001[Music] you good evening I hereby call to order the action session of the board of school commissioners for Thursday June 25th would you please stand and join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance mr. Mallen would you please call the roll Commissioner Arnold here Commissioner Gore Commissioner Moore mr. slack secretary Collins here vice president Hawkins president president O'Connor here Thank You mr. Mulholland we'll now adopt the agenda for tonight's meeting the agenda was reviewed on Tuesday and reflects all necessary modifications or additions reviewing the modified agenda are there any requests for changes to the agenda as presented hearing none do I have a motion to approve the agenda so moved it has been moved and seconded all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed hae-jin is adopted will now proceed to section
0022 of the agenda special recognitions as members of the IPS board of school commissioners we get to do many meaningful things for students staff and families of this district but one of the things I enjoy the most is recognizing our outstanding staff for their service and dedication tonight we get to do exactly that as we celebrate this year's retirees first we're excited to honor seven individuals who have served the students of this district for more than 40 years due to the kovat 19 concerns this year honorees this year's honorees were not able to join us in person but we do know that they're watching via the livestream so I'll also each be receiving a special gift in the mail very soon we begin with recognizing Kathryn Berger she was an English as a second language
003teacher and served the district for 43 years ever since she tutored children from the inner-city during high school she knew she wanted to teach in IPs Catherine said I wanted to make a difference in children's lives and this was the best way to accomplish my goals thank you for allowing me to be part of loving children thank you too Catherine burger [Applause] Brenda Kohi was an administrative associate serving IPS for 43 years Brenda said she loved working with children families and the staff at Francis W Parker Montessori School 56 and especially loved the Montessori program a grand for Brenda Kohi Laurette döner was a special education inclusion teacher with 41 years of service Laurette worked for Eliza Baker Coldspring and Crispus Attucks high school among others 41 years of service for Loretta let's give her
004a round of applause and Rebecca Frechette II was a music teacher with 47 years of service I love the joy of children when they perform both instrumentally and vocally Rebecca said I love their sense of achievement and pride for a job well done perhaps my most favorite accomplishment in IPs was beginning a stream program at the Center for inquiry school 84 when I left five years later there were 80 instrumental players and forth through the eighth grades a big hand for Rebecca [Applause] Tina Hicks was an administrative associate serving IPS for 41 years Tina says this has been the best job she's ever had I have met so many wonderful wonderful people during my employment and some of them have become lifelong friends the families students in memories will be with me always said Tina
005give a round of applause for Miss Tina hey Cecil Joyner was a truck driver and bus driver for IPS for 40 years Cecil said what he enjoyed most about his time at IPs was the diversity of people that he's met and befriended the way he said I have enjoyed the challenge of the job and the fact that each day was never like the previous day I am proud of my dedication and hard work that helped so many students and teachers receive the necessary supplies and tools needed Thank You mr. joiner [Applause] Hurley waters was a custodian with 41 years of service under his belt he worked his entire career all 41 years at Brookside elementary school 54 he also went to school there as a child himself as an employee he really enjoyed the students
006at the school and they all called him cowboy he would go out of his way to make sure they were rewarded for their good grades let's give a round of applause for mr. water to our retirees with more than 40 years of service thank you for your dedication and for a job well done we would also like to honor all of our retirees who have between 30 and 40 years of service and you can see their names on the screen they are Kathy Avery Pamela Beckwith Grissom Teresa Bowie a Wendy Brickley and colpepper Pamela Dorsey Kathy died sanaya glass Karen Hastings Sarah Hines Jacoby Maguire Sharon peel Philip Ragland Teresa wreath in Athens to all of you thank you for the contributions you have made to our district success and thank you for dedicating your
007time and talents to impact countless of lives throughout your years thank you so much moving to section 3 opening comments does any Commissioner wish to offer opening comments this evening hearing none we normally move to the public comment section they are continuing to be submitted electronically to minimize risk exposure for members for members of the public in from members of the public sharing the same microphone at the podium we will continue to receive public comment through our online portal the public comment portal was activated Monday June 15th and remained open until 4:00 p.m. today we received four written submissions all of which are posted in board Docs in item 2.0 - and are available for review by the media and the public moving to the consent agenda the items included on the consent agenda were
008reviewed at our agenda review session on Tuesday and reflect all necessary modifications are there any questions or requests to remove an item from the consent agenda hearing none Drive a motion to approve the agenda consent agenda as presented it has been moved and seconded - any further comments all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed the motion carries there are no board reports this evening so I'll turn the agenda over to superintendent Johnson for the superintendent reports great Thank You president O'Connor there is one superintendent report to be presented this evening item 6.01 is an update on the district's kovat 19 response planning specifically as it relates to the reopening of schools for the 2021 school year this presentation will be made by Andrew strop chief of strategy and planning in Sarah Robinson
009chin who is with us I believe via phone and so she might be also plugging in during the presentation Andrew I will turn it over to you great Thank You superintendent Johnson you named Jenny commissioners so yeah I want to start by giving a big thank you to Sarah Chen who's been really leading a lot of discharge for the last number of months as we've been planning so she is joining us virtually and so you might hear her chime in here and there so what we want to do this evening is provide the school board of commissioners an update on our planning for school year 2021 this will include vision non-negotiables scenarios and family some results from family survey as well as timeline and next steps so I wanted to start out with a vision
010and this is also up on the website it's something that we've been working through over the past number of months but I think it's really important to start with what is most important for us as we have been planning and so I'll just read these three bullet points as I as I think they're vital so first IPS needs to maximize in-person time for the purpose of prioritizing high quality instruction to our students while prioritizing the safety of our students and staff and operating in alignment with City Planning and expectations for the reopening of the economy so that is how we've been organizing ourselves to work through major decisions that have been made and need need to get made over the next month or so here and so next when I go through three sets of
011non-negotiable safety academic and financial and we've also been utilizing these as kind of our stake in the ground guiding post as we've been planning so the first around safety non-negotiable so when we return to school the following non-negotiables will need to be in place so we will prioritize social distancing so I'll talk a little bit more about that on a future slide and then kovat specific safety protocols must be in place at all schools including but not limited to plans for and then you can read those their use of common spaces disinfected spaces etc and then a response for students that are ill and staff members and so we have been working on those continue to work on those academic non-negotiables this first bullet point is really important and I'll show you some family survey
012data here in a bit that we've received but we must have a full-time elearning option available to all students who would prefer to opt out of in-person school so we know that that some families may not feel comfortable and so providing an elearning option that they can opt into and still receive high-quality instruction is of great importance to us so we can we have been planning for that and we'll continue to plan for that and then the second bullet point there that I'll make sure I hit on is e-learning must be quickly implementable for a hundred percent of students if rolling closures occur and so we will make sure that we are ready if in the case that a classroom or a school or the entire organization needs to shut down based on the data
013that we're seeing and so we will have the ability to to implement and execute full virtual if we need to and so that was something that we did not have the ability to do when we first went into shutdown mode in the spring but as you well know and thank you to your leadership we have made some major investments in our ability to execute one-to-one and so we have been getting shipments over the past couple weeks of Chromebooks and iPads in so every student will be receiving one of those when we start to school year and that way we can make sure we execute on that second bullet point and so a lot of lot of staff members have been working very hard or planning for that and so there's I just want to make
014sure that we shout them out as well and so we'll continue to plan and then the third and fourth bullet point speak to how we know that you know we've been seeing a lot of the data around the learning loss not only in the spring but then what could happen in the fall and so we are working to prioritize our academic strategy to ensure that we are planning for our neediest students as well as prioritizing our SEL work and so that that work continues as well and then our third bucket of non-negotiables is around financial and so we know that we're gonna have some increased costs here as it relates to our ability to to really execute our vision for school year 2021 and probably beyond and so you know we are receiving care zaq
015dollars as well as a lot of generous philanthropy across the city that we've been very grateful for and we will put those dollars to use but we'll continue to be mindful of the increased expenditures and and related to the strategy that we push forward and then I know we saw last week the governor come out and say that you know funding will not be interrupted for next school year which is which is really really massive and gives us some breathing room but also know that this is something that we're going to be in for a little while in terms of potential declining state revenues over time and so West and young and in team are constantly planning for that but it need to make sure we name name that is something that needs to be
016accounted for as we plan and so I'll spend a little bit of time on slide 7 as this is really important as communication has gone out I think yesterday at 9:00 from all Marion County school districts and so we initially started with five scenarios this was about two and a half three months ago with what school could look like for the start of school year 2021 and we've gone through a number of decision points and processes and protocols to narrow that down to now what we have is I think clarity on how school will be starting in the fall and so where we are now is based on guidance from the Marion County Public Health Department the city of Indianapolis and in collaboration with all Marion County school corporations then you see what's underlined so
017I'll go ahead and read that for clarity all Marion County traditional public schools will be starting on their scheduled date and will offer instructional options and either the physical school setting or online for students who are not able or are uncomfortable with returning to school on the scheduled start date and so that was in guidance that was sent out yesterday morning at 9:00 a.m. to all families across Marion County and was consistent across all Marion County school corporations so what this means for IPS is we will work to execute a full return to school for our students and staff starting in August 3rd which is our regular start date and do want to have the caveat there that we will have that option to opt into eLearning and so we had modeled a bunch of
018scenarios now we're honing in on that full that full return with the e-learning option and then of course that last bullet point there we will also plan for an at scale fully remote option if we need to execute that so if things change which they may over the next month or of course as we get into the school year and if cases start to spike we will rely on the leadership of our Marion County Public Health Office but we will make sure that we are ready to go fully remote if needed so some additional guidance will be provided in early July to our families and that will include procedures for but not limited to the following and so these are we know very very important procedural things that we need to ensure that we are
019starting to push out in early July not only to our families also internally so we've been working on these for the last couple of months and now that we have clarity about how we're going to start school we can really start to get to some decision points here but symptom screening cleaning and disinfection facial coverings and shields social distancing student health and safety transportation and then what happens if you have a kovat positive symptomatic or asymptomatic student or staff member in your building or here in central office then then what happens and so you know we are working very closely with Marion County Public Health Department to ensure clarity on all of these things and we will we'll get much closer to that in early July which is when we will push out additional information
020to all of our families on some specifics and some details as it relates to these items as we are having these conversations internally as we speak so now I want to switch gears a little bit to show some data from the community and family survey that that has been out in the field for the past two and a half weeks and actually is still open through tomorrow so what you're going to see here is a accumulation of about 86 hundred students out of 32,000 population or about 27% of all students are accounted for in this in this survey there was a both English language survey and Spanish language survey that was pushed out so you can see the numbers there again the survey closes Friday we also had an IPS all staff survey that went
021out last week that just closed and so we are currently pulling that data and and we'll review that as well so I wanted to show you some of the the family responses so the first question related to does your household have a coded vulnerable member and that was defined by CDC guidance and so what we are seeing is about a third of IPs how households have a coulded vulnerable family member in them second question related to what does IPS need to do to make you consider sending your child back to school and so then you here you can see some bar graphs of the percentage of families who requested the following safety practices so you can read those there along the bottom of the screen this is obviously very helpful to us as it aligns
022directly to the slide I showed a few slides ago that relates to you know how do we need to make sure we prioritizing certain protocols as we head back to school and so this has been very helpful data and we are utilizing this to plan the third question of IPs gave you the option for your student to do full-time elearning for the 2021 school year would you take it and what we are seeing is more than a third of our families said yes to that initial survey and so this is actually tracking with what we're seeing across the country in terms of the percentage of families that at least in an initial survey are saying that they would they would take that that opt into eLearning and so this is again really important data for
023us as an organization as we plan for what that model might look like so you can expect additional communication to go out to families again in early July and then rolling throughout July to provide a better definition of what this option in terms of what what to expect if you were to opt into your learning and then to actually opt into that what that process will look like but this has been very helpful data tests and you know and obviously suggest that that's a pretty sizeable percentage of our families that are considering this and so we will make sure that we can execute on it and then if IPS asks some families to opt out a bus service to promote social distancing on the school bus would you consider volunteering and so you can see
024there are more than 60% percent of our families said yes and about forty percent said they already don't ride there's also very helpful information to us is as we've been able to you know change some of our routes potentially to decrease the number of students on buses if they're already not planning on taking the bus which not only decrease in cost but also decrease the number of students on a school buses which is massively important and so we're going to transition now to our planning structure and this just gives you a high-level overview of how we've been organized in to get some of these decisions made as well as you know how we've been organized to to keep moving forward here so phase one is what we have been in for the past couple months
025and that is preparation and planning that is now through July 1st and so really we were hoping to get to a decision on what school would look like for the return by July 1 so we actually beat that a little bit in that we are now releasing kind of what obviously a full go return to school would look like phase two is then pivot to implementation and so that is really important as we start to get guidance to our schools so they can start planning as well as to our families and community and staff members so they can be planning as well so that you know we'll take take the place or take happen throughout July and August and then phase three when school starts we will be monitoring adjusting and so I think we'll
026have to be pretty flexible with as well everyone else in terms of how things go but this is how we've been organizing ourselves in terms of stages and then in phase one just wanted to give a really high-level overview of kind of the project management structure just to kind of showcase that we've had multiple people at the table here as we've been going through this information and making decisions so we've got working group on the left hand column and and their objective on the right so we have an e-learning task force that's been up and running for a while school design and scenario planning facilities and safety planning transportation communications and then that USS is our unified support services and so these groups have been meeting a lot over the past two and a half
027months and working very hard to to execute on those objectives and they will continue to do so as we head into July the timeline and next steps wanted to be clear about what's going to happen between now and the start of July so yesterday on the 24th of June as I've mentioned we communicated to all IPS families and staff our intent to reopen and that was consistent across Marion County we also yesterday evening put out a transportation opt-out survey and guidance to our subset of our families who had filled out that initial survey with hey I might be interested in opting out of transportation so we sent some additional communication to them and we've already seen about five or six hundred responses out of that in terms of those families willing to take their students
028to school which again helps us plan for transportation and then as I've already mentioned in early July we're gonna put out additional communication to all families and staff with updated guidelines and procedures for reopening and then we'll have some additional information on what that elearning opt-in model will look like so that families can start thinking about that decision in terms of what they are comfortable with and we'll help process these outline for that so I know that's you know next week so we've got we are working very hard to make sure that we hit that deadline and then last slide here wanted to mention in terms of next steps we've been working on this stuff for a while but wanted to be just really clear on what the next couple weeks looks like because we
029are kind of in a sprint phase here in terms of making some key decisions so as I've already mentioned we are working on expectations around safety protocols specifically as it relates to face mass social distancing and transportation so I've got out of a very long meeting right before we came here where we were landing on on some things there and I think we'll be able to have some additional information next week our principal planning and school based guidance so the plan will be to get information out to our schools over the next couple weeks and that'll be very comprehensive so that our principals and teachers can can really start planning with what you know the building will look like and then procedures for confirmed case working very closely with Marion County Public Health Department on
030that front and then elearning strategy we've got a lot of devices that we're gonna have to distribute to start very start of the school year and so we are working on what that process will look like as well as professional development and curriculum related to eLearning and then of course communication has been a priority for us and will continue to be a priority for us so we've been pushing out a lot of internal communication and have a process outline there and then in an external communication you will see quite a bit of that over the month of July as we prepare for a school start in August so that that is all I had in will open enough for questions and then of course if you know Sarah I know who is listening can chime
031in with anything that that I missed there mr. Arnold I know there's a survey that's a huge can you tell us any more about staffing and teachers killed they're vulnerable and not just teachers but other employees I mean I think it's we have a lot of learned there talk a little bit about where we're at with that and and what the plan is yeah I can speak a little bit to that and then I think we might have Mindy Schlegel our chief human resource officer who's leading that work who's listening in as well so she can enjoy man if I miss anything and so we are gathering you're right that that staff survey was incredibly important to us to just get a sense for how our staff is feeling about the return to work and
032so that is something that is top of mind for us so we are we just started looking at some of that data this morning we're gonna we've got a big meeting tomorrow to kind of really dive into that but I know Mindy and team have been working in collaboration with the IEA to kind of get a sense of you know rolling in kind of the plans we've been talking about through them as well as a number of teacher and principal representatives to kind of say what is you know what are we comfortable with and so I think we were pretty aligned in terms of ensuring that things like facemask and social distancing are incredibly important and so we have put many many orders in for PPE over the past two months so we got on
033that right when we shut down so we want to make sure that we can offer a facemask and disinfectant and all of those things for our buildings for our teachers for our staff members and so that is all included there but those will become conversations that will continue have over the over the next month teachers have the opportunity to teach in the classroom we are having those conversations now but do not know that quite yet mr. Collins thank you Andrew this is kind of along the same lines as what Commissioner Arnold has asked and that is do we see that there will be some teachers who do just the online learning in a particular class or content and then those who will work in the schools in face to face but be ready to do
034online in case of emergency or school closure is there any discussion about what looks the best for how to divide up the teaching staff and and get all the kids taught yeah absolutely that's a great question so we have been working through two models and both of those describe exactly what you asked one model would be that elearning takes place just part of the normal school building so that's executed by by the school in which they're staffing would need to adjust to support that another model we've been working through is do we have staff members that only teach kind of in that Lea learn eLearning kind of opt-out model so they are doing full-time e-learning instruction and we know we have some staff members that would be very comfortable doing that and so we were
035working through both models currently and would hope to have a decision on that in the next two weeks but that we are having those conversations and are also working with many other districts across the country to see how they're tracking and that is very similar to what we are hearing elsewhere - in terms of kind of different ways to do this one thing you know and Mindy is trying to listen to so I'm translating on the phone to her is that and the online option teachers will have to apply so it won't be a situation by which we just sort of put people in that we we know it takes a particular you know skills and competency to really make a really rich virtual learning environment so we won't be placing teachers into that fully
036where an option it will be something they would need to apply to be a part of so elysia do expect to see those who are a health whose health is compromised would be applying for those kinds of jobs I would expect that we just didn't want to frame it up as this is sort of the default where you you know go particularly if that isn't an area by which you're particularly strong so there's going to be some a lot of work between now and that first day on we one get the information about who might need to be in a different environment - what the options they have are and three that we make sure we have you know skilled folks of both the in-person and the virtual environment for students mr. Moore and then
037Hawkins can you tell me what our only one third of our students say they would probably one won't not to come back to school we recognize that we have to have social distancing so where does our plans for our facilities and I'm building because we can't get half the kids in in one school you know I'm saying so what are we going to do are we planning up opening up additional schools so those children who want to be in school can't be in school and be at a safe distance or have you guys not get to that decision point yet so we have in the initial scenario modeling we talked about potentially opening up additional schools but the execution of that would be pretty complex so that is something we talked about not currently direction
038we think we are going so why that 30% of e-learning opt out is important and we will start to get that data and once we put that survey out to families is because that will give us a better sense of students that will be in the building and won't be in the building once we start and then we will have specific social distancing guidelines within all of our buildings in terms of how on a teacher level and building level can you execute that right so I'm gonna repeat what I thought I just heard you say we would have caps on the number of children but that could be in any one school building is that correct so we don't have I'm making this up but I'm just trying to make sure I got it clear
039in my mind if I'm at all it's in high school or early to middle school whatever school now so I'm at Arlington middle school so if my school can only hold and save distancing 150 kids we don't have a cap 450 kids that can attend all tonight no school is that correct that is that is not correct we will not have caps on the buildings we have the initial data we've been running is that we will be able to social distance from a three to six foot four to six foot range across most of our buildings but of course we know won't always be possible and so that's why we're working on additional procedures and protocols for how staff can execute that in a building but then when it's not possible what can be in
040place to ensure that the safety of our students and staff is still prioritized so things like face mask and in other procedures but currently we are not thinking about putting caps on students in a building so that is acceptable dr. Kane in our office they've not requested any particular caps based on facility I know I'm talking about you know the distancing between the children that the cap the cap happens because you it's not a requirement that you must have so many they're giving us a guidance in terms of the range for distancing mm-hmm and so we feel good based on what we've learned thus far that we'll be able to meet those that guidance I have a quick question sorry Commissioner Hawkins but a quick question that's kind of a follow-up to Commissioner Moore's question
041which is given what we hear from families about taking the full elearning option which will tell us how many students we think we got coming into our schools is there a possibility that we might have an A and a B schedule so students not same students may not be in the classroom five days a week teachers were being classified desert but there may be an a schedule and a B schedule to assist social distancing that is a scenario that we have modeled that kind of based on conversations last Friday with Marion County Public Health Department as well as the other Marion County districts when we say kind of a full return we would not be executing that rotating schedule we have been modeling that out it is something that has been on the table but
042currently would not be the direction that we are heading we're shocked and sorry to jump in front of you I'm fine thank you yes Commissioner go when you go ahead and Commissioner Hopkins will follow you okay thank you I just wanted to know and it's all based on the questions that have been asked prior we're talking about tracing has anything been put in place for that based on if a child did happen to get ill or something how are we going to work that or has anything that any grooves been set up for that yeah no rules have been set out for that yet although there's been a big point of conversation between us in the Marion County Public Health Department so I can say that Mindy Schlegel and her team are working very closely
043pretty much on a daily basis to outline those so those conversations are happening we will have very clear guidance in the next couple of weeks on what that looks like we'll also share that we've got a number of school nurses that are are and will be trained by Marion County Public Health as well to support that contract tracing and buildings and you appreciate the update and I just want to just express my gratitude and kudos to the team and superintendent Johnson especially I mean this is this has never happened before right and so I don't want to forget that piece and so what we're seeing here which I'm very excited to see as well because it's action is I know just a tip of that whole sort of all the efforts and all the task
044force that have been assembled to work through this so with that being said I want to just flag a couple things and I have a couple questions or comments but I think I'm encouraged on slide five we talked about extended time options must be available for our neediest students and that's been a concern that I've had you know the kovat slide we always were living with the Summer Slide right and so I think that's critically important that we are hyper focused on the students that we know have the greatest needs and I know that the home learning process as I heard you know from families who gave me feedback mentioned that in some cases it was bumpy in some cases that some families were able to adjust but for families with the I know that
045there were challenges in some cases and so I appreciate us declaring that as a non-negotiable I'm curious to understand what that actually looks like that runway as we think about you know our students preparing students for a world that will be very different in some cases than they're familiar with so I just wanted to lift that up and secondly on that on the social-emotional piece I love that classic relationship building activities being something that noted right under that bullet is so important because our students again are returning to a space that they've never seen before in this way you know a pandemic the economic insecurity or instability and the situations that we're realizing and dealing with right now regard to racism right now is just a lot for adults and so I really appreciate the
046fact that that's going to be our intent to really build relationships along as we scale up because I think you know day one showing up to class and saying okay turn to page four or digitally turn the page for that didn't go work you know and so I appreciate that being a non-negotiable and a next step one question I do have related to sort of the the online or elearning option I'm curious how and maybe it's a little early right now maybe we're shaking that out with the e-learning task force but if you are elearning student in a particular program and you're you are a student physically in that space how will the students sort of will they be tracking at the same pace on their academic journey I know that students obviously on their
047on their own have their own pace but we'll it's a fair to say that if I have two four-year-olds one or bumps are fourth graders want it in the same classroom hypothetically but one e-learning one in person would there be would they be on the similar pace yeah it's a great question so we are currently shaking that out okay so what what you can expect when we push out communication around what that option might look like and then if families would want to opt in we will make sure that that is dispelled out and that guidance so that is a you know asynchronous or synchronous to your point is it if your four-year-old was doing that online are they going to be learning at the exact same rate that you know students in the actual
048building are and there there are many different ways to do that we are having those conversations as we speak and it should be getting close to a decision okay and last I appreciate that and last one is is a survey data is really interesting particularly round transportation that was interesting and I appreciate the note about you know moving the document forward or the process with regard to opting out do we I know that in the higher ed space key for us is just like IPS is constant communication because what families say today it might change in a week or a month so do we intend to continue the surveying process to continue to validate what we were hearing at this point yes we will yep so what will also go out and early July is
049this an updated version of what we have already sent so what we sent was very targeted to specific families who said they'd be interested but we will continue pushing out transportation information and the ability to opt out of transportation if as things change or potentially even off back in of you know again things change as things move forward over the next month thank you okay this is my first time out of the house really so I just wanted to let you know that I might be a little short but I want to make sure that I say to you that I think that the work that you guys have been doing is great and I recognize there's gonna be a hybrid of things that we have to do and so I'm making assumptions and I
050want you to clarify that my assumptions are correct that we because as we think about making a hybrid of schools you know some school some problems maybe longer like you know can we alternate days can we make teachers time longer so that other kids can you know you might have three days this class and two days this class and so I'm making an assumption that the unions have been working alongside us on this decision as we move forward so that it becomes so that it is smooth and not bumpy it would that be a correct assumption that would be a correct assumption thank you I I would only thank you Christian Warren's I'm glad you're able to get out of the house evening with this to me to mike me to my husband the I
051think you know this your your first compass is we're plowing at least the first time this grounds been plowed in a hundred years and certainly in in you know the the world within which we live and I think we can't communicate enough and that's the they only you know I know you know that that getting information out and we know just like information we've learned about this virus has changed frequently information is going to change and just so so the ability even even through using members of the board to communicate to families who come through us I just think we have to focus on getting that information because people are I and I'm a little frightened quite frankly and I understand people have the right and should have the right to choose the fully learning
052option but I worry that that that there's a a loss of a lot of different things not just education loss but other things by not having the opportunity to be in our schools and so to many families watching I would whatever influence I have over anybody and I don't have any influence over anybody in my own house but that you know our school families of school families because we're together and I would urge our families to give very serious consideration knowing the work you've put in to make our schools safe concerning this virus to return to our physical facilities alright thank you and and you know I know we were answering sort of circumspectly but that literally is to your point information is changing all the time we have another call tomorrow I you know
053I think doctor came I have an update for instance on social distancing so it is a very ongoing malleable process and work we're doing but the team has done incredible work to take in information make sense of it and then figure out our next steps and then be flexible and shift as we get new information so lots of appreciation for Andrew and for Sarah and and leading the work thus far and the rest of the team who's really contributed they ground is being plowed for the first time no lack of things to figure out I will move us out of Superintendent reports into unfinished business and there are two items there both of those items both of these items are presented to the board last month and have now been held for the requisite 30
054days the first item item 7.01 is the student mental and behavioral Services Records policy this policy is being created to ensure alignment with senate enrolled act 246 which was passed by the Indiana General Assembly and signed into law by governor Holcomb this year that law made changes to legislation that governs the maintenance and security of student mental health records as I noted on tuesday and courtney feluccas noticed last month we are currently in compliance with what the law requires this is simply codifying it into board policy and so the board the administration requests the board's approval of policy 83 32 no motion approved resolution number 78 61 approving board policy number 83 32 as presented it's been moved and seconded any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye or are you an eye
055on that one I'm and I thank you the motion carries thank you item 7.02 is the remote learning policy which we are establishing as we do all of our preparation for future school year specifically next year we also reviewed this policy last month one difference that I flagged on Tuesday and we remind commissioners again is that we have added language to the policy in the device use section which codifies that fees for lost or damaged technology which includes my five tablets or laptops will be assessed to families per our student technology acceptable use agreement at this time the administration requests the board's approval of policy 20 to 97 will move oh sorry hold on pull back on it so I have a motion to approve resolution number 17 62 approving board policy number 22 97
056[Music] has been moved and seconded all those in favor signify any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye anybody the motion carries I would note by the way for anybody we mentioned this law Tuesday night Commissioner Gore is participating via electronic device as as authorized by Governor Holcomb's executive order so she has full voting rights and is more than welcome to participate via electronic device thank you we have four items in new business item 8.0 one is our textbook rental schedule for the 2021 school year as a reminder this is an annual process that we go through each year we adopt this rental schedule based on the textbooks and materials that will be used across our schools this year's fee you will notice is increased from last year and reflects the new adoption
057of ela curriculum that will be in place for this school year before I ask for a motion I want to give Commissioner Moore the opportunity to make the motion to approve because I'm getting new textbooks so I have a motion approved the school year 2020 2021 textbook rental rate as presented he's been moved and seconded any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye opposed motion carries thank you item 8.02 is a non-standard course waiver request for Kinsey Academy at George Washington High School this waiver will allow the district to create a full Kinzie Academy program of study all waivers are approved by the state for a three-year period at which time we can ask for renewal with this non standard course waiver we will be able to open up the Kinsey Academy user
058experience design program to more students across George Washington this is a two-year program that combines art technology and design with blended a blended project-based learning experience students who complete the program successively are in a joint certificate in user design through Butler University and Kinsey Academy as well as 18 dual credits through Western Governors University they're also eligible to continue their post-secondary education through Kenzi and earn the software engineering certification along with an additional 18 credits toward bachelor degree programs at WGU so we're excited to continue to expand this program to more students in George Washington and ask the board's approval of the non-standard course waiver do I have a motion to approve excuse me to approve the submission of a request for a non-standard course waiver to the unit Department of Education as presented there's
059someone there that could talk to us a little bit about this wonderful program I'd like to sure I'll ask Jennifer O'Shea our post-secondary readiness officer to share some additional information well Jennifer is on her way up could I get a second also it is been seconded and we will hold for presentation by mrs. O'Shea good evening commissioners and superintendent Johnson Jennifer O'Shea post-secondary readiness officer for the district to give you a little bit more detail about the Kenzie Academy partnership and pathway at George Washington High School it actually began this January with a cohort of 12 to 15 students who started the very first course it is taught by a Kenzie Academy instructor by the name of Maya she's fantastic she's been in very well she was actually being supported during the first semester by
060a current computer science teacher at George Washington high school so it's really taking Kenzie Academy's six-month user design certification program and kind of spreading it out over two years so that students can really work their way through it because it's meant to be sort of a you know five days a week eight hours a day program recognizing that our students don't have that kind of time it's spread out over our course of two years so students started in their junior year and they go through this series of you know what Kenzie considers their courses over that two years at Coleman at the end of their senior year with an apprenticeship through Kensi Academy in which they do an actual project for a company that Kensi supports and then they graduate with that user design certification
061which allows them to go directly into work or as superintendent Johnson shared they can continue at Kenzie Academy for another six months earning that software engineering certification or they can take those eighteen dual credit hours to Western Governors University and complete their bachelor's degree in an accelerated method any more detail you'd like about the program specifically Commissioner Hawkins Thank You Jennifer for the update again probably should ask this question last week is is Kenzie working with any other school districts at this point I know that they were talking to Purdue Polytechnic I think they may have relationship with a few other districts but I am not I'm not really aware of the nature of the relationship if it looks exactly like our program or not I think what we're doing is relatively new and we're
062one of the first districts they're working with thank you Beshara no certification that we're looking for for our students to be able to go through our schools and come out and either be enrolled and get more certification and more education or to be gainfully employed so very excited thank you for your work glad it's at Washington I do have a very any requirement for our students and a number of students are just open to everybody it is open to any student although we really do ask for teacher recommendations especially early on in this pilot as we're building it we're really looking for those students that you know that their teachers and counselors believe can persist it is a challenging program it does really push the students so initially we had a smaller cohort we have
063about eight students that have really persisted and continue on we have about 35 students that are interested we are actually implementing in July a two-week boot camp through Kensi Academy which we have opened up to rising sophomores juniors and even seniors the seniors won't be able to actually mature chelate into the program or we're trying to think about how can we get them started in their senior year and they can go directly into Kensi after graduation at an accelerated pace but those rising sophomores and juniors can't start the program they were recommended by teachers and counselors based on grades and attendance and just generally their level of motivation so there'll be about 35 students participating in that they will be getting a stipend I believe of six to eight hundred dollars for that two-week boot
064camp and then they will matriculate into that program so it is definitely growing and we plan to continue to you know offer it to more and more students as the excitement grows and we start to see some really successful outcomes mr. Moore thank you don't we have a construction academy over it so this part of the construction Academy no it's not it's not the construction engineering and design Academy is actually an arsenal Tech High School okay so this particular program initially fell under the IT Academy and we found that the program is it really goes beyond you know IT and it really is for students who have an aptitude for IT as well as design our students are create who are creative which is why we decided to pursue the non standard course waiver so
065that more students could participate outside of those students who are just in the IT academy thank you welcome just a final question maybe do students get any kind of an elective credit or credit towards graduation for this so if it's not really an elective credit so previously when it was in the IT Academy accounted it was actually a computer science 3 credit toward their essentially major or their pathway in computer sorry NIT under the non-standard course waiver this course will now be considered an elective but we would like to move it to a course that is part of a sequence which allows them to become concentrators if you will that it builds on other courses built on top of it so that they're taking a set of skills and continuing to expand them and become
066advanced but initially it will be considered an elective moving forward thank you if no further questions I have had a motion in a second all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed the motion carries thank you thank you Jennifer I'm 8.03 is a series of innovation agreement amendments that are requested chief portfolio officer Jamie Banda while I reviewed each of these amendments on Tuesday I think we're gonna take them in separate groups I believe the first is language allowing for the pass-through of pre-opening funds to adelante schools the PATH school and Phelan Leadership Academy these funds will all be recouped by the district over the course of the first year of operation this is a practice we've had in place since 2016 it was an oversight and ensuring the language was a part
067of the initial agreements and so we asked for the board's approval to shift amend the language to allow for the distribution of those pre-opening funds to be recouped by the district over the course of the first year of the school's operation our mine commissioners were breaking the presentations from Tuesday night into three votes this vote would be for amending the arrangements with the the adelante Family Academy in the PATH school as a as the superintendent said because of an oversight during the initial contracting phase so that's the first of the three do I have a motion to approve resolution number 786 for approving the amendments the innovation agreements with adelante falen Leadership Academy and the path school as presented it has been moved and seconded all those in any discussion all those in favor signify
068by saying aye aye opposed motion carries thank you the next is an agreement amendment four with crystal house Academy Academy in the operation of manual high school it pertains to the operation of their special education programs at the school this amendment language will allow Crystal house the right to refer manual high school students to our special education intensive intervention programs if that need arises given that male high school will be a part of the IPS le a and also permits IPS to place at the life skills class located at manual high school the amendment language also calls for a hold back of some funding to remain with the district to offset the cost of any student placement in those more intensive special education settings my motion to approve resolution number seven eight six five four
069proving the amendment to the innovation agreements with crystal house Academy as presented has been moved and seconded any discussion mr. Hawkins yeah do have a quick question just to clarify so that life skills piece at manual I make sure I understood that is the intent for that to be IPS operated or or would that be operated by crystal house at Marion with crystal house Academy students having sort of access to that special education environment operated by crystal so I guess I'm wondering who's gonna be the who's who's operating the live school's classroom with the intent of added Jamie who are thank you that program will be operated by crystal house staff but those situated at manual and it is not that the students in the crystal house charter school will have direct access to it
070students who are already there who were there when the building was managed by CSU si and now the crystal house will hire staff to support that classroom I thought I understood that maybe I'm confusing him that the $200 holdback was for the crystal house Academy students that would be coming over that's not anything to do with that that the $200 whole back is offset district cost that we may incur when students who attend manual high school which is managed by Crystal House if in the conference process is determined that they need placement in a site that is in another IPS High School they can access that essentially for free because we're doing that $200 per pupil exchange right I was confused by the location I think okay thank you mr. Arnold with Charter School USA
071I thought you said the other night didn't or we didn't have that relationship but with this is gonna be something that's gonna benefit that manual that they previously didn't have access to correct so there was no we were not prior to now placing any students or you know across Mille high school and our other IPS high schools because that relationship did not exist now that it does there is there is that relationship and access and partnership so right it did not exist before and now it can this language will make sure we codify that and we have that partnership they can access those they'll have access to those intensive programs if those needs arise that's correct mm-hmm then you know from the discussion I have a motion in a second all those in favor signify
072by saying aye aye opposed motion carries okay the final amendment is an amendment and most I'll probably hand it over to Jamie at one point let's see how I do pertains to Kipp legacy high school as Jamie talked about on Tuesday due to an error in the reporting of the student complexity or poverty poverty level at the high school which would lead to the school being funded at a drastically lower rate than the students who actually attend that school we are recommending amending the language of the agreement so that the school receives funding at the same level that IPS receives from the state for the first two years of their agreement which would allow time for the data to be adjusted at the state level for the school to then be funded at their actual
073rate of complexity or poverty this will cost no additional dollars to IPS we will simply pass through what we receive the funding we receive for the number of students at the high school and then pass that through to the high school Jamie how did I do what might you add this is a wonderful job superintendent Johnson thank you I think if there was a question about the numbers that we are talking about here can just share those upfront so for context the IPS director amount is 45 percent so our the complexity of student the student the percent of our students who are direct certified is 45 the number for the Kipp middle school is 60% so notably higher than the IPS average across our district schools we have a range between 3 and 66% complexity
074so quite the range so we're looking at our average of 45% again to the point we tried to make on Tuesday when we look at the data for Kipp legacy high it's showing up as 11% because we know that 85 to 90% of the eighth graders who are at the Kipp middle school matriculated to that high school this year we know that number cannot be correct and so those students we have been funded much much lower should have you know they deserve to be funded at between 57 and 60% instead would get 11% which is why we've recommended this amendment because there's a legislative hold harmless that's in place across the 2019 and 2020 school years we actually won't see any any dip in our funding we're passing again the average on to them its
075revenue neutral to us but then allows them more benefit than what they would see if we were adhering to that original contract language you'll have a motion to approve resolution number 78 66 approving the amendment the innovation agreement for Kipp legacy high school as presented then moved and seconded any discussion Jamie I have one question just sort of listening to the articulation of this so in reality the difference between what were able to pass through at no cost IPS and what they should get is about 15% they're actually losing about 15% of the of the complexity funding yes mr. Hawkins sorry Thank You president O'Connor so I guess I'm I'm just I'm this is the right thing to do I think it's absolutely right thing to do I guess as we move into the next
076cycle because this is admittedly a mistake at the state level I'm hearing is what what do we need to be doing differently on our end perhaps from advocacy standpoint or conversation standpoint so this doesn't happen because this happened to multiple schools that could now thank heavens that we're in a hold harmless environment right but there's no guarantee that the hold harmless stays along forever and so is there I'm just curious how what protections or what conversations should happen going forward or that could happen to prevent this from happening to any of the other schools or children because really it's children that are impacted here and again we're protecting the children are protected because of the harmless but that's that concern is how do we how do we ensure this would happen again I don't have
077any easy answer to that I Jose you know for this particular circumstance westernize I mentioned on Tuesday have spent a lot of time with the State Department and other state agencies just first trying to untangle what happened there and then bringing to light that the way that they're capturing the data isn't accurate reflecting the needs of students I will turn to my shoulder and see if Weston Weston is practicing social distancing say that you know your point is well-taken right that we have to be incredibly vigilant to make sure that this isn't happening at other schools it just actually so happens that we discovered this error and if we had and then you know the results would have been pretty catastrophic for the funding level for that school so would reiterate your concern I have
078a motion in a second all those in favor of resolution number 70 66 signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries thank you item 8.04 is the racial equity mindset commitment and action policy I'm very proud to bring this policy to the board this evening approval of a racial equity board policy was one of the milestones that was a part of our 2019 2020 annual plan under our racial equity mindset priority on Tuesday our team presented both the history of our work around racial equity in the district as well as the next steps that we will take in the immediate term we know that this is a milestone along our work to be a racially just anti-racist organization this is not our start but it is and it is also most certainly not our finish
079for example in our schools our black students are still over-represented and being suspended or expelled from school the gap in the attempt in the academic achievement between our black students and white students is wide and there's absolutely no reason that we should be able to predict before our students even enter our school buildings which students will perform the best in which students will perform the worst the predictability is a function of a system that was not created for the success of all students and is the result of racist actions that have been reinforced in rebirth in different forms over and over in this country I have said to my team and our school leaders that we should prepare ourselves for the discomfort in the perceived loss of advantage or authority or beliefs that we will
080all be confronted with over the next five years as we launch our next strategic plan and continue to move with urgency toward justice we will persist we will fall we will surely make mistakes but we will stay the course we will advocate and apologetically for the resources our students deserve and we will learn and grow to be our best for them so with all of that in mind our administration requests the board's approval of board policy 1619 the racial equity mindset commitment in action policy before I consider a motion to approve this resolution I'd like to ask the board to read the resolution into the record this evening Commissioner Gore on the telephone this evening will you start the resolution reading for us yes thank you whereas the recent death of George for in Minneapolis
081and subsequent protests across the globe have focused the nation's attention on the issue of police brutality and pull back the curtain on many ways that systems and institutions have preserved and maintained white supremacy and a culture that diminishes the values and destroys the lives of black Americans and whereas the name faces and stories that periodically pierced the awareness of the American public and expose the ugly truth about racism in American society are painful reminders of the countless unknown names unseen faces and untold stories that have borne the burden of this history and whereas public education is an essential Democratic institution necessary for promoting the public welfare developing human potential and creating the conditions for a fair and just Civic Society an Indianapolis Public Schools IPs has been charged with educating the future citizens and leaders
082of the city of Indianapolis since its incorporation in 1853 and whereas Indianapolis Public Schools has often failed to fulfill its obligation to educate and serve all students equally to advocate on behalf of every student to live up to our highest ideals as a country in a school district and to commit itself to dismantling the systems of racial inequality and injustice that have prevented generations of black students from achieving their fullest potential and whereas Indianapolis Public Schools has participated in maintaining a system of racial inequality in the city of Indianapolis through its actions and inactions policies and practices budgets and priorities advocacy in silence and by too often privileges the prejudice of white parents over the well-being of black students and whereas Indianapolis Public Schools established a racially segregated educational system designed to reinforce an immoral
083racial hierarchy by among other things approving the creation of a high school for black students in 1922 originally planned as Thomas Jefferson High School and subsequently renamed Crispus Attucks high school after the justified objections of the indianapolis black community and forcefully transferring black students then attending other IPS high schools and supreme courts declaration in the Brown versus Board of Education decision in 1954 that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal Indianapolis Public Schools maintained and defended a racially segregated education system until the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in 1968 and a federal court ruled in 1971 that IPS was operating a segregated school system wherein segregation was imposed and enforced by operation of law and ordered and supervised busing program to facilitate the desegregation of Indianapolis public schools that wasn't fully phased out
084until 2016 and whereas the difficult and painful work of confronting our collective failure starts with acknowledging and apologizing for the ways in which Indianapolis Public Schools has perpetuated a of white supremacy failed to confront systemic racism and remain silent in the presence of injustice and whereas the board of school commissioners is committed to leading in the effort to address racism and its effects within our district in schools through our budget priorities policies practices and by creating and supporting a culture that daily affirms that black lives matter and whereas the Board of Commissioners will continue and expand ongoing efforts to identify and address racial disparities and disproportionality and discipline and academic outcome expand equal access to educational and programmatic opportunities and examine policies and practice to ensure that their burdens and benefits do not reinforce existing
085inequalities and where's the board of school commissioners have approved recent efforts and initiatives to support the work of achieving racial equity within Indianapolis Public Schools including partnering with the racial equity Institute to engage administrators teachers and staff and educational training on the history of racism in the United States the impact of racism in education and how to implement this knowledge into their efforts to achieve racial equity in their schools and classrooms restructuring the IPS department to reach the IPS Police Department to reduce the number of officers in schools implementing a revised continuum of force policy to minimize the incidence of use of force and alerting all practices to identify and reduce racial disparity and prioritize student safety approving a supplier diversity policy to increase business opportunities for minority women and veteran owned business enterprises as
086well as locally owned and operated businesses requiring all partners doing business with IPS - a Equal Employment Opportunity clauses in all contracts with the district and tracking and reporting progress on efforts to engage in W V BES for eligible expenditures on a quarterly basis establishing school equity teams supported by a district equity team in 29 Pollux pilot schools to review disaggregated academic and discipline data facilitate study and discussion of racism and to develop and track measurable goals toward racial equity prioritizing the recruitment and retention of black teachers and school leaders through deliberate policies and programs national candidate recruitment and by identifying and supporting the development and licensure of black classified classroom support to assist them in teacher education and licensure creating a unified enrollment structure to promote transparency and equitable access for families and designing
087application deadlines to enhance equitable access to high demand schools and programs designing and implementing a student based budget allocation model to promote equitable and transparent funding of schools with additional funds targeted to support schools with greater demonstrated need approving uniform and reduced proximity boundaries for all choice schools to mitigate the impact of structural Ray's racial housing segregation on access to high demand choice schools and programs and to promote enrollment diversity supporting universal transportation throughout the district to reduce barriers to students and families to the choice programs and schools of their choosing adopting the males of color pledge as part of the Council of great city schools males of color initiative developing your life matters plan of action and partnering with the Indianapolis mayor's office Indiana black Expo and the Indiana Civil Rights Commission to form
088the your life matters task force to develop initiatives and interventions to support the unique challenges facing young men of color including racial equity mindset as one of the six districts priorities for the 2019-20 school year initiating a racial equity audit in collaboration with project 54 to help identify gaps and develop strategies for making progress towards racial equity in IPs therefore be it resolved by the board of school commissioners of the city of Indianapolis that one black lives matter every student is capable of success deserving of respect and valuable to our community to believe that black lives matter and to put that belief into action means to commit ourselves to a radical refusal to give up on any student to hand them over to a criminal justice system that doesn't just share our values or return
089them to the communities that lack the resources to support the realization of their fullest potential the rise in zero tolerance zero tolerance discipline policies by school districts has contributed to reinforcing existing racial inequalities in limiting the opportunities for black students to achieve success except where such action is required by law or in cases involving violence or the safety of other students and staff Indianapolis Public Schools will seek to eliminate all expulsion or arrest of any students all students of every race benefit from black teachers and black leaders research demonstrates that the positive impact of having teachers and school leaders with racial and cultural backgrounds that reflect the students that they teach who serve as positive role models and who hold their students to high expectations Indianapolis Public Schools will continue to intentionally recruit and supports
090the professional development of and promote black teachers and leaders three representation and recognition matters black students deserve to go to schools that celebrate the history of black leaders and the champion humanity and the dignity of black people the district will establish a task force to review the names of all schools facilities and venues to ensure that the individual Swan or reflect the respect for the dignity and the equality of the students we serve while we can't demand an unattainable perfection and must acknowledge a historical context in which people lived and learned we also can't expect progress without interrogating our own assumptions examining our past and reconciling our values understanding the ugly truth of our past is necessary to building a beautiful vision of our future recognizing the contribution I'm sorry we can't value black lives
091without teaching black history recognizing the contributions of black leaders to our city our state and our country and celebrating the sacrifices and achievements that were necessary for moving us closer to the filament of America's promises Indianapolis public schools were recognized June 19th Juneteenth as a district holiday recognizing the importance of the liberation of the enslaved people as an achievement of the American democracy deserved to be celebrated and rightfully honored five board policy 1619 racial equity mindset commitment and actions is hereby adopted as presented in conjunction with this resolution the foregoing resolution number 78 63 was passed by the board of school commissioners of the city of Indianapolis on this 25th day of June 2020 I'd like to request that we take action on this policy this evening and waived the 30-day waiting period for policy
092adoption if there are no objections do I have a motion to waive the 30-day waiting period for policy adoption and approved resolution Lou and an approved resolution duly noted Commissioner Gore and approved resolution number 78 63 approving board policy 1619 racial equity mindset and commitment and action as presented okay it has been moved and seconded any discussion mr. Arnold I am I think this was a memorial night and something that we will never forget and I'm very glad to be a board member who was able to social distance but be able to vote for this tonight thank you Thank You Commissioner board mr. Arnold governing body as we approved both this resolution and see to support racial equity first I want to thank our superintendent for her leadership in this process she has championed the
093vision and provided the passion to move this forward thanks to to all the staff who worked on these documents including but not limited to Zack Mulholland Sean Harris Andrew strop and our own dr. Pat Payne I spoke on Tuesday night about the history of blatant racism in the IPS district a history that dates back to a time when the KKK controlled this body and much of Indiana's government a time when segregation was the norm I remember a story told by Julia Carson at the dedication of the newly built Wendell Phillips elementary school she attended the school when only children of color attended the school building burned down and while there was a white school nearby the students were not allowed to attend that school but were left to learn in a very poor facility without
094basic amenities I like to believe that we've made progress in our journey toward ending systemic racism as a member of this board we have focused on disparities and suspensions and expulsions and closing the achievement gap for the past several years tonight we pledged to do more tonight I pledge to do more the creation of the road map is complete but the journey must now begin as dr. Payne so eloquently states this is a movement not a moment as a school board member and citizen I must do more I must not just here but really listen I must not just read but really comprehend I must not talk but but really advocate and act I'm proud to serve the 30,000 plus students of IPs and I take that responsibility very seriously really I'm proud to serve
095with this group of Commissioners who have made the commitment to ensure that all of our students have access to an equitable education and not one determined by the color of their skin I will end my remarks with a Maya Angelou quote that captures my action plan moving forward do the best that you can until you know better then when you know better do better richer Hawkinson Thank You president O'Connor Tuesday evening I shared how proud I am that we are here at this moment and again I want to express my gratitude to superintendent Johnson for her unwavering commitment to this cause Andrew strop and Shawn Harris for all their efforts and leadership past and present and to dr. Payne and just want to thank her for being our Shepherd over the last 58 years what
096is significant about this moment is that we are shining a light on ourselves and acknowledging our districts history history were not too many years ago my colleagues and I would not have been able to have these Frank and yes painful discussions about injustice and the fate of our black and brown children in this moment this school community is declaring where we stand and what our next actions will be actions that drive us towards our stated goal of being a school system where student outcomes cannot be predicted by race or ethnicity but let's be clear the real work is ahead so again I am so pleased and so hopeful for the journey that we are embarking on together as a community last and certainly not least I want to end by recognizing all of our students
097past and present students that have come together in solidarity to support one another and lift each other up regardless of their race and ethnicity or gender and especially to our black and brown students you have carried a torch of transformation that has been burning for generations we are witnessing a tectonic shift in our city and across this nation in in the world this is because of you leaders are born in the midst of crisis so please remember this and I could not be prouder of you and your voices you are the representation of our collective hope and mission so please keep pushing and stay committed you are greatest you are our ancestors greatest dream and you are the reasons that black lives matter more I just want to thank our superintendent for taking this journey
098people I've been asked several times do I think that we're just doing this because of would have happened and well I want to be the one the first person to say say their name well we may say they name is the superintendent was standing there from the beginning when she first started to become my superintendent she was voted in her and her staff said one of our major to teacher parties would be racial equity so to those who have asked me I was said in front of the superintendent no she meant what she said and I respect her for she's doing what she believed to be true I think those at eight minute and 46 second I men never knew that he was bringing us about at this day and this time for something for
099us to do bright and bold and so I am so happy to be a part of this school board at this time with these people because I know we're gonna do great things we're going to do them boldly we don't stand unapologetically and we will make a difference for our children and our children will continue to make a difference bus for as I walked through my daughter down the street on the step house of the Capitol the other day there were so many children there are so many young people there for a reason we've been down this road before but this time it feels different and I'm glad at this time commissioner you're the person that would be leading us through this new and different time because I believe that our kids deserve people like
100you where's your colleagues thank you this is a very historic evening and I am so humbled and honored to be part of it and I can't say anything better but I just would say that right on I'm with you so thank you yeah thank Thank You Commissioner Collins I have a few comments the murder of George Floyd was a human tragedy just like so many before him and incredibly the many after him however the murder of George Floyd was different he was different immediately and in his last an impact it was a homicide that played out in broad daylight in in front of us all for 8 minutes and 46 seconds we watched our brother be murdered it was a murder perpetrated by a sworn police officer seemingly acting with impunity and frightening Lee it
101took days for that criminal and his accessories to be charged George Floyd who in his last moments displayed a vulnerability that moved our country excuse me he displayed the vulnerability by uttering the words I want my mother those words have unleashed a sea of humanity because we can all associate with a mother's love George Floyd's murder has become more than the death of her brother human being it has fostered the recognition that we must address the reality of the white community's knee on the neck of our black community the need that may not always extinguish the precious gift of life but it certainly has been used to limit the oxygen a fair and equitable access to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness what those of us in the white community must now recognize is
102this simply removing our knee from the neck of the black community isn't enough we must extend the hand in the warm embrace of equity that we must assure and provide equal access to education Economic Opportunity and all the tools that allowed so many of us people like me to succeed that is indeed what we are starting today I am proud of this moment as we all should be but we must remember that this is just the all we have done is put words on paper good words powerful words meaningful words but if we don't follow that up with action that meaning will all be lost we must have uncomfortable conversations make difficult decisions in demand the equity we're spelling out tonight I want to thank my colleagues all of our IPS commissioners for the journey
103we were taking together I want to thank Commissioner Moore in Commissioner Gore who have served with me and kept me honest and reminded me about my white privilege when it was time to be reminded about it I want to thank Commissioner Arnold who I have served my entire term on this board for fighting for equity at every point and I want to thank thank Commissioner Collins mr. Hawkins SiC mr. slack for supporting all of us through this process I want to thank and congratulate superintendent Johnson who is bold fearless and fierce clearly taking up this cause for which her family has fought for so long and I want to thank the IPS leadership and staff you are all the stars and I wish she was here tonight because I want to thank dr. Pat Payne
104who has taken me by the hand and allowed me to see what is easily missed by people like me for taking me on this path in a way that made clear as she said to me Mike you're not to blame for the past but you have an obligation to do something about it now dr. Payne thank you I hope you're watching at home - my superintendent her team and my colleagues on the board it's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work we have not had a motioned in a second do I have a motion to approve board policy 1619 racial equity mindset commitment in action as presented but it has been moved and seconded all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed the motion carries [Applause] we are at
105the point of closing comments for commissioners should anybody wish to add any closing comments Chris Arnold hold the mic a little closer to your mouth Bonnie Jones whereas Bonnie Jones served the Indianapolis Public Schools for 34 years whereas her years of service contributed positively and significantly to the Indianapolis public school students now therefore be it resolved by the board of school commissioners of the city of Indianapolis that the death of Bonnie Jones be memorialized and that a copy of this memorial be sent to the members of her family Bonnie Jones worked as a Montessori instructional assistant at Russo McClelland Montessori School 91 Stephen Foster Montessori School 67 in George Washington Carver Montessori School 87 for the most recent year she was with IPS in addition she worked at William Bell elementary 60 Francis Scott Key
106elementary 103 and George Fisher elementary 93 it is with much sadness and deep regret that we inform our IPS family of a recent loss of our George W Carver Montessori schools 87 community on Sunday May 31st 2020 a cherished middle school classroom assistant bonnie jones passed away after a brief non-covered related illness miss Bonnie Jones has been an integral part of the George Washington Carver Montessori School 87 community for many years Miss Jones in her role as a Montessori instructional assistant provided loving instruction to children in all levels of development Miss Jones made every classroom brighter with her knowledge compassion and wisdom as a school community our fond thoughts and sincere condolences are being extended to Miss Jones family at this difficult time the art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery mark Van
107Doren well done Miss Jones and Mike I have a yes Morial - scott thomas memorial - scott thomas whereas scott thomas served the Indianapolis Public Schools for ten years and four months whereas his years of service contributed positively and significantly to the Indianapolis public school students and staff now therefore be it resolved by the board of school commissioners of the city of Indianapolis that the death of Scott Thomas be memorialized and that a copy of this memorial will be sent to the members of his family Scott Thomas worked as a roofer and then became the group leader of the sheet metal and roofing department he merged his department with a carpentry and glazing Department where he supervised Dover 20 people in the facilities management department scott thomas was respected by the staff at Indianapolis Public
108Schools for his thoughtfulness and devotion for their well being his peers and supervisors respected his dedication to duty Scott loved fishing hunting painting archery swimming and golf he also loves spending time with his grandchildren and his family but most of all he loved posting posts on Facebook he will be greatly missed by the staff members of Indianapolis Public Schools any further board comments good pretend any closing comments from you yes thank you I just want to again thank the board of school commissioners for tonight's action and commitment to the racial equity policy we know there is much work to do and as we've all said and I agree I'm very proud and pleased to be a part of this work alongside this body of commissioner so thank you for your support I also wanted to
109again use this moment to share personal gratitude to Miss Ann Marie Byers and dr. Patricia Paine Emery Byers has been with Indianapolis Public Schools for 44 years and has worked alongside dr. Payne as our equity specialist for 22 years she has been an integral part of moving this work forward and I am so thankful for her and for dr. Patricia Payne who is a 58 year veteran of Indianapolis Public Schools and has tirelessly and many times without thanks or appreciation advocated for IPS to be a racially equitable ingest school district she is a valued member not only of our IPS community but also our larger Indianapolis community and as the first black woman to serve as a superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools I am deeply thankful for dr. Patricia Payne for miss Emory Byers and
110the women like them who helped to pave the way for women like me so a deep debt of gratitude to both of them I also want to recognize and highlight mr. Jack Hester who was selected last month as our 2021 IPS Teacher of the Year he is a science teacher at Harshman middle school and so I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly congratulate him on that honor this year was at the pleasure to serve on a panel with him and talking about the ways in which he integrates racial equity into his classroom and so excited for what he will do in the voice he'll bring to the district in the year ahead and then finally as we've talked about earlier we shared that we will be back in schools on August 3rd our first
111day for students and so as president O'Connor pointed out when I remind our families and those watching to please be sure you are staying tuned in we will have lots of things to communicate to the community over the next few weeks and so grateful for our team who's been working furiously and tirelessly to make sure we are ready safely to welcome our students back thank you so much our next meeting will be our summer board retreat on Saturday July 18th beginning at 9:00 a.m. on the sixth floor of the Central Library I hope everyone has a safe and socially distance July 4th holiday having completed all the items on the agenda this stands adjourned [Music]