a question um what should the what should parents and community members expect as far as communication from us or you to them because we often get emails that our day-to-day matters that come to us or problems that have escalated

050from the community they've lost their proper channels and they feel like those problems come to the board and really their day-to-day matters so they're outside of our purview so when we get those emails it says clearly here that if it comes to one of us then we forward it along to everybody in the on the board including the superintendent what should the community expect in terms of who their response will come from does it always come from you because you're you don't you have you you have uh you have a lot on your plate on it on a daily basis that come from you to the company communication as well as what should community members expect in terms of turnaround time because often what we see is emails get kind of lost and it's probably

051considered doing other things and they feel like they're being as heard so what should those expectations so great question Vice chair Sultan one um when a Community member anyone emails me I will reply back to them letting them know that I'm probably looking into the matter now they may not receive a formal response from me but it may be a member of cabinets so say for example there is a question around something to do with math assessment and so math assessment is something that we do here in our school district but the window hasn't closed yet so I really can't answer the question yet or staff can't answer the question but what they should know is within 48 hours they would be able to hear um here's the answer or I still need to explore

052and that answer may or may not come from me and that is the critical piece to know that we do have staff that handles various matters and that if it is something that could be something from a teaching and learning standpoint it may come from this Burton if it's something that a student services standpoint it could come from Dr Huddleston or various members Alpha and we'll let you asking no where's the line and this is constituent request of issues so I think that that's much different from what time you know being started so you know a request I think definitely have any kind of requests right definitely has to go through go to the superintendent um and any concerns because they're really no concerns that we can really address concerns clearly I just there's sometimes

053a request for information like legitimately what date are you voting on the budget is a request for information I just I think that there are there's a there is a baseline threshold that I think we should be aware of like level of importance or digging for the answer or something that might have an impact on operations or future policy all of that obviously needs to be brought up because it feels like to me if we have to ask someone else for the information if that's something that needs to be forwarded 100 if we don't if we don't have that answer there I think the reality of it is a lot of the times when we get involved in emails it's because parents feel like they've had to escalate to the level of the board and

054a lot of the time it is day-to-day operations or if students constituent services and I I think most of the time the superintendent has most of the times I think that's an important point for parents and community members to understand is that a when you're emailing the board you're emailing all five of us if it's a day-to-day matter most of the time we're going to have to forward it onto this to the superintendent and I mean I've had I I mean I've had to be clear with community members I've had texts come across that I'm like this has to be like this needs to be an email you need to copy of the superintendent like this is not something I can directly answer but even if it did happen to know the answer that would

055be something that has to go um and thank you for the doing the email the emails yeah um in regards to constituent Services I know uh again this is previous uh life but I know that the role of constituent Services was um not not necessarily to answer the questions or the things that came in uh but the certainly quarterback so that at least it was going to the right people and it was being rounded up back to the uh back to the the parents if that all been fully put in place or is that we're in the process of that well we are in the process of that um there are a couple of things I would love to see from a technology standpoint to help us quarterback some of that information um there are

056systems that help with that and so we are exploring all of those so I expect to have a full plan for you um as I explain in the end of my 90 days to say when that will be up and ready but I do believe that a constituent Services is part of the role of the office of the superintendent and that quarterbacking is critical so that we know that concerns that are coming from our constituents are being closed and closed in a timely manner yeah and that I mean that'll take a lot of these email pressures that's right at some point ultimately what happened yeah to the point where they trust that if they send it to constituent Services they're going to get a prompt comprehensive answer back and they don't have to ask them

057so that looking forward to that conversation so am I it will help flipping though all right so at the end of this document the hard copy board we do have a place for us to sign and we will have one specific copy and we will be able to sign that um you know at the end of our meeting but yes so that concludes that conversation thank you thank you and uh thank you all for the comments next month we will take our annual self-assessment during this time uh so yeah yeah with any presentations for the word session yes chair Herndon first I would like the colony associate superintendent of equity and student services for an update on Senate Bill 1084 in the toolkit so Dr Lilly Huddleston good afternoon chair Herndon Vice chair salesman the

058same board members and superintendents doctors this afternoon I'll provide you with an overview of the best practices toolkit for House Bill 1084 in April 2022 House Bill 1084 the protects students First Act was passed into law the law requires school boards to and superintendents to prohibit discrimination based on breaks and mandates that school curricula and training programs avoid promoting or encouraging divisive Concepts as specified by the look the law also applies to educator preparation programs and creates oversight of High School athletics that could limit the participation of transgender students in athletic programs in addition the law requires a complaint resolution policy to address alleged violations of the provisions including a process for submitting and reviewing complaints and the right to appeal decisions this toolkit was originally prepared by the Versa impact group with input from

059Metro Atlanta Equity check and it was adapted by the equity Department to ensure alignment with our strategic accelerators building and sustaining and engaging and inclusive culture cultivating and retaining quality professionals and ultimately Student Success in all areas the toolkit explains divisive Concepts highlights family members and Care takers rights and offer support for teachers to continue to engage with all students in ways that allow them to be safe seen and successful the law does not prohibit the teaching of Concepts such as tolerance mutual respect cultural sensitivity or cultural competency provided Educators do not espouse or Advocate or divisive Concepts however the law May limit the Critical examination of ongoing systemic challenges facing our country this slide outlines some of those potential challenges that may impact students teachers and administrators without careful planning and consideration these include

060less exposure to content related to race gender and excess parameters and increase accountability for classroom content and more administrative duties related to responding to complaints related to SCT the toolkit outlines strategies and practices for teachers to continue to provide a rigorous culturally responsive education while following along first it's important to make sure that all Educators familiarize themselves we'll get clearly highlights what the law does and does not require to ensure that teachers can plan lessons effectively another strategy is to focus on best practices CSD that includes the focus on the Georgia standards of excellence as well as a focus on csc's culturally responsive due for mindset we also recommend that teachers are aware of their own biases and beliefs to ensure that their facilitating class discussions in an objective manner features can be more confident

061that instructional materials do not violate the list of concepts by proactively developing lesson plans and syllabi that are reviewed by grades and content level chairs and administrators prior to delivering lessons it is important to continue to expose students to diverse content but teachers should be thoughtful and strategic in their approach to teaching instructional material the toolkit includes scenarios that teachers might experience in the classroom along with potential ways to address them while following the tenants outline and work it's also important to build positive relationships within the classroom as well as within the community to ensure lessons that are inclusive and reflective of the families and students we serve we recommend that teachers focus on student-centered techniques such as the use of Socratic Socratic questioning and avoiding the use of I statements when covering sensitive topics

062slide outlines our training time started by presenting the toolkit to you today later this week we will train District leaders followed by workshops with assistant principles and instructional coaches features will have access to the toolkit and a training video from the equity Department all teaching staff will review this information by October 2nd and they'll have ongoing support from their school leaders and from the assist Department proactive communication plays a vital role in addressing concerns in a timely and effective manner it's important that all schools stakeholders understand the law and their responsibilities related to adhering to it and responding to complaints CSD has developed a detailed response process displayed in this infographic all Administration will be trained on this process as well as their roles and responsibilities related to addressing complaints we also have developed communication

063templates to promote clear and transparent communication regarding concerns and complaints we've also we also have planned to debrief any complaints to continuously improve our processes as prevention strategy is there any questions um yeah a couple things came to mind as we're thinking through it um there are I could be wrong about this but it would seem self-evident to me that certain classes or class topics are going to be more fraught than others have we have we really kind of prioritized which teachers English topics those are and focus our efforts in a sort of both at the beginning and then throughout on helping the teachers that are kind of in the crosshairs I I mean I it doesn't feel to me and I could be wrong but it doesn't feel to me like a elementary math

064class is probably at that risk as a like a critical thinking class in an event High School level right and so are we kind of Distributing the the resources in a way to kind of reflect that difference the first step is to make sure that all teachers have that foundational information about the law and understand the parameters because in any course um topics can be brought by students you know uh current events and things of that nature regardless of the content area of potential for class I think that as we move into the higher grades we work very closely with teaching and learning and they have mechanisms to be able to review these plans and things of that nature to be able to support teachers as they're moving forward with their lesson okay and then

065the last thing that I was thinking is is you know a lot of the I mean but at least what I'm hearing some of the angst with the teachers is you know a real fear of of being caught out on this and and being caught out and I know putting the training in place and all of that is very helpful um what what else do we do or even can we do or would you like us to do to help communicate the teachers that we really do have their back home submit and then it's extremely important to us that they continue to do the excellent work that they do and we are not going to leave them out to dry um if something comes along I think the conversation that you are having earlier um

066about the equity policy is very helpful because that allows teachers to understand that you are committed that commitment remains even though we have certain constraints so I think continuing to share that message is so important um because there is a lot we want to make sure that teachers have an opportunity to practice through some of the scenarios that will come up it's impossible for us to know everything that will possibly come up but knowing that the school board supports them in doing this work I think that will go along thank you this may be a hard question to answer but what are some of the things that we're preparing for That Could That Could Happen what do what types of things have we put in place um you know if a complaint comes for example

067so one of the really good Advocate is that there are some templates for communication because a lot of times when these things happen we want to be ready to promptly make sure that people understand the policy for complaints and who actually is addressing so if it comes up that a parent reaches out to a teacher about a concerns the teacher will know who's in the building is responsible or responding and then we can sort of remove that that pressure from the teachers because they'll be people who are going to handle to handle the first level of response and then carry out that thank you I don't know go ahead will this toolkit developed by us or would this come from guidance from the state or is it something that we adopted and ultimately who was

068going to be leading these kind of workshops and guidance namely for like the instructional coaches in the department leads and that sort of thing um kind of looking at like the pathway for the complaints um was that something that we created or did this come from the state so it's a combination from the Versa group the Versa impact group created this and this is work that's been happening since last year when I first came into you know sort of our Consciousness um a lot of the metro area Chiefs and we got together and they were working with this company to to prepare because we already knew that teachers would need some information about how to navigate and incorporate this new information so that we we got a basis from that group but then um Dr

069Banks and our Equity team our small and mighty team really took some time to take that information and then make sure it was reflective like the work we've done here because we have already you know worked on cultural response education we put a lot of things into anything we wanted to make sure that the toolkit still encourages our staff members to continue to do work that allows them to really have that critical inquiry around you know uh history and things of that future that we don't see well that's the combination then as far as the training I want to get an FDR team working with these differences so we'll be uh training all of the internal staff and then the video aspect is just to make sure that on demand because we're going to need

070to hear this this is new so there will be internal training I don't have questions I was just trying to think about how you know to articulate how I'm feeling without saying anything that would be against the law but it's just heartbreaking to know that teachers are fearful of teaching the truth and I just hate that my comrades you know I co-taught eighth grade um eighth grade social studies or Humanities and when you get to no Georgia history and you know it's just such a I mean this this will fall right into you know in like to any subject it can happen in fifth grade math or the math question that's inappropriate about you know you see that we see those stories on the news all the time and um but that you know those

071history those classes you know I think could potentially make the future feel more vulnerable and um and even as a board you know we I think we communicate to the community because this is important to us but but we are limited by the law I think you know to how much we can allow and so um so it's just it's challenging but um you know I think the school kid is helpful it's templates are helpful hopefully you know there'll be some changes the same conversation about the um policy it's not reflective of um of how we feel about the police it is very challenging make sure that we're in compliance with the law and maintaining our own maintaining submission and values I do I I think we're all sort of heartbroken for the teachers if

072they feel like they can't like that we have to go through a process of what we said I think that the laws directly conflicts what we view as our values around teaching the truth and and educating children appropriately for the modern world and while we're going to have to comport to the law what we will do is ensure that we provide the resources necessary so the teachers are fully aware and we will do everything we possibly can do to make sure that our teachers know we have their back to the actual extent of the law and we will provide everything that they can possibly need in order for themselves to be comfortable and also apply I I really I mean it says it right there continue to facilitate effective classroom conversations teachers should do that

073period end of the day I mean there's some other stuff in there like make sure your student's feeling comfortable have effective conversations and I hope every teacher gets a copy of this like how to respond complaint plan because it's great it's good it's like don't respond to an email immediately even though you may want to identify other people in your building if you are a teacher who's feeling stressed about this stuff yeah who in the building do I contact first and foremost to help me handle this as a teacher those three things be effective teach your subject make sure students are comfortable that's three there and then you should be fine you're fine you're good [Laughter] I know Dr Whitaker we have another presentation the community's probably anticipating yes yes chair behind in the community

074is eagerly anticipating our next presentation and I would like to call on Mrs Karen Newton Scott our chief performance officer and Miss Amanda Mrs Amanda Lynch who is our chief of staff for an update on standard-based grading and assessment we good afternoon good evening [Music] and good evenings Lord chair Herndon Vice chair Dr Hilton esteemed members of the board and superintendent doctors grading continues to be an opportunity for improved many cities facilitated today I'm here to provide a brief historical overview of grading in CSD be telling some changes and challenges state and future needs furthermore I will outline the specific interim revisions and changes for this current academic semester as well as policy development needs to fully achieve our goals of clarity and guidance to teachers transparency and practices for families and equity and Grading

075for our students and 20 no in 2009 a decision was made to transition our K-5 schools from traditional zero to 100 grading to standard-based grading in effort to align practices with substance and in the nation with the passing of No Child Left Behind for elementary schools the grading scale changed to one to four and standards-based report cards were developed in 2012 changes also occurred in grading in a similar way for both middle and high school both transition to criterion-based grading aligns with the assessment criteria prescribed in the IB Middle years and diploma programs which is at the middle and high school were directed to evaluate and Report students Performance Based on ID criteria rather than providing explicit reporting on students Mastery of state standards which shift and Grading methodology was outlined in the 2013 system

076Charter contract renewal and approved for the entire 10-year duration of the contract which concluded at the end of last school year in the 2021-22 school year a grading task force was convened to critically review these graded practices with a focus on episode the team was charged with conducting comprehensive Research into Equitable grading practices and presenting recommendations for improvement a portion of these recommendations were put into action for the 2022-23 school year While others are designated for implementation and following school years I'd like to Spotlight four of the task force recommendations that were partially implemented and they specifically align to the changes that we are setting forth for the current school year first CSD should have a consistent grading system and platform across great bands that is transparent and easy for students and parents to access

077and understand CSD should no longer use manage back for General grade reporting and Reporting operating should be related to the Mastery of content standards and we should have clear policies boundaries and parameters parameters around makeups retakes including a last possible date to submit late work how long the student has to complete a retake and how many times a student can restate an assessment a significant challenge encountered with management was the absence of state core standards and a valuable calculation method that could be consistently applied across both middle and high school unfortunately these challenges were not fully resolved during the transition to the use of Infinite Campus for the 22-20 school year specifically Decatur High School did not have court standards entered into Infinite Campus and neither school had a suitable method for calculating grades you

078could probably recall the conversation about mode at the middle school last year therefore in the spring our school teams met to explore available calculation methods within Infinite Campus a primary goal was to establish a uniform approach to Great reporting across grade 6-12 after extensive discussions we arrived at consensus it was decided that both middle and high school would use averaging to determine course grades furthermore we achieved a successful upload of state approved or standards for 9 through 12 grades into Infinite Campus this reinforced our move towards clear alignment with State requirements particularly in terms of facing promotions and the awarding of course credits on the concepts and skills outlined in the state about the curriculum in continuing the transition to Infinite Campus as our one platform for grading although the task force did not explicitly

079mention the GPA scale and the recommendations it is a chance to peeling back the layers of an onion as we delve deeper another awareness emerged in the first two columns on this chart you will find the one to seven scale and the corresponding numerical equivalents that have traditionally been utilized at Decatur High School the notable distinction between the previous life and the modification of the 4.0 scale specifically in relation to mastering all Mastery of all general education coursework previously students were awarded up to a 4.25 for General coursework CSD cannot score higher than a 4.0 for General level coursework because the extra points should reflect that students have successfully completed advanced level coursework however for more advanced coursework such as ID AP and dual enrollment courses the scale will extend to a maximum of 5.0

080this reinforces the practice of reserving gpas above a 4.0 exclusively for coursework syllabi and curricula assessed to meet advanced level criteria it is crucial to note that these changes do not retroactively alter any previously established bpas any GPA earned by students at Decatur High School during the Spring of last year will serve as their starting point for this school year I'd like to reiterate that the guidelines for retakes have remained consistent this approach has been used by Decatur High School in previous years and will be maintained throughout the current school year while there were suggestions to amend these guidelines in the initial draft presented to Decatur High it is important to note that these drafts were intended for discussion and consideration unfortunately once the drafts were in circulation they were interpreted as official policy what

081we have here on the screen in the four bullet points our guidance for teachers around retakes additionally for consistency elementary through High School are now reporting out on a semester cycle this means every child enrolled in K-12 will receive two progress reports the school year and two report cards progress reports will be available mid-semester as shown in blue and report cards at the end of each semester and red we also have standardized the format of all report cards K-12 so that parents don't have to acclimate to different formatting in response to questions raised both within the community and during Decatur High School curriculum night we have developed a frequently asked questions document ratings information also existed in different places and with inconsistencies in the doctors and Families we have taken what has existed updated any

082changes and Consolidated all trading guidance and practices into a CSC grading and recording handbooks for grades K-12 this handbook s a single point of reference both enduring and evolving practices graphs other handbook was made available to school leadership teams prior to the start of this school year allowing for opportunities for feedback these scenes share the draft with their staff members and any changes since then are reflected in what I'm sharing this evening at this point unless there are further recommendations or necessary adjustments from the board our next step for this school year is to furnish schools with standardized communication materials for staff and their families that can be tailored to convey the changes and demonstrate how they are implemented in practice there is still much work to be done around grading the transition from manage

083back to Infinite Campus was 612 and the end of the 20 2023 Charter brought to light more change that is necessary to build a systems that bases promotion and awarding of course credits on the inclusion of Concepts and skills of our state adopted curriculum which is a mandatory requirement for public schools in Georgia I also want to underscore that these changes were already in progress prior to Dr Whitaker's taking the range of superintendents we didn't we did not describe to the start of this school year was to communicate what was uncovered that could not continue to go unaddressed one we could not continue to not require that all teachers report on students Mastery of standards and two we could not continue to award bonus points for coursework that has not been designed and assessed as

084advanced level curriculum therefore it appears that Dr Whitaker is making these changes when in fact any change for this school year is directly connected to the work that began with the recommendations of the grading task force back in 21 the 21-22 school year this is a great way to welcome you to csd.org we are so glad you're here these changes represent progress towards goals of clarity transparency and Equitable grading practices nevertheless to fully realize our commitment to these principles we need a comprehensive grade policy Amanda Lynch are chief of staff will now provide further insight into the next step as we continue to move in this vital Direction thank you Miss Newton and hello again board chair Herndon Vice chair Sultan Steve members of the board and superintendent Dr Chiva Whitaker Ms Newton detailed the

085history and current state of our trading practices here in city schools of Decatur as she indicated we are currently implementing grading practices in absence of a grading policy the board of education is a governing body that establishes policies to be implemented in the operation of the public schools policy serves as the umbrella under which regulations or operating guidelines are created these regulations should be aligned to any adopted policy therefore we recognize the need to get a grading policy in policy is needed to inform future regulations and practices in developing policy Iha recognize the need to pay particular consideration to change management systems and these are areas where we have admittedly fallen short with our current grading practices as a new policy is adopted we must manage any change at grading policy and at subsequent practices

086will have a direct impact on students and staff policy development will require planning establishing benchmarks transparency and frequent communication we must also plan for appropriate training for staff and communication with students and Families we must celebrate our wins along the way while making any needed adjustments that will lead to our continual improvements as shared in the pre-work session we've envisioned an initial timeline for developing policy Iha grading systems for the remainder of September and early October we will gather survey data from students staff and families on our current practices in fact as you know following tonight's board meeting the first community meeting will take place at Decatur High School at 7 page at 7 pm the focus of this community meeting will be graded this is an opportunity for increased transparency and two-way communication between

087the board and the community an initial draft of a grading policy will be presented during the pre-work session of the October Board of Education meetings then following this initial draft we will continue to consider feedback especially leveraging the superintendent's Council CTA student teacher councils and the like a revised version of policy Iha will be presented during the Board of Education pre-work session in November the date for the first read of policy Iha is currently to be determined as it is contingent upon the previous steps described as this timeline indicates we are committed to transparency feedback and communication as the board moves to adopt an official policy for Iha grading system um that concludes our presentation so of course we'll entertain questions at this time um there there was at least in a presentation like this

088that I've seen earlier a slide that showed how um Decatur really was kind of an outlier there wasn't any other District like us that offered that 0.25 bonus on standard courses uh and in fact every District around us that they did offer a boost for some sort of advanced course either the college credit based courses or honors courses and so I know there's probably some interest around that um and whether we're going to approach having honors or having the opportunity to have courses like that um but do you mind taking half a second and talking about you know particular slide I mean I know it's not in front of us but that particular information that we had where uh we saw that we were very very different from everyone else around I can't say credit

089for the legwork but um principal schools research what area school districts were doing around APA and from APS Buford Cherokee uh DeKalb Olson Gwinnett Henry and Marietta they all assigned up to a 4.0 or general coursework is that proportion they don't calculate GPA they calculate the percentage growth or the kid makes a 98 that's what they report yeah and they let colleges do the calculations and then all of the bonus points were for honors accelerated ibap that kind of thing Decatur was the outlier with the 4.5 or general course work and the 5.254 advanced level Force work thank you I think that's a pretty salient I mean that drove us to some of these decisions I think so then thank you for them [Music] I think some of the um conversation has also been if

090we get rid of the or if we adjust the GPA down to between a six and a seven um there's you still earned that 4.0 GPA so if you get a 92 on a test it's still reported as a six or a hundreds it's reported as a seven could you explain to parents um what that means in terms of course motivation um why students should still strive for seven or what that means in terms of how they're graded on the IB scale because I think there's a lot of confusion between how IB and what it means to have an IB scale standard-based grading and then what's how that translates into GPA um kind of what that side was where you had the columns there I think there's um often some confusion there and why it's

091so important to still strive for that for that seven so as you'll see here one of the I want to mention that one of the things that teachers do and planning to assess is develop rubrics and those rules against clear criteria or what a one through seven requirement s and so there's still some it may not there are differences in what a student would perform um at a six opposed to seven not enough of a difference for us not to data 4.0 at the same level you'll also see that the numerical equivalent for a 7 is a 100 and the numerical equivalent for a six is a 94. um so students can still be motivated to have happened um opposed to the 94. all of these numbers are really evaluated from based upon the college

092and university that receives them and so we so we can interpret them one way ultimately it's up to whoever receives it to say exactly how they are awarding points or whatever they receive D and what I would like to add to that for vice chair Sultan is that as we develop a policy around grading we would be able to really Garner that feedback to determine do we want to still maintain the three different columns that we see right now as we're moving forward so I look forward to that type of communication from and feedback from the community also from our students and also from our team thank you forgive me if I'm wrong about this but there's also a a desire I think on our part to not introduce unnecessary harm if it is in

093fact the case that we cannot go above a 4.0 then what is in front of us to maintain a difference between a fixed and iv6 and an iv7 is to reduce the current value of an ip6 which is going to harm the kid that has been getting the iv6 to date and I don't think we felt drawing the distinction between those two grade bands on a temporary basis knowing that we're getting ready to go into this policy to try to craft something more comprehensive for the community would be appropriate before we had sought any parental feedback and so that also I think that I'm if I'm correct on that influence some of our thinking on not drawing that distinction on this temporary basis I was just going to say I really appreciate the historical um

094information you provided to us um in terms of kind of how we got here um particularly in terms of you know sharing that these changes started before Dr Whitaker got here um you know because I know that sometimes there's a perception that this person's coming in and just you know making you know all of these um Progressive changes but these changes uh were already in the work um and ultimately we are trying to provide by our students um so I mean we recognize that there were some errors there and now we're trying to correct another question I think it's a couple sized up because we I think over the past week or so we've been focusing on gpas but another detail in there is retakes um and I think there's a lot of confusion amongst

095the teachers um Department chairs about retakes and I I hate that um the teachers are confused because I think that confusion gets passed on to the parents um so I think if we could maybe just highlight for especially for the students in the room um one I think one critical point there that I pulled out of that is that if a student wants to retake a test they're supposed to be informed about what what standards they did not perform on and what Mastery they're supposed to achieve on the assessment um so the other question there is is it up to each individual teacher or Department to decide what what grade they have to have not met in order to qualify for a retake so could you have gotten a six and say you want to

096retake 47 or do you have to have gotten a two in order to qualify for a retake or is that up to each individual Department that was a point of discussion um and so generally when the student has not performed at whatever is defined as sufficient then the opportunity to retake is there um there was discussion around casting that if you if you um if we take an assignment to cap it at five because five by definition on the scale is proficient and so let's say a student who um earned a score of six and did not retake and then a student earned a score of a four and did a retake then would that be fair for that student who retook the assignment a second time to earn a seven when the other student

097who scored that proficient wasn't even provided the opportunity to retake because of five business so we had lots of discussions around that and where did we want to land with that we decided to stay the course with what the current practice is because we know other changes are coming down the pike and it really um it doesn't harm the kid all students we take parts that they've not shown Mastery that's a good practice for any student because even if you have a high score there could be an area that you didn't quite get that you could have the opportunity to learn to show Mastery of so in my opinion the sole person to set the guidance and policy there's no harm in allowing every student another opportunity to provide the evidence that they can do

098the work speaking for myself I do think that if if we are truly student focused and we're truly student-centered allowing any student the opportunity to again demonstrate Mastery if they do then demonstrate that Mastery they should be awarded for it grades I'm a senior or been fighting because I want to get into you know anywhere but UGA and um how does these changes impact my life my application I've worked in two admissions offices but from csd's perspective from your perspective how how are there students continue to take advanced level fourth work okay the name continues to have the opportunity to increase their EPA right if a student has only explicitly taken General level coursework and they finally they have a 4.25 they will not have the opportunity to earn more than a 4.0 so naturally

099their GPA will gradually decline but they have the opportunity to maintain that um but that's just the nature of if you don't have the opportunity to earn those bonus points and then you know the end result is that there will be at the class but do universities even accept the 4.25 I mean an emery we threw them out they just don't even care uh fours and fives those are magic numbers generally the university I only used to work because that's kind of like what we've been saying but I'm sure the process right but they recalibrate the grade right or if the student has taken advantage month for that as well so in essence if a student only took General level coursework the entire High School career and they ended with a 4.25 and they went

100to apply for a college or university it is likely that they're going to recalibrate that to a forefronto scale and a 0.25 bomb will not be taken into if if a student is coming into our schools from one of the other systems that allow for the honors classes up to like a 4.5 for example those grades those transcript grades should still continue to exist I mean we may not have the honors courses here for them to take but we would then offer the AP or IV or or dual enrollment options uh but those grades that get transferred in should still come in at the 4.5 but we would not take anything away from and lastly what is the um what is our plan for making sure that the counselors are clear on kind of all

101the things that you just mentioned how gpas are we calculated by universities how each individual College will you know kind of recalibrate your your grades and that sort of thing so that when a student goes in to meet with their counselor and they say I want to go to this school the school this school they're clear about what their application looks like about how their GPA is calculated um and they're given all the correct information or even when they're juniors so that they know how to pick their schedules um because I hate that there is confusion and I hate that maybe the teachers are confused and that emotion gets passed down to the parents so what is our plan for making sure that like I said our department chairs and our counselors have all of

102this information they have to be passed out more than once but that we have against that we're fortunate to have um councils at Decatur High School who could probably come and talk about this about this more eloquently than I can um the the challenge is is with um working with the Decatur High School leadership team to ensure that teachers understand what is changing and what is not changing for this year these changes should not impact the teacher practice in the classroom you'll be assessing developing rubric it's going on the same scale these changes really impact after they have have effects and they explore that's governments and their students have their grades and how does that Translate and um I am confident that the Decatur High School counselors are first and then what this looks like

103and many colleges will have calculators on their website so if you're considering going to a college you can go into input your grades and kind of get a stage of how they will assess your coursework and assign the GPA to um as a high school and I would just like to add that we have published a frequently asked questions so that FAQ document would be able to not only guide and support families through the questions but also to guide and support staff that may have questions in addition to the guidance document itself thank you Miss Newton Scott Miss Lynch for the presentation um each and every board members receive feedback concerns about the current grading system particularly the high school level and the implementation of some of the recommendations presented by the previous year's grading

104task force just reiterate that the board strongly supports and is committed to ensuring that CSD is a consistent grading system across across all great bands and a platform that is transparent and easy for students and parents to access and understand in the coming months the board is focused on creating a grading policy we don't have one the process will include opportunities from feedback from September from students staff and families it begins as early as September last item in February 23 the board authorized former superintendent to act on our behalf apply for two zoning permits by applying for the zoning permit CSD would have the ability to offer affordable rental options for our employees now that Dr Whitaker is our superintendent we just wanted to renew our commitment to this action and look forward to her

105working with the city of Decatur to bring that Vision into a reality thank you so much chair Herndon I will work with the city of Decatur to do so thank you okay that is the end of the work session and I will call to order the six o'clock board meeting and I'll call this meeting to order at 6 PM we ask that you silence any cell phones at this time we will get again with a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance at this time I ask that everyone join me in a moment of Silent reflection now I ask all that are able to stand please do so for the Pledge of Allegiance foreign thank you all our mission like to start with this is to inspire and enable student growth through meaningful

106and engaging learning experiences deported by highly qualified and caring Educators and a safe and environed inviting environment we'll move to the second item on the agenda which is the approval of board meeting agenda for September 2023 board members are there any revisions to the agenda this evening do I have a motion to approve today's agenda do I have a second second right any discussion items for tonight's agenda all those in favor say aye aye motion next gender item is the approval of minutes from the previous board meeting uh do I have a motion to approve August's regular board minutes listen to approve a regular board excellent do I have a second any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye the motion cares unanimously we're now going to move forward with the other agenda

107items starting with the student and staff recognition Dr Whitaker it filled up I see some students and staff in attendance are there any recognitions for anyone else it was so exciting to see all of our students and our families to stay so this evening we are proud to have five Decatur High School students who are a 2022-23 recipients of governors of Georgia's Governor's honors so the Georgia's Governor's honors program is a state-funded and it's a month-long residential program for gifted and talented students who are arising 11th and 12th graders on the school level in an area in which they Excel so this could range from Court Fine Arts to Performing Arts to World languages Technology and Engineering around 700 students are selected each year to attend the summer program from all across the state of

108Georgia in their nominating areas so also in August of 2023 the College Board awarded thousands of students from across the country the academic honors for their National recognition programs available to students on big future and as a parent of an 11th grader I am also very familiar with big future so the programs celebrate underrepresented students who Excel academically on college for board assessments including the PSAT PSAT 10 AP exams so sophomores and juniors had to score at the top 10 percent on the PSAT and msqt or the PSA 10 with them that program by the state and eligible to on their exam periods so sophomores and juniors are also qualifying by scoring a three or higher on twos or more of their AP exams in the eligible exam periods students can include in this academic

109honor or in all of their college applications which I definitely expect to see and many colleges intentionally recruit students who receive this award through the College Board student search service there is so much that makes our students unique in receiving this honor reinforces this as an asset to their future we are so thrilled to celebrate and to recognize them for their great work and their strong academic performance in the classroom and also on their college board assessments so at this time our Decatur High School principal Mr Duane's rule will come to the podium to make a presentation to the awardees and also I believe this Karen Newton Scott will accompany good evening I would like to invite our trip to school performance and just got to join me for the awards the recipient of a

1102022-23 Governors honors awards are Ida Chapman Margaret Powell Jenner Genevieve Cardenas Grace Goodman cone and Cecilia bravery some of these students are not here because they have other commitments today but those are here please come forward I I failed forced application interview [Music] my wife went twice a big list so if you're here come on up when I call your name please the recipients of the college board's National African-American recognition program awards are Amir of Muhammad [Applause] Andrea Ferguson Brown [Applause] Gabe West Street [Applause] diani Esposito [Applause] James Watson Jessica Sean the pool foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Olivia McKinney McKinley Hill tart Samuel wardrobez [Applause] Skyler Bennett like elegantly Sydney Pierce Travis Whitson congratulations everyone ready it's good it's beautiful yes okay yeah careful [Music] um okay everybody looks this way [Music] thank you [Applause]

111the Miller Hardy that's right okay [Applause] [Music] right here in front there you go everybody do this one two three [Music] [Applause] whatever our awardees for the national Hispanic recognition award Isabella white Gomez [Applause] Laura Hanson Lucas foreign thank you so much family for joining today where's everybody going [Music] congratulations [Laughter] thank you families and thank you students it is awesome to see thank you so many of our students excelling next item on the agenda is the superintendent's reports Dr Whitaker we have items to share with us this evening yes board chair Herndon thank you so much we are just over six weeks into the new school year so our CSD students and staff and families continue to show that we are all in this month CSC is celebrating Hispanic latinx Heritage Month which is

112celebrated in the United States from September 15th all the way through oktober 15th this month recognizes and celebrates the history the culture and achievements of Hispanic Latin Latino latinx Americans the observance begins on September 15th which is the Independence Day for five Latin American countries so that's Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras and Nicaragua Mexico's and Chiles Independence days are also observed during this period and on September 16th and September 18th respectively ncsd this month is not just about celebrating diverse cultures and identities across Latin America but also ensuring that it it is inclusive and that there is a belonging of those diverse cultures and identities in addition to the DHS students that received all of those wonderful awards from the college board we're also excited to learn that the U.S news and World Report

113ranked Decatur High School at the top at a top high school and also the 16th best in Georgia congratulations to all of our staff and our students for that achievement over the last month I have continued to achieve the components of my three-part entry plan I posted listening sessions across the district Gathering feedback from students staff families as well as Key Community leaders to determine what is going well in CSD what opportunities exist for improvement and how we can work together and partner to ensure that every student is safe seen and successful but also I focused on how I as their superintendent can support them all of this feedback I have received to date has been invaluable I've heard a lot about the high quality of our teachers and the sense of community that is

114cultivated in our schools I've also heard a lot of concerns about the delivery of students a delivery of instruction to students with special needs teacher compensation district and school communication grading and particularly at the secondary level and I need to ensure equity in education of all students while it didn't come up as often as other topics I did hear concerns about the physical safety of students safety and learning are my top priorities and I will continue to be proactive in interweaving equity into every aspect of our school districts and to ensure that we are creating that safe learning environment So speaking of listening and safety let me pause here to remind us that September is also National Suicide Prevention month throughout September mental health Advocates prevention organizations survivors allies and community members unite to promote

115Suicide Prevention awareness at CSD we are listening and working to create the environments where everyone has an equal opportunity to have and enjoy a positive mental health and also well-being again I want everyone to know that I am and we are listening I will host one more listening session this Thursday with families residing in our Decatur Housing Authority before moving fully into the next phase of my gem entry plan which is envisioning envisioning the way forward so that we can maximize our results for all students while my listening sessions may be ending my engagement with our stakeholders is really just beginning because this month I will launch and continue a variety of students or superintendent councils I'm excited to encourage our student voice at all levels at the student advisory Council so I will have

116one for the elementary students as well as one for this secondary student for a student advisory Council the opening application for student students interested in serving in either of those councils has been communicated via our school newsletters our district communication channels obviously also via social media but the deadline for those applications was extended until today so I'm hoping that anyone who wants to be a part of this inclusive representation of CSD please students go ahead and apply I will also launch a support staff advisory Council and I will continue with the teacher advisory Council bringing on board a tto advisory Council and then finally continuing our work with our slts and at the central level of council these councils will meet once a month providing opportunities for dialogue sharing of our deep ideas addressing concerns

117getting that two-way feedback that we've been talking about here and also really to provide a deeper understanding of our Collective challenges and our aspirations as we all are going to have purpose to improve our student outcomes I know that the value of stakeholder engagement is to improve student outcomes as well as the merits of ongoing professional learning for our teachers as we mentioned in our last board meeting the board approves nine early release days for this year for Teacher development the first early release day for pre-k through 12th grade was on August the 30th Collier Heights eclc remained and or really on their regular normal schedule I want to remind all of our families and our students that our next release early release day will be September the 27th early release times will remain the

118same for pre-k students through our high school students parents are encouraged to check the district and the school websites for early release times for their students and their schools again College Heights eclc will remain on its normal schedule but in addition to early release days this year the board voted to make November 7th a remote day so I will now call on Jennifer Burton our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning to provide an overview of the November 7th remote learning day good evening board chair Herndon Vice chair Dr Sultan superintendent Dr GMA Whitaker and esteem board members remote learning day is November 7th the purpose of the remote learning day is twofold the November 7th remote learning day is election day and we believe it's important for our staff to have an opportunity to participate

119in the Democratic process every staff member will have two hours to vote the remote learning day will also be used to grow digital learning skills for teachers students and support staff so what does student learning look like on the remote learning day pre-k through 12 students will be at home our birth to three students at eclc will remain on site our K-5 students will have the choice of online or offline learning opportunities so for example our K-5 students May engage in a digital writing assignment on the importance of voting that's posted in their Google classroom or they could complete the same writing assignment using paper pencils our 6 through 12 students will have online learning opportunities only our secondary students are already becoming accustomed to completing assignments posted in Google classroom all instructional service providers

120will participate in the creation of the assignments to meet the needs of all of our students 6 through 12 students additionally will have the opportunity to check in with their teacher online the teacher will post a check-in time where students may log in to ask questions or get additional support from their teacher so what will our teachers be doing in addition to having an opportunity to vote and attending online student check-in time all staff will have time to complete various required training depending on their role our 6 through 12 students already have devices but if students need a replacement device they should go to the media center to request that replacement device you want them to do that now ahead of remote learning day our K-5 students will not require a device to participate in

121learning activities on November 7th but we will make them available to any families that would like one in October a technology survey will be sent out to our K-12 families to determine device and hotspot needs these surveys will be translated into multiple languages and manage at the school level to allow for follow-up communication our media Specialists and site techs will coordinate the equipment distribution to help prepare our teachers and students for the remote learning day teachers will have one digital assignment hosted on each early release day in K5 teachers will post one digital activity in their Google classroom students can interact with the activity online or they will get a paper version sent home that week that they can complete on paper and turn into their teacher by the end of the week the purpose

122of these activities are to ensure that our youngest students know how to find Google classroom and to navigate to a class assignment s in six through twelve teachers will post an assignment in the Google classroom and students will complete it online the week of an early release our goal is that by engaging with digital learning even in small ways that will continue to build age-appropriate familiarity Equitable access to learning and capability with online learning that concludes my presentation do you have any questions thank you thank you so before in my remarks I want to assure our families that I realize grading particularly at the secondary level has been of great concern for families while these concerns predate my Administration I'm committed to working with the board to ensure a consistent grading system and platform across

123all great bands will be present and also that it's aligned and state approved according to our state core standards and requirements and that it's easy for our students and our parents to access and to understand as such I want to reiterate some of the aspects of what our chief performance officer Karen Newton Scott delivered earlier in her presentation establish establishing grading policies and a transparent rubric will be a priority of my Administration csd's current grading Protocols are not in compliance with relevant standards and it must be addressed immediately correcting it and bringing our system into compliance students who are enrolled in IB or AP or dual enrollment courses can earn up to a 5.0 for their GPA for this coursework no longer or will students that are taking classes outside of the IB Program AP

124or dual enrollment will be assigned a GPA above a 4.0 for that coursework all other students and classes will be graded on that 4. 4.0 scale to ensure that the city of Decatur remains in compliance with the accreditation standards students can retake assessments and the highest score is recorded and the lower score is dropped there is no cap on what students can earn on those retakes current gpas will not be recalculated however this may have some impact moving forward and we will make every effort to minimize the impact where possible and again it is necessary to ensure the city schools of Decatur grading is in compliance according to standards across our other peer school systems and also in accordance with the required State Standards we're also committed to ensuring a consistent and easily understandable grading

125system and platform across all grades finally my last bit our schools will be closed Monday September 18th through February that would be a long fall break I jumped this all the way to the next break so from Monday September the 18th through Friday September the 22nd all CSD schools and District district offices will be closed on Thursday and Friday I want to wish all of our students and our staff and our families a fun fall break and share Herndon that completes my report thank you Dr Whitaker uh the next item is the chairs reports um on behalf of the board I want to thank everyone for their continued engagement and support as we continue to work towards improving the outcomes for all of our students there are so many great things happening in our schools

126from steamy Fridays to the robotics team's Lego nights with elementary and middle schoolers our students are engaging in learning activities uh in fun ways this week schools are also celebrating the Arts and education week I want to thank schools especially the art teachers for bringing Arts to life for all of our students fave has a real life superhero there and we are so proud of our fifth grader by the name of Chandler who recently acted quickly administered the Heimlich maneuver on a choking classmate and prevented a potentially life-threatening situation Chandler was featured on the local news media and we plan to honor him at next month's board meeting again we are proud as we talked about earlier for designating DHS as a top high school congratulate all the students who are recognized today for the

127awards for the Governor's honors program and the College Board I also understand DHS will welcome 12 students from Denmark September 16th to the 28th they will develop and conduct lessons for DHS students focusing on language acquisition and cultural Exchange in March 18 DHS students will travel to Denmark to do the same while we have much to celebrate in CSD we fully recognize the board that there are still many areas for growth we will work to ensure the alignment of District resources and operational efficiency and we understand the importance of continue to work on communicating those results of the community as such immediately following today's board meeting the board will launch the first in a series of community meetings scheduled this year to promote transparency two-way communication between the board and the community we will help

128them annually in the fall winter and spring they will feature topics of Interest District updates training on the use of gold and guard rails to govern after presentations community members will have an opportunity to ask questions and just provide feedback the meeting tonight immediately following the board is at seven o'clock in the theater Pac at Decatur High School the winter meeting is scheduled for January 23rd and April 30th in the spring the topic for tonight's meeting is grading uh the board heard a presentation this evening on the district's grading and assessment system I want to restate for this distinct meeting that each board member has received feedback about concerns around the current grading system particularly at the high school level and the implementation of some of the recommendations presented by the previous grading task force

129the board strongly supports and is committed to ensuring that CSD has a consistent grading system that is transparent easy for students and parents to access and understand over the next few months the board is focused on creating that grading policy uh the process includes opportunities for feedback from students staff and families tonight's meeting is not the announcement of a grading policy it's the beginning of that process and we look forward to the attendance and participation in tonight's inaugural board community meeting at the theater in closing I just want to remind the public and community that in August the board announced the decision to hold these earlier meeting times so for example today executive session was at three pre-work was at four work session at five board meeting began six and uh we will get the

130public comment shortly except for the executive session all meetings will be live streamed they're open the public the times will vary each month as we plan our agenda but I want to continue to emphasize that change takes time and I'm asking for the community to support and Grace as we move to make CSD greater I hope everyone enjoys that fall break as fun and safe fellow board members any thoughts or comments that you all would like to share at this time I just want to reiterate that when we say q a unlike public comment we do actually mean that we are going to answer your questions when you're asking us in the public meeting so if you do have comments about grading that you want to share please do come to that meeting we want

131to hear them and we want to be able to have a conversation about it okay anyone else thank you all we'll now move to the action items portion of the internet's agenda uh we did not have any action on Executive session items board will move to the consent agenda items that includes the Personnel report School nutrition monthly finances and the Perkins Grant Dr Whitaker I see the financial report has a presentation yes chair Herndon I would like to call Miss Lomita Broome Chief Financial Officer to present the monthly financial report good evening board chair Herndon Madam life careful assistant team members of the board superintendent Dr Whitaker and community the July 2023 Financial reports that are located in the assembly agenda are in a new format a mark of analysis of the format of school

132district monthly financial report in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area showed that the majority of school districts are submitting the report to their Board of Education by function cast the monthly Financial reports for the city schools of Decatur have traditionally been submitted by function in object code the function category identifies the category of the purchase examples of functions categories are instructions maintenance and Human Services located in the board meeting agenda you will find an attendance with a description of each function code the Board of Education approves the annual budget at the function level and to enhance the board's monitoring the budget of the budget the newly format for the monthly financial report will be by functions if it was report format list the budget the revenue and expenditures for the month the year today revenues and expenditures

133the remaining balance for each function and the percentage of the budget that has changed the report will continue to show total expenditures and revenues of the month and year in the assets are efficiency available the format of the monthly balance sheet will remain the same as we built the fiscal year 24 budget one of the major fiscal impacts with the states have premium annual policy increase from 11 340 to 18 960 per employee an annual increase of 7620 per participating influence they have premium increases but certified employees went into effect on January 1st 2023. the state will fully fund the estimated 3.7 million of the increases that they have premium but certified the district will be responsible for using local funds to find the premium increase for non-certified schools the rate increase the non-certified influence

134will be effective on January 1st 2024. it will be phased in over a three-year period the first increase will be 1500 per participated member for six months 352 500 was included in the current or is included in the current civil year 24 budget to cover the increase in premiums for non-certified employment the 362 500 but six month increase will carry over into fiscal year 25 budget with an additional increase of 352 500 for the remaining six months into phase two increase which will be effective on January 1st 2025 will also increase the fiscal year 25 budget by 350 to 500. the total fiscal year 25 increase will be approximately 705 000 in May of 2023 the board approved of this year 24 general fund budget of 97 million 800 24 and 605 this budget has

135increased by 497 753 to the state awarded Grant state grants are funds allocated from the state of specific purposes the funds are listed in 3 800 other grants Georgia Doe on your financial reports included in the increase is ten thousand and seven for the dyslexia Grant the new plus the year 24 requirement to screen all students and kindergarten and in grades one through three the characteristics of Delicia and other disorders the Georgia General General Assembly will assist with the cost Upstream requirements Grant funds were allocated based on the number of students in kindergarten and grades one through three 5125 has been awarded for the cinnamon hygiene Grant thirty two thousand six hundred and science supplement supplemental Grant given to eligible Math and Science teachers and 450 000 for the school safety grant that was discussed

136with the board in office the district has collected 24 or approximately 23.8 million of the budgeted revenue for the month of July which is one percent lower than what was collected this time last year the majority of July Revenue collections were from property tax approximately 22.8 million came for property tax revenues are collected in April and December the April collections were recognized as current fiscal year revenue and accounts of the district receiving such a large percentage of budgeted Revenue within the first month of this week the percentage of tax revenue collected for July 2023 is 8 more than that which was collected this time last earnings on investment payment amount received this month is approximately 39 000 or 240 percent higher than the amount received in July 2022. we will most likely be a budget

137amendment to increase the anticipated Revenue our other Revenue streaming and participants if images are normal for this time of year the district has suspended two percent of the overall budget are millions of the month of July this is one percent lower than it was what was spent in July 2022 the majority of these expenses are for salaries and benefits of 12 month employees along with purchases associated with the start of the new overall here today there's a surplus of approximately 21.9 million due primarily to the low collection posted in July last year this time there was a surplus of 19.5 the surplus of Revenue is normal at this time of the year and accounts for the healthy fund balance of 37.4 years however please note that the fund balance will decrease as live revenue for

138Capital funds because there's a possibly consists of approximately 22 000 from earnings on investment receipts of capital proceeds will begin in August it feels just a normal for this time of the year and the 148 330 deficit will be covered by the fund balance which is currently 7.2 million just the year 24 anticipated expenditures for capital is approximately 70. so nutritional revenues and expenditures are trended within the same range of previous years during the summer months with school this out School nutrition traditionally operates at a deficit those nutrition revenue from sales in the federal government traditionally comes in during the month of Art the 73967 deficit will be covered by the fine balance which is currently 1.4 Revenue funds are all other funds including federal and state grants not budgeting and general funds we're currently

139closing out the year 23 grants and receiving reimbursement and preparing preparing for fiscal year 24th grade I will be happy to respond to any questions or provide clarification as needed thank you does anyone have any questions about any of those numbers no but can I sing Hallelujah about the uh budget report I mean this function coasting is fantastic thank you so much this room I think uh it's extremely helpful to look at it we have made his year the attachment about function codes would categorizes things that's what you're excited about what's an actual questions about it no fair enough [Music] we've been here a long time it's been here a while all right given thank you Miss Broome do I have a motion to approve the consent items now one through four motion to approve

140consent items one through four thank you to have a second second thank you any discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye motion carries unanimously unanimously next we'll review our discussion item we have one item this afternoon evening Dr Whitaker will you please introduce that item yes boardshare Herndon our columnist Amanda Lynch Chief of Staff to share an item about the 2023-24 School Board calendar good evening oh yes um to your heart and vice chairs Sultan members um making a recommendation this evening for approval of the Board of Education meeting schedule and calendar that includes everything that we've talked about as far as the board of meetings to change the April base that was discussed previously as well as those four Retreat dates that our court that are occurring quarterly that allow us to

141take a deep dive into Data discussion and information those of course are also open to the public as well as now those Community meetings which are an opportunity to Foster two-way communication with the community about Vision Values and results Community meetings demonstrate transparency and afford Community observations of School Systems Operations those take place in the fall winter and spring with the first taking place very shortly over at Decatur High School for Recon is to approve the Board of Education can I read the motion statement please I move that the city schools of Decatur Board of Education approve the superintendent's recommendation of revised 2023-2024 School Board calendar thank you Dr Whitford do I have a motion to accept the 2023-2024 School Board calendar move to accept the 2023-2024 School Board calendar excellent do I have a

142second thank you any discussion right hearing none all those in favor say aye aye motion carries unanimously thank you Miss Lynch for a presentation now move to public comments we have people signed up for public comment yes we do excellent uh means I'd have to read this the following information is included in the board policy manual members of the public are acknowledged this information when they sign up to speak the serves as a reminder for all speakers and members of the audience the opportunity to address the board during public comment is limited to District Parent students residents employees businesses and organizations persons wishing to address the board during public comment must sign in uh before public comment period begins and in doing so we ask to State their connection to allow time for the board's

143other business our first community meeting uh the educator high school public commented will be limited at the board's discretion uh the public comment period may be reduced the time limit for all speakers will be three minutes persons speaking during public comment will not be permitted to yield the floor transfer unused time comments during public comment should be addressed to the board as a body not the individual board members at the chairs Discretions persons violating that policy may be asked to step down speakers should be courteous and professional they are not to list complaints about a specific Personnel or individual connected with the district in a public session the board strictly prohibits abusive language threats comments years Applause or shouts from the floor disruptive persons will be asked to leave the meeting room the chair May

144terminate public comments to profane vulgar the faminatory or disruptive if any speaker's comments begin to Verge in into the areas of defamation or hate speech I'll have to ask the speaker to end their comments speakers may not address confidential student or Personnel related matters but should submit such concerns to the superintendent in writing members of the board will not address the person's presenting or speak to the substance of any comment made instead a member of the admin team will follow up with person speaking at the board meetings Dr Whitaker will you please call our first Speaker yes our first speaker is David messes oh no I'm sorry our first speaker for today which is September the 12th is Christmas Soban um [Music] my name is a ninth grader and 10th grader at the high school

145I'm simply hear I guess for two quick things one is I do appreciate the intent of the community meeting as you I would just so ask that in the future this work and parents could be given more than three business days notice I have a parent got the email Friday morning at 908 a.m it is difficult to arrange your life that you could be here three days later additionally with all due respect it's had a physics educator high school I know Decatur High School I'm sure it was implied but it was in the Performing Arts Center but it wasn't explicitly statement and so if we were to create a more inclusive and welcoming Community which I do believe is the intent of these Community meetings I would just encourage us to be really thoughtful and

146deliberate and not supposed to notice that we're going to hear it and also the detail because a lot of My Vegan Health friends don't even know what the Performing Arts Center is schools Washington so again I appreciate the intent was great I was just asked if we could just get a little more crisp on some of the specifics that would be really lovely um on behalf of my parents friends finally the last time a Soven addressed this sport I don't believe any of you were on it but um my event my now 10th graders and second grader was talking about the experience we had about being a host family many moons ago des and CSC coordinated we hosted some we're going with student teaching um this Friday my family and I was flying to Madrid

147to attend the wedding of the students that we hosted in Toledo Bank I'm hoping this will excuse me access but we'll see because the wedding is Friday night but anyway I just thought that would be a fun closing them so I'm sorry but it was um it's a neat full circle moment so thank you for your time and also I neglected the openly thank you for all you do I do appreciate it having never served in the board of education but on other boards I recognize same thank you thank you thank you thank you our next speaker Miss Tanner Rogers Hannah here all right our next speaker is Sabrina Shields so my name is Sabrina Shields and I'm the president of the Decatur City Association of Educators which stands for dcae we know we have

148a lot of acronyms around here um which is the local chapter of Georgia Association of Educators such as GAE here with me are some of the executive members of bcae we all have an orange of the members of DC you would like to formally welcome you Dr Whitaker to the city schools of Decatur and thanks to the board for letting us have a moment to speak so the member the mission I'm sorry NDC Court protect and strengthen those who nurture Georgia's children the Georgia Association of Educators is the most experienced and effective Professional Organization for teachers administrators and educational support professionals within Georgia's public schools we look forward to working with you and the administration to address issues and concerns of employees thank you so much for your time and you all have a great

149place and I would like to call on our final uh constituent Lena Coulter podcast I'm going to talk a little faster than that I think a lot of you know my name already several of us have had children in the same classes my name is Lena Cutler I have three children in city schools of Decatur we've been in the system for 12 years now so high schooler and started at College Heights he's currently taught in his sophomore year I'm going to talk about my middle child my a UNT my eight-year-old Alex is trans she came out to her family when she was six years old and as a parent there are not a lot of moments in life when you just know you've got to get this right or you're about to really screw your

150kid up protecting her into bed that night when she said Mom I'd like to start wearing dresses was one of those moments to the credit of many of the people who have been in city schools of Decatur with her for the last two years went on a park at pricecher would she changed her pronouns and her names and she started dressing like a goth teenager from the 90s they embraced it at the time we were told the only way to change her name in the system was to list her her new name as a nickname in the campus but then if we did that no other teachers would designate her I'm here tonight because on August 9th I picked my child up from school and in the car she said to me do you want

151to hear about the worst part of my day and that is when my eight-year-old told me about the teacher who had that names her in class when I contacted the school to tell them about the incidents make sure everyone had the right information but also to tell them about how the teacher stood by while her peers my eight-year-old's peers teased her because in the room left her to spend for herself and ask her peers to please stop harming her for people in the room who are not familiar dead name in the form of verbal violence when someone chooses to use the name given at first and in honor of what this month is people who are dead names trans people who are dead name particularly when they are dead names by the story figure as

152a child have higher risk for bullying depression mental health issues and suicidal ideation in the last six weeks I have exhausted every single Avenue that I can take I'm going to talk really really fast but this is important csu's response thus far from the school level to the district level has been heard back in class and let us know if it happens again in my time you all need to understand that it's speaking to families this is not the first time this teacher has done this the school is aware of the history of her doing this and no action has been taken I guarantee you that that other than the two other children I know who have been brave enough to come forward there's an exponentially larger number of children that are actively seeing harm

153at Talley Street Upper Elementary and csvcc were concerned about me speaking out about this publicly on social media and they are about actual harm being done to actual students thank you we would like to thank all the speakers for taking time of your day to be here tonight as board members it is incredibly important for us to hear the concerns from our community uh additionally this board is launched Community meetings they're an opportunity for the board to Foster two-way communication about Vision Values and results the meetings demonstrate our attempt at transparency of forward observations of school system operations these annual meetings will take place three times a year last item is future dates uh the fall community meeting is scheduled for tonight the October board meeting is scheduled for the 10th at the Wilson Center

154and we will continue to follow the new board Cadence there are no further business this meeting is adjourned at 7